In The Mailbox 03.14.25

Posted on | March 15, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox 03.14.25

Happy Pi day!
Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Hybrid 3D Printed Guns, also Let’s Dance
EBL: Happy Dead Karl Marx Day, Democrats are a bit upset with Chicken Chuck Schumer, How Christianity Almost Vanished in 303 AD, Frank Zappa teaches Steve Allen to play The Bicycle, and Why Is There No Bridge to Sicily?
Twitchy: Van Jones Describes the Eruption of Democrat Rage Over Schumer’s CR Vote, Megyn Kelly Slams Chris Murphy Over Naked Ambition & New Girlfriend, and Fauxcahontas On Verge Of Tears Over Dismantling Of Education Department
Louder With Crowder: BLM lashes out at rapper Lil Yachty who dared to disagree with the organization
Vox Popoli: Putin’s Ceasefire Terms, Redefining Christianity, No Deal, and The First Color Revolution
According To Hoyt: The Big Tent, The Future of the Past, Coming To Ourselves, and The Beatings Will Continue Till The Culture Improves!
Monster Hunter Nation:
Stoic Observations: How Sam Harris Lost Me
Bugscuffle Gazette: Flexible Impact Weapons Part III

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive Was a Miserable Failure
American Greatness: DNI Chief Tulsi Gabbard Vows to ‘Aggressively’ Pursue Bad Actors in IC Leaking Classified Info to Liberal Media Outlets, also, West VA Governor Signs Riley Gaines Act Into Law Defining Sex-based Terms Like ‘Woman’
American Thinker: On XY in XX’s Sports, Whoopi G. Opens Her Mouth—and Removes All Doubt
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Rich Getting Richer Friday
Baldilocks: Stream of Consciousness, also, Trump Is A Copycat
BattleSwarm: The Stupidest Example Of Musk Derangement Syndrome Yet, also, LinkSwarm For March 14
Behind The Black: Blue Ghost watches the Earth eclipse the Sun from the Moon, Launch window for first launch of German rocket startup Isar rocket revealed, Europe’s Hera asteroid probe sends back data from Mars fly-by, Scientists issue new map of land below Antarctica’s icecap, and Florida’s two senators introduce bill to move NASA HQ to their state
Cafe Hayek: Trump & Co.’s Sheer Ignorance of the Economics of Trade
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: GOP No Longer Being “The Stupid Party” Democrats and Particularly Chuck Schumer Hardest Hit , also, I just asked GROK to Create a Simulated Rush Limbaugh Opening Monologue on the CR fight cumulating in Chuck Schumer folding and voting Closure on the GOP Resolution
Don Surber: Treating Maine Like Biden Treated Musk
First Street Journal: Has the federal Department of Education actually improved educational outcomes?
Gates Of Vienna: Government Corruption, Zakat and the Future of Kafirs, also, Why Islam is Not a Civilization
The Geller Report: “The Smell of Blood Permeates the Syrian Coast”, Columbia University Expels Jew-Hating Hamas Terror Students Who Forcibly Took Over Building, “BASTARDS!”: Chuck Schumer Caves on CR Resolution, Democrat Radical Judge Orders Trump Administration to Reinstate Thousands of Fired Federal Employees Across Six Agencies, and IDF Troops Will Remain in Five Outposts in Lebanon
Hollywood In Toto: Day the Earth Blew Up Captures Classic Looney Tunes Humor, Bill Burr Struck with Elon Musk Derangement Syndrome, President Trump’s Apprentice Rocks Prime Video Charts, Steven Soderbergh Compares Trump to Movie Villain, and Uncanceled – New Era Welcomes Back Fallen Stars
The Lid: 16,000 Fast Food Jobs Lost in California after New $20 Minimum Wage Law Starts
