Laura Loomer Subscribed...WTF?
This week: Laura Loomer is an SP subscriber—WTF??; Algeria jails sports journo; ICE arrests former boxing champ; UPenn erases trans swimming records; UFC (correctly) calls itself a “dictatorship”
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It isn’t every day that a far-right provocateur and conspiracy monger subscribes to Sports Politika. Honestly, it doesn’t take long to see that this site is unapologetically anti-fascist and anti-authoritarian. If you happen to be a fascist, a bigot, or someone who sympathizes with dictators and tyrants, consider this enemy territory.
Nevertheless, I recently noticed that Laura Loomer, a figure so extreme that she was once banned from most social media platforms and was shunned by a large portion of Trump’s MAGA movement, had subscribed to my media platform.
The 32-year-old made a name for herself by spreading her brand of bigotry among far-right circles during the initial Trump presidency. She referred to herself as a “proud Islamophobe” and supporter of “pro-white nationalism”. She spread vile conspiracy theories, endorsing claims that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job, and that the FBI let school shootings happen in election years to help the Democrats push gun control.
Though Loomer claims to be an “investigative reporter,” her resume includes working for far-right platforms like Canada’s Rebel News and Alex Jones's Infowars.
While many MAGA stalwarts kept their distance from Loomer, Trump repeatedly praised her in public. He even backed her unsuccessful campaign as a Republican candidate for a US House of Representatives seat in Florida in 2020.
Loomer recently made headlines after meeting with Trump in the Oval Office in March 2025—a meeting that preceded the firing of top National Security Council officials by Trump. Reports claimed that Loomer was behind the firings, urging Trump to take action against employees whom she deemed insufficiently loyal to his regime.
This brings us to an important question: why the f*** would Loomer want to subscribe to Sports Politika?
I don’t know the answer but I am confident it isn’t because she supports my work. I can’t think of a single topic we are aligned on, whether it be Trump, the Israel-Gaza war, immigration, or even basic morality. She doesn’t appear to be a sports fan, from what I can gauge online. She even hates Arabs (like me).
A quick glance at the other outlets she subscribes to on Substack suggests she may be compelling a list of outlets she doesn’t agree with or whom she deems a threat. Other subscriptions include Palestine with be Free; Ryan Grim’s Drop Site News; the Student Intifada; Football Palestine; The Thinking Muslim; and Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd fame).
Whatever the case may be, Loomer isn’t the first far-right troll to read my work, and she certainly won’t be the last. But my initial point still stands: if you’re a fascist, a bigot, or an authoritarian sympathizer—a trifecta in Loomer’s case—you are not fucking welcome here.
Here’s What Else Happened This Week:
Algeria Jails French Football Journalist for 7 Years
Christophe Gleizes, a French football journalist, was sentenced to seven years in prison in Algeria, announced Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and his employer, the So Press group, on Sunday 29 June. He was arrested on May 28, 2024 in Tizi Ouzou and placed under judicial supervision for "entering the country with a tourist visa, for 'apology for terrorism' and 'possession of publications for the purpose of propaganda harmful to the national interest' . "
"These latest accusations, unfounded and completely refuted, are due to the fact that the journalist had contact, in 2015 and 2017, with the head of the Tizi Ouzou football club, who was also head of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), classified as a terrorist organization by the Algerian authorities in 2021 ," noted RSF in its statement.
The journalist's conviction comes amid a diplomatic crisis between Algeria and France, marked by the expulsion of politicians on both sides and an end to bilateral relations. The dispute erupted last summer after French President Emmanuel Macron endorsed an autonomy plan placing Western Sahara “under Moroccan sovereignty”—a territory that has been contested for fifty years between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front separatists.
Former world champion Julio César Chávez Jr arrested by ICE
Five days after losing to Jake Paul in a celebrity boxing match, former world champion Julio César Chávez Jr was arrested by ICE, citing an alleged affiliation with the Mexican cartel.
The boxer, son of legendary world champion Julio César Chávez Sr, was taken into custody by Ice agents on Tuesday in Studio City, LA. He reportedly first entered the US legally on a six-month tourist visa in August 2023 and filed for permanent residency in April 2024, citing marriage to a US citizen.
That application raised alarms within federal agencies due to what officials described as “multiple fraudulent statements” and connections to the Sinaloa cartel, a powerful drug-trafficking organization labeled a foreign terrorist group by the Trump administration. Nevertheless, his removal was not prioritized by the Biden administration and he was let back into the US in January 2025. He is currently in ICE custody as they prepare for his deportation.
Shortly following Chávez’s arrest, Paul took to Twitter and posted an American flag emoji, underscoring how much of an asshole he truly is.
Cuban women's volleyball team denied U.S. visas
The Cuban women's national volleyball team was denied the opportunity to participate in a tournament in Puerto Rico later this month following the new visa restrictions imposed by the Trump administration.
According to the Cuban Volleyball Federation, the entire team—12 athletes, a referee, and several coaches—had their visa request denied.
"The disappointment is huge because I train every day, every hour of training is leading up to this and dedicate myself to it," Cuba national team player Laura Suarez told The Associated Press. "It's really disappointing not to be able to participate in the competition, which is what I've been preparing myself for."
The Cuban visa denials are part of a broader pattern, including the U.S. rejecting visas for Senegal’s national women’s basketball team, preventing them from attending a scheduled training camp.
UPenn bans transgender athletes after Trump blackmail
The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and the US Department of Education reached an agreement this week whereby the university has agreed to bar transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. The university also agreed to erase the records set by prominent trans swimmer Lia Thomas.
Thomas, who was born male and came out as a trans woman in 2018, won a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I title in 2022, becoming the first trans athlete to accomplish the feat. She also set UPenn records in five women’s events, including the 100-metre and 500-metre freestyle competitions.
