Unverified Voracity Picks Up Tree
Harbaugh gonna Harbaugh. I'd be more surprised if this story ended up involving anyone else:
To the surprise of Ofc Cooper, the good Samaritan was @CoachJim4UM who wanted to help clear the road. Ofc Cooper then gave Coach a pair of work gloves and the two of them went to work. (2/3)
— Ann Arbor Police (@A2Police) February 23, 2023
I went to Home Depot once and the first person I saw was Harbaugh, wandering around looking for something like he was just a person, a normal person.
Your new punching bag. The NCAA has a new president. Here he is not saying "absolutely not" to a thing:
Asked if SEC football players should be paid—a question that his predecessors would have answered with a resounding “No”—Baker took a different tack. He paused, then said it was something he planned to address with his member schools and conferences. Pressed on what those conversations might entail, he remained vague.
“I guess what I would say is that I’m planning to have a conversation with the membership about change,” he said, adding that he preferred to have those talks before saying more. “We’ll see what that kind of change can look like. But I certainly believe there will be change.”
This may be more about the writing on the wall than any genuine change of heart from Generic Suit in Charge Of NCAA. But at least that's something? Baker also says you "don't have to treat everyone the same… and probably shouldn't," which is sensible enough.
[After THE JUMP: we are willing to compromise on toe length.]
And we want a puppy. The NCAA is lobbying Congress to fix the NIL Wild West, naturally, and On3 FOIAed an internal memo from the ACC:
This memo provides a window into what the Power 5 could be willing to compromise on to get a desirable federal bill.
— Andy Wittry (@AndyWittry) March 1, 2023
Five “must haves”:
- No employee status
- No granting NIL rights in telecasts
- No recruiting inducements
- Federal bill preempts state laws
- Antitrust exemption https://t.co/IJ8kwA23nM
The things the NCAA is "willing to compromise on" include:
The ACC memo says “we have not discussed in detail and have not reached a consensus” regarding three additional categories that a potential bill is expected to address. The other categories: additional student-athlete support, healthcare benefits for student-athletes and enforcement of laws in new legislation.
“These three items are what we consider, and what the Senate will consider, the price to obtain our ‘Must Haves’ above,” the memo says. “In other words, we must be prepared to negotiate and possibly compromise on items … in order to arrive at a bill that can pass the Senate and be signed by the President.”
The second is P5 conferences trying to negotiate something they should already be doing, morally and ethically. The third doesn't make sense to me; they want to compromise on whether laws are enforced? The first is just pay-for-play with PR attached to it.
The NCAA badly misreads the room here. Nobody likes them. They're a rare bipartisan pinata in 2023. Judges are on the verge of striking down key parts of the NCAA's house of cards. They have no leverage. They have a Hail Marry lobbying attempt to get a law passed that will preempt the never-ending fountain of lawsuits. Nobody is going to step forward to white knight for them, and nothing approximating this wish list is ever, ever, ever going to get out of even one house of Congress. It's just a matter of time before the de facto deregulated Wild West is law. But don't take my word for it, here's regent Jordan Acker:
The politics around these are basically impossible, and I may save a lot of this discussion for @MVictors class on the 15th, but how do you reconcile pro-labor Democrats and pro-free market republicans around these guidelines? It's nearly impossible. And 60 votes in the senate? https://t.co/4MH52DbgvW
— Jordan Acker (@JordanAckerMI) March 1, 2023
Get out! Michigan doesn't feature in Matt Norlander's rundown of weird NCAA resumes but a competitor for a bid does:
Wisconsin (16-12, NET: 74)
Best Ws: @ Marquette, @ Iowa, vs. Maryland
Worst Ls: vs. Wake Forest, @ Nebraska
If the Badgers work their way into the NCAAs, they're going to flirt with last year's Rutgers team for the worst NET (77) to ever receive an at-large. As I've written in the Court Report earlier this year, each season there's one or two teams who sort of blend into the environment of the season and ever-so-quietly work their way into the field. Wisconsin is a prime candidate to pull this off, but obviously it needs two more Q1 wins to feel secure. I think it's out of the field as of today (10-11 in top two quads, Q3 loss to Wake), but a win over Purdue on Thursday might clinch it the other way.
