Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

My prediction: Settlement

[Hannibal]

No exceptions, no exceptions, all life is precious.

That’s a substantially different rationale than “Rs are just misogynists and want to control women’s bodies,” and “Handmaid’s tale, here we come” dontcha think?

[Hannibal]

See, the world where a 10-year old rape victim gets attacked by fat and elderly Republicans on national tv for being a "liar" isn't a fantasy. That was 2022.

Saying that Google will give you pictures of Larry Bird-looking dudes when you search for "negro league baseball" is currently a fantasy.

And I'm pretty confident this is a mostly online controversy and normal offline people are not very familiar with Gemini or Grok or any of these things.

What is it with you and the “fat” insults today?

You guys are the ones pushing for body posittivity and praising Lizzo for how she bravely shirks society’s beauty standards to show the world how morbidly obese she is. Obesity is a resume enhancer for dems.

[Hannibal]

I recognize the absolutist abortions bullshit from the hard right. It's fucking stupid. But if someone doesn't understand that handheld electronic devices plugged into the brains of young people don't have a profound influence on their development, they are fucking stupid too. Is too much to fucking ask that we live in reality? People with dicks are not girls but that's what we're supposed to believe now. Reality matters.

I use examples of A.I. that are the reverse of the bullshit Google put out because the Left would flip their shit if that was the case. They eviscerated a little native American kid for wearing a head dress to a goddamn football game because of "black face" and "cultural appropriation". What the hell would happen if when you searched Google for native Americans it came back with info on Chief George Custer? Can we just agree that reality matters and is probably beneficial to humanity?

Google’s damage control over their anti-White AI has been hilarious.

[Tom W]

Imagine a world where a kid researches the Internet to learn about Negro League baseball and all the pictures are of white players. Then the people who point out the ridiculousness of it are mocked. I guess they just can't see the harmlessness in erasing history.

Come On, Mike. You have to love that weekend every year where the Tigers don those hideous throwback jerseys with the huge red stars on them. The field at Comerica looks like a squadron of MiGs are flying around, looking for airliners to shoot down.

It's hysterical and let's just say that 2022 was the LAST time I'll note that on Facebook.

[Mike]

Miggy's star was bigger than others'.

[Mike]

Dartmouth basketball has voted to unionize as recognized by the NLRB.

https://apnews.com/article/dartmouth-union-ncaa-basketball-players-2fd912fade62ffd81218a6dc91461962

I think athletes should be able to profit from their athletic abilities while in college and support some form of revenue sharing like what Harbaugh advocated. But I also think the players who generate the revenue should be first in line to share in the money. It's clear that the college athlete compensation model will change dramatically in the near future but I predict there will be a lot of unintended consequences as a result.

The standard argument for paying athletes is that college athletics generates billions in revenue for the schools, therefore those schools should share that revenue with the athletes who generate it. It's a completely logical argument and one I agree with. However, if the Dartmouth unionization leads to college athletes being recognized as employees across the board, well... there's gonna be a LOT fewer college athletes going forward. A quick Google search indicates that Dartmouth drew an average of 686 fans per home game this year. Their most expensive season ticket is $120 (if you want to spring for a chairback seat). So even if every person who attended a Dartmouth game this year was a season ticket-holder with the good seats, total ticket revenue would have been $82,320. I'm guessing their TV revenue was $0.00. So what piece of the pie are they going after!? Popcorn sales??

The billions of dollars that everyone clamors for are generated by 20-30 football brands that the networks want to broadcast on Saturdays. Ohio State brining in over $250m in revenue last year doesn't have a single goddamn thing to do with women's soccer at Utah State. But it looks like this is headed in a direction where the "billions generated by college athletics" will be used to classify them all as employees and be forced to pay them a wage/salary. This will have a devastating affect on everyone outside the P4.

Do any of you legal experts know if a scholarship could be taxable income if the player is an employee or is that set up differently than earned income? I really don't know.

This guy did a good analysis of AD profitability from pre-pandemic 2020 and found that 18 out of 229 public division 1 athletic departments were profitable.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-found-18-profitable-211-money-losing-ncaa-public-scott-hirko-ph-d-

I can't imagine anyone lower than D1 makes much of anything in the way of revenue. That's entirely supported from the general fund. But they may be adding payroll to their bottom line in the not-too-distant-future.

What say you? Is the employee model good for college athletes? What will college sports look like in 5 years, 10 years?

[Da Geezer]

The Cons give us laws that require pregnant 4th graders to carry their pregnancy to term. BUT otoh the progs wrote a computer program that depicts black vikings. Who really can say which is worse?

Really? Can you cite one case where a 9-year-old has been "forced" to carry a pregnancy to term? There is no state I know of that doesn't have exceptions for "rape, incest, and the life of the mother". This is rape. No one is being forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Typical Prog nonsense.

