How Much Money Will Be Bet On The Super Bowl In 2021?

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Post-Super Bowl 7-Round Mock Draft

I added in projected compensatory picks from OTC and the compensatory picks from the new minority candidate development rule. Not sure how those are supposed to be structured in, so I simply used the OTC ones first in the order, but took off the last 3 estimated compensatory picks to ensure it remained at a simple 32 compensatory picks added. So apologies to the Cowboys, Bears, and Steelers. You might have been robbed of a pick but I don't know the specifics of how all those will be factored in. If someone knows the actual way those will set-up, that'd be useful information. Going to provide commentary on rounds 1-3 then maybe the occasional commentary after that if I really like a fit.
Also, there's a chance that I missed someone announcing they were returning to school or not. Just let me know if so.

Pre-Draft Trades

Using the terms suggested from a SB Nation article, so yell at them if you hate it: CAR sends: QB Teddy Bridgewater, 2021, 2022, 2023 first-round picks, 2021, 2022 second-round picks HOU sends: QB Deshaun Watson
The Panthers have drafted relatively well the last 2-3 years, as they have several younger pieces they can continue building around. Thus, a major package to land QB Deshaun Watson should be something they explore. For Houston, a king's ransom for a disgruntled star who really wants out.
An NFC championship contender adds a big piece to their offense: GB sends: 2021 second-round pick, 2022 fifth-round pick DAL sends: WR Michael Gallup, 2021 seventh-round pick
The Packers add some extra firepower on offense by adding Gallup. With Rodgers window coming to a close, the Packers take a chance that an established veteran like Gallup will do more for them than a very late second-round pick. Dallas has Amari Cooper and now CeeDee Lamb at WR, making Gallup expendable if they get a good offer for him.
An NFC playoff team makes a splash at the quarterback position: WAS sends: 2021 fourth-round pick, 2022 seventh-round pick JAC sends: QB Gardner Minshew
While the Redskins did not land Stafford, they could still find a solid upgrade at the QB position by bringing in Gardner Minshew. I love how he fits in Scott Turner's offense, and think this would be a decent enough price to pay to give them some stability at the position.

First Round

(1) Jacksonville Jaguars - QB Trevor Lawrence, Clemson - I'd imagine even though it's the only pick that never changes, Jaguars fans aren't bored of seeing this. Lawrence is a special player and their best bet at turning things around in a hurry.
(2) New York Jets - QB Zach Wilson, BYU - There still could be a small chance that the Jets stick with Sam Darnold, but we're going to go ahead and give Darnold a fresh-start somewhere else (trade to be revealed later). I have Fields a smidge higher than Zach Wilson, but could easily see him being the selection here. I think Wilson's a better fit, however, for LaFleur's Shanahan style offense. Either way, a talented QB for the Jets and head coach Robert Saleh (great f***ing hire btw Jets fans).
(3) Miami Dolphins (via HOU) - OT Penei Sewell, Oregon - With the Panthers giving up a haul for Deshaun Watson, the Dolphins may not have a lot of options to trade out of this spot. Thus, they stick tight and land an elite pass protector for QB Tua Tagovailoa.
(4) Atlanta Falcons - QB Justin Fields, Ohio State - Personally, I love the idea of Fields coming back home to Georgia to sit behind Matt Ryan for a season. The Falcons, and new head coach Arthur Smith, would be wise to take a QB while they're in a natural position to snag one. Ryan will start 2021 for sure due to his contract, but if things go well, they could make a Mahomes like transition to Fields into 2022.
(5) Cincinnati Bengals - OT Rashawn Slater, Northwestern - There a lot of buzz that Slater could be above Sewell in the mind of many NFL executives. Either way, it's a strong pick for the Bengals and Joe Burrow to land a top offensive tackle.
TRADE! The Patriots send their 2021 1st (1.15) along with a 2021 3rd (3.98) and a 2022 1st to the Eagles to move up to their selection at 6.
(6) New England Patriots (via PHI) - QB Trey Lance, North Dakota State - The Patriots need to make a significant investment in the QB position, as neither Cam Newton nor Jarrett Sitdham looked like the answer for them in 2020. Here they make a splash trade to move up and grab Lance, a player with immense physical talent. Ideally they'd land a veteran QB like Ryan Fitzpatrick to start in 2021 while they let Lance develop.
(7) Detroit Lions - WR Devonta Smith, Alabama - One thing lost in the Stafford-Goff trade is Detroit essentially nuking its cap space by bringing in Goff's $28 million deal. Now $11 million over the estimated cap, the Lions do not seem likely to retain WR Kenny Golladay at this point. They need a replacement for Goff to throw to while they determine if he'll be around longer than 2021.
(8) Houston Texans (via CAR) - CB Caleb Farley, Virginia Tech - Without a QB available here, the Texans play it patient, letting newly acquired Teddy Bridgewater run the show in 2021. They instead my personal top choice at corner this year, Virginia Tech's Caleb Farley. For a defense that needs to get turned around, he represents an excellent building block for them.
TRADE! The Miami Dolphins get aggressive here, sending their second first-round pick (1.18), a 2021 3rd (3.82) and a 2022 2nd round pick, and swap 2nds with Denver to move up here.
(9) Miami Dolphins (via DEN) - WR Ja'Marr Chase, LSU - The Dolphins go land a premier wide receiver target for QB Tua Tagovailoa to throw to. Chase and Smith will be widely debated for the top wide receiver honors in this draft class. Miami would likely be elated to add either one of them.
(10) Dallas Cowboys - CB Patrick Surtain II, Alabama - Surtain may not be my top cornerback, but the Cowboys should have no hesitation adding him here at tenth overall, especially considering the dire state of their defense.
(11) New York Giants - EDGE Kwity Paye, Michigan - Paye is an exceptional athletic talent. Much like fellow Wolverine Rashan Gary coming out of Ann Arbor, he's still got plenty of room to grow into an elite rusher. He was dominant in the first few games for the Wolverines in an otherwise rough 2020 season for Harbaugh and co.
(12) San Francisco 49ers - CB Jaycee Horn, South Carolina - I have top-15 grades on all three of the corners listed so far, so this remains excellent value in my opinion for the 49ers. They're likely going to lose a handful of cornerbacks to free agency this year, so landing a premier rookie to develop into a stud for DeMeco Ryans defense is a priority.
(13) Los Angeles Chargers - OT Christian Darrisaw, Virginia Tech - An excellent group of tackles in this year's draft class is a big benefit for the Chargers, as they're able to land a premier prospect like Darrisaw. He'll fit well in new offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi's offense in his second-go as a play-caller.
(14) Minnesota Vikings - T/G Alijah Vera-Tucker, USC - Vera-Tucker has the flexibility to play tackle or move inside to guard. The Vikings have a similar player in Ezra Cleveland, which should give them the ability to move some guys around and find the ideal pairing here.
(15) Philadelphia Eagles - EDGE Gregory Rousseau, Miami - The Eagles probably have some positional needs above this, but it'd be a mistake to go for a worse player at a lesser player, thus the selection of Rousseau. He's an elite athlete and was incredibly disruptive for the Hurricanes in 2019. With Brandon Graham getting up there in age, and Vinny Curry set to hit free agency, this selection goes best player available with the near future in mind.
(16) Arizona Cardinals - TE Kyle Pitts, Florida - The Cardinals could use a monsterous pass catcher like Pitts to pair with DeAndre Hopkins. With some strong flashes from QB Kyler Murray in 2020, adding one more weapon could provide the breakthrough the Cardinals need to make it into the playoffs.
TRADE! The Steelers make a move up, sending a 1st (1.24), their third (3.88) and a 2022 fifth to move up and make the selection here instead of the Raiders.
(17) Pittsburgh Steelers - OT Samuel Cosmi, Texas - Jumping ahead of a couple of OT-needy teams in the WFT and the Bears, Pittsburgh gets its future franchise pass protector. Cosmi's film shows a highly athletic tackle who has gotten better each season in Austin. Put in a strong program under Mike Tomlin, I think Cosmi can thrive as a future All-Pro.
(18) Denver Broncos (via MIA) - LB Micah Parsons, Penn State - The Broncos land an absolute steal here with Parsons, an elite blend of size and speed at the LB position. Additionally, his versatility should be a weapon for Vic Fangio to deploy, as he's capable of filling multiple roles on any defense.
(19) Washington Football Team - WR Jaylen Waddle, Alabama - I think a bigger wide receiver would work a bit better, but Scott Turner's creativity in building an offense around mostly role/gadget players like Logan Thomas and Antonio Gibson and J.D. McKissic gives me confidence he can make it work with an elite talent like Waddle.
(20) Chicago Bears - G Wyatt Davis, Ohio State - The Bears could probably go for a tackle a little bit more than a guard, but beggars cannot be choosers this late into the first-round. They land an elite interior lineman to immediately give a boost to their offensive line.
(21) Indianapolis Colts - QB Mac Jones, Alabama - Philip Rivers retired, Jacoby Brissett is a free agent, and Jacob Eason wasn't active for a single game. Add it all together and it looks like the Colts are in need of a QB like Jones. A decisive passer with a good deep ball, he'll be a nice addition for Frank Reich to mentor.
(22) Tennessee Titans - EDGE Jaelan Phillips, Miami - The Titans pass rusher was miserable this past season. Injecting some youth and athleticism into the equation could help Mike Vrabel get his defense back on track. Phillips was excellent for the Hurricanes in 2020.
(23) New York Jets (via SEA) - OT Alex Leatherwood, Alabama - The Jets add another big body here to pair on the other side of LT Mekhi Becton. With those two in town, new QB Zach Wilson should feel quite comfortable in the pocket.
(24) Las Vegas Raiders (via PIT) - DT Christian Barmore, Alabama - The sixth Crimson Tide player selected, Barmore was dominant the second half of the season in Tuscaloosa. He'd fill a big need on Ken Whisenhu...I mean, Gus Bradley's defense here in Vegas.
(25) Jacksonville Jaguars (via LAR) - WR Kadarius Toney, Florida - The Jaguars give Trevor Lawrence an explosive weapon to throw to. Toney lit up the SEC this season and was very impressive at the Senior Bowl. He'd join former Florida head coach Urban Meyer a short drive away.
(26) Cleveland Browns - DT Daviyon Nixon, Iowa - The Browns drafting this late with their own selection is a sign of how far they've come in recent years. They now have the ability to sit back and take the best player on the board in Nixon, a dominant pass rusher who came on strong in Big Ten play this year.
(27) Baltimore Ravens - WR Rashod Bateman, Minnesota - I believe I've had this pick in the last mock I did as well, but it makes way too much sense. The Ravens need a top option at wide receiver and Bateman's a crafty player who fits their offense well.
(28) New Orleans Saints - CB Aaron Robinson, UCF - Robinson is a very underrated corner in this draft, and I really think he'll have a shot to land in the first-round. A quick player who always ends up in the right position, he'd be an excellent addition to the Saints defense.
(29) Green Bay Packers - LB Nick Bolton, Missouri - The Packers need some fresh blood at the second level, and Bolton's an absolute missile who flies all over the field. Bolton would fit really well in the middle of their defense, especially if the Packers hire a 3-4 zone blitz genius like Jim Leonhard as their new coordinator.
(30) Buffalo Bills - EDGE Azeez Ojulari, Georgia - A debate here between Ojulari and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, but ultimately think the depth at LB is a bit better in this class then pass rusher. So, Ojulari joins Sean McDermott's defense in Buffalo.
(31) Kansas City Chiefs - iOL Creed Humphrey, Oklahoma - The Chiefs need to add a starting caliber player to the interior of their offense line, and if Humphrey slides to them in the first-round, that'd be excellent value for them.
(32) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - RB Najee Harris, Alabama - Congratulations Bucs fans and the Brady bandwagon! Now, don't get too caught up on the position, the best way to maintain your dominance is to continue adding elite pieces, and Harris is a potential star at the RB position. Excellent in-between the tackles as well as in the passing game.

