NBA Charges Donald Sterling

LA Clippers vs. Phoenix Suns, NBA game at Staples Center (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Los Angeles Clippers secondary logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The National Basketball Association today hand delivered charges against Donald Sterling, the beleaguered owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Last week, Sterling refused to pay the 2.5 million dollar fine issued by Commissioner Adam Silver and threatened court action if the NBA did not stop action designed to force him to sell the team. In short, Donald Sterling gave the NBA the proverbial finger and they did not like it!

Are we in danger of losing sight of the realities here? Amidst endless black people of questionable expertise, especially in the arena of race relations, constantly being interviewed on CNN and MSNBC ad nauseam, and endless replays of an interview of Donald Sterling by CNN's Anderson Cooper, not to mention heated debate among basketball fans and non fans alike...I feel we are losing sight of just what happened here!

Yes, Donald Sterling owns the LA Clippers which he acquired for some 12.5 million dollars. The team went through some rough times and only lately has become a team of championship caliber. Some place the current value of the Clippers north of a billion dollars today. All in all, a sound business investment, a source of great pride to the Sterling family and a handsome legacy to the Sterling children, the city of Los Angeles and basketball fans everywhere. So what's the rub?

Well, Donald and Shelly Sterling have been estranged for the past few years, Shelly appears confused...at one moment she is shocked and abhorred by her husband's racial attitudes and in the next moment staunchly defends him after an amicable dinner out at one of LA's popular restaurants. Donald admits to being a philanderer with an eye for young, light-skinned girls of mixed race but has consistently expressed some tender feelings for his estranged wife. Complicated??? You bet! But most relationships are complicated at the very least!

Let us remember though that at the time Donald Sterling allegedly make the comments that the NBA so disapproved of, he was at home, in his own private space with the utmost expectation (according to my reading of the law) of privacy. V. Stiviano, a young woman who was using Sterling to feather her own nest, taped him illegally and then released the tapes albeit via a third party, to TMZ. She has no moral high ground to stand on, in California or anywhere else on the planet. A scheming, conniving whore by any other name stinks like dead fish no matter who or where she is!

So what is the chrome-domed head of the NBA charging Donald Sterling with? For starters, Sterling is alleged to have undermined the NBA's position on diversity and inclusion. Does that mean that we can expect to see a whole lot more white, bisexual, Laplanders who can't jump recruited into the NBA soon? Additionally, Sterling is said to have ignited animus on the part of players and damaged relationships with fans and sponsors. Those must be the players who got undergraduate degrees in basketballology and who cannot pronounce the word ASK!

 As for racial issues and tensions in America, well I can say that I am surprised at the commentary this has ignited in the sphere of social media. Almost everyone, black, white, hispanic and small, green extra-terrestrials is that Sterling should pay the fine and search his couch for misplaced change should he have any liquidity problems. Roughly, three in four people do not believe he should lose his team as he was expressing private thoughts within the privacy of his own home.

Litigator Maxwell M. Blecher who is representing Sterling, last week stated that his client has been denied due process and had done nothing wrong. Today, he states he was reviewing the voluminous charges and above that he has, "No comment."

Apart from the allegations listed above, Sterling has violated some "good behavior" type covenants that he and other owners signed throughout the years.

What should Donald Sterling's next move be? Should he sell the Clippers and enjoy his immense wealth for whatever time he has left? Some folks think so. Most think he should fight the NBA on principle, in a real courtroom and in a real court. This is something he knows a great deal about. He is extremely wealthy and well connected in legal circles and appears to enjoy a good fight. As for the rumors that he has prostate cancer...take it from an old nurse...Donald Sterling has a better chance of being hit by a train, attacked by rabid wolves or being abducted by Martians then he has of dying of prostate cancer. This man lives to overcome adversity. His girlfriend is gone. Shelly is filing a strategic divorce. He loves basketball and takes pride in the Clippers. He has nothing to lose and may in fact, be instrumental in defining once and for all the meaning of privacy and where as members of society we may expect our right to privacy to be respected.

"I'm Only Racist When I'm Horny!"

