There are states that could and probably should be more transparent. That has nothing to do with the federal government stepping in to interfere. Speaking of comprehension.
I have concerns about this federal government interfering. Yet, I also feel we should have a better government that should be able to look for malfeasance. Instead of a blanket ruling that the federal government can't look, I think setting a framework where this and future (hopefully, as unlikely as it may seem) better governments can look with guardrails in place to prevent their manipulation would be a better precedent to set.
Trusting the States/Courts because you don't trust the Feds seems a bad basis for trust to me. The whole "no" evidence argument bothers me because it seems to assume that criminals are stupid and just purposefully leave a plethora of evidence out in the open. Unfortunately, our government institutions appear to be full of sophisticated criminals that are good, to varying degrees, at hiding their tracks. If instead of assuming those creating the records/"evidence" with regards to voting are good you allow the possibility that they are creating the records dishonestly in the first place, it would make the difficulty of finding evidence of fraud expected.
You aren’t going to get the perfect example in college ball. There just isn’t enough consistent competition to KNOW you found the right one.
If there were perfect examples and air tight methods to identify the best QB's in every draft there wouldn't be nearly as many first round QB busts. All you can do is look at how they preform under pressure and their skill set then try to decide how that will transfer in the NFL.
2-15 historically will get us the number one overall draft pick. Please just give me Oct 1st and Dec 13 W's, I already have tickets to those games.
Originally Posted by Floquinho
Originally Posted by bugs
I believe we are way over-depressing ourselves. As Bob Marley always sang, "Don't worry, be happy!"
More than anything else, the Cleveland Browns need players and coaches with the leadership qualities and mental toughness required to change the atmosphere within the organization.
Can Andrew Berry honestly be described as a winner—or has he become part of the losing culture?
Which players today possess the leadership qualities needed to bring the rest of the locker room with them and finally end the acceptance of poor results?
The Browns must identify coaches and players who possess a genuine will to win and who hate losing more than anything else. It will take something extraordinary to wash away decades of shattered confidence, lack of belief, and acceptance of failure.
Baker Mayfield was never the best quarterback in the league, but he possessed some of the fire, defiance, and competitive spirit that this organization so clearly lacks. Love him or hate him, the Browns need another young quarterback with a similar mentality, because arm talent and strong legs are only half the package.
Andrew Berry brought you, just over the past two offseasons: Todd Monken, who was a two time National Champion with Georgia before coming back to the NFL and has been to the playoffs 2 of his last 3 seasons, winning TWO AFC NORTH championships during that time and went to the AFC Championship game with the Ravens.
Travis Switzer, with the Ravens his first 7 years in the league before coming to the Browns, went to the playoffs 6 of those 9 seasons, winning the AFC North Division 4 times and going to the AFC Championship game in 2023.
Byron Storer, went to the playoffs 3 of his 5 seasons prior to joining the Browns
Jared Verse, went to the playoffs and NFC Championship game in his first two years in the league.
Drafted Mason Graham in 2025 who won a national championship in college Drafted Quinshon Judkins in 2025 who won a national championship in college Drafted Michael Hall Jr in 2024 who won a national championship in college Drafted Zach Zinter in 2024 who won a national championship in college Drafted others who played in the College Football Playoff Series
He can bring in people that win, but once he gets them here, he has very little influence over the actual winning part.
When it comes to the blame game, my personal opinion is that Andrew Berry is at the bottom of the list.
By definition, every organization has a limited number of leaders, while the rest are followers. Simply being part of a successful team does not automatically make someone a leader.
Leadership, toughness, mental strength, and that refuse-to-die mentality are specific character traits. You usually discover them only by working closely with someone or watching how they respond when subjected to extraordinary pressure. That’s why statistics—and how a player performs when everything is going well—often tell only half the story.
Deshaun Watson is a perfect example of someone who possesses certain leadership qualities while also being burdened by some deeply flawed character traits.
Every player you mentioned has been part of a successful organization. But that does not guarantee that any of them were among the driving forces behind that success—or that they possess the specific qualities the Browns so desperately need.
The good news is that some players can grow into those roles through age, experience, and increased responsibility. The bad news is that the opposite can happen too.
Call it Lex Watson: whatever can deteriorate in Cleveland eventually will.
On my list Berry is on the podium.
I agree Floquinho, it is nearly impossible to know who has leadership qualities and who doesn't. The only thing they can go on is interviews in most cases, both with the coaches and when doing background. Being a part of multiple successful teams though, would be a more positive view from the outside looking in, than say someone who calls out their team publicly, calls out ownership publicly and refuses to play publicly until his contract status changes... That is Watson's background. I wouldn't use him as any type of example of possessing any leadership qualities. I have seen him blame outside sources for failure.
There are no guarantees that a player even remains a leader when taking them from one environment of winning and planting them in the middle of a losing environment.
Leadership is typically a trait that is instilled in someone and follows them from program to program. It isn't usually difficult to find the quality discussed by coaches and peers. By all accounts, all the players that I listed have had great reports of being a part of the success, not just someone hanging around and enjoying the success. I don't know a lot about the coaches, admittedly, but the players were pretty easy to find positive praise on.