Second Round

(33) Jacksonville Jaguars - S Trevon Moehrig, TCU - I almost thought about Moehrig with their second first-round pick, but ultimately he still lands in Jacksonville.
(34) New York Jets - RB Travis Etienne, Clemson - The Jets have the cap space to add a veteran WR like Allen Robinson or Kenny Golladay, so use the draft to add a stellar running back.
(35) Atlanta Falcons - CB Erik Stokes, Georgia - Another Georgia player sticking around, as Stokes gives them an excellent option to develop alongside Terrell.
(36) Denver Broncos (via MIA) - CB Greg Newsome II, Northwestern - A rising star at the cornerback position, Newsome fits well into Fangio's defense.
(37) Philadelphia Eagles - WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, USC - After adding an edge rusher earlier, the Eagles add a top wideout in the Trojan's star.
(38) Cincinnati Bengals - G Deonte Brown, Alabama - The Bengals, after trading for another starting guard earlier, continue to overhaul their line.
(39) Houston Texans (via CAR) - EDGE Joseph Ossai, Texas - The Texans add some pass rushing help on the edge of their front seven with Ossai.
(40) Miami Dolphins (via DEN) - OLB Zaven Collins, Tulsa - Collins is an ideal fit for Brian Flores, as he can lineup in a handful of different spots, similar to some of the linebackers he's worked with in Miami and New England.
(41) Detroit Lions - LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Notre Dame - The Lions add a rangy linebacker who can give them some much needed at the position.
(42) New York Giants - G Trey Smith, Tennessee - The Giants get an upgrade along the offensive with a powerful guard like Smith.
(43) San Francisco 49ers - DT Levi Onwuzurike, Washington - The 49ers add an elite defensive tackle to pair with Javon Kinlaw on the inside.
(44) Dallas Cowboys - OT Dillon Radunz, North Dakota State - The Cowboys went defense earlier, but add a talented offensive lineman to restock the trenches here.
(45) Jacksonville Jaguars - TE Pat Freiermuth, Penn State - If Freiermuth falls to the Jags here that'd be an absolute steal. A high-caliber tight end who can do everything needed at the position.
(46) New England Patriots - WR Terrace Marshall Jr., LSU - The Patriots, even if they add a QB, still need more weapons at WR. Marshall is an excellent one.
(47) Los Angeles Chargers - CB Ifeatu Melifonwu, Syracuse - The Chargers give new head coach Brandon Staley an elite athlete to mold into a dominant cornerback for them.
(48) Las Vegas Raiders - EDGE Joe Tryon, Washington - The Raiders bring in another talent piece of Washington 2019 defensive line. He's got a high motor along with immense upside.
TRADE! The Colts hop in front of the Dolphins to land their guy. They send a 2022 3rd round pick along with their second (2.54) here to the Cardinals in exchange for this selection and a 2022 7th round pick.
(49) Indianapolis Colts (via ARI) - EDGE Carlos Basham, Wake Forest - I think Basham could definitely go higher than this, but if he's available in the second, the Colts should jump up to land him.
(50) Miami Dolphins - S Jevon Holland, Oregon - The Dolphins add a playmaking safety to join their defense. Holland was an excellent leader on defense for the Ducks.
(51) Washington Football Team - OT Teven Jenkins, Oklahoma State - Washington has gotten serviceable production from a pair of aging OT's in Moses and Lucas. They add a developmental tackle to replace them soon enough.
(52) Chicago Bears - WR Nico Collins, Michigan - The Bears could see star WR Allen Robinson walk in free agency. Adding a deep threat like Collins to pair with Mooney would be fun.
(53) Tennessee Titans - OT Jalen Mayfield, Michigan - Another Wolverine in the second round here, Mayfield would give the Titans a strong Michigan-based tackle duo with Taylor Lewan's return.
(54) Arizona Cardinals (via IND) - iOL Landon Dickerson, Alabama - A tough, hard-nosed player on the interior, Dickerson can play a handful of spots, making him a versatile addition to the Cardinals line.
(55) Pittsburgh Steelers - RB Javonte Williams, North Carolina - The Steelers add a stud running back to help revive their run game.
(56) Seattle Seahawks - EDGE Jayson Oweh, Penn State - The Seahawks could use some pass rush. Oweh's a bit raw, but can develop into a useful piece for Pete Carroll.
(57) Los Angeles Rams - LB Chazz Surratt, North Carolina - The Rams add an athletic player at the second-level to keep their defense playing elite football. With the addition of QB Matthew Stafford, the Rams could be serious contenders for the NFC title in 2021.
(58) Baltimore Ravens - EDGE Quincy Roche, Miami - Adding Roche as a rush end in Martindale's 3-4 defense would be an excellent move as Baltimore seems unlikely to retain both Yannick Ngakoue and Matt Judon.
(59) Cleveland Browns - S Richie Grant, UCF - For a school most associate with high-powered offense, the UCF secondary is loaded, and Grant would make a fine addition for the Browns.
TRADE! The Saints send 2.60 and a 2022 third to the Jets in exchange for QB Sam Darnold.
(60) New York Jets (via NO) - WR Elijah Moore, Ole Miss - He seems to be trending higher than this, but either way, the Jets substitute a backup QB for an explosive wide receiver for Zach Wilson.
(61) Buffalo Bills - OT Spencer Brown, Northern Iowa - The Bills run game needs a boost on the offensive line, and Brown's monstrous frame gives a lot of weight to that.
(62) Dallas Cowboys (via GB) - DT Jay Tufele, USC - After adding offensive line earlier in the second, the Cowboys go back to restocking their defense with talent.
(63) Kansas City Chiefs - WR D'Wayne Eskridge, Western Michigan - The Chiefs likely lose WR Sammy Watkins, but find an explosive piece here to replace him.
(64) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - EDGE Hamilcar Rashed Jr., Oregon State - Rashed has a lot of physical traits that bolster his potential. Letting Todd Bowles develop him would be ideal.

Third Round

(65) Jacksonville Jaguars - EDGE Patrick Jones II, Pittsburgh - Urban Meyer and Jags add a defensive end with a high motor to develop along with Josh Allen and K'Lavon Chaisson.
(66) New York Jets - CB Keith Taylor Jr., Washington - A long, versatile defensive back, Taylor reminds me a good deal of 49ers CB Richard Sherman in his playstyle.
(67) Houston Texans - S Talanoa Hufanga, USC - The Texans continue to overhaul their defense here, bringing in Hufanga to play a handful of roles in their backfield.
(68) Atlanta Falcons - RB Michael Carter, North Carolina - Excellent value for the Falcons here, whether or not they bring back RB Todd Gurley who played on a 1-year deal in 2020.
(69) Cincinnati Bengals - CB Paulson Adebo, Stanford - The Bengals give their defense some reinforcements with the selection of an experienced corner like Adebo.
(70) Philadelphia Eagles - LB Jabrill Cox, LSU - The Eagles add a great athlete to the second-level of their defense. Cox has shown a lot of potential as a modern backer.
(71) Denver Broncos - EDGE Janarius Robinson, Florida State - With Von Miller in a bit of hot water at the moment, Denver make want to add a pass rusher to develop just in case.
(72) Detroit Lions - S Andre Cisco, Syracuse - Detroit's safety play was poor last year. Adding a high potential player like Cisco could be a good move for the rebuilding Lions.
(73) Carolina Panthers - TE Hunter Long, Boston College - Welcome to the board, Carolina! After making a splash trade for QB Deshaun Watson, the Panthers give him another weapon at tight end. Long impressed during the Senior Bowl.
(74) Washington Football Team - LB Cameron McGrone, Michigan - McGrone has some inconsistency to his play, but offers a lot of upside for someone who can straighten him out.
(75) Dallas Cowboys - EDGE Victor Dimukeje, Duke - The Cowboys take a chance on Dimukeje here to help get after opposing QB's more frequently.
(76) New York Giants - WR Rondale Moore, Purdue - I'd anticipate Golden Tate being a cap cut, and if so, Moore would be an explosive slot weapon to replace him.
(77) New England Patriots - PICK FORFEITED
(78) Los Angeles Chargers - EDGE Dayo Odeyingbo, Vanderbilt - A craft, versatile edge rusher, he'd project as an OLB in Staley defense with the Chargers.
(79) Minnesota Vikings - DT Alim McNeill, North Carolina State - The Vikings add an explosive 3-technique to help get their defense turned around in a hurry.
(80) Arizona Cardinals - CB Shaun Wade, Ohio State - Wade was overhyped early on, but would fit well in the Cardinals defense, developing as a future replacement for Patrick Peterson.
(81) Las Vegas Raiders - S Richard Lecounte, Georgia - The Raiders add an experienced safety on the back end who can help them slow down divisional offenses led by Mahomes and Herbert.
(82) Denver Broncos - OT Liam Eichenberg, Notre Dame - The Broncos stop a bit of a slide here for Eichenberg. He has the ability to play RT or on the inside for Denver.
(83) Washington Football Team - S Joshuah Bledsoe, Missouri - An underrated player at the position, Bledsoe has a ton of versatility and would fit very well reinforcing Washington's already stellar defense.
(84) Chicago Bears - QB Kyle Trask, Florida - The Bears don't ignore the QB position entirely, as they take a later-than-expected flier on Trask. He was very good for Florida.
(85) Indianapolis Colts - CB Elijah Molden, Washington - Not the biggest need on the Colts roster, but they should have the cap to plug holes in free agency and pick better players, like Molden, here.
(86) Tennessee Titans - WR Dyami Brown, North Carolina - The Titans do have a stud WR in A.J. Brown, but with Corey Davis likely landing big money elsewhere, adding another player here is important.
(87) New York Jets (via SEA) - EDGE Payton Turner, Houston - A versatile pass rusher who can fit either a 4-3 or 3-4. Whatever system Saleh installs, Turner should find a home quickly.
(88) Las Vegas Raiders (via PIT) - LB Dylan Moses, Alabama - Once considered a potential top-10 pick, Moses has fallen off a bit, but the Raiders take a chance on him nonetheless.
(89) Detroit Lions (via LAR) - WR Tylan Wallace, Oklahoma State - Detroit should probably consider hitting the wide receiver position multiple times in the draft. The cabinet is empty there.
(90) Cleveland Browns - LB Ventrell Miller, Florida - The Browns linebackers are a major weak spot. If Cleveland wants to contend for the division, adding some speed there in Miller would help.
(91) Minnesota Vikings (via BAL) - S Paris Ford, Pittsburgh - With S Anthony Harris likely headed elsewhere in free agency, the Vikings take a chance on the hard-hitting ford as a replacement.
(92) Cleveland Browns - EDGE Rashad Weaver, Pittsburgh - Back-to-back selections of Pitt Panthers here, Rashad is an excellent pass rusher to add into the mix.
(93) Green Bay Packers - DT Tommy Togiai, Ohio State - The Packers add some beef to the inside of their defense, hoping to solidify a shaky group outside of DT Kenny Clark.
(94) Buffalo Bills - iOL Josh Myers, Ohio State - The Bills grab a starting caliber lineman here in Myers, who should help bolster the interior of their offensive line and give a boost to their run game.
(95) Kansas City Chiefs - OT Jackson Carmen, Clemson - The Chiefs need another offensive tackle to throw into the mix, as neither Eric Fisher nor Mitchell Schwartz figure to be around for too much longer.
(96) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - DT Marvin Wilson, Florida State - While Wilson didn't dominant as many expected him to in 2020, perhaps slotting him alongside Vita Vea will free up mismatches for him.
Compensatory Selections
(97) Los Angeles Chargers - G Quinn Meinerz, Wisconsin-Whitewater - Meinrez blew up the Senior Bowl, and could easily land as a top-100 prospect after that showing. LAC is a good fit here.
(98) Philadelphia Eagles - TE Brevin Jordan, Miami - With Zach Ertz and Philadelphia likely parting ways soon enough, Jordan gives the Eagles a gadget replacement in the passing game.
(99) Dallas Cowboys - CB Asante Samuel Jr., Florida State - Another corner for Dallas as they really could use two strong selections to help rebuild the position. Samuel excels in the slot.
(100) New Orleans Saints - WR Amari Rodgers, Clemson - The Saints add the best player on the board here for me, an exceptional wide out who will pair well with Michael Thomas.
(101) Tennessee Titans - DT Marlon Tuipulotu, USC - The Titans add another body to their defensive front, in hopes that Marlon and Simmons can become a dominant duo inside.
(102) Los Angeles Rams - WR Josh Imatorbhebhe, Illinois - One of the most underrated wide outs in the class, due to the lack of offensive savvy around him. Imatorbhebhe reminds me of Kenny Golladay, so pairing him with new Rams QB Matthew Stafford out to be fun.
(103) Minnesota Vikings - EDGE Jordan Smith, UAB - A long, toolsy pass rusher to develop into a sidekick for Danielle Hunter is the pick here for Mike Zimmer and co.
(104) San Francisco 49ers - OT Walker Little, Stanford - I'm certain the 49ers will bring back LT Trent Williams, but how much longer does he really have? Meanwhile, Little can play guard before taking over at left tackle soon enough.
(105) Los Angeles Rams - EDGE Shaka Toney, Penn State - Toney has good burst off the edge and with OLB Leonard Floyd headed towards the market, the Rams could stand to add some pass rushers.
(106) New Orleans Saints - RB Trey Sermon, Ohio State - With a cap crunch, paying $4 million for Latavius Murray may be a luxury the Saints cannot afford. Cutting him and drafting Sermon can offset that.

Fourth Round

Just a reminder, but almost half of all fourth-round selections (46%) are no longer on the roster after two years in their career, so don't take these picks too seriously, as this is also where teams start to diverge from needs a bit more and go best available. The aim is rotational players who might be contributors by their 3rd year with the franchise. If you have a significant need, fill it in free agency, not the day three of the draft. If you're banking on your team to find a starter here at a key position, you're already kind of screwed. Really I'm less focused on needs as opposed to getting good value here. Am trying to avoid doubling up on prospects, but sometimes teams actually do that.
(107) Jacksonville Jaguars - DT Tyler Shelvin, LSU (108) New York Jets - G David Moore, Grambling State (109) Atlanta Falcons - S Hamsah Nasirildeen, Florida State (110) Houston Texans - QB Jaime Newman, Georgia - The Texans don't draft a QB in the first, but do take a chance on Newman's upside to develop behind Bridgewater.
(111) Cleveland Browns - WR Seth Williams, Auburn (112) Cincinnati Bengals - S Jamien Sherwood, Auburn (113) Detroit Lions - EDGE Ronnie Perkins, Oklahoma (114) Carolina Panthers - LB Baron Browning, Ohio State (115) Denver Broncos - RB Jermar Jefferson, Oregon State - With Lindsay hitting the market, maybe the Broncos don't bring him back and Jefferson as a change of pace back behind Gordon instead.
(116) Dallas Cowboys - TE Tommy Tremble, Notre Dame (117) New York Giants - RB Rhamondre Stevenson, Oklahoma - An excellent backup for Saquon Barkley if the Giants don't re-sign Wayne Gallman. (118) San Francisco 49ers - S James Wiggins, Cincinnati (119) Los Angeles Chargers - RB Demetric Falcon, UCLA (120) Minnesota Vikings - WR Dazz Newsome, North Carolina
(121) New England Patriots - WR Whop Philyor, Indiana (122) Las Vegas Raiders - G Sadarius Hutcherson, South Carolina (123) Houston Texans - WR Marlon Williams, UCF (124) Miami Dolphins - DT Jaylen Twyman, Pittsburgh (125) Jacksonville Jaguars - CB Israel Mukuamu, South Carolina - The Jags had a good year out of Sidney Jones, but still could use an intriguing developmental option like Mukuamu behind him.
(126) Minnesota Vikings - LB Pete Werner, Ohio State (127) Tennessee Titans - G Ben Cleveland, Georgia (128) Indianapolis Colts - WR Jaelon Darden, North Texas (129) Pittsburgh Steelers - CB Kary Vincent Jr., LSU - The Steelers get some excellent value here, as I think Vincent is one of the top slot corners in the draft. Could easily replace Hilton. (130) Seattle Seahawks - CB Shakur Brown, Michigan State
(131) Jacksonville Jaguars - LB Monty Rice, Georgia (132) Baltimore Ravens - iOL Trey Hill, Georgia (133) Cleveland Browns - TE Cary Angeline, North Carolina State (134) New Orleans Saints - EDGE Tarron Jackson, Coastal Carolina - With Trey Hendrickson likely departing and Marcus Davenport still yet to hit double-digit sacks, the Saints may look to add another piece to develop here. (135) Minnesota Vikings - RB Khalil Herbert, Virginia Tech
(136) Green Bay Packers - OT James Hudson, Cincinnati (137) Kansas City Chiefs - LB Anthony Hines III, Texas A&M - A quick linebacker, he'd fit nicely into the Chiefs defense alongside Willie Gay and others. (138) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - QB Davis Mills, Stanford (139) New England Patriots - EDGE Adetokunbo Ogundeji, Notre Dame (140) Dallas Cowboys - S Ar'Darius Washington, TCU
(141) Los Angeles Rams - TE Tre McKitty, Georgia (142) Pittsburgh Steelers - DT Darius Stills, West Virginia (143) Green Bay Packers - RB Kylin Hill, Mississippi State - With Aaron Jones hitting the market, the Packers may look for another back to add to their rotation. Hill would be a great addition. (144) Kansas City Chiefs - CB Roger McCreary, Auburn (145) New England Patriots - OT Cordell Volson, North Dakota State

