Month: June 2024

You can listen to Episode 12 on Apple or Spotify. I ask that you do, especially if you want to know my reaction to President Joe Biden’s performance in the debate. It took me some time to decide what I thought, which is why I didn’t rush off to give one more hot take. Brendan and I discuss the debate, the common reactions, the different possibilities with pros and cons, and we don’t ultimately agree.

We’d also like to announce that we set up a Patreon page for the pondcast, and ask that you become a member, paying or otherwise. We definitely need some financial support to be able to produce a regular podcast, and I think it’s important that we’re able to add our voices to the discussion in these crazy times and this most consequential election cycle. As you can see from the election results on Sunday in France, the fascists are on the march. We are all in big, big trouble, and we need to speak out and organize while we still can. Any little thing you can contribute will be appreciated and put to good use.

If you  like and subscribe to the pondcast, that will also help us add listeners, which is important. Everything we hold dear is currently at stake and deeply imperiled, and needless to say, things are not going well. I need your moral support, too, to help keep my chin up and continue to do this each and every day. Thanks so much!

When Steve Bannon refused to provide documents and testimony to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, justice moved pretty quickly, at first.

September 23, 2021: the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack subpoenas Steve Bannon, ordering him to appear on October 14. He does not.
October 19, 2021: the January 6 Select Committee votes unanimously to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt.
October 21, 2021: the U.S. House of Representatives approves the contempt resolution by a vote of 229-202, with only nine Republicans voting in the affirmative.
November 12, 2021: Bannon is indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of not providing documents and one count of not testifying.
November 15, 2021: Bannon surrenders to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He pleads not guilty and is released without bail.

But then there was a long break. His trial did not commence until July 18, 2022. Since Bannon had no actual defense for his non-compliance with Congress, he did not testify and called no witnesses. He was convicted on July 22, 2022, after which there was another long break.

It wasn’t until October 21, 2022 that Bannon was sentenced to four months in federal prison and fined $6,500. All totaled, it took about one year from the congressional contempt referral to the Department of Justice to the date of sentencing, and that is perhaps not so bad.

But when Bannon finally enters a prison cell on Monday, July 1, 2024, it will have been more than 23 months since he was convicted, It will be 30 months since he was indicted, and 33 months since he declined to comply with a congressional subpoena. This is far too long of a timeline for someone who never had a shred of legal argument for his non-compliance.

I know Congress is partisan and hearings can be complete bullshit exercises. People get hauled up to Congress all the time just so they can be used as a pawn in some game. But Congress has very serious hearings too, which actually inform the laws they pass. It cannot have people refusing to comply with its subpoenas without consequence. It’s not only that sometimes justice delayed is justice denied, but also policy delayed is policy denied. The response to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol Building necessarily required both accountability and policies to prevent future recurrences. Bannon’s documents and testimony were needed for both, and Congress had to go forward without his cooperation. This also warped the final report of what actually occurred leading up the the January 6 attack, because Bannon played a central role in inciting and organizing the riot with the president.

Everyone is entitled to time to prepare a defense and the the right of appeal, but I think congressional contempt cases should receive more priority treatment because we need a clearly and more forceful deterrent to people simply refusing to comply with subpoenas. Bannon should have been in prison for contempt two or three years ago, but instead he spent his time making a fortune off the credentials he received from Trump’s fans for his criminal behavior. That’s not much of a disincentive for future non-compliers.

Hello again painting fans.

This week I will be starting a new painting , Springwood, the home of FDR. I’ll be using my own photo, seen below.

I’ll be using my usual acrylic paints on a 5×7 inch canvas panel.

I started with a grid upon which my sketch began.

The current state of the painting is seen in the photo directly below.

I’ll have more to show you next week. See you then.

In 2022, the conservative Supreme Court curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s use of the Clean Air Act to limit emissions that contribute to climate change. In 2023, the conservative Supreme Court gutted the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to use the Clean Water Act to protect wetlands. In 2024, the conservative Supreme Court told the Environmental Protection Agency that it can’t issue a rule to protect one state from another state’s industrial site nitrogen oxide pollution.

This is what conservative justices bring us on the environmental front. They do the bidding of industries that give us unsafe air and unsafe water. They shield the industries that contribute to asthma and other lung diseases. If you extract oil and gas or build pipelines, they’re your best friend.But if you live, drink or breath, they don’t give a shit about you.

On this last ruling, Amy Coney Barrett couldn’t go along:

Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the court’s three liberals in disagreeing with the outcome.

