If John Brennan Chanted "Lock Her Up" He'd Still Have His Security Clearance

When I learned of President Trump's decision to strip former CIA Director John Brennan of his security clearance, I immediately looked at the 13 grounds under which one can be stripped of one's security clearance.

Let's just say making “a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations — wild outbursts on the internet and television — about this administration” isn't one of them.

But "foreign preference" certainly is. Foreign preference, among other things, can mean "receiving benefits from another country". Well, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn certainly received benefits from both Turkey as a foreign agent and from Russia for giving a speech for the state sponsored RT network and got to sit next to Vladimir Putin to boot. Let's just say Flynn wasn't very forthcoming with this information.

If anyone deserves to lose their security clearance it is Michael Flynn. But of course Flynn has never called Trump a charlatan.

Let me put it this way. Had John Brennan had led the Republican National Convention in chants of "Lock Her Up" he would still have his security clearance.

If There's a Tape of Trump Uttering The N-Word He'll Get Away With It

Former Apprentice contestant and White House staffer Omarosa Manigault-Newman has claimed she has tape of President Trump uttering the N-word.

When White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders can't deny the story there's a pretty good chance we're going to hear Trump at his ugliest. So let's suppose this tape exists.

Using the Access Hollywood tape as a guide, there was initially a lot of condemnation from Republicans. Trump himself issued something which was as close to an apology as he gets. Then came "it was just locker room talk" argument. Republicans fell in line and the rest is history.

As such I believe history will repeat itself. So if there's a tape of Trump uttering the N-word, Republicans will condemn him and Trump will attempt some contrition. From there, someone like Kanye West will defend his use of the N-word. This will give the space for Republicans and Fox News to use the N-word liberally to the point where they fall all over each other to say it. And with that, Trump will have danced on the third rail and what's left of our veneer of civility will crumble. When Trump is re-elected in 2020, the N-word tape will be rendered a footnote.

Should this come to pass then it can be said that Trump could shoot people on Fifth Avenue without affecting his popularity.

Mookie Betts Hits For The Cycle in Rare Red Sox Loss

The Boston Red Sox snapped a six game winning streak with an 8-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. But it wasn't an entirely disappointing evening as Mookie Betts hit for the cycle.

Betts led off the game with a single off Jays starter Ryan Borucki. He added a triple in the 2nd and a double in the 4th also off Borucki. Betts reached base by way of a walk off Jaime Garcia. The home run, Betts' 27th of the season, came in the 9th inning off newly acquired Ken Giles to bring the Sox within 3 runs of Toronto. However, Giles would strike out out Andrew Benintendi and Mitch Moreland to end the game.

This was the first cycle of the 2018 season. There were seven cycles in 2017. Prior to tonight, it had last been done by Chicago White Sox slugger Jose Abreu in an interleague game against the San Francisco Giants last September. The last Red Sox player to hit for the cycle was Brock Holt in an interleague game against the Atlanta Braves in June 2015.

On a personal note, in nearly 40 years of watching baseball, this is only the second cycle I've ever seen from start to finish. The other was by Chris Singleton back in July 1999 when he was with the Chisox. He did it against the Kansas City Royals. I remember that he hit the single, double, triple and the home run in sequence.

As for Betts, the cycle only adds to his growing legend.

Scioscia Denies Reports He Will Step Down as Angels Manager at Season's End

Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia has denied reports from both Ken Rosenthal and Bob Nightengale that he will step down as the team's manager at the end of the season. He is the final year of a 10-year contract. 

Scioscia is the longest tenured manager in MLB taking over the helm of the Angels in 2000. Two years later, he guided the Angels to their lone World Series title in franchise history. Since then, the Angels have won the AL West six times. Five of those six titles came between 2004-2009. The Angels have only reached the post-season once this decade winning their last AL West title in 2014 and haven't had a winning season since 2015. 

Much was expected of the Angels this season with the signing of Shohei Ohtani. The Angels did begin strongly and had a share of first place as late as May 14th. But since that date, the Angels have gone 30-41 while both the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland A's overtook them in the standings as they were plagued by injuries for which they did not have an answer. They enter play today in fourth place in the AL West, 16 games back of the defending World Series champion Houston Astros. 

Obviously the injuries cannot be blamed on Scioscia. But how can a team with Ohtani, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols not win? I think the time has come for the ship to change captains. 

