caulfield12

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/...ter/1071350001/ Seems Izzo getting torched for his earlier statements has chastened him a bit, but definitely not retiring for the moment. https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/...day/1071423001/ MSU and the dark cloud that moved over it on Friday

Just how bad is having the worst farm system in baseball, really? Or how beneficial to be Top 3? http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2214341...baseball-really Year 4 and Year 5 for the White Sox would be 2021 and 2022

Millions of Americans Believe God Made Trump President A surprisingly fascinating book explains why. By AMY SULLIVAN January 27, 2018 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/201...resident-216537 There will be no point at which Trump’s most loyal evangelical and charismatic supporters declare they have had enough. Because to do so would be to admit that they were wrong, that God wasn’t behind Trump’s election, and that their Holy Spirit radar might be on the fritz. That it was, after all, about something as temporal and banal as hating his Democratic rival. Strang was in New York for the Trump campaign’s victory party on November 8, 2016, and as he describes the euphoria of the evening, he shows just enough of his hand to validate this conclusion. “It was as if God had answered our prayers and the impossible had happened,” he writes. “We had a new president, one we believed God had raised up for a time such as this.” “And perhaps best of all,” he continued, “we each thanked God in our own way that Hillary Clinton was not going to be the next commander in chief.”

Trump's DC hotel had an average monthly occupancy rate of about 50% through November 2017, according to data provided to CNN covering the first 11 months of 2017. That occupancy rate is about one-third below an industry average for a broad group of luxury hotels in Washington over the same period. CNN compared the Trump hotel's monthly occupancy and room rates to a report by lodging industry research firm STR, which surveyed nearly two dozen high-priced, luxury hotels in the city that likely includes the Trump International Hotel. The hotel might measure itself against an even smaller, more elite subset of those rivals. Despite the low occupancy, the Trump hotel charged nightly room rates that were 40% higher on average than those same nearly two dozen hotels. According to STR's analysis, top-tier hotels in Washington reported an average monthly occupancy of 77% -- 27 percentage points higher than Trump's hotel. Those competitors charged an average of $334 per night versus Trump's $559 average daily rate. https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/27/politics/tru...data/index.html

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 06:06 AM) Go find yourself a chart. You may be in for a shock. Did you notice how much the economy improved under The democrat? Probably not, considering what cable and radio show you frequent. Trump uses the unemployment numbers now. Candidate Trump said they were phony numbers. There is an article you can google that tracks Trumps tweets about the stock market. When Obama was in office, bubble, bubble, going to crash. His first tweet about it while he was in office, bubble gone up all because of Trump. A plunge in retail jobs, by 20,300, weighed on the labor market as brick-and-mortar stores continued to close. Still, December was the 87th straight month in which employers hired more people than they fired, extending the longest stretch of job growth on record. The economy created 2.06 million jobs last year (2017). Under Obama during his last four years, a net gain of 10,288,000 jobs. Trump’s job creation pace is about 20% behind that. The Democrats have outperformed Republican administrations consistently in job creation for the last fifty years. The only exception is the economic recovery during Reagan’s second term. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs_create...sidential_terms Let’s just wait and see where the stock market is in October, 2020.

If this article in the Washington Post is accurate, immigration is never going to pass the House https://politiciandirect.com/washington-pos...-on-immigration OMRO, Wis. — Again and again, constituents at Rep. Glenn Grothman’s town hall meetings this week wanted to talk about DACA, “chain migration” and “the wall” — the right half of the vocabulary of the fierce immigration debate now playing out in Washington. “Can’t they go back and get in line?” asked one woman who came to a dim municipal basement here, about 12 miles west of Oshkosh, on a recent weekday morning. “Why can’t they go back and do it legally?” Grothman didn’t hesitate: “I’ll do all I can to hold out for as tough a position as we can get,” he told the woman, who declined to give her name to a reporter. “We’d rather shut down the government rather than go down the path of ruining America. And I think doing what some of those Democrats wanted — immediate legality for all these people and then just starting the open-borders thing again — could ruin America. I mean, it would be the end of America.” President Trump has promised to protect young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children and who are now living in limbo because of his cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. And a bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating for days to reach a deal. But House Republicans such as Grothman could have the last word on the fate of “dreamers,” as these immigrants are known.

