caulfield12

Well, there is yet another Planet of the Apes movie coming out this summer...and it sure feels like humanity is going in the wrong general direction. Guess we have to look to Europe for the time being.

QUOTE (maxjusttyped @ Jun 2, 2017 -> 07:40 PM) Jim Margalus at SSS put a Gavin Floyd comp on Giolito and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. I think he'll eventually stick as a SP, but making that happen definitely looks like a long-term project right now. Floyd had a similar curveball...and not so many moving pieces in terms of basic mechanics. Matt Purke got lit up, btw. Need to find another lefty.

Four walks, though. Moncada error led to one of the runs being unearned. Kind of a mixed bag of results. Keep thinking Lopez is the only one to make it (as a starter) from AAA, with Giolito morphing into Luke Hochevar and Fulmer into Addison Reed. Sincerely hope I'm wrong about Giolito, seems like a great kid and one you definitely can root hard for. Moncada 2/4 with RBI and SB (2 for a total of 12), 6th error.

Fulmer with three k's but also three walks through....you guessed it, 3. But no hits allowed. Benefit of a DP and just picked a runner off first. 4.63 era

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 2, 2017 -> 05:47 PM) Nothing you just posted says it is a box office disappointment Fine, it just wasn't a very good film...it's one of those that you can instantly forget (except for Michael Rooker) and not the kind of film you watch every year on cable t.v., let's say, like Gladiator or Bull Durham/Major League. Better than Suicide Squad and Superman vs. Batman, sure. I'd watch Ant-Man and Doctor Strange again over it as well. Something just didn't feel earned...maybe it was Kurt Russell's character. Maybe the soundtrack was just off compared to the first film. It's hard to pinpoint. When you watch Wonder Woman, the higher plane that movie is on just can't be compared. Maybe because it's so refreshing to see a female driven story, and because Cat Woman and Elektra were huge fiascos. It's just the perfect movie for this moment in history.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 2, 2017 -> 05:34 PM) I know Avi is finally hitting well, but god it sucks seeing Iglesias on the Tigers Defensively, yeah....but he only had that one really surprising offensive season. Didn't sustain it.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 2, 2017 -> 10:53 AM) GotG2 is sitting at 81% and has already made more than the first movie in one month. Not exactly a tepid reaction as much as your personal feeling Im excited to see WW. It looks good and i am glad it is getting the great reviews, DC needs it Metacritic has it at 76 for WW, 69 for GOTG2... Two best predictions were $82-95 million for opening (boxofficemojo), box office.com went for much higher at $111 million. FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Wonder Woman is off to an excellent start, bringing in an impressive $11 million from Thursday preview screenings, which began at 7 PM at 3,500+ theaters. Comparatively, this is just behind the $11.2 million Guardians of the Galaxy brought in before its $94.3 million opening and ahead of the $9.4 million Doctor Strange brought in on Thursday night before its $85 million debut last year. Both films were referenced in our preview below and the $85-95 million range might be just what we should expect for the film's opening weekend. Boxofficemojo.com $15.2 million in China so far, but I think word of mouth will really pick up....it's not as well known here in China (see Warcraft vs. Star Wars) and the World War One storyline won't resonate as well as WW II (Captain America).

If everyone simply followed the simple precepts of Pay It Forward, the country (and the world by extension) would have far fewer problems.

Two early runs off Holland. Try to deal him while his ERA is still under 3....

