oblong

I won't tell you it's impossible. The way his wacko cabinet was just rubber stamped tells me there's no courage among today's GOP. I envision scenarios like the FBI and even the military trying to seize ballot boxes. A showdown between a state national guard and our military with him trying to nationalize one or more of them. Military firing on protesters. Assassination attempts on leading dem leaders, with pardons to follow. You are right, the evangelical supporters of his see this all as the prophecy so yeah.... they're on board totally.

I admit to there being some biases at play here.... this author has made the rounds at certain institutions that might color the goal of what he's trying to do (google his name if you like to see what I mean) and Cobb being a Tiger could mean I want to exonerate him. But I think I'm on solid ground with my expectations. Cobb's a southerner during that time. Al Stump agrees to write a book. He's a drunk gambler with debts and a chip on his shoulder. Cobb dies. He writes a sensationalist book. People pick up on that and over the decades it becomes conventional wisdom and people like Ron Shelton and Ken Burns elevate to pop culture so that Ray Liotta as Joe Jackson tells us "nobody could stand the sonofabith" in Field of Dreams. Show me that he desrved the reputation he has/had as it relates to his contemporaries to justify what was said about him that isn't sourced from Stump or Burns.

and I do remember chas pushing back on this narrative so I look forward to what he has to say 🙂 I like the approach that the author claims he used. I'm very open to the idea that the myth we've been handed down for decades wasn't true. I don't know that anybody's really refuted him or defended Stump with more evidence. Are there cases where Cobb made insenstive comments, by today's standards, towards blacks? Maybe. But we have that for a lot of people at the time. Harry Truman, LBJ.... it's not to make them appear as good people or to excuse it, but maybe Cobb doesn't deserve the extra scrutiny. He was a southerner during a sensitive time... but his family also had progressive roots when it came to racial issues. Later on he said blacks should get to play MLB and that Willie Mays was the closest player to himself that he was. There's photos of him at the field in Hamtrack where the Detroit Stars played. To me if you want to charge someone with being a jerk and racist then you need proof. And maybe I'm misremembering what chas said at the time but I recall his argument being the lack of proof that he wasn't. Which to me is backwards. You can't expect people in the 10's/20's/30's to explicity refute charges made in the 60's/70's/80's.

Charles Leershan wrote a book about Cobb not too long ago and his point is that he just wanted to write a fresh book about him since all we had were books written a long time ago. When he did his research he found lack of evidence, and in some cases, direct contradiction to previously held claims and beliefs. In one case in a book (not Al Stump's) he is said to have fought with a bellhop and a butcher, who were black, and that is proof that he was racist. But this author searched further.... and those guys were white. Al Stump was the source of a lot of what we "know" about him and then Ken Burns ran with it. A lot of what he wrote simply wasn't true or there is not one shred of evidence to support it and plenty to contradict it.

The "type of guy" is entirely subjective and up to the voters entrusted to vote to decide for themselves, whether it's the BBWAA or the various people on the commitee for each ballot. But that's kind of irrelevant. It doesn't apply to Rose. Baseball's HOF decided that for their institution that anybody on MLB's inelgible list is not fit for their institution. The Hall of Fame is not part of MLB. It's a non profit with their own governing body and their own rules. Even if Manfred removes Rose from the ineligible list, it would be up to the 16 people who decide who goes on a ballot and the other 16 people who would vote on that ballot. It's entirely consistent and appropriate if a voter says "I know he's eligible but what he did is still wrong and I'm not voting for him". He commited a crime against the insitition he is being considered for. That is not "off the field". It's within the game itself. It was "between the lines". Rob Manfred cannot put Pete Rose into the HOF any more than you or I could. There's no mechanism where "baseball" puts him in without a vote. As a non profit they have to follow their rules or they risk lawsuits, from donors, for not following their own rules. By donors.... that is not just groups that give them money. It's people who buy annual memberships. That's a lot of people.

The scary thing is… for all the bluster about a third term… the fact he can’t run again has made him more dangerous. He never cared about people. He doesn’t need votes anymore. He doesn’t need to please the base. Yeah all those potential maga fans who are pissed off… what are they gonna do? Flip congress? The house yea. But then what? You think another impeachment would draw in 20 GOP senators? His approval rating is meaningless in practical terms. Republicans in congress won’t flip on him in a meaningful way.

