Everybody Keeps Indicting Trump, Without Regard for Consequences

Posted on | August 5, 2023 | 2 Comments

Having already said what I had to say about the most recent indictment of the former president (“Banana Republic, U.S.A.”), I thought perhaps readers might want to know what liberals are saying about it.

Trump’s surreal arraignment day
in Washington augurs ominous days ahead

That’s the headline on an “analysis” by CNN reporter Stephen Collinson, and this might be the first time I’ve ever seen the verb “augur” used in a headline. “Portend,” maybe, but “augur”? No, can’t recall ever seeing that one, and it might help to know that Collinson is not American. He’s from England, where I suppose schoolboys at posh academies are taught to use references to the ancient Roman practice of augury, but I digress . . .

As former President Donald Trump left Washington after answering charges of trying to subvert democracy, it felt like all the previous trauma and divisions of his eight-year journey into the nation’s psyche were just the start.
America now faces the prospect of an ex-president repeatedly going on trial in an election year in which he’s the Republican front-runner and is promising a new White House term of retribution. He is responding with the same kind of extreme rhetoric that injected fury into his political base and erupted into violence after the last election. Ominous and tense days may be ahead.
Trump spent the afternoon at a federal courthouse within sight of the US Capitol that was ransacked by his supporters on January 6, 2021. He pleaded not guilty in the gravest of the three cases in which he has so far been indicted – on four charges arising from an alleged attempt to halt the “collecting, counting and certifying” of votes after the 2020 election.
Live video of Trump motorcading to an airport and sweeping into yet another city for yet another indictment on his branded jetliner has become part of a sudden new normal. But if the arraignment of a former president seems routine, it’s a measure of the historic chaos Trump has wrought since he bulldozed into politics in 2015.
Wearing his classic dark suit and long red tie, Trump on Thursday rose to his full height in court and slowly and clearly elucidated the words “not guilty” in a hearing in which his fall from president to defendant was underscored when he had to wait silently for the judge to arrive. He was irked, sources familiar with his mindset told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, that the judge referred to him simply as “Mr. Trump,” rather than with the presidential title he still used at his clubs.
The 45th president and special counsel Jack Smith – who has also indicted him for the alleged mishandling of classified documents – shared several glances, before a proceeding that, unlike when he was president, means Trump’s fate is now out of his control.
The entire day was surreal, but given its historic implications – after Trump became the first ex-president formally charged in relation to alleged crimes committed in office – also sad.
Thursday was a day when the country crossed a point of no return. For the first time, the United States formally charged one of its past leaders with trying to subvert its core political system and values.
It was Trump who forced the country over this dangerous threshold. A man whose life’s creed is to never be seen as a loser refused to accept defeat in a democratic election in 2020, then set off on a disastrous course because, as Smith’s indictment put it, “he was determined to stay in power.”
Trump is steering a stormy course to an unknown destination. If he wins back the White House, the already twice-impeached new president could trigger a new constitutional crisis by sweeping away the federal cases against him or even by pardoning himself. Any alternative Republican president could find themselves besieged by demands from Trump supporters for a pardon that, if granted, could overshadow their entire presidency. And if Trump is convicted, and loses a 2024 general election, he risks a long jail term, which would likely become fuel for him to incite his supporters to fresh protest. . . .

Well, enough of that. Notice how Collinson pretends that all of this was Trump’s fault, as if nobody else involved — Attorney General Merrick Garland or Special Counsel Jack Smith — had any choice or discretion in the matter. No, they had to indict Trump. Because Trump “forced the country over this dangerous threshold,” which I suppose is pretty much how the Roundheads explained themselves after they beheaded King Charles I: “We had no choice! He made us do it!” The Roundheads then set up a “Republic” far more tyrannical than anything Charles ever did, much the same as those later regicides in France imposed a tyranny more brutal and repressive than the monarchy of Louis XVI, and likewise the Bolsheviks were infinitely worse than Czar Nicholas.

One might notice a historical pattern here, and then — since we’re speaking of ominous auguries — contemplate America’s future once Our Leaders save us from Trump’s alleged threat to “subvert democracy.”

