gehringer_2

and just to expand on the last point, it's actually wonderful that the US is self-critical, the only issue I have is that too often we are self-critical about silly things "The President told the truth! Reactions at 11:00" and not critical enough about important things - for instance the way so much of the US journalism fell in behind the invasion of Iraq. ( or even 'Gulf of Tonkin' in its day FTM )

just for grins, if Merkel had said this out loud about Trump, what do we think the reactions from various quarters would be? Probably along the same lines as we have now? In Europe: "Of course!", the GOP: "c'est Terrible!", Dems: "Another person roasted for telling the truth by accident" and so on.... ...The difference would be that unlike the NYT and WaPO, Die Welt would all be: "You go girl!" .

It wasn't a gaffe in the sense of having misspoken - he said exactly what he meant to say. The question you really want to know the answer to is whether he was 'off script', but that's always an odd question to ask about a President because it's his script. Reagan was 'off-script' with Gorbachev as well. The consultant class around an executive like to promulgate the idea that they 'manage' their target, but that's a self-serving mirror image representation. It's presidents who allow their handlers too much veto power (Jimmy Carter a good example) who often fail because of it - it's usually their authentic instincts that made them successful in the first place. You know I've posted already that I think personalizing things with Putin may be questionable strategy so I'm not arguing I think it was any kind of great move - simply the idea that these guys don't spend a lot of time not knowing what they are doing. In that moment Biden made a calculation that he wanted to say that enough that it would be worth whatever message massaging would come later. He's the guy that got the votes and that gives him the right to do that. How far in advance it was or wasn't planned or whether he circulated a memo to his staff about it isn't that interesting to me. And that's the parallel to Trump. And really, isn't kind of silly to ask whether 'regime change' is the 'officlal' policy of the US gov when we are leading a huge international effort to produce a major battlefield defeat of a leader that almost certainly cannot survive it? Pretty hard to imagine what more the US could be doing to crush Putin personally by making the policy 'official'.

Well, Nick won't have to worry so much about it with the Phillies, that pitching staff should have the fans tuning out Phillies broadcasts by June anyway..... 😱

Of course as Trump so well perfected, you can say something deliberately to make a point with one audience, and then backfill to smooth the ruffles with another. Or Biden may have spoken with full intent knowing his 'people' were going to disagree and backfill as needed. I doubt there are many scenarios you can dream up that haven't been gamed out by media analysts so trying to guess what was 'on purpose', accidental, or 'accidental on purpose' is probably a futile exercise.

I've seen this referenced in a couple of places but I guess I don't know the context? Broadcasters talk over what is going on in preseason games (let alone regular season games!) all the time. What made this notable? EDIT: ok - looked it up - basically a lightning strikes twice story....

If it's last year, you might speculate they want to keep Hill playing everyday at Toledo so that any further upside with the bat would have more chance to develop, but he and Reyes have both reached an age where it's doubtful a JD Martinez offensive transformation is still likely.

finding 'someone' isn't the objective though is it? Blashill is 'someone'. You want 'the' guy. Maybe Yzerman's rep is enough to bring him here even with the team still miles away.

Cade puts up some weird stat lines - 37 minutes and zero rebounds? Almost as weird as his games with zero FTAs.

Probably would be hard to attract an established coach to a team with such thin talent. That could well buy Blash another season.

I guess I'm glad I watched UM for today's hockey fix.

Michigan gets to frozen four. After leading comfortably 4-0 at the end of 2, Quinnipiac completely dominated the 1st 4/5 of the 3rd, cutting the lead to 4-3. But with M back on its heals Quinnipiac got a little too greedy and pulled their goalie with over 3 min left. M scored an ENG almost immediately to put the game out of doubt.

That's a good question. In the 40+ years since Mao died China as body politic has been dedicated to stability both at home and abroad over all else. There were a society traumatized by War, Revolution and the then the chaos of Mao's internal Cultural Revolution. They are also always deathly afraid that even after the millennia of its existence, that the various ethnicities inside China are always only a step away from internal revolt against the legitimacy of the government in Bejing. If I believed that some kind of consensus leadership still controlled China, I don't think there is any way they would support Russian adventurism. The question is how far down the road to dictatorship China already is under Xi. The inner workings of Chinese succession have always been opaque, but for over 30 years they were calm and orderly and no-one appeared to have tried to do what Xi has done to consolidate himself into the whole state. To the degree that Xi has already been following Putin's footsteps, you have the same situation as in Russia - one man able to act against the rational interests of his country. Once you have that situation, analysis based on the rational interests of a country go out the window.

Tigers draw 1st blood - 2 out single by Willi-I don't-need-no-E Castro and a double by Candelario. Appropriately enough to the thread, Hill and Reyes both made outs to start the game.

Unusual - . Radio is available at WHYT web site but appears to be no gameday.

it's all about the alternatives. Hill's OBP last season was 313. What I think is most likely to get either of these guys a spot is for Hill to down on his Ks or Reyes to walk a little.

it may or may not even be a gaffe. Why do we give one side credit for being strategic when they deliberately stir the pot, and then assume the other isn't capable of the same thought process? The Eastern intelligentsia and US MSM are not the players that will win (or lose) this conflict. Why should we suppose that is the audience Biden is concerned about? If Joe Biden has proven anything in his life, besides his ability to misspeak, is that he is also capable of playing a long game. So take your pick.

I'm working at it Sue, really I am.

In Reagan's case, Joviality could cover a multitude of sins.I I'd also throw a little credit to Gorbachev here - sort of the forgotten man today and certainly one of Putin's demons. I think it's more true that the CCCP fell on its own clock. Besides an American partner, It took the emergence of a Soviet leader with the willingness to face the contradictions inherent in the Soviet leviathan. All the credit in the world to Reagan having the good sense to see there was a new reality waiting to be grasped, but if Chernenko had been replaced by another Brezhnev minded leader, there would have been nothing more the American side could have done to make it happen when it did.

I think to the degree that the West can successfully personalize the war and keep naming it as "Putin's War" that is a good strategy in terms of value of whatever news penetrates into Russia. Beyond that that - we'll see.

One thing I really, really hope comes out of this is that the Chinese, who may yet still have enough functioning governmental institutions not already tied to Xi, see the inevitable end of the path which one man cult of personality rule will take them down and cut down Xi rather than holding the door for the eastern version of a Putin wannabe to walk through. Granted, it's a faint hope.

I don't know if I necessarily want to see another conflict start in Asia, but I would certainly love to see the Japanese with a least enough of a feint to build up their forces and force the Russians to keep more troops tied down.

I know the Russian armed forces don't have much of a record of getting involved in domestic politics, but how much stress do you suppose Putin can bring to bear on them before something breaks?

two TDs for Det, two FGs and a safety for Philly.

I rather think of us all as finely glazed Ollas here.