caulfield12

https://www.yahoo.com/news/in-a-klan-enclav...-230638282.html In a Klan enclave (Harrison, Arkansas), questions about Trump aren't welcome

We've been hearing this same 'ol stuff out of Colorado since Mark Hampton and Darryl Kile.

Meanwhile, Steve Alford is the King Of Westwood, for now...but he was never going to be able to accomplish that in Iowa City, it was just a stepping-stone. Iowa was almost blown out of the game at home by MD in the first half, stormed back to take a late 3 point lead but they seem to have run out of gas at the end. At least they're entertaining...for all the hype Tyler Cook got, he hasn't been THE man for Iowa like he was expected when he stepped onto campus. Needs to figure out other ways to attack the basket and improve his shooting, like most athletes who rely on physical dominance to get through high school.

Link's not working?

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Jan 19, 2017 -> 07:13 PM) It shifted pretty quick didn't it. I think some of the factors are... 1) the number of teams rebuilding 2) stricter penalties for going over the salary threshold 3) more teams realizing that in general, most veterans in that 30+ year old range decline during the new contract. 4) as we've seen the last few years with the Sox, the contracts of Melky, LaRoche and Danks have hindered future moves. Remember last year when Hahn said he would have to get creative in order to make a run at Cespedes/Upton/Gordon? The LaRoche and Danks contracts definitely hindered that. I think a perfect example is Alex Gordon. He recieved a guaranteed three year deal for 60M and regressed in '16. Can you imagine the b****ing that would be going on right now if it had been the Sox that signed Gordon? All I can say is thank you KC. Would anyone be any happier with Justin Upton's performance? Probably not. His overall stats look decent, but he was absolutely terrible for the first half of the season, and his intermittent hot streaks in the second half weren't enough to push the Tigers back into it, not with JD Martinez out for most of the year and the starting rotation after Verlander and Fulmer struggling. In the end, even in the "best case" scenario of those three outfielders, we'd have pretty dramatically overpaid for Cespedes for one year and have almost nothing left right now to show for it except an even more middling first round draft pick. That's not counting Heyward, Fowler and Desmond as part of the conversation.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2017 -> 05:50 PM) As with you, the Republicans in Congress only care about corruption when they can throw that allegation at Hillary Clinton. The moment he puts his hand on the Bible and it bursts into flame, he will be in violation of the constitution by profiting from his office. Meanwhile, Trump is planning to wipe out the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NEA and NEH... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix...m=.a290942ac087 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tru...m=.992b334ae444 Meanwhile, in an article Balta could have written about conflicts of interest with the Old Post Office/Trump DC Hotel... Rates this week were five times higher than normal – meaning many of the rooms are running at least $2,000 a night — and required a five-night minimum beginning Tuesday. Trump has turned over management of his business to his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, but he does not plan to sell his assets. He said this month that he would donate “profits” from foreign business clients to the U.S. Treasury. However, neither Trump nor representatives of the Trump Organization have provided details on how such payments would be tracked, collected and disbursed. Given such issues, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.) and other congressional Democrats have pushed the General Services Administration to cancel the Old Post Office Pavilion lease. GSA officials have said that no violations have yet occurred. “No determination regarding the Old Post Office can be completed until the full circumstances surrounding the ­President-elect’s business arrangements have been finalized and he has assumed office,” the agency said in a statement. [Update: Feds say it’s ‘premature’ to judge lease for Trump’s D.C. hotel] By then, of course, GSA will be part of the new administration — raising the prospect of a Trump appointee renegotiating the lease with one of his sons. Steven L. Schooner, a professor of government procurement law at George Washington University, said he feared that the GSA would “just bury its head in the sand and hope the storm blows over” even though “this problem isn’t going to get better with time.” Also, the Washington Post columns are being offered free for this three day Inauguration Day period, fwiw. And how many times have we heard about Trump making or pledging donations that never actually took place? Must be 50-75 times in the last six months by my count.

