Dear Dodgers

by | Aug 30, 2020 | Racism, Society, Sports | 357 comments

Andrew Friedman
Dodger Stadium
1000 Vin Scully Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012

 

Mr. Friedman,

My dog is named Kershaw.

I’ve been a diehard fan of the Dodgers since the days of Maury Wills, Bill Sudakis, Duke Sims and Claude Osteen. My father regaled my brothers and me with stories about his heroes Robinson, Campanella and Koufax.  I saw Maddux pitch in my Hajj to Dodger stadium in 2007.  I basked in Hershiser’s glory in 1988.

The best front office in the game has built a franchise that is poised to win a thousand games over the next decade – I thought this year would end 30 years of “wait til’ next year.”

The Dodgers and MLB are now dead to me.

Wednesday’s game is cancelled so the players can make a contentless, vapid, shallow, but fashionable statement about racial issues in the US.

Clayton Kershaw and Mookie Betts feel a need to raise my consciousness.

The issues of police brutality/unaccountability have informed my politics since before either of them was born. I’ve spent decades reading scores of articles by Radley Balko and others regarding the perverse incentives and horrible effects of:

– the drug war

– police militarization

– no knock raids

– civil asset forfeiture

– training police to regard everyone as threats to be dominated

– dogs as probable cause generators.

I understand that African Americans bear the brunt of a disproportionate amount of these harmful policies. For 40 years I’ve been sneered at by democrats who then turn around and mindlessly vote for democratic council candidates who proceed to protect police officers with ridiculously lenient contract provisions. For 40 years I’ve been sneered at by republicans who mindlessly justify any heinous act by law enforcement officers and treat the fourth and fifth amendments like they’re toilet tissue.

I’ve watched BLM hijack a righteous issue, crib the policy suite that Reason magazine has been pushing since the nineties and use it to pursue a marxist agenda like it’s 1848.

I’m offended that a couple of $30 million political neophytes and their pals have the nerve to lecture me about these issues with nothing more substantial to say than, “We can no longer be silent.”  How long before the Dodgers require fans to engage in ritual incantations of “black lives matter” as each fan passes through the turnstiles.

I have cancelled my mlb.tv account and I shall give the Dodgers no more of my attention.

With a heavy heart,

RHofUlster

Cc:  Dave Roberts, Clayton Kershaw, Mookie Betts, Stan Kasten

About The Author

Rhofulster

Rhofulster

Liberty loving, collectivism hating guy. I like to think that in a past life I was Erasmus, more likely I was a swineherd in Eire. Since I was part of the idiot mob that ran Belichek out of Cleveland, since Reggie Miller retired, and since I've cancelled the Dodgers, I guess it's just me and the Buckeyes. Favorite quote: "Who the hell has time to be a rational man." - Bolzan Brush with greatness: I once gave Kmele Foster a lift to CMH.

357 Comments

  1. leon

    My dog is named Kershaw.

    You can just tell everyone you’re a big Nick Kershaw fan.

    • blackjack

      I thought he meant the knives?

      • Sean

        #metoo

      • westernsloper

        #metoo

      • Homple

        Kershaw the Cajun fiddler?

    • Rhywun

      You can just tell everyone you’re a big Nick Kershaw fan.

      And don’t let the sun go down on you.

      • leon

        wouldn’t it be nice?

      • Ted S.

        Although he searches himself, it’s always someone else he sees?

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        You go in hard and deep enough, you’ll see historical figures, from what I’ve been told.

    • Don escaped Duopoly

      went to highschool in Park Cities: a Scot

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        Let’s be honest, here–that ho ain’t livin’ in no double-wide. Not with those looks.

  2. UnCivilServant

    Why would you be mailing a letter to Los Angeles to address the Brooklyn Dodgers?

    • Trolleric the Goth

      I bet you say it “angle-ease” instead of “anjuh-luss” too, don’t you?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Which one is the pretentious pronunciation?

      • UnCivilServant

        Don’t be silly. It’s Lows Angi-less

      • Rhywun

        UCS is Bugs Bunny?

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve never been to Albuquerque. let alone made a wrong turn there.

      • DrOtto

        See you in St. Louie, screwy.

  3. SP

    Well said.

    We are completely done with pro sports at this point. We haven’t once attempted to watch an MLB game this year, and haven’t looked at or even for a schedule for the NFL.

    We used to be two life-long sports fans, including going to games and subscribing to premium channels. No more.

    • egould310

      Yep. The Gould household is now Dodgers/Lakers/Raiders/Buckeyes free. Congratulations to the Marxists; you killed sports.

      On the other hand, I’m spending alot more time playing guitar. I’m kinda starting to shred. So that’s cool.

      • Sean

        ??

      • Rhywun

        Congratulations to the Marxists; you killed sports.

        Efforts to kill family, education, entertainment, and civilized society continue.

      • Chafed

        With some success.

      • westernsloper

        When do we get the egould youtube channel: Cocktails with Perrier and guitar covers.

      • Rhofulster

        Crap. What am I missing about the Buckeyes?

      • Gender Traitor

        Well, one of them got shot.

      • egould310

        The Big Ten cancelled the football season. Because player safety.

        If the schools/admins/conferences were really interested in player safety, they would not sanction football. It’s a violent sport. But every kid that’s playing it loves it. And the Marxists hate it and they successfully conspired to take it away.

        Oh yeah. OSU football pays the bills for all the other sports programs. So goodbye to wrestling, fencing, cross country, volleyball, etc.

      • Homple

        The owners, players and sports writers killed sports.

    • hayeksplosives

      My spousal unit received an email confirmation of our auto renewal of NFL.Com, which I de-enrolled in and cancelled a month ago.

      So now I have to waste my time calling and putting it right.

      They must be hemorrhaging cash now to pretend to ignore online game access cancellation requests.

      • Ted S.

        For some reason this year they extended the old subscriptions to end at the end of August instead of the end of July.

        I was wondering why I didn’t get an email back in July about renewing Game Pass. I too didn’t renew, but that’s because last season it was possible to stream the audio from the websites of the stations running the game if you did it on a desktop PC. The NFL app was cutting in and out too, so I decided to listen to the games from the radio stations’ sites instead.

    • l0b0t

      SP, thank you for answering my vegetable yogurt question. While it’s not my cup of tea, I find the chemistry quite fascinating.

    • Rhofulster

      Thanks, SP. The last few days have been weird. I don’t really feel sad, just kind of numb.

    • Old Man With Candy

      What would it take for me to give up my love for the Ravens and the Orioles?

      Yep, that.

  4. blackjack

    When I was a kid, you could not escape major sports figures. They were super stars. They’d appear on TV shows, at awards ceremonies, basically everywhere. Even if you couldn’t care less about sports, you knew who they were. Fucking box of wheaties had pictures of them. Now, I don’t know who any of these fucks are and I don’t care. Great running and ball playing, Joe Schmoe. Very impressive. Enjoy your millions per year salary. Who cares. I do win super bowl pools sometimes, I think because I have no clue. I pick stuff nobody else would and it pays off, LOL.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Hah. At one of my jobs we had a weekly NFL pool that was very popular. More often than not, the winner was a girl who made her picks based on team color, or which animal mascot they liked best.

