Champuckett

Thanks again for the polite response. I know there are many that believe they are kind of outsiders within the American political framework of discourse. And these people get labeled "independents". Where did that term come from and why is it used for anyone that does not follow in the footsteps of a liberal or a conservative. Does it mean a free thinker. Do these people tend to vote for a republican or a democrat at the end of the day. Why is it every election, the losing party always blames independents for costing them the victory, when the margin of victory is less than the number of independent voters. It's possible we don't have the answer to some of these questions or maybe some have begun to question why this is. Great. But the real question is, are any of us actually outsiders or are we sitting inside of a box that was put there so even those that have outsider opinions would still inevitably end up inside. Why is it not ok for some people to be outside the box, why must our discussions remain inside of it, why do others inside the box demand that those that try to be outside of it get inside of it. The issues I'm pointing out have nothing to do with me on a personal level. I don't care when someone ignores my post or doesn't agree with me or implies that I am incorrect or that there is something else wrong with me. What I do care about is the overall direction of the discourse. There is, however, an implied problem with those that stray too far from the pre-approved discourse. It doesn't feel like discourse. It feels like pre-orchestrated and arranged opinions that are all derived from the same sources. It doesn't feel like anything of substance is even being spoken about. The reaction to this may be to immediately reject and dismiss what I am saying as nonsense, and it's likely that this in fact will happen by a majority of people reading this. It's likely this will be the fuel for the response that is about to be written. This is why I said in my initial posts, if you can put aside the reaction, and think about what is being said for just a second. I'm not putting any of my political views out there, I'm not directly challenging anyone's specific political stances, it's a waste of time unless we confront this issue that has been in front of all of us. I'm challenging thought and philosophy, which is something that we may not be used to, because we have been taught to fight over trivial matters that will not help us in our lives or our neighbors lives, but to instead fight over what we have already been instructed to fight over since we began our education in elementary school.

There is one narrative here, like there is almost anywhere you travel around the internet. We have to be locked into an eternal battle between conservatives and liberals, republicans and democrats, big government vs small government, high taxes vs low taxes, sanity vs insanity, Trump vs decency. That's it. There is no room for anything else. That's the narrative and every single person follows it. Every single post, regardless of the side they take, refers to this or assumes this when the keys begin to be punched on the keyboard. Is it possible there is more to the discussion, more possibilities than this, or should we continue having that ongoing battle play out. Anyone that says something outside of this narrative will not be getting very far and will likely leave this place, never to return, but to be honest I have not seen more than 1 or 2 comments in over 70 pages that even attempt to do this. The narrative is the same narrative that makes us believe that Fox News is for conservatives and all of the others, generally speaking, are for liberals. It's nonsense. Every single piece of news you get is coming from the same narrative, and convince us that we simply need one political party to obtain power over the other, and that's just how it is, that's life, and that we need to accept that to be a good citizen. What everyone wants me and others to do with alternate viewpoints, is to bring us into that narrative and speak on those terms. They aren't comfortable going outside of the box this narrative has formed. That's what they know, it's what they hear everyday on the news they watch or the articles they read. So that must be what we should be debating. The reality is it's not, but we all believe that we should, so we do and then you get what we have in this thread and others, endless amounts of ideas and stances that all come from the same source.

Thank you for reiterating this. It's not about the manner in which people speak to each other. I'm sure there are some examples of people behaving disrespectfully, but that has almost nothing to do with the problem. The problem is you have to have pre-approved opinions or you quickly realize you don't belong here, and that sends 99% of anyone that comes in here with some fresh thoughts, some alternative opinions packing. This is what has been happening and is still happening.

Thanks for the response. Like I said, I'm not too interested in debating political point A vs point B, because we can't even admit to ourselves that we have majority opinions squashing and silencing those with minority opinions. I don't think anyone here is going out of there way to act vicious or cruel to others. I think what has happened here is now the norm across the entirety of the internet. This has little to do with the participants here on a personal level, so I hope you do not take it as such. If someone is willing to talk about this topic, then let's do it. And the idea that the only form of debate is that liberals have to be opposed to conservatives is outdated and why we are in this mess in the first place. These are essentially modern day American political ideations that are no longer serving any purpose, except for the people that are running the corporations, running the media, and running our government and is done to ensure we are all locked in permanent political combat within this country.

