139 Comments

“Also, I find it amusing that Passan, and a lot of other people who write about sports labor, say things like “everyone knows there’s an easy path to a deal here, but no one is taking it.” Is there an easy path? If so, what is it?”

This is my problem with the likes of Passan, Schefter, Woj, and the vast majority of these other national reporters. They’re either mouthpieces or they take this “well they know what they need to do but they won’t do it and I don’t know why!” stance. And then if you were to ask them, they’d have no answer. It’d be like an Always Sunny scene.

https://youtu.be/UZDbuHXuGQw

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It's difficult to imagine any Republican not wanting to be a dick.

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The lock out didn't help, but in the end no substantive pressure to compromise was going to occur until much closer to opening day when they would start losing games anyway. They could have continued to meet and talk without any compromise in the meantime, and perhaps hammered out some of the less controversial issues. But the big things were never going to be resolved until there was danger of the shit hitting the fan.

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Don’t worry about a screed that will have the entire world treat you as a pariah. 1/2 the world is good enough for me. Keep it up.

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"Which sounds more like an MLB/clubs problem than an Eaton problem" - It sounds very much like an Eaton problem, because he's the one who gets hurt by being out of a job. He's not the cause of the problem, but it's his problem.

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I had no idea pinball machines were even still being made. I can't tell you the last time I saw a pinball machine. And if I saw one I'd expect it was old and there for it's retro vibe.

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Jan 6, 2022Liked by Craig Calcaterra

Don't usually comment but I can't miss an opportunity to vent my spleen/throw in my tuppence on the demise of the UK/Britain! It doesn't really get mentioned in that Atlantic piece so much, but the mention of the US fragmenting 'from within' strikes a chord with me.

Living in one of the non-London bits of England, you kind of take it for granted, but it's pretty incredible how big the gap is between how the country is set up to function politically and economically (London has overwhelming primacy in England, England has primacy in Britain, Britain has primacy in the UK) and how it's actually lived/experienced by people who don't benefit from that bubble. Whether it's the slow, quiet erosion or big bang stupid stuff like Brexit, it makes sense that the shared bonds and sense of identity would disintegrate even outside of the national bounds. I'm sure this dynamic isn't unique but between the geography and the entrenched institutional arrogance I wonder if it's more powerful here.

Anyway: an Independent Northern Republic Now!

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Blitzer also owns 45% of the Bundesliga team FC Augsburg, which led to the recent transfer of the young American (Bowie reference) phenom Ricardo Pepi. In Germany, with the 50+1 rule, owners aren’t allowed, but as the biggest investor, he is most definitely calling the shots.

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/sport/zweistelliger-millionenbetrag-fuer-einen-18-jaehrigen-alle-muessen-sparen-nur-der-fc-augsburg-laesst-es-krachen/27942578.html

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The decline of America as the world power bothers me less than who is going to replace it. Which seems inevitably to be China. The US world influence as its preeminent power hasn't always been for good, but I expect China's to be far worse.

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The problem is, let’s say you do have only 60% of Republicans (a slight majority of a minority) who support overthrowing democracy and installing a fascist leader. The issue is the other 40% of Republicans and a good portion of those who identify as independents will say “Well, I don’t support their democracy killing policies, but I do support their Democrat killing policies!” and still vote for the Republicans. And while they’re doing that, a good portion of Democrats and independents will say “I would never vote for those Republicans! Now we must do everything possible to cater to them, and we cannot do anything at all to upset them, because obviously they want to negotiate in good faith on everything”.

So at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter how many people support that one specific “overthrowing democracy” thing, because people will still vote against their best interests because a news station keeps telling them the other side is worse.

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The spin the owners will use is "those damned rich players are ruining it for everyone" with an undertone of "aren't unions terrible?" That has always worked in the past to get the public on their side, truth be damned.

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Jan 6, 2022Liked by Craig Calcaterra

Craig, when you move pay cash, sell your baseball cards, etc! Then you won’t need a mortgage!

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Re: the "death of democracy" topic, I think conflict among otherwise agreeable parties on this matter stems from unspoken assumptions that different people/groups hold. Broadly speaking, some assume the fundamentals of our democracy are still good (meaning that R machinations are viewed as an existential threat), while others assume that our democracy has been functionally dead for some time (meaning that R machinations, while still very bad, are really just more of the same slow death). This leads to the former camp saying that 1/6 could have ended our democracy and the latter camp saying that 1/6 was a itself a harmless thing and that the real crime against democracy is how existing powers will use it as a pretext to further Patriot Act-ify our country. Both are true but both understandings are incomplete on their own. As such, I think debate about this matter with a full understanding of where everyone is coming from is critical.

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I find the reporting about the status of the CBA talks to be interesting only what is revealed between the lines. Parties leak to the press all the time. That is, has been, and always will be part of a negotiating strategy. But figuring out who is saying what off the record to whom can be mildly telling and sometimes entertaining.

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I made my career in the mortgage industry. The W-2 issue has been around for a while, but became more extreme post 2008 when Dodd-Frank pushed the regulating authorities like FHA, FHFA and the like, to have much more strict guidelines for proof of ability to repay the loan. It isn't 100% impossible, but, like Ivory Soap, is about 99.77% purely impossible to get a traditionally underwritten Fannie or Freddie conforming loan based on 1099 or similar income streams.

There are, however, work arounds with private label lending where the loan isn't essentially and effectively backed by the GSEs. Some banks have products that are designed just for that purpose. But well intentioned legislation and regulation giving significant hardship and increased costs to the consumer is not exactly an unheard of event.

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Renting ain't so bad. We sold the McMansion in late 2017 and moved 60 miles south to Richmond VA to get out of the DC commuting range and to downsize dramatically after my wife's bout with cancer. (She's 5+ year cancer free now...) Richmond was a temporary stop for a year while we decided where we wanted to move so we rented. It's been over 4 years now and we are still here and still renting. Turns out I like renting. It'll suck if the homeowner decided to take advantage of the inflated market and sell soon, but since it's just the two of us moving is inconvenient but not the PITA it could be if we had kids at home. Anyway, I think I'm plenty safe as my landlord appears to building himself a little real estate empire of passive income in the area so I don't think he's selling. And I'm the perfect renter as after 25+ years of home ownership when small stuff breaks I just fix it and don't even bother to tell him about it, as it's easier than coordinating with some contractor he sends over.

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