Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Ferris Buehler once said, “Life moves pretty fast.” The truant wasn’t kidding. Seems just yesterday All Cops Were Bastards, or something, and burning government buildings down was peaceful protest, and suggesting the National Guard be used to quell rioters was actual violence.

Those were the days, my friend.

Now, 26,000 National Guard troops patrol D.C. like the capitol of some Banana Republic after a junta-staged coup, and cops are bastards unless they’re protecting politicians from the mob, and if you’re not cooperating with the FBI, you’re really endangering your future there, kid.

Bank of America really took that last one to heart. As reported by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, America’s second-largest bank, with more than 60 million customers, secretly searched through its massive database of its customers’ financial and transaction records to determine if any of its customers took part in the riots on January 6 in Washington, D.C.

Without its customers’ knowledge or consent, the bank, per Carlson, sought customers who made purchases in D.C. between January 5-6, customers who paid for hotel or lodging in D.C, Virginia and Maryland after January 6, and any purchases of weapons or at a weapons-related merchant between January 7 and Inauguration Day, and airline related purchases since January 6.

None of these actions are illegal.

Bank of America turned over to the FBI the records of 211 customers who met this profile.

What an incredible breach of trust Bank of America has committed. They have no right to go through its customers private financial records, much less to give them to the FBI.

Per the New York Post, Bank of America responded: “We don’t comment on our communications with law enforcement. All banks have responsibilities under federal law to cooperate with law enforcement inquiries in full compliance with the law.”

B of A is likely referencing the Bank Secrecy Act, the 1970 law intended to combat “money laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal acts and the misuse of our nation’s financial institutions,” as one of the agencies charged with enforcing the law puts it.

But nothing in the records Bank of America searched and turned over to the FBI could possibly suggest anything even illegal, let alone related to terrorism or “other criminal acts.” Even buying a t-shirt at a gun shop would set off the Bank of America snoops.

Bank of America should be ashamed of itself, but in a shameless world, I won’t hold my breath. As ever, the banks are their own best argument for going bankless. I just never pegged them for Frenesi Gates.

On Today’s edition of DaTechGuy’s no frills spontaneous Podcast we talk about what the Liz Cheney vote told us about election 2020, I talk a little about the Super bowl and explain why Donald Trump being gone from the presidency means the same for blue states as Tom Brady’s being gone from New England means for Bill Belichick

You can watch here

Hope you like it, if you do please subscribe as our blog subscribers all disappeared with the latest jetpack update or on youtube or consider hitting DaTipJar as I’m sure they demonetize us as soon as I have enough subscribers to try to earn a buck

If you want to understand the difference Tom Brady makes to the proposition that Bill Belichick is the greatest coach of all time here is the easiest way to do it.

At the end of the 2019 Season Bill Belichick was 3rd on both the all time regular season wins list and overall wins list Here is the chart

Coach	Regular Season Wins	Overall Wins (Reg + Playoffs)
Don Shula	328	347
George Hallas	318	324
Bill Belichick	273	304

Now here is the same chart adjusted for the results of the 2020 season

Coach	Regular Season Wins	Overall Wins (Reg + Playoffs)
Don Shula	328	347
George Hallas	318	324
Bill Belichick	280	311

George Hallas coached 40 years until age 72 Shula coached for 33 years until age 65 Belichick is now 68 years and has coached for 26 years. With the NFL expanding to a 17 game season simple math tells us that he coaches another 6 years he can equal Shula’s all time win numbers without a single winning season (8-9) by age 74. He will manage to edge him in the all time chart in a mere five seasons (age 73). It is very possible that he will manage at least one or more winning seasons during that time but with the improvements in Miami and Buffalo it’s also possible that 8-9 is overly optimistic without a Brady and if he can’t manage an over .500 season does Robert Kraft keep him for the five or six years needed to take that top spot?

I submit and suggest that if Tom Brady had started for the Patriots this year at age 43 and played two more seasons in New England retiring at age 45 per his stated goal the day TB 12 retired Coach Belichick would be 13 games or less behind Mr. Hallas on the regular season list and and the sole owner of the all time overall wins list.

Does anyone seriously doubt that this would be true?

