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Clemson offer Eagan Boyer to Penn State this morning.

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dont we have a sea hunt fella on here. Looking to pick his brain tia

Thank you kindly!

Check out these midweek DEALS on officially-licensed Clemson apparel/gear at The Tiger Fan Shop!

Click HERE to see everything in stock!

To view just all marked-down items, click HERE.

We will be staying off of State Highway 9 just three minutes from the East entrance of Zion National Park. Thank you!!

Who does everyone have in the finals and what team could pull a upset in the first round .

Bruins over Oilers in finals .

Lighting over Leafs first round .

Burger King’s secret weapon against McDonald’s is the Whopper​

By: Danielle Wiener-Bronner - CNN.com

When Burger King launched a new marketing campaign late last year with a little jingle to support the Whopper, Tom Curtis was initially skeptical.

“You just can’t say ‘Whopper’ four times,” Curtis, Burger’s King’s president in the US and Canada, told CNN, recounting a conversation with the brand’s creative and marketing teams. “There’s got to be something more to it than that.”

But the jingle, which does indeed say “Whopper” several times, is something of a hit. The song has over 3.5 million plays on Spotify. On TikTok, one creator remixed the tune with a Daft Punk song, earning encouraging comments from the brand (the creator later reviewed the Whopper, concluding “it’s mid,” or unimpressive.) Others riffed on the remix — someone even made a hamster dance to it — giving it new life.


Burger King/Youtube

The ad campaign proved to be an early win for Burger King in its big bet to compete against McDonald’s — which is also promoting its signature burgers — and turn around its business by going all in on the Whopper.

In September, Burger King announced a $400 million plan to improve the chain, which was lagging behind competitors after making operational missteps during the pandemic, like adding complicated new food items at a time when most chains were slimming menus down. The effort includes putting the Whopper front and center, and using the burger to drive traffic to restaurants.

The plan is still in early stages: Burger King has invested $40 million as of the end of last year. But the response to the ad campaign is encouraging. Sales of the Whopper are up “significantly,” Curtis said, noting interest in the song seems to have picked up in recent months. And the Whopper was already contributing to sales in the fourth quarter. At US Burger King locations open at least 13 months, sales jumped 5% in the quarter, thanks in part to the burger.

That means the monarch character who was featured in the chain’s commercials for years, has been dethroned, at least for now. “He’s on sabbatical,” said Curtis. “I don’t know what his place might be in the future.”

The fast food war heats up​

For Burger King, the Whopper is more than just a burger. It’s a key weapon in the fast food wars.

“McDonald’s [is] pretty good at the burger business,” acknowledged J. Patrick Doyle, executive chairman of Burger King parent company Restaurant Brands International (QSR), during a February conversation with analysts. “Their units look terrific today. I think their loyalty program has been working very well for them. There is a lot that has gone right over there,” he said.

But “they do not sell the Whopper. That’s the point of leverage,” Doyle noted. “That is ultimately how we compete effectively with them.” He added that “the Whopper may actually be a better brand than Burger King.”

Curtis said the Whopper is special because it’s “flame-grilled,” adding “it’s like a backyard barbecued burger” prepared at a large scale.

But even if the Whopper isn’t all that different from other fast food burgers, it’s the one Burger King has got. The burger is “pretty much their best-selling, what they’re known for, product line,” said Andrew Charles, a restaurant analyst at Cowen, who is bullish on the turnaround

Doyle, who became executive chairman in November of last year, is well respected by industry watchers after executing a triumphant turnaround at Domino’s (DPZ)when he was CEO of the pizza brand.

“Never underestimate Patrick Doyle,” said Sara Senatore, a research analyst at Bank of America Securities, which provides financial services to RBI. “He’s kind of a living legend.”

Still, McDonald’s (MCD) is a powerhouse with deep pockets and far more locations than Burger King, and it’s also trying to drive sales to its core products.

McDonald’s recently announced a number of tweaks to its burgers, including the Big Mac. The brand promised softer buns and meltier cheese, among other changes, for what they say will be a tastier burger. Soon after, the chain said that it would offer Big Mac sauce in a dip cup for a limited time, again drawing attention to the signature burger.


