Like most people in the civilized world today, I’m laughing at Donald Trump. He held one of his “Inflame the Deplorables” rallies a few days ago during which he suggested that the next NFL player to take a knee during the National Anthem should be fired. He referred to them as sons of bitches and received HUGE applause from his…”basket.” Cut to the following Sunday, many (most?) players either take a knee or lock arms in solidarity with the players who take a knee. A few teams simply didn’t come out for the National Anthem.
Trump lives inside the conservative bubble. Like everyone who dwells inside the conservative bubble, he has twisted understanding of the world around him. The protest is simple and straightforward. Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the National Anthem to protest bad cops getting away with shooting unarmed people. The victims of such shootings tend to be people of color. But inside the conservative bubble the action has been represented as an insult to the American flag and Trump lives inside the conservative bubble. So, he’s more “offended” by the peaceful protests than by the shootings. I think you’ve missed the point, there, Don…
Conservatives have been talking up a “boycott” of the NFL over the whole take-a-knee thing. Interesting timing. The NFL has done itself some serious damage. They’ve supersaturated their markets. They’ve been arrogant in their dealings with local cities and fan bases. They’ve taken to charging usury amounts on their tickets and – before you can overpay for your seats – you have to buy a “seat license”. That is, you have to pay for the opportunity to get screwed by the NFL. On TV, the games have WAY too much “dead time”, mostly too many commercials. I suspect, on some level, as people are becoming more and more aware that the players are out their performing spectacular feats of athleticism – oh, and giving themselves serious, permanent brain damage – the game is just getting more…difficult to watch.
“That was a GREAT catch, Dan!”
“It sure was, Bob. Uh-oh, it looks as though he’s going into the ‘Concussion Protocol’…”
“Shortened his life a bit, did he?”
“Sure did, Bob – by a few years…but it was a spectacular catch…”
The conservative bubble has it all down to “politicizing the game.” Newsflash: playing the National Anthem before each game – complete with a flyover of fighter jets in formation spewing red, white, and blue smoke – has pretty much been “politicizing the game” since…well, since the practice started…
Apparently, some people – conservatives, presumably – started yelling slurs and taunts at the kneeling players. I’m not sure why shouting epithets at the top of one’s lungs during the National Anthem is NOT disrespecting the flag. I guess you’d have to live inside the conservative bubble to understand…
It’s funny, in calling for the boycott, Trump has done something the NFL, itself, couldn’t do: bring back viewers, at least for the pregame. I tuned in specifically to see how the players would react. I confess, I was NOT disappointed. I’ll tune in again next Sunday, as well. I’m interested to see how long the complete repudiation of the Dotard in Chief lasts…
The Bacon Press 
Recently I had a conversation with one of Trump’s most ardent fan’s. We were discussing how little progress Trump has made in his presidency so far, the promises he has not kept and she told me that “everything” is stacked against him. When I pointed out that he enjoys an entirely Republican Congress and Senate, her absolute, sincere response was, “The Democrats are paying off some of the Republican’s so that they are working against the President.” I admit I was speechless but I FINALLY understood something that until that moment had seemed beyond my comprehension—no matter how badly Mr. Trump fucks up, no matter what lies he says and gets caught saying, there is a core group of people in our country that believe in him so much that they will excuse him anything. I kept thinking that when shown evidence of his lies, double standards, what a just plain evil man he is, that a light bulb would go off for the people that voted for him and they would see the error of their ways. Nope. They love Trump like a parent that loves a pain-in-the-ass child. Everyone else sees the kid is a pain-in-the-ass except the parent who only sees rainbows and unicorns shooting out of the kid’s ass.
No matter what Trump says or does; regardless of what he has said or done in his past, there are people in our country that are always going to love him and see him as a shining beacon of hope. (It makes me gag to even write that.) I wish every football player on every team would take a knee during the National Anthem. We have a long history of peaceful protest in our country and the freedom to do so is one of the things that separates us from “them.”
I had a long discussion with my son-in-law recently. He was angry about the protesters that stood in the streets and stopped traffic. He felt that they had a right to protest, but not to disrupt. I tried to explain to him that if a protest doesn’t spark conversation, it is an exercise in futility; that standing and blocking traffic was a non-violent way of getting people’s attention and getting conversations started. His focus was being stuck in traffic and late to work–he wanted the protesters on the sidewalk. I asked him, “If they had been on the sidewalk, and you were hurriedly driving to work, would you have paid attention to them?” He’s an honest man and told me that no, he probably wouldn’t have even noticed they were there which is when I said, “and that’s why they needed to stand in the street.”
I’m positive the people on the bus were angry at Rosa Parks when she got on the bus and wouldn’t move to the seats in the back, and not all of them because they thought she belonged back there. I’ll bet there were some that were angry because she was holding them up, causing a fuss, disrupting their schedules, ( I don’t think it would have occurred to many of them that this was going to become “a moment”.)
If protest doesn’t get attention, it isn’t working. I’m not offended by the NFL players who take a knee during our National Anthem; however, I’m extremely offended by the President of our country who doesn’t seem to understand that they have a constitutional right to do so.
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