Legal Insurrection: JD Vance Skewers CBS News for ‘Harassing My Mother-in-Law’ Over Their Differing Views on DEI, USPS Working With DOGE to Fix ‘Broken Business Model’, EPA to Close Environmental Justice Offices, Complying With EO Eliminating DEI, Pelosi Futilely Pushed Senators to Defy Schumer: ‘Listen to the Women’, and Columbia Student ‘Involved in Activities Supporting Hamas’ Self-Deports
Nebraska Energy Observer: The Great Migration
Outkick: NASCAR Star Who Abruptly Quit Accuses Sport Of Rigging Races, Morgan Wallen Enjoyed Watching His Tennessee Vols, But Longhorns Mascot Got A Little Too Close For Bodyguard, Tens Of Thousands Of Fans Turn Out To Watch Dodgers-Cubs Warmup, Danica Patrick’s Golf Outing Raises Questions, Hot College Coach Molly Has Our Attention & Paulina Gretzky! and MLB Teams Dealing With Major Pitching Injuries, So Where’s Trevor Bauer?
Power Line: They Really Don’t Get It, The Dems’ Civil War, Feeding Our Fraud – Bock on cross, and Thoughts from the ammo line
Shark Tank: Debbie Mayfield Gets Rick Scott Endorsement For SD-19
Shot In The Dark: Focus, also, The Only Explanation
The Political Hat: Happy Pi Day
This Ain’t Hell: President Trump’s EO potentially adds to the cost of frivolous lawsuits against the administration, President Trump looking to utilize Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to conduct deportations, Navy’s Transgender Policy Announced, Valor Friday, and Missouri man charged with stolen valor
Transterrestrial Musings: Warfighting In Space, The Latest In the Mann Suit, and Trump And The End Of The Long 20th Century
Victory Girls: Swatted – Influencers Get Police and Pizza, Maxine Incites Trouble, also, Trump Voter Regret is the Democrats’s New Wishcasting
Watts Up With That: Climate Gobbledygook: ‘Experts’ Pontificating Mitigation Failure, The Independent is Wrong – Avocado Consumption Isn’t Causing Climate Change, The People vs. Gavin Newsom’s Mandate, Bill Gates-Founded Clean Energy Group Reportedly Slashes Workforce, and US Multinationals Purging Online Climate Action Pages
The Federalist: For A Party Of ‘Joy,’ Democrats Are Awfully Miserable, Trump Slams ‘Communist’ Persecution Of Conservatives While Speaking At DOJ, America Becoming Less Christian Is A Problem For Everyone, Hegseth Guts Pentagon Office That Gifted Lucrative Contracts To Famed Russia Collusion Hoaxer, and 7 Trump Orders Congress Should Codify To Keep Wokeness Out Of The Military
Mark Steyn: Moving On to the Next Phase, Death By DEI, COURT FOOL, n. The plaintiff, How About You? and Live Around the Planet – Donald, Where’s Your Truce, Sir?

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Chuck Chickens Out: No Schumer Shutdown, CR Will (Barely) Pass Senate

Posted on | March 14, 2025 | Comments Off on Chuck Chickens Out: No Schumer Shutdown, CR Will (Barely) Pass Senate

Because you’ve probably already seen the news elsewhere, permit me to begin by saying that Chuck Schumer may be the leading cause of anti-Semitism in America. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a righteous Gentile, the exact opposite of a Jew-hater, a philo-Semite who is more fanatically Zionist than Bibi Netanyahu. But when I contemplate the profound dishonesty of Chuck Schumer . . . Well, it occurs to me that anti-Semitic prejudice didn’t just magically materialize out of the ether; Schumer is the embodiment of every hateful stereotype, and actually looks like a cartoon in Der Stürmer. Some pious rabbi needs to talk to senior officials of the Anti-Defamation League about their Chuck Schumer problem. The man is becoming a shanda fur die goyim.

