March 31, 2023 News and Notes

• North Texas won the men's NIT in Las Vegas last night...
• ... and promptly lost it's coach this morning to Texas A&M.
• Aaron Judge hit the first home run of the 2023 MLB season.
• We had at least two major pitch-clock violations in Day One, one of them was actually due to a runner's delay in heading back to first base.
• Opening Day 2022:  Average game was 3 hours and 11 minutes.
• Opening Day 2023:  2 hours and 45 minutes, a 26 minute reduction -- about 15%.
• Yesterday was the first time in 55 years that MLB had all the teams play on Opening Day.
• The average cost to get in the door for the 15 games was $72.
• Only five games today to compensate -- the five four-game series of the opening weekend.
• Anthony Rendon is in a lot of trouble -- grabbed an Oakland fan by the shirt and took a swipe at him in Thursday's opener.
• Idiot on the Field at Dodger Stadium last night -- tried to propose on the field of Dodger Stadium, not realizing that by entering the field, he earned an annihilating tackle from the Dodger Stadium security.  Lady, say "No" and RUN!  Moron...  

March 30, 2023 News and Notes: MLB Opening Day

• Yes, the one day where hope springs eternal.  Even for the Pirates and other AA outfits masquerading as Major League Baseball teams.
• And a Hell Freezes Over day in the NBA:  For the first time in 16 years, the Sacramento Kings are in the playoffs!  It was the longest playoff drought of any franchise in the four major sports.
• The Kings are the seventh team to clinch into the main part of the playoffs.
• The Western Conference is going to be a mess.  With five to play, the Clippers, at five over .500, are the 5 seed and doesn't need to do the extra tournament to get in.  The Mavericks, at only three under .500, are the eleventh "seed" in the Western Conference, and out of the playoffs.
• The Warriors, at three over .500, are the six seed and the last team not to be in the play-in tournament.  31-8 at home, 9-29 on the road!

And while we're at it, fuck Vince McMahon too!!

Ever since it actually became rumored that Los Angeles (and the new SoFi Stadium) was going to host a WrestleMania, I was making plans to attend it -- and the surrounding independent events the days around it.

Then came word Vince was a serial predator, and then wanted to sell the WWE, with the Saudis a near-lock to be the buyers.

Congratulations, shithead.  I wanted to be there in LA this weekend, but with all of the different ramifications of the Republican McMahons, plus the probability that the Saudi blood money will be the owners of WWE within a very short period of time (would actually be shocked if they don't announce the agreement in principle with the whole world watching in LA this weekend!!!), there's no way, in any degree of conscience, I can attend any of this...

I've been a pro wrestling fan almost 45 years now.  Thanks, Vince, you stupid fuck.

And, a few days out of the event, let's see how much he's skewered LA:

Remember, for the longest time, the rumors were:

• Rock vs. Roman Reigns for the Undisputed Universal Title.
• Rock into the WWE Hall of Fame
• Main women's match:  The long-awaited (and twice-aborted) Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch showdown.

Instead:

• Your 2023 apparent WWE Hall of Fame class:
• The headliner will be Rey Mysterio Jr. -- the third man to be entered while still active on the roster (Flair, Sting).  (Even Undertaker retired first.)  More than deserved:  A Lucha Libre legend, Mysterio brought Lucha and the cruiserweight division to the United States in all three major federations of the day.   
• The Great Muta/Keiji Muto, who formally retired earlier this year in Japan.  No question on this one either -- and I can't recall if this guy ever wrestled in WWE!   
• The only other main wrestler to be inducted this year is Stacy Keibler from the women's division.  Leering at her three-foot legs aside, there were actually a couple moments Keibler actually showed more class than ass...  One was when she refused to be the WWE Divas champion, feeling other women were more qualified.  Legitimately more qualified.  
• The celebrity inductee, given many Hollywood options, is probably the one Hollywood actor who could be a main HoF inductee:  Andy Kaufman.  And current word has Jerry Lawler inducting him, in his first public appearance since his January stroke.   
• In a move more akin to the original intent of the Warrior Award (though it needs to be renamed, asshole...), former referee Tim White is the final inductee this year.
• As for the card itself:
• The Rock isn't even going to be at the event in any capacity.
• Ronda Rousey is in a Wrestlemania Women's Tag Team Showcase (AKA "Get As Many People A Wrestlemania Match As Possible") with her friend Shayna Baesler.
• Becky Lynch is in a six-woman tag team piss-break match with Bayley and her heel "Damage CTRL" group.
• AEW turncoat Cody Rhodes will face Roman Reigns in the main event, to try to unseat Reigns' 962-day reign as top champion in the WWE, a reign not seen since Hulkamania I.
• Some of the other top part-time talent is trying to put over a couple of main-roster people:  Brock Lesnar has the 7 foot 400 pound Nigerian Omos, John Cena has to try to get over Austin Theory, one of Vince McMahon's main pet projects.
• The only two organically over acts in the company right now are Sami Zayn, who will team with long-time friend (going back to days they fought in the Los Angeles "Pro Wrestling Guerilla" independent promotion) Kevin Owens against the other two-thirds of the controlling Bloodline:  Reigns' cousins the Usos.  The above speculation makes this even a bigger match for Zayn -- he's released from WWE the moment the Saudis take over, as part-Syrian.
• The other is the father-son battle of the Mysterios, where, on his way to eventual retirement soon, Rey Mysterio Jr. is giving a major program to his son Dominik.