      • mikey

        My wife got banned from her office college football pool for winning so much. She decided which school she would go to for an education and chose the other one to win.

      • SP

        I bet I’d like your wife.

      • Cy

        Wowa… slow down there turbo.

      • Chafed

        That’s awesome.

  5. westernsloper

    – dogs as probable cause generators.

    Most excellent way to put it.

  6. Rhywun

    I feel like changing a name here and there and sending this out to every league I used to watch. The mid-game circle-jerk they pulled during a soccer match I was watching the other day was the last straw.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    *stands, applauds vigorously*

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Buried in a twitter thread linked earlier (don’t ask me where) was this (roughly as I remember it):

    “I have needed a doctor, and a truck driver, and a grocery store clerk. I have never needed a point guard.”

  9. The Bearded Hobbit

    For me it was the adoption of the DH by the NL that killed it for me. I could always claim that the AL was playing “DH Ball” rather than baseball. No longer; there is no more pro “baseball” in the country.

    My local team, The Isotopes (formerly The Dukes) is a farm team for the Dodgers. While the Dodgers were NL the farm team played “DH Ball” for some reason. Seems to me that if you found a pitcher who could actually hit then you’d have a potential superstar on your hands.

    Buh-bye pro sports. Was always a casual fan, now I’m a non-fan.

    • Gustave Lytton

      They’ve been slowly killing the difference for some time. Umpiring is no longer a league domain and so on.

    • Fourscore

      The sports left me. When the Lakers left Mpls I quit them. When the Mpls Millers became the Twins I quit them. They won’t have Ol’ Fourscore to push around anymore.
      I saw Bud Grant play his first game with the Lakers, yeah, Bud was a hoopster too. Willie Mays in his first game with the Millers. Knot Hole games for kids. I rarely watch any sports or TV much any more, too busy.

    • Gender Traitor

      I just home our local Single A team makes it back next year. : (

      • Annoyed Nomad

        The Dragons definitely make the games an entertaining time, even if the actual game kinda sucks.

        The Mrs and is were picked for one of the between-innings completions and won against another couple (friends).

      • Annoyed Nomad

        “The Mrs and I”

        We were also at the game where the opposing pitcher went wacko, threw a ball at a Dragon’s player with the intention to hurt him, but hit a spectator instead and was arrested. That was a crazy night.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’m pretty sure we missed that one. I think we were there the following night.

      • Gender Traitor

        Tom T once got tapped for Polar Pullover (get a frozen t-shirt pulled open and put on first) and won by cheating – stuck one arm through the neck hole for that fetching off-the shoulder look.

      • Annoyed Nomad

        Ha! I haven’t seen that one. We did the one where the wives flipped bean bags back over their heads ( their backs to the husbands) and the husbands had to catch them on a big platter. We had a rhythm going and only missed once. The winners got Dragons t-shirts; but the other wife (a good friend of my wife) smooth- talked so that they also got t-shirts.

  10. robc

    It seems unrelated, but did anyone listen the recent econtalk podcast with Mike Mungor on debundling the college experience?

    • salted earth

      yes

      • robc

        I liked the trolling that in Mike’s essay the 4 buildings representing the college experience didnt include the classroom building.

        The connection was the part on the Stadium.

      • salted earth

        Seems like most of the value is in the social interaction/connections and not learning. Becoming part of a larger tribe (beyond the family), with its own identifiers (a diploma, mascot, and school colors).

      • robc

        I thought it went well with Caplan’s signaling theory.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        NaCl,

        How did the meetup go? I was sorely tempted as we were in the area at the time but we are dealing with my sick mom and I couldn’t break free.

      • Plinker762

        It was fucking amazing. You lost out big time.

      • salted earth

        Sorry to hear about your mom.
        It went well, I didn’t get horribly murdered by strangers! We had a nice conversation and Tripacer brought his adorable dog.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        We’re going back to western Montana in a few days (Hint, hint). We will be there and then, (hopefully) heading east to the Honey Harvest.

        Trying to avoid the co-panic.

      • salted earth

        sodium at proton mail dot com

      • Plinker762

        I’m going to bring my shovel the next one.

      • salted earth

        just make sure i’m dead before you start shoveling, i have a fear of being buried alive.

      • salted earth

        just make sure i’m dead before you start shoveling, i have a fear of being buried alive.

      • tripacer

        I’m just glad she was on her best behavior that day.

      • Gender Traitor

        You mean salted earth? : )

      • tripacer

        They both were!!!

      • tripacer

        I’d title the event “Three introverts and a corgi walk into a bar”

      • Plinker762

        Only two walked into the bar

      • tripacer

        That’s true. Technically correct is the best kind of correct.

      • salted earth

        me, i exercised my female privilege and let the men do the heavy lifting

      • salted earth

        If you are in the area again let us know, we can set something up.

  11. hayeksplosives

    My university was a land grant college that was light on the soft degrees like letters and sociology and anything that ends in “studies,”

    We were heavy on engineering and on veterinary medicine.

    Now I’m sad to say that they are rolling out plans to track student locations on campus at all times, you know, to better protect us from covid.

    • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

      Ah, the freedom of young adult-hood!

      Don’t get me started on this f’n joke of an experiment with student housing at my campus*. Mein Gott, are these kids cranially screwed.

      *my community college campus ?

    • Akira

      Now I’m sad to say that they are rolling out plans to track student locations on campus at all times, you know, to better protect us from covid.

      The same people I know who lambasted G.W. Bush for his post-9/11 surveillance bullshit are now insisting that the government must be able to monitor everyone’s location at all times. Depressing.

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        B-b-but, the terrorists are over there….COVID is right here!

    • blackjack

      It’s about 15 miles from me. Not a lot of shooting on Ventura blvd. It’s kind of higher end.

    • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

      Three people….in an apartment that is supposedly surrounded by a SWAT team. And nary a soul found?

      Ah!–That’s taxpayer money well spent

  12. blackjack

    Shots fired at San Fernando Valley Trump rally. Looks like no one got hit. Some lady got a flat tire after hearing some cracking sounds. Swat team has a building surrounded. Crazy shit.

    • Tulip

      Wow

    • Gustave Lytton

      That goddam Trump stoking up violence. He’s trying to start a civil war.

  13. Don escaped Duopoly

    Sports isn’t any different to me than any other arena: people spouting nonsense at inappropriate times doesn’t terribly bother me because I have that sort of thing set to IGNORE all the time. I don’t care about your billboard, your bumper-sticker, your cap, or your kneeling.

    I watch sports for sports and ignore all the other stupid comments. Mostly I record events and fastforward through commercials, opening ceremonies, pretty much everything that isn’t a play. I FFWD through seventh inning stretches and always have, even before patriotic nonsense displaced Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I hated flyovers and anthems instinctively since my first SEC games (1983). So ignoring stupid shit is my superpower (probably because I was raised around rednecks and Baptists: I have a lot of practice); the happy residue of that is that I still enjoy small bits of my life and small bits of the great traditions. I listened to Haray Carey on Cubs broadcasts for decades (he was run out of STL before I learned the game), so muting or ignoring stupidity is a skill: I have survived some truly stupid shit.