An Addict Dies in a School Restroom. He Was a Teacher. Even after 10 years of marriage and with a third child on the way, Matthew Azimi couldn’t avoid returning to his long-running drug habit. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/nyregion...;pgtype=article

Joe Kennedy III going to give Dem response to State of the Union address. Can’t be any worse than Beshear last year. January 26, 2018 Centrist Democrats Are Undermining Progressive Candidates According to a major new report, the Democratic Party leadership is undermining progressive candidates and backing wealthier, centrist hopefuls that are following a failed strategy...with the main litmus test being able to get out your phone or Rolodex and raise $100-250,000 instantly. http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option...style=%27color:

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 08:44 AM) What would be interesting is finding where the funds came from for the hush money. For some reason, I don't think they are Trump's personal funds. And Bannon, in an interview for journalist Michael Wolff's tell-all book about the Trump White House 'Fire and Fury', suggested that Clifford wasn't the only woman to receive a similar payout. 'Look, Kasowitz has known [Trump] for twenty-five years,' Bannon allegedly said. 'Kasowitz has gotten him out of all kinds of jams. Kasowitz on the campaign - what did we have, a hundred women? Kasowitz took care of all of them.' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-52...l#ixzz55Imi5IVb Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/01...ner-dnt-tsr.cnn Sara Sidney/Alana Evans (porn name) talks about her friend’s relationship with Trump and being invited for threesome at golf tourney

Those increasingly embarrassing (from today’s perspective) hearings over Anita Hill/Thomas might be the thing that prevents Biden from running if women’s organizations supporting the Dems force the issue. Air Force One's new refrigerators cost $24 million...for just two chilling units. https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/26/politics/air...eing/index.html Former senior adviser to President Barack Obama Eric Schultz mocked the high price tag in a tweet on Friday, saying, "we would have been impeached." The Boeing fridge contract isn't the first time an administration has come under fire for the high cost of military aircraft upgrades -- the Obama administration was pressured to scuttle plans to build a new fleet of presidential helicopters in 2009 after reports emerged that they cost at least $11 billion. When he was running for president, Trump boasted he would swap out Air Force One with his private jet and has been fiercely critical of the cost of the new Air Force One program in the past, stating "costs are out of control" and "cancel order!" in a December 2016 tweet.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/...ter/1071276001/ Dantonio fighting for now...17 former players with various allegations/accusations ESPN also detailed two incidents that allegedly involved former MSU point guard Travis Walton that were made during his time as a student assistant coach for Izzo during the 2009-10 season, in which the Spartans went to the Final Four. Walton reportedly punched a women in the face at a bar in one incident. Walton, along with two members of the basketball team, also were alleged to have sexually assaulted a different woman off campus, according to ESPN. The network said no police charges were filed in that case, but reported the woman went to Hollis with the allegations that she was raped. According to records obtained by the Free Press, Keith Appling and Adreian Payne were accused of sexually assaulting a woman during the fall of their freshman year in 2010. Dunnings declined to press charges in the matter, citing insufficient evidence. https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/...spn/1070081001/ It's becoming clear: Michigan State prized image protection far more than the truth https://sports.yahoo.com/becoming-clear-mic...-233843392.html I don’t believe the OTL report is enough to force a dismissal of either man – but it’s fair to at least have conversations about whether they’re doing everything the way a deeply scarred university wants them to. Every school engaged in the Faustian bargain of big-time athletics must weigh its tolerance for the unsavory against the regard for its own reputation. And when those two come in conflict, the only acceptable approach is to meet the situations honestly and forthrightly. As two news reports Friday showed, Michigan State has failed the honest and forthright part. To disastrous effect.

The 100-page report, co-sponsored by Portman and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., begins by outlining the “staggering” number of Americans affected by the opioid crisis. In 2016 alone, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported more than 63,600 deaths from opioid overdoses — three times more deaths than occurred from opioid overdoses in 1999. That also means that more American lives are lost to drugs in one year than are lost to breast cancer, gun violence, or car crashes in the same amount of time. The annual death toll of Americans killed by accidental opioid overdoses is also now higher than the American death toll throughout the entirety of the Vietnam War. Aiming to change this landscape, the subcommittee set out to learn how Americans are so easily obtaining these drugs. Within seconds, they found their answer. A simple online search with the words “fentanyl for sale” yielded page after page of sellers ready to ship opioids to a buyer’s door at a moment’s notice. The drug sellers seemed almost entirely located in China, so the committee zeroed in on six of them. The process of purchasing these drugs, as the report shows in email screenshots, creepily mimicked regular online shopping. The sellers offered “flash sales” and “discounted prices on bulk services”; they wrote things like “Hurry up, hot sale!” and “Must go by July 1!” https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/u-s-postal-...-181638300.html