She wrote that the court had blocked a major air pollution rule “based on an undeveloped theory that is unlikely to succeed on the merits” when the legal question is finally adjudicated.

I’m not sure why she thinks this “undeveloped theory” of her four conservative colleagues won’t ultimately prevail. Making shit up as they go along is what they do, just so long as they produce the outcome their corporate sponsors desire. This is actually a more fundamental structure of the conservative majority than their pandering to religious fanatics. Yes, they took away reproductive rights American women had enjoyed for half a century, but decisions that favor those seeking to evade regulation are far more frequent than rulings on social issues.

Add in their decision that people have a constitutional right to bump stocks so they can mow down concert-goers more efficiently, and it seems like you can predict how this Court by rule by figuring out which decision will cost the most lives.

It’s been a while since I had seen Sarah Cooper offer one of her famous “how to” videos, but given that the Former Guy cannot shut himself up, she has plenty of material to work with.

Enjoy. The bar is fully stocked and the jukebox is limited by your imagination.

Cheers!

If I asked you what happened in 1989, you’d probably be able to tell me that the Berlin Wall fell. If I asked you what happened in 1979, you’d have a variety of options including the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Siege of Mecca. But what if I asked you what happened exactly one century ago, in 1924. What would you say, then?

Maybe you’d know some trivial fact, like that the first Winter Olympics were held in France or that Petrograd (St. Petersburg)  was renamed as Leningrad. But what about historical events that are still reverberating in today’s news?

Well, here are three events from 1924 that you might not know about that are still influencing what’s going on in the Middle East today.

On March 3, 1924, Turkish leader Kemal Atatürk abolished the Islamic caliphate which had existed for over four centuries. This essentially completed the task of winding down the Ottoman Empire. And it led to the second big event. In Mecca, the Hashemite king, Ali bin Hussein, proclaimed himself caliph. But this was widely rejected throughout the Muslim World. The British and French, who had encouraged Hussein to lead the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans during World War One, were similarly unsupportive. The British, in particular, stopped paying subsidies to Hussein which he had been using to buy loyalty from local tribal leaders. Without this support, Hussein was rapidly defeated by Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, and Mecca has been in the hands of the Saudi Royal Family ever since.

The third event occurred in Iran. At the time, the British and the Americans were competing to develop the oil fields there. The British had installed Reza Khan as the leader in 1921 as part of their effort to fight the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.

In 1924, future CIA director Allen Dulles was serving as head of the Near Eastern Affairs Division at the U.S. Department of State, and he decided to send a man named Robert Imbrie to the consulate in Tabriz to “spy on Soviet Russia and to facilitate the American oil concession for northern Iran that Tehran had offered as collateral for an American loan.”

Imbrie was an interesting and controversial character.

Described as an “adventurer-spy,” he had grown restless at his Baltimore law practice and joined an expedition to Congo in 1911. During World War One, he volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver in the French army. When America became involved, he joined the foreign service and was sent to Petrograd, but was expelled to Finland. Once there, he began infiltrating agents back into the Soviet Union. After the war, he was sent to Istanbul to help Russia’s White Army fight against the Bolsheviks, and it there that he met Dulles. Imbrie’s stay in Turkey ended just as badly as his stay in Petrograd.

Imbrie was recalled to Washington in July 1923 to answer charges that his friendship with Turks had endangered the lives of Greeks and Armenians. He was also accused of calling Louise Bryant, the widow of John Reed and pregnant fiancée of William Bullitt, a Bolshevik. After clearing Imbrie of the charges, Dulles, by this time chief of the Near Eastern Affairs Division at State, assigned him to the consulate at Tabriz…

So, while Atatürk was abolishing the caliphate and sparking the Saudi conquest of Mecca, Mr. Imbrie was entering Iran on a special mission from Dulles. And he was entering a powder keg.

In the Iranian domestic context, Reza Khan sought to curb independent tribal forces and the domination of cities by local bazaar merchants and their clerical allies by establishing a military dictatorship over the entire country. He supported the American financial mission Iran had hired in 1922 in an effort to break dependence on British subsidies. In March 1924, Reza sought to end the Qajar monarchy and make himself president of a republic, as Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk] had recently done in Turkey.

When this effort to establish a Republic badly failed, Reza Khan found it advisable to reach an accommodation with the clerics, and this included giving them a free hand to crack down on members of the Baha’i religion. The Baha’i faith originated in Iran in the 19th-Century, with its founding prophet, Baháʼu’lláh, preaching “the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people.” This was blasphemy to the ayatollahs.

