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You are here: Home / Obama in South Africa

Obama in South Africa

by Tom Levenson|  December 10, 20139:53 am| 138 Comments

This post is in: Rare Sincerity, Stuff About Black People Written By a Black Person

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Here’s President Obama speaking earlier today at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service:

A beautiful, powerful speech, in my ever-humble opinion.  It was fully fitting too, I think, for Obama to make a veiled, but perfectly intelligible political demand late in the speech.  As he said, Mandela was no marble bust; rather, he was a powerful, tough, smart leader of a struggle,”the last great liberator of the 20th century.”  And, again, as Obama said, that struggle has achieved great triumphs — but yet has a long road to go.

One more thing.  Unsurprisingly, Ta-Nehisi Coates nails it on the need to pierce the glow of fond Mandela remembrances to recall those who did all they could during Mandela’s life  to ensure that his struggle would fail. TNC also reminds us that such foul behavior was not inevitable, and not the inevitable choice for American conservatives back in the day.  Which is to say that those, like William Buckley (and many others) who came down on the side of white supremacy could have acted otherwise and didn’t, to theirs and their heirs lasting shame.

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Reader Interactions

138Comments

  1. 1.

    Cervantes

    December 10, 2013 at 9:54 am

    Their shame?

  2. 2.

    MattF

    December 10, 2013 at 10:01 am

    Despite all the excuses and the denials, racism is the tell. Come the day when ‘conservatism’ in this country isn’t infected with racism… but I’m not holding my breath.

  3. 3.

    Mike in NC

    December 10, 2013 at 10:04 am

    Which wingnut hack will focus on the cost of Obama’s trip to South Africa (neglecting to note that our ex-presidents are traveling there, too)?

  4. 4.

    Wag

    December 10, 2013 at 10:06 am

    “Which wingnut hack will focus on the cost of Obama’s trip to South Africa”

    Cue Jennifer Rubin in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…’

    Where are my buttons for block quoting?

  5. 5.

    cleek

    December 10, 2013 at 10:06 am

    i love the “He Was A Terrorist!” complaint. i really do.
    i love it because it comes out of the mouths of the same clowns who think The Tree Of Liberty’s thirst for blood justifies their gun hoarding and the violence implied therein.

    but apparently they don’t have Liberty Trees in Africa.

  6. 6.

    Fuzzy

    December 10, 2013 at 10:09 am

    It must be human nature that everyone must feel superior to some group whether by sex, nationality, color or whatever and the idea of an “inferior” having a higher place on the ladder of life cannot be tolerated. We all see it everywhere starting with our own families.

  7. 7.

    Cassidy

    December 10, 2013 at 10:10 am

    @cleek: Real ‘Mericans can never be terrists. Only brown ferinners can be terrists. No, they’re freedom fighters driving there armored scooters to victory.

  8. 8.

    Cassidy

    December 10, 2013 at 10:11 am

    @Fuzzy: It is human nature. We’re pack animals.

  9. 9.

    wilfred

    December 10, 2013 at 10:14 am

    Cornel West calls it the Santa Clausification of Mandela. Counterpunch has a nice article on the politics of the man, and the suppression of same in the name of pablum, particularly in regard to another apartheid state:

    http://www.counterpunch.org/

  10. 10.

    Bostondreams

    December 10, 2013 at 10:17 am

    So now some of my more conservative friends are complaining that Obama went to South Africa for Mandela but not to Gettysburg for the 150th anniversary. Sigh. Guy can’t win.

  11. 11.

    Cacti

    December 10, 2013 at 10:17 am

    @cleek:

    i love it because it comes out of the mouths of the same clowns who think The Tree Of Liberty’s thirst for blood justifies their gun hoarding and the violence implied therein.

    But the natural state of Africans is one of servitude. That’s why it’s wrong for them to want freedom. If the whites are in charge, it can’t be oppression, as that’s the way white Jesus made the world. That’s why the existence of a POTUS of African ancestry vexes them so. It forces them to confront a number of things they were taught to believe about themselves.

  12. 12.

    burnspbesq

    December 10, 2013 at 10:17 am

    Ultimately, if you win, you’re a “freedom fighter,” and if you lose, you’re a “terrorist.” Mandela won. Case closed. Just another real-world example of “history is written by the winners.”

  13. 13.

    Marc

    December 10, 2013 at 10:18 am

    Kos has the clip for those of you who don’t want to see somebody’s pleading linkbait plastered across the president’s face:

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/10/1261597/-President-Obama-s-remarks-at-funeral-of-Nelson-Mandela

  14. 14.

    burnspbesq

    December 10, 2013 at 10:20 am

    Tom:

    to theirs and their heirs lasting shame.

    Oh, so we’re into corruption of blood now? I thought somebody’s ancestors (not mine; my ancestors were still in Donegal in 1775) fought a war once upon a time to get rid of shit like that.

  15. 15.

    Betty Cracker

    December 10, 2013 at 10:22 am

    @burnspbesq: I took that to mean the current crop of hacks producing dreck under the National Review banner.

  16. 16.

    Joel

    December 10, 2013 at 10:22 am

    @burnspbesq: Hassan al-Turabi won in Sudan, and no one here is calling him a freedom fighter or comparing him to Mandela, nor should they.

  17. 17.

    Cacti

    December 10, 2013 at 10:24 am

    @burnspbesq:

    Oh, so we’re into corruption of blood now? I thought somebody’s ancestors (not mine; my ancestors were still in Donegal in 1775) fought a war once upon a time to get rid of shit like that.

