This.
Of yesterday’s events — Obama’s release of his long-form birth certificate and Trump’s gloating response — Baratunde Thurston (Jack Turner) of Jack & Jill Politics writes:
It was during my viewing of this video [Trump’s remarks in New Hampshire] that I began to cry. I thought of my ancestors, both direct and collective, who had fought and died so that I might be treated as an American. I then thought of this fetid, smug, hate-filled, wealthy white man taking credit for the release and yet still not being satisfied. It does not matter how long we’ve been in these United States. We will never be American.
So, tears in my eyes, pain in my heart and rage in my soul, I composed this video message. More than written text, it comes close to expressing my full pain at witnessing a white man who was handed everything call the President of the United States (and me) a nigger.
Here’s the video he recorded:
It hurts more than I thought it would. I’m taking it more personally than perhaps seems rational, but I feel sucker-punched.
[via Jack & Jill Politics]
[cross-posted at ABLC]
Emma
It infuriates me that Donald Trump — Donald Trump! — has been given this amount of power by the media. I gave up watching American news shows and reading American newspapers a while go because I could no longer tolerate their lack of intellectual honesty, and I don’t regret it one bit.
stuckinred
I can’t imagine how you could feel any other way.
TooManyJens
Thank you for posting this. I’ve seen it linked a number of times in the comments, but it’s good to get it on the front page where everyone can see it and hopefully understand.
I’m just so sorry this happened. And of course you feel sucker-punched. Jesus.
Just Some Fuckhead
Hey, it was in one of these very ABL threads I pointed out what an idiot Drumpf is. I stand before you vindicated. Hope there’s a big fall from grace ahead of him.
stuckinred
Bob Schieffer didn’t hold back in his criticism of Donald Trump on Wednesday’s “CBS Evening News.” In an unusually unvarnished comment, he accused Trump of peddling “racism” through his comments about President Obama’s academic qualifications.
Trump has received substantial negative attention for saying that he is suspicious about how Obama was admitted to Columbia and Harvard. Schieffer told Katie Couric, “that’s just code for saying he got into law school because he’s black. This is an ugly strain of racism that’s running through this whole thing. We can hope that kind of comes to an end too, but we’ll have to see.”
Southern Beale
I’m glad you posted this. I had never heard of this guy before but last night he was on MSNBC — can’t remember which show, but it would have been either Chris Matthews’ or Cenk Uygur’s show. I think it was Cenk. I was really taken with his comments but really the one thing none of the Villagers has articulated so well is the fact that no white man would ever have been asked to show his papers and what that feels like to every non-white person in this country.
Truly I wonder if the beltway press which picked up the Birther story and ran with it ever stopped to consider that point. I was really dumbfounded when I heard Gary Tuchman on Bill Press explaining how he went to Hawaii to research the birther’s claims once and for all. I mean really? Anderson Cooper’s show dispatch a reporter to Hawaii to investigate this? There’s so much other stuff happening in the world you can’t investigate but THIS you send a reporter from New York to Hawaii? That’s like a 10 hour flight. Are you fucking serious?
And Tuchman is like, “well we HAD to investigate because everyone was talking about it” and Bill Press is like, “oh yes of course, certainly!” and I’m like WTF? Really?
eemom
I’d like to see Trump’s bloated white ass drop dead of a heart attack on live television. Is that wrong of me?
The Populist
Donald Trump is a blowhard. I wish we can all just ignore him but it’s impossible. If he really buys into this and it’s not some kind of act? He’s done more damage to himself than Obama, no question about it.
Ratings on his show = down.
Luxury hotel chain = already losing rich liberals and I bet sales were hurting to begin with.
Casinos = poorly run money pits
Tie and suit business = For a guy who loves to talk out his ass about “demanding” things from others (i.e. – he is a big boi bidnessman!) why aren’t his suits made in the USA? Did he bow down to Macys and any demands they get made outside the USA? Argh, what a fucktard.
His luxury vodka line = fail
Many of his other projects just rent his name so I doubt he is involved with many of his construction projects = fail
Omnes Omnibus
A link to this was posted in an earlier thread by rikryah. I am copying and pasting what I posted there: What an eloquent statement of both rage and sadness. Thank you for posting the link. He is absolutely correct when he talks about how much of an embarrassment this is for the country. As a white guy, I know that I cannot truly grasp all of the levels of shittiness that birtherism entails. I don’t have the life experiences to do that. But the embarrassment of sharing a country and a nationality with with people like Trump and those who celebrate him, in general and for this particular strain assholishness, that, I can share. Fuck.
Pooh
Fucking preach, Barantunde.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
All this proves is something I’m sure most folk are aware of already: If you’re brown, you’re not a citizen, you’re a suspect.
I’ve said my peace for today. I just feel drained over this stupid shit and what it says for our political discourse.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Taking it personally seems completely rational to me. It’s about your person, and your personhood, and it sucks. It’s absolutely infuriating. I can’t imagine how sickening this must feel for you.
gogol's wife
A friend in Moscow was talking to me about it on the phone today, and I asked her whether Trump was featured on reports about it there. She said, “How could they get by without Trump?” This whole thing is so sick, and it makes me sick.
The Populist
Moderation sux. Here is my comment on his clothing line:
Trump’s Tie and suit business = For a guy who loves to talk out his ass about “demanding” things from others (i.e. – he is a big boi bidnessman!) why aren’t his suits made in the USA? Did he bow down to Macys and any demands they get made outside the USA? Argh, what a jerk.
Pooh
@Omnes Omnibus: This also.
Meredith
Donald Trump is a disgrace to this country. We are all heartbroken.
Southern Beale
I don’t know why I don’t have permission to edit my own comments but whatever. Typos be damned.
kMc
I am a black guy, and I hate America. And I don’t feel bad about it. At. All.
eemom
Also too, asiangrrl’s comment from the last thread was spot on.
I am, more than usual, ashamed and disgusted to be an american.
STUCKZILLA!
ThiS oughtA bee a WiNNer. WE got A bunCh of WHite RaCE RelAtion Wizzards iN THRED BELOW, lED bY RENOUNED, i MEAN renounded expart FUCKhEad . MAYBE HE WILL TIL US How lil Baby Barack escaped THE JUNGLE AND INNERcity Crack babyhood for a LIFe a White Priv.
You COULD SAY jsf IS OUtfucking StandING inn Hiz feeld.
bwaaaaa hahahahahah
danimal
That was powerful.
bookcat
argh. I certainly can’t feel this as deeply as a black person, but man it repulses me to my core what Trump is doing. And Palin made this possible. She normalized the level of craziness we’re seeing now. Please, oh god, please let this be the bottom.
The Populist
Why is it Trump always looks like a guy who smelled something awful? He looks like a sourpuss.
eemom
@kMc:
indeed, Rev. Wright was spot on with his “God damn America” comment.
Short Bus Bully
I’m as white as they come, even grew up rural white with rednecks and all their associated prejudices and racism, and I’m as mad as I’ve ever been. I cried the night Obama was elected and I’m building up a nice slow burn of rage against these motherfucking birthers.
Please don’t feel the least bit guilty about the legitimate anger you feel. Let’s just put it to good use. I am going to use this deep, deep insult to America and Americans to finally motivate me to get off my ass and volunteer in this coming election to fight for Obama’s reelection. There’s nothing that would be a grosser insult/slap-in-the-face/pwnage to these assholes than to reelect Obama in a landslide.
Fuck these teabilly shitheels. Fuck them completely and thoroughly.
We’re in a run-up to the newest civil war in America and I know which side I’m on and I’m willing to fight.
JGabriel
ABL:
They* do it to hurt. Sometimes they succeed. That’ll happen when they keep throwing verbal daggers at you.
*Racists, Republicans, the resentful, and wealthy conservatives.
.
John PM
I just finished reading The Given Day by Dennis Lehane and am in the process of finishing Over Here: The First World War and American Society by David Kennedy. Both books, one fiction and one historical, discuss the status of African Americans during and in the aftermath of World War I. With the rise of birtherism, I feel that very little has changed in the ninety years since WWI.
BTW, does anyone know if there is any type of boycott planned for Trump Tower in Chicago? I would attend.
JordanRules
Watched it at work yesterday. Probably not the best idea.
The Populist
@Meredith:
I love how Sarah Palin has found airtime agreeing with Trump. Hey Sarah, how about showing us YOUR school records eh?
gex
I’m not black, but I’m every bit as antithetical to their view of the “right kind of people”. Gaysian atheist female. Definitely never will be good enough to be a “real American”. If I lose my mind and it snaps, I worry that I’ma burn some shit down.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@stuckinred: I can’t imagine, either, since I feel a bit that way myself, and I’m pretty apparently of British Isles descent.
O/T @stuckinred: Have you shown your wife this rose? I’ve grown it and ordered from here (they are sold out of Zepherine Drouhin this season). It’s a no fuss, flowering machine! I ordered it before they knew it was carefree beauty, but I loved that rose, and would have it here if we were planning to stay. I’ve been pleased with the vigor of every rose I got from the ARE.
alwhite
@eemom:
No heart – no heart attack.
I’m pulling for flesh eating bacteria or some lingering form of cancer that starts with his larynx.
Benjamin Cisco
Thanks for putting this up, ABL – I linked to it a time or two myself yesterday.
__
I have to say I don’t think the public at large is quite aware of just how ticked off we are; they fail to see that while in this we ALL have been dishonored, those of us of a certain hue and of a certain age have LIVED some form of what the President was put through yesterday.
__
No, the larger public still doesn’t get it. But it will. Count on it.
bookcat
@eemom: no, no it’s not. it’s his heart or ours.
jh
Watching this video reminded me of a conversation with my maternal grandmother, who even in the throes of alzheimer’s disease (she was 100 years old when she died last May) could identify Obama.