[Da Geezer]

Dartmouth basketball has voted to unionize as recognized by the NLRB.

https://apnews.com/article/dartmouth-union-ncaa-basketball-players-2fd912fade62ffd81218a6dc91461962

I think athletes should be able to profit from their athletic abilities while in college and support some form of revenue sharing like what Harbaugh advocated. But I also think the players who generate the revenue should be first in line to share in the money. It's clear that the college athlete compensation model will change dramatically in the near future but I predict there will be a lot of unintended consequences as a result.

The standard argument for paying athletes is that college athletics generates billions in revenue for the schools, therefore those schools should share that revenue with the athletes who generate it. It's a completely logical argument and one I agree with. However, if the Dartmouth unionization leads to college athletes being recognized as employees across the board, well... there's gonna be a LOT fewer college athletes going forward. A quick Google search indicates that Dartmouth drew an average of 686 fans per home game this year. Their most expensive season ticket is $120 (if you want to spring for a chairback seat). So even if every person who attended a Dartmouth game this year was a season ticket-holder with the good seats, total ticket revenue would have been $82,320. I'm guessing their TV revenue was $0.00. So what piece of the pie are they going after!? Popcorn sales??

The billions of dollars that everyone clamors for are generated by 20-30 football brands that the networks want to broadcast on Saturdays. Ohio State brining in over $250m in revenue last year doesn't have a single goddamn thing to do with women's soccer at Utah State. But it looks like this is headed in a direction where the "billions generated by college athletics" will be used to classify them all as employees and be forced to pay them a wage/salary. This will have a devastating affect on everyone outside the P4.

Do any of you legal experts know if a scholarship could be taxable income if the player is an employee or is that set up differently than earned income? I really don't know.

This guy did a good analysis of AD profitability from pre-pandemic 2020 and found that 18 out of 229 public division 1 athletic departments were profitable.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-found-18-profitable-211-money-losing-ncaa-public-scott-hirko-ph-d-

I can't imagine anyone lower than D1 makes much of anything in the way of revenue. That's entirely supported from the general fund. But they may be adding payroll to their bottom line in the not-too-distant-future.

What say you? Is the employee model good for college athletes? What will college sports look like in 5 years, 10 years?

Good questions:

- If the player is an employee, they would get a W-2 and pay taxes. Players pay taxes on NIL money now.
- Pay "equity" generally follows unionization. The employee model will lead toward the outstanding players subsidizing the regular players. This can probably be mitigated by using some mix of NIL and wages.
- The employee model is already in effect with most P4 programs now, but we call it NIL. To me, the biggest threat to the golden goose is that the massive crowds at college football games are about shared life experiences and "our guys" against "your guys". Watch any college basketball game now and the announcers will point out where the players have transferred from. There are already more transfers in B-ball than 4-year guys. It is dangerous to just assume that the connection fanbases feel toward their team will be so strong if the players are hirelings and move around in the transfer portal as is happening in basketball. I think the Ignite team in the G-League will go away, because it was envisioned as a way for high school kids to be paid $ 500,000 per year and not have to go to college. Ignite is 2-19 this year.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Really? Can you cite one case where a 9-year-old has been "forced" to carry a pregnancy to term? There is no state I know of that doesn't have exceptions for "rape, incest, and the life of the mother". This is rape. No one is being forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Typical Prog nonsense.

The Ohio "Heartbeat" law passed in haste immediately after the Dobbs decision banned all abortion after Week 6 with no exceptions for rape or incest after that point. A 9-year old was raped and impregnated. The girl and her mom were not aware she was pregnant until after the 6 week limit. She had to go to Indiana to get an abortion. The story got widespread coverage especially here in the state and it likely contributed to voters overwhelmingly protecting abortion rights in the State Constitution last year.

Rather than show any sympathy to the girl or her mother, Republican politicians in this state branded her a liar and accused her of not telling the police (this turned out to be completely wrong). They doubted that a girl that young could even GET pregnant. Republicans in Indiana went after the doctor who performed the abortion and threatened to get her medical license taken away, but they failed because she had pretty much done everything according to the letter of the law.

Man pleads guilty to raping Ohio girl who ended up traveling across state lines for abortion - ABC News

As for your claim that every state has exceptions for rape and incest? NO. Both Alabama and Texas have total abortion bans beginning at conception with no exceptions made but for "life of the mother" which, in practice, has to be extremely well documented else the law will prosecute.

Alabama can't prosecute people who help women leave the state for abortions, Justice Department says | AP News

Alabama is one of several states where abortion is almost entirely illegal after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision known as Dobbs, handed authority on abortion law to the states. Alabama bans abortion at any stage of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape and incest. The only exemption is if it’s needed because pregnancy seriously threatens the pregnant patient’s health.

