caulfield12

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 7, 2018 -> 07:28 PM) Or this is just a sexist smear that people keep falling back on. Name another administration that would have hired her for such an important position.

Is there anyone Hope Hicks WASN’T dating in the Trump campaign/administration? Somehow, she is going to end up the longest tenured staff member.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 6, 2018 -> 01:05 AM) The problem isn’t that you don’t know it’s that you think you know. You’re making up stats. There’s no basis or methodology to your claims. Doesn’t matter, your guy owns it now....Hannity’s “easy money theory” to the contrary. 24,000 mark is already a technical correction.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 5, 2018 -> 09:36 PM) We could, but why would we assign arbitrary percentages with no basis in reality to unrelated events that have no confirmatory value whatsoever? How about you tell us in your infinite wisdom why the stock market has crashed for three consecutive days in a row? Simply algorithms and profit taking, right?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 5, 2018 -> 05:52 PM) Earnings for Apple, Google, and Amazon missed a bit, and those three were some of the bigger drivers of the gains over the last year. Yellen and then the new fed chair both said they expect keep raising rates a bit, meaning the free/extremely-cheap money ride that we've been riding for years is going to slow down. The bond market is picking up a bit in response. Upward pressure on wages is also raising fears of inflation/driving up costs for companies, which will reduce stock values. The Nunes wet fart almost definitely has nothing to do with it. Fears of increasing instability of government funding and debt ceiling may play a part, though. Interestingly, Apple hasn’t been greatly punished in the last week despite nearly universal disappointment with IPhone sales (especially here in China), battery life issues, customers being manipulated into upgrading due to slowing operating systems, etc.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 5, 2018 -> 05:43 PM) I don't believe this has anything to do with anything you just said. The market has been on a roll because the economy has been improving for a number of years; a slight overshoot followed by a correction is normal. The Nunes Memo is not the primary driving force affecting the economy, and there's little evidence that the actual wage growth is being significantly driven by the tax cut yet as most of that is going into share buybacks. There's no surge in business investment from the December or January numbers available yet, just the same level of business investment seen over the past year. Just because other things are going on at the same time as the stock market doesn't mean the wild stock swings are caused by those other things. We can quibble over 40% or 50%. For the first time (under Trump), financing the debt (partially created by the tax cut) is being looked at negatively, or honestly. Talk of trillion dollar deficits again, and cutbacks of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. It’s fear...as is always the case. Psychology. Irrational exuberance, bubbles, bond yields, VIX, lofty PE ratios, rising wages triggered by tight job markets, a combination of all those things. If bond yields are nearing 3%, why risk the 4-6% return that comes with exponentially more risk in the stock market? And higher interest rates mean a drag on growth factors like business and capital loans, home mortgages/refinancing, car loans, student loans, etc. You can’t discount the tremendous discord/divide in our political system (worst since Watergate), nor can we underestimate the possibility of a real international crisis this administration is frankly not organized or proficient enough to cope with. The market is now expecting four 25 basis point rate hikes instead of just 3. And if Trump blocks the Democratic Memo and the House overrides him...God knows what will happen in the short term. He hasn’t even processed what to do with Gowdy’s “betrayal” yet. You can’t see the perceptions of complete chaos from an outsider’s perspective because you’re already in the system...but faith and confidence in the USA around the world is quickly eroding. That’s yet another factor. Add up everything, you have a long line of negative warning signals flashing yellow or red.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/gra...argeting-steele Apparently #2 Iowa-embarrassment and intellectual lightweight Chuck Grassley (behind Steve King) is going to move against Steele (of Dossier fame) tmrw with a “criminal referral”

