Politics Ruin Everything

It doesn't feel like it. It feels like politics has bled into everything.

Let's review some of the biggest Sports stories in 2018, shall we?

NFL

The Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl in February.

Eagles' visit to White House canceled over national anthem dispute

White House cancels Philadelphia Eagles' visit

Let's not wade into that morass. Let's keep moving.

NBA

The Golden State Warriors will win the NBA Finals this week (as early as tonight).

LeBron won't visit White House

Neither will Golden State

Both teams declined invitations before the Finals ended and before they were invited.

NHL

The Washington (D.C.) Capital won the Stanley Cup this week.

Trump congratulates 'superstar' Ovechkin for making 'D.C. poppin' with Caps success

Let's dwell on hockey for a few moments. I'm a fan of Alexander Ovechkin and his 101 mile per hour slap shot. But in a year where the Russians won the Olympics, an Ovechkin led Capitals' team bereft of American talent (except for American Standouts TJ Oshie and John Carlson), isn't quite the same as an NBA team with 80-90% American citizens. (Don't forget, the Cavs' Tristan Thompson is Canadian.) Comparing the NHL to the NBA is really apples and oranges. All I'm saying is that the optics of Trump praising Putin friend Alexander Ovechkin isn't great.

MLB

The Houston Astros won the World Series last November.

Players of all colors and creeds visited the White House. A few abstained from the visit, most notably Carlos Beltran. Let me tell you why Carlos Beltran was right to abstain on behalf of Puerto Rico.

Back in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Southern Coast of the United States. The Hurricane quickly overwhelmed the local government of New Orleans, the state government of Louisiana, and then the federal government under George W. Bush. As the dominos fell from the smallest government responders, to the largest, my argument was, and still is, Bush should have known that Katrina was a disaster in the making. Any direct hit to New Orleans would have been catastrophic since New Orleans was, more or less, under sea level. That was not a secret, I read multiple articles about that fact before 2005. And not in obscure Science Journals, but in places like National Geographic. As the Republican President, he blamed the Democrat local governments and the local government blamed Bush. Bush didn't cause the hurricane, but he was slow to react when the devastation occurred. That is not revisionist history, the people of New Orleans were sounding the hurricane alarm years ahead of time.

Likewise, in 2017, back to back catastrophic hurricanes hit the island of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico was mired in debt and government mismanagement and it had voted to become a state just 2 short months before the hurricanes hit, begging the government of the United States to help them out of their problems. When Irma hit, it rattled Puerto Rico, then Maria hit 2 weeks later and devastated the entire islands' infrastructure. The longest blackout in American History is related to Maria.

Then this story popped up on my news feed while I was working on this article:

Trump must answer for the deaths of thousands in Puerto Rico - From a newspaper in Great Britain.

Today.

All this gibberish about golfing and porn stars and fake news and kneeling are all just noise. The greatest failure of the Trump Presidency (thus far) was the federal response to Hurricane Maria. Trump knew the Puerto Rican government was a mess before the hurricanes even struck and he should have known that they couldn't handle a catastrophic event. Puerto Rico continues to reel from the events of 2017.

So good for Beltran.

World Cup

Next week the World will gather to celebrate the beautiful sport of soccer. Well, not the whole world, the U.S. Mens Soccer Team choked against Trinidad and Tobago (blame the players, blame the infrastructure, blame whoever) and they aren't going. The World Cup will be played in Russia and will be another propaganda jewel in Putin's crown.

Thankfully American Politics will not bleed into this World Cup.

In April, Trump appeared to warn that nations who did not support the (2026 North American) bid may face political repercussions.

Oh, COME ON!

Let me tell you about the corrupt jackals at FIFA. The 2026 World Cup is down to 2 bids. The North American bid and the Moroccan bid. The North American bid is clearly superior and graded out that way. It's not my opinion...

(it is, but I don't have a billion dollars to bribe anyone with)

...it's the official position of FIFA, but the member nations need to vote.

If the member nations vote for Morocco, it will have ZERO% to do with Donald Trump and 100% to do with the corruption of FIFA. Nations will use the excuse of Trump to accept bribes from those friendly to the Moroccan cause.

NASCAR

Donald Trump praises "Patriotic Americans" who watch NASCAR.

Editor's Note: Again, car racing is not a sport.

XFL

Football League with "No Kneeling, No Criminals."

WNBA

The Minnesota Lynx won the WNBA Championship last year.

No Presidential invite for the Lynx.

LeBron weighed in here, also: “So for them (Lynx) not to even be invited – playing our beautiful game of basketball, those women, those girls are unbelievable in doing it – it’s laughable."

PGA

Bryson DeChambeau won the Memorial last week.

He was congratulated by such luminaries as "Tiger (Woods), (Justin) Timberlake, (Mark) Wahlberg, and (President) Trump."

Editor's Note II: Again, golf is not a sport.

Men's Olympic Hockey

Putin was "very pleasant" when congratulating the Russian Hockey Team on their Olympic victory.

Remember, the Americans did not send their NHL'ers. Nothing to do with politics, 100% to do with Simpleton Gary Bettman.

Women's Olympic Hockey

Megan Keller, U.S. hockey team honored at White House by Donald Trump.

Major League Soccer

Justin Trudeau tweeted his support when Toronto won the MLS Cup.

You know who else loves sports besides Putin and Trump?

Justin Trudeau!!!

#Trump