🏀 KuBuckets Archive

In an authoritarian state relying on fake explanations to justify corruption that erodes its ownlegitimacy, sooner or later, it seems, it has to “medicalize” doubt of its fake explanations. Ridicule, mischaracterization, marginalization, and criminalization just aren’t sufficient.

Recall the psychiatric hospitals of the former SOVIET UNION, a failed totalitarian state if there ever were one. If one doubted the corrupt, evil, Bolshevik Communist Party loud enough, you were found to have imbalanced thinking and to be in need of state assistance to relearn right thinking. Free of charge, the state experimented on you with drugs, electroshock and sleep deprivation during an unlimited stay as a patient forced to endure the treatments.

Here is a link to a Wired story in which psychology researchers, likely with a grant, research supposed conspiracy theorists and find some of them—without putting too fine a point on it—less than well-oiled.

https://www.wired.com/story/reddit-conspiracy-theorist-study/ ↗

Gee. What a surprise!

Won’t this sort of research be handy for further smearing and scapegoating of that Intel memed class of Americans asking the wrong questions about official explanations?

Now everyone knows how anti conspiracy theories I am, because: a.) the term reputedly sources to an Intel meme; b.) the term is reputedly used often to smear honest persons trying to understand ludicrous official explanations; and c.) real crimes are best investigated by what defense and law enforcement professionals may remain uncorrupted and honest in discharging their investigative duties under apparently highly politicized (and apparently deeply corrupted) upper level officials.

But even I am appalled at medicalizing a class of truth-starved Americans seeking, however flawed their reasoning , explanations to the some of the apparently preposterous official explanations.

Frankly, the ONLY “conspiracy theorists” I worry much about these days are those reputedly controlled conspiracy theorists working for Intel and/or law enforcement and reputedly spreading knowingly false conspiracy theories to confuse those ordinary Americans searching for honest explanations. But I digress.

Are TPTB starting to lay a foundation for medicalizing doubts about their explanations?

It’s hard to say definitively.

Are there pedophile priests in Pennsylvania?

I keep hoping Hudy and PTs and OTs have worked on Doke’s arm to give him the strength and control to develop a coordinated, efficient shooting motion. If they have, he will join KU’s list of great centers.

@KUSTEVE

I’m intrigued with McCormack, too.

QGrime too high at 20, unless he grows a trey.

Vick will be a major force.

My guess is Silvio is the super Nova if there is one.

@KUSTEVE

ROTF!!

@mayjay

Thanks for the assist!

Sinistra...that rings a bell.

I’m left handed; that explains why I was not allowed to play catcher in baseball! I was too sinistra!!!!

😀

Watch Tony Bennet duet with her. Most younger women he has dueted with its clear that he was singing with persons he had to help and complement, and not overwhelm with his pipes. With Aretha, he acted like he was singing with a peer. He gave her as much room as she needed to get comfortable with him and then just sang along effortlessly not worrying about her. It was beautiful.

Chain of Fools.

@approxinfinity

Probably post Charlemagne Roman Catholicism, which having taken on temporal powers from Charlemagne, found itself not just in the religion bidness, but the governing, taxing, law and order, and trans generational continuity bidness.

Early Christianity associated left with evil and right with good, left with the devil’s work and right with god’s order. It’s in their art and some texts, if I recall correctly.

Likely they inherited this left-right opposition notion from both Jews’ and Manichaeans’ light and dark symbolism, but I’ve never tracked it back.

Christendom up to the Middle Ages was a unified, inclusive, comprehensive world view and order, if you agreed, and probably appeared totalitarian, if you didn’t.

They had to instruct right and wrong to a world of many languages and cultures, if they were to stay on top of the temporal gravy train Charlemagne put them on. Christendom, not surprisingly imitated the Romans some and resorted to universally understandable symbols and entertainment (music and ritual in the church instead of the amphitheater) to convey the basics.

What perpetuated, grew and advance Christendom was good and symbolized as being on god’s right.

What threatened Christendom, traumatized it’s order, and delegitimized it was evil and symbolized as left of good.

Up and down were used similarly.

The administrative language was Latin, just as English is in our empire today that also reigns hegemonically over many cultures and languages.

We use symbols of left and right to talk simplistically to our Babel today same as Christendom did.

