Tag Archives: trump

Seek Good No Matter Who Rules: Haiku

It doesn’t matter/
who’s in power. They all do/
good and bad. Seek good.
—Post-election, pre-inauguration wisdom from the Old Woman of the Woods

Seattle Sounders – A New Flag To Fly

Seattle Sounders have enthusiastic backers, known for flying Sounders supporters flags, especially in the Emerald City Supporters’ (ECS) section. I’ve been to dozens of games at the Seattle stadium (CLink or whatever it might be called) and with ECS in Salt Lake City, Philly, New York City, Los Angeles and elsewhere. #EBFG #SoundersTilIDie.

Recently, there has been a big discussion about if the “Iron Front” flag, from the Weimar Republic (pre-World War II) era in Germany, can be waved during the Sounders’ game. Although some say it is a symbol of anti-fascism, others — including Major League Soccer and the Seattle Sounders front office — are trying to keep politics and sport separated. When an ECS member flew the Iron Front flag recently in the general admission section at a Sounders’ game — in definance of MLS and the Seattle Sounders — they were asked to take it down. When the person responsible didn’t comply, they were removed from the game. As a show of solidarity, hundreds of ECS members left the game. Www.WeAreECS.com has a discussion about the event on their website.

You can read a conservative view of it from Jason Rantz, a Seattle-area radio talk show host and #SoundersFan. Yesterday, I wrote and posted a sonnet expressing my feelings about the flags I fly at my house.

As you can read, MLS and the Sounders basically gave in to demands and are letting the #IronFront flag fly at Sounders games. It will be interesting to see if everyone can now fly political flags. For example, #RSL (Real Salt Lake) supporters recently had to take down a “Betsy Ross” (13 Stars Revolutionary War) flag. #PortlandTimbers fans had to take down a “Trump 2020” banner. But if the Iron Front flag can fly, can’t those?

I’ve said all along that Seattle Sounders fans are among the most creative in the #MLS, and that they certainly can find other ways to say “Anti-Fascist. Anti-Racist. Always Seattle.” (Which I think is a great slogan.) Personally, I think they should stick 100% to supporting the #SeattleSounders #SSFC.

Trump Minnesota non-political Seattle Sounders banner.
Double Trump: Beat Minnesota Oct. 6th, secure 2nd place.

With that in mind, I created a new slogan and banner that combines a winning (All In) poker hand with the admonition to beat the opponent, and is 100% Non-Political!
(Note: The bottom part of the banner can be changed, depending on the opponent.)

#ComeOnSeattle #EBFG #NoPoliticsInSoccer #SoundersTilIDie #CFCOwner

Come On, Seattle! TRUMP your opponent!
Non-Political Seattle Sounders Banner #EBFG

Show Me By Your Experience: Revolutionary IMprov Prose

I once was working on a project at a very large company back in Seattle. Someone with considerably less experience than I had, (decades less,) came to my cubical and somewhat derisively suggested that I change the the way I was working on the project. She said I should try it another way that she had heard about.

In my experience, her way had never worked in any other place I’d ever seen it implemented, so I very calmly asked her if she had ever done it that way. She said no. I suggested that she go back to her desk and work on the project she was working on, in the way that she had suggested, and when she was done and the project was successful, she could come back and show me how to fix my project using her tried and proven methodologies. It wasn’t that I was not willing to listen to her, but I felt that I had more experience than she did, and she was trying to implement a pattern that had never been proven and that she had never used.

She never returned.

What if Trump’s recent comments are simply following good busines process? I think he’s say the same thing to some young apartment manager who came up to him and tried to tell him how to run one of Trump Plaza. That is what Trump said to four young Representatives. It wasn’t a racist comment. It was a business comment.

“Show us the proof, show us how to do it, and then we’ll listen. Oh, you don’t have any real-world experience? Go back to your workspace, go back to a place where you can implement those policies, where you have a blank canvas, and see if your suggestions and ideas work.

But don’t come into our work space, into a place that is following a pattern that has been relatively successful for more than 200 years, following rules which we believe are inspired, and tell us how much you hate our process, and our rules, and our results, and then tell us to try something that you’ve never even tried, and that you have no proof of it working anywhere else.”