Tag: commissioner

Donald Sterling And The Question

Donald-SterlingNBA Commissioner Adam Silver just held a press conference concerning the Donald Sterling controversy. Sterling’s been banned, fined and pressured to sell the team. The commissioner had no choice and I fully agree with his decision (as much of it as I know right now).

It is not a surprise there are mean spirited jerks running teams. Baseball had Marge Schott, who once defended Hitler. Basketball still has Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov whose fortune came under ‘interesting’ circumstances.

Kremlin leaders gave him what amounts to an insiders opportunity to buy one of the state’s most valuable assets. It was acquired from the Kremlin in a so-called auction for the measly sum of a few hundred million dollars in a process that even Prokhorov’s business partner admits wasn’t perfect, and probably not even legal under Western standards. But it was legal in Russia”. – 60 Minutes

If you didn’t watch the press conference you probably didn’t hear this question asked toward the end. I don’t have the exact words, but a reporter asked Silver a question that began, “As a Jew…”

Silver is Jewish. Sterling is Jewish. I am Jewish.

Silver dodged the question. I won’t. As a Jew I am mortified. It’s not the first time.

Maybe I’m the naive one here. It’s how I was brought up. Maybe I shouldn’t expect more from any single group of people. I do.

There’s a limit to how much Sterling can be punished. He will be allowed to sell, not have his team taken. That is as it should be. However, it means Sterling will be capable of laughing all the way to the bank, should he choose.

Jerks like him are capable of that.

Dumb Call In Philly

Seriously? I want to know who the forecaster was that made that call? My suspicion is there was none. The numbers were just made up. Selig took a chance.

Why did they attempt to play World Series Game Five tonight in Philadelphia. Oh commissioner?

“We were told about 7:45 that there’d only be about a tenth of an inch of rain between then and midnight or after,” Selig said. “So everybody in the room wanted to play. Given the weather forecast that we had — and I had monitored it over and over again — it was a decision that we made. I made it with some significant trepidation, but had the forecast held, we’d have been O.K.” -source NY Times

Seriously? I want to know who the forecaster was that made that call? My suspicion is there was none. The numbers were just made up. Selig took a chance.

Especially for the World Series, games should be decided by the players playing. Adverse conditions, like inept umpires, should be avoided.

Reporter Or Flack – You Make The Call

Helaine and I are watching tonight’s broadcast of the Pats/Giants game. Comcast has it on five channels, plus NFL Network (which I don’t buy).

Before the game began, an on-field ‘reporter’ ‘interviewed’ NFL commissioner Roger Gooddell. Well, at least that’s how it appeared. Certainly, that’s how it was intended to appear.

Don’t be fooled. It was not a reporter. It was not an interview.

Roger Gooddell was quizzed on NFL Network by an NFL Network employee. As NFL commissioner he controls NFL Network. He is the interviewer’s boss.

Which tough, embarrassing questions are you prepared to ask your boss on national television?

Gooddell answered with no follow-up.

This wasn’t an interview. It was a stealth press release. That wasn’t a reporter. Tonight, he was a PR flack.

That NBC and CBS allowed this to happen on their air is nearly as distasteful as NFL Network doing it.

Just Call Me Geoff

Over time, more and more people have taken to calling me Mr. Fox. It’s a little disturbing, because I don’t want to be that old.

I usually tell them, “My name is Geoff. Mr Fox lives in a condo in Florida.”

Of course Mr. is the least of the titles you can have with your name. You could be Dr., or Rev., or Senator, or… well the list is nearly endless.

A few years ago, while perusing the British Airways website I came across their choice of titles. I saw the list cited today on another website and thought I’d post it here – just for fun.

Some are so obscure, I have no idea what they could possibly be. I do know, few holders of these titles will ever be flying with me in Row 39, aft of the wing.

Click the list and choose a title. They’re free.

Doing Our Taxes

The distinguished looking man on the left is Mark Everson. You probably don’t know him. You’ve probably thought of him. He’s the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

Hey, Mark! I’ve just done my taxes. What exactly were you guys thinking?

