ADDENDUM
The US military has long used football events as a recruiting tool or as propaganda for war. Military bands, honor guards and other “patriotic” ceremonies punctuate many games. No one dares to question this militarisation of a major sport. Extreme chauvinism is built into the fabric of football at all levels, becoming more self-conscious from high school on up. Here a group of Navy Seals—symbols of hypermachismo— parachute into a game.
Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found
In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone “play-crazy” -- acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon.However, the “play-crazy” gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That ain’t Donald Trump -- a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a “puppet” and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.— Glen Ford, Editor in Chief, Black Agenda Report
I will recount my experiences that I have previously noted on other postings. At a high school foot ball game of the past season, I was in attendance with my daughter (a southern neo con) to see a grandson play in the game. The stadium was filled to capacity in the home team section as the ritual National Anthem was played. I turned and placed a knee on the bleacher. The daughter says, ‘you are going to get killed’! While death by redneck is not my first choice, when you are approaching your ninth decade, there is not a lot… Read more »
“Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,” Yeats wrote in one of his greatest poems. And, indeed, we seem to be entering a period of anarchy: Left becomes Right; Right becomes Left; right and wrong are confused. Curtin tries to makes sense of this muddle here, and, as always (at least for the couple of years I’ve been attentive to his work), he admirably helps us all to achieve some clarity. When Kaepernick first took to his knee in protest, and there was a brouhaha about it, a relative of mine posted some disparaging remarks about him on Facebook. Gently,… Read more »