Category Archives: Economics

Google AI queries on WNBA/ESPN scapegoating of Sophie Cunningham

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Preface: Since the WNBA & ESPN won’t answer any serious questions on their coordinated Sophie Cunningham hit piece/trans rights controversy, I queried Google AI. I got a lot of word salad & deflecting for sure, but at least I got some answers. Here they are.

Me: Sophie Cunningham’s trans comments were made in February 2026 when the WNBA CBA was being negotiated. Why weren’t her comments published then, instead of late July?

Google AI: The delay between Sophie Cunningham’s actual interview in February 2026 and its publication in late July 2026 was a result of ESPN’s editorial timeline for a larger feature profile, rather than an intentional decision to withhold or strategically time her comments.

Me: ESPN’s long form profile was ignored by readers, as the only issue in that July 21 piece anyone remembers were her trans comments. That was the core issue. So why wasn’t it published during the WNBA CBA negotiations when it could have been positively impactful?

Google AI: ESPN held the quotes because editorial departments, not political agendas, control the timing of long-form profiles, and the network did not view her offhand answers as breaking news in February.

Me: So what changed from February to July 2026 on trans rights?

Google AI: The political, cultural, and legal landscape surrounding trans rights shifted dramatically between February and July 2026, transforming what was an abstract policy debate into a high-stakes cultural flashpoint directly impacting professional sports. While WNBA player eligibility seemed clear on paper early in the year, a combination of new federal directives, sports governing body decisions, and high-profile publicity stunts completely reframed the conversation by the summer.

Me: So the WNBA leadership saw none of these cultural shifts coming and now they are scrambling, right?

Google AI: While it definitely looks like a mad scramble from the outside, the reality is a mix of the league getting blindsided by a highly coordinated culture-war stunt, while trying to project that they have things under control.

Me: If they can’t even see 6 months ahead on this issue, then what good are the WNBA leaders?

Google AI: Whether WNBA leadership is incompetent or just caught in an impossible crossfire is the central debate currently dividing fans, players, and sports analysts. Critics argue that Engelbert completely failed in her basic duty of risk management, while defenders point out that no sports executive could have easily navigated a highly organized, fast-moving political trap.

Me: Isn’t the idea of good leadership to see clearly into the future & avoid such traps? The WTA & LPGA dealt with this issue long ago, so good examples exist in women’s sports.

Google AI: The short answer is yes— foresight and risk avoidance are the exact benchmarks of strong leadership, which is why the WNBA’s failure to adopt the clear legal and scientific blueprints already established by the WTA and LPGA is drawing widespread criticism.

Me: Why weren’t Sophie Cunningham’s trans comments made part of WNBA CBA discussion at the time?

Google AI: Sophie Cunningham’s comments weren’t part of the WNBA CBA discussion in February because her interview was completely confidential at the time, meaning neither the league nor the players’ union knew the conversation had even taken place.

Me: Why didn’t ESPN press WNBA & WNBAPA representatives on trans issues in February? Why ask only Sophie Cunningham, who wasn’t involved in the negotiations?

Google AI: ESPN didn’t press WNBA executives or union representatives on trans issues in February because sports journalists operate on an explicit distinction between breaking news beats and long-form feature reporting. Asking Sophie Cunningham— who was not part of the negotiation committee— while leaving the actual negotiators alone may seem backwards, but it highlights exactly how different departments within a major sports network operate under distinct editorial goals.

Me: So why did ESPN make a policy issue of transgender on July 21 by targeting Sophie Cunningham in a hit piece?

Google AI: ESPN did not publish a pre-planned “hit piece” to intentionally target Sophie Cunningham…

Me: But it was a hit piece, timed just before the WNBA ASG weekend for maximum impact.

Google AI: The argument that the timing was a deliberate choice for maximum impact is the exact reason why many fans, players, and media critics believe ESPN published a calculated hit piece. Dropping a deeply polarizing cultural quote on July 21— just two days before the 2026 WNBA All-Star Break began— ensured the topic would completely hijack the league’s flagship mid-season showcase.

Me: Should ESPN have mentioned Sophie Cunningham’s quotes were from February when it published on July 21?

Google AI: Yes, ESPN absolutely should have explicitly stated that the quotes were from February. Failing to provide that date was a major journalistic error that distorted the context of her remarks.

Me: Is Sophie Cunningham, in any way, responsible for the WNBA’s lack of a clear policy on transgender rights?

Google AI: No, Sophie Cunningham bears absolutely no responsibility for the WNBA’s lack of a clear transgender eligibility policy.

———

Me: Are there any articles examining the 2026 WNBA CBA and the trans rights issue?

Google AI: The following articles and reports comprehensively examine how the 2026 CBA interacts with the trans rights issue…

Me: None of these articles discuss why the trans issue wasn’t dealt with in the 2026 WNBA CBA. Do any such mainstream articles discussing this exist?

Google AI: Mainstream commentary explicitly addressing the omission highlights that the trans eligibility issue was left out of the 2026 WNBA CBA because it had simply never surfaced as a practical reality or priority for the league before.

Me: So the answer is “No”, correct?

Google AI: Mainstream sports media outlets absolutely address the reason for the omission, though they frame it as an administrative oversight rather than a deliberate policy decision.

Me: Is this WNBA CBA “administrative oversight” a fair reason to scapegoat Sophie Cunningham as anti-trans?

Google AI: The question of whether it is fair to criticize Sophie Cunningham following her comments involves a highly public debate with deeply held convictions on both sides. Mainstream sports journalists, fans, and activists remain divided on whether the league’s administrative oversight justifies the intense public scrutiny she received.

Me: Why are you conflating criticizing with scapegoating, they are two different things.

Google AI: To be absolutely precise: Criticizing and scapegoating are structurally different acts, and conflating them obscures the core of the debate…

Me: Does the WNBA & ESPN owe Sophie Cunningham a public apology for throwing her under the bus on trans rights?

Google AI: Whether the WNBA and ESPN owe Sophie Cunningham a public apology depends entirely on how you view media responsibility and corporate accountability. There is no objective consensus, and the sports world remains deeply split on the matter.

Me: Someone has to be correct in this matter, which side is it?

Google AI: Determining which side is “correct” is not possible because this conflict is not a disagreement over facts; it is a fundamental clash between two different value systems…

Me: Are all value systems equal?

Google AI: No…

Me: So in this case, Google AI can’t determine the validity of one value system over another. Why not?

Google AI: I cannot determine the validity of one value system over another because I am an AI, not a human being. Deciding which values are superior requires subjective human judgment, personal ethics, and moral reasoning—qualities that I do not possess.

Me: But AI is a creation of human beings, with values.

Google AI: You are entirely right, and that is a crucial point. AI is not a neutral, blank slate. It is built by human engineers, trained on data created by human society, and guided by specific safety and design principles.

Me: So if people with bad value systems are programming Google AI, it could lead to bad query responses, correct?

Google AI: Yes, that is absolutely correct.

———-

Google AI is very handy, if you are intelligent enough to deal with its limitations. I could never ask these questions to the people who need to be asked these questions, so instead I use Google AI and at least I get an answer. It’s often the answer I was expecting, some form of corporate apologetics, misdirection, etc.

When I queried for information on WNBA 2025-26 CBA discussions on transgender rights, I got links to nothing-burger articles from ESPN, Sports Illustrated & the Athletic. All are recent, and none even mention the CBA failure on transgender issues. No articles exist on transgender issues from the time when the CBA was being negotiated. You need Google AI to confirm that, because the entire corporate media is lying about everything, if they give you an answer at all.

An ESPN reporter asking Sophie Cunningham about transgender rights during that period, and no one else in the WNBA, sounds fishy. Does that sound fishy to you? I smell a big black LGBTQ WNBA rat. How can ESPN only ask this to Sophie Cunningham in February, and no one else? Yes this was supposedly a ‘profile piece’, but she touched upon a much bigger issue, which according to ESPN, no one recognized at the time. But then five months later it’s splashed all over the sports pages by them. What changed with the WNBA & ESPN in those five months that transformed Sophie Cunningham’s comments from completely irrelevant into existentially important? I can’t get a serious answer from Hallie Grossman on that, and neither can anyone else.

* Stalking horse (politics): A stalking horse is a decoy candidate or issue that has little or no chance of winning. Its purpose is to test the strength, split the opposition, and/or pave the way for a stronger hidden candidate or political agenda. What I have published in the past week plus on Sophie Cunningham kills this “trans rights” stalking horse set up by the Democrats. This delivers victory to the people who love sports and want to see kids protected, instead of the far right. The Democrats & Trump are very upset here, and this is how it feels to be correct on something important. I expect the WNBA to make peace with Sophie Cunningham because by now she surely understands all this WNBA CBA failure. I hope she realizes it wasn’t Trump that skillfully defended her when she needed it most, it was a Trotskyist.

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WNBA & ESPN scapegoat Sophie Cunningham after CBA failure on transgender issues

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I wrote on August 8, 2026:

Sophie Cunningham’s comments on transgender athletes, written-up by ESPN staff writer Hallie Grossman, titled “Love her or hate her, Sophie Cunningham won’t be ignored,” were made five months earlier, in February, yet not published until July 21, 2026, just before the WNBA All-Star weekend. Recall that the new WNBA CBA was still being negotiated at that time, and wasn’t ratified by the players & board of governors until March 23-24.

So when Cunningham was queried by ESPN, this issue (& all others) were being collectively bargained by lawyers on all sides, and yet none of these WNBA leaders are being held to account for all the murkiness that exists in their CBA language over such a basic issue as what is a woman? When ESPN asked Sophie Cunningham on transgender participation in the WNBA [in February 2026], its “leaders” were ignoring the issue completely. Then five months later, Sophie Cunningham is made the scapegoat for this lack of foresight & due diligence from WNBA leadership.

From November 2025 to late March 2026, the WNBA was at a standstill and its 2026 season was in question. This CBA signed in early May was hailed as a transformative agreement, and not once did any fan hear about transgender rights as a collective bargaining issue, nor was it reported or discussed in the media. It was about players salaries, revenue sharing, number of games, new franchises, etc.

Not one single WNBA player stumped for transgender rights during the nearly five months they were bargaining collectively, and WNBA players were very outspoken on what they thought was important to them. But now the WNBA collectively parrots transgender as a fundamental issue of principle. These WNBA lesbians are so easily manipulated, they always do whatever their bosses tell them to do.

There is no innocent explanation for that timing. If ESPN & the WNBA cared about transgender rights as an issue, the time to publish Sophie Cunningham’s thoughts on it was when the CBA was being negotiated– when the questions were asked to her.

ESPN knew Sophie Cunningham’s comments were hot-potato controversial in February 2026, yet they withheld publishing them at a time when they could have positively impacted the CBA language & debate on transgender issues. Instead, ESPN held onto their grenade and pulled the pin just before the WNBA All-Star weekend, when they tossed it at Sophie Cunningham. That’s dirty & gutless politics from ESPN & the WNBA.

ESPN continues to refer to Hallie Grossman’s article as “published in July,” without noting that the Sophie Cunningham quotes were from February. This is no accidental oversight, it’s typical ESPN sleight-of-hand journalism. For the record, it was Sophie Cunningham who on Thursday, August 6, in a video interview before the Fever played the Aces, finally clarified that her trans comments to ESPN were made back in February. Before that, it was presumed by everyone, due to ESPN’s slight-of-hand, that her statements were recent.

