RUSH: Now, folks, yesterday on this program — for those of you watching the Dittocam I’m gonna unfurl this and put it on display again. Yesterday we unfurled this, the Stand Up for Betsy Ross T-shirt in the RushLimbaugh.com store. I’m gonna put it down now, but I just want to show you this. It’s our T-shirt, it is our unique, special fabric. There’s no other T-shirt at our price point in this fabric.
We put a Rush project together, decided last Thursday on the 4th after Nike and Kaepernick decided to slander the flag and slander America, slander the country, slander Betsy Ross, we decided at RushLimbaugh.com to push back on it.
So we created the Stand Up for Betsy Ross T-shirt. A bunch of women yesterday said, “Can you give us a V-neck tee?” We’re working on it. We’re looking at it. We’re attaching a market plan to it. Stand by.
As I’m holding it here, it does not do justice to the beauty of this flag as it actually appears on the shirt. I mean, the color representation there is accurate. But the sparkle and the aging of the flag in order to make it look like what it is, the first American flag with 13 stars representing the colonies in the upper left-hand corner of the flag.
Let me tell you what’s happened. We had a record sales day. This is the highest-selling item I think — I’m pretty safe in saying — the highest-selling item in the Rush store’s history. But that’s not the story. And, by the way, the beneficiary here, we’re doing this, the proceeds, part of the proceeds benefit the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. It’s in honor of all American patriots.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s a wonderful organization dedicated to helping those lost on 9/11, helping the military, helping first responders. My point is, this is not strictly a profit pursuit by one of my many businesses. This is a charitable endeavor in part.
Now, what’s happened is, there are knockoffs. This shirt apparently has hit the mark so solidly that there are knockoffs popping up everywhere. And, folks, I have to tell you, there is only one place to get the real shirt with our fabric that benefits our charity, and it’s at the Rush Limbaugh Store.
We’ve identified eight — and I’m told there are more — knockoffs. There are people who have literally commandeered the design, they have commandeered the artwork of my signature, some of them have even stolen the text from our website from my comments on this yesterday and put it as though it’s their text. Don’t worry. We have the massive EIB intellectual property internet division legal division working on this even now.
But we’ve never seen a product in our store knocked off like this. The first knockoff was a black T-shirt, had the Betsy Ross flag on it. And, by the way, these knockoffs are all cheap material. They’re nothing more than copycats. They’re attempting to get in on something they didn’t start. Knockoffs are common in everything. It’s just that this one apparently has hit the mark because there are at least eight different outfits on the internet trying to trick you into thinking that they’re — and they also say the Rush Limbaugh T.
They’re not saying they’re not me. They’re all trying to make you think they are me. They’re trying to make you think they are the RushLimbaugh.com EIB Store. They’re not. They’re a bunch of fakes, they’re a bunch of phonies, they’re a bunch of good time rock ‘n’ roller, plastic banana frauds, and they are defrauding you, and they are defrauding the charitable organization with whom we are partnered here, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
We sold out, and, folks, don’t let that deter you. We can reorder and did like that. I mean, we were able to turn this thing around. We had the idea on Thursday. We got the mock-ups and a prototype done over the Fourth of July week, we got the signoff version that I said, “Okay, do it” on Sunday, went into production yesterday, we’re sold out now.
This has become a cause. This has become, you know, Stand Up for Betsy Ross, stand up for America, stand up against all of this. People are identifying this as a way to do it. There are so many of these that have been sold that you’re gonna be seeing them all over the place now.
I know I was talking about the Turtle, but I was finished talking about the Turtle. I was moving on, there were other things. The Turtle reminded me of somebody else out there. There’s another story that’s related to the Turtle. I’ll get back to it. I never lose my place here, despite the many disruptions, despite the interruptions to the organizational skills that I bring to this program every day, I never lose my place. I may not be able to squeeze it all into a given day, but I never lose my place.
So some of them are just direct rip-offs. And it’s frustrating. But it’s a reality of the world and the way things work. And these people can pop up and then go invisible on a moment’s notice after they’re called out. So I just want you to, A, thank everybody who rushed and created this phenomenon yesterday that is ongoing today.
I mean, the orders are still piling in here. We may have the actual creation of some kind of an official pushback to all this Nike and Kaepernick and America sucks nonsense. To try to turn Betsy Ross into some sort of an enemy? I mean, people have had their fill of it.
Anyway, none of these knockoffs, of course, have any tie-in with a military or 9/11 charity that we do here. Proceeds from these sales benefit a lot of people doing the Lord’s work. Some of these others are just charlatans. I just wanted you to be aware. We do not have, for example, franchisees, we do not farm out. We don’t have satellite locations. If you want the official Stand Up for Betsy Ross one-of-a-kind T-shirt, you have to go to RushLimbaugh.com and click on the “Store” tab.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, a clarification. Folks, we’re never sold out of anything at the EIB Store. We’re sold out of our original stock, but we always have blank, in this case tees ready to go, ready to be imprinted should orders necessitate. When I say “sold out” I just meant the original quantity we ordered, which was big, vanished yesterday. But we’re never sold out until we decide that we’re not gonna stock any more of a particular item. But there’s no sellout here. Stock remains and will so.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’m gonna hold up the shirt one more time. Folks, I really wish there were a way to convey the quality of the fabric that we have on our T-shirts at the RushLimbaugh.com Store. Don’t worry. I’m not gonna spend a whole lot of more time on this.
Some people though are thanking us as a way to push back at Nike, and some people, it’s not just pushing back at the left and Kaepernick but a way to push back at Nike. The tennis shoes were ready to go, some people really wanted to buy them. They were a great looking design. And then Kaepernick comes along and thumbs down the idea and Nike caves?
