I’ve decided to take down yesterday’s post. Two reasons:
I’m 10,000% sure the right audience read it. Like all of the right audience. So the point got made. No need to beleaguer the point.
The goal was to let the persons involved know I hear everything they say. They can’t talk freely and safely, even to their candidate.
The race is about the candidates, not some guy not working on the campaign. There will be much more where that came from. Now that I know I can make him mad, you can bank on it.
Carol Obando-Derstine is running for Congress in PA-7. I don’t think we’ve ever met, but we have some common friends. She describes herself as “An engineer, advocate, educator, bilingual leader, Mom, and Democrat running for Congress in #PA07 to continue serving her community.” She’s worked for PP&L and Senator Bob Casey. She’s an immigrant to us in the Lehigh Valley, but her roots here include years and years of work time, at least one degree from Lehigh University, and time serving the public in this area. She’s a Democrat, and she is not a carpetbagger. I have many of the same doubts others express in private about her electability, particularly as a first time candidate. With that said, she has picked up major endorsements from our last Congresswoman, EMILY’s List, and BOLD PAC. She is not embarrassing herself in this race whatsoever. Her fundraising so far isn’t super impressive, but it is competitive.
Word on the street though is that the powers that be in the Democratic Party, in both Harrisburg and Washington, are going to ask Carol, Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure, Ex-Republican Ryan Crosswell, and a yet unannounced local office holder who is getting ready to enter the race to all stand aside for a white male, who is also a first time candidate like Carol, and who seems to who have stiffed an old lady out of $55,000. These powers that be are claiming the Governor himself is going to ask all of the candidates to drop out, ask all of the unions who have endorsed to switch their endorsements, and everyone to genuflect to a complete neophyte candidate. They’re going to ask the only woman, and the only person of color in the race to stand down for a white guy who has even less experience than she does running for office, and who has yet to prove he can raise money or do any of the other things a Congressional candidate needs to do. Apparently it’s a much bigger problem that Carol is new to this and hasn’t raised a million dollars yet than it is that this white guy is inexperienced and has no money at the end of July. Do I believe the Governor is actually in on this? No. I can’t believe he’d even entertain such a stupid idea.
I’m going to give Carol some completely unsolicited advice- if someone actually calls her and asks her to get out of the race, be with the Governor or some staff person in DC, she should politely decline. Why would she, as the only woman in a field of four or probably five candidates, drop out? Especially with the support of major political organizations inside the Democratic Party who are going to stick with her as long as she’s in the race? Frankly if they spend on her behalf, in a field that is so male heavy, she’s probably going to win. Again, I have my concerns about her, but a woman held this seat literally until the third day of this year, it’s kind of insulting to think she’s D.O.A. and this yet unnamed new candidate (at least here) is some sort of savior that is going to beat a sitting Congressman. I see no reason Crosswell would or should drop out of this now, almost all of his money is out of state and won’t care what in state powers want. The chances McClure is going to drop out after not running for re-election as Executive are absolutely flat zero. Why would Carol drop out? There’s really no reason she should. I see no way this guy can win the primary with multiple other guys, one from the same geographic space, and at least one other in a similar ideological space. He starts with zero name recognition, less time to raise money, and opposition in his way. There’s no reason Carol should capitulate to his quixotic dreams.
Let’s be honest- nobody likes the Democratic Party. The left hates them, the right despises them, and the base of the party wonders why we platform every weirdo and nerd that steps forward and can put together a sentence. Political people argue about this as though policy choices cause this. It’s really that our party is infested with inauthentic ass holes and we are run by people who have never met our own base.
But from the rubble… emerges an unlikely hero… Hunter Biden?!?
