Nothing to do about racism just good old American patriotism..

I can't go around wearing a Trump or Obama hat while on the job as I meet customers.... Company dictate rules of conduct. Politics do not belong in the work environment.

Trump is only properly pointing out how ungrateful some are by disrespect the very unity of America activity of standing for the National Anthem..

Sales of NFL tickets and clothing and ESPN ratings will dictate the true direction of this .

To add to that; if these athletes really did protest outside of the sporting event I seriously doubt it would get any coverage AT ALL. I HIGHLY doubt that the media would give it any air time!

This doesn't hurt anyone directly... it's not obscene... they're not delaying game time... I just don't see how it can strike up such controversy. I'm sorry you had to think about the plight of people of color in this country on your leisurely game day Sunday?

We need more people of color in our governing body's if you don't want to see someone take a knee during the national anthem.

Let them have their time and raise awareness.

Good and interesting stuff in there.

I think Sharpe is right that this escalation happened for a pretty silly reason (known blowhard and mouth-runner Trump runs his mouth, news at 11), and the NFL vs Trump skirmish detracts from the root issue that Kaepernick was trying to bring attention to a year ago.

On the other hand, I kinda agree with the other guy that maybe bringing attention to that skirmish will also bring attention to the original issue, so maybe it is a net good thing.

Yeah, the owners aren't going to give a fuck until shit lands on their doorstep. Yeah, calling people a "son of a bitch" rates at about a 2 on the "Trump just said what?!" scale. Sharpe's cynicism about how we got here makes a lot of sense.

I didn't care about Kaepernick sitting for the anthem a year ago enough to pay attention. I wasn't against it. I didn't think the was trying to "disrespect" the flag / soldiers / country / whatever, but I wouldn't have really cared if he was. Aren't people allowed to be anti-war? Opposed to mindless nationalism?


Fast forward to today. The billionaires that Sharpe mentioned who donated big sums to Trump's campaign finally get upset when his shit lands on their door. His (comparably tame) "Twitter attacks" on the NFL kick off a dog-and-pony show that may possibly have been cunningly intended to distract from the much more weighty stuff that Kaepernick was trying to draw attention to in the first place, but I seriously doubt that Trump is that clever.

However, something good did come of it: I went from "meh" to paying attention. I went back and listened to Kaepernick's interview about why he was sitting for the anthem from a year ago (embed below), which I didn't watch at the time. I heard a rational, honest, and eloquent young man calmly and clearly explain what he was doing and why he was doing it.

He saw injustice, and wanted to do something about it. He had access to a soapbox that very very few of the people on the receiving end of that injustice have. So, he made up his own mind to do something to try to get conversations started. He was surprised and confused that anyone would see his actions as disrespectful towards soldiers / military, and was later persuaded (by a Navy SEAL) to kneel as opposed to sit for the anthem in an effort to make that more clear.

He seemed aware that he can only control what he does -- not how people will try to spin it, and not how people may react to it. And he also clearly accepted that his actions could have consequences, and that he didn't want to rope anybody else in to acting with him unless they were prepared to accept those consequences also.

So, yeah. Some good came of this recent escalation, even if it came for the wrong reasons. Because some of the people that get drawn in to the dog-and-pony show might decide that they care enough to go back and take a deeper look at it, like I did. And when they look deeper, they're going to see Trump's standard, everyday twitter nonsense on one side compared to a lot of more rational stuff like, say, perhaps actually listening to words of the person that got the ball rolling on the other side (Kaepernick, and others). I like the way that scale balances out.

Disrespecting America's national anthem.
O blind one.

Protest all you want but pick an appropriate place and time. Sporting events is not about politics..

The Rich and famous players could hold an event,protest and get all the media attention they can handle.

They are hurting themselves. Americans are turning their backs against them.

This is a disgrace... NFL playing politics displaying anti American values.


They are dissing the Flag and the national anthem by not standing or linking arms. Shameful.

Are you on your head?

This is a disgrace... NFL playing politics displaying anti American values.


They are dissing the Flag and the national anthem by not standing or linking arms. Shameful.

After hearing this I think we should change the national anthem.

"The arrests and reports of assault follow last month's Supreme Court ruling that the national anthem be played before every film and that audiences stand while it is played - and they make it clear that authorities are taking the ruling seriously."

Source: BBC

Dafuq?! I went through the chain of sources and related articles, and it really doesn't seem to be satire. Again, dafuq?!

Ok, in the interest of fairness I did some further research on this issue.

He was fined a total of 42,000 dollars. This does not count his accrued court and legal fees which are estimated to be around 100,000 dollars at this time. I won't bother converting that to USD, but he is going to be out of pocket 142k as a ballpark figure.

This is the joke:

“Everyone said he sucked, but I defended him,” Ward says. “They said he was terrible, but I was like, ‘He’s dying but he’s living a dream, leave him alone.’ ” The niceties end when Ward figures out Gabriel isn’t actually dying. “He’s unkillable! I saw him at the water park, and I tried to drown him, but I couldn’t. Then I went on the Internet to figure out what was wrong with him, and you know what it was? He’s ugly, goddammit!”

That is all. He was making a joke that he thought the kid was being given a 'make a wish' type thing because he was dying, but that he was just ugly.

I listened to it and it wasn't really funny. However, it wasn't 142k worth of court costs and damages either. The kid, disability or not, is now a public figure and should not be protected from jokes at his expense. The fact that a comedian called him ugly does not mean he should get 42k in recompense because it made him feel bad. Fuck, if I got 42k every time someone called me ugly in jest, I wouldn't be posting here. I'd be on a damn Yacht in the Mediterranean.

People say hurtful things. How many people looked at this kid and made fun of him when he was trying to sing the Canadian anthem at a Hockey game? Does he deserve 42k from each of them?

One of the talks I listened to as part of this research brought up a salient point. The commission that was created to address hurtful speech has clearly ran out of 'real' hate speech to go after. To save their jobs, they need to start going after the next level of 'hate speech'. Where better to look than blue comedians?

This brings me back to my original point. If you create an organization and give it power to control what people say through punitive measures, it may work great when your group is in power. You will probably have no issue with it, as long as it goes after speech you dislike. But, no group is in power forever and organizations don't just disappear when a new group of leaders come into power. Suddenly you might really come to regret your choice to create that organization, especially when they decide it is 'YOUR' words that need to be penalized.

That said, my only dog in this fight is that I think it is idiotic to limit what people can say. They don't stop saying it, they just stop saying it around people they don't trust. This sows the seeds of dissension and the harvest is never a good one.

I loved how he described football.

the fact that he can describe it so clinically and still enjoy it...thats awesome.

I never understood the big deal about the national anthem.
It's a song about a carbon fiber flag that survived a bombing attack.

Lookee here now (to be read with a deep southern drawl....)

http://videosift.com/video/Liberal-Redneck-chimes-in-on-NFL-and-the-National-Anthem

Best national anthem ever. I usually hate hearing that song. *promote

I've listened to a lot of NOFX and 'known' that this is one of their greater songs, but until now I hadn't listened to it - thanks!

Also, now I know what P.O.S. is referencing in the song Wanted / Wasted: "
"That blank stare that doesn't make you care
Shit, it's not designed to make you care
They bet you won't care
You don't
So I guess next comes
"We don't give a fuck" like an anthem"

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