April 2026 – Mental Zoomies

Playing With The House’s Money

Hockey season… at least as far as the Pittsburgh Penguins are concerned… is over. The 3-0 hole the Pens dug themselves against the Flyers proved to be too much to overcome, as they lost to the Flyers 1-0 in overtime last night.

On one hand, a frustrating loss. The Pens largely got the better of play for the third period and overtime, as reflected by the shots on goal. But they couldn’t get one past Flyers’ goalie Dan Vladar, and every 4-6 minutes they’d make a boneheaded play or get a bad bounce that gave the Flyers an uncomfortably good chance the other way. So despite largely Getting The Better Of Play(tm), it still felt like a Flyers win was more likely than not. So, yeah… a frustrating way to end the season.

On the other hand, I find myself not too disappointed the next morning. On a superficial “sour grapes” level, I feel like the Carolina Hurricanes are going to stomp WHOEVER came out of the series anyway. But more importantly, looking at the bigger picture, a frustrating end to the season doesn’t change that the season as a whole was a gift.

Think about it. Going into the year, there was legitimate speculation whether the Pens were planning to tank and bottom out in an effort to get Gavin McKenna, and WAY too many hockey pundits were insisting we “owed it to hockey” to trade Crosby to a contender because it was self-evident the Pens would suck. Instead, the Pens managed to navigate their way to 98 points and a playoff spot, AND do so in a way that still moved the longer-term rebuild significantly forward. As much as 98 points creates certain expectations of success and it stings to fall short, the Pens are MILES ahead of where we thought they’d be when the first puck was dropped back in October.

First, and maybe most importantly, they have a path forward at goaltender. Going into the season, we were tied to the annoyingly inconsistent Tristan Jarry for the next two years because of his contract. The best version of Jarry, seen in glimpses, made an All-Star Game earlier in his career; the worst version is a boat anchor. But in one of his better acts of trade wizardry, Kyle Dubas managed to get Jarry (and semi-prospect Sam Poulin) off the books for defenseman Brent Kulak, goalie Stuart Skinner (also has consistency issues, but at least his contract is expiring) and a draft pick. So… for better AND worse, they have freedom at the position moving forward. I imagine they’ll run it back with ONE of Silovs or Skinner and pair the survivor with promising rookie Sergei Murashov (24-9-3, 2.20 GAA, .919 save percentage at SWB). Or perhaps we’ll continue to fetishize John Gibson because he’s a local.

(After last night’s performance… let it be Silovs. Just sayin’.)

The Pens also managed to find some pieces that look like they’ll be part of the rebuild. First-round pick Ben Kindel made the team out of camp as an 18-year-old and played almost the full season, scoring 17 goals. Speaking of trade wizardry, getting Yegor Chinakhov from Columbus is starting to look like an absolute fleecing, as he put up 18 goals in 46 games for us. Free agent signing Justin Brazeau started the season fast, but then tailed off (partly due to injuries), but still ended the season with 17 goals. Heck, even 6’8″ giant Elmer Soderblom had an intriguing first impression, putting up 5 goals and 5 assists in the 20 games after he came over from Detroit.

Really, the one frustration on the development front was Rutger McGroarty. I would’ve liked that kid to step up and seize the opportunity a bit more. Still time, but it’s starting to feel like he’d better show SOMETHING in 2026-27.

Anthony Mantha was also a nice story, reviving his career with a 30-goal performance after missing almost a full year due to injury. I doubt he’s part of the long-term plan because he’s a free agent and SOMEONE probably throws a bag his direction. But it’s still a feel-good season and makes him a solid contender for the Masterton Trophy. Personally, there’s a little piece of me that would like to see another year of him just because he was the guy I always traded for in NHLXX franchise mode because I thought the Pens needed more size. But I recognize that’s not a rational basis for Kyle Dubas handing out $5M here in the real world.

The outlook on defense is still a bit more muddy. Yeah, they added a few pieces like Samuel Girard and Ilya Solovyov, but nobody who really made you say “yeah, this is the guy to build around”. It looks like maybe the help’s going to have to come from the minors or free agency here.

