Sports? Vote With Your Wallet!

A revolution over sports?

This matter of kneeling – instead of standing – at sports events could result in a serious economic downturn, whether people realize it, or not.

The size of the American Sports Machine is immense.  What is a rational approach?  Voting with your wallet seems to make sense.

(Continues below)

 

There are lots of ways to cast a vote.  Let’s tear into the sports business model a bit.

First, there are ticket sales.  If you believe that sporting events are where we go (like church, but with beer) to enjoy fellowship with other humans on the field of athletic competition – where we put aside political, social, and racial differences –  then you know what your option is:  Don’t buy a ticket.

Secondly, there are television ad sales.  If you are sitting at home on the weekend and a ratings service call comes in  (“Hi, what are you watching on television right now, if anything?“), tell them anything but the major leagues that kneel.

Now go to your closet and dresser:  See any “team logo-wear?”  If so inclined, you could toss it all in a bag and leave it at the Goodwill or Salvation Army drop-off.  Same thing with logo sweats.

Next, go to the kitchen:  See logos in your cupboard?  Count them.  They are a sure-fire indication of how brainwashed you are.

Out to the driveway or garage next.  See any “12th man club” stickers on your car?  This is low low-IQ, low-independence people self-label.  Take them off.

Then on to the Man Cave.  Step in.  Take a look around.  See any calendars, posters, stick-on’s, flashlights, hoodies…well, you should have the idea by now.  Toss them in the Goodwill bag,, too.

Now look at your life closely:  Ask yourself “How much time am I spending on sports and what is my personal return on investment (ROI)?”  Spend a few minutes every day with a DayRunner or Task List and set some genuinely worthy goals.  Finish that degree.  Lean the art of fine woodworking.  Scan Craigslist for that new power tool your want.  Change the oil on your own damn car.

Then, when you think you’re done, write down where you can read it every day: “IVWMW.”  (I vote with My Wallet.)

Then look at the institution of sports.

When your city or county wants to use public bonding authority to build yet-another palace to the already-rich enough Owners, you have the option to vote No.

When you go out to eat, how close is your restaurant to the sports complex?  When you go in, are there shrines to different games?  Where did you think the term “baseball steak” came from?

Then there are the local option sales taxes.

The local visitor and convention bureaus tout how the Sports industry is “good for tourism.”

Hold the phone!  Did I just say tourism?

Even the radical Left consistently demonstrate they have no sense of business operations.  On the one hand, they argue that we should all be fighting Climate Change (*which has been changing since the Laurentide ice sheets began melting) – Yet the stubbornly find ways to justify sales taxes and “raise local employment opportunities” by encouraging more jet travel, hotel rooms, high local option sales taxes…

We have past the pinnacle of modern life.  We have monetized everything right down to (and including) human genitals.

Peak Civilization – did you see it go by?  Around 1960, 1970, or so?

That was when one working parent could support an American family.  When unions represented workers instead of politics.  When people actually paid off their homes and where people reduced their expenses to live within their incomes.

Oh, sure…some real boners in the period – and some near-miss events with WW III.  The Cuban Missile Crisis comes to mind.

But America has a bigger challenge ahead – bigger than anything you, your parents, your grandparents, ANYONE has ever seen.

There are 7-billion people and thanks to robotic, oil depletion, NORK Nukes, Fukushima, and insanity in the business models, we have been pushing back that Day of Reckoning.

Up until now, there has always been that one more thing to monetize.  But now, at the sunset of monetization, we face the New and Improved Crisis of Existence.  Robot, Resources, Revolution – those are the replacement three R’s being taught in schools.

Trump calling out kneelers is not the sickness.

It’s the discussion.  It’s the coming to terms with the modern fascination with business models  and financial engineering as a clever tool that allows us to “paper over” all that’s wrong with America.

I have mixed feelings on this matter of kneeling.

As a protest against racism?

Here’s why I’m conflicted — two snapshots:

A young man, black, who plays high school sports, runs the ball downfield toward the goal posts.  He makes  an amazing run to the four-yard line.  Then, for reasons unclear, a young white player replaces the yardage star – and runs in the TD.

Is that racism?