Los Angeles Clippers (Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com)

This seems to summarize the contents of a taped conversation leaked by an unnamed source in explanation of Donald Sterling supposed "racist rant" that got him in so much difficulty with the National Basketball Association. As far as "racist rants" go, I would dare to say Donald Sterling's remarks were relatively tame. He did not use the "N word" even once! He did not refer to African-Americans as "colored" or "negroes" at any time. I suspected all along that his request directed at his girlfriend, V. Stiviano, to refrain from being photographed with black men or to refrain from accompanying black men to the +Los Angeles Clippers  basketball games was born of deep insecurity and intense jealousy.

"Ridiculous!", you say. Well, not as I see it. Donald Sterling may have the old plantation mentality but last time I checked, a man is entitled to say what he likes in the privacy of his own home and in the company of family and friends. As for the tape released albeit indirectly by Ms. Stiviano, I find her actions suspect, deplorable and tantamount to extortion! And last time I checked, extortion and blackmail are criminal offenses, while outdated thinking is not.

I really should not have to teach American history to Americans but for those who have forgotten, the basis of all those antiquated laws that date back to the Old South were designed to protect delicate, chaste, southern ladies from being preyed upon by the big, black bucks with their long shlongs and rampant, uncontrolled sexuality that would defile those genteel ladies and unleash all sorts of real and imagined ills upon society. Of course, the same standards did not apply to the genteel gentlemen that owned the plantations. They were free to be roving penises among their female slaves and to father innumerable children with them, thus supplying a steady and predictable workforce for their plantations.

That an 82 year-old man could fall in love with some gold-digging bitch (and Donald Sterling is a very rich old man) is hardly unbelievable to me or to almost anyone else. That he would want to get into her pants is entirely believable too! How many men in love have tried to extract promises of exclusivity or undying love and affection from their mistresses? How many men in love have not perceived other men, black, white, younger, perhaps richer as a potential threat to their love interest?  We may shake our heads, or secretly think of Donald Sterling as a silly, old fool but seriously does he really deserve the 'punishment' meted out by Adam Silver, the grand pubah of the NBA, to lose his team or to be divested of the family trust he and his wife own?

A lawyer by education and litigious by nature, Donald Sterling is unlikely to go down without a fight. It is a sad comment on American society when a man or woman can lose his or her property or income due to a private conversation. It is deeply troubling to me that no one is terribly concerned as to what laws have been broken in the course of making these taped conversations public. I have listened to endless bullshit, especially from the politically correct broadcasters at +CNN  and their endless guests (generally black or mixed race) babbling on about a conversation we need to have about race in North America. They don't want a conversation! They want everyone to agree with their particular brand of socially acceptable behavior! Well, I don't agree!

And could someone please teach black people how to pronounce the word 'ask'. Mispronouncing  a simple, single syllable word continually strikes me as lazy and unintelligent in the extreme, not to mention deeply insulting to me as an immigrant.

What's next? The 'thought police'?

 

Related articles

• V. Stiviano Is Reportedly Under Investigation for Allegedly Extorting Donald Sterling
• Donald Sterling: I Was Only Saying Racist Things To Get Laid

Malaysia Releases Preliminary Report On Flight MH 370

The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld (left), Secretary of Defense, and Najib Tun Razak, Malaysia Minister of Defense, pose for a photo at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. on May 2, 2002. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Eight weeks after the disappearance of fight MH 370, Malaysia released the preliminary report to families of the passengers and to the media. It contains timelines, maps, passenger manifests, cargo manifests, ELT maintenance reports...in short, a great deal of information that answers many of the families' questions about the doomed flight. Malaysia had stated last week that it would not make the report part of the public domain. What changed their minds?

I cannot help but think that this change of heart came about due to the interview late last week, conducted by CNN's Richard Quest of Malaysia's prime minister, Najib Razak. Now Richard Quest is certainly not my favorite aviation authority. His accent, loud and blustering voice and his general demeanor (that of a pompous, arrogant horse's ass) make me want to rub my eyes with sandpaper but be that as it may, he did effectively goad Malaysia's prime minister into making this report public. He was however unable to gain an admission from the prime minister that flight MH 370 is lost when a month ago the prime minister in a badly botched move on the part of the Malaysian investigative team announced..."flight MH 370 ended in the south Indian Ocean".

