Saturday, October 25, 2025

Flag Code


The flag this fellow was displaying at my local No Kings protest presented quite a contrast with the one flying off the back end of a large pickup truck that drove through the crowd. That flag had the familiar stars and stripes, but also with a black-and-white image of our führer superimposed over the stripes. Someone near me, when she saw that, commented about how--in the small town where she grew up--that would have been considered a desecration, which prompted me to look this up in Wikipedia:

"The United States Flag Code outlines certain guidelines for the flag's use, display, and disposal. For example, the flag should never be dipped to any person or thing, unless it is the ensign responding to a salute from a ship of a foreign nation. This tradition may come from the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, where countries were asked to dip their flag to King Edward VII: the American flag bearer did not. Team captain Martin Sheridan is famously quoted as saying, "this flag dips to no earthly king", though the true provenance of this quotation is unclear." 

Friday, October 24, 2025

Activism


"With every protest, flag waving on street corners, voter registration drive and postcard party, organizers say they are inching toward a special number of civically active Americans.

When 3.5% of the population of a country is actively involved in peacefully protesting a government, that government is likely to fall from power, according to one theory of nonviolent civil resistance." -- USA Today

Thursday, October 23, 2025

Seniors


I've been amused by Republicans (many of whom are themselves--let's just say--of advanced age) characterizing the No Kings protest as being just a bunch of seniors having fun. Well, I gotta tell you, those so-called fun loving seniors have a whale of a lot of experience dealing with rogue presidents. Anyone here old enough to remember the late 60s and early 70s? Ooh-wee! Now, those were heady days. So  you might just want to be a wee cautious about whose grandparents you piss off.

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Bubbles


"Republicans have spent many days trying to marginalize the massive anti-Trump 'No Kings' rallies held across the country over the weekend.

They’ve argued the people involved were extremists and even predicted they would be violent (which turned out not to be true). They’ve claimed the protesters hate America." -- CNN