    How dare you speak ill of Dimestore J. Taxlawyer, Esq.’s clients!

  18. 18.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    December 10, 2013 at 10:24 am

    @Betty Cracker: As did I; it was a rhetorical use of “heirs” in my view.

  19. 19.

    White Trash Liberal

    December 10, 2013 at 10:25 am

    @burnspbesq:

    I read heir to mean those who adopt the same beliefs and thinking as their forebears.

    The heirs of Buckley at NR continue to champion white exceptionalism.

  20. 20.

    burnspbesq

    December 10, 2013 at 10:25 am

    @wilfred:

    If you think that’s a “nice article,” I can only conclude that you and I have very different standards. I saw a nothing-slider (a bite-size nothing-burger).

  21. 21.

    Petorado

    December 10, 2013 at 10:28 am

    @Fuzzy: Yeah, humans seem to have an innate tribal sense that may have served its purpose when Homo Sapiens were competing against Neanderthals, but it’s diminished in its beneficial purpose in this day and age. It’s a baser human instinct that’s the root of all hatred, leading to unnecessary death and suffering in the tribes rather than perpetuating survival. The proto-brain notion that all of life is a zero sum game has yet to be conquered by the frontal lobe’s reasoning that cooperation can achieve greater success. It’s all the conservatives have right now, and hopefully will be their undoing.

  22. 22.

    Belafon

    December 10, 2013 at 10:28 am

    @burnspbesq: I believe Irving Kristol’s son has carried the banner on quite well.

  23. 23.

    burnspbesq

    December 10, 2013 at 10:29 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I took that to mean the current crop of hacks producing dreck under the National Review banner.

    And my point (which appears to have evaded pretty much everybody) was about judging people on the merits of their own work, without resorting to short-cuts like damning them for the sins of those who came before them.

  24. 24.

    Belafon

    December 10, 2013 at 10:32 am

    @burnspbesq: Yeah, and Tom’s point seemed to me to be that the heirs, rather than distinguishing themselves, have chosen to follow in their parents footsteps. They are both complicit.

    Are you auditioning for Tom’s troll? I don’t think he’s really had one.

  25. 25.

    Marc

    December 10, 2013 at 10:33 am

    @burnspbesq: And it would be that work that makes them the political heirs to Buckley and other advocates of apartheid.

    Everybody else seems to have interpreted Tom’s comment correctly; maybe your point isn’t the one that’s being evaded here?

  26. 26.

    Baud

    December 10, 2013 at 10:33 am

    @burnspbesq:

    These are not your father’s Nazis. ;-)

  27. 27.

    Knight of Nothing

    December 10, 2013 at 10:34 am

    TNC delivers praise where praise is due, I suppose, but Gingrich is an odd figure, ain’t he?

  28. 28.

    burnspbesq

    December 10, 2013 at 10:35 am

    @Belafon:

    Bill Kristol is a dangerous idiot because he’s an idiot with access to people who may someday once again be in positions of power. The fact that he’s Irv’s son is (at most) tangentially relevant.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    December 10, 2013 at 10:36 am

    @burnspbesq: The shame handed down from Buckley to the current crop of NRO hacks stems from their attempt to continue the old troglodyte’s enterprise under new terms. It’s not some literal blood guilt or intellectual stain inherited independently of their own output, as everyone but you seems to immediately grasp.

  30. 30.

    hitchhiker

    December 10, 2013 at 10:38 am

    I’ve been listening to Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible, set in what was then called the Congo. I’m at the part where the country has declared itself independent and elected a former prisoner named Patrice Lumumba as its president.

    Soon, I know, the CIA and the Brits and the Belgians will arrange to have him taken out in front of a firing squad, just days before JFK was inaugurated.

    Can’t help thinking how things might have been different, if Lumumba had lived or if Mandela had not. Both of them were called communists, in large part because the west wanted to keep the status quo.

  31. 31.

    Cassidy

    December 10, 2013 at 10:39 am

    Odds are, if we go ahead and whack the children of conservatives, we’d be doing the world a favor.

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    December 10, 2013 at 10:39 am

    @cleek:

    but apparently they don’t have Liberty Trees in Africa.

    American Exceptionalism!

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    December 10, 2013 at 10:40 am

    @hitchhiker: Poisonwood Bible is one of my favorite books ever.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    December 10, 2013 at 10:42 am

    I will repeat myself again since the “Santa Clausification” is driving me nuts, too: yes, Mandela forgave his enemies, but only AFTER those enemies had made a full and complete confession of their crimes. Forgiveness was not free.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    December 10, 2013 at 10:42 am

    @Cassidy:

    Wouldn’t that make us conservative?

    I mean, you don’t kill zombies by trying to eat their brains.

  36. 36.

    Ash Can

    December 10, 2013 at 10:43 am

    @Cassidy: Enough, already. You’re over the line with this.

  37. 37.

    handsmile

    December 10, 2013 at 10:43 am

    @wilfred:

    Thanks for the link to Counterpunch and the insightful article that first appears there, “Madiba in Palestine.” Useful to consider/compare the struggles against apartheid in both South Africa and Palestine.

    Its co-author, Robin D.G. Kelley, is a brilliant young American historian now at UCLA whose scholarship has focused upon African-American history and culture. His 2009 book, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original is the single best biography I’ve read of any jazz musician. (The first volume of Stanley Crouch’s long-awaited biography of Charlie Parker is a hoped-for Christmas present.)

