Author: boom booms room staff

What’s in a Name?

Posted on by boom booms room staff

To play or not to play fall sports? That is the question that college and pro teams in all sports across this fruited plain are pondering as July rolls along.

Some face even a tougher long term question.  That is, do we erase our history and change our nickname?  The Movement beckons.  Below we examine a few that are contemplating this, and a few that should or could.  We even offer a suggestion or three along the way for renaming.   Logic has little to do with all of this so we decided to take it further down the drain.

Washington Redskins–  As stated yesterday, this entire franchise is offensive except for their offense which cannot move the ball.   How about Red Tails? The history of the Red Tails is well-known. They were a group of Tuskegee Airmen, all-black fighter pilots who played a major role during World War II.  If they drop Redskins and go to Redtails it would be appropriate in one way.  The Skins have been getting their tails whipped red pretty regularly for the last 25 or so years.

Cleveland Indians–  “Indians” is offensive somehow.  Nevermind that the organization likely chose the name to project a fighting warrior image and/or mentality.  That was once something to be proud of.  We use the term “Native Americans” these days. We propose a simple fix. How about the Cleveland Native Americans?  Sounds dumb to you?  It does to us too.

St. Louis Blues and Cincinnatti Reds–  Both have to go.  If we aren’t going to see color anymore, then we aren’t going to see color anymore.  St Louis could be the Arches assuming that isn’t offensive to Lewis and Clark who started their journey from there.  Cincinnati is known as the Queen City.  The Cincinnati Queens anyone?  Well, that one needs some work.

Tulane Green Wave and the Alabama Crimson Tide–  These are easy water-based fixes.  Tulane Wave and Alabama Tide.

Florida St. Seminoles–  Fuggettaboutit.  This has to go.  If Redskins are out and Indians are out, Seminoles has to be out too.   Gators and Hurricanes are taken.  Rednecks are plentiful but should be deemed offensive as well.  Florida St. Everglades has an eco-friendly ring to it and would be a tough venue to play.

University of Louisiana Lafayette Ragin Cajuns–  “Ragin” is borderline too suggestively violent.  “Cajun” sounds insulting.  It’s but a half step up from Coonass.    But, Cajuns are a unique breed.  They embrace who they are and wear the moniker like a badge of courage.  They’d likely be insulted if you called them French Canadians from Nova Scotia.  The Cajuns can keep their name.  Maybe they are on to something.  Pass the Tabasco Sauce and have a boudain ball.

Come to think about it, golf has a problem too.  Gary Player is known worldwide as the Black Knight.  Heck, actually, the entire game of chess has a problem.  Black knights, black rooks, white queens, and white kings all have to leave the board.  Bishops are religious references.  Can one still be deemed a Chess Master?

We’ll stop.  Our Aunt Jemima pancakes are ready plus the hole we’ve dug is plenty deep enough.

Cancel culture loves playing the “shame the name” game.  We thought we’d play along as well.

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Life

Posted on by boom booms room staff

With hot dogs, apple pie, prohibited fireworks, and tearing down statues, America celebrated it’s 245th Fourth of July.   It’s life in the year 2020.  Oh, and there is this coronavirus problem, too.  So below, it’s life served up one nugget at a time, and ten in all.  Pass the BBQ sauce and dig in.

