Ugggghhhh...Monday Night Thoughts

 Good morning, I guess. It's 1:07am right now as I'm typing this, and I have plenty of Coke Zero Sugar in my system, so I may as well get some writing done, and humor you with some random thoughts.

The "No Kings" march was a resounding success nationwide. Seven million participants and only two arrests that we are aware of. Pretty good for the so-called "violent left." No, they're not violent President Trump, they (like me) just don't like your ass. 

Speaking of Trump, you know that "peace deal" he brokered between Gaza and Israel? The media led you to believe it was the single greatest accomplishment in either of his two terms as president. Well, so much for that. But hey, at least if he isn't allegedly tearing up our republic, he is tearing up the White House. 😬 

Getty Images

Tonight felt off for some reason. The Bucs crapped the bed against the Lions. I mean, it was kinda expected since the Lions got jobbed last Sunday night at Kansas City (they had to please Taylor Swift I guess) and were pretty pissed online, but I thought the Bucs would have a little better effort. Oh, and to add injury to insult, Mike Evans broke his collarbone and may be done for the season. I think me breaking out the Doug Martin jersey had something to do with it. RIP Muscle Hamster.

Remember back in March when I said the Dodgers would cake walk through MLB and win the World Series? Well, they're four wins away from successfully repeating, much to the chagrin of everyone not rooting for them. Their opponent? The Toronto Blue Jays. A surprise from the American League in what has been a season full of surprises. Heck, look what I wrote for my picks this year:

AL East: Orioles
AL Central: Guardians
AL West: Rangers
WC 1: Yankees
WC 2: Astros
WC 3: Royals
Pennant: Rangers

NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cubs*
NL West: Dodgers

WC 1: Phillies*
WC 2: Barves
WC 3: Padres

Pennant: Dodgers

Outside of the Yankees and Guardians, I completely whiffed on the American League, and the Guardians only won the division thanks to an unbelievable comeback (and a generational collapse by the Tigers). In the National League, I got the Dodgers and Padres sort of right since they captured a Wild Card spot. The Phillies won the division, and the Cubs won a wild card spot. I thought the Rays would finish 83-79; they wound up below .500. Oh well...

Anyway, back to the Blue Jays, congratulations to them and their fans (except one who can't keep to its own business on social media). And to Don Mattingly, who finally gets to go to a World Series after forty-two years in baseball...

CBS Sports on Facebook

One thing that I dislike about my life is that I can't go out at nighttime. Seriously, because my sisters will have major anxiety if I do and that they're elderly. The three of us have to stick together because that's all that's left in our family. And we're surviving so far. 

Speaking of which, the mother of my daughter followed me on TikTok. I don't post much on there; I just repost mainly underreported news and sometimes humorous cat videos. But interesting that she's following me all of a sudden. 

80s music hits different when you haven't heard it in a while, and especially after you've heard snippets of the 6, 7 songs that are popular these days. See what I did there?

Call me cynical, but I don't have a bunch of high hopes for the Lightning this year. Vasilevskiy just isn't the same netminder that he was five or six years ago, and the defensive core is suspect and aging. I think the time for a franchise rebuild may be sooner than all of us thought.

You know, flipping the bird at the numerous commercials for Morgan & Morgan as well as the number of Trump stories I have to hear on Fox 13 gets exhausting after a while, but that's my protest. Which begs the question: Why didn't I go to the No Kings March? Well, I saw on Facebook that there was a decent turnout in Brooksville, but as for Spring Hill I can only guesstimate what it was like here. In fact, here's what I thought it looked like:

Seriously, with as many Trump bootlickers that live around where I do, I wouldn't be surprised if the "No Kings" march in Spring Hill was actually a counterprotest in support of MAGA. Yuck.

I have to go get some sleep. I have a VA Appointment tomorrow then lunch with the sisters. I hope to have more later this week. Until then, have a good one.

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What Are We Doing Here??

 Okay, so I haven't posted on here for a couple of weeks, but today something happened that I just couldn't resist not talking about. Our President, who ran on the platform of "America First," decided today that he would allow the military to use an airbase in Idaho. Except it wasn't our military, it was the Qatari military. America first my ass.

