We previously discussed the racist comments of Clippers owner Donald Sterling. We discussed the possible sanctions under the NBA rules, which are confidential. This afternoon NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that Clippers owner Donald Sterling will be suspended for life and fined $2.5 million. That blows away any prior sanction of the NBA.
Silver announced “I am banning Mr. Sterling for life from any association with the Clippers association or the NBA. Mr. Sterling may not attend any NBA games or practices, he may not be present at any Clippers facility, and he may not participate in any business or decisions involving the team.” That is pretty much a demand that he sell the team though he could use his general manager for some of those functions.
The $2.5 million fine will be donated to anti-discrimination organizations, which is a particularly nice touch.
I have little sympathy for Sterling and found his comments deeply disturbing and unsettling. However, it will be interesting to see if Sterling, who is a lawyer, will fight the fine. He is being banned and fine for private comments that he did not intend to be released publicly. While this is not the government (raising first amendment issues), it is a free speech questions. We have been discussing how government employees like teachers and police officers have been punished for statements and activities in their private lives. I have opposed that trend. In this case, Sterling did not even intend for this comments to go to anyone other than his girlfriend.
The question is where the line is drawn on private comments. No one would suggest sanctions Larry Johnson for (after the Sterling comments) reportedly called for all-black teams and league or his prior comments calling players “rebellious slaves.” He was clearly upset with the news and venting on social media. I understand that. Indeed, his call for some black owners of NBA team is understandable given this controversy and reflects a long-standing objection to the paucity of black owners in the NBA. Yet, those were intended to be public comments and might be viewed as offensive by white players or owners or fans. If the NBA rules extend to private communications, I am curious as to how it distinguishes between comments both public and private. When it comes to free speech, we tend to favor bright line rules but this is a rule that is neither published nor clear. Sterling may be the easy case due to the vile nature of these comments but Silver does not address the standard that has been and will be applied to owners and players.
The counter to this argument is that, as a NBA owner, Sterling agreed to comply with the rules, including the undisclosed rules of conduct. His comments clearly created an embarrassment for the NBA and other teams. Yet, my guess is that these rules are vaguely worded and this sanction is far beyond prior punishments. He probably could challenge it under contractual and even anti-trust theories.
In the end, he is being banned for being a racist (which he vehemently denies). However, if he did not act in a racist manner to the team or fans, should his private views be the basis for a ban. What is owners are anti-gay or anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim in private? Can they all be banned if a third party reveals their views or a private conversation surfaces?
What do you think?
Millions of Americans are racists. That is not a personal attack.
Karen S
Sorry you have had such difficulties. It must be terribly frustrating.
However, my attention is drawn to the motivation of your physicians. Perhaps you will think me too cynical, but I’m guessing that they are very unhappy with Obama. I have no citations, but I’ve spoken with some physicians, and boy, they can’t wait for it to fail so they can go back to the good old days.
I think those days are gone forever. Healthcare was ‘broke’ for the poor and very soon it would have been broken for the middle class.
I’m sure you are well aware of the comparisons between us and European countries. Hard to argue that except on ideology.
There may be some back and forth ‘tweaks’ in the short term. Long term? Single payer, which is what I favor.
Karen s.
“Why is prejudice against millions of
conservativesindividuals of a particular group acceptable nowadays?”Fixed it for ya… ya know, equality.
If anyone thinks that all conservatives are racist, it is sad, wrong, and there is no excuse for such prejudice in today’s society . . . none.
Prejudice and bigotry is wrong. There is no explanation on Earth that can justify it. When you see a racist individual, call it as you see it, but you do not apply it to an entire group of millions of people and think you’re witty or daring.
Here is a link to a San Francisco article about dismal doctor networks on Exchange policies, checked by the station:
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/02/19/covered-california-enrollees-complain-about-limited-doctor-choices-nearby/
What’s even more shocking is that millions of American’s ARE racists. In this modern, sophisticated, educated time, it still is a blight on our society.
Seriously – Republicans are “mentally challenged?” Isn’t that not very PC to call millions of people mentally handicapped because you don’t agree with them?
Honestly, I don’t know which is more shocking – that someone would say that millions of Americans are stupid racists, or that more than one person on Earth would not their head at such a sage, wise remark.
Karen, I live in the south and I am white. YES I CAN say that the majority of my fellow white Texans ARE racist to the core. Granted, it is just a very slight majority, but still one. In MS, I have found that the percentage is an overwhelming majority of whites fall into that category. It IS changing, mostly though the effects of death. By the way, that translates into MILLIONS of my fellow citizens. Now my definition of racist is a whole lot more restrictive than most on the left too. I do not call W Bush a racist for example, nor do I call his father that either.
Annie:
Prejudice against millions of Americans is, indeed, a sick society, and indoctrinating children to believe that is acceptable behavior is reprehensible.
Randyjet:
“All of the people” are happy with Obamacare? Really?