You will have to steel yourselves and… root for Purdue over Wisconsin. FWIW, Michigan is in Dayton in Jerry Palm's latest.
Combine coming up. The NFL draft combine starts tomorrow, and a couple of Michigan players will have all eyes on them. One is Mazi Smith, who's moved up into the late first round of Nick Baumgardner's latest mock draft:
30. New Orleans Saints (via San Francisco): Mazi Smith, DT, Michigan
Smith’s combine workouts will be must-see television. In 2021, Lions OT Penei Sewell became one of just 22 players in modern NFL history to broad jump 9-foot-1 or better while weighing at least 330 pounds. Michigan says Smith (335 pounds) can pass 9-4. Get your popcorn ready.
Baumgardner has Mike Morris and DJ Turner in the third round, FWIW. Rivals has a comprehensive overview of folks who will participate.
Mess with the mouse, get the ears. I do not think this has a snowball's chance in hell of happening but I beg Disney to actually do this:
Making sure that Florida, Miami and FSU are bad forever and also pressuring the NCAA to take action against Florida schools until ron’s higher ed policies are dropped should be a centerpiece of progressive politics right now. People, especially donor rich people, really care
— kang (@jaycaspiankang) March 1, 2023
Repeal our special whatever region and attempt to crack down on our content? Here is money for football players to leave the state of Florida. This won't happen because large corporations actively attempt to be as milquetoast as possible. The mere idea is entertaining enough to relate.
NHL draft stuff. Adam Fantilli checks in second on Scott Wheeler's most recent NHL draft projection. Gavin Brindley also sneaks into the first round:
25. Gavin Brindley — C/RW, University of Michigan, 5-foot-8
One of three draft eligibles on this list playing college hockey this season, Brindley hasn’t just settled in at the University of Michigan, he has looked anywhere from comfortable to impactful in every game, including at centre and on the wing. Brindley’s a plus-level skater who gets through his extensions quickly (including from a standstill), excels on his edges, rounds corners sharply, and darts around the ice, hunting pucks and pushing through holes.
He’s also got some of the quicker hands and better touch on this list. He thrives in the small-area game, using light passes and rapid movements to play in and out of coverage. He has now impressed me wherever I’ve watched him (NCAA, USHL, Five Nations, U18 Worlds, world juniors, etc.) as a small but highly-involved forward who plays the game with energy and pace, making little skill plays between coverage. He buzzes around the ice and does such a good job releasing from one battle or chance to hunting or getting open for the next one. He’s always moving. He’ll make the soft play to the middle of the ice from the perimeter, or go there to get to rebounds or position himself on screens/tips. He’s excellent in puck protection twisting away from coverage to make things happen along the boards. And he just always seems to play well, no matter the role/usage/stage. The beauty of Brindley’s game is that while he may prove talented enough to play in a skill role at the NHL level, he’s got the approach/tools to play an effective bottom-six game too. That will limit concerns about his height (he certainly hasn’t played small in his freshman year so far).
Nobody else committed to or playing for Michigan makes his top ~90, which can be attributed to the Mel Pearson debacle.
Etc.: Michigan was 23rd in turnover luck last year, which means they have a little bit of regression to expect there. It's only 2 points per game, though. Daniel Snyder charges the Commanders 4.5 million dollars a year to put their logo on his private jet. LIV DOA. Whiskey fungus runs amok. Lines looking good. Basketball's February turnaround.
I'm no lawyer, but how does the NCAA expect to get antitrust exemption and a guarantee that athletes are not employees? Seems like negotiating with an employee union would be part of the exemption.
Also it's hilarious that LIV had worse ratings on CW than reruns of "World's Funniest Animals"
IDK - sure seems the PGA has done a ton to ensure their monopoly on the sport. Not sure this is a great thing.
Well, they have been successful lobbying for exactly those things to date. So we'll see, I guess.
True but I don’t think the bargaining position of “nothing changes, we keep the same model” is going to be a winner for much longer
Harbaugh probably had coupons for Home Depot cut out from mail-ads.
I do not find DeSantis’s ideas intriguing, and I do not wish to subscribe to his newsletter.
NYMag trying it's best to portray DeSantis as Hitler. Gotta pump up the fear...
