#since i think the rankings are actually based on the bids that clubs have put in for players and not actually how good they are

[mathematical-apprentice]

Barou has always been a star boy, at first I thought it was just because of his killer goal scoring ability (clinical finishing) but now, now I've been schooled. Barou presented a masterclass in goal scoring.

Getting past Isagi easily with his technical skill, a heel lift while the poor MC could only stand by and watch.

A killer double nutmeg to get past Kuon and this other guy (it seems what he did to Kaiser and Isagi is actually an old habit)

Look at where the line is when he's taking this shot.

Here's a picture of the penalty area from Wikipedia for context. You can clearly see the line marking both the penalty area and the goal area in the frame of Barou's shot

Meaning, not only did he take the ball from his half (since Isagi ran forward after kickoff it's safe to assume he didn't stay in team Z's half), heel lift past Isagi, deliver a deadly accurate double nutmeg, and score, he scored from outside the box. Do you know how crazy that is?

Given, at this point the teams aren't very organised and were easily exploited by him, but it doesn't take away from the impressiveness of the goal.

@miyamiwu

[la-leto]

Alex Honnold, star of the Oscar-contending doc Free Solo, is perched precariously halfway up an 85-foot wall. The seemingly superhuman climber who scaled a 3,000-foot sheer vertical wall in Yosemite National Park without any safety equipment is wearing a harness and tied into one end of a rope. In the unlikely event that he falls, the man on the other end, Jared Leto, will catch him. The wall arcs up and out at a steep angle — what rock climbers call overhanging — so a climber's body is nearly horizontal to the ground. When it's his turn to ascend the wall, Leto, breathing hard, is undeterred. "Nice, Jared, c'mon dude," Honnold, 33, shouts, doling out lengths of slack in the rope. "Stay with it, I'm with you."

Unlike the many people in Hollywood who have reached out to Honnold since the release of Free Solo, Leto, who fronts the rock band 30 Seconds to Mars and won a best supporting actor Oscar for 2013's Dallas Buyers Club, has been climbing with him since 2015. Leto was working on The Great Wide Open, a series of five short films about national parks and the men and women exploring them, including Honnold. Shortly after they met, the pro climber took Leto up a classic mountain route called Matthes Crest northeast of Yosemite Valley. It was one of Leto's first climbs, and they stayed out into the night. "We were just so psyched," says Honnold. Leto, 47, remembers scrambling along a thin blade of granite toward the summit and nearly falling off. "There was one part where I grabbed on the end of a rope during one really slabby section," he says. Leto continued to climb, and his friendship with Honnold grew. "I'm getting my ass kicked," the actor says, "which is great."

Leto makes a stealth appearance in Free Solo. Early on, filmmaker Jimmy Chin's camera lingers on an unidentified man's back as a disembodied voice (both belonging to Leto) asks Honnold if he would ever consider free-soloing the 3,000-foot granite monolith that is El Capitan, the mecca of the rock-climbing world. Honnold, of course, goes on to do just that, his ascent of El Capitan's Freerider route without ropes or harnesses ranking as a nearly unparalleled feat of physical achievement. On Feb. 24, the National Geographic-sponsored team that captured the epic journey on film, including Chin and his co-director and wife, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, might be going home with an Oscar statuette.

Free Solo has brought a slew of opportunities to Honnold. "It's like a snowball going downhill," he says. "And the film hasn't even hit streaming yet." In November, Honnold struck a multiyear brand ambassador partnership with car company Rivian, which considers Honnold a "superuser" because he lived in a van for so long. Rivian, which markets itself as the manufacturer of the "world's first Electric Adventure Vehicles," consults with Honnold on design. On Oscar night, Honnold is expected to show up in a Rivian R1T All-Electric pickup truck — and sport a custom-made tuxedo that The North Face is having made just for the occasion. (Honnold still uses the van that appeared in Free Solo for overnight climbing trips with his girlfriend, Sanni McCandless.) He has another ambassadorship deal with Beyond Meat, a company that makes plant-based products that resemble meat. He also has shares in the company, which could yield dividends when it stages its IPO soon. His nonprofit, The Honnold Foundation, which works on solar energy and aid projects for impoverished communities in the U.S. and abroad, has seen an uptick in attention and partnerships as well.

Black Diamond and Maxim sponsor his climbing gear. A company called Stride provides him with health insurance. Italian climbing company La Sportiva offers shoes, and Utah-based Goal Zero works with him to market solar chargers for phones. He gets paid handsomely to speak to investors and corporations, often repurposing a Ted Talk he gave last year about "mastery." He'll soon become part-owner of a national chain of climbing gyms, a speculative bid on an expected uptick of interest in rock climbing. Though he's avoided the big-time exposure that comes with big-time sports brands, Honnold will almost certainly make seven figures this year and next. Says his manager at RXR Sports, Jonathan Retseck, "For rock climbing, that's pretty good."

***

One recent morning, before Leto arrived at the Sender One climbing gym in South L.A., Honnold reflected on this new phase as a half-dozen people snuck by to snap pictures of him. Hollywood, too, has shown intense interest: Honnold was game when Edward Norton's agent got in touch about the two going climbing. (They haven't yet.) He met Brie Larson, who also has climbed and was training for Captain Marvel, at an Antonio Banderas screening. "I loved Zorro as a kid, and [Banderas] was talking about one of the scenes where he was climbing on a beam and forgot to clip in, and he was like, 'It's like free soloing,' " recalls Honnold. "It was pretty classic!"

It may come as no surprise that the man who scaled El Cap without ropes is unfazed by the pressures of Hollywood. At the climbing gym, as Honnold completes a difficult boulder problem — just slightly harder than the famous karate-kick move shown in Free Solo— he says, "I don't think any of it is that surprising if you think about it rationally. The scheduled time, the interviews, the publicists, being handled and stuff — it doesn't feel like a healthy lifestyle, but that's fine."

Of the awards-season rush, "It's obviously not how I would choose to spend my life," he says, "and the idea that freakin' actors do this for their whole careers blows my mind because it's not that fun, you know? It's really cool to meet these people that you've been inspired by, but you don't actually hang out. It's not quality time." Leto, who walks into the gym wearing a Grateful Dead shirt and black pants, adds that he lent him a tux for the Producers Guild Awards. "He could barely move in the thing, and the shoes I think were probably too small as well," notes Leto.

Since their first meeting in Yosemite, Honnold and Leto have climbed in Colorado, Nevada and in other places in California. "For the amount of time he's been doing it, he's actually phenomenal," Chin says, bestowing on the Oscar winner an even greater honor: "He's a climber."

Later, Leto, who has put on 10 pounds since playing Dallas Buyers Club's transgender drug addict, shares that the physical change is part of preparation for his role as the archvillain in Morbius, the Marvel spinoff about the vampiric character. "The world's most fearsome predator," Leto quips. Warming up on a few moderately easy routes that snake up alongside Sender One's imposing overhang, Leto adds that he hopes to pack on 10 more pounds: "It's great because I go from being very sick and very infirm to being strong and monstrous" in the movie. The friends have climbed at indoor gyms whenever the Las Vegas-based pro climber has been in town to promote Free Solo, and Honnold has been careful not to push Leto too far out of respect for his actorly obligations. "Jared's climbing is not the most important thing for him, obviously," he says, adding: "I think it would be cool to do stunts — I want to wind up as Tom Cruise's stunt double, to do climbing in a movie. Don't you think that'd be fun?" One of his early climbing heroes, a well-known Yosemite legend named Ron Kauk, climbed for Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger and for Cruise in Mission: Impossible II.

Understandably, most people still want to talk about Honnold's ascent of Freerider, even though his climbing career has moved on in some ways, including a record speed ascent of another route on El Cap and an expedition to Antarctica. "But then I spend all day, every day, talking about the Freerider climb, so in some ways I haven't moved past it at all," he says. "It's the first time in my life I've had that kind of weird disconnect between what I'm working on versus what I'm talking about."

He hadn't climbed outside in more than a month, and yet now, as he moves from bouldering to a few rounds on the hang bar to the overhanging wall, he seems content. "I feel surprisingly strong for the fact that I live in hotels now," he says. Honnold and a friend have been toying with the idea of attempting a route somewhere on the Trango Towers, a massif of 20,000-feet-high granite peaks in northern Pakistan that has attracted top climbers for years. "I just want to get to the top of some of the most striking towers in the world," he says. "Honestly though, we'll see if it even happens because of scheduling."

