Well, ain’t that something.
After President Donald Trump alluded to controversial former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick a “son of a b*tch” during a rally in Alabama, Twitter exploded.
“Trump used harsher language to describe Kaepernick than he used for the Neo-Nazi who killed Heather Heyer,” Christiana Mbakwe, a writer for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” tweeted.
“Colin Kaepernick is a real patriot and a fantastic human being,” another user wrote. “Donald Trump is a tool and a traitor.”
Others, like activist-journalist Shaun King, mused about how unusual (and dangerous) it is for a sitting president to use that type of language.
“The POTUS said son of a b*tch on primetime,” one user noted. “What a time to be alive.”
Yet again Trump shows he has far more passion for bashing people of color than recognizing they have the first amendment right to express themselves. The Supreme Court has determined that people have the right to burn the flag in public, but someone choosing not to stand is this all fired offensive?
Trump
tweeted Tuesday morning that he would support substantial penalties -- including revoking an American's citizenship -- for burning the US flag, restarting a controversy that has persisted despite decades of settled case law.
The Supreme Court has ruled twice that destruction of the American flag is protected by the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment's protection of free speech, even if the act is unsettling.
One of the staunchest defenders of the decisions, and a key vote in favor of both, was conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was widely praised by Republicans after his death in February, including by Trump.
"If I were king, I would not allow people to go around burning the American flag. However, we have a First Amendment, which says that the right of free speech shall not be abridged -- and it is addressed in particular to speech critical of the government," Scalia said. "That was the main kind of speech that tyrants would seek to suppress.”
Let’s just briefly remember what it was like when we our President wasn’t a boorish nitwit boomshwaggle.
This issue was vigorously debated tonight on Don Lemon’s show on CNN and of course you had the usual arguments from the Right that Kaepernick “isn’t a good quarterback” anymore, and that he has to take the “consequences” for his actions, but I think Mark Lamont Hill won the point when he said this:
We place the flag at half-mast when someone dies. Colin Kaepernick is placing himself at half mast for all the people of color [who have unjustly been killed in America].
Just remember that flag isn’t just about our soldiers. Police wear that flag too when the falsely stop, arrest, beat and execute innocent unarmed people by the thousands every year on our streets. something that is at least 50 times more likely to happen to you than being killed by a terrorist.
The above report was published 2 years ago and estimated the number of people being killed by police based on information from the Guardian and Washington Post as being about 928 per year, which is over twice as high as what the FBI has been reporting (~440) for years. However more recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistic under Loretta Lynch combined official data with news based estimates and found that the true figure is more like 1,900.
Between June 1, 2015, and March 31, 2016, media reviews identified 1,348 potential arrest-related deaths. During this period, the number of deaths consistently ranged from 87 to 156 arrest-related deaths per month, with an average of 135 deaths per month. To confirm and collect more information about the 379 deaths identified through open sources from June to August 2015, BJS conducted a survey of law enforcement agencies and ME/C offices.
The survey findings identified 425 arrest-related deaths during this 3-month period—12% more than the number of deaths identified through the open source review. Extrapolated to a full calendar year, an estimated 1,900 arrest-related deaths occurred in 2015. Nearly two-third (64%) of the deaths that occurred from June to August 2015 were homicides, about a fifth (18%) were suicides, and another tenth (11%) were accidents.
This is the most accurate current estimate with 1,900 per year. Since 2001 that would be 32,200 Americans who’ve died at the hands of police — that’s more than FIVE TIMES the combined number of soldiers 6,687 we’ve lost both in the Iraq war (4,491) and the War in Af anistan (2,396). On the average about 30% of those have been unarmed which is still 10,000 people. Even if you take the FBI’s fairly low numbers that still 7,480 people killed by police since 2001.
Let say just for the sake of discussion we only include the 1,216 “homicides” (64% of 1,900) by police per year excluding the accidents and suicides — which for some reason both ex-Sheriffs Arpaio and Clark seemed to pile up by the hundreds — and contrast that not only with battlefield loses but also all the people we lost on 9/11 both in New York and Washington adding another 2,996 fatalities. That brings al Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS combined to 9,683 and the police to 20,624 which is still 2 times greater.
So yeah, that’s enough to be worth taking a knee when the flag goes up, out of respect for their sacrifice.
And just as Scalia said, this kind of speech is exactly the kind that “tyrants like to suppress.”
[Also Trump said more more ish about how the NFL is going soft and penalizing players of a “good tough hit” is “ruining the game” while we find out the autopsy of Aaron Hernandez shows that he had serve brain damage from CTE.]
Saturday, Sep 23, 2017 · 5:33:26 PM +00:00 · Frank Vyan Walton
A friend of mine who is more familiar with football as a player pointed out that Kaepernick isn’t just “kneeling” what he’s doing is a specific move called “Taking a Knee.”
RUNNING OUT THE CLOCK
In American football, a quarterback kneel, also called taking a knee, genuflect offense, or victory formation occurs when the quarterback immediately kneels to the ground, ending the play on contact, after receiving the snap. It is primarily used to run the clock down, either at the end of the first half or the game itself, in order to preserve a lead or a win.
...
Sportsmanship
Teams sometimes resort to the victory formation when the margin of victory is high or there are other circumstances that make the game seem lopsided. They run out the clock as a way of showing respect and ending the opposing team's humiliation. Some people associate the play with good sportsmanship for this reason.
Discipline
Sometimes, a player on a soccer or American football team commits an unnecessary foul on the field or otherwise fails to meet his or her coach's expectations. As a disciplinary action, the coach might order him to take a knee, forcing him to leave the playing field immediately and to kneel in a conspicuous spot along the sidelines. This exercise in public humiliation is supposed to inspire a player to become more focused or team-oriented once the punishment has been lifted.
So it’s a sign of respect, humility and discipline — the reverse of being rude and disrespectful. Anyone who knows anything about Football should know this, and minor point of trivia Trump used to own a team. the New Jersey Generals in the failed USFL.
Saturday, Sep 23, 2017 · 5:38:03 PM +00:00 · Frank Vyan Walton
And now he’s picked a fight with Steph Curry who was planning to skip going to the White House (he’s been there before 2 years ago).
Less than 24 hours after Trump called former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick a “son of a b*tch,” Trump went after the popular Curry who had indicated that he might not attend a White House ceremony celebrating the NBA champion Warriors.
“Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!” Trump tweeted
And that generated a response from Lebron James.
And from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “There is no better example than the amazing response from our clubs and players to the terrible natural disasters we’ve experienced over the last month. Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities.”