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The Center for American Progress reports
Last month, the NFL announced a new policy for its players during the national anthem: Players are permitted to stay in the locker room during the anthem, but if they go out onto the field during it, they must stand. If any of the players takes a knee, the team will be fined.
Soon afterwards, a Wall Street Journal report confirmed what most have long suspected: That President Donald Trump's public outrage about NFL players protesting police brutality and systemic racism during the national anthem at football games heavily influenced NFL owners to change the rule, and discouraged them from signing players who would protest.
It's all terrible news for those in favor of free speech and peaceful protest, and for those against white nationalism and police brutality.
However, Mark Geragos, the lawyer representing Kaepernick in his collusion lawsuit against the NFL, [...] believes [...] that Trump's direct influence over NFL owners on this issue violates federal law. U.S. Code 227 [which] says that members of Congress or the executive branch cannot "wrongfully influence a private entity's employment decision ... solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation".
A few revelations from the last couple of weeks strongly support Geragos' case here, and it's important to remember that Geragos knows much more about the case than we do--he has taken the depositions of more than a dozen NFL owners, while the public only knows about the depositions that have leaked.
[...] Of course, influencing the private hiring decisions of a company isn't the only part of U.S. Code [227] that needs to be proved; it would also have to be shown that Trump did it for partisan political purposes.
That sounds trickier to prove, but in this case, that's not necessarily true. First of all, Trump's comments were made at a political rally supporting an Alabama Republican candidate for US Senate--an expressly partisan environment. And according to the WSJ, Trump told Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in private conversations that the issue was a "winning" one for him.
Previous: NFL: New National Anthem Rule; NY Jets CEO: Break the Rule and I'll Pay the Fine
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Monday June 04 2018, @12:40AM (12 children)
Martin Luther King, fabulous guy, I proclaimed a holiday to honor him. And in a way, it honors all the blacks who worked so hard -- sometimes for free -- to make our Country great. And maybe Martin doesn't agree, but I think the Flag represents patriotism.
Let me tell you, I had the BIGGEST POLE in Palm Beach. At Mar-A-Lago, my Southern White House. And the city told me it was too big. They wanted to fine me -- big fine because of "laws." They said poles can be 42 feet, max. And mine was 80 feet. Very hard for them to accept that.
But I sued them, I said freedom of speech. I said selective enforcement. And I said a smaller flag and pole on Mar-A-Lago’s property would be lost given its massive size, look silly instead of make a statement, and most importantly would fail to appropriately express the magnitude of Donald J. Trump’s and the Club’s members’ patriotism.
Well, we did the arbitration on that one. And I made the pole not so big, I cut 10 feet off it. But, I put it on a mound. And the pole and the mound, when you put them together, they're tremendous. Very tall. And I donated $100,000 to our terrific veterans. Which, believe me, I would have done anyway. Great deal!!!
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @01:33AM (2 children)
Every time Donald J. Trump Sr tries to show how big he is, he just reveals, yet again, how he doesn't measure up.
A generation ago, there was a SoCal guy who got in dutch with the city gov't because of his ridiculously sized flag and flagpole. [google.com]
The damned thing made so much noise that the neighbors couldn't stand it.
...and his thing wasn't done out of patriotism either.
It too was done for commercial reasons.
(He was in the big-flag-selling business.) [google.com]
It sounds like you didn't even get one of his top-of-the-line products.
Heh. Old joke:
The USAians wanted a propaganda coup so they ordered a bunch of product from a Soviet condom manufacturer.
The dimensions specified were enormous.
The Soviets didn't bat an eye.
They filled the order, stamped the boxes "Medium", and shipped them.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday June 04 2018, @06:55PM (1 child)
Why do you keep linking to Google search pages rather than just a single website? You can't be afraid somebody will bitch about your choice of sources?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @08:24PM
1) It shows that multiple sources have covered the story.
2) Some Soylentils get the point just by hovering over the link.
3) I'm lazy.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday June 04 2018, @04:08AM (6 children)
"... unjust laws."
-- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by aristarchus on Monday June 04 2018, @05:05AM (5 children)
Actually, MLKjr., in his erudition, was quoting St. Augustine [wikipedia.org], who said:
For those of you who are Germanic of otherwise white and illiterate, the Latin translates as "An unjust law is not a law".
