Jesse Ventura has been friends with Donald Trump for the last 25 years, and he claims that “Donald Trump is not a dumb man,” despite reports that say he and his campaign have gone off the rails. Ventura also is “glad to see” that Trump is destroying the Republican Party from the inside out. In an op-ed from TIME magazine, the former Minnesota governor touted the successes he had forming the Reform Party in the 1990s, but blamed Pat Buchanan for its demise. “Buchanan came in with these legions of people (who were backed by the Republican Party) and took over the Reform party, got the nomination and then didn’t even run,” Ventura wrote. “Buchanan took the money we raised (at that point, we had quite a large national base thanks to Ross Perot and myself) and he used that money to retire his previous campaign debts.” Ventura makes the claim that Buchanan was a spy sent to destroy the Reform Party from the inside on behalf of the GOP. “Well, Trump was there then. He saw it,” Ventura wrote. “And I believe he’s doing the same thing to the Republicans that they did to us.” ...
If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
My grandfather loved big-time rasslin'...we always rooted for "Moose" Cholak. In this rare color clip, Big Moose goes up against Dr. Gerry Graham Jr., "The Smartest Man in Wrestling":
The announcers got really good at making up names for moves. "Moose does a go-behind..."
“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” ― Joan Robinson
Having watched a lot of American sporting events over my lifetime, I have become increasingly convinced that all of them have at least major elements of kayfabe to them, and I have begun to wonder just how these outcomes are controlled, beyond of course referee bias. Is it just Black Sox down the line, or has it become increasingly sophisticated over the last century? Are some major online betting sites player and coach cooperatives, with profits split based on teams' relative success in fleecing the suckers who bet? Are representatives of the NFL/NBA/MLB and/or of individual players themselves on FanDuel, for example?
Last edited by stickdog99 on Wed Jan 25, 2017 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
stickdog99 » Wed Jan 25, 2017 2:47 pm wrote:Having watched a lot of American sporting events over my lifetime, I have become increasingly convinced that all of them have at least major elements of kayfabe to them, and I have begun to wonder just how these outcomes are controlled, beyond of course referee bias. It is just Black Sox down the line, or has it become increasingly sophisticated over the years? Are some major online betting sites player and coach cooperatives, with profits split based on teams' relative success in fleecing the suckers who bet? Are representatives of the NFL/NBA/MLB and/or of individual players themselves on FanDuel, for example?
Considering most professional sports franchises are owned by men with obvious ties to organized crime, I'd say this is an eminently reasonable line of inquiry & speculation.
Every single NFL team Moldea purports is absolutely involved with the mafia. He lays it all out. Some say that the Sajak show embedded above was cancelled because of Moldea's appearance.
I will also say that over the years I have totally seen games get totally thrown because the possibility of error was next to zero. The Seahawks superbowl game comes to mind a couple of years ago. At the 1 yard line with time running out they opted to pass when a run play would have easily won them the game.
Billions were made by that. Just that.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
82_28 » Wed Jan 25, 2017 3:17 pm wrote:This has been posted before, but I will add it again. Unfortunately I lent the book out and will never see it again like all my books.
Here is the first chapter. http://www.moldea.com/nfl.html Every single NFL team Moldea purports is absolutely involved with the mafia. He lays it all out. Some say that the Sajak show embedded above was cancelled because of Moldea's appearance. I will also say that over the years I have totally seen games get totally thrown because the possibility of error was next to zero. The Seahawks superbowl game comes to mind a couple of years ago. At the 1 yard line with time running out they opted to pass when a run play would have easily won them the game. Billions were made by that. Just that.
Ah, Pat Sajak's talk show. Put another pointer in the "How to get your late night talk show canceled" tips, invite either Louis Farrakhan or someone who writes a book about organized crime and professional sports.