With that preamble, now time for the news:

On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declared that he will not vote against moving forward with a Republican-backed stopgap bill to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
The announcement, in which Schumer criticized President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort led by Elon Musk, marked an abrupt turnaround. Just one day ago, the top Senate Democrat insisted the Republican majority did not have enough votes for the House-passed continuing resolution to clear a key procedural hurdle.
“While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse. … I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor.
He added later: “I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country, to minimize the harms to the American people. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.” . . .
The Democrat leader’s statement came after a Senate Democrat meeting in which reporters said they could hear Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) shouting about a shutdown.

I just heard Gillibrand say “This will not be a normal shutdown”

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) March 13, 2025

.@SenSchumer (D-NY): “While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse … Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.” pic.twitter.com/1IkuJqOObr

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 13, 2025

Speaking of shouting about a shutdown, I had a rather heated phone call last week with a young friend, who unwisely spends too much of his time in the online MAGA echo chamber, and was therefore pro-shutdown.

Look, it’s not as if I’m a squishy RINO sellout. I just happen to be about 25 years older than my young friend, so I have some institutional memory on this topic. Well do I remember the fierce budget battles between Gingrich-led congressional Republicans and Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s, when “government shutdown” first became a headline, and Republicans took a severe public-relations beating, only to fold their cards because Bob Dole couldn’t keep Senate Republicans in line.

This has always been the big problem facing the conservative movement. Every time we get a GOP House majority, we are confronted by the problem of the Senate filibuster. Unless Republicans can get to 60 votes in the Senate, they must negotiate with the Democrats to be able to pass anything, and so the Freedom Caucus types eventually have to accept a deal that is antithetical to their principles. Personally, I agree with Grover Norquist’s most famous quote: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” But that doesn’t change the reality of how legislation gets passed, nor does it change the political calculus of how to maintain a Republican congressional majority. Having finally gotten Trump elected to a second term, the clock is now ticking down to the 2026 midterms, and it will be some kind of miracle if we can stop Democrats from taking over Congress again. The last thing we need, at a time when the GOP is running the whole show in D.C., is to have a government shutdown, which will be perceived (by the moderate “swing” voters, at least) as evidence that Republicans aren’t competent enough to do basic “keep the trains running on time” governance.

So I found myself raising my voice in last week’s phone conversation with my young friend, who can’t see it from this kind of long-term big-picture perspective. Experience proves that we cannot suddenly change everything in Washington; conservatives must build an effective governing majority, and then proceed step-by-step through the legislative process. This kind of patient labor strikes the young hotspurs as timid, lacking the kind of a revolutionary excitement they crave. But we must remind the callow youth that they stand on the shoulders of giants, being heirs to a movement that began long before they were born. It was during the historical apogee of liberal prestige — when FDR’s New Deal commanded the allegiance of an overwhelming majority — that a tiny handful of dissenters organized what became the conservative movement in America. Hayek, Kirk, Weaver, Chambers, Regnery, Buckley — by the early 1950s, the torch had been lit, and was passed along from Taft to Goldwater to Reagan. Alas, we have lost much that ought to have been conserved, and yet despite such defeats, nevertheless the fight continues.

Pardon that digression, but there are too many people on “our” side who are encouraging an irresponsible attitude toward the current situation, and I just want everybody to calm down about it. Let the Democrats stir outrage among the kook fringe on their side, appealing to the fathomless ignorance of their voters. Back to the news:

The Senate needs three-fifths majority — or 60 votes — to invoke cloture and overcome a filibuster on the GOP’s six-month continuing resolution. Because Republicans have a 53-47 majority, they cannot clear that threshold without some kind of bipartisan agreement. The spending legislation will need only a simple majority to prevail in a final vote. . . .
It was not immediately clear how many Democrats or independents will join Schumer, though his opposition to a shutdown may signal better odds for the Republican continuing resolution. Still, some on the Left have expressed stern disapproval of the plan.
Many Democrats had previously released statements claiming they would resist the GOP measure. Prior to Schumer, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the sole Democrat to openly state that he would not support blocking the Republican stopgap bill. . . .
One Republican — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — signaled that he will vote against the bill. However, that does not necessarily mean he would oppose breaking the filibuster. . . .
The GOP-led House passed a 99-page continuing resolution, which provides funds to various federal agencies and programs through September 30, via a 217-213 vote on Tuesday. All but one Republican and a single Democrat — Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) — supported the measure. The rest of the Democrats and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) opposed the bill.

