Colin Kaepernick wins Amnesty International's most prestige award.

Courtesy of Time Magazine:  

Colin Kaepernick may not have a job on the football field, but much of the world is still cheering for him. 

Amnesty International, the global human rights organization, gave Kaepernick its highest honor — the 2018 Ambassador of Conscience Award — in Amsterdam on Saturday. Past winners of the award, which “celebrates individuals and groups who speak out for justice,” include former South Africa president Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, the education activist from Pakistan who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, and rock group U2. 

The organization recognized Kaepernick for his protest against police violence: his action, kneeling during the national anthem before NFL games, sparked a movement replicated across America and the world, starting a debate about free speech and patriotism that was inflamed by the President of the United States, one of Kaepernick’s most relentless critics. 

“When high-profile people choose to take a stand for human rights, it emboldens others,” says Augusta Quiney, Amnesty International’s director of Art for Amnesty, a program that works with artists and entertainers on human rights activism. “For us, this is an opportunity to be on the right side of history.”

By the way they don't mention it very much in the new but athletes are still taking a knee all over the country.

And that includes ex-athletes.

#ThursdayThoughts This is why I #TakeAKnee #StephonClark pic.twitter.com/XMe9qSLzMY

— TheBillRussell (@RealBillRussell) March 30, 2018

Colin Kaepernick may have lost the opportunity to play for the NFL forever as far as we know.

But being remembered in the fight for justice is far more prestigious than being remembered for passes thrown or touchdowns scored anytime.

Well, at least in my book. 

Time Magazine chooses its "Person of the Year." It ain't Donald Trump.

Courtesy of NPR: 

#MeToo rose to prominence as a social media campaign in the wake of high-profile accusations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. After actress Alyssa Milano popularized the hashtag, thousands of women began sharing their stories about the pervasive damage wrought by sexual harassment and by "open secrets" about abuse. 

The movement's empowering reach could be seen in the platform on which Time announced its choice: the Today show. It was just one week ago that NBC fired the morning program's longtime and powerful co-host, Matt Lauer, over a detailed complaint of "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace." 

While the most high-profile #MeToo stories have come from women and men who work in the movies and media, the Time article also features women who work hourly jobs, some of whom want to remain anonymous. The magazine's cover portrait includes strawberry picker Isabel Pascual, lobbyist Adama Iwu and former Uber engineer Susan Fowler along with Ashley Judd and Taylor Swift. 

"The reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries," Time's Stephanie Zacharek, Eliana Dockterman and Haley Sweetland Edwards write. "Women have had it with bosses and coworkers who not only cross boundaries but don't even seem to know that boundaries exist."

Actually when you think about it, and take into consideration how effective this movement has become, it would be an injustice to have given this honor to anybody else.

And that includes Donald Trump who, while he certainly has had a massive impact on the world, has been overshadowed by this movement which some day may even claim his wild unkempt mane among the scalps that it takes.

Speaking of Donald Trump's disappointment he will surely not be terribly happy that another foe of his was also honored recently.

Courtesy of Sports Illustrated:  

After he accepted Sports Illustrated's Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick said he will continue combating racial injustice in America whether or not he returns to the NFL. 

"I say this as a person who receives credit for using my platform to protest systemic oppression, racialized injustice and and the dire consequences of anti-blackness in America," Kaepernick said at SI's Sportsperson of the Year ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. 

"I accept this award not for myself, but on behalf of the people. Because if it were not for my love of the people, I would not have protested. And if it was not for the support from the people, I would not be on this stage today. 

"With our without the NFL's platform, I will continue to work for the people because my platform is the people." 

Yeah, Trump's Twitter fingers must be aching to respond to all of this.

#MeToo movement is in the running for Time's Person of the Year.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Time magazine’s shortlist for the 2017 Person of the Year was announced on the “Today” show on Monday, and the #MeToo movement is in the running.

