TaylorStSox

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Aug 21, 2017 -> 10:49 AM) This is me watching now. I've decided to suspend disbelief and just treat Sunday nights as movie night. Too bad there's an obscene, pointless wait to finish this thing up. I'm the exact same way.

One thing I've personally enjoyed was Beric and Thoros were my favorite characters from the books and they got a ton of screen time. I always thought it was so bad ass that they were out looking for the Mountain for years based on Ned's orders, even though the politics had changed so much over that time.

I thought the episode was really bad. It seems like they're just trying to get it over with. I don't blame them for that though.

People just suck.

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Aug 17, 2017 -> 03:10 PM) Even the walks have stopped. He's one for his last twenty with 10 strike outs and no walks. He's not struggling, he's drowning. Anyone still convinced he'll climb out of this is deluded. You don't have to take the exact opposite point either, but now it's time to seriously consider that Moncada is a complete and total bust. It has gotten so bad that the Buxton comparisons are starting to look generous. I hope he turns it around, but watching him play leaves almost zero room for encouragement. This post is sig-worthy. I'm keeping it. You better hope Moncada never becomes a stud. You won't forget it.

That makes me want to comp Moncada to Tim Raines, the original Henderson lite.

Moncada has Rickey Henderson lite potential. He'll never steal as many bases, but Rickey Henderson is the 2nd best baseball player I've ever seen.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 17, 2017 -> 09:51 AM) I could buy into that comp. Vazquez almost had too much movement on his pitches, and would go through stretches where he couldn't locate and consistently throw for strikes. Lopez seems to have ridiculous amounts of movement even on his fastball. I was always convinced Vazquez had some confidence issues. He would go through long stretches where he just didn't want to challenge hitters.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 16, 2017 -> 03:55 PM) Well, one obvious point that's going to keep getting hammered is that if Moncada doesn't end up better than Benintendi or Devers, it would at least be huge for Burger to hit so that a huge chunk of change doesn't have to be spent on Machado or Arenado. We've needed a premier 3b for so long, and to watch the numbers he's putting up in the big leagues and Tatis' ascent (yet another projected 3b) are both pretty frustrating developments. On the other hand, a lot of the potential superstars that were unattainable a year ago would have turned out to be pretty lousy acquisitions as well. One thing we DO need is the Dodgers' evaluator who nailed Chris Taylor, Justin Turner and Alex Wood...not to mention targeting Bellinger and "Kyle's brother." That's a 25+ point fwar swing, almost. We've hit the point in the thread where I don't even know what you're trying to say anymore.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 16, 2017 -> 11:00 AM) I see the same thing happen on the left such as when workers in unions for things like steel and autos vote for people who want to bankrupt their companies with higher environmental regulations and free trade agreements that would send their jobs overseas to workers getting pennies on the dollar. The reason you see this is because no person is fully represented by one party. It isn't a buffet where you can pick and choose your candidates positions one by one. It is more like your cable company where your options are Bundle A or Bundle B, even though you hate 90% of the channels in each bundle. The cable analogy is excellent.

It's an instant gratification culture. Look at the minor league board. Literally every game thread has a post about promoting/demoting a player. Literally every single one. It's pretty hilarious if you just read them for updates.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 14, 2017 -> 12:16 PM) Why can everyone else travel from one side of the continent and back in the same time it's taking the Night King to march from Hardhome. He's got to go about 1/50th of the distance. This will help you out for the rest of your movie-watching/book-reading days: In stories, time isn't always linear.

