The fact that NFL security is in the hands of the woman who botched the Seth Rich murder investigation is not exactly confidence inspiring. On the other hand, perhaps we can hope that Roger Goodell knows something about Hillary Clinton.
Let’s face it, if the sort of people who arrange these false flags ever did decide to put on a show at the Super Bowl, you know they would prefer to do it in Minneapolis or some other flyover city that they couldn’t tell you is in Indiana, Minnesota, or Nebraska. And given how much trouble the Deep State appears to be in, it would be astonishing if they didn’t wave a few false flags in the next month or two in order to “prove” to the American people how the corrupt federal agencies are keeping them safe and how important it is that faith in these massive, unaccountable secret organizations not be undermined.
Seriously, though, what is with all of these Clintonistas in positions of corporate power at entertainment industry companies like Warner Bros, DC Comics, and the NFL?
This excerpt features “Armadillo Love” in its entirety, taken from the hilarious collection of true Texas crime stories by Lawdog. The Lawdog Files are also available in ebook and paperback editions.
I’ve been very impressed by Bill Belichick over the years. He is one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time, if not the greatest. But one thing has always confused me about him. He is both a superlative strategist AND a superlative tactician. This is not normal. In fact, this should not even be possible, due to the way that two entirely different types of thought processes are involved.
Now, an intelligent man can certainly perform both functions at an above-average level, but to be better than nearly everyone else at both is so unlikely that it borders on the impossible. However, it turns out that Belichick is not the rare exception after all, that he is merely a great tactician. How, then, has he become known as such a great football strategist as well?
The answer is that there are two Bill Belichicks. Or rather, there is a brilliant strategist who is entirely content to remain in Belichick’s shadow. The two best friends have been a team since their year together at Phillips Exeter Academy, but it is Ernie Adams, not Bill Belichick, who is the literal genius. The interesting thing is that neither the sports media nor most of the Patriots players truly understand the nature of their incredibly effective partnership.
Ernie Adams is a man of mystery with the Patriots. He’s been with Bill Belichick for virtually his entire coaching career, but no one knows exactly what he does, even though he is at every practice and every game. We asked a number of Patriots players and coaches at media availability over the course of Super Bowl week what they know about him.
“I think he’s quality control,” rookie defensive tackle Adam Butler said. “He’s like checks and balances. I feel like he just checks and makes sure everyone is on the same page and is making sure we do things the way we want to.”
“Not much,” offensive lineman Ted Karras said. “He’s a guy that is around every day and does his job.”
Added safety Duron Harmon: “Ernie does a lot for this team. He helps obviously the coaching staff prepare for the games. I can’t give you too much information, but that is just what I would say. He does a good job helping the coaching staff make sure we’re prepared for our weekly matchups. Probably one of the smartest people in the building. He knows probably every rule in the rule book. That shows you how smart he is, how in-tune he is to the game and I think he’s a big part of what we accomplish here.”
Unlike the other two, Harmon knows what’s up. Belichick is the leader and the tactical genius, and Adams is the strategic brain. He is a statistics quant who “helps the coaching staff” by writing the weekly game plans which Belichick then implements. In game development terms, Adams is the designer and Belichick is the producer. That’s how the Patriots are able to completely change their style from week to week. That’s also why it has almost been irrelevant who has been serving as offensive or defensive coordinator over the years, and why very successful OCs and DCs have struggled after leaving New England.
I remember I asked him about a play and he recalled a play from like the early 2000s and the game and the score. I was like, ‘Oh my Gosh.’
Bingo. Thanks to Adams, New England has led the way in the statistical analysis of pro football for nearly 20 years, which is why they always seem to be able to counter even the most effective opposition game plans and make adjustments to defeat it. The Patriots have been racing with intellectual turbo technology while all the other teams are normally aspirated. It’s a bit amusing to note that the sports media made a big deal about how Cleveland’s now-jettisoned management team was going with a quant-heavy approach two years ago when New England has been using it all along.
How do I know this? Well, you see, I have my own connections at Phillips Exeter Academy, both friends and family. And that’s why we’re not likely to see Brady leave New England before he retires, no matter what scenarios the media happens to concoct. Brady, more than anyone, understands how important Adams is to his historic success.
This also may explain why Belichick never talks much about football strategy. First, it’s really not his thing. And second, doing so would almost certainly reveal his unexpected limitations on the subject.