Time has been selecting a Person of the Year since 1927, using the title to recognize “the person or group of people who most influenced the news during the past year, for better or for worse.” 

This year’s list is a smattering of everyone from business moguls to world leaders to political movements. The finalists are:

• Colin Kaepernick 
• Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 
• Donald Trump 
• The Dreamers 
• Jeff Bezos 
• Kim Jong Un 
• The #MeToo movement 
• Patty Jenkins 
• Robert Mueller 
• Xi Jinping

Okay let me just say that if the #MeToo campaign beats out Donald Trump for this award, that Trump will quite literally lose his shit.

And since I imagine that all of Trump's accusers will be included in the accompanying article, his twitter response will be epic indeed. 

Actually if Kaepernick, The Dreamers, or Robert Mueller win it will also inspire a fairly awesome response from Tangerine Twitler.

So I would be good with those as well.

Conservative boycott of GQ Magazine to happen in 3..2..1.

.@GQMagazine names Colin Kaepernick its Citizen of the Year. pic.twitter.com/7Vnw7Dx9A7

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 13, 2017

Courtesy of GQ:  

Much has changed in the four years since Colin Kaepernick was last on the cover of GQ. Back then he was a rippling superhero of a quarterback on the rise. But a simple act—kneeling during the national anthem—changed everything. It cost him his job. It also transformed Colin Kaepernick into a lightning rod and a powerful symbol of activism and resistance. 

Though Colin Kaepernick continues his silent protest, he agreed to collaborate with GQ on a special project for our December Men of the Year issue in an effort to, as the piece explains, "reclaim the narrative of his protest." He helped us assemble a ten-person team of his closest confidants—including rapper J.Cole, director Ava DuVernay, activist Harry Belafonte, and Women’s March co-organizer Linda Sarsour—to speak on the subjects of activism, protest, and equality, and to offer some rare insights into Colin Kaepernick himself.

I am guessing that Donald Trump will not be gracing the cover of GQ any time soon.  

Sarah Palin pulls article from her website critical of Colin Kaepernick, blames others.

Courtesy of TMZ:

Sarah Palin has removed an article from her website criticizing Colin Kaepernick's $50,000 donation to Meals on Wheels ... and we're told the post is NOT in line with the former governor's beliefs. 

As we previously reported, a story went up on SarahPalin.com Wednesday morning titled, "SERIOUSLY? Colin Kaepernick Just Pulled ANOTHER Political Stunt." 

The article was NOT written by Palin -- but it was posted on Sarah's official Facebook page with a comment saying, "And he wonders why he can't find a job." 

Now, we're told Sarah did NOT have a personal role in greenlighting the story, posting it on her site or Facebook page, or adding the additional comment. 

One source familiar with the situation tells us, "This is not a view that Governor Palin holds. She has a long history of volunteering for Meals on Wheels and donating to them." 

"This was an opinion by a contributor to sarahpalin.com and as has since been removed."

First off I have NEVER any evidence of Sarah Palin volunteering to help Meals on Wheels.

Secondly I am really loving the fact that Palin is being called out for having a website that she is not even smart or talented enough to maintain on her own.

Thirdly this post sounds SO MUCH like something Sarah Palin would have okayed that I am having a hard time believing she did not give it her hoofprint of approval.

Personally I think that if she had not been excoriated for this post it would still be up over at sarahpalin.com.

imagine being so racist you get mad a black athlete for donating to meals on wheels https://t.co/wIEa4RBK3s

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) March 22, 2017

Anybody of a differing opinion?

Trevor Noah interviews conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren. Perhaps his best interview so far.

Courtesy of the Business Insider: 

Conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren appeared for an interview on Trevor Noah's "The Daily Show," and it immediately turned confrontational as Noah asked Lahren to explain her positions. 

"Why are you so angry?" Noah asked Lahren to start after showing a clip of the conservative host for TheBlaze railing against protesters of President-elect Donald Trump in the days after Trump won the election. 

