caulfield12

Looks like the Beavers are running out of luck...they’ve rallied numerous times this season, though. Losing Game 1 the way they flee having the chance to blow it wide open, ace on the mound, Madrigal making a key error, that’s not easy to bounce back from. Heimlich got roughed up his last three times out.

Or economic slavery... The middle class used to be able to provide a decent future to their children, often with just one parent working. How often is that true today? The SC ruling today is one more nail in the coffin to all of the power going away from labor and to the exclusive benefit of corporations/CEO’s/shareholders. If you don’t own stock, you simply don’t exist. You’re worthless, a nobody. Your Congressman won’t ten because you can’t afford to make a donation.

http://www.startribune.com/twins-third-baseman-eduardo-escobar-hitting-lot-of-balls-hard/486633981/ Article on Escobar’s success this year. Hint, it’s not a story of launch angle.

And what is the Trump administration doing today to fix that loophole? ‘INSURANCE FOR EVERYBODY’ Before he was sworn in, President Trump made a bold promise: The as-yet-unreleased Obamacare repeal and replacement plan would have “insurance for everybody.” “We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.” While House Republicans and the White House have indicated repealing and replacing Obamacare may take multiple legislative steps, the bill currently on the table would not meet Trump’s pledge. Per the CBO’s score, 14 million people would immediately lose coverage, a number that would eventually rise to 24 million over the next 10 years. ... EVERYBODY’S GOING TO BE TAKEN CARE OF’ Trump has made other, more vague promises about the repeal-and-replace endgame. As he campaigned for the White House that he declared in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes”: “I am going to take care of everybody … Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.” More recently, Trump has promised that repeal will end with “a beautiful picture.” Both of these pledges are harder to quantify — but judging by early reactions to the legislation from liberals, some conservatives and others, it will be difficult to ensure.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/protester-shouting-make-america-great-arrested-throwing-poop-restaurant-denied-sarah-huckabee-sanders-service-135107828.html

They didn’t take them away, lol. There were those families who fell between cracks....mostly upper middle class/small business or independent contractors...whose rates went up quite dramatically. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/01/middle-class-workers-struggle-to-pay-for-care-despite-insurance/19841235/ But the number aren’t close to the tens of millions who are going to be demonstrably worse off NOW, including those with pre-existing conditions. Sure, they can buy the cheapest bare bones policies that actually cover nothing, but, hey...they’re covered. Except not really. Basically, the priority of the GOP is protecting the upper middle class and elites and screwing over the middle class, lower middle class and poor people. We can give away a trillion in tax cuts to corporations, and increase defense spending by over $80 billion, but no. If they wanted to close that donut hole or loophole, they easily could have used the money from either line item. So if the GOP can just give away stuff for free with no concern for fiscal consequences or our future grandchildren, why can’t we just have Medicare for All and cut out the insurance industry altogether...and negotiate for better drug prices as well? It’s actually quite simple, it’s all about priorities.

Lopez also was the victim of 1-2 extra runs scoring due to Abreu’s iron fists...fwiw.

This game should be filed in the “America’s Pastime is in Trouble” thread...way too many pitching changes from both sides. Lopez is reminding me more and more of Yordano Ventura...minus 2-3 mph on the FB and mercurial personality. Better stuff than results. The difference is we realistically need Lopez to be a 4/5 starter, not a 1-2.

Good 1b gloves that and gets at least one out if not two...

It wasn’t about extension...it was in just a little on his hands and he got under it..but the process was sound at least. If he extended, he would have had the bat sawn off with the knob left in his hands.

Davidson finally joins Abreu below the 800 ops mark...

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/26/trump-harley-davidson-criticism-673173 Hello, more ethics violations...this time for threatening to punish Harley-Davidson.

Increased health care costs/premiums. More expensive pharmaceuticals. More expensive gasoline. More expensive to finance big purchases due to rising interest rates. More expensive consumer costs due to tariffs. Even the stock market has fallen almost back to a 10% correction from the all-time high of 26,600 (despite Rabbit claiming to still be up 6-8%). Recession heading our way in 2019 instead of 2020...US dollar rising makes our exports less and less competitive, costing jobs and lowering GDP. If Trump wouldn’t have done anything (besides the tax cut/deregulation), we’d be at 3-4% GDP. Maybe even north of 4% for the first time in ages, but of course Trump can’t leave well enough alone. So we will end up back in the 2’s again.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/live-updates/midterms/live-primary-election-results/rep-joe-crowley-defeated-by-challenger-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/?utm_term=.8193299cc817 Down goes Crowley! The mistake of this race was dodging a debate, then sending a Hispanic staff member (female, even similar look) to debate Ocasio-Cortez. Voters don’t especially like being patronized by an old white male in a majority/minority district. The second really brilliant Dem ad I watched today...she wrote it all herself, that’s what makes it so genuine and authentic.