It’s amusing to see SF-SJW Foz Meadows running around demanding apologies from everyone who believed zher legal spouse is Camestros Felapton. Now, of course I can understand even such a visually repellent, talentless creature as Foz taking massive offense at being accused of having sufficiently low standards as to engage in any form of congress, be it marital or otherwise, with Felapton, but then, Foz is an unrepentant liar who doesn’t merit apologies from anyone for anything. Who gives a quantum of a damn what Foz wants, expects, appreciates, or demands?
Foz Meadows@fozmeadows Related to all the recent Puppy kerfuffle, I would like the record to note that @davefreersf, a self-professed Sad Puppy, has unequivocally admitted that siccing Vox Day on someone is a tactic meant to cause “serious harm” to the target.
Foz Meadows@fozmeadows Replying to @fozmeadows Like. There’s been so many occasions when I’ve had Sad Puppy acolytes in my mentions frothing about how VD and the Rabid Puppies are a TOTALLY DIFFERENT AND UNRELATED THING TO THEM and how DARE I suggest that the Sads be held in any way accountable for the Rabids!
Foz Meadows@fozmeadows I would also like to note that while, as far as I know, Freer didn’t email VD about my husband being Camestros – a falsehood now acknowledged as such by @LouAntonelli – VD has nonetheless run with Freer and Antonelli’s original claims on his blog.
Foz Meadows@fozmeadows Replying to @fozmeadows I won’t subject anyone here to quotes from the salient comment thread on VD’s blog; sufficed to there’s a fucktonne of homophobic abuse directed at me, plus the odd wish for physical violence, and my husband’s workplace being disparaged as an institution. So, you know. The usual.
Foz Meadows@fozmeadows What I will say is that, in the event Dave Freer *does* admit he was wrong & that my husband isn’t Camestros, I won’t be accepting any apology he might make. His gross, homophobic speculation about my marriage & identity, & his slander of my husband, was always a separate issue.
Foz Meadows@fozmeadows Replying to @fozmeadows None of what Freer has said about my personal life is excused or justified by his belief that Toby is Camestros. It has literally nothing to do with anything, and not only has he doubled down on it multiple times, he has actively encouraged others to speculate, too.
Foz Meadows@fozmeadows The only type of apology I’ll even *consider* accepting from Freer is one that involves an admission of homophobia, an acknowledgement that none of his personal comments were either correct or appropriate, and a pledge to actively educate himself. Anything less is meaningless.
Foz Meadows@fozmeadows Replying to @fozmeadows Regardless of whether he does that, however – and I rather suspect he won’t – the absolute fucking LEAST he can do, as per Antonelli, is to acknowledge that he was wrong in thinking Toby was Camestros, and to apologise TO EVERYONE for spreading the lie.
Foz Meadows@fozmeadows I’d also appreciate a similar apology from Brad Torgersen. I have zero expectation of Vox Day doing anything remotely conciliatory or charitable, but I’ll do Torgersen the kindness of assuming him capable of admitting error.
First of all, no one sics me on anyone. I act as I see fit. I am more than happy to publicly deride that wretched creature and I will continue to do so until zhe either a) dies or b) publicly retracts all of zher claims that I am a Nazi or other derivation thereof.
Second, I am confident that I speak for everyone when I say that I am truly and deeply relieved to hear that Foz Meadows is not married to Camestros Felaptron. Sweet St. Darwin, what if those two had spawned? The human race may be in genetic decline, but that’s one evolutionary branch we really don’t need to explore. Shades of Innsmouth, anyone?
Third, Dave Freer didn’t sic me on anyone about anything. I don’t recall having any communication with him in years. I just checked my email and I haven’t received even a single email from him since I set up my current machine in April 2016. Nor have I spoken to him.
But I require no apologies. Foz should instead be apologizing to the entire human gene pool for whatever horrific accident of evolution or malevolent fate led to zher existence.
UPDATE: This comment at File 770 from Laura Resnick was particularly funny.
I took a look at the VD post and comments Ms. Meadows references… and, yep, I can see why she chose not to link to it. Very ugly and bigoted—gosh, contain your shocked surprise. And, as always, you could search high and low, far and wide, without finding people stupider than VD and his blog followers. The absence of intelligent life there seems almost scientifically astounding.
Classic midwit posturing. Resnick is a mediocre fantasy writer who can’t even figure out how to stop stuffing her fat face, but that’s not going to stop her from trying to strike a laughable pose as an intellectual superior to literally everyone here.
