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Please feel free to read more of City coverage here.
Section One: The Legal Battle
Before there was the Isco Disco™, the seemingly perennial (and at times bi-annual) links to Real Madrid’s talented attacking midfielder – before there were transfer sagas that eventually resulted in the sale of high profile stars like Leroy Sané, or being spurned by the likes Dani Alves, Alexis Sánchez, or Jorginho – there were the links to Lionel Messi.
Dating back to 2011 when it was reported that City’s bosses had met with Lionel Messi’s entourage to ascertain the diminutive superstar’s intentions in light of news that Barcelona were trying to sign then-emerging Brazilian talent Neymar, rumors linking the Barcelona star to City have been injected into the news cycle like a steady drip from an IV. The links would continue over the decade, with City officials taking each chance they were given to impress the Argentinian, both on the pitch and off it.
Speculation that Messi could actually join City reached it’s zenith during the first half of 2016 when it was announced that his former Manager, Pep Guardiola, would be joining the Manchester club. That his arrival happened to coincide with Messi entering the final 12 months of his contract at the Camp Nou, speculation reached new levels. Though there were many who wondered aloud if circumstances may be ripe for a move, in the end no formal approach was made. City embarked on an expensive and extensive rebuilding project for their new star manager, one that was largely built on the backs of precocious young talents like Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne, and Gabriel Jesus, along with a cohort of tenured City stalwarts like Sergio Aguero, Fernandinho, Vincent Kompany, and David Silva.
With the 2016 summer window coming having come to a close with no formal approach having been made, Messi put pen to paper on a new four year extension with the only club he’s ever known. In doing so he set a new standard for himself financially, earning a compensation package that’s worth anywhere between €45m and €100m a year depending on which source you choose to trust. In turn the club gained the safety of an untouchable €700m release clause. Also inserted into that contract was a little thought of termination clause that would allow Messi to void the final year of his contract should he choose to do so. But it would be that clause, one few expected he would ever trigger after a lifetime at the club, in combination with the emergence of global health pandemic that would set the stage for one of the most stunning transfer sagas of the century.
If the journey to reach this day has been long, and the path winding, the process of actually signing Messi is likely to be even more complex. So while this will be a meandering article that will cover many topics – from contract law, to FIFA rules, to finance, it’s perhaps best to start at the beginning.
What About His Release Clause?
On August 25th a Burofax arrived at the offices of Barcelona Football Club containing official, legal notice of Messi’s intent to activate the termination clause in his contract and become a free agent. It’s this clause, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic upon that clause, that lie at the heart of all the difficulties that have followed.
Only a few people are privy to the exact terms of Messi’s contract, but it has been widely reported that his contract contained a termination clause that would allow him to void the final season of his deal as long as he provided notice of his intention to do so prior to June 10th. Under normal circumstances that date would’ve allowed him somewhere between two and four weeks from the completion of the season to serve notice that he would be leaving. However, due to league shut-downs brought about by the pandemic, Messi’s season didn’t end until August 14th, by which point his termination clause had long since expired. As a result Messi’s future has been left in limbo, with the outcome hinging upon complex and sometimes competing legalities, financial difficulties, and a healthy dose of hubris.
While the player’s camp will continue to try and make the argument that his clause should be honored due to extenuating circumstances, Barcelona is certainly under no obligation to do so and Joesp Bartomeu, President of Barcelona, is plainly in no mood to to do. He is in fact in no mood to allow Messi to leave under any circumstances other than the complete fulfillment of his €700m release clause.
Could City Trigger His Release Clause?
Though there were reports circulating that the €700m release clause built into Messi’s contract had somehow expired at the end of this season, those reports have been shown to be false. On it’s face, the reports made little sense, as all players in Spain are required to have a release clause, so the idea that he suddenly did not never didn’t add up.
The reports led to La Liga taking the highly unusual step of publicly and officially declaring that Messi is still very much bound to Barcelona, and that his release clause is still very much in force. Again, operating under the assumption that Messi does indeed have a release clause (as he is legally obligated to) and that La Liga hasn’t foolishly exposed themselves to a lawsuit for falsely disseminating details of his contract in an official and public capacity, that would mean that the one guaranteed way for City to move the transfer forward would be to pay his release clause.
For obvious reasons paying €700m for a transfer fee alone would be extremely challenging under the existing Financial Fair Play frameworks. While clubs have the ability to amortize the costs of a transfer fee over the duration of a player’s contract, that would still leave City on the hook for €140m a year in expenses over the next five years (should they sign Messi to a five year contract) for the fee alone, before accounting for any potential salary. The numbers only get more challenging if the contract is for the two years that’re being reported. In that case City would have an FFP hit of €350m per year for the next two years just for the transfer fee.
Assuming a salary in in the range of €60m per year, that would leave City shouldering a FFP hit of somewhere between €200m and €410m per year. The first number would be extraordinarily challenging, the latter, likely impossible.
Given the financial difficulties associated with triggering his release clause, and Barcelona’s – or at least Bartomeu’s – stance that they will not agree to sell Messi for a lesser fee, that leaves all parties looking at what would likely be a protracted legal battle.
Could Messi Secure His Exit Through The Courts?
That, in many ways, is the million dollar question. While Messi and his attorneys will argue that extenuating circumstances should allow him to have the June 10th deadline in his contract extended to reflect the date when the season actually ended, it’s hardly a certainty that the Spanish legal system will allow this.
Thanks to excellent reporting work done by a team of writers at The Athletic, including City correspondent Sam Lee amongst many others, we know that under Spanish law deference is always given to the specific date when a question of interpretation arises in contracts. Plainly, that means that Messi and his team would have an uphill battle on their hands to show that his option to terminate his contract should be honored more than two months after it actually expired.
The one saving grace they may have is if there was what is known as a ‘force-majeure’ subclause attached to his void-option. Force-majeure is a fairly common clause to see written into contracts that protects one or both parties from harm due to unforeseeable, and catastrophic events (the term literally means, ‘force of nature.)’ In the event that there is such a clause, it would give Messi’s legal team a fighting chance. They’d still need to successfully argue that the Coronavirus pandemic qualifies as such an unforeseeable and devastating act, and they may very well do so successfully, but it’s far from a sure thing. If there is no such clause, the odds of success are likely stacked firmly in Barcelona’s favor.
There is, of course, another problem with needing to go to the court: legal proceedings take time. Sometimes a lot of time. Even under a best-case scenario (from Messi’s perspective) it’s likely that any legal battle would last months, taking both the player and any interested parties well beyond the transfer deadline of October 5th.
If Messi Believes His Contract Is Void, Could He Just Sign For Whomever He Wants?
Let’s call this the, “going rogue” option. As I’ve discussed above, Messi is in a sub-optimal position from a legal perspective, but if he’s really of the opinion that his contract is indeed void, could he just sign for City – or whomever else he wanted to – anyway?
In short: yes, he could… But both Messi and the acquiring club would be subject to an Article 17 Breach, and Barcelona would then be in an extremely strong position to bring a lawsuit for breach of contract, holding Messi liable for (at least) the full amount of his €700m release clause, plus whatever material damages that Barcelona feels it might incur as a loss of his services. That amount could, at least theoretically, be even greater than the €700m from his release clause, depending on what types of de-escalation clauses are (or are not) tied to Barcelona’s various marketing contracts.
Unfortunately, In order to understand the second part of those potential liabilities we have to delve into the realm of hypotheticals.
For example: Barcelona is reported to receive somewhere between €140m and €155m a year from Nike as their primary kit sponsor. If there is a clause in that contact that would trigger a decrease in that payment should Messi leave (as is likely to be the case) to, say, €100m a year, Messi could be held legally liable for the €40m-€55m loss Barcelona were to incur.
Again, and I cannot stress this enough, that’s a hypothetical scenario, but it’s likely that Nike would demand language to that effect before signing the biggest kit contact in history. There may be no such clause, or it may be for a smaller – or larger – number. No one besides the interested parties knows.
Furthermore, should the loss of Messi lead to a devaluation of the club by the lenders currently financing the club’s debt of approximately €1.3b, that could trigger escalator clauses that could increase their interests rates on those loans. Again, the club would have a strong legal position to argue that Messi is liable for those increased expenses.
These may all be hypotheticals – we don’t know what clauses (if any) are attached to Barcelona’s sponsorship agreements, and if so, how much they would cost Barcelona should Messi leave during this window. But there are almost certainly a bevy of material damages Messi could be held liable for, and those – along with the €700m release clause – would constitute the better part of a billion Euros.
The odds that Messi is bold enough to throw caution to the wind to simply sign with whomever he wants without being absolutely certain that his contract with Barcelona either is, or will be voided would be suicidally foolish, and as such it’s highly unlikely to happen.
Additionally – as if there weren’t enough reasons to avoid going rouge – if Messi were to sign for another club without being absolutely certain his contract was indeed voided and FIFA were to review the case and side with Barcelona – which seems unlikely given their stated guidelines on contracts as it pertains to contracts and Covid-19 (more on this in a moment) – Barcelona or FIFA could file an Article 17 complaint.
Article 17 of FIFA’s Transfer Regulations states that in the event that a player unilaterally terminates his contract without just cause, the player is liable for all potential damages.
“In all cases, the party in breach shall pay compensation. Subject to the provisions of article 20 and Annexe 4 in relation to training compensation, and unless otherwise provided for in the contract, compensation for the breach shall be calculated with due consideration for the law of the country concerned, the specificity of sport, and any other objective criteria. These criteria shall include, in particular, the remuneration and other benefits due to the player under the existing contract and/or the new contract, the time remaining on the existing contract up to a maximum of five years, the fees and expenses paid or incurred by the former club (amortised over the term of the contract) and whether the contractual breach falls within a protected period.”
Additionally and specifically to address potential meddling by the acquiring club, it goes on to state in section two that no third party can pay the resulting damages (IE: a club can’t pay those damages for the player).
Additionally under section three the player would be subject to a ban from all competitions for a period of 4-6 months depending on the severity of the breach.
And of last, but of course not least, the acquiring club would be subject two a minimum two window transfer ban.
What About FIFA, Could They Intervene On Messi’s Behalf?
There is, at least in theory, some ground for thinking this may be a possible avenue for Messi to escape his contract, and it would involve invoking Article 14 of FIFA’s Transfer Regulations, which states,
“A contract may be terminated by either party without consequences of any kind (either payment of compensation or imposition of sporting sanctions) where there is just cause.“
Exactly what FIFA would accept as a just cause remains to be seen, as the wording of the clause is incredibly vague when compared to, say Article 15, which governs contract termination for sporting cause, and to my knowledge, there have been no attempt at invoking Article 14.
In Messi’s favor would be FIFA’s own declared stance that contracts should handled with the spirit of the contract in mind as they declared in their April 7th release to address the legal consequences of Covid-19. Of relevant note:
“If parties cannot agree and, as a consequence, cases come to FIFA, the factors to be examined will include the following:

whether there was a genuine attempt by the club to reach agreement with the players;
what the economic situation of the club is;
the proportionality of any adjustment to player contracts;
the net income position of players after any contract adjustment; and
whether players have been treated equally or not.”

