7 hours ago, aubaseball said:

Have you seen how they went after Supreme Court justices?  Just making sure it’s equal reporting 

Even though I didn't like the Kavanaugh confirmation fiasco, I do believe they need to be put under a microscope in general.  They have lifetime appointments. They are expected to be above the fray.  Their position requires them to show restraint and not be involved in politics outside the court. 

This is a state court judge that, well before this case came about, had made small donations to democratic campaigns.  His daughter works for the Biden campaign or did.  None of that means anything  when it comes to his application of New York law.  The only reason that Trump dislikes the man is that the man does him no favors.  He treats him like any other defendant, with the exception of giving him way more freedom than the average defendant would get to violate a gag order.

Trump is now giving a press conference where he has already stated that Democrats don't want people to have cars... just as a start. 

........The trial was unfair......... yadda yadda yadda

Classic Trump.  I agree that the charges in his case should not have been brought.  I agree that some of the charges in his civil cases were pushing the limits as well.  Trump can't stop himself there, which is his problem in a nutshell.  

He then brags that the DOJ declined to prosecute, which is true.  Then he turns right around and starts lying about unrelated matters all over the board. 

The one thing that he still does not understand is that the system, the country, is bigger than Trump.  He wants to butt heads in a fight that he, nor any other man, is capable of winning with lies and deceit. 

LMAO

3 minutes ago, Cardin Drake said:

Alan Dershowitz, a liberal without TDS:

This is a very sad day for American justice. I have now added one banana to my usual banana republic: A grouping, umm, we’re up to seven or eight at this point- and it’s a worse day for America than it actually is for Donald Trump,” Dershowitz said. “Don’t know what the impact will be on Trump. Don’t know what it’ll be on his electoral prospects, he’s probably not going to get jail time, and if he does, it would be stayed pending appeal.”

“I don’t know whether the case will be reversed on appeal. I don’t think it would be reversed by the appellate division,” Dershowitz continued. “These are judges who are terrified of being perceived of as helping Trump in any way. Don’t know whether or not the New York Court of Appeals in Albany will have the ability to not consider the impact it will have on individuals as judges. Surely the Supreme Court wouldn’t, but that’s a way off and there wouldn’t be a decision by the Supreme Court, probably before the election.”

New York Judge Juan Merchan was accused of having a bias against Trump during his handling of the case. Merchan donated $15 to Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020 and made two $10 donations to Democratic groups via ActBlue, one to a “Stop Republicans” group and another to a “Progressive Turnout Project,” according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.

Merchan’s daughter, Loren, worked for a firm that helped Democrats raise $93 million off the former president’s indictment in the business records case,  the New York Post reported in March. Dershowitz compared the jury’s verdict to those made in the deep South before the Civil Rights movement.

“This is still the weakest case I’ve ever seen in 60 years. The fact that the jury convicted based on false instructions, wrong instructions, based on the jurors having been between 85 and 90 percent picked from a veneer that hates Trump and doesn’t want him to be president, the fact that the jury convicted doesn’t make this case any stronger or any better,” Dershowitz said. “I was recently just 15 minutes ago on with The Times of London and they were saying, ‘Well, doesn’t the fact that the jury convicted prove it was a strong case?’ No, no! It proves that it was of a case that was brought in a jurisdiction where a conviction was almost assuredly guaranteed.”

“In the South, when they convicted black people improperly with an all-white jury or acquitted white people improperly with an all-white jury, that didn’t mean that those convictions were correct. It just meant that the jury didn’t reflect the values of our, of our country, it reflected the values of a particular region of the country, in this case the region is a liberal region, New York, in the Southern cases, the region was the conservative region of the South,” Dershowitz continued.

“Juries are imperfect and juries represent the biases of individuals,” Dershowitz added. “We do live in the age of Trump syndrome, people can’t talk rationally about Donald Trump any more than they can talk rationally about Israel or about some other subjects.”

Dershowitz just wants to be in the middle of something.  This is as much word salad as prime rib.

There is an entire entertainment network telling people that Joe Biden is behind the New York charges.  That is a lie, but is just another in the long list that Fox peddles daily.  Biden could address that lie. 

Trump worshipers forget that there are very serious charges pending in Georgia and in Federal court.  Trump has no power to get rid of the Georgia charges and any chance of a pardon there rests in a Republican governor that he has attacked over and over for not helping him "find 11,000 votes" to change the results of a valid election. The wife of that Republican governor has publicly stated that she will not vote for Trump in November.