Fifth Round

(146) Jacksonville Jaguars - OT Brady Christensen, BYU (147) New York Jets - DL Brenton Cox, Florida (148) Houston Texans - EDGE Jonathan Cooper, Ohio State (149) Atlanta Falcons - EDGE Kingsley Enagbare, South Carolina - PFF actually lists Enagbare as a top-100 player on their latest big board, which, if accurate, would be tremendous value. (150) Cincinnati Bengals - WR Anthony Schwartz, Auburn
(151) Philadelphia Eagles - CB Robert Rochell, Central Arkansas - Big fan of Rochell's a potential starter down the road. Would fit well with Marcus Gannon calling the defense. (152) Carolina Panthers - G Kendrick Green, Illinois (153) Denver Broncos - QB Kellen Mond, Texas A&M (154) Detroit Lions - CB Kelvin Joseph, Kentucky (155) New York Jets - S Caden Sterns, Texas
(156) San Francisco 49ers - CB Camryn Bynum, California (157) Philadelphia Eagles - OT Adrian Ealy, Oklahoma (158) Minnesota Vikings - CB Rodarius Williams, Oklahoma State (159) New England Patriots - DT Milton Williams, Louisiana Tech (160) Los Angeles Chargers - WR Simi Fehoko, Stanford
(161) Arizona Cardinals - RB Chuba Hubbard, Oklahoma State - He'd be an excellent fit in the Cardinals backfield, especially if Kenyan Drake does not return. (162) Buffalo Bills - CB Tay Gowan, UCF (163) Las Vegas Raiders - QB Feleipe Franks, Arkansas (164) Washington Football Team - WR Jonathan Adams Jr., Arkansas State (165) Chicago Bears - CB D.J. Daniel, Georgia
(166) Indianapolis Colts - OT Brendan Jaimes, Nebraska (167) Tennessee Titans - OLB Charles Snowden, Virginia (168) Seattle Seahawks - OT Dan Moore Jr., Texas A&M (169) Baltimore Ravens - QB Sam Ehlinger, Texas - Unless the Ravens are certain that Trace McSorley is their backup QB, they may want to look at adding Ehlinger behind Lamar. (170) Cleveland Browns - LB Tony Fields II, West Virginia
(171) Jacksonville Jaguars - WR Tamorrion Terry, Florida State (172) Minnesota Vikings - QB Ian Book, Notre Dame (173) San Francisco 49ers - iOL Drake Jackson, Kentucky (174) Green Bay Packers - CB Ambry Thomas, Michigan (175) Buffalo Bills - S Reed Blankenship, Middle Tennessee State
(176) Kansas City Chiefs - EDGE Malcolm Koonce, Buffalo (177) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - LB Garrett Wallow, Texas Christian (178) Green Bay Packers - S Tyree Gillespie, Missouri (179) Atlanta Falcons - C James Empey, BYU - The Falcons find themselves a quality interior lineman who could use a year to develop before getting in the mix to replace Alex Mack down the road. (180) Dallas Cowboys - WR Josh Palmer, Tennessee
(181) Baltimore Ravens - S Qwynterrio Cole, Alcorn State (182) San Francisco 49ers - WR Marquez Stevenson, Houston (183) Kansas City Chiefs - RB Pooka Williams, Kansas

Sixth Round

(184) Tennessee Titans - QB Shane Buechele, Texas (185) New York Jets - LB Paddy Fisher, Northwestern (186) Atlanta Falcons - G Aaron Banks, Notre Dame - Love the value here for the Falcons, and if they do have to cut James Carpenter, Banks could be a useful piece. (187) Houston Texans - iOL Jack Anderson, Texas Tech (188) Philadelphia Eagles - S JaCoby Stevens, LSU (189) Cincinnati Bengals - DT Khryis Tonga, BYU (190) Denver Broncos - DT Bobby Brown III, Texas A&M
(191) Dallas Cowboys - G Josh Sills, Oklahoma State (192) Carolina Panthers - DT Carlo Kemp, Michigan (193) San Francisco 49ers - EDGE Daelin Hayes - The 49ers showed a good deal of interest in Hayes at the Senior Bowl per reports. He'd be a nice depth option on the edge. (194) New England Patriots - CB Benjamin St.-Juste, Minnesota (195) New York Giants - CB Thomas Graham Jr., Oregon
(196) New England Patriots - G Tristen Hoge, BYU (197) Los Angeles Chargers - S Eric Burrell, Wisconsin (198) Minnesota Vikings - OT Alex Himmelman, Illinois State (199) Las Vegas Raiders - PICK FORFEITED (200) New York Giants - LB K.J. Britt, Auburn
(201) Houston Texans - DL Cameron Sample, Tulane (202) Las Vegas Raiders - WR Austin Watkins, UAB (203) Chicago Bears - OT Bryce Matthews, Ole Miss (204) Los Angeles Chargers - WR Isaiah McKoy, Kent State (205) Indianapolis Colts - WR Damon Hazelton, Missouri - This stretch of wide receivers looks like solid value, especially Hazelton in Reich's offense.
(206) Miami Dolphins - TE Kenny Yeboah, Ole Miss - Yeboah got to work with Miami's coaching staff at the Senior Bowl, so I'd imagine they have a good feel for his use. (207) Seattle Seahawks - DT Mustafa Johnson, Colorado (208) Los Angeles Rams - OT Robert Hainsey, Notre Dame (209) Baltimore Ravens - G Robert Jones, Middle Tennessee State (210) Cleveland Browns - CB Trill Williams, Syracuse
(211) Houston Texans - RB Jaret Patterson, Buffalo (212) Buffalo Bills - RB Elijah Mitchell, Louisiana (213) Green Bay Packers - WR Cade Johnson, South Dakota State (214) Pittsburgh Steelers - C Jimmy Morrissey, Pittsburgh (215) Tennessee Titans - S Aashari Crosswell, Arizona State
(216) Atlanta Falcons - LB Derrick Barnes, Purdue (217) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - TE Quintin Morris, Bowling Green (218) Atlanta Falcons - OT Greg Eiland, Mississippi State (219) Philadelphia Eagles - RB Javian Hawkins, Louisville (220) Chicago Bears - EDGE Chris Rumph Jr., Duke
(221) Green Bay Packers - DE William King-Bradley, Baylor (222) Chicago Bears - S Shawn Davis, Florida (223) Minnesota Vikings - G Ben Brown, Ole Miss (224) Philadelphia Eagles - LB Grant Stuard, Houston

Seventh Round

(225) Jacksonville Jaguars - DT Malik Herring, Georgia (226) San Francisco 49ers - TE Noah Gray, Duke (227) Houston Texans - CB Tre Brown, Oklahoma (228) Chicago Bears - LB Justin Hilliard, Ohio State (229) Cincinnati Bengals - EDGE Elerson Smith, Northern Iowa (230) Philadelphia Eagles - WR Ben Skowronek, Northwestern
(231) Cincinnati Bengals - DT TaQuon Graham, Texas (232) Buffalo Bills - S Divine Deablo, Virginia Tech (233) Denver Broncos - S Damar Hamlin, Pittsburgh (234) Green Bay Packers - LB Riley Cole, South Alabama (235) Denver Broncos - WR Cornell Powell, Clemson
(236) San Francisco 49ers - WR Frank Darby, Arizona State (237) Los Angeles Chargers - DB Darrin Hall, San Diego State (238) Minnesota Vikings - WR Trevon Grimes, Florida (239) New England Patriots - DE Wyatt Hubert, Kansas State (240) Arizona Cardinals - OT Jaylon Moore, Western Michigan
(241) Washington Football Team - G Jake Curhan, California (242) Pittsburgh Steelers - CB Bryan Mills, North Carolina Central (243) Washington Football Team - RB Chris Evans, Michigan (244) Las Vegas Raiders - CB Mark Webb, Georgia (245) Indianapolis Colts - RB Larry Roundtree, Missouri
(246) Jacksonville Jaguars - DT Forrest Merrill, Arkansas State (247) New York Jets - WR Tre Walker, (248) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - EDGE Joshua Kaindoh, Florida State (249) Los Angeles Rams - CB Bryce Thompson, Tennessee (250) Cleveland Browns - QB Brady White, Memphis
(251) Denver Broncos - EDGE Patrick Johnson, Tulane (252) New Orleans Saints - PICK FORFEITED (253) Green Bay Packers - DT Jack Heflin, Northern Illinois (254) Cleveland Browns - CB Nahshon Wright, Oregon State (255) Kansas City Chiefs - DT Kobie Whiteside, Missouri (256) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - WR Desmond Fitzpatrick, Louisville
You'll notice there are no special teams listed...mostly because I don't have a clue who needs a K/P/LS. That actually might be something useful to mention if you're team really needs someone.
Feel free to comment...I won't really be looking at them until next week, as I've spent too much time putting this together and now I need a break from this website. Just don't be a d*** is all I ask. It's shockingly hard for some people when it comes to internet mock drafts. Did this for fun, hope you had fun reading it.
submitted by ksk63_ to NFL_Draft [link] [comments]

Reconstructing the past. What we have so far. Part 4: up to when Ilya and Katarina make a plan

