Well, we can pretty much draw down college football to two conferences now...

It sounds like the last survivor, outside the SEC, is the Big Ten.

In a move NO ONE SAW COMING, USC and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 and going to the Big Ten in 2024.

In short:

• That's the end of the Big XII, Pac-12, and maybe the ACC as well.  The ACC has Clemson and maybe Miami and who knows about Florida State, but the Big XII and Pac-12 have NOTHING.  I could see, post departures, the Big XII and Pac-12 attempt a merger and create a Western Superconference, but, especially for football, you have ZERO RELEVANCE.

About the only real question mark left between what's left of the Big XII and Pac-12 after this is Nike...  err, Oregon!  And that's basically why.  At this point, basically two choices remain:  Either Oregon gets in the Big Ten somehow with USC and UCLA, or Nike leaves.  Because, even if in a 2-3 year window where Oregon basically dominates the dregs of Western football (and you learn how little relevant football is even remotely played west of Norman and the Texas schools, etc.)...

I'm still reminded of a Pac-12 Championship Game (I forget the year -- I might've mentioned it on the blog) in Santa Clara at the new stadium.  Coming back from halftime, they did their sponsor spot, and did the worst possible camera shot for it -- the 50 yard line section opposite the hard camera...

WHICH HAD TWO PEOPLE IN IT.  TWO!

But, as of the moment, this is your Big XII and Pac-12:  Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, West Virginia for the Big XII; and Arizona, Arizona State, Cal-Berkeley, Colorado, Oregon (see above), Oregon State, Stanford, Utah, Washington, and Washington State from the Pac-12.

And then you apparently are getting into the Big XII:  Cincinnati, Houston, Central Florida, and BYU.

That's 22 schools, and...  ONE RELEVANT SCHOOL, and that's only because of corporate ties????

(And if there are four others, it's the four the Big XII are plucking from outside the Power 5!!!)

You know what has to happen here:  That's going to be one conference, sooner than later.  And I look at that list and I can think of...  Rapelor, Ok State, MAYBE Iowa State from the Big XII and Oregon and Utah from the Pac-12 and good luck finding even schools worthy of being in an expanded superconference situation!

• ESPN's Gary Finebaum is right:  We're going to have two superconferences, at least for a while.  The Big Ten, with USC and UCLA (and maybe Oregon and MAYBE Utah) and the SEC.
• There goes the CFP, and probably the Rose Bowl with it.  Unless...

I think it's pretty clear to most sane people that the Rose Bowl was the last thing propping up the Pac-12 in football at this point.

This pretty much ends it -- and I think I know what, if the Granddaddy of Them All is going to survive, what's going to happen...

2025 (after the current CFP contract expires), AT THE LATEST:  The Rose Bowl becomes The Big Ten Championship Game and retains it's New Year's Spot.

You get a MASSIVE BIDDING WAR between the Cotton, Orange, and Sugar (the Peach might want in, but I don't think it has the pedigree!) for the Southern Superconference Championship Game.

The two winners meet for the title.  Boom, you have your four-team CFP.

If you want to have semifinals for the two conferences, there's your eight-team playoff.

But, barring that, I can't see the Rose Bowl surviving at this point, especially with the complete non-relevance of the Pac-12 (or even the Big Pac-22 or whatever you'd call that...).

That's where I think we go from here.

EVENTUALLY, I think we get to 32 schools and a full NFL-sponsored college minor league -- and I think this is a major step, because it will mean travel coast to coast (USC/UCLA to Rutgers).  It will mean that eventually the Vanderbilts and the Purdues and Illinois' are cut off...

But, right now, as things currently stand, you have 16 schools in the Big Ten and you have 16 schools in the SEC, as of 2024 in the Big 16 and 2025 in SE-16.

And if you take a look at the rest of the country right now...  Nike?  (Note I did not say "Oregon" here...)  Miami???, Florida State????, Clemson and Notre Dame are definites at this point.

Day 837

• The biggest basebrawl in years took place in Anaheim yesterday, as beanballs and brushbacks precipitated a full-scale three-rounder yesterday.

12 players/managers suspended.

Anaheim:

• Manager Phil Nevin got 10 games, and if he's seen as the instigator of this with the beanballs on Sunday, he got off LIGHT!  Between that he changed pitchers just before the start and the complete lack of control of the dugout coaching staff, I'm putting the starting bid at... 15?  20???
• Ryan Tepera
• Andrew Wantz, three each.
• Anthony Rendon will be suspended the next five games he is eligible to play -- and he's suspended seven more from the bench.  He's on the injured list and threw the first meaningful shot.
• Assistant Pitching Coach Don Chiti got five, and bench coach Ray Montgomery and catchers' coach Bill Haselman will serve two-game suspensions after Chiti's five is served, because someone has to actually manage the team!
• Rasiel Iglesias and interpreter Manny Del Campo two each.
• HELLO, FORFEITURES???  DECLARE THE ENTIRE TEAM OUT OF CONTROL AND FORFEIT TWO GAMES OR SOMETHING.

Seattle:

• JP Crawford got five.
• Julio Rodriguez got two.

Other news:

• Britney Griner will apparently get a hearing on Friday on her drug charges.
• Ole Miss has won the final NCAA championship of the school year in a two games to none win over Oklahoma in the Men's College World Series.
• Dan Snyder has been subpoenaed to testify by a House committee on oversight for his misconduct.  His lawyer has told Congress to fuck off.
• The Houston Texans have, now, been officially sued for the DeShaun Watson fiasco and the belief that they provided Watson venues and cover for his sexual predation.
• To give you an idea of what the NFL is looking for to punish him, the deal they provided Watson would mean he sits ANOTHER YEAR.  Guy's gonna get banned for life/indefinite.   
• The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup last night over Tampa Bay.
• Coaches can now pray on the field at school sporting events.  Supreme Court ruling today basically whittling off the last of "Freedom From Religion".
• Latest fucking fascist claptrap from Terrorist Boebert:  "The church is supposed to direct the government."
• Hello, you fucking fascist pig!  Matthew 22:21 ("Give to Caesar what is Caesar's..."), you stupid fucking BITCH.   
• This week is the annual Summer Games Done Quick event for Doctors Without Borders/Medicin Sans Frontieres.  SOME of the event is being done in-person.

Day 835

• Tear gas against pro-abortion protesters in Arizona.
• A man in Iowa attempts to plow down a pro-abortion protest.
• Various White paramilitary groups call to arms to start shooting pro-abortionists.
• Sen. John Corwyn of Texas openly tells Barack Obama he wants Brown vs. Board of Education rolled back to the "separate but equal" standards of Plessy vs. Ferguson.
• Bluntly put, if you aren't Black at this point and you are even remotely right of center, this is probably the position you need, and will be claimed as a matter of the safety of White students.   
• Several violent incidents already on Saturday against pro-abortion protesters.  Yeah, I think a friend of mine said it best last night -- it's on.   

6-3.

Roe v. Wade is gone.  An anachronism now void of any effect.

And the decision was absolutely the draft you saw, including Clarence Thomas' assertion that all forms of pairing "substantive due process precedents" are on the table.

Something needs to be blown up tonight.  Someone has to come out publicly and make it clear that this isn't going to stand anymore.

Don't bother with the Federal codification -- it would be nullified in 15 minutes by this Court.

I am of any number of thoughts after a week with three of the most damning decisions against human rights in any week in the history of the Court.

The first is the concept of Freedom From Religion.  I always had a statement in mind that you can't have both Freedom Of and Freedom From.

I think it is now clear that Freedom From Religion is going to be outlawed -- if indirectly, but outlawed.

Consider:  What if an Originalist Conservative Court actually concluded that the First Amendment only concluded that one religion could not be made a state religion and that one religion could not be preferred over another?

That there was no true "separation of church and state" (one Republican has already said publicly:  "We are the Church and we run the State.") that the Founders intended (remembering that even the Inalienable Rights were seen as a function of a Creator/God), nor that there was any freedom NOT to practice a religion, especially given the evangelicals' practice of religion of "Go ye into all the world and ram the Gospel down everybody's throat!"

That (and the fact that the country believes that defective Black Welfare Baby-Mamas are replacing all the good White "stock" in this country (both the baby-machine women and the Only Protected Class In This Country -- the White MAN!)) is the basis of the victory today.

But it's far worse than this.  

This Court has just spit into the face of all precedent.  That, if it is "urgent enough", any precedent the Court has previously set and seen as "egregiously wrong" now can go.

