She’s a national treasure:
Trump Is a White Nationalist Who Inspires Terrorism – Don’t pretend his teleprompter speech changes anything.
Surrendering to political necessity, Trump gave a brief speech on Monday decrying white supremacist terror: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.” He read these words robotically from a teleprompter, much as he did after the racist riot in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, when, under pressure, he said, “Racism is evil — and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs.”
Back then, it took about a day for the awkward mask of minimal decency to drop; soon, he was ranting about the “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis. Nevertheless, on Monday some insisted on pretending that Trump’s words marked a turning point. “He really did set a different tone than he did in the past when it comes to condemning this hate,” said Weijia Jiang, White House correspondent for CBS News.
If history is any guide, it won’t be long before the president returns to tweeting racist invective and encouraging jingoist hatreds at his rallies. In the meantime, everyone should be clear that what Trump said on Monday wasn’t nearly enough. He has stoked right-wing violence and his administration has actively opposed efforts to fight it. Further, he’s escalating his incitement of racial grievance as he runs for re-election, as shown by his attacks on the four congresswomen of color known as the squad, as well as the African-American congressman Elijah Cummings. One desultory speech does not erase Trump’s politics of arson, or the complicity of the Republicans who continue to enable it.
Just the facts. Not prettying it up in both sides bullshit to appease the fascists.
rikyrah
Truth.
Truth.
And More TRUTH.
hueyplong
Weird, isn’t it, that every known instance of Trump being “presidential” has been his use of the teleprompter so derided when Obama was president.
schrodingers_cat
Vichy Times does not deserve clicks or subscription for committing an occasional act of journalism. They can DIAF for normalizing T’s bigotry and xenophobia. NYT used to be my homepage, I swore off NYT after their gaslighting coverage of T’s immigration speech in the Fall of 2016. They haven’t changed a damn thing about their fawning coverage of the Orange in the WH. So no clicks from me even for rare supposedly wonderful op-ed writer. She does not make up for the Douthats, Brookses and elebenty and one interviews of T supporters.
I am an immigrant and a Democrat to NYT I am not a person, I don’t exist other than to condescend to occasionally in the Lifestyle pages. So thanks but no thanks.
James E Powell
Or the complicity of the press/media, led by the New York Times, who continue to cover for Trump and who have been covering for Republicans and their racist rhetoric and policies for years.
Everyone at the New York Times needs to be reminded every single day that that paper, more than any other person or institution, is what put Trump in the White House.
The Moar You Know
Nice that the GOP doesn’t even bother making excuses for the motherfucker, they just let the media do it for him. God knows they’re willing and eager.
Jeffro
Isn’t he already tweeting his outrage at Obama’s comments from yesterday? “DID GEORGE W CRITICIZE OBAMA FOR SHOOTINGS?!?!??!” Or something like that.
Yes, Twitler, it’s exactly the same thing – remember all the racial hatred and mass shootings inspired by Obama’s hateful words???
Jackass
Elizabelle
Michelle Goldberg is fabulous, clear-eyed, and on point.
But do not forget K-Thug! Props to Paul Krugman, who probably shudders more than we do at his column’s home. Can you imagine some of the conversations he’s probably had on the topic.
SiubhanDuinne
O/T
Toni Morrison has died, age 88.
?
geg6
My favorite thing is her calling out the shitty, shitty, shitty CBS News. Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow weep in their graves.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: A good long life, and a lot of accomplishment. She made a difference. RIP.
Kay
@Jeffro:
Obama is a bigger person than I am. All the lying malicious shit Trump and his horrible family gave Obama? Obama knowing that his very existence drives them round them bend? I would have to drive them crazy. I could not resist.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
RIP to one of the greats.
henqiguai
From the Boston Globe, just now —
geg6
@Kay:
LOL! Me too!
My John and I were just discussing this very thing last night. But we never claimed to have as much class and elegance as Obama.
Roger Moore
@James E Powell:
You’re assuming they would see that reminder as a reprimand. The problem is that too many at the top see it as a job well done, even if they’re unwilling to say so publicly.
ThresherK
@Elizabelle: And Jamelle Bouie is also great.
UncleEbeneezer
I went to this, last night:
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
Yes, he absolutely does. He probably blames Obama for the shootings happening now. If Obama hadn’t stood up for immigrants and minorities, white supremacists wouldn’t be so angry today. Therefore this stuff is all Obama’s fault. It’s the same way that pointing out when they do something racist is the thing that’s turning them into Nazis. It’s how they think; it’s never their fault.
Bill Hicks
Milquetoast. Beto was better.
schrodingers_cat
@Bill Hicks: The bar is in the basement for the Racist President and the racist enabling so-called paper of record. They continue their shitty behavior because no matter what they do, they have legions of fans willing to excuse them.
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard is not a white nationalist. He’s a white supremacist. Don’t let the media try to bullshit us.
Betty Cracker
The NYT is in full defensive crouch mode today for that shitty, inexcusable headline. Good.