In this series, I have been attempting a logical reconstruction of events, taking all the mythology episodes, and putting them together, considering that Rassvet may well be mostly true, but it is out of order.
We left Katarinain the last part collapsing into a church, taken to a shelter by the priest.
​
Katarina wakes up, and we hear about bruises in her stomach. The shelter employee assumes she was in a fight, or abused. BUT what is interesting, is that if Katarina washed ashore somewhere, this HAS to be in that bay, a place where the news about a high profile suicide which was in national papers, would have also been in the papers in that area as well.
https://preview.redd.it/j56j7vbqnp861.png?width=360&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff5fe32c30911885cca6943dc00e1f7319e2dbb9
BUT interestingly enough, Katarina is NOT recognized immediately as the woman who walked in the water in Cape May, and with those newspaper reports of the wife of a Russian billionaire committing suicide by walking in the water, some of them with a photo of her, why did the priest not notify the police or the husband?
https://preview.redd.it/30yn42m7pp861.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=3535acea629c3bb6bac74e36e080f11cd967b3db
Maybe because it was far enough from Cape May that there was no connection in the Priest's mind, and/or because Katarina HAD changed her appearance, thus it was only a resemblance to the photo in the paper. Or maybe he thought she had taken refuge in church.
Except that the shelter employee has a paper with the story and the name, BUT does NOT connect Katarina to the woman who walked in the water immediately, which tells us, in all likehood Katarina had altered her appearance already and/or is likely this shelter was somewhat far enough from Cape May.
https://preview.redd.it/l8eq4wzg1r861.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=c35a653524203c350acbc23e450e0d9d480382fe
​
Meanwhile, we know that after Katarina's last call, Kate decides, instead of walking away immediately, to go to Sam, ostensibly to say goodbye (unused scene), and to return the scorched toy rabbit, containing the bubble module of the fulcrum inside, to Liz after repairing it. Apparently Liz had left it behind in the car.
Kate defies Katarina's instructions to walk away, instead going to Sam's supposedly to say goodbye. She also drops the toy rabbit, which she had mended.
It is clear that Sam had already received the call from Katarina, telling him she is not coming back. It is also notable how Sam's house has changed. It has furniture, toys, etc. Someone had been financing Sam. Was that Red already? Sam lies to Kate about Liz not asking about her mother, for Katarina had spoken to Liz to tell her she had some work to do for a while.
Kate drives from Nebraska, stopping at a bar somewhere in the Midwest, where she comes across the news about the suicide. She meets Annie, and follows her to Amarillo, Texas.
​
Meanwhile, at the shelter where Katarina is, a woman arrives screaming in Russian, eventually wielding a knife, prompting the shelter employees to think of calling the police.
https://preview.redd.it/zkqe3bbvup861.png?width=354&format=png&auto=webp&s=92102e1cf2f1bdfcc924a3e581fadd9f46ff3be5
Katarina, likely afraid the cops will be called, speaks Russian to the woman, and Katarina then tells the employees a story about the woman being scared of her boyfriend.
It is speaking Russian that gets the shelter employee suspicious the "Katarina Rostova," wife of Russian billionaire Rostov who tried to commit suicide and her mysterious woman who collapsed hypothermic in a church and who speaks Russian are one and the same.
It is very likely that the signature long red hair was gone. I would bet Katarina had blond or brown hair then.
In Rassvet Katarina kills a Russian man who is Irina's abusive boyfriend. That part is already suspicious, for the scared Russian woman is named Irina, being threatened by Velov, while Velov's own daughter is named Irina. I suspect Dom needed a name and the association with Velov gave him Irina.
was this Russian man Irina's boyfriend and/or was he one of Velov's goons, or even a cabal goon looking for Katarina. Perhaps Irina had been sent to inquire in the women's shelter, then went dark.
OR maybe the Russian woman WAS Irina Velov, sent by Velov in to see if Katarina was there, and that the Russian man Katarina killed was not the woman's boyfriend, but one of Velov's men. Could be both as well.
​
​
Our next event is when she contacts Ilya again, still in the same nice room as before. She needed a plan to disappear permanently.
This is what Ilya remembers when Skovic directs him to the time "Katarina Rostova" contacted him to tell him she was alive after Cape May, in 1991:
SKOVIC: It's you in 1991. A young man. On the day you learned Katarina Rostova was still alive. Look at yourself as that young man. Can you see him, Ilya? He's there. He's you... Ilya? Ilya, can you hear me?
ILYA: Yes.
Can you tell me what you see?
I see her. With me.
https://preview.redd.it/6vglpeno3q861.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=b2324e5b447fbcd653f4174615f1fcfc39359251
How do you feel?
I'm relieved. I thought she was gone. I heard about Cape May. The drowning. Her suicide.
But there was no suicide.
No. No.
​
We know that she and Ilya get some cash, supposedly from Ilya's accounts, to give to Lena Volkova, so she would disappear.
https://preview.redd.it/tb035brdkq861.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=eeea44fbe72cdc1f03905584dc5ea75904e0857d
But was that REALLY from Ilya's accounts, or was that what Ilya told Skovic, money used to frame Reddington:
We devised a plan to steal the money used to frame Reddington and disappear.
SKOVIC: But the plan, it didn't work.
Not like we thought. No.
​
Was this money the six million we hear about in Minister D actually money USED to frame Reddington:
A month before the incident, a corporate account was opened in a Cypriot bank known to work with Soviet intelligence. The only person with the power to withdraw funds was the company president.... Raymond Reddington.... a front company for the KGB wired $3 million into the account a day before the incident, and another $3 million the day after it. One week later, the entire amount was withdrawn.
This money could be withdrawn using fingerprints and a password. That is a completely different thing that the banks Reddington had to go in personally, because the banks knew him. I suspect the many for Lena Volkova came from there.
​
We have then the sighting, reported by Velov, of Katarina been seen at the Cross Sound Ferry terminal, in New York, which goes from Long Island to Connecticut.
Lena Volkova arrives at the ferry terminal in NY
Anton Velov claimed that she was seen at the Cross Sound Ferry Terminal two weeks after her alleged suicide.
Yeah. Claimed, not proved. The ferry requires reservations, so if she was on it, her name would be on the manifest. And it wasn't.
Of course it is clear the CIA is actively trying NOT to find Katarina Rostova, but what is interesting here is to analyze how would Velov have reported such a thing. Katarina would not have used her name. What seems clear is that the CIA knew a lot about Katarina and were trying to hide her as well. Ressler had to press his CIA contact for the manifest.
"Katarina Rostova" was not a wanted fugitive. Photos of her were rare, and so, HOW did Velov receive such information, especially when he was KGB Russian operative in American soil, with no authority to interrogate people, etc.?
There are two answers to this, for those of us who believe the writers know what they are doing.
While I can see Katarina going to see her mother to get her out of harm's way, doing so looking like herself would have been lunacy, and how would Velov know go there to get a sighting? Who told Velov about seeing a woman who was not on a wanted poster, one of many in a ferry terminal. How would ANYONE go to Velov, a Russian KGB agent without jurisdiction in the US, likely operating illegally?
This is not what it seems.
​
What we should be asking is who was Lena Volkova, and what role she played in that entire Fakerina thing. Why do Katarina tell HER she was a traitor, while vehemently denying to Dom she was?
Next, Ilya and Katarina device a plan for the $40 million.
​
<<<<>>>>
See the entire series
Part 1: Up until Katarina drops Liz with Kate.
Part 2 : Up until Katarina walks in the water in Cape May.
Part 3: Up until Katarina washes ashore again.
​
edited to add missing graphic.
submitted by TessaBissolli to TheBlackList [link] [comments]

General Election Polling Discussion Thread (August 16, 2020)

Introduction

Welcome to the /politics polling discussion thread for the general election. As the election nears, polling of both the national presidential popular vote and important swing states is ramping up, and with both parties effectively deciding on nominees, pollsters can get in the field to start assessing the state of the presidential race. Please use this thread to discuss polling and the general state of the presidential or congressional election. Below, you'll find some of the most recent polls, but this is by no means exhaustive, as well as some links to prognosticators sharing election models.
As always though, polls don't vote, people do. Regardless of whether your candidate is doing well or poorly, democracy only works when people vote, and there are always at least a couple polling misses every cycle, some of which are pretty high profile. If you haven't yet done so, please take some time to register to vote or check your registration status.

Polls

Below is a collection of recent polling of the US Presidential election. This is likely incomplete and also omits the generic congressional ballot as well as Senate/House/Gubernatorial numbers that may accompany these polls. Please use the discussion space below to discuss any additional polls not covered. Additionally, not all polls are created equal. If this is your first time looking at polls, the FiveThirtyEight pollster ratings page is a helpful tool to assess historic partisan lean in certain pollsters, as well as their past performance.
This is likely to be one of the last clear snapshots of polling until at least mid-September. Historically speaking, the party conventions impart a statistically significant 'bump' in candidates' poll numbers. This convention bounce averages around 5 points for candidates (though some candidates have far surpassed this number), but the trend of high bounces has seen a decline in recent elections. With increased coverage of each party during their respective conventions (DNC: August 17-20, RNC: August 24-27), and this year's conventions taking place in a mostly-remote setting, it is hard to predict how large or any impact on the polls will be.
Poll Date Type Biden Trump
NBC News 8-16 National 50 41
SurveyUSA 8-15 Connecticut 52 32
Redfield & Wilton Strategies 8-14 California 61 25
Data for Progress 8-14 National 51 41
Data for Progress 8-14 National 52 39
YouGov 8-14 Massachusetts 61 28
Global Strategy Group 8-14 National 52 42
Marist College 8-14 National 53 42
Fox News 8-13 National 49 42
Léger 8-13 National 46 --
Léger 8-13 National 47 39
Pew Research Center 8-13 National 53 45
Morning Consult 8-13 National 51 42
Morning Consult 8-13 National 50 43
Morning Consult 8-13 National 50 43
Harper Polling 8-13 North Carolina 45 44
Morning Consult 8-13 National 51 43
Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group 8-13 Mississippi 43 53
SurveyUSA 8-13 California 56 28
Rasmussen Reports 8-13 Wisconsin 55 42
Harris Insights & Analytics 8-12 National 44 40
Ipsos 8-12 National 47 38
Ipsos 8-12 National 43 37
Ipsos 8-12 National 56 43
Ipsos 8-12 National 58 42
SurveyUSA 8-12 Kansas 41 48
YouGov Blue 8-12 National 51 45
Rasmussen Reports 8-12 National 49 43
Critical Insights 8-12 Maine 45 38
YouGov 8-12 National 49 39
Morning Consult 8-12 National 49 40
Change Research 8-12 National 50 44
Change Research 8-12 Wisconsin 47 43
Change Research 8-12 North Carolina 47 48
Change Research 8-12 Arizona 45 44
Change Research 8-12 Florida 50 44
Change Research 8-12 Michigan 48 43
Change Research 8-12 Pennsylvania 48 44
MassINC Polling Group 8-12 Massachusetts 63 27
Emerson College 8-11 Pennsylvania 53 46
Emerson College 8-11 North Carolina 49 50
Emerson College 8-11 Arizona 53 46
Critical Insights 8-11 Maine 44 36
Critical Insights 8-11 Maine CD-2 39 38
Critical Insights 8-11 Maine CD-1 49 33
Marquette University Law School 8-11 Wisconsin 50 45
Marquette University Law School 8-11 Wisconsin 50 46
Monmouth University 8-11 National 52 39
Monmouth University 8-11 National 51 41
Emerson College 8-11 Minnesota 51 49
SurveyUSA 8-11 Georgia 46 44
Public Policy Polling 8-10 North Carolina 49 46
Rasmussen Reports 8-10 North Carolina 47 48
HIT Strategies 8-10 North Carolina 47 37
HIT Strategies 8-10 Georgia 44 40
Trafalgar Group 8-10 Arizona 44 46
RMG Research 8-10 National 45 37
RMG Research 8-10 Maine 50 39
Georgetown University (Battleground) 8-10 National 53 39
OH Predictive Insights 8-10 Arizona 49 45
Strategies 360 8-10 Nebraska CD-1 46 48
YouGov 8-10 Wisconsin 49 43
YouGov 8-10 Michigan 47 43
YouGov 8-10 Pennsylvania 50 41

Election Predictions

Prognosticators

Prognosticators are folks who make projected electoral maps, often on the strength of educated guesses as well as inside information in some cases from campaigns sharing internals with the teams involved. Below are a few of these prognosticators and their assessment of the state of the race:

Polling Models

Polling models are similar to prognosticators (and often the model authors will act like pundits as well), but tend to be about making "educated guesses" on the state of the election. Generally, the models are structured to take in data such as polls and electoral fundamentals, and make a guess based on research on prior elections as to the state of the race in each state. Below are a few of the more prominent models that are online or expected to be online soon:

Prediction Markets

Prediction markets are betting markets where people put money on the line to estimate the likelihood of one party winning a seat or state. Most of these markets will also tend to move depending on polling and other socioeconomic factors in the same way that prognosticators and models will work. Predictit and Election Betting Odds are prominent in this space, although RealClearPolitics has an aggregate of other betting sites as well.
submitted by TheUnknownStitcher to politics [link] [comments]

B1G Conference Strength of Schedule Ranking

B1G Conference Strength of Schedule Ranking
Because I have too much time on my hands and just love college basketball so much, I decided to dive into the newly released B1G schedule and see who had the easiest and hardest conference schedules.
Methodology
I didn't want to use Kenpom because, well, its not all that great as a preseason ranking metric. But compiling various preseason polls created by media members who probably aren't getting it completely right either sounded pretty awful too. So I indeed settled for Kenpom. At least in this scenario we can all point to one system and say "yeah that's the source of this crap ranking" rather than pouring over various rankings to find culprits.
So with that out of the way, the rest was simple. Each team in the B1G has a Kenpom ranking and based off that ranking received a preseason ranking in the conference standings. That looked like this:
https://preview.redd.it/vn1snmv0o3061.png?width=312&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e3e0c995b34a4716062d5f77d241b4a4e3faaeb
Then every time a team plays the preseason #1 squad, they would receive 14 points. Playing #2 would net you 13 points and so on and so forth. Play a team twice and you would get those points twice (duh). No consideration was made for whether or not a game was played home or away. I thought about that a bit, but AFAIK there will be no fans in B1G college basketball arenas in the near future and fans have the overwhelmingly biggest impact on home court advantage. Plus I'm lazy.
The sum of the scores for each team were tallied up and the results are a B1G SOS ranking (per kenpom).
Results:
Without further ado: The hardest conference schedule in the B1G belongs to Northwestern!
And the easiest conference schedule in the B1G belongs to Wisconsin!
https://preview.redd.it/t68r9e92t3061.png?width=206&format=png&auto=webp&s=5ca8ebf40dad7dba5acd6248b70b5152c9cd8c72
Some notes:
  1. You can tell Wisconsin's schedule is easy just by looking at it, 4 of their 7 home/away games are against the bottom 4 in Kenpom rankings. Their highest ranked home/away game is against Iowa, who sits at 4th in the preseason.
  2. Similarly, it is easy to see why Northwestern has it so tough, 5 of their 7 home/away games are against teams in the top half of the conference, with 2 being against preseason #1 and #2. Their lowest ranked home/away game? Rutgers at 9. Ouch Northwestern bros..
  3. Illinois, Michigan, Purdue and Ohio St. all have fairly similar ranked, somewhat easier conference schedules. Maybe look for those teams to outperform preseason rankings?
  4. Of the three consensus regular season title contenders, it appears Iowa got the short end of the stick. If I am a betting man, which I am not, maybe Iowa doesn't look so good and I move my money towards Wisconsin or Illinois..(pls don't yell at me Hawkeyes)
Parting thoughts...
Obviously the methodology isn't perfect, some reasons off the top of my head I can list:
  1. Home vs Away. I'm not sure what impact it will have this year and we could argue all night over what multiplier to give a team playing on the road vs at home.
  2. Ranking 1-14 doesn't account for large gaps in Kenpom rank. I.E. is playing Nebraska (117) twice worth just as much as playing Northwestern (70) once? My ranking methodology says yes but, that could certainly be debated.
  3. Kenpom isn't a great preseason ranking metric.
My matrix is pasted here below, feel free to rip me to shreds if you see a mistake (really, please let me know and ill fix it and update):
Green boxes are games played twice (home/away), red boxes are games played once
I had a lot of fun doing this and hopefully some of you like (or hate) it enough to yell at each other (or me) about preseason rankings and flawed methodology. Regardless, I'm just ready for some fucking college basketball.
PS:
https://preview.redd.it/k76axd4yz3061.png?width=707&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5269819411f9ea8440166114e59f6de77ba75b2
submitted by Username_taken99 to CollegeBasketball [link] [comments]

General Election Polling Discussion Thread (July 19, 2020)

Introduction

Welcome to the /politics polling discussion thread for the general election. As the election nears, polling of both the national presidential popular vote and important swing states is ramping up, and with both parties effectively deciding on nominees, pollsters can get in the field to start assessing the state of the presidential race.
Please use this thread to discuss polling and the general state of the presidential or congressional election. Below, you'll find some of the most recent polls, but this is by no means exhaustive, as well as some links to prognosticators sharing election models.
As always though, polls don't vote, people do. Regardless of whether your candidate is doing well or poorly, democracy only works when people vote, and there are always at least a couple polling misses every cycle, some of which are pretty high profile. If you haven't yet done so, please take some time to register to vote or check your registration status.