    Everyone here has suffered through my love of baseball, the evil of the DH, the greatness of the Cardinals; I won’t repeat all those details. I will continue to record, and I’ll card out every game I can, probably 100 or so this “season.”

    Lots of things are going sideways, but I’m tougher than these lightweights. Most of them will be bankrupt or overdose or land in prison sooner or later and I’ll still be here, laughing and living my best life. * cue scene from Catch-22 of the old man in the whorehouse laughing at the Americans thinking that winning a war means anything *

    • westernsloper

      So ignoring stupid shit is my superpower (probably because I was raised around rednecks and Baptists: I have a lot of practice)

      Hah! ?

  14. Raven Nation

    One of the ironies of this is that many of those I know who are demanding that sports acknowledge “the struggle” were never interested in sports. So, a lot of leagues and college conferences are alienating fans in order to appease non-fans (yes, fairly anecdotal so YMMV).

    • Don escaped Duopoly

      yes, but it’s not central: a bunch of dumb jocks are arranging the stupidity well enough . . . no need crediting anyone else when sufficient stupidity is already demonstrated

      • Raven Nation

        True.

      • Rhywun

        Well, the head honchos could have put a stop to all of this at any time and chose not to. Now, they’re the ones organizing it.

    • Viking1865

      That’s been the thing with most of this SJW stuff. The SJW loons are basically a couple thousand people on Twitter, who spam whatever the outrage of the moment is with all kinds of I AM A LIFELONG FAN OF ______________. Marketing department panics, bends the knee.

    • Nephilium

      I’d say it’s not really anecdotal. I’ve yet to meet a Cleveland baseball fan who wants to change the name of the Indians. It’s all people who don’t watch baseball who are complaining about the name and the logo.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Just like high school mascots. Or pretty much like every ethnic caricature or logo.

      • westernsloper

        Because ya’ll are fucking racists.

      • Nephilium

        If they change it to the Cleveland Crackers or the Cleveland Colonizers, I’ll gladly buy the gear and keep supporting them.

      • westernsloper

        lol

  15. The Late P Brooks

    That goddam Trump stoking up violence. He’s trying to start a civil war.

    He made them do it.

  16. Roland of Gilead

    I had the same reaction when my Tigers sat out a game this. Unfortunately my flesh is weak and they have won 5 in a row so they suck me right back in. Went for a drive in my truck this afternoon and had baseball on the radio most of the time.

    • Nephilium

      And beat the Indians to break a potential record streak.

      My first game I saw was back in the 80’s Tigers vs. Indians at Cleveland. We lost that game, as it was the Indians in the 80’s.

  17. Translucent Chum

    I’m watching hallmark instead of playoff hockey.

    • Gender Traitor

      Dude! I don’t even watch Hallmark channels!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Why not? Columbo is on Hallmark Mystery, among others.

      • Gender Traitor

        Well, that’s different! I didn’t even realize that the Hallmark Movie Channel had been rebranded as “Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.” I always thought of it as being pretty much like Lifetime’s movies – sappy chick flicks. I would totally watch Columbo!

        I’d give them bonus points if they showed old episodes of Ellery Queen.

      • UnCivilServant

        Ellery Queen?

        Now there’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time.

        A long time.

      • Gender Traitor

        Fun, if short-lived show. And it had a cool opening theme.

      • UnCivilServant

        I know the name more for the periodical.

      • Gender Traitor

        The show inspired me to read some of the books back in the day, but I don’t recall reading the magazine much, if at all.

      • UnCivilServant

        Oh, I didn’t read the magazine, it’s just where I heard the name. My access to books was limited. (the library was rather limited. And we had no money)

      • Gender Traitor

        the library was rather limited.

        Oh, you poor thing! I loved our neighborhood library. I once told my mother I wanted to move in there. And when I got old enough to take the bus downtown to the main library, it was glorious.

      • UnCivilServant

        Look on the bright side, the paucity of reading material and the horrible public school curriculum probably contributed to me trying to write my own stories.

      • Gender Traitor

        What books DID you read that had the most influence on you?

      • UnCivilServant

        Hitchhiker’s Guide
        Agatha Christie (More Poirot than not)
        Asimov’s Autobiography (not work product)
        Moby Dick;
        The off-brand encyclopedia set we had;
        and the Hardy Boys.

        Yes, I was that kid who read the encyclopedia. Shocking, I know.

      • Gender Traitor

        Pretty good lineup. Surprisingly short on fantasy (assuming you classify HHGttG as SF.)

      • UnCivilServant

        Yeah I didn’t read fantasy growing up – I ran a D&D game through all of high school. (With a short hiatus to run a shadowrun game). No one else wanted to run the game, so that was my job. Helped with my storytelling skills and understanding the motivations of multiple characters.

      • Nephilium

        Of interest to you reprobates, it appears that IMDB TV has the full run of Columbo for free streaming online, if you sign up for an account.

        It also has Fringe (second best sci-fi show in my opinion).

      • Raven Nation

        Loved Fringe.

        Although, IMO, the last season was a pointless add on.

      • Nephilium

        True, but it was better then most of S5 of B5. The attack using everything referenced in all the earlier seasons was awesome.

      • salted earth

        I think I missed a couple of key episodes of Fringe, I should give it a rewatch.

      • Nephilium

        Yeah…. Fox didn’t help by airing a cut first season episode during a later season which included a character who had died. The later seasons also were not friendly to those who didn’t watch everything that came before.

      • Grummun

        Don’t dis my Hallmark. Sappy formulaic romance is the shiznit.

  18. Rhywun

    OT: Today in “I’ve been saying this for months”:

    Still, a number of analysts have noted that Seoul, Tokyo, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have more people per square kilometer than New York, the densest city in the U.S., yet those city governments contained the virus.

    […] It turns out that the strongest predictor of Covid-19 rates in New York City was the average number of people living together.

    • Raven Nation

      I just read that article yesterday. Really interesting. Turns out that culture is a thing.

    • westernsloper

      Yep.

    • hayeksplosives

      My coworker who also lives in Northern San Diego County (a HUGE County) grumbles about the fact that the whole County gets penalized because of high rates of CoVID down south in the city, where, as he puts it “all the bloody Mexicans living 16 person to an apartment.”

      • Rhywun

        He sounds like an HR incident waiting to happen.

      • Cy

        HR, the other, other reality.

    • Grummun

      By contrast, the BAME populations … succumbed like frontline infantry at Verdun.

      Someone needs to read a fucking book about what conditions were actually like on the front line at Verdun.

  19. UnCivilServant

    Dammit, I had the burner up too high.

    At least I haven’t burned the burgers yet, but I have made the pan difficult to clean.

    • UnCivilServant

      Found a solution – deglaze with sauteed mushrooms.

      • UnCivilServant

        Actually I should have pretended that I meant to do that, because I got a good sear then slowly brought the interior to temperature.

        It was so delicious that I didn’t realize I’d forgotten to grab anything that might be mistaken for a condiment. It didn’t matter – ground beef (85/15), mushrooms, swiss cheese, regular white bread (It’s what I had on hand), and a dose of sodium.

        Eating too much of my own cooking is dangerous.

