#or they call you a white supremacist because If You Loved Minorities You Would Vote Blue
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Reminder that liberals aren't leftists and are in fact closer to being centrists and conservatives. Leftists are people like socialists.
Leftists want everyone's needs met. Healthcare, housing, food, etc and within the USA where the GDP is 23 trillion those things should be provided by the government. Workers should equally own the businesses they run and distribute profit equally as well.
Being a leftist can look like a lot of things- like calling for the straight up destruction of a government- but most can agree that until that happens then everyone's human rights and basic needs should be provided at the very least. Lots of leftists work towards this.
Remember that when leftists ask you to vote for 3rd parties with platforms that include universal healthcare, housing, and police reform.
Because liberals who stopped their political growth in 7th grade will try to make leftists out to be "Russian psyops" or white supremacists because we vote with principles and values and that don't allow us to vote for people who commit genocide, let single moms and their kids starve, and/or call environmental protests terrorists.
They'll reduce all this nuance to us "being immature and splitting the vote"
Quite frankly, I refuse to fall for this narrative in 2024.
We are ALL exercising our right to vote for the person who represents us. No, my beliefs don't line up with Democrats so I don't vote for Democrats ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not "splitting a vote" because I can't split my own fucking vote and I'm not a member of your party. I don't owe your shitty genocidal party any of my loyalty, quite frankly idk why You even vote for them since you say you care about human lives but I digress.
If your guy loses that means your views aren't the majority.
It does NOT mean I'm a Russian Psyop. And because I've already seen a post floating around about how The-Russian-Tumblr-Bots-Were-Real-And-Pretending-To-Be-Black I'm asking y'all to use your brains and critical thinking skills this election.
There's a REASON why they specifically wanted to undermine your trust in BIPOC. So let's think about this for a second.
Why would anyone want to undermine your trust in BIPOC? What kind of things do BIPOC say about the government and it's history? What are the political leanings of BIPOC? What would happen if everyone started to agree with those politics? Which party would those views harm most?
It's crazy to me y'all think those bots were there to help Trump when it's obvious as fuck to me that the Real concern is that BIPOC would make y'all more left which would only be trouble for Biden/Clinton. The only people that would lose votes if y'all voted more left like BIPOC bots told you to would be Democrats. We want Republicans to vote more left, remember? That would be a good thing.
They were on the site to keep liberals from going left and voting for someone like Sanders or Claudia de La Cruz instead of Clinton/Biden. They weren't helping Trump. They were helping Democrats. Republicans aren't the people listening to BIPOC Tumblr bloggers, are they?
And that psyop is STILL working cuz now liberal goons put in overtime to accuse anyone who criticizes the 2 party system of being a Russian bot 🥴🥴
Yeah. I'm sure the two parties who rely on that system definitely didn't expect or want that outcome at all. And I bet they really didn't want you to refuse to vote for anyone outside those 2 parties either. I'm sure they hate how this psyop ended with you having more trust in a corrupted 2 party system and less trust in 3rd parties that challenge the corruption of the system. How awful it must be for them, that the Russian Bots Ordeal ended with MORE trust in the current government and people being less willing to change it :(
#idk how to be anything but a bitch abt this tbfh#liberals#2 party system#russian psyops#or they call you a white supremacist because If You Loved Minorities You Would Vote Blue#literally fuckinh choke and die#anywya#rant#vent#electoral politics#voting#2024 elections#biden#Clinton#sanders#claudia de la cruz#jasmine sherman#trump#im so fucking over leftists being the scapegoat for what is obviously Democrats gaslighting voters
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This is the karma of Working Class white people.
"“Sorry, not sorry. These people are not worthy of any sympathy. They have run around for decades bitching about poor minorities not “working hard enough,” or that their situation is “their own fault.” Well guess what? It’s not so great when it’s you now, is it? Bunch of deplorables, and if they die quicker than the rest of us that just means the country will be better off in the long run.”
“Is it bad news or good news? Middle aged undereducated white Americans are Donald Trump’s base. They brought us this clown and ensuing insanity.
It’s bad news they are dying off if you happen to love one of them or are one of them. But, it’s the welcome news of hope that without that demographic dwindling and eventually gone, our chances of another Trump are significantly less.
Now that’s good news.”
“maybe they should takt the advice they used to give minorities, take responsibilty and pull up your boot straps,only when it’s your boot straps you find it’s not so easy as a sound byte.”
“Hey as long as those white people keep voting republican they will continue to die off…..
How stupid could you be….”
“I don’t see much profit in planning on them ever voting democrat. However, there can be progress in forcing them to eat the shit they’ve been feeding other people for so long.”
“I for one have little sympathy for these despairing whites. If they can’t compete against people of color when everything has been rigged in their favor, then there’s really no help for them. Trump and his G(r)OPers will do little to elevate their lot. If anything, these poor whites will be hired to dig grave pits and assemble their own coffins.”
“They have every know advantage in America; culturally, environmentally, educationally, etc. There is absolutely no reason that they should be in such despair. They should pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
“As long as it only affected minorities, whether it was jobs, drugs, or a decent life it was an non issue. We were told by these very people that we were being to sensitive and not really trying to get a job, or the worst bs of all that we just wanted to have a free handout rather than ever work a real job. Well you know what, karma is a bitch and if these people choose to continue to vote Republican and try to deny other from attaining the American dream, they deserve no better than what they are getting!”
“Wow! You’re really going to sit on your unearned perch of white privilege and tell us, US?, people of color that WE? are standing above them and “sneering down” at them. These people are the white racist who voted in a white racist as president. And you want us to look upon our oppressors as victims? And seriously you show your own arrogant racism with your whitesplaining ‘splaining?” comment. You’ve got some serious nerve trying to use our own terms against us in a blind bid to have us feel sorry for the vile racist oppressors of this so called society.”
“I agree it’s sad. And likely it is due to the collapse of the structure they built based on entitlement. Males of other races have had the same challenges the whole time, and have been told to suck it up buttercup. Time for these guys to take a dose of the same medicine they’ve been doling out for years.”
“Those numbers ain’t even real. They are made up by the white supremacist power structure to make the over privileged oppressors look like some kind of victim. It’s sick, and disgusting. It’s the same kind of crap they do with crime statistics. They try to make us, POC, the victims of white hate and oppression for centuries. Look like the criminal minded victimizers and the racist white power structure {ie the white population from top to bottom, upper, middle and lower class alike} look like victims.”
“One feels maybe a modicum of sympathy for those “white, poorly educated, middle-age Americans”. One does not wish for one’s fellow citizens to suffer. But, those same “white, poorly educated middle age Americans” need to own up to their responsibility, if not complicity, in their own predicament. This is what happens when you vote for Republicans to public office. Republicans are a disease, a pestilence, a cancer on the American body politic. Republicans do not give one goddam whit about “white, poorly educated, middle age Americans”. Republicans only care about their wealthy, corporate benefactors. Republicans only care about inflicting harm and suffering on everyone who is not elite or wealthy. Stop voting Republicans into office. Start voting in people who have your best interests in heart and at hand. Otherwise, continue to feel this despair white America. Republicans will NEVER help you overcome your economic plight.”
“In the 60 ‘s &, 70 ‘s these people didn’t have to compete for jobs .they got jobs because they were white even when blacks were more ,qualified. .
Now it’s a knowledge economy and more minorities are getting higher education. .For years these same people voted against their own interests by voting Republican.. No they’re reaping what they sow.”
“Difficult to have any sympathy when My coverage is threatened because ignorant white trash are too stupid to know that the ACA and Evil Obamacare are the same thing. The factories closed down forty years ago. If you didn’t leave Detroit or Erie or Kentucky as I did to stay current you need blame no one but yourself.”
“This is where standing around basking in white privilege and chanting USA! USA! USA! when presented with differing and challenging opinions for decades has taken them. You have to go out and make things happen for yourself, change jobs and even move if necessary to make a better life sometimes. Nobody who wasn’t born straight and white fails to understand this. These people would rather project their own failures and shortcomings onto minority groups, buying into myths about non-existent welfare queens and trickle-down economics and all of the other snake oil sold by the right and wallow in nostalgia over how “great” (for them) everything was in the 1950s when they could pull themselves into the 21st century.”"
#fuck white supremacy#fuck the usa#fuck the republicans#fuck white people#please spread this#please sign this petition#please speak up#please spread awareness#please spread the word#share the word#spread awareness#spread the word#spread the message#spread this#raiseawareness#raise awareness#help reblog#help raise awareness#help post
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I made this post on Facebook, and I want to post it here, too:
Nazis broke into our nation's Capitol building. Literal Nazis. Genocide advocating, swastika flag waving, actual Nazis planted bombs in our nation's capital. They threatened the lives of our duly elected officials, and even chanted that they wanted to hang the Vice President. They killed, stole, and destroyed. They did this and were told "We love you. You're very special." by the President.
I'm stressed and agitated because of this. Not just that it happened, but that there are people who want to sweep it under the rug. People who want to pretend it was unforeseen and unconnected to the words and deeds that led up to it. Despite Nazis trying to overthrow our government, there are many people who do not want to investigate the crimes that happened surrounding this. There are people who think it would, somehow, be better for our nation to pretend that this did not happen, that it would somehow be healing to pardon those who enabled violence.
Make no mistake, the violence that happened was planned and encouraged by people within our government. It was fostered by lies, and kindled by rhetoric deliberately using violent terms. There is growing evidence that not only was the lack of police response intentional, but there were officers who gave aid to the violent insurrectionists. Our allies in NATO already consider this a coup attempt, and I see no reason to think otherwise.
The violence of Jan 6th was planned, and the Department of Defense is warning that there is more being planned for the future. The same people that encouraged past violence are encouraging yet more. White Nationalism is currently the greatest threat to freedom in America, and yet there are leaders who think we should seek unity with those who advocate genocide. There are certain viewpoints that are simply intolerable, and cannot be compromised with. There is no halfway point to meet them at that is acceptable.
I see that many Christians have sought to wash their hands of politics; saying "both sides!", thinking they be done with it. That's not acceptable. This is not an issue that we can stand to the side and let be. We must demand that Nazis be driven from politics, and that any who used them as a political base be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for their part in the violence that has been done in our nation. We can do no less, because Christians are called to care for minorities. We are called to take care of "the least of these". We are called to stand up against racism, against hatred, and protect those are most vulnerable.
Men and women of faith do not stand side-by-size with racists. Too long the church in America has pretended that racism has a place in The Church, in the Body of Christ. Too long we have allowed leaders to take the Lord's Name in Vain; falsely swearing by the name of the LORD, but then going out and courting the votes of white supremacists. Make no mistake, any leader who can see Nazis in their crowd of supporters, who can see white supremacists, Q-Anon, "Proud Boys", or any other groups founded on the evils of racism, in their crowd of supporters but does not immediately chase them out, is not a man who is following the Jesus Christ I know. "There is neither Jew nor Greek...." in the body of Christ. There is no place for racism in Christianity, and there is no place for genocide in any political system.
Do NOT turn a blind eye to this. You cannot wash your hands of this. Your action is required. When the next wave of violence starts, and I can see no way to stop it from happening at this point, there will be a choice to be made by every single adult in this country. The choice will be between white nationalism, and righteousness. There is no other choice. Standing by and letting things happen is siding with white nationalism. Advocating for pardons and cover-ups is siding with white nationalism.
The only morally acceptable course of action is to drive racism back into the shadows, and then pursue it with the light of justice as far as we can. We must take every legal action we can to purge this nation's politics of white nationalism, and every form of racism. There must be investigations of the D.C police, the Department of Defense, every branch of the Military, and every law enforcement agency in the country. Any and all who have ties to white nationalism must be removed from positions of power. Genocide and slavery are not valid political views, and should not be considered protected speech, any more than murder and theft are.
There is a choice coming. Do not wait until the last minute to make it.
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I'm getting pretty annoyed with the amount of bullshit in the media right now. I just read an article about the "antisemitic" conspiracy theory Qanon. Calling Qanon antisemitic is like calling the KKK a group opposed to the career of Will Smith - technically true, but clearly a small subsection of a greater whole.
So, to remedy this...
COBIE'S FRUSTRATED GUIDE TO QANON FROM SOMEONE WHO LOVES CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND WISHES THIS ONE WOULD FUCK OFF BECAUSE IT IS BORING AS SHIT BUT NOT FIZZING WITH ENERGY, EVEN ON A MOLECULAR LEVEL, BECAUSE IT IS A DUMB AND LAZY REHASH FROM THE 80S OR EARLIER!
PART 1: DA FUCQ IS QANON?
Qanon is a grooming organisation for the Christian Far Right Death Cult that has held the Republican party in its sweaty hands since the ascent of Reagan in the 1980s. They believe in some bullshit I won't reprint here because I have no intention of spreading their ideology, but if you've heard of the Satanic panic, this is Satanic Panic 2: Now With Pizza!
Qanon is, by definition of their own supporters attacks on Muslim terrorism, a terrorist organisation. And, though it seems impossible, they're stupidier than ISIS ever were, because at least there was some twisted logic behind ISIS: poor young men fighting revolutionary wars against what they see as corrupt and immoral authorities and ideologies is nothing new. Qanon is literally the powerful declaring war on those without power out of fear that those without power (Satanists) live only to physically abuse their ugly, fat, prejudiced, stupid children. Despite the statistically most likely people to abuse them being them themselves, and there being plenty of evidence that many of these hypocrites have done that in the past (numerically many - one thing I believe Qanon followers on is that the majority are gullible Maud Flanders types, so statistically it won't be that many).
Donald Trump supports them over the "violent" Antifa (Antifa haven't killed anyone since 1993 (and that was a suicide), aren't actually an organisation, and are against facism, which Trump also claims to be against), despite Qanon followers carrying and firing weapons regularly, having shot up a pizza place in a terrorist act, refusing to wear masks, and other acts of violence designed to terrorise people.
PART 2 WHO DO THEY HATE?
Um... like, 98% of people.
