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The New Normal, round 2


Muda69

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https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Girls-sue-to-block-participation-of-transgender-athletes-567804931.html?fbclid=IwAR3aoCCMzlKALJvyfQ16jksK1jX3LxKevTKjqMwGEtT-irsECT9IIIxfvTY

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The families of three female high school runners have a federal lawsuit seeking to block transgender athletes in Connecticut from participating in girls sports.

Lawyers from the Alliance Defending Freedom argue that allowing athletes with male anatomy to compete has deprived their clients of track titles and scholarship opportunities.

The lawsuit centers on two transgender sprinters who have taken 15 girls state championship titles since 2017.

The Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference says its policy follows a state anti-discrimination law that says students must be treated in school by the gender with which they identify.

(Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Like Mayor Bloomberg says - "drop your trousers, you go that way, you go the other way".......

 

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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/video-shows-black-woman-shouting-she-is-uncomfortable-by-too-many-whites-at-uva-multicultural-center

A video shows a woman announcing that she felt "uncomfortable" by the presence of white students at a new Multicultural Student Center on the campus of the University of Virginia.

The clip of the incident was shared Wednesday on social media by the Young America's Foundation, a conservative youth group.

"Public service announcement," the woman, who appears to be black, said as she paced in the center. "If y'all didn't know, this is the MSC, and, frankly, there's just too many white people in here, and this is a space for people of color, so, just be really cognizant of the space that you're taking up because it does make some of us POCs uncomfortable when we see too many white people in here."

"There's a whole university for a lot of y'all to be at, and there's very few spaces for us, so keep that in mind," she added. The comments were met with applause by people not visible in the video.

YAF confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the group obtained the clip from the Twitter account @WafaFlafa_Flame, which lists UVA in the bio field. YAF also said the original video source was deleted on Wednesday.

The video has hundreds of thousands of views and grabbed the attention of Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas.

"Hey, @UVa, this is what a 'multicultural center' causes. More race-based thinking and segregating. One of many reasons I have not contributed to UVa in 20 years (which of course means not on the most-favored list)," he said in a tweet on Wednesday.

The Washington Examiner has been unable to verify the identity of the woman seen in the video or if she has any affiliation with the university.

University of Virginia spokesman Brian Coy confirmed he is aware of the video before forwarding a statement that outlined the goals of the Multicultural Student Center.

"I believe deeply that we need to build a community that is not just diverse, but also inclusive," read part of the statement provided by Coy.

The Multicultural Student Center at UVA opened this week is intended as a "student-centered, collaborative space that supports underrepresented and marginalized communities, while cultivating the holistic empowerment of all students."

Yet she isn't racist?  So a POC (People or Person Of Color) is now a thing/class?  And I was so close about a decade ago to being colorblind......

 

 

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3 hours ago, swordfish said:

Yet she isn't racist?  So a POC (People or Person Of Color) is now a thing/class?  And I was so close about a decade ago to being colorblind......

 

No.  Racism or racist acts only flow one way,  from a Caucasian individual to a non-Caucasian individual.  Not vice-versa.  At least that is what the SJW snowflakes say................

 

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Does South Park Encourage Political Apathy and Moral Superiority?: https://reason.com/2020/02/18/does-south-park-encourage-political-apathy-and-moral-superiority/

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Last week, the long-running and iconoclastic cartoon South Park got dragged yet again, this time for allegedly teaching "a generation of boys…that it was always cooler to be reactionary and contrarian, and anyone who criticizes anything is 'offended' and that's the *real* problem." A Twitter thread started by novelist, podcaster, and TV writer Dana Schwartz caught enough buzz to get trending on the micro-blogging site. It's worth pausing over her critique, since it reflects past attacks and, more importantly, is fundamentally wrong in its substance.

Far from inculcating moral nihilism and a shallow "pox on both your houses" mentality, South Park traffics in a smart skepticism toward power in all of its manifestations and provides over two decades worth of lessons on how to be a decent, tolerant, smart, and funny human being despite living in a world that is casually brutal, disgusting, and indifferent to suffering (watch the 2001 episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die," a version of Seneca's horrific Thyestes if you have any doubt).

In retrospect, it seems impossible to overstate the cultural damage done by SOUTH PARK, the show that portrayed earnestness as the only sin and taught that mockery is the ultimate inoculation against all criticism

— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) February 13, 2020

People saying "they make fun of everyone!!!" — that is my point. South Park IS a political show, but one whose message is: both sides are equally terrible so the only correct thing to do is nothing, while mocking it all from your position of intellectual superiority.

— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) February 14, 2020

Schwartz argues that South Park traffics in moral relativism, or perhaps a form of ideological nihilism, because she believes its core message is "the only correct thing is to do nothing." In her tweets on the topic, she admits in passing that she hasn't "been watching the show in recent seasons," which helps to explain why her critique is so wide of the mark.

In the early days of the show, critics were already deriding the show as "dangerous to democracy" and "vile trash" that poisoned young viewers' minds. But as Barry Fagin wrote back in 2000 for Reason, the show was "loaded with moral content" and taught his then-10 and 12 years old kids valuable lessons, including "it's good to make fun of people who believe stupid things," "it's good to make fun of hypocrisy," and "things that happen in cartoons aren't real."

That last point was particularly important in the 1990s, when both liberals and conservatives were desperately trying to control the information explosion that came along with cable television and the internet. By representing the need for critical consumption of both expertise and information, South Park, like other shows that helped define the '90s (think The Simpsons, Beavis and Butt-Head, and Mystery Science Theater 3000) helped to develop media literacy in millions of viewers.

I'd go further still and underscore that South Park teaches at least three basic lessons in virtually every episode. The first is that people in authority need to earn our respect rather than assume it. The second is that cultural, moral, and political diversity is both the real state of nature and can only be sustained through honest and open discussion about our differences. The third is that personal responsibility is the key to a flourishing society and the foundation of positive communal action. These points are summarized in this brief video from 2013:

3 Reasons All Kids Should be FORCED to Watch South Park!

So the 19th (!) season of South Park kicked off on Wednesday. The episode nudges into instant-classic territory, managing to satirize the Patriots' QB Tom Brady, Caitlyn Jenner, and zero-tolerance-crazed school officials in a way that is both sacred and profane (but mostly the latter, thank Zog). And there's quite possibly the greatest dream sequence in TV history since Newhart's final episode in You can watch the full South Park episode, "Stunning and Brave," online for free at Southpark.cc.com.A couple of years ago, Reason TV released "3 Reasons All Kids Should Be FORCED to Watch South Park." Spoiler alert: We were being super-cereal about that. Really.Here's the text, which accompanied the 2013 video that Jim Epstein and Nick Gillespie put together.One of the longest lived and most controversial TV shows of all time – South Park – is kicking off its 17th season.Despite being a cartoon, South Park was the first weekly TV show to be given an MA rating, meaning it's intended for mature audiences. And it's certainly packed with foul language, off-color humor, and adult situations.But it's also truly educational, especially for children. So here are three reasons why all parents should make their kids watch South Park.1. Disrespect My Authoritah!Virtually every episode points out the difference between legitimate authority and the abuse of power and scare-mongering. Whether it's the show's Jew-baiting jerk Eric Cartman going nuts as a traffic cop or former Vice President Al Gore trying to scare the boys into hysteria over ManBearPig, South Park always emphasizes thinking for yourself rather than blindly following what leaders say.2. Respect True Diversitah!Today's kids are constantly force-fed hosannas to tolerance and diversity that ring hollow and false. But even when it's brutally satirizing something like Mormonism, South Park actually fosters a true live-and-let-live ethos that's sadly lacking in most K-12 curricula.3. It Emphasizes Personal ResponsibilityAmong South Park's core values is taking responsibility for one's actions. In the episode where Stan's father develops a drinking problem and seeks supernatural intervention for a cure, it's the child who lays out the case for self-control and accountability.The most enduring lesson of South Park isn't found in any given episode but in the entire show's run and the careers of its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The show grew out of early videos, including a 1995 one that pitted Santa vs. Jesus in a fight to the death over the true meaning in Christmas.Now, almost 20 years later, Parker and Stone have created one of the greatest TV shows of all time, along with unforgettable movies such as the all-puppet action thriller Team America and the Broadway smash The Book of Mormon.They're no uncritical fans of Walt Disney but their careers are a testament to his belief that "If you can dream it, you can do it."In a way that's virtually unmatched, Parker and Stone teach all our children that creativity and hard work – and an ability to laugh at everything life throws at you - eally do pay off in the long run.About 3 minutes. Written by Nick Gillespie, who narrates, and produced by Jim Epstein. Scroll below for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notifications when new videos go live. More at https://reason.com/blog/2015/09/18/south-parks-19th-season-debuted-on-wedne

