Fair warning – Don’t click through if you don’t want to read something political in nature.
I’m sensitive to those that don’t want to read that sort of thing, hence the fair warning. Nothing bad here, just a curiosity and I’m wondering if other people in the USA are doing the same thing, so testing it on WUWT’s wide readership will likely help answer it.
I have seen upside down US flags twice now in my town. The first time I just thought it was self commentary, now seeing it a second time in a different part of town, I stopped along E. 5th Avenue to get this shot. I wonder, how many people across the United States are doing the same thing after November 6th? In case you don’t know, flying the flag upside down is a sign of distress or emergency. Flying at half staff is respect for the fallen in service of our country. Combined it makes quite a commentary on the Benghazi incident, the fallen soldiers and ambassador, and the election. Checking the Internet I find there are others doing the same thing now, such as this fellow in South Bend, Indiana. Then there’s the story about an upside down half-staff flag at McDonald’s which has angered a lot of veterans even though it was claimed to be a mistake.
The U.S. Flag code says in section 8:
The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
Some people consider it flag desecration such as is on par with burning it as political commentary.
I wonder though, if this sort of visual political commentary I’ve seen in my town is being quietly repeated elsewhere since many people now see the USA as being in distress?
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joelshore says:
“The only time that Romney looked like he might be able to win was after the second debate…”
Wrong as usual. Romney was ahead by 1 – 2 points and widening the gap, until Obama was saved by Sandy. I saw the Gallup poll chart that clearly showed R ahead and rising, and Obama behind and falling. The positions switched when Sandy hit. I was running on the stairmaster at my club, watching a bank of six TV’s all on different channels. Obama was on every channel. He had preempted the programs, and he was constantly on TV doing what he does well: following a script and reading from his teleprompter. His fake leadership when the storm hit made the difference. He got 24 hour sound bites out of it, and Romney was shut out. Exit polling showed that a large plurality of voters made up their minds on the day of the election. Even Chrissy Mathews admitted that Sandy made the difference.
joelshore also says:
“…military veterans who are now disabled after having made the ultimate sacrifices to protect the freedoms we all now enjoy…” Somehow I very much doubt that the anti-American joelshore would ever step up to the plate and join the military, so his example is disgusting to veterans.
joelshore says:
Hilarious. Project much?
“Not really.”
Really. As I’ve often mentioned, if it were not for his psychological projection, joelshore wouldn’t have much to say. “Ideologues”, for example. There is no more partisan ideologue here than joelshore. Word up.
Dear DayByDay,
Indeed, English was my first language. I read the dictionary for fun, too.
My English vocabulary is several hundred thousand words which I can correctly spell and define. In many cases, I can also explain the etymology of the word.
I can’t be sure what may cause your lack of comprehension without additional information of a more specific nature.
If it’s important to you, please elucidate.
If it isn’t, then ima revert to internet creole cuz i get off on dialects, too…lol
D Boehm says:
Maybe in Fantasyland, that is what was happening. However, in RealityLand ( http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ ), Obama had been widening the gap ever since reversing the slide he did have after the first debate
Gallup had a significant Republican lean this whole election cycle, a lean that has now been shown to be incorrect. Rasmussen was the only major one with a more severe lean in that direction, which is why those two pollsters were the Gods for Fantasyland.
You keep telling yourself that story. Keep telling yourself that it was only by the magic of a last minute event (and the evil media) that the election turned out exactly the way the reality-based community called it and not the way that the fantasy-based community saw it coming out! You’ve got the perfect impenetrable fortress that facts, mathematics, and science cannot enter.
phlogiston says:
Yeah…I guess life is a real b*tch for you guys when rich white males don’t get to decide the election (even though they do still provide much of the cash to campaign, especially on the Republican side)!
And, by the way, if you check out the exit polling ( http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2012-exit-poll ), you’ll find that, while there is certainly some significant voting differences by race, income, etc., it is by no means as monolithic as you might imagine. Even amongst those making more than $250,000 a year (who know that a Romney administration is going to give them lower taxes than under Obama), Romney only won 55%-42%.