FYI, while I’m busting on Belichick let me point out that if he does not draft Brady with that 199th pick AND he does not keep Brady as the 4th QB on his roster that 1st year AND he does not decide to keep Brady when Drew Bledsoe recovers from his injury. Tom Brady might be selling insurance today or be a color commentator for either Michigan or perhaps a local radio station.

Belichick was the only coach in the NFL that recognized Brady as a talent and recognized it to the point where he was willing to take risks to keep him. That he didn’t recognize that he was still his best chance to win 20 years later does not mitigate in the least the vital role he had in Brady getting a chance to play in the NFL nor his development.

One of the points that has been made a lot over the last few weeks with Tom Brady is how he covered a multitude of weaknesses that the Patriots had as a team and as an organization.

In addition to not having to fill the QB position for two decades when you have the single best Quarterback in the history of the game and said quarterback’s primary skills are not dependent on extraordinary physical attributes and thus less subject to physical decline over the years you find wonderful things happening.

First your defense is not on the field as much as said player is not giving up the ball due to mistakes, so if you have a player who still has juice in the 4th quarter who might not have had it otherwise while the opposite is taking place for your opponents.

Furthermore with an extraordinary QB your receivers are upgraded. A poor receiver might appear merely just below average, an average receiver good, a good receiver great (Amendola) a great receiver (Edelman) spectacular and spectacular receiver ungodly (think Randy Moss).

Moreover a player who might need an extra year to develop might put up good enough numbers to stay in the lineup to improve with the best of all time throwing to him as well.

Bill Belichick had all these advantages for two decades but now look what happens when you no longer have the wiggle room that having Tom Brady.

Suddenly your defense is on a field a lot more meaning the fellow who seemed to have plenty of wind at the end of the game the previous season doesn’t have it anymore while the other side is more rested than they once were.

Suddenly your receivers find that they have to run a little faster or reach a little farther to catch a pass that might have been right in their hands before and those defending them realize that they have an extra step or two to cover them.

In short every single one of your players who can’t up their game find that what was good enough to win games or get by before just isn’t good enough anymore.

And that brings us to Donald Trump.

The Donald Trump years were extraordinary in terms of growth, in terms of unemployment and in terms of success for ordinary Americans and American business. Getting out of the way of the people who make the country work meant that people thrived and all of that meant tax revenues pouring into the states.

That meant that if you had a state that was already well managed it will not only thrive it will roar.

But it also meant that if you had a state that was not well managed, say one that decided to push a $15 minimum wage, or had huge union contracts or a pension plan out of control or a set of rules that made it harder for people do business the costs of those bad decision were hidden by the prosperity generated by the Trump boom. The warehouse that might have moved to a different state was bringing in enough that it could absolve the costs you imposed on it. The tax burden that you put on individual citizens might be a pain but because that good job was still there they can hold out. The pension bubble that might be ready to burst can hold on just a bit longer. The charity that services the poor not only has fewer poor to service but more people with extra money kicking in to keep it afloat.

And even the most easily agitated or angry might be just comfortable enough to keep the pot from boiling over.

But what happens when for whatever reason the Trump boom ends.

Well if you have a state that is well run and well managed that took advantage of the boom of the Trump years they might be in a position to ride it out.

But if you have a state that has undermines business, that rewarded idleness or the connected. That made decisions based on a quick or easy political reward or punished those who produced, guess what happens.

Suddenly there isn’t the tax revenue to cover all those costs, all those pensions all those social problems and more importantly the business that decided they could handle all those additional burdens you had put on them decides that the costs involved in relocating to a more welcoming state aren’t all that prohibitive, particularly when those states, also seeing less revenue decide to roll out the carpet to make up for their own losses.

Thanks to the fecklessness of the legislatures of Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania, states like Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York California, Illinois, Colorado and Washington are facing the end of the Trump boom four years earlier than expected, just like Patriots fans are dealing with the end of the Brady Era two to three years before its time.

Fortunately for the Patriots Bill Belichick being a competent coach is capable of raising his game enough over the next three years to soften the blow. He may or may not manage to do it but there is a chance that the Patriots while unlikely to rise to the level of the Brady years can one again become an above .500 playoff team.

Given their history and the competence level of management of those blue states I suspect they won’t be so fortunate.