There was a parade of Democratic senators on Twitter yesterday declaring that they would vote against the CR, but the final vote — i.e., yea or nay on the passage of the bill — isn’t the issue. It’s the cloture vote that is the hurdle. If all 53 Republicans vote for cloture, and Chuck Schumer can deliver six Democrat “yea” votes, then when you add J.D. Vance’s tiebreaking vote, that’s the 60 votes needed to end the filibuster. Once that’s done, getting 51 votes for passage won’t be difficult.

If we can trust Schumer when he says he is now against the shutdown, that means he’ll find a half-dozen Democrats to “walk the plank” for the sake of avoiding a shutdown (for which Schumer apparently sees that Democrats would be blamed). That buys him another six months to try to work up some kind of new wicked scheme, and I hope the ADL will intervene to stop him, because otherwise this living Der Stürmer caricature might keep stirring up Jew-hatred past the point of no return.

Now, about those Puerto Rican stereotypes . . .

AOC’s brain completely short circuits when she’s asked about Chuck Schumer saying a shutdown would’ve been worse than accepting the CR.

She then pushes the lie that Trump’s tax cut only benefits billionaires.

The Hill debunked that hoax. Middle-income filers benefit the most. pic.twitter.com/dzVKqouyuW

— Paul A. Szypula ?? (@Bubblebathgirl) March 14, 2025

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Category: Budget, Chuck Schumer, Congress, Senate

In The Mailbox: 03.13.25 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | March 14, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.13.25 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Somewhere on the SecDef’s list of priorities, I hope.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: France to Boost Military Spending
EBL: MAGA – Ukraine, now Russia, K-19 : The Widowmaker, Gustav Holst – Uranus, and Snow White Panic Time
Twitchy: WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Explodes Over Activist Judges, Has-Been Journolist Juddlegum Cites “Experts” To Challenge DOGE Findings, and NC Town Hall “Republican” Mad At Trump Over His Treatment Of Canadians
Louder With Crowder: Tom Homan pulls epic move walking past unhinged protestors as he brings Trump’s deportations to New York State, Gwen Stefani no doubt has her left-wing fans OUTRAGED, Marco Rubio throws down, Democrat tranny rep claims Republicans are the “weird and bizarre” ones, and House Dems busted AGAIN not understanding how the internet works with their latest propaganda push
Vox Popoli: Farage’s Day is Done, An Interview with The Legend, Free Trade and Strategic Crisis, Europe is the Enemy, and Second Term Same as the First?
L’Ombre de L’Olivier: What Is The Wealth Of A Nation?
Upstream Reviews: Secret Agents of the Galaxy, also, Black Hat Blues
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Flexible Impact Weapons Part II

