Dallas Sportcaster & Vietnam Vet's Take on NFL Players Kneeling

Dallas sportscaster and Vietnam veteran Dale Hansen recently gave an extremely well-crafted analysis of those who say NFL players are "disrespecting" the flag when engaged in peaceful protest.
 

Past Trump Contradicts Current Trump About POTUS Weighing on NFL Issues

Trump's tweets don't age well, but that's bound to happen when one says whatever pops into one's mind at any given time stemming from one being unhindered by any core ethical compass.

Nixon's Vietnam Treachery Somewhat Mirrored By Reagan and Trump - Jeff Wiersma

I've studied U.S. History and Politics my entire life.

It was only when watching tonight's episode of Vietnam by Ken Burns that I learned that Nixon committed treason by talking the South Vietnamese out of joining peace talks days before the 1968 election. Nixon did so to undercut his opponent, Hubert Humphrey, who he eventually defeated narrowly.

I can't believe I had never learned that.

It reminds me a lot of Reagan's discussions with the Iranians holding US hostages in the run up to the 1980 election, and of course the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russians. You really do learn something new every day, and today's lesson is that even more mentally ill Republican presidential candidates than I was aware were willing commit treason to win.

New York Times Opinion piece - Nixon's Vietnam Treachery

Media That Scolded Sanders Over Deficits Uniformly Silent on $700B Pentagon Handout - Common Dreams

Where did all the concern over deficits go? After 2 years of the media lamenting, worrying and feigning outrage over the cost of Bernie Sanders’ two big-budget items—free college and single-payer healthcare—the same outlets are uniformly silent, days after the largest military budget increase in history.

"Where are the Charles Lanes, Joe Scarboroughs, Wall Street Journal editorial boards and other “deficit hawks” in the media to condemn this?

The answer is they’re nowhere. And they’re nowhere because no one in the media really cares about deficits, they only care about Deficits™, a clever marketing term used by those charged with keeping government money out of the hands of the poor—and in the coffers of weapons makers, banks and other wealthy interest groups."

Trump Retweets Doctored Video from Anti-Semitic Twitter User - Video Shows Trump Injuring Hillary

^ Racist tweet calling for the genocide of Hasidic Jews made by
twitter user that President Trump retweeted a video from today

On Sunday, Donald Trump retweeted a doctored video of himself taking a golf swing and hitting former Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, who then stumbles as she boards a plane.

The Twitter account, @Fuctupmind, from which Trump retweeted regularly makes racial, anti-semitic, and anti-LGBT comments.

On November 29, 2019, @Fuctupmind tweeted "Please get rid of the Hasidic Jews. They are the worst people on the planet. They have taken over areas in NY right by me."

The full article is available here 

Post-09/11 Narrative of Fear & Nationalism Helped Lead Us To A Trump Presidency - Progressive Christian

The time after 09/11 asked us a lot of questions, and I hate to say, we came up with a lot of the wrong answers.

The wound created by the understandable fear and terror of that horrible day created a gouge in our national spirit.  Into that void crept - not a single political leader - but a entire sociopolitical narrative of fear and mistrust of the "other." The time after 09/11 asked us a lot of questions, and I hate to say, we came up with a lot of the wrong answers. 

The time asked,“Who are you afraid of?”
We answered, "Everyone! "

The time asked, “Who do you trust?”
We answered, "Whoever is loudest and meanest!"

Those are all wrong answers.

Politicians, religious leaders, public figures, and propagandizing media outlets like Fox News started beating a drum of blind nationalism as the only way forward.

Over the next 15 years, while many of us remained committed to a spirit of diversity, compassion and community, many more waded further into the murky waters of U.S. exceptionalism and jingoism. The mistrust did not remain limited to Muslims, but bled into public discourse surrounding everything from immigration to police violence against marginalized people.

From there it wasn’t a far leap to fake news, rampant conspiracy theories, and – let us not forget – a certain brand of fundamentalist Christianity wherein the authority of scripture became hard to discern from the authority of the Republican Party.

Then Donald Trump got elected President. Because more than any of the other politicians that tried to artfully dance around and imply the same message, Trump came right out and said it – America First. Fear the "other."Muslims are coming for us. Build a wall. Law and order. Make America Great.

And so we have a President who clearly represents the very worst of us.

The full article is available here

09/11 Triggered A Decline In U.S. Democracy - Washington Post

The attack spawned endless wars that we were told would export democracy abroad, with the result of degrading it at home.

Over the past 16 years, war has imperiled American ideals by becoming about dominance. Our military actions have reflected increased investments in imperialism, accompanied by diminished attention to political change, economic development and institution-building — the essential prerequisites for democratic freedoms.

Fear of terrorism (and seeing it as a military problem) has justified excessive and habitual suspension of good governance, ultimately creating a more fertile seedbed for terrorists.

Abandoning freedom abroad has consequences at home. Dominance has emerged as the driver of domestic politics, as well. Demands for “border security” are used by the president and his core supporters to justify racism and domestic violence aimed at protecting white male dominance.

Our leaders have nurtured what the Justice Department calls a crisis of “domestic terrorism” within U.S. borders, perpetrated by U.S. citizens, not foreigners.

From the first days after Sept. 11, 2001, we have missed a historical opportunity to turn our gravest challenges into sources of unity, creativity and self-improvement. Rather than encouraging a collective mentality with high income taxes and war bond campaigns, our tax policies now exacerbate differences between rich and poor.

Our criminal policies have stigmatized groups in the name of safety, rather than offering opportunities for rehabilitation, hope and a new beginning.

The full article is available here

The Very Bad Economics of Killing DACA - Paul Krugman

Donald Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions tried to sell the killing of DACA with junk economics, claiming that the Dreamers are taking American jobs. 

No, they aren’t, even if we leave aside the question of who’s an American. DACA is very much a boon to the rest of the U.S. population, and killing it will make everyone worse off.

The full article is available here