I often wondered if Hilary took a dive. There was so much of his criminality that she could have gone after with Trump when he was talking about putting her in jail. Also his lack of experience in statesmanship, politics, foreign relations, politics, etc. His bankruptcies, failed brands, crap tv show, etc. She played the dignified matriarch when most people already had her figured as a steely and experienced gutter fighter. If she would have gotten a little nasty and dismissed Trump as a freak she would have stolen some more media attention, and he probably would have overreacted and called her one of the vulgar names he had done so to other women, which would have been more ammo for her. (But of course people who vote for the pussy-grabber-assaulter probably would have been in lock step.) Still, with all her resources it seems she was the sure thing that inexplicably lost. Even her blaming the fbi seems a little pat and easy.
Also, if the election was a set up from the beginning, with Trump as the selected, it would need a plausible story of how he could win, but also enough drama to make it an epic upset. It has been argued Trump just took Pat Buchanan's playbook: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... ist-214221 But that is like having Vince Lombardi's playbook, that alone isn't enough. I wonder if Trump was able to just stump on that alone, without all the nastiness and angry histrionics if he would have gotten anywhere. It was almost as if from the beginning he had to play the nasty and blaming heel to the corrupt evil Queen to make the game have more personal and emotional stakes. Few candidates have been so bloodthirsty and royal assholes right out of the gate. It was almost like he could afford to be with everyone.
Also, there was Trump constantly transgressing every modern holy of holies. You know let's create a fake war with hundreds of battles over already won domestic issues, immigration, environment, women's rights, trade, etc. that will demoralize and dissipate attention and vigor to stop other wish list items the ptb will ram through. It was also the upset of this young century. I think some people actually took it harder than 9/11. I might have actually. A upset like that creates some (or a lot) of cognitive dissonance, reframing, disenfranchisement, isolation, energy redirection, etc. Now as President, jesus christ, that is his daily normal. But that aside, it would be interesting to see who benefited immediately financially or in other ways, on Trumps surprise election.
If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
Trump Supporters Love a Smackdown: They’re Twice as Likely to Be WWE, MMA Fans A Twitter analysis finds that the GOP frontrunner’s backers are big followers of boxing and other violent sports http://www.thewrap.com/are-donald-trump ... nt-sports/
With outbreaks of violence at Trump rallies and his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski being charged with battery, the people over at Demographics Pro turned their analytical spotlight on Trump’s 7.34 million Twitter followers with one very important question in mind: Do Trump supporters have a tendency to enjoy violent sports? After crunching the numbers, the correlation became clear. Trump‘s Twitter followers are 2.8 times more likely than the Twitter average to be interested in MMA, boxing or professional wrestling.
Trump’s followers are such fans of violent sports, in fact, that they’re more than twice as likely to watch the events as followers of Ted Cruz.
Demographics pro had some other notable findings. Since launching his campaign, Trump has seen a 7.2 percent decline in female followers, from 42.5 percent to 35.3 percent.And here’s another statistic: Trump’s white followers jumped from 87.3 percent before his campaign to 90.1 percent after he started running for president.The more you know … cue catchy tune, rainbow and shooting star.
If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
What can we learn from this, is what I'm wondering. What is the lesson, here.
There are those who think pro wrestling is real. They get angry at Andy Kaufman, inter-gender champion. Love to hate the heel.
Then there are those who know it's a show. Like going to see a play, or a movie. Laugh and cry, boo and cheer at the spectacle. Fandom, escapism.
And we have those with refined tastes. Discuss kayfabe, analyse the acting technique. Maybe they get a meta-kick out of low-brow humor. Roddy Piper's wild unpredictability, Ric Flair's over-the-top style.
Everyone is participating, building the reality together. How do you break it? Someone who doesn't participate, yet refuses to be silent, is disturbing the dream. They will be met with animosity from all sides, labelled anti-social, or be ignored.
