Brett Favre In Congress
Alright, so I’ll start this off with the obvious. Parkinson’s Disease is terrible and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. I wish Brett Favre a long and healthy life, behind bars.
Favre was called in front of Congress for a hearing about welfare reform. Of course, he was there because Dr DickPic was part of a scheme to misuse Mississippi welfare money to build a volleyball facility for his daughter’s school, among other bullshit. Fuck Brett Favre. Favre revealed during the proceedings that he’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He was diagnosed in January. That’s a bummer for him, no question. I have no reason to believe he’s lying about it.
Of course, he just sorta slipped it in there while crying about an investment he lost in one of the pharmaceutical companies that was part of the misappropriated funds scheme. It felt calculated. Like he was saving the fact for this moment to play for sympathy points. I find it hard to have sympathy, despite the fact that Parkinson’s is so bad. I actually think Jen Sterger (the recipient of his dick pic) had a great take on it: “I don’t wish bad things on anyone, but I know Karma never forgets an address. Imagine being diagnosed with such a terrible disease and not having the resources to fight it bc some Hall-of-Fame quarterback stole it?” I can’t really say it better than that. It sucks for Brett that he has this terrible disease. None of it justifies what he did. I certainly can’t have much sympathy when it felt like he calculated when he used the information as if to try and reclaim the narrative over the criticism and instead make it a sob story.
But to be honest, the Parkinson’s thing does matter. Especially on a grander scale. Parkinson’s is a disease that affects the brain, slowly deteriorating it. Head trauma is known to be a major risk factor, and football players have an increased rate of contracting this disease. Favre was the league’s ironman and took more horrible hits than any of us could count. Football is bad for your brain. Favre may have been using misappropriated funds to try and fund research into cures for brain trauma, and he deserves scorn for that. But that is not an unworthy cause. Maybe you can put your QB millions and Wrangler Jeans money towards it instead of money intended for impoverished children and families next time, asshole.
Fuck Brett Favre. Fuck Parkinson’s.
I was wondering why Favre’s pose here wang a bell…
I’m a huge fan of mangaka Kōsuke Fujishima. Ah! My Goddess has long been my favourite series. But he’s done many others: Toppu GP, Sakura Taisen, the mech designs on Gungrave… and the first major series he created. A police comedy called, ironically, You’re Under Arrest. Third OAV, I think it was; Yoriko pulls that pose when called out by the rest of the Bokuto PD office.
I’m still struggling to understand how and why Mississippi’s welfare money was entrusted to Brett Favre in the first place.
And now the governor is suing the paper and reporter who broke the story with defamation. Like bruh.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story?id=41403341&_slug_=favre-nfl-wolfe-bryant-mississippi-welfare
Amazingly (or completely unsurprisingly depending on your level of cynicism or news consumption) it gets worse. One of the people implicated in the story is former Mississippi governor Phil Bryant. Bryant is suing for defamation. He still has a lot of political clout, and a lot of friends on the bench. A lower court judge has ordered Mississippi Today to turn over all privileged information regarding the investigation, including (and especially) anything that could identify confidential informants.
The reporter and her editor have refused to do so and appealed the ruling to Mississippi’s supreme court. Unfortunately, Mississippi is one of a handful of states with no legal protection for reporter privilege. If the contempt of court charge is upheld, the editor of the paper that broke the story and the reporter who wrote the piece will serve jail time before any of the people that actually committed crimes.
This probably will not help Phil Bryant’s case at all. It’s not defamation to accurately report on malfeasance by public officials. It will however potentially harm the careers of the informants, it will cost Mississippi Today a buttload of resources fighting in court, and it will have a chilling effect on any future potential whistleblowers.
It really burns me considering how Mississippi is always ranked at the lowest or near the lowest in any US quality index. Not surprising that these states are part of the Bible belt and have some of the highest income disparities. The corruption and media harassment is not surprising.