Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Come on, man.

The revolution will be supervised.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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53Comments

  7. 7.

    catclub

    It seems like the NBA may act super fast on booting him out – with a zillion dollars – but still.

    if it twists in the wind AND the Clips lose this series that would make for interesting recriminations.

  8. 8.

    The Dangerman

    Those sounds you hear in the background are the billable hours being rung up by all the lawyers for the League (who presumably want Sterling gone) and Clipper ownership. The legal battles could be epic.

    If reports are true (the NBA constitution is a private document), about the only way to get Sterling to lose the team is if there was some sort of gambling involved, so unless Sterling shorted his team in Vegas prior to outing himself as a massive dick, this will got to the courts (especially since any recordings done without consent are illegal in CA).

    What is it with LA and dick owners (the McCourts were going to be pretty hard to beat but the Sterlings apparently made them look like amateurs)?

  9. 9.

    scav

    Learning from experience, even recent, isn’t one of their strengths either. Fun to watch.

    I admit, I’ve been waiting for Elon for it seems months now. Can’t decide if it’s the spluttering or the breathless huhs? that I’m most looking forward to.

  11. 11.

    The Dangerman

    @Belafon:

    It’s not just LA.

    True enough, but McCourt and Sterling are going to be a hard pair to beat (and, if you want to go back a little ways, we had Frontiere and Al Davis, not to mention the Kings owner (McNall?) that turned out to be a complete crook).

    ETA: Maybe it’s karmic justice for getting Vin Scully and having Chick Hearn all those years.

  14. 14.

    dubo

    @John O: Well, if there’s anybody who would know about a Sports Figure losing his job for being a repellant racist…

  15. 15.

    jl

    @John O: From what I’ve read about Sterling, he seems pretty apolitical. Seems like he’ll throw something to either side for some access if there is something in it for him. Just hasn’t seen a reason to give much for last 15, 20 years or so.

    So, his politics shouldn’t really be a big issue in this mess. But, if the reactionaries want to make noxious fools of themselves, who am I to stop them? Keep ’em coming, folks!

  16. 16.

    Waspuppet

    He became a Republican in 1998? Must’ve been because of the Clenis.

    Which is perfectly understandable. Can’t have a married man in a position of power running around with another woman. That’s shameful.

  19. 19.

    John O

    @jl:

    I have the same impression of the guy. He’s in it for the money.

    It sure has been fun watching the conservative movement lately. I think they’re dying a slow (it will take a long time), painful, very public death, and this has been a tough month on the health front for them.

    I blame Obamacare.

  20. 20.

    The Dangerman

    @jl:

    From what I’ve read about Sterling, he seems pretty apolitical.

    What’s laughable about this thing about campaign contributions is the fact that he’s well known as a notoriously cheap bastard; the team used to play in the Sports Arena (a dump) and, for years (decades?), the teams training facilities were well below standard (go back and look at the history of Clippers and serious injuries, for example, Danny Manning and Shaun Livingston). Commentators this morning were making note of him lowballing his employees because they were African American; no, he lowballed them because that was his modus operandi. Hell, he stiffed Dunleavy out of 12M and, obviously, he’s white. How he transitioned over the past few years into a more “responsible owner” (training facilities are first rate, picked up expensive free agents, etc) is a mystery.

  21. 21.

    John O

    OT, but did everyone see this story? What’s the over-under on the time it’s going to take for the first mass casualty circular firing squad the NRA fetishizes about in GA?

    Or perhaps this is the only guy in GA with huge issues related to his crank.

  22. 22.

    GregB

    Can we start calling them Bowel Movement Conservatives? Because everything they advocate turns to shit.

  23. 23.

    gnomedad

    @John O:
    It strikes me that even the lowest of the lowlifes like Limbaugh have moved from mere gross distortion to pure Making Shit Up. Doubleplusgood duckspeakers, all of them.

  25. 25.

    John O

    @gnomedad:

    Yep. And over time enough people are going to believe their previously lying eyes and turn on these Einstein’s to make elections very hard to win for the GOP.

