caulfield12

If Obama's FED hadn't lowered rates and the debt HAD increased even more considerably (trying to get out of the unprecedented Great Recession), then I can't imagine how hard he'd be getting hammered right now for blowing up the Federal debt. Meanwhile, we're heading for a $1+ trillion deficit, hitting the end of our 10 year economic expansion and NOW having to discuss cutting SS/Medicare/Medicaid/Social Programs (of course, not defense/military, they get 10% more that they didn't even ask for) and having no fiscal/monetary policy tools left because the tax cuts are already baked in (and some more permanent than others) and spending even more money on infrastructure as we go into a contractionary period is going to come at a heavy cost for both sides politically. Of course, NO political side wants to be the accountable to electors to put in 15% cuts to these programs due to reckless government policies and free money. Trump's trade war and this interest rate/debt funding/bond market issue is going to overwhelm everything else.

Trump is the best president because he's had the most interesting drop-bys: Kid Rock Kim Kardashian Steve Harvey Kanye West Ted Nugent Sarah Palin (No James Woods or Lee Greenwood as of yet) “[Kanye’s] intentions were good, but he’s clearly being played by Trump, who was outright laughing at him at one point. It’s just sad,” the unnamed insider said. “The problem is, there’s no telling Kanye how to act, and there’s no advising him to be calm or cool. He’s going to launch into whatever he wants, and Kim has to be there to pick up the pieces afterwards.” Kanye West had become one of the biggest celebrity backers of Donald Trump — along with football legend Jim Brown who was also at the meeting on Thursday — though his support of the president has generated some major controversy. Earlier this year, after expressing his admiration for Trump, Kanye got himself into some trouble after claiming that black people who lived in slavery chose to do so.

Which political party wants corporations to have nearly monopolistic/oligopolistic power over individual consumers/users?

There's nobody in our system that will push Garcia out until mid 2020, at the earliest. I just don't see the logic for holding onto Abreu at that amount (somebody has to put butts in the stands, but does he really do that at this point in his career?)...and then throwing away a much younger player who MIGHT conceivably still be a part of the future if he can put together another season like 2017. Since he's apparently not attractive to anyone else, if he would be willing to sign for $30-45 million (guaranteed) for 2020-2022, they should at least consider it. He's not going to find a place that he's MORE comfortable in the big leagues. It's NOT like any of those minor leaguers are guaranteed to hit for enough power OR play defense well enough to man the position. Basabe's probably the best bet, but his hitting is undoubtedly going to leave something to be desired. Robert is more comfortable in LF or CF, from all reports. Rutherford looks more like a Ryan Sweeney 4th outfielder type than an everyday corner until he proves he can consistently hit 15-18 or even 20 homers every year. Gonzalez needs to repeat his success at higher levels. So Basabe and Adolfo (if his TJ heals as expected) are your best bets, but neither of them are close to sure things at this point. That leaves Robert and Gonzalez for CF, and Rutherford potentially LF if they move Jimenez to full-time DH. OR THEY SIMPLY BUY OR TRADE FOR THEIR STARTING RFer, which is equally likely.

If they cut Avi, Hahn's/KW's decision-making in that original deal (yet again) gets questioned. Until he's out of the organization, they can buy themselves 3 more months to see if he can put together a healthy first half and get something useful back in return.

For all we know, the White Sox aren't confident in their 4-5 outfield prospects succeeding and are still playing out the possibility they can sign him to a reasonable extension from 2020-2022/23. (Or maybe they're thinking they can pool them together to get a final finishing piece, like the Verlander and Cole trades for the Astros.) Isn't that just as likely as the White Sox going out and trading for the equivalent of Cain and Yelich...they (also) usually seem to show MORE loyalty to their own (relatively) homegrown or young players, as opposed to investing huge amounts into free agents...when you think about guys like Buehrle, Danks, Konerko, Ordonez, in the past.

That would be a bridge too far.

I wish Kirk Ferentz would quit football to run for governor so we could have a new offense suitable for the 21st century not based on ball control and jailbreak screens. If Iowa can't get rid of King or Grassley...

Boras would be stupid to sign an extension after Bryant's 2018 campaign...unless he has inside information that the shoulder is never going to be the same.

Why would Arenado be any more likely than Machado or Harper? We might as well be saying Rendon and crossing fingers on health...which makes him a better value financially but still high-risk.

Isn’t that a line from Borat?

