From: tsm@fastmail.ca   
      
   On Feb 9, 2026 at 12:53:13 PM EST, "Dude"  wrote:   
      
   > 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   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)