he gone.

The thing is i wasn't even talking about trump. this falls into everybody's lap across every state. trump is a lost cause. he's proven himself over decades - it's not like i expected any different. The thing I think people don't understand about trump enough is that he doesn't care about anybody about himself. I don't think he cares one bit if masks work, don't work, etc. I think he is a marketer and con(fidence) man. He picks the road where it will benefit him most for re-election. In this case he thought he could rile up and divide the base again to win via this route. I think it has obviously blew up in his face entirely for which i'm glad. He's too ignorant and proud to change his stance and admit he is wrong because he's a child. But I think if he thought masks would win him an election he'd be stamping MAGA all across masks and selling them. The thing is he only really cares about a few things ... winning, power, and hearing his name on the television. The american public is so far down on that list. What i think he did right though in my opinion is give the power to the states to choose their routes. I don't support his divisive nature & think it goes too far in preventing any true cooperation because of undermining the situation. However all states were given the power to choose their own path and very few have done a good job. Thank goodness IL is one of those. I'm not a big JB guy - but he's handled this pretty well. B, maybe even B+ territory. The problem is when you're in power you're in charge of people and all that comes with that. This world is full of a bunch of immature, uneducated, stubborn, naive, self-loving, ignorant, assholes. And unfortunately when dealing with an infectious disease theres not a whole lot of room for those type of people.

If anybody thinks they would've nailed this job of keeping everybody safe while keeping their constituents gainfully employed then you should come forward and run for president. It's amazing to me how many people think they have the right answers.

ptatc can fix em guys I'm going to become a MLB player next year. I have a few weight bands in my basement and was thinking about heading down to Dicks to get a batting tee and bat. Excited to start journey of a MLB player.

Oh i agree. just looking at it realistically we're like herding cats. I'd like to think my family is reasonable and educated.. In my immediate family nobody agrees on Covid. My dad doesn't like to wear a mask .... I yell at him saying HOOWWWW??!!. You're the one I am trying to protect. If i get it, i likely survive no problem. He's 67, my mom is 65 with diabetes .... yet somehow, they won't wear one. On the other hand my brother hasn't left the house in 4 months. He has everything delivered and wipe it down with disinfecting spray. I wear a mask when i go to the stores, but basically try and use common sense. I've gone out to eat, but will not do the indoor eating, only outdoors. Basically my point is that i've had many conversations with my parents and siblings - and in depth ones. citing studies and numbers, etc. and if I can't even get my family to come to an agreement, then good luck getting people who are not your family and friends to all come together under one umbrella. That's just my immediate family. The whole thing is do divisive and not sure why. But I'm sure you all have families that are in the same boat. Or have friends that you disagree with. And that's just the way it is unfortunately. But you're not going to get cooperation again on a mass level, it's just not going to happen. you can look at florida or texas, etc. and you're just not going to get the cooperation. The numbers explode and yet, they keep going on without masks. Now if you try and tell them to stay home like the first go-round with their businesses and jobs/life going to the wayside? good luck. Plus now this thing is so far wide spread. Unfortunately this is life until a vaccine.

At some point we need to be honest with ourselves. a) there will not be college sports. they make their money on football through attendance, not so much through TV contracts. call a spade a spade, they don't care about the kids health at all. They care about money. if they can't make money they'll then spin it towards how "health is their first priority" and protecting the kids. But in no way are they are going to spend the money it takes to run a season to then take a loss. Flip side, if they had more massive TV contracts they would be playing. i think 75% of revenue or something like that comes from attendance at the college level though. Likewise, we are now in herd immunity mode. No matter what any political affiliation or network tells you, the cat is out of the bag. You can't walk this back. You're not going to send people into a 6 week shut down like we did in the past. Also you're not going to force people who don't want to wear a mask to wear one. All the data is out there, the cases are on the rise, etc. Science and math are winning - but what percentage of non-mask wearers have been converted? I'd have to guess less than 10-25%? Sadly it is what it is. I'm not sure what it is about human nature - but this is also why we'll never not be in a war of some sort around the world. We had one enemy - covid ... and the human race couldn't even rally around that. everything is divisive.

