Before NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace appeared on CNN with Don Lémon to discuss his now disproven racial “noose” targeting, he had a decision to make.  Wallace could accept the FBI/NASCAR finding and admit an honest mistake was made by an overly sensitive Richard Petty racing team; or he could make racism his new identity in NASCAR as Colin Kaepernick did with football in the NFL.  Bubba Wallace chose the latter.

As a result of Wallace’s new identity, and his announced career goals, NASCAR will now fragment in the same way as the National Football League. Social justice will now define Mr. Wallace’s professional effort; driving with NASCAR becomes a method to achieve his new career aspirations.  That inflection point, his identity choice, is clear in his interview.

However, before getting to the interview it is worth looking at how this entire fiasco was created, starting with the carefully obtuse explanation from Richard Petty Motorsports:

Obviously Richard Petty’s team are socially woke and enlightened to their obligations in a new era of racial sensitivity.  Notice the careful wording: “discovered a rope tied in the fashion of a noose”, key word “fashion.”  The careful wording allows the statement to skirt on the fringes of common sense truth because they don’t ‘technically’ say it’s a noose; quite simply, because it isn’t.   If it were a noose it would be useless as a garage door pull.

That brings up the second obtuse aspect of the sentence: “discovered a rope”, notice they don’t say it was attached to the garage door pull (which it was) because that would make their misinterpretation seem even more ridiculous.  Saying ‘we discovered a garage door pull-down rope that appeared to be fashioned as a noose’, would illicit eye-rolls.  So they carefully avoid noting their stupidity by ignoring common sense.

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Earlier today President Trump commemorated the 200th mile of border wall being built along the U.S-Mexico border. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – Q Can I ask question on the wall: How’s it looking?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it’s great. It’s great. It’s going to be — it’s really foolproof. It’s solid steel. It’s rebar and concrete inside the steel. So we have a very heavy concrete inside the steel. And inside the concrete, we have rebar. So you have everything you could have. It’s what they wanted, and that’s what we did.

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Earlier today President Trump attended a border security briefing in Arizona during an event to thank border enforcement and review the border wall.  [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. Great to be here. Beautiful runway. A little warmer than I’m used to, but that’s okay, Doug, right? We have a — I was just given a beautiful picture of the wall. That’s before and after. And that’s quite a difference: one area you walk over, you drive over, you do whatever you want, and other one you say, “Well, I guess we don’t get in.” Here’s another one — just given. That’s great. That’s a different section. Pretty amazing.

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It took a lot longer than it should have; and it created buckets more intentional controversy than it should have; but the FBI and NASCAR have finally admitted the “noose” claimed by Bubba Wallace was nothing more than a simple garage door rope tied in a loop and had been there since October 2019. EXACTLY as we outlined:

NASCAR STATEMENT:

FBI STATEMENT: (Insufferably the FBI keep calling it a “noose”, it wasn’t.) The FBI wasted “fifteen FBI special agents” on this investigation.  Good grief.

Not surprisingly, there has been no statement from NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace.

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Jumpin’ ju-ju bones… New home sales jumped a whopping 16.6% in May, blowing past the estimates of a 2.9% rise.  The May increase in sales is nearly 13 percent higher than the same month one year ago.

Home sales are a key indicator of economic health because purchases of homes requires (1) income, a stable job; and (2) an optimistic financial outlook from the buyer.

Sales of new single-family homes jumped 16.6% in May from April, to a seasonally adjusted annualized pace of 676,000, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The median economist estimate was for 640,000, according to Bloomberg data.

