Day 543

• Yokozuna Hakuho is out of the next tournament, about to start.
• But this one is his entire stable, including Enho, Ishiura, and Hokuseiho.  Appears as if a COVID outbreak has taken out that entire stable.
• Two lower division wrestlers from the stable have tested positive, and this forces the Japan Sumo Association to ban the entire stable from the September meet.
• Hakuho himself had tested positive back in January, just before that tournament.
• Tyrod Taylor will start the season as the Houston Texans' starting quarterback.  DeShaun Watson WILL be on the roster, however.
• Last night's "All Out" AEW pay-per-view was a huge success, including CM Punk's first match in 7 years, and debuts of former WWE talents Adam Cole, Ruby Soho (Riott), Bryan Danielson -- as well as NJPW's Murder Grandpa, Minoru Suzuki.
• It was announced today that 3-4 players and a couple staffers from the Georgia football team were COVID positives.  The program announced all had been vaccinated.
• Pele has had a tumor removed from his colon.

Day 542

• Your COVID "Duh" Moment of the Day:  Tom Brady reported he came down with the coronavirus after the Buccaneers' Super Bowl parade.
• Brady also believes the NFL will have more problems with COVID this year than last, especially as the NFL tries to market itself as "Fans are back!!  Join us!!!!"  Duh
• Dallas Cowboys' Zack Martin is a COVID positive and out for Week 1.  That is the sixth COVID positive on the team in 16 days, with three more close contacts.
• Today is the end of the PGA Tour season.  A handicapped Tour Championship wraps up today.  Strokes were given to the top finishers in the Fed Ex Cup points in this tournament, with them, combined with the four rounds in Atlanta, determining who wins $15,000,000 and the season title.  Patrick Cantlay led by two at the start of play today, and won the $15,000,000 and the season championship by one shot over Jon Rahm of Spain.
• Everyone jacking off to college football, not realizing there MAY BE two relevant teams this year.  To give you an idea of how far Alabama is ahead of everyone else, they were 18.5 point favorites over a mid-teens ranked Miami team.
• They won 44-10.  Play with the best, or go down like the rest.  Powerful recruiting message.
• And as for Clemson:  They lost at home to Georgia, 10-3.  Georgia and Alabama will not meet until the SEC title game.
• And sounds like Pedo State is getting at least a secondary push in the Big Ten -- 16-10 winners at Wisconsin.  No mean feat, except when you realize that the refs ignored two holding/pass interference calls in the endzone in favor of Sandusky's Boys, after which Penn State blocked the ensuing field goal.
• If Ohio State and Oklahoma are #3 and #4, don't even bother playing them with Alabama and Georgia.  Oklahoma (note, no D in Oklahoma) needed everything they had on offense to escape a hurricane-relocated and distracted Tulane!  And I already showed you what Ohio State needed to get past Minnesota.
• Another All-Pro NFL left us on Saturday:  Pittsburgh's Tunch Ilkin -- 12 years with the league and two Pro Bowls...  ALS.
  
• We lost Willard Scott yesterday.  Long-time Today Show weatherman, spent many years saluting centearians by showing pictures and announcing 100-year old people on their birthdays.  The world was unfair, though -- he didn't get that far.  He was 87.
• The Brazil-Argentina World Cup Qualifier Derby in Brazil has been stopped by Brazilian authorities, five minutes in.  They want to DEPORT four of the Argentinian players for COVID rules.  More on this as it develops, maybe...
• Four big Premier League stars were supposed to be deported out of Brazil for COVID rules, but they did not make themselves available to do so.  So they only started the process six minutes into the match.
• There is also conflicting report that COMNEBOL, to accommodate the match schedule, was able to get an agreement which would allow the necessary travel and the like.  HOO BOY...
• The game will not be played.  The COMNEBOL Disciplinary Committee will determine what happens to it.
• In other qualifier COVID news, Zack Steffen is out for the USA's match tonight with Canada due to COVID.
• And Brazil-Argentina wasn't the only Qualifier abandoned today.  Guinea and Morocco could not play today -- Guinea has fallen to a coup.
• In a move many ex-NFL fans might see welcome:  Troy Apke has made NFL history.  He's the first White cornerback to make an NFL roster (he played free safety the last three years) in 19 years, according to MSN.  It's a small in-road, but, to many in the KKK/fascist White Right, a necessary one...   

