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?
“””””…..ColdOldMan says:
November 9, 2012 at 12:40 pm
ujagoff says:
November 9, 2012 at 9:17 am
I’m a hardcore climate skeptic who visits this site daily and quotes it and links to it in my frequent arguments against the CAGW faithful.
…………………..
Over here, we don’t hold the flag in quite the same reverence as you Americans. No one sings the National Anthem at the start or end of the school day (not sure if you still do that). As another Brit mentioned, few British people would know if the Union Flag is upside down or not.
Well there’s more to it (the Union Jack) than simply getting it the correct side up.
You also have to get it end to end correct, just in case you have one, without attchments to tell you.
And I guess neither you or the other “British chap” bothered to mention, which way up is correct, thereby indicating by default, that you don’t know either.
It’s only a part of my colonial flag, but even I know that it is to be flown with the edge nearest the flagstaff, having the wider white cross portion upwards.
It is actually quite symmetrical up or down, so long as you attach it to the flagstaff, at the correct edge.
Well I suppose, you could check on Giggle, or Wiki-goodluck! just in case you never learnt it in school.
Has anyone bothered to check if — just maybe — the folks displaying the flag upside down might actually be in dire distress and not making a political statement?
I have not seen it in my seaside town but will be more observant as I drive around. I agree with the message it conveys.
Bill
After Clinton was elected (or maybe re-elected?) I heard of a few people flying the flag upside down but not at half-staff.
WUWT says: “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?”
Yes, I saw a flag at half mast and upside down on my walk yesterday here in Washington State.
Since the election results were announced, I have been wearing black clothing. I don’t know when I might stop….
It isn’t because I want to be part of a fad. It was a spontaneous personal choice, made when I arose at 5:00am Wednesday morning Nov. 7th. It welled up out of me, from a deep sense of personal loss and mourning. You see, my country, The United States Of America, is dying. It is slowly suffocating under the relentless constrictions of a world spanning python called socialism. My country’s death is being applauded and hastened by enemies, both foreign and domestic. As such, flying the Stars and Stripes inverted as a distress signal seems entirely appropriate to me. It is precisely the correct signal.
If you feel the need to denigrate the deeply felt loss of our country by myself and the many others who loved and aided her past soaring achievements while clearly see her currently accelerating downward spiral, please feel free to express yourself in the most hate filled and insulting ways possible. I doubt you can achieve worse than what has already been excreted by ‘the winners’.
Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do…
My deepest sympathies to those who feel our mutual loss,
MtK
ujagoff says:
How can I see these words and still honestly believe the side I’ve believed is the one without predetermined bias is actually so?
Given your statements about “not watching Fox”, it seems that perhaps you have some predetermined bias of your own?
I get my news from various sources. Fox is one of them. I do this so I can get an unbiased look at things. I refuse to rule out a source just because of my biases.
Mac the Knife says:
November 9, 2012 at 1:17 pm
Although I am not wearing black I have the inner feeling you describe. Well said. The creep of socialism is slowing choking us.
Listen, you patronising …., I know full well how to hang the Union Flag. I did it often enough during my spell in the Royal Corps of Signals.
I’ll stop writing now as my hands are shaking in anger and I prefer to leave Anthony’s threads clean of insults. That’s a negative pathway, anyway.
“That may be so, but the fact is that half the country pays no federal income taxes. Therefore, they are “takers.”
Interesting notion, extending it, the bedrock GOP red states receive more federal dollars than they pay. Therefore, the red states are “takers”.
Many of your “takers” vote Republican, and so the whole notion is silly.
Yes, this is protest and protected speech.
Or it used to be. Protest and protected speech only apply when the Republican’s are in power. If the Democrats are in power, it’s hate speech that should be censored.
BTW: My homeowner’s association won’t let my fly and empty chair upside down. Will the ACLU take up my case?
“As such, flying the Stars and Stripes inverted as a distress signal seems entirely appropriate to me. It is precisely the correct signal.”
