caulfield12

QUOTE (wrathofhahn @ Jan 6, 2018 -> 01:27 AM) I don't think KC is crazy at all they would be crazy if they signed Hosmer but they don't have to have a huge payroll to rebuild. I think the problem is they are not getting prospects back. They have no farm. That is going prolong the rebuild if they can't get something for the future with the few assets they have. I mean the more I think about it the shopping of Hererra the shopping of Duffy. I mean I don't think KC front office are geniuses by any stretch but it's hard to see them committing to Hosmer for 150 million considering the makeup of the team. Makes no sense. Story is probably a boras plant. I think another part of the problem KC has is most of the guys are coming off down years. Duffy is really the only guy who could get them a significant package back. Hererra is coming off a down year makes like 9 million after arb and is a FA after this year. They are stuck with Gordon, Hammel, and Kennedy. They are still estimated to have around 120 million payroll after the move and looking to cut. If I'm the whitesox I follow up with Hererra. I mean he's a good bounceback candidate and won't cost a whole lot via trade because his salary and lack of term. Probably about the same as Soria some C- fringy prospect. As far as the Sox go I mean it sort of depends on how Hahn wants to play it. As of now I wouldn't be surprised to see Eloy remain in the minors he's ready but keeping him there to June gives an extra year of control it also gives the FO leverage in trade deals for OF already on the roster. Same goes for Kopach and the rest of them. In the meantime the team is going to bad and build up some losses. I think 70 wins would be optimistic. I mean remember you are also subtracting the talent they traded away. Q, Milk Man, Kahne, Jennings and Roberson from that group. Even Duffy doesn’t have ace value because of his injury history...they actually need to decide if they want to deal Sal Perez while he’s still close to peak. Then cut budget down like what the White Sox are doing and hope Strahm, Gordon, Soler, Cuthbert, Herrera, etc., recover some of their value. Too many blown high draft picks like Starling and Zimmer.

Greg has threatened to withdraw his MLB Extra Innings package more than any customer in the US. It’s kind of cute. If you follow message boards, you’d think NFL attendance and tv ratings were similar to MLS with how many are claiming they refuse to watch, buy jerseys or renew season tickets. Frankly, those broadcast deals are huge bargains if you consume sports regularly and enjoy following other teams/broadcasters.

Soria is living in the minds of some Sox fans as the original, prime of his career version. Same reason Yost kept going to him in high leverage despite all evidence to the contrary. Jack (Soria’s nickname) is simply a calculated risk. He’s been bedeviled by injuries the last five years. A velocity gain isn’t that meaningful because he’s losing movement and his FBs are flattening out more. There’s a decent chance he goes down to injury, about the same as the odds of flipping him for a Top 100-200 player if he reasserts himself as a dominant closer again. To me, the need for Avilan was the bigger element of the deal. KC is officially crazy. Last year proved they can’t win without a solid pen. No surprise. Herrera sucked and Strahm got hurt. Different situation when they could go Herrera, Wade Davis, then Holland. Overspending on Hosmer won’t do a thing besides get KC a #8 pick instead of #4 overall. Alex Gordon is toast. Sal Perez gets beat up more and more each year. Their bullpen is in shambles. Ventura died. Ian Kennedy hasn’t worked out. Sure, Mondesi, Bonifacio, Cuthbert, Soler, Merrifield, etc., could shock the world. Anything’s possible, why not? But the odds are higher of Kopech, Jimenez and Hansen leading the Sox to 85 wins this year...when almost everyone has them in the mid to high 60’s for victories.

McNabb, Eric Davis officially fired by ESPN https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2...ion/1008935001/

After his KKK remarks, Trump got on Marine One and spewed his actual beliefs while traveling. "Privately, he kept trying to rationalize why someone would be a member of the KKK—that is, they might not actually believe what the KKK believed, and the KKK probably does not believe what it used to believe," Wolff wrote. "And, anyway, who really knows what the KKK believes now? In fact, he said, his own father was accused of being involved with the KKK—not true. (In fact, yes, true.)." As Wolff notes, Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was arrested after a KKK riot in Queens, New York, in 1927. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-defended-k...-182219679.html

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 5, 2018 -> 12:22 PM) Shocking you respond to my post with a post that is completely unrelated to my question. No, it’s not. (And how much did Kobach’s Commission waste in tax dollars running down rampant/widespread voting fraud?) Where do you want to continue to cut from the Federal budget, in order to lower taxes? It’s that simple. I have no problem paying a fair amount of taxes. I simply don’t believe that the middle class should pay a higher actual/effective rate than the Top 2-3% or corporations who exploit loopholes, accountants, offshoring, lawyers and PAC contributions to pay far less. Do you? If you think that’s just the way it is, the American Way...so be it. I also don’t understand why we’re increasing weapons spending by huge amounts yet completely gutting the State Department. What is our strategy moving forward? Isolationism/America First or intervening with every foreign nation around the world by threatening to use force against them? To force China and Russia to work more closely together? Who is setting it? Trump? Or McMaster, Kelly and Mattis?

