Doin' the Lord's work. My big take-away today - stop allowing the conversation to get hung up on the controversy of what Colin Kaepernick is doing, and insist the discussion stay focused on the reason he's doing what he's doing.
A while back, Donald Trump got some pretty good play by suggesting that if NATO allies don't pony up on their fair share, then maybe USAmerica Inc isn't required to come thru on its Article 5 commitments. So, maybe someone should ask Mr Trump:
If American companies doing business overseas haven't paid their fair share of taxes in the US, shouldn't we make sure the US Military isn't used to protect their interests on foreign soil?
Shouldn't they have to pay a tax for the maintenance and operations of the facilities at Ports Of Entry?
Shouldn't they be considered unworthy of police and fire protection here at home?
Should they be allowed access to public roadways?
How about Water and Sewer?
Whenever they hire somebody, shouldn't they be required to pay a requisite amount to a school district to reimburse those schools for having educated those new employees for them?
If corporations are people (and if this isn't just one big Fuck-You-If-You-Ain't-Got-The-Juice proposition), then why do they get to play by a different set of rules?
Take away our belief in Imaginary Friends, and we take away that guy's power to get us to do stoopid things that he thinks our imaginary friend is commanding us to do.
Push for reasoning and logic and evidence, and bit by bit, we start to dismantle one of the main structural rationalizations for making people suffer.
Make the connections between Racism, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Misogyny, etc. There're reasons we encounter these things (often) in the same places, and just as often expressed by the same people.
A take-away for me: It must really suck for you to have been told your whole life that the world belongs to you and you get to take whatever you want from it, only to find out that you were lied to, that the world is not really that way, and you won't be getting every little thing after all.
BTW - to reiterate - what Trump is doing comes under the heading of Stochastic Terrorism.
It's the shitty little thing that despots are always pulling - the dog whistle calling to the Lone Wolf who'll interpret it to mean he should do something the Strong Man's id wants to make happen while maintaining the necessary deniability.
It's the lowest political dirty trick ever.
And Keith's absolutely right to recall Hillary doing basically the same thing - although I hafta give her props for backing it off right away, which means to me that she may have stumbled into it not recognizing at the moment that it'd be taken the wrong way. Point being, she fucked up; she owned the fuck up; she learned not to do it again.
And so to Trump - once can be an anomaly; twice could certainly be coincidence - but that second time, when it's Donald Trump, is just as likely to reveal a deliberate pattern.
