Losing My Perspicacity September 12, 2024

Good morning and Happy Thursday. Welcome back to Losing My Perspicacity.

Yesterday was 9/11 and, while I will never forget the horror of that day, I’m glad we’ve moved past the urge to replay the entire thing, as if it were live, on network television and traumatize people all over again every year. I was home with an infant that day, watching everything live, including the second plane hitting the South Tower and both towers coming down. It was a moment I never want to relive again, especially as both my husband and sister were working, at the time, in and in close proximity to the Sears Tower, which media informed us was possibly going to be hit next.

Sometimes I wonder if the entire right-wing backlash that ramped up in the years following 9/11 was all the result of the unaddressed trauma so many people suffered that day. That certainly seems to be the case for people like Dennis Miller, who seemed reliably liberal until 9/11, at which point he lurched dramatically to the right. So often, when I see MAGA chuds screaming about “terrorists and criminals” coming over the border, or people who feel they have to have AR-15s in their homes to “protect” their families, I find myself pondering if they were always that way. Not that I’m dismissing or excusing the role racism and xenophobia play in all this. But in the days and weeks following 9/11, I found myself doing all manner of things that were completely out of character — being afraid to take a train downtown, watching every plane that flew overhead with some combination of terror and doom, vowing never to work in a skyscraper again. To this day, my anxiety ramps up every time I get on a plane, which it never did before. I suspect that, hundreds of years from now, historians are going to have a lot to say about the way both 9/11 and COVID impacted our collective national mental health.

Today: The NFL is not placing Deshaun Watson on the Commissioner’s Exempt List; WNBA Commish Cathy Engelbert confuses racism with “rivalries;” Taylor and Stevie come out for Kamala; A’ja Wilson breaks the WNBA single-season scoring record; and My nightmare once again caught on video.

Let’s get to it.

Deshaun Watson will keep playing

The NFL has decided that, as there are no pending criminal charges, Browns QB Deshaun Watson will not be placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List. That means, as far as the NFL is concerned, Watson is good to keep playing.

From ESPN:

Here’s why this is so shitty: Watson is being sued for an incident that happened back in 2020. No prosecutor, or very few prosecutors, are going to take on a case where the victim didn’t come forward for four years, even though there are myriad reasons that victims don’t come forward — including fear of their attacker and repressed trauma. It took me several years to even call my sexual assault “rape,” though, objectively, it was very clearly rape. But many women view “rape” as being attacked in a parking garage by a stranger with a gun, not forced into sex with a guy you’ve already agreed to go out with. Or invited into your home. Or who you were making out with.

The Browns say they are going to let “due process play out,” but the chance the case against Deshaun Watson goes to trial and a judge or jury hands down a verdict is between slim and none. Between 95 and 98 percent of civil cases settle without ever going to trial. The Browns and the NFL know that there is likely never going to be a decision by a fact-finder that they can hang their hat on to suspend Brown again. Instead, it will all be up to the NFL and their investigators, who have been sometimes decent (Ezekial Eliott) and sometimes terrible (Josh Brown).

All of this begs the question of what the hell the Browns are doing. As I said yesterday, if I were the Haslams, I’d be doing everything in my power to get the guy accused of sexual misconduct by 30 31 women as far away from my team as possible. And if you can’t count on NFL owners to do the right thing when it comes to violence against women, you can usually at least count on them to make a reasonable football decision. But Watson has been terrible in addition to being a(n alleged) sex predator, and the Browns just keep standing by him (though I thought it was telling that head coach Kevin Stefanski said yesterday that he didn’t know about the allegations before they were made public. That could mean the organization didn’t know either, and that the new lawsuit could potential be a reason for voiding Watson’s contract).

