The Patriot Post® · Olympics, Sports, Entertainment, Politics: MONEY

Ancient Greece created the original Olympiad, a period of four years associated with the Olympic Games of the Ancient Greeks during the Hellenistic period, beginning with Ephorus. A modern Olympiad refers to a four-year period beginning January 1 of a year in which the Summer Olympics are due to occur. The first modern Olympiad began in 1896 and the 30th began in 2012. In Slovak and Czech languages, “Olympiáda” is the correct term for the games.



The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a Swiss non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre, Baron de Coubertin, on June 23, 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president. It has 100 active members.



The first recorded Olympic Games were held at Olympia in the Greek city-state of Elis in 776 B.C. but may have a history dating back at least 500 years before that time. Ancient Olympics were held every four years and occurred during a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus, making the Olympics a pagan religious tradition. Olympic Games were abolished in 393 AD by Christian Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I. Individual winners were recognized but were not associated with nations as is the modern practice where every country wants to be recognized for its winnings.



Roman Emperors used the Olympics as diversions to keep the masses happy and to suppress acts of rebellion. Olympics are big business, big TV coverage, with deep-pocketed commercial advertising sponsors. Pay to Play is the order of the day as Olympic sites are virtually sold to countries and cities that bid and hope to capitalize.



Olympics are no longer amateur as there is a permanent class of competitors that spend lifetimes training, usually at the expense of various committees, and supporters who hope to gain their own notoriety. Olympic Committees are deep into corruption and answer to no one. Olympics never end and are spread over four years into Summer and Winter Olympics, with new games like tennis, baseball, etc. always added to satisfy special interests and to broaden public appeal, and to attract TV viewers. It’s all about the money.



Powerball lottery is a fraud to have dupes voluntarily put down their money in hope they are the one in up to 200 Million chance of hitting the Grand Enchilada Super Lottery. Gambling generally offers a chance to win, like selecting a sports winner, one out of two contestants, or an eight-horse race with a one in eight chance of winning. A one in 200 Million chance of winning, virtually impossible odds, proving the mentality of lottery players.



Consider the amount of money needed in the bi-annual Congressional elections and the campaign funding driving the 435 Representative that are elected every two years, along with one-third of the 100 Senators. Each runs against two or more opponents in the Primaries before the official election featuring a minimum of nearly 1,000 aspirants.



Each of those 1,000 candidates, related political parties, PACs, continually raise funds on the premise that only they can solve countless problems awaiting consideration and approval, and then the reality to the public that each solution might in turn create two new problems ad infinitum.



Democrats raised over $1.1 billion for the 2012 presidential election that was exceeded by Republicans raising $1.2 billion. The total presidential and congressional political cost of the election cycle 1998-2012 topped $7 trillion.



Modern culture in the U.S. is bent on entertainment and 24/7 instant gratification. There is the Super Bowl and long lead-up involving the 16 game NFL football season preceded by exhibition games, every game is an exhibition, and then a series of playoff games within divisions, culminated by the too often dismal Super Bowl game itself that features extreme advertising at extreme prices, only to fall far short of commercial expectations.



Super Bowl 2014 ads for a 30-second spot cost $4 million and a 60-second spot cost $8 million, not to mention more than $1 million to produce a memorable Super Bowl commercial that has no guarantee of return on investment.



Ditto the expectation gamble for monies expended for baseball and its World Series; NBA unending number of basketball games, college basketball and its NCAA March Madness playoffs; unending college football culminating with the top four bowls being the BCS Championship, Rose Bowl, Orange, Cotton, along with wannabe artificial bowl type games, 35 in all, involving 70 teams to determine the best college football team in the land. In the final analysis, the dispute never ends, an ultimate winner never determined or universally accepted. No problem. It’s all about the money. The more games and controversy about the winners; the more money is accumulated by participants, sponsors, and promoters.



Commercialism of sports is obvious as they are played out in stadiums and venues often named after commercial sponsors who get perpetual free advertising in return for their investment. Ignored are local taxpayers that usually are on the hook for interest-bearing bonds issued by communities in hope of attracting business and profits. Those hopes are dashed when profits to team owners are deemed to be insufficient, demanding new more modern state-or-the-art stadiums and venues before the old are fully paid off, all to enhance greed of players and owners.