Qanon is primarily an Apocalyptic Christian Far Right Death Cult. They believe in what they call SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) which happens at such a low frequency as to make it as serious a problem as being invaded by pookas. You might find anecdotal evidence here and there, but the majority of cases are hearsay spread by people who weren't there who were a part of or raised by people who were a part of the Satanic Panic. If you hear about it, it's likely bullshit. Just look at the West Memphis 3: accused of Satanic Ritual Abuse, they were sent to prison for wearing black clothes and being teenagers without any evidence. Now, whoever killed those boys is still loose, because Qanon, like all right-wing groups, is about being obeyed, not about justice.
So, with Satanic Ritual Abuse being fucking vapour, they can accuse ANYONE. And if there is no evidence, they cry COVER UP. There is no way, at all, to prove this mindset is wrong as it always self corrects, because being religious in origin, it is driven by BELIEF, not evidence.
So, whoever they believe is evil, is, as far as their reality tunnel goes.
Muslims? Evil child abusers. "But there is no evidence of that. In fact, the Muslim community is actually very protective of their children and other children. They're amongst the kindest people you can meet, even if their political leaders in their own countries are jerks." Well, says Qanon, that's because their community covers up the abuse. There wouldn't be any evidence. But my cousin went to school with a girl who was groomed by a Muslim. It's clear it is something all Muslims do. "But that's stupid. That's like saying that because Ted Bundy, a heterosexual white Republican, murdered loads of women, all heterosexual white Republicans want to murder women!" Now, says Qanon, you are just being silly. Besides, I believe Muslims are bad and Republicans aren't. You can't question my beliefs.
But we can, and we should.
Qanon followers use this vague structure to create complex webs that link up various conspiracy theories, but they aren't a complex web. They're just a list of petty grievances they have from living in their own personal echo chamber.
They hate women, they hate girls, they hate boys who don't conform to their expectations, they hate men who vote left-wing, they hate gay people, bi people, really anyone who isn't heterosexual, they definitely hate trans people (see: trans people want to use bathrooms to abuse children as merely an extension of the Satanic Ritual Abuse claims), they hate people with coloured hair, bright clothes, they hate Jewish people, they hate Muslims, they hate anyone from a fringe religion that doesn't look right, they hate foreigners, black and brown people... anyone they define as different. And to back this up, they claim to be "the majority" being dictated to be a "minority" - they aren't. They're a minority of gobby cunts, a Karen of Nazis (Karen being the best collective noun to describe these childish crybabies who were so desperate to remain in a state of childlike innocence they embraced both religion and then keep insisting their imaginary friend, Jesus, is following them everywhere, like a psychotic stalker ghost).
PART 3 WHERE DOES THEIR BULLSHIT COME FROM?
This is probably the most important part. Not what they believe, but where these ideas come from, and why they aren't new.
Qanon is a mixture of young-and-edgy YouTube/8chan influencer, white supremacist religious manipulation, pro-Capitalist Protestant religious "life is shit, embrace misery" ideology, pedophile hysteria, and "we hate the idea people have rights because we're power mad, but we're going to frame this as a backlash, normal people making their voices heard, a culture war, or whatever else we can rebrand PREJUDICE because even we don't want to admit we are bigots".
So, first of all, the angry white online teenagers: have always existed, will always exist. Their parents don't give a shit about them unless they cause trouble. So, they learn quickly that the best way to get attention is to cause trouble, which leads to kinship with other troubkemakers, forming an echo chamber of escalating troublemaking. But they're also angry, and often poor (in their eyes, or in actuality), so they're drawn to outrage, and like causing it. They're attracted to movements like this because they believe it's a chance to get some attention, someone to notice them.
And who notices them? White supremacists are always on the lookout for recruits. They feed their need for outrage and attention by misrepresenting everything. They take puff-piece news articles and shoddy journalism and further twist them into movements around positions that have no basis in reality. Vaccines? Designed to hurt you. "Uhhh, no," you say. "That's literally the opposite of what a vaccine does." I don't believe that, they say, and you can't question my beliefs. BLM? Terrorism. "No, they just want to not be shot." No they don't, they want to take over and put the Jews in power, and you can't question my beliefs! "You have no evidence!" COVER UP! they scream.
So it goes, so it goes.
Meanwhile, the Protestan work ethic of, "If you didn't suffer, you don't deserve it," goes on and on. They believe that shit things just happen, you can't stop them. Capitalism is founded on this very, very relugious principle: work should be pain for it to have value. This justifies promoting assholes, and making things difficult. But it also promotes the idea that you can't do anything to combat inequality, as that is natural, and you can't do anything to stop bad things happening, they always will, so why try? This lends Qanon a specific pattern: complain, do nothing, complain nothing is being done, still do nothing, repeat. It's wrong to intervene, you see. This allows them to say racism is bad, but God wants us to suffer so we deserve phony-heaven, a paradise they think is built on bricks of human misery... does that sound glorious to you? And if you have something, clearly you did suffer to get it, and so you are worthy, which is why Trump is a hero to them and they believe his every utterance of verbal diarrhea about him being persecuted (to be fair, he is, but he deserves it because he's lazy and incompetent).
Pedophile hysteria is also generally religiously motivated. Children should be protected, but they are not innocent angels. I've worked with children. Some are nice, some are sneaky, some are violent bullies, and so on. The one thing that unites all children is that they are ignorant. That's why we send them to school. And there are people who want to prey on children. The world we usually use to describe those who most often hurt, abuse and damage children is, "family". Promoting the idea of gangs of rampaging pedophiles snatching children into vans and harming them in shadowy rooms, or murdering them in some Satanic ritual, is laughable compared to the epidemic of children being harmed by those parents terrified the pedophiles are out there. Such fear motivates them to do untold harm to children, restricting their freedoms and their growth, teaching them that all sex is bad so they never enjoy it, forcing them to be things they aren't, and turning a blind eye to obvious abuse because those doing it are not the model of abuse being put out by the press and Internet communities. In that last way, Qanon is a driver of child abuse: it actively encourages Apocalyptic Christian Far Right Death Cult members to nit even ask the obvious question: if Epstein was abusing kids, and Epstein was hanging out with Trump, was Trump maybe involved in some way?
And then there is just the prejudiced crowd, most notably the American-exceptionalism delusional whack jobs. Let me be clear, all forms of exceptionalism are prejudiced, as they suggest that those who are exceptional are better and mire deserving than others, and the real world does not contain such hierarchies, just stuff that happens until it stops happening. A monkey may be the alpha, but one day they won't be. It's not a hierarchy, it's just a thing that happens that we project a power structure onto. Who knows what monkey culture is like? Maybe to them deference is more honourable and respected than being in charge. No-one has asked monkeys for their views of ideology or power structures.
This often manifests itself in ideas of, "We shouldn't be ashamed!" and that movements they don't like are, "Against us!" Well, if you're setting out to hurt people because you believe you are better than them, you should be ashamed. That queer Pakistani girl you keep out of college could have been the one to cure cancer! She might have had the unique perspective to make that breakthrough. And, yes, some of us are against Qanon, because Qanon is hurting people. That is the point of the movement: to harm its enemies, by denial if freedom all the way up to outright murder. It isn't a Pride parade or BLM demanding equality and an end to deaths, its a hate movement driven by a desire to punch down, and ultimately perpetuate the very system that isn't even working for those who follow its own ideology.
It's based on fear of the new, even if that new place is better than the old one, change can be scary. They think equality will hurt them, the way collective bargaining would hurt them. But we don't live in a system where resources are so finite you have to do without, we live in a system where resources are finite but we throw away an excess because capitalism couldn't make rich people richer by giving it to those who need it, so they dispose of it and introduce scarcity to drive up the cost. Working together would force them to stop doing that, which is why movements like this exist: to perpetuate a form of exceptionalism more like a cult, where only the leaders reap the rewards.
PART 4 WHAT IS THE END GOAL OF QANON?
It doesn't have one.
Qanon is a right-wing movement. Right-wing movements are about winning arguments now, and then feeling smug, even when the damage is undone later. It's about a sense of self-satisfaction, and not anything else.
Plus, Qanon has so many stake-holders who hate each other that the movement will eventually descend into cannibalism as all these things do.
Finally, being primarily religious in its design, it won't take long for many religious types to realise Q is kind if a God-like figure, a false idol, and when that happens, plenty if their leaders will become worried that their followers are so focused on Q they might "stray from the path" of donating all their money to their church.
Unless it turns out that Q is Q from Star Trek, in which case their end goal is to test Jean-Luc Picard.
PART 5 SHOULD WE FEAR QANON?
Nah. It's a group of fringe lunatics whose time in the spotlight will be fleeting. As I've already said, even their ideas aren't original - this is the Apocalyptic Christian Far Right Death Cult version of Fortnite stealing dances: everyone goes crazy about it for a bit, but it's so insubstantial in its original form, nevermind the cover band version, that almost all people with a lick of common sense will dismiss it. Plus, it doesn't serve any agenda: Trump could easily find himself on the receiving end of it, that one Qanon politician just elected will likely be marginalised the moment Trump vanishes, and having a single person won't sway any votes in such divisive times, which means they'll be proclaimed ineffectual soon enough, and with Epstein it is already showing that it isn't something which helps the powerful, meaning a lot of people who do have secrets will want it gone sooner rather than later lest it bite their own hands. Plus, they are actually harming people - and say what you like about the Republicans, they don't tend to respond well to the PR disaster of groups they side with directly attacking or killing people unless they are their own ACAB stormtroopers.
Plus, it's a bunch of saddos on the Internet. Chances are if you see someone screaming about Qanon and waving around a gun, they'd have done the same and screamed about lizards had it never got started.
PART 6 WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Stop giving them attention. This is one of the most BORING conspiracy theories ever created. Seriously, since 9/11, conspiracy theories have really gone downhill. They used to be about aliens and subterranean kingdoms, and now they're just attempts to misdirect pedophile hunters from the right-wing types who have covered up child abuse, and tie it to phony "think of the children" and "Satan is out to get us" religious hysteria.
With covid-19, the press is having a very slow news cycle, so they're desperately grabbing at anything that can drive search engine algorithm clicks to their sites, so they're covering Qanon because they've seen it trending. I doubt most people involved with it really believe in it, but it is so directionless that it wouldn't matter if they did. Qanon Con would descend into bloodshed fairly quickly because everyone would be angry and arguing that the tater tots are secret SRA code for cannibalising children or that it reveals that Hilary Clinton buries children beneath fields of potatoes. It's stupid, the people involved with it are stupid, and the bigger question is what they believe that led them to this:
Disenfranchisement. Having to respect the beliefs of others. Prejudice. Anger.
Well, boo-fucking-hoo. If these shitbags actually want to stop harm to children, maybe stop supporting gun rights so kids aren't being gunned down in schools, and black kids don't keep getting gunned down everywhere. Until you do that, Qanon, you're the child abusers.
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The completely unnecessary necessary analysis
by Christopher Smart
March 30, 2021
BURGESS OWENS HATES GOD AND MORONI
Did Utahns know who they were getting when they elected a former NFL player to Congress who may have CTE from taking too many hits on the gridiron. Lately Burgess Owens (whose real name is Owen Burgess) has been acting strangely and we don't know if he's got brain damage or if he's just crazy. As most people know — except Republicans — Donald Trump tried to nullify the presidential election so he could stay in power. But who's the dictator? Joe Biden, of course, said Owens on Fox News. “We don’t have anything close to a constitutional republic right now. We have a dictatorship.” And as for Black Lives Matter, the movement seeking to stop police shootings of African Americans, Owens said this: “They hate God. They hate capitalism and they hate the family... .” Ah, the old, GOP playbook — we have nothing to offer but tax cuts for the rich, so let's demonize Democrats. This is how they brand people like Nancy Pelosi as a she-devil. We could go on Radio From Hell X-96 and say Owen Burgess hates God and Moroni. It could be true, we just don't know. One thing is clear: Owen Burgess does not have a personal relationship with Jesus — in fact, he may be the Devil. Get thee behind me, Satan, you shithead.
WATER (NOT BOOZE) OUTLAWED IN GEORGIA ELECTIONS
OK, the staff here at Smart Bomb will never complain about alcohol in Utah ever again. It's true, you can't buy vodka on election day here in the Beehive State. But at least you can get water. Not so in Georgia if you're standing in line to vote on election day. And they have long, F---ing lines at Georgia polls — especially in low-income, minority areas. If someone tries to sneak you a bottle of water, they'd get busted by the water police. “Illegal distribution of a controlled substance, to wit, H2O.” It remans unclear whether mini-bottles of Jack Daniels could be passed out to thirsty voters. But white Georgia officials say the new, restrictive voting laws are good because white voters in the Peach State no longer trust the system after white Republicans lost two U.S. Senate seats and Donald Trump said it was rigged. The former president even begged (threatened) the secretary of state to find him 11,700 votes to un-rig the polling. State Sen. Buzz de Vaut, who sits on the state election board, praised the new legislation, noting that thirsty black people might pledge their votes to Democrats for a bottle of water — which would be totally unfair to Republican white supremacists.
HUNTSMAN SUES LDS CHURCH FROM A SAFE BEACH
Holy heck. He's gone and done it. And it could really screw up his Temple Recommend. James Huntsman — the scion of the late industrialist Jon Huntsman Sr. — is suing the LDS Church for fraud and he wants $$$ millions in tithing returned. Oh, boy. The Celestial Kingdom could hang in the balance for the brother of former Gov. Jon Huntsman (Jr.) and Paul Huntsman, the jefe at The Salt Lake Tribune. In a lawsuit filed from a safe and secure beach in California, James Huntsman said the church repeatedly lied about billions going to charitable causes. Yikes! “[R]ather than using tithing funds for the promised purposes, the LDS Corporation secretly lined its own pockets by using the funds to develop a multibillion-dollar commercial real estate and insurance empire that had nothing to do with charity,” the suit said. Double Yikes !! Church officials may be wishing Mark Hofmann was back — at least they'd be getting something for their money. On the other hand, suing the LDS Church for millions in such an embarrassing way could provoke the wrath of every good Mormon in Zion. Some advice, James: Don't be caught in Utah or you could end up like Brigham Young's scapegoat, John D. Lee — digging your own grave. (Yes, literally.)