On the other hand, one of my best friends in high school, black, who learned to fly out of his own money went to Vietnam.  We said our good-byes at the Veteran’s Hospital in Seattle a few days before he died.  His gunship had been shot down and he’d been med-evac’ed stateside.

There isn’t a Memorial Day goes by that I don’t remember his sacrifice, paying the ultimate price for the sake of Freedom.  For the sake of everyone.

To kneel dishonors the memory, sacrifice, and the family left behind by this fallen American hero.  A Warrant Officer you never knew, flying low combat missions in a war we hated.

I won’t pretend to offer an answer.  I will point out the economic tools you have in your possession.

These “personal action points” are leverage.  Maybe Owners will come to understand leverage better  – though most use it enough themselves, already.

Ultimately, we vote with our wallets.

But if we don’t get this one right, we’ll need to rebrand the country.  Because the word “United”  with whatever this collection of states has morphed into.

Coincidence?  Random choice? Damned if I know. But I’m suspicious of the New 3-R’s.

Without a quick healing, the bleeding will increase and with it, our nation’s future will dribble away.

Stock futures are down a fraction this morning.  So are America’s prospects to be Great Again.

The Weak Ahead

Housing report from Case-Shiller/S&P, Corelogic tomorrow.

Durable Goods Wednesday, GDP Thursday, and Personal Income Friday.

Next week, we’ll have three days of employment numbers Wednesday through Friday.  ADP, Challenger job cuts and the Official read Friday.  It’s a long ways off.

For today, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index is just out:

Led by declines in production-related indicators, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) moved down to –0.31 in August from +0.03 in July. Two of the four broad categories of indicators that make up the index decreased from July, and two of the four categories made negative contributions to the index in August. The index’s three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, decreased to –0.04 in August from a neutral reading in July.

And the Millennial Bubble/Gen-Z Bubble (Bitcoins) convert at $3,766 when I looked.  But don’t be surprised!  Did we, or did we not explain this back in June?

AWK

(Also worth knowing): Target raises minimum hourly wage to $11, pledges $15 by end of 2020/

Why You Shouldn’t Charge Your Mobile Phone Overnight/

Big Oil Now Bigger?

Yes we have energy depletion, but did you see this?

‘Game-Changing’ New Research on Prolific Permian Basin Estimates 60 Billion to 70 Billion Barrels Remain, IHS Markit Says.

Follow the money? Chevron to invest $4 billion to boost Permian Basin output.

Good news for OM2…except that depletion never sleeps.  This may keep a lid on prices, for a while longer, though.  I read this – Oil hits eight-month high as producers say market rebalancing – and wondered about a pullback.

Moron the morrow…

35 thoughts on “Sports? Vote With Your Wallet!”

  1. You seem to have not mentioned all the restaurants with giant tvs blasting out continuous sporting events. I for one would love to have the option of having a nice meal without being bombarded with all that crap. Boycot! Starting to really get tired of living in a lowest common denominator society. The medium is the massage…..

  2. We can’t necessarily vote with our wallets anymore. Sports are publicly funded, like GM.

    We dollar-voted GM out of business.

    Who dollar voted the stadiums into existence?

    Detroit just opened a new stadium.

    “How is the arena’s construction being financed?

    The Michigan Strategic Fund will sell $450 million in two series of bonds. They will be divided into $250 million in Series A bonds that will be backed by property taxes already captured by the Downtown Development Authority. The $200 million in Series B bonds will be backed by the $11.5 million Olympia Development has agreed to pay the DDA for bond retirement.”

  3. Not everybody that wraps themselves in the flag or uses the anthem as a theme song deserves to be saluted or even treated with courtesy. I just don’t get why games are considered a national institution. Maybe all the patriotic display is confusing some people.

    Maybe pro sports is so big it now needs it’s own military. US military is about 18% of gdp or more so that percent of total gross receipts should get a pretty good one. They also have plenty of fans willing to fight over ANY level of petty nonsense.

    • I lost my patriotism when our leaders stopped being anyone I could respect and no sane warrior would follow to battle. Endless military actions, throwing away the lives of the war fighters, constant regulations and encroachments on our freedoms. So what are we now supposed to be patriotic over? It is also silly that every swinging d_ick event is started with the national anthem. It is embarrassing, people swilling beer and screaming like maniacs, trying to tie that mess to national pride.

