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I have to say that the Tuskegee Airman thing really is bothering me. For schmucks who want to rename all the Army bases in the South after the Confederate losers to say its all about legacy and heritage. What the US Air Force owes to the Tuskegee Airmen and what the African American community owe to those men is enormous. This is just awful. A blight on our national honor if this is let to stand.

Next year, no premature offseason threads.

When you get my age, everyone is younger. Now retired for 18 years and loving every minute.

Let's not forget the pause on anything coming out of the NIH, CDC, and FDA...

What's hilarious is the same dudes that broke Bidens stones for 4 years about the economy now shrug about it when Trumps president

My Grandpa got cancer when I was 4 and I guess at the time in the mid to late 80s Seattle had one of the best Hospitals for cancer treatment so my family uprooted us and moved out there for 4 years. So even though I know from pictures I went to Tigers Stadium first my earliest memory of going to a baseball game was at the Kingdome.

Still doesn't justify treating people less than human. Especially when people you advocate for are unwilling to even consider supporting a legal pathway to citizenship. Higher wages and prices may seem an inconvenience to you, some may see it as a pathway to stability. I realize in reality it's an endless circle. Just remember, the guy above you wants to keep you down as well.

I haven’t been, but all of my friends that have been are not fans of sexual assault or Hegseth. I was speaking of MAGA.

Jobe #5, Clark 6, McGonigle 28, Rainer 53, Liranzo 82 and Briceno 95 on Pipeline's latest rankings.

Front and center, I did not vote for Trump. I believe the current response to the immigration issue is an over reach. I think it is a very good example of the, “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” quote. The primary issue is that we have been in dire need of reformed/updated laws regarding immigration for years. Unfortunately, the recent attempt to act on it imploded. I’ll leave it at that. I’m sick of immigration policies being determined by the revolving door of presidents. Until congress can work to find a compromise on this, we’re where we are.

Indeed, almost everybody’s older than me now. I’m 73 but my son who’s the youngest is 22 so because of him there’s all sorts of things I’m in touch with I wouldn’t be otherwise.

Questions for our Trump voting friends here about the economy and immigration. We know that many people on the right have said that "no one wants to work anymore." That was a common refrain post-Covid with all the labor shortages occurring. Currently, according to estimates from the Center for Migration Studies of New York and other groups/think tanks, there as many as 8.3 million undocumented immigrants work in the US economy. They make up an estimated 5.2% of the US workforce. In the agriculture, farm, and food processing industries undocumented immigrants make up nearly 40-44% of the workforce according to estimates from the USDA. Undocumented immigrants work in construction (est. 1.5 million), restaurants (est. 1 million), agriculture and farms (est. 320,000), groundskeeping/landscaping (est. 300,000), and food processing and manufacturing (est. 200,000), among many other occupations. Donald Trump has talked about engaging in the largest mass deportation effort in history and has talked about deporting millions of undocumented people. So if no one wants to work, and we have these labor shortages in the US workforce, how is mass deporting some 8.3 million workers, or 5% or so of the labor force, going to help improve the economy? How is deporting 40-44% going to lower costs on food prices at the grocery store or at restaurants? If 5% or so of our labor force is deported, who is going to fill those jobs in agriculture/farm/food processing, construction, groundskeeping/landscaping, hospitality, housekeeping, etc.? How long will it take for businesses, small and large, to backfill these roles? Who does these jobs in the meantime while they are waiting to hire prospective employees, onboard, and adequately train them?

I'll go further into the epiphany I had, one I strayed from a little bit in the lead up and aftermath of the election, and why I am choosing this path. First of all, I have a family member with an excruciating, chronically debilitating health condition that is taking a lot out of me emotionally and mentally. Additional stressors are not healthy at this point. Second of all, as a federal employee, the issues are two fold. One: I do not trust DOGE et. al. to not retaliate against anybody criticizing this group on the socials, so best to keep it off. Second: there is sudden professional uncertainty I haven't had in 16 years, adding to that emotional and mental strain above. Thinking back on my own life, I was definitely more of a passive political follower pre-Trump. Being more politically vocal starting around 2016 and crescendoing during the peak of the pandemic has made me some enemies. Now, while you can say "big whoop, not a big loss," when you have had a **** year (see the first paragraph) and you see all the friends you've hung out with on NYE for over a decade (except 2020) were hanging out and you weren't invited, it certainly makes you look inward and wanting to have a healthier way of trying to follow this stuff, because how I follow it leads to how I react to it. Oh, I do want to say due to more social cache back in 2016, I was able to successfully keep some people off the Trump Train at that time who have since jumped aboard. I want to try to build that cache back up. So... every-10-minute updates, doom scrolling twitter, doom scrolling here or a similar forum elsewhere, seeing speculation, having text threads with friends mocking Trumpies, just the constant barrage of Trump news? I don't need it, and it makes me a worse person. Worst of all, it doesn't help stop Trump and the like; if anything it only makes it worse. I know it's bad. Enjoy embracing the doom. I'm going to try to enjoy the good parts of life that I can, and hopefully use that to regain some social influence and try to get people aboard the good side come fall 2026.