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: How to Expel Indians, also, Abortion Day
American Conservative: The Ugly Reality on the Ground in Syria, Putin Says He Supports Ceasefire in Ukraine, with Caveats, and, Romania’s Electoral Coup Is a Blow to Europe
American Greatness: Agitator Who Stole Trump Flag From Counter-Protester at Khalil Protest in NYC Suspected to Be Columbia Professor, Federal Judge in San Francisco Orders Trump Administration to Rehire Thousands of Fired Government Workers, Oregon Mental Health Advisory Board Member Identifies as a Turtle, and Senate Democrats Prepared to Play Hardball on Government Shutdown
American Thinker: A ‘Putin’s Puppet’ President? Obama’s Truly Shocking Record, Democrats Stand for Ukraine but Sit for America, and Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ Policies Are The Only Path to True Economic Strength
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday, Animals’ Daily Queen of the Dead News, Animal’s Hump Day News, and Animal’s Red Thursday News
Baldilocks: Stuff From 2024
BattleSwarm: Reminder: Mao Was A Complete Bastard, 2020 Liberal Wakes Up From Coma In 2025, Meet The New Boss, Eh/Same As The Old Boss, Eh, Dade Phelan Wants To Ban Memes, and TSMC Bids To Take Over Intel Fabs
Behind The Black: SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites but scrubs manned Dragon launch, NASA releases Blue Ghost movie landing while Firefly prepares lander to observe solar eclipse of the Moon by Earth, ULA pinpoints reason a nozzle fell off a Vulcan rocket side booster during last launch, Indian engineers successfully undock its two Spadex robot satellites, and Is the nomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA’s administrator facing political headwinds?
Cafe Hayek: A Reality of Trade That’s Lost on Trump & Co., Trump Reverses the Meaning of the Term “Reciprocity”, Why Michael Lind’s Argument is Bad, Don’t Get Played by Protectionists, and Trump Is As Clueless About Financial Markets As He Is About Trade
CDR Salamander: If You’re Talking JSIDS, Grab CAPE While You’re At It
Chicago Boyz: Worth Pondering, Incentives Matter, Supply, Demand, and Policy, Retrotech – Technology in 1925, and Team Player
Da Tech Guy: Five Weekend Thoughts Under the Fedora, also, I Guess UMaine Didn’t Need that 30 Million Anyways
Don Surber: Union wants a government shutdown
First Street Journal: Can The Washington Post be saved?
Gates Of Vienna: Gang-Raping a Schoolmarm, Sweden Dances the Foxtrot, The AfD Does Battle With the German Uniparty, ‘Today is a Good Day to Kill a Jew’, and Jihad in Spain and Italy
The Geller Report: Syria Terror Leader Jolani’s Jihadis Put on Show for Corrupt Arab Media, “I am a witness to a massacre against humanity.”, Hamas Terrorist Mob Storms Trump Tower, New York Jihadi Mayoral Candidate Assaults Police, Has Screaming Hissy Fit at Tom Homan, and “It’s Like a Horror Movie”
Hollywood In Toto: Justine Bateman Slams DEI Oscar Rules as ‘Insult to Filmmaking’, ‘Netflix and Kill’ – Tony Hinchcliffe’s Victory Lap Continues, Punk Rocker Jello Biafra’s New Tune? Defeat MAGA Nazis, Mickey 17 Can’t Stop Lecturing Us, and Novocaine Will Leave Your Senses Numb
The Lid: Energy Sec Declares The DEATH Of The Green New Scam Is Upon Us!
Legal Insurrection: The Crazy World of Anti-Israel ‘Influencers’, Mahmoud Khalil “will get some due process, but nobody should feel sorry for him”, Schumer Saying He’ll Vote Yes on CR to Keep Government Open, National Institutes of Health Awards $495K to Planned Parenthood Exec to Study ‘Oppression’ and Abortion, and Pete Buttigieg for President in 2028?
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – Just for You, Monday Monday, And the winner is, I try to be good, and Is Alberta Looking fpr a Do-over?
Outkick: Payton McNabb, Badly Hurt In High School By Tranny, Nearly Has College Career Ruined By Another One, Congressman Calls Out MLB, Rob Manfred Over Trevor Bauer Absence, Kentucky Survives Late Oklahoma Run, Tampa Bay Rays New Stadium Officially Dead, Raising Relocation Concerns, and John Feinstein, Famous Sportswriter And Author, Passes Away At Age 69
Power Line: Michael Mann Sanctioned for False Testimony, Bad Faith, With autopen in hand, Personnel Changes, and Free Mahmoud? [Updated]
Shark Tank: Leaders In Tallahassee Shouldn’t Let Bad Actors Pass The Buck
Shot In The Dark: Minnesota’s Ongoing National Humiliation Continues, Nothingburger, It’s An Unassailable Fact Of Human Nature, No, Seriously, Don’t Ever Change, and Berg’s Seventh Law In Action. Always.
The Political Hat: Sovereigntism, The Common Good And The Law, and Price Fixing, Nevada Style
This Ain’t Hell: The case of literal stolen valor, SECDEF Initiates Military Standards Review, Channel collision with US Jet fuel tanker, Transgender veteran complains Trump’s removing transgendered troops is ‘reckless and dangerous’, and NORK Missiles Fly
Transterrestrial Musings: Yesterday’s Ruling In The Mannsuit, Deworming DC, Linux Update Problem, The Myth Of DST, and The Next Pope
Victory Girls: Give Us Our Slush Fund! Climate United Sues EPA After Money Is Frozen, Tim Walz Critiques His Own Campaign, and Randi Weingarten Deeply Unhappy Over Ed. Department Elimination
Watts Up With That: Towns and States Don’t Want Green Energy, South Dakota Stops Massive Green Energy Land Grab in Its Tracks, NASA Jettisons ‘Climate Advisor,’ DEI Branch, and Other Drags on Space Program, From Paris to Permian, Trump Restoring Rational Energy Policy, and London Tube Union Says E-Bikes are Too Dangerous to Carry
The Federalist: Sen. Schmitt Warns Federal Censorship Complex Is ‘Existential Threat To The American Way Of Life’, PA Board Of Ed Decision Is Latest Move In National Effort To Diminish Christian Education, Here’s Your Guide To The Lawsuits Challenging Trump’s Funding Freezes And Terminations, Southwest Can’t Gentle-Parent Loyal Customers Like Me Into Accepting Its Self-Destruction, and House Republicans Move To Block Chinese Nationals From Obtaining U.S. Student Visas
Mark Steyn: All the President’s Men – The Biggest Story of Them All, Whirlwind of Death and Gurglin’ Cracklin’ Cauldrons, Sir Keir Kisses Up to Cousins, Welcome to Post-Democracy, and The New Imperial Class