2021 Super Fraud NFL Preview: Only One Question Remains -- Who's The Patsy?

Might as well do it and get it done with:

NFC East:

Is there actually a team in this division which can get to nine wins?

Is there a team in this division which is actually worth mentioning?

About the only team which can really benefit the NFL by doing any degree of decent is DALLAS.  Washington is about the only team which, by the normal Pythagorean discussion, even should sniff nine wins, but the only team which really can get a benefit is about the only team which can draw.

Too bad the Cowboys get the defending champs in the opener Thursday night.

So:

Should win the division:  The Football Team.

Will win the division:  How bout them Cowboys at 9-8?

NFC North:

He had to come back, especially when it became clear Mikey Richards was fucking with Jeopardy!  People forget Aaron Rodgers also (ostensibly) tried out, and that would be an out for him if the Packers didn't serve him.

But it's clear the Brett Favre Spiral is beginning anew in Packer-land, and the 0-3 preseason...  The only thing that proves is that if injuries hurt this team to any real extent, they have no replacements.

Again, though:  It's Green Bay, and the NFL would like to get away from that kind of a fanbase, especially in an increasingly urban and thug image for the sport.

It all comes down to Rodgers and whether he lasts the 17, but...

Should and will:  Green Bay, by default.

NFC South

Tampa Bay.  Next!!  It's not COMPLETELY out of the question Tampa may win more games than the other three teams in the division combined!

NFC West

The only division of any real repute in the NFC, as San Francisco, Seattle, and LA discussing matters.  Given those three, perhaps a slight nod to LOS ANGELES, even though it probably doesn't matter.

Should win division:  Seattle is probably the best team, but this is Super Fraud!

Will win division:  The LA Experiment continues.

Wildcards:  Seattle, San Francisco, and Minnesota -- pretty much all that is left in the NFC.

NFC Champion:  In one of the easiest title defenses ever, Tampa Bay.  The gulf between them and #2 (probably Green Bay with Rodgers, Seattle or LA if Rodgers gets hurt) is utterly massive.  At least one early projection has Tampa Bay scoring the most points and conceding the fewest.  They have built a mercenary group to get Brady at least #8, if not #9 and #10 to place him so far above the other athletes that all must lay prostrate to him (ignore that he's doing things with his body implausible at his age for athletes who are not on the gas.  Tom Brady's on illegal performance-enhancers and any sane person knows it.  But what also any sane person must know is how much of this league and it's history (20 years now, as of this week!) revolves around the White Patriot.)

Caesars has Tampa 3-1 to win the NFC.  You're basically betting 3-1 that Tom Brady stays upright.  Tampa has the easiest schedule in the NFL for a reason.

AFC East

The more which is coming out about Cam Newton, the less there's much hope this guy wasn't the fraud I knew he was in Auburn, and was bought and paid for by whatever controls the American Sports Machine (a good current analogue would be apparent New Orleans starter Jameis/Rapeis Winston). 

Word has come out that the new quarterback actually had to teach Newton the playbook.  Not the other way around.  So Belichick has done The Belichick Thing and jettisoned Newton (probably ending his NFL career -- thank God!), but can a rookie first-round draft pick, even out of Alabama, get them to the Promised Land?  About the only real story I've thought for months (sorry, Buffalo) for next February in Los Angeles is Brady vs. Belichick.  This makes it significantly harder, but not completely implausible.

Should win division:  Buffalo and EASILY.

Will win division:  Probably 60-40 Buffalo over New England, but the other will Wild Card.

AFC North

I've actually seen a recent (as in today) major sports-website NFL prediction which has the Cleveland Browns as the patsy for Tampa Bay in Super Bowl LVI.

Mike Clay actually believes the Browns have the best roster in the conference, including an ascending quarterback.

The one thing they (and New England) would have, in the AFC, is The Great White Hope at quarterback.

The one problem is that, how do you market this team outside of Odell Beckham Jr. -- an aging, injury-prone effective never-really-was?

Should win division:  Baltimore

Will win division:  If they'd be remotely serious about getting Beckham to a Super Bowl, this might be the year.  But Baltimore is the better team with the more marketable commodity.