The problem with Trump is he's the boy who cried wolf. He's done and said so many ridiculous things that he's lost all credibility & trust. And once that's gone it's hard to "lead" effectively. If we did this like a blind fantasy baseball test -- Player A did this. Player B did this. Who do you like? I have a sneaking suspicion that more people would be actually okay with the moves that Trump has made. The problem is he's made everything around him (by choice) a traveling circus. I remain in the camp that there are too many people in the US for a single president to actually make a difference - presidents are more the PR for country. Just guiding the ship gently and as a calming driving force, hopefully moving it forward. We could use that in time of a pandemic more than ever.

Because incentives aren't in place. Follow the money. Always. When you broadcast to the US that you're open for business,, nobody has to wear a mask, come eat and drink inside! you're going to have swarms of people then travel and go do those things in your state. Thus creating a never ending cycle. Which we are in now. TX, FL, AZ all made a big to do about how they're returning to normal. As much as it sucks there's a lot of dumb people who dont believe science and math and think this is some kind of government hoax to take their power and freedom and financial stability away. Currently there's no incentive to keep your states businesses closed when others are open. You start turning into the bad guy. (Even though in reality youre the good guy). However in the plan above (which admittedly is hard to enforce) now you have the incentive in place that if guidelines are followed, then you can actually open up businesses normally. And then once you're on that list, you can start visiting the other states that are on said list. it creates an economic incentive. Testing + making the area you need to monitor smaller = solution. All a message board idea though - if it were that easy to execute it'd happen by now. These people in power aren't necessarily dumb, they're smart people that have a nearly impossible job to complete in a tough environment.

However if Texas opens, and a rule is in place where Texas residents can only be in Texas, then we don't have a spread outside of Texas. Then states learn from other states mistakes. If you want to open to other states & get your own economy back rolling then you better make decisions that align with health guidelines. Once you're cleared on a list, then you have the ability to fly and drive to the other states on the list. It incentives the local government to take accountability and make smart decisions. nobody would want to be AZ or TX on that list .. the last one to open their economy back up. unfortunately At this point, I forget where I read it, but some health official basically said the cats out of the bag - it has spread too far and too wide to get this thing under control again. And that's probably true. So to me, how do you fix that? Well you tell individuals no flying, no driving to other states, no anything. You live in whatever state you choose and you're there until that state has the okay. You have make the problem smaller, and to me the best way is restricting travel. It reduces the area you have to control. To the hospital point Going bankrupt just means more money in the pockets of bankruptcy lawyers and defaulting on debt. You restructure and come out the other end. It's not like these places cease to exist. It just reallocates the capital and ownership. Just like when United and American go BK sometime (if not again bailed out). They just took that grant from the government, pays those employees through October and then as soon as that dates expires they'll be fired and be on unemployment.. a different government payroll. These companies had and have no plan to keep employing employees. To the bars and restaurants -- i agree. I'm at a loss of how to help them and how to prop up 10% of the economy. Restaurants and bars are the lifeblood of local communities. Unfortunately this type of thing is really going to hurt the local business with the chains more apt to survive, or re-emerge via banking/loans. It's sad. It's also almost impossible to run a restaurant in a good economy. Margins are shit. I think outside dining is a real solution - but unfortunately is hot as hell lately and not really helping. I don't think we should be eating inside at all. But outside dining at 50% doesn't pay the rent really ... cant raise prices, nobody has jobs. No idea. It sucks. Buy gift cards to help those local places!! money in their pocket now, with no expenses out. Hope that you can use it in the future and it wasn't a donation.