Justin Sullivan - Getty Images

For Burger King, “the challenge is you’re competing against McDonald’s, and McDonald’s is really good,” said Senatore. And McDonald’s “is not exactly resting on its laurels,” she said. “They’re not going to make it easy for Burger King.”

Beyond Burgers​

It’s one thing to get people in the door with catchy songs. But in order for Burger King to parlay those visits into a meaningful sales improvement, people have to want to come back.

“Repeat and the frequency are metrics that we’re watching carefully. And wanting to see those grow over the course of time,” Curtis said.

In addition to improving the Whopper, Burger King is also investing in remodeling stores, though Curtis noted that those projects “haven’t really started coming online at all yet.”

In order to do all this, Burger King needs the support of franchise operators, who will have to shoulder much of the costs of remodeling themselves. Some franchisees aren’t in a position to do so -— in recent months, a handful of Burger King franchise operators have declared bankruptcy. Curtis isn’t too concerned about these, describing them as a “very small part of our base.”

Franchisee buy-in is key to a franchisor’s success, especially when the operators need to invest into locations.

“The most important thing for any system is having the franchisees on the same page, and willing to invest,” said Bank of America’s Senatore. “And that’s particularly important now for Burger King, because much of… the investment in the system that it’s anticipating will be coming from franchisees.”

Charles from Cowen expects more menu improvements to come. “Longer term, I think you’re gonna see things such as upgraded french fries [and] upgraded breakfast offerings,” Charles said.

Curtis is cautiously optimistic for the moment. “We’re extremely enthusiastic and excited about the turn in the business,” he said. “But there’s no sense of complacency … we’re just gonna have to keep working at this.”

States moving to lift barriers between college athletes, NIL
By: Ralph Russo - AP

Lawmakers in Arkansas, Texas and elsewhere are working to remove barriers between college athletes trying to cash in on their fame and the schools for which they play as administrators discover the benefits of moving athlete compensation activities in-house.

The moves could pave the way for schools and their fundraising arms to be directly involved in securing and paying for their athletes’ name, image and likeness endorsement deals while also shielding athletic departments from NCAA enforcement.

“The universities want to be more involved in the NIL process and some of the current NCAA rules don’t allow them to do that,” said Mit Winter, a sports business attorney based in Kansas City. “And so the state laws are just affirmatively saying that schools in these states are allowed to do certain things, despite what the NCAA rules may say.”

Arkansas was out front in this latest leg of the NIL arms race that started in 2021 when the NCAA lifted its ban on athletes being paid for endorsements, sponsorships and appearances. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an amended bill into law April 14. A similar bill in Oklahoma is awaiting Gov. Kevin Stitt’s signature and a Texas bill is likely to pass the state House this week.

Lawmakers in Colorado introduced a bill that says institutions can “identify, create, solicit, facilitate and otherwise enable” NIL opportunities for their athletes.

“And then they’re also affirmatively stating that certain entities can enter into NIL deals with athletes,” Winter said. “A lot of them say 501(c)(3) entities in the state, but what they’re really referring to is athletic fundraising foundations that are affiliated with universities.”

The 12th Man Foundation is a private organization that raises money to fund scholarships, programs and facilities for Texas A&M athletics. The 12th Man+ Fund is a newly created division within the foundation that operates like a collective, which have become pervasive as the primary source of NIL compensation for college athletes.

The NCAA sent out a memo to its Division I member schools soon after 12th Man+ was launched that said “entities acting on behalf of the institution” cannot pay athletes for NIL. Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork, in a recent interview, said the school is confident it is compliant.

NCAA rules permit schools and their employees — such as coaches — to promote collectives and encourage donations. If passed, the Texas bill could make NCAA scrutiny moot and protect schools in the state from some of the association’s NIL guidelines.

Having an athletic foundation involved in NIL activities in many ways makes sense. Collectives are essentially independent fund-raising operations, too. So why not tap an established organization that already has an open line to donors, relationships with athletes and alignment with athletic department goals?

“If the collectives can’t work with the schools, almost accidentally they’re competing with one another for the sponsorship dollars and brand relationships, which I don’t think is to anyone’s benefit,” said Dan Lust, a sports law attorney and professor at New York Law School.