Post script — Spring is here and crocuses are croaking and like the swallows in Capistrano, the Turkey Vultures will soon be circling the Avenues. Easter is upon us and that means bunnies and colored eggs (why, we don't know). In some countries Catholics celebrate the resurrection for an entire week and because they can confess their sins and get absolution, they really party down. Forgiveness is a great thing. Too bad its in such short supply. If you wrote or tweeted something stupid decades ago in high school or when you were drunk at college, watch out. You can apologize over and over again and spend 20 years in a convent but that just won't get it — no way. These are some mean times we're living in. But the hate that spreads like Covid didn't happen overnight. For more than three decades a lot of money and effort has gone into the campaign to divide Americans. When people like evangelical preacher Rick Joyner call on Christians to arm themselves for a civil war against liberals, who are allies of the Devil, you know we're in deep shit. Where do we go from here? Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Hate begets hate; violence begets violence. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.” Think about it.
Alright Wilson, if spring can't put you in a good mood, what can? You're right, the band is almost always in a good mood, but we can't talk about that here. So anyway, do you and the guys have something in your Easter basket that will lift us up and float us away on a fragrant spring breeze:
I can see clearly now, the rain has gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright, bright sun-shining day
It's gonna be a bright, bright sun-shining day
I think I can make it now, the pain has gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is that rainbow I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright, bright sun-shining day
Look all around, there's nothing but blue sky
Look straight ahead, nothing but blue sky
Gonna be a bright, bright sun-shining day
Gonna be a bright, bright, bright sun-shining day
(I Can See Clearly Now — Johnny Nash)
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American Fascism, Racism, and the Trump Cult
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on policy or politics. Quarantine has left me with what seems like an infinite amount of time to reflect on our countries current state of affairs—and as cliché as this sounds, it feels as if we are living in dark times indeed.
Since our current regime began in 2016, all of the progressive policies of the Obama era have been eradicated by an egotistical fascist. Far-right and white supremacist ideologies are being pushed as the new normal by those who fear that their position of power is being threatened by minorities and anyone left of center. A center that is very quickly skewing farther and farther right on the political spectrum. Folks who hold these far-right ideologies have historically been threatened by people of color, folks who identify as LGBTQIA, feminists, women’s rights champions, and others who voice opinions that are different than the rights self-absorbed narrative. Especially when these folks attempt to find seats at the decision-making table.
Our current regime fears these opinions so much that they attempt to silence anyone who speaks out against their clearly fascist policies and statements by convincing their base that our voices and opinions are being incited by “fake news” or as Trump loves to call it, the “lamestream media”. This regime has convinced it’s cult-like followers that any media coverage that does not stroke the ego of the POTUS or any coverage that speaks out against his archaic, and often false views/statements, are untrue accusations and that he is being unfairly targeted. Trump continuously lies to his base and the American people, and when he is called out on his lies, both he and his base scream fake news. The POTUS has convinced his base that democrats are sheep to the media who are trying their best to undermine all of the “great” work he is doing for Americans. Despite Trump not keeping his promises to his base, they still follow him with what feels like a Jim Jones cult mindset. Take this video where trump easily brainwashes his followers into ignoring how his he is lining his and other billionaires pockets by attempting to convince his base, who largely consist of poor/working-class white folks, that they are the “elite”:
youtube
They see no wrong in Trump's behavior. How is that Trump has convinced millions of people to blindly follow his every whim? You see, as badly as it pains me to state this, Trump is not the cause of these deeply rooted, bigoted, ideologies. They have been around since the founding of America. Like a festering cancer that sometimes quietly goes into remission, but is still there, waiting for the body to become weakened so that it can make a reappearance. Folks have long held onto their bigoted ways, Trump simply gave a platform where these ideologies could be voiced and he emboldened those who held them to speak out louder than ever. After having a president in office that championed for the rights of minorities, the right was fearful of being forgotten and worried that their ideologies would be silenced. This fear ultimately led right-wing voters to vote for and blindly follow anyone spoke out in favor of their bigoted beliefs. And trump happened to be the loudest and most aggressive at the time. The right touted his down to earthiness and non-political way of speaking. Trump is praised for “telling it like it is” because for a while, at the turn of the century, white folks seemed partly scared to fully voice what they really thought about anyone who wasn’t white and straight. That’s not the case anymore.
I find it appalling that in 2020, I can scroll through the comment section on any article related to race and find a plethora of comments written by white right-wings and conservatives insinuating that there is no race problem in America. They state racism does not exist; they unquestionably believe that there is a level playing field between white folks and people of color, and that white privilege does not exist. Much like Social Darwinist, these folks believe that people of color and folks experiencing poverty are inherently responsible for their less than status in society. That they’re lazy and unwilling to pull themselves up by the bootstraps because it’s more convenient for them to live off of the government-- like the infamously stereotypical welfare queen, a term coined in 1974, by George Bliss of the Chicago Tribune in his articles about Linda Taylor.
These folks fail to realize that people of color and people experiencing poverty are a result of systematic and institutional racism designed to enslave people of color and keep them from sitting at the decision-making table. Further, they don’t understand how poverty rolls off the back of parents and onto children—how hard it is for children to break intergenerational cycles. Take Kaitlin Bennet, the infamous gun girl of Kent State. She hosts a youtube channel where her main “goal” is to “expose the corruption and demoralization” of the “liberal left.” In this following clip, Kaitlin states that there is no racism in America because she is surrounded by people of color on a daily basis, as if their very existence is somehow justification as to why racism doesn’t exist. She states that some lives are inherently more valuable than others and that those who are experiencing homelessness should get a job. When Kaitlin realized she had couldn’t win a baseless argument against two obviously educated college students, she had to resort to personal attacks against James's sexuality. She’s edited out the word racist or racism from her videos because apparently those words demonetize her youtube videos and she loses money for including those words.
youtube
Let’s break down one of the systems that these folks so eagerly deny and blindly ignore-- the prison industrial complex. In the 80s, Reagan turned the metaphorical “war on drugs” into an actual initiative that was put forth by a seemingly racist governmental body whose aim was to create a caste system to ensure people of color would never rise out of poverty. While Raegan solidified these new forms of discrimination against people of color, it was Nixon who set the stage for the systematic incarceration of black and brown people through his Southern Strategy. As civil rights activists worked to dismantle the Jim Crow laws of the south, Nixon and other politicians began to create a strategy that would ensure votes from whites who aligned with both the conservative republican party and the left-leaning democratic party.
The “Southern Strategy” was ultimately a political movement that aimed to garner votes from white Americans from both sides of the political spectrum by antagonizing racialized fears in the white populace. The campaign painted an image that portrayed people of color as deserving of being poor and uneducated-- it pathologized them as criminals and deserving of their second-class place in society because they simply could not rise above their uncivilized ways. Michelle Alexander states:
The racialized nature of this imagery became a crucial resource for conservatives, who succeeded in using law and order rhetoric in their effort to mobilize the resentment of white working-class voters, many of whom felt threatened by the sudden progress of African Americans.
This campaign ultimately led to Reagan’s 1982 War on Drugs, and his later establishment of mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which were enacted through his Anti-Drug Abuse Act of1986. After Raegan’s enactment of AABA, the numbers of incarcerated black and Hispanic men skyrocketed creating an overpopulated prison system that led the way for privatization. Republicans laid the foundation for mass incarceration of people of color, and democrats solidified the systemic discrimination and oppression that would soon follow a person who was formerly incarcerated throughout their life.
The Clinton (D) administration enacted laws banning drug offenders and felons from receiving public assistance in the form of financial aid or food stamps, denying them the ability to public housing, and stripping them of their right to vote. These combined laws on part of both democrats and republicans led to the creation of a caste system that created a populace of second-class citizens, who were stripped of their most basic rights—this group was disproportionately made up of people of color. Less than 5% of the world's population, has nearly 25% of the world's incarcerated population. Black people make up about 13 percent of the U.S population and 31 percent of those incarcerated for drug use—Latinos make up an additional 18 percent of the total U.S population and account for 20 percent of those incarcerated for drug use. It is important to note that crime is equally distributed between all races, but the impact of policies of the 1980s and 1990s has been anything but evenly distributed-- black men are eight times more likely to be incarcerated than white men and nearly a third of young black men are under criminal justice system control.
These laws have persisted throughout the last three decades and allow for a system that systematically discriminates against an entire sub-group of individuals. When formerly incarcerated people are released from prison they have very little support from institutions designed to provide help to the most vulnerable populations in the U.S. They typically can not get into public housing and private landlords can legally turn them away citing their criminal history as a reason. Formerly incarcerated persons cannot receive federal financial aid to further their education-- and if they do manage to pay for school, most jobs will not even look at their resume, much less hire them because of their felon status. Further, formerly incarcerated persons cannot receive public assistance benefits such as food stamps. A lack of social support leaves these individuals at a high risk of reoffending just so they can survive in the outside world, which ultimately locks them into a brutal cycle of flowing in and out of the prison industrial complex.
It seemed like during the Obama era, there was hope; a hope that our country could heal from our divisive history of viewing anyone other than white straight cis men who are most valued, followed by white straight cis women, as something other than less than. Because, let’s be honest, many folks along all lines of the political spectrum have never fully respected the opinions and lives of people of color, LGBTQIA folks, immigrants, etc. We have been and still are, just tolerated. That’s why Obama was a breath of fresh air. He attempted, and sometimes succeeded, in eradicating archaic policies like the militaries don’t ask don’t tell policy, championed for the rights of minorities and immigrants through bills like DACA, attempted to ensure those who were poor had access to health care. President Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper initiative on February 27, 2014, to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people could reach their full potential. These were just a few of the many ways Obama worked to level the playing field for those who were not born into the western version of the genetic lottery.
What is it going to take to heal our country and end these systems of violence against black and brown people? When are we going to step up and not give media attention and not vote in folks who are so clearly bigoted to positions where they can continue to marginalize already vulnerable populations? When will this hate for those viewed as other, less than, die out? Is this our new reality for the unforeseeable future? The biggest question of all is: when will the right figure out that Trump doesn’t have any of their best interest in mind? When will they realize that he’s sitting on one of his many gold toilets and shitting on America?
I want to live in a country where equity is at the forefront of our minds; where people strive to ensure all of their neighbors have equal opportunity regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or class. We must continue to use our voices to speak up for the oppressed and vulnerable, and VOTE for folks who believe in an equal and just society. Will 2020 usher in voices into the political sphere that are representative of folks from all walks of life, or will it be the same bullshit we’ve had for nearly 244 years since America was founded?
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My Lived Experience
I’ve been silent the last few weeks, not because I don’t have a voice or an opinion on what’s happening in this world right now or even more specifically, in my home country. But, because there is just so many feelings of all kind of everything. But, I feel like it’s time to speak up and tell my story and my views.
First off, If you are new here or need a reminder; I am Tri-Racial. My father is African American; my mother is Italian and Indigenous. Mix those three with being a medical anomaly; it can be confusing thing to divulge to people. Which is probably why I usually don’t. In fact, most people don’t know anything about me I would say. But, that’s about to change.
Let’s get real blunt.. I grew up within Racism. In fact, Racism is as much as my family as a brother and sister would be. How so? One family was so disgusted with my blackness that they administered burning liquids to my scalp to change the way my hair follicles grow. Yes, this was something the main culprit had researched. This family had called me every slur in the book, “The N word”, “Burrhead” were some to name a few. I was treated differently from my cousins because they were considered “pure” and I was “polluted and dirty.” That was just one family. My other family refuses to acknowledge me due to being mixed and insults are hurled on a regular basis in reference to my whiteness or indigenous side. In fact, some self hatred resides within my Father’s family as well. On another note, I was given away and sent away because of my blackness and how it would be easier if I was not nearby for the One side of the family.
Fast forward a few years, I was living with my meema and mooma, a strong Cameroonian woman and African man and my uncle C, an African American male. I am in a neighbourhood that was 96% African American and had a 92% crime rate. Racism was very much apart of this neighbourhood. The neighbourhood was fenced in, to not allow the residents inside venture out. In fact, there was a school, library and a shitty grocery store within this fenced area. It was expected that everyone residing within these buildings would stay within the fence and not “pollute” the rest of Atlanta. If you did get out, well expect to be hunted down and harassed. If you wanted a job, you would have to lie on your application of where you lived. The APD would roll in every day, with guns in hand, not even in the holster anymore. They would rough you up for no reason and if you fought back, you’re arrested on the spot and lucky if you made it to the precinct without needing medical attention. However, in the “white” neighbourhoods, no policing was needed and when you were arrested, you were treated as a human. This neighbourhood was treated as less than. Don’t think the APD are bad? Don’t understand why Atlantans are so suspicious of the APD?
Let’s get real again...I was walking home one night from my shift at T-Mobile. It was dark but I was dirt ass poor, not to mention my money had been taken from me (That will be discussed later on). I am minding my own business and all of a sudden, the APD with their cherries on pull over and draw their guns at me, I am 17 years old and alone, not to mention a girl. They yell at me to get on the ground only once, when I ask what is happening or why, I am lunged at and my face is pushed into the ground. With guns still drawn at my head and this heavy officer on me, I’m asked where I live and what am I? I answer the name of the neighbourhood and I am bi-racial. All of a sudden I’m told that I will do and I fit the description of an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon from a bar that was at least a 2.5-hour walk away. I was arrested and thrown into the back of the car, while wearing my T-Mobile uniform, the whole time I am pleading with them that I didn’t do this crime, that I was at work and to call my boss, he will tell them. I was told by an Officer to shut up and that all people from my neighbourhood are guilty and that anyone with “Black” is straight up wrong and guilty of being alive. AN OFFICER, someone who is supposed to serve and protect. They refused to listen to anything I had to say, didn’t allow me a call to notify anybody and threw me in jail and as they threw me in there, the arresting officer called me a “dirty ghetto N word.” I spent a month fighting charges that weren’t mine to begin with and that based off my registered ethnicity aka racism, I was automatically guilty. In the end, a judge was smart enough to actually read the whole case and discovered I actually DID NOT fit the description among other things.. However, I was still 1 hearing from going to prison for 10-20 years... all because I was bi-racial and one of those races was black.
