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Trump : Boycott the NFL
Topic Started: Sep 24 2017, 11:27 AM (93 Views)
George K
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Finally
From the RWEC. Thought it might deserve a thread of its own:

“Red-state populism versus football” is a fun, unexpected cultural match-up. Criticize Trump if you like but don’t you ever pretend he’s not giving us the best bread-and-circuses. Really terrific!

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Wasn’t this supposed to be “tax reform week” for the GOP? Here’s what a well-known political commentator had to say in 2013 about Obama screwing around with politicized sports:

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Imagine citizen Trump’s reaction to Obama ignoring a humanitarian disaster in Puerto Rico in order to Twitter-fart about the NFL. The Birther tweeting during that week would have been [finger kiss] magnifique.

Trump should shift gears and call for shutting down the league over CTE fears. That would arguably be the greatest troll in an historically illustrious career in trolling. In the meantime, everything you need to know about the current political moment is contained in this fact: His NFL tweets are a bigger deal today than him insulting the unstable leader of an enemy nuclear power, which his natsec people explicitly told him not to do, and warning them that an extinction event is approaching if they don’t change their tone.

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This is twice now in a week that POTUS has gambled on longshots to enhance his political prestige. The first was him doubling down on Luther Strange, a likely loser in Alabama’s Senate runoff on Tuesday night and a figure disdained by his base as a handmaid to Mitch McConnell. Now he’s throwing his weight behind an NFL boycott. His bet on Strange was odd in that there’s really no chance of a clean win — if Strange upsets Moore then MAGA nation will be pissed, if Strange loses to Moore then Trump’s influence over the base is in question. His bet on the NFL boycott is stronger in that ratings are already down and will probably decline further as players take the bait and begin protesting in solidarity with Kaepernick in droves. Even if the NFL hunkers down and stands with the players, Trump has placed himself on the side of the flag and the national anthem in pitting himself against them. Hard to lose in that position. If you want to be extra cynical, you might even reason that his gamble on Strange led directly to his gamble on an NFL boycott, with the latter a way to atone to populists for the former.

Ben Sasse noticed the shrewdness of Trump’s NFL comments last night and begged the players not to reward him for it:

https://s26.postimg.org/o75b35vk9/Screen_Shot_2017-09-24_at_2.24.45_PM.png

Is that right? Think it through. If they kneel in solidarity with Kaepernick and in opposition to Trump, Trump wins. But if they ignore his baiting and refuse to kneel … he also wins, because they’ll have left Kaepernick marginalized and allowed Trump to dictate the terms of what is and isn’t an acceptable form of protest. Anyone who’d let a politician use reverse psychology to maneuver them into when and how to demonstrate is signaling that they care less about their cause than about spiting that politician.

To the extent the protests grate on fans on the right, I think it’s less the kneeling itself that does it than the commentary-class pressure to admire the protests that does. Kneeling during the national anthem is as low-key as a gesture of dissent gets; picture players turning their backs on the flag or wearing “Cops = KKK” t-shirts or whatever by comparison. Michael Brendan Dougherty is right that it should be *easy* for both sides to understand and respect what motivates the other in this case, notwithstanding Kaepernick’s douchier criticisms and the right’s issues with Black Lives Matter. But it’s not easy because the professional commentary on it won’t treat it as easy. It’ll run almost entirely one way, in favor of the protests, and it’ll run hot with sanctimony, which in turn will encourage a backlash and needless polarization. Whether Trump wanted to exploit that backlash deliberately or whether he just has a gut sense of which cultural grievances resonate, he gets mileage politically by dint of the fact that he’s willing to loudly oppose the groupthink of his own “class.” A political ecosystem that lets him thrive on stuff like this is an ecosystem out of balance.

Speaking of which, here’s Trump supporter Rex Ryan complaining of the president’s comments, “I never signed up for that.” Say what? Dude, this is exactly what you signed up for. This is Trump in his element, wrapping himself in the flag and picking a culture-war fight that lets him be ostentatiously and profanely “politically incorrect.” The white-identity-politics juice he gets from taking on a bunch of famous black athletes only makes it that much sweeter. This is Populist-Nationalism 101. What the hell did Ryan think he was signing up for? Exit quotation from former Trump staffer A.J. Delgado, wondering why her cohorts on the right are so easily triggered:


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Copper
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Shortstop

There isn't a politician in DC that wouldn't sell their soul for the publicity the president is getting.

Keep draining.

The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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Horace
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HOLY CARP!!!
Donald Trump is the greatest president I'll ever see in my lifetime. He's the only one who's not largely a product of the system, and he's doing it however he wants to do it. He has good intentions. He's not an evil man. I'm loving watching it.

I'm really sorry for the butt hurt folk. It must be really painful. Let's hug it out.
As a good person, I implore you to do as I, a good person, do. Be good. Do NOT be bad. If you see bad, end bad. End it in yourself, and end it in others. By any means necessary, the good must conquer the bad. Good people know this. Do you know this? Are you good?
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xenon
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Senior Carp
So who is on board? Has the boycott begun?
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Horace
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HOLY CARP!!!
I like my Packers way less this season. I am not at this moment watching a game. I'll begin watching in about an hour, when the Packers start. Then I'll stop watching, and I won't think to check the scores of the other games, probably until tomorrow when I have a bored moment at work. I will engage in no online discussion of the game, nor will I be inclined to.

It's not a boycott, it's just what a gradual lessening of interest looks like.

I can't tell you for sure how much the anthem protests mattered to me, regarding my fandom. But I'm not displeased with the timing. This is a good time to lose interest, as far as I'm concerned.
As a good person, I implore you to do as I, a good person, do. Be good. Do NOT be bad. If you see bad, end bad. End it in yourself, and end it in others. By any means necessary, the good must conquer the bad. Good people know this. Do you know this? Are you good?
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Copper
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We don't get the Pats here today so that boycott is easy.

The Redskins have the late game so I might see some of the first half and boycott the second half in bed.

There doesn't seem to be a way to delete my teams in the nfl.com fantasy league. I guess I could delete all the players.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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xenon
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You guys are bad at boycott. Support the troops!
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Copper
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http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2017/09/24/ravens-jaguars-players-kneel-during-national-anthem-after-trumps-attacks-on-nfl.html

Quote:
 
NFL Sunday began with members of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens either taking a knee or locking arms as the U.S. national anthem was sung at London's Wembley Stadium, the first game since Trump launched his attacks against players who knelt during the patriotic song.

Those who were not kneeling, including the coaches on both teams and Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, locked arms during the national anthem at the game in London’s Wembley Stadium. The players then stood up for “God Save the Queen,” the British anthem.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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xenon
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The writing this whole season has been too wacky and unrealistic
Edited by xenon, Sep 24 2017, 12:59 PM.
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