So, in 1924, the ayatollahs organized a pogrom against the Baha’i, with fatal consequences for Mr. Imbrie.

It began in Tehran with the miracles at the Saqqa-khanih. In Iran, a saqqa-khanih is “a public water fountain that commemorates the Shi‘i martyrs who were deprived of water during the battle of Karbala (680 A.D.).” The story went that in June 1924 a blind man had regained his sight at a fountain in Tehran. Following this, it was alleged that a Baha’i girl had attempted to poison the fountain and had been struck blind. Another story went that a Baha’i had been struck blind at the fountain “when he failed to bless the Shi’a saints, then had his sight restored when he did so.”

With these rumors swirling around, the saqqa-khanih became a gathering place, but one with a strong anti-Baha’i edge. The situation evidently piqued Mr. Imbrie’s interest and, having been temporarily reassigned to the Tehran consulate, he decided to get a look for himself. There’s a report that he previously interceded with the Iranian government on behalf of some American Baha’is, so that might explain his motivation. In any case, he arrived with a camera in the company of a consulate prisoner named Melvin Seymour who is described as “an oilfield roughneck serving a one-year sentence…for assaulting another American oil worker with a baseball bat.” From there, things went badly wrong.

Imbrie seems to have anticipated violence because he had armed his prisoner with a blackjack. Someone called out “Baha’is!” and the crowd attacked. Imbrie and Seymour ran away. They were caught and beaten. Extricated by the police, they were taken to a police hospital for treatment. There they were attacked again, the crowd augmented by soldiers from Reza Khan’s army whose barracks were nearby. Imbrie died of his wounds, including a saber slash to his head.

Mr. Seymour was spared, perhaps because after he was stripped naked it was discovered that he was circumcised, and therefore possibly a Muslim. The death of Mr. Imbrie was an international news story, with “religious zealots” correctly blamed for the attack.

The Americans demanded justice and were not easily satisfied. Eventually, 20 people were convicted and three teenage “scapegoats” received a death sentence, although two were initially commuted to life sentences.

On learning of the commutations, Dulles exploded in anger to the Iranian chargé. The Iranian government reinstated the death sentences. American Chargé Murray refused pleas for mercy, and the executions were carried out in the presence of a U.S. representative, chief legation translator Allahyar Saleh.

As for Reza Khan, he used the controversy to argue for dictatorial powers lest the country continue to be beset by “continuing clerical-led riotous unrest.” And that is how Reza Khan became the Shah of Iran.

Fast-forward to 1953, and we see Allen Dulles at work in Iran again. But this time he’s working with Reza Khan’s son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who succeeded to the throne in 1941. In an effort to prevent the nationalization of the Iranian oilfields, Dulles authorized a coup to depose prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. After this failed and the Shah fled into exile, Dulles orchestrated a successful coup to restore the Reza Pahlavi to power.

That brings us up to 1979, when the ayatollahs finally got their revenge, forced the Shah into exile for good, and established the Islamic government that still governs Iran today. As seems common in the region, it’s easier to identify the bad guys than the good guys. The episode with Mr. Imbrie bathed no one in glory, even in retrospect. The religious leaders, then as now, were truly zealots bent on persecuting religious minorities with fanatical mobs whipped up on bullshit. But they were also justifiably suspicious and resentful of foreign influence that did not have the Iranian people’s best interests at heart. Mr. Imbrie’s mission cared nothing for the Iranians, but only for combatting Soviet influence and winning oil concessions. And Reza Khan, like his son, acted with extreme cynicism in his efforts to maintain and increase his power.

As for the Baha’i, they are still brutally persecuted in Iran. Human Rights Watch recently characterized the Iranian revolutionary government’s treatment of the Baha’i as “crimes against humanity,” but as this article shows, the bad treatment at the hands of clerics predates them coming to power in 1979.

The Baha’i prophet Baháʼu’lláh was exiled from Iran in 1853 and eventually imprisoned by the Ottomans in what is now Acre, Israel. His shrine, which is located nearby, is the holiest site in the Baha’i faith, and a magnet for pilgrims. The religion’s world headquarters is located at Mount Carmel overlooking the Bay of Haifa. I recently saw that a Baha’i man from Haifa was killed while serving in Gaza in the Israeli Defense Forces.

