The Washington Post, not surprisingly, has a lot of coverage of this week’s anniversary, including tons of photos and video clips. (And an admission that the paper wasn’t so prescient at the time.)
As a lead-in, here’s Dan Balz on “The March on Washington’s unfinished agenda”:
In the way history can be conflated, the March on Washington has been reduced to a few vivid images. One is the size of the gathering, with photos showing a crowd flowing from the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and stretching the length of the Reflecting Pool and beyond. The other and most iconic by far is the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech, which continues to echo powerfully 50 years on.
But history plays tricks, for there was much more to the march than those sharply etched memories. For the Life magazine issue published right after the event, the editors chose neither King nor the crowd for the cover. That distinction went to two of the march’s principal organizers, labor leader A. Philip Randolph and civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin.
The peaceful march drew more than 200,000 people to Washington on a sweltering summer day. It is rightly remembered as one of the most uplifting moments of the civil rights movement, and as others have said, it is the most famous mass rally in U.S. history.
But as the nation prepares to commemorate the event, it is useful to recall its origins, ambitions and legacy and to remember which of the organizers’ objectives have been fulfilled and which have not…
Many of those who will be in Washington this week say the commemoration of the march should not be a celebration. “It’s very important not just to commemorate the march but to have us recognize that we’re 50 years away from that event and if we examine progress, it’s clearly a mixed blessing,” said Margaret Simms of the Urban Institute.
Robert Dallek, who has written histories of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies, quoted one of his mentors, the late historian Richard Hofstadter, as saying that “America is the only country that believes it was born perfect and strives for improvement.” As far as the country has come in the 50 years since the March on Washington, much remains to be done — as it always has.
Also, from the Root, a fascinating interview with March participant Gloria Richardson, co-founder of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (plus a slide show on women Marchers).
Fats Durston
My dad (who grew up in Whitest Appalachia) was an elevator operator that summer in DC, was off work that day, knew about the event happening and just decided to go. His roommate was hungover and decided to give it a pass.
SiubhanDuinne
Wow.
Cacti
Anne Laurie pretends to care about non-white people problems.
Yeah, not buying it.
SiubhanDuinne
Thinking a little further on that quote —
“America is the only country that believes it was born perfect and strives for improvement” —
it occurs to me that Republicans/conservatives/libertarians put a full stop after the eleventh word, whereas Democrats/liberals/progressives are focused on words 12-15.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cacti: Derp. Hope you wake up with a bajtra hangover.
fka AWS
@Cacti: Christ, what an asshole.
fka AWS
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, I’d quibble that America is the only country like that. I’m sure the Romans thought so too, among others.
SiubhanDuinne
@fka AWS: Totally totally TOTALLY off topic, but how is The Lady Smudge these days??
? Martin
I had forgotten that the march was as much about labor rights as civil rights. I think we’ve done a bit better on the latter than the former. Would be a nice reminder to the nation.
Cacti
@fka AWS:
I agree, AL sucks.
Barely a day goes by when she isn’t posting about her contempt for the first African American POTUS.
But today she pretends to give a shite about the legacy of the March on Washington.
Pretty transparent innit?
kc
@Cacti:
Jesus, what an asshole.
Go back to RedState.
Baud
@? Martin:
Progress on the latter hurt the former, as a lot of people chose racial battles over economic ones.
SiubhanDuinne
@fka AWS: Yes, likely so. I guess I was thinking of modern nations, but I haven’t looked up the context.
Baud
@Cacti:
AL has her moments as we all do, but, no, she doesn’t suck. If you want to criticize her for attacking Obama, do it in a thread where she’s attacking Obama.
Cacti
@efgoldman:
If I don’t like what she has to say, don’t say anything in her threads?
Thanks, but no.
Lots of drones encircling the queen bee, I see.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud: This.
@efgoldman: Also this.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: Joining in on the WTF? Seriously,WTF?
fka AWS
@SiubhanDuinne: She’s doing great! has to put the young Tulpen in her place on occasion, but still queen of the house.
Cacti
@Baud:
In 1980 and 1984, you had unions like the Teamsters actually endorse Reagan FFS.
Probably the low water mark for that particular organization.
fka AWS
@Cacti: I know you’re not new around here, so your piss-ant ignorant comments are bewildering. I’m no AL drone, but you’re full of shit.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
Given the degree of cognitive dissonance is higher in this country than anywhere else in the world (with the possible exception of Japan) that is quite a statement.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: There’s always France.