If Avi actually stayed healthy (BIG IF), and hit like he did for most of 2017...what would he theoretically be worth at the trade deadline? Is that worth whatever his projected arbitration salary is? ALTERNATIVES? What outfielders in the Ozuna/Yelich/Cain category are there that would be under contract from 2021-23? Among the FA's, Brantley and Pollock are two of the biggest names out there...so it seems perfectly logical they'll roll the dice on Donaldson (knowing that Yolmer's best-suited for utility play and Davidson's just not an everyday 3B either) and AJ Pollock and hope to "jump start" the competitive window by adding two (potentially) legit bats on "under/distressed value" contracts. Brantley's had so many injuries as well, but perhaps the Sox would prefer his familiarity with the division and the idea of "subtracting" a player from their (now) chief rival. I'm almost ready that signing Yasiel Puig after the Dodgers are penalized for their Latin American operations violations. He could conceivably be put on the market, as well...as a penalty. Keep in mind that agencies aren't dropping clients who make them boatloads of money for bat flips or not hustling out of the box. Puig is set to make over $9 million in 2018 before likely topping $10 million in arbitration in 2019 and then hitting free agency thereafter. It's a good chunk of money for an agency to leave on the table. I just don't see the point in running Engel, Cordell or Delmonico out there everyday when there's probably 3-5 scouts out of 100 who believe any of those 3 are everyday players.

We don't need someone preaching and giving sermons to the country from the bully pulpit...he's only going to divide the country even more, because, no matter what he says, the "Trumpists" are going to summarily reject anything coming out of Booker's mouth (unless it enriches their pocketbooks). Whoever it is, and it's probably not Biden due to age, and Liz Warren's not going to be taken seriously by the right either...it's going to be someone like Connor Lamb that's younger and more energetic. I would actually vote for Will Hurd of Texas (over Booker) because to be a bi-racial/black Republican in a majority Hispanic district in Texas (the biggest in the entire country by miles to cover from east to west), manage to now always parrot the party line and actually be an expert in foreign policy from his own years of military service and time with the CIA, well, that's someone who can be taken seriously by both sides of the political fence. Unfortunately, that will never happen in a million years.

Haley setting up to run against Ryan and Pence or Ivanka in 2024...no word from Chelsea, yet.

Is Taylor Swift old enough to run? Seriously, we don’t need any more Oprah’s or Cuban’s, we actually need candidates who already have a firm grasp on policy issues so they can hit the ground running in areas like education, health care, the environment, technology, infrastructure/retraining and world geopolitics. https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/politics/bernie-sanders-midterms-campaign-trip-iowa-south-carolina/index.html Reddy will love this, Bernie Sanders coming to Iowa and a slew of other states...not for his Reddy Millennial candidate, of course. He’s getting involved in the effort to wipe out Rep. Steve King instead.

Post secondary teaching, construction, anything to do with the medical field, computer programming and software/game/app design are the expected growth areas the next five years. If interest rates to finance $14+ trillion of bond notes increase to the 4% range from the current 2-3%, that means the government will essentially need to cut back roughly an additional 8% on funding Social Security, health care, defense and what’s left of discretionary funding. Besides, we’re already heading for a $1 trillion deficit this year even with a “roaring” economy, imagine when that long-delayed recession hits in 2019/20. Dems ultimately will have to decide if an infrastructure bill that has lots of elements of private funding is worth handing another big political victory to Trump...and he will once again try to jam wall funding into it.

And Barack Hussein Obama was better? Well, they’re definitely both memorable...and the fight for Hispanic votes is just as significant as any political battle going on today and in the future.

There’s no way in hell Booker gets the nomination in this environment...especially post-Kavanaugh (unless Trump starts World War III.) Much more likely to end up with Warren, Klobuchar, Harris, Gilibrand, etc. Id even venture O’Rourke, Avenatti or even Garcetti have better openings to win.

See Beto O’Rourke in Texas. He has a better chance to beat Booker than Cruz, realistically. We’ll find out soon enough. Any Democrat running in the Deep South, or near west states faces the same odds as you in Chicago...pretty much everywhere between the Heartland and West Coast except Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico (aka flyover territory.) Or all those hundreds of US counties with insignificant populations. (North Carolina and Georgia and even TN are trending more Dem as well, even Texas, though.) We heard yesterday that it’s basically the Dems fault for not successfully running and challenging in those areas (despite gerrymandering and voter rights violations/limited polling stations.)

Or the Chris Correa situation with the Cardinals hacking the Astros’ database...

The positive boost of a World Series title is usually pushed out 4-5 seasons. 2009/11 are when the Sox really started to lose their fans.

Such as Millennials, now the biggest voting block with the lowest percentage of active voters...

Indians’ season ticket holders are filing a class action suit against the Sox, Tigers, Royals and Twins for fielding non-competitive teams “not in the best interest of the game.” Somewhere, Greg approves.

At least we’re not the totally irrelevant A’s, Mariners or Rays!! Now, on to the Josh Donaldson signing ceremony...

Or we can look at the Tigers and now the Indians...four year division runs with nothing to show for it but rising payrolls and fan frustration. (Of course, things go slightly differently in 2016, the Indians win the WS over the Cubs and then have the additional resources to sustain things until at least 2022 or 2023.) Sure, attendance would be back up to 2-2.25 million...but then what?