After saying she wasn't actually angry, Lahren said, "Sometimes people just need to be called on their s---." 

The nearly 30-minute interview covered a lot of political and cultural ground including Lahren's conflicted response to Trump's lewd "Access Hollywood" tape, Colin Kaepernick, Black Lives Matter, and the "shake-up" Lahren has said Trump will bring to Washington, DC.

This bleached blonde bimbette is so ignorant and filled with conservative rage that it hurts my brain to listen to the garbage that falls out of her mouth.

However I thought that Noah did a very good job with this interview.

One of the things that I have missed the most since Jon Stewart left was his incredibly ability to interview people and get to the meat of their disagreements without denigrating them or attacking them personally.

This is the first time I have seen Noah demonstrate that skill set.

There was a point at the end of this interview that made me literally cringe.

In response to Noah's question about how black Americans should protest, she says this:

"I being a woman, I didn't have rights until after black people, until women got the right to vote. But because I feel I'm a woman, and I am marginalized in some way, I do not protest my country.....I don't protest, I'm not a victim."

OMFG!

This Lahren woman has NO idea how women, who she is very correct could not vote until 1920, got that right to vote.

They got the right because THEY PROTESTED THEIR COUNTRY!

In fact every fucking right this bleached barbie enjoys was earned on the backs of citizens who not only fought oppression and died during a war, but also protested in the streets against business, religious, and government powers who did not believe they deserved the same rights as the white Christian men who made the laws.

I think this entitled piece of conservative fluff, literally thinks that she has the job that she has solely based on her talent, and that she owes NOTHING to the woman who protested for her right to have a job in field that only thirty or forty years ago was a boys only club.

In reality she is nothing more than a younger, thinner version of a know nothing Sarah Palin, who spouts conservative talking points when you pull her string, and gets to be on television because men like to watch her rants with their hands down their pants.

She is an embarrassment to women every where, and she is too ignorant and self righteous to realize it.

The Kaepernick effect is now spreading to the military.

Of course this did not exactly fly with the military.

Courtesy of Military.com:

Intelligence Specialist 2nd Class Janaye Ervin, a reservist on active duty within U.S. Pacific Fleet, is subject to administrative actions, still under review, for refusing to stand for the national anthem while in uniform Sept. 19, Bill Doughty, a spokesman for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Public Affairs told Military.com.

According to activist and New York Daily News reporter Shaun King, who publicized Ervin's case on Twitter along with a Change.org petition supporting her, Ervin said she lost her security clearance and was threatened with jail by the Navy in response to her actions.

Okay that takes guts to take a stand like this while in the military and knowing how it might affect your career.

In the world of sports of course the Kaepernick effect is spreading like wildfire despite attempts to punish players and attack their motives.

Personally I am thrilled that people are breaking from the herd and standing up for their beliefs.

As a progressive I feel that the more people stop and ask the hard questions about traditions, religion, and patriotism, the better for all of us in the long run.

We should always think before we do, question before we accept, and learn before we decide.

Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest trickles down to Seattle high school.

Courtesy of Q13 Fox: 

The entire Garfield High School football team, including the coaches, took a knee during the national anthem Friday night before their game against West Seattle High on Friday night to protest “social injustices.”

After the game, which Garfield won, Garfield High School head football coach Joey Thomas said that "the players decided to do this" to bring attention to "social injustices," emphasizing that it was "a player-driven" move and that his players plan to continue the practice during the anthem before every game "until they tell us to stop."

Well if they are waiting for the school board to tell them to stop it does not appear that will happen anytime soon.

Seattle Public Schools issued the following statement:

“Students kneeling during the national anthem are expressing their rights protected by the First Amendment. Seattle Public Schools supports all students' right to free speech.”

Now THAT my friends is what freedom is all about.

And good on these high school athletes for participating in our democracy. As well as the Seattle Public Schools for supporting their right to do so.