Invoking Article 14 or appealing directly to FIFA are of course hardly grantees of success. In the case of Article 14 it will be difficult to define precisely what qualifies as ‘just cause.’ Messi clearly wants the spirit of his contract to be honored, but he has not been materially harmed in any way by the club, and as such, that argument may not be enough.
And though the FIFA guidelines with regards to player contracts exist, they are guidelines, not official policy, and have never been subject to any kind of legal test like the ones they would surely face at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who are the designated arbitrators for FIFA. Should FIFA agree with Messi that his contract is voided, Barcelona’s next step would be to file an immediate appeal to CAS and hope for an injunction.
As if all of that weren’t muddy enough, this is where things get really murky. Let’s say FIFA declares Messi’s contract void and he immediately signs with a new club, but upon review, the Court of Arbitration for Sport were to rule in favor of Barcelona – what then? Is Messi’s new contract voided? Are the new club and/or Messi liable for damages? Worse still – what if a Spanish civil court ruled Messi is in breach of contract regardless of what FIFA or CAS say?
This is, to say the least, extremely shaky legal ground that has no precedent to guide it, and both Messi and his new club would be taking an enormous financial risk even if FIFA were to back the player’s desired move.
Given the enormous financial risks involved, it’s unlikely that either the player or the acquiring club would have much of a stomach for this fight, even if the odds of success were somewhat better, especially if such resolution were to take another five to six months to achieve, during which time the player would be in limbo, and the club be deep into the most meaningful matches of their season.
What else is possible?
With Barcelona’s stance appearing to be fixed – no negotiations will be had – and all legal avenues either against the player or on unsteady legal footing, and with both sure to take many months to finalize, what other options does Messi have?
So far Messi and his camp are taking an approach that would be familiar to fans of the American NFL – he has refused to show up to mandatory team actives in violation of his contract – a holdout. In doing so he’s made himself subject to fines that could cost him his paychecks, but he’s also ratcheted up the pressure on Barcelona to find a solution.
If Messi’s stance is indeed to hold out – to refuse to play for the club without signing for someone else – he’s showing that he’s willing to stay at home for an entire year and in the process forfeit his pay. That, at least in theory, leaves the club in a bit of a bind. Assuming they don’t care about the optics of playing hardball with a club legend – and it certainly doesn’t appear Bartomeu cares much for what those around the club think of him – then the holdout does very little from a financial perspective. In fact, they can maintain all of their sponsorship agreements as they are, and the club won’t have to pay Messi a single Euro (at least in base salary, he’d still be due his image rights and other provisions). In doing so the club would likely save somewhere in the neighborhood of €45m/€60m – Messi’s exact salary is unknown.
Although we don’t know what stipulations are attached to Barcelona’s many sponsorship agreements as it pertains to Messi, it’s fair to say the club stands to lose a lot of money if Messi is sold or released before the start of the season. As a result it could be that Bartomeu’s refusal to sell Messi is borne less of any malignance toward the club legend than it is pure economics. In short, he may believe that between the money the club save in salary they aren’t paying Messi, in addition to the sponsorship revenue that they would be able to maintain – there is no financial agreement that could be made that would be of greater value than meeting his €700m release clause.
Or it could simply be that Joesp Bartomeu is an egomaniacal ass. There’s certainly some precedence for the belief, as the long – and ongoing – legal battles between Barcelona and former star Neymar clearly illustrate. The two parties have been engaged in near perpetuity from the moment the player left for PSG in a string of lawsuits, countersuits, and countersuits to countersuits; with the club accusing the player of being in breach of contract, while the player accuses the club of refusing to pay him wages he is owed for his time with the club. All of which was preceded by attempts by La Liga to intervene on the club’s behalf by initially refusing to accept his buyout clause, while lodging appeals with UEFA surrounding PSG’s adherence to Financial Fair Play.
The lesson: Barcelona under Bartomeu is not averse to engaging in long, protracted legal engagements against star players even when there is precious little to be gained by doing so.
So What’s Most Likely To Happen?
Regardless of whether Barcelona’s stance under Bartomeu is the result of financial imperative, ego, or a combination of both, it’s left no one with a clear path forward, and it may be that in the end the best option for everyone is for Messi to simply see out the final year of his contract, and sign a pre-contract with the club of his choice, free of any legal ramifications Barcelona could bring to bear, on January 1st.
As it stands today, September 2nd, Messi is less than four months away from such a situation. With nothing but a contentious legal minefield awaiting him – a field where there are no real winners, only those who lose less – perhaps it’s an opportunity for Messi to prove to the Barcelona faithful one last time that even in the face of the absurd stance of the club’s President, one man, despite being short of stature, can find yet another way to rise above the rest.
Section Two: The Finances
Determining what type of financial package an acquiring club would have to put together to make a Messi transfer a reality is a multi-part problem. The first requires determining what type of fee would be required to secure the players release from his current club, the second would be determining how large his wage packet would be.
In most cases these matters are relatively straight forward, but due to the legal uncertainty surrounding Messi’s contact status with Barcelona, and the enormity of his existing wages, the task of signing Messi is anything but routine.
In order to paint as thorough a picture as possible we’ll first explore the three primary scenarios in which Messi could sign for another club: by payment of his release clause; through a negotiated fee; or on a free transfer after securing his release, or in the winter window.
We’ll then look at ways that City may try to finance such a move.
Paying The Release Clause
The easiest way, and indeed perhaps the only way that Lionel Messi will be leaving Camp Nou during the summer window, will be for an interested club to take the audacious step of meeting his daunting €700m release clause. Doing so would require that club to find a way to finance a fee most triple that of any that’s ever been paid. To say the least, there are very few clubs in the world who could dream of financing such an outlay, but Manchester City may be one of the few who could.
In City’s favor will be the fact that they have a large amount of liquid assets at their disposal after the sale of 10% of the Club to Silver Lake Capital for $500m (£389m/€423m) in November of 2019. It is possible that the club could utilize the capital raised in that sale to fund – at least in part – his release clause. What would be more difficult, would be funding the remaining €275m. Seeking to sell more shares of the club is likely out of the question – such ventures take at a minimum many months to complete, and City have just over a month to raise the necessary capital. That would likely mean taking out a loan.
If we assume that City can raise the funds, and/or have the willingness to do so, the next question is how can they account for that expense under the constraints of Financial Fair Play?
Working in that club’s favor will be what’s called amortization. Though we briefly touched on the concept earlier, let’s do it slightly more justice now. Amortization at it’s most basic is the process of spreading a payment out of a longer period of time.
What may be confusing to some in this instance is that the actual payment itself would not be able to be spread out – if someone want’s to trigger Messi’s release clause they will need to find a way to furnish the entire €700m in one go. Instead what this is referring to, as we touched on earlier in the article, is how the payment is accounted for.
As a result of this allowance, a player’s transfer fee, at least for the purposes of compliance with Financial Fair Play, is usually not accounted for as a single lump sum, but rather is apportioned out across the length of the players contract. Still, no matter the accounting methods used, the acquiring club would be looking at a substantial FFP hit.
Reportedly Messi is only interested in a two-year contract, if so, that would leave the acquiring club in a highly untenable position, as that would mean taking an FFP hit of €350m per year on the transfer fee alone before accounting for any salary he would be owed. If we assumed a fairly conservative wage packet of €50m/yr for the Argentinian superstar that would mean the acquiring club would be taking on an eye-watering €400m FFP hit for each of the next two seasons. To give that number some context, Manchester City’s entire player expense sheet for the 2019/2020 season was roughly €450m. Even if Messi were to accept a longer five year contract, the Financial Fair Play hit would be €190m per season.
However, as a result of the Silver Lake sale, and the capital it raised, City aren’t necessarily priced out of this move. If the contract is only for two years, they can use that cash influx in any three-year Financial Fair Play accounting period. Th Silver Lake capital alone wouldn’t cover the expense of Messi, but it would take them more than half way home, and that combined with the sale of someone like Riyad Mahrez or Gabriel Jesus – two players who’s minutes would be directly impacted by Messi’s arrival – would get them closer.
The club could then do what Juventus did in renegotiating their sponsorship with Jeep after their acquisition of Christiano Ronaldo. Though City have only recently locked in their new apparel deal with Puma, their long standing – and much maligned – sponsorship with agreement with Etihad is due to expire at the end of the 2021 season. City could, at least in theory, use the acquisition of Messi as justification for renegotiating that contract at a significantly higher value – just as Juventus has.
Further, they could get creative with their wage packet. The could offer Messi a token salary, along with full image rights, and competition bonuses – all things we would normally receive – but make the bold move of offering him an ownership stake in City Financial Group. Given the firm valuation £3.89b that was imparted upon them with the Silver Lake acquisition, a 4% share of CFG would be worth roughly £155m. That would be strong compensation for two years service.
In that scenario, City may, just barely, be able to ride a combination of a fortuitously timed capital injection, player sales, a cleverly designed wage packet and renegotiated contracts, over the FFP finish line. Still, it would take every resource at City’s disposal to cover that release clause and even then, it may not be enough without the sale of another significant player or two.
Let’s call this scenario highly unlikely.
Paying A Negotiated Fee
In most cases, including that of Christian Ronaldo at rival Real Madrid, losing a long-tenured star player is a painful process, but one that both club and player work to make as amicable as possible. Doing so protects both the players image amongst supporters, and the clubs image to those who may with to join in the future. It’s never been a necessity, clubs have always been free to refuse to sell, and players have alway been free to hold out to try and force a move away – but football has an unspoken gentleman’s agreement that when a painful situation arises, it will be handled with class and dignity.
Josep Bartomeu does not appear to be a man who cares for the rules of convention. Whether it was with his aforementioned treatment of Neymar, or as it would appear to be in this instance – when Bartomeu has decided a player will not be allowed to leave, he would appear to mean that quite literally.
Though many may view that behavior as petulant or egotistical (and it may well be), there is a another far more likely culprit driving his decision making: financial imperative.
Though Barcelona are an incredibly wealthy and successful club, they are also a club carrying a significant debt load (almost €1.3b), and one that would appear to have been particularly hard-hit by the impacts of Covid-19, with the President himself taking the unusual step of declaring, “since March 14, we have barely receieved nearly €1. We have lost €200 million in revenues. 200! We have recovered some money by reducing wages and with the ERTE. We had to close the shops and the museum and there were no ticket sales. We also gave money back to season ticket holders for the games that were not played.”
While the motivations of that kind of statement should be questioned – heads of major companies are loathe to publicly declare loses as it negatively impacts their leverage at the negotiating table – there’s no doubt that the pandemic will have hurt the club.
On it’s face then it would appear that agreeing a fee for Messi would be a logical move to counteract that financial pain. After all, they could secure a significant fee, whilst ridding themselves of his onerous wage bill.
There are, however, hidden landmines that may be lurking in the field should the club allow Messi his leave. The first and most obvious is that there are likely de-escalator clauses in many of Barcelona’s sponsorship agreements. Just as Juventus was able to renegotiate their primary kit sponsorship with Jeep, it’s likely that there are clauses which would see Barcelona’s major sponsorships cut dramatically in the event Messi leaves.
Perhaps worse still a decline in the valuation of the club – such as the one Real Madrid saw when Ronaldo left – would have more than a paper impact on Barcelona. That’s because when a club takes out a significant loan, such as the €800m loan it’s said to have taken out this past year for renovations of Camp Nou – they’re using the value of the club as collateral against that loan. A significant change in valuation, such as the one that would happen as a result of the loss of Messi, would likely impact the interest rates Goldman Sachs charges.
At the end of that Bartomeu is a businessman. Though he may not be the most pleasant man when he doesn’t get his way, it’s more likely that he has simply looked at the bigger financial picture and come to the conclusion that there genuinely is no fee of less than €700m that would offset the loses he feels the club would incur should Messi be sold this summer.
Logically speaking, if that weren’t the case, there’d be no obvious reason for his refusal to even accept the possibility of negotiating his stars release. He surely understands that Messi could leave the club on a free in ten months time – and sign a pre-contract in less than four – and has decided that despite this, it still makes more sense to refuse to allow the player to leave.
Perhaps it’s merely hubris, or arrogance, or petulance that’s led him to this position, but it’s unlikely that he’s reached this point in his career – as the head of the highest grossing sports franchise on Earth – by being that emotional. Whatever personality traits Bartomeu may possess, he’s a prudent man, and his stance is likely borne of that same view.
Waiting Till The Winter Window
If we operate under the assumption that financing the acquisition of Messi by triggering his release clause is either impossible, or implausible enough to treat as such; and that Barcelona will remain steadfast in their refusal to sell – as they very much appear to be – then that leaves Messi but one way out: on a free at the expiry of his contract.
If Messi is forced to stay at Barcelona, he can use it as one last opportunity to further cement his already indelible legacy with the Barcelona fanbase: a player who acted with class and dignity in the face of an ignominious club President. In the process he can use that time to solicit the very best offers from clubs around the world, maximizing the value of whatever contract he signs next.
Messi’s decision to leave the only club he’s every know has always appeared to be a hasty one; driven as much by a realization that Barcelona would be unlikely to deliver his dream of one last Champions League win given their current aging roster, as it was the sting of their humbling at the hands of an ascendant Bayern Munich side.
However, if Messi’s desire to leave had been driven in part by those factors leading up to his announcement, he now likely has a greater one: a disdain for Bartomeu. Though the President’s tenure is up for vote in March, he’s likely to retain his position, and it’s hard to envisage a scenario where Messi agrees to sign a new contract under his tenure, as all faith in his, or the Club’s willingness to honor the spirit of those contracts is now likely decimated.
It will also give Manchester City, and any other clubs that care to make a run at his signature, time to formulate concrete plans for how they’ll fund such an acquisition.
In the meantime, all anyone can do is wait. Perhaps Bartomeu will have a change of heart, or perhaps the approach of the deadline and the threat of losing Messi on a free will compel him into last minute negotiations. Perhaps the player will initiate a lengthy, costly, and uncertain legal battle either though the Spanish courts or through UEFA to try and secure his release during the winter window. But as of this moment, all signs point to Messi playing out the final season of his contract with Barcelona, perhaps reluctantly, before making a decision that will inexorably alter not only his life, but a significant portion of the European football landscape.

