Your friend Jim George thinks you'd be a great addition to Ricochet, so we'd like to offer you a special deal: You can become a member for no initial charge for one month!
Ricochet is a community of like-minded people who enjoy writing about and discussing politics (usually of the center-right nature), culture, sports, history, and just about every other topic under the sun in a fully moderated environment. We’re so sure you’ll like Ricochet, we’ll let you join and get your first month for free. Kick the tires: read the always eclectic member feed, write some posts, join discussions, participate in a live chat or two, and listen to a few of our over 50 (free) podcasts on every conceivable topic, hosted by some of the biggest names on the right, for 30 days on us. We’re confident you’re gonna love it.
American Legion “scolded” President Trump into issuing a proclamation to re-lower the flags. But, what are the rules? Would President Trump break the flag etiquette rules out of personal animus? If facts matter to you, the answer is readily at hand.
Unfortunately, Trump will be criticized by certain people no matter what he does. We’ve entered a fact free world where Trump follows protocol, and is accused by petty people of not following the norms.
Once again the people protest when they have no idea what they’re talking about. It sounds like it’s possible that the Left and Right made a fuss. So much for the rules.
“Play Stormy For Me.”
I never once thought that the president himself would be making the decision on this. This seems like some assistant deputy undersecretary of the interior for protocol and ceremony would be making these decisions.
Obama made the important decisions of lighting up the WH in purple after Prince’s death and rainbow colors after our SC rulers decided what marriage will be until the penumbras change again.
OK, I’m going to rationalize a brief hijack here–I love that movie because: 1) Clint 2) In days of old being a night jazz DJ was the bomb, and 3) the California of old shown by his incredible drive to work at the beginning. Heading for my Blu-Ray copy now.
Per the terms of the governing document, no one needed to make a decision. The whole point was to end ad hoc and inequitable decisions, replacing them with a clear set of rules. The Department of the Interior is not in the decision loop at all. A presidential proclamation is only needed for those who do not clearly fall under the rules. From Presidential Proclamation 3044:
Oh, since Congress and the Supreme Court are co-equal with the Executive, they are perfectly entitled to set their own rules for honoring their own members. That is, it would make perfect sense for the flag over the U.S. Capitol Building to be at half-staff for longer than Executive branch buildings, including the White House, as Congress chose to reflect a period of mourning internally.
I think it goes without saying that the big 0 is a classless, aggrandizing, publicity-seeking twerp.
Yep. Most likely someone would simply inform the President of this in a quick bullet along with the rest of their update at a staff meeting.
By the way…
Jargon alert!!!!!!
What do you think the standard term would be? It appears the term became a lower case noun despite the original trademark.
Trump broke flag code. Being from Russia how was he to know? Maybe we should have a inquisitor investigate so they can find out if anybody that got close to Trump has a process crime in their past. Or maybe we should just impeach Trump for being a cad.
That is how most business and administrations would be ran but we know by the media and all their unconfirmed secret sources that Trump stalks around the White House by himself plotting revenge on his enemies while fearing mutiny
I’d be willing to bet none of them will notice, let alone complain.
This was a very interesting post. Thank you.
I have edited this post by adding a paragraph suggesting that this might be a good occasion to revise current guidance, to add honors for American Ex-Prisoners of War and Medal of Honor recipients. Take the ad hoc change for Senator McCain and make it part of the new rule.
It reminds me over the agrle-bargle when princess
fluffheadDiana was killed by a drunk. People complained that the flags at Buckingham Palace were not at half-staff, though they had no idea what the flags were for.If you make enough people eligible for half-staff honors, you might as well fly the flag at half-staff permanently.
No, because then you’d have to do it for John Kerry.
I’m no flag waver and didn’t even fly the flag after 9/11. But it bothers me that some people like to see our flag at half staff so much. I suspect that some people see it as second best to flying the white flag.
I never served in the military and am not likely to go out in some act of heroism in defense of our country. It’s already too late for me to stop nationalized health care. But if I did go down fighting, I’d want our flag to keep flying high. Half-staff looks too much like defeat.
But other people look at the symbolism differently, and have more of a claim than I to decide how it should be interpreted.
And yet some of those doing the grousing would probably help with a flag burning and see nothing wrong with kneeling for the national anthem.
A crawl. That’s what I always heard in the 70s and 80s.
Kerry was a POW? He received the MOH?
ETA: I think you mean Bob Kerrey, U.S. Senator from Nebraska who received the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.
You are correct, I confused the Kerrys.
And I guess we still have to do the flag thing for John Kerry because he was a Senator. Dang it.
I see flags at half-mast too often. Essentially, it represents mourning of a national tragedy. The dying of a Senator is not equivalent to a Pearl Harbor or 9-11; nor is some random shooting that happens every year. One should not expect to see the flag at half-mast even once per year.
That proclamation by President Eisenhower makes it more a tribute to lifelong politicians. To heck with that.
While Trump might have been justified technically in refusing to lower the flag, he was amazingly tone-deaf.
To paraphrase the above comment, Trump was a classless, aggrandizing, publicity-seeking twerp.
What you are saying only makes any sense whatsoever if you can show that Trump personally ordered a change in the Flag, the same way Obama is said to have personally ordered the lighting of the White House.
Otherwise your argument is that Trump is classless, ect. because a low level functionary followed the rules. In that case, if anything, Trump showed class by bending the rule to honor McCain.
Trump doesn’t follow the rules or norms and he is an idiot or wildcard or Authoritarian. Trump follows the rules he is a classless twerp. Nice catch 22 you set up there so that Trump is always wrong, even if he had nothing to do with the “wrong”
John Kerry is not a Senator. He is a former Senator. Only those who held specific senior leadership positions are entitled to honors after serving. Perhaps this is a small factor in Senators clinging to office through failing health. The word “former” is used deliberately and selectively in the Eisenhower presidential proclamation.
He didn’t refuse to lower it. I heard it was lowered the two days per established protocol. They are upset he followed protocol rather than issue an edict letting it stay up longer.
This is protocol madness. We honor Congressmen, but, as free people, shouldn’t worship and exalt the powerful. It is ok with me to lower the flag to half staff longer, not because he was a politician, but because he was a war hero. Besides, it gives the Dems a couple more days to finally get around to recognizing his wartime heroics. By raising the flag after the normal 2 days, the White House also hoisted the deranged Democrats & Never Trumpers on their own petard.
The never-Trumpers need to refuel their tanks every once in a while, so they’ll seize every opportunity to make a post critizing our duly elected President, non-interfered with by Russians (according to Rosenstein himself) . . .