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I rarely post here, mostly hang out in the Tigers and Pistons forums. Had to vent a bit though. I'm a left leaning independent. I have little faith either main party truly has everyone's welfare in mind. I've been a mental health professional since 1989. I work primarily with the homeless population, which involves a lot of community collaboration. My last job was contracting with Hennepin County (Minneapolis) corrections, working with homeless adults on probation. Feds cut hundreds of millions to MN social services last summer, and my program was axed. I just got a new job working with homeless in St Paul. I literally started Monday. Yesterday Trump cut 2 billion in samhsa grants that fund mental health and addiction services. My clinic was informed this morning. I was told this afternoon my job is gone. There are several million households behind in mortgage or rent at least 3 months. The booming homeless population is likely to boom even more, and soon. There has been so much widespread fraud. I understand why this administration is skeptical and taking drastic measures. But this doesn't punish Walz. It punishes the poor. I'm accepting that I may no longer be able to work on the streets. I'll be fine. This just adds another barrier to stability to thousands of people

Yesterday I posted about my job being defunded - I'm a therapist who helps homeless individuals in the Twin Cities, primarily St Paul. 2 days ago Trump signed an order that cut 2 b-b-billion in SAMHSA funded programs that support those with mental illness and substance use struggles. Somebody clearly let him know what a nightmare that would cause. Last night he reversed his decision and released the funding. I was just called and restart tomorrow. Also, a judge just stopped Trump from stopping all food stamp (SNAP) benefits to Minnesota. Today is a good day! Judge sides with Minnesota, blocks USDA from cutting off SNAP funding - KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News https://share.google/va0sWMfZMzSNXIQED

I think we are headed for Yugoslavia. The level of support Trump is finding in the US public for cruel, hateful, murderous policies both at home and abroad has me as doubtful about the future of this country as I have ever been. This public is far, far worse than the one that took 10yrs to realize Vietnam was wrong. Sliding rapidly into irredeemable IMV. the one accomplishment of the Christian Right has been to finally reveal the Anti-Christ for us. It's them.

More of this 👏 **** nazis

Yes, because these ICE folks are doing nazi stuff. This isn't that complicated. Smart people get it.

One was a stale, warm beer and the other was a lite beer.

Fighting nazis is noble. Good for them. Anybody who still works for ICE is a nazi who deserves whatever happens to them.

Populism is really good at identifying and railing against problems. It's terrible at actually doing constructive things to deal with said problems. A tale as old as time

In just the last week Trump's FBI has begun an investigation into the background of the spouse of the woman who was murdered by ICE agents last week. Ordered his Justice Dept to begin an investigation of the head of the Federal Reserve who would not capitulate to his demands to lower interest rates. Had the FBI enter a reporter's home and seize files and multiple devices in relation to a news story. Continue investigations into several Democratic members of Congress who appeared in a video reminding service members they are not obligated to follow illegal orders. If Obama or Biden had done any one of these things Trumpublicans would have had them up on impeachment charges in a New York minute and their supporters would be constructing gallows in the nearby park

The Tigers were 20-16 immediately after the trade. That's a .556 winning pct, more than good enough to get us into the playoffs. Harris gets zero credit for that playoff-making-worthy performance. Then the team went into a 3-13 tailspin in the final 16 games with the exact same team. Harris gets 100% of the blame for that collapse that led to nothing more than a wild card bid and series win. Do I have that straight?

I thought this report from 60 Minutes was pretty interesting. It’s impressive how humanlike the robot movement is getting, and now with an AI-brain. https://youtu.be/CbHeh7qwils

If you don't think you have too much starting pitching, you probably don't have enough.

Games played and points scored isn't the be all and end all for evaluating a pick 2 1/2 years after a draft but this table is good for ASP. 8 defensemen were taken in the 1st round of the NHL draft, including 3 ahead of ASP. Of those 8, 5 of them have yet to play an NHL game, including #5 overall David Reinbacher. Of the 3 who have played in the NHL, ASP is first in games with 48 (2nd is 35), goals with 5 (second is 2) and points with 17 (second is 12). Even when expanded to include all positions, #17-drafted ASP is 8th in games and 8th in points. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2023e.html

More like this guy, please

We aren't mad enough

He had probably the worst center in football this season and still put up one of the best seasons in his career. I’m not sure this tracks.

We are in a very dark, shameful place in American history.

I added custom instructions to ChatGPT to make it pushback more. If you don't want that permanent solution, then write your prompt to include some phrases that will make it challenge you a bit more. Play devil's advocate, give me a no BS critique of this idea, respond as if you disagree completely, etc. You can also just flat out ask it to act as a red team for your idea.