For an alternative viewpoint: https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-i-stood-up-to-disney-florida-woke-corporatism-seaworld-universal-esg-parents-choice-education-defa2506?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
However you feel about DeSantis, it's hard to dispute that Disney's whole "Reedy Creek Improvement District" arrangement was shady. A private corporation was allowed to set up its own governmental authority and use eminent domain to evict residents "in the public interest" - for the vital purpose of expanding Disney World.
Is there evidence that the Reedy Creek Improvement District used eminent domain to evict residents like that? It's my understanding it has been used sparingly and typically doesn't lead to mass tenet expulsion. And Florida has something like 1,800 of these special tax designation areas, some of which administered by private organizations.
Also, eminent domain has been used for decades to grant public land to private organizations (GM famously used the threat of moving a plant out of Detroit to convince Detroit and Hamtramck to force residents to sell and move out from Poletown), and there are a ton of issues with the practice. But it's not uniquely "shady" for Disney to do it versus anyone else except that the governor of Florida has misguided beliefs he's going to be the Republican nominee for President in 2024 and wants the gin up support.
I mean maybe they used eminent domain to take over a few holdout properties that hadn't been bought up by their shell companies back in the 60's when they were starting development, but my understanding is that they've owned all their land for decades (and I'm not sure how many residents they would have been evicting anyway, since again, my understanding is that this was pretty much all undeveloped land in the middle of nowhere prior to them buying it up.
And further, even without the power to use eminent domain themselves, it's not like the government couldn't just do it for them (and prior to DeSantis's hostility, I'm sure they would have in a heartbeat given how much Disney drives the Central FL economy). The Supreme Court in Kelo gave the green light to governments using eminent domain for private development, in that case evicting residents to build a shopping mall (that was never even built, despite the evictions).
Really, the biggest perk of the special district was that Disney could issue their own "municipal" bonds, which is more or less just a tax break (and at the end of the day not much different than the huge tax incentives governments give industries all the time to locate there). Other than that, it allowed them to form their own utilities and services (like police and fire), which isn't unreasonable given the size of their property and operations there...
This only happened because local and state government approved it.
DeSantis isn't Hitler (I'll refrain from listing all the things he is analogous to) but I'm sure if you asked Hitler to write an op-ed defending his decisions it would absolutely be an "alternative viewpoint" that would be more favorable to him.
The Left's response when someone disagrees with them is to attach some despicable label to the person (such as "Hitler" or in this case "worse than Hitler".) Once they attach that label to an individual he or she is considered so vile that no one should even discuss the issues related to that individual. He or she is now a nonperson to be ignored expect to occasionally renew the label.
I hate Poe's Law as much as anybody, buuuuut installing a political stooge to oversee a public university where said stooge has the explicit, stated goal to "self-select out" existing students and replace them with "mission-aligned" students is pretty darn Hitleric.
That's different from Judischen Physik... how?
First, every authoritarian regime does that. It isn’t just Nazism.
Second, every institution was coordinated to align with Nazi policy either through brute force or social pressure. German society was thoroughly Aryanized and Nazified.
The right would never do such a thing... would they Meatball?
I'd be fine discussing the various issues I have with Ron DeSantis but MGoBlog comment sections probably aren't the best place for it.
I will point out that nobody in that linked articles calls DeSantis "Hitler", "worse than Hitler" or whatever. Also, the irony of you framing people who dislike DeSantis as "The Left" when your point is that said people dehumanize him to minimize the point of his statements isn't fully lost on me. I mean, there's also the irony around defending Ron DeSantis being unfairly tarred as "worse than Hitler" when, you know, he (and his staff) spent months framing anyone who talks to children about sexual orientation "not consistent with (amorphous) state standards" as a "pedophile" or "groomer", but again, probably not worth the hassle here.
I think the point is, can we stop calling everything we don't like to be "just like Hitler did back then"?
I remember Jim Jefferies (one of my favorite comedians), compared our last president to Hitler. Someone challenged him and ask "so you think [last president] will kill 6m jews?" Jim replied, "Hitler didn't kill 6m jews in one day, he worked his way up to that number mate, give [last president] a chance and he'll do it"
I have good amount of POC in-laws in Florida who like DeSantis. And while I have no real opinion of DeSantis because I honestly don't care, I can guarantee he is no Hitler, not even close. Drop the meme.