  20. whiz

    My St. Louis Cardinals apparently were going for herd immunity; I’m still a fan.

    • Don escaped Duopoly

      I’m fourth generation. What’s your excuse?

      • whiz

        LOL.

        Grew up in central Illinois, then St. Louis suburbs.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      *Pointedly adjust offensively blue hat with red “C” on it and glares at Don and whiz

      • Don escaped Duopoly

        I love the Cubs; I love Cubs fans; Wrigley is my favorite field; my favorite player Lou Brock was a Cub.

        To me these are the cousins: the guys you see all the time. You can’t tickle yourself, and you need opponents. I prefer to watch ATL, CHC, CIN, LAD, SF, and PIT; I have old games carded and records and lineups from years ago.

        I feel the same way about the SEC: I want to beat Bama every third Saturday in October, but, if they’re playing Ohio State, Notre Dame, UCLA, or Texas, I want them to win.

        You watch kids come up (example for me: LeMahieu at LSU), then you watch spring ball and the minors (I can walk to Memphis AAA in an hour from my house) and who makes the team and how they break in or getting sent down, a kid you liked (David Freese) is WS MVP out of nowhere, then craters, is traded, then lands and does well elsewhere (LAD).

        I love the theater of it all, the generations, old lovable players made manager (Dusty Baker, Craig Counsell) or veteran skills coach (Ron Washington, Jose Oquendo), traditional uniforms. I love the dumb rules of baseball and how everyone scores the game a little differently. I love baseball chicks, and retirees, and fans who burn their few shekels and vacation time to drive all day and stay in a Motel 6 to take the family to a couple of games. I love that baseball is the most constant and timeless sport and that I played by the same rules and strategies when I was six.

      • juris imprudent

        All that and you still aren’t going to get Susan Sarandon.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I dig it… if the Cards weren’t so consistently damn good and fun to watch, hating them would be no fun at all. same goes for the Yankees. Of course, hate in terms of baseball is just a chance to yank your buddy’s chain and have your chain yanked back. Someone with team’s ball cap on is someone that you can potentially strike up a conversation with and talk about heroes of yore and maybe give a gentle ribbing to. All of it is the connective tissue of the country.

    • Homple

      Long live Stan Musial, Joe Garagiola, Bob Gibson….

  21. Contrarian P

    I watched my alma mater, Austin Peay State, take on Central Arkansas last night on ESPN. I don’t know that they’ve ever been on national television for football, so I thought why not.

    I certainly expected some social justice stuff but overall it was definitely in the background. Yes, there were a few mentions of the Central Arkansas team linking arms and raising fists before the game in a show of support (the arm raising looked a lot like the Nuremberg rally). Apparently the Austin Peay team made a stop in Selma where they walked across the bridge and learned about the civil rights movement. The Central Arkansas coach had a t-shirt on featuring a raised fist. Finally, the announcers made several references to “social unity” which apparently is some new thing.

    Overall, though, it seemed like ESPN was putting in just enough social justice so they wouldn’t get in trouble while focusing on the game. They kept stressing how great it was to have football back, not how awesome it was to get to protest injustice. You wonder if the nitwits at the network haven’t noticed the correlation between social justice and falling ratings and are now trying to figure out a way to gracefully back out of that business while still avoiding being cancelled.

    • Don escaped Duopoly

      just enough social justice

      PTI is killing me. I liked the banter and the social ease of some older guys talking sportsball, and NewWife and I have watched it every day for years as our after-work cool-down. I really dislike the SJ angle that’s taking over the show (not that there’s any sports to report on anyway), and the worst part is the ease with which facts have been dispensed with. The urge to jump on the bandwagon on every criminal proceeding nationwide forces the principals to “report” on things that they don’t actually know whether they happened; it’s not hot reporting, it’s retweeting . . from dubious sources before almost anything can be known (Kenosha, for example). I hated the head-nodding at Fox News, then MSNBC perfected it, and now it’s standard cable behavior.

      • Contrarian P

        I don’t think I’ve ever made it through a single PTI show, or for that matter most of the sports shows on television. Stephen Smith, Colin Cowherd, and the like are nails on a chalkboard bad. I don’t know who came up with the bombastic talking head concept, but enough already.

      • Cancelled

        I used to love listening to sports talk radio in the morning. Not so much for the sports, but for the rhythm of friendly argument with no real stakes, but then first ESPN and then all of them went all in on marxist political signaling and they ruined it. I tried to tune it out, but the problem is even if you tune it out, the signalling ruins the rhythm of the talk so why subject myself to the nonsense when I am not getting what I found pleasing anyway? Saul Alinsky’s “make the personal political” works as intended, it destroys the things that people of differing views could unite around. The more innocuous subjects we have to discuss the more we realize that we are all in this life together and need to find ways to coexist. When you make weather, sports, and even health into political fights you remove any chance to build rapport across lines.

      • Drake

        I used to watch Sports Center every morning I was home. Like the LA guy. Haven’t watched in years now.

      • Gender Traitor

        Used to enjoy Dan Patrick & Kenny Mayne on SC on Sunday evenings. One or the other of them (I forget which) would always mention where Dick Trickle finished in the NASCAR race, no matter how far back in the pack he’d been.

    • Rhywun

      In professional soccer, tennis, and recently hockey, I kept hearing some variation of “I know there’s a game to play but this is so much more important” until I couldn’t take it any more.

    • creech

      At least the raised fist is symbolic of defiance. That Kaepernick idiot, and others since, thought that kneeling – always a universal sign of submission and groveling and surrender – was the proper response to alleged American injustice.

  22. OBJ FRANKELSON

    Just so. I have been a Cubs fan since I went to Wrigley at age ~8 and before they put the lights up. I jumped around like a lunatic by myself in front of the TV when waiting ’til next year finally stopped in 2016 (one year after ‘Back to the Future’ predicted) and I. too, am done. Used to be, thanks to WGN being on basic cable for years, I could go a sports bar anywhere and odds were I would find a fellow beleaguered Cubs fan and toast each other and drink to our shared misery. Regardless of our background or politics, we could revel in our love-hate relationship with the team from the north side and express our shared hatred for that team from Missouri, the designated hitter, and astroturf. MLB seems to be working hard as hell to take this thing that I love that connected me with fellow Americans and making it into a chance for preening prima donnas to tell the world how virtuous and/or oppressed they are by supporting an organization that is categorically and explicitly against the country that has put them in the top 1-2% of income earners in the country. This has made this failed little leaguer and nearly life long fan of baseball generally and the Cubbies, in particular, grow apathetic and uninterested in the game that used to bring me so much joy (and pain, Cubs fan, remember).

  23. Grosspatzer

    Well, here’s some good news.

    https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-8-29-portrait-of-the-biden-voter

    It is a private company, but 100% federally funded, working mostly on designing nuclear weapons. If you think that such a corporation would not be a likely place for progressive indoctrination and orthodoxy enforcement, you would be wrong.

    Shoddy engineering usually bothers me, but maybe there is a silver lining here. Within a generation none of our nukes will actually work. OTOH, this may not be true in other places.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      The Russians do seem to be particularly resistant to the social justice pathogen.

