A top Mississippi lawmaker says the Confederate battle emblem is offensive and needs to be removed from the state flag.
Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn said Monday that remembering our past is important, "but that does not mean we must let it define us."
And remember this is a top REPUBLICAN calling for this change.
And now there is news that Wal-Mart is jumping on the bandwagon:
Wal-Mart said Monday it is removing any items from its store shelves and website that feature the Confederate flag. In a statement, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its goal is to not offend anyone with the products it offers. "We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the Confederate flag from our assortment — whether in our stores or on our website," the company said. "We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell. Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly — this is one of those instances."
You know it is not often that I want to be wrong about things, but I have to admit that when I first started to cover this Confederate flag story I was skeptical that these stubborn southern folks would be willing to change.
But with Nikki Haley calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds, and the two changes listed above, it looks like there is a real push by many to move past their historic racist past.
Well if I have to be wrong about something, this is exactly the kind of something that I want to be wrong about.
Inside the Republican reversal on the Confederate flag
ReplyDeleteRead more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/republican-confederate-flag-reversal-119309.html#ixzz3duDPbAHs
Yes, but Mississippi did not ratify the emancipation proclamation until 1993, I believe.
ReplyDeleteNikki Haley doesn't give a shit about the Confederate flag. She doesn't give a shit about anybody but Nikky Haley. She's doing this to score points as a "moderate." She's a very unpopular governor who wants to run for national office, but she's got a lot of cleaning up to do, both politically and personally, before she can get near Washington. This is Step One of her "long con" of the American people. Watch her carefully, Gryphen, and don't believe a word that comes out of her mouth.
ReplyDeleteShe has nothing to do with what is going on in Mississippi.
DeleteAs she is a Republican, I'm willing to believe that the gang had another get-together at the coffeeshop and decided to make this change for political advantage. Don't believe a word they say. Their base is still the White Power group.
DeleteWA Skeptic, I agree wholeheartedly. Hoping to be wrong, I think that politicians are reluctantly voicing some indignation until the tide recedes and then they will conveniently forget about follow-through. As for Nikki Haley, I agree that she has wider ambitions, just like the rest of them. any of'em, all of'em!
DeleteO/T: Here's a bill that's been introduced in the House:
ReplyDeleteFirearm Risk Protection Act of 2015, which would require all gun buyers to show that they have and require them to maintain gun liability insurance (or face fines up to $10K).
If the Dems ever control Congress again, the next big thing would be to wipe out the exemption from product liability laws that the Rethugs granted gun manufacturers.
I would LOVE to see gun owners have to carry liability insurance! I have to carry it on my house and car, and do it happily because it just makes sense.
DeleteInsurance for a dangerous firearm is beyond logical and reasonable...and maybe those that can't afford it will have to give up their guns!
Ms Opportunist hasn't taken a side yet. She's waiting and watching to see which side will benefit her the most. It's humorous.
ReplyDeleteShe'll figure out a way to make it all about gun control ("They want to take away our Second Amendment RIGHTS.") and an attack on Christianity. Black Christians, but, still, maybe still sort-of Christians.
DeleteThe fact that the shooter regularly attended a Lutheran church with his father and stepsister will be ignored. A Christian killing Christians?
OH, just black Christians. So, cancel each other out and you get "He was killing blacks."
I, too, was very skeptical regarding this Confederate flag issue, but so far, so good!
ReplyDeleteIt appears the USA is finally taking a complete 'new' turn on this racist issue. There is so much of it out there! We need so badly to love and respect each other as human beings!
Love President Obama and the fact he used the term 'nigger' in his discussion with the comedian (actually took place in the comedian's garage!) yesterday! If you didn't hear it, you should access their discussion..
We have a wonderful guy leading us! He is doing so much and isn't getting the credit for it YET! But he WILL! Love him being so much more candid - showing feelings, etc. A great, great guy!
I'm glad Walmart and these states are finally coming around. But it should not have taken nearly this long and I won't be offering any congratulations or thanks beyond "It's about time"
ReplyDeleteSorry, G, but removing the Confederate battle flag is as likely to change people's attitude as flying naked is going to prevent an airliner from being blown up. It's more likely to make a lot of people angry and vengeful that the damn North is still meddling in Southern affairs. I'm a New Englander, btw.
ReplyDeleteOh I agree.
DeleteBut racism can be wiped out in a generation or two.
So without a constant reminder of your state's racist past fluttering in the breeze at your statehouse, who knows?
Every little bit helps.
It doesn't matter. The Confederate flag has no business being flown over any government buildings. If that makes some people angry, especially a bunch of racist assholes, who the hell cares?
DeleteAnon @ 10:19. I see your point but this is a baby step and at least it's in the right direction.
