The news is a little hard to keep up with these days, ain’t it? It’s like one beat drop after another, with wave after wave of significant developments crashing into our collective consciousness, all while we look at each other in shock while attempting to process the previously delivered consequential happenings.

In this new day of fluid rosters and this age of wheelin’ and dealin’ in the NFL, the Free Agency period this week has been WILD…! It’s a sight to behold to see all of these teams and how they compete with and navigate one another to build a team according to a shared organizational vision. I’ll catch up on the football analysis side of things soon, soon, but let us talk about how during one of X/Twitter’s prime traffic usage times of the year, the social media platform went down!!! Hmm that’s suspicious, no? The funny thing is that the (semi-new) owner, Elon Musk came out and said it was a cyber-attack. Well, the lad has not been making a ton of (non-rich) friends recently, so maybe that clears.

What’s that? “Why”, you say? Isn’t he the glorious hero of a new age of technology and free speech? I’ve got a lot of links for you to check out (since this is not a topic to be talking out of your ass on), so let’s discuss why it’s a “no” from me, dawg.

What I’m trying to figure out is why he’s playing victim, which could be valid… but blaming it on (as one of the best comments points out), “a tiny war-torn country” that his governmental comrades were just seen disrespecting in front of the cameras? That’s a little weird. You see, what many Americans saw was a shouting match between President Donald J. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, in hosting Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That didn’t exactly scream (pun always intended) diplomacy to the global audience, no matter what your opinion of foreign aid may be.

You know what? That may have been the first time we’ve all seen that (complete with finger wagging), and it was a disgrace to see the man in the Oval Office disrespect the leader of an invaded country, cutting short a meeting at the White House. Prominent quotes from the president and VP included: “Don’t tell us what we’re gonna feel!” and “Have you said thank you, even one time?”. How about a little, “You’re gambling with World War III!” for good measure? Yeah, you could say that escalated quickly!

Ok, now let’s balance that with how Trump treated the Israeli PM . Why does Israel get the peaceful, patient and paying version of America? Who owes who? He wants to talk tough around a small country who is requesting help during an invasion, then act like a lap dog around those who are pulling puppet strings… for what it’s worth, Apple News reported that, “prior to Friday’s meeting, the defense secretary ordered the pentagon to pause offensive cyber operation against Russia, but didn’t offer further explanation as to why”. Fascinating!

I think we can all agree that the current administration makes a habit of propaganda and lies. Just ask the VP. There was an estimated total of 30K lies and pieces of misinformation reported in his first term. This dude Musk is accessing the same vein of wonton and reckless misinformation. I think we can all agree.

I mean, it’s not even about the policies anymore! It needs to be studied, because it’s more of a social movement than political prose. The answer, to me, is that the MAGA movement is founded on toxic white outrage. I believe the move to elect someone like Donald Trump was a direct response to the hiring of America’s first ever black president, in Barack Obama. There are some that really hated that the U.S. elected a black man to lead and felt that the culture of America had gone too far. They then decided to answer by electing a reality star / corporate magnate / nationalist bully as the very next president.

Since that point, we’ve seen the presidential race devolve into tacky debates about each other’s golf game… and now, he’s revealed himself as an imperialist beyond a shadow of a doubt, in his quest for Greenland and the Panama Canal.

Let me get this $h*t outta the way up front: I am no democrat.

I was in college, when I started to see the ills in the world on a global level for the first time. Then you start to see, read and learn things. The whole capitalist two-party system is crooked anyway. Both sides want to benefit off of people and feed billion-dollar industries.

There is something worse happening now, however. I mean, look at this atrocious video, rife with colonizing overtones I’m glad they left comments on so we can so how even his own supporters are dogging this . And yet, here we are, saying goodbye to the department of education. It won’t go away completely, as this is a boundary that Trump is sure to test… but USA Today had this to say: “Programs and activities receiving ‘any remaining Department of Education funds’ won’t be permitted to promote diversity, equity and inclusion”.

Now they want to erase Harriet Tubman from history… This is not D.E.I., this is American history under assault.

The current regime are masters of rhetoric. They try to distract from concerning plane crashes with talk of DEI. The COVID outbreak forced a lot of pilots, mechanics and flight attendants to retire early, causing somewhat of a shortage… then Trump comes along to fire everybody that isn’t loyal to him. Aviation safety reporter, Darrell Campbell being interviewed for Apple News had this to say: “It takes two years to get an air traffic controller from initial hiring to qualified enough to start actually working in the tower. It takes about that long for a pilot to get certified. This is not just a switch that you can turn on and off overnight”. With that scalding soup of ingredients, here’s what comes out in the soup.

