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Wrapping Oneself Around a Flag; missing the point.
Author: Raine    Date: 09/25/2017 13:28:41

Well, it's been a weekend. By now, we all know what happened on Friday night, but let's recap the divisive rhetoric he said at a campaign rally for an Alabama Senate candidate.
Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, "Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!" You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s going to say, "That guy that disrespects our flag, he’s fired." And that owner, they don’t know it. They don't know it. They'll be the most popular person, for a week. They'll be the most popular person in this country.

When the NFL ratings are down massively, massively. The NFL ratings are down massively. Now the number one reason happens to be they like watching what's happening... with yours truly. They like what's happening. Because you know today if you hit too hard—15 yards! Throw him out of the game! They had that last week. I watched for a couple of minutes. Two guys, just really beautiful tackle. Boom, 15 yards! The referee gets on television, his wife is sitting at home, she's so proud of him. They're ruining the game! They're ruining the game. That's what they want to do. They want to hit! It is hurting the game.

But you know what’s hurting the game more than that? When people like yourselves turn on television and you see those people taking the knee when they are playing our great national anthem. The only thing you could do better is if you see it, even if it’s one player, leave the stadium, I guarantee things will stop. Things will stop. Just pick up and leave. Pick up and leave. Not the same game anymore, anyway.

Let's just pause a moment here and understand that he called the mothers of those men who decided to take a knee. That is sort of lost in all this chaos.

The bigger problem here is that tRump lied about what the concept of taking a Knee was all about. Let's go back to over a year ago to when former NFL player Colin Kaepernick decided not to stand for the National Anthem.
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

The 49ers issued a statement about Kaepernick's decision: "The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem."

Niners coach Chip Kelly told reporters Saturday that Kaepernick's decision not to stand during the national anthem is "his right as a citizen" and said "it's not my right to tell him not to do something."

(snip)

Kaepernick said that he is aware of what he is doing and that he knows it will not sit well with a lot of people, including the 49ers. He said that he did not inform the club or anyone affiliated with the team of his intentions to protest the national anthem.

"This is not something that I am going to run by anybody," he said. "I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. ... If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right."


tRump saying it was about protesting the flag is truly disingenuous and shows a complete lack of understanding about this issue. I don't know where I read it, but a wise person said something akin to 'Trump saying that professional athletes are disrespecting our Flag would be like saying that Rosa Parks was protesting the Birmingham Bus System'.

Our own Trojan Rabbit brought up another great point that I think deserves a mention here. The First Amendment and 18 U.S. Code § 227.
(a) Whoever, being a covered government person, with the intent to influence, solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation, an employment decision or employment practice of any private entity—
(1) takes or withholds, or offers or threatens to take or withhold, an official act, or
(2) influences, or offers or threatens to influence, the official act of another,
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 15 years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

(b) In this section, the term “covered government person” means—
(1) a Senator or Representative in, or a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, the Congress;
(2) an employee of either House of Congress; or
(3) the President, Vice President, an employee of the United States Postal Service or the Postal Regulatory Commission, or any other executive branch employee (as such term is defined under section 2105 of title 5, United States Code).
It's not the first time he's tried to use his office to interfere with private entities.

So as we rolled into Sunday many were wondering what would happen. Three teams decided to stay off the field for the anthem, Some individual players made the choice to enter the field afterward. Most teams had a combination of players who took a knee, coupled with players, coaches, and in quite a few teams, owners, with arms interlocked. It appears the Tweeter in Chief approved of that. (my eyes are rolling right now.)

Let me show a few pictures of people who knelt and stood arms interlocked.

http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2014/01/mlk-1965-selma-montgomery-march-P.jpeg


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKcavtKUQAEkXsz.jpg





People don't have to like these protests, but to say that this is un-American as tRump and his supporters suggest is not just hypocritical, it goes against everything our nation is supposed to stand for. Why, it's almost as if brown people don't understand all the greatness the occupant of the White House is allowing them to have.
Ungrateful is the new uppity. Trump’s supporters, by a twenty-four-point margin, agree with the idea that most Americans have not got as much as they deserve—though they overwhelmingly withhold the right to that sentiment from African-Americans. Thus, the wonder is not the unhinged behavior of this weekend but rather that it took Trump so long to exploit a target as rich in potential racial resentment as wealthy black athletes who have the temerity to believe in the First Amendment.

It’s impossible not to be struck by Trump’s selective patriotism. It drives him to curse at black football players but leaves him struggling to create false equivalence between Nazis and anti-Fascists in Charlottesville. It inspires a barely containable contempt for Muslims and immigrants but leaves him mute in the face of Russian election intervention. He cannot tolerate the dissent against literal flag-waving but screams indignation at the thought of removing monuments to the Confederacy, which attempted to revoke the authority symbolized by that same flag. He is the vector of the racial id of the class of Americans who sent death threats to Louis Armstrong, the people who necessitated the presence of a newly federalized National Guard to defend black students seeking to integrate a public school. He contains multitudes—all of them dangerously ignorant.