  1.  Portland, as American as it gets it the weirdest of ways, had a big monument, and a bronzed elk perched beautifully on top.  Yes, an elk.  Had.  Some “peaceful” protesters lit it on fire Saturday and kicked the elk to the curb.  ANTIFA took credit (if you want to call it that).  Either the elk was racist or Portlandian vegans’ disdain for meat reached its zenith.
  2. Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffery Epstein’s lover and procurer of underage girls was arrested in New Hampshire Sunday.   The noise you heard from across the pond was Prince Andrew’s exasperation.  The noise you heard on this side of the pond was Bill Clinton’s exasperation.  The FBI has recommended she be held in Bubba Wallace’s garage during her mandatory forty eight hour suicide watch.  They know for a fact that there are no nooses there.
  3. She has a story or twenty to tell.  Might she know where Carol Baskin’s husband is as well?  Tiger King was the most-watched Netflix documentary ever.  If Maxwell is smart (see what we did there?) she’ll spill it all and collect the coins like a king from the streaming network of her choice.  All she has to do is survive long enough to tell it.
  4.  CNN reported, and we quote, “a young protester has died from injuries she suffered when a luxury car plowed into her and another woman during a Black Lives Matter protest Saturday on a Seattle Freeway that has been shut down for days due to the civil unrest, police said.”  It’s getting harder and harder for CNN to lower the bar.  But, try, try, try they have.   You can’t stop looking at the word “luxury” can you?
  5. It turns out that the white protester, dressed in all black, was struck down by a black driver in the middle of the night.  If those facts were reversed, do you think the story’s biased slant would have gone down a dramatically different slope?  Stack another dead body on top of the pile.  The freeway was not located in the town formerly known as CHAZ.  Everything else in CHAZ was free, but it had no freeways running through it.
  6.  Head Coach Mike Gundy of the Oklahoma St. Cowboys survived a two-week investigation into his leadership of the football program.  The internal inquiry spanned two weeks and the AD and his minions interviewed over 20 players.  This came to a boil when Gundy went fishing in an OAN tee shirt.   The investigation found no indications nor incidents of racism.  It did find that relationships between Gundy and several players were strained.  With several teams changing nicknames, maybe “Cowboys” should hit the bricks as well.   “Soyboys” anyone?
  7. Gundy voluntarily agreed to a million-dollar salary reduction and a lesser buyout in dollars and fewer years on his contract.  Good for him we guess.  Way back in the day bosses and employees or coaches and teammates had a person to person conversation, shook hands, and came out of the other side in a better spot.  Gundy also agreed to never shout “I’m a man” again.  No, he didn’t.
  8. The Washington Redskins organization has decided to take a deep dive (again) about removing the “Redskins” moniker.  It’s faced this fourth down and long a few times.  This time they’ll likely punt.  Once the offensive nickname goes, will “Washington” have to follow?  The team’s ownership is the league’s worst as well.  It should go too.  The minority owners have 40% of the franchise.  They’ve had it with majority owner Daniel Snyder.  They’ve formed a search team looking for buyers as they’d like to sell out as well.  In summary, the whole organization is a sellout and offensive to boot.
  9. Rapper Snoop Dogg has smeared several prominent black conservatives, again.  He labeled them the “Coon Bunch.”  His Sunday Instagram post arranged the 11 just as the Brady Bunch appeared on TV.  Herman Cain, Candace Owens, and Terrance Williams amongst others were depicted.  Noticeably absent was Kanye West who is a big Trump supporter.  It turns out that Dogg and West are collaborating on some production work.  “Coon” and “Uncle Tom” are common slurs used by black Americans against black conservatives.  Sounds divisive.
  10.  When America is done burning down cities, changing street and team names, and knocking down statues will it actually have a frank conversation about what the root cause of all of this is?  Real change comes from within.  Brutal honesty will be needed.  Are the accused and the accusers up for it?

Oh.  One last nugget.  If FedEx wants out of their naming rights relationship with the Redskins, BBR is poised to step in.  We want to make football in the DC area great again.

Stay out of the pool for thirty minutes after consuming these tasty morsels.

 

 

We Missed Nothing.

Posted on by boom booms room staff

We’re back, but only for a brief few words.  Last week and into this week the BBR staff had its annual off-campus mid-year reviews and celebrity golf tournament. Orlando was the destination.  We shut the outside world down and are glad we did.

It looks like we missed nothing.  Sports are still on ice and no one in the political sandbox is playing nice.

At least Joe Biden emerged for a press conference for the first time in 89 days yesterday.  Well, it was sort of a press conference.  He admitted that his staff only wanted him to call on the reporters that would indeed play nice.  The problem was that he forgot the name of his own hometown newspaper and couldn’t find it on his notes right in front of him.

Speaking of journalists, if you missed Chris Cuomo interviewing the St. Louis homeowner who came outside to protect his property you missed a new low in journalism.  And, he’s had a few lows recently.  Isn’t that a big statement given the hacks that parade around these days?