I only picked that fight because you picked a fight with "truth is in the middle". It's mincing words and sidetracks what is meant to be a productive conversation. No harm meant - more jest to give back what you were giving. As with everything, typing on a message board it's hard to convey what you're truly trying to get across and the tone of said message

But seriously dude? Come on. The truth isn't that simple - does that work better for you? it's not black and white. its grey. for every action there's a reaction. What saying do you want me to use? I'm simply trying to convey that the world would be a better place if people listened to both sides and met in the middle. had some empathy. you can go down a rabbit hole with defenses for either side and both sides are going to walk away, dug in more in their views. What would i do? and again, this is not perfect, i haven't talked to doctors, i am not a doctor, etc. 1 - each state/city should be able to work together and mandate what best suits their people. What's good for NY isn't necessarily true for North Dakota 2 - i think there should be age considerations given. If you're under 50 and don't have preexisting health conditions I think going back to work should be encouraged. get the economy up and running again 3 - throughout all of this masks should be a mandate inside and where social distancing can't be applied outside 4 - back to point two - i think there should be set aside hours at businesses for senior citizens and those at risk. basically try and limit contact between young and old as much as possible 5 - I personally believe travel bans should be put in place. I am undecided if this should be interstate bans, or regional travel allowed. AKA, midwest, south, NW etc. or just IL, WI, IN etc. the thought process behind this is places like AZ or TX where it explodes. If you dont have people from IL traveling to TX, then you reduce the spread. Likewise if you have outbreak you can control it said region 6 - I think you have to get money into the hands of the people. The actual people. no trickle down ecnoomics. This gives money to poeple who are too afraid to get back to work or who are at risk while propping the economy up. 7 - continue to limit indoors. There's probably more, but that's my basic plan. No travel out of country, or out of region/state. Wear a mask. Get younger people back to work. Implement a plan to keep older poeple separated as best as possible. Maintain social distancing, etc. as we have to the best of our ability.

*** incorrectly deployed Employ is a verb described to hire

Just playing devil's advocate - how can you expect an unwillingly and proud* uneducated group of individuals to follow rules then? You've got individuals who are receiving far less news than mayors and governors, who are way less educated, and who have a general non-trust of government asked to comply with something they don't believe in. Like you said there's about 1/3 of the population that wouldn't believe anything no matter what. I don't get those people at all, but its like herding cats. Those type of people attach themselves to buzz words and tribalism of "freedom" Hopefully we learned something from this for a next time. Maybe we should have had DOCTORS leading the cause here and being the mouthpiece rather than politicians reciting information from doctors. who knows. the whole thing is messed up. there's no easy answer. even in cities like chicago where lightfoot has done a good job (in my opinion) you're going to have a big opposition of people saying she's doing a bad job because businesses are remaining closed, beaches, etc. Truth is that the safest way, but it comes at a cost.

a) i think the situation was mishandled. b) i think that trump deserves a lot of blame c) it's also true that governors and mayors were given the power to enforce their own rules and almost uniformly they dropped the ball too d) yes it's hard to control a mass population against their will especially when there's a head guy trying to divert attention e) you show me a stat, i can show you how to manipulate it -- aka you can't just take a magical calculator and assume all is constant. if you have more people, you have more proximity, aka more spread. it's like taking montana cases and populating until you have 330million people and saying Montana did a great job when probably people from Montana are wearing less masks on a percentage basis than people in downtown Chicago. See what i'm saying? We all sit here casting stones, but it's a lot more complex than that. I had my own idea of Covid in February, March, April, May and today. My viewpoints have evolved a lot. Hell i remember as late as mid-April when companies starting enforcing wearing a mask how I was like no way I'm doing that. By end of April i was mad at those who weren't. Now I'm appalled by people who don't. unfortunately you have a person at the top whose main goal seems to be win at all costs. he doesn't really give a flying f about the health concerns, it's just marketing angles to see what sticks. "freedom" to not wear a mask. "we test more so there's more positives" "why didn't the protestors all wear masks" "deaths are down" etc etc. all just misinformation tactics to control. And the other side does the opposite. Fear. fear. fear. evil man. evil agenda. Truth is always somewhere in the middle. Testing = good. deaths down = good - also due to increase of drugs to treat and keep of ventilators. masks = amazing. They allow our economy to get back to normal, to live normal lives, etc. Simple simple simple. be kind. be empathetic. wear a mask.

the court systems are so backed up that evictions are going to be hard to enforce if the renters know their rights.

