(sheriff will know a lot more about membership make up than me).

All I can say with absolute certainty on this is that the Leeds NW CLP membership definitely gained a returning member yesterday.

Big day tomorrow.  The EHRC report into institutional antisemitism within Corbyn's Labour Party gets published at long last.

It will undoubtedly represent a low point for the party.  Starmer has a massive job restoring credibility and trust, but has done well in the early stages (regular bouts of uproar and outrage from the Corbynites has been a fairly reliable indicator of this).  They've also spent the week getting their pre-emptive denials in place (e.g. Karie Murphy in the Guardian, Chris Williamson grifting for additional funds for his legal campaign).

Looking forward to further whataboutery from the likes of Owen Jones, Bastani, Sarkar, etc when the details get published.  Starmer is due to make a press conference at 11am.  I see little prospect that the report content will be anything other than scathing with regard to the conduct of those at the heart of the situation.  Assuming so, then he needs to commence the processes to disassociate them from the party going forward (e.g. removal of whip for MPs, disciplinary processes to expel for others, etc).

Quite the morning so far.  The report appears to be more damning than many expected, Corbyn issued a statement pretty much denying it's content and has now been suspended and had the Labour whip removed.

Starmer wasting little time, to his credit.

Bobby Ball dies aged 76, COVID-related.

Loved watching Cannon & Ball as a kid.

https://news.sky.com/story/bobby-ball-cannon-ball-star-dies-aged-76-after-testing-positive-for-covid-19-12117613

Big day tomorrow.  The EHRC report into institutional antisemitism within Corbyn's Labour Party gets published at long last.

It will undoubtedly represent a low point for the party.  Starmer has a massive job restoring credibility and trust, but has done well in the early stages (regular bouts of uproar and outrage from the Corbynites has been a fairly reliable indicator of this).  They've also spent the week getting their pre-emptive denials in place (e.g. Karie Murphy in the Guardian, Chris Williamson grifting for additional funds for his legal campaign).

Looking forward to further whataboutery from the likes of Owen Jones, Bastani, Sarkar, etc when the details get published.  Starmer is due to make a press conference at 11am.  I see little prospect that the report content will be anything other than scathing with regard to the conduct of those at the heart of the situation.  Assuming so, then he needs to commence the processes to disassociate them from the party going forward (e.g. removal of whip for MPs, disciplinary processes to expel for others, etc).

Former Aussie Test cricketer, Dean Jones, has died of an apparent heart attack at 59.

He was one of a number of international players who played for my local village cricket team, Nostell CC, in the early 90s.  I presume the underlying reason was for a work-permit, or similar, but it used to make for some interesting scores in the local paper, the Hemsworth & South Elmsall Express, each week. 

My memory is hazy, but I seem to remember him often having really good bowling figures, alongside the expected huge batting scores, when playing against local village sides.  It must have been a bizarre experience for all concerned, a bit like having a big-name player turn up on your poker table in a tournament.

So no pick ups on a Sunday?

I think the way it works is you can pick up any player until they have a game. So, the Houston and KC players will be on waivers from early hours Friday and everyone else will be Sunday or Monday.

It's whenever THAT player's game is.

Tal is correct.  This is the setting that has been used previously, so he's chosen the correct one.

A bit more detail via Linda on Facebook.

"Hi Everyone. At Mike Sexton's request, I announced on Twitter this afternoon that he has been battling stage 4 prostate cancer that has spread throughout his body. In-home hospice care has begun.
Earlier today, Jan and I read hundreds of your messages to Mike. He is very happy that so many of you took the time to be so supportive. Mike asked me to let you know that although he is not able to respond to your messages, he appreciates them more than you could know and is very touched by them. I will continue to read him your messages as long as possible.
Mike is the greatest poker ambassador of all time and is beloved by players all over the world."

Saw various posts on Twitter yesterday regarding him being seriously ill.  This post from Linda Johnson confirms that he's battling prostate cancer, which has spread to other areas.

It doesn't sound good, but here's hoping that he makes a recovery.

https://twitter.com/FirstLadyPoker/status/1300946204688228352?s=20

I mentioned to Tal the other day that I would make a pick to keep the draft moving while a handover was sorted out so, with that in mind, I select

1.08 Jalen Reagor, WR, PHI

It's a rare opportunity to make a 'homer' pick for the team, and won't hurt the roster regardless of who's managing it going forward.