In other ways, Honnold's life post-Free Solohas mellowed. He's happily ensconced with McCandless at the Vegas home they purchased during filming of the movie. They climb together often. Co-director Vasarhelyi points out that Honnold has successfully managed to scale this emotional challenge. "They found love," she says. "It's a Shakespearean story, the little engine that could." Honnold says the emotional drama of the documentary belies a more serene domesticity that he thoroughly enjoys. "You only see a few minutes onscreen, so it doesn't show that you're living together in harmony," he says. "It only shows the moments of tension around this big challenge." Still, it seems evident that conquering the solo climb has freed up something deeper in Honnold. Whereas in the movie Honnold was demonstrably uncomfortable when hugging his friend Tommy Caldwell's kids, now he struts around the gym proudly holding Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi's daughter, Marina, in his arms. They call him "Uncle Alex."

Later, as he belays Leto, who scrambles up another route, a friend stops by to chat. Honnold asks about the friend's romantic relationship. "It's casual," the friend says. "Is it consistent?" Honnold asks, and the friend nods. Honnold thinks on this for half a second. "Consistently casual is still consistent," Honnold says, smiling. "After three great years with Sanni, I feel qualified to give relationship advice." He says he wants a family and kids of his own one day. "Are you going to let them climb?" the friend asks. Honnold doesn't hesitate. "I'm sure my kids will grow up underneath the moonboard in my home." For someone who has explored the most extreme corners of what's physically and psychologically possible, Honnold seems keen to resume a life of normal pleasures. "As soon as the Oscars are over, he's going to be itching to get in a van with Sanni and go on a climbing trip and life as usual," says Retseck. Leto reaches the top of the wall. Honnold brings him down, they laugh, and move on to the next route.

[cosmosogler]

ok so i gotta get up at like 6:45 tomorrow morning, so i’m writing in early. 

i’m very tired but i had a VERY PRODUCTIVE DAY!!! my head hurts very badly. the doctor ran some lung tests and stuff and said that my breathing trouble is almost definitely a muscle problem, given that my entire back is sore to the touch. along with my neck and shoulders down to the bottoms of my ribs. like i think there was one spot she poked that didn’t extremely hurt. 

so i gotta get some physical therapy. i quibbled about prices for a while and got really frustrated that the financial person in the infirmary did not know how the school-provided insurance worked with regards to covering a referral within the infirmary departments. then i went down to the office and worked and worked and worked and then i went to club and did some critiques. i went home and finished a page of the scene and did all my chores and finished my bookkeeping project and wrote a synopsis of my story. raul suggested it. so i’ve got a rough script for a 10-minute presentation now. raul is going to go over it with me on thursday and see if it needs any changes but i don’t anticipate too many. might have to change around the plot summary since i only introduce blue and nas. i’ll post it under the cut if you guys wanna read. if not, this is the end of my post for the day. too tired, my back hurts too much to keep typing.

Filling the void

 My comic ‘filling the void’ is a fanfiction based on the Mario spinoff game ‘super paper mario’ for the wii. It follows the life of the villain, who calls himself count bleck. No one else calls him that. He is joined by four others over the course of the story- nastasia the vampire secretary, o’chunks the grizzled war veteran, dimentio the spooky jester, and mimi the baby shapeshifter.

-

              The count’s actual name is blumiere. I think it’s three syllables. He started off life as a member of the tribe of darkness, which is a race of floating blue monster people. When we first meet him he’s in the aftermath of a suicide attempt, in which a girl named timpani found him at the bottom of a cliff and has dragged him to her home. They start seeing each other regularly, and over time timpani decides to shorten blumiere’s name to blue. blue’s life is ruled by prophecies and magic. He shares with timpani that he’s fated to destroy all the humans in the world and timpani tells him he should only do what he wants. They dodge threats from blue’s father and eventually blue decides that he and timpani should leave their world and find a safer one to live in. timpani has always wanted to travel and is enthusiastic about the plan.

              Blue is in the process of preparing to leave when his father sends timpani somewhere else. This sends blue spiraling into a violent depression. After a fight when his father discovers that blue is still planning to leave and find timpani, blue decides to open a book of dark prophecies called the dark prognosticus. The book tells him his name is count bleck, and he will kill his father and then destroy the world. it shows him shortcuts and glitches in his world that will allow him to destroy it before he can stop and have second thoughts.

              Destroying his world rips open a hole in spacetime called the void. Blue flees the scene and begins his search for timpani alone and with no survival skills, only the book.

              Nastasia is from a colony of vampires all working under one boss. She was killed and turned undead when she was a small child. vampires grow until they reach adulthood and then stop, so she was raised in the meantime by her fellow slaves. Most vampires have one super power, and nastasia’s is hypnosis, a rare power that puts her at a high rank in her colony. One night her colony is attacked, and in a desperate bid to save her and a few others, she’s sent away from the castle, which is when she is saved by blue.

              Acting out of self-preservation and a developing crush, nastasia immediately pledges her life to the sick and injured stranger. They travel together for a while and become close friends, which is when blue confides in nastasia that the book has shown him that he’s fated to destroy the universe. Shortly afterward, his mental illness abruptly becomes completely unmanageable. Unable to keep track of time, remember where he is, or recognize nastasia, and unable to recall any details about his life, blue eventually becomes unable to interact with the world around him in any meaningful way and has to depend on the prognosticus to tell him everything he has to say and do.

-

              The title ‘filling the void’ refers to two voids. For people who have not played the game- the plot is that a monster called count bleck has summoned an object called the ‘chaos’ heart and ripped open a void in the sky that will shred the entire universe. The only way to stop the destruction of all the worlds is to collect a bunch of ‘pure’ hearts and kill him. Mario is joined by a fairy called tippi as a sidekick, along with peach, bowser, and eventually the weeg himself. The count has convinced some minions to join him with the promise that they are building a perfect world without evil in place of the destroyed universe. When they find out the truth they take it pretty surprisingly well, all things considered. my comic follows the earliest chronological cutscene in the game to a few days after the game’s events, with the large majority spent in a time period the game does not cover except for a few sentences.

              Blue holds a unique place in the Mario rogues gallery in that he’s the only spinoff villain who is not killed as a final boss fight (or at least, strongly implied to be dead). He and his team are a very charming group of characters and I wanted to write a story exploring what goes into a forgivable villain, especially one who forces the highest stakes of any Mario game.

              With this story I wanted to spend time on developing character relationships and the process by which a kid goes from ‘crazy starving hobo’ to ‘most dangerous man in the universe with four goofball friends’. It’s a slow process; my story is about 300 scenes split up into 9 chapters, or ‘arcs’. Most of the arcs are about 20 scenes, but arcs 6 and 8 clock in at 180 scenes put together. during arc 1 I was still working out the major strokes of the story, and during arc 2 I was still ironing out the details, so the beginning is a little sparse and rocky compared to later chapters. I ended up having way too many ideas for this story, so I relegated a large percentage of them to ‘extras’ that only take a little time and I can publish between full scenes. they are canon and can elaborate on things happening in the story, but I made sure that none of them are critical for understanding major plot developments.

              For the vast majority of the story blue is stuck in a void between his incompatible goals; finding his fiancé and destroying everything, both of which he keeps mostly secret from the others. He also has to learn to manage his depression and particularly the strange comorbid symptoms that have developed. On top of that he has to come to terms with finding a family of weirdos out there in the universe and his extreme trepidation in acknowledging and communicating his feelings. Said four weirdos also are making their own journeys alongside blue, and I spent a lot of time in the story looking at how these different parallels and traits and threads would tangle up with each other as they traveled.

              What fell out of all these collisions was a story about the ways we treat each other and how that affects us. Blue struggles and often fails to hold on to his personhood, and this is strongly influenced by the way others- and especially the book- have treated him. This story is largely about growing out of abuse, and how that can tie in with forgiveness and redemption, given a willingness to change.

