Texsox

Why haven't you bought a gun yet? Why are you not planning a move to Mexico or someplace safer? Your chances of survival will be slim with the riots that are coming, I understand the folks that don't believe the hype not being prepared, but you are one of the few that really understand what's coming, yet you are just letting it happen. I was puzzled by this but it's all finally coming together, getting clearer . . . You know this is a suspicious virus, created with ill intents towards America. But instead of trying to end it, you want to help it along. You want to help spread the virus by being in public, without a mask, getting haircuts and stuff and wanting others to follow your example. It must be your sworn duty. Clearly you are the enemy, yet you are trying so hard to warn the good people here. Sadly, so many are ignoring you. You are brave G7 to try to lead us away from America's ruin. And as a Texan, and American, I salute you.

Yep, that part doesn't sound good which is why prison time is such a popular outcome. Who is benefiting from them in prison? Taxpayers? No taxpayers will be paying. It's not like they will try this again. So they aren't likely to be repeat offenders. So they screwed over other college students. How about at least symbolically showing restitution to those that were harmed by a really nice scholarship fund or endow an oversight committee to assure fairness in selection at USC. I'm not certain a Federal low security country club prison is really the way to go. Anyone want to spend 6 to 9 months reading and working out? It's not like their lives post prison will be a struggle to find jobs and remove the stigma of time in jail.

As much as I believe what they did was wrong, prison time seems too harsh. I'd rather see a couple million dollar scholarship fund set up than be paying for their room and board for a year or two.

The MJ story reminded me of a story a buddy told about Bobby Knight. My buddy was at a camp at Indiana and not being a blue chip college recruit only saw Knight for a brief moment each day. But on one of the days Knight came in and talked for about 15 minutes about basketball and life (which seemed to be synonymous). My buddy said later if any of the priests growing up had spoken about God like Knight spoke about basketball, he'd still be Catholic.

We had a meeting yesterday for one of the shows I'm in. Basically it is a national chain of company owned shows and franchisees that take place in hotels, restaurants, etc. and it includes dinner and a meal. We are trying to figure out how to reopen in as safe a manner as possible. A couple of things I took away from the meeting. National organizations have an impossibly difficult task of meeting the requirements in all localities with one plan. We're going with limited seating, smaller casts, made changes to the script to avoid guests interacting with each other, menu changes, procedure changes that in some cases are actual improvements and will remain and in other cases temporary. One thing we were not able to get rid of was cash tips. There are some locations where it is illegal to use Venmo, Cash, etc for tips. At least that is what the company is telling us. Out tentative restart dates are in July but every date had an implied asterisk next to it. They sincerely repeated that if you don't feel safe, don't work. But we also know that cast spots are tough to earn and tougher to get back. Who wants to give up a spot and have to fight to get it back?

Casual fans won't care that there wasn't a season. Hard core fans may become less hard core.

I'm cleaning my guns if it comes around here. I'll just shoot that virus.

It does seem to benefit the employer more. I can only think of one time that "right to work" helped an employee. We had an employee leave us to work for a new to the market competitor. They made everyone sign non compete clauses that were really one sided. Then after the salespeople brought their existing customers into the company they quickly started firing people. It was a huge revolving door for about a year or two. It got their foot in the door and they even kept a lot of the customers after the reps were let go because . . . They also aggressively pursued anyone who accepted a position in the industry citing the non comp that everyone signed. They sent us a "presumptive letter" threatening legal action if we interviewed any of their previous employees. Eventually ex employees went to court and were allowed to work for competitors under that right to work. But generally it allows people to be fired easily. Also, remember these are basically union busting laws so realize which party favors workers and which one believes workers benefit when the owners are allowed to make the most profits without interference.

3. We did do that on a small scale. San Antonio hosted cruise ship passengers. 4. I believe one key role of the national government is coordinating national problems. This clearly was bigger than any one state and needed a strong coordinated response. A "the buck stops here" moment or Bush on the pile of rubble with a bullhorn moment could have solidified the nation. Instead we receive denials and suggestions it was all a hoax. Oops.

I'm saying it's better to trade surplus than digging a bigger hole.

Further complicating any calculation like this is not every WAR is equal on a team. I'm wording this weird, but if I have a surplus of WAR at one position , for example I'm trading a 6 WAR guy which makes room for a 4 WAR guy while receiving someone who fills a hole, that's a win.

Companies are not obligated to offer a reason. Most states are "right to work" states and employees are "at will" which makes actually firing someone not risky unless for protected reasons like discrimination (carefully defined by law) or retaliation.

The Great Flood, that was about the strangest disaster of all time. The tunnel system is fascinating.

Kind of like that immigrant invasion right before the mid terms?

Oh the irony of tobacco plants are the savior.

Sorry to hear that.

If I understand this correctly the healthiest people on the planet with 24/7 access to premier unlimited health care are concerned about returning to work because they might endanger their health. Imagine what the rest of society without those advantages is facing.

It's amazing how supposed adults can come up with so many excuses for not wearing one.

I'm not certain we pissed away two months. Just because the Grand Ol Party wasn't behind it I can't believe private and university researchers waited for Trump to ask for help. I believe turning it into a political football for voters caused a horrible lack in preparation and I can't find the word I'm looking for. We just sucked at all the precautions. I believe it is our selfish and entitled ways. And it's my personal bias but the GOP has consistently been in favor of people dying as long as they are born. Pro-Life seems to end at the birth canal.

I agree with your assessment of what happened in this country. I do disagree that it will have to be a US government led researcher that discovers a vaccine. The world's been working on one longer, and I wouldn't be surprised if researchers in this country had a head start even without guidance from the West Wing of our government. I will put some words in your mouth and agree in advance that US government funding would have been really useful sooner rather than later. But do you see any way we could have kept everything shut down until a vaccine is found? The concept of flattening the curve wasn't let's avoid anyone getting the disease, it was let's keep the medical systems from getting over loaded. People were always going to get sick, they were always going to die. Flattening the curve saves some lives but not all. Personally I wish we had an economic system that assured affected workers were not going to see their financial lives destroyed, especially the kids in their twenties and thirties.

That's an interesting point about rent. I wonder how many teams have a gate split arrangement and won't be paying rent on a stadium.

I do not see a way to reopen without an acceleration unless we wait months or years for a vaccine. And even then the process of having people be vaccinated would cause a temporary spike as people leave their homes. We know increased contact equals more transition. It doesn't matter if that is today or 2021. If we all stayed in our homes for the next three months then came out, there will be an acceleration. The question is can the health care system handle the acceleration.

Months down the road. I think there will be a spike whenever we reopen schools. I believe that is unavoidable.

Yes I did. Did you think we were on the downside of the curve already?

The long lasting change in my view of our society after this is we are a very selfish, entitled, society.