You just can't make this shit up! Zero Hedge:
As the NFL torments it players, coaches, and viewers by playing hardball over 'real' referee earnings, the truth of Monday's blown call is coming out. Courtesy of American Banker, we now know that the referee at the center of the most controversial call of the season so far is in fact a vice president for small-business banking at Bank of America in California.
The result of this call was over a billion dollars exchanging hands in Vegas bookies' offices from what was a certain winning position to certain losers, precisely due to just this one call, causing substantial losses for bookies in the process as well.
Lance Easley - previously at Wells Fargo, has worked at BofA since June 2011 - (we assume) moonlighting as a referee in the Santa Barbara area (officiating high school and junior college football and basketball games). Well done Lance, you have managed to move from the most-hated occupation (bankster) to the most-hated individual (outside of Seattle) in one weekend. Is it any wonder Small Business confidence and uncertainty is so high? I think this might be the inadvertent event that brings a whooole lot more people into some form of awareness regarding bankers and the banking crisis. I didn't say it had to be necessarily directly politically relevant, but that it has the potential to strike a collective nerve amongst people who wouldn't normally have political awareness or opinions. A Banker fucked over The Packers. That's a pretty direct and effective message to a large group of people who likely witnessed the event live, or endlessly the next day. Anger over Union-busting scabs was already approaching a boiling point, and the worst referee of all is also a Banker! That dude's in for a shit-rain, that's for sure..
Whatever the ultimate outcome, this terrible, terrible call has unified fans of all persuasions: Packers fans, Union supporters, Union busters like the smelly and balding Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, both Presidential candidates, every late night talk show host, every NFL fan on Facebook.. The direct effect is all very obvious. The subliminal, though, is itself pretty astonishing: The most blue collar(and damn proud of it) team in the NFL gets penalized yet again by a member of the Financial Elite, this time it's a bank Vice President. Not only did their team get screwed, many, many people lost a lot of money, again, due to the incompetence of a bank Vice President.
The twist that makes this a compelling human interest story is also the twist that re-enforces a hugely negative perception of anything pertaining to banker- or financially-related matters. No, it might not be fair or coherent, but to those dimly politically aware, it might be a perception that sticks. And a perception that might motivate those previously unmotivated to register their displeasure. Or not. I have no idea what motivates the dimly politically un-aware, and therefore, have no sure way to gauge what might connect with them.
And no, I'm not calling all football fans dimly politically unaware, by any stretch. I am calling the dimly politically unaware from those ranks dimly politically un-aware.
As the NFL torments it players, coaches, and viewers by playing hardball over 'real' referee earnings, the truth of Monday's blown call is coming out. Courtesy of American Banker, we now know that the referee at the center of the most controversial call of the season so far is in fact a vice president for small-business banking at Bank of America in California.
The result of this call was over a billion dollars exchanging hands in Vegas bookies' offices from what was a certain winning position to certain losers, precisely due to just this one call, causing substantial losses for bookies in the process as well.
Lance Easley - previously at Wells Fargo, has worked at BofA since June 2011 - (we assume) moonlighting as a referee in the Santa Barbara area (officiating high school and junior college football and basketball games). Well done Lance, you have managed to move from the most-hated occupation (bankster) to the most-hated individual (outside of Seattle) in one weekend. Is it any wonder Small Business confidence and uncertainty is so high? I think this might be the inadvertent event that brings a whooole lot more people into some form of awareness regarding bankers and the banking crisis. I didn't say it had to be necessarily directly politically relevant, but that it has the potential to strike a collective nerve amongst people who wouldn't normally have political awareness or opinions. A Banker fucked over The Packers. That's a pretty direct and effective message to a large group of people who likely witnessed the event live, or endlessly the next day. Anger over Union-busting scabs was already approaching a boiling point, and the worst referee of all is also a Banker! That dude's in for a shit-rain, that's for sure..
Whatever the ultimate outcome, this terrible, terrible call has unified fans of all persuasions: Packers fans, Union supporters, Union busters like the smelly and balding Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, both Presidential candidates, every late night talk show host, every NFL fan on Facebook.. The direct effect is all very obvious. The subliminal, though, is itself pretty astonishing: The most blue collar(and damn proud of it) team in the NFL gets penalized yet again by a member of the Financial Elite, this time it's a bank Vice President. Not only did their team get screwed, many, many people lost a lot of money, again, due to the incompetence of a bank Vice President.
The twist that makes this a compelling human interest story is also the twist that re-enforces a hugely negative perception of anything pertaining to banker- or financially-related matters. No, it might not be fair or coherent, but to those dimly politically aware, it might be a perception that sticks. And a perception that might motivate those previously unmotivated to register their displeasure. Or not. I have no idea what motivates the dimly politically un-aware, and therefore, have no sure way to gauge what might connect with them.
And no, I'm not calling all football fans dimly politically unaware, by any stretch. I am calling the dimly politically unaware from those ranks dimly politically un-aware.
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