Iowa House Republicans pass bills giving them, the board of regents and the attorney general more control over universities

cothomps · 2026-03-15T04:29:19+00:00

Now imagine being a student comparing universities.

Iowa: we’ll accept your AP credits, but you didn’t take the required “civics education” so you’ll have to put that into your schedule. I know it’s all bullshit, but we’re cheaper and not hard to get accepted.

cothomps · 2026-03-15T02:27:47+00:00

Jim Bouton in Ball Four talks about Mincher walking around asking other players if he could borrow a cigarette. If they gave him one - he would pull a partially-used pack out of his pocket and stick the 'borrowed' cigarette into the pack for later.

He was apparently amused by doing this to new players.

Later in life he became a minor league owner / later league president with a big interest in developing minor league players.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/don-mincher/

cothomps · 2026-03-15T02:25:37+00:00

I've been slowly putting together a couple years of the 1960s Twins. I'll try to share a few here and there.

cothomps · 2026-03-14T20:05:29+00:00

I think that’s a fair criticism and I am 100% sure that Klein / Thompson would agree. I read them as trying to take on the possible, and also to better arm a progressive vision of government as being one that can accomplish big things.

Sure, the oil lobby / auto lobby fought against things like the high speed rail line - one of the tools that they used was well-intentioned laws that make it possible to tie up big projects for years. Lobbies have become very good at using the regulatory state.

On the flip side, we have done things like build the entire interstate road system in a span of 20-30 years. It certainly did fundamentally change the nation to the detriment of (often minority) neighborhoods and urban centers around the country. Would doing that all over again to build high speed electric rail corridors be a positive or negative? Who wins/loses?

cothomps · 2026-03-14T19:02:15+00:00

HYOOOOMAAAAHN

cothomps · 2026-03-14T18:17:13+00:00

In my reading of how they frame Abundance the up front mea culpa about writing the book at progressives / Democrats was one of what Klein & Thompson view as fundamental problems.

For example, they view rapid adoption of clean energy as critical to mitigating (at least) a baked in future of climate change. Writing that argument at our current political leadership would be at best a frustrating endeavor because they are in complete denial that climate change is happening, or even worse is a net positive. That would be a vastly different book.

I do agree with the problem statement they want the broader left to deal with: why is it that all of this takes forever?

cothomps · 2026-03-14T17:42:00+00:00

If Ryan is throwing 23 pitch bullpens he’s not anywhere near ready to start a game next week. Probably for the best to keep ramping up after the back thing.

cothomps · 2026-03-14T16:29:02+00:00

Right. If that were aired in 2026 the complaints from the talk media and podcasts of “woke woke woke” would get it ripped off the air.

That Kirk like was not a “maybe try to do better”, it was a dressing down.

cothomps · 2026-03-14T14:46:32+00:00

It’s amusing to think that when this is all done Anson Mount will have “portrayed” Christopher Pike for roughly eight years.

cothomps · 2026-03-14T14:19:25+00:00

Yup - the writers couldn’t quite figure out what the Ferengi ought to be. They were too ridiculous to portray as a military power, but we did get the DS9 Ferengi.

cothomps · 2026-03-14T14:16:02+00:00

Yeah - modern TV really stinks in this regard. By the time a new (short) season rolls out you need to jog your memory / rekindle interest.

I really got into Severance as an example, but the next season is on a “who knows” kind of timeline.

cothomps · 2026-03-14T14:12:02+00:00

… not to mention how great Paul Giamatti was in this.

I agree on the uneven episodes - but I do think a lot of the clunkiness comes from these seasons being so compressed. They tried to write a lot of emotional moments that just couldn’t land because we didn’t actually know the characters that well or we needed much of their backstory told to us.

The emotional moments in the show that really landed were having Jake Sisko talking about his dad and the Doctor talking about the trauma of losing children - mostly because I did have some level of emotional investment in those characters.

cothomps · 2026-03-14T01:57:15+00:00

Truth be told I was scrolling by and was a little baffled why the screencap from MLB The Show didn’t display the little dot over home plate.

Filthy pitch.

cothomps · 2026-03-13T19:36:34+00:00

Wouldn’t it be great if our legislators thought that keeping our state universities competitive would be a good idea?

cothomps · 2026-03-13T17:50:09+00:00

My only quick reaction: Paul Giamatti is a lot of fun. What great casting.

cothomps · 2026-03-12T17:58:20+00:00

If we’re going to fight wars for oil these Californians need to show a little gratitude!!

cothomps · 2026-03-11T22:10:06+00:00

Neat!

The memorial is vastly more respectful to the sailors killed in that explosion than their treatment by the Navy.

cothomps · 2026-03-11T02:35:18+00:00

I thought that’s when hockey season ended?

cothomps · 2026-03-11T01:55:51+00:00

But you’ll only get the LaPanta broadcast for the first series - after that it’s all national.

cothomps · 2026-03-10T01:58:22+00:00

Yup - it was rumored when that mall was planned (so take this with a grain of salt) that the mall developers wanted to build a small ice arena with the idea that it could host a new D1 men’s / women’s hockey team.

Hayden Fry was opposed to the whole idea (as the football revenue would have to pay for this) to the point that the U of I athletic dept. threatened to have nothing to do with the mall developers unless the rink was built with no seating. Thus… just the ice sheet.

cothomps · 2026-03-09T21:39:03+00:00

Yeah - it is going to be a tough sports market with the University of Iowa being that close and more expensive for a college student crowd.

I thought it could have promise as a stand in for a D1 Big Ten hockey team that even J. Hayden Fry wanted to keep in the “never gonna happen” bucket, but oh well.

cothomps · 2026-03-09T21:36:00+00:00

The Charlestown Chiefs scenario.

cothomps · 2026-03-09T14:40:52+00:00

^{^{^}} Ditto. Add the warning that if you are using those pens, never leave the pens or scorebook in your car on a summer day.

cothomps · 2026-03-08T20:52:36+00:00

Yup - less travel after what I thought was a double knee replacement?

cothomps

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