      • Drake

        Most of Eastern Europe. They already tried communism and aren’t going back.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Troof. I am waiting on the Hungarians to get back to their roots and resume raiding in western and southern Europe.

      • Rhywun

        And the Chinese.

    • SandMan

      Damn, what a load of crap, depressing. At least there was some pushback, good luck to employee Peterson.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Missing a key part there

      For our corporate example, consider the case of Sandia National Laboratories.

      It’s not a private corporation. It’s a national laboratory. It’s operated by a private corporation on behalf of the federal government, but it’s a federal entity that attracts that sort of employee with a large overlap from academia. I would expect the HR culture to be 100% prog.

      • SP

        Well, the HR culture is, but everyone I personally know on the science/technology side is completely uninterested in politics or social justice etc. They just love the science and creating interesting things and solving interesting problems.

        Many of them are not even all that attached to the uses to which their work gets put. In many ways it’s like artists; the captivating work is the creation process. Once that’s over, they move on to something else.

      • prolefeed

        I’m a huge fan of art museums – in my spare time I paint acrylic on canvas – but I’ve noticed that starting around 1960 or so, the works on display turn mostly to shite. The closer we get to 2020, the more my reaction is “What the fuck?? Who thought this was a good idea?”

        I’ve found contemporary art exhibits where the coolest stuff on display are the cutting edge drinking fountains and urinals.

      • Mojeaux

        I’m so over the color block shit. A canvas painted black. Congrats, you did it tidily. I do not know why the hell I’m slaving over writing stories when I could slap some paint on a canvas and charge gazillions.

      • SP

        Because you have to be good at marketing to get anywhere in the art world! 😉

        /widely exhibited, published and collected artist, but sure as shit not rich

      • Mojeaux

        Touché. I tell my clients, when they ask for marketing advice, “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s not the canvas, it’s the bullshit sales pitch.

        Being able to write that Grade A bullshit is the real skill of these “artists”

      • Rhywun

        Welcome to post-modernism. It’s turned architecture and every other field it touches to shit too.

      • Lackadaisical

        The architecture is the saddest.

        You can’t escape it, its easy not to look at shitty art.

      • slumbrew

        I’ll take post-modern architecture over Brutalism.

        The Stata Center is at least interesting to look at. Whimsical, even.

        City Hall is an eyesore.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        R. Mutt

      • westernsloper

        This came up last night. You need to swing by the Zoomarino’s Gus.

  24. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Nice

    My hat is off to you sir.

  25. Grosspatzer

    At least this year I won’t have to suffer through a series of 50 point B1g losses by Rutgers (would be my alma mater if they hadn’t expelled me).

    • egould310

      “Cut the horseshit, son. I’ve got their disciplinary files right here. Who dropped a whole truckload of fizzies into the varsity swim meet? Who delivered the medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner? Every Halloween, the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring, the toilets explode.”

      • Grosspatzer

        Hey, I was told my identity would be kept secret here!

    • pistoffnick

      “…my alma mater if they hadn’t expelled me…”

      I fell like there is a story that needs to be told here.

      • Grosspatzer

        Well, if my professors knew who I was, things would have been different! Maybe if I had showed up for just one class…

      • Drake

        Sounds like they were racist.

  26. Drake

    Been a Red Sox fan forever. Not anymore. Same with the Patriots. Used to be a Celtics fan too but gave up on the NBA long ago. Good luck to you all.

    • Grumbletarian

      #metoo

  27. straffinrun

    Tres was right about one thing at least.


    Kirstie Alley
    @kirstiealley
    When people, ANY people, refer to you as soulless, Nazis, stupid, low IQ, red neck, deplorable, fascist, evil, hideous, racist, white supremacists, cultist etc…you can be sure they have more than half of those characteristics themselves.???ignore them

    https://twitter.com/kirstiealley/status/1300176863210409986

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Nice! I had no idea she was that based.

    • Mojeaux

      A response downthread, “Ignoring them is how we got here.”

  28. Drake

    Mookie Betts may be the last guy to get that kind of mega-bucks payday.

  29. westernsloper

    Thicc?

    I can’t decipher the ink if is she is a sports fan.

    • Lackadaisical

      Pretty soon they’ll be able to make sex robots that don’t fall into the uncanny valley, this particular one had failed miserably. It’s the uncanny valley of sex.

  30. Yusef drives a Kia

    I need help,

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Yea,thanks…………..

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Cant find what you dont have,

    • egould310

      Go get help.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I’m here arent I?

  31. Yusef drives a Kia

    I can’t do this anymore………

    • Ted S.

      That thing in Hyperbole’s cartoon?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Yea, it’s hard to keep up, Ted

    • straffinrun

      Wassup?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Bad business deals and threats of bikers, I want out, not worth my time, and I’m kinda screwed

      • straffinrun

        That doesn’t sound good.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I feel the need to run! but I have to get rid of all my stuff and go lean, I’m pissed!

      • Cy

        Still in AZ?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        for now yep,

      • straffinrun

        Don’t deal with weirdos if you can. If you absolutely must, limit it to the bare minimum.

      • salted earth

        looks around the room, backs out slowly

      • Lackadaisical

        How /why do you grey mixed up with such fun?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Peace and calm, good on ya!

      • Lachowsky

        Peace and tall cans.

    • Mojeaux

      ❤️

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I love you guys!

      • Lachowsky

        Come see me mojoaux. You can sit on my porch just as well as I can.

      • Mojeaux

        Reminds me of my childhood when my grandparents lived on the backside of butt-fuck Egypt SE Kansas, and we went to visit them. Lots of great memories.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Three mailboxes together? Too many people too close for me.

      • Lachowsky

        Mine, my rent house, and my father in law.

        Not too bad.

      • Gustave Lytton

        (Only kidding, only one mailbox at the end of my driveway and my neighbors are way too close)

    • straffinrun

      Imagine being some fuckstick in DC that believes he knows how the person who lives at the end of that dirt road should live.

      • Lachowsky

        That’s the whole problem with politics. Its impossible for anyone to satisfy the needs of everyone.

    • Gender Traitor

      Yup! That’s why I call my back porch Tranquility Base.

      • UnCivilServant

        *sees light figures*

        *gets out comically large golf club*

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        That works fine,,,,,,,,

      • Lachowsky

        Too much fence,
        Not enough milk carrier.

        Just my opinion.

    • Tejicano

      I used to have a mailbox like that in a small cluster of boxes about a quarter mile from my house in the AZ desert. I kinda enjoyed the evening walk to pick up the evening newspaper before dinner.

      A few years later, after moving back to Japan, I was rummaging through a stack of art/photography books in Tokyo – one on US rural desert scenes – and damned if I didn’t find a picture of that cluster of mail boxes.

  32. straffinrun

    If MLB, NFL, etc are going to jump in the culture wars and they choose a cause I disagree with, I’m out. Honestly, if they came out in support of dissolving state power, ?. Perfect world and they stay out of it and the individual players could make statements on their own time. Let me know when that perfect world is here.

    • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

      Seems to me, if they wanted, all the combined ($, ✊?) power of the various US pro sports guilds could have had and end put to the ban on gambling, especially online. But, nope–better to save it for platitudes.

