1st Amendment Rights v 1st Amendment Wrongs

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San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been a distraction from, and for, the game of football. But when Donald Trump inserted himself into the NFL's HR Department — it became a Constitutional issue.

                            

1. Watching an NFL game would be like watching paint dry to me. I couldn't tell you the last time I did — probably when Atlanta was in the Super Bowl — whenever that was — and only because I had company in my house. So I have utterly no dog in this fight. Boredom on steroids! YAAAAWN.

2. So let talk about 1^st Amendment rights. So many get this so wrong. First of all — the 1^st Amendment guarantees that the GOVERNMENT cannot deny, censor, punish, or imprison you for your public speech. Secondly — the 1^st Amendment specifically protects UNPOPULAR speech.  After all, why would we need constitutional protection for POPULAR speech? However, the 1^st Amendment DOES NOT protect you from criminal conduct or — according to Georgia law — “terroristic threats” — wherein you threaten to harm to another. Neither does it prevent others from taking commercial retaliatory action against you for your speech — like boycotting your store — or declining to hire you (see Colin Kaepernick below).

3. So make no mistake about it — when you are on somebody else's payroll — you check your 1st Amendment rights at the door. Case law is unambiguous about this. Even if your boss doesn't like your off-hours activity — he has a right to censor or fire you with broad latitude — under the rubric of "casting unfavorable aspersions as a representative of his company — whatever he deems that to be"

4. So forget about what YOU think about the 'taking a knee' protests — NFL owners would be entirely within their constitutional legal bounds to fire or suspend any player for 'taking a knee' on the field. But so far NFL owners have not ——— unless you count >>

5. Phenom quarterback Colin Kaepernick — who — correct me if I am wrong — has gone unsigned through the offseason and 2017 training camps — up until and including today. Again — forgive me for my NFL ignorance — but based on Kaepernick’s stats — and the fact his 2016 contract with the 49ers was $126 million — it seems abundantly obvious that he is being extraordinarily  — painfully — and publically — punished — by the NFL — for his speech. Can we agree to call Colin a scapegoat in all this bullshit? OK?

6. So exactly what is Kaepernick’s issue — at the expense of his career? We don’t have to speculate. I’ll quote him directly: 

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and [police officers] getting paid leave [after] getting away with murder."

7. So — there you have it. Agree — or disagree — with Kaepernick — this is where he chose to draw a line in the sand with his speech. So let’s be really clear: this is the moral compass that guides HIS life — and is he quite literally PAYING dearly. Whatever you think about this issue — I defy anyone to denigrate his personal integrity. How many readers herein — would possess this kind of fortitude? Case closed.

8. Now comes Donald J. Trump — president of the United States — last time I checked — the highest representative of the GOVERNMENT of the United States. Notwithstanding myriad foreign and domestic enemies — Mr. Trump took it upon himself to insert himself into the NFL’s HR policy —

9. During a March 20, 2017 rally in Louisville, KY — Trump said — and allow me to quote:

 “... you know your San Francisco quarterback — I'm sure nobody ever heard of him ... NFL owners don't want to pick him up — because they don't want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump” 

Bottom line — the highest representative of the government issued an unveiled threat against a private citizen — in retaliation of his speech. I’m not a Constitutional lawyer — nor do I play one on TV — but this is an unambiguous breach of Kaepernick’s 1^st Amendment rights. If I were he — I’d file suit in Federal Court for tortious breach of my Civil Rights.

10. But it gets better — as Trump — clearly a reckless constitutional ignoramus — went on to allow on Sept 22, 2017 in his storied Huntsville, AL harangue: 

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son-of-a-bitch off the field right now — he’s fired?’ ” 

Notwithstanding Trump’s vulgar likening of Kaepernick’s mother to a female dog in heat — he doubled-down on going after his speech in the name of the government. 

11. Now comes Mike Pence. Whatever you may say about Mikey Boy — and despite his sub-rosa fundraising for a 2020 presidential run — his consummate electoral role is a lackey for Trump. We now know — thanks to the ‘fake news’ press — that Trump and Pence conspired to stage a nose-bleed expensive — taxpayer-funded — political stunt this past Sunday (10/08/17). Flying on Airforce 2 — from Las Vegas — to Indianapolis — back to California — to put in an appearance at the Colts v 49ers game — Pence spent upwards of $2.5 million to fake a 10-minute walk-out aimed at doubling-down on the government’s breach of free speech.

12. So what is the Trump-Pence gambit all about: of course, driving a social wedge between black Americans & white liberals who failed to support them — and white male racists who viscerally negatively-react to everything Colin Kaepernick stands for — that is — except the entitlement to be entertained on the NFL gridiron on Sundays by Negroes who know their place, owned by the NFL and Donald Trump.

