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What's insane (and could hurt Biden a bit but that's besides the point) is if his plan for reparations is some silly amount of money like 2500 bucks per family. That would be putting a low low low price on the horror of slavery, which reparations are meant to "help" repair bad feelings toward slavery. How much will Joe suggest? 10,000? My plan is $1 million per single person and $1 million per family which would (if possible and not ruining the economy) pretty much make every African American family at least middle class or better. My plan makes a difference in all this unrest, or it SHOULD. That's a large amount; a fair amount. Get the top 5 percent wealthy people to contribute mightily to the fund. Some donations like Mike Jordan's amazing donation would help cut into the cost (not Mike, however, as it's not his duty to address reparations of course). What's insanity as you say, will be some meaningless amount of money regarding reparations. I guess Biden could promise free college education and med school for all African Americans and some things like that re. reparations, too. I'm trying to come up with meaningful change, not just talk. I get criticized a lot but my two original suggestions aren't drawing much commentary.

The only prep player I want the Sox not to pick is Soderstrom. I’m tired of Wasting high draft picks that are very questionable with their defense position and being able to handle it ( Collins, Burger, Sheets) When in doubt go up the middle. That is an interesting concern Law brings up Detmers about Pitching every 5th day. You hope it wouldn’t be the case due to his size, but if he loses a little velocity- Big mistake

If the White Sox want to draft another hitter in the first round, they should go the prep route. Taking a college hitter makes sense in general but there are flaws to the strategy this year. I wrote about that for today: https://www.futuresox.com/2020/06/04/white-sox-draft-strategy-should-deviate-from-college-to-prep/

Thanks for explaining. I appreciate the knowledge. At 40 percent of all the net worth of all Americans combined I like my plan WAY better. Look, all the programs you state are fine, but America has always been about cold hard cash. Dollars. Look at sports. Look at politics. Look at EVERYTHING. African Americans want immediate action/change regarding these murders by racist cops. Reparations should be direct payments, something everybody can see and react to immediately. If it's 40 percent of all wealth, that means we survive as a country economically in handing out reparations that should end unrest. I mean if a million dollars per person doesn't prove America is serious about making amends, then we're all doomed anyway.

All along, the arguments starting in April were about people expressing their rights/liberties/freedoms. That state/local governments were depriving them of their opportunity to pursue happiness. Which is the most sacred American right? The First Amendment to the Constitution, or the inalienable rights to get a haircut, go bowling or go to get a cup of coffee? Of those activities, which one has the most potential to change our country, hopefully for the better? Which is worth fighting and dying for, as Americans have been doing willingly for 244 years now? My wife said something interesting when she saw that 75 year old pushed to the ground...that she always believed that America was the greatest country in the world until she saw the events of the last two weeks played out in the media everyday. She said “what’s wrong with America?” More recently, expressing the idea that she feels sorry for Americans. What happened to the shining light at the top of the hill?

Excuses for why people don’t succeed? Come on man, everyone is a victim to their environment & upbringing and saying otherwise is ridiculous. If can’t see that the average African American is at a huge disadvantage from the get-go in modern society then you are simply ignoring reality. Also, I’ve seen the Daniel Shaver video and I tell people all the time how fucked up that was. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that blacks are the victim of police brutality far too often. If you can’t see that, then you are purposely being ignorant to the issue at hand.

As a man who is of African American descent.. I don't need to, but thanks.

You've been hurt haven't you?

Tested negative today. That’s a great turnaround, now that all tests are free, highly recommend the IDPH run drive thrus. Guys - reporting the monthly jobs numbers is pretty hard 3 days post months end. There are always huge revisions.

ok

https://www.mlb.com/prospects/draft/reid-detmers-672282 MLB pipeline also has Detmers' curveball as a 55. Not impressed. If the curveball was a 70 or something like that I'd get the hype, but everyone with grades has him as a 55. I'd rather miss on Crochet than Detmers.

Couple things scared me and made me think I'd need a gun: 1.) governors and mayors not stopping the looters. They could try to turn my car over and kill me if i'm in the wrong place. 2.) looters entering neighborhoods. My friend with a place in a Chicago lakefront highrise said the rioters were within yards of his building and if they wanted could have headed up the elevators. He is buying a gun this week so it made me think. 3. Abolition of police force would mean The Purge and anarchy. The fact normal people are talking about it as a serious option makes me realize they are serious and lawlessness could be here soon. 4.) the police could get pissed off and freak out at some point.