Now what will really cook the ammosexuals noodles is that the divine Augustine was referring to laws that allow self-defense. If you defend yourself, you value your life over your attacker, and that is not very Christian of you. Suck on that, Islamophobes.
(Score: 2) by VanessaE on Monday June 04 2018, @07:48AM (4 children)
"If you defend yourself, you value your life over your attacker, and that is not very Christian of you."
Except that you forget something: Christianity is derived from Judaism, and one of the most important rules there is "Therefore, choose life." (as it is usually summarized). You're expected to do your best to preserve both your own life and those around you, including an attacker if it's safe and practical to do so, but to defend yourself with lethal force is acceptable if there's no safe way to apply non-lethal force and no chance of getting the attacker to back down; shoot/stab the attacker in the arm or leg to stop them, if you can. Put one in their chest if you have to. That also means to contact the proper authorities, call 9-1-1/9-9-9/whatever, that sort of thing, if you can do so without jeopardizing lives (it also extends to life-saving actions such as calling an ambulance or performing CPR).
I'm pretty sure that Christians have something similar in their dogma. It's just that they make up a huge portion of the gun nuts, who just seem to love to make every potential altercation an excuse to wield lethal force (rifle slung across the back while grocery shopping, anyone?), when they could just leave their firearms at home and *gasp* rely on a Taser and their phone. Of course even if they do so, so many are just plain trigger-happy regardless of the weapon.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday June 04 2018, @08:38AM (3 children)
No, I never forget anything. Or at least rarely. 2400 years of repetition makes that difficult. So the proper principle is "choose innocent life", for the Christians, anyway. But that is the point, if you prefer your own life over that of another, you are guilty of the sin of self-love, avarice, so your life is no longer innocent. Tough standard, eh? Only Buddhists and Muslims go as far!
So, you are not Christian? Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it does cause you to mistake all these ammosexuals who worship Dios de Muerta, the god of Death, for Christians. They not only do they love their selves too much, but they wish for opportunities to do back-flips and shoot people without even meaning to. So let's get this straight, a law that allows lethal force in self-defense in no law at all. This is where Christians like Augustine depart from Cicero and his "inter arma leges silent" [wikipedia.org]. Milo set that rumble up, on purpose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @10:46AM (1 child)
...without even meaning to
That was a pretty funny story [soylentnews.org]--if you'll allow me a moment of twisted mirth.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday June 05 2018, @02:06AM
Sorry, it is Santa Muertos, a mere saint and not a god, although it may be a covert Aztec god.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VanessaE on Tuesday June 05 2018, @10:08AM
Nope, Jewish. That said, it's no mistake. There's a huge overlap between Christians (and general fundies), and gun nuts - at least in my experience. I don't care to try to explain it, as it baffles me completely.
As for sins? Bleh. I don't ascribe to the concept; fuck-ups can be righted, usually.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by captain normal on Monday June 04 2018, @05:37AM (1 child)
You seem to have your facts mixed up (not unusual for you). "...on November 2, 1983, Reagan signed a bill, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana, to create a federal holiday honoring King.[8][9] The bill had passed the House of Representatives by a count of 338 to 90, a veto-proof margin.[4] The holiday was observed for the first time on January 20, 1986."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr._Day [wikipedia.org]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday June 04 2018, @07:24AM
You didn't hear about my proclamation from the Fake News Media. But it's on my White House website, it's in my journal on SoylentNews, I wrote about it on my Twitter, I put the video on Twitter -- you can see me signing the proclamation. With many people in the room. I said, let's have a holiday to honor Martin Luther King, a man that I've studied and watched and admired for my entire life.
You read all about Martin Luther King when somebody said I took a statue out of my office. And it turned out that that was fake news. The statue is cherished. It’s one of the favorite things -- and we have some good ones. We have Lincoln, and we have Jefferson -- Thomas Jefferson, not Jefferson Davis, he's great too -- and we have Dr. Martin Luther King. His incredible example is unique in American history. Absolutely unique, very special guy. I gave him a shout-out when I opened the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. And I proclaimed a National Historic Park for him. I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall -- that's another museum, two really extraordinary museums -- where people can learn about Reverend King. So many other things, Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Sgt. Medgar Wiley Evers and millions more black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact. I have a great relationship with the blacks, believe me. I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks. whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-signing-proclamation-honor-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-day [whitehouse.gov] pic.twitter.com/samlJsz1Nt [t.co]