I had a grandfather once, we called him mooma. He was an amazing man and one of my hero’s. He was amazing, respected anyone and everyone and would love to talk proverbs with you. A god-fearing man. When I was young, he had an “accident” that left him permanently blind. By accident I mean white supremacists thought it would be fun and an act of god to my mooma who was simply asking if there was biracial kid books within a bookstore. After he left the bookstore that’s when they jumped him. The APD did nothing and refused to file a police report and dropped my mooma off at a mental health area instead of a hospital. Years from that incident, my mooma would leave for a work trip to Texas and would never return home. My mooma became just another black man gone missing. When we went to report it to the police, we waited 3 hours to file the report while other White families were served asap. When they got around to us, they never wrote anything down and said he probably had a 2nd family because he’s black.... My mooma was murdered by White people who thought they were better then my grandfather...Who didn’t care he had a family waiting for him and a granddaughter waiting for the next critter book. Someone deemed my mooma was not fit to live simply because he was a black man.
As I grew up, I took note how other kids would be treated compared to myself and the people within my neighbourhood. When my uncle would take me to the aquarium, we would be questioned for 5 minutes on the pricing of the aquarium and how there was no guns or drugs allowed. During this time, the white families were let through with no problems. The black families were always questioned and lectured. When I went to school I noticed the kids from my church had better books, their books went to Bill Clinton, my books went to Jimmy Carter. They were assigned homework and readings, I went to class with the lesson on the board with maybe only 4-5 kids in the classroom while our teacher read the newspaper or a book, the white kids teachers were invested in their future.
As I went into high school, I started attending church with my meema at her request. In her words, “to pray the white devil out of you.” While my meema was busy praying for the white devil out of me, I was getting beat up every Sunday in the back of the church for being black by the pastor kids and their friends. They called me every name in the book, called me disgusting, ripped my shirt and spat on me. They always stole my money (as per for my comment a few paragraphs up, I was always broke because of it) In fact, one Sunday they beat me up so badly I went to the hospital. We tried to file a police report but the APD never came... That was the last time we went to that white church. From this moment on, I have only stepped in a church twice.
When I moved back to Canada, I was hopeful that it would be different and more peaceful. In fact, I have heard how not racist Canada is. I have to disagree; it’s just more behind your back, less in your face then back home. I once was told I need to calm down on the alcohol as I’ll fully turn into a “Drunken Savage.” Or not wanting to learn about the culture and mocking it at every moment someone has. Of course, a racist slur towards my Indigenous side.
Even from my Canadian city I reside in, Georgia still inflicts is racist ways on me. The black vote is suppressed to the point legal actions have been launched all around. The white adults can register easily and usually have a flawless voting process. That is not the case for the minority population and people who reside within low income neighbourhoods. To the point, the last election I was given a hard time to register saying my W looks like a V and that I was trying to defraud the voting process. After persistence, I was able to vote but was given 3 faulty ballots that were already filled out for the current president. When asked for new ones each time I was told why wouldn’t I vote for Donald Trump, he loves the poor. On top of that, this year’s voting process was no different and I was given a timeline that was not given to my white friends to register. I was given the run-around and every excuse to vote and was told the same excuse, that my paperwork was filled out with the wrong color pen, that there was problems with a computer system that they don't even use to register or that I was registered within a different state. None of this was an issue before they read where I was from and the ethnicity on file...
The above is just a taste of the racism I have experienced/witnessed. It’s a daily battle within myself to love myself and embrace all that I am. The Black, the white and the indigenous. I still avoid mirrors, most photos and you will never catch me at the beach or the pool in fear my hair get’s wet and you see that little hint of curl come to light.
So yes, these protests are justifiable. Yes, the Atlanta protests were the first turn to ugly and violent.. It’s because we are angry and it’s not just these few incidents, it’s a history of corruption, systemic and blatant racism. It’s years of oppression and anger bubbling it’s ugly head to the surface. I can assure you, it’s always been there..I end this blog with one of my favourite quotes from a movie “The Great Debaters” (If you have not seen it you should!)
“Saint Augustine said, "An unjust law is no law at all," which means I have a right, even a duty, to resist -- with violence or civil disobedience...You should pray I choose the latter.”
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The brand label that stokes Trump’s fury: ‘Racist, racist, racist.’
https://wapo.st/2P6GXHl
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, is yellow like a duck, it's most definitely a duck. Trump is playing a dangerous game with white supremacists that is endangering the lives of American citizens. HE MUST BE CALLED OUT AND HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HIS WORDS AND ACTIONS.
The brand label that stokes Trump’s fury: ‘Racist, racist, racist.’
By Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker |
Published August 11 at 11:18 AM ET |
Washington Post | Posted August 11, 2019 1:30 PM ET |
President Trump considers himself a branding wizard, but he is vexed by a branding crisis of his own: how to shed the label of “racist.”
As the campaign takes shape about 15 months before voters render a verdict on his presidency, Trump’s Democratic challengers are marking him a racist, and a few have gone so far as to designate the president a white supremacist.
Throughout his career as a real estate magnate, a celebrity provocateur and a politician, Trump has recoiled from being called the r-word, even though some of his actions and words have been plainly racist.
Following a month in which he leveled racist attacks on four congresswomen of color, maligned majority-black Baltimore as a “rat and rodent infested mess” and saw his anti-immigrant rhetoric parroted in an alleged mass shooter’s statement, the risk for Trump is that the pejorative that has long dogged him becomes defining.
Being called a racist has infuriated Trump, gnawing at him in recent days as he lashes out — in tweets and in public comments — over the moniker, behavior his advisers and allies excuse as the natural reaction of anyone who does not consider himself a racist but is accused of being one.
“For them to throw out the race word again — racist, racist, racist,” Trump told reporters Friday as he departed the White House for a week-long vacation at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “They call anybody a racist when they run out of cards.”
The president views the characterization largely through the lens of politics, said one close adviser, explaining that Trump feels the charges of racism are just another attempt to discredit him — not unlike, he believes, the more than a dozen women who have accused him of sexual misconduct or the Russia investigation.
Many of his supporters see it the same way. “At first, they tried to use Russia, and that didn’t work,” said Don Byrd of Newton, Iowa. “Now it’s all about race — ‘He’s a racist. He’s this. He’s that.’ ”
Democrats have engaged in semantic maneuverings about just how racist they think the president is. While former congressman Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said without hesitation that the president is a white supremacist, former vice president Joe Biden stopped short.
“Why are you so hooked on that?” Biden told reporters last week in Iowa. “You just want me to say the words so I sound like everybody else. I’m not everybody else. I’m Joe Biden. . . . He is encouraging white supremacists. You can determine what that means.”
Trump’s allies argue Democrats risk overreach in maligning the president.
“Democrats seem to forget that Trump supporters include blacks, whites, Hispanics and other minority groups who simply love this country,” said Mercedes Schlapp, a Trump campaign adviser, in a text message. “Democrats have shown their absolute disdain for the president and now they have extended their disdain to half of America.”
Some Democrats seem cognizant of the danger. At last month’s presidential debate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said, “There are people that voted for Donald Trump before that aren’t racist; they just wanted a better shake in the economy.”
Yet, she, too, also felt the need to rebuke Trump. “I don’t think anyone can justify what this president is doing,” Klobuchar concluded.
Trump recently called himself “the least racist person anywhere in the world,” but his history is littered with racist and racially charged comments and actions.
In 1989, Trump purchased newspaper advertisements demanding the death penalty for the “Central Park Five,” black and Latino teenagers wrongly accused of raping a jogger in New York. In 2005, he pitched a culturally divisive spinoff of his popular reality television series: “The Apprentice: White People vs. Black People.”
Trump then rose to political prominence partially by championing the racist birtherism lie that former president Barack Obama was born outside of the United States. As a presidential candidate, Trump attacked a judge overseeing a Trump University case for his Mexican heritage. And once in the White House, Trump equivocated in the aftermath of a deadly white supremacist rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, saying there were “very fine people on both sides.”
Last month, Trump tweeted that four minority congresswomen known as the Squad should “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” even though three of the four lawmakers were born in the United States. He later did not stop his supporters from chanting “Send her back!” at a campaign rally where he evoked the name of one of the four, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The Somali-born refuge became a U.S. citizen in 2000.
Trump’s rhetoric came under fresh examination last week after the alleged gunman who killed at least 22 people in El Paso echoed in what is believed to be his missive Trump’s language about an “invasion” of Hispanic migrants.
People who know Trump have come to his defense. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said that, in her three years at his side, she has “never, ever, a single time heard this president say or do anything” racist. She described his reaction to being labeled a racist as “less frustration and more consternation that critics, especially those who would like to be president, resort to spewing invectives or hurling insults at the current president, instead of just arguing on the issues.”
Trump’s sensitivity about the racist sobriquet dates back decades. The Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist who has known Trump and tangled with him for many years, said the president has long understood that being called “the r-word” would damage his casino and hotel businesses and, now, his political standing.
“At one level, you’re super sensitive about the r-word, and on another level, you buy ads on the Central Park Five,” Sharpton said.
Sharpton recalled that, at the height of the birtherism debate, Trump sought to persuade him to stop calling him out for his lies about Obama’s birthplace on his MSNBC show by inviting him to a meeting at Trump Tower.
“I’m not a racist,” Sharpton recalled Trump adamantly insisting.
The two men argued and Sharpton responded, “I’m not calling you a racist, but what you are doing is racist.”
Sharpton continued to attack Trump on air.
Some people who have worked for Trump say the president is less concerned about the moral significance of being called a racist but focuses instead on the bottom-line implications.
“The guy sends out blatantly racist tweets,” former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said. “White supremacist. Racist. Those labels are bad for business. . . . It means a reduction in the colors of people who want to vote for you. He’s upset about it because it’s bad for business.”
To the extent that one’s understanding of what is and isn’t racist is forged in his youth, Trump’s upbringing may be instructive. One former adviser suggested Trump believes he is more racially tolerant than his father, Fred Trump, who was reported to have been arrested in connection with a 1927 Ku Klux Klan march in New York — an arrest the president has denied as “nonsense” and “never happened.”
[In 1927, Donald Trump’s father was arrested after a Klan riot in Queens]
In the 1970s, Fred and Donald Trump both were sued by the Justice Department for discriminating against black renters in their residential properties.
Conway argued the charges of racism against Trump are over-the-top and that they are likely to help him politically because his voters could think Democratic candidates are unfairly branding them as racists, too, simply for supporting the president.
“When the elite wrist-flickers are out there demeaning and ridiculing his rank-and-file supporters — those forgotten men and women who aren’t chanting at the rallies — an insult to him is an insult to them and vice versa,” Conway said.
One such Trump supporter, Laura Capps, 39, had driven last week from Boone, Iowa, to attend the first full day of the state fair. Capps said she was exasperated when Democrats blamed Trump for mass shootings — “there were shootings under Obama, under every president” — and said they obsessed over Trump’s tweets and statements because they had nothing else to attack.
“I’ve been called a racist because I’m a Trump supporter,” Capps said. “It’s ridiculous. I’ve got a first cousin that’s married to an African American gal. So their kids are biracial, and I love them just like the rest of my second cousins.”
Holly Bailey and Dave Weigel in Des Moines
#u.s. news#politics#donald trump#trump administration#politics and government#president donald trump#white house#trump#republican politics#us: news#republican party#international news#must reads#national security#domestic terrorism#the nra is a terrorist organization#terrorism#white supermacists#racism#trumpism#donald trump jr#ivanka trump#impeach trump#trump crime syndicate#trump crime family#hate speech#hate groups#hate crimes
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Should be noted this post isn't about Shawshank Redemption (which was a damn good movie), this post is however about the term “White Privilege” but also about a less popular but still incredibly important term “Black Oppression”. If you’re not the sort to read a long post and just want the quick answer on how I (a Straight White American Male) feel about those words, I know White Privilege IS real. We see it both social interactions, how the police treat white men, how we are portrayed in popular culture, how we the courts rule in our favor when we break the law and all that doubly so when you start to include economic elements. On the other side, there are things that ARE NOT White Privilege such as voting in certain red states where policies are enacted that don’t uplift white voters but instead suppress black voters. This is where I think we need to use the word Black Oppression and differentiate the two things. Below I will provide some examples of White Privilege, some examples of Black Oppression, and some examples where there is both White Privilege and Black Oppression.
This whole point of the post isn’t to challenge the concept of White Privilege but perhaps add some nuance and shift the way we view things between what is privilege and oppression. If only for us to strive for a more equitable and equal society as well as sharpen our wits for when we encounter white supremacists who rely on flaws in our beliefs, values, and logic to further their own hateful agenda.
As always this is an opinion piece and if you have your own thoughts on the subject, take your time to reply with your own clear thoughts. I appreciate other points of view regardless of race, sex, orientation, political party or creed. I am always looking to expand my views, understanding complex social issues and develop a better foundation for my beliefs.
Medium
The first thing to discuss when dissecting this issue is the Medium, there are other words for this concept I am sure but basically, this is the expectation of how people should/expected to be treated in society. If you’re a registered voter you expect your ballot to be counted, if you run a stop sign you expect a ticket, and if you go into a store you expect to be able to shop without security following you. I am sure some might argue that certain groups of people have a higher expectation for their Medium such as wealthy thinking society is here to serve them but those people have an Economic Privilege and often White Privilege (though I have encountered a healthy mix of other races who enjoy that same Economic Privilege here in Silicon Valley... still mostly white).
No. the Medium in society is attributed itself to a social agreement, common sense and good dose of empathy of knowing how you would like to be treated and wanting that for other people. It’s why we observe lines the way we do and get pissed off when someone cuts deciding they are more important than anyone else standing there. It’s also why we take a little joy in seeing someone with Economic or Racial Privilege have to observe the social medium like everyone else. You know what I am talking about the lawyer who makes 400 dollars an hour saying her time is precious therefore everyone else should wait in customer service while she is taken care of first? Yeah... that was a real encounter I had once.
