1. None of your business.

2. None of my business.

Gambling Is Ruining Sports
The Free Press | April 4, 2024 | Joe Nocera

For decades, Las Vegas was the only place in the country where sports betting was legal. And once upon a time, the men who ran the major sports leagues were terrified of betting. The great fear was that it would corrupt the players, who would be tempted to fix games.

Turns out, those fears were valid. In the last year, there’s been a spate of gambling-related controversies. The NBA is investigating Toronto’s Jontay Porter for taking himself out of two games to boost gamblers betting against his performance. Major League Baseball’s best player, Shohei Ohtani, is under a cloud after his Japanese translator used $4.5 million of Ohtani’s money to pay off gambling debts. (For the moment, at least, the translator is believed to have stolen the money from Ohtani, and he says he never bet on baseball.) And in 2023, the NFL suspended five players for betting on games in their own league.

Perhaps these controversies were inevitable. Because these days, professional sports have a lot to do with Vegas.

The dam broke in 2017, when the National Hockey League put a franchise in Las Vegas, and when the Oakland Raiders relocated to the city—where they play in a stadium where gambling takes place. The following year, a Supreme Court decision opened the doors to sports betting across the country; 38 states have since legalized it. Since then, online sports betting behemoths FanDuel and DraftKing have plastered their logos on the floors of basketball arenas and become major advertisers for televised pro sports events. And this year’s Super Bowl actually took place in the Raiders stadium—yes, the one where gambling takes place.

Did the Founding Fathers concern themselves with what a person did with his own money?

Of course I recognize there’s a problem when players, owners, managers, and the mob get involved.

I don’t think I’ve thought this through, which is why I’m going to you guys.

We’re all concerned about Walrus going dark when he moves his internet and computer from one location to another.

Why did he move to where he did?

“For the waters.”

But there’s no oceanfront there.

He was misinformed.

“Don’t look now, what’s-your-name, but I think we may be under surveillance.”

Doesn’t Like the Cut of His Jib

“Well, He May Have Viewed IMAO, Which May Either Have Been a Crime, or a Misdemeanor in Furtherance of a Crime, Which I Haven’t Specified Yet . . . “

Judge Merchan: The jurors do not need to believe a crime was committed in order to convict Trump of unlawfully hiding a crime he never committed.
Conservative Treehouse | May 26, 2024 | Sundance

Judge Merchan has yet to release the public version of jury instructions, however he previously decided last week that the jurors do not need to agree on a predicate crime in order to find President Trump guilty of trying to hide one.

Fifth Amendment: “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment …”

Sixth Amendment: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall… be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation…”

Apt quote:

“The more lilliputian their maneuvers, the bigger they make the giant they are trying to tie down.”