[patriotsnet]

Why Do Republicans Stand Behind Trump

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-do-republicans-stand-behind-trump/

Why Do Republicans Stand Behind Trump

Senate Republicans Are Not Going To Convict Trump

Donald Trump: Some Republicans did not honor their pledge to stand behind Trump

It is not likely there are enough votes to convict Trump. President Biden himself said in an interview on January 25 that Democrats did not have the votes in the Senate to convict Trump. Even though Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was not sure how he would vote, signalling the first significant break between Trump and the most powerful Republican in the Senate, he and 45 Republican senators voted on January 26 in favour of a motion proposed by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to dismiss the impeachment trial. The strategy behind this motion was to question the constitutionality of convicting a former president, another first in American history. Only five Republicans opposed the measure. This is the most glaring indication that nowhere close to 17 Republicans will vote with the Democrats to convict the former president.

Moreover, Trump has threatened political retribution against those GOP members of Congress who support impeachment. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump and his closest aides were in discussions about creating a new Patriot Party to challenge Republican candidates. However, Trump recently disavowed these reports and reassured Senate Republicans. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota relayed to Politico that The president wanted me to know, as well as a handful of others, that the president is a Republican, he is not starting a third party and that anything he would do politically in the future would be as a Republican.

The Partys Core Activists Dont Want To Shift Gears

This is the simplest and most obvious explanation: The GOP isnt changing directions because the people driving the car dont want to.;

When we think of Republicans, we tend to think of either rank-and-file GOP voters or the partys highest-profile elected officials, particularly its leaders in Congress. But in many ways, the partys direction is driven by a group between those two: conservative organizations like Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation, GOP officials at the local and state level and right-wing media outlets. That segment of the party has been especially resistant to the GOP abandoning its current mix of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, opposition to expansions of programs that benefit the poor and an identity politics that centers white Americans and conservative Christians.

You could see the power and preferences of this group in the response to the Capitol insurrection.

In the days immediately following Jan. 6, many GOP elected officials, most notably McConnell, signaled that the party should make a permanent break from Trump. Pollsfound an increased number of rank-and-file GOP voters were dissatisfied with the outgoing president. But by the time the Senate held its trial over Trumps actions a month later, it was clear that the party was basically back in line with Trump.;

related:Why Being Anti-Media Is Now Part Of The GOP Identity Read more. »

Trump Breaks Silence With Cpac Speech

Most notably, these state and local parties launched a barrage of censures or other forms of condemnation not long after a violent pro-Trump mob inspired by the former presidents lie about a stolen election and egged on that day by Trump himself stormed the Capitol intent on disrupting Congress as it formalized President Joe Bidens win. Many of the efforts were aimed at the small number of Republicans who voted in favor of impeachment or conviction after House Democrats moved swiftly to impeach Trump on the charge of “incitement to insurrection.”

In Louisiana, the state GOP censured one of its U.S. senators, Bill Cassidy, moments after he voted to convict Trump. North Carolina’s state GOP passed a similar measure aimed at Sen. Richard Burr just days later.

In Illinois, Larry Smith, chair of the LaSalle County Republican Party and a leader in the effort to censure Rep. Adam Kinzinger after he voted to impeach Trump, told NBC News that local GOP leaders in his state are overwhelmingly still pro-Trump, and that the detractors amount to a splinter group by comparison.

I think they’re stunningly naive or have completely misread the tea leaves, he said of Republicans who believe they can leave Trump behind.

He pointed to comments from Kinzinger in The Atlantic in which the lawmaker expressed hope that the segment of the GOP base ready to move past Trump could grow to 35 or 45 percent by the midterm elections.

Read Also: What Cities Are Run By Republicans

Why Dont Republicans Stand Up To Trump Heres The Answer

Rep. Mark Sanford

If youre still flummoxed by the abject servility of congressional Republicans, by their refusal to confront Trump and stand up for American values, check out last nights primary election in South Carolina. The purging of Mark Sanford says it all.

Sanford is a long-serving conservative lawmaker who typically votes with his party, but on a few public occasions, he has actually dared to suggest that Trump is not the supreme very stable genius that the deluded Republican base deems Trump to be. The result: Sanford loses his job.

For the inexcusable sin of speaking his mind about factual reality, the Republican base voters in Sanfords House district threw him out last night, handing the GOP nomination to a far-right Trumper who repeatedly denounced Sanford as disloyal.

This is why rank-and-file Republican lawmakers refuse to speak out. Theyre afraid of their own constituents. Its Trumps party now, and the constituents in red districts virtually worship the guy. Forget about putting country over party, because its actually worse than that. Sanfords colleagues wont put country over career. Theyll vow that what just happened to Sanford will not happen to them.

As conservative commentator Erick Erickson said today, Mark Sanford losing in South Carolina is pretty much proof positive that the GOP is not really a conservative party that cares about limited government. It is now fully a cult of personality.

I stand by every word.

Why Do Republicans Continue To Support Trump Despite Years Of Scandal

It was late September last year when a whistleblower complaint revealed that President Trump had tried to force the Ukrainian government to investigate Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Within moments the scandal captured headlines. What followed was months of back and forth as Republicans supported the president while the Democrats used their political capital to get him impeached.

But this was not the first time ;;or the last time ;the president was caught in the middle of a scandal.;Since the impeachment trial that followed the Ukraine incident, episodes from The New York Times uncovering unsavory details from President Trumps tax returns, to his questionable dismissal of multiple Inspectors General, to his refusal to clearly condemn white supremacists have all sparked widespread media attention and partisan fighting in 2020.;

Although with his polls dropping, some Republicans may finally be distancing themselves from the President, the question has been regularly asked the past four years: why do the Republicans continue to support the President despite these troubling charges being leveled at him? And, what is it that the Democrats stand to gain from repeated allegations?

;In addition to demonstrating how polarization accelerates scandals, the paper also found that:;

Read Also: Which Republicans Voted To Impeach Trump Today

Trump Is Still A Force In The Party

After the 2012 elections, prominent Republicans sharply criticized Mitt Romney and his campaign. Democrats did the same to Hillary Clinton after 2016 and sometimes included former President Barack Obama in their criticisms, too. For a political party to change direction, it nearly always has to distance itself from past leaders.;

Or put another way: For there to be an autopsy, there has to be a dead body.

Republicans’ Choice: Stand With Trump Or Risk His Wrath

Trump has already informed at least two GOP lawmakers of his dissatisfaction with their defense of his racist tweets.

Sen. John Cornyn prides himself on winning a large share of the Latino vote in Texas, campaigning in the Asian American community and running ads in three languages. Its a crucial strategy for a Republican in a diverse state and one that is sharply divergent from President Donald Trumps approach.

So as Cornyn seeks reelection next year with Trump on the ballot, hes making sure that he isnt dragged down by the presidents more inflammatory politics, exemplified again this week by his racist tweets telling four liberal Democratic congresswomen to go back to where they came from.

I dont have any trouble speaking to any of my constituents. They dont confuse me with whats happening up here in D.C., said Cornyn, who has gently criticized Trumps battle as a mistake that unified Democrats. I know we are consumed by this here, but it doesnt consume my constituents when I go back home.

Its a common refrain for Republicans trying to deflect a Trump-fueled firestorm and highlights the dilemma that the party will face for months to come.

GOP lawmakers, especially those facing potentially tough reelection bids, need to create independent identities to win over Trump skeptics. But if they break too fiercely with the president, he and his grassroots supporters might turn on them, with disastrous political consequences.

Also Check: How Many Seats Do Republicans Have In The Senate

A Clue About This Difficult Political Surgery

Reuters: Yuri Gripas

Trump is like a drug Republicans are yet to find a way to kick. By most accounts, few Republicans in Congress want him back, and many believe that if a secret ballot had been held in the Senate on the weekend, more than the required number of 17 would have joined with the 50 Democrats to convict him and ban him from holding office in the future.

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s speech condemning Trump as “practically and morally responsible” for the deadly January 6 attack on Congress by his supporters, offers a clue about the difficult piece of political surgery he is now trying to perform.

“Seventy-four million Americans did not invade the Capitol,” McConnell said. “Hundreds of rioters did. Seventy-four million Americans did not engineer the campaign of disinformation and rage that provoked it. One person did. Just one.”

Have Expressed Reluctance Or Misgivings But Havent Openly Dropped Their Backing

Why military veterans stand behind Donald Trump

Paul Ryan and John Boehner, the former speakers of the House: Both have expressed their dislike of the president, but have not said whom they will support in November.