Sorry everyone, but following a frankly ridiculous PM exchange with a manager today, I've decided that I'm done with the league, both as a commissioner and a player, with immediate effect.

Whatever enjoyment there is in participating in the league is overshadowed by the thankless nature of continuing to deal with increasingly petty whinges about the admin of it.  Given that this now extends to it apparently being my fault that Yahoo has removed a player from the site, then it's time to call it quits.  I don't intend to go into further details regarding this, but it's fair to say it has proved to be the tipping point.  Participating as a player only in a league that I've run for so many seasons isn't really an option for me, so it's time for me to make a clean break.

If anyone wants to take over the setup then please let me know.  I'll transfer the responsibility to them and they can run it however they wish from that point on.  We also had bergeroo recently showing interest in taking over a team in the league if one became available, so there is hopefully still a manager available to fill the vacancy.

I've received payments from two managers to date, so I sort out refunds to them directly (I've probably got bank details saved for them somewhere, but I'll PM them if any doubts).  For the other managers, please don't send payment to me and await developments as to whether the league will run with another commissioner.

I want to thank everyone who has participated in the DLeague over all this time.  From the initial season on ESPN's site, to the subsequent years on Yahoo, it has been (mostly) a huge source of enjoyment of me.  Thanks especially to Tal for being a co-commissioner in recent seasons.  I hope and expect that it will be able to continue without my involvement, and I'd suggest that the draft process continues in the meantime on this basis.

Tifosi Blackhearts chose

Jonathan Taylor Indiana RB

KarmaDope on the clock.

I can keep up with this so far

Round - Manager - Pick
1.01  ChipRich/LeKnave - Clyde Edwards-Helaire, RB, KC
1.02  the sicilian -
1.03  KarmaDope -
1.04  Stevef31 -
1.05  ForthThistle -
1.06  bobby1 (thru Ironside) -
1.07  Tal -
1.08  Sheriff Fatman -
1.09  TightEnd -
1.10  bobby1 (thru Ironside thru bobby1) -

2.01  ChipRich/LeKnave -
2.02  bobby1 (thru the sicilian) -
2.03  KarmaDope -
2.04  Stevef31 -
2.05  bobby1 (thru ForthThistle) -
2.06  bobby1 (thru Ironside) -
2.07  bobby1 (thru Tal) -
2.08  Sheriff Fatman -
2.09  TightEnd -
2.10  TightEnd (thru bobby1) -

[Clyde Edwards-Helaire]

With the #1 pick in the 2020 Draft #freejoshgordon select

Clyde Edwards-Helaire

RB, Kansas City Chiefs

You should be able to make the pickup on the site already, so feel free to do it.

The sicilian is on the clock at 1.02, expiring 6:03pm tomorrow.

Ive just tried to make the trade offer to Iron that we have already made but it won’t allow me to select trade Kamara. The trade picks in my team And Irons aren’t updated with the correct picks listed in the thread. The only way I can try to do it is to ‘propose trade’ in Irons  team and then Just trade his 1st and 2nd to Round pick to me as the pick 10 no the trade was mine originally so is listed in my draft picks.

Should I do that bud or should I wait until the correct draft picks going into the season are showing in there?

Thank you for demonstrating why the attached sentence in one of the earlier posts was required.  

A reminder too that the picks you can trade on the Yahoo site will be 2021 picks, as the site thinks the 2020 draft has happened once you get access to your rosters.  Regardless of players involved in the trade, Yahoo requires an even number of draft picks to be used in its transactions, so please use the late round picks for this purpose (round 30 first, then round 29, etc).

2020 Picks can only be logged via the list on here.  The site picks are now 2021 picks (and I need to find a way to amend them for the one traded last year).  To process the Kamara trade, you'll just have to swap 30th round picks and add Kamara to your side (making Ironside look like a genius, as far as the site trading goes!)

[1) Trades]

Below is a copy and paste of the long-standing general rules for the league, for everyone's reference.  Again, the general approach is to try to interfere as little as possible, unless absolutely necessary.

