caulfield12

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/europe/manch...k-uk/index.html UK/May to tell Trump to stop US intelligence leaks May's statement came a day after UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the leaks were "irritating," and that she had made it clear to the United States that it "should not happen again." Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham told the BBC earlier Thursday that the leaks were "arrogant." He added, "The cooperation between the US and the UK on intelligence matters is crucial for security around the world, so we can't... this can't see both sides pulling away, but that is why the Prime Minister, the government, are right to make this an issue at the summit today, and it's why I have taken a step of speaking out too, and making my concerns known."

Sal Perez and Molina are the only other catchers who are even close to being considered. Mauer is the interesting case with his split career...but he's probably not going to make it either. If his career ended in 2010 like Puckett, he gets in but not anymore since he became an average 1B/DH.

Mulvaney claimed the new budget was all about “compassion.” It’s not everybody whose heart bleeds so much for wealthy taxpayers that he’s prepared to feed them the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But Mulvaney used to be a leader in a House caucus so conservative that even the rest of the Republican majority thought they were sort of bananas. Now he’s definitely in the running for most awful cabinet member, even in a competition that includes Jeff Sessions. The goal of dismantling the social safety net, Mulvaney said, was to make recipients of federal aid “take charge of their own lives.” You could certainly do some of this by identifying, say, disabled Social Security recipients who might be capable of working and giving them the right training. But that presumes your goal is actually to make the programs better. “There are a number of things that could be done. But they’re very labor-intensive,” said Cristina Martin Firvida of the AARP. And the effort would probably have to be led by an administration that has made more than 54 nominations for the 500-plus top positions requiring Senate confirmation. The Trump budget — just one more carp, please — is apparently going to try to limit food stamp benefits to poor families with a lot of young children. Yes! The Department of Agriculture says it’s going to cap food stamps at six people per household. If another kid comes along, they’re out of luck. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/opinion/...;pgtype=article

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 25, 2017 -> 04:28 AM) It is also 3 months vs. 3 years. And fans don't make the trades. Q was lousy for 2 innings yesterday. If he hadn't beeen his ERA would be a run or more lower. What was Samardzija's ERA in 2015 when he got $90 million? Well, nobody accused the White Sox or Giants' front offices of always being right. It's actually amazing how much more respect Bochy has gotten compared to Sabean for that string of title runs. I wonder if Han could have gotten the same return for a Q deal as he surrendered to rent Chapman for a couple months. White Sox fans would take that deal in a heartbeat right now.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/05...op-news-videos/ Audio recording of incident....judge for yourself who was the aggressor. Three major MT newspapers withdrew their endorsements overnight, candidate charged with misdemeanor, judged not to merit felony charges by same sheriff who donated to Gianforte's campaign..Fox News reporter Acuna standing by The Guardian reporter's account of events. 65-70% of votes are already in before Election Day Thursday. Gianforte was believed to have a 3-5 point margin coming into the final week.

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 24, 2017 -> 11:17 PM) Do you have any sources to these stats? Or are you really using your own made up percentages, with no methodology or modeling to note, as the basis of support for an argument expressing that something that didn't happen in the past would have happened in the past? http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/18/sean-spi...-ratings-climb/ https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/a...ite-house-aides Okay, not 50%, but 30%...of course, this was in mid-April, and now we're almost at the end of May, so 50% might not be off by much at all. He's gotten a lot more attention than Kellyanne Conway since that point, as she basically disappeared from the public eye completely. You're welcome to randomly go ask 100 people in your hometown if they know who Josh Earnest or Robert Gibbs (not the football coach, lol) are/were...you won't find many, unless you seek out active Democrats.

The Democrats virtually ignored Quist until late April. Asked about the Montana special election, Rep Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the DCCC’s 2016 national mobilization chair, told HuffPost last month he “didn’t know about that.” But as the race heated up, the party began spending more money, tripling its initial investment to $600,000 earlier this month. “It seems clear that Gianforte’s massive edge in early funding allowed him to attack Quist’s character viciously before there were sufficient funds for Quist to respond to the vitriol,” Jeff Hauser, a longtime Democratic operative and director of the Revolving Door Project, told HuffPost. “If Quist should lose, the national Democrats who provided financial assistance after mail-in voting had already begun will have to question anew their initial reluctance to engage in the race in March and early April.” Quist attracted the enthusiastic backing of progressive activists because of his unabashed liberal stances, including support for single-payer health insurance and legalizing marijuana. Winnie Wong, co-founder of the People for Bernie, an online group, credited Sanders followers forgetting involved in Quist’s campaign early and “corner[ing]” the Democratic Party into following suit. If Quist wins, Wong argued, “the overwhelming message that will resonate across the country is that Berniecrats can win in red states. That will send a message to the corporate wing of the Democratic Party to move left.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/montana-send-tru...-040042811.html