There are more sports involved in mass media including soccer, tennis, swimming, fishing, hunting, boats, yachts, cycling, mountain climbing, and what-have-you, all for entrainment and diversion from the reality of reality. “Let me entertain you,” is the operative word. President Obama joins in the madness with his much-publicized selection of winners for various sports events, and the media happily joins in to capitalize on his exposure.



Bette Midler sang a famous version of this ditty written by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents recorded on the album Gypsy. 
“Let Me Entertain you; Let me make you smile; Let me do a few tricks; Some old and then some new tricks: I’m very versatile; And if you’re real good; I’ll make you feel good; I want your spirits too climb; So let me entertain you; And we’ll have a real good time, yes sir; We’ll have a real good time; And if you’re real good; I’ll make you feel good; I want your spirits to climb; Let me entertain you; And we’ll have a real good time.”



Entertainment to divert attention of restless masses is a tool used by ancient Emperors, Pharaohs, Caesars, Kings, Dictators, and played to the nines by President Barack Obama who “Fiddles while Rome burns,” playing popular sporting games of golf, basketball, and guessing winners of sporting events, while paying limited attention to the real business of the country which is jobs, economy, debt, deficit, war, Constitution, Bill of Rights, culture, and values that crumble around him while he points points points blame.



Obama answers with repetitive words, rehashed speeches, and blame for everyone but himself. Words repeated ad nausea with scant action required of a Chief Executive who by design speeds the U.S. into Dictatorship at frightening speed.



While visiting Thomas the Jefferson home with French President Francois Hollande, Barack Obama was heard in the background saying, ironically or not, “As a president, I can do whatever I want.” To prove the point, Obama has issued another unilateral delay of an ObamaCare provision requiring businesses with 50-99 full-time workers to offer health benefits. He had already delayed it until 2015, but now it is not effective until 2016. Who needs Congress when, “I have a pen and a phone.” 

As Obama said more than once, “The Constitution is obsolete because it did not address redistribution of income.” Accordingly, the two-term presidential limit may be obsolete as well. Why stop at flaunting the Constitution one more, one more, one more time while Congress sits idly by awaiting more instructions that eventually will not matter as they cave. After all, Obama probably won at least his re-election fraudulently, so what is one more trick?



GOP House Speaker Boehner on Feb. 15, gained passage of his “clean” debt-ceiling increase despite a House vote led by rebellious Tea Party members over his debt extension that authorizes unlimited Government borrowing authority with no strings attached until March 15, 2015, after the new Congress is installed.



The House passed a “CLEAN” debt ceiling increase Tuesday granting President Obama power to borrow as much as the government needs for the next 13 months, after House Republican leaders surrendered their longstanding vow to demand concessions in exchange for any debt hike. The Fourteenth Amendment upholds validity of public debt of the U.S. as authorized by law, and RINO Boehner gave his bosom buddy Obama a Carte Blanche law to spend all he wants in the meantime.


Obama vowed there would be no negotiation, and so it came to be. Strange power is in the hands of Obama, as the House succumbed to the De Facto Dictator…Again.



Unable to muster his own troops, GOP Speaker John A. Boehner turned to Democrats to provide the votes to pass the legislation, which cleared on a 221-201 vote. The bill now goes to the Senate for what appears to be automatic rubber stamp approval of what Obama demanded and got. Senate approval must be reached before the end of February or else the Treasury Department t will run out of borrowing capacity and face a 35% partial shutdown.



Buoyed by this unexpectedly easy victory, NY Democrat Senator Charles Schumer expressed hope that Boehner might do a similar turnabout on immigration, an issue that like the debt limit, in which Boehner was against it before he was for it. GOP cave man leadership proved its liberal bent one more time. John Boehner surrendered without the fight he promised that he was saving himself for. The “One-Party Two-Party system” is alive and well. Dictatorship is Fait Accompli, and the Republic is dead and gone, and hopefully the traitorous GOP leadership and its underlings.