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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   838 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 4, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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What is going on with sports team owners?

In the space of a few weeks:

-- The owner of the Los Angeles Lakers has been forced to sell (to a Kushner brother) the team because of an SEC investigation into financial irregularities at insurance companies he controlled. (((I'll leave the questions about the Trump admin investigating a businessman who then is forced to sell a prized asset to a Trump-family-affiliated entity to Pablo Torre to unwind)))

-- The owner of the San Francisco 49ers was arrested in an East Palestine, OH trailer park in a human trafficking sting, apparently trying to hire a $140 prostitute. He plead guilty to some minor misdemeanor charges and spent a night in jail.

-- The Los Angeles Clippers have effectively been neutered for the next 5-8 years by the NBA's decision in their salary-cap circumvention scheme, in which Kawhi Leonard was paid extra money outside his contract under the table through no-show endorsement deals from affiliated companies.

-- Investigations into the Los Angeles Dodgers are coming to the forefront, involving financial irregularities in their ownership group.

It could all be a coincidence, but it feels weird astrologically.

Hearing its the 49ers owner makes that story makes more sense. The Debartolo family hails from near Youngstown OH; with good Italian restaurants. I didnt realize how much money was in certain suburbs out there, until I had a friend who said he had two kids with Ferrari's in his graduating HS class

PSA: I just want everyone to know that "good Italian restaurants" is an American euphemism for area of high concentration of Italian-American organized crime aka the mafia.

It is also literally true. My aunt suspected her new favorite Italian restaurant, only open at lunchtime, was almost certainly a mob money laundering operation, after the 4th or 5th visit where she was the only customer at noon. She grabbed lunch there several times a month for years, empty restaurant but the food was sublime. Then one week the place was boarded up.

Money laundering fronts make the best restaurants. They don't give a shit about food costs. There was a pizza joint near my a in college that charged $3.79 for an 18" cheese pizza, and it was loaded with cheese. Years later they got busted as a front.

You'd think they'd charge more so they can launder money faster.

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