Trump Goes After Football Players Not White Supremacists
By Thom Hartmann A...
Whether you kneel or stand - what kind of healthy democracy plays the national anthem at sports games?
Around 200 NFL players took a knee during the national anthem Sunday - a massive display of solidarity against racism that came just a few days after Donald Trump made disparaging comments about Colin Kaepernick - the former San Francisco 49er quarterback whose refusal to stand for the anthem got him blackballed from the league.
At a rally in Alabama, Friday, Trump called Kaepernick an S-O-B and said that players like him who don't stand for the national anthem "should be fired".
Why are players even standing for the national anthem in the first place?
Until 2009, they actually stayed in the locker room while the anthem was sung.
Isn't this kind of cheap, reactionary, and militaristic patriotism better suited to North Korea than our ostensibly democratic republic?
As Alex Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs asked, why is Trump being more critical of these players than he was of the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville?
Comments
#2
Trump is the entertainer, acting as though this is a reality show where he gets more points for creating an atmosphere where the easily distracted will miss the important activity. He distracted from the needs of Puerto Rico, the Russia investigation and got his followers to act with emotion, that emotion generally being HATE. I become more and more nervous every day, wondering how close to Nazi Germany he will bring us
#3
Trump is a flaming bigot and so was Francis Scott Key who penned a racist rant that was later adopted as the national anthem. Like all racist bigots everywhere in modern times, the white men in Congress at the time tried to hide our national shame by putting a bright red bow on it, excluding the third stanza as too obvious:
"And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
http://www.theroot.com/star-spangled-bigotry-the-hidden-racist-history-of-the-1790855893
#4
GOV. RICARDO ROSSELLO: First of all, we are very grateful for the administration. They have responded quickly.
The president has been very attentive to the situation, personally calling me several times. FEMA and the FEMA director have been here in Puerto Rico twice. As a matter of fact, they were here with us today, making sure that all the resources in FEMA were working in conjunction with the central government.
We have been working together. We have been getting results. The magnitude of this catastrophe is enormous. This is going to take a lot of help, a lot of collaboration.
@
https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/09/25/puerto-ricos-governor-dismantles...
#5
This has been a cover up for lack of support for Puerto Rico. 3.5 million American citizens (same population as Colorado) with no electricity and devastated homes. Always watch what the other hand is doing. His base loves it.
#6
As a business owner, a former Athlete and coach. I can not believe these coaches let the players do anything but give 100% of their time and attention to winning. Any less then 100% is letting down your boss, fans and most importantly your teammates. That is why in my sport hockey you have a minor league team, you can replace those who give less then everything.
#7
Puerto Rico, the rest of the story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/puerto-rico-maria-fema-disaster-.html
_____________
So, Kend, are you saying that during the national anthem -- when players are NOT playing -- that they are "[giving] less then 100%, letting down [their bosses, fans,] and most importantly their teammates?" What, for exercising their right to free speech in a public forum with a short but heartfelt and poignant protest, which doesn't detract any more from the game than a racist and militaristic bar song or over-the-top million-dollar add buys by greedy corporations who constantly interrupt the game?
Welcome to Meerkkka, where a stupid game that destroys the brains of its players is more important than the core principles of a nation.
#8
Kneeling or locking arms during the Anthem is showing respect. Standing around chit-chatting and totally ignoring the Anthem would be disrespectful. (Check the bleachers) Maybe our leaders could try earning some respect from Americans instead of demanding it.
#9
I remember back in the 70s and 80s it wasn't that uncommon for many of us to sit during the national anthem as a way of protesting the Vietnam War or Reagan or dissatisfaction with the government in general. They didn't even ask you to stand during the national anthem. They would just say, "and not the playing of our national anthem" and if you had a beef with the government you just sat on your ass. If you felt insecure about your patriotism and needed to wear it on your sleeve, you stood up.
Usually it was just a recording, rarely a live performance. No one thought that much about it. I don't remember anyone threatening to bash my head in or even hardly giving me a second look for not standing.
But of course, that all changed with the first Iraq war. The Country still smarting from the humiliating defeat in Vietnam decided that a good ol' national temper tantrum was in order. And who better to suffer the wrath of our need to reassert ourselves as the dominate force in the world, than those Arabs that had us by the balls with all their oil. Patriotism was suddenly all the rage. Even San Francisco was awash in flags. Every where you looked there were flags and more flags. All eyes were glued to the televisions in bars and homes throughout the land, cheering on the video arcade spectacle that was "Desert Storm." Wolf Blitzer and Gen. Schwarzkopf became celebrities over night.
The Defense Industry, no slackers, realized, here was their ticket to riches beyond even their wildest dreams. But wars don't last forever…do they? It helps if you can keep selling them. And what better way to keep selling the wars than to demand patriotism from everyone. What better way to control the masses than to shame them and turn their neighbors against them if they don't comply?
