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(CNN)We've got enough data and anecdotes now to make an early call on whether President Donald Trump's fight over NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem was a political winner for him. With a small and probably irrelevant caveat, it was. Two national surveys with rigorous methodologies show Americans are opposed to kneeling during the National Anthem: -- A Fox News poll found 55% of Americans saying kneeling is inappropriate. -- The most recent CNN/SSRS poll of adults found 49% saying the players are doing the wrong thing, versus 43% who say they are doing the right thing. Almost one-quarter...

An NAIA school in Southwest Missouri has taken its support of the national anthem at sporting events to the next level. Not only will athletes and coaches at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo., stand at attention for the Star Spangled Banner, the opponent will as well. Or the Bobcats won’t play. The school calls it, “No pledge, No Play,” and school president Jerry C. Davis said he has no problem taking his ball and going home. The school has revised its contracts in competitions in all sports to reflect the pledge. “We want to make it clear...

Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert said Friday that the NBA is very concerned after more than 200 NFL players protested by kneeling or using other means of expression during the national anthem last weekend. The NBA wants to work to address the concerns of players by talking or "giving them an outlet" to discuss the issues, Gilbert said, but added that he believes that the relationship between NBA players and the league is good. "The NFL is in a different place because that's where it all sort of mushroomed out of," Gilbert told CNBC. "The discussions [Thursday] at the NBA...

The American flag, drenched in the blood of American Indians and enslaved Africans, has been romanticized as a symbol of guardianship for all citizens of this nation. One of the main centerpieces of patriotism encapsulated in the flag’s meaning is military service. Be it the Revolutionary or Civil War, World War I or II, or any other battle in which America has fought, the argument is that the men and women who fought for this country took on a sacred sacrifice to protect American liberty and freedom from foreign enemies that would dare to endanger it. That the American flag...

HuffPo has run a headline saying: “White Athletes Still Standing For The Anthem Are Standing For White Supremacy.” The writer, Jesse Benn goes on to explain that those white athletes who don’t join their teammates in “taking a knee” are not only advocates for White Supremacy, but that they are also “ignorant.” But here’s the deal, this is part of a larger goal to make patriotism unpopular and to love your country a sign of bigotry. Benn may not actually be aware that he is floating an agenda for the destruction of nation states, but then “useful idiots” are just...

The NBA expects players to remain standing for the national anthem and not follow the lead of protesting NFL stars because basketball rules are different. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says he expects players to stand for the national anthem, which is a league rule unlike the protocols in American football. Mr Silver added he wanted basketballers to remain active in their communities and take part in what can be difficult discussions about racism and freedom of speech. But he says NBA players understand it is important to show respect for the flag. Mr Silver did not say what repercussions there...

LAKE OZARK, MO (KOMU/CNN) - A bar is getting criticism for a doormat that's being called racist. The makeshift mat of NFL jerseys started as a stance against anthem protests. Jason Burle has been running a Lake of the Ozarks bar for almost two years, a project that gives a nod to his military roots. His father served in the Navy from 1969 to 1973 during Vietnam. He, too, served in the military, and now his son. In the “hallway of heroes” around the corner from the bar, there is a reminder of what the Snafu Bar is really about....

Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall says he appreciates NFL teams supporting the rights of their players to protest during the national anthem. He also suggests they show it by giving Colin Kaepernick a job . "The dude, he's in shape, he's yoked, actually," said Marshall, who saw his ex-college teammate on a TMZ video recently. "He's so strong. He's ready to go. He told me he's been working out when I last talked to him. He said he's just waiting for a call. That's the next step." Marshall is among many players who believe Kaepernick is being blackballed by NFL...

A Chicago-area school member says she isn’t backing down from comments she made on Facebook equating the American flag with toilet paper, saying the flag is a meaningless piece of cloth and “a false symbol of hope” for black people. In a post on her personal Facebook page supporting NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, School District U46 board member Traci O’Neal Ellis wrote, “That flag means nothing more than toilet paper to me,” The Chicago Tribune reported. “And I promise you, I would take #TakeAKnee at school board meetings if my doing so would not be disruptive...

Dear NFL, You were doing your part to bring people together and heal the world. That’s really how healing works. We heal by loving each other and leading by example; showing people what is possible when we love each other just as we are and not only recognize our differences but celebrate them and look at how we can use them together to make us jointly better than our separate parts. You were doing your part celebrating each other based on skills, talent and a joint vision without regard to color and religion. You were doing your part and we...

