Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2017 -> 10:05 AM) On a person's personal information you can get as far as their credit score. On a companies information or even marketplace's information you control the entire market place. Which is more important? The F***?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 22, 2017 -> 09:23 AM) Tens of millions of more people have been covered thanks to the ACA, and people who were already covered had their plans strengthened through things like elimination of lifetime caps and the requirement of coverage of essential health benefits. There were definitely losers of the ACA policy, and LH seems to have fallen into that. On the whole, many more people were helped than were hurt, and crafting good public health policy to benefit people has been a Democratic goal for decades. The ACA can definitely be improved upon, and all Democrats recognize that. The other party is making every attempt they possibly can to throw tens of millions off of insurance and gut patient protections and public health funding. There is no equivalency here. Maybe you don't like what the Democrats are offering, but the Republicans have never even pretended to offer something that would actually improve healthcare in this country. If expanding public health policy so that more people get health care at affordable prices wins Democrats votes, then more power to them. "Doing good things that people like" should win you elections. Republicans are instead hyperfocused on passing a bill that has sub-20% approval and even they admit is horrible policy that they don't like and have no good reason to vote for beyond "we campaigned for years on repealing Obamacare." The major problem I see with most of the complaints about costs or losses of choice is that the plans that did go away overwhelmingly had huge holes in them. That is one thing the ACA did that left fewer people with available coverage - requiring plans that actually covered stuff. t99% of the people on a plan that had a giant gaping hole for coverage of some particular issue would not need coverage for that issue and would be fine with that cheaper plan, but 1% of them would be ruined if they came down with that issue. If you personally weren't that person, then you're fine with the cheaper plan, but that's not "insurance", it's luck. That's where losers were created - costs went up and choices did go down in parts of the individual market because you can no longer offer a cheaper plan where people gamble on what diseases they won't get - you have to sell insurance plans that have insurance in them. I'd wait for an argument about what we should do with policies that don't cover a syndrome and then we have people with those policies that come down with them. Did their luck just run out and now the taxpayer or hospital has to bear the costs? Neither of those should be acceptable. That and health care costs have been rising above the rate of inflation for 40 years so until you perfectly control that part, the rising costs hurts everyone.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2017 -> 09:08 AM) This is so much bigger than the Equifax hack, but is getting so much less publicity. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/busines...m=.e0dc5d9c955b It affects corporate profits and that's more important than the financial stability of 150 million people Yes, big deal, just noting your instinctive judgement about priorities.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 21, 2017 -> 11:55 AM) Just keep it legal and safe or you should be arrested if u are protesting. Are you in favor in any instance of disrupting traffic or breaking businesses' windows? Please answer. The minute a person is blocked from getting to the hospital because of illegal protesting or a business has to rebuild because of protestors ... that's just wrong. Also at any moment you or a loved one can take a bottle to the head. it happens. This is real life and it is wrong. And yet you just wrote that your argument for why people shouldn't legally and safely protest during the National Anthem was eloquent. Which of your statements would you like to support?

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 21, 2017 -> 07:31 PM) Don't really get why you leave him in for additional hitters when something is clearly bothering him Catcher came out to mound after the first pitch. Guessing he said he'd see how it was. Blister or fingernail or something like that.

Volstad coming in.

Blister im guessing, kept looking at his hand

Somebody is already getting loose in the white six bullpen

Hi from section 232 down the right field line, row 1, by the foul pole.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 05:39 PM) StrangeSox/GoSox, I'm not going to defend Trump here because he's in the wrong, but what actions would you take if you were the President and North Korea started launching nukes our way? Depending on what is meant by "our way", obviously you vaporize the entire country before they are able to launch any more. This is a nuclear holocaust scenario you've set up. The only way to win is not to play.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 04:59 PM) Todd Frazier hit a foul ball that hit a young girl today. Hopefully she is ok, but it pisses me off when parents bring really young kids, let alone babies, to games and sit that close. It's time they have netting in every park. No excuses, MLB. It's time. Where were they sitting? Closer in than dugout?