But these people seem to have no proper sense of history, no more than they have any sense of irony or self-awareness, which explains the latest entry in John Hoge’s “I’m Not Making This Up, You Know” files:

The United States strongly condemns Russia’s conviction of opposition leader Aleksey Navalny on politically motivated charges. The Kremlin cannot silence the truth. Navalny should be released.

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 4, 2023

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

Category: CNN

News From San Francisco: ‘A Lot of People Around Here Have Mental Issues’

Posted on | August 5, 2023 | 2 Comments

Say hello to Ryant Bluford of San Francisco and, while you’re at it, go ahead and say good-bye, because Mr. Bluford shuffled off this mortal coil last month in a manner that seems to be increasingly common. When a police officer points an AR-15 rifle at you and yells, “get your hands up,” this is not merely a suggestion. But the circumstances that led to this fatal encounter require us to contemplate law enforcement policy in many aspects, including the importance of maintaining public order.

What became known as “Broken Windows” policy, based on the influential work of James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, was based on the insight that enforcement of seemingly “minor” laws — against loitering, vandalism, public intoxication, etc. — had the effect of making neighborhoods safer and reducing violent crime. Explaining how and why this correlation functions would require more time than I’m willing to spend on the subject today, but the proven effectiveness of “broken windows” theory, as evidenced by the dramatic reduction in crime in New York City during Rudy Giuliani’s term as mayor, is beyond dispute.

This came to mind because bodycam video of this incident in San Francisco was posted to the YouTube channel Police Activity with the subject line, “Man Gets Shot by Police After Trying to interfere in an Arrest and Pointing a Gun at Officers.” The description posted with the video makes clear what happened, but I didn’t read the description until after watching the video. As a subscriber to the Police Activity channel, I watch nearly all of their videos, and thus probably see 150 or more police shootings a year. As I watched this one, it wasn’t immediately clear to me what was happening or where it was happening. I didn’t realize it was San Francisco. Anyway, the police are arresting someone who was wanted on a warrant, a routine activity that police do everywhere every day, and which very rarely leads to the shooting of anyone, much less a random dude who walks up and tries to stop the arrest.

The first impression I got from the video was a sense of disorder. When the police (whom I later learned were with the city’s anti-gang unit) went to arrest the wanted suspect, he was standing near a street corner talking to five or six other people. Cops handcuff the suspect and are apparently waiting for a patrol car to arrive and pick up the suspect. But here’s the thing — instead of dispersing, the group of people to whom the suspect was talking continue to hang around in close proximity to the officers. Dude, if the cops show up to arrest one of my buddies, I’m going to casually saunter away, like I barely know the dude. Probably because of my own past as a teenage dopehead, I always get nervous around cops, and so the behavior of these people in San Francisco made no sense to me. Why are you hanging around? The cops are here. Get moving.

It wasn’t one of the suspect’s buddies who got shot, however. About six minutes into the video, Bluford shows up and immediately starts shouting obscenities at the cops: “What y’all doing? What the f**k y’all doing in my neighborhood? . . . Uncuff him right now!”

Who behaves like this? Who thinks it is a good idea to accost police officers in an aggressive and threatening manner? The answer — perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn — is crazy people:

The Bayview man shot and killed [July 26] by San Francisco police officers, 41-year-old Ryant Bluford of San Francisco, was known as “Peanut” to friends and family. They recalled him as a loving father, brother, cousin and friend — while acknowledging the violent crime in his past.
Neighbors interviewed Wednesday night and Thursday morning said Bluford struggled with mental illness and had a disdain for the police, the result of more than a decade spent in prison for various serious offenses. . . .

(“Peanut” was loved by family and friends, despite his criminal history and mental illness, which finally got him shot by police.)

Bluford was convicted in the 2006 gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in San Francisco, and spent more than a decade in prison as a result. He was again charged, in 2022, for domestic violence and sexual assault. . . .

(Whoa! Gang-raping a 16-year-old? Do friends and family of “Peanut” not care about his victim? Click here to read the details of that crime.)