Polls

Below is a collection of recent polling of the US Presidential election. Where the same poll applied different screening methodologies (All Adults, Registered Voters, Likely Voters), the result is shown as the most restrictive (Likely Voters > Registered Voters > All Adults). This is likely incomplete and also omits the generic congressional ballot as well as Senate/House/Gubernatorial numbers that may accompany these polls. Please use the discussion space below to discuss any additional polls not covered. Additionally, not all polls are created equal. If this is your first time looking at polls, the FiveThirtyEight pollster ratings page is a helpful tool to assess historic partisan lean in certain pollsters, as well as their past performance.
Poll Date Type Biden Trump
Fox News 7-19 National 49 41
ABC News/The Washington Post 7-19 National 54 44
Gravis Marketing 7-18 South Carolina 46 50
Public Policy Polling 7-18 Michigan 51 44
Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group 7-16 Kentucky 41 53
OH Predictive Insights 7-16 Arizona 49 44
Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape 7-17 National 49 41
Alaska Survey Research 7-17 Alaska 48 49
Monmouth University 7-15 Pennsylvania 51 44
NBC News 7-15 National 51 40
Ipsos 7-15 National 47 37
Quinnipiac University 7-15 National 52 37
YouGov 7-15 National 47 39
Rasmussen Reports 7-15 National 47 44
Monmouth University 7-15 Pennsylvania 52 42
YouGov 7-15 National 49 40
Morning Consult 7-15 National 47 39
Change Research 7-15 Michigan 48 42
Change Research 7-15 Wisconsin 48 42
Change Research 7-15 Pennsylvania 50 42
Change Research 7-15 North Carolina 47 46
Change Research 7-15 Florida 50 43
Change Research 7-15 Arizona 51 45
Change Research 7-15 National 51 41
Gravis Marketing 7-14 Texas 44 46
Gravis Marketing 7-14 Florida 53 43
Civiqs 7-14 Montana 45 49
Redfield & Wilton Strategies 7-13 National 48 39
RMG Research 7-13 National 46 39
YouGov 7-13 Missouri 42 49
Public Policy Polling 7-13 Montana 42 51
GQR Research (GQRR) 7-13 Nebraska CD-2 51 44
John Zogby Strategies 7-12 National 49 42
Gravis Marketing 7-12 Georgia 45 48
YouGov 7-12 Arizona 46 46
YouGov 7-12 Florida 48 42
YouGov 7-12 Texas 45 46
University of Texas at Tyler 7-12 Texas 48 43
GBAO 7-10 North Carolina 48 46
GBAO 7-10 Arizona 47 46
GBAO 7-10 Iowa 45 48
Morning Consult 7-10 National 48 39
Auburn University at Montgomery 7-10 Alabama 40 55
Data for Progress 7-10 National 51 41
Public Policy Polling 7-9 North Carolina 50 46
Public Policy Polling 7-9 Alaska 45 48
Harris Insights & Analytics 7-8 National 43 39
Rasmussen Reports 7-8 National 50 40
Ipsos 7-8 National 43 37
Opinium 7-8 National 52 40
Research Co. 7-8 National 49 40
YouGov 7-8 National 49 40
PureSpectrum 7-8 National 47 37
Public Policy Polling 7-7 National 53 42
Trafalgar Group 7-6 Pennsylvania 48 42
Public Policy Polling 7-6 Maine 53 42
Trafalgar Group 7-3 Florida 45 45
YouGov 7-2 National 45 40
Monmouth University 7-2 National 53 41
YouGov 7-2 Texas 44 48
Public Policy Polling 7-2 Texas 48 46
University of Montana 7-1 Montana 37 52
Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group 7-1 National 55 41
Gravis Marketing 7-1 Arizona 45 49
Public Policy Polling 7-1 Michigan 50 44
Ipsos 7-1 National 46 38
Harris Insights & Analytics 7-1 National 56 44
Public Policy Polling 7-1 Colorado 56 39
IBD 7-1 National 48 40
Data Orbital 7-1 Arizona 47 45
YouGov 7-1 National 49 40
Morning Consult 7-1 National 47 40
Change Research 7-1 National 49 41
Change Research 7-1 Arizona 51 44
Change Research 7-1 Florida 50 45
Change Research 7-1 Michigan 48 43
Change Research 7-1 North Carolina 51 44
Change Research 7-1 Pennsylvania 50 44
Change Research 7-1 Wisconsin 51 43
East Carolina University 6-30 North Carolina 45 43
Suffolk University 6-30 National 53 41
Pew Research Center 6-30 National 54 44
Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group 6-30 Missouri 48 46
Siena College 6-30 New York 57 32

Election Predictions

Prognosticators

Prognosticators are folks who make projected electoral maps, often on the strength of educated guesses as well as inside information in some cases from campaigns sharing internals with the teams involved. Below are a few of these prognosticators and their assessment of the state of the race:

Polling Models

Polling models are similar to prognosticators (and often the model authors will act like pundits as well), but tend to be about making "educated guesses" on the state of the election. Generally, the models are structured to take in data such as polls and electoral fundamentals, and make a guess based on research on prior elections as to the state of the race in each state. Below are a few of the more prominent models that are online or expected to be online soon:

Prediction Markets

Prediction markets are betting markets where people put money on the line to estimate the likelihood of one party winning a seat or state. Most of these markets will also tend to move depending on polling and other socioeconomic factors in the same way that prognosticators and models will work. Predictit and Election Betting Odds are prominent in this space, although RealClearPolitics has an aggregate of other betting sites as well.
submitted by Isentrope to politics [link] [comments]

[NYTimes] Sources describe horror stories of young and inexperienced investors on Robinhood, many engaging in riskier trades at far higher volumes than at other firms

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/robinhood-risky-trading.html
Richard Dobatse, a Navy medic in San Diego, dabbled infrequently in stock trading. But his behavior changed in 2017 when he signed up for Robinhood, a trading app that made buying and selling stocks simple and seemingly free.
Mr. Dobatse, now 32, said he had been charmed by Robinhood’s one-click trading, easy access to complex investment products, and features like falling confetti and emoji-filled phone notifications that made it feel like a game. After funding his account with $15,000 in credit card advances, he began spending more time on the app.
As he repeatedly lost money, Mr. Dobatse took out two $30,000 home equity loans so he could buy and sell more speculative stocks and options, hoping to pay off his debts. His account value shot above $1 million this year — but almost all of that recently disappeared. This week, his balance was $6,956.
“When he is doing his trading, he won’t want to eat,” said his wife, Tashika Dobatse, with whom he has three children. “He would have nightmares.”
Millions of young Americans have begun investing in recent years through Robinhood, which was founded in 2013 with a sales pitch of no trading fees or account minimums. The ease of trading has turned it into a cultural phenomenon and a Silicon Valley darling, with the start-up climbing to an $8.3 billion valuation. It has been one of the tech industry’s biggest growth stories in the recent market turmoil.
But at least part of Robinhood’s success appears to have been built on a Silicon Valley playbook of behavioral nudges and push notifications, which has drawn inexperienced investors into the riskiest trading, according to an analysis of industry data and legal filings, as well as interviews with nine current and former Robinhood employees and more than a dozen customers. And the more that customers engaged in such behavior, the better it was for the company, the data shows.
Thanks for reading The Times. Subscribe to The Times More than at any other retail brokerage firm, Robinhood’s users trade the riskiest products and at the fastest pace, according to an analysis of new filings from nine brokerage firms by the research firm Alphacution for The New York Times.
In the first three months of 2020, Robinhood users traded nine times as many shares as E-Trade customers, and 40 times as many shares as Charles Schwab customers, per dollar in the average customer account in the most recent quarter. They also bought and sold 88 times as many risky options contracts as Schwab customers, relative to the average account size, according to the analysis.
The more often small investors trade stocks, the worse their returns are likely to be, studies have shown. The returns are even worse when they get involved with options, research has found.
This kind of trading, where a few minutes can mean the difference between winning and losing, was particularly hazardous on Robinhood because the firm has experienced an unusual number of technology issues, public records show. Some Robinhood employees, who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation, said the company failed to provide adequate guardrails and technology to support its customers.
Those dangers came into focus last month when Alex Kearns, 20, a college student in Nebraska, killed himself after he logged into the app and saw that his balance had dropped to negative $730,000. The figure was high partly because of some incomplete trades.
“There was no intention to be assigned this much and take this much risk,” Mr. Kearns wrote in his suicide note, which a family member posted on Twitter.
Like Mr. Kearns, Robinhood’s average customer is young and lacks investing know-how. The average age is 31, the company said, and half of its customers had never invested before.
Some have visited Robinhood’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., in recent years to confront the staff about their losses, said four employees who witnessed the incidents. This year, they said, the start-up installed bulletproof glass at the front entrance.
“They encourage people to go from training wheels to driving motorcycles,” Scott Smith, who tracks brokerage firms at the financial consulting firm Cerulli, said of Robinhood. “Over the long term, it’s like trying to beat the casino.”
At the core of Robinhood’s business is an incentive to encourage more trading. It does not charge fees for trading, but it is still paid more if its customers trade more.
That’s because it makes money through a complex practice known as “payment for order flow.” Each time a Robinhood customer trades, Wall Street firms actually buy or sell the shares and determine what price the customer gets. These firms pay Robinhood for the right to do this, because they then engage in a form of arbitrage by trying to buy or sell the stock for a profit over what they give the Robinhood customer.
This practice is not new, and retail brokers such as E-Trade and Schwab also do it. But Robinhood makes significantly more than they do for each stock share and options contract sent to the professional trading firms, the filings show.
For each share of stock traded, Robinhood made four to 15 times more than Schwab in the most recent quarter, according to the filings. In total, Robinhood got $18,955 from the trading firms for every dollar in the average customer account, while Schwab made $195, the Alphacution analysis shows. Industry experts said this was most likely because the trading firms believed they could score the easiest profits from Robinhood customers.
Vlad Tenev, a founder and co-chief executive of Robinhood, said in an interview that even with some of its customers losing money, young Americans risked greater losses by not investing in stocks at all. Not participating in the markets “ultimately contributed to the sort of the massive inequalities that we’re seeing in society,” he said.
Mr. Tenev said only 12 percent of the traders active on Robinhood each month used options, which allow people to bet on where the price of a specific stock will be on a specific day and multiply that by 100. He said the company had added educational content on how to invest safely.
He declined to comment on why Robinhood makes more than its competitors from the Wall Street firms. The company also declined to comment on Mr. Dobatse or provide data on its customers’ performance.
Robinhood does not force people to trade, of course. But its success at getting them do so has been highlighted internally. In June, the actor Ashton Kutcher, who has invested in Robinhood, attended one of the company’s weekly staff meetings on Zoom and celebrated its success by comparing it to gambling websites, said three people who were on the call.
Mr. Kutcher said in a statement that his comment “was not intended to be a comparison of business models nor the experience Robinhood provides its customers” and that it referred “to the current growth metrics.” He added that he was “absolutely not insinuating that Robinhood was a gambling platform.”
ImageRobinhood’s co-founders and co-chief executives, Baiju Bhatt, left, and Vlad Tenev, created the company to make investing accessible to everyone. Robinhood’s co-founders and co-chief executives, Baiju Bhatt, left, and Vlad Tenev, created the company to make investing accessible to everyone.Credit...via Reuters Robinhood was founded by Mr. Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, two children of immigrants who met at Stanford University in 2005. After teaming up on several ventures, including a high-speed trading firm, they were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement to create a company that would make finance more accessible, they said. They named the start-up Robinhood after the English outlaw who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.
Robinhood eliminated trading fees while most brokerage firms charged $10 or more for a trade. It also added features to make investing more like a game. New members were given a free share of stock, but only after they scratched off images that looked like a lottery ticket.
The app is simple to use. The home screen has a list of trendy stocks. If a customer touches one of them, a green button pops up with the word “trade,” skipping many of the steps that other firms require.
Robinhood initially offered only stock trading. Over time, it added options trading and margin loans, which make it possible to turbocharge investment gains — and to supersize losses.
The app advertises options with the tagline “quick, straightforward & free.” Customers who want to trade options answer just a few multiple-choice questions. Beginners are legally barred from trading options, but those who click that they have no investing experience are coached by the app on how to change the answer to “not much” experience. Then people can immediately begin trading.
Before Robinhood added options trading in 2017, Mr. Bhatt scoffed at the idea that the company was letting investors take uninformed risks.
“The best thing we can say to those people is ‘Just do it,’” he told Business Insider at the time.
In May, Robinhood said it had 13 million accounts, up from 10 million at the end of 2019. Schwab said it had 12.7 million brokerage accounts in its latest filings; E-Trade reported 5.5 million.
That growth has kept the money flowing in from venture capitalists. Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates are among those that have poured $1.3 billion into Robinhood. In May, the company received a fresh $280 million.
“Robinhood has made the financial markets accessible to the masses and, in turn, revolutionized the decades-old brokerage industry,” Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia, said after last month’s fund-raising.
Image Robinhood shows users that its options trading is free of commissions. Robinhood shows users that its options trading is free of commissions. Mr. Tenev has said Robinhood has invested in the best technology in the industry. But the risks of trading through the app have been compounded by its tech glitches.
In 2018, Robinhood released software that accidentally reversed the direction of options trades, giving customers the opposite outcome from what they expected. Last year, it mistakenly allowed people to borrow infinite money to multiply their bets, leading to some enormous gains and losses.
Robinhood’s website has also gone down more often than those of its rivals — 47 times since March for Robinhood and 10 times for Schwab — according to a Times analysis of data from Downdetector.com, which tracks website reliability. In March, the site was down for almost two days, just as stock prices were gyrating because of the coronavirus pandemic. Robinhood’s customers were unable to make trades to blunt the damage to their accounts.
Four Robinhood employees, who declined to be identified, said the outage was rooted in issues with the company’s phone app and servers. They said the start-up had underinvested in technology and moved too quickly rather than carefully.
Mr. Tenev said he could not talk about the outage beyond a company blog post that said it was “not acceptable.” Robinhood had recently made new technology investments, he said.
Plaintiffs who have sued over the outage said Robinhood had done little to respond to their losses. Unlike other brokers, the company has no phone number for customers to call.
Mr. Dobatse suffered his biggest losses in the March outage — $860,000, his records show. Robinhood did not respond to his emails, he said, adding that he planned to take his case to financial regulators for arbitration.
“They make it so easy for people that don’t know anything about stocks,” he said. “Then you go there and you start to lose money.”
submitted by jayatum to investing [link] [comments]

Coronavirus: Trump admits to slowing the testing rate, which allows unabated spread & more American deaths

Good morning everyone - I am posting this coronavirus-centric newsletter instead of the usual Lost in the Sauce because I am running behind after spending yesterday on Father’s Day activities. So tomorrow I will post Lost in the Sauce (covering the political and legal news that may have been overlooked last week). My apologies, I wanted to get something out to you guys today as promised.
Housekeeping:
The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the pandemic's largest single-day increase of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 183,000 cases reported in the previous 24 hours. Brazil and the United States contributed the most to the surge in cases.