The difference between a "butcher" and a "gold-glove" are less than one thinks. All these guys could play every position okay for 75% of plays. You could but Abreu at 3b and 75% of the plays he'd be able to complete. It's the other quarter of plays that matter. But it's also why you can't give teams a 4th out or a bad pitch call/extra pitch can lead to trouble in the MLB. I have no doubt Vaughn could play 3rd base and 75-90% of the time be fine. Its just not an ideal situation.

Take this as just a baseball specific post -- however Kopech is a guy I'd like to trade if he comes out of the gate hot. A guy who really relies on his "stuff" likely isn't going to age well. i mean the Sale trade sucked, but we got out about the right time. Also i'm not going to act like i know anything about his life because i don't pay attention, but from punching the teammate (that was him right?) to seemingly liking the fame aspect/reality tv in the past, to the mention of mental health issues? I just don't think he's a guy i personally would want to give a $150mm contract to. Again, this is strictly a baseball angle. I wish him well in finding whatever peace he needs to live a normal, healthy life.

political predictions are tough in anytime, let alone a pandemic. like all elections it'll come down to swing votes and without living in those states really don't have a feel for them. i wouldn't be surprised to see some pandering to Ford, GM, etc. in terms of some kind of deal prior to the election. Same with other states ... i'm sure $$ will be thrown around wildly. Also, let's not forget the debates. even though there's literal no substantive value to them - if biden trips, or if trump attacks well you'll see the theatrics buy back some votes towards trump. This is the world we live in .... buying votes & reality tv theatrics. Sad. Wish a viable third party candidate would run - i know the over whelming logic has been if you do that you split the democratic vote ... and maybe that's true in most years, but I'd think that this may be a rare time where a Mark Cuban would actually come close to taking 1/3rd of a vote. I think the ripple effect of something like that may actually be worth it. If someone were to validate the independent candicacy as a real thing I think its a small victory to progress. Oh. Wear a mask

I did the math in my head. 33-27. There's no rhyme or reason. Just a hunch.

I don't care if we lose Moncada, Abreu, Grandal, Robert and Giolito to Covid. All i want to do is get done with work for the day, sit down, and mentally drift away to something. we could be 20-40 or 40-20 and it'd mean the exact same to me. This season really doesn't matter at all. Unfortunately at a certain point you'll see someone like Trout opt out or test positive (Gallo has to be the biggest name so far?) & it will cause more and more pause to what they're even doing out there. Still holding out hope - but I'd have to think we're still at 50/50 for a season.

