June 14, 2024

I was watching the old HBO series "John Adams" — Episode 1, "Join or Die" — and I was amazed to see this shot.

IMG_6977

It's that terrible flag! Today's Flag Day — and Donald Trump's birthday — so I thought I'd show you the photograph I was inspired to take.

57 comments:

Yancey Ward said...

That was excellent mini-series.

RideSpaceMountain said...

John Adams. Insurrectionist. You bet they were. And they'd be leading the charge a second time if they knew that their descendants simply replaced London with Washington DC.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

This has the makings of a great story. The American revolutionaries could not be confident they spoke for a majority, but they hoped by fair means and foul to make themselves a majority. Persuading Loyalists to leave was part of it. The phrase on the flag comes from Locke's chapter "The Right to Rebellion." If you are not clearly part of a rebellious majority, you have no recourse but to appeal to heaven. But then, Locke says it is a government that angers a significant number of people that has re-belled, returned to war. He encourages the American revolutionaries to do what they did.

Now the Tea Partiers and MAGA are on the side of Jefferson, an occasional rebellion is not a bad idea. The left is on the side of Hamilton, and probably Adams despite the flag in the picture. Why exactly was Hamilton chosen for the big musical?

Jupiter said...

"And they'd be leading the charge a second time if they knew that their descendants simply replaced London with Washington DC."

George the Third and F. Joe Biden. Compare and contrast.

Money Manger said...

For once I fully agreed with Peggy Noonan.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

It's been a while since I've seen that, but I do believe that the Pine Tree flag shows up as one of the Revolutionary flags in the later episodes intros.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"George the Third and F. Joe Biden. Compare and contrast."

One went mad but got better. The other won't and has always been insane.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

The attacks on Alito may be proactive effort to sideline him, should there be another stolen election claim coming up before the courts.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

The Supreme Court is an appeals court.

Narayanan said...

that their descendants simply replaced London with Washington DC
=================
hundreds of years ago descendants move to Washington DC motivated by minimize slaves witness free blackmen in Philadelphia and learn something was different!

n.n said...

Jack and the sequoia [tree].

Earnest Prole said...

OG insurrectionist

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

YouTube: ”Heavenly Appeals a short (2:20m) film by David Lisbe

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

There's nothing wrong with that flag. The people bitching about it have something wrong with them.

Immanuel Rant said...

I always admired Adams. His willingness to represent the two British soldiers on trial for shooting into a crowd at a riot - compare/contrast with any modern lickspittle in politics.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

LOL. I clicked through that terrible flag link because I saw it went to an article in SF Chronicle about them taking it down. To my surprise hey continue to fly the "Don't Tread on Me" Gadsden flag, once highly associated with the Tea Party movement. Given that, one would assume that Frisco's overreaction to the Appeal to Heaven flag is an anomaly, a momentary freakout over the Progressive gripe of the week.

William said...

I read the McCullough book that the series was based on. In his youth, Adams compared the people of his generation to those of his Puritan forebears and found them wanting. His generation was the generation of Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, et al. so he might have been wrong about that.... Apparently it runs in the family. His great grandson, Henry Adams, compared the robber barons and corruptocrats of his generation to men like his grandfather John Quincy Adams and found them wanting. Well, I think President Grant is given higher grades than John Quincy Adams, and those robber barons built the transcontinental railroad. They built products and infrastructure that brought the larger part of Americans out of poverty. They enriched themselves in doing so. To a Puritan or Hollywood executive such acts are not deserving of praise or a miniseries......John Adams passed the Alien & Sedition Acts. In some contexts, he wouldn't mind jaiing people who flew the wrong kind of flag.

Gilbert Pinfold said...

It's also the 249th birthday of the US Army. We're flying the Army flag here--"This We'll Defend".

Temujin said...

My Heavens!

Liked, not loved, the series. I could not get past Paul Giamatti as John Adams. He's a great actor, I know, I know. But he's more of a fit to me as Harvey Pekar in "American Splendor" or Miles from "Sideways" than John Adams. That New York accent kept poking through. Didn't work for me as the thoroughly New England John Adams.