She didn’t know what day it was, where she was and would often confuse me with my uncle, but despite her infirmaties, this woman, who had survived the Jim Crow south and whose younger brother had to flee town in the dead of night to evade being lynched for the crime of gaining acceptance to college up north, knew who the President of the United States was.
It brought tears to my eyes.
When I asked grandma what how she felt about Obama being the President she replied with sad resignation:
“They’ll kill him yet”
You see, Grandma knew the deal.
What we are dealing with when speaking of men like Trump are monsters.
Monsters which, metaphorically speaking, need to be fought and slain.
Good on Lawrence O’Donnell for drawing the line and opening a can of Grade A Whupass.
We need more of this, each and every day until these inhumane bastards realize that we are done tolerating this nonsense.
End of rant.
rickstersherpa
I was going to post this as follow up to Dougj’s post, but it may more appropriate here as we appear to be rapidly going backward, it is from the ur-Demon of the Movement Conservative, Neo-Confederate Republican destruction regime, Lee Atwater. I note that in the interview, Atwater used the actual “N-word.”
Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, “N-word, n-word, n-word.” By 1968 you can’t say “n-word” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N-word, n-word.”[6]
Hey, its just about winning elections, getting wealthy, and obtaining power. If you call them on it, they get all huffy and go the immediate anti-anti-racism jihad, and how they and the upper classes are being victimized. (Cue Caz or other trolls.)
Chris
@The Populist:
He went Galt. Ungrateful America does not sufficiently appreciate his unutterable awesomeness. In his wisdom, our Galtian overlord has punished us for our sins. Let us have a moment of repentance.
gex
I did send NBC a nice email stating that Trump has every right to say what he says, they have every right to air his show, and I have every right to say that this unabashed racism is an embarrassment to him, NBC, and this nation. And that sadly, even though they are the only network TV I still watch, I can’t in good conscience contribute to the profitability of this BS. And I can’t tell you how much I love 30 Rock. I’d take it out behind the middle school and get it pregnant.
The Populist
@Short Bus Bully:
I grew up in a white as white can be part of Orange County, CA in the 80s. Not many African Americans in the area outside of a few I went to high school with. I got into the early, old school rap when I was a teen and as cliched as it comes started to learn about the stuff I’d hear on these albums. Let’s say it was an awakening that allowed me to ditch the conservative crap that I bought into and start questioning the status quo.
I get very angry when friends or family make racist comments. I just do not understand why people can’t look at another human being and give them some respect?
aimai
ABL,
I saw that Baratunde Thurston video at Rumproast and I, too, felt punched in the stomach. I wanted to cry for him, and with him. The experience he’s describing is qualitatively different for him than even the most sympathetic or historically informed understanding can be for me. Just as my experience of attacks on (whoever will be) the first Jewish President, or the first female president, will be painful for me in ways that even I can’t know until its happened.
I get where DougJ was coming from in inquiring into a comparison between the treatment accorded Clinton and that accorded the Obamas and to some extent I agree with it in this sense: that attacks on Liberals and Democrats are highly political, highly organized, and highly opportunistic. They will come, they will draw on age old lines of race, class, sex, gender, philosophy and morality. And they will be humiliating–did anyone ever think, before Clinton, that the president’s sexual organ would be subject to legal inquiry and public investigation?
So in that sense, given the enemy, It was inevitable that the first African American, the first Woman, the first Hispanic, the first non standard issue white President would come in for the torrent of abuse that is showered on everyone but Republican males. And it was overdetermined that the vast majority of the attacks would be not just racist but racist in specifically these ways (since these attacks on his appearance, his history, his mother, his wife, his intelligence, his right to be a citizen are the very definition of race based).
But that being said the valence of these attacks is greater and more horrible for African American citizens than any attacks on Clinton ever could have been for any white American. We didn’t identify with Clinton–he wasn’t our first President–and we didn’t recognize those attacks on him as also directed at us, at our fathers, our brothers, our sons.
I think what I took away from watching the Thurston video is how very, very, very, gracious President Obama and all the African American journalists and political figures have been, all these years, in not showing White America just how horrible the reality of America has been. People on the left have complained that President Obama doesn’t show anger very much? After I watched Thurston’s video I was kind of amazed at the forebearance of all our neighbors and co-citizens that they don’t just open the windows and howl with rage.
aimai
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@eemom: Yes, eemom, wishing Trump would die of a heart attack on live television is very wrong of you.
It’s much too fast and relatively painless. Me, I’m hoping for Parkinson’s, ALS, Alzheimer’s or some equivalent. Let him live a long life and watch as he loses one function or another every month, every year, every decade, until he’s just an empty shell of what he used to be.
Sudden death from a heart attack should be reserved for the good people.
Taylor
I suppose I’ll post the same comment I posted in response to Baratunde yesterday:
Don’t get so down about this, Baratunde. I think Obama played it well, making Trump look like the fool he obviously is and making it even more clear to everyone paying attention that the primary Republican arguments against him right now are race-based attacks that are irrelevant to actual policymaking or governance.
I can just imagine Obama chuckling to himself with his certificate in his back pocket as Trump riled up the Republican rubes with this sort of rhetoric. Trump is clever to try to play it off like he’s won something, but in reality, he tried to call Obama’s bluff and Barry laid down a royal flush right in his face.
Like AverageBro and other black bloggers I’ve read today, you seem to be taking a negative message out of an obviously positive development. Trump tried to claim Barack wasn’t an American and Barack JUST PROVED THAT HE IS. His birth certificate is a signifier that Trump’s America, where it’s inconceivable that a black man attains the highest office in the land, NO LONGER EXISTS. We’re in a new America now, and you better believe you’re a part of it! Also, I would be fervently hoping that Trump actually gets nominated – he’s a walking punch line.
Daddy-O
You are not an American.
To THEM.
And to quote/paraphrase their favorite President, the Worst President EVER, George W. Bush:
Who cares what they think?
Even if they’re blasting it through every media outlet they own, even if they’re making shit up, even if they win some battles, Obama is the President–and YOU ARE AN AMERICAN.
And I, a white dude, thank Koresh for that! The hardest part is imagining what the world would look like if they had their way completely. It would be very, very ugly.
STUCKZILLA!
THEY DID IT TOO BILL CLINTON TOO/KNOCK me IN my hed with THE IDJIT STICK. CAuse the tea Party exists regretting it dint FORM TO FITE THE CLENIS. TEEHEE, TELL ME NUTHER ONE.
OzoneR
No, THEY will never be American
The Populist
Fact to righties reading comments here:
I do believe the younger generation (yes, lots of mixed races there idiots) look at your bullcrap and lament how the day is coming that we can finally move past this fear mongering nonsense.
Yes, I have faith the younger generation — these kids accept people for who they are, not who they pray to or what color they are — will be changing things more to the liking of many of us here.
We have to change or America WILL perish. It’s sad the people who wave the flag more than anybody else do not see that division, fear and hate are destroying the very thing they claim to love?
BTW – anybody see that Pentagon paper where some members of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff call America out for all kinds of things we do here everyday? Awesome…the tides are turning…I do feel it.
freelancer
@STUCKZILLA!:
Somebody got into the brown acid.
This segment from The Last Word last night with Obama’s Biographer stayed with me in particular.
Just Some Fuckhead
@STUCKZILLA!: I’m certainly not perfect but I don’t cower behind another handle to take retarded shots. :)
Bulworth
Thanks, ABL. I’ll have to wait to get home to see the video, though.
Also, too, there’s absolutely no connection between the media’s birther indulgence and Kay’s report two posts down about second class ballots and second class citizens. Absolutely none whatsoever.
El Tiburon
I don’t know what blog or wherever I saw it, but the title was something like “April 27, 2011 A day of Shame”.
This is how I feel. I must admit my shame and anger at the birthers and all of the other crazy fucking wingers out there does not come from a racial perspective.
But that our worthless piece of shit main-stream-media and our (mostly) worthless pice of shit Democratic politicians let these nutjobs get away with this crap.
I am glad to FINALLY see the racist element finally being talked about to some extent in the MSM.
I just hope we are able to bottle this anger about this topic and all other topics and finally take this fight to these fuckers.
PurpleGirl
ABL — Baratunde Thurston’s video is powerful and poignant. I cannot feel what he and you are feeling, although I can be enraged at the situation. (Now to read the thread.)
Nemesis
Trump loves Trump. Some thadists love Trump.
But the American public decidedly do not like arrogant, boastful, braggadocios, smug, self-promoters. Really, we dont care for that strain of human.
kMc
@eemom:
I just can’t imagine why any black person, or for that matter any right thinking person, would EVER want to be President of the United States. You go to war for these people. Try to give them healthcare. Talk to them like adults. But no. Fuck America so much.
Just Some Fuckhead
@aimai:
When yer first german president is Hoover, you learn to toughen up.
Southern Beale
@The Populist:
Or for that matter, show us Trig’s birth certificate.
{ ducks }
Just Some Fuckhead
When yer last german president was Bush, you drink a lot.
The Populist
@Daddy-O:
I do think that too. The difference between me and them? I have been in executive positions most of my adult life. I’ve hired and groomed many young and talented african americans in my lifetime. I am proud many went onto success and hopefully are grooming more talented folks as well.
Another factor in my worldview is that when I was 18, I had not decided what I’d do with my life. I got a job working in a retail store and the manager (a former marine and an African American) became not only one of my longest and best friends, but he gave me a shot to manage a store at 18 when nobody else saw my talents. The moral to my story is that people need to judge others by their merits, not the way they look or act sometimes.
Jager
@The Populist: Trump’s ties and suits were discounted at Marshalls within weeks of the introduction. I doubt if any decent men’s department even carries them.
Pooh
@Taylor:
I get what you’re saying, but the fact that this is even an issue is, as Barantunde said, debasing to us all.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@jh: Your grandma’s comment reminds me of something I heard canvassing the poorer parts of York PA. Spoke to a black dude and he said something like, “I hope he stays in there.” I answered that hey, he’s a good campaigner and I expected he’d get re-elected and we could figure on two terms.