    For example, via Kevin Drum, I wonder where this guy gets his news? And which way he votes?

    My favorite bit was where he says this isn’t about politics for him, even after the ACA saved his life. Translation: Still a Republican.

  26. 26.

    Belafon

    @John O: They just need more good parents with guns showing up, and we all know the bullets will magically miss the children.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @The Dangerman:

    How he transitioned over the past few years into a more “responsible owner” (training facilities are first rate, picked up expensive free agents, etc) is a mystery.

    My guess is that somebody convinced him that the Clippers would be even more profitable if they were good. His attitude toward the Clippers has always been to put return on investment over success as a team, and that’s mean controlling costs rather than trying to be successful in the standings. If somebody convinced him he’d make more money by trying to win, especially when a good enough core of a team fell into his lap that it was a reasonable prospect, I have no trouble believing that he’d go along.

  30. 30.

    John O

    @Belafon:

    Yeah, that one made me laugh so hard I put it up on my FB page with text that only said, “Let freedom reign!” to torture some of my conservative gun-nut friends. No one bit. Surprise surprise.

  31. 31.

    The Dangerman

    @Roger Moore:

    My guess is that somebody convinced him that the Clippers would be even more profitable if they were good.

    Perhaps, but it’s always been the case that something “good” is more “valuable”. He always resisted.

    My guess is he’s not been controlling the team for a while because of health issues and, as yesterday, I’m wondering about dementia. I read some of his depositions someplace (TPM?) this morning in this lawsuit he (or his wife) filed and it’s pretty damned far out there.

  32. 32.

    Cacti

    @Jamey:

    Sorry, but the Wilpons, Jim Dolan, Woody Johnson, the family Steinbrenner, et al still take the cake for shitty team ownership.

    Pikers all of them, compared to Daniel Snyder.

  33. 33.

    Patrick

    @John O:

    Limbaugh claimed:

    The only reason he’s in trouble is because he did not give enough money to Obama.”

    This is just dumb. Obama raised a whopping billion dollars. Why would he care if Sterling gave him more or less?

  36. 36.

    Violet

    @gnomedad:
    Well, Limbaugh probably isn’t wrong about this (from the link upthread):

    “It’s been so widely know by everybody in the NBA, everybody in the sports media for 10-15 years,” Limbaugh said. “Everybody in the media, from LA to New York, who’s acting shocked about this, I’m telling you they’ve known who this guy is for the longest time. They’ve known he is a slum lord. They know that he is a racist. They know that he’s basically a despicable human being, and now he may be demented.”

    Not sure about the “demented” part, but the rest of it is likely true.

    The willingness of the entire NBA league, the sports media, and so forth to ignore his behavior is part of the story. Why’d they do that?

  39. 39.

    Violet

    @raven: Okay, sure. Money. But how or why? This kind of situation is a mess for the NBA. Lawsuits could follow–poor working conditions, etc. Not to mention the branding problems since now it has come out that they’ve know for a long time. They stand to lose money. They could have avoided that by getting rid of him.

    The media could have shed light on it. Some reporter or network could have made a name for themselves with a series of stories on it. How was Sterling buying their silence? And how did that benefit the media?

  40. 40.

    scav

    @Violet: The “demented” part is useful as it provides an additional rationale for not thwomping him harder. Poor old addled long-term all-round creep, let’s tuck you into bed with a hot-water bottle filled with heated sparkling water because that’s how it was done in the past. Different generation, you know, just have to let them be shits as you can’t expect any better. My father and grandfather ran cattle and abused the mud people for generations over this land, how dare there be costs or consequences, let alone limitations on what I do now! Society is too big, it doesn’t change!

    People don’t call their buddies, their family on crap behavior all the time, just to maintain peace and collegiality, for the sake of cheerful Thanksgiving dinners and not getting bad press (dirty laundry privately laundered or ignored). NBA honchos may have played that move for a little too long.

  41. 41.

    SatanicPanic

    @scav: Plus racist is the worst thing you can call anyone and an abridgement of their free speech rights under the First Amendment so we must all be careful not to call anyone that if they’re not wearing a hood on the Jerry Springer show. And it’s just not polite.