Everyone is Hitler.
I’m pretty sure I’m not
ctrl f "woke" only returns 7 results. I admire the restraint shown there. Only one cultural bolshevis..sorry, cultural marxism, too. Perhaps he's not the vile demagogue he's being painted as.
Regardless of your feelings about DeSantis (dammit I wish this blog would actually enforce the no politics rule, even on itself) Disney and their infinite copyright shenanigans are an even bigger racket than the NCAA.
Y'know, UF went from ca. the #20-ranked school to #5 (etc.) and FSU from as high as 64 to 20 over almost two decades of increased resources poured into the schools, making them "flagships" during Jeb's tenure, when (later) Obama Ed Sec Arne Duncan was head of the Dept of Ed. . . and with incredible dedication and hard work of a lot of people. Bernie Machen, a former UM administrator, copied a lot of UM's moves in effecting much of that transition at UF. (He had a chip on his shoulder, and said he was going to make UF better than the U of M.) I happen to know these things b c I took my doctorate at UF, in another program patterned on the UM's School of Nat'l Resources and my wife is a tenured prof at FSU. I've lived in San Francisco, NYC, and A2, and for my money Tally has--at this stage--a lot of advantages over the other three. It's prettier, in the most biodiverse region of the continental U.S., the weather is nicer, it's more integrated, and it's hip in the way A2 was hip when I was in high school. There's a lot of downsides, including incredible poverty surrounding us, but I was able to raise my brown adopted daughter in a neighborhood full of adopted and other kids from all kinds of backgrounds, and with a COL that's half NY and SF, where we lived before we came here. We were able to travel out of country every year for 18 years, have a cool house, etc. I didn't have to do work I didn't like for a living, because I could afford to work for less. . .
But these goofs are killing it. DeSantis is killing the Republican goose that laid these golden eggs, and he's a fool.
That said, fantasizing that Disney is some kind of liberal bastion and is going to quit FL is just that, a liberal fantasy. Disney have given DeSantis the politician lots of money, given Rs a lot of money, and will keep doing just that. This newly-created deal looks like more punishment for Disney, but actually helps DeSantis out of several of the legal binds that the first, stupid one created. Walt Disney was a far-right crazy person himself, and the ersatz and plastic, environment-killing phenomenon that Disney is. . . c'mon. Being nice to gay people and hiring them is just good business, like having people of color in your commercials. You want them to buy and use your stuff, and you're crazy if you don't. Extending simple humanity to gay people does not make the Disney Corporation enlightened.
As for poaching athletes, I'm for it. The frat boys in the state legislature need a wake up call, and anything that gives it to them is okay with me.
Speaking of frat boys, three of them came up to a history dept. friend after watching a documentary about the slave ship Amistad last week, and told her that they were going to report her for "trying to indoctrinate" them. If you think that Florida is some isolated phenomenon or that it's something in the water, think again. A lot of Michigan liberals, slowly trending conservative, who don't want to pay taxes and don't give a crap about your schools, contributed to this phenomenon. NC, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, have been the four states that the Koch brothers poured the most money into. Read Jane Meyer's Dark Money. Florida gets the ink, but things are in some ways worse in NC. Until two years ago, Florida had more Democrats than Republicans; Obama won here twice. A Bernie-style Democrat lost to DeSantis the first time by less than ONE percentage point. But we are gerrymandered such that Rs will have a huge majority in the legislature in perpetuity.
People need to have a better grasp of the story, and decide if they care to replicate it in their home states--bogus chauvinism about Florida men, etc. does not take you very far. And let's be honest--with modest exceptions, the Ds haven't really HELPED working people, materially, since the 1960s.
As always, too, this is a matter of urban and rural voting patterns., which think little of the blue/red color-coding that CNN and FOX started selling us, nursery-school style, a decade ago. (Nursery school tribalism is the stupidest kind, but the blood runs the same.) Tally has two socialists on its city commission, even as the governor experiments with Christian nationalist crazy.
I….eh, no.
