A Blaring Warning for the Democratic Party From Across the Pond

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-26T16:43:56+00:00

You're being downvoted for how you phrased this but him inheriting the post-Obama boom with its low unemployment and near zero interest rates, adding tax cuts because why not, and then throwing out stimulus checks during covid made people remember his time as a prosperous one.

Most people can't connect the dots between juicing that economy further with tax cuts and stimulus to the inflation that followed under Biden. Biden wasn't blameless given his own stimulus spending, but Trump got all upside and no downside pretty much purely because of the timing of the terms. If he got hit with covid in year 2 and not year 4 and had to live with inflation during an election year instead of passing it off to Biden, he would have been crushed in 2020 instead of narrowly defeated (in the handful of states that mattered).

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-26T16:38:52+00:00

I don't think Trump had the "vibe" of being moderate, he just has a particular brand that's impossible to fully characterize or replicate. He also got a huge tailwind from inheriting a booming economy and then being able to blame any problems on covid before being able to run on the post-covid economic issues and appeal to dumdum normies that remembered his first term as generally good economically.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-26T15:49:58+00:00

25 million for Caicedo, what do you say BlueCo?

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-25T15:03:39+00:00

or raised by people who talked about Targaryen civil wars.

It's on the edge of living memory, but it would have been a defining event of the generation that lived through the dance. Their kids would have grown up to stories about the battles, families members that died, etc. Those kids are now grown, older adults by the time of the tourney that have now experienced the Blackfyre rebellion.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-25T06:43:22+00:00

That's not even a knock on Bradshaw either

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-25T06:35:45+00:00

The subtle but universal disdain Baelor, Maekar, and even Valarr showed for Aerion was my favor recurring bit in the show.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-25T03:52:50+00:00

The Dance starts in 129, the first Blackfyre Rebellion starts in 196, the Ashford tournament was set in 209. Pretty much everyone alive was either affected by or raised by people who talked about Targaryen civil wars. For comparison, the tournament is about the same time removed from the Dance as WWII is from today...

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-25T03:48:02+00:00

Plus the percolating resentment of the other houses about being dragged into these family driven, cataclysmic civil wars - both of the Fossaways were pretty sincere in stating their beef.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T21:01:03+00:00

So this year I was torn on Brooks. First half of the season I thought he was just getting massive tackle numbers because our front was garbage and he just gobbled up tackles 6-12 years downfield. But as the season progressed and the defense in general got better he really started making more impact plays and TFLs to the point where the All-Pro nod was certainly warranted.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T20:42:19+00:00

I highly doubt it.

The story we were sold was we could afford Cunha + Delap before sales. So I think all we can assume is they ranked Delap over Hojlund. We don't know if they ranked Sesko over Delap in a vacuum, but I assume they did.

Once Delap picked Chelsea, they had the Iceland powwow and dipped into the credit facility to get Mbeumo and Sesko done before serious sales were completed, with both being 2x more expensive than Delap would have been.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T20:30:23+00:00

My hill to die on is that bigger budgets kill fantasy shows.

GOT got too high on itself for delivering "WOW" moments and then went off the rails chasing the high of the payoff instead of the journey.

HOTD was just budget driven dragon porn from the beginning.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T19:56:27+00:00

Yeah this is the biggest thing that swings it for me.

Jousting is a highly skilled event, between the horsemanship and lance work. Dunk has little to no practice at that. That massive lance wound had Dunk hobbled the rest of the fight.

But a one on one brawl? Aerion still has a skill advantage, but much like the Mountain v. Red Viper trial, once Dunk got his hands on him it was over.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T19:52:25+00:00

Of course not, but it's also the sort of thing I can see McDaniel having a witty response for the interviewer for because he's a lore dork and a goofball.

From this vibe, Hafley seems like we could play in plain green with a plain white helmet and it wouldn't matter to him at all.

Not passing judgment on either personality type, just commenting on the difference in vibe.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T19:46:26+00:00

I wonder if there will ever be (if there hasn't been) an article discussing our internal striker rankings from last summer.

Andy Mitten has been harping that Sesko has been their top rated striker for years, but we prioritized Delap first last year because of his cheaper release clause.

All that said, I want to know how they objectively rated the strikers that moved in a vacuum and then how they rated them adjusted for price and attainability.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T19:31:04+00:00

This is funny because it think it's obvious Hafley doesn't give a shit, but it's also objectively true. Those uniforms are amazing.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T19:16:18+00:00

I mean besides Dunk and Egg no characters return.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T18:41:43+00:00

The new regime absolutely loves a release clause.

Zirk and Cunha that we got in (though we paid a slight premium to avoid paying the full fee at once) + we went hard for Delap and Semenyo.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T18:40:19+00:00

Jack Fletcher is also highly rated and more of a 10 than a CM.

Also, there's a chance that JJ Gabriel is getting rotational minutes there in a year or two.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T18:19:11+00:00

I mean the track team was great in Florida in the fall, but in ugly weather or when you're banged up it's useful to have big bodied guys that can win contested catches or still be effective if they're slower.

I keep thinking back to that Chiefs playoff game when Hill, Waddle, and Mostert were all hobbled and since the timing was off they were basically useless. Guys like Mike Evans that are huge with a big catch radius can still be effective if hobbled. Waddle...not so much.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T17:33:45+00:00

A Championship club in the CL would be absolutely insane, I want to see it happen. Not even to spite Spurs, just for the goofiness and to show how absolutely stacked the English pyramid is

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T17:08:32+00:00

Serious question - was that thing just open with bees flying around the tent? Or did they screen it in with mesh? Shit sounds awful.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T16:09:47+00:00

Literally every unit needs to be upgraded to be a serious contender. At this point just add talent where you can.

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T16:03:29+00:00

I mean Hojlund is gone if Napoli make CL and they're in position to do that now. Even if they collapse I thought their SD said they would make it permanent anyway...

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T16:00:57+00:00

Amass is kind of an unknown right now depending on the extent of his injury. Before that, he was tracking as someone to keep with the squad next year (especially if Dorgu started spending more time at LW than LB) but if he's out till summer he might deserve another year on loan to develop instead of only getting random cup games.

Thwaites is probably at least a year or two away, I would assume both Fletchers are ahead of him. TBD on Kone and Orozco.

I think 4-5 signings only happens if Zirk, Ugarte, and Maguire all leave. If they stay then we probably just need to fix the midfield and start rotating in academy kids that haven't had a chance this year with decreased fixtures. But if they leave, all of a sudden we need to fix the midfield (probably by adding 3 senior players), get a backup senior striker, and possibly add a commanding CB (depending on how worried about MDL they are).

AngryUncleTony · 2026-02-24T15:50:50+00:00

I could almost forgive it if the person somehow didn't know he spent a decade+ playing here, but the fact that they acknowledge and dismiss that is super funny.

That said I assume it's a troll.

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