Left Coast Sports Babe

Two classic exciting playoff games last week before tonight’s National Championship championship game.

And yes, tonight’s game between Michigan and Washington was exciting. Kinda sorta. For at least several minutes.

Maybe next year they can take a page from the Super Bowl and have a bunch of new commercials.

Washington coach Kalen Deboer thinks his team was “not that far off” in the Huskies 34-13 loss to Michigan.

QB Penix “They’re a good team. We just didn’t execute in the moments when we needed to,” Penix said. “It’s just about executing. I don’t feel like they did anything — I feel like we beat ourselves.”

Brings to mind former Tampa Bucs coach John McKay’s answer to the question: “What do you think of your team’s execution coach?” To which McKay replied, “I’m in favor of it.”

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Silver lining with the College Football Championship being between two Blue State public universities, at least we know Donald Trump won’t show up to cause security and other nightmares. He knows both fan bases would boo him. Loudly.

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Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has words of advice for the New York Jets for 2024: “Flush the bulls–.” Starting by kicking Aaron’s narcissistic anti-science anti-vax a** out of town?

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“Idea his brain is just average is unfathomable to him. We learned during COVID he knows more science than scientists. He went to community college, then got into Cal on football scholarship & didn’t graduate.” Jimmy Kimmel obliterates Aaron Rodgers

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As Elise Stefanik becomes latest Republican to indicate she may not accept election results in 2024 if Trump doesn’t win, imagine both GOP and media outrage if Democrats started using talking point that Joe Biden won’t leave White House if HE doesn’t like the election results.

Speaker Mike Johnson told Jake Tapper “now is not the time for immigration reform, it’s too complicated.”

MAGA Mike doesn’t have time. But GOP House has time their first week back in 2024 for an impeachment hearing for DHS Secretary Mayorkas. Make it make sense..

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While I understand stories of pieces falling off planes are terrifying, this reminder – in 2023 there were zero fatalities in United States as result of commercial aviation accidents. Whereas there are about 115 fatal automobile accidents in United States every single day.

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An Apple Iphone sucked out of that Alaska AIrlines flight when the door blew off was found intact, in airplane mode, and with half its battery left. And how many people have stories of phones that broke or died when they fell off a table?

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Uh oh, we should not share this story. It will really upset Donald Trump. ”‘Barack Obama wins Creative Arts Emmy for outstanding narrator for ‘Working: What We Do All Day’”

Well, he’ll be out until the All-Star break but at least the SF Giants traded for a player most of us have heard of …. #RobbieRay

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“You can’t love your country only when you win.” President Biden, again today. You’d think at least GOP sports fans would get this one.

And we don’t storm NFL, MLB, NBA etc headquarters trying to kill people even when we think our teams were cheated.

(And as a Saints fan I feel particularly qualified to post the above. This year the team loses a lot. And they WERE cheated.. All New Orleans fans did was boycott the Super Bowl.)

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Great jobs report for December And you know how good it was for President Biden because the Fox News top headline was about Hunter Biden.

Rancho Cucamonga was trending today on social media and it was an earthquake. Can’t sadly be the only person whose first thought was “Not ANOTHER mass shooting.”

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“We all know who Donald Trump is, the question is ‘Who are we?” Dark Brandon

So SCOTUS says they will hear Trump’s Colorado ballot appeal. Too soon to start a pool as to how long until Donald attacks the justices as RINOs?

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To sum up -The man who still can’t get over President Obama making a joke at his expense tells us we need to get over children being massacred in school.

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I’d say that Donald Trump wouldn’t be so cruel with his “get over it” line about school shootings if he himself had a child murdered. But truthfully, I don’t think Trump would care that much. He doesn’t love anyone but himself.

SCOTUS just allowed Idaho to throw health care providers in jail for providing emergency abortion care while they consider this case. This is a chilling reminder that the anti-abortion movement doesn’t care if women live or die—as long as they’re forced to give birth.

