There’s only one thing to do after Wednesday’s press conference by President-elect Donald Trump, and his Twitter tantrum, get out your American flag and fly it upside down on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.
It’s a drastic measure to be sure, and one that is frowned on, according to Reference.com, but it is a succinct, dramatic message to everyone that something is desperately amiss.
The American flag is only supposed to be hung upside down in a time of great distress. In most cases, people hang the flag upside down as a way to protest issues with the government. It is considered an exercise of the First Amendment right.
According to the United States Flag Code, hanging the flag upside down is a signal that the owner of the flag is in extreme danger. The person's life or property has to be threatened.
Why now and not in September of last year when a a 2005 tape of Trump emerged, in which he bragged that as a celebrity he can get away with anything, including grabbing a woman by her genitals?
Why now and not in December of 2015 when he called for a “A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” including those seeking tourist visas?
Because Trump is eight days away from stepping into the Oval Office and continues to make the kind of statements that prove he is unfit to serve. Because I can’t think of another time in our nation’s history when the country as a whole, and citizens as individuals, are in as much danger based on who is sitting in the Oval Office. Because Trump’s way of dealing with news reports he doesn’t like is to insult history, diminish humanity and attack the press.
Trump and President Obama were briefed by the intelligence agencies on unsubstantiated reports that the president-elect may have colluded with Russia and that Russia may have information leaving Trump open to blackmail. When word of this was got out, Trump responded thusly:
Trump’s go-to comparison for the leak of this embarrassing news was to suggest he was being singled out in the same way six million Jews were during WW II. You know, the six million who were walked into buildings expecting a shower and were then gassed to death. The six million who were shot or died from malnourishment or disease, and then were sent off to crematoriums.
Yeah, this is just like that.
And if that weren’t enough, he was miffed at two organizations, CNN and Buzzfeed, for writing more on the news than what he thought they should.
At his first press conference in months, President-elect Donald Trump refused to take a question from CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, calling the cable news channel "fake news." After Acosta and Trump sparred, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer threatened to throw Acosta out of the conference, concerning some journalists and free-press advocates.
“Your organization is terrible,” Trump shouted at Acosta during the conference, after Acosta tried to ask Trump a question. "I am not going to give you a question. You are fake news.”
Which brings me back to the flag.
Remember, “The American flag is only supposed to be hung upside down in a time of great distress”, according to the United States flag code. On Jan. 20, the country enters a heightened state of distress when Trump enters the Oval Office.
Hang your flag with pride that day, but turn it upside down; it will serve as a reminder that the country is both in distress and literally right side wrong.
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