His answer was “No, I hope he doesn’t get killed.”
“Oh.” I said.
The Populist
@Southern Beale:
Amen as I firmly believe that she is NOT the mother. If she was why can’t I find photos of a pregnant Palin?
MoZeu
Don’t give Donald Trump this much power. OK, I’m white, so it’s easy for me to say, right? True. But Trump is the lowest form of scum-sucking bottom feeder there is; not fit to wipe your ass, ABL. He doesn’t deserve to be given any power of any form, including the emotional power to wound you.
PTirebiter
@John PM: T
If you consider Lehane’s description of collective bargaining in the book, you could argue we’re going backward.
I can only imagine ABL’s pain and can only offer my outrage. I can’t even imagine what pathetic need drives the likes of Trump to be so causally ugly. It’s beyond me.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Nemesis:
If that was true, we’d never have Bush II’s terms, and Beck would’ve stayed obscure on the AM dial. Hell, we wouldn’t have Limbaugh to begin with.
The Populist
@Jager:
There is a quote of him saying on last week’s Apprentice that the ad the men came up with looked “like an ad for my ties at Macys”.
This is what has caused some to look into this clothing line. LOL. Those pink ties are not very flattering no matter what he thinks.
Southern Beale
Sorry, don’t mean to rub salt in the wounds but …
Trump To Black Journalist: ‘I Know You’re A Big Obama Fan’
Southern Beale
Sorry, don’t mean to rub salt in the wounds but …
Trump To Black Journalist: ‘I Know You’re A Big Obama Fan’
homeruk
a poetic video – sharp contrast with the absolute vulgarity on show in much of the media. In a very small way, as an Indian living in England, I faced this growing up. When I was young, there was this thing called the “tebbitt test” named after one of Thatcher’s right hand men. It was a test: if you were an Indian, Pakistani or West Indian immigrant if you supported those teams in the cricket you weren’t really English. Not the same for Australians, South Africans or New Zealanders. The answer my friend gave when asked why he supported India rather than England was “when you make me feel English, I’ll support England”. I love England as a country but in sport, fuck it, it’s anyone but England.
Martin
Eh. Movements never die straight out. There’s always various last gasps before they die. Ultimately this will be one of those. Doesn’t make it any less painful, though.
Mr. Long Form
That was righteous. Literally.
Chris
@The Populist:
We’ll try not to let you down, TP.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jager: The ties are fucking horrible. Pretentious and cheaply made. Perfect for a short-fingered vulgarian.
Chris
@The Populist:
Whoaaaaa…. No, I did not. What’s that about?
The Populist
@MoZeu:
True. Let’s get America to stop watching that lame show. IF his viewership falls under 5 mil, he’s toast. Last week he was over 7 mil down from almost 10 the week before.
NBC needs ratings. A typical scripted show needs to get around 6 mil on average to be “on the fence”.
For a show like Trump’s they need to get it under 5 to hope that NBC says adios to the sourpuss as it’s a cheap product to produce.
Wouldn’t it be fun if the ratings dropped and some advertisers pulled out due to pressure from us?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Southern Beale: I thought the blacks loved Trump? Now they’re automatically against him?
The Populist
@Chris:
On April 8, 2011, the most important U.S. document in over 60 years exited the Pentagon. Titled “A National Strategic Narrative,” written by Capt. Wayne Porter of the U.S. Navy and Col. Mark Mykleby of the U.S. Marine Corps, the report claims the U.S. is heading down the wrong path and offers several remedies to fix our course.
The two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff published the article under the pseudonym “Mr. Y,” a historical nod to the alias of “Mr. X” used by George Kennan in his “Long Telegram.” The “Long Telegram” was published in 1946 and outlined the strategy of containment for U.S. relations with regards to the Soviet Union, becoming the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy for the next 44 years.
The report by “Mr. Y” represents not only an advance in the alphabet, but an advance in U.S. goals and strategy.
The authors point out that while the strategy of containment allowed the U.S. to emerge from the 20th century as “the most powerful nation on earth,” we failed to remember that “the world, in fact, is a complex, open system — constantly changing.” America’s policy decisions and strategies, both domestic and international, have failed in a dramatic fashion to evolve since the fall of the Soviet Union. We have thus opened the door to doubts about our ability not only to remain prosperous, but to survive.
“A National Strategic Narrative” is a radical document on many levels. The sheer breadth of its topics makes it revolutionary, yet it develops these ideas so concisely and expertly as to make them appear commonsensical. It would be impossible to sum up its insights in one article, and I encourage everyone to read it in full. I will attempt to lay out some of its most interesting and important conclusions.
To begin with, it advocates reduced defense spending. Keep in mind that while the report was released “independently,” neither Porter nor Mykleby could have released the document without considerable approval from the Pentagon. Porter and Mykleby claim that “For too long, we have underutilized sectors of our government and our citizenry writ large, focusing on defense and protectionism rather than on development and diplomacy.” This is essentially the Pentagon begging for cuts in its own appropriations. Show me any organization that is clamoring for budget cuts, and I will show you an organization that is either a) crazy or b) deeply concerned with a certain issue. This simply isn’t the modus operandi for any organization, much less the largest and most powerful organization in the world.
In order to answer the multiple choice question, we have to look at why they desire cuts in defense spending.
Porter and Mykleby claim that for America to compete in the globalized world, its citizens “must have the tools and confidence required … this begins at home with quality health care and education.” This makes such intuitive sense that it is almost surprising that it needs to be stated at all. Yet all across the country, in light of shortfalls in both national and state governments, representatives have been looking at these two sectors specifically as regions in which to make cuts. These areas represent a minuscule fraction of the budget of national and state governments, yet we continue to skim away at them while defense spending grows.
The other big claim made by the authors is that the U.S., as a nation, has to stop attempting to control the world through military, economic and social means. This is a direct holdover from containment strategy and it is failing dramatically in the 21st century. Despite advances that make our world appear smaller and more homogenized, it is in fact just as diverse and complex than ever before, if not more so. The authors say, “It is time to move beyond a strategy of containment to a strategy of sustainment.”
Perhaps the only sustainable approach is to stop attempting to dominate the globe and instead merely use our influence to achieve our goals. According to the authors, the U.S. needs to build “credible influence to pursue our enduring national interests.” As opposed to simply enforcing our will, we have to rebuild our influence from within — through education, technological advances, culture and a strong economy. Once we have accomplished this task, we can use our influence as a diplomatic tool to advance our national strategy.
The sole reason that the United States has been able to survive throughout the tumultuous years of its history during which greater nations have fallen has been its ability to adapt to changing global circumstances. Globalization represents the single greatest evolution of human affairs (and continual change) the world has ever known, and we have yet to properly adapt. The decline of a nation state is only visible in hindsight, so it is impossible to know if it has begun. Porter and Mykleby offer but a blueprint; Americans’ minds still need to change.
The question remains: Will we?
[email protected]
Daddy-O
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I don’t think, as a white person, that it would be polite for me to broach the subject of Obama’s assassination…and who could blame any African American for worrying about that?
I’ve been worried about it since Roberts fucked up his Oath of Office. Less and less as time goes by…but this hate is more intense than any other time in our nation’s history.
Red hot…
Chris
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
Reasonable fear. Death threats to the White House went up several hundred percent once Obama had settled in.
Munira
@Short Bus Bully: Amen. I’m white, too, and just disgusted – but remember, we did elect him and we will reelect him. This is our country, too, and that nasty toad Trump is going down somehow. And at least now, many many people are calling the birthers exactly what they are – out and out racists – no more hedging. Sometimes things have to come out in the open for the healing to start.
STUCKZILLA!
@Just Some Fuckhead:
That GEnerAl Brilliant. No rElation tho. Fuchhead mea copulate. BeaTings suspended, SinCE morale haz ImproVED.
Any SockPuppet CharGE, will Be Answered By my laWyer
STUCKBILLYA! ReacHed at 1-866-DON Task
gex
@Benjamin Cisco: There’s a certain penalty that gets applied to black people if they actually show anger as well. Even though this anger is more than justified, all the bigoted whites will see are angry black folks. This whole dynamic is so sick. Somehow the meanest, dumbest assholes managed to maneuver into a win-win situation on this bs.
Just Some Fuckhead
@STUCKZILLA!: We can talk when you sober up.
Geeno
As someone tweeted yesterday “There is no document that will make Barak Obama white”. And that’s all there is to this idiotic bullshit.
Villago Delenda Est
You have to remember that the first instance of “he’s not MY President” was when Clinton was elected.
Democrats never said, of the vile shitstain Reagan, “he’s not MY President”. They accepted the results of the election and moved on. Hail to the Chief.
But Clinton’s election changed everything. Somehow, the fuckwits got the idea that the Presidency BELONGED to the Republican Party, in particular, to the “movement conservatives” who got their asses throughly kicked in 1964.
So, when it was pretty obvious that Florida was stolen from Al Gore in 2000, I declared that the deserting coward was not MY President, and I was criticized for my poor sportsmanship. Same thing in 2004, when it was pretty obvious that Ohio was rigged via massive electoral fraud in the form of Diebold voting machines to go into the column of the deserting war criminal coward.
Then, in 2008, the Rethugs were busy as bees preparing to question the legitimacy of that election should it not turn out there way. ACORN fraud! Birth certificates! No one in the MSM ever calls these people out for their “he’s not MY President!” positions. But they’ll scream like banshees if you question the legitimacy of a deserting coward who stole two elections.
stuckinred
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I’m going out on a limb to say I don’t think any of this is a surprise to the Obama’s. It’s one reason I have so much trouble with the FDL bullshit and the “he’s the same as Bush ” crap we get here. What he is doing is an incredible risk and he’s doing it FOR his country.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@The Populist: An addendum to your comment to the righties:
Re: the younger generation. Take a look at the soldiers who’ve volunteered to put their lives on the line for America. You’re going to see a disproportionate number of brown and black faces. And it’s not only from economic necessity, although that’s part of it.