JPL
hmmm.. imo, This is not an appropriate thread for a blog war. Just ignore the idiot.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
But I’m a full of shit asshole who belongs at Redstate for noticing that Anne Laurie posting on the March on Washington is completely out of character with her usual MO.
Josie
@Cacti:
Don’t kid yourself that you can see into another’s heart and mind. We are all complicated beings with diverse attitudes on diverse subjects, but we are all, including Anne Laurie, doing our best to make the world a better place. There are just many different ways of approaching that task. I am an admitted Obot, but I look forward to her posts, since she reads and reports from a wide selection of writings and always makes me think.
fka AWS
@JPL:
This is BALLOON JUICE! (/300 voice)
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, the French haven’t quite wrestled with some of their issues. Algeria, Vietnam, etc.
The Germans really had to screw up to seriously reevaluate themselves.
Baud
@Cacti:
I generally support unions like most folks, but sometimes their decisions are hard to fathom. But I’m woefully ignorant of much of the history.
Cacti
@Baud:
The US labor movement’s history on race relations is not a proud one. Unfortunately many union members were not able to see that race was a potent wedge used by the managerial class to divide workers against each other.
fka AWS
@Cacti:
You’re full of shit because Anne Laurie’s “MO” is all over the place.
I don’t hop into the comments on her posts about anime and deride her lack of fealty to American comic book art.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: The March on Washington is not a common event, is it? It isn’t something some would post about everyday, is it? Just a quick click on the Daydream Believer category up above shows that she has, in the past couple of months, put up at least two posts in favor of a voting rights amendment. I have my differences of opinion with AL and my criticisms of her, but come on….
Cacti
@fka AWS:
AL has two modes:
1. Obama sucks
2. Gardening
One day she’s going to get stuck in between, and post an “Obama droned my tomatoes” thread.
Citizen_X
@fka AWS: Oh, well done!
MomSense
I just looked through some of the photos and listened to Rep. John Lewis’ speech. What a day!
Not at all in the same league but I spent the morning and early afternoon canvassing. Most of my doors were not home because it was a glorious day but I had some great conversations with the people who were home. They asked good questions and that always gives me hope.
IowaOldLady
You know, folks, you don’t have to feed the trolls. One of John Oliver’s great moments on TDS this past few weeks was when he jubilantly declared that he could just ignore Sarah Palin.
Baud
@Cacti:
What little I know suggests to me that the history is more mixed. But I guess the question is how labor did using the country as a whole as a baseline.
Omnes Omnibus
@IowaOldLady: Cacti isn’t a troll; Cacti is just being an asshole. There is a difference.
raven
Do ya’ll know the story of former Iowa coach George Raveling and the I Have a Dream Speech?
“I walked over, and [Dr. King] was just folding… the paper. And I said, ‘Dr. King, can I have that copy of the speech,'” George Raveling told CBS Sunday Morning about that day in 1963. “And he turned and handed it to me. Just as he did, a rabbi on the other side came up to congratulate him, and it was over. And it happened that quick.”
raven
Do ya’ll know the story of former Iowa coach George Raveling and the I Have a Dream Speech?
“I walked over, and [Dr. King] was just folding… the paper. And I said, ‘Dr. King, can I have that copy of the speech,'” George Raveling told CBS Sunday Morning about that day in 1963. “And he turned and handed it to me. Just as he did, a rabbi on the other side came up to congratulate him, and it was over. And it happened that quick.”
ETA And USC and Washington State.
MomSense
@Cacti:
In fairness to the unions, he did make some very pro-union statements during the campaign that did not reconcile with his anti union actions as president.
Baud
@IowaOldLady:
FWIW, I hadn’t thought of Cacti as one of our trolls.
fka AWS
@Cacti:
Do you build your own strawmen, or have them delivered.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: The only true recurring troll around here these days is Cole’s pet.
fka AWS
@Omnes Omnibus: apparently, we have to have a separate category for general purpose troll and specific FP troll here on BJ.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
There were some good speeches today, and Lewis’s was one of them. I was impressed by Booker’s speech too – if he meant it, he’ll be a good addition to the Senate.
It was a beautiful day and I’m happy I was there.
Here are a few pictures I took, if anyone is interested in another perspective.
Oh – Add 2 hours to the timestamps.
Cheers,
Scott.
