(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: Mixed Bag summer edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-15 A look at two updates (as well as a current issue) after-the-jump: But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself. This past February, a Top Comments edition of mine noted some commercials that made their way into songs, as well as one commercial from the height of the Cold War. Recently, I found another Cold War commercial that I got a kick out of at the time … and still do. This is a 1985 ad for Royal Crown (RC) Cola, which had other ads spoofing the two major cola companies. This one satirically notes, “Our friends overseas” … with a Brezhnev-like leader on a military reviewing stand. (Sorry the quality is poor). Besides the humor, I liked the historical aspect: this ad noted that Pepsi came into the USSR before Coke. That was due to President Nixon’s venture to the Soviet Union in 1972, and as someone who was a lawyer in the NY area before his second run for the White House: his friendship with PepsiCo chairman Don Kendall (and Pepsi’s headquarters being in suburban NYC) made Pepsi the first U.S. consumer product produced and sold in the Soviet Union. (By contrast, Georgia native Jimmy Carter in 1978 helped Coca-Cola become the first foreign corporation allowed back in to China). A lot has been written about the PGA’s decision to merge with the Saudi LIV Golf Tourney, of which I had never given much thought before about: some notes. When it comes to golf, my go-to source is the Washington Post’s sportswriter and author John Feinstein — who hadn’t been a natural to golf (and has issues with the right-wing politics endemic with the players) yet likes the players and their openness (compared to the cloistered tennis world, which he has soured on). It was only from him that I learned the LIV stood for the Roman numeral for 54 (as its tournaments feature 54, rather than 72 hole competition). And while the league signed several players to astronomical contracts (to their credit, both Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods spurned them), LIV has little exposure on US television and Feinstein is unsure how much it is even watched overseas. When this rival league started (and agreed to use Trump golf courses, which the PGA had dropped after January 6th) the PGA banned players who had jumped to the rival league, leading to lawsuits between the two leagues. The PGA had long cited the murderous regime of Saudi Arabia using golf to sportswash its image, with PGA head Jay Monahan citing the families of 9/11 losing family members (with 15 of the 19 hijackers being Saudi Nationals). And then …. John Feinstein had expected there would someday be some sort of resolution — likening it to the mergers of the NBA, NHL and the NFL-AFL — but was stunned at the swiftness, and attributed it to two factors: The (PGA) tour’s position in court didn’t look very strong. What’s more, there was a chance that LIV’s countersuit would boomerang into the government finding an antitrust violation. What do you mean, you’re the only one allowed to run a golf tour in the United States? Beyond that was this: The tour almost certainly would have been required to open its books in the midst of its legal battles. No one in sports is more opaque than the tour. It won’t even announce fines or suspensions, and has been known to fine players merely for talking about being fined. It has always treated its books like a state secret while not paying any taxes because it is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit entity, even though it clearly makes millions of dollars each year. It seems highly unlikely that the tour would want to share specifics about how much money it makes and where that money goes — with LIV, the courts or the public. ESPN has quite a detailed account as to the behind-the-scenes negotiating that led to the “merger” at this link, if you’re interested. As for the situation of the players who stayed with the PGA — many of whom have been openly distraught — a superlative take was offered by The Bulwark’s Tim Miller — whom I mostly like for his humorous take on politics. In it, he contrasts the gloating reaction of LIV jumper Bryson Dechambeau vs. Rory McIlroy, the Northern Irish golfer who cited moral issues in spurning the Saudi cash: [R]eputation . . . at the end of the day, that’s all you have. You strip everything away, and you’re left with how you made people feel and what people thought of you. That is important to me. By contrast, Dechambeau spun the Saudis as “trying to do good” and concluding, “Nobody’s perfect but we’re all trying to improve in life”. ~~GACK ~~ What Tim Miller objected to even more was the rational Dechambeau used: The players that did go over [to LIV] did take a risk and there was a reason for taking that risk relative to the capital that had to be paid out for that to occur. Miller responded thusly: What is unsaid by Dechambeau is the reason for their risk. It was a risk only because they couldn’t be certain that the Saudi’s taint wouldn’t rub off on them. It’s not as if they were taking a risk in the traditional entrepreneurial sense. They didn’t invent a widget and then take out a loan to start a business. They were merely risking getting caught doing something they knew to be . . . at some level, just wrong. Which is the cheapest of risks to take. There will always be deals to be had where those who are willing to skirt the rules or partner with an evil interest can get an advantage. While acknowledging Rory McIlroy will be wealthy anyway, Miller concluded: McIlroy might not have won. He might even have gotten owned. But he made the right choice. One that deep down, he knows was right. And now, just to add to this: the US Senate is unhappy enough with this merger to want the Justice Department to investigate on anti-trust issues, after all. To close tonight on a more positive note: in 2015, I noted what I refer to as the Musical Interregnum — that five-year period (1959-1964) when the charts were wide-open for many different types of music. Yet in 1960, a particular song achieved #1 status with two interesting features. Stay by the band Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs (referencing that Sputnik era) remains the shortest #1 song (at only 1:38). Later, it reached the Top Twenty by two different artists, and also boosted by a popular film. Maurice Williams composed the lyrics in 1955 when (as a teenager) his girlfriend was visiting his South Carolina home, yet his pleas to stay were dashed when her brother came to pick her up (at her parents’ insistence). Two years later with his own band, he wrote Little Darlin’, which his band recorded without much success … yet saw it reach #2 when recorded by a white group named The Diamonds. Two years later still, his band was to release a single entitled Do You Believe — yet needed a “B side” for it. So he dug-out Stay — and that became the “A side” hit single, #1 in November 1960 … a full five years after the idea came to him. Fast-forward four years … when Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons reached #16 in 1964 with this song. Fast-forward another fourteen years, when Jackson Browne reached #20 with it as a single (and, as the closing song on his landmark Running on Empty album). Finally, fast-forward another nine years, when the song was given yet another lease-on-life as part of the Dirty Dancing film soundtrack. Two months ago, Maurice Williams turned age eighty-five … and is still active musically. Now, on to Top Comments : From inkstainedwretch: In the diary by ChrisRodda about the proselytizing Army chaplain at Fort Drum, New York — I nominate the reply made by Rexxmama reply to A Citizen. Highlighted by Petsounds: In the front-page story about the Montana man sentenced to 18 years for shooting at a woman’s home in a homophobic attack — this comment made by dfh1. And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........ In the diary by edrie, one of two about the death of long-time poster BF Skinner (later Cameron Prof), true name Jeremy Margolis (whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Minneapolis Netroots Nation in 2011) …. inkstainedwretch cites my T/C colleague brillig’s essay this past Monday. Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful (and now eternal) *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment featuring that photo. TOP PHOTOS June 14th, 2023 (NOTE: any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library without permissions set to allow others to use it.) Alas: today's Top Mojo is not working … hoping it will be back tomorrow. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/15/2174766/-Top-Comments-Mixed-Bag-summer-edition Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/