You couldn’t make this up if you tried. Sure, maybe he’s a crackhead. Maybe he’s weird. But he’s saying what we’re all thinking, and he’s saying it authentically. George Clooney is an asshole and blew the election. The podcast bros are a bunch of trust fund dorks, still living off of writing some other guys speeches ten years ago. Nobody outside of the Beltway gives two shits what Jake Tapper said in his fictional book about Joe Biden. Yes, the party abandoned Biden for all of the dumbest reasons, and they’re basically cowards. Kamala Harris may be flawed, but she’s loyal and gave it her best shot. Joe Biden knew more in his pinky about his job than most of these idiots will learn in their lifetime. Yes, the media gives Trump a pass to say dumb things and make up his own reality, for their benefit. I’m not co-signing everything Hunter has to say here, but let that man cook. All the hit dogs are hollering.
A bunch of mega donors are going to spend lots of money, paying consultants to focus test a bunch of stupid shit to try and create an interesting, authentic, plain spoken face for our party moving forward. For obvious reasons Hunter Biden shouldn’t run for anything, but he’s showing all of the trust fund dorks and fancy degrees exactly what it looks like in the wild. Instead of defending the indefensible, listen to what the guy is saying, and more importantly, how.
This Goof Represents The Most Swing District in America.
There’s not many scenarios where Democrats win the House in 2026 and don’t win PA-7. Joe Biden won it in 2020, Donald Trump did so in 2024, and both times the margins look similar to the state margin, and Pennsylvania basically is the tipping point state right now. One of the reasons I never registered to vote anywhere else while out on the road (besides the fact I was coming back) was that I really do live in the most swing spot in the country.
So it seems that the DCCC may not have been as thrilled with how the race was shaping up. Fundraising amongst the candidates in the field wasn’t matching up with the more metropolis swing districts in New York and California. That sort of makes sense though. There’s not a lot of big donor money in this district. The big donors in Philadelphia and New York are hesitant to put money into a competitive primary. So two of the three candidates are finding it a little harder to raise cash than expected. The other, we’ll just say he’s problematic. Problematic in big ways. Problematic in many ways.
I can’t blame the DCCC for going looking for more candidates. Why not? The more seats you can put on the board, the better. If you don’t feel absolutely great about the candidates you have, keep finding more. Competition should be fierce for an important job. Right? Unfortunately, maybe the DCCC is not looking in the right direction. The candidate they are supposedly recruiting now has some, let’s just say, issues.
Out of respect for the man, I won’t name this first time candidate, yet. He has never held public office, but he has spent his career working for the public. He’s got no experience being a candidate though, and running for Congress is not the place to learn. Digging in a little deeper, things get a little difficult for him though. A friend whom I will not name dropped me a note on the guy today, and he’s got some problems that will dog him in his race. He’s been in foreclosure twice, in 2012 and 2016. One could write that off, all of us normal people have financial problems at some point. He also had a $5,000 legal judgment rendered against him to Midland Bank, which sounds like a credit card or some small loan that he failed to pay. Again, no judgment here. This part of what they told me stuck out though. It goes well beyond just some hard economic times:
He borrowed $55,000.00 from his mother-in-law. Signed a promissory note. Refused to pay. Got sued. Had a trial. Lost. Appealed. Lost. There is currently a unsatisfied $55,000.00 judgment hanging over his head.
Ok, look, there’s being a working class guy that is behind on some bills, which I think we all can sympathize with. Congress could use more guys that understand that feeling. Then there’s stiffing your mother-in-law for $55k and not paying it back even after you lose in court twice. This friend goes on to note that there’s also a divorce with the potential candidate’s first wife out there, which they don’t know what is in there. I don’t know if this was mother-in-law one or mother-in-law two, but I’m guessing this judgment was from the first one. If that’s the case, I’m sure that divorce is messy and I’ll probably get something sent my way on that later.
Stiffing old ladies isn’t a good look. Especially when it fits with a pattern of being bad with money. Stiffing a family member makes it look like maybe the money problems aren’t just a case of tough times, but maybe something worse. It’s hard to tell, but I will bet bourbons to beers that Ryan Mackenzie and the Republican Party will take information like this and absolutely slime this guy if he’s nominated. By the end he’ll be the symbol of elder abuse and financial misconduct in America, not the next Congressman.