Billy Dilly
@Cacti: The ones who did the endorsing were corrupt racist fucks, whose pensions I bet did not go south after Reagan unleashed the Wall Street Dogs of War on the unions. I wonder how many bigot truck drivers died in poverty, or still living in squalor wondering maybe the those limpwristed Democrats weren’t as bad?
Cacti
@MomSense:
That may have been the case in 1980, but by 1984, it was obvious what Reagan was about, and 46% of union households still voted for him.
BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: Reagan used to be president of the Screen Actors Guild, a union. Who could of thunk it?
raven
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Nice, thanks. Love the pup too!
Cacti
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Reagan also snitched out SAG members to McCarthy. He was never looking out for anybody but number one.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
He’s like Fred Phelps, who I’ve always thought of as a step beyond trolls.
gbear
@Omnes Omnibus: Cacti is wrecking the thread in the smelliest way possible. On this thread, Cacti is 100% troll. And an asshole.
Mnemosyne
@Cacti:
Jaysus, dude, if she’s finally posting on something other than Snowden, STFU and appreciate it!
raven
So ignore the motherfucker, jesus christ how hard is it?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cacti: Tweety, Mr Lunchbucket Regular Guy Hardhat Democrat, or at least he affected that image when he was obsessed with Bubba’s Little Willy, was ranting a few weeks ago that Obama needed to do Something Big, Obama hasn’t done anything Big as President, part of his “Obama doesn’t really like being President” theory. He cited, as an example of Something Big, Reagan firing the air traffic controllers. Saving the auto industry, and a whole bunch of the kind of jobs we need more of, doesn’t count as Something Big, for some reason.
Cacti
@Billy Dilly:
I don’t disagree as to the leadership, but the membership doesn’t get off that easy.
In response to a mail survey on political preference for the 1984 general election, of 25,841 responses, 53.6% supported Reagan.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: Heh, I didn’t want to pile on, but that’s exactly what I was thinking.
LanceThruster
Saw this here…
http://www.prosebeforehos.com/quote-of-the-day/08/24/charlie-chaplin-on-liberty/
So I put this here — http://raisingkidswithoutreligion.net/2013/07/24/goals/#comment-12459
Baud
Cacti’s last statement related to AL was at # 33. This is # 60. How about we all let it go?
ETA: Goddamit.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Cacti: You missed the point by a mile; slow down, take deep breaths, and maybe breath into a bag. You probably should unplug your keyboard for about a hour.
Cacti
@gbear:
Awww, poor dear.
Would you like a tissue?
PeakVT
@raven: For a lot of people, very hard.
raven
@PeakVT: No shit, between this doofus asshole and that other fucking creep you would think people would have the goddamn sense to bag it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Tweety goes on and on about building stuff, and how Obama should do it, eh somehow. I’ll admit a soft spot for Tweety, but when he does that I want to punch him.
Cacti
It’s always good for a laugh when the genteel folks of the BJ commentariat say…
Stopping wrecking this pleasant thread YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE, BLARGGHHHHHGARBLE!
gbear
@raven: @Cacti: Jesus fucking Christ, deal me out of this shithole. Why do we have to put up with almost every thread degenerating into this crap?
raven
One fucking week. This time next week it’ll be the second half of Georgia Clemson.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’ll never forget he was the only (white) Villager (though I think most of them regard him as the slightly embarrassing cousin at the family reunion at this point) willing to call the Romney campaign out for race-baiting, but he is also a fucking dingbat.
raven
@gbear: Because someone has to prove how fucking smart they are.
PeakVT
@raven: @gbear: More people need to install the pie filter.
raven
@PeakVT: For some reason I can’t get it to work on Chrome.
ruemara
@Cacti: Don’t turn into Ted & Helen.
@Cacti: Don’t turn into Ted & Helen.
You know, staring + abyss, yadda yadda. But really, don’t. I may disagree with AL on things, but I don’t think she doesn’t care. Even if I did, no reason to feud with anyone over it.
Billy Dilly
@raven: Whoever scheduled that game and South Carolina the following week, needs a slap. Anybody else in the top 25 with that kind of a suicidal schedule?
fka AWS
The general consensus earlier was that Cacti is a regular who doesn’t ordinarily shit-post like this. That consensus may have been wrong, but that’s my reason for “feeding the troll” more than normal. T&H is in the pie filter.
Cacti
@ruemara:
Unpossible.
I’m not chummy with the blog host and don’t have his protection.
PeakVT
@raven: MikeJ used to do a port, but I don’t think it’s been updated in a while.
raven
@Billy Dilly: And LSU in the 4th game. Fuck it, we’ve had such a shit home schedule for the past 5 years I’m ready!