That’s the main “liberal” position you have, getting lots of free stuff. Except that’s the exact terminology Republicans will throw at Dems as an insult. Right out of Rush Limbaugh’s mouth. If you were forced to choose liberal or conservative, you would choose conservative every time, but then turn around and write “centrist/moderate” wasn’t available as an option, right?

LUIS Robert having his worst game in the US...

Here is the answer to StrangeSox, being bold! Whether Our Revolution or mother’s Democratic Socialists Of America (DSA), pulling off one of the biggest election upsets in modern history! Donald Trump has made it easy for politicians to be part of the "resistance" without really doing much... One of the biggest dangers of this administration is the erosion of norms, which is pretty typical for authoritarian regimes. This is one of the problems when it comes to immigration. My opponent has literally called ICE fascist, yet he refuses to take the stance of abolishing it, which to me is morally incomprehensible. Words mean something, and the moment you have identified something as fascist, that with it carries a moral responsibility to abolish it. That's what I'm talking about when we say that norms have been eroded: that we literally have elected officials arguing to basically retain fascist agencies. And that's on the left. When I talk about the abolishment of ICE, it is not a fringe position. [ICE] was established in 2003 in a suite of legislation that almost everybody recognizes as a mistake. People recognize the Patriot Act as a mistake. They regret voting for the AUMF, they regret the Iraq War, and DHS [the Department of Homeland Security] and ICE were right in there with all of that legislation. Our campaign has been really effective in refining and providing a very clear moral and economic voice for what must and should be done. And it's very unapologetic. How do we get bolder candidates actually elected? The biggest thing is that right now voters need to start taking an elevated level of responsibility over our elections. Because if you look at my district, for example, we have about three percent primary turnout. I spent the first nine months of my campaign operating out of a paper grocery bag while I worked in restaurants. That's how I spent May of 2017 until February of this year. And there was this kind of self-fulfilling or self-defeating cycle for nine whole months where people were saying, "I'd really love to support you," but people were waiting until somebody else donated to my campaign. What we need to realize, especially we're talking about women of color, people of color, working class, poor candidates, you make them viable by choosing to support someone that you agree with. I got lucky. There are a lot of other candidates like me out there: 2016 was disheartening for a lot of people, but the problem, again, is early cynicism. Our first reaction should be: how can I help you? And the only reason I am here today is because of very small critical mass of people were willing to take a risk. There's a lot of talk of "civility" right now. I do know that because of who I am, there are characteristics that people would be predisposed to think about me. It's easier to label someone like me as emotional, or explosive, or whatever. But what I think is powerful is the fact that [my campaign uses] such unapologetic language while remaining composed. People in my opponent's camp have accused me of running a negative campaign. I find it very interesting that we have now interpreted holding people accountable as negative. I never called him a name, I have never insulted him. But because I talk about the fact that he takes money from immigrant detention center profiteers, because I talk about the fact that he has been under multiple ethics investigations within his role, both in Congress and as the chairman of the Democratic Party, because I'm holding him accountable for what he's done, that accountability is being interpreted as negative. Because he's a Democrat, and also because he is powerful, and we're somehow not allowed or not supposed to talk about the misguided actions of people who are in power. Our democracy is designed for that to happen. Our democracy is designed to speak truth to power. Our democracy is designed for elections to be these kinds of conversations and referendums on our leadership. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/28-old-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-165108161.html

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has already made history with her campaign to challenge Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley for his seat in congress: the 28-year-old Bronx-born woman is the first person to face off against Crowley in a primary election throughout his entire 14 year tenure in office. She has shocked skeptics by even getting on the ballot for the June 26 primary election, which will determine the Democratic nominee for New York's 14th Congressional District. The contest heated up last week when the New York Times editorial board called out Crowley for skipping two debates with Ocasio-Cortez. Crowley's seat, representing part of Queens and the Bronx, the board wrote, "is not his entitlement. He’d better hope that voters don’t react to his snubs by sending someone else to do the job." Which is exactly what might happen tomorrow, if Ocasio-Cortez—who just nine months ago was running her campaign while still working as a server in a restaurant— wins the nomination. Ocasio-Cortez is part of a number of young women of color who are challenging establishment incumbents in the Democratic party. A third-generation New Yorker whose family is originally from Puerto Rico, Ocasio-Cortez looks a lot more like the constituents in the very diverse 14th district than Crowley, a 56-year-old white man. The optics of the race, then, also reflect a battle for the future of party leadership: Who is better equipped to represent the largely working class and non-white Americans in the 14th, and in places like it all over the country? But Ocasio-Cortez's challenge goes far beyond surface level; Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, a leftist organization that has helped buoy the campaigns of dozens of outsider candidates running on very progressive platforms in places where Democrats like Crowley are used to winning—handily. Some of Ocasio-Cortez's positions include fighting for Medicare for All and a Federal Jobs Guarantee, abolishing ICE, and insisting on much more severe policing of luxury real estate development (part of the reason she has refused corporate donations). Her push on economic justice has exposed ways that Crowley, as a powerful Democrat who sits on the Committee on Ways and Means, pays lip service to the post-Trump resistance while maintaining largely centrist politics. Newcomers like Ocasio-Cortez and Cynthia Nixon, who is hoping to unseat Governor Andrew Cuomo (Nixon and Ocasio-Cortez have endorsed each other), have already helped spur a leftward shift in some of the stances of their opponents. Ocasio-Cortez spoke to Vogue on the phone last week before heading to a child detention center in Tornillo, Texas. Trump's family separation policy has been a flashpoint not just along partisan lines, but also between Democrats: those who denounce ICE's action but refuse to call for its dismantling, like Crowley, and those who believe it should not exist. It's an issue that has also created a debate around "civility," as pundits squabble over whether or not Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, for example, should have been heckled out of a Mexican restaurant last week. As the people's millennial challenger, Ocasio-Cortez weighed in on what needs to change in New York, in elections, and in how we talk about holding those in power accountable:

Activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is challenging Joe Crowley, who's in House Democratic leadership, in this New York City district. (It would be crazy if she holds this lead....just 28 years old, outraised 10-1 by her opponent, Crowley hasn’t been challenged once in 14 years by his own party, #4 in Dem House leadership and big-time fundraiser) Over 68% of vote is in...still up by 2300 votes. Candidate Votes Pct. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 6,487 58.1% Joe Crowley* 4,679 41.9%

Looks more like the dreaded 845-915 p.m. start by weather channel radar...

#8 Conspiracy theorists would argue the Sox were protecting Rutherford’s stats in order to increase his value...or they would be watching Westworld/The Handmaid’s Tale, lol.

https://therealnews.com/stories/the-billionaire-class-is-not-fit-to-rule-paul-jay The Billionaire Class Is Simply Not Fit To Rule http://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2018/06/24/round-rock-dem-candidate-s--doors--campaign-ad-goes-viral StrangeSox, here is the political ad that wins 23+ Congressional seats for the Dems, it’s a similar strategy to Connor Lamb in western Pennsylvania...the one things that progressives can ventually agree on (Bernie Sanders said it about the abortion or 2nd Amendment litmus tests) is that you have to use the best possible strategy in each race. Centrists aren’t wanted in CA (except Orange and SD), liberals will fail in the South, etc. https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/26/politics/steve-king-retweet-nazi-sympathizer/index.html “It’s the message, not the messenger”...said all Congressman caught accidentally reweeting neo-Nazis, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, etc.

Then wouldn’t you consider Papa John initially siding with the NFL owner’s, then flip flopping....and alienating all the “progressive/liberal” customers of his pizza chain an even more egregious offense? When it cost his company hundreds of millions of dollars and eventually his job? I think not. Because it’s a conservative/traditional value. You’re okay with it, right? This is the problem you and Rabbit have...you can’t be essentially conservative in the era of Trump and not get lumped together with him and all the bitter accusations (racism, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, intolerant, bullying) that are flying his way. You also feel that the Left and mainstream media is not being fair to Trump, exactly like we felt the last six years of the Obama administration. The main difference is Obama was soft and backed down, but Trump is a bully by nature and won’t ever apologize, and always has to protect strength and absolute conviction in his ideas until he changes them and pretends the past never happened (because there is always someone to blame for his mistakes.) Even voting for Ventura or Obama doesn’t change your core political belief system. But you keep bringing up Bernie Sanders because you know deep down he really doesn’t have a chance to win in order to seem more reasonable.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/06/26/chasing-white-house-officials-out-of-restaurants-is-the-right-thing-to-do/?utm_term=.b4c3fac8e72c Chasing WH officials out of restaurants is the right thing to do

What have Dems gotten for being more civil over the last 25 years? Impeachment and the Tea Party/obstructionist movement. I just don’t understand how hectoring and shouting at women (lots of whom actually have unintentional miscarriages) in their most vulnerable and emotional moments is somehow justified (especially because it’s based on the imposition of the dominant Christian majority will on the rest of the population, and there’s that little thing called separation of church and state)...based on what? Freedom of speech? Our president can bully everyone and say hateful things without a single consequence? Seems like we are opening up a lot of cans of worms, and Soxbadger is sounding like the Charles Schumer wing of the Democratic Party against Balta’s progressive side. For example...Does that also give women the right to protest churches/individuals who don’t take in all the unwanted children in the US? Or to protest superchurches (remember the Osteen one in Houston during the flooding) who refuse to help poor or homeless people despite having protected, charitable/tax-deductible status? Because abortion is more “emotional” or charged than how we treat people who are already living? Seems dubious to make such distinctions.