There is this weird controversy out of Wheel of Fortune. It is where the “rhyme time” clue came to the old nursery rhyme of “Eenie meenie miney moe”. And the headlines come out — ” Twitter explodes”.

Twitter is always exploding. You can always run a story by just collating a bunch of tweets.

B!untly, I myself did not know the historical origins of this bit before maybe a decade ago, always having skipped willy nilly between “tiger” and “tigger” — never once dipping into the word that rhymes with a non adore “tigger”. The racist connotation makes historical sense, though on first hearing does have the result of needing to double – check: I still cannot say for sure that ” pocketful of posies” comes out of the Black Death, but can say that the now common understanding of wife beating of “Rule of thumb” is a modern invention that is inaccurate.

What bothers me — and I am basically indifferent to the controversy on use (use, don’t use, ark about “no debate! political correctness run amok!”, bark on ” no debate! Comes out of horrors of slavery!”) — is in looking at the comments section, the absolute certainty people have about other people’s experiences in hearing or not hearing the original, using or not using it. Everyone seems to know for a fact, based on their experience, that everyone else was saying or not saying it in times’ past — “as a sixth five year old from the South, sadly yes” — “as a sixty drive year old from the midwest, no.” It is a weird need of personal conjecture — to hold your point down, solidly — and thus not believe the other person here.

Yeah, watching a Seahawks team splunker off, the thought occurs that you can switch to that great moving into the playoffs Mariners team. And there you watch injuries and sudden woes all over tear the ninety nine point six percent chance downward. Still in that place where the team and its fans would not change want to change places with the Baltimore Orioles — a three game lead is a three game lead, and there can not be any trip ups for the Orioles while there has to be for the Mariners. But all this makes moot fan clamoring on whether we would rather have that third wi!scard spot over that second — the answer appears to be yes, bring on the Cleveland Indian, er — let’s call them the Ians, — though from a bit of psychological thought that means the team can only make it in over two decades in the most generous “let em in” playoff expansion. But the further answer is … The choice slides to last one in or out, fools!

So. The Seahawks. Week 2. Watch and enjoy as they hold up defensively if nowhere else. Then Trey Lance goes down to injury and you know it is over — you can turn the tv off. For the Seahawks’s chances hinged on Lance sucking. And mind you, I have no idea if Trey Lance sucks — no one does — or if he sucks now but won’t later — the hope the 49ers franchise holds for him if he does. What we know is that gone, Garrapolo is primed not to suck against a bad team.

Comically enough the next two games see the Seahawks up against lousy competition. Improbably enough I easily see them 3-1. Next comes that six game losing streak or something. Of course, the other two lousy teams see the Seahawks and think — there’s a win, so 1-3 is possible. I see a win against the Falcon and loss against the Lions, 2-2. Then enjoy that losing cluster!

Geno Smith wants to trademark his expression after that week 1. “They wrote me off — I don’t write back”, or thereabouts. This, I imagine, will lock up all that Geno Smith merchandise that will sell like wild cakes for the coming decades for the Legend of Geno Smith. Or maybe require whoever the he’ll wants to use the expression after an actual comeback to pay him, or more likely think of a different expression.

“For a guy who claims to be a big ‘states’ rights guy –” (mimic a southern drawl) “I stand by states’ rights” — back to regular outraged voice “and Lindsey Graham dare propose that national 15 week Abortion ban!”

No Republican has used the term “state’s rights” since the early or mid 1970s. No Democrat has used it since the early 1980s (as they let the last segregationist retire into the night). Maybe I am wrong about this in specifics, and you can quote Storm Thurmond from some point, but if wrong in specifics I am right in general theme.

On the broader theme of ‘Federalism’, everybody is one until they are not, situationally. Politics is kind of frustrating. One actually wants to hold onto some limiting values, but the laws of “what is once voluntary becomes mandatory” take hold as norms are established, and look and sed that partisan allies had other ideas with limited proposals. Never take in localities, or at times aim to drag the provincals forward.

I suppose with Lindsey Graham and federalism — heard by opponents as the anachronistic “states’ rights” phrase, he may land in a “hypocrisy” claim they — who never argue “localities decide” points or order, or not as much. I suppose, if I wished to grant them credit on this one.

Things that happened:

Hillary Clinton, standing next to her husband Bill, on the morning after the election that she just lost giving a conciliatory if in places barely coded barbed speech conceding defeat in the presidential election that she just lost.

Things I am sick of seeing, but know I always will in the comments section of different opinion websites:

Claims of equivalence between her response to the 2016 election and Donald Trump’s response to the election he lost in 2020.

I have to ponder a meaning for different “sponsored content” that pops up on sports related websites.

Yeah, that Camp Lejeune really screwed everyone over for four and a half decades. And am I reading that right — The Bible has a cure for Old Age?

That bathing suit is not going to inspire confidence in anyone. Especially the average sports ball fan.

So. Hey! How ’bout them Seahawks? They won the one game that the league put on in a Primetime Sunday or Monday slot. Now the league goes back to, as the scheduling announces, ceasing to care about them. And, as the Vegas odds makers have the team at an over / under 5.5 wins, fans can look forward to 4.5 more wins scattered about the season. Of course, the problem is that the team ultimately did not win — per se — as much as the Denver Broncos gift wrapped and handed the game over to the Seahawks. And the funnier thing is that the coaching decisions for the Seahawks, at the crucial moments, were bad. They just were outdone by the coaching decisions of the Broncos. Memo to Coach Carroll: the next time the opposing team lines up for a 64 yard field goal, do not call a timr-out. Because this gives them a chance to realize what a boneheaded move this is, and come back so Wilson can try for a five yard pass instead.