The ones I’ve met personally are incredibly patriotic and they believe strongly in the America that you don’t think they’re part of.
So why don’t you just fuck off back to your suburbs, shut your pie holes and leave the rest of us to fix the country you ruined?
eemom
my relatives in Greece have worried that Obama would be killed.
Chris
@Southern Beale:
Last in a long, long, long, long, long line of race-baiting comments from his side of the aisle, immediately followed by “oh no, I didn’t [snerk] mean that at all, how could you [tee hee hee!] ever assume I meant that!”
Brachiator
Powerful stuff. But Baratunde Thurston’s leaves out one equally powerful fact.
At the end of the day, Barack Obama is the president of the United States, elected by a majority of the people.
And Donald Trump is a two bit carnival barker, who is not the president, and never will be president and who likely will be making some cornball excuses about why he’s too rich to be bothered with running. But it will just be a pathetic rationalization, on par with fellow grifter Sarah Palin lame and unconvincing explanation of why she was exiting from the Alaska governorship.
At the end of the day, many will conclude that Trump has damaged himself far more than he has harmed Obama or other Real Americans of all ethnicities and genders.
STUCKZILLA!
@Just Some Fuckhead:
DRunK on WarM sunsHine aNd and iNfeCted wit SillY Bug. CatCH iT noW And Then. KeePS Me Sane, LuKy For U. Bwaaa hahahah hahaha!
Wanna BuY a BridGe? RiVer INCludED.
Tuttle
Not even a shred of self-awareness here that the Democratic establishment’s drive to the center has enabled this kind of racist neo-nazi shit by pushing acceptable dialog ever further to the right?
stuckinred
@Villago Delenda Est: There was a guy here in Athens, Air Force Vet, who started with “he’s not my president” the day bush was elected. He handed out buttons, bumper stickers and held one-man protests all the time.Here’s an FDL post from 2008 with the same title.
aimai
So, can our new bumper sticker be:
Fuck the Confederacy/Reelect Barack Obama?
aimai
Southern Beale
Excellent post from Adam Serwer, “What America Means When It Asks For Your Papers” … again, the beltway media is just as culpable IMHO.
OzoneR
@Villago Delenda Est:
Got to stop you right there, a lot of people on the left said that about Bush
I may have said it once or twice about Bush.
Just Some Fuckhead
@gex:
I don’t necessarily agree it’s a win but even if it is, it’s only a win insofar as it’s allowed to be solely the cross to bear of the Obama administration. It’s quite easy for Obama to tie the efforts to delegitimize his presidency into the ongoing efforts to do such against each Democratic candidate for president. That minimizes the racial angle, the angry thing, and lays down a marker so it’s less likely to happen again.
The Populist
@Brachiator: Trump has something called Trump University (which I think NY told him to change that) where he teaches morons that anybody can be rich like him (Yes, if you pay hundreds to thousands of dollars to listen to MLM nonsense, you deserve to have your intelligence questioned). My guess is he sees the money Sarah pulls in on the lecture circuit and realizes it will be sweet if he can do that too.
Trump needs money…more than he lets on. This is truly an act of a desperate man.
Calouste
OT, something light-hearted about the main news item in America at the moment:
Police and spooks in charge of security for tomorrow’s royal wedding have planned for every possible eventuality – including that of Kate leaving Wills at the altar.
The top-secret contingency plan for a “runaway bride” scenario has been dubbed “Operation Pumpkin”, and if put into effect would see hundreds of operatives switch tasks in a desperate attempt to generate a moving security cordon around the escaping future Queen – while simultaneously attempting to preserve Prince William’s option to pursue and dramatically win her back.
[…]
Prince William will then have a limited time, the subject of tense negotiations between Clarence House [Prince Charles’s residence and office – C.] and security chiefs, in which the path behind Ms Middleton will be kept open for him to go after her, after which the mobile protective cordon will close again at the Abbey end due to lack of manpower and the Prince will have let his bride slip through his fingers.
If Wills reacts fast enough, however, he will be able to chase after his fleeing fiancee for just under half a mile.
“Clarence House wanted a full mile,” says our source. “But we said come on, play fair, she’s in her wedding dress and there has to be some limit on the overtime budget.”
If the Prince fails to intercept Ms Middleton over that distance, the security team will decide that no on-the-spot reconciliation is possible and a strategically positioned taxi, driven by an undercover SAS operative and unobtrusively escorted by several unmarked police cars, will opportunely pull up to carry the escaping ex-future-princess to safety.
(No blockquote because of FYWP.)
Omnes Omnibus
@gex: Ultimately, I don’t think it is a win for the birthers. I think this was their Gettysburg. this was as far as they were going to get. The wave broke and it will recede. There is still going to be a lot of vile shit thrown around because that is all these people have. The thing is, these people are the past; their time is ending and they know it. White people who don’t have issues will be fine, just like the non-whites. The only people who won’t be fine are the racists and that is why they are freaking out. Some will learn and become decent people who forever regret what they are doing right now. As for the rest, fuck ’em.
...now I try to be amused
@eemom:
It’s equally accurate to say “God damned America,” with those plutocrat-enabling bigots.
The Populist
@Just Some Fuckhead: Remember the documentary, the Hunting Of The PResident? I can see a sequel coming w/r/t the birthers and far right attempts to delegitimize President Obama.
gex
One thing I have taken comfort in: I am facebook friends with a lot of professional comedians since my girl is in the biz. Usually, these are not folks to get political on their pages because a fan’s a fan. But a metric shit ton of them came out howling against Trump, the long form reveal, and the subsequent bs.
That made me feel a bit better.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@aimai:
Just to riff off of this comment, I’d like to personally thank all of my fellow Americans who are people of color for the class and dignity with which they are dealing with this awful situation, both individually and collectively. This country is a better place because of your efforts and this is not something that goes without notice or is unappreciated.
STUCKZILLA!
@freelancer:
ESSCUSE ME, WHILE I KISS THE SKY.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
OK, people. I know this hurts, though it shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone. The thing to realize is that it isn’t THEIR America anymore. Its OURS. So stop with the Fuck America, and start with the FUCK THEM.
In the not too distant future, these people are going to be sitting in dirty diapers in the nursing home.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Daddy-O: I not only didn’t broach the subject of assassination, it was completely off my radar.
His response was one of those “Oh. But of course.” moments that totally changes your perspective.
Nemesis
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Those individuals are popular, with a certain crowd. Overall, not so much.
kay
@Southern Beale:
This is from today’s Washington Post.
It’s not a controversy.
It’s like they’ve lost the ability to state simple facts. It’s reaching the point where I think they’re all suffering from mental illness.
This isn’t that difficult. Stop writing words that aren’t true.
The Populist
@Omnes Omnibus: Problem is, these people ARE left alone! When whites go to minority status in the next decade or so, the rednecks and white pride types will have their enclaves and can still get along and be left alone.
I am all for leaving them behind though…starting with closing army bases we no longer need in small (read: WHITE) towns that exist solely due to the largess of the Pentagon and taxpayers.
Yes, the welfare small towns and even white leaning states get from us taxpayers in bigger cities needs to be extinguished. No more tax subsidies, no more pork, no more anything for these places that spend money on what? Nothing most of us can use.
Sorry, it’s time that these people walk it like they talk it. Hate welfare small town, white racist America? Fine…we can start by scrutinizing pork and any kind of money being given to your burgs by two faced con congressmen.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I should point out I don’t buy the anger thing. This has been a trope constantly trotted out to cover up for the fact that the president is a very affable person not given to emotional extremes.
However, at this point, much anger is way way overdue.
The Populist
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Amen!
GVG
Of course its insulting and hard to bear. Its a good thing Obama is brave. However, remember, he won. He got a lot of white votes to do so and will again.
The problem right now is that if you are a sane polite person who sees dark skinned people as people….its impossible to yap enough to drown out the fear idiots. Really how many times can a non obscessed person say, there is nothing wrong with Obama? Actually I have some quibbles about Gitmo and Afghanistan and no single payer health care but i see the real political roadblocks and I don’t hold just him responsible. those don’t matter I guess because there is no chance I’m going to stay home or vote for a nutty Republican. I’ve never thought any polititian was perfect.
The main problem with the loud mouths is that the real racists didn’t know Obama was going to win. they didn’t believe the polls, because they are racists and assumed that every other white person felt the same as they did. I overheard plenty. they seem to me to think that political correctness, public good manners were just some kind of agreement not to use some words. they didn’t understand those words were bad because they expressed things that made most people sick. That the don’t use certain words was because most people thought the idea was terrible. they have gone nuts since he won and since the sane majority have run out of ways to repeat ourselves, they are most of the ones talking which makes them think everyone agrees with them again.
A black man could probably have won a little sooner if he had the best answers to the problem of that election. Hillary’s supporters (some of them) acted like people should vote for her because she was a woman. I didn’t recall her making that mistake her self but some of the sillier supporters did. I was perfectly willing to vote for a women and so were others…..if she was the best choice availible. I didn’t think she was this time. Obama looked best at being our problem solver. Remember that. It came down to his own talents and what we voters thought. we picked him and I expect him to win again-doubt is because of the economy which he (all presidents) doesn’t actually have a lot of control of but historically voters don’t want to hear that. It looks like the R’s are going full stupid though so I still think he’ll win again.
I do wish the idiots would shut up though.
The Populist
@gex: I am looking forward to Bill Maher’s show on Friday.
Calouste
@The Populist:
Trump’s candidacy somewhat reminds me of Berlusconi’s flight forward to become prime minister to save his media empire.
Martin
@The Populist: That was a nice piece on Maddow last night. Bacevich should be a guest on every show. And I agree – a fundamental rethinking is in order, and I agree with the assessment last night that putting tried-and-true people in charge of these agencies won’t cause it to happen.