The report went on to recommend that all aircraft flying over vast seas be tracked in real time. The technology exists.. The cost, about $100,000 per plane for retro-fitting is however prohibative according to airline accident investigators and aviation specialists. This is bullshit! Would you pay $10 more for your transcontinental airline ticket to have it tracked? Would a $10 increase in airfares ground flights? This is ridiculous!

The most disturbing piece regarding the release of this preliminary report is that Malaysia announced that as of next week the centres where families are staying for support, briefings on the progress of the investigation, etc. are being closed in an effort to get the families of the passengers to go home. This poses a problem for many who live in rural or remote parts of China and Malaysia where there is no television or wireless internet. Families feel that this move isolates them from others who share their fear and grief and is a deliberate attempt by Malaysia to spinter and fracture the cohesiveness and comfort of the family groups that have formed thus thwarting their efforts to remain informed and actively participate in the investigative process.

While I understand that this type of support cannot last indefinitely, this is an unprecedented occurrence. There has been not one shred of evidence found that MH 370 even crashed! And from the report it is clear that Malaysia waited some four hours before anyone clued in to the fact that the plane was lost! Couple that with lies and misinformation, ghastly and insulting public relations and a badly bungled investigative process during the first few weeks, I believe that Malaysia better rethink their strategy regarding the family members of those passengers on flight MH 370.

Finding the plane and caring for the families are all that count....the rest is bureaucratic bullshit and I for one am sick of it!

Related articles

• MH370: Report reveals 4-hour gap before search began
• Malaysia releases preliminary report into MH370

Tell Me It Ain't So!

Los Angeles Clippers logo (1984–2010) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Breaking news! Racism is alive and well in America and yes Don Lemon, it is 2014!

No religion has been successful in stamping it out with threats of hell fire and brimstone. No government on earth has been able to legislate a "kumbaya" moment in history. And barring Don Sterling (the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers) from the MBA for life and forcing him to sell the franchise will not rid America of the 'plantation mentality' or Rudyard Kipling's notion of 'the white man's burden'. However, the MBA's Adam Silver did succeed in driving overt racism underground, to seethe, moil and toil beneath a veil of political correctness and polite platitudes. A national conversation about racism is now impossible unless black people want to talk to themselves as they have been on CNN for the past few days.

Fortunately, I do not stand on ceremony, political correctness or some 'fuck wit's' hurt feelings. For the record, I love basketball. I played basketball in high school against some of the ugliest, hairy-legged, foul-mouthed and equally foul-smelling protestant chicks in the business. I outgrew basketball and brawling in parking lots at graduation...that crossroads in life where young adults have to consider how they will share their gifts with the world at large. But I digress.

Whatever Ms. Sibiano's role in Don Sterling's life, he is well rid of her. I suggest he buy a dog...a big dog. Any canine bitch, even a mongrel canine bitch would prove herself to be more loyal a companion than Ms. Sibiano who has more aliases than Heinz has beans. And really Don, at age 80 with your nut sac hanging down to your knees and a prostate as big as a football,...admit it, you have enough on your plate taking a long, satisfying leak. Sell the Clippers, pocket a billion bucks or so, teach your grandkids to drive, take up finger painting, scuba diving, buy an island and sort out the relationship with your estranged wife.

So What Became Of MH 370

140414-N-OV358-037 (Photo credit: U.S. Pacific Fleet)

Almost seven weeks after MH 370 flew off the Maylasian military's radar, we have no plane. "But we have technology!", you say. Well, let's take a look at this realistically. We have a plane with no functional transponder or ACARS after the hand off to Ho Chi Minh airspace. We have this plane making a sharp left hand turn back into Maylasian airspace where it climbed to 39,000 feet and descended to 5,000 feet according to the experts. It was spotted by Maylasian primary radar, determined to be "behaving as a commercial airliner posing no threat" and allowed to proceed on its merry way...that is if you believe the Maylasian Prime Minister. If you believe this, no doubt you believe in the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, free sex and the delusional ramblings of a wide assortment of psychotics!

