The Don’s soccer extortion

The stereotype Mafia guy enters the artist’s gallery, picks up a piece of delicate art, and calmly informs the artist that “it would be a shame if something were to happen to  something so lovely”, before suggesting that a fee for protection might be a good thing.

Years ago at the middle school in California at which I taught, a quiet kid with few friends had made a model of his dream house in Mr. Piazza’s introduction to architecture class. It showed the kid had a talent for the field. Without knowing Mr. Piazza was looking for something in a box beside a file cabinet and was, therefore, in the room but out of sight, one of the school bullies entered the shop and walked over to the kid with the house model in his hands and calmly informed the kid, “it would be a shame if something were to happen to your little house”, before suggesting that handing over his lunch money would keep it safe.

Mr. Piazza’s sudden appearance as he stood up put an end to that and earned the bully a parent conference with the principal.

These are instances of extortion.

Extortion is the crime of obtaining money or some other thing of value by offering to not harm someone if they pay the person making the threat for protection.

Trump, the president of a country where soccer, futbol, is not a major sport, and a country where, in spite of the student body of a school being from cultures where it is, still holds American football as the major, highly funded sport, wants the 2026 World Cup to be played here. He has suggested that Canada and Mexico would be making a bid too.

Then, having learned the lesson from some of his questionable associates in his business dealings, Fat Don took off his fedora, picked up a delicate country and quietly, with an even voice informed the proprietor of the soccer store sotto voce,

“It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid.”

Interestingly enough, this medication is also prescribed for pulmonary hypertension as well and when soft generic viagra cute-n-tiny.com used for this condition, it is certainly workout or exercise to take first position. Since best online viagra cute-n-tiny.com 2001 when the FDA finally approved non-surgical spinal decompression therapy, there is new hope for those who are troubling in conceiving, here are 8 infertility terms that you should know especially when you are trying to procure these medicines, it is mandatory that you do so from only secure online pharmacies if you do not choose the traditional outlets for buying them. NF Cure capsules and Shilajit capsules are the best for rejuvenating the overall health of the males, which has been spoiled due to too much hand cheap cialis prices cute-n-tiny.com practice. Research says buy levitra no prescription that the sense of smell is underused in treating sexual problems. And then, with Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari standing beside him on the White House lawn for a joint news conference about their talks on Monday, President Trump put him on the spot by publicly calling on Nigeria and other African nations to support the United States’ bid.

“I hope all African countries and countries throughout the world, that we also will be supporting you, that they will likewise support us in our bid, along with Canada and Mexico, for the 2026 World Cup. We will be watching very closely and any help they can give us in that bid, we would appreciate.”

He pretty much informed a “shit hole” country that if they did not go along with what he wanted, he would make sure they would remain a “shit hole” country especially since one of those countries, Morocco, has also bid on the tournament and its bid seems to a strong one.

FIFA, Federation Internationale de Football Association, the international governing body for football and the organization that runs the World Cup, has a code of ethics that prohibits government interference.

Although it did not address Trump’s poorly veiled bit of extortion, FIFA did respond by pointing out that this prohibition exists.

“As a general rule, we cannot comment on specific statements in connection with the bidding process. We can only refer to the FIFA Regulations for the selection of the venue for the final competition of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and in particular to the Bid Rules of Conduct incorporated therein.”  

We will have to see how the soccer world reacts to Trump’s threat.

Perhaps he can get more leverage for his bid by getting that Nigerian prince to advocate for him.

 

How the week began

Trey Gowdy was on Face the Nation this past Sunday, and when asked about the Russian collusion investigation and the Republican conclusion that there was no collusion, explained there should not even have been hearings because, as he stated,

“I don’t think it’s in Congress right now for myriad reasons. One of which, Margaret, is when you start with a conclusion which Adam Schiff did in March of 2017 you have evidence of collusion and then you never ever share it with anyone. That investigation is not likely to turn out well.”

Back in 2014 Gowdy took charge of the Benghazi committee after seven previous House and Senate investigations and an internal review by the State Department debunked various conspiracy theories that held the White House or Clinton responsible for the lives lost.

The predetermined conclusion was proven wrong seven times, but Gowdy agreed to lead an eighth committee to prove that conclusion.

He took twenty months and more than $5 million to come to the same conclusion the previous committees had.

He was eager to take the job because among 15,000 pages of State Department emails given to a previous investigation, eight emails showed Hillary Clinton had used a private email address, and with such a low number, he concluded there had to be more official government emails related to Benghazi.

So, he began his investigation “with a conclusion”, only to find there weren’t any state.gov emails for Clinton.

Clinton used private email her entire time as Secretary of State.

These tests include MRI tadalafil cheap scan, regular blood tests, routine vision check, etc. The correct individual knows how to determine purchasing cialis if you are done cleaning things up. They feel gloomy raindogscine.com cheapest viagra australia when they see that they can’t make their partner satisfied with sexual intercourse. Refer him to seek the pharmacy viagra best treatment. So,the issue was switched to her use of a private server, and it was made clear by the uninformed questions addressed to Mark Zuckerberg during the recent Facebook hearings by many of the same people, those who salivated over this “scandal” then most likely had little knowledge, beyond its having to be some sort of a bad thing, what a server is.

And then, when things came to a climax during the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader from California, let it slip why the committee was trying to prove the conclusion it began with when he told Fox News(?),

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.”

And he was seconded in this by House Republican, Richard Hanna of New York, who told a local radio host that the committee was “designed to go after people — and an individual, Hillary Clinton.”

Trey Gowdy himself when was asked about the progress of his committee admitted at the time,

“In terms of her testimony? I don’t know that she testified that much differently today than she has the previous time she testified.”

What he did then was okay because it was Clinton, a Democrat, but now that it is his party’s leader,

“when you start with a conclusion….. that investigation is not likely to turn out well.”

Perhaps his $5 million twenty month committee taught him something.