Cap-wise, they’re in pretty good shape, though I haven’t looked at the rest of the league or what the full free agent class is looking like yet. They were already $10M under the cap this year, and the list of pending free agents is tolerable. Kevin Hayes’ $7M is free money back in our pocket, I’d like to think a Malkin reunion would come in cheaper than the $6M he’d been getting on his last contract, they’re going to need to pay at least one veteran keeper to pair with Murashov, and the rest is just the usual lower-roster churn. I suppose it MIGHT be worth working out an extension with Chinakhov, who’s an RFA, so that might cost some bucks.

They’re also OK on draft picks, though not as loaded as they were when the season started. They’ve got a first, a pair of twos, and a third, but they originally had another 2nd and 3rd that became Chinakhov and Soderblom, respectively. They had also previously shipped out a 4th (the Karlsson deal) and 5th (the Bunting/Novak deal with Nashville). So they’ll have fun early and sit on their hands later in the draft unless they make other moves between now and then.

Add all that up, and there’s good cause for optimism as we close the book on 2025-26 and head into 26-27.

But then there is the elephant in the room. What’s the fate of the Big 3?

Crosby’s fine. On-ice, Crosby seemed to be ageless this year, other than the injury he suffered at the Olympics. Still beat a point per game, finished one goal shy of 30. And he’s still under contract through the coming year. Honestly, I’m still fine with “he plays as long as he wants and retires a Penguin”. Still probably won’t stop people from whining about how we owe it to hockey to trade him to Montreal.

Malkin’s issue is contractual. He had a solid enough year (19-42-61 in 56 games), but he’s a pending free agent. So… pass-fail, he probably played well enough to consider renewing him, but what sort of dollars and term would make sense? Also, what if some other team comes sniffing around for some veteran leadership — is nostalgia worth a bidding war? If you can get Malkin on a short deal for reasonable dollars… heck yeah, keep the boys together. If he wants multiple years or big dollars, or if a bidding war starts… maybe it’s time to say good-bye.

And then there’s Kris Letang.

(cue ominous music)

Sorry, but he’s the weak link of the three. He’s never been a great defender, but you could usually put up with it because of the offense he generated. But 3 goals and 31 assists while also getting turnstiled quite a bit? Oof. Problem is he’s also got the longest contract of the three (signed through 2027-28) so unless he happens to retire, the Pens would have to own the optics of actively pushing him out the door or paying $6M to a guy who’s drifting toward the third pair.

So yeah, it’s not ALL sunshine and rainbows for next season. But for today, in the immediate shadow of being bounced from the playoffs, I suppose I choose to focus on the positive.

Draftermath 2026!

The NFL Draft has come and gone, and it’s time for life in Pittsburgh to return to normal. (You know… at least until they shut down the Parkway East outbound for a month this summer. But that’s a topic for another day.) As a lover of New Football Toys, I certainly have some thoughts on the guys the Steelers drafted, but this year I get the added pleasure of reflecting on it as an attendee and a local who got to see my home town soak in the rays of the football spotlight for a weekend.

From the standpoint of an attendee… it was nice to experience, but I found that little goes a long way.

The biggest positive — not to do free PR for the NFL — was that the vibes were far more mellow than for a typical NFL Sunday. It really was more of a general celebration of football where yes, there happened to be a whole lot more Steeler fans than anyone else but it largely didn’t matter. Almost no shit-talking between fanbases; fairly little public intoxication. I will say, there was this weird dynamic where being THAT deep in the minority, the fans of other teams seemed like they were happier when they were able to “Where’s Waldo?” a fellow fan of their team. Steeler fans? Omnipresent. All we had was the joy of the occasional deep cut jersey. (The Chris Fuamatu Ma’afala won that one for me.)

We also got great weather for two of the three days, and public transportation really came through as an unsung hero. One of the local companies paid to underwrite free shuttle service from all four compass directions, and the east lot in Monroeville was minutes from where I live. Doesn’t get much easier than that. More generally, it was nice to get Pittsburgh out from under the shadow of Steel Industry Fetishism. I was watching one pre-draft show on Wednesday where they had B-roll from both the Church Brew Works and Phipps Conservatory. (There were limits to that, though: when they came back from the clip package, it was time for the obligatory delivery of Primanti’s to the set. FRIES ON THE SANDWICH!)

The negatives largely fell under the realities of a large corporate event. Large crowds and the fact that anything inside the Green Zone cost an arm and a leg. Anything that was an official attraction was packed to the gills, ESPECIALLY the draft itself. Full disclosure: I never got into the official viewing area and ended up watching Night 1 from inside Acrisure Stadium. So, in essence, my draft experience amounted to watching on a really BIG TV. With $17 beers and $50 T-shirts.

