It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over.

It’s over!

A Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday showed Joe Biden leading President Trump nationally by double-digits, widening his lead over the last month.

The former vice president leads Trump 52 percent to 37 percent.  That’s up from the eight-point lead he saw in the June 18 poll.

And, it gets worse for Trump when you look at the underlying responses.  Biden even overtook Trump according to respondents as best to handle the economy 50-45%.  And, that’s the best of the worst.  For handling a crisis it’s Biden 57-38.  For COVID-19 it’s 59-35.

And, the worst of the worst is when it comes to addressing racial inequality.  Biden gets the nod by a whopping 62-30.  Of course, he does.  Trump is a racist.  Everyone has been telling us that for four years and counting.

But, is it over?  Is the poll as accurate as the August Quinnipiac 2016 poll that showed Clinton dominating Trump by double-digits as well?  Trump hopes so.

“We are starting to hear the faint rumblings of a Hillary Clinton landslide as her 10-point lead is further proof that Donald Trump is in a downward spiral as the clock ticks,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said at the time.

Malloy still has a job with Quinnipiac.

Yesterday he said that the survey provided a “very unpleasant real-time look at what the future could be for President Trump.  There is no upside, no silver lining, no encouraging trend hidden somewhere in this survey for the president.”

If you take a deeper dive it turns out that Quinnipiac surveyed 1,273 self-identified registered voters across the country.  Republicans only made up 24 percent of the respondents.  Democrats were 34%.

He pondered in the late summer of 2016, “wow, is there any light at the end of this dark and depressing chapter in American politics?”  Given where we are in 2020, he at least was prescient on that one.

It’s Biden’s election to lose.  We heard the same about Hillary.  There are conventions (maybe virtual), debates(maybe very bad for Biden), stump speeches (where Biden always stumps himself), and the sheer rigor (Biden would be older entering the presidency than any other predecessor when they left it) of conventional state to state campaigning left.

Singer, not pollster, Lenny Kravitz might have it right.  It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over.

Pollster, not singer, Tim Malloy might have it wrong.

Again.

 

Boycotts Don’t Amount to a Hill of Beans.

Tomatoe, Tomato.  Potatoe, Potata.  Boycott, Buycott.

Saturday Raul Reyes, a member of the USA Today board of contributors (whatever that means), wrote an op-ed piece for CNN Business.  It began with “Adios Goya!”  Why?  Surely you have heard by now.  Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue praised President Trump at a White House ceremony on Thursday afternoon. Speaking at a Rose Garden event, Unanue said, “We’re all truly blessed, at the same time, to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder.”

And the left roared.  Social media’s daily outrage turned its short attention span to a can of refried beans.  Hashtags like #Goyaway and #BoycottGoya started trending faster than Speedy Gonzalez can say “undelay!”

And the right went to the store and bought enough cans of Goya garbanzo beans to spread hummus from sea to shining sea.  Buycott.

In the emotion of the moment, a boycott and a buycott are such an “I’ll show you!”  But, even in the era of the new normal, we go back to the old normal.  If you bought Goya products before you likely will buy plenty more.  If you never heard of them you’ll likely stare at your emotional purchase of canned black beans sitting in your panty till the expiration date nears.  Hopefully, the local food drive knocks on the front door before then.

Don’t believe us?  Do you remember 2012?  Way back then Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy made comments expressing his opposition to gay marriage.

And the left roared. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino wrote a letter to Cathy urging him to back out of plans to open a restaurant in the city.  Then, according to the Boston Herald, he warned, “if they need licenses in the city, it will be very difficult — unless they open up their policies.”

Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that he would work to stop any attempt by Chick-fil-A to expand in the city.

“Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values. They’re not respectful of our residents, our neighbors, and our family members. And if you’re gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values.”  He could barely be heard above the constant staccato of gunfire emanating from the respectful south side neighbors, but we digress.

And the right lined up around the building to eat overpriced chicken and waffled fries.

How is Chick-fil-A doing today?  In spite of stepping in the political chicken, um, waste, again and again, it’s doing quite well.  In fact, its location count is 2363 and counting.  If you still don’t believe us, go wait in an ever-present double drive-thru line for some.

