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John Oliver tweeted that tonight's show is basically going to be the second part of the FIFA expose he did when they announced that Qatar would host in 2022. Should be good.
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Jun 1, 2015 03:03
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Technogeek posted:No, Lid, THIS is the funniest loving thing: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/31/ex-fifa-vice-president-jack-warner-swallows-onion-spoof Don't worry, john oliver got the video.
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Jun 1, 2015 06:44
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Deadspin still has the video.
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Jun 1, 2015 08:02
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“Nothing I have done within Fifa has been inconsistent with the international culture of Fifa.”
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Jun 1, 2015 09:47
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John Oliver's episode is now up on YouTube https://youtu.be/qr6ar3xJL_Q
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Jun 1, 2015 16:00
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Ashley Madison posted:John Oliver's episode is now up on YouTube This is glorious. This is amazing. Is his show doing well? Because it needs to be broadcast 24/7 in all american homes, north korea style forever and ever and ever. And he's not wrong, if the US can hang Blatter I will immediately hold a massive BBQ with nothing but ribs, freedom fries and every kind of american beer ever because god drat.
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Jun 1, 2015 16:26
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computer parts posted:They're literally using slave labor and it's been during the summer too. That would be positively balmy. The average summertime daily high is over 40C.
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Jun 1, 2015 16:40
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Albinator posted:That would be positively balmy. The average summertime daily high is over 40C. That's the wonders of a desert climate, high highs and low lows.
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Jun 1, 2015 16:42
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Nice piece of fish posted:This is glorious. This is amazing. Is his show doing well? Because it needs to be broadcast 24/7 in all american homes, north korea style forever and ever and ever.
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Jun 1, 2015 16:43
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Albinator posted:That would be positively balmy. The average summertime daily high is over 40C. I spent a lot of time in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and it regularly hit 50C, that was positively unbearable and I say that as an Australia who is used to high temp's. I remember being in my parents swimming pool in Riyadh and I could last about 10 minutes before I had to go indoors, the sun is loving brutal.
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Jun 1, 2015 20:36
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computer parts posted:That's the wonders of a desert climate, high highs and low lows. How did humans even survive there.
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Jun 1, 2015 20:40
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Ler posted:I spent a lot of time in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and it regularly hit 50C, that was positively unbearable and I say that as an Australia who is used to high temp's. I remember being in my parents swimming pool in Riyadh and I could last about 10 minutes before I had to go indoors, the sun is loving brutal. So do the Saudis have pretty good building regulations or have they just lucked out that no one has built some giant concave glass monstrosity and accidentally melted half the city?
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Jun 1, 2015 20:41
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Raskolnikov38 posted:So do the Saudis have pretty good building regulations or have they just lucked out that no one has built some giant concave glass monstrosity and accidentally melted half the city? That only really happens when you have concave shapes on very large buildings with reflective coating on the windows. If you're buildings are vertical then you really don't have to worry about it.
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Jun 1, 2015 20:48
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Kurtofan posted:How did humans even survive there. A caravan of slaves shielding the bodies of the superior families from the sun until textiles were invented.
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Jun 1, 2015 21:45
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He's so hosedquote:Federal authorities believe that Sepp Blatter’s top lieutenant at FIFA made $10 million in bank transactions that are central elements of the bribery scandal engulfing international soccer, several law enforcement officials said Monday. The revelation puts the money trail closer to Mr. Blatter, FIFA’s president, than had been previously known. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/s...ibery-case.html edit: How convenient quote:And a spokeswoman for FIFA, Delia Fischer, said the chairman of the finance committee at the time, Julio Grondona, authorized the payment. Mr. Grondona died last year. Ms. Fischer said the payment was “executed in accordance with the Organisation Regulations.”
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Jun 1, 2015 22:55
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Wow. If he's got any dirt on Blatter at all, he's going to roll
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Jun 1, 2015 23:40
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Xandu posted:He's so hosed So is FIFA going to outright say "Well we didn't break any of OUR laws so we didn't commit any crimes" as a defense? They're going to implode.