Clarence Thomas, in his concurrence, has already put everything at least up to Griswold (the right to privacy, on which basis decisions like Roe, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell are based) on the chopping block.  (Some noted he omitted Loving v. Virginia with his terrorist White wife, but I don't think he cares what happens to that marriage -- if he doesn't just Sammy Sosa himself first.)

Consider the following situations:

• How many White people in this country would much rather have the schools resegregated -- "in the name of safety"?
• At what point does not only transgenderism be made illegal, but -- with Biden's attempt to expand Title IX -- so does Title IX?  Now they get their wish of the eradication of women's sports AND get to put it at the feet of what they said earlier?
• At what point does the state have a compelling interest to actively force a female (of whatever given age) to have sex with a Man of "Preferred Stock"?

I could go on.

I could go on and on and on.

But the fact of the matter is that, unless you are of "Preferred Stock", you have no rights in this country -- of any kind.  And it's time you act accordingly.

I don't know what people are supposed to take -- in any number of situations.  It is clear that the only reason most people still have roofs over their heads is because the violent elements around them have not figured out yet they pretty much have impunity over all but the Straight White (Cis-)Male Republican in this country?

Day 832

• Jaylon Ferguson, an outside linebacker for the Ravens who was the best healthy available for the team at his position, died today, age 26 -- no cause of death given.
• Caleb Swanigan, three years in the NBA, gone at 25.  Similar lack of details.
• Tony Siragusa has passed away at 55.  Similar lack of details.
• The Royal and Ancient WILL allow LIV golfers at the Open Championship this year.
• A 2009 letter detailing a sexual assault spree by Dan Snyder which eventually forced him to pay a $1,600,000 settlement has surfaced.
• Rob Gronkowski has retired from the NFL again.
• It is now official:  THE Ohio State University are insufferable pricks.
• For the purposes of athletic-promotional clothing, they actually have won a trademark ability for the word "THE", the most common word in the English language.  For the express purposes of calling themselves THE Ohio State University.
• So when has THE Ohio State University won a relevant national championship in the two major revenue-generating sports last?   
• Roger Goodell disavows any authority to remove Dan Snyder (or anyone else) as an owner.  So there's no Best Interests of the Game clause concerning you...  THEN WHY DO YOU EVEN FUCKING BOTHER HAVING A JOB, YOU GINGER PIECE OF SHIT?   
• A 236-page report in Argentina will have the doctors who observed Diego Maradona's death tried for murder.

Day 831

• And now you can add Brooks Koepka to the list.  He's gone to the LIV.
• Abraham Ancer is joining him.
• As of those two, LIV has now officially signed eight of the top 50 in the world.
• A scheduled call between Brittany Griner and her wife for Griner's birthday was shitcanned by the Russians.  The world better be ready:  The next time you see Griner in the USA, it'll be in a pine box.   
• The Yankees are becoming prohibitive favorites for the World Series (+450 right now at most US books):  They got to 50 wins last night (first team in the majors to do so), Gerritt Cole taking a no-hitter into the 8th -- the third such deep run into a no-hitter within a week in baseball.
• Only one other team in the AL even has FORTY wins -- Houston with 41.  Yankees are 8 1/2 up for the best record in the AL.
• The Mets have 45 wins, the Padres 42.
• And the Braves just got off a 14-game winning streak, just in time for an injury streak to bring the Dodgers back to Earth.
• Oliver Luck and Vince McMahon have settled the lawsuit surrounding the COVID-based end of XFL v.2.
• In an effort to quiet the matter before football itself can be put on trial, at least 20 of the lawsuits against DeShaun Watson are either at or heading to settlement.
• Mayim Bialik has tested positive for COVID -- and she's immunocompromised as well.
• It appears William Hill and Caesars have merged sportsbooks for the American operations.
• Brett Tuggle, a former Fleetwood Mac member, has died at the age of 70.

Day 830

• And in today's latest homage to gun culture:  A Houston Baptist University college basketball player was murdered and eight injured when a late-night cookout in Harlem got somebody to open fire.
• And if "Unknown" wants to know how Debbie Gibson is doing, he's got one more week of her The Body Remembers national tour -- five stops in California this week.
• The Texas Republican Party has put forth planks in their state terrorist platform illegalizing homosexuality as a non-standard life choice (Romans 3:23, fucktwits!!!), declaring Biden's win invalid (then resign your House of Representatives contingent en masse), and actually considering it's state constitutional right (and Texas is unique in this regard, as part of the United States' arrangement annexing the Republic of Texas as a state) to secede.
• A GOP Senate Candidate has gone one step further than "Librul Hunting Licenses".  This motherfucker, Eric Greitens, wants all the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) swarmed like SWAT operations and killed without bag limit or expiration "until we take over country back".  OVER MY DECEASED BODY, YOU TERRORIST FUCK!!!   
• Former governor of Missouri, thrown out in 2018, sexual impropriety while in office.  Reports indicate he's been referred to the FBI and Homeland Security repeatedly.
• Three separate incidents, including a mass shooting which killed one, ended a Juneteenth concert near the National Mall in DC last night.
• Today is the first observation of the newest national holiday:  Juneteenth.

Day 829

• Another win for the bigots...  FINA has ended Lia Thomas' career.  Short of the creation of a third division, transgenders who transitioned past 12 years old will be banned from elite swimming events by the international sanctioning body.  There IS, however, some discussion of the creation of an actual third "open" division.
• A problem, on top of the obvious bigotry:  You don't think that, eventually (definitely by Paris), there's not going to be a marked drop-off in women's performance in some of these events in which the international sanctioning bodies are moving to remove transgender and DSD athletes?  Remember:  ALL THREE 800m running medalists in Rio were DSD.  If you SERIOUSLY want to be that bigoted, you're going to find out something, IMODO, and it's going to be similar to the state that Canadian expert in the Ben Johnson hearings said.
• One way or the other, high-testosterone female (however they got there) athletes are what drives women's sports, as far as actual competition goes.  As two other examples, why do you think the Russian bigot called the Williams sisters both male?   
• Can't believe I haven't mentioned this yet: Former NASCAR star Clint Bowyer was involved in a fatal highway crash last week.  He struck a 47 year-old woman walking on a freeway ramp in Missouri.  He was sober, she was on drugs.
• If you want the impacts of the LIV Saudi blood money:  The four who made the cut out of 15 LIV golfers at the US Open:

1. Dustin Johnson:  141 through 2, 71-72 for 284 (+4).
2. Richard Bland:  142 through 2, 72-74 for 288 (+8).
3. Patrick Reed:  141 through 2, 75-74 for 290 (+10).
4. Bryson DeChambeau:  142 through 2, 76-75 for 293 (+13) and only five golfers who made the cut did worse.

• I do, openly, have to wonder when some of the LIV golfers may just not even bother going forward -- figuring if they aren't getting paid just to show up...
• Of course, you could be Stewart Hagestad.  An amateur, qualified as the runner-up of the US Amateur last year.  I hope someone got a shot of the leaderboard 12 holes through his first round.  In what had to be at least some form of surreal, Hagestad was -3 through his first 12, and, for about 10 minutes, the outright leader of the 2022 US Open.
• Then it went completely south.  +6 on his final 6, par 70 to make the cut on the number on Friday.  79-77 for 299 (+19) and the highest score of anyone to make the cut.
• Four amateurs made the cut, Travis Vick wins Low Amateur at 288.  139 at the cut, 76-73 for 288 (+8).
• Matt Fitzpatrick of England has won the US Open at 274 (-6).  It is his first American win after 7 on the European Tour.
• It appears that at least one pitch which has hit Justin Upton in the head is at least rumored to be the result of ungrippable baseballs MLB has put into effect in the last few days, according to the pitcher who threw the pitch.
• There has also been a report already in the last few days that at least one team has protested that none of the balls have been successfully treated to be playable with the clay used to rough them up.
• Just 2-3 days after the death of one of the Hebner twins, former WWE referee Tim White has passed away.  He was 68.  At least, contrary to rumor and/or previous storyline, this does appear to be natural course.   

Day 828

• The parents of the girl abducted and sexually trafficked after attending a Mavericks game spoke out on Good Morning America about the conditions the girl had to endure -- including repeated rape, starvation, and not letting her bathe.  Someone just needs to kill these inhuman bastards.   
• What everyone is agreeing to is that it happened outside the arena.  No such group had gotten in the arena.
• What the girl found out is that many more girls were also in the situation she was in.
• They ended up with the use of an Extended Stay hotel in the area of Oklahoma City...  Gee, you think the back-shit politics of Oklahoma may also have had a role to play in this shit????   
• Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from Wimbledon 2022, officially with an Achilles injury.  Though it is also believed mental-health considerations probably contributed to that she wasn't going to in any event.

