I mean, sure, it played out predictably. But that doesn't make it any less ridiculous.

That the line for so many NFL fans was national anthem protests says a lot. They were fine with their teams employing people who have been convicted of domestic abuse and fine with watching a sport that basically slowly kills everybody who plays it for a prolonged period. But this? Line in the sand.

Outside of the NCAA, this couldn't be happening to a better group of people. I hope the players union strikes on top of all of this. That's long over due, given the salary structure of the league relative to revenues.

The only thing I find ridiculous is that anyone thought this was in any way constructive. There is an old saying, with many forms, one of which is "don't poop in your own bed". Well, the NFL players deliberately chose to poop in their own bed, and now they will get to sleep in it. I don't want to hear them complain about the foreseeable consequences of their own choices (but of course I will).

There were constructive things they could have done, but those would have taken more effort. As one example, they could have created a charitable organization to provide support to the families of people who were killed by police. That would have been off the field, so there would have been no backlash. It would also have put the focus where they intended it, rather than on themselves.

Oh, and while I didn't mention revenue from sales of licensed items, I would expect that revenue to be down significantly as well.

BLSS beat me to it, but I have to say your comment makes it sound like none of the NFL players are doing any of those things that "would have taken more effort." In fact we've discussed many of their efforts right here on this thread. It's convenient to ignore all of those activities.

Also, I don't buy the "this isn't a constructive way to protest" argument. From the posts I've seen here, and the reaction of many all across the country, I can confidently say that no matter how these players chose to make their protest known there would have been a very loud contingent of white Americans who feel put upon and would've been shouting "THIS ISN'T THE PROPER FORUM" at the top of their lungs. Critiquing the method of protest is more important to many than the actual underlying social problems themselves. And that's the gist of it. You and I have been afforded a great amount of privilege to be able to say "don't poop in your own bed" and scoff at what these players are doing. Black Americans haven't really been given a choice. Most don't have a platform to speak out against very real injustices that they still face. These players are some of the few that have been given a platform and I'm glad they're using it. If it hurts NFL ratings a bit in the short term, well that sucks for the NFL -- but any long term ratings issues are not because of these protests. We've discussed here that ratings are down for ALL major sports and the NFL is still the king of the hill. I guarantee you that my racist uncle will get tired of arguing about this crap and go right back to watching the NFL and using the anthem time as a chance to take a pee and grab another beer. He doesn't have anything better to do on a Sunday afternoon.

Here's what we know about what happened in Niger:

About 12 Green Beret's were sent into a known ISIS hotspot in Niger near the border of Mali. There was no US air support, instead support was provided by France, though the French army did not have the authorization to fire their weapons, so their support was essentially meaningless. Intelligence suggested the Green Berets would face no hostility, and sent them without armed vehicles, in pick up trucks. They drove into an ISIS ambush.

French forces -- who were not authorized to intervene -- didn't arrive for 30 minutes. A rescue helicopter arrived after that. It was not US Military, but instead was a private contractor. The private contractor loaded injured and dead troops for evacuation, but failed to perform a headcount. They left Sergeant La David Johnson behind. His locator beacon was activated after the rescue chopper left, meaning he was still alive when the helicopter left.

His body was mutilated by ISIS.

Trump did not address this for 14 days. When the bodies arrived at Dover, he was golfing. The President told his widow that he "knew what he signed up for." When criticized for his response, he attacked a Florida Congresswoman who was close to Johnson's family and widow. He has attacked her again this morning. He called her a liar and said he had proof. His Chief of Staff, the next day, confirmed in a press conference that she was not lying. Trump then, today, accused her of lying despite the confirmation Kelly provided yesterday.

Look at how those troops were supported. Look at how Trump lashes out at the mere idea that he might not have handled the situation well.

Now for all of the people who were so intent on supporting the troops when NFL players knealt quietly during the national anthem, I ask you: where's your support for the troops now? Where's your anger?