AFC South

I think the biggest problem with this division is the same problem they've had for a number of years:  WHO THE FUCK CARES, outside of the four fanbases?

Jacksonville is a complete and utter joke.  Tennessee would be better if they had a material defense.  (Clay points out that they have the most offensive touchdowns in the NFL 2015-2020, tied with the Ravens.)  Indianapolis has no rudder at the top, unless you think Carson Wentz is going to amount to a hill of beans in this league.  And Houston is, by a fair distance, the worst team in the NFL.

Should and will win:  Tennessee, with no other real option.

AFC West

He may no longer be working for the team, but Britt is Andy's son.  Next court date on the DUI attempted murder of that girl is September 16th.

Andy Reid is an unfit monster to lead his family, much less a group of men.  The fact he has been shown, time and again, on both fronts, to be so unfit is the reason which has cost the Chiefs two large-scale runs in the last five years, and probably that second consecutive Super Bowl, even though many sportsbooks have them the favorite for LVI out of the AFC.

I can't see it.  I really can't.  Yeah, the on the field is obviously there.  But the fact that Andy Reid is such a fucking piece of shit is not lost on Park Avenue in New York, and the Patrick Mahomes Experiment may be, at best, on long-term hold, if it's not off completely.

That said:  Good God, what other choice would you have among these three?  A Chargers team with zero fanbase?  A Raiders team which sucks rocks?  And a Denver team which is so obviously flawed, no sane person could understand why Aaron Rodgers would want to spend the rest of his career there, unless he never wanted to play another meaningful NFL game again...

Should and will win:  Kansas City, of course -- but that reckoning comes in January.

Wildcards:  Buffalo/New England, Baltimore/Cleveland (whichever of the pair does not win the division in both cases) and Tennessee.

AFC Champion:  The one real question which I believe remains in the year.  A month ago or so, I'd be 1,000% behind New England for Brady vs. Belichick.  And I have them a nose in front of Baltimore and Buffalo to lose to Tampa in the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl:  Caesar's has something like +650-+700 for Tampa to win SB LVI -- that's because either the bettors, the bookies, or both believe Kansas City is going to be allowed to amount to anything once the chips are down in January.  Again, that's a bet that Tom Brady is upright come February.  If he is, it's a mortal lock, number eight, put it in the book, regardless of the opponent.

If he's not, the entire season goes completely up for grabs.  There are not even that many GOOD teams this year in the NFL.  If you remove Tampa if Brady gets hurt, I count about...  six???  And one of them is a one-man show in Green Bay.

The COVIDLympics, Day P- The Last: They made it. Unbelievable.

• All of the medal events now complete.  The only remaining moment left is the Paralympic Closing Ceremony.
• China has won the Paralympic Medal Count by a monstrous margin.  By a margin of 55 gold (more than 2-1 over Great Britain) and 93 total (about 45% of China's total is their margin over GB), China won the table with 96 gold and 207 overall -- and yet both represent significant decreases from Rio (107 and 239).
• Great Britain also took a heavy drop -- 41 gold and 124 total from 64 and 147.
• USA pipped Russia for third in golds -- 37 to 36.  USA also down quite a bit from five ago (40 and 115 for fourth in Rio, 37 and 104 for third golds and fourth total here).
• Russia, 36 and 118 for third total.  Russia was not even allowed in the 2016 Paralympics in any capacity.  If you need to know where the Chinese, British, Ukranian and American drops were, most of them went here.
• Netherlands were fifth in golds with 25.  However, only 58 total, ninth on the table.
• Ukraine was fifth in the total with 98, 24 gold for sixth.  Rio:  41 and 117.

Some total thoughts:

• 62 nations won gold medals in the Paralympics.  
• Five nations won their first Paralympics golds:  Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.  All won one each.
• CRC:  Sherman Isidro Guity Guity, T64 200m dash, Athletics.
• ECU:  Poelth Isamar Mendes Sanchez, F20 Shot Put, Athletics.
• ETH:  Tigist Mengitsu, T13 1500m Athletics.
• PAK:  Haider Ali, F37 Discus, Athletics.
• SRI:  Dinesh Priyan Herath Mudiyanselage, F46 Javelin Throw, Athletics.
• 63 won golds in Rio.  57 in London.
• 86 nations won medals in these Games.
• Costa Rica also broke it's Paralympic maiden by winning two medals.  Guity Guity also won silver in the T64 100m as well as his gold in 200m.
• Ecuador also broke it's Paralympic maiden -- they won three.  As well of Mendez Sanchez in the F20 Shot Put for gold, they got bronze from Kiara Rodriguez in the F46/47 Long Jump and Anais Mendez in the F20 Shot Put.
• Montenegro broke it's Paralympic maiden as well.  Bronze for Filip Radovic, Table Tennis, Class 10.
• And two nations actually broke, by breaking their Paralympic maiden, that they had never won a medal, Olympics OR Paralympics, until now.  El Salvador and Oman won a bronze each.  
• El Salvador:  Herbert Aceituno, 59 kg Men's class of Powerlifting.
• Oman:  Mohammed Al Mashaykhi, F32 Shot Put
• 83 won medals in Rio.  75 in London.

Day 541, Part 3 and there probably will be more...

• Lane Kiffin has tested positive for COVID and will be out for today's opener.
• Naomi Osaka melted down last night and lost her third-round match at the US Open and basically told the press conference she probably does not know when she will play tennis again.  Mental-health suspension, WTA Tour?  As in...  NOW???    
• Oscar de la Hoya was to fight an exhibition fight against Vitor Belfort in Los Angeles next Saturday night when he announced COVID yesterday.  Now, apparently, the sham operation which put together an entertainment extravaganza for a Florida stadium, including Snopp Dogg and a boxing card, has contracted for Evander Holyfield to take his place.
• One problem:  Holyfield is so decrepit, at this point, the California State Athletic Commission, won't touch him with a 10-foot loaded bazooka!!  So Holyfield vs. Belfort will probably have to take place in Florida, with the rest of the sham card held in California!
• Another COVID positive:  Wisconsin LB Leo Chenal -- out 2 games as a result.
• And we have the first sports-betting horror story of the college football season.  Someone bet $220,000 at BetMGM that Tennessee would cover -36 with Bowling Green.  The game was 38-6 in the last minute, with Tennessee at about the Bowling Green 22 and apparently still running plays.  The next play is a fumble dropped handoff, recovered by Bowling Green, and the guy loses $220,000 because they didn't win by enough...
• Another bettor lost $100,000 when UCF (-6.5) beat Boise State 36-31.
• Sloane Stephens received over 2000 racist messages after a US Open loss Friday night -- more than a few saying she needs to be raped.  There's only one way to stop this kind of shit, and it's not even prison.  #ShootBack  It's only a matter of time, even if these are disgruntled gamblers, people... 

The One Which Is More "Stick To Sprots": "Bishop Sycamore" And Three Men Who Need To ROT IN PRISON -- NOW!!!

This is probably going to be the most "pleasant" of the three.  And even THIS is...  Eugh...

I'm going to post what I see as, frankly, probably the best measured summary of a lot of this, even if it is the Shitposting Yinzer Of All Time And Space, Urinatingtree:

To say that this story must end in criminal charges for all realistically involved in power at the "Bishop Sycamore" level is an understatement.

Tree, as usual, with his sardonic wit (although a lot of this bridges into the "pissed off" motif rather than his usual dark wit), chronicles what we have learned from this sham operation over the last six days since an ill-fated "football game" was "played" in front of a national ESPN audience on Sunday afternoon.

• The reason this game was played on Sunday afternoon was probably due to the fact that this sham operation was in Pittsburgh FRIDAY NIGHT (less than FORTY-EIGHT HOURS before the IMG game) to play Sto-Rox.  Sto-Rox was a rated Class 2A team in the area (top five, according to the Pittsburgh Gazette) last season.  And, contrary to claims by "BS", there were players claimed to be in both games.
• The team, on camera, was seen in shoddy uniforms, sharing equipment (and some believe uniforms), and probably in every conceivable violation of COVID protocols in history.
• The team was completely unqualified to even face a small-town Wisconsin team, even though many of the players on the team were on the team as JUCO and high-school dropouts.  This wasn't even a high-school football game.  At least four or five of them were JUCO dropouts and several were fathers of at LEAST 20-21 years old!
• The team is probably the consistency of a small Wisconsin outfit, as Tree estimates the team size at about 35!  An alleged "roster" for another game given had the number at about 26, with no static uniform numbers, weights, locations, or anything else.

