The National Football League has a big orange problem, and it’s not the Cincinnati Bengals. The league’s owners adopted a policy that players who don’t want to stand for the National Anthem must stay in their locker rooms, pleasing nobody, and yesterday admitted they did so out of fear of Trump, who back in happier, simpler times (last autumn) vented his tweeted spleen against protesting players. Just another bunch of American businessmen kissing the vast orange ass.
For all the outrage the NFL protests stirred up, little of it had any impact on the real target, police violence against blacks. We get a reminder of that with the release of video footage of Milwaukee police tasing NBA player Sterling Brown back in January because he argued with a cop writing him a parking ticket. But the police chief apologized so hey, we’re all good, right?
If you’re looking for evidence that Republicans in Congress will ever move against Trump, we’ve found it: lifting sanctions on ZTE:
The Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, by a vote of 23 to 2, approved Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) amendment aimed at blocking the administration from unilaterally lifting existing penalties against ZTE without first certifying that the company is in compliance with U.S. laws. The existing ban has crippled ZTE, which relies heavily on American parts for its phones. American intelligence officials have warned that ZTE’s technology could be used to conduct cyber-espionage in the U.S.
Meanwhile, in Europe, an inquiry into the downing of that Malaysia Air flight over Ukraine in 2014 found it was indeed a Russian missile that did the job. Investigators determined which military unit fired on the civilian flight but have not determined how far up the chain of command the order originated. Russia, which conservatives believe stopped lying as soon as it scrapped communism, denies everything. Just like its puppet.
Think piece for today: Thomas Frank sees the widespread support for teacher strikes as evidence that conservative neo-liberal ideas about education (remember Tom Carer’s continual carping about “accountability”?) are officially headed for the shitcan.