March 2016 Athlete of the Month

February is here.

Buddy Hield.  Runners-up: Kyle Snyder, Breanna Stewart, Brice Johnson

      2016 is a quarter gone; here's the list of the Athletes of the Month.  

January-Von Miller
February-Lionel Messi
March - Buddy Hield

Tendown, March 27 2016

218 is here.  This is Tendown 219.


1. Trump Can Go to Clinton's Left

2.

3.

4.

5. 

The Larry Sanders Show "Flip" from Press Play Video Blog on Vimeo.

6. Jacobin.

7. What do you suppose "secure Muslim neighborhoods" means?

8. Context.

9. McGovern.

10. Bernie.

And one more...

That's all for this time.  I'll be back next time...if there is a next time...

Your pal,

Jim

Tendown, March 20 2016

217 is here. This is Tendown 218.


via GIPHY

1. Voting Rights in Florida

2. One of the Ten Best Quarterbacks of All Time Has a Pyramid Scheme.

3. 

4. Quarterbrackets!

5. You want it...You get it...

6. Stryper.

7. Ah, labor.

8.In major American sports history, one team has won 50 straight home games...

9. Here's the money, right here.

In Bizarro America, the tea party never happened. Instead, the Great Recession sparked a left-wing populist movement that swept democratic socialists into statehouses all across the country. In Vermont, these Denmark-worshippers took full control of state government and implemented their radical agenda. They raised income taxes to unprecedented heights, upped the minimum wage to $15 an hour, made all state universities tuition-free, and established a single-payer health-care system. As he signed the last of these programs into law, Governor Bernie Sanders declared that Vermont would serve as a blue-state model, one that the Democratic Party’s 2016 ticket could use to say,  “See, we’ve got a different way, and it works.”

But by 2016, that model had collapsed. Every warning that conservatives had made about Sanders’s program proved prescient. The tax hikes chased all the job creators out of state. The new minimum wage didn’t raise low-income workers’ living standards; it raised their unemployment rate. The costs of free college and universal health care proved so onerous, the state was forced to raid its rainy-day funds and borrow at high interest rates just to keep the government running. Vermont now faced a billion-dollar deficit. Schools were shuttered. Pensions were cut. The state’s department of social services could no longer afford to investigate child abuse. The legal system could no longer provide indigent defendants with representation. Nonetheless, in the race for the White House, every Democratic candidate ran on some version of Sanders’s economic model.

Wouldn’t it be important for those candidates to explain why their program wouldn’t fail the country in the same way it had failed the Green Mountain State? If you think yes, then you should demand that Donald Trump, John Kasich, and Ted Cruz explain why their tax policies won’t fail America in the same way they’ve failed the people of Kansas.

10. Cruz and Perry on the border.  Feel the testosterone.

And one more...

That's all for this time.  I'll be back next time....if there is a next time...

Your pal,

Jim

Top 10 Television Shows January-March 2016

Here was the final score for 2015.

1. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (CW)
2. Baskets (FXX)
3. Girls (HBO)
4. Portlandia (IFC)
5. Better Call Saul (AMC)
6. Last Week Tonight (HBO)
7. New Girl (Fox)
8. Broad City (Comedy Central)
9. Love (Netflix)
10. Man Seeking Woman (FXX)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's burned through lots of story (someone Josh'ing Rebecca could have been a long arc) in that "we don't know if we'll get another chance" space.  The result, though, is the best show on television so far this year.  Baskets operates on its own frequency; it's the best ever use of both Galifianakis and Louie Anderson. This might be Portlandia's best season, certainly its most even; it hits the target each week. I'm at the high end of the Saul appreciation curve; my expectation is that the rest of the season will raise its end of the year ranking above this spot

(Note on the rules, I'm only considering what's actually on - so The Americans will have a couple of episodes before end of March, but it will be more properly evaluated in the second quarter.  Also, once a show has made a quarterly list I won't put it on another, but at year's end I'll consider it's entire body of work; Saul wont be on the list again this year but the full season will count at year's end).

Here's the ranking of the Daily Show leftovers.

1. John Oliver's show
2. Sam Bee's show
3. Larry Wilmore's show.
4. Not watching anything.
5. Trevor Noah's show.

That's mildly unfair, Noah's not bad, just pointless.