  4. End of FedGov fiscal year in a few days. The proverbial can once again is abused as it is kicked down the road with more chunks of it flying off. There isn’t much can remaining. I keep wondering when the can will disappear and we go into melt down.

  5. A lot of this nonsense (and it is nonsense) can be attributed to the fact that the relationship between both sides of the argument is abnormal.

    Professional sports (a cash cow of the highest order) maintains employment practices more common decades ago, and although change ‘is in the air’, it will be some time before they are normalized. (Not to mention that the NFL will have to own up to the problem with head injuries.)

    Donald Trump on the other hand (not presidential at all in this matter) is acting in a reckless, immature, emotional way – not something that should be condoned – he should stop using twitter at once. His actions are hurting the reputation and honor of the office of the presidency! (In jest I say – take up a hobby – woodworking, learn to read for fun, needlepoint – whatever . .. everyone will be happy . . .)

    People need to calm down – there are more pressing problems out there!

  6. Thanks for the well needed tirade on American Sports’ disrespect of country. Sure the players have first ammendemment right’s, but not if I’m paying to watch a “game”. They can address their political issues on their own time and nickel. I have switched over to watching only women’s beach volleyball and women’s rugby. (MEDICAL CAUTION as these sports have been known to give geezers irregular heart rates) No more patronizing the “kneelers” (neither in American sports or in England)

  7. George, good point. And am totally with you on this one. What a bunch of phonies.

    As if Trump cares anything about our Flag. And as if Tom Brady (and the Owners) cared anything about Trump’s obvious tactic of dividing the country to gain cheap points from his white national base.

    They were all big Trump supporters — that is, until Trump’s carnival act visited their world, and their pocketbooks. Now those tax cuts not look so important. Now they’re all Mr. Healing, all Mr. Can’t We Just Get Along. Mike.

  8. Perihelion was the time-frame 1880 to 1914, the “Golden Age of Security” or the Banquet Years, rudely interrupted and loudly contradicted by World War One. The last ember winked out with ending of the Christmas Truce of 1914. Moral slippage began in thee United States with Woodrow Wilson’s wartime fascism, the American Protective League as its Sturmabteilung; but it took a sanguinary turn in Russia with the establishment of the CheKa 20 December 1917. It has been downhill since then.

    Conservative extrapolation from present trends suggests that in the immediate future, the lucky ones will be first those never conceived and next those aborted in utero.

  9. Western Civilization ended when General Smedley Butler gave his speech and wrote his book and Americans ignored it while the criminals he named went on to build the American Empire and take over the world. He was asked to lead a military overthrow of the USA government but instead blew the whistle on the perps.

    “I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”
    ? Smedley D. Butler 1935

    Think of that as the USA sends more troops into Afghanistan to protect the poppy fields and to attempt to make it safe for mining interests to exploit the country. Yes dear Americans, the drug business is the purest capitalistic system in the world.

    https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/115545.Smedley_D_Butler

    All Americans want to be on the winning team no matter how much immoral conduct is required to get that win. Consider the Patriot Super Bowl winners who cheated twice to get that win, once directly by a quarterback who made $34 million that year and even got suspended for a couple of games. Ever hear any serious protest about that?

    I just love it when Americans talk about Patriotism and the flag like it means something. The Germans and the Japanese were some of the most patriotic peoples in the world. The conduct of the USA in the Last 20 years dwarfs the actions of both those countries. Obama the Nobel Peace Prize winner dropped more bombs than WWII. I know you don’t want to hear this, but before you go into denial or cognitive dissonance, consider the fact that there are more than 8 million refugees in the world today, mostly caused by the USA military and USA foreign policy. And BTW, there is more human trafficking occurring in the USA today than in the previous 240 years, including the period of slavery.

    When I came to Ecuador 8 years ago, I used to hear, “Americans, good people, bad government,” from Europeans and South Americans alike. I have never heard that since Obama was reelected. And as for the last Election, I ignored it except to say that America was about to get the president it really deserved. Now think about that, why would I say that about a nice person like YOU?

    • As far as your comment about protecting the poppy fields. That’s the reason there’s so much heroin use on our streets. Factions within our govt are enabling this opiate-heroin epidemic. Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium. They must see all of us as expendable in one or another. What’s the end game is what I want to know. Whats the vision the deep state players have in mind for us ?