At Arkansas, officials looked to remedy that situation last August.

“When (NIL) first started, it was like, wow, why would you have something that’s so important and not have the folks that everybody trusts in these positions involved? So it didn’t make sense,” said Marvin Caston, a former Arkansas football player and compliance officer.

He now heads OneArkansas NIL, a limilted liability company owned by the Razorback Foundation.

“We are a separate and distinct legal entity from the Razorback Foundation,” said Caston, who left the Razorback Foundation after 13 years to lead the collective. “We do not compensate our student-athletes with any money raised by the Razorback Foundation for Razorback athletics.”

Bjork said the next step for Texas A&M is creating at least one and maybe two new positions in his department that will be solely devoted to working with athletes on NIL opportunities.

That’s another trend.

Minnesota announced in March that former Gophers football player Jeremiah Carter would be shifting from compliance director to a new role as senior associate athletic director for NIL policy and risk management. Duke recently named Rachel Baker, a former Nike executive, its first basketball general manager, overseeing NIL opportunities for athletes.

College sports leaders have been pushing for a federal law to create a uniform standard for NIL that the NCAA cannot. That effort picked up steam in 2019, when California served notice that statehouses were the next battleground over amateur athletics and compensation with its first-in-the-nation NIL law.

California is at it again, with a measure seeking to require college revenue-sharing with athletes. Tim Buckley, the NCAA’s senior vice president for external affairs, called that “the wrong solution at the wrong time for college athletics.”

“Another state law at this time will exacerbate the growing problem of different states imposing different rules,′ he said.

In a statement to AP, the NCAA also said it has no plans to change its enforcement and investigatory actions because of the latest wave of state NIL laws.

“Independent reviews have found many NIL deals can be exploitive of student-athletes, and with dozens of states now passing different laws governing NIL, the NCAA believes working with Congress is the best way to protect student-athletes’ rights and to set nationwide, uniform rules to modernize college sports,” it said.

Indeed, new NCAA President Charlie Baker has framed the need for a federal NIL law as one of consumer protection for college athletes. But with no significant movement toward a federal law, state lawmakers continue to set the course.

“It’s a race to whatever’s next. That’s what it’s become,” Bjork said. “And so, until there’s national standards, then I think each university is looking at it that way. To say: How do we put our programs and especially the athletes in the best position?”

Kind of funny

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Headed to ATL this week for work. Staying at Omni and need restaurant recommendations within walking distance please.

Slowing demand. Folks had better wake up . I worked for MMM 37 years before retiring in 2013. The plant I worked at never had a layoff until Dec. & Jan . 2023 . Even during a slow down in 2006 and 2008 we never laid off at the plant I worked at .

Should the democrats debate at the DNC?




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This comment really stuck out to me-

“I feel comfortable out there,” he told me. “I’m not hearing the coaches yell at me each and every play if I miss a throw or miss a read. They just let us go out there and play.”

DJU Interview

Didn't realize Clemson staff were involved in the Russia nonsense.......

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Winning this debate in the court of public opinion and yes I will keep posting about it.


Most voters – 62% – also think that the government is likely "ignoring evidence of widespread election fraud," the poll also found.

By Madeleine Hubbard
Updated: April 23, 2023 - 12:05pm
Most U.S. voters – 60% – think that it is likely that "cheating" affected the 2022 midterm elections, according to a new poll.
Just 35% of likely U.S. voters said they do not think it's likely cheating affected some races in the most recent midterms, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Thursday.
Of the 60% of respondents who said it is likely cheating affected the outcomes of some of the races, 37% said it is "Very Likely."
When broken down by party, 48% of Democrats think cheating likely impacted some outcomes in 2022 compared to 78% of Republicans.
Most voters – 62% – also think that the government is likely "ignoring evidence of widespread election fraud," the poll also found.
The poll was conducted April 17-19 with 915 likely U.S. voters and has a 3% margin of error.
Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

Yeah. I said it. They have more talent than we do.

Got to hand it to Jim Harbaugh, who is putting together one of the better Michigan recruiting classes in recent memory.

followed up with another article by a different writer

Blinken should have already resigned. Where are the repubs in the senate? This is a smoking gun Damn it!


