.
Okay, okay, late to the party and nobody cares anyway, but these commentaries amused me. Spencer Hall, at SBNation, on “the most unbelievable movie script ever made“:
… This Swiss guy is named Sepp Blatter. He somewhat stereotypically got his start at a watch company, and then turned his sights to running a corrupt sports nonprofit named FIFA that sold a giant soccer tournament that only happens once every four years, but involves the entire world…
The tournament (and a few others sponsored by the soccer organization) are popular enough to suck in money from everyone and everything imaginable: shoe companies, airlines, sports beverages empires, possibly evil giant Russian gas conglomerates, and television networks small and large. The Swiss guy made it all fantastically profitable at little cost to the soccer organization, often by getting host countries to build and run most everything for them. He made money.
The Swiss guy made a lot of money. He made a million dollars a year by his own accounts, though that number is believed to be much, much higher in reality. He made enough money to fund a feature-length movie about this organization, and to pay Tim Roth to play the corrupt Swiss guy despite bearing no resemblance to him whatsoever. He paid out bribes to maintain power, exacted bribes from those sports companies and countries desperate to host that huge tournament, and used all that solidarity and momentum to win elections, build bigger tournaments, and construct other things like a giant scary meeting room that looks exactly like the war room in Dr. Strangelove…
It goes on really well until someone gets very, very mad.
Correction: It goes well until a former United States President gets mad about one of those giant tournaments. The Swiss guy gives the giant tournament to a tiny desert nation named Qatar, which despite being tiny, infernally hot, not a traditional soccer power in any sense of the word, and covered in sand, is otherwise perfect for a giant tournament… One of those countries not in the running was the United States, and when the former American President hears this he reportedly breaks a mirror…
The aggrieved Americans begin a large and dedicated federal criminal investigation of the giant soccer organization using weird laws that allow them to basically arrest whomever they want as long as there is some money crossing American lines in an undeclared and untaxable way.…
Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Grantland, is older and therefore sadder about the whole mess:
… So much of our corruption is in plain sight these days. The events of the last decade lead invariably to the conclusion that in every booth on the midway every wheel is conspicuously rigged. For example, in the wake of the raids in New York and Zurich, several banks in the United Kingdom began reviews to see if they’d been used to put FIFA’s dirty money through the spin cycle. One of those banks was HSBC. In 2012, HSBC paid almost $2 billion to settle charges that it had laundered money for a number of international criminal enterprises. While the alleged crimes of FIFA are unprecedented in the context of the sports-entertainment industry, they are sadly typical of the way that international systems of corporate commerce and high finance operate…
Qatar, of course, represents a wide, clear window into the criminal depravity spawned by the corruption of soccer’s governing body and its corporate partners. Reports insist that the bidding process was crooked, which should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody at this point. But what has ensued since Qatar’s bid was accepted should, as the late Molly Ivins once put it, be enough to gag a maggot. Migrant laborers are held in virtual slavery to build the new venues in the tiny petro-state. One labor watchdog group estimates that 4,000 of these workers will die before all the stadia are built. Any sponsor associated with FIFA is engaging in accessorial conduct in regard to any of those deaths…
… But, significantly, the corporate partners are tippy-toeing around the swamp. Recent history tells us that expecting a strong stand on ethical behavior — which, in this case, would mean a strong stand against slave labor — is not something most major corporations remember how to do. For several decades, the same grab-it-all frenzy that overcame FIFA was encouraged in almost every aspect of the world economy and cheered on by many of the people who were on the business end of it when the whole thing came crashing down. All of the institutions that run our major sports were no exceptions to this rule. FIFA was only the most garish example. Nobody thinks they’re doing anything wrong as the whole world turns into Doha, and the whole world goes up for sale.
Little Boots
i have absolutely no idea what this “futbol” is about, but I kinda miss you.
Little Boots
seriously, just me? seriously?
okay.
john’s gonna be pissed.
Steeplejack
@Little Boots:
Okay, I brought the stack of 45s up from downstairs.
The Reflections, “Just Like Romeo and Juliet.”
This is before your time, but I heard it on SiriusXM while motoring down from Philadelphia and thought, “Boots would like this. Or he goddamn should.” And I know you’ve got to share my appreciation for the go-go dancers. Although the main one in this video is a little, uh, ruminative. I’m guessing Vassar ’68, interpretive dance major. Whatever.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
That “Oo-oo!” chorus puts me in mind of Major Lance, “Monkey Time.”