  10. Pro Sports is just another “bread and circuses” move by the wealthy to drain the pockets of people who are not wealthy but easily entertained.

  11. I can’t do much to vote with my wallet against the sports nonsense. I’ve been doing that all my life and never attended a ball game. It seems insufferably boring, and if you’re a betting man, you can always get the scores the next day. My work clothes and grungies come from the thrift store, so there might be a team logo somewhere, I never noticed. All I know is that when I’m done with them they get thrown out for good. I’ve met a few girls that seem into the sports team thing, and it’s a point of discord. I just don’t get it. Regarding respecting our nation and its flag, I totally agree with George, and for the same reasons.

    As far as monetizing genitals, I see no problem there. It would be better, safer, and cheaper if it was legal though.

  12. The Anthem protest will likely not spread to college games because the colleges depend heavily on alumni donations,people who are not among the most ardent supporters of BLM.Last year,Michigan had a few miscreants.They no longer do.

  13. I am reminded of ancient Rome with it’s “Bread and Circus”entertainment. The inevitable “rise and Fall” for the USA is on the horizon. I hope our union is better than what the gladiators had!

  14. Oh, I am ABSOLUTELY watching (or at least, listening to, since I rarely watch anything on the brain-cell vacuum for more than a few minutes) every _free_ NFL game which comes on the tube. I am also making a note of every advertiser. I’m not going to suggest anyone boycott advertisers. This is unworkable in today’s conglomerated corporate society. What I, personally, AM going to do:

    Assuming this childish and disrespectful conduct isn’t eliminated by October 16th (that gives the NFL and MLB a month to get their poo in a pile), if you advertise your corporation, service, or product during a game (or the pregame or postgame shows), I…

    …will continue to buy your consumable that I am already using, however, I will retain no brand loyalty. When something better comes along, I’m gone, and once gone, will never be back. Your never-ending expansion of names and product lines is wasted on me.

    To Comcast: I will not abandon my Xfinity, because it is, by far, my best available onramp to the Internet. I will also NEVER purchase service over and above that which I now use, no On Demand, no PPV, no premium television package – EVER AGAIN, for the remainder of my life. If, and when a better Internet option presents itself, you’re history.

    To car manufacturers: I will NEVER buy a new vehicle of yours again – EVER, for the remainder of my life. I will seek out independent garages when I need repairs I’m not comfortable providing myself, and I will NEVER AGAIN purchase parts from your dealer network.

    To food peddlers: If I buy stuff from you, I will continue to do so, but plan on never interesting me in your new, fancy pizza or sandwich, or beverage — ain’t gonna happen. If I don’t buy stuff from you already, I never will.

    Finally, to teams: It goes without saying I won’t buy your merch. NFL Network will never grace my TV. When I go to Indy, Chicago, Cleveland or Motown, Phoenix, Denver, Nashville, Philly, D.C. or the Apple, I will spend no money in your town — none! I will make a concerted and sustained effort to ensure none of my visitor or tourist dollars whatsoever will ever again be spent inside your city’s “tax for stadium” zones. You will NEVER AGAIN see a single cent from my “entertainment fund” for tickets.

    Speaking of, I was in Indianapolis today and saw the front page of the IndyStar on a newsstand.

    The headline read: “Colts, Browns to Join in Protest”

    It should have read: “Colts, Browns Tickets on StubHub for $5 – No Takers”

    (I’ve a friend in Indy who thought about going, then changed his mind. He actually priced the tix…) Granted, neither team is worth two hoots this year, but both have rabid fan bases.

    Professional athletes are entertainers. The least of them are much more privileged and much-better compensated over a 32-week work-year than average Americans for a full work-year. That any professional athlete, in any sport, would retain their lifestyle and complain about income or social inequality is the pinnacle of disingenuous hypocrisy and an affront to any honest observer. That they would insult and denigrate the socioeconomic, political system which has made possible the circumstance which has so-richly rewarded their personal achievement is unconscionable. That their employer, and its sanctioning body, would tolerate such public display is utterly despicable.

    Let them GTF out of the sport. They are replaceable. The difference in ability between the best pro player in any sport, and the worst, is less than a half a percent. Dominance is established by the degree to which a coach is able to eliminate discordant personalities and knit talented individuals into a team.

