Mike Pence pisses away $200K+ in taxpayer money at staged protest

[jlw]

Oh, I think we all know its a fucking English pub song.

Also – we all refuse to sing/remember/explain the anthem including:

"So conquer we must
When our cause it is just
and this be our motto
“In God is our Trust.”

Verse.

I mean WHOA JOE! That doesn’t sound like my America and I can understand not participating in the sentiment.

[anon24181555]

I like this one, too

[Medievalist]

@shwonline

The current line of succession is a clown car:

They used to say Quayle was Bush’s health insurance. President Trump has taken that concept to a whole new level.

@nungesser

Compared to what we’ve got, President Hatch doesn’t sound terrible.

OK, but President Pence <shudder> sounds apocalyptic.

[anon34697667]

[smut_clyde]

@anon76551318

Respect our Flag! Honor our Veterans! Support our Police!

The rhetorical figure that conflates all these is called a Synecdouche.

[iquitos46]

@roomwithaview

You can add another veteran’s “no” to your list.

Yep and me too. I got drafted and served to protect our collective right to object when any of our rights are threatened.
Super-rich snowflake right wingers are very eager to piss taxpayer money away in their effort impress their base. And boy howdy, Base is just exactly the right description of these sniveling whiners.

Base / (of a person or persons actions or feelings) without moral principles ; ignoble
See also / mouth breathers, lowlifes soulless pices of shit

[Mister_Eppy]

@jlw

More poorly staged than dinner theater.

As a former child actor in dinner theater (Harlequin Theater, MD), I am offended by the comparison. (though not disappointed.)

[tinoesroho]

Of particular note was Key’s opposition to the idea of the Colonial Marines. The Marines were a battalion of runaway slaves who joined with the British Royal Army in exchange for their freedom. The Marines were not only a terrifying example of what slaves would do if given the chance, but also a repudiation of the white superiority that men like Key were so invested in.

All of these ideas and concepts came together around Aug. 24, 1815, at the Battle of Bladensburg, where Key, who was serving as a lieutenant at the time, ran into a battalion of Colonial Marines. His troops were taken to the woodshed by the very black folks he disdained, and he fled back to his home in Georgetown to lick his wounds. The British troops, emboldened by their victory in Bladensburg, then marched into Washington, D.C., burning the Library of Congress, the Capitol Building and the White House. You can imagine that Key was very much in his feelings seeing black soldiers trampling on the city he so desperately loved.

A few weeks later, in September of 1815, far from being a captive, Key was on a British boat begging for the release of one of his friends, a doctor named William Beanes. Key was on the boat waiting to see if the British would release his friend when he observed the bloody battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore on Sept. 13, 1815. America lost the battle but managed to inflict heavy casualties on the British in the process. This inspired Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner” right then and there, but no one remembers that he wrote a full third stanza decrying the former slaves who were now working for the British army:

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.

- Star-Spangled Bigotry: The Hidden Racist History of the National Anthem

[gabe_oakes]

The first time I saw anyone breath (or type) a word about the national anthem at the beginning of sports events being about “honoring the troops” was when Kapaernik first did his protest. It never was about that before, but suddenly now it is.

All to ignore and deflect from the actual issue at hand.

[Kimmo]

I hate to be that guy, but whatever your intentions, none of you served to defend anything much but US and military-industrial hegemony.

But of course, that reality doesn’t detract in the slightest from ‘defending freedom’ being the best counterargument against authoritarian fuckwads.

[Footface]

It’s the idea that these shitbags don’t even want to pretend to be leaders. Forget the idea of speaking to our principles, of uniting us, of seeking consensus and understanding, of representing all of us. No, they’d rather clutch pearls and pit Americans against each other. All the Trumpies want to do is campaign.

(Not only that, but Kaepernick was originally sitting during the anthem. But then a Green Beret told him kneeling would be less likely to appear disrespectful.)

Kaepernick Meets With Veteran Nate Boyer, Then Kneels During Anthem

By the way, you can find awesomely awful comments after that piece.

[Kimmo]

@Footface

Kaepernick was originally sitting during the anthem. But then a Green Beret told him kneeling would be less likely to appear disrespectful.

Ooh! It also leaves sitting as a possible escalation, if they wanna step it up a notch

[Mister44]

1. People continue to put the SYMBOL of freedom ahead of the ACTUAL freedom.

2. I don’t care if Pence wants to chime in but he could at least get what the protest is about right.

3. If you are going to run a campaign giving ample lip service to reducing government waste, one would think you wouldn’t approve of ~$250K to fly a guy around so he would walk out of a ball game. That doesn’t include all the local security costs. Please protest on your own dime.

[thefool]

So in other words, this was a $200K+ taxpayer-funded partisan re-election campaign fundraiser trip. (With a little publicity stunt thrown in at the game.)

[sosumi]

How the NFL sold patriotism to the U.S. military for millions

Additionally, according to Vice, the NFL’s policy on players standing for the national anthem also changed in 2009, with athletes “encouraged” thereafter to participate. Prior to that, teams were not given any specific instructions on the matter; some chose to remain in the locker room until after opening ceremonies were completed.

[jdaniel30]

I wish it would be this easy to get Pence to leave the White House.

[13enster]

This f—ing guy thinks he’s Morgan Freeman in The Sum of All Fears, but he’s really just a flunky for the neo-nazi villian.

[One_Brown_Mouse]

@Mister_Eppy

(though not disappointed.)

[L0ki]

@anon61833566

There is only one set of rules. ONE and it is for active service members. During the anthem we stand at attention and salute the flag (or its general direction) when outdoors, ensuring cover is on. If not in uniform, stand not at attention but at parade rest instead.

There is not a single other law or rule regarding this.

I noticed that in the article you linked to - the NFL manual apparently states that the players ‘should’ stand ‘at attention’.

Leaving aside that that is obviously not a mandatory instruction, how exactly do a bunch of civilian sports people stand at ‘attention’?

Is there an NFL manual of drill?

[Wanderfound]

Donald J. Trump (realDonaldTrump)

Claude Taylor (TrueFactsStated)

The Wiki writeup is ridiculously slanted, but you’ll get the idea:

Francis Scott Key | Slavery and American Colonization Society

Francis Scott Key | Anti-abolitionist