15 states with new or impending abortion limits have no exceptions for rape, incest - Poynter

A Review of Exceptions in State Abortion Bans: Implications for the Provision of Abortion Services | KFF

Texas had over 26,000 rape-related pregnancies in 16 months after abortion ban, JAMA study shows - ABC13 Houston

Idaho GOP Lawmaker Aims to Remove Rape and Incest Exceptions to Abortion Law | Truthout

[Hannibal]

Really? Can you cite one case where a 9-year-old has been "forced" to carry a pregnancy to term? There is no state I know of that doesn't have exceptions for "rape, incest, and the life of the mother". This is rape. No one is being forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Typical Prog nonsense.

The "no exceptions" crowd vis-a-vis abortion would oppose even a nine year old getting an abortion. It's a fanatical and incredibly unpopular position.

And it does exist. The woman who ran as an R for governor in 2022 said "no exceptions", so this isn't just one isolated backwater in a deep red state making this call.

[Mike]

The "no exceptions" crowd vis-a-vis abortion would oppose even a nine year old getting an abortion. It's a fanatical and incredibly unpopular position.

And it does exist. The woman who ran as an R for governor in 2022 said "no exceptions", so this isn't just one isolated backwater in a deep red state making this call.

Not only that, the context of her remark was in response to a scenario where a young woman was raped by her uncle. That's how you get your ass kicked by a governor who sent Covid patients into old folks home, killing thousands, yet wouldn't let healthy people get a hair cut.

[Dr. Strangelove]

* The smear campaign against a raped little girl and her mom which turned out to be 100% inaccurate. The mom was telling the truth about everything as time showed.

* The months of lies about preventing an Abortion Amendment, how it was about "respect for our Constitution". Then finally admitting that yeah, actually, we just want to prevent abortion from becoming a right because we know we're going to lose.

* Mike DeWine going on tv and sniveling and groveling and promising to relax abortion restrictions if only voters reject Issue 1 (enshrining it in the Constitution). No one with a brain believed that dude's phony last-ditch promises because no one with a brain believes the elderly lame duck has any sway with the statehouse beyond tax breaks for businesses.

All that soured me quite a bit on the Ohio GOP establishment during 2022-2023 and made me realize they're worse than Trump on this issue.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Mike, this is an incredibly complex issue that involves employment law, because college athletes will become employees, and contract law, because college athletes will sign employment contracts.

College leagues have to evolve to accommodate the different levels of revenue contributions such teams make each season. Spit-balling here, conceivably, leagues would arise from the current CFB structure (with other college sports tagging along), e.g., FBS, FCS, and from the FBS the power 5 and the group of 5. As in European soccer, a pyramid of leagues for each college sport, composed of these teams would emerge with a Premier league at the top of the pyramid or pyramids and the ability to move in and out of these leagues based on records as in the case of the European soccer leagues. College basketball, baseball, hockey, swimming, gymnastics teams, etc find their own leagues, such leagues evolving in parallel with CFB leagues. e.g. M's hockey team would play in the same league that M's football team plays within.

The NCAA is dissolved, conferences disappear. A College Athletics Commissioner with associate commissioners from the FBS and FCS evolve. Other college sports are equally represented in this manner. The Commissioner's office negotiates national merchandise, licensing, and TV contracts, which make up most of the national revenue from college sports. The 134 FBS teams would then be divided into leagues with each league receiving shares of this money on a sliding scale defined by the revenue each of the 134 programs contributes to the whole. e.g., Ohio State gets a bigger share of the revenue than ECU. Each of the 134 FBS teams can generate a separate pot of money for themselves from concession sales, ticket sales, and corporate sponsors.

Once you set up an organizational scheme like this, each league further divided into teams, would have a set amount of revenue for each sport that makes up the pot of money from which athletes in those sports are paid. For example, FBS Power Five teams will have a larger pot of money to pay players than Group of 5 teams A player on an FBS Power Five team is going to receive a higher salary than a player on a Group of 5 team. Pots of money are further divided by each school based on the revenue that sport generates. i.e., a tennis player isn't going to make the same amount of money a football player would make. As in the NFL, a similar draft system for CFB (and conceivably for other sports) would determine where HS athletes end up signing employment contracts and which teams they will play for. Trades and transfers would mirror the NFL's system.

I realize this concept could be completely unworkable but its a start or jumping off point. I've seen concepts for CFB mirroring the European soccer leagues before. With the right modifications that concept would seem to work for most college sports and especially for CFB and Basketball.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Uhhhhh speaking about Republicans nominating extremists who appeal to overly online loons but not normies….