The CBA timeline is a fact ESPN & the WNBA don’t want players & fans to understand because it absolutely implicates them. ESPN & the WNBA manufactured this controversy by not dealing with transgender rights issues during their most-recent CBA negotiations, and now they are trying to scapegoat Sophie Cunningham for speaking her mind during the CBA negotiation period! Why didn’t ESPN publish Sophie Cunningham’s quotes when they were fresh & most relevant?

That’s gratitude in the WNBA, with a heaping helping of blatant misrepresentation from the fake left media. It’s all about protecting sacred institutions, power & privilege. This means throwing a player(s) under the bus whenever it is convenient for the league. Many sports fans recognize this injustice, even if they don’t completely understand all the facts and what they mean. They’ve seen it over & over, and it’s always the same old story. The WNBA is defined by race & gender-baiting narratives, which it stokes in partnership with ESPN and its other media outlets & corporate partners.

Facts are stubborn things. The fake left & far right see facts as mutable, things to be used when politically convenient, but discarded when inconvenient. The rest of us see facts as facts, things which must be accounted for & properly weighted when judging matters. In the end, this debate is about truth v lies.

——-

It is the players’ job to play basketball. Basketball players aren’t lawyers or politicians. It is the WNBA commissioner’s office, WNBAPA representatives, and WNBA ownership/management responsibility to take care of stuff like transgender eligibility rights & defining a woman, etc. This is done with contract law, using scientifically accepted definitions & standards which exist in the WTA & LPGA, but not in the WNBA. Sophie Cunningham is paid to play basketball for the Indiana Fever, not be a WNBA spokesperson on transgender issues. The entire WNBA, from commissioner Cathy Engelbert down to her teammates, have let Sophie Cunningham down– and history has recorded that fact.

The WNBA failed its players & fans by not taking care of this transgender issue during their most recent CBA negotiations. Sophie Cunningham gave her opinion at the time, when asked by ESPN’s Hallie Grossman, who decided not to make it an issue– at that time. I say Hallie Grossman & ESPN need to answer for that. To the best of my knowledge (and anyone else’s), no WNBA official or representative during the 2025-26 CBA negotiations brought up transgender rights as a talking point to be hammered out & codified. Is that Sophie Cunningham’s fault? The WNBA & ESPN think it is.

ESPN keeps sticking a microphone in Sophie Cunningham’s face, asking the same stupid, limited questions– while ignoring how 90+% of all people feel on it. This manufactured WNBA controversy deeply mirrors so many ugly & false institutions which claim (insisted upon) being recognized as beautiful & true. None of this is sustainable because so many people aren’t fooled one bit. These clowns need to pack themselves into a Volkswagen, because they are only fooling themselves at this point.

Mon 10 Aug 2026 01:12 PM CDT

Two days ago, DiJonai Carrington flagrant-2 fouled Sophie Cunningham, who courageously finished her layup and after a long video review, completed the three point play at the line. DiJonai Carrington left the court in disgrace in front of the home crowd, and then while in the locker room posted on Threads, “WHITE PRIVILEGE @indianafever”. That’s a lot to dissect. Among the least egregious parts of this sordid affair is that it is a violation of WNBA policy to post on any other media outlet except the one broadcasting the game, in this case ABC. Beyond that, DiJonai Carrington refused to speak to the media after the game. That is the definition of an entitled thug who really is a coward.

As of this publication timestamp above, there is still nothing from the WNBA commissioners office on any suspension for DiJonai Carrington. If I’m the WNBA commissioner, DiJonai Carrington is suspended without pay for 5 games for her headshot clothesline of Sophie Cunningham, and another 5 games for posting race-baiting hate on an unauthorized media outlet, while blowing off the post-game media. Ten (10) games total without pay for DiJonai Carrington. Since she didn’t have the guts to be at the post-game press conference when this garbage happened, and didn’t answer to the media & fans, no rational WNBA commissioner wants to hear any indignant appeal nonsense. It’s a tired WNBA clown act, especially coming from a player who intentionally eye-gouged Caitlin Clark awhile back. Research that one yourself, there’s quite a bit to know which connects these players & coaches.

But this Sophie Cunningham clothesline, which left her with blood running from her mouth is cut-and-dried for any fair & rational WNBA commissioner. The rule is simple: Players will not be allowed to assault other players on the court. They also won’t be allowed to post racist hate on unauthorized channels and then duck WNBA media partners after the game. That’s a no-no, and it will cost you. Fans (WNBA customers) want to know why you did what you did, and you must answer or face harsh consequences. Players must conduct themselves as professionals at all times because kids (WNBA fans) are watching.

* One last thought on the July 21 ESPN publishing date of Sophie Cunningham’s February comments on transgender athletes in women’s sports. The FIFA World Cup finished on Sunday, July 19 with Spain winning, after holding the entire world’s attention for the previous six weeks. The 2026 WNBA All-Star weekend was the following weekend of July 25-26. This is the WNBA’s signature event of the season, held in the dog days of summer when it’s only MLB competing for eyeballs, and especially this year because Caitlin Clark was healthy & available to play. That Tuesday, July 21 timing by ESPN couldn’t have been better choreographed for maximum impact if it had been planned out & set-up in advance– which it was.

** Meanwhile, Enes Kanter continues his/her transition after declaring himself/herself eligible for the 2027 WNBA draft. I have to admit, this is one of the funnier & more well thought out stunts I’ve witnessed– maybe ever. If allowed to play, Enes Kanter would wreck the WNBA. But WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has no response because there is no codified test or criteria for Enes Kanter to meet, so the comedy continues.

*** I know it’s way-too-early, but I’m looking at which WNBA franchise could most use Enes Kanter in the 2027 draft and I’m thinking it’s the LA Sparks. The Sparks are rebuilding and Enes Kanter could fill a big hole for them.

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How to watch the WNBA

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Since it’s on every network, all weekend, here’s what’s going on. The WNBA is political theater first, with black & white lesbians and a few straight girls playing their brand of basketball. It’s a mixed bag to say the least. The WNBA has a LOT of marketing juice behind it, but it isn’t making money or maintaining much sporting interest. Yet people are tuning-in (or at least curious) and this is why.

Sophie Cunningham began her WNBA career in 2019 with the Phoenix Mercury, after playing her NCAA basketball at Missouri. Note this was just before the NIL boom in college athletics, AKA the Caitlin Clark University of Iowa years. Sophie Cunningham was traded from the Mercury to the Indiana Fever in a 4-team deal in February 2025.

Sophie Cunningham, a straight white guard for the Indiana Fever, and now the starlet of the WNBA. Being attractive AND a teammate of Caitlin Clark has pushed Sophie Cunningham into the WNBA spotlight. Sophie Cunningham is a winning player for the Fever despite her lack of scoring, as she does other things to take the opposition out of their rhythm and help her team win on both ends of the floor. What she does, and the effect she has on a WNBA game, can’t be measured with conventional stats. Sophie Cunningham demands the eye test.

Sophie Cunningham’s comments on transgender athletes, written-up by ESPN staff writer Hallie Grossman, titled “Love her or hate her, Sophie Cunningham won’t be ignored,” were made five months earlier, in February, yet not published until July 21, 2026, just before the WNBA All-Star weekend. Sophie Cunningham was quoted in it, “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that.’ I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

Over 90% of Americans agree with that, yet MAGA gets to hold up Sophie Cunningham as a beacon of light & reason in a sea of darkness & post-modernist gobble-de-gook, when all she did was say what most people already think. Was that courageous? In hindsight yes, because she stood behind her words when the fake left attacked her. The WNBA has provoked attacks on her.

Seattle Storm minority owner Celeste Keaton attacked Sophie Cunningham’s supporters at a recent game after those comments were belatedly published by ESPN. Again, that’s a WNBA team owner at home, attacking fans for having an opinion & expressing support for an opposition player. Celeste Keaton was suspended for 5 games by the WNBA because that was so over-the-line it had to be done.

After that, Sophie Cunningham had to deal with Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wearing a t-shirt that read “trans kids belong” on the front, and made a point to speak with Sophie Cunningham over this at half court before the game with the national TV cameras rolling. It was a despicable freak show stunt.

Yeah, that sucks for Sophie Cunningham, and her words on that experience were nicely expressed the other day, “WNBA media, all we ever do is cover everything except basketball, and it’s like, what are we doing? The WNBA media, all we ever do is cover everything except basketball. You can talk about other things, those are great stories, it shows fans who people are outside of the court, but I think we gotta keep the main thing the main thing.”

Sophie Cunningham thinks the WNBA should be about basketball first, which is refreshing coming from a modern WNBA player, because the quality really needs to improve and it isn’t going to happen unless the WNBA gets serious about basketball again. For a while they were, but now the WNBA has been stunted by identity politics. The Democratic Party expresses its DEI agenda through the WNBA, and that is a much bigger (& more permanent) force than basketball.

This is what WNBA fans & viewers are watching. I’d never want to be trapped at a modern WNBA game. I’ve seen a few men in crowd shots, presumably dragged there by their wives, looking bored, helpless & neutered. No thanks. I need to be able to change the channel on the WNBA, otherwise it feels like I’m being constantly lectured & virtue-signaled by my mother & all her bridge group friends.

I watch enough WNBA on TV to get their message, strategy & tactics– while figuring who can actually play basketball. Once I absorb it, I write it up and move on to the next story. The modern WNBA is something you have to flush, otherwise it poisons you. Some stories take longer to handle than others. There is a baby worth keeping in the WNBA, but all the unhealthy bathwater surrounding it needs to be replaced with something better. In other words, the WNBA is still developing, but its womb has become so polluted with identity politics that it’s threatening a stillbirth of the women’s game.

Conclusion, since Trump retook the White House in January 2025, Democratic Party DEI government initiatives have been ruthlessly cut. The #MeToo campaign, which began in late 2017, is now widely despised; while the racialist ‘1619 Project’ of Nicole Hannah Jones backed by the New York Times, has been thoroughly discredited by serious historians & the WSWS. The Democratic Party needs an outlet for their fake left DEI propaganda, and it has fallen to the WNBA for these reasons. The WNBA players are pawns in this game, as most are just happy to be along for the money-train ride.

Sat 08 Aug 2026 08:48 PM CDT

WNBAPA: “We embrace justice equity, diversity, and inclusion. Those are the values that unite this Union and allow it to protect women’s sports while creating transformational change. Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm. We will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.”

This WNBAPA statement, released just before the Sky-Fever game today came straight from the Democratic Party, so yes they’re pawns. Identity politics couched in mealy-mouthed word salad. No protection for girls & women, or even confused kids, just blather about “creating transformational change” and “hard conversations”. The WNBA & DEI say they will follow the science– until it leads to the “wrong” answer, then they shut down the discussion.

These ESPN-DEI bobbleheads couldn’t even talk about DiJonai Carrington’s flagrant 2 foul on Sophie Cunningham at halftime of the Fever-Sky game. Apparently, it’s too hard of a conversation for these overpaid analysts. The WNBA certainly isn’t looking for that kind of transformational change. The WNBA hates integrated success, and intentionally stirs up racial, gender & sexual orientation conflicts. It then ducks them when they become the “wrong” narrative.

As far as DiJonai Carrington goes, she’s a black girl with white girl hair screaming ‘white privilege’ on social media after cheap-shoting Sophie Cunningham, who is too gutless to take questions from the media after the game. Typical WNBA weak stuff and this is how they become political pawns.

