Author: boom booms room staff

It’s a Tough Monday

Posted on by boom booms room staff

We wonder.  The Coronavirus has the world gripped in fear and firmly in its nasty little paws.

How bad would it be if you were stuck on a cruise ship that has over 50 cases and counting and no cities or states want you?  Oakland stepped up and now you step off of the confinement of the ship into a different confinement with your fellow passengers to see if you will become the latest confirmed case.  It’s a two-week mind game that you hope to not have to play.

How bad would it be if your business was sailing cruise ships?  The US State Department issued a statement this weekend advising all citizens to avoid cruise ships for their own protection from the virus.  Our wild guess is that future bookings might be down 80% or more.

How bad will this entire surreal medical emergency get?  On one hand, it seems (assuming that the Chinese government is telling the truth) that the spread of cases in China has slowed a good bit.  On the other hand, the cases in South Korea, Italy, and Iran seem to be accelerating.

How bad is it in Italy?  Sixteen million citizens are now being self quarantined in Northern Italy.  The plan to do so got leaked.  And with it many citizens rushed to get out of the quarantined zone.  So much for quarantining it.  The plan got leaked and so did the virus.  Italian stocks on the blue-chip FTSE MIB initially failed to open Monday along with other European markets. When the index did open, stocks were trading down 2,290 points, or about 11% lower.   Italy has over 7500 confirmed cases and 366 deaths and counting.

The NBA told its teams to prepare for playing games in empty areas to try to help slow the transmission.  All Italian sporting events will do just that till April at a minimum.  Japan is the host country for the 2020 Summer Games in late July.  There are a lot of yen bet that the torch never gets lit.

How bad is the perception?  In a word, it is terrible.  How bad is the reality?  That’s the unknown and hence the fear which is now bordering on panic.

We suppose as the weather warms, our immune systems do what they do, or if a vaccine were to be developed that this too shall somehow pass.

Why does it feel different this time?

We wonder.

We hope.

Stay strong.

Madden Money Was Once Mad Money

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And you thought Tony Romo was getting paid well.  News broke yesterday that Peyton Manning met with ESPN officials this week.  What for you ask?

The “for” is ESPN’s attempt to take the one-year Booger McFarland Monday Night Football analyst experiment out behind the barn and put it down in a merciful way.

Tony Romo, after only his sophomore year in the analyst chair in the NFL on CBS booth next to Jim Nance, is set to earn $17 million per year according to sources close to the deal. Now ESPN, who has been shedding aged employees and bloated salaries for years, wants to up the game of who announces the game and how much they get paid to do it.

How much will it take to get Manning?  Will Manning be gotten at all?  He has thwarted several attempts to date to entice him to enter the broadcast industry.   Sources close to this yet to be agreed to deal place the value at $18-$20 million per season.  If true Manning would have Nationwide, ESPN, and a whole lot more cash by his side.

Booger in year one was as forgettable in the booth as Jason Witten’s one and done just one year prior.  One of McFarland’s best/worst quotes was “It’s a run/pass option meaning they have the option to run it or pass it.”  Got that?  Unfortunately, there were too many others.

ESPN needs an MNF spark in the worst way.   THE game has become one of the games available in a busy weekly NFL schedule.  Long, long gone are the must-see MNF TV days of Howard Cosell, John Madden, and even recently departed Jon Gruden.

Madden, the godfather of NFL broadcasts, made $8.5 million a year in his best year.  Adjusted for inflation that equates to $13 million in 2020 money.  This latest round has really upped the ante.

Somewhere Troy Aikman is smiling.  FOX will need to keep up with the Romo’s and Manning’s won’t they?  Or, will they?  The seats are getting full and the opportunities are few.

Are you ready for a Monday Night party?  Peyton Manning will bring the quips and the party favors.  He’ll be able to afford them.

 

It’s a Crazy Time

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Co-host of The View Meghan McCain said, “It’s a crazy time.”

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg had just pitched former President Barack Obama for the vice president slot on the Democratic Party’s ticket with 2020 presidential hopeful Joe Biden.  Goldberg said, “I’m sorry. I’m just going to do my crazy right now.”  Whoopee for Whoopi.

And so it is.

