Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 05:51 PM) At the end of the day, China's economy is propped up on US goodwill. If they start shooting at our planes, and we quit buying cheap Chinese crap in the process, the Chinese economy goes down the toilet, and probably takes the government with it. That is why China isn't scary. Of course, "taking down the government" of a power armed with several hundred nuclear weapons might be scary for other reasons.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 02:22 PM) Seems like we were pushing a confrontation. It's stuff like this that must keep a president up at night. It seems like CHina is pushing a confrontation as well.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 01:16 PM) Myth: JR is a good owner. This was a highly detailed, well laid out, convincing logical argument.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 09:36 AM) Well that gets back to the whole "chained CPI" argument. The argument against that is two-fold: one, we should be increasing these benefits anyway, but two, the cost-of-living for retirees doesn't track the general COL increase because healthcare costs are rising faster than anything else and represent a significant expense to the older retiree segment of the population. What that really tells me is that deciding whether or not it needs a "fix" can wait a decade+ until we actually know whether or not US Health Care costs have stabilized and we know whether or not we're going to have a permanent, untouchable upper class.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 09:28 AM) When I vote, I actually DO act on it with my vote. If I think a democratic candidate deserves the job, especially when this decision can be made on past performance, I'll vote for them, same goes for I's and R's. I'm still annoyed with the Indiana Republicans, Re: Lugar.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 05:35 PM) I understand that my specific scenarios were inaccurate, however it still would be possible. He could potentially take a pay cut, much like "The Big Three" did in Miami. Trades could also be made to make this happen. It's unrealistic, but possible. If he's going to lose his mind and take a pay cut...great, then that makes him even cheaper and it wouldn't change the fact that the Bulls would be in a position to have an incredibly profitable season. In fact, it would likely make the Bulls even more profitable over the following years.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 05:22 PM) Well, I said IF our money was shared, but it's not. And what do you mean? How does it work, then? If you're referring to the Bulls not being able to afford Melo, they could just amnesty Boozer and let Deng walk. The phrase "That would be quite a contract". Yes it would compared to my earning power, but the NBA is a capped league with max contracts. You can already write down what the contract amount would be that the Bulls would be able to offer Carmelo Anthony. It's about 4/$95. For the Bulls to be able to offer that contract, they would have to be in a position where their total team payroll for next year was $35 million or less. That would, btw, take more than letting Deng and Boozer walk. So yes the contract would be expensive, but the Bulls would be in a position to rake in tons of money if they were able to offer it, since they'd have very little money on the books for next year and there's no way they could get into luxury tax areas.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 04:51 PM) If won't affect us, but IF our money was shared with the Bulls, it could potentially hurt us in July. Maybe someone like Melo would want to come here so that they could be 1 and Rose could be 1A. That would be quite the contract there. That's not how the NBA works, but whatever.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 04:08 PM) They won 45 last year without Rose and the East is much worse. 35 wins might make the playoffs at this rate. They also won several playoff games without Rose, Deng or Hinrich. Basically everyone on the roster has to be traded or die for them to win less than 35 with how awful the league is. Based on their health the last couple seasons...it might only take 1 trade for everyone on the team to be traded or dead.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 02:34 PM) Using current projections, if absolutely nothing is done, benefits will be reduced to ~77% of what's required by statute in 2033 (this changes yearly when the trustees publish their reports because there's a lot of assumptions that go into 75 year projections). I'd like to see the payroll tax cap eliminated and SS expanded, but it will still be around when we go to retire. It is worth pointing out that 77% of what is required in 2033 would actually be a larger amount of benefits than paid out today due to the fact that OASDI increases at a rate greater than that of inflation under the thought that if the country is becoming more prosperous it should be reflected in how we treat the elderly.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 01:42 PM) Both. They won't agree to a fix, and it will thus run out of money. I mean... shut down anyone? The 2013 version of the House Republican budget, written by Paul Ryan, raises the age for full benefits to 70 and, importantly, takes Social Security out of being its own program and puts it in the general fund so that it is no longer secure or funded via its own revenue stream. That's on top of very large additional cuts (with the excess funds from the payroll tax used to fund high-level tax cuts) The 2012 version fully privatized it. Both of these versions were passed by the House Republicans. I'll leave it to you to figure out whether that constitutes "shutting it down".

