caulfield12

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 07:33 AM) I'm not sure if he also has a blindness problem, but I do recall that he was losing his hearing due to his addiction to painkillers. That was back when one his big show topics was drug addicts. No, I think you’re right.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 02:29 PM) Huh? It’s too late to protect Ted Cruz’ reputation from his being “deliberately misquoted” in this thread...everyone who follows politics knows what StrangeSox was doing. It’s called satire/comedy. You almost don’t have to try, anymore. The same thing happens everyday on the Right and we have to become aggrieved and fight back to address the mischaracterization and the whole cycle just goes around and around.

The economy was already growing at a 3+% rate. What the GOP doesn’t seem to understand is that they’re wiping out a large segment of their corporate customer base by continuing to let all of the benefits accrue to the top 10-20% in society. Maybe US corporations can offset losses in the domestic market by selling to China and India eventually, but we’re heading for recession. The Federal Reserve will raise rates again in December, which, ironically, will create more pain in China because debt to GDP rates are even higher here (otoh, China is sitting on a large surplus of capital reserves, roughly $2 trillion, vs. $20 trillion in debt.). Who are US corporations going to sell all their products to, again? The fact of the matter is that eventually these additional cuts (estate taxes were especially unnecessary, that and capital gains from stock sales helped Clinton to actually balance 2-3 budgets in the late 90’s)...will be used as added justification to further cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Not to mention that the GOP and even some Dems want to invest more into rebuilding defense/military. It all doesn’t add up. We thought hearing anecdotal stories about ObamaCare rates on individual markets going up was disheartening...we haven’t seen anything yet compared to the pain the middle class and poor are going to feel in the next 3-4 years. This fantasy that labor rates are suddenly going to explode (trickle down) when it hasn’t happened with roughly 4% unemployment and the average factory laborer being twice as productive while actually being paid less today in inflation adjusted dollars than back in 1980 is just a complete fallacy. And that was a time when fathers worked and most mothers were able to stay home with their children. That’s no longer a reality for the vast majority of American families, and we’re seeing the consequences with the last two generations being either more spoiled or having completely absent parents. If anything, AI, virtual reality and AR are going to carve out even more of the middle class, not less. Then the conversation will be about universal basic income.

It’s too late. Where was CWS when Trump started using the moniker Lyin’ Ted Cruz in the first place? The reality of the situation is that nobody likes Ted Cruz, even his own party. Smart guy, head of the Harvard Law Review, talented debater, he might be all of those things. Fair and balanced instead of blatantly partisan? Impossible. Can’t change the narrative now with this guy. Even Cruz knows he’s coming across as hypocritical...hence, his chuckle before arguing Franken should be grilled over the coals.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 12:30 AM) But a 20% statutory tax rate is higher than our competitors - even if only small businesses pay that. That's the scam. Large businesses pay 0%, high income taxpayers categorize themselves as businesses and pay 0%, small businesses pay 20%, the middle class pays 15-20% counting the payroll tax. That's the point. Small businesses can't grow larger even if they have good ideas because they are overtaxed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteve...m=.0960d59b4a3b The GOP tax bill is straight out of 1929 This is how it should work under Trump campaign logic: The 20% tax rates should only be applied to companies who have a vast majority (let’s say 2/3rds or 75%) of American workers in their corporations. Companies who rely on foreign manufacturing, foreign customer service/outsourced call centers, and H1Bs should keep the current tax rates. The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business runs an ongoing survey of top economists spanning a wide number of specialties and political outlooks. The panel includes multiple Nobel Prize winners, White House veterans, and former presidents of the American Economic Association. Recently, they were asked about the Republican tax reform bills. The results weren’t encouraging. The first question was straightforward. Would they agree that if the US passed a tax bill “similar to those currently moving through the House and Senate,” GDP would be “substantially higher a decade from now”? Of the 42 economists polled, only one thought the Republican bill would boost the economy. The plurality said it wouldn’t, and the remainder were uncertain or didn’t answer. The survey includes an optional space for respondents to add a comment, and a few of the comments are notable. “Of course not,” wrote the University of Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee, who served as chief economist for President Obama. “Does anyone care about actual evidence anymore?” A number of the economists argued that tax policy simply isn’t as powerful a lever as Republicans want to believe. “Tax policy appears to have little effect at the margin on GDP growth in OECD countries,” wrote MIT’s David Autor, an eminent trade economist. “Doubt it will substantially change things either way,” wrote the University of Chicago’s Anil Kashyap. “Aside from the redistribution of wealth, hard to see this changing much,” wrote Richard Thaler, who just won the Nobel Prize in economics. The only economist to say the bill would increase GDP was Stanford’s Darrell Duffie, and he added the concern: “Whether the overall tax plan is distributionally fair is another matter.” The second question asked whether passage of the Republican tax bills would mean “the US debt-to-GDP ratio will be substantially higher a decade from now than under the status quo.” Here, too, the news was grim from Republicans. In this case, all but one economist agreed that the bills would blow up the deficit, and the outlier, Stanford's Liran Einav, turned out to have misread the question — he later clarified that he also agrees the bill would add to the debt. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/201...x-plan-igm-poll