If you don’t have a gun to protect yourselves against hoodlums, you could try to stay as still as a statue and hope they pass you by.  But, they’ll likely rip you down even if they don’t know what you stand for, so that might not work.

Speaking of journalists, Tucker Carlson achieved an all-time high rating for a quarter of the year’s time for a cable news broadcast.  He averaged over 4.33 million viewers a night.   And, he’s ripping the Republican Party a new one. Who would have ever thought that is talent, hard work, and honesty would enable his nightly viewership to surpass Bill O’Reilly?  It has.  Isn’t that a big statement well?

Enjoy the long Fourth of July Weekend unless patriotic participation is banned in your town.  First churches and parks, now fireworks.

We’ll be back to light up Al Gore’s internet like a Roman candle on Monday.

Can you still say “Roman?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a Bad Knot Afterall

Posted on by boom booms room staff

The fake noose story wound up last evening on the fake news channel CNN.   It started in garage no. 4, spread through the NASCAR community faster than cars coming out of turn no. 4, went through an FBI investigation, and crashed on Don Lemon’s show.

And it seems everyone is upset.  Earlier this week in a statement NASCAR said it was “angry and outraged.”  Bubba Wallace said to Lemon last night, “I’m mad because people are trying to test my character and the person that I am and my integrity.”

What started as NASCAR making white people with rednecks unhappy that they can no longer bring their Confederate flags to the races ended with 32 race car drivers symbolically pushing Wallace’s car over the finish line as if it had run out of gas.  People had knots in their stomach over the knot in the garage.  And now the story has run out of gas.

It turns out that the noose was not a noose, but was a garage door pull visible in video as far back as October of 2019.  Or, if you prefer, it was a noose knot tied to serve as a garage door pull.  If there were any Boy Scouts left we’d ask them what it was.  What it wasn’t was a symbol of hate aimed specifically at Bubba Wallace.

So the sport that takes four left turns about 500 times every weekend took a wrong turn trying to take a right turn further to the left.  Got that?  But in today’s woke world it’s better to overreact than to underreact.  You can back away from the narrative later, but you can’t get left behind when they wave the green flag.  Gentlemen, start your narratives!

And, this makes banning the Confederate flag yesterday’s news.  If you tear down a statue today people aren’t as mad about the one you tore down yesterday.  The Movement moves fast, NASCAR fast.

Thank goodness 15 FBI experts investigated immediately.  There must be a joke in here somewhere.  How many FBI investigators should it take to thoroughly examine a garage door pull?  None.  It was 15 too many.  Let the local blue that the “peaceful protesters” want to defund investigate it.   But in today’s world enough is never enough.

NASCAR might be misfiring on a few cylinders with its fanbase.  Or, not.   Time will tell.

And you thought getting back to sports would provide an escape.

Somebody wave the checkered flag and end this nonsense already.

 

 

 

CHAZ, BHAZ, AHAZ

Posted on by boom booms room staff

A funny thing happened yesterday just two days after the official start of summer.  The barely two weeks old Summer of Love, as proclaimed by Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin, suffered a setback.

The city of CHOP, formerly known as CHAZ, had one too many gunshot casualties resulting in either death or hospitalization.   And, as a result, Durkan indicates the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) will be shut down following those shootings that occurred on Saturday and Sunday of Father’s Day Weekend.  Apparently, she only recognized the unsettled settlement as CHAZ.

But almost simultaneously, on the other coast in Washington DC, up popped the new city of BHAZ last evening.  BHAZ is the shortened name for the Black House Autonomous Zone.  The Movement moves quickly.

CHAZ built a wall, had security if you want to call it that, and had a food supply-the guerilla garden.  But, it didn’t have a hospital built yet to care for it’s wounded.  It used neighboring Seattle for that.   And, it was far too soon for them to get a chance to erect statues to honor the CHAZ city founders, though there was space created.

BHAZ was building a wall well into last evening, occupied a church, and was diligently working on the food supply chain.  Demonstrators in BHAZ have apparently set up their own restaurant called, “Earl’s First Amendment Grill,” offering “free food for freedom fighters,” according to signs in the area.  If they get more time to develop their new city than their brother CHAZ from another mother did, then maybe they can construct a hospital and even a college to educate its young.