Just so we are clear, this is bad:




But we are ok with this?

http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/blogs/trump_flag_hug.png


https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Nugent.jpg


#TakeAKnee means something and it is not what the Administration what many to think it is. A comment on this article published by the Washington Post caught my interest as it is spot on. "Because my snarky comment is so highly liked, I'm going to add that what really bothers me about this is that Trump is effectively daring people to do something that they wouldn't ordinarily do, and some will do it. He's using the national anthem as a proxy for Donald Trump, and today he's starting a blacklist of famous people who are against him.
He's essentially turning citizens who don't agree with him politically into traitors. This is how Fascism starts. "


And then there is this.
But when fascism comes it will not be in the form of an anti-American movement or pro-Hitler bund, practicing disloyalty. Nor will it come in the form of a crusade against war. It will appear rather in the luminous robes of flaming patriotism; it will take some genuinely indigenous shape and color, and it will spread only because its leaders, who are not yet visible, will know how to locate the great springs of public opinion and desire and the streams of thought that flow from them and will know how to attract to their banners leaders who can command the support of the controlling minorities in American public life. The danger lies not so much in the would-be Fuhrers who may arise, but in the presence in our midst of certainly deeply running currents of hope and appetite and opinion. The war upon fascism must be begun there.


Resist, persist and insist.

and
Raine


 
 
 

17 comments (Latest Comment: 09/25/2017 21:09:14 by Mondobubba)
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Comment by Raine on 09/25/2017 14:08:07



Comment by BobR on 09/25/2017 14:38:04


Comment by velveeta jones on 09/25/2017 15:05:25
Is that "The Nuge" in that smart shirt? He's the guy that pooped his pants to get out of serving in Vietnam and later admitted to bedding underage girls, right?

Just checking.

Comment by Scoopster on 09/25/2017 15:17:11
Mornin' all!




Comment by BobR on 09/25/2017 15:28:56
Quote by Scoopster:
Mornin' all!





Comment by Mondobubba on 09/25/2017 15:29:21
Quote by velveeta jones:
Is that "The Nuge" in that smart shirt? He's the guy that pooped his pants to get out of serving in Vietnam and later admitted to bedding underage girls, right?

Just checking.


I would believe so, the author of "Wang Dang, Sweet Poontang." I really wish I was making that up.

Comment by Raine on 09/25/2017 15:40:37
Quote by velveeta jones:
Is that "The Nuge" in that smart shirt? He's the guy that pooped his pants to get out of serving in Vietnam and later admitted to bedding underage girls, right?

Just checking.

The guy invited to the White House -- yes indeed.



Comment by BobR on 09/25/2017 15:43:03
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by velveeta jones:
Is that "The Nuge" in that smart shirt? He's the guy that pooped his pants to get out of serving in Vietnam and later admitted to bedding underage girls, right?

Just checking.


I would believe so, the author of "Wang Dang, Sweet Poontang." I really wish I was making that up.

I was going to post the lyrics here and go all Charlie Rose, but I just can't

Comment by Mondobubba on 09/25/2017 15:46:26
Quote by BobR:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by velveeta jones:
Is that "The Nuge" in that smart shirt? He's the guy that pooped his pants to get out of serving in Vietnam and later admitted to bedding underage girls, right?

Just checking.


I would believe so, the author of "Wang Dang, Sweet Poontang." I really wish I was making that up.

I was going to post the lyrics here and go all Charlie Rose, but I just can't



There was no need to. I think the title alone says it all. Ted's a klassy guy!

Comment by Raine on 09/25/2017 16:00:04
So who wants to participate in Fridays special TUTN celebrating our 10 years on the interwebs?

Comment by Raine on 09/25/2017 18:25:13


Comment by Raine on 09/25/2017 18:25:31
Via Ben. BTW.

Comment by livingonli on 09/25/2017 18:40:37
Quote by Raine:
So who wants to participate in Fridays special TUTN celebrating our 10 years on the interwebs?

I'm working Friday night.

Comment by wickedpam on 09/25/2017 19:45:16
Afternoon all

Warehouse sale finally over


Comment by Raine on 09/25/2017 20:30:33
Quote by wickedpam:
Afternoon all

Warehouse sale finally over



Comment by velveeta jones on 09/25/2017 20:52:48
Trumpy Bear seems kinda fem. Just an observation......

Comment by Mondobubba on 09/25/2017 21:09:14
Quote by Raine:



I'm still not sure if this is an example of Poe's Law or nots