Meanwhile back at The White House, President Trump misses his orange-tinted mug.   “I haven’t touched my face in weeks,” he said. “In weeks. I miss it.”  Coronavirus task force leader Dr. Deborah Birx seemed encouraged.

And so it goes.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) took a dig at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) after a Fox News segment made it sound as if the Massachusetts senator stood as the last female in the Democrat primary race, referring to her as a “fake indigenous woman of color.”  “Is it because you believe a fake indigenous woman of color is ‘real’ and the real indigenous woman of color in this race is fake?” she asked.  Ouch!  Gabbard has garnered exactly one delegate in the count that is over one thousand at this point.

And on.

Meanwhile, Warren contacted Bernie Sanders yesterday and informed him that she would take the proper amount of time to decide whether she would continue to drive in his lane or fold her tent.  Rush Limbaugh fill in Mark Steyn equated that to ” like someone giving me a tumbler of scotch and a pistol in my parlor, and saying ‘take your time, you’ll make the right decision.'”

And, then there was Joe Biden.

Biden, fresh off of a strong Super Tuesday, gained Mayor Mini Mike Bloomberg’s endorsement for the Democratic Party nomination.  Mayor Mike is 600 million lighter in the wallet after his abysmal failure of a run at the nomination.  Heck, Bloomberg even called Biden a good friend.  It’s tough to beat the smell of newly printed money.  Biden seems to have gotten his sea legs under him after on Monday confusing Tuesday with Thursday, and then on Tuesday confusing his wife with his sister.

The MSNBC crew previewed (promoted) an upcoming NBC Today Show interview.  On it Biden responded to “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s question, “Do you think the president is rooting for Sanders?” “I don’t think the president wants to face me. I will beat him, period. Period. He’s done everything in his power— he’s even risked his presidency because he doesn’t want to face me.”

And so?

What did Wall Street think of the step back that Wall Street basher Bernie Sanders took on Super Tuesday?  It rallied Wednesday in a big way up 1000 Dow points due to the reduced odds that a self-proclaimed Socialist could make the political circus more than the three rings that it already is.

And then?

And then came Thursday, which in spite of Biden’s efforts to label it “Super,” doesn’t seem to have a bright future.  The Dow futures are down 600 points plus this AM.

And finally?

Hopefully, the Corona Virus is greatly slowed or contained soon for obvious reasons.  It would also allow Trump to touch his face again.  After all, his makeup base and his political base know that orange is the new red, white, and blue.

And in America today, crazy is the new normal.

 

Down to Three Approaching Fourscore

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It’s Super Tuesday.  It’s a super big day for Bernie Sanders, running for his party’s presidential nomination.  And, it’s a super big day for Joe Biden, too, even though he thought it was Super Thursday.

And it’s a big day for the Democratic National Committee(DNC).  Assuming the vote tally process works better in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia than it did in Iowa the DNC will have a much better idea of what else they need to throw at Bernie Sanders to halt the assault from the far left.

Crazy Bernie has no chance in the general election of even coming close to Donald Trump.  You know it.  Your dog knows it. And, the DNC knows it.

And, apparently, that is very bad as it sounds like our time here on terra firma is running short.   Ask Beto O’Rourke.  Last evening while endorsing Biden, Beto shrieked, “The man in the White House today poses an existential threat to this country. To our democracy. To free and fair elections. And we need somebody who can beat him. And in Joe Biden, we have that man.”   Biden embraced far-left anti-gun extremist O’Rourke during a rally on Monday night in Texas.  He declared that the failed Senate and presidential candidate was going to lead Biden’s anti-Second Amendment efforts.   At least the unemployment figures will drop by one.

Most nominee hopefuls call climate change the biggest existential threat.  Tom Steyer was a loud one of those, but no more.  He dropped out over the weekend.  If a tree falls in the forest but no one hears it, is it still climate change?  If he endorses Biden and no one hears it, is it still an endorsement?

No word yet on if Steyer will endorse Biden.  But, the others are lining up and doing their party’s work.  Pete Buttigieg dropped out just in time to try to swing his votes to Uncle Joe.  Mayor Pete endorsed Biden last night.  Biden said that he was surprised that he did that.  Maybe he was as it’s 50/50 that he knows who Pete is.  The DNC wasn’t surprised.  Pete is young and dutiful.   Promises made?