Wasn't Arthur Smith heavily criticized in Atlanta for giving Tyler Algiers nearly as many carries at RB as Bijan Robinson, their highly touted, first round RB?

So now violence is wrong? Killing an innocent woman and several other murders is fine as long as it's carried out by MAGA Nazi-wannabes? Make up your mind, MAGA. Either violence is OK by you or it's not OK. Live by the sword....an eye for an eye....

Romania

can they do it on Christmas too?

Oh i thought the trump was the lunatic wildly screaming expletives

I know which one I want. And make sure you film it this time.

Suspending elections was on the dock long before this. But yes, a pretext would be convenient. I’m not sure it’s something he himself could do on his own, although he’s doing a lot of things on his own that the Constitution doesn’t allow presidents to do, and everyone is letting him get away with it, so, who knows what’s next.

I think about this kind of thing a lot with regard to media/entertainment in general. For the last 20 years or so as we've moved into an On Demand reality. We watch and listen and consume that which we've specifically asked for. Movies, music, TV shows..... I think that's messed with our brains. Sometimes its good to be bored and pushed things because that's your only choice.

Domestic violence is a horrific thing, and needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. That stipulated, it’s also a pretty broad thing and in some cases could include verbal or emotional abuse. Is that really the worst thing she can come up with? I can think of worse things these thugs could (and probably do) have in their background, such as aggravated battery, rape, murder, etc.

Yes for 4 years. Then people forgot about his bad behavior for some ****ing reason.

All the confederate states have a long history of one-party state fascism, especially the deep southern ones, so, this all is like coming home for them.

So I’m finding that AI is a really good enhancement to my own intelligence, rather than a replacement for it. I wanted to invest a little in some emerging technologies. I’d had a pretty good run with AI-based securities and wanted to roll some of those gains over into whatever “the next big thing” might be. I use a LLAMA to help me identify what those technologies might be and the companies best suited for growth within each. I figured quantum computing would be one of them—I had actually been in IONQ for a bit before, getting whipsawed back and forth until I finally said enough and got out with a couple extra bucks. However, it pointed out to me that quantum is today where AI was in 2012: certain in its potential, but more in the science project stage. I looked into that, and it seemed right. made a lot of sense. It then highlighted some other interesting categories instead: grid modernization, commercial nuclear technology, satellite technology, space-based consumer technology, advanced health tech, metabolic biopharmaceuticals. It then provided a bunch of companies for me to consider. I dug into each to try to determine out which of themhave the highest wheat-to-chaff ratio, bounced my resulting list off AI, honed it, and I was ready to go. I also used AI to help me figure out how to place the investments, specifically, which I should buy all upfront and which I should buy in stages. I then did some research into that process to figure out which parts of it made the most sense. Then I made the buys. In no way was I ever going to ask AI for five or ten hot companies and then throw money into whatever they came up with. But in terms of giving me a starting point, AI was fantastic at coming up with possibilities I would never have come up with myself, and ideas about approach that I hadn’t really given much thought to before. As I say, I used AI to enhance my own intelligence, rather than replace it. I’m becoming a big fan.

What you qouted was about Suarez. Bassitt has not signed. I disagree that the Tigers rotation is in good shape for a team looking to make the playoffs. I'd like to see one more definite.

International signing day. BA has the Tigers with six signings so far, including 2.3M to Venezuelan catcher Manuel Bolivar. No pitchers among the six for those shaming the Tigers for signing pitchers to minor league deals.

If anyone thought for a second that a few republican senators had a spine.

Those things really go.

If you Google John Morton right now this is what you get:

I like seeing the Tigers have two in the top ten. When in doubt, draft the middle of the field position players, SS and CF.

Hold on, Boston signed Ranger Suarez to play 3B? What a dumb idea.

I mentioned the past, because you called the Tigers second half a "historic collapse". I mentioned names because you stated the second half of 2025 is how Harris will be remembered. For the record: 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers: Blew a 10-game lead to the New York Giants in September, famously losing the pennant on Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World". 2011 Boston Red Sox: Lost a 9-game AL Wild Card lead to the Tampa Bay Rays in September, failing to even make the playoffs. 2011 Atlanta Braves: Lost a 7.5-game NL Wild Card lead to the St. Louis Cardinals, who then won the World Series. 1969 Chicago Cubs: Held a 9-game lead over the New York Mets in August but lost the division to them. 1978 Boston Red Sox: After leading the Yankees by 14 games in July, they lost the AL East on the final day of the season. 2012 Texas Rangers: Led the AL West by four games with nine left but lost the division to Oakland. 2009 Detroit Tigers: Led the AL Central by seven games in September and lost the Division to the Twins in a one game playoff. For the teams listed above, there was a significant consequence for the team that lost the lead - a team missed the postseason. The Tigers still made the playoffs, beat the Guardians, and were one run away from beating the Mariners.