I will never get the idea why a guy who was one of the architects of the sign-stealing scandal should be given the red carpet treatment in Cooperstown. Beltran was, in fact, the only named player in the report. Nevertheless, because of their defense of the whole thing, and their subsequent apologies for participating in it only once they saw the jig was up, I will root against Altuve when he gets on the ballot, and if they get that far, against Bregman and Correa as well.

I don't have Eddie's self restraint in tuning out (to my detriment probably), but I do think that part of why people are sort of tuned out (or at least not engaging as much with this stuff in online spaces) is because Trump won the popular vote and, at least in the context of how our elections are run (ie. EC), pretty decisively. (Note: I don't think it was all that decisive.... this was more 2004 than 1984) Ultimately because of this, there's a recognition that if we are to get out of this mess, it's going to have to be a longer game and that people are going to have to feel pain of touching the hot stove. Which, to be honest, still feels pretty underindexed.... I don't think a lot of what he's doing is going to be popular in practice. That doesn't mean that there aren't ways to engage, certainly donating money and time to organizations that push back against the excesses is a good start. But outside of being an outlet for catharsis, there isn't much that posting about this stuff here ultimately accomplishes.

I got news for you: they freely crime whether we bitch about it online or not.

Hegseth's a DUI hire (stolen from Bsky)

No idea. I think its possible that the new leadership of USSS might have been over-exuberantly pushing the "investigate all the threats" stuff. You would otherwise not think an 11-year old at a school being being public enemy #1. As you know...you were alive in the United States...we had a period after 9/11 where there was no threshold too low to investigate because everyone was jittery. We had this phrase that you may have heard "out of an abundance of caution" which sounds great to a politician because who can argue against being diligent? But it led to insane ass-hattery of investigating cranks and attention-seekers and pranksters. Not every threat is equal. Eventually, as the number of people on terrorist watch lists and the no-fly list (that's a much smaller number) approached the populations of small cities and maybe even some small countries and people started to realize that water supplies in rural Tennessee were not (stealing from Nate Bargatze's standup act) "next" after crashing airliners into the World Trade Center people started to use more rationality to evaluating threats. USSS always had a different criteria though. They had to do some due diligence for almost every threat. They had to say...yeah we looked into it to some extent. USSS also has a psychological framework where they investigate "superfans" who show up all the events to be on rope-lines, because at some point there is a jilted lover aspect to this. Think Monica Lewinsky showing up at that ropeline because she was a young woman in a sexual relationship with a powerful man who was suddenly cut off from that. Well, imagine now that there is a person out there who just thinks all that stuff even if it isn't real. There is this public figure, why don't they see we would be best friends if we just got to hang out at Red Lobster together. I worked with these folks for about 10 years and we stole some horses and had some times and there are funny stories. A couple of them were from New Jersey even if the one in MY superfan's version of events isn't exactly what he's spun into his narrative.

"While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young. Forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost." Ronald Reagan, 1989

They want us to be renters.

Sure, we'll take Soto

Brant Hurter could continue to emerge as well

Editor In Chief: Paul Joseph Goebbels

The first sect to start taking donations on $Trump will have an advantage, I'd think.

Sweet, comp picks in the ‘27 and ‘28 drafts after Kelvin leaves to take a head coaching gig after the ‘26 season!

Some percentage of African Americans voted for this circus. I want to look those folks in the eye and ask them what they thought was gonna happen.

I feel like being a Mariners fan probably feels similar to having a 7 month long sinus infection.

Wow! What a shocking revelation! 🙄 WASHINGTON—The Central Intelligence Agency has now concluded that the deadly Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a statement issued on Saturday by the agency. In doing so, the CIA has now joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Energy Department in identifying a laboratory mishap in Wuhan, China as the probable source of the Covid-19 virus. It has killed more than 1.2 million Americans and over seven million people worldwide. WSJ

In less than a week the border is more secure than it has been in four years. C-17’s are transporting illegals as we speak. The MARINES are on the border repairing transit routes.