For clarity, any references to the Commish or me in the below now should be treated as myself and/or Tal, who has Co-Commissioner access to the site once again.  As well as being a big help to me, this enables any dispute which involves either one of us to be left to the other one to rule upon as an 'independent' person.  Hopefully these will continue to be largely for reference, but we have had cause to refer to them previously, so its useful to have them.

There are 4 main areas where we now have general guidelines:

1) Trades
As in previous years, the trade veto is set to the Commish having veto power, rather than a league vote as you may see in other leagues you play.  This isn't a shot a world domination, just a means to make the league run more smoothly.  If a trade gets put to the vote, it usually takes 2-3 days to be processed while the vote stays open, causing frustration if a trade takes place near game-time and doesn't happen that week (even worse if someone in the trade then gets injured before it processes and all hell breaks loose).  Having it referred to us is purely a means to speed things up when trades are agreed between teams.  Basically, if you're unhappy with a trade then get in touch ASAP and I'll review it, but we won't have an automatic 48-72hr voting period until it gets processed.

The general guideline is that the Commish is not going to police stupidity, hence 'bad'/uneven trades that you manage to agree are fine (and in some cases to be admired!)  I'll only intervene if I suspect there's collusion, or if someone complains and I review and uphold the complaint (the review process generally being to ask the managers to justify it from their viewpoint).  Provided there's a valid explanation from each manager as to why it benefits their team, then that should generally suffice.  Consequently, I'd be surprised if I need to take any action on any trades during the season, so I don't expect this to actually have any material impact on the trade process.

I'll obviously try to get trades processed ASAP once notified, but please be mindful of the review process, especially close to gametime, as I can't always guarantee to be available.  However, we've had no major issues to date and I intend for this to continue.

2) Abandoned Teams
Pretty much the only thing I ask of managers who join the league is that they continue to manage their teams to the end, no matter how badly they're doing.  The reason for this is that the integrity of the league depends on everyone staying involved.  We've replaced a manager for the first time this season based upon this principle, and hopefully it will be the last time we have to do this.

For clarity, all I'm talking about here is taking the 10 minutes each week to set your best available line-up and, in particular, to deal with players on bye weeks or with long-term injuries so that they're not sitting in your starting line up.  I can live with occasional lapses, and have been guilty of them myself.  I'm more concerned with persistent, sustained abandonment which will likely result in someone not being invited back next year.

However, in the event that a team does become abandoned, then the treatment I will adopt is to do nothing with their team in terms of changing it's line up.  This is the fairest method available as the advantage/disadvantage to other managers is effectively random (i.e. I don't know at this point who will benefit from this, whereas any intervention at the time will have a clear outcome in terms of creating an advantage/disadvantage for someone, potentially myself).

The one exception is if someone maliciously abandons their team and dumps all the players back into the free agent pool (where the advantage of this would depend on the current waiver priority).  In this case, I will intervene to return the abandoned team to it's previous state, before then treating as an abandoned team as above.

3) Unforeseen Events/Site Errors
I'm mentioning this one as the site sometimes creates some uncertainty as to how it will deal with something (e.g. league tie-breakers, or play-off seeding).  Generally, if something of this nature arises, the principle I try to apply is to replicate how the real NFL works.  If the site appears to be doing something contrary to this, and it has an impact on the integrity of the league in my opinion (i.e. a No1 seed being given a disadvantageous play-off draw due to a miscalculation by the site) then I will intervene as necessary to correct this.  If so, I will always attempt to give notice of my intentions on the thread, so that objections can be raised in advance.

4) IR Slots
This is something where Yahoo changed the site functionality a few seasons ago, so we had to amend the approach to how these work to fit it.  Originally, only players with an official NFL 'IR' designation could be set to IR on the site, and they had to stay there for the season.  In recent seasons IR slots are were opened to players designated as 'IR', 'PUP' and, most controversially, 'O' (Out).  The IR slot is also reversible in-game, so a player on IR can be moved back onto the active roster without any minimum waiting period.

Since this became the site default, with no option to amend it, we've allowed the IR slots to be used with this flexibility, as everyone has the same ability to use it in this way.  Consequently, it can be a temporary dumping group for players who are eligible to be moved there, and I suspect there'll be more statuses added to it this year with the COVID designations.  The site will determine if you can put a player into one of the IR slots.  If so, use them as you see fit.