Amy Klobuchar dropped out yesterday.  Whew.  Just in time for Super Thursd, er, Tuesday as well.  She also is expected to endorse Biden today.  Amy isn’t as young as Pete but is as dutiful.

After tonight the DNC will have a better feel for how many more ducks they have to get in a row to prevent that pesky Bernie Sanders from quacking too much in mid-July in Milwaukee.

The party (after Elizabeth Warren realizes it’s over today) of inclusion and diversity will be down to 77-year-old white male Joe Biden, 78-year-old white male Bernie Sanders, and 78-year-old white male Michael Bloomberg.  All would be fourscore and more after one term.

Sanders stayed along for the ride all of the way to the convention four years ago.  It drove Hillary harder and further than the then 69-year-old wanted.  As crazy as it seems he’s riding shotgun again.  No Beto, it’s not that kind of shotgun.  The DNC is trying desperately to play traffic cop.

Meanwhile, get some more endorsements, Joe.  There’s a guy named Obama.  He might stand behind you as you did with him especially if the DNC asks with a “pretty please.”

And, get some rest.

 

Elmira?

Posted on by boom booms room staff

As the calendar flips from February to March the madness of March Madness is nearly upon us.  Two weeks from now, or just 13 weeks removed from the college football bowl season, you’ll tune in to watch a college team you’ve barely heard of taking on another that you know no players on.  And, goodness knows you watched a lot of college football.

But, what about college baseball?  Similarly, 13 weeks from now the college baseball World Series will begin.  Prior to that thousands of games will be played.  Will you tune in now? Then?

It’s hard to tune in now because on traditional network TV none are on.  ESPNU carries a few along the way.  Conference channels carry a few more if you pay a few more bucks for your favorite one.

We wonder.  Why the huge interest in college football, the great interest in basketball, and the indifference in baseball?

Is it because as the weather heats up we choose to head outdoors for fun?  Is it acutely because the north does so? The north’s viewership is an important percentage of the potential TV viewership. And is that because the north doesn’t really play baseball nearly as much as year-round climates like California, Texas, and Florida?  It’s hockey season you know?  Eh?

Is it because the game is too slow?  That theory, which applies to MLB as well, has been advanced for years and years.

Or, is it that college baseball doesn’t allow us to establish a viewer relationship with its players?  What does that mean?  It means that very good and/or very likable baseball players, unlike football and basketball, head to the minors not directly to the NFL or NBA.

In the NFL we soon see which team drafts last season’s success stories.  We watch train wrecks like Johnny Manziel (Heisman to who’s man) in a nearly real continuous-time attempt to take their games to the next level.  We hope for and watch intently 36-month transition, great success stories like the build from Texas Tech to a Super Bowl MVP for Patrick Mahomes.

In the NBA the best ‘one and done” college players hit the hardwood for the NBA fame and fortune a mere six months after they cut down the nets in the NCAA tourney.

In baseball, if you even watched to begin with, the best of the best head to places called Round Rock, Appleton, and Elmira for a year, two, three, or more.  Many never dig their cleats in the major league batter’s box dirt.  Never is a long time.

In baseball we hardly knew you, then you left us.  So it’s harder to make the commitment.

When will I see you again?

Elmira?

 

 

Nibbles, Not Nuggets

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It’s going to be 70 degrees with no clouds nor humidity here at the world headquarters of BBR.  Hence, there is no time for Ten Piece Nuggets, plus it’s soon to be swimsuit season.  Here are six nibbles served from the NFL Scouting Combine.

  1.  At least seven WR’s that worked out for the NFL at this week’s combine will receive a first-round grade.  The position is deep.  If you want to zig when others zag you could grab a highly rated “in the trenches guy” in the first and get first-round WR talent in the second.
  2. One WR Alabama wide receiver Henry Ruggs III flashed rare speed Thursday night, but he didn’t quite get the record he had hoped for at Lucas Oil Stadium.  His 4.27 second forty was .05 behind John Ross, currently with the Cincinnati Bengals, who ran a 4.22-second 40-yard dash in 2017. That is considered the record in the combine’s electronic timing format that began in 1999.
  3. Bo Jackson’s hand-timed 4.12 in 1986 has long been considered the best combine 40 time.  Can you imagine tackling that combo of size, strength, and speed?
  4. Joe Burrow will be a Bengal.  Stop the nonsense.  The media has to drum up drama where there is none to sell beer and testosterone ads.   He’ll sell a lot of tickets for the Bengals himself.  Word is that he blew the management team from Cincy out of the combine water in his sit down.
  5. The big uglies hit the field tonight.   Why the make them run a forty is puzzling.  When is the last time you’ve seen a right guard forty yards down the field?  30?  20?
  6. Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden joined general manager Mike Mayock in giving quarterback Derek Carr a vote of confidence Thursday.  “I really think Derek is a heck of a player and I got a lot of respect for what he has done with some tough circumstances,” Gruden told a group of Raiders beat reporters at the NFL combine in Indianapolis.  Ah, the old head fake.  Sounds like the Raiders will be pursuing Tom Brady, doesn’t it?

