Balta1701

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Nov 10, 2017 -> 12:58 PM) Outside of the Packers vs Bears Thursday night game, I haven't watched one Thursday night game this year. I actually think they might get rid of it at some point. Players and teams hate it and I don't fans care that much for it either. I take surveys through a couple websites while I'm sitting here and every week it seems I get a survey from the NFL that has a bunch of questions about the quality of Thursday night games. I honestly say I've watched them for like 20 minutes this year and only when a team I care about is playing, and that it's usually the worst game of the week. They keep asking this.

SS, since there's no link I don't know who wrote that. Ellen Page?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 10, 2017 -> 10:43 AM) I don't think so since it's mostly s***ting all over Moore and the Alabama GOP's response. The D and R threads have been intended for more partisan posting, not necessarily posting news about D or R. If someone wants to defend Moore I'm happy to let that be in the other thread.

Still me remaining provincial, but the Senate plan does not destroy graduate education in the United States as the House does.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 05:56 PM) The joke is on Trump, huge chunks of Puerto Rico are now moving into the mainland US. So instead of fixing the problem there, thousands of people are moving into the continental 48 where they will do things like vote against him. The Joke's on you for thinking that. They're brown and we have ways to stop that. Puerto Rican birth certificates from before 2010 won't get you a valid voter ID and the government that could replace those documents has been destroyed.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 06:38 PM) They're all old allegations past the statute of limitations and Trump has discovered that if you have no shame, you won't be held accountable. He did win the Presidency after bragging about getting away with sexually assaulting women because he's rich and famous, after all. There were some follow-up stories with them post-Weinstein https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oc...arvey-weinstein He is facing one lawsuit that has brought out subpoenas, but given that he's got the legal staff of a billionaire and of the Republican party that will be tied up in the courts for years even if they can prove every ounce of the case. That lawsuit was filed back during the campaign. (I wonder why more women didn't come forwards to spend 5 years litigating the case sooner).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 06:18 PM) At their base, that is what all of these scandals have in common. People in positions of power abusing those positions to feed their sexual appetites, then using that power to bury any threats that come out of those activities. Meanwhile people who view their circle as being more important than anything else they talk about (equal rights or God as the case may be, etc) use it as an opportunity to beholden themselves to the original offender(s) by finding ridiculous excuses to defend said behavior. While the offenders are absolutely horrible people, the secondary group that sells out everything to defend the offenders is almost worse because they have absolutely no spine at all. I can't say I know all the literature on this, but "Feed their sexual appetites" is sometimes a poor description of the psychology of this, compared to the feeling of dominance and power involved.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 01:39 PM) sounds like there's some allegations coming down the pipe about Louis C.K. His was the first name I saw tweeted after the Weinstein thing broke.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 01:34 PM) Even still, saying it happens "about once a year" when the reality is that it happens about once a day demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of this issue. I don't think it is, I think it's a fair assessment of how this is treated. Last week a guy walked into a Walmart in Colorado, pulled out a gun, and randomly shot 3 people. That shooting isn't even being counted by the official "mass shooting list" because he only shot 3 people and the cutoff is 4. That's a normal Wednesday in this country. It didn't get flags at half staff or a statement from the President. The ones big enough to talk about happen once or twice a year, we send our thoughts and prayers and do nothing afterwards. The next day, some place that has a flag at half staff will have 3 people shot and it might not even be above the fold in the newspaper. 3 people being shot is not a big deal.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 11:17 AM) edit: wonder if this would apply to athletic scholarships, too No. We're specifically talking about "Graduate tuition fellowships". A scholarship is a different beast in a legal sense. That's why we're talking about this hitting graduate students rather than undergraduates. A number of people are sitting around brainstorming about whether or not tuition waivers from graduate students could be converted into something akin to scholarships in order to get around this, but that may depend on the final text of the law, so people pointing out "You will destroy any industry that relies on an educated workforce with this tax bill" before the final language is written is fairly important. I'm a geologist. From my perspective, this will destroy the workforce of the oil and gas industry. Something like 1/2 our graduates get masters degrees and go into those sorts of fields. None of them are independently wealthy.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 02:19 PM) In the 9 days of November 2017 thus far, there have been 8 mass shootings in the United States. In 2017 thus far, there have been 307 mass shootings in the United States. What on Earth do you mean by "we only get a shooting once a year or so"? Unless 25+ people are gunned down, it's so normal that we don't hear about it any more, and we only get one of those every few months.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 01:20 PM) And with where contracts have gone, you might be looking at $70 to $80 million for him. That's the premium you pay for a guy who can pitch you through the world series next year if you have a good enough team around him.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 02:19 PM) White Sox not even mentioned... no big surprise there. Well, not as a suitor...