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I use troll-be-gone on chrome, even filters the replies.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/167925
raven
@Billy Dilly: Florida’s schedule is a killer.
Cacti
Anyhoo…
A little story on how 50 years later, the dream still hasn’t come true.
Gawd bless Texas.
PeakVT
@BillinGlendaleCA: I didn’t know about Troll-B-Gone. I might give it a try.
The Dangerman
@raven:
Can we have an Amen?
I can’t believe we ever had to wait through 6 weeks of preseason NFL football; 4 weeks is still 2 or 3 too long. Play 1 or 2 exhibitions and strap em on.
Ruckus
@raven:
Some people always feel the need to try and fix things.
Some things are just broken. They aren’t useful anymore but we just can’t bring ourselves to throw them out or recycle them.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@raven: Thanks. Sophie’s one of a kind.
We got her from a local shelter as a ~ yearling. She was found as a stray in WV and ended up at a kill shelter. People from some of the shelters here collect lucky dogs there, bring them to some DC area shelters, and have pretty good success in getting them adopted. We couldn’t figure out what kind of dog she mostly is, so we had a DNA test done. Nothing’s dominant, but she has detectable traces of:
German Shepherd
Bernese Mountain Dog
Great Dane
Dachshund (presumably the long-haired variety)
German Short-haired Pointer
Irish Water Spaniel
If one squints enough, you can see many of them. ;-) She’s very sweet with people, but is obsessive about squirrels and some dogs that she doesn’t like…
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@Ruckus: You read about the dude that killed himself because he was 60 and had nothing to live for?? I’ll be goddamned.
Aimai
@Cacti: Reagan actually wrote a letter to PATco promising to back them. That’s why they supported him electorally.
raven
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Both of ours are rescue/found pups. We won a DNA test on the Bohdi and it came back siberian husky/samoyed/cocker. He was pure white but, at 10,he’s gettin yeallah.
eemom
@Cacti:
dude, you had me until here.
Interminable block quote from the work of others, zero original content.
As in character as it gets.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’m tryin, I see the install in the corner but it don’t do nuthin.
Baud
@raven:
That’s an awesome photo!
raven
@Baud: I post too many!
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Did you click on the “How do I do this”?
Ruckus
@raven:
Didn’t see that.
Guess I’m lucky that I made it to 64 then. Had a good friend from HS that felt the same way at about 35-40. Took the same route. Never quite understood the nothing to live for concept, when the only thing you got going for you is living here and then a permanent dirt nap.
raven
@Baud: It’s harder to get good ones of Lil Bit but the HDR filter has helped/
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Ah, How do I USE this!
Baud
@raven:
I don’t know what you look like, but I want to say they look like you. ;-)
raven
@Ruckus: The sportswriter who blogged his suicide
Fuck that, I have too many friends that never saw 21.
Mike E
It seems what I thought was the arrival of Peak Wingnut was really only a pretext for… Zombie Troll Apocalypse!
Ruckus
@raven:
I’m amazed how much Lil Bit and Bud looked alike.
I’ll have to post some pics.
Miss that old ornery bastard.
Ruckus
@raven:
I have a few of those. Some of mine made it to 30-35 but most of them went out racing motorcycles. Some of them I even got to watch up way too close and personal.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@raven: Nice. I like dogs with personality. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@Ruckus: This was Raven the day we found Bohdi.
raven
@Ruckus:Yea
Billy Dilly
@raven: Yes the SEC itself is a killer, I pray that the FSM blesses us with his noodly appendage and strips Alabama of a fourth straight crown.
Mike in NC
Oh, please. Dan Balz and Richard Cohen were separated at birth, then hired by the WaPo.
raven
@Billy Dilly: Five fucking yards.
Baud
@raven:
OMG. I can’t believe that little puppy turned into that big, serious looking dog!
raven
@Baud: He was such a pain in the ass when he was a pup and he is just great now. I had a front page on them a couple of years back.
https://balloon-juice.com/2011/01/13/early-morning-open-thread-a-life-in-dogs/
Baud
@raven:
Thanks for the link. I missed it when the first time. I do remember the nym stuckinred, but I forgot that was you.
raven
@Baud: I forgot it was me! I was always Raven at FDL but when I got bannded I decided to use a cover for a while.
Lil Bit’s story is the most complex, she’s so sweet and still hangin in there but I worry all the time.
