On this day in 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat for the national anthem before a preseason game in protest of racist oppression.
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Kaepernick → sit → oppression
After a season of protests and media turmoil, including abuse from President-elect Donald Trump, Kaepernick left the 49ers.
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Kaepernick → include → 49ers
He never played in the NFL again.
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He → play → NFL
Do you ever wonder why it is Donald Trump is wildly unpopular and yet Americans don’t seem very enthused about voting for Democrats?
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Americans → wonder → Democrats
There are plenty of reasons, sure, but we have one more potential explanation for this phenomenon this week.
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we → be → phenomenon
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we look at the opposition party’s opposition to Hasan Piker, against whom senior Democrats are expending serious energy just two months out from midterm election day.
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Democrats → look → day
We also consider Darline Graham’s win in the Republican South Carolina Senate runoff and another insane day in Trump’s stupid trade war with Canada.
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We → consider → Canada
Donald Trump is leading a deeply corrupt, fascist administration that seeks to punish and imprison his enemies – big and small, real and perceived.
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that → lead → enemies
The unpopular president and his team are laying the groundwork to try to steal the 2026 midterms, and they’re not even trying to hide it.
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they → lay → it
Democrats in Washington, meanwhile, are hyper-focused on… condemning a left-wing podcaster, Hasan Piker, and distorting his comments criticizing Zionists as a way to marginalize and block the rise of anti-Israel voices on the left.
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Democrats → condemn → left
With less than 10 weeks to go before the election, the opposition party is using this crucial time to demonstrate their continued fealty to Israel – despite its deep and growing political unpopularity in the U.S., its horrifying genocide in Gaza, and the ruinous Iran war that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dragged America’s idiot president into.
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Netanyahu → go → president
Some Democratic lawmakers have even used the controversy over Piker to try to undermine Abdul El-Sayed, the party’s Senate nominee in Michigan – making clear how little they care about gaining power to incapacitate Trump.
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care → use → Trump
The latest Piker row stemmed from his remarks about how it’s “dangerous” for some Jews to teach “people the idea that Jews are monolithic” in their support for Israel.
“People don’t fuck with Israel any longer,” Piker said.
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Piker → stem → Israel
“And if Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action.
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someone → keep → action
Piker was responding to a Michigan Democratic congressional candidate’s refusal to back El-Sayed until he makes “some serious outreach to Oakland County’s Jewish community” – with El-Sayed’s apparent offenses being his opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and his having won the primary despite $32 million spent against him by the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.
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his → respond → lobby
“This media narrative presents Jews as single-minded and singularly invested in the continuation of the Israeli apartheid,” Piker continued, adding: “I don’t know how people don’t recognize how dangerous this predicament is…
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predicament → present → apartheid
You’re running around basically tying your entire identity to a country that inevitably will be seen as Jewish ISIS, and you’re saying, ‘As Jews, this is all we care about.’
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we → run → Jews
You’re making antisemitism worse.”
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antisemitism → make → ?
Pro-Israel Democrats have treated these comments as if Piker was calling for violence, when he very obviously wasn’t.
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he → treat → violence
Indeed, his argument is a common one: The idea that Jews universally support Israel, its genocide in Gaza, and apartheid encourages antisemitism.
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Jews → support → antisemitism
Of course it’s dangerous.
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it → ’ → ?
The Aporia
