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The defense secretary lists the types of flags that are allowed to appear on bases worldwide. That flag does not fit.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon, without once mentioning the word “Confederate,” announced a policy on Friday that essentially bans displays of the Confederate flag on military installations around the world.

In a carefully worded memo that Defense Department officials said they hoped would avoid igniting another defense of the flag from President Trump, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper issued guidance that lists the types of flags that can be displayed on military installations — in barracks, on cars and on signs.

According to the guidance, appropriate flags include those of American states and territories, military services and other countries that are allies of the United States. The guidance never specifically says that Confederate flags are banned, but they do not fit in any of the approved categories — and any such flags are prohibited.

“Problem solved — we hope,” one Defense Department official said on Friday, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to anger Mr. Trump.

That senior military leaders are contorting themselves to such an extent shows the gap that has developed between the White House and the movement for racial justice that has swept across the country since the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police in May. As protests ignited, senior Defense Department officials began grappling with the legacy of racism in the military.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a House hearing last week that the Pentagon needed to take “a hard look” at changing the names of Army bases honoring Confederate officers who had fought against the Union during the Civil War, explicitly laying out a course that diverges from his commander in chief. Ten Army bases that honor Confederate generals who fought to defend the slaveholding South have been the focus of a growing movement for change; Mr. Trump, for his part, has sided with those who want symbols of the Confederacy to remain in place.

“The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars,” Mr. Trump wrote in a string of Twitter posts. “Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations. Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!”

In the House hearing last week, General Milley echoed senior military leaders who also want to remove the Confederate symbols and base names. “There is no place in our armed forces for manifestations or symbols of racism, bias or discrimination,” he said.

Mr. Esper’s memo on Friday did not address the issue of bases named after Confederate generals; one senior military official said this week that the Pentagon would wait until after the November election before further raising the issue. But the memo goes after the many American soldiers, Marines and airmen who display Confederate flags and other symbols in their barracks and in parking lots on military installations.

No One Knows What Thailand Is Doing Right, but So Far, It’s Working
“Flags are powerful symbols, particularly in the military community for whom flags embody common mission, common histories, and the special, timeless bond of warriors,” Mr. Esper said in his memo, before quoting former Justice John Paul Stevens that the United States flag “is a symbol of freedom, of equal opportunity, of religious tolerance, and of good will for other peoples who share our aspirations.”

Mr. Esper added in his memo that “the flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and discipline, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols. “

Next week, senators will continue their own bipartisan push to strip military bases of Confederate symbols, advancing an amendment to the annual defense bill spearheaded by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, that would require the Pentagon to eliminate Confederate names, monuments or symbols from military assets in three years. The House is expected to press ahead on a similar measure as lawmakers consider their version of the military policy legislation.

Top Republican leaders in Congress have indicated they would broadly support such measures. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal this week he would not block the effort to rename the bases despite Mr. Trump’s pledge to veto the broader defense bill if Ms. Warren’s amendment was included. Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the House minority leader, told reporters last month he was “not opposed” to renaming the bases.

The Marine Corps this year banned the Confederate flag, and the Army was moving to do the same until Mr. Esper intervened, saying that he wanted to issue uniform guidance across all services.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon, without once mentioning the word “Confederate,” announced a policy on Friday that essentially bans displays of the Confederate flag on military installations around the world.

With this change in policy, we will further improve the morale, cohesion and readiness of the force in defence of our great nation.

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Desperate Republicans have decided to go all-out with a deeply disturbing attack on cities

Donald Trump is convinced that the reason more American voters aren’t swooning for his racism is because he’s just being too subtle about it. Forget the polling evidence that shows Trump’s overt racism is turning voters off. He just knows, in his heart of hearts, that the fundamental dynamics of American politics haven’t changed since the Reagan administration and voters want him to draw a clear line in the sand on racial politics. So he turned up the dial on Thursday in a bizarre rant during a clearly illegal campaign event disguised as a “press conference” in the Rose Garden.

“The Democrats in D.C. have been and want to at a much higher level abolish our beautiful and successful suburbs,” Trump said, claiming that “your home will go down in value and crime rates will rapidly rise” if Democrats get their way.

Even Trump isn’t nutty enough — yet — to seriously suggest that the Democrats have some secret plan to bulldoze the suburbs. What Trump’s talking about, as Jonathan Allen at NBC News explained, is “an Obama-era rule designed to combat racial discrimination in housing.”

Which is to say that Trump’s campaign strategy is to tell white suburbanites that if they don’t vote for him, Black people might move into their neighborhood. What makes suburbs “beautiful,” apparently, is racial segregation.

“His message is clear: ‘Elect me and I’ll keep Black people out of your neighborhoods and out of your schools,'” Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins told Allen.

“The Democrats in D.C. have been and want to at a much higher level I’ve been studying Joe Biden’s housing plans, and what I’ve seen is both surprising and frightening. I expected that abolish our beautiful and successful suburbs,” Trump said, claiming that “your home will go down in value and crime rates will rapidly rise” if Democrats get their way.

Biden and Dems Are Set to Abolish the Suburbs

a President Biden would enforce the Obama administration’s radical AFFH (Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing) regulation to the hilt. That is exactly what Biden promises to do. By itself, that would be more than enough to end America’s suburbs as we’ve known them, as I’ve explained repeatedly here at NRO.

What surprises me is that Biden has actually promised to go much further than AFFH. Biden has embraced Cory Booker’s strategy for ending single-family zoning in the suburbs and creating what you might call “little downtowns” in the suburbs. Combine the Obama-Biden administration’s radical AFFH regulation with Booker’s new strategy, and I don’t see how the suburbs can retain their ability to govern themselves. It will mean the end of local control, the end of a style of living that many people prefer to the city, and therefore the end of meaningful choice in how Americans can live. Shouldn’t voters know that this is what’s at stake in the election?

Yes you are racist as you have proven time after time.

Donald Trump is convinced that the reason more American voters aren't swooning for his racism is because he's just being too subtle about it. Forget the polling evidence that shows Trump's overt racism is turning voters off. He just knows, in his heart of hearts, that the fundamental dynamics of American politics haven't changed since the Reagan administration and voters want him to draw a clear line in the sand on racial politics. So he turned up the dial on Thursday in a bizarre rant during a clearly illegal campaign event disguised as a "press conference" in the Rose Garden.