chasfh

Or at the very least provide some concrete direction for our efforts in the Middle East, whatever that might be. Since the resolution came from Lois Frankel D-FL, basically a sworn enemy who quit the progressive caucus more or less to get away from Rashida, it feels to me like she brought this virtue-signal vote specifically intending to checkmate Rashida by forcing her to vote against it, excite the media about it, and cost her the election this November, which I think nearly all Democrats in Congress would like to see. I would think the next move would be to undertake efforts box her into a corner and subdue her so her constituents would see she’s feckless and kick her out. She didn’t actually vote against it, but she might as well have as since voting merely present is basically the same thing. We’ll see if it all works. Grab some popcorn …

I appreciate your effort at supplying some links, but I am really mostly interested in exactly where the 14,000 number comes from. That’s the one you hung your hat on and I want to understand where you got that. Mostly, I want to know how IDF came up with that specific number.

You’re skirting what I’m saying. I’m not surprised. Also, this nonsense about believing terrorists instead of Israel? A statement which assumes Israel’s hat is immaculately white? Everybody's hands are super dirty in that region, so there are no white hats there. “Israel right or wrong” is not a good look.

You said “Chas would literally believe terrorists over Israel”, despite that I had posted exactly why I thought the 30,000+ number passes the smell test, listing sources far beyond just the Gaza ministry, because those sources do the necessary legwork to vet the information that none of us have the resources to do, and I trust those sources to do that. That’s why I think the number seems reasonable So not only did you make an intellectually-dishonest sweeping generalization that’s demonstrably untrue, you made a lazy intellectually-dishonest sweeping generalization that’s demonstrably untrue. You need to do better than that.

🤣

That’s fine, because the Gaza ministry isn’t saying there were ZERO militant deaths. They are saying 30,000+ people died. I would guess there are a decent number of militant deaths among them, but then, that’s just a guess. In terms of where IDF numbers are published, honestly, if I’m not seeing it in the news stories I see about this campaign, which admittedly is not as many as you read, then I’m not seeing it. I don’t read everything there is about this topic and I don’t seek out deep stories about it, so if you want me to believe the 14,000 number, you’re gonna have to give me the link to the data. Because when I google “14,000 militant deaths IDF reports”, I’m coming up dry.

Glad you’re not making this personal! 😝

No, you do not appear to have that correct. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties in its reports. You're free to reject the Gaza ministry's number, and I am free to be skeptical of the IDF number, and we can go on being friends.

I think the 30,000+ number passes the smell test.

Maybe D. I don't know. But Benetti is a very ambitious person, and C is squarely within the realm of possibilities. I don't blame Reinsdorf for not being happy with his increasing absences. I think that might wear a little on Tigers fans after a couple years of it, too, and there will be griping about that. At least they have Dan Dickerson in reserve for those instances. I do like Benetti's work a lot, though, and I think he is a smart and engaging guy on air, and I'm also open to the idea that he can make Petry, Monroe, and Gibson better—although none of them appear to have the same arch, snarky sense of humor he has, and which Steve Stone could work well off of.

"The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank — rivals of Hamas — say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions ..." This is good enough for me at the moment.

They are a party with an interest, so there’s no reason to believe they are giving us the truth, any more than when American cops say they shot a guy because the guy lunged/shot at him. It’s fair to say you hope it’s true, and you believe it’s true, but you can’t say it’s objectively true and be taken seriously. FWIW, the mainstream American media is reporting the 30,000+ number and citing it as coming from the Gaza Ministry of Health, and I haven’t seen them routinely report a counter number from IDF. While I understand how fashionable it is say one completely distrusts the media, and that people believe it makes them look cool and smart to say they are one big vast worldwide conspiracy and they should never ever ever ever EVER be trusted, I don’t believe that’s true, and I also believe that they must be properly vetting the information enough to report it consistently and across practically all channels. Since “the United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank — rivals of Hamas — say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions”, and I have found no similar description of how IDF calculates the number, I believe the 30,000+ number passes the smell test more than the IDF number.

Known, habitual liars as politicians is a feature, not a bug. My point is that it's a bad look to disparage information coming from one side of a conflict, and make a bid to correct it with information from the other side, as though they do not both have equal incentive to doctor the numbers, which they do.

Israel Defense Forces. Thank you. Also a party with interest.

I'm not sure how I feel about keeping the same old analysts on board to work with Benetti on TV. Clearly none of them are anything like outstanding at the job, and some of them are actually quite inadequate for it. I wonder whether Benetti wanted to bring a new guy in with him but couldn't convince the front office, whether he actually wants to work with these analysts, or whether he doesn't care one way or the other since this might well be a pit stop on his way to a 100% national career.

I agree, it depends. Players do like their legacies, and if they want their legacy to be about home runs, then the idea of hitching their wagon to Comerica and its low park factor for homers might be not be so appealing. Miggy tested that rule. Juan Gonzalez proved it.

I'm pretty sure this front office will always do that.

I had a medical issue leading to a behavioral issue and went to special ed for first and second grades, so you can imagine how popular I was after I was declared “cured” and mainstreamed directly into third grade at the local school without any guided onboarding, attending alongside the same kids who already knew all my issues. I got a bit of a break when my parents (my mom actually) sent me to Catholic school starting in fourth grade, probably to avoid being bussed into Detroit schools, which was a huge fear among the Greatest Generation at the time. I still exhibited remnants of my earlier experience, though, and started getting bullied there, too, all the way into ninth grade in high school. The way I got out of it was I started smoking pot and embedded myself with the burnouts in the school’s smoking area. Nerds and geeks and dorks and dweebs got bullied, but burnouts in the smoking area did not. That whole thing turned out to be a bad detour and I didn’t completely straighten up until I got halfway through (my third) college, but at least I didn’t get pushed around by the jocks during the final three years of high school. The social media of the time was the rumor mill, and even if they didn’t have pics or vids, it was vivid enough for us to completely immobilize many of us socially.

I believe that’s correct, yes. Source on this?

Almost as though it’s a different region with geopolitical considerations unique to it.

Padres CCs are just ****ing execrable. We could do a lot worse than following the Angels’ lead on theirs.

MLB.tv plus the MiLB TV add-on is going to be a lot more interesting for Tigers fans this year.

At least someone doesn’t hate the Tigers so much. https://theathletic.com/5259377/2024/02/13/detroit-tigers-2024-top-20-prospects-keith-law/

Absolutely true of the national guys, which is what I think you might be talking about, right? Aside from the fact that most of them are located in major coastal markets like NY or SF, which leads to regional bias, it’s simply impossible for national baseball panelists to keep up with the inner workings, and thus the vagaries, of 30 different organizations. Especially true of those organizations that have been ciphers for the better part of a decade. Once the Tigers either start nailing pennants to the wall, or else sign/develop a charismatic generational talent, then we will start getting plenty of national attention.