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 05:20 PM) Trust your ticket and not my memory,lol. I think Fulmer should be pitching tomorrow night. I couldn't make it Tuesday for a different meeting, and given the choice between Shields pitching and Fulmer pitching...well, one of those was more interesting.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 05:17 PM) I'm not supporting any of the current Republican plans. I'm arguing against all these blanket statements that Republicans are out to only help their friends and kill everyone else while Democrats care about the health of every American from the bottom of their heart. No, the ACA helped their poor constituents and their rich friends, while taking away health benefits and access from many of the people in the middle and small businesses. And how many workers had hours cut or lost their jobs due to the ACA. But it's all about which party is right, not what the right thing to do is. So yes, a couple groups showed small shifts towards more part time work, but those same groups also were groups that increased their income subsidies by shifting that way, leaving them basically even of perhaps better off if they were on Medicaid.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 04:57 PM) You probably follow this stuff more than me, but I've yet to read anything linking their conversations/contacts with Russian agents to conspiracy to influence our elections. That's where you've skipped over into conspiracy land IMO. Manafort and Flynn made impermissible/illegal contact, but to what end we don't yet know. And in fact, it seems like this Manafort stuff is about his work in Ukraine, before he became involved in the Trump campaign. The main detail we're missing right now is this one. The Russians were able to buy Facebook ads and use social media to directly, precisely target areas in Michigan and Pennsylvania where they would have the most impact. No one seems to think they would be able to spend their money supporting Donald Trump very precisely if they did not have access to non-public voter information, the sort that party committees keep and build upon every election. Jared Kushner was involved in the Trump campaign's social media advertising "Microtargeting" campaign, that was doing the exact same sort of data processing and targeting of small groups that the Russians were able to make use of with their FB ad purchases and "Fake News" social media campaigns. Every time one of these statements about how the Russians were spending money or organizing FB groups of Trump supporters comes out - that's information it would be difficult for the Russians to have if they didn't have access through the campaign. That doesn't mean it's impossible - if so, then that means the Russians know more about how to control a US election than the US does and that should be the sort of thing terrifying anyone who isn't a Russian agent (they could decide they want the other party to win next time in exchange for something else. We might want to be scared of that). But for now, active collaboration as part of a trade/payback, where the Russians are leaking emails they hacked and targeting voters with that information using campaign information in exchange for a promise of sanctions relief is one way to make it happen. And that's why the reports of Facebook being questioned by Mueller's group is important.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 04:40 PM) Yeah, I was juuust a few miles off on the location of tonight's game but closer on the weather. I'm in section 232 in the front row tomorrow night, so the location better be here

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 04:39 PM) Thing is no one that I've read/heard actually thinks Trump did any of this personally. And given the massive leaks that came out of his admn from even before he took office, i'd honestly be very shocked if any evidence came out that he did. I think it's worth noting how strategic the leaks have been. It wasn't leaked that Manafort was under surveillance since 2014 until yesterday when, at the same time, it was leaked that indictments are coming for him. They also leaked that there was a FISA warrant, so anything taped is actually admissible in court. This sure looks like a person who is running an investigation trying to make it publicly known that they have his conversations on tape so that the people on the other side of those conversations knows they are implicated in a counterintelligence operation and can face charges if they do not cooperate. That wasn't leaked at all until yesterday. I do think though that Donald Trump was told back in February, and that may have contributed to the "Obama wiretapped me!" claim on twitter. Entirely plausible that they did intercept some of his communications...legally, with a FISA warrant, and anything Donald Trump said in those conversations would be similarly admissible in court.

