The Unknown Poster

The show?

I always thought that the people around Trump, the GOP and the citizens would never allow it...but now I am not so sure. This embracing of a guy who's values are shared by the worst of society simply because he's the "right wing" choice is quite shocking. I dont think we're slipping into an American dictatorship but if a TV writer pitched a series that depicted just that, it wouldn't be so unbelievable anymore. Will Trump burn the Capital down and blame it on the Dems as an excuse to suspend democracy?

Wow

Shocker

The good news is Hall is one game closer to being fired.

Sometimes I wonder if Rod Black has ever watched football.

Wait. THIS is a government position???? We’re ****** folks

I think everyone accepts the possibility.

If this happened in any number of countries everyone would be up on arms over these human rights violations. Speaker Ryan said he is against this but wants it changed through legislation. Why not call it what it’s. Trump abusing children and families for political gain and the GOP going along with it.

Yeah but where is he going to be traded that will pay him that plus give up something the Jets want plus be a place Trouba will want to play? The Jets could let the agent talk to other teams to gauge interest and he might end up coming back hat in hand.

Well he also saluted the RCMP lol

Ewan McGregor will play grown up Danny Torrance in the film adaptation of Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining.

Any other True Crime junkies here? Let's talk about the mysterious death of Kathleen Peterson. If you're planning to watch The Staircase on Netflix, this post will spoil it for you so leave now, go watch it and come back! Kathleen Peterson lived in North Carolina with her husband Michael Peterson, her daughter from a previous relationship and his two adoptive daughters (this becomes important). He also had two grown sons from a previous marriage. They were wealthy as Kathleen was a Nortel executive and Michael was an author. On December 8th 2001, Michael called 911 to report he found his wife at the bottom of the stairs in a pool of blood. He reported to 911 that she must have fallen down the stairs. Subsequent investigations indicated she had suffered 7 lacerations to the back of her heard (and a few other assorted minor injuries). The Staircase was covered in blood up to the first few steps and there was blood on the lower half of the walls. The medical examiner determined the head lacerations were due to blunt force trauma and Michael was arrested and charge with first degree murder. The family stood by Michael including, initially, Kathleen's daughter. The daughter was shown the autopsy photos and changed her mind, believing Michael had killed her mom. Kathleen's daughter & sister became major driver's of the case for years. Twist One: It came out that Michael was bi-sexual, something no one knew. He claimed Kathleen did know and was okay with it (though he later said in The Staircase that she didnt know, which I was confused about). The prosecution made this a major part of their case (which the Judge later admitted he probably shouldn't have allowed in). Michael had affairs with men including a male prostitute and had gay porn on his computer, all of which was entered into evidence and used by the Prosecution to argue that the marriage sucked and that Michael was essentially a deviant who killed his wife when she learned the truth. Twist Two: Michael had been a marine in his younger days and lived in Germany. His then-wife and he became very close friends with another couple who had two daughters (the aforementioned "adoptive" daughters). The husband died and the wife, Elizabeth Ratliff, lived next door to Michael and his wife who helped her with the children. One day, the woman was found dead at the bottom of her stairs. Authorities ruled the cause a cerebral hemorrhage and closed the case. Michael became guardian of Ratliff's two girls. The Prosecutors in the case of Kathleen Peterson successfully brought Ratliff's death in as evidence. They had Ratliff's body exhumed and examined by their medical examiners who ruled it a homicide. The Judge later said he probably shouldn't have allowed this evidence. Twist Three: The Prosecutor's theory was that Michael attacked his wife with a Blow Poke, which is a hollow fireplace poker you can blow through. Kathleen's sister had given them as gifts to family member but the one she gave Kathleen & Michael was mysteriously missing. The medical examiner ruled that the blow poke was the likely murder weapon due to its size, shape and weight. The key thing was the lacerations to Kathleen's head caused massive blood loss but did not fracture her skull or cause any damage to the brain. She essentially bled to death. Two days before the Defence would give their closing argument, Micheal's son found the Blow Poke in the basement garage. It had clearly not been used in a murder. This shattered the Prosecutor's theory. Twist Four: It was later learned, years later, that the police had actually found the Blow Poke when doing their initial search of the home following Kathleen's death and had photographed it and put it back in the garage. So the entire time the Prosecution was presenting its argument that the missing Blow Poke was the murder weapon, the police knew it was NOT the murder weapon and was not missing at all. None of that mattered (as the Jury later said it had little impact on them whether the weapon used was the Blow Poke or something else). Michael was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Twist Five: One of the prosecutions key witnesses, Duane Deaver, was a blood spatter expert. He was so critical to the case that in the Prosecutions' closing argument they focused on his experiments and expert testimony and said to the jury, if you dont find Michael guilty you are saying Deaver is a liar. Unfortunately for the Prosecution, Deaver was a liar. He was later fired when it was found he lied about his qualifications and experience and did crazy experiments to prove his theories that were not best practice in his field. Additionally, when Kathleen's clothes were originally sent by police for DNA testing, Deaver intercepted them and brought them to his area, blood spatter analysis, rather than DNA testing. No DNA testing was done and the clothes, along with other evidence, was later mishandled and improperly stored making it impossible to test for DNA and eliminating the possible defence theory of an intruder. Due to Deaver, the conviction was over-turned and a new trial ordered. But Michael had already spent 8 years in prison. Micheal's defence was that he and Kathleen had been drinking wine and watched a movie. After the movie, they went outside on the deck and then down to their pool where they continued to drink wine. Kathleen was tired, took a Valium and went to bed while Michael continued sitting by the pool. When he finally came inside, he found his wife's body. Michael's original lawyer tried to negotiate a plea agreement to end the case but the DA refused, driven by Kathleen's sister and daughter. When it appeared it was heading to a second trial, the attorney bowed out (by this time, Michael had no money). He referred Michael to another lawyer who had helped get a wrongfully convicted man released. They asked for a hearing to dismiss the charges against Michael based on bad behavior by the prosecution experts. But days before the hearing, the lawyer suffered a stroke and his second-chair took over. She seemed to me (in watching The Staircase) to be out of her element. They lost the hearing a new trial date was set. Michael clearly felt she was out of her element too as he called his original lawyer and asked him to come back. He did so and negotiated an Alford Plea where Michael would plead guilty while maintaining his innocence and be given time served. The Judge accepted and Michael was free to go, now officially a convicted felon. What's the point of all this? The craziest twist of all (which was not shown in The Staircase): The Owl Theory: This seemingly insane theory was posited by an attorney who was not involved in the case but lived in Michael's neighborhood. He followed the case and saw that evidence collected included owl feathers that were clutched in Kathleen's hand along with clumps of her hair that had been pulled out by the roots. There was also a sliver of wood from a tree in her hand. This theory was ridiculed until more experts examined the evidence: The lacerations on Kathleen's scalp her tri-lobed and paired, consistent with marks left by talons. Cedar needles were found on Kathleen's hands and body indicating she had fallen just before entering the home. The blood had spattered UP the staircase rather then down (and there was very little castoff blood which you'd expect in a beating with a blunt instrument, which the prosecution argued meant Michael cleaned the weapon after every blow). Footprints in the blood made by Kathleen indicated she was bleeding before she fell at the stairs. Two drops of her blood were found outside the home. Owl attacks were common in the area and victims report it feels like a baseball bat to the head. Several experts accepted this as possible suggesting an owl attacked her as she was going towards the house. In her frenzy to defend herself, she pulled at the owl, resulting in the feathers and her hair ending up on her hands. She would be bleeding quite badly as she got to the stair case. The combination of alcohol, Valium and the attack left her woozy and she fell on the stairs, knocking herself unconscious. Since Michael remained by the pool for some time, Kathleen bled to death. This theory has never been argued and cant be now. But Michael's original attorney said had he been aware of it he likely would have raised it as a possibility at trial. When I watched the Staircase, by about episode 4 I was convinced Michael did it. Mainly because hes not very likeable (seems very slick), plus the previous staircase death and the photos of the crime scene. By the end, I dont know what happened but if I was on the jury, I'd have had reasonable doubt.