QUOTE (raBBit @ May 24, 2017 -> 10:55 PM) I wonder if a scenario ever existed where there would be several news outlets writing the same story about President Obama choosing to travel with Malia Obama over Josh Earnest. If Gibbs or Earnest were part of the President's travel party....both their religions were Catholic, and they were excluded while HRC/Kerrey, Emanuel/Rouse/Lew/McDonough, Plouffe, Axelrod all met the Pope, yeah, it would be a story. Then again, Earnest or Gibbs were never featured for an entire season on SNL and could hardly be identified by 3-5% of the US population. Spicer's probably at 50+% recognizability. He's also by all accounts on the verge of being fired next week by Trump.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 24, 2017 -> 10:54 PM) I didn't read the story yet but this is degrading. If I were Spicer I damn well would have met the Pope and resigned if Trump called me on it. I mean did Spicer have to hide in the corner while everybody else was meeting the Pope? No, that was 6'7" James Comey attempting to hide behind the Oval Office curtains in order NOT to shake hands or get a hug from Trump. You're getting confused.

10:35 p.m. Democrats are launching Facebook ads against Republican Greg Gianforte over his alleged body-slamming of a reporter. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced the spots late Wednesday. It's an almost instant turnaround before polls close Thursday evening. The Democratic committee said it hopes to target Democrats who were otherwise unlikely to vote in the special election. The committee said it will spend "the maximum amount of money allowable" behind ads targeting the state's Republicans. The spot includes the audio recording made by reporter Ben Jacobs as Gianforte allegedly slammed him to the ground. Fox News says a crew saw Gianforte grab Jacobs by the neck and slam him to the ground. Gianforte's campaign says the two fell to the ground together while fighting over a recorder. Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin said authorities are investigating. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/latest-repor...--election.html No matter how this turns out, one way or the other it's yet another huge black eye for Congressional Republicans Might even get used in other Congressional races in the future if a video somehow surfaces Now the main political story in the US But I will say that the audio released by the Guardian seems damning for Gianforte. And it doesn't jibe, at all, with the statement released by the campaign. If Gianforte did, as Jacobs alleges, body slam a reporter, it follows on two other recent incidents in which reporters were roughed up for asking questions of public figures. In West Virginia, a reporter was arrested when he approached Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and began asking questions. Then, earlier this month in Washington, a reporter was pinned against a wall by security guards at the Federal Communications Commission when he approached FCC Commissioner Michael O'Reilly. http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/gre...cobs/index.html

QUOTE (Reddy @ May 24, 2017 -> 09:25 PM) Unfortunately, I'm not confident this changes the result tomorrow. 65% of ballots have already been cast, and he may have had a good enough lead to survive. Also, the Sheriff is a supporter of Gianforte's campaign. I'd be surprised if he's arrested, as he absolutely SHOULD be. How can there NOT be assault and battery charges? Unless there was clear evidence the reporter provoked him deliberately, but even then, it would be hard not to charge him with lots of witnesses, it's not he said/she said in this one. Heck, the Fox News correspondent was taking the reporter's side, even. He took me to the ground," Jacobs said by phone from the back of an ambulance. "I think he wailed on me once or twice ... He got on me and I think he hit me ... This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in reporting on politics." Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna, field producer Faith Mangan and photographer Keith Railey witnessed the incident, according to an account published by foxnews.com. After Jacobs asked Gianforte his question, Acuna wrote, “Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. “Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the man, as he moved on top the reporter and began yelling something to the effect of ‘I’m sick and tired of this!’ ... To be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after giving statements to local sheriff’s deputies.” Jacobs subsequently reported the incident to the police. The Gallatin County sheriff's office is investigating. A statement by campaign spokesman Shane Scanlon blamed Jacobs for the altercation, saying that he "entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg's face, and began asking badgering questions". https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/ma...-jacobs-montana https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/ap...ussia-companies GOP candidate has financial ties to US-sanctioned Russian companies Congressional candidate Greg Gianforte owns shares in Russian index funds $250,000 invested in funds with holdings in Gazprom and Rosneft

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option...p;jumival=19164 Fight for the heart of the Democratic Party in California...first battle BARELY go to "corporate Dems"/Perez Last Saturday, the Democratic party of California held its election for various positions, including its chair. A very bitter fight over who would be chair. Kimberly Ellis lost by only 62 votes. Kimberly was backed by most of the Sanders forces and, you could say, "corporate Democrats," or at least that's how they're described by the Sanders forces. Bauman won by only just, as I said, 62 votes out of 3,000 votes cast. Now Kimberly Ellis has called for an audit of that vote and is quoted as saying, "The race is not over." This matters for a whole lot of reasons. The California delegation is the largest delegation at a national convention, and as Nancy Pelosi said, "California Democrats are essentially the ATM for the Democratic party, and not just for California." People running in the Democratic party from all over the country head to California and try to raise money. And, according to Pelosi, most of them have to make a visit to the chairman of the party's office. It's a very influential position and it became the target, or the focal point, of what is really an ongoing civil war in many ways between the Sanders forces, who describe themselves as "progressive," they want single-payer healthcare, Medicare for all, $15. But most importantly, they don't want to raise money from billionaires. They want to raise money from the general public, and that's a point of great division in the party right now, and it was a point of great division at the California convention.