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 08:58 AM) Some team might want Boozer. If you appreciate what he is and not what you think he should be, he isn't a bad player. But since he's signed for 2 years, people will look at him in trades and focus on being stuck paying for him next year. How many solid teams are there who would be willing to take that hit, lose $15 million they could spend on the FA market next offseason or push themselves $15 million closer to the tax line next year while simultaneously giving up at least a useful expiring deal?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 08:36 AM) While they can amnesty him, trading him does cancel out having to pay him the difference between his contract and what another team is willing to pay him. There still is a financial obligation. It just isn't counted against the cap. But it requires the Bulls to take on whatever bad contract is being sent back unless you're getting a currently-expiring deal, and a "high dollar currently expiring deal" has significant value to teams trying to get under the cap this year, so acquiring Boozer would hurt that. The Bulls would probably have to send something along like a draft pick to sweeten the deal there.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Nov 24, 2013 -> 07:30 PM) I can't find the article that I believe "Dayan" posted that talked about how they weren't "passing" on 2014, and it went along with what Bucket has said at the beginning of the offseason. They will keep saying that but their actions say something else. Their actions so far say "we have a team that can win if literally everything goes right". They let the guy pass already who would have filled their biggest remaining hole at a contract that doesn't seem extremely unreasonable if they wanted to compete this year (McCann). They aren't "passing" on it but they're not "all in".

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Nov 24, 2013 -> 06:11 PM) Boozer, I don't know. You're probably going to have to take on someone's headache. I'd call it extremely unlikely that they would trade Boozer and frankly it's probably a bad idea to take back someone else's bad contract to do so. Boozer can still be amnestied this offseason. Anyone they take back for Boozer cannot be amnestied (and any team that trades for Boozer also cannot amnesty him). To the Bulls he's almost an expiring contract in the sense that he won't be in the way next year if they don't want him to be.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Nov 24, 2013 -> 05:29 PM) Well, time for swift decision making by the front office. Their "core" needs to be redefined. Time to cut the cord on Deng, Boozer and strongly consider Taj and Noah. My problem with that is knowing this front office, I know they will just hunker down and say "we can still do this" If I were in their chair, I'd guess they'd try to get themselves under the luxury tax this year, I just don't know how they could get rid of that much money. That's the real first trick.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Nov 24, 2013 -> 05:45 PM) All signs point to Rick wanting to compete next year. Bringing in Headley and extending him makes that even more realistic. "All signs" like them saying they're going to make a big, "all in" jump in payroll and kicking Konerko to the curb?

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 24, 2013 -> 05:14 PM) Of course, if Derrick/his doctors think he should come back in the last month of the season as part of his rehab, there's no reason to stop him from doing that. HA!

And it's a tie!

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 24, 2013 -> 04:00 PM) I can't find a source on the latter part (details on the surgery) llink

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Nov 24, 2013 -> 02:58 PM) Also, as an aside, want to know why the wage earning middle class votes conservative they way do? (of course, worth pointing out that by any reasonable definition of "Middle Class" based on economics, Obama won that demographic)

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Nov 24, 2013 -> 09:52 AM) Ewww.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 24, 2013 -> 12:54 PM) People have a hard time accepting the amount of damage that a single loon can do. LHO acting alone is the simplest, cleanest explanation. The other big thing in this case is that we lost the shooter so rapidly. He couldn't give decades of prison interviews about why, he coudln't write a book about why.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Nov 23, 2013 -> 08:55 PM) I think it'd be smart for the front office to protect Rose at all cost this time around. Meaning overstate the severity and the recovery time if they have to. I can't imagine how the fans would react if Rose returns after the ASB and the typical recovery time for normal tear is 8 weeks. Somehow I don't have much reason to think that "coming back too early" will be part of the problem here.