Drink some water with a wedge of lemon in it if you are still hungry.  Fore!

 

Politicians and Coaches Make Strange Bedfellows

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Raise your hand, as the candidates did repeatedly, if you watched the tenth of fourteen Democratic Presidential Debates last evening.   While the candidates have their philosophical differences, they unanimously tell us that this country needs new leadership.  Each of them also believes that they are just the one to bring it to the White House.

Leadership.  What is leadership?  There are many iterations of definitions.  One definition is the ability to clearly communicate a vision, show a path for that vision, and get people to join the journey to help see to its fulfillment.

It’s what coaches have to do to get a group of players, regardless of the sport, to believe in what they are doing and come together as one to achieve their goals.

Good candidates should project as good coaches.  So, this made us wonder.  Who in the sports coaching world past or present reminds us most of the individuals on stage last evening.  In the scouting world it’s called comps.  Our best guesses at the comps follow.

Bernie Sanders sports an unkempt gray hairdo that he “hand combs” frequently.  Strong-willed and unrelenting, Bernie has a vision.  If challenged, he reddens in the face and raises his voice to accentuate a point.  It’s his way or the highway.  We get the feeling that when he dies he wants to be buried face down so that everyone can kiss his buttocks.  He hasn’t thrown a chair yet, but our comp is Bobby Knight.

Michael Bloomberg reminds us most of Hank Stram.  Bloom stands barely above the podium at about five feet and seven inches.  Stram needed 1970’s platform shoes to get to that rarefied air.  Both are/were smug and speak with squeaky voices.  Full disclosure- Stram was known to wear a trench coat on the sidelines, weather permitting, back in the day.  Flashy for fashionable reasons.   Nondisclosure- Bloomberg was known to wear a trench coat in the office, regardless of weather, back in the day.  Flashy for all of the wrong reasons.

Elizabeth Sanders has no direct identifiable comp, though George O’Leary and his falsified resume’ come to mind.  Undeterred, it’s obvious that she still wants skin in the game regardless of the sport.  As a kindred spirit, it’s well known that she covets coaching positions with the Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians, and Florida State Seminoles.  But. she’s no George Allen nor Bobby Bowden.  Of course, their contracts were never taken from them due to pregnancy either.

Tom Steyer, we hardly know you.  Stoic, simple, and possibly a bit boring, Steyer is a marginal match with former Minnesota Viking Head Coach Bud Grant.  Grant was four times a bridesmaid and never a bride in Super Bowls.  Steyer could run three more times himself and we doubt highly that America would propose to him as well.  Grant won 283 NFL games, good for third all-time but we hardly knew him.

Joe Biden is a dead ringer for Les Miles.  Both have been in the game for a long time.  Yesterday Biden asked for your vote during a presentation.  It’s must-see Gaffe TV, again.  One is bad at debate clock management.  The other is bad at game clock management.  Biden prefers plugs to dye.  Miles prefers dye to plugs.  Both were relevant decades ago.  Both are still in the game, but we wonder why.

Amy Klobuchar projects more as an on-field leader than a sideline coach.  She’s a throwback 10-year plug and play three-down middle linebacker if there ever was a guy named Dick Butkus.  She even referred to her Uncle Dick (no relation to Butkus) in the deer stand last evening when discussing gun control.   Back in the day slick, tight-fitting helmets were made of leather.  Amy’s helmet hair hairdo looks and likely feels much the same, while Butkus sported a crew do.