Thought this was interesting, not because it could ever realistically ever happen, but just provides a sense about the sheer numbers involved... A post/reply From "Gary Penton (Payton?) Wear Sissy Britches" at yahoo message boards https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-offi...-224829653.html REPEAL and REPLACE the Income Tax with a NET WORTH TAX! 1% of the GREEDY HOARDERS control 43% of America's Assets, and produce 85% of America's pollution! Put a 10% annual NET WORTH TAX on the WEALTHIEST 20% of the HOARDERS, who CONTROL 85% of ALL American Assets! This will produce $6.86 TRILLION dollars! Add an ADDITIONAL 20% NET WORTH TAX on assets the hoarders and multinationals that are hiding assets/profits overseas! This will generate an ADDITIONAL $53.8 TRILLION dollars! In ONE YEAR, that $60.66 TRILLION AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS would pay off the ENTIRE $21.8 TRILLION in National Debt run up by the Borrow and Spend RepubliCONS, with their tax breaks to the wealthy these past 50 years. The ENTIRE $3.2 TRILLION of HEALTH CARE COSTS in America can be paid, so ALL AMERICANS can have Single Payer Universal Health Care, as we work to make American Healthcare, THE MOST EXPENSIVE IN THE WORLD, and 37th in QUALITY, ....as we work to make American Healthcare more cost efficient and better quality. This would FUND our Military, which already spends more than the 15 next countries COMBINED, and is primarily used to protect the assets of the HOARDER Billionaires, as well as all other Federal Programs. America would STILL have a SURPLUS of $35.56 TRILLION from the NET WORTH TAX to rebuild our nation's infrastructure, from the poison water pipes in Flint, MI and Corpus Christi, TX, our roads, airports, and seaports, and allow America to INVEST in CLEAN, RENEWABLE Energy to make America ENERGY INDEPENDENT from Coast to Coast. Money would be INVESTED in AMERICA, creating AMERICAN businesses and jobs OWNED by AMERICANS who WORK to create the wealth. In 5 years, a NET WORTH Tax Reform Plan could create a LEVEL playing field for ALL Americans, correcting the damage of 50 year of tax code that TRANSFERRED the WEALTH of the AMERICAN PEOPLE into the hands of the richest 1%. That would MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! I encourage you to call or e-mail your Congressman and Senator, and tell them to REPEAL and REPLACE the INCOME TAX with the much fairer NET WORTH TAX, and PROVIDE Universal Health Care for ALL Americans! Our Founding Fathers, both in the Declaration of Independence, and in the Constitution, that followed, believed that the WEALTHIEST AMERICANS OWED the country and "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." Health Care IS a RIGHT of All Americans, PROMISED by our Founding Fathers in their pledge of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". "Only" $6.3 trillion of the $19 trillion Federal debt is owed to other countries....the rest is owed to the US government itself. Mutual funds - $1.379 trillion State and local government, including their pension funds - $874 billion Private pension funds - $544 billion Banks - $570 billion Insurance companies - $304 billion U.S. savings bonds - $169 billion Other (individuals, government-sponsored enterprises, brokers and dealers, bank personal trusts and estates, corporate and non-corporate businesses, and other investors) - $1.349 trillion. (Sources: “Factors Affecting Reserve Balance,” Federal Reserve, January 18, 2017. “Treasury Bulletin,” Table OFS-2, Ownership of Federal Securities, U.S. Department of the Treasury, June 2016.) This debt is not only in Treasury bills, notes and bonds but also Treasury Inflation Protected Securities and special State and Local Government Series securities. As you can see, if you add up the debt held by Social Security and all the retirement and pension funds, nearly half of the U.S. Treasury debt is held in trust for your retirement. If the United States defaults on its debt, foreign investors would be angry, but current and future retirees would be hurt the most. https://www.thebalance.com/who-owns-the-u-s...al-debt-3306124 So basically, lots of really rich people/banks/investment/insurance companies and foreign governments are earning profits from the US government...which is why the Republicans don't actually care as much as they paid lip service to it while Obama was president but largely ignored this "pending catastrophic crisis" while Bush and now Trump led/lead the country.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-offi...-224829653.html White House basically has no clue what they actually would want to change or renegotiate about Paris Agreement. Looks like reporters are using the Mark Cuban Bluff/Gambit of asking for specific details from the admin since all they put out are vague generalizations about what specifically is so harmful to the US as an individual signee and how it should theoretically be improved/made more favorable. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-wont-a...-192109667.html Dems fighting state by state battle against Trump imposing national policy on those who want even tougher standards than Paris Accords...Ten states right now, number could potentially rise to around 30. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/01/j...ia-china-239035 Jerry Brown defies Trump on world stage, California will seek climate change negotiations directly with China All the states with Democratic governors (by GDP per capita, along with relevant GDP country comparison) 1. District of Columbia 2. New York (Mexico) 3. Connecticut (Uzbekistan) 5. Delaware (Oman) 9. Washington (Austria) 10. California (Italy) 11. Minnesota (Thailand) 16. Colorado (Malaysia) 17. Virginia (Poland) 18. Oregon (Iraq) 19. Hawaii (Syria) 20. Louisiana (Israel) 22. Rhode Island (Finland) 23. Pennsylvania (Swizerland) 29. North Carolina (Norway) 39. Montana (Tunisia) 49. West Virginia (Azerbaijan) 1A. Alaska...Independent (Croatia) That basically leaves Trump governors for 6 Massachusetts (Argentina), 8 New Jersey (Sweden), 12 Maryland (Venezuela), 13 Texas (Spain), 14 Illinois (Netherlands) and North Dakota (fracking state)...along with Michigan, Ohio, Florida. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp...m=.c130ee25b9de But there's another divide exposed by the election, which researchers at the Brookings Institution recently discovered as they sifted the election returns. It has no bearing on the election outcome, but it tells us something important about the state of the country and its politics moving forward. The divide is economic, and it is massive. According to the Brookings analysis, the less-than-500 counties that Clinton won nationwide combined to generate 64 percent of America's economic activity in 2015. The more-than-2,600 counties that Trump won combined to generate 36 percent of the country's economic activity last year. Clinton, in other words, carried nearly two-thirds of the American economy. Here's how the researchers, at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, visualized that. You can see immediately what's going on: With the exceptions of the Phoenix and Fort Worth areas, and a big chunk of Long Island, Clinton won every large-sized economic county in the country. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp...m=.c130ee25b9de

