Ouch! NFL TV Ratings Drop Again As Angry Fans Exercise Their Own Rights

Hot Air

As a disappointed and likely apocryphal Hollywood producer once said about a box-office flop, “If people don’t want to come, you can’t stop them.”

. . . "Despite the always insightful, candid commentary of Jon Gruden, this week’s Monday Night game on ESPN lost audience again. It was actually a pretty good game, by all accounts. After the 29-20 win, Kansas City remained the only unbeaten team at 4-0, while Washington fell to 2-2.

"This game though drew 13% fewer viewers than last week. And the drop was worse — 16% — in the key demo that ad buyers covet.

"The game drew 11.9 million viewers, down almost two million from last week.

"Perhaps even more disturbing for the 32 billionaire team owners, another sponsor pulled its ads over the protest controversy.

"Said Steve Kalafer, a mega-car-dealer and baseball team owner in New Jersey:

The National Football League and its owners have shown their fans and marketing partners that they do not have a comprehensive policy to ensure that players stand and show respect for America and our flag during the playing of the national anthem. We have cancelled all of our NFL advertising (for 2017)…As the NFL parses the important nationwide issues of ‘social justice’ and ‘freedom of speech,’ it is clear that a firm direction by them is not forthcoming.

. . . "Reaction against protests by the multi-millionaire players has been emotional and nationwide with President Trump weighing in. We wrote here Monday about a Georgia high school football team that had its own surprising patriotic response to the pro protests." . . .

4 Ways out of the Korean Crisis

The National Interest

. . . "Yet, the main responsibility for today’s awful predicament on the Korean Peninsula must fall squarely on the George W. Bush administration that recklessly linked North Korea to the 9/11 attacks and sent Kim Jong-un’s father on a headlong rush for the bomb that culminated four years later in Pyongyang’s initial nuclear test. In an ironic and dangerously perverse twist of fate, some of the same incautious thinkers that dreamed up and pressed the “Axis of Evil” doctrine in the first place are now in positions of influence regarding the present crisis. The press was all too busy unraveling the fiasco of the Iraq War to ascertain its second order effects in Northeast Asia, much less to call to account those responsible. Is it any wonder that President Donald Trump’s speech before the UN in September had an eerie similarity in tone to Bush’s infamous 2002 speech? By now, Americans are quite sick and tired of neoconservative bromides that make for ringing rhetoric, but have had disastrous policy outcomes. However, to put disasters into true perspective, a new Korean War would quite obviously make the Iraq War look like a garden picnic." . . .

ISIS terrorists sure are celebrating the massacre of Americans

Pamela Geller  "A pro-ISIS channel named Las Vegas USA is dedicated to celebrating yesterday’s attack, criticizing President Trump, and issuing further threats. One graphic shows an image of President Trump waving on one side, and the other side of the graphic shows the aftermath of an attack. The quote featured in the graphic reads: 

New details emerge about Marilou Danley, girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock

WaPo  . . . "Employees at a Starbucks in Mesquite, Nev., however, described the couple’s relationship differently. A supervisor at the coffee shop told the Los Angeles Times that Paddock often berated Danley in public. The Starbucks is the only one in town and is inside the Virgin River Casino.  

“ 'It happened a lot,” Esperanza Mendoza, supervisor of the Starbucks, told the Times. He would verbally abuse her when Danley asked to use his casino card to buy food or other things inside the casino, Esperanza said.

“ 'He would glare down at her and say — with a mean attitude — ‘You don’t need my casino card for this. I’m paying for your drink, just like I’m paying for you.’ Then she would softly say, ‘Okay’ and step back behind him. He was so rude to her in front of us.' ” . . .

Relatives say the roots of Paddock’s loner lifestyle may have been planted July 28, 1960. On that day, when Paddock was 7, a neighbor from across the street took him swimming. The neighbor at the time told a local newspaper that she knew authorities were coming for his father, a bank robber, and she wanted to spare the boy the trauma of seeing his father hauled away by authorities.