    I’ve been to several international events.

    You stand for your anthem.

    You also stand for the other guy’s anthem.

    It is called “respect.”

    People who haven’t it don’t deserve it.

  15. Decided to drop by late in the day after letting the ‘news’ get as haywire as it could (for ratings).
    I’ve been having dreams recently of arenas, convention halls etc and then of all things- Trump shows up looking for someone he can’t find and I could not help him. I’ve NEVER dreamt of that man nor even thought of it but there he was and I scratch my head on it.Now if Kim J Un waltzes into the ethers I head for the bomb shelter fast!

    As for the ‘kneelers’ well now, isn’t that a conundrum- or shall I say a box of oxymoron’s?
    1. Take a knee has been historically a sign of respect for an injured player
    2. Take a knee has been a sign of respect for the team/coach when he addresses the starting line up so others can see him
    3. Take a knee in a genuflect is a religious sign of respect for God
    4. Take a knee has been a sign of submission or respect for the monarch
    5. Take a knee is an end play sign of the quarterback on receiving
    and so much more-
    so WHY NOW has it become a sign for platform of free speech, self expression,confusion, mental dystopia, cognitive dissonance, or political disenfranchisement? I am NOT asking George Soros or the Koch brothers about this one.
    Me thinkest there is something BIGGER here at play (no pun intended).
    Pro football like Hollywood, the Music industry, and other entertainment modes has been a major ‘ratline’ for the BIG guys or PTW to run drugs, sex schemes,concussions, bets, using taxpayer dollars for stadiums, sports lobbyists – you name it- why stop the ratline now?
    Because it is part of the SWAMP.
    I even hear a distant bipartisan sucking sound as the drain swirls in TWO directions opposing each other. We must finally be at the equator.
    Face it folks- Trump won, get over it, and he is a wrecking ball of the finest vintage.
    That is what it takes to create change.
    Now for those who hate
    change
    progress
    evolution
    the future
    wise expenditure of money
    get your panties out of the wad and start dancing because change is here and might as well make the best of this party.
    Like the Eagles song, ‘Hotel California’ “We are programmed to receive.
    You can check-out any time you like,
    But you can never leave! ”
    I actually ‘got it’ from this that the mass conscious insanity isn’t insanity after all, it is akin to the Queen bee or Queen ant giving off pheromones to the hive to do her bidding en masse for the collective good.
    The question is: who/what is this queen?

    Take care, stay well and out of any more hurricane paths. However we all know YOU are well prepared for anything!

  16. My Dear Fellow,

    English football hooligans have been around for decades imposing their business model under a cover of violence lamenting non-white players. It’s interestingly contrary then that the American football malaise against the US national anthem even on display at Wembley last weekend sources from disenchanted non-white players. I think if the players had done their homework properly they would have requested and stood for England’s unofficial national anthem dating back to the 1740’s, “Rule Britannia”, to have been played in lieu of “God Save the Queen”. The former states no less than six times “Britons never will be slaves”.

  17. We in Pittsburgh voted no to TWO stadiums and the Governer a congress said yes anyway. Why pray tell?. Every job building, running, and administering is a union, patronage city, and/or social justice contract and they deliver the votes. To have some whining 5 million dollar a year punk cram such repugnant behavior down the public’s throat is made more ironic in the sense that we built the venue where they throw their tantrums. Try this. Go to Yemen or Senegal and kneel for their anthem.
    To owners:
    You provide absolutely nothing that any person on earth requires. Period. Nothing. In grand terms you and your product are worth only what cash people feel is reasonable to throw away. Total discretionary spending. 100% For the record, I was in one of the ‘new’ stadiums once. As a favor to someone. Add this to the fact you punks owe me on the order of 250 million from your last great contribution, I’m sure you know where my money DOESN’T go. Now even watching has become a burden I refuse to bear.

  18. My dear wife is a sports fanatic. Trying to wean her off her preferred drug, I’m afraid, might just require a North Korean EMP strike. The woman even likes to watch golf … ugh.