DeleteIf the North is meddling in Southern affairs and the South doesn't like it, let them secede again and this time I say just let them go. They can start their own racist, home-schooled, bible-thumping, faux-christian, homophobic, semi-literate, weapon-carrying, third world country. See how far they get without any help from the federal government. They can take THAT country back to the 1860's, not ours. Huckabee can finally become president and Palin and her family of grifter-dunces can emigrate.
I'm with you 11:25 Let the hateful bastards live in their toxic past wrapped in their ignorance. The U.S. doesn't need to support their domestic terrorism and letting them secede will save the government a lot of money. They claim they don't need us or the Federal govt and we sure as hell don't need them.
DeleteI agree with both of you as well. Let the idiots secede and have their own "country". They will fail miserably pretty quickly, and can't even function now without government help.
DeleteI'm sick and tired of them holding this country and mankind in general back in the dark ages!
The major difference it will make is the treasonous flag will be even more visible, as the gomers have to put it in your face now. The Texass guy that put up a big wooden one across from the courthouse for example. Every other lawn and house will sport it now.
ReplyDeleteLike John Oliver said, it should only be useful to identify the worst people among us.
But I think it's an empty gesture.
Totally agree with John Oliver. Their willful self-identity with this will merely let the rest of us know when to cross the street and walk on the other side. They SHOULD identify themselves, and then be treated as social outcasts and pariahs, including –and especially – within their churches (don't hold your breath on that one).
DeleteMeanwhile, I hope it hits every single one of them in the wallet. Example: every business should have (and many already have) psychological tests to take upon job applications that include racial positions and viewpoints. Have a hunch that the mouth-breathers would fail this test. Politicians and wannabes (hello, Sarah and Bristol, whose ghost-writer is a confederate flag sympathizer) should have to lose their grifting positions and earn a living competing against everyone else in the labor force. What happenedin Indiana with respect to anti-gay discrimination laws may now have a carry-over to the racial and social justice realm. If that day is arriving, hurray for America.
There may be an increase in people exhibiting the Confederate flag, but it won't be "every other lawn and house."
DeleteHave you ever visited the deep south? There are already plenty of people conspicuously displaying this symbol of hatred. Maybe there will be a few more people, but it's not as if those who previously wanted to wear or wave the confederate flag felt they couldn't do so.
It's far from an empty gesture. We aren't about to make the confederate flag illegal for private citizens. But we can make sure it doesn't fly on government property, suggesting that any state endorses and adopts the flag and what it stands for.
Removing the flag from government property (and off the shelves of Walmart) won't end racism, but it is a very important, and long-overdue, step.
What 11:19 said. I live in rural Georgia, and you see plenty of Confederate flags around. The people sporting them might buy bigger ones, but I doubt there are many quiet sympathizers just waiting to come out of the woodwork. And while I don't want to presume to speak of or for a unified black community, I do see an increasing number of black people here who are refusing to remain silent or complacent. Removing the Confederate flag (which, after all, is the flag of a treasonous country!) from government property is an important symbol of what I hope will be an ongoing national dialogue leading to change.
DeleteI agree that it is an important step in the right direction, but removing the emblems of racism is a lot easier than changing hearts and minds, which is a continuous and arduous exercise. There's no easy way around it.
DeleteThe danger of Dylann Storm Roof was what was in his head, not what was on his t-shirt. He would have acted exactly the same with any less accoutrements and window dressing. And to fellow racists, when the death penalty comes, he'll be raised to martyrdom.
This all means very little to me because I know that the sentiment behind this flag lives on in fury and has, in fact, been re-awakened (if that were possible): confederate flag sales just went up over 2,300% on Amazon.com. My prediction: the RWNJs will not fly the nazi flag instead. Waiting to see a huge increase in nazi paraphernalia in 3-2-1. Wish it were not the case, but we are dealing with a huge class of very ignorant, very angry, very self-entitled, very insecure, emotionally-driven bigots here. Prediction: the hate will now spread to include Jews as well as blacks – especially now that one is running for president. Wait for it: this is America, violence is in the national ethos, the media makes money off it, and division is essential to the iron grip of the 1 percent.
ReplyDeleteSorry to be such a pessimist, as I do see loads of good things happening with/about all the flag take-downs. however, when it comes to racism, I fear it's still far from dead.
If you look hard enough, you can find a "Contact Us" link at Amazon. Tell them what you think of them for selling Confederate trash. I've been a Prime member for several years, but won't spend a dime there now that I know it's making money with racist junk.
DeleteTake the time to tell them yourself.
I am Anonymous 11:01 AM, and meant to say, they will NOW fly the nazi flag instead.