Most of us that sat out the national anthem in the 70s and 80s at games were usually white. I'm sure it's not lost on these athletes today, that this current wave of flag outrage, is just another racist tool for churning up the Trump base, dividing the Country, distracting attention from Russia-gate, Obamacare loss and all of Trump's other failures.
Personally, I couldn't be more proud of these athletes and even Jerry Jones for standing up to Trump by protesting during the national anthem. Symbols are not what people fight and die for. People, freedom and the right to express themselves, especially when they sense injustice, is what our troops fight and die for. Symbols should always take a backseat to the needs and the rights of the people.
#10
I want to thank deepspace and stopgap fot your fantastic comments. They are roght out of my mouth. You ought to have your own show.
#11
So true and well expressed, stopgap. In our form of government - for, by, and of the People -- protest is the highest form of patriotism, especially against symbols of hate. And it is one of our most protected rights as citizens. That's why, in 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could not even stop citizens from desecrating the nation's flag, including burning it. The First Amendment, of course, means different things to different people, but who can honestly argue that expressing ourselves nonviolently is the most important aspect of it?
Naturally, that escapes the totalitarian mind. In fact, if Trump keeps pushing it as the supposed defender of the Constitution and primary agent of government, Congress should add that to his long list of impeachable offenses.
#12
The Star-Spangled Banner is a dreadful song that was composed by the slave owning anti-abolitionist, Francis Scott Key. That one's patriotism should be put to the test by whether or not he stands at a sporting event when it is being played, has always seemed to me to border on being fascistic. Moreover, it is an awful tune filled with bellicose imagery like "bombs bursting" etc. and as far as I am concerned, if we have to have a national anthem, this one should be replaced by "America The Beautiful", a melodious and moving song which is far superior to Key's.
As for the athletes who have chosen to kneel, I say, more power to them! The First Amendment guarantees them the right to do so, and the malevolent tweeting clown and genital grabber in chief should stay the hell out of it. Peaceful protest is built into the American DNA, and no one, especially the malignant narcissist, Donald Trump and his lackeys, can stop us from doing so. Colin Kaepernick is a mensch and a genuine hero!
#13
REALLY!!!! REEEALLLY!!! Even if you think that it's disrespectful to kneel during the national anthem…Do you REALLY think that Donald J Trump, the biggest vote loser to ever occupy the White House…President Pussy Grabber…Five time military deferment receiver…Pathological liar…Thin skinned ego maniac…Three time adulterer… Repeated backstabber…Treasonous Russia colluder……...is really the person that you want to Trump-et the patriotism of standing during the national anthem. Give me a fuckin' break!!!
#14
Yea,yea!
#15
From
Puerto Rico, the rest of the story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/puerto-rico-maria-fema-disaster-.html
Mr. Long said that the federal government had 10,000 people “working around the clock” to help Puerto Rico. Money is not the issue at the moment, he said. More pressing, federal officials say, are the obstacles to smoothly delivering water, food and other essentials to a devastated island.
San Juan airport’s airfield is damaged. And while six ports have opened, most are operating on a limited basis.
---
Puerto Rico, Mexico, Florida, Texas and all devastated by recent sttorms and earth quakes deserve all the help we can give them.
#16
So it's ok to have a rapist for president but not a pussy grabber?
Why is that.
#17
Radical, Thanks for your kind comments. As far as Deepspace goes, I'm always in awe of his ability to crank out the most intelligent, detailed, factual posts anywhere. I'm sure he must literally kill every cross word puzzle that gets in his way. I'm not sure that Deepspace is a male. As far as I know, I still am, although many conservatives would probably not agree.
#18
Kend post #6. The only Blackhawks game that I hae ever attended (hockey) the audience totally ignored the Star Spangeled Banner like nothing I have ever seen. Hockey is certainly not free from this..
#19
I imagine he was never a good football player but he makes a great ... ... !
#20
@#15:
"Congressional leaders said on Monday that they are now awaiting assessments of the damage in Puerto Rico, as well as a formal disaster request from the Trump administration (emphasis mine) before they can act. A request is not expected until early- to mid-October, according to senior congressional aides.
"But Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said on Monday that Puerto Ricans on the island “are entitled to equal treatment under the law.”
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency is drawing from the same $15.3 billion pot of money that was approved this month by lawmakers in response to Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas, and Hurricane Irma, which hit Florida and damaged Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands.
...
"But Puerto Rico has little clout in the Capitol. As a commonwealth, it does not have a voting member of Congress, only a resident commissioner, something that has long shackled the island financially and politically.