Lol @ the position the GOP House will be when Trump blocks the memo and they have a vote of the full House late this week or early next week. House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously to release Democratic ten page memo. Btw, Democratic House candidates are blowing away most GOPers in “money on hand” as of late December. In some cases, 2-3 primary candidates have more than the Republican incumbent. Not to mention PA went from 13-5 to now opening up 4-6 additional races in PA alone due to gerrymandering decision to redraw.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 1, 2018 -> 01:40 PM) Verlander was pitching well when the Astros acquired him, so maybe they were lucky about that, but there is always luck involved when winning the WS. Think of the White Sox in 2005. What if a ball doesn't roll through Tony Graffinino's legs? What if El Duque doesn't get out of a bases loaded nobody out jam? The odds were overwhelming neither of those things would happen, and if they didn't, the wrong color Sox probably win that series. The Cubs were lucky the Astros liked Appel. The Royals got lucky vs. Houston when they won the WS, and had an improbable comeback vs. Oakland in the WC round the year before, which ultimately got them to the WS and a lot more money to spend. The list goes on and on. You have to be good, and you have to be lucky. Or the Pirates being the equivalent of the Royals on NL side but having nothing but three wild card games and forced trades of Cole and beloved McCutcheon to show for it. Cubs and Cardinals (and now Brewers) were much stronger competition than KC and now the Indians/Twins face.

Trump sabotaged his own markets....50% of it was overheating the markets (and inflation fears) with the tax bill and the Nunes nothing burger/Constitutional crisis talk. Now you’ve got government shutdown worries again as well as the budget caps/debt limit. With PE ratio for the Dow around 26 and bond yields nearing 3%, that’s a lot of risk in the short term for a 1-2% advantages in buying stocks over bonds. Alibaba’s getting hit by massive shorts as a proxy for the Chinese economy, even though long term its a better play than Amazon or Ten Cent.

Or the Royals with Yordano Ventura, Cardinals with Taveras....but Fernandez was on a whole nother level. Whole franchise revolved around his future. That was also the final straw for Lurie, from everything reported. Of course, trading Sale with Stanton’s contract would have resulted with similar disappointment for Sox fans.

Opinions (continue to be) all over the board on Burger, Rutherford, Collins and Cease...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-gre...-143647887.html With the F1 girls now being ended...how long before ring girls at boxing matches or even cheerleaders fall victim to the #metoo movement? What about beauty pageants? The SI Swimsuit Issue? Just curious what everyone thinks.

Trump/Sanders both lied about FBI rank and file reaction to Comey firing https://www.lawfareblog.com/i-hope-instance...ing-james-comey Over the next few days, a wealth of evidence emerged to suggest that Trump and Sanders were playing fast and loose with the truth. But we now have the documents to prove that decisively. Their disclosure was not a leak but an authorized action by the FBI, which released to us under the Freedom of Information Act more than 100 pages of leadership communications to staff dealing with the firing. This material tells a dramatic story about the FBI’s reaction to the Comey firing—but it is neither a story of gratitude to the president nor a story of an organization in turmoil relieved by a much-needed leadership transition. Within a few days of the firing, both current and former FBI officials began pushing back against the White House’s claims. Then-Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that Comey “enjoyed broad support within the FBI" and that “the vast majority of employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to Director Comey.” Here at Lawfare, Nora Ellingsen—who served as a counterterrorism analyst at the FBI for several years—talked with roughly 20 of her former colleagues. She characterized the opinion of Comey among the FBI’s rank and file as almost universally positive. “Nearly everyone loved him,” she wrote, and the “degree of consensus on this point ... has been incredible.” She went on: “All of the people I talked to described having the same reaction when they heard that the director had been fired: complete shock, followed by deep sadness.”

Trump unaware of what UK NHS protest was actually about (wanted more funding, not cuts) https://uk.news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-hit-...-155040357.html AMA/Physicians protest harmful Anthem emergency care coverage policy (this is what happens when insurance companies and not doctors set policies) The AMA has asked Anthem to immediately rescind the policy in states where it has been put into effect and halt implementation in all other states. “Physicians know that patients and caregivers should never second guess their instincts that emergency care is needed, nor should they be expected to self-diagnose to determine whether, for example, chest pain is a heart attack or indigestion,” AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, wrote in a letter to Anthem President and CEO Joseph Swedish. “Anthem’s policy requires that they diagnose their acute symptoms at a critical and emotional moment, when time could be of the essence. The impact of this policy is that very ill and vulnerable patients will not seek needed emergency medical care while, bluntly, their conditions worsen or they die.” Dr. Madara’s letter goes on to note that the policy also serves to reduce the value of health insurance purchased from Anthem, as once covered care for an emergency medical condition now “leaves patients potentially holding the bag for the cost of that care.” The prudent layperson standard The AMA, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the Medical Association of Georgia (MAG) also suggest that the new policy may violate the “prudent layperson standard” which has been codified into state and federal laws—including the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The standard defines an emergency medical condition as one that manifests itself “by acute symptoms of sufficient severity” that a prudent layperson could reasonably expect that the absence of immediate medical attention could place their health in serious jeopardy. Anthem’s retrospective review appears to be inconsistent with such a standard. "This new policy will mean that patients experiencing emergencies will not go to the ER because of fear of a bill, and could die as a result," ACEP President Rebecca Parker, MD, said in a news release. "Health plans have a long history of not paying for emergency care. Now, they are trying to roll over federal law that emergency physicians fought for to protect patients from this 'profits first, people last' behavior by insurers.”