Testing

Trump says he told his administration to test fewer people: “Testing is a double-edged sword… When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more people, you’re gonna find more cases. So I said to my people slow the testing down, please. They test and they test.” (video)
  • The White House later tried to soften Trump's remark, saying he was joking. Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, points out a key aspect that is often overlooked: “The joke is on us. We stayed inside weeks on weeks with the unstated social contract that it was going to give the nation time to have alternatives to social distancing. And they didn’t do it. The nationwide testing plan never panned out like they said it would.”
  • Congressman Andy Kim (NJ): When I requested FEMA to stand up a Coronavirus test site in South Jersey they told me the White House said no. Now we know why.
EDIT TO UPDATE: A reporter asked Trump this morning if he actually ordered testing to be slowed down - Trump avoided answering the direct question but implied that he thinks we should do less testing. Trump says: "if it did slow down, frankly, I think we're way ahead of ourselves if you wanna know the truth. We've done too good of a job." (video)
Just days earlier, Trump told the WSJ that testing for the coronavirus is "overrated," arguing that it has led to an increase in confirmed cases in the U.S. that "makes us look bad." Trump has made statements like this numerous times before.
  • Reminder: In March, Trump said he wanted to keep passengers and crew on an infected cruise ship so that coronavirus cases in the US don't "double." "I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship."
  • Op-Ed: Trump Just Admitted to a Crime Against Humanity. No, He Wasn’t Joking.
Fact check: Controlling the spread of the pandemic demands finding the infected and isolating them until they can no longer spread the disease, alongside broader measures like social distancing. With an untold number of asymptomatic carriers, the only option to find out who truly has the virus is to test. Meanwhile, a lack of testing hampers the response to the virus. Health officials can’t preempt outbreaks in new regions. The threat then silently persists, infecting, killing, and draining resources. (Vox)
The U.S is now conducting more than 3 million coronavirus tests a week, far short of the 30 million tests per week experts say is needed to safely reopen. These experts aren’t just worried about the number of tests that labs can process. They are concerned about the logistical challenges of testing so many people, and the lag in setting up adequate contact tracing to find who may have been exposed.

Cases continue to rise

Experts abroad: “It really does feel like the U.S. has given up.” Comparing the rolling average of new coronavirus cases in the EU (pop. 446 million) to the US (pop. 330 million), shows the stark difference in results: the US rate is climbing back to its high point of ~30,000 average cases while the EU has stabilized at only 4,000 cases.
  • Note that since that graph was made, the US has surpassed that number: The CDC reported over 32,000 new cases for both Friday and Saturday - the highest daily totals since April 25. [See a few paragraphs below for state details]
Germany’s success in responding to the coronavirus pandemic was based on U.S. research that was ignored or dismissed by the U.S. government. “A large portion of [Germany’s] measures that proved effective was based on studies by leading U.S. research institutes,” said Karl Lauterbach, a Harvard-educated epidemiologist who is a member of the German parliament for the Social Democrats.
If the US had acted when other nations did, using the same information, 70%-99% of American covid deaths would have been avoided. The Oxford index shows that 14 days from the date of the 15th confirmed case in each country — a vital early window for action — the U.S. response to the outbreak lagged behind the others by miles...Due to exponential viral spread, our delay in action was devastating.
  • Meanwhile, at his Tulsa rally over the weekend, Trump boasted that “I have done a phenomenal job on it,” calling the coronavirus “the Chinese virus” and “Kung Flu.”
A dozen states have seen record highs of new COVID-19 cases since Friday… Those include Florida, Texas, Utah, South Carolina, Nevada, Georgia, Missouri, Montana, Arizona, California, Tennessee, and Oklahoma.
  • Arizona’s coronavirus cases have nearly doubled in 14 days, from 26,989 on June 7 to 52,390 on June 21. Florida on Saturday reported 4,049 new coronavirus cases, another consecutive single-day record increase in cases. For the fourth time in five days, Texas reported a record number of new coronavirus cases Saturday.
Hundreds test positive at Tyson Foods plant in Arkansas… Of the 3,748 employees tested, 481 tested positive for COVID-19, and 455 were asymptomatic. [This asymptomatic number is surprising and raises the possibility that there may be contamination somewhere in the testing “chain.”]

Funding and equipment

Trump administration ends funding for new lung damage treatments… The coronavirus attacks the lungs, killing some and leaving others with severe lung ailments. Earlier this month, the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) abruptly notified companies and researchers that it was halting funding for treatments for this severe form of Covid-19. The new policy highlights how staunchly the Trump administration has placed its bet on vaccines.
Instead of COVID testing supplies, FEMA sent the Washington State Health Dept. tiny plastic preforms that can be made into 2-liter soda bottles… The Department of Health received 300,000 vials, all of which were unlabeled, unusually packaged, and unusable.
FEMA paid $7.3 million to a first-time federal contractor with a sketchy owner for these unusable mini soda bottles. The bottles are also contaminated, as employees did not wear masks and kept them in an unclean environment. FEMA reportedly sent them to all 50 states.
A DHS review found that the CDC’s earliest coronavirus test kits were contaminated… Scientists did not thoroughly check the kits despite “anomalies” during manufacturing, according to the federal review. The CDC’s failure with the test added many weeks of delays to the rollout of widespread testing.
One of Trump’s top fundraisers is cashing in on the pandemic… Brian Ballard uses his Trump connections to lobby the administration on behalf of companies seeking to market their health products or score federal relief money. “He’s playing the K Street lobbyist game, buying access to this administration and enjoying that access,” said Craig Holman, who works on ethics and lobbying issues for the watchdog group Public Citizen.
FEMA can find no records of criteria it uses to make distributions to states from the Strategic National Stockpile to address the coronavirus pandemic… The claim is especially concerning because the president has made statements suggesting that states should get federal assistance based on how he feels about the states’ governors.
TSA whistleblower alleges the agency endangered staff and passengers… TSA withheld N95 masks from staff and exhibited "gross mismanagement" in its response to the coronavirus crisis – leaving employees and travelers vulnerable during the most urgent days of the pandemic.
Airports beg government to set face mask policy for passengers… “I can’t emphasize that enough – we would welcome regulations on a temporary basis that you should wear a mask in an airport when you’re transferring through it,” Airports Council International - North America President Kevin M. Burke said this past week.
Concerns that Donald Trump’s inner circle might pressure the FDA to rush a coronavirus vaccine to market in time for the presidential election have risen after the White House attacked the agency for reversing itself on an experimental drug treatment. “And if you give it to people and they think ‘Wow, I’ve got the vaccine now,’ they’re likely not to physically distance, wear face masks. And then if it doesn’t actually work, Oh! We’ve got a disaster on our hands,” said Ezekiel Emanuel, a medical professor at the University of Pennsylvania and former Obama White House health policy adviser.

CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program

Senators find $14 billion in unspent funds Congress approved in April to expand coronavirus testing and tracing… "While it has been months since these funds were first appropriated, the administration has failed to disburse significant amounts of this funding, leaving communities without the resources they need to address the significant challenges presented by the virus," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Sunday.
The pandemic is disproportionately hurting black-owned small businesses and the administration is not helping… Only 12 percent of black and Hispanic business owners polled between April 30 and May 12 received the funding they had requested. About one quarter received some funding. By contrast, half of all small businesses reported receiving from a single part of the stimulus packages — the Paycheck Protection Program — according to a census survey.
  • Only 2 percent of a $20 million city-wide small business loan program went to businesses in the Bronx, the New York City borough with the highest share of black people, according to a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Small Business Services, while 57 percent went to Manhattan businesses.
A coalition of civil rights groups including the ACLU sued the Trump administration for denying coronavirus relief loans to small business owners with criminal records, arguing the restrictive policy violates the law and perpetuates systemic racial injustices by discriminating against people of color.
PPP failed to get money where it was most needed. 7 of the 10 states that received the smallest dollar amount of loans were among the 10 states with the highest number of people approved for unemployment claims as of May 23. South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Florida, and Nebraska received significantly more aid proportionally compared to states with higher covid-related unemployment rates like Nevada, Maine, Michigan, and Hawaii.
A federal judge is once again ordering Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to release the full amount of stimulus funding Congress set aside for Native American tribes. “The Secretary has now taken more than twice as much time as Congress directed to distribute all CARES Act funds,” Mehta wrote. Mehta’s decision blocked so-called Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs), which have vast land holdings and secure significant profits from timber and oil sales, from receiving funds, as they are not government entities.
The administration has so far failed to spend more than 75% of the American humanitarian aid that Congress provided three months ago to help overseas victims of the virus. Relief workers said they were alarmed and bewildered as to why the vast majority of the money was sitting unspent.
submitted by rusticgorilla to Keep_Track [link] [comments]

The Flash #17 - Meet... Kid Flash!

DC Next Proudly Presents…!