'This is what makes Puerto Rico a beggar,” said Edwin Meléndez, the director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. “Our citizenship is second class. We don’t have the same rights as other Americans. If we move to the states, we have those rights. In Puerto Rico, we don’t.'"
--NYT
#21
Radical and stopgap,
Ha! Thanks for the compliments, but am more used to being criticized by the trolls.
I'm male and hate crossword puzzles, but used to help a work mate of mine when she asked ... as long as I didn't have to stare at all those goddamn little boxes!
};--))
#22
Hot Coffee, Trump has also been accused of rape, of a minor no less, but the accuser failed to follow through on her court case when he name was leaked and she started receiving death threats. As far as I know Clinton has never been convicted of rape but Trump has admitted to being a pussy-grabber.
#23
Various Artists The Songs of West Side Story
http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-songs-of-west-side-story-mw0000646744
Just for sh*ts and giggles
#24
If Trump is a rapist and it's proven then he belongs in the cell next to Anthony Weiner.
Do you think we could be being played by both sides to their gain and our demise?
#25
StopGap,
With so much BS on both sides I really don't see one side being any better than the other.
That's why I believe it's up to us to stop acting like two opposing football teams and try to work together.
I suspect they ( both side politicians are drinking their scotch and eating their lobster )
and laughing like hell while we tear each other up. Ditto for the international corporations.
Divide and conquer the oldest trick in the book!!
From my perspective there is more than enough to take on without beating the hell out of each other.
I don't get why that's so hard to comprehend.
The last good president ( with all his faults ) was JFK and Bobby would have been good to. These were White men and many white folk stood with them wanting to correct the wrongs, as many whites stood with MLK.
It's a slap in the face to call them racist because they just couldn't stomache Hellary.
And why should we have to choose between a pussy grabber ( maybe rapist ) and a rapist wife who sins just might still be proven true?
#26
And by the way, what the fuck does Clinton have to do with this matter anyway. One of the biggest fallacies of conservatives is that liberals or progressives are in love with the Clintons. True, compared to warmongering liars like the Bush's and Reagan, and Trump and their incompetence in governing, the Clintons are much preferred.
However, I think that many liberals and progressives did find much of Clinton's personal behavior appalling. In fact, I think it had a lot to do with why Gore did not fare better in the election. But Clinton is not on a moral crusade like Trump and the conservatives.
The Trump base, on the other hand, idolize this transparently flawed man and hide their eyes and ears to each and every one of his faults. They can't get enough of his obviously racist innuendo. They can't get enough of his lying and groundless bragging.
To be honest, it doesn't matter that much to me about a politicians personal life, but I do care about how well they perform at the job that we elected them to do. Obama, for instance, came into office when the economy was losing 850,000 jobs a month, the economy was in total free fall and the mortgage and housing situation was a total crisis and the American auto industry was on life support. Through his leadership, he was able to turn all this around in a relatively short period time and all the while his family were the ideal for what every family strives to be and a wonderful example of what conservatives claim to believe a minority family is supposed to aspire to.
But if you believed the bigoted conservative politicians, Obama was satan himself and this was the worst period of American history ever, and his family were pure evil. I've even heard conservatives say, "it could't be any worse than with Obama." But of course, none ever give any specifics about what was so fucked up.
Plus, it was a nice change to have 2 presidents that didn't sound like a third grader giveing a book report when they made a speech, and whose daughters didn't get arrested like Bush's
But even having said all that, I and virtually every liberal I know have huge differences with Obama and the Clintons and are not afraid to say so. Conservatives on the other hand, would rather eat a big pile of shit before saying even the most trivial negative thing about their dear leaders.
The other big ruse of conservatives is that when their beloved dear leader crashes, as they always do, then suddenly all polititians are the same. I think conservative voters in an effort to hide their humiliation, play both sides to win power and hasten our demise. Conservatives tend to march in lock step. Liberals, is like herding cats. That's one of the reasons liberals have a harder time winning elections, even though poll after poll shows the majority of Americans support liberal policies.
#27
What clinton has to do with it is, she was the one running against trump, after doing everything she could to screw Bernie. Many Bernie folks said screw her, and either didn't vote or they voted for trump....when we almost certianly would have had Bernie. So she F*cked it up. And she still won't STFU.
All the help she got from DWS might still land her in a jail cell but CNN and no one on the left will even discuss what DWS and the IT scandel is about. Why? don't you find that odd?
I voted for Obama both times...but could not vote for her.
Chelsea is out and out dumb as a rock and her tweets match trumps for stupidity.
Really the only good thing I have to say about trump is he isn't hellary!
Hard to tell which one is more of a narcissist.
Also as a woman I really don't want to see my party running around screaming in pussy hats...talk about degrading!