Opinion by Jonathan Turley, Opinion Contributor • Saturday

Secretary of State Antony Blinken would really, really prefer to talk about grain in Ukraine this week. But many people are less interested in what Blinken is doing as secretary of state than in what he did to become secretary of state.

Antony Blinken and the ‘made men’ of the Biden administration© Provided by The Hill
This week, Blinken was implicated in a political coverup that could well have made the difference in the 2020 election. According to the sworn testimony of former acting CIA Director Michael Morrell, Blinken – then a high-ranking Biden campaign official – was “the impetus” of the false claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story was really Russian disinformation. Morrell then organized dozens of ex-national security officials to sign the letter claiming that the Hunter laptop story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Morrell further admitted that the Biden campaign “helped to strategize about the public release of the statement.”
Finally, he admitted that one of his goals was not just to warn about Russian influence but “to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election.”
Help it did. Biden claimed in a presidential debate that the laptop story was “garbage” and part of a “Russian plan.” Biden used the letter to say “nobody believes” that the laptop is real.
In reality, the letter was part of a political plan with the direct involvement of his campaign, but Biden never revealed their involvement. Indeed, over years of controversy surrounding this debunked letter, no one in the Biden campaign or White House (including Blinken) revealed their involvement.
Of course, the letter was all the media needed. Discussion of the laptop was blocked on social media, and virtually every major media outlet dismissed the story before the election.
That was also all Biden needed to win a close election. The allegations that the Biden family had cashed in millions through influence peddling could have made the difference. It never happened, in part because of Blinken’s work.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/new...-meet-of-african-union-commission/vi-AA1a8fK2
Once in power, Blinken was given one of the top Cabinet positions. He was now one of the “made” men of the administration.
He was not alone. The 2016 election was marred by false allegations of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. Unlike the influence peddling allegations made against Biden, the media ran with those stories for years. It later turned out that the funding and distribution of the infamous Steele dossier originated with the Clinton campaign. The campaign, however, reportedly lied in denying any such funding until after the election. It was later sanctioned for hiding the funding as legal expenses.
Those involved in spreading this false story were rewarded handsomely. For example, the second collusion story planted in the media by the campaign concerned the Russian Alfa Bank. The campaign used key Clinton aide Jake Sullivan, who went public with the entirely false claim of a secret back channel between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Sullivan was also a “made” man who was later made Biden’s national security adviser. Others who were implicated in either the Steele dossier or Alfa Bank hoaxes also later found jobs in the administration. The Brookings Institution proved a virtual turnstile for these political operatives.
Many signatories on the Russian disinformation letter continue to flourish. MSNBC analyst Jeremy Bash signed the letter and was put on the president’s Intelligence Advisory Board. As with Sullivan, it did not seem to matter that Bash had gotten one of the most important intelligence stories of the election wrong.
Former CIA head James Clapper was referenced by Biden on the letter and was also a spreader of the Russian collusion claims. Despite those scandals and a claim of perjury, CNN gave him a media contract.
They are all “made” men in the Beltway, but they could not have succeeded without a “made” media.
These false stories planted by the Clinton and Biden campaigns succeeded only because the media played an active and eager role. In any other country, this pattern would fit the model of a state media and propaganda effort. However, there was no need for a central ministry when the media quickly reinforced these narratives. This is a state media by consent rather than coercion. The Biden campaign knew that reporters would have little interest or curiosity in how the letter came about or the involvement of campaign operatives.
If Republicans did not control the House of Representatives, the Morrell admission would never have occurred. The Democrats repeatedly blocked efforts to investigate this story and the influence peddling allegations. Even this week, some Democrats called it a “tabloid story.”
Given the career paths of figures such as Blinken and Sullivan, there is a concern that other officials may see the value in “earning their bones” as “made” men and women. There is now a senior IRS career official who is seeking to disclose what he claims was special treatment given to Hunter Biden in the criminal investigation.
While the 51 former intelligence figures were eager to raise Russian disinformation claims before the election, most have become silent. After all, the letter served its purpose, as Morrell indicated, “to assist [Biden] in winning the election.” After the false stories planted before the 2016 and 2020 elections, the question is what is in store for 2024?
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

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Leftist are a bigger threat than climate change