Over the past several hours in Wingnut World there was much excitement over the claim that Donald Sterling was a Democrat. That made Sterling the Democrat Cliven Bundy, see. This was based on the shocking revelation that many years ago Sterling had contributed a minor amount of money to Bill Bradley and Gray Davis. Michael Tomasky wrote,
My Twitter feed yesterday was full of clucking conservatives challenging me to write about the Donald Sterling situation, or daring me to, or wagering that I would maintain a hypocritical silence in the face of this clear “proof†that Democrats are just as racist as Republicans.
But now it’s been confirmed that Sterling is a registered Republican. Oh, that must sting. And as Tomasky wrote, it shows that right-wingers are not interested in confronting racism.
Good grief. I don’t recall anyone crowing that Cliven Bundy was a Republican, just that he is Fox News’s Sweetheart of the Month. Making it partisan just comes around and whaps the partisans in the face. Idiots.
And hey, I once contributed a minor amount of money to Bill Bradley. I think with this Sterling clown, it’s the NBA connection.
I don’t recall anyone crowing that Cliven Bundy was a Republican
Some things don’t have to be spoken.. Sorta like the beginning of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence…”We hold the truths to be self evident.” I never bothered to check Bundy’s political affiliation, but if I were to bet my life on what party Cliven belonged to I would have said Repuglican. He had all the signs of a Repug.. the flag, the racism, the abject stupidity, a distorted sense of entitlement, and an extensive knowledge of what ails the Negro. He couldn’t be anything but a Repug!
I posted on another blog the amounts of Sterling’s donations with this context: IF you have a net worth of $1 million, an equivalent donation would be $2.50 to Gray Davis and $1 to Bill Bradley. In other words, it’s pocket change. If your net worth is less than a million bucks, adjust downward.
I guess it’s redundant to point this out, but even if he was a Democrat, so what? You might as well say his comments prove that guys named Donald are racists.
What would prove that Democrats are racists would be if they were rushing to defend him, and insisting that he was taken out of context. Not even Gray Davis has done that.
The entire article by Tomasky is well written – he covers a lot of ground in a few words, a trick I have yet to learn. I want to think out loud about the point that Barbara and Tomasky expressed, the GOP reluctance to confront the racism implicit in the policies of the GOP. Tomsky admits that some of the programs which were supposed to address racial inequality were failures, and he’s honest enough to concede benefits of GOP reform proposals (35 years ago).
Overall, the recent political history(last 50 years) and true narrative shows democrats led the way and democrats knowingly split their party and eroded a clear majority when they embraced racial equality. When I learned history, there was a political constant, the ‘Solid South’ which was solidly democratic and solidly opposed to the party of Lincoln. The Solid Blue South is now Solid Red and it flipped after racial equality became federal law enforced by federal cops. Dog whistle opposition to racial equality is how Reagan flipped the mix in the electoral college.
The racial resentment which Reagan expressed, welfare queens and such, became the shtick for Limbaugh, Beck and company. Modern political conservatism is based on racial resentment – ‘small government’ is a euphemism for eliminating welfare for minorities. The litmus test – ask a conservative where he would make government smaller.
To stray off topic, the puppet masters could not care less about welfare or racial inequality. The puppet master wants to pit white have-nots against dark have-nots while he guts environmental and banking and consumer regulations, the ‘big government’ that is a hazard to billionaires is not racial equality. But the PM tossed racial equality in the sack with environmental and business regulation and he labeled it ‘big government’. So the popular battle front is racial, while the objective of conservatism is neutering the potency of federal regulation.
To get back to racism – conservatives hate being called racist, and damn few conservatives today would defend the domestic terrorism and violence of the KKK. However, racism doesn’t require you have a coil or rope in your garage with one end tied into a noose. If you are receptive to schemes that give whites an advantage in education or employment or voting because you are conditioned to resent people of color, that’s racism – just like a noose. Only more subtle, insidious and salable to a conservative segment of the electorate.
The problem for the GOP is that they have based their philosophy on racial resentment and they can’t lead the way to equality when they have built a constituency opposed to equality.
He reminds me of our beloved David Siegel here in central Florida , a wealthy old Jewish guy with an eye for the young hotties, champaign wishes and caviar dreams. An 80 year old dude having girlfriends less than half his age is just creepy.I’ll be 60 in August. If something happened to my wife, I’m not sure I could relate to many 40 year olds, let alone a twenty or thirty something.
“I’m not sure I could relate to many 40 year olds, let alone a twenty or thirty something.”
I know what you mean. On the other hand, I’ve always been attracted to older men, but now I’ve reached the age that “older” pretty much means “dead” I find my preferences are changing a little. 🙂
Another day, another rake stepped on by Republicans.
It’s almost like some kind of reflex reaction – they hear some news, and without waiting to find out the relevant facts and details, they open their mouths, and politicize it.
I guess they figure, “Who needs facts and details?”
From the things he said, I assumed Bundy was an extreme libertarian or one of those sovereign-whatsit idiots who never voted. There’s no reason to see his disgrace as a partisan thing, except for Fox News being the mouthpiece of the GOP. And clueless, as always.
Age 50.
A much young woman would just wear me out. And she may want kids (see above).
On the other hand, someone could visit me in the nursing home.
Best line of the day: “but now I’ve reached the age that “older†pretty much means “dead†I find my preferences are changing a little.”