The rural-urban divide is real, but it looks like there's a case for racial resentment being the most important factor determining affinity for Democrats or Republicans. Which on its face is not at all difficult to believe.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/opinion/democrats-republicans-education-racial-resentment.html
Class divide, anyone?
Was gonna say No Politics, but the OP already broke that rule.
Silly rabbit still thinks this is a dem vs gop game. They have you right where they want you. Lol
Steve Sarkisian yelled at the cop to never leave a motherfucking tree in front of him again.
Disney owns ESPN, and ESPN plays too many damn commercials during games. So not sure that's a bad idea. /s About as far as I plan on going into any of this bait cast by the sandbox owner.
But wait, Rupert Murdoch owns Fox Sports and they ALSO play too many damn commercials during games. So not sure that's a good idea. /s
I fail to see how the impact to Disney will impact Florida recruits in any way shape or form.
I don't either. I don't see them taking the time and money to enact revenge on DeSantis and the state of Florida in that scenario, and I definitely don't see that revenge coming in the form of paying recruits to play elsewhere
It doesn’t. It was just Brian’s opportunity to emphasize his progressive politic view, which..ok.
Yea, I don't know if the source tweet is from someone credible, but it does seem like Brian really shoehorned that topic into the UV today.
With that, if it ends up pushing those recruits to Michigan, then have it at Disney?
Yeah, after all, let's look the other way while Disney is harming minors with that recent content they released...
My goodness, those who do nothing are complicit. These are children. God bless DeSantis for being an adult, and shame on those who are playing politics.
Yeah, I just don't see why Disney would specifically try to sway recruits. Now, I wouldn't be surprised if Disney decided to move some of its operations out of Florida (or more likely just wait out this particular administration's hissy fit and financially support a more agreeable candidate) but paying some 4.5* DT to go to Alabama instead of FSU seems like a weird counter-factual.
When I first read it, I thought you were going to say Harbaugh was at Home Depot wandering around looking for someone to help. Because, I could easily see him guiding lost people to the plumbing part they needed.
I am shocked that this never occurred to me before, but Jim Harbaugh as Ron Swanson totally adds up.
I'd never seen Parks and Rec before that clip. Now, I think I'm going to have to change that.
You are in for a treat. However, know that the first season is not representative of the rest of the show. The early episodes wanted to mimic the character dynamics of The Office. It did not really work. If the first few episodes do not hook you, try picking it up at the start of the second season. By that time, the writers figured out what they wanted to do and started taking the show in its own direction.
The NCAA is running that old Standard Oil playbook. It's a bold move.
College campuses are ground zero for the culture wars. Part of me fears that it could go from cold to warm if things continue to toxify. VaTech and MSU showed us how vulnerable these ostensibly oasis' of learning are to individual acts of violence.
Troubling times we live in.
This comment as a whole certainly seems like you're insinuating that political violence will (should?) happen due to an imaginary "culture war" that universities are perpetuating and you seem pretty laissez faire about it. I'll let the mods interpret this as they will, but holy shit
I've seen him argue that gun laws won't reduce gun related deaths and makes a weird argument that nothing we do can ever end gun deaths.
Apparently culture wars are the source of these deaths by bullets and are preventable now?
“I've seen him argue that gun laws won't reduce gun related deaths and makes a weird argument that nothing we do can ever end gun deaths.”
As we have seen with drugs, laws that attempt to reduce what people want fail. That was my argument. You made something up in your head because reasons.
”
Apparently culture wars are the source of these deaths by bullets and are preventable now? ”
What?
As we have seen with drugs, laws that attempt to reduce what people want fail. That was my argument. You made something up in your head because reasons.
I mean, you do make that argument a lot. Your recent posting history cites a bunch of murders form 100 years ago and laments that while it troubles you greatly that people are dead the fact people have killed before seemingly negates the ability for change in the future.
I've had these debates with you before so I'll keep this brief, but this lazy "if we can't fix the problem 100% why even try" argument needs to stop. Drug laws actually do work; a majority of people aren't dying from heroine, cocaine, meth or other illicit drugs overdoes. The vast majority of people involved in drug abuse and deaths were initially prescribed those drugs from doctors or other medical professionals to deal with pain and then are exasperated by a slew of socio-economic conditions. In fact, changes to laws and social policies around the ability for doctors to prescribe certain drugs, access to less dangerous and addictive means of pain treatment, greater opportunities for jobs and advancement in large swaths of the country, etc. would be a net positive and immensely cheaper than the current situation of distributing Narcan to librarians so that they can try to keep someone from OD'ing in a public bathroom.