This new candidate has went around the district telling people he will enter with the public support of the DCCC, the Governor of Pennsylvania, and the Democratic Leader in the House. I find it hard to believe any of them would be so stupid as to promise all of that to a candidate without doing a little more research than this friend of mine did before sending this info to me. In fact, I first met the Governor like twenty years ago when he was a State House member, the guy is way too smart to put himself into a nasty, competitive primary like this right before re-election (and maybe a run for President?). I definitely don’t see that happening, once they do their research.
Campaigns are hard. This guy has had an honorable career serving the public. This may be biting off a bit more than could be chewed.
It’s July 21st. The Phillies are 56-43. They have a half game lead over the Mets in the NL East. Things are really not bad. One could argue that if nothing happens in the next ten days, they are still highly likely to make the playoffs. They have the best starting pitching rotation in Major League Baseball, and they have depth. Their fate literally may come down to whether their pitching and maybe Harper and Schwarber are hot when the playoffs start. There is no rhyme or reason to picking who wins the World Series, it’s usually just whoever can get on a run for a month.
It doesn’t feel like the Phillies are going to win though. Sure, it didn’t feel that way for most of 2008, or in 2022, but feelings are not as irrelevant as advanced metrics can make them feel. Were you 100% confident in Craig Kimbrel in 2023? No, but he did have a pretty good year until the NLCS. In 2024 the Phillies felt literally unbeatable until June, then they limped to the division title and lost right away in October. The Phillies are back in first and that’s great, but the season to this point feels more like last year from June on than the early portion. The bullpen is a mess. The lineup really isn’t that bad statistically, but it’s wildly inconsistent. They’re really not a great team on the road. They have lost series against current playoff contenders San Diego, San Francisco, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and New York this season (they’ve beaten some of them too). Sure, they absolutely can beat Los Angeles or Chicago in a playoff series. They have to get there to even have that conversation though.
If all I did was write down that they need bullpen help, there would be no point to me writing this. Orion Kerkering, Tanner Banks, and Matt Strahm can’t really be all they use in a playoff series. I like signing David Robertson yesterday, but that doesn’t fix their bullpen problem on it’s own. If we’re being realistic, the Phillies probably need two more relief arms at the deadline, but might get away with one good one because they’ll shift a starter or two into their bullpen for the postseason. Again though, everyone knows this. They desperately could use some help internally, but their AAA bullpen might be worse than the big league one.
The bigger problem here is that the Phillies could probably use a bat too, and there aren’t really many of them available. Center field is a black hole, left field might somehow be worse, second base has been very disappointing, and a number of other spots in the lineup have been fine, but inconsistent. Without even getting into the potential future without Kyle Schwarber, or even to a much lesser extent J.T. Realmuto, the Phillies offense needs a re-tool. They’re no longer the feared group they were in the 2022 World Series run. The problem is, there’s not a lot of difference makers on the market. In fact, the solution may be sitting in AAA, with Justin Crawford hitting .325, with an .830 OPS as of this morning. The solution to the offense could simply be slotting him in center, full-time platooning Marsh and Otto Kemp in left, and maybe finding a bench bat on the trade market that kills left handers. Of course there’s a major problem with that thought process though- how do you get the kind of relief arm the Phillies need without moving a Crawford in a trade? Especially if you correctly don’t want to trade Andrew Painter for a reliever? If you’re keeping Painter off the market, it’s hard to hold onto Crawford and Aidan Miller, your best two offensive prospects. Mick Abel has recovered a lot of value this season, but he still won’t land you a Mason Miller or Emmanuel Clase on his own. And if you trade Crawford? You still have two glaring holes in your outfield to fill.
I’m not saying I don’t want Miller or Clase, but I am saying that I haven’t gone into the fully crazy fan mode where I’m willing to move Painter or the whole system to get them. The Phillies have multiple needs right now, and the problem they face is that the solution to one is the cost of the other. I would not be upset if they find a team who is willing to move them multiple relief arms, or a relief arm and a right-handed bat, instead of making the biggest splash for the biggest reliever. This team is obviously not a bad team, but it is conceivable that quantity is as important as quality for them. The 2008 Phillies got players like Joe Blanton and Matt Stairs to load up for the postseason. The 2009 Phillies got Cliff Lee. The 2008 team won. Again, I’d love seeing Miller or Clase in South Philadelphia this Fall, but I hope the front office isn’t so in love with them that they throw all caution to the wind- because I don’t think they alone will be enough.