So once we establish that baseline we can start clearly identifying interactions that seemingly exceed what is expected in society (privilege) or what interactions are well under the medium (oppression). This seems like a good as a point as any to recognize that all these examines require the human interaction. Interactions plagued with prejudices and biases for our choices every day. Sometimes someone deviates a small degree over or under a medium because they are having a shit day. If we encounter someone who slips up, I always advocate forgiveness when someone makes a mistake.
Privilege
The problem with Privilege; be it economic, social or racial is that when you’re in it you don't always know it. Sometimes you’re so wealthy you're used to people waiting on you hand and foot, simply look to the Kardashians, Bieber, or Jaden Smith. These are some people who enjoy wealth so much that when they have a small thing go wrong they bitch about it all day on their reality shows.
As a White Male, I try to reflect on the privileges I might have enjoyed. I try to differentiate between moments where I received better service or social interactions because of my skin color (or gender). I realize there is a possibility that I could also be “blind” to certain privileges but it if makes you feel better if there are things I am enjoying that others do not, I have full intention of trying to pull other people up to enjoy that privilege so that it becomes the new societal medium. I am ranting a little...
The clear privileges I have enjoyed have not surprisingly been with police. Of the about dozen encounters I had with Police Officers about none of them resulted in a ticket. One incident resulted in a car being impounded but I was under 18 and didn’t have a license and even then I paid to have it unimpounded ($700 Dollars) and had the infraction removed from my record with a driving school class. You can call it luck perhaps but for the most part, I have never been given a ticket and when seeing how police treat other men my age who happen to be black with disdain, its easy to see why African Americans are pissed off and I can only have a vague understanding of how frustrating that might be for them.
Oppression
The problem with being Systemically Oppressed is that everyone living/existing on the medium seems like they are privileged. This leads to a fair amount of anger, frustration and pain in various communities. While the general topic is focused on Black and White, it does not take much imagination to project that same oppression on the gay/transgender community, women, other non-christ based faiths or other minority groups (Latinos and Middle Eastern specifically in the US).
I myself have had only small encounters with oppression myself, most of them taking place at the airport as my ass seems to get selected for extra security screenings. I am not sure what website I went to, if my beard is to thick or if that month in Indonesia has flagged me in the wrong way but that is a personal experience where I am observing social interactions below the Medium.
This post isn't about me though so let's give a clear example of oppression today. That example is voting in the United States. Many Red States have been adopting strategies to disenfranchise black voters by removing voting stations, requiring ID’s and limiting hours while keeping other voting locations (in white communities) open for normal hours. This isn't an example of White Privilege as this is how voting should be like that for everyone. No, this is white voters enjoying their right to vote, while the black community is being OPPRESSED from having a say in politics. Ok, there might be some white privilege in there but for the most part, its mostly Oppression that we are seeing, yeah?
We see other elements of Oppression in the courts, police interaction, and also pop culture, mostly in the film and television industry... which now that I think about it is also white privilege considering Asian and Indian actors are still trying to break through.
Privilege and Oppression
Most examples share above tend to dabble in both Privilege and Oppression, and as I stated this goes beyond race as sex, economics, and other social qualifiers. I felt compelled none the less to point to politics as a system that both explores a great amount of Privilege and utilizes a great amount of Oppression. Leave it American Politics to show White Wealthy Male Privilege in its full swing while Oppressing Women, Minority Groups, and Non-Christians. It’s easy to see why people don't want to hear from a Straight White Male like me when all these douche bags represent the worst humanity has to offer.
Guess you can say I feel a bit bitter on the fact that I see so many memes on Tumblr telling me to shut the fuck up because I look like them *points to assholes in picture* even though I am on board for a more equitable and equal society. *Slaps Cheeks* Keep things in perspective, Mike!
Coming back to examples of both Privilege and Oppression, another prime example is the police. We look to cities where Stop and Frisk policies exist(ed) and you could see how civil rights were secondary to a police officers ‘gut feeling’ that a black man could have drugs or weapon on them. This is an example of Oppression, clear and simple. On the flip side, you have officers waving on white citizens letting them off with warnings which isn't a bad thing in itself but when the courtesy is ONLY given to fair skinned citizens then it is a problem, it becomes Privilege.
Conclusion
White Privilege is real as fuck. Economic Privilege is real. Social Privilege is real. Depending on your lot in life you might be enjoying a great number of Privileges while others might have lower income bracket, from the wrong ethnic background, and have darker skin having a much rougher go at American life. We, the good fair loving compassionate progressives, should aim to balance these issues out. We need to find the moments where someone is enjoying an unfair privilege (like me not really every getting tickets) and bring me back down so that I have the expectations as everyone else. We also need to find the oppressive interactions (often institutional) and correct them as well and make sure everyone enjoys the same quality of life.
If you enjoy privilege in some form or another you have two options. Either bring yourself down and be held to the same standard as your fellow men (and women) OR start bringing other people up to enjoy the same privilege you do so that it becomes the new medium for society and raises the quality of living for everyone. If you feel compelled to do neither then you might be the problem. Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Michael California
NOTE: It’s important to measure subjects like this with data and not anecdotal evidence or experiences. I tend to add a few personal accounts to these sort of posts to better appeal to the emotional side of readers but hard numbers display more of the truth than my personal experiences ever could. Driving While Black is statistically proven in the data where White/Hispanic drivers are pulled over about the same rate but black drivers are stopped in excess. This is also true for Use of Force numbers, Stop and Frisk, Searching of Vehicles and even how the courts decide to process the cases.
Black Men serve 20% longer sentences to their White counterparts charged for the same crime.
Black students make up 18% of preschool enrollments but make up 50% of suspensions.
Applications with ‘Black’ sounding names are 50% more likely to be passed up by employers compared to ‘White’ sounding names.
And this list goes on and on.
If you’re a white guy, who has had a few moments where you pulled over yourself. It is neither a logical or sound argument to say “I have had difficult encounters therefor my experience is the norm and therefore is no white privilege.” Always! Always look to the data and see the numbers for both the state you live in and the country as a whole. Anyone with half a mind to understand statistics can tell there are some major racial biases in our society.
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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight
Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.
sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): Last Thursday in an interview with The New York Times, Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa said, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
The uproar over King’s comments came swiftly, and there have even been calls for his resignation. On Monday, King was booted by GOP leadership from his House committee assignments, and on Tuesday, the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning white nationalism and white supremacy (even though it didn’t rebuke him specifically.)
All of this raises a question (two questions, actually):
King has a long of history of making racist comments and aligning himself with white supremacist causes, so why are congressional Republicans taking action only now?
And are Republicans opening themselves up to criticism for not similarly condemning President Trump’s racist comments?
julia_azari (Julia Azari, political science professor at Marquette University and FiveThirtyEight contributor): My answer to No. 1 is that typically this kind of action (stripping committee assignments) is related to some kind of scandal (money laundering, sexual harassment) and not just offensive views.
More generally, American politics has not really figured out what we do with racism. (My residence on understatement island is becoming more permanent.)
sarahf: So the fact that King lost his committee tenure because his views were offensive is pretty unusual?
julia_azari: Yes. I don’t have an exhaustive list, but, I mean, Jesse Helms was in Congress less than 20 years ago, and he was known for “racially charged” comments and ran one of the most notorious race-based ads of all time — but I don’t think he faced any formal consequences.
nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, elections analyst): I’m a bit baffled by the timing. There are a few different theories floating around — like King being electorally weaker now than he’s ever been (he even got a primary challenger), or Republicans being in the minority for the first time in a while — but I’m not totally convinced of any of them.
Probably the most convincing point I’ve seen came from Jane Coaston at Vox, who pointed out that King used to be seen as a kingmaker in Iowa politics (especially in presidential primaries) and a way for other Republicans to validate themselves as tough on immigration.
But that may not true anymore. There’s (probably) not going to be a competitive GOP presidential primary in 2020, and Trump has now arguably become the GOP kingmaker on immigration.
perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): The actual words King used, “white nationalist, “white supremacist” were unusually politically problematic. Trump avoids that kind of language, even as he implies all of the same things. Also, the media started pressing Republicans on this, and that put them in a tough spot.
nrakich: Perry, King made a just-as-bad comment (in my view, anyway) in 2013, when he said that undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children have “got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.” But nobody did anything then.
Although it does seem that King was getting himself into hot water more frequently in the 2018 election cycle. And Republicans probably thought doing anything about it before the election was not politically palatable.
julia_azari: There’s a needle being threaded here: People (thinking VERY broadly about the electorate) don’t like overt racism and ugliness, but they also don’t respond well to serious challenges to the racial status quo.
sarahf: So do we think this continues to spiral and that GOP leaders in Congress ask King to resign?
A number of Republicans have begun to call for his resignation, including Sen. Mitt Romney and Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
nrakich: King’s local newspaper also called on him to resign.
julia_azari: They endorsed his opponent, though.
perry: Elected Republicans can call for him to resign all they want, but unless people and entities like Fox News, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Trump turn on King, then I don’t think this dynamic changes.
The next step here is for King to really lean hard into the idea that he is being prosecuted by the “political correctness” police, the media and the progressive left — playing the victim card against the forces of multiculturalism is powerful on the right. I would argue that it helped get Trump elected. I’m not sure King is done, unless he resigns.
sarahf: I have to say I’m a little surprised that “political correctness” hasn’t become a big part of the national conversation yet.
nrakich: Perry, last week, I was also skeptical that King’s political career was in any danger. But now that he’s been stripped of his assignment on the Agriculture Committee, which is a big deal in his district, don’t you think that makes it a lot more likely that his primary opponent (state Sen. Randy Feenstra) could actually win?
perry: I don’t know much about his primary opponent, but in general, I would not want to run as a Republican candidate aligned with the people trying to take down King for being too willing to defend “Western civilization.”
nrakich: That’s very much not the tack Feenstra is taking. He’s a hardcore conservative himself, but he argues King’s controversies have made him ineffective. In an impressive bit of needle-threading, Feenstra says people should vote for him because he’s the one who will advance Trump’s agenda most effectively.
julia_azari: One question, which I don’t know how to answer, is whether some critical number of voters who don’t like political correctness also don’t like white supremacy (lots of people hold conflicting views). It may be that the last couple of years — Charlottesville in 2017, Pittsburgh in October 2018 — have tipped the balance of them toward thinking that the latter (white supremacism) is more dangerous than the former (political correctness).
Given King’s 2018 performance — he won re-election by only a few percentage points — it wouldn’t necessarily have to be a lot of people in his district to make a difference.
perry: Like if King paints his GOP primary opponent as a pawn of the media or elites trying to take him down, that would be smart politics.
One obvious shift: Before the 2018 election, the GOP had to worry about every seat. There was a chance Republicans would wind up with a one-seat majority or even a five-seat majority. If that were the case, I don’t think they would be attacking King in this way.
nrakich: Yeah, good point.
perry: Now that they are in the minority, it’s easier to purge the most controversial members.
sarahf: So you really think some of the timing of this is related to the fact that the comments were made after the election?
perry: Totally.
Nothing to lose now — they might have needed King’s seat before. Now, I think he is likely to lose in the general election in 2020. So Republicans have some incentive to dump him and try to field a better candidate for the general.
julia_azari: Yes, I agree with this assessment.
nrakich: See, I think that reasoning is flawed.
The 2018 midterm election was a historically great year for Democrats … and King still won by 3 points. King probably isn’t in electoral danger in 2020 unless it’s at least as good of a year for Democrats.
That said, I think congressional Republicans might agree with your assessment and that’s why they’re nudging him out.
julia_azari: So did King run ahead or behind people in comparable districts?
I’m guessing behind.
nrakich: Yes, Julia, you’re right. Last month, I did an analysis of 2018’s strongest and weakest incumbents, comparing how each incumbent “should” have performed based on their district’s partisan lean, elasticity and the national popular vote vs. how they actually performed.
King was one of the weaker incumbents; he did 10 points worse than we would have predicted.
Steve King was a weak incumbent
The 10 Senate and House incumbents who underperformed by the most in the 2018 elections*
Incumbent Party State or District Expected Margin† Actual Margin Net Incumbency Advantage Elizabeth Warren D MA D+39 D+24 -15 Chris Collins R NY-27 R+13 R+0 -13 Sheldon Whitehouse D RI D+36 D+23 -12 Mia Love R UT-4 R+12 D+0 -12 David Cicilline D RI-1 D+45 D+34 -11 Bob Menendez D NJ D+22 D+11 -11 Jim Costa D CA-16 D+25 D+15 -10 Duncan Hunter R CA-50 R+14 R+3 -10 Steve King R IA-4 R+13 R+3 -10 Rob Woodall R GA-7 R+10 R+0 -10
*Excluding open-seat elections, elections that did not feature both a Republican and Democratic candidate, jungle primaries, elections with multiple incumbents and elections where the incumbent was an independent.
†Based on the state or district’s partisan lean, its elasticity and the national popular vote.
Source: ABC News
So I suppose you could argue that these recent comments could make him an even worse incumbent, and that would cause him to lose the next time out.
But again … you’d have to assume another D+9 (or similar) national environment in 2020.
And if that happens, Republicans are getting wiped out anyway; King’s seat won’t matter.
sarahf: But is what’s happening with King a blip, as he’s consistently been one of the party’s more controversial members? Or is this more of a watershed moment where the GOP says, “we’re not willing to tolerate views of white supremacism in the party”?
julia_azari: It could be an early watershed moment, Sarah.
perry: I don’t think this is a watershed moment. But Republicans have now created a baseline: We will purge you if you openly say that you support white nationalism and white supremacy.
But it’s unlikely that Trump would ever cross that exact line. He and ex-senior White House adviser Steve Bannon have always said they are for nationalism, not white nationalism. Arguably, actions that align with a white nationalist agenda aren’t as problematic, at least politically, as words in support of white nationalism.
