Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
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President Trump has long derided the mainstream media as the “enemy of the people” and lashed out at NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem. On Tuesday, he took his attacks on free speech one step further, suggesting in an interview with a conservative news site that the act of protesting should be illegal….
There is a story—which is usually described as a poem but is more precisely a muddled version of a song written by the jazz singer Oscar Brown Jr.—that Donald Trump delights in reading to crowds at his campaign rallies. Trump refers to it as “The Snake” and his fans know it by that name. “Who…
Players from the Miami Dolphins protest during the national anthem before an NFL game against the Carolina Panthers, November 13, 2017. (AP Photo / Bob Leverone) In what has to rank among the worst ideas in the history of the National Football League—alongside decisions to cover up concussion research and ignore the issue of violence…
Vox journalist Dylan Scott, you will get no argument here: that chart, showing the reported opinions of Trump voters on the NFL, is indeed pretty nuts! The data, compiled by an online survey company called Morning Consult and laid out at the New York Times’s Upshot blog, tells the story of how the opinions of…
The NFL’s approach to players protesting racial injustice during the national anthem has moved to a whole new level of attempting to please everyone. In a matter of weeks, the league has gone from supporting the players, to co-opting and marketing their protests, to trying to squelch the demonstrations entirely, to … well, it’s hard…
Image credit: ESPN The NFL loves nothing more than a hollow branding opportunity. Just look at the self-satisfaction on the face of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones when he knelt, uselessly, with his team before the performance of last night’s national anthem. That’s the look of a man who knows he’s taken something that has nothing to…
It’s been more than 16 months since Tom Brady first placed a “Make America Great Again” hat in his locker and kept it there for weeks while telling reporters that it “would be great” if Donald Trump became president. Well, Donald Trump is president, and I’m going to put this as objectively as I can:…
Jackie Robinson, in his 1972 autobiography, I Never Had It Made, described the moment when he realized that he could not “stand and sing the anthem,” nor “salute the flag,” which calls to mind recent statements made by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Robinson strongly indicted this nation on charges of racism, classism and bigotry: There I was, the black grandson…