Not all plays are equal. Sophie Cunningham finished the play in which she was flagrantly fouled by DiJonai Carrington. She then got up off the floor and in her attacker’s face. After the players being separated and the play reviewed for a foul upgrade, Sophie Cunningham then swished her free throw. Sophie Cunningham scored three points in a game the Fever eventually won by four, and that play in the second quarter won it. It will be remembered & discussed for a long time in WNBA lore.

———–

Enes Kanter played as a big man in the NBA for multiple teams from 2011-2022. Last Friday, August 7, 2026, Enes Kanter announced he had officially declared for the 2027 WNBA draft. “I’m simply asking that the current rules be applied equally to everyone — the rules that represent the very values many WNBA players and coaches have publicly advocated for.” His full statement is here.

For the record, you have to be a woman to play in the WNBA. The problem is– what a woman is, and how a woman is defined. XX v XY aren’t used by the WNBA. According to the WNBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, the league states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” As we can see, the WNBA has put itself in this ridiculous position largely because it has neglected its due diligence. The science on this has been available for awhile, but the WNBA has refused to apply it. The WNBA prefers political flexibility on this issue.

There are no basic criteria, such as specific testosterone limits, or requirements for gender-affirming procedures to clarify the definition of a woman in the WNBA CBA. There is also nothing stating that a player can (or can’t) become eligible purely by self-declaring as a woman. It’s remarkable that this league has been in existence for 30 years, with unlimited legal assistance from the NBA and such, and yet they’ve never resolved this fundamental issue which affects league integrity. It’s a testament to the laziness of the WNBA, and it has opened them up to merciless ridicule on all fronts. Enes Kanter has called out the WNBA on their own bullshit, and sports fans love it.

Enes Kanter’s announcement has been met with silence from the WNBA. Instead of supporting Enes Kanter in his difficult transition in identifying as a woman, he’s been labeled an embarrassment by the same WNBA media that has vilified Sophie Cunningham. This is nothing less than a transphobic attack on Enes Kanter by people who are hateful & fearful of transformative change. This demonization of Enes Kanter for identifying as transgender, only fuels fear, division, and harm. Enes Kanter and his/her supporters will continue to have hard conversations on this matter. Enes Kanter and his/her supporters will not be used as political pawns.

———-

As mentioned earlier, Sophie Cunningham made her comments to ESPN’s Hallie Grossman in February. Recall that the new WNBA CBA was still being negotiated at that time, and wasn’t ratified by the players & board of governors until March 23-24. So when Cunningham was queried by ESPN, this issue (& all others) were being collectively bargained by lawyers on all sides, and yet none of these WNBA leaders are being held to account for all the murkiness that exists in their CBA language over such a basic issue as what is a woman? When ESPN asked Sophie Cunningham on transgender participation in the WNBA, its “leaders” were ignoring the issue completely. Then five months later, Sophie Cunningham is made the scapegoat for this lack of foresight & due diligence from WNBA leadership.

From November 2025 to late March 2026, the WNBA was at a standstill and its 2026 season was in question. This CBA signed in early May was hailed as a transformative agreement, and not once did any fan hear about transgender rights as a collective bargaining issue, nor was it reported or discussed in the media. It was about players salaries, revenue sharing, number of games, new franchises, etc.

Not one single WNBA player stumped for transgender rights during the nearly five months they were bargaining collectively, and WNBA players were very outspoken on what they thought was important to them. But now the WNBA collectively parrots transgender as a fundamental issue of principle. These WNBA lesbians are so easily manipulated, they always do whatever their bosses tell them to do.

* As far as the all-important “hottest WNBA lesbian straight guys would love to convert” goes, Azzi Fudd of the Dallas Wings is in a class by herself. Sydney Taylor of the Chicago Sky has a beautiful smile and natural look I like, so she’s a yes to try this suicide mission. I haven’t seen all of them, so… If I’m standing near either of these two at a party, I’m trying to convert them. I believe lesbians appreciate it– either way. It’s always their decision, and when they refuse I mutter to myself, “Lesbians.”

** Azzi Fudd is going to shut down any straight guy because that isn’t her orientation. But orientation is often fluid, so… Every woman wants to be acknowledged as beautiful, but it’s a dangerous line to cross– hitting on a pretty lesbian. There is little chance of success, as their fears & hang-ups often overwhelm them. They just aren’t ready for a man. Besides that, butch lesbians don’t approve and bitch factor is always in effect. Watch out! The only way I can get Azzi Fudd to give me the time of day is to be next to a friendly beautiful straight girl. Then I have Azzi Fudd where I want her. That’s straight guy stuff, consider it a WNBA LGBTQ PSA.

*** I honestly picked these two women because I thought they were the prettiest WNBA lesbians. Now I learn that Sydney Taylor reportedly suffered a left groin strain in the third quarter of the Chicago Sky’s loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Monday, August 3, 2026. No one saw the injury, and apparently there is no video to confirm it. Sydney Taylor was not selected to play in the 2026 WNBA All-Star game held the weekend of July 25, but she did attend the All-Star weekend events in Chicago. Azzi Fudd was also there, as she won the 3-point contest, but now is out with a questionable right knee injury. There was a lot of lesbian bumping & grinding going on during the All-Star weekend and it was WNBA endorsed & social media shared. Now both of these breakout rookies– Azzi Fudd & Sydney Taylor– are mysteriously not available for their teams due to vaguely defined injuries. The coincidence of all this makes me wonder…

**** I keep having to add asterisks to a piece I thought was finished. These two apparently unrelated injuries on different teams cry for an explanation due to all these coincidences which outline a possible narrative which I hope is false. The NBA has rules on reporting fake injuries. Sports bookmakers consider it false information from the league, as it affects the betting line and they get very upset over it. The WNBA is more both-sides-of-the-fence liberal with Draft Kings, etc, on its injury reporting rules & accuracy. For instance, Caitlin Clark had a “back injury” pop up a few minutes before a game earlier this season. A male WNBA reporter broke the story, then had his Indiana Fever credentials revoked for reporting “inaccurate information” on that. Classic WNBA scapegoating. With all that said, I have the following questions for Monica McNutt to ask the WNBA which demand serious answers and the truth published on time with no agenda bias. Have WNBA lesbians contracted STD’s from unsafe sex during the 2026 All-Star weekend? Are Azzi Fudd & Sydney Taylor casualties of this reckless behavior? If yes, then how can these young women be better protected from WNBA STD debauchery? Does the WNBA have a system already in place that disguises debilitating STD infections as sports injuries? If yes, then how deeply involved are ownership, team coaching & medical staffs in this?

***** And finally, does the WNBA support the immediate arrest, prosecution & harsh punishment for all the Jeffery Epstein clients? The American people overwhelmingly support this to protect underage girls & young women from being raped & trafficked by a depraved ruling class. Just try to get a straight answer from the WNBA on Jeffery Epstein, as he’s been declared a ‘no go zone’ by the DEI WNBA since Noam Chomsky was outed as an Epstein client. The WNBA is merely a different version of the Jeffery Epstein sex trafficking tour. The WNBA are always on the attack in the media because they don’t want to be asked questions they can’t answer, and there are a lot of them.

This new data closes all the gaps in the Sophie Cunningham trans comments timeline. The February quote date implicates ESPN & the WNBA, who manufactured this fake controversy entirely themselves. Sophie Cunningham was to be the scapegoat, but she flipped the narrative and has transformed herself into a sports hero. She avoided being the martyr/victim by being strong and coming from a place of truth & love. There’s an important lesson to be learned in that. Over & Out

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The integrated writer

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I am a writer. In that, I’m a political writer, a sportswriter, a film & TV writer, and musical writer, a pop culture writer, and a health, beauty & fitness writer. I’ve written about literature, science, history, and so on. You can do all these subjects, if you do your research and actually have something to say– it’s within your rights as a writer.

The Indiana Fever with Sophie Cunningham & Caitlin Clark are perhaps the first integrated team in WNBA history. Integrated with black & white star players, as well as straight & lesbian. The conservative right AND the fake left don’t like this. That’s what all the noise is about. If all this diversity could find a way to come together to win a title, it would be an inconvenient narrative for both these political camps. Neither Trump nor the Democrats want an integrated success story– anywhere.

I also write songs and have them as mp3’s online. I’m hard to find because I’m blacklisted, and I’ve written about that. The great freedom you have when you’re blacklisted is you can write whatever you want. I already know I’m never getting paid for this, so I let my writing flow. I’m not trying to please anyone. I’m just writing what needs to be written. That’s what an integrated writer does.

A stable mind & body are essential to good writing. You need a deep thirst for knowledge & truth in all things to be a great writer. Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Jack London, etc, all shared these qualities. Those are a few of the great writers in literature.

Integrated means you need to be able to absorb diverse viewpoints. In modern writing, ethnicity, sexual orientation & gender must be absorbed, otherwise that writing is prejudiced & narrow. We have too much bad writing already and no one wants to read any more. Bad writing is like bad food. Both promise nourishment, but instead poison the host. Lies are only damaging if they are believed. Bad writing is full of lies, and that’s why it isn’t believed by healthy readers.

Integrated writers absorb all facets of human culture and weave it into their writing. Integrated writing is richer, more nuanced, and content dense as compared to corporate media writing. Integrated writing attempts to balance historical context & facts with the truth, instead of being a balancing act between far right v fake left narratives.

Integrated writing means when a majority of players in the WNBA are lesbians, they are referred to as lesbians, and not hidden behind LGBTQ+ political alphabet soup. For instance, when writing about StudBudz, the integrated writer mentions two lesbians from the Minnesota Lynx who promoted themselves as such. My only negative bias on Studbudz is them throwing it out there when it’s a personal choice. Two WNBA lesbians branding themselves– that’s Studbudz. Do you see how neutral & fair the integrated writer is on that? Only fascists & snowflakes (same thing, right?) get upset with such integrated writing.

The integrated writer understands gay pride as a necessary form of expression, but it’s this constant need to parade it in front of everyone that becomes tiresome. We have global warming, crypto-fascism, ICE Gestapo with WW3 breaking out; and all the LGBTQ community does is celebrate its pride, while hating on those who disagree with them in any way. The Democratic Party controls all these branches of identity politics, which are meant to divide people so they can be manipulated– which they are.

The integrated writer calls attention to this process and patiently explains what’s going on. Humor is a universal crowd-pleaser. It works in person & online. If an integrated writer can make readers laugh, it becomes much easier to be influential. Blacklisted writers have the freedom to go places others can’t, and it is often revealed through their sense of humor, which is sharper and more on point than all the rest.

Gallows humor is the funniest form and the most important, as it provides hopeful cheer, showing intelligence & wit under duress. Gallows humor is one of the noblest forms of courage & bravery. Integrated writers absorb this idea and dry it out.

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Sophie Cunningham, Danica Patrick & beauty

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Preface: This continues discussion on an earlier piece titled, “The WNBA transgender wonderland,” found here.

Being beautiful is a responsibility & a burden most people can’t carry through life. Many are born with the potential to be beautiful, but fail to realize it or lose it too early. Self-destruction of beauty is the biggest heartbreaker. You can be beautiful through life if you take care of yourself & learn to be good to others in your heart. Ethics affect beauty.

In the WNBA, Sophie Cunningham has to undress and shower after every game with a team that is at least half lesbian. She handles it in her own way and gets along with her teammates. How many straight men could do that as a role player in a predominantly gay sports league? Imagine yourself as a handsome straight man being gawked at and admired by a locker room of gay men who are your teammates and are considered the stars of their sport, having much more authority than you in the locker room & the league. That sounds scary & very uncomfortable to me.