The contemporary uses of left and right descend clearly from 19th Century European ideological/social/political/economic upheaval and were brought by immigrants and intelligentsia from Europe’s epic struggles to be more inclusive (and so risk destabilizing of prexisting order...left) or to conserve what order had already been achieved (right).

More rights and opportunities for everyone—Left.

More rights and opportunities, but only for those most productive and with new wealth—Right.

No change—Status quo.

This is what it’s all about.

The status quo only changes when the cost of not changing is too high.

The status quo diffuses the demand for change by issuing new rights and opportunities to the new rich with new skill and high productivity. They divide them off from Les Miserable and suppress Le Miserable.

Waiting for an FBI/DOJ “Shoe” to drop probably puts the Controlled Journos in a bind. They probably have to wait for the “shoe” to drop to leave their options open and know how to spin it for their controllers.

This apparently makes for a rare lull in news-hype.

Never has a great vocal artist been imitated so often and so horridly. She was a one off genius, the Ella Fitzgerald of her life time. The screamers today are just screamers—unconnected to the meaning and truth and beauty—sound and fury signifying nothing. All great artists are truthful even inspite of themselves at times. She was. She could not sing a false note or a false phrasing. It was never about her suffering and struggles. To reduce her to that cliche is to demean her gift. She sang brilliantly both in bad times and good. Hundreds of screamers have had lives as tough as she had. But they never produced the operatic qualities of sound she did each time she set her mind and pipes on connecting to a song. She was the John Cohltrane of the voice and that is my highest praise I can offer any singer. It was about the authenticity and truth that came out. When music fills a spatial dimension with an architecture of sound music has reached its highest state. You are in an architecture of sound sculpted by a musical artist of great humanity and generosity with her. Great classical composers like Mozart could do this even with small pieces, thus we know it can be achieved in any form of music, if enough talent and skill are unleashed. A tiny few contemporary musicians and singers can achieve this level briefly. She could and did build a world of sound quite beyond the narrative of the lyric. The lyric was merely her invitation in. She was the greatest female singer of my life time and no one else came close.

Evansville just got better!

Slam, bam, thank you, Sam!

Everything is about matchups!

Bumper Sticker...

KU Football—A Tie Would Be As Good as Consensual Sex with Scarlet Johansson

drgnslayr said:

I'm pretty sure we will remain undefeated... for at least the next 3 months!

PHOF

HighEliteMajor said:

Nothing matters this season. Nothing. Unless we win the NCAA title. We've had it all. It's all that matters now.

———————

You are right, but the paradox of our sport is Self must build a new team, as if the team were most important.

Self’s great accomplishments are based on building teams to reach the full potential of their talent; that is the only way to win a ring IMHO.

It is in some of his choices about who can and should play where and when that most controversy arises and quite logically so. He makes hundreds or thousands of choices in a season about who to play where and when. He makes good enough decisions to win 82% or so and 14 straight conference titles and one ring. But that still involves significant amounts of error and room for reasoned second guessing.

This season I am uneasy about the youth, the lack of proven trey ballers, and the over abundance of big men.

Champion teams need basic pieces. They need all the pieces, not more or less. And they need MUA in 3 of 5 starters and in 2-3 subs come the Carney.

Lacking the above, a Coach must invent a better mouse trap (scheme), and hope no one figures it out during March.

If Self can find 3 40% trey ballers, then the surplus of bigs becomes an advantage, and I suspect he can fit the pieces together.

If he finds only two, it’s a crap shoot.

If he finds none, I foresee no chance for a ring even with a better mouse trap.

And, of course, he and his team will have to overcome seeding path bias and asymmetric whistles, and exceedingly long reviews of calls apparently to give Nike-EST opponents a chance to win at the end of close games.

It is a tall mountain to climb without credible trey shooters, even with two. But three is like having Sherpas help you up Everest.

@jayballer73

🙏

@Barney

You are very kind. Thank you for clarifying.

@Barney

Losing children seems the most devastating based on the two families I have known that have born that terrible loss.

HighEliteMajor said:

@mayjay @jaybate-1-0 Deal. See, we could solve all the NCAA issues. I’m good with guys coming back. Glad we got Vick back. Just not sure it’s in the best interests of CBB.