The Republican base simply cannot get enough of their morally bankrupt, self serving. constantly barking, spoiled privileged man that sits on golden toilets and tells them he understands their struggle.

1 hour ago, LPTiger said:

AU9377,  Can't thank you enough for giving $$$$$ to baseball.  Butch has some real reservations about the current state of affairs.  He is conflicted about keeping up with the Joneses while not creating an entitled team.  It is a real conundrum.  I thank everyone who loves Auburn baseball.

It is hard to have faith in much surrounding college sports these days, but I have complete respect for and faith in Butch and his leadership.  Men like him aren't easy to find and we are fortunate to have him guiding the program and the young men that he pours so much of himself into.

14 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

Of greatness.

Amazing that his own Vice President doesn't think he should ever be in the Oval Office again, along with his Attorney General, Defense Secretary, multiple Generals and anyone else who isn't also a defendant in his schemes to overturn an election he lost.

2 hours ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

It’s pretty weird already. Lol. There are actually lower middle class citizens buying Trump branded Bibles to fund his legal fees for a hush money payment to a porn star whom he slept with while cheating on his pregnant wife.

Already weird.

The same wife who was noticeably absent today.

54 minutes ago, Auburn93 said:

Sometimes voting for the wrong political party leads to the destruction of society in the form of mass illegal immigration, inflation, destructive climate change policy, and men competing in women sports. 

Sometimes watching CNN leads to brain washing. 

BTW, he didn't lead chants of lock her up. You didn't watch Trump rallies. You watched CNN.

If you had been reading my comments on this case, you would know that I have said many times that I did not believe it should have been brought.  That said, it certainly isn't an "illegal" case.  How about this.... Try not blaming everyone and everything, including the system, because your beloved candidate has the moral compass of a pimp on pay day.

How many hush payments does it take before the hypocrisy feels a little bit real?  Did his wife just have something more important to do today or was she renegotiating another contract in order to remain the Mrs.?

CNN didn't make the man attempt to change the results of an election that he LOST. CNN didn't make the man willfully retain classified documents and not return them when requested. CNN certainly didn't make him clap like thunder while getting it on with Stormy.  But please..... blame everyone and everything around him but never him.  That is how a cult following works.

Sometimes leading chants of "lock her up" directed at your former friend and then political rival comes back to bite you in the ole buttocks.

1 minute ago, autigeremt said:

Orange can now run the country from a jail cell in NY instead of his competition who runs the country from his basement. 
 

what a country 

He won't get jail time, but he is now a convicted felon.  Personally, I hate classifying people as felons.  I believe that if someone serves their time or whatever their sentence is, they have then paid their debt to society and should be allowed to pursue a better life.  I understand the designation if their crime was violent, against children etc, but we do a poor job of actually allowing people to make the best of their second chance.

1 minute ago, autigeremt said:

Can he pardon himself? lol 

He can't pardon for state crimes and convictions.  He can for all federal crimes.

52 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

Can he run as President if convicted of a felony? I don't think so... 

Yes. There are minimum qualificatioins. 1. 35 years old. 2. Natural born citizen. 3. Been a resident of the U.S. for 14 years.

He just can't own a firearm and in most states vote until his sentence is complete.

1 hour ago, auburnatl1 said:

Is it an irrational “syndrome” that doesn’t allow someone to see trump in a fair policy context, or is it simply someone with a moral compass? As an example - Liz Cheney agreed with Trump 95% of the time on legislation but was adamantly against him as president at the end. Why?  (Ps Before you do the obligatory attack Cheney trope, there are countless other examples). Why are there conservative “never Trumpers” and why is there maga. Can/should you separate policy from the person?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_derangement_syndrome

 

A few other examples would be almost every person that worked in his administration the first time.  That includes his Vice President, multiple Generals and military leaders, and even his Attorney General.

3 hours ago, Cardin Drake said:

A jury full of people like this is why acquittal was never an option.   A prosecutor who vowed to get Trump will convict Trump of a made up crime using a biased judge and jury.  It's a sad day for America.  It will be overturned on appeal after the election on any number of reversible errors., the most egregious of which was not telling the defendant the crime he was being charged with until after the trial started so his lawyers had no time to prepare a defense. 

This sounds straight out of Fox prime time.  Just because a judge applies rules, does not make him biased. The way the Trump people have attacked the judge's family is just pathetic.  Unfortunately, it is par for the course with this bunch.

5 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

So in American politics only Trump is guilty of this? All other pols are pure as angels on this topic? Would you believe it if I showed you that Redfinch has far more Democratic clients than Republican?

