Kaepernick, Trump and flags

You may have noticed, the flag business is thriving! Whether the flags are made in the U.S. or China is a different issue, but from San Francisco to wherever political candidates appear, flags are featured items.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers doesn’t much care about flags. He thinks it is appropriate to show his lack of respect for the American Flag by sitting on the bench – as he adjusts his black lives matter practice socks which are decorated with pigs dressed as policemen – while the National Anthem is played pre-game.

When I worked for a bank, I had the same right to protest that Kaepernick has as a football player with the National Football League (NFL). You, too, have the right to protest regardless of who your employer is. I can attend any protest I want. So can you. A few people we thought were friends might desert us afterwards, but it is our right as Americans to protest.

If, however, I bring the protest into my employer bank’s lobby, my butt will be fired – or, in terms Kaepernick understands, fried like bacon. On the spot. No questions asked. While I am in the bank and on the clock, they control my behavior. Am I saying my employer owned me? No. Not at all. I could quit that job and work elsewhere any day I chose. In the meantime, a job description told me what the bank expected me to achieve each day. It did not include political protests. There was a dress code. It did not include wearing socks with images of pigs dressed like police officers.

What was it black lives matter wanted to do to police officers? Fry them like bacon?

Kaepernick’s quarterback job description is much different than mine was as a banker, but, like me, off of the football field he is free to support any cause he wants – and there are plenty of causes to support in San Francisco that aren’t terribly popular with the general public. For one thing, it is a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, the home of Kate Steinle. For another, if you can get in and out of San Francisco without being aggressively approached by panhandlers on the streets, you have had a unique experience. I no longer go there.

The moment Kaepernick takes the field in a stadium paid for by the public and is working for a corporation which pays his salary, the rules change. Neither the public, nor the team for which he plays, support his personal issues with the American flag. At least, they say they do not. The San Francisco NFL franchise signed a 6-year, $114 million contract, including a $12,328,766 signing bonus, $61 million guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $19 million. In 2016, Kaepernick will earn a base salary of $11.9 million, a roster bonus of $2 million and a workout bonus of $400,000. That money is paid to him for his ability to play football.

It’s difficult to understand why someone hates the flag of a nation that made this kind of personal wealth possible via the free marketplace it offers and the price paid to defend that flag by so many members of America’s military.

In some ways, I agree with much of what Kaepernick says about what the United States has become. Donald Trump has made clear for us how corrupt it is from top to bottom.

I often wonder how responsible for the 20 veteran suicides a day the corrupted government is. These people, feeling such a sense of hopelessness that they seek a permanent solution to a temporary problem, risked their lives for that flag and the nation it represents. It must be pretty depressing for them to come home and find out the government lied to them about a lot of things – including their medical care and mental soundness to carry a gun.

In other ways, I would suggest quarterback Kaepernick find another country in which he can get a $114 million 6-year contract to throw a football. He should find it and move there… show his respect for that nation’s flag. Except: No such country exists. I would help him pack if it did.

I would further suggest Kaepernick stop supporting organizations supported by George Soros – like Black Lives Matter. Soros so loved his own people that during World War II he helped the Nazis find and slaughter Jews in his home town. He has been quoted as saying it was a very exhilarating experience. You can find Soros money behind many of the corrupt politicians Kaepernick says he doesn’t support… ignorance of facts is a symptom of an uninformed useful idiot.

In the aftermath of it all (after the San Diego game), Kaepernick made a contribution of a million dollars to… I’m not sure what. Maybe he’s joined with Soros and supports Black Lives Matter. He’s not exactly a cash-strapped black American who lives in the inner-city and he has little insight into the real problems of the black community.

His show of angst to the flag and the nation it represents would have been a lot more meaningful if he had made his protest in years prior to the one in which the team for which he plays is seeking to trade him (only to find there are no takers). He’s been with them for several years. Is he laying the ground work for a discrimination suit against the 49ers should they decide to terminate him for any reason? His timing is perfect – an accident, I’m sure (not!) to prevent a termination?

