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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Since I am British, my view of Obama is irrelevant, but like a lot of Europeans, I cheered when he made it back to the White House. I don’t agree with Obama about climate change, but the previous Bush administration was dangerous, and ended up starting two wars it couldn’t win – basically through arrogance. Romney seemed to inherit some of that same gung-ho approach, so I still feel a lot safer with Obama in control!
A McDonalds in W. Virginia made the news on Yahoo for the same thing.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/upside-down-flag-west-virginia-mcdonald-raises-questions-154746450.html
Doug says:
It is very common here among those who hate democracy, particularly when it does not give them the answer THEY wanted.
You mean people like the founding fathers? You know, the guys who specifically did NOT implement a democracy in the United States, but rather a constitutional republic?
Please point out to me any reference to our form of government as a democracy in the founding documents. Let me save you some time: you can’t, because it’s not there, because our form of government is not a democracy…or at least it’s not supposed to be.
It has slowly crept into democracy over the years to the point now where the Constitution is only something to be used when advantageous to one’s political position and ignored when it is not. Where polling data determines outcomes more often than constitutionality. Where group identity politics takes precedence over individual rights.
Democracy is nothing more than mob rule and means that if 51 percent of the population decides that the other 49 percent should be enslaved…so be it.
Democracy is not something to be desired, emulated or held in esteem.
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” –Benjamin Franklin
Flying an inverted flag has real meaning – an urgent call for help. It should not be used as a silent protest, even if most of the population doesn’t know the real meaning and some non-trivial fraction doesn’t know which way is up.
@ur momisugly Mark W – On “bedroom” and reproductive issues, yeah I believe the government has no place being involved. That’s painting with a pretty broad brush if you think that alone paints me as being a capital L Liberal as Rush spits with such contempt.
Try not to exclude so much, people. You’ll win more elections that way.
Why is it OK to burn a US Flag in protest, but not fly one upside down?
In reality, the First Amendment protects both forms of protest and those who want to pick and chose how the First Amendment applies show how narrow minded they are.
John says:
November 9, 2012 at 8:50 am
People in the US are very divided politically — now there’s an insight! But in a democracy, just accept the result. The R party has painted itself into a corner, and they will continue to lose elections until they figure out how to attract larger numbers of women and Hispanics and young voters. That is just math.
This election was for the Rs to lose, what with the economic situation. The Rs also had a huge amount of money, counting the unaffiliated superPACs. But they still lost. LIke it or not, enough of country didn’t like what they saw, despite the economic situation.
In the meantime, as a result of the elections, some things will happen in the US that probably aren’t for the long term good of the country. But if we want to get a different result, the Rs have to appeal to a broader swath of people. That is the issue. What the Rs tried didn’t work — so how do they change it?
It worked very well in the House where they managed to retain their gains from 2010 by gerrymandering the districts despite losing voter share.
Personally, I feel as though the “fiscal cliff” isn’t high enough. The United States federal government has no business occupying over 20% of the nations GDP, certainly when 40% of that fraction is debt spending. We have no hope of ever getting that back and to continue on this path is insanity at best and “suicide of soveregnty” at worst.
I lay the blame at the feet of “We the people” because we are the MSM, we are the unions, we are the beauracracy, ad infinitum.
The cliff is too short because it does not pull from the taxpayers teat those who are educated or trained in a trade or craft, healthy, and unemployed. Demand something of the rest who are in any way capable even if it is painting grafitti and picking up cigarette butts at red lights and stop signs. Birth control?, yes – while you are receiving taxpayers dollars for the majority of your subsistence. Drug testing? yes – while you are receiving taxpayer dollars for the majority of your subsistence. Crime? thugs receiving taxpayers money go directly to an Angola Prison Farm like institute without TV, A/C, weight piles, etc. you work for your meals, and escape means you go through gator infested, mosquito and cottonmouth ridden swamps, swimming a few rivers to even get near something resembling civilisation. I’d apply these terms from 10 year olds to 100 year olds.
People hungry for food will eventually do something other than rape, steal from, and kill each other for their latest addiction.
The government teat needs a mastectomy before this nation can begin healing from its addiction.
Like a previous poster – these are my own opinions and do not represent those of any institution I am affiliated with.
The polarization I see in the U.S.A. is beginning to exhibit an extremist un-civil nature. The last time Americans got un-civil they tried to solve tier differences with a civil war. Civil wars are anything but civil, I suggest Americans drop the extremist individualism of the frontier. You now live in a crowded nation (the frontier is gone) and are going to have to work together in some sort of social tolerant manner.
It took us 13 years up here in the Frozen North to turn the ship of state, and we’re politically a 10th the size of the US. It will take us a generation (or more) to purge the system of those high on OPM*.
The one bright light in the American electoral system is that you built a kill switch into your command structure. Obama can’t come back after his term ends, unless, of course, he figures out how to make an Executive Order proclaiming otherwise stick. I understand that’s high on Eric Holder’s priority list..
* “high on OPM”. pronounced “opium” (of course) Other People’s Money. (c)2011 P.Coppin
/sarc
I don’t think there’s a necessary connection between views on science and on politics. Many great scientists were liberal-leftish (Feynman, Haldane, Medawar spring to mind immediately) while others were more conservative (Planck, for example). In Britain, I support the Labour Party, but over the last six years or so I’ve paid real attention to the science of climate and come to a highly sceptical view on CAGW. Whatever shade of politics one has, or a government has, we all need the best technical and scientific knowledge. As a friendly comment, one I’ve made to American friends, from a European perspective (or from that of the history of political thought), US Dems and Reps are just two slightly different shades of blue. The difference is important (in Britain the difference between Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher was important), but why exaggerate it?
