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I think a big part of what has gotten us fat and happy is that we are bombarded by easy entertainment options 24/7, so people don’t have room in their heads to think deeply about serious issues. That obviously was not the case during the Depression. Back then, people were largely unemployed with no money for entertainment, certainly not ten dollars or more for a radio, perhaps not even a dime for a movie, so they had lots of time to sit around and ruminate about their circumstances and the causes behind them. We have an increasing number of people sliding into desperate circumstances today as well, but even they have cheap phones loaded with social media and games to keep them distracted—or, to put it more generously, to provide them a break from the constant drumbeat this is their increasingly shitty lives. And maybe the most unfortunate thing is that part of that entertainment is the bomb-throwing populist rhetoric that’s driving our divisiveness today. Who knows how we can extract ourselves from this.

This is where I’m at. Of course I understand separate entities are not coordinating their efforts for maximum impact against Trump. If that were happening, there would be something to the charges that this is all politically motivated. But I am concerned that if they go to the mat on the sex thing and lose, he will appear exonerated in the eyes of those marginal voters who had peeled off from him in 2020 and they’ll go right back to him in 2024.

I agree that a small majority thinks it makes him look like a pig, and a large minority thinks it makes him look cool.

The John Edwards thing was about about campaign finance violations. He was acquitted, and his only penalty was that the Democrats spun him off into the wilderness. Here, if Trump gets acquitted, he ain't going nowhere but the 2024 Republican ticket.

Also, I really wish they wouldn't keep referring to him having had sex with and then paying off a "porn star". First of all, it makes him look cool to a lot of people, including the people who need to be convinced that he's a disgusting rat. Secondly, there is nothing I can see about the story that turns specifically on her being a "porn star", as opposed to being any other ordinary woman, so that part is irrelevant to the alleged crime. It's part of every story about it because it's prurient, so it's sexy (in a journalistic way) and maintains interest, page views and thus ad revenue—but again, makes him look cool.

The biggest concern I have in all this is that it's all going to be primarily about paying off the woman, and not about the treason. The Trump Daniels thing is almost the exact same as John Edwards using campaign funds to pay hush money to the woman he was having an affair with, and he got acquitted. Even Clinton Lewinsky was more or less swept under the table as nothing more than he was a bad widdle boy. If they decide to go after him Capone-style and fail, I don't know how they can think they can get him on the bigger stuff afterwards. At that point it will look legitimately political. So the indictments had better have some crimes that are more than about tawdry mushroom-headed sex. You got one chance when you go after the king. One. Best not miss.

Possibly. Maybe even worse.

They have got to have something more on Lindsey than he's merely gay. It's got to be something more disgusting than that.

What fake crimes?

The only way out now for Fox is to settle. I don't know what it would take for Dominion to agree, but I hope they never accept.

I'm guessing if he were a true Trumper, he wouldn't get satire.

July's Tiger team.

Yeah, he could. I'm sure Taibbi developed a lot of inside contacts during his days in the Soviet Union.

Apropos of nothing, I'm a little surprised Trump hasn't tried the nickname Ron Little DeEnergy on him, mainly because it kinda fits.

Yet another reason it sucks to be a Rockies fan.

The evened-out schedule may have an effect, but it’s not as though all 24 games we lose against division rivals are coming from the Royals and going to the Dodgers and the Braves. A lot of them are coming from the Guardians and White Sox and Twins, who we’ve struggled against, and going to the Nationals and Reds and Rockies and Diamondbacks. We may lose a little bit in the transition, but I don’t think it will be as dramatic as all that.

😉😁

I wouldn’t say I was a fan and wanted him to come back. I wasn’t. I was saying of all that group of hackers, he was the one I thought might have a chance to come back, and also, I’m not too surprised he landed on an active roster and went north with another team. The main reason I say this is his young age. If he had the exact same numbers but was going on his age 28 season instead of 25, I’d be surprised he’s not playing out the string in Mexico or Korea or Taiwan.

We are gonna get off to a rough start because of our super-tough early schedule so we should remember that when we start out something like 12-28.

As did we all.

While we are on the subject of suck …

Well, that sucked.

Here’s the down side of watching Tigers on MLB.tv: the delay is long enough that I get Twitter alerts from all the beat writers telling me play outcomes before I see them on the screen.

Welcome to the Show, meat. TORK! Seemed kind of pissed at the Tampa bullpen for not moving out of the way of that foul ball he fell just short of.

DCCC should collect a bunch of these screenshots, right here, and feature them on ads next year. They could probably do fifty different executions, easy.