QUOTE (KagakuOtoko @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 04:34 PM) Obviously the investigation is still ongoing but what if and I am saying what if, they find Trump was involved with the Russians on the suspected level people claim? Do his supporters still back him? Civil War? This is genuine question. As with 2k5 yesterday, the Wall Street Journal today is sounding the alarm about spying on Republicans during the 2016 race. Regardless of whether or not they were wrapping themselves up in criminals and people under surveillance as foreign agents and the surveillance was legal and not ordered by any politician and anything obtained with a FISA warrant is admissable. If a tape comes out of Donald Trump personally offering the Russians sanctions relief in exchange for criminal acts, the Republicans will suddenly have huge hangups about the FISA court procedure. As you can see earlier today, they're already ok with the Russians contributing advertising funds and organizing events for them.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 10:21 AM) Not at all actually because Harvey is a free agent after next year along with Machado. Not advocating for Harvey though unless the Mets gave him away for basically nothing which they could do if they are trying to win next year. I am basically expecting Harvey to be non-tendered.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 04:33 PM) Ha ha. I missed last nights game so I forgot they were in Houston. DoH! It'll still be somewhat humid, I can promise that, but temperature controlled

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 04:31 PM) As a baseball fan I feel for the Tiger's fans that have to watch such a bad team that will probably be worse next year. As a Sox fan I say f*** em. Ha Ha ! Good news is Shields has to face that Houston offense on what will be a warm humid evening. I really think Shields stands a very good chance of completely s***ting the bed. After tonight's game the Sox will have one more with Houston and three with KC. Meanwhile Detroit hosts the Twinkies for four games starting tomorrow. s***, f***ing Detroit just might snatch that #1 out from under the rest of the cellar dwellers. Pricks... You realize it's a dome right?

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 04:11 PM) Serious question - what do any of the Republican plans do for you? Maybe you can get catastrophe coverage, so you pay lower premiums, but less is covered? Or am I missing something? I don't think you will find many people in this forum who think that the ACA is perfect. I think you will find a lot of people in this forum that think government's involvement in health care should be to expand access and reduce cost. Rather than working to fix the ACA, Republicans have continually pushed policies over the last year that will reduce the number of people covered, and will not lower the cost of coverage. They take us back to 2009 in preexisting conditions except with less money for Medicaid. Uniformly. They throw in other things like "state waivers" to allow states to take the blame for which things are covered and which aren't, but the basic premise is that of 2009. If you get sick, you better be wealthy enough to deal with it, if you're not it's your own fault and you will be a person the system no longer deals with, and that's how we will control costs.

QUOTE (flavum @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 02:00 PM) Twins suck in NY no matter the roster. Can we just skip to Astros-Indians and Nationals-Dodgers and send everyone else home? You're already giving the Astros the series over Boston? I'm not.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 19, 2017 -> 06:03 PM) Am I wrong to be surprised that every time they come back with a new bill, it is somehow worse than the previous bill that everyone found to be evil and cruel? Evil and Cruel is what every Republican other than Donald Trump has campaigned on since 2009. The wrong people are getting covered. Health Care is a privilege, not a right. Sure we will take away your health insurance backup plan, but we'll also take it away from those undeserving blah people. This has been their platform every single election. They will cut health insurance costs by reducing the things health insurance covers and making sure expensive people receive no coverage unless they are rich enough to pay for it on their own.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 18, 2017 -> 10:17 PM) Wow. I endorse my post. Well written IMO. Heartfelt. At least you fully endorse your statement that black people shouldn't protest anything that is important to you.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 20, 2017 -> 01:15 PM) I know but Kim said the same thing, that he'd destroy the USA. USA is just responding with the same rhetoric. Hopefully it won't happen. Once nuclear war begins like I said we won't be worrying about the Sox No. 1 draft pick. There will be no more sports once nuclear fallout hits, etc. Kim did the same thing and there's no outrage? Look up his exact words about terror or whatever he said. I mean Kim is the one firing up missiles. If one is nuclear and there's an accident and it hits Japan, we're all f***ed. Like I said the time to really worry I guess is when Trump tells all Americans to get out of S. Korea and Japan. this isn't good, folks, none of it.Like I said before, Trump and Kim are both crazy enough to be the ones who start the end of the world as we know it. We've never had a loose cannon like Trump in there before. This is scary. Then we should receive the same economic sanctions as a rogue state threatening war that have been given to North Korea.