Hm.

No. Do not push on this piece of link bait.

Extrapolating off of the NFL coverage map for what games are playing in what markets and geographic areas —

Green means Broncos — Texans. The reason all of the state of a Texas is red except for the Houston area is that red is Cowboys — Bengals. Blue is Cardinals – Raiders. Looking at this, I am guessing everyone in Seattle will have Wilson available to watch on network broadcast television through this season. New York does not get that honor with their ex-qb of Geno.

Noted.

Outside groups have also spent millions as the parties jockey to help their chances in November. A super PAC backed by national Republicans has helped Morse by spending $4.6 million portraying him as “one tough conservative” who’ll fight for border security, and calling Bolduc’s ideas “crazy” by highlighting some of his controversial past statements, including calling Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer.” But Senate Majority PAC, the Democrats’ principal outside group, has spent $3.1 million attacking Morse as a “sleazy politician” who is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s choice in the race. These ads haven’t mentioned Bolduc, but they’ve hit Morse for taking money from lobbyists, including one with connections to the Chinese Communist Party and another group that lobbied for pharmaceutical companies amid the opioid epidemic.

A continuing storyline and theme worth watching in this election cycle is Democratic Party advertising on behalf of the perceived “less electable” Republican primary opponent, or put another way the ones that most closely and cleanly defined by President Biden as the “MAGA Republicans” — undifferentiated and unqualified from there — and are described by him as threats to our democracy. We await the election results on Tuesday which, parsing the narrowness, will see if it was the Democrats ultimately at fault for nominating them…. the very threat to democracy.

This one is a little interesting. Previously one can argue a point — that even if the fainted Democratic ad line calling the Republican “too conservative” is designed to gain support from the Republican electorate, it is the line of attack which will carry into the general election, term shifted to “extreme”. Here the line of attack is designed to amplify Bolduc’s ” Chinese communist sympathizer” — even if it is retouched to the more prosaic love babyish problems claim.

I thought maybe the phrase “Charles in Charge” might be, relative to itself, trending upward right now, and looking it up…

We will have to see if this results in a brief surge in DVD sales.

There is maybe ten, maybe eleven Senate races that hold even a modicum of interest. Of those, eight, maybe even six, are “up for grabs” or liable to switch parties. And maybe it is worthwhile to keep an amused eye on, say, Oregon’s Republican Senate candidate, Jo Perkins — but beyond an exasperated “she’s a major party’s US Senate candidate?”, and ” q again?”, there is not much to say.

So. There is a scandal. South Carolina’s Democratic Senate candidate. Project Veritas has her on taping saying stuff. Saying stuff which makes her unelectable. Some people in the state, Democrats, say she ought drop out.

It looks bad. I have not looked in to see if there is an out of context focus, but it strikes me as not of much concern. Because, what, This should, what, doom her Senate bid?

Yeah. Congratulations, Project Veritas. You really hit the hammer on this one. I look forward to Common Cause’s secret video footage which exposes No Perkins as retaliation.

It is understandable that Obama ended up having to wait past the Trump presidency for the ceremony and unveiling of a presidential portrait. We can’t count on Trump making with the required presidential niceties, even if in the immediate post election he did manage — that was short-lived and never to return. Understand, in the past speeches could be peppered with lines of double meaning — read into Bush praising Clinton’s “perseverance” what you will. But no one wants to hear Trump on Obama in a supposed apolitical framework after February of 2017 — as it won’t be apolitical.

This brings up one puzzle. Should Ron Desantis win the White House (or, fill in Republican name) — can Trump make this trip? Trump, out for himself, the partisan make-up fades off. Absent this roadblock, Biden can — I think — as if Trump comes, we can resume the apolitical and bipartisan nature of the ceremony — presidents saying nice things about other presidents — but DeSantis could not afford the Republican Trump fan whiplash at now being part of that “Swamp” in fete-ing the Democrat but not Trump.

I suppose I should swoop back over and watch the Biden speech. I see the image. It is starkness. Starkness is what they are going for. I hear a couple of sound bytes — “Maga Republicans” as a force, A new force, A thing that must be defeated for small-d democracy. I see the reviews.

Rule number one everybody needs know by now: there is no “unifying message”. Every message worth its salt excludes someone. There are different parcels of divisive messages — ones that ameliorate at least a chunk that was dropped off and those that don’t. Either way, someone remains scorned.

A political message is a political message. Supposedly we have “walk back” from the claims of threats. Of course we do. It is a hard partisan walk: the other party sucks, and some of them need to vote for us.

I had a theory developing, and have just heard it articulated by someone on the podcast team at the libertarian Reason. Biden is more susceptible than previous presidents to cadres of professional Historians chattering on about what his presidency means. So he recently heard that he was the last bulwark against the Fascists of various examples — and jumped onto that one. A tad impulsively. I do not think we got this with Clinton and Obama — maybe in thinking at the outset there was a “I’m FDR! / JFK! / the reverse Reagan!”. But by the end of his presidency Clinton was talking up those late 19th century presidents you have to squint your eyes at. Gannon tried to see Trump on some things — Andrew Jackson! — and there were some religious supporters who had a great but sinful ironic Great Leader in Ancient Israeli history to toss out — but he forgot everything the next day. Wait for some historians to come about and start selling something else — and we have an entirely different speech.