With all of that said, I think the worst outcome of all would be nothing. The Dodgers, Cubs, Mets, Brewers, and Padres are the current other playoff teams, and while they’re all good, that’s hardly terrifying when you have the best rotation of the group. The Phillies absolutely need to make moves in the plural and go for this thing. A set up man or an Austin Hays level bat won’t do it. Dave Dombrowski is known as an aggressive executive, one who goes for the World Series every chance he gets, and gets there a lot. The Phillies need him to live up to that billing over the next week or so. You just can’t waste opportunities like this.
You can’t make this up if you try. No, really. Crosswell’s first finance report is out. It’s incredibly bad. Don’t take my word for it. From Lehigh Valley News:
Crosswell, the latest candidate to enter the race, raised more than $320,929 in just three weeks, records show.
That amount, which came entirely from individual donors, led the field of Democrats. After expenditures, he had $254,003 on hand as of the end of June, according to the reports.
Crosswell resigned from the U.S. Justice Department in protest after the Trump administration opted to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams for political reasons.
His campaign, which has focused on upholding the rule of law, appears to have attracted significant support from the legal community. Dozens of attorneys from across the country have donated to his campaign, records show.
However, it appears almost none of the money he’s raised came from within the district.
LehighValleyNews.com identified only a single donation from within the Lehigh Valley or Carbon County on the 200-page report — a $500 contribution from an Allentown woman.
The dearth of local donations could feed more political attacks that cast him as a carpetbagger. Crosswell, a former Marine, moved to the district earlier this year and switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democratic in December. The Pottsville native had no prior ties to the district other than athletic competitions in high school. His three opponents have accused him of district shopping — a claim Crosswell denies.
For a moment I’ll leave aside the false narrative that the Adams decision pushed him to run and let the rest speak for itself. Croswell got exactly one person to donate to his campaign from the district. One. This guy isn’t even pretending to represent the Lehigh Valley, he’s trying to buy his way into our seat with a bunch of lawyers from North Carolina, DC, California, and God knows where else paying his tab. I’m sure if we looked over their voter registrations, plenty of them are his buddies from his union busting days in the Republican Party, but it really doesn’t matter if they aren’t. They aren’t from the Lehigh Valley. That’s fine with Crosswell though, because neither is he.
I’ll just point out though something that is just as bad, especially if you’re a solid Democrat who believes in the policies and values of the Democratic Party. While raising $321k, he couldn’t find one Democratic group to back him. Not a single PAC gave him money. Not one union. No pro-choice organization. No environmental group. Nobody. This is because he has long held the values of the Republican Party when he went to work and vote. One has to worry now that if he does find a group to give him money, it will be because he basically sells himself. He came into this with none of our values. This whole campaign is being astroturfed by union busters and Beltway elites.
The other two Democratic candidates have not matched Crosswell so far, which can be expected based on past Lehigh Valley congressional primaries. This isn’t a wealthy district, and this happens to be where they made their actual lives and careers. They’re from here, and they’re Democrats. I certainly have my preference, but I could probably deal with either one being our nominee. Being honest about who you are is the first and most important step to asking for someone’s vote.
“Why do all of these rich tech bros think Donald Trump is a moderate? They spend all this money. pushing a right-wing agenda and then people actually believe it’s moderate.”
This was the prompt of a recent conversation I had, and well, it’s a fascinating one. Donald Trump did have a lot of rich “moderates” behind him, didn’t he? Hillary Clinton was simultaneously beat on by alt-left dead-enders for basically being Dick Cheney, and also viewed as too left by a lot of voters. Kamala Harris is about as “normie Democrat” as you can be on policy at this point, but she was viewed as the extremist by a lot of voters, not Trump. Why did this happen?