Pete Buttigieg has an uncanny ability to inflect his voice like, parse his words, and use the same words as Barrak Obama.  It’s so uncanny that many openly wonder if it’s admiration or plagiarism.  Mayor Pete talks a big game but hasn’t coached in one yet.  Houston Texan Head Coach Bill O’Brien learned from Bill Belichick in a similar fashion and borrows attitude, mood, and words from Belichick similar to Pete’s wordsmith feats.  Both aspire to get to the big stage.  Not yet.

Ronald Reagan wanted to win one for the Gipper.  The seven left standing on stage want to win one as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Do You Believe in Miracles?

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The Blessed Virgin Mary of Solitude weighed in yesterday.  She tweeted her thoughts on how tawdry the members of the Miracle on Ice 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team accessorized their wardrobe for the 40-year anniversary celebration of their defeat of the Russians.  Say what?

María de la Soledad Teresa O’Brien translated from Spanish means “The Blessed Virgin Mary of Solitude.”   Shortened, she goes by Soledad O’Brien.    Soledad was an NBC, MSNBC, and CNN anchor from 1991 till 2013 winning a Peabody and an Emmy Award along the way.

Since 2016, O’Brien has been the host for Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, a nationally syndicated weekly talk show.   She is also a member of the Peabody Awards board of directors, which is presented by the University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Solitude means “the state or situation of being alone.”  Except Soledad is anything but alone.

Sunday she tweeted “Ugh….so disappointed by the @1980MiracleTeam.  I loved watching that game as a kid with my dad.  To see them on a stage, in MAGA hats-kinda crushing I have to say.”

And so America was “lit” as the young uns like to say, or used to like to say.   Tweets on both sides of the aisle set the virtual world on fire.

One side @SJUA08 provided “The USA Hockey team UNITED a nation in 1980.  The same team DIVIDED this nation more by participating in a MAGA rally.  The Miracle Team now is part of our national nightmare.”

The other side @BroodingManatee countered, “If I took other people’s political opinions this seriously, I’d have to disavow all my favorite bands and stop watching movies entirely.”

All of the above freedom of speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment.  The faithful First also guarantees freedom of the press.  And, we submit, that is where the worst of all blurred lines have been crossed.    We’re pretty sure Walter Cronkite would look down his nose and over his reader glasses at old solitude Soledad.

The press used to stay out of shaming people for expressing their thoughts through freedom of speech.  In fact, they used to vigorously defend it.  Burn the flag.  Wear a MAGA hat.  It’s all the same.   But, today it isn’t.  Today, you are entitled to your opinion and right to express it only if it aligns with others’ thoughts.

If not, let the condemnation and name-calling begin and never end.   A few that come to mind are bigot, misogynist, racist, homophobe, elitist, and one-percenter.  There’s white privilege.  The war on women has now lasted longer than the 100-years war.  It’s must be all bad.  Don’t believe me?  Ask any member of the press that disagrees with you.

Reporters used to cover protesters yelling in the streets.  Now they are the protesters yelling into the microphone.

It’s their right even though it used to be wrong.  It will take a miracle to reverse this course.

Ten Piece Nuggets-Smorgasboard

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smor·gas·bord
/ˈsmôrɡəsˌbôrd/
noun
a buffet offering a variety of hot and cold meats, salads, hors d’oeuvres, etc.
  • a wide range of something; a variety.
    “the album is a smorgasbord of different musical style”
    1.   Go to the head of the class if you thought Baylor, Gonzaga, San Diego St., and Dayton would occupy four of the top five spots in the AP basketball poll with less than a week to go in February.  It could be March Madness indeed.  In fact, it will be.
    2.  Where are the blue bloods?  Well, Kansas likely will ascend to number one this week thanks to their big Saturday win over previous number one Baylor.  Duke was six and might break into the top 5.  Kentucky and Louisville are 10 and 11.  The blue bloods are there, but so are the upstarts.
    3.   Along with Duke are Maryland, Florida St., and Louisville repping the ACC in or very near the top 10.  West Virginia will check in at roughly 15 as well.
    4.  Where is North Carolina?  Losers of seven in a row the Tar Heels are 10-17 overall.  This might be Roy Williams first losing college basketball coaching season EVER.  Is Roy done?  Hardly.  Seeded number one just a year ago, this blip reverts back to the norm next year.  Williams has four McDonald’s All Americans headed in.
    5.  Auburn joins Kentucky in the top 25 from the SEC.  The SEC is weak in roundball this year.  At least it is perceived to be.  Mississippi St. and South Carolina are bubble type teams.  Florida, baring a big collapse will get in as will LSU.  Four tourney teams, if that is all that gets in, is indeed weak.