Thanks for response. I'm sympathetic to many points from both political sides, but what I think doesn't really matter. I can talk about anything you want in private messages if that is what your sincere curiosity is, but putting what I, or anyone else says if it goes against the narrative, is unlikely to result in making people take a step back to think about what was said, instead of reacting to what was said. We are all doing this now, reacting, and no longer thinking, contemplating. Doesn't matter what your opinion is, what side you stand on. If a Republican or a conservative, or any other political ideology you can think of beyond liberal/progressive says something here, the default position will be to oppose it, and that position will be rallied behind. This occurs on conservative news sites as well. We have 69 pages here in this thread and more than 200 pages in the Trump thread alone reaffirming there is only one acceptable narrative here, lest you be attacked by multiple people directly or more often indirectly for being uninformed, unenlightened, unprincipled, or not privy to the obvious certain correct point of view. Some of these attacks are respectful and courteous, and are not name calling or being cruel in nature at all. They are simply assuming that there is only one way to think, and coming from that angle when responding to people putting alternative opinions out there. This doesn't mean anyone is a bad person, this doesn't mean anyone here has an agenda of suffocating thought or discussion, this doesn't mean that people can't attempt to put these alternative opinions out there. It just means that a strong majority having domination over a minuscule minority is how things work, and I haven't seen that many people attempt to push back in any meaningful way against that narrative until a few days ago. And if that happens again, and I don't say anything, or no one else says anything, then the order of things continues on as it has been. The person or person(s) with non-narrative following opinion will see the standard response and feel a lack of interest in participating further. If this was a left leaning political board that would make complete sense, and maybe many with differing opinions would stray away, but it's a board based off a sports franchise, so you might figure there would be more political ideologies represented here, but instead you do not. You only get one. And this is true across 90%, maybe more, of the internet. There's no conspiracy here, the majority opinion has been allowed to thrive and has been enriched while any dissenting or alternative opinions have been starved and ostracized out of discussions. This isn't about TD, it's about the state of discourse. I'm not sure this is what we all signed up for, but this is certainly what has happened, regardless of intent. Right now, it is popular and safe, not brave, to attack any of these non liberal/progressive ideas, regardless of what they are. And it would be great if those that, even when they disagree, would stand up for people with minority opinions, no matter how controversial they are. Instead the opposite effect is happening, where people are becoming more afraid to share minority opinions, because the dog pile is becoming more intense and growing in number. Of course, the conclusions from the people that believe with the rest of the collective might say to themselves, "well obviously, these are the opinions that are popular right now" or "we are just preaching common sense here". So we have justification for the situation by many individuals, and it continues to grow, and minority opinions continue to fold. What I am willing to speak about here, is what has happened with our media, what has happened with our discussions, our communities. Before we can even attempt to speak about our personal beliefs again in meaningful ways, I think we first have to address how difficult it is to have basic conversations anymore, before we can even begin to consider throwing out strong or even mild political opinions. If we fail to agree that there is a fundamental problem with this, well, then that's that. I'll say it again, but there was someone earlier in the thread that said we need to have more empathy and understanding, might have been Mike Sixel, don't know it was a while ago. That was a great insight and that person is right. I would love to see that occur here or elsewhere on other message boards at some point, but what I'm seeing is we appear to be going in the exact opposite direction from this trajectory and solidifying our grasp on the majority opinion having power until complete total power is obtained and unless we stop in our tracks and examine what is happening, it's going to continue in this direction.

Yes, there is. But there is everywhere to be fair right now both inside and outside of this website. I would pinpoint it more directly to a bias of using the same mainstream media sources, rather than anti-Trump. Trump is just the guy we are all currently being told we need to despise and hate, so that's the collective response you are seeing. I tried to point this out roughly 2 years ago in this thread or another similar one and was unfortunately met with the same type of response as you are getting here. I'm not pro or anti Trump, pro-Republican or pro-Democrat, yet it is easy to see the same narrative is being followed both then and now. I think I offered it before, and I will happily offer it again if i I failed to do the first time around. I am happy to discuss any of these current issues regarding politics with anyone here in an open and honest way through private messages on an individual level, but trying to put any opinion that does not have an anti-Trump or anti-conservative stance is met with an intense amount of resistance. It feels like a waste of time unless you are part of the pre-approved opinions of the group. I wish we could have more open discussions about these topics and not let it divulge into negativity, sarcasm, or the piling on effect that is currently happening every time someone tries to put an opinion out there that goes against the grain. I know many of us are reasonable people and I think there are many that do want to have fruitful discussions even when there are largely divergent opinions occurring. I think someone once said we need better communication and understanding with one another when talking about these dear to the heart issues, so that's a good sign in my estimation.

