1984Echoes

That, and... Our Intelligence Reports are the responsibility of our Intelligence Agencies, not Biden. He can only rely on them, and report them to America based on info received from them. Apparently... He received bad intelligence...

Especially since Congress "controls the purse strings"? That's what this whole thing is about, including the ceiling. Biden should unilaterally 14th amendment the ceiling up by $3 trillion to guarantee US Debts, Treasury should write checks for a Trillion of that (covered by immediate new Debt Issuances, T-Bills and such), in payment of bills and such, immediately. Then I'd like to see the Supremes come back with that as "unconstitutional" with us already spent over and above the old ceiling by a Trillion. I believe June Treasury cash receipts were expected to also be near a Trillion (forget where I saw that). Maybe Treasury should spend an immediate $1.5 Trillion in bills and such...?

It looks like you also said basically the same thing: But all the other details you laid out show a... nothing burger.

I didn't follow the whole thing but... Yeah, this would end up in the "non-issue" bin at the end of the day based on the above...

That's why the Russians went after them several days later with everything they got, including multiple Kindzhals. Which all got shot down by the Patriots anyways. Patriots win twice.

Can you define this please? Because Republicans have their own SPECIFIC list of cuts that they want. They are NOT going to accept Biden's "list of cuts" in lieu of their own... which, I don't even know how that would be defined... wanna take a stab at it?

A foreign adversary, China, giving sweetheart licensing deals to a government employee who is the daughter of the President of the United States, in an attempt to politically influence the POTUS in the adversary's favor... is a non-story?

This... lots and lots of other hypocrisies, and also: A backlash against the Moral Majority trying to control other peoples' lives. I'll live however the hell I want, get your (generic you, not specific you) bible out of my life. Starting with abortion (hot topic of the day). Don't want one? Don't get one. Quit restricting other peoples' lives/ choices/ medical procedures/ whom they are allowed to love, etc.

How about defense? Does that qualify as another metric?

I am 100% certain that: a) DeSantis would promise the GOP moderation behind closed doors. b) The entire Republican Party would rally behind DeSantis if he got the nomination. Republican-leaning Independents: I have no clue. But the moderate/ establishment Republicans would believe his moderation promise and rally... IMO. c) If Trump is the nominee, Republicans will lose badly in 2024. Definitely lose the White House; I think they'll lose downstream too. Honestly... I think McCarthy and Boebert and MTG are casting a dark shadow over Republicans House chances as well... but that's just my opinion. Republicans may have a chance at the Senate.. but with Trump, that could easily be threatened... I don't know by how much. d) If Trump is NOT the nominee... I think he goes 3rd party and Republicans get completely wiped out. I both want, and am terrified, of option (d).

I don't think it has anything to do with Indian culture. They are still traumatized by their relatively recent extrication from British Imperialism. And the excruciating process that they went through to do so, and the after-effects (specifically the split of India into also-Pakistan). They are fiercely opposed to any imperialistic tendencies and they see the US/ UK/ NATO as somewhat, but only somewhat, imperialistic. They have a specific policy to not be aligned with any one side against the other. They keep relations with Russia (military supplier for 40+ years I think...?), but also keep relations with the US/ UK/ Australia but ALSO keep relations with China, even though China is increasingly (and also historically) has been a threat. I think the US has been pushing for the past several years them to become more hardline aligned with the US/ NATO, but they refuse to do that. On the US side: we can kick Russia out of the relationship if we successfully convince India (partial success with military supplies but India has been buying massive amounts of Russian oil in the past year at dirt cheap prices to their benefit...). And more importantly, get India completely aligned against China. Which hasn't happened as India also did some work with China's Road & Belt program I believe. India's side: They're not going to stop having a relationship with Russia. Just not going to happen. With China... a little more complicated... India would like to be on both sides and not an "enemy" of China. But China is becoming more belligerent and is an absolute threat to India. Bottom Line: India may not have a choice. But Modi is a pain as Jim announced and... they don't "want" to be aligned... which makes them difficult to read in which direction they are going to choose.

India and Modi are a trick though... They don't want to even sniff any old style imperialism so they avoid tying themselves to the old British Empire, or NATO, or the West, or the US... they refuse to be "aligned". So they are completely open to playing all sides and sometimes doing business with Russia, sometimes the US, sometimes the U.K., sometimes China/ sometimes vehemently against China... It's really hard to peg or rely on them.

