Side note but what I actually want for Christmas is a country that gives me all these things he lists. Open borders (like the Founders intended!), trans inclusion in women’s sports, anyone can be trans, police who don’t need tanks, record stock market & 401ks, low crime, no inflation, & good GDP.

Two things: 1) Santa is probably one of the best arguments I can think of for open borders and free flow of people. Visits every country in one night. 2) Santa is always good. If someone tells you there’s a Bad Santa, I promise it’s just Billy Bob Thornton in that movie.

Fan supporter groups from NWSL are now uniting to call for a boycott effort against the league. It includes blocking the league on social media, boycotting the league’s merchandise store and calling for emailing the team and league to oppose the new High Impact Player rule.

Here for the Michael Steele holiday spirit..

Having watched both, women's and men's soccer have similarities but in many respects are different games. So not only has the likely new KC Current head coach never coached pro women's soccer, but also in the sport he *does* coach in, he hasn't been very good. Reeeeeeallly curious hire here.

If the head of the Players Association is responding like this to a rule that you make, and says they will "take action to enforce the rights of players," that doesn't seem like a good sign for your rule if you are the league.

This doesn’t even include the FIFA Best XI. Of course, that list, like a lot of others here, forgets NWSL players even exist and only named players from England & Spain this year. Idk if it’s an oversight, but if they excluded it because of its Euro bias, that’s true of other criteria here!

I know when rules change we often name them for players, but this feels like one where you name it after its creator. Kind of like how people call baseball’s zombie runner the “Manfred Man,” this is the Berman Rule.

Heard buzz over 2025 that the league, owners, and possibly CSOs were all feeling that player power had gone too far in NWSL, and can't help but think today's HIP announcement is linked. Doesn't seem to have gone over well!

I remember cringing a bit when Riviera Beach, FL, where my grandma used to live, named a road "President Barack Obama Highway" while he was still in office. But it was worth it for two reasons: 1) It used to be Old Dixie Hwy. 2) It made my grandma so proud. www.sun-sentinel.com/2015/12/17/o...

Excellent thread here by Bill of all the times Bari Weiss didn't care when stories she published had additional comment. This exec, Jennifer Sey, has become an anti-trans activist, currently offering a bounty for any pro women's soccer player to join her and accuse female competitors of being men.

Wall Street Journal and New York Times both have reporting indicating that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss spiked a story about the CECOT prison in El Salvador in a political decision. To think, she also runs a site called the “Free Press.” www.wsj.com/business/med...

Death is the policy. I can’t say that RFK Jr *wants* to kill people, but if you decided to be an HHS Secretary and had the goal of killing as many people as possible, you’d do almost exactly what RFK Jr has done and is doing.

This makes me very happy

The lack of liberal/lefty tabloids in the U.S. is disappointing for many reasons, but for this especially. Need an NY Post-style front page on this story that screams out: KID KILLER KENNEDY

LIVE NOW: Man suspected in shooting at Brown University has been found dead in New Hampshire. Authorities hold a press conference.

Sarah McBride Lobbied Some Republicans to Vote Against an Anti-Trans Bill, @oriana.bsky.social reports www.notus.org/congress/mcb...

This guy was in my small freshman seminar at Georgetown. Smart kid, but for years, he was my example of a guy who you'd chat with for about 15 seconds and feel like you needed to take a shower afterward. I wondered what he got up to. Kinda shocked, but not super surprised, he took this route.

Another wrinkle in the Rodman/salary cap saga. NWSLPA's reasoning is pretty consistent with what they've said generally, which is support for raising the bar for all players. Just analyzing it, feels like it would be tough for them to have to advocate for two categories of players in future talks.

NWSL champ Jess Carter had strong words on the racist, anti-trans rhetoric targeting Black players. “[I]f you're making these comments, it's probably because you're not beating them… Because if you were winning, you wouldn't care.” More w/her here: im-curious-roey.beehiiv.com/p/im-curious...

On a livestream yesterday, Puka both: - Said that the Refs throw flags that they know are bad to brag to their friends in group chats, and - Told Adin Ross that he'd do a "covetous jew" celebration on his next TD score Suspend him tbh

Rep. Brendan Boyle on motivating the GOP: "What I would hope would happen, and certainly we're pushing to happen is that enough House Republicans and enough Senate Republicans would be more afraid of their angry voters and facing them next fall than they are afraid of crossing Donald Trump."

I may have ditched James Dolan’s Knicks years ago, but Knicks fans deserve the absolute world, this included. So HIT THE DAMN MUSIC! m.youtube.com/watch?v=PSCd...

Things Trump has said about U.S. going to war: "War is depressing" "It is a tremendous cost to this country, what’s gone on there, and again, we are getting some very, very unpleasant surprises." "War... was a big, fat mistake." "Single worst decision ever made." (All said about Iraq.)