How will Goya do?  The largest Spanish owned company in the U.S. will likely continue to do quite well.

Right now it’s in some hot sauce.

But, by tomorrow The Movement will have moved on.  In cancel culture you are always looking for the next outrageous moment.

Salsa Verde anyone?

You Can’t Handle the Truth!

Sources tell BBR that the Washington Redskins will officially announce today that they are dropping their 87-year-old nickname.  While no new nickname will be announced, gone is the name “Redskins.”  We have a few questions about this decision.

Did you know that Washington’s logo of an American Indian chief had been designed by a Native American in 1971?  He was probably called an Indian in 1971, but we digress.  Do you think the Native American designer found the name “Redskins” offensive back then?  Probably not since he designed the logo to promote the team.

Did you know that owner Daniel Snyder was strong headed in his desire to keep the name until very recently?  Snyder had, for years, resisted any consideration to change the name.  He told USA Today in 2013 to “put it in all caps” that he would never make such a move. Some who have worked for Snyder said they believed he would rather sell the team than have a new name.

Does that make him a racist?  Probably.  Or, probably not.  We guess his crime didn’t rise to the level of Donald Silver’s offense as the owner of the LA Clippers a few years back.   Oops!  The NBA doesn’t call its owners “owners” anymore.   Plus Snyder is obviously getting to a more kind and sensitive way of thinking just 21 years after purchasing the team, that as of today, will be formerly known as the Redskins.  Or, is he bowing to the pressure created by others?

Amazon said it would stop selling Redskins merchandise. Then, Walmart and Target followed the online leader. And, according to The Washington Post, FedEx said it would remove its signage from the stadium unless the name was changed for the 2021 season.  Did the almighty greenbacks help decide the Redskins fate, forcing the pale-faced (is that offensive?) owner to change?  Someone once said, “follow the money.”

Wouldn’t it be a turnabout if the team would not allow the sale of the new logoed merchandise to one of these retail juggernauts?  You show me, and I’ll show you. That won’t happen.  “Follow the money,” someone said more than once.

Does the NFL change the name of the team on all of its historical records to the new name?  Will they “retire” all of the old footage of the football team?  Will Joe Theisman and John Riggins vaporize?

Doug Williams was the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl.  Who did he play for?  The Redskins.  It would be a shame if that Super Bowl film was never seen again don’t you say? If there was a statue of him outside of FedEx Field in his Redskins uniform should it be torn down?  Tough call.

Did Colonel Nathan R. Jessup order the code red?  “You’re got damn right I did!” he shouted when prodded in the movie A Few Good Men.

“You can’t handle the truth,” he exclaimed.  He might be right.

 

 

 

Go On, Take the Money and Run.

Schools out for summer.  Schools out forever.  So sang Alice Cooper.

We always got the summer part.  We never understood the forever part.

Perhaps, now we do.  During these (are you ready?) new normal, COVID-19 pandemic, #aparttogether, together apart, times are changing.  Unprecedented is the time we are told repeatedly.

And with it, our sacred fall NCAA football season is in peril.

It’s one thing for the Ivy League to cancel its fall sports season.  No one watches them anyway.  How about paying a full year’s tuition to Harvard for virtual classes and no sporting life?  If they keep this up pretty soon they won’t have anyone falsifying records and puffing up resumes to get into that dump, but we digress.

But it’s quite another thing when the Big 10 announced yesterday that at best they will only play an in-conference schedule of football games this fall.  Gone amongst other matchups are Oregon and THE Ohio St. U, and Notre Dame v. Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.

Isn’t the appropriate question “why?”  Why drop non-conference games?   The smart money yesterday told us it was about player safety and schedule flexibility.  We think that the smart money forgot to tell us that it’s about money as well.  Isn’t it always?

The argument for safety is that the Big 10 (and when others like the Big 12 and the PAC 12 schedule similarly) can insure across the conference protocols for regular testing and appropriate quarantining while out of conference teams may not have the same.  We can’t have this virus spreading you may have heard.