Neighbors described the shooting as a tragedy.
“He had four kids and a wife, two were twins. He did the best he could,” said a friend of Bluford’s, who gave his name as Tyke, saying Bluford’s mental health worsened after time in prison. “He was in the pen for 12 years; he had some mental issues from that.” . . .

(Who considers it a “tragedy” when a gang rapist gets shot by police? As for the “mental issues” which the friend blames on Bluford’s 12 years in prison, would the friend care to think about the “mental issues” suffered by a 16-year-old girl who was grabbed off the street, shoved into a van, threatened at gunpoint and sexually assaulted by four men in every manner imaginable? Because that was Bluford’s crime.)

At the Bayview intersection, Bluford’s family lit candles. They described Peanut as a man who had been through the wringer, and criminal records show past convictions for rape and other violent crimes.
He had a fearful association with police, neighbors said, one borne from a lifetime of negative experiences dealing with law enforcement: According to criminal records, Bluford was charged with kidnapping, rape, assault with a deadly weapon, and various other crimes in 2006; he was incarcerated in 2008, according to criminal records, and friends and family said he spent more than a decade in prison.
Then in 2022, he was charged again, with domestic violence, sexual assault, and criminal threats. It was not immediately clear if he was convicted and imprisoned for these alleged crimes.
“You have to think about the kind of trauma someone has experienced with the police,” said one neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous. “He looked done, driven to suicide by cop.”
“He had a lot of mental health issues,” said another anonymous neighbor. “He had a family. He loved his kids. A lot of people around here have mental issues.”

Joe Biden got 85% of the vote in San Francisco, so yeah, we fully understand that a lot of people there have mental issues.

What part of ’cause and effect’ do I need to explain?

The police video of the shooting was released Friday, showing that Bluford had a pistol in his waistband, which he later aimed at police before he was shot. Despite all this, however, some people continued to ask why police couldn’t “de-escalate” the situation. The obvious answer is that Ryant Bluford didn’t want it to be “de-escalated.” Ryant Bluford was crazy and wanted to die in the proverbial hail of police gunfire.

Why? You know why. Crazy People Are Dangerous.

Category: California, Crime

In The Mailbox: 08.04.23 (Albuquerque Afternoon Abbreviated Edition)

Posted on | August 4, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.04.23 (Albuquerque Afternoon Abbreviated Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: What Should A Woman Do If A Man Is Trying To Enter Her Home?
EBL: Sophie Grégoire formerly Trudeau, also, The Punic Wars
Twitchy: “White Lizzo” Is Trending So We Had To Take A Look & OMG, also, Joe Rogan Tears Sleepy Joe & His Degenerate Son Hunter A New One
Louder With Crowder: Brazen shoplifter catches a literal ass whoopin’ (with a stick) by a clerk who has been pushed too far, “Yeah, I said it!”, Beer insider savages Bud Light disaster, says that’s what you get for moving HQ to New York City, and Country music’s stranglehold on the Billboard Charts shows the Left is losing their culture war
Vox Popoli: Niger Tests Clown World, Banana Republic USA, Past His Sell-By Date, How the Devil Mouse Metastasized, and The Price of Partiality
Gab News: Connecting With Tradition & Simplicity
Stoic Observations: Grabby Humans & The Idiocracy Heuristic

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Diversity Thursday, also, A Perfect Storm Of Unpreparedness
Dana Loesch: Trump Indicted For A Third Time
Don Surber: The failure of liberalism, also, Biden Indicts Trump To Hide USA’s Credit Rating Drop
Glenn Reynolds: Hey, Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

The Preventable Death of Khaliyah Jones

Posted on | August 4, 2023 | Comments Off on The Preventable Death of Khaliyah Jones

Khaliyah Jones (left); Cameron Hopkins (right)

A year ago — July 16, 2022 — Khaliyah Jones was kidnapped:

Two people are in custody following a kidnapping at the Lovejoy Walmart Saturday, July 16.
Khaliyah Jones, 18, was allegedly taken from the store’s parking lot by her ex-boyfriend Cameron Hopkins, 19.
Witnesses told police Hopkins broke a window of a vehicle Jones was in with a handgun, pulled her from the car and forced her into his vehicle and then fled.
Later, Hopkins left his vehicle and called Demarco Jennings to pick him up. When Jennings arrived Hopkins allegedly forced Jones in the car and they began traveling to Albany.
Police said Jones was able to escape the car and ran to a nearby business for help while providing police the location the two were heading to.
With the help of the Albany Police Department and information from Jones, both Hopkins and Jennings were arrested and returned to Clayton County where they remain in jail. . . .
Hopkins is charged with making terroristic threats, kidnapping, criminal damage and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. For his part, Jennings is facing kidnapping charges.