Could it be free health care, free tuition, and free food? That would be the Triple Crown of accommodations and the envy of cities nationwide.

One individual could be heard saying, “Welcome to the AZ. You are now leaving the U.S.”  Black House AZ might have one big problem.  Its stake in the ground might be too close to the White House where an angry man with orange hair lives.  Orange isn’t going to back the new black house where there are no men in blue as Durkin did briefly with CHAZ.  Isn’t that exactly what they want?

“Numerous people arrested in D.C. for the disgraceful vandalism,” the president wrote.  “10 years in prison under the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act,” he added. “Beware.”

Another Sin City, aka Las Vegas, is not opening but is reopening.  They likely are offering long odds that BHAZ lasts very long.

So what comes after CHAZ and BHAZ?

Logically it would be AHAZ, which is exactly what the malcontents are making out of this country.

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Summer

Posted on by boom booms room staff

The weekend has come and gone.  But the Summer of Love rolls on.  Ten Nuggets that range from this to that await.

  1.  The Summer of Love rolls on, but the occupied zone CHOP had some rough weather roll in.  Tent city had yet another shooting overnight.  One person was dead and one injured on Saturday.  All of the wounded from last night were transported to the hospital via private cars.  The front gate guards and others prohibited the police to come in.  And, the police stood down.  And apparently the city leadership either ordered it so, or complied.   Astonishing really.  We wrote a week ago that you could watch it implode soon.  And, here we are.
  2. Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally fizzled badly Saturday when so many before it sizzled.  What went wrong?  Waining interest?  Doubtful, but not out of the question.  Covid-19 fears?  Maybe.  The racially charged threat of violence?  Maybe.  The arena looked empty and more often than not sounded subdued.  Trump sounded tired.  So did his act.
  3. The differences between him and hiding Joe Biden are so great it says here that he should pivot a bit and take the country through why he thinks his approach is better.  His base is as secure as the anti-Trump base is.  Both are fighting for the very few who claim to be undecided.  Maybe he was rusty like his hair color.  With no rallies in months and months was Tulsa like a warm-up band?  If so, he was singing out of key.
  4. With Mrs. Butterworth still on life support, Eskimo Pie got a terminal pie in the eye.  That’s right, no more Eskimo Pies.   Eskimo was a term that was mostly used for a handful of Native American tribes that lives in Alaska and other Arctic areas including Canda and Greenland.  In 1977 the reference was replaced by “Inuit” people or “Native Alaskans” depending.  A quick 43 years later Dreyer’s Ice Cream Company realized it was offensive.  Eskimo meant “eaters of raw meat.”  Raw meat has vitamin D in it to help with the long winter months.
  5. At least they can still enjoy their igloo’s for now.  But, should the Igloo Corporation change its namesake product as well?  If so, then the Inuit’s might then be homeless vegans.  Well, at least CHOP city isn’t too far away.
  6. Yesterday before the NASCAR Cup Race at Talledega Speedway in Alabama a plane carrying a Confederate Flag and the slogan “defund NASCAR” flew overhead.  While everyone was looking up someone slipped into Bubba Wallace’s garage and left a noose.  The  Washington Post’s Liz Clarke, who has extensively covered NASCAR, noted how closely the organization restricts access even when there isn’t a pandemic. It “controls entry into its garages,” she wrote. “Not just anyone can get into a garage stall.” The Speedway, as of Monday morning, has not commented on the incident, but there are cameras in the garages.  Something doesn’t add all of the ways up here.  Roll the tape.
  7.  The North Face is threatening to pull ads from Facebook and Instagram if Zuckerberg doesn’t agree to their demands to censor “hate speech” and whatever other types of posts it doesn’t agree with.   Other brands are expected to follow.  Facebook is a private company.   It can do as it pleases.  The North Face is a private company.  It can do as it pleases.  We heard that The Tucker Carlson Show has a few ad slots open up recently if The North Face wants to spend its advertising dollars elsewhere.  Every mountain has four sides.  Recognizing only the north face doesn’t seem inclusive.
  8. With so much attention being placed on the COVID-19 crisis and ending “systemic racism” do you worry that the biggest existential threat to our globe is being forgotten?  Experts Cory Booker, Liz Warren ( she didn’t check the “Eskimo” box on her Harvard app, she checked Native American), Bernie Sanders, and Jay Inslee told you all about it a few months, that seem like years, back.  It’s climate change, of course.  Suddenly talking about it seems so 2019.  Fear not, it’ll be important again before November 3rd.  It’s only a matter if it gets oxygen before or after another “war on women” crisis.  Miami is taking on water dammit.  At least CHOP was founded on high ground.
  9.  Will the NBA or MLB play again in 2020?  Meanwhile, the NFL seems like it’s full steam ahead.  Something doesn’t add all of the ways up here either.  MLB  has millionaires arguing with billionaires as an added eyesore to COVID-19 problem.  If the NFL mandates social distancing in the stands will it also mandate it on the field?  Spread offenses will have never looked so spread.  Huddles will be anything but.  Should the referees wear a mask?  Or, would you prefer that they wear a muzzle?  CHOP might field a team.  They want no referees at all!
  10.  Golfer Nick Whatley tested positive before round two of the RBC Heritage PGA event on Hilton Head Island Friday.  But the tournament played on as it should.  Even if you aren’t a golf fan you have to love the way the island and the course looked on HD TV.  It was a peaceful escape.  It’s a beauty, and it’s unique.   It’s so Pete Dye.  And it has stood the test of time quite nicely.   So will we.

