Monday, August 27, 2018

White House flag

Yahoo ran an AP story written by Laurie Kellman with all the ridiculous anti-Trump stuff loaded up front and the sensible bits tucked neatly at bottom. Example.
"On the behalf of The American Legion's two million wartime veterans, I strongly urge you to make an appropriate presidential proclamation noting Senator McCain's death and legacy of service to our nation, and that our nation's flag be half-staffed through his internment," said a statement to Trump from Denise Rohan, the organization's national commander.
And.
Aides to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Charles Schumer requested that the Department of Defense keep flags at government buildings lowered until the sunset after McCain is buried in Annapolis, Maryland, next Sunday.
Then at conclusion.
U.S. Flag Code states that flags be lowered "on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress." 
I sense a disturbance in The Force™.

Comments to political articles are revealing. Up until recently the comment sections were dominated by worked up liberal voices no matter the issue real or contrived. The same nonsense recycled. Only rarely anything unique, and with very little conservative contrarianism, nearly zero conservative support. But that's changing in a very big way. As of writing, this article has 375 comments, 99.9% conservative. Restating the flag code as if they missed it in the article, citing Obama's violation of the flag code to suit him; lowering it for Witney Houston, for example. Commenters refute McCain being a hero. A few suggest buying a taller flag pole. I read only one comment changing the subject to Trump's taxes, a valiant but flagging effort to boost one's own morale that got no traction at all, zero reaction.

The same is true for the Cuomo / Dershowitz video posted earlier. All of the comments are vehemently anti-CNN. From what I can see viewers and readers have had it with media spoon-feeding them damaging nonsense, and they're making their disgust known in those places that accept comments.

I'm seeing this more and more.

On articles that are linked by Drudge you can expect a certain percentage of this, but you'll also see at least one liberal noting the Drudge link or suspecting it, not having read Drudge themselves, and deriding Drudge to dismiss the lopsided number of comments. The Cuomo / Dershowitz video was not linked by Drudge. And this surprising phenomenon is increasing dramatically.

When polls tell you Trump is at 50% approval, 51%, 52%, whatever, we have living proof of their remarkable unreliability. If polls is all that we've got, then all we've got is suggestion, and from that suggestion we can safely extrapolate actual numbers much greater. We're lied to constantly, consistently, reliably. I suspect very strongly the midterms will be much more satisfactory than suggested. I'm basing this on the pure disgust that I read throughout comments combined with flagging resistance.

18 comments:

Leland said...

Obama lowered flags for all sorts of reasons outside the normal code for flags. For example, Obama would have lowered the flag for the shooting in Atlanta [while ignoring the 21 shootings in Chicago this weekend]. This had the effect of having the American flag stature lowered. It seemed most days, the US flag was at half staff, and that's not what is meant by the honor of having it lowered. It is supposed to be like a tip of the hat, not a beheading.

The Dude said...

"Flagging resistance" - nice turn of phrase.

Trooper York said...

If members of Congress want to honor John McCain in an appropriate matter they shouldn't lower their flag....they should crash their car.

Trooper York said...

Or better yet start a war.

ampersand said...

Flying the flag half-assed would be appropriate.

john said...

It seems some child is running around the WH lowering then raising and then lowering the flag. Kid needs to be spanked.

edutcher said...

When polls tell you Trump is at 50% approval, 51%, 52%, whatever, we have living proof of their remarkable unreliability.

I saw a piece somewhere that said you might as well as 30 to any Trump numbers, given his impact.

To illustrate, the markets shot up on what I'd say was a very historic rewriting of NAFTA. Whether the flag is up or down for Songbird, and he isn't the first member of Congress to die in place, nobody will care next to Chapultepec II.

edutcher said...

s/b might as well add 30.

Sorry.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

So did Trump back down or didn't he?

Leland said...

I think there is a chance that McConnell and Schumer begged him, and maybe he made a deal about Kavanaugh. Or at least he had them beg for awhile.

However, my thought on any of these things is to totally discount the story. It could well be an Obama hung over raised the flag back up, took his bribe from WaPo/NYT, and then pointed to the code. The stories were written, and Trump as like, "what's this all about?" I seriously can't image Trump cares one way or the other.

Do you care? I don't. I do think we lower the flag too often and for too long, but higher on my list of annoying stuff is that TSA still exists.

edutcher said...

He doesn't need to make a deal.

Somebody said, "It's only a day".

William said...

Trump is kind of disreputable. You don't want to shout out your admiration of the way he handles ex girl friends. I'll vote for him, but I won't brag about it. I think that there's a reverse Bradley effect with his poll numbers.

Amartel said...

I, too, see a lot more push back in comment sections previously dominated by lefty parrot points rephrasing and amplifying the anti-Trump bias of the article or post. People are bored with the parrots and appreciate a divergent or disruptive POV. I don't know how this bodes for Trump's numbers or the upcoming election.

Amartel said...

This phenomenon is not just re: McCain but in general. People (or at least commenting people) are a lot less willing to be led about by the media.

On the topic of McCain I think he was a lot less loved and respected outside the beltway than inside. Also all these insiders bloviating about the passing of a giant are just getting face time and promoting themselves. The lying in state thing is vaguely irritating to me. Like these politicians retaining their titles after they're out of office. When you're done, the title (Senator, Judge, President) should not follow you around for life. You should go back to being a mister or a missus or a miz. When you're dead your family should memorialize you and invite people who care. Lying in state is what kings and dictators and mandarins do after they're dead, so the grateful peasants can show obeisance one last time.

Amartel said...

Trump didn't like McCain. He's being quite transparent about it. As usual, the media yokels are playing one Republican off against another. And McCain plays along from beyond the grave in typical form.

Amartel said...

I don't mind lowering the flag for a real American hero + long term pol which is what McCain was. I know there are suspicions about his heroism way back when but ive never been convinced. What he did in a Viet Nan was really impressive, unthinkable, heroic. But it's also kind of like a living example of why you don't give a hero free rein elsewhere in other areas because they extrapolate they're heroism.

XRay said...

I could give a damn about McCain, really, not after how cowardly he was with Palin. Any respect I may have had for the man disappeared after that. even though I voted for the bastard, given the lack of choice.

deborah said...

I think you're right, William.