 

Posted by Reason Magazine on Friday, September 18, 2015

At one point in her tweetstorm about South Park, Schwartz writes, "To be clear, I don't blame the show itself as much as I do the generation of boys who internalized it into their personalities. Which maybe isn't the show's fault!" There's no question audiences have a mind of their own and consumers of a given text routinely (and legitimately) interpret that text in ways that confound its creator's intentions. So it's possible that rather than create an audience that is smarter and more skeptical of information and power, South Park has instead simply created an army of douchebros who act more like Cartman rather than Stan or Kyle. But since South Park first aired back in 1997, the country has become vastly more tolerant toward all sorts of marginalized people and causes and no view of the show could miss what side its creators are on when it comes to out-groups ranging from immigrants to trans people to Mormons. We may indeed be more vulgar as a society, but we're also generally more tolerant and engaged too (the youth vote for the 2018 midterms was the highest in decades). South Park might not deserve much or even any of the credit, but it doesn't deserve any of the blame either.

....

As one of the comments to this story states:

"The essence of her complaint is that, ignoring pretty much the rest of any political satire on television, South Park dares to question leftist shibboleths. The possibility that young people might be exposed to the idea that progressive dogma is just something people like this find totally unacceptable. Young people have to be taught to only think things approved by the collective, after all!"

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Resolution could make West Lafayette next to provide free tampons in all city restrooms: https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2020/02/25/after-purdue-west-lafayette-could-provide-free-tampons-city-restrooms/4866635002/

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A few weeks after Purdue agreed to allow free feminine hygiene products to be accessible in university bathrooms across campus, two West Lafayette City Council members are leading the charge to encourage the city and its facilities to do the same.

West Lafayette City Council members Kathy Parker and Shannon Kang are sponsors of a resolution to provide free menstruation products in restrooms of all city buildings. If passed and adopted by the city, West Lafayette would provide tampons and sanitary napkins free of cost in City Hall, park restrooms and the Wellness Center, which is still under construction and is scheduled to be completed by 2021.

The resolution is on the agenda for the City Council’s March meeting.

It also encourages West Lafayette Public Library and schools in West Lafayette Community School Corporation to enact the same policy.

Parker, who represents District 5, said the resolution would provide feminine hygiene products in all city facility bathrooms: male, female or gender neutral.

“We want it to be welcoming and accepting of all bodies,” Parker said. “Not everyone identifies as a woman, and they still could have that need.”

....

Yet another "solution" looking for a problem that really does nothing but cost taxpayers more of their hard earned $.

 

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1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

Resolution could make West Lafayette next to provide free tampons in all city restrooms: https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2020/02/25/after-purdue-west-lafayette-could-provide-free-tampons-city-restrooms/4866635002/

Yet another "solution" looking for a problem that really does nothing but cost taxpayers more of their hard earned $.

 

Will these feminine hygiene products be available at the urinals?  Asking for a friend.

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Students Demand Their School Treat Coronavirus-Themed Party as a ‘Hate Crime’: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/02/students-demand-their-school-treat-coronavirus-themed-party-as-a-hate-crime/

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A group of students at the University of Albany are demanding that a coronavirus-themed party — featuring buckets of Corona beers and partygoers in surgical masks — be treated as a “hate crime.”

The controversy started when the Twitter account @BarstoolAlbany (which, by the way, is not officially affiliated with Barstool Sports) posted a now-deleted video of the off-campus party with the caption: “Corona virus isn’t gonna stop anyone from partying.”

WGY News Radio, a local station, also reported that a quick, “if you blink, you miss it” shot in the video seems to show “a white sheet with the word virus and two faces.”

The outlet’s report states:

One has the letter X over each eye and looks like a sick face. The other is a frown, with what looks like straight lines for eyes. Is it supposed to be an Asian person with the virus? It certainly looks like it could be.

In response, the school’s Asian American Alliance issued a statement on Instagram, demanding that the university “investigate this illegal student group and related UAlbany students, requiring them to delete this video and to apologize on their Instagram homepage.”

“The Office of the President shall inform all UAlbany students to stop racism and disrespectful slogans in any situation, especially coronavirus hate crime against Asian American students and scholars based on groundless suspicion of virus hosts,” the statement continued. “Your precaution will be essential to prevent this crime from reoccurring in New York state.”

In its own statement, the college called the party “distasteful and hurtful,” and the Democrat & Chronicle is reporting that it plans to investigate.