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Jun 2, 2015 00:31
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Northjayhawk posted:Wow. If he's got any dirt on Blatter at all, he's going to roll It's how the US DOJ broke the mob, you start out the bottom of the organization and slowly chew your way to the top.
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Jun 2, 2015 00:59
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I think the two decades of groundwork before this covers the "slowly" part, now it's mostly chewing.
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Jun 2, 2015 01:15
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Wait, I hadn't been following this thread, this is a RICO case? Holy poo poo. I'm not sure if FIFA even realizes how much trouble they are in.
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Jun 2, 2015 01:20
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etalian posted:It's how the US DOJ broke the mob, you start out the bottom of the organization and slowly chew your way to the top. Dolash posted:I think the two decades of groundwork before this covers the "slowly" part, now it's mostly chewing. Yeah, we're kinda past the "slowly". We're at the point where Northjayhawk posted:Wait, I hadn't been following this thread, this is a RICO case? Holy poo poo. I'm not sure if FIFA even realizes how much trouble they are in. I have a sneaking suspicion they really don't. They've lived in their own untouchable bubble of corruption for so long they literally can't comprehend what the DoJ's got in store for 'em.
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Jun 2, 2015 01:26
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Northjayhawk posted:Wait, I hadn't been following this thread, this is a RICO case? Holy poo poo. I'm not sure if FIFA even realizes how much trouble they are in. It's all due to how the indicted people used US banks to move around the bribe money and had meetings to collect bribe money the old fashioned way. Putin's oligarch allies also had a extensive bribe campaign to get a Russia world cup which included things like gifting a Picasso to high level FIFA official: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/01/putin-s-world-cup-picasso-bribe.html
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Jun 2, 2015 02:46
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I vaguely recall someone saying that the DOJ can label FIFA a criminal organization, which will legally forbid any US company (advertiser) from doing any business with FIFA. Two questions: Is this possible? If yes how likely is this to happen?
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Jun 2, 2015 03:49
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pentyne posted:So is FIFA going to outright say "Well we didn't break any of OUR laws so we didn't commit any crimes" as a defense? They're going to implode. Probably, but I was highlighting the part where they blamed it on the dead guy.
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Jun 2, 2015 03:52
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Malloreon posted:I vaguely recall someone saying that the DOJ can label FIFA a criminal organization, which will legally forbid any US company (advertiser) from doing any business with FIFA. The US public can swallow DoJ being tasked to fix a sporting league that they completely don't care about if it buys a lot of international goodwill - that really could translate to tangible benefits - but the moment it puts a perceived dent in the economy, Obama would instantly be blamed for prioritizing international dick-waving over domestic jobs... and the middle would buy it. The right would move to sabotage the whole thing and Blatter wouldn't even have to pay them to do it. AFAIK the only sponsor that's publicly made noise about FIFA cleaning up their act is Visa, which only put out an open letter saying they expect FIFA to act - i.e. they haven't actually done anything yet and are hoping it blows over. Probably all of them are just sitting back and hoping they can come out of this with both their World Cup and US accounts intact. What really worries me is the possibility that all this delay is because the Russians did something behind the scenes to get everyone else to hit the brakes, but who knows.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:04
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Malloreon posted:I vaguely recall someone saying that the DOJ can label FIFA a criminal organization, which will legally forbid any US company (advertiser) from doing any business with FIFA. Yes. E: Okay, I wish it would happen but it's admittedly a rather delicate situation politically. They might do so after most or all of the big sponsors are given a chance to sever on their own. The less big American companies that have ties with FIFA, the more likely DoJ is likely to slap the label on them.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:05
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Coldbird posted:I think it's really unlikely. This would force a choice for several major US employers between the US market, and the single most popular sporting event in the world, and I don't know if every politician is going to be willing to assume every sponsor would go our way. It would be how many thousand jobs if any one of those headline sponsors closed up shop in the US? They can't afford to close up shop in their biggest market, which gives them revenue every single day versus once every few years. Also threats of closing up shop could easily be met by assets being seized, accounts frozen, and so on. Trademarks can be voided, and that can ruin them.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:07