DeleteIt was the "christians" who came with the bible in one hand and guns in the other and took millions of true Israelites from W. Africa leading to the most horrifying transfer of human cargo - The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade - where over 100 million people died the most horrifying deaths at the hands of so-called "whites"
DeleteThis is the true and ONLY holocaust barely mentioned or remembered today. Yesterday the conservative "white" christians, bomb churches and murdered little girls. Today they attend prayer meetings in churches and murder innocent decendants of the slaves that they robbed, raped, lynched and murdered to build this country and to maintain their "white supremacy." They even set up a blond hair blue-eyed devil (dsceiver) call him jeeesus and tell us he's "God" and we are to worship him.
Today the descendants of the slavemasters, with the same KKK MENTALITY are murdering the descensants of slaves in the streets in broad day light AND ON CAMERA and getting away with it in the court system. The same court system that have over 2 million black men locked up in the country that has THE WORST incarceration rate ON THE PLANET - The United States if America.
America's demise is going hand in hand with America's horrible treatment of a nation of people, the True Israelites of the Bible - Blacks, Hispanics and Native (original) American Indians.
America has not only mistreated and destroyed the lives of these people but continue to do so today. AND THIS COUNTRY MUST PAY FOR IT'S CRIME. GOD'S SEVERE JUDGMENT IS NOW FALLING ON AMERICA WITHOUT MERCY!!
Maybe, just maybe, someone will also tell them that it's wasn't
ReplyDelete"The War of Northern Aggression." Folks, the first shots were fired by secessionists on American troops at Forth Sumpter, S.C. The Southern states started the bloody, pointless Civil War.
Then read the Confederate Constitution, which is similar to the U.S. Constitution, only it enshrines into law the ownership of slaves as property. Let no one tell you that they didn't want "states' rights" precisely because they wanted to keep their slaves, when the rest of the civilized world had outlawed, or was outlawing, slavery around the globe.
Try to watch "Gone With the Wind" and not retch at the pretty hypocrisy of it all. Fiddle de de -- Mammy, you get down here.
Fort "Sumter" not "Sumpter."
DeleteDo people in the South really call it "the War of Northern Aggression"? I have lived in east Georgia for eight years and the only person I've ever heard use that phrase was a tour guide (down here, y'all, we call it the Wah of Nawthun Aggression, simper). But maybe it's more common elsewhere.
DeleteAgreed re: Gone with the Wind. I reread it last summer and was horrified. Margaret Mitchell was a stunningly talented writer to make generations of people adore narcissistic sociopaths like Rhett and Scarlett, but I wish she had turned her literary talents elsewhere.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, people.
ReplyDeleteThe right decision is being made.
Enjoy the progress.
EBay is stopping all confederate flag/flag merchandise from being sold on their site.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.live5news.com/story/29387960/debate-over-mississippis-state-flag-continues
ReplyDeleteLieutenant Governor Tate Reeves issued a statement today on Mississippi's State Flag:
“What happened in Charleston is simply pure irrational evil. There is no other description for this monster's actions. He is an individual that has allowed his mind and soul to be horribly twisted and disfigured by irrational hate. No symbol or flag or website or book or movie made him evil - he was evil on his own.
Flags and emblems are chosen by a group of people as a symbol of all that unites and ties the group together. The good and bad in our shared history, and all that we have learned from it, is something that ties us together.
The same discussion South Carolinians are having now is one that Mississippians had 14 years ago when nearly two-thirds of our state voted to keep our current flag. If the citizens of our state want to revisit that decision, and I am sure at some point we may, it will best be decided by the people of Mississippi, not by outsiders or media elites or politicians in a back room.”
Tate Reeves on twitter July 18, 2013:
Tate Reeves
@tatereeves
Sons of Confederate Veterans brought hundreds of visitors from out of state to Vicksburg. Remembering our history... http://fb.me/UFdznVug
Here's a facebook picture post of the LT Governor (aka Tater) from his twitter post. Tater and the Stars and Bars!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=684902808193849&l=7dd37ebc15
The comments on his twitter post called Tater out.
"LyteSkinBlkGurl4Real @smartstatistic 18 Jul 2013
@tatereeves I'm sure that was a diverse event
Busters Brownce @flipflops 18 Jul 2013
@smartstatistic @tatereeves hahahahahahahahaha
Mississippi Tom Head @_tomhead 18 Jul 2013
@tatereeves You know, I'm pretty sure we lost that war. Might want to break it to the other folks in the room; I don't think they know.
If you have never heard about the Sons of Confederate Veterans here is a SPLS link on the Mississippi Klavern or Gruppen or whatever they call it.
Deletehttp://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/02/11/once-again-racism-rears-up-in-the-sons-of-confederate-veterans/.