So why was this allowed to take place?

As several outlets have noted, ESPN does not cover high-school football in it's own merit.  The regional and conference networks don't even touch it for the Worldwide Leader in Snorts.  The only times they cover this sport is to basically highlight those players who are going to be playing on Saturday in the various major schools ESPN and it's sister networks will cover to salivate the dying vestiges of what is left of college football.

So, enter Roy Johnson, the head coach of this garbage.  With him, enter Andre Peterson, the director of whatever this place is, and Jay Richardson, who not only is STILL ON ABC 6 in Columbus (but denies the reports he is partners with Peterson and Richardson), but was on four different NFL teams in a six-year span, playing three years with the Raiders before basically falling out of the league.

Basically, all ESPN does with high-school football is a couple of high-level recruits in opening games of the season and the likes of the Under Armour All-American Game, where many entering freshmen show off and the last of the recruiting class announce their destinations.

To give you an idea, IMG Academy is owned by the William Morris Agency.  THAT William Morris Agency.

So Johnson and Peterson go to failed students at the high-school and JUCO level and entice them with one last shot at making something out of their football lives.  

• They defraud $1,500 a head from these people, not only promising them FBS exposure, but also Christian structure.
• Then the men get subjected to where they are hardly fed (many had to shoplift just to EAT).
• As noted above, no real facilities or uniforms.  There is no home stadium for "BS".
• Their "conference" is a purported religious private-school conference in TEXAS!  And they're not the only operation outside the state of Texas in that conference -- there's one two states over in Mississippi!
• Hell, their actual address has orbited from a PO Box to a condominium where most of the players were left to sleep on the floor...
• After they were evicted from a hotel they were staying out when their checks bounced.
• And if you want to see the levels people sometimes try to go to get noticed when they have no right to be:  At least one player from "BS" got mentioned in Sports Illustrated for his talent in high-school games.  Too bad that the best estimate they could find was that QB/LB Josh Bogan was a 20 year-old JUCO dropout!
• This year's starting quarterback WAS a U17 select, but ended up in SEVEN different California schools in his four-year career, playing in FIVE different varsity football programs in four years.  That, in and of itself, should be investigated, on any number of fronts.   
• Probably the most egregious case was one found by a Florida sports analyst, Andrew Ivins.  He found a "BS" player who graduated, apparently, from Florida in 2020, conned his way onto a 7v7 camp with a fake ID, and put together a completely-fake HUDL (football/soccer exposure) profile.

But here's three really "fun" facts about this sham operation which really need to have you shaking your head:

• This was NOT their first contest with IMG Academy!  They played October 16, 2020, in IMG's first game of the year -- IMG won 56-6.  As people I talk to on certain situations tell me, often the only existence of lesser teams is to pad the statistics and stature of the "greaters".  IMG would be well-served in this regard, frankly.   
• This isn't even the first real attempt at such defrauding by at least Peterson and Johnson.  Three years ago, they created Christians of Faith school, a similar sham outfit, disaccredited from Ohio Schools and thrown out of the OHSAA, the state sanctioning body.  They went 1-11 in 2018, with a cancelled game against IMG Academy!  That outfit had a home field and actually beat a Michigan school.
• And not even the second, apparently the 2019 attempt was called "YouthBuild"...
• Here's a list of criminal and civil charges on Peterson and Johnson in just the last two years:

1. Two bank-fraud cases with local banks in 2018.
2. Which came from loans, probably leading to the check-bouncing scheme with Baymont Inn...  The combination of just these three alone was almost $300,000!!!
3. Eviction proceedings for them and 22 players for stealing a roof over their head (to the tune of another $35,000/month for the season -- so add another $200Kish to the number) from Tailwind Griff LLC and The Griff Apartments.
4. Johnson has a March, 2020 domestic-violence case, including assault and disorderly conduct.
5. They created a new shell corporation for the 2020 season (ISE Foundation), and defrauded another outfit out of 16 apartments worth and $25,000 a month for that season (another $100-125K).
6. A charter bus company civil situation.
7. And on July 2, 2021, the head coach of this outfit, Roy Johnson, gets a Failure to Appear bench warrant on the DV case.

