Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

Your tax dollars will go to rebuild that dam.

While you and I will disagree on many aspects of the war in Ukraine, we are both patriots. Its paywalled but, Paul Krugman wrote an opinion piece in the NYTs, The Eyes of the World are on Ukraine, that makes some important points that I think you would agree with.

He writes that a loss by Ukraine will send a very bad message to fledgling democracies - Forget it. You're better off joining the authoritarian dictatorships who claim their system of governance and brutal power in national and international politics is better. A win - mostly a humiliating loss by Russia and Putin - by Ukraine invigorates democracy. Creating the circumstances that facilitates a Ukrainian win goes way beyond the common argument against these kinds of nation building efforts wrongly pursued by America. This isn't the US policing the world; it's the world's democracies policing itself.

The question you and I might disagree on: Is it worth the cost to western democracies that are arming and otherwise aiding Ukraine? Krugman offers that it is. History is filled with wars undertaken by brutal, self absorbed dictators who will sacrifice the lives of those they govern in pursuit of goals that have nothing to do with creating institutions that protect basic human rights and bettering their lives. While Ukraine has many flaws, they are one of these fledgling democracies pursuing democratic principals following the right ideals. The nation and its leader trying to bury those principals and ideals in a brutal attack on them is the antithesis of them.

Most of the world condemns what Putin has done and is doing in Ukraine. Those condemnations are backed up with material and monetary support for Ukraine fending off a brutal Russian imperialist dictator. We've seen it before, we'll see it again but it is vital to the interests of liberal democratic nations to stop Russian aggression in Ukraine.

[Mike]

Still trying to figure out the nuts and bolts of the PGA-LIV "merger". The NYT has the best piece I've read so far:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/s...lf-merger.html

The Merger of LIV Golf and the PGA Tour: Here’s What to Know
The announced deal to dramatically change golf is far from complete.

The PGA Tour would remain a nonprofit organization and would retain full control over how its tournaments are played. But all of the PGA Tour’s commercial business and rights — such as the extremely lucrative rights to televise its tournaments — would be owned by a new, still to be named for-profit entity that is currently called “NewCo.” NewCo will also own LIV as well as the commercial and business rights of the DP World Tour.

The board of directors for the new for-profit entity would be led by Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is the governor of the Public Investment Fund and also oversees LIV. Three other members of the board’s executive committee would be current members of the PGA Tour’s board, and the tour would appoint the majority of the board and hold a majority voting interest, effectively controlling it.

PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, was adamant last year that any player who took LIV money would never play on the PGA tour again. Now the door is open for LIV golfers to reapply for tour membership so those guys all got their cake and will get to eat it, too. The PGA stars that stayed loyal to the tour and passed on hundreds of millions of dollars (Rory, Tiger, Rahm, etc) apparently get a slap on the back from Monahan. The tour bills itself as a "player-run organization" but the players were all in the dark about this.

I just don't understand what the PGA Tour has to gain from this. On paper they can say they still effectively control the new venture by having a majority of seats on the board but the Saudi PIF guy is the chairman and he'll simply buy a couple seats on the board and that will be that. Just a colossal capitulation by Monahan. LIV doesn't even have a TV deal, it's not like they had a lot of clout.

McIlroy is supposed to have a presser at 9:00 this morning as the returning champion at the Canadian Open. Could be interesting.

[Dr. Strangelove]

And Chris Licht is out at CNN after not quite 18 months.

[Mike]

Employee revolt after the Trump town hall get him? Or just that they still suck ass?

[klondike]

interesting comment from a year ago
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Trump called it from the beginning. Another seer boss move

[Dr. Strangelove]

Employee revolt after the Trump town hall get him? Or just that they still suck ass?

Employee revolt, the Don Lemon morning show fiasco, the Trump town hall, tanking ratings, etc. There was a lengthy profile of him in the Atlantic a week ago and he came across as a complete asshat.

[Hannibal]

Why would they be bent out of shape about the Town Hall? The moderator argued with Trump half the time. What else do they expect?

[Mike]

Why would they be bent out of shape about the Town Hall? The moderator argued with Trump half the time. What else do they expect?

The CNN staff was upset that they 1. hosted the event. and 2. apparently Licht wanted the audience to be very pro-Trump.

[Mike]

Trump called it from the beginning. Another seer boss move

It's not often someone nails a call like that, let alone him.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Loons gonna loon.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Why would they be bent out of shape about the Town Hall? The moderator argued with Trump half the time. What else do they expect?

One, libs don't like that they gave him a platform in the first place. Two, they apparently agreed to let the Trump campaign choose the audience. It was advertised as a pool of undecided Republican voters but it was clearly mostly Trump people who hooted and cheered with everything he said.

[Dr. Strangelove]

One person in the audience (not a Trump guy) said afterwards that before the show started CNN personnel told them they were allowed to cheer and applaud Trump, but if they booed they'd be removed at a commercial break.

[Hannibal]

The kicking out people for booing is pretty lame.

It seemed like a pretty standard primary season town hall to me though, other than that.

[Tom W]

One, libs don't like that they gave him a platform in the first place. Two, they apparently agreed to let the Trump campaign choose the audience. It was advertised as a pool of undecided Republican voters but it was clearly mostly Trump people who hooted and cheered with everything he said.

So, in other words, they wanted to set up a "Freak Show" to show their 12 viewers just how superior they are at CNN?

[Dr. Strangelove]

So, in other words, they wanted to set up a "Freak Show" to show their 12 viewers just how superior they are at CNN?

Most people internally and on the left believe Licht put him on in a desperate attempt to boost ratings. And was willing to grant Trump an unusual amount of conditions because of that.