Here’s the shirt. And what you can’t see is the aging that our graphic artists applied to the flag. This is an ancient flag. When you get your shirt, if you order one, it’s gonna have aging in it. It looks really good. The fabric of our T-shirts — here it is. Let me turn it to the side, position it here on the side, may get a little closer shot of the flag itself. You might be able to detect some of the aging there.
We’re doing this exclusive for the Dittocam users here. There will be still shots at RushLimbaugh.com later. But the fabric of the shirts, people who get one for the first time do not think they have purchased a T-shirt other than the style. The fabric is high class, it really is.
And again, we’ve now discovered 20 knockoffs. Twenty different knockoff outfits out there. I just want to remind you that the official shirt can only be purchased at one place, and that’s RushLimbaugh.com and the EIB Store at the RushLimbaugh.com website, and only those purchases have proceeds headed to benefit the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Terry in Portland, Oregon. Great to have you with us, sir. Hello. Terry, are you there? Take two. Three, two, one. Terry in Portland, are you there? Leave it up. He’s not there but I need to —
CALLER: Rush? Are you there?
RUSH: I’m here. Who you are?
RUSH: We just hung up on you. How can you still be there?
CALLER: Oh, I don’t know. I guess I — well, I’m pretty good today, Rush.
RUSH: Ah. Maybe we missed the hang-up button. Okay, good. I’m glad you’re still there. What’s happening?
CALLER: I’ve been with you since ’92. Well, Rush, I think this is just a completely concocted hoax.
RUSH: What is?
CALLER: It doesn’t take somebody that’s been with you that long to notice.
RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are we talking about here?
CALLER: I think Nike has reinvented —
RUSH: Oh.
CALLER: — a way —
RUSH: Oh.
CALLER: — and put Colin Kaepernick under contract. Maybe even the first social justice contract to crap on the American flag. They’ve reinvented a way for him to do what he’s so good at. I don’t believe that he has Phil Knight on speed dial to call him up if there’s something wrong.
I think this is manufactured. They get a rubber band in their stock like you were pointing out to us yesterday. Things come back stronger. They have reinvented a way for him to do this, as he’s not playing sports. And this is a social justice contract, probably the first one, and we’ll probably see a lot more of them.
RUSH: All right. Let me translate this ’cause this is an interesting theory. By the way, Terry, when he was talking about Knight he’s talking about the founder of Nike and he doesn’t think that Kaepernick has Knight on his speed dial. I’ll guaran-damn-tee you he does. And not just Knight, but the current CEO.
Anyway, here’s the theory that Terry in Portland, which is where Nike is — well, close. This is the theory. The theory is that this whole thing was a manufactured PR stunt, except Nike really did make the shoes. Now, this is an expensive stunt, unless they didn’t, unless they only manufactured 10 or 12 pair and knew from the get-go they were never gonna put ’em on sale and therefore really never manufacture them, if this was that degree of PR stunt, then it’s interesting.
But we saw pictures of the shoes. They had the Betsy Ross flag on the heel and it was a unique, pretty good looking design, not the usual Nike design. It features the Betsy Ross flag to be introduced Fourth of July week, and all of a sudden Kaepernick is offended.
And they’re claiming that their stock — well, not claiming, the stock did jump after this incident too. So the theory is that this is a strategy, it’s a reinvention, a way for Kaepernick to constantly unload on America. And that Nike is paying him to do this. In other words, this is Terry’s explanation of the PR stunt that this is.
I’ve had a lot of people suggest to me that it’s a PR stunt, they think, and that it worked because everybody’s talking about Nike and everybody’s talking about Kaepernick and Kaepernick can’t get a job, Kaepernick can’t get hired he. He’s a nothing guy that is made something by virtue of his anti-American attitude, that Nike is supporting.
For my part, folks, I don’t care whether it’s a PR stunt or for real. The fact of the matter is they’re executing it. The fact of the matter is they are rewarding somebody for dumping on the American flag. They’re rewarding somebody for dumping on the country. They are applauding, and they are enabling the guy to do it. Whether it’s a PR stunt to get Nike’s name — what more PR does Nike need? But I guess you can’t get too much.
My point is is that people want to push back against this. If it’s a PR stunt, it may even be worse because this is the faulty, phony manipulation of people. It’d be one thing if they really do hate America and if they really are anti the flag and anti-Betsy Ross. But if this whole thing is contrived and is just a PR stunt to keep Kaepernick front and center, to keep him employed, to find a way to funnel him money, well, that may be even worse.
The point is we’re not sitting around, it doesn’t matter to us whichever is the truth of what they’re doing. We’re pushing back against it. That’s why we’ve put the Stand Up for Betsy Ross T-shirt for sale at the RushLimbaugh.com store. We’ve partnered with a very, very great charity on this, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Some of the proceeds go straight to that.
It’s the biggest selling item that we have ever had in the store, and after the first hour of the program we sold out yesterday, although we don’t technically sell out ’cause we can restock and reorder immediately, which we did. But we had our original quantity printed, shipped, boxed, ready to go, we blew through that and by the end of the first hour today we had surpassed the number of orders yesterday.
The reason I’m making a big deal, there are now 20 knock-offs that we have identified. This has hit a chord out there. There are a number of frauds and phony websites who think that they can pass their shirt off as mine. They’re trying to make you think if you order from their website, you’re getting the RushLimbaugh.com Stand Up for Betsy Ross T-shirt.
I’m telling you, there’s only one place where you can get the real thing with the proceeds going to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, and there’s only one place that you can get the fabric, the special, unique the fabric that is one of our T-shirts.
They’re selling garbage. They’re selling stuff for $1.99 up there and marking it up 150%. Cheap stuff cotton, one time in the washing machine and it loses two sizes. That doesn’t happen with our stuff. Only one place you can get it. RushLimbaugh.com, click on the “Store” tab.
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