Donald Trump is right about the Democrat Party being interested in black people only as votes, rather than as individual citizens with needs. He is also right when he says if black people continue to vote for the status quo they have supported for from 50 to 75 years, they can expect the same result. Einstein once suggested that to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a definition of insanity.

This does not suggest that status quo Republicans are much better than the Democrats, but at least they are not so duplicitous as to accuse their opposition of doing what they, themselves, do and have done. History says Democrats are racists:

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. It was passed with 100 percent Republican support; 23 percent of Democrats supported the 13th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment gave slaves citizenship and 94 percent of Republicans supported it. No Democrats – 0 percent – supported it.

The 15th Amendment gave ALL men (not women) the right to vote. 100 percent of Republicans supported the 15th Amendment. No Democrats – 0 percent – supported it.

The Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln who fought a very bloody and costly Civil War that cost his nation 620,000 deaths to free America’s slaves. Their lives, of course, don’t matter… they were almost all white. I re-ask Trump’s question here: What in the world have the Democrats ever done for you?

Does that give you some idea of how uninformed people are?

Back to my subject: The American Flag.

On that subject, Donald Trump is wrong. I love you, Donald, but on this subject you are wrong.

Have you noticed the fringe on the flags behind Donald Trump? I have – and even wrote his first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, telling him to get those fringes off of the flags behind Donald Trump at campaign events. I got no response.

Even more important, have you noticed the lack of fringe on the flags behind Hillary Clinton? She uses legitimate American Flags. This is a significant difference between the two candidates.

I have written prior articles on the subject of our flag.

Who cares about whether there is gold fringe on the flag in your courtrooms, school yards, Supreme Courts, public libraries, the Congress, the Post Office and the White House?

I care. Big time I care. So should you – and so should Donald J. Trump.

On 21 August 1959, then-President Dwight David Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10834. It is printed in the Federal Register at 24 F.R. 6865, pursuant to law. Eisenhower made a public statement about the flag saying: “A military flag is a flag that resembles the regular flag of the United States, except that it has a yellow fringe border on three sides.”

On 28 March 1924, the Adjutant General of the Army said: “Ancient custom sanctions the use of the fringe on regimental colors and standards, but there seems to be no good reason or precedent of its use on other flags.” (34 Ops. Atty. Gen. 483, 485.) Thus, use of gold fringe on American Flags suggests martial law.

According to Army Regulation AR 840-10, 1 Oct. 1979, “the flag (United States flag) is trimmed on three sides with Fringe of Gold, 2 ½ inches wide,” and “such flags are flown indoors, ONLY in military courtrooms.” Such a courtroom tries cases on the basis of military law, not constitutional law, not common law, not civil law, and not statute law.

Title 4 U.S.C. 3 provides that anything put on the Title 4 U.S.C. 1, 2 American Flag — such as gold fringe – MUTILATES the Flag. This is confirmed by the authority of Title 36 U.S.C. 176 (g). The gold fringe is a fourth color and represents “color of military law” jurisdiction and when placed on the Title 4 U.S.C. 1, 2 Flag, mutilates the Flag and suspends the Constitution. (Refer to Title 18 U.S.C. 242, see Black’s Law Dictionary).

Though I strongly support Donald J. Trump for President, I do not support his choice of flags shown behind him at campaign events. I’m sure he doesn’t select them… those who plan campaign functions do. I’m equally sure America’s failing education system didn’t instruct the planners on flag mutilation and which flags represent martial law and suspend the Constitution. The flags chosen to date are covered with gold fringe. They are military flags suggesting Martial Law and Admiralty Law… and no Constitution.

Will someone please tell him to get that fringe off of my country’s Flag? I don’t live under the jurisdiction of the United States Military.

Will someone also please tell him that the best response to challenges by Hillary Clinton during upcoming debates is: “My statements support the Constitution of the United States.” Apply the statement to specific policies, like: “I believe mine is the best solution to the problem of illegal immigration because it supports the Constitution of the United States. It follows the laws set down by the Constitution. What you suggest as a solution to this problem violates the founding documents of this nation!”

That’s an answer every conservative will support and will offend no one – other than communists and socialists who seek a Tsar or a Queen or King (or Pope) rather than a President.