Vince McMahon finally runs afoul of the Unintended Consequences of Being a Rich Republican White Man

May he and his wife go down in flames.

Let's start there, for loss of zero ambiguity.

But the Wall Street Journal report has finally claimed, at least for the time being, Vince McMahon's position as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment..

Anyone, and I do mean ANYONE, who has known of the career of Vince McMahon since the day he spit on the legacy and good word of his father with the other promoters of the NWA (yes, WWE was formerly a member of the NWA until Vince Jr. got a hold of it -- there were a few bumps, notably around the time of the creation of the World Wide Wrestling Federation -- in 1980).

Anyone who believes this is not White Rich Republican American Man run fucking amok needs to remember that Vince covered up the steroids which were the reason he was able to put all the muscle-bound monsters of the cartoon 1980's together (and why his business shriveled the moment the government got wise to THAT operation with the Dr. Zaharian trial!).  

Now, there is no secret that the NWA and Turner's WCW were also involved in the steroids (and, often, with wrestlers you wouldn't expect!).  But this was more a generalized operation and the modus operandi of McMahon's company.

But then comes the reason that McMahon probably had to go with Hulk Hogan:  The coverup of the Argentini murder by Jimmy Snuka...

I do believe Vince directly murdering Owen Hart...

(And I do think he kills Cody Rhodes for the work with AEW if he can.  Best thing that probably could've happened to Cody was ripping his pectoral muscle and being out past Wrestlemania Los Angeles next year...)

Today's revelations pale in the sight of those two, but it really just shows the complete callousness of McMahon.  And when you see how Vince treated women in his company for many a year in the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression Eras, none of this should be a surprise.

The only question now is when we find out about how many women wrestlers of the "Striptease Diva"/"Bra and Panties" Era he was fucking on the side, as a condition of THEIR employment.

Word, after the initial story, has come out that, though Vince and Republican Hag wife Linda are still technically married, they haven't lived together in many, many years.

And here's something you probably didn't know unless you've been watching recently:  We're probably heading back into that era -- John Laurinitis (he of the finding talent in fitness and modeling magazines) is, once again, the head of Talent Relations.  And he's knee-deep in these allegations as well.  However, as of a statement this morning announcing Vince stepping back, Laurinitis has had no action (elective or otherwise) taken against his position.

The thing is, what finally is going to bring this son of a bitch down is his decision to take this company public and all of the things required of a public company when you do.

And a question I often ask in this kind of a position is "Who did he piss off?"

That answer is easy:  NBCUniversal and FOX, who badly overpaid for the WWE broadcast rights, especially as ratings (comparative to what the WWE was probably selling to the companies when the broadcast rights went up).

And let's not forget HIS involvement as the forefather of Saudi Sportswashing!

The only question left, bluntly, is who else eventually comes forward -- and, eventually, who ends up with the company when it is clear that a rumored sale of the company now (and quickly!) becomes FORCED.

Late word:  There is rumor he is scheduled to appear on Smackdown tonight.  And in character.  (That's NOT a very good idea -- in either fucking respect!)

And Stephanie McMahon is back with the company, just weeks after stepping down (it was believed because of HHH's declining health).  She's taking over as CEO and Chairwoman of the Board.

And she was getting buried by the company for her talents on the way out...  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Day 827

• The days of World Wrestling Entertainment may be about at an end.  In the face of the sexual harassment allegations against Vince McMahon, he has at least temporarily stepped down as CEO of the company.
• Larry Nassar has had his final "Do you know who the fuck I am?" rejected by Michigan's highest court.
• A couple of days ago, Sue Bird announced this WNBA season would be her last.
• The Golden State Warriors won their fourth NBA title in eight years, and Steph Curry has recovered from his beating by Pepe the Muppet Shrimp to win his first NBA Finals MVP.
• Unlike what some of us may have thought (and seen uniformed security walking the course with some of the groups yesterday!), Phil Mickelson actually got a warm reception yesterday -- until he stunk the joint out and Phil the Phool shot a 78.
• The 16 cities and stadiums to host North America's 2026 FIFA World Cup were announced last night.
• Minutes after Vince McMahon flipped off all sense and sensibility with a brief appearance on Smackdown tonight, official word that Sasha Banks had been fired/released several weeks ago for breach of contract -- the only question left is the legalities surrounding it all.
• At least one "sheet" reporter says any number of WWE current and former talent register the appearance of McMahon on the program somewhere between confusion and outrage.
• And, as if today was not bad enough for the WWE:  Dave Hebner, one of three family members who were long-time professional wrestling referee performers, passed away this afternoon in Virginia.  Undisclosed illness -- it was reported he had Parkinson's.  He was 78.
• In what might be a view of the future...  Fifteen LIV golfers played in this year's US Open.  Only four are seeing the weekend and none are under par.
• "Sources" are saying the NFL is looking at banning DeShaun Watson at least a full season for his masseuse escapades and abuses.  People within the NFL are cautioning not to read into that too much.  Something tells me the latest word the Texans may have helped facilitate this might forestall this far closer to the regular season.  I would go full life-ban (one year, has to apply for reinstatement) and see what happens.  

Day 826

• Water Is Wet, Film At 11.  Vince McMahon is now in the middle of a sexual harassment hush money investigation -- as reports of a $3,000,000 payment to a former paralegal with the company have surfaced today.  A report sourced to the Wall Street Journal has said that McMahon and talent head John Laurinitis have had sexual toys within the company for years and that a number of other women have also received similar considerations...
• Oh gee, what a motherfucking shock!!!  It is an open non-secret that we're heading back to the tits and ass Laurinitis era, when he would actually open fitness and modeling magazines and try to hire women who got his rocks off.
• And, sexual harassment, in a Republican company with one of the biggest Republican CEO owners out there?  Well I NEVER!!!!   
• RUMOR:  Sasha Banks is done with WWE officially as of Wednesday.
• Luis Garcia and Phil Matton of the Houston Astros made baseball history tonight.  Each threw an immaculate inning in a 9-2 win over the Texas Rangers tonight -- making the Astros the first team in history to have two in the same game.
• An immaculate inning is striking out the side on the minimum nine pitches.
• Since 1880, top-level professional baseball has recorded 315 no-hitters.
• There have been only 108 immaculate innings in the same timeframe.
• One night after a pitcher came within one out of a no-hitter, the Dodgers' Tyler Anderson came within two outs of no-hitting the Angels until a Shohei Ohtani triple.
• On the eve of the start Thursday of the 2022 US Open, the USGA says it may be the last such US Open for the LIV Tour golfers.

Day 825

• I don't know what to think of this one...  Two apparent "social media influencers", the "Duo Rag Dolls", put together an "audition" for last night's America's Got Talent.  It went "poorly".  As if you couldn't tell, it was a complete put-on by all the staff and the only people who didn't know were the judges and live audience at the audition taping.  After the audition was buzzed out, the two began fighting...  Then did professional wrestling spots, ending with one slamming the other's head repeatedly into Simon's buzzer...  You guessed it:  The Bella Twins!
• Nikki, a Season 25 contestant on Dancing With The Stars, was also a judge on last season's "Extreme" version of AGT.  When they revealed the ruse, Nikki asked Simon Cowell if that was extreme enough for him -- and then they showed the Bella podcast where they hatched their "naughty" plan.
• Nikki was forced to retire from the ring after a cyst was found on her brain in 2019.
• Costa Rica became the 32nd and final entrant into the 2022 Qatar World Cup with a 1-0 win over New Zealand marred by highly-slanted officiating by the Middle Eastern officiating crew.
• Miles Mikolas of St. Louis came within one out of a non-shutout no-hitter last night.
• The United States, down to 10 men for much of the second half, eked out a CONCACAF Nations League draw at a waterlogged and crap pitch in El Salvador with an injury-time goal after El Salvador also had someone sent off.  1-1.
• The LIV Tour is the talk of US Open week -- no surprise.  Tournament begins tomorrow.
• An attorney is quoted that "many others" could sue DeShaun Watson.  From reports, I'd put the number at at least 40 more.  To me, especially with the possible involvement of the Texans, if proven, I could see it being the end of the franchise as a going concern.   
• Dr. Anthony Fauci is COVID-positive.

Saudi Arabia and Sportswashing -- And Deadspin asks a Hell of a question about it!