What about the Hashemite king Ali bun Hussein of Mecca who declared himself the caliph? He bought us the Saudis who recently invested $2 billion with Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kosher. Hussein’s brother Abdullah established the royal house of Jordan that still rules today. His brother Faisal was King of Syria and later King of Iraq. Hussein died in Baghdad in 1935 while his daughter was enthroned as the queen.

Iraq and Syria lay in ruins today, and Iran extends its reach all the way to Israel’s northern border, across which their puppet army Hezbollah fires rocket after rocket on abandoned towns and cities.

When you take it all in, it’s hard to believe that only a century has passed since Mr. Imbrie decided to visit the Saqqa-khanih on July 18, 1924. Imagine how things might be different if he’d done something else that day.

It’s was inevitable that a legal challenge would ensue when Louisiana passed a law mandating that, beginning next year, all state-funded universities and K-12 classrooms display a poster of the Ten Commandments in a “large, easily readable font.” Unsurprisingly, the plaintiffs are the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

It’s pretty basic, and it begins with the 1st Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This is a declaration of monotheism. It’s the key principle of Judaism and Islam, and despite the confusion arising out of the Holy Trinity, it’s central to Christianity as well. There’s supposedly only one God and if you believe there is more than one, then it’s big trouble for you. I don’t think the early Israelites were actually conceited enough to believe there’s one only God, but they were clear that they should only worship one if they wanted to survive and prosper. This is a little different than the Muslim point of view. After all, the first pillar of Islam is the shahada, which states, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” This isn’t a matter of choosing one god among many to worship but rather an insistence that there is only one God.

Louisiana is endorsing this basic concept. But, believe it or not, there are still people who believe there’s a pantheon of gods, or no gods or god at all. They have an absolute constitutional right to these beliefs, and to be free from state-sponsored indoctrination that tells them or their children otherwise. Now, it’s one thing to require children to say “one nation under God” in the pledge of allegiance, and quite another to tell them “they shall not” have a non-monotheistic or non-theistic religious belief system.

The American system of religious liberty was set up to avoid favoritism toward any one version of Christianity, as the colonies were largely religious institutions. Massachusetts was for Congregationalists, New Jersey for Presbyterians, Pennsylvania for Quakers, Virginia for Anglicans, the Carolinas for Baptists, and so on. In some states, belonging to the wrong sect meant you were ineligible to hold public office. And, of course, these religious communities were safe havens from the persecution various denominations had suffered in England and throughout Europe during the wars of religion. So, to cobble everyone together in one federal government, assurances were needed that no religious tests would be required. These protections extended to Jews and Muslims, but nonbelievers and polytheists weren’t much of a consideration. Nonetheless, they are covered by the 1st Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The Louisiana law “establishes” a class of monotheistic religions. To be clear, the law doesn’t create a religious test for employment or service in government, but it creates an imperative to monotheism in every classroom. That’s religious indoctrination.

We don’t even need to get to other nine commandments to know that there is a constitutional problem here. Telling students not to lie, steal, murder or covet their neighbor’s goat is defensible. Telling them they cannot believe in anything but the one approved god is not.

I feel strangely detached about Donald Trump’s selection of running mate. Reporting from NBC News indicates the short list is down to North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, and Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. There may still be a tiny pulse for upstate New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik and South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott, but their chances are clearly fading.

The first thing that needs to be said about this list is that it is constitutionally impermissible for Trump and Rubio to form a ticket if they are both residents of the same state, which they clearly are as they both live, vote and pay taxes in Florida. The campaign clearly recognizes the hurdle this presents, but the article is of two minds about it. On the one hand, it quotes a Florida Republican operative saying, “if the residency thing was not an issue, I’m fairly certain Marco would be the guy.” On the other, it quotes “a source who has spoken with Trump about the running mate search” saying “the residency factor is an issue that is easy to fix as long as Rubio relocates.”

This forced me to look up the inhabitancy requirements for a U.S. Senator and it turns out that they must be a resident of the state they seek to represent at the time of the election, but not thereafter. So Rubio can move away from Florida without having to surrender his seat in the Senate, but he would have to reestablish residency to seek a new term. Any efforts he might make to establish residency in a new state between now and November would be challenged in court, but the Supreme Court is basically an arm of the Republican Party at this point, and they might rule in Rubio’s favor.

One thing about this list I’ll note at the outset because of the childish way that Trump thinks is that so many of the finalists, like Mike Pence and Trump, have five-letter last names. There was a symmetry to the Trump-Pence yard signs and bumper stickers and the same would be true of Trump-Vance, Trump-Rubio, and Trump-Scott. Would Trump seriously allow himself to outshined by Trump-Stefanik signage? Would he feel some kind of emasculating letter-envy with Trump-Burgum?