Would be a nice move for a 2nd term president to make on his way out the door.
evinfuilt
@Brachiator:
He’s not even the Barker, he’s the sad clown at the dilapidated carnival. The MSM sadly is the barker, and they’ve very happy to parade out their favorite clowns, Trump, Palin, Bachman, Ryan.
Villago Delenda Est
@OzoneR:
Of course we said it about Bush, Ozone. I said it.
But I NEVER said it about Reagan, no matter how much I disagreed with what he was doing. For one thing, I could have been thrown in prison for doing so (I was a commissioned officer in the Army at the time), but for another thing, while I was not happy with having this guy who so many thought was going to press “the button” in a fit of anger one day, he was legitimately elected.
But the right decided in 1992 that there was NO FUCKING WAY that Clinton was legitimate. The Presidency BELONGED to them. They started doing every fucking thing they could to undermine him, from day one.
Democrats, by contrast, in 2001, for the most part accepted the installation of a fucking deserter from the National Guard by five Supreme Court Justices who BLATANTLY and DELIBERATELY violated their oaths of office and admitted to it in the body of the decision itself, by saying it should not be considered a precedent.
Now we’ve got this bullshit going. Obama won that election, fair and square, he was born in fucking Hawaii on 4 August 1961, he is a natural born citizen of these United States…but the wingtards cannot accept it.
We are heading toward civil war. I don’t think there is a way out of it now.
Pooh
@Brachiator: Also true, but it’s a painful bit of realization what the entire birther thing says about us as a country, and it says much more about the rest of us than the 27%ers.
TooManyJens
@kay:
You mean the paper that’s taking Donald Trump to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner?
Linnaeus
Trump represents most of the pathologies present in American culture: crass self-aggrandizement, worship of wealth, privilege cloaked as merit, racism, and the abiding sense that we should never be ashamed of anything we ever say or do, especially if it gets us attention.
He’s an embarrassment. One silver lining that I’d put out there – and maybe I’m off-base on this – is that Trump is getting negative attention and pushback of a kind he would not have gotten in years past. This is a desperate act, and it’s already exposing birtherism for the fraud that it is. I think most people will get that, and at the same time it’s a profound shame that others have to be hurt for this to happen.
...now I try to be amused
@Just Some Fuckhead:
They’re projecting, as right-wingers are wont to do. However, as you say, Obama has every right to be angry. He might actually be angry inside, but he’ll never show it because he’s the Jackie Robinson of our time.
Mako
Don’t know about you guys, but i am mad clicking that “Donald Trump for President” ad. I’m voting YES with every email addy I have.
Paula
Yeah, I’m reading the “but every Dem gets it” reasoning on DougJ’s thread tiresome.
But mostly, I’m angry at the YOU’RE BEING OVERSENSITVE undertone of some of the people in there. AS IF YOU’RE THE LORD AND MASTER OF HOW BROWN PEOPLE OUGHT TO FEEL. FUCK YOU.
Beyond the fact that Barack Obama is “a” president and a “Democrat”, he’s also the “first”. And part of being the “first” is being not just some kinda role model for various other people out there, but as a test for other upwardly mobile boundary breakers to see how they would be treated if they ever tried to go that route.
Clearly, the fact that this of-color POTUS just got forced by a reality TV hustler to show proof of citizenship is saying, NO MOTHERFUCKERS, NO AMOUNT OF EDUCATION, WORK, CONNECTIONS, MONEY WILL MAKE YOU A PART OF AMERICA.
As for Bill’s treatment, the crap that people threw at him was never gonna affect how other “self-made”, white men w/ presidential aspirations were gonna get treated. See Huckabee, Mike. Also John Edwards. Obama’s treatment OTOH? Yes, it is saying something to other candidates of color, the way HRC’s treatment probably said something other women.
I’M NOT SAD, I’M JUST REALLY FUCKING ANGRY.
Just Some Fuckhead
@…now I try to be amused:
All the people that hurled insults and contempt at Jackie Robinson are dead or still racists. This isn’t the same. Politics isn’t baseball. It’s war by other means and the conservative id is only capable of understanding brute force.
rikryah
you are righteous, ABL.
thank you for fighting the fight over at Americablog, and giving the smackdown there.
thanks for helping Baratunde go viral, in this eloquent video.
I will thank you once again for being a voice here.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, it’s going to metastasize, I think, rather than recede. Just a casual tour of TMP shows two Sharia law/Muslim hatred stories, an Okie lawmaker stating factually that African Americans are obviously lazy, and Santorum cranking things back up by declaring that Planned Parenthood practices eugenics. Things aren’t going to get less racist, it’ll just shift more rapidly away from birtherism.
Like I say, 2012 will be a very interesting election. I think the demographic changes are going to come as a shock to many.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Linnaeus:
Well said. That and agrlls comment in the last thread are the best things I’ve read all day.
Linnaeus
Exactly. They’re not only projecting the emotion of anger, but also their sense of how it is expressed. It is entirely possible to be angry and at the same time have control over how one expresses it. But because the projectors think flying into a rage is just how it’s done, that’s what they expect would be done against them.
JPL
When President Obama used the term carnival barkers , I assumed he meant the media. Trump’s message would not have resonated without media coverage. Every reporter that I have listened to said the term was aimed at Trump.
hmmmm!
Did anyone else feel the same way?
karen marie
@gex: Aided and abetted by the “mainstream media.”
Forget Donald Trump — every news channel and newspaper that has given and continues to give Trump, bitherism, and its many manifestations a seat at the table deserves contempt.
Trump wouldn’t have an audience if he weren’t given a platform.
Tookish
@aimai: I love what you said here, Aimai.
I am deeply sickened by this display of othering. While I can’t feel it in the same way, as a commenter above noted due to my experiences being informed by my white skin, I can relate from the position of being female.
When I listened to Baratunde what I felt was a redoubling of my commitment to listen to AAs when they explain that something is hurtful, that a comment, narrative, or event is informed by, framed by, or subtextually communicating racism. And I make that commitment daily because it takes a quiet commitment to keep my ears, eyes, and heart open to the messages that were never meant for me and that my privilege protects me from. All I can offer is my increased efforts at being a better ally.
And f*ck trump.
Poopyman
@Southern Beale:
This, exactly.
Someone needed to step in and put an end to Trump’s race-baiting, and it wasn’t Barack Obama, and it shouldn’t have been just yesterday. Do you think Trump would have found a microphone if the media was run the way it was back in the 60’s? Believe it or not, kids, back then no network expected the News division to be a money-maker, but they did expect it to be honest and hard-hitting and give the network a credible face.
I fully understand why some folks here are ashamed to be Americans, and to be hurt. It was meant to hurt. But also remember that Obama was elected by a large majority. And he will be again.
As for me, I’m ashamed that we’ve let ourselves become an oligarchy, and I don’t see a way out of it that doesn’t involve blood and fire.
JordanRules
@Paula: And I never got the sense that vulnerable white folks without Secret Service and gated communities ever were or even felt they were in danger because of it.
I on the other hand, was scared as sh*t, in parts of AZ during certain parts of the campaign and even since. I know others in other cities whose blood pressure rose just a bit higher at the fear that they might be the target if they can’t get to the real one.
Villago Delenda Est
@karen marie:
Absolutely.
The blind pursuit of ratings (and the $$$ associated with them) drives the media’s approach to the “news”.
They are complicit in this entire mess. Every bit as guilty.
My nym says it all.
Martin
@Mako: Outstanding! I’m sure Cole enjoys the revenue, and bleeding money out of whatever GOP group is running the ad is helpful as well. We should all do that.
mai naem
Donald Trump is a loser. Each of his wives pops out a kid to keep the money coming in after the inevitable di-vorce. Have you seen a pic of Ivana recently? She looks like a scene out of a horror movie. And The Donald for all the fun he made of Rosie ODonnell being a fat slob loser or whatever, well, he seems to have put on quite a few pounds and is looking a little on the tubby side himself. Bottomline, The Donald’s just a jealous that a younger better looking guy with a poorer background managed to get an attractive smart wife, is still married to her and is president of the u-nited states of america. The Donald needs to wear more make up to get rid of all the green in his eyes.
Mako
You feel sucker punched by Donald Trump? Black people evidently have a way to go if they are feeling sucker-punched by Donald Trump.
tkogrumpy
@kMc: I am a white guy, who had every advantage that whiteness grants, and I don’t see how you could feel otherwise. Fuck Trump and anyone else who gives him air.
kay
@TooManyJens:
Jesus. As I said before, I think the Washington Post and the rest of the soul-dead media cynics are wrong. I think normal people recognize and recoil from gut-level unfairness, and Trump and media were unfair. ”
“But, he didn’t do anything wrong” is a real fundamental, base human reaction. It’s what kids always seize on. They’re the fairness police.
I think normal adults retain some of the common sense. I hope so.
Marmot
@Villago Delenda Est:
Aw, bull. With those clowns? Shortest civil war ever. Time for happy hour later that same day.
Paula
@JordanRules:
DUH. Srsly. Timothy McVeigh being a crazy asshole didn’t mean there was gonna be massive witch hunt of every white man with a truck and a gun, OTOH every Muslim citizen’s gonna get searched if they so much as looked at people cross-eyed.
And Bill Clinton may have his personal failures, but white Southern men are not “difficult” categorically because of him. OTOH, the threat of “a black man” winning an election makes it possible for some crazy person out there to threaten all black people in a killing spree.
slag
@TooManyJens: Are you fucking kidding me? Ho.ly.Shit.
Well, on the plus side, we can look forward to some inspirational talk about how great America is because the race-baiter and the race-baitey can sit down and nibble cocktail weenies together. Wink wink nudge nudge.
Is there anything these overprivileged assholes take seriously? Anything at all?
Villago Delenda Est
@STUCKZILLA!:
No, no, no.
It’s “SCUSE ME WHILE I KISS THIS GUY”.
Brachiator
@The Populist:
Adjusted.
Yep.
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yep. I agree entirely with your sentiments.