The Flash: Against the Elements

Part Two, Meet… Kid Flash!
Written by JPM11S
Edited by AdamantAce
< | Next>>
⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡
My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive! When I was eight years old, my father, Jay Garrick, the original Flash, sacrificed himself to save the multiverse. Not soon after, I watched my mother die while surrounded by a tornado of red and yellow lightning. For years, I worked as an ordinary CSI for the CCPD, trying to help bring justice to my city in the only way I could, until I was struck by lightning that is. Now, at speeds faster than sound, I try to live up to my father’s legacy and protect the Twin Cities from those who seek to do them harm as the Flash!
⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡
Last we left our hero, he’d just made the hard decision to arrest Grace Good. Stuck at a family dinner, Barry texted Max to ask if he could investigate the strange weather occuring. He did, and with the help of Avery and Meena, Max set up a warning system to alert them when the next weather anomaly occurred. It triggered soon after, prompting Flash and Negative Flash to respond to the sight. Quickly joined by Tracer, it became clear shortly after arriving that something was amiss. Thanks to Negative Flash, the trio discovered what that was! Negative Flash captured Grace Good, the metahuman who created the storm, who then pleaded for them not to arrest her. She was only stealing stuff because Harrison Wells said he needed certain things to help save her dying dad! But knowing full well that Harrison Wells was dead, although not unmoved by her story, Flash arrested Grace.
⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡
Central City - Present Day - One Month After the Strange Weather
Wally West stumbled through the rainswept doors of the CCPD, his bright red Flash t-shirt and ginger hair darkened by the water that had soaked into both, sending chills across his lithe body that worked well to dampen his already sour mood. See, he had just gotten out of school for winter break and was beyond ecstatic to visit his Aunt Iris in Central City, home to objectively the best superhero: The Flash! But upon arriving, his promised visit to the Flash Museum was canceled due to flooding caused by the practical monsoon ragging outside. God… Wally hoped none of the exhibits were damaged before he could see them. And the worst part was, the absolute, most terrible part so far was that he was stuck with a crumby replacement! Iris had decided to take him to the CCPD where her brother and world’s (second) largest Flash fan, Barry Allen, worked, so that he could at least learn some more about the Scarlet Speedster’s past and present.
Needless to say, when Wally and Iris finally made it to Barry’s new private lab after a good bit of searching for it, the fifteen year old was even less well off than he had been when he walked through the door. Iris rapped her knuckles against the wooden door, of which had her brother’s name emblazoned on a golden plaque, and then waited for a few moments, the sound of something clattering to the ground and the hurried cacophony of footsteps seeping through the barrier before it finally swung open to reveal the smiling face of none other than Barry Allen. Wally eyed his uncle with a certain vexed look on his face, taking in the man’s sloppily parted blond hair and brown polo shirt, a red bowtie around his neck, before he decided he had enough and verted his gaze elsewhere.
“Barry!” Iris said, her hands on Wally’s shoulder and a proud smile on her face, “I want you to meet Wally! He’s the president of the Flash Fan Club back in Blue Valley!”
Barry stuck out his hand, a warm smile stretched across his lips. “Nice to meet you, Wally. Your Aunt Iris has told me a lot about you.”
“Oh, has she now?” Wally gave a wry grin that quickly turned into something far more meek, “Then I’m sure she’s told you that it’s only me and my friend Frankie in the club.” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, a little embarrassed as the memories of that particular part of his life came rushing in. He’d only ever started the club to try and make some friends and… well… turns out trying to share his passion for the Crimson Comet would only earn him the ridicule of his classmates.
“A Flash Fan Club, eh?” Barry laughed, “Looks like I was born a generation too early! I would have loved something like that back in my day.”
“Maybe, but that would have required you to do something other than read comics or do science experiments.” Iris winked at Barry, a smirk on her face.
Barry smiled, his eyes bright. “Very true. At least Wally here didn’t make the same mistake that I did!”
“What can I say? He’s a smart cookie,” beamed Iris.
Barry looked to Wally. “Keep those grades up and maybe I’ll give you some of my old Flash comics.”
Wally’s eyes lit up. “Really?!”
“Of course! Anything to encourage success in school. And besides, I always buy doubles. One to read and one to store.” Barry stepped aside. “I have a few from my collection in the lab if you’d like to see ‘em.”
Maybe Uncle Barry wouldn’t be so bad after all. “Like Hell I would!”
“Language, young man,” Barry said sternly.
Wally didn’t even hear him as he practically sprinted into the room. “Jumping jets! You have Flash #110!”
“Well…” Iris began, “I’ll leave you boys to it for an hour or two. I’m going to try and get ahead on the article I’m writing.”
“What’s it about?”
“Oh, just about Flash’s new partners and wondering if there’ll be any new ones on the way.” She looked to Wally. “I’ll be back in about an hour, Wally! Try not to miss me too much!” And with that, Iris trotted away.
Barry shut the door behind her, then turned to Wally, who was sat behind his desk and thumbing through The Flash #110, the issue where the second Flash debuted in. “So, what do you think?”
“It’s really good! I haven’t read this issue yet.”
“Which ones have you read?” Barry pulled up a chair next to Wally. “I know a lot of them are hard to come by nowadays since they stopped reprinting the old issues.”
“Oh, you know, just what I can get my hands on. I read the one where Mercury dies. That was really sad. The one where the second Flash fights the Rival was okay. I really like this one though. Seeing Quicksilver join the OG Flash is really cool.”
“I think that my favorites for the second Flash are everything after he comes back with that really cool, new costume.” Barry smiled, knowing that those comics were in fact chronicling his own adventures.
“Eh, I’ve read a few of the new run. Can’t say I’m a fan. He seems out of character in those.”
“Fair enough.”
“Well, I’m sure you don’t want me here interrupting while you try to read.” Barry got up, walking over to the counter on the other side of the room and picking up a cardboard box.
Wally didn’t even look up, so engrossed in the gorgeously illustrated and colorful pages. “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
“When you’re done, let me know. I have a surprise for you.”
“Surprise?” Wally looked up, tilting his head. “I hate surprises. Can you just tell me?”
A wide smile came over Barry’s face. “Well… if you insist.” He walked back over to Wally, gently setting the box down, opening it, and pulling out an oddly shaped object wrapped in cloth. The smile on Barry’s face grew wider as he peeled back the coverings, steadily revealing…
“Jumping jets! Is that--” Wally’s brilliant green eyes went wide.
Barry nodded. “The original Flash’s helmet.”
“That has to be a fake.”
“Nope, it’s the genuine article.”
Trembling fingers reach out to touch the polished surface of the helmet, gently caressing the metal like a treasured artifact… which it was to both uncle and nephew. “But… how?”
A sad glint rang in Barry’s eyes for the briefest of moments, though vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. “Lets just say that I know-- knew a guy.”
“This. Is. Awesome!” Wally beamed, gripping the helmet in his hand and placing it atop his head.
Barry’s shoulders tensed and he quickly snatched the helmet from the top of the young lad’s noggin. “Not as awesome as when I met the man.”
“You’ve met the Flash!?”
“Of course I have! After all, I’ve lived in Central City all my life.”
An exasperated sigh slipped from Wally’s lips and he fell back down to the chair, face marred with sorrow. “You know, I was really hoping that I would at least get a chance to see the Flash when I came to Central City, but now… now I don’t even get to go to the museum. I mean, the comics are cool and all… but… ya know… it’s just not the same. And there’s no way that helmet is the real thing.”
Barry sat down next to Wally, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I know it’s not what you wanted, but… well…” He ruffled his nephew’s hair, sighing and giving a lopsided smile. “How would you like to meet the Flash?”
Wally raised an eyebrow. “You know the Flash?”
“I’ll give him a call. He always likes meeting his fans, especially the ones who are having a rough day.” Barry got up, taking out his phone as he stepped into the hallway, shutting the door behind him.
Not a few seconds later did a flurry of deep orange lightning materialize through the large window of Barry’s private lab, the crimson suited form of the none other than the fastest man alive slowly revealing itself as the lightning faded away. Wally’s jaw dropped and his eyes froze on the man he so idolized, drinking in the sight of his golden boots and jagged belt, the lightning bolt against his chest and the soft smirk on his lips. He couldn’t believe it! His boring uncle Barry actually knew the Flash! Positively trembling with a nervous energy, Wally did his best to collect himself, at least enough so that he didn’t fall flat on his face when he bolted from the chair he’d been sat in and to the Scarlet Speedster himself!
“Jumping jets!” Wally exclaimed running up to his idol, “You’re--”
“The Flash,” he said, his voice vibrating. The hero extended his hand toward the young fan in front of him. “Your uncle Barry gave me a call and said you were having a rough day.”
Wally shook his head, trying to pull himself together further, eventually managing to do so enough that he reciprocated the gesture, ecstatically shaking the hand of his favorite hero. “Oh, that’s long in the past! God, I can’t-- just-- wow! You’re… you! CanIaskyousomequestions?!”
“Woah, slow down there buddy.” The Flash broke his handshake with Wally, who began to apologize profusely after realizing he’d held it for so long.
“I’m so sorry, Mister Flash.”
“Don’t worry about it, son. Now, you said you had some questions?”
“Yes! Wow, where do I start? Uh… What was it like fighting the Rival? Is it true you used to have two sidekicks or was it just one? What was the Justice League like? How did you get your powers? Why were you gone--”
The Flash laughed. “Haha, I think that’s enough to start with. Let’s start with the beginning: how I got my powers. Well, you see, I was in a place very similar to this--”
“Wait, are you a part of the police?! Is that how my uncle Barry knows you?!”
“No,” The Flash smiled. “Like I said, I was in a lab like this when lightning crashed through the window and--”
As if on queue, a bolt of golden lightning pierced the window, shattering the glass into a million fragments and electrifying the form of Wally West with power untold.
“Wally!”
In an instant, sparks of crimson lightning crackled from the young man’s form, soon blossoming into arcs that danced from his body and then around the room as Wally found himself unable to control his newfound power. Whipping up a storm of papers and practically anything not bolted down, Wally circled the lab, the feeling of the wind whipping through his hair filling him with a pure elation he so seldom experienced, what with his hag of a mother and endless bullying. But there was something else as well, nestled within the cracks: fear. See, as cool and awesome as this was, he didn’t exactly know how to stop… but it seemed he wouldn’t have to.
The Flash lept into action, his strong hands latching effortlessly onto Wally and countering his vibrations to hold him steady. “By gosh, Wally! The odds of you getting struck by lightning already aren’t great, but surviving and getting speed on top of that? It’s a billion to… two chance.” He smiled and said, “How do you feel?”
Wally looked around, his ginger hair completely askew and a frazzled look to his face. “I… just… wow.”
“Haha, I know the feeling. This power, it’s… it’s amazing. You’ve been given the gift of a lifetime, Wally, but now it’s your responsibility to use it to give back. To put some good into the world. How you do that is up to you. And it doesn’t have to be now. It doesn’t even have to be years from now. But someday, your debt will come due.”
“Debt? That might be a problem. I’m a little short on money.”
The Flash gave a small chuckle, then led Wally back over to behind the desk, sitting him down. “So, do you want to know how fast you are?”
“Uh, duh!” Wally beamed.
“I’ll be back--” A wall of crackling orange lightning shot out the window, coming back through it only a second later. “--in a flash.”
“Wow, that was corny.” Despite that, Wally smiled at his hero’s attempt at humor. “What is that?” He motioned to the metallic box that the Flash held.
“This is called a chronograph.” Flash held it up. Made of metal, the box was about a foot tall and six inches wide, five dials with a white marker laid behind circular portholes across the surface. In the corner, there was some S.T.A.R. Labs branding. “We use it at the Speed Force Academy to measure the speed of the students. Each dial, to put it simply, moves at a different mph.” He pointed to the first one. “This one moves at roughly the speed of sound and each one increases until finally...” He pointed to the last one. “You get to how fast I move.”
“Cool, cool.”
“Are you ready?”
“Sure am.”
“Awesome.” The Flash flicked a switch on the side of the box, the markers slowly picking up speed until they moved so fast Wally couldn’t even see them. “Now, you’re going to need to go into what we call Flashtime. That’s the state of--”
Wally cut him off, voice drenched with excitement. “Where you’re going so fast that everything seems to slow down around you!”
“Exactly. Now, I’m just going to give you a little jumpstart so we can get started, okay?” The speedster reached out towards Wally, a spark of electricity jumping from the tip of his finger and crashing against the young boy’s shoulder, pulling him into a state of being that few had the privilege of knowing.
Instantly, the world began to draw to a halt around him, the steady pitter patter of rain devolving into a barely perceptible hum, the lightning that traced through the sky like a snail. Eager to test his new found speed, Wally looked towards the chronograph, specifically the dial that corresponded to the Crimson Comet’s speed and found that…
“Wow…” he muttered, green eyes wide with unfettered shock. The dial, it… it was practically still! He was faster than the Flash! But then it began to speed up again, the smile on Wally’s face dropping as he waited to fall out of Flashtime. And waited. And waited some more… but it never came. He looked back at the chronograph, this time only able to see the slowest dial, and he sighed. Looks like he was only as fast as the speed of sound… which was still really fast, don’t get him wrong! Still more than fast enough to feel the exhilaration of the wind whipping through his hair and turn the landscape into a blur of colors as he shot through them, a trail of crackling lightning behind him! But something about being able to run alongside the Fastest Man Alive… wait… the dial drew to a halt and he was able to see the third one clearly now. Weird. And with that, Wally snapped out of Flashtime, the world returning to a normal pace around him.
“So, which dial could you see?” asked the Flash.
Wally raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “I could see… all of them.”
“What?”
“Really. I was able to see the last one perfectly, but then I couldn’t and I could only see the first one. And then the third one.”
“Interesting. I’ve never heard of someone’s speed fluctuating like that.”
“Oh, God, I’m not broken, am I?”
The Flash smiled and ruffled Wally’s hair. “No, of course you’re not, but I am going to have to talk to an expert that-- Wally!”
The young lad fell from his chair, hands darting up to grip his head as he let loose a harrowed cry and bloody arcs of lightning jumped from his form, sparking against and leaving pockmarks on everything they came in contact with. Without thinking, the Scarlet Speedster slipped into Flashtime, watching as the electricity slowed down before his very eyes, but still more than fast enough to tag him on the shoulder given his proximity. Pain seared throughout his body and he swore that, should he have been hit harder and in a worse position, he could very well have died. But he pushed that thought out of his mind for now, focusing on diagnosing what was happening to Wally.
Wally’s speed had already shown to fluctuate, potentially meaning some degree of instability in his connection to the Speed Force. So, following that line of thought, whatever was going on had to be Wally’s speed shifting into an extra unstable state and, given that his lightning was shooting all over the place, was more than likely his connection becoming super charged. To return Wally to a state of normalcy, he’d have to burn away that extra speed.
Dodging bolts of lightning, the Flash moved towards the scared and pain-addled boy curled up in a ball on the floor, deftly scooping him up and, a reassuring tone to his voice, said, “Don’t worry, Wally, I know what to do.”
A wall of sizzling orange lightning exploded through the wall and out into the rain slick streets of Central City below, the droplets of water and arcs of electricity that fell from the heavens suspended in midair as the hero moved fast enough to challenge time itself, the boy held out in front of him so that he would take the brunt of… everything. The speedster’s golden boots were a thunder of footfalls, but even that could not compare to the roar of his beating heart in his ears, the thoughts that screamed at him within the confines of his mind. What if this didn’t work? What if he-- No, he couldn’t allow himself to fall to the temptation of fear. Not at a time like this. And so, he steeled himself, gritting his teeth and pushing himself harder than he ever had before. Harder than he even thought he could go.