I apologize, I don't understand the Lex Watson reference. I also don't understand if you are saying Berry is on the podium as a leader or if you don't think he has shown any qualities to this point to justify having faith in him. I'm a little confused there.
The naked eye test shows that Monken was not able to get a team ready for their week 1 contest. That to me shows a lack of leadership. Can he redeem himself? Obviously, but all I can go on is what I see in the games played and as of right now, the first shovel has been thrust into the ground.
rump stated that renovations funded by Congress will not move forward unless his name is allowed to return to the building, warning the center could remain closed indefinitely..........
Kennedy Center will close for renovations after judge blocks returning Trump’s name to building
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning President Donald Trump’s name to the building.
In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can’t happen without the approval of Congress.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling Tuesday.
The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he’d given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.
The meeting included testy exchanges at points between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has led the campaign to block efforts to memorialize the president at the Kennedy Center. At one point, Beatty referred to Trump as someone who caused “extreme harm,” according to a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Trump said Beatty was “incompetent” and “holding up everything.”
“You’re holding up the whole country,” she responded.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said, “Trump-deranged Dumocrats like Joyce Beatty oppose anything that celebrates the greatness of our country because they put America Last.”
Kennedy Center fans worry about possible demolition
The developments threw into limbo the fate of one of the nation’s most prominent cultural institutions, a place where presidents, lawmakers and celebrities of all political ideologies have gathered for decades to recognize and celebrate the best in American arts and culture.
The venue’s leaders have argued that the massive building, which began construction in 1965, was in dire need of renovations. A partial ceiling collapse in the building’s main hallway earlier this month intensified the calls for renovations.
“The building is not currently built to last, the chairman knows that because he is among the best builders in the world,” Brian Ballard, Kennedy Center board member, said in a statement.
But Trump’s insistence on a physical recognition of his work on the building, reminiscent of his tendency to add his name to buildings as a real estate developer, has been a persistent sticking point — alienating many of the institution’s longtime supporters and facing repeated legal roadblocks.
The fight over the Kennedy Center marks a rare setback in Trump’s second term bid to dramatically remake the nation’s capital in his gilded tastes. He’s demolished the East Wing of the White House and is replacing it with a ballroom and plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He’s also eyeing a golf course renovation along the Potomac River.
The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe his name on the Kennedy Center’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed in Trump’s honor.
Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.
Hanging over the hearing was the prospect that the administration may seek to demolish the Kennedy Center. In a filing last month, administration lawyers told the court that absent recognition of the president, the Kennedy Center would struggle to raise money for renovations. Without that money, they suggested, the building may need to be demolished, a prospect that alarmed some given Trump’s swift moves last year to dismantle the East Wing.
The Kennedy Center, the lawyers argued, “will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”
It seems the trump family cares enough about it to make public denials of any involvement and doing what they can to distance themselves from the situation.......
Donald Trump: President Trump stated he does not personally know Kremlev, has never heard of him, and noted that the funding covered a separate afterparty rather than the actual wedding ceremony.
Melania Trump has denied any involvement in or knowledge of the financial planning for Donald Trump Jr.’s recent wedding celebrations. Following an investigative report by ProPublica, a spokesperson stated that she played no role in organizing the event and was not privy to its finances.
Sounds like they think Biden led the charge. Someone better get their marching orders straight.
"Casas-Zamora said it was clear that events in the US influenced other countries. International Idea added the US to its list of “backsliding” democracies for the first time in 2021, pointing to a “visible deterioration” it said began in 2019."
At least Australia is spending more resources fighting racism. Looks like democracy is doing great there.
Prosecutor brought in to lead investigation of Trump foes tells AP that he has resigned his position
WASHINGTON (AP) — An ally of President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has resigned from his post leading a Justice Department investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president.
The departure of Joe diGenova injects instant tumult into an investigation targeting former government officials who have scrutinized Trump over the last decade, including in connection with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and his retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I did in fact resign,” diGenova told The Associated Press, calling it an “honor and a privilege” to serve Trump and the Justice Department.
Though diGenova declined to comment to the AP on the circumstances of his resignation, a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss a personnel decision said the departure came amid mounting frustration from the Justice Department and White House over the pace and management of the probe.
In an interview later with The New York Post, diGenova responded to criticism of his management of the investigation by saying, “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem.”
When reached again by the AP, diGenova said the comments were taken out of context, adding: “There’s plenty of evidence in all of these cases to prove the theories of prosecution. It just takes time to get there, and some people want to get there a little faster than others — and you can’t do that.”
The investigation has always been something of a tall order, aiming to present separate and unrelated inquiries of the president as part an anti-Trump conspiracy by law enforcement and intelligence professionals. Though promoted by the White House, and seized on by Trump supporters looking for accountability against what they see as “deep state” intelligence community actors, the conspiracy investigation has proceeded in fits and starts since its inception a year ago.
The 81-year-old diGenova served as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia during the Reagan administration and for years has been a prominent Trump ally, including backing his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and publicly and repeatedly claiming that the president was the victim of an intelligence community conspiracy.
