***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[brendasdeadbaby]

To jump off a building

Stop the Asian hate

 

[Present]

I don't understand why playing the national anthem before a sporting event is such a big deal

The song is about a battle in the War of 1812. The first documented time that it was played at an American sporting event came at a baseball game in 1862, during the Civil War. The tradition of playing it at sports events got a dramatic boost at the 1918 World Series, during World War I. And the tradition of playing it before games was popularized during World War II.

“The North won the tug of war,” Ferris says. “The irony is that the South’s anthem, Dixie, was written by an anti-slavery Northerner whereas the Star-Spangled Banner, the anthem of the North, was written by a slave-holding Southerner whose family supported the Confederacy” long after Key died in 1843.

Key's song was played at some baseball games in the 1890s, often with great pomp, Ferris says, but the World Series in 1918 offered a star-spangled moment. Babe Ruth’s Boston Red Sox opened in Chicago against the Cubs. The game came 17 months — and 100,000 American deaths — after the U.S. entered the war to end all wars. During the seventh-inning stretch, a military band spontaneously played the country’s still-unofficial anthem.

Red Sox third baseman Fred Thomas, on furlough from the Navy, saluted. Other players put hands over hearts. The crowd, already on their feet to stretch, began to sing along. The New York Times reported the song’s final bars were met by “thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day’s enthusiasm.”

When the Series moved to Boston, the Red Sox played the song during pregame festivities and paired it with the introduction of wounded soldiers. Ferris credits the theatrical move to Red Sox owner Harry Frazee. “He thought, ‘I’m an impresario, I’ll show those Midwesterners in Chicago how it’s done,’ ” Ferris says.

The song did not yet catch on at all games for the simple reason that owners didn’t hire bands except for big events like the World Series or Opening Day. Sound systems, in place by World War II, changed that.

“The anthem was heard everywhere” during the second world war, Ferris says. “Before the opera, before the movies, before the theater.”

And, of course, before all manner of sports. Most teams continued to play the anthem in the surge of postwar patriotism. Ferris says the Cubs stopped playing it after the war but picked it up again in 1967, during the Vietnam war, and have played it since.

Amid the upheaval of Vietnam, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle enforced a policy that players stand at attention during the anthem, with helmets tucked under their arms. They were not to talk, chew gum or move their feet.

The government cannot restrict speech under the First Amendment. Employers can. Today’s “owners could say to the players, ‘If you take a knee, you’re gone,’ ” Ferris says. “But of course they won’t. They want to win football games.”

Why is the national anthem played before American sporting events? And when did it start?

Debate over the national anthem played at sporting events is beginning again with Mark Cuban and the Mavericks not playing it at home games this season.

www.usatoday.com

 

[IATT]

please take some fools down here with em

 

[rexanglorum]

Tired: derisively calling poor people in Florida, with untreated mental illness and substance abuse disorder whose worst day of their lives were caught on camera and/or had their whimsical but petty crime and subsequent arrest given to the press due to distressingly inadequate privacy protections for people accused of crime in that state, “Florida man.”

Wired: calling rich people, who flock to the sunshine state to prey in poorer Floridians, poor immigrants, youths failed by the State’s foster care system, retirees with failing mental acuity, and the lack over oversight within Medicare’s billing system, “Florida man.”

 

[RustyShackleford]

Speaking of the anthem, I think it should be changed. Besides the racism in it, it is just trash as a song.

"America the Beautiful" would be a superior national anthem than the Star-Spangled Banner.

I'm an atheist and I would take God Bless America over it too

Funny though, how some of the most famous performances of these songs have been done by black folk. But then again makes sense, the black community probably displays true patriotism better than all these racist clowns claiming to be patriots.

