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Showing posts from July, 2018

No, the Milwaukee Brewers did not acquire Dianne Feinstein

At Sports and Politics, I take both sports and politics seriously, so I have to say that this tweet from Fancred sportswriter Jon Heyman about a roster move by Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers included an erroneous reference to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA): Brewers acquire Joakim Soria @SenFeinstein 1st — Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 26, 2018 The part about the Brewers acquiring Joakim Soria, a closing pitcher who was acquired by the Brewers in a trade with the Chicago White Sox, is accurate . However, the Milwaukee Brewers did NOT acquire the rights to Feinstein, who is not a professional baseball player. Heyman intended to reference Mark Feinsand, who is an executive reporter for MLB's website, in his tweet, not Sen. Feinstein, presumably to let Feinsand know about the Soria trade if he wasn't already aware of it: First was @Feinsand not @SenFeinstein https://t.co/sghgYZrJhz — Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 26, 2018 I'm not particularly a b

Jim Harbaugh's College Football Playoff reform proposal is half-great and half-terrible

Jim Harbaugh, the head football coach at the University of Michigan, stated during the Big Ten Conference (B1G) media day before the start of this year's college football season (which begins August 25, although the first games featuring B1G teams is August 30) that he would like the College Football Playoff (CFP) that determines the unofficial national champion in NCAA Division I FBS college football expanded to eight teams, with an expansion to sixteen teams being a long-term goal, as well as eliminating conference championship games: Jim Harbaugh on @CFBPlayoff expansion: "Let's go to 8 and eventually 16." Says to eliminate the conference championship game to get there and keep number of games reasonable. pic.twitter.com/KVsezXrura — Hawkeye Headquarters (@HawkeyeHQ) July 23, 2018 In short, Harbaugh's proposal to reform the College Football Playoff is half-great and half-terrible. I strongly support the idea of expanding the College Football Playoff to

Donald Trump betrayed America, attacked the rule of law, and appeased Putin

In perhaps the single biggest act of appeasement since the 1938 Munich Agreement that resulted in Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler seizing control of the Sudetenland, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, openly sided with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against the U.S. intelligence community : President Donald Trump on Monday publicly sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies, refusing to condemn the Kremlin for interference in the 2016 election and saying that “I don’t see any reason” why Russia would have hacked Democratic computer servers. Trump’s remarkable statements, during a joint news conference in Helsinki, Finland, after holding a two-hour one-on-one meeting with Putin, came after special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians on Friday over allegations of involvement in the state-ordered election-interference operation. Trump repeatedly attacked the FBI, praised Putin as a “good competitor,” refused to s

American Apartheid: How and why the far-right wants to undermine democracy in America to disproportionately benefit white conservatives

Barack Obama, who served two consecutive terms as President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, warned in his farewell address that democracy in the United States was threatened, by, among other things, "demographic change" : That's what I want to focus on tonight: The state of our democracy. Understand, democracy does not require uniformity. Our founders argued. They quarreled. Eventually they compromised. They expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity — the idea that for all our outward differences, we're all in this together; that we rise or fall as one. (Applause.) There have been moments throughout our history that threatens that solidarity. And the beginning of this century has been one of those times. A shrinking world, growing inequality; demographic change and the specter of terrorism — these forces haven't just tested our security and our prosperity, but are testing our democracy, a

There were more journalists than race car drivers killed in the United States in the first half of 2018

For the first time that I can recall, it is statistically more dangerous to be a journalist than a race car driver in the United States. In the first six months of 2018, three race car drivers were killed in on-track events in the United States ; in all three instances, the fatality occurred as a result of injuries sustained in a crash: Dirt modified racer Bill Egleston, who was killed in an International Motorsports Contest Association (IMCA) race at Perris Auto Speedway in California on January 16 Amateur drag racer Ken Rambo, who was killed in a Wednesday Night Drags meet at Sonoma Raceway in California on March 28 Sprint car racer Jason Johnson, who was killed in a World of Outlaws Sprint Car race at Beaver Dam Raceway in Wisconsin on June 23 (date of death: June 24) According to the Motorsport Memorial website, no race car drivers were killed outside of the United States in the first six months of 2018, so the three race car drivers who were killed in the United States wer