  42. 42.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Violet: Kareem has a post up making that and other interesting points (This is who he’s always been, the tape shouldn’t be what set you off, the tape was illegal and makes him feel sleazy listening to it, etc.)

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    From the listing of sleazy team owners I have to ask, are any of them worth a shit? I know there have been some pretty well run/coached teams over the years but the owners seem like assholes. Anyone know any that aren’t?

  45. 45.

    jl

    @Ruckus: So many owners are slimeballs, I am getting curious about how many major sports leagues have restrictions on the type of ownership; to keep the rich slimeball ownership quotient up.

    Have other major sports leagues banned public ownership, like the NFL did to prevent more Green Bays from popping up?

  46. 46.

    piratedan

    said it over at LGF and repeat it here…. what is sad is that for some reason the GOP feels a need to keep score on the issue. What most of us understand is that it simply doesn’t matter who this asshat is associated with politically, it’s that the comments in and of themselves are reprehensible, as is racism in and of itself. The issue isn’t keeping score on “you have just as many racists as we do”, what sucks is that in this day and age when America has grown up enough to elect a man of color to its highest office that we’re still having to deal with these troglodytes because of that very said same event.

    It shouldn’t matter a tinkers damn what party he’s registered with, what matters is that this guy is a scuzzbucket (who has long been documented to be one, but because his team was irrelevant, he somehow gets a pass… go figure) and his personal views were publicized in a very public way that happened in a media cycle where the focus on that particular sports league is at its highest. The difference between our political parties is that one is attempting to hold to some kind of standard that is a reflection of the ethics/morals of the majority of the public and the other plays with its own poo.

  47. 47.

    maya

    @Patrick:

    Obama raised a whopping billion dollars. Why would he care if Sterling gave him more or less?

    Obama arranged all of this, including the trophy mistress, right after the election. Seems to have worked out well, don’t you think? Just hope there are no incriminating emails floating around like: “Time for some sports franchise closure.”

  48. 48.

    LAC

    @The Dangerman: another old white man with the dementia issue. It’s going around kids! Look out! One minute you are just joe average , next minute you are screeching racist things. Won’t you help? A dollar a day can save these dementia addled men. (Cue sad music and close ups of watery eyed old men)

  49. 49.

    Just One More Canuck

    You ever hear of Harold Ballard? If the fact that the Maple Leafs were generally bad, occasionally gusting to decent, and he pissed off their former players so much that a lot of them stayed away for years and one still won’t come back over 20 years after Ballard died, the Gardens sex scandal makes him the worst owner ever

  51. 51.

    different-church-lady

    @maya:

    Obama arranged all of this, including the trophy mistress…

    Actually Bill Clinton probably arranged the trophy mistress, shortly after he gave Obama’s acceptance speech at the 2012 convention.

  53. 53.

    Bill in Section 147

    @The Dangerman: I am not getting how Al Davis fits in to this. You can love him or hate him but he didn’t ever do anything that was racist or illegal. And most of what people hate him for has nothing to do with anything he actually did. As far as owners go his biggest crime is not starting out rich.

    The worst thing he ever actually did was to accept a bunch of money from Irwindale for considering their stadium plan. They offered a plan, he rejected it and kept the money. It was not fair to take advantage of the city of Irwindale.

    People blame him for moving the team. He had a deal worked out to keep the team in Oakland and the NFL colluded with the Joint Powers Authority to undermine the deal so he moved the team. The Raiders/Al Davis won that case in court. Pete Roselle did collude with the JPA to screw the Raiders.

    It is ridiculous to even compare his record as an owner and a commissioner with any other person when it comes to civil rights and equality. First modern-era black quarterback selected in the draft. First modern-era black coach. First modern-era Hispanic quarterback. First modern-era Hispanic coach. Part of the owners referee oversight committee to allow African American referees in the league. First owner of any major sports franchise to hire a woman as CEO.

    He, like all of us, had faults and had/did things that he did you could condemn but I don’t think it is fair to throw him in this shitbath.

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