Calhoun GA 10/09/17

Don't Delude Yourself about the Trump Presidency

Shitepoke has no pride of authorship. Accordingly when he comes on a cogent opinion — he has no problem re-blogging it verbatim.

Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism. He is a regular columnist for The Village Voice, New York's storied alternative news weekly. He is also a regular contributor to Rolling Stone.

The following re-blog is from the popular "Ask Greil Marcus" feature of his website.

Would you rather Donald Trump be impeached, or have his Presidency play out for a single term with as little damage done to the country as possible (and then crush him at the ballot box in 2020)?– Terry — 08/25/17

I’d rather see him out of office as soon as possible by any means at all. He is doing enormous and possibly permanent damage to our Constitution, our idea of government, to all the underpinnings of democratic society, in his serious quest to replace public government with private government, the rule of companies and corporations over every aspect of public and private life. 

People who say, like Paul Krugman today, that Trump has no “agenda,” that he only cares about “winning” so he can feel powerful, are fooling themselves. 

Trumpism is a serious project. The ultimate burdensome regulation that stifles his attempt to remake the country is the Constitution itself, its limits on executive power by means of checks and balances between three (in practical, historical reality) unequal branches of government. 

Mike Pence understands this and does not take the very fact of our government, our public life, as a personal affront. Despite his own right-wing politics he would be an infinitely better person to have as president, even if he would be a formidable and likely winning candidate in 2020. 

But don’t kid yourself that Trump will be “crushed” in 2020. As of today, against any of the people mentioned as Democratic candidates, he would be the favorite. He is already campaigning, raising huge amounts of money, consolidating the real Republican party, which consists of the Koch network and the Mercers. 

Most of the people who voted for him will not only vote for him again, but do so with desperate, enormous, complete enthusiasm, and the very force of their belief will make it hard for actual arguments about actual things to sound real. 

Voter suppression will be advanced and substantial, and it will make a difference in states that might otherwise be up for grabs. 

You have to realize that everything that looks bad, horrible, unthinkable to MSNBC, the New York Times, maybe you, certainly me, looks absolutely great to a very large and vital part of the country and the electorate. His people will vote to the last man and woman in the 2018 [midterm] elections, and the people who voted for Hillary will not.

Trump will not be impeached, because impeachment is not a self-starting machine, it has to be done by actual people, and Republicans will not impeach him, both because he is, in the main, doing exactly what Republicans want—in all of the departments of government and in the courts—and because he would have them defeated in primaries and replaced by his people if they tried. 

He will not be indicted, because Mueller can’t indict anyone and the Justice Department [headed by Jeff Sessions] will not. 

Trump is not, as some people fantasize, “tired of the job,” not someone to, in even more demented fantasies, “declare victory and leave.” 

It is conceivable, though I don’t see the path, that his family and his business facing legal jeopardy could cause him to cut a deal and leave—nothing is more important to Trump than what he calls his company—but someone else would have to explain how real jeopardy could attach itself to Kushner, Ivanka, his sons, etc. without the Justice Department making it happen.

Calhoun Georgia 09/03/17

Upon the 153rd Anniversary of the Battle of Resaca

DISCLAIMER: Shitepoke.com blog attempts to authenticate its content. Disclosure of substantive errors is solicited and will be acknowledged. Accordingly, readers are encouraged to explore and enjoy this content, in its own right, but to always obtain additional sources for historical or academic research.

My grandmother was Mary Esther Nance Nations (1900-1986). She grew up at Nance’s Spring, barely over the county line in Whitfield County — one of nine children of Charles Robert (Grandaddy) Nance [1856-1934] — and Bertie Stroud (Mig Mama) Nance [1878-1964].

Charles Robert — or Bob as everybody called him — grew up in Whitfield County. His father James Nance (1825-1904), had been deployed by the Confederate army in the Civil War and sent into battle a half dozen times, each time being sent home to recover from bouts of chronic asthma. His wife Matilda Clemie Hayes Nance (1824-1886), barely a year older, was also a local girl.

When Sherman marched through Whitfield County en route to Resaca, James was once again away with his company in Alabama, leaving his wife Clemie alone with their six children.

Eight-year-old Bob’s memory of the Civil War, at the age of eight, was sufficiently lucid that the epithet Blue Belly — given to the brutal Federal Troops dressed in blue uniforms — was annealed in his mind as the Waffen-SS Troops were to Ann Frank.

On Tuesday morning, May 10, 1864, Clemie, aware of the progress of the Federal army, under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman, awoke to the distinct cracks of artillery fire to the north. Within an hour, mounted Federal reconnaissance troops had made their way past the Nance’s meager farmstead, heartbreakingly bearing the flag of the United States — until mere months ago their very own symbol of unity and security.

