Outrageous, Egregious, Preposterous!

How bad do you feel for Jordan Chiles right now, huh? Man, what a kick in the teeth. It’s bad enough that she has to compete against the most dominant gymnast in history, now she’s getting railroaded out of her bronze medal.

Apparently, the judges made an error in determining her degree of difficulty, which lowered her score. But her team protested, and the judges made the proper adjustment and the resulting score landed her the bronze medal.

But wait, now it comes out that her team was four seconds late in protesting… they have one minute from the end of the routine… so they’re recalling the metal.

What a sack of shit. I know there are rules about such things, you’d figure there has to be some kind of deadline. But one minute, amidst the swirl of Olympic competition. This is bullshit. At minimum, there should be an appeal process which when used successfully, keeps a medal from being turned in because of actions taken by those other than the athlete. In other words, they want her to return her medal because the judges screwed up.

If I’m her, assuming the decision is final, I’d be like, “I know the official record books will be updated, but you’re not getting this medal back. You want it, come get it.” Then I’d go see my new best friend Snoop and see if he still has some friends from the Hood who will protect my ass. What are they going to do, send a team of Olympic goons? Like a judo team? Or the shot putters? OK, maybe some of those archers and sharpshooters would get my attention. 

They should do a Pulp Fiction remake with these two:

I would probably do things just to piss them off, like post photos on Facebook or Insta of the medal in various famous places. Like, “Can’t catch me…”

Or “Missed me by that much!”

I don’t know what kind of leverage they have over someone in her position. Maybe they can prevent her from competing again, but she can always retire and start doing commercials. Like, for home security systems. Or maybe Spellcheck apps.

“Don’t let stupid mistakes jam YOU up. Use this and get them fixed immediately!”

She should hire the actor who played the Seinfeld show attorney Jackie Chiles to work with her on it, and just let him do his thing.

Anyway, I just think it’s silly to let systematic screw-ups put the screws to athletes who have busted their buns to become world-class talents. There needs to be some kind of review board to ensure that athletes’ dreams don’t become victims of the quest for bureaucratic purity.

***

This was in today’s Baltimore Sun:

My intention in highlighting this story is not about Chuck Schumer’s decision to kill this proposal in its sleep, but to question why Republicans proposed such a thing in the first place. I mean, I know the answer, and it’s twofold:

·         To appease the idiots from their base who think there’s a vast conspiracy regarding COVID, the pandemic, and other viruses in conjunction with the CDC, and other anti-vaxxers.

·         The GOP wants to cut or defund any department or entity that creates barriers to profit by large corporations. Whether it’s air purity, water clarity, or food safety, it’s much more cost-efficient to contaminate all three areas and settle with or (legally stall) complainants, than it is to produce a clean, safe product.

I’ve been beating this drum for years and this is just one more example. And without the Democratic majority we have now, slim as it may be, this was something that could have come to fruition. This is the importance of keeping the Senate. It’s something on which our lives may actually depend.

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I also saw this on my news page today. Get ready for another Tan Suit Controversy.

 We know this play by now. The GOP goes crazy because a Democratic president takes a few hours (or days) off, even though their own guy set the presidential record for the most time spent playing golf. (And using his own facilities so the government has to pay him for his own protection.) And famously only worked a couple of hours per day, setting aside vast portions of “executive time” for watching Fox “News” and sending incoherent tweets.

And now they want to throw shade on Biden for it? (Sorry, it looks like he already has some.)

I think every president needs some recharge time, some R&R. And that goes for presidents of both parties. I’m sick of this cheap blame game over something so universal.

And it’s not like no one can find him if something comes up. I guarantee he’s got a team nearby keeping tabs on whatever’s hot and can pull him in if need be. Every human, president or not, needs time to disengage and chill.

Republicans are probably just mad because they think he’s wasting the opportunity to direct government business into his own pocket. Maybe if he were charging the Secret Service to be on his own private beach, they would understand. Game recognizes game.