Day by Day,
I’m not at all surprised that I am not the only one unable to follow gnomish’s train of thought. He may be able to spell, but his punctuation isn’t so hot:
ah, mr boehm…
one doesn’t give out personal info on the internet.
loot is a good choice of words, though.
is it that you really don’t know anybody who is not a looter like your verifiable self?
He might have won me over, but being called a “looter” is not only factually incorrect, it is plainly derogatory. The vast majority of Americans are not looters, either. We follow the rules, and looting is against the law. As is not filing returns. I think we’re dealing with an iconoclast.
Nothing I wrote in the post that joelshore responded to is incorrect. Citing a far-Left blog like 538 has no credibility at all. The leader positions switched when Sandy hit. Anyone who doubts that the hurricane was influential in the outcome is a blinkered fool.
And I assume joelshore is himself a whiteboy, which makes his racial comment sound deluded. Which of course it is. Consider the source.
joeldshore says:
November 10, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Yeah…I guess life is a real b*tch for you guys when rich white males don’t get to decide the election (even though they do still provide much of the cash to campaign, especially on the Republican side)!
====================================================
Soros is a Republican? I didn’t know that.
D Boehm: I’ve changed my mind because of your cogent arguments: You are absolutely correct; if not for the conspiracy of very improbable natural events, you guys would have won. So, your strategy has been vindicated and you shouldn’t change a thing. In fact, I insist on it: Don’t do any soul-searching or modifications of strategy…just adopt the same approach and next time you’ll win. I’ll guarantee it!
Wow, joelshore didn’t use “ideologue” in a post! Will wonders never cease.
You can either have the box fit you, or you may force yourself to fit the box.
Truth can withstand all assaults; it does not depend on whether one believes in it or not. Logical fallacies and emotional misdirection are the tactics of choice specifically because it ignores the obvious, truth, which it cannot defeat. We are humans; fallible and whose actions have consequences. Those whom would be Kings or Gods, have been able to create an aura of infallibility via Administration. Be wary of those who seek power.
Labels are simply labels. One is free to change associations at any time, and for any reason. One may also retain those, while differing in opinions and beliefs.
Here is another election oddity …NOT!
Elections have consequences: the unemployment rate is beginning to rise already.
On May Day after obama’s first win I flew the flag of the USSR upside down on my flag pole. People asked me why. I said because we are now a communist country and we are in distress. Unlike Time magazine I went straight for the ugly truth instead of soft peddling it and calling it socialism.
D Boehm: Just when I think you can’t possibly get less scientific than you already all, you lower the bar! An anecdote that, say, the Kmart in Homer Glen announced layoffs doesn’t tell us a damn thing about the economy. Even in good times, new unemployment claims average about 300,000 per week http://ycharts.com/indicators/initial_claims_for_unemployment_insurance
Are you really that unable to distinguish ideological garbage from actual hard scientific or economic data?
[snip. Insulting everyone “on this website” is unacceptable. — mod.]
Just when I start to think that joelshore can’t be more mistaken, he proves that he is wrong once again. Counting only those who are collecting their temporary unemployment checks prior to the election is typical cherry-picking that alarmist clowns do all the time. The link I provided made clear that the layoffs began after the election. That same news is being widely reported elsewhere.
And I see that the most extreme ideological commenter on this site is projecting again, calling normal people ideologues. I guess there arte no mirrors in joelshores house.
we crossed the tipping point of takers vs makers and will never come back.
some realize that. this is their way of showing it.
others bury their heads in the sand.
dmacleo,
Exactly right. See here.
the real pain of it is that its less to do with who was elected but what platform was elected.
both candidates were bad, but one may have slowed the cancer growth for a bit giving us time to formulate a prosperous plan.
nope.
class warfare and jealousy won.
proved to this disabled vet what the mindset of the populace is now.
sad.
dmacleo says:
You do realize, don’t you, that if your disability prevents you from working enough to pay federal income tax then you count as one of the 47% who are “takers” in the statistic quoted by Romney and nearly everyone else who uses that term?
joelshore,
You do realize, don’t you, that you are being disgustingly presumptuous opining about a U.S. military veteran?