  38. 38.

    Tom Levenson

    December 10, 2013 at 10:47 am

    @Betty Cracker: Burnsie does try hard to misread stuff, doesn’t he?

    Burnspbesq: it’s an old tool of honest argument to read your opponents in the best reasonable light, and respond to that. As everyone here except you seems to have grasped without much difficulty, Buckley’s heirs in the sense above are his intellectual (sic) and political heirs, who , as many have noted, inhabit the core of modern conservatism.

    To put it so the meanest understanding may grasp it: in the sense above, Christopher Buckley is not William’s heir. Those who praise Mandela, now safely dead, while attacking voting rights here at home…those folks are the legatees in question.

    IOW, Burnsie, try harder.

  39. 39.

    wilfred

    December 10, 2013 at 10:51 am

    @handsmile:

    You’re welcome. I’d like call attention to one sentence in particular:

    “Finally, the experience of the anti-apartheid movement’s academic boycott has a great deal to teach us as we debate the decision on the part of the American Studies Association to support the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions (not individuals).”

    As a member of the Association, I support the boycott. I would ask other academics, at least the ones who voice support for Nelson Mandela’s politics, to do the same.

  40. 40.

    Cassidy

    December 10, 2013 at 10:51 am

    @Baud: I don’t think that’d make us conservative. We’d bemusing foresight and logic to end the disease of conservatism. They don’t know what those words mean.

    @Ash Can: Line? We don’t have no stinkin’ lines!

  41. 41.

    Bobby Thomson

    December 10, 2013 at 10:53 am

    @burnspbesq:

    And my point (which appears to have evaded pretty much everybody) was about judging people on the merits of their own work, without resorting to short-cuts like damning them for the sins of those who came before them.

    Your point was a non sequitur. No one was talking about the sins of the father being visited upon his biological children.

  42. 42.

    Chris

    December 10, 2013 at 10:54 am

    @hitchhiker:

    I often wonder that about Iran, a few years before Lumumba.

  43. 43.

    aimai

    December 10, 2013 at 10:55 am

    @burnspbesq: Too literal. The Heirs of Buckley are not his children but his employees.

  44. 44.

    aimai

    December 10, 2013 at 10:58 am

    @burnspbesq: Actually, of course, Kristol’s nepotism in promoting his son is part of his son’s success. Their role as conservative cheerleaders is a literal family business.

  45. 45.

    Chris

    December 10, 2013 at 11:01 am

    @wilfred:

    I was at an ISA conference a few weeks ago where I was one of the only people who sat in on a panel of Palestinian activists – what I found interesting was that every one of them pretty much accepted that the two-state solution was a crock and was pushing for civil rights a la Mandela, same as that article you linked.

    I mean, I’ve pretty much accepted that the two-state solution is just smoke and mirrors, but didn’t realize that the sentiment was gaining weight among Palestinian activists too. The notion of a homeland’s not an easy thing to give up.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    December 10, 2013 at 11:01 am

    @Cassidy:

    We’d bemusing foresight and logic to end the disease of conservatism. They don’t know what those words mean.

    I don’t know what those words mean, at least as you’ve used them.

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:03 am

    I’m sure the Village is outraged that the crowd at FNB Stadium went nuts when Barack and Michelle were put up on the jumbotron.

    I’m certain that the teabagger filth is outraged.

  48. 48.

    drkrick

    December 10, 2013 at 11:04 am

    @burnspbesq: Except that Bill would not have access to those potentially powerful people without Irv’s tireless deployment of his influence to get Bill educational and job opportunities he wouldn’t have gotten on his on. All while denouncing affirmative action for genuinely disadvantaged people because it violated meritocracy.

  49. 49.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:07 am

    @burnspbesq:

    And my point (which appears to have evaded pretty much everybody) was about judging people on the merits of their own work, without resorting to short-cuts like damning them for the sins of those who came before them.

    When the whose uterus did you come out of “meritocracy” in this country is abolished, and dimwitted dogshit like the deserting coward are installed in their rightful places as night assistant managers of Burger Kings.

    “Sins of the Father” Is a useful tool in a society where position is inherited, not earned by deeds. We are in such a society right now. Liz Cheney should be hanging from the next lamppost as her vile sire, the Dark Lord.

    It’s time to take out the trash.

  50. 50.

    ThresherK

    December 10, 2013 at 11:09 am

    Reminds me of how much Muhammad Ali was loved at the ’96 Olympics by people who thought he was a public enemy in the ’60s.

    Except I’m too young to remember Ali as a public menace, but do remember Mandela before he was “safe” to admire.

  51. 51.

    Hill Dweller

    December 10, 2013 at 11:09 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I’m sure the Village is outraged that the crowd at FNB Stadium went nuts when Barack and Michelle were put up on the jumbotron.

    Judging from my brief perusal of cable, they’re more obsessed with PO shaking Raul Castro’s hand.

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 10, 2013 at 11:13 am

    @Belafon: I think even Irving was a bit ruefully nonplussed by his son’s promotion of Palin, and without defending the vile old racist Buckley, at one of the last NRO cruises he participated in, his Loyalty to the Cause was being questioned n whispers

  53. 53.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:14 am

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    Mandela forgave his enemies, but only AFTER those enemies had made a full and complete confession of their crimes.

