#Clay Travis

[relaxedstyles]

😳

[justinssportscorner]

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

American women covered their country in Olympic glory in Paris on Thursday. Katie Ledecky broke the record for most swimming medals won by a woman when the U.S. team captured silver in the 4x200-meter freestyle, while Simone Biles won gold in her second women’s gymnastics all-around Olympics event and her teammate Suni Lee took the bronze.  But on this side of the Atlantic, the American right was apparently more interested in bemoaning the purported death of women’s sports than cheering on their compatriots. The leading lights of the right-wing media spent Thursday melting down over an Olympics welterweight boxing match between two women from Algeria and Italy as they sought to drum up a ragefest they could use to firm up Donald Trump’s wavering election prospects against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Imane Khelif of Algeria won her Olympics boxing match against Italy’s Angela Carini when Carini forfeited after taking several blows to the face in the fight’s opening seconds (in boxing, for those unfamiliar with the sport, competitors try to hit each other in the head as hard as they can and can win by rendering their opponent unconscious). The U.S. right quickly seized on the match and plugged it into their obsessive anti-trans hysteria, falsely declaring Khelif a man who had beaten up a woman. 

If you want to know more about Khelif — a veteran of international women’s boxing competition who was eliminated in the quarterfinal round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and whose passport, from a country where you cannot legally change your gender, identifies her as female — read Paolo Armelli’s story on the controversy for Wired. If you are interested in the history of sports competitions grappling with complex questions about the gender and sex of athletes, my former colleague Parker Molloy wrote nuanced pieces on the subject for Vice News, CJR, and at her Substack. 

What was quite clear on Thursday, however, is that the weirdo right, obsessed with conducting bizarre “transvestigations,” doesn’t care about any of this. They simply want to misgender Khelif, invoke the rage associated with domestic violence by claiming she is a man punching a woman, and channel the resulting outrage and anti-trans hate into their own political gain.

A MAGA media frenzy quickly ensued on X after the match, with Riley Gaines, the right-wing activist who built her career complaining about trans women competing in sports, at the heart of the outburst.  [...]

This sustained freakout is a perfect example of how the right-wing media has become pickled in its own outrage. They simply cannot let themselves — or anyone else — enjoy good things that normal Americans enjoy, like the dominance of U.S. women at the Olympics. Instead, they build their audiences and make their money by constantly trying to find something they can get mad about. Being a right-winger in good standing in recent years has required working oneself into a culture war frenzy over the NFL, Budweiser beer, Disney movies, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift, among other all-American icons.  [...]

“This is where Kamala Harris's ideas about gender lead: to a grown man pummeling a woman in a boxing match,” vice presidential nominee JD Vance posted to X on Thursday. “This is disgusting, and all of our leaders should condemn it.” His running mate — who a jury found liable for sexual abuse, and who was introduced at the Republican National Convention last month by a man who had been captured on video hitting his wife in the face — chimed in. “I WILL KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS!” Trump posted to Truth Social.

Other Republican politicians, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Anthony D’Esposito of New York, Greg Steube of Florida, and Mike Collins of Georgia; North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson and Senate nominees Hung Cao of Virginia and Kari Lake of Arizona also contributed to the sick debate.  Normal people are too busy cheering for American champions like Ledecky and Biles to spend their time doing chalkboard scrawls explaining how Kamala Harris should be blamed for who Algeria sends to the Olympics. But with Trump’s polling lead slipping away and his campaign apparently trying to reignite by focusing on what appeals to the party’s weirdo wing, we can expect much more of this in the months to come.

The right-wing Weirdo Caucus were big mad over two cisgender women boxers to push an anti-trans narrative, and as usual, the likes of anti-trans extremists such as J.K. Rowling, Riley Gaines, Charlie Kirk, and Clay Travis led the charge of faux outrage against Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting’s participation in women’s boxing under the guise of “defending women’s sports.”

See Also:

Awful Announcing: Predictably, the Olympics are bringing out the worst in us

The Advocate: Attacks on Imane Khelif prove what we've long known: Transphobia hurts cis women, too

Out: The transphobia Imane Khelif is experiencing isn't new—it's part of a disturbing, hateful pattern

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Chloe Simon and Reed McMaster at MMFA:

On September 9, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance claimed that Haitian migrants had “abducted and eaten” pets in Springfield, Ohio, seemingly referencing debunked social media rumors.  Though local officials explained that there was no truth to the claim, right-wing media immediately jumped on the bandwagon, amplifying Vance’s allegations and pushing racist narratives about Haitian immigrants.  Some right-wing figures accused Haitian migrants of consuming “cats and ducks” and comparing them to “zombies” and “locusts.” 

JD Vance falsely alleged Haitian migrants are kidnapping and eating people’s pets, continuing long-standing right-wing media attacks on Haitians

JD Vance wrote on X that he had previously raised concerns about “Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio” and “reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country.” While Vance did admit in a subsequent post that “it's possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” he doubled down by telling by telling his “fellow patriots” not to “let the crybabies in the media dissuade you” and encouraged them to continue making “cat memes.” [Twitter/X, 9/9/24, 9/10/24, 9/10/24]

The claim Haitian migrants are eating cats seemingly originated from a commentator at a local meeting, Facebook rumors, and a video of a woman accused of eating an animal. The video used as evidence took place in Canton, Ohio, not Springfield, Ohio, and The Guardian reported that the woman did not appear to be a Haitian immigrant. [The Guardian, 9/9/24]

Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck says there is no truth to the story. In a statement to ABC News, Heck said that “in response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.” (Vance had previously cited Heck in a Senate Banking committee meeting about issues Springfield has had with housing for Haitian migrants.) [ABC News, 9/9/24]

The debunked attack on Haitian people is the latest in years’ worth of racist right-wing media tirades against the country. In the aftermath of the deadly 2010 Haiti earthquake, right-wing media said that the “Haitian pact with the devil is historical fact” and that the country was “so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.” Then in 2018, when Trump had labeled Haiti a “shithole country,” Infowars’ Alex Jones backed him up, saying it is a “literal craphole” and a “hellhole.” [Media Matters, 1/14/10, 1/20/10, 1/21/10, 1/12/18; NBC News, 1/11/18] 

Right-wing media gin up anti-Haitian racism with the false "Haitian migrants are eating pets" BS.