It is really none of your business.
“””””…..
David Bailey says:
November 10, 2012 at 10:43 am
Unfortunately, george.e.smith’s intemperate response to my comment, illustrates a lot about what is wrong with modern Republicanism. I didn’t say I was “proud to be British”, though I might if Britain had stayed out of the war in Iraq, which was quite unnecessary and destabilising…..”””””
You are quite correct David; you didn’t say you were… “proud to be British”.
And for completeness, neither did I say that you said that. So just what was “intemperate” about my response, escapes me.
I simply pointed out the error in your statement; to the effect that President Bush started two wars.
The US Constitution provides that only the Congress can declare war; not the administration; and in fact the US Congress Did vote by majority votes for both the Iraq,and the Afghanistan wars.
Not sure what you mean by “modern Republicanism”, which obviously would be foreign to the British; since they have a Monarchy; which seems to work well for them.
Although the USA is a Republic, and its Constitution guarantees every State, a “Republican” form of government; that of course is quite separate from the Republican political party.
While I’m supportive of their Republican form of Government; in no way do I align myself with the Republican Party, or the Democratic Party, which is no more democratic, than the Republican party is republican.
i’m a permanent resident alien, so I don’t intrude myself into the US political process; but I would be happy if they simply had a Government, which followed their Constitution, which was such a recipe for success.
And I believe that Anthony gave adequate warning to everybody, about launching into this particular thread; which is quite apart from its usual science based commentary. Free speech has a habit of not always pleasing everybody. But it is worth preserving.
And there is quite a sizeable fraction of the USA citizenry, who would be quite happy to keep the USA out of other people’s squabbles. They thought the same about getting involved in both of Europe’s disastrous dustups.
My father fought in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956…on the losing side. Through much difficulty and hardship he eventually became an American citizen. Through the years, to his horror, America has become more like what he left behind, to the point he wonders if he will live long enough to see the same tradgedy unfold twice. He once told me “When Capitalism goes broke, it becomes Socialism. When Socialism goes broke it becomes Communism. When Communism goes broke, you are living in the Gulag with the dogs trying to eat you.”
How is it that America wants to become the very thing we fought against so hard for so long?
Growing up I read Ayn Rand. I thought her Atlas Shrugged was an extremely polemic reaction to the nightmare of Communism she had escaped, much like my father. At the time I thought she was exaggerating the clumsy fashion in which the state plays silly word games with the law to whittle away at a country’s freedom bit by bit, demonizing success, wealth, and accomplishment. Rand kept warning about the selfless incompetent who means well, is swept to power by good intentions and promises of ‘fairness’, but ruins all they touch . I realize now, to my own horror, she wasn’t exaggerating. She wasn’t paranoid. She was remembering. She was writing from personal experience.
So now I watch the engine of the world slowing. I fear it will stop very soon.
Who is John Galt?
I did that to the flag on my desk at work the day the Roberts decision came out on Obamacare!
I was going to do it at my house after the election, but my flagpole is busted…and I dont think I’d have an appropriately sized flag anyway. But the thought was there!! The building closed where I was working, otherwise my flag would have been upside down there again.
joeldshore says:
November 10, 2012 at 7:59 pm
You do realize, don’t you, that if your disability prevents you from working enough to pay federal income tax then you count as one of the 47% who are “takers” in the statistic quoted by Romney and nearly everyone else who uses that term?
I don’t think you’re nearly as familiar with that quote as you think you are. Google is your friend.
Additionally, I’m fairly certain that a disabled veteran would not be among those that people who use the term would consider a taker. Assistance to him/her is an effort to repay a debt owed, and is accompanied by humble gratitude.
D Boehm: I am just connecting the dots. You have said: