The Runback: Lightning Round
Welcome to another week of The Runback. Have you been enjoying The Duckpin? Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you want to write for us? Let me know at theduckpin@gmail.com. And please be sure to follow on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and YouTube. Thanks in advance.
The Monday Thought(s)
Happy Maryland Day!
Senate President Bill Ferguson is talking a really good game about not raising taxes. But Democrats will. Keep an eye on what the final Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act says at the end of the day.
Are you suffering from politics fatigue? Me too.
I know Ted Leonsis is trying to play up the idea of building a new arena in Maryland for the Capitals and the Wizards. There is almost zero chance of this happening, but as much in tax dollars should be spent on that as Maryland should spend on a new stadium for the Commanders. Which is to say zero dollars.
Did you catch a couple of weeks ago that Maryland and Baltimore want to build a minor league soccer stadium in either Carroll Park or in South Baltimore? Why? Who the hell knows, but I guess Baltimore has solved the crime, education, budget, and public safety issues it faces when its messing around with issues like this.
Speaking of Baltimore politics, the idea that either Brandon Scott will get re-elected or convicted criminal Sheila Dixon will be returned to office this fall has major “1994 D.C. Mayoral Election” vibes. Look it up.
Jackson Holliday starting the year in AAA is silly but I get it.
The Trump campaign is running out of money. If only there was a way that GOP voters could have avoided this.
Speaking of Trump, there is zero chance the prosecutor in New York is going to start seizing Trump’s assets in order to pay down the half-billion in judgments against him. Again, if only there was a way that GOP voters could have avoided this.
“The prophecies of doom, repeated ad nauseam at rallies and on social media, have raised fears that the former president is making an electoral tinderbox that could explode in November. While there has been much commentary assessing the implications of a Trump win, some experts warn that a Trump defeat could provide an equally severe stress test of American democracy.” If only there was a way that GOP voters could have avoided this.
Marjorie Taylor Green trying to remove Mike Johnson as speaker is a reminder that the Congressional GOP currently consists largely of morons led by an idiot trying to please imbeciles.
“We are giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers (from smaller leagues), and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end because of (conference) expansion” said SEC Commission Greg Sansky days before the SEC went 3-5 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, with losses by #3 seed Kentucky and # 4 Auburn (to Yale) headlining the list of casualties.
Say what you will about Peter Angelos (and I have said plenty), but he restored local ownership to the Orioles. That means something.
I’ve spent two weeks in the Deep South recently. Not once did I hear politics come up organically in any of those places.