 

[Present]

How it started:

"Nearly 50 years later, they are still in effect; indeed, they have been made more stringent, and are now scheduled to last until 2031. There is no denying, however, that the conditions that originally justified these measures no longer characterize voting in the covered jurisdictions. By 2009, “the racial gap in voter registration and turnout [was] lower in the States originally covered by §5 than it [was] nationwide.” Northwest Austin Municipal Util. Dist. No. One v. Holder, 557 U. S. 193, 203–204 (2009). Since that time, Census Bureau data indicate that AfricanAmerican voter turnout has come to exceed white voter turnout in five of the six States originally covered by §5, with a gap in the sixth State of less than one half of one percent. See Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau, Reported Voting and Registration, by Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin, for States (Nov. 2012) (Table 4b). At the same time, voting discrimination still exists; no one doubts that. The question is whether the Act’s extraordinary measures, including its disparate treatment of the States, continue to satisfy constitutional requirements. As we put it a short time ago, “the Act imposes current burdens and must be justified by current needs.” Northwest Austin, 557 U. S., at 203. I"

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-96_6k47.pdf

How its going:

 

[Present]

Speaking of the anthem, I think it should be changed. Besides the racism in it, it is just trash as a song.

"America the Beautiful" would be a superior national anthem than the Star-Spangled Banner.

I'm an atheist and I would take God Bless America over it too

Always been partial to Mr. Guthrie's take,

 

[daruma]

folding like little proud *****es

 

[dragicon]

I don't understand why playing the national anthem before a sporting event is such a big deal

it’s a big deal to those who want to make athletes look like bad people when they don’t stand or want to be present for it.

 

[blastercombo]

Why don’t they play the anthem in the NY stock exchange everyday if the song is so important?

 

[Sharpshoeter13]

Matt Gaetz is ****ing gross.

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[Belgium]

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2021/03/25/blinken-in-brussels-us-vows-to-consult-its-friends/
Blinken in Brussels: US vows to consult its friends
The US is eager to cooperate more closely with Belgium, bilaterally but also within the framework of NATO and the European Union.
Evidence of the fresh approach of the Biden-Harris administration came from Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he met Belgian foreign minister Wilmès (Francophone liberal). Secretary Blinken has been in Brussels for three days of talks with NATO, the EU and the Belgian government.

 

[rexanglorum]

 

[IATT]

 

[blastercombo]

Lol I’ll never buy a Tesla in my life. **** that idiot

 

[gry60]

I don't understand why playing the national anthem before a sporting event is such a big deal

These dudes were supposed to take democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan, not bring their authoritarian customs back here.

 

[blastercombo]

These dudes were supposed to take democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan, not bring their authoritarian customs back here.

They failed at all of the above

 

[gry60]

 

[aepps20]

Speaking of the anthem, I think it should be changed. Besides the racism in it, it is just trash as a song.

"America the Beautiful" would be a superior national anthem than the Star-Spangled Banner.

I'm an atheist and I would take God Bless America over it too

Funny though, how some of the most famous performances of these songs have been done by black folk. But then again makes sense, the black community probably displays true patriotism better than all these racist clowns claiming to be patriots.

Black folks love America but America doesn't love us. We can sing for America, play a sport for America, make American pop culture but America still hates us. The notable exception is if you are a BLACK HANDSOME CONSERVATIVE GUY LIKE MY BROTHER KHUFU . HE'S A FISCAL CONSERVATIVE FIRST AND A BLACK MAN SECOND.

 

[dinyc3st]

Matt Gaetz is ****ing gross.

Hope he gets what he deserves from the booty bandits

 

[blastercombo]

Hope he gets what he deserves from the booty bandits

Man please. We all know how these stories go. Just a matter of time until he’s outed out the closet

 

[gry60]

 

[gry60]

Majority of people now identifying as Democrat while GOP backing slumps

The nine-point boost to Democrats is the largest since 2012

www.independent.co.uk

A record number of Americans, almost half of the population of the US, now identify more with Democrats than with Republicans by a margin President Joe Biden’s party hasn’t seen in a decade.

An average of 49 per cent of adults in America identified with Joe Biden’s Democratic Party or said they are independents with Democratic leanings during the first quarter of 2021, according to Gallup polling agency.


In a significant drop, only 40 per cent people reported affiliation to Republicans or leaned towards the party.

The agency said the nine percentage-point boost to Democrats is the largest since the fourth quarter of 2012.


As per the breakup, 30 per cent of people said they were affiliated to Democrats while 19 per cent were Democratic-leaning independents. In comparison, 25 per cent identified as Republicans while the other 15 per cent were Republican leaners.