This was obviously a very serious crime, and Khaliyah Jones was fortunate to escape. What happened a year later has provoked outrage:

A man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend was out on bond at the time of the alleged crime after the Clayton County District Attorney’s Office missed a crucial administrative deadline, court records and District Attorney Tasha Mosley confirm.
Cameron Hopkins faces malice murder and other charges after allegedly abducting and fatally shooting his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend, Khaliyah Jones, on July 16.
At the time, court records show that the 20-year-old Hopkins was out on bond for similar charges from one year earlier. On July 16, 2022, arrest warrants allege he abducted Khaliyah from a Lovejoy Walmart at gunpoint. In the warrant application, the investigator wrote: “After kidnapping the victim… Cameron Hopkins was contacted via phone at which time he said if the police attempts[sic] to pull him over as he flees with the victim that he will shoot and kill her.”
Khaliyah’s family is now left wondering how Hopkins was ever released on bond.
“Why? Why was he let out?” asked Khaliyah’s mother, Bridgette Jones.
An error made by prosecutors may be responsible.
Under current Georgia law, a felony defendant cannot be held in jail without bond for more than 90 days after their arrest without an indictment. If prosecutors do not obtain an indictment within that 90 day timeline, a judge is typically required to grant the defendant bond — regardless of the charges.
“You’re on the clock,” said Danny Porter, who served as Gwinnett County’s district attorney for decades before leaving office in 2020.
“DA’s offices have to have some kind of a system,” he said. “You have to track these.”
Clayton County prosecutors did not obtain an indictment until March 2023 — more than seven months after Hopkins’ July 2022 arrest, according to court documents obtained by 11Alive.
Court records show that a magistrate court judge initially denied Hopkins bond on his July 2022 kidnapping and related charges, but after more than 90 days passed without an indictment, a superior court judge reversed course in October 2022 and granted bond.
In a phone interview, Clayton County District Attorney Mosley said “we did miss the 90-day time period to indict.” She called the oversight “a mistake.”
“My child is dead because of a ‘mistake’?” asked Bridgette Jones. “I do not accept that.”
According to the October 2022 Clayton County Superior Court bond order granted after prosecutors missed their 90-day deadline, Hopkins was ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor, stay out of Clayton County except for court dates or attorney meetings, and stay away from Khaliyah Jones — in addition to meeting a $150,000 bond.
“We did everything that we could with the bond conditions to ensure that she was as safe as we possibly could,” District Attorney Mosley said.
While out on bond from those 2022 charges, law enforcement says Hopkins abducted Jones once again. This time, they allege, he led law enforcement on a high speed chase that ended at Lovejoy High School. Police say he fatally shot Khaliyah in the school driveway.
It’s the same school where, one year earlier, she received her diploma.
“In my eyes, the police did their job. They caught the criminal,” Bridgette Jones said. “But between the prosecutor and the courts, y’all failed.”
Hopkins has pleaded not guilty to all of his 2022 charges, according to his attorney Steve Frey. He has not yet had an opportunity to enter a formal plea for his 2023 charges, according to Frey.
District Attorney Mosley says that her office has changed its procedures in an effort to prevent an oversight like this from happening again. They’ve implemented changes in the ways they interact with magistrate court, including “a shared email just going to… the top command so that we get those cases and start working on them quicker,” she told 11Alive.
Bridgette Jones says those changes came too late for her daughter.
“We lost a great human that was going to help a lot of people,” she said. “Khaliyah just wanted to help people.”

Before we get to the matter of the prosecutor’s error that led to this murder, let me ask something: Who posted bail for Cameron Hopkins?

