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It’s a shame anyone had to take the post personally.

Merry Christmas, everybody! This is a political forum, so, obviously, I have thoughts. 😁 Everyone once in a while we might hear about how someone who's Jewish says they do not celebrate Christmas, or how Jewish kids feel left out when the rest of their class have Christmas activities, things along those lines. We probably don't hear as much of that as we used to, but it still comes up occasionally. But I have been wondering for some time now—well, why can't they? Why can't Jewish people, Muslim people, people of other religions or no religion, celebrate Christmas? Because it doesn't take a long time examining it to conclude that Christmas is actually two separate holidays, not just one. Yes, of course there's the religious Christmas, the one with the Jesus and the creche and the religious songs and the church services and all that. That's important to a lot of people, maybe even the most important aspect of the holiday. (Or holy day, if they prefer.) But there is also the secular Christmas, the one with the Santa and the tree and the ornaments and the presents and the caroling and all that, none of which literally have anything to do with Jesus or Christianity or any of it. It's true that many people mix the religious and the secular elements to suit themselves—they sing religious and secular carols back to back, put a manger scene under the tree, sing "Deck the Halls" as the recessional song during midnight mass, etc.—and that is certainly their right to do so. That's what makes them feel good about Christmas, and what can be wrong about that? Nothing that I can see. But you certainly don't have to mix the two. They can be kept completely separate. After all, Christmas Day is a federal holiday. That's not because we're a Christian country—after all, Good Friday and Ash Wednesday and Epiphany and All Saints' Day aren't federal holidays. But Christmas is, because in 1870, business and labor were each clamoring for federal holidays to help stanch worker burnout, and also, the Grant administration sought to promote national unity in the days after the civil war. In fact, the bill creating the federal legal status of holiday did not specify "Christmas"—only the date December 25th. So if December 25th is a federal holiday, shouldn't all people, regardless of religion, feel free to celebrate at least the widely-beloved, culturally-resonant secular aspects of the holiday in whatever way they choose? Shouldn't Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, whoever, feel free to celebrate Christmas however they wish, to express their feeling and conviction that they are part of the intrinsic fabric of this country, instead of being othered by people who identify themselves with the religion professed by the majority? Why can't they? Certain jackass types—usually the types who associate being Christian with cultural and political codes rather than moral or ethical values—sometimes demand that people must "put the 'Christ' back in Christmas'", meaning, if people don't elevate Christ to the center of it all, even when sitting on Santa's lap at what used to be the mall, then they're doing it all wrong, the implication being that people shouldn't be allowed to celebrate Christmas without the Christ, or at least they should be ashamed to do so, and maybe even be ostracized for it. I fear we might start seeing and hearing a lot a lot more of that kind of thing during the next few years. But in my view, that's the kind of thinking that seeks to keep us apart and at each other throats, to distract us with hatred of one another. They want us to fight over religion, among other things, while they and the rest of the upper 1% runs away with all the money. I'm pretty sure that is an explicitly expressed strategy. My hope is that one day all demands that everyone must christfy Christmas can be set aside, and that all people will be able to enjoy the awesome secular aspects of the holiday without guilt, shame, or otherwise pressure to conform with anyone else's standards. I think that's one small way we could find common ground and come together as an American people.

I really don’t believe Harris is being constrained by a budget imperative, as though Soto or Snell wanted to come to Detroit but Harris had to tell them we can’t afford them because Baby Doc. I believe Harris’s guiding principle is the stage of development we are currently in. Are we one big free agent away from being a favorite to play deep into November? Even if we had done everything we have done so far and are going to do anyway, meaning the signing of Cobb and various MiLB FAs, plus the one and only additional move of signing Soto—does that alone move your assessment from “my expectations won’t be very high” to “we are definitely one of the favorites in the American League now”? Remember that signing Soto would also necessitate the removal of Kerry Carpenter.

I’m with you on this. The Jays made at least semi-serious bids for Ohtani and Soto. I think they might be looking for a win for their fans.

Over their own stats? Right-handed sluggers would give up on maximizing home runs, batting average, all that, to sign with a team that has made one playoff in the last ten years? I don't know. Maybe. On the other hand, Papa Doc is no longer in control of the purse strings. I'd be surprised to see the Chris Ilitch/Scott Harris team commit to a strategy overpaying aging free agents just to get them to agree to live in Detroit for even half a year.