No, gun silencers wouldn't have worsened the Las Vegas shooting

Cory Warren at Libnorants

FACT CHECK: DO GUN SUPPRESSORS REALLY SILENCE ‘THE SOUND OF GUNSHOTS’?  . . . "Joshua Waldon, CEO of the gun suppressor designer and manufacturer SilencerCo., estimated to TheDCNF that unsuppressed gunshots range between 155 to 165 dB, while suppressed gunfire range in the “upper 130s,” a 20 to 30-decibel drop." . . .

Tony Branco

If I Were Hillary Clinton...

. . . "If I were Hillary Clinton...well, I am not, and neither is any of you, and thank God for that." . . .

Photosnark by Rich Terrell

By Elizabeth Nahas   "Hillary Clinton is a tragic figure.  Those were my thoughts after it was safe to say Donald Trump had won the presidential election.

"Prior to Trump's victory, I expressed concerns to my liberal friends about Hillary Clinton's continuous drift toward leftism, socialism, whateverism.  They tried to allay my fears and expressed absolute belief that as president, she would return to the centrist positions of her husband.  Although their sincerity could not be questioned, I saw blind loyalty to a power-hungry woman as naïve and, more significantly, dangerous.  Thankfully, Mr. Trump upset the apple cart, and we will never know what may have been.

"Once the dust settled, I agreed with President Trump.  Although this woman had committed acts of malfeasance, never mind possibly putting our country at great risk, I thought the loss of this election was so humiliating as to be consequential enough.  My thoughts changed when Mrs. Clinton came out of hibernation and spoke at her alma mater's 2017 commencement.  After her pathetic show of poor sportsmanship, I wondered what it is like to be this woman and began to review some of her momentous actions.  I decided to speculate how many of us would have approached them differently." . . .  Read the entire article here.. . . 

Columnist Elizabeth Nahas is Acura Facilitator/Process Management at Pohanka Acura in Washington D.C.

Related to Hillary: No, gun silencers wouldn't have worsened the Las Vegas shooting

Sports and Politics; I can't take it anymore!

ESPN changes mind, decides to broadcast anthem before Redskins-Chiefs game    . . . "The TV networks and NFL are well and truly trapped.  Their failure to act has made the anthem protest bigger than the sport.  But even though they want the whole issue to disappear, they can't help but cover the story, given fan interest in the protest.

"The three K.C. players who refused to stand during an anthem dedicated to the victims of the Las Vegas massacre showed that all their talk about their protest not being anti-American is just that – talk.  While the entire nation is in mourning, their petty, political protest took precedence over showing solidarity with the victims. 

"I'm sure the Canadian Football League would welcome them with open arms." . . .

Politics and Athletes . . . "When the Baltimore Ravens kneeled in unison before Sunday’s home game with the Steelers, the fans booed them (apparently misinterpreting the team’s gesture). All the talk about “unity” is beside the point. There is no team unity, only individual decisions. You know, Americans."

Roger, Over And Out

Earl of Taint

Hysterical Keith Olbermann calls on foreign countries to release damaging intel on Trump

 . . .  “I appeal to the intelligence agencies and the governments of what is left of the free world,” Olbermann began, “to them as entities, entireties, as bureaucracies making official decisions and to the individuals who make decisions of conscience, to GCHQ and MI-6 in the U.K., to the BND in Germany, the DGSE in France, the ASIS in Australia, and even the GRU in Russia, where they must already be profoundly aware that they have not merely put an immoral cynic in power here, but an uncontrollable one, whose madness is genuine and whose usefulness, even to them, is at an end.

“To all of them, and to the world’s journalists, I make this plea,” he continued. “We, the citizens of the United States of America, are the victims of a coup. We need your leaks, your information, your intelligence, your recordings, your videos, your conscience. The civilian government and the military of the United States are no longer in the hands of the people. Nor in the control of any responsible individual on whom you can rely.” . . .

