mtutiger

People focus on MTG as the foil, but really Rick Scott is the one who provided the ammunition in the first place.

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/dj-peters/19348/stats?position=OF

I've said it a few times, but regarding the stat above on major league free agents signed to help the offense, one way to look at it going into 2023 is that Austin Meadows and Jake Rogers both effectively are like free agent acquisitions for this team going into 2023 given that they either didn't play or barely played at all in 2022. How good of a performance they provide remains to be seen, but one imagines that both will produce more this year than in 2022.

This is probably the smartest spin to that Flashpoint moment in the speech last night. Two problems: 1) A not-insignificant amount of people in that room last night, including the Chair of the NRSC last election cycle, have endorsed moves in the past around sunsetting SS/Medicare. 2) To the extent that there have been denials of that being on the table, the average view of the speech or secondhand viewers via local news broadcasts likely aren't following the "tick tock" and know what McCarthy has said or not said. That section of the speech, in a very public way, gets them all on the record in a much more high profile way.

I was really surprised when they announced she would be giving it... they had better options, such as Tim Scott or Brian Kemp.

Watched it after the fact. It was striking how little the rebuttal actually addressed any of the content of the speech, more than normal even... it was mostly focused on culture war issues and "wokeness", all of which really weren't on the menu during the SOTU. Also interesting how the speech argued for "generational change"... no argument there, but not sure that Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who isnt very dynamic and owes her entire career to nepotism, is the right messenger. Nobody cares about the rebuttal (not that many care about the SOTU either tbh) so I doubt it matters much in the grand scheme of things. But it wasn't one of the better ones regardless

Spot on... in addition, having seen that excerpt from her speech earlier, it was striking how angry it came across and, while watching Biden, how much more upbeat his approach and demeanor was in contrast. One imagines that's a contrast that Biden wants to show.

That section was a political master class... Biden and the speech writers just knew the the marks couldn't help themselves, and now got some tape to put in the can for later.

The Toddler Caucus sure made their presence known tonight... lol

Yiiiikes

Why just this time?

The extension of the beliefs expressed above is basically that there is no truth and that it's cool to just go with whatever sounds good. I don't buy that... until given a reason to believe otherwise, if the Pentagon says that balloons were flown over the US Mainland during the previous administration, I will take them at their word. Full stop.

I'll address the TikTok piece since that was mine... the TikTok thing isn't a Dem talking point... if anything, GOP politicians, to their credit, actually take the security risks from TikTok more seriously than most Democratic politicians do. But my bringing it up doesn't mean that I believe it is silly to take the balloon thing seriously, it means that I consider the proliferation of that app far more concerning than the balloon. And, by extension, wish that the media would give even one quarter of the attention that it has given this incident toward that particular issue.

I didn't realize The Pentagon were all Democrats.

Hey, at least they are covering actual Tigers and not Harold Castro

Didn't I already say that it was a vice signaling exercise? I'm just saying that the characterization that I highlighted in your initial post isn't some caricature cooked up in a lab somewhere, it derives from actual GOP messaging on this issue. The bolded is pretty revealing. I honestly don't give a shit about "narratives" and what's convenient for who.... on something like this, I care more about what actual risks would happen from shooting down the balloon, or the truth about why this happened in the first plavce. That's really my biggest problem with this whole affair.... "what may have actually happened" has been placed on the backburner in favor of the usual political food fight. And as much as you try to frame your view as "non-partisan", politics largely have been front and center in your view of this affair.

They are sure as **** more credible than internet randos inventing the possibility out of thin air, yes.

The explanation that maybe intelligence emerged after Trump's departure that alerted the Biden Administration that this was a possibility makes the most sense to me. But that's also the least politically expedient possibility, so clearly that's gonna be a less popular option for some

Interesting, this sounds pretty useful actually. I stand corrected

Setting aside the fact that votes McCarthy has voted in favor over the years account for a sizable chunk of the debt, in terms of the metaphor, is it really common for teenagers to get credit cards these days? Just sounds like bad parenting to me, although it's more informed by growing up in the mid 2000s

Also seemed to suggest the possibility Pentagon made up the existence of balloons under Trump because people on Twitter and GOP pols hurt their fee fees. Like, that's just not a serious suggestion... I suspect no one in the Pentagon gives a **** about the Ben Shapiros of the world and what they are transmitting on Twitter.

There were actual GOP politicians out there messaging along the lines of sitting out there with their piece and shooting it down. It's not the caricature you seem to imply it was, it is a reflection of where much of the party and it's base of support is right now. Just not serious about the implications of the balloon and more concerned with the political messaging around the balloon.

I may have missed it... either way, it's not like it's a made-up characterization or even a caricature when you have the actual GOP politicians out there messaging that stupidity. But, I know, "both sides", yada yada

To be fair, this sentiment was at times in response to actual idiotic right wing vice signaling by some GOP pols (see JD Vance, for instance)