I think some crackpot was hurriedly finishing a book, a classic slime piece, “proving” that Obama was not born in the US. Now, he and the publisher are madly coming up with a new pack of lies. Either way, I doubt that the book will be nearly as successful as they originally had hoped.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Marmot:
This.
The only thing that will drag it out is half the left will be secretly fighting for the other side while the other half of the left tries to puzzle the whole thing out.
Svensker
What Brachiator said.
It is horrible and ugly and repulsive. But it is the lashing of the dying beast’s tail. It can still hurt, but the beast’s day is passing. We humans are not perfectable, but this particular ugliness is of the past, not the future. I’m just surprised at how much of the present it still is and sorry for the hurt caused to innocent folks because of it. Sorry for all of us, actually, but I can’t begin to really understand the gut pain felt by AAs now.
We just need to think back to Martin and realize how far we have come. Still a long way to go, but we are overcoming. Truly.
nancydarling
@eemom: I just saw a clip on CrooksandLiars of O’Reilly and Monica Crowley criticizing President Obama for his choice of a church for the family to attend on Easter Sunday. According to O’Reilly, the preacher at Shiloh Baptist in DC is a race activist, whatever that is. Of course, Reverend Wright was dragged into the conversation. I have always felt that Wright was given a bum rap by people who don’t understand the Old Testament prophetic tradition that is the style of some black preachers. Taking words out of the context of an entire sermon in that tradition, it was easy to demonize Wright and, by extension, President Obama. If these white folks ever got out of their white neighborhoods and their white churches, they might learn something about themselves and others. The Old Testament prophets said some pretty harsh things to the children of Israel, too.
ABL, I ache for you and all who have been hurt by this. Every year, there are fewer and fewer of the Trumps in this world. Can’t come soon enough for me. You would also be proud reading some of the threads on a blog where I post here in Arkansas. One of the longest threads I have seen there is about President Obama and the birther issue. We have a long way to go, here in Arkansas especially, but Arkansas is not the same place that I lived in as a child for two years in the 1940’s.
Just know that many of us who are white, love and esteem our president and we also love and esteem our black friends. I am so grateful I raised my kids in Southern California where it was easy to have friends and date across racial lines. There are more of us than there are of them. There will always be racists, but someday soon, there will be enough of us to force them back under their rocks. This is just a blip in the bending of the arc of the universe toward justice that Dr. King spoke of.
Ruckus
@eemom:
Is that wrong of me?
Can’t see how it is.
Allan
DEMOCRATS = UNION
GOP = CONFEDERACY
There’s your bumpersticker right there.
(C) Allan
JPL
Last night Schieffer called Trump out on his racist comments, Brien Williams said he had a big mouth and Tapper called the birthers out on their lies. I can’t remember another time when Tapper used the word lie. There are now some things off the table. Will the media hype Obama’s grades now or who wrote his book? I don’t think so.
Chris
@Paula:
Personally, I’m just tired of the discrepancy between nonwhite people being expected to “suck it up,” “just grow some thicker skin,” or whatever… And the absolute torrent of humiliated white conservatives on the air, in the Interwebs, on TV and elsewhere sobbing uncontrollably because they don’t feel like Obama’s giving them enough hugs. (Remember the freakout over his “American exceptionalism” moment? “WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! You don’t think we’re exceptional? You shouldn’t be president!”)
Cassidy
I’ve been ashamed to be an American since yesterday. I’m white, so I know that I can’t fully fathom this kind of degradation. I feel like my friends died in 2005 for something half this country doesn’t believe in anymore.
Jager
Trump products are still sold at Macy’s, however, most of the stuff is Ivanka’s line of womens clothing and home goods. The Donald’s shirts, ties, etc are all deeply discounted, a 60 dollar tie for 34 bucks, even at full retail the Trump men’s line is lower mid market and the fuck has a line of ‘no-iron” dress shirts! What self respecting billionaire would EVER wear a no-iron dress shirt! What a shitheel.
Poopyman
@Brachiator:
You haven’t heard about this?
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@JPL: Yes, when I heard “carnival barkers” I heard him taking the White House Press Corps to the woodshed. Interesting that they don’t hear it that way.
His press conference reminded me of my mother. No, more, it reminded me of an old Bill Cosby routine (paraphrased):
“Now, when I did something wrong, my father got the belt out and that was it. But my mother … my mother just talked to me and it made me wish I’d *never been born*.”
I don’t know how any of those reporters could stand to come to work the next day.
Paula
@Chris:
Obama needs to suck it up, but I DON’T. Not from fellow “leftists”.
chopper
I love all these ‘make the minorities prove they deserve to be treated as well as whites’ issues the GOP keeps barfing up. Minority voters are looking at this shit and going thanks for reminding me what it’s really like to be non-white in this country, dicks.
MCA
In the end, I hope some can take solace that (i) once again, Democrats and Obama come off as the levelheaded, decent people here, while the Republican party appears to have lost its g’damned mind, (ii) Donald Trump has probably riled up every African American and Hispanic voter in America enough to ensure that there is no way on Earth a Republican has a chance in next year’s Presidential election, and (iii) this may be the point we look back on in twenty years as the moment the Nixonian Resentment strategy that’s ruled American politics for the last half century finally reached its logical conclusion and went on an unsuccessful kamikaze run once the demographics caught up to it. I’m pretty confident an actual majority of the population finds this somewhere between creepy and borderline insane to outright revolting, rather than privately nodding their heads and not seeing this for what it is. And they’re aware, even if only subconsciously, of how this is tied to the Republican Party’s journey to the bottom. Maybe that’s naive, I don’t know. But I feel like the mask is off a little bit now, and people aren’t liking what they see.
Studly Pantload
Presumed innocent (and legitimate) until proven otherwise.*
*May not be available to all skin colors.
This is so very ugly. I’m feeling very boycotty of certain reality show advertisors, and may make this fact known to them.
Omnes Omnibus
@slag: Seating arrangements at the dinner, they take that seriously.
gex
@The Populist: Do you have a link instead of an email?
Villago Delenda Est
As I said yesterday, Jake Tapper needs to hang around some three year olds in order to pick up pointers on behaving like an adult.
Mike E
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Ding. And after thirty fucking years of war against a huge class of people, you would think lotsa people would catch on by now. Sadly, no.
Gozer
@Omnes Omnibus: I have to say–and this is going to sound incredibly pretentious–one of the major things that irritates me about this whole situation is Trump’s vulgarity.
That this tasteless, vulgar, showy, classless, piece of shit…this Atlantic City, animal-printed, gilded, comb-overed, wrestling promoting….arghh!
If anything, the President and his family are the very picture of class and poise. For anyone to make those accusations is infuriating, but especially so for a trashy, short-fingered vulgarian like Donald Trump.
Cassidy
@eemom: Nope, not at all. Personally, I prefer something violent and painful involving Gary Busey, but I’ll take what I can get.
gex
@Just Some Fuckhead: Over the long term, no it isn’t a win-win for them. I’m just thinking about the constant poking and poking at black people. They get to be racist (win). Then if black people get angry they get to point out how angry the blacks are (win). The wins are of course, with their own people, and overall you are right. But there’s definitely a short term win-win dynamic here. And will continue to be until (some) white people don’t freak out about angry black people.
kc
That loathesome bastard Trump does not speak for all white Americans or even most of them.
I pesonally would have been pleased if a meteor had landed on his goddamned head yesterday during his disgusting performance.
Tom Hilton
As disheartening as the whole moronic vicious racist shitstorm is, I was cheered by how the President addressed it in his remarks yesterday: as a teaching moment, an opportunity to remind people of what’s really important, and of what their obligations are (as citizens, as members of the press).
gnomedad
It must feel that way. I hope that’s wrong. I’m so sorry.
slag
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s true. That and apparently the strictest definition of the word “dominant”. Very very serious stuff. To be fair, that must be all I ever think about too since they’re just giving news consumers what they want. I really hope they go boy-girl-boy-girl!
TooManyJens
@Cassidy:
I understand what you mean, but I would question your use of the word “anymore”. There was never a non-racist, egalitarian time in American history. We have always been a nation struggling to overcome its own worst instincts. And there have always been those willing to shore up those worst instincts for their own gain. What hurts about yesterday is not that it showed us anything new, but because it showed us the same old, same old in such a stark way.
kc
Boycott NBC. Not just NBC, but all NBC-affiliated networks – MSNBC, USA, CNBC.
Heck, I don’t need to see another Law and Order episode anyway.
freelancer
@Calouste:
This is hilarious, and it reads like an Onion article.
Pooh
@Paula:
I think you might be misreading Doug slightly in that he’s saying (or at least how I’m reading) that every Dem gets some pretty hateful shit said about them, and for Clinton they had to work pretty hard to come up with it, whereas for Obama “he’s blackity black mcHussein BLACK!” is all they appear to feel to need. I’m not sure how much normative weight he’s placing there, just observing the difference.
toschek
Berlusconi worked out so well for Italy, there’s absolutely no reason Trump shouldn’t be president.
kc
@TooManyJens:
Are you shitting me? Christ, now I want a meteor to land on MY head.
Bob Loblaw
@Daddy-O:
No, it really isn’t.
There are no firehoses or truncheons or attack dogs. There’s a guy plugging his reality show.
We’re not on the start of something new, we’re at the end of something old.
JGabriel
@John PM:
Not to be too pedantic, but I think you mean ‘protest’ instead of ‘boycott’, non-attendance being more the point of boycott.
.
gex
@Just Some Fuckhead: Oh, and I wasn’t talking about Obama specifically. Just the reaction that black people being angry about an issue usually triggers in these folks. I’d be surprised if Obama wasn’t angry, but he is frankly better than them and he can behave like an adult.
Actually that’s the part that is driving them mad. He IS better than them.
Villago Delenda Est
@Pooh:
Yeah, I think that’s a great deal of it.
The bottom line on both of them is that they have that -D next to their names.