Last time I checked, bail bondsmen required 10% of the bond amount to be paid in cash, so if the bond for Cameron Hopkins was $150,000, somebody had to pay $15,000 cash to get him out on bond. Now, suppose one of your kids got messed up and committed a heinous crime like this. Would you pay $15,000 so your child could be released from jail while awaiting trial? As for me, the answer is hell, no. My children better not ever do anything like that, but if they did, they could just sit their ass in jail, because I sure as hell don’t have a spare $15,000 laying around.

Now what about that Clayton County district attorney, whose “mistake” — oops! — let Cameron Hopkins get out of jail, because her office missed the deadline to get him indicted so he could be held without bond? It took seven months for them to get the indictment, by which time Hopkins had been out of jail for more than four months. Shouldn’t there be some kind of accountability for such a failure? Georgia legislators thought so, which is why they passed a law creating a commission with the power to remove local prosecutors who “refuse to uphold the law.”

Guess what? The lawless officials are suing:

A coalition of Georgia district attorneys is suing to challenge a state law that created a commission to remove and discipline state prosecutors.
The group of four district attorneys is challenging a recently signed bill that established the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PACQ), which holds the power to remove local prosecutors who “refuse to uphold the law.” At the time, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said the commission would curb “far-left prosecutors” who are “making our communities less safe.”
The effort is being led by DeKalb District Attorney Sherry Boston and also includes Towaliga District Attorney Jonathan Adams, Augusta District Attorney Jared Williams, and Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady. The prosecutors in a press release said that Senate Bill 92 (SB 92) “overrides the will of voters, threatens prosecutorial independence, and violates federal and state constitutions.” . . .
The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court, questions the constitutionality of the bill and says it oversteps by requiring district attorneys to review every single case. It says that it violates the separation of powers clause in the Georgia Constitution, noting that district attorneys fall within the jurisdiction of the judicial branch.
“This duty is practically unworkable, limiting district attorneys’ ability to define enforcement priorities and approaches and distracting from the prosecution of meritorious cases,” the lawsuit states. . . .
“Not only is SB 92 unconstitutional, this new Commission is also unnecessary and wasteful,” Boston said. “Georgia already provides other ways to address misconduct by prosecutors — including Bar discipline, impeachment, and ultimately, the ballot box.”
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr vowed to defend the law in court, saying that district attorneys are “not immune from accountability.”
“I have great respect for the important role District Attorneys play in protecting Georgia’s citizens,” Carr said in a statement. “Unfortunately, some District Attorneys have embraced the progressive movement across the nation of refusing to enforce the law. That is a dereliction of duty, and as a result, Georgia’s communities suffer.”

What about the murder of Khaliyah Jones? Isn’t this a clear example of the kind of “dereliction of duty” that Attorney General Carr wants to prevent? And where are the “social justice” activists? Where is Black Lives Matter? Why aren’t they protesting outside the Clayton County courthouse, demanding that District Attorney Tasha Mosley resign? As for the feminists who love to lecture us about “violence against women” — Amanda Marcotte, Jessica Valenti, et al. — they haven’t said say a word about the murder of Khaliyah Jones, for some reason.

Category: Crime, Georgia

In The Mailbox: 08.02.23 (Field Expedient Edition)

Posted on | August 2, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.02.23 (Field Expedient Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

From the Eagles Appreciation Station in Winslow, Arizona – yes, it really exists.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

In recognition of the demise of Feminist Frequency,

OVER THE TRANSOM
Twitchy: #BLM Activist Talcum X Settles Defamation Suit, It Just Got Awkward For Media That Slammed Sound of Freedom As QAnon Garbage, and Eric Swalwell Town Hall Devolves Into Chaos
Louder With Crowder: Lizzo sued by dancers over fat shaming (yes, Lizzo), making them eat bananas out of strippers’ vaginas, Ron DeSantis makes an offer that if Kamala Harris wants to lie about Florida’s school curriculum, come lie to his face, and Bud Light waves the white flag
Vox Popoli: Japan’s Surrender – The Trohan Article, The Final Phase, Racial Destruction Goes Awry, Never Trust the Science, and Another Marketing Genius

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: West African Sahel, Colonial Echoes, Migration, Ukraine, & A Whiff Of Franco-Russian Proxy Wars
Dana Loesch: Devon Archer Spills The Beans, Trump Indicted, and Media Ignores Story Of Thwarted School Shooting
Don Surber: Biden’s Crime Family Is All Of DC

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Up To 29% Off Black & Decker Indoor AC Units
50% Off Ninja AF080 Air Fryer

Category: Linkagery

Banana Republic, U.S.A.

