From: tsm@fastmail.ca   
      
   On Feb 9, 2026 at 9:13:39 AM EST, "Julian"  wrote:   
      
   > On 09/02/2026 00:19, Tara wrote:   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Fragile U.S. psyche faces trial by sport in Milan   
      
    CATHAL   
   >> KELLY   
   Milan   
   Published 8 hours ago   
   Updated 8 hours ago   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
   In the   
   >> continuum of human stupidity, there are few more extreme contemporary   
   >> examples than boxer/influencer Jake Paul. Stupid is his business, and   
   >> business is good.   
   >>   
   Paul is here at the Olympics following around his crush, American   
   >> vice-president J.D. Vance. The pair attended Saturday’s U.S. women’s   
   hockey   
   >> game together.   
   Paul is also acting as volunteer komissar, policing the   
   >> political affiliations of his countrymen.   
   During a presser, American   
   >> freestyle skier Hunter Hess talked about the vibe back home.   
   “It brings up   
   >> mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now,” Hess said. “Just   
   because I   
   >> wear the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the   
   >> country.”   
   When said in Hess’s Jeff Spicoli drawl, you’d have to be trying   
   >> to be very offended by that. Paul was very offended.   
   “From all true   
   >> Americans,” he tweeted at Hess. “If you don’t want to represent this   
   >> country go live somewhere else.”   
   Cathal Kelly: Something funny happened   
   >> when Canada played Switzerland: it was an actual competition   
   Obviously,   
   >> someone who gets hit in the head for a living shouldn’t be taken too   
   >> seriously. Then Paul went on a date with the second-most powerful person in   
   >> America. So maybe that’s not obvious anymore.   
      
      
   America’s been coming   
   >> apart in a broken-family sort of way for a while. The rest of us are their   
   >> unlucky neighbours, lying awake at night listening to them fight.   
   This is   
   >> different though. Shorn of home-field advantage in Milan, forced together   
   >> with all the friends they just ghosted, you can really see the cracks.   
   >>   
   From Vance being booed at the opening ceremony, to NBC playing state TV   
   >> and erasing it, to American athletes being pressed hard on how it feels to   
   >> play for a country no one likes any more, what strikes you isn’t that   
   it’s   
   >> happening. Chinese and Russian athletes are used to provocative political   
   >> questions at big international events.   
   The difference is that the Chinese   
   >> and the Russians have muscular responses at hand. Like them or not, they   
   >> know where they stand. The Americans have no clue how to talk to strangers,   
   >> because they only discuss serious matters with like-minded Americans and   
   >> about America, if at all. That there is a world out there with its own take   
   >> on things befuddles them (i.e. “go live somewhere else”).   
      
      
   When skiing   
   >> star Mikaela Shiffrin was asked about the America problem, she started,   
   >> stopped and said, “I can read something I had written, if you guys don’t   
   >> mind.” Then she rattled through what sounded a lot like a poem she found   
   on   
   >> Instagram about ‘peace’.   
   This is America’s new crisis of confidence, and   
   >> it has nothing to do with being beset by the world’s problems, as happened   
   >> in the 70s. It’s realizing in real time at the Olympics that everyone else   
   >> thinks they are the world’s problem. You won’t find that on NBC either.   
   >>   
   There’s only so many patriotic montages you can hide that behind. The   
   >> Olympics aren’t a sports tournament. They are a biannual reminder of how   
   >> much you matter in the world. America’s always been the coolest kid in the   
   >> cafeteria, win or lose. You know that because they are the constant topic   
   >> of village gossip. They still are, but no longer in a good way.   
   Cathal   
   >> Kelly: Canadian to the core, Sidney Crosby’s legacy is already   
   >> untouchable   
   Because of that, the sports end of the Olympics suddenly   
   >> matters a lot. That the American team will win a bunch of medals is a   
   >> given, but will they produce great moments? Will they come out of the Games   
   >> projecting strength, rather than the confusion they’re giving off right   
   >> now?   
      
      
   So far, so not good. Their great story of resilience was meant to be   
   >> 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn proving that no one can keep American can-do’ism   
   >> down. That lasted one turn into Sunday’s downhill final.   
   After Vonn’s   
   >> horror crash, cameras panned through the audience to catch all the   
   >> Americans – who still insist on dressing for international travel like   
   >> George Washington holding a sign out in front of the Valu-Mart – looking   
   >> stunned.   
   Then they focused in on the eventual winner, Breezy Johnson, who   
   >> is also American, sitting on the throne reserved for the person in top   
   >> spot.   
   Johnson had an excruciated look on her face – am I allowed to be   
   >> happy right now? Should I be sad? – that captured the current   
   >> American-in-the-world vibe.   
      
      
   This pastiche went on forever. Vonn on a   
   >> stretcher – cut to Johnson squirming – cut to Vonn being strapped   
   >> underneath a helicopter – cut to Johnson glazing over.   
   The person   
   >> directing the international broadcast was doing their best Sergei   
   >> Eisenstein – saying with images what cannot be said with words.   
   Everywhere   
   >> else in the world, America is always on top. You could stand any foreign   
   >> leader beside any deputy underwhatever of the U.S. State Department, and   
   >> you know who’s actually to the fore. Not here.   
   At the Olympics, America is   
   >> one among equals. When the bad guys were the other guys, that was a buddy   
   >> story. Now it’s turning into a karmic beatdown. Everyone else wants to see   
   >> them fail, and they know it.   
   If that means their nice, young athletes have   
   >> to lose, well, too bad. They’ve never been worried about our nice, young   
   >> athletes, or anyone else.   
   Milan is the beginning of America’s trial by   
   >> sport. Five months from now, they host the World Cup. Their president will   
   >> actually be “at” that tournament, every day for 56 days. I’m sure   
   it’s   
   >> going to go great.   
      
      
   Two and a half years from now, America hosts the next   
   >> Olympics, in L.A., just as the Donald Trump era is ending.   
   Based on how   
   >> things are going, could you see a world in which other countries decide to   
   >> take a pass on that Games? Not a boycott, necessarily. More a pause that   
   >> refreshes. See you again at French Alps 2030. Of all possible insults, none   
   >> would hurt or say more.   
   There is also a world in which getting low-key   
   >> shamed here and elsewhere convinces just enough Americans to change course,   
   >> and that by 2028, things are starting to head in a better direction. But I   
   >> doubt it.   
   > https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTaJBWVDfNc/   
      
    I also doubt it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)