American Flag…Take It Down

As a small act of resistance against the illicit residency of Putin’s bitch, I refuse to fly the American Flag, or allow it to be flown on my properties.

I’m sorry veterans, but this ain’t America anymore, Your service and sacrifice has been sold.

Veterans protest Hampshire College decision to stop flying U.S. flag

I’m sorry vets – but our flag, Constitution, and country have been disgraced by the traitor Trump in selling out to the Russians. Take it down until the POS is gone.

Veterans protested Sunday at a western Massachusetts college facing criticism from around the country for its decision to stop flying U.S. flags after students allegedly burned a flag in protest of Donald Trump’s presidential election.

Dozens of veterans and other demonstrators held American flags and chanted “U.S.A.” at Hampshire College in Amherst on Sunday, in what organizers called a “peaceful demonstration of freedom.”

Local veterans and others intended to place hundreds of U.S. flags on the streets around the college.

College officials decided to indefinitely stop flying flags earlier this month after the main flag in the center of campus was burned after students lowered the banner to half-staff. Officials replaced the flag, but it was lowered again.

School officials say they welcome peaceful discussions about the flag decision.

In a statement about their decision to remove the flag, college officials said: “This decision is not and was never a commentary on the presidential election.”

Clarifying the statement, Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash told CBS Boston he knows it’s a controversial decision to remove the flag, but he wanted to create a dialogue among those with differing opinions about the symbol.

“There were a range of views on campus, including people whose experience growing up have made the flag a symbol of fear, which was strengthened by the toxic language during the campaign, and people for whom the flag is the symbol of all that’s best throughout the country,” said Lash.

He said the trouble started with a gesture meant to help provoke “meaningful and respectful dialogue” on campus–a stance he outlined in a post on the college’s Facebook page. In that post, he said the Board of Trustees decided to fly the flag at half-staff due to the “environment of escalating hate-based violence” in the wake of the election.

Lash said the gesture was also meant to be an “expression of grief” over deaths around the world, including those of U.S. service members.

But, the move didn’t work as planned and many–especially veterans and families of veterans in the Hampshire College family–saw it as being disrespectful of the tradition of expressing mourning on a national level.

“Frankly, doing that, it didn’t help,” he said. “Flying the flag at half-mast just created more controversy.”

On Veterans Day, someone removed the flag and burned it.

“In the middle of the night, we have no idea who did it or even why,” said Lash.

So that’s why they decided to take down the U.S. flag–and all flags–on campus.

“The flag had become a heated symbol that was making that more difficult,” Lash said. “We really feel our community needs a conversation in which both sides listen to each other, and we wish the nation would have that kind of dialogue. We felt that if we could stop arguing about the symbol, we could get to the underlying issues.”

Of course, that decision has created even more backlash, and Lash said there “certainly is” a lot of anger about the decision.

 

Roland Martin Takes Bill O’Reilly to School on Black Patriotism

This is fun!

 

 

The New Obama Model… With a Backbone

If they are wearing that uniform - they deserve a little love and respect from the rest of us.

President Obama siad something last night that the so-called commentators in the MSM should have been shouting from the rafters –

“We don’t believe in the kind of smallness that says it’s okay for a stage full of political leaders — one of whom could end up being the president of the United States — being silent when an American soldier is booed. We don’t believe in that,” said Obama to loud cheers and a standing ovation.

“We don’t believe in standing silent when that happens. We don’t believe in them being silent since. You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it’s not politically convenient. We don’t believe in a small America. We believe in a big America — a tolerant America, a just America, an equal America — that values the service of every patriot.”

Obama needs to include this in every speech. The inaction by the 8 people standing on that stage at the Republican Debate is despicable, and shows just how little of their opposition to President Obama, and their morality is based on any legitimate desire for change in policies. The 8 Republican dwarfs are nothing more than a pack of cheap political whores who would sell our service members down the river at a moments notice. Further – the Tea Party isn’t about America…It’s about racism, divisiveness, and hate.

 

They Were Republicans

Had an interesting conversation a few months ago with a couple of folks who had worked for several previous administrations. In LA people can talk about the film industry. In Vegas, it’s the Casinos. In Washington, there are a lot of folks who stay around after serving positions in the Government – so depending on whether you are in a room with DoD and Military people – or a group of Beltway Bandits and Civilian Agency people… It seems that everyone has some experience in – or with one or more parts of the Federal Government.

