This morning, Karen Attiah contributed a piece in the Washington Post about how it’s time to cancel the NFL.  She summarizes the sorry history of the league as pertains to not only race, but to life threatening brain injury and other chronic injuries that result when 300 lb. guys smash into each other for years.  She also points out that the NFL teams have a terrible track record regarding domestic abuse and treating their players more like assets than people.  The league owners are generally ultra-conservative zillionaires who, as Attiah notes, run their teams with “plantation style” politics and tactics.  Said zillionaires are also more than happy to take billions of dollars from taxpayers for their new stadiums, then complain about taxes they have to pay taxes on the billions of dollars that flow into their pockets from people who pays upwards of several thousands of dollars a seat per game to watch 300 lb. guys try to kill and maim each other.  The whole thing is Orwellian.

After this last decision where players must stay in the locker room rather than exercise their right to free speech, I have to say that I’m pretty much done, too.  It’s not a big stretch for me since I love baseball, especially Astros baseball, WAY more, but I’ve enjoyed watching holiday games, and certainly the Super Bowl.  But it’s time to take a stand.  Maybe if the owners are hit in the wallet will their hearing improve.

Former Verizon attorney, Ajit Pai, who is now chairman of the FCC, is rolling out plans to repeal the Obama era rule that treated internet service providers as common carriers (like cable and network television companies) under Title II of the Communications Act.  What does that mean?  That means that Comcast and other internet service providers can decide what websites you can see and what apps you can use.  They can also throttle the speed of your internet according to how much you pay.  No longer would telecommunications companies be required to provide everyone with equal access to the internet.  Even worse, Pai is also pushing rules that prevent the states from protecting consumers from predatory practices of huge internet service providers.  In announcing his plan he talked how repeal of net neutrality would free the industry from crushing rules that require them to treat you fairly.

Pai, who was appointed as an FCC commissioner after Mitch McConnell recommended him in 2012, was elevated to chairman by Donald Trump in January of this year.  He has since waged war on net neutrality ignoring the the cacophony of opposition from the public.  This is what you get when you put an industry lobbyist in charge of regulating the industry you represent.

OK, I’m breaking the silence on this one.  I believe the behavior of many men, including Roy Moore, Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey, Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein, and thousands more to be appalling.  To expose this behavior is necessary to cure this ill in our society.  #metoo is a strong message to all Americans, especially men and the boys that come behind them.  However, a social contract comes with that solemn responsibility.  Women who accuse men of harassment and abuse MUST be truthful.  We must believe what women say is their experience.  The other side of that contract is that if a women accuses a man of such abhorrent behavior, it must be the true.

Which brings us to Leeann Tweeden, who, this week in an emotional nationally televised statement and followup interviews accused Senator Al Franken of sexual harassment by forcing himself upon her and kissing her.  A photo was then released of Franken supposedly groping her.  Then the truth came out:

https://youtu.be/rJidGI-NMd0

Tweeden is well known for horsing around with men, sexual innuendo, and semi-nude modeling as well as appearing in a number of sexually charged scenes with men.  She’s played grab ass with men on and off stage, and rubbed all over them.  Her shock at being kissed by Al Franken in a skit rehearsal where they were rehearsing…wait for it…a kiss, rings pretty hollow.

She regularly appears on right wing media, and Roger Stone, one of Trump’s henchmen and all around dirtbag, spoke of the attack against Franken hours before it became public.  Ray Charles, were he alive, could see the coordinated attack on Franken to damage a Democrat and distract from the actual predators, Roy Moore, Donald Trump and others now being revealed.

These issues are serious; deadly serious.  Since the beginning of time men have abused and forced themselves on women.  They’ve been disrespectful and even criminal.  To expel this behavior from our society, we must believe women and teach young men to respect them.  The requirement of this, though, is that the accusations against men must be true.  If they’re not true, like Tweeden’s fabricated attack against Franken, cheapens and politicizes a critical issue.  When this happens, everyone, men and women, must call this out for what it is.  Otherwise, we make no progress.  We cure no ill.

VP Dense pulled a not-very-sophisticted political stunt today at the Indianapolis Colts game by showing up for the game, and tweeting this picture of himself with all the blah-blah-blah about standing for the soldiers, the flag, blah-blah-blah, :

As soon as the anthem was over, Dense then IMMEDIATELY left the game, tweeting this: 

Then Trump immediately followed up with this tweet:

Just patriots honoring the flag, right?  Pence comes to the stadium, tweeting he’s looking forward to the Colts game, then immediately leaves, incensed that players “disrespected the flag” by daring to kneel during the national anthem.  Trump then confirmed that he’s a super patriot by instructing Pence to leave if anyone protested during the anthem.  A spontaneous display of flag loving, yes?  Well, no, not really.

NBC News’ Peter Alexander then tweeted that the press corps with Pence had been instructed to not go into the game and stay in the van, since “there may be an early departure…”.  Alexander then reported that Pence immediately went back to the airport and flew to Los Angeles for a fundraiser.

So VP Dense, in cahoots with Cheeto Jesus, wasted millions of taxpayer dollars to jet to Indianapolis just so he could stage a walkout from the Indianapolis Colts game to show his patriotism for his mouth-breathing base.

The stupid thing about this stunt was they thought they would actually fool anyone with this kind of amateur idiocy.  Except for the mouth-breathers, of course.

Yesterday morning, as the slow motion disaster in Houston was unfolding, Donald Trump demonstrated for the 1,348th time since January his absolute tone deafness and poor self control by pushing Post on this tweet:

That’s correct, folks…while the sun was rising on the biggest disaster in the history of Houston, Trump was plugging a book written by his buddy, David Clarke, sheriff in Milwaukee Wisconsin, who is well known for his cruel treatment of prisoners, encouraging the guns everywhere culture and for festooning his uniform with meaningless lapel pins to make himself look highly decorated.  Trump nominated Clarke to the Department of Homeland Security, a job he declined after the ensuing uproar.

So, Trump is plugging his friend’s book on Twitter on the day that Houston was going underwater, people were dying, and thousands of homes were being abandoned.  Thanks, Donnie J, for keeping your priorities straight.

9 TRILLION TONS OF WATER DUMPED BY HARVEY.