Roy Exum
I’m willing to bet a dime to your doughnut that the commissioner of Major League Baseball, the CEO of Coca-Cola, and the CEO of Delta Air Lines have never voted absentee. Two of these guys have voted the “American way” their whole lives while Coca-Cola’s James Caney is a British citizen so all he can do is make noise about NOB (none of his business, with an accent of a very American “business” which he just most excellently jeopardized.)
The perfect solution to our most recent parade of clowns is very simple. Eliminate mail-in ballots completely. We never had them before the last election, so we never had the headaches, the racial allegations – which are completely typical of the “woke” nonsense – and three of our country’s most dynamic businesses who just got hoodwinked into making half the country mad. The number one rule in business and in life is “Never let your money get mad.” If you dislike “Poppa Joe” then hurl an empty beer bottle in your garage but never speak of it openly ‘cause it never fails … your next customer will be a Biden. It hardly ever fails.
Let’s go to the root cause – voting by mail. There was a huge outcry this was a Democratic trick before it occurred. All we gotta’ do is rescind the hypocrisy. Eliminate the burr under the saddle. If people of color believe they are being mistreated, let’s move away from those with no color at all who now will increasingly cheat by envelope. Please, let’s embrace what we have from the year 1776 where a citizen walks up and in plain view of everybody, makes his mark for his favorite horse.
The only way you should be able to vote in America is to show up! You have about a three-week window to cast your vote. At anytime you can go to an official voting station, prove you-are-you with an accredited photo ID, sign your name lest another Horace from Hanover Street challenges your character, mark your ballot, and feed it into the counter gizmo yourself. If you are out of the country, on a military tour or otherwise entangled, we will work with you. If you are a bed-ridden invalid, the Election Commission in every county will send a certified agent to your location, affirm you photo ID, watch as you vote and also watch you sign your signature, at some point before election day. Cost? a lot less that the mail-in ruse, I promise you.
Those who claim it is an inconvenience appear to put up quite well with the other inconveniences like going to the post office, or the bank, the grocery store, the hospital to visit a loved one, to sing in the church choir, the whiskey store (show an ID) – and don’t forget two-for-the price-of-one between 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Friday afternoon at Freddie’s. (show your ID) Need to visit the doctor? Try it by envelope, or yearn for a house call … oh, it didn’t work? Tsk, tsk … please, and when you get to any doctor’s office? “May I see your ID?” Who is fooling who in this travesty? No, every American can find a way to overcome inconsistencies yet just 25 percent of those eligible actually vote … that’s what is inconsistent, Pilgrim.
A lot of people died for your right not to speak German or Japanese but it is also a premier privilege. If you can’t get off the sofa and exercise that right, that’s on you, pal. And any person who doesn’t exhibit the “want to” to vote, cheats the rest of us as much as they shame their selves.
Last week the baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred (who is paid $11 million in a year), violated a beautiful American trust – in my opinion – when he slurred the game by removing this year’s all-star game from Atlanta. He made the game, that forever has been an oasis from America’s chills to a soothing afternoon of bliss at the ol’ ball yard, embarrassingly “take sides.” Manfred, with no regard to a single fan, created a very needless division far greater than the National and American leagues.
Here is a man so out of touch with reality he doesn’t realize the damage the NFL endured with its kneeling athletes. He then watched the NBA bastardize itself with a devastating pledge to “Black Lives Matter” that shaved, I am told, a full 25 percent of income from the league. The NFL’s Roger Goodell takes home $40 million a year. The NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, is estimated to earn $1 million monthly for his leadership; Yo’, bragh … are we getting your money’s worth?
If Manfred dared to call Goodell or Silver he would have learned, explicitly – to avoid any and every social issue. Don’t give a soul a reason not to like you. Never let your money get mad. The Braves host the season opener against the Phillies at Truist Park this Friday at 7:20 p.m. with a large chance of rain. The cheapest seat ticket is $90 (each) and if you want a pair of chairs on diamond infield level, Sec. 131, Row 13, they are $306 … each. Two at the crème de la crème, I’m talking Dugout infield No. 38, eighth row from the actual playing field halfway between third and home, the pair will cost you $1,494 -- $747 each – for one game of major league baseball. And, again, rain is in the forecast.
I want somebody to ask Commissioner Rob Manfred how many baseball fans does he need to anger because “It’s the right to do?” and how many people of any color are going to flash their entire COVID relief check on just one game after pro baseball has told conservative America to take a flying leap? Trust me, Commissioner Rob is on borrowed time.
The chances are good Manfred may be in town. After all, he’s a member, along with the NFL’s Goodall, at Augusta National golf club where this weekend the Masters golf tournament will be in magnificent bloom with the azaleas and dogwoods. Augusta National’s membership list reads like a who’s who out of Forbes Magazine’s heavy millionaires’ list. Membership is so exclusive your best bet is that you ain’t gonna’ be. No underprivileged anything is to be found within 50 miles, trust me.
So, Florida Senator Marco Rubio wrote the hardball ‘commish’ a devilishly good letter on Monday …
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SENATOR RUBIO WRITES MLB COMM. ROB MANFRED
(NOTE: Florida Senator Marco Rubio wrote this letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred after the baseball CEO ripped this year’s All-Star game away from Atlanta in a hair-brained reaction to the State of Georgia’s updated Voting Laws … )
Dated April 5, 2021:
Dear Commissioner Manfred:
I write to ask you whether you intend to maintain your membership at Augusta National Golf Club. As you are well aware, the exclusive members-only club is located in the State of Georgia.
Last week, you “decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game” from Atlanta because of Georgia’s revised election law. It is a decision that will have a bigger impact on countless small and minority owned businesses in and around Atlanta, than the new election law ever will. And one that reeks of hypocrisy.
Will Major League Baseball now end its engagement with nations that do not hold elections at all like China and Cuba? Will you end your lucrative financial relationship with Tencent, a company with deep ties to the Communist Party and actively helps the Chinese Government hunt down and silence political dissidents?
Since Major League Baseball now appears eager to use its “platform” to demonstrate “unwavering support” for fundamental human rights, will you cease your relationship with the Chinese Government, which at this very moment is committing genocide against the Uyghurs Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)?
I am, of course, under no expectation any of this will happen. Taking the All-Star game out of Georgia is an easy way to signal virtues without significant financial fallout. But speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party would involve a significant loss of revenue and being closed out of a lucrative market.
In the end, as a citizen of a free nation you, and Major League Baseball, have the right to speak out against laws in the U.S. you disagree with, even if it is on the basis of false information. What would be truly bold, however, is if you would speak out on behalf of the voiceless who face arbitrary imprisonment, forced sterilization, coerced abortions, rape, and other horrific acts at the hands of one of your business partners.
I am under no illusion that Major League Baseball will sacrifice business revenue on behalf of its alleged corporate values. Similarly, I am under no illusion you intend to resign as a member from Augusta National Golf Club. To do so would require a personal sacrifice, as opposed to the woke corporate virtue signaling of moving the All Star Game from Atlanta.
Sincerely,
/s/ Marco Rubio -- U.S. Senator
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I DO NOT BELIEVE the absence of the All Star game will be crippling for Atlanta. There are 30 teams in the MLB and, every year, a full 29 of those clubs do not have the All Star game. Those 29 teams seem to get along just fine. Sure, the All-Star game would have brought some big bucks but Atlanta will survive without it. The big loser is Major League baseball in particular, and professional sports in general. They must appeal to the widest range of fans and to wistfully eliminate any on a CEO’s prejudice, is inane.
Face it, prejudice by three self-centered millionaires got us here. The way we get out is by canceling vote-by-mail.
royexum@aol.com