      On 2nd thought, I guess I can see why they’re getting behind the whole police thing, considering how many athletes end up getting arrested for various felonies.

  33. LCDR_Fish

    By the by, pinupsforvets.com has their 2021 calendar available to order (printing next month).

    Also, in terms of baseball, the KBO hasn’t been too bad lately – we’ve had it on the office a few mornings a week.

  34. straffinrun

    Pudgy butted office ladies in navy blue skirts hustling to the office. Monday mornings ?

    • Gustave Lytton

      OhOL my!

      Picsvideo or GTFO.

  35. commodious spittoon

    – the drug war

    – police militarization

    – no knock raids

    – civil asset forfeiture

    – training police to regard everyone as threats to be dominated

    – dogs as probable cause generators.

    Would any of these policies be repealed if the keys to regime were turned over to the BLM militants? I’m betting not a single one.

    • SP

      My goodness, have you been attending the SP School of Cynicism?

    • Lackadaisical

      The actual blm, no.

      But here they’ve actually helped curtail some buckshot. I believe, at least a portion, of qualified immunity has been repealed in N.Y.

    • straffinrun

      I don’t buy the argument that BLM started out with a worthy goal, but devolved into something bad. Just as right wing movements devolve into horrible things when they reach for state power to solve their problems, BLM was destined to become what we’re seeing for exactly the same reason.

      • commodious spittoon

        Latching on to black grievance was incidental to their pursuit of power. It’s like the watermelons, you scratch the surface and it’s Marxist red through and through. I wish this were the reason people are souring on the movement, and not merely the riots.

      • straffinrun

        If they really wanted to defund the police, the only logical response would be to expand gun rights. They never did and it exposes that they were only interested in transferring oppression from one group to another one. It could never be about ending oppression because the ideology of the people who support BLM is rooted in oppression.

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        When you see random people express sentiments like, “No one should ever pull a gun on anyone else”, you know you’re dealing with the dumbest of the Pollyannas.

      • Drake

        It was was a Soros funded commie front from the go.

    • blackjack

      Day one after George Floyd, I was hopeful. They burned down a precinct, people were noticing police brutality. Day two, It was already lost. Devolved into a Marxist revolution. Only got worse from there. You don’t burn and loot people’s stuff because other people harmed yet more people. If injustice is the answer to injustice, there will always be ever increasing injustice. Now, they kill people for wearing red hats. It ain’t gonna get better.

      The name itself is telling. How many people in modern America will argue that black lives don’t matter? Almost none. If that’s what they are fighting for, they already won, 4 decades or more ago. It’s all a lie. They are Marxists. They want my money and stuff. They want the freedom to violate other people’s rights. They use baseless accusations of racism and fascism to justify political violence. It’s all a lie.

      • straffinrun

        That’ll teach ya to be hopeful of govt reforming itself.

      • creech

        My sentiments exactly. For 48 years the Libertarian Party spoke out for justice. Hardly anyone noticed. Then the Floyd killing happened and I thought “silver lining – now everyone black and white – is angry enough to actually reform and change the justice system. Suddenly though, you couldn’t rationally discuss how people other than blacks and browns were also getting screwed. If you tried, that made you a racist.
        Now the whole meme is vapid nonsense about non-existent “systemic racism,” pleas to get out the vote for Biden who had as much to do about unjust laws harming minorities as anyone. It would be nice if all the corporations, businesses, students, sports teams, etc. who have jumped on the bandwagon were actually proposing something other than slogans and bromides.

    • Lachowsky

      I’ve been saying for years the BLM fucked up when they made the movement all about race.

      If the original activists would have focused on the real problem, then there would be a movement that wide swaths of Americans could have gotten on board with.

      Since they didn’t, their whole movement was co-opted by neo- Marxists who have taken the Marxist philosophy and substituted class for race.

      Fucking assholes have ruined the chances for police reform by alienating 90% of the people in this country.

      Identity politics keeps the status qou in power by pitting those in the thrall of power against one another.

      • Don escaped Duopoly

        ^^ this ^^

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        I’ve been saying for years the BLM fucked up when they made the movement all about race.

        This assumes that their goal was to address an inequality. It was not. Their goals were 1) to get some racial hate on; and 2) to open up yet another front in the Marxist oppression struggle.

      • Homple

        BLM latched on to bad cop behavior as the excuse to push their leftist agenda and it caught the public imagination. If they cared about saving black lives, they would go to Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis or Philadelphia and work on lowering the homicide rate there.

        They succeeded suckering a lot of people interested in police reform into supporting anti-white race mongering.

  36. Urthona

    I don’t care much and will continue watching sports like the vast majority of Americans.

    • UnCivilServant

      Their ratings do not appear to bear out that “vast majority of americans” claim.

      • Homple

        Sports fans these days are the half-vast majority.

    • westernsloper

      What sports?

    • hayeksplosives

      The thing is, we’re not “boycotting” a good product because of what a company spokesman or CEO says.

      We are no longer watching sports because they changed it. You can’t just skip the pregame show. It permeates commentary, commercials, postgame interviews—the works.

      We are abandoning it like we left Coca Cola when it became “new Coke.”

      If sports brings back Coke Classic, I’ll consider it.

      • commodious spittoon

        It’s gonna take more than that for me. Bring back the original sports with cocaine.

      • Rhywun

        Yeah, all they have to do is return to sports circa February. But I think it will take years & it won’t be any conscious decision, just a gradual return to the mean as the rituals slowly fade away.

      • Chafed

        I think you’re right. I also think the NFL is the first big test of what viewers will or won’t accept. If their viewership numbers plunge then you can bet there will be changes by next season.

    • Urthona

      Sorry I guess that was kind of a dick statement.

      I’m watching the NHL playoffs. I heard they were taking some time off because the cops shot a rapist in the back. So I got a little break. Now I’m enjoying it again. It’s possible they talked about social justice at some point but I didn’t notice.

      • whahappan

        Not a dick statement, just something that some people disagreed with. 🙂

  37. straffinrun

    Trumpers should open a gun free safe space in Portland.

    • westernsloper

      I just spent 15-20 minutes trying to scribe a set of balls protruding from “accused” shooters neck tattoo with what software I have. I can’t do it with what I have but it needs to be done imho.

  38. hayeksplosives

    Damn.

    “Sarah Connor?”

    “Uh, no actually, I’m her—“

    BLAM!!BLAM!!

    “You’re Terminated.”

    —-

    All of which was to lead to the fact that Linda Hamilton’s twin sister Leslie died. 63 yo.

    • db

      That sucks. My SO is an identical twin, and she has said she can’t imagine how bad it would feel to lose her sister.

    • db

      Plus, 63 is way too young

  39. Drake

    Sports entertainment is a luxury item. The moment it becomes less entertaining for whatever reason (preachy political correctness), it becomes far less lucrative.

    Not that long ago that most players in pro leagues made middle class salaries. The Patriots were owned by a guy who owned a few tire shops.

    • Gustave Lytton

      And before that, pro athletes were making chump change and working other jobs.

      • Homple

        Roy Campanella was paralyzed in a car accident as he was driving to check the liquor store he owned to supply off-season income.

