Wrapping himself in the flag
Apparently Trump has nothing serious to worry about right now.
Say WHAT? Who tf is Bubba Wallace and why tf is Trump babbling about NASCAR and ratings? As the pandemic infections and deaths keep shooting up up up while the rest of the world is pushing theirs down?
President Donald Trump on Monday bemoaned NASCAR’s recent decision to ban the Confederate flag from all races and events.
The Confederate flag. Not the US flag, not the flag he rages over when football players don’t salute it in the way he thinks they should be forced to – but the flag of the move to secede from the US in order to preserve slavery. That’s what Trump is raging about.
As the coronavirus pandemic rages across the country, Trump has largely moved on, seeking instead to place focus on his “law and order” message through a series of inflammatory speeches, tweets, and statements defending racist monuments and digging in his opposition to renaming Army bases named for Confederate leaders.
Trump has “moved on” from the pandemic. We wish we had that luxury.
NASCAR has said that the presence of the Confederate flag “runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry.”
As in, you know, the people whose great-grandparents were born into slavery. Those people. It seems Trump doesn’t want to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for them.
Speaking at the base of Mount Rushmore Friday evening, [Trump] railed against what he called a “merciless campaign” by his political foes to erase history by removing monuments — even though the sculptures memorialize parts of America’s racist past.
“As we meet here tonight there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for,” Trump said. “Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.”
So slavery was a blessing? Generals who fought to preserve slavery are our heroes?
I think not.
Here’s some context for Bubba Wallace. Briefly, he’s the only Black NASCAR driver, and he pushed NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag. Last month when NASCAR was starting up a noose was found in the garage he was assigned to in Talladaga. NASCAR and the other drivers supported him, pushing his car down pit row to the front of the line before the race (which I gather is a sign of respect). The FBI investigated, and discovered that the noose was there at least as far back as last October, so it couldn’t have been aimed at him.
So not a hoax, just a misunderstanding, and basically everyone involved seems to have behaved admirably, until the toddler in chief decided to butt in.
Oh I know. I do know about the noose and the aftermath. The mystification was slightly rhetorical, because I think it’s an idiotic thing for Trump to focus on.
Yes, it is perfectly okay that they showed respect to him, even if there was no threat. In the very climate of BLM, showing respect to the only black NASCAR driver seems like the order of the day, anyway.
Has Trump apologized to all the people who drank fish bowl cleaner? Or disinfectant? Because they were following his stupid advice? Hah, I was only kidding. Of course not.
OK, got it. I thought since you asked and you didn’t mention the noose, you might not know (and in any case others reading this entry might not be up on their NASCAR news).
Agreed about the idiocy.
More information is always better than less!
What a Maroon, thank you so much for your synopsis. It captured the facts (that I already knew), and more important to me personally, it helped me process some very strong emotions into a positive conclusion.
If the image reproduced on the web is to be trusted, this particular garage-door pull ended, unmistakably, in a hangman’s noose. Not a random granny, not a couple of half-hitches, or the more usual wooden peg or wiffle ball handle at the end. I would have recognized it as such, and so would almost any American male — time was, the smart-asses would show off by tieing it. So it appears that quite a few people must have seen it over several months, and thought nothing of it, or just grinned and remember being a 13yo boy once more. A different message somehow when a Black American male sees it!