John Kelly, a former chief of staff to the president: Mr. Kelly has not said whom he plans to vote for, but did say he wished we had some additional choices.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska: She has said that shes grappling with whether to support Mr. Trump in November. She told reporters on Capitol Hill in June: I am struggling with it. I have struggled with it for a long time.

She said: I think right now, as we are all struggling to find ways to express the words that need to be expressed appropriately, questions about who Im going to vote for or not going to vote for, I think, are distracting at the moment. I know people might think thats a dodge, but I think there are important conversations that we need to have as an American people among ourselves about where we are right now.

Mr. Sanford briefly challenged the president in this cycles Republican primary, and said last year that he would support Mr. Trump if the president won the nomination .

That has since changed.

Hes treading on very thin ice, Mr. Sanford said in June, worrying that the president is threatening the stability of the country.

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.

Also Check: Which Republicans Voted Against The Budget Resolution

Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of Voters

There is no both sides do it when it comes to intentionally keeping Americans away from the polls.

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstandingvalues. It is separate from the newsroom.

As of Sunday afternoon, more than 93 million Americans had cast a ballot in the November elections. Thats about two-thirds of the total number of people who voted in 2016, and there are still two days until Election Day.

This is excellent news. In the middle of a global pandemic that has taken the lives of nearly a quarter of a million Americans, upended the national economy and thrown state election procedures into turmoil, there were reasonable concerns that many people would not vote at all. The numbers to date suggest that 2020 could see record turnout.

While celebrating this renewed citizen involvement in Americas political process, dont lose sight of the bigger, and darker, picture. For decades, Americans have voted at depressingly low rates for a modern democracy. Even in a good year, more than one-third of all eligible voters dont cast a ballot. In a bad year, that number can approach two-thirds.

Why are so many Americans consistently missing in action on Election Day?

For many, its a choice. They are disillusioned with government, or they feel their vote doesnt matter because politicians dont listen to them anyway.

Republicans Almost Won In 2020

To torture this autopsy metaphor even more: Theres a good argument that the party is still very much alive.

Historically, parties have done more self-reflection and been more likely to change course when theyve hit electoral low points. In the 1988 presidential race, Democrats carried only 10 states and Washington, D.C., and that loss was their third consecutive failed bid for the White House. In 2008, Obama won the popular vote by 7 percentage points Republicans didnt even carry Indiana. So of course the parties were ready to rethink things after those defeats.

In contrast, Trump would have won reelection had he done only about 1 percentage point better in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and about 3 points better in Michigan. Republicans would still control the Senate had Republican David Perdue won about 60,000 more votes against Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgias Senate runoff. A slew of court rulings that forced the redrawing of House district lines in less favorable ways to the GOP helped the Democrats win several seats otherwise, Republicans might have won back the House. Add all that up, and 2020 wasnt that far from resulting in a Republican trifecta.;

Also, Republicans did really well in state legislative races and gained ground among Black and Latino voters nationally .

related:What Did CPAC Tell Us About The Future Of The GOP? Read more. »

Don’t Miss: Which Republicans Voted For The Resolution Today

Dire Rhetoric Used To Describe Democratic Political Opponents What’s At Stake In Country

During the second impeachment trial, the core of the House impeachment managers’ case was this: Trump’s extreme rhetoric about the presidential election being “rigged” incited a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol.

Every Democratic senator and seven Republican senators bought the argument, voting to convict Trump. In both the House and Senate, even Republicans who did not vote to impeach or convict Trump, respectively, criticized his rhetoric and actions surrounding the election.

But at CPAC, while there were few mentions of Jan. 6, several speakers’ rhetoric was similarly inflammatory as they described political opponents in extreme terms and painted a dire picture of a nation led by Democrats.

During his speech, freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., delivered a line eerily similar to one Trump gave on Jan. 6, when the former president said, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

“If we sit on the sidelines, we will not have a country to inherit. If we do not get involved and say that it is our duty to make sure that our country is responsible, that our country doesn’t take away our liberties, then my friends, we will lose this nation,” Cawthorn said. “The Democrats, my opponents and adversaries on the other side are brutal and vicious and they are trying to take away all of our rights.”

Opinion: Why Are Republicans So Afraid Of A Fair Fight At The Polls

THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic has left state leaders scrambling to run a fair election this November. Ramping up absentee voting is the most sensible response, but unfortunately it also is becoming a partisan choice. President Trump continues to spew disinformation about the supposed dangers of mail-in voting, some state Republican leaders are refusing to make voting easier, and party officials are fighting states that are trying to do the right thing.

There is NO WAY that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent, President Trump tweeted May 26, accusing California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, of proposing to send ballots to anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there. In fact, voter fraud of any kind is rare, and states that conduct all-mail-in elections, such as Oregon and Utah, have not seen widespread fraud. Mr. Trump may have been spurred by a lawsuit the Republican National Committee filed May 24 against Mr. Newsom, demanding that the courts stop the governor from distributing absentee ballots in California. That lawsuit, too, is built on fearmongering.

If Republicans fear that enabling more people to vote will hurt them, they should offer more attractive policies and candidates and stop trying to suppress the vote, in California and everywhere else.

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[365footballorg-blog]

FA Cup fourth qualifying round: Cup heroes revisited, Houdini acts and a Barnet bus bonanza

The holy grail of the FA Cup first round lies in wait, as 64 teams with hopes and dreams bid to put their name in the hat on Saturday.

From revived giant-killers to last minute escapologists, we look at some of the ones to watch out for in the fourth qualifying round.

Fond memories for Hitchin

Hitchin Town’s FA Cup giant-killing memories fade with each passing year but the class of 2018 are hopeful they can create new ones.

The man behind the Hertfordshire side’s run to the fourth qualifying stage – and the chance to make the first round for the first time in 23 years – is manager Mark Burke, who knows a thing or two about a cup run.

Burke was part of the Hitchin side that pulled off giant-killings against league clubs Hereford United in 1994 and Bristol Rovers the following year.

“We were like little celebrities,” Burke told BBC Sport. “The media exposure was brilliant, it put the town on the map and it was unbelievable.

“I am on to the lads now, trying to tell them – you will want to taste this.”

FA Cup fourth qualifying round full fixture-list[1]

So has he dug out the old VHS to show his players?

“Well, I didn’t need to because it’s all on YouTube,” Burke said. “It’s actually clearer than my old video, so I must have played it too much.

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“The lads have all seen the game. I’ve been manager here for six years and I have tried to base my philosophy on the team I was part of.

“We were mates. What I’ve tried to do is build an environment where the players play because they enjoy it, not because of the money. Which is good, because I don’t have any.”

Standing in their way of potential glory on Saturday are 1975 cup heroes, Isthmian League side Leatherhead.

Back in ’75 – and led by the ‘Leatherhead Lip’ in striker Chris Kelly – the Tanners made it to the fourth round where they were 2-0 up against top-flight side Leicester City before being overhauled.

Regardless of what happens at the weekend, there has been much progress made on and off the pitch for Hitchin, who also reached the FA Cup first round four times during the 1970s.

“We’ve already made ��30,000 on this run as we’ve had four home draws,” said Burke. “The FA have doubled prize money so if we win we will get £25,000.

“It’s great because we have an average gate of around 300-400, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we got 600-700 as they’re bringing a few coach-loads.

“The FA Cup has made the town come alive, they’re talking about it, and hopefully they will buy into it.”

Cup ‘Houdinis’

St Neots Town have lived what you might call a charmed life so far in the competition, showing the kind of escapology that Harry Houdini would be proud of.

Just look at the Cambridgeshire team’s run…

First qualifying round v Bishop Stortford – played for an hour with 10 men but made it through

Second qualifying round v Romulus – were 3-0 down but fought back to win 4-3

Third qualifying round v Coalville Town – 2-0 down with 10 mins left but drew 2-2

Third qualifying round replay v Coalville Town – 3-1 down after 89 mins but drew 3-3 and won on penalties

So which was the most impressive comeback?

“I think me and the manager were halfway on to the pitch when the fourth goal went in against Romulus. It was one of the best moments I’ve had since being involved in the game,” St Neots assistant manager Jack Cassidy told BBC Sport.

“It’s the stand-out one in terms of pure emotion – a tale of why we’re all involved in football.

“But against Coalville at 3-1 down in the 89th minute I was thinking ‘this might be a bit much now’, because I couldn’t see where a goal was coming from.”