—————-

I’m not either, but I’m looking for some sound reasoning either way. Let me know if something perks out. We are at the essence of amateurism here.

@dylans

Bosses hate crying!

@jayballer73

Sometimes it comes down so hard you need a hat, a poncho AND an umbrella.

You seem to have had more than your share of traumas lately.

Like getting old, losing brothers is not for sissies.

Enjoy the good memories.

And don’t forget what a turd he could be at times.

You can’t love and cherish an idealization of someone.

When mine died a particularly grizzly death, it helped me to write about my brother from my first memory of him till the end. At first it was a eulogy intended for his sons, but then it became far too personal to share. Too much truth about us, our family, our town and our country’s journey. I cried and laughed quite a lot writing. 80-90 pages later, I learned why he was so important and beloved by me. It was simple really. He was my earliest memory. I remembered he and I sharing the same bedroom divided only by a lamp on a night stand. I remembered it was he who was there first to comfort me, when I had a bad dream. I had loving parents, but it was my brother who was there first. It was probably different for him, but that was how it really was for me. With a good older brother in the world, I felt safe and watched over. There was always a back stop.

I handled my mother and father dying like a champ. Everybody said how stellar I was. But when my brother died, I just had to withdraw quite a long time and reorient myself. The writing helped. Many things helped.

Eventually it was like I was given a second life—a really great second life that one day, when I die, I expect to tell him all about. He will like what I have done and say: “but did you take my advice I gave you when I was sick and you were struggling so much?” Yea, bro, I will say, I took it, and it made all the difference.

The advice he gave was: you can’t fix everything, bro. You have always tried to and no one can.

And that has made all the difference.

I trust you will discover something of equal or greater value on your own reconciling to this terrible loss.

I wish I could fix this for you, but I can’t.

Rock Chalk.

@justanotherfan

😀

Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, when it adversely impacts one’s earnings and security, not when it enhances!

Seriously though, I expect @HighEliteMajor to make a good case worth reading, same as you would.

Charlie, visit the Guggenheim in Venice!!

HighEliteMajor said:

... I just want the players to be able to go make a living any time they want to. Right out of high school. But once you choose to go, you're done. This is truly the way to protect CBB. Declare, you're done. The door shuts.

—————

First, I like the idea of letting them go pro by choice, whenever they choose.

Second, in the business world, it is common for employees to work awhile, then go back to school either to improve their skill set, or change fields, then go back to the labor market.

Veterans often serve in the military, then return to college.

Just curious what your reasoning is why basketball players turned pro should not be allowed to go back to college and play for amateur consideration if they choose?

I have never been able to persuade my self this opportunity should be denied basketball players.

@mayjay

Thanks so much for the assist.

I am so glad there is such a Federal law on the books specifically criminalizing such behavior.

So: I will withdraw my hypothesis, because even it were to capture some substance, I like to leave analysis of criminal activity to legal professionals and law enforcement officials.

Rock Chalk!!

justanotherfan said:

@jaybate-1.0

My argument is not that everyone is paying players. My argument is that there is motive for programs to pay players.

We both have hypotheses that are dependent on willing participation in ventures that are illegal by one or more people. Because of that, I hesitate to cast a wide net saying that everyone absolutely is participating in wrongdoing.

However, there is motivation there, if not by the coach, then potentially by alumni, boosters, administration, etc.

The only question I can really address is a possible hypothesis on why a school like DePaul would offer $200K to a recruit. I can't say that DePaul certainly did do that, or if other, similarly situated schools would, could or have done that. But there's a fairly straight line between talent and making the NCAA tournament, and just making the tournament is worth quite a bit of money.

————————

When I offered my hypothesis, it was not clear to me that paying players to point shave actually was a felony?

Could some legal esquires weigh in on this?

Is it illegal to pay amateurs to point shave, or is something else related to doing it illegal?

KUSTEVE said:

Hey, I know this is a tad off-topic, but I was thinking out loud, and was wondering if we get in any hot water over Silvio, couldn't we like self-impose a bowl ban on our football team for the upcoming year, and use that as a self-imposed penalty? I mean, the basketball team has been carrying football for practically every year for almost 100 years ... take one for the team, football.

PHOF!

ROTF

@HighEliteMajor

Thanks. That means a lot to the aging emeritus coming from the current department chair.

Rock Chalk!