The argument for flexibility is that you can start the season earlier, later, or provide off weeks within as medical needs warrant.  If you’re only going to have 10 games you’ve found two more weeks within the season plus already scheduled off weeks to rearrange all of it as needed.

Ah, but the argument for money is very real as well.   If you’re going down to ten games, you play bigger opponents every week.  More gate if there is a gate and more TV money follows.  If you’re Michigan St. do you keep Ball St. on the schedule and not pick up a game against Nebraska?  Duh.  Plus you can collect insurance for the canceled Ball St. game.

So, the bottom line is that the Power 5 conferences will find a path, if there is one, to maximize the money.  It’s refreshing that they think his way when the malcontents run around wanting socialism and guerilla gardens in its place, but we digress.

But what about the non Power 5 teams like Ball St.?  Apparently, the answer to the question is the question, “what about them?”  Their guaranteed pay of a million or more to get waxed by the big boys is gone.  If their fans cannot attend their games most all of their revenue is gone too.

Then the question becomes, “are their sports programs gone?”

If they have no football they have no revenue to support the other programs.  If no football, no women’s lacrosse.  For the little guys, is football out for fall?  Is football out, as they currently know it, forever?

Go on, take the money and run.  So sang The Steve Miller Band.

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.

CNN’s Don Lemon called for former President Barrack Obama’s chiseled likeness to be added to Mount Rushmore last evening.  “I think, listen … if they are going to put someone on Mount Rushmore, considering the history of the country, the first black president should be front and center,”  he reasoned.

The anchor that he was handing off to, Chris Cuomo added,  “Add to Mount Rushmore. I think that’s first of all, it’s a more salable idea than the idea of taking away Founding Fathers.”

The exchange continued.   Lemon said, “So what’s wrong with all of us together thinking or reshaping our country so that more people rethink our country in the way we think and where priorities are so the country it belongs to everyone.”

Cuomo said, “Nothing is wrong with it.”

Except everything about the premise is wrong with it.  If statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln don’t deserve to be in town squares anymore, they why should they be on Mt. Rushmore?  If you can find a statue of Roosevelt let us know.  If Barrack Obama deserves to be on Mt Rushmore, start carving out the stone.

The conversations should be 100% independent of one another.

America strives for greatness.  America demands greatness.  America applauds greatness.  America builds libraries, museums, monuments, statues, and mountainside likenesses to honor distinguished men and women who helped America achieve its status as the envy (regardless of what some might want you to believe) of the world.  You might have heard that it is the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”

America got to where it is with little compromise. Why start now?

It’s easy to be average.  It’s hard to be excellent.

It’s great that America has now had a black president.  He was voted in as qualified by its citizens to lead us.   Soon enough it will likely have it’s first female president as well.  She will need to be deemed qualified to lead us as well.   May there be a day when these occurrences are commonplace.

But having a certain skin color or being a certain gender doesn’t make you great.  And being the first this or that doesn’t make you great either.  It just gets you noticed more than others.  Accomplishments and leadership of all of its people do.

So, did the four presidents accomplish enough for our country, in spite of any shortcomings, flaws, or mistakes along the way, to deserve to be forever admired in stone?  America said yes then.  Does it still say yes now?

Did Obama do the same?  America will, or will not, mull that over for years to come.

But don’t keep one(or four) up as a negotiation ploy to get another.

Can’t you just see Ronald Reagan shaking his head, coiffed hair and all?

What’s in a Name?

To play or not to play fall sports? That is the question that college and pro teams in all sports across this fruited plain are pondering as July rolls along.

Some face even a tougher long term question.  That is, do we erase our history and change our nickname?  The Movement beckons.  Below we examine a few that are contemplating this, and a few that should or could.  We even offer a suggestion or three along the way for renaming.   Logic has little to do with all of this so we decided to take it further down the drain.

Washington Redskins–  As stated yesterday, this entire franchise is offensive except for their offense which cannot move the ball.   How about Red Tails? The history of the Red Tails is well-known. They were a group of Tuskegee Airmen, all-black fighter pilots who played a major role during World War II.  If they drop Redskins and go to Redtails it would be appropriate in one way.  The Skins have been getting their tails whipped red pretty regularly for the last 25 or so years.