Reggie Lynch, Minnesota BB, second accusation

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump has stepped up attacks against a new book by Michael Wolff about his campaign and the early days of his presidency, calling it "full of lies." Trump, in a Thursday night tweet, implored people to look at Wolff's past and referred to his former-adviser-turned-latest-target, Steve Bannon, as "Sloppy Steve." "I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist. Look at this guy's past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!" the President tweeted. Following his father's tweet, Donald Trump Jr. chimed in on Bannon's nickname, tweeting, "I have a feeling #SloppySteve is going to go big. Branding gold." And within minutes of Trump's tweet, "Sloppy Steve" rose to the top of the list of trending terms in the U.S. on Twitter. www.cnn.com Personal cell phones banned from WH in effort to stop leaks https://www.yahoo.com/news/personal-cell-ph...-135241272.html Hard Push Underway to Oust Bannon From Breitbart http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/04/media/bann...bart/index.html

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mich...e-house-1071504 2nd Installment of Wolff Book, this one from The Hollywood Reporter Probably even more damning than the first, longer excerpt.

Let's put it this way. He had three clean 8th inning leads in July and August (3-2, 8-7 and 4-3) and blew all of those key games. The most egregious example, though, was August 15th vs. the A's. Entered the 8th with a clean 8-4 lead (not even a save situation), managed to give up 4 runs and only recorded one out. That was the killer game in their season (think Thome vs. Matt Thornton). Lost 10-8. From July 8th through August 15th (15 outings), he had: 1 Loss (started the 9th clean with a 1-1 tie against BALT) 3 Blown Saves 1 Blown 4 run lead 5 Holds

Just look at his game logs for the 2nd half of 2017. http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/i...88/joakim-soria From July 29th to August 15th, in 4 out of 7 important outings...he was terrible. Each of those were games KC had to win to stay in the division race (where Herrera was on the shelf/struggling as well). No, he wasn't terrible for MOST of the season, his overall stats look pretty decent. This is more of a Jake Peavy thing...where, when they really needed him to step up, he just couldn't get it done.

Frustrating to watch what we THOUGHT would be at least a contender for post-season at Iowa become a B10 doormat. We have a very young team, SOME quality pieces...but just not enough athleticism or defensive ability, especially on the perimeter. Just goes to show the value of a point guard, as Bohannon's ideally suited as a SG (too short) and can't cut off dribble drive penetration to save his life (leading to more zones, which opens up the perimeter to a 3 point barrage and lots of offensive rebounds, due to the failure to block out properly). Sucks, because McCaffrey has two kids who were expected to contribute, and we have one really good recruit (Weiskamp from Muscatine) for next year, but I'm almost ready to pull the plug yet again. Alford, Lickliter and McCaffrey have each failed to make the NCAA's as consistently as Dr. Tom Davis. By my count, it will only be 6 appearances over an 18 year stretch. Unacceptable, compared to the 70's (Lute Olson), 80's (George Raveling/Davis) and 90's (Davis/Alford). It's also frustrating to look at someone like Chris Beard with Texas Tech. You look at his background, the obscure schools he's coached, but he just comes in and wins everywhere he goes (now at KU, no mean feat). Yet it's so difficult to find a coach who can consistently win (and recruit) at Iowa. (Of course, Hoiberg was doing it at ISU, and Creighton has an extremely respectable program as well, so there shouldn't be any excuses with the resources available.)