I never claimed that only one side did anything to the exclusion of the other.  Trump is just infamous for his claims about crowd size and its importance.

30 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

IMO it’s not all about his age.  Policies - Ie I think his approach to the border has been absolutely devastating. 

You have a valid point.  He would have been much better off to have been in front of the border issues.  That was a grand opportunity to be proactive and show a desire to get something done that he simply conceded in many ways.  He would have been stifled by people like the Texas governor and the Florida governor, regardless of his approach, but at the very least he would have been on the offensive instead of where he is now.

My response was limited to age and ability to do the job because that is the perception that I believe has many Democrats concerned.  The left wing of the Democrats is much like the right wing of the Republican party.  The will cut their nose off to spite their face at any given moment.

There is reality and there is perception.  The reality is that Biden is old and the time has come for new leaders to step forward.  The reality is that, although old, Biden is mentally capable of leadership.  That said, the perception on the right that he is some sort of senile home bound senior incapable of decision making is nothing more than propaganda that has been cultivated by right wing media.  Biden has unwisely allowed this perception to go unchallenged for too long, with the exception being the last State of the Union. 

In our current political landscape, there is a void of mainstream candidates in both parties.  I get very frustrated that there isn't a stronger candidate that can get traction in either party.  That said, it is difficult to blame the Democrats for allowing the incumbent President to run for re-election.  Who is alive that remembers a time when that did not happen?  Allowing the incumbent to run is certainly not as absurd as a Republican party that nominates a man that made every effort to over turn the results of the last election that he lost.  Trump adopts the lie and uses it as a litmus test.  How people can respect that is beyond my ability to reason.

1 hour ago, aubaseball said:

Excuse me if I got this wrong, but aren’t bridges state government property?  If the governor of the state has made a mandate to only fly red, white and blue, I think he would be in his right to do.  What’s the issue here?  Vote him out if you don’t like it.  Isn’t that what the left is always screaming about? Majority and all that stuff?  

Who pays for the street lights that illuminate that bridge?  The city does.  Who decides how high the bridge is to be built?  Usually the city does.  There are a multitude of angles that this could be dissected.  Again, the problem isn't in displaying red white and blue lights.  Nobody is against that.  People are just commenting on whether the issue should be a local decision or not.  It is interesting that most conservatives have traditionally come down firmly in the camp of this being a local issue.

The issue is more nuanced when the state tells the city... "you can, if you choose to, place lights on bridges inside the city.  If you do, you must place _________________.  If you don't, that is your choice."

3 hours ago, creed said:

Can you tell me what individual freedoms the govenor has removed with dictating FDOT controlled bridges be lighted in red, white and blue?

I don't recall claiming that individual freedoms have been impacted.  To be clear, he didn't dictate that they be lighted in red, white and blue.  He dictated that IF they were to be lighted that they were to only use red white and blue.  I'm not certain why some can't see that slight, yet very telling, distinction.

I simply believe that it sets terrible precedent for governmental over reach.

6 hours ago, slot canyon said:

If I could have my pick for a new softball coach it would be someone like Kenny Gajewski, the current HC at Oklahoma State.  He took the OK ST job in 2016 after 3 years as an assistant at with Florida Gators.  His team made the regionals his first 3 years as HC and since then has taken the team to the world series for the last 5 seasons.  Finished with national ranking of 6th or better in four of last five which includes the 2020 shortened COVID season.  I have not been able to get a verified figure on his salary but one recent source indicated it may be in mid-$500,000 range.  Previously, he had a base of $120K plus “additional compensation”.  The OK ST program has apparently made a strong commitment to the SB program and I found this May 2023 article interesting on a number of levels: I could not get the link to work.  do a search for:

 Tramel's ScissorTales: Oklahoma State softball has something that not even Alabama can afford

 

Seems to be a fan tendency, when there is a opening for a new coach to identify a high profile coach and say something like “we need to pay him/her what ever it takes” but realistically, the AD has the total athletic department to consider and I am in favor of fiscal responsibility.  I don’t have any info regarding the selection considerations but maybe a very good assistant/associate HC would be a possibility?  Someone looking to be HC and get a salary upgrade.  Is there another Kenny Gajewski lurking out there?