Consider the superficial reason he likes Burgum: “he has the central casting appearance of a dashing businessman-turned-governor” but his “struggle to break through in the primaries suggests he wouldn’t be a likely heir apparent who draws attention.” Don’t think the length of his running mate’s name couldn’t be a deciding factor for Trump.

One reason I’ve put so little thought into who Trump will choose is that I don’t see it as likely to make any difference. The election will be a yes or no on Trump. But in close elections, small factors have the power to be decisive. At least in the case of Rubio and Vance, they’d potentially help solidify Trump’s position in their respective states. But Trump is already heavily favored to win in Florida and Ohio. He isn’t winning in New York, and if he needs a boost to win in North Dakota then his goose is already cooked. I just don’t see any direct influence on outcomes here.

As for identity politics, Stefanik might soften Trump’s problem with women, Rubio might provide a boost with Latinos and Scott with Blacks, but I think this is mostly wishful thinking. And his base of fundamentalist Christian white nationalists don’t want a woman or minority on the ticket, so if we’re talking about incremental differences, these factors could cancel each other out.

The base will love Vance, and they’ll tolerate Burgum, so then the choice comes down to Trump’s idiosyncratic preferences. Whose name looks better on a sign? Who looks better on television? Who is more likely to break laws if Trump asks them to? Who does he want to talk to from time to time?

I can’t know the answers to these questions, although I will note that Vance is on the record saying some nasty things about Trump before he sold his soul to the MAGA movement. That’s why Burgum makes a lot of sense, presuming that, unlike Pence, he can be trusted to flush the Constitution on demand.

None of these candidates strike fear in my heart. Vance would be the worst simply because choosing him would  double down on white nationalism. As veteran senators, Scott and Rubio have dealt in a serious way with the agencies of the executive branch for long enough that they could serve as president without falling on their face. Maybe the same is true of Burgum, who has whatever limited relevant executive experience running North Dakota confers. Vance and Stefanik don’t strike me as experienced enough to be POTUS, and just like Trump and George W. Bush, they’d be handled by chiefs of staff and cabinet members.

I think trying to imagine any of these folks as president is the only angle that makes the choice interesting or potentially important.

Hello again painting fans.

This week I will be continuing with the painting of the Flagstaff, Arizona scene. The photo that I’m using (My own from a recent visit.) is seen directly below.

I’ll be using my usual acrylic paints on a 6×6 inch canvas panel.

When last seen the painting appeared as it does in the photo seen directly below.

Since that time I have continued to work on the painting.

Since last time I have concentrated my efforts on the mountain. I have revised it to appear as a distant rock rather than a blue lump. 

The current and final state of the painting is seen in the photo directly below.

I’ll have a new painting to show you next week. See you then.***

The 2022 Wild Card game against the Minnesota Vikings got off to a very inauspicious start for the New York Giants. On the first play, Kirk Cousins completed a pass to All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson for 10 yards, and then running back Dalvin Cook ran right up the gut for nine. The Giants’ star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence committed a neutral zone infraction, giving the Vikings another first down. All told, the drive would last 12 plays, including four catches from Jefferson, take up almost seven minutes and end with a quarterback sneak for a touchdown. Then, on the first Giants play from scrimmage, a 12-year gain by Saquon Barkley was called back for holding on left guard Nick Gates.

The Vikings’ Skol-chanting crowd was in a deafening frenzy.

And then the magic started. On 1st-and-20, Daniel Jones hit Richie James over the middle for 13 yards. He followed that up on 2nd-and-7 by slipping inside an outside rush around rookie right tackle Evan Neal by Za’Darius Smith for a seven-yard first down. After completing a 22-yard crosser to Darius Slayton, Jones repeated his scrambling feat by slipping inside an outside rush from Patrick Jones Jr. for a 15 yard gain. Jones capped off the run with a tasty stiff-arm of future Hall of Fame cornerback Patrick Peterson. On the next play, center Jon Feliciano delivered a crushing pulling block to spring Barkley for a 29-yard touchdown. Every play of the drive was successful, excepting the initial 12-yard Barkley run that was called back for holding. It was a thrilling start to a game that would go down to the last play, an inexplicable decision by Cousins to throw a 3-yard pass to tight end T.J. Hockenson on 4th-and-8 that sealed a 31-24 victory for the Giants and a date in Philadelphia with the NFC East rival Eagles.