Keep your head down.  It’s but two weeks from the Fourth of July.  That’s only 25 Zoom calls from now.

You remember it.  It’s when we celebrate our freedom and independence from oppression.

Pray for Mrs. Butterworth

Posted on by boom booms room staff

BBR was dark yesterday.  Did you miss us?  We missed you.

We took the day off with our colleagues to reflect on the passing of two family members.  It’s tough to lose one that you are close to, much less two.

Gone is an aunt, and shockingly just hours afterward, an uncle.  Sometimes the will to live goes shortly after one loses a loved one.

RIP Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.  Jemima lived a very long and profitable life.  Born in 1889 she passed at an unbelievable 131 years of age.  Ben wasn’t as healthy nor as wealthy but still lived a productive life.  He was born in the early ’40s, lived into his late ’70s, though an exact birth date is unknown.

And, there’s never two without three you know?  Mrs. Butterworth is on life support.  “We understand that our actions help play an important role in eliminating racial bias and as a result, we have begun a complete brand and packaging review on Mrs. Butterworth’s,” Conagra Brands Communications Manager Dan Skinner told Forbes.

You begin to wonder if it’s more than just being syrup that might be detrimental to one’s health.

Aunt Jemima met her demise for looking (and in early media sounding like) far too much like a stereotypical black woman working in a white family’s kitchen.

Uncle Ben met his maker as critics have pointed out the problematic use of a black man to be the face of a white company, noting that black men were often referred to as “boy” or “uncle” to avoid calling them “Mr.” during the country’s Jim Crow era.  The name “Uncle Ben’s” came from founder Gordon Harwell and his business partner who discussed a famed Texas farmer referred to as Uncle Ben, known for his rice.

Uncle Ben underwent plastic surgery in 2007 to extend his life.   The cosmetic procedure allowed Ben to be portrayed as a businessman, according to The New York Times.  It wasn’t enough in the end.

You have to wonder if these two icons of the food industry would be worthy of being honored with a statue.  Though, these days and times, that might not be the best idea either.

Soon maybe someone who is as “white as rice,” and is more woke than any other bloke, will suggest that black-eyed peas could meet the grim reaper next.  “Black-eyed,” you ask, is different as it isn’t a brand name?  There is no need to draw the line there to end this systemic racism.  You only eat them every New Year’s Day anyway.

Names are toppling almost as fast as statues in our cancel culture.  It’s got to be time to get after a few more statues, too.

How long before the cry begins to dynamite down the faces on Mt. Rushmore?  It could use a little cosmetic surgery as well.  Washington and Jefferson were slave owners.  Lincoln statues, which puzzles us, are being torn down too.  And Teddy Roosevelt didn’t belong up there anyway.   His presence is like Trent Dilfer winning a Super Bowl.