I was going to do this post already, and then Deadspin, on Monday, actually added a further angle I hadn't thought of.

Of course, the biggest story in the sports world right now is the first tournament of the LIV Saudi-backed blood-money tour, and how much it has decimated the PGA Tour in just a couple short weeks.

This is just a short list of the major PGA Tour names to leave the PGA Tour in the period surrounding the first LIV event outside London last weekend:

• Sergio Garcia
• Dustin Johnson
• Martin Kaymer
• Graeme McDowell
• Phil Mickelson (who officially resigned Monday)
• Kevin Na
• Louis Oosthuizen
• Ian Poulter
• Charl Schwartzel
• Lee Westwood
• and now Bryson DeChambeau (who announced he had resigned to join the LIV Tour)
• and Patrick Reed about to follow, if he hasn't already done so.

The reason is obvious.  Money.

Both Mickelson and Johnson were reported to receive, in appearance fees alone for their contracted period with the LIV Tour, more Saudi blood money than they had received in a couple of storied PGA Tour careers -- and one can expect that the others on this list (and the others already playing) are getting consideration commensurate with their standing.

This has been evidenced in glaring color with the "high nine-figure offer" to Tiger Woods, which he turned down...

... a move which boggled my golf-fan anonymous friend.  We now have to reconcile that what time the PGA Tour has left is probably because Tiger said no.

I've long said that the PGA Tour was going to die and be replaced by a World Golf Tour.  It is now evident that the Saudi blood butchers are going to make this happen.  This LIV Tour, barring something really bizarre, is going to be the World Golf Tour many of us have seen as a successor to the PGA, European, etc. Tours.

But that they did not get Tiger (at probably any price! -- even a billion-plus probably would've been enough for him to try it, especially because of his almost-sole focus of American fan golf interest) now means that, instead of the "Baba Booey!" and "Mashed Potatoes!" crowd being simply an annoying damage to the enjoyment of golf for everyone else, that Tiger Woods (to the extent currently possible) has saved the PGA Tour.

At least for now.

There are not many stars who haven't taken the money.  Rory McIlroy is another, and the list (especially given that the Saudi butchers and Donald Trump are in bed with each other -- and that many of the PGA Tour support the latter as well!) isn't that long.  Jordan Speith and Justin Thomas are two more.

So, on top of that the PGA Tour does not have long to establish new stars now, my friend proposes several other situations:

• More tournament experiences like the TPC in Scottsdale.  Not only may scoring opportunities draw fans to see players play "offensive golf"...
• ... but more fan experiences like Scottsdale's Stadium Sixteenth Hole may draw more fans and excitement to events.
• More pro-am events, and higher visibility to them.
• And, right now, you still have the networks.  LIV is left to do it's own YouTube channel and website.

But the facts are the facts:

--------------

(And this is for far more than golf.)

The Saudi blood butchers literally have more money than God.  They have thrown obscene sums at these golfers and at Vince McMahon to do what is called "SportsWashing", a political effort by Saudi Arabia to cover up their murderous hardcore Islamic regime in the name of "modernization".

(Never mind even these efforts have had their moments.  Muscled brutes sending off a dissenting reporter on Thursday from Phil's press conference.  And Saudi authorities briefly kidnapping most of the WWE roster after a pissing match over millions developed between Vince McMahon and the Saudi blood bosses.)

But there is one fact which CANNOT be denied:

The future of all sport -- all sport which can and will choose to do so -- is going to be some form of ultra-money SportsWashing, often with Saudi Arabia at the forefront.

The insane money involved cannot be denied.  And, when you get right down to it, players wanna be paid.

Once Saudi Arabia starts doing the same with tennis and the like, you'll see at least the men's tour go Saudi.

That's bad enough...

-----------------

But then Deadspin came on Monday and asked an ominous question:

When does SportsWashing come for an American team?

Deadspin takes as obvious moves for the Saudis to be the next iteration beyond American involvement in ownership of world soccer for big money.

(What SOMEONE may wish to ask, especially if several of these blood families get together, is whether you could see an effort to create a breakaway world soccer league, not unakin to the European Super League model -- but new franchises entirely and massive payouts to entice the world's best soccer players (and others, like cricket) to come play for exclusive new Saudi teams and leagues.)

But Deadspin asks another question:  When does a Big Four (Deadspin notes one of the MLS New York teams is owned by an Abu Dhabi group) American team get an offer they can't refuse?

I think a very important thing has to happen first:  The "Red Tsunami" and the permanent rise of the Right/Reich Wing Reign on this country has to happen first.  I don't think it can be underestimated that the first real move of the Saudis has come in a sport and in a playerbase predominantly White and predominantly Reich Wing.

There's a very real problem with getting Saudi owners in these leagues -- they would have to be approved by the other owners and by the people running the leagues.  That's not something I see happening...  YET.

It is correct to understand the shitheads running many of these Big Four teams have no scruples -- and, if the leagues themselves had any, the Dan Snyders and Dolans and the like would be gone, for one reason or another.

But this is another situation entirely.  You already know there's significant flak being given even the Los Angeles Dodgers for their spending (and not being one of the Manfred Six -- oh, hi there, Yankees with the best record in baseball!).  Think of the discussions which would take place if that was, instead, a Saudi blood money group with unlimited funds.

Deadspin also thinks it would happen as a function of having the Saudi owners back new stadiums.  One problem with that which would tie into the White Reich:  You would eventually have to have American cities and communities which would have to ally with these Saudi blood lords on a direct basis - unless you honestly eventually expect these people to actually put stadiums and teams in the Middle East (which would create a massive problem!).

You won't see in the NFL with a harder salary cap.  

I don't think you'll see it in an NBA with that many Black players.

The NHL?  I don't think the political demographics work in most of the league.

So I think the cleanest possibility would be MAGA League Baseball.  And then you have to think, at that point, that a politically complimentary area would have to be found.  Would this mean a team or two in the Great Plains, as a demographic consideration?  A couple more in the Deep South, but not necessarily, per se, in major cities???

Consider what was rumored regarding the Qatar World Cup of soccer:  Not only was the stadium where the third-place match rumored not built, nor was the ENTIRE CITY around it!

Something to consider, that is for sure.

I'm not quite crying "FIX!" on this one, but I am saying something's not right here...

Well, there's a whole lot not right...

That Qatar is hosting this World Cup (and these final qualifiers) is one thing.

The fact that stadium had better be air-conditioned is another.  A quick note of the early-game outside weather in Doha, Qatar showed, at 9:30 in the evening, it was 91 degrees with 71% humidity!

But the relevant point of fact started in the 120th minute (end of second extra time), when Australia made what, to many, was a curious final substitution in a scoreless match with Peru:  Starting goalkeeper and captain Mathew Ryan was replaced with Andrew Redmayne.

At first glance, it was a substitution for a shootout specialist.

When Redmayne went between the pipes for the ensuing shootout, we found out why:

Redmayne's style is to disconcert the opposing shooters by dancing in the goal like an idiot.

After Peruvian keeper Pedro Gallese saved Martin Boyle's opener and Luis Advincula put Peru's third off the post, we went to extra penalties.

After Awer Mabil made his for Australia, up came Alex Valera for Peru.

Watch Redmayne closely:  (5:09 of the video, it's quick!)

From The Laws of the Game, Law 14 about the penalty kick (IFAB copy, the group which advises FIFA on The Laws):

"The defending goalkeeper must remain on the goal line, facing the kicker, and between the goal posts, without touching the goalposts, crossbar, or goal net, until the ball has been kicked."

Just as Valera begins his run-up, Redmayne, in his herky-jerky dance, briefly leaves his line.  He does return, but the official had already signaled for the kick to be taken -- this is an infringement and the kick should've been retaken with a possible yellow card to Redmayne.

I would also have to wonder if FIFA and the IFAB may want to revisit Law 14 before the Qatar tournament.  This would appear to be an equivalent of that Sean Avery Rule -- that Redmayne has found a loophole in the Laws so obvious that no one thought to patch it, until now.

That said, I can't say the match was necessarily fixed, because this is just bizarre on his part.

But it shouldn't have happened, and shouldn't happen again!