I had one aunt (my mom's sister) who would spew a stream of N-word, N-word, N-word, I hate N-word... I told her EXACTLY what I thought of her. Got kicked out of her house... And I've never looked back. I told her exactly what I thought of White Trash Bigotry, that she was exactly that (using different, more colorful words)... and since I have no interest in having any of that element in my life, in my circle of family and friends, I never spoke to her again. And I don't care if the feeling is mutual.

Actually it is healthy. If someone continuously lies to your face... Steams BS and bigotry and hatred in your ear with every word coming out of their mouth... Brings you down emotionally and mentally with all the constant Conspiracy/ BS/ Hatred/ Poisonous Negativity... I think it is decidedly healthy to remove that poisonous personality from ones' life. IMO.

I probably should've quoted Chas's comments on Candelario, but... C'est la vie!

I still contend that if it was one player I would have held onto for this season, that it should have been Candelario, NOT Schoop. I frickin' hated the idea of holding onto Schoop. Dead set against it. And I 100% thought it was Jeimer that would have a comeback, not Schoop. But who am I? C'est la vie. I'll let it go... But then... Jeimer with the 1.3 WAR so far with the Nationals and a .745 OPS; Schoop at .529 and -0.1. Hmmm... food for thought.

You can if none of them can actually hit the net.

Well obviously Americans prefer Democrats in Mental Decline rather than Fascist MAGA Republicans. By a 2-1 margin says 1984's ad hoc wag-poll.

I didn't actually state this out loud but this is actually another really good point that should be made. Too many players demanding the rock so they can dribble it for 10-15 sec's each isn't really much of an offense. We need some pure shooters who don't need the ball, can catch-n-shoot, and can hit the 3. We have enough ball-handlers. Oh, and can "D" at an extremely high rate too.

This is true on France and Germany. Or they've been dragged into action by other countries in the EU, or the UK (not in the EU)... But: Poland took the lead in absorbing Ukrainian refugees fleeing Putin's attempted genocide. I believe 12 million refugees passed through Poland, completely supported every step of the way, even if they ended up in another EU country. With somewhere between 1 and 2 million refugees still safe-harboring in Poland. That's not nothing. Poland also took the lead in supplying, and processing/ pulling from other EU countries, every remnant/ scrap of Soviet military hardware and ammunition to forward to Ukraine. And backfilling by buying US Military technology. Mostly US, anyways. The $-value may not be there in Soviet stuff because it's all old crap... but that was the second line of defense for Ukraine's military. The supply, from all over the EU, of their existing military tech before moving on to western tech. Again, not nothing. The first line of course was all the anti-tank weapons sent to them from all over, before the Russians began their 2022 invasion. Oh, and the 8 years of training we gave them for this, starting from the initial 2014 invasion and land theft by Russia. The UK has taken the lead in supplying modern Western tanks to Ukraine. Took the lead in supplying the longest range missiles to Ukraine (we were 1st I believe with HIMARS but the UK has sent over the longest range missiles) and is NOW taking the lead in training and (I believe) sourcing F-16's for Ukraine. France and Germany have dragged their feet... but they've contributed. As has Italy, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czechia, Slovakia, Romania, Spain, etc... I don't believe that report card is complete. The EU has contributed, a lot.

This I understand perfectly. I think you've been saying this for the past 2 pages in here, I'm just choosing this post to quote. I get it. He's a sunk cost. We are not truly in contention. We get Miggy for a retirement ride. As pathetic as it has been so far. True Competitiveness. And/or several prospects forcing their way into Detroit (or covering for Miggy if he IL's for a couple weeks or more and the player so dominates that...) the team is "almost" forced to go in a different direction... Hasn't happened yet. Until then... We get Miggy.

Right... so my point being: if that's the BEST that Tork!!! can do is an .800 OPS and he simply can NOT do better than that, and he is NOT a Gold Glove 1st baseman... at that point... doesn't he just become eminently replaceable?

I want to see an .850-.900 OPS from him before I feel fully comfortable with him. That little extra for his meh-fielding...

I think this is a key point. If Carpenter and/or Malloy, and I'll even toss Parker Meadows out there... forced their way onto Detroit's roster... then a move or two may be contemplated. My guess is the first move is to DFA Schoop though. Miggy to the IL will have to wait until the team is cornered (or Miggy actually IL's) for this move.

We got locked into all of his bad years because of the extension he signed. Nothing to be done about it except (on my part) to gripe and groan. A lot.