I will also say that watching it live actually made me appreciate how (comparatively) well the draft is packaged for TV. One may think Mel Kiper is annoying, but I promise you that listening to an unwanted playing of “Sweet Caroline” by a cover band is actually worse. And maybe the experience in the cattle pens was different, but at least at Acrisure, we didn’t get the clip packages of the guys as they were selected, which I found myself missing.

I originally planned to attend all three days, but once I was actually in the thick of it… I found that one day was really all I needed. Again, don’t read that as a negative. I just felt like running it back wouldn’t have added any more to the experience. I got to boo Roger Goodell, I got to see the Steelers make a pick. Other than maybe watching Day 2 from the cattle pens, I didn’t see another trip adding much, and my legs vetoed the requisite 5 hours of standing. So… sports bar it was for Day 2, and then Day 3 was “doing other stuff and jumping back in when the Steelers were getting close to picking”.

As far as the Steeler content, I’m not going to go too deep into wingspan and hip-flippery and try to pass myself off as an expert. Just some of the impressions I had while watching.

First things first, I’m in the firm minority that I didn’t see the Makai Lemon thing as THAT big a “failure”. Yes, the optics look bad with the dueling phone calls and Omar Khan pretending Iheanachor was their first choice until the video came out, but it does seem like a thing that’s easy to second guess in hindsight. It took two 4ths for the Eagles to move up. Without advance knowledge of how it would eventually turn out, how hard would you REALLY have pushed for the Steelers to send two 4ths (or more) to move up ONE spot? It’s also worth mentioning that Lemon was also only the third receiver taken while six offensive linemen had already been selected, so maybe o-Line was always the right call. I guess we’ll know at the end of their rookie contracts.

Max Iheanachor (T, Arizona State)

The pick is growing on me. My initial reaction was “didn’t we just do this with Broderick Jones”? Toolsy guy who hasn’t been playing the position very long; has some ceiling but will need coaching to reach it. Sound familiar? But I was talked down from the ledge the more I read: most mocks had him SOMEWHERE in the 1st; they just didn’t have him going to the Steelers because (some combination of) the Steelers didn’t bring him in for a visit, and they generally expected the board to break differently. (In particular, a lot of people saw Fano and/or Ioane falling further.) End of the day, we needed a lineman, we got a lineman.

Germie Bernard (WR, Alabama)

No problem with this choice at all. Continuing the theme, we needed a slot guy, we got a slot guy. Doesn’t have that deep threat aspect, but good at doing the dirty work in the middle of the field. In the moment, I thought maybe we should’ve moved back into the end of the first round and gone after Cooper from Indiana, but (continuing the theme) Bernard feels like the right pick for where we were at that point.

(Lacking anywhere else to place this observation, I also liked K.C. Concepcion quite a bit. I know he had issues with drops in college, but that kid could separate.)

Not to beat the Lemon horse too much, but if you treat the first two picks as a combo platter, I actually do feel like Iheanachor/Bernard makes a better combined pair than Lemon/Sir-Lineman-Not-Appearing-In-This-Film.

Drew Allar (QB, Penn State)

As John Lennon might have said, “Drew Allar is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.”

My initial thought is the Steelers were either smoke-screening about how much they love Will Howard, or they got played by Aaron Rodgers and he’s not coming back. Almost has to be one or the other, doesn’t it? It just doesn’t seem like Rodgers backed up by two rookies makes a lick of sense: Rodgers is a compete-now move, so… that means Rudolph as a veteran backup, right? And I don’t see them carrying four QBs.

I’ll admit I’m not especially sold on Allar, but I think the “original sin” is letting Rodgers hold us hostage in the first place. I would’ve rather seen come up with a real plan to address the position and told Rodgers to enjoy life as a full-time ayahuasca spokesperson. But once you accept waiting for Rodgers as a sunk cost, if you’re going to take a flyer on a quarterback, might as well be the one with the big arm. At least it’s a 3rd, and not a 1st like Pickett was?

Also, I suspected we’d take a QB, but I’ll admit I thought it would be Nussmeier because of the family connections.

