caulfield12

Someone was casually talking about "disemboweling" Obama on one of the Yahoo article threads earlier today. I will say the Secret Service must have their hands full with all the threats, real and imagined, to the Trump Family. Must be off the charts. The vitriol against GW Bush wasn't this bad even at the height of his unpopularity. The polarization is scary. It has gone from respectful disagreement to "the other side is pure evil."

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 3, 2017 -> 10:02 PM) Roy Williams has never coached a player who became an all star in the NBA. That's pretty incredible. I think that must have been Self at KU....who this June will send his 11th lottery pick to the NBA. He did coach Deron Williams at Illinois, fwiw. Maybe they meant in the end Pierce left school when Self had already taken over KU? http://sports.yahoo.com/news/where-does-20...WQDBHNlYwNzcg-- Where does this UNC team rank among Williams' beet Tar Heel squads?

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/obam...m-caucus-236836 Here they go again...White House desperate to pass ANY health care bill and simultaneously force through Gorsuch before the April recess.

Well, that was a clunker for everyone but UNC fans. They are slightly less annoying than Duke and Kentucky fans, so there's that. If you go back to 80's and 90's, seems like almost all of those Tar Heel teams were much more talented. Not even sure J. Jackson ever becomes more than a nice sixth man in the NBA.

At some point, Trump needs a real win. He's arguably had just two good moments, the Gorsuch nomination and the joint speech to Congress. Mattis and McMaster were solid picks, but he still hasn't done anything to improve the lives of the white American middle class who jumped ship (1/4 former Obama voters in this demographic) in the Midwest to elect him. Susan Rice allegations debunked http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/04...-sciutto-ac.cnn

QUOTE (kev211 @ Apr 3, 2017 -> 03:34 PM) It's opening day. They leave a day off in their schedule literally for this reason. There's an offday tomorrow for this reason. Which would end up with 11,000 fans showing up, especially with unpredictable weather this time of year.

Must be because they have a deal on the table for Q. This season not getting off to an auspicious start. Does feel rather manipulative and more team revenue than fan-oriented. Not the best look, but is anyone truly surprised?

Yes, war with North Korea and Kushner giving political advice to generals in Iraq...what could possibly go wrong? http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/02/politics/jar...iraq/index.html Imagine something happens to Kushner there...another war would be on the horizon. We can only assume the generals have given up on educating Trump directly, so perhaps they feel Kushner is much better suited than Tillerson, Bannon or Miller to explain things to him.

Tank for S---t. Or poop. Let's hope we haven't jinxed our top pick now with... http://www.heptune.com/poopword.html

As soon as we hear that Soros is similarly threatening Manchin, Heitkamp and Donnelly over the Gorsuch nomination (like Koch did to support no votes from the HFC on the AHCA)...the majority of Soros spending is in Europe. The Koch Brothers are worth about $85-90 billion combined. Soros, $25 billion. http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/09/op...-koch-brothers/ Lobbying expenditures, about $52 million (Koch) vs. $12 million for Soros through 2010...and Koch Industries political spending dwarfed that in 2012-14-16. Soros' attention has been increasingly focused on global issues, like his Open Society programs. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/crisis-many-...-131300919.html Matt Drudge claims Congress is sabotaging Trump

Ghost in the Shell was just not a very coherent movie...despite ScarJo's best efforts. Those hoping for Lucy II, you're going to have to wait. Only fans of the manga will enjoy it, assuming they can get beyond the whitewashing. Or if you enjoy futuristic movies like The Fifth Element, but even that movie was more groundbreaking.

Ghost in the Shell will be lucky to make $20 million this weekend. Only huge numbers in China (maybe) and Japan (very unlikely) get a sequel greenlit.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Apr 1, 2017 -> 03:55 PM) Yes. A report came out the other day saying the Sox have the cheapest tickets in baseball. I think that wasn't across the board presale but on a ticket broker or secondary resale market? This one shows the White Sox having the lowest average ticket price at $47, but the Cardinals and Royals are tied for fourth at $99 so it can't possibly be all tickets, just a snapshot of certain sections. Interestingly, the Sox and Blue Jays are the ONLY MLB teams to see prices lower compared to 2011, by around 30% (and the Jays have actually been good the last half decade.) The top 6 doubled or almost tripled...Cubs went from $60 to $119. The White Sox in 2011 were $9 higher than the Cubs at $69. https://www.barrystickets.com/blog/mlb-ticket-prices/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republican-ident...-080000030.html The Republican Identity Crisis

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 31, 2017 -> 09:14 AM) Gallup (and others) run polls gauging party self-identification. http://www.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx It was an offhand joke based on historic party affiliation levels. That's a little bit different than registered Repubs vs. Dems. The slide in the GOP identifiers since the health care debate and pulled AHCA bill is instructive. Interesting the number of identifying Dems hasn't increased at all over these last five months. My recollection was it was around 31% registered as GOP and 27-28% as Dems. As usual, independent/moderate/centrist voters decide elections.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverythi...m=.30ccdca413e2 Why Jared Kushner is the wrong businessman to reinvent government.