Thanks again. I think it's now necessary to own a gun. I never thought so before, but I want to be safe and able to use it in self defense. The one you suggested seems perfect, is affordable, and the gun dealer can steer me to lessons at the ranges.

Thanks Tex, I just watched a video and it got rave reviews as a carry gun. Thank u.

I already got you covered back on May 23rd. You have to protect yourself from that exotic ice cream eating governor.

This changes everything. Like you say everyone now needs to have a gun and be properly trained how to use it. To go without a gun from now on seems as if you are failing to protect your family. It's irresponsible to not have a gun. At any moment your house could be leveled or at the very least invaded ... by protestors, by police, by anarchists. Time for me to research how to buy a gun and get trained. And the people that want to get rid of all police departments, which have included government officials in Minneapolis, have no right to tell me to not buy a gun. p.s. Is it ok for me to start a thread asking for advice about how to purchase a gun, best gun to get, how to register it, etc? I want to be responsible but I don't want to inflame the board.

Lol seriously. Just set off the nukes

Tim and Ed up the middle together ?

They can't say anything. They'll be run out of office/town. Keeping the peace in the streets is not a position one is allowed to have. As far as Trump, he's going to be voted out in November so why is everybody so stressed about his photo op? There are things senators shouldn't make a comment on with everybody ready to run force them to resign.

I said before I'm not "worried." I'm shocked how these videos show no concern at all. My buddy's flight to LV from KC was packed he said. Vegas is rocking, too. And Washington, D.C. has sooooo many protestors today/Saturday. Right now there are so many people in Washington, D.C. it is beyond belief, all crammed together for speeches. The government should be ashamed for making people cancel weddings and holding them to 10 people. I couldn't get a haircut for 3 months? Have you seen this rally in DC today?? The virus spread is going to be monumental, no pun intended. Our church is still allowing just 10 people per funeral. What a world. So hypocritical. Either covid is dangerous or it's not.

Honestly not a big fan of the hassel profile (advanced HS bat with good swing but RF profile but ok but not plus power). Sure that player could work but even an advanced HS bat is still more risky than a college bat and if you dont get the extra tools why take that risk? I mean if the bat takes a little step back there is not much left (see Mickey moniak who was exactly that type). Not saying there is no ceiling but the bat is the most volatile thing to project from HS guy and corner profile combined with ok but not special pop is not enough for me, I can get that safer from a college bat. I would prefer either a clear up the middle profile or potential plus power from a HS guy.

They talked a little Ed Howard and Reid Detmers. Sounds like they love Detmers, but who knows. We’ll know in about 103 hours.

Will share some bits and pieces I think interesting from Law's write-ups. - Says if Max Meyer was a few inches taller, he'd be in the 1-1 mix. Has the fallback of a 2-3 WAR reliever if he can't start. - PCA has a future 70 glove in CF. 60 grade runner with a plus arm. More swing and miss than you want as a prep, but with a possible 60 bat and 50 power he has a star ceiling. - Hassell's swing rivals Veen's as best in the draft. Many teams view him as the best hitter in the class. Should be at least a 55 defender in right. High average line drive hitter with possible 20 HR power down the road. - Detmers has three 50-55 grade pitches. Taking some risk with the average fastball which could slip pitching every 5th day instead of every 7th. The command and pitch mix gives him mid rotation upside. - Calls Cavalli the clear top guy in the second tier of college pitchers. Says he gives up more contact than he should based on his profile and teams can't figure out why. Has the weapons to be a number 2 starter. - Wilcox has number 1 or 2 starter upside but will need a fair amount of development to reach that. Current state projects as a number 4 with potential. - "Bailey is seen as a bat first catcher who's good enough to stay at the position but not more than that on defense." - Soderstrom ranked 25th. All bat, little chance to stay at catcher. Will have to change something mechanically to get to his power. Will likely start his pro career at 3B. - Kelley ranked 31st. Prototypical Texas prep pitcher. Needs to find a consistent breaking ball and to work on his conditioning. Profiles as a mid rotation guy. - Crochet is a wildcard and ranked 39th. 70 grade slider but substantial reliever risk. One of the best pure arms in the class and someone will probably take him in the 1st round.

Law's top 100 draft prospects are up. https://theathletic.com/1850996/2020/06/06/keith-laws-big-board-ranking-the-2020-mlb-drafts-top-100-prospects/

Sounds like things are going well! https://theathletic.com/1857108/2020/06/06/rosenthal-a-july-4-return-is-all-but-gone-with-baseball-as-far-from-a-deal-as-ever/

The plan is $1M per person

One sick thing about this is GOP senators refusing to even give a no comment when asked about tear-gassing peaceful protestors so Trump can have a photo op. They know that their leader has failed to handle this crisis and they won't say one word about it. And the mere idea of using the military to police citizens is one other thing they know is wrong. And they won't say a word about that, either.

