August 30, 2020: Trump Gets Confused about Protesting

 

8/30/20: Sunday morning, the president is up early and tweeting, his first post coming at 4:49 a.m. In the five a.m. hour, he fires off fifty tweets and retweets. In one he quotes a like-minded user who says a patriot was assassinated in Portland on Saturday, that Antifa was responsible, and that the mayor and police commissioner have “blood” on their hands. Trump decides to “calm” the situation by calling the mayor, Ted Wheeler, “incompetent,” like “Sleepy Joe Biden.” 

The president loses his focus at one point, and posts a football clip, with a tweet, “Play Football Big Ten!”

Pro-Trump protesters form caravan and head for Portland.

 

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“Contemplate the meaning of freedom in their own lives.”

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Then, it’s back to bashing Democrats and protesters of all kinds, unless they’re pro-Trump folks. A video of the truck caravan prompts him to respond, “GREAT PATRIOTS!”  in a typical all-caps Twitter shout. 

As always, in Tin Pot Don’s eyes, only those who support him in unthinking fashion are patriots. 

His thumbs start throbbing and he loses steam in the six a.m. hour, with only 36 more posts. Then, at 7:04 we get: “LAW & ORDER!!!” the simplistic tweet of a simple-minded man.

 

As for protesters – white guys in trucks, are considered patriots in Trumpistan. Black guys in sports, or their white teammates and friends are no good. Team Trump has made it clear that NBA players boycotting games should be ashamed of themselves. “Silly,” one White House aide called their protests, just because a black man in Wisconsin was shot seven times in the back by police. “Absurd,” the aide added. Jared Kushner said the players should feel lucky, that they had so much money, that they could afford to sit out games. Tin Pot Don says the players are ruining the league. 

(Jared, the rich white guy, stirring up the Trump base against rich, African American guys. Amazing hypocrisy.)

 

The protests continue to spread. Players in a number of sports join the N.B.A. guys in support. The W.N.B.A. players refuse to play. Major League baseball teams postpone seven games. The National Hockey League cancels two days of playoffs, and promises to fight racism within the sport. Tennis player Naomi Osaka sits out a semifinal match at the Western & Southern Open. Out of respect, all other matches are paused and rescheduled. Nine NFL teams cancel practice. The New York Giants discuss sitting out a game once the season commences. The Cincinnati Bengals, as a team, visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a short walk  from their stadium. The Center is billed as a place where visitors can gain “insight into the struggle for freedom in the past, in the present, and for the future” and “contemplate the meaning of freedom in their own lives.” One recent exhibit, “Legacy of Justice Deferred,” told the story of Ida Wells, the black journalist who battled for decades to expose the horrors of lynching, and end a savage practice that stained the nation’s flag.

 

You know President Trump has never heard of Ida Wells, and doesn’t know anything about the history of lynching, or even why Colin Kaepernick and other players chose to kneel in protest, during the 2016 NFL season. 

You absolutely know he’s not going to be “contemplating the meaning of freedom” in his own life, nor in the lives of 330 million Americans. All of them – all of them – he was elected to serve. His focus should rightly be on ensuring the freedom of all of us, not just stirring the anger of his “patriot” pals in pickup trucks. 

Yes. They had every right to wave the flag from the back of their vehicles and parade through Portland. 

Kaepernick had the same right to kneel under the flag four years ago. That’s how the Bill of Rights works. 

Colin Kaepernick, right, kneels in protest, with teammate.

POSTSCRIPT: Lara Kollab, an Ohio doctor, could stand to visit the Freedom Center and do a little contemplating. She recently lost her license to practice osteopathic medicine and surgery after a number of anti-Semitic social media posts came to light. In one, Kollab promised to give Jewish patients the wrong medicine, to make them die. In another, she wrote, “People who support Israel should have their immune cells killed so they can see how it feels to not be able to defend yourself from foreign invaders.” Kollab is apparently a left-wing hater and nut. 

On the right-wing side, we have Sheriff Todd Wright, who gets axed from his job after a racist rant surfaces. The Arkansas County, Arkansas officer can be heard shouting about African Americans, and calling them “n-----s,” nine times. 

Which is precisely ten times too many.