When the Browns signed Watson, his QB rating was routinely at or around 100. But since moving to Cleveland, Watson hasn’t posted a QBR above 84, and he appears to be off to yet another miserable start, going 24/45 with one TD and two interceptions on Sunday. Based on his last two seasons, NFL.com ranked Watson 26th in the NFL, smack dab between Jake Browning and Aidan O’Connell. Reminder: The NFL has only 32 teams. Why are the Browns so hell-bent on keeping this guy?

I am truly sorry for every Browns fan that actually cares about sexual assault and violence against women, because it absolutely sucks to have a guy on your team who you can’t bear to root for. I felt that way when the Cubs picked up Aroldis Chapman, and it’s not a good feeling. Here’s to hoping we see the end of Deshaun Watson in the NFL sooner rather than later.

Cathy Engelbert confuses racism with ‘rivalry’

In an interview yesterday on CNBC, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert was asked about the abuse and racism some fans have shared on social media this season, particularly regarding the Angel Reese/Caitlin Clark rivalry.

You can see Engelbert’s answer here:

Gawd, Cathy. Larry Bird and Michael Jordan didn’t have @KatyPerrysBoobs69 hurling racial epithets at them on X.

Understandably, WNBA players were upset with that response. It’s the job of the league to protect the players, and anyone who has ever been on the losing side of a troll storm knows that “don’t feed the trolls” is horrible advice. What the league should be doing is pressuring social media platforms like X and Instagram to crack down on the toxicity, especially in a league that is predominantly Black and where a significant number of players are part of the LGBTQ+ community.

This situation is not dissimilar to what’s happening in newsrooms across the country (at least for those who are still employed). Outlets claim that they want “diverse voices,” so they hire reporters from marginalized groups — women, Black reporters, Muslim reporters, Black Muslim women reporters — but they don’t do what they should to protect them from the backlash they get for doing their jobs.

The WNBA, like media outlets, wants its people to be on social media because it helps bring eyes to the league and its stories, but part and parcel of that is being willing to stand up for your people when the trolls attack. I honestly thought we had left “Don’t feed the trolls” back in 2016 where it belongs. (I wrote extensively about this in my book, if anyone is interested in reading more about it.)

The WNBA players were justifiably upset with Engelbert’s words.

If I were in the WNBAPA, I’d make sure that some kind of protection for hate and violence on social media was covered in the next CBA. Good thing the players union is likely getting ready to collectively bargain.

Come through, Tay Tay!

I was really on the verge of calling out Taylor Swift for not making an endorsement when she came through on Tuesday night, immediately following the debate. And my GOD, JD Vance has to be ruing the day he every brought up “childless cat ladies.”

And THAT endorsement led to this one:

I feel like those two artists cover 90 percent of the women in America, so we’re good. Of course, Elon Musk had to go and make it weird,

Yes, I’m sure Taylor Swift is super-interested in Elon’s genes when her 6’5, 250-lb NFL superstar boyfriend is right there. Who wouldn't be? I guess we can stop hoping X will tamp down on the sexual harassment when we have Elon out here leading the harassers.

If you’re curious as to why so many were so adamant that Swift come out and make an endorsement. It’s for a few reasons. First because Swift’s Netflix film, Miss Americana, features her discussing what she wants her role to be in influencing politics, saying she wants to be “on the right side of history.” Then there was also speculation that she wasn’t endorsing Harris (she endorsed Biden/Harris in 2020) because she didn’t want to turn KC fans against Kelce during the season.

But mostly, it’s because of this:

It’s us. Hi. We’re the problem, it’s us. We are going to be the whole problem on November 5.

@emmamwape

#emmamwape #foryoupage #fyp

Can you believe A’ja Wilson only got a signature shoe this year?

I, for one, can not.

Wilson is obviously leading the league in scoring this season, but she’s also currently first in blocks, second in rebounds, and third in steals. That’s a franchise player.

Brava.

Finally…

A month or so ago, I wrote about my inexplicable fear of a whale breaching on top of a boat on which I’m a passenger. Once again, the whales do not disappoint.

GAAAAHHHH.

Have a great day!