Now, first of all, I’d have to agree with one thing: The party was absolutely in poor taste, and I say this as someone who has a pretty high tolerance for these sorts of things. I mean, I celebrated my 28th birthday with a Donner Party–themed party — I called it “The Donner Party Party,” and brought rubber severed limbs to the venue — and I’ve still got to say that this was bad. There’s funny, there’s darkly funny, and then there’s contributing to xenophobia while also managing to, at the same time, mock very real victims of a very real, still ongoing crisis.

The students involved should be ashamed of themselves, and the students who knew better shouldn’t hesitate to shame them. The thing is, though, that’s really as far as it should — or even can — go.

As Adam Steinbaugh of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education stated:

To be clear: Per the reported descriptions, the video, the Instagram post, and the partygoers’ expression related to the party’s theme are all protected by the First Amendment. SUNY Albany is a public institution and may not punish its students for expression protected by the First Amendment, no matter how offensive others may find it. As the Supreme Court held nearly fifty years ago, in a case involving a student newspaper’s depiction of police officers raping the Statue of Liberty: “the mere dissemination of ideas — no matter how offensive to good taste — on a state university campus may not be shut off in the name alone of ‘conventions of decency.’”

Steinbaugh is, of course, correct. All too often, we see people on college campuses spending a lot of effort trying to convince the powers that be that a particular form of speech or expression was not just offensive, but very offensive — as if proving a high level of offensiveness would somehow make them obligated to punish the offender. But the truth is, whenever we are talking about speech or expression, there is no level of offensiveness that could ever cancel out the fact that the First Amendment protects all speech.

In other words? These students were being a**holes, but the way in which they were being a**holes is protected by the Constitution.

It can be disheartening to see things like this, but no matter how upsetting they are, it still wouldn’t be smart to use them as excuses to weaken our rights. After all, once you allow the government to decide what speech is and is not okay, they have the vehicle that they could eventually use to silence yours — something particularly dangerous considering the fact that our freedom from government retaliation for criticizing our government provides such an important check on its power.

In this instance, the students who are upset about the party have every right to feel the way that they do. The instance where they’re wrong, though, is in thinking that they have the right to take away someone’s constitutionally protected speech, no matter how disgusting that speech may be. Thankfully, they, of course, do always have this option: to use their own speech to express their disgust, which in itself discourages others from being disgusting in the future.

 

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A middle school requires kids to dance with anyone who asks. One mom is fighting for her daughter’s right to say ‘no.’: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-middle-school-requires-kids-to-dance-with-anyone-who-asks-one-mom-is-fighting-for-her-daughters-right-to-say-no/ar-BB10sDxR

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Two previous dances at the Laketown, Utah, school had been loads of fun, and this time she had a crush on a boy at school she hoped to dance with. On the morning of the big event, she layered a red-and-pink floral sundress over a long-sleeve T-shirt and leggings, and carefully arranged her hair.

But Azlyn’s enthusiasm waned when a different boy, who made her feel uncomfortable, asked her to share a slow dance.

“She was so excited in the morning when she left,” the girl’s mother, Alicia Hobson, told The Washington Post. “I asked if she got to dance with the boy she liked, and she did and she was happy. But in the same breath she was exasperated because she had to dance with the boy she hates.”

Azlyn tried to politely decline the invitation, but the school’s principal rushed over and told her saying “no” was against school rules, Hobson said.

“I just didn’t like it at all,” Azlyn told local TV station KSTU. “When they finally said it was done, I was like, ‘Yes!’ ”

After Hobson recently posted about her daughter’s experience on Facebook, a passionate discussion about the tension between honoring kids’ autonomy and encouraging kindness unfolded. The unwanted dance surfaced concerns about rape culture, teaching children to appropriately handle rejection and respecting boundaries students set for themselves, Hobson said. She raised those issues with Rich Middle School principal Kip Motta.

“Girls HAVE to learn that they have the right to say no and that those around them have to respect that,” Hobson said on Facebook. “I’m not going to quietly stand by while my daughter and all of her classmates are being wrapped up in rape culture. No way.”

Motta did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment on the school’s policies, but Hobson said he agreed to review the rule for next year since there are no more dances scheduled before the end of the school year.

“No means No! It shouldn’t have to be said twice or explained,” one woman said in a comment on Facebook.

“I’m a mother of only boys,” another woman said. “They have expressed concern of rejections. I told them to take chances of asking, because you never know. If rejected, then that’s life.”