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In The Mailbox: 03.13.25 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | March 13, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.13.25 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Better late than never

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: Top 20 Violent Anti-Musk Protests
EBL: The Way, Donna Gail Manson and Ted Bundy, The Shift, and Rule Britannia!
Twitchy: Jasmine Crockett Explains What Trump & DOGE Can’t Do If There’s A Federal Shutdown, Hamas Simp Squad Stages Pathetic Protest In NYC, and John Fetterman Tells Democrats To Knock Off The Shutdown Charade, Leftist Loon Melts Down Like Snowflake In Microwave
Louder With Crowder: Rosie O’Donnell flees America for Europe where she claims citizens have “rights” and offers advice to other anti-Trumpers, MSNBC Democrat lashes out at Trump supporters, makes insulting claims why they’d never buy a Tesla, Disney forced to scale back Hollywood premiere over “Snow White” due to controversy surrounding… Gal Gadot and Here’s How Trump Keeps Winning
Vox Popoli: Appreciate Immigrants, They’re Not Stopping, It’s Not Paranoia, Canada Folds, and Who Advises These Morons?
Cedar Sanderson: Where Have The Fairies Gone?
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Flexible Impact Weapons, Part 1
Stoic Observations: Ugly Duckling
Wright’s Writing Corner: Starquest Book Two!
Gab: The Parallel Polis
Postcards From Barsoom: HBD&D

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Does Israel Have The Key To Modernity’s Fatal Flaw?
Don Surber: Pax Trump
Glenn Reynolds: The Rout Continues, But Be Ready For The Counterattacks
STUMP: Iowa Actuaries Education Day

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Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner: So I Guess I’m a San Francisco 49ers Fan Now

Posted on | March 13, 2025 | Comments Off on Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner: So I Guess I’m a San Francisco 49ers Fan Now

Recall that I wasn’t much of a pro football fan until 2021, when Alabama quarterback Mac Jones got drafted in the first round by the New England Patriots. Four years later, he’s heading to the Golden Gate:

Free agent quarterback Mac Jones, who wanted an opportunity to work with coach Kyle Shanahan, has agreed to terms with the San Francisco 49ers on a two-year deal worth $7 million with $5 million guaranteed, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Wednesday.
Jones, 26, appeared in 10 games last season for the Jacksonville Jaguars, including seven starts in place of injured Trevor Lawrence. He completed 65.3% of his passes for 1,672 yards and eight touchdowns, along with eight interceptions. The Jaguars went 2-5 in his starts, averaging just 15 points per game.
Jacksonville sent a 2024 sixth-round pick to the New England Patriots last March for Jones, who grew up in Jacksonville. He beat out C.J. Beathard in training camp to be Lawrence’s backup.
New England selected Jones, a former star at Alabama, with the 15th pick in the 2021 NFL draft — the same one that saw the Jaguars take Lawrence with the first pick. Jones made the Pro Bowl as an alternate as a rookie after throwing for 3,801 yards and 22 touchdowns and leading the Patriots to a 10-7 record and a playoff berth.
But Jones never duplicated that success. New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left to coach the Las Vegas Raiders, and coach Bill Belichick tabbed longtime defensive coach Matt Patricia to be the offensive playcaller and longtime special teams coach Joe Judge to be the quarterbacks coach in 2022. Jones struggled to develop and was just 6-8 in 14 starts, finishing 288-of-442 passing for 2,997 yards with 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
The following season, Belichick brought back Bill O’Brien to run the offense, but Jones struggled again (224-of-345 for 2,120 yards, 10 TDs, 12 INTs) and was replaced by Bailey Zappe after 11 games.

This is an adequate summary of Mac’s pro career to date, but it’s worth remembering that he was the best quarterback Nick Saban ever coached at Alabama, and it’s not even close. His senior year, Jones set an NCAA record for highest completion percentage, completing 311 of 402 passes (77.4%) for 4,500 yard, throwing for 41 touchdowns with just four interceptions, as the Crimson Tide went undefeated and won the National Championship. He had a stellar rookie year, and if things have gone south from there, the question is how much of that is Mac’s fault. The Patriots dumped him and drafted Drake Maye, but then went 4-13 in their first post-Jones season, which was the same record the Jaguars had last year — and Mac was the starting quarterback in two of Jacksonville’s wins, which makes him even with Trevor Lawrence. In terms of completion percentage, Jones was at 65.3% compared to 60.6% for Lawrence, so obviously Mac still has potential at quarterback.

49ers signing QB Mac Jones to 2-year, $7M deal. (via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/PpIuenTbmh

— NFL (@NFL) March 13, 2025

The San Francisco sports media sees the Niners’ acquisition of Jones on a cheap two-year deal as a signal to their young starting QB Brock Purdy that he shouldn’t consider holding out in his current negotiations for a contract extension. Purdy “was selected by the 49ers with the final pick in the 2022 NFL draft, becoming that year’s Mr. Irrelevant,” as Wikipedia says, and Purdy was outstanding in 2022 and 2023, but San Francisco went 6-11 last year. Talk of Purdy getting a fat contract — the number $40 million has been thrown around a lot — looks kind of silly now, with a former first-round pick like Mac Jones signing for a paltry $7 million to be Purdy’s backup QB. It is by no means certain that Purdy will even keep the starting job; when you compare the two quarterbacks statistically, they’re quite similar. I’m not the only one who sees it this way:

In fact, how do we really know that Purdy is better than Jones? He’s more mobile than Jones, but he doesn’t have a better arm than him. All we know for sure is that Purdy has played on better teams than Jones.
If Purdy holds out and decides not to show up to OTAs without a contract extension, the 49ers would have an opportunity to see what Jones looks like running the first-string offense.

So there you go — we’re still 175 days away from the start of the NFL season, and anything could happen before then, but for now, I’m a San Francisco 49ers fan. We’ll wait and see. Roll Tide!