Cleveland Indians–  “Indians” is offensive somehow.  Nevermind that the organization likely chose the name to project a fighting warrior image and/or mentality.  That was once something to be proud of.  We use the term “Native Americans” these days. We propose a simple fix. How about the Cleveland Native Americans?  Sounds dumb to you?  It does to us too.

St. Louis Blues and Cincinnatti Reds–  Both have to go.  If we aren’t going to see color anymore, then we aren’t going to see color anymore.  St Louis could be the Arches assuming that isn’t offensive to Lewis and Clark who started their journey from there.  Cincinnati is known as the Queen City.  The Cincinnati Queens anyone?  Well, that one needs some work.

Tulane Green Wave and the Alabama Crimson Tide–  These are easy water-based fixes.  Tulane Wave and Alabama Tide.

Florida St. Seminoles–  Fuggettaboutit.  This has to go.  If Redskins are out and Indians are out, Seminoles has to be out too.   Gators and Hurricanes are taken.  Rednecks are plentiful but should be deemed offensive as well.  Florida St. Everglades has an eco-friendly ring to it and would be a tough venue to play.

University of Louisiana Lafayette Ragin Cajuns–  “Ragin” is borderline too suggestively violent.  “Cajun” sounds insulting.  It’s but a half step up from Coonass.    But, Cajuns are a unique breed.  They embrace who they are and wear the moniker like a badge of courage.  They’d likely be insulted if you called them French Canadians from Nova Scotia.  The Cajuns can keep their name.  Maybe they are on to something.  Pass the Tabasco Sauce and have a boudain ball.

Come to think about it, golf has a problem too.  Gary Player is known worldwide as the Black Knight.  Heck, actually, the entire game of chess has a problem.  Black knights, black rooks, white queens, and white kings all have to leave the board.  Bishops are religious references.  Can one still be deemed a Chess Master?

We’ll stop.  Our Aunt Jemima pancakes are ready plus the hole we’ve dug is plenty deep enough.

Cancel culture loves playing the “shame the name” game.  We thought we’d play along as well.

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Life

With hot dogs, apple pie, prohibited fireworks, and tearing down statues, America celebrated it’s 245th Fourth of July.   It’s life in the year 2020.  Oh, and there is this coronavirus problem, too.  So below, it’s life served up one nugget at a time, and ten in all.  Pass the BBQ sauce and dig in.