  19. I am sorry.. I appreciate their opinion on what they perceived the president meant on what he said. But.. I don’t care about what any politician says or what they mean when they say it.. for the most part the majority of politicians are worthless and should be voted out.. we the people keep voting them in..
    by them disrespecting the flag to me is the deepest insult to everyone no matter what race or religion that has fought or died for the very freedoms that allow them the right to make millions of dollars a game.. and in a way they are spitting on the graves of all of our ancestors that have sacrificed for the flag of freedom that they enjoy.. Respect the flag love it or leave it.. with all its faults I am an american to the core.. if you don’t like what is happening in DC then get your butt off the couch and go vote.

  20. “(Also worth knowing): Target raises minimum hourly wage to $11, pledges $15 by end of 2020/”

    Walmart here is starting the kids out at thirteen.. which makes sense.. keep them off of the federal programs..
    I remember applying for a position at a fortune five hundred company.. after the interview the interviewer mentioned what the starting wage was and with gleam in his eye said.. and you would qualify for food stamps.. I chuckled and said I appreciated the offer and that food stamps is not a benefit..
    I don’t think most companies realize what the cost of living really is. they look inside the box and see what the average is for most businesses..if the average wage is eight dollars and fifty cents an hour they will bounce around for ten or fifteen cents per hour.. have a turnover of forty plus percent a year if you interview with a company that is constantly hiring you have to question what is wrong with the management of the company.
    the companies that don’t hire are the ones you either have to wait till someone dies to get in or you have to know someone.. years ago theres a company that I wanted to work for.. anyway the owner of the company noticed that his single mothers were calling in and missing work.. only to discover that if you have a sick child daycare won’t watch the child you have to be home with them.. then he realized that daycare costs were so high that it didn’t really matter.. so he set up a sick daycare and well daycare bussing to and from school so that parents could be at work.. when he and his wife did well.. everyone reaped a percentage of the profits not just the management team.. one year every employee received a large screen tv because he and his wife got one and loved it.. another year the whole plant went on a cruise.. the kids now own the company and don’t have the insight the old man had and of course anyone can run in and get a job its nothing special..
    my father worked for a global company.. with thousands of employees world wide.. when I was five or six I met the owner of the company.. it was my birthday dad was a delivery man and doing his books.. I got the pick of anything I wanted for my birthday gift.. years later ( I couldn’t work there.. the rules family cannot work at the plant where family worked.) I was off loading a truck and in walks the owner he sees me in the truck takes his suit coat off and joins me helping to offload the truck.. all the time visiting about everything under the sun.. again years later he is about to sell his company and it was my parents fiftieth wedding anniversary coming up.. I was sacking groceries at a local market here comes the colonel. ( only name I knew him by ) he was checking out how the products of his company were being displayed.. seen me.. stopped and helped sack for twenty minutes and the whole time he asked me about how my brothers and sisters were and that he wished he could attend my parents fiftieth.. and he left. Now.. here is a man with thousands of employees.. around the world my father was a no name nobody in a small part of the company as a delivery man.. he knew us kids.. the same with walmart.. a woman I know ( who still works with the company about to retire..) started working there.. the manager rode her ass because she had kids.. one early morning she was working night stock and the manager had just met her for her daily ass chewing and she broke down and started to cry.. the little old man stocking next to her asked her what is wrong honey and she started to let it out about the manager.. the little old man said.. oh thats not walmart quality… the little old man was sam.. he just wanted to see the new store and walked in not telling anyone of his arrival and put on the vest and went to work.. these were the men of vision that made work feel like you were coming home the company picnics the laughter… todays men did not have to build anything from the ground up..They looked out of the box.. and looked out for every member of their family.. up till the day my mother died.. the colonel made sure everyone that retired before he sold the company was taken care of.. my parents never paid more than a hundred dollars a year on medical he insisted on it.. they made a living wage.. prescriptions I got the biggest thrill out of running and picking them up and them saying that will be twenty cents.. then watch them double check the prices..
    It is like our power company .. the increase they made just this year isn’t very big but if you break it down comes to seven cents per hour on an average work week. now this isn’t just one but everyone the increase to the company and to the employees the hook up fee’s etc.. for the few employees they have at the local gas station to meet that increase and pass it on to everyone that works for them would have to make and extra fifty grand a year.. so raise the cup of coffee price etc.. they didn’t do that the cup of coffee is the same.. instead they cut hours.. forcing employees to seek federal assistance or find new jobs.. where if the electric company was smart.. they would say hey if you put renewable s on your place.( most companies have to have a generator to take the cut out of peak hours..) your costs won’t be increased but you cannot be reimbursed for the excess power you produce.. for ten years.. they would make an extra billion dollars minimum a year and strengthen the grid.. most power companies build these huge solar farms.. that is stupid be the tree. everywhere they have a transformer or boost station build a smaller solar tree.. it will stabilize the grid and reduce the need for huge infrastructure changes.. area’s that would be out of power would be able to keep the power on during times of storms instead they build them all in one place.. the old saying goes don’t put all your eggs in one basket.. words of wisdom..