QUOTE (reiks12 @ Jan 19, 2017 -> 03:31 PM) Thats what they do though. They did the same thing with Morton in 2013. Worked very well Not to mention Volquez...maybe Liriano as well? But that was equally related to lowering pitch counts, inducing more ground balls and defensive positioning/shifts. As opposed to simply trying to fix a "struggling" pitcher with confidence issues.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 19, 2017 -> 10:51 AM) Certainly. But look at this list (and not the map, which is only to 2013) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._...ion_growth_rate I'm not quite sure if there has been an energy boom in Idaho, but it's easy to spot the outliers to energy booms in a place like South Dakota, but the trend is clear. Not to diminish if all of those 200 k growth in indiana went to Illinois that that would have no impact, but even if Chicago fixed all of its problems, and you'd still be clawing to get where Minnesota is in terms of growth and you aren't only barely in the top half. Weather is a huge indicator right now. So why is Minnesota doing so well with even more brutal winters and their own unique set of immigrant/refugee problems? It can't be the Mall of America, as malls are dying before our very eyes. Actually, the deterioration of the suburban mall is yet another form of blight in the Midwest, like abandoned Wal Marts and one or two screen movie theatres.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-...m=.d61773b17042 DeVos: Six astonishing things Betsy DeVos said and refused to say at her confirmation hearing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethni...ousehold_income Fwiw, Arab-American is actually BEHIND Caucasian/White American by household income....roughly $60K vs. $55K. Lebanese, Iranian and Syrian (this is actually an argument for relaxing "refugee" status, but only if Trump handpicks "good, hard-working" Arabs I guess) groups are well higher than the average white household...but, all Arab-Americans added together cumulatively end up roughly 8% lower than whites. You can find another grouping of Arab/Arabic all the way down at 89th on the list...ahead of ONLY Burmese, Iraqi and Somalians. Indian American : $101,591[2] Taiwanese American : $85,566[2] Filipino American : $82,389[2] Australian American : $81,452[3] Israeli American : $79,736[3] European American : $77,440[3] Russian American : $77,349[3] Greek American : $77,342[3] Lebanese American : $74,757[3] Croatian American : $73,196[3] Latvian American : $72,690[3] Lithuanian American : $72,605[3] Austrian American : $72,478[3] Different Chinese-American categories (depending if you count Taiwan together) are down at 23rd and 29th, but still ahead of the "average" white household. And with Filipino-Americans third on the list, they've overcome a ton of discrimination themselves as a people...not necessarily comparable to Nazi Germany (Jewish people) or slavery, but nevertheless quite brutal dictatorships.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 11:51 PM) Is it too late for him to change his slogan to Making America Pathetic? M.A.P. sounds like there is actually a cohesive plan or strategy in place other than firing off tweets.

Well, racist and Republican...those two words are getting thrown around almost interchangeably these days, but Trump has nobody but himself to blame for that (and Bannon/the alt-right movement, etc). It's largely why you're seeing 60 members of the House of Representatives sitting out the inauguration Friday, the attacks on John Lewis/Atlanta and the Russian hacking issue.

