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I can’t believe any reasonable person is hip-hip-hooraying this.

Yeah I’ve been wondering that—how would a sovereign country with 10 different state-like provinces and three territories be subsumed as a single state into the United States? That seems like that might be the only way the red hat party would, as electoral politics are currently constructed, get a political benefit in the long term—maybe. A country of 41 million would become the second most populous state in the union, and dividing up the presumably 540 electoral votes (that’s an extra two senators for the 51st state, everything else stays the same), that would be something on the order of 40-ish electoral votes for the state of Canada—all of them likely to go to Democrats for the foreseeable future, especially true after a forcible takeover of their country. It would be even worse for the red hats electorally if each province came in as its own state, at least the ten current provinces. The red hats would be certain to win only Alberta and probably Saskatchewan. They probably wouldn’t even win Quebec, because all the fire-breathing political right wingers they have up there are also social liberals who hate religion, and that doesn’t comport with red hat ideology. The other seven new states would be locks for the Democrats—again, as electoral politics are currently constructed. Which means the only way this could be a political win for red hats is to overturn the Constitution and create a new political order in which free and fair democratic elections no longer figure into the political calculus. And even though I firmly believe Canada becoming the 51st state is merely a canard to keep us all arguing amongst ourselves and stop paying attention to how they are destroying our democracy right now, I think they’re already planning for that eventuality regardless, don’t you?

If the Red Sox want to win, they'll put the Gold Glove winner at third base, bring the kid up to play second, and move the stone glove to DH. If the Red Sox want to mollify their high-priced players, they'll keep Stoneglove at third, play the new guy out of position at second, and keep both the kid in the minors and their fingers crossed. My Red Sox fan buddy is none too happy about all this.

Fangraphs is out with its Top 100 prospects list which predictably differ substantially from Pipeline's. All of a sudden, here comes Troy Melton onto the national prospect scene. FG is projecting a 2025 debut for the kid. he was a fourth round draft pick and the Harris brain trust engineered some changes to his delivery that has raised his stock some. Doesn't look like FG has room for Rainer on their list but he's early yet and there's time.

Giving the diminishing of the twilight, I'm grading Sir Paul on a curve.

Well, he did touch the rose bush ... 😁

Yeah, you're not confused. You know.

Because that’s how they win

Part of the settlement

Jeez, who doesn’t anymore! 😂

I don’t know, it feels to me like a tall order to require a 13-man position player roster carry three “real” shortstops. Two players who are primarily shortstops and a third guy who can cover just in case seems like enough for me. And I do think McKinstry will not be expected to play a few dozen innings at most there. He did play almost all of his innings at shortstop last year after Baez went out and before Sweeney came aboard.

Guy comes up and tails me close, I politely move over after signaling to let him by, he yells and flips me off as he roars by me, I laugh at the whole thing, and I’m the prickly one here? 😂 Seriously, no offense intended, but it feels as though you’ve been holding that comment for just the right time to use which, based on the story I told, seems to me to be a bit off the mark. So many other, better examples you could have used it on. 😁

Maybe the flight industry experiences a dramatic drop off in passenger load, dropping prices in a competitive airline market, leading airlines to work with Trump to re-regulate ticket prices in order to protect their profits.

I don't think you're ignorant of the fact that the Trump regime is using lawfare to tie up media companies in court, which could potentially cost them tens or hundreds of millions of dollars plus a possible verdict against them, to get those companies to both settle the spurious charges and agree to provide soft coverage and avoid investigative reporting in order to avoid future lawfare.

I almost caught a bat it the stands from Jeff Larish during a game on the south side—by which I mean, I almost caught one in the face. The bat slipped out of his hands at the end of the swing and came tomahawking into the stands. This was back before the extended nets, of course. It landed to the other side of the guy next to me.

Other things being equal in your scenario, whom do you replace McKinstry with?

I don't think McKinstry, who was signed to a major league contract of $1,650,000 for 2025, is in any danger of being DFAed any time soon.

I wonder whether they gets bonuses for increasing the percentage of customers hanging up during holds.

Yes, it is a dictator move, as he is using the power of the state to threaten the media's business with legal action based on spurious charges in order to prevent full, open, and transparent news coverage of him and his administration. Not for nothing, that is also the idea behind preventing most news media outlets from fielding a correspondent at the White House. Using the power of the state for personal gain in such a manner is the textbook definition of corruption.

Not a pet peeve, which is why it’s here and not in Pet Peeves, although this might be more aggravating than amusing to some. I generally drive over the speed limit. Not by a lot, though. In the city, I’l go probably 35 in a 30; maybe 40 if it’s a five-lane road like North or Western. That same plenty fast and fairly controllable considering the amount of parked cars, bicycles, and pedestrians crossing you generally encounter on such a street. So I’m driving 35 in a 30 on Armitage, and I look in the mirror and this guy is really gaining on me. I can tell it’s not a cop car, so I just keep going. But he come right up on my tail, I mean, I can’t see his headlights anymore, he’s that close, going 35 in a 30 behind me. This goes on for another block or so, and I finally decide I’m going to have to pull over and let him by. So I put on the right turn signal and pull as far over along the parked cars as I can so he can pass me. What I didn’t expect was once I did, I could hear him floor the car behind me, honk the horn as he’s going around catching up to me, and as he’s abreast of me passing—yeah, it’s a “he”, what a shock—he’s apparently yelling while wildly waving a middle finger toward me. And then he speeds off at what looks like 50 or 60 mph. On Armitage, for Christ’s sake. A two-driving-lane road. And I had to laugh. I mean, why not? None of whatever he thinks happened was my fault. I did what I was supposed to do, I think. I would think he’d give me a wave of thanks. Nope. I guess he was mad I was keeping him from speeding at his speed at all. It was a completely irrational and inexplicable response on his part. But you can’t get mad at an obviously crazy person acting out, can you? To what end? So how could I not laugh?

I wonder whether women have a harder time getting past these annoying pitches then men do, not necessarily because they’re weaker and more prone to giving in, but because they are perceived by the agent on the other end to be weaker and more prone to giving in, so the agents keep hammering them. When someone tries to pitch me on the thing they pitch you on, I say nope, no interest, thanks anyway, and generally, that’s that, they don’t keep pushing me.

Because it feels good to have your preconceived notions, however arrived at, to be validated and reinforced.

That's not what I would think to myself. People who support white supremacy/hegemony and don't want certain people to have equal access to resources, or equitable chances to succeed, or be included in the bodies social and politic, specifcally because they are of color, are too far gone to think about changing their minds.

They were always gonna anyway.