Only need five combined votes in the KS State House and Senate to override Brownback's veto. Lots of KS hospitals are lobbying hard for passage. http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/201...hoo&ref=yfp Score another win for Koch Industries! Brownback’s veto, which was announced Thursday morning on Twitter, had been highly anticipated and comes amid speculation that he will take a job in President Donald Trump’s administration. The Kansas Legislature has 30 days to override Brownback’s veto, which would require two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate. Rep. Susan Concannon, a Beloit Republican who has pushed for expansion for several years, rejected Brownback’s effort to tie the issue to abortion. “It’s not an abortion bill despite some comments that I heard this morning,” she said. “That was out of left field. You talk about moving targets, there’s a new one for us.” House Majority Leader Don Hineman, a Dighton Republican, said he still felt there was a sentiment in both chambers to find a way to make Medicaid expansion happen. “In the end it comes back to protecting those who are in that gap and cannot afford coverage,” Hineman said. “There’s a benefit, not only to them directly, but to the state to have them covered and have them on a path to better health.” Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-go...l#storylink=cpy

Ossoff getting 50%+ of the vote in Tom Price's former district is almost the equivalent of the Scott Brown election in MA...

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Mar 31, 2017 -> 07:31 AM) The (Not-So) Peaceful Transition of Power: Trump’s Drone Strikes Outpace Obama Mass slaughter on a daily basis from this country. There's just too many other daily controversies for that to even get a mention on page 23D. Republican media covering up for Trump and only giving us fake news and zero mentions when Trump attacks the HFC because they don't want to be forced to choose a side.

Yeah, and that's coming from a scouting director, as opposed to a local/area/regional scout or cross-checker. I'm guessing the hyperbole was meant to include only the known universe outside MLB...

http://redbirdrants.com/2017/02/27/st-loui...robert-scouted/ Cardinals definitely have to get him declared before the deadline or they're out of it...guess the NL talent evaluator (see quotes below) is referring to Otani (Japan)? The St. Louis Cardinals are not only interested in Cuban outfielder Luis Robert but have also been scouting him according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Goold states the team had a number of scouts and evaluators at Luis Robert’s workouts in the Dominican Republic. Last month it was reported Robert left Cuba in order to become a Major League Baseball player. MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reported that he has become a resident of Haiti since leaving. They’ve also added non-pool players like Jose Adolis Garcia but they continue to explore the international markets heavily. .... MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez stated that a National League international scouting director believes Robert is the second best international talent in baseball. The reports on Robert state he is already a five-tool player that can crack an MLB roster soon. An American League scouting director told Sanchez that Robert is “the best player on the planet, and that’s no exaggeration.” http://redbirdrants.com/2017/02/27/st-loui...robert-scouted/

Manchin (WV) and Heitkamp (ND) are the only desertions so far. Patrick Leahy might be another. Would need at least 5 more.

Yes, in a way, you're not "mandated" to buy a house or invest in the stock market, but you're HEAVILY encouraged due to tax policy. (Heck, in China you have to pay for EVERYTHING if you have a child without being married, but the opposite results in the government subsidizing almost all the costs, which essentially mandates marriage, which you can argue that brand of paternalism's effects.) Of course, everyone complains about the low rate of return for the Social Security Trust Fund and demands that they be given the opportunity to manage that money independently, until they go through 1997-98, the tech crash, 2001, 2008-09. A lot of people were shell-shocked after all that and missed out on the returns of the last decade because they only stayed even for the previous decade. Heck, some pulled out their money in anticipation of the world falling apart when Trump was elected, only to see the market bounce up another 5-10%. In the end, without a mandate, there's still no solution for all those without health insurance accessing the system (free riders) and driving up the premiums for everyone else. You either have to remove insurance companies entirely from the equation, or get cost cuts (price ceilings) from Big Pharma and reasonable controls over hospital billing. We shouldn't be opposed to subsidizing medical school costs, or taking whatever steps we need in order to increase the supply of doctors, especially in rural or "hard to reach" areas. Since you're unlikely to lower demand with an aging population, we need to make reforms on the supply side (logically).

Another of the many Trump problems is counting the generally rising stock market since Election Day as his exclusive doing. In a way, rising "business optimism" might be his one success (to date), but it's quite difficult to separate carryover from the Obama administration here. Let's not forget Obama didn't come close to 36-38% popularity numbers even when unemployment numbers were nearly double. While something like 62% of Americans are invested in the stock market, the wealth gap is still exponentially increasing and middle class wage and wealth stagnation continues. In the end, what has Trump done for the middle class so far? Pretty much nothing. Well, this week he brought back a few coal mining jobs, maybe, temporarily. On the other hand, removing internet privacy rights in the interests of profiting corporate America and going out of his way in every single decision to destroy science and/or the environment can't possibly be in the best interest of any of our grandchildren. Meanwhile, technology advancement and innovation inexorably trudge ahead in Silicon Valley despite his best efforts to just ignore California completely, outside of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Ahnuld/Apprentice ratings.

States' rights!!! Except when it's about marijuana, sexual orientation and women's reproductive health/access to Planned Parenthood. And I thought the root of conservative was "conserve"...something the current brand of GOP is not exactly doing with the environment. Also amusing that Ms. DeVos compared school choice/vouchers argument to the competition from Uber and Lyft. Not sure you want to be hitching your wagon to Travis Kalanick right now.