jbluhm86

On 1/26/2022 at 10:02 AM, Zombo said:

We've got our starting guards and starting tackles under long term contracts. Three Pro Bowlers and1st Rounder going into year three.

So unless this guy plays Center, he's a backup and a special teamer if comes to Cleveland. 

So ... why?

Z

Because it'd be nice to have quality O-line depth? Several of those pro bowlers you mentioned were out a significant number of games throughout this year and our offense suffered for it

1 hour ago, TexasAg1969 said:

Somebody black needs to balance out uncle whiteboy Thomas who no more represents black America than any of you crackers from the new Confederacy.😂

It's a sad thing when being a conservative African American is considered being an Uncle Tom. 

A further thought: it used to take a 60 vote supermajority for a Supreme Court Justice to be confirmed by the Senate. This was changed in 2017, when the then GOP majority used the "nuclear option" to make it a simple majority vote to push through Neil Goursch's nomination.

So if Biden and the Democrats push through a woke liberal justice nominee with just a simple majority, everyone can go ahead and thank Cocaine Mitch for pulling the trigger on the nuclear option. Everyone reaps what they sow eventually.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in mid September 2020 and Amy C. Barrett was confirmed by a Republican majority in the Senate by the end of October; GOP rushed the nomination through to get it done before the November election that year. Whether you like it or not, Biden is the President and the Democrats have the majority in the Senate, so the GOP and conservatives can't really complain if Biden and the Senate Democrats push through a liberal Supreme Court justice pick before the midterm elections. They have the Constitutional prerogative to do so if they wish, and it'll only take 51 votes to get it done (or a 50/50 split, with Harris being the tie-breaker).

That's why elections matter and it pays to be the winner.

Should have kept him and then traded him during the off season. Even if it was for a 5th or 6th rounder. Fuck, we ate the salary for acquiring Brock Osweiler from Houston to get a 2nd round pick; eating a portion of OBJs contract for some form of draft pick compensation would've been better than what we did. Browns got ugatz from letting him go.

Anyone else tired of our FO looking like fucking idiots? 

Seems a little low-brow to rub it in that someone got a posting time-out, imo. I've had my battles with Cal in the past, but what does this thread accomplish?

51 minutes ago, Orion said:

...and so this is the $64k question.  But it's possible that the whole problem is more than just Baker.  Perhaps part of it has to do with our offensive passing scheme...which of course is Stef's baby.  We know that OBJ was not very productive here.  Is it all on Baker?  I wish that I could ask OBJ why he just absolutely had to leave a pretty successful team (at the time of his departure we were still thought to be) right in the middle of the season.

This reminded me of something I read a few years ago about Stefanski's time as OC in Minnesota. I did some digging and came up with this article from 2020 about why Stefon Diggs decided to leave the Vikings:

 Stefon Diggs finally admits why he wanted out of Minnesota

"Minnesota finished with the second-most rushing attempts in 2017 when they went 13-3 and made it all the way to the NFC Championship. Then the Vikings offense got pass-happy under new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo in 2018 and Zimmer made it clear multiple times throughout the season that he wanted the team to run the ball more like they did in 2017.

DeFilippo didn’t listen to Minnesota’s head coach and it resulted in him getting fired before the 2018 season even ended.

Then Zimmer made Kevin Stefanski his offensive coordinator and the Vikings brought in Gary Kubiak to be an offensive adviser. Kubiak’s offensive scheme is known for its zone-blocking rushing attack and Minnesota wanted to implement his methods into their offense".

What struck me is the similarities between Diggs' criticism of the Vikings offensive scheme under Stefanski and OBJ and Co's critique of Stefanski as HC of the Browns. Stefanski is a disciple of Kubiak's system, so he priorities the running game over the passing game, perhaps to the detriment of the latter. It's all well and good to establish the run to help set up the passing game, but - to me at least - Stefanski relies too much on the running game and does not have a good enough passing game plan to compensate if that run game is shut down by opposing D's. Perhaps we don't have the personnel at WR to help stretch the field, but when you see that OBJ's performance in the final half of the 2021 season exceeded his production for the past year and a half with the Browns, barring injuries, it gets harder to blame OBJ being a diva as the sole reason for his lack of production with the Browns.

On 1/14/2022 at 6:58 PM, TexasAg1969 said:

Tex talked his daughter into get her whole family double vaxed this summer. She and her husband got it, but the kids remain negative. Husband fully recovered and she is slowly getting over it. Neither required hospitalization. I did see the MD in charge of a large Hospital system in Houston say that of the 292 covid deaths they had had in their system this past year up until Monday, all were unvaccinated.

I'd be interested to see the ratio of those 292 deaths compared to the total number of patients seen with COVID at that hospital last year. COVIDs global total death rate is around 1% per WHO, which is comparable to the death rate of the common flu. I'd also be curious to see what comorbidities that each of the COVID deaths had.