Daylen Everette (CB, Georgia)

Sounds like it’s a bet on tools (size and speed) over technique. There’s no expectation that he’s being brought in to start, so… fine, I guess? (The experts feel like he was a bit of an overdraft, but I’m not going to pretend I know enough to say one way or the other.)

Gennings Dunker (T, Iowa)

Ginger with a mullet? Competes in hay-bale throwing contests? Wears SIX-SEVEN (you know… for the Young People…) Steeler Nation is going to lose their minds when he makes the inevitable “welcome to tahn” appearance at Primanti’s. On-field, sounds like he might move inside to guard for an earlier path to playing time. The only rain-cloud is that it feels like a little bit of an insurance policy in case Itchy doesn’t pan out.

Kaden Wetjen (KR/PR, Iowa)

This feels like some sort of Moneyball–qua-NFL exercise: is kick returning an explicit skill beyond just being fast or having a nose for open space or having the bravery to run full speed at a wall of defenders who are running full speed at you? If it IS, we got the guy who was literally the best at it in the nation, and maybe that’ll be some sort of competitive advantage. If not, we got a small not-exceptionally-fast gadget player when there were more intriguing players still on the board. (And a guy who, ohbytheway, was out on the golf course when he got the call because he didn’t expect to get drafted this high.) Full disclosure: I’m willing to admit I liked Skyler Bell from UConn in this slot.

Feel free to rub my nose in it the first time Wetjen takes one to the house. If he’s that much of a difference-maker, being wrong will be well worth it.

Riley Nowakowski (TE/FB, Indiana)

Utility pick. We needed a FB/TE hybrid to replace Ironhead Jr., Nowakowski seems to have that similar toolbox.

Gabe Rubio (DT, Notre Dame)

No strong impression, beyond “we can’t use ALL our picks on offense, can we?”

Robert Spears-Jennings (S, Oklahoma)

Conventional wisdom suggests we might have gotten a bit of a bargain here. Good physical tools and a hitter. Disappeared a bit his senior year, but was more highly regarded as a junior. No harm in throwing him onto special teams and seeing what he turns into.

Eli Heidenreich (RB, Navy)

I wouldn’t go all the way to “conspiracy” but this always felt a little inevitable. Local kid? Navy man? Just surprised they didn’t have Michael Keaton stick around to welcome him to the stage.

As far as Xs and Os, I’m never sure how to evaluate players from the service academies: there’s no reason they CAN’T be good athletes, but it’s not really their primary job the way it is at other schools. They’re being trained for… you know… Other Stuff… and football is a side hustle for them. In terms of fit, a Kenneth Gainwell replacement would be a nice outcome if it happens. Or maybe I’m just wishcasting along with everyone else.

Perchance To Dream

Every once in a while, the universe throws you a little reminder that the descent into global suckitude is not inevitable, and we can still choose a different path.

This weekend, we got a two-fer.

On Friday, night the Artemis 2 mission safely returned to earth. I have to admit: what started out as “just dropping in to see what was happening” turned into my whole Friday night. Yes… even the part where it was just grainy footage of boats circling the capsule, waiting for it to cool down. I don’t exactly know why… we’ve been sending people back and forth to the International Space Station for decades, and I didn’t watch ANY of those landings. But something about this one drew me in.

I suppose some of the appeal is that the moon captures the imagination in a way bumming around in orbit doesn’t. I was born in 1970, so I missed Apollo 11 entirely, and was way too young to take in the other moon landings, so this felt like the next closest thing to being there at the time. At a broader level, I appreciated the reminder that science can still accomplish amazing things, even under an administration that seems openly hostile toward science. (Speaking of which: the interview with the Trump toadie running NASA briefly derailed the good vibes, but things bounced back quickly.) Certainly the crew and their collective story was appealing. But the underrated star of the show was the little chat scroll on the side of the screen — thousands of people from all over the world, watching together, with almost NO negativity or shit-talking. As much as we’re doing to burn up our goodwill around the world, people who are probably Sick Of America’s Shit(tm) at the moment still wanted our astronauts to get home safe. As cheesy as it sounds, something about that felt comforting.

(Well… comforting aside from the momentary heart attack — I didn’t realize they had to cut the drogue parachutes loose to deploy the mains, so there was a short moment where the drogues broke free and the capsule fell out of frame, and I thought we were about to witness an unfolding catastrophe. COULDA USED A HEADS-UP, OTHERWISE-REASSURING NASA DUDE.)