Most people who are wary of America getting less white and less Christian can figure out how to not declare their intentions so openly. For example,saying Mexico is sending rapists to the U.S. is pretty racist, but it’s still different than saying, “I support white supremacy” or “I don’t see a problem with white supremacy.”
sarahf: But I do wonder if the litmus test for what is and isn’t an acceptable comment will change?
julia_azari: These things are very slow to change, and one of the things that I think is challenging for Republicans today vs. Democrats 60 years ago or whatever is that racism has taken on more subtle forms in the current era — predatory lending, problems with the criminal justice system — that are much less obviously egregious than lynching and de jure segregation. (Even though the contemporary issues are very serious, and I’d point out that Democrats also contributed to these problems in past decades; no one gets a pass on this stuff).
perry: So I don’t think the GOP’s litmus tests can change much right now because Trump has been racist in many ways. He hasn’t used the N-word or explicitly identified as a white supremacist, but any broader definition of racist behavior will include Trump.
To put this another way: The gap between Trump and King is fairly narrow.
julia_azari: I sort of disagree with Perry about the possibility for this being a moment, though, as I said, I think it will be slow. Here’s David Broder writing about Jesse Helms’s retirement in 2001.
He makes a point that Helms had every right as an elected senator to hold and fight for his views, before condemning those views and arguing against “sanitizing” Helms’ legacy. For elected Republicans to actually draw a boundary around a set of views is very unusual in the American context. Not only was racism the norm, but we have tended to see legitimacy in the process of being elected, not in the substance of the views.
nrakich: Yeah, I think it’s really splitting hairs to argue that there’s a meaningful difference between Trump’s (and other Republicans‘) thinly veiled racism and King’s more explicit racism. And King’s crossing of some invisible line is clearly not the real reason the GOP has condemned him. The real reason is that King is one of 435 and Trump is president.
If that rumored tape of Trump saying the N-word comes out, are Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney going to call on him to resign?
I doubt it.
perry: I think Romney would call for Trump to resign if he was on tape calling a black person the N-word.
Liz Cheney, no.
I think Nathaniel is basically right: Trump is being excused because he is president.
But my sense is that a lot of Americans think racist means only using the N-word or something very, very explicit, and Trump hasn’t crossed that line yet.
julia_azari: Which is sort of related to what I was saying before: We don’t really have a political tradition of holding people accountable for substance as long as they hold power through a legitimate procedure.
sarahf: What I find so interesting in the backlash against King is that he didn’t make a racially explicit comment that targeted one group of people. Instead, he signaled that he thought an inherent racist ideology was OK, and that was enough to spark outrage.
perry: So there is a new book coming out by Duke professor Ashley Jardina called “White Identity Politics.”
She argues that we tend to think of white identity politics as being largely prejudices against groups like blacks and Latinos. What Trump has tapped into, she argues, is not only that racial resentment but also a kind of pro-white-people politics.
So it’s not totally about being against minorities; it’s also a kind of white pride.
I think King hints at these ideas at times.
When he defends “Western civilization,” I think people are hearing that he might think ideas from Africa or Asia are bad. And, sure, a lot of what King has said seems to look down upon people who are not white. But part of what he is saying is that “white people are good and have great ideas.”
julia_azari: Combined with this idea is the belief among white people that they face racial discrimination (it has become a somewhat widespread view). This seems like a key element of the white identity appeal, that there’s an element of grievance, in addition to a pride in one’s identity or background or whatever.
perry: So I do wonder if people talking about racial issues are at times talking past one another. King is saying that he is pro-white, but that is interpreted as being 100 percent about being anti-black or anti-Latino.
So if conservatives aren’t allowed to say that “Western” or “white” culture is good and that Mexican immigrants and Muslims diminish that culture, that would affect more Republicans than just King. You can hear these kinds of views on Fox News, from Trump and from other influential conservatives. If Republicans start purging those views, the impact will go beyond King.
julia_azari: Making coded racial appeals has been a successful strategy for Republicans and, at times, some Democrats (Democrats have moved left on racial issues, even in the last decade). But maybe we’re getting to the point where it won’t be.
perry: I agree with what Julia said, but I also thought it was true in 2002. Trent Lott resigned under pressure from his Republican leadership post in the Senate over something way, way less controversial than many things Trump has said. (Lott praised Strom Thurmond’s 1948 presidential campaign, which was centered on pro-segregation views.)
julia_azari: Yeah, I think these things move really slow.
perry: We may not see a steady decline in the acceptance of racist behavior, but something more complicated, with racist comments being more tolerated at some times than others.
nrakich: I think about that Trent Lott controversy all the time!!
If anything, we’ve moved into a place where coded racial appeals are more socially acceptable, not less — at least in the medium term (i.e., since 2002), not the long term (since 1960) or short term (since 2016).
But I do think that openness is causing us to grapple with coded racism as a society. It’s the latest battle in the culture war.
And the liberal side may very well win in the end. But it took emboldened people on the far right to spark the fight in the first place.
julia_azari: If it is a politically costly move for Republicans to cut King loose, then maybe we are seeing actual change. If not, maybe we are seeing the Lott thing all over again. That was pretty cheap as far as political costs go.
perry: I assume this kind of question is always context-dependent. It is easier to replace a congressional leader or a rank-and-file member of Congress than the president. For instance, it’s easier for Democrats to say in 2018 that Bill Clinton should have resigned for inappropriate behavior with an intern than it would have been to say that in 1998, when Clinton was still in office.
sarahf: So maybe we don’t see pressure on Republicans to speak out against Trump until much later.
julia_azari: But maybe it opens space for a 2020 primary challenger?
nrakich: There are also confounding factors, like Trump’s problems in other areas — i.e., the Russia investigation. If special counsel Robert Mueller’s report implicates him in collusion or obstruction of justice and ends up destroying his legacy, it will be easier for future historians and laypeople alike to pile on him for the other stuff.
I would be curious to see how the legacy of a highly effective, scandal-free racist president would go.
Maybe something like Woodrow Wilson‘s, eh, Julia?
julia_azari: He remains a hero in some liberal circles.
I wrote a piece about a year ago about presidential legacy and one of the things I am most sure about is that the mainstream legacy writers — who historically have been mostly white — are very forgiving of racism.
The line most-often employed is something like, “That’s just what people thought at the time.”
Is it easy for me to imagine people saying that about Americans in 2016 or whatever? No. But that’s probably more about my limited imagination than anything else.
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The Laadheenee Among Us
Chapter 03 of my work in progress book "Sinking Streets".
Chapter 01 - The Male’ City Swimming Track
Chapter 02 - Doorways to the Sea
A short note on the word “laadheenee”.
Literal meaning: Not (laa) Religious (dheenee)
Not really Dhivehi in origin. Nobody uses “laa” to mean no in Dhivehi. It is an arab loan word.
Used to call someone irreligious in some way. Also directed at LGBTQI people whether or not they’re religious. Many Muslim LGBTQI people are also called laadheenee simply for being themselves.
Could be used to call someone a secularist, or a hypocrite (munafiq) or an apostate (murtad), or a blasphemer. I think the actual Dhivehi word for secular is illmaanee.
The word has even been spray painted on the walls of houses of people who have been suspected to be “laadheenee”. This may have been more related to its political usage as a slur against opposing parties rather than its usage against Maldivian minorities. However, the slur is ultimately accusing these political parties of belonging to or supporting non-Muslims or LGBTQI people. To date there isn’t a single political party that has even acknowledged the existence of Maldivian minorities other than as a boogeyman or scapegoat.
A dog whistle for “kafir” (infidel). Ultimately always means this (if not used ironically by progressive people).
The goal of this word is to stereotype and group Maldivian non-Muslims and LGBTI people as a homogenous entity that is actively working against “Islam” and the very fabric of the nation itself. It is much easier to ascribe conspiracy theories to “laadheenee” meehun (people) this way. This is similar to the way white supremacists say things like “the jews” or “the blacks”. The laadheenee meehun are apparently out to destroy the Maldives, it’s culture, it’s heritage, and it’s national unity. This is despite laadheenee meehun being regular Dhivehin just like everybody else.
The wind is rushing through your hair, extra salty with the mist generated by the dhoni as it gently falls on the waves ahead.
One of you is sick, throwing up. Why are we going fishing? Your vomit leaves an orange trail on the cobalt blue waters behind us.
As we anchor at the edge of a reef, the fires in the sky fizzles into the waves. Soon the moon rises and one of you comments on how your grandfather always said that’s a good omen for fishing. We remember we say, you tell us all the time.
As the moon grows brighter, the pile of fish in the center of the dhoni grows ever higher. Rai mas, filolhu, handhi, faana, and even a few tholhi. One of you mention how great mamma’s havaadhu is going to taste.
We return to the island. A fire is lit. The fish are gutted and cleaned. The havaadhu is liberally applied into the slits cut into the side of the fish. Save me the eyes! One of you says excitedly.
The aroma of the fish fills the air. Comforting smells of roasting cumin, turmeric, garlic, onions cut with the sharp tang of scotch bonnet chilies mixed with lime ignites a hunger in your belly. The smoke spirals up with the sparks towards the moonlight. The day feels long. Is it done yet?
We eat all of the fish. Nothing is wasted. You say the one you caught tastes the best. You like the oily taste of charred rai’ mas skin better than the dull taste of the bony tholhi you caught. I caught the tholhi! The youngest cousin exclaims angrily. Everyone laughs shares the last of the fish as we reminisce about past trips.
Remember the time you cut your foot as you ran out onto the beach? Remember the time we all played lava baazee on the dhoni when we went to that distant atoll? Remember the time the spicy eid chicken gave you a stomach ache? Remember the time you thought your shirt was ruined because of a surprise water fight? Remember how we sat at the water’s edge staring at the stars?
What about the trip where we couldn’t catch enough fish, so we went walking on the reef at low tide looking for snails? You were grossed out but found them delicious. Or when your uncle nearly had a heart attack because of the sound of a falling coconut? You laughed and said maybe he should start wearing a helmet. Remember how you hugged me the day the tsunami hit? You held me close and told me everything would be okay.
Remember when the protests happened and we all felt so scared? When the news said everything was alright, but we could hear the shouts and screams? When we could see the smoke but couldn’t see the fire?
Remember when we celebrated your freedom? Your right to vote? Your right to political representation? You were drunk that night. But it was alright because Friday was coming soon.
Remember when you told me to stop saying we? As if all at once I’m banished from our memories. As if it was a stranger who laughed at your jokes. As if it was a stranger who shared your joy, your love, and your sorrow?
Remember when you decided I was one of them? The vile, the deceitful, the enemy? Remember when you made me doubt my memories? My life? My existence? Was it not with you whom I shared my joy, my love, my sorrow?
And now, in my time of greatest misery, you twist the knife and pretend the blood that spills onto your hands isn’t that of your brother. Your sister. Your mother. Your father. Your aunts, your uncles, your cousins. Your friends and your lovers.
The blood pools around your ankles. But you feel nothing. You feel no guilt. For you have forgotten me. Forgotten what it means to be human. So your heart grows cold, while mine grows weary.
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OPINION: Theft and armed rebellion are the only way the GOP can win, but Democrats must start using the power they have or they’ll be left empty-handed.
The Democrats have everything they need right now to flex their muscles and wield the power the people gave them — the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
Their policies are popular, with the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 economic relief plan enjoying 76% support, including 60% of Republicans, and a majority in favor of doubling the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.
Read More: Dems OK tighter income limits for COVID-19 stimulus checks
There is only one thing standing in the way of a President Joe Biden agenda and Democratic Party success — and that would be scared Democrats lacking a backbone and not wanting to make Republicans angry.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speak after a press conference on Capitol Hill Sunday in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Black folks and others did not organize through the virus, go to the polls en masse and put it all on the line for this foolishness.
If President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fail to realize this, they must understand that they have an opportunity to make change for the people if they do not stand in their own way. Clinging on to a fiction of bipartisanship that has not existed in decades, if ever, some apparently are holding out for Republican support — white nationalist support — that will never come.
With a slim majority in the Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker, if the Democrats do not eliminate the filibuster requiring 60 votes to pass laws, they will lose everything.
Vice President Kamala Harris (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
John C. Calhoun, the father of the Confederacy who owned slaves and called slavery a “positive good” rather than an evil, developed the filibuster. White conservatives used the filibuster during slavery and Jim Crow segregation to maintain white minority rule, block civil rights, voting rights and anti-lynching laws for Black people.
Read More: Rep. Clyburn slams Senate filibuster’s racist history amid minimum wage fight
The success of the Biden agenda hinges on the passage of COVID-19 relief, voting rights, minimum wage and other issues. Republicans will have none of it, even if these issues are popular with their own voters and will benefit them. The GOP will do everything it can to block reform.
The GOP plays to win and destroy their opponents, while the Dems want to play fair. Republicans bring guns to a knife fight, Democrats bring cream cheese. If Democrats keep the filibuster, they will provide their adversaries with the very weapons used in their own decapitation, and they will deserve every bit of it.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks at the weekly news conference on Capitol Hill on December 03, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Republicans are like — no they are — the Southern segregationists who closed the all-white swimming pools or poured acid in the water rather than integrate them and allow Black people to dirty up the pool.
President Barack Obama learned this lesson the hard way but took far too long to learn it. He extended an olive branch to the GOP, who vowed to make him a one-term president and blocked anything and everything he attempted to do, including the Affordable Care Act.
Ultimately, Obama lowballed and watered down legislation as a compromise for Republicans that never came to the table. The Republicans blocked his judicial nominees, and when Donald Trump was elected, they rammed through unqualified recent law school graduates, white supremacists, keg-drinking frat boys with legitimate allegations of sexual abuse, and self-proclaimed handmaids on the court.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks after a meeting with the Senate Republican caucus earlier this month. He has shown no intention of bringing the $2,000 stimulus-check bill to a Senate vote should it pass the House. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, some of the enemies of change exist within the Democratic Party. Senators such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona oppose raising the minimum wage, scrapping the filibuster and other measures that would deliver to the people and help Democrats at the same time.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned us of these white moderates, our greatest stumbling block to freedom, who are “more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice” and will make us wait until a “more convenient season” to get that change.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Photo by John Goodwin/Getty Images)
With over half a million people dead from the coronavirus, and millions living in economic devastation, facing unemployment, poverty, homelessness, hunger and despair, the need for relief is greater than ever. There is no place for baby steps or a gradual transition, because the need is urgent, and the time for action is now.
