DL Open Thread: Thursday, January 19, 2023

Famous Delaware Pro Rassler Killed In Auto Accident.  Jay Briscoe, whose real name was Jamin Pugh.  The Briscoes were a world-class tag team.  Jay posted a homophobic tweet back around 15 years ago, which cost them a shot at WWE.  However, he was exceedingly and genuinely remorseful, and sought to educate himself about LGBT issues. This past year, he and his brother took part in what is already generally regarded as a classic series of matches with FTR, currently considered the world’s best tag team.

Here, ‘Dem Boys’ go after each other in a cinematic ‘Fight On The Farm’:

Another (Well-Earned) Bad Week For The Saudi-Owned Golf Tour.  Would it shock you to learn that the Saudis have subsidized events at Trump’s money-losing golf courses?:

Having directed LIV to file an antitrust suit—initially through 11 patsy players before later joining the litigation itself—the Saudis now claim they’re not subject to the jurisdiction of the very courts whose protection they sought. As noted by Professor Jodi Balsam of Brooklyn Law School, there is a “commercial activities” exception to sovereign immunity claims that grants the court authority based on the Fund’s control of LIV. That control is indisputable: in a January 13 hearing it was revealed that the Fund owns 93 percent of LIV and pays 100 percent of the costs associated with its events, rendering laughable any defense that it’s a mere bystander to the antitrust litigation.

For example, LIV has become explicitly politicized with its attachment to Donald Trump, staging events at the former president’s golf courses as he publicly urged PGA Tour players to “take the money” from his Saudi partners. Scrutiny of the relationship between the Fund and Trump would be unwelcome in Riyadh and Palm Beach. Federal law prohibits foreign governments from attempting to influence U.S. domestic politics, and discovery risks highlighting how inherently political the Saudi fund’s investments are.

The Public Investment Fund — which is ultimately controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — invested $2 billion in a private equity company owned by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over the objections of its own advisors. The LIV project was thought inviable by the Fund’s consultants, McKinsey and Company, yet another couple of billion dollars has been torched there. If the Saudi fund is making investments that are economically irrational, discovery might unearth motives that are grounded not in profit nor sportswashing, but in politics.

BTW, didja know that the Saudis are seeking to buy WWE?  Saudis and sportswashing–not so perfect together.

Man, This Kathy Hochul–Threatens To Sue The NY State Senate For Refusing To Approve Her RWNJ State Supreme Court Nominee:

After a combative hourslong hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-9 against the nomination of Justice Hector D. LaSalle, whose nomination was strongly opposed by progressives who saw him as too conservative.

The rejection does not necessarily mean that the LaSalle saga is over. The governor has not ruled out taking legal action to force a vote on Justice LaSalle’s nomination on the full Senate floor, raising the specter of a constitutional showdown.

Justice LaSalle, who was vying to become the first Latino chief judge, always faced an uphill climb. His nomination in December was immediately opposed by several unions, reproductive rights groups and community organizations, which pointed to cases that they said revealed he was anti-union and anti-abortion.

A large contingent of Democrats in the State Senate had already said they opposed him — many others raised their objections in private — with many arguing that the judge’s elevation would help perpetuate the court’s conservative tilt.

Plutocrats As ‘Do-Gooders’.  Self-deception at Davos:

Each year, the world’s masters of politics and finance ride carbon-spewing jets to the World Economic Forum in a lavish Swiss resort town bristling with armed guards, where they opine somberly about solving poverty and climate change. The very act of attendance exposes all the subsequent dialogue as hypocrisy. The event serves primarily as a rare point of unity for political right and left wings, both of whom agree that everyone there should be in jail. If all of these professional decision-makers were really good at decision-making, they would replace the whole farce with an annual quick chat. “So then, we’ll carry on with global capitalism for another year. Agree? Right. Cheerio.”

Davos and similar conclaves can only be understood as performances. They are the stage upon which the Masters of the Universe act out the dramatic narrative of their own lives. They are exercises in mutual self-affirmation: we’re here, and we are important. What good is a powerful position without a rapt audience to listen to one’s pronouncements? Anyone can be rich, but only a select few can be influencers.

It is this intoxicating allure of performative influence that lends Davos its underlying absurdity. There is nothing very remarkable about officials who control the world getting together in private to make self-serving decisions; they do that all the time. That’s the job. The fatal flaw of the Davos crowd is that they are not satisfied simply with being in control of everything. They also want to be good, or at least to give the public impression of being good. Thus the typical CEO and presidential interviews and panels of economic and geopolitical predictions – the real things – are leavened with piles of other cultural and do-gooder content meant to convey the idea that at the center this crowd of the world’s most cut-throat plutocrats and cold-blooded status-seekers lies a heart of gold.

Old DuPont Heir Dies.  Some DuPont History, If You’re Interested:

He lived at Granogue, the hilltop estate and mansion with a mile-long driveway and 30 rooms in northern New Castle County, which can be seen along points of Smith Bridge Road. It is sometimes referred to as the symbol of Chateau Country, the name for Delaware’s most exclusive region and for generations the home of extended members of the du Pont family.

The century-old house was built in 1923 by du Pont’s father. The mansion has 11 bedrooms for family members and six for live-in employees. Walls are lined with paintings by family friends, like Maxfield Parrish, and Rembrandt Peale’s original painting of DuPont founder Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours hangs over a hearth.

Bottom line: Born rich. Lived the life of a wealthy heir. The End.

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