I would be willing to bet a considerable amount of money that this political jackass was going to be leaving the FBI anyhow. That, or he’s trying to jump ship before he is implicated in the FBI’s crimes himself.
After more than a decade of service, which included investigating terrorism, working to rescue kidnapping victims overseas and being special assistant to the director, I am reluctantly turning in my badge and leaving an organization I love. Why? So I can join the growing chorus of people who believe that the relentless attacks on the bureau undermine not just America’s premier law enforcement agency but also the nation’s security. My resignation is painful, but the alternative of remaining quiet while the bureau is tarnished for political gain is impossible.
A small number of my current and retired colleagues have said that we should simply keep our heads down until the storm passes. I say this with the greatest respect: They are wrong. If those who know the agency best remain silent, it will be defined by those with partisan agendas.
F.B.I. agents are dogged people who do not care about the direction of political winds. But to succeed in their work, they need public backing. Scorched-earth attacks from politicians with partisan goals now threaten that support, raising corrosive doubts about the integrity of the F.B.I. that could last for generations.
When the F.B.I. knocks on someone’s door or appeals to the public for assistance in solving crime, the willingness of people to help is directly correlated to their opinion of the agency. When an agent working to stop a terrorist plot attempts to recruit an informant, the agent’s success in gathering critical intelligence depends on the informant’s belief that the agent is credible and trustworthy. And, as the former director, James Comey, would frequently say in underscoring the importance of high standards, whether a jury believes an agent’s testimony depends on whether it has faith in the bureau’s honesty and independence. To be effective, the F.B.I. must be believed and must maintain the support of the public it serves.
What a total fucking joke. I’m a fiction editor. I have read thousands of submissions, both at Castalia House and as a slush reader for a bigger publishing house back in the day. And I recognize poorly written fiction when I see it.
This resignation is a silly, stupid, and incompetent attempt at swaying public opinion that is rightly appalled by the political corruption that has been exposed by the Nunes memo.
We don’t believe the FBI. We don’t think it is effective, and given its apparently seditious objectives, we’re glad it isn’t. We don’t support it. We don’t back it. To the contrary, we think that it is a collection of liars, criminals, and traitors who should be imprisoned. We spit on the Bureau and we spit on its badge.
Note this: Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) is a former supervisory special agent with the F.B.I. who served as a counterterrorism investigator and special assistant to the bureau’s director.
Special assistant to the bureau’s director = corrupt political hack.
My FBI sources tell me the real reason the writer of this piece, Josh Campbell, one of @comey and #McCabe’s allies, is leaving the Bureau is because he was offered and accepted a VERY lucrative gig with @CNN to throw shade on the scandal.
It’s understandably hard for ordinary Americans to take seriously the overwrought claims of Hollywood actors and actresses that shady people are trying to kill them or destroy them. Then you read things like this story about Uma Thurman’s treatment at the hands of Harvey Weinstein and his team, and you realize that it is simply an alien world every bit as foreign as a civil war in Malawi or ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Since the revelations about Weinstein became public last fall, Thurman has been reliving her encounters with him — and a gruesome episode on location for “Kill Bill” in Mexico made her feel as blindsided as the bride and as determined to get her due, no matter how long it took.
With four days left, after nine months of shooting the sadistic saga, Thurman was asked to do something that made her draw the line.
In the famous scene where she’s driving the blue convertible to kill Bill — the same one she put on Instagram on Thanksgiving — she was asked to do the driving herself.
But she had been led to believe by a teamster, she says, that the car, which had been reconfigured from a stick shift to an automatic, might not be working that well.
She says she insisted that she didn’t feel comfortable operating the car and would prefer a stunt person to do it. Producers say they do not recall her objecting.
“Quentin came in my trailer and didn’t like to hear no, like any director,” she says. “He was furious because I’d cost them a lot of time. But I was scared. He said: ‘I promise you the car is fine. It’s a straight piece of road.’” He persuaded her to do it, and instructed: “ ‘Hit 40 miles per hour or your hair won’t blow the right way and I’ll make you do it again.’ But that was a deathbox that I was in. The seat wasn’t screwed down properly. It was a sand road and it was not a straight road.” (Tarantino did not respond to requests for comment.)
Thurman then shows me the footage that she says has taken her 15 years to get. “Solving my own Nancy Drew mystery,” she says.