The decline in NFL ratings and revenue has been going on for over a decade - Millennials, as a generation, don't buy large cable packages, and don't sit around watching sports.

There have also been several natural disasters that have displaced millions of people in football heavy areas.

Two football teams left markets where they were liked for a market that doesn't care about them.

Just because you decided to start looking at ratings now, and they're down, doesn't mean the free market decided protests are bad - nor does it make them the sole, main, or otherwise driving factor.

BANG!!!! What a big time post!

Yep, just protected all those people who were victims of fraud by Wells Fargo. Thanks to this populist movement, can now not seek compensation or recourse against the corporate criminals.

However, someone will gladly justify for us, how this is a good thing!

Here's what you can do to help relieve the pain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv_eOMyhtms

About as compelling as throwing a "liddle" daily Twitter tantrum.

Eh, I'm just giving him a hard time.

There are a lot of Republican voters these days whose allegiance to the Republican party has little to do with policy, and everything to do with the fact that the Republicans are just not liberals. I get it, sort of. Liberals are plenty annoying, myself included.

But that's particularly glaring now that Trump's in power, and it's fun to point out that many of the ways they used to justify their support for Trump are no longer valid. I mean, the Trump of the campaign trail was a blustering idiot, but at least he was a blustering idiot that blustered idiotically about how much he would get done, how decisive he was going to be, and how he was going negotiate the best deals for Americans. The Trump that's President on the other hand is a weak, ineffectual demagogue who has dragged American institutions and conservative principles through the mud.

He's proven a completely ineffectual governor, blames congress for his ineffectiveness, and then hands over every major policy decision to. . .congress. He promised an Obamacare replacement on Day 1. Turns out, he not only didn't have an ACA replacement on Day 1, but he also lacked a basic understand of healthcare policy and instead just handed the process over to congressional republicans who put forth two atrociously bad bills that basically nobody in the country supported for any other reason than "Obama's bad."

He's a president who knows nothing about policy, and proposes no actual legislation. Fundamentally no president can set a national agenda without policy, and so, we just find ourself with a President who hands the actual act of governing to congress and spends his time attacking NFL players, the free press, and holiday greetings on Twitter.

And so long as he keeps signaling his base on culture war issues, they don't care that he can't govern or enact policy that helps them. They'll happily let him increase their insurance premiums by 25%, remove consumer protections, and question -- over and over -- the usefulness of the first amendment so long as he agrees with them that Colin Kaepernick's upsetting.

Boom.

Tomorrow's going to be a fun day for Patriotism. The first charges have been filed in Mueller's investigation, and smart bets suggest that either Paul Manafort or Michael Flynn will be arrested Monday.

The charges could be any of a number of things, so this doesn't necessarily prove Russian collusion of any sort, but it'll be fun watching a President who insists black folks that protest police brutality are un-American pretend the Chairman of his campaign's a stranger who he barely knows once it's revealed that he's guilty of laundering 60 million in Russian payments and just happened to be working for Trump pro-bono.

Of course, nothing will actually change because nothing matters anymore. Republicans will eat up whatever garbage Trump serves them and we'll hear nothing from them except how this is somehow about Hillary, and we'll find out that Mueller -- a lifelong Republican appointed by GWB -- is somehow compromised, or part of the deep state, and needs to be replaced.

Party over country forever. Starting tomorrow, 75% of Republicans will begin to earnestly believe that Clinton colluded with Russia to hack her own campaigns emails or whatever the logic is there. And the other 25% will figure out a reason not to have an opinion. And why? Because the alternative is acknowledging that they were wrong about a megalomaniac reality show star as best pick for President.

You forget, there are "good people" that rally with them as well...despite the fact that the people who organize these marches are calling for ethnic cleansing and throw Nazi salutes at synagogues...but don't forget about the nice people who rally with them (that apparently don't have a problem with it because they wouldn't otherwise).