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I deliver for a local pantry here 3x/week (M-W-F), and an overwhelming percentage of my regular clients are black, latino, and Chinese, with the majority of them seniors. I texted my contact to see whether they receive federal funds. Haven't heard back back yet, and he is normally very responsive. I've also been wondering how Trump could use his power to shut down charities that receive no federal funds. I suppose he could eliminate whatever tax-favorable status they have, possibly when he issues the proclamation that there will be no more tax write-offs available for individual tax returns.

They will get their funding back once they pledged fealty to Trump and only Trump. That's what this part is all about.

"Bubble Headed Bleach Blonde" would suggest that Leavitt's a dupe and doesn't know what's happening or why. I call BS on that suggestion. She knows exactly what's happening and why, because she is 100% in on it.

Susan Collins is coming off as though she is the most naive adult in the United States of America.

I myself am not assuming that, but if it were to happen, than papalawrence would be right and I would be wrong, and seriously, I'd root for that, too.

I know. Truth hurts.

Correct, assuming Flaherty has done a complete 180 from his past and becomes a consistent staff ace year after year into his 30s.

I don't think you can generlaize about it.

I myself don't buy the "one dollar more" argument, but agree to disagree. I believe MLB insiders when they say players don't want to play in Detroit in part because Detroit, because the idea easily passes the smell test, and I think anyone can easily see that, even if they don't want to admit it. I don't like admitting that, either, but it is what is.

I like Tubi best of all of them, mainly because they are easier to use and have on demand.

When you get into a crash with another car, do not get hit by a guy who has a suspended license and no insurance. I signed up with a new insurance company in 2023, car was $1,513 for the year. We had a bang up with a stationary object that year and car went up to $2,291 for last year, a hike of +51%. We felt that seemed fair given the circumstance, so we went with them again. After getting hit by the guy (who has already skipped two court dates on it and now has an FTA warrant out against him), a crash the police has confirmed on record was his fault and not ours, now the insurance company wants $4,035, a hike of +76% since last year, and +166% over two years. Yes, our insurance had to pay for the accident because of the guy who hit me, but again, it was established as not our fault, so really, we should not be considered an elevated risk because of it. So, in essence, they are asking for almost triple the premium they asked for just two years ago. In the meantime, one of the other majors just gave us a quote of $1,239 for six months, which works out to $2,479 for the year if we can get them to do 12 months with us, which is much, much lower. I hate the idea of leaving the new insurance company after they were so cool about handling our two crashes, but I gotta tell ya, the difference in cost is too compelling to just ignore. Plus, if I establish that I am willing to pay an elevated insurance rate for my car now, it's never, ever, ever going to come down to anything resembling a normal rate ever again. After all, there's a good business reason insurance companies work off a black box quote system and not a rate card. I'll give my current company a chance to respond, but I see practically zero chance they bring the quote down.

They misspelled "enabling" at the end there.

Then both can be true. It's not the Trump voters freezing the infrastructure projects.

It's true that a third of the people love the theater, but the other two-thirds who would normally object to it are getting too distracted by too many outrages all at once.

I'm talking about the Trump government. Who are you talking about?

It's not a nationwide scandal because Trump is employing a strategy that can be alternately called "the fire hose" and "shock and awe": flood us with so much terrible stuff on so many fronts all at once that we can't possibly unite to focus on what to fight back on or even object to. There are too many things in too many areas going on for us to unite and push back on any single one. And any time there is traction on any one issue, they merely introduce a new outrage into the system, and we all chase that like dogs after a squirrel. And so our attentions are fragmented and nothing controls for very long, because with every new outrage—and there will be at least one new outrage every day—we leave the old outrages behind, no more attention is paid to them, and the regime can complete their work on those. And this strategy totally working, because it has always worked. That's why it's not stupid, even as its unconstitutional and (for the moment) illegal.

Hey, man, he's letting them eat cake. Get over it. 😏

They couldn't give less of a shirt about infrastructure projects. Letting everything go to seed keeps our money in their pocket and reduces our morale. Driving down the quality of everything and getting us used to it is a goal, because the less we have, the less we'll demand.

Nope. Red state red hats will not band together with their neighbors and rise up against MAGA overreach by the government. They will simply turn on each other to eliminate local rivals, and then look for opportunities to plunder what's left behind. That's how it has always worked throughout history. It may be unconstitutional and technically illegal, but what it's not is stupid. They know what they're doing, and they have help architecting the whole thing from benefactors who have 800+ years experience in doing the same thing.

This has always been the end goal: controlling ordinary, everyday people utterly and completely. What they are allowed to do, what they are not allowed to do, and just as importantly, what they must be compelled to do. The new regime can't achieve its goals without knowing exactly what each and everyone else of us are doing at all times, and they can't do that without ubiquitous surveillance. And not just electronic surveillance, either, although that will be a large part of it. They will also rely heavily on the word of snitches on the inside of various institutions: local and state government, media, academia, civic institutions, unions, private employers, charities, utilities, social media forums, all of it. They are already pushing for that inside the government today—my guess is that media will be next. Nothing will be too small for them to root out we they call Marxists, which will eventually encompass anyone who did not vote for Trump, and that includes most of us.

I think that’s true of a lot of players, maybe even most players, especially since so many of them come from the south, the west, and Latin America. It’s totally unfair, that completely sucks, but that’s the reality we have to work within. Short of a complete renaissance for the city of Detroit that makes it a cool place that everyone wants to come to, there are two ways to get players to want to play for the Tigers: pay way more than anyone else, and/or establish a great organizational culture that leads to winning. Harris is working on the latter now, but that’s still going to take time to really take hold, more than just two and a half years. We’re seeing some really good progress on that front, and if he succeeds—and nothing is guaranteed, of course, but if he does—then maybe we won’t to have to pay so much more to get players to want to come here. And as for that part, Ilitch has shown with the Javy and Eduardo contracts that if he is convinced the team is on the verge of winning, he’ll spend. No reason to believe that he will welsh on that idea now, other than the self-defeating fatalistic thinking that has characterized being a Tigers fan for the last decade or so.

All true. I think the original point stands that a pitcher has more of an outsized impact on a game than any of the other positions, by a factor of multiples, and that a pitcher is not worth only one-fifth of an everyday player because he pitches in only one-fifth of the games.

Yes, you have a nice day too!

And even if you have the best position player in the world, you still have eight other positions you have to fill to help win the other eight-ninths of the games you play. One player can’t win 162 games all by himself for you.

Where did he say that?