Was this in return for the gift that Qatar gave President Trump? Who knows, but it sure reeks of quid pro quo. This was a country that somehow rigged the voting to gain the FIFA 2022 World Cup and is allegedly bankrolling Hamas, and now we're rewarding their troops with the use of the Mountain Home Air Base.

Meanwhile, Trump brags to his rich friends on the golf course about the government shutdown while throwing a hissy fit that he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize. What a piece of human waste...

Release the files already...

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"Crapture" At Scamelot, Plus More...

 Hello again everyone, except the cultaholics over at Sinclair Broadcasting. Yeah, keep pounding your right-wing views on everyone (and guess what? The hyperlink on Twitter does not work, thanks a little Hulk Hogan). Your little stunt for Jimmy Kimmel to get his show back on air in the ABC stations you own is nothing more than extravagant extortion attempt. Anyway, Tuesday the rapture was allegedly supposed to happen...again. And just like in 1988 and 2012 and every other time it was supposed to happen, it didn't happen...again. 2016 may have seemed like the rapture, when everyone notable seemingly died, but in my estimation, it was our Creator calling certain ones home because it knew what was going to happen from 2017 and beyond; the rise of Scamelot.

Another event that happened on Tuesday was President Trump speaking at the UN General Assembly, which was a shitshow in and of itself, but what made it more so was that his teleprompter took a dirt nap in the middle of his speech, and before that, the escalator he and Melania were taking suddenly stopped as they were entering it. This led to the "world's most powerful man-baby" throwing a glorified hissy-fit about the whole ordeal, wanting an investigation into the whole matter even going as far as calling it sabotage. Fox Faux News even called (sarcastically) called for the UN to be bombed.

Turned out it was one of his staffers accidentally hitting a safety switch that stopped the escalator, and that his own White House staff was operating the teleprompter that went kaput in the middle of his speech. Which has me thinking, was the escalator incident a visual metaphor for the rapture that was supposed to happen on Tuesday? Furthermore, if it was Trump's WH staff behind the two faux pas, were they low-key just trolling him? After all, his presidency (more so his first term, but it also applies to the current one) seems like a bad SNL skit. As a song from last year said, get me off this ride.

NFL Week 4

Last week on my NFL picks, I went 10-6, putting me at 33-15 this year as of Thursday Night. I already made my pick for the game between Seattle and Arizona across various social media platforms earlier today, so let's see how I do this week:

Minnesota over Pittsburgh
Philadelphia over Tampa Bay (Eagles are due in Tampa and the Bucs are banged up)
Washington over Atlanta
LA Chargers over NY Giants
Buffalo over New Orleans
Houston over Tennessee
Detroit over Cleveland (more on this in a moment)
New England over Carolina
LA Rams over Indianapolis
San Francisco over Jacksonville
Taylor Swift over Baltimore
Chicago over Las Vegas
Green Bay over Dallas
NY Jets over Miami
Denver over Cincinnati

Some other thoughts

Cal Raleigh is a monster, but he won't win MVP. Aaron Judge is the better all-around player. 

Detroit's football team will probably win Sunday against Cleveland, but their baseball team is on the verge of completing a generational choke job to the same city. 

Make sure your alarm clocks are ready for Green Day on Thursday.

Speaking of which, Mariah's beginning to thaw. Great.

Hockey season is here; they skate for realsies in a couple of weeks. GO BOLTS!

I haven't done a flashback in a long while, and I think only one this year. Might need to do something about that.

All eyes may be on the coast of the Carolinas early next week, as the storm that may be named Imelda approaches. Too bad we can't throw a shoe at it to make it disappear. 

Halloween is nearing, and I'm excited for it.

Speaking of Halloween, separated at birth: Lara Loomer and Momo

I also can't wait to see my favorite person again...

Have a great weekend, peeps!