Wait till America sees what our greedy climate science friends/advocates/academics have in store for us. To them, there is no recession in the climate industry, where money grows on trees…
Prepare for the carbon tax folks…
“I still feel a lot safer with Obama in control!”
Yes, the world is about as safe with Obama now as Great Britain was with Neville Chamberlain in 1938.
Brian says:
November 9, 2012 at 9:32 am
“I was not going to happy regardless of who won, but at least that casino mogul lost millions of dollars trying to buy the election.”
Yes – that casino mogul was outbid by George Soros and those guys from Facebook and Google..
DesertYote says:
November 9, 2012 at 9:59 am
“Its so bad, that most Republicans themselves are entrapped within a Marxist world-view and don’t even know it.”
Very true to many people think that somehow republicans are a counter balance to democrats when in reality they are just less extreme demanding socialism. The party mottos really should be Democrats:”Socialism/Communism NOW”, Republicans: “Socialism for your grand kids”.
Sun Spot says:
November 9, 2012 at 10:34 am
“I suggest Americans drop the extremist individualism of the frontier.” Yes lets all be sheep like the euros who have to under under american’s skirt every time something happens. Who’s skirt will american hide under?
The moment that the US becomes socialist was the moment the EU and euro in general died. I hope the euros enjoy the fruits of the seeds they have sown.
The time was before November 6. Now we only have to bet on the date.
At 10:34 AM on 9 November, Sun Spot demonstrates gaudy historical illiteracy, writing:
The War of Northern Aggression (1861-65) was waged not as a civil war (the people of the southern states had no desire to take over the federal government) but unarguably as a war to impose the Morrill Tariff (see Lincoln’s first inaugural address) upon the import-dependent economies of those southern states.
As it becomes increasingly plain that our federal government is in the hands of the identified political faction bent upon the devastation of our national economy, and that their alleged “opposition” is either impotent to halt these impositions or is actually in collusion with them, the productive sector of our society might well evince its desperation in more than symbolic gestures like flying the national colors upside-down.
page488 says:
November 9, 2012 at 8:22 am
I’ve seen it, too, here and there. I suppose it’s a statement.
For Dave Burton who said, “Those folks fly an American flag on a flagpole in their front yard. Only Republicans do that.”
What irony, Dave; I infer that you are saying that those who want the most of America’s free gifts refuse to fly the flag, and those who get to pay for them fly it proudly.
You appear to have that backwards, it’s the ‘blue’ states that subsidize the ‘red’ states
http://thecentristword.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/red-state-socialism.jpg?w=640&h=470
Sailorcurt says:
November 9, 2012 at 10:05 am
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” –Benjamin Franklin
===================
Thanks, never heard that one before.
The Vendee Globe starts tomorrow, eh.
@LKMiller – John Galt is one of the main characters in Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged. I’ve never read the book; you might check the Wikipedia entry for him (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Galt). The “Cultural significance” section of the entry explains the phrase “going Galt” (which I’ve been seeing pop up here and there since the election).
Also, Anthony – as a lifelong Republican, I second mojomojo’s comments above from the other side of the aisle.
I agree with the caveats about this blog post Anthony: I don’t think a lot of the more partisan responses here are going to do WUWT any favours in regards to being taken seriously by left-leaning potential sceptics.
I keep trying to persuade everyone to keep politics out of the climate debate – most of my friends are leftists. I’ve linked a load of articles from here in various places following Sandy, in an effort to persuade such people that that event has nothing to do with AGW. But if any of those people who might wish to read those pieces were to come here today and read this stuff above, they would not bother reading here any more
As for the election result: it was Obama’s to lose, but the GOP selected as their candidate a stonking hypocrite, an animal abuser, a man who spoke out of both sides of his mouth. A man with no conception of how ordinary people live, who relied on the far right and the religious right for his core support. Statements about women from his team alienated even women of their own political persuasion.
One of my more intelligent Republican friends – a woman – remarked some weeks ago that Romney was unelectable, and so it proved. The GOP has only itself to blame for missing the open goal: with a less divisive candidate they’d have walked this.
@LKMiller – John Galt is a main character in Ayn Rand’s book “Atlas Shrugged”. It’s from his actions in the book that we get the phrase “going Galt”, which I’ve been hearing a fair bit since the election. You might check out the Wikipedia entry for him, or just Google “going Galt”.
@mojomojo – as a lifelong Republican, in the spirit of bipartisanship I stand up on the other side of the aisle and heartily second your appreciation and commendation to Anthony.
(apologies, all, for the redundancy – I had a computer “burp”, didn’t see my first comment and thought it had gotten lost, only to see it pop up AFTER I had reposted)
Makes one appreciate the simplicity of design of the Japanese flag 😉
I never hear politicians that I totally agree with on a matter. But I think of it this way: Being a politician is an unthankful task. They try to achieve some goals which in their minds are good, but people will yell back at them no matter what. So, obviously, noone truly intelligent will do this. But I’m glad there are people who volunteer for the job. The implication that their ideas are less than brilliant is an acceptable price in my opinion.