Good job to Nick and to anyone else that has noted and spoken up about this as a problem. There are those of us who noticed this more than a decade ago and tried to warn others about it, but were largely ignored. Now that it has continued to grow, and is now all but impossible to ignore and should rightfully be debated and talked about in the public square. I hope to see further discussions regarding this topic here at the Twins Daily and other Twins related social sites.

When was the last time this organization made a high risk high reward trade? 2003? 1989? We have had nothing for what feels like 15+ years now of low risk low reward trades and acquisitions. Come on guys, where is the fire, the passion.. the demand for this? Have things gotten so bad in Twins land, that we are really entertaining this as a "strategy"?

This is what will eventually happen. We have an origin of this country based in succession from an imperial overgrown empire trying to hold onto all of it's properties when economic and culture events indicated it would not continue to work. It's not that different from what's happening right now, it's just the geographic and demographics have changed. We have grown too big, too greedy, too imperialistic, with all of these overseas occupations with no time limits, that continue to expand as each year goes on, through multiple presidencies, through multiple political parties. Politicians no longer truly represent the people, corporate and political interests do. Our economy, despite the best headlines from the the news networks, is struggling, the petrodollar is losing steam, and the people, the culture, are ready for something different, something new, something other than permanent debt based endless global warfare system we have had operating for at least 70 years. All I hear about every day, from both sides, from both major political parties (and the smaller ones), is how crazy, how dumb, how idiotic, moronic, shortsighted, egotistical, damaging, and out of control the either side(s) are. People have had it, don't want to take the time to think things through, don't want to take the time to discuss these issues, regardless of the side, and both sides are adamant that the solution is to simply take power and control the other side through force. Simply calling the other side "stupid" is enough to suffice and call it a day. Alright. Groups are ceasing the moment, the opportunity, trying to make this into some violent revolution. They want to capitalize on the division. Various militia groups on the right, antifa on the left. Based on the small numbers of the people involved in these skirmishes, it doesn't seem to be building much of any momentum on the violent revolution front, so I'm doubting your average Joe is up for this in 2018. We can certainly act now and avoid tensions escalating. No one wants actual bloodshed, for the most part. They want their beliefs and cultural values to be reflected in the people that represent them, and that's clearly not happening right now, but they certainly do not want large scale mass violence in the streets. What this leaves on the table is more in the line of peaceful succession, something that California, Oregon, and Washington state are working on at this very moment and that Texas has worked on in recent years as well. Even if it does not happen in the next few years, I think movements like this will continue to gain steam as the country continues to be divided further in ways and people want to end the daily tension and frustrations that are knocking us over the head on a constant basis. Fractioning the country up in similar fashion to the USSR is almost certain at this point, but it is not wrong and it is not the worst thing that could happen. Staying together no matter what, escalating tensions, and allowing a true civil war to break out when economics have bottomed out and the culture has deteriorated so badly is what could possibly happen. The USSR played the canary in the coal mine for us, and we repeated the same illogical steps that they did to lead to this point of fracturing. I think it's easy to take that as some kind of defeat or loss, since staying together and uniting has always been the preferred path, and unity is looked at as a strength, but the division is taking us so far away from the possibility of uniting on one front, you have to start to at least entertain the possibility that this is the path we are on, at least as of October of 2018. If we do not at least entertain this notion, then you will continue to see tensions rise, infighting in both major political parties, political fights intensifying further, far.. far.. beyond anything you saw with the Supreme Court debacle, struggling for power, loss of morality, loss of sense, loss of meaning of what it means to be apart of this culture, together. The further this divides us, the more people will begin calling for a separation of sorts from the opposing culture, from the opposing "team". It will take some time, but I think the fact we are already seeing some movements grow in some states shows there is at least a small voice calling for this process to begin. The quicker it happens, the better, for all of our sanity, regardless of political persuasion, race, or gender. All states have built within their state constitutions legal remedies to allow this process to begin. They will all be highly debated and contested intensely in the coming years as these movements begin to gain traction and institutions that currently maintain power refuse to let their power extinguish. Anyone and everyone can get involved if they want to and have some say in what happens, or you can remove yourself completely and let others determine you and your families future with zero input. Or.. you could simply call me crazy, and shrug everything off and continue on as you always have, battling every day for years and decades to get your supported people/party in power in control with the same outcome guaranteed in the long run. Take the bitter, but helpful medicine now, or continue enduring the illness that continues to grow every day.