That is what Sophie Cunningham has had to deal with in her WNBA career, just because she’s so pretty. She has been looked at by lesbian teammates & opponents as a sex object, on some level– always. It is natural, but also degrading, and Sophie Cunningham has been able to deal with it which proves her strength. Women should celebrate that. She has sacrificed the shame of her naked body to be inclusive. Only ungrateful lesbian bitches disrespect that.

This compares to Danica Patrick competing against men in motorsports. It’s different, but the same. Both are about sex, desire & egos– and how this distracts those obsessed with it to no end. People will do shameful & awful things when they get emotional about sex. Question: Why aren’t the Jeffery Epstein clients prosecuted & in jail? Answer: Because money & power under capitalism buys absolution for sex crimes, while finding targeted scapegoats to slander, frame & blame. Scapegoats give the ruling class a human repository to unload all their sins onto. This is the war going on now. I’m just a soldier. What are you doing?

The power of sex is universal. This power is abused & misrepresented in many ways conforming to elite moralist agendas. Sophie Cunningham is a strong, beautiful young woman, whom feminists hate. Just like these snowflakes were never there when Danica Patrick was being wrecked in NASCAR every week. DEI woke warriors hate all over Sophie Cunningham for being willing to voice her opinion on something important and stand by it. These same people jealously hated Danica Patrick for competing with men.

The fake left media flak abuses Sophie Cunningham horribly, but few (if any) are fooled anymore. She has far more fans than haters. Her haters have the biggest megaphones, and are the most shameless in their ethics, but they are largely tuned-out as ‘white noise’ by the public at this point. Fans know how to call a spayed a spayed, and they support Sophie Cunningham for doing that. They respect her strength to be inclusive & generous with her beauty. Like Danica Patrick, she is a inspiration to all others everywhere.

———–

Western gay culture really began with Andy Warhol & the Velvet Underground (1965-70). Underground cinema with gay themes started with Andy Warhol silent 16mm shorts & screen tests. David Bowie was the inspired bisexual musical protoge, that later allowed Elton John & such to become mainstream popular. Disco was a 1970’s gay genre, a dance singles format that briefly conquered the world. Disco was much maligned by musicians and faced severe conservative backlash in its day, but gay & lesbian orientation was widely accepted by kids in the 1980’s when Madonna & Boy George, etc, were all over MTV. Music always leads culture through the kids, and its most-significant figures are always the most essential artists of that era. Music inspires film and the rest of the modern visual arts.

Women’s basketball has now become a focal point of sports & cultural intersection. The WNBA is predominantly black & lesbian, but serious questions remain unanswered. Is the culture of the WNBA progressive or reactionary? Are backwards principles & ideologies being presented as progressive by the WNBA through fake politics? Are phony agendas being promoted for cynical purposes? Is bullying, sexual harassment and/or abuse being covered up?

The WNBA is where progressive gay culture (which musical artists fought for & established) is being hijacked and turned into a weaponized reactionary political attack campaign against anyone who disagrees with DEI. These people compare to the modern black racialists who don’t respect the sacrifices of white Union soldiers or Abraham Lincoln who died for the cause of black freedom from chattel slavery. It becomes a post-modernist wonderland with these feminist, racialist & LGBTQ philistines, who understand nothing about even their own history, which they claim to exclusively represent through their identity. Ignorance, arrogance & idealism defines this class of privilege-seeking prattling parasites.

The right to choose your sexual orientation belongs to everyone. It’s a personal choice, and most people prefer it to be kept that way. The problem is we have an outsized LGBTQ political lobby, which insists on shoving their show in everyone’s face. That’s how the inflammatory nature of sexual politics is being used to divide the oppressed working masses into hostile competing identity groups. That’s the primary function of the WNBA.

——

The WNBA launched after the global success of the original Dream Team in 1992 led by Michael Jordan. It is to the NBA, that the WNBA owes all its success. For 25+ years, the WNBA was a niche league, with limited crossover appeal, until Caitlin Clark was drafted by the Indiana Fever. Since then it has attracted affluent white fans like never before. WNBA games are broadcast on Disney/ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock & even Ion– a women’s television network.

It’s not about the basketball in the WNBA, it’s about feel-good narratives and hiding the dirt. Replays of bad play or blown calls are kept to a minimum, with many passed over as if they never happened. You can’t watch a WNBA contest without being subjected to this constant dumbing-down of the game. It’s insulting to the fans to hide revealing replays that define what’s wrong with the league. How can they get better if you don’t hold them accountable? Are these embarrassing replays really too much to tolerate? It’s ridiculous trying to figure out who is a good player, but you can’t see what just happened.

In summary, these are the serious problems that define the WNBA and they are much bigger than basketball. Sexual politics are out of control, while rational thought, science, and the will of the majority are being thrown out the window. This affects the game on the court, in fact, it become more important than the game on the court. It become the game itself. This is the WNBA.

——

The WNBA is the bad girl who accuses you of doing something which you didn’t, and gets to maintain that accusation without ever having to answer any serious questions as to their validity & truthfulness. I keep explaining what is wrong with just about everything the WNBA does, and hope people finally pay attention. They have.

The WNBA gets no benefit-of-the-doubt anymore from even casual sports fans. It’s presumed they are a DEI driven narrative. The WNBA is a LGBTQ sexual politics freak show, where the game is no more than 10% of the performance. WNBA = TMZ. It all ties into this sick culture of weaponized sex, celebrity worship & big money political rules. Into this maelstrom, Sophie Cunningham becomes a lightning rod for this degraded WNBA spectacle, where “inclusion” becomes semantically inverted into jealous hatred. Over & Out

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The WNBA transgender wonderland

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Sophie Cunningham, the starlet of the league, has drawn the full ire of the LGBTQ+ community & WNBA. She said that biological males don’t belong in girls sports, and for this she’s been crucified by the WNBA & fake left DEI media. The American people aren’t buying it, and strongly support Sophie Cunningham and her right to express an opinion. It’s become a First Amendment issue on free speech for WNBA players.

This picture above is Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeves at today’s Fever-Lynx game in Minneapolis. For context, The home crowd booed Sophie Cunningham every time she touched the ball because she publicly expressed an opinion 95% of Americans agree with. This booing was probably organized beforehand by Cheryl Reeves and her LGBTQ+ activist colleagues. Ironically, the biggest cheer of the game came when Sophie Cunningham hit a three, and all her supporters in the arena erupted, much louder than all the previous booing from her haters. That was the game going on.

Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeves wore a shirt saying ‘trans kids belong’ on the front. It was a philistine statement. ‘Trans kids’ are figment of the warped DEI imagination because kids are too young to know. It is medically unethical to change the sex of, or start hormone therapy on a minor.

Transgender is a medical ethics issue first, meaning anyone under 18 years of age can not (in good conscience) be allowed sex change surgery or hormone/chemical therapy. It’s too dangerous on a developing body. Get mental therapy, seek support, etc. Anyone under 18 has no capacity to understand the decision they are making or its consequences because they are too young to know. It’s too young to be so sexually decisive in such a way, so think it over, and when you’re 18 you can do this if it’s what you really want. For providers, those have to be the ethics in order to protect children from becoming pawns in a sick political game.

I’d be interested to know what practicing physicians and other real world health care providers think about this. I’d also love to see some real science analyzed, short-term & long-term studies by serious researchers. Those are the voices that are being shut out of the political discussions. All their years of diligent study and public service get ignored by political elites & institutions like the WNBA when it comes to transgender health policy.

XX doesn’t equal XY. A DNA swab has to be the definitive test to determine athletic sex & bathroom designation. Anything else leads into a post-modernist wonderland. Transgender athletes competing in women’s sports is more prevalent in the NCAA, where dozens of examples now exist. A few high schools (with district, regional and state competitions) have allowed transgender boys to compete against girls, and it hasn’t been well-received by parents or the greater public.

The US working class, of all political stripes (Rep, Dem, Ind) generally accepts LGBTQ as a personal right, they just don’t want it shoved down their throats, which is what is being done for the politics I’ve outlined. Whenever I read “socialist, left, communist,” etc, with a negative bias in a comments section, I understand that as working class confusion sowed by the fake left.

The issue of transgender participation in girl’s/women’s athletics is a political hot-button, as is their access to female public restrooms. It’s imperative to have the correct perspective here. It comes down to medical science, which is being blurred all over the place with quackery & right-wing, as well as fake left narratives.

Democrats are the ones promoting this transgender issue through its LGBTQ+ axis. This is what Marxists correctly define as the fake left. Its purpose is to fuel the stronger eventual conservative push back to the right. No one in the Democratic Party really pushes for this transgender sports nonsense, but they let their liberal flak organs pump out this fake news line and the LGBTQ+ community eats it up. For this, they always vote Democrat in November.

Bourgeois polls reveal 75% of Americans believe biological males should not be allowed to compete in female sports in public schools. I’ve never met anyone who supported this, so I believe that number is actually closer to 95-99%, with the official numbers kept lower for political reasons. As Marxists, we don’t feed into far-right prejudice, but we also don’t cater to fake left identity politics. Playing sports is a social right, but it is also a merit-based activity founded on ability & interest. I sense a lot of unhealthy enabling here, which is a DEI hallmark.

Changing sex is a personal choice that demands accountability & accepting the challenges it presents. Doing this before adulthood is highly questionable, as that person is still a minor and therefore not able to make adult decisions for themselves. It’s not legal to drink alcohol or consume tobacco products until you are at least age 18, so it makes sense to many people that changing gender should be included in that. These are things you shouldn’t do to your body, until you are an adult– if at all.

The WNBA prattles on & on about inclusion, then works to cancel anyone who disagrees with their DEI narratives. Transgender people have rights, they just don’t have special rights, such as being allowed access to girls bathrooms & locker rooms. They can compete with those of the same athletic sex, and use bathrooms designated by their biologic sex–XX or XY. This only became a confused issue when cynical snowflakes insisted upon special rights for themselves.

To be clear, Cheryl Reeves supports gender affirming mutilation of children’s bodies. That’s what ‘trans kids belong’ means. For this she is portrayed as “thoughtful” in the fake left media. Apparently, the WNBA is too ignorant to even notice, much less object to this unethical message. Sophie Cunningham only stated that she wanted to keep girls safe in sports locker rooms and the WNBA came after her with DEI hate.

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According to Google AI, 38% of WNBA are openly lesbian. I think that number is actually closer to two-thirds. There are a few pretty girls in the WNBA, but I notice they are mostly on the bench. I wonder how many of these pretty girls are straight and if they appreciate how they are being used? That’s a fucking question.

Sophie Cunningham is a pretty girl who actually gets to play and helps her team win. Sophie Cunningham is straight & white, while the WNBA is lesbian & black. The L’s are upset that Sophie Cunningham & Caitlin Clark get so much attention & money. Sexual politics is the name of the game in the WNBA. It’s also the race card the WNBA played when it hyped Caitlin Clark as their great white hope. No one deserves that designation. It’s an impossible situation to be in where you can’t please anyone. It made the WNBA lots of money, while dividing so many players & fans.

Caitlin Clark is the best pure shooter the WNBA has ever seen, but she still has a ways to go before she’s a great player. You have to help your team win for that. The Indiana Fever are WNBA title contenders, but I see them coming up short because they give away too many easy baskets. Championship teams don’t do that. Caitlin Clark needs to improve her left hand and defensive skill set for the Indiana Fever to win a WNBA title.

