Bill devoted the beginning of Monday's No Spin News to the controversy that has dominated the weekend's news, namely the burgeoning protest among National Football League players.  After President Trump called some of them out for kneeling during the National Anthem, hundreds of players are now refusing to stand for the song and the flag. 

"This is a much bigger story than is being portrayed," Bill declared.  "I was listening to the Jacksonville and Baltimore game that was being played in London, and I heard the announcer say that a number of players were kneeling during the Anthem.  I got angry because this is a foreign country and this was shocking disrespect to the flag being shown on foreign soil.  They say it isn't disrespect, but it is.  You can protest in a million different ways."  Bill added that the team owners have every right to tell players what they can and cannot do on the field, which is their workplace.

"You basically have some athletes," he continued, "who believe this is not a just country, that cops hunt blacks down by design, where there is white supremacy.  This is the far left mantra, that this is a bad country.  But most of us believe this is a noble country and that divide will never be breached.  Enter President Trump, who played to his crew and said these kneeling people should be fired.  This then became an anti-Trump protest." 

One NFL player named LeSean McCoy called President Trump an obscenity, while another player named Michael Bennett has taken things even farther.  Even before this most recent dustup, he described America as a country filled with "segregation, riots, oppression, and gender slander."  Considering that kind of out-of-control vitriol, Bill urged team owners to calm the situation: "They can say, as Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys said, that players cannot do this.  If I were an owner, I would do that but I would also give the players another way to protest.  Right now we have chaos and it hurts the country." 

For more on the NFL situation, Bill welcomed Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade.  "This protest started with Colin Kaepernick under President Obama," Kilmeade reported, "and it took everyone by surprise.  The main issue to me was last week when we saw video of a youth football team taking a knee during the National Anthem.  They're in third grade!  That's the damage this is doing." 

Kilmeade also opined on President Trump's decision to enter the fray:  "I don't think it was planned, I think he just brought up something that was clearly bothering him.  I thought he made it worse and made it easier for people to protest, so that instead of 12 protesters we have 200.  He also knows he is taking a stance that is popular with most American people."  Bill agreed that the president's criticism of the NFL players was spontaneous:  "Knowing Trump for 30 years, I agree that there is a stream of consciousness.  If something comes into his mind, he just throws it out there.  But he should have added that the United States has freed billions of people and it is a noble nation that was founded on noble principles."  Bill reiterated that this issue is being pounced on by the far left and that this controversy is mostly about race. 

Shifting from the NFL to the IRS, Bill reported that President Trump's tax reform plan should be divulged imminently.  "Apparently the president is going to ask for a 35% top personal income tax rate," he said, "and there will be three brackets instead of seven.  There is some discrepancy as to whether the top corporate rate will drop to 25% or 20% and we don't know about the deductions.  It will be unveiled soon and then the brawl will begin!" 

Meanwhile, a new poll from ABC News says that 39% of adults believe President Trump has brought needed change to the USA, while 59% say he has not.  But Bill explained why Americans are right to be skeptical about this and most other polls.  "According to a conservative group," he reported, "the polls were rigged in the 2016 race.  The samples included 29% more Democrats than Republicans, so of course the polls would skew to Hillary Clinton.  So you are right to be suspect of the polls, but there are certain trends.  I believe Donald Trump's job approval rating is about 39%, but that will jump by ten points if he gets the tax cuts passed." 

Before moving to mail, Bill noted that the University of Missouri is suffering greatly after it was the site of race-related protests two years ago.  "Seven dormitories have been closed," he said, "and the school is now renting out the rooms to people who want to attend football games there on the weekend.  Alumni donations are way down and this is what happens when you lose control."

In their emails, Premium Members largely focused on the National Football League brouhaha.  One PM suggested a boycott of NFL advertisers, while others declared their intention to skip football altogether and find other ways to occupy their Sunday afternoons and Monday nights. 

Bill urged everyone to tune in to tonight's Sean Hannity program at its new time slot of 9:00 PM Eastern.  There will be a major announcement that involves your humble correspondent.  See you tomorrow for another edition of the No Spin News.