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Malloreon posted:I vaguely recall someone saying that the DOJ can label FIFA a criminal organization, which will legally forbid any US company (advertiser) from doing any business with FIFA. If for some reason the Swiss don't want to extradite the people the DOJ wants to prosecute with extreme prejudiced or they manage to escape to a non-extradition country like Russia I would say it has an extraordinarily high chance of happening. And yes, the DOJ can absolutely do that with only something like congress passing legislation (republicans think soccer is for gay commies and democrats want to look tough on crime so it won't happen) or maybe Obama/Clinton issuing an executive order being the only way to reverse it, and with Lynch being Obama's replacement for Holder and the future first laddy being so pissed he broke a mirror when FIFA hosed over the bid he presented on the US's behalf that's not looking likely either.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:08
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Malloreon posted:I vaguely recall someone saying that the DOJ can label FIFA a criminal organization, which will legally forbid any US company (advertiser) from doing any business with FIFA. It would probably sour the good will they have generated so far. People want to see Blatter and everyone involved with FIFA burnt at the stake, but I doubt they want FIFA's corpse flung from the battlements. At the end of the day, you want a soccer body that can carry on business, just with less crooks running it.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:19
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It is hard to understate how very dire a Federal RICO case is perceived to be within the USA for the leaders of a targeted company or organization. It has probably been sensationalized over the years in pop culture and it is rarely used for a high-profile target, but almost every time the Feds blow the dust off of RICO and bring it out, the defendants usually get wrecked by the DoJ. Not sure if a foreign organization whose leadership would need to be extradited has ever been targeted before, so that'll be interesting. RICO gives American prosecutors some unusual power, jurisdiction, and threats of ridiculously stiff punishments that they probably should not have, but with the trouble they had with the mafia way back in the day, the people finally threw their hands up in frustration and said "gently caress it, here, do whatever you want, just go get those mob bosses". They probably should have carefully written the law so it couldn't be used outside of what we traditionally think of as organized crime, but they didn't.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:20
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Nintendo Kid posted:They can't afford to close up shop in their biggest market, which gives them revenue every single day versus once every few years. You're conflating 'possible' with 'politically feasible'. The existing effort is grounded on the idea that we're buying our way back into Europe's goodwill by exporting brutally overreaching domestic crime legislation the one time other countries would actually rant it - effectively saying to everyone, 'hey, all that wiretapping and Bush bullshit you put up with, we really didn't become full on bad guys with all that, here let us show you *annihilates near-universal Western enemy with hilariously overpowered justice apparatus*' Once it starts even just threatening domestic jobs, though, all bets are off. I think you're overestimating the importance the public would place on the perception that the exec branch would be, in this case, prioritizing foreign goodwill over domestic jobs. It would play out disastrously in the media and the right would just sing their usual 'tyrannical president' bullshit going into the election but this time far more people would listen - and even if it didn't work it would only be because Hilary moved right and promised to dump the case once she was in office. edit: really it comes down to how these corruption stories play out in the press and how much they damage the FIFA brand in all the markets the sponsors care about, then they decide (or not) to bail on their own... only after one or two do that, with the other big sponsors already not far behind, would you see you see a decision like this made Coldbird fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 2, 2015 04:37
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ocrumsprug posted:It would probably sour the good will they have generated so far. People want to see Blatter and everyone involved with FIFA burnt at the stake, but I doubt they want FIFA's corpse flung from the battlements. Could a labeling be used to replace FIFA? If a deal is done with the major Soccer nations to have a replacement for FIFA ready to announce at the same time? It sounds like not a lot of people are happy with the way things are run at the moment.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:43
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Coldbird posted:Once every few years, but probably at least a quarter's worth of revenue for at least some of those vendors... vs. a US market that's ultimately only one of many, and they could likely get back into after an election cycle or two. You're asking that they lose massive amounts of revenue for the next 3 years or more, potentially, in hopes that they'll make up for it by maybe a quarter's worth of sales in the year 2018 (this is impossible). That goes completely against business logic, and it's an unforced error that would mean, for example, all of a sudden everybody in America's drinking Pepsi for several years instead of Coke, and maybe never switched back to Coke again And good lord, McDonald's can't afford to lose its 41% of restaurants that are in the US. Visa absolutely cannot stay solvent if they cede the entire credit and debit card processing market in America to MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Budweiser would be similarly quite hosed with all their US plants having to idle and losing their huge chunk of American marketshare. Coldbird posted:
Buddy, the companies involved would be way more hurt by being labeled criminal dealers than America could possibly be hurt by them being sanctioned, especially since many of the bottling plants and so on could sign new contracts and keep a lot of staff, and people like Visa don't employ all that many people. Combine them all up and they're a tiny fraction of the US jobs market.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:52
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Coldbird posted:*annihilates near-universal Western enemy with hilariously overpowered justice apparatus*' I wonder if the DOJ is self-aware enough to know that in a post-mafia era they probably should not have this power anymore, so they deliberately use it rarely for fear that Congress might change this hilariously tough law if they overreach. In this case, Americans generally don't care about soccer, so if the DOJ wants to go to war against FIFA and Europe is cool with that, then thats fine with us as long as it doesn't impact the economy.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:56
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Coldbird posted:Once it starts even just threatening domestic jobs, though, all bets are off. I think you're overestimating the importance the public would place on the perception that the exec branch would be, in this case, prioritizing foreign goodwill over domestic jobs. It would play out disastrously in the media and the right would just sing their usual 'tyrannical president' bullshit going into the election but this time far more people would listen - and even if it didn't work it would only be because Hilary moved right and promised to dump the case once she was in office. How would you think it would play out in the court of public opinion for companies saying "we're packing up and leaving because your government won't let us do business with a bunch of europeans"?
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Jun 2, 2015 04:56
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Business Gorillas posted:How would you think it would play out in the court of public opinion for companies saying "we're packing up and leaving because your government won't let us do business with a bunch of europeans"? It wouldn't? Businesses are rarely blamed for these things in the US, unless they just outright and directly do horrible poo poo, but I really don't see this being perceived that way simply because the US public doesn't give a gently caress about soccer, FIFA, the World Cup, or why it's a horrible enterprise - and aren't going to remember this story in two weeks time. Any domestic economy damage would get play for months, though. 'Blah blah Obama more concerned with prosecuting random Swiss soccer guy who is bad for some reason while unemployment is up 0.2% plz vote red' You're both imagining a completely binary scenario here, where either Justice ignores the tool entirely or just bulldozes through with it whenever they want. I'm saying that Obama isn't likely to let Justice do this until the first vendor bails on their own - the first one that does is going to be followed by all the others in rapid succession, as each in turn gives more credence to the idea that FIFA has become a toxic brand and they can't recover the loss anyway, so it wouldn't be perceived by company boards as the US punishing legit businesses by then. Must have missed the Coke name on that list though. Yeah, I'm from Atlanta, you basically can't even find Pepsi here
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Jun 2, 2015 05:13
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KennyTheFish posted:Could a labeling be used to replace FIFA? If a deal is done with the major Soccer nations to have a replacement for FIFA ready to announce at the same time? It sounds like not a lot of people are happy with the way things are run at the moment. It probably could be, though the various soccer federations could just make it happen on their own if they wanted to (they don't since they are living high on the hog of FIFA's corruption.) However when the dust settles it is likely that the un-incarcerated employees of FIFA will be, like four secretaries and the one executive assistant that everyone was hoping would be the scapegoat, should the cops ever catch on. It will be like a fresh start except FIFA already has office leases.
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Jun 2, 2015 05:13
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Late to the weather chat here, but Qatar-based goon checking in. Yesterday was a hot one - it felt like one of the hottest days of the year so far. And just FYI, it will get hotter. Of course.
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Jun 2, 2015 05:25
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Teach posted:Late to the weather chat here, but Qatar-based goon checking in. Yesterday was a hot one - it felt like one of the hottest days of the year so far. And just FYI, it will get hotter. Of course. How many indentured servants died to build your villa?
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Jun 2, 2015 05:42
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Nah, my place is pretty low impact, two story stuff. And judging by the build quality, no one busted a gut over it.
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Jun 2, 2015 05:54
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