  1.  Portland, as American as it gets it the weirdest of ways, had a big monument, and a bronzed elk perched beautifully on top.  Yes, an elk.  Had.  Some “peaceful” protesters lit it on fire Saturday and kicked the elk to the curb.  ANTIFA took credit (if you want to call it that).  Either the elk was racist or Portlandian vegans’ disdain for meat reached its zenith.
  2. Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffery Epstein’s lover and procurer of underage girls was arrested in New Hampshire Sunday.   The noise you heard from across the pond was Prince Andrew’s exasperation.  The noise you heard on this side of the pond was Bill Clinton’s exasperation.  The FBI has recommended she be held in Bubba Wallace’s garage during her mandatory forty eight hour suicide watch.  They know for a fact that there are no nooses there.
  3. She has a story or twenty to tell.  Might she know where Carol Baskin’s husband is as well?  Tiger King was the most-watched Netflix documentary ever.  If Maxwell is smart (see what we did there?) she’ll spill it all and collect the coins like a king from the streaming network of her choice.  All she has to do is survive long enough to tell it.
  4.  CNN reported, and we quote, “a young protester has died from injuries she suffered when a luxury car plowed into her and another woman during a Black Lives Matter protest Saturday on a Seattle Freeway that has been shut down for days due to the civil unrest, police said.”  It’s getting harder and harder for CNN to lower the bar.  But, try, try, try they have.   You can’t stop looking at the word “luxury” can you?
  5. It turns out that the white protester, dressed in all black, was struck down by a black driver in the middle of the night.  If those facts were reversed, do you think the story’s biased slant would have gone down a dramatically different slope?  Stack another dead body on top of the pile.  The freeway was not located in the town formerly known as CHAZ.  Everything else in CHAZ was free, but it had no freeways running through it.
  6.  Head Coach Mike Gundy of the Oklahoma St. Cowboys survived a two-week investigation into his leadership of the football program.  The internal inquiry spanned two weeks and the AD and his minions interviewed over 20 players.  This came to a boil when Gundy went fishing in an OAN tee shirt.   The investigation found no indications nor incidents of racism.  It did find that relationships between Gundy and several players were strained.  With several teams changing nicknames, maybe “Cowboys” should hit the bricks as well.   “Soyboys” anyone?
  7. Gundy voluntarily agreed to a million-dollar salary reduction and a lesser buyout in dollars and fewer years on his contract.  Good for him we guess.  Way back in the day bosses and employees or coaches and teammates had a person to person conversation, shook hands, and came out of the other side in a better spot.  Gundy also agreed to never shout “I’m a man” again.  No, he didn’t.
  8. The Washington Redskins organization has decided to take a deep dive (again) about removing the “Redskins” moniker.  It’s faced this fourth down and long a few times.  This time they’ll likely punt.  Once the offensive nickname goes, will “Washington” have to follow?  The team’s ownership is the league’s worst as well.  It should go too.  The minority owners have 40% of the franchise.  They’ve had it with majority owner Daniel Snyder.  They’ve formed a search team looking for buyers as they’d like to sell out as well.  In summary, the whole organization is a sellout and offensive to boot.
  9. Rapper Snoop Dogg has smeared several prominent black conservatives, again.  He labeled them the “Coon Bunch.”  His Sunday Instagram post arranged the 11 just as the Brady Bunch appeared on TV.  Herman Cain, Candace Owens, and Terrance Williams amongst others were depicted.  Noticeably absent was Kanye West who is a big Trump supporter.  It turns out that Dogg and West are collaborating on some production work.  “Coon” and “Uncle Tom” are common slurs used by black Americans against black conservatives.  Sounds divisive.
  10.  When America is done burning down cities, changing street and team names, and knocking down statues will it actually have a frank conversation about what the root cause of all of this is?  Real change comes from within.  Brutal honesty will be needed.  Are the accused and the accusers up for it?

Oh.  One last nugget.  If FedEx wants out of their naming rights relationship with the Redskins, BBR is poised to step in.  We want to make football in the DC area great again.

Stay out of the pool for thirty minutes after consuming these tasty morsels.

 

 

We Missed Nothing.

We’re back, but only for a brief few words.  Last week and into this week the BBR staff had its annual off-campus mid-year reviews and celebrity golf tournament. Orlando was the destination.  We shut the outside world down and are glad we did.

It looks like we missed nothing.  Sports are still on ice and no one in the political sandbox is playing nice.

At least Joe Biden emerged for a press conference for the first time in 89 days yesterday.  Well, it was sort of a press conference.  He admitted that his staff only wanted him to call on the reporters that would indeed play nice.  The problem was that he forgot the name of his own hometown newspaper and couldn’t find it on his notes right in front of him.

Speaking of journalists, if you missed Chris Cuomo interviewing the St. Louis homeowner who came outside to protect his property you missed a new low in journalism.  And, he’s had a few lows recently.  Isn’t that a big statement given the hacks that parade around these days?

If you don’t have a gun to protect yourselves against hoodlums, you could try to stay as still as a statue and hope they pass you by.  But, they’ll likely rip you down even if they don’t know what you stand for, so that might not work.

Speaking of journalists, Tucker Carlson achieved an all-time high rating for a quarter of the year’s time for a cable news broadcast.  He averaged over 4.33 million viewers a night.   And, he’s ripping the Republican Party a new one. Who would have ever thought that is talent, hard work, and honesty would enable his nightly viewership to surpass Bill O’Reilly?  It has.  Isn’t that a big statement well?

Enjoy the long Fourth of July Weekend unless patriotic participation is banned in your town.  First churches and parks, now fireworks.

We’ll be back to light up Al Gore’s internet like a Roman candle on Monday.

