The #Confederate flag and the Dept. of Amazing S.C. coincidences

Nikki Haley,
breeze-swaying hypocrite

OK, so South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is calling for the Confederate flag at the state Capitol to come down. Sounds nice, no?

No, not totally. Per this.

UPDATE, June 23: A special caveat. Haley clearly just wants to hide symbols from what she claims is the wrong interpretation, saying that Dylann Roof had "a sick and twisted view of the flag." Actually, while it may seem to be that, since the flag stood for slavery, not states' rights, and slavery based on skin color, while it's a sick view, it's not that twisted at all, actually. It's "logical," if one is honest about the flag's full history.

A takeout from this must-read by Ta-Nehisi Coates, at that link just above:

Nikki Haley deserves credit for calling for the removal of the Confederate flag. She deserves criticism for couching that removal as matter of manners. At the present moment the effort to remove the flag is being cast as matter of politesse, a matter over which reasonable people may disagree.

Bingo. This is all about new massaging of symbols, not facing the reality behind them.

That said? Even to do new massaging of a hateful old symbol won't be so easy.

A few caveats.

One, it will take state legislative action for that to happen.

Two, it will take a 2/3 vote of each house of the South Carolina Legislature to put it the agenda of a recently-called special session.

Three, if that doesn't happen, Gov. Haley will have to call for another special session.

Tim Scott,
self-hating hypocrite?

Chris Tomlinson thinks that a "woman of color" could make no other call, noting that Haley is Indian-American. Really, Chris? South Carolina's junior Senator, Tim Scott, is black, and until three hours ago, he hadn't called for the flag to come down, either. He's now done so, though he has yet to rebuke Republican presidential candidates who have denied that racism motivated Dylann Roof to murder nine people at a Charleston church a week ago.

Lindsey Graham,
frothy hypocrite

Meanwhile, the senior senator from the Palmolive State, Lindsay Graham, who is also known around these quarters as Huckleberry J. Butchmeup and just happens to be running for president, has also now called for the flag to come down, which puts us in the Department of Amazing Coincidences.

I don't know if M. N. O'Butch asked for a move in this direction to help his campaign, or something else is at work. Until three hours ago, Scott and Haley had largely been silent, and three days ago, Huckleberry was saying this is "part of who we are." That said, if CNN is right that he was "quietly" calling for it to come down three days ago, while publicly still playing Dixie on his dogwhistle, he's quickly reached a high level of douchery.

He's got the most capital to lose, relatively speaking, running for prez and needing to not appear totally wingnut, even as other presidential candidates for the GOP appeared chickenshit about the flag. And, as senior senator, and South Carolina's GOP kingpin, he's also got the most weight to throw around. Add in that the man seen by many as the Koch Brothers' anointee, Scott Walker, called Dylann Roof's actions motivated by racism already on Friday, and the candidates that have played the "not racism" card are scrambling. That said, Walker, like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum, took past campaign money from Earl Holt's Council of Conservative Citizens. (Oh, there's a bunch of people on that list; feel free to give a few a Tweet.)

Back to Gov. Haley.

Given all I said, don't call me and don't wake me up until the flag is gone. Don't even think of calling me until it's on the agenda of an actual special session.

Oh, and beware of head fakes.

It's not totally true that the St. Andrew's Cross, was not the official flag of the Confederacy. Yes, originally, it was just a battle flag and the the "Stars and Bars" was the official CSA flag.

BUT, after May 1, 1863, the Rebel war flag was made the "canton" of the official CSA flag. Don't let anybody head-fake you on saying the Rebel war flag was not "really" a part of the Confederacy. This, too, is part of the full history.

This, in turn, is part of a larger claim that most people "don't really know what the flag is about." That, in turn, is usually accompanied by the claims that the Civil War wasn't "really" about slavery, and I've already crushed that one.

On Dylann Roof? Maybe "white trash" will be the next attempt to explain him away.

Oh, and speaking of "cantons," the Mississippi state flag still uses the Rebel flag for ITS canton. Today, Columbia, tomorrow, Jackson!