A mighty roar escaped from the Flash’s lips as he finally reached his top speed, something accompanied by Wally’s eyes blaring open as he let loose a cry of his own. Not one of triumph or exertion like the hero’s, but rather pure and untouched pain. Like nothing before did the lightning exude from Wally’s body, a practical web of crimson electricity around him that knocked the Flash back and tumbling against the ground, several wounds where he had been struck by Wally’s unstable Speed Force. But then it all stopped. The lightning ceased, the pavement scorched in a circle around Wally… who stood unharmed and very much alive.
Blinking green ears wearily scanned their surroundings, taking in the sheer dilapidation of what could only be the outskirts of the city. Most of the buildings were boarded up, broken glass behind the wooden planks, and all manner of creepy crawlies scurried in and out of the loose mortar between bricks. Ugh. Wally hated bugs. And the sidewalks… if they could even be called that; they had more in common with a forest floor, what with how many weeds grew between the plentiful cracks, than actual concrete. As Wally kept looking around, he soon laid eyes upon the crumpled form of the fastest man alive about fifteen or so feet away, running towards him. “Flash!” He shook the speedster. “Flash! Oh, God, are you alright?!”
The Flash rolled over, a wide grin on his face. “God, you don’t know how good it is to hear your voice. You really had me going there for a second!”
The two shared a laugh.
“Now, let's get you back to your uncle Barry’s lab before anyone notices.”
Suddenly, a wall of crackling lightning zoomed past them, drawing the attention of both. Quickly, Flash jumped to his feet, turning to Wally and saying, “Just let me take care of this and then I’ll meet you at the lab.”
And with that, he was off.
⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡
Keystone City
For a room so full of everything dull in life, from the blandest beige that coated the walls to the unassuming furniture, Daniel West had grown to find the room capable of invoking much… excitement. The office of his manager, Harold, had, as of late, found itself the place of much scorn for him, the portly man coating Daniel’s face in a thin layer of spit as he yelled at him for whatever offense it was that week. It wouldn’t have been so much of a problem for the man had it been for things he had done, or rather, not done, as an employee of the bank. But unfortunately, he was not that lucky.
Sometime ago now, Daniel had accepted his boss’s offer for “extra work,” knowing that that meant some sort of illicit activity. He only wished he knew the extent of what he was getting himself into. On his very first “job,” he and a group of people were tasked with stealing something from the new Captain Cold and Heat Wave, but that was put a stop to when the Flash showed up. Everyone was arrested, sans Daniel and some woman named Amunet Black. And then that pattern kept repeating itself over and over and over again. Every job he was put on, the Flash foiled… and he was the only one to get away. Naturally, people had begun to grow suspicious, not knowing about his secret gift that allowed him to evade the Scarlet Speedster.
See, back during the storm almost two years ago, something… incredible had happened to him. From the heavens that bleed with a myriad of colors, a bolt of lightning fell and struck him, imbuing a power that, frankly, scared him: speed like that of the Flash. Daniel had considered going to his brother, Barry, who had always been a massive fan of heroes and such, for help, but decided not to, opting to keep it a secret. He just wanted to be normal. To provide for his family and try to keep his son, William, on the straight-and-narrow. Huh. Clearly he wasn’t leading by example.
“So, like I was saying,” Harold began, leaning back in his rickety office chair and tapping his beefy fingers together, “I’m going to level with you. I think you can assume that we’re all getting a little suspicious. I don’t need to explain that. What I do need to say though is… well… it happens one more time and I’ll have to do something about you.” He leaned forward, a dark look in his eyes. “Do I need to make it clear what exactly that means?”
Daniel sighed. “Listen, the Flash stops lots of jobs, but--”
“People don’t usually get away, but you do. Every time. Like I said, one more chance.”
⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡
Central City
A wall of crackling crimson lighting streaked through the packed streets of Central City, ducking and dodging and weaving through the practical obstacle course of cars to give chase to both the Flash and whomever he was pursuing. Well, trying to give chase would be a more accurate label, perhaps. Wally West had had his powers for… oh… less than twenty minutes, and as such, was still getting the hang of… well… running. That ducking and dodging and weaving was the young boy frantically trying to not smash into any civilians, the massive fluctuations in his speed making that ever so hard to do. Yet, he carried on, battling through what felt like a car throttling constantly, uncontrollably, and at speeds faster than sound… most of the time.
While it certainly took him a great longer deal of time than it would have had he not been battling against his own power, Wally finally reached the Scarlet Speedster’s side, grinning widely as he locked eyes with his hero… who looked none too pleased to see the teen running beside him. A slight frown crossed over his face and Wally could tell his brow had furrowed underneath his crimson cowl, stirring within the kid a nervous pit in his stomach. Maybe, this wasn’t such a great idea after all.
“I told you to go back to your uncle Barry’s lab.” The Flash’s voice was stern.
“I know, but, like… hear me out, okay?” Wally laughed nervously. “You said that I have to pay off my debt, right? And, well, I figured I should get to paying it off early so that it’s taken care of before I’m stuck with actual debt.” He gave a nervous smile.
“Wally, I didn’t mean--” He cut himself off, realizing that of course a young boy who worshipped the Flash and then was given super speed would try to help his idol; he really should have been more specific. “Do exactly what I say, exactly when I say it. Understood?” sighed the Flash.
“Yessir, Mister Flash, sir!”
“Now, I--”
Wally raced up ahead, running next to the motorcyclist.
“Off to a great start, I see,” sighed the Flash, running up to where Wally was. “I’m only going to say this once!” His voice was loud and heroic. “Pull over!”
The motorcyclist turned, the expressionless black visor that covered their face bearing down on the hero. “Sure.”
Suddenly, the bike lurched over, slamming into the Crimson Comet and knocking him off his footing for the briefest of moments, but, being the fastest man alive, he quickly regained it and was on the villain once more. Wally, in the meantime, tried punching the criminal, only to find himself staggering as he realized that throwing a punch while running at super speed was a little harder than the Flash made it look. Or maybe it was because he was still new to the whole speed thing. It was probably the latter.
The motorcycle roared with a crackle of electricity, speeding ahead of the Flash and Wally, a trail of all manor of colors left in its wake. Wally moved to catch up to it, but was stopped by the extended hand of the man who ran beside him.
“Wait,” said the Flash, “I’m going to disassemble the bike, but I’ll need you to cause a distraction. I don’t know how it’s constructed, so I’ll need some time to figure it out. Understand?”
Wally nodded his head.
“Good.”
And with that, the pair laid on more speed, pushing themselves to catch up to the cyclist.
A cocky grin on his face, Wally began to taunt the villain. “Really think you could get away from us, huh? Typical.”Flash began to examine the bike, quickly finding that there didn’t seem to be any screws or really much to indicate that the bike was not one solid piece. His next option then was to try and phase through the casing and disable it that way. So, with a practiced skill, he vibrated his hand at the correct frequency and moved to stick it inside the bike… but nothing: the hero could not penetrate the casing. ‘Must be phase-proof,’ he thought.
“I really think that--” Wally began, only to be whacked across the face with a baton he’d not noticed the biker pull. “Ow! That hurt!”
Flash perked his head up, only to be similarly struck. The villain moved to strike him again, but the hero managed to catch the stick, taking it into his own hand and bringing it across their helmet with such tremendous force that the black visor they wore shattered, a piece of it missing to reveal a flawless caramel skin, flowing dark brown hair, and piercing eyes that bore daggers through his skull. No… it couldn’t be.
“Meena?!” The Flash exclaimed. “But--”
Meena lifted her hand from the handle, balling it into a fist and cracking the Scarlet Speedster across the face. Far too caught up in the shock and betrayal that was tearing through him though, the Flash failed to notice that, when she removed her hand from the handle, the bike slowed. But luckily the speedster wasn’t the only hero around. Being perhaps a little too focused on the struggle between hero and villain playing out before his very eyes and not on where he was running, Wally noticed with ease what the Crimson Comet had missed, quickly surmising that, because of the incredible velocity at which the bike traveled, there must have been some feature which slowed the bike down to make it easier to steer. And following that logic, if she took both hands off, the bike should come to a halt.
Now with a concrete plan in mind, Wally leapt into action, delivering a flurry of punches to the rider’s side, careful not to overextend himself like he had before. It was not long before the ginger haired menace drew the attention of Meena, taking her hand off the handle to try and whack him once more with a second baton, though she had placed her other back on. Damn. But that could quickly be amended. Performing the same maneuver he saw the Flash do, Wally used his heightened reflexes to catch the stick in his hand, ripping it across her face shortly after, then wrapping it against her knuckles. She jerked her hand back, as Wally anticipated, then with great haste running around to her other side and smashing her other hand. Too did she jerked that hand away.
And with that, the bike ground to a halt, it’s trail of sizzling lightning fading away as the engine revved down and the Flash and Wally held Meena to make sure she could not reactivate her bike.
“Good work, kid,” smiled the Flash. He ripped Meena from her bike, guiding her over to a nearby lamp post and hand-cuffing her to it.
Wally trotted over the speedster. “Now what?”
“Now we call the police and wait.”
“Wait?”
“Yes. We need to make sure she doesn’t get away.”
“Makes sense.”
“And after the police take her away, I’m taking you to see that expert I mentioned.”
⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡
Blue Valley, Nebraska
In the blink of an eye, a group of four, the Flash, Iris and Wally West, and Maxwell Crandall, appeared in front of the West home, located in the middle-of-nowhere, Nebraska. The two-story farmhouse was far from remarkable, discounting the woefully unkempt lawn and dire need of a paint-job, blending in with the other houses all decades out of date. The group made their way towards the door, Flash in the lead, but were quick to pause once they reached the door.
The Flash looked to everyone behind him. “Are you guys ready?”
Max nodded.
“This is never going to work,” said Wally.
“Oh, don’t be silly, Wally,” Iris began, “They’re still your parents and care about you… in their own way.” She gave a small laugh.
The Flash looked back to the door, gulping. “Well, if there’s no objections then…” He wrapped his knuckles against the door, waiting only a moment or two before it swung open and a shriek rang through the chill Blue Valley air.
“By God!” The woman covered her wide open mouth with her spindly fingers. “Honey, get the shotgun!”
A few grunts could be heard in the background, a pot bellied man with a large mustache soon stepping into view. “Roger that!”
“Please!” The Flash yelled, “Mister and Missus West! That really won’t be necessary!” He put his hands up. “I’m here to talk about your son!”
Wally chimed in from the background. “Yeah! And besides! The Flash would just catch all the pellets!”
Iris turned to Max. “You know, I’m really left to wonder if they’d just shoot anyone who showed up in a superhero costume or only the adults.”
“Surely they wouldn’t actually--” Max quickly found himself cut off by the sharp gaze of Iris. “Point taken.”
“Please, could we come in?” said the Flash, “It’s a matter of life and death.”
Mary, Wally’s mother and the woman standing in the door, entire demeanor changed with those words, her face dropping as she quickly stepped aside to allow everyone in.
Rudy, Wally’s father, was quick to speak up, not even waiting for everyone to get inside. “What the hell do you mean it’s a matter of life and death?!”
Wally sat down on the couch, Iris electing to sit with him, while Flash and Max confronted Rudy and Mary.
“I’m a friend of Iris’ brother Barry,” began the Flash, “He asked if I’d be willing to meet Wally and, of course, I said yes. While--”
Rudy interrupted. “Just get on with it.”
The Flash sighed. “Wally was struck by lightning and now has super speed, but--”
“Oh my God!” Mary gasped, nearly fainting.
“Please--” The Flash tried to get a word in.
“What did you do to my boy!” yelled Rudy.
“I didn’t--”
“Enough!” Max’s voice was stern, commanding despite being sat feet below the rest in his wheelchair. He eyed the Wests. “Now, listen to me and listen to me closely: Your son has a super charged connection to the Speed Force, something of which is causing him to experience what we call ‘speed seizures.’ They are more than capable of killing him and anyone around him. At the Speed Force Academy, we have facilities that can help with Wally’s condition, but he will need constant monitoring.”
Flash jumped in. “What my colleague is getting at is that Wally needs to move to Central City, but without your permission, well…”
“Listen,” Iris began, “I know you guys don’t like the Flash, or other heroes for that matter, but I promise you that he would never do anything to hurt Wally. Hell, he’s even going out of his way to personally mentor the kid… if you guys agree to what we’re saying. Just… all we need is the okay from you guys and we can take care of the rest. Please… this is Wally’s life we’re talking about. And I know it might be hard, but--”
Rudy raised his hand, cutting Iris off. “We understand.” He looked to Mary, who gave a solemn nod, then to Wally. “We’re going to miss you.”
⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡
Central City - The Next Day
“Looks like we have quite a bit to unpack,” chimed Cecile West, looking around the living room of her house which was positively covered in boxes.
Daniel sighed. “This is going to take ages. You got anything in the fridge, mom?”
“You know she does,” smiled Joe.
Barry perked his head up. “Can you grab me a water, Dan?”
“Why doesn’t Mister Speedy--” Iris suddenly found herself cut off as a wall of crimson lighting swirled throughout the house, the many boxes that once littered the place swiftly emptied of their contents and then stacked up against the wall. “Unpack. I was going to say get us waters.”
A bottle of water appeared in everyone’s hand.
Iris shrugged. “Works for me.”
“I’ll be in my room!” Wally called from the top of the stairs.
Everyone looked around at each other, a little dumbfounded as to what had just happened.
“Is it going to be like this all the time?” asked Joe.
Barry smiled. “Probably.”
Joe rubbed his brow. “I’m getting too old for this old thing.”
“I’m going to go talk to him,” chuckled Barry, “Hey, about we order a pizza or two for us and about a half dozen for Wally?”
“Half a dozen?” Daniel raised an eyebrow.
“You’re right. Make it a dozen. He’s a growing boy,” winked Barry.
The young man trotted up the stairs and to Wally’s room, finding the door open. For a room moved into only moments ago, the space was surprisingly well furnished already. The four light blue walls were adorned with a mix of… well… predominantly Flash posters, with the odd Jesse Quick or racing one thrown in there just to break things up a little bit. Honestly, the walls were more accurately described as a sea of scarlet. The bed was neatly pushed into one of the corner’s of the room, a desk right beside that which was already scattered with pencils and papers. Across from that, a bookshelf stood, packed chock full of comic books. It looked like Joe and Cecile had decided to go out and buy him some, what with the note that proclaimed as such stuck to the shelf still.
Barry knocked on the door, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. “I bet you're excited!”
“You have nooooo idea!” Wally said.
“Literally a dream come true, right?”
“Hell yeah!”
“Language.”
“Heh. Sorry.”
Barry smiled. “It’s alright, bud.” He pulled something out of his pocket, holding it in a closed fist. “So, my friend the Flash told me to give you something.”
“Oh?” Wally perked up.
Barry tossed a small, golden ring to Wally, who deftly caught it in his hand.
“Oh my God…” gasped Wally as he realized what he held.
“Put it on.”
One swirl of crimson lightning later, Wally stood suited in a yellow and red costume, ginger hair splayed out from his half-cowl. A red lightning bolt was emblazoned against a white background on his chest.
“What’re you thinking for a name?”
“How about… Kid Flash?!” Wally exclaimed.
⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡
The story continues in The Flash #18, In Hot Pursuit!
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