I tend to not really want “big change” policy moves, and so I have a tendency to like and support actual moderate policy. I think it’s highly important that we don’t mistake actual fairly moderate policy for being a political moderate though. There is no real pocket of voters out there giving you credit for say, taking a moderate position on abortion rights, for example (codification of Roe in it’s original, two-trimester form that allows some regulations of procedures and when you can access care). Not many voters gave Senators any credit for moderate positions on immigration or gun control in the past 15 years. Taking actual moderate policy positions often times leaves you in the bullseye of your own party’s activists and gets you no credit from the opposition.
One of the key reasons both parties (and not at all the only reason) could not properly handle Donald Trump is that both are fairly ideologically homogeneous. Democrats fight over how to get people health insurance, they don’t fight over whether or not to do it. Voters don’t really view you as more moderate for preferring the Affordable Care Act over government Bernie-care for All (it’s not Medicare, really). Same on the Republican side, they have some disagreements over how far to go on deporting illegal aliens and whether or not they’ll allow bare minimum background checks for all gun sales. No one is literally arguing for a path to amnesty or for blocking some gun sales in the GOP. Both parties have their positions, and there are degrees of separation in them, but even a moderate is still basically a member of one or the other. Voters don’t really see moderates as different.
Most of the reason is that lower information voters and honestly voters in general are far less ideological than voters who are activists, staffers, or candidates. They personally hold views that are not always consistent. For instance I know friends that vote regularly and are pro-gay marriage (and lgbtq rights in general) and pro-life. Anti-war and love going to the shooting range. Anti-immigrant and pro-marijuana. Many non-politically active voters actually very commonly hold views that are ideologically contradictory. When they think of a moderate, they think of someone who breaks out from party orthodoxy, like they do. And there’s a lot of them- a third of Americans identify as moderate and 43% consider themselves an independent.
When faced with Trump’s sometimes bizarre campaign positions- being for mass deportation, but against any foreign military action, or being pro-life while also being for ending taxes on tips and social security- a lot of these voters feel more comfortable with that. Very disciplined candidates like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris actually pay a price for not saying anything all that shocking. Voters who want “moderate” are often times just telling you they want something different, and an ideologically consistent candidate isn’t it.
Obviously identity plays into how a candidate is perceived, and some portion of the public understands the “left-right continuum” in a traditional way. Part of this is just a basic disconnect though. Political people are thinking about moderates as actually being moderate. Normal voters are thinking of moderates as more free wheeling and less careful. That fits Trump perfectly. It’s also now his biggest vulnerability, as he governs. How long until the public realizes he’s the definition of a conservative?
In an earlier post, I told you how Ryan Crosswell is a Republican carpetbagger, running a fraudulent campaign for the Democratic nomination in PA-7. Ryan didn’t grow up in this district, or ever live in it until earlier this year. He registered to vote as a Republican in North Carolina, Louisiana, and Washington, DC (That we know of), and voted in the Republican Presidential primary in every one of Donald Trump’s races for President, so far. He claims he had some epiphany to become a Democrat when Trump’s DOJ decided to drop the charges against Eric Adams, but he purchased his campaign websites long, long before that. He just thinks Democratic voters are dumb enough to be bought off by a Republican from the Beltway.
Despite that, VoteVets and other DC groups are astroturfing together a well-funded campaign for the carpetbagger. He announced that he raised $320,000 in the first three weeks in the race. That’s an impressive amount of money, for regular candidates. This guy is going to need every penny of it though to distract voters from the fact he’s got no connection to this district, and that he’s not a Democrat. Turns out though, he’s got lots of help with that. He doesn’t just have VoteVets helping him, or the mega law firm that he works for in San Diego currently (yes, that’s in California). In fact, the guy is likely being funded by actual Republicans.