Barric, Thoros, The Hound, Jon Snow, Jorah, Gendry and Tormund all on a ranging together is GOT porn.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 03:19 PM) The number one predictor of whether someone supported Trump wasn't economic position. Plenty of poor and working class didn't fall for his con or decided that the extreme bigotry and hate was too much of a price to pay for the bs he was selling. You can continue to attack the people that voted for Trump and compound the cultural schism. As a liberal, I choose to look for reasons a monster like Trump was able to win the presidency. It's a shame the Democratic party refuses to do the same, instead of trying to name villains. I refuse to believe a large portion of Trump voters chose him because he's racist. The people that swayed the election were the working poor who've become completely disenfranchised with the Washington elite.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 02:24 PM) I think it's totally fair to hold people accountable for those who voted for economic progress over race/social issues. Isn't that how the Nazis gained power in the first place? Ya got hungry kids you struggle to feed?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 11:12 AM) It's not exclusive to the GOP. However, it is much more of a problem there. I don't know how you can look at the campaign Trump ran and the policies and actions he's taken as president while maintaining strong Republicans approval and go both sides here. Just look at the Justice department. Ending civil rights reviews of police departments. Ramping up incarceration. Ramping up the way on drugs. Enabling minority voter disenfranchisement. While liberals and the Democratic party are far from perfect in race, the imbalance between the two parties here is staggering. Just like in Chicago, where we'll continue to vote for crooked, racist democrats no matter what.

Let's not pretend all these upper class liberal politicians aren't just as bad. Hillary hasn't hung out with a black person that wasn't on the payroll or a member of the social elite for 40 years. You think a movie like Get Out was an allegory of conservative racism? No. It was commentary on the racism that exists among the liberal elite. I'm gong into Caulfield territory now. My apologies.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 10:57 AM) Not just from "economic anxiety" as plenty of middle and upper class suburban Republicans voted for him. Lots and lots of Trump signs back in September and October in front of 500k+ homes in Mokena, Frankfort, etc. What would it take for you guys to see and acknowledge a significant problem with racism in the GOP base? Upper-class rebuplicans didn't win Trump the election. That's just dumb.

What we're really looking at is a global issue. Unfortunately, the democrats are too interested in playing politics, and frankly it affects their constituents as well, so they aren't like to address the issue either. The real problem is a class problem. The real malady is the loss of the middle class. There simply aren't opportunities for the non college educated workforce. This issue is going to grow exponentially in the coming years as automation increases. This is the reason zealots like Trump and Alex Jones gain followers. People are scared about their lack of opportunities. This creates opportunities for these idiots to rise up and gain power. I'm not downplaying racism. Racism has existed since the beginning of time. It's not the driving force behind the angst though.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 10:50 AM) He was nominated by the base in large part thanks to his xenophobia and racism. Plenty of polling on where Trump supporters throughout the primary and the general bear this out. Refusing to hold anyone accountable for supporting, or at least not having that as a bright line, is part of the problem of politics in this country. Misdiagnosing political trends or causes is still not equivalent to neo Nazis, and that sort of both sidesism is also part of the same problem of accountability. Where does this xenophobia come from?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 10:38 AM) Yes, clearly saying people who voted for Trump are okay with Trump's ideology is just as bad as neo Nazis. Weren't you just complaining about ridiculous false equivalencies? You're bending over backwards to create this narrative that does nothing but continue to disenfranchise people. Why don't you focus on the reasons this idiot was elected instead of trying to label them.

StrangeSox's bs narrative is just as dangerous as the bs spewed by these neo conservative idiots.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 10:23 AM) It doesn't mean you completely support everything he's done, but it means you're okay with it and he never crossed a personal line that meant he went too far to lose your support. It means if you live in the Rust Belt, in an area with a crippled economy and no middle class jobs, you're more than likely willing to vote for a bigot if he's promising to bring jobs back. This is the unfortunate reality for some. Those few swayed the election. It doesn't mean those people support racism. It means they valued feeding their family over social issues.

I'm certainly not conservative, but the rhetoric in this thread over the last few pages is nauseating. Trump is an idiot and bigot, but people vote for idiots all the time because they fall on the side of one of their values. That doesn't mean you completely support all their values. All these false equivalence rants in this thread read like angsty drunken prose. I know both neo nazis and antifas. It kind of happens when you have friends associated with punk and hardcore. They both suck. Both groups are filled with misguided, young, priveldged white males that are disenfranchised for reasons they don't even understand.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 11, 2017 -> 06:06 PM) You make some good points, Dick Allen. If this were the 60s do you think the mafia would take out Trump? There's no way you're a real person. I refuse to believe it.