QUOTE (Dunt @ Jan 4, 2018 -> 10:14 PM) Greg and caufield sure care a lot about the Royals and their fanbase. Soria had great numbers last year, nothing to dislike about this trade. Sox got two solid bullpen pieces for a AAAA player. I follow all the teams that are in the playoff races...just to keep up my interest in baseball when the Sox aren't competitive. Just like I will still watch other Big10 basketball games even though Iowa is already eliminated from the post-season.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 4, 2018 -> 04:25 PM) Democrats typically want more taxes. How is it punishing them to give them what they want (generally speaking)? Isn't a balanced budget generally a good thing? Why can't it be closer to 1996-2000? In reality, the Republicans can only "starve" so much discretionary funding from the budget...sure, they can cut Medicaid, because typically those voters are lower income (but many of them actually voted for Trump in 2016) and not what the GOP sees as their typical constituency. The problem is when you have to cut back military/defense spending, Medicare, Social Security and interest payments on the debt. Trying to convince elderly Americans that those two hugely popular programs are now "entitlements" to be cut/sacrificed will end up with a bigger bloodbath than 1994/2010 for the Democrats. Also, voter fraud not exactly lining up to be in the millions and millions By Bryan Lowry blowry@kcstar.com Less than a day after President Donald Trump dismantled his voter fraud commission, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has filed criminal charges against two people he says voted illegally in the 2016 election. Kobach, a candidate for Kansas governor who had served as the commission’s vice chair, obtained prosecutorial power in 2015 and is the only secretary of state in the nation with such authority. He has filed charges against 15 people since then for a variety of election crimes, resulting in nine convictions or plea deals and one dismissal. The remaining five cases, including the charges announced Thursday, remain pending. Most of those cases have involved U.S. citizens who have allegedly voted in more than one jurisdiction rather than non-citizens, despite Kobach’s claims that hundreds of non-citizens are on the voter rolls. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-go...l#storylink=cpy

It's like Dotel/Linebrink with the Sox. Deceptively good stats, but you absolutely couldn't count on him to hold a lead in August, when they were desperately fighting to stay in the division race. KC basically was desperate to get him off the roster from a financial standpoint, but mostly psychologically...Yost kept going back to him over and over again and he just completely wore out his trust by the end of the season. As a 7th or maybe 8th inning guy, he was pretty good. But he just completely fell apart the last two months in high leverage situations.

Other than his contract...and the fact that he was terrible for the Royals in key late inning/high leverage situations last year. He could actually be fine away from KC, and with almost zero pressure on him.

They’re also for punishing Democrats with double taxation (SALT deduction change) in states such as California, NY and New Jersey. Taxes are okay too, as long as they disproportionately effect someone else. The problem is they’re basically cutting off the nose to spite the face, as it’s gifting about 20-25 House seats back right there and will eventually be reversed.

EXTENDED SELECTION of new Michael Wolff book on Trump published online at: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/...nald-trump.html Pivoting from Trump himself, Bannon plunged on with the Trump agenda. “Day one we’re moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Netanyahu’s all-in. Sheldon” — Adelson, the casino billionaire and far-right Israel defender — “is all-in. We know where we’re heading on this … Let Jordan take the West Bank, let Egypt take Gaza. Let them deal with it. Or sink trying.” “Where’s Donald on this?” asked Ailes, the clear implication being that Bannon was far out ahead of his benefactor. “He’s totally onboard.” “I wouldn’t give Donald too much to think about,” said an amused Ailes. Bannon snorted. “Too much, too little — doesn’t necessarily change things.” “What has he gotten himself into with the Russians?” pressed Ailes. “Mostly,” said Bannon, “he went to Russia and he thought he was going to meet Putin. But Putin couldn’t give a s*** about him. So he’s kept trying.” Again, as though setting the issue of Trump aside — merely a large and peculiar presence to both be thankful for and to have to abide — Bannon, in the role he had conceived for himself, the auteur of the Trump presidency, charged forward. The real enemy, he said, was China. China was the first front in a new Cold War. “China’s everything. Nothing else matters. We don’t get China right, we don’t get anything right. This whole thing is very simple. China is where Nazi Germany was in 1929 to 1930. The Chinese, like the Germans, are the most rational people in the world, until they’re not. And they’re gonna flip like Germany in the ’30s. You’re going to have a hypernationalist state, and once that happens, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” “Donald might not be Nixon in China,” said Ailes, deadpan. Bannon smiled. “Bannon in China,” he said, with both remarkable grandiosity and wry self-deprecation. “How’s the kid?” asked Ailes, referring to Kushner. “He’s my partner,” said Bannon, his tone suggesting that if he felt otherwise, he was nevertheless determined to stay on message. “He’s had a lot of lunches with Rupert,” said a dubious Ailes. “In fact,” said Bannon, “I could use your help here.” He then spent several minutes trying to recruit Ailes to help kneecap Murdoch. Since his ouster from Fox over allegations of sexual harassment, Ailes had become only more bitter toward Murdoch. Now Murdoch was frequently jawboning the president-elect and encouraging him toward Establishment moderation. Bannon wanted Ailes to suggest to Trump, a man whose many neuroses included a horror of senility, that Murdoch might be losing it. “I’ll call him,” said Ailes. “But Trump would jump through hoops for Rupert. Like for Putin. Sucks up and s***s down. I just worry about who’s jerking whose chain.” ... The First Children couple were having to navigate Trump’s volatile nature just like everyone else in the White House. And they were willing to do it for the same reason as everyone else — in the hope that Trump’s unexpected victory would catapult them into a heretofore unimagined big time. Balancing risk against reward, both Jared and Ivanka decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump. Bannon, who had coined the term “Jarvanka” that was now in ever greater use in the White House, was horrified when the couple’s deal was reported to him. “They didn’t say that?” he said. “Stop. Oh, come on. They didn’t actually say that? Please don’t tell me that. Oh my God.”

