gehringer_2

All fair args - you can go a step further and speculate that without Netanyahu, history might be so different that this war might never have happened. What I meant to point out though is that given where things are, security in Gaza is now an issue for Israelis that transcends internal politics. Any more liberal leader would be under just as much pressure to secure the southern border. They may like being in the situation of having to do it less than Netanyahu, but I don't think in the end they would agree to anything much different in terms of Israel's security demands. Where there could of course be a LOT of difference is in a lot of non-security issues that could form the lubricant for any deal.

The weakness behind Javy at shortstop concerns me. It's probably going to mean that his bat is going to have to get really bad before there is any move to limit his ABs - assuming he doesn't turn it around and make it a moot point . Kreidler has the glove but his bat coming around would be a real development coup at this point. Eddys Leonard is interesting but not much track record to go on.

I haven't been a big enough basketball fan over the years to have a sense over this, but I'm pretty sure all the years I followed basketball more closely when I was younger, substitutions were mostly always individual, coaches would give one or two players a blow, or sub for match-ups in for length or shooting - e.g the way Vinnie J was used. So I can't say that I have any memory of the concept of complete 1st and 2nd teams having traditionally been a thing in basketball. It makes me curious what drives the concept. Is there some evidence more successful team have gone to it? Or maybe just with so many guys that come into the league without long college careers players don't have the game experience to have learned how to adjust to playing with more than one set of teammates?

Netanyahu is a bad guy, but you could have a Labor PM in charge of Israel and it would still be a non-starter for Israel to give up security control over Gaza now.

Orchard Lake at I696 in the '70s. There was nothing quite so vaguely disturbing yet edible on a student budget than JITB deep fried Tacos.

Nate Cohn did write a polling story in the NYT today but wasn't pushing any grand conclusions.

Sure , the Caps are on the downside, but still a lot of fun to see the Wings doing to the Caps what the Caps used to do so regularly to the Wings.

Not for nothing that decision comes out of Grand Rapids.

Turnbull's control was never a sure thing before the surgery. The short stretch in '21 before he got hurt was his lowest walk rate since he had been a starter by a good margin.

It's fine ranking system if an NHL roster was 10 players.

Keith, Green, Biggie and Tork all hitting the ball hard. Works for me.

Au Contraire! This is Spring Training and Casey rides again with a 1-2-3 2nd.

I remember when my grandfather was alive and the old Armenian men would sit around and agitate about what was going on the 'old country.' My GF, who had probably suffered more personal loss in the genocides than all the rest of them, had no use for any of it. "This is your home now, forget all that!"

absolutely. This conflict doesn't rise quite to the level of "damn both your houses" like say, the Iran/Iraq war did, but only because we have to consider that the US strategic and political culture alignment with Israel is more important than, and will eventually outlive Netanyahu. In the short term, anything the US can do to make Netanyahu suffer for doing absolutely nothing but making the situation worse for 25 yrs is too little.

You have to weigh those numbers against the quality of chances the Wings are regularly giving up. The two big issues are that the drop-off too our third paring too often leaves them totally overmatched where you are watching knowing that they are inevitably going to give up a goal. The other is transition mistakes leading to grade A+ chances. That's where I think Lyon is living on borrowed time. He's already stopped more of those than you should have to count on an Vezna goalie for.

>>wet blanket is your middle name. If a team gets good goal tending from a goal tender with an established record, that's more projectable than a journeyman backup turning into Dominick Hasek. But I'm hoping right along with the rest of us!

that's an interesting observation. I would say that if it's true that people are going to Trump rallies today more to be entertained by crazy uncle than to hear their own political grievances supported, that is not a good sign for voter motivation levels on the red side.

But the other factor here is not to underestimate American women. They are still mad as heII over Dobbs and the Alabama decision has just pored huge fuel on an already raging fire there.

yes the Palestinians have been screwed, but how you chose to fight back matters. Gandhi got the Brits out of India without acting like Hamas, Mandela broke the Apartheid government without acting like Hamas, MLK fought hard to keep his movement non-violent, rejecting the Panther's militant direction. There is a level at which it is unavoidable that populations have to be responsible for the outcomes in their midst. It is never fair on the individual level, but that is how the world works.

It's been discussed here that right now there is so much cultural baggage/personal identity tied up for republicans in being republican that it's sort of unprecedented how difficult it is to pry a repub away from their party. At some point that should regress to a more historical norm, but who knows when the fever will start to break.

It's definitely hard to keep the American voter engaged, though Trump at least is giving the Dems as much help as they should need with the continuing stream of outrageous statements. Of course let's not forget the other side. In the last 4 years the economy has improved more for blue collars than any other part of the economy. They might not be willing to thank Biden for it, but that is letting air out of voter motivation to get to the polls in that segment of the economy, and that could hurt Trump big time in terms of red voter apathy - though I've yet to hear it talked about. TBH, all the talk about changing minds is probably too much attention to the minor event, Recent US elections are all about which side turns out. I think maybe the better way to frame the 'uncommitted' issue is less whether that voter changes their mind to 'come home' to Biden as much as how does that vote alter their psychological mindset for voting in the general? Are you more likely to feel you need to go vote for Biden after not supporting him when you could have, or do you give yourself a pass because voting in the general happens to be inconvenient that day and you already did your bit for Biden once already? I don't know the answers but those may be the more important kinds of questions.

One reason is because GOP campaign money is corporate and thus more hard headed about not risking it on underdogs. For instance after Haley's weak showing at home, Koch is dropping their support.

This runs back to the polling issue as well. I didn't see word one in the NYT or WaPo about the polling miss in SC. Now it's true that Haley not being able to win her own state is the bigger immediate story, and Trump's margin of victory on one level made the polling irrelevant. Yet it's Trump's continuing strength in national polling that is the bigger overall story of the election and if that is illusory, that is potentially much bigger story overall than Haley and SC. But it lies exactly in the black hole of weakness in American journalism. The polling story is complex, confusing, highly technical and even involves numbers.

They never think about things like the fact that they'd be protecting their 2A right to use bows and arrows without the arms factories of the east coast, the steel production of the midwest, and the road and rails provided by DC taxing authority. "Yeah but other than *that*, what have the Romans done for us?"

It has a lot of staying power in the US because of the Cowboy myth of individual sufficiency that began to grow starting in the early 20th century. But of course we know the truth is the American West wouldn't have been habitable and would still be economically unsustainable to this day if it weren't attached to a great cooperative enterprise named "USA"