Indeed being attacked by your own government was an experience writ so extravagantly large in the minds of the rank and file Southerner, that it canonized the mistrust of authority — all authority — a visceral vein of conservatism shot through the political mindset to this very day, much to the chagrin of pluralists who fancy ceding the levers of power to an all-benevolent state.

Clemie gathered the children, bade them dress quickly, flung the windows and doors of their house wide open, caught and harnessed their pair of mules and hitched them to a plow, untied the docile milk cow and threw rocks at her in an attempt to shoo her out of sight into the woods.

She solemnly ushered the whole lot into the steamy dew-drenched field where they feigned the routine of working the early summer cotton crop, an attempt to signal their defiance — that home and personal effects (indeed nations and governments) were utterly disposable — that only life and land spoke truth to power.

When the first dusty wave of cavalry came into focus, Clemie and the kids stoically watched as troops dismounted and bounded up the steps to the front porch of their shotgun house, so-called owing to the unobstructed central hall that bisected the structure, front door to back door —figuratively allowing a shotgun to be fired straight through without hitting a thing.

They watched as precious kitchen provisions were hauled out, as bed linens and blankets were stuffed into toe sacks, as the precious few yardbirds were picked off with minié balls and strung up by the feet for provisions. As the troops surveyed their loot, the milk cow, her udder painfully swelled from want of her morning milking, ambled out of the underbrush in hopes of relief. She was ruthlessly felled, bled, and quartered.

Clemie silently prayed that the ransacking bunch of war criminals would not set fire to the house. With that, the constabulary head paused for long moments and surveyed the pitiful Nance family who stood paralyzed in sheer terror, the stunning silence broken only by the sweaty mules pawing, snorting, and swishing the horseflies with their brushy tails.

Whether by some atavistic compunction or by sardonic depravity, he gallantly tipped his hat to the Nance tableau and signaled his charges to mount and depart.

Young Bob snubbed wet tears of fear as phalanx after phalanx of Federal infantrymen marched by, the final company passing well into the afternoon. Only under cover of darkness did Clemie and the kids return to the defiled house, praising sweet Jesus, if only for their very lives and an intact roof.

On Friday — May 13, 1864 — the 98,000 Union troops of the selfsame General Sherman that had defiled Clemie Nance's meager homestead would square off — 5-miles' south —with 60,000 Confederate troops under the command of Joseph E. Johnson — in the the historic Battle of Resaca. The lopsided carnage lasted the better part of three days. 

When Sherman's troops crossed the Oostanaula River,  Johnson's troops were forced to withdraw — ceding victory to the Union — clearing the way for Sherman's advance to Adairsville — and ultimately to the storied incineration Atlanta.

At the last, some 5,000 combatants lay wounded — untold many of whom would ultimately die from mortal systemic infections — with utterly no medical attention — and some some 3,000 American fathers, sons, and nephews lay dead — mutilated and dismembered in the red clay dirt of North Georgia. 

Witnesses say that Camp Creek (today just west of I-75 Exit 320) ran quite literally red with human blood — only yards before the swiftly flowing Oostanaula River diluted its life-draining fluids into history.

This weekend — untold hundreds of people will participate in — or witness — the re-enactment and re-creation of the Battle of Resaca — trivializing the human carnage — and romanticizing the atrocity, death and destruction of war. They will dress-up in period regalia — buy cheesy souvenirs — and down sugary funnel cakes and Co-Colas. They will bring their children — and inculcate the legacy of commemorating the Confederacy as their honorable and godly birthright.

Most will not tell their children what the Confederacy stood for: the establishment of a fascist state —  promoting the buying and selling of human beings like livestock. 

I instinctively wonder what my great-great- grandmother Clemie Nance would think about this.

Calhoun GA 05/21/2017

The Fight is On

NEW YEAR'S EVE 2017

The day after election day – I declared myself too old and beaten-down to participate in the shit-show that served-up Donald Trump – the bullying racist ignoramus –– in hope that he might emerge as a pragmatic chief executive willing to staff-out the heavy lifting to competent experts.

The nemesis of such hopes lies not only in Trump's mind-numbing hubris – his megalomaniacal notion that he is the smartest person on earth, with zero evidence – but in his selection of Mike Pence as his vice president. 

You see Pence is a specially virulent combination of stupid and dangerous: stupid, in that he is a Biblical literalist who subscribes to the talking snake version of creation, along with other Iron Age injunctions by which he reasons that God hates the same people he does; dangerous, in that theocracy is his political stock-and-trade. Remember: this is the governor who paralyzed Indiana with punishing economic backlash over arguably the most homophobic law on state books, on his conviction that Bible-banging Indianians were by-god entitled, under public law, to treat their gay neighbors like shit-under-foot.

For that, Trump rewarded the preening unrepentant Pence with the veep-stakes. Why, you ask?  – of course, to reel-in the bottom-feeding evangelical theocrats whom he needed to flesh-out his Republican bona fides. Accordingly, the religious right – in an act of suffocating hypocrisy – fell for it – "grab 'em by the pussy" and all. 

Consequently – 53-days' after the election, it is incontrovertibly apparent that Trump – abetted by Pence – fully intends to dismantle (a) 85-years’ of legislative and judicial activism which has sought to level the economic, political, and social playing field for all Americans, and (b) 50-years’ of iconic cabinet-level institutions painstakingly constructed – brick-by-brick – administration-by-administration – allowing our government to confront and oversee the big obstacles before us – firmly rooted in the principles of wisdom, cutting-edge science, fair trade, social justice, and national security – entrusted to top-flight career public servants.

Think: defense, state, law, environment, education, food and drug, energy, labor, agriculture, health and human services, transportation, commerce. Then, contemplate the rogues' gallery he has nominated to head these departments – not just ignorant cyphers (think Texas governor Rick Perry – Energy) – but proactive ideological vandals (think Jefferson Beauregard Sessions – Attorney General) –– all licking their political chops to delegitimize the institutions to which they have been granted custody.

Shockingly, radical Republican luddites now have a chief executive stooge who will apparently sign any bill into public law – however grotesque – shoved across his desk. Worse than that – the self-important little institutional nihilist, Paul Ryan (who went to college on his daddy's Social Security survivor benefits), is trotted-out as the moderate spectrum of their party – placing bedrock institutions as Medicare, Social Security, and public health on the ideological chopping-block – without a scintilla of economic or social justification.

But the ultimate assault on the wisdom, justice, and moderation of the United States of America – will be a full-frontal assault on our architectonic cornerstone: The Supreme Court. Make no mistake about it – the greatness of a nation lies in the independence of its judiciary. Autocrats and dictators invariably foment a weak judiciary – a band of partisan toadies that will rubber-stamp any majoritarian or party dogma – however anti-democratic or anti-egalitarian. Trumpism slathers its lips for a weak cronied-out judiciary.

The sudden death of right-wing lightening rod Justice Antonin Scalia spearheaded a heretofore unprecedented partisan backlash and Constitutional crisis – the virtual larceny of a Supreme Court appointee – the meme propagated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: "Wait until after the 2016 election and let the people decide." That the American people 'decided' Barack Obama ought to make this appointment by a majority of 5 million popular votes and an even more lopsided electoral college victory of 332-206 – meant nothing to this obstructionist demagogue – who will regain his gavel come January.

Accordingly – Donald J. Trump – by only reciting the oath of office – will be the beneficiary of a free SCOTUS pick – with the ability to tip the balance to the nose-bleed right on day-one. He'll certainly get another pick his first term: 83-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and probably a second: 80-year-old Anthony Kennedy. The resulting 6-3 hard right plurality could endure for another 20-years – enshrining another Golden Age of corporate oligarchy – and instituting fascism as the governing social policy. Think: Roe v Wade, Obergerfell v Hodges, and Citizens United v FEC.

Resisting this 'regnum horribilis' – will require (a) every moderate Republican on deck; and (b) EVERY Democrat engaged – like NEVER BEFORE. We have capable leaders in Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Unfortunately many – if not most – of us live in a gerrymandered and majoritarian Republican-represented world.

For that – we must nevertheless 'lay-into' each-and-every party shill – at every turn – sending them an unambiguous message that we-the-opposition are also primary voters. Additionally – it is crucial that we stand-behind Democratic leadership – in thought, word, and deed. With 48 Senate votes – and solidarity – we can stand our ground on virtually every critical issue. 

I will do my utmost to keep us current. Never before has our civic activism been more crucial. We cannot let our children and grandchildren look back and say – we let Trumpism go down in America

Calhoun GA, 12/31/16

Post Script: To my friends who voted for Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Look – I don't know if you are a racist and a homophobe.

Nonetheless, you voted for an unrepentant racist – a man who trolled for his political base, peddling retail 'birtherism' – in an effort to delegitimize the first African American President. And you voted for an unambiguous anti-gay bigot – a  governor who signed the most anti-gay state law in history. 

For that – you are asking me to give you the benefit of the doubt – that you ARE NETHER a racist, NOR a homophobe. That, my friends, entails a very tedious conversation. Please forgive me if I don't have the fortitude to engage each of you on these separate – yet inextricably – complementary issues.   

Homework

Racist Birther-in-Chief Donald J. Trump

Anti-gay bigot Governor Mike Pence

Homina. Homina. Paul Ryan's famous 2012 budget interview meltdown on Fox