At least we won’t have to change the mountain’s name.  Or, will we?

 

 

The Silence Is Deafening

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Monday afternoon’s BBR staff meeting provided a look back to give us a look at what might happen going forward.  One staff member told us his story about the 2012 and 2016 elections.

In early October 2012, he moved into his new (old) home.  Driving down the street in the UHaul he realized that 14 of 22 homes had Romney/Ryan yard signs.  One had an Obama sign.  It almost sounds like this neighborhood enjoys white privilege, but we digress.  Obama won.

In 2016 that same street had but one Trump/Pence sign.  Just one.  One neighbor had a Hillary/Kaine sign.  Just one.  Trump won.  Did the silent majority speak back then?  We don’t know because they are silent.  But we have a hunch.

And now 2020 arrives at the doorsteps of this very same street and streets all across this fruited plain.  The fruited part is being bolstered by the “guerilla gardening” inside of the compound formerly known as CHAZ, but we digress.

What do you have to say silent majority?  Oops.  We forgot.  The silent majority doesn’t speak.  It watches and listens.  And we have another hunch or five to share.

Putting Russian collusion, impeachment, Covid-19 handling, lockdowns, and other attacks (from the right’s point of view) or deep concerns (from the left) aside do they see a picture being painted along the road to November 3rd, election day?

We submit they do.  And we submit that they have been watching all along and were listening and open to meaningful reforms as well.  In order to listen you have to be silent.

And, now, we surmise that the silent ones have stopped listening because The Movement won’t stop screaming long enough to listen.  And, it was going so well at first.  But, burning down cities aside, it’s now gone too far.  Arson wasn’t enough.  Looting wasn’t.  Beating innocent people wasn’t either.  Making death threats against Drew Brees and his family wasn’t enough.  The hell with free speech.   Coast to coast cries of “defund the police” wasn’t enough.

Even actual murder and attempted murder on the police that started weeks ago isn’t.  And, now you’ve armed yourself and taken over six square blocks of Seattle in this Summer of Love.  Now you’re the police.  Good luck.

Don’t use excessive force or maybe the silent majority will come and riot in your new city(named CHOP as of this AM).  Actually, they won’t.  They’ll just watch it self implode.  And self implode it will.  It’s only a matter of when.  Then, they’ll vote.

CNN had a weekend poll that showed Joe Biden had a 14 point lead on Donald Trump.  Didn’t Trump trail Clinton by 11% per the polls in 2016?  How did that turnout after the voters turned out?  Polls, schmolls.

The silent majority doesn’t speak to pollsters either.

But they’ve listened, learned, and likely become disgusted.  They’ll hit the voting booth in record numbers.

The election could be held today.  Is anyone in America undecided?

The Endless Summer of Love

Posted on by boom booms room staff

In 2020, the June solstice is this coming Saturday, June 20th, marking the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.   It’s also known as the longest day of the year.  

But, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin couldn’t help herself.  She proclaimed last Friday, a full eight days early that this was already a “Summer of Love.”  Her early proclamation stemmed from her enthusiasm after a visit to the six city square blocks she forfeited to The Movement.  The Movement has created a city within the Emerald City you know.
They call it CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone).  Or, they called it CHAZ.  Over the weekend, verbal and physical disagreements over the name mushroomed out of the groundswell.  It’s now attempting to rebrand itself as CHOP.  That’s the acronym for Capitol Hill Organized(or Occupied) Protest.  What’s in a name anyway?  The Movement moves fast.
It moved fast enough to create a border with vehicles and fencing blocking off the occupied area.  It requires an ID to get in.  It patrols its periphery with armed guards carrying concealed weapons.  It throws (literally) people out that it doesn’t like or agree with.  It sounds similar to the very concerns that they are protesting against.
Leaders (we use the term loosely) stated that they have no intent to cede from the U.S.  Too bad.
It’s even turned a city park into a makeshift farm.  Occupier Marcus Henderson calls in “guerilla gardening.”  The group is “trying to rethink public spaces into places that also nourish us.”  Is there a better example of “woke” than that, ever?
The Seattle Times wrote that it’s a “festival-like atmosphere.”  Seattle’s Bureau of Tourism must be champing at the bit to market it.  Occupiers quickly reminded the reporter that the takeover is a protest against systemic racism and police violence.  That’s two worthy causes.  We’ll see how they police themselves as the start inside has been rough and tumble.  The judge and jury seem to be limited to raising your fist and voice thus far.
Thank goodness it’s only the Summer of Love.  Everyone will need to get home by Fall to get the mail-in ballots mailed to them.  We’re assuming that the occupants actually have a permanent home of course.