Covid-19 update Wednesday 6th May

*tap tap…\* Is this thing on?
Good afternoon from the UK. It’s Wednesday 6th May. Sorry about yesterday; my company is coming into peak and I’m having to be creative with my supply chain to avoid the extremely high airfreight prices that I’m being quoted; it ended up being a 18 hour day yesterday.

In case you didn’t yet get the memo that a brutal recession is under way (many say it will be the worst in decades), here’s a canary in the coal mine example; rents are starting to drop sharply in Australian cities with some parts of Sydney seeing drops of as much as 15% (link). The same thing is happening in US cities says the USA Today, London is also getting affected says the Telegraph.
Professional sport leagues are getting affected too. An article I found in The Guardian says that the English Football League, the Rugby Football Union and the England and Wales Cricket Board are looking at a combined loss of £700m next year ($865m US / €801m). At the other end of the scale, six unnamed British Olympic and Paralympic sport teams are facing a threat to their solvency within the next three months because they are unable to host events and membership fees and sponsorship have dried up. The chairman of the English Football League, Rick Parry, painted a similarly bleak picture when he spoke to MPs, telling them the 71 lower league clubs were facing a £200m black hole by September. Parry said it was impossible to predict how many clubs could go under but was adamant English football would have to undergo huge changes, including a salary cap for players, to sustain itself in the years ahead. “In the Championship wages are 106% of turnover,” he said. “That is ridiculous and it is definitely not sustainable now or in the future. One benefit of going through this pain is that we will be shocked into a more sustainable model.” ESPN has picked up the theme from an American perspective; it says that the sudden disappearance of sports will erase at least $12 billion in revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs, an economic catastrophe that will more than double if the college football and NFL schedules are wiped out this fall by the coronavirus pandemic, an analysis conducted for ESPN shows. The meltdown is a fraction of the crisis spreading across the country, but it is nonetheless historic, touching every sector of the $100 billion United States sports industry, it says.

Virus Statistics

I’m no longer going to publish virus statistics from Johns Hopkins because the amazing efforts of rkuzsma and TeMPOraL_PL mean it’s fully automated (woohoo!). Get your own daily virus statistics (you can set cut offs as you see fit) here.

Supply chain news in depth

Seven US states have teamed up to buy $5B of medical equipment to fight coronavirus - Multiple sources including supplychaindive.com are reporting that tensions have swirled between President Donald Trump and embattled states that have called on the federal government to take the lead with the national COVID-19 response. The states have asked the administration to centralize procurement through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and get it to take ownership of sourcing and distribution. Trump has instead “taken a backseat approach”, says supplychaindive, putting the onus on states as governors report losing equipment negotiations to FEMA which can pay higher prices. Add in competition from private companies as well and some equipment is soaring in value (for example the price tag of a single ventilator has snowballed from $12,000 to $65,000, according to the comptroller of Illinois). The result: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are aiming to use their combined purchasing power to drive down prices for the in-demand supplies for their combined 53.6 million residents. The group will also coordinate planning on gradually lifting social distancing requirements as the number of confirmed U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus passed 67,000 on Sunday.
(Cont’d) The new regional supply chain is an attempt to tamp down on those skyrocketing prices as demand is unlikely to let up anytime soon, with some public health experts forecasting a return of the coronavirus in the fall. "When you put all those hospitals together, all that public health capacity together — which will make us more competitive in the international marketplace — I believe it will save taxpayers money," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a press conference Sunday. "I also believe it will help us actually get the equipment because we have trouble still getting the equipment and just buying the equipment because these vendors on the other side they're are dealing with countries, they're dealing with the federal government —why should they do business with one state when they can do business with an entire country?" The partnership will be especially beneficial to the smaller states involved in the partnership, but all of the states involved should benefit from the increased purchasing power. "We're much stronger together, I wouldn't mind having some of that New York purchasing power, thanks for sharing that with Connecticut going forward,"Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said during the press conference. In a related move, New York state is now requiring hospitals ot have a 90-day supply of PPE and other key medical supplies at a "rate of use during the worst of this crisis" to ensure enough masks and equipment in event of a resurgence, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

The coffee supply chain industry is getting affected by Covid-19 too - Perfectdailygrind.com has an article here explaining that with a lot of people on lockdown, many coffee shops, restaurants and other coffee dispensing locations are closed which in turn means that the roasters supplying them are having to significantly slow down their buying. Karl Wienhold, Director of the Colombian Farmers’ Collective and Exporter Cedro Alto, reveals that some roasters don’t want to be stuck with stale stock if sales are down; if they over-purchase coffee now, it could result in them getting stuck with old crops - it can be hard to sell green coffee that’s been in storage even for only 4-5 months. It means that many are reducing purchase commitments to decrease their risk and plan to buy more should they need it later. The problem is rolling back up the supply chain; if the roasters reduce their purchasing activity the importers who’d usually supply these roasters could be stuck with stock they can’t sell so they in turn will reduce purchasing. This will put their coffee exporters under financial pressure, as importers and roasters will be reducing or delaying their purchasing commitments or purchasing and reserving less coffee altogether. For smaller exporters, this can be a huge blow. Without prompt payments and adequate cash flow, financing even one container can be too expensive, regardless of whether they’re exporting to an importer or roaster. When exporters can’t purchase their usual amounts of coffee or are left in a financial lurch, the producers they work with will be affected. If many producers can’t sell their crops to those who’d usually buy them, they’ll no longer have a market for their coffee.
(Cont’d) Many producers and traders are dealing with their coffees being stuck at the country’s port, unable to move due to closed borders and other restrictions being imposed regarding trade between countries. Additional delays could lead to the coffee ageing, and as Rafael mentions, if a ship or container is detained at port, it will incur penalties, with the incoterms determining who’s responsible for paying these penalties. Green coffee importer Ally Coffee’s COO Ricardo Pereira revealed that they’re currently focusing on helping producers who have coffee that’s processed, dry milled, and ready to be shipped get their coffee out of origin as soon as possible. It’s something that all parties involved need to consider, as it will impact exporters, importers, shipping companies, and those who work on these ships. Rafael mentions that “Both importers and exporters have to do their due diligence and investigate… route options for their containers. Shipping companies have to be a lot more careful about their workers; there are several ships that have been detained due to the crew testing positive for the virus.”
(Cont’d) Some producers are finding that they aren’t able to sell their coffee, as their usual buyers are delaying payments or cancelling commitments. Daniel explains that this could mean that “the farmer will have to sell their coffee to a co-operative for a lower market price. The reduction in demand that is expected for the second and third quarters will also have an effect on the quantity of coffee being purchased at specialty coffee prices.”
According to Karl Wienhold, Director of the Colombian Farmers’ Collective and Exporter Cedro Alto, some micro lot quality coffee might need to be sold at regional prices if there’s no demand for it, and that the premiums usually paid for high-end specialty coffee could suffer. This may mean lower prices and less demand for natural and honey processed coffees as well as low-yielding varieties. A struggle to sell these lots while they’re fresh and worthy of a price premium might result in lower prices later on – when and if the coffee gets sold. Another side effect of roasters reducing their costs is that some might cut back on their social responsibility and sustainability projects involving producers and their farms. With no clear end in sight for COVID-19, this could only resume next year.
It’s a lengthy article and also touches on foreign exchange rate exposure risks, difficulty in crossing borders for migrant workers, that some coffee farms may be forced into taking on very expensive loans and it discusses payments being delayed resulting in cash flow issues for the recipient. The producers and pickers are taking the worst of it right now, says the article, but everyone needs to play their part in helping the coffee supply chain come out of this with as little damage as possible.

Supply chain news in brief

Cummins struggles with supply chain visibility - Supplychaindive has an article on the difficulties the engine and power generation manufacturer has faced during the pandemic outbreak. Its CEO Tom Linebarger clarified that it had its Chinese factories back up and running in full by the end of Q1 (which I think was no mean feat) but details are hard to come by on what suppliers are shutting down, why suppliers are shutting down and what suppliers are doing to keep their workers safe during a pandemic. "We have a broad and big supply base and we don't know all the things about it I wish I knew," Cummins COO Tony Satterthwaite said. Cummins has been able to find alternative suppliers and sources, which it has been doing since production in China shut down at the end of January, Satterthwaite said, adding that he's been told multiple times "we're a week out from running out [of inventory] and then all of a sudden a week later, we found some way to fix the problem." (Personally I think that’s a startling admission of failure and yet another reminder of why you should map your supply chain - not just your tier one providers but tier two and preferably tier three suppliers too. They clearly need to invest more in their supply chain capabilities and get a better grip on the risk exposure they face and consider what steps to mitigate it. This company is admitting its flying by the seat of its pants on a wing and a prayer though this crisis and I’d love to know how much extra it’s having to spend to keep its supply chains up and running...)

Xi fears Japan-led manufacturing exodus from China - The Nikkei Asian review has an interesting article on Chinese fears that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has proposed building an economy that is less dependent on one country, China, so that the nation can better avoid supply chain disruptions. That’s worried China; Japan is their third largest customer after the US and Hong Kong. Of particular concern is the recent financial stimulus announced by Prime Minister Abe on April 7th to incentivise companies to relocate out of China - the equivalent of $2.2bn USD. They don’t even have to relocate back home to Japan; Abe’s happy for them to spread out around ASEAN countries (link to what ASEAN is for the unfamiliar). For Abe, simply having a China + 1 approach isn’t good enough any more but the issue for China is that Trump also wants countries to pull out of China, preferably to the US, failing that to a friendly nation (reports Reuters). If the U.S. and Japan, the world's biggest and third-biggest economies respectively, move away from China, it will have a huge impact on the world's second-biggest economy.

Long Island’s NewsDay magazine has a report that illegal drug prices have soared in New York and Long Island due to supply chain disruptions having impacts on illegal manufacturing too. Marijuana has doubled from $800 to $1,600 from March 2019 to March 2020 per pound, the price of cocaine has gone from a low of $28,000 a kilogram to as much as $34,000, heroin has risen from approximately $50,000 to $56,000 per kilogram; and the price of methamphetamine has gone from $12,000 to $15,000 per kilogram. Those figures are from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which according to Newsday has a long-held policy of making street buys to monitor illegal drug prices.

A program created by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has airlifted millions of gloves, masks and other coveted coronavirus supplies into the U.S. from overseas -- but it isn’t clear who’s getting them and at what price, or how much private-sector partners are earning through the arrangement says Bloomberg. Kushner’s “Project Airbridge” provides transportation via FedEx Corp. and others for supplies that medical distributors, including McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., buy from overseas manufacturers, mainly in China. Once a supplier’s goods arrive in the U.S., the companies must sell half the order in government-designated hotspots. They sell the rest as they see fit. The U.S. government provides the air transportation for free, to speed the arrival of the products. The six distributors keep the profits, if any. FEMA says the effort has slashed shipping time to two days, from the 30 to 40 days that a conventional sea shipment would normally take (that’s because air freight is faster than sea freight). The White House declined to provide any information on prices charged by the distributors, nor did it offer any accounting of the products brought into the U.S. or their final destination -- even for the half of the products designated for areas the government considers hotspots.

What’s the next thing likely to be running out of stock? Yahoo Finance has the answers. It reckons laptops, medical products (e.g. gloves), pharmaceutical products (e.g. meds), iPhones, toilet paper (not convinced by that one), LCD TV’s, garlic (most of the global production is in China), vapes, while toys likely to be harder to buy come the Christmas holiday season (for example baby yodas). The article also clarifies that disinfectant, virtual reality headsets, video consoles, thermometers, hand sanitiser and freezers are hard to come by too.

John Deere (maker of agricultural machinery) has announced it will temporarily suspend production at its Davenport Works and Dubuque Works facilities for two weeks. The temporary suspension, which will begin May 11, is due to supply chain disruptions and weakened demand for construction and forestry equipment amid the coronavirus pandemic. Production is expected to resume May 26. “Temporary production shutdowns such as this occur regularly on an annual basis at our facilities,” says Jen Hartmann, director, strategic public relations at Deere & Company. “This is a common measure to adjust for supply and demand adjustments as referenced above.” Earlier this week, 159 employees at the Dubuque Works facility were informed they would be laid off indefinitely beginning June 1. These layoffs are in addition to the 105 employees who were notified in February they would be laid off effective April 6, which has since been moved to May 4. Source: agriculture.com

If you’re struggling to keep track of all the food production plants shut down in the US, fooddive has a solution for you here. Also, some supermarket chains in the US have begun to start to ration meat sales (link).

