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name anything positive she got credit for. the highest profile issue Biden supposedly asked her to lead on was “the border” which was the single most toxic issue for the dems by the election. her 4 yrs as VP did her no favors in terms of building a positive political profile. was she bad at her job? did Biden sabotage her because he didn’t want her to have a strong argument for him not to run,? IDK, but VP did not turn out to be a very good gig for her.

I know a high percentage of people here are on board right now with selling Skubal, some of them believing so irrespective of how we do going forward. I have been opposed to this, and as a separate idea, I don’t think Harris and ilitch are going to sell, mainly because I don’t think that by the time late July rolls around, our record and prospects will be so bad that we will be forced in a sell-or-else situation. I think we’d have to have a W-L that’s far lower than it is even today, and playing in the most winnable division after having gotten most of the guys on the list back, we simply won’t be both this bad and this unlucky. That said, i would be open to selling if we do find ourselves in a situation that we don’t recover and we are something like .350 on the season on July whatever-teenth. The question becomes, who do you sell, and what do you hope to get back for them? You named six guys, and five of them were hurt this year (three on the list right now), and the sixth guy is in his late 60s. When I contemplate the possible return, the word “haul” does not show up anywhere in the results. If we want any possibility of a “haul” we would have to probably sell Riley high, plus Tork and Colt for potential and controllability, at minimum. Skubal, of course, but he will not return what everyone hopes, especially if he doesn’t come back Cy Young hard for at least a month. I don’t see how anyone else gets us anything else besides lottery tickets and throw-ins.

Even before the injuries they weren't exactly setting the world on fire this season, they were .500. I think we had a lucky stretch where McKinstry, Baez and a couple other players played way above their average and now they are literally crashing before our eyes. When Baez, Carpenter and Meadows come back - and they are still welll below .500 (which is what I think is going to happen), do they even consider changing managers? I just don't know why Hinch seems so untouchable. August 2024 - June 2025 looks more lucky than good now, doesn't it?

I think most of that list seems plausible to accurate. The dems should not be GOP lite to trans folks.

What was poor about her VP-ship?

the point about Harris having a poor VP-ship is absolutely true. The open question is “Why”. Did Biden not give her any high profile projects with easy wins because he wouldn’t or because she couldn’t? at this point the people who know probably aren’t saying.

I acknowledge I probably misunderstood you, as had I thought you were suggesting that “bad” free agent contracts (my quote marks, and open to personal interpretation) would stop if all the teams would just stop signing such players, which would require collusion; unless (again, as I misthought) you were suggesting each of the 30 teams could just decide on their own to stop signing such players by zeitgeist and the “bad” free agents contracts would just stop, which we both know would never happen. That would leave the question, knowing there will be some teams who will sign such “bad” contracts even as most teams never would, can a team who never does so compete just as effectively over the long term as teams who do sign such contracts? The first example that might fly into mind could be the Brewers, who seemingly win the NLC every year without a stratospheric payroll, but even they can’t be considered a team that never indulges in “bad” contracts, since they did sign Yelich to a 9/215 that has never looked really good since, and won’t for the next 2-2/3 seasons.

LOL now it’s Biden’s fault Harris failed? Was there anything about running a coop and throwing your incumbent nominee under the bus?

Democrats get held to normal standards and the GOP can be bat**** crazy. It's like siblings. The oldest one gets all the good grades, does charity work, well behaved. The youngest is a screwup but plays football and makes people laugh and gets girls so everybody gives them a pass. We just watched the movie Parenthood again last week and the dems are Steve Martin and the GOP is Tom Hulce. Always given a break, never has to be accountable.

Verlander was better than Flaherty last year. I agree he probably won't do anything this year, but I think you are exaggerating how hopeless he is.

i.e., body count in Vietnam

The US keeps trying to comfort itself over falling behind the rest of the developed world by every measure of quality (and quantity!) of life by clutching to productivity growth numbers, but Krugman has done an interesting series this month blowing up the idea that those numbers mean anything like what we think they do. When you use the wrong yard sticks, measure the wrong things, you tend to get bad outcomes.

I thought they signed Verlander just to give him a parade lap and then the organization would put him on the IL regardless of if he were hurt or not after 3 or 4 starts and bring him back to pitch one last game at the end of the season. It was just as bad as the Alex Cobb signing. Flaherty hasn't been very good but I think Verlander should have hung up his spikes a few years ago. It's kind of like watching Aaron Rodgers try to play QB last season.

Well, i'm just speculating that it will be some deal he cut with MBS or some such foreign despot to import a couple hundred blond girls 12-15 yrs old for indentured servitude which will net the Trump family some cash. Is that too far fetched? I mean he is a Pedo who does things to get paid.

Like theyre gonna increase the slush fund by 1.488b?

Around 4pm we will see something insane they have been holding off releasing for the Friday before a holiday weekend.

Don't bother looking at the Baltimore weather forecast.

People in that top 20 have so little interest in emigrating to the United States for some reason. Slovenia is a surprise actually. Former communist countries tend to still be lower on the list but Czechia, Slovenia good on you. The East German reunification was and remains turbulent but still.

Is Flaherty better than JV? IDK, JV hasnt been healthy. Flaherty isnt very good, if it comes down to him or Montero, who would you rather see? The money Flaherty is making gives him a very long leash but he's horribly inconsistent.

This is a name I’d like, although I doubt Yzerman would do an offer sheet.

Flaherty is still much better than Verlander. As long as the Tigers still think about playoffs, they don't want Verlander anywhere near the mound.