StrangeSox

Sean Hannity helping Trump to stoke the "the election is rigged!" fires. In August. Trump interview with WaPo. You have to read this full transcript to appreciate it.

Some not so great news for the exchanges: Aetna Backs Off Plans to Expand Its ACA Business Health insurer’s moves underscore concerns about stability of insurance marketplaces

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 09:33 AM) No I get that, that's obviously a huuuuge problem of his, but he's also (despite the things he says) a somewhat intelligent human being. You would think someone can connect the dots for him: you keep saying and doing these things, you're losing any shot you have at the Presidency. Some more news on this from yesterday:

heh heh yes, once.

QUOTE (Tex @ Aug 3, 2016 -> 06:53 AM) On the sad note: A lower profile Dem nominee without all the publicity and lifetime in the spotlight of Hillary would have the easiest time getting elected since Carter - Reagan for the GOP. Nobody's ever going to see that sort of EV margin again thanks to the ideological realignment over the last 36 years since that happened, but Clinton's looking like she'll be right around Obama's 2012 numbers which were pretty solid. But that's the GOP paradox: a normal middle-of-the-road Republican can't make it out of the primary without going so hard-right that they face a very difficult uphill battle in the general, and that's without taking into account the moderate EV advantage that the Democrats have baked in right now. The Onion has to be pretty mad that Trump's been stealing all of their headlines lately.

A summary of Trump's campaign just from yesterday:

QUOTE (Tony @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 09:59 PM) Trump is now against wind energy because it kills birds. He's not going to make it until November. He's against wind energy because he lost a battle over people building some wind turbines off the coast of one of his golf courses. His tall buildings probably kill more birds a year than wind turbines do, but he's not the first one to make that ridiculous argument.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 07:29 PM) Indians are 17 games over .500. If no one was injured and everyone played at or above career averages it's conceivable we'd be within striking distance!

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 05:31 PM) The White Sox are pretty lucky to have anyone left to tell other fans how to act/behave. The Score guys were doing the exact same thing yesterday afternoon....everyone questioning the front office or ownership was told quite bluntly...why be a fan of that team if it bothers you so much or you don't trust them to make the right decisions? Well, that leads to the whole point of fandom...none of us started following the White Sox franchise because of the ownership group or GM, it's because of the uniform itself, and the players who wear that jersey. So I'll have to disagree on that point, that just because you don't believe in the front office or JR means you have to stop being a fan of the team itself. That's pretty much ridiculous. This is a solid post, thank you

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 05:26 PM) You could probably focus your energy on something other than telling people how to be a fan as well. I have to say I sincerely enjoyed someone using their friends kids birth defect to make a point about how to post on soxtalk.com

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 04:49 PM) And that'll totally fix everything! A friend of mine is a huge Mets fan, but doesn't spend his time on message boards b****ing about how the Wilpons screwed his team by getting into bed with Madoff. He's had to focus his energy on the adult aspects of life, such as getting laid off and dealing with a child who has vision problems due to a birth defect. Cool, I'm posting during work hours so it's win-win for me.

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 04:33 PM) If you can't buy the team from Reinsdorf's ownership group, there's not much that you can do about it. Au contraire mon ami, I can b**** on Soxtalk about it!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 04:25 PM) It is too bad you guys don't read past your guilt. I am the one clearly saying if you don't like it, leave. I am also saying that you have to understand the nature of the fan base when talking about this franchise. Those two things are not mutually exclusive, nor shaming. why should we let the current group of incompetent management drive us away from the team entirely?