There is an “inside the Beltway” – it is just not the “groupthink” campaigning politicians try and stereotype it as.

So…the discussion…

What happened to the Republicans? Where did they go?

Former Senator Chuck Hagel (R) wonders the same thing –

Former GOP Senator Chuck Hagel: Republican Party Has ‘An Astounding Lack Of Responsible Leadership’

Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE) can’t muster any praise for his Republican colleagues’ behavior in Congress over the past few months. In an interview with the Financial Times, Hagel blasted GOP leadership for their “irresponsible actions” during the debt ceiling debacle, noting that “I think about some of the presidents we’ve had on my side of the aisle — Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., go right through them, Eisenhower — they would be stunned.”

“Disgusted” with the debt ceiling negotiations, Hagel called it “an astounding lack of responsible leadership by many in the Republican party, and I say that as a Republican.” “Does anyone not believe what’s happened here the last couple weeks in the market was not a complete, direct result of the lack of confidence that came out of that folly, that embarrassment?” he asked. Watch it:

Asked about Tea Party influence, Hagel said the Republican party is too captive to a movement that is “very ideological” and “very narrow.” “I’ve never seen so much intolerance as I’ve seen today,” he said. Later surveying the GOP 2012 field, Hagel said the party may need to rebuild, agreeing that Republicans are now “too far to the right.”

 

 

 

McCain, Graham – Dropping the HNIC Like a Hot Potato

On this 4th of July it is heartening to see at least nor every Republican hates America. I mean, a lot of conservatives do the wave the plastic flag thing, and talk the talk about “loving our troops”…

But when push  to shove are absent on every single Veterans BIll, absent in COngress or the Senate in making the hard decisions for a country in crisis, and absent during the most critical decisions of the day because the man who sits in the Presidency doesn’t look like them…

Who spew hate over the nations airwaves for black and brown people, and then demonstrate their patriotism with pepper induced tears…

Who accuse less fortunate Americans who have lost their jobs and livelyhoods (and often homes) of being “lazy”…

Nice to see on this Independence Day -a return to American values.

The Star Spangled Banner Over Ft. McHenry

More fallout for Uncle Mikkie’s Foot in Mouth on “Obama’s War” –

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, both senior Republicans on the Armed Services Committee, denounced Mr. Steele’s comments, joining a chorus of Republican criticism.

Mr. McCain of Arizona said that Mr. Steele’s remarks, made at an event last week, were “wildly inaccurate, and there’s no excuse for them,” adding that Mr. Steele had later told him in an e-mail message that his comments were misconstrued.

“The fact is that I think that Mr. Steele is going to have to assess as to whether he can still lead the Republican Party as chairman of the Republican National Committee and make an appropriate decision,” Mr. McCain said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” broadcast from Kabul, Afghanistan, where he and Mr. Graham were visiting troops with a delegation of Republican lawmakers.

Mr. Graham of South Carolina said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he was “dismayed, angry, upset” over Mr. Steele’s remarks, calling them “uninformed, unnecessary, unwise, untimely.”

“This is not President Obama’s war; this is America’s war,” he said, adding, “I want to separate myself from that statement. And the good news is Michael Steele is backtracking so fast he’s going to be in Kabul fighting here pretty soon.”

Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, also described Mr. Steele’s remarks as “inaccurate” and “unacceptable.”

“Chairman Steele needs to apologize to our military, all the men and women who’ve been fighting in Afghanistan,” Mr. DeMint said in an interview on“Fox News Sunday.” “This is America’s war. It’s not Obama’s war.”

 

White Privilege Boot Camp – Patriotism

Questioning patriotism has become a right wing game in America, claiming somehow – sans any empirical evidence – simply being on the right grants them a lofty position from which to judge and parse the patriotism of others.

Plastic patriotism is also a white privilege. When white conservative opine about “this country”, it is a country and perception curiously devoid of people of color. White privilege expressed in terms of conservatives is the capability to oppose Health Care Reform on the basis of “socialism” and abortion is wrong, even though the current system results in the genocide of hundreds of thousands of Minority babies, children, and adults each year…

Hat Tip to NewsOne for this one as well as BlackVoices.