Talking of food, remember the potato mountain problems that the Dutch, Belgians, Canadians have - all those potatoes and no restaurants open that can fry them? Add the American farmers to that list, reports the LA Times; they’ve got 453 thousand tonnes (you read that right, 453,000 tonnes). The coronavirus pandemic has left Washington’s farmers with at least a billion pounds of potatoes they can’t sell, a new crop growing without any buyers and millions of dollars in debt they have no way to pay. The state’s fertile Columbia Basin produces nearly a quarter of the potatoes grown in the United States, 10 billion pounds in 2019. The vast majority — 90% — were turned into frozen French fries and shipped to restaurants, some in the United States but mostly to Asia. “We’re afraid there’s still going to be potatoes in storage when we go to dig up this year’s crop in September,” (farmer) Wollman said. “These are good potatoes. We don’t want to throw them away. It’s just, what do you do with them?” As it turns out, getting rid of a billion pounds of spuds isn’t easy — or cheap. It usually takes Washington farmers a year to sell that quantity to grocery stores. “Now we’re trying to move it in a couple months,” Chris Voigt, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission said. That means each of the 2 million citizens expected to use the state’s food banks this year would have to take 500 pounds. And moving all those potatoes would require filling at least 20,000 tractor-trailers — and paying for fuel.

(Cont’d) The Washington potato farmers hope the U.S. Department of Agriculture will step in and buy their billion-pound glut, then donate the potatoes to food banks or even cattle ranchers as supplemental livestock feed. Local congresswoman Kim Schrier (Democrat) said she couldn’t answer whether that was likely. “I think we have to expand that question to whether the USDA will buy up all the tomatoes or apples or carrots farmers can’t sell around the country, because they’re all hurting,” she said. “Just in Washington state, we grow other things too, like apples and cherries. We’re afraid a third of our farms could go out of business. It’s a heartbreaking situation.“ The article goes into detail about a 33 year old farmer who is about to default on a $500,000 loan through no fault of his own and is at risk of losing his family farm and also discusses decisions that some farmers are making to try and reduce the size of the financial calamity facing them.

Emirates has launched 4 flights a week to New Zealand to aid airfreight export volumes in a deal with the New Zealand government (source). Air New Zealand has also struck a deal with the government to carry cargo (source).

Talking of air cargo, Forbes has done a lengthy piece on it. China Southern’s freighters are flying 15.5 hours a day, a rate enviable even for passenger aircraft. Freighters at Air China, China Airlines and Korean Air have also surpassed their annual record. Airlines with cargo aircraft have a rare source of revenue and cash flow as passenger flights dwindle and refunds outstrip new bookings. Air cargo sustained some Asian airlines during SARS, and may do so again during this coronavirus downturn. Forbes explains that belly cargo (carried in the bottom of passenger airlines) makes up at least half of the world’s air cargo. Korean Air carries over 60% of its cargo in the bellies of passenger flights, while for Singapore Airlines it is 75%. Stopping passenger flights during the coronavirus outbreak has removed this cargo capacity. China alone has lost the equivalent of 50 daily 747 flights. The utilization gains airlines are achieving this month add up. The extra 45 minutes of flying for a China Southern freighter theoretically allows the airline another Guangzhou-Frankfurt roundtrip every 2.5 days. With its improvements, Korean Air can fly an extra Seoul-Singapore roundtrip every day. Air China can make 12 Shanghai-Los Angeles returns in a month with its same fleet.

Emirates SkyCargo operated a Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft on 23 April 2020 from Mumbai loaded with just over 66 tonnes of cargo in the lower deck of the aircraft - that’s a new world record record for maximum cargo loaded in the lower deck of a Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft. The cargo carried was a mix of general cargo, perishables and sanitisers. The cargo was loaded on 12 pallets and six containers (source).

Good news section

Here’s a wholesome article that popped up over the weekend on The Hustle about a man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship. Scroll down past the dreadful animated picture at the top of the article and give it a read.

Donations

Several asked if they can send me $/£/€ via Patreon (in some cases because I've saved them time or money, others for no reason at all). I don't need the cash (that's lovely though) but as you may have read above, food bank charities are getting really hit hard with all this panic buying. Please consider giving whatever you'd have given me to a foodbank charity instead:
UK: https://www.trusselltrust.org/
France: https://www.banquealimentaire.org/
Germany: https://www.tafel.de/
Netherlands: https://www.voedselbankennederland.nl/steun-ons/steun-voedselbank-donatie/
Italy: https://www.bancoalimentare.it/it/node/1
Spain: https://www.fesbal.org/
Australia: https://www.foodbank.org.au/
Canada: https://www.foodbankscanada.ca/
USA: https://www.feedingamerica.org/
Thanks in advance for any donations you give. If there's foodbank charities in your country and it's not listed above, please suggest it and I will include it going forward.

PSA / FYI: For any customers who order food via delivery - thru Postmates, GrubHub, or DoorDash.

Edit 01/20/20: Long story short all these companies are shady AF. Deal with them as you would with a guy selling watches on the pedestrian overpass - you may or may not get what you wanted, but it's gonna be a hassle if you end up wanting your money back.
Edit 09/09/19: New pay model is in effect for LV. Rolling out incrementally across the country by 09/30. You can now safely tip in-app knowing that the tip goes 100% to the driver, & not to DD's coffers. You can also choose not to tip or to tip in cash, but that probably isn't the best strategy, b/c driver offer screens look like this now when you zero the tip out. Doubtful to get your food on time, if at all. But at least for customers the tipping shenanigans for DD are over, so much of what is written here can be disregarded as outdated reference.
Edit 07/26/19: DD recently announced they will be changing their pay model. No details given & status quo for now, but best guess is by Week 1 NFL they will have changed things (read: pay cut), & my advice about DD will become outdated. Will update accordingly for anyone keeping tabs. Lastly, don't believe a word Tony Xu says. He's a liar & a fatmouth & would steal your socks if you weren't looking. Scroll the comments to his tweet for verification.
TLDR: Okay this this going to be super long, but it is meant as a comprehensive expository regarding what you as a customer are paying for, & the root motivation behind it is that locals are being deceived, & to an extent, stolen from.
Source: Full-time driver for the past 15 months.
Disclaimer: Depending on your reaction, this may benefit me financially. I invite you to cross-check my claims with other drivers, driver subs, google, other references, etc.
First of all, I need to thank you as customers. I have my gripes with the platforms, but you customers have enabled me to pay off quite a few bills. In 15 months I've taken 11 days off, usually clocking 10-12 hr days, racking up around 75,000 miles & putting a proper beating on more than one vehicle. So I do feel like I've earned it - but much moreso than to the restaurants or the platforms, I owe a debt of gratitude to you.
The most beneficial info here will be to DoorDash customers - but the only way I can really explain what's going on there is to break down the other platforms first, so bear with me.
Postmates. PM works most similarly to how you would tip a server at a restaurant - you order your food, & then post-delivery, you rate & tip accordingly, based on the service. Late food / poor service, & you have every right to withhold your tip. Good communication / prompt delivery, & do what you feel is right.
However, keep in mind regarding PM - they hire anybody/everybody. All bets are off on arrival time, if your driver is on a moped with a milkcrate, if he ate half your food, or if he robs you at gunpoint. Don't mean to exaggerate here; they have good drivers too, but like I said - no bets.
GrubHub. Probably the most reliable to receive your order correct & on time (if you tip). The reason for this is b/c you have to set your tip when you order, so the offer screen sent to the driver shows the total payout, including your tip. Thus, the driver knows up front exactly what they'll be paid, & is properly motivated to get it delivered quickly & move on to the next delivery.
The flip side to the GH coin, when you don't tip (or zero it out to say 'cash tip'), is that the offer screen shows the total payout as low as $2-$3. Most drivers will reject that offer, & your no-tip order may sit in the queue for an hour or more before GH can find a driver to accept it. That driver is also likely to be less than enthusiastic.
[Please note that while you might tip in cash every time, 99/100 customers don't. So drivers never rely on cash tips, & regularly reject lowball offers.]
Just to recap; on PM with no tip I get shit, & they don't show if you tipped or how much until the next day. So I'm very wary of accepting PM offers b/c I don't want to get stiffed. On GH, I see the total payout including your tip before I accept the delivery, so naturally I reject the no-tip/low-tip offers, & cherry-pick the big ones.
Which brings me to DoorDash. Finally. The point of the damn post, & where you as a customer might be throwing money away.
DD plays the middle for the driver & says, "Hey, with DD you'll never get stiffed, b/c our minimum payout is $7.00." So even when the customer tips $0, the driver still gets $7, as opposed to $2 on GH or PM. Sounds great, right? Except that money has to come from somewhere, & FYI, locals - it's coming out of your pocket.
Grab your shovel & dig this: - If you tip $0, DD pays me $7. - If you tip $3, DD pays me $4, I still get $7. - If you tip $5, DD pays me $2, I still get $7. - If you tip $8, DD pays me $1, I get $9.
In essence, DD uses your tip to subsidize driver pay. When you tip any amount $6.00 or less, the driver doesn't get a penny more than if you had tipped nothing. When you tip $6.01 or more, that means DD only has to pay the driver $1.00. The vast majority of my DD deliveries include a $1-$5 in-app tip. I receive absolutely none of that. In-app tips do not really go to the driver - you are only paying DD a higher fee for your order.
Solution: if you use DD, zero out the in-app tip, then tip your driver in cash upon delivery, assuming it's on time & correct. Totally understandable if you prefer to not use cash, but in that case I suggest using other platforms b/c DD is just playing verbiage games. "100% of tips go to the driver" - technically true, but I think you see what's going on here.
[That last part applies to DD only; if you tip in the app on PM or GH, the driver gets it with no shenanigans.]
Again, I apologize for post length, but this is about your money, so please help spread the word. With your friends & neighbors, on FB, etc. Not looking for any credit & it wouldn't make sense to link to this long ass post, but here is a pic you can download & share, taken from this driver activist site. (Note that the minimum payout is different for every market - in Vegas it's $7, but I have seen other cities where it's lower than $5.)
I really just want to effectively convey the message that Vegas locals who use this service are spending more than they have to, & are being deceived about the tips they give.
And to hell with all that.
.
Edit: Formatting, clarification, additional points.
Example of DD payout screen after delivery.
An interesting Forbes article about how Instacart recently reversed a similar pay model under pressure, but DD & Amazon refused.
A petition page where Tech workers have been boycotting working for DD b/c of this pay model.

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Apr. 12, 1999

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUS YEARS ARCHIVE: 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998


1-4-1999	1-11-1999	1-18-1999	1-25-1999
2-1-1999	2-8-1999	2-15-1999	2-22-1999
3-1-1999	3-8-1999	3-15-1999	3-22-1999
3-29-1999	4-5-1999

Davey Boy Smith was hospitalized in Calgary with some sort of spinal infection and is in really bad shape. He's been in crippling pain for weeks with back pain as well as abdominal pains and had dropped around 40 pounds. Tests determined it wasn't cancer and doctors were stumped. Finally, he went to a doctor again last week when his daughter noticed a large lump on his back. Doctors determined it was a bone infection spreading through his body. He was given aggressive antibiotics but that didn't work so now he's hospitalized. Doctors think it's a staph infection on his spine and shouldn't be life threatening, but he'll be hospitalized for a long time and it's unknown if he'll ever be able to wrestle again. Smith described the pain as having a knife in his back 24 hours a day and the pain has gotten worse since he was in the hospital and he could be there for months. He's still under contract to WCW but hasn't been used in several months after injuring his back on the trap door built under the ring that was used for Ultimate Warrior's entrances back in the fall, which is likely where all this stems from.
A Japanese women's wrestler named Emiko Kado was also seriously injured in a match after taking a bump wrong over a week ago and has been in a coma ever since. Dave has very few details on this one, other than she was a rookie and had only worked a handful of matches. Dave says a lot of people have compared this to the 1997 death of Plum Mariko in a match in Japan (yup, Kado eventually dies from her injuries. Later found to be a "sprained acute membrane in her brain").
Wrestlemania 15 numbers are coming in and early estimates are that it did around 830,000 PPV buys, which will make it the biggest money PPV in wrestling history. WWF will bring in more than $12 million just from the buys alone. The New York Daily News reported that WWF had tried to get both Howard Stern and Monica Lewinsky to appear, but they both turned down 7-figure offers. Lewinsky apparently turned it down immediately, while Stern negotiated for several weeks before deciding against it. He talks about how WWF has proclaimed it to be the best WM ever but Dave naturally disagrees and says WM 10 still holds that honor. But he does give his personal picks for the top 10 WM matches ever and he puts Austin/Rock from WM15 at the #10 spot. Just in case you're wondering the rest:

Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match (WM X)

Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (WM XIII)

Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart (WM X)

Ricky Steamboat vs. Savage (WM III)

Warrior vs. Savage (WM VII)

Hart vs. Michaels (WM XII)

British Bulldogs vs. Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake (WM II)

Ric Flair vs. Savage (WM VIII)

Hogan vs. Warrior (WM VI)

Rock vs. Austin (WM XV)

AJPW is expected to officially announce their 2nd ever Tokyo Dome show for next month. Dave breaks down the matches and says that the show will also have an official ceremony honoring Giant Baba, which will also feature legends such The Destroyer, Gene Kiniski, and Bruno Sammartino appearing, all of whom are well-respected legends in Japan and will likely never appear in a ring there again, so it'll be a big deal. AJPW also wanted to bring in the Road Warriors, Steve Williams, and Steve Austin for the show but Dave doubts it'll happen. WWF has big house shows booked that weekend and Austin especially would cost AJPW a fortune to get. And since the show will likely sell out the Dome regardless, Dave doesn't see the point in spending a ton of money to bring him in. No word on Road Warriors or Williams (they do get them, but not Austin).
Wrestling, especially the WWF, is dominating the home video market in the "Sports" listing according to Billboard. Of the top 20 selling sports videos this week, 19 out of 20 of them are wrestling related (mostly WWF). The only thing keeping it from being a full 20-for-20 is the tape of Super Bowl 33 which charted at #9 this week.
The subject of backyard wrestling seems to be the new hot topic everyone is concerned about now. There have been several news stories about it recently and ABC's 20/20 is doing a piece on it this week, featuring interviews with Vince McMahon and Mick Foley, who Dave calls "the crown prince and ultimate hero and god to every teenager who wants to bash a light bulb into their head and fall on thumbtacks." Dave isn't sure that this is worthy of being a big story. Obviously the idea of teenagers doing dangerous moves, blading, falling in barbed wire, etc. is bad. But it's not like there has been a huge epidemic of hospitals reporting wrestling injuries. Dave isn't sure that this whole backyard wrestling phenomenon is common enough to warrant all these breathlessly panicked news stories. Dave talks about how he used to play tackle football in the street with no pads when he was a kid and basically sums it up as, hey, kids do stupid shit and sometimes they get hurt. But unless we start seeing evidence of backyard wrestling causing more injuries than football or skateboarding, Dave doesn't think this is really a story.
Raw won the ratings battle again this week but the gap wasn't as wide as usual, and WCW was even a little competitive for 2 segments. But overall, it didn't make a difference. One of the biggest mistakes WCW has made lately is not taking advantage of their first hour. Nitro is a 3 hour show and that first hour has no competition from Raw. If they were smart, they would use that hour to build the hell out of the rest of the show and do everything they can to keep viewers. Instead, week after week, they just throw out curtain jerking jobbers out there to have boring matches and do nothing to take advantage of the hour lead time they have. So now, even without competition, Nitro's first hour ratings are starting to plummet because the show just sucks. They've managed to kill the one hour of Nitro that should be the most successful.
Brian Pillman's former wife Melanie has apparently been studying the effects of Human Growth Hormone and is convinced that is what killed him, which is why she talked about it on the ESPN show last week. Pillman reportedly was using so much HGH for more than a year but quit cold turkey shortly before his death, largely because he couldn't afford it (Pillman and his wife were having financial troubles and HGH is prohibitively expensive). She believes his quitting led to an enlarging of the heart, which killed him. Dave goes into the science behind some of this stuff but basically says we'll probably never know for sure what the exact cause was, and it likely was a combination of many things.
The newly revived Stampede Wrestling, led by Bruce and Ross Hart, ran their first major show this week. Most of the wrestlers weren't anyone of name value. Stu Hart was there, moving around very slowly, but got a huge reaction from the crowd of about 1,800 fans.
Mr. Fuji filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against Nintendo and THQ over the WCW vs. NWO video game. There's a character in the game named Master Fuji that he feels is based on him. Mr. Fuji was at times called Master Fuji when he was in the WWF.
Jake Roberts was arrested in Athens, GA for being $21,000 behind on child support payments.
In news that was destined to happen, Sid Vicious no-showed ECW's Cyberslam PPV and now appears to be done with the company. He missed his first flight, so they booked him a 2nd flight. He called and got that 2nd flight upgraded to first class....and then missed that flight also. Paul Heyman says he talked to Sid the next day and Sid evidently told him that he no-showed in order to get Heyman's attention because he wants creative control. In response, Heyman told him to go get fucked and said that Sid won't be brought back to ECW unless he posts an appearance bond, which he would forfeit in the event he no-shows. So Sid's done in ECW (nah, he comes back a couple more times).
In-ring wise, ECW is now poised to put on the best PPV shows in the U.S. Dave mentions that WWF doesn't have the depth as far as talented in-ring guys goes. WCW has plenty of in-ring talent, but none of them are ever pushed. Meanwhile, ECW has quietly been rebuilding their undercard with guys like Jerry Lynn, Super Crazy, Taka Michinoku, and others. The base of ECW is now built on strong in-ring performers and unlike WCW, Heyman is at least making a clear attempt to push these guys to help them get over.
New Jack's trial in the Mass Transit incident has been postponed until May.
ECW has a lot of potential deals in the works to try to bring in money. There's been discussions with TNN about ECW getting the Friday night time slot that RollerJam currently has. The first season of RollerJam just ended and was a ratings flop and it's unknown if the show will even get a 2nd season. They're also still working on a video game deal, negotiating with 2 companies: Take Two Interactive and Acclaim (they end up going with Acclaim and, in fact, Acclaim ends up buying a 10% ownership stake in ECW, but we'll get there). Heyman has also had meetings with WWF about some licensing ventures. All of this is basically an attempt to bring in much-needed cash for ECW. They recently got that big loan and that has smoothed things over for now, but it's not a permanent fix.
Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch made their return to ECW at the most recent Arena show. Candido had noticeably lost weight but looked good. Sytch looked better than she did a few months ago, but still looked like she's been through hell. For now, they're not really being written into any storylines, but if they can stay clean, Heyman plans to ease them back into the mix.
WCW will be getting a visual overhaul this week. New logo, new set design for Nitro and Thunder, and other little visual changes. Given the state of WCW right now, Dave says that's like putting a fresh coat of paint on a house that was just hit by a tornado. Speaking of, apparently the new stage set isn't the safest and all the wrestlers backstage were making bets on who would be the first to trip over it while making their entrance.
Scott Hall is scheduled to be out for the next couple of months and when he comes back, he will be working a 5-nights-per-month schedule (Nitros and PPVs only). Obviously, a lot of people in the locker room aren't going to be happy, since Hall is making a guaranteed 7-figures per year, while guys who go on the road, work all the house shows, all the Nitros, Thunders, and PPVs aren't even making a fraction of that. It's basically the same deal that Hulk Hogan has. And while Hall is undoubtedly a big star, he's not Hogan. But Dave says once they opened the door a crack and gave Sting a similar deal to Hogan, it led to the inevitability of other top stars angling for the same deal. Basically, WCW is going to end up where all the top stars only work TV and PPV and it's going to kill house show business. But then again, Dave says that Hall has been such a disaster in the last year or so that this is probably the only way they'd be able to use him effectively anyway.
Bret Hart had surgery to repair a groin tear and will be out for about 6-8 weeks. After they did the angle on Nitro with him quitting, they didn't mention Bret at all on TV this week (since doing so would give away that it's an angle and, for whatever reason, Bischoff is still intent on trying to work everybody with these "shoot" storylines). Of course, if they never mention Bret's name during the next 2 months, everyone is just going to forget about it. "But WCW would rather try and fool people and not get something over than emphasize something other than Hogan's program and get anyone else over," Dave says.
Chris Jericho's sidekick Ralphus is done on TV and believe it or not, word is the reason they got rid of him is because he was getting too big of an ego (yeah I think Jericho has confirmed this).
Random notes from the latest Thunder tapings: during the NWO battle royal, "The crowd went dead, like they had each individually had their hands covered in Novocaine." Describing the whole show, Dave says, "This was basically everyone just goofing off because nobody cares." At one point Norman Smiley did his big wiggle dance and the camera cut away to a crowd shot so as not to show it. Just overall a total shit show.
No word on Kevin Sullivan's scary collapse backstage last week, but he was perfectly fine the next day. And I think that's the last we hear about it. Seems like that'd be a bigger deal but whatever.
Chris Benoit was on a radio show in Toronto and had some interesting stuff to say. When a caller asked if there was a conspiracy to destroy WCW from within, Benoit said, "It appears that way." Benoit also said that when he signed a new contract last year, he had vowed never to complain about WCW again, but then said Bischoff hadn't delivered on promises that were made so...he's back to complaining again. He said he's still wrestling for the money and that in 3 years, he'll be 34 years old, be a free agent, and will have a lot of money in the bank. So at this point, he's basically just going through the motions and collecting a check. Amazing that WCW, at least temporarily, managed to kill Chris Benoit's passion for wrestling. His entire identity—prior to, ya know—was that he was borderline obsessive about pro wrestling. And WCW made him not care. During the show, Benoit also complained that Kevin Nash only pushes his friends.
Several Canadian indie wrestlers had tryouts with WCW before Nitro last week (Mike McFly, Greg Pawluk, Eric Freeze, Todd Douglas, Gary Williams, Peter Smith and Scott D'Amore).
MMA fighter Tank Abbott has signed a WCW contract and will probably end up working with Goldberg at some point. Dave says he always knew Abbott would end up in pro wrestling, given his charisma, but Dave is "betting strongly" against this working out.
WCW execs were so upset with how the company (and Bischoff especially) were portrayed in the ESPN show last week that they have cancelled all planned media pieces. No more media outlets allowed to film backstage and Bischoff cancelled an interview on TSN's Off The Record, saying he wasn't doing anymore interviews due to the ESPN show, which he apparently feels misrepresented him.
Chad Brock, a former WCW jobber, has a country song out called "Ordinary Life" that is #7 on the country music charts. Enjoy. I didn't.

WATCH: Chad Brock - "Ordinary Life"

Kevin Nash reportedly told Vampiro that he's being taken off Nitro and Thunder and won't be on TV at all. There was a lot of heat on Vampiro after a recent match with Juventud Guerrera, with everyone feeling like Vampiro was careless and didn't protect Guerrera in the match.
Fitness model Trish Stratus, who has reportedly been trying to get into the WWF, was backstage at WCW Nitro when they were in Toronto recently, looking to get hired there also. I'm befuddled that Trish had such a hard time finding a job in wrestling in 1999.
WCW ordered a ton of new business cards, stationary, etc. that features the new logo. Except they goofed and the address on all of it lists their headquarters as "Altanta." Ha! Calssic WCW.
Time Magazine is doing another one of those Man of the Century online polls and Ric Flair is in 2nd place (behind Jesus Christ). More than 20 million people have voted, making it the biggest web pole in internet history and Flair has over 310,000 votes. But the editor of Time.com has said that Flair will be removed from the poll because his ranking is due to "unfair lobbying from wrestling websites." The whole thing led to Time posting this notice on the poll: "Whimsical candidates and others who do not fall within the spirit of the title will not be counted." Word is they are planning to remove Jesus from the poll also, although they're hesitant because of the flak they know they're going to catch from religious nutcases and wrestling freaks whenever they remove the top 2 gods from the list. Funny enough, if you remove Jesus and Flair, that would bump 3rd place up to #1. Who's currently in 3rd place, you ask? A former painter named Adolf Hitler.
Mick Foley's knees are in bad shape and he needs to take time off to get them worked on, but with this month's Backlash PPV being built around him so much (he's on the poster and commercials), he felt now wasn't the time to take time off so he's planning to work through it.
WWF will be running a special on UPN later this month that will somewhat act as a pilot for their planned women's show. It won't be all women though, since they need to draw a big audience, so expect a couple of the male stars. But it will be primarily focused on the women. If the show is a success, the plan is to run a new 1 hour show on UPN starting probably in August, that will air in the middle of the week, probably on Wed. or Thurs. (needless to say, the idea behind this show changes somewhat).
A biography about Mick Foley is being written by ghostwriter Lou Sahadi (turns out Foley wasn't happy with Sahadi's version of the book and decided to write it all himself and the rest is history).
Shawn Stasiak will be starting with WWF in about 6 weeks. He's currently undergoing a hair transplant before he starts. Matt Bloom, who has been working in Memphis as Baldo, will be starting around the same time. The original plan was to book him as George Steele's son but that idea seems to have been dropped.
Bart Gunn suffered a concussion in his knockout loss to Butterbean at Wrestlemania and was still disoriented even the next day. All told, the Brawl For All concept has been considered a flop. Savio Vega suffered a neck injury he still hasn't recovered from. Steve Williams was brought in to be a top guy and ended up getting injured and humiliated by Gunn, which not only killed his planned push but has pretty much wrecked his entire aura as a tough guy which his whole career was built on. And Bart Gunn, who WWF officials apparently thought had a legit shot against Butterbean, got murdered on live PPV and they haven't mentioned the match on TV since. So really, nothing was gained in the end.
Steve Austin and D-Lo Brown are in a 1-800-COLLECT commercial that started airing this week.

