chasfh

If Xi survives October? What do you know about what's going to happen with Xi in October?

Stock market reaction aside, I don't understand how yesterday's inflation report was bad news—unless we're talking strictly about how bad it was for the stock market itself. As far as I can tell, the inflation number was good news. It showed an increase of just 0.1% month over month, and that was after a month of July for which the CPI change was zero. That's a lot different, and a lot better, than the monthly changes of 0.6% to 1.3% we were seeing for eight of the nine months preceding that. I know the big media takeaway is 8.3% which was the increase over year ago, but if the next ten months go the same way the last two have, we would see a year-over-year inflation figure of roughly 1%. I don't know about you, but I would take that. It probably won't be that, but with energy appearing to level off from an historic spike, which should put a damper on food inflation before the end of the year, I could see us next July talking about 2% to 3% inflation again—barring another pandemic or similar global catastrophe, of course.

There's something to be said for that, since we would have been on the hook for that contract of almost $20 million per year through 2008. Flip side, Papa Doc was motivated to win a ring before he died in a way Baby Doc ain't, so who knows, maybe he still goes out and throws 4/40 at Pudge and 5/75 at Maggs anyhow.

Sounds good to me! 👍🏼😁

I was listening to Pod Save America yesterday and they talked about how the polls show favorability to Democrats, but how can we trust any polls because of the polling error in 2016 and 2020? There are a few logical reasons why the polling might have been off, including that Trump voters may not respond when pollsters call, or there was a mixing of polling methodologies resulting in skewed projections. But the more I hear and think about it, the more I wonder whether the Party of Projection, who have spent much of the last six years accusing Democrats of rampant vote fraud, has been engaging in misdirection, as projectors do, to distract us from examining closely whether they themselves have been cooking the voting machines, switching votes, tossing votes outs, taking massive dumps (of votes, of course), etc. I have nothing to prove it, and I’m not even leveling an accusation against them. All I know is it would be totally on brand for them to do it, and I sure can’t dismiss it.

I did not realize that Correa is going through free agency for the first time, and that the $62 million he's earned is not a ton of money, since if the Tigers offer him the most money he'll take it, and bonus, he's lying when he said in July that a rebuilding team isn’t something he wants to be a part of.

Do not insure your Amazon purchase with an Asurion extended warranty. Yeah, i know, you already knew that. So did I. I thought this was a special circumstance that warranted it. I had previously bought a (much too expensive) docking hub for my laptop setup that started to fail in less than a year, and I was out well over a hundred bucks. So I bought a new hub from a different company for cheaper, and which I extended through Asurion with a three-year extended warranty for eight bucks. Within six weeks (beyond the return policy limit), the sound input on the hub failed. When I plug my speakers into the hub, the sound is supposed to come through the speakers. It no longer does. I contacted the company, Mokin, twice asking for technical support or a replacement, and got no reply. They are a Chinese company, which may or may not have something to do with their lack of responsiveness. So I contacted Asurion. First of all, it's likely you won't be able to handle the issue online by yourself because, as in my case, you may not even see your product listed. Luckily they have a chat app so I was able to successfully process the issue through that. But here's the deal with that: First of all, you don't get a replacement product through Asurion. You get an gift card and you get it for the amount of the product only, not any taxes or shipping you might have paid. So that part of the money is gone. Secondly, unlike Amazon itself, which might send you a replacement product before you have to send the defective product in, Asurion will send the gift card only once they have received your product. So you need to trust this company hardly anyone has ever heard of to follow through on that part of the deal. But lastly, and the best part, is that once you process this transaction, your contract with Asurion is completed. You do not get to apply it to any replacement product you receive. So I spent eight bucks on an extended warranty that terminated within six weeks because I had the temerity to leverage the warranty once. Stay away from Asurion.

There's no other way to put it: early merging culture is fascist, practically by definition, because it encourages people to take what's not even a law, but is merely a more, into their own hands and enforce it against other drivers simply because they don't like them doing what the actual law allows them to do.

It is fine to drive in a lane as long as it is open to drive in.