Nevertheless Scioscia has left his mark with the Angels. He is currently 18th on MLB's all-time managerial win list with 1625. Only Walter Alston, Bobby Cox, John McGraw and Connie Mack have more wins as a manager with a single team. 

If Obama Is So Great Then Why Did We Elect Trump?

On the occasion of former President Obama's 57th birthday, Twitter trended with #ObamaDay.

The tweets went along these lines:

Dr. DaShanne Stokes:

Hearing President Obama speak... I so greatly miss sanity, leadership, reason, and dignity.

Dirk Blocker:

We celebrate the best president in our lifetime!

Bishop Talbert Swan:

Reminiscing on the days when Americans could hold up their heads with pride about the POTUS. Whether you agreed with him or not, he was intelligent, articulate, honorable and dignified. My, how times have changed.

No one has more contempt for President Trump than I, but I do not long for the days of President Obama.

Where others see sanity, leadership, reason and dignity, I see petulance, mendacity, demagoguery and prickliness.

Anyone who says President Obama is the best Commander in Chief of our lifetime hasn't lived very long.

There's no question Obama and Trump deploy different styles. But when both Obama and Trump compare themselves to Abraham Lincoln the substance is the same.

If Barack Obama is as great as all these people say he is then why did we elect Trump?

Don't give any excuses about the Russians? Yes, they interfered, but no one forced people to pull the lever for Trump. And don't give me excuses about Hillary getting 3 million more votes. If you want to abolish the electoral college then amend the Constitution. 

The fact that we elected Trump is a reflection of failure on the part of Obama. It was Obama who said if you liked your health insurance you could keep your health insurance and then denied ever saying it. It was Obama who drew a red line in Syria and denied he ever said it. It was Obama who called ISIS the JV squad. It was Obama whose fiscal policies doubled the national debt.

For all the praise we've heard on #ObamaDay it has been short on achievement. Not that Trump is any better. But if Obama had achieved anything meaningful, Trump would have been a mere footnote in American presidential history.

The Housing Blues in Boston

I have lived in Boston for more than 18 years. Come September 1st, I will have been in my current apartment for exactly 10 years. This is the longest I have ever been at a single address continuously.

I came very close to having to leave back in February. My renewal was due and I had still hadn't found employment. My roommate also wanted to move on so I reluctantly had to decline to renew. It was very painful to watch other people look at my apartment. However, a few days later I was offered a job and with no one having taken the apartment I was able to renew. My roommate also renewed with the understanding that we would find a replacement for him at the end of the lease.

My roommate has since found a one bedroom apartment in Providence, Rhode Island which he moved into last month. Unlike Boston, it is possible to rent a one bedroom apartment in Providence for under $1000 a month. A year ago, I had a job interview with a law firm in downtown Providence. Had I got that job I might very well have made my down there too.

But I found gainful employment here in Boston. And truth be told I don't want to leave the apartment I've been for the past decade. I'm in a relatively quiet neighborhood. It's pedestrian friendly, near public transportation and there is a community center with a swimming pool. What more could I want?

Well, a new roommate for starters.

Of course, this is difficult proposition. When I moved in here with Christopher in September 2008, we had already known each other for more than 6 years. Now I face the prospect of a complete stranger. It could be great. I could also end up with a roommate with both a financial and philosophical aversion to paying rent. I had one such roommate and it cost me a fortune. 

Yet it has proven difficult to even have people look at the apartment. In the past month, I've had five people look at the place. All from very divergent backgrounds and all very nice, but they wanted to look at other places. This is a nice way of saying they aren't interested in moving in with you.

I was actually scheduled to show the apartment to a couple this morning, but they didn't show up. They didn't tell me they were behind schedule or contacted me to reschedule. Not so much as an apology. I wonder if they had any intention of seeing the place. I cannot help but think this was a scam for my address and phone number.

Indeed, most of the responses I've had to my ads have been scams. I can't tell you how many text messages I've had asking him to get in touch with their daughter by email, telling me to click this link (malware anyone?) or offering to send a cashier's check to pay for the rent sight unseen. 

After all, rent is no easy proposition in Boston. A decade ago, I was paying just under $1000 a month for a basement studio apartment in the Fenway. Then I got notice from my landlord that they were going to renovate the space and that I would have to leave. (As it turned out, someone else moved into the apartment. I guess the landlord just wanted to get rid of me for some reason unknown to me.)