Well, you don’t want to rush young kids that aren’t ready up to the big leagues...even in low-pressure bullpen situations. Besides, the odds are someone like Fulmer or Lopez ends up there eventually. Nothing to get upset about. It would be more upsetting if they kept investing resources into Putnam and Petricka with limited payout even if they performed above expectations.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 11:29 PM) Is that Rush? Uh oh. He shouldn't be doing that. I don't worship Rush, folks. Unlike some of you I listen to as many different viewpoints as I can in the short attention span I have regarding talk radio. I am a dial switcher; don't like commercials. Love Beatles channel. Love some other music channels and the 2 comedy channels. His defense is going to be his partial blindness/medical conditions. Just watch.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-tax-bill-demo...-035637905.html At least four GOP senators blocked the Hillsdale/DeVos tax exemption sponsored by Toomey Murkowski, Collins, Deb Fischer and Kennedy The Senate bill would drop the highest personal income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 38.5 percent. The estate tax levied on a few thousand of the nation's largest inheritances would be narrowed to affect even fewer. Deductions for state and local income taxes, moving expenses and other items would vanish, the standard deduction — used by most Americans — would nearly double to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples, and the per-child tax credit would grow. The bill would abolish the "Obamacare" requirement that most people buy health coverage or face tax penalties. Industry experts say that would weaken the law by easing pressure on healthier people to buy coverage, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the move would push premiums higher and leave 13 million additional people uninsured. Drilling would be allowed in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Another provision, knocked out because it violated Senate budget rules, would have explicitly let parents buy tax-advantaged 529 college savings accounts for fetuses, a step they can already take but which anti-abortion forces wanted to inscribe into law. There were also breaks for the wine, beer and spirits industries, Alaska Natives and aircraft management firms.

When Fox News’ Neil Cavuto asked Cruz Thursday if Moore should be thrown out of the Senate if elected, Cruz said “of course not,” adding, “We’ve got to respect the will of the voters.” “If the voters of Alabama choose to elect him, for some Washington politicians to say, ‘We don’t care what the voters say,’ I think that would be a mistake,” Cruz said. When Cavuto then asked Cruz about Franken, the Texas senator chuckled, calling the allegations “serious.” “There’s a rich irony watching all the Democrats backpeddling and trying to justify now their colleague who you’ve got, I think the count is five women who allege groping,” Cruz said. “That’s a serious, serious problem, and I think it’s something that we’re going to see debated quite a bit more.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/ted-cruz-defends...-162347932.html The difference is not THAT significant...unless Cruz also is willing to allow the voters of Minnesota to decide Franken’s fate

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 09:11 PM) No real conservative should be in favor of a bill like this. It’s pretty pathetic when Marco Rubio starts to sound reasonable wanting to reallocate less than 1% of that 15% business tax reduction to middle class families with three or more children....you would think ALL Americans would consider that preferable to big corporations being taxed a lower rate than our six biggest competitors internationally.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 07:33 PM) It's very admirable that you are so willing to let Roy Moore let his case be heard. Oh wait, that's not who you are talking about, I wonDeR why. Has Moore ever asked for a public hearing and the opportunity to confront his accusers? He won’t even admit he has met more than a couple of them...so how would the case be proven without any standard of guilt?

Just what the DeVos family needs, more tax breaks http://qctimes.com/business/the-latest-dem...f56135743e.html Democrats have taken to the Senate floor to attack a planned amendment to the tax bill that would give a break to a conservative college in Michigan. Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey acknowledged he'd sponsored the language and said Hillsdale College would benefit from it. Toomey defended Hillsdale as "a wonderful institution" and said other schools might qualify for the tax break, too. His provision would shield schools that receive no federal aid from language in the bill that taxes the investment income of some colleges and universities. Democrats say Toomey's provision was written in a way that only Hillsdale would qualify for the reduction. They complain that some well-known conservatives have connections to the school, including Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Of course, Sen. Toomey vociferously opposed earmarks two years ago...

QUOTE (Reddy @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 05:22 PM) So is every damn Dem in Congress at the moment. Follow Chris Murphy, Ted Lieu, Kamala, etc. Ain't just Mr. Opportunist He was there fighting that fight before it became politically expedient and popular. He almost forced the lot of them to join the Medicare for All bandwagon. It’s hardly leadership for those who follow to parrot the same attacks from districts they would be hard-pressed to lose. The big reason we’re in this mess in the first place is that Hillary had zero political conviction in any of her “tough call” positions and shifted with the winds...just like her husband. The difference is that his political instincts were second to none, with two rare exceptions (losing the governorship in 1980 and the 1994 Republican Revolution after leading with healthcare and gays in the military). In the end, she wasn’t likeable or trustworthy enough to deter enough from experimenting with a Trump presidency. And look where we are now. In a position where, at best, the next two years will be spent undoing 2017 while the Chinese are running circles around us.

QUOTE (KagakuOtoko @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 05:03 PM) How can you vote yes on a bill that's not written? Pelosi comments about ObamaCare will be used as the justification here...