WATCH: Steve Austin/D-Lo Brown 1-800-COLLECT commercial

Steven Regal has been released by WWF. He's been in drug rehab for the past few months and was only 3 weeks away from completing it. Since he was almost done with treatment, he was allowed to leave rehab and go home for a weekend and, well...it went poorly. Apparently that was the last straw for WWF and they fired him.
Shawn Michaels' promo that he cut at Wrestlemania was apparently not what it was supposed to be. Dave's not sure how it was supposed to be different, but apparently Shawn went off-script somehow and it led to a lot of heat on him about it, which is why he wasn't on TV the next night. Speaking of Michaels, he just got married last week in Las Vegas to Whisper of the Nitro Girls. The two have only known each other for a few weeks (and now they're coming up on their 20 year anniversary together).
Forbes Magazine had a really interesting article about how pro wrestlers have basically no leverage when it comes to their paychecks. The story noted that on average, wrestlers only get about 15% of the revenue that the business generates and compared it to the NBA, who's athletes get 48%. Dave has talked about this in the past actually, when people would write in and say that WCW wrestlers were overpaid and Dave would respond saying that, given the money WCW brings in, the wrestlers are actually underpaid. He's compared it to different sports and it's the same across the board. Players in MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, etc....all of them are paid a much higher percentage of the revenue than either WWF or WCW wrestlers are (this is still true to this day). Point being, wrestlers BADLY need to unionize. Anyway, in the Forbes article, they talked to Ken Patera who was a major star in the 70s and 80s. Patera said that at his peak, he earned $140,000 per year but after expenses (mostly travel and hotels and whatnot), he only netted about $42,000 in his best year.
Random Dave thoughts: he says Stephanie McMahon has been very good in her limited role on TV lately. He also thinks X-Pac is the best in-ring worker in WWF right now.
The plan was to do an Austin vs. Rock rematch at Summerslam, but instead, they're going to rush it and do it at this month's PPV. The reason is that they realize they can't keep Rock a heel for much longer (he's just too popular) so they need to do the rematch now.
On the WWF website, Vince McMahon once again called Phil Mushnick a liar and a gutless coward for not appearing on the Fox News show to debate him face-to-face. Conveniently, they left out all the other details about Vince backing down from debating him over the phone, or how Mushnick was never actually scheduled to appear in person in the first place or any of the, ya know, real facts.
Someone writes in to ask Dave if he was paid for being a UFC judge at their PPV awhile back and says that if he was, it would compromise his ability to cover the promotion fairly and he should disclose it. Dave responds and said he was not paid to be a judge and he agrees that it would have compromised his ability to cover them fairly and says that if he had been offered money to be a judge, he would have turned it down for that very reason.

WEDNESDAY: WCW fires Davey Boy Smith while he's hospitalized, WCW Spring Stampede fallout, wrestling mainstream media coverage, NJPW Tokyo Dome show, and more...

Week 48; Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.

The humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico worsened with the inadequate response by the federal government. Amid criticism, Trump threatened to pull out, but later backed off. Although the death count officially stands at 45, reporting revealed possibly hundreds more preventable deaths related to the Hurricane Maria.
Trump remains silent on both California’s deadliest wildfires and the deadliest combat incident since he took office. He continues to focus on undoing Obama’s legacy, piece-by-piece. The Mueller investigation hit Trump’s inner-circle, and social media’s role in aiding Russia continues to unfold.

On Saturday night, Richard Spencer led another white supremacist torch-lit rally at University of Virginia. The rally lasted 10 minutes and 40-50 people attended. Spencer vowed, “we will keep coming back.”
On Sunday, Trump attacked former ally Sen. Bob Corker in a series of incendiary tweets, saying “Corker “begged” me to endorse him for re-election” and “wanted to be Secretary of State.” Trump claimed to have said no to both.
Corker responded, tweeting it’s a shame the WH has become an “adult day care center,” and that someone “missed their shift this morning.”
On Sunday, Pence left a Colts game after a protest during the national anthem. Pence later issued a full statement opposing the protests. The Colts were playing the 49ers, a team known to protest.
Before the game, Pence tweeted a photo of him and the Second Lady wearing Colts gear. The photo was one he originally tweeted in 2014.
Shortly after, Trump tweeted he had asked Pence to leave the game “if any players kneeled,” and said he was proud of Pence and the Second Lady.
The pool of journalists covering Pence were not allowed into the stadium, and were told, “there may be an early departure from the game.” ABC estimated Pence’s flight cost taxpayers nearly $250k.
Bowing to pressure from Trump, the Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, after kneeling with players in week 3 of the season, changed course saying any player who “disrespects the flag” by kneeling will not be allowed to play.
On Tuesday, Trump threatened the NFL over protests saying the league is “getting massive tax breaks” and the law should be changed. This claim is false: the NFL gave up its 501(c)(6) tax-exempt status in 2015.
On Tuesday, bowing to pressure from Trump and fans, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who previously had said players had the right to voice their opinions, sided with owners opposed to letting players demonstrate.
On Monday, Pence headlined a fundraiser in CA for Republicans including controversial, Kremlin-ally Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. Rohrabacher had a previously undisclosed meeting in Russia with Veselnitskaya described in Week 47.
University of Wisconsin approved a policy which calls for suspending or expelling students who disrupt campus speeches and presentations. The policy mirrors Republican legislation passed by the state Assembly.
On Columbus Day, unlike Obama, Trump celebrated the “arrival of Europeans,” but did not mention of the suffering of Native Americans.
On Sunday, the Trump’s DHS allowed the Jones Act waiver, which helped speed relief to Puerto Rico, to expire. No explanation was given.
Trump’s EPA announced it would repeal the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The statement described the regulation as the “so-called Clean Power Plan.”
On Friday, Trump addressed the Value Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council, which has been classified by SPLC as an anti-gay hate group. Trump is the first US leader to address the group.
Reuters reported the Trump regime has been quietly cutting support for halfway houses for federal prisoners, severing contracts with as many as 16 facilities, necessitating some inmates stay behind bars longer.
ABC reported the Treasury Dept’s inspector general is looking into allegations reported by BuzzFeed in Week 47 that agency officials have been illegally looking at private financial records of US citizens.
A report compiled by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) at House and Senate Democrats’ request, found the Trump transition team ignored ethics officials and refused to cooperate with the GAO.
Trump named Kathleen Hartnett White to the WH’s Council on Environmental Quality. Hartnett White, a climate science denier, once also said, “fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery.”
In response to a filing by CREW, Trump’s DOJ told a court in DC that Trump can destroy records without judicial review, including tweets.
Brian Brooks became the second candidate under consideration for deputy Treasury Secretary to withdraw from consideration. Mnuchin said he has no plans to fill the number two slot in his agency.
WAPO reported at the Interior Dept, when Zinke enters the building a staffer takes the elevator to the seventh floor, climbs the stairs to the roof and puts up a special flag. The flag comes down when he leaves.
On Wednesday, NBC reported Tillerson calling Trump a “moron” was provoked by Trump suggesting a tenfold increase in the US nuclear arsenal during a July 20 meeting with the high-ranking national security leaders.
In response to the story which he called “Fake News,” Trump tweeted a threat to revoke the broadcasting licenses of “NBC and the Networks.”
Later that afternoon, at a news conference, Trump again lashed out at the independent news media saying it’s “frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write.”
In a statement Wednesday night, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse asked Trump if he was “recanting” his oath to protect the First Amendment.
Indiana Republican lawmaker Jim Lucas drafted a bill that would require professional journalists to be licensed by state police.
Under pressure to confirm Trump’s judicial nominees, McConnell will no longer allow “blue slips,” used by senators to deny a nominee from their state a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and vote on confirmation.
The Trump regime withdrew from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), citing anti-Israel bias and a being in arrears on a $550 million payment. Israel remains part of UNESCO.
NYT published an interview with Corker in which he said Trump is treating his office like a “reality show” with reckless threats at other country that could put our country “on the path to World War III.”
Corker said he is concerned about Trump, and Trump’s behavior should concern “anyone who cares about our nation.” He added there is no ‘good cop, bad cop’ underway with Tillerson — Trump is undermining diplomacy.
Corker said nearly all Senate Republican share his concerns: “the vast majority of our caucus understands what we’re dealing with here.”
WAPO reported Trump is frustrated by his cabinet and that he is not getting enough credit for his handling of three hurricanes. Trump is lashing out and rupturing alliances with both Republicans and Democrats.
One confidant said Trump is like a whistling teapot, saying when he does not blow off steam, he can turn into a pressure cooker and explode: “I think we are in pressure cooker territory.”
Politico quoted 10 sources current and former WH aides who employed strategies like delays and distractions as “guardrails” in trying to manage Trump’s impulsivity.
Vanity Fair reported sources say Trump is “unstable,” “losing a step,” and “unraveling.” They say the WH is in crisis as advisers struggle to contain Trump who is increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods.
Trump allegedly told his former bodyguard Schiller, “I hate everyone in the White House!” Kelly is allegedly miserable in the job, and is staying on in a sense of duty and to keep Trump from making disastrous decisions.
One former official speculated Kelly and Mattis have discussed what they would do if Trump ordered a nuclear strike — “would they tackle him?”
According to sources, Bannon said the risk to Trump’s presidency wasn’t impeachment, but the 25th Amendment. Bannon thinks Trump has only a 30% chance of making it the full term.
In a column “What Bob Corker Sees in Trump,” conservative columnist Peggy Noonan urged Republicans they have a duty to speak on the record about what they see happening with Trump.
On Thursday, at a signing ceremony for his health care executive order, Trump nearly walked out of the room without signing the order. Pence pulled him back in.
On Tuesday, Trump said in an interview with Forbes that he could beat Tillerson in an IQ test. Trump met with Tillerson later that day at the WH.
On Friday, Corker called out Trump for his effort to disempower Tillerson saying: “You cannot publicly castrate your own secretary of state without giving yourself that binary choice.”
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria said, “It’s very clear now that we essentially have no diplomacy going on in the United States,” adding the way Trump has treated Tillerson is “the most dramatic example of it.”
On CBS’s 60 Minutes, Parscale claimed he fine-tuned ads on Facebook to directly reach voters with the exact messages they cared most about. He also claimed he handpicked Republican Facebook employees to help.
Daily Beast reported the Kremlin recruited two black video bloggers, Williams and Kalvin Johnson, to produce incendiary YouTube videos calling Hillary a racist. The videos were spread on social media platforms.
WAPO reported Google has uncovered evidence about $100k of ads purchased by Russian agents to spread disinformation on across the company’s many products, including YouTube, during the 2016 election.
Google said the ads do not appear to be from the same Kremlin-linked troll farm that bought ads on Facebook. Some ads touted Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein, while others aimed to fan the flames of divisive issues.
Rep. Devin Nunes, who recused himself as Chair of the House Intel Committee’s Russia probe, unilaterally signed off on subpoenas to Fusion GPS, the research firm that produced the Steele dossier. Democrats were not consulted.
Reuters reported Chuck Grassley, the Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is also taking steps to discredit the dossier according to Democrats on the committee.
Carter Page told the Senate Intel Committee that he will not cooperate with any requests to appear before the panel on Russia, and will plead the Fifth.
Daily Beast reported the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is looking at Cambridge Analytica’s work from the Trump campaign as part of its Russian probe.
Cambridge Analytica, which has ownership ties to the Mercers and Bannon, was brought in to help the campaign by Kushner. The company is also under investigation in the UK watchdog for its role in Brexit.
NYT reported Israel caught Kaspersky Lab working with the Russian government to search the world for US secrets, using Kaspersky software to scan for classified words. Kaspersky software is used by 400 million people.
WSJ reported that Russia’s use of the Kaspersky program to spy on the US is broader and more pervasive than the operation against one individual in Week 47. Trump continues to deny Russian meddling in the US election.
Politico reported as part their posture to cooperate, Trump’s attorneys may offer Mueller a meeting with Trump. If Mueller doesn’t ask by Thanksgiving, attorneys may force the issue by volunteering his time.
Legal experts were surprised by Trump’s lawyers strategy noting Trump would be speaking under oath and he routinely distorts facts, and that Trump would be interviewed in connection with a criminal investigation.
CNN reported Russian operatives used YouTube, Tumblr, and even Pokémon Go as part of their effort to interfere in the election, using a campaign titled “Don’t Shoot Us” to spread a divisive message.
NBC reported Manafort had a previously undisclosed $26 million loan from Deripaska through a series of transactions. It is unclear if the $26 million is a loan or an indirect payment from the Russian oligarch.
The loan brings the total financial relationship between Manafort and Deripaska to $60 million over the past decade, according to financial documents filed in Cyprus and the Cayman Islands.
Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, initially responded to NBC with a statement including: “Mr. Manafort is not indebted to former clients today, nor was he at the time he began working for the Trump campaign.”
Maloni’s statement was later revised and that sentence was removed. Both Manafort and Maloni have received subpoenas to supply documents and testimony in the Mueller probe.
Yahoo reported Andrew Feinberg, former correspondent for Sputnik, provided a guide and emails to FBI investigators looking into possible violations of the law which requires agents of foreign nations to register with the DOJ.
Further, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is investigating RT and Sputnik as possible parts of the Russian state-run propaganda machine in the broader probe into Russia’s election meddling.
On Friday, Mueller’s team interviewed Trump’s former chief of staff, Priebus. Priebus’ lawyer said he voluntarily met with investigators and “was happy to answer all of their questions.”
Priebus was present during Trump’s efforts to limit the Russia probe, and for discussions that led to the firing of Comey. He was also asked to leave the Oval Office before the infamous Trump-Comey conversation.
Politico reported Twitter deleted tweets and other user data of potentially irreplaceable value to investigators in the Russia probe.
Federal investigators believe Twitter was one of Russia’s most potent weapons. Bots and fake accounts launched recurring waves of pro-Trump, anti-Clinton story lines that were either false or greatly exaggerated.
AP reported Twitter has turned over 201 accounts linked to Russian attempts at influencing the 2016 election to Senate investigators. It is unclear if the posts associated with these accounts have been deleted.
CNN reported an attorney for Roger Stone said he has complied with the House Intel Committee request to provide the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks’ Assange.
WSJ reported Congressional investigators are homing in on connections between the Trump campaign, and Facebook, and Twitter. Digital director Parscale was paid $88 million during the campaign, the highest paid vendor.
Every vendor that worked with Parscale on the Trump campaign signed a nondisclosure agreement, and there are no federal disclosure requirements for online ads.
Both Congress and Mueller are investigating the role activity on Facebook and Twitter played in the 2016 election, and whether the Russian social-media activity was in any connected to the Trump campaign.
A Morning Consult poll found Trump’s approval has fallen in every state since he took office. The swings were as high as 30 percentage points in blue-states IL and CA, to 11 points in red-state LA.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found Trump’s popularity is eroding in small towns and rural communities: in September 47 approve/47 disapprove, down from 55/39 in his first four weeks in office.
WAPO reported as of October 10, Trump’s first 263 days in office, he has made 1,318 false or misleading claims.
The Brookings Institute released a 108-page report which concluded Trump “likely obstructed justice” in his firing of Comey. If Mueller agrees, there are legitimate articles of impeachment that could be drawn up.
In a letter to Mattis, over 100 Democrats are demanding proof that Trump did indeed consult with the Pentagon as he claimed in a tweet, prior to announcing his ban of transgender individuals from military service.
A Kaiser Foundation poll found 62% of Americans say Puerto Ricans aren’t getting the help they need. 76% were aware Puerto Ricans are US citizens.
On Thursday, in a series of tweets, Trump threatened to abandon Puerto Rico’s recovery effort, blaming the island for its infrastructure problems and saying and relief workers would not stay “in P.R. forever.”
The tweets follow harsh criticism from Puerto Rico of the Trump regime’s response to Hurricane Maria. One Puerto Rican said, “He doesn’t think of us as Americans.”
Trump also quoted a Sharyl Attkisson, a television journalist with Sinclair Broadcasting, in saying that while Puerto Rico survived Hurricane Maria, now “a financial crisis looms largely of their own making.”
Later Thursday, the WH issued a statement committing “the full force of the U.S. government” for now, but adding “successful recoveries do not last forever.”
At a House Energy and Commerce hearing about efforts to rebuild the island’s energy grid, Sec. Rick Perry referred to Puerto Rico as a country.
Next day, Trump referred to the Virgin Islands’ governor as a president.
VOX reported although the official death count in Puerto Rico is 45, they found 81 death linked to Hurricane Maria, as well as 450 more reported deaths, most of causes still unknown, and 69 still missing.
Puerto Rico’s governor said four deaths are being investigated as cases of leptospirosis, a disease spread by animals’ urine through contaminated water. A total of ten people have come down with the disease.
Rachel Maddow reported a doctor resigned from the disaster response team in Puerto Rico after seeing medical workers getting manicures and pedicures from residents of the island in medical triage tents.
NYT reported on Puerto Rico’s health care is in dire condition, and continues to suffer from mismanagement. The US Comfort ship with 800 medical personnel which can serve 250, has seen 82 patients in six days.
CNN reported Puerto Ricans are drinking water from a hazardous-waste site, having no other options for water.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll found just 32% of registered voters think the federal government has done enough to help Puerto Rico.
Bloomberg revealed one of its reporters was inadvertently put on the Pentagon’s internal email list which detailed how to spin Hurricane Maria to convince the public that the government response was going well.
On Thursday, Trump also signed an executive order ending Obamacare subsidies for the poor. Not paying the subsidies could boost premiums for millions and send the health insurance exchanges into turmoil.
NPR estimated consumers who earn 400% of the federal poverty level — $48k for individuals or $98.4k for a family of four — will see their the cost of their plans rise by, on average, 20% nationwide.
Doctors, hospitals, insurers, state insurance commissioners and patient advocates denounced Trump’s move. Trump actions puts pressure on Congress to protect consumers from soaring premiums.
WSJ reported if Congress doesn’t succeed, WH aides said Trump “will claim victory” for ending the Iran deal, cutting billions in payments to health insurers, and deporting hundreds of thousands of immigrants.
On Friday, a coalition of attorneys general from 18 states and DC filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s halt to subsidy payments under Obamacare.
NYT reported as of Friday, Trump has taken 12 actions which could weaken Obamacare and curtail enrollment, including spreading negative news releases and posting infographics criticizing the health law.
On Saturday, Trump boasted on Twitter that health insurance companies’ stocks “plunged yesterday” after his steps to dismantle Obamacare.
A Kaiser Health poll found 71% of Americans say the Trump regime should work to improve Obamacare, while just 21% say make it fail.
On Friday, Trump slammed Iran as a “menace” and called for “decertification” of the nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), saying Iran is “not living up to the spirit of the deal.”
Trump sent the deal back to Congress with a 60-day window to address its “many serious flaws” or see it “terminated.”
Top officials on Trump’s national security team, including Mattis and Tillerson, said Iran has technically complied with its restrictions. The International Atomic Energy Association also confirmed compliance.
Daily Beast reported while McMaster also wanted to save the Iran Deal, Trump consulted Fox News’ Sean Hannity and former UN Ambassador John Bolton, two neoconservatives who pushed for decertification.
The leaders of Britain, Germany and France declared their commitment to stand by JCPoA. They deal was the culmination of 16 years of diplomacy.
After being added to Trump’s travel ban, Chad pulled its troops from the fight against Boko Haram in Niger. US officials had warned Trump his decision would have major consequences for the fight against terrorism.
California’s deadliest wildfires charred more than 221,754 acres of land in Northern CA, and left at least 35 dead and hundreds more missing. Trump has yet to publicly comment or tweet about the wildfires.
Nor has Trump publicly commented on the deadliest combat incident since he took office, which took place in Niger last Saturday while Trump was golfing. The ambush by ISIS left four soldiers dead and two wounded.
As the week ended, 24 days after Hurricane Maria, just 64% of Puerto Ricans had access to drinking water, and only 14.6% had electricity.
Trump spent his fourth weekend since Hurricane Maria golfing. On Saturday, he visited Trump National Golf Club in VA, his 72nd day of golf since taking office.