And then, on Sunday, the universe gave us a second positive sign, from Hungary.

For those of you who don’t know, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban has been looming as a Ghost Of Christmas Future for Trump’s plans for America. Orban has been in power for 16 years, and has basically been implementing a lot of the same Project 2025 shit Trump is trying to pull here. Courts just as packed with partisan judges, media just as captured by regime-friendly oligarchs, just as hostile toward LGBTQ people, just as cozy with Putin. You can argue Orban’s vision for Hungary is the blueprint Trump has been trying to emulate. (And OK… elephant in the room… they’re BOTH copying off Putin’s paper as well.)

Which makes it all the more gratifying that Orban’s Fidesz party got absolutely dog-walked in the Hungarian elections. The opposition party, Tizsa, took 138 out of 199 seats in Hungary’s legislature — good enough for a 2/3 supermajority that should give them the power to undo a lot of Orban’s rat-fuckery. The win was so decisive that there wasn’t even much of a point of trying to contest it in court: since Orban had stacked the courts with partisan judges, there was concern Tizsa would win, but the margin would be narrow enough that Fidesz would try to throw it to the courts and hope to be declared the winners that way. (Sound familiar?)

Nope. It was a thorough ass-kicking. So much so that Orban’s already conceded defeat.

Now, to pump the brakes a LITTLE, Tisza is considered a center-right party, so the American analogue would be Trump/MAGA Republicans losing, but NeverTrump Republicans being placed back in charge. So some aspects of the victory will be more muted than others. But there’s already been positive signs that they’re going to distance from Putin and re-build their ties with the EU, including unblocking Hungarian support for Ukraine.

And again, pulling out to the 10,000 foot level… it’s an aspirational sign for what we can do here in America in 2026 and 2028 if we stay motivated, find the right candidates to get behind, and do the work. Hungary’s system has been just as thoroughly gamed as the one Trump is trying to create here, and it still CRUMBLED in the face of enough people coming together and saying “this needs to fucking stop“. There’s no denying we’re going through some frustrating times, hope’s not a substitute for doing the work, but Hungary reminded us that “too far gone” doesn’t have to be the state of affairs.

Project Runway: City Connect 2026

City Connect. Sometimes it’s kinda cool reading about the little details and design choices that went into making them; other times, they range from underwhelming to baffling. But MLB’s never going to stop looking for chances to move merch, so… as of 10am, we have this year’s batch on display, and presumably in stores.

The one major difference this year is that MLB launched all of this year’s uniforms in one announcement. The M.O. in previous seasons is that teams would stagger the launches, usually showing them to the world a few weeks before they were set to debut. This time, they just kinda released them into the wild en masse.

So let’s see what we have to work with, and I’m going to go in rough order of what I think of them. Though admittedly, a few of them rose or dropped a spot or two as I was putting my thoughts together.

Atlanta Braves

The previous City Connects were kind of an unfinished Etsy version of the 70s throwbacks with “The A” branding, so I was not a fan. For the current unis, I consider myself a Powder Blue Afficionado, so I LOVE the color choice. The Braves’ 70s unis have long been one of my favorite retros, so still borrowing the fonts and stylings of that uni set also appeals to me. “No notes”, as they say.

Pittsburgh Pirates

The previous ones were OK, but they were a little TOO evocative of the Lumber Company black-and-gold, and I was never quite sold on the “PGH” branding. I always thought the jerseys looked better the few times they wore them with the white pants. This one? Same basic problem — I really dig the jersey in isolation, but the full set leaves me a little underwhelmed. Mono-black always feels kinda try-hard to me (and is gonna SUCK in summer), and it doesn’t really go well with a gold hat.

On the other hand, if I was considering a Konnor Griffin jersey, this might be the one.

Baltimore Orioles

I’ve long been a fan of the vest or vest-adjacent look with contrast sleeves, so I kinda dig this. I don’t know if “BMORE” is a thing; I’ll leave that to the locals. Since the previous set was mono-black, I’d say this is an improvement.

San Diego Padres

It’s OK… I just think a) it looks a little like they snuck a peek at the Giants’ paper from last year and b) I thought the previous… I don’t know, “tropical chaos”?… ones were fun and really something distinct.

