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What’s up with Donald Trump and the Cleveland Guardians baseball team?
The former president believes Matt Dolan, who is running in the Ohio GOP primary race, is unfit to serve in the US Senate because his family changed the name of the “storied” Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians.
Retired attorney Larry Dolan, Matt’s dad, bought the Cleveland Indians from shopping mall developer Dick Jacobs in 2000 for $323M.
He succeeded where The Donald failed. The former reality TV show celebrity tried to buy the Indians “on the cheap" for $13M in 1983.
Trump reportedly planned to move that “storied” ballclub to Tampa.
Luckily for Cleveland, Dick and his brother David, who died in 1992, trumped Trump’s offer, paying $35M for the team.
Trump’s rap on Dolan is little more than sour grapes.
If Dolan is unfit for the Senate because his family changed the name of the team that was deemed racist by Native Americans, what about Trump, who wanted to move the team out of Ohio.
In 2021, Trump called dropping the “Indians” name “disrespectful” to Native Americans.
That was hot air. The Cleveland Indigenous Coalition hailed the name change as a move that creates “a place where Native American children and their families feel valued and fully seen.”
The Lake Erie Native American Council agreed, saying it stands “with our heads held high and full of gratitude to those who came before us in this fight.”
The Cleveland Guardians franchise is now worth $1.3B, according to a report issued this month by Statista.com.
It has done pretty well without Trump.
What a blockhead….Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey must have been a big fan of Lucy van Pelt of Peanuts fame, who always called Charlie Brown a “blockhead.”
Dorsey, who was CEO, president and chairperson of Block Inc., filed an 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 20 to amend the corporate bylaws.
That revision changed Dorsey’s title to “Block Head and Chairperson.”
Meet the new blockhead, Charlie Brown.
Jack says he’s not a big fan of lofty titles. Block Head will do. My hunch is that his successor might decide to undo Dorsey’s revision.
Don’t shed a tear for Raytheon Technologies… CEO Greg Hayes told investors April 26 the giant defense contractor would take a $750M sales hit due to its exit from Russia’s market.
That will trim the Massachusetts-based company’s annual 2022 revenues to about $68B.
On the flip side, Hayes sees a benefit to the top line of Raytheon’s missiles and defense business due to Ukrainians firing his company’s Stinger anti-tank missiles at Russian targets.
Displaying a degree of modesty, Hayes noted the Stinger, along with the Javelin missiles that Raytheon produces with Lockheed Martin, have been “very successful” in Ukraine.
The US Army has shipped about a quarter of its supply of the Stinger shoulder-fired missile to the Ukrainians.
It also is sending Stingers to replace those that NATO allies transferred to Ukraine.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wants the military-industrial complex to ramp up production for the expected extended combat in Ukraine.
The Pentagon hasn’t placed an order for new Stingers in 18 years but Hayes says he could begin to replenish the Pentagon’s Stinger inventory this year, and really gear up in 2023 and 2024.
The Army plans to replace the Stinger with a more deadly and accurate missile in 2027.
That’s more good news for Raytheon.
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