Well, well, whaddya know ... just after I do this post, I see this: Walker signs 3-year, $60M deal with Astros: 'Everything we were looking for' In which Walker is quoted: “I try not to change who I am at the plate, but very excited about that short porch,” he said. “Playing at Chase [Field] so long, it’s a big park. This can be at times, too, but the atmosphere on the field as an opposing player, it’s fun to play. It’s a challenge.” So he is very excited about the "short porch" in Houston. He is done with "big parks". So the Tigers and Comerica Park never had a real chance for him. Now multiply that by every other right-handed free agent slugger.

Yup, Dolan is in the bag.

Unlike pitching, I really do think bats won’t choose to come here unless they are out of other options. Comerica is regarded as a tough place to hit homers, especially for right-handers, the exact hander we happen to need. And we are not known to have a hitter whisperer in the way we have a pitcher whisperer. So I think a top RHB was always a tall order, and if Bregman ends up coming here, it’s because he has run out of other options. We would have better luck getting a really good RHB if we were to liquidate prospects for someone who can’t block coming here.

I tried to give you a like and ran out. I’ll try to remember to come back to this. To the idea of capital punishment not saving the government money, I would bet the right wing elites would have an easy solution to that: execute immediately upon conviction. The moment after sentence is passed, walk the perp to a special cell, line them up against the wall, kablammo. Then bill the family for the bullet plus labor and court costs. And don’t forget the 3% surcharge if they use a credit card. I get a lot of good ideas when I put on my red hat.

Also, since when are we handing out death penalties for crimes during which no one died?

Yes, and your choice will be Greenland. At least officially.

Pay $36/year for LastPass, or even less for NordPass. I think a lot of security suites like Norton offer password management as well as part of your package, as well. Whichever way you go on it, totally worth it. I have had LastPass for going on ten years now.

Who gives a **** who she ****s

I think it's weird that twitter account would hide the "a" in the word rape. Almost makes me wonder what they're trying to hide, besides the "a", like they're trying to throw off the scent or something.

Because Scott Harris is trying to build a winner, not have fun with it? That would be my guess.

I don't understand why otherwise knowledgeable fans are salivating over the idea of Verlander and/or Scherzer coming back here for 2025. Do they think it's still 2013 and they're still 29? I can name one important person who almost certainly is not doing that.

And the moral of the story is: immigrants are bad.

There is a desire among right wingers to increase the white birthrate substantially, not only to overcome the population decline that will come with expelling practically all immigrants of color (and, bonus, their American citizen children), but also to attack women's advances in education and employment, doing all they can to force women to stay home and pump out three, four, five, or more babies—just like when America was "great". I know many people here think the confabulating right wing elites we see tweeting fire and brimstone all the time are stupid and ignorant and couldn't plan or strategize their way out of a paper bag, but I do believe they understand that by degrading the educational system, they can create a system in which far, far fewer students move on to college, and far, far more high school graduates (and, just as importantly, dropouts) can make up for the loss of immigrants populating the manual labor jobs. A less-educated workforce is a more blue collar workforce, and the more less-educated people the right wing elites can engineer, the better they can fill those lowest-paying of jobs with American citizens. Couple that with killing off unions for good and repealing labor and minimum wage laws, and we can get back to a country in which something like 88% of the men, women, and children who make up the labor force are manual, industrial, agricultural, domestic, or otherwise unskilled, and the remaining 12%—the educated professional and business class, which the right wing elite brainiacs assume will include themselves—can live very, very well off their backs. You know—Make America Great Again. It'll take time, maybe a couple or three decades, to see the fruit of their efforts, but if they can drive Democrats and other liberals entirely out of the body politic, as they will also seek to do by any means possible, they stand a good chance of achieving this version of the American Dream, at least in part.

President Vance will make it four.

And the moral is, don't run a woman candidate for president. After all, Jill Stein hasn't won yet, has she?

For this to happen, Trump would have to feel he is more powerful than Elon.

Any insights into what people who actually live there are saying about all this?

lol "right now" EDIT: kudos to @pfife for getting there first.

The problem I can see with this idea is that the red hat faithful believe Elon Musk is a hero. Why? because the RWM is telling them that. How do I know this? From listening to just three minutes of RW radio while driving through the south in late October. That's all it took for me to fear the election was lost.

I'm not sure they understand it will lead to inflation, or even that it's a possibility. I think a high percentage of MAGA politicians, like their constituents, are completely drowning in the kool-aid when it comes to Trump and the economy. They truly, honestly believe wages will skyrocket, prices will plummet, immigrants will disappear, all that,, the day Trump takes office. And when none of that happens, they'll blame the Democrats, the deep state, the media, academia, and who knows, maybe a few new enemies they will identify, like everyday people who would never vote for Trump.