Day 824

• More controversy this weekend in the continuing Reich-Wing War on Pride:
• A ceremonial first pitch from transgender Jeopardy! ultra-champion Amy Schneider was deliberately omitted by the national Fox Sports broadcast and replaced with a ceremony with Kurt Busch.
• To basically slam a transgender in the name of a domestic-violence pig should be no surprise, when you realize the current broadcast situation.
• Contrary to previous reports, the sale of most of the rest of the Fox broadcast empire to Disney was forced reversed and the national Fox Sports Network is still owned by Rupert Murdoch.
• This was as a result of FCC limitations on one company owning multiple channels of the same type.
• And the regional Fox Sports Networks have been resold and rebranded as Bally Sports -- owned by Reich-Wing pigs Sinclair Broadcasting!  SO NONE OF THIS SHIT IS A SURPRISE!!!!!  
• Costa Rica vs. New Zealand today for the final World Cup spot.
• Golden State is one win away from another title.  I did originally say Boston in seven.  We'll see about that one.   
• A Department of Education survey sent to ESPN for the 50th anniversary of Title IX shows about a third of the Division I colleges fail to meet funding requirements -- if X% of your athletes are women, then X% of the budget has to go to them.
• Serena Williams will try to play Wimbledon as a wild-card.

Day 823

• The final two spots for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are finally on the line today and tomorrow.
• Australia plays Peru today for the right to join France, Denmark, and Tunisia in Group D.
• And then Costa Rica plays New Zealand tomorrow to join Spain, Germany, and Japan in the Group of Death.
• The one convenient thing about them trying to deal with the summer in Qatar is that the matches will take place at 11 AM Pacific each day.
• Australia won in penalties after a scoreless 120 minute draw, but the winning penalty miss might be couched in controversy.  Which will probably get it's own post...   
• Phil Mickelson has finally turned in his PGA Tour card -- the only LIV defector still left on the PGA Tour is Ian Poulter -- and, chances are, he may only be there, at this point, for the legal challenge Greg Norman may mount to kill off the PGA Tour once and for all.  That WILL get it's own post.   
• Josh Donaldson WILL have to serve his one-game suspension for the apparent racist remark he made against Tim Anderson.  Should've been far more, but this is MAGA League Baseball.  
• Jeff Hardy has just ended his wrestling career.  AEW will have no choice but to fire him, because he had to go and blow nearly a .30 on a breathalyzer in Florida this morning.  Good.  God.   
• COVID positives are the Health and Human Services Secretary (for at least a second time), Mick Jagger, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is in the league's protocols.

Day 822

• Do you ever get the feeling that the entire situation is about to go "Uh Oh"??   
• I really have to wonder who this guy actually pissed off OTHER THAN BRITNEY...  It sounds like the lede got really buried on Jason Alexander crashing the private wedding of Britney Spears on Thursday.  He was armed with a knife when he did so.  AND he was livestreaming the event.  Speaking as an ex-celebrity stalker, how this guy was not simply shot is beyond any source of my personal recognition.  
• He wasn't even charged with stalking in the state of California, under current California law.
• In a move scarily reminiscent of Mike Tyson, Edgar Berlanga has probably ended his boxing career last night on the latest ESPN Top Rank event by biting the ear of Alexis Angulo -- and no one realistically caught the incident except the ESPN cameras!  Berlanga won the fight, and then claimed Angulo was trying to win the fight through fouling himself!
• Unfortunate moment in last night's boxing broadcast:  Timothy Bradley and Joe Tessitore were laughing at a video of a knocked-out fighter getting back in the ring and continuing boxing...
• ... the problem was, neither found out until later that the involved fighter actually died of brain injuries as a result of the fight.  Both immediately apologized upon discovery.
• I erred earlier.  The NHL now has it's Stanley Cup Final:  Colorado vs. two-time defending champion Tampa Bay.  That was the Eastern Conference Final I spoke of earlier.
• According to Sports Illustrated, Colorado is more than odds-on to win -- -213 at their sportsbook.
• Charl Schwartzel won the first LIV Golf event outside London this weekend -- and, with it, $4,000,000 in prize money.  Which is to say nothing about appearance fees...   
• The last-placed golfer, who didn't break 75 in any of the three rounds, still got $120,000 in prize money from the Saudi blood-lords.
• Only the top 20 PGA Tour golfers at this week's Canadian Open got more than that.
• Outspoken LIV critic Rory McIlroy won the PGA Tour event.  He "only" got $1,566,000.
• And now the interesting part:  The US Open is next week!
• Daniel Suarez became the first Mexican racer to win a top-flight NASCAR race this week.

Day 820

• Oklahoma is back to back national champions in softball.  59-3.  The loss in the Omaha tournament allows the record to stand, though, for the highest winning percentage in a season.
• That's 115-7 for the back-to-back.  There was no 2020 tournament, and they were 20-4 when COVID hit.  So that's 135-11 the last three seasons.  Their last meaningful defeat was in June of 2019, when they lost the championship series to UCLA in a two-game sweep.

1. 2022:  Champs
2. 2021:  Champs
3. 2020:  No Tournament
4. 2019:  Finals, UCLA 0-2
5. 2018:  Double elimination phase, Washington
6. 2017:  Champs
7. 2016:  Champs
8. 2015 was the last year they haven't made the Omaha tournament (eliminated at the last level before by Alabama)

• After the loss to set up a double-elimination game with UCLA, Oklahoma went 15-0, 16-1, 10-5 to win the championship.
• Speaking of domination, the Tampa Bay Lightning are now one win over the New York Rangers from securing their third consecutive Stanley Cup.  They would become the first team since the 1979-80 to 1983-84 New York Islanders to win at least three in a row.  And the year before that was the year they won the President's Trophy and didn't win a single game in the playoffs.
• Phil Mickelson had a golf reporter physically removed from the LIV Tour press conference after the first round of play in London on Thursday.
• There is both individual and team competition in the LIV Tour.  Charl Schwarzel leads the individual competition in the first 54-hole tournament, shooting 5 under par.  Hennie du Plessis shot 4 under, two golfers shot 3 under.
• One of the features of the LIV Tour -- a shotgun start, where players tee off on all 18 holes simultaneously.  As much as possible, all will face equal conditions.
• The reported addition of Bryson Dechambeau has cost him his Rocket Mortgage sponsorship.

Day 819

• On the first day of competition of the LIV Saudi Tour, the PGA Tour has banned all LIV players from their events.
• Seventeen golfers are currently impacted, including:

1. Sergio Garcia
2. Dustin Johnson
3. Martin Kaymer
4. Graeme McDowell
5. Phil Mickelson
6. Kevin Na
7. Louis Oosthuizen
8. Ian Poulter
9. Charl Schwartzel
10. Lee Westwood

• Every player on the above list but Mickelson and Poulter has resigned from the PGA Tour.
• My anonymous friend corrects me -- the PGA Tour and the PGA of America are not the same body, surprisingly and counterintuitively.  So, as of now, the LIV golfers can still compete in all four majors.
• Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed will be banned in three weeks, should they follow through on their plans to join them at the second event in Portland, OR.
• Here's your World Golf Tour, people.  Most of these players are getting more money just to appear than they did for their entire professional careers.  That it's Saudi blood money is of no concern to them.   
• There is some talk the LIV will actually involve a tournament in Russia hosted by Vladimir Putin -- no word from the players if they will play it.
• My guess is yes -- the championship tournament of the four-month season will be held at a Florida Trump course.
• The Larry Nassar survivors are suing the FBI for a billion dollars for their inaction.  So, how much does the US Sexual Assault Committee get sued for?  And, with what's about to happen to women in this country, are any of you going to be meaningfully alive to see a payment?   

Day 818

• Latest report, The Sham Beau is selling out to Saudi Arabia too.
• The Houston Texans have apparently provided NDAs and facilities for DeShaun Watson's sexual escapades with massage therapists...
• So, guess what?  You guys are getting sued too!

We are fucked, Part 45...

YouGov poll.

1000 total respondents, so probably 300-400 Trump voters...

SEVENTY-THREE PERCENT OF THE LATTER believe Democrats are trying to replace White people with People of Color and other groups who agree with their political beliefs.

When expanded to all Republicans, it only goes down to 61%.

We're done as a nation, people.

Karl, you naive soul...

I've been thinking of doing this post (or a variant) for some time...

Today is the California primary, where it actually appears Republicans may make SOME inroads into the state, largely on the fact the cities are out of control.

I read, as a function of my enemies, libertarian economist Karl Denninger's The Market Ticker, largely so I know what some people may be planning for my death and the death of about the leftward 30-60% of this country.

Why do I say this?

Denninger says the entire leveraged expansion of this country of the last 40 years must be reversed.

That must, if we are to believe your "mathematics doesn't lie", Karl, the 30% increase of population which occurred in the same time frame must go with it.