Cincinnati Reds

There are some things I like. They actually used RED instead of mono-black this time, which… that’s great. And in the closeups, there are red-on-red pinstripes that actually look quite nice. But to some extent, it just feels like an incremental re-color of the previous (black) set, and maybe it’s TOO much red. So they may also have the Pirate problem where the jersey might fare a little better in a different overall set. Like… that jersey with white pants might really rock.

Kansas City Royals

I guess it looks OK, though it also has the Reds’ issue where it looks like an iteration/recolor instead of something new. Change the top from blue to white, put the sleeve logo on the chest, and call it a day. To be fair, I guess there’s some additional striping and they worked some pink in there too, but… ehhh.

Texas Rangers

It’s clean. If you’re a “less is more” person, this might be the second best behind Atlanta. And probably an improvement over the Hot Topic/Ed Hardy Fontapalooza that the previous set was. The problem is that it just looks like a college team. And looking at some of the detail shots, it seems like the best features aren’t going to be things you’re going to see on a TV broadcast. Kinda like the O’s previous ones had that rainbow sleeve treatment — literally the best part of the thing — that was initially on the INSIDE of the cuff.

Milwaukee Brewers

Just kinda boring and underwhelming in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. Feels like something AI came up with. And again, is “Wisco” a thing, or is it something marketing came up with?

I Do Not Think That Amendment Means What You Think It Means

Look people, I’m only going to say this once.

(By which, I mean I’ve already written multiple Quora answers and comments on Facebook posts about it. Enough that it became a pet peeve.)

I keep seeing people suggesting that “it’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment!” with regards to Trump. And while I get the spirit of it and the frustration behind it (and largely agree), let’s be honest: the Article 4 of the 25th Amendment… probably even by design… is a TERRIBLE vehicle for regime change.

First, the “they” that gets to use the 25th Amendment is… wait for it… the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet. So, in summary — J.D. Vance and all those people who seem to exist solely to make groveling speeches about how Trump is the Most Special Boy In The Whole World. Theoretically Congress could give that power to some other entity, but that road leads through Mike Johnson and he’ll probably claim this is the first he’s hearing of there being a 25th Amendment. So there’s no one with any sanity or spine that has the power to invoke it.

But let’s say there’s some seismic landslide and Democrats control Congress after the midterms. Let’s say they even were to pass a law giving some other entity the power to invoke the 25th. That gets to the more “forest for the trees” issue: the 25th was envisioned for dealing with TEMPORARY medical incapacitation — it was attempting to grapple with the question of “what if Kennedy had survived the shooting but was facing an extended recovery?” — so all of its mechanisms are geared toward the assumption that unless the President dies, they get to decide when they come back because that’s who the voters voted for.

So in the here and now, let’s pretend J.D. Vance’s Silicon Valley backers decide Trump’s no longer good for their investments and a change is in order. Vance gets the Cabinet on-board, the 25th is invoked… and as it’s written, all Trump would have to is inform Congress “nah, I’m good, I’d like my job back”. (Granted, he’d have to write an actual letter, not a Truth Social post, which is a BIT of a hurdle. But I digress.) At that point, the burden shifts to Congress to provide cause why he shouldn’t be allowed to come back. And here’s the real rub: the bar for that is HIGHER than just impeaching him. Impeachment is a majority of the House to file the articles; two-thirds in the Senate to remove from office. To make a contested 25A removal permanent*, it’s 2/3rds of BOTH houses. And the whole thing has to happen within 21 days, or it expires and the President still gets the job back. So… gets out slide rule… carry the two… that’s more difficult.

*=I’m not even sure it’s permanent; it just says the Acting President “continues”. Which sort of implies Trump or whatever Hypothetical Future President we’re talking about could just keep trying?

The ONLY way I can see 25A removal being a “better” tool for Presidential removal is this: it takes effect immediately. With impeachment, there’s a whole trial, during which the President would continue to hold the office: presumption of innocence and such. A 25A removal AT LEAST takes effect immediately, and the President is out of the chair while the contested removal plays out. So I don’t know how much more Trump has to do to qualify for Mad King status in Republican eyes — hug a black person, maybe? — but if we somehow ever hit that redline and they REALLY need to get distance between him and The Button, the immediate effect is the ONE way in which it doesn’t suck.

Sorry if this rains on anyone’s parade, but I’ve heard the 25th waved around as a magic wand enough that it’s reached a low simmer for me. Civics 101 lecture concluded; go on about your business.