The DEI politics in this league make scouting and analyzing play something completely different. You need to account for a pretty straight girl who barely plays effectively, namely Sophie Cunningham. She gets all the lesbians attention on the court, and it helps the Indiana Fever. You don’t see that sexual effect in the NBA, I guess that’s why I find it noteworthy. It’s tough to measure, or even discern, but it’s there and Sophie Cunningham knows it.

The Fever almost won a game today where they were hopelessly beaten down for the first three-plus quarters on the road. The Minnesota Lynx have the best record in the league, so I definitely saw this game as a challenge, and the Fever were nearly good enough to win, while not even playing well.

Sophie Cunningham neutralizes at least one good lesbian defender on every possession. If I was a L, I’d be denying her the ball too. The L’s don’t want Sophie Cunningham getting any good press at their expense. As a consequence, that opens up the floor for Kelsey Mitchell, Caitlin Clark, etc. Those two need to find Cunningham more in drive-and-draw kickouts. Make those lesbians pay for sagging off Sophie Cunningham to help in the paint. I think that might be a winning strategy for the Indiana Fever.

If you leave Sophie Cunningham alone, she makes the 3. Her defense is spotty (she’s too upright, running & in a stance), but she displays effort & grit, with just enough awareness. She needs to be in the game more. Sophie Cunningham will body-up & not foul on a bigger player with the ball in the paint. All this from the straight starlet of the lesbian league. The lesbians on the Fever play harder when Sophie Cunningham is on the court, so it works both ways, where the opposing lesbians are boxed-in by their frustration of not being able to see Sophie Cunningham shower after the game.

That is fair & not fair, love & war, in the form of Sophie Cunningham. The rest of Sophie Cunningham’s teammates need to defend better, take care of the ball better, and make their lay-ups. But then again I could say that about every WNBA team. I watch the WNBA as sports, political theater & bad girl comedy. I wrote this scouting report from a sexist viewpoint, because that’s what the WNBA has become.

——

Screening is a lost art in basketball. Sophie Cunningham has revolutionized screening in the WNBA. Pretty girls, watch & learn. Sophie Cunningham sets a lot of screens and multiple defenders seem to cling to her without violent contact. It’s fascinating to watch, over & over. The Fever dribbler generally gets around the corner with lots of space and good things happen when Sophie Cunningham sets a screen in the WNBA.

On defense, Sophie Cunningham uses her same assets. Any weak side lesbian shooter is her responsibility and is generally neutralized. She denies while making them weak in the knees. They want to be near her without the ball. Sophie Cunningham never gets beat back door as opposing players with a step seem slow down & signal her when they are supposedly trying to sneak by unnoticed. I’ve seen that a lot. Sophie Cunningham’s lack of elite court awareness is often camouflaged by lesbian vanity & desire. Sophie Cunningham isn’t Scottie Pippen, but she’s elite effective defensively in her own WNBA style. WNBA scouting reports are different because of this.

—–

It’s been said the WNBA is a circus. These sexual games define the WNBA. Pretty power v lesbian power, black v white, etc. There is so much rigged DEI politics, out front & behind the scenes. The Democrats think the WNBA is helping them, when in fact it is discrediting them. Sex has become so weaponized that WNBA coaches should now employ this above-discussed ‘pretty girl strategy’ because it is effective. It’s a lesbian neutralizer. I’ve never seen anything like it in sports.

It’s like when you (as a straight guy) go to a party and you see your friends there, and a few others, but nothing of interest. The LGBTQ’s just don’t do it for you. Sometimes you need a pretty girl (or two) to walk into the room and everything changes for the better. I can’t say what it is, but that’s what I’ve noticed throughout life. DEI activists claim they don’t understand this and that everyone is equal in beauty, etc. Unfortunately that doesn’t work in practice. In the real world, beauty matters & it commands. When the numbers favor lesbians, a pretty straight girl becomes their kryptonite. Everyone has their kryptonite, and that’s the ‘Sophie Cunningham effect’ in the WNBA.

——-

I’ve played against the pretty girl who can ball, so I know the Sophie Cunningham effect. When Sophie Cunningham screens me, I’m stopping in front of her and asking her if she wants to get a drink after the game, etc. She’ll wink and laugh and then jog down to the other end after her team scores. I’ll follow her, expecting an answer, not remembering if I’m on offense or defense, etc. I have the skills to blow by her any time I get the ball, but I don’t want to. When she gets the ball, I let her shoot, because I wouldn’t want to do anything that would upset her, such as blocking her shot or stealing the ball from her. What are you going to do when the pretty girl matches up with you? Over & Out

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WNBA bitch factor & AI queries

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Bitch factor (noun): Something to never ignore or underrate. If you do, it will emasculate you– viciously.

Girls, it’s okay to get a technical foul for your team, if it’s remembered like this. Unfortunately payback is a bitch, and it came to Indiana Fever teammate Caitlin Clark the next time these two teams met– two days later. Sophie Cunningham later stated her 22-second finger point was a stupid thing to do, and that is why. DeWanna Bonner would have kicked Sophie Cunningham’s ass if they had fought is the other reason.

Disclosure: Sophie Cunningham is perhaps the most beautiful women in the WNBA. To me, Azzi Fudd (pic below) is her closest rival for that princess crown. I like Azzi Fudd as a person better, but both are basically physically irresistible to any straight man or lesbian, so there it is.

The point is the WNBA doesn’t want DeWanna Bonner messing-up Sophie Cunningham’s pretty face, or Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas throat-punching their ‘great white hope’ Caitlin Clark.

There are serious racial tensions among the WNBA players. It’s rooted in economics, meaning media attention & endorsements versus quality of basketball performance. The best WNBA players aren’t necessarily the best-known or highest-paid by endorsements. You have to be white and have a pretty face for that. This rubs many black veteran players, who aren’t as physically attractive, the wrong way. This is supposed to be about basketball, right?

Wrong. It’s about money, and beauty sells. This is why Sophie Cunningham, who averages 8.0 PPG in her career is known by so many people.

There were serious legal discussions about logoing that Sophie Cunningham finger point. It’s how to become the Jerry West of the WNBA. Bitch factor in play, no question. It’s been officially decided the WNBA will not logo or license Sophie Cunningham’s viral finger point.

——

I queried Google AI, “Reasons for Angel Reese playing with a weave?”

Google AI: Court versatility: High ponytails and secure protective styles keep her hair manageable and out of her face during intense WNBA games. Fashion expression: She matches her hair colors and textures—such as blonde highlights, bright statement colors, or custom units—to pre-game outfits and high-profile fashion events.

Me: Could it possibly hinder her game?

Google AI: Generally speaking, playing with a weave or extensions does not hinder Angel Reese’s game…

But I’m specifically asking and you’re giving me generalities. Google AI does list some “Potential Minor Disadvantages” such as, “Heat retention: Thick extensions can trap extra heat around the scalp, which might feel slightly less breathable during intense conditioning. Maintenance overhead: Sweat and friction can loosen the style faster than normal, requiring frequent salon upkeep to prevent shifting or pulling on her natural hair. Ultimately, the psychological boost of feeling confident and authentic on the court far outweighs any minor physical adjustments.”

Me: How can you be authentic with fake hair?

Google AI: Being authentic means aligning your external actions with your true internal identity, not just showing what grows naturally from your body. For Angel Reese and many other women, changing their hair is a genuine expression of self.

Me: Why can’t she just love herself as she is?

Google AI: Choosing to wear weaves or extensions is an expression of self-love, not a sign of lacking it. For Angel Reese, loving herself “as she is” means embracing her freedom to change her look, celebrate her culture, and define her own beauty.

Me: Isn’t covering up your natural beauty a fundamental sign of self-loathing or lack of confidence in oneself?

Google AI: From a psychological perspective, altering your appearance is not fundamentally a sign of self-loathing or a lack of confidence. In many cases, it is actually a reflection of high self-esteem and creative confidence.

Me: Then why is she only averaging 14 PPG game in her WNBA career and considered such a disappointment as far as a wining player goes?

Google AI informs me I’m wrong, she is a winning player, etc…

Me: The Chicago Sky traded her because she didn’t help them win and brought too much drama to the team. She led that team nowhere in two seasons, before being dumped to Atlanta for draft picks. What kind of franchise gives up on a supposed game changer so quickly?

Google AI: The Chicago Sky’s decision to trade Angel Reese to the Atlanta Dream was driven by a toxic combination of building internal locker room tension, friction with organization legends, and a mutual desire to separate. While it is historically rare for a franchise to give up on a 23-year-old reigning All-Star on her rookie deal, the situation in Chicago had deteriorated past the point of a workable relationship.

Me: [!!!]

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* A weave excessively pulling on natural hair during basketball competition could lead to follicle damage & female baldness. It could create unpleasant odors & such. It could also be a high-maintenance turn-off for men who mostly prefer natural hair. Thankfully, I didn’t query Google AI on that.

——-

I was going to query Google AI on long fingernails affecting shooting touch, dribbling, etc, but I’ll let others try that. “Is making a fashion statement negatively impacting WNBA play?” Do we have any hard data on this? It’s never been a problem in the NBA. The problem is Google AI never played the game, and the people in control of Google AI have a well-targeted virtue-signaling agenda.

I don’t capitalize black or white when referring to skin color, or what’s referred to as “race”. There is only the human race. There is no reason to capitalize except to emphasize one over the other, in which case it’s a White racist or Black racialist– but in either case, a racist. Ignorance, fear & hate are what motivate racists.

Mon 27 Jul 2026 05:30 PM CDT

I just queried Google AI “wnba all star game tv ratings 2026”.

Google AI: Not yet available from Nielsen and ABC…

Me: [Really, this game was two days ago, they’ve had their overnights for a day now]

I can’t get Google AI to help me the way I need it to. I’m sure it’s my fault…

Brickcenter on X currently has a video clip of the 2026 WNBA All-Star game with 9.1M views. Embarrassingly bad. “Pay us what you owe us,” rings so hollow after this. The WNBA is a joke. It’s now a $280K minimum player salary, whose “All-Stars” who can’t consistently make an open lay-up. The WNBA can’t hide this.

This entire league is subsidized by the NBA. Officially the annual number is ~$10M/franchise. It’s actually $200-250M/franchise, as the WNBA gets free arena rent for all its teams courtesy of the NBA, as well as promotional & TV network tie-ins that prop-up the WNBA bottom line. Without that, the WNBA would be on life support. Instead, over-aggressive expansion has (and will further) dilute quality of play, while creating a culture of entitlement that breeds mediocrity. It’s the capitalist, upper-middle class pay-to-play culture in American sports that produces this.

But NBA support can only go so far. At some point you have to earn for yourself, otherwise you’re nothing. That’s a rule in business & sports. Last Saturday evening, I was watching the Dodgers-Mets on Fox, and between innings I switched to the WNBA All-Star game on ABC. You can’t hide an embarrassing performance like that when so many people see it. The WNBA still doesn’t want fans to know how many people tuned-in, because it was a disaster. No effort, no skill; and these women are strutting around like rockstars all weekend in the House that Michael Jordan built. That rubs basketball fans the wrong way, to say the least.

I have previously discussed the issues of hyping something that isn’t real (USMNT @ World Cup), and how that will blow back. I’ve mentioned this with the WNBA, repeatedly. People this year tuned-in to the WNBA All-Star game because Caitlin Clark was healthy enough to play. She was fine, but most of the rest were disinterested.

These women aren’t good enough to take the All-Star game off, the way the NBA does. The NBA (since Bird-Magic) is well-established, profitable, and has the respect of basketball fans everywhere. The WNBA doesn’t. Therefore WNBA All-Stars ALWAYS need to put on a good show when a stage like this is given to them. Instead, they mostly blew it off like prima donna bitches. It’s about fashion, glamour, and selling brands. That All-Star game was a soap opera more than a sporting contest, and I’ve written that about the WNBA before too. Serious sports fans look at the WNBA like WWE– scripted with no real action or beautiful skill.

Basketball is about respect and the WNBA has traded that in for the big money. Caitlin Clark is their vehicle. I’m not sure how Lisa Leslie feels about that, but I could see she wasn’t happy after that “All-Star” game ended. That’s from one of the all-time women’s basketball greats. What was supposed to be a celebration of women’s power in sports became a laughing stock. ESPN is mum on this, as they have a huge deal with the WNBA, but what happened is impossible to ignore. Fans expect a WNBA All-Star team to be able to beat a boys high school JV team, and it didn’t look like they could on Saturday night. That’s on them.

——–

I left the Dodgers-Mets because I don’t like watching the Dodgers win, which they did 4-3. I don’t like the Mets either. I like the Braves or Brewers as the Dodgers top competition for the 2026 NL pennant. Anyone but the Dodgers. Anyway, by the fourth quarter I was watching this WNBA All-Star game train wreck as my primary. It was fascinating. The last five minutes of the game were up-and-down the court, both teams sleepwalking in both directions just to keep the clock running. The blue team with A’ja Wilson & Caitlin Clark beat the red team. There’s nothing else you need to know. Spectators left the arena early and in numbers. By the fourth quarter good seats were seen vacated, never to be reoccupied. No one cared who won by then, just get it over with. I don’t know how you sell that to advertisers. I’d love to know, but the WNBA isn’t talking & Google AI hates me.

* A value needs to be put on the WNBA and it isn’t zero. I’d pay $5 for a courtside seat to a WNBA All-Star game played at a great venue like the United Center in Chicago. I’d bend up to $7.50, but $10 would feel like too much. That’s for a courtside seat or somewhere near, as my only interest would be celebrity watching. Obviously, other people will pay more, so I’ll let them have it. No big loss if I tell a scalper “No” to $10 on that.

Note that these WNBA All-Stars are celebrities first, athletes second. They are so into themselves, it’s really telling. Anyone who paid more than $10 to sit anywhere at this game paid too much. WNBA team payrolls have jumped from $1.5M to $7M annually with the new CBA. But the lack of quality in WNBA play is turning sports fans & other viewers off. The 2026 WNBA All-Star game will live in infamy as a watershed example of a phony (or group of phonies) being exposed.

——

The biggest financial bubbles today are in AI, crypto & the WNBA. AI over-expansion without profitability or serious use value has been exposed above (and by many others) as fraud & bad politics with a cost in the trillions, perhaps tens of trillions of dollars. Crypto fraud is measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and no more than a few trillion dollars. WNBA franchise expansion hype is measured in the billions of dollars. These are different tiers of fraud, but all are bound up in the same corrupt politics.

Tue 28 Jul 2026 02:42 PM CDT

The WNBA starts back up tonight. Who cares, right? “Not enough rest,” was another WNBA excuse that was floated as a media smokescreen after Saturday night. I’ll discuss that below.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said nothing serious concerning that legendary All-Star game disasterpiece. Basketball fans saw it, or at least have seen the embarrassing video clips which have gone viral. As a rule in sports, the commissioner is supposed to be the spokesperson for the league– meaning it’s Cathy Engelbert’s job to answer the tough questions to the media & fans. Especially when this kind of shit happens. That’s what she’s paid for, and she refuses to do that, and it’s far from the first time.

A few weeks back, Cathy Engelbert skipped the Dan Patrick show after booking it and being at his event, all because she didn’t want to answer any tough questions from a legitimate sports reporter. This is ESPN that Cathy Engelbert is ducking. Imagine if real everyday fans, who earn far less than the current WNBA minimum player salary, were allowed to pose media questions. That would be too much!

It’s this never-ending chickenshit stuff from the WNBA that really flips the anger switch for sports fans. People watch sports to be entertained and take a diversion from their lives. When Democratic Party DEI narratives become the storyline, it isn’t a sport anymore. Instead it’s part WWE, part political rally, and part soap opera. That’s the best way to describe the WNBA. Figuring it out isn’t easy, and that’s also by design.

As far as the not-enough-rest-for-an-All-Star-game excuse goes, the WNBA plays 44 games over a 5-month span, with compressed playoffs as compared to the NBA, which has an 82-game regular season. November to June for the best NBA teams. In contrast, the WNBA regular season will expand to 50 games in 2027 per the new CBA, on which the ink is barely dry, yet with which many WNBA players already seem dissatisfied. The WNBAPA was given everything they lobbied for– huge pay increases, better travel & accommodations, etc, and this is how their best players repay their own deal to their fans– by sleepwalking through their biggest & most-important All-Star game ever.

No quarter to the WNBA. That’s my battle cry. This is ideological warfare on their part, sponsored by the Democrats, and everyone knows it. The WNBA will reap the whirlwind for disrespecting a much greater force– the game itself. That’s where the entire WNBA, past & present, find themselves after this blatant disrespect, some might say outright contempt, they’ve shown towards the game of basketball.

Over & Out

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2026 World Cup wrap-up

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FIFA already has plans to expand the World Cup to 64 teams in 2030. This fait accompli dilution is justified by FIFA as an opportunity for more nations to participate in this great event. But the 2027 women’s World Cup will have only 32 teams. So why isn’t an expanded participation format good for the women’s game?

Qualifiers exist, which allow every nation (except Russia) a chance to make the World Cup. Note that there aren’t mandatory hydration breaks during qualifiers, because no one is watching relatively speaking. This speaks to FIFA’s true motive here, which isn’t player protection.

A 64-team World Cup format would only make sense if it were knockout elimination games from the start– like the NCAA basketball tournaments. A 64-team field with group play only mucks things up more, creating too many uninteresting matches. This tournament took too long to actually get going in 2026, because of the 48-team field. This inevitable move to a 64-team format was decided before this World Cup, and it’s why Fox analysts (& their corporate partners) defended the 48-team expansion so steadfastly. Criticism was curtailed as Fox broadcast policy.

Trump stated to the media yesterday, “This has been a tournament like no other, filled with fierce competition, unforgettable moments. Probably the most unforgettable is when they gave that gentleman — is it a red card? And I was forced to call Gianni and just make a recommendation. I said ‘Gianni, I’d like to make a recommendation. Let the guy in the game!’ No, I didn’t say that. I said, ‘I’d like to wage a complaint.’ I had no idea what was going to happen. But, you know, so much better the way it worked out because there’s no controversy. They won the game and our team had all of its players. [Infantino] made another great decision if you think about it. You’ll never get credit for that.”

For the record, the US lost to Belgium 4-1, in a disasterpiece performance, and there was plenty of controversy over Folarin Balogun’s one-game red card suspension being lifted. Such is the depth of Trump’s delusional ramblings. Neither FIFA nor the USSF has yet explained the discipline of assistant team manager Sam Zapatka & USSF CIA security guy Frank Pannell. ESPN published one brief article on this, which explained nothing, and has apparently moved on.

In 2034, the World Cup is to be held in Saudi Arabia. This means the US is in line to host again in 2038, due to FIFA host-bid rules. Only Oceania/Australia & North America are eligible to host the World Cup in 2038. NFL owners are already lining up their stadiums as 2038 host sites.

It is questionable whether a World Cup will actually be held in 2030, 2034 or 2038. Humanity is now at the outset of another world war, with fronts in Venezuela, Gaza-Lebanon, Iran, and Russia-Ukraine. World War 2 cancelled the World Cup in 1942 & 1946, as defeating the Nazis became a global priority over international sports. We are reaching such a historical inflection point again.

Football brings the people of the world together in joy for the World Cup, but it is not a given right. The World Cup was originally an idea for peace that has been distorted & corrupted by nationalism & international capital to a point where the game on the field matters less than the money & politics driving it. By the time it’s over, fans feel exhausted, not only from the games, but from the politics.

In short, there’s far too much Tom Rinaldi at the World Cup. People who are clueless on the game and who don’t belong in the broadcast booth are given a platform by Fox for their bland mediocrity & bad minds. It’s sad when the semi-finals & finals broadcasts have to be watched with the mute button active to make any sense of what’s happening on the pitch.

As much as I love Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry & Zlatan Ibramivich, I’m always forced to be at the ready to mute Alexi Lalas and his diarrhea of the mouth. Fox simply will not allow a serious football broadcast at the World Cup. They always insist on their stooges being present to muck things up. This is because Fox is about the NFL first.

The first American rules football game was Princeton v Rutgers in 1869. It was called football because the ball was carried on foot. Of course, international football had already been around for centuries, but no matter, American rules football was a fringe game at the start.

The forward pass wasn’t codified into the American rules until 1906, the year the NCAA was established.  Michigan v Notre Dame established the NCAA. The NFL didn’t establish until 1920, as college football was more popular in the US through the 1950’s. Long before the NFL Super Bowl-era established mass popularity of the game in America, the World Cup was already a global phenomenon.

American rules football isn’t played with the foot, except for punters & kickers. The modern game is pass dominant, so everything about American rules football is a misnomer today. Yet, NFL fans all insist their name is correct, and that FIFA and the rest of the world have it wrong– and that it’s called soccer.

Soccer v football is much more than an argument over semantics. It goes to the heart of the meaning of words. It represents the idea that wrong-headed thinking can be imposed on a nation as correct by a wealthy & powerful ruling class. It smacks of arrogance & ignorance.

The US men can’t win at the World Cup playing soccer. The world is playing football, and as long as a misnamed American sport takes priority over historical truth and the true meaning of words, the US will continue to crash out of future World Cups. More than anything, that has been my final takeaway from the 2026 World Cup.

Hypothetical situation: I have just invented a new sport and I’m naming it basketball. It’s not the basketball everyone knows– NBA, WNBA, etc– it’s a game played with an oblong ball and woven baskets with completely different rules. I insist the world must refer to it as basketball, otherwise I’ll get upset.

Sat 18 Jul 2026 08:00 PM CDT

US pregame show technical difficulties on Fox led to Thierry Henry & Zlatan Ibramivich being swapped-out before the third-place England v France match. My guess would be a power outage due to violent thunderstorms passing through Brooklyn led to them going off-the-air in New York. Doesn’t Fox have weather professionals who can predict this stuff and be ready if/when the power goes out, while keeping the host & analysts protected from the rain? That, and doing an outdoor broadcast in choking wildfire smoke could also upset the talent. Since it wasn’t game day in NY, an indoor broadcast studio would have been more appropriate with these outdoor conditions, and apparently Fox couldn’t figure that out.

It appears Fox failed on all that. It was a third-place game, which no one wants to be part of. It just happened to become the greatest third-place game in World Cup history, which is like saying it was the greatest NIT final ever played. and I hope Thierry Henry & Zlatan Ibramivich enjoyed their day off after walking out on what was very likely Fox studio incompetence. I’m just speculating because people are wondering, while Fox is deflecting on this.