Baud
@raven:
No worries. Apparently, no one gets banned here. ;-)
raven
@Baud: And nothing gets deleted! Cassidy seems to have self-deported.
eemom
@Baud:
Oh, they would be if Lady Copy and Paste that y’all are falling all over yourselves to defend had her way.
As it is though, she has to content herself with furiously deleting comments that piss her off, in the dark of night.
raven
@eemom: She’s nice to me, that’s all I care about. It’s a stupid fucking blog and I don’t have to tell you that.
Baud
@eemom:
Aw man. I thought we were done for the evening.
Ruckus
@raven:
Bud
raven
@Ruckus: Aw what a sweetheart. I had never been around cockers. My wife’s family raised them in Virginia and she brought Raven home when we first got together. Now I am totally hooked on them. What heart.
eemom
@raven:
Don’t get belligerent on my ass, old friend. Lady Jane was nice to you too until she wasn’t.
raven
@eemom: What belligerent? Shit, you know better than that. Christy was nice, Jane was like Cole. Never had shit to say to me.
eta
I have to say after several prods Cole did call me some name from that idiot ass game of thrones shit.
LanceThruster
Please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let’s not bicker and argue over who killed who.
Cacti
@eemom:
Troll.
:-P
raven
This shit is cool. The University of Georgia is going to help “spread the word” about health insurance exchanges. One idiot state legislator tried to stop it but it looks like he failed!
Go Dawgs!
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Ahhhhh. Raven was a fine looking doggie. Kinda partial to cockers.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yea, they sumpin.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yea, they sumpin.
Cacti
@Baud:
I thought Toko loco or whatever her name was got banned.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@raven:
Maybe, but who knows. People are still taking vacations this time of the year.
raven
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): True dat but he was pretty bummed. I got that way at the Lake when shithead hooked up with Grover. I pushed it till they had little choice.
Omnes Omnibus
Perhaps I’ll just come back later on the off chance of finding a thread somewhere on this blog that isn’t a bunch of people sniping at one another. Hope springs eternal, but is oft disappointed.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m hiitin the rack,that should help.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: My Girls
Ruckus
@raven:
I met Bud(named Bandit by the rescue org, for who knows why) at an adoption fair. All the people around and he just ignored them. Took him for walk for about a half hour and he was the perfect gentleman. What a con artist. Possessive, territorial, didn’t like to be petted and on and on. Big for most cockers he weighed 46 lbs when I got him. The rescue org thought he was 8-10 but when I took him to the vet she agreed with me that Bud was probably 11-12. Took about 4-6 months for him to bond with me and then he couldn’t stand me to be out of his sight for more than a few minutes. He’d lay down near me and go to sleep but if I walked into another room he’d wake up and follow me. Loved to ride in the truck, would sit in the passenger seat like he owned it(which I guess he did!) but after about a year and a half he couldn’t jump in by himself any more. Had to build him his own step.
Old ornery bastard.
lamh36
Late to the thread so not sure if someone mention this, but Meet The Press will be re-airing the 1963 interview with Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
NBC Re-Airing Martin Luther King Jr. Interview
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
Not at all. The conservatives think the country was perfect when it was founded and the liberals have screwed it up. They see the main way of improving it as going back to something closer to the version that Washington and Jefferson envisioned. You know, without these modern mistakes like abolition, women’s suffrage, direct election of senators, extension of the franchise to non-property owners, etc.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
I agree with you but was sort of remembering someone about the time this country was founded stating that the constitution was a living document, one that was not perfect but could be changed to work better as time and history went on. That the processes for improvement and change were not only an integral part but an absolute necessity.
the Conster
I want MPLS meet up pix, or it didn’t happen.
MikeJ
@the Conster:
I expect to hear things like that from Schrödinger’s cat.
Dead Ernest
@raven:
R, that is one joyful picture.
Very nice …in fact the nicest thing on this thread. So with, I’m gonna stop now and go back to what I was doing in real life.
Thanks for that.
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
She was yet another person who would get banned and then show up a while later under a new nym. I think the last time she was banned, she took it personally and decided not to try coming back, but she could have tried coming back if she had really wanted to.
MikeJ
@Roger Moore: And she wasn’t really all that bad all the time, at least if she had been able to make her point one time and not respond to every single comment on the thread with exactly the same answer. Cudlip.