If Q was a former first round draft pick from an SEC school instead of coming from Colombia as a FA...and hadn't already been let go by two teams, and didn't have that singular non-steroids PED's, this would be a SLIGHTLY easier trade to make. Cashman has to have a part of him that's unwilling to be burned twice with Q. Once was bad enough. And let's be honest, there are still at least half the GM's in baseball who PERCEIVE Gray and Archer to have the potential to bounce back as aces...they've both been TOR guys in the past...and Q is just never going to be the "sexy" guy who lights up radar guns or has that Sale/Randy Johnson funky wind-up, Johan Santana Change, Liriano slider or Glavine/Buehrle control. He's a combination of all of those guys, with Lester being the best parallel. The other problem is that he hasn't ever had the opportunity to perform in post-season or in front of a rotation (now with Sale gone)...so there are still a few question marks about him in the industry. Undoubtedly, he's a better fit for a team like the Astros that is constructing an above-average offense, as he's the kind of guy who typically gives up a couple of runs, maybe three, but isn't a consistent threat from start to start to go on a run of consecutive shutouts (seemed like 2012 was the year he really did this over a long run of starts). But he definitely keeps an offense within striking distance almost every time out there. And all that said, trading the same or even more talent for Gray/Archer is fraught with risk for those GM's with itchy trigger fingers.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 07:04 PM) Andruw doesn't pass the smell test. I know the numbers look great for 10 years and the defense, but, ya know... Vizquel looks like a glove-first Hall of Fame SS. I wouldn't complain if he got in, but the stat nerds are going to be anti-Omar. Easily the best SS since Ozzie Smith, and none have been better since. Not first ballot, but he's the Bill Mazeroski of his generation, plus he played on a number of really good teams during his career, and impacted numerous post-seasons.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 05:37 PM) 2018 ballot- Chipper Jones, Jim Thome are locks. Also on- Rolen, Andruw Jones, Johan Santana, Johnny Damon, Omar Vizquel Vizquel is going to be the new Jack Morris. My 2018 ballot- Guerrero, Clemens, Bonds, Mussina, Schilling, Manny, McGriff, Chipper, Thome Only 9, but Hoffman is getting in next year along with Vlad, Chipper, and probably Thome. Vizquel will get in...maybe not next year, but the 2nd/3rd year of eligibility. The interesting question now is whether Edgar Martinez or Mussina can make it. Schilling's done, whether you want to blame it on his political views or his relationship with the media, there will be no Jim Rice redemption for him in the end. Guerrero's that guy that probably everyone has a moment etched in their brains...for me, it was the 1994 South Atlantic League All-Star game. He had a throw from the warning track in RF to 3B on one bounce...the runner coming into 3rd was strolling in like he had the easiest stand-up triple in the history of the game. He suddenly looked up at the last second, the ball was waiting in the third baseman's glove and he (and the crowd) was absolutely stupefied. We couldn't believe what just happened. It was like a Bo Jackson feat. The other thing that stands out about Guerrero is his ability to hit the ball anywhere inside and outside the strike zone....taking the wildest swings you've ever seen, then the next pitch the ball would be a foot outside or at his shoe tops and he'd be standing on 2nd or 3rd base moments later. He just had such a flair for the game before the knee injuries took their tool on his athleticism later in his career.

It's very simple. Nobody is going to change their point of view, any more than if you were talking about abortion or the death penalty. The GOP should come right out and say they don't believe it's a fundamental right for all Americans to have health care. Germane to this discussion, assert/claim/argue that it's NO LONGER just or fair to continue Affirmative Action policies...whenever that seemingly arbitrary deadline passed to continue them (realistically, it stopped in the 1980's with the Reagan/Bush years for many African-Americans). Fwiw, I teach in an international school here in China (we just had 9 admitted to Oxford/Cambridge) and we constantly have this discussion about having to be 25% better than African-American, Hispanic and Native American students to receive Ivy League or Top 30-50 US university admission letter. In fact, the State of California system is currently attempting to limit the number of Chinese students admitted (even though their parents subsidize state residents' lower tuition with the highest international tuition expenses) to provide more opportunities (another form of protectionism) for local California residents, even if their test scores don't necessarily merit it. (Another example, the city of Vancouver is now forbidding Chinese from buying property there because it's raising real estate prices too much for locals/Canadians...essentially, they're being discriminated against for being too "successful" economically and trying to get too much money out of the mainland at the same time). At any rate, the students don't get caught up in whether it's right/fair/just, they just work harder and study longer. The competition here in China is already 10X what they'll ever face in the US. In fact, many students here choose international studies just because it's an escape from the GAO KAO, a standardized exam like the SAT except the Grade 12 kids study an ENTIRE year and your entire fate in life (getting into a university or not, what majors you can choose) is based on a single multiple choice exam. Now that's REAL pressure. When I ask them if they feel it's unfair that students from western China (Tibet/Gansu/Xinjiang), where there are many ethnic and religious minority groups, receive full or partial scholarships, they don't even blink or argue against it (it's just a fact of life)...especially if those kids from disadvantaged backgrounds come close to the marks and GAO KAO scores of those growing up in the city with the advantages of specialized training centers, tutors, the best technology/resources/teachers and IB/AP curriculum. They realize they already have a huge advantage, a 5-10 meter head start in a 100M race.