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 12:51 PM) I'm not sure about this. Remember the income tax would also go down in the process. Think about how much money you and I spend, then think about how much the wealthy spend. How much revenue would be generated at 20% from $2,000 suits, luxury automobiles, private aircraft and other things that only the wealthy purchase. See The Millionaire Next Door. You’re really going to end up taxing those who are living beyond their means...it wouldn’t have a punitive effect on the truly wealthy, because they don’t go out and lease the latest Audi or BMW. Maybe if it was yachts in the over $10 million class, private/corporate jets, golf club memberships, etc.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 12:16 PM) Flake moved to Yes based on a promise to "be included in future DACA talks" which seems like a really, really weak ask. After Corker was going to be gifted $300-400 billion being cut off...? And as far as “giveaways” go, Bush did exactly that with Medicare and the prescription drug benefit. That was for nothing other than politically calculating reasons. Let’s not play along with Romney Math and assume 47% of Americans will automatically vote for Dems because they receive some type of Federal government support like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. If it was so cut and dried for the lower classes to vote strictly on socioeconomic and not social issues, Gore would have won in 2000 and Clinton in 2016...and nothing that Trump has done so far is going to benefit ANY of those voters who got duped by him in the Heartland and Rust Belt. None of them will be better off in the pocketbook, especially when the consequences to health care affordability become more and more tangible to voters over the next couple of years.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-mak...-170456232.html Trump checks the box by making fun of Asian leaders this week as well. But did you hear about the Dow breaking another record thanks to me?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fifth-woman-accu...-131848124.html Now up to six for Franken. He gone. (Has to be.) And Conyers looks either crazy or just plain ornery trying to hold onto power at age 88...

Would anyone really trust Smoak or Logan Morrison mostly based on last season? It’s about the same as believing in Avi Garcia. Maybe one standard deviation in increased confidence. It’s easy to say xyz player like those two or Belt could replace Abreu, but picking the right bargain bin has been incredibly elusive on the offensive side.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 30, 2017 -> 11:19 AM) Mnuchin said the repeal of the Estate tax will mostly help rich people t. Like this was even a question? Overall, it's really not that much of the tax pool anyway, and I personally will benefit greatly from its repeal, but why? Isn't that at least a small token you could throw out there as "we aren't catering to the rich"? SoxTalk admins will hit you up for site donations if they have reason to believe you’re worth $5.5 to $11 million. JK. It’s pretty amazing that if you go back to the late 90’s, we used to have to worry about having to take a measly $10,000 per year in estate distributions per child to help avoid piling up $1+ million plus estates. Then Bush bumped it way up. Now it’s only the top two tenths of one percent of filing households in the country, with a disproportionate amount of gains not going to family farms or small businesses but the billionaire class. The actual amount of “small” inherited family farms that would be impacted in America at those rates would be in the single digits per year.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 30, 2017 -> 11:14 AM) Most people don't itemize and just take the standard deduction because it's more than their itemization would be. They're doubling the standard deduction, which sounds good on its face, but they're also eliminating the personal exemption. That means it generally ends up as a wash for most people, and slightly negative in the longer term. The bigger impact will be when tax cuts for billionaires are used as an excuse to cut public programs and social safety nets. And anyone having more than two kids is getting screwed losing their $4050 deduction per child...really makes a lot of socioeconomic sense to make MORE vulnerable the largest middle and lower class families, after all.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 30, 2017 -> 09:30 AM) The bolded part in that last section sounds very far from "changing american life". The post is literally writing it as "scary big number sounds scary aren't you scared". How many taxpayers are expected to be in the 40-50k band? Right now that's something like 10% of taxpayers. a $5 billion tax increase on ~12 million people is an increase of $500/year. That's not pleasant, but not going to "Change American Life". If it's phased in over several years which it would be, most of the posters here wouldn't even realize their federal taxes went up. Isn’t that also taking into account those relatively likely to lose major health care benefits?

Amid MLB's home run revolution, free-agent sluggers could come cheap http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/2161090...gers-come-cheap

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 30, 2017 -> 12:22 AM) Yankees, Dodgers, Boston, Cubs, yes Cubs, have all done fine spending moolah and getting free agents. Not everybody doing the rebuild thing has won big. Cubs rebuilt, yes, but also bought some players. I personally think 3 starting pitchers we trotted out there last year were an embarrassment to baseball. Seriously? This isn't a pro-front office board? Hahn is beloved. KW for the most part is given the benefit of the doubt all the time. Meanwhile for some reason Ozzie is destroyed and some of my favorite players destroyed (I know I know Ozzie quit on the team). That's just not true. Again do some research on threads. I stand up for my favorite players for sure and I argue against some of the current vision of the front office, butI don't complain always. Did you read my long reply on the future lineup/roster? I listed players at each position gave my takes. Nobody responds to my normal reaction posts. Some people get me; most don't. I'm a great Sox fan IMO. Name a team with a #15-25 payroll in MLB that can pull of that trick of competing consistently without rebuilding primarily through their farm system...it’s the exception to the rule.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 29, 2017 -> 07:55 PM) We truly have the worst arena in the big ten. What a waste. Also the worst guards. Iowa would disagree with you...