Republicans will Jim Crow their way back to power if the Democrats allow them. Now, white nationalists in the GOP are engaged in voter suppression and gerrymandering, even laws to overturn presidential elections that will allow them to hold onto power even without majority support. In 43 states, there are over 250 bills to restrict voting.
Read More: Georgia GOP controlled House passes restrictions on voting
A Gwinnett county voter casts a ballot at Lucky Shoals Park polling station on November 3, 2020 in Norcross, Georgia. After a record-breaking early voting turnout, Americans head to the polls on the last day to cast their vote for incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. (Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)
In Georgia — where Black and Brown voters elected Joe Biden and sent a Black man and a Jewish man to the U.S. Senate — white nationalists in the state legislature have embarked on sweeping legislation to restrict absentee, early and weekend voting.
Like their Jim Crow ancestors who blocked the Black vote to “restore confidence…restore honesty and purity to the ballot-box,” these 21st-century segregationists also claim they want to “restore confidence in our voting system.” This, as the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to further attack the Voting Rights Act by greenlighting voter restrictions in Arizona.
A general view of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)
Democrats can solve this right now if they pass H.R. 1, the For the People Act — which expands ballot access and reduces the influence of big money in politics — and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — which prohibits racial discrimination in voting by strengthening the Voting Rights Act. Throw in federal court reform and D.C. statehood for good measure.
None of this is possible through attempted compromise with insurrectionists. Theft and armed rebellion are the only way Republicans can win, but Democrats must stop playing and start using the power they have if they don’t want to be left empty-handed.
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On Racism: Racists Are As Racists Do
When Donald Trump referred to countries like Haiti, El Salvador and those in Africa as “shitholes,” in a meeting at the White House, he did it in front of an almost exclusively older white audience. His description wasn't a “slip of the tongue.” It wasn't a “misrepresentation” of how he really feels. It wasn't an “unfortunate” use of the term. It was exactly what it was-a racist description by a racist man.
Trump being a racist is nothing new and it isn't surprising (no matter how many in the media act like it is.) He has a lifetime of racist behavior and words. He was heavily fined for housing discrimination against blacks in the 70s. He demanded the execution of five young black and Latino men who were falsely accused of attacking and raping a white woman in New York. He has referred to Mexicans as “rapists.” He mocked Nigerians as “living in huts.” He has pushed for a ban against Muslims. He was the loudest proponent of the birther movement against the first black president. He has surrounded himself with self-proclaimed white supremacists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. Referring to some mostly black or Hispanic countries as “shitholes” is just another brick in the Great Wall of Racism that is Donald Trump.
The real problem isn't Trump being the racist he is. The problem is a media that gives him cover by refusing to label what he and many of his supporters do or say as “racist.” It is the media's pandering and profiling his supporters and excusing their beliefs and attitudes with endless puff pieces. The problem is Republican leadership who ignores, denies, justifies...anything other than taking a stand against him. The problem is the Republican base who either agree with him, rationalize what he says or are willing to look the other way. The problem is racism has always been and continues to be a topic that is as avoided as it is ignored. The problem is America was built on racism and we've never, ever come to terms with it, as a country.
One criticism I hear when I point this out from both progressives and conservatives is, “Calling people racists is a bad political strategy.” I don't give a fuck about offending racists. I don't need or want their votes. In fact, I have serious problems with any progressive who thinks differently. Racism is the direct opposite of progressivism. The ONLY way you can get a racist to vote for you is if you are willing to cater to their racist ideas. What progressive ideas/policies are you willing to give up to earn a racist's vote? Which part of your base are you willing to throw under the bus in order to get Johnny Reb’s vote? What civil rights are you willing to ignore in order to win an election? Progressives have the demographic advantage. They don't need a single conservative vote in order to win national elections and in many swing states. What progressives need and what is a better strategy is getting progressives to get out and vote and vote smartly. I'd rather make racists politically irrelevant than cater to them and try to make them part of our coalition.
Of course, the number one complaint I hear from both the left and the right about discussing the racism coming from Republicans is, “You can't label everyone on the right as a racist. All Republicans are not racists.” I've never said all Republicans are racists. I know reading comprehension is difficult at times but if you take the time to actually read, you will see I always say, “The problem is the Republican base WHO...” Republicans who don't agree with Trump's racist statements, don't rationalize/justify them, don't look the other way...aren't going to be labeled as racists (at least not in this context.) However, many Republicans have made it nearly impossible to tell who is and who isn't a racist because of their actions.
Think about the Confederate statue protest in Charlottesville. It is easy to look at the center of activity, the khaki-wearing, tiki torch-wielding white men chanting, “Blood and soil!” and accurately label them as racists. What about the non-torch-wielding protesters who marched with them for the same cause? What about the ones at home, watching, approving of their actions? What about the ones who voted for politicians who supported the march? Aren't they all varying degrees of racists? Isn’t everyone on this list a racist on some level?
All I've heard the past couple of months since the Me Too Movement took off is how all sexual assault isn't the same (a claim no one has ever made) and how important it is to make distinctions between a rapist and someone who makes inappropriate advances. Fine. Let's do that. No matter how nuanced you want to get, no matter how many different degrees of sexual assault you arrive at, on a fundamental level they are all sexual assault. There are varying degrees of murder-second degree and first degree. They both are a form a murder.. At no time is there a debate about whether a murder happened, just what kind of murder. Someone who lynches a black man is a racist. So too, is someone who won't rent to minorities. So too, is someone who uses racial epithets. They are all racists. Calling someone who refers to blacks using the n-word a racist doesn't mean they are a racist in the same way as the Grand Wizard of the KKK but make no mistake they are a racist. Trying to claim differently or arguing they aren't is as wrong as it is fucked up.
There is another similarity between the Me Too Movement backlash and defending/denying racism-intentionally grouping all acts together in order to excuse the lesser ones. Men who inappropriately touch women, abuse their positions of power via sexual acts/words get excused because they aren't rapists because rapists are the REAL sexual assaulters. NO! They are sexual assaulters too! Just not bad as the rapists. The “Don't label everyone as a racist” crowd is doing the same thing by using the worst racist behaviors to be the standard by which someone is allowed to be labeled a racist. “Grandma Milly isn't a racist because she isn't a member of the Klan.” Does she believe blacks are naturally inferior to whites? Would she disown one of her children or grandchildren if they married someone black? Does she use racial slurs? “Yes.” Then she's a fucking racist. It doesn't matter how much she loves you or how good her cookies are or how sweet she is towards the neighbor's cat when assessing whether or not she is a racist. If you want to have a discussion about what kind of racist Granma Milly is, fine. But, let’s stop pretending she isn’t one. Let’s stop making excuses for her behavior.
Trump is a racist. A very adamant one at that. When he pushes racist policies, makes racist statements, and his base says nothing, makes excuses for him, or cheers him, calling them “racists” is completely appropriate. The burden of proof isn't on the ones calling them “racist.” The burden is on those who say it isn't. So far, those saying it isn't racist are failing miserably. There is a good reason why. THEY ARE FUCKING RACISTS!
My “favorite” excuse for Trump calling certain countries “shitholes” is, “That's kitchen table talk.” It reminds me of how his “pussy grabbing” comment was deemed “locker room talk.” It's like Deplorable Clue-The Racist, in the Kitchen with the Noose; The Misogynist, in the Gym, with the Rohypnol. If you are a member of a gym that is predominately misogynists or have a lot of racists hanging out around your kitchen table, then these might be true. This says more about you than it does excusing Trump's comments. It says, “The people who you workout with and have in your home are not very good people.” What it doesn't say is, “Trump isn't a racist.”
Of course, it doesn't help to have a media willing to excuse and give him cover. Peter Baker at the New York Times wrote this, “The United States, which continues to struggle with its legacy of slavery, is now led by a president who, intentionally or not, has fanned the fires that divide white, black and brown.” It walks up to the calling Trump a racist but gives him the out with the notion of intentionality. “Grandma Milly isn't intentionally bigoted...” So..the..fuck...what? Intentionality is a dodge. “I drove home drunk and got into an accident. I didn't intend for someone to get killed.” Okay, but they are still dead and you are still a killer, intentions be damned.
You are who you support, who you stand with, what you stand for, what you say, what you do. If you support a racist, it isn't unreasonable to question whether or not you are one as well. If you stand with people like David Duke, Richard Spencer, Milo...why shouldn't you be considered a racist? If you are okay with the Muslim ban, building a wall on the border of Mexico, gutting assistance that heavily impacts minority groups...why shouldn't you be labeled a racist? If it marches like a racist, talks like a racist, votes like a racist...it is probably a racist.
Until the media starts calling out racism when it rears its ugly head, nothing is going to change. Until Republicans start standing up and calling out those in their party for their racism, nothing is going to change. Until progressives stop giving racists a “Get Out of Racist Jail Free Card,” nothing is going to change. Words have power. They help frame how we think and believe about things. If you don't believe or want others to believe you are a racist, then perhaps you should spend more time doing some serious self-reflection on what you believe, how you behave, who you support, who you stand with... This applies to many progressives, as well.
America's demographics are rapidly changing in favor of people of color. No amount of tiki torches are going to change this. No amount of deportations or immigration policies are going to change this. No amount of hatred or violence or number of white supremacy groups are going to change this. The train of progress is coming and people can either get on board or get run over. Those who choose to stand on the tracks either spouting racist garbage or giving cover for those who do as the train bears down on them don’t deserve sympathy, empathy, pity, compassion... They deserve to be run over by progress because far too many people have suffered needlessly for far too long in order to protect the feelings and belief systems of racists.
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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
February 12, 2021
Heather Cox Richardson
Today was the the fourth day of former president Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. The president’s legal team attempted to answer the arguments of the House impeachment managers, who outlined the horrific events of January 6, 2021, when a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress was counting the certified electoral votes to make Democrat Joe Biden president and blamed the former president for inciting the insurrectionists.
The House impeachment managers had put together a damning presentation over the past two days, leaving Trump’s lawyers with the goal simply of providing enough cover for Republican senators to vote to acquit. They had 16 hours to present their case.
They took less than four.
Led by a new spokesman, Michael van der Veen, a former personal injury lawyer from Philadelphia, Trump’s lawyers brought to the floor of the Senate the same tactics the former president used for his four years in office. Rather than engaging in substantive discussion of the merits of the case—which, in fairness, ran pretty heavily against them—they delivered sound bites for right-wing media. They lied about facts, insisted that Trump’s language leading to the riot was the same sort of rhetoric all politicians use, insulted and talked back to the senators, and claimed Trump was the victim of years of witch hunts by Democrats who hate him.
This approach had been enough to make one of his lawyers, David Schoen, quit briefly, but Trump allegedly “loved” it. He had been angry at his lawyers’ meandering defense earlier in the week, but this was more his style. “His base will be pleased,” a former aide told Meridith McGraw and Gabby Orr of Politico. “[H]e had four hours of free television to pitch [to the public].” Defending the former president, his team even reached back to defend his embrace of the white supremacist rioters at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. “Charlottesville was shown because it gave free airtime to explain it. Previously nobody in media would run with the excuse. Now it’s out there,” said the former aide.
After the presentation, though, the senators questioned the former president’s lawyers, and revealed two key pieces of information.
First, Trump’s lawyers refused to say that he lost the election. Trump’s big lie, the lie that has driven his attack on our democracy, is that the outcome of the 2020 election was rigged and that, in reality, he won it in a landslide. There is no merit to this argument. It has been dismissed by state election boards across the country and by our courts, including the Supreme Court. But he continues to refuse to concede the election, fueling a movement that threatens to create a long-term domestic insurgency. His lawyers today endorsed that position.
The other key information centered on what Trump did during the attack on the Capitol.
Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) asked: “Exactly when did President Trump learn of the breach of the Capitol? And what specific actions did he take to bring the rioting to an end? And when did he take them? Please be as detailed as possible.”
Van der Veen responded by blaming the House managers for not answering that question although, of course, it is his client who knows the answer and who refused to testify.
Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) then joined Collins in asking whether Trump knew Pence was in danger when he sent a tweet saying: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"
Van der Veen said definitively, “The answer is no, at no point was the President informed the vice president was in any danger.” He then turned back to blaming the House managers for the lack of information.
But Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) noted that, according to Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Trump had been on the phone with him just before he sent the tweet, and Tuberville had told Trump that Pence had been evacuated. “The tweet and lack of response suggest that President Trump did not care that Vice President Pence was endangered, or that law enforcement was overwhelmed,” Cassidy noted. “Does this show that President Trump was tolerant of the intimidation of Vice President Pence?”
Van der Veen disagreed with Tuberville’s statement, and pivoted again to the House managers’ lack of an investigation.
At the end of the day, it was clear a number of Republican senators were troubled by the lawyers’ refusal to engage with the facts of the case or with the House managers’ argument, but it seemed as if Trump’s lawyers had provided enough cover for them to be able to vote to acquit.
And then someone threw a spanner in the works.
Just after the Senate adjourned for the day, CNN broke the story that gave details about a phone call between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump as the rioters were breaching the Capitol. As McCarthy begged the then-president to call off his supporters, who were at that point breaking into his office, Trump allegedly said, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” The two men began to shout at each other, with McCarthy demanding: “Who the f*ck do you think you are talking to?”
Trump did not call off the rioters for several more hours.
The story is explosive, showing that Trump did indeed know of the lawmakers’ danger and that he refused to help them.