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mike-bloomberg-l...-173310008.html Apparently Bloomberg/NYC, Jerry Brown, Silicon Valley, Washington State...all prepared to do an "end around" to circumvent Trump Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is organizing an effort by governors, mayors, business leaders and other private citizens to make sure that Americans play an active role in the Paris Agreement — with or without the federal government. Bloomberg, the founder and CEO of the media and financial company Bloomberg LP, announced late Thursday that he will lead a group in supporting the efforts of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to help countries fulfill their commitments to the Paris climate accord. “Americans are not walking away from the Paris Climate Agreement,” he said in a statement. “Just the opposite — we are forging ahead. Mayors, governors, and business leaders from both political parties are signing onto a statement of support that we will submit to the UN — and together, we will reach the emission reduction goals the U.S. made in Paris in 2015.” If successful, this will be the first time U.S. citizens, local and state officials circumvented the federal government to negotiate an agreement with the United Nations. As part of this effort, Bloomberg Philanthropies and other groups plan to donate up to $15 million to the U.N.’s Climate Secretariat to account for the funding it stands to lose as a result of President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from Paris Agreement. Bloomberg recently co-authored a book with former Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope titled “Climate of Hope” about their belief that cities, businesses and citizens can win the climate change battle, with or without help from Washington. ... This nascent project has already attracted the support of 100 companies, 30 mayors and four governors. Many companies have already made individual statements condemning Trump but were waiting for him to finally make a decision before deciding what to do collaboratively. “We’re still signing people up. We’re going to spend the weekend doing a lot more recruiting,” Pope said. “I think we will have at least 10 and maybe as many as 20 states and hundreds of cities.” So, fwiw, the US has already contributed about $3 billion of $10 billion so far earmarked for the UN Green Fund.

Another write up on Austin Beck. http://www.halosheaven.com/2017/5/31/15716...-austin-beck-of

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 2, 2017 -> 09:50 AM) GOTG2 is a box office disappointment? I'm glad WW is finally a good DC movie, but I can't get excited for it. I'll catch it in the theater sometime. I guess I'm a bit biased because Chinese box office to me is getting close to an par with US in terms of overall economic impact (and yeah, the percentage going back to the US per ticket sold is only 25-30 cents per dollar.). GOTG2 has been absolutely wiped out by a Bollywood movie about an Indian father who trains his daughters to be championship caliber wrestlers. Nobody expected that. Perhaps the general tepid reaction and personal feeling it wasn't as good as the first made also caused me to write that.

Wonder Woman was simply awesome. Just not sure how they can top it with the sequels...pretty amazing Patty Jenkins went from directing Monster with Charlize Theron as a serial killer to this project 15 years later. Gal Gadot, if she wasn't already, is now officially a breakout star. Right up there with the Nolan Batman movies, the first two Spider-Man's (Tobey Maguire), Iron Man I, The Avengers and the second Captain America film. D.C. has had their prayers answered. Great job!! Takes the sting out of box office disappointments like King Arthur, Pirates 5 and even Guardians of the Galaxy 2. (It was also jarring to go from Claire Underwood to a warrior princess, but Robin Wright Penn, Chris Pine and David Thewlis were all very good in their roles, probably the best romantic chemistry for two leads in a comic book movie since the Batman and Maguire/Dunst pairings). Even got in a few shots across the bow about multiculturalism/diversity and tolerance, but it wasn't too heavy-handed. Gadot and Pine also have great comic timing...in some ways, it was reminiscent of the Captain America films moving the leads pretty seamlessly through different time periods but having a good sense of humor about awkward situations that make Diana even more endearing. Plus, there are times you're simply struck by her physical presence, and how she battled to turn a thin model's frame into a dynamo of godlike energies/powers. Almost feels like she is on a higher plane than all those male superheroes because her femine instincts to preserve life are more natural/instinctive than testosterone driven heroics which we're so used to by now.

Only 16% of people surveyed are very worried about climate change. According to a Yale survey, 70% of Americans believe global warming is real, but only 53% of those people think it is caused by human activity. Only 10% of people were aware that more than 90% of climate scientists are convinced that global warming is human-caused. The vast majority of people that answered the survey did not think the climate crisis would directly affect them or their families. http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?op...iew&id=3166

Only 16% of people surveyed are very worried about climate change. According to a Yale survey, 70% of Americans believe global warming is real, but only 53% of those people think it is caused by human activity. Only 10% of people were aware that more than 90% of climate scientists are convinced that global warming is human-caused. The vast majority of people that answered the survey did not think the climate crisis would directly affect them or their families. http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?op...iew&id=3166

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 1, 2017 -> 08:16 PM) According to the article, the EU gave China money and it was implied that it was taking the place of the US giving them the money. Maybe that wasn't the case but the major countries shouldn't send money to China for these purposes. If China is going to be the supposedly leader, they shouldn't be taking money from other countries. The typical argument is that both China and India aren't technically developed/1st world economies (huge wealth gap/disparity, of course no different in the US)...therefore, they don't have to pay the same share as Europe and the US. That's the theory, whether you agree with it or not.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jun 1, 2017 -> 08:06 PM) Mike Trout is Mickey Mantle. No reason to overthink it. Lots of betting pools taking money on whether Trout can STILL lead MLB in WAR despite missing around 6 weeks of the season.