Posted on | August 2, 2023 | 1 Comment

A D.C. grand jury on Tuesday indicted former President Trump on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Meanwhile, murders in D.C. have increased 19% this year, and are on track for a 20-year high. But you see, our violence-plagued national capital is full of Democrats, who think that sending Republicans to federal prison is necessary, whereas carjackers and drug dealers are permitted to run free. So don’t worry about the dozens of people who get robbed, raped, stabbed or shot every month in D.C. No, you should worry about “election deniers,” who don’t believe Joe Biden actually got 81 million votes.

The Criminal Class now effectively controls our government.

Category: Corruption, Donald Trump

The Trey Lance Mistake

Posted on | August 1, 2023 | 1 Comment

Mac Jones (left); Trey Lance (right)

In the 2021 NFL draft, five quarterbacks were first-round picks:

1. Trevor Lawrence (Clemson) — Jacksonville Jaguars
2. Zack Wilson (Brigham Young) — New York Jets
3. Trey Lawrence (North Dakota State) — S.F. 49ers
11. Justin Fields (Ohio State) — Chicago Bears
15. Mac Jones (Alabama) — New England Patriots

Being a lifelong Alabama fan, of course I was outraged by the implied disrespect to my boy Mac, who had just led the Crimson Tide to an undefeated season and a national championship. Mac had the most passing yards of any college quarterback that season, and set an NCAA record for highest percentage of passes completed (77.4). My sense of insult was subsequently vindicated by the results of the first season for these five rookie quarterbacks:

Mac Jones — completed 352 of 521 passing attempts (67.6%) for 3,801 yards, 22 TDs, 13 interceptions, plus 129 yards and zero TDs rushing — 3,930 total yards, 22 total TDs.
Trevor Lawrence — completed 359 of 602 passing attempts (59.6%) for 3,641 yards, 12 TDs, 17 interceptions, plus 334 yards and 2 TDs rushing — 3,975 total yards, 14 total TDs.
Zack Wilson — completed 213 of 383 passing attempts (55.6%) for 2,334 yards, 9 TDs, 11 interceptions, plus 185 yards and 4 TDs rushing — 2,519 total yards, 15 total TDs.
Justin Fields — completed 159 of 270 passing attempts (58.9%) for 1,870 yards, 7 TDs, 10 interceptions, plus 420 yards and 2 TDs rushing — 2,290 total yards, 9 total TDs.
Trey Lance — completed 41 of 71 passing attempts (57.7%) for 603 yards, 5 TDs, 2 interceptions, plus 168 yards and 1 TD rushing — 771 total yards, 15 total TDs.

Mac Jones had more touchdowns, more passing yards and a higher completion percentage than all four of the quarterbacks drafted ahead of him. Only Trevor Lawrence was close to matching Jones’s rookie performance and, it must be admitted, part of Lawrence’s problem in 2021 was that the head coach in Jacksonville was a notorious asshole.

Leaving aside Lawrence, who led the Jaguars to the playoffs last year and appears to have a bright future ahead of him in the NFL, the three other QBs drafted ahead of Mac Jones in 2021 can all be classified as failures. The Chicago Bears still consider Justin Fields their starting QB, but the Bears went 3-14 last season, and their decision to stick with Fields is just more evidence that the team ownership is not serious about winning football games (as if more evidence were needed). The Jets, by bringing in Aaron Rodgers at QB, have more or less admitted that drafting Wilson was a mistake. And then there is the case of Trey Lance.

