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That might be true, although I do wonder whether its effectiveness can benefit from message pulsing: focus on the original message until people are saturated with it, pause that message for a while and focus on some other message, then come back to the original message after a planned period of time at which point it will have impact again. We used that strategy in advertising media all the time.

Right, I would rather Vance be framed as a dangerous man we have to take seriously, versus a clown we can laugh at and dismiss. A lot of us did that with Trump eight years ago and how did that turn out.

Good point, but also, this:

It’s very clear that I framed the whole exchange with MB using a very common if-then rhetorical device: “if you’re saying that anyone who does not believe in Israel-right-or-wrong is a Hamashole, then I guess I’ll have to cop to that.” It’s very clear that was not intended as a serious admission on my part. But maybe that’s too nuanced for you. Maybe you really are being serious when you say you believe that I claimed to be a supporter of Hamas and against Israel. Maybe you really do believe you are not trolling. So, OK. Will you confirm here that you believe that anyone, including posters here, who is not fully committed to the idea of Israel right or wrong must be a full supporter of Hamas?

The furniture thing is stupid and hopefully it will pass so we can focus on his general awfulness. If the Russians told Trump to pick him because they wanted the electoral system here to collapse, it is failing spectacularly so far.

Telling us all you're trolling without saying the actual words.

I'm sorry, are you actually and without irony offering up the idea that because I am not "Israel right or wrong", that's evidence that I'm a supporter of Hamas?

I'm out of likes, but like.

Also, how many kids does she not have?

The crowd has spoken! 😉

Don't worry, Al Avila can't hurt us anymore.

Produce those receipts or admit you're trolling.

Shelby Miller with the save. Good for him! Good for us!

Can’t help but note the phonetics next to Kamala’s name, and remind me of something I think of every time I hear some right-winger—and it’s almost always a right-winger—botch the pronunciation as “Kuh-MAH-la”, and that include practically every right wing politician who can make their way to a microphone. They continually pronounce her name this way. Is it because they honestly don’t know how her name is pronounced? No, of course not. They absolutely know. It’s because intentionally mispronouncing someone’s name is a basic sign of disrespect. Like, you are such a big nothing to me that I can’t even be bothered to pronounce your name correctly. Not for nothing, they did the same to Saddam Hussein by intentionally mispronouncing his name “sodom” for years and years. In fact, we all did it, because we all hated him. But anytime he is mentioned now, 20+ years later, it’s sad-DAHM. Don’t believe me? Go back and check out some video from that time. Something to keep our eye (or, more exactly, ear) on, especially after she gets elected.

Maybe because these people in no way represent Democrats, which is 180 degrees different from the J6 insurrectionists absolutely representing Republicans.

Apropos of nothing, maybe we should consider figuring out whether we want to refer to her as “Harris” or “Kamala”, because every time I see “Harris” here, I think we’re talking about Scott Harris.

I went back to remind myself of the prevailing opinion of Franklin Perez in places like Fangraphs, and everyone thought he was going to be a solid top half of the rotation guy, even though he was already hurt. But he just didn’t get any healthier in our system. Take from that what you will …

I do think it’s fairer to say that we can expect Skubal to continue breathing fire every fifth day through the end of the year and then into November, while still saying whether Holliday and Basallo will rake in the majors is still speculative. Burnes has been better than Skubal over the past seven years. That’s a fact. No dispute here. What I am saying is that Skubal is better in 2024, on practically every relevant metric, and that’s also a fact. (Sorry, I couldn’t isolate just those two on iOS screenshot.) Please note that I am not saying that Skubal is the greatest pitcher in history of the world and that Burnes is complete dog shït. Definitely not. They would, without no doubt, be 1-2 in your playoff rotation. I’m just asserting that Skubal would be that #1, and with 15 pitchers in between them on the list above, that it’s not particularly close. Now, in 2018 or 2021, Skubal’s not better. Burnes is. But then, you’re not trying to win in 2018 or 2021. As for the injury thing—you’re right, and he does have 123 innings already on his wing this year, so that would be a legitimate reason to not do the deal, and that’s fine. There is no imperative here to liquidate Skubal. We’d be right chuffed to hang onto him and have him open for us in Los Angeles next March. But injury is a risk with any pitcher you pick up, and I’m not necessarily sold that Skubal is an abnormally higher injury risk than your other options, even with two surgeries on the elbow. But every trade harbors that risk, so caveat to the emptor. But if I am right—if Skubal continues to mow down everyone crossing his path for the next three months—you might sorry to see him to land on one of the teams that runs the O’s out of the tournament. And that’s the risk of not trading for him. All this said: I still put the odds of Skubal going anywhere at something less than 10%, because getting rid of what casual fans have heard is the best pitcher in the league pitching for our team in exchange for a bunch of guys they’ve never heard might be enough to drive those casual fans away from the Tigers for a long, long time. Go Lions!

Not even all that huge, since we apparently just had to give them $40 million as well to entice them to take Verlander off our hands.

OK, so, two things: (1) those numbers are general estimates and not results, which obviously you know; and (2) Holliday and Basallo have still done nothing in the majors and are certainly not guaranteed to, whereas Skubal is Cy Young right now and is ready to lead a playoff rotation right now, even over Corbin Burnes, and not by a little. So yes, the numbers from this trade value thingamabob favor the Tigers' return over that of the Orioles, but the key difference is that the numbers assigned to Skubal are based on current reality, whereas the numbers assigned to the Orioles players are all based on speculation—with good reason, I acknowledge, but still, speculation. And remember, even losing all these players, especially the top two, the Orioles still have their positions covered for years and years, whereas our rotation would be shattered until at least next year, and perhaps beyond. Trading Skubal will definitely hurt the Tigers much more in the short term (perhaps the next 12 months) than the Orioles, and if the Orioles would never trade them under any circumstances, then they are to all appearances just trying to run up the score, same way (sorry for this but) Trump thought he would run up the score by choosing Vance as his VP (again, sorry for that, but I mention it only because of how apt the comparison is.) IOW: if the Orioles would not trade these players, who may not even pan out, for the best pitcher in the game right now, at a time they need him most, in favor of keeping their players around for, I don't know, just in case, I guess? And they won't even have room for these players for years anyway—then just what exactly are they trying to accomplish here? This is a good trade for both teams, and I don't think the Tigers should take any less than this. I personally would bless it, and honestly, I don't think the Orioles would have to think very long about it before they accept it as well.

A couple weeks ago I offered you Skubal and Parker Meadows in exchange for Holliday, Basallo, one of Haskin, Fabian, or Rhodes, and a pitching lottery ticket like Strowd, Gillies, McGough, Hoffman, or Armbruester. I see no reason to move off that now, although I'd be willing to discuss trading off Basallo for a major-league ready arm like Brandon Young. Can somebody run this through baseballtradevalues? I don't subscribe.

She had me at Kamala, but anti-fracking too? 🥰

I wonder how many hard-right wackaloon red-hatted Republicans stayed home in November because of both this and his admonishing the old lady about saying Obama is an Arab.

Catholics elevate the Pope to the status of infallibility, worship and pray to Mary Mother of God, and believe in a redemptive purgatory versus being "saved", so political evangelicals don't believe Catholics are even Christians.