It’s no secret that the Redacteds have had a hard time under Dan Snyder’s ownership. In the 24 years he has owned the team, they’ve won 2 playoff games (1999, 2005) and had 5 winning seasons (1999, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2015). Some amazing players and coaches were on the team over those years, including likely future Hall of Fame talents on both lines, yet the team never had a strong run. There was also increasingly more off-field controversy until it all came to a head a couple of years ago. The team became the Commies. Federal investigations revealed, to absolutely no one’s surprise, that the team was a fetid miasma of dysfunction. Snyder responded in such an underhanded and despicable way that it was too much even for the NFL. The Revolution arrived and it looked to be a bright new day for the Commies.
You know who else had a rough time of things before becoming Commies? That’s right, China.
By the middle of the 20th century, China had endured a combination of frequent famines, wars, occupation, and territory losses to the English, the Japanese, and the Russians. Things were so bad that this era is referred to as the Century of Humiliation. The Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with Chairman Mao of the Chinese Communist Party leading the way to a new future. Mao implemented economic central planning modeled on the Soviet system. The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution failed to reduce poverty and the country was no closer to becoming an industrial power when Mao died in 1976.
Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978, tried to fix some of the damage of the Cultural Revolution, and moved from central planning to a mixed public/private economy with Special Economic Zones to foster international trade. While progress was slow initially, it proved true that the Chinese were rebuilding and not just trying out a new way to fail. These reforms set China on the path to where it is today, the world’s second largest economy that has virtually eliminated poverty.
Is Josh Harris more of a Mao, or more of a Deng?
| Mao Zedong | Deng Xiaoping | Josh Harris and the Commies | Winner | |
| Background | Mao’s father was a wealthy farmer. His education consisted of a combination of local schools and independent reading. He was working as a librarian at Peking University when he was first introduced to Socialism and started his political activity.
Mao was a delegate at the first National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, and commander-in-chief of the Red Army during the Civil War. After some years of conflict with the Central Committee, Mao rose to leadership during the Long March. He coordinated the temporary alliance with the Kuomintang during the Second Sino-Japanese War and when hostilities resumed he eventually prevailed over the KMT with support from the Soviets |
Deng was born to a mid-level landowning family. He attended a local primary school before going to a work-study program in France where he met many future leaders of the CCP and joined the party himself, eventually going to the USSR to study at Moscow Sun Yat-sen University.
In the early years of the Civil War Deng’s initial forays into military leadership were catastrophic. The Central Committee banished him to the country where he found political success and further aligned himself with Mao. Deng rose to leadership along with Mao during the Long March. During Mao’s rule, Deng held a variety of leadership positions before surviving two purges branding him a capitalist. Through political maneuvering he was able to take command 2 years after Mao’s death |
Harris grew up in a swanky DC suburb and enjoyed sports from an early age. He has a degree in economics from Wharton and a MBA from Harvard Business School.
He’s primarily worked in finance , making his billions in private equity. In 2011 he entered sports ownership, co-leading a group that bought the Philadelphia 76rs. Under his direction, the 76ers purposely tanked allowing them to build through the draft and become a post-season contender while increasing the value of the team more than 10x. From there, he’s also led groups that purchased the NJ Devils and minority stakes in a variety of teams including a 5% stake in the Steelers. After a failed attempt to purchase the Broncos in 2022, he successfully purchased the Commies earlier this year |
Deng: While Mao had little experience with economics before leading China’s economy, both Deng and Harris have previously succeeded in relevant roles |
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Deng: The 2023 Washington Commies have quite a bit of talent, but their inability to retain veteran players has prevented progress in improving the team, even with consistent coaching |
| Schedule | Easy: Most of the world was entering a long stretch of economic growth in 1949. Even the Soviet Union, which was assisting and advising China had a very prosperous decade | Mixed: While 1978 was fine, the 1979 energy crisis led into a world recession from 1980 – 1983. Afterward, growth rates were good and increasing globalization improved prospects for developing economies | Not Great: PFF estimates they have the 26th easiest schedule, with an increase in difficulty over last year. They do get a couple of easier games to start the season, but the overall strength of the NFC East means it’s rough from there | Deng: There is no post-war boom in the NFL |
With Deng as the winner, it’s possible that we could expect great things from Washington in a few seasons. For this season, it’s very much rebuilding. As you can see from the slow progress at the start of the poverty graph above, it takes time for reforms to take effect. Even if Howell turns out to be spectacular at QB, the offense will continue struggle until the O-line can find an equilibrium and gain experience together. I would say the main goal for this year would be to see if Rivera can show team improvement under the new regime. I think he’ll be able to, but even playing better than last year, the more difficult schedule means they very well might have a worse record. 7-9-1, no playoffs
This is the most interesting and inspired writing I’ve read all year. And the contrast is 😂 🤣
Wow, just wow.
This was excellent!
I guess this makes Dan Snyder roughly equivalent to Hu Jintao — not so politely removed by the other members of the leadership cabal
deng: see, communism works if it has a LITTLE bit of capitalism, as a treat
gorbi: wait, i did that and everything died
deng: no, you just asked for pizza hut and mcdonalds
Gorbi: Those are treats!
average human intestines: yes, but actually no
Russians are used to diet of vodka and sawdust, so Mickey D’s and The Hut are only slight downgrades.
Saying the Turkmen government is odd is like saying Danny Boy made some bad choices as Washington’s owner. I’m very excited to learn about your travels there.
But what does all this mean for Taiwan?
Fetid Miasma of Dysfunction would work as both a FF name and alternative to Commanders.
We can call their home stadium Fetid Field!
Nice Zymm, just to sort of hard hitting analysis this Clubhouse needs. Clever Ma’am, and well done.
Now. Let’s get down to the brass tacks people. Am I the only one who has to log in each visit for the past couple days? Or… WordPress?
Carry on.
It’s been fine for me the last few days but before that I had 3-4 days of that aggravation.
Me too.
yeah butt WEAR is the colum FOAR Hunter Biden’s penus???
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