And then, on top of that, you'd have to implement a "replacement theory" of your own:  Replacing another 30% of the population over the next 20-25 years with good, White Christian MEN.  (And make no mistake:  Repealing and revoking Roe v. Wade is about creating WHITE MEN...  The only people who have an ounce of rights in Conservative America.)

(And if you don't believe that, I could point you to a statement made today by the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina:  "We were born to be led by men."  That, rubber hitting the road, we didn't send "Davida", we sent David.)

But the centerpiece of this post is to (a) rebuke of his current three-line signature on his posts and (b) tell the Conservatives of this country about what they would have to do at this point -- hint:  it's a military-takeover action, under the color of the Second Amendment as the courts have misapplied.

Here's Denninger's sig:

Civil Society requires 99%+ consent.
Stop consenting and it is forced to stop. Always.
No violence required.  

All three statements are flatly false.

The first:  Civil society requires 99%+ consent.

I get where he acquires this belief:  The concept that only about 3% or so of the fighting-age men of the 1770's actually fought in the Revolutionary War.

What he does not get is the concept that freedom is a terrorist act, and the Constitution (especially to Conservatives and Libertarians and DOUBLY SO post-Civil War) a terrorist document.

There's a very real difference between consent and the fact you don't have the right not to consent, so it doesn't matter whether you consent or not.

And that. frankly, is where most Americans are right now.

Let me put it this way to make it simple for you:  If you got arrested tonight, how long would it be before you lost everything (your job, your home, your belongings, perhaps even your wife and family) -- whether or not you were guilty of the offense?

You probably lose the job the moment the arrest hits your boss.  You lose the home when you can't make the next payment (which, for many, isn't even more than the next month or two), the belongings as an immediate corollary.  And, depending on the nature of the relationship and the charge, you may lose your wife and family anywhere from immediately to the point at which it is no longer tenable.

And, again, that does not require guilt.  It only requires the arrest.

It's one of the main reasons that most people, in this country, cannot even afford to be ARRESTED.  So "consent" is not even a relevant term here.  You don't have the right not to.

Second statement:  Stop consenting and it is forced to stop.  Always.

Try "NEVER", Karl.

If you stop consenting, then one of three things will happen to you.  You will be either be scorned, exiled, or eliminated -- the level of each depending on what that which you are no longer (or never were) in consent to.

It will continue.  And I would assert the entire economic makeup of this country is a splendid counterexample to this theory.  You would think that more than 1% of this country has not consented to the present circumstances, from the American Right.

So why do we continue as we are?  Because your theory is wrong.

Third statement:  No violence required.

To state this is laughable is an insult to laughability.

The first problem with this statement is the presence of a statistically significant portion of the population whose EXISTENCE is violence -- I happen to be in that group.

The second problem is the falsity of the first two statements, and that it has nothing to do with "consent" at all.

Just as it is the other direction (and why the Right wants to go back to the 10th Amendment and chip away and eventually revoke the 14th), IT IS ALL ENFORCEMENT.

All of it.  Every last bit of it.

The fact that many aggrieved demographics are allowed to exist at all in this country and weren't exterminated in the style of the Indians with Manifest Destiny is ENFORCEMENT, IMPOSITION of their "rights" on the majority who would otherwise see them gone.

The Constitution does not grant rights -- it IMPOSES them, against the majority.  And the 14th Amendment is the centerpiece for this situation.

This is why you are seeing efforts to chip away at those rights, because of the fact that the Conservatives understand the very EXISTENCE of certain people and demographics not only are acts of violence upon "their America", but also acts of terrorism against their belief system.

Which gets to the current situation in cities like LA and San Francisco.

The District Attorney of San Francisco is about to be recalled tonight, as part of a Republican-led effort to force "tough on crime" back on San Francisco.

I tell you this without hesitation and with the very real possibility I may be homeless on those same streets by the end of the summer:

The only way you are getting "tough on crime" in San Francisco is militia-enforced martial law.  You will literally have to give the order to shoot to kill the crime elements of that city.

I know of which I speak.  I spent a little over nine years on the streets of San Francisco -- and that was actually a nine-year period in which the city had far less of a problem than it does now.

The first issue you have is mental health, but I started seeing what is going on today on an increasing basis in the final weeks and months before I got housed in another part of the country:  Violence because there's nothing to lose.

The vast bulk of this is either gang activity (meaning they, to be part of the gang, commit the crime), their only approximation of a "job" (the theft rings running around), and/or the fact that, for tens of thousands in the 49 square miles, jail and prison are stark improvements on their lives as they stand.

How, short of basically elimination, are you going to deal with that?

And that goes double in LA, a city in which the gangs have material control.

If you go back to the beginning of the coronavirus stuff on this blog and look at my discussion of All-Stop Conditions, we are far closer than I think anyone should be comfortable with -- and it may go down this summer.

The mass shootings all over the country are an indication of this.

Another indication is that seven street gangs effectively now have material control of LA with some of the follow-home robberies which are taking place.

You cannot continue a "law and order" possibility without not just saying you'll shoot them, but carrying it out.

Because how many of them are effective zombies in the first place at this point?

Karl, shoot or shut the fuck up.  (Your) Math lies, and I'm living proof.

Day 817

• Dustin Johnson has quit the PGA Tour.
• Rickie Fowler may soon follow.
• The USGA says the US Open will accept Phil Mickelson and all eligible golfers.
• Someone sicced a flamethrower on a San Bernadino, CA street takeover over the weekend.
• The Carolina Panthers have hired the first transgender cheerleader.
• Kota Ibushi, the President of New Japan Pro Wrestling, and (reportedly) the assistant to the head booker of the company have all been fined 10% of their third calendar-quarter pay for this year due to the situation between Ibushi and New Japan, which has gravely embarrassed the company to the point of a public apology.  The assistant is also being reassigned to a different position in the company.
• There is a report the situation has gotten so bad, Ibushi's mother attempted suicide.
• Australia has won the Asian playoff for the World Cup, and will play Peru for a spot in the field.
• Phil's sell-out to the Saudi butchers was $200,000,000.  His official PGA Tour winnings over his career:  Not even half that.
• Taylor Gooch has also left the PGA Tour.
• Sergio Garcia and Charl Schwartzel as well.  So that's at least six now.
• Hector Neris has been suspended four games for throwing behind a player's head.
• One of the most inexplicable ultra-champion runs on Jeopardy! finally ended Monday night.  Eric Ahasic, a weatherman from Minneapolis, finally ousted 16-time champion Ryan Long, who leaves the show just a few hundred dollars over $300,000.  We've had five ultrachamps this year.
• This is the 19th season of the unlimited-run rule on the show.  There have been 14 people who have won 10 or more games.  FIVE of them this season.
• A 12-game losing streak has ended the managerial run of Joe Maddon in Los Angeles for the Angels.
• Reports have it that for every woman already suing DeShaun Watson, there could easily be two more waiting in the wings.

Day 816

• Should be no surprise in Rot DeathSentence's Florida...  Five members of the Tampa Bay Rays exposed themselves as bigots, refusing to wear Pride patches for the team's Pride Night.
• Bigot Jason Adam, Bigot Jalen Beeks, Bigot Brooks Raley, Bigot Jeffrey Springs, and Bigot Ryan Thompson.
• Kevin Kiermaier and Jack Flaherty have already come out against the move.
• In a move long overdue -- and surprising, it being the Dodgers:  On THEIR Pride Night, they finally honored the man who broke the barrier for gay MLB players:  Glenn Burke.  My anonymous baseball-fan friend notes this was probably Lasorda, who is a bigot of his own right.
• The Canadian men's national soccer team wants to be paid commensurate to winning the CONCACAF Octagonal, and has gone on strike, cancelling an international friendly yesterday.
• Oklahoma softball has suffered it's third loss of the year, to UCLA.  The two teams had to play again to determine who goes to the championship series...
• Which Oklahoma mercy-ruled UCLA and eliminated them.
• They will face the winner between the two other teams to defeat Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State, Texas forcing the same situation.
• To what should be no one's surprise, Phil Mickelson has decided to play in the first LIV event outside London this weekend.
• The face of the league, Greg Norman, has claimed Tiger Woods was offered most of a billion dollars to join LIV.
• Norman has also called Rory McIlroy brainwashed and Jack Nicklaus a hypocrite.  Well, one out of two is not bad...
• A 24th woman has sued DeShaun Watson.  Please, oh please, oh please, put the entire damn sport on trial.   
• Boris Johnson, largely due to COVID considerations, had to survive a no-confidence vote from his own party tonight to remain the UK's Prime Minister.  It appears there is no replacement ready, neither from the opposition NOR his own party.

