Guard Dog

If you are a supporter of Bernie Sanders you really, really need some medication. Or education. Try reading a book or two. This would be a good one to start with:

In the spirit of keeping funny political separate from just funny I'll leave this one here:

Oh it's not pre-rigged. elections are legitimate beyond the thin margins where fraudulent votes (and yes there are some) would matter. It is not even inconceivable that one person's vote makes the difference. Look at Florida in 2000. What was the final difference between Bush & Gore? 200 something, 500 something . It was close. It's just really x 10^100 unlikely your one vote changes the Presidential election. Local elections however is a different story. Runoffs are common and the elected offices are more important than many folks sadly realize.

The Nats & White Sox are now out on Harper. The Giants won't go 10 years so it's the Phillies of nothing for Harper & Scott Boras now. The escalation of salaries was going to hit a breaking point sooner or later. This may finally be it. One thing for sure, Harper's leverage has disappeared.

Actually what people need to realize is how little influence they actually have on the outcome of elections. You get ONE vote. Between 130 & 131 million votes were cast for President in '16. Everyone got ONE (supposedly). Someone disagreeing with you is not going to flip the outcome. If you were a Patriots fan no matter how hard you cheered you didn't help them win the Super Bowl unless you were also a Patriots player.

If it so sad, you probably should think how you speak about those who have different political views than you (I am talking those evil left wing people who you usually verbally attack) But they suck!

#25 Inside the Park HR 2015 World Series Game 1. Fist pitch, first AB Alceides Escobar hits one inside the park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du-Qp6Y3Wjo

"Hey Bob Kraft you team just won another Super Bowl.What are you going to do now?" "I think I'll go get a massage. I know this great little spot in Jupiter where Chinese sex slaves give happy endings" https://deadspin.com/patriots-owner-bob-kraft-charged-with-soliciting-prosti-1832807440

#26 The Catch 1954 World Series, Giants vs Indians. The score is tied 2-2 in the top of the 8th at the Polo Grounds in New York. Cleveland has the bases loaded with two outs. Indians catcher Jim Hegan comes up and hits a deep drive to CF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrsg_-dV7Q Had just about anyone else been playing center field in New York that hot September day that ball is over their heads. An easy and base clearing triple for Hegan that puts the Indians up 5-2. Instead Willie Mays did what he always did best: be amazing. The Giants won the game in the 10th and went on to sweep the tribe. 26 days to go

A similar group just kicked Martina Navratilova out for daring to suggest it's unfair for women to compete against men. She has done more for LGBT than anyone i could name off hand. Oh, by they way i don't watch a lot of TV and have less than no idea who is on what show so sorry about the error.

As I'm sure you all now know the Jussie Smolett "hate crime" attack by two white supremacists (or something) was all fiction. A hoax that he orchestrated with two associates. He has been arrested and is facing charges: https://abc7chicago.com/jussie-smollett-in-custody-after-being-charged-with-disorderly-conduct/5148577/ According to the Chicago PD his motivation was dissatisfaction with his salary on the CBS TV show he was on. I really don't see how this would have gotten him a raise if had gotten away with it. So that doesn't make much sense. If his motivation was to make a political statement I'd have an easier time swallowing that. But you can't get into another person's head. It IS very interesting how many media outlets and politicians have discredited themselves rushing to advance the narrative they apparently wanted so much to be true. Especially having just done so with the whole Covington HS debacle (The WaPo is now dealing with a $250M libel suit over that). I wonder. Suppose the Chicago PD did find two white guys and pinned this on them. Would he have come forward if two people he KNEW were innocent were facing 25+ years in prison? Hard to say. I'm guessing probably not. What do you guys think of this mess?

#27 Back to back HR: On September 14 1990 two Seattle Mariner outfielders hit back to back home runs. Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. The first and so far only game a father and son homered in the same game, let alone back to back! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCk1UY5Afus

Like these things usually are I expect Mueller's report will be underwhelming with no clear "smoking gun". But the devil is, as always, in the details.

Here is a little good news for a change. You'd think it would be a no brainier that the 8th Amendment applies to the states as well as the federal government. I'm certain that is exactly what the supremacy clause is all about. Well, Indiana didn't think so. They figured once someone was arrested and convicted of a crime they can just help themselves to anything of his they wanted (It's call civil asset forfeiture, AKA legalized theft). Well, the Supreme Court told them they can't f----g do that 9-0. That is a big win against CAF. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-says-constitutional-protection-against-excessive-fines-applies-to-state-actions/2019/02/20/204ce0d4-3522-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?utm_term=.d4da80bfa914 If you have spent even 30 seconds reading my posts over the years you'd know that IMO Kelo vs New London ranks right up there with Dred Scott vs Sanford as the WORST SCOTUS decisions ever. CAF & Eminent Domain if worth fighting another civil war over IMO. Because what is yours is only yours until Big Brother wants it. Well it was a pretty good day for us on the Eminent Domain front too: http://reason.com/blog/2019/02/20/new-jersey-cant-seize-atlantic-city-home Not as complete a victory in that the court did not find fault with the seizure per se rather with the plans the state of new jersey had for it.