Prior to the 2021 draft, the 49ers traded their first-round picks in 2021, 2022 and 2023, as well as their third-round pick in 2022, to the Miami Dolphins in order to move up to the third pick in the draft. It was widely speculated at the time that San Francisco did this with the intent of picking Mac Jones who, as I say, had just won the national championship and set an NCAA record for completion percentage as a senior at Alabama. Instead, the 49ers picked Trey Lance. Why?

An ESPN article Monday explained it this way:

Despite early interest in Alabama’s Mac Jones, Lance won out at No. 3 because the Niners believed he had the traits to develop into one of those special players.
On the field, they saw above-average arm strength and elite physical attributes. Off it, they saw a magnetic personality and work ethic.
“Kyle [Shanahan, San Francisco’s head coach] is always looking for ways to expand the offense and come up with all of these great schemes that he does, and Trey was more mobile than Jimmy [Garropolo, the 49ers’ starting QB] allowed,” a team personnel source said. “That opened up possibilities.”
Lance arrived from FCS North Dakota State with the fewest college pass attempts (318) of any first-round quarterback selected in the past 41 years, so the Niners expected a learning curve.

Oh, “elite physical attributes.” Well, that hasn’t translated to a successful NFL career yet, and it probably never will. Why did Trey Lance have so few pass attempts in college? As a redshirt freshman in 2019, Lance led North Dakota State to a Division I (FCS) national championship, but the team’s 2020 season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lance could have kept playing for North Dakota State, but opted instead to enter the NFL draft, so the 49ers were basically picking him on the basis of a single season — and not in the top tier of college competition.

Forgive me for not being impressed by the statistics that Lance accumulated in 2019 against such football opponents as Nicholls, Southern Illinois and UC-Davis. In the FCS championship game, North Dakota State defeated James Madison University — a fine school, located in the scenic Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, but what do you think would happen if JMU were to play the University of Alabama? At Alabama, Mac Jones had to wait his turn at quarterback behind Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa — both now NFL starters — and Mac’s impressive statistics his senior season were accumulated against such opponents as Texas A&M, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Oh, but Mac doesn’t have a “magnetic personality” or whatever, and so the 49ers, having traded away three first-round picks in order to move up in the 2021 draft, instead decided to take Trey Lance.

The idea seemed to be that Lance would serve his rookie year as an understudy to the veteran Garropolo, who had a history of injuries that might give the rookie a chance to start. Sure enough, in Week 4 of the season, Jimmy G injured his calf, and Lance came in for the second half against the Seattle Seahawks, throwing for two touchdowns, but still losing 28-21. In Week 5, Lance started against the Arizona Cardinals, and lost 17-10. Garropolo was healthy enough to start in Week 6, so Lance went back to the bench until Week 17, after Garropolo had injured his thumb in the previous week’s game. As the starter against the Houston Texans, Lance threw for two touchdowns in a 23-7 victory. But Houston was one of the worst teams in the league, finishing the season 3-14, and by the time Lance got his first NFL victory as a starter, Mac Jones had already started 16 games for the Patriots, winning 10 of them.

Despite the paucity of Lance’s success as a rookie, the 49ers named him as their starter going into the 2022 season, but that didn’t last long. He lost the season opener against the Chicago Bears, and in the second game, against the Seattle Seahawks, Lance suffered a season-ending broken ankle in the first quarter. Jimmy G then came in to lead the 49ers to victory, and remained the starting QB until Week 13, when he injured his foot in the first quarter against the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco was forced to call on the services of rookie QB Brock Purdy, whom the team had drafted with the very last pick (262nd overall) of that year’s NFL draft. The unheralded rookie proved to be phenomenal, leading the 49ers on a seven-game winning streak that only ended with a loss in the NFC Championship Game against the Eagles, after Purdy was knocked out of the game with an elbow injury.

Garropolo, as a free agent, signed with the Las Vegas Raiders in the off-season, but Purdy’s elbow is supposedly healed, and what are the chances that Trey Lance, with his “magnetic personality,” will see any significant playing time with the 49ers this year? Not too good. Lance’s “elite physical attributes” are likely diminished after breaking his ankle last season, and so it would appear that San Francisco more or less wasted their first-round pick, when they could have had Mac Jones instead.

Too bad. But I hear Colin Kaepernick is still available.