• They ran a GoFundMe to get funds.  Wanted $20,000.  Got a hundred and forty bucks.

So let's summarize this:

• This outfit was able to defraud one of the largest sports corporations in the country, with a massive high-school recruiting network, to put it on the air.  (Yes, they can say it was through the marketing firm that ESPN contracts it to, but still...  NO ONE actually did an ounce of research with their recruiting database on any of this jokery?)
• They probably entered this season a good million in arrears civil cases, and probably more coming.
• The head coach is going to jail for domestic violence.
• The team literally played in a game in the next state over less than 48 hours before the contest in Canton with IMG.
• This is at least the THIRD attempt at such defrauding by these two.

I have been rightfully accused of wanting too much scorched-Earth on some of this stuff.

But I can't think anyone with sign-off power on this contest should remain with ESPN or the marketing company ESPN contracts this out to.

I'm not going to say this is a fire-able offense, but the fact they even did 2 1/2 quarters of the game with everyone basically KNOWING this was a sham contest by mid-second-quarter is irresponsible on the Worldwide Leader's part.  Do ESPNNews for a couple hours and get this shitfest off the goddamn field!

How Jay Richardson is not on at least paid leave, if not suspension, from his post at ABC 6 Columbus, is beyond any sense of my comprehension.

And as for the two main men??  LONG prison sentences.  They make some of the guys I found out were coaching professional drug/gang-fueled Pop Warner football in Florida (when I could find their arrest records) cuddly in comparison.

And, the worst part?  I agree with Tree.  There's MORE TO THIS.  Stay tuned.

The One I'm Pretty Sure I CAN Post Without Getting In That Much Trouble: COVID And You

I have three posts, above and beyond the norm of the "Day" posts or the rig-job posts, that I want to post here.  This is, actually, probably the one which will get me in some trouble, but probably the least of the three.

And, even then, I think it's clear I'm fucking pissed.

You see, we are now on mutation number...  FOUR now?  First, Delta, Lambda, now I'm hearing about a Mu variant of this...

Let me give you some of the stories I've seen just this week:

1)  There was a Arizona school in which a female principal ordered a student quarantined after a positive COVID test (not even sure if that student was positive or whether it was a contact-tracing situation).  The student's father, another male, and a third male (along to document it) acquired the industrial twist-ties police use in mass-arrest situations.  They planned to arrest the principal.  They left after police were called -- it's unclear on what the principal or the school will do next.

2) A fistfight and a long litany of Republican Karens crying (instead of painting their pussies with targets so their "betters" (Ha!) know where to grab) made Don Lemon speechless, as he had to cover this situation in a school-board meeting.  CNN has the transcript of Lemon's Tuesday night show -- start at the 45 minute mark.  ([22:45:00])

200,000 _KIDS_ testing positive in the last week, a five-fold increase in a month.

GEE, YOU THINK THE REASONS THIS IS HAPPENING IS BECAUSE OF MASK REFUSALS AND, AS A RESULT OF MASK REFUSALS, WE SHOULDN'T BE PUTTING THE KIDS BACK IN REGULAR SCHOOL SITUATIONS YET?

Some of you Republicans need to get right with what you really want to do -- you want the "lessers" to get this virus and die.  In this case, it's the LD and unpopular students you want to see piled up like fucking cordwood.  Some of us who lived at least one of those horrors in school see this and understand what is being asked for.

(Well, it's either that or destroy the entire education system...)

Bitch (who compared the mask mandates to war crimes of the Germans in WWII):  If you want to talk about the Holocaust and Nuremburg, maybe it's time you stop acting like them, you Nazi fuck.

3) Like you are the medical system, with reports now all over the country that entire states are out of ICU beds, medical oxygen, or BOTH!

4) Fox News' Tucker Carlson has demanded the arrest and prosecution of any person wanting to require the vaccine, and any person basically trying to do anything to stop the spread of the coronavirus and it's variants.

To his warped mind, it makes sense:  He wants that 2-odd% die-off per wave of this until only his side remains.  The problem is:  Since he and his cannot control who dies, most of the people who are getting hospitalized, etc. from all this are unvaccinated people -- many of whom are on Fox News' right-wing demographic.

