There is so much that could be said about the trend in the NFL to open games with a knee bend. I forebear.
However, the pre-season brought another bout with players from several teams joining the exercise. Of course, Trump responded. Could we put an end to this bickering and improve the agility of football players and fans alike by urging ticket holders to genuflect in place. Not only them, but at-home watchers could join in and send a selfie to the WH.
The Hill.
Of course it is a marvelous distraction for Trump, to deflect attention from other more consequential things going on.
ReplyDeleteActually--a great distraction for me too!
DeleteFake OUTRAGE! DJT lost his shirt when he got U.S. Football League go head-to-head with NFL after so-so spring seasons for upstart league. He owned Jersey Generals. Good name. He LOVES generals. Bad League. NFL ruled. DJT and league sued NFL. Lost big. So sad. Should have got Russians involved.
ReplyDeleteTom, that's interesting. Not being a football fan, I hadn't been aware of that. Though I do remember that for a brief time there was an alternative football league. I asked my husband, who is a football fan about it. He said, "Oh, yeah! Trump owned that Jersey team. He ended up with egg on his face." That totally explains why our notoriously thin-skinned prez is picking fights with the NFL. That and thinly disguised racism over uppity black players having the nerve to express themselves.
DeleteMore pandering to his audience, er, base. Whatever. Trump can't seem to shake the idea that the presidency is a reality TV show.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be great to see all the footballers kneel and get fired, thus cancelling football season and leading to immediate impeachment. Cuz in a battle between Patriotism and the Game, Game gonna win every time.
Fascinating--or maybe --that Trump thinks he has the authority to order the players and the owners around (when he can't even command his own staff and cabinet persons).
ReplyDeleteAnne Applebaum of the Wash Post has challenged my default view that bureaucrats, departments, judges, etc. will keep the ship of state from sinking. I don't think she wins the argument, but she has some good points.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/are-you-still-sure-theres-no-need-to-worry/2018/08/10/a5d8fa74-9cc2-11e8-b60b-1c897f17e185_story.html?utm_term=.711b015fe06e
Well, if the President of the United States ever finds out what his administration just did to Russia in the way of sanctions, he will be well and truly ticked off. His people distracted him with Turkey, but all of his Russian pals, including the almost-forgotten interim president of the Putin administration, hollering, word is likely to get to Fox & Friends. Then heads will roll.
DeleteThanks for the link to the Applebaum article. The only institution that could stop Trump is the GOP.
DeleteThe problem is that too many Republicans rationalize Trumpism because it is pushing back regulations, lowering taxes, dismantling social safety nets, and smacking our "socialist" allies around. They also think that Hillary would, in practical terms, have been much worse. And I think there's a certain amount of anti-political-correctness that conservatives find titillating, even if they know it goes further than it should. Trump is just themselves on steroids.
Conservatives in my circles say that Trump would be OK if they took his phone away and made him stick to a script. But the fact that he is wholly unfettered is what makes him enjoy the presidency so much. He gets up every morning and starts thinking about what kind of drama he can gin up that day so that he can dominate the news cycle and get everyone stirred up. Read his tweets every day. This is a man who is empowered and emboldened, who loves being angry, and you aren't going to be able to bottle that energy back up.
I think that Democrats sort of enjoy this in a "this guy is just HANDING us a majority in November" way. The worse he gets, the more a lot of Dems think that he's added another couple of feet to the grave he's digging for himself. Their work is done for them.
But I doubt it. The pundits are making a lot out of the fact that Trump's endorsees are just squeaking by in primaries. But they ARE squeaking by.
I predict we are not going to see the groundswell of Democrats we might hope for in November. But even if Democrats take back the House, they will not be able to reconcile bills with a majority GOP Senate. And Trump will enjoy vetoing any bills that do get through and shutting down the government.
Impeachment and removal? I doubt it. I think Alex Jones would start bleeding from the eyes. I think Laura Ingram would start foaming at the mouth. I think goon squads of white Aryan nationalists would riot in the streets.
And Trump would find it tremendously entertaining because it would all be because of him.
I'm not sure that Trump in fact does enjoy the presidency. Sometimes he almost seems panicky.
DeleteWell, the serious parts he doesn't understand, yeah. But he does like rallies and having his picture taken. And tweeting.
DeleteThe absence of Trump from the current round of sanctions on Russia -- for the nerve gas attack on the former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain -- is very noteworthy. The sanctions are required by law, and maybe that's what he sent little Rand Paul to tell Putin. (Paul, btw, invited one of the sanctioned Russians on the arrest-on-sight list to visit the U.S.)
ReplyDeleteThese sanctions may not look like much, but Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev emerged from obscurity to say if this goes any farther, it will be "a declaration of economic war." (Medvedev is the guy who sat in the president's chair during the term the Russian constitution prevented Putin from succeeding himself. After Dmitry did his job, he got the foreign minister title, Putin rolled up the puppet strings and Medvedev virtually disappeared until last week.)
The same law that forced Round One of sanctions, which take effect Aug. 22, forces a Round Two in 30 days if Russia does not give satisfaction. Round Two would be about two weeks after our mid-terms. Worth talking about if you want to see a fat man squirm.
Re: Turkey distraction. Watching the wrangle with Pres. Erdogan of Turkey, Trump has made the fight about the Evangelical pastor imprisoned (and then released to home confinement).
ReplyDeleteBut more global matters seem afloat flowing from the decline of the Turkish lira and the impact on foreign investors and the global economy. Does Trump, while pandering to his religious base, even know about that? It's hard (for me) to know how serious the economic issues are, but there was a big burp in world markets on Friday because of the lira.
Of course, U.S. military may still be smarting over Turkey's (under another government) refusal to allow U.S. planes and troops to begin their attack on Iraq in 2003.
Hard to think that Kemal Attaturk the father of his nation would be pleased with any of this, perhaps especially Mr. Erdogan who among other plans looks to be reviving the Ottoman Empire, which was imploding a hundred years ago this year.