taking a symbolic knee
Yesterday POTUS 45 saw his zombie health care bill die yet again, watched the candidate he backed in a special election lose, and faced mounting criticism for the slow response to Puerto Rico’s deadly predicament. Given his worries over uppity athletes, he may not have noticed.
In my last post, I foolishly noted that the odds a hurricane would again eat a major U.S. city a month later were astronomical. Then Irma ate a state and Maria ate a nation. That’s why I don’t bet.
I was trying to prepare for a tumultuous September. But Trump is exceeding my fears yet again. Why should he tweet about vital national issues when he can create a non-issue designed merely to beef up his base’s hunger for . . . well, beef. The recklessness he showed in conflating a genuine concern — police violence against black men — with something as vague as patriotism confirms that his connection with reality is non-consensual.
Trump can hold a grudge indefinitely. His current dust-up with the NFL is another chapter in a story that started in 1986. He owned a team, the New Jersey Generals, which was part of the fledgling U.S. Football League. He and the other owners filed a $1.7 billion anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL to force a merger.
Trump and company won on the merits of the case, but was awarded only $1. Four years later, SCOTUS upheld the decision. With the added interest, the new league ended up with a whopping $3.76. But the nearly quadruple payout didn’t matter. The cost and embarrassment of the lawsuit had already caused the USFL to fold. So now the Don can only continue to abuse executive privilege by trying to micro-manage the NFL.
I kneel with the athletes. As a veteran, I refuse to be lectured by a coward who got a draft deferment for short-lived heel spurs. How can a brief peaceful protest possibly intimidate the (regrettably) most powerful man in the world? Trump would like to give the flag the sanctity of the Shroud of Turin. But if it truly does represent all the good the U.S. has done, doesn’t it also have to cop to all the shit it’s pulled?
Let me ask you this, Mister President: if Ivanka were drowning and the only way you could save her was to reach her with the flag, would you? Would you for Eric? For Mike Pence? Mitch McConnell? Colin Kaepernick?
And, by the way, POTUS: Kaepernick got the idea to kneel from a former Green Beret.
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Anchor Struck 
Well put, well said.
It is also interesting to note that chump who won that special election is more of a nut-job than the great orange father. Who’d of thought?
Peace baby.
You only expect to see someone with his opinions on grainy archival footage.
The current theater is absolutely horrifying on every level
Agreed. I don’t like having to keep my eye on Trump constantly.
Speaking of veterans…If you get PBS Allen, there has been an incredibly potent series showing called “The Vietnam War.” It’s by filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novich. Tonight is the 10th and final episode, but I’m sure it will play again. I’ve thought of you a lot while watching it. IT
Jude and I are watching it, but we’re several episodes behind, so please don’t tell me how it ends. I’ll be posting on it soon. One thing that’s been very moving for me is the interviews with former NVA and Viet Cong troops. I’m finding that I have absolutely no negative thoughts about them. They were caught up in a furious gust of history just like U.S. troops were. In fact, I’d like to share a beer with the one who said “In war, there is no win or lose, there is only destruction.”
Tried to comment a day or so ago but the great interested gods were not cooperating. It was going to be something along the lines if “We’ll, Allen, You’ve nailed it again – and eloquently. Today’s news bringing as it does news of yet another American exercising his 2nd Amendment rights at the expense of 58 lives or so and hundreds of lives changed forever and it just all pales. How many American lives changed forever is it going to take to change our American minds on guns?
Hey, Gordie. Based on the Lisa Ling CNN special about the rise of civilian militias, it never will happen. Although I can’t give up hope, I lost most of it when nothing happened after Sandy Hook.
When Bob Dylan asked “how many deaths will it take till we know” fifty years ago, he could not have inagined this.