Bruce S
I was 17 years old on August 28, 1963, convinced my (liberal Christian) parents to let me go, bought a ticket at the St. Louis NAACP office to get on a bus with a bunch of folks I’d never met before and had a transformative experience – although it was hard to absorb everything that was happening that day at the event itself. In many ways the long ride back to St. Louis was the point at which we sort of began to understand what and where we had been that day, especially in terms of the numbers. No one had ever seen anything like it.
Thanks to my dad being sort of a history pack rat, I still have the March program and a copy of the 8/28/1963 Washington Afro-American I bought that day.
Here’s what I’m thinking about this week – One of the key demands that is very explicit on that old March program was full employment and a raise in the minimum wage from 1963 federal $1.15/ hr. to a “living wage” of $2/hr. In 2013 dollars, that $1.15 is over $8 dollars an hour, which means low-wage workers are worse off today than they were then. The $2/hr demand would translate into $15.25 2013 dollars. Which is almost exactly what the fast food and other minimum wage activists are asking for. There are nationwide actions on this coming Thursday, August 29 for a living wage and unions for low wage workers at fast food, Walmart and other crap employers. Participating and supporting that struggle is one of the best ways to attempt to fulfill the dream. (The other big issue is in those states that are pulling back voting rights and access.)
It’s kind of scary to consider that not only was the minimum wage higher then, conversely the unemployment rate among African-Americans AND whites is higher today than it was 50 years ago when folks were marching for jobs and freedom. A living wage and full employment for all workers – black, white and brown – were key demands of the 1963 March where we’re ALL actually worse off today than we were then.
King’s speech was brilliant and the most inspirational I’ve ever heard – I feel privileged to have been there – but the lofty “dream” rhetoric about racial harmony (that followed his lines about the unpaid debt) often gets used to gloss over the fact that while great strides have been made in social and political equality – even given all of the evident problems – economic justice was also a central demand and we’re at least as far from that dream as we were when A. Phillip Randolph, Dr. King and a young SNCC firebrand John Lewis (whose radical “truth to power” speech was censored by the “elders”) led the March on Washington.
Yatsuno
@Roger Moore: My understanding is she lurks now. I personally miss her, she was deliciously wrong but I never thought she was malicious.
@the Conster: I need evidence of wifey’s presence or absence. And I will fly out there to kick her personally if she whines about meet-ups in the future and didn’t show up.
BillinGlendaleCA
I just took the girls out for their evening walk. We got down to the end of our street to the main road and turned to walk back. Parked on the street with the front of the car facing us is a new BMW with it’s license plate and above that a placard with a swastika on it. Somebody’s begging to get their car keyed.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
Yeah, this is my favorite argument to bring out when people start complaining about wrecking the document the Founding Fathers put together: they were the ones who included a procedure for amending it, and they used that procedure 12 times in the first 20 years it was in operation. You can’t reasonably maintain both the genius of the Founding Fathers in putting together the Constitution and the illegitimacy of changing it according to our experience, since it was the Founding Fathers who wrote Article V in the first place.
imonlylurking
@the Conster: It happened. Pictures were taken, the first one appropriately fuzzy. Yatsuno’s wifey was not present. We had fun anyway.
J.D. Rhoades
@Cacti:
Popping up in someone’s thread to express your general disapproval of them, unrelated to the subject upon which they’re posting, is threadstalking. It’s troll behavior. It’s also ad hominem in its most obnoxious form. So. given your trollish behavior and use of logical fallacy, we should listen to you….why?
Yatsuno
@Roger Moore: Yesbut…all amendments after Twelve weren’t passed right! They’re not true expressions of the will of the people! WOLVERINES!!!
(Actually the 19th was passed very carefully. They just don’t like them uppity wimmenz.)
@imonlylurking: HMMPF! I see how she is!
fuckwit
Most people don’t know or remember that St. Ronnie used to be THE FUCKING PRESIDENT OF THE SCREEN ACTOR’S GUILD UNION!!!
So, he had plenty of union cred and union back-room contacts and people in labor organizations who either owed him favors or generally thought he was a good guy and one of them. That’s how he got those union endorsements in his first run.
And then, of course, he set about destroying unions in this country, starting with the air traffic controllers.
Roger Moore
@MikeJ:
She was also a bigot, which was what got her banned when she went too far over the line. I agree with Yatsuno above that as annoying and wrongheaded as she sometimes was, she was expressing her honest beliefs and engaged in a real attempt to convince people she was right. That puts her in a different category from the real trolls, and I never felt a need to pie her. And say what you will about
the tenets of National Socialismher, she had Freddie de Boer’s number faster than anyone.gbear
@Yatsuno: @imonlylurking: @the Conster: I posted a comment about the meetup in the last open thread. I’m embarrassed that I forgot some names.