The method of claiming that they’re not legitimate varies based on circumstance, but the primary impulse is still there.
Unfortunately, they are tearing at the bandages even more savagely in the case of Obama. The rest of the world looks at this and goes into the WTF mode. Obama to them represent the ideal of America that has so enthralled many for so long…and to see him under attack, from within, reminds them that Americans are just as petty, vindictive, and stupid as another other people on the face of the Earth can be…and it’s a letdown.
MagicPanda
In an earlier thread, I said that birtherism seemed rooted more in xenophobia than racism. I now retract that. It was a stupid point. I was trying to make a distinction without a difference.
General Stuck
@Paula:
I want to scribble my initials of approval on your comment?
Time for white liberals to shut the fuck up and really listen to folks of color in their ranks concerning race relations. They (we) white folk, really don’t get a lot of it, even though we think we do as a matter of ideology.
So let er rip, I say.
Brachiator
@Poopyman: RE: I think some crackpot was hurriedly finishing a book, a classic slime piece, “proving” that Obama was not born in the US. Now, he and the publisher are madly coming up with a new pack of lies. Either way, I doubt that the book will be nearly as successful as they originally had hoped.
That’s the book. It’s due to be released on May 17. It is obviously undergoing a massive rewrite. The sad thing is that modern technology will let them revise the Kindle edition relatively painlessly.
Cat Lady
Let’s not forget Obama was elected in what qualifies as a landslide these days. Should it have been by a much larger margin? Yes. But, it did happen. I said yesterday how embarrassing this whole distressing episode is for everyone, and that I didn’t think there was an upside. After some consideration, I think that this episode has really laid bare everyone’s motivations, and their response allows us to put people clearly on one side or another. This is one of those times where someone identifying as a birther can just be summarily dismissed as a racist fucktard, the end.
metricpenny
@JPL:
I did. The carnival barkers he referred to is the media.
I long for the days when I could watch network TV in the evenings and not be bombarded with the teaser, “Film at 11”, carnival barking local news commercials at every break.
gex
@kc: It would have been destroyed by that thing on his head and he would have escaped unharmed.
Georgia Pig
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: There was an ambiguity in that statement that made it all that more pregnant with meaning. Donald Trump is a carnival barker in one sense – “I have investigators looking into this and they can’t believe what they’re finding.” But he’s also the sideshow, because “carnival barker” is stock trope in and of itself, something out of a 1940’s musical. Obama, subtle and forgiving as he is, was giving the press the choice to decide which they wanted to be, carnival barkers, i.e., a sideshow, or reporters who actually play an active role in the governance of the country. It’s his normal MO, he did the same with Republicans a while back. He tells them, “look, you’re adopting such extreme positions for the purpose of popularity that you put yourself in a position where you can’t compromise” and thus risk making yourself irrelevant. In other words, you’re making yourself into part of the sideshow, instead of leaders. We’re seeing some of that now. Republican leadership can’t control it’s own ranks, and can’t prevent a carnival barker from becoming it’s leading candidate.
A lot of the problems of the country can be laid at the feet of a thoroughly short-sighted and corrupt elite that has let this kind of bullshit become so deeply ensconced in our culture, it’s like a metastasized cancer that threatens to destroy the country. That elite includes the press, business leadership and political leadership.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
great video, thanks for passing it along.
i have already passed it along several times, to other caucasians, who are having trouble contextualizing the scope of opinion on this.
i have tried to explain why trump succeeded where others failed, and why this is a big deal to people who think “all he had to do was show it”.
Kilkee
Tiny silver lining of this whole sorry circus: I’ve found Baratunde Thurston.
gex
I don’t even know why we have to debate whether or not the GOP uses racist tactics. Atwater, Melman, and Steele all admitted it. So yeah, even though all presidents with a D are subject to delegitimization, in this particular case they are using racism to do so. This is the usual BS plus some extra BS.
AxelFoley
Man, fuck this. Let’s go jump on the first rich white dude we see.
Ya’ll know I’m kidding, right? ;)
metricpenny
@Tom Hilton:
I agree. But I’m hopeful he does more straight talk like when he told the media, “And you know it.”
I love that he has the gift of writing and speaking so beautifully, but in this game, sometimes you just gotta come raw.
Origuy
@Calouste:
The Register is a UK-based tech news site. Bootnotes is its humo(u)r column. I’m not sure how much credibility to put it it. Somewhere less than The Onion, but less than Fox News.
sistermoon
@Paula:
So am I. No one ever asked Bill Clinton for his birth certificate. No one ever questioned whether his admissions to Georgetown or Yale were “valid”.
No, this is an example of , as the Rude Pundit so eloquently put it, “the crime of presidenting while black”. If Doug J and others can’t see that, they’re willfully blind.
Anya
A friend of my cousin’s from Tucson, wrote on his facebook page status yesterday: “Today, the President is me. We’re both being asked to show our papers. America! Fuck Yeah!”
That’s a message from a 21 year old American that the fucker racists in Arizona otherized, and now his President was subjected to the same show you’re papers crap. The MSM should be ashamed, for many things, but particularly, for promoting a vulgarian self-promoting circus clown. They don’t see how this diminishes the country as a whole. What a punch of assholes!
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
ABL, it is shameful and nauseating what’s happened. As an immigrant, I don’t always get the nuances of US racism. But I know this: at the end of the day, Barack Obama is the president of the United States. A position that Donald Trump will never attain. I’ll repeat that: a position that Donald Trump will never attain, no matter how badly he wants it.
Mako
@Martin:
You seem like a smart guy, even tho you missed the joke, here’s a question; wouldn’t it be better if us smart blog folks came up with a plan, something that would make us players, rather than just commentors?
I’ll start.
1. Goldman Sachs needs to be crushed.
2. Military budget changed new plan to regrid this country for the future.
Paula
@sistermoon:
Well, DougJ’s OP wasn’t the offender for me. It’s willfully obtuse crap like this:
Mostly because it’s a signal of why there is no progressive/left/liberal movement in this country. Because if the people who claim to be on some kind of “progressive” vanguard, who are, apparently well-educated and well-off enough to follow news on the internet CANNOT, for the life of them, understand why racism in America is distinct, and how it affects people on both sides of the color barrier — their political goals, the opportunities, their way of thinking about themselves and America — they should be made to understand that THAT’S WHY THEY’RE LOSING TO CONSERVATIVES. BECAUSE THEY ARE SO DUMB ABOUT RACE IN AMERICA.
Mako
@Allan:
Stop that. Just stop. It is Capital vs Labor. Doesn’t matter if you are black or white.
Anya
Via The Obama Diary, on CNN last night Tom Foreman, was still doing the two sides crap. He was talking about how some people, still have questions
Chuck Butcher
This was in another thread but it belongs here:
I recently rode a motorcycle across the very rural Southwest and deep South. I was astonished at the amount of entirely gratuitously offered racism I got to hear. Maybe being white, tatooed and riding a Harley seemed an invitation. My accent is quite obviously not southern and my plates did read Oregon.
It needs to be noted that neither race nor politics were a part of my agenda or conversation gambits. I do exactly mean “gratuitous.”
That trip involved Interstates only to the extent of short congruences with State Routes or US Highways. The object was to be in the places I was traveling, not get a look at 75mph across medians.
Addendum
I was real tired of that horseshit after the first occurence. The worst part is the knowledge that there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about any of it. Nothing.
I’ve had every advantage of being white and can’t begin to feel being something else – but it makes me furious and really sad.
Paula
@Mako:
Hey, here’s another nice example for my point. THANKS, MAKO.
EDIT: The old-guard Marxist theorists couldn’t really have anticipated the heterogeneity of the modern metropole. But Foucault eventually got to something he called “bio-powers”, which you might be interested in.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gozer: I am with you. Obama is, all politics aside, the very best of the USA. Smart, personable, ambitious, tasteful, funny, came from nowhere and all of that. Trump sums up the opposite.
Bob Loblaw
@Paula:
Well, as the person who wrote that, you should know that it was as a first-generation American of middle eastern descent who was talking to an Indian-descended Brit. Neither one of us is deeply bound to the American tradition of slavery and disenfranchisement of African-Americans. It isn’t our shared history. And so, yeah, I was being more clinical about it than emotional.
It seemed pretty vile for the right to accuse a President and First Lady of murdering one of their friends and employees to cover up financial crimes. Is that worse than the racism shown to Barack Obama and the black community by extension? I’m not sure that’s a particularly relevant question. They’re both heinous. And it might be instructive to see if there’s a broader pattern at work.
gex
@Svensker: And the thing is, it is not just AA’s that get this. I’m in so many undesirable groups I lose count. All’s I know is many Americans wouldn’t consider me to be a real American too. And of course, as a woman, I don’t really count as an autonomous person. If only the poor white men on that side would realize that the society they are yearning for doesn’t give a fuck about them as they too are not the right kind of people.
Blerg. Time passes so slowly and old racist assholes live too long.
Paula
You start off like this, so … MY point is NOT that somehow you’re not “taking seriously” people’s emotions as much as you are being a dumbass about where those emotions come from and how they affect people’s participation in political discourse. In other words, you’re not being clinical, you’re mostly parroting mainstream logic about [brown] people being “oversensitive”.
The fact that you’re brown too doesn’t really add anything to your argument. There are many brown people who like the “I don’t let it bother me” POV, and that’s certainly their right. And in most situations it’s the POV I personally take. But not here, not with a POTUS, who is, after all, symbolic of the “body” politic.
Again, Bill Clinton being hassled by the GOP re various things does not affect the candidacy of other upwardly mobile, self-made white men. Barack Obama, first Black POTUS, being asked to produce proof citizenship affects how other people of color see his office and their relationship to America and to political participation. It also affects how white people will see/treat other possible candidates of color. Just like HRC crying/not crying affects how female candidates as a whole are seen. I really don’t understand why this is such a difficult concept. it’s not about the level of personal nastiness aimed at particular candidates and comparing “which hurts more”.