Prospects suck and are likely to bust out, better to keep doubling down on signing past-their-prime veterans and rebuilding reloading around a core of 2 pitchers.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 02:28 PM) Menu tonight: Meatball sub The Pirates took a long time to stop sucking, this proves that rebuilding is bad and the White Sox can do nothing but be mired in mediocrity forever, they have no choice.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 02:16 PM) When the Pirates rebuilt, they went 20 consecutive seasons without winning 80 games. Sure, the Sox can trade all of their good players for prospects, but how does that guarantee the team is better, let alone "fixed" ready to be in the playoffs 4 or 5 years in a row? Until we know what exactly was offered for White Sox players, I am a guy who can't say they made a mistake not trading them. There was a poster yesterday who said the return on any of these players had nothing to do with it. I think it has everything to do with it. They can still be traded, or maybe they won't. Until then, we have to watch Q and Sale pitch instead of a guy like Volstad. We have to watch Melky hit instead of a guy like Coats. We have to watch Robertson and less of lesser pitchers. I really don't have a problem with it. I will judge the team next year next year, not now. If they half ass it again, I'm with you, but I think they have learned their lesson. They are either going big or dealing guys away. I also wouldn't be surprised if a player or 2 is dealt this month. Maybe that will ease some pain. The Sox could get another Leury Garcia or 2 and the rebuild will be well underway. Cool, I like forward to many more seasons of ~78 wins. re: the bolded, identical post could have been made last year. Year before. Year before that. etc.

The Sox are a sub-.500 team, have been for 6 out of the last 9 years and have zero seasons at or above 90 wins in that period. On average, they're a 78 win team since 2007.

Every cable news network covered this except one, which instead took a phone call from Trump who apparently was counter-programming his own convention. Can you guess which network this was? Of course it's not about Smith vs. Khan, it's about Clinton's vs. Trump's reaction anyway. Trump has such tacky, awful tastes:

QUOTE (shysocks @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 01:06 PM) Most of us doubt that this will happen. I'll bet my house it doesn't. They will retool and give it another ill-advised shot. you forgot to log into your greg account

QUOTE (Black_Jack29 @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 11:27 AM) I'm not saying that the Sox are going to win 95 games next year (or the following year), but history has shown that they're not going to marinate in mediocrity forever and eventually fade into nonexistence. They have a handful of really nice players who are under contract for the next 4-5 years and a farm system that's beginning to come back. If they can trade Sale sometime in the next 12 months, they'll be in even better shape down the road. Outside of barely squeaking into the playoffs in '08, they've been pretty mediocre or worse for almost a decade now. How many more years of garbage can we expect before they're relevant again? How much better could things have been if they hadn't tried the same bad plan for years and years?

Timed perfectly with the NYT piece on his draft deferments today. edit: Trump's strategy of "s*** on the military as hard and as long as possible" seems like an...interesting ploy. edit2: on the other hand, a good illustration of Trump's "say so many dumb things nobody can even keep up with the latest dumb thing" strategy (there is a Simpsons S2-8ish quote or image for probably every situation in life) edit3: good lord "f*** babies" is an even bolder strategy! edit4: more stolen valor from Trump (old article but suddenly relevant again!) Trump: 'I always felt that I was in the military' edit5: following up on his allegations that the election "may be rigged," he's now saying "something's going on" with the polls and they aren't to be trusted. Cultivating that conspiracy mindset might not go so well when he gets smashed in November. He seems really obsessed with what he can see right in front of his face and the size of the rallies.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 10:06 AM) Eh, Utah/Georgia are unneccessary distractions. He'll win it by 10+ probably. I do wish for sanity of country the Utah Republicans can become a power base. Mormons really, really seem to hate Trump.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Aug 2, 2016 -> 09:33 AM) No I get that, that's obviously a huuuuge problem of his, but he's also (despite the things he says) a somewhat intelligent human being. You would think someone can connect the dots for him: you keep saying and doing these things, you're losing any shot you have at the Presidency. 1) it's yuuuuuuuuuuuuge, with a y 2) I'm really doubting that he's somewhat intelligent. His vocabulary is about equivalent to junior high, he appears to be functionally illiterate in the way he writes, his speeches are rambling incoherent nonsense where one sentence has nothing to do with the one that came before it or the one that's coming next, and he's proud that he doesn't ever read anything (except the top 50 articles on Google News about himself that his staff prints out for him every morning, yes this is a real thing). edit: or what lost said, dementia or something maybe

The White Sox will also head out of the winter meetings with the 2 best pitchers available

Hot on the heels of the decisions last Friday, a judge in North Dakota blocks Voter ID laws there.