He was brought back to the Justice Department in April and given the reins of the loosely defined investigation.
Five months later, no charges have been brought and it remains unclear whether any will be, or what information has been gathered to support any basis for the idea of a plot against Trump by the government officials who investigated him.
Investigators have sought interviews related to the 2022 FBI search that recovered classified documents from Mar-a-Lago and have also focused intensely on one of Trump’s chief grievances: a U.S. intelligence community assessment that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election. The assessment has long infuriated the president, along with a Justice Department special counsel investigation into Russian election interference that shadowed him during his first term.
That special counsel investigation identified widespread Russian interference in the election but did not find evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Multiple other government inquiries, including by the Justice Department inspector general, have identified significant errors and omissions in the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia probe but did not find evidence of criminal conduct by senior law enforcement officials.
The yearlong conspiracy investigation has hit stumbles before. Last April, a lead national security prosecutor in the investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan was replaced on the team after raising questions about the strength of the case. Days later, diGenova was sworn in.
Brennan has been investigated on allegations that he lied to Congress about the creation of the intelligence community assessment, which he and his lawyers have vigorously denied. In July, he sued the Justice Department for a court order requiring the preservation of all records from the investigation, forecasting plans to challenge any potential indictment of him on vindictive prosecution grounds.
LMAO - Jon Stewart is dumb? Because he's been pointing out the hypocrisy and stupidity Trump and MAGA fanboys for years? . . . Or is he dumb because that's such an easy target and not challenging?
9/11 goes back to a time where we didn't get instantly alerted to breaking news. I was in college. Had a 2 hour lecture that morning. I didn't know anything had happened until 10:30 when I went down to the lab and saw everyone huddled around a TV.
Wow. What an incredible connection to Brian’s spirit, eh?
For eleven years, we watched him handle unimaginable hardship without a single complaint or 'woe is me' attitude. Outwardly, his body went through so much, but inwardly, his light only grew brighter. His mantra that 'every day is a good day' was proof that he was looking past that pain toward something much bigger. Pain is temporary... but his legacy, and his peace, are eternal.
Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday did not commit to acting independently of President Trump, but he claimed the president has not and will not ask him to prosecute specific individuals.
Trump publicly pressured AG Bondi to take action against Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former FBI Director James Comey. Trump directed the DOJ and FBI to investigate Democrats tied to Jeffrey Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman. Trump, in an executive order signed Thursday, directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate allegations that Republicans have raised that ActBlue allows illegal campaign donations.
“There’s a big difference between saying we will always do our job and investigate any case and act independently of the White House. No, I’m not going to pledge that. And no attorney general should ever pledge that,” Blanche told host Kristen Welker on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
He later said, “If I were to pledge, I will be independent of the White House, what that means is that if President Trump says, ‘I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country’ — which is what he has said — what you’re saying to me is I should say, ‘No, sir, I’m not going to do it.’”
That would simply be him asking you to do your job. Not go after his political enemies or make purely political decisions and prosecutions based on politics alone.
Blanche also said he would “of course” take the president’s view into consideration before taking action, noting he hoped “every attorney general in history would not answer that question differently.”
Since taking over at the Justice Department in an acting capacity, Blanche has overseen the department’s prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey — who was fired by Trump during his first term — over an alleged threat to the president.
Comey, a frequent critic of Trump, denied threatening the president via his Instagram post of a photo depicting “86 47” written out in seashells on a beach.
Blanche also signed off on the creation of a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund as part of the president’s settlement agreement with the IRS.
Under that agreement, Blanche ordered the IRS to never again probe the taxes of Trump, his family members or his businesses — despite the tax agency falling under the Treasury Department. A federal judge has since reopened the president’s lawsuit against the IRS.
The Justice Department scrapped the fund amid bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill, with Blanche officially rescinding his initial order earlier this month in exchange for Republican Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) supporting his confirmation.
The Senate confirmed Blanche via a 50-49 vote last weekend, and Trump’s former personal attorney was sworn in as the full-time attorney general on Aug. 10.
When Welker asked Blanche what he would do if the president asked him to cross an “ethical or legal line,” the attorney general dismissed the possibility.
“The president will never ask me to do something unethical or illegal. He never has. He never will,” Blanche said Sunday.
The attorney general later remarked, “The president does not expect any of his leaders, including me, to just say yes to him no matter what he says. And so of course, there’s vigorous back and forth with every Cabinet member of the president of the United States, which is exactly what President Trump expects.”
“Again, there is this extraordinarily false narrative that the president wakes up in the morning and calls me and says, ‘Todd, go prosecute X or Y.’ He does not do that. He has never done that. He will never do that,” he added.
Once again...... Trump publicly pressured AG Bondi to take action against Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former FBI Director James Comey. Trump directed the DOJ and FBI to investigate Democrats tied to Jeffrey Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman. Trump, in an executive order signed Thursday, directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate allegations that Republicans have raised that ActBlue allows illegal campaign donations.
The president previously urged Blanche’s predecessor, former Attorney General Pam Bondi, to speed up the prosecutions of multiple of his perceived enemies last year.
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