Can you still say “Roman?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a Bad Knot Afterall

The fake noose story wound up last evening on the fake news channel CNN.   It started in garage no. 4, spread through the NASCAR community faster than cars coming out of turn no. 4, went through an FBI investigation, and crashed on Don Lemon’s show.

And it seems everyone is upset.  Earlier this week in a statement NASCAR said it was “angry and outraged.”  Bubba Wallace said to Lemon last night, “I’m mad because people are trying to test my character and the person that I am and my integrity.”

What started as NASCAR making white people with rednecks unhappy that they can no longer bring their Confederate flags to the races ended with 32 race car drivers symbolically pushing Wallace’s car over the finish line as if it had run out of gas.  People had knots in their stomach over the knot in the garage.  And now the story has run out of gas.

It turns out that the noose was not a noose, but was a garage door pull visible in video as far back as October of 2019.  Or, if you prefer, it was a noose knot tied to serve as a garage door pull.  If there were any Boy Scouts left we’d ask them what it was.  What it wasn’t was a symbol of hate aimed specifically at Bubba Wallace.

So the sport that takes four left turns about 500 times every weekend took a wrong turn trying to take a right turn further to the left.  Got that?  But in today’s woke world it’s better to overreact than to underreact.  You can back away from the narrative later, but you can’t get left behind when they wave the green flag.  Gentlemen, start your narratives!

And, this makes banning the Confederate flag yesterday’s news.  If you tear down a statue today people aren’t as mad about the one you tore down yesterday.  The Movement moves fast, NASCAR fast.

Thank goodness 15 FBI experts investigated immediately.  There must be a joke in here somewhere.  How many FBI investigators should it take to thoroughly examine a garage door pull?  None.  It was 15 too many.  Let the local blue that the “peaceful protesters” want to defund investigate it.   But in today’s world enough is never enough.

NASCAR might be misfiring on a few cylinders with its fanbase.  Or, not.   Time will tell.

And you thought getting back to sports would provide an escape.

Somebody wave the checkered flag and end this nonsense already.

 

 

 

CHAZ, BHAZ, AHAZ

A funny thing happened yesterday just two days after the official start of summer.  The barely two weeks old Summer of Love, as proclaimed by Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin, suffered a setback.

The city of CHOP, formerly known as CHAZ, had one too many gunshot casualties resulting in either death or hospitalization.   And, as a result, Durkan indicates the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) will be shut down following those shootings that occurred on Saturday and Sunday of Father’s Day Weekend.  Apparently, she only recognized the unsettled settlement as CHAZ.

But almost simultaneously, on the other coast in Washington DC, up popped the new city of BHAZ last evening.  BHAZ is the shortened name for the Black House Autonomous Zone.  The Movement moves quickly.

CHAZ built a wall, had security if you want to call it that, and had a food supply-the guerilla garden.  But, it didn’t have a hospital built yet to care for it’s wounded.  It used neighboring Seattle for that.   And, it was far too soon for them to get a chance to erect statues to honor the CHAZ city founders, though there was space created.

BHAZ was building a wall well into last evening, occupied a church, and was diligently working on the food supply chain.  Demonstrators in BHAZ have apparently set up their own restaurant called, “Earl’s First Amendment Grill,” offering “free food for freedom fighters,” according to signs in the area.  If they get more time to develop their new city than their brother CHAZ from another mother did, then maybe they can construct a hospital and even a college to educate its young.

Could it be free health care, free tuition, and free food? That would be the Triple Crown of accommodations and the envy of cities nationwide.

One individual could be heard saying, “Welcome to the AZ. You are now leaving the U.S.”  Black House AZ might have one big problem.  Its stake in the ground might be too close to the White House where an angry man with orange hair lives.  Orange isn’t going to back the new black house where there are no men in blue as Durkin did briefly with CHAZ.  Isn’t that exactly what they want?

“Numerous people arrested in D.C. for the disgraceful vandalism,” the president wrote.  “10 years in prison under the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act,” he added. “Beware.”

Another Sin City, aka Las Vegas, is not opening but is reopening.  They likely are offering long odds that BHAZ lasts very long.

So what comes after CHAZ and BHAZ?

Logically it would be AHAZ, which is exactly what the malcontents are making out of this country.