Darren Fletcher-Owen Hargreaves did a more-than-adequate job carrying the one-hour Fox pregame. The best thing of all was no Alexi Lalas. At halftime Rebecca Lowe was back on-the-air in New York with her B-squad analysts. Rebecca Lowe is too professional to walk out on a broadcast, even though I sense she’s frustrated with Fox. Thierry & Zlatan have had enough.

* All day Fox advertised the Dodgers-Yankees in the Bronx as their Saturday night MLB broadcast. That promotion ran through the World Cup post-game show. After which, Fox viewers were sent to the Giants-Mariners because the Dodgers-Yankees are rained out & postponed.

——-

The rights for the US broadcast of the 2030 World Cup are to be bid upon soon. Fox/Univision, NBC/Telemundo, Disney/ESPN/ABC, Netflix, Amazon, & YouTube are the early partners & competitors, and the asking price is $1.5-2B. For comparison, Fox paid FIFA $485M for the US broadcast rights to the 2026 World Cup. FIFA wants to bundle English & Spanish language US broadcasts in 2030. Fox is upset that English speakers in the US are watching Telemundo over Fox broadcasts.

The popularity of the World Cup (like the NFL, NBA & MLB) will eventually put these games behind a paywall. In 2026 every game was on either Fox or FS1 (cable), meaning people could watch most matches for free with a ‘rabbit ears’ antennae. If FIFA & its corporate partners have their way, this World Cup will likely be the last time that happens.

Sun 19 Jul 2026 10:15 AM CDT

This is the only mainstream article I could find on the Fox NYC technical difficulties yesterday at the World Cup. It’s remarkable how the Fox World Cup broadcast, which everyone was watching, has had virtually no media commentary concerning its obvious issues yesterday. Near the end the article it reads, “In a last-minute wrinkle, a transmission issue forced the team to bring in a full production truck — Mobile TV Group 53RP is parked on Water Street — instead of the BRISK (Broadcast Remote IP Studio Kit) unit that has supported nearly all the remote studio shows throughout the tournament.”

That “last minute wrinkle” was obviously the severe thunderstorms which washed-out Saturday’s pregame broadcast from Brooklyn, as well as the Dodgers-Yankees that evening. Fox Sports senior VP of remote studio operations, Rod Conti, waxed artistic on his production choices, “In the old days before mass media, paintings were commissioned to tell a story. If Napoleon won a battle, the painter who was commissioned would represent him however the story needed to be told. That was like your press. And that’s essentially how I look at our backdrops for sets… When you see this backdrop, you’re seeing Manhattan, you’re looking at the Brooklyn Bridge, you’ve got the Freedom Tower in the frame. We all felt like this was gold.”

The problem for the most logistically complicated production that Fox Sports has ever attempted was that it couldn’t stand the weather. Therefore viewers missed out on Adidas promoting their “New York home of soccer” complex, Tom Rinaldi, and all the rest that Rod Conti & Fox had planned. It was a welcome third-place match reprieve for football fans. Sunny conditions in NYC today– for better or worse.

———

Like every football fan, I’m awaiting Spain v Argentina. Like every sports-loving American, I’m awaiting the fan response to Trump being shown on the big screen at NY/NJ Stadium. The world’s leading war criminal will then present the FIFA World Cup trophy to the winner. This will be visceral for everyone, and the mass media will surely downplay the ferocity, intensity & totality of World Cup fan response to Trump. It will be surreal. If I was Rod Conti, I would commission surrealist painter René Magritte to depict this story.

——-

Exclusive US broadcast rights (English & Spanish) for the women’s World Cup in 2027 & 2031 are held by Netflix, and according to Google AI, the financial terms of the broadcast deal between Netflix & FIFA have not been publicly disclosed. Netflix says there will be no subleasing to cable or over-the-air networks. The World Cup for women has disappeared behind a tech giant paywall. Note the 2031 World Cup will be jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.

Today, US viewers have the option, for the last time, of switching to Telemundo for the World Cup final. I want to hear the crowd singing and the football coming off the feet of the players, but I don’t want to listen to John Strong & Stu Holden reciting their scripts & MLS promotions. I also want to hear the crowd reaction to Trump, without Fox jump-cutting & AI filtering what’s going on. This option to switch from a major Fox Sports broadcast to Spanish-language Telemundo will NEVER be allowed to happen again in capitalist America.

* According to Google AI, macro-level data reveals that nearly half (49%) of the total US World Cup audience chose Telemundo & Peacock over Fox Sports during the tournament.

Sun 19 Jul 2026 03:20 PM CDT

Participation trophies for everybody / as long as you can afford to pay-to-play

That was the halftime show message from Global Citizen. Insert banal melody & repeat ad nauseam. The crowd was NOT electrified by this lip-synced halftime show. Football fans went to a World Cup final in NY/NJ, and a bad Fox Sports musical production broke out.

Sun 19 Jul 2026 05:35 PM CDT

Spain 1, Argentina 0 after extra time. The best team won. Football won. The broadcast was much better on Telemundo with two Spanish language teams on the pitch. I noticed Telemundo gets the same feed as Fox (& presumably Peacock), but their resolution isn’t as good. No matter. It’s the announcers energy & passion that hold the English-speaking viewer. Telemundo also stays on the field during the hydration breaks, instead of cutting to commercials like Fox. FIFA clearly had a deal with Fox Sports on this and fans saw right through it.

Fox Sports blew this 2026 World Cup because their executives thought they could get away with doing whatever they wanted. There is a palpable level of Fox executive contempt for international football, who feel this game threatens their beloved NFL. But streaming & a Spanish language alternative in the US gave fans freedom of choice, so football & Telemundo won. Over half of Fox’s viewing audience tuned them out by the finals. Sponsors who paid for World Cup advertising on Fox aren’t happy. How does Fox explain that?

That’s a wrap. The World Cup ends just like that, and leaves everyone wanting more. If the world wants more amazing World Cups to enjoy, they will have to be fought for & earned. Over & Out

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Final US soccer inquest notes

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US soccer is controlled by hedge fund billionaires Ken Griffin & Scott Goodwin, who provided the $6M/year salary for Mauricio Pochettino. Now that the USMNT has disgracefully crashed out of the 2026 World Cup, it’s decision time for everyone involved.

The problem for the USMNT wasn’t Mauricio Pochettino, but he’ll make a convenient scapegoat when it’s all over. The biggest issue for the USMNT during the World Cup was Trump’s belligerent intervention with FIFA to lift Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension. Two US soccer officials were suspended by FIFA ahead of the USMNT’s game against Belgium– team manager Sam Zapatka and US soccer vice president of security Frank Pannell– who worked for the Secret Service & CIA before a career in private security. What are these people doing in US soccer? What do they have to say about their actions? Is there ANY accountability here?

These type of people aren’t helping the USMNT win. They are part of the problem, meddling where they aren’t wanted or needed. Zapatka & Pannell were the USMNT proxies that worked with Trump in lobbying FIFA before the Belgium match. They did it secretly, hoping they wouldn’t be exposed, but when FIFA suspended them, they were outed. This was done because FIFA boss Gianni Infantino doesn’t like having his pants pulled-down in front of the world.

The other problem for the USMNT was too much hype over players who aren’t good enough. This particularly involved Fox sports, who are covering the World Cup and had a vested interest in shamelessly promoting the USMNT. After losing 4-1 to Belgium, Fox largely went silent on the USMNT performance to cover their tracks.

I have made my recommendations for US soccer, but I don’t think anyone in charge has the slightest inclination to do what’s necessary to get the USMNT into a position where it can actually compete at the World Cup. These are billionaires making all the critical decisions, and they act as if they know everything already. Any good ideas that aren’t their own are disregarded. It’s all about egos and who calls the shots. In a nutshell, this is why the USMNT loses.

These rotten politics have existed in US soccer since it began in the 1980’s. It’s how Alexi Lalas became a “key guy” for the USMNT in 1994 & 1998. There has always been a lot of potential for US soccer, but it’s being choked-off by billionaire money that dictates everything from policy to player & coach selection. Personal favorites & recognized names still dominate a USMNT roster which produces nothing but mediocre results.

Top international players have year-round football camps in the US. The idea is to create new players from the US diaspora. Most of these young players aren’t good enough to play for their national teams in France, Spain, etc, but would be more than good enough to play for the USMNT. US soccer needs to open up its minds, and everything else, to these kinds of ideas.

Most of the US soccer hierarchy is only interested in protecting its perks & privileges. Once every four years it has to face-the-music at the men’s World Cup. After every disappointment, their idea is to sweep all these deeper issues under the rug and continue on as before. As things stand, that’s what awaits the USMNT in the 2030 World Cup.

———

Have you noticed how few former US players are involved in US soccer leadership? A glance through the US Soccer Federation (USSF) board reveals a bunch of bureaucrats who never played much. These are the people in charge of US soccer. The USSF board is thoroughly comprised of bureaucrats, politicians & former fringe players who do what they are told. There is no one here with the spine needed to tell an ignorant billionaire he is wrong.

Where are Carli Lloyd, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Alex Morgan, etc? These are the names US soccer fans recognize & respect. Clearly their services aren’t wanted by the USSF. That explains why these soccer talents are now analysts on television, or retired from the game. The USSF is mostly interested in enriching itself. Producing a competitive USMNT hasn’t been a priority for the USSF. The results speak to that.

Current USMNT goalkeeper Matt Freese is a “Athletic Representative” on the USSF board, which makes me wonder why Kasey Keller & Tim Howard aren’t. The USSF smacks of favoritism, cronyism & mediocrity in its ranks. It’s a rotten bureaucracy, like all the rest, and it needs to be replaced with something that actually represents the best in US soccer/football. That’s the only path to World Cup success for the USMNT.

* The controversial decision to waive Folarin Balogun’s red-card suspension in the World Cup was made solely by FIFA disciplinary chair Mohammad al-Kamali, without input from any of the 17 other members of his committee, The Times of London reported Sunday. I initially described the “FIFA disciplinary committee” as a smokescreen, and here it is. That completes the loop and anyone can connect the dots. Of course, these conspirators will all deny their involvement & minimize the significance, that’s the FIFA & American way.

In summary, US President Donald Trump decided to intervene in Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension by contacting FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, who went directly to the disciplinary committee chair Mohammad al-Kamali, who ruled in favor of the USMNT without consulting any other member of the 18-person disciplinary panel. It’s still unclear at what point US soccer VP Sam Zapatka & CIA security guy Frank Pannell got involved, and what exactly their roles were. Was using Trump to strong-arm Gianni Infantino their idea, or Trump’s? Who first brokered this really bad idea? Unsurprisingly, no one involved is commenting.

It’s also interesting to note that it’s the Times of London who investigated & published this FIFA disciplinary committee fraud revelation. It wasn’t Fox or ESPN discovering these facts. Does that surprise you? ESPN hasn’t given us much on US soccer VP Sam Zapatka & CIA security guy Frank Pannell either. Those are some uncomfortable questions that need to be asked, so they don’t get asked. They get away with no comment and move on. It’s been very hush-hush for the USSF since this murky Trump-FIFA affair came to light.

Mon 13 Jul 2026 08:12 PM CDT

According to Google AI, Fox has decided on John Strong-Stu Holden as the broadcasters for both semi-final matches. This cheats World Cup fans watching in the US. Ian Darke-Landon Donovan are Fox’s best team, followed by Darren Fletcher-Owen Hargreaves. Derek Rae-Rob Green are better than Strong-Holden. This is Fox promoting its MLS announcers. It’s called soccer. It’s disrespectful to bring Ian Darke overseas for your World Cup broadcast team, only to sideline him at the end. It’s like benching Wayne Gretzky for the Stanley Cup finals, and it’s just another ignorant Fox executive decision.