When I was 16 I saw William Daniels play John Adams on Broadway in the play "1776". Now that was a good John Adams. It stuck with me. All others have fallen short.

Gilbert Pinfold said...

Paul Giammati is actually from Connecticut--his father was a professor at Yale, later its president, and yet later Commissioner of Baseball. His maternal grandmother was my high school guidance counselor and dearly wanted me to go to Yale. I visited the Giammatti's during my tour, but went to Princeton (just down the road) instead.

JaimeRoberto said...

And thus Professor Althouse found herself on another list.

Mark said...

"
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
LOL. I clicked through that terrible flag link because I saw it went to an article in SF Chronicle about them taking it down."

I laugh how the right has focuses on this flag being flown when the left is irate about the upside down US Flag.

Yelling squirrel (even by the author of this blog) is weak sauce when that flag isn't the one that Low Info Voters are going to be triggered by.

Keep telling yourself that this is the offensive flag, though. It tees up a lot of political ads that your side hasn't done an effective job of countering

wendybar said...

The left was upset at an upside down flag?? WHEN aren't the left upset about anything. They live to be miserable...just like you. Wah...wah... Go burn down a business.

Skeptical Voter said...

Yeah--after umpty gazillion years you can no longer fly the Appeal to Heavan flag in San Francisco. All the Pride flags you want though.

MadTownGuy said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

"LOL. I clicked through that terrible flag link because I saw it went to an article in SF Chronicle about them taking it down. To my surprise hey continue to fly the "Don't Tread on Me" Gadsden flag, once highly associated with the Tea Party movement. Given that, one would assume that Frisco's overreaction to the Appeal to Heaven flag is an anomaly, a momentary freakout over the Progressive gripe of the week."

Funny thing here in South Central PA - near our little downtown, one of the houses has a rainbow flag with the Gadsden serpent and motto superimposed on it. That's a weird sort of intersectionality. They're using it, but it doesn't mean what they think it means.

Kate said...

"When I was 16 I saw William Daniels play John Adams on Broadway in the play "1776"."

He's superb in the movie, too, but his greatest role for me was as Tennessee Tuxedo.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Funny thing here in South Central PA - near our little downtown, one of the houses has a rainbow flag with the Gadsden serpent and motto superimposed on it. That's a weird sort of intersectionality. They're using it, but it doesn't mean what they think it means."

Did the superimposition look anything like this? Kinksters gonna kink.

boatbuilder said...

I am not sure, but I suspect that the Pine Tree Flag may have something to do with the fact that the American White Pine was vitally important to the British Navy because it was perfect for masts for their warships, and the British were seizing/appropriating the largest, straightest white pines of New England for that purpose.

boatbuilder said...

McCullough's book "John Adams" is the single best book about the founding of our country that I have read. It should be required reading for all high school seniors/college freshman everywhere in the US. It is about far more than John Adams himself.

boatbuilder said...

And I agree with Temujin about Giamatti. Just wrong.

narciso said...

How about kitt

PrimoStL said...

boatbuilder said, "I am not sure, but I suspect that the Pine Tree Flag may have something to do with the fact that the American White Pine was vitally important to the British Navy because it was perfect for masts for their warships, and the British were seizing/appropriating the largest, straightest white pines of New England for that purpose."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's where the word "windfall" comes from. Colonials were not permitted to cut down those trees that were ideal for mast, yardarm and gaff construction. The only time they were permitted to use that lumber was if it was felled by force majeur, such as wind or age.

All redcoats and fedcoats can get bent. Our country. Our resources. Our propriety.

MadTownGuy said...

Ride space mountain said...

"...Did the superimposition look anything like this? Kinksters gonna kink."

Naw, it was your standard issue Rainbow flag (not the Palestinian variant) with the serpent at center, and the motto at bottom. The images looked like embroidery, so either someone has mad hand stitching skills or a really big piece of sewing equipment.

My Mom had a professional grade sewing machine that her employer was ditching in place of a more modern unit. It took half a wall in her sewing room and had an electric motor that made lights dim all over the house, maybe even the neighborhood. I said that thing could probably stitch through sheet metal if called upon to do it.