Seems to me the car driving to the end of the lane is playing by the rules of the road, and the guy who jumps into the lane with the explicit purpose of blocking or stopping the car already has road rage.

Not soon enough for Juan, who was Gone shortly thereafter. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/juan-gonzalez/ After the season the Rangers traded González to the Detroit Tigers with two other players for six Tigers. Detroit’s new Comerica Park had dimensions not very friendly for batters like González. The Tigers offered González an eight-year contract worth $151.5 million, which would make him the highest-paid player ever. He declined to sign the contract, saying, “That park is too big for my batting style.” He added, “It is better to play at ease and be happy than to have all that money. … Money does not assure you of happiness.” https://vault.si.com/vault/2001/09/03/the-power-of-juan-after-a-miserable-season-in-detroit-juan-gonzalez-has-gone-gaga-over-cleveland-where-he-has-hit-it-big-for-the-division-leading-indians Gonzalez and his agent at the time, Scott Boras, visited the home of Rangers owner Tom Hicks to discuss returning to Texas, but Hicks had just committed $252 million to free-agent shortstop Alex Rodriguez. There was always Detroit. In the end the Indians all but stole Gonzalez, signing him to a one-year, $10 million contract. "This is a business, and I have to think about money," says Gonzalez, "but what was most important was the team. Cleveland wins a lot, and they have good friends of mine. It was a great situation." https://vault.si.com/vault/2000/05/29/courting-disaster-the-detroit-tigers-traded-a-carload-of-young-players-for-two-time-mvp-juan-gonzalez-hoping-to-seduce-him-into-a-long-term-relationship-so-far-it-has-been-a-very-rocky-affair Gonzalez doesn't want the Tigers' money--not now, anyway. He told SI last week that he will not engage in contract discussions until after the season, when he is eligible for free agency. "Right now it's quiet, and I want it to stay that way," Gonzalez says. "I just want to play baseball and put up my numbers. After the season is the time for talking." When asked what he wants most from the team he next signs with, Gonzalez says, "A chance of winning every year." The Tigers can give him enough cash to buy a small-market franchise, but as they struggle through their seventh consecutive losing season, they can't promise a World Series appearance anytime soon. And here I was assured that when a team offers the most money the player will take it.

Correa's going to be a five-win player coming off a seven-win season, and he's due to play in nearly 140 games, with part of the lost time due to COVID protocols, so that might help allay some of the concerns of him being often-injured. He might still not get a deal as rich as he did this past winter, but I think there's at least a decent chance he does.

Remember how thrilled Juan Gonzalez was to see the new ballpark after he was traded here? He was so thrilled that he refused to sign with the Tigers for the richest long-term deal ever up to that point, turning down the most money which people insist players always take.

This is why you know nothing about what "the left" is thinking.

Why isn’t this on the Conservative Self-Owns account?

As long as it’s uncoordinated and beholden to private enterprise actually doing the legwork, probably not.

Follow-up tweet:

I can’t imagine Putin playing the supplicant role, so I think your hope is well-founded.

I think one difference is that the US and Europe would probably be willing to help Russia get on its feet democratically, given their strategic location in Europe—something US/Europe wouldn’t spend as much time on for Libya.

I'm not speeding. And I would appreciate it if you wouldn't lay on the horn the next time I pass you. 😉

I doubt we can convince Correa that we will not still be rebuilding next year. The Tigers said they would compete this year and look what's happened, and everyone on the Tigers looks miserable playing out the string. Correa is surely noticing that. I don't think the Tigers could overpay Correa enough to get him to come here, I don't think Baby Doc would offer to overpay him enough to get here, and I can't imagine any way Correa would be forced to take a Tigers offer in the aftermath of no other team bidding on what is still the best shortstop in the game.

That may be the only thing we can hope for, for next year at least. Baby Doc committed nearly a quarter billion dollars to free agents this past winter and all he's gotten for it so far is a team careening towards 100 losses. I could see him shying away from big ticket free agents for a little while.

Carlos Correa is on record as not wanting to sign with a rebuilding team, so that eliminates the Tigers this winter.