The current deal expires on 1 Dec 2026.
My humble view is that two sides will talk....up to spring-training starting (sometime in Feb 2027), and then the lock-out will start.
Zero movement for spring and summer.....after July....it's a bit rough for the players union.
The question is....there are thousand of hours of TV 'open'. How would you fill it?
Pro-wrestling? Roller-derby? College baseball? Japanese baseball?
First, German news started to talk about China's outbreak of 'something'....early January. I spent several hours browsing (I'm retired....I have time).
I happened upon this YouTube video....PhD Brit bat-scientist....around 2018 clip....15-to-20 minutes....talking over his foundation-funded lab in Wuhan. Most of the piece covered the lab...but in the last 8 minutes or so....the guy has his 'team' out (5 Chinese guys) in the hills....way out away from Wuhan.
The 'boys' are netting bats.....probably forty at a time. Don't know the pay-scale....but obviously....they were happy capturing some bats for the lab.
About two months go by....Covid is in Germany now, and I go to search for the video....to find the name of the lab.
Well....the clip ISN'T there. I even use YouTube history.....wasting a full hour for early January....it's simply NOT there. Problem number one.
What was the lab? I suspect there were three or four hyped-up labs....one sponsored by Fauci.....a couple paid by foundations out of Europe. 'It' escaped out of one of them.
Then comes the mask issue.
Around mid-March....Germans are hyped-up....Covid has arrived. They run a hour-long show....couple of 'experts' (medical type....PhD-level).
So they (the moderator) asks about masks.
The PhD guy says....it's not really helpful. You pull mask number one at 7AM....ride the bus with it, and work for an hour or two....it's humid, and the effective nature of the KN-95 surgical masks is zeroized by 10 AM. So you go to mask number two, and by 3 PM....you are onto mask number three. There's simply not enough masks for the whole of society. He also hints....Covid get on your hands, and you change masks....you'd likely get a 'dose' that way.
As the show ended....I got on Amazon, and ordered 50 masks. My wife went nuts....you don't need it. Yeah....you can start counting 60 to 90 days...mandatory masks
Six weeks pass....masks....cloth-type are now mandated. You wear them all day...washing in vinegar at night...re-using.
Two months pass....KN-95 type are now mandated. Grocery stores? Selling probably two-hundred boxes of masks (40 each) for each shopping day.
My wife hypes constantly....you need to wear a fresh new one daily. I see the BS....I have one mask, and ONLY one mask.....over and over...using the same one....for the next 18 months, until the mandate ends.
I spent about two hours yesterday....watching the Senate hearing with former head of NIAID (from 1984 to 2022).
Four observations:
1. It was a wasted two hours....he said nothing.
2. I'm of the mind....questioning how in 1984....he came to the NIAID 'seat'. It just looks like insiders to the Reagan team rigged the seat....to help farm out CIA programs. All the bizarre and crazy science BS of the 1960s/1970....were crafted to be hidden by NIAID (my belief).
3. I think by the end of summer....some federal charges come up...by the end of 2026....Fauci is dead by suicide.
4. I'm of the mind....maybe at best....ten-percent of the Covid 'efforts' were legit....the rest were made-up and had nothing to do with science.
1. I think since mid-2019....Joe Biden has been in type of vegetable-status (1-to-10 index)......with most folks voting for him....not wanting to believe it.
2. Eventually, the Mullah-guys from Iran....will get a 'team' into the US to do 'hit-jobs', and it'll freak out Homeland Security.
3. Mamdani's grocery sales operation....will last about 90 days....then collapse as theft becomes a big idea. It might limp on, for another 90 days....before the cost factor is made public.
4. Delta and United will likely merge by the end of 2026. I'm not saying it's a positive thing....just that the market is presently 'crappy'.
5. I suspect around 10-percent of Americans today....would be OK with a Nazi-party and a Nazi-platform.
6. For those into major league baseball....I'd start to prepare for a 2027-season-long strike, and no games. What fills the air-time? I'm predicting roller-derby and demolition-derby to pick up the slack.
7. People will eventually wake up and realize....for several decades....we had forest management, and then around 2000....just quit....to pretend we didn't need it.
8. Alberta, in 2027, will start state-talks with the US....with Guam quietly stepping forward (wanting the fast-track and 51st status).
9. A AI-system will start to test/gauge/assign-scores.....to cult status. HR organizations will start to discover that 10-to-20 percent of their employees have a '5' score (1-to-10), and worry about cult-mentality.
10. In 2028's national-across-the-landscape elections...at least 300 bartenders will be running for some office.
'Freddy' the German World Cup visitor to the US....famous for his pictures and experiences....wrote a piece yesterday....relating to the question...where was the best place to visit?
Answer? Texas, Tennessee and Alabama.
If you browse through the days that Freddy was in Alabama.....'FRIENDLINESS' seems pop up in a major way.
So, being from Alabama....I will relate why we Alabamians score high on this 'index'.
You see....we tend to be under some pressure....when out-and-about...traveling around. We each see ourselves as a state-ambassador, and under some obligation.
We might take a turn in the road and here lays Elvis in the ditch, or 'Coach-Bear' with a flat-tire, or Miss Parton out of gas, or some Apostle (of the 12) dehydrated, or Kenny Rogers broke down on the side of the road.
It is our obligation to act friendly....offer help.....give advice....and be a kind person.
To be honest.....it's probably a points thing, and we reckon that upon arrival at the gates of heaven....these 'acts' make up for our problems in the past.
So we see some German 'Freddy' and maybe he's shaking his head a bit, and we interrupt things....to help the guy out.
Maybe we guided him to a bar-b-q shack.....or pulled out a beer for him....or offered a New Testament verse for adverse conditions.
As for the competition thing with Tennessee and Texas? Well....simply put....they aren't in our league.
Pentagon says it will mandate a 'new' test to assess troops’ cognitive performance.
To be honest....since the mid-1980s....there's been a test existing...continually modified and upgraded.
So if you ask some folks....the hype to the new test....to study if Covid has affected folks....especially 'long-Covid'.
In the period prior to the new test....if you'd been in a accident, or suffered a concussion....the test was mandated.
My thoughts?
I've known probably six folks since 1977....who had concussions, and half of them really didn't recover or come back to normal. But that was via accidents or falling off the side of a building....NOT with long-Covid.
Gut-feeling with long-Covid? I suspect if you tested a thousand folks....at least ten have suffered serious cognitive decline.
When some fellow or gal utttters....that capitalism is failing them....I generally look at their shoes....then the clothing, and if wearing glasses....what type.
My skepticism goes into turbo....if you are wearing $200 Nike shoes....a sweater in the $150 range...tattoos in view costing $500 or more, or glass-frames in the $700 range.
If I notice a I-Phone, or a $1,000 leather jacket....it reaches maximum turbo.
What I tend to believe....a fair number of folks have been 'enriched' by capitalism....but they can't really see the landscape.
It is an odd world that we live in....feeling oppressed....in a fake sort of way.
