10/09/2015 archive

Oct 09 2015

Junior League Division Series: Astros @ Royals Game 2

Last night’s game

Top 1st leadoff Single and a Walk.  Single, Bases Loaded, No Outs.  RBI sacrifice.  Astros 1 – 0.  RBI sacrifice.  Astros 2 – 0.

Top 2nd 2 Out Double.  RBI Single. Astros 3 – 0

Bottom 2nd leadoff Solo Shot.  Astros 3 – 1.

49 minute Rain Delay.  Royals pulled Ventura for Young, Astros stuck with McHugh

Bottom 4th 2 Out Solo Shot.  Astros 3 – 2.

Top 5th leadoff Single, Caught Stealing.  Solo Shot.  Astros 4 – 2.

Top 8th leadoff Solo Shot.  Astros 5 – 2 Final.

Astros lead Series 1 – 0.

Analysis and Setup

Frankly the Royals (95 – 68) looked terrible even before the Rain Delay so I don’t think it’s as significant as some people do.  The good news is they say they’ll start Ventura again in the 4th game but they will have to get there first which, on the basis of their performance last night, is not a sure thing at all.  As for the Astros (88 – 76) McHugh did not disappoint and 2 Solo Shots against the Royals’ potent lineup is not a bad outing at all.

Today we have the Battle of the Losers.  The Royals will send out Johnny Cueto (R, 11 – 13, 3.44 ERA) and the Astros Scott Kazmir (L, 7 – 11, 3.10 ERA).  Pick ’em.

Game time is 3:30 on Fox Sports 1

Oct 09 2015

Junior League Division Series: Rangers @ Blue Jays Game 2

Today’s Meta (because what good is a day without Meta?).  It is indeed Big Friday with 4 games to play.  The Junior League will be playing in the afternoon.  They have a travel day tomorrow and want to get an early start.  TMC and I have an early afternoon meeting so there will be NO liveblogging of those games.

The Senior League plays tonight, Cubs @ Cardinals at 6:30, Mets @ Dodgers at 9:30.  If you think I’m going to miss either of those, think again.  In fact I have dug out and dusted off my official Blue and Orange Metropolitans Cap (wool of course) because it’s been a looong time since I’ve had anything to celebrate in the Playoffs.

What this means for you, my readers, is that coverage of The Late Show is going to depend on when the game ends and, in another genius move by the same folks that instituted the abomination that is the Designated Hitter, MLB has relaxed the game pace rules.  Honestly I expect it will last to 1 am and that’s without extra Innings.  I will post because I want to set up next week’s guest lists for you.

Now onto today’s starting game.

Last night’s game

Top of the 3rd the leadoff Batter was HBP.  Runner advanced on a sacrifice and scored on a Single.  Rangers 1 – 0.  Runner advanced on a sacrifice and scored on a Single.  Rangers 2 – 0.

Bottom of the 4th a leadoff Single and a Walk.  Fielder’s choice, runners at the Corners.  RBI Single, 2 On 1 Out.  Rangers 2 – 1.  That was it.

Top of the 5th leadoff Batter HBP.  2 RBI HR.  Rangers 4 – 1.

Bottom of the 5th leadoff Double.  Sacrifice, runner advanced.  RBI Double.  Rangers 4 – 2.

Bottom of the 6th leadoff Solo Shot.  Rangers 4 – 3.

Top of the 7th Solo Shot.  Rangers 5 – 3 Final.

Rangers lead Series 1 – 0.

Analysis and Setup

I certainly expected the Blue Jays (93 – 90) to start much better than they did.  Basically Price did not pitch as well as his record indicated he should and what I didn’t know was that he has a record of choking in the Playoffs. The Rangers (89 – 74) also had better production from the bottom of the order (2 HR) than expected.

Both teams suffered potentially lineup changing injuries.  The Rangers lost Adrian Beltre to back spasms and the Blue Jays lost both Josh Donaldson (potential concussion) and Jose Bautista (hamstring spasms).  All will be evaluated this morning to see if the can play.  While Beltran is a good player the losses to the Blue Jays are possibly more serious since they are the number 2 & 3 hitters in the order.