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Week 3 NFL Plus Random Thoughts

 Greetings from the Free Fascist State of Florida. I'm beginning to hate it here; this feels like 1983 all over again. I wound up leaving Florida though later that year, and DeSantis is bye-bye from Jai Alai after next year, so I better not say anymore (don't want to jinx it). 

Last week was a very good one in terms of my NFL picks. I went 13-3 (only misses were Pittsburgh, KC, and Minnesota) to give me a two-week total of 23-9. On the college side, I was reminded once again as to why I don't go to Hard Rock Bet to pick games. I went 3-4 though I got the Georgia Tech pick right. Don't think I'll do college picks this week, even though there is one game I will have eyes on (UNC at UCF), though I might not watch it since it's on Fox.

For this week I have the following:

Buffalo over Miami
Tampa Bay over NY Jets (barely)
Philadelphia over LA Rams
Green Bay over Cleveland
Washington over Las Vegas
Atlanta over Carolina
Cincinnati over Minnesota (how did Nantz/Romo get that assignment?)
Pittsburgh over New England
Jacksonville over Houston
Indianapolis over Tennessee
LA Chargers over Denver
Seattle over New Orleans
Dallas over Chicago
Arizona over San Francisco
Kansas City over NY Giants
Baltimore over Detroit

And now, allow me to say a few more words surrounding the Charlie Kirk assassination: XXXXXX XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX. XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX XX XXXXXXXX. XXXXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX. XX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XX XX.

Seriously, didn't that sound stupid? I guess free speech is no longer allowed in the US unless it falls in line with the narrative of the controlling political party, which in my opinion is what the right-wing has been trying to do in this country since 9/11. Long story which I'll get into one day, but let me ask you this first: how does a struggling formerly drug-addicted talk radio host in Tampa of all places get launched into superstardom and national prominence?

There used to be a segment on Kimmel's show (and I didn't watch it that often) where he would randomly add bleeps to whatever a person was saying on tape. I think it was called Unnecessary Censorship. I think this latest stunt by ABC and Nexstar (who want to complete a merger with Tegna) would qualify as such. Come to think of it, this was sort of the same thing CBS did with Stephen Colbert. All in all, this sucks.

Meanwhile, in England, let's check in on our "Dear Leader:"

Hoo boy...

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Somewhat Hot And Bothered Week 2 Picks

 Good afternoon, everyone. But definitely not Tyler Robinson. As you're probably aware by now, he's the individual behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Enough about that because I'm sure there are plenty of tweets/Facebook posts/blogs/podcasts/misinformation concerning all that.

Anyway, after a wild end to Week One, we are onto Week Two of the NFL season. So far, I'm 11-6 including last night's game which I touched on briefly on Wednesday night. This week I hope to do better and try to improve on a rather mediocre opening week. Tampa is playing Monday night in Houston as part of an ESPN Doubleheader, plus we have a Super Bowl matchup on our hands. Looking at 506sports, the games in the markets I care about the most appear to be okay, except for two: Orlando gets Jacksonville at Cincinnati and Lumberton, NC gets Seattle at Pittsburgh (despite every surrounding market receiving NY Giants at Dallas).

Here's what I see going down this week, and remember to take these with a grain of salt:

Buffalo over NY Jets
LA Rams over Tennessee
New England over Miami
Baltimore over Cleveland
Cincinnati over Jacksonville
Dallas over NY Giants
Detroit over Chicago
Pittsburgh over Seattle
San Francisco over New Orleans
Indianapolis over Denver 😮
Arizona over Carolina
Taylor Swift (KC) over Philadelphia (ugh)
Minnesota over Atlanta
Tampa Bay over Houston
LA Chargers over Las Vegas

Last week I scored big time on picking USF to cover at Florida. Not only did they cover, but they won outright, and now many Gator fans are wanting Billy Napier's head on a stick to be paraded throughout Gainesville (not really, but you sense their anger). This week, I think USF will cover again at Miami, but I don't think they'll pull off the upset, unless Mario Cristobal does something stupid. Oh, and Thom Brennaman is calling the game for the CW as Castellanos hits a drive into left field and that'll be a home run. Seriously, I don't know if he's calling an FSU game this season since their QB is named Castellanos, but wouldn't that be a hoot if it is indeed the case?