    6.  In a recent episode of the No Laying Up podcast longtime CBS on-course announcer(but no more) Peter Kostis said, “I’ve seen Patrick Reed improve his lie, up close and personal, four times now.”  Reed must have felt like he took a sand wedge to the cranium.

    7.  Speaking of sand, in a town hall interview this week on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio, Brooks Koepka was asked about Kostas’ comments and Reed’s penalty for improving his lie in a bunker last year in the Bahamas. “Yeah. I don’t know what he was doing, building sandcastles in the sand,” he said. “But you know where your club is.”  Ouch again.

    8. After his opening round at the WGC-Mexico Championship, Reed was asked to respond to criticism from world No. 2 Brooks Koepka and former CBS analyst Peter Kostis.  “I said what I have to say about what happened in the Bahamas, and at the end of the day, all I’m trying to do is go out and play good golf and trying to win a golf championship,” Reed said following a first-round 69 that left him tied for eighth place in Mexico.  And win it he did.

    9.  What would sports be without villains (er, umm, cheaters) like Reed?  The Red Sox don’t like the Yankees very much and vice versa.  Outside of Houston everyone now has the Astros.  Reed calls Houston home if you need another reason to boo the Astros when they come to your town this spring.

    10.  Reed won $1.8 million for the four days of work in Mexico.  It was his ninth win on tour including the 2018 Masters.  He has an uncanny ability to shut out the naysayers in big moments.   Reed credited a hot putter down the stretch with three straight birdies to chase down Bryson DeChambeau.  His putter was hot.  But it wasn’t as hot as 84-year-old Mary Ann Wakefield’s putter.  Take a 30-second look.

    You’ve been served.

What’s Old is Old

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Do you remember the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker Show back in the eighties?  His relentless pursuit of money through the guise of religion was so tiresome.  Claims made by him and his minions of miracles answered for contributors to his church were endless and far fetched at best.  But, it was a narrative that kept his lovely wife Tammy Faye in mascara.  Jim eventually served hard time in jail for his sins.

Undeterred, he’s been at it again.  Contacts have replaced thick glasses.  Thin white coiffed hair has replaced thick brown coiffed hair.  Tammy Faye passed away.  He has a new female Fatale beside him as he continues to spread the good word.  Recently he brought on an “expert” who stated that for a small contribution she could send you some medicine that would destroy the coronavirus in just 12 hours.  It’s a miracle!

Find a narrative, swear to God by it, and collect money.

Which brings us to MSNBC.  Lawrence O’Donnell reminds us of the Rev. Jim Bakker.  Find a narrative, swear to God by it, and collect ad money.

Ole Larry made the Putin and Trump connection again.  O’Donnell said, “The president is a Russian operative. That sounds like the description of a bad Hollywood screenplay, but it is real. It is Vladimir Putin’s greatest achievement, decades after America’s victory in the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, the president of the United States is now helping the president of Russia help the president of the United States to get re-elected. So that the president of Russia will have four more years of the president of the United States who he wants in the Oval Office, this is one of those shocking news days if you retain the capacity to be shocked in the Trump era by the Trump regime, which might be better labeled the Trump-Putin regime.”

You know.  Russia bad.  Trump bad.  We’ll be back after these revenue-generating messages.

So what if Putin prefers Trump over, say, a socialist that Bloomberg called a communist?  What would O’Donnell screech if Putin, as crazy as it sounds, came out in support of Crazy Bernie?

What would Lawrence say then?  Would he blame Trump for contacting Putin to get him to do it?  After all, who would want Putin’s endorsement?  Remember Russia bad.  Trump bad.

The narrative is beyond tired.  The collusion and all of its Mueller investigating (and striking out) is as old and tired as Jim Baker and snake oil.

Trumps’s approval numbers have improved over his time in office to a new high this past month.

How much is due to Putin? Not much.   The real question is how much is due to America growing more tired of a tired narrative.  Much.