The Blue Jays will be starting Marcus Stroman (R, 4 – 0, 1.67 ERA).  Stroman was benched after his first game of the Season with a torn ACL in his left knee and was expected to be lost for the year.  Cole Hamels (l, 13 – 8, 3.65 ERA) will be on the mound for the Rangers.  This would be no contest at all except for the injury.

Game time is 12:30 on MLB (which it turns out I get, but I won’t be around).

Oct 09 2015

Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Paul Krugman : It’s All Benghazi

So Representative Kevin McCarthy, who was supposed to succeed John Boehner as speaker of the House, won’t be pursuing the job after all. He would have faced a rough ride both winning the post and handling it under the best of circumstances, thanks to the doomsday caucus – the fairly large bloc of Republicans demanding that the party cut off funds to Planned Parenthood, or kill Obamacare, or anyway damage something liberals like, by shutting down the government and forcing it into default.

Still, he finished off his chances by admitting – boasting, actually – that the endless House hearings on Benghazi had nothing to do with national security, that they were all about inflicting political damage on Hillary Clinton.

But we all knew that, didn’t we?

I often wonder about commentators who write about things like those hearings as if there were some real issue involved, who keep going on about the Clinton email controversy as if all these months of scrutiny had produced any evidence of wrongdoing, as opposed to sloppiness.

Continue reading the main story

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Medea Benjamin: The Doctors Without Borders bombing is a symptom of foreign occupation

The Kunduz bombing is a symptom of the underlying disease of foreign occupation. The prescription requires that President Obama keep to the timeline of withdrawing US troops by the end of 2016. The US military presence will not create long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan. On the contrary: as long as US troops are there, militants will fight to oust them. [..]

The American people have long soured on continued military involvement there. Responding to public sentiment, President Obama promised to cut the current force of 10,000 US troops in half by 2016. In March, however, the president announced he would slow the pace of the troop withdrawal and now – with the resurgence of the Taliban – there is a call by many Congressional representatives to keep the troops there for years to come. There is even talk of sending more troops.

That is not the way forward. As Kunduz has shown, US involvement is not the answer to the instability and violence in Afghanistan. Now, what is needed most, are answers about this horrific bombing. And that must start with an independent investigation.

Trvor Timm: The Snowden effect: new privacy wins await after data transfer ruling

Many politicians held their nose and voted for the USA Freedom Act in June, hoping that the Snowden revelations would recede into the distance with the modest NSA reform bill’s passage. How wrong they were: the Snowden effect continues to ripple throughout the world on matters of privacy and law and it’s possible this second wave is only beginning.

On Tuesday, in a landmark decision, the European Court of Justice invalidated the “safe harbor” provision between the United States and Europe that allowed large tech companies like Google and Facebook to move large amounts of private Europeans’ data into servers in the United States. The case was brought by privacy activist and lawyer Max Schrems after the initial stories about the NSA’s Prism program. As the New York Times reported, the court “made it clear that American intelligence agencies had almost unfettered access to the data, infringing on Europeans’ rights to privacy.”

Benjamin Spoer: We need a public health approach to gun violence

It worked for automobiles and tobacco; it can work for guns

In his address to the nation after the Oct. 1 mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, President Barack Obama asked the media to compare the number of gun deaths in the U.S. to the number of deaths caused by terrorism. While edifying, his comparison didn’t go far enough. Each year guns kill more Americans (including deaths by suicide) than Parkinson’s disease and hypertension, and they kill nearly as many as liver disease and cirrhosis, which would rank guns as the 13th leading cause of death nationwide. Even more disturbing, researchers believe mass shootings, like the one in Roseburg, are contagious, and many in the media have begun to refer to an epidemic of mass shootings.

Gun violence is a public health crisis. Consequently, it’s time to address these shootings and gun violence as a whole using public health tools. The best tool we have is to reduce the number of people exposed to gun violence, and the best example of how to do that comes from the automobile safety movement of the 1960s.

Susan Watson: Alabama’s DMV Shutdown Has Everything to Do With Race

Don’t believe a word of it: It’s all about race.

Despite state officials’ quick denial that the closing of 31 Alabama DMVs has nothing to do with race, it is a fact that the closures – mostly in poor, majority black counties – disproportionately hurts Black voters. Period.