I'm sure little Kim in North Korea will help.

Keith Olbermann Calls the NRA 'a Terrorist Organization'  "Keith Olbermann, probably the only person ever fired from MSNBC for being too radical, cited former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger and claimed that the Second Amendment doesn't guarantee people's right to own guns.  . . .the Framers had intended for it to be a gun-control measure. He said it was meant to limit our access to firearms, not enable it. "The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed..."

Why the Media are in a Never-ending Hunt for Right-wing Violence
 . . . "Facts on the ground: 

-- Approximately every other year since forever, liberal hooligans have been rampaging through the streets, beating people up, setting off bombs, killing cops, smashing store windows, assassinating politicians and burning down neighborhoods -- against capitalism, Vietnam, Nixon, Wall Street, a police shooting, Trump, Starbucks, a sunny day. -- Conservatives, mostly families, have generally avoided even the mildest forms of political protest, and, when they finally are driven to petition the government over their grievances, they pick up after themselves-- at tea parties, town halls, Trump rallies and so on. Result: The entire media are constantly on Red Alert for the threat of Right-Wing Violence.. . . 

"Remember when polite, hardworking Americans came together to oppose Obamacare at tea party rallies in 2009 and 2010?
"Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Steny Hoyer called the protesters "un-American." The Democratic National Committee called them "rabid right-wing extremists." Sen. Harry Reid called the tea partiers "evil-mongers."
"Jimmy Carter pronounced an "overwhelming portion" of them racists. ABC called them a "mob."
"CNN called them "rabble-rousing critics." Democratic congressman Brian Baird of Washington accused tea partiers of using "close to Brownshirt tactics."
"The AFL-CIO called them an "extremist fringe," using "mob rule.' "  . . .

Sick: Leading BDS activist tries to make #LasVegasShooting about Israel

The obsession with demonizing Israel is beyond political at this point.

Legal Insurrection

So why bring up Israel at all? Why try to make the Las Vegas shooting about Israel, or by implication, suggest that Israel is somehow connected to gun violence in the U.S.?
We’ve seen a similar tactic in other contexts by anti-Israel, pro-BDS Jewish Voice for Peace, whose Deadly Exchange campaign seeks to blame Israel and pro-Israel Jewish groups for police violence against non-whites in the U.S.

"When I woke up this morning and learned of the Las Vegas shooting, I fully expected all sorts of horrible hot takes and political exploitation.

"And Twitter has not disappointed in that regard.

"But I have to admit, as attuned as I am to anti-Israel activists hijacking causes and events to turn them against Israel, it never entered my mind that the Las Vegas shooting would be exploited in that manner.

"After all, as far as is currently known, the shooter and the shooting have nothing whatsoever to do with Israel. (There is a claim of responsibility by ISIS, but that is unverified.)

"So, I actually was surprised when I saw a tweet from Yair Rosenberg:

“American guns are overwhelmingly produced in America, but there is no atrocity that cannot and will not be blamed on the Jews or their state.”

Rosenberg was referring to this tweet from Yousef Munayyer, responding to a statement from the Israeli Embassy sending their “thoughts and prayers” and “love and solidarity” to the Las Vegas shooting victims:

“Also from Israel, assault rifles into the US market”

The Nazis Are Coming! The Nazis Are Coming! And They Are All Wearing Che Guevara Tee-Shirts!

Tom Tancredo

Who would have believed that our Hollywood actors and late-night comedians could be counted on to be canaries in the mine? Their incessant chirping now warns us of the poison gases of hate wafting in on the nightly news reports of riots and blood-letting. These celebrity canaries are so concerned, they devote precious airtime, otherwise used to award each other prizes for being wonderful (and radically relevant), to sound the alarm.

"These celebrity cherubs and their sycophantic pols see Nazis everywhere and shudder at their resurgence. So do I.