    Which is why Darth Cheney will never be forgiven. He’s proud of his crimes.

  54. 54.

    Cassidy

    December 10, 2013 at 11:16 am

    @Baud: stupid autocorrect. Be using….

    Sarcasm, my man, sarcasm.

  55. 55.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:16 am

    @drkrick:

    DING DING DING DING DING.

    Wipe these aristocrat wannabes out. All of them.

  56. 56.

    Cacti

    December 10, 2013 at 11:17 am

    @burnspbesq:

    And my point (which appears to have evaded pretty much everybody) was about judging people on the merits of their own work, without resorting to short-cuts like damning them for the sins of those who came before them.

    When we live in a society free of racial privilege, ethnic privilege, gender privilege, cronyism, and nepotism, your meritocracy argument might hold a thimble of water, counselor.

    In the meantime, in the society we actually live in, the strongest predictor of one’s future status is the socioeconomic status of one’s parents.

  57. 57.

    Lurking Canadian

    December 10, 2013 at 11:17 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: well, to be fair, that’s for her own crimes, not Daddy’s, right?

  58. 58.

    Baud

    December 10, 2013 at 11:18 am

    @Hill Dweller:

    FWIW

    “@davidplouffe: Castro handshake faux outrage on right ridiculous in own right. But don’t forget Obama carried Cuban vote in FL. The politics are changing.”

  59. 59.

    Cacti

    December 10, 2013 at 11:19 am

    @handsmile:

    Thanks for the link to Counterpunch and the insightful article that first appears there, “Madiba in Palestine.” Useful to consider/compare the struggles against apartheid in both South Africa and Palestine.

    No coincidence that Netanyahu backed out of going to Mandela’s memorial service.

  60. 60.

    Cassidy

    December 10, 2013 at 11:20 am

    Fuck it. Wall off Texas and deport all conservatives their and let them go at it Hunger Games style.

  61. 61.

    handsmile

    December 10, 2013 at 11:20 am

    @Hill Dweller:

    Yes, it would appear (from the frequent replayings of that two-second exchange) that the Village media has decided that Obama’s handshake with Raul Castro, obligatorily identified as the “Communist leader of Cuba,” was the most important moment of Mandela’s funeral service this morning.

    In addition to cable television’s regurgitations, it is now the lead story at the NBC News website:

    http://www.nbcnews.com/

  62. 62.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:22 am

    @Knight of Nothing:

    Suddenly, Gingrich is trying to recant his own words, because, heaven forefend, he’s wandered into the dare-to-question-the-shitty-grade-Z-movie-star penumbra as he hails Nelson Mandela, because Reagan led the charge against the ANC and Mandela in the 80’s, along with the Wicked Witch of Albion.

    The teatards are outraged that any homage at all is paid to a “terrorist”, a “communist” and an obvious ni*CLANG*.

  63. 63.

    handsmile

    December 10, 2013 at 11:23 am

    @Cacti:

    None whatsoever. Though I imagine it would have been nice for him to see his good friends, the Bush family.

  64. 64.

    Cacti

    December 10, 2013 at 11:24 am

    So, how long until the patron saint of the front pagers calls South Africans a bunch of cultists for their thunderous ovation of the Obamas?

  65. 65.

    Roger Moore

    December 10, 2013 at 11:24 am

    @aimai:

    Actually, of course, Kristol’s nepotism in promoting his son is part of his son’s success.

    Almost all of it, in fact. Does anyone think Kristol the Lesser would have any political influence if not for his dad?

  66. 66.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    December 10, 2013 at 11:28 am

    The whole Mandela backlash shit is disgusting for all the undertones they carry, and oh there are so many.

    1) Once a “communist” always a “communist” (it doesn’t matter if you actually WERE one, just that you could be generously labeled as one
    2) All “communist” are always evil, therefore if you were once a ‘communist’ you can never be forgiven
    3) Similarly ‘once a ‘terrorist’, always a ‘terrorist”, with the same tone of eternal grudge and impossible penance.
    4) And of course, the undertone of ‘he proved darkies can’t be trusted with power’. All the ‘S. Africa is even more corrupt/divided/unequal/etc. than ever since that superracist Mandela!’

  67. 67.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:29 am

    ZOMG! Obama did the polite, proper, diplomatic, and APPROPRIATE thing and shook Raul Castro’s hand!

    You’d think they’d immediately left to get a room or something.

    The VIllage is a wasteland in the figurative and intellectual senses, It needs to be made a wasteland in the physical sense.

  68. 68.

    Roger Moore

    December 10, 2013 at 11:29 am

    @Cassidy:

    Wall off Texas and deport all conservatives their and let them go at it Hunger Games style.

    Hell no! We should use an uninhabited island much smaller than Texas. That way, if they somehow manage to avoid killing each other off, rising sea level from global warming will do the job for us.

  69. 69.

    Cacti

    December 10, 2013 at 11:29 am

    @Roger Moore:

    Almost all of it, in fact. Does anyone think Kristol the Lesser would have any political influence if not for his dad?

    Or as Ira Katznelson recalled from a lunch conversation he had with Irving Kristol:

    “The talk turned to William Kristol, then Dan Quayle’s chief of staff, and how he got his start in politics. Irving recalled how he talked to his friend Harvey Mansfield at Harvard, who secured William a place there as both an undergrad and graduate student; how he talked to Pat Moynihan, then Nixon’s domestic policy adviser, and got William an internship at the White House; how he talked to friends at the RNC [Republican National Committee] and secured a job for William after he got his Harvard Ph.D.; and how he arranged with still more friends for William to teach at Penn and the Kennedy School of Government.