Dave Meltzer wrote about the XFL and AAF and noted several other leagues starting up with the idea that sports content was so valuable, the plan is to try and leverage whatever programming you can create to get rights fee money. XFL is talking to 30 cities about teams (they will start with 8).

Lesnar has been asked to face the winner of the 7/7 Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier fight for the heavyweight title. They want it for Dec 30th which means Brock would have to be back in USADA testing by June 30th. There was speculation, based on his physique, that he was leaning that way (he looked smaller than usual). The huge money is Brock vs Jon Jones but assuming Jones' suspension is upwards of four years, it makes it pretty impossible. Either way, Jones would beat Brock.

Yup. I never understood why people think its a 5 star system. I think it might have started out that way but as he gave out more and more 5 stars, it simply didnt work to cap it like that. I believe he's given 8 matches more than 5 stars. Five of them involve Kenny Omega which is pretty incredible. Kenny also has three 5-star matches. Of course, its subjective because it's Dave's opinion and he's not ridged about (he also says if people are arguing over a quarter star, they agree). But 40+ years in his position makes him a heck of an authority on quality. There's a very very small group of fans that have that "too cool for school" mentality with guys that are universally loved, in this case Kenny.

Imagine calling the preeminent journalist in the field a mark. Yikes. Talk about a bad take. Its never been out of 5. I know you have an irrational dislike of everyone involved in wrestling but how would you differentiate a match like Omega/Okada from other great matches?

The moment you've all been waiting for, the official Meltzer star rating for Omega/Okada, the match many people are calling the greatest pro wrestling of all time. Seven stars. The first time that has ever been given. Omega/Okada was the second longest match in New Japan history. And Omega is the first Canadian to ever win the IWGP World's Heavyweight Championship.

I think we saw it during Clinton even, when someone has scandal around them, they drop off but if it lingers, the sense of "get on with it" starts to creep in. But there is also the sense of being more anti-left than anti-racist. I have some friends that I always knew were conservative and we seemed aligned on many issues but Ive been shocked at how he ignores every negative Trump thing but pushes anything anti-left. And it started making me think back to situations....and now Im very uncomfortable with his racial views. We argued about this a lot though...a personal red line. To a lot of people, having "their" guy win trumps everything else.

How can anyone defend such a buffoon? No wonder his communications people are heading for the exits

This can’t be a real exchange

You’ve got to hand it to Kim. He must be the kind of negotiator trump claims to be. He sure got Trump in his back pocket to the extent trump is parroting Kim’s words

Whoa... So FOX is the prettiest girl at the dance. Which suitor will they go with? I hope Disney wins.