NotMax
Well, duh.
Steeplejack
Special request on behalf of my brother, who couldn’t remember this song at dinner earlier tonight: Aztec Camera, “Oblivious.” He was thinking “Delirious.” What a maroon.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
No idea why, but that triggered a memory of a 45 by The Essex.
jl
Warriors have to figure out how to play the Cavaliers when they go into their slow-it-down defensive style of game.
Edit: looks like they have three games to figure it out.
Edit2: speaking of corruption in sports, why don’t the Cavaliers just play in a way that makes it easy for the Warriors to beat them? Huh? I smell something fishy.
But, I think the games the two teams played this year were all close, so, the plot goes very deep.
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
the best. i think.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Good one! Haven’t heard that in a while.
Little Boots
steeplejack, why are you so awake?
Little Boots
let’s talk florence. amazing city. amazing artwork. just … go, if you can.
Amir Khalid
@Little Boots:
You should also check this one out. I think you’ll like it: Bebaskan by Marsha Milan
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Reminds me of this, which I had to struggle to pull up from memory: Sandra King, “Leave It Up to the Boys.”
ETA: Damn, I love this song! Haven’t heard it in a long time. Thanks for dislodging the memory.
mikej
The reaction has been really weird. A lot of, “how dare the United States try to prosecute these blantent crimes!” and “everybody knows FIFA is corrupt, it’s silly to arrest anyone for it.”
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
That link works. Good song.
Little Boots
@Amir Khalid:
nice, omnes would be proud of you.
Steeplejack
@Little Boots:
I’m feeling the Zen vibe of “Crystal Blue Persuasion.”
Actually, I was wiped out when I got back from the trip yesterday. Got a lot of sleep, took it easy today, and purely by chance had a great conversation with my brother after dinner at his house tonight. Talked about a lot of family history and felt really energized when I got home. I don’t have to be anywhere or do anything in particular tomorrow morning, so I’m letting the music carry me.
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
as long as you’re here. cause I have missed you.
karen marie
@Little Boots: I was able to sneak up to the top of the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio. It was early June and the morning after the Festa della Repubblica celebration. Nobody was paying attention, so up I went. Phenomenal view of a phenomenal city. One of my personal favorites.
Little Boots
@karen marie:
THAT is very cool. climbed the duomo, but then you’re supposed to. you are more cool.
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
again, nice. again, oh, just nice.
Goblue72
Say what you want about Bill Clinton, but the man can ball.
Little Boots
oh,let’s all just … it’s midnight still somewhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMc8naeeSS8
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: That’s actually… pretty good pop!
Reminds me, though, to be amused by all the wide-eyed western mediots who could not imagine why Frozen was so popular even in “exotic” locales like Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. First of all, I’d assume all the sparkly winter stuff was just as fascinatingly “exotic” to moviegoers who’d never heard of the Nordic ice-hells as tropical islands are in Peoria. But mostly, a film whose message says “Romance is a lovely concept for the young & silly, but when your life is on the line, best to trust your family“ hardly requires a lot of cross-cultural explanation.
Steeplejack
@Little Boots:
Thanks. Had a bit of a rough patch in the late spring. Didn’t feel sociable, felt irritable. Mostly stayed off commenting but tried to keep up with reading the threads.
Little Boots
@Anne Laurie:
we don’t own winter? when did that happen?
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
what was your rough patch, it you want to talk about it. otherwise, just post music.
Steeplejack
@Little Boots:
Your signature song! Along with this one, of course.
Anne Laurie
@Little Boots:
Hell (literally), after this last winter in Boston, you Wisconsinites are welcome to claim the patent!
Amir Khalid
@Anne Laurie:
I’m not sure how popular the Malay version of Frozen is, actually. We Malaysians tend to consume international pop culture in English, which is very widely spoken here.
Steeplejack
@Little Boots:
Depression/PTSD nipping at my heels. ’Nuff said.
Little Boots
@Anne Laurie:
oh, damn, did you guys go through it. damn.
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
oh goddammit, i know. too much, but I do love it. and thanks.
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
oh, wow, you never know. damn. glad you are better.
Steeplejack
Might have to go watch Rashomon for a bit. At least a little way into it. (On TCM.)
Aaron
Bill Clinton for the kill shot! Bam!!
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
should watch it twice, and again, and again, and again.
and then from different angles.