St Neots are expected to bring their biggest ever away following to sixth-tier Alfreton Town, who may want to wait until the final kick of the tie before daring to take a lead.

A whole new ball game

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Warrington against Halifax was once such a hot ticket that in 1954, more than 100,000 turned up at Odsal in Bradford to watch. It was a world record – for rugby league that is.

The attendance at Saturday’s FA Cup tie between seventh-tier Warrington Town and National League Halifax Town might struggle to match such heights… but it does have form.

Halifax’s visit to Cantilever Park in March 2010 set a then-league record attendance of 500.

Evo-Stik Premier side Warrington have enjoyed cup success as recently as 2014, when they beat Exeter City 1-0 to reach the second round but subsequently lost to Gateshead.

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If the home support can generate an atmosphere like the one which greeted Exeter, there could be another shock in the offing.

Barnet bus bonanza for Braintree

Hakan Hayrettin’s return as fifth-tier side Braintree Town’s caretaker manager – about 18 months after he was sacked following relegation from the National League – has not been met with universal approval, particularly after promotion-earning boss Brad Quinton was shown the door.[2]

However, the 48-year-old is slowly starting to rebuild bridges with an impressive 2-2 draw[3] at big-spenders Salford City, and also by paying for fans to travel to Barnet for Saturday’s FA Cup tie.

To add extra spice, Hayrettin was part of Barry Fry’s Barnet side along with Gary Bull, Carl Hoddle and Andy Clarke in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“It’s a big game for us and it’d be great to see as many fans there as possible,” Hayrettin said.

Local pride and lengthy journeys

With the competition regionalised at this stage, the chances of being paired with the ‘nearest and dearest’ are increased, and guess what? Some hit the derby jackpot.

Up north, there is a Gateshead derby which will be streamed live on the BBC Sport website,[4] with the National League side travelling to Dunston UTS. Ninth-tier Dunston are the lowest-ranked team left in the competition.

Bets on the ‘You’re just a suburb in Gateshead’ chants are off.

Across the Pennines, Stockport County welcome Altrincham – a tasty Greater Manchester tussle – while Merseyside-based Marine FC versus Salford City promises a Liverpool v Manchester United type affair, a coming-together of two clubs in the shadow of giants.

In the south, there’s a West Country corker between Somerset rivals Weston Super Mare and Bath City.

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In stark contrast, however, Taunton Town still have a 400-plus-mile round trip from Somerset, across country, to Billericay Town.

The only way is Essex, indeed.

Perhaps seeing the Billericay groundsman wearing this leprechaun outfit will cheer them up? Maybe not.

Meanwhile, West Midlanders Stourbridge will rue being placed in the northern group, as they have a 300-mile round trip to Guiseley in West Yorkshire.

Additional reporting by James Law.

Watch all of the latest FA Cup highlights and reaction here[5]

References

^ FA Cup fourth qualifying round full fixture-list (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ shown the door. (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ impressive 2-2 draw (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ streamed live on the BBC Sport website, (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Watch all of the latest FA Cup highlights and reaction here (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Football

FA Cup fourth qualifying round: Cup heroes revisited, Houdini acts and a Barnet bus bonanza was originally published on 365 Football

[junker-town]

The Egg Bowl is the story of who you *think* you are

Or, more specifically, who you want everyone to think you aren't.

This story was originally published in 2013.

We’re recirculating it again ahead of the rivalry’s return to Thanksgiving Day for 2017. Most of the names below have since left their respective schools. Star players are now in the NFL, Ole Miss fired Hugh Freeze amid multiple scandals in the summer of 2017, Scott Stricklin is now the athletic director at Florida, a years-long NCAA investigation into the Rebels has since tangled up a star MSU linebacker, and Dan Mullen still looms over Ole Miss as Mississippi State’s head coach.

The Rebels have even since changed mascots again.

What hasn’t changed: the stuff besides the names.

Starkville, MS - Ole Miss defensive end Robert Nkemdiche, the brand name of college football's freshman class, is running the ball for the second consecutive play in a scoreless Egg Bowl.

He's dragged to the ground in part by Mississippi State defensive end Chris Jones, also a five-star freshman. That's 10 stars worth of Magnolia State hype, all colliding on Thanksgiving.

One is a Bulldog, and one is a Rebel.

Since they're defensive ends, the pair was never expected to meet on the field. But now that they have, everyone in the stands is sure one or the other of them boys is an evil, cheatin' prick who's everything wrong about college football. The other's just a young man who loves his new university.

Nkemdiche, the highest-rated prospect in the country last year, chose the unlikely Rebels. This infuriates Mississippi State fans to their cores. There's no way Ole Miss should've landed the nation's top talent, and out of Atlanta of all places. Never mind that his brother — once an ignored, grade-risk, 'tweener-DB — came to Oxford as a Houston Nutt fire-damage special in the summer of 2010, and that years later their mother wanted them on the same campus. Cheaters.

Jones is a home-grown Missisippian, a native of nearby Houston. His is a fine example of the path taken by a top in-state football recruit:

Declare interest in one of the two local SEC programs.

Weather a barrage of hype, rumor, seduction, and accusation from both fan bases until Signing Day.

Be forever loathed by one.

So Ole Miss fans swear the five-star Jones was in love with joining an already-stocked 2013 Rebel class and pairing with Nkemdiche. He had visited the Oxford campus late in the recruiting season, but his family had been bought by MSU boosters. Poor Jones was held captive by a Bulldog shadow government that even forced him to bait key Rebel boosters into potentially offering him money on tapped phone lines. Cheaters.

The moment will be writ large on message boards for months to come, and maybe end up on a billboard.

Billboards rank just above spray-painted overpasses in tact and subtlety among advertising mediums, which is exactly why more and more college athletic departments are using them.

"When I worked at the University of Kentucky, we had a similar campaign for an existing slogan: 'Welcome to Big Blue Country,'" Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin explains. "We wanted to do something similar, something direct, but spent several months really struggling for what to do exactly. I remember, in a moment of frustration, just telling our team I wanted something direct, like, 'Hey, welcome to our state.'"

"I can say they're highly visible, and they create feedback from our fans. I know I hear from Mississippi State fans every time they pass by a new one about how much they love seeing it," Stricklin said. "But I don't know that the R.O.I. is really worth what you're paying for them, other than the non-quantifiable good feeling. I don't know how you put pencil to paper to explain that."

In the 2007 Egg Bowl, MSU's Derek Pegues, one of the rare standouts at Batesville's South Panola High School to eschew nearby Ole Miss (22 miles) for MSU (121 miles), broke a 75-yard punt return for a touchdown. It would push the Dogs to a win and certify Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron's pink slip.

The following summer, a billboard appeared in Panola County on Interstate 55, near the Highway 6 exit to Oxford. The junction is the most common route for drivers headed to Ole Miss from either Jackson or Memphis and considered the heart of Rebel country. Now a maroon-and-white billboard read, "Many Happy RETURNS For Bulldog Club Ticket Holders," featuring a picture of Pegues.

The archduke of outdoor advertising had been shot dead. The modern Mississippi Billboard Wars had begun.

"It can be July and no teams competing, but people will see [the billboards] and instantly gauge where their teams are at," then-Mississippi State AD Greg Byrne, now at Arizona, said. "That's the real value, and it's not a television ad you can mute and ignore."

In 2008, Houston Nutt's Rebels sealed the fate of the embattled Sylvester Croom with a 45-0 walloping in Oxford. As if such a complete dismantling wasn't enough recompense, Ole Miss flashed a message on its brand-new Jumbotron (MSU would complete its a year later, exactly one cubic foot larger in size):

"When they shellacked us in the 2008 game and put up 'Many Happy Returns,' I just told our people that's clever. That's not obnoxious. We had that coming. That was very cleverly, subtlety done," Stricklin said.

"I think on that level, that stuff is kind of fun. And anytime you do something from a marketing standpoint, you open yourself up to [a response] if you have a bad day."

Ole Miss is 7-4 in Hugh Freeze's second season, while Mississippi State is 5-6 in Dan Mullen's fifth.

The night is less about the Rebels and more about a growing anxiety around the home team. Mullen's offense, his trademark, has faltered this season. MSU fans are impatient despite the current staff's streak of three bowl bids.

On this night, MSU’s wearing Adidas-crafted solid maroon with solid gold numbers and letters topped with gold chrome helmets.

