Weird: If you pay to get an NCAA star, it's a crime... If you pay a stadium or to get amazon to build in your town it's called g

What a classic! Thanks, Rojo. Keep these coming!

it is a crime if you pay one person at amazon personally who then influences the decision without disclosing it to everyone

My gawd yes I struggle with the logic of trying to understand what it is you are trying to say.

Pay an NCAA player a crime? State or Federal? Citation?

It's anti corruption. It's a leveling of a rigged system. It's cigarettes are legal because a company sells them and weed is illegal because it can be sold without needing a company. It's those who lie about a free market trying to stop an actual free market from happening. It's control trumping justice.

get a lawyer on your staff wrote:

it is a crime if you pay one person at amazon personally who then influences the decision without disclosing it to everyone

Correct, but the FBI has better stuff to do than get Rick Pitino fired...

Like getting John Calipari fired.

Steal a little and they throw you in jail

Steal a lot and they make you king

I see "letsrun" alternately spells "crime" as "rcime" and "cirme" -- that's weird. Do you mean "crime" literally, or figuratively?

But you are right there is a huge double standard favoring businesses and the rich who lobby for handouts from the government.

When the government gives handouts to the poor, it's called welfare, and that's a bad thing to give money to those who need it.

When the government gives handouts to the rich, it's called many things: good healthcare, tax reform, or smart business, and it's a good thing to give more money to those who have it.

Anything other than your best spelling is a eflony.

Rojo,

I've seen you make these false equivalencies for years. Stop. Not everything is apples-to-apples.

P.S. As one of the founders of this site, how can you not know what the character limit is in the subject line?

Tighten it up wrote:

Rojo,

I've seen you make these false equivalencies for years. Stop. Not everything is apples-to-apples.

P.S. As one of the founders of this site, how can you not know what the character limit is in the subject line?

Well, let's see. We just unveiled a new posting system like two days ago.

They just changed how it works. It used to not let you type in more than what would show up.

rojo wrote:

Does anyone with me struggle with the logic of this?

When a small individual gets paid, it's called a crime.

When rich fat cats get paid, it's called brilliant business - doesn't matter if it's to build a stadium for an NFL team or for amazon to re-locate to your city.

Paying an NCAA player violates NCAA rules. Paying an Olympic athlete violates Olympic rules. Neither are crimes.

If you are saying NCAA and Olympic rules are hypocritical, then agreed.

Rossilover wrote: Paying an Olympic athlete violates Olympic rules.

Most Olympians are professionals. They get paid: shoe contracts, federation salaries and stipends, etc. What violation are you referring to?

Rojo,

Why do you hate America?

The NCAA is running two professional sports making hundreds of millions of dollars without paying players a penny and doing everything they can to keep it that way.

That's how lightly regulated markets work.

get a lawyer on your staff wrote:

it is a crime if you pay one person at amazon personally who then influences the decision without disclosing it to everyone

If you call it a payment and communicate that the intent is to influence a decision, yes.

If you call it "lobbying" or "sales" and use an intermediary that pretends it's not bribery, then it's not a crime.

Why do you think Los Angeles' the bid process alone for the Olympics costs hundreds of millions of dollars? Bribery via multiple intermediaries to disguise the bribes.

rojo wrote:

Well, let's see. We just unveiled a new posting system like two days ago.

They just changed how it works. It used to not let you type in more than what would show up.

And now you can't even use non-Latin characters to type the standard insult term for "slow runner" in another language.

The usual path for a Republican who gets pissed about corruption is to join the Tea Party.

For the little guy and against the big fat cats?!?!? Always knew you leaned to the left Rojo, now I know you're a true bastion of the progressive movement

I personally don’t see the ban on paying NCAA athletes as a bad thing. If you allow payments you make decisions for the best athletes about who will pay them the most. Given that most will not go on to be professional athletes this creates an incentive some may not be able to ignore, to pick their educational path with less regard to their future careers than there should be. At that age this choice is tough enough already, without those with the biggest wallets persuading them to make choices that will negatively impact their long term career prospects. If they want the money turn pro and don’t do the NCAA.