    “With that, Prof. Katznelson recalled, he then asked Irving what he thought of affirmative action. ‘I oppose it,’ Irving replied. ‘It subverts meritocracy.’ “

  70. 70.

    gelfling545

    December 10, 2013 at 11:36 am

    @burnspbesq: I presume their political heir, not heirs of the body.

  71. 71.

    jl

    December 10, 2013 at 11:39 am

    For some reason I woke up very early and turned on the radio just as Obama was giving his speech. It was an inspiring speech, and I couldn’t go to sleep afterwards since I was thinking about some of the lines and themes. The crowd reaction was inspiring.

    It would have been nice to hear some of the other speeches, and I guess I will have to look for them on the internet.

    I could turn the radio off, since most of the talk was nonsense about what the handshake between Castro and Obama meant. It meant about the same as the fact that Biden didn’t spit in the eye of the Chinese officials on his trip, or Hillary didn’t kick the last French cheese eating surrender monkey diplomat she met in the crotch. That is, it meant nothing, so of course it was more important to talk about than the memorial.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    December 10, 2013 at 11:42 am

    Thank you for posting this speech.

    One of the best I have heard.

    I am going to ignore the carnival sideshow and anything negative our professional journalists have to say.

    That is one of my takeaways from this powerful speech.

    (Who’s to say Michele and Obama won’t fistbump over a martini and white wine tonight, laughing at what the US press chose to cover of an extremely moving day.)

  73. 73.

    geg6

    December 10, 2013 at 11:43 am

    @cleek:

    Yup, that’s the hypocrisy that just kills me, too.

    I loved hearing the crowd go nuts both when the Obamas taking their seats were on the big screen in the stadium and when he went up to give his eulogy. Just screaming their heads off, those wonderful South Africans were.

  74. 74.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:44 am

    @jl:

    To be fair, they need to talk about SOMETHING, and that SOMETHING needs to be the one that gathers the most eyeballs without being too far removed from actual reality, so Obama’s intercourse handjob with Castro is just the ticket for ratings whoring Villagers.

  75. 75.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 10, 2013 at 11:46 am

    Bill Hemmer is apparently saying that Obama “dishonored” Mandela’s memory by shaking hands with Raoul Castro

    visited Cuba to express his gratitude, calling Castro’s Revolution “a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people.”
    “We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of a vicious, imperialist-orchestrated campaign,” Mandela said during the visit, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We, too, want to control our own destiny.”
    During a public event in Havana, Mandela asked Castro to visit South Africa.
    “Who trained our people, who gave us resources, who helped so many of our soldiers, our doctors?” Mandela said. “You have not come to our country — when are you coming?” […]
    Despite protest from Cuban Americans and criticism from those who pointed to human rights abuses in Cuba, Castro and Mandela continued their warm relationship, with Mandela saying he wouldn’t turn his back on those who had opposed apartheid. Castro took Mandela up on his offer to visit in 1994, when he traveled to attend Mandela’s inauguration as South Africa’s first black president

    Of course, Hemmer could say Mandela kept a picture of Ronald Reagan on his bedside table and no one on his network would contradict him and half his audience would believe it

  76. 76.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:47 am

    @Elizabelle:

    professional journalists

    Needs rabbit ears and spelling modifications

    “professional” journamalists

    There. All better!

  77. 77.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:50 am

    @Cacti:

    The lack of awareness of what he was saying is perfectly normal for types like Kristol.

    This is a man, incidentally, who would have been rejected outright decades ago solely on the basis of his religion and ethnicity.

  78. 78.

    elmo

    December 10, 2013 at 11:51 am

    Not only are the RWNJs screaming and flinging poo at Newt Gingrich and Ted Cruz, they’re also full of praise for Snowbilly Snooki for failing to say anything about Mandela since he died. This is, of course, part of her absolute political genius, as is her new reality show on the Sportsman channel.

  79. 79.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    December 10, 2013 at 11:52 am

    @elmo:

    You’re assuming Palin is actually aware of somebody named Mandela in a country called South Africa…

  80. 80.

    MattF

    December 10, 2013 at 11:56 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s been pointed out that the politics of US-Cuba relations are changing, so a ruckus over an Obama/Castro handshake could well be a sign of right-wing anxiety about the change.

    And, to be explicit about it, what’s so bad about detente between the US and Cuba? Fidel is out of the picture, Raul Castro appears to be at least as rational as any Caribbean leader– so–…

  81. 81.

    Gene108

    December 10, 2013 at 11:56 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Without the Internet available to mock the media for their stupidity, Obama would be stuck trying to answer to these idiots like Clinton had to.

    Real time mockery of these morons is a blessing for our Democracy.

  82. 82.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    December 10, 2013 at 11:56 am

    @MattF:

    Is Cuba any worse than say, China?

  83. 83.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 10, 2013 at 11:58 am

    @Cervantes: Sad to say they have no shame, huh? Oh well.

  84. 84.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 11:58 am

    @Certified Mutant Enemy:

    Or, for that matter, the apartheid state of Israel?

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    December 10, 2013 at 12:01 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: That’s “professional” as in oldest profession.

