Trump proposes year in prison for blasphemy

[Left Coast]

Oh, but it is working.

Spectacularly too I might add when you see the obvious hypocrisy of it all play out in real life for all the world to see.

You see I, as well as others I'm sure, don't particularly like when people accuse others of some manner of indiscretion and then do the same things themselves, while denying they are like those that they accuse.

Which was the entire point of my first post in this thread. People who claim to be staunch free speechists then clamming up and even voting for a guy who wants to jail people for flag burning is the height of hypocrisy.

So, you agree with me?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Which was the entire point of my first post in this thread. People who claim to be staunch free speechists then clamming up and even voting for a guy who wants to jail people for flag burning is the height of hypocrisy.

So, you agree with me?

Of course I agree. Just as long as people don't turn around and renege in kind if it just so happens that the tables get turned around.

Of course it's also never wise to vote entirely on just one issue anyways just because you're made to feel guilty about something.

Maybe in that context we're all stuck as being hypocrites. Damned-if-you-do damned-if-you-don't situation. ;O)

 

[Left Coast]

Of course I agree. Just as long as people don't turn around and renege in kind if it just so happens that the tables get turned around.

Of course it's also never wise to vote entirely on just one issue anyways just because you're made to feel guilty about something.

Maybe in that context we're all stuck as being hypocrites. Damned-if-you-do damned-if-you-don't situation. ;O)

If I'm being a hypocrite, I want to know and change my behavior accordingly. I hope conservatives would like the same. A few of them still oppose Trump, so perhaps there is some intellectual consistency left in the bunch. Hope springs eternal.

 

[Twilight Hue]

If I'm being a hypocrite, I want to know and change my behavior accordingly. I hope conservatives would like the same. A few of them still oppose Trump, so perhaps there is some intellectual consistency left in the bunch. Hope springs eternal.

I don't think nobody should go to jail just for burning a flag no matter what it is or what it stands for. In that regard, I would be against Trump on it. Trump's proposals would be the antecedent of what it means to be in a free Nation.

But to see people being jailed for doing the same thing by those that accuse Trump of proposing makes the whole thing disingenuous especially if they support their own side when the same exact thing is carried out on the other side.

Stop making laws and jailing people for proposed hate crimes by burning iconic imagery and objects and this argument over condemning Trump's own proposals might actually garner a little bit more respect and support if it wasn't so hypocritical.

You know, walk the talk and all that.

 

[Left Coast]

I don't think nobody should go to jail just for burning a flag no matter what it is or what it stands for. In that regard, I would be against Trump on it. Trump's proposals would be the antecedent of what it means to be in a free Nation.

But to see people being jailed for doing the same thing by those that accuse Trump of proposing makes the whole thing disingenuous especially if they support their own side when the same exact thing is carried out on the other side.

Who is doing that?

Stop making laws and jailing people for proposed hate crimes by burning iconic imagery and objects and this argument over condemning Trump's own proposals might actually garner a little bit more respect and support if it wasn't so hypocritical.

Are you talking about tearing down Confederate monuments? I'm not seeing the hypocrisy.

 

[SomeRandom]

I always thought of it more as a kind chaotic, nihilistic mobsterism. They're not disciplined, organized, or spartan enough to be considered fascists. Our political culture is completely devoid of any principles, other than "he who dies with the most toys wins."

I mean I guess. But even your liberal party looks pretty conservative, if I’m honest.

 

[Wandering Monk]

‘President Donald Trump suggested passing a law to make the burning of illegal flags during his speech at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, lamenting the demonstrations he saw throughout the country...

...Trump told his supporters gathering in a half-filled arena.

“And you know, we have to do something, Mr. Senator, we have two big senators, we have to make a law that if you burn the American flag, you go to prison for one year,” added the president, turning to Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe and James Lankford. “Jim and James, you know we have to do it. You know, they talk about free speech, and I believe in free speech. But that is blasphemy.”

Read more here: Trump proposes making illegal flag burning, calling it “blasphemy”

Erm...there are already laws on the books about this:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/700

 

[MonkeyFire]

Well then stop ruining our country.

 

[Wandering Monk]

Reacting to protests during the Vietnam War era, the United States 90th Congress enacted Public Law 90-381 (82 Stat. 291), later codified as 18 U.S.C. 700, et. seq., and better known as the Flag Protection Act of 1968. It was an expansion to nationwide applicability of a 1947 law previously restricted only to the District of Columbia (See 61 Stat. 642).

In 1989, the 101st Congress amended that statute with Public Law 101-131 (103 Stat. 777). These amendments to the statute were in response to the United States Supreme Court's ruling that year in the case of Texas v. Johnson (491 U.S. 397). On June 11, 1990, the Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Eichman struck down the Flag Protection Act, ruling again that the government's interest in preserving the flag as a symbol does not outweigh the individual's First Amendment right to disparage that symbol through expressive conduct.[1]
​

Flag Protection Act - Wikipedia

The 90th Congress: has both chambers Democrat, President Democrat
The 101st Congress: both chambers Democrat, president Republican

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I wonder how many other countries there are where the citizens burn their own flags?

It happens here (Australia) occasionally, and it's not illegal.
However, it is generally something that will receive bad press, and the police have been known to charge people doing it with other (related) offences around 'disturbing the peace' or breaching total fire bans (which are a pretty big thing here due to our bushfires, etc).

(just FYI)

 

[Valjean]

Strange that the principles for which the flag stands are held in little regard, while any slight to the symbol of those principles engenders outrage.

 

[ecco]

This should be punishable by a year in prison...

This should be punishable by a year in prison...

This should be punishable by a year in prison...

 

[halbhh]

‘President Donald Trump suggested passing a law to make the burning of illegal flags during his speech at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, lamenting the demonstrations he saw throughout the country...

...Trump told his supporters gathering in a half-filled arena.

“And you know, we have to do something, Mr. Senator, we have two big senators, we have to make a law that if you burn the American flag, you go to prison for one year,” added the president, turning to Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe and James Lankford. “Jim and James, you know we have to do it. You know, they talk about free speech, and I believe in free speech. But that is blasphemy.”

Read more here: Trump proposes making illegal flag burning, calling it “blasphemy”

Wow....

If anyone didn't think that new religion Trump is touting should be called "Christian Nationalism" or some other new moniker to distinguish it clearly from Christianity, this should help: the national flag as a key religious symbol....