As for technology, let's look carefully at the technology we are really using. The northern and southern arcs were determined by Inmarsat using nineteenth century trig formulae. The air and sea searches involved eyeballs on the water...a high-end version of the spyglass Christopher Columbus used in the late fifteenth century. The TPL used to detect 'pings' from the black boxes is hardly new. Granted the AUV Bluefin is a rather handy little gadget but only effective in relatively shallow seas and in a very small search area. Needless to say, it has found nothing. The search area broadens and the air searches are being halted.

Meanwhile, the families wait. Their tears have turned to rage and mistrust against the Maylasian burearocrats who promise transparency and offer lies...each lie bigger and more unbelievable than the last. The expert opinions on CNN abound. Theories flourish in the absence of cold, hard facts. I know Canadians are supposed to be 'nice' and politically correct at all times. I am the exception to the rule and I would find it deeply satisfying and worth the price of an airfare to slap the living shit out of a large group of Maylasian government officials and so-called scientific experts. Does anyone else feel this way or am I the only sane person living in a world inhabited by troglodytes?

We are left with what we started with...a missing Triple Seven jetliner.

 

Missing Planes, Black Holes, Jellyfish And CNN

Boeing 777-200 (Photo credit: caribb)

No doubt you have heard, unless you have been living in a cave somewhere far from media input that the Mayasians have lost a plane, more specifically MH 370. Gone are the days when one can blithely board a jetliner or for that matter a "prop job" with your biggest concerns being the brand of vodka the airline prefers and whether or not your luggage is likely to arrive at the same time you do.

In this day and age of radar, sonar, GPS and satellites that can relay a high definition image of Osama bin Laden's license plate in real time, how the fuck do you lose a plane? This is not a little crop duster that your drunken neighbor borrowed and parked in HIS back forty rather than in YOUR back forty. This is a huge honking Triple Seven with 239 people on board!

Well, it's complicated. For example, was anyone aware that radar is turned off in many poorer far eastern countries purportedly to save on electricity? It is! And did anyone realize that the national pride of the Maylasians is of far more worth than the lives of the people on board or their families? Listening to the various briefings given to families eagerly waiting for news, clamoring news reporters and the requisite number of dignitaries by Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, a grinning imbecile who clearly could not find the cheeks of his own ass with both hands, it is little wonder that the families are enraged and the scientific community perplexed. Hell, I'm perplexed and pissed off and I don't have any relatives who were on board MH 370.

Meanwhile, CNN's Don Lemon speculates that the plane was swallowed up by a black hole, Erin Burnett stutters and stammers her way through an hour long broadcast like a manic on PCP and Anderson Cooper makes his little 'sniffy-faces' in a vain attempt to give the impression he actually gives a shit when sightings of plane wreckage turn out to be jellyfish. So what really happened to that plane and will it ever be found...or will it find us???

East Meets West In the Ukraine

Ukraine protests 2013-2014 (Photo credit: FotoBart)

The world news has been dominated for the past week and more by angry protests in Kiev, the capital city of the Ukraine. Snipers opened fire on Ukrainian citizens and police alike leaving dozens dead and countless injured.Yanukovich, the country's president fled the country headed for Russia, leaving parliament in disarray, the coffers empty and masses of frightened, bereft citizens dazed and confused over just what would come next.

What happened next was that thousands of troops moved into the Crimean peninsula. These troops wore uniforms but without insignias or any identifiable markings of any sort, drove about in military vehicles with no licence plates and while heavily armed, they appeared to enjoy a rather easygoing relationship with the local, largely Russian speaking population. Russian president Vladamir Putin claimed these troops were a local, peace-keeping militia while the EU and the US claimed the troops were Russian and that their presence indicated an "aggression on the sovereign country of the Ukraine and a violation of international law".

In the latest development, a referendum has been scheduled in ten days time on whether Crimea will remain part of the westward leaning Ukraine or become Russian.

CNN is covering the crisis in Ukraine with Wolfe Blitzer virtually pissing himself with glee, interviewing the same fat, old and singularly unattractive congressmen all bad-mouthing the president of the US stating that he is "weak, naive and feckless", day after weary day. Anderson Cooper, live from Kiev sniffles over the floral comemoratives in the middle of the night. Endless government functionaries babble on about sanctions without teeth and that the EU will not support lest the Russians turn off the spigots for the natural gas that fuel the largest business enterprises not only in the Ukraine, but Germany, Poland and the former satellites of the former USSR.