For example: my aunt recently passed away a few weeks ago. She was 70 years old, had emphysema from smoking for 60+ years, and had cancer as well. She contracted COVID a few months before her death and recovered, but they still classified her death as complications from COVID. 

On 12/28/2021 at 8:17 AM, TexasAg1969 said:

True and like the flu shots you have voluntarily take yearly for flu season, Darwin will handle the anti-shot folks just fine one way or another just like he does the flu.☠️

"Voluntarily" is the operative word. The government doesn't mandate you to get the flu shot or threatens you with losing your job if you don't get it.

People still get the flu even if they've had the flu shot, and a very small percentage of them unfortunately die from the flu as well. It doesn't mean we have to shut down civilization and abdicate our freedoms to the government because of it.

Don't go to a country if you're not willing to abide by their rules. 

If these leaked documents are correct, then Fauci lied under oath about funding Gain of Function research: 

12 hours ago, Orion said:

...the officials missed the pass interference at the end of the Packer game.

Because of COVID

Because of Our Kicker

Because of Baker 

Because of OBJ is a self centered POS

Because of lack of defensive adjustments during the games

Because of we didn't run enough

Because of we didn't pass enough

Because of we went for it too much on 4th down

Because of too many penalties

Because of the Chiefs

Because the sun was in my eyes...

 

 

Because of Kevin Stefanski.

1 minute ago, BernieSuperBowl2 said:

3rd and 30, my god. Should have punted after the sack

4th & 31 now. 

Can't wait to read Emily Mayfield's incoming social media tirade on why her husband's shit playing isn't his fault.

6 minutes ago, Dutch Oven said:

I don't see a realistic scenario of an upgrade available. 

I agree that there isn't many blue chip locks in the QB class this upcoming year as there has been in years past, but I still think would could find value in the 2nd or 3rd rounds this year that could work out after a year of practicing studying on the bench.

9 hours ago, Zombo said:

I think you are nuts for thinking we will lose the last two. If we get guys back and practicing all week, we can win those two games.

Z

Being able to win those games on paper and winning them in practice are two different things. Yes, we have the talent to win those final two games, but if it comes to to putting our chances of winning on Baker, then I'm not confident at all, based on Baker's body of work.

1 hour ago, Dutch Oven said:

I fully expect Baker to be the starting QB next season.

I have huge doubts about his future with the Browns after that. 

I mentioned in another thread that I believe the Browns' best course of action is to draft a QB in the 2nd or 3rd round in the upcoming draft and let him sit and learn the system during the final year on Baker's contract. If Baker pans out and gets an extension, then we'd have a probable solid back-up on the team behind him that would cost less than an veteran back-up. And if Baker doesn't work out and the Browns cut him after next year, then we have a young QB who already has a year in the Browns system there to replace him.

2 hours ago, calfoxwc said:

Nothing wrong with living at home, especially with your Parent's situation. Smart.

I agree, but living at home with the folks definitely takes a hit on the dating life. Trying to arrange an adult evening with someone in your bedroom at your parents place just doesn't have the same appeal as one at your own home, 😂

56 minutes ago, Westside Steve said:

Absolutely correct it's an asshole  thing to do no doubt whatsoever.

I'm just saying that I would be willing to bet that the average sentence for first time with no priors it's not that's high. Have you seen the footage of the buffalo head guy actually assaulting an officer? He seemed pretty good-natured and every clip I've seen so...

WSS 

One thing that people might not be taking into consideration is that the assault was committed against the Capitol Police, who are federal employees and are under federal jurisdiction. Federal charges usually carry stiffer punishments over similar state or local ones. That could be one of the determining factors in the sentence lengths in these cases.

35 minutes ago, MLD Woody said:

 

One of the best parameters to guess someone's vaccination status is their political affiliation. 

https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-september-2021/

90% of Democrats had been vaccinated, compared with 68% of Independents and just 58% of Republicans.

 

https://news.gallup.com/poll/355073/vaccinated-delta-surge-fda-decision.aspx

 

That is back from September, so it is a little old, but I don't imagine the numbers have changed much. 

"According to Gallup, 40% of Republicans “don’t plan” to get vaccinated, versus 26% of Independents and just 3% of Democrats. In response to a more sharply worded KFF question, 23% of Republicans report that they will “definitely not” get vaccinated, compared to 11% of Independents and just 4% of Democrats."

 

 

The problem with looking at age and race is that you're then assuming their political affiliation (based on data, averages, etc). Data that straight up looks at their political affiliation compared to vaccination status cuts out that middle man. 

 

But we both agree at least that vaccination status is the best indicator of death rate, as most deaths at this point are from those that are unvaccinated. 

 

 

 

Here is another one, looking at deaths for an area based on how that area voted for Trump

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/05/1059828993/data-vaccine-misinformation-trump-counties-covid-death-rate

"The trend was robust, even when controlling for age, which is the primary demographic risk of COVID-19 mortality. The data also reveal a major contributing factor to the death rate difference: The higher the vote share for Trump, the lower the vaccination rate."