And here I am, discussing not discussing kayfabe. So this post is no better, another contribution that feeds the dream.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
dada » Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:55 pm wrote:What can we learn from this, is what I'm wondering. What is the lesson, here. There are those who think pro wrestling is real. They get angry at Andy Kaufman, inter-gender champion. Love to hate the heel. Then there are those who know it's a show. Like going to see a play, or a movie. Laugh and cry, boo and cheer at the spectacle. Fandom, escapism. And we have those with refined tastes. Discuss kayfabe, analyse the acting technique. Maybe they get a meta-kick out of low-brow humor. Roddy Piper's wild unpredictability, Ric Flair's over-the-top style. Everyone is participating, building the reality together. How do you break it? Someone who doesn't participate, yet refuses to be silent, is disturbing the dream. They will be met with animosity from all sides, labelled anti-social, or be ignored. And here I am, discussing not discussing kayfabe. So this post is no better, another contribution that feeds the dream.
Pretty simple really. You need someone who can beat them at their own game. An over the rainbow kayfabian dream master who is as entertaining as political savvy. Someone who has the debunking acumen of Ralph Nader but the delivery and abs of The Rock. If The Rock could do a press conference like the below but on domestic and international matters it would be locked up. Or Corey Booker could just grow a goatee and do a Rock impression using Bernie Sanders's old speeches.
You really can't educate or convert certain demographics, you can only coopt and win them on some of their own terms.
If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
It's starting to sound like the answer is some kind of left-wing dictator-type. But we all know how that goes. The personality cult of peace and justice. Requires totalitarian state control, big money, big military might, big hypocrisy. If only it were that simple.
Or maybe it is that simple. I'm open to ideas. But what happens after four years, eight years. This isn't some tyrant worm that can live for thousands of years we're talking about, it's a Hollywood actor, playing the role of a lifetime. Leo DiCaprio on steroids, or something.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.
dada wrote:It's starting to sound like the answer is some kind of left-wing dictator-type. But we all know how that goes. The personality cult of peace and justice. Requires totalitarian state control, big money, big military might, big hypocrisy. If only it were that simple. Or maybe it is that simple. I'm open to ideas. But what happens after four years, eight years. This isn't some tyrant worm that can live for thousands of years we're talking about, it's a Hollywood actor, playing the role of a lifetime. Leo DiCaprio on steroids, or something.
Idea #678
If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
Thought it might be worth mentioning that Sir Jimmy Savile spent a large part of his early career as a wrestler, and it seems to have been the only form of entertainment that he truly loved (his disdain for pop music and television, except as avenues to gain money and access to opportunities, was readily apparent to anyone who cared to see it at the time).
Early on in the saga of the Savile exposure, I remember an astute member of the Digital Spy forums saying that Sir Jimmy had lived his entire life in kayfabe after discovering the wrestling world as a youngish man. It struck me as true at the time. Still does.
The only time I have ever seen him behaving like a normal human being with feelings is during this twinkly reminiscence about Saturday teatime wrestling on British telly - where he also gratifyingly gets his teeth kicked in by Gentleman Jim Lewis:
Btw, for the record, I, too, have read A Theory Of Fun.
I don't go on about it though.
"The universe is 40 billion light years across and every inch of it would kill you if you went there. That is the position of the universe with regard to human life."
You don't have to be liked or trusted to generate heat. You just have to be watchable.
My Mum hated Trump throughout the presidential elections, and thought he was a laughable buffoon, but watched endless hours of CNN as they displayed and mocked him - soon enough she was using his talking points just through sheer familiarity. This all happened a long way outwith America's borders.
She started half-way rooting for him towards the end, as a joke, as a protest, as a spit in the eye to CNN's clear bias (it wasn't subtle, was it?) - and as a rebuke to what she saw as him being bullied by aloof clever cold people. It seems to work the same in any country, like Goerring maybe said.
Heat is hugely important. Corbyn generated a little bit of it for himself, but his enemies generated much more for him on his behalf.
Theresa, by contrast, was cold - "stable" "competent" "a safe pair of hands."
No one's going to pay to see that.
Same with Bernie. His enemies made him sound much more interesting than he actually is - and interest means viewers, means listeners, means followers, means voters.
"The universe is 40 billion light years across and every inch of it would kill you if you went there. That is the position of the universe with regard to human life."