QUOTE (Con te Giolito @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 01:43 PM) I had a conversation via text with a friend of mine who works in baseball and he said what Kopech is doing is almost definitely an abridged offseason program that isn't meant to add much (if any) velocity. These sessions come nowhere near the strain of even a minor league start on a tight pitch count. The guy who owns this facility is running a business and definitely wants HS players to see Kopech hurling 110 mph lasers at his gym and will play up these feats on social media to try and generate buzz. It seems to have worked. Some guys have the Mark Buehrle beer n huntin' offseason regimen, others are workout maniacs. Its different for each guy and as long as Kopech isn't directly disobeying the White Sox doing this stuff its fine. The same one from Jeff Passan's THE ARM (I think it's in the Pacific NW)...Trevor Bauer and the Asian-American analytics kid are involved with?

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 05:16 PM) Which part is subjective? It's objective that African-Americans are still discriminated in hiring. It's objectively true that discriminatory policies against African Americans over the last 50 years make it more difficult for African Americans, as a demographic, to obtain the same educational opportunities as their white counterparts. It is objectively true that the dictionary definition of discrimination defines discrimination as "unjust." Not to mention housing discrimination pushing minorities and immigrants/refugees into the most undesirable public housing and, almost invariably, demonstrably inferior public school districts. Mr. Trump's father was acutely aware of this invisible line in the sand...and, of course his son just gave us Dr. Ben Carson, who will surely pull everyone up by the bootstraps.

So now only catchers with PEDs backstories get in because there are just so few deserving candidates at that position...in the future, if Molina doesn't make it, possibly only Posey if he can sustain his production levels another five years? Can't see Mauer now, either. Maybe?

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 05:05 PM) Ends justify the means. Still discrimination. if the government gave every freed person 40 acres and a mule 151 years ago like they had promised (the equivalent of let's say $120-140,000 usd), there would be a stronger basis for your reverse discrimination argument. Instead they got Jim Crow, lynchings and the KKK in the South.

Where are the examples on the macro level that a disproportionate number of powerful white men are not running the US? Well, we could look at the numbers of non white male presidents, and that would be one area. If it weren't for Obama's white maternal grandparents sacrificing financially to send him to Punahou School in Hawaii, nobody would have even heard his name. Now if you want to argue that Occidental, Columbia and HLS gave special treatment to his applications, you're welcome to make that case, but those (if you want to argue he was given preference over more deserving candidates) Affirmative Action policies also just gave us one of the few presidents in modern American history to leave office with a 60% approval rating. Maybe watching Hidden Figures or Fences would help to put words into pictures, or prose into poetry...but that would only lead to the "that was all supposedly solved fifty year ago by JFK, LBJ and MLK" argument.

Where are all the people of Arab or Middle Eastern descent who have flown up into the top ranks of Fortune or Forbes companies in the last 15 years? Where are all the women and Asians being allowed to lead VC firms and investment banks? Indian-Americans? What about their representation in Congress, where the real power is? The fact of the matter is that it's still the top 3-5% of wage earners in the US controlling the power, and that group is disproportionately Caucasian. They may allow Chinese and Indians a stable/upper middle income existence, but the historical record shows that Silicon Valley traditionally has hired more qualified IT workers from those two areas of the world and paid them 40-60% of their white counterparts. At any rate, it's interesting that the one thing holding a lot of Middle Eastern-Arab countries back economically is that women aren't allowed an opportunity to receive an education or become independent financially. Doesn't it make sense for the US as well as the rest of the world to prioritize making that happen? And that still doesn't come close to rebalancing the fact that 80-85% of those living on less than $2 per day are from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. But let's turn back to the US. If I want to work in the front office of any professional or even minor league sports team, my chances are 10x better as a white than a minority (or a sportswriter for that matter)...so I'll throw that NBA analogy back, just like my chances of making partner with a big name law or accounting firm, VC firm, high tech start up, K Street lobbying group or think tank, etc., are exponentially higher. On a lesser level, compare the number of minorities with scholarships for softball, tennis, water polo, field hockey, swimming and diving, lacrosse, etc. I bet you'll find it's disproportionately white again.

Those crazy Wyoming grizzlies have everyone on the lookout. Can they now see Alaska or Russia from there? Speaking of Palin, how is she NOT a nominee for something? If Carson and DeVos can do it...