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    intercourse handjob with Castro is just the ticket for ratings whoring Villagers.

    props for getting all of that into one line. Intercourse, ratings, whoring, Villagers.

  86. 86.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 10, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    @Certified Mutant Enemy: Perfect question. China has “most favored nation” status with the US, which provides it with preferential trade/financial access to the American market. Yet China has a horrible human rights record and is a fully communist country. How is Communist Cuba worst than Communist China in any meaningful sense? The hypocrisy is galling.

  87. 87.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 10, 2013 at 12:03 pm

    @MattF: Maybe it’s a function of age/generation (and at 46, I still sometimes have to remind myself that the 80s were a long fucking time ago), but Beltway CW is often shockingly outdated. I always said that David Broder was trapped in a Nixon-less 1973, and people spoke with great seriousness of impact of “Reagan Democrats” as late as 2008.

  88. 88.

    handsmile

    December 10, 2013 at 12:04 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    That moral arc of the universe does bring along some unpleasant creatures, just as an earlier ark brought along mosquitoes.

  89. 89.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 10, 2013 at 12:05 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Does Bill Hemmer know that President Mandela and the Castro brothers were close friends and allies?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tNF0YkRQjM

    Sometimes I wonder if people get paid extra to play dumb.

  90. 90.

    Botsplainer

    December 10, 2013 at 12:06 pm

    Query – wonder what America would look like now had the views of White Christian Conservatives prevailed in the era from 1940-1965?

  91. 91.

    Roger Moore

    December 10, 2013 at 12:07 pm

    @MattF:

    And, to be explicit about it, what’s so bad about detente between the US and Cuba?

    Some people are stuck in the 1960s and assume that if it was bad in the 1960s it must still be bad today. You know, the kind of people who talk about the Soviet threat and Obama dissing Czechoslovakia.

  92. 92.

    GregB

    December 10, 2013 at 12:07 pm

    @MattF:

    Cuba is an existential threat to Marci Rubio’s political career.

    The embargo must go on!

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    December 10, 2013 at 12:08 pm

    One has to remember how Bull Connor is remembered today. (He was a Democrat, FWIW.)

    And the architects of apartheid. Those for massive resistance in this country.

    The arc of justice turned. It sometimes took damn long for that to happen, but it did.

    Why ruin a perfectly good thread about Mandela — a man Obama says we will not see the likes of again in our lifetime; I am not so sure about that — talking about prattle by lesser and viler tiny minds?

    It’s entertaining, but it’s demeaning too.

  94. 94.

    Roger Moore

    December 10, 2013 at 12:09 pm

    @Certified Mutant Enemy:

    Is Cuba any worse than say, China?

    Yes. The Chinese revanchists mostly live in Taiwan and can’t vote in American elections, while the Cuban revanchists live in Miami and can.

  95. 95.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 10, 2013 at 12:10 pm

    @Elizabelle: Unfortunately, the prattle is hard to ignore but I understand your point. Thankfully, the prattle will not be remembered when we think about President Obama/President Mandela in future years.

  96. 96.

    Knight of Nothing

    December 10, 2013 at 12:10 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: is he now? I didn’t see that. Well, there it is then. I guess his feckless retreat must be the reason why TNC’s piece doesn’t portray the Gingrich I remember from those days or the days his abortive presidential bid.

    Thanks for clearing that up! Cheers.

  97. 97.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 12:10 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    To be very even handed, the problem with a “Soviet threat” is that it was, after all, just a redressing of the previous “Imperial Russian threat” (see “The Great Game” in Central Asia), and now, we’ve got a “Russian Federation threat” that is endangering our sovereignty over Santa Claus’ workshop.

    La plus ca change…

  98. 98.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 12:13 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Fortunately, they’re dying out, and most of their children have been assimilated into the collective, and really don’t give a rat’s ass about the lost peasants in Cuba.

  99. 99.

    MattF

    December 10, 2013 at 12:14 pm

    OT, but we’ve won one:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/us/politics/senate-democrats-filibuster-threat-gone-approve-appeals-court-nominee.html?hp&_r=0

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 10, 2013 at 12:17 pm

    Just saw on the MSNBC chyron that besides Obama being cheered, George W Bush was booed. ANd I’m small enough to chuckle at that.

    Also, too, while looking for confirmation, I found this

    CBS Picks Toto’s ‘Africa’ Instead Of South African Music To Remember Mandela (VIDEO)

    I will now go lie down for a couple of minutes.

  101. 101.

    catclub

    December 10, 2013 at 12:17 pm

    @MattF: 56 votes in favor. I will look up which republican.

  102. 102.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 12:20 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    What one forgets, and those on the right do so conveniently, is that prior to the defection of Strom Thurmond to the GOP, Rethugs could not get elected dog catcher in the South due to the GOP being the “Party of Lincoln”, the vile tyrant who launched a war of aggression against the peaceful plantation civilization that was the Confederacy.

    Thurmond opened up the gates to the mass migration of Dixiecrats to the GOP, away from the party of FDR, HST, JFK, and most certainly LBJ, the race traitor who made civil rights for darkies a reality, and ended Jim Crow.

  103. 103.

    MomSense

    December 10, 2013 at 12:23 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Sometimes I wonder if people get paid extra to play dumb.

    I often wonder about this while watching the “news”. Then I think that they could just be that dumb.

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne

    December 10, 2013 at 12:24 pm

    @MattF:

    Oh, New York Times. She was “forced through” by a 56-38 majority vote?

