Dam8610

Y'all putting out candidates worthy of my time yet?

We'd be a lot closer with him than Bloomberg or Booker, and especially with both.

I was asking if that was the strategy behind your thinking there.

In case it hasn't been shared here, the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change says we have about 123 months to fix things before they start to become irreparable. Trump will be President for a minimum of 27 of those months, provided he doesn't get impeached with the Senate affirming. So, realistically, we have 96 months to fix it, which doesn't start until 27 months from now. This seems hopeless.

With a Bloomberg/Booker ticket we sure would.

Donaldson to Arenado?

I guess that would go back to the "Is the term 'Corporatist' an insult to someone who is a Corporatist?" debate. So now you like candidates just because I don't? Please tell me again about your progressive values.

So we can assume Avi is a nontender, then?

Just say no to Corpy Booker.

Besides the two aforementioned players, you have Rodon, Lopez, Giolito, a bunch of young players in the bullpen, and Kopech when he returns. Other than that, it's mostly looking for players to develop quickly and come up from the minor leagues. I in no way feel as though 2019 will be a competitive year (unless the Sox spend about $150 million AAV on the FA market), but I do think a lot of players could improve a great deal in 2019, and that that, combined with normal or better progression from most of the team's top prospects, could lead to a much better 2020 and beyond. Also, let's not underestimate the impact that Moncada turning into the player scouts thought he would be would have on this whole thing.

It's possible to have a country where the conservative party is to the left of Democrats. Now we need to figure out how to import that.

Eloy Jimenez may be Megatron Squared. Also, Moncada's age 23 season was 2.1 WAR. There's still room for growth with both he and Anderson, as well as most of the pitching staff. I'd like to see them buy a cornerstone player like Machado, but let's not discount the possibility of internal improvement, which is still very much a very real possibility.

Based on what? He's been a 6 WAR player three of the last four seasons, and he's been a 5 WAR player in four of the 5 full seasons of his career. His lowest career WAR was 1.2 in his rookie season where he played 51 games. Next lowest is 2.3 in an injury shortened season. Next lowest is 2.6 last year when he had that weird cold start. Every other year of his career has been 5+ WAR. What about that says lazy to you?

"Winning" with moderate Republicans calling themselves "Democrats" is actually losing. Once you and the other establishment people realize that, the candidates you refuse to endorse will have no problem winning. I assume this will all have to happen in the kicking and screaming fashion, because the establishment certainly showed in the last election that it had no interest in the will of the people.

Sure, just with no priority whatsoever placed on any economic policy objectives. How could you possibly believe the way that has failed for 4 decades will suddenly start to work? Also, you say we agree on policy, but I've yet to see you endorse any candidate that ran on a platform of policies that I support, and one of those was even your personal friend.

That's not a challenge. It's a decision the Democrats have to make. The Democrats have to consciously and publicly decide to be the party of the people that will institute desperately need public services and utilities and defend those newly created institutions from Republicans who will rail against them and vow to destroy them. That, combined with follow through on that promise, would establish Democrats as the ruling party for a generation. Refusal to do it will result in the eventual Republican sundering of our country.

I never said it had to be fantasy, it's just not reality right now. I 100% agree that it's our responsibility to future generations to fight for those rights. It's the people like Reddy that you and I need to convince.

Oh, you're talking about a hypothetical future with a single payer system and stronger labor rights. Carry on. Then the Democrats need to start using the language of wealth redistribution to their advantage. Point out that there is massive upwardly mobile wealth redistribution in the current system, and Democrats are the ones to change that (then follow through by actually doing it). Also, this "temporarily embarrased millionaire" thought pattern that pervades the middle and working class of whites in America needs to be dispelled.

There are people with such severe mental and/or physical disabilities that they are actually unable to work. Do you believe that these people should starve and die?

Great post, but I want to clarify my thinking a bit. I believe that the economic issues I want to fix will also help social inequality. For example, making college free and available to everyone increases the access for minority communities to that level of education and reduces a glaring social disparity. Guaranteeing a basic standard of care to every citizen for free will give many citizens, including quite a few in minority communities, access to health care they've previously been unable to afford. Guaranteed housing will give some of our most vulnerable citizens, many of which are in minority communities, an address which will allow them to access services they are currently unable to access due to not having an address. Things like Medicaid and food stamps require an address, for context. Abolishing private prisons will deincentivize states from locking up their citizenry for minor crimes, establishing a more rehabilitation focused mindset toward crime, and minorities are disproportionately affected by both imprisonment and imprisonment for minor crimes. Beyond this, both income and wealth studies show that the median white individual or family has more of both than the median minority individual or family, so any reform that makes access to income or wealth more equal by necessity must help minority communities disproportionately to any help it would provide white communities. Don't try to tell any of this to Democrats, though, they seem to be just as allergic to facts that don't fit their narrative as Republicans are.

I will be just as upset any time a liberal justice does anything as heinous and in flagrant violation of precedent as the Roberts led court did in Citizens United vs. FEC or Shelby County vs. Holder.

But we can't be upset when republican leaning justices legislate from the bench. That ire is reserved only for "liberal activist justices".

So I assume Kavanaugh's conduct will now be the standard for job interviews in America?

I can't throw them where they already are. They're ALREADY under the bus. How do you not see that? This is the result of 40 years of the Democratic party moving to the right. Insanity is trying the same thing and expecting a different result. All we get out of tolerating moderate Republicans in the Democratic party is more poverty, systemic injustice, and corporate welfare. Of course, all of that is easy for you to ignore. I'm not the only white male in this conversation, and judging by "[your] dad's book", I'd wager you come from a wealthier background than I. You don't see the poverty and systemic injustice in the ritzy suburbs, and corporate welfare is imperceptible unless you look for it. I live near Gary. I have friends from Gary. I don't have the privilege to be able to ignore the poverty and systemic injustice like you do. So no, I'm not happy about the moderate Republicans that hide behind the word "Democrat" while doing everything in their power to enrich their corporate overlords while fucking their constituents over, and I'm not supportive of any plan that doesn't find the quickest and most effective way to replace all Republicans, including the ones masquerading as Democrats, with representatives that will stand for the people.

Certain things that Republicans consider "politics" are actually "a lack of basic human decency". That's the biggest problem.