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Has someone asked Trump regarding his rants how President Biden can be so weak and ineffectual yet at the same time so almighty and powerful to have taken over the entire government,elections AND justice system? Logic has a liberal bias.

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Velveeta Voldemort “I’ve gotten indicted more than Al Capone.” And his point is?

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Thinking we’ve passed the pandemic & no one needs to be careful anymore? Have one travel agency client this week in their 50s who had to cancel due to flu that became pneumonia, and another had to cancel with COVID. Be careful out there, and get your vaccines. Now back to snark.

College football has tradionally made a big deal of “Signing Day.” Where high school athletes make their decisions on where they will start their collegiate careers.

So when is ESPN going to come up with a made-for-TV event on when NCAA comes up with a “Transfer Portal SIgning Day?

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One thing that might keep “student-athletes” in college longer.. they have a lot more flexibilty to leave for a better deal with the NILs and transfer portal than when they actually sign an NFL contract.

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So for anyone parsing the #CNNTownhall responses from Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, here’s a simple question: Why can’t either of them articulate a clear answer why it would be a disaster for our country for Donald Trump to return to the White House?

Nikki Haley tweeted “My heart aches for victims of Perry, Iowa & the entire community.” When asked on Kate Cox, “my heart broke for her…” We don’t need a President who talks about their heart. Americans need a President who supports gun control and protects women.

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A 6th grade student is dead in Iowa, and five others are in hospital. Will ANY of the GOP candidates running for President offer anything more than thoughts and prayers? It’s the guns, stupid

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Meanwhile those in todays’ GOP who are against any reasonable change in gun laws put today’s shooting down to “mental illness”

Same in GOP who want to cut Obamacare and other government programs including mental health funding

Makes sense, many of the same GOP scream about the border while opposing funding for border control.

“Thoughts and prayers” cost nothing. And they are uneffective.

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“What’s his name who’s running for President.” Nancy Pelosi with one of the best nicknames for Donald Trump yet.

Alabama had nine players enter the transfer portal today.

Now that it’s an all future Big-Ten National Championships, wonder if they’re getting out of the second-tier SEC?

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Washington coach Kalen DeBoer said of moving to the Big Ten “I think it will be a transition that will be pretty smooth for us…” 

Well, the Huskies probably will take chartered planes. Unlike their poor fans about to discover the joys of say, flying to Chicago and driving to Champaign or Madison, for example, But leaving aside time zones, thinking the team is going to get a crash course in appreciating Seattle weather.

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If Elayne Stefanik claims she cares so much about anti-semitism, why hasn’t she said one word about Trump’s dog-whistle phrase “Soros-funded Democrats?”

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Matt Gaetz “If this border is not shut down, then we must shut down the government.” Shut down? No President has ever shut down the border. Which Gaetz should know since he was elected in 2016…. Missed his outrage during the Velveeta Voldemort years.

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Jake Tapper to Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson ‘You would turn down a compromise on immigration or the border if it wasn’t everything in HR2?” Johnson comes back with a long-winded way of saying “Yes.” GOP doesn’t want to fix the problem.

If a woman who had a miscarriage can be charged with abusing a corpse, can we charge a man self-pleasuring himself detroying future babies? Cue a rousing chorus of Monty Python’s “Every sperm is sacred.”

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It’s not just living in Texas now. Imagine being pregnant while visiting the state and having a life-threatening emergency, including discovering an ectopic pregnancy… you could die before you have a chance to get home. Why does GOP hate women?

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Trump and GOP now are “Forget the constitution, let the people decide.” Okay then, so that means Republicans are also declaring voters can limit the Second Amendment!

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Matt Gaetz “If this border is not shut down, then we must shut down the government.”

Shut down? No President has ever shut down the border

Which Gaetz should know since he was elected in 2016…. Missed his outrage during the Velveeta Voldemort years.

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And if President Biden did issue some sort of Executive Order about the border, GOP would call him a dictator and declare it reason for impeachment.