Darkisland said...

I liked the HBO series. I should have liked the book because I've read half a dozen other McCullough bios and loved them.

I got about halfway through the book. I kept hoping it would get better but it never did. IMHO.

John Henry

paminwi said...

Just hung my Appeal to Heaven flag yesterday!
Had to take down my Jewish Star flag.
I’ve had that one up since the end of October.
I’ve decided to do alternate weeks for my flags!

Darkisland said...

I saw it for the first time last week but there is another Gadsden flag that says "No step on snek" with a picture of the snake.

I only saw the one example on Feral Irishman. From the context, it sounded like Irish had not seen it before either. Then today, I followed a link to a Reddit thread that says it goes back to 2016, it is a right wing militia/MAGA/Trump thing.

Go figure.

John Henry

mongo said...

Kate said...
"When I was 16 I saw William Daniels play John Adams on Broadway in the play "1776"."

He's superb in the movie, too, but his greatest role for me was as Tennessee Tuxedo.“

Actually, TT was voiced by Don Adams of Get Smart fame.

Chuck said...

RideSpaceMountain said...
John Adams. Insurrectionist. You bet they were. And they'd be leading the charge a second time if they knew that their descendants simply replaced London with Washington DC.

So there it is. 2020 insurrectionists identify with, and adopt the symbols of, the 1776 revolution. Except that the 2020 insurrectionists are fighting against the Constitution established by the 1776 revolutionaries. Thanks, you've clarified the dispute.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
There's nothing wrong with that flag. The people bitching about it have something wrong with them.

Nobody suggested that there is anything "wrong with that flag." The suggestion is that an interesting and perhaps even inspiring historical flag has been hijacked by a bunch of lawless 21st century TrumpWing insurrectionists. We don't hate that flag. We hate you.

wendybar said...
The left was upset at an upside down flag?? WHEN aren't the left upset about anything. They live to be miserable...just like you. Wah...wah... Go burn down a business.

I'll tell you what we aren't doing; we aren't using any backwater gerrymandered state legislatures to pass laws banning that flag. We aren't filing crazy lawsuits in court-shopped federal districts to get the courts to ban them. We aren't firing up our social media shitposters posing as Members of Congress to troll the media. In other words, we aren't doing any of the crackpot shit that the Christofascists of the TrumpGOP are doing in relation to the post-Dobbs abortion culture-warring.

Skeptical Voter said...
Yeah--after umpty gazillion years you can no longer fly the Appeal to Heavan flag in San Francisco. All the Pride flags you want though.

This is how conspiracy theories are born and raised in TrumpWorld, right? Anyone can privately fly an Appeal to Heaven flag in San Francisco if they want to, and the Constitution of the United States would certainly protect that precious right.

No, dumbass; as a matter of city policy, the City of San Francisco stopped flying its own "Appeal to Heaven" flag for all of the reasons that I have elucidated here. Because the "Appeal to Heaven" flag has been commandeered by the TrumpWingers, they no longer wished to be part of that association. The "Appeal to Heaven" flag had been flown at SF City Hall as part of a display of 16 or so historic American flags. They didn't pass any citywide ordinance or flag regulation or restriction. That's just you, cooking up yet another deliriously stupid TrumpWorld conspiracy.

Jim at said...

when the left is irate about the upside down US Flag.

I laugh because you doorknobs are 'irate' about some flag.

Grow the hell up.

Jim at said...

We hate you.

Right back at you.

Political Junkie said...

Gilbert Pinfold - Wow. Thank you. I did not realize Paul was Bart's son.

RCOCEAN II said...

Never came accross that flag before, probably because it has the word "Heaven". Its sort of round about way of saying "Appeal to God". And we know you cant like that!

Rusty said...

boatbuilder said...
"I am not sure, but I suspect that the Pine Tree Flag may have something to do with the fact that the American White Pine was vitally important to the British Navy because it was perfect for masts for their warships, and the British were seizing/appropriating the largest, straightest white pines of New England for that purpose."
All the trees of a cetain height and girth belonged to the crown. It was illegal to grow cane for sugar. Therefore it was illegal to distil rum. It was illegal to weave cloth commercially. It was illegal to trade with anyone else but Britain for any of those things.