Green Bay Packers have called on fans to join in with the team and link arms during Thursday's playing of the national anthem ahead of their clash with Chicago. President Trump's latest comments on Tuesday have added to an already tense situation and players protests reached unprecedented levels at the weekend when more than 200 players took a knee during the playing of 'The Star Spangled Banner'. On Thursday, all eyes will be on Lambeau Field when the Packers and Bears face off in the first game of Week Four to see how the next stage of the protest plays...

If you are upset about President Donald Trump's position on NFL players who kneel during the national anthem -- an opinion he colorfully expressed in a speech in Alabama and in a series of follow-up tweets -- take a deep breath and listen. There's good reason to believe that public opinion is on his side. Understanding this doesn't mean that you are wrong or that your feelings are not valid; it just means that the President has again found a winning cultural issue with which to solidify his standing in Middle America. Last September, Reuters conducted a survey in the...

As a visitor to the USA, one sometimes gets the feeling that it’s hard to move or look around without seeing a flag. They are seemingly everywhere, an omnipresent reminder of national identity. But the star-spangled banner is more than a symbol; it can also influence minds in unexpected ways. Travis Carter from the University of Chicago has found that when people think about voting decisions, the mere sight of the American flag can subtly shift their political views… towards Republicanism. It’s an effect that holds in both Democrats and Republicans, it affects actual votes, and it lasts for at...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) kneeled on the House floor Monday night to show solidarity with NFL players defying President Trump to protest police brutality. Jackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, blasted Trump for attacking NFL players who kneel during the national anthem at games to draw attention to the treatment of African Americans by law enforcement. Then she took a knee herself. "I kneel in honor of them. I kneel in front of the flag and on this floor," Jackson Lee declared. "I kneel in honor of the First Amendment. I kneel because the flag is...

The biggest message to come out of President Trump’s Friday rally in Alabama had nothing to do with its intended purpose of helping out Sen. Luther Strange. The president urging NFL owners to “get that son of a bitch off the field right now” if any of their players take a knee during the national anthem immediately inflamed one of the biggest battles in America’s culture war. Ever since then-San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick started taking a knee when the anthem played last season, Americans have argued fiercely on the merits of this particular brand of protest. Conservatives...

At this morning's NFL game in London, several members of the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars knelt during the "Star-Spangled Banner," but stood during Britain's "God Save the Queen." Almost all of the Jags' on-field and sideline personnel could be seen locking arms during the American national anthem, including owner Shad Khan. Some players stood while others knelt. Footage showed several Ravens also kneeling for the anthem, which was penned in their home city by Francis Scott Key in 1814. Pete Hegseth blasted the contrast on "Fox & Friends" saying it was unbelievable that they showed more respect to another...

Make no mistake, President Donald Trump's spat with some of the most prominent sporting stars in America is not about patriotism, or even sport. Despite his protestations, it is about race. American football is essentially a game played by black men for the entertainment of white men: 70 per cent of the top tier NFL players are African-American, 83 per cent of NFL fans are white and two-thirds of them are men. None of the multi-millionaires and billionaires who own NFL franchises are black. And while most of those black NFL players are paid handsomely, it is becoming increasingly clear...

Americans seem to have a hard time coping with getting what they want. Example: Target Inc. changed their bathroom policy, and straight, non-trans males with axes to grind started using the women’s bathroom to prove a point. Some made videos. Supporters of Target were outraged at this abuse of policy. But was it abuse? People were using the bathroom free of the constraints of gender, isn’t that what they wanted? Then there’s the NFL players who are taking a knee, and their supporters on social media. They are angry about President Trump tweeting about them. Why? This is what you...

FReepers, Let's put together a list of companies who honor and support America and our mission as patriotic Americans.

You fellas in the NFL had better all stand with your hands over your hearts next Sunday, or your sport is doomed. It is pretty obvious that you don't believe this, but watch what happens next. You are forcing fans to choose between loyalty to lawless, disrespectful, bigoted black players mostly who feel they can do whatever they want whenever they want and the country governed by rules of law and requirements of patriotic loyalty to survive. This is almost literally a choice between a collapsing path to severe division and civil war, or unity in honoring our country and...