Two cameramen who were fired from "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" last summer have filed a $2 million lawsuit alleging that The Roots bandleader Questlove had them fired in part because they're white. NBC terminated Kurt Decker and Michael Cimino in June 2017 after learning of a group text exchange that included use of the N-word. According to their attorney, Decker and Cimino received the text in question from another crew member but did not respond. The text included "a piece of fried chicken with a bite out of it with a racial slur that inevitably depicts African Americans," attorney Richard Roth told the New York Post. It was sent to Decker, Cimino and The Roots bassist Mark Kelley. Decker and Cimino allegedly did not respond to the message, which was sent in the middle of a show taping. It is unknown whether the text was intended to be sent to all three men or if any other staffers were also involved in the group chat. It is also unknown who reported the text exchange to NBC higher-ups. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/fired-a...-143623310.html

The White House Dreamer Deal Isn't A Compromise. It's A Racist Ransom Note. https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-drea...-154909701.html What will be interesting to see is how many DACA recipients and Dreamers argue it’s not worth it sign this deal to save themselves because of the harm coming to future immigrants due to the Nativist checklist. There is no tangible benefit to the USA to have a diversity immigration program or to allow chain migration to extended family members. I say that as a progressive, not a Trump supporter. 1) Left unsaid is that’s exactly how Trump’s mother got into the US from Scotland, unskilled chain migration. 2) What will Trump do now to staff Mar-A-Lago? 3) What about the hundreds of thousands of H1B workers from China and India that are hired for 50 cents on the dollar to provide even greater profits to the tech industry? They’re okay, right? 4) When will the Trumps agree to bring their manufacturing back to the US? China mom pays dearly for husband's probe of Ivanka Trump’s suppliers in China http://amp.sacbee.com/news/business/article196550684.html "If I see them f---ing messed up again," the manager yells, "I'll beat you right here." Another worker was left with blood dripping from his head after a manager hit him with the sharp end of a high heeled shoe , according to three eyewitnesses who spoke to the AP. The Huajian Group, which runs the factories where the abuses allegedly occurred, has called the charges "completely not true to the facts." The investigators were released after 30 days, but the bail conditions — restrictions on travel, regular meetings with the police — have made it hard for Hua to find work. Hua was ordered not to speak to the media and declined to comment for this story. Ivanka Trump, who still owns but no longer closely manages her namesake brand, has remained silent about human rights issues within her brand's supply chain — and labor conditions in China, where tons of her products are made and a generation of women like Deng has left their children to go work.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 08:53 AM) I really like the fact that these guys are giving us glimpses of their lives by writing articles for us. That being said there is something not answered here that I’m not understanding: why can’t he be both a good father and persue his baseball career? It sounds like he had to make a choice. I realize that minor leaguers don’t make a ton of money, unless you’re a high round draft pick, and the life can be strenuous, but didn’t this guy have a real shot at the majors. At that point he would of provided for his family much better than most other occupations. Lots of others major league players started a family prior to reaching the big league, some before their minor league career. Maybe I missed something. See Scott Carroll and his lifetime pension share. It does make more sense since he has a university degree from Hawaii and is already 26 pitching for an organization loaded with pitching prospects, but he could have asked for his release and probably gotten it.

QUOTE (GermanSock @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 03:00 PM) But it still less money than it used to be in an industry that is making more money. That is not acceptable. The owners should make profit but they can't cut player salaries while making more profit. No team ever was crippled by an albtratros contract. I'm not saying teams should continue to sign pujols deals but they need to give the money they save back to the players in some way. It is really not about the players getting more, it just is about keeping their share of baseball revenue stable. I think a 50/50 revenue share between players and teams would be fair (like it is in nba). Maybe even 60/40 for the owners but players can't put up with any less. You’ve just stated the problems of current labor markets around the world. Owners are making and taking a bigger and bigger share of the pie...workers have become more and more productive and efficient, but are making an increasingly decreasing share of revenue. What is fair/just/equitable? Of course, in real life, MLB theoretically has a strong labor union (the opposite of realtime economic world trends) and a supply of labor that can’t be outsourced or replaced. Players are earning more than ever before, it’s just that owners’ shares and franchise value escalation is climbing even more rapidly, and that’s partly a symptom of the huge financial growth since 2009 for the top 20%. Another factor is steroids not extending careers into the late 30’s or early 40’s.