Chuck. When you don't know what you're talking about a wise man just keeps their mouth shut. But nobody will ever accuse you of being wise.

Lucien said...

PrimoStL:
I think you’re half right. “Windfall” refers to fruit blown off of a tree by the wind, but also covers trees blown down. But not specifically referring to the Royal Navy’s appetite for white pine.

Narayanan said...

John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty Paperback – November 16, 1998
by C. Bradley Thompson (Author)

Drago said...

LLR-democratical And Violent Homosexual Rage Rape Fantasist Chuck: "I'll tell you what we aren't doing; we aren't using any backwater gerrymandered state legislatures to pass laws banning that flag. We aren't filing crazy lawsuits in court-shopped federal districts to get the courts to ban them. We aren't firing up our social media shitposters posing as Members of Congress to troll the media. In other words, we aren't doing any of the crackpot shit that the Christofascists of the TrumpGOP are doing in relation to the post-Dobbs abortion culture-warring."

LOL!

And the mask comes ALL the way off again! Gin and tonic fueled honesty!

Chuck is not just on the left and always has been, he is on the far, far left.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Lingering question: the chuckster and murky mark say “duh it isn’t dat flag stupid maga.” Fine. Then explain why San Francisco took it down after decades of waving in the breeze with all those other flags? Why?

Drago said...

In LLR-democratical And Violent Homosexual Rage Rape Fantasist Chuck world, "ChristoFascist" = Opposes pro-groomer pornography in schools for young children and drag queen story hours with partially naked groomer types with flailing penises.

Its pretty clear why Chuck hates Christians...plus hatred of Christians aligns nicely with Chuck's New Soviet Democratical Party's full embrace of the Pro-Hamas crew, particularly in Michigan.

Chuck said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Lingering question: the chuckster and murky mark say “duh it isn’t dat flag stupid maga.” Fine. Then explain why San Francisco took it down after decades of waving in the breeze with all those other flags? Why?

I already answered that. It is because SF city administrators including the mayor's office saw the Pine Tree Flag as having been recently co-opted by Trumpist insurrectionists. They did not want the city to be associated in any way with the new meaning that current insurrection-minded actors have added to the flag.

I did the research that you should have done for yourself and found this very helpful link which confirms what I already told you.

What is interesting is that the park has included the Gadsden flag (coiled snake on yellow field, with "Don't Tread on Me" inscribed) all along in its display of historical American flags and did not replace it as they recently replaced the Pine Tree flag. I think that from that, you can safely presume that San Francisco has found the Tea Party Movement of the 21st century to be insufficiently offensive to merit replacement, while the Pine Tree flag, combined with the newest associations with the January 6 insurrection (where, I note, the Gadsden Flag also flew) but also the Alito beach home and -- this is probably most important -- Christian Right Trump supporter Dutch Sheets.

So that's it. It is San Francisco essentially determining that TrumpWing insurrectionism (and not even right wing politics exemplified by the likes of the Tea Party) is their line in the sand.

You're welcome.

Now back to the original point, because I don't want this to simply be an exercise in academic interest. I got into this because another commenter falsely claimed that people in San Francisco were somehow barred from flying the flag. It's a lie. It was one flag, as part of a city-sponsored historical display, where the city was deciding which 16-18 flags would be most appropriate to the purpose.

That's the real point; the real message. How stupid shit gets passed around in TrumpWorld to become the latest conspiracy theories.

Yancey Ward said...

Well, if the flag is verboten now because it has been commandeered by MAGA, let's take the Rainbow flag and fly it upside down at a MAGA gathering!

Chuck said...

Yancey Ward said...
Well, if the flag is verboten now because it has been commandeered by MAGA, let's take the Rainbow flag and fly it upside down at a MAGA gathering!

That is, if you ignorant fuckwads knew which way was right-side-up or down.