White Privilege is not understanding the visceral reaction from black folks when Faux News and the right wing attacked Michelle Obama’s patriotism. This young lady gets unloaded on by the guy with the microphone – which I agree is over the top …

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Dr. Boyce Watkins view:

VIDEO: Woman Cries In White Privilege Boot Camp

I am not sure if the “White Privilege Boot Camp” is real or not, but I am also not sure if I mind the idea. This is not to say that it should be as harsh as the boot camp the brother puts the white woman through in the below video, but the truth is that many of us in America are ignorant about racial history, primarily because our country wants to forget it. We don’t mention many of the horrors and evils of slavery, because we would rather presume that a holocaust can only occur in another country.I watched the video below with as much shock as the woman who was being lectured by the brother with the microphone. The brother is loud, and he dominates the woman, leading most of us to feel some degree of empathy toward her. She even cries toward the end, so the tendency is to argue that perhaps he was too harsh. Yes, he was too harsh, and I would not have approached the issue in the same way. But……..

When it comes to how we process our racial history in America, there is the question of truth vs. lies. Was the woman crying because she was confronted with the truth about white privilege? Are most white Americans even aware of the benefits of being white? If that is or is not the case, then who should be held accountable for the clear and lasting damage of slavery? While some expect us to presume that history remains disconnected from the present, the truth is that they are inextricably linked. You can’t have the present without the past, since actions of the past create the world that lies all around us. Here are some quick examples:

Elena Kagan, the most recent Supreme Court nominee, can hire 29 people, with none of them being black, and no one blinks an eye. Why? Because there is a privilege to whiteness, which implies that black people should be happy with whatever we can get. She’d never consider allowing white men or women to be excluded in an equally egregious way.

The Supreme Court has had over 111 justices, and not a single black woman has had a chance to serve on the court. That’s not the result of black women being inferior to anyone else. It’s the result of white privilege, sexism and the racially divisive constructs on which our nation has been built.

The average black family wealth level is roughly 1/10 that of white Americans. That didn’t happen because black people decided that we don’t like money. It happened because for hundreds of years, slavery and Jim Crow eliminated our ability to pass wealth on to our children. This wealth imbalance wasn’t created overnight.

Those are the facts, folks, whether we like them or not. Some respond to these realities with anger. Some people forgive and forget. Some people live in denial. My personal opinion, though, is that we are going to have to deal with white privilege and the impact of slavery if our country is going to ever move forward. At the very least, we should honestly educate one another on the past… Again, I can’t condone the aggressive approach, but it is certainly thought-provoking.

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Whose Freedom?

Officer Wesley Cheeks of the Fairfax County Police Department has a run in with a Tea Bagger at the recent Town Hall Meeting in Reston, Virginia hosted by Representative Jim Moran.

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This one is one of the latest attempts by the right to characterize opposition to their efforts to disrupt Town Hall meetings as “Freedom of Speech”.

Now, to be honest, I know the Officer involved. I’ve met him several times in social situations. He’s been with the Fairfax Police 18 or 20 years, and has been an exemplary officer to my knowledge.

I’m not going to get into the legal basis of who is right or wrong here – but I am going to get into something else – Patriotism.

During the Vietnam protest era, one of the favorite bumper stickers of the right was “My Country, right or wrong”, a second was “America – Love it or leave it”.  Indeed, one of the most bitter and cutting criticisms of the actions of some of the War protesters is how they derided, and disrespected American institutions, members of the Armed Forces, and our government.

Starting with the Raygun ascendancy, Republicans turned that bitterness into political hay, making Vietnam Vets who were bitter about their mistreatment by the “left” into a functional arm of the Republican Party. The Republican Party would claim the Patriotism high ground for the next 20 years when George W. Bush’s attempts at jingoism, and plastic patriotism in to hide the fact he had lied the country into the Iraq Invasion became painfully apparent to even the most red, white, and blue soul.

Under the American core belief structure of Freedom, Fair Play, and honsesty – what the Bushits did wasn’t anything a Patriot could be proud of – perhaps leading to Michelle Obama’s much maligned comment about her pride being restored in the country.

The point being, patriotism has moved fully to the other side of the political coin. As such, some folks – particularly minority folks aren’t going to be too thrilled about seeing their President defamed…

Did I mention “Love it or leave it”?

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James Brown – Living In America

A little July 4th Celebration.

This Video was done for one of the Rocky movies. Regardless of the over the top tackiness – the King of Soul reigned. What’s interesting about this, is while the song Hook would indicate it’s a patriotic song – it celebrates the material society, instead of values. As such, it really isn’t a patriotic song – much as the plastic patriotism evinced by the Bushsquat administration had nothing to do with American values or valuing our democracy and Constitution.

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