caulfield12

Here we go again. AHCA back alive with McArthur Amendment....House Freedom Caucus is supporting, which means it's now up to the moderate Tuesday Group. Need at least 22 votes from the GOP to kill it. Undoubtedly, it would die a slow death in the US Senate without changes that are almost impossible to imagine, as the House bill is going further and further to the right, whereas to pass the Senate they'd need to tack WAY back to the left side of the spectrum again.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/opinion/...ol-right-region This Isn't a Tax Policy: It's a Trump Heist This isn’t about “jobs,” as the White House claims. If it were, it might cut employment taxes, which genuinely do discourage hiring. Maybe he will eventually provide details, but in his campaign tax plan (which over all seems similar to the latest), fewer than 10 percent of low-income households with children would get anything at all, according to a study by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in February. It added that under the campaign plan, families earning between $10,000 and $30,000 a year would receive an average child care benefit of just $10. It would eliminate the alternative minimum tax, without which Trump would have paid less than 4 percent in taxes for 2005; with it, he paid 25 percent. The top rate for American corporations — almost 39 percent, including a 35 percent federal rate and a bit more for the average state rate — is among the highest in the world, according to the Tax Foundation. Yet that’s deeply misleading, because most companies don’t pay that rate. The Government Accountability Office found that two-thirds of active corporations paid no federal tax. Even large, profitable corporations paid an average federal rate of only 14 percent — and Boeing, Verizon, General Electric and Priceline paid no federal income tax over a five-year period, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. Trump apparently would allow some business owners to dodge personal income tax by paying at the much lower corporate rate. In other words, tycoons would try to structure their incomes to pay not at a 39.6 percent top personal rate but at a 15 percent corporate rate. The White House talks solemnly about protecting family farms and other businesses, but give us a break! The estate tax now affects only couples worth more than $11 million. About one-fifth of 1 percent of Americans are affected, and much of the wealth in rich estates has never been taxed at all. The Tax Policy Center examined Trump’s campaign tax plan and found it would cause the federal debt to rise by at least $7 trillion in the first decade, and more than $20 trillion by 2036 — slowing growth, not raising it. To put the latter number in perspective, that’s additional borrowing of about $160,000 per American household.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/201...-history-215075 Hillary Clinton's First 100 Days: An Alternate History Good stuff. Her approval ratings would probably be not much better than Trump at this point...maybe 3-5 points higher, at best.

ONE group (ironically) very pleased with Trump as president, Christian/Social Conservatives http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/201...rvatives-215073 The one group Trump has paid outsized attention to—and consistently delivered for—is the social conservative movement. He reinstated and even toughened the Mexico City Policy, which eliminates U.S. funding for international NGOs that perform abortions. He rescinded President Barack Obama’s protections for transgender students to use preferred bathrooms in public schools. He signed legislation that routs federal money away from Planned Parenthood. He cut off funding to the U.N. Population Fund, which critics say has long supported coercive abortions in China and other countries. He stockpiled his administration with pro-life evangelical Christians in critical roles, including Tom Price as secretary of Health and Human Services, Betsy DeVos as education secretary and Mike Pence as vice president. And, most significantly, he appointed Neil Gorsuch, a conservative originalist in the mold of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, to the United States Supreme Court. The political and demographic divisions that drove the 2016 presidential campaign have hardened into chasms in perceptions of Trump: Among Republicans, 85% approve, while just 8% of Democrats agree. Most men, 51%, approve, while only 38% of women do. Whites generally approve (52%) and non-whites mostly disapprove (68%), but among whites there's a deep gap by education, with 59% of those who do not have college degrees saying they approve vs. 38% of whites who hold at least a Bachelor's degree. In rural areas, 58% approve, but just 33% of urbanites approve. http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/26/politics/don...poll/index.html

He's really DESPERATE for any positive news with this 100 day deadline. Launching the tax "reform" crusade way before Congress was ready, providing no details and pissing off all the members of Congress who have been working behind the scenes for the last year...par for the course. What does he have left? Attacking North Korea? Touting the stock market returns again?