Getty Images North America

STARKVILLE, MS - NOVEMBER 28: Brandon Wells #30 of the Mississippi State Bulldogs takes the field prior to a game against the Ole Miss Rebels at Davis Wade Stadium on November 28, 2013 in Starkville, Mississippi. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Mississippi State is all in on the brand association with the Golden Egg trophy, named not for any connection the state has to poultry, but for its poorly constructed golden football that, over the decades, became nicknamed "The Egg."

Much of Mullen's persona has been built around a zeal to humiliate Ole Miss. He validated his claims, winning three in a row against an increasingly hapless Houston Nutt from 2009-‘11. He calls them "TSUN, the school up north" and even let himself be videotaped promising that MSU was "never losing to this team again" after the 2010 game.

He did eventually lose. Last November, 41-24. As deft as Mullen was at rallying Mississippi State, Hugh Freeze was at washing Ole Miss' local elitism in the blood of the Lamb. A son of Tate County, he's yet to miss an opportunity to publicly preach about a team winning for the love of each other and not the hate of an opponent, all while recruiting with Mullen's same fearlessness.

Even after finally losing his first Egg Bowl, there's no restraint from Mullen, no dampening of the mission statement. if anything, MSU has doubled down and lacquered itself in rivalry lust.

"Let's face it, our fans aren't telling us that the one game we absolutely have to win is against some FCS opponent," Stricklin says. "I don't think it matters what we wear, really. Our fans aren't halfway in, so there's no reason for us to be."

MSU has come to claim Mississippi as its state, or specifically, "Our State."

As Stricklin tells the story, the "Our State" campaign was created and put in motion well before Mullen's second Egg win.

"They were actually scheduled to go up around the first of the new year, but the sign company was ahead of schedule, believe it or not. Almost as soon as the second in 2010, the billboards started going up, and fans on both sides took it to be a shot, which it really wasn't intended to be."

The billboards sprang up on graduated schedule across Mississippi, on the state line of every major interstate, along with major highways and cities. And gold trim started making its way onto the MSU uniforms for each Egg Bowl.

"I don't think there is any reaction. It's hard to say this in a blanket statement, but I don't think people see it as a big deal," counters Ole Miss senior associate AD for marketing and communications Michael Thompson.

Thompson is the Rebels' image maker, to a degree, an ex-ad man who's worked to overhaul everything from the specific hues of red and blue used in the Ole Miss logo to the meticulously planned change in mascots two season ago.

"I need to make sure I clarify that," he adds. "That game is a big deal, but I don't think that our people want us to put out a uniform change or tweak for that game. That's not part of our brand standards guide. It's just not who we are."

Since Mullen and Stricklin's embrace of beating all things [school name redacted], Ole Miss has opted to aim its nose even higher. The Rebels responded to the "Our State" campaign with a series of non-State billboards around Memphis and the state of Mississippi, never acknowledging their disdain for MSU's growing confidence.

"I think Dan Mullen might pick the billboard locations personally," Thompson jokes, referencing a recent wave of MSU billboards that seemed specific to the location of key recruits. In early 2012, MSU was hit with a secondary NCAA violation for a billboard in Oxford that read "Play with the Best," which the NCAA considered a call for prospects. Ole Miss fans felt it was because highly sought-after Oxford recruit Jeremy Liggins was about to sign his LOI.

And it's not just billboards. Shortly after Donte Moncrief split the MSU secondary for the second time in the Rebels' blowout in 2012, Ole Miss cued up video of Mullen's promise to never lose the Egg again:

Hey it was a promise that wasn't kept," Thompson says of the clip.

"There was a lot of talk about that clip leading up to the game. It had surfaced online a good bit. Our athletic director [Ross Bjork] happened to ask if we had that clip queued up, and we happened to have it available. At a certain point in the game, he asked us to play it."

No fan base is a homogenous group that's the opposite in every way of its rival.

There are ag schools and business schools and private schools and commuter colleges, and at some point, all fans become classless trash by somebody else's standards. But there are gray areas.

However, in Mississippi, a sparse state population and a feeble economy strangle out the periphery. There's little in the way of outside immigration, and not only are you loyal to either one team or the other, you personally know your town's next great linebacker prospect and the opposing school's local bag man. You know for a fact they're up to something, because you heard from the guy who saw it all.

As both universities slowly grow, each is discovering it's impossible to keep an entire student body and fan culture in step with any one image.

But on Egg Bowl week it's still suitable to boil everything down to the rednecks vs. the country club.

Before the game, you notice how willing the participants are to play to their own stereotypes.

This is not the Iron Bowl. There are no national titles at stake. There haven't been since the early 1960s. The Egg Bowl is a potent distillation of Mississippi as compared to its neighboring Southern cultures, a stronger high and a harsher burn.

Live in Mississippi long enough with an open ear and you can learn to hate everybody. Trust me.

You're either a red-dirt, hillbilly dipshit, kin to farming families outside Tupelo (and a cheater) or a racist, fork-tongued Jackson lawyer (and a cheater). And tonight everybody's a damn cheater, a "cheeeetin son of a bitch" precisely, as it echoes through the stands.

I've often wondered out loud around Oxford and Starkville that if everybody's cheating so damn much, is anybody really cheating? The answer around Thanksgiving week is, "yeah, those sons of bitches are."

If you ask one side, you can find much to hate about the Rebels.

Ole Miss, a postcard town stained to the bone by a cancerous, self-created mystique that's so vapid, so invalidated by modern culture that one extra cufflink, one extra bow tie, one extra flair on an already obscene cocktail dress would implode the whole damn Grove in a fit of pretentiousness, like a dying star with a little alligator embroidered on it.

The Grove: that giant, ham-fisted paean to a world that either never really existed or did and should be forever forgotten. A WASP Freaknik of doctors, lawyers, and politicians blocking traffic seven times a fall.

Ole Miss: a grown-ass man, bereft of self-awareness, wobbling around his fake fiefdom in an outfit straight from the boys department of a Dillard's after-Easter sale in 1986.

So to hell with Ole Miss.

If you ask the other side, you can find much to hate about the Bulldogs.

State, a lot so ignorant to their circumstances that their baseless pride becomes downright noxious, a poison in the air. Mississippi State, the worst of all nondescript land-grant institutions, a sorry smattering of brick buildings and hills and as war-torn as a Serbian armpit without the excuse of having suffered an actual war. There's no way to explain away the alarming amount of local self-regard for so much hopeless blight.

Starkville: a Springsteen song without melody or lyrics or any remote significance to the fabric of American identity. A people united by the cultural mantra of scorched-earth, fit to forever wage a kamikaze war over the last bunk of a basement cell in the SEC West.

Mississippi State: a churlish, bell-ringing, camo-coated Flannery O'Connor villain trapped inside a 3 Doors Down chorus.

So to hell with State.

He was a brazen, smirking carpetbagger from New Hampshire who trolled an entire state of old-money blowhards.

Watching Mullen work the postgame press conference in the wake of a surprise upset win over the Rebels is witnessing a master.

"I think now at this point we certainly expect to be considered for the best bowl available, especially when you consider we've now got a better conference record than the school up north," he beams, the Golden Egg freshly returned to his side.

In the course of the evening, Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace fumbles away the game while diving into the end zone in overtime. The gaffe ends with the quarterback face down on the maroon grass, a maneuver that will become a (local) internet trend hashtagged as #Wallacing. Ole Miss fans will fume, especially when extended clips show State safety Nickoe Whitley squatting over Wallace to celebrate.

Nkemdiche will become, as one lifelong MSU fan tells me after the game, "the most hated Rebel in Starkville since Eli Manning." He allegedly spent the fourth quarter smack-talking MSU players and fans while Ole Miss' defense struggled to stop the Bulldogs from moving the ball.

Mullen’s voice cracks when talking about the "medical miracle" return of injured quarterback Dak Prescott to win the game. Prescott, thought to be suffering nerve damage in his shoulder and out for the regular season, entered the game late to spark MSU's comeback. This will enrage Rebel fans, convinced Mullen is willing to trade on his players' health.

A week later, Stricklin admits with equal parts pride and sheepishness that more billboards are on the way.

"It's hard to make too much of a rivalry game," he says.

Thompson, in response, holds the company line for Ole Miss, now losers of four of the last five Egg Bowls.

