I, for one, need a mood-lifter. So here’d Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at his other gig, writing about sports for Grantland:
Oh, Won’t Someone Think of the Billionaires?
To paraphrase Mr. Hemingway’s famous reply to Mr. Fitzgerald — yes, the rich are different from you and me: They have more money than us, and a great many of them are a special kind of moron. Those of us who follow the sports-entertainment-industrial complex for a living take this as a given. Sooner or later, one of the various gazillionaires on our beat — whether that’s a gazillionaire who plays the game, a gazillionaire who broadcasts the games, or a gazillionaire who owns a franchise within the complex — will do something so existentially boot-headed that it makes us wonder how this person didn’t trade his last dollar for a bag of magic beans….… Over here, under the big top, we have Phil Mickelson, golfing legend, part-time economic analyst and political pundit, and, if we’re to judge recent events in the light most favorable to him, perhaps the biggest sucker in two tasseled shoes. On Friday, it was reported that the FBI buttonholed Mickelson after his round at the Memorial to talk with him about his possible knowledge of — and involvement in — an insider-trading scheme. Mickelson is maintaining his innocence and says he intends to cooperate fully with the federal authorities, there being no such thing as an “informal” chat with the FBI….
Phil Mickelson is a proud 1-percenter. So are the people who pay him to wear their logos. These include KPMG, which was hip-deep in the shenanigans that nearly blew up the world, and Barclay’s, a British bank that was out there rigging the game even after 2008. (Billy Walters isn’t the only guy in this story who knows his way around a sandbag.) So are most of the people with whom he schmoozes during the pro-ams and the sponsor events. When the world economy was left nearly in ruins, Phil Mickelson was one of the people capable of building a throne out of the rubble.
And he’s not shy about telling you, either. In January 2013, Mickelson opined that, in his considered opinion, the country was being sold into socialist bondage because his personal income tax rate had begun to inconvenience him. This got him wild applause in certain circles. Later that year, he went on TV and said that some of the CEOs with whom he regularly knocks it around were reluctant to hire people, not because they prefer to sit on large mountains of cash, but because of the Affordable Care Act. To be completely fair to Mickelson, I’m sure he golfs with CEOs and I’m sure some of them told him that very thing…
***********
Apart from yelling Jump, you fuckers! at the clouds, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
RaflW
I’m yelling “Do it, you fucker” at Lindsey Graham.
I want the impeachment vote. Git ‘er done, Huckleberry Hissyfit.
RaflW
And I’m procrastinating cleaning my room.
Yep, 48 years old and I still don’t want to make the bed or pick up the laundry. But tomorrow is Road Trip! so it’s gotta happen.
lamh36
Ok, I’m late to all the Berghdahl news and such today. Just got home from work.
Sad that the hometown had to cancel it’s homecoming for the soldier.
Jake Tapper is a piece of shit.
After reading everything, all I’m just saying, but why are these soldiers going to reporters instead of waiting to state their case against Bergdahl in military court. It’s unseemly to me. Why are they so hard-pressed to malign the character of this guy before an investigation? The ease with which the few I’ve seen have run to the press speaks of an effort to hang ‘em before he’s even tried.
I think it a crying shame. Call it swift boating or whatever, but it’s just as easy to tell reporters, no comment rather than sure I”ll come on tv
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@RaflW: If you aren’t at home, you won’t notice the mess.
raven
@lamh36: Tapper actually did a nice job calling McCain on his flip flop.
lamh36
Fuck Shep Smith for continuing to work for the devil.
WATCH: Fox’s Shepherd Smith contradicts network ‘yakety yak’ on Bergdahl
lamh36
@raven: Tapper is trying to cover his won ass…period.
Then had the nerve to tweet bullshit like this
plez Tapper, as if you werent’ activiely working to increse the damn DERP
raven
RaflW
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I know. But a friend is having foot surgery while we’re gone, and we’re offering her the joy of single level living and elevator service.
Sucks to be nice.
Redshift
@lamh36: It’s disgraceful. I always think they can’t be low enough to surprise me, but I’m always wrong. The Republican Party is now indistinguishable from the Westboro Baptist Church.
Two Minutes Hate – Orwell was an optimist.
ralphb
@lamh36: It’s an organized effort by Richard Grenell, the FP guy from the Romney campaign, who is arranging the interviews etc,
RaflW
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): As I get older, I’m starting to realize my mom was right, too. It does feel good to come home to a clean(-er) house after a trip.
Eghad, I said my mom was right.
What. Is. Happening. To. Me?
Redshift
Near my neighborhood, I saw a guy with a “Ralph Nader for President” sticker.
On a vintage Corvair.
Baud
Rachel showing Montana Senate dem running pro-choice ads.
lamh36
@raven:
Jake has been all about the interview withthe soldiers I mentioned above. he added that McCain bit, to appear “balanced”, but since the news broke of Bergdahl’s release, Tapper was actively trolling twitter looking for anti-Bergdahl persons to interview.