The problem is that behind veen who likely is gone this is a rather weak HS class unlike last year which was very strong. Howard is not bad but the swing needs some work, especially the lower body. Crow Armstrong is not bad either but probably not a top15 talent.

I just watched a two minute video of a guy walking through a Vegas casino tonight. Jam packed! And no masks cept on the dealers. Lot of beer bottles evident of course but no masks. Let's get real. Protestors, looters, gamblers in Vegas, guys at the bars and strip clubs in Vegas ... they are not wearing masks, folks. Heaven help us. All those people are gonna be returning to their hometowns. Corona is going to spike so bad.

"Mike" Jordan ? that's good stuff. You're on fire tonight greg

There is serious discussion in Minnesota (Omar tweet, city council) to abolish police department in Minneapolis. If this happens, maybe we really are at the start of Armageddon. A ruthless, bad political figure in charge (Trump), a horrid disease (covid), fire (riots) and total anarchy (if police forces are dismantled; it would be The Purge every single nite with no cops).

I like your posts but I wish you'd be tougher on the protestors. I went to our rally here Sunday, 2000 people, I didn't get out of my car, was just on the periphery and nobody had masks on. Greg got beat up pretty good on this board for wanting a haircut. When I got my haircut there were 3 people in the building counting me, all wearing masks. I'd like to see more criticism of both the protestors and the medical people who said it was OK to protest. Face it, nobody was going to publicly criticize a protestor for ANY reason, including COVID experts. I mean cmon, the mob protestors are just as selfish COVID wise as anybody else violating a COVID requirement. Those people at our rally could give a flip about covid. I talked to a few and they were furious about Mr. Floyd's death, not caring a BIT bout covid. How bout some negative words about them? p.s. We've had HUGE rallies every day in KC since the murder. Our spike is going to be INCREDIBLE. My contention is they are as bad as the ones who half packed our bowling alley the first night you could bowl legally. But it's cool to blame the bowlers here; not the protestors.

If these protests took place in March or April, it would be a stronger point. Many have been forced to go back to work whether they like it or not...since the beginning of May. Rationally, if 1/3rd or 40% or whatever the number isn’t being careful, it pretty much means you’re eventually assured of getting it, unless you have the ability to stay indoors for another 2-3 months. The Coronavirus task force essentially has been disbanded...and all the headlines are on the economy and especially jobs news and the stock market. Psychologically, there simply wasn’t the stamina to keep this going beyond 8-10 weeks. We’re at double that amount of time here in China, only Grade 6/9/12 students are back in school (and that’s only due to national exams that determine placements for middle school, high school and university)...and the level of precaution and mask wearing is incredible. We still have checkpoints with mobile phone pass codes all over the city, and 8 million residents were tested over 2-3 weeks to find 300 asymptomatic cases at a cost of nearly $125 million. We still can’t even travel to more than a handful of Chinese cities without two week quarantines or massive restrictions. My son went outside for the FIRST time in almost 4 1/2, that’s how serious things are. Whereas in the US, even Dr. Fauci was basically encouraging people to go outside on Memorial Day weekend. As soon as all the GOP-led states outside of MD, MA, IN and OH decided to go in an independent direction...with the only “scolding” being against Kemp in GA for 24 hour news cycle’s worth of going too fast or recklessly, the writing has been on the wall. And you’re now seeing all those SE states, Texas, Heartland, Sunbelt and West being hit hard/er because of that determination to open the country up faster because it just happened to be an election year. Finally, almost none of the police/Secret Service/military police/National Guard have been wearing masks...it’s about a 5 or 6 to 1 ratio of protestors wearing masks to police, if not higher. And they’re disregarding masking guidelines while on paid, government duty...defying the CDC guidance which the President has disobeyed for all but 10-15 minutes behind the scenes at a MI Ford plant.

We’ve been told constantly for the last month that it’s no big deal and it’s over. We’ve more than doubled our average cases per day in this state in the last month and none of that was the protests. Why shouldn’t people in the streets listen to that message? Texas says it’s over. Goddamnit this is why we needed to beat this thing first. It isn’t just the marches outdoors. It’s police trashing masks in Asheville. It’s police herding DC residents into a small house after curfew. It’s police everywhere putting big crowds in holding cells for hours with no protective equipment. I don’t want people getting sick at these, but the police don’t care either, this is a police riot as much as anything. i think this is guaranteed to provoke massive spikes in cases, but that was already underway. Had we beaten this in April, we could have survived these protests. I’m more mad at the person going to a crowded restaurant than the protesters because stay the hell home, that’s optional! But it’s too late. We had to be cheap, we needed to cheer people back to work, and hey, the police need to kill people.

