Paul Cox
@paulcox.bsky.social
800 followers 530 following 930 posts
Soccer. Rants. Whatnot. 🇺🇸🇪🇸
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Enjoy your higher health insurance costs, peons
NYT - DHS has purchased two Gulfstream private jets for Secretary Kristi Noem and other top department officials at a cost of $172 million. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/u...
Coast Guard Buys Two Private Jets for Noem, Costing $172 Million
www.nytimes.com
we’ll never have a perfect referee performance. There’s always going to be calls like today’s where it could maybe be a foul, maybe not.

Anyway yeah we don’t want to call tiny things.

We wound up winning anyway so no problems in the end.
to expect more from refs. We don’t just want them to say “no, get up, you baby” on the tiny little fouls and to be there to call the big obvious ones that people try and ignore.

We want closer to perfection, and it’s impossible. Since the line between “trifling” and “foul” is subjective, I think…
like Morris did and the defender would be pissed if he tried to claim a PK. “I didn’t touch you!”

“You stuck your foot out into my path and tripped me!”

Blah blah blah.

Anyway, we got refs to settle that stuff and keep the arguments from derailing the game.

The problem, IMO, is that now we seem…
players started referring questions of “foul or not?” to neutral observers (who, as the person the question is referred to, is the referee) is because when they were first starting to play the game and called their own fouls, there would be vigorous arguments that derailed the game.

Guy goes down…
The whole “trifling” concept drove me nuts as a fan before I became a referee, but I get it now.

What it boils down to is this: we want the game to flow. We don’t want ticky-tacky little fouls to stop things.

And as refs, we’re there for the players. One of the very reasons association football…
Reposted by Paul Cox
NYPD announces that zero arrests were made at the massive No Kings protests today after Republicans spent days claiming the protestors are violent terrorists.
Not normally a big fan of the SJ ultras, but respect to them for this.
Nice shout-out by the @SanJoseUltras to Milan Mandaric, who among other teams owned the original San Jose Earthquakes at one time. He passed away earlier this month. #Quakes74
That would have been a very soft penalty. I’m okay with it being overturned.

But no, it’s not an automatic yellow, either. It can be contact but a “trifling” foul, as in “contact but not enough for a penalty”… that’s not simulation.
Reposted by Paul Cox
Giant copy of the Constitution being carried down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Reposted by Paul Cox
Hi, I'm the ProPublica reporter who's been tracking an unusual stat: U.S. citizens grabbed by immigration agents.

I did it because the government isn’t.

This is what I found.
Reposted by Paul Cox
Reposted by Paul Cox
Truth. I lower the ban hammer at the smallest hint that someone’s a jerk or a bot.
MAGA folks don’t understand that the culture of Bluesky involves everyone just blocking people they don’t like without any engagement.

They think they’re “shadowbanned” by some unseen force from above.
That might have been the most amazing foreshadowing by an announcer I’ve ever seen/heard.

“They gotta throw him a perfect pitch for him to hit one out-“
(grooved) WHACK!!!!!
(I confess I didn’t really know where I was going with this until the last couple of skeets)
What if there’s a con man who slings BS for a living- steaks, fake university, real estate, Jersey casinos, the idea that he’s a brilliant businessman- and he finds out that the most lucrative BS is racism and hate?

His response: to make as much money from it as possible.

GHOSTBUSTERS WAS PROPHECY
Well, of course his response is to make as much money from it as possible.

Sadly, we see it in real life, too.
IMO that’s why the female Ghostbusters flick didn’t take off. It’s wall-to-wall w/ great jokes told by brilliant comedians (or comediennes, if you prefer) but it lacks that killer central premise.

“What if there’s this con man making a living faking paranormal activity, and he finds out it’s real?”
Peck sees him for a con man but doesn’t believe in ghosts.

The mayor knows he’s full of shit but his city is blowing up.

But mostly? It’s just a bunch of great jokes. Thing is, to be a really great movie, you need more than just a bunch of great jokes.
Everyone else revolves around Venkman.

Dana sees him for a con man but despite herself, she’s charmed and into him, plus there’s something in her fridge.

Ray knows he’s a con man but needs him for money for his research.

Winston sees him but doesn’t give a damn because he needs a job.
…psychic ability, because he starts guessing the cards right.

When they get called out to catch their first ghost he thinks it’s BS right up until he gets slimed.

The rest of the movie is the adventure of him and his pals in dealing with it and his attitude toward it.
a man sitting in a chair with the words that was the joke
ALT: a man sitting in a chair with the words that was the joke
media.tenor.com
…and yet somehow, despite his sloppy (at best) methods, it works and ghosts are real and now he’s gotta deal with it.

The joke is set up right away, when he’s trying to score with that hot blonde girl and yet his central theory is proven- negative reinforcement DOES improve the other guy’s…
A bunch of people who think the central premise is some kind of anti-govt-regulation thing.

The central premise and joke of Ghostbusters is that Peter Venkman is a CON MAN.

He’s a con man at heart, mostly thinks psycho stuff is a bunch of bullshit, uses it to try and hook up with co-eds…
Whyyyyy make the last out at third?

Stop at 2B. With two outs you’re scoring on any hit anyway.