Don’t be surprised if Elon Musk and SpaceX come in and institute ‘changes’ to the FAA and aviation industry at large that purport to ‘solve’ all the problems we’ve been seeing. Those problems will have been partly created by Trump and his men in the first place! We’ll see if the use of strategic and widespread international tariffs follow that same pattern. Taking out the competition to gain more control over markets and industries? Listen to Reagan, man. I’ve heard it said that all the trump supporters (especially those in gov’t and military) complaining about how they didn’t know about how things would affect them is like the trees voting for the axe… It’s sad.

And now, we have classified war plans being accidentally shared in a group text to a reporter from The Atlantic… they said some of the messages were set to disappear it seems that the new administration needs a little bit of help from some of those diverse, equitable and inclusive people who know what they’re doing.

Now, let’s shift our focus to le Trump’s powerful lackey: Mr. Musky. Great guy, btw .
Greeeaaaat guy!

He was recently seen trying to convince voters to dissolve the pillars of American democracy. He’s trying to create apartheid in America, because it’s what he and his family benefited from and were molded by in South Africa. The majority benefits from the exploitation of the minority. The rules will not be the same for everybody. They don’t give a is what I’m trying to tell y’all. Here’s his daddy, describing the process of grooming as “getting along well”.

Did you hear about the Gold Cards idea that Trump unveiled? They are going to be selling the rights to be an American citizen. How far from the idea of the United States of America have we strayed? Actually, don’t answer that. This may actually be a callback to America’s ugly past…

Both Trump and Musk are dangerously powerful individuals who have made their goals pretty damn obvious. Like how do you really justify this? It’s a true American disgrace. And on the left, you’ll see Elon trying to rally people to see the system of checks and balances that are paramount to the American democracy as bad things. someone get this guy off my TL.

No matter our political ideologies, let’s keep it a buck about this guy and who he is… Bill Burr can.

Elon’s business ventures benefitted greatly from (and some say only lived due to) government funding and loans and yet, he has been hacking and slashing that same funding. Musk has “called to end the consumer credit for electric vehicles that experts say helped boost sales for Tesla”. Way to take out the competition and establish a monopoly So you think that’s the end of it? This man wants to make the USA a dystopia for most, and a playground for a very few elites!!! Welcome to the hellscape of an American oligarchy.

People were making fun of the term “woke”, and now we’ve got to wake your asses up.

This is what is happening, and it’s real. This is way bigger than democrat vs. republican at this point. It’s bigger than anything about race. This is about powers and mechanisms of greed and evil. The richest men in the world, including Jeff Bezos, are ready to collude.

Social media bans should scare you. I’m not saying we’ll become an isolationist state, but searching the social media accounts of incoming travelers for any “hatred of Trump’s policies” at immigration definitely moves us one step closer. It’s also important to keep in mind that propaganda is a very powerful and proven tool of the government. They have that tool in their grasps at this very moment. Look at the level of control and manipulation at the border. Not just that, but they are trying to get their hands on public data regarding crime, class, race and justice. These men are trying to distort reality to fit their own list for power and currency. I mean shit, at this rate we may have to vote to get Trump out of office, and the results could very well be rigged. Ya think Trump and Musk want the kind of power that Putin has over his country? 

THIS IS ALL VERY WILD! but not completely unprecedented… Fascism is a real thing.

I recently saw that Musk-eteer endorsed the idea of pardoning George Floyd’s killer… a concept that NOBODY was pushing for. That’s not the end. Musk has continued to reference, like and interact with nazi pages and ideals. Each time he does, even if it’s innocent, drives follows, engagement, views and dogma/paradigm setting. I believe he, and people associated with his agenda, are at the heart of vitriolic hate and negative discourse around films, shows and video games that depict non-white, non-men in any way (Captain America, The Last of Us, Snow White, Assassins Creed, etc.). The linked tweet was less than a week after the named game’s release after it debuted to strong reviews… It’s got me rollin’ to see him get ratio’d by the gaming studio itself! Look at the way his tweet of a fake news article impacted an actress that had nothing to do with the situation. Expect more and more and more and more and more of this rhetoric. Some conspiracies would point to this very rhetoric being manufactured by people who wanted to create a racial divide in America. The kind of divide that would allow a leader to gain the kind of support that would allow him to grab all available power.