It’s from the point of view of a camera mounted to the back of the Karmann Ghia. It’s frightening to watch Thurman wrestle with the car, as it drifts off the road and smashes into a palm tree, her contorted torso heaving helplessly until crew members appear in the frame to pull her out of the wreckage. Tarantino leans in and Thurman flashes a relieved smile when she realizes that she can briefly stand.
If a car can’t go 40 MPH on a straight stretch of road, you don’t need a stunt driver, you need a crash team investigation and a prosecutor. I doubt Tarantino tried to kill Thurman, but either she is the worst driver in the world or someone did.
Two weeks after the crash, after trying to see the car and footage of the incident, she had her lawyer send a letter to Miramax, summarizing the event and reserving the right to sue. Miramax offered to show her the footage if she signed a document “releasing them of any consequences of my future pain and suffering,” she says. She didn’t.
Morijuku was not a large town, and a minute’s walk brought him to the house of Baisetsu. It stood as dark and silent as the carpenter’s shop beside it, causing Tadashi to wonder momentarily if he was mistaken. Then his glance detected a dark shape huddled by the covered walkway fronting on the street. Beholding that awkward shape, which could only be a corpse, he knew that he guessed correctly, and death was stalking very near.
He stood for a moment to survey Baisetsu’s house, a larger dwelling than his own and far more spacious than Akiko’s. A roofed walkway fronted on the street, with the house’s main door at its center and windows to either side. A narrow gravel path ran along the nearer side of the house, leading to a large formal garden behind it.
Tadashi groped in his memory for details of the building’s layout, recalling how a second covered walkway fronted on the garden, with two additional doors giving access to the interior on that side. The low structure included just one story despite its size, but a large number of windows pierced its walls. Three servants usually lived in the house alongside Baisetsu’s wife and children. Tonight, however, every window showed dark and empty, giving no sign of life inside.
Silently, Tadashi slipped off his geta, or wooden clogs, and set them close against the wall of the carpenter’s shop where he would not stumble on them were he forced to retreat in that direction. Then, drawing his katana, he glided forward with all the stealth he could muster, with both his mind and his body poised for instant action.
The samurai paused only momentarily near the shape by the walkway, long enough to reach out a hand and feel cloth, with the yielding firmness of flesh underneath it—flesh which failed to stir as his hand pressed it. Tadashi noted that warmth still remained in the corpse. He rose and stepped up onto the covered walkway, breathing as quietly as he could. His heart thundered in his ears, but his mind filled with a poised calm like the razor serenity of a sword-blade.
It was dark on the walkway, and the main door into Baisetsu’s house was a gaping blur of even deeper shadow. Tadashi stood considering for a moment. A thin, cold sensation of menace crept along his back looking at the yawning door, like the legs of ghostly insects crawling on his skin.
Baisetsu’s wife and servants are probably already dead, he thought. If Yuukai is alone, he is likely searching for information about who else knows of his crimes. If he has a companion, though, then surely the front door is watched. I will be clearly silhouetted against the street as I enter and easily killed. The killers probably left it open as a trap.
Tadashi stepped off the covered walkway onto the gravel path and moved around the house towards the back. An early firefly glinted among the leaves ahead, then blinked out as the man approached. The dog barked again, from the far side of the town. Then, a prolonged, muffled scraping sound issued from somewhere inside the house, followed by utter silence.
They are indeed still here! Tadashi thought. He approached the second gallery overlooking the garden and stepped up onto it. Unless Yuukai had brought a large band of men, they could not watch every entrance. He looked out over the garden, but it appeared still and peaceful in the moonlight, displaying the asymmetrical perfection of a well-tended formal garden. Moving along the gallery noiselessly, Tadashi found a half-opened door and slipped inside, katana held out before him. In the total darkness inside, he pressed himself to the wall, pausing to listen.
Tadashi heard nothing, but a faint gleam of light appeared suddenly deeper in the house, dimly showing the walls of the corridor he stood in and several dark openings where someone had slid open the panels leading into rooms.
He also saw a severed human head, as he guessed from its shape, lying perhaps two paces from where he stood, surrounded by dark streaks on the pale tatami. The samurai felt anger at the sight of it, but not surprise, since he expected everyone in the house except Yuukai and his confederates to be dead in any case.
Then the faint gleam went out, leaving the samurai in complete darkness once more.
There is Yuukai, searching with a small lamp, Tadashi thought.