@Barney

Inge was a great, great playwright that struggled with his homosexuality, like many in those times, and with booze in all times.

He was blessed with penetrating insight into us all and generously shared his insights into both our flaws and virtues through characters he judged as little as possible.

Inge from Kansas and Tennessee Williams from St. Louis followed different paths and were at their best with different kinds of characters. Inge wrote best about those we know and Williams wrote best about those we fear. Inge focused more on the scarred survival of the sympathetic character from the tragic destructiveness of the antagonist, and Williams wrote more about the destructive character triumphing over the tragically sensitive character.

Inge was over typed as too sentimental and Williams was overtyped as too twisted. Both men wrote small bodies of work each with a brief stretch of brilliance followed by quite a bit of crud that did not cohere.

Both gay men apparently sublimated themselves in their major female characters to portray the ways they had suffered at the hands of thoughtless or cruel male lovers. Both men captured the intense sap of life—both in its burning effect on the young, and on the resultant burn out on the old. Youthful life force was a searing experience in the dramas of both and it had unexpected, often brutal effects on young and old alike. But it was simultaneously irresistible and often beautiful. These two men were perhaps as close as America’s perpetually unstable culture can ever come to producing writers of Shakespeare’s intensity of language and drama, though they fell wildly short in production volume and in greatly tracking the arc of the Renaissance’s of their times in comparison to Shakespeare. Both probably aspired more to a naturalist version of classical antiquity drama than to Shakespeare’s Elizabethan conventions. Regardless, we are a young culture, barely 4 centuries old. Shakespeare’s England was already ancient by comparison in 1500s. So: it seems unrealistic to hope for a Shakespeare for several more centuries, maybe a millennia if we make it. Shakespeare was in real time able to brilliantly and passionately and wisely portray the entire arc of his turbulent century of renaissance through existing conventions of histories, comedies and dramas. Inge and Williams were lucky just to capture a teeny sliver of the American renaissance at the moment ordinary people came under the then unprecedented black nuclear umbrella that began its spiritual eclipse.

Both men saw their health and effectiveness dwindle with age and alcoholism that exacerbated their self destructive streaks. So what else is new?

But they were giants that are settling into the usual critical eclipse such greatness settles into for a hundred years or so, before rediscovery and more objective appraisals arrive.

Miller, Pinter, Mamet, and so on have left their marks also, as will many others to come, but these two came along at the turn of a parochial, regional America into a brutally subordinated international military empire and got to write about characters caught up mostly unawares in an epic transition of world history, same as Shakespeare got to do in the renaissance.

Inge and Williams characters literally don’t know what is happening to their world. Other playwrights became very conscious of the change and so wrote less passionately and more self consciously about the predicament.
They tried futilely to give insight they simply lacked, whereas Inge and Williams portrayed human beings without ideological overlays of authors.

I was privileged to have been very young when they lived and wrote.

It’s one of the lasting, savored joys of my life.

Your daughters were most fortunate to have played any of Inge’s characters.

Larry is very tough to please and hell on thin skin.

Just ask Allen Iverson.

This adversity will likely make him a better player and make him better able to process Self’s relentless needle.

Hang in, Charlie.

This is how it could be playing with 2 five stars at 1 and 2 and SIX big men.

You could wind up playing almost any position off the bench to create a ball handler at odd positions to allow Bill to stay 5 Star outside and big elsewhere.

I am still waiting for Self to try a sub 6 footer at the 4 or even 5 in certain situations!!!!

Expect the genius to do something never done before.

“Come Back, Little Sheba”

By William Inge, playwright, b. 1913 in Independence, KS, graduated KU 1935, member, Sigma Nu, also wrote “Splendor in the Grass,” “Picnic,” “Bus Stop,” “Dark at the Top of the Stair” all made into successful motion pictures. KU’s theater arts building is named for him. Died 1973.

@justanotherfan

Your further specified hypothesis (30-40 players) would apparently lead to at least 30-40 feasible, slam dunk indictments each season, at 30-40 schools given essentially unlimited Federal access to digital communications alone. Add in Federal field informants and online shills moonlighting for the Fed’s and this hypothesis you are further specifying would apparently lead to a much larger number of indictments than has occurred so far. A starting guess would be that a Federal investigation of the last, say, 5 years, could, with existing technology, rather effortlessly come up with 100-200 total indictments, if your hypothesis were a good fit with reality.

So: again, I appreciate your attempt at further systematic speculation on this issue (hypotheses found ill-fitting direct us where not to look, after all, and so are themselves useful), but it just doesn’t fit the facts yet. And as time passes it appears increasingly unlikely to fit well.

Because your hypothesis has proved so far ill-fitting, I tried to offer another hypothesis, NOT theorizing. WE NEED TO AVOID CHARACTERIZING EACH OTHER AS THEORISTS TO PRE-EMPT SLOPPY THINKERS FROM SLIDING INTO THE CONSPIRACY THEORIST SMEAR ROUTINE REPUTEDLY DOCUMENTED TO HAVE BEEN SPREAD AS A KIND OF PROOAGANDA TECHNIQUE BY ELEMENTS OF US INTELLIGENCE AND THEIR REPUTED ASSETS EMBEDDED IN MASS MEDIA.

We are BOTH “hypothesizing” in slim hopes to start an information gathering and explanatory process that might enable us to keep improving fit with our so far very limited reputed facts. We are just curious fans hoping for the best for our jointly loved sport of college basketball—nothing more.

For clarification, we each remain IMHO no where near proven theories, though my hypothesis appears possibly to fit slightly more of what little appears known so far. But again, I am not satisfied with my hypothesis either. It fits the edges of the phenomenon better, but there is still no evidence of point shaving at this time, just a legacy of intermittent point shaving scandals in college basketball.

Rock Chalk!

@justanotherfan

The system you hypothesize implies most schools would pay the reputed going rate of $100-200k for a player or two every season. $100-200k appears essentially peanuts for 10-20 wealthy alumni to pass the hat for.

And that would mean the FBI-DOJ could get someone at almost every school to rat out the paid players by squeezing them with wire taps, same as has reputedly done elsewhere.

But instead we so far have a very narrow indictment involving only a few schools including most contracted with adidas and a few (?) with Nike, and nothing but rumors of further indictments.

So: the facts so far don’t support your hypothesis.

Let me offer a hypothesis that might fit with both the few number of indictments and with the indictments involving a mixture of adidas AND Nike schools, AND with some number more indictments coming , but not with a ubiquity of indictments implied by your hypothesis.

What if some persons were paying a certain number of recruits each season to go to certain schools to point shave? Historically, point shaving scandals have tended to have been focused at a few schools. Let’s say The payment immediately compromises the player and the assistant coach involved, but leaves the head coach plausible deniability. These persons paying the players and assistant coaches then instruct the player to point shave a few games each season. These persons lay huge bets with knowledge that the spread is going to be broken this way, or that, and in turn make millions of dollars. Further, these same persons go to organized crime and the Deep State and offer to launder huge sums via winning bets based on planned point shaving.

Under this hypothesis, the conspicuously simultaneous timing of the Rice Commission and the FBI-DOJ investigation might be a kind of limited hangout not intended to end pointshaving, but rather intended to weed out unwanted competitors trying to horn in on the big scam, and to give the scam cover by proclaiming college basketball has been cleaned up.

Like yours, it’s just a hypothesis, at present. But it appears to much better fit the reputed facts so far and appears to promise much greater rewards for risking criminal behavior than your hypothesis. Finally , it appears much more in conformance with basketball’s reputed history of recurrent point shaving problems.

Again, it’s only a hypothesis, not a claim of verified fact. Im not strongly in favor of this hypothesis. I’m just tossing it out there, because it fits the facts a little better and to give you another chance to put on your thinking cap.

Rock Chalk!!

Again, why were the individuals reputedly indicted reputedly paying so much to get recruits to go to certain schools?

What incentive system were these indicted individuals outbidding, or alternatively what possibly corrupt process were the payments enabling?

Who really benefitted (and how) from the redirection of them to certain programs?

Were recruits being compromised by the payments, so they could later be further compromised as players?

What was going on?

@KUSTEVE

Some possible KU memorials for Roy...

—A video installation of Roy saying he was staying at KU.

—A bronze statue of Roy standing on a map of USA west of the Mississippi.

—A post season loss crying garden

Note: Just kidding. Roy should be honored with portrait and a plaque commemorating his accomplishments in a row of portraits of KU HEAD COACHES, but nothing named for him and no statues.