Fifty years ago in Selma, the civil rights movement won a hard fought battle to gain the right to register to vote. It took bloodshed in the streets, lives lost, a march to Montgomery, and the passage of the Voting Rights Act to make sure that African-American citizens had the right to vote. It was all about race.

Unfortunately, some things in Alabama never change. When it comes to making sure people can vote, the state of Alabama has on its hands an avoidable problem. Our legislature passed an unnecessary law that put excessive burdens on citizens by requiring them to get a photo ID in order to exercise their fundamental constitutional right to vote – despite the well-known fact that in-person voter fraud is rare.

Janet Redman: Walking the Talk? World Bank Rhetoric on Climate Undermined by Financing It

At least in rhetoric, World Bank leadership has acknowledged for a quarter century that “the possible risks [of global warming] are too high to justify complacency or evasion.” The Bank itself has cautioned that unabated climate change threatens to reverse hard-earned development gains – and that the poorest countries and communities will suffer the consequences first and worst. The Bank has become increasingly visible at global climate summits and officials regularly comment on the need for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting the climate and making a transition to low-carbon development. However, a sober review of its lending practices reveals the Bank is undermining the cause it purports to champion.

We compared World Bank energy sector financing through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Assistance (IDA) for two five-year time periods: 2000 to 2004 and 2010 to 2014.

Oct 09 2015

The Breakfast Club (Give Peace A Chance)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

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This Day in History

Guerrilla leader Che Guevara executed in Bolivia; Anthrax-laced letters sent to Capitol Hill; Achille Lauro hijackers surrender; Andrei Sakharov wins Nobel Peace Prize; Musician John Lennon born.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

John Lennon

Oct 09 2015

On This Day In History October 9

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 83 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1967, socialist revolutionary and guerilla leader Che Guevara, age 39, is killed by the Bolivian army. The U.S.-military-backed Bolivian forces captured Guevara on October 8 while battling his band of guerillas in Bolivia and assassinated him the following day. His hands were cut off as proof of death and his body was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1997, Guevara’s remains were found and sent back to Cuba, where they were reburied in a ceremony attended by President Fidel Castro and thousands of Cubans.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as El Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat, military theorist, and major figure of the Cuban Revolution. Since his death, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol and global insignia within popular culture.

As a medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was transformed by the endemic poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region’s ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of capitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala’s social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara’s radical ideology. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Raul and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and travelled to Cuba aboard the yacht, Granma, with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the successful two year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.

Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included instituting agrarian reform as minister of industries, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing to Cuba the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.

Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled “Guerrillero Heroico”, was declared “the most famous photograph in the world.”

Oct 09 2015

The Daily Late Nightly Show (Not A Debate)

The New Kid

Ronny Chieng

Well tonight is the one we’ve been waiting for Rachel Maddow.  Hopefully she’ll talk some about her hosting duties for the upcoming Democratic Forum (shhh, don’t call it a debate, you’ll upset the evil or incompetent Debbie Wasserman Shultz).

The New Continuity

Pro-Life

Tonightly the panel is Bobcat Goldthwait and Shannon DeVido.

The Dancing Man

Ben Bernanke was another in a string of too cozy interviews with reprehensible people.

Stephen will be very late after the Throwball game.  He will be having Cate Blanchett and Brian Chesky on.

This Week’s guests-

Oct 09 2015

Junior League Division Series: Astros @ Royals Game 1

The Royals (95 – 67) have the best record in the Junior League and you’d think they’d have a clear edge on the Astros (86 – 76).  Well, not so fast.  The Royals are reigning Champions and have the fewest strikeouts (Astros led the League), but they have the second to last number of Home Runs while the Astros have the second most.  The Royals do have Wade Davis, a devastating Reliever with a 0.94 ERA.

Starting for the Royals tonight is Yordano Ventura (R, 13 – 8, 4.08 ERA) while the Astros will be sending out Collin McHugh (R, 19 – 7, 3.89 ERA).  Tonight’s game is a tough call, on paper McHugh is a much better pitcher but, you know, Davis.

My prediction?  Royals in 4.

Game time is 7:30 on Fox Sports 1.