Back before Crosswell was working for the Trump Administration he worked for a firm called Littler Mendelson in Charlotte, NC. As they would tell you it, they’re the best of the best in employment law, from the perspective of the employer. Ask literally any labor union in the United States and they’ll tell you they are a notorious anti-labor firm. In regular people speak, Littler Mendelson is a union busting law firm. According to Crosswell’s LinkedIn (above), he specialized in the kind of “non-compete” agreements that the Biden Administration was trying to weaken or end in some cases.
Basically, in addition to not being from here and being a Republican, Crosswell is asking a district that literally was the birthplace of the working class (Bethlehem Steel and Mack Trucks) to elect a union buster. I would laugh at this, if he didn’t have so much money.
Of course Crosswell would raise a bunch of money to try and buy a district he has no relationship to. One has to just ask though- how much union buster money is in that $320,000? Given that nothing in his record suggests that he changed his mind from his previous Republican positions on any other issue, one has to wonder how working on the Eric Adams case changed Crosswell’s career long beliefs in anti-union practices?
Today’s the New York City Mayoral Primary Election, and I’m not extremely excited. On the one hand, Andrew Cuomo winning is the *good outcome*, which in light of recent years tells you a lot. Cuomo’s fall, from a nearly unbeatable and popular governor that was maligned by the far-left is well documented. I would probably prefer to be telling you today that City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has a chance, but she doesn’t. Either Cuomo wins today, or a complete lunatic nutbag wins.
That’s probably why we’re in this place- a lot of people really can’t stomach voting for Cuomo, even on the second ballot. Is that fair? Probably not. While one could certainly make him shoulder some blame for his handling of nursing homes during COVID, the sexual misconduct accusations that actually drove him from office turned out to be a dud- not a single prosecutor in the entire state took the Attorney General’s report and turned it into anything near a successful prosecution. I don’t think it matters though. Cuomo is just kind of viewed as a mean, loathsome politician. I think a lot of people have figured out that he’s just not that progressive, and he doesn’t do the necessary virtue signaling to make them feel good.
Here is where the alternative should matter, but doesn’t really seem to. New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani has all but caught Cuomo, thanks to New York’s stupid “rank choice system,” where being someone’s second, third, fourth, or even fifth choice matters. Most voters who don’t back Cuomo at first, just don’t. They’re seemingly not bothered by Mamdani though. Mamdani calls himself a Democratic Socialist, much like AOC, but he’s honestly mostly just a big government liberal. Mamdani has built up a viral support through his proposals and gained thirty points over the past few months. He has the normal support of progressives like AOC and Bernie that the electorate nationally and statewide in New York has repeatedly rejected, and says the normal nonsense about being a socialist. He’s going to freeze rents. He’s going to make buses free in the city. He’s going to force landlords to keep their buildings at 78 degrees, year round. He’s going to make all the city public schools buildings climate friendly. He’s going to crack down on landlords. Basically everything but a unicorn, free of charge. He’s just going to tax the rich to pay for it all. As long as Albany allows him to, which is probably a long shot since the city can’t do a lot of the things he’s proposing currently. But he’ll do it. Trust him.
Look, the difference between being AOC and winning one of these ridiculous, sleepy summer primaries and being Alessandra Biaggi and losing them is often just how many people give a shit and bother to come. If Mamdani was just the garden variety of leftist and running a race to beat Cuomo, honestly who really cares, right? That would normally be my attitude too. If New York wants to elect a 33 year old that’s promising them lots of things he can’t deliver, have at it. The problem is that these optics aren’t staying in the cities. Whether it’s crime in Chicago, homeless people in Los Angeles, or whatever the hell is happening here, Republicans are running against this. Mamdani takes it to the next level though. That next level, the elephant in the room if you will, is his views on Israel. A race for local office is at least partially being energized by a candidate’s views on a foreign country. Any decent politician would avoid that. It’s basically become the backbone of this race. That may not hurt him in this primary. Bloodlust is a political motivator in the era of Trump. This is a New York Primary, a city which did elect us AOC. And it’s hot outside today. Only the most motivated will vote. Maybe this works in this race. That doesn’t mean much good will come of it.
