BackinTokyo

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

A view to Tokyo

[David Sirota @davidsirota]

This from The Economist magazine is a good reminder that corporate media is not “objective” — it is an explicit and focused political project with a clear ideology.

Pass it on.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@scott_peak @JMerrillMadness When he still thinks it’s a good idea to hand a major league roster to someone with no managerial experience. How many times can you make the same stubborn mistake and fail to learn from it?

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@MikeConti929 In 2012, there was a lot of talk of unsold tickets and vacant hotel rooms, too, but once South Africans showed up in stadiums with their vuvuzelas, it turned into one helluva global party.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@DarnayTripp We all know why Manny’s in the middle of the lineup every day. Craig Stammen has no cojones.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@Ash_Padres They need a complete overhaul but are hamstrung by an incompetent gm who has decimated his farm system and by the albatross contracts the gm has handed out to the sunsetting Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Jake Cronenworth and Joe Musgrove.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@JMerrillMadness He’s been cooked since last August. Time for him to get used to being a bit player, which is what he’ll be while he plays out his $40 million a year contract through 2033.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@annieheilbrunn Thank god Walker got lifted after six.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@CornfedFriar New owners are on the way, dude. Let’s see how much of an appetite they have for Preller’s self-sabotage.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@JMerrillMadness Well, it depends how you measure a top 200 player, and Manny is surely that if the yardstick is compensation. In fact, the big lug is a top 10 major-leaguer!

[Jostein Hauge @haugejostein]

According to data from the World Bank, the share of the population living in extreme poverty ($3/day PPP) is now higher in the United States than in China.

[Florian Ederer @florianederer]

I believe we now have evidence of FIFA's World Cup ticketing shell game: FIFA is colluding with third-party resale platforms for its own supply management.

Look at this SeatGeek map (secondary market!) for Saudi Arabia vs Cape Verde. The circled areas are not random single resale tickets, but large, contiguous blocks of seats: entire rows and swaths in sections 101/102, 112/113, 119/120, 134–137, 139, ...

The blue circles appeared weeks ago, then the purple blocks suddenly showed up a day or two ago, and the red blocks seem to have appeared recently too.

That's not what ordinary fan or even commercial scalper resale looks like who resell pairs, fours, and scattered seats. Instead, this looks like inventory being dumped in bulk onto secondary markets, at prices below FIFA's official site.

Why doesn't FIFA just lower prices on its own site Probably because official price cuts could trigger refund demands, chargebacks, or consumer-protection headaches from fans who already bought at much higher prices.

Instead FIFA keeps official prices high, avoids openly admitting the market-clearing price is lower, and moves unsold inventory through third-party resale platforms instead.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

America, circa 2026

[Fifty Shades of Whey @davenewworld_2]

Over 120 civil society groups including the ACLU and Amnesty International issued a travel advisory to warn visitors, journalists, and players attending the World Cup about heightened risks under the current admin such as:

- Arbitrary denials of entry at borders
- Violent and unconstitutional immigration enforcement, including racial profiling
- Invasive social media screening and searches of personal electronic devices
- Risk of arrest, detention, and deportation
- Heightened dangers for marginalized communities, including minority groups and LGBTQ+ individuals

[El Jones @ElJonesPoet]

Take a slave owner or residential school founder’s name off a street or remove a statue and there’ll be endless screaming about preserving history. But when Israel destroys Tyre - older than all European capitals - in Lebanon and destroys ancient monuments it’s silence.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@GFCards Well, he’s not yet on Maradona’s level but only 17.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@MarcACaputo @DeanBaker13 @BarakRavid Like anyone believes Trump actually spoke those words.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

Wait till prices drop to $50 and the @fifa mafia start offering two for one deals.

[World Cup HQ @WorldCup26HQ]

A few days ago the cheapest ticket for Scotland v Haiti in the World Cup was $1,250.

It's now dropped to $400. 💰

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@justin_bighead I don’t know. Cape Verde has an excellent chance of holding Lamine Yamal scoreless and beating Spain in its first game.

[hasanabi @hasanthehun]

i’ve been fighting the far right for a decade plus. i never would’ve imagined a labor govt would ban me from entering the uk. dark times ahead for the west. liberalism is dead, maga fascism and it’s corrosive influence is felt everywhere.

[BackinTokyo @BackinTokyo]

@theBeerkid69 Look at the temporary also-rans who traded away their farm system to get around the fact they stupidly paid a handful of aged former stars a billion dollars and then ran into debt trouble because they also have no TV deal! Be like that team!