Facebook did or didn't know that the Russians were using the platform to influence our Presidential election. They did or didn't notice that the paid advertising in question came from Russian banks. They did or didn't alter the algorithm to send inflammatory fake news stories to groups which would naturally fall on either side of the issue.
Do we believe Mark Zuckerberg? I saw The Social Network, I know that he stole the idea from those good looking rich twins.
NFL players were protesting Donald Trump attacking their mothers. They listened to his words, parsed them carefully, and determined that the President thought they were sons of nasty women. NFL players were protesting police brutality, systemic racism, President Trump's feeble response to Charlottesville.
Or..... overpaid professional entertainers were making mountains out of molehills, disrespecting the flag and veterans and police officers and our country as they knelt instead of singing the National Anthem.
And that National Anthem turns out to be a racist anthem, referencing slaves who escaped bondage and fought for the British in exchange for their freedom. Who knew? I never got past the first stanza, though Daddooooo claimed to know all four.
And while I'm on the suAlbject, why is our anthem un-sing-able? Is now the time to rouse the populace to the cause - Make America, the Beautiful our country's song?Alabama Republicans' choice for the United States Senate is Roy Moore, a man who was removed not once but twice from the judiciary for ethics violations. He brandished a pistol at his last campaign rally, demonstrating his love of the Second Amendment.
And here I am, again, back at DJT and the Bill of Rights and Freedom of Speech and protest on your own time and it's against the Flag Code to display the flag horizontally, no matter how many uniformed humans are making it wave, and all the while Houston and the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico are underwater and North Korea thinks war can be declared on Twitter.
It's been a very weird week.
Each week is weird and will become weirder. We have not seen the worst.
ReplyDeleteI said the same thing to TBG last night. It's not getting worse, the. It's been this way since the Inauguration Crowd kerfuffle. The man is ill.
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I wonder how many of those taking a knee have a reason for it maybe beyond being encouraged to do it. The first one, Colin Kaepernick, did so because he was convinced he lived in a police state or so he claimed. He went out onto the field in one game wearing socks with police as pigs. He appeared influenced by Black Lives Matter where others claimed the police work for the master to maintain a slave state. Of course, the ones taking a knee make more money in a year than most of us will ever make in a lifetime. Some slave state. I read that 16 unarmed blacks were killed by police in 2016, which sounds bad even though unarmed does not mean necessarily without an ability to hurt others or that they weren't shot by accident in an altercation (yes, for my issues blog, I researched this earlier). 136 police officers died that year with half of them in shootings. My point is only that it's a dangerous time. The police face stuff most of us can't even imagine. What happens if these athletes, the ones who think it's a police state, get their way and get rid of the police? Who then goes in when the rest of us run out? I think for them to do this as an advertisement for their viewpoint, at the start of a game, is politicizing something that is bound to lead to a reaction and they should understand that it's not the tam owners, who pay their salaries, it's the ticket and subscription holders as well as advertisers, not to mention taxpayers who pay for those stadiums, not always willingly. So they may find those big salaries are their price for taking a knee-- that's also okay, right? My suspicion is this is one of those group hysterias with most having no clue what it looks like to others-- including military families who are feeling very hurt that the flag for which they fight is no longer respected. Not to mention, the rest of us who they are saying are all racists. It is a weird time indeed.
ReplyDeleteAfter writing six paragraphs here, I decided to answer you in tomorrow's post.
DeleteWhat I appreciate most about the protests is what we are doing here - having the conversation.
See you tomorrow!
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It's rare to be able to agree to disagree and not have insults come next. I appreciate conversations that explore issues-- not tear apart the one who disagrees. It is unfortunately becoming rarer than it should be.
ReplyDeleteTell me about it........
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