Gleeman is dead on, this did need to happen last year but due to the team overperformance, Santana being Cy worthy for a lot of the year, both Sano and Buxton looking like MVP caliber players for a few months each, and making the playoffs unexpectedly, despite the low expectations, plus MOY honors, it was more difficult to cut the string. I'm not sure if people forgot, but Molitor presided over the worst season in the history of the Twins just a couple of years ago. It should have been done immediately following that season, but there was still turmoil with Gardy and then TR being fired and the drama that ensued, so I take it they were afraid to do too much too quickly, being conservative owners. Anyways, there it is, what has needed to be done for years. Hoping we can make something positive come out of this going forward.

It's not just you. There are many external factors outside of sports in the world right now that are making sports or baseball seem, maybe for the first time, less appealing than it always has been. I'm still checking the scores and seeing how the players are doing, but I am with you, there has been a dip in excitement in recent years.

We were promised the era of Twins Glory would commence once Sano/Buxton had a few years under their belt back when things were going south from 2012-2014. So we had patience. We saw the coach go, then the GM. And had patience. We got a new GM and many of the same problems and some new problems arose. And we had patience. Here we are now, both of these "marquee" players are floundering, and we have seemingly made no progress towards the glory years we were promised. So we continue being patient. I guess that is what it means in 2018 to be a good Twins fan, just sit down, be patient, and just enjoy the fact we have baseball in this Midwestern state that was lucky to even avoid contraction! Yeah, just be thankful and appreciative. No criticism or concern necessary. The question I have is whether the problem is the lack of patience from Twins fans, the most often used attacking point against disgruntled Twins fans or is the problem the franchise and the MN sports media, that attacks and/or belittles the fans as they continue to wave a carrot on a stick in front of us for the last 7-8 years.

The great cushioning has commenced. You will see more of these articles as the team/fanbase/sportswriters slowly and as painlessly as possible, distance themselves from Mauer. If only they had been written 6-7 years ago.

"Does the Front Office owe us an explanation?" Yes.

Touch em all Brian Dozier! Touch em all!

Molitor is a family friend pick as the manager. He has name recognition as a famous baseball player, he is a hall of famer, he was born in Minnesota, he played as a Gopher, he played as a Minnesota Twin, he got his 3000th hit while in Twins uniform, and heck, he's a nice guy. These are the things that appeal to the owners and their family. He was not hired and then rehired because he was the best man to help turn us into a winning team. He was chosen because he fit their family friendly and name recognition priorities and the hope was, in addition, he would add a winning formula to the franchise as well. That did not happen, so here we are, and now we are increasingly becoming aware of the poor decision this was and continues to be.

I completely agree with the original post as far as Molitor being a decent man, I have talked with him at spring training when he was a spring training aid many years ago and he seemed like a respectable and humble man, considering he was such an incredible talent. But we aren't in the business here of letting nice guys have jobs so that everyone can feel good. So that runner ups in the previous nomination process for manager can then be awarded the job as soon as it becomes available. We are in the business of winning games and competing and I think the rehiring of him should at the very least have made some heads turn, especially as this season plays out. I think we got the gist of his abilities circa 2016 when the team had their worst ever full season in the history of the franchise. He never did much for Seattle (in fact they got worse once he arrived) when he was the batting coach either so there was nothing in his resume either to suggest he was the obvious pick for the job. We have seen nothing but underperfoming or at best inconsistent play month to month from most of the young core that were supposed to bring us the second coming of the Puckett years. We have at no point seen anything different from Gardenhire in terms of lighting a fire under the teams behind when it has been needed. I see him in the dugout making his decisions, and I feel underwhelmed every time and that natural humility and stoic nature he has does not translate well into getting players going, lighting fires, restoring confidence, etc. I can guarantee at least 50% of the people that follow this franchise very closely face palmed when learning Molitor was rehired last offseason. Many were hopeful we were going to be moving on from the constant state of mediocrity that existed in the later Gardy years and take a risk, go outside the organization, see what's out there. It still looks and feels like we are still not ready to take this approach.

