Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast.

Today we examine how money and power have captured American sports from every angle.

Gambling platforms operating as unregulated casinos, private equity turning franchises into financial assets,

leagues suppressing player pay while selling access to politicians,

and a sports media apparatus too compromised to report any of it.

It's almost all the problems with America on display in one industry.

For those looking for a quick overview,

the sources providing our top takes in about 45 minutes

today include Jamel Hill, More Perfect Union, The Ring of Fire, Drew Gooden, the Women's Hoops

Show, and Pablo Torre finds out. Then, in the additional deeper dives after the show,

there will be more in four sections. Section A, sports are politics and culture. Section B, gambling on everything is a bad

idea. Section C, the woke NBA, not that woke. And section D, the billionaires are always the

problem. But first, a reminder to check out our new show, solved. On the best of left YouTube channel,

we're really proud of the show we're making and think you'll get real value out of it. Plus, you checking it out

will help us find new viewers on YouTube. So thanks in advance for all of your views, likes,

subscribes, and comments. That's all on the best of the left YouTube channel, linked in the show

notes. And now, onto the show.

So when it comes to following the relationship between sports and politics, I follow a very simple rule.

Follow the rich way, man.

The federal election committee recently published a list of donors to Donald Trump's second inauguration.

And what do you know? Some of your favorite sports owners are on this list, aka the rich white men.

Now, Trump's inaugural committee raised $239 million, which was more than double what Trump raised his first time in office.

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