All things considered, the card is a major cutback for a Mania looked to be a centerpiece years in the making....

March 27, 2023 News and Notes

• Luka Doncic's 16th T has been rescinded.  He's not suspended...  yet.   
• Lamar Jackson has requested a trade from the Baltimore Ravens.

This Blog Shouldn't Exist, Part 2.03: Have Some Guts or Shut The Fuck Up, Karl!

(Yep, another unscheduled part.)

And another unscheduled part based on a post by Karl Denninger on The Market Ticker.  I'll react to both the post and the comments section (or at least the first two pages thereto).

In Denninger's continuing call to dismantle the public American education system, this post completely forgets some very concrete facts which basically distill down to one thing:

We have a bunch of the Libertarians on that site who agree with the racist views of Scott Adams, but forget openly another part of his views, endemic to this particular situation:  The fact that you have only two options on violent youth:  Watch other people die, or kill them yourself, even if it's your own child.

Today's Denninger screed has but only real, honest, legitimate, and intellectually correct response:

GET YOUR GUN OUT OF YOUR ANUS, GET YOUR CLOTHES ON, SHUT YOUR SOCIAL-MEDIA CAMERA OFF, AND SHOOT US!!

Adams himself would tell you fuckers the same thing!  And, on top of that, it isn't simply my view on Libertarianism (that the sole source of personal responsibility in America comes at the hot end of another person's smoking gun).

1) Dingleberry:  "Separate a people from the consequences of their actions....you get a nation of fools."

It isn't just a function of there being no consequences, but the consequences which DO exist would actually be improvements on many of these people's lives -- real or perceived.

Let's get right down to brass tacks, Karl:  If society could tolerate most youth to be out and about during the day, there'd be no need for school.  We miseducate our children grossly on the first part, and there's no benefit at all for some children not to go to jail or prison (just like there isn't for an increasing number of adults).

I was literally out getting food at a local restaurant two days ago.  Two older people walked in and promptly marched off, unchallenged, with two mobile orders about $75 in total.  A third homeless man got the third call to the cops to that place in about 30-40 minutes.  And I can tell you, without question, none of the three would've given a damn about "consequences" or anything else of that ilk.

Another anecdote is the basis for the post:  The Denver death of a 17-year-old who admittedly had no business on the outside and shot two school administrators trying to pat him down.  Prison would have been better for him -- and he'd already been expelled from another school just two months before!

A third:  Some point in my homeless stint in San Francisco, I bought a liter of Vanilla Coke and was immediately accosted by a White idiot wanting it.  If the cops had not shown up within about another 10 seconds, he'd have gotten it -- over his head...

But this has nothing to do with a lack of consequences, because the "consequences" are of no deterrent to them.  The only real deterrent the law has had for DECADES is prison rape, as one good example.  What are you going to do, hire "Bubba" as a disciplinary feature of the school -- and you get enough trouble from a student, it's backdoor party time?

Jail is ZERO DETERRENT.  The only reason I haven't reoffended with Ms. Gibson is I DIDN'T WANT TO -- and, even then, with the laws in question, is there really a point to having released me at all?  (You'll get that in about 60 days in Part Three of this series.)