Musk’s tweets about bitcoin literally impact its value, devaluing markets with his influence is nothing new. This man is trying to exploit the public perception of doge coin just like he did for Tesla (and will do again) when they were not a profitable company. In fact, exploitation is his whole modus operandi! I do not think that he’s dumb at all. I think he knows EXACTLY what he’s doing!

Should we dive into how the whole tariff thing has turned out to be simple market manipulation? The profit is not meant for your grubby little paws, either (unless you are among the extremely wealthy, of course). This is not for the good of the people.

Donald Trump made a presidency out of saying whatever he wanted, then when confronted about it, giving some dismissive explanation for it to the media. That salute by Musk was right in line with that whole ideology. This man does not give two cares about what you have to say, and he does not care if you know that he’s profiting, or if you find inconsistencies in his actions. Remember that in the election process leading up to his second term back in October, Donald stated that he would leverage U.S. forces and the National Guard to quell “radical left lunatics”. The current administration has their hands on so many levers of control and propaganda, that it’s hard to keep up.

Trump wanted to send immigrants to a war prison reserved for 9/11 terrorists… until that was struck down by people with sense, who’s said the conditions weren’t humane. Man, who is the lunatic here? There were reports in the Washington Post of invasive strip searches any time a migrant left/returned to their cell. I mean, what can we expect from the first president that’s a felon, right? That’s 34x felon to you, bucko!

Elon Musk contributed $250M to the Trump presidential campaign, and in return, he was given access to sensitive American data. Musk now has access to your social security number, home address and more. in the hands of a recreational ketamine user (and all that entails).

The final straw is this… Elon Musk has openly talked of some of the things he’s about. He wants people to know that empathy is a negative thing. Tough to get more evil than that jawn right there. Since he wants to allude to nazis, let’s play on the same field and bring up a quote from when the world was finally able to purge one of the greatest large-scale evils:

These are real life bad guys lol. The types of guys that were (somewhat problematically?) portrayed as Russian villains in 80’s. The guys that were looking to enslave, destroy and conquer before Bruce Willis had to ride in yelling yippee ki-yay mf’er!

Are we going to just let whatever happen? This guy gets to come to our country and tear it down from the inside fr? He must be stopped. He and his prospective tyrant leader want the power of kings… that is exactly the thing that caused people to LEAVE a ‘great’ nation (Great Britain) to create the U.S.A., as something ‘better’. But here we are .

I thought it was American to fight for your rights and freedoms, not accept a man who wants to take them away from people? Musk’s own AI thinks it’s highly probably that this regime is crooked! You couldn’t make half of this shit up if you tried. Some of ya’ll have become some straight up villains, let me tell you.

^The above is, unfortunately, one of my connections on social media. The good news is that it’s not too late to change things. Change begins with organizing. Hopefully it does not have to end in revolution. I don’t have enough trust in Musk and Trump to believe that it won’t be necessary. Even tools of the Republican machine don’t trust him.

American Football is (shockingly) very American. How appropriately meta (). It’s a true meritocracy, bringing together men of all races and creed to form a cohesive unit that works together for a common goal. We must work together and think of more than just ourselves if we want this to be the greatest nation. If we want to live up to the ideals of the America you have in your head.

Anthony Mackie said that Captain America doesn’t stand for America, but the ideal of her. Comic book fans should be relieved that’s the case. I’ve seen so many angry, possibly incel, men cussing his ass out on Facebook over this and they HATE that Cpt. America is black bruh… not all of you do, of course. But the U.S. as an ideal is very different from how the U.S., in actuality would look. Maybe more like Winter Soldier? .

If you ever wondered how a nation could let a ruler commit atrocities against humanity and take advantage of the common people, then we may be seeing your hypothetical resolve from your youth tested now as a full-grown man/woman. This article may be ironically named, as it was the pioneering black jazz musician, Thelonious Monk who supplied the name for the situation we may be in now: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

Let’s stand together, y’all! Keep your head on a swivel, die hard, and don’t be afraid to fight for those freedoms and truths that we hold to be self-evident. As Captain America stated in Brave New World: “if we can’t see the good in each other, then we’ve already lost the fight”. What makes the United States of America great, in her own way, are her people. We will not go away, with our free will stripped from us.

Listen to Reagan again, fam. Let’s remind ourselves, and anyone else who needs reminding, “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people”. Thank you, V for Vendetta.