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/us/dhs-super...invs/index.html Super Bowl Anti-Terrorism Security Documents Left on Plane. Brilliant! Blame it on the Dems and another Deep State Conspiracy to undermine Trump.

Hostiles is worth checking out... Professor Marston & the Wonder Women makes you completely look at the comic hero in a totally new way.

Poor Collins...

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/02/04/china-d...de-tension.html Hope US sorghum farmers didn’t vote for Trump...but going by voting patterns in farming states, they’re going to be the first of many trade war victims. Along with those already paying higher prices for their washing machines, as well as a 30-50% cost increase to install solar panel heating and cooling systems. Stock market down nearly 200 more points in pre trading. Trump will regret tieing all of his political fortunes to that indicator...even if GDP is way up this quarter, the stock market is likely to be down or flat.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 4, 2018 -> 10:11 PM) Tonight's news report: "Sunday talk shows filled with Democrats and Republicans discussing a controversial memo". Republicans say the public has a right to know if the FBI process was corrupt, Democrats say the memo is an unfair attack on the FBI. Then a summary of how the memo suggests that the Dems helped pay for the Steele Dossier and that was used as evidence for the surveillance and a comment by the President about how it's unfair - with no mention of any other evidence that the guy was a russian agent, no mention of the fact that they disclosed that it was paid for in part by political parties, no mention of the fact that they had repeated warrants for him even without the dossier. Then an appearance by Trey Gowdy saying that the use of opposition research in a FISA application was "Somewhat unprecedented" - WTF that actually means God only knows, because either there's a precedent or not. Then a "the Democrats want their memo released too" both sides. Without the center content, it comes off as the memo release being fair and yes the FBI is totally corrupt in the report. Obviously they buried the other “anti-Trump” interviews Gowdy gave on Sunday morning shows saying this would/should have no effect on the Mueller case. Another GOP Congressman basically said the same as Gowdy. By all appearances, the House will vote to release the Dems’ memo on Monday and Trump will look bad/guilty for suppressing it. In the meantime, everyone’s forgotten about another government shutdown and DACA. For awhile, Trump had positive momentum with the economy/tax bill/stock market, immigration shutdown spin and managed to sabotage it all yet again. And why has nobody asked all the Republicans why they voted yes for FISA reauthorization if they were so concerned about FBI abuses and corruption of the process?...Watergate x 1000 to quote Hannity.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Feb 4, 2018 -> 09:36 PM) Just a hunch but I'm thinking Royals sign him. Ton of trade value for Morrison might be overselling him a little. He was about as disappointing as Avi Garcia entering last season. Guess it depends on how the White Sox are on Delmonico, Davidson, Cordell, etc.

The shocker that those 50/50 calls both went the Eagles’ way...Clement TD as well. Only time will ever cheer for WI player right there.

Best Super Bowl game ever? Maybe...all it was missing was overtime or the Patriots scoring on that Hail Mary and having to tie it with the two point conversion. Patriots lost those four points on kicks, Eagles attempted to give them back. Happy for the city of Philadelphia. Finally no politics, just a pure football game. Nick Foles is a great career redemption story, too. Pederson with gutsy play calls throughout the game, from that TE pass to Foles on 4th down.

Jeffery holds onto that ball...would have been a similar score to last year’s game. Foles is definitely deserving of an opportunity to start somewhere next season. Just needs to find the right coordinator.

Fine, you can move it to News and Notes. The section that deals with all of MLB, Diamond Notes, is currently closed.