Flag of the Olympics
It was a pretty dreary and exhausting weekend for many people here in the northeastern United States. That went doubly for me, as I bounced between shifts (and an extra shift) and being relieved late, to the hotel room which work provided, then back to work again, and so on. By the time that I got back home on Monday at around noon, after being away since Saturday evening, it felt like the length away from home had probably been at least double what it actually was.
Yes, it was an exhausting weekend. That blizzard, and the ramifications, seemed to extend to almost everyone, for that matter.
However, there was one event which seemed to cheer many Americans up automatically. Namely, it was Team USA winning the gold in hockey with both the women and the men's side.
Let me begin by saying that I will take this opportunity to congratulate the Team USA Women's Hockey on winning the gold medal and bringing honor to the country. But not the men. Please allow me to explain.
For some, it was a relatively rare occasion in which to celebrate something here in the United States, during these dark and divided times. On his recent appearance on The Daily Show, comedian Jon Stewart mused about this, showing that for once, the country seemed to be able to unite in a healthy and much-needed celebration of something good for the country.
Just what we needed, right?
Yeah, hold on.
Just as Jon Stewart went into his spiel about how starved this country was for some legitimate good news to feast on and celebrate, he showed images of the men's team celebrating with none other than Kash Patel. It reminded me of Trump celebrating with members of Chelsea, although they at least had not invited him to be with them to celebrate. Here was an American president celebrating the championship of a team from a foreign country, as if he himself had played and deserved to celebrate along with them. Anything to make sure that he's always the focus, always at the center of everything, at all times.
What a fucking loser.
Sorry, don't mean to be crass. But seriously. What an absolute fucking loser.
Then, Team USA Men's Hockey announced that they would accept Trump's invitation to visit the White House. That move felt reminiscent of Trump using another Team USA Men's Hockey, using them to score political points and lend him and his administration legitimacy that it frankly and obviously does not deserve. I lost all respect for the 1980 Olympic Men's Hockey team with that, much like I lost all respect for the 2026 Olympic Men's Hockey team by their celebrating with Patel and then supporting Trump - let's call a spade a spade here - with the White House invite that the Olympic Women's Hockey team was smart enough not to accept.
Trump joked that he would be impeached if he did not invite the women's Team USA - who also won a gold in Milan - to the White House.
Nah. Let's just stick with the tens of thousands of times that you've been mentioned in the Epstein Files as just cause for not just another impeachment, but this time for your permanent removal from the White House. Or your role on January 6th, for that matter. Or any number of things that you have done - and they are beyond counting, really - to undermine and ultimately destroy as much of American democracy as you could manage. Let's find you a new, permanent home, this one behind bars, and throw away the keys. And never, ever have cameras provide you with any free press or airtime ever again.
That's how to get something really worth celebrating in this country.
Of course, you cannot really get a feeling for what's wrong with this country, for just how sick it is, without getting a feel for the millions of mindless MAGA Morons, right? After all, we have to understand at this point that Trump is merely the figurehead of all that ails the United States, but it's the people who still unconditionally support him who are the real problem. Without them, Trump would just be some delusional old fart rambling on and talking crazy, but not doing any real and lasting damage, at least not to anyone but himself. But with them, the entire country (supporters and non-supporters alike) - and indeed the whole world - have to deal with this crazy asshole being in the Oval Office.
Stewart showed clips - and there were quite a few of them - of far rightwing media personalities expressing frankly ugly, unsportsmanlike views. Rubbing it in Canada's face that they lost. As Jon Stewart asked, do we (yes, they are American, so I have to use the collective "we" here, because this is what we have become as far as the rest of the world is concerned) have to be such dicks?
There was Brian Kilmeade, co-host of Fox News Channel's weekday morning program Fox & Friends, talking shit about Canada. Because Canada - a largely unassuming country that showed us Americans what really good neighbors are all about on September 11th with their hospitality and generosity to Americans unexpectedly and involuntarily stranded for days - somehow always seems to be triggering for Trump and mindless MAGA Morons these days. Perhaps Canadians are just generally too decent for these pathetic assholes who prefer unnecessarily cruelty and ugliness, like the way that they celebrate ICE raids and Trump's blatant disrespect towards other countries, particularly (former) allies. They elected a man to represent the United States, to be the face and the voice of the country for four years (twice now) who systematically takes every opportunity to try and embarrass Canada and undermine it's status as a sovereign country, repeatedly and relentlessly referring to it as the "51st state." Referring to then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "Governor Trudeau." Then having the mindless MAGA Morons all up in arms because Canadians were suddenly not too happy about Americans, pulling American products off the shelves of their stores and refusing to visit the United States (hurting American tourist industry) and jeering the American anthem at hockey games while the unnecessary and completely unprovoked - on the Canadian side - tensions mounted between the two countries.
