Archive for 2017

GOODELL-ENFREUDE: “Let’s agree that Roger Goodell deserves a little public humiliation, and Tom Brady is just the man to deliver it.”

After he presided over a season that did much to tarnish — perhaps permanently — the reputation of the NFL, I have to admit I enjoyed hearing Goodell being showered with boos by Patriots fans while presenting the Lombardi trophy tonight. Or as Mary Katharine Ham tweets, “One city cheers for the Patriots. America cheers for Goodell’s humiliation.”

UPDATE: More classiness from the league to end the season: Willie McGinest Drops Super Bowl F-Bombs … On Live TV.

“Kiss this motherf****ing thing,” McGinest repeated several times into a live mic into millions of homes, as he carried the Lombardi trophy past the Patriots’ players to the podium where Goodell, Kraft, Brady and Bill Belichick were waiting.

MORE: Video of the Patriots fans’ auditory beatdown of Goodell at Mediaite, which notes that “Even owner Robert Kraft didn’t let Goodell off the hook. ‘A lot has transpired in the last two years,” Kraft said. “And I don’t think that needs any explanation.'”

Brady pre-taped a commercial for a local healthcare service that ran in the Boston area immediately after the game that features him with a fifth Super Bowl ring — and a punchline that’s a fun shot at Goodell.

WE SHOULD DISPLAY THIS AT KNOXVILLE’S DOGWOOD FESTIVAL:

I WAS BOYCOTTING THE SUPER BOWL, BUT I TURNED IT ON WITH 8 MINUTES TO GO IN THE FOURTH QUARTER, and, well, that was pretty exciting.

UPDATE: Seen on Facebook: “Right now, Atlanta fans have got to be feeling like Hillary supporters on election night.”

UPDATE (From Ed): This is making the rounds on Twitter tonight:

DON SURBER: The Fake News So Far In 2017.

Related: Chuck Ross: Media Columnist Eviscerates CNN’s Brian Stelter Over Trump Coverage.

Media columnist Michael Wolff blasted CNN’s Brian Stelter in a face-to-face interview on Sunday, telling the media correspondent that his weekly on-air diatribes about Donald Trump’s interactions with the press make him “quite a ridiculous figure.”

Wolff was invited on Stelter’s show, “Reliable Sources,” to discuss his recent Newsweek article entitled “Why the media keeps losing to Donald Trump.”

My own take: Because they’re not terribly bright, but they’re highly partisan and lack self-discipline.

Plus: “So far the media is…I mean The New York Times front page looks like it’s 1938 in Germany everyday. The New Yorker has left all of its standards behind and now has become an opinion vehicle, constantly.”

84 LUMBER RUNS PRO-ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION COMMERCIAL DURING SUPER BOWL:

THEY WORKED FOR A BUNCH OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS: House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs Committee Members Compromised By Rogue IT Staff. “Three brothers who managed office information technology for members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and other lawmakers were abruptly relieved of their duties on suspicion that they accessed congressional computers without permission. Brothers Abid, Imran, and Jamal Awan were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives Thursday, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned.”

Plus: “Abid, Imran and Jamal have all shared a house in Lorton, Virginia, that is owned by Hina R. Alvi. Alvi is a female House IT employee who works for many of the same members as the three brothers, as well as the House Democratic Caucus. Signs of trouble have long been visible in public records. The Congressional Credit Union repossessed Abid’s car in 2009, and he declared bankruptcy in 2012, facing multiple lawsuits. Alvi, who did not respond to TheDCNF’s request for comment, has taken multiple second mortgages.”

DON SURBER: Ten Answers For Chuck Todd. “All ten are easily answered if you are willing to work a few minutes online. But if you are a lazy liberal millionaire TV celebrity, I guess you are too good to do your own homework.”

A BUMP OF SORTS: Calling attention to the last Battle of the Bulge photo post and the invite to commenters to link to a photo they found particularly compelling. To reply to several commenters at once (to this post and several previous photo posts), recall that this series was a surprise to me. The webmaster did the research on his own and put the photos up without fanfare. I like the suggestion (made by several readers) that StrategyPage publish a photo series focusing on a different WW2 battle.

STRANGE NEW TRUMP-RESPECT IN . . . THE GUARDIAN? Trump is no fascist. He is a champion for the forgotten millions; Obama promised solutions but let the people down. Is it any surprise that they voted for real change? “America is deeply divided, but it’s not divided between fascists and Democrats. It’s more accurate to say that America is divided between the elites and everybody else, and Trump’s election was a rejection of the elites. . . . The failure to understand why these measures are popular with millions of Americans stems from a deep sense of disconnection in American society that didn’t begin with Trump or the 2016 election. For years, millions of voters have felt left behind by an economic recovery that largely excluded them, a culture that scoffed at their beliefs and a government that promised change but failed to deliver.”

SECDEF’S PLANS FOR THE ARMY:

Loren Thompson in Forbes:

All four of the military services General Mattis oversees would get a boost, but the biggest beneficiary during President Trump’s tenure will be the service that is currently in the direst straits — the Army. That’s because the fixes the Army needs can be implemented more quickly than expanding the Navy’s fleet or fielding a new Air Force bomber. In fact, making the Army healthy again could be largely accomplished during Trump’s first term — which is a good thing since it is pivotal to deterring East-West war in Europe.

After two decades of fighting lightly-equipped insurgents in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has fallen behind near-peer adversaries — most notably Russia — in a wide array of capabilities including long-range fires (missiles and artillery), air defense, force protection, electronic warfare, and cybersecurity. The Army needed so much money to sustain the force structure and readiness demanded by a global war on terror that there wasn’t much left for replacing old equipment — especially after Congress capped spending in 2011.

Mattis’ plan, in three steps:

The Mattis campaign plan consists of three steps, aimed at quickly closing readiness gaps and then building up capability. Like I said, the Army benefits most in the near term because what it needs can be fielded fairly fast. Step One in the Mattis plan is to deliver to the White House by March 1 proposed changes to the 2017 budget fixing readiness shortfalls across the joint force. Readiness includes everything from training to maintenance to munitions stocks.

Step Two, delivered to the White House by May 1, would rewrite the 2018 military spending request for the fiscal year beginning October 1 to buy more munitions, invest in critical enablers, grow the size of the force, and fund demonstration of new capabilities. Step Three, based on a revised national defense strategy, would lay out a comprehensive military modernization program for the years 2019-2023. The revised strategy would include a new “force sizing construct” that would boost the size of all the services, but especially the Army.

Congress has already passed legislation to reverse the shrinkage of the Army that had cut the number of brigade combat teams by a third during the Obama years.