But the nice part is that you could do that, and (a) no government would prevent you from doing it and, unlike the American flag flying upside down at the Alito home, (b) it wouldn't be violative of the United States Flag Code, 4 U.S.C. Sec 8 et seq.

Meade said...

“unlike the American flag flying upside down at the Alito home, (b) it wouldn't be violative of the United States Flag Code, 4 U.S.C. Sec 8 et seq.”

Citizens ARREST! Citizens ARREST!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

You can’t logically reconcile both Nobody suggested that there is anything "wrong with that flag” and (they) saw the Pine Tree Flag as having been recently co-opted…” Obviously what’s “wrong” is in your mind and the minds of San Frannies that “recently” meaning three and a half years ago some protesters waved that flag. Recently “co-opted” in your psychopathic recollection. So it’s like those dog whistles you leftists always hear while claiming you have secretly decoded what “muh magas” were saying to each other.

Weak sauce buttstain, even for your feeble noodle. That’s why your rump remnant of the Whig wing can’t win a race in a state run by arguably the worst governor in America. You can’t say anything without double talking out of both sides of your ass. Cry harder loser.

Chuck said...

Of course there wouldn't be a citizens arrest in the case of a violation of the United States flag code; the code isn't enforceable as a criminal statute.

It is purely a legal recognition of how the flag is to be respected.

Also, of course, it is simply a mark of the Alitos' (both of them) lame dishonesty in trying to weasel out of the public relations disaster that surrounds their having officially disrespected the flag.

A link to Alito's letter of explanation for his refusal to recuse. There are at least two howlers in the letter. First, there is Justice Altio's apparently false claim that his wife chose to fly the upside down U.S. flag in response to a neighborhood-sidewalk dispute. The other participants say that the dispute occurred after the upside down U.S. flag was already flying.

(I note here incidentally that lying to Congress can be a crime, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001.)

Second, Justice Alito claims that he knew nothing about the Pine Tree Flag at their vacation home (titled solely in Mrs. Alito's name) but then immediately pivots to denying, on his wife's behalf, that it had anything to do with the "Stop the Steal" movement. That was right before Mrs. Alito was heard on an audio recording msuing about how she would like to fly a "Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the pride flag for the next month ... I said [to her husband Justice Alito], 'When you are free of this nonsense, I’m putting it up.'"

Mrs. Alito is, without question, free to fly any flag she wishes. Like, uh, the good citizens of San Francisco (back to how I got involved here). And she would be free of criminal culpability in flying an upside down U.S. Flag despite it violating the Flag Code. I'm just commenting on what is actually going on, for anyone not too stupid to see it.

Chuck said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
You can’t logically reconcile both Nobody suggested that there is anything "wrong with that flag” and (they) saw the Pine Tree Flag as having been recently co-opted…”


Okay. Simpler version for you. What is wrong with the Pine Tree flag, a perfectly nice historical U.S. flag, is that it has been adopted by TrumpWingers. So people like me who reject the TrumpWingers will reject the otherwise-perfectly-nice Pine Tree flag. What is wrong with the Pine Tree flag -- the only thing wrong with the Pine Tree flag -- is you. You, and Dutch Sheets, and the other TrumpWingers. As long as it is a flag that you think supports your cause, it is a flag that we will oppose.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

So there is something “wrong with it” in your opinion just like i said. Therefore there’s something wrong with you just like I said. Glad we can agree on something for a change.

Drago said...

LLR-democratical And Violent Homosexual Rage Rape Fantasist Chuck: "As long as it is a flag that you think supports your cause, it is a flag that we will oppose."

LOL

This thinking is precisely why leftists like LLR-democratical Chuck opposes due process, supports the mutilation of minors to satisfy the trans lie social contagion, supports completely open borders, etc.

Everywhere one looks there is an army of liberals/moderates complaining about the New Soviet Democraticals going so far left it turned the libs/mods into the "far right".

But not Chuckles! Thats because Chuckles was always on the left and then happily, gleefully, joyfully followed the moron marxist mob EVEN FURTHER LEFT and over the lefty lemming cliff without so much as a second thought or a moment of hesitation.

The extreme left: Chuck's natural home.