5) I could go over the list of people who've tested positive this week of some fame or the like, but I'm, instead, going to wrap this list by addressing a Libertarian/right-wing economic blog I read.

Karl Denninger's Market Ticker, every month, covers the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment numbers on the first Friday of the month.

Last month, Denninger sent up a red flag.  This month, he sent up a second.

In so doing, he posted this chart on his blog yesterday.  I blew it up to the full-page picture of the chart, so that you could see what he's basically implying here.

The column he keys on, in red (since he only shows the last few months -- for reasons he deems obvious and I will explain) is the 12-month rolling increase (in thousands) of what is the non-institutionalized 16+ population of this country -- the number of people added to this country who are 16 years or older and not in an institution or prison.  So the 2021-01 number means everyone who was added, net, to that population in 2020.  2021-02 is Feb. 1 2020 to Jan. 31 2021.  And so on.

As Denninger keenly points out, there's only three ways you reduce this number on your own part:  You either go to prison or other institution, you leave the country, or you die.

Denninger is basically pointing out that the roll number for 2021-08 (Sep 1 2020 to Aug 31 2021) is half the roll number from 2021-01 -- 965,000 vs. 1,942,000.  That's an unheard-of number in 30 years of his research of BLS statistics.   And since there is no real expatriation out of the country and not such an increase in the prison population which would permanently wipe out such a roll, he attributes the deaths to a million people (at least!!!) dying to the vaccines.

Well, Karl, there are three possible alternatives.

1) You are correct that the vaccines, as the Right and Libertarians have been claiming, have already offed at least a million (and probably two or more million) Americans.

To which I have two responses:

a) If you are right, what the fuck are you waiting for in basically shooting everyone who Tucker Carlson would want to see arrested (including me)?  Why do I say this?  Because, for the people purporting this and forcing it, it would be a full-on Holocaust.  And, for the rest of us, we'd be time-bomb level carriers of this stuff, as studies you and your side point out time and time again.  Both groups would have to FORCIBLY and IMMEDIATELY eliminated for the health and safety of the remaining (right-wing) population.

b) This country becomes instantaneously ungovernable at all levels -- because no government of any realistic kind could be entrusted to anything at that point.  Everything politically collapses, with the same instantaneous effect.

2) There aren't as many people giving birth.

I could see that as a possibility.  One of the things I did many years ago was took one look at this society and felt that, in no way could I do a child justice.  For many reasons (economics, MGTOW, etc.), it could be very easily said that the decision is no longer made to have children.  That said, however, you have a real problem with families and couples forced to stay home for the better part of 2020 to have that stick.

(In fact, a later post in the forum regarding this post shows the relevant birth numbers to be completely consistent and flat for that period in 2005 -- 16 years before this.)

3) Or, the third possibility and the one I think most likely: The same thing is happening here in the USA which happened in China almost two years ago:  A deliberate multi-dimensional coverup of the true COVID death toll by a multiplicative factor.

Remember, they just had a survey come out which said that, even though the current case number (according to WorldMeters data, which basically takes the official numbers) as of this morning (5 AM Pacific Time Sept. 4, 2021) is 40,703,674, that, even as of December 31, 2020, the belief of a recent Jeffrey Shaman, PhD study at Columbia University, that fully one-third of the United States population has had the coronavirus at least once.

That would be, given current population estimates by the Department of Census, one-third of  approximately 332,700,000, give or take.  Or over 110,000,000 coronavirus cases -- an underreporting by almost a factor of THREE.  (And remember, that is the current case number vs. the study's belief of the number of cases at the end of 2020!)

Consider, then, what happens if the death number is also being (and deliberately so) underreported by three:  The official number from WorldMeters again, is, of this writing, 664,935.

That underreporting would mean that AT LEAST 2 million people have died to the coronavirus since this started.

Well, if you take the kids into account, would this difference of about 1.33 million explain a good part, if not all, of the drop in that roll number Denninger is quoting?

But, just as I believe China did in the opening days and weeks of all this, I believe the USA, to prevent panic (and there's enough of that to go around in any feasible event!), is deliberately underreporting this total by at least three, if not five or more.

And THAT is why I think you are seeing the ICU beds full, the needed medical oxygen empty, etc. and so forth.

Karl, you best hope you're right.  I best hope I'm right.

Because one of us is deathly wrong!