Hello Everybody,
President Donald J. Trump had his campaign non-event in Tulsa,
Oklahoma the other night, which was sparsely attended by less than
a third of the arena. And this is what he told his audience, both
those who were in attendance, as well as those watching on the
boob tube -
"We ought to come up with legislation that if you burn the American
flag you go to jail for one year. We ought to do it. We talk about
freedom of speech ... but that's desecration." ~Donald J. Trump
Somebody might want to remind him that freedom of speech includes
the right to burn the American flag in public. Even the justices
of the Supreme Court agreed with that one, ruling on the subject
years ago.
"It is ashame [sic] that Congress doesn't do something about the
lowlifes that burn the American flag. It should be stopped, and now!"
~ Donald J. Trump, tweet on 6/23/2020
The justices of the US Supreme Court have ruled that burning the
American flag is a protected form of free speech under the First
Amendment of the US Constitution. Yet Donald J. Trump continues
to thump his own chest on the subject, threatening to take away
the citizenship of those who burn the American flag, and to jail
them for one year. Not sure which would come first.
We have all seen scenes of individuals burning what appears to
be American flags during protests. Maybe those flags were not really
American flags, but flags of some other country. I really did not
pay that much attention to the details, as all those flags were
completely in flames and made it kind of hard to tell anyway.
So I decided to take a trip to Wal*Mart and get me an American
flag so I could do it myself. However, none of the American flags
sold at Wal*Mart were made in the USA - all of them having been
made in China. So I had no choice but to burn a Chinese flag.
Or rather, an American flag made in China.
There I was, in the parking lot of Wal*Mart, American flag in
hand, along with book of matches. Lit up a match, placed lit match
to flag, and nothing happened. Lit up another match, same result.
The gang of bikers who had been threatening me for trying to burn
the American flag were starting to think I was doing this on
purpose, just for show. So I handed their dear leader the book
of remaining matches and had him try to light up that American flag
himself. After a few tries, having had the same result as me, he was
starting to realize that matches would not do the trick. Hence another
biker handed him a cigarette lighter. One that can keep a flame for
longer than a few seconds. And still, that American flag made in China
remained unlightable. Not even a scorch mark of any kind on it.
I have come to the conclusion that all American flags are made
in China, and that none of those American flags can be set on fire.
As such, Trump's threat to take away our citizenship (and/or put
us in jail for a year) for burning the American flag is an empty
threat.
Iran made it illegal for folks to burn the Iranian flag.
North Korea made it illegal for folks to burn the North Korean flag.
Do we really want to be like either of those two countries?
--Lee
--
Black lives matter!
--- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb
* Origin:
news://eljaco.se (2:203/2)