Also interesting, though, is that this story came from “multiple” Republican lawmakers, who provided detailed information to the journalists at this crucial moment. They said that Trump had no intention of stopping the riot. “He is not a blameless observer,” one said, “he was rooting for them.” One of the sources named in the story, Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), said, "That line right there demonstrates to me that either he didn't care, which is impeachable, because you cannot allow an attack on your soil, or he wanted it to happen and was OK with it, which makes me so angry."
Another source, Representative Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) said, “He was not sorry to see his unyieldingly loyal vice president or the Congress under attack by the mob he inspired. In fact, it seems he was happy about it or at the least enjoyed the scenes that were horrifying to most Americans across the country."
Herrera Beutler had shared the details of the story before, but it had not gotten traction. Now, apparently, a number of Republicans are so concerned that the Senate will vote to acquit the former president they have gone to the press.
And then someone from Pence’s team told reporters that van der Veen was lying when he said the president did not know about Pence’s danger.
So, as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) wrote tonight, “Tomorrow just got a lot more interesting.”
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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
#Letters From An American#Heather Cox Richardson#sedition#insurrection#Criminal GOP#Corrupt GOP#mob boss#assault on the Capitol#January 6 2021
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Anyone Can Be "Not Racist" To Someone (With Bonus Right/Libertarian Intercession!)
After viciously beating an African-American man in an Iowa bar, Randy Joe Metcalf was convicted of a federal hate crime and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In relevant part, the federal statute says that "[w]hoever . . . willfully causes bodily injury to any person . . . because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person . . . shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both[.]"
The evidence surrounding the "because of" race element of the crime against Metcalf was substantial (and -- fair warning -- quite graphic). During the night of the attack (and into the following day), witnesses heard or saw Metcalf:
Brag about burning crosses in front of an African-American family's home.
Tell the bar owner "I hate fucking niggers."
Show off a tattoo of a swastika to said bar owner and another bar patron while saying "that's what I'm about."
Call the friends of the African-American man whom he'd later attack "nigger lovers" and "nigger loving cunts."
Exclaim, in the course of attacking the man, "fucking nigger!" and "die nigger!"
Tell a friend the following day that "the nigger got what he had coming to him."
What was Metcalf's main factual defense at trial?
That he wasn't racist. And indeed, the man with the swastika tattoo who savagely beat a man while hurtling racial slurs called seven witnesses who were prepared to testify that he was in no way a racist.
Un(?)surprisingly, the jury didn't buy it, and voted to convict. And the Eighth Circuit just affirmed that conviction, so it looks like Metcalf will spending quite some time in prison.
That was all I initially planned to write. But while rereading the case for this post, I came across another interesting tidbit: Metcalf had some powerful right-wing/libertarian allies filing amicus briefs on his behalf. The Cato Institute, the Reason Institute, The Individual Rights Foundation (an arm of the David Horowitz Freedom Center), the Center for Equal Opportunity, and two right-wing appointees to the United States Civil Rights Commission (Gail Heriot and Peter Kirsanow) all interceded to argue that the relevant provision of the federal hate crimes statute is unconstitutional as in excess of Congress' enforcement power under the 13th Amendment (I've read all the briefs, though it seems only the Cato Institute's is publicly available).
Now to be clear, even repulsive White supremacists have rights, and I don't think it's an endorsement of White supremacy to file an amicus brief in a White supremacist's criminal case. But it is worth tracing the precise argument these groups felt so passionately about that they'd intercede on behalf of a guy like Randy Joe Metcalf.
Part of their argument is that the 13th Amendment only permits barring so-called "badges and incidents" of slavery (such as being targeted for physical assault on basis on one's race) when it is necessary to prevent the literal reimposition of slavery. Since, amici argue, there is no realistic change of literal slavery reemerging, it is no longer (if it ever was?) necessary for the federal government to ban racially-motivated assaults in order to pursue the constitutional ends of abolishing slavery (if you think they've been emboldened by Shelby County, you're right).
The other half of the argument is that hate crimes prosecutions, in particular, are a dangerous tool to give to the federal government because they're more susceptible to public outrage and thus "double jeopardy" prosecutions. This is a highly revealing argument. The double jeopardy clause doesn't apply when the federal government prosecutes its own criminal law (even after a completed state prosecution covering the same incident). The amici argue that the federal law here exceeds Congress' constitutional authority; but if that's the case the double jeopardy complaint is superfluous -- the law's just unconstitutional in its own right. So what's the point of bringing up double jeopardy?
The point is one of policy, or more accurately, of worldview. The argument is that "hate crimes" are particularly likely to arouse public anger and legal response, and that therefore we're more likely to see zealous prosecution (up to and including using these federal laws to get a "second bite at the apple" in the event an initial state prosecution fails). In doing so, the Cato Institute and its cohort wish to evoke a particular vision of civil rights laws -- wherein they're mainly a tool of oppression and governmental overreach and so must be highly limited and closely watched. They present a world where the government can hardly resist the pleas of minority communities for justice in the case of racist crimes; where the main problem when it comes to race in our society is too much zealousness in protecting outgroups. Who will think of the poor White supremacist, reviled by all and protected by none (except, of course, a President who thinks some among his number are "good people")?
It was difficult to swallow this logic in 2013, when Shelby County was decided. In 2018, it would be laughable save for the fact that it appears to be virtually indestructible. Just as for some people there's no amount of evidence that could establish someone to be racist, for some organizations there's no amount of evidence that could establish racism as an actual, non-trivial problem in American society.
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Can We Turn It Around?
Hard to believe it’s been four years, isn’t it?
As I sit down to write this, 5 weeks out from the 2020 election, it’s hard to know where to start. For almost four years now, we’ve been living in an altered (and very shitty) state of reality. Donald Trump’s America. A never-ending dumpster fire. And, to be frank, one of the worst chapters in our country’s history. On top of that, we’ve just crossed the half-year mark of a global pandemic, an ongoing crisis by turns devastating and surreal, one that seems sadly befitting of our dystopian, is-this-really-happening times.
After 4 agonizing years of hate and stupidity ruling the roost, of nonstop assaults on science and decency and civility, of the obliteration of democratic norms, destruction of the checks and balances that we naively assumed would always be there for us, we’ve almost arrived at another election. And with it, the possibility that we can start to turn this around. That we can rise up and say “NO. We DON’T want a dictatorship. We WON’T go along with this. We will FIGHT for love and decency and our democracy.”
Personally, I am proceeding under the assumption that Trump will be reelected. I have to do so for my own wellbeing. I don’t want to get my hopes up. The bitter, blindsiding defeat of 2016 is still fresh in my mind. There are many ways that this election could turn into a shitshow. Not the least of which is we have a ruthless dictator as President who is doing everything he can to sabotage the vote. And he has a powerful ally in the Republican party, which has expertly suppressed the vote for decades and is doing so now with as much gusto as ever, determined to hold onto power at all costs. Throw in all of the logistical challenges and obstacles caused by COVID, along with all of the flaws of our antiquated, broken-by-design voting system (courtesy of the democracy-hating GOP), and no one really knows what the hell is going to happen on November 3.
So I have to assume that Trump will win. Because, awful as that will be, life will go on if he wins. And I need to be able to carry on as well.
Still, as accustomed as I’ve become to the insanity of the Trump era, it’s sometimes hard to grasp that it’s come to this. That we are perilously close to becoming an authoritarian country with a permanent conservative majority. That it pretty much all hangs on this election.
It’s not just our country either. It’s our planet that’s on the line. Perhaps you’ve heard of climate change? You know, that little issue that Americans don’t give a shit about, but is an existential threat to human civilization? Well, it’s only getting worse. The Northern Hemisphere just had its hottest summer ever, 2 degrees above normal. You can expect a new record every year for your lifetime.
Trump, as expected, has been a disaster for the climate – withdrawing from the Paris Accord, gutting environmental regulations left and right, and basically doing as much damage to the earth as possible. Given that experts say we have 10 years to make major cuts in emissions if we have any hope of avoiding irreversible and catastrophic climate disruption, it’s safe to say that a second Trump term would pretty much be game over for the climate, and for life as we know it. It’s the predictable outcome when you elect an idiot climate denier president of the most powerful country in the world.
Then there’s the fate of democracy itself, which is in a perilous position around the world. Fascism masquerading as “right-wing parties” has been on the march across Europe for years. Trump has gleefully helped that effort, cozying up to ruthless dictators like Kim-Jong Il and giving his buddy Putin the green light to continue to ratfuck elections, sow chaos, and wage cyber warfare on any country he chooses.
Meanwhile, Trump has given the middle finger to our allies constantly since taking office. Again, completely to be expected from a jingoistic simpleton whose entire understanding of foreign policy boils down to “America First.” Remember his shit-eating smirk while refusing to shake Angela Merkel’s hand in the Oval Office? Trump exemplifies the right’s foaming-mouth hatred of Europe, foreigners, and diplomacy. Just one of their many flavors of bigotry, he and his base believe that the rest of the world basically consists of international elitists determined to destroy America. Not exactly a philosophy conducive to preventing trifling matters like, say, global pandemics or world wars.
The more I write, the more I remember when an absolute sleazebag our president is, and the more astonished I am that this man is our president. This is the guy who 60 million people voted for in 2016. This is the guy who is nothing less than a savior to millions and millions of white Americans. Donald fucking Trump? You would be hard-pressed to find a more loathsome person in all of America. And despite knowing full well how polarized and tribalized we have become, it’s still hard to fathom that so many Americans can look at this vile, morally bankrupt con man and see a great leader, a champion of their values, the greatest president of all time. It just doesn’t compute.
And yes, many of his voters are well aware of his vices, and yes, white working-class voters have legitimate problems, and on and on. For four years, we’ve discussed and dissected these reasons for Trump’s victory. They are admitted and entered into the record. Now can we please get rid of this menace because he destroys our democracy, wiping out the great experiment that has endured for 244 years?
Because that’s what’s really on the line on November 3. We’re all deciding if we want to go back to being a democracy – a flawed, messy, imperfect democracy to be sure, but still a democracy at heart – or a dictatorship. That’s not hyperbole. That’s just the situation.
Trump, aided and abetted by the entire Republican apparatus and 40% of the population, has turned us into a dictatorship. He has put his cronies in positions of power. He has fired anyone who refuses to become his unquestioning flunky, smearing public servants who have spent decades working to help people – a concept completely alien to Trump. He has demonized the media (except for the propaganda outlets who run only pro-Trump news), relentlessly undermining one of the pillars of a liberal democracy, turning people against the very journalists who are trying to expose how Trump is screwing them over. He has conspired with our enemies to compromise our own elections. He came to power by colluding with Russia to his political opponent. He tear-gassed peaceful protestors in front of the White House and painted Black Lives Matter as radical terrorists and applauded right-wing vigilantes who pointed guns at BLM protestors. Hell, he gave them a plum speaking slot at the RNC. Because that’s who calls the shots in Donald Trump’s America – racists and white supremacists.
So, yeah…it’s a rubbish time. And as anyone who remembers the train wreck of Election Night 2016 can understand, I don’t want to get my hopes up. We’ve all been burned one too many times.
Still, it is nice – if only for a moment – to think about a President Biden.
A president who acts like a fucking adult, not a tantrum-throwing toddler or a schoolyard bully.
A president who condemns violence, not one who exploits and encourages it for political gain.
A president who speaks carefully and thoughtfully, knowing his words have real-life consequences. Not one who constantly spews venom and lies, not caring if people die as a result because they’re not his base so screw them.
A president who refuses to legitimize dangerous conspiracy theories. Not one who gleefully seizes on every twisted fairy-tale to emerge from alt-right trolls lurking on 4chan.
A president who accepts the simple fact that our world is interconnected and that diplomacy, respect, and civil discourse are our best tools for making life better for everyone. Not one who embraces the right’s phony-ass “patriotism” and thinks Americans – more specifically, his supporters – are the only people on Earth who matter.
A president who does his fucking job, not one who sits on his ass tweeting and watching Fox News to get his daily ass-kissing. When he’s not golfing or holding white supremacist rallies, that is.
Trump’s awfulness is simply unparalleled, probably in human history. It is an expansive mass so vast and blatant and unashamed that it’s almost a work of art, in a sick way. You could go on forever about the cringe, the iconic moments of incompetence, the garish displays of smirking idiocy and unabashed bigotry that have come to define our time. Sharpie-doctored hurricane maps, Kanye in the Oval Office, calling African countries “shitholes,” telling black and Latina Congresswomen to “go back where they came from,” toilet paper on the shoe, shoving a world leader on stage, soundproof phone booths at the EPA, white supremacists as “very fine people,” caravans, paper towels, upside-down Bibles, covfefe…it has just been a constant, dizzying tornado of hate and evil and stupid. It’s why I stopped watching the news. It’s too much. We weren’t wired to ingest this level of crazy and awful every day. Being a human being is hard enough as it is.
It’s hard to stomach the thought of one more day of this shit, let alone 4 years. Should Trump get reelected, it’s hard to see how anything good will survive. And should his victory come once again come via dirty tricks, be it foreign interference or voter suppression or both, it would appear to confirm that our system has been so hopelessly corrupted by the right that it’s impossible for a Democrat to win. It would suggest that it is now impossible to have a fair presidential election and we’re doomed to have permanent tyrannical rule by a racist, reactionary, science-hating, authoritarian minority. Where we go from there is anyone’s guess.
I hope we can turn it around. I hope there are enough decent people out there who are fed up with this asshole. I hope the myriad GOTV efforts we’ve seen in recent months will motivate people who sat out last time, and maybe some people who have never voted. I hope the collective determination of people who are against Trump is enough to overcome the GOP’s perennial cheating and voter-suppression campaigns. I hope, no matter the outcome, that the whole thing doesn’t devolve into an epic shitshow that makes Florida 2000 look like a calm and orderly affair.
So I have hope. Is it well-founded? Is it anything more than wishful thinking? Hard to say. But when all appears lost, that’s what we have. Hope.
In closing, if you are dismayed by what America has become these past 4 years, if you want to save the democracy that so many people fought and died for throughout our history, please vote for Biden. Your kids, your grandkids, and the entire world will thank you.
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