2) Denninger:  "State Constitutions may provide, and the Federal government may demand, that a "free public education" and "to the limits of each student's ability" each district is "obligated" to provide same, irrespective of cost disparity, but the last 20+ years of this crap has led to the premise that a student who is incapable of doing grade-level work or is disruptive to the class or school environment, whether with outbursts or even violence, cannot be and is not immediately and permanently removed from said class environment."  

Only way you are doing that -- not only as a function of law enforcement, but also as an economic function, an education function, a societal function -- is to shoot the kid.  Especially if you agree with the racist Adams.

The situation in Denver is a nice example of why you can't even jail or imprison the kid and expect him to improve.  Even for those of us only BELIEVED to want to be violent (see myself vs. Ms. Gibson), jail is a perfect environment to learn there is only one solution to most problems with other people in this society -- you either make it clear that you will force an answer/conduct from the other party or you won't get one!

In society, we call this a "threat".  Some call it a terrorist act.  But the fact is, to what gain, to a lot of these people, is doing a damn thing that needs to be done?  That can be teachers as well as students.

3) And here's the money shot from Denninger:  "If you advocate for leaving such individuals in the school system where other, peaceful kids are -- no matter the mix between the two in terms of percentages -- you are a criminal and should be expelled from society to starve and when you die of starvation your carcass and that of your entire family should be left to rot so your highest and best function, that of food for turkey vultures, is fulfilled."

Then you should immediately be identifying those children and eliminating them and their parents from the gene pool RIGHT NOW.

You'd have killed me by age ten, by the way, under the same concept.  By eight or nine (I forget if this was before or after my mother died, but it was in that one year), my family was exploring expulsion from the house for me to a reform school.  Some in my family have believed, at least for a time, my misconducts (decades before Gibson) killed my mother through stress -- and, if they did that, I got them both -- my dad seven or eight years later.

But the fact remains, Karl, if you believe this bullshit you're spewing:  On every conceivable level, you need to eliminate (KILL) anyone in society who you believe (and can get past a jury of twelve) to have no other purpose than as food -- for turkey vultures or as (as you've said a number of times) "long pork" for your own consumption.

Because, even on a more baseline level:  We take your resources, we increase your costs (inflation/money supply), we have destroyed any hope you have of a national infrastructure (because the largest city you MIGHT permit in a "new America" of your creation can't be more than about 50-100K in population), etc.

4) User "Joancrawford":  "I've come to the realization that nothing short of segregation will fix this mess. Most blacks will not tolerate any rules comin' down from "da white mon", so let them create their own little hells scape skoos."

That segregation, Joan, would have to be more than just separate schools.  You can't have us in your economy or even presence (and that's more than Black/White) -- and trying to starve us out just would mean we would have nothing to lose by attempting to rob you -- we're dead anyway if it gets that far.

4A)  To emphasize the point, she added:  "Addendum to my above screed: Todd was a very large boy who approached me one day with a raging hard-on and attempted to rape me during school hours. I escaped before one of his buds started toward me to hold me down.  I told no one and of course nothing was done. Todd was periodically suspended throughout the school year, which he considered a vacation. This was, btw, in a very wealthy school district in Arlington, Virginia."

He had value, Joan -- hence, he had the right to rape -- and, trust me, if your report of him already being hard is true (and I have no dispute to it), you would not have been his first rape of that day or even that part of the day.

My guess is that he was an athlete, between his school suspensions.  You would think, at some point, that if that was on the table, there would be (if there were such a right in general) the right to basically make it clear that one more step and his parents can collect his body.

5) User "Rporth":  "Homeschool or die. I know a gal who recently quit her job teaching 2nd graders in Rapid City of all places. Kids acted up so bad they removed the chairs, kids out of control. Fbombs constantly. No discipline."

Rapid City, SD.  You'd think, with that governor of yours, they'd basically take a National Guardsman to that school, walk in front of the class, pump his shotgun once, and make a last stand to get the point across.

Look, I was a piece of work in school (see above).  But if it's THAT BAD, someone's gotta get froggy against them or nothing is ever going to get done.