This guy is WORSE than the Berkeley protesters...at least THEY respect the RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH/EXPRESSION/FREE PRESS.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/greg-gianforte-r...-011839053.html Montana might just have flipped back to the DEM column after the fallout of this situation with Gianforte. Jacobs (The Guardian reporter) said he went to a local hospital to get an X-ray on his elbow. Gianforte left the event, and members of the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office were taking statements at the scene. Earlier on Wednesday, Jacobs had published a story in the Guardian about financial ties between Gianforte and Russian companies under U.S. sanctions. The sheriff’s office initially released a statement Wednesday evening saying it was “investigating allegations of assault involving Greg Gianforte.” As interest in the story grew, a press conference was called hours later. Sheriff Brian Gootkin said he was looking into whether Gianforte had fled the scene. “That will be part of the investigation,” Gootkin said. Jacobs’ account of the incident was corroborated by Fox News Alicia Acuna, who was in the room to interview Gianforte at the time the violence occurred. Acuna said Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck and slammed him to the ground before punching him repeatedly. “To be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after giving statements to local sheriff’s deputies,” Acuna wrote in her account of the attack.

Wade Davis just gave up his first two runs of the season but still hasn't blown the save. 5-4 Cubs with one out, Morse/Span/Panik due up. Now a still miniscule 1.02 ERA.

What about Bannon and Tillerson? McMaster? Did they meet him? I would be incensed if Stephen Miller got to, if I was Spicer. I might quit and let Huckabee/Guilfoyle have the job in order to pre-emptively restore my reputation and wall off some of the damage coming from the Mueller investigation. Former FBI Director James Comey had lower job approval ratings than that of President Donald Trump in the latest Harvard-Harris Poll, the Hill reported Monday. The president fired Comey on May 9 over his handling of the investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. According to the poll whose results were released to the Hill, 60 percent of voters disapproved of Comey’s job at the bureau compared to 40 percent who approved it. Moreover, 70 percent expressed disapproval over the way Comey probed Clinton’s email scandal. His favorability rating was 31 percent positive compared to 39 percent negative, the Hill reported, citing poll results. “The polling on Comey shows that President Trump is more in trouble for the way he fired Comey rather than for removing him,” Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard-Harris survey, told the news outlet. None of that is good news for Trump...it simply shows how unpopular Comey was with Democrats for "screwing up" the election in the last 10 days. That has nothing to do with his reasons for firing him, which were ALL about Russia despite the laughable smokescreen.

I'm not sure about 50 million homeless....people would move in with their families/relatives as a first recourse. But sure...it's fair to say at least 10-15 million (mostly bottom quartile economically) American families would be on the brink of catastrophic dislocation/s, family breakdowns, etc.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 24, 2017 -> 04:45 PM) Why isn't Burger ranked higher? Has some great stats If for no other reason than the promotional tie-in to Burger King, BK Doubles/Triples...so many directions to go with that. Come to think of it, BK has never done that much sports advertising, maybe the championships, Super Bowl, etc., but not in stadium advertising typically.

Indeed, the CBO score’s main function is to clear the way for the Senate to take up the House’s legislation. The bill needed to save at least $2 billion to qualify for consideration under a reconciliation process that is filibuster-proof by requiring only 51 votes in the Senate, not the typical 60-vote threshold. But the report highlights the central dilemma that Republicans are grappling with now — how to write a health care bill that preserves peoples’ coverage at a reasonable price, without resorting to government mandates and billions in federal spending. And it drops that problem right on the Senate’s doorstep. Despite weeks of work, GOP lawmakers remain split on fundamental, yet high-stakes, decisions like how quickly to roll back Medicaid expansion and the amount of financial aid older and sicker enrollees should receive. The CBO score could jump start those talks by giving the Senate a concrete starting point. But it also threatens to ratchet up public scrutiny of a process that Democrats argue is bound to eliminate the major health gains achieved under Obamacare. “It was irresponsible for the House to vote for the GOP health bill before a CBO analysis was available,” said Ron Pollack, the founding executive director of advocacy group Families USA. “Now that it exists, however, anyone still supporting the bill is probably a prime candidate for a conscience implant.” "With today's news, the 'Collapse and Replace' of Obamacare may prove the most effective path forward," Lindsey Graham tweeted. "After Obamacare collapses, we should challenge Democrats to work with us to fix the mess they created." http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/24/c...e-reform-238786