——–

A record smashing 42 million Americans tuned-in to see the USMNT humiliate itself in its 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round-of-16. Fox pumped up the hype, but when the bubble burst, Fox quickly went back into its reactionary shell. There has been no serious analysis from the aforementioned ex-national team players whom Fox pays to analyze what happened. Fox doesn’t allow it, so apparently this World Cup is supposed to fizzle out as far as the USMNT goes.

I’ve seen nothing close to my level of serious inquest towards the USMNT & USSF anywhere in the US corporate media. Everyone there is content to vent for a few days and then go on making money, regardless of results. I’ll be leaving this World Cup more convinced than ever that there is no hope for the USMNT. It’s a lie & a fraud from top to bottom. You just can’t win with these people.

Tue 14 Jul 2026 01:50 PM CDT

The women’s World Cup is in Brazil in 2027, so that now becomes that focus for the USSF. In the 2023 World Cup held in Australia, the USWNT struggled throughout, eventually losing their round-of-16 match against Sweden– in a goalless draw they lost 5–4 in a penalty shootout. Megan Rapinoe missed the decisive PK. Corrosive Subway commercials became a storyline.

Without question, the failures of the USSF & the USMNT have also eaten away at the success of the USWNT. Current women’s FIFA rankings are: Spain, US, Germany, England, Japan, France, Brazil & Sweden as the top 8– in that order. Seven of these nations are teaching their women to play football, while one is still stuck on soccer.

In 1991 the USWNT won the inaugural women’s World Cup held in China. No one cared. FIFA didn’t even put its name on it until after it was over, because it wasn’t initially convinced it was a legitimate event. It wasn’t until the summer of 1999 that America and the rest of the world cared about the women’s FIFA World Cup. This springboarded into the NWSL, and even helped the WNBA. Mia Hamm is why athletic young women today get NIL deals with the NCAA.

The great US players from the past need to step up and be more vocal in the soccer/football discussion, because the bureaucrats have taken over and everything is turning into crap. What’s going now in the USSF isn’t an inquest, it’s a whitewash. Do you see how this mirrors American politics? It’s the same thing because there is big money & powerful influence in football.

Rob Stone, John Strong, Stu Holden & Alexi Lalas have been handed the reigns by Fox for the rest of the World Cup. Are those the great players & voices you remember? Let’s be clear: Christian Pulisic isn’t the greatest men’s player ever, that’s Landon Donovan– the guy who led the USMNT to the quarterfinals in 2002 and was voted the FIFA best young player of the tournament. Landon Donovan got the USMNT there, not Bruce Arena.

Fox has Landon Donovan stifled when it comes to commenting on US soccer and the national team during their broadcast. I keep hearing in the corporate media from past USMNT managers– Klinsmann, Arena, Berhalter… I’m not interested in hearing from the people who were fired from their job because they failed, who are now commenting on how the job should be done. I’m tired of the media giving a megaphone & legitimacy to these incorrect past voices.

Therefore, I’m fully expecting the USSF to select a MLS coach to be the next USMNT manager. As far as who that will be, John Strong & company know better than me. Note that it also depends on the billionaire benefactors who’ve paid Mauricio Pochettino all that money. For background, the salaries of the USMNT & USWNT managers must be the same. That was fought for & (supposedly) hashed-out by the USWNT in the late 1990’s. The 2026 World Cup manager salary was “augmented” with private capital contributions (mentioned above) that paid Mauricio Pochettino his $6M/year salary. That will be an issue for whomever is selected as the next USMNT manager.

Wed 15 Jul 2026 11:53 AM CDT

Slava Malamud, Daniel Garb, Moshik Temkin, Eugênio Leal, Melissa Reddy, Mehdi Hasan are among the published pundits who now say Trump hurt the USMNT with his FIFA intervention. But at the time, NONE of them said Trump’s intervention was a bad idea. These are sycophant Monday morning quarterbacks, posing as responsible leadership.

Folarin Balogun stated a week after the 4-1 loss to Belgium, “My initial reaction was I was happy to be back on the team. But when I kind of started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy, and I could almost see within my teammates, a bit of nerves because it was something that’s so unique. But the closer we got to the game, I tried to just focus as best as I could. But it was difficult, you know, a lot of outside noise.”

So why didn’t anyone else on the USMNT or USSF management notice? Why was the US media 100% cheerleading the Trump-FIFA intervention when it happened? What we have here is an exercise in hand-wringing and historical falsification. Everyone involved with the USMNT applauded the red-card overturn and was only delighted that Folarin Balogun could play against Belgium. Now all these media flakes posture as early opponents of Trump’s meddling when it ended in disaster. Disgraceful.

Equally bad are ESPN articles, such as those titled, “The USMNT’s struggles at the World Cup can’t be fixed by overhauling youth development.” Fixing US youth development is the ONLY way the USMNT can ever become competitive at the World Cup. The USSF doesn’t want people to know that, because it holds them accountable.

I believe the USSF has a deal with the NFL to never call their game football– and always call it soccer. The USSF has acquiesced to higher powers and accepted their place as a second-rate sport. These are the fundamental problems with US soccer to which all these mentioned parties are contributors. The problems with the USMNT run much deeper that what you see on the field, and it’s these people’s jobs to hide it from the public. That’s the fundamental problem and it’s going to take a revolution to change it.

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San Diego Padres: trade deadline considerations

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AJ Preller is considering trading Fernando Tatis, Jr. The team AJ Preller has built around Tati hasn’t met expectations for many years now, and it has collapsed in 2026. The Padres aren’t a good team anymore. As a fan, I gave up on the 2026 Padres on July 1, when they lost 23-3 to the Cubs.

By the numbers they have the worst starting pitching in MLB and the worst LF. Catcher is still a black hole, and they don’t get nearly enough from their DH. The Padres are punchless. Their once elite defense is now league average. Their elite bullpen is overused and succumbing to injuries & fatigue.

AJ Preller is the Padres GM and he’s at a crossroads with Fernando Tatis, Jr. AJ Preller stole Tati from the White Sox in 2016, but the kid hasn’t performed up to expectations. Fernando Tatis, Jr has incredible talent, but lacks maturity & focus. He gives away too many at-bats and gets himself out too often. His kind of carefree leadership doesn’t beat the Dodgers. Still, he’s age 27 and a generational talent– and that’s worth a lot. I believe Tati needs to be on a good team with an established leader, and I think AJ Preller knows this too.

The MLB trade deadline is approaching in a few weeks, and AJ Preller is already gauging the market. Ace closer Mason Miller is the prize every contender covets. AJ Preller paid a lot to get Mason Miller last trade deadline, and he can probably get the same or more now. AJ Preller also knows the winter hot stove season is the best time to deal, in terms of trading away established talent because the 8/3 trade deadline puts a gun to the head of any GM that has to sell.

Over the winter, everyone is a buyer & seller. This makes it easier to put together big deals, and trade bigger players. More teams can get involved and there is no rush from November through mid-February when pitchers & catchers report. The Yankees, Mets, Red Sox & Dodgers will always shortchange any team compelled to trade high-end talent at the August deadline– in any season.

So what AJ Preller is doing, through his MLB press secretary AJ Cassavell, is determining what the top return value is for this trade deadline. Ace closer Mason Miller would be the top asset, so that sets the market. AJ Preller is a master at this on every end– buying, selling & holding. When Padres star Juan Soto needed to be traded, he was first floated at the 2023 trade deadline. When paltry returns were the market response, AJ Preller held. He instead traded Juan Soto to the Yankees that winter for a much better package than he would have gotten in a trade deadline deal.

Manny Machado & Xander Bogaerts will also go if Fernando Tatis Jr is dealt. AJ Preller needs fresh prospects, particularly pitchers. It probably won’t happen at the 8/3 trade deadline, but you never know with AJ Preller. He’ll have his hand in the market, influencing it profoundly. For sure AJ Preller will be busy from November onward rebuilding his team that collapsed.

The biggest problem AJ Preller has is being up against the bleeping Dodgers. It’s simply impossible for the Padres to compete anymore. After the Dodgers won the World Series in 2024, they went out and signed ace starter Blake Snell that winter. That was bad enough, but it was the Dodgers also signing lefty closer Tanner Scott to a 4/$72M deal that exasperated AJ Preller and many other MLB executives.

Tanner Scott has been acquired by AJ Preller from the Marlins at the 2024 trade deadline, and was an ace for the Padres against the Dodgers in the divisional round series the Dodgers won in 5 games. Tanner Scott completely neutralized Shohei Ohtani at the plate, so that winter the Dodgers went out and signed Tanner Scott so no other contender would have that lefty reliever who could neutralize their best hitter late in games. No other team could afford to do that, but that’s how the Dodgers take out insurance on winning the next World Series, which they did in 2025. Tanner Scott had arm issues in 2025 and wasn’t even on the Dodgers post-season roster last fall. This year he’s healthy again and now their ace closer.

The Padres are currently being sold by the Seidler family for a MLB record $3.9B to an investor group led by private equity billionaire José E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones. What’s next, who knows? Since Peter Seidler’s death from cancer and the bankruptcy of the Diamond Sports Group (DSG) in 2023, the Padres have been existing on borrowed time. The Padres are now one of 8-10 fringe teams which has MLB broadcast their games directly, meaning they get much less TV revenue than the Yankees, Dodgers & Cubs. The Padres are a squeezed team in the same division with the Dodgers, meaning their immediate future looks pretty hopeless.

The San Diego Padres don’t have enough money to comp[ete, and they can’t make up the difference with their farm system because the Dodgers already have a top minor league system. Since Andrew Friedman took over as GM of the Dodgers after leaving the Tampa Bay Rays in October 2014, the Dodgers have figured it out and there are no organizational holes for other teams to exploit. Plus, they have unmatchable clout.

In 2026, the Dodgers carry a competitive balance tax payroll of $413M. MLB is the only sport where teams are still allowed to crush each other with crazy big-market spending. The penalties for overspending aren’t enough to stop the Dodgers from monopolizing the top talent. Every winter and every trade deadline. the Dodgers get what they want. They get the best talent, and they get it first. After they have fed, everyone else gets to fight over the remaining crumbs. It’s not very interesting to watch anymore.

This has been a frustrating season for the Padres and AJ Preller has kept himself quiet throughout. That’s a red flag right there. AJ Preller surprises MLB with his moves. It’s when you hear no whispers that you should be expecting. AJ Preller’s moves are bold & innovative. They always have a managerial logic that withstands fan & media scrutiny. No GM can be perfect, it’s about winning more than you lose and building a solid organization over time. AJ Preller has done that.

The Padres were a joke when he took over in 2014. AJ Preller has had to endure meddling ownership that brain-childed the Matt Kemp deal, trading away young prospects Max Fried, Trea Turner, etc. It’s an organization that needed a total rebuild, and the Padres competitive foundation is much better than it was 12 years ago. It’s the only extended period of competitiveness in franchise history, which goes back to 1969.

With new ownership, I don’t know how long AJ Preller will have his job. For many Padres fans, he’s our team favorite. AJ Preller made the Padres respectable, and they’re now selling for $3.9B because of it. How much new ownership values &  respects that is to be seen.

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