Day 815

• Shooting.  Philadelphia.  Three killed, another 10 wounded Saturday night.  Three shooters, and they're all out there.
• 14 shot in Chattanooga on Sunday morning makes the 25th mass shooting in the United States since Uvalde -- 11 days ago.
  
• Phoenix also has had a shooting in the last 48 hours.
• Amnesty International has issued a travel advisory against the United States for the gun violence.
• Worst part:  It's been in force almost three years.
  
• The Yankees are pitching like crazy -- after two near-perfect game bids, they one-hit the Tigers Saturday.
• Oklahoma has avenged one of their two softball losses in beating Texas on Saturday, and they will have a chance to avenge the other in their next game with rival Oklahoma State.
• The improbable run of Ryan Long has reached sixteen games on Jeopardy!, and he doesn't even have $300,000 to his name.
• DeShaun Watson's lawyer says his disciplinary meetings with the NFL have concluded.  We'll see what happens.
• You don't know the name, you almost certainly know the face.  The Gerber Baby -- the baby on the face of all that Gerber Baby Food, Ann Turner Cook, passed away at 95.
  
• Alec John Such, the original bassist for Bon Jovi, passed away today.
• It goes down in the books as an own goal, but there's nothing dodgy about it.  A deflected Gareth Bale free kick gives the World Cup England vs. Wales in the groups as Wales beat the Ukraine 1-0.  I saw the video.  It may have glanced off the defender's head, but that was clearly Bale's goal.  
• Do not access any pro wrestling websites tonight if you are squeamish.  Vince McMahon may be about to get his wish.  Cody Rhodes is working the main event of Hell in a Cell with such a torn pectoral muscle, his entire left side of his torso is red and purple.  All it would take is one wrong blood clot, and Vince can chalk another one into his belt.

Perhaps the most prescient article I've ever seen...

I'm just going to put them out there, but an article which has been making the rounds on some homepages on Firefox outlines an article by Corinne Purtill of Quartz magazine, and it entails:

The Five Universal Laws of Human Stupidity

1. Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid people in circulation.
2. The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or a group of persons while himself not deriving gain or possibly even incurring losses.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals.  In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that, at all times and at all places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.  (Even more so than the "bandit" who wants to take from you for his or her benefit.)
   

Day 814

• And just like that, CM Punk vs. Tanahashi is off.
• Punk announced tonight that he needs surgery, and will be placed inactive.  He will still be an AEW World Champion, but an interim belt will be created, and, eventually unified with Punk's upon his return.
• Next Wednesday, a massive battle royal will be held.  That winner will face Jon Moxley.  That winner will go to Forbidden Door and face Tanahashi for the interim belt.
• It's time for 83 year old Twins broadcaster Jim Kaat to be retired.  About six months ago, he made a "40 back acres" comment about one player...
• And then, last night, a nasty pitcher named Chester was called "Chester the Molester" because of his filthy pitches.
• Kaat quickly apologized to both, Chester to his face.
• Kaat has had a 40 year near-spotless career in broadcasting after retiring from baseball, but he IS 83.
• We now have a court ruling that bees are fish.  Seriously.
• A California court has ruled that endangered bumblebees must be given the same protections and endangered fish under state environmental laws.  That legislative jargon can be used to expand definitions of words beyond normal parlance...
• Another example, Deborah Gibson, of why "freedom" only applies to those who have been declared to have something to offer to the culture or society:  Sports Illustrated, through the Los Angeles Times, reported Friday night that five San Diego State football players played much of last season after being reported for an off-campus rape which took place in mid-October.  The entire football team is aware of the incident.
• The girl was unconscious and left bloodied and bruised.
  
• None of the major control mechanisms have been activated...  because FOOBAW MAN!!!!!!!  RARGH!!!!    

1. Even as of today, no internal investigation of the report, which was done by two other athletes, neither of which were at the party.  Indicating to me that the rapes became part and parcel to the 2021 San Diego State football season -- as already reported, the entire team knew!    
2. No student disciplinary procedures have been enacted against anyone.
3. And no alert to the campus female community that one or more students, OF ANY STRIPE, were being investigated for a sexual assault or rape.
4. San Diego police told the campus to lay off on the 28th, purportedly so as not to compromise the investigation!  ("Tallahassee is a football town, ma'am!") 
5. They claim to the Los Angeles Times that the investigation is still going.  Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....
6. *breathes*  Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....  (And let none of that be against the victim or to diminish the crime committed.  I hope I don't have to explain that reaction!)
   

• The only people who are allowed to be happy with who they are without interference had the interference cancelled because someone (as is required) said yes to them and their talents.  Anyone not receiving this assent has no rights whatsoever!!!
• Especially in DeathSentence's Florida!!!  Who has gotten the Special Olympics to remove their mask and vaccine mandates, rather than face the wrath of the Idiot Jackass Governor who wants the lessers to DIE!  GO FUCK YOURSELF, ROT DEATHSENTENCE!!!   
• A historic day in golf, and not in a good way:  After weeks of pressure from the PGA Commissioner regarding the Saudi breakaway tour, Kevin Na has become the first player to renounce his PGA Tour card to go all-in with the LIV, the Saudi-backed tour.  (Erroneously put as Li Na, the Chinese tennis player.  I'm an idiot.)
• One reason, a report about Dustin Johnson:  The report states that Johnson will be paid $125,000,000 in appearance fees during the length of his contract with the LIV.  If true, it will be two-thirds more than his entire winnings in 15 years on the PGA Tour (About $72 million.)
• To no one's shock (no offense to Gauff, Swiatek was that dominant, dropping only one set to win the French):  Iva Swiatek swept Coco Gauff 6-1 6-3 to win the 2022 French Open women's title.
• Hmmmmmmmm...  I'm not sure there's any way he could've known it THAT FAR BACK, even if rigged, but....  A Boston Celtics fan has been spotted with a Boston championship banner tattoo for this season.  He got it back in March.  And I think, after the TNT incident with the Warriors fans, he's right!  They already have the break of home court and are up 1-0 with Game 2 tomorrow.     
• The USA men's national soccer team is playing Uruguay in a friendly tomorrow.  Fans of the USMNT will not, largely, care, sans injuries, etc.
• The important USMNT match tomorrow is in Cardiff, Wales.  Wales takes on the Ukraine.  Winner joins the USA, England, and Iran in a World Cup group.
  

Day 813

• A Michigan man was arrested today near the Capitol -- body armor, high-end bullets, and a badge reading "Department of the INTERPOL".  Oof.  And he's probably one of those who was carrying guns at the Michigan Capitol two years ago or whenever it was.
  
• Governor Fascist DeathSentence of Florida has vetoed the new Spring Training home of the Tampa Bay Rays in his state, due to the messages and $50,000 donation in support of gun-violence education after the Uvalde shootings.
• Prince Andrew has been skipping the Diamond Jubilee celebration of Queen Elizabeth II after catching COVID.
• And now, due to "discomfort", the Queen herself will sit out the second day of events on Friday.  Abundance of caution due to close contact, perhaps?    
• One of the announcements in the E3 substitute for Sony, a large State of Play presentation, is the Summer 2023 (who the fuck are we kidding, this is Square-Enix, people!!) release of Final Fantasy XVI.  It should stand to reason, due to executive producer Naoki Yoshida, that the game shares many mechanical similarities for Yoshida's other Square-Enix project, MMO Final Fantasy XIV.  Since it's apparently PS5-exclusive, it might as well come out in 2025 or 2026 for many users.
  
• More anger, more mayhem.  Man gets pissed off with girlfriend, goes to the Dallas Museum and trashes $5 million worth of stuff.
• Oklahoma and the only two teams to defeat them (Oklahoma State and Texas) all won their first games in the Women's (Softball) College World Series.
• A sudden injury ended one French Open men's semifinal, and Rafael Nadal was advanced to the final to play Casper Ruud of Norway.  Ruud has won eight tournaments since the pandemic restart, and is the first Norwegian ever to seen even a semifinal of any Grand Slam.
• Joe Girardi is out as Phillies manager, the first casualty of the new season.  Psst.  Bryce Harper.  Addition By Subtraction.  (There are others.  He's just the most flagrant.  He's the James Harden or Russell Westbrook of Major League Baseball.)  You're just not spending the money in the right places.
  