By all means feel free to sit this one out, but stop acting like this distinctly American problem with gun violence is some unsolvable quandry despite the fact that dozens and dozens of countries have somehow been able to deal with it immensely better than this place.
“exacerbated by socioeconomic conditions”. Ding, ding.ding. This also applies to gun violence.
My argument isn’t that we shouldn’t try. I never once said that we shouldn’t. What I did say is that laws alone aren’t going to create the change we want. That requires a holistic approach that this country is in no place to enact.
Drug laws are not working if 100,000 people are continuously dying from abuse of drugs.if you think that means they are working….not a strong argument, Bob.
Dozens and dozens of countries also have problems with extreme levels of violence we haven’t seen in over a century.
The problem with comparing the US is that it has a unique country vis a vis Europe. It has a much different culture,it is larger, and is much individualistic nation than say Sweden, UK, or France. The cult of the gun is strong here in ways it is not in Europe.
What is lazy is believing that laws are going to prevent massacres when any nut can easily attain a gun in the black market.
You want to view this issues along cleanly linear lines, but don’t exist like that. They are messy,difficult problems that are made so in no small part because of our culture.
Each additional (national) gun restriction makes it makes it x% harder for someone to shoot someone. Layer enough of these restrictions and you start reducing shootings on the margin. And that’s a good start—saving even one additional child’s life (or even a policeman’s life given how dangerous their job is in an armed society) should be worth giving up some of our guns.
My argument isn’t that we shouldn’t try. I never once said that we shouldn’t. What I did say is that laws alone aren’t going to create the change we want. That requires a holistic approach that this country is in no place to enact.
But your presumption is that people saying "we need to lower gun violence" are looking for a law-based approach. That's never been the sole course of action - it's part of it, along with socio-economic changes, better gun ownership by legal owners, etc.
Drug laws are not working if 100,000 people are continuously dying from abuse of drugs.if you think that means they are working….not a strong argument, Bob.
Again, you're speaking in absolutes on all of these issues - laws aren't "working" unless they effectively negate the problem they're designed to address, which is a very crude, myopic way of viewing a situation. Wearing a seatbelt doesn't stop automobile fatalities but there's a ton of research showing it greatly reduces the chance of a fatal injury. In 1968 a federal law was passed requiring all cars include seatbelts in all designated seating spots. The death rate per 100k was 26.27 and was around 25 for the previous 3 and subsequent 3 years; 6 years later (1973) the rate was 21.13 and hasn't been above 22 since. Requiring airbags in cars reduced the fatality rate as well. So yes, it was a combination of laws and social changes that led to a significant reduction in deaths. And the "War on Drugs" has been an abject failure because it became a means to punish certain groups of people unfairly but the majority of those 100k deaths due to drug abuse come from doctor-prescribed pain medication abuse (and the street-level substitutes people seek out because they're addicted). People aren't dying due to crack and heroin like they used to.
Dozens and dozens of countries also have problems with extreme levels of violence we haven’t seen in over a century.
Love to see a citation on this.
The problem with comparing the US is that it has a unique country vis a vis Europe. It has a much different culture,it is larger, and is much individualistic nation than say Sweden, UK, or France. The cult of the gun is strong here in ways it is not in Europe.
Ah man, you're almost there. I mean, I'd love for you to define why the US is more "individualistic" than Sweden, UK, or France, as I'm fairly confident that those countries' citizens seem themselves as autonomous humans with hopes, dreams, and desires. They just don't murder each other at nearly the rate people in the US do, especially with firearms.
Again, your whole argument is an intentional misreading of anti-gun advocacy. That's fine - you don't have to care about what people actually want to see done to limit the gun deaths in this country. But it's not profound or insightful to sigh heavily, shake your head, and say "ah Americans, we're prone to violence and so why even try to stop it" just because you don't want to spend the time and energy to actually question your priors.
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