My house is on 24 acres. I also own the two acre tract to the south of me but I've never done anything with it. I have five of that 24 as a garden. That is as big as I can manage by myself. Most of it is still wooded. When I bought this place it was two owners removed from the TVA but no one ever built anything on it. So it was almost all wooded. I did a lot of the tree clearing myself. I dredged out and widened the creek myself with a shovel and wheelbarrow. The builders who build my house took care of leveling the lot and drainage. The garden I cleared entirely myself. It took years. I've got two 300 sq' solar panels and the house is only 1100 sq' so it's pretty easy on utility bills. My electric bill is only about $60 a month in the summer. I had an idea to build a turbine and sink it in Cold Creek. It's probably not strong enough to turn it though. More is the pity!

Way ahead of you on that score too

According to Bleacher Report the Giants, White Sox, and Phillies have all offered Harper a higher AAV than Machado just got... but they won't go 10 years. The Nats offered 10 years but a lower AAV. All four clubs would be nuts to try an beat AAV AND years on the Machado deal. Harper is a defensive liability compared to Manny. If I were him I'd take the 1 year $40M the Giants offered and go win a WS and try again next year. But then again pay me $40M for one year's work and no one would ever see me again after that!

FYI... read five chapters of this book last night. It's a good one. Not many eyewitness accounts of combat in Syria.

Bernie's message does check off some of the "communist" boxes. But like numbers guy said, not all of them. If anyone had told me 10 years ago Bernie freaking Sanders would have such a following I'd have laughed out loud. Of course if you told me Donald freaking Trump would be President I would have too. Strange times. Every time I watch the news these days I feel the need to buy more gold, non-perishable food, ammunition, and solar panels.

#28 The Called Shot In 1932 the Yankees swept the Cubs in the WS. The Cubs were overmatched from the get go despite the fact that the '32 Yankees were a shadow of the dominant teams they fielded just four years earlier. But what made the 1932 series the stuff of legends happened in the 5th inning of Game 3. The Cubs and Yankees had a little bit of a rivalry in those days and were facing each other in the WS for the 2nd time in three years. There was a lot of trash talking or "bench jockeying" as it was called then, between the two teams. Cubs manager Rogers Hornsby knew Ruth well and had a reputation for being an a-----e. He reportedly told the Chicago media before the '29 WS (he was a player on the Cubs then) that Ruth was "old, fat and washed up". Now as the team manager he and the Cubs had been jeering Ruth mercilessly. Probably not a good idea. In the 5th with the Yankees up 4-3 and a runner on first Ruth comes up and gets two quick and reportedly very inside pitches from Cubs pitcher Charlie Root. Both were called strikes. Then this happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwIlNSi3x7c The story goes that Ruth was pointing at center field, right where he sent the next pitch, 459' and over the wall. The legend that he "called the shot" grew from the reporting by the New York Daily news, Cubs public address announcer Pat Pieper and the Chicago Tribune Cubs beat reporter. Lou Geherig said he did it. Former Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens was a young boy in the stands that day and said he did it. The New York Yankees didn't have a radio broadcast team in '32 (they would not have any recorded games before 1947) and CBS did not have the means to record audio for something so long as a sports broadcast in those days so there is no audio recording of the AB. Shirley Povich was covering the game for the Washington Post and she said he was jawing at Root for the inside pitches. Rogers Hornsby says Ruth was pointing at him and saying something. Charlie Root asked Ruth about it after and swore the Babe told him "I know I didn't, but it made a hell of a story, didn't it?" So. Did it happen? I don't know. The video is definitely from Wrigley in 1932. The 2nd tier outfield stands were built just for the 1932 WS. Ruth was definitely pointing at something. Personally I think he was pointing towards left field where the Cubs dugout was. Likely at Hornsby who would have been standing in front of it. He could have been pointing at Root for the two high and tight pitches. But as Yan Martel put in in The Life of Pi there are two different versions here. In each the Babe points and hits the next pitch over the CF wall. Neither version can be confirmed. So which makes the better story?

Any particular reason why? I'm currently unsure of how to feel about him as a 2020 candidate, but I'm thinking I still like him better than the likes of Klobuchar. Why? Unless the Democrats suddenly get a super majority in both houses of Congress and he has Alito, Thomas, Goresuch and Kavanaugh assassinated he won't get even a quarter of his wants. And even if all those things happen and he gets everything he wants the economy would collapse. I'm telling you I don't see an upside here.

The Democrats are facing the same problem the Republicans faced in 16. Too many contenders dividing the support base. By the time the field was winnowed down in 16 the least desirable candidate had an insurmountable lead. Only undesirable candidates CAN win a race like that. Now the real questions is which one is the least desirable. That's like picking the smelliest turd.

They can just come and take it from my corpse.

Just bought it on Kindle. Starting reading tonight.

The Padres got Manny! https://www.mlb.com/news/manny-machado-deal-with-padres/c-304157722 Wow... that is a game changer in the NL West. He's worth 10 more wins. He might not put them over the top this year but next year and after watch out!