In a similar vein, I had wondered if Melyssa Lombardi then associate HC at Oklahoma might be a replacement for Coach Myers when the vacancy opened.  She left Oklahoma in 2018 for HC position at Oregon replacing Mike White.  Her results there have not near matched her predecessor.  Her most recent 3-year conference record 2021-2023 has been 10-11, 10-14, and 14-10.  During his last 3 years with the Ducks, Coach White had conference record (2016-2018) 20-4, 17-6 and 21-3.   She spent roughly 20 years as assistant/associate HC with Patty Gasso working with pitchers/catchers.  I suspect that she had HC aspirations that could not be fulfilled at Oklahoma and wondered if she felt that Patty’s son had broken in front of the line ahead of her.  (pure speculation on my part).  I am not implying that she is bad coach and could possibly be an upgrade at AU but success is the results of multiple factors….HC, asssistant coaches, recruiting, team chemistry, am I boring you……  Best I can tell, her current salary is aprox. $385K (+ performance bonuses) with $50K buyout.

I would not fault any coach for looking away from the SEC with new alignment.  It will take a lot of talent, ego and confidence to compete with the upgrades beginning next season.  Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

I also trust Cohen.  One thing is certain.  Money is not an issue.  That is amplified even more being a women's sports program and looming Title IX concerns.

12 minutes ago, CCTAU said:

They should get everything except a large salary.(a reasonable stipend for sure) Individual NIL should be acquired by the player and not facilitated by the school/coach in any way. But I fear that boat has left the dock.

 

 

I 100% agree.

11 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

It was an honor and a privilege. I'm sorry if I don't get the disagreement/complication. The Red, White, and Blue provide the freedom and privileges we enjoy. More and more people each year have disdain not only for the colors, but also for those that fought and died to insure them. I don't comprehend that ignorance. 

This discussion is not about any sort of disdain for the colors.  The discussion is in no way shape or form about those that fought to protect our way of life.  Instead, the discussion is about protecting those freedoms many sacrificed so much to preserve. One of my most prized possessions is my grandfather's WWII yearbook from his years in the infantry marching thru France and Germany.  I have traveled the world and, while I believe we could be less stubborn as Americans, I also believe in the good that we have done and peace we have fought to keep around the globe.

There is an entire social construct on the far right that believes the only way to win an argument is to paint those that they disagree with as being anti American and evil.  They want those that argue against them to be viewed as destroyers of the American way of life.  By pushing that way of thinking, they control their base and ensure their loyalty while forever tainting their opponents.  That is not the American way.  At times, the same applies to rhetoric from the left, the left simply has not been as good at messaging due to not having a devoted outlet like Fox.

When the other side is labeled as anti-American, a voter has no choice but to support them, regardless of their behavior or self dealing.  They become immune to any scandal and evade responsibility for any decision made.  After all, to support their opponent is to be anti American.

20 hours ago, creed said:

I don’t look at this issue from a favoritism perspective. We’re Americans and our country colors are red, white and blue. This is just a thread to bitch about DeSantis because some don’t like him. He could be dictating to feed the homeless and somebody would complain because he only supplied water for drinks. 

No.  That is not what this is about.  NOBODY has argued in any way that there is anything wrong with displaying red white and blue lights.  This is a governor telling cities within his state that they cannot have a display unless it is a display to his specifications.  This isn't about the week of July 4th or this past weekend.  This covers months and months. 

Some of you want to make this about patriotism or something along those lines.  It is not about that at all.  What is stopping the next governor from instructing municipalities that all bridges must be decorated in Pride colors for the month of June, blue lights to celebrate Hanuka in December and pink lights for breast cancer awareness only in October?

That would seem just as ridiculous to me.  If a community wants to display traditional Christmas lights in December, why should they be forced to do as the governor declares in Tallahassee?  We are a conglomerate of different communities that are all part of a greater society.  The fact that the controversy is petty is without question.  You simply ignore the fact that one man started the pettiness and that same man has a history of fighting every battle by division.

1 minute ago, CCTAU said:

When you say, “all the other benefits “, you show that maybe you don’t understand the scholarship situation with baseball. Most of these guys are on partial scholarship as the NCAA only allows 11.7 scholarships per team. So many of these guys are still trying to find money to finish out their cost each semester. 
With NIL, the cost of an education can now become fully paid. 
 

The NCAA needs to loosen up the reigns on baseball. Allow more scholarships and allow more paid coaches. 

I understand it completely and it should be corrected asap.  That is why I didn't reference attending tuition free.  Nonetheless, they do get additional benefits that other students do not receive.  For example, cost of attendance stipends etc. They should get those benefits and I am not arguing that they should not.  I'm just being real about the situation.  Should baseball players get tuition, including room and board, and a large salary? The conversations are critical to the survival and health of college baseball.