Little Boots
everyone loves this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEZH0t5Yozw
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, no. Rashomon—and Sanjuro at 4:00—is going on the DVR, and I’ll watch it later.
Think I’m about to turn in. The energy wave has crested. Have a good (rest of the) night, all.
Steeplejack
@Little Boots:
LOL. Well played.
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
don’t blame you. will miss you. but don’t blame you.
i might just hang out here awhile though.
Steeplejack
@Little Boots:
Another good one.
ETA: John Mayall, “California.”
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
you are awesome.
just… want to say, you are awesome. and it’s nice.
sorry if you have been depressed.
Little Boots
damn, just realized in my stupid drunken way, were you overseas, steeplejack? was that the ptsd?
Steeplejack
@Little Boots:
No, the PTSD is not military, or sexual or even dramatic at all. Just two occasions of intense physical trauma spaced years apart (16 days in the hospital for one, five days for the other). Think car wreck, although neither incident was that. But the body remembers, and occasionally in a down cycle I have to deal with a fight/flight/freeze thing, where for me it comes down to freeze—don’t do anything, maximum inertia, like trying to move with the emergency brake on, etc. That’s about all I want to say about it at this point. Things are better now.
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
well, okay then. no need to say more.
long as you post music. you know how freakin annoying I am about that. but I love it.
Steeplejack
John Mayall, “So Hard to Share.”
Little Boots
and what I am these days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOaXTg3nAuY
Little Boots
@Steeplejack:
and … awesome.
Tree With Water
The Qataris will of course be furious if the World Cup is for some reason cancelled, and I won’t blame them one bit. Especially after all the hassles entailed in replacing hundreds of foreign slave laborers who’ve succumbed to heat stroke (and other, less dramatic reasons). Suffice to say, that hassle is ongoing. At this point, it’s only fair that Qatar be warned if it’s worth their time and money to continue construction. Soccer fans everywhere hope Attorney General Lynch is cognizant of those best efforts, and says or does nothing that further jeopardizes Qatar’s World Cup venues. She owes them that much at least, after gumming up the FIFA works. The soccer loving laborers who gave their life for those venues deserve no less.
Another Holocene Human
@Anne Laurie: It’s funnier when they get all grumpy that a movie titled “Captain America” did shitty overseas #s in the context of America invading every country and breaking their shit for almost a decade before it came out.
Or complaining that crappy fad comedies bomb overseas. The only reason they’re profitable in the US is that they’re made on a shoestring by corporate Hollywood standards. And don’t forget DVD sales/rentals, ready for a sucker who needs to rent some funny movies fast and will choose them based on cover art.
(Comedy can translate. Who hasn’t seen The Gods Must Be Crazy? And I loved Cairo, Nest of Spies. But I’ve been an American all my life and White Girls still wasn’t funny.)
Another Holocene Human
@Steeplejack: Have you tried any of the newer therapies? I ask because I’ve interacted with the psychiatric profession unhelpfully for years and just 2 years ago I finally lucked out with a clinical psychologist who was up on what the research was validating and I made tons of progress. Cured panic attacks with talk therapy (it was CBT, fwiw), no lie. Finally referred me to a psychiatrist for meds because the depression wouldn’t shift, but we’re working on awareness meditation which is a no-meds way to do what LSD does, which is kind of hard to obtain around here. There is a new therapy out there for PTSD, which is why I mentioned it. (I came in just under the PTSD threshold in terms of the symptoms I was throwing out. All of it due to childhood trauma. Don’t worry, I paid for that small blessing by becoming deeply emotionally numb.)
Arclite
Basically, “No one fucks with the USA and gets away with it.”
Marc
The rest of the world is pretty much cheering the US on here, not upset with it. The complainants seem to be the domestic “I hate the US government crowd”, for whom anything that the Obama administration does is wrong. Calling the anti-money laundering laws in the US “wierd laws that allow them to arrest anybody” is horseshit, and makes me uninteresting in reading anything that precious little propagandist writes.
Poor little corrupt corporate hacks, victims of the good old USA, only upset because they didn’t get to host the World Cup.
Does Putin really pay that well?
Tripod
@Marc:
Apparently Platini got a painting straight out of the Hermitage.
Steeplejack
@Another Holocene Human:
What is the “new therapy out there for PTSD” to which you refer?
catclub
@Arclite: Attack on USS Liberty excepted.