STATE OF THE WEEK 03: NEW JERSEY

New Jersey

Five Fast Facts

New Jersey has the highest population density of any state in the union. Officially, there are 1210.1 New Jerseyans per square mile (467 per square kilometer). This is over 10 times the national average, and is higher than the population density of India and Japan.
The Passaic river, which flows through northern New Jersey into Newark Bay, was the site of the first official submarine launch by John P. Holland.
Menlo Park in Middlesex County was the home and research center where many of Thomas Edison’s major innovations were developed. Christie Street was the first street in the world to be illuminated by electric light bulbs. Edison would later move his research to West Orange.
New Jersey, along with Oregon, is one of two states where it is illegal to pump your own gas. New Jersey went full service in 1949 after passing the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act amid concerns about consumer safety. Many other states would follow suit, but have since repealed their laws. Despite some legal challenges (in the 1950’s and 1970’s), the law in New Jersey remains in place, and polling shows most New Jerseyans support the ban.
New Jersey is the only state where all of the counties are classified as metropolitan areas.

The Garden State
Abbreviation: NJ
Time Zone: US Eastern (UTC-5/-4)
Admission to the Union: December 18, 1787
Population: 8,958,013 (11th)
Area: 8,722.58 sq. mi (47th)
State Capital: Trenton
Largest City: Newark
Demonym: New Jerseyan/New Jerseyite
Borders: New York (N, E), Atlantic Ocean (S, SE), Pennsylvania (W) ,Delaware (SW)
Subreddit: /NewJersey, /SouthJersey

Government

Governor: Chris Christie (R)
Lieutenant Governor: Kim Guadagno (R)
New Jersey Legislature

40 Senators (24 Democrat, 16 Republican)
80 Representatives (48 Democrat, 32 Republican)
President pro tem of the Senate: Stephen M. Sweeney
Speaker of the House: Vincent Prieto

U.S. Senators: Bob Menendez (D), Cory Booker (D)
U.S. Representative(s): 6 Republican, 6 Democrat
Last 5 Election Results (election winner in italics):

Barack Obama (D) – 2,125,101 (58.38%), Mitt Romney (R) – 1,477,568 (40.59%)
Barack Obama (D) – 2,215,422 (57.14%), John McCain (R) – 1,613,207 (41.61%)
John Kerry (D) – 1,911,430 (52.92%), George W Bush (R) – 1,670,003 (46.24%)
Al Gore (D) – 1,788,850 (56.13%), George W Bush (R) – 1,284,173 (40.29%)
Bill Clinton (D) – 1,652,329 (53.72%), Bob Dole (R) – 1,103,078 (35.86%), Ross Perot (I) – 262,134 (8.52%)

Demographics

Racial Composition:

58.9% White (non-Hispanic)
13.7% Black
9.7% Hispanic
8.3% Asian
2.7% Mixed Race or Multicultural
0.3% Native American
6.4% Other

Ancestry Groups

Italian (17.9%)
Irish (15.9%)
African (13.6%)
German (12.6%)
Polish (6.9%)

Second Languages – Most Non-English Languages Spoken at Home

Spanish
Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin)
Italian
Portuguese

Religious Affiliation – Largest Religious Denominations

No religious afficilation(45.3%)
Catholic (37.62%)
Protestant/other Christian (11.99%)
Eastern/Islamic (2.65%)
Jewish (2.47%)

Education

Major Universities

Economy

Unemployment Rate – 9.0%
Wealthiest Cities (by per capita income)

Mantoloking ($114,017)
Saddle River ($85,934)
Far Hills ($81,535)
Essex Falls ($77,434)
Alpine ($76,995)

Largest Employers, excluding Wal-Mart and state/federal government

Wakefern Foods
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Barnabas Health
Verizon
UPS
Johnson & Johnson

Transportation

Major Highways

Interstate Highways: I-76, I-78, I-80, I-95, I-195, I-280, I-287, I-295, I-676
New Jersey Turnpike
Garden State Expressway
Atlantic City Expressway

