#Winners and #Losers: Just Do It
The Week in Sending Trump Messages
Winner: Nike—the sporting good company debuted it’s much-talked about Colin Kaepernick ad this week… and aired it during the NFL season opener. Message received. In an increasingly polarized environment, companies no longer have the luxury of remaining apolitical; Nike took a stand, and did so while dominating the national conversation. #TakingKneesAndNewsCycles
Loser: Anonymous New York Times Op-ed Writer—if you’re concerned enough about the President’s paranoiac tendencies to become part of the shadow “resistance” working from within the administration, don’t needlessly fuel those paranoiac tendencies while making your own job harder. Kind of obvious. #OwnGoal
The Week in People Just Doing Their Jobs
Winner: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern—the 38-year old just gave birth to her daughter this past June, but is already back at work. She travelled this week to Naura to attend a forum with South Pacific leaders, but flew separately from her deputy in order to stay behind a day and breast-feed. Critics pounced, pointing to the additional costs of the flight and arguing she should have skipped it altogether. That’s one way to look at it; the other way is that this woman is sacrificing time with her newborn to represent the people of New Zealand. Costs come in many forms. #Sacrifice
Loser: Reuters journalists in Myanmar—Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced this week to seven years in prison for reporting on the killings of 10 Rohingya Muslims. That’s a high price to pay, but one worth paying since the international community sprang into action. #OhWait
The Week in Old Men and the Sea
Winner: British and French Fisherman—a tentative truce was reached this week in the so-called “scallop wars”, with authorities agreeing to pay British fisherman to stay out of the waters on the coast of Normandy to allow scallop stocks to replenish. Phew. #NowBackToBrexit
Loser: Donald Trump—in excerpts released from Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book on the Trump presidency, Trump at one point crows to then-staff secretary Rob Porter that he’s “the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters.” Uh, no. #ToHaveAndHaveNotSelfAwareness
The Week in Going Back to School
Winner: Democratic Republic of Congo—authorities decided to start school on time this week following recent outbreaks of Ebola and polio, figuring that kids were less likely to catch the diseases if supervised in properly equipped environments. Good call. #SafetyInNumbers
Loser: The US—yes, a kindergarten principal in China was fired this week over her decision to invite a pole dancer to perform for children and parents as part of a “back to school” opening ceremony. That would normally be enough to nab the “loser” title for the week. Unfortunately, it seems an Israeli company is scaling up production to fill US orders for parents wanting to send their children to school this year with bulletproof backpacks. May be the saddest thing I’ve read all year. #ItsOnlySeptember
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Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group, foreign affairs columnist at TIME and Global Research Professor at New York University. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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6 年Good morning America, my thought is this if you want to make a protest do it off the field when your not at work and it affects the moral of your fellow workers and those who are trying to enjoy watching the NFL. You make millions you could buy tv time and be heard, you can buy the front page of the new york times and be seen etc,etc,but you chose to disrespect our flag and what great Americans sacrificed there lives for so you can make a point that you were mistreated. You were socks that have pictures of policemen as pigs, great role model Colin , and you still make millions ! Only in America can you do this, disrespect your country, your teammates, your family, your flag, and how much money have you spent out of your pocket for your cause? I bleed red, white, blue not green!
Former Senior Director of Donor Relations at Roaring Fork Conservancy
6 年He’s a piece and that’s that!
Systemic failure has put 2 of 3 Black men in prison. There are 20 million Black men between the age of 18 - 36. 1 in 10 is locked up in a cage. There are 1 million Black men locked up in a cage or on parole. There are less people locked up in 10 countries with more than 2 Billion people. America cry when an illegal immigrant child is taken away from a parent who cared less about the welfare of the child, from the abuse the child experienced. America never once utter a single concern for the American Citizen Black Child when the Dad is locked up for purchasing or selling Marijuana. #SaynotoRacelessAmerica
Loser
First Line Supervisor Mechanical Metals Fixed Equipment
6 年I think he owes our men and women in the military, past and present, an apology. They defend the rights he has misinterpreted.?