Look, I don’t know this guy personally. Is he an antisemite? I have no idea, but he certainly says a lot of things I would not say about Israel. If you think the Netanyahu government is an atrocious, steaming, stinking turd, I really don’t have a problem with that position, but I find the discussion of whether Israel should exist or not to be fully offensive. I actually doubt this guy would be “welcoming the Muslim Brotherhood to Gracie Mansion,” and other over-the-top nonsense some people are saying. My guess is he’s another really awful big-city Mayor, like a Brandon Johnson type, who does such a dogshit job that basically everyone agrees he’s bad. He’s going to fail to deliver on almost everything he promises, and two years from now he’ll still be ranting and raving about a foreign policy issue he’s both ignorant on and powerless on. Is there a chance he’ll be better? Sure. It’s highly unlikely though, because he’s promising things he can’t delivering on, and talking about issues he holds no authority on. Electing this guy is placing a big bet on what’s likely a small payout.
New Yorkers, I get it, you’re tired of Andrew Cuomo. He’s not nice. He doesn’t try to make you feel good. If he loses tonight though, you will have created the next right-wing boogie man for Donald Trump to point out to suburban swing voters everywhere. You’re loading another gun for J.D. Vance 2028. Do the right thing. Don’t rank Mamdani.
Sports are hard. Losing is harder. Losing is a part of sports. I try to operate u see the standard that losing alone doesn’t make you a loser. I ran track, cross-country and wrestled in high school, I played baseball and soccer up through seventh grade. I lost a lot. I probably won a little more than I lost, overall, but god did I lose a lot. Losing in individual sports is hard because you’re out there alone to lose by yourself. You can’t blame anybody else. I’d like to think it builds character and teaches lessons. I also tend to think there are less painful ways to do that.
Riley Gaines was a swimmer, a sport that can be as lonely as wrestling or running. You’re in the pool by yourself. Riley Gaines was very good at swimming, and she won a lot. The television screen says she was an SEC champion, and well, that’s pretty great. She finished tied for fifth at the NCAA Championships in the 200 yard freestyle, quite an achievement. Gaines was certainly better at swimming than 99.9% of people are at anything in their lives. If she said that, well, there would be no denying that.
You see though, Riley feels aggrieved. She finished tied with Lia Thomas, a transgender female who swam for the University of Pennsylvania. The NCAA gave the 5th place trophy there on location to Thomas and mailed Gaines her trophy. She still finished fifth, and she eventually got the trophy, I assume. But you know, her feelings. So she start going around and complaining about Lia Thomas being able to compete. Riley doesn’t think trans women should be in women’s sports. The point of my post isn’t to argue and fight about that point, as while I do have concerns about this in combat sports and from a pure fairness angle, I have literally zero expertise on the matter and won’t pretend to know what’s fair and right here. I do know this though- if Lia Thomas wasn’t in the race, if she didn’t even exist, Riley Gaines still would not have won the race. In fact, as I assume it, she would have finished fifth by herself. She would have received the same fifth place trophy, just she would have received it that day. She still would have lost to four other girls. She’s just decided to make it her cause to make sure there’s never anywhere for trans women to compete.
Simone Biles backed off of her attacks on Riley Gaines over the weekend, but I won’t go so easy. Riley Gaines lost a race, quit her sport forever, and cashed in on attacking transgender women. If this were her only cause she had taken up since, I might take it for some sincere issue that mattered to her. It hasn’t been her only issue though. She’s become a pro-life spokeswoman as well, and a surrogate for Trump’s 2024 campaign. Riley Gaines is basically a right-wing hack who happened to finish fifth place in a race once, and now runs around like she finished second to a transgender woman who robbed her of her hard work. She would have finished fifth in that race, regardless. I wonder how many people she has made feel small and unseen by using her considerable talents for this. She may be right, she may be wrong on the merits of her message about the issue. She definitely used this cause to cash in and gain fame and fortune that she probably wouldn’t have gained in the pool.
Apocalypse Vibes 