In addition to a larger-than-expected monthly surge, May sales were nearly 13% higher than a year ago. As the US economy reopens, people are flocking back to the housing market in droves — the rosy sales are a rebound from three months of declines ending in April. (LINK)

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There are a lot of racially motivated politicians who are using the NASCAR ‘fake noose‘ story to proclaim their woke credentials.  However, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is particularly interesting because in many ways she has staked her political future around her expressed racial sensitivities.  This bet, she believes, will advance her to the White House. [Background]

While governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley led a movement to remove all historic references and memorials to the southern confederacy.  It was a political calculation she viewed would help her career later on.  So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see this:

The problem is… as more and more politicians and well known pundits and media stake their reputation on this Bubba Wallace hoax it becomes more difficult for NASCAR and investigators to admit the truth.  An easily solved mystery that should have been explained to the public in a matter of hours has now dragged on for days.  [SEE HERE]

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In the economic balancing act toward China Larry Kudlow represents the good cop, Peter Navarro represents the bad cop and President Trump navigates the market responses.  Neither person is factually in conflict with the other; the nuance is in the expression and each person has a role to play.  Sometimes teeth, sometimes not. It depends on need.

Last night trade advisor Peter Navarro noted the U.S. position with China and trade is still in a state of serious conflict.  This is accurate, and a more confrontational posture has been expressed by President Trump.  Today Larry Kudlow moderates the Navarro position to lessen the Wall St. concern over a looming decoupling.  It’s all a dance.

The need for nuance becomes clear as we watch Stuart Varney pushing the Wall Street concern angle on behalf of U.S. multinationals. The administration does not want to spook the stock market while they deal with a China confrontation. WATCH:

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Kudlow represents the panda mask. Navarro represents the eagles claw. President Trump advances or retracts each position as he controls the market response.  The objective is a slow, steady, smiling decoupling that doesn’t unnerve anyone… but the direction is always toward the decoupling.

President Trump is delivering the proverbial economic death by a thousand paper cuts.

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Chopper pressers are the best pressers.  Earlier today President Trump stopped to deliver remarks to the assembled press pool and answer questions.  The President is heading to Arizona for events at/near the border.  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. So we’re going to Arizona. We’re celebrating. We have over 200 miles of wall built. It’s been incredible. Our numbers on the border, as you know, are at just about a record-breaking low. People are not being able to cross the border. The wall is up, because we have more than 200 — we have about 212 miles up of wall. So that’s good.

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Throughout the late evening and overnight hours we have been able to assemble definitive proof the NASCAR story of a noose hanging in the garage of drive Bubba Wallace is a hoax.  [Background Here]

When the race team of Bubba Wallace arrived at Talladega Speedway in Alabama, he was assigned to garage stall #4.  After reviewing prior 2019 video of that specific garage bay, at that specific speedway; and after reviewing a picture released yesterday showing the FBI investigators on the scene; it is clear the “rope noose” in question was nothing more than a manual garage door pull-down with a hand loop tied into it.

As you can see, the portion of the rope that shows the hand loop (aka “noose”) in 2019 was cut off in 2020.  The #4 garage door pull-down rope did not break, it was cut -the hand loop removed- and that’s why it is shorter.  The question then becomes was this a mistaken interpretation or an intentional effort to create the appearance of targeted hate?

The answer to that question becomes clear when you look at the same rope on the adjacent stall, #5.  A full picture (shown below) shows the pull-down rope on the stall next to Bubba Wallace also contained a hand loop tied into it.  However, it is clear from the kinks in the rope the hand loop was untied.  Likely by the same person who cut-off the “noose” on stall #4 being used by Bubba Wallace’s crew.

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This has the potential to be very embarrassing for NASCAR.

Very Important Update at Bottom:  Absolute Proof.

When NASCAR rolled in to Alabama and the Talledega motor speedway, the story of a “rope noose” in the garage of Bubba Wallace grabbed media attention.   However, a NASCAR video of the exact garage doors at the Talledega motor speedway shows all of the garages have ropes and nooses on them.

The images above are from a 2017 NASCAR “GarageCam” walk through during the  NASCAR Camping World Truck Series garage at Talladega Superspeedway.  The rope with a “noose” on the end is a simple method to pull down the garage door to close it.  The noose provides a place to put your hand/wrist when closing the door.

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