  105. 105.

    Davis X. Machina

    December 10, 2013 at 12:25 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    …people spoke with great seriousness of impact of “Reagan Democrats” as late as 2008.

    Still do. (Morning Joe, last week.) Even after it made the dictionary as a synonym for ‘dead guys..”

  106. 106.

    Chris

    December 10, 2013 at 12:25 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    How is Communist Cuba worst than Communist China in any meaningful sense?

    Communist China supplies our companies with dirt-cheap goods made by poorly paid, disenfranchised labor – Communist Cuba does not. It’s just good business. If Cuba continues to liberalize, i suspect you’re going to see more and more pushback against the right wing Cubanos in Miami from American business interests. These guys just want the money and access; they don’t care if the politician they buy off is a bearded guy in a uniform or a clean-shaven one in a guayabera.

    @Roger Moore:

    I feel like even then, the Chinese revanchists in Taiwan have calmed the fuck down in a way that the Cuban revanchists in Miami still haven’t, but I could be wrong.

  107. 107.

    Cervantes

    December 10, 2013 at 12:26 pm

    @wilfred: Thanks.

    The authors quote Mandela asking that we not “fall into the trap of washing our hands of difficulties that others face.” They should have quoted the full paragraph:

    The temptation in our situation is to speak in muffled tones about an issue such as the right of the people of Palestine to a state of their own. We can easily be enticed to read reconciliation and fairness as meaning parity between justice and injustice. Having achieved our own freedom, we can fall into the trap of washing our hands of difficulties that others face. Yet we would be less than human if we did so.

    (Emphasis mine.) Mandela chose to acknowledge the Africanness of the Afrikaner — not easy to do — but he demanded truth in return for that reconciliation. What are the prospects for Palestinians in this light?

  108. 108.

    geg6

    December 10, 2013 at 12:27 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    CBS Picks Toto’s ‘Africa’ Instead Of South African Music To Remember Mandela (VIDEO)

    Jeebus. Could they be any more tone deaf? If they insist on only white musicians to honor the memory of the most internationally famous and impactful African of the last forty years or so, they could have at least gone with something from Paul Simon’s Graceland album. Not that I think they should use either, but at least you’d have some semi-African music there and definitely some South African musicians, with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

    Kind of a sad day today, though the celebration of his life has been wonderful. I just keep thinking back. My first two big introductions to political activism were through the women’s movement (I’ll cry like a baby when Gloria passes away) and anti-apartheid. I spent few weeks every year I was in college camping out in the shanty town we built on the William Pitt Union lawn to protest Pitt’s South African investments. I was so idealistic then!

  109. 109.

    Cervantes

    December 10, 2013 at 12:28 pm

    @catclub: Murkowski and Collins.

  110. 110.

    Redshift

    December 10, 2013 at 12:28 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Thurmond opened up the gates to the mass migration of Dixiecrats to the GOP, away from the party of FDR, HST, JFK, and most certainly LBJ, the race traitor who made civil rights for darkies a reality, and ended Jim Crow.

    It always seems very weird to me that I grew up during this strange and anomalous period when we had “non-ideological” political parties, entirely because Southerners held a century-long grudge against Republicans. It’s also worthwhile to remember that this is the reason for the “bipartisan” era that all the pundits pine for, and believe is the natural state of America.

  111. 111.

    Chris

    December 10, 2013 at 12:29 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    All you need to remember about Strom Thurmond is his death. You know, when one of the biggest Republicans in Congress stood up and gushed that “when Thurmond ran for president, we supported him. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn”t have all these problems.”

    Forget Lee Atwater, that’s the single most damning response to any of that “but but but the KKK were DEMOCRATS!” bullshit.

  112. 112.

    scav

    December 10, 2013 at 12:30 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Even the hobbyist revanchists by proxy are getting a little white around the jowls and creaky. I’m utterly sure there are fans even now for Mattel’s LED-based Football game from the 70s but are they a solid and dedicated enough base for winning national elections?

  113. 113.

    elmo

    December 10, 2013 at 12:30 pm

    @Certified Mutant Enemy:

    No, nothing of the kind. I’m not, but I’m sure the RWNJs are.

  114. 114.

    Gypsy Howell

    December 10, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    @MattF:

    making her the first person to be forced through by Senate Democrats after they eliminated filibusters against executive branch nominees last month.

    Yes, they FORCED her through… By having a majority vote for her. Why does the NYT hate democracy?

  115. 115.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 12:32 pm

    @geg6:

    they could have at least gone with something from Paul Simon’s Graceland album.

    My first thought as well, but Toto’s “Africa” has the virtue, for the musically illiterate American masses, of being a big hit with the word “Africa” in it. While Graceland has the virtue of tapping into South Africa’s rich musical legacy, it’s not in your face “African” enough for mass consumption.

    It’s all about the ratings, and the familiar. Heaven forefend that television attempt to educate people. Bill Paley is revolving rapidly in his grave at the state of the very tarnished “Tiffany Network”.

  116. 116.

    Gypsy Howell

    December 10, 2013 at 12:32 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    You read it quicker than I did.

  117. 117.

    Yatsuno

    December 10, 2013 at 12:37 pm

    @geg6: Was “Pata Pata” not available either? A familiar song by a South African who also worked with Mandela?

  118. 118.

    scav

    December 10, 2013 at 12:37 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: It also shows up near the top when one types in a key-word search for appropriate music, so is a cost-saver!