He was about to step out into the corridor and move deeper into the house when the door onto the garden behind him swung open soundlessly, grazing his left elbow. Even Tadashi’s iron nerves scarcely kept him from crying out in surprise. His head whipped around. He saw a man’s shape flit in through the doorway, silhouetted for a moment against the garden’s dimness. Then Tadashi heard the faint sound of an indrawn breath only inches from his ear.
Tadashi dropped to the floor, hearing the soft whistle of steel just above his head, and lashed out with his own sword. A loud scream exploded from just overhead, and hot liquid showered down on Tadashi’s face and arms. A man fell across the samurai, thrashing, bearing him to the floor with his weight. For a moment the two men grappled in the darkness, hands clawing blindly at each other. Then Tadashi slashed again, feeling his blade cleave through ribs, and the other man’s motions became a spastic jerking. Then there was a long sigh and the weight across Tadashi’s thighs went limp.
The samurai drew himself out from beneath the dead man and rose to a crouch. A soft patter of footfalls sounded from somewhere deeper inside the house, followed by silence. The darkness now appeared absolute, and Tadashi crept quickly along the hallway, one hand extended to feel along the left wall. As he expected, he soon came to a place where a screen stood open, giving ingress to a room, and he slipped through the doorway.
In the pitch blackness of the room, Tadashi drew himself up against the wall just inside the doorway. He swept his sword back and forth several times through the air, first at shoulder height, then at waist height, to assure himself that no assassin lurked within arm’s reach. Then he held his breath, listening.
He detected no sound at all in the house’s profound silence, but the samurai knew that at least one more man waited nearby. He must trick the man into revealing himself, yet do so in a way that would not make Tadashi an easy prey for his foe.
He devised a plan after only a few moments. Moving back into the hallway, Tadashi felt his way to the man he had killed. Searching the corpse quickly, he found a knife hidden beneath the waistband of the man’s hakama. Drawing the blade free, he hurled it down the hallway with all his force, so that it clattered loudly at the further end. Then he ran forward as noiselessly as he could in the same direction, and halted, pressed flat against the wall, halfway between the dead man and the end of the passage.
Tadashi tensed as his ears caught a faint whisper of movement ahead. Then the samurai heard a stealthy footfall just behind him also. Adrenaline exploded through his body as he realized that at least two more assassins prowled the darkened house, and that these men now trapped him between them.
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Former CIA counterterrorism official Phil Mudd: The FBI people “are ticked” and they’ll be saying of Trump, “You’ve been around for 13 months. We’ve been around since 1908. I know how this game is going to be played. We’re going to win.”
If those FBI people are smart, they will promptly be telling Mr. Mudd, “Who is this ‘we’, kemosabe?” I’m not sure that openly declaring a seditious intention to defeat the duly-elected President of the United States is a wise idea for any employee who serves at the President’s pleasure, much less for any U.S. citizen who is legally subject to being targeted as an enemy by the President of the United States.
Didn’t really think that one through, did you, Obama supporters.
It would certainly be fascinating if President Trump followed his predecessor’s example, declared these openly seditious officials and ex-officials to be enemies of the United States and began ordering drone strikes. It’s not as if he doesn’t have legal precedent to do so, and these people are clearly far more dangerous to the American people and to the U.S. Constitution than any of Obama’s targets ever were.
Brian Bendis‘ arrival at DC Comics, taking over Superman and Action Comics as monthly titles after a Man Of Steel six-weekly series does seem to have changed existing plans considerably. I think it is unarguable that the work of Jurgens, Gleason and Tomasi has created for Superman a new comic book level of success for the character than it has enjoyed in comic books for a very long time. Restoring the marriage, giving Superman a son and exploring his own father/son relationship as well, all while doing very Supermanny things. Critically and commercially, the Superman books have been a success for DC Comics, and a marked improvement over what had come in the decades before.
And now the publisher is changing horses in mid-stream
You don’t say… As expected, Brian Bendis is going to do for DC what he has done for Marvel.
Bendis is quoted as saying “The last runs on Superman by Dan Jurgens and Peter Tomasi and Pat Gleason have been phenomenal runs, and my run will be following their runs. We’re not throwing anything out, we’re not abandoning anything, we’re following what’s been going on and taking it to surprising new areas” but also “It’s some of the biggest status quo changes to Superman literally since Crisis.”
Translation: Superman is going to have an affair with Aquaman, and be revealed as a transgender Dreamer. Then he’ll convert to Judaism and dedicate himself to imposing peace in the Middle East.
It occurs to me that I should be a little more careful about these satirical suggestions. Marvel might offer me a job.