This means we are sellers and will patch together a lineup/bullpen using whatever we can find to make it through the rest of the season while players are traded away. They did something similar last season and we were in a better position then, than we are now.

The inconsistency by both players means only one thing as far as I am concerned. Poor coaching. And it not only extends to those two, it extends to the entire team, the bullpen, the pitching starters, and the team as a whole since Gardy departed. We knew where we stood in the last few years of the previous manager, we were bad news, we were rebuilding. The current manager has given us hope at times, no doubt, and the rest of the time, we are playing like dirt. So we are left wondering what to do. It feels like we could be very good with some serious guidance and focus, but we play like we are quite mediocre and/or bad. Many of the solutions involving both of these players require consistency and intense dedication to that consistency, but it appears this is not what is happening to these players. If you want players to start playing more consistent, then they need to be hit over the head with tactics that implore and demand consistency and repetition. At the moment, this is failing to get through to these young guys, or it is not being taught or it is flat out being ignored by the players either due to respect not being given to the coaches and the manager or because the respect is not being demanded in the first place and therefore is unwarranted.

Just enough of the blackmailed senators (from both sides) to get her through. Only a few Republicans are voting no, so they only need a few of these Democrats to confirm. These political parties have not stood for much of anything in quite some time and voting in the person that was instrumental in developing torture programs reaffirms this.

Agreed with the OP, and you will continue to see more people speaking about this topic, but I don't think the primary or even secondary reason we should be concerned has to do with the amount of money they are taking through government programs, although these are certainly important concerns. When you take a look at the level of corruption we now have these days, in all industries including government, you may begin to ask questions 'how did we get to this point, or 'why was nothing or not enough done to address this?', or "who is responsible?' The generation that brought us George W. Bush, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton as our "leaders" and representatives of that generation and to the rest of the world are not exactly the best we could have hoped for, but does begin to answer some of these basic questions. The burden and weight of these problems now lies with the post-baby boomer generations, and they are not exactly shining examples of excellence either, but there are movements within these younger groups beginning to acknowledge and counter all of these problems that grew unimpeded for far too long. Whether or not any of these movements will be successful remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful they will be.

Yeah, it absolutely is bipartisan and we are not just talking a handful of congressmen and senators, but hundreds, 30-50% of both houses. Look up Representative Jackie Speier's statement from last week and how many cases within congress were settled, which effectively silenced victims, if you want to find out more. While the clear majority of these cases involved men doing sexual harassment/abuse to women and to a lesser degree, men doing this stuff to other men, we will see women were not innocent in this either as more victims come forward and get a chance to tell their story. It's sad stuff either way, no matter what sex, gender, or race these victims happened to be.

Yeah, the button on his desk that would lock the door reminds me of an 80's or 90's comedy movie trying to portray a creepy corporate boss that loved using perverted tactics in order to obtain his women. The fact that fellow employees knew about this for a long time, including Couric mentioning it a number of years ago, yet nothing was done by the bosses in the suits at the top shows a culture that enabled this type of behavior. This seems to be becoming a trend, not an exception to workspace environments as these scandals continue to blossom. These business runners at the top will eventually have their feet held to the fire for allowing this to go on for so long. A talent booker for the 'Today Show' just got caught as well and has been fired. And a producer for the Jake Tapper show on CNN. Our own Garrison Keillor was just fired from MPR for more inappropriate behavior. It's going to continue getting worse, not better.

California, Oregon, and Washington have movements in motion to begin the process along these lines. Texas has spoken about this in the past. There are those that understandably joke that this is absurd and ridiculous. A few years ago I'm sure many would absolutely agree that this was absurd. Now the degree to which it seems absurd may have decreased in strength. Many often speak of the growing division, the lack of understanding, lack of empathy, the dreaded Thanksgiving dinner political topics coming up, etc. Is the growing division repairable or will we continue to slide further into our bases and cease communication with opposing views ultimately?

If you don't mind me asking, which Republicans in Congress are sane?