QUOTE (CyAcosta41 @ Jan 17, 2017 -> 11:39 PM) You go, Shack! I've been tempted to say almost exactly this over and over again the past few weeks, but never got around to it. Perhaps a different analogy may persuade some of the naysayers. Let's talk real estate. So many starters are little more than interchangeable houses in a cookie-cutter subdivision -- there are always plenty available in any given market, many buyers looking at most of them, and comps that any realtor can produce that ultimately demonstrate a narrow range of offer and acceptance pricing. Jose Quintana ain't no subdivision. He's custom-built, all the upgrades, built-to-last, and sitting on a premium lot with a one-of-a-kind view. There is little in the way of true comps and a deal is ultimately struck when the buyer who must have that particular house ultimately ponies up enough so that the current owner is willing to let it go. Back to baseball -- depending on the metrics you choose to emphasize, Q is a top 10-20 starter in ALL OF BASEBALL, he's likely a surer bet for 200 IP with outstanding traditional and advanced metric numbers as anyone, he's seemingly a pitching machine with as little risk of injury as anyone, and he's locked up for another 4 years under a contract that provides the kind of surplus value that happens a couple of times a decade! Perhaps Rick won't get the Sale or Eaton deal, but he's looking to get darned close to that. And he should. No way do we sell the Q with a view dream home without getting back a couple of top prospects who we are going to feel real good about (I'm talking Meadows/Keller ... or Frazier/Mateo/Rutherford). If posters don't accept that Jose Quintana is EASILY the best starter available this offseason, then we're not talking the same language. For once, we're holding the cards. You play it hard; you play it strong; you extract maximum value. Rick Hahn has had a masterful offseason to date -- a strong Sale deal, followed by a near brilliant Eaton deal. I see it as a good sign that our own posters are getting antsy. There's a good chance the same is happening with many of our potential trading partners, whether the known suspects like the Astros, Pirates, Yanks, Braves, and Rangers, or with some other potential partners who are feigning disinterest, but are ready to swoop in at the last minute to avoid bidding against themselves (I'm thinking Rockies, Dodgers, and maybe even Red Sox / Nats here). It's only the middle of January. Why in the world should be worrying NOW that Hahn is "overplaying" his hand and needs to ratchet down his demands? Why in the world would he do that now? Instead, it's exactly the time where a frustrated potential partner may have his Tom Cruise in Risky Business moment -- sometimes, you just gotta say "what the f*ck," and maybe we have a third great deal in this offseason. If we're May/June and Q is still here and we start hearing about teams starting to auction off TOR-type pitchers to the 2017 crop of contenders, then hit me with all of the Hahn overplayed his hand arguments. But we're a long way from then. In fact, for the next couple of weeks we're arguably exactly at the time when our suddenly astute (or perhaps, suddenly "freed") GM can generate max value. Can I quote you? There is no rush here. There is only impatience. You are spot-on! Spot on. It's even riskier for teams to provide the same package (or even more than they're currently willing to offer for Q) for either Gray or Archer. Those are the types (I know better than every GM!!) of moves that either work out spectacularly and get epic books like Moneyball II written about you or end up (the more likely scenario) similar to the LaRussa/Dave Stewart saga in Arizona. One of the reasons Luhnow MIGHT be hesitating is he already feels burned by the Ken Giles deal...and is fearful of committing the same mistake, hoping he can "slog" through the first half with that rotation sprinkled in with 2-3 youngsters and stay close enough in the playoff race to reassess at the trade deadline.

Here's something else for Greg to consider: The President-elect, however, considers NATO "obsolete" largely because he believes it is not doing enough to deal with terrorism, despite the fact that the only time that NATO's Article 5 mutual defense provision has ever been invoked was after a terrorist attack — on September 11, 2001. Since then, thousands of NATO troops have served in Afghanistan, fighting to stop the war-ravaged country from again becoming a haven for extremist groups like al Qaeda. "We were attacked on 9/11, and not any of these countries and they sent their young men and women to serve in Afghanistan, and over 1,000 were killed in Afghanistan," Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain said on CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday. "Not because they were attacked but because we were attacked." Former Sen. and Middle East peace negotiator George Mitchell, meanwhile, argued that Trump risked subverting one of America's great achievements: the building of a new transatlantic order from the rubble of two world wars in which 68 million people died. "I believe historians will judge that to be one of America's finest hours," said Mitchell on CNN Tuesday. http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/17/politics/don...licy/index.html Trump's New World DISorder