According to the excerpts, Bannon went on to say he was certain that the Russians at the now-infamous meeting at Trump Tower were introduced to the candidate himself — directly contradicting Trump’s numerous assertions that he had no contact with Russians during the campaign. https://www.yahoo.com/news/roy-moore-debacl...-230212676.html Bannon/Trump Civil War just beginning... And on Wednesday, in the aftermath of the Trump eruption, Republican candidates in contested primaries began to exploit Bannon as a wedge issue. Just a few months ago, Bannon’s support was sought after. But on Wednesday, it was treated as a liability. Rep. Evan Jenkins, who is running against Morrissey in the Republican primary to oppose Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., called on the attorney general to “disavow” Bannon for what Jenkins called “vicious attacks on President Trump and his family.” Jenkins was referring to comments by Bannon to reporter Michael Wolff in a forthcoming book. In excerpts published Wednesday morning, Bannon called a meeting during the 2016 campaign between Donald Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and an informal representative of the Russian government “treasonous.”

QUOTE (raBBit @ Jan 2, 2018 -> 09:36 PM) https://mobile.twitter.com/cnbc/status/9483...ctivity.Message Southwest is giving all of its employees bonuses and upping their charitable donations after tax cuts. Did SW give $4.9 billion? Because that’s how much charities are expected to LOSE in donations due to the new tax bill. A 27.2% reduction in funding. Charities in the Chicago area and across the country are bracing for the potential loss of billions of dollars in annual contributions as a result of a tax overhaul plan from congressional Republicans that would eliminate the incentive to donate for nearly all Americans. The proposed House bill, pitched as the “Cut Cut Cut Act” by President Donald Trump but officially named the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, includes a provision that would nearly double the standard deduction to $12,200 for an individual and $24,400 for a married couple. Raising the standard deduction would reduce the number of taxpayers who itemize deductions — including charitable donations — from the current 30 percent to 5 percent, experts say. Combined with a decrease in the top marginal tax rate, the disincentive to itemize would reduce charitable giving by $4.9 billion to $13.1 billion annually, according to a May study by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-...1109-story.html

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/201...e_election.html Might explain some of the touchiness with Germany/Merkel as well, since Deutsche Bank is at the epicenter of the Russian money laundering scandal....as well as significant loans to Jared Kushner ($285 million, one month before the election) and the Trump Organization. Not to mention Merkel and Obama are besties. Prediction: Don Jr. and Jared are both history. Ivanka will have to leave Washington and her WH position or get divorced.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/eric-trump-tweet...-093338507.html Meanwhile, Eric Trump believe Ellen DeGeneres is part of the “deep state” cabal lined up to undermine his father Referring to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Bannon reportedly told Wolff: "They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV." "The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor -- with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers," Bannon continued, according to the Guardian. "Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately." ...According to the Guardian, Bannon told (Fire and Fury author Michael) Wolff that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia is centered on money laundering. The White House declined to comment Wednesday about Bannon's reported assertion. http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/03/politics...x.html?adkey=bn

”I think it would certainly be developing deeper and better relationships with members of Congress in which those relationships have helped push forward the president’s agenda ― specifically when it comes to helping get the tax reform and tax cuts passed,” Sanders said, adding, “He has played golf with a number of senators and used that time certainly to accomplish that.” White House Argues Secret Rounds Of Golf Make Donald Trump A Better President https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-says...-212449888.html

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2729220...paign=editorial Univ of Arizona head football coach Rich Rodriguez (also, WV and Univ of Michigan)

The bigger point is that conflating the anthem with the military obfuscates the real point of the protests, and becomes another hot button "social issue" that can be used to divide the electorate. Likely it's because "criminal justice/police reform" and substantive policy analysis just doesn't work to lead a newscast as a sound-bite friendly topic.