The more we can do to clean up both sides the better off all of us will be.
#28
Yes that is what I am saying. On game day your focus, even during the national anthem should be 100% on winning the game not your political agenda. That is what you are getting payed for.
#29
Legend my point exactly you should ignore everything but the game you need to win. That is your job.
#30
It seems that having a little dignity has gone out of style.
Tulsi Gabbard is my idea of a intelligent Democrat.
Bushes and Clintons are same.....just want to fill their foundations ( pockets ).
( where is that money for Haiti????)
Both are Dumb & Greedy.
#31
And now it's time to trot out the misogynistic, sexist Hillary bashing. What the hell is it with this Hillary bashing? I've yet to hear one thing that warrants all this Hillary bashing, especially when compared to every other conservative male in the Republican party. Yes, she screwed up the Libya thing and probably a number of other things, but Secretary of State is probably one of the most difficult and thankless, damned it you do an damned if you don't…between a rock and a hard place, jobs in politics. The last one to get credit when things go well and the first to get blamed when they don't. While I may not be in love with everything Hillary, I watched all 13 hours of the Benghazi hearings and found Hillary to be informed, intelligent and very presidential. Plus, her daughter didn't get arrested like the Bush's.
A bunch of racist/sexist Republican pitbulls thought they could gang up on Hillary and rip her to shreds. In fact, Hillary tore them new assholes without even breaking a sweat. Which is a lot more than you can say for her Republican inquisitors.
I suspect that there's a bunch of Republican politicians choking on their scotch and lobster seeing that one of their trolls is getting his/her ass kicked on a progressive blog. Don't give me that both sides shit. Again, Democrats and liberals may not be anything near perfect, but they are not all a bunch of racist, greedy, anti-democratic scumbags, like the Republicans. Not even close!!!
#32
You can pretend if you want.
Bernie is still working to make the country better while hellary is on Charlie Rose knocking Bernie down to try to lift herself up.
When your wrong you can always just yell troll troll troll kinda like hellary!!!
There is a young black man that has been begging for a couple years at least for Bill C to take a DNA test as he claims Bill is his dad... bet ya that will never happen.
#33
First of all, I've followed Bernie for years on Thom's show and otherwise. When Bernie first announced his candidacy I was in the first wave of contributors, voted for him over Hillary in the primary and supported his candidacy until it became clear that he would not be the Democratic candidate.
What Bernie-bots don't seem to realize is that Bernie was not a Democrat, he was an Independent. He did not spend years working to build the Democratic party nor spend years fundraising for the Democratic party. Hillary on the other hand spent her entire career in the Democratic party, supporting and raising money to help build the Democratic party. So I can't understand why Bernie-bots are so shocked that she might show some resentment at a johnny-come-lately that elbowed his way into the party and sought to push her aside and hitch a ride on the ship that she had worked for her entire career to keep afloat.
Still, I and many Democrats were willing to support Bernie even though he was not a Democrat, because liberals are not blindly faithful to anyone, but will support the candidate that best reflects our ideals. However, I couldn't fault Hillary for fighting to preserve her candidacy in the party that she was greatly responsible for keeping viable.
Don't take my word for Republicans being a racist party. Why do you think that Blacks vote about 10 to 1 for Democrats over Republicans? Do you think that it's some kinda fluke? But Trump has not even been subtle about his racism. If fact, he has lost lawsuits regarding his racist housing policies.
But again, I don't get what the Clintons have to do with Trump's campaign to have black athletes fired for kneeling during the national anthem. To bring up the Clinton's regarding this matter simply smacks of some desperate need to bash the Clinton's at every turn, even when they are no way involved.
#34
A major characterisistic of Fascism: "Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, etc."
Thus included in this would be Flag pins, goofy make "Merica" great again hats, and yes the national anthem...etc.
BTW: I agree with the sentiment that deepspace is quite the wordsmith..... always whoops on it!
#35
Hillary Clinton is a back stabbing crook.
Bernie Sanders is a Socialist.
The talking bobblehead media dummies didn't know which way to turn.
You had no chance in 2016.
The election of President Trump proved my point.
#36
And Trump is a pussy grabber.
#37
I thought the election of tRump proved my point. Kris Kobeck and his repugs can only win by cheating. Dianereynolds seems to ignore the monstrous voter suppression that occurred, and the lies that Kris Kobeck Kommision (KKK) keep telling. Diane and others like her need to watch "The Best Democracy that Money Can Buy". I hear it is free to view on Amazon Prime.
#38
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#39
Are they kneeling or praying for our country?
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Trump should have stayed out of it.
Players should stand or not according to their beliefs....fans should go to games or not according to their beliefs.
That being said the Warriors are awesome!!!
This is all a diversion from really important issues that need attention.