Pete Mack
Indeed. And while Linda Greenhouse is also very good indeed, she is not listed as an op-ed contributor on the web page.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
I had Morning Joe on this morning and noticed that while every other morning I catch parts of the show, it is littered with NYT reporters pontificating on any and everything, there was not a single one on today. I don’t think that’s ever happened.
Bill Hicks
Thanks @schrodinger’s cat, you said it better.
Turgidson
@Jeffro:
Whiny old white FoxNews viewers believe in their bones that Obama’s presidency deliberately sowed racial discord.
DCrefugee
There’s always Krugman, but yeah…
catclub
@James E Powell:
Virtually every newspaper editorial page came out in 2016 against Trump, but the news pages (and CNN) all covered him in a manner
that ignored the editorial pages. And the people mostly ignored the editorial pages.
eric
@catclub: they were economically anxious that their black and hispanic neighbors had both sparrows and curtain rods.
Major Major Major Major
Buttigieg has his gun control/white nationalist terrorism plan up. Wants to attack the problem on many good fronts. https://medium.com/@teampete/an-action-plan-to-combat-the-national-threat-posed-by-hate-and-the-gun-lobby-5752a68c954e
Fair Economist
The NYT is a business. If they get clicks only for the decent stuff they will improve. A complete boycott isn’t productive.
PJ
@catclub: The editorial is usually the last two pages of the first section of the paper, whereas the news about the 2016 was always on the front page, sometimes with headlines like, “FBI clears Trump of involvement with Russians”, or “FBI reopens investigation into Hillary’s emails,” a few days before the election (neither of which was true).
catclub
Trump knows that the press has the attention span of a flea.
A press with longer attention span would ask – “If mental health is so important, what has your administration done?”
A press with a longer attention span would say back to him what he said after the previous shooting and what has been done – nada.
James E Powell
@catclub:
I’m not talking about 2016 alone. 2016 was the culmination of a 20+ year smear campaign against Hillary Clinton. The NYT’s hatred for the Clintons has never been explained.
Harbison
Ooga boogo boo- NYT bad
You can get all the quality news you need from the reporters at Twitter and Facebook!!!!!
Aleta
@SiubhanDuinne: oh no
What a disservice the country did her these last three years especially.
Roger Moore
@Fair Economist:
I’m not convinced this is true. Yes, the NYT is a business. It’s also the personal plaything of its owner. Too many newspapers wind up being used at least as much as propaganda mills for the owner’s personal political views rather than profit making businesses. In that case, the paper won’t change until/unless it becomes so unprofitable that the owner sells it or it goes out of business.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
they should be
Faithful Lurker
I don’t know how to bring a video clip to Balloon Juice but everyone should watch/listen to C.S.Glaude (@esglaude)’s impassioned speech on Nicole Wallace’s show on MSNBC.
I found it on Seth Abramson’s blog site. It is amazing and the righteous truth.
joel hanes
@Harbison:
[derisively] NYT bad
The FTFNYT still employs many fine reporters, and many of them do fine work. The national political editors have been excruciatingly bad for at least two decades, and the paper’s reactions to well-founded criticism have been uniformly blinkered and thin-skinned. With its resources and reputation, the paper could be much better than it is — it has the potential to be almost as great as its conception of itself makes it. That it chooses not to do so is a great loss for the nation.
kindness
Maybe John but there is no reason what so ever to actually pay for a NY Times. Ever.
Speak with your wallet. It’s all they see (they see it but they won’t understand it).
cain
@catclub:
That’s not how they think. The press falls back on “common wisdom”, basically Republican talking points from the 90s. The republicans have used video games and mental health from back then, it’s always been their fallback. The press knows that this will be the answer, they never follow up on it because it’s just a familiar game. They don’t seem to really understand that the country is teetering on the brink. They are still in their bubble.
patrick II
My Headline and story for his speech would have been:
“Trump Contradicts Everything He Actually Stands For”.
In a turnaround for President Trump, during his “condolence” speech to the country, he did not actually laugh out loud and say “but it wasn’t in the panhandle” when he spoke of the El Paso shooter actually shooting Mexicans. For ten minutes, speaking in the tone of a mean boy being held by one ear and forced to apologize to his sister, President* Trump monotonically pushed out words, some of which might be considered words of solace if coming from nearly any other human being. He also tightly gripped the side of the lecturn to prevent himself from giving the o.k. White Power sign. All things considered, it was as good as could have been expected.
cain
Can we get some relevant posts from independent news sites like Pro Publica? Seems relevant that we should at least prop up the good news sites that practice good journalism.
chris
@Faithful Lurker: Here you go
Sloane Peterson's knee therapist
Uh, news flash jackals, the NYT has always been a right leaning, Republican centered newspaper since it’s inception. Being from NY and the lone black sheep of a solid Republican family it was my dad’s go-to newspaper for news and business reports. I automatically hated it because no funny pages. Now the funny page is right up front.