"As a matter of fact, I have seen them with my own eyes. I saw them on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where, as an invited speaker a few years ago, I had to have police swat teams provide a protective barrier to get into the lecture hall. Then the real party started.

"At Chapel Hill, the screaming brown shirts (led by several “professors”) were so loud inside that the cacophony was deafening. After a few minutes, bricks started coming through the window and a panic ensued while everyone scrambled for the doors. I was spirited away by two policemen as another nail was put in the coffin of free speech by a fascist mob hell-bent on protecting the campus from purveyors of heretical ideas." 

"So much for our halls of academe leading to the free marketplace of ideas! The war on free speech has now reached epidemic proportions on college campuses nationwide. One brave scholar, Stanley Kurtz, has recently chronicled this firestorm of intolerance, which is all the more alarming and insidious because it is tacitly -– and often openly— aided by university administrators." . . .

Updated: he Election of Trump Did Not Create the Left's Hate...It Revealed It to Us.

First, this case in point:  CBS Legal Exec: No Sympathy For Vegas ‘Because Country Music Fans Often Are Republican  
. . . "CBS has a history of hostility towards Republicans. Shortly after the attack on the GOP congressional baseball team gravely injuring Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise in June, former CBS anchor Scott Pelley questionedwhether the shooting was “foreseeable, predictable and to some degree, self-inflicted.”  

"The original thread was deleted, but not by Geftman-Gold." . . .

Teacher Prays That Only ‘Trumptards’ Were Killed In Las Vegas Terrorist Attack


American Thinker  "The left has a depressing message: racism, misogyny, greed, hate, communism, socialism, and the list goes on.  Americans have given these people a forum for decades, suffered through the angry speeches, the pompous lectures, the unending accusations and shaming.  And frankly, most people are sick of it.  They now go out of their way to avoid the liberal beatings. 

"As a result, liberals have trouble getting their message out.  Most people don't attend leftist rallies, they turn off programs where liberals rattle off their grievances, and they generally try to avoid the toxic left.  But liberals never take no for an answer, they always find another way to impose their will, to force us to listen. 

. . . 

Update

Want to curl up with a good book?  Hopefully you can look at J.K. Rowling's or Stephen King's books without associating their novels with the authors' venomous tirades. 
Maybe you'd like to see a movie?  Good luck trying to immerse yourself in the plot when the lead character – Jennifer Lawrence, George  Clooney,Meryl Streep, or another activist star – just delivered a political screed. . . . 
Maybe you'll just watch the Emmy's or the Oscars.  But alas, more of  the same: hate on display, a shameless pile-on to insult, demean, and slander the president and other conservatives.  Entire shows dedicated to tantrums and spite.

Enjoy a latte at Starbucks?  Not without a shot of politics.  Starbucks's CEO promised to hire 10,000 refugees to refute the president's travel ban, publicly supported redefining marriage, declared Starbucks's U.S. stores gun-free zones, and launched the "Race Together" campaign in response to Ferguson's fake news.  Tough to get away from political firestorms even for a cup of java.  

. . . "And now they've tainted football, the last bastion of Americana. "

"The football player who started this NFL cluster, Colin Kaepernick, is blatantly anti-American.  He wore socks depicting pigs in police hats, sat out the National Anthem, and defended Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to a South Florida reporter. 

"Colin didn't deny that his protest was against the flag.  He flat-out admitted it. "  . . .

But there is - sometimes - a happy ending:

CBS Executive Fired for ‘No Sympathy’ Comments About Las Vegas

Shooting  "Geftman-Gold wrote in a Facebook post comment how she didn't have any hope that Republicans, "Repugs," would "ever do the right thing," and that she isn't sympathetic to the shooting victims because country music fans are often "Republican gun toters." The Daily Caller was the first to report on her .

UPDATE:

comments."

Kimmel: GOP Should Pray ‘For God to Forgive Them,’ Helped Cause Shooting

Newsbusters