The problem with Ferentz is we are all tired of his offense...and are likely to be stuck with his son for at least 2-3 years as well as head coach. Not to mention Nebraska is likely to join WI as the second legit team in the West. Iowa State is on the upswing, too. Most would love to see Bobby Stoops as GM and a new whiz kid FB coach, but that backfired badly with Alford and did a half decade’s worth of damage to the fanbase.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Jan 26, 2018 -> 07:29 AM) I wouldn't think the Sox would be interested in Santana unless he can play a good 1B and they move Abreu. They just can't put a defender like that in the OF this early in the buildup. He might actually be an interesting pickup for Boston. Broxton might be palatable on the buy-low side. As for moving Yolmer, perhaps, but the Sox aren't exactly loaded with Middle Infield prospects (or 3B for that matter). He’s basically another version of Avi, but with more proven power. A bit out of date... Santana has primarily played right field in the major leagues, starting there in 508 of 592 games. Santana is a big guy, standing at 6'5" and 225 pounds, which fits his power. Right now, however, it's difficult to see where he might fit on the Brewers barring more deals. He's not a center fielder and right field is occupied by Ryan Braun and the Brewers have a somewhat similar player in Khris Davis in left field. Dominguez has never played first base so it's unlikely the Brewers would try to move him there. But the Brewers don't need to fit him in right away. They can always see what happens the rest of this season and next spring and see if/when he's deserving of another shot at the big leagues. Santana has a strong enough arm for right field if that's where he lands. His defense isn't anything to write home about, but it's not bad either. Brewcrewball.com

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/25/politics/dac...rump/index.html Looks like the battle lines are now officially drawn, more or less. Even if the Senate Dems give in to move the bill forward, it's going to be blocked on the extreme left and extreme right in the House of Reps (Freedom Caucus has 30 seats/Congressional Hispanic Caucus has 30 members + liberal Dems). Of course, there's always the logical conclusion that the ENTIRE moderate wing of Congress on both sides could vote it through, but then they risk being primaried on both the left and right if they're perceived as "caving."

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 11:12 PM) They traded Brinson. Their farm isn't deep enough for them to get Abreu now. The White Sox would definitely have interest in Domingo Santana, as well as Keon Broxton, who has no place to play now unless someone gets injured, same with Phillips. Corey Ray would be another possibility, with his Chicago ties, along with Erceg. That's at least 5 players (I'm assuming we're not going to trade for MORE pitching). I think most of SoxTalk would be elated to acquire Keston Hiura for Abreu, although where he would play (DH/2B, possibly 3B or LF) is another question altogether. Lewis Brinson, OF XXX Brandon Woodruff, RHP Corbin Burnes, RHP Keston Hiura, 2B Monte Harrison, OF XXX Luis Ortiz, RHP Brett Phillips, OF Lucas Erceg, 3B Isan Diaz, 2B/SS XXX Corey Ray, OF BA Top 10 list for 2018

https://www.yahoo.com/news/george-soros-say...-232153289.html Soros argues that Google's and Facebook's days as growing global monopolies are numbered (makes some good points, others that can easily be countered)...2-3 years before growth slows dramatically for both companies. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/27/opinion/...col-left-region New tax law giving the raise to bosses/shareholders

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 07:58 PM) To directly quote the piece that popped up when I googled it because there was one name you're missing: "and throw-in center fielder, Michael Brantley." Excellent scouting by the Brewers and Indians to take a 7th rounder to near-MVP status. Not so good on Gamel or LaFatta. Let's not forget the Brewers were the ones who originally found Cain (in Georgia) and Alcides Escobar as well.

http://thebiglead.com/2018/01/25/christian...-lewis-brinson/ Argues that Brewers overpaid for Yelich Maybe I’m wrong in the long run, but it seems like the Brewers gave up too much for Yelich, especially given the depth at outfield they already have within the organization and their pursuit of free agent Lorenzo Cain. It seems like developing from within and signing Cain as a stopgap would have been the better strategy. https://www.baseballamerica.com/majors/brew...byzsg8z5fxSy.97 Baseball America Analysis

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 12:55 PM) Trump Puts the Purpose of His Presidency Into Words https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?u...p+of+the+Saints A lot of the anti-immigration views of Bannon, Stephen Miller are attributable to this particular book, fwiw

Wouldn't mind taking a chance on Thames if we're going to dump Avi, Abreu or both. 18:$5M, 19:$6M, 20:$7.5M club option ($1M buyout) We'd have him for 2018 and 2019. That said, it's highly unlikely because those at-bats will go to the likes of Davidson, Delmonico, etc. Thames would be 33 at the end of 2019, and he's already a pretty big dude. What pitcher/s would you be willing to trade for Domingo Santana? He can't play with Braun, Cain and Yelich, unless they dump Thames and make Braun the DH.