No. If Romney was elected the USA would be heading on more or less precisely the same path.
Yet there would be no upside-down flags. There were none during the Bush administration.
Hence, the flags signify that they are in distress that their guy isn’t in the White House.
BTW: Sunday is the official Veteran’s Day in the USA (Monday is the observed day). Please fly your flags on Sunday in honor of our veteran’s, especially those who lost life and limb to protecting our freedoms.
D Böehm says:
“… the fact is that half the country pays no federal income taxes. Therefore, they are “takers.” QED”
welcome to the ministry of truth. fallacy much?
those evading plunder by the state are ‘takers’?
in truth, those who pay are accomplices in the destruction of the country.
all accomplices are guilty and they wish to hide from that
how does submission absolve them responsibility for themselves?
santa claus is a kindergarten notion that is usually replaced by the high school level notion of ‘voting’. adulthood consists of shedding all forms of mysticism for responsibility.
I can safely say that no one in Newport Beach, CA is flying the flag upside down.
We all know that nothing politically has changed. Its still gridlock.
Regards,
John from CA
The USA is a republic, not a democracy. Why is it you leftists label everything that disagrees with your agenda as hate?
Mac the Knife says:
November 9, 2012 at 1:17 pm
========================
Well said.
Speaking as an Englishman, it hurts me to see the USA taking the same route to self-inflicted destruction that the UK and much of the rest of Europe have been walking down for some years. I’m 61, so brought up on the American Dream as seen from this side of the pond (Bilko, Ed the Talking Horse, Elvis, Chuck, Rocketman, Flash Gordon and co.). It seems appropriate to mourn. The flag flown thus seems an appropriate symbol.
@george e. smith says…
“Union Flag” on land
“Union Jack” at sea!
Thomas T,
When an individual takes public monies and pays no taxes, they are by definition takers. It seems you cannot understand that simple concept. Why not? That tax situation has been discussed here occasionally over the past few years, and you are the first I’ve seen dispute that basic truth.
Thomas T. says:
November 9, 2012 at 1:38 pm
“Interesting notion, extending it, the bedrock GOP red states receive more federal dollars than they pay. Therefore, the red states are “takers”. ”
This propaganda has long be dis-proven.
“Yet there would be no upside-down flags. There were none during the Bush administration.”
As was commented earlier in this thread…. democrats don’t hang US flags hehe.
With a National Debt of 16 trillion Dollars, it seems quite reasonable and sensible to fly your flag as a sign of distress. Please send money now.
Around here it shows up on homes in foreclosure.
Thomas T. says:
November 9, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Now you declare yourself to be prescient and all seeing, including of future potentials that can not occur? That is the height of arrogance and ignorance. Shameful…….
Father, forgive Thomas T., even though he knows what wrong he is doing…
MtK
Thomas T. says:
November 9, 2012 at 1:42 pm
“As such, flying the Stars and Stripes inverted as a distress signal seems entirely appropriate to me. It is precisely the correct signal.”
“No. If Romney was elected the USA would be heading on more or less precisely the same path.
Yet there would be no upside-down flags. There were none during the Bush administration.
Hence, the flags signify that they are in distress that their guy isn’t in the White House.”
If you believe this, you haven’t been paying attention the past 4 years. President Obama is peerless in his systematic shredding of the Constitution. There are plenty of examples, but let’s start with legislating from the Executive Branch by the abuse of Executive Orders – Obama didn’t like that Congress rejected the Dream Act, so poof, by Executive Order, we now have a de facto Dream Act.
The Constitution clearly lays out limited and divided powers, and legislating ain’t one of the powers of the Executive Branch.
The Romney administration, from day one, would have put an end to such abuse of our founding document. Now that Obama is a lame duck and unencumbered by another election, there are no restraints remaining to keep him from tossing the Constitution onto the bonfire.
If that is the country you want, God help us all.