Clearing Out The In-Box -- Stuff That Came In Overnight -- Palindromic Thursday -- 2-24-22

Updates

February 26, 2022: it appears that Phil Mickelson has lost every endorsement and the PGA appears to have severed all ties with him (although that's not yet explicit). Being reported just an hour ago, Phil Mickelson has lost all four major endorsements: KPMG (was the first and it was SWIFT); then in the order it was published: Amstel Light; Callaway Golf ("pausing its relationship"); Workday (won't renew its contract when it expires the end of March, 2022); and American Express. 

The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, California, reported The American Express no longer will have the Phil and Amy Mickelson Foundation as its main charitable arm, and that Mickelson no longer will be the tournament host.

The foundation had been the host since 2019. The PGA Tour said it would have no further comment except to confirm Mickelson is no longer involved.

Later, 2:39 p.m. CT: more on the Saudi Sand Golf Association. My thoughts on this "new" league and American golfers flocking to it falls into the same domain as other American athletes, born, raised, trained in America, and then joining a foreign country for the International Olympics. 

To some extent the Olympic issue is a bit different, maybe very different, because the number of opportunities to get to the Olympics is very, very limited. 

But for professional golfers to think about jumping ship to join a mideastern golfing association is beyond the pale. 

There is no history of golf in the mideast. The history of golf is Scottish, Irish, English, American (US) and there is no history of golf in the mideast. It's simply all about money. So incredibly crass. 

If one wants to get a history of "sports" in the mideast, one could make a case for horse-racing. Horse-racing certainly has its history in England and the US but at least the mideast has a bit of horse-racing history a lot longer than any golfing history. 

Maybe Phil, Dustin, et al, appreciated the sand traps the Saudis had to offer.

Original Post

California's diaspora: link here.

Joe Tzu: if you do not know what you're doing, neither does your enemy.

Giving up: watching the admin threaten to dump more SPR bbls now is like an old movie when someone runs out of bullets and just wildly throws his pistol ....

The PGA divide, link here, the Saudi Sand Golf Association --

• the high road, "no" to the Saudi Sand Golf Association: Rory, Justin, Collin, Jon, Tiger, Brooks
• haven't decided or late to decide: Bryson, Dustin, Phil, Lee, others
• special case: Bryson -- his commitment to the PGA is conditional and relativistic, no moral compass; it's hard to say that about a Texan; makes Phil look good (okay, "better," not good)

Later, Bryson pulls out (sort of), as does Dustin. Link here.

Top ten professional athletes in the world today (using the word "professional" loosely): link here.

• 1. Giannis Antetokounmpo 
• 2. Novak Djokovic
• 3. Aaron Rodgers 
• 4. Cooper Kupp 
• 5. Colby Covington 
• 6. Enes Freedom 
• 7. Blake Treinen 
• 8. Jonathan Isaac 
• 9. Bryson DeChambeau 
• 10. Tim Tebow
  

Moldova: world's largest ammunition dept? Needs to be fact-checked. Russia to take it? See wiki entry here.

Ukraine sanctions:

• EU, UK, and US will buy almost $1 billion worth of crude oil and natural gas from Russia every day for the foreseeable future. Link here.

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The Map Page 

Earlier I mentioned that it would be smart for millennial journalists to read and heed the writings of Vladimir Putin when it comes to Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. 

Following the Mongol invasion of Rus', much of Ukraine was controlled by Lithuania and after the Union of Lublin (1569) by Poland withi the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, illustrated here in 1619.