They started the ask for Chris Davis at $200m and wound up at what, $150?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 10:11 AM) Frazier is a FA. Clint

I don't know if this is helpful at all for the folks who got hit by the CSR removal, but just in case it is:

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Nov 9, 2017 -> 02:11 AM) I'm surprised we haven't seen anybody launching a bunch of homemade pipebombs with shrapnel into huge crowds yet. I'm also surprised that out of 320+ million people living in this country we only get a shooting once a year or so. Speaks volumes to what an absolutely wonderful place this is to live. Just like anywhere else in the world we have some crazies. But our crazies barely ever do damage. Sure sucks when they do though. Just mind-boggling that only 1 out of 150+ million adults per year gets pissed off enough to go out and do something horrible to random people. Now gang violence, revenge, general homocide will always happen, guns or no guns. And somebody pissed off enough to want to kill 50 people will clearly be determined enough to find a way without his little ar15. Bombs is when it gets scary. Can't outlaw homemade bombs and I'm thankful nobody is doing that. The F***?

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 09:15 PM) Nope, your tangent was ridiculous and you’re overlooking both the intent (murder vs. accident) and the type of weapons used (handguns vs. assault rifles w/ high capacity clips) in these incidents. And then you go and show your true douchey colors by calling guns a “giant unlocked penis enlarger”. There is absolutely nothing wrong with owning a normal gun for self defense, hunting, or sport. Nothing whatsoever. But people like you who think they know what’s right for everyone in this world will continue to tell us otherwise and we’ll never make progress in this area. Really sucks being a liberal and seeing your party of choice completely lose its power because the Brian Balta’s of the world scare off the more moderate base. Honestly, you’re equally as bad as the right-wing extremists. And if "self defense" is actually a claim disproven by data, which it consistently is, then the fact that you included that is nothing but an appeal to how good it makes you feel. It's literally "I won't listen to anything else because this makes me feel powerful". You know what else makes people feel powerful? Owning an AR-15 or AK knockoff. Hence the douchy insult, which unfortunately is totally deserved. I'm going to protect my family by holding this lit stick of dynamite. No one will attack us then. And I can't foresee any issues with that. Until we challenge that mindset, the willingness to look the other way because you feel better, we will not do anything about this. Because the AR-15 is the ultimate expression of that.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 06:55 PM) Good god Balta, are you really trying to make a connection between the execution-style murder of children to accidental shootings that are the result of dumb parents not keeping their guns in secure spaces? Again, people like you are the reason we can’t make any progress with gun controls. In both cases it is people who should not have access to guns but do. The connection is not tough. These are both people who are assumed to be responsible gun owners and they are ok doing so until someone ends up dead. We should not have to put up with either of these things, but in both cases the giant unlocked penis enlarger is more important.

QUOTE (IowaSoxFan @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 06:37 PM) Theres probably not a huge market for a corner OF this offseason if you take the Royals and Indians out. Other than that you are probably looking at the Orioles, Cardinals, Giants, and Rangers. The Cardinals have some interesting names like Sierra and Alcantara. The rest of the farm systems are pretty meh. The outfielders on the market aren't going to light the world on fire. After JD martinez, there's a group containing Cain, Jay Bruce, Carlos Gomez, Melky Cabrera, and a lot of backups even worse than that. Other than JD, there's no one on there that you're going to call a difference maker nearly as much as Avi.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 04:40 PM) I get that, but how does selling CNN help, that is the major problem im seeing with the alleged offer from the DOJ. If they sell CNN, youd still have the same problem. How many networks does Time Warner own? They've got a good solid chunk of that business too right? Such that once AT&T buys them, they not only own all the TV providers but a large chunk of the networks?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 05:25 PM) Bono has tons and tons of tax shelters per the Paradise Papers Yeah I saw that. I do wonder how much it is possible, if you have wealth in the 9-10 figures, it is to actually avoid such things. But sad.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 04:00 PM) Lol well this isn’t where I saw this story going I had to reread 3x to make sure there was no allegation against the Edge in there. That would disappoint me in humanity greatly.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 04:05 PM) I dont know enough about the case, but I cant figure out the equivalence of the request. I was under the impression ATT offered cable/television outside of Direct TV, so I dont really see what Direct TV has anything to do with the merger and its not equivalent to CNN's parent company. Also dont know enough about ATT, but do they own other cable channels/networks? DirecTV and Time Warner Cable are direct competitors for television viewers in any market where TW is the main cable provider. If those 2 merge, then you have both companies under the same crappy AT&T headline and they dominate the entire market in those areas. While AT&T does offer its own packages - in every place where Time Warner operates, DirecTV is a competitor of theirs.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 8, 2017 -> 04:44 PM) Out on their own and not with ATT and the rest of Time Warner probably would weaken them. They aren't selling Direct TV, so the administration basically is telling them to sell the unit that includes CNN or else. Maybe it's justified. I have no idea. But the thought of it being political is definitely there. The first article I read suggested that the DOJ might turn around and ask them to sell DirecTV. Oh god please yes. AT&T has made that service go downhill so rapidly it's unbelievable. let them devastate time warner, everyone hates that company already.