In an interview with KSTU, the principal denied Azlyn was “forced” to dance, but admitted the school requests students accept all invitations to dance. The dances are part of a physical education curriculum that teaches the kids to do box step, swing, and line dancing.

“We want to protect every child’s right to be safe and comfortable at school,” Motta told the Salt Lake Tribune this week. “We also believe that all children should be included in activities."

He added the school wants “to make sure no kids feel like they get left out.”

....

Nothing like a little state-mandated forced association. I guess it’s good practice in case she grows up to own a cake shop.

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1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

A middle school requires kids to dance with anyone who asks. One mom is fighting for her daughter’s right to say ‘no.’: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-middle-school-requires-kids-to-dance-with-anyone-who-asks-one-mom-is-fighting-for-her-daughters-right-to-say-no/ar-BB10sDxR

Nothing like a little state-mandated forced association. I guess it’s good practice in case she grows up to own a cake shop.

Isn't this counter intuitive to the #metoo movement?

Man I'm glad I'm not dating today, who can keep up with all the rules? 

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1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

A middle school requires kids to dance with anyone who asks. One mom is fighting for her daughter’s right to say ‘no.’: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-middle-school-requires-kids-to-dance-with-anyone-who-asks-one-mom-is-fighting-for-her-daughters-right-to-say-no/ar-BB10sDxR

Nothing like a little state-mandated forced association. I guess it’s good practice in case she grows up to own a cake shop.

It’s easy to include kids in activities when you don’t sponsor any activities.

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57 minutes ago, swordfish said:

Is DE actually Joe Biden incognito?

 

4 hours ago, Muda69 said:

?

 

If I have a school board that mandates all kids are included in all activities, and issues like the one above occur, I just won’t sponsor any school activities.

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https://www.nationalreview.com/news/schumer-claims-conservative-supreme-court-justices-will-pay-the-price-if-they-rule-against-abortion-advocates/

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday warned Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh that they will “pay the price” if they take a position he disagrees with in deciding a case that addresses the credentials required for doctors who perform abortions.

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” Schumer told a cheering crowd of abortion-rights advocates in front of the Supreme Court.

“You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” the New York Democrat added.

A spokesman for Schumer said the minority leader’s comments were a “reference to the political price” Republicans will pay for putting Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the court, as well as a warning that the justices will inspire a “major grassroots movement on the issue of reproductive rights against the decision.”

So it's normal now for the Senate Minority Leader to taunt or threaten the Supreme Court Justices........

 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

NY Times on Memorial Day Weekend: US Military celebrates white supremacism

https://www.foxnews.com/media/ny-times-memorial-day-weekend-us-military-celebrates-white-supremacism

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As Americans reeling from coronavirus stay-at-home orders struggle to celebrate the nation's heroes on Memorial Day, The New York Times published an editorial over the weekend that claims the U.S. military celebrates white supremacy.

On Sunday, The New York Times Editorial Board published the piece titled “Why Does the U.S. Military Celebrate White Supremacy?” The editorial made the argument that it’s time to rename military bases after “American heroes, not racist traitors.”

The New York Times editorial board wrote that “the federal government embraced pillars of the white supremacist movement when it named military bases in the South.”

The editorial listed Fort Benning, Ga., as an example, noting that the military base honored Henry Lewis Benning, a Confederate general “who devoted himself to the premise that African-Americans were not really human and could never be trusted with full citizenship.”

The editorial pointed to Benning’s “now-famous speech in 1861” during which “he told secession conventioneers in Virginia that his native state of Georgia had left the union for one reason — to ‘prevent the abolition of her slavery.’”

The editorial board noted that Benning’s statements “strongly resemble that of present-day white supremacists — and reference the race war theme put forward by the young racist who murdered nine African-Americans in Charleston five years ago.”

In 2017, Dylann Roof was formally sentenced to death for the church massacre in Charleston, S.C., two years before.

The editorial also pointed to another Georgia base named after a Confederate general, John Brown Gordon, writing that by naming the base after him, “the federal government venerated a man who was a leader of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War and who may have taken on a broader role in the terrorist organization when its first national leader — a former Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest — suffered declining health.”

The New York Times editorial board referenced comments made by an Army spokesman who told TIME in 2015 there was no need to remove Confederate base names because the “historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies.”

The editorial board then laid out the “problems” with that argument, writing that “these men were traitors” and that “the names represent not only oppression before and during the Civil War, but also state-sponsored bigotry after it.”

“Bases named for men who sought to destroy the Union in the name of racial injustice are an insult to the ideals servicemen and women are sworn to uphold — and an embarrassing artifact of the time when the military itself embraced anti-American values,” the editorial continued. “It is long past time for those bases to be renamed.”

A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

This travesty is obviously Mr. Trump's fault. He should have ordered this bases renamed the day he first took office.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dhimmi Drew Brees Bends The Knee

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/drew-brees-dhimmi-bends-the-knee/

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Yesterday, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was asked by a journalist if he would be taking a knee during the National Anthem now. In the past, he has declined to. He said:

“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country. Let me just tell what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States. I envision my two grandfathers, who fought for this country during World War II, one in the Army and one in the Marine Corp. Both risking their lives to protect our country and to try to make our country and this world a better place. So every time I stand with my hand over my heart looking at that flag and singing the national anthem, that’s what I think about. And in many cases, that brings me to tears, thinking about all that has been sacrificed. Not just those in the military, but for that matter, those throughout the civil rights movements of the ‘60s, and all that has been endured by so many people up until this point. And is everything right with our country right now? No, it is not. We still have a long way to go. But I think what you do by standing there and showing respect to the flag with your hand over your heart, is it shows unity. It shows that we are all in this together, we can all do better and that we are all part of the solution.”

Then boom! He became a Crescent City Hitler. The blowback from even his own teammates was intense. He had gone from being their beloved teammate to being their enemy, to judge by their comments.

 

And now, this from Brees:

I would like to apologize to my friends, teammates, the City of New Orleans, the black community, NFL community and anyone I hurt with my comments yesterday. In speaking with some of you, it breaks my heart to know the pain I have caused.

In an attempt to talk about respect, unity, and solidarity centered around the American flag and the national anthem, I made comments that were insensitive and completely missed the mark on the issues we are facing right now as a country. They lacked awareness and any type of compassion or empathy. Instead, those words have become divisive and hurtful and have misled people into believing that somehow I am an enemy. This could not be further from the truth, and is not an accurate reflection of my heart or my character.

This is where I stand:

I stand with the black community in the fight against systemic racial injustice and police brutality and support the creation of real policy change that will make a difference.

I condemn the years of oppression that have taken place throughout our black communities and still exists today.

I acknowledge that we as Americans, including myself, have not done enough to fight for that equality or to truly understand the struggles and plight of the black community.

I recognize that I am part of the solution and can be a leader for the black community in this movement.

I will never know what it’s like to be a black man or raise black children in America but I will work every day to put myself in those shoes and fight for what is right.

I have ALWAYS been an ally, never an enemy.

I am sick about the way my comments were perceived yesterday, but I take full responsibility and accountability. I recognize that I should do less talking and more listening…and when the black community is talking about their pain, we all need to listen.

For that, I am very sorry and I ask your forgiveness.

That is incredibly dispiriting. If I were Brees, I would retire before allow anybody to bully me into saying something I didn’t believe, or apologizing for holding the flag with such admiration. Brees certainly doesn’t need the money.

I say that as someone who thinks people were wrong to crack on Colin Kaepernick for his kneeling at the National Anthem. Whether I liked him doing it or not, I respected his right to protest. I also respect Drew Brees’s right to keep standing. Now, though, we see that there is only one opinion allowed. If you disagree, then even people who have worked with you for years will call you a racist. Thus, even a very rich and famous athlete can be brought to heel overnight.

I despise this bullying, this coercion. Time to re-up this Les Murray poem:

 

Demo
by Les Murray

No. Not from me. Never.
Not a step in your march.
not a vowel in your unison,
bray that shifts to bay.

Banners sailing a street river,
power in advance of a vote,
go choke on these quatrain tablets.
I grant you no claim ever,

not if you pushed the Christ Child
as President of Rock Candy Mountain
or yowled for the found Elixir
would your caste expectations snare me.

Superhuman with accusation,
you would conscript me to a world
of people spat on, people hiding
ahead of oncoming poetry.

Whatever class is your screen
I’m from several lower,
To your rigged fashions, I’m pariah.
Nothing a mob does is clean,

not at first, not when slowed to a media,
not when police. The first demos I saw,
before placards, were against me,
alone, for two years, with chants,

every day, with half-conciliatory
needling in between, and aloof
moral cowardice holding skirts away.
I learned your world order then.

 

  • Disdain 1
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