New Girls' had a really funny season, it's laugh/episode ratio is the highest on the list.  Broad City's Comedy Central's best show; Love's done a good job making neither of the two characters particularly appealing - a show like You're the Worst, which I like, clearly wants us to want the main characters to be together - there's no real indication we should prefer that outcome on Love and I enjoy that.  Girls is Girls.  Man Seeking Woman wasn't as weird as season one, which is a downgrade, but counterbalanced that by offering episodes focusing on the secondary characters in ways that really scored.  

Back at mid-year.

2016 NCAA Brackets

My First Four picks were here.

In the South...

Rnd 1:
Kansas.

UConn over Colorado in the 8/9

South Dakota St. in a largely warrantless 12/5 win over Maryland (senior guard play, Maryland's inconsistent, I don't have Maryland advancing through to the sweet 16, but thats it)

Cal

I had Wichita in the play in game and I'm (in a post pic change!  Post pic!) going to roll them through Arizona.

Miami

Temple over Iowa in the 7/10, they aren't as good, but are playing better and the Philly matchup in Round 2 is too hard not to root for.

Nova

Rnd 2:
Kansas

Cal (they could get bounced in round one, I'll sweat that out)

Wichita (post pic!  I've got Wichita going through Miami into the Sweet 16!  We must be maniacs! That's a bad pic, incidentally, for your brackets, Miami obviously gets into this round whereas Wichita is climbing uphill to beat Arizona.  It's dopey.

Nova

Sweet 16
Kansas (I want to pick Cal, but they're more likely to get bounced in Round 1; if they're here though, they are a game upset pick and I'll be rooting for them)
Nova

Elite 8
Kansas (One of my models has Nova winning whole thing)

In the West...

Rnd One
Oregon

Cincinnati over St Joes in a total coin flip.

Yale over Baylor in a 12/5 - that's not an unreasonable pick, Yale's underseeded, Baylor could also go to the sweet 16, so it's high risk.

Duke - I'd like to go the other way and pick Wilmington, which is not unreasonable and I've thought about it; this is a tough group, you tell me any of the four teams come out of it and I'm not shocked.

Texas, although I've got one model with UNI.

A&M

VCU over Oregon St in the 7/10.

Oklahoma

Rnd Two
Oregon

Duke - but again, I don't feel good about this group; I'll certainly be heavy for Yale if they're in this game and they could win it.

A&M

Oklahoma

Sweet 16
Oregon

Oklahoma

Elite 8
Oklahoma (I've got them in the Final Four in every model)

East...

Rnd 1
Carolina

USC (that's different than the pic, most of my models have Providence and I think Providence is going to win, but I'm not picking against my squad in round one)

IU

UK

So, if Michigan beats Tulsa, I'm taking the Wolverines over Notre Dame - if they don't, I'm taking Notre Dame over Tulsa.

West Virginia

Pitt over Wisconsin in the 7/10, that more readily goes the other way, but I have this winner bounced in the next round

Xavier

Rnd 2
Carolina

Kentucky over Indiana in what will be a thing.  Biggest IU game in awhile.

West Virginia

X

Sweet 16
Carolina

West Virginia (I really like Xavier, I could see either of them going to the Final Four)

Elite 8
West Virginia (SFA is a game round one opponent for WVA, they do sort of the same thing, if they're gone before the first weekend I tear up the bracket)

Midwest
Rnd One
Virginia

Butler over TTech in the 8/9

Purdue

Iona - I don't have Iowa getting over Pudue in any model, so this is a low downside calculation

Gonzaga (coin flip game over Seton Hall)

Utah

Syracuse (the opposite rationale of my Temple/Iowa pick)

Michigan St

Rnd 2
UVA

Purdue

Gonzaga - this is not a great pick, it's only an okay Zags squad, but that's the deal with Utah also, and Seton Hall might beat them both

Michigan St.

Sweet 16
Purdue (I've got a model with Virginia going to the title game)

Michigan St

Elite 8
Michigan St.

So, Final Four...

Oklahoma over Kansas
Michigan St over West Virginia

Kansas is the best team in the field - but what I want is that Hield/Valentine game.

Champion
Michigan St.