So anti-semitism and misogyny are okay, but protesting police brutality isn't?

Unless you’re Black and kneeling, I guess https://t.co/2xGNcwBwe8

— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) May 22, 2024

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Gag orders

If you can't handle the heat, get the fuck out of the kitchen

In a long line of chilling aspects of the coronavirus pandemic (not the least of which is the utter incompetence of the Trump administration), one that has come to light (at least for me) in the last few days is the increasing calls to muzzle criticism...with many of them coming with explicit threats:

• A doctor writing in the Daily Kos noted how he and his fellow healthcare providers are being told to not criticize the hospitals they work for for supply shortages or the inability to adequately protect their workers from the spread of COVID-19...doctors and nurses have been asked to delete posts and tweets under threats of their losing their jobs.
• In an ill-advised but unsurprising move (the NFL is full of racist, old, rich men who worship the moron Trump), the National Football League has decided to still hold its annual draft later this month.  The kicker?  Its idiot sycophant commissioner, Roger Goodell, threatened disciplinary action against any team publicly criticizing his decision.
• While it's understandable that Google would be monitoring ads for scams offering coronavirus cures and elixirs or ones that are disseminating misinformation, it is certainly not understandable to ban ads that are critical of the Trump administration's epic failure to protect Americans from the virus...especially when still allowing the Trump campaign to run highly politicized ads.

Desperate times may call for desperate measures, but the last thing we as a nation need right now is the curtailing of criticism to save corporate bottom lines at the expense of dispensing information that can slow the spread of coronavirus and/or keep Americans safer and healthier.

These kind of gestures reek of totalitarian states like Russia and North Korea, and certainly are not a reflections of a nation that is supposed to be a beacon of freedom to the rest of the world.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

There goes my hero

A true American hero

Once again this past week, the NFL completely embarrassed itself (but it's a toss-up whether Jay-Z embarrassed himself more) in setting up a phony workout for Colin Kaepernick and having the much smarter Kaepernick see through it  and shove the NFL's hypocrisy up its ass just one more time.

But I'd like to point out something that was not reported on by any national sports outlet (so much for journalistic integrity...)--at his workout, Kaepernick sported a shirt with the name Kunta Kinte on it.

For those not familiar, Kunta Kinte is a character in Alex Haley's novel Roots who was kidnapped to America as part of the slave trade.  Once under his master's thumb, Kinte refused to be called by his slave name, Toby, and would only answer to Kunta Kinte until it was literally beaten out of him.

By wearing that shirt, Kaepernick made it perfectly clear that he was only going to return to the NFL as a free man, and not as the slave the NFL would have preferred.

Kaepernick has easily been the most courageous and inspirational American of the last decade, and the NFL is much poorer for not having a man of his character and talent among its players.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Why sportswriters should stick to writing about sports

Unless you've been in a coma, it would be hard to miss all the coverage on just about every type of media outlet concerning the video of Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice physically abusing his then girlfriend (now wife), resulting in his being fired by the Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the NFL.

What many may not know (perhaps because neither player is of the star status of Rice), is that there are two  other players currrently facing domestic violence charges--Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers (appealing his conviction) and Ray McDonald of the San Francisco 49ers (arrested September 1st, case still being investigated).  For obvious reasons, there are many calling for both of these players to be suspended as well.

In an interview today, 49ers CEO Jed York said the 49ers would not punish McDonald until due process has played out.  Which prompted San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist Ann Killion to tweet that York had dropped the "due process card."

Excuse me, but due process is not a fucking card--it's a right that's been around since the Magna Carta and is every American's constitutional right, as outlined in clauses in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.  I am in no way defending McDonald's actions (full disclosure:  I've been a 49ers fan since 1968)--there's probably a 99% chance that he's guilty.  But due process exists (as wisely inserted by our Founding Fathers in the Fifth Amendment) for that 1% chance that he isn't--and that chance shouldn't be treated so flippantly.

Just ask the mother and father of Michael Brown what happens when authorities take a citizen's due process into their own hands.

Peace,
emaycee

emaycee's tolerance for bullshit is officially at zero

I'll admit upfront that I've been a 49ers fan since I was eight years old (45 years now) and that I fucking hate losing.  I'll also proffer that even had the 49ers scored on their last drive, there's a chance Baltimore would have won the game anyway--there was plenty of time left for them to score the go-ahead points.

Bad calls by officiating crews in sporting events happen.  I don't like it, you don't like it, nobody likes it.  And I can understand the NFL protecting its product.  The NFL, like all professionals sports leagues, is a multi-billion dollar enterprise.  It's no different than Toyota or Wal-Mart--defective products or poor public perception of your brand is not going to be admitted to and will be fought with an army of lawyers and PR personnel.  Make no mistake about it, though, the officials in yesterday's Super Bowl made a bad call that cost the 49ers a chance to win and the prevailing opinion on the web today (outside of Baltimore, anyway) is that their Super Bowl win is tainted by it.

But the worst part of this sad spectacle is the opinions espoused by one Phil Simms, color commentaror for CBS "Sports."  Simms, for those not familiar, is kind of like John Madden, except he's even dumber and considerably duller.  Simms spouted that it was a good "non-call" and that somehow it was the 49ers fault for not punching in that score, and besides, at the end of the game the players should just be allowed to play.

Is anybody else bothered by the fact that Simms literally told millions upon millions of American children that cheating is acceptable as long as it's at the end of the game?  And that it's the others guys fault if he loses after you cheat? That essentially, the rules don't matter? What kind of fucked up numbnuts brain thought that was a good idea?  I mean for fuck's sake, can you imagine a pitcher tossing a pitch into the dugout, the umpire calling it a strike, and the baseball announcer saying it was the batter's fault for not swinging?  Can you imagine a cashier taking a couple hundred dollars from his or her drawer at the end of his or her shift and telling the store manager that it's okay because it's the end of the day, and besides, he needs to just let him or her do his or her job?

So much of what is wrong with America today is summed up by idiots like Phil Simms whose only talent in the world is throwing a fucking football.  It's about integrity, and if there is any time every sport needs to respect the integrity of its game, it is at the end of the game when millions upon millions of fans are expecting the game to be decided fairly.  It is no time to "let players play."  It's time to make damn certain that the winner is the team most deserving, not the team that can get away with cheating.

Though perhaps this explains how the NFL can lionize and bestow millions of dollars on a double murderer and a serial sexual predator.

Peace,
emaycee