Cleaning out the Inbox- Send it in Jerome Edition

I know this will be a non-sports edition with links from the political world and most of those are notes from The Bulwark, but one of the links by Amanda Carpenter "Mail It In" made me think of what I think of every time I hear the phrase "Send It In"- the 1988 backboard breaking dunk by Pitt's Jerome Lane with color commentator Bill Raftery screaming the phrase that lives on 32 years later.

We'll start with two Bulwark columns from Amanda Carpenter with the first being the aforementioned "Mail It In" with the discussion centered around having voting more accessible by mail for November's election.
Sixteen states currently require a "reason" to vote absentee and even though Maryland is not one of those states, I still think that giving voters more avenues to cast their votes can be a good thing.
I've voted absentee on several occasions and for a country that doesn't have a holiday to allow people to have the day off to vote, it only makes good sense.
While I understand that the chances of fraud do increase with paper/mail ballots, I'm not sure it is any higher than tabulating results via computer and we've seen how that can turn out.
With the almost guaranteed heat and fury that November's election is going to bring from supporters of and against the President, absentee voting might avoid some potential incidents at polling places and that alone might be worth the effort to expand the paper voting into all states for at least this November's election.

Carpenter also writes of conservative commentator Michelle Malkin and her gradual drift downstream from conservatism to radicalism.
Malkin, who once was a regular on cable news networks, has become almost persona non grata for television or even mainstream conservatives and unless you still read her column on a dwindling amount of news outlets, has faded from the scene.
Carpenter gives far more detail than I can in her article, but the article shows that no matter the topic or belief just how quickly one can fade from the scene.

More Bulwark as Richard North Patterson writes the six lessons learned from the Democratic primaries and how they could relate to the November elections.
The analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of various candidates and how they define the party entering the next stage is quite interesting and could say a lot on the eventual message for the showdown with Donald Trump and maybe even 2024.

One final Bulwark note as Gregg Hurwitz tells the reader that "We can wake up now" from the Donald Trump experiment.
Many voting for Trump in 2016 did so because they wanted someone that would "blow things up", "wanted a businessman" or just plain couldn't stand Hillary Clinton.
While I could understand all of those various reasons, I couldn't seriously consider voting for Donald Trump and didn't do so (For the record, I didn't vote for Hillary Clinton either) because I knew the background, the record, and I wasn't remotely convinced that any of the hype was sincere.
I don't hold the Democrats innocent for 2016 for shoving a candidate to the forefront that was so disliked that they lost an election that was handed to them to win and I also hold the left accountable for being so stringent to their beliefs that they didn't bother to show up at the polls.
Hurwitz writes how it happened in 2016, how it led to where we are today, and what it will take to reverse the decision in November.

The Atlantic's Peter Wehner wraps us up with the temperament of the President for dealing with the Covid 19 crisis and why he is so ill-suited to lead in times of stress.
I'm not going to mention why this is so, although even the most fervent supporter of the President knows that these are the actual characteristics as in many cases it's those characteristics that earned their vote.
Covid 19 won't roll over in fear, it could care less about a nasty Tweet, it cannot be affected by changing its name and it will not give the time of day to "as I like to call" mundane nicknames.
Whether you think Covid 19 is a crisis or simply media-hyped flu (and I know plenty of friends and others that believe either side), the tactics of the last four years isn't going to stop it cold.
Finally, the President has to deal with something that will not be intimidated and won't dodge in fear or shame.

Cleaning out the inbox

We start to clean the inbox with Benjamin Hill's article on the four stadiums that have been moved aside by new stadiums in their city and by teams that have moved away to new cities.
I've been to two of the four (Kannapolis, pictured to the left and Potomac/Woodbridge) with the other two being out of my area in states that I have never visited (Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana).
I've often said Kannapolis was the hottest ballpark that I have ever visited, but in Hill's article, he mentioned Woodbridge as the stadium that lacked shade, which I thought was interesting.
I haven't heard very much about the future of these facilities, although I'd bet that Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge will wind up as a host of high school, American Legion, etc. games as it is located in a facility that is surrounded by softball fields.

ESPN writes of the start of a fan revolt against the Buffalo Sabres, who are on their way to missing the playoffs for the ninth year in a row and their owners Terry and Kim Pegula, who also own the Buffalo Bills.
For all the talk about this place or that place is "Hockeytown USA", for my money- it would be Buffalo.
Even as the Sabres are in such a playoff drought, the team's attendance this year "dropped" to 90.8%, which shows the fan base is strong and interested despite the poor product (other than the phenomenal Jack Eichel) on the ice.
I remember "Hockey Towns" such as Detroit in the pre-Yzerman days being dragged down with poor teams and attendance and for all the hype over Pittsburgh, check their attendance out between Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby.
Fan protests make excellent soundbites and they give media plenty of chances to discuss franchise issues, but they make little change in the organization and other than showing that the fans are still passionate, they don't prove very much.
Buffalo does deserve better from the Sabres.

I've written before of my political standing as that of a centrist and I often read and listen to the site and podcast of The Bulwark, which is edited by centrist radio host Charlie Sykes of Wisconsin.
You'll be seeing links from Bulwark in the COTI and this is the first as Ed Condon takes on Major League Baseball and their recent rule changes.
I loved the title of "MLB is like a drug cartel trying to kill its customers" and it's a pretty accurate title to me when you take the panoramic view about the actions of MLB and its Gordon Gekko-like leader Rob Manfred.

The Bulwark also sent me this via the Chicago Tribune as the Tribune held its own taste tests of various hot sauces involving the more popular mainstream sauces.
I didn't agree with all of their results, most notably Tabasco being spicier than the others. but it is interesting in seeing how these stack up against the others from an unbiased observer.
While I love trying different sauces from smaller batch companies and have many in the house at all times, Frank's Red Hot and its Buffalo version are the house staples here of the sauces that are carried in most grocery stores.

I'm generally all for renewable energy, but this article from Bloomberg news does make you wonder about just what it takes to create renewable energies.
The difficulties in finding something to do with the worn-out blades from wind turbines, other than burying them in landfills, are more than unsustainable for the future of windmills.
The blades need to be cut into three pieces by a diamond-encrusted saw just to be able to then be transported on a semi-truck to travel to landfills, so these aren't exactly a treat to take care of.
It will be interesting to check back in a few years and see what type of business could have been created from the leftovers of these blades.