QUOTE (fathom @ May 24, 2017 -> 08:16 PM) Need to keep adding hitters, as not a lot in the minors to project to as MLB starters outside Moncada and Collins. Huge reason Robert so important There have been injuries, but the idea that all those hitters like Call, Fisher and Peter were going to make a significant impact is falling back a bit. Barnum, Trey and Hawkins are lost cases. You can argue between Delmonico and Micker Adolfo for the 4th guy behind Basabe. Maybe Engel as a 4th/5th outfielder/PR/defensive replacement.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 24, 2017 -> 02:34 PM) Letting people keep money they already had vs taking money from someone else It would be amazing if they could completely shut down the entire government except for State/Pentagon/DOD and see how much people really need their government, after all. The amount of money that corporations aren't paying in taxes due to offshoring or tax breaks/shelters DWARFS the amount of money that's "being stolen" by that 47% in the US receiving entitlement benefits. The average food stamp distribution ranges from $60-150 (not even one trip to the grocery story for most Chicago families) and the average SS benefit is something like $800 (for those already retired). A good half of that 47% are retired or semi-retired. Donald Trump is proposing cuts to those who have already retired....cutting their "guaranteed" Federal pension rates. Talk about taking money from the middle class and reallocating it to the 1%, there's no a better example. That's not making America Great Again for your voters, now is it? And yet guys like McCain and Mulvaney want to spend not $64 billion but $640 BILLION more on defense. To put it in proper perspective, that's like asking a family in Grand Rapids would they rather give $1 per month to support the Corporation for Public Broadcasting or would they rather "donate" $2000 per year for military spending??? How is that $2000 per family per year not "taking from someone" else? How can those who supported military spending from 1981 through today (Reagan through Trump) justify that with all of the new problems that have been created int he world by US/NATO policies during that time? We would have been better off just burning those trillions instead of destabilizing Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan/Pakistan even further. What about the $400+ billion on infrastructure spending in Iraq and Afghanistan when we can't even afford $200 billion for OUR OWN PEOPLE. Safe highways, bridges, dams, sewer systems, airports, electrical grids, internet and broadband access, etc. That $200 billion is 1/10th of what they actually need to spend. Mulvaney's solution...we give $20 million to the states for a highway project, somehow the citizens of KS will come up with $80 million, so it's REALLY LIKE THEY ARE LEVERAGING that $200 billion into $1 trillion. WOW. AMAZING. Yet how are the states going to afford that when they can't even take care of their Medicaid populations with limited Federal block grants there.

Hey, if Putin/Erdogan/Duterte/Kim Jong Eun can do it, why can't Trump??? Those are all strong law and order guys, highly admired/respected by their peoples. Maybe Trump became a pacifist after meeting with the Pope and his tweet hasn't made it online yet for consumption...meanwhile, Donald's out of the country and the GOP is running wild making pronouncements. About pretty much everything "pro police" except for that border wall.

Basabe 3/4, 622 OPS now. Desperately needed a big game...maybe he'll turn the corner. Kanny has 7 hitters all in the 700 OPS range but nobody really breaking out, either. Adolfo 782, Booker 773 the top 2. 20 RBI's for Micker.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 24, 2017 -> 05:31 PM) People need to put things in perspective. This is a bad team. Despite numerous players playing way better than expected and highly unlikely to maintain that level, they are 1 game better than the worst record in the AL. They will be horrible. Q will be fine. Had a bad couple of innings today. His ERA won't be 4.90 at the deadline. Randy Johnson had a 4.33 at the deadline and got traded for 3 decent prospects including Freddy Garcia. He had a 1.28 ERA the rest of the way. You're talking about a HoF pitcher, perhaps the most dominant strikeout guy of his generation. It's a good point about a 4+ ERA, but you ask 100 casual fans to name the best 10 starting pitchers in baseball and Q's name might come up once or twice (SABES owners or White Sox fans). If you asked that question at the time of the Big Unit trade, he would have been on 100/100 fan lists. And even then, you're talking about a full 1/2 point of ERA. Below 4.5, the perception is you're closer to 4 and being in a decent band range. 4.82, you're closer to 5. Once again, perception is more important than reality in statistics.

In fact, a fascinating interview (or set of interviews) would be asking all those teams who potentially were offseason suitors for Jose Quintana why they didn't pull the trigger on a cost-controlled pitcher in the prime of his career with Top 10-20 rankings in most pitching categories since 2012. At least according to his results this year, they would have made the right move (so far), to not gut their systems. And no scouts will ever throw out their radar guns and just go by advanced/SABR statistics on paper.