He helped to unleash the Kracken, and now trying say the usual..” both sides” bullshit
WaterGirl
I demand the Jump, you FUCKERS! photo be added to this thread. That photo always cheers me up.
Elmo
At this point, I’m like fuck it, bring on the fucking civil war you fuckers have been agitating for since November 2008.
You know what? Until recently, I could not understand how brothers could possibly be in opposite sides in 1863, and how horrible, blah blah blah. But my brothers have bought into Wingnut Reality, and they post Allen West bullshit on FB all the time. If those fuckers get their civil war, I will TOTALLY understand 1863, and I will not shed a fucking tear.
Elmo +many
David Koch
GOS has a great piece on all the wingers who were for Bergdahl’s release before they were against Bergdahl’s release.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/03/1304227/-The-way-back-machine-delivers-the-LOLs
raven
@lamh36: I posted the quote from the article I read, that’s it.
WaterGirl
@RaflW: No good deed goes unpunished! :-)
Just remember how nice it is to return to things looking nice.
Edit: second line was written before I saw you at #12.
Baud
@Elmo:
Civil War II: Electric Boogaloo.
raven
@Elmo: Yep, I cutoff all communication with my half-brother and his tebagger wife behind West. I still send the kids birthday and xmas gifts but if I never see him again I don’t give a fuck.
Emma
@lamh36: No, no. He’s the voice in the wilderness. Poor bastard. Though I do wonder who he has in the wringer, because only blackmail would keep him employed.
Mike in NC
Re: 25th anniversary of the Tienanman Square massacre in Beijing. Last week when we got off the tour bus at Palace Square in Saint Petersburg to go into the Hermitage, one of the geniuses in the group asked me if we were standing in Tienanman Square instead.
Burt Hutt
@Redshift: It has to be intentional irony, doesn’t it?
And the automotive pedant in me says that, with production ending in 1969, all corvairs are vintage.
Cacti
@Elmo:
Will never happen.
The confederate trash don’t have a slave labor force to keep their economy going this time around.
Elmo
@raven:
It’s not just West, but he’s a big tell. If you uncritically parrot a war criminal, you sure as hell aren’t applying reasoned judgment to Fox News bullshit or Michelle Malkin or any of the other grifters.
And as I’ve mentioned before, this is deeply personal to me – I married my partner of 25 years last September. So buying into the hate machine puts them really on the other side of me and my family. Fuck em. We share genetic code, whoop de fuckin doo.
Schlemizel
thought this link a friend sent me was interesting:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/documents-show-how-russias-troll-army-hit-america
sems Putin paid trolls to visit a lot of web sites. Anybody heard from BIP recently?
Schlemizel
@Elmo:
True story:
My brother was in a bad car wreck & suffered significant brain damage. One of the results was that be became a huge Limbaugh sheep. He has gone full metal wingnut, he even retired to Kansas because he thought the people there were better because they supported so many wingnut pols.
lamh36
@raven: Oh, I understand that.
I’ve been following Tapper’s twitter timeline since the news broke and he’s full of shit.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
2-2 Rangers & Kings after 2. Good game so far. Go Rangers!
Baud
@Cacti:
True. To the extent anything happens, it’ll mostly be McVeigh style terrorism.
jl
The first stage of my plan for the evening is to not watch any golf. That may change later depending on how hard it is to go to sleep.
I may announce further plans as they develop.
mainmata
Be kind to poor Phil Mickleson. He makes pharma ads for cable TV about some syndrome he has while teaching little white boys how to play golf. Hard life his. These people are so monumentally entitled and unimpressive.
Ash Can
@Schlemizel: Maybe he made his pile and retired to Sochi.
srv
I could not believe he was wearing the KPMG cap at the tournament last weekend after the news came out.
There are a lot of rich people running this world, but there are also a lot of stupid ones. I’ll leave the correlation and causation debate to McMegan.
RedKitten
Holy shit guys…there’s a libertarian gun nut on a shooting rampage about an hour north of me. He’s killed 3 RCMP officers already. https://twitter.com/CBCMoncton/status/474369591045783553
SatanicPanic
@lamh36: Damn, Colmes never had that much guts
SatanicPanic
@Baud: Or Ku Klux Klan style terrorism if they decide to really work hard. Full on civil war is still highly unlikely IMHO
Elmo
@Schlemizel:
Oh god, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. My own brothers don’t have any such excuse – they’re just willfully ignorant, heartless Irish bastards.
Culture of Truth
Golf fans are supposed to root for Phil and not Tiger. This is known. Tiger is profane and arrogant and too perfect and has all those affairs. Plus he’s struggled. And he’s cold or something. Phil is the People’s Champ. He’s lefty (like me) and has struggled and is nice to one and all. And he loves his wife and kids. Full confession — I do like Phil, but in spite of the infidelity, I still root for Tiger.