• Harini Logan is the 2022 National Spelling Bee champion.  Logan was actually eliminated from the Bee in a new on-stage multiple-choice definitions round (the process is not nearly the same as it used to be when I toiled in it!), and became the first speller to win the championship in a 90-second spell off.
• The process is now far more like a game show (with the spell-off, if I'm reading this right, more like versions of Name That Tune and the Golden Medley Showdown), including the over $50,000 the winner got in prizes.
• The person who coached her, Grace Walters, who, like Logan, is from Texas.  Logan is the fifth National Spelling Bee champion coached by Walters.
  

Day 812

• Can I order two "Today I'm On My Last Nerve, And You're Getting On It" shirts?  Asking for a friend.
• Ames, IA.  At least three shot and killed, shooter down.
  
• The doctor that was targeted in yesterday's Omaha mass shooting was a back specialist who also worked in the NBA.  The shooter was angry his back pain had not subsided.
  
• Boston wins Game 1 of the NBA Finals.  No shock.  I'd be surprised if the Warriors win after the stunt of throwing shit at Charles Barkley and disrupting the TNT program.
• MJF threw a worked-shoot pipebomb last night.  He appeared at Double or Nothing.  He got whitewashed (as all heels that good should -- one of the traits of a great heel is to know when and how to "eat shit" when the time comes).  Then, on Wednesday, with the Turner brass in The Forum for AEW's Los Angeles debut, he threw a promo that basically took all the real-life frustations with Tony Khan and worked them into a promo.  He then was "removed from the roster" today.  Much of the weekend might not have been a work, but I think we're solidly into working now.  MJF was cheered for significant portions of the promo.
  
• He doesn't need to be around for much anyway at the moment.  It's about a month to the joint AEW/New Japan Pro Wrestling (of America) pay per view, Forbidden Door.  Main event:  AEW World Champion CM Punk vs. NJPW "Once in a 100 Years" Ace Hiroshi Tanahashi.  Probably would've been originally scheduled as IWGP World Champion Kazuchka Okada, but.......    
• Okada has announced he and his wife are about to have their first child within the month!
• With a birdie on the 12th and final hole, Aaron Rodgers won The Match in Las Vegas between a team of himself and Tom Brady over Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes 1 up.
• Over 10,000,000 Feeding America meals were donated as a result of fundraising efforts as a result of the TNT-broadcasted event.
• Coco Gauff will face #1 seed and wide favorite Iva Swiatek in the women's final at the French Open on Saturday.  Swiatek has dropped one set in the entire tournament.
• The latest attack on transgender athletes has expanded the attack.  In Ohio, any person whose gender can be questioned, including men who don't act manly enough, can be ordered to get a doctor's note or drop trow if the latest anti-trans bigotry passes in Ohio.  I always thought these Republican swine would want to get girls to drop their pants.  Now I begin to wonder if they'd like to finger them to to "check for a cliortis"...  FUCKING BIGOTED SWINE!   
• Hideki Matsuyama has been tossed from this weekend's Memorial Tournament in Ohio - non-conforming club in his bag.
  

As of about 5 PM Pacific today, three more shootings TODAY:

• Three and the shooter killed in a hospital in Tulsa -- the second mass shooting in that city in four days.
• One confirmed, probably more shot at a Pittston, PA Wal-Mart.  That shooter is at large.
• At least one injured in a multiple shots fired incident outside an LA high school.  Appears to have been a drive-by, and they might well have gotten away with it!

So our daily mass shooting, and it sounds like two more which either are or might become it, given the suspects are at large! 

One post on Democratic Underground indicated that, just over the weekend, SEVENTEEN DIFFERENT PEOPLE were arrested for wanting to commit school shootings!

Another put the number of just mass shootings over Memorial Day Weekend at at least ELEVEN!

Another victory for the MRAs and Incels of America -- and the rapists of Hollywood.

Johnny Depp has won his $15,000,000 judgement against Amber Heard for defamation in an op-ed she wrote about sexual and domestic violence in 2018 against Depp.

See the title for my views on that.  And I'd like to add a further question:

To win:

1. He must first be declared defame-able.  There are laws on the books that you lose that right after a certain point...
2. ... except under the most grave of circumstances.
3. Circumstances which, in this particular case, would actually have to trump Depp's own ADMITTED ABUSES of Heard.

This is before we determine whether Heard actually perjured herself on the stand.

But there's no escape-able conclusion here but to say that the jury feels Heard should be immediately arrested, on not only the perjury, but how dare she speak that she can be sexually violated and abused, since that abuse is part and parcel to any contract she signs to be a Hollywood actress?

And, Amber, your "freedom of speech" is reliant that you are not only acceptable, but of legitimate purpose other than to be beaten the shit out of by people such as Depp.  Read:  You have none.

In short, the judge should've told both of them to go fuck themselves and seek actual therapy.  They MIGHT be rich enough to actually get help in a system otherwise designed not to.

----------------

And oh...  While we are it?

Mr. Herb.  Mr. Jim Spanfeller:

Are you beginning to seed Jezebel and other G/O Media sites with MRAs and TERFs in preparation for what you believe the Red Tsunami will do to women after the 2022 Midterms?

Asking for a friend.

Wholly satisfying, until reality set in....

If I told the truth to my doctor, they'd probably lock me up this month for any number of reasons.

Not the least of which is that I think I'm now completely incapable of watching a sporting event without calling bullshit.

Today's victim:  The Scotland-Ukraine match which just completed in Glasgow.

The final was 3-1, and not exactly completely an undeserved situation, except for two major problems.

About 25 minutes from time, John McGinn appeared to deliberately head a ball not two meters from the line wide -- and how you can tell, if you watch the replay, is that his head is actually, unlike a lot of other erroneous strikes, positioned in such a manner that angled that any header, even from that distance, goes wide of the short side.

Then, after the Ukraine side is badly tiring, Scotland basically gifts Ukraine a scripted third on the last kick of the match.

Seriously, world:  Can we have ANYTHING without the appearance of bullshit?  Seriously???

Day 811

• And now (and I'm not even sure which side is proffering this conspiracy theory), someone has come forward with a conspiracy theory that some of the kids in Uvalde, TX were shot by the cops themselves.
• As tempting as it appears to be, I can't go that far.  I have said, and maintain, that the cops did aid and abet the shooter for maximum kill count of the children not their own.  But I still maintain that as a passive act, not an active one.  
• Marion Barber III, another sacrifice to football.  He was 38.  After retiring in 2011, he was taken for a psychiatric examination in 2014 and had a run-in with the law in 2019.  Can you say...  C.  T.  E???  I knew you could! 
  
• The 23rd woman to sue DeShaun Watson for sexual misconduct has come forward.
• Today is the long-awaited beginning of the Ukraine-Scotland-Wales UEFA World Cup Qualifier pod.  Ukraine's team goes to Scotland for a match, the winner goes to Wales Sunday for a spot in the World Cup.
• Next Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates plays Australia in Doha, Qatar.
• That winner will play Peru on June 13th and Costa Rica will play New Zealand on the 14th in Al Rayyan for the final two of the 32 spots.
• The Ukraine-Scotland-Wales winner goes into the group with England, Iran, and the United States.
• The Peru-UAE-Australia winner joins France, Denmark, and Tunisia.
• The Costa Rica-New Zealand winner gets the unenviable group of Spain, Germany, and Japan.
• A current list of entrants for the first breakaway Saudi-backed golf tour event has Dustin Johnson on it -- no Phil at this point.
• Graeme McDowell is also on the list.
• And, as a result, RBC has fired both Johnson and McDowell as golfers they are sponsoring.
  
• There will be three different covers for this year's Madden 22.  All, to no one's surprise, will feature different facets of the late John Madden, who passed just after Christmas.  One as a coach, one as a broadcaster, one as a media personality.
• Tonight in Minneapolis is the first concert of a month-long, 15-concert national tour for Deborah Gibson.  It is her first solo national concert tour since her One Step Ahead Tour in 1991.  The concert tour is to support her current album The Body Remembers.  And, to Deborah, with COVID around, I can only offer the words of "The Hunger Games":  May the odds ever be in your favor.    
• And that's not the only issue:  She's also had a recent flare-up of her Lyme Disease.
• The longtime partner of Mark Rypien has sued him for domestic abuse.
• In a move which will only inflame the bigotry further, Lia Thomas has formally announced she did not transition for competitive advantage.
• Tommy Pham has called his fantasy football commissioner Mike Trout the worst commissioner in fantasy sports.  I'd seriously doubt that.    
• Yardbarker is the latest to throw in with sports betting on this first of June:  New betting newsletter.