  119. 119.

    MattF

    December 10, 2013 at 12:38 pm

    @Gypsy Howell: An oddity about the article– the byline is ‘THE NEW YORK TIMES.’

  120. 120.

    Belafon

    December 10, 2013 at 12:43 pm

    @Redshift: I’d be more than willing to continue hating on the Republicans in order to get some bills through Congress.

  121. 121.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 12:47 pm

    @Yatsuno:

    It’s certainly possible that a royalties/rights issue prevented that from being used, but frankly, I don’t think “Pata Pata” meets the “familiar to the American masses” test.

  122. 122.

    Gene108

    December 10, 2013 at 12:49 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    China, unlike Cuba, did not expropriate billions in assets of US firms.

    If Cuba paid Americans back for the loss, plus interest, the whole embargo could have been avoided.

  123. 123.

    Mnemosyne

    December 10, 2013 at 12:53 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Jaysus. They couldn’t at least pick some Paul Simon or Peter Gabriel that used actual South African musicians?

    I mean, I don’t expect them to use “Biko,” but have some fucking self-awareness, people.

  124. 124.

    Chyron HR

    December 10, 2013 at 12:53 pm

    @geg6:

    Wait, Toto isn’t a black group?

    Well, there’s smoke in the air
    And there’s blood everywhere
    And I’m hopin’ that the white man,
    He don’t recognize me.

  125. 125.

    Mnemosyne

    December 10, 2013 at 12:56 pm

    @Gypsy Howell:

    I read fast AND type fast. ;-)

  126. 126.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 10, 2013 at 12:57 pm

    @Gene108:

    You mean the way the newly formed United States of America paid back the Loyalists driven into Canada for their lost assets in the 13 colonies?

    Yes, by all means, we should maintain the boycott until the mafioso who invested so much legitimate capital into Cuba are compensated.

  127. 127.

    catclub

    December 10, 2013 at 1:02 pm

    @Cervantes: Two women senators only GOP votes to confirm. The GOP outreach to women continues its merry way.

  128. 128.

    Cervantes

    December 10, 2013 at 1:16 pm

    @catclub:

    The GOP outreach to women continues its merry way.

    Apparently they convinced Ayotte and Fischer — 50% — not too shabby.

    They must have appealed to them on an emotional level.

  129. 129.

    chopper

    December 10, 2013 at 1:54 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    jesus, that is the single whitest song ever written about africa.

  130. 130.

    WaterGIrl

    December 10, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: @chopper: That really is the single whitest song ever written about africa. It’s downright embarrassing.

    Chyron, Wikipedia shows a photo of the band from a concert (already closed the tab, but maybe 2010). Looks like 8 members of the band: 2 black men, 1 white woman, 5 white men. But that song sounds a lot like it could be a bee gees song, and it doesn’t get much whiter than that.

  131. 131.

    Jay C

    December 10, 2013 at 3:03 pm

    @Chris:

    I feel like even then, the Chinese revanchists in Taiwan have calmed the fuck down in a way that the Cuban revanchists in Miami still haven’t, but I could be wrong.

    Well, if, say, the non-Communist Cubans had fled to some small off-shore island, set up a rump government that claimed to be the “real” Republic Of Cuba, got the US to (implicitly) defend them, and spent the next several decades pushing that claim until economics and realpolitik got in the way: then, there might be a parallel.

    As it is, the Cuban “exiles” ended up as a localized pressure group/voting bloc in the US, instead, where the operations of democracy (real democracy, not the Cuban version) have given them an outsize voice in the direction of US/Cuban policy choices: and, since there really has been little downside (either for us or the Cubans) in maintaining the hostile status quo – we both get a handy boogeyman to rag on, and (most importantly), gthe US doesn;t have to get embroiled in Cuban affairs – not much os going to change until Fidel croaks. And maybe not even then.

  132. 132.

    Jay C

    December 10, 2013 at 3:06 pm

    PS: Balloon Juice still seems to be crashing Firefox on Mac for me (usually on comments) anybody else having probs?

    Crashes ONLY on BJ, ONLY on FF

  133. 133.

    wilfred

    December 10, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    @Cervantes:

    You’re welcome, and thank you for reading the article. In response to your question, in my opinion what made Mandela a great man was that he spoke truth to power and was willing to confront hypocrisy where he saw it, starting with himself. That’s the minimum a man should do.

    Boycott. Divest. Sanction.

  134. 134.

    Jebediah, RBG

    December 10, 2013 at 4:09 pm

    @Jay C:
    Yes. I have had it happen four times in the last hour or so.

    ETA Make that five.

  135. 135.

    Jebediah, RBG

    December 10, 2013 at 4:15 pm

    @Jebediah, RBG:

    Six.

  136. 136.

    Cervantes

    December 10, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    @wilfred:

    Boycott. Divest. Sanction.

    Depending on what you already know, this might interest you.

  137. 137.

    The Other Chuck

    December 10, 2013 at 6:40 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    While Graceland has the virtue of tapping into South Africa’s rich musical legacy, it’s not in your face “African” enough for mass consumption.

    What about Under African Skies?

    Ah screw it. Some famous Aussie dies, we’ll probably get treated to Men At Work. Bring on the Brawndo.

  138. 138.

    Cervantes

    December 10, 2013 at 6:51 pm

    @The Other Chuck: What about Under African Skies?

    Hey, at least they didn’t play this.

    As far as I know.

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