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Seriously, If House GOP really gave a damn about the border crisis they’d be working on bipartisan legislation with Democrats, as the Senate is doing. Instead of more performative BS with impeachment inquiries, now including DHS Sec Mayorkas.

House GOP is all about crisis and drama

Referee Brad Allen, who muffed pivotal call in Lions-Cowboys game AND shafted both Chiefs against Packers & Saints against Falcons with missed PI calls in 2023, will now call Steelers-Ravens Sunday. Good thing neither team has postseason aspirations. Oh wait, never mind.

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National Championship for college football will be next Monday with Michigan vs Washington. Wonder if ESPN and the CFB Playoff committee are working to see if there’s a way the winner can play another game against SEC’s Georgia?

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Amazing job by cabin crew on JAL flight to safely evacuate 379 passengers in 90 seconds after jet collided w/ small plane at Haneda Airport. Wonder what if 379 Americans were on board? Would they have followed instructions? Or stopped to grab bags, post on social media etc.

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College admissions applications are in, but acceptances/decisions are months away. Young women considering schools in Texas, know now if you get pregnant, even choosing to have baby, if you have ectopic pregnancy or other live-threatening condition, state says you should die.

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Meanwhile conservative pundit Scott Jenning, ranting on CNN about Claudine Gay repeatedly refers to Harvard as “our national flagship university.” He’s going to be real popular at Yale and Stanford. For starters.

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Ivy League presidents absolutely fumbled question about genocide and Jews in a GOP=led congressional hearing. Now under pressure, presidents of Harvard and Penn have resigned. But would be President of United States fumbled a question about slavery and Republicans shrug it off.

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While Elyane Stefanick is gleefully all over Claudine Gay for alleged antisemitism I missed her condemnation of the man who said about Nazis in Charlottesville there were “many fine people on both sides.”

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CDC shows respiratory virus activity is high and rising across United States, COVID, flu and RSV. At same time GOP is leaning into the anti-vax mentality. No wonder Republicans are fighting against voting rights, they’re killing off many of their base.

More snark later today, but Ashton, who turned 17 years old on New Year’s Eve, thinks he should have a post to himself

If you ever wondered what Christians vs Lions would look like, without the blood… I give you today’s Florida State Georgia Orange Bowl.

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Music City Bowl performance today by Auburn’s football team against Maryland might be the most embarrassing thing to happen to the university since their former coach Tommy Tuberville was elected to the U.S. Senate.

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After a week where Nikki Haley whiffed, repeatedly, on a softball question about the Civil War and slavery, she was in Iowa for a tailgate before a Lady Hawkeyes basketball game. And praised the team’s super tar, Caitlin Clark, except Haley called her “Caitlin Collins.” 

Tell me you’re not ready for prime-time without saying directly “I’m not ready for prime time.”

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Colorado Sec of State Jena Griswold said she stopped counting after 64 death threats she received within 3 weeks of lawsuit being filed to take Trump off the ballot. Of course Donald COULD tell his followers to avoid violence. If he weren’t still wanting that insurrection..

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Some in GOP attacking President Biden for vacationing in St. Croix because they say he should be dealing with the border.

Particularly amusing when members of Congress are doing it, either from their own homes or their own vacations.

Of course, if Biden issued some executive orders about immigration they’d accuse him of being a dictator.

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Damn, RIP Tom Wilkinson. only 75. So good in so many movies…. The Full Monty, the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and In the Bedroom. If you haven’t seen any of those highly recommend them.

Sports is good practice for bipartisan and compromise in politics.

Like tonight, rooting for Ohio State, who you normally hate because of Michigan and then Urban Meyer, for starters, but they’re playing an SEC team and you hate SEC football more…

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And then you don’t mind that much when Missouri ends up being less inept than Ohio State.

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Have to assume with prop bets on everything that it was possible to bet on the number of punts in the Cotton Bowl between Missouri and Ohio State. Who had 12, in the first half?