"No, as of right now, I know of no plans for any kind of advertising specific to that game. I think that you have to choose those things wisely. On any campaign you have to look at all the potential scenarios that could occur. You don't want all your eggs in one basket," he deadpans.

Above the smoke and the Egg and the university-issued golden pom-poms flying into the air is State's Jumbotron, with a giant hashtag: #WONTHEDAY, mocking Freeze's oft-repeated catch phrase for Rebel football.

"That one was not run by me. I promise," Stricklin says with a bit of a laugh. "Our marketing staff must have come up with that one during the week. I've asked in the future they run all of those by me."

[yahoo-puck-daddy-blog]

What We Learned: Wishful thinking for Canucks

(Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.)

The Canucks say he’s a “foundational” player. Which is why they gave Bo Horvat six years and $33 million just before the start of the weekend.

Call it a Friday news dump, because while Horvat is certainly one of the better young players in the organization, that’s a lot of money to give to a player with about half a point a game in his career.

That description is a little unfair to Horvat, of course, because he has 92 points in his last 163 games. Pretty good number, and he doesn’t exactly get a ton of ice time (about 17:35 a night the last two seasons). But the whole “foundational” thing seems to indicate that this is about to be His Team, and the question has to be asked: His this a franchise center or anything close to it?

Better yet, is Horvat anything close to a $5.5 million player right now?

That cap hit puts him in the low-30s in terms of what centers get paid in the league, which in theory means the Canucks think he’s the 33rd- or 34th-best center in the league. Or will at least become that in the relatively near future. In fact, given his RFA status and the fact that they were buying only a few years of unrestricted free agency, Vancouver probably thinks this makes Horvat something of a bargain.

Seems like a big bet, no?

Put another way, guys don’t become $5.5 million players simply because you pay them like it. The Canucks, based on the contracts they’ve given out over the past few years (Luca Sbisa, Brandon Sutter, Erik Gudbranson, etc.), should know that by now.

And yet here we are with an overly speculative contract for Bo Horvat, who yes, led the team in scoring last year, but was 39th among NHL centers. (He and Sven Baertschi were roughly the same in terms of 5-on-5 points per 60.)

The idea seems to be that Horvat’s offensive game has a little bit more of a ceiling than what he’s shown so far, and that’s fair enough. He’s 22 and therefore probably has another three to five years of growing to do. But there’s also the suggestion that while he might never be their top-line center, except by default because there are some lean years ahead, he’s going to be used as their shut-down guy, and that’s what makes him worth the $5.5 million.

But he certainly hasn’t shown he has that capability yet in this league. In fact, he hasn’t done anything close to that. Here are his ranks in 5-on-5 events allowed per 60 among 196 guys who played at least 500 full-strength minutes last season, at least partly at the pivot. They’re not great:

That doesn’t exactly scan as the kind of guy who’s a guaranteed shutdown guy, especially because — and you’re not gonna believe this, folks! — Horvat got fewer 5-on-5 minutes per game than Sutter. In effect, he was their No. 2/3 center, which is fine. Tough to hold that against him since it’s not up to him who he plays, but at the same time, you have to understand he’s getting not just outplayed but actively caved in against middle-six competition, albeit starting far more often than not in his own zone on a very bad team.

It’s worth acknowledging that the Canucks have made a coaching change and were shambolic throughout the lineup. The now-departed Willie Desjardins was clearly not very good at his job, and the Canucks roster on the whole didn’t help much. A new, apparently smart coach in Travis Green and maybe some help from potential linemate Brock Boeser could goose the offensive performance and, who knows, maybe even help seal off things defensively. That’s kind of a big ask right out of the gate, though. Especially given the player’s history of success, or lack thereof.

But like it or not, Horvat’s contract and where this franchise is headed all but guarantees he’s going to be drawing some very difficult minutes in the years ahead, and the fact that he can’t reasonably outperform his teammates in something of a sheltered role should be concerning. If he’s getting crushed by second lines, what happens when the Sedins go away and he’s matched up against, say, the Connor McDavids and Johnny Gaudreaus of his division and not the Ryan Nugent-Hopkinses or Kris Versteegs?

All of that having been said, it’s not that the AAV on this deal is necessarily a bad one. At least insofar as it shouldn’t matter for them, as they’re rebuilding and they still have a little bit of cap space today, plus whatever they get for the coming talent sell-off closer to the deadline, plus all the wiggle room they get with the Sedins likely calling it a career at the end of this season. At that point the money almost certainly doesn’t matter.

It’s more that the Canucks felt like they had to pay this player — rightly so, because the alternative was obviously not-paying him — but probably overpaid him, at least based on what he’s shown and the projected role he’ll take on after this coming season.

This deal isn’t necessarily a bad one. Horvat could grow into the kind of player they believe he will be. But he would have to walk a long, long road to do it, especially in his own end. And if he can’t travel it, then this becomes just another Canucks contract where, three or four years from now, everyone’s saying, “That wasn’t very smart.” And it’s happened a lot in the Jim Benning era, so at least all involved got plenty of practice.

Yeah, Vancouver locked up a “foundational” guy, but they also gave that label to Sutter and Gudbranson just a few years ago. Maybe it’s important to remember just who gives out these honorifics and why. Right now, this is a team in the business of selling the future, and Horvat, for better or worse, is the future of the franchise.

That is, until someone with a higher ceiling — Rasmus Dahlin, Andrei Svechnikov, etc. — comes along after this team finishes in the bottom three for the next few years. Then it’s very possible that the back end of this deal becomes onerous and regrettable.

Or, y’know, standard operating procedure for the Canucks.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: What “hump” do you think we’re talking about here? They got to the Western Conference Final with a weirdly unbalanced to roster and not-good coach, right? Doesn’t that seem like the ceiling?

Arizona Coyotes: I can’t imagine anyone has the Coyotes as a playoff team but so much has changed I don’t know if they’re the 18th-best team in the league or the 28th. Very weird!

Boston Bruins: Wow, Jake DeBrusk! Remember him?

Buffalo Sabres: This is an improved club, but they still have no talent whatsoever deeper in the lineup. Or on the blue line.

Calgary Flames: I have some bad news, folks.

Carolina Hurricanes: This is a very nice thing the Hurricanes did but maybe the people of Houston don’t want to hear the word “hurricane” too much there days. Worth remembering that the Hurricanes themselves were named less than a year after Hurricane Fran, which battered their new home state in 1996. It caused billions in damage and killed 14 people. Why would you name your team after that?

Chicago: Really excited to see what Alex DeBrincat can do in the NHL this year.

Colorado Avalanche: Hmm, probably not!

Columbus Blue Jackets: Motivated or not, Jack Johnson is still horrible.

Dallas Stars: I can’t stress this enough: Slow down.

Detroit Red Wings: New rink looks like, but the fans probably won’t like the product on the ice very much.

Edmonton Oilers: I don’t like this kind of language from Connor McDavid!!!

Florida Panthers: The Panthers really stepped up ahead of Irma. Let’s hope they can actually play home games when the season starts in a few weeks.

Los Angeles Kings: Well, let’s start the bidding on Drew Doughty then.

Minnesota Wild: Bruce Boudreau seems like a delight. I love him.

Montreal Canadiens: This is the good stuff.

Nashville Predators: Well there goes that whole “trading for a center” thing.

New Jersey Devils: Hey, sure, Tim Erixon. Alright. Fine.

New York Islanders: Just move the team already. Good lord.

New York Rangers: I wonder who was making this kind of point last year? What handsome genius was saying “Don’t get your hopes up on Jimmy Vesey” and every Ranger fan was very mad about it? Someone very smart and cool and so nice, no doubt.

Ottawa Senators: The Senators came up with a great idea: If you can’t sell out, just get rid of a bunch of seats!

Philadelphia Flyers: If Anthony Stolarz played into your season plans in any appreciable way, well, that was bad news as a baseline.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Mike Sullivan is quick to dispel rumors the Penguins want Kris Letang to be more conservative. Why? Because he’s a good coach and he wouldn’t tell an elite defenseman to change his approach, that’s why.

San Jose Sharks: The Sharks are putting a real shark tank in their rink. The question is, why haven’t they had one all along?

St. Louis Blues: If the Blues start a rebuild any time soon, something has gone horribly wrong.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Easy to see why people would be of two minds about what the Lightning can do this season.