The irony being, we got Harris from a Big Six team! When I say "Big Six", I don't mean the teams with the six best records every year, or over the past X number of years. I mean the six franchises that get romanced the most in the media, year after year, almost irrespective of their records. The Yankees. The Dodgers. The Mets. The Giants. The Cubs. The Red Sox. These are the franchises that columnists, talking heads, and the fans they influence—whether consciously or unconsciously—get all dewy-eyed about. And therefore, they are also the franchises players with a choice tend to favor. Harris may end up back in the fold of one of those franchises, but hopefully, before he does, maybe we can end up considered at least one of the next tier of franchises, along with the Phillies, the Braves, the Orioles, the Astros, the Cardinals, the Mariners.

Exactly. He's the POTUS, he's the one who campaigned on taking care of it and taking care of it quickly. Maybe when his administration gets done doing things like directing the Air Force not to teach about the Tuskegee Airman, they can get around with telling us how they plan to addressing high costs.

To your point: WSJ U.S. existing-home sales fell in 2024 to the lowest level since 1995, the second straight year of anemic sales due to stubbornly high mortgage rates. High costs related to homeownership sapped sales again. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has hovered between 6% and 8% since late 2022, making it prohibitively expensive for many Americans to buy homes at current prices, which hit record highs last year. Rising home insurance and property tax costs are also adding to homeowners’ expenses. Unlike mortgage rates, which fluctuate, these costs are poised to continue rising.

One other thing: The 1989 Revolutions in Eastern Europe only happened because of the cost of doing business for the various governments (i.e., the cost of the Hungarian border fence) was too high to sustain total control over their populations and were made more difficult because of the technology that was enabling free-er communications (in this case the Fax if you can believe it). You must make the cost of suppression too high to sustain. It takes will and courage. The forces of autocracy have many levers and they will try to stop you.

I've watched that 0.2% video twice and may watch it again today. Encapsulated that incredible run very well.

Pete is the leader our military needs. JD Vance a Marine swearing in a Marine. First in first last out, Semper Fi

I agree. I have always been skeptical of how much PEDs even helps players do better at baseball and, not for nothing, Baseball has no interest either in pursuing the question if they haven’t, or publishing the results if they have. But using home-cooked technology to steal signs during a game is a clear and unambiguous undermining of competitive fairness.

BS list. Any list that doesn't include Dan Clearly, Todd Bertuzzi, or Mikael Samuelsson is incomplete. Datsyuk was traded away, Dan Cleary was resigned. You be the judge of who is the better player.

Good piece on Jack Flaherty https://www.mlb.com/news/jack-flaherty-statcast-free-agent-analysis

This is the correct answer!

If they can't get Bregman, I'd like to ee them get Kim for a short deal. He'll miss the beginning of the season and then can either be a supersub or be plugged in at SS or 3B if one of their young infielders doesn't hit. They could certainly use infield defense.

All of those guys should’ve been unanimous though. What more could you possibly need from any of them?

Well written reply. I appreciate much of what you say here. I would reply only that if that 11-year-old lodged a death threat against the president, then the USSS visit would be an appropriate response. But if all the kid did was something that’s the equivalent of “Trump is a poopyhead”, then unless you are an intractable red hat, we should all seriously worry about our country and ourselves. So, which do you think is likely to be the case here? And as you ponder an answer, just consider that if it were an actual death threat, or any other kind of bodily threat, do you think the USSS agents could have been successfully turned away from the door by elementary school administrators?

AI generated 😉

Robo umpires coming to a spring training game near you this season. Looks as if they’re going with the challenge system this spring. Sort of old news but I had forgotten this.

Death threats are what they care about. Anti-Trump "content" is not at all their purview. We still have SOME professionals in law enforcement.

Looks like we're gonna get our taxes to fund religious schools sooner than later. And when I say "religious", I mean only one religion.

Do I think Ichiro should have been unanimous? Sure but I don't think him not getting it is anymore egregious than countless others that didn't. IF you're solely looking at his MLB career you can come up with reasons why you didnt vote for him on the first ballot. He only made the playoffs one time while in his prime, only once finished in the top 7 in MVP voting in his career(his rookie year where he won), didn't hit for power, nor draw a ton of walks and finished with a relatively pedestrian 107 OPS+. Would I hold stuff like that against him? No, not at all but historically there have been voters that critique 1st ballot guys especially harshly and look at any possible setback not to vote for them and in their eyes those things could be possible setbacks. Might not be fair but again there have been better guys that voters didn't vote for their first time.

the national leader in wind power generation is dead red Texas. Let that sink in if you think Trumps speaks for conservatives about windmills.

I have no reason to believe this but just a gut feeling and that's Maeda is gonna bounce back a bit this year. Not to his 2023 levels but maybe be an innings eating league average starter.