Open thread
Friday, Mar 11, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Try to keep it Illinois-centric and don’t let this tweet get you off-track. Thanks. Just attempting to help spread the word and calm some anger. After all, even if they were actually Russian-Americans, they’re still Americans. I know plenty of Russian-Americans who emigrated from the Soviet Union for darned good reasons (met another one just a few weeks ago) and they sure as heck don’t want to go back now and most definitely don’t approve of the country’s current regime…
I mean, I love Dostoevsky and Stravinsky. That doesn’t mean I love Putin.
…Adding… An Illinois angle in the Sun-Times…
In a largely symbolic declaration issued two weeks after the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Illinois Gaming Board Administrator Marcus Fruchter on Thursday banned the state’s sportsbooks from laying odds on Russian contests, calling it “contrary to public policy.”
Fruchter’s edict means casinos can’t take bets on “any sports event, league or competition” in Russia or Belarus, the eastern European nation that has aided Russian President Vladimir Putin in his violent assault on Ukraine.
“I have determined that wagering in Illinois on such sports poses a significant likelihood of serious risks to the integrity of the Illinois sports wagering industry,” Fruchter said during a virtual Gaming Board meeting. “We hope that peace will soon prevail.”
…Adding… Found this one in an older browser tab…
- GV - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:06 am:
Out here in DC, I’ve got a couple friends that own a restaurant and bar named Russia House. It has been vandalized a couple of times since Russia invaded Ukraine. The two owners are a Latvian immigrant and an Irish-American Army vet.
- GV - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:06 am:
Gah - I ignored the Illinois-centric part. Sorry.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:10 am:
=== have determined that wagering in Illinois on such sports poses a significant likelihood of serious risks to the integrity of the Illinois sports wagering industry===
Then we should probably be banning sports betting on any international contest where Russian athletes participate, including the Olympics given the blatant doping and cheating that occurs within Russian sponsored teams that appears to be centrally directed and orchestrated.
This was an integrity problem before Russia invaded Ukraine and if they’re taking this step for these reasons, well, they need to make the biggest step and refuse accept bets on any sport where a Russian athlete is set to participate.
- "A Horse is a Horse" - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:17 am:
Bears didn’t get enough from the Chargers in their trade of Khalil Mack.
- Downstate - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:20 am:
“Then we should probably be banning sports betting on any international contest…”
It becomes a very slippery slope. And, frankly, looks a little clownish.
Russian athletes and owners, and Putin himself, don’t benefit, in any way, from wagers made on the Illinois Sports Book.
So substantively, the pronouncement appears to be more attention seeking that impactful.
Just my opinion.
- Been There - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:22 am:
Ironically, when covid shut all sporting events, Out of curiosity I got on a sports betting site and the only 2 things you could bet on were a soccer game in Belarus and table tennis in Russia.
- JoanP - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:26 am:
Russian Tea Time is one of my favorite restaurants. They are lovely people. Their food is awesome, and it’s from all over the former USSR. (The chef-owner is actually Ukrainian.)
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:29 am:
===Bears didn’t get enough from the Chargers in their trade of Khalil Mack. ===
I just assumed someone had accidentally posted their April Fools Day story. I guess the joke is on us after all.
- OneMan - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:32 am:
When I went to the currency exchange to get a new license plate sticker I noticed the exchange rate list they had posted showed 0.000 and joked about it.
The clerk told me they are getting multiple calls and visits from people looking to buy all of their rubles as an investment.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:36 am:
“Bears didn’t get enough”
Depends on your perspective. If you have no intention of fielding a contender, merely soaking in the NFL money deluge, why not trade him for less.
Good grief, even the BENGALS are competitive.
- Dankakee - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:42 am:
===Out here in DC, I’ve got a couple friends that own a restaurant and bar named Russia House. It has been vandalized a couple of times since Russia invaded Ukraine. The two owners are a Latvian immigrant and an Irish-American Army vet.===
Not only that, but Russia house was founded by Soviet defectors and was the de facto Russia School in the Americas for years. Lots of good cold war history in those rooms.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:44 am:
“Bears didn’t get enough from the Chargers in their trade of Khalil Mack.”
And they gave up two first round picks to acquire him. So very Bears-like.
- ddp76 - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 9:46 am:
“Bears didn’t get enough from the Chargers in their trade of Khalil Mack.”
Clearing cap space to keep Roquan?
- Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:17 am:
=Clearing cap space to keep Roquan?=
They were already $26M under so they probably could’ve done Roquan’s deal and kept Mack. But Quinn’s cap number is way better, and if you’re deciding that you need to rebuild some (and lord knows they do), why not grab as much draft capital as you can?
I’m not sure they got all they could either, but other teams know who the Bears are right now (rebuild) and that it wouldn’t make sense for them to keep Mack thus decreasing his market value. Also, his cap number is huge and I think next year might be guaranteed too?
- Cheryl44 - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:20 am:
Joan, I love that place too. It’s so sad that people just randomly, foolishly pick on businesses without knowing anything beyond the name.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 10:49 am:
I love Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Kino (very underrated and beautiful punk band), and many, many other aspects of Russian culture and history. It is inappropriate and sad that people would vandalize anything Russian because of what is happening in Ukraine. I don’t know how anyone could divest from “anything related to Russia” in such a globalized world.
- Amalia - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 11:17 am:
The Kim Foxx editorial piece in the Sun Times is shocking.
- Leslie K - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 1:15 pm:
===I love Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Kino (very underrated and beautiful punk band)===
I love Kino as well [banned punctuation]. Also Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, but I’ve never heard anyone else mention Kino. A friend of mine studied in Moscow in the late 80s and brought me back a record. Hadn’t thought of them in years.
(Sorry–not Illinois-centric, but couldn’t resist commenting on the blast from the past.)
- DuPage - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 1:18 pm:
Please Rivian, say it ain’t so. Unless it is so, don’t commit perjury. You can’t intentionally give out inaccurate information to help an IPO. Allegedly, one of your top management team members said she pointed that out and was fired. Then Rivian made the conscious decision to mislead potential investors to influence their IPO stock price.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au-JLrv39AU
- Skeptic - Friday, Mar 11, 22 @ 3:02 pm:
“probably could’ve done Roquan’s deal and kept Mack.” I see it as an admission that there’s no way the Bears will be competitive before the end of Mack’s career, so why not send him somewhere he has a chance for the prize and get something in return?