Guard Dog

So far the funniest moment of the season happened last night. Albert Pujols, all 280 lbs of him, tried to steal 3rd against the Brewers. He was thrown out of course. At a leisurely pace I might add!

Baseball just sucks now. This sport IS dying and it f---g DESERVES to die! Kershaw was perfect through 7 innings. He's so dominant nobody even got him to a three ball count. 80 pitches 21 batters down. Dave Roberts pulled him out and went to the pen in the 8th. What an utterly GUTLESS move! That is everything wrong with the modern game in one decision. Don't get me wrong, I am a follower of Bill James and SABR but there comes a time you have to put the goddamned calculator down and let great players BE great! 218400 some odd MLB games in history. Only 23 have been perfect! When you are knocking on the door of history you don't say "f--k it" and turn around and go home! The only way that decision makes sense is if a Perfect Game is no longer considered to be something special. Or even a good thing. If that is the case then this sport is even more lost than I think it is right now.

Following the Dodgers at the twins. Kershaw is perfect through six innings. Keep an eye on this one.

The Tampa Tarpons, NYY Class A team in the Florida State League has a female manager, Rachel Balkovec. They are 3-1 as of today

Here's how Bass surprised former NPB teammate Ohtani Very cool story

WTF?

No sir, I'm an electronics engineer by trade and education. But I did get 5 years of experience in water management and ecology plus a little CE working for the mostly great state of TN. The first step will be getting electrical power restored to the eastern part of the country. Ukraine has 15 nuclear power plants. Six are in the hands of the Russians and three are damaged and inoperable according to AP. I doubt the Russians will leave the six they control in working condition. But even if they did the majority of the power infrastructure is destroyed in the eastern part of the country. Towers, substations, lines are largely destroyed. Just as a comparison following Hurricane Maria 88% of Puerto Rico was without electrical power. The power generation capability was still mostly intact (with the notable exception of the Guajataca Dam) so it was lines, substations and towers that needed to be replaced. Restoration took a massive effort by FEMA, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the Army Corps of Engineers, numerous US and Mexican based power companies and Co-Ops and the State of Florida, Georgia, and other state governments. It took two years before power was restored. Ukraine is likely much worse off. Power is the cornerstone on which all other endeavors rests. The next is fresh water. Heavy munitions use and shattered buildings, vehicles, industrial infrastructure and storage will have contaminated the soil. It's spring now. Snows are melting and runoff is reaching the natural water sources and aquifers so the water will be contaminated if it isn't already. I'd imagine the water treatment plants in the east are heavily damaged if not destroyed. So even when electricity has been restored this challenge must be confronted. Right now without water treatment there is no sewage and wastewater management so that is going to contribute to the problem and lead to disease outbreak an other miseries like pests and parasites. It's been two months. The people in the war zone are running out of everything. So humanitarian aid is needed immediately and a hell of a lot of it. Think of the effort that went in to the Berlin Airlift and multiply that by 20. Then there is the long term costs. Because of the demand placed by explosive growth in China there is world wide pressure on construction supplies like lumber and concrete. This was something we had to deal with in my last job. Add to that COVID labor shortages and supply is lagging demand by almost a year as of February last year. After Hurricane Maria the population of Puerto Rico declined by almost 12%. A lot of people moved to the US and stayed. There is absolutely no way to know how many people have fled Ukraine, been killed or deported/kidnapped by the Russians, but it's likely going to be a lot. And even after the war is over more will die from exposure, lack of medical services, etc. That will mean fewer hands to do the work. It also means the Ukrainian economy will be recovering for years because, like most European nations, it has a transactional economy that required consumers. The longer this goes on the worse it will get because the refugees in other nations will begin building new lives where they are and be unwilling to return to a shattered country where their homes and lives are gone. Like you said the devastation that will be left behind once hostilities cease is incalculable. It will require a multinational effort, trillions of dollars worth of relief and literally decades to rebuild. And likely none of it happens as long as Russia is still Russia and sitting right next door undermining the whole thing. And there is very little the rest of the world can do about that.

Partisan ‘doom loop’? The answer is more parties, this group says I'm all for this. But it will never happen. The one thing Democrats and Republicans agree on (actually they agree on pretty much everything they just want to be in charge and stymie the other party) is that the clubhouse of power is theirs and theirs alone and they zealously guard the door.

Yeah this one does not translate well outside the US. Actually is doesn't really translate well IN the US except in the south & midwest. Both are places you go after the bars all close to eat that weird drunk meal at 3 AM while trying to sober up enough to find your way home.

Change my mind

Earlier this year I wrote those goddamned money grubbing bastards in the IRS the biggest tax check I've ever written. But I did have a very large capital gain last year.

Reconstruction following the US Civil War had it's positives and negatives. Far more of the latter though. It ended up being an object lesson of well intentioned but badly managed government. It a shame Lincoln was murdered. Johnson was not a capable President and held no influence over the Congress which was demanding a much more punitive post war plan than the one originally envisioned. Grant, for all of his leadership and popularity could not control the people in his own administration and was extremely inconsistent in dealing the the problems in the southern states. The Congress wanted it too heavy handed. Grant wasn't heavy handed enough. Johnson was useless. I suspect Lincoln could have struck the right tone had things well on the way before he left office. It's hard to say. One good thing that did come of it was the lessons learned that were eventually applied to the Marshall Plan.

I am 100% opposed to CRT. QLED/LCD gives a much brighter picture, is lighter, cheaper, more environmentally friendly to make and uses less than 30% of the power. The max practical resolution a CRT can give is 1024 x 768 at 120 Hz and that screen would have to be at least 36".

I'm the exact opposite. Everything that happened 20 years ago was like just the other day.

Well is sounds like something he'd say. And he did live there for a time. I'd bet he's be an interesting guy to share a drink and cigar with. BTW, is it just me or is a woman who can identify a safety blitz or know what a suicide squeeze is strike you as incredibly sexy?

I believe it was Mark Twain who said the coldest winter he'd ever known as one summer in San Francisco.

Hey look what the cat dragged in! Nice to see you back Alan!

Today I am doing no work, taking no calls, etc. Baseball starts today and I'll be parked in front of the TV. Well, it actually started yesterday. G & I watched the Brew Crew lose to the Cubs but it was a great game.

Your boys are going down today @Hurlshot

Hey I had one of those once!

Why does anyone give a f--k what Disney thinks about anything? And why do they feel the need to go after them for thinking it? They can pout and protest all they want. Florida is still going to do Florida things. Disney's corporate opinion on anything counts for f--k all in the real world so why is this worth fighting over?

No matter how bad one guys was there is someone else out there who is worse! Even Trump. I'd have a hard time imagining a worse candidate but that doesn't mean there isn't one.