Susie Wiles has worked in politics, largely in a front-facing role, since 1978. She worked for Jack Kemp, Ronald Reagan, Rick Scott, Jon Huntsman, Ron DeSantis. And her father Pat Summerall was a legendary broadcast journalist who covered sports on national TV for 40 years. How could she not know?

Somehow not the first time this year that a high-profile star athlete unretiring has put a spotlight on health insurance access. Venus Williams said explicitly that insurance was a reason why she came back to play at tennis tournaments this summer. youtube.com/shorts/akZ70...

Peyton has overcome so much to be a regular presence at multiple NWSL venues on the east coast. Without a service dog, she won't be able to continue that work. The cost of finding and training a service dog is very high, so if you can help at all, you'd be helping one of the good ones in woso.

Not super surprising he would lose on his way out, since that’s common in the business. But a bit surprised he tapped and didn’t just lose by passing out, to honor the fact that “never give up” was a catchphrase of his for most of his career.

This team is so stupid in the absolute best way (This is an Arsenal post)

So do we call that an Olimpico-wngoal?

From Musk doing a Nazi salute on top of the Georgetown hoops student section, to invading the Yankees clubhouse, to the Jets donating to the ballroom, to taking over the World Cup, and now to having the Miracle on Ice guys in cowboy hats, Trump’s really trampling all the sports stuff I grew up with.

“We need all the emails attached to the photos..There’s a lot more information out there.” MS NOW’s @alivitali.bsky.social asks top Oversight Committee Democrat Rep. Garcia if he will subpoena the Epstein estate for more information. www.ms.now/news/house-d...

The apparent "High Impact Player" rules aren't the MLS's Designated Player rules per se, but having basically a two-tier labor system could cause some labor issues. Tobin Heath & Christen Press laid it out well in my MS NOW piece last month, that it risks keeping other players from getting paid.

"It feels a little bit tone deaf." Jen Psaki reacts to TIME choosing AI tech billionaires as their 'Person of the Year.' "It almost felt AI generated."

Well then... This *might* be the solution to the Trinity Rodman salary cap saga (CBA says NWSLPA would have to be consulted but I wonder if there would be any objection to this at least as a short-term solution until the next CBA talks.)

“Marjorie is approaching members to get to nine who will oust the speaker,” one of the sources said. “And if we don’t get to work on codifying Trump’s agenda, anything can happen.” Another @ms.now scoop from Mychael Schnell: www.ms.now/news/marjori...

Meg outlines this but here's a link to the letter, spearheaded by Reps. Emily Randall, Ayanna Pressley and Kathy Castor. Reads in part: "We are compelled to take seriously any allegation that the terms of a duly negotiated CBA are not being upheld." democraticwomenscaucus.house.gov/uploadedfile...

BREAKING: Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been released from immigration detention after a federal judge's order Thursday, his attorney's office says.

This has a parallel. Into the 2000s, police in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan would take Indigenous folks they found outside late at night on "starlight tours," driving them beyond the city limits, and dumping them there. They'd often freeze to death trying to get home. www.theguardian.com/world/2023/a...

Is he talking about... is he talking about winter?

I think it's time for the @brendelbored.bsky.social post!

I actually produced a story on this for Scripps way back when! Calibri has no serifs (little lines on letters,) making it easier for people using screen readers or with dyslexia. You probably don't want to make diplomatic cables w/important info easy to misread. www.youtube.com/watch?v=30tJ...

Also wore them in gold, making a mockery of the yellow ribbons people wore to support freeing the people held hostage in Gaza. Ben Gvir is already a convicted terrorist supporter, but it just so happens this bill would not apply to Jewish nationalist terrorists (like the ones Ben Gvir supports.)

Trans health, abortion, COVID, addressing disparities & barriers to who works in medicine & health: "All of these are issues we must hold the line on, not cave over." Takes like this remind me why I think @gregggonsalves.bsky.social would be an excellent CDC director/top public health official.

TBD on how she does as a soccer exec in Washington but this is the kind of thing that I'd love to hear from a future DHS Secretary.

Maybe if we vaccinate our kids, they will have the energy and durability to do a single pullup, unlike this guy.

If you're gonna call an aging QB who hasn't taken a snap in years, Colin Kaepernick should be first in line.

This is just my own take, but I think the Democratic Party should hand Jennifer Welch the keys and let her drive. Pumps in the passenger seat, of course.

“The Trump White House and FIFA co-opting a cultural space for its glossy World Cup draw tramples on the welcoming environment fans, players, teams and leagues have built for decades in American soccer.” My latest, for @ms.now: www.ms.now/opinion/fifa...