Right now, it's looking more like an 87-93 loss team. All depends on what's left after the trade deadline/waiver wire deadline, too. Then again, guys like Moncada, Burdi and Lopez could really make a positive impact as well in the second half of the season. We'll just have to wait and see on Giolito. Not to mention Delmonico, Willy Garcia, Hayes, Tilson, etc. Obviously, the majority of them will not excel right off the bat, but they should be entertaining to watch at least.

https://www.milb.com/milb/news/dunning-domi...996/t-185364810 Dunning Dominates Versus Former Organization Dunning could be on the move again soon. The University of Florida product was the only college pitcher taken among last year's 30 picks to not reach at least Class A Advanced, and with the way he's taken to the Sally League, he might be a candidate to move to Winston-Salem before long. He's trying to stay focused on his next outing with the Intimidators, though. Weather permitting, of course.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 26, 2017 -> 05:31 PM) How many of Trump's Executive Orders do not fall into one of these two categories: 1. You, executive department, please do study things and do your job 2. Slapped down by a court Working from that, we can have a list of what he's actually "accomplished". Maybe. What executive departments? The Senate has confirmed 26 of Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and other top posts. But for 530 other vacant senior-level jobs requiring Senate confirmation, the president has advanced just 37 nominees, according to data tracked by The Washington Post and the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition. These posts include the deputy secretaries and undersecretaries, chief financial officers, ambassadors, general counsels, and heads of smaller agencies who run the government day-to-day. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/slo...m=.0a514b825b52

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/updated-l...-150419050.html Lots of recognizable names. Jayson Stark and Jim Bowden on the baseball side, and Doug Padilla used to work in Chicago before moving to LA to cover the Dodgers. Len Elmore on college basketball. A lot of their college BB and FB staffers, recruiting experts, even Dottie Pepper on golf.

The one positive with that trade is that Dunning is really looking like a fast mover, but we won't know much until he hits Winston-Salem/Birmingham and continues to repeat the same results, although expecting a 0.3ish ERA isn't going to continue, obviously. He's really piled up some flashy K numbers and impressive IP/H numbers, but let's see how he handles the challenge of the next two stops.

Was listening to the Kanny game today and had nightmares the Sox wouldn't pull the trigger on Robert because of Micker Adolfo being "just a guy" in Low A ball 4 years after he signed. Obviously, comes down to scouting. Jimenez has done extremely well for the Cubs, he was #1 in his class and Adolfo #2 in his. By now, we should be able to start combing through those MLB lists from 4-5 years ago and seeing how many of those INTL Top 20 guys are doing better than expected, on course, or have fallen behind.

Still seeing no evidence that tax cuts for corporations and the top 1-10% do anything to promote economic growth. More typically, they lead to stock buy backs by companies and more mergers and acquisitions that enrich investment bankers, lawyers and corporate executives. Most of the biggest tax breaks currently go to individuals, according to the report, including the earned income tax credit for low-income households ($699 billion over five years), tax cuts on capital gains and dividends ($678 billion), 401(k) and other defined contribution retirement plans ($584 billion) and the child tax credit ($584 billion.) Though the current tax code is full of tax loopholes for corporations, the biggest single tax break applies to deferred foreign income, which will cost an estimated $587 billion over five years. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-change...-193158010.html There's almost $1.3 trillion. Give a targeted tax break that's more equitable to the middle class (they are MUCH more likely to put that money back into the economy than the upper class, who tend to save/invest) and lowers the corporate tax rate into the 23-28% range and you might have something more workable. Let's not forget that 57% of the jobs that exist today will be gone over the next decade due to automation. Corporations and the 1% are not looking to be job creators anymore, they're looking to automate the bottom 50% of American workers out of existence because it's simply more profitable (and allocatively efficient) over the long-term to replace the majority of human workers.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 26, 2017 -> 03:28 PM) Exclusive interview: Trump 'absolutely' looking at breaking up 9th Circuit The 9th keeps slapping down his EO's and now he wants to get rid of them. Seems like the definition of how authoritarian and/or Banana Republics begin. Or he's simply emulating his brother in arms, Erdogan from Turkey.

Why Willy Garcia over Delmonico or Hayes? Seems they could just move Frazier to first, Saladino to 3rd and SANCHEZ at 2b. Or Davidson at 1b works, too. If Leury and May both looked like garbage, okay. Even though W Garcia can't play CF well..I suppose they could push Avi to first, but why mess with him now?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 26, 2017 -> 03:04 PM) I'm not necessarily for it either. I just think it gets paraded as this vital tax cut when so few people face it and it brings in way less money than it could because the rich easily outsmart the tax code anyway. To be honest, I had no idea the exemption on it was so high until I met with an estate lawyer a few years ago. I always assumed everyone paid it. I imagine many others don't understand it either You can put it in a trust to avoid taxes....you can gift $10,000 max tax-free to each of your kids every year, as well. And the argument that estate taxes causes "upper middle class" families (like you and me!!! It could be anyone victimized, right?) to have to sell family farms or split up businesses upon the death of a loved one applies in less than 4% of the cases. Those stories are put out there to provide cover for the other 96% of the wealthy who are extremely rich and wouldn't have been able to accumulate that money anywhere else in the world if not for the unique conditions created by the United States of America (such as military/defense spending/safety and protections from regulation in the banking industry.) And 37-55% taxes still won't prevent the next generation enjoying a life of luxury and ease for those at the $10+ million mark and above, anyway. It will cut back their spending on luxury goods but still it doesn't force them to work at all.

And increasing the individual deduction will hit charities and cool down the housing market, as those two deductions will be comparatively less attractive. Of course, Trump and his family could care less about charity. They believe it's more about PR, but often don't follow up public charitable pledges or, even worse, make them from the donations of others, but claim them as their own.

http://robertreich.org/post/159989553540 Five reasons the tax cuts are appallingly dumb. The debate here isn't even about the estate tax, it's yet another misdirection. Rabbit wants to pile on Obama for adding to the budget without acknowledging the complete mess that Bush left in January, 2009. Apparently, Rabbit would have preferred austerity, rather than the stock market advancing for nearly a decade. Besides the fact that there's no historical evidence of tax cuts leading to growth. Reagan's in 1981 did the opposite. Clinton balanced his budgets the last three years because of larger capital gains taxes (imagine people wanting to sell high and take profits) as well as the estate tax being much much lower, around $575-625,000 in 1999. Voodoo economics didn't work in Kansas. It didn't work for Reagan or the Bushes. There's no historical evidence from anywhere around the world of these policies doing anything more than increasing the wealth gap and blowing up budgets/creating more debt. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/opinion/...ection&_r=0 Zombies of Voodoo Economics Plus, it won't even be allowed for three years because the $2+ trillion in debt added will still not be cancelled out ten years down the line by even (highly unrealistic) 3% top line growth without corresponding cuts somewhere else. That's the rule now, it can't be wished away. Not to mention there's zero chance the House Freedom Caucus would support this and still be faithful to their core mission statement, nor would the Tuesday Club.

Okay, then he said his fastball had touched 97 (at some point this season) or I misheard when I turned on the pregame and it was Sterling Sharp (the opposing pitcher) he was referring to.

That's what the Kanny broadcast team claimed.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 26, 2017 -> 10:18 AM) andrew jackson was an awful, awful person and a terrible president Yes, but like Reagan, he has been shape shifted by conservative historians into the People's Champion and populist states' rights warrior against the urban/coastal elites. Irony being that all the Trump's represent that world perhaps as much as anyone in US history.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Apr 26, 2017 -> 09:30 AM) When you make a main street v. wall street argument and pretend that you're going to help the little guy and stop the rich from benefiting at the expense of everyone else (all while pretending that you're not in that rich group) you're effectively calling them an enemy. They argue that because of "them" you aren't getting what you should be getting. They might not have explicitly said the word "enemy" before, but that's clearly the intent. Funny word, pretending. That's exactly what Trump did for 18 months with voters. At any rate, Clinton waffled just as much on areas like TPP. The irony is that there is a compelling argument for globalization benefitting consumers (and developing countries), but she was afraid to offend traditional Democratic interest groups. Clinton and Obama didn't come close to the all out class warfare of Al Gore, John Edwards and Bernie Sanders.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 26, 2017 -> 08:21 AM) Why did you write any of this down? The argument was posed that the Dems just don't get it. Neither side does. Time will tell if Trump is more Carter than Reagan/Andrew Jackson, but the days of Inside the Beltway/Establishment politicians getting nominated regularly are on the wane. Voters are too fed up with a broken process, especially when they found out it was rigged from the very beginning against Sanders. At least the GOP didn't rely on so many superdelegates to corrupt their process.

7 k's in 6 ip, 88 pitches...1 walk. Nice combo of sliders and slow curves to go with fastball. Just two hits, both singles. Will be on a short rope to get the CG 7IP. Btw, 4th DH for Hagerstown already this season, five total rainouts in April. Only four lost games in all of 2016. Zavala with the homer to CF for 1-0 lead, 3rd of season.

Have to fix the dates. Dunning 6 up, six down, 2 k's, minuscule ERA. Toying with the SAL. Touching 96-97. Justin Jirschele at 27 is the youngest manager in all of MILB. Sterling Sharp, same as the former NFL WR minus an E, pitching for Hagerstown.

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?s...mp;ymd=20170426 Crazy 10:35 a.m. start time for Dunning in first game of DH, 9:35 CST