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NIL’s and especially transfer portals seem to have made a mockery of college football bowl games and the NCAA doesn’t care at all. But maybe the insanity could be reined in going forward by ESPN. Because hard to imagine too many people will leep on tuning into some of these increasingly gawd-awful bowl games.

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Apparently Jeff Bezos and his new wife chose Antigua to dock his new $500 million yacht for Christmas.

Antigua’s tourism minister asked locals and tourists to respect the couple’s privacy.

Per the local newspaper Bezos’ yacht has more than 400 feet of deck space in length, and features three Jacuzzis and a swimming pool.

And to put this in perspective, the new Explora, a brand new luxury ship from MSC cruise,s which holds 922 passengers, cost about the same amount.

But tell me again how billionaires need tax cuts?

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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a conservativie who lost to Sherrrd Brown for U.S. Senate, has veteod a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, saying it is a decision involving children and their parents.

DeWine used to be very homophobic. Was shocked when on air Mike congratulated Anderson Cooper (as was Anderson!) on birth of his son “It’s a good thing.”

Yeah, I’m a Democrat, I’m optimistic about people.

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University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow was fired after he and his wife appeared anonymously in porn videos as a “sexy happy couple … If he was only a Republican who had a series of affairs, or dumped his wife for a much younger model, Joe would have been fine.

Look, admit some amount of sour grapes might be involved.

But wonder how the two newly-signed Japanese Superstars will react when the LA Dodgers go on the road this year, and they discover fans of other teams consider their teams the MLB version of Godzilla?

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Can’t believe as a Stanford fan I am saying this, but USC backup quarterback Miller Moss, who started tonight only because their star decided to sit the game out and not risk injury before the NFL draft, is a really good story.  Congrats to Moss and the Trojans tonight.

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Ever watched sporting event where score so lopsided it’s over early, but announcers still try to create drama? Think 2024 will be close, but even if media thought Biden had a 95% chance of winning, they’d talk up Trump’s chances to keep ratings. Competence isn’t clickbait.

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USA Today Headline “Owning pets may help slow cognitive decline among older people who live alone, study shows.”

So being a cat lady may PREVENT you from becoming crazy. Got it.

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Stacey Abrams sued Brad Raffensperger over 2019 action to remove 300,000 names from Georgia voter registration rolls. He yielded to GOP/Trump pressure & ordered hand-recount in 2020. Brad is no liberal.

But MAGA GOP attacks him because Brad at least had the integrity not to overturn an election.

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Lauren Boebert decided to run in CO-4, more conservative district. But while I disagree w/ retiring Rep. Ken Buck on most things, he denounces those who claim Biden stole election, & he’s been working w/ Amy Klobuchar to save local newspapers. MAYBE we can hope for sane voters?

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Apparently Donald Trump took major offense to a story yesterday that he wouldn’t let Home Alone 2 film at the Plaza Hotel, which he owned at the time, unless they gave him a cameo.

So basically Velveeta Voldemort is saying the story is true.

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RIP Tommy Smothers. This quote of his is even more apt today: “When you don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s hard to know when you’re finished.”

Another great Tommy Smothers quote: “We were against war in Vietnam, for voter registration & social issues. Everybody has their choices & 1st obligation of comedian to entertain. If you’re so inclined & you have bigger thought, make sure you express it, because that’s a gift.”

A nice thought on Boxing Day night – fewer than 50 days until pitchers and catchers report. 

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Not quite a box, but Starry approves..

Florida State will be without at least 14 players in the Orange Bowl, including their three top wide receivers, due to opt-outs by players declaring for the NFL draft and transfers. 

So if Georgia mops the field with them, most casual fans will just shrug and say, see, the Seminoles never belonged in the playoffs anyway.

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Disney is now seeking records from DeSantis’ oversight board in a new lawsuit

On top of his presidential campaign falling apart, Ron DeSantis may be belatedly learning an important lesson. Do not “mess” with the Mouse.

