How’s your boycott going?

Boycotting ain’t easy!!

Have you seen the list at the top of the page? It’s a group of companies that have given money to Donald Trump and support Project 2025. There are various forms of this with other companies listed, but the aim is clear. Don’t spend your money in places that are against your values.

I saw this last week on a friend’s Facebook page. She and another friend were jokingly distraught that they would have to give up using Charmin toilet paper—at least I think it was jokingly. It’s hard to tell about these things in 2025. As I’m typing this, I’m looking across the basement floor and see a package of thirty huge rolls of Charmin paper. Damn! I better bring them upstairs and toss it in the recycling bin. Recycling is still okay, right? It’s not too woke? Sigh.

Okay, we know I’m not going to do that. So, the question is can you pick and choose what you’re going to boycott? Hmmmm!

Ten days ago I was in Las Vegas. I was looking for an afternoon snack and noticed a Carl’s Jr. fast food restaurant a block from my hotel. I was thinking of walking over there but then remembered from my days living in Orange County, California that their founder, the Late Carl Karcher, was a supporter of the John Birch Society. I decided not to put money in their family’s pocket. There is a McDonald’s in the hotel where I was staying, so I went there instead. Oh man…they’re on this damn list!! And the day after I got home from Vegas, I had a sore throat from the cold I caught in Nevada. I thought some soft-serve ice cream would help so off to Dairy Queen. Oh man, they’re on this list, too?? I told you this boycotting thing ain’t easy!

As I peruse the list, there are more companies I’ve never heard of than those I use. Plus, what are the chances I’ll ever go to an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game? Pretty slim. It’s even less that I head to Buffalo for a Bills football game. But having sports teams on this list reminds me of a policy I used to have: I kept my political views away from my sports interests. If I didn’t, I’d never be able to watch golf again. What? You didn’t know Tiger, Jack, Phil and Arnie were Trump supporters?

But that changed about five years ago and sadly it occurred because of something with my lifelong favorite team—The Chicago Cubs.

As you may know, the Cubs owners are hardcore Republicans. They’re big-time Trump supporters. Yeah, I know Laura is a Democrat and Tom keeps his views to himself but the others are out front with their views. One of them was even the Governor of Nebraska. I didn’t like it but I could deal with it. It’s not as if the previous owners, The Tribune, were woke—far from it.

But one night in 2019, I was at a Cubs game when the Ricketts held a Trump fundraising event at Wrigley Field. Oh man, did that fucking piss me off. Look, it’s their team and their ballpark but they did it right in the face of their paying customers—many who had extremely different political views.

I decided that night, I wasn’t going to Cubs games anymore unless I had a free ticket. And if I did, I wouldn’t buy concessions inside the park. It worked great for a couple of years because Covid limited the number of games you could see live. Since then, I’ve only paid to see a Cubs game one time and that was because I wanted to see a friend that I hadn’t seen in a few years and knew she would be there. Last year I only went to one game. It was on opening day so I pretty much boycotted the entire season.

Now do I watch the games on the Cubs-owned Marquee network? Yes, I do and I realize some of the monthly cable bill is going into the Cubs/Ricketts pocket. And, I occasionally attend a concert at Wrigley Field. And I also know that money is going to the Ricketts. Like I told you at the start, boycotting ain’t easy. By the way, it helps a lot when the team you’re boycotting is stuck in mediocrity or even worse. Bad politics plus a bad ball club equals easy boycotting.

Here’s another example—OY—there are so many. As many of you know, I went to college in Oklahoma. Last fall I went there to visit friends and go to a football game. Two days after I left was the presidential election. Trump not only won the state, he won every single district—EVERY SINGLE ONE!! When I go back there in the fall for another visit, is there a restaurant where I can eat? Where can I buy souvenirs? Aren’t all the hotels, car rental places, gas stations, and on & on & on owned by supporters of Trump and Project 2025? And to make it worse, if you want to go to a road game, all the schools in the Southeast Conference are in extremely red states. It’s quite the conundrum.

There are probably hundreds of other companies that didn’t make this list. For instance, I wrote much of this piece at a Panera Bread restaurant. After I left, I checked to see if they gave Trump any money. They did give him almost ten thousand dollars, but they gave more than double that amount to Kamala Harris. I guess it’s safe to continue going there.

I think I’ve made my point about boycotting. You do whatever makes you comfortable and try to stay away from things that don’t. It’s fairly simple—sort of. But that’s enough for now. I need to spend some time looking at a Cubs schedule so I can start bugging the people who have tickets for games in April that they might give away. Man, if you think boycotting ain’t easy, try doing this.