Karl's daughter Sarah went through there (and this is with one of the more virulent MAGA governors and not the nation's largest city in any respect!), and could not stay one more moment than necessary because of the feral zoo it had become.

I could go on, but it comes down to one fact:  You want better?  You're going to have to shoot your way to better.

I could make a very real case today that the Deagel Group 70% kill off in the next 33 months either must happen or damned close, and you idiots on the Right better make sure it's the 50-70% you want gone.

So get started or shut the fuck up.  You hate it now?  Just wait...

The Tournament Has Gone Nuts

One Power Five team, and it's Miami.

A 4, two 5's, and a 9.

Two of the four losing teams in the Elite Eight are fuming at the refs.

But, suffice it to say that the power structure of college basketball has been successfully upsot by One And Done.

Out of over 20,000,000 ESPN Tournament Challenge brackets, THIRTY-SEVEN correctly picked this Final Four.

March 26, 2023 News and Notes

• I think it's seriously time for the NBA to stiffen the Rasheed Wallace Rule.
• Dillon Brooks has received his second one-game suspension for reaching 18 technical fouls.  Between fines and lost suspension salary, Brooks has lost more than $300,000 to the league.
• That is, in fact, the third game Brooks has been suspended for.
• Draymond Green got a 16-technical suspension last week.
• And presumptive NBA MVP Luka Doncic will be suspended for his 16th T, given today.  He was just fined $35,000 for a gesture to the officials to indicate they've been paid off.
• Trae Young of the Hawks, who was just thrown out of a game over the weekend for chucking the ball at an official (and may get suspended for that) is on 17, so he's already been suspended once for T's already!
• Six players, led by Young with 19, were suspended last year.  Doncic and Green were also both suspended twice.
• Three players, including Doncic, were suspended two years ago.
• So how do you fix it?
• The minimum I probably would accept at this point would be that all suspensions accrue.  Meaning that, if you get any second suspension in a season, one game is added.  A third means at least two games are added.  Any more, and it's an in-person meeting with Adam Silver before you play again (meaning you go on the Commissioner's List or whatever), and a minimum of five (ten if any one of the other three was five or more).  The Commissioner (or an appeals group between the league and NBPA) must clear you, or you're out until next season.  Any fifth suspension, and you aren't playing again for the balance of the regular season and playoffs.
• If you're not going to do that, you need not only to make the "one-plus-one" rule (ejection from a game is an automatic one-game suspension at minimum) in force, you also need to drop the season suspension number to about 10 or so.
• End of the May sumo tournament was held this morning our time in Japan.
• Congratulations to Sekiwake Kiribayama, who defeated Komusubi Daieisho twice in the final day to win the May tournament in a playoff at 12-3.
• Yokozuna Terunofuji and Ozeki Takakeisho nursing knee injuries.  Takakeisho is now kadoban for the May tournament.  Terunofuji, FOR NOW, is expected back.
• At Sekiwake:  That's Kiribayama's first tournament at Sekiwake, so he can't advance yet.  Hoshoryu had an outside chance of perhaps being promoted, but lost two matches in the final four days and now only has 29 in his last three Sekiwake tournaments, and the SA won't promote that.  Wakatakakage has a knee injury of his own, and will demote.
• At Komusubi:  This is going to be where a lot of the action is going to take place for the May banzuke.  Wakamotoharu went 11-4, so he SHOULD promote.  Daiesho went 12-3 and lost in the playoff, he SHOULD also promote.  The problem is going to be, you've got a third possible promotion (Tobizaru at 9-6), but will the SA take five at Sekiwake, hoping one gets the 33 wins in 3 to make it to Ozeki?
• Maegashira:  Shodai (10-5) returns to Komusubi.  Other possible promotes:  Abi (9-6 at M2), Midorifuji (right on the line at 10-5 at M5).
• Juryo:  Ichinojo wins the division at 14-1 (only loss to Gonoyama), Asanoyama is 13-2 (losses to Ichinojo and a Maegashira).  They will probably be the only two promotes, as it appears there are only two who are going to be demoted out of Maegashira (Bushozan, 5-10 at M14, Azumaryu, 4-11 at M11).  Gonoyama probably ends up an unlucky winner at 11-4 at J6.  (He probably would need Kagayaki to go down at 5-10 at M12, but that's a dicey proposition.)