Anora won big tonight at the Oscars. Sean Baker becomes the first person to win 4 academy awards for the same movie.

This is a definite turning point. They got what they needed. God bless the people of Ukraine and God bless the people, many of them my friends and colleagues, in Poland. They're next. Today it's confirmed that Russia won the cold war.

Livonia went 49-48 for Kamala... a margin of just under 400 votes. That surprised me but Rashida lost Livonia by just over 1300 votes. But anything south of Joy road and west of Southfield in that district is probably close to a majority or more of Arab/Muslim descent now. It's not just Dearborn. Now Garden City.... that went 53-44 for Trump and Rashida lost 49-43... but that is a small number of voters. 13-15K total vs 61K in Livonia.

When you are that wealthy you aren't attached to people. He can get another fiance.

aren't people just going to then buy it on March 1? I see it as just a shifting of purchases around.

You don't have to give these people a seat at the table, they don't even want one, but the ask is to not mock them or scream in their face. You say "Yeah, he's a bad guy. Welcome to the party. Here's more information. MTU is right. There are people who are not engaged like we are in this. We go after dems for having purity constests and compliment the GOP for "coming home to vote". This is an example of that. You need their votes. It might make you feel good to say I told you so and **** off.... but where does that get you electorally? What is the goal? To scream or to win elections? I've blocked and snoozed a lot of liberals b/c I don't need a daily 4 page rant from Heather Cox Richardson or Occupy Democrats to tell me what I already know.

Anybody have experience with dash cams? I was thinking of getting one. No particular reason for it and I know very little about them. I don't drive that much but I thought it would be fun, especially on road trips.

Yes totally. As you like to say, twitter is not real life. And "winning" arguments on TV talk shows or even debates only gets you so far. Real life isn't The West Wing where the best and most solid argument wins out.

Maybe.... Johnny doesn't want it? The article I read made a point to mention who each personality was employed by, whether the Tigers/Ilitch Holdings or FanDuel so I wonder if it's just a logicstical thing where they decide the # of slots and then people will apply for it.

has anyone let JEff Bezoz know about this 'free market' thing?

There's just so much to watch it's hard to keep up. I spent the last month or so on Severance so we're caught up on that. But we only have bandwidth for about 90 minutes a day. And my wife has this strange unspoken belief that it's not ok to watch TV before 8 pm. SHe thinks it means we're being lazy b/c "there's always something that could be done". I don't get it.

Unforgiven for me closed the book on the Western Genre. I know Tombstone came out later and is beloved but to me it's kid of hokey and unserious. Hackman is a certified legend and titan. French Connection had always been one I wanted to watch and I finally got to it a few months ago. The Conversastion is also on my list. When Poitier died that left Gene Hackman as the oldest living Best Actor Winner. That title now goes to Bobby DuVall

The government does good things when they make my daughters asthma meds but to hell with everybody else’s kids.

I assume that in terms of pecking order TV is higher than radio when it comes to analytical work so it can be looked at as a promotion and acknowledgement that he's good at it. The first time i heard him I assumed it was someone from another market filling in. He was that good. Like he had been doing it for a long time and he mixes in good analysis as a former player without getting too technical. You could tell he was a thinker and he can express it.

It also has a special appeal to certain evangelicals who believe in separation from "the world". What they mean by that is the world is a godless place and "worldly things" is a negative connotation. Think of the folks in Footloose. That isolation leads to this. "Well if that's what they are doing then it must be sinful" is a common reflex.

Those poor kids I have a friend who owns a pediatric practice. She chose to accept unvaccinated kids b/c not many others around will and she wants to help the kids and they deserve care even if their parents are stupid. I advised her to make clear to the parents that her acceptance of the kids in no way means she's anti vax or whatever and that she strongly encourages all the vaccines. She took that advice. Some parents left after that. They thought she was "one of them"

I just made a “Mr Potato head! Back doors are not top secret” reference yesterday.

Logic is not maga strong point.

Especially that awful greenish yellow on the cinder block walls. Looks straight out of some mid century government office. All that’s missing are steel desks with folding chairs. The park is 25 years old now and it’s time to upgrade some of the visuals. The displays look faded. Even the signs giving off the section numbers. You could do a lot without spending too much. For example here is what I saw in Tampa at Steinbrenner field.