If the USA’s newest General Manager gets us into trouble, turmoil and strife, then we all need to hire planes, buy billboards, send hate mail and let our voices be heard just like when your favorite team is being run into the ground! Come on Washington D.C., you guys saw this happen with your very team! Now look at you! We’ll lobby the owners… you know who the owners of the Unites States of America are?

We, the people.

Now we have white people climbing and falling off of walls, breaking down the doors of the US Capitol, stealing in broad daylight and injuring and killing officers like it’s nothing. Hmm… seems like you’re not so worried about blue lives mattering, disrespecting the flag, this country, or our democracy anymore WEIRD!!!

It was an act of terror by Vanilla Isis in this country. And they want to talk about WHY they did it. Even if the claims of election fraud are baseless and certified false by their government, they won’t stop until the issues are addressed. Let me stop and ask if anyone does NOT see the double standard here? Our issues, of being brutally killed without cause (literally reported on and proven in so many cases over the last couple of years and beyond) or justice were deflected by the privileges of this country, but when there are issues (conspiracy theories or not) that they want to talk about, there will be hell to pay, and the same rules DO NOT apply. Those are the facts.

I’ve seen deflection and gaslighting tactics being used quite a bit, in politics, in media and on the posts of that one newly radicalized Trump supporting acquaintance you had from high school that is still on your Facebook. These tactics are used to neutralize any talk of racial inequality and make the argument about something else entirely. “Athletes shouldn’t be talking about politics”, they should “Shut up and dribble”, they “Play a kids game”, “My grandfather didn’t serve in the war for this” (yes, he literally did)… We could probably start a trending Twitter chain with all of these deflection comments that we’ve all had the misfortune to read or hear. They want to get you talking about and defending any other aspect of the conversation BUT the actual matter at hand.

Privilege is defined (with a quick Wikipedia search) as a “special advantage or entitlement, used to one’s own benefit or to the detriment of others”. Now, this doesn’t automatically mean that your life isn’t hard, it just means that your skin color is not one of the things that you have to worry about as making your life harder. LearningforJustice.org had this to say about white privilege specifcally: “White privilege is—perhaps most notably in this era of uncivil discourse—a concept that has fallen victim to its own connotations. The two-word term packs a double whammy that inspires pushback. 1) The word white creates discomfort among those who are not used to being defined or described by their race. And 2) the word privilege, especially for poor and rural white people, sounds like a word that doesn’t belong to them—like a word that suggests they have never struggled”. Privilege is also something that can be used for good… so please… get over it. We need you keyed in here.

Cries for help and justice shouldn’t need to be worded or packaged perfectly for you to have your human compassion kick in. Remember that. Don’t let people highjack your holding and delivering of truth just because its not convenient or easy for them to hear it. I couldn’t believe that Emmanuel Acho would let Colin Cowherd imply that. People are being targeted and brutalized due to their skin color, but GOD FORBID that Colin should feel uncomfortable! The attempted coup at the capitol showed us that when the tables are turned, doing what you feel you have to do is no longer an issue.

The cannabis industry is another perfect example of this. The war on drugs locked up so many black people (destroying lives, communities and families) for something white people are now being praised for getting rich off of. The crime bill made it so that weed could get you 15 to life… ISN’T THAT INSANE?! Weed was criminalized and stigmatized for us. Now everybody is trying to get into the cannabis industry (billboards on Venice Blvd., weed cafes where hipsters can go, weed theaters are being planned, Budweiser invested millions to get a piece of the pie, whole new government departments for it). The rules that were used to punish us are now being changed (because ‘suburban moms’ are now more comfortable with it) so that the kid who has the leverage can benefit.

It’s not about the letter of the law anymore, because that has been used to extort us. We need to look at the systems in place in this country and talk about how they affect our communities. Why is it that we all know this interaction would’ve been MUCH different if it were a black lady? I could’ve chosen any number of videos or cases out of the grab bag…. law enforcement takes much better care of white bodies, and white people have come to expect their rights. Can we all get that from those who are supposed to PROTECT and SERVE?

And so, let’s call it what it is and admit that the rules and mechanisms of this country are set up to protect and serve a specific group of people. This is America. That must change. We have to call out deflection tactics and push past privilege. And i do mean WE. You have to call the entitled kid on the double standard and let them know you’re not playing those little games. I can only hope that Drew Brees comes out to denounce the capitol breach as loudly as he came out against his own teammates kneeling for injustice