I'm not denying that political affiliation may have some correlation to whether or not someone has been vaccinated. But we have to delve into it more than just a single, superficial layer.

I don't necessarily think that conservatives, in general, don't believe in vaccination, because the data doesn't play out that way. I think we can agree that population over the age of 50 in the US are majority conservative, which means that they would probably not be for mandated vaccinations. Yet this same age group is the one who has the highest percentage of that group who have had at least one dose of the vaccine. It makes sense, since people over the age of 60 have the highest risk of death from COVID, and indeed are the majority of COVID deaths. 

My question is, if the 60+ demographic, who are the ones who have the overwhelming majority of COVID fatalities, are also the ones who have the highest rate of vaccination against said disease, then why are we continuing with such polarizing measures such as mandatory vaccinations for all age groups, lockdowns and mask mandates?

The government sold the people the lie that we needed to have over 60% of our population vaccinated to stop the spread. We have over 70% vaccination rate  and the spread continues. We were told that the initial two week lockdown would stop the spread. We've had cities and countries all over the world who had multiple lockdowns for months - some even taking the extreme measure of violating their citizens rights by locking them down in quarantine camps - yet the spread continued. Masks are inefficient at slowing the spread at best, and completely ineffective at worst, yet here we are with more mask mandates. We've shut down the world and abdicated our rights to self determination in fear of a disease who's fatality rate is less than the common flu and are wanting people to get vaccinated against their will with an experimental vaccine who's long term side effects are poorly understood and that doesn't stop the virus from spreading anyway. It's lunacy.

I'm all for people wanting to get the vaccine, as I do believe it helps mitigate the more severe symptoms of COVID, just like a normal flu shot does. But it's madness that we should let the world be held hostage by governments cashing in on people's fear over an illness which isn't even much of a threat anymore. 

Browns already picked up Baker's 5th year option, so he's locked in as starting QB next year, whether we like it or not  Berry and co. have the philosophy of building through the draft, so unless the Browns get an amazing sweetheart deal from another team, picking up an established QB like Rodgers or Wilson is highly unlikely due to the cost. Best course of action would be to draft a QB in this year's draft and let him sit for a year to assimilate the system. Then, if Baker doesn't improve next year, the Browns can cut bait cleanly and have a QB who's firmly established in their system. There really isn't a blue-chipper in this year's QB class, but I could see the Browns using a 2nd rounder on a QB like Riddle from UC.

That's the beauty of a highly interconnected global economy: if one of the big players go down, everyone else does too. 

On 12/25/2021 at 12:09 AM, LogicIsForSquares said:

I have about a house worth’s of student loan debt though I make decent money and always keep side hustles. So it isn’t a problem.

However, if the confused guy in charge just up and forgave my loan, I wouldn’t be too upset. The government loves wasting money and bailing out banks. I won’t turn down my bail out haha.

I'm in a similar boat. Around $68k for my B.A, but luckily I chose a hard science Biology major and minored in Chemistry, so I'm doing pretty good; I'm currently making around $50k/year on straight time. My folks were gracious enough to let me move back in rent-free while I pay down my student loan and save up for a decent down payment on a house. It's not great to be living at home in my 30s, but it's the most prudent, financially. I was able to pay off all the interest on my student loan last year during the repayment pause and I've got around $10k saved up so far for a down payment, so I haven't exactly been idle. Plus, both of my parents are physically disabled, so I get to help them out at the same time.

On 12/17/2021 at 5:24 PM, Westside Steve said:

That's absolutely nowhere near the average sentence for first-time assault. Absolutely nowhere.

It's a kangaroo court and if someone sentenced someone you cared about are ridiculous sentence like that you would shit your pants.  (I realized Biden supporters don't think that's a big deal but...)

WSS 

I'd say that's pretty commiserate with assaulting a police officer. I've always been told that if you get arrested, the best course of action is to not resist, clearly state your right remain silent and to ask for a lawyer. Nothing good can happen by resisting arrest and not shutting up afterwards.

I'm pretty sure I recently caught the Omicron. I've had a sore throat, headaches, congestion, and mild cough for the past week and a half, but it's been improving every day. I've taken 3 at home COVID tests, with one positive result and two negatives. Just feels like a bad cold, and I've been successfully treating the symptoms with common OTC cold meds.

We're all just going to have to accept that everyone is more than likely going to get it at some point. Vaccines help lower your chance of hospitalization and having severe symptoms, but they're not going to stop you from getting COVID and spreading the virus. The overwhelming majority of COVID deaths globally have been the elderly, people with co-morbidities and the immunocompromised which, shockingly, are usually the groups that have the highest fatality rates for pretty much every other disease. It's nonsense at this point to keep on doing lockdowns and shutting businesses and schools down over a disease which had a fatality rate below the common flu at it's worst point.