Randyjet:
I am not lying. My deductible went from $500 to $6,000 per individual, and my premiums more than doubled. I can take a photo of the sign at my son’s pediatrician’s office stating they will NOT accept Exchange policies, if someone could please tell me how to post it. When this came down the pike, I called all of our doctors, and NONE would accept an Exchange policy because of the huge pay cut. So then I tried randomly calling any doctors on my previous directory . . . same result. So an Exchange policy was not an option, even though the premiums were going to be expensive there, too. I don’t care about a shiny new insurance card . . . I care about access to health care. And, at least here in CA, an Exchange policy is a false promise of health care. Doctors have to increase patient volume to try to make the same money, which means that any doctor who chooses to accept a large pay cut now spends even less time with patients. It’s as if the administration took a list of everything people hated about HMO’s, and then used it as a guideline.
Keep up the good thoughts.
Donald Sterling to Obamacare. The river, it do meander.
Randyjet, we have the same problem here in Wisconsin. Walker rejected the Medicare expansion too. I wonder how that will play if he runs for Prez, probably would play well for the deep RIGHT base. For those who need the Medicaid expansion, even if they are conservatives, one would think eventually they’d realize they are voting against their own bes interests.
I saw where a guy who hated Obama would not sign up for it since he was watching only FAUX news. A liberal friend told him he needed to sign-up since he needed a heart operation,he did, and now he thinks better of Obama since he got the operation that saved his life. My experience with such mentally challenged folks is that once he feels better, and gets back into his life, he will be still only watching Faux news and voting GOP. From a political perpective it would have been better to let the guy die and make one less GOP voter. Since they are willing to kill off their people for political gain I can see no reason to be better to the suckers the GOP is willing to sacrifice.
Annie – you should not be calling people names because of their political leanings. You were just on another thread telling us all how rainbows and unicorns were all you could think of.
Now they are reporting that only 67% of Obamacare sign-ups have paid their first premium. 8 million and counting? I think not.
“Now they are reporting that only 67% of Obamacare sign-ups have paid their first premium. 8 million and counting? I think not.”
The idea that it makes any difference to the ultimate success of ACA whether the signup is 6mm or 8mm right now is agitation propaganda brought to you by the same people who told you that Romney was going to win by a land slide.
HHS has pointed out that some premiums are not even due right now.
Even the anguished discussion of the ratio young to old sighups is irrelevant.
If you like to follow the stats the important number is the ratio of healthy to chronically and expensively ill signups.
We won’t really know how well ACA is doing for a while yet. But the outlook is more than promising.
Too bad today’s conservative movement is so suicidal, ACA is basically a conservative invention right out of the Heritage foundation. If today’s conservatives had not gone so far off the tracks and into the ditch they would be crowing the dems stole their plan.
The real problem for the party of ideas is that we have to change the way we deliver health care in this country; and any solution with a chance of working is going to look very much like ACA.
They should have jumped in front of the band wagon and appeared to lead when they had the chance.
Hear hear Randyjet.
Dredd, one of the reasons why the indoctrination of children is so important to these sick cultures. To keep as many of them within the cycle, if too many break free and break the cycle, the sick society collapses, IMO. It takes individuals to be exposed to outside influences to see just how sick the environment they were brought up in really was. I can relate my own experience growing up in a fundamentalist religion, luckily I had a rebellious nature.
randyjet
Dredd, I was raised by conservative Republicans who were not racist at all for their time. This was back before the Civil Rights movement so I have to say that not all such folks are racist. The most common thread I found and see now is that while all sides can use ignorance and lies, the conservatives now are distinguished by a level of misinformation and lies that is unprecedented in my lifetime. This Drudge report lie and the birthers are simply an example of this. They also have a flawed ability to make rational argument and are willing to accept such fantastic lies as truth. I have talked to many of these folks, and most I find can be taught or learn to use their heads better. The sad fact is that it is a lack in our educational system that produces much of this up through college.
Then there is the other part in which there is an actual will to lie and say it is all justified for our party and class. While that is true on both parties to a degree, it is more pronounced on the right wing. Those folks are indeed racist and have been with us forever and will be in the future. This is why we have such polarization in our politics. That they are willing to do such things as shut down the government and seriously damage our country for partisan ends shows the end of the post WWII folks to seek the common good and the ascendancy of the extreme right. It is impossible to have good faith negotiations when one side wants to kill you or destroy your life.
===============
Well said.
We have you to develop the dynamics that Freud said we needed to develop because he did not have the energy himself (psychoanalysis of groups rather than of individuals).
Why this is true is that groups, including our group culture, can perpetuate the kinds of things you mentioned even if most individuals eradicate it within themselves (It Takes A Culture To Raise A Compulsive Liar).
But, we digress.
The 26 and under and no preexisting conditions are good, EVERYTHING else is horseshit.
Nick The only other parts that are included are the provisions for insuring children whose parents have no insurance and the Medicaid expansion which basically relieves the local hospital districts in Texas from having to foot the whole bill for indigent health care in Texas. There will still be some of unreimbursed care, but at drastically reduced rates. That is IF Texas voters are smart enough to not elect Abbott as Guv. If not, Texas will lose billions of tax dollars to other states, and cost Texas local taxpayers more taxes. All that in pursuit of a political ideology of greed and hatred.
RJ,
Everybody has some form of prejudice inside of them. I think even Jesus had some contempt for the money changers in the temple.
Keebler – I think the money changers were outside the temple.