"Once Again, Racism Rears Up in the Sons of Confederate Veterans
By Mark Potok on February 11, 2011 - 10:07 am, Posted in Neo-Confederate
For much of the last decade, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) has been roiled by an internal civil war between racial extremists and those who want to keep the Southern heritage group a kind of history and genealogy club.
It’s beginning to look like the racists won.
First came the news, originally reported on this blog last August, that the SCV was planning a Feb. 19 march down Dexter Avenue here in Montgomery, Ala., to “CELEBRATE THE BEGINNING OF THE CONFEDERACY” and ensure that it “is remembered and portrayed in the right way.” What the SCV meant by “the right way” was made obvious by its website promoting the event, which insists that “the South was right!” and claims that “there is no difference between the invasion of France by Hitler and the invasion of the Southern states by Lincoln.”
And now, from the Mississippi Division of the SCV, comes this new gem: The group wants the state to issue a special license plate, keyed like the Montgomery march to the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, to honor Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest — a millionaire Memphis slave trader before the war, an apparent war criminal who presided over the massacre of surrendering black prisoners at Fort Pillow, Tenn., during it, and the first national leader of the Ku Klux Klan afterward, when the Klan’s terrorist violence paved the way to a Jim Crow South.
Neo-Confederate apologists in the SCV and elsewhere claim that Forrest has been mischaracterized, that he was a good man who disbanded the Klan when it became violent. Mississippi SCV member Greg Stewart told The Associated Press that Forrest had sought “Christian redemption” and ultimately rejected the Klan. “He redeemed himself in his own time,” he said. “We should respect that.”
That is false. Forrest, for all the fawning attention he’s received from the historical revisionists of the neo-Confederate movement, was certainly a brilliant and highly successful cavalry general — but he was also a homicidal bully.
Before the war, according to a newspaper account at the time, he was known for personally bullwhipping slaves who were held stretched out in the air by four other slaves. Women slaves were reportedly stripped naked and whipped with a leather thong dipped in salt. Former slaves later backed up these accounts.
In 1864, Forrest demanded the surrender of 580 mostly black troops at Fort Pillow, warning them that otherwise, “I cannot be responsible for your fate,” even as he stealthily and illegally improved his position during negotiations under the white flag. Then, when the Union commander refused, Forrest unleashed his men. “The slaughter was awful,” an appalled Confederate sergeant later wrote his family. “I with several others tried to stop the butchery and at one time partially succeeded, but Gen. Forrest ordered them shot down like dogs, and the carnage continued.” Numerous surviving Union soldiers reported hearing Confederate officers saying that Forrest had ordered them to “kill the last God damn one of them.”"
Okay, here's my two cents on this.
ReplyDeleteConversations Heard Around The Water Cooler
Chapter 1
GOP: How in the hell did we let this teabagging thing go THIS far? We thought getting these idiots all worked up over "taking our country back" would make this Obama administration a one time thing. Now, they've managed to make a real platform out of it and it is fucking up everything we're trying to do! How do we get these assholes out of government and back in the mountains, woods and trailer homes where we found them?
KRove/Consultant: Hey, check this out! Some kid waving a confederate flag just shot up a black church and killed 9 people. Since people are already going to scream hate crime and racism, let's use this to our advantage to make this about the Confederate flag. It will take away the sting and fear of its symbolic power. Can't waste a good tragedy, right? If they don't have the flag, they don't have a voice. Send out the talking points to all the party faithfuls.
GOP: The timing is perfect. Who do we have in SC that's a viable candidate for VP that could turn this in our favor?
KRove/Consultant: Hey, what about Hailey? She's a woman, she's a minority, have immigrant ties and is a freaking governor. Jackpot! Who's going to question how this impacts her if she is the first to make a statement about removing the flag? What corporations do we have in our pocket that will make an immediate announcement to start removing confederate products from their shelves. We've got to annihilate these idiots swiftly before they can regroup and gather support!
GOP: Good idea. Let me make a few phone calls and get this ball rolling.
KRove/Consultant: And what about FOX News? What should we tell them to say?
GOP: Let's wait and see how this plays out. From what I heard, Roger's stepping down...
Clinton Says Confederate Flag 'Shouldn't Fly Anywhere' In Stop Near Ferguson
ReplyDeletehttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/hillary-clinton-confederate-flag-ferguson
McConnell: Remove Statue Of Confederate President From KY Capitol (VIDEO)
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mitch-mcconnell-jefferson-davis-statue
Hillary's speech on Racism was excellent. Well worth watching.
DeleteConfederate Statues Vandalized With 'Black Lives Matter' At Univ. Of Texas
ReplyDeletehttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/texas-confederate-statue-vandalized
Rick Perry announces he will give a major speech on racial attitudes and uppity people. At his N*gger head Ranch.
DeleteConservative "christians". There is no such thing.
ReplyDelete