      • Tejicano

        And when the whole wokeness episode gets to the point where pro-sports players are again making middle-class salaries look to be hearing how racist Amerikkkans have schemed to deprive people of color one of the few routes they had to get ahead.

    • straffinrun

      Long ass article. My skimming of it didn’t yield any specific polices Republicans have become more extreme on. I suppose when you start guzzling battery acid, milquetoast can taste radical.

      • Lackadaisical

        Been using my phone, and just switched over to my laptop for tonight. Hilarious graffiti man.

      • Lackadaisical

        …by which I meant I could only see the blue fist before.

      • straffinrun

        I dunno if the blue fist represents the cops ?‍♀️ or BLM. Works well in either case.

    • Akira

      The Left always accuses the other side of doing what they themselves are doing.

      It’s an attempt to distract from the Democrat Party rushing to the far Left in recent years. On most issues, the Democrats are currently advocating things that, 10 years ago, they would have called a ridiculous slippery slope argument. When they say, “We don’t want B, we just want A – that’s all” you can bet that B will be up next, and so on and so on.

      • Viking1865

        We are over 50 years into the United States being a modern social democracy in all facets. We have publicly funded healthcare for everyone, publicly funded education for everyone, a massive social safety net that includes subsidies to the poor for housing and food. If you showed the labor laws currently on the books to a 1920s UMWA radical, he’d think Labor had triumphed over Capital. There is an enormous state funded old age pension system. There are robust protections for minority groups against discrimination in hiring and housing. The tax code is very very progressive, no one that can be reasonably described as poor pays any net income tax.

        But the Democratic Party has presented itself for decades as the party of progress and change, and in the American political zeitgeist for some reason that always means new programs and departments. For some reason, they can’t just run on “expanding funding for Medicaid and TANF”. But there’s just not much more meat left on the bone that is “20th century social democracy” that really fits into the current system. To go “forward” from here you have to go out and out Red, or you have to go Green.

        They piss me off a lot because they don’t actually no shit about what they are advocating for. Take education. The cry of the Bernie wing is FREE COLLEGE. Which, because they are ignorant morons, they imagine to be a system where the current American education system exists exactly as it is, but they don’t have to pay anything. But that’s not what free college is in Europe. In Europe, they use standardized testing (Which American leftists hate) to skim the cream out and send them to universities. Those who don’t make the cut go to trade school. European “free college” only works because they are sending the majority of each graduating high school class into the workforce, and taxing them so that the naturally intelligent ones who do well on standardized tests can go to college.

  40. db

    I am not much of a sports fan, but in the past decades have taken to watching them along side my GF, who loves ice hockey and baseball. I wouldn’t even have a TV connected to anything other than a bluray/dvd player if it weren’t for her habit of watching sports on TV. Usually every evening would feature a games of some major league sport. This year, despite the pandemic, she has canceled our direcTV subscription. She still watches NHL games but everything else is done.

    I haven’t been able to care one way or another about sports most of my life, but for a few years, I really enjoyed the NFL and MLB and NHL. Since they have become completely inundated by political statements, I have lost all desire to even follow scores.

    Way to go , major leagues. You might have had a fan that wasn’t raised in your world, but you blew it.

  41. Chipwooder

    I haven’t been watching games lately (which is good because they’ve been playing like garbage) but I must admit that I’m still sneaking peeks at the Yankees box scores. They’ve been too big a part of my life for almost 40 years for me to quit them completely this quickly. I will say, however, that this is by far the least attention I’ve ever devoted to baseball. Haven’t paid the slightest attention to any of my other teams either.

    • Nephilium

      Fuck the Yankees!

      /tries to sympathize.

      /looks at news story about changing the name of the Indians.

      FUCK THE OWNERS!

    • westernsloper

      Other than TedS links, that might be the first link I have really regretted clicking on here.

      • westernsloper

        Mehhh

      • db

        OK that might top it

      • Threedoor

        Oh my.

      • Lackadaisical

        Are you serious? That was hilarious.

    • db

      What in the simulated fuck was that?

    • PudPaisley

      Pekka Pohjola is tearing it up on the bass, with Ollli Ahvenlahti on keys. Those Finns had some good jazz-funk musicians in the 70’s-80’s.

      Olli and Pekka laying down some jazz funk fusion (if you’re into that kind of thing).

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOhklYyQGfw

      • straffinrun

        That’s my 18番 song.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I missed the Japanese chicks in dirndls the first time around. That is cultural appropriation I can really get behind.

    • Tejicano

      My favorite cultural appropriation which I witnessed live here in Japan was a Japanese band dressed up in correct black SS uniforms playing music from the 3rd Reich.

    • Chafed

      It couldn’t hurt.

  42. Plinker762

    Had a nice drive from Dillon MT to Spokane. The air was clear of forest fire smoke I could enjoy the mountain views along I90. Detoured in the Silver Valley to visit some places I go for outdoor recreation. Ate lunch in a local tavern. No masks to be seen other than a few tourists. Sat at the bar and chatted with the owners and other customers. Was nice for things to be normal.

    • Threedoor

      Idaho hasent been too bad but our R governor who was doing pretty good up to the Wuh flu did a bunch of stupid lockdown garbage. No one bothered to primary him. Hell of I’d put my name in I probably would have won.

    • straffinrun

      Good for you. The longer we go from what we used to know, the worse the odds we’ll ever get it back.

    • Chafed

      You can’t fool me. Ningen is Steve Smith’s cousin.

  43. Threedoor

    As a kid I wanted to play baseball and basketball. I wasent any good at either but they were fun.

    I have always thought watching sports was dumb. As an adult I’ve come to hate sports, I have for at least the last twenty years.

    Welcome to my world.

    • slumbrew

      Witnessing excellence isn’t dumb – at its best it is inspirational.

      Modern, professional sports are moving the focus away from from excellence. This is a recipe for irrelevance.

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        Witnessing excellence isn’t dumb – at its best it is inspirational.

        It is, if you give a shit about the form of the excellence. I do not.

      • Threedoor

        I went to an NFL game. Titans VS Colts. I got to watch the warmup as I was an usher. That was cool. Guys in top form doing some amazing stuff. This huge line backer was doing some shuttle sprints and ended one with a series of cartwheels and capped it off with a spinning balarina move on one foot then sauntered away.

        That was awesome.
        The game. Totally boring.

  44. dorvinion

    Only sport I watch is racing – Nascar, Indycar and IMSA, and I almost never watch them live(Sunday evening or Monday morning as background noise) so commercials are gone saving a lot of time.

    Apart from the Bubba noose hoax, Nascar pre-race is the only place you’ll see the SJW nonsense, and I never watch pre-race anyways to save time.
    Petty Motorsports is a midpack team so Bubba almost never runs in the top 20 meaning the announcers rarely have any reason to talk about him during a race and so bring up SJW nonsense.
    Bubba was rather well liked before all this but since he been crapping on fans he’s now getting booed at driver introductions and cheers when he wrecks.

    Indycar and IMSA are strictly racing as far as I can tell, but then I don’t watch pre-race for them either so hard to say…never heard such nonsense during a race though.

    Probably helps that the announcers tend to be people who are retired drivers and crew chiefs.

