5 Thoughts for October 30, 2016

1. The FBI's CYA Moment: If you really want to know why the FBI sent a letter to Congress talking about the possibility (not the confirmation) of new emails related to Hillary's time at State, just realize that this is what people do to cover their asses. Rather than be exposed to blame for not informing Republicans (who'd then tell the entire world), ahead of the election, they FBI covered their ass. To cover their ass-covering, confidential sources within the FBI then leaked information that the emails did not originate from the Clinton server and that it was unlikely to be consequential. The CYAC effort has made things look worse for James Comey because it revealed the CYA-ness of the letter he sent, and why his public announcement at the conclusion of the FBI's investigation was also a CYA moment.
2. Idiocracy: A few weeks ago I read this Daily Beast article about Idiocracy and I knew I had to watch it. That scene in the House of Representin' was perfectly prescient, but there's no way Mike Judge would have known that "Hector Camacho" Trump would arrive by 2016 and America was already this stupid. "Shit! I know shit's bad right now. With all that starvin' bullshit." Idiocracy is pure sarcasm, and there are logical failures all over the place, but if you ignore them, it's a scary but funny movie about the reality we're facing in 2016.
3. In Sam Darnold We Trust: After watching Darnold play several games, it's probable that Ricky Town saw what we now know to be true, that Darnold is going to win USC a championship. His arm and wrist are so strong, his throwing motion 50 yards downfield is the same as a short pass, and both are fast motions -- he doesn't go into some extended wind-up on long passes. He's tall, strong, and makes quick decisions, such that the run-pass options (RPO) are effective against any defense. He's a dream quarterback who can overcome deficiencies elsewhere in the offense. That's not to say that Max Browne isn't a great quarterback, but that he isn't equipped to compensate for failures elsewhere in the offense like Darnold is, considering that the USC offense has shown an exceptional ability to completely suck at times.
4. Russell Wilson's Woes: In exactly the opposite situation of Sam Darnold and USC's offense, Russell Wilson's knee and ankle injuries prevent him from compensating for their offensive line's shortcomings. They can't do rollouts or run options, and with a mishmash offensive line, Wilson's taking a lot of sacks. The pundits constantly praise Tom Cable's abilities to raise the play of the offensive line, but if Seattle hadn't drafted Wilson, the offense would be much worse.
5. All-White Jury: That was the first thing that came to mind when I read that Ammon Bundy and the other Malheur occupiers were found not guilty. But wait, this isn't some racist thing, right? Oh, but it is. This year's political climate has pushed the idea that White Americans have been cheated out of the American Pie. The Bundy takeover of Malheur fed right into that narrative. Sure enough, it was an all-White jury that exonerated Bundy and the others, in what can only be understood as jury nullification. I've read what juror #4 has said, and I am in total disbelief that he basically got away with uttering a bunch of incoherent, illogical statements that are provably wrong. In one of the most damning instances, juror #4 stated that he was waiting for the prosecution to present an agreement to prove conspiracy, but the instructions itself noted that a formalized agreement was not necessary to prove conspiracy. The two most plausible explanations for this are, (1) they're all idiots or, (2) as an all-White jury they applied existing bias to find cause to nullify the proper outcome.