From: punditster@gmail.com   
      
   On 2/9/2026 9:40 AM, Tara wrote:   
   > 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   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)