Willfully ignoring what is happening around you is exactly that. Ignorance.

Can't help the ignorant unfortunately.

Kansas City has had 3 straight days of 100+ new cases out of the 5 days in June, setting new highs. Because it takes >5 days for things to show up at levels that can be tested for, these cases were mostly people infected a week to several weeks ago. https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article243274646.html

Kansas City has had several rallies, nightly actually for many consecutive days, in which thounsands of people are crammed in next to each other like a rock concert festival. No government official has said a word about the danger of this regarding corona. Meanwhile, restrictions are still in place for restaurants, etc. It's all a big disgrace. I'd expect cases to spike everywhere and this isn't even the bad time of year for viruses. Wait til September through March. Wow.

Ripping off a Facebook friend's post Man, white folks all over social media are big mad today. It's like they're all uncomfortable and angry about people making assumptions about their character because of their skin color, and I even saw where some of them don't feel safe to go out into the streets because they're white. Man, that must be a b****, huh?

It's almost like you think they owe you something for all you pay for.

It is absolutely family structure. That family structure is a result of 400 years of discrimination and policies designed to make the black family a second class citizen in the United States. Generations of wealth concentrated in one structure doesn't change overnight. Neither do the repercussions of segregation and slavery. People whose lives were stunted due to segregation are still raising families. They still believe the system is stacked against them, and are teaching kids that education is worthless because the system was designed to make them fail. Then they turn on TV and see George Floyd getting choked out by a cop. They see that people with black names on resumes are less likely to get call backs than people with white names. They see themselves as more likely to go to jail for the same crimes than white people are. They see themselves pulled over and harassed more often than white people. The see a rich person commit discrimination, tax fraud and defraud a charity, but get elected President. You want to tell them their life experiences are invalid? I can't anymore. No poverty programs aren't going to push them into a higher social structure. But neither is the bootstraps myth.

It would help if you would realize that the price of not getting people out of poverty IS the price all of the things that you listed. You are using this bootstraps mentality for people who don't have boots.

I'm certain there are some that is to put three meals a day on the table and they feel like they aren't welcome in society. I also believe some have a choice and made a bad one. I find it impossible to paint them all with the same brush. But you seem to not have a problem at all combining them all in one group.

Yep. Punishing gang members without addressing the underlying reasons for gangs existing is counterproductive, and perpetuates poverty. Crime is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is the socioeconomic conditions that push people to become criminals because they can't support themselves legally.

Ah, yes....personal responsibility.....AKA turning societal discrimination of people who aren't your stereotypical white male into a character flaw. Using that argument assumes that everyone is on a level playing field, and that's nowhere near the case. To suggest that it is is naive at best, and perpetuating institutional discrimination at worst.

Hey great. Now welcome to reality. We have built a society of disenfranchisement. There is a significant portion of the United States who literally don't have two parent stability. Many don't even have on around. So then what? As a society we have a choice, you can either pay in childhood to put kids into a position to succeed, or you can spend their adulthood paying for that failure. Incarceration, welfare, or education, pick one. We have generations of adults out there who can't teach their kids to read, let alone how to do math, science or anything that kids need in 2020. Too many kids are already starting from behind. If you forget about them, you build the next welfare generation and prison population.

I agree but allow me a couple observations after seeing both ends of the educational spectrum. I've taught at a very poor school and an affluent school. Poor as in colonias with home build walls, blankets for doors, and a communal water tap with hoses running through windows to provide water. I now teach kids leaving multimillion dollar homes. It's more than valuing education. Poor parents working two jobs to provide food and shelter just can't provide the same level of support as a full time mom. Most of the kids at the poorer school had no one at home to ensure of them doing much of anything. Rich parents hire tutors. College educated parents understand the system and how to get their child into the right colleges. The poor parents just don't have the background. Then there is the pressure on the kids to work at a young age. I taught a lot of migrant kids who basically could go to school from November to April. The rest of the year they were chasing paychecks with the rest of the family. It's what they did to survive. The families valued surviving over everything else. I know you didn't make this implication, but I just wanted to show that it isn't some character failing or shortcoming by the parents. But when so much of your time is spent providing food and shelter, other things, even very important things, just don't get the space they deserve.