Ugly Americans

Posted on August 8, 2023August 8, 2023 by thependulumswings staff

The Megan Rapinoe penalty kick that went terribly awry hadn’t yet landed in row twelve Sunday, sending the USWNT home way earlier than expected from World Cup 2023, when Twitter and other mediums fired up the disgust, disdain, and downright hate.

America loves a winner that also loves America. America empathizes with a loser that also loves America. America hates a loser that also hates America.

Ms. Rapinoe(we aren’t sure that she would approve of the MS) became the lightning rod in the middle of the storm that this team created. They managed to skip/kneel/ and act disinterested during the National Anthem one too many times for one too many American.

Their gripes were plentiful and aimed at a country that gave them opportunities a plentiful. Social injustices were just the start. Equal pay became the cry. And, mint dyed hair herself said that her greatest accomplishment over the last eight years with this team was “equal pay.” Interesting answer.

People’s want for equal pay in America is tempered by doing an equal job in the capitalist arena. When far fewer folks watch the tv pays far less to teams because advertisers and sponsors get charged less. Usually.

Don’t believe it? Ask any WNBA player.

And, the last straw was her overtly expressed desire for trans women to be allowed to play soccer, and for that matter all sports, with the biological kind. American sentiment runs strongly the other way.

The kick and the team’s shortfall have now been labeled “the woke choke.”

Megan Rapinoe is on a very short list of the most controversial sports personalities of the 21st century. She’s got a lot to say on a lot of topics. America prefers to keep sports as an escape from the daily discourse that is far too rampant.

Some, predictably and as is their right, dribbled in her defense.

Pablo Torre, Spanish soccer player for La Liga club Girona tweeted, “Nothing says AMERICA FIRST more than rooting against *checks notes* the literal U.S national team because they *checks notes* peacefully exercised freedom of speech.”

Someone needs to tell Pablo that freedom of speech in the USA works both ways. If you don’t like red, white, and blue, red, white, and blue might not like you either. If he would have received a Presidential Medal of Freedom as Rapinoe did, he would know that.

The penalty for missing a penalty kick is that you get sent home. The penalty for missing a penalty kick when you have repeatedly trash-talked your home is far greater.

Rapinoe’s world stage just collapsed and not a moment too soon.

That is unless Joe Biden invites them to the White House to celebrate their 16th-place finish.

Ten Piece Nuggets

Posted on May 19, 2022May 19, 2022 by thependulumswings staff

This morning’s Ten(11) Piece Nuggets are so tender and tasty that they can almost replace baby formula. Almost. We’re delivering them to your virtual door this AM because who can afford to drive anymore?

Megan Rapinoe and the U.S. Women’s National Team got what they’ve been wanting for so long. The U.S. Soccer Federation just announced both the men’s and women’s national teams will receive equal pay. The USWNT filed a lawsuit against the USSF shortly after winning the World Cup in 2019 accusing it of engaging in “institutionalized gender discrimination” against the team.
Good for them. Maybe the WNBA, as progressive as the NBA portends to be, will be next. Wait until men’s soccer players who don’t make the team want to try out for the women’s team as they suddenly identify as women. We’ll see what the institution does about gender discrimination then.
Be careful what you wish for. In 2017, the USWNT played an exhibition game with FC Dallas against the club’s under-15 boys team. The famed women’s team, the winner of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, was soundly defeated in a 5-2 final.
This must be viewed as progress. We know you’ve been hearing recently about how men can get pregnant. The Biden administration even replaced the word “mothers” with “birthing people” in the 2022 fiscal year budget. Now if they could replace the word “deficit” in the budget with either “balanced” or “surplus,” that would be a trick as amazing as men birthing people.
Earlier this week, Los Angeles became the second metro area, joining San Francisco, with the average cost for a gallon of gasoline surpassing $6. All of the liberal elite Hollywood types that moved to Canada when Trump was elected can be thankful that a gallon of gas was only $2 back then for their move north.
Forget for a moment, if you have to, who coined the phrase. But doesn’t the slogan MAGA- Make America Great Again sound so timely and desirous right about now?
“In contrast, Russian elections are rigged,” George W Bush said yesterday. “Political opponents are imprisoned or otherwise eliminated from participating in the electoral process. The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine.” Bush took a page(er, chapter) out of the Biden Gaffe book. It was a beauty.
That worthless Iraqi invasion under the Bush administration cost the U.S. about a trillion dollars and too many soldiers’ lives back when a trillion dollars was a lot of money and one life was one too many. So far Ukraine(or Russia if you prefer) has cost us a measly 75 billion.
“You know, those border communities are just getting killed down in southern Texas,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Wednesday. “Biden should be given an honorary membership in the Mexican drug cartels because nobody has done more to help the cartels than Biden with his open-border policies.” If you think DeSantis isn’t gearing up for a presidential nomination run then you probably think men can give birth.
What’s the new number one cause of death in US adults aged 18-45? Looking at their 401k statement? No. Traffic accidents? Nope. Covid-19? Hell no. Fentanyl overdose? Correct. DeSantis will have many issues to run on. This is a big one. It’s one that still isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
It’s been suggested to anyone that wants to write a book about CNN+ that they skip the first ten chapters and start with Chapter 11. Jimmy Failla is a good follow on Twitter.

You’ve been served.