Lol

LOL. yes. We had brother and sister Elkhounds and we had to work on the male, who was a year older, to at least wait until his sister was done eating before trying to finish anything she left.

I believe this should be the 15th (tomorrow night) not the 14th (tonight)...

As you said, you’d have to know what the internal/external alternatives were, as well as the cost of the external alternatives. No one knows this except Scott Harris and his team. But the comment about hurting the team implies that he took the current team and then made a move that reduced its effectiveness relative to what it was before the move. So, comments regarding whether he hurt the team or not, to me, can only be relative to existing team, not to hypothetical other moves that maybe could have been made instead that would have been better at similar or nominally higher cost. So, as for the internal options, that’s also hard to identify. And the knock-on effects of using those internal options in place of those two guys (ignoring finnegan) is also hard to identify. The easiest argument for the “hurt the team by the moves” position is that Montero and melton would have been better used in those slots. However, I don’t think melton was an option. Maybe that’s deserving of criticism but I think he had an innings cap and they needed to stretch that. But ignoring that, and just saying use melton, then you’ve got to replace melton innings with whatever worst bullpen/aaa arm wasn’t used. Same with Montero. And it’s not like melton and Montero would have been locks to perform better. To me, it’s a toss up. I can’t prove it either way, but neither can anyone else. In my opinion it is not as simple as pointing to poor performance by two specific guys and declaring that it hurt the team. To be clear, I am not disputing that these two guys performed poorly over the course of their short tigers tenure. There are a lot of other players you can point to that also failed during that period. But the tigers needed innings to get to the end of the season. I don’t think they had them in reserve. They didn’t need much more than that. Indeed, it turns out that all they needed was a tranch of fairly bad innings! Finally, both Paddack and Morton ultimately pitched worse for the tigers than they had for their prior team. I don’t think anyone really expects to get a substantially different performance over the final two months relative to the prior four months. Even then, Morton started off pretty strong for the tigers, following a couple strong months for the orioles. From June through August he threw 80 innings with a low 4 era. There was little evidence as we entered September that Scott Harris’s decision to add Morton a month earlier had made the team worse, especially given that we needed dem innings. Similarly, Chris paddack was a 1 war pitcher for the twins at the time of the trade. Nothing amazing, but an easy 4/5 starter. He gave us 30 innings in his first 6 starts, gave up too many homers in a couple starts, but we did go 4-2 in those games. So, that’s why I take issue with the idea that Scott Harris made moves that hurt the team. I think it misses the point of those moves, and relies too heavily on hindsight and vibes due to the September collapse by almost everyone wearing the uniform. This was a long explanation to your question. I regret the length. Short answer is that I don’t think it’s a given that the internal options would have been better and that we would have finished with more wins had we not made the trades.

I was at the game. It was actually announced that they were chugging one beer for every free agent Scott Harris signed. They had two beers and that was it.

Indeed. But on the other hand, let's not lose sight of the fact that platooning also has its costs. With pitching staffs running to 13, and starters out after 2 times through the order, you can run out of hitters to match up before the opposition runs out of pitchers to cross up your match-ups. In fact, if not for the three batter rule, the length of bullpens today would make platooning even less effective.

I've interviewed Moon (by phone) and she was one of the easiest people to interview I've ever dealt with. Very open, very nice, smart and funny. It helps when the person you are interviewing understands why they're doing an interview. Instead of someone who doesn't want to answer questions and won't lead you. I've heard Dweezil is like that too, just a nice person. I interviewed Cyndi Lauper once. It was another phoner. It was a 30 minute interview. I opened with one question and never got another word in. LOL. But she was sweet. When unsure of my subject I learned this great J.P. McCarthy trick when I was an intern in the 80s. J.P. would open the interview introducing the name of the person and why they were there, On the line today with me I am speaking with Biff Mayhem and he's here to talk about the organization that he started after the Back To The Future movies, People For The Ethical Treatment of Biffs. Good morning, your thoughts? worked almost every time. If it didn't, you knew the person was the wrong subject to be interviewed - because J.P. was a master at disarming and calming the subject and if he couldn't, well, almost no one could? I didn't even work for his station, I worked for the FM. I was told not to bother him. Bad advice, he was actually very gracious with advice. Just don't bug him when he's busy. That's fair.

Yep and this won't change your opinion