Roger Moore
@Yatsuno:
It doesn’t matter. Nothing that’s happened since Appomattox has been legitimate, so none of those fakey-jake Amendments with numbers higher than 12 are valid. Also, too, there shouldn’t be a separate “West” Virginia, or any of the other states admitted since Kansas.
fuckwit
@Bruce S:
THIS THIS THIS THIS!
We still don’t have a living wage for low-wage workers, and unemployment is worse. Wow.
What can I do to support the fast-food/retail strikers on Thursday, Aug 29th?
eemom
k, I recognize it is totally uncool amongst the new Thread Civility zeitgeist we got going on, but just to set the record straight: if Cassidy “self-deported”, he did it because Cole was a total asshole to him for not falling in line behind Cole’s “All Pitbulls Must Die” meme…..which plenty of y’all sheep-bleaters in turn fell right behind Cole in doing.
Similar, though lesser in degree, is what’s gone on against Cacti on this thread.
But hey, it’s just the wingnuts who suffer from groupthink mob mentality.
WTFev. Carry on with yer pleasant Saturday evening bullshit, I’m out.
MikeJ
@eemom: Actually I was out ahead of Cole on that one. Ever since the owners of the pit that attacked my dad hid it two towns over, allowed it to get free and put a little girl in the hospital.
Bruce S
@fuckwit:
https://www.facebook.com/LowPayIsNotOk
Here’s the facebook page – but I don’t see a place to plug in zip codes to find out what’s going on in your area. Can probably google something. I got info from ACCE in the East Bay.
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: Yeah, Cole was an asshole personally and directly to Cassidy in a front page post. Quite honestly, it was pretty fucking inexcusable. That doesn’t mean Cacti wasn’t being an unwarranted asshole here in this thread. I don’t mind people being assholes. I mind when people are assholes for no real reason.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
A small difference but I believe that Cole apologized for his, if I remember correctly, drunken, mad at the world, just lost his cat to one rant. Doesn’t make it right but I think it does take it out of the inexcusable area. I don’t agree with him on the pit bull thing but given the overall circumstances of that day had I been in his shoes I probably would have done the same. As would many here. A very emotion charged evening that was. Not many people genuinely apologize for so many things in a public forum and for that reason, I give him a pass.
Suzanne
I miss FourLoko. I mean, she was quite honestly admittedly crazyballs, and a bigot, and repetitive as all fuck, and needed a life away from the Internet, and nowhere near as smart as she thought she was, and she was immature the way the Pope is Catholic…..but nonetheless she amused me. Yes, I miss taunting her. I’ll admit it. It was like poking badgers with spoons.
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, Cole went off on Cassidy, and I understand if Cassidy decided he didn’t need this place anymore. I know Cole apologized in a subsequent post, and I hope he emailed him personally, but I know that when I’ve been on the receiving end of that kind of language, that bridge has been burned forever. Hell, not even my ex-husband ever called me that.
Anne Laurie
@imonlylurking: Just got home from dinner. If you or GBear or any of the participants wants to send me pics, I can front-page them tomorrow or Monday!
trollhattan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
What in the holy hell are they thinking?
When I stray into California’s rural zones I see more stars and bars than I like, but swastikas? Nope.
Or maybe they paroled Charlie Manson and I missed it.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Lived in Marin county CA for a few years. About 3 years ago I saw a jacked up 4×4 with an about 8 ft long stars and bars driving through town. Given that I recognized who was driving, not unexpected, but still, this is a county that votes about 80% democratic. CA may be a blue state but there are still plenty of assholes living here.
ETA I believe that Charlie and family will be state guests for some time to come.
Roger Moore
@BillinGlendaleCA:
They’d better not drive it to Fairfax, or keyed is the best they can expect to get.
Suzanne
@eemom: Do you ever do ANYTHING besides complain?
BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Really odd, since it was a new dark grey BMW, and this is a really diverse neighborhood. Being that it was where the license plate should be and the license was below it, could be a vehicle code violation.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Suzanne: No, SATSQ.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Are you suggesting that someone might burn that to the ground?
Probably not connected or relevant but Bill did say it was a BMW.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore:
Whacked with a walker?
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
I think she’s been known to insult and get into pissing matches, so it’s not 100% complaining.