The main reason is that when he came alone he totally shook and changed a staid sport, and I still appluad that. Also, I started to resent being told I had to root for Phil because he was the Good Guy and Tiger was the Not Good Guy. So I snickered when I heard about this insider trading scandal. I hope he’s okay, but he’d better be careful. They got Martha Stewart.
Schlemizel
@Elmo:
I feel bad for him because he is perpetually angry now. But at least he has an excuse.
I feel worse for you, yours don’t have one.
Suffern ACE
@srv: I have no comment on the hat. I want to comment. But can’t. So leave poor Phil alone.
Ash Can
@RedKitten: Too close for comfort, that’s for sure. Stay safe.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@efgoldman: Is it okay to have always disliked Tiger Woods because he was always an unlikable asshole?
I’ve never liked Phil, either, if that matters.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I really just can’t stand golf.
askew
A family friend worked with many of the PGA members outfitting them with clubs and other gear and he said Phil is the biggest asshole he’s ever met. Wanted everything for free, rude to the staff, etc. And this guy never says a bad word about anyone.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@lamh36: I suspect that a part of it is the gag order the Army put on all of the soldiers involved. So they’ve been waiting five years to say what they think and that tends both to increase their vehemence and reduce their inhibitions about going ahead and saying their piece. It may not be right but I think it is understandable.
billB
To the extent that I watch golf [not ever] I rooted for Phil as a lefty, But now I can speak for all reasonable lefties when I say FCK you phil and your ill-gotten unappreciated fortune ! You are an insult to all lefties everywhere. You want back in the pack, you need to split the dough into
equal size pieces for every leftie on the planet and personally hand them to us.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@efgoldman: A more sinister bunch of people, I have never seen.
Ash Can
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Win.
trollhattan
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
And can we also, too, dispense with calling the hobby known as golf, a “sport?”
Thankyaverrmush.
Watched Monday’s Colbert Difference Maker segment on the dude in Florida using his yard as a shooting range. Holy fvcking shit. “Florida Man”
pseudonymous in nc
In a previous thread I asked about Mickelson: are you not rich enough?
And the answer, on reflection, is probably not. After all, he hangs out with the 0.001% Masters of the Universe, wears their brands on his shirts like a billboard, and probably thinks “these people, they make me look like a fucking pauper.”
What you can say about Mickelson is that he’s about as rich as a person can get for doing a job of work, i.e. hitting a ball around a park with a selection of sticks. But even that amount of wealth still means the bankers can hire you out for the day as (tax-deductible) corporate entertainment.
Culture of Truth
@efgoldman: True, but there was a time when the whole golf world was rooting for Tiger, because he brought a bajillion dollars to their sport.
Culture of Truth
@askew: Remarkable, since a majority of successful of PGA pros are bible-thmping winguts. This is known.
The Lodger
@lamh36: In a court-martial, there’s no jury to prejudice, just five officers, so these soldiers don’t have that hanging over their heads.
artem1s
@Culture of Truth:
@efgoldman:
I have family members who have Tiger derangement syndrome. they had this bizarre theory that Tiger was always faking his injuries. Needless to say they have had a similar reactions to the current occupant of the White House. They LUV Mickelson. Now I know why.
Applejinx
@lamh36: On the contrary, I’m delighted that Shep Smith is still being awesome.
He’s a southerner Fox anchor with an accent who looks absolutely terrific and embodies self-respect and the Southern code of honor in the best possible way, regardless of his environment or what others think or say.
He’s also gay and pushes back against right-wing lunacy when he finds it to be dishonorable, and far as I know he hasn’t been whipping his orientation on anyone at the network or its audience, which is another sort of Southern respect: a very non-pride-parade attitude based on a deeper notion of what it means to have civic values. Sort of like he has detente with his network and his audience over the points in which they differ.
I think if he says things like that, he carries weight that a thousand Daily Kos screeds fail to carry.
Love Shep Smith. No h… actually, never mind, I’d love Shep Smith any damn way he wanted. ;D
J R in WV
@Schlemizel:
My regrets and sympathy for your brother’s accident.
Interestingly, I had a b est friend cousin who had a severe head injury working on a construction site, a rock fell a considerable distance from a highwall, while he was bent over, so it hit him on the back of his head at the edge of his hard hat.
He had substantial injuries, and survived because his skull was broken enough for his brain to swell with minimal further damage.
Then he went full-metal-jacket wing nut Christian and became my only blood relative with a law license. Last time he called me he wanted me to promise to vote for Reagan.
So there is both scientific evidence AND good anecdotal evidence that extreme conservatism is related directly to brain damage or other lack of reasoning capability.
Again, sorry for your loss, if you know what I mean.