School’s out for summer too.  And Saturday in New Orleans John McDonogh’s statue was out as well.  Protesters there had enough.  They toppled it and carried it and threw it into the Mississippi River.  McDonogh was a slave owner.  Although during his life McDonogh was an infamous miser, he left the bulk of his close to $2 million fortune to the cities of Baltimore and New Orleans for the purpose of building public schools for poor children—specifically, white and freed black children. This was unprecedented and proved controversial.  The New Orleans public school system had been established in 1841, but the McDonogh Fund facilitated major expansion. Eventually, over 30 schools were built.

The NOLA public school system achieved a second to none status across America back then.  Now, it’s deteriorated to one that’s second to all.

Who knew that tossing a statue of a known slave owner turned philanthropist could solve the educational system’s failures?  It won’t, but many will say it’s a start.  McDonogh’s money then in today’s dollars is $92 million.  Back then it was a start.

Meanwhile, Atlanta’s summer isn’t off to a lovely start.  A suspect is shot running away from the cops. The police chief resigns.  A Wendy’s gets burned to the ground near where it happened.

What America needs right now actually is a Coke and a smile.  Then we could teach the world to sing.   

What’s better than guerilla gardened apple trees and perfect harmony in 2020, a year when every day feels like the longest day of the year?

Seeing Red, White, and Feeling Blue.

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Do the events of the last few weeks leave you feeling blue?  Are you so mad that you are seeing red?  Both?

NASCAR announced yesterday that they have seen enough blue and red flying around at their raceways that they have banned the display of the Confederate flag at all events going forward.  This has made Bubba Wallace very happy.  Some say that he even helped save NASCAR from itself.

Do you know who Bubba is?  He’s a successful NASCAR driver and he’s black.  Tell the truth.  It will set you free.  When you read this did you have an image of who Bubba was?  If so, are you prejudiced?  He’s not just another Bubba from Alabama.

Another Bubba, this one a professional golfer named Bubba Watson, bought a car a while back.  It wasn’t just any car though.  Two years after his first tour victory, Watson acquired his dream set of wheels, known as the General Lee, for $110,000 at the 2012 Barrett-Jackson automobile auction in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The problem was that the car featured in the hit TV show Dukes of Hazzard had the Confederate flag painted on the roof.  Bubba said enough is enough back in 2017 and painted over it.  “Obviously I love the show,” said Watson, who owns the “Dukes of Hazzard” DVD collection. “But the flag is offensive to some people. There’s been enough buzz. I thought it was the right gesture for me to do.”  Shouldn’t he rename the car as well?

Racecar here, race war there.

Jeff Foxworthy wrote a few jokes about people named Bubba along the way.  The link is a 2015 video of Jeff explaining to Jimmy Fallon how the one-liners came about-innocently. They made Jeff famous.  You know the “you know” jokes.  For example, “you know that you’re a redneck when your first name is Bubba.”  Fallon said that he loved them and thought that they were so funny.  That’s way back when we could laugh about each other and enjoy our differences.

Fallon should know.  He apologized last month for his Saturday Night Live skit of 20 years ago when he wore “blackface.”  Should Fallon have been fired for that transgression? One month’s time might have made a big difference to that answer.  And, Fallon again seems on the insensitive side for laughing at Foxworthy’s jokes.  Should he apologize again?  Or, are redneck jokes still funny?

And, what about Foxworthy?  Is his gross insensitivity to “rednecks” just as bad as wearing blackface?  The answer is no, not as of today.  Maybe never.

Or, does that depend if you hail from a blue state or a red state?

And people say they don’t see color.  After we finish with all of the rhetoric and get rid of all of the symbolism we should ask them again.