Politics Plus

When I realized this is Mamabear’s very first Bug Mouth Award, I was shocked, as Mama has been involved in this site for years.  In fact she modeled a Care2 group after Politics Plus and, with my consent, used our name.  That group was home to quite a bit of lively discussion, based on our articles, before she left Care2, and the group was lost.  She’s back on Care2 now, and you can find her here.

A resident of Arizona, she lives surrounded by all manner of TEAbuggery most vile.  Nevertheless she holds her head high and is strong in her support for a wide variety of causes, including, but not limited to, Animal Rights, Civil Rights, the Environment, Human Rights, Women’s Rights and Hillary Clinton.

Now that she is commenting more here, I hope that this is her first of many Big Mouth Awards.  Please join  me in showering her with the kudos and praise that are her just due.

Although Lona has been visiting from Care2 for well over a year, she started commenting here only recently, so this is her very first Big Mouth Award.  She brings us a unique perspective, as she divides her home between The Netherlands and Queensland, Australia.  Nevertheless, she displays a knowledge of American politics that should put most Americans to shame and a level of wisdom that is a rare find anywhere.  She enjoys sending me naps, when I am tired, and those naps are so high in quality that she frequently causes me to oversleep. 😉

Please join me in piling on the hugs and kudos.  Also, please send warm thoughts her way, as she just arrived in Australia, and climate change is freezing her tail with unseasonably cold weather.  I have no doubt that more awards are coming her way, and am thankful for her participation here.

By now I hope you know from my nagging ads that Politics Plus has a fantasy football league at NFL.com, Lefty Blog Friends.  The online live draft is this coming Saturday, July 25, at 11 AM Pacific, 12 N Mountain, 1 PM Central and 2 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time.  Please be a few minutes early promised a bit of help for newbies, so here it is.

Your first experience will be the draft.  Read the help files at the league, but the best thing you can do, especially if you have never participated in an online draft before is go to the league and join a mock draft or three.  They have one every few minutes and it’s just like a real draft, except that it does not count.  Then you can come to the real one knowing exactly how it’s done.  If you are unable to attend, a team will be automatically drafted for you.

We are a “keeper league”.  That means that players have the option of keeping two players from the previous season.  That is not much of an advantage, because players who keep lose their draft picks in the first two rounds, so people who opt out or are new get the best early choices.  You should be aware, though that the first two rounds go very very fast.

The common wisdom is to draft running backs first then wide receivers, then quarterbacks, and then tight ends, kickers and defenses.  Personally, I try to draft the best player available in the first three groups until I have one quarterback. three running backs, and three wide receivers.  Then I go for a backup quarterback, a fourth running back, two tight ends, two kickers and two Defenses.

During the draft pay particular attention to players’ bye weeks.  Every NFL team has a week off during the season, and you want to make sure you always have enough players to complete your lineup.  Having more than one player at any position with the same bye week can make that quite difficult.

During the season, keep the NFL schedule in mind.  At times they play Thursday and Saturday games in addition to Sunday, Sunday night and Monday.  Make sure your lineup for the week is set before the first game, because it’s very embarrassing to learn that your injured player’s team already played, and you got no points for that position.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, but I’m just so good, you all might as well give up now!

This is Nameless’ seventh Big Mouth Award, having won in December 2012, September 2010, May 2010, July 2011, August 2011 and January 2015. He isn’t a blogger, so you can’t follow him home, but he comments almost daily here.  He is the kind of participant that every blogger dreams of having, because instead of just stating opinions (which is fine in itself), he adds to the content of my articles with many useful links. His sense of humor is superb!  I still receive comments about his contributions here on other sites where I share our articles.

However, his last award was the for the 60,000th comment, and since it was an even 10,000, he won a Politics Plus coffee mug. Six months later, we’re still waiting for his mug shot, a picture of him with the mug.

So please heap the praise and kudos on him that he so deserves, but also, please harass him just a bit about sending us his mug shot.