Month: September 2020

Burrows Probably Had A Better Team Playing For LSU – He Definitely Had Better Coaches

Burrows Probably Had A Better Team Playing For LSU – He Definitely Had Better Coaches

The honeymoon is over. Now the Bengals are on the “ruining Burrow” clock. The same problems as the year prior remain and Taylor is now 0-10-1 in one-score games. He simply doesn’t have what it takes especially if he is going to continuously defend defensive and offensive line coaches (Jim Turner has to be the worst o-line coach in the NFL and maybe all of college – send him back to high school football).

Burrow has already been sacked 14 times with 11 hurries and 30 pressures on a pressure rate of 18.4 percent. In the latest game alone, Burrow was sacked a season-high eight times and was the recipient of 18 hits in the 23-23 tie. The rookie quarterback has now been sacked a league-high 14 times through three weeks. He’s taking hits that go instantly viral and it’s clear to anyone who has watched football in the past that he might not make it through all 16 games.

Taylor’s playcalling has mostly been miserable, especially in Week 3 – he needs to have the offensive coordinator call plays since clearly he is not up to the challenge of doing this on the sideline.

His Lou Anarumo-directed defense still doesn’t want to tackle. His offensive line is still headed up by Jim Turner, he of an iffy pro resume to begin with but oddly defended by Taylor from Day 1, and they’re still trotting out Bobby Hart at right tackle and praying a mediocre-to-terrible cast of guards can somehow come together and make it work inside.

Flick on a random play and you’ll probably see some combination of Hart getting pushed back so hard it looks like he’s a bodyguard escorting the defender to the quarterback, Jonah Williams randomly losing all sense of how to function, and some tandem of Michael Jordan, Fred Johnson, and Billy Price getting plopped on their rear ends like they’re getting bullied on a middle school playground.

It’s bad and something has to change.

At some point, excuses have to fly out the window. Last year was a 2-14 season for Zac Taylor and his handpicked staff and the excuses flowed. They assembled late and were unable to change up the roster they inherited. The injury bug, etc.

This year, the Bengals are 0-2-1 and the excuses could flow again. There wasn’t a preseason. The team overhauled the roster. The list goes on.
Fix it or resign. I, for one, am sick of watching a Bengals team that probably would lose to any of the final 4 NCAA contenders last year. Yes, I am saying that when Burrows left LSU, he went to a worse team – he definitely went to a worse coaching staff.

Many of the ideas in this post originated in this great article.

The header image is not mine and I make no claims to it. It appears to be the property of Bryan Woolston of the Associated Press and I will remove it upon request.

Trump Is His Own Worst Enemy When It Comes To His Taxes

Trump Is His Own Worst Enemy When It Comes To His Taxes

The New York Times has written an article claiming that Donald Trump paid little or no income tax for many years. Mr. Trump denies paying so little but won’t release his returns. The NY Times will not release its data to protect its source.

Voters can decide whom to believe, but one fact to note is that the story doesn’t assert illegal behavior. The IRS presumably signed off on the Trump returns, except in one case in which it is disputing a $72.9 million deduction claimed by Mr. Trump. This is a fight rich people have with the IRS all the time, often ending in Tax Court.

The report makes much of a deduction Mr. Trump took for business consulting fees that match payments his daughter Ivanka reported in separate filings. There may be legitimate reasons for those fee payments, and Ms. Trump ought to clear the matter up. Paying your adult offspring is not illegal – in fact, it is a good practice. This point should probably be dropped on the social media hate frenzy.

Also, it appears to be a big scandal that Trump paid a hairstylist during his reality TV days. Give me a break. Have you seen this guy’s hair? It would take a wizard to make it look decent. BTW, if you are going to make fun of Trump’s hair, please be honest and make fun of “comb over” Joe Biden also – yes, I am old enough to remember him as being bald.

Is it a scandal if Mr. Trump legally exploited the tax code’s treatment of chronic business losses to pay little tax? Hardly. Mr. Trump admitted this himself in a 2016 debate so there is no news in the NYTimes article – he already told us that he didn’t pay much in personal income taxes. Congress littered the code with loopholes aimed at assisting real-estate businesses, among others. Democrat and Republican elected officials write a tax code to please their corporate donors and then selectively attack CEOs or businesses that use the loopholes.

Here is a hint: if you are a business leader that is going to run for office and challenge the elected elite then you are not allowed to use the tax code to your advantage. But it is okay if you are simply going to take that tax-advantaged and donate to the elected elite. This is especially okay if you are donating to Democrat elected officials.

The story also claims that Mr. Trump’s empire is under financial stress and rising debt. This may be true, but the reporters can’t seem to decide if Mr. Trump is a shark exploiting the White House for personal gain or a sap who is bleeding cash while in office. Brilliant or bumpkin? Make up your mind. Many of Trump’s supporters cite his lack of tax burden as part of the reason they support him saying that he has a brilliant business mind. His enemies would do best to stick to one narrative.

The Times says it will have more such stories in the coming days, and who can doubt it? The press and most of official Washington are all-in to defeat Mr. Trump. I wonder if the FBI is doing a repeat and trying to help the Democrats as well.

Trump has made it easier for his opponents, as he often does. He danced his way through the 2016 campaign with promises to release his returns followed by claims that he couldn’t do so because of an audit. Many of his supporters advised him to do it in the public interest, but there’s no legal obligation for a candidate to release his taxes.

Trump could have controlled the political narrative by releasing his tax returns on his terms and timetable. If he would have done it soon after his election, this story would have died a slow death a long time ago. Now his opponents will do it. As in the past, Trump is his own worst adviser.

Many of the ideas in this story were sourced from this WSJ opinion article.