I consider myself fortunate that I have always found women more or less my own age, to the most attractive and companionable. I think for most of us, as we get older, intelligence, empathy and a good sense of humor become be far more important than physical beauty or age.
In my late bachelorhood, I met an attractive woman who was a British expat, a professional jazz pianist and a former model. Those things all appealed to me. It seemed that we were both interested in knowing each other better. We talked for a few hours and then she said what remains the most racist thing I have ever heard in my life. I don’t care how “beautiful” someone is, or how clever, if they are a jerk, they’re a jerk. At least I learned something from her.
Sorry, evidently I have slipped into that stage of codgertude in which I tell long, boring personal anecdotes. Is there a medication for that?
erinyes – I loved The Queen of Versailles. Rent it if you haven’t seen it. I wonder if Siegel had to give up Versailles.
Sterling’s a real character and as scandals go, this one’s got so many interesting and salacious aspects. His team – the Clippers – which he’s owned for thirty years, is finally, finally making it into the playoffs, their best season ever, just as this whole thing explodes. The players have enough pressure playing against the top teams in their league, at a level they’ve never been to in their history, let alone dealing with Sterling’s remarks.
Periodically Sterling would run ads in the LA Times more or less boasting about his philanthropic giving – “Sterling hosts charity banquet” and stuff like that. Ads featuring of course his photograph. It’s how I heard of the guy in the first place, through a long running acquaintance with these creepy ads.
It’s The Girl who is the most interesting to me. Visited her Instagram site, and it’s full of air-brushed glamour photography, lots of photos of extremely ostentatious bling, and an interior shot of one of her Bentleys (he gave her two, plus a Ferrari and a Range Rover). In other words, about what you’d expect from some shallow twit that just won the Big Lottery. If you do the math, he started palling around with her when she was about 27 or 28, so she can be forgiven for being a child.
What’s so interesting is how she turned the tables on him. Nobody has proven that she provided the recording of his racist remarks to the media, but it’s so brilliant to simply start recording the old man, egg him on, and let his mouth run. And then anonymously get the tape to the media and claim innocence (thereby avoiding a wiretap rap). And time it so it happens on Sterling’s 80th birthday.This girl’s a Pro.
I read on another comment board a remark by someone who claimed to know the owner of a major league football team. Sterling’s a sharp businessman (worth $1.9 billion) but he could take some lessons on handling young women. The football team owner would lease everything that he gave to his girls. When the relationship ended, she would find herself in a fully furnished apartment whose lease would expire in 6 months, as well as being in possession of all these leased goodies. If she wanted to keep the goodies, she would have to make the payments.
Sterling was so old-school in his attitudes about race, but also in the way he just gave stuff to girls, as a way to buy favors and affection. Leasing everything gets right to the point of the relationship.
I just saw a headline that said Sterling is banned from basketball for life, so if this was the girlfriend’s doing, she did a job. I almost admire her, even if she may be about to lose her, um, living subsidy.
Remember the 1956 movie.. Giant.” Big daddy can’t cut the mustard”. That’s more than likely Sterling’s story. I think his girlfriend is nothing more than eye candy and something for him to control with his money.
Robin Abcarian’s Can We Talk About the Gold-Digger for a Minute? concludes with “I’m rooting for the gold-digger”.
I’ve read that the most the NBA can do is inflict what amount to minor punishments on Sterling (what does a lifetime ban and $2.5 million fine mean to an 80 year old billionaire?), but work behind the scenes to get him to sell the Clippers. They can’t overtly force him to sell, without risking lawsuits. Michael Jordan has expressed interest in buying them, and it would be just desserts IMO if the team came into his hands.
I’m not so sure the girl will have to give up her gifts. It all hinges on whether Sterling’s estranged wife can prove that the goodies came out of community property or not. No lawyer here, but it sure seems like these were gifts and there’s nothing Mrs Sterling can do about it.
The moral may be: Old Rich Dude, don’t piss off the eye candy.
Lifetime ban and $2.5mil fined was announced this afternoon. NBA commissioner said he will press for forced sale of team, which can happen with 3/4 of NBA owners vote. I think the NBA commissioner has enough votes.
Sponsors have left the team in droves in the last two days.
Corporate America will do the right thing when the price is right.
“Corporate America will do the right thing when the price is right.”
Sluggo,
‘Corporate America will do the right thing when the pain in profits is enough!”
Gulag, we ( my wife and I ) are closer to that queen than I’d like to admit. They had some “eye candy” problems several years ago avec a tois. I’ll leave it at that.
I was working up at the villages the other day, the place is a boom town of retired people of all shapes, sizes, and ages. I kind of relate to maha’s comment. I’d love to do lunch with Jane Fonda and Shirley McClain. Well, lunch and a glass or two of vino.
Well, if Sterling was proficient at GOP code talking he would have told his girlfriend that he didn’t want her to bring any inner-city people who never learned the value of work to any of his games.
Why do the baggers hate freedom? Seems the wild wild west aint made for you and me!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bundy-ranch-militia-checkpoints-horsford
There’s already a conservative conspiracy theory out there:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/conspiracy-theory-sterling-set-up
Truly amazing.
Hey bonnie, is that link suggesting magical thinking? 🙂
Goatherd, the medication is called ignoreitall. Despensed in great quantities in the villages. I need some too.