I don't think one can argue "good" or "bad" job yet. And I'm not here to say either way, thats determined over time. I'm glad you expanded on your "lol" only post - because frankly, that's about as low brow and as an un-nuanced response as one can give. Sure SOME of what the Fed is doing right now is good. And anytime you have a MASSIVE issue like this there's going to be a ton of fraud and misspending that gets amplified by individuals & whatever their viewpoint may be. Anti-fed people will pile on those decisions. Just like pro-fed people will say they're doing a fantastic job. The truth is always somewhere in the middle. However, my post was in relation to a $700mm loan to a CCC credit that was on its way to bankruptcy. A company that has an aging fleet, is CCC rated, has deep rooted union issues in a sector that frankly runs too thin to support union jobs/pay/benefits, had to get a year long waiver from their banks on covenants, and was sued by the government just two years ago for fraudulent pricing. This was the first real public loan made outside of airlines and they chose YRC ... to me, that's a problem. If you don't see the issue there ... and if you can't call that "bad" spending? But the cat's out of the bag, and to me stories like this are just going to keep rolling in. The issue from my perspective is that we're well on our way to becoming Japan. You can mark this down for 10 years from now, but the Fed is on their way to becoming the top shareholder of the market. This isn't just a covid response, the Fed and Treasury are going to become more and more intertwined. Ultimately i think you see a 20 year stagnant market in terms of share prices. I also think there will be a squeeze north, maybe even where the DOW hits 40,000. I can see that as the top, but then sit in 2035 ... and 40,000 as well. Shit it's finance, and the world. They're very complex issues that are tough to explain over a message board, but if i want one point across it's that the Fed should stay out of companies like YRC ... let the market decide the market. Once you interrupt that then the markets aren't natural anymore (which is my problem going backwards). And from there you get a frankenstein market.

Not really a question or conversation piece. I just want to say I think it's telling that the "financial thread" has been quieter than almost ever during supercharged QE and at a time when the government is pouring $700mm for a 30% equity stake of YRCW ... a company with a CCC credit rating. https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article243938152.html The government in theory is either taking $700mm of our tax money, or printing $700mm (devaluing the $$) and flusing it down the toilet. Never mind that the company was sued by the department of justice just two years ago for fraudulent pricing. This is your government at work people. Meanwhile QE continues to path of dividing the classes more than ever. I read a piece from Ray Dalio noting that it's the worst class divide since 1930. Almost 100 years. Nobody is outraged. And it's because our education system never teaches even the basics of financial literacy. We focus on a whole curriculum of fluff and leave the important day to day stuff almost entirely out (health, exercise, mental health, money, basic tasks, etc.

Meanwhile long form podcasting like Joe Rogan are more popular than ever ... I really just don't think it's simple as saying "younger generation" this or that. these issues are complex.

like the electric car talk on here. i'm very seriously considering the cybertruck. at first i hated the look... then it started growing on me. Then i couldn't get it out of my head. I was looking at a few cars ... all over the map. I have a challenger, was looking at a 1970 c10 chevy truck, a 2015 z06 corvette. Basically i want a car that makes me feel something. Every damn car is almost exactly the same over the past 15-20 years. I miss feeling something when you see a car. It may be a feeling of hate or love or ... anything. but i want the machinery to evoke some feeling of some sort. Cybertruck does that. It pushes boundaries. Still waiting to pull the trigger based on this whole pandemic - but really interested in Tesla.

Oh i like this thread. may use it as just a place to record my daily picks. i already send them out to a group text every morning (for mlb). may just do it here. #degenerate

Just saying there's definitely a way to do it as long as people cooperate. if you don't want to cooperate, then stay at home. It's open air stadium like outdoor dining. Rows are what? 16 seats? 20 seats? If you come with a family - then can sit in 4 seats at the end caps. Skip a row (maybe 2) in between each one. not sure how many people that equals across a whole stadium. The seating, the entry, leaving the stadium, etc. those are very solvable. Entry is spaced out, and people filtering in over time. Simple. Seating is an computer algorithm for social distancing. simple. enforcement via ushers - simple (kind of). leaving the stadium? that's tougher. But basically just need to implement rules via a loudspeaker - not that tough. Rows 1-20 may leave. Then wait 5 minutes, Rows 20-40. I dunno, thats top of mind, but you basically just break it up a bit. Hardest part by far to me is the concessions. Sox aren't going to have all windows open because it doesn't make financial sense ... so you have to come up with a plan to either have delivery to your seat, some app for point of pickup, etc. Concourses should be masked as well as bathrooms. But there's a way to structure concessions if you wear a mask and come up with some alternate method other than standing in line. Plus - I've been to some April games in the past with 10k-12k fans ... the lines for concessions is usually 2-3 people.