  21. George, when you say our military sacrificed for our flag, our anthem. What you’re leaving out is they sacrificed for our right to speak out, to kneel, no matter who they are. Free speech is our 1st amendment right. The supreme court says money is free speech now, you can donate as much as you want to a party, and not even say who you are. Remember Patrick Henry? He said I DISAGREE with you, but I will fight to the death, your right to say it. Free speech is way more than looking at the flag, or singing an anthem.

    • The problem with today is people don’t respect American Constitutional framing values.

      SJW’s pressing on “One nation under what was that again? Oh, we don’t like THAT.” Give it a break. Kneeling is part of destroying tradition. Leon Trotsky and Lenin 101. Revoke history! Don’t remember. Tear down the past.

      When a able bodied person is unwilling to stand – says to me they don’t respect the country. My country. Your country. Not here to share. To lay our differences aside for the greatest concept in government ever.

      Leave if you can’t STAND for it.

      If it’s really so bad that we can all meet TOGETHER (under a single flag) then America is lost. The End is starting as the revolutionaries have taken the field of athletic competition and besmirched hallowed ground.
      Stand or I’m gone.
      As the President said: This is NOT about race. The pretenders, the dividers, the media pundits – THEY will make it about Race, they will make it about God, they will sell another spoiled boatload of shame if they can. I’m embarrassed how many are falling for it.

      You want to demonstrate…go, knee, and have a great time. But when I pay for a TICKET, I was buying a United America. Not the stadium full of angst and social bullshit. I’ll stay home.

      Part of globalism’s effort to divide and conquer the last free country.

      Screw ’em.

      Tell ’em wait outside the stadium until the game’s over or that’s the end of major league sports. If we are to have bread and circuses, at least let’s have good circuses. This spoiled it.

      Attendance figures won’t fit with the bullshit SJW manifesto. Which sport will BK first?

      There’s still am America and we vote with our wallets. We put out flags on Memorial Day, we light fireworks on the Fourth, we say thank you for your service and we still support our local police.

      Kneel. In the solitude of bankruptcy.

    • Professional sports players don’t have 1st Amendment (or any other Constitutionally protected) Rights.

      If you are an NFL player, and there is a hint of “domestic abuse” in your private, off-the-field life, you will be suspended, whether or not charges are filed, and irrespective of a verdict in any later judicial proceeding.

      If you are a Christian, and choose to thank God for the amazing play you just made (see “Tim Tebow”), you will be excoriated in the media and your actions curtailed by threat of punishment.

      If players were kneeling to protest the treatment of our Veterans or failure to impermeate our borders, or the rape or murder of American Citizens by illegal aliens, they would have been suspended from play and banned from stadiums, before football season even began.

      The NFL (and NBA, and MLB, and…whatever) are not public forums, they are private corporations. Their employees are legally, “private contractors” who serve at the whim of the sanctioning body and adhere to the established Code of Conduct, written into every players’ contract. Speaking of the Code of Conduct, this is a quote from the NFL Game Operations Manual:

      _________________________

      The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem.

      During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.
      _________________________

      The NFL is choosing to selectively enforce their own rules. Their enforcement guideline parallels political correctness disease guidelines and follows radical leftist doctrine, not American Constitutional doctrine. The owners are choosing to support players who support cop killers (remember the shirts and socks of the person who started this pantload of perversion?)

      The NFL, and/or any team, can fix this issue at any time. They are choosing not to, and deliberately allowing the politicization of their sport. For those who’re not participating, “sports” is entertainment. I expect my entertainment to be apolitical escapism. If it becomes not, I take my money, and my attention elsewhere.

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