5 Thoughts for January 10, 2017

1. Confirmation Process: I totally get why Democrats want to put a cog in the machine to slow the process down, but you see, the process' intention isn't to allow the minority to block nominees, even though that's where we're at; the process was meant to find egregious problems and weed those candidates out. The way I see it, if The Emperor wants his cabinet to be filled by a bunch of Michael Browns that's entirely his prerogative to set the fire to his own Administration; if Republicans want to push these nominees through, they get to completely own the confirmation of these nominees. Let The Emperor burn down his own House. Pointing out the faults of his nominees are perfectly fine, but don't block them! Putin wanted the world to see Democracy's chaos, so let him take the blame for The Emperor's Administration, too! Only then, can some Americans open their eyes and realize they've made a grave error.
2. Obamacare Repeal Status: I'm not shocked to hear that there are defections from the GOP camp in the Senate on the plan to repeal Obamacare. The fact of the matter is, Republicans were lying to themselves if they thought that they could easily and rapidly come up with a plan that sufficiently replaced the ACA without causing mass chaos in the market. But they've put themselves into the corner and they must repeal the ACA, which means that they must have a plan to replace it, immediately. They don't have weeks to figure out the replacement part, because contrary to what Republicans are suggesting, the moment they repeal the ACA, the subsidies will disappear and people will immediately drop coverage. Likewise, once they repeal, the Medicaid expansion will cease to exist and states will either have to expand their own spending or drop coverage immediately. The longer they wait, the higher 2018 prices will shoot up, too! This will not end well for Republicans but especially for the White Working Class.
3. Fake News: Breitbart and other proprietors of fake news are apparently trying to expand into Europe. I have just one piece of advice: Free Speech is not the same over there. America has no federal-level law against defamation/libel but European nations do. In Europe, defamation/libel usually has a much lower burden of proof standard, whether civil or criminal, making some fake news purveyors highly susceptible to criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits. Breitbart is stepping on dangerous territory.
4. Clemson Wins NC 35-31: Overcoming two turnovers in their territory and playing from behind nearly the entire game, Clemson had gained momentum in the fourth quarter and Alabama couldn't stop them. They dominated the clock and dominated on offense, gaining 511 yards -- 420 in the air from Deshaun Watson -- to Alabama's 376 yards. Newly appointed offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian did not accomplish what head coach Nick Saban had singled out as a critical goal -- improving Jalen Hurts' confidence in the throwing game -- as Hurts finished the game completing just 42% of his pass attempts (13 for 31), his worst performance this season. Karma -- what you reap from having sown your seeds -- apparently hit back at Saban after releasing offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin a week before the game. Ultimately, it was Clemson's high-powered passing offense matched up against the Alabama defense's weak spot, that proved to be the key to this game -- as the saying goes, hit em where it hurts. While Deshaun Watson didn't get the Heisman, he got the CFP NC trophy and closed out his career (he's announced that he's leaving for the NFL) as a winner.
5. USC Finishes #3 in AP: That's what you call respect. USC is the first team with three losses to rank this high, according to the AP. On top of that, Sam Darnold collected the Archie Griffin Award as MVP of the season and Clay Helton was co-awarded (along with VT's Justin Fuente) FWAA's top first-year coach honors. The system in place at USC is certainly working well. Clancy Pendergast had the defense doing all sorts of twists and stunts by the time they were playing Penn State and USC's total defense ranking jumped from 65th to 36th. The Tyson Helton - Tee Martin offense has pushed USC's total offense from 38th to 20th. There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about 2017!