The Rundown - Fri 2/2/18: Ryan defends "the memo"; Superbowl Sunday

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said repeatedly in a press conference yesterday that #ReleaseTheMemo is about the protection of civil liberties. It's a good talking point, trying to put the Democrats in the position of being against civil liberties and transparency. I don't think it will work but it's probably the best line he has, and it is at least somewhat credible. What's less credible is when Ryan says that the memo should not be taken as an attempt to impugn the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. There have been other Republicans who have made clear that that's just what they hope the memo will do, and multiple news reports (from "mainstream" outlets who don't like President Trump) say that undermining Mueller is Trump's primary purpose.

My guess is that the result of the memo will be massive bouts of confirmation bias. This is not a difficult prediction to make. The document will look like a political Rorschach test, with the reactions to it saying much more about the person reacting than about the memo itself.

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The Super Bowl is on Sunday. It's hard for me to get very excited even though I love watching the NFL. So to make it a little more interesting for me, I have a couple of bets on the game (placed in Las Vegas for me!)

I don't have much confidence in these bets, but I'm not one of those folks who will bet on the team I hope will lose so that I sorta win no matter what happens.

This is a very cool article about interesting stuff in Denver and around the state:https://www.denverpost.com/2018/02/01/colorado-most-endangered-places-denver/

I'm against kneeling for the anthem, but as a business decision I think the NFL made the right decision:https://www.cbsnews.com/news/veterans-groups-national-anthem-super-bowl-ad-rejected-by-nfl/

When are people going to realize that the changing dietary recommendations coming at us every several years are nothing more than people trying to make money selling books and products? It's not always harmless, either.http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32252-3/abstract

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover takes some great pics!
https://www.space.com/39558-mars-rover-curiosity-gale-crater-photos.html


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