Thomas’ success became a flashpoint in the ongoing debate about fairness in women’s sport, with critics arguing that her participation was an attack on women’s sports.
While the incident has been presented as an “agreement” between the university and the US government, it was less of an agreement and more of an example of the blackmail the administration has utilized to bend universities to their political will. In this case, the government froze $175 million in funding to UPenn, which was only released after the university reached an agreement with the administration.
“We told them that institutions that violate federal civil rights law could lose their federal funding … So UPenn came back to the table and asked us what they can do to make it right,” Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in remarks announcing the UPenn agreement Tuesday. “We said, ‘You have to completely rewrite your institutional policy.’ They signed on the dotted line.”
Dana White: “The UFC is a Dictatorship”
UFC CEO Dana White is finally being honest about what sets the UFC apart from boxing: it's a dictatorship—and according to him, that's a good thing.
"The difference is there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen [in boxing] and not in the UFC. You know, the UFC is a dictatorship and when you get into boxing there's a lot of different guys... I have big plans over the next five years. We really haven't even announced what I'm doing yet in boxing. I'm promoting this fight for [Turki Alalshikh], and then after this fight is over I'll let everybody know what I'm doing. Timing is everything, and getting into this right now... To be able to be in the middle of it and promote it and put my stamp on it has been an honor."
In many ways, I appreciate White’s honesty here. He is unapologetic about running a monopolistic and exploitative system that centralized control over an entire sport. He seeks a dictatorship in combat sports because it means suppressing fighter pay, unionization efforts, and dissent. It means putting an end to leverage, freedom, and the autonomy that fighters have long enjoyed in boxing. It means record-high profits and media rights deals that don’t need to be split with fighters.
This is the UFC’s plan for boxing, and the only way they could possibly achieve that is by partnership with a kingdom that knows a thing or two about dictatorships.
What I’m Reading
The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle Vol. 1 - Gisele Gordon and Kent Monkman
I spent much of the past weekend laying on the beach with a drink in one hand and a book in the other. On this occasion, that book happened to be the first volume of The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, an extraordinary work that combines fiction, memoir, and the powerful paintings of one of my favourite artists, Kent Monkman. It is the story of North America, the ethnic cleansing of its indigenous nations, and the settler communities that emerged in their place, all told through the eyes of an elemental Cree being named Miss Chief.
The book is haunting, enchanting, and erotic—an exceptional work that I cannot recommend enough.
For decades, the singular and provocative paintings by Cree artist Kent Monkman have featured a recurring character—an alter ego of sorts, a shape-shifting, time-travelling elemental being named Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. Though we have glimpsed her across the years in films and on countless canvases, it is finally time to hear her story, in her own words. And, in doing so, to hear the whole history of Turtle Island anew. The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island is a genre-demolishing work of genius, the imagined history of a legendary figure through which profound truths emerge—a deeply Cree and gloriously queer understanding of our shared world, its past, its present, and its possibilities.
“A woman in her late fifties, dressed in a black chador with a small sun hat, accompanied by her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter — a girl of about four or five years in a white floral dress — journeyed to Tehran to spend the Nowruz holidays away from the hustle and bustle of the pilgrimage and tourist city of Mashhad during this time of year. Their first choice for spending a holiday in Tehran is the “Museum of Contemporary Art.” Why? The grandmother did not let anyone else answer; she said, “There’s no one more important than Picasso. We came to see Picasso.””
Reforming Football: What the EU Can Do [Cambridge University Press]
“The numerous scandals that have marred the world of football suggest that reform is badly needed. As governing bodies like FIFA and UEFA fail to make meaningful improvements, calls for public regulation are gaining ground. This article explores what the European Union (EU) could do to effect change. Although long hailed as a powerful sports regulator, there is a widespread feeling that the EU’s regulatory potential remains unfulfilled. The article argues that the Union is in a unique position to leave a positive mark on football governance if it decides to regulate the sport more extensively. Three options are outlined: increasing the intensity of scrutiny exercised under the internal market rules, changing the approach towards cooperation with football stakeholders, or enacting a European Sports Act. After examining the benefits and drawbacks of each route, it will be claimed that, on balance, the most promising avenue is EU legislation which sets out minimum governance standards as well as substantive requirements, including on human rights, gender equality, and athlete welfare. The conclusion will offer some reflections on what would need to happen for the proposal to materialize, discussing the role of advocacy coalitions and crises in bringing about regulatory change.”
“It’s scary to think that a percentage of your neighbors really hate you. I try not to be a pessimist, but it’s difficult not to get down about it all right now,” he said. “There’s a huge hypocrisy amongst conservatives and the Trump administration, who say we should ‘Keep politics out of sport’ – but they’re doing something political by pushing (queer and trans) people out of sport!”
ICYMI
The Erasure of a Generation
More than 615 Palestinian athletes have been killed by Israeli strikes since Oct. 7 — 13 in June alone.
War, Peace, and the Tragedy of Sports in Iran
Iranian athletes are trapped between a brutal regime at home and an Israeli government bent on its destruction—with death and misery the only constant on either side.
Kadyrov turned his MMA fight club into a war machine—what happens after he dies?
Kadyrov's MMA empire is a farming system for his private militia, now fighting in Ukraine. Yet with reports of his failing health, what happens to this war machine once he's gone?
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This is how to welcome people that you don't agree with. Make sure they understand going in the you don't like their opinions or activism. Really enjoyed the article. Thank you for the laugh.
Karim, what a delightful first topic! Lol.
If Laura is going to stay subscribed, perhaps you should change your format so she can follow along? Try publishing your next article a coloring book.