No, all of that was not enough. There's this well-paid empty suit, Brian Kilmeade, ranting about how hockey is the only thing that they have in Canada. There are other rightwing personalities (whom I admittedly cannot name) claiming that Canadians are "practically communists." They cannot actually defend Trump's unwarranted and unprovoked attacks on Canada, so they simply join in and make justifications. Suddenly Canada's the new Soviet Union. The big, bad guys whom Americans need to fear and hate, eh?
What a crock of shit these elitist assholes are spewing to Americans.
What a bunch of pathetic, xenophobic, fascist assholes!
Again, sorry to be crass. But the situation calls for it. Really, it does.
This is what the rest of the world sees right now, when they look at Americans. These people have given Americans a bad name, collectively. Guilty by association. After all, they are not insignificant in number. Look how they managed to get "their man" into the White House.
And the worst thing about it?
They think that they are the good guys. At least, they pretend to think that, although frankly, I suspect that tens of millions of them recognize that they are doing something wrong. But they are just too stubborn to admit that they are wrong, because it would be too painful and embarrassing to admit that Trump conned them so completely, and for so long, as he has managed to do.
So they will sit by and claim to support him and allow him to do irreparable damage to the country. They will watch him continue to cover up the Epstein controversy, continue to watch him erode and possibly destroy American democracy, and watch him possibly launch invasions in aggressive military takeovers of foreign lands, all because they cannot be patriotic (and adult) enough to admit that they were (and still are) wrong. Too stubborn to admit that they made a mistake, as we all do from time to time.
Yet, these are often the same people who claim to be the "real men." But real men implies adults. And adults are supposed to be able to accept making mistakes so that you can fix them. You cannot fix a mistake if you are never ready to accept that you make any mistakes. And you simply are not an adult, and thus do not embody anyone's image of a "real man," if you cannot do something as basic as owning up to your mistakes.
And let's be clear: Trump was and is a big mistake for this country. There really is no undermining just how big of a mistake that was. As much as some people see it now, I think it will be still much clearer in the years and decades to come.
Still, we have to endure all of this bullshit because these insecure macho men cannot grow up and admit to a mistake.
What a world we live in, eh?
As for the Team USA Men's hockey team?
Shame on you for supporting fascism. Period.
Winning Olympic gold does not give you a free pass. It will not make your shameful actions go away. In winning, and then acting like complete buffoons, you stained your own legacies, as well as that of the country. You have used the spotlight that you could have used to unite the country and, instead, actively used it to shine a light on what is bad with the country.
I don't care about your excuses or rationales. Don't care if you are claiming just to be athletes, and thus honored to visit the White House after a triumph. At this point, anyone who does not realize that Trump is destroying democracy would be the problem in this country. And the men's Team USA apparently seems not to be bothered by Trump's fascism, by his secret masked police force and people being disappeared, by his threatening to use military force to take over other sovereign lands (Venezuela has already been invaded, but Trump has threatened to do the same with Colombia, Cuba, Panama, Gaza and, of course, Greenland), and in the process, united the world against us by giving legitimacy to appearances that the United States has turned into a rogue country, by Trump threatening (yet again) to cancel elections, like he talked about also in 2020, by his once again ignoring the judicial branch, after the Supreme Court held that his tariffs are illegal) and imposing still larger tariffs just days after the ruling (clearly illegal by any reasonable interpretation), and of course, by the Epstein Files and the subsequent cover-up.
If you look at all of that (and so much more), and still cannot see that this guy not only has no business being in the Oval Office, but actually needs to be removed from that office for the threat that he poses to what remains of our democracy, as well as to world stability at this point, then you are the problem.
Yes, Team USA Men's Hockey did something amazing on the ice at the Olympics.
And whatever good feeling they might have provided for a country desperately needing something to legitimately celebrate, they undid it almost instantly by partying with Kash Patel in their locker room and then immediately accepting Trump's offer to visit the White House, thus lending he and his entire administration - and their at this point transparent and frankly, inarguable attempt to usher in fascism - legitimacy on any level.
Surely, they received, and presumably are still receiving, all sorts of congratulations for their achievements on ice.
Me, I am going to go the other direction, and focus on their shameful actions and behavior off the ice, which completely overshadows what they managed to do on the ice. Not only am I not going to congratulate them, but I am going to condemn them as part of the problem in this country. Both the 2026 Olympic Men's Hockey team as well as the 1980 Olympic Men's Hockey team alike, because both teams were guilty of the same thing.
Once, I celebrated the "Miracle on Ice" at Lake Placid in 1980. And at some point in my life, I certainly would have celebrated Team USA's gold medal in hockey in these Olympics.
Not anymore.
No, now my sentiments are entirely different, given the context and their frankly inexcusable behavior.
Shame on you, Team USA Men's Hockey.
SCOTUS Torches Trump's Tariffs, Iran War Looms & MAGA Co-opts Team USA Hockey Win | The Daily Show
https://youtu.be/fOdTHhQ1xY0?si=TiSSl9TPKStdfDCa
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