In any case, Christopher was in a similar situation. So we joined forces and found this place. When we moved in, this two bedroom apartment cost $1150. This cut my rent almost in half. Come September 1st, the rent goes up to $1875. All things considered, this is a cheap rent for a two bedroom apartment in Boston. There are some studio apartments in this city which are more expensive. All things considered, I'm lucky. Had I tried to move into this apartment today, I am easily looking at a rent well over $2,000. 

Not surprisingly rent control is making a comeback of sorts. But it is decades late and many dollars short. Besides even if Massachusetts were to reinstate rent control (which was abolished in a 1994 state ballot initiative) it would set the controls at already high prices. What is needed are rent reductions. But landlords are here to make money and that ain't gonna happen. 

As it stands now, I have exactly four weeks to find a new roommate.

If you live in Boston, I have a room to spare.

MLB Notes for July: The Indians Are Lucky To Be In The AL Central

Don't get me wrong. The Cleveland Indians are a good ball club. They are certainly the best team in the AL Central with a comfortable 9 game lead over the Minnesota Twins.

But let's be honest. The Tribe is thanking their lucky stars they are in the AL Central where the Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Royals are likely to lose over 100 games with the Twins and the Detroit Tigers likely topping 90 losses. If the Indians were in the AL West they would be a fourth place team. The Indians would be 8.5 games back of the Houston Astros and 4.5 games back of the Seattle Mariners who remain in the second berth of the AL Wild Card. The Oakland A's are 3.5 games ahead of the Tribe. But if the season were to end today, the Indians would play in October and the A's would go home. (Of course this could change as the A's begin August only a game behind the Mariners for the second AL Wild Card spot.) The Los Angeles Angels are a .500 club, but if they were in the AL Central they would be five games back of the Tribe and would have been buyers instead of sellers at the trade deadline.

The margin would be even more dramatic if the Indians were in the AL East. While they would be in third place instead of fourth, but it would be of little consolation. The Indians would be 15.5 games back of the Boston Red Sox and 10.5 games back of AL Wild Card top spot holder New York Yankees. The Tampa Bay Rays are 20 games back of the Bosox. But if they were in the AL Central they would be 4.5 games back of the Tribe. Chances are they would not have traded Chris Archer and Nathan Eovaldi much less Jesus Colome earlier this season.

But barring a complete collapse, the Indians are going to the post-season. And when the playoffs begin every team is 0-0. Indians fans have been waiting 70 years for a World Series title. Should they win the World Series, Tribe fans won't care if they don't win 100 plus games. After all, the 1954 Cleveland Indians won a then AL record 111 games in 1954 only to be swept by Willie Mays' catch, Dusty Rhodes' pinch hitting along with the rest of the New York Giants.

There's not much I can say about the Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles or Texas Rangers and it's probably just as well.

The National League is a far less certain proposition. The Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers begin August tied for first in the NL Central. The Arizona Diamondbacks have a half game lead over both the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. After beginning July a game under .500, a 17-6 puts them back into the mix. Meanwhile in the NL East, the Philadelphia Phillies have a 1/2 game lead over the Atlanta Braves.

The Brewers (who are technically .002 points behind the Cubs, Rockies, Dodgers and Braves are in the thick of the NL Wild Card race. After a 17-9 July, the Pittsburgh Pirates have to be given serious consideration as well. The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants are just above .500, but have a fighting chance. The Washington Nationals begin August at .500. But when a 25-4 shellacking of the New York Mets reveals a clubhouse in chaos one wonders if firing Dusty Baker was such a good idea. I never thought so. You know things are bad when the Miami Marlins have a brighter future than the Nats.

Aside from the Mets and Marlins, the only teams in the NL that are truly out of it are the San Diego Padres and the Cincinnati Reds. The Padres went 5-20 in July and finished the month with seven straight losses.

I began this post in Ohio so let me end it there. While the Reds will very likely finish in the basement of the NL Central they are over .500 under Jim Riggleman after an awful 3-15 start under Bryan Price (who succeeded Dusty Baker). And yet he remains an interim manager. While Phillies' skipper Gabe Kapler is likely to win NL Manager of the Year, Riggleman deserves a strong vote. The Reds must remove the interim tag forthwith.