Bruce S
I think that AL’s posting of that critique of the 1963 MOW organizers from the perspective of SNCC female firebagger Gloria Richardson is clear evidence she hates Martin Luther King
(People like Cacti are the Dem “stalwart” equivalents of ridiculous single-minded asses on the left like Noam Chomsky – too fucking stupid to deal w/ political complexities, stuck in zero-sum binaries and steeped in self-regard.)
Suzanne
@Roger Moore: That’s true. I’ve seen her make some truly virulent anti-fat comments and engage in name-calli, so I suppose she does indeed change it up. Variety is the spice of life.
eemom
@Suzanne:
sweetie, is there anything in life that interests you beyond fat-or-not?
Cuz when you’re not talking about my Chris Christie comments from 2+ years ago, you’re regaling us all with details of your diet and weight loss. Which is so very fascinating.
Ted & Hellen
@gbear:
You don’t have to.
You can stop coming here, you maroon.
BillinGlendaleCA
@eemom:
I believe that Suzanne is interested in dirt, I mean soil.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@lamh36: thank you for that, I just set my DVR to record it.
dww44
@Bruce S: Thanks for posting this. I really enjoyed it. Another of the first person stories from that era that I’ve had the pleasure of reading and hearing the last few days. Actually got a lot from the CNN special last evening that was chock full of first person accounts of those who did the organizing and attending. Interviewed John Lewis about his speech that got edited in the last few minutes before he gave it.
kc
@Bruce S:
I just read the Richardson interview. Meh, more white people problems.
/sarcasm
Suzanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: And pit bulls. Don’t forget how much I love to talk about pit bulls.
Omnes Omnibus
Christ, this thread makes me want to say fuck all of you. Seriously, bringing up every petty grievance against other commenters that has come up over the past two years? WTF? I especially love that a thread on the March on Washington descended into this. Go to the box for two minutes by yourself and feel shame.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Balloon Juice seems to go through these pissy phases every so often, usually when there’s no issue sufficiently large (or clear-cut) to act as a lightning rod. I used to think it was just me getting bored with the blog and needing a timeout, but now I think it’s an objective phenomenon. Maybe a periodically required cleansing thing, like expressing the blog’s anal glands. Icky but necessary.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (tablet): Well, you are dead wrong.
Click the link. You will like it.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s great. Wonder where they got the old footage. It is old, isn’t it? If it’s not, that’s world-class mise-en-scene.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (tablet): Don’t know about the vid. I heard the guy for the first time a couple of months ago. The album came out in 2011 and I am pissed that I did not know about it. This is my fav. The song is stunning.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
And the singer’s gang’s name would have to be the Pharaohs. I’d like to be in that gang, especially if I could drive the big round car.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think I saw a live clip by him a while ago, and I was kind of meh, but this stuff is primo. Right in my meta-rockabilly wheelhouse. Thanks. I will ignore all the ways you have failed me in this blog. Until the next cleansing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (tablet): Failed you? I have given you this more than once.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: @Steeplejack (tablet): And to be a complete dick, I will post this in honor of PVT Manning.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
That is true. Probably as close as I’ll get to go-go dancers in this debased age.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (tablet): Come the revolution, we will fix this. I hope.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I had a 12- or 13-year-old kid come into B&N once and ask me about a CD by “Fratellis” (rhymes with “trellis”). Took great pains to clue him in without crushing his fragile budding hipsterness. “Okay, let’s see. Frampton, Frankie Loves Hollywood—ah, the Fratellees! Here you go!” Like he could dismiss me as clueless old guy but maybe he should check when he got home just to make sure.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s high on my list, I know that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (tablet): Diplomacy is an undervalued skill. Believe me, I know. But I have gone here.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I am at a disadvantage, since it is torture to link music on the tablet. Plus I am feeling a bit fragile myself after getting no love at all in the “Commercial Break” thread. Nothing. It was positively Little Boots-y, if you know what I mean, and I know that you do.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (tablet): Cool. Talk to you later.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Okay. I’m out.
A Humble Lurker
@Ruckus:
Did he actually? Where was it? (I’m not being snarky, I missed it and want to see.)
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yes!
raven
@Ruckus: It’s doubly hard when you don’t know how old they are. A number of vets have guessed Lil Bit’s age but we really have no idea.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@A Humble Lurker: I think this qualifies.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
gogol's wife
@Cacti:
That’s really not fair.
Plantsmantx
@Cacti:
If Barack Obama were the be-and-end-all of Black America, you might have a point, but he’s not the be-and-end-all of Black America.