[simply-ivanka]

Clay Travis Pays Off Alyssa Milano's Travel Baseball GoFundMe — With One Condition – OutKick

[william-r-melich]

A Good Point Well Made - 03/29/2024

Today on the radio, Clay Travis made a good point about our history. In that in 1945 we had the power with the atomic bomb to take over the entire world. Instead, we liberated many countries in Europe by defeating the Nazis and both allowing and helping other countries to flourish or decline on their own terms. It was like a good example of forgiveness and redemption in a profound way. World War II was really a battle of good versus evil, and that's where we find ourselves today, in battles of good versus evil. Maybe these battles will always exist as long as us humans are walking the earth. Hopefully we can reach a point where they are more limited in number and scope. It shouldn't become too commonplace, but rather as few exceptions, the fewer the better, obviously. Another thing that Clay Travis mentioned were the young soldiers who parachuted down behind enemy lines some days before our boats stormed the beaches of Normandy. Imagine getting into a plane for the first time in your life and jumping out in the dark while being shot at. Those young men had the kind of courage that is difficult to even imagine, truly incredible. Clay was saying how disgusted he was with things like the 1619 project, how it distorts history and focuses on the bad aspects of it in order to define who we are as a nation. Is that how you want to be defined, by your worst traits? Our country has done more - good than any other country on earth in the advancement of civilization. I vote for defining us by our strengths, while not ignoring the bad. Yes, we must acknowledge all of our history, but we must give credit where credit is due. Our United States of America has really been the greatest of all countries ever on earth, hands down no bullstit! So, given with Easter being this Sunday, I guess it's appropriate to find redemption by acknowledging our pitfalls, while celebrating our strengths and successes. Although I don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead, let us rise above our sins of the past by learning from them, find some measure of forgiveness towards ourselves and others, and do our utmost best to boldly face the truth and make our lives better with common sense and decency.

[marvelousbelladonna]

What do you see?

The Mighty Nein meets the Bells Hells

[shorthaltsjester]

The Mighty Nein; On Hope.

@/mumblesplash // “Episode 76: Refjorged” - Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham // “Episode 46: A Storm of Memories” - Marisha Ray // “Mighty Nein Reunited: Uk’otoa Unleashed” - Liam O’Brien // “Episode 120: Contentious Company” - Matthew Mercer // “Episode 93: Misery Loves Company” - Laura Bailey // “Episode 112: The Chase Begins” - Matthew Mercer and Travis Willingham // “Episode 30: The Journey Home” - Sam Riegel // “Mighty Nein Animated Intro - Your Turn To Roll” - Kamille Areopagita and Kevin Areopagita // “Episode 94: With Great Power…” - Taliesin Jaffe // “Episode 69: The King’s Cage” - Matthew Mercer and Travis Willingham // “Episode 86: The Cathedral” - Taliesin Jaffe // “Episode 140: Long May He Reign” - Laura Bailey and Matthew Mercer // “Episode 97: The Fancy and the Fooled” - Liam O’Brien // “Long May He Reign” - Laura Bailey // “Episode 141: Fond Farewells” - Laura Bailey and Taliesin Jaffe // “Episode 131: Into the Eye” - Ashley Johnson // “Fond Farewells” - Matthew Mercer // “Long May He Reign” - Taliesin Jaffe

insp.

[justinssportscorner]

Gideon Taaffe and Charis Hoard at MMFA:

Instead of celebrating the rising influence of women’s basketball, right-wing media seized on the highly anticipated draft to attack the WNBA and dismiss the low wages of some of basketball’s biggest stars.  After a historic women’s NCAA tournament, the Women’s National Basketball Association draft drew substantial media attention both praising the rising influence of the league and criticizing the low wages of the league’s stars. Right-wing media chose to denigrate the sport and its players rather than engage with critiques of how women athletes are treated.

With the WNBA's popularity surging due to several college megastars such as Caitlin Clark being drafted, right-wing media launched unhinged sexist attacks against the league (and women's sports in general). These same people attacking the WNBA and women's sports launch attacks against trans women participating in women's sports under the purported guise of "saving women's sports."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jack Winstanley and Gideon Taaffe at MMFA:

Even though officials have stated that recent reports of unidentified drone sightings were mostly innocuous “commercial drones” or “even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones,” right-wing media figures have peddled conspiracy theories alleging the sightings indicated some sort of nefarious activity. While some have pushed wild claims about a supposed “dirty bomb” missing in New Jersey and alien UFOs coming to Earth, others have baselessly alleged various government conspiracy theories, including a “psyop” to hinder Trump's forthcoming presidency, a fake alien invasion, or a power grab. 

Right-wing media reacting bonkers over reported drone sightings by pushing inane conspiracy theories.

[demigoddessqueens]

Ohmygoawd 😍🤩🥹💕

[tezzbot]

Been livin' on island time for 20 years 🤙

[c-kiddo]

^ hugs from ur gf and your friend The Creature

(pen drawings to appease the autism bc im so busy handing in work but also relistening to cr2 (ep72 and 73 and that whole arc) and i want to draw them so bad . explosion sound)

[bravenot]

Sam suggests one method of splitting the party. Caduceus wants a nickname.

[marvelousbelladonna]

Spilt the party for teleportation