Rock Chalk!

—————-

Buffer 1

Buffer 2

Buffer 3

What non adidas incentive system were these individuals having to outbid with the $100,000?

If the incentive system being outbid involved no illegal cash payments, why was not $1, or $100, or $1000 enough? Why did it take $100,000 to keep a player from choosing a non adidas program?

Lulufulu said:

@drgnslayr Great honor for Ole Roy. Im happy for him.

KU needs to keep James Naismith court like it is. No matter where we are when Self finally hangs it up, the court name stays. I do think Self should be immortalized in there somewhere though. He absolutely deserves it.

———————

Lawrence —> Billville.

The Big 12 —> The Big Self Conference.

adidas —> Selfidas.

Jayhawk Boulevard —> Jayhawk Billevard.

Daisy Hill —> Daisy Bill.

Boothe Hall of Fame —>Self Hall of Fame.

Mount Oread —> Mt. Self.

Potter’s Lake —> Bill’s Lake.

“AMAZING THINGS HAPPEN IN THIS BUILDING.”—Bill Self [This quote in a bas relief bronze plaque over the entrance to AFH.]

A statue next to Forrest.

drgnslayr said:

@jaybate-1.0

Even better.... Roy only gets half a statue. The east side of his body will be missing... representing the east coast basketball players he refused to recruit because of UNC.

I'll never understand how he got away with that. Doubtful he could do that today. I smell lawsuit.

——————

PHOF

@HighEliteMajor

But make Roy’s statue half the size of Self and stand them side by side. Roy’s statue could be him running toward UNC. Bill’s could be him walking toward AFH.

@drgnslayr

ROY “EASYGATE” WILLIAMS COURT

SONNY VACARRO-PHIL KNIGHT-MICHAEL JORDAN ARENA

JOHN EDWARDS STATE SUPREME COURT BUILDING

CHARLIE “ME TOO” ROSE SCHOOL OF BROADCASTING

DEAN SMITH MEMORIAL TAR HEEL SPORTS CORPORATION

Re Kruger—to last, you have to be able to embody how an alumni base wants to see itself, and win so much they can’t tire of you. You also have to like where you are and not want greener grass. Lon wants greener grass and isn’t how alumni want to see themselves. LB had the same issues. But both were/are superior coaches.

dylans said:

@jaybate-1.0 Weber did tie for a title in 2013, but KU beat them, 3 times that year. That was a fun Big 12 tournament to be at!

That’s right! He tied for first with OPM (other people’s material).

Then he finished...

5
6
8
6
4

KSU needs to fire him and bring him back to coach OPM every three years.

mayjay said:

@jaybate-1.0
I am forced to admit I generally enjoy Birthdays and Lifedays more.

—————

Feeling forced empowers your opponents.

Be of good cheer without being forced.

Birthday.

Deathday.

Both traumas.

Thank god there’s more than a Lifeday.

A full life seems all that makes either trauma worth bearing.

None of them are worth spit without players.

Self is best with players.

Not one of the rest of them has ever even tied for a B12 title, even when they had good players.

Ranking the rest is placing them in order of futility.

It’s not polite to kick them when they’re down.

JayHawkFanToo said:

My new mantra for...this season is: check if you are on or off your meds BEFORE you type.

—————

WARNING: MED SMEAR TROPE ALERT

I’ve done my duty!

Rock Chalk!

@JayHawkFanToo

“I Saw What You Did”
—1965 William Castle’s horror thriller starring Joan Crawford

Howling!

Bottom line, it costs less to be beaten senseless with Beatty than being beaten senseless with a new football coach losing under the same constraints as Beatty gets beaten senseless under.

Everyone knows this.

It’s just no fun to admit.

Beatty is a cheaper beating than a new coach.

I would only support firing Beatty, if KU were to go without a head coach and staff and let the players coach the team. And there is no reason not to do so. When you win 0-1 games, the players could self coach as well.

@dylans

Beatty ought be addressed AFTER the other factors have been to see if he can win with an honest deck.

Until then, the only reason to fire him appears to be to allow some other group to get their guy in the coach seat to help them draw more deeply at the athletic department hog trough in pursuit of more back door influence over the university and so the university’s state and federal level pork conduits.