Toronto Maple Leafs: No point in rushing the team’s various good-to-very-good prospects. Pretty good NHL roster, to be honest.

Vancouver Canucks: Just control-F for “[Pause]” on this one. Trust me. That’s an important pause.

Vegas Golden Knights: Man, less discussed in all this Golden Knights stuff is how bad their AHL team is gonna be. Pretty bad I bet!

Washington Capitals: Well, you gotta add somebody on a PTO I guess.

Winnipeg Jets: I really think Kyle Connor will be a very nice player for the Jets this season.

Gold Star Award

Sign Jagr.

Minus of the Weekend

You know hockey’s back because we’re getting play-by-play tweets from beat guys about goddamn rookie tournaments.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Year

User “Freaky Styley” likes no-win situations.

TO WPG: Duchene Barrie

TO COL: Little Trouba Conditional pick (if Little walks next season)

Signoff

I don’t like the idea of Milhouse having two spaghetti meals in one day.

—

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

[junker-town]

NASCAR mailbag: Sorting through an offseason of change

Answering questions on segmented race formats, Monster role as entitlement sponsor, Dodge’s potential return, and more.

Since SB Nation last published a NASCAR mailbag, Jimmie Johnson became only the third member of the seven champion’s club, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon (we think) and Carl Edwards (shockingly) retired from NASCAR competition, several teams shuffled its 2017 lineups, and in separate announcements the sanctioning body revealed a new entitlement sponsor, Monster Energy, a name for the Cup Series, and radically different race format for its three national divisions.

So yeah, a lot has happened. As a reminder, if you have a question for a future edition of the NASCAR mailbag email jordanmbianchi@gmail.com.

New race format, Johnson's pursuit of No. 8, a new Toyota Camry body, or Edwards’ departure: What is the biggest storyline heading into Daytona?

--Justin

No better way to kick off the mailbag then with a question encapsulating what has been a newsy offseason. Individually all are significant with lasting implications throughout the season and perhaps beyond, especially if Johnson were to win a record-breaking eighth championship and Edwards were to return to a team other than Joe Gibbs Racing.

However, the introduction of segments and breaking races into three parts is such a departure from how NASCAR has traditionally conducted races for nearly 70 years this is unquestionably the predominant story of 2017. From how races unfold to a drivers’ mindset to the strategy crew chiefs employ, most everything will be different than what fans are accustomed to.

Then there is the unknown element to consider. You know Chad Knaus, Paul Wolfe, Rodney Childers and every other crew chief are dissecting ways to exploit the new rules for their betterment, coming up with loopholes officials never even thought to consider. It’s going to be equal parts fascinating, confusing, and likely controversial, and because the championship is impacted NASCAR is limited on what tweaks it can make if during the season the formant proves wonky.

I’m a longtime NASCAR fan and I think Monster has the potential to do a lot of good things for a sport I’ve loved since I was a kid. My concern is in this marketing push towards a younger demo, NASCAR will do the same to us as the last time they tried wooing new fans and completely disregarded its roots by overhauling everything so much that NASCAR will actually be worse off. Do you think something like this will happen?

--Steve

This is the delicate balance NASCAR and Monster must negotiate in the coming months and years ahead. Although NASCAR obviously needs to attract a younger crowd and turn them into longtime entrenched fans like Steve, it also must avoid the missteps of alienating a fan base that’s often felt as if they didn’t matter.

To NASCAR’s credit the powers that be have come to understand in recent years they cannot simply disavow the sport’s somewhat unsavory past in an attempt to appease corporations reluctant to associate with a league whose very formation can be traced to bootlegging and one of its marquee moments is a fistfight on the last lap of the Daytona 500.

The good news for those feeling Monster’s new role as entitlement sponsor will spur another period where NASCAR becomes “too corporate” is that the marketing platform for the energy drink manufacturer in many ways fits well with the rougher edges surrounding stock car racing at its highest level. This should help on two fronts: 1) assuage fans concerned that NASCAR will become staid and stay more in line with how they enjoy the product, and 2) help generate some excitement among a segment of the population that gravitate to a sport possessing a bit of bad charm.

How realistic is it Dodge returns to NASCAR? The idea of another manufacturer is something I would love to see, but considering all it involves it doesn’t seem likely. Wouldn’t they need a big team to make work?

--Chris

There’s no denying Dodge is interested in returning to NASCAR, officials for the carmaker have said as much publicly, and NASCAR CEO and chairman Brian France said in November he had spoken with an unnamed manufacturer about joining Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota as competitors in the Cup Series. Remember, though, wanting to and actually taking the necessary steps to do so are two different things. And thus far Dodge is a long ways away from putting one of its cars on the track, as it’s yet to submit formalized plans to the sanctioning body, something required well in advance.

As for the second part of your question, ideally Dodge would align itself with an existing team to not only help ease the transition but also construct engines for the other Dodge-supported teams. The latter of these is the most crucial factor. The manufacturer left NASCAR in 2012 because it lost Team Penske as its flagship organization to Ford and didn’t have a replacement team capable of filling the sizable void to build and supply engines.

Looking at the landscape for potential candidates were Dodge to return, Chip Ganassi Racing and Richard Childress Racing are the two most appealing and realistic options. CGR was one of Dodge’s strongest teams when it reentered NASCAR in 2001, while Richard Childress Racing not only already builds its own engines but could be enticed by escaping Hendrick Motorsports long shadow within the Chevrolet camp -- though it would require a check with a lot of zeros to get Richard Childress to cut ties to his longtime supporter.

Outside of CGR and RCR, Dodge would be hard-pressed, and in some instances contractually infeasible, to entice the likes of Penske, Hendrick, JGR, Stewart-Haas Racing, Roush Fenway Racing or Furniture Row Racing to join its ranks.

Most everyone seems to believe Jimmie Johnson winning an eighth championship is inevitable, but I remember the same thing being said after Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt won their seventh and neither won again. So isn’t it premature to say Johnson is a lock to win an eighth title?

--Tony

Nothing is a lock, and Johnson would be the first to tell you that. Just look at how his potential championship bids came undone in 2014 and 2015 when assorted mechanical gremlins knocked him out of the second and first playoff round, respectively. He may well continue to dominate for the next however many years, but to capture a record-breaking eighth title he’ll need a considerable amount of luck on his side as well.

But considering Johnson’s age (41), his incredible fitness, and association with Hendrick, which even in a down year is still among the best teams in the garage, there is every reason to believe he will eventually supersede Petty and Earnhardt. And even if he cannot win another series crown, Johnson has already crafted a very convincing case why he should be considered NASCAR’s best driver of all-time when you consider the level of competition he’s faced and the format in which he’s won his championships. An eighth title would only further cement his legacy.

What happened to NASCAR going with a relatively easy to understand points system? Instead I feel like I need a calculator handy whenever I’m watching a race.

--Michelle

Like many things within the sport, the direction is in a perpetual state of flux shifting from one hard line stance to another, often in contrast to previous mandates.

For example, when NASCAR introduced the Car of Tomorrow to minimize the differences between the makes of cars, or two years later attempted to combat decreasing TV ratings by stressing the importance of having races start at universal times so viewers knew exactly when a race went green; a move designed to mimic the bulk of NFL games that kickoff at 1 p.m. ET or 4:05 p.m. ET on Sundays.

Well, both of these plans fell by the wayside. Now Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota each possess distinct characteristics, and start times for Sunday races run the gamut across the afternoon.

Such reversals aren’t always red flags, plans can and do change and sometimes an idea doesn’t take as intended. All businesses experience something similar. But, NASCAR’s inconsistent messages gives the perception its leadership lacks a clear and concise blueprint for the sport going forward, while also suggesting those in charge are desperately searching for a cure-all for the assorted issues.

The intent behind NASCAR’s decision is to better incentivize drivers to continue to push during the regular season. Provide a tangible reward for achievement that aids their championship pursuit, while also discouraging teams that win early then use the balance of the regular season as a glorified test.

The downside is, points and the accumulation of them is now a central focus. And with NASCAR increasing the avenues of distribution (winning or finishing in the top 10 in one of the first two segments), a new or casual fan will be challenged to figure out the nuances. Of course Fox Sports and NBC Sports will mitigate this to some degree via the use of graphics and up to date standings, it still is another layer of complexity in a sport already filled with them.