Some selected college picks:

LSU over Florida by at least 30
Tennessee over Georgia
Alabama over Wisconsin
Georgia Tech over Clemson (!)
Coastal Carolina to cover against East Carolina (+8.5)
South Florida to cover at Miami (+17.5)
South Carolina over Vanderbilt

Personal note here, had to put up with having no AC the last three days at Chateau de Scribe. Compressor on the unit blew up Monday night after a bizarre power surge. But all is good now, and I'm not so hot and bothered...for now.

Have a good weekend everyone.

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How I Did and Enough Already

 Good morning, everyone. I had a few thoughts I wanted to write about on this solemn anniversary, but breaking news yesterday afternoon has put those plans on hold for now. 

To tie up my picks from last week, I went 10-6. Not bad but disappointing because I could've easily been 13-3. As for tonight's game I have Green Bay over Washington. The rest of the week's games will be out on Friday.

As many of you are well aware by now, Charlie Kirk was senselessly murdered at a rally in Orem, Utah yesterday afternoon. Did I like him? Not really, since he's an avid supporter of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. But he was a husband, a father of two young kids, and a diehard Chicago Cubs fan. And even though he was on the far right, he at least encouraged the free exchange of ideas, which is more than some right-leaning talking heads do...talking to YOU Marc Levin.

As of midnight (the time of this writing) a suspect has not been found, although on one video posted to social media, an individual that appeared to be dressed in black could be seen running from the roof of a nearby building. No word to my knowledge as to what bullet was used and what weapon, although the fatal shot was fired from a distance of approximately 500 feet, which is slightly further than the bullet fired from the would-be Trump assassin in the summer of last year in Butler, Pennsylvania. Now this of course is speculative, but a shot from that range appears to be that of a sniper or a sharpshooter.

The right, of course, is calling Kirk a martyr as a result, and some on the right are already calling for retribution.

First of all, stop. As I said already, we do not know who is responsible for this. Second, this attitude of "if you're not for us, you're against us" is not helpful like at all. The main culprit of that interestingly enough is the news media here in the US. Yesterday morning, I posted on Facebook mocking the coverage on cable news channels.

Seriously, this grandstanding on both sides has to end. What happened to "just the facts, ma'am/man?" This toxic behavior has been going around for at least two decades, and interestingly enough, I could pinpoint it to what happened 24 years ago this morning, but I'll write about that another time. There are a lot of YouTube videos I have to watch and make up my mind about first. But this attitude of retribution has to come to an end. More people are going to die as a result, and we won't have an America left if it continues.

Never forget.

Bonyscribe.

Week One Picks, For S***s and Giggles

 Hello again, everyone. Well, I said in my last post that I wasn't going to make weekly picks for football season, but here we are on the eve of the NFL season. Three things to remember as I write this. One, if you're going to place a bet on any games, college or pro, please do so responsibly. Two, for the love of all that is holy DO NOT take what I'm about to write as the gospel. Yes, I am a sports fan, but I am by no means an expert on anything, and what I usually write, for better or worse, winds up being wrong anyway. And three, there is NO SUCH THING as a sure bet. A classic example is the 2007 Michigan-Appalachian State game in the Big House, where nobody gave App State a snowball's chance in hell to win, and look what happened.

Once again this season, 506sports has announcer listings and maps to see what game you'll get on your television depending on your location. So, without further ado, here's what I think for this week:

Philadelphia over Dallas
Kansas City over LA Chargers in Sao Paolo
Atlanta over Tampa Bay (I hope I'm wrong)
Washington over NY Giants
Cincinnati over Cleveland
Jacksonville over Carolina
Pittsburgh over NY Jets
Miami over Indianapolis
New England over Las Vegas
Arizona over New Orleans
Green Bay over Detroit
LA Rams over Houston
San Francisco over Seattle
Denver over Tennessee
Baltimore over Buffalo
Chicago over Minnesota

Bonus college pick:

USF to cover at Florida (-17.5).

Football season is here. Enjoy everyone!

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