I am a lucky guy. I make a good living. With few investments outside my home, cars, or retirement account, my taxes should be easy. After all, I’m an employee. I can’t deduct much of anything.

Even using an online service, it still takes hours! I tried to get it right. Can anyone be sure they did?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m willing to pay taxes to pay for government services and programs. Sure, I don’t agree with everything you guys in Washington/Hartford/Town Hall are doing, but I’ll pay my fair share. I just can’t seem to figure out what that is.

Why should doing my taxes be so stressful? Mark, are you with me?

The commish is probably a bright guy. He went to school here in New Haven at Yale. Yale is no guarantee of brightness (insert your own joke here since the last three presidents have gone to Yale), though it’s a reasonable reassurance.

Why can’t I, a former math team member, easily blow through this thing without worrying I’ve done something terribly wrong and will end up bunking with a former politician in Danbury, or worse? Why is it so difficult? Why is it so confusing?

Is there a reason you’ve got multiple forms, all named 1099? There’s 1099B, 1099DIV, 1099OID… I could go on. This is like George Foreman naming all his children George – and you know how we feel about that idea!

Then, there’s the question of money for Steffie’s college expenses. We were good parents and put something away when she was a little girl. Exactly how much did we originally invest in the late 80s? Uh – I’ll get back to you on that.

In the past, I’ve had relatives who worked backwards in their tax forms. In other words, they decided what they thought would be a fair amount for them to pay, then worked from there until the other numbers made that happen. I don’t do that.

I’m not looking to move my geofffox.com headquarters to the Cayman Islands or Bermuda. Should I? That really pretty yacht we saw in Cabo San Lucas, owned by a guy from Montana, flew the Cayman flag. Maybe he’s on to something?

A few years ago, Stanley Works, the tool company in New Britain, CT, tried to move its offices offshore. Lots of companies have. Even our cruise ship, Norwegian Caribbean’s, “Norwegian Star,” was registered in the Bahamas. That’s not part of Norway nor the US.

All I want is an easier tax system. Since none of the special exemptions I have to ponder are for me, you’ll probably have to tick off people with more influence than I have. C’mon Mark, you can do it.

Finally, am I being graded on spelling?

Watergate – One More Thing

Tonight, on an ABC story about Mark Felt’s admission that he was Woodward and Bernstein’s “Deep Throat,” the reporter mentioned Watergate occurred before half the people alive today in the U.S. were born. Wow.

With that in mind, let me lay out a little history, because I think what Watergate was is often lost to time. Watergate was not about what White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler called, “a third-rate burglary.”

When Democratic National Chairman Larry O’Brien’s (yes – the guy who later became NBA commissioner) office at the Watergate was broken into, the election was already in the bag for Richard Nixon. So, in reality, it was a meaningless burglary.

What made Watergate poisonous to Richard Nixon was his attempt to cover it up. The more he lied… the more he stonewalled… the deeper the hole he was digging became. That the country was deeply divided over Vietnam certainly didn’t help either.

Mark Felt enters the picture because he was worried the FBI’s investigation was being hatcheted by the White House. He ‘ratted’ to protect his own turf.

Nixon was not a warm and fuzzy guy, but he had won by a landslide. He needed to be perceived as pretty evil to be run out of town on a rail – and make no mistake, he was run out of office.

The biggest blow to Nixon was the release of the audio tapes, recorded in the Oval Office. Nixon and his aides could be heard plotting and scheming the cover up. Moreover, they were speaking in a manner never expected from occupants of the Oval Office. They were crude, vulgar and vindictive.

How, even after the courts had ruled against him, he could let these be released is beyond me.

I was in my early twenties at the time and not politically adept, but I was certainly hurt by what I heard and how the President of the United States had told bold faced lies to America. In the pre-24 hour news cycle era, the story started slowly and picked up steam until it was all encompassing.

The Watergate burglary itself was bad… but not this bad. There was no need for it to bring down the president. This became a textbook case in how not to handle a crisis.

You have to hope there were lessons learned in Watergate. You just have to.