aggie08

That's honestly a better package for KAT than I thought possible with his full 4 years left on the books.

What's a podcast these days without some light "just asking questions" about the deep state based on something I think I saw on the internet?

Apparently the demographic data? At this point, I think we need to blame ourselves that the only real money in "unscripted" programming is two or more people yelling at/over each other.

Not at all. I obviously hold the minority opinion of this not really being a big deal, and I haven't exactly expressed that opinion well or eloquently.

Offseason workout videos and weightlifting bodies. We're almost back, baby!

Except I haven't really shit on him other than to acknowledge the obvious that he's too old/expensive (and without the right financial backing or father) at his current pace to find a comfortable seat, and he was incredibly fortunate to have been given nearly two years in what's supposed to be a developmental seat. It doesn't really matter that he's still better than a handful of guys on the grid. If he was truly still fast enough, we wouldn't all be acknowledging that this is almost certainly it. I get it: he's about the closest thing to a successful modern day American driver that we've got, and he has ties to Austin. But if RBR unceremoniously dumped Checo tomorrow (and, frankly, they should), you'd have absolutely zero problem with it. Both are pretty similar: incredibly popular/likable, huge fan bases, well accomplished (8 wins, 32 podiums for Daniel; 6 wins, 39 podiums for Checo), but past their racing prime. It's a tough profession, and only the best get to decide how they go out. Red Bull likely extended his career as a Formula 1 driver almost 3 full years. But yes, I'll acknowledge that they should have been more timely and forthcoming with their announcement to the public because it would have been an incredibly easy thing to do.

Student section may surprise you, hopefully.

This is one of those times when the general public being so incredibly dumb is a good thing. 50% of those people walked out of that room thinking he actually speaks for JD Vance.

Is it not too late to run him as President?

His opinion comes shortly after Caitlan liked a post from a famous pop singer asking people to vote. What a shocking, completely unexpected 180.

Fair enough. Though, I think you'd agree that "modest" is the most important word there. Send offs, I assume, are almost always at the very the of the year. In Vettel's case, the driver's and constructor's championships were already well decided by Abu Dhabi. A team opting to drop a decently accomplished driver with a handful of races left in a highly competitive season isn't quite the same cause for celebration and reminiscing. Watching the Singapore Grand Prix, I'm fairly certain that everyone who matters already knew. Which, I guess only helps make the point that they should have officially told the fans too. My general meandering point was that it feels disingenuous to chastise Red Bull for not handling the end of his career perfectly when they--and only they--were willing to keep him on the paddock and highly paid for two more years for the slight chance they could recapture something together. But I guess they could have tried harder to do both.

Am I wrong? If not for Red Bull, he wouldn't have gotten another seat. We would have been having this conversation two years ago about how much it sucks that McLaren ended his career as unceremoniously as they did. I'm not saying he's Logan Sargent. He's probably still better than a few of the drivers out there. But he's in an uncomfortable spot. Too old to get the nod over younger drivers, even ones with questionable potential. Not accomplished enough to "pick" his last race like Vettel.

Touche.

I haven't been watching F1 nearly as long as you, but the only time I recall seeing something like this happen with any driver for any reason is when Grosjean returned to the paddock.

Then you guys would have complained that they didn't let him finish in Austin. It was pretty damn clear that they had already told Daniel before Singapore, and the announcers and everyone watching treated his fastest lap as his "send-off". Everyone in the paddock knew too. What would have changed had they "officially" announced it on Thursday? How much Pomp and Circumstance would dropping a midfield driver mid-season actually warrant? They obviously didn't handle it perfectly, but adding this to the list of things to hate Red Bull--the only team who would employ him--over seems silly to me.

Can someone explain to me what a "good" send-off would be for a driver who only had the seat in the first place because of his relationships with Red Bull? They've already put off getting Lawson in the drive for way too long. Hate Red Bull all you want...no one else would have even given him a seat the past two years.

Man, fuck ESPN. They put Lowe's content behind their ESPN+ paywall, then fire the guy likely in no small part because his old regulars--including me--no longer generate enough clicks because fuck the entire concept of ESPN+ from a company that's been taking 40% of everyone's cable bills for 4 decades.

I thought that was you, GRU!

It's like you don't even want us to have fun.

Sue those other networks for their lies, MTG. No one is stopping you or anyone else. Yet, somehow, only Fox and Alex Jones keep being found guilty of defamation.

I still do not believe the Florida is in play.

Jesus, how many couches were killed to make those suit jackets?

That seems slightly unfair.