Bridges and Tunnels

Public Transit

Type	Service	Notes
Public Bus	New Jersey Transit	Provides local, commuter and long distance bus routes to all counties in the state
Public Bus	New Jersey Transit	Connects to Port Authority Terminal in Manhattan and the Greyhound Terminal in Philadelphia
Railroad	PATH	Operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; links Newark, Harrison, Jersey City and Hoboken to Manhattan
Railroad	PATCO Speedline	Operated by Delaware River Port Authority; links Philadelphia, PA with Camden County
Commuter Rail	New Jersey Transit Rail	11 lines, primarily in Northern New Jersey.
Commuter Rail	New Jersey Transit Rail	Largest commuter rail system in the world (951 track miles) and fourth in terms of ridership
Intercity Rail	Amtrak	Amtrak connects New Jersey on its Boston-Washington network in two lines. The Northeast regional line travels the full length of Northeast corridor; the Keystone Service travels along Keystone corridor.
Light Rail	New Jersey Transit	Three Lines: Hudson-Bergen, Newark, and River Line
Ferry	DRBA	Cape May – Lewes Ferry connecting Cape May to Lewes, Delaware, carrying both cars and foot passengers
Ferry	DRPA	Riverlink – Camden waterfront to Penn’s landing
Ferry	Several private companies	Several lines connecting New Jersey to Manhattan

Airports

Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Atlantic City International Airport (ACY)
Trenton Mercer Airport (TTN)

Culture

Music
New Jersey’s influence on both American music is immense. Among the prominent musicians who were born or reside in the state are:

Frank Sinatra (born in Hoboken), who sang with the Hoboken Four before becoming an Academy Award winning actor and member of the Rat Pack.
Bruce Springsteen (Freehold) has sung about growing up and living in New Jersey on many of his albums. “Born to Run” was proposed by New Jersey Assemblyman Richard Visotcky to be the “Official Youth Anthem of New Jersey” in 1980.
Jon Bon Jovi (Sayreville) has written many songs and named an album after the state.
Springsteen and Bon Jovi were frequent performers at The Stone Pony, which is located in Asbury Park.
Cousins Dionne Warwick and Whitney Houston grew up in East Orange.
Glenn Danzig and his band The Misfits are from Lofi
Queen Latifah is from Irvington
The Sugarhill gang, who recorded what is often considered the first hip hop single, were born in Englewood
Ice-T, Redman, Akon, Faith Evans, Lord of the Underground, Wyclef Jean and Fetty Wap are among many rappers who call New Jersey home

Inventions
New Jersey is credited as the birth place for many modern inventions, including:

FM Radio
Lithium Batteries
Electric Trains
The drive-in movie
Blueberries (modern cultivators)
Cranberry sauce
Saltwater Taffy
Commercial Light bulbs
Motion Picture Camera
Zippers

Cuisine
New Jersey has an incredibly large number of diners, many open 24 hours. It is sometimes referred to as the “diner capital of the world”, and does have more diners per capita than any other state. Grease Trucks, located near Rutgers University, have become famous in recent years for their fare, particularly “Fat Sandwiches”.
Saltwater taffy was originally sold in Atlantic City beginning at the end of the 1800’s, and has since spread to many beachfront towns across the country.
The invention of the submarine sandwich is claimed by several prominent Italian American communities (including several within New Jersey). New Jersey’s claim lies with the fact that the first submarine, the Fenian Ram, has been housed in the Paterson museum since the early 1900’s, and Italian immigrants recreating traditional Italian sandwiches named the sandwich after the ship.
Dishes native to New Jersey include disco fries, pork rolls/Taylor Ham, breakfast dogs, rippers, and tomato pies.
Sports

League	Team	Division
NFL	New York Giants	NFC East
NFL	New York Jets	AFC East
MLS	New York Red Bulls	Eastern Conference
NHL	New Jersey Devils	Eastern Metropolitan

Additionally, the Brooklyn Nets were located in New Jersey from 1977 until 2012.
Collegiate sports are split among the three major Division I programs: The Rutgers Scarlet Knights, the Seton Hall Pirates and the Princeton Tigers.
New Jersey is the home of the proposed Grand Prix of America, a Formula One race through West New York and Weehawken, with the New York City skyline set as the backdrop. The race was announced in 2010, but due to many issues with funding and logistics, has not been scheduled. The race is reported to be paired with the Canadian Grand Prix on a ten-year contract which was to begin in June 2013.

Famous People

Timothy Adams), actovoice artist (voice of Brucie Kibbutz in GTA IV)
Akon, R&B singer
Mitch Albom, writebroadcaster (Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven)
Buzz Aldrin, NASA astronaut, second man to walk on the moon
Jason Alexander, actor (George Costanza on Seinfeld)
Samuel Alito, U.S. Supreme Court justice
John Amos, actor
Richard Anderson, actor (Oscar Goodman on “The Six Million Dollar Man”/”The Bionic Woman”)
Jack Antonoff, musician, guitarist for Fun.
Bruce Arians, head coach for the NFL Arizona Cardinals
Mark Attanasio, owner of the Milwaukee Brewers
Paul Auster, screenwriter
Miles Austin, NFL player (Philadelphia WR)
Bret Baier, news anchor, columnist for Fox News
Ben Bailey, comedian, TV host (Cash Cab)
Amiri Baraka, poet/activist, Poet Laureate of New Jersey (2002 – 2003)
Rick Barry NBA/ABA small forward, NBA Hall of Fame inductee in 1987
Dana Bash, journalist/news anchor
Emma Bell, actress (The Walking Dead)
Bill “I’m not Chris Rock” Bellamy, comedian/voice actor
Regina Belle, singesongwriter
Joan Bennett, actress
Xander Berkeley, actor
Adam Bernstein, director (Better Caul Saul, Fargo)
Ahmed “Jar Jar” Best, voice actor
Jack Bicknell, Jr. , NFL offensive line coach
Jason Biggs, actovoice artist (American Pie)
Jon Bon Jovi, musician
Joe Borowski, MLB pitchesportscaster
Anthony Bourdain, chef, TV personality
Zach Braff, actodirector
John Brennan, director of the CIA
David Brewster, journalist/publisher
James L. Brooks, producer (The Simpsons)
Donald Brown, NFL player (RB, San Diego)
Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States (1801-1805)
Glen Burtnik, singesongwriteguitarist (Styx)
Nicholas Murray Butler, Nobel laureate, diplomat, President of Columbia University
Andrew Bynum, NBA center for Philadelphia
Cardiak, music producer
Roaslind Cash, singeactress
Joanna Cassidy, actress
Cheryl Chase, voice actress (Angelica Pickles from Rugrats)
David Chase, creator of The Sopranos
Michael Chertoff, US Secretary of Homeland Security (2005 – 2009)
Aneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer of the United States (2009 – 2012)
Robert Coello, MLB Pitcher
Willie Cole, sculptovisual artist
David Copperfield, illusionist
Lou Costello, comedian/actor (Abbott and Costello)
Michael Cristofer, playwright, screenwriter
Tom Cruise, actor
Victor Cruz, NFL player (NYG WR)
Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia
John T. Cunningham, historian, journalist, author
Mike Daniels, NFL player (GB DE)
Joe Dante, film director
Glenn Danzig, Misfits/Danzig frontman
Dean DeLeo, guitarist (Stone Temple Pilots, Army of Anyone)
Danny DeVito, actodirector
John DiMaggio, voice actor (Bender on Futurama)
Peter Dinklage, actor (Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones)
Michael Douglas, actoproducer
Jim Dowd, NHL Stanley Cup champion
Asher Brown Durand, paintelandscape artist
Andrea Dworkin , radical feminist
Randy Edelman, composer for film and TV
Janet Evanovich, novelist
John Farrell, manager of the Boston Red Sox
Andrew Fastow, CFO at Enron
Joe “Elite Dragon” Flacco, NFL player (BAL QB)
Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes, CEO of Forbes, Inc
Darren Ford, MLB player (SF, OF)
Barney Frank, congressman from Massachusetts
James Gandolfini, actor (Tony Soprano from The Sopranos)
Bob Gaugio, singesongwriteproducer
Brian Geraghty, actor
Michael Giacchino, film/TV/video game composer
Allen Ginsberg, poet
Judy Gold, stand-up comic
Al Golden, head football coach for the University of Miami
Bob Guccione, foundepublisher of Penthouse
Tom “Smalls” Guiry, actor
Alison Haislip, actress/TV correspondent
Chelsea Handler, actress/stand-up comedian
Jess Harnell, voice actor
Ed Harris, actor
Franco Harris, NFL Hall of Famer (PIT FB)
Anne Hathaway, actress
Tobin Heath, US women’s soccer player, Olympic gold medalist, World Cup silver medalist
Beatrice Hicks, founder of the Society of Women Engineers
Lauryn Hill, singesongwriter
Adam Horwitz, member of the Beastie Boys
Whitney Houston, singeactress
Tim Howard, goalkeeper for US Men’s Soccer Team
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia
Leonard Jeffries, professor of Black Studies at CUNY
Malcolm Jenkins, NFL player (S, PHI)
Nucky Johnson, political boss and racketeer
Leavander Johnson, world champion boxer
Robert Wood Johnson II, Chairman of Johnson & Johnson
The Jonas Brothers, singers/songwriters
Linda Jones, singesongwriter
Just Blaze, rapper
Stanley Kamel, actor
Ira Kaplan, musician, founder of Yo La Tengo
Thomas Kean, governor, chair of the 9/11 Commission
Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired magazine
Mark and Scott Kelly, astronauts
Dennis Kozlowski, CEO of Tyco International
Jane Krakowski, actress
Larry Ludlow, economist
Richard Kulinski, notorious mafia hitman
William Lablov, linguist
Nathan Lane, Tony-award winning actor
Artie Lange, comedian
Ali Larter, actress
Tommy La Stella, MLB player (CHC 2B)
Queen Latifah, singeactress
Robert Sean Leonard, actor (Dr. James Wilson on House)
Carl Lewis, Olympic gold medalist
Jerry Lewis, actodirector, telethon host
Ray Liotta, actor
Bill Maher, actoTV personality
John Marin, abstract artist
George R. R. Martin, author (A Song of Ice and Fire)
John C. McGinley, actor (Dr. Cox on Scrubs)
Tom McGowan, actor
Ezra Miller, actor
John Milnor, mathematician
Thomas Mitchell, actor
Jay Mohr, actocomedian
John J. Mooney, inventor of the catalytic converter
Knowshon Moreno, NFL player
Frankie Muniz, actor
Vince Naimoli, owner of the MLB Tampa Bay Rays
Andrew Napolitano, FOX News analyst
Jack Nicholson, Oscar-winning actor
Jim Norton, actocomedian
T.J. O’Malley, aerospace engineer
Shaquille O’Neal, NBA Hall of Famer, Shaq-fu specialist
Joe Pantoliano, actor
Bill Parcells, NFL football coach, TV commentator
Alice Paul, suffragist
Kal Penn, actor
Maxwell Perkins, editor for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Joe Pesci, Oscar-winning actor
Thomas R. Pickering, diplomat
Joe Piscopo, actocomedian
Redman, rapper
Tara Reid, actress
Christopher Reeve, actor (Superman)
Paul Robeson, actor, civil rights activist
Jeffrey Ross, comedian
Tom Ruegger, creator of Animaniacs
Logan Ryan, NFL player (NE CB)
Carl Sagan, astronomer, author
Richie Sambora, guitarist (Bon Jovi)
Caitlin Sanchez, voice artist (Dora the Explorer)
Antonin Scalia, US Supreme Court justice
Roy Scheider, actor (Jaws)
Greg Schiano, head football coach for Tampa Bay (formerly head coach at Rutgers)
Rusty Schweickart, NASA astronaut, aerospace engineer
Patti Scialfa, singesongwriter, member of the E Street Band
Henry Selick, stop-motion director
Christian Sharps, inventor of the breech-loading rifle
Brooke Shields, actress
Joel Silver, film/TV producer
Frank Sinatra, singer, Academy Award-winning actor
Nancy Sinatra, singeactress
Kevin Smith, filmmaker
Bruce Springsteen, singesongwriter
Mindy Sterling, actress
Jon Stewart, actoTV personality
Martha Stewart, TV personality
Meryl Streep, Academy Award-winning actress
Joe Theismann, NFL quarterback (Washington)
John Travolta, actor
Linda Tripp, figure in the Monica Lewinsky scandal
Mike “GOAT” Trout, MLB player (OF, LAA)
Martin Truex, Jr. , NASCAR driver
Laura Tyson, economist
Alfred Vail, inventor, helped develop the telegraph
Steven Van Zandt, actor, rock musician
Tom Verducci, sportswriter
Paul Volcker, economist
Voltaire, cabaret musician
Fetty Wap, recording artist
Patrick Warburton, actor
Malcolm Jamal Warner, actor
Brian Williams, anchor for NBC Nightly News
C. K. Williams, poet/critic and translator
Wendy Willams, TV personality
Bruce “Yippie Ki-Yay” Willis, actor
Zakk Wylde, guitarist

Previous States:
Delaware
Pennsylvania

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NFL Week 4 Picks Against The Spread 2020: Predictions ATS ...

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