    For now I can deal with it as its easy enough to skip over the pre-race junk, as well as the times they talk about Bubba and something other than how his race has gone.

    • Threedoor

      Motorsports are pretty cool. Motocross is probably the most intense thing out there. Even then I can’t get into it. I like to ride but I’m not any good.

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        I still don’t understand the excitement that is supposedly present in watching people drive fast in an oval. I know that reads like I’m being facetious, but, it’s not my intention–I truly don’t get it. I can somewhat understand drag racing (Shirley Muldowney, not RuPaul). NASCAR just seems like a matter of, “who has the best car”.

        Which reminds me–I can sort of get behind something like a Grand Prix. See a section of a city or countryside set up as a course to drive, with more exotic cars.

      • Chafed

        They might crash. Just like in hockey they might fight.

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        While I’ve seen some crashes that were…I dunno, “amazing” seems too strong. Mind-boggling, I guess…?
        Anyway, A high-speed auto wreck is a long way from a fist-fight. In fact, a scrap on the ice seems tame compared to that kind of damage. I barely compare the two to each other.

        Now, if they start taking of the skates and using the blades as weapons…

      • dorvinion

        Ovals seem easy but there is a lot more going on than at first glance.

        Just like with other types of racing having the fastest car helps, you got to be smart, you got to be tough, and you have to have a great group of people in the pits.
        Strategy, tire management, fuel management, setting up the car right and making the right adjustments during the race are all factors.

        Ovals stand out for how close the cars tend to be, and how there are many overtaking opportunities.

        On a road/street course you tend to have two, maybe three zones that are good for overtaking. The rest of the track is kind of a parade where you have to really bomb the corner to lose position, or be especially brave/stupid and try to put your car into a hole that doesn’t exist, especially if the race is just a single class of cars.
        In a 2hr race you’ll have 50-100 laps depending on the length of the track. Not really a lot of opportunities for overtaking or on track battles unless you get a couple full course cautions to bunch everybody up.

        On an oval track (especially tracks 1 mile or less), you got a lot of cars on track, there’s nowhere to hide, and every lap you’ve got two areas that are ideal for overtaking. Lengthy on track battles are common.
        Because the track is so short, and you’ve got a ton of cars on track, how you navigate traffic is very important to your chances of winning. This is why so many fans hate the 1.5 mile intermediate tracks…cars get too spread out and so traffic doesn’t factor into it as much as it does at a short track.

    • Chafed

      Score one for the elk.

    • Chafed

      If those tweets are real then I think this is a real story. The niece may have bought herself an incredible civil lawsuit.

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        You are, of course, correct–probably. I mean, just the idea of faking a federal judge’s voice, who is your own kin…just to stick it to the uncle who is the wrong political party Hitler, Mk. 2….

        This may very well be the best timeline.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Speaking of impersonation, her tweets sound very similar to Donald. Or the Hat/Hair (can’t keep straight which one is the tweeter).

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        CPRM, of course, has to find the impersonator, and get him/her/xir to do a guest spot. Maybe a powdered wig, because, that’s totally what Hat would envision for a modern judge (that’s my theory).

      • Chafed

        I was thinking the same thing GL. Family way of tweeting or NSA took over her account?

    • Chafed

      If only Rand Paul would sponsor a bill to end no knock warrants.

      • hayeksplosives

        SAY HER NAME!!!

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      I wish Kary Mullis were here to tell us we’re doing it wrong.

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        Tox! Not to beat the dead equine, but, if you still want to sell the Blade Runner set, I’m still keen.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I know; I haven’t forgotten. All the pieces are there, and clean. Don’t mean to be flaky. Life is unfortunately kinda pecking me to death lately and I was never a model of efficiency to begin with.

      • Frnxt Ghrt Digby Gurm

        No worries on this–whenever you are ready. Hope you’re hanging in there!

  45. Gustave Lytton

    This is Goebbels level lying

    https://www.myoregon.gov/2020/08/30/governor-kate-brown-announces-unified-law-enforcement-plan-to-protect-free-speech-bring-violence-to-an-end-in-portland/

    She blames Trump, gun violence, and the Trump cruisers. Apparently they don’t have a right to protest in Portland. She also lyingly calls them white supremacists and zero mention of antifa and BLM rioters. She also gives cover to the DA’s (who she appointed) decision for selective enforcement.

    Also, this has had zero coverage in the media.

    https://www.oregon.gov/newsroom/Pages/NewsDetail.aspx?newsid=37196

    The OSP superintendent just put in his retirement papers, just after the organization has given not one, but two fuck yous to the governor. BS. Unless independent corroborated, she forced him out.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      They’re setting up an Eisenhower sending in the troops situation. This is a textbook example of the government picking a side and violating a portion of the population’s basic civil rights while allowing nonstate actors who politically agree to run rampant. The situation in Oregon isn’t going to make it to November.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Will there be gibbets? Please tell me there will be gibbets.

    • Gender Traitor

      Now, THAT’S the kind of fun stuff I like to see!

      just one tier below one tier below gale-level winds

      So…..two tiers below?

      • Gender Traitor

        Oh – and good morning, Sean!

      • Sean

        Good mornin’

      • Festus' Mustache

        She’s either going to be deathly afraid of flying or wind up in her Country’s version of the Top Gun Program in about 20 years.

    • Grosspatzer

      Today, COVID. Tomorrow, flu. Next week, zombie infestation? Doesn’t really matter, the “principle” has been established; TOP MEN have the authority to shut everything down at their sole discretion, without going through tedious legislative processes. It’s all good, rule of law is some outdated idea perpetrated by long dead slave owners.

  46. Festus' Mustache

    Speaking of brutalist architecture that Boston one from a prior thread looks like a Nazi Flak tower.

    • Gender Traitor

      ::goes back upthread to look:: Yup. Looks as if it would feel oppressive to approach and enter. Feature, not bug?

      Good morning, Fes.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Mornin’ and Good Night to all of you Friends!

    • Lackadaisical

      Just more proof that the fascists secretly won WW2.

  47. Tundra

    Late to the party, but I really enjoyed your letter and agree 100%.

    I realized that I only had cable for watching hockey, but when Matt Fucking Dumba decided to give a pre-game speech on social justice, I tapped out.

    Canceled cable with zero regrets. Turns out I have no problem filling my days.

  48. Rhywun

    On topic.

    Ms. Osaka wrote: “Watching the continued genocide of black people at the hands of police is honestly making me sick to my stomach.” She argued that her move would hopefully “start a conversation in a majority white sport.”

    Tennis legend Billie Jean King called it “a brave and impactful move,” and tournament officials quickly capitulated rather than defaulting her from her match or asking her opponent if she consented to their decision to postpone the match until Friday.

    Even though I’m a fan of Ms. Osaka, I’m afraid that when no one pushes back in situations like this, her irresponsible claims are validated.

    Used to be fan too. Oh well.

    • Tundra

      Add ‘genocide’ to the growing list of words that no longer have meanings.

      Fuck off, princess.

      • Rhywun

        Something something absolute power something corrupts.

        Now that every athlete knows how to take control of their sport, I expect to see a lot more of this.