Faithful Lurker
@chris: Thanks. One day I’ll learn how to work the intertubes.
Bob
What has been totally left out of all of this talk about white hate organizations is the Southern Poverty Law Center and all the work they have been doing for decades in exposing these extremist groups.
They deserve a lot more recognition then they get.
Give them a read once and a while and maybe drop a dollar in the box once in a while.
rikyrah
@Faithful Lurker:
Mr. Claude is a fraud.
He was one of those muthaphuckas from 2016 who couldn’t quite push himself to vote for Hillary. And, told Black folks to leave the vote for President Blank.
AND, he hasn’t apologized for that shyt.
So, excuse me if I never listen to anything he ever has to say again.
rikyrah
@Faithful Lurker:
I got nothing for Black men who didn’t vote for Clinton in 2016.
These pseudo “intellectual” Black people impeded progress in a significant way and they aren’t forgiven.
As a Black person Ian, I need you to stop glorifying their messaging.
— Amene (@Ange_Amene) August 6, 2019
rikyrah
Texodus and the Democratization of the Lone Star State
by Nancy LeTourneau
August 5, 2019
On Monday morning, Representative Kenny Marchant became the fourth Republican congressman from Texas to announce that he won’t run for re-election in 2020. Here is what you need to know about why.
…………………..
But beyond that, here is what the Texas GOP was already facing coming out of the 2018 midterms.
Tarrant County, the last GOP urban center flipped blue.
12 state house seats flipped, which robbed GOP of their once reliable supermajority.
2 state senate seats flipped, robbing GOP of their once reliable supermajority.
2 Congressional seats flipped.
6 Congressional seats held below 55% margins.
All 59 incumbent GOP judges in Houston lost their seats.
Harris County Clerk (Houston) flipped into voter expansion advocate’s hands.
And finally, record turnout that blew past every internal GOP estimate.
rikyrah
Death By Entitlement
by Trevor LaFauci
Baud
@rikyrah:
Keep bringing those receipts.
trollhattan
@joel hanes:
They only played a major role in torpedoing Hillary Clinton’s campaign with their Comey-fired butter emails campaign. What’s your beef, buddy? :-P
The Moar You Know
@Turgidson: They really do. The first time I heard one of them say “Obama was the most racist president we’ve ever had” you could have knocked me over with a feather.
I’ve heard it plenty of times since. I never get used to it. They’re working out of some alternate reality in which the words of our shared language aren’t actually shared…they don’t mean the same things. Apparently “racist” means “encouraging non-whites to think they’re human beings” but I freely admit I could be wrong.
jonas
@Roger Moore: No, seriously, this is what he thinks. That’s why he’s offered to tie any gun control legislation to his (well, actually Stephen Miller’s) neo-Exclusion Acts. It’s the fault of too many immigrants that crazy gun nuts are triggered by their presence and go on these sprees. It’s like offering to pass anti-lynching legislation if Congress would also pass an anti-Blacks-making-passes-at-white-women law.
Aleta
A Toni Morrison quote from Yashar Ali ? via oprah show
Come to think of it, if I can, it’s usable for every greeting of who/what I love.
MattF
@rikyrah: NYT appears to be off-line.
ETA: And now back.
Aleta
@rikyrah: Thank you for posting this!!
Betty Cracker
@Aleta: That is so true. Thanks for sharing the link. I hadn’t seen that before. You’re right — it’s great advice for greeting anyone you love, from a child to a spouse to a crabby old aunt to a beloved pet.
Aleta
opiejeanne
@Aleta: Beloved just about did me in. So good, so devastating.
joel hanes
@Bob:
the Southern Poverty Law Center and all the work they have been doing for decades
One should also mention hate-group expert Dave Niewert, because apparently hardly anyone is. His twitter feed is worth reading.
Here’s what it said on 4 August:
https://twitter.com/DavidNeiwert/status/1158086301800730625
jl
Had time yesterday, after a stiff drink, to read Trump’s speech carefully. Except for a few phrases of pro forma condemnation of racism and white supremacy, and a couple of weak policy proposals with no urging McConnell to get off his ass, it was same mess of insulting and ridiculous excuses, misdirection and evasion of responsibility spewed out by other GOPers on Fox News (and who wouldn’t show their faces on other outlets).
And Trump started undercutting his own speech the same morning on twitter. Didn’t have to wait a day.
joel hanes
@The Moar You Know:
The first time I heard one of them say “Obama was the most racist president we’ve ever had”
I watch for claims that Obama was “divisive”, which is just as certain a tell, though worded a bit more artfully. Be glad they’re letting us know who they are, so we can counter their influence.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
Thank you!
zhena gogolia
@Aleta:
That’s beautiful.
emerald
@The Moar You Know: It’s because seeing Black man in the presidency made them feel like racists, which they are.
But they don’t like to admit that to themselves.
prostratedragon
@Aleta: