America Ain’t That Great?

[DBTrek]

The government censored football players?
When did this happen?

(Or is this another one of those “criticizing me is an attack on free speech” things?)

President Trump directly and repeatedly asked the NFL to create rules and penalties to punish the players who protest, asked ESPN to change what they do showing the national anthem, and tweeted at the players to stop doing it. Then he said maybe he would use his presidential power to do more pardons of black people they like as a carrot to just stop protesting - seems like government actions to me.

... not seeing where the government censored anyone there. Trump using his own free speech isn’t government censorship, something Maxine Waters should be ecstatic about. She should be on her knees praising the god of Misanthropic Ideologues that being a political figure doesn’t prevent one from wishing, or even encouraging, their opponents silence.

Or is that something different, on account of “reasons”?

[Ph64]

The government censored football players?
When did this happen?

(Or is this another one of those “criticizing me is an attack on free speech” things?)

President Trump directly and repeatedly asked the NFL to create rules and penalties to punish the players who protest, asked ESPN to change what they do showing the national anthem, and tweeted at the players to stop doing it. Then he said maybe he would use his presidential power to do more pardons of black people they like as a carrot to just stop protesting - seems like government actions to me.

He "asked"? OMG, what a misuse of presidential power!! And here I was expecting you'd be claiming something as utterly minor as an executive order, or taking them to court over it, or neck sending in the military... But no, he (gasp!!!) "asked". Utterly, blatantly, dictatorial.

And then top it off by offering to pardon black prisoners. Literally Hitler, I'm telling ya, literally Hitler.

[ooky]

When the president repeatedly asks for private citizens and companies to do very specific things, that is government pressure. You HONESTLY want the next liberal president to act like this towards gun rights advocates and (for example)? Would you not see the problems with free speech issues?

[DBTrek]

Obama didn’t say he would come our after every mass shooting and apply pressure to curtail our 2nd Amendment rights?

I think he did.
And I think no First Amendment rights were curtailed by his callously calculated acts.
/shrug

[ooky]

You're a woman, I'm an OWG. The battle lines are drawn - you drew them; I'm just standing on my side. My kids probably won't like your kids. There will be restaurants that will say "No Republicans" and others that say "No Democrats." The Virtual Civil War is upon us. I don't know how it ends but it probably won't be in Socialism.

p.s. I ran for the U.S. House as a Dem this election cycle. Now I'm #Walkaway

Well if this is the case I feel we have much to thank Trump for that. He didn't cause the issues, he is a symptom of something that was happening before, but he poured gasoline on this national schism.

[Martin Hash]

He was the first punch back by my side.

Consider for a moment that you do not take my advice on this issue yet by all measures, I’m the one to ask? Only our “identities” can explain the difference.

[ooky]

Obama didn’t say he would come our after every mass shooting and apply pressure to curtail our 2nd Amendment rights?

I think he did.
And I think no First Amendment rights were curtailed by his callously calculated acts.
/shrug

I don't have any idea what you're talking about here. Using his stump to advocate towards reasonable gun legislation in a general sense may be something you disagree with but it is policy. It is not putting extreme, repeated pressure on specific individuals for what they have said. Not only that, Trump has put extreme pressure on the only employer these guys have or COULD have to do what they are doing to directly punish them for their protests.

Obama after a mass shooting:
""Our thoughts and prayers are not enough,” he said. “It’s not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America -- next week, or a couple of months from now.”

"Of course, what’s also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together," Obama said.

"When roads are unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We have seatbelt laws because we know it saves lives. So the notion that gun violence is somehow different, that our freedom and our Constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon, when there are law-abiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and do everything they do under such regulations doesn’t make sense," he added."

[Speaker to Animals]

She just has no idea what it has been like on the receiving end of so much hatred and bigotry. She constantly virtue signals against hatred and bigotry only to perpetrate it herself.

She chose her side. Don't let her in our zone when the time comes.

[Ph64]

When the president repeatedly asks for private citizens and companies to do very specific things, that is government pressure. You HONESTLY want the next liberal president to act like this towards gun rights advocates and (for example)? Would you not see the problems with free speech issues?

I expect it. The LAST liberal president did those same things. Heck probably every president has, just with far less news coverage than today's "Trump hate mongering" media.

You just don't see how influenced you are by the corporate media monster.

Me, I got rid of my TV years ago, and quite honestly could FEEL how much more unmanipulated I felt a year later. When I'm around TV news these days the sheer amount of emotional manipulation coming from that box is incredibly obvious to me. It literally oozes out of the screen at you. Luckily I'm far enough removed it really doesn't affect me anymore.

#WalkAway (from TV news)

[ooky]

He was the first punch back by my side.

Consider for a moment that you do not take my advice on this issue yet by all measures, I’m the one to ask? Only our “identities” can explain the difference.

The OWG side has been punching and punching down against minorities, the poor, women, immigrants, and queer people since time immemorial. And a majority of white women in my tax bracket voted for Trump, so I am not sure what my identity is supposed to have to do with the kids these days and whether Trump has been very bad for us as a country in seeking to divide us at every turn.

What is your advice on this issue? I thought this was a thread to bemoan how the kids aren't patriotic anymore.