But the first drives were deceptive in every respect but one. Jefferson would catch only three more passes, and Barkley would finish with only 9 rushes for 53 yards. The receiving stars were Hockenson, who tormented the Giants with 10 catches for 129 yards, and 2020 Bills’ 6th-round pick Isaiah Hodgins who caught 8 passes for 105 yards. What remained constant was Jones’s rushing ability. His seventeen total rushes nearly doubled Barkley’s and outpaced the 15 carries from the Vikings’ Cook.  He finished with 78 rushing yards compared to Cook’s sixty. Considering the stakes, it was Jones’s finest performance as a pro, as he also went 25-34 through air for 301 yards and two touchdowns.

It was also the last game, outside of a sparkling second half performance against the Arizona Cardinals last year, where Jones performed like a number six overall draft pick and franchise quarterback. In 2023, devastating injuries to Andrew Thomas, Saquon Barkley and rookie center John Michael Schmitz, combined with a tough early schedule, resulted in a complete meltdown of the Giants’ offense. Then Jones suffered a neck injury followed by a torn anterior cruciate ligament that ended his season in Week Nine.

Now it’s fair to question whether Jones can recapture the magic from 2022  and his playoff win in Minnesota, and so it is perhaps fortuitous that the Vikings are the first team on the Giants’ 2024 schedule, albeit this time in the Meadowlands before a friendly crowd celebrating the beginning of the storied franchise’s centennial season.

Jones may have a comfort level facing the Vikings, but many things have changed. Gone is his star sidekick, Barkley. The Vikings defense is now led by accomplished coordinator Brian Flores, and their secondary no longer looks like the Swiss cheese 2022 outfit that finished second-to-last in yards conceded. It’s unlikely that the Giants will craft a game plan that involves handing the ball fewer than ten times to a running back. The fearsome Viking pass rushers Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter have been replaced by Andrew Van Ginkel, Jonathan Greenard and rookie Dallas Turner who are all new to Flores’s defense.

The Giants receiving corp no longer resembles a M*A*S*H ward and is bolstered by a new 6th overall pick, rookie Malik Nabers out of LSU. The offensive line is healthy and solidified by veteran guards Jon Runyon and Jermaine Eluemunor. Perhaps, most importantly, this will be Jones’ third year in Brian Daboll’s offense and third year with offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. Even going back to college, Jones has never enjoyed this kind of continuity.

As for the Vikings offense, they are in the process of choosing a starting quarterback. Will it be Jets castoff Sam Darnold or rookie J.J. McCarthy, fresh off his NCAA championship-winning season at Michigan? Neither prospect is as intimidating as facing Kirk Cousins who is now playing on a fresh $180 million contract for the Atlanta Falcons. The Giants won’t have to worry about tight end Hockenson torching them for over 100 yards either, because he tore his ACL on Christmas Eve in Detroit and won’t be ready for Opening Day. Perhaps covering tight ends won’t be such a concern this year, as the Giants’ interior linebacking crew, led by Bobby Okereke, is much improved. That should also help in defending the Vikings’ run game which is now led by 3-time 1,000-yard rusher Aaron Jones, formerly of the Green Bay Packers.

And that’s not the only change that favors the Giants defense. The Vikings interior line is unsettled and center Garrett Bradbury proved no match for Dexter Lawrence in the 2022 Wild Card match. The Giants’ edge rusher situation will be greatly improved with major free agent signing Brian Burns joining a more seasoned Kayvon Thibodeaux and a healthy Azeez Ojulari. If the secondary can slow down Jefferson, it could be a long day for the Vikings offense as they break-in a new QB.

Much might depend on Jones’s legs. The game plan in 2022 accounted for right tackle Evan Neal’s difficulties in pass protection by including both designed quarterback runs and quick scrambles when edge rushers committed too much to Neal’s outside. But in the first game back from an ACL injury, do the Giants want Jones rushing 17 times? Can Neal get fully healthy and hold up better in the pass game so that Jones can connect with his speedy receiving corp?

It seems that the Giants caught a break in getting the Vikings in Week One. They won’t be facing a top quarterback well-versed in the team’s offense, and they won’t be facing Hockenson. The Vikings pass rush might take time to develop with all new players on the edges, and that’s important because the Giants offensive line will need time to gel, too.

Much the same story will play out the next week in Washington. The Commanders will also be breaking in a new QB playing behind a revamped offensive line and missing its edge rushers. Is it too much to hope that that Giants can start the season two-and-O?