Brachiator
@Anya:
And you know what? I hope the president and the Democrats use this to freakin’ crush the Republicans. Because this is the other side of it.
On one side, you have Donald Trump, last of the dinosaurs, trying to suggest that Obama is not really American, not legit.
And on the other side, you have countless people, of all races, saying, “Oh, yeah, that’s me.” And there have been many people, not just nonwhites, who have lived in countries or have had relatives live in countries where they were told, “show me your papers.”
The food truck guy who comes round our office is of Armenian descent. And today, he talked about watching Obama, and how masterfully he handled the press conference and all the fools who pepper him with nonsense. He said, as he has said many times when we talk about politics:
“I love that guy. That’s my president.”
t jasper parnell
@Villago Delenda Est: It’s actually both. Until you open the lid, that is.
JordanRules
@Mako: I read that meaning into how Allen put it maybe because I see Union as labor and the Confederacy as existing soley to create capital from unpaid labor, THE Union be [email protected]
Mako
@Paula:
No worries, Harry Potter.
Mako
@JordanRules:
Okay, whatever. Personally, i don’t care about the Confederacy. I’d rather people stop squabbling over black vs white, or wheel-chair-assisted vs hipster, or any other vs bullshit.
It IS Capitol vs Labor.
transmaniacon
@Bob Loblaw:
Then why did you ask it?
Paula
@Mako:
Repetition of “capital vs. labor” doesn’t make your analysis deeper than anyone else’s, buddy.
Just Some Fuckhead
@MagicPanda:
Nice.
Mako
@mugwarts:
No actually it does. Read it again, and let it soak in.
We are probably on the same side here.
Linnaeus
@Mako:
Yeah, that’s a major conflict in our society. But it’s not the only one. In fact, sometimes the various threads of conflict, ahem, intersect.
Omnes Omnibus
@transmaniacon: I would assume that it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Jack Bauer
I originally put down this birther shit to nothing but hating liberals. However watching Trump shift from birther STRAIGHT TO affirmative action baby, has taught me otherwise. As has his leap to the top of the polls for R candidates.
Caz
Overreaction.
Paula
@Mako:
“Let it soak in”?
Look man, if you want to play Marxist in here, don’t be all shallow and buzzword-y about it. “Capital” and “labor” actually mean specific things in “the real conditions of life”. To argue without context is NEOLIBERAL and, therefore, reactionary.
Mako
@Linnaeus:
The key word here is “major”. You want to argue minor rights, that’s fun, we can argue indian reservations all day long, we can argue about ABL’s hurt from Donald Trump, but that ain’t the big problem here.
Anyone suggesting we argue the minor points is wrong.
The big problem here, the problem that really needs to be addressed is- capitol vs labor.
Unless we get on the same team, we are screwed.
transmaniacon
@Caz:
Settled science.
Mako
@Paula:
Exactly. Please continue.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mako: Capital, by the way. Your point is noted.
Paula
@Mako: LOL, you made the point, buddy. Am I supposed to supply an argument for you?
JCT
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people): This is the essential point. He won, he won convincingly and he had some truly meaningful achievements in his first two years in office. Remember how many folks were screaming about how he should have focused his energies on other issues, not Health care, for example. In retrospect, he was exactly right to go headfirst into that fight. DADT? The recent budget fight – he rolled the Republicans. C’mon, yes it feels like the assholes are winning, but they are not and they know it. This is why they are squealing like the pigs that they are.
We can’t diminish Obama’s achievements by wallowing in despair over the bleating of ridiculous dead-ender racist/opportunists like Trump. We’re stuck with them until they die off.
As noted upthread, he is the embodiment of all that is shallow and ignorant and hopeless in this country. We can’t change it but we can focus on making sure that they are powerless. We will do that by re-electing Obama in 2012 and giving him some real partners in Congress. *That* we can do.
Meanwhile — as per Thinkprogress, Groupon pulled their ads from Trump’s website — I wrote to every one of his advertisers last night, it’s the only thing that truly matters to that waste of protoplasm.
Bob Loblaw
@transmaniacon:
Because it’s never for a second seemed possible to me that they wouldn’t stoop to it. How could you not expect that the first black president would be the target of vicious race-baiting and taunting?
Every previous white president, going back to John Quincy Adams, that’s ever shown the slightest interest in the rights and lives of black Americans has been battered by racists. John McCain, John McCain, was accused of having an illegitimate black child. The racists will do anything to anybody at any time without remorse or sense of decency.
The fact that their efforts have been as ineffectual as they have at destroying Obama as a man, let alone a public office holder, should be a sign of optimism, not despair.
The Populist
@gex: Gex, http://www.dailyemerald.com/opinion/tellam-a-national-strategic-narrative-offers-solutions-to-put-u-s-back-on-track-1.2208901
This is the best article in terms of links I’ve found. The MSM is NOT covering this (what a surprise!) outside of Rachel talking about it a few nights back.
Do a google search for the actual PDF: A National Strategic Narrative by Mr. Y
AxelFoley
@Munira:
This. A thousand times, this.
Mako
transmaniacon
@Bob Loblaw:
And that makes you feel comfortable?
Phoebe
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
This is a very fabulous point. Cannot be said enough.
My own take: This may be depressing, this Trump/birther/uglyfest, but what is actually going on is NOT that people are getting more racist, but that people’s already there racism is being revealed. It was always there, and now, thanks mainly to the internet and the black president, it’s coming to the surface. The surface is a good place for it to be, because that’s where we collectively deal with it.
And as for the existence of racism, the total racism quotient when you add all the racism from each beating heart on the planet? I think that’s going down. Also due to the internet and the black president. The truth will out.
LT
Fucking A, AABL. Fucking fucking A.
mikefromArlington
Fuck Trump.
Steeplejack
@Calouste:
Oh, come on. Blockquote is one of the few things that does work in FYWP. Albeit with some idiosyncrasies.
(h/t Monkeyboy © 2009)
The Raven
“It does not matter how long we’ve been in these United States. We will never be American. […] It hurts more than I thought it would. I’m taking it more personally than perhaps seems rational, but I feel sucker-punched.”
Sympathies. I have more to say about this. But that’s for another day. For now, my sympathies.
Karen
To all the people who say Clinton got just as harrassed.
Answer for me:
We all know Clinton got impeached for getting laid by an intern. Tell me, how many years did Clinton spend in jail?
Oh, he didn’t? That’s right, like Nixon did by Ford, Clinton got pardoned by Al Gore when he became the new President.
No, that’s not right either, I’m afraid. Clinton got impeached but he still got to serve out his Presidency.
NOW.
Tell me what would happen if Obama got impeached then tell me it’s exactly the same.
COME ON.
I’m waiting.
micah616
@Karen: Exactly
opie jeanne
Dear ABL, I love you even more for this.
I hope you don’t mind but I linked it to another site where a guy named Atomic Hank was lecturing us about racism and how the tea party isn’t racist at all, noooo, but wouldn’t answer the yes/no question: are you a birther?
I hope he reads it, I hope he comes here and reads the comments.
And did I mention how awesome you are and how much I love you?
ABL
@Mako: @Mako:
it is both black vs. white AND capital vs. labor. the fact that you don’t get that or seem unwilling to address it makes you part of the problem:
thank you for illustrating this point so starkly.
Mnemosyne
@ABL:
Race and class are so intertwined in the US that your race actually defines your class in most instances.
Here’s the example I like to use: let’s say you put Spike Lee and my white best friend next to each other on a stage and ask 100 people which one of them was raised on the wrong side of 8 Mile Road in Detroit and which one grew up in a nice middle-class home with a mother who was a teacher and a father who was a professional musician.
I guarantee you that the vast majority of the people there would point to Spike as the one who was raised poor in Detroit, not my blonde, blue-eyed friend. He’s automatically assumed to be lower-class because of the color of his skin, and she’s automatically assumed to be middle-class because of the color of her skin.
You can’t talk about class in this country without talking about race. They’re conjoined twins.
bob h
An ugly episode brought to us by a man of surpassing physical and spiritual ugliness.
Joe
What a bunch of horse shit. Some people will forever wallow in their self-loathing. The facts are that there is a constitutional requirement that our president be born in the U.S., there were questions surrounding his place of birth as first raised by none other than a Hillary Clinton supporter, and former Clinton machine lawyer, and that Obama himself could have put the thing to rest immediately back then by releasing his long form. He was the one who had to milk this for all it was worth with the goal of whipping people up into a froth like we have here. Mission accomplished, I would say. And he was going to be the great uniter.
redoubt
@aimai: Thanks for reminding me: our “Obama 2012” bumper sticker came a few days ago.
Comrade Mary
@Joe: Moron.
Those “questions” were raised by fringe nutbars who refused to recognize that the official document released in 2008 was not only repeatedly verified as genuine by Hawaii state officials (both republican and Democrat) and corroborated by historical record (the newspaper announcements place by the Board of health, but that the so-called “short form” CLOB is completely sufficient ON ITS OWN as proof of birth in the state of Hawaii.
Obama produced exactly the same documentation that any other person born in Hawaii would have been able to produce. Why was he expected to go above and beyond the legal standard just because some “people” had suspicions?
Meanwhile, almost all Republicans asked about the topic stuck to some variation of “I take the President at his word”, as if this was some great, charitable step they had taken, instead of simply accepting what the state of Hawaii had produced as a fully valid legal document. When asked to criticize birtherism, they said “Gosh, we can’t tell anyone else what to think.” and “I can’t denounce that.” and “Opinions differ.”
And it crept further and further into the media because nutbars frothed and Republicans played semantic games and Fox fanned the flames. You have to be five flavours of special fuckwit to blame Obama for this combination of racism and political opportunism.
Milk? Froth? Clean the moustache off your own lip first.
ABL
@Joe: Self-loathing? Projecting, much?
AxelFoley
@Joe: STFU, asshole.