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When Dean Phillips, heir to family liquor fortune, first ran for Congress in 2018, he was happy to accept support from leading Minnesota Dems.

Now he’s increasingly attacking the party and Biden on what seems like everything.

What’s next as Phillip’s primary campaign crashes & burns? Going 3rd party? Becoming a Republican? Or accepting a job as a CNN/MSNBC or Fox pundit?

– #DropOutDean

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Christmas Day temperature at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport broke a 100 year old record – high of 54 degrees. Have to assume all the local stores sold out of shorts and swimsuits.

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So have has anyone asked those Trump supporters who claim he was fighting the “War on Christmas” which Bible verse or Christmas carol Velveeta Voldemort was quoting with his “”Rot in Hell” line?.

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President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will spend New Year’s again in St. Croix. Waiting for some MAGAs to attack Joe for leaving the country…

(And in case the sarcasm is too subtle, St. Croix is one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, like St. John and St. Thomas and Puerto Rico, it is part of the United States. But guessing geography challenged Republicans may not know that. )

Thought for busy NFL Sunday Christmas Eve:

Grew up listening to baseball on radio, but some of my 1st memories watching sports were during holiday visits to my grandparents. One of many reasons I learned to love sports: games were more interesting than listening to adults talk.

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See, SF Giants fans, it could be worse.

Mets hit with record $101M luxury tax after 4th-place finish

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Good economic news lately But these 2 headlines today in NY Times. “Any Other Politician Would Have Bowed Out. Donald Trump? Not a Chance.” “Democrats in Key States Worry Biden Could Be a Drag on Their Races.” Headline I want to see “Why are we at NYTimes in love with Trump?”

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Trump is using police as a prop – claiming he will protect and”indemnify all police officers and law enforcement officials throughout the United States.: Uh, can someone ask him about U.S. Capitol Police. If he could, Brian Sicknick would say “Hi.”

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Fox News, starting Christmas Eve in fearful style. “These are most ‘unsafe’ cities during holiday season, research shows” Buried lede, “Among 182 U.S. cities we analyzed, St. Louis, MO; Salt Lake City, UT topped list of riskiest cities for crime during holidays. Red states.

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Every time I see people talking about how reasonable Nikki Haley is compared to Donald Trump I am reminded, if a woman is conventionally attractive some people, especially men, don’t believe she can also do monstrous things.

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Spirit Airlines just flew took a 6 year old unaccompanied minor from Philadelphia to Orlando instead of Ft. Myers.. New Spirit motto: at least we’ll get your child to the right state?

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Reportedly Russia has indicated its interest in striking a deal to halt the war — as it could still declare victory. Dear Santa, could Elon Musk please do the same? Sell Twitter, declare victory for free speech, and let someone else have this site. And bring the bird back.

New England coach Bill Belichick said kicking footballs used in 1st half of Patriots 27-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs were”underinflated by 2, 2½ pounds.” Anyone seen Tom Brady?

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The Los Angeles Dodgers have now accounted for more than half the spending across MLB in free agency this winter.

And what makes that line worse. Most of the free agents aren’t signed yet. So Dodgers probably aren’t done.

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So if the Orlando Sentinel simply covers the story of Bridget Ziegler’s alleged sex tapes with other women, does that mean Moms for Liberty will demand the newpaper be removed from all public libraries?

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Orange County has banned 673 books because they might contain mention of sexual activity: Trust they’ve absolutely banned the book where Lot’s daughters get him drunk to have sex and get pregnant, And King David both has sex with Bathsheba and has her husband killed.

Trump is allegedly asking allies about the possiblity of Nikki Haley for his running mate in 2024. Nikki is a woman and the daughter of immigrants so hard to imagine MAGA tolerating her. But if you still know anyone under the delusion that Haley is a reasonable moderate.

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Why aren’t more of the GOP who are so obsessed with people being only referred to by birth names obsessed with Nikki Haley’s being referred to by HER legal name – Nimrata.