It would be pretty funny if they took Peterson and he became the next Mark Buehrle....after spending all this time debating collegiate hitters. Then they used some of the cost savings to double down and find another potential stud in the second round. Obviously a much bigger pitcher with a better fastball, but certainly not a Sale/flamethrower type either.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 1, 2017 -> 08:03 PM) I don't think he mentioned anything about politics. However, your views of a "Republican" are pretty evident here. LOL. My dad was a Republican. He idolized Warren Buffett (before he became more political), Benjamin Graham and H. Ross Perot. He voted GOP every election until 1992, and hated the Clintons. I don't have any particular views, personally...I've read all of Ayn Rand's works and understand the philosophical reason for most Republicans to think the way they do, even if I don't particularly agree with it in practice. There have been a number of Republicans with the most honorable of intentions...I've spotlighted Justin Amash of MI and Will Hurd of Texas (both GOP Congressmen) I particularly like. Working in the non-profit field, nearly all the rich people (billionaires to 100's of millionaires) in Kansas City tend to be Republican, and I've always respected their viewpoints, like Tom Bloch of H&R Block and Donald/Adele Hall of Hallmark Cards. Barnett and Shirley Bush Helzerg, of Helzberg Diamonds. Once again, all good people with their heart in the right place and willing to back up their beliefs with their own money. Now the Koches of Wichita or Steve Bannon, I'm not going to provide you any kind words for them, although I'm sure they also have the best of intentions, not unlike Grover Norquist and the majority of Republicans sitting in the front row at the Rose Garden today (Mnuchin, Ross, Pruitt, McMaster, Gary Cohn of Goldman Sachs, etc.) But on economic issues, I do tend to be a lot closer to the Jared/Ivanka/Cohn/Dina Powell/Tillerson wing of the GOP that apparently has lost favor again due to Jared's carelessness and "privilege." They lost BIGLY today, and it's unsurprising none of them were at the press conference.

Now Iamshack will get called out for calling all Republicans "bad human beings/uncaring/cold/cruel/insensitive misers" like Potter in It's a Wonderful Life. Because the corollary to that reasonable enough statement (from the point of view of most progressives) ends up with the above-mentioned characterization. Sometimes in this thread, it has been termed "racism" or "reverse racism," the implication being that Republicans care just as much, if not, about the poor, but that they would rather (simplistically stated) teach the poor how to fish than simply give them fish on a daily basis, creating a sense of dependency on the government, and a crippling inability to attain self-reliance (which is unavailable to those not holding a job, basically).

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201...l-defaults-rise China does have TONS of shadow/hidden debt, and it's impossible to determine what's really their because of state subidies/control/ownership in the form of State Operated Enterprises, beginning with the BIG BANKS. At any rate, Trump can't go back to November 8th and claim all these GREAT/AMAZING/HISTORICAL employment gains and stock marketing exploding by $3 trillion in additional wealth created and THEN TURN AROUND and say everything is doom and gloom, woe is me, Obama destroyed the USA, I'm the only solution to the problem, (basically, part of his Inauguration Day speech all over again).

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jun 1, 2017 -> 07:42 PM) Just going by the quoted article that said the US was going to be a major contributor to the program for other countries. I don't see any reason why the US should contribute any more or less than other major countries such as the EU or China. I definitely don't see why the US or the EU for that matter needs to send money to China. There was a discussion on XM POTUS that was saying that under the previous agreement the US was to decrease coal production and close plants while the EU was allowed to build coal plants and India was allowed to double their coal production. China has $3 trillion in reserves. The US has almost $20 trillion in debt. I don't think the US was ever going to subsidize China, though. Believe the intention was to support a democratic partner and counterbalance to China in Modi's India.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 1, 2017 -> 07:36 PM) Shack, I was talking to some pg&e folks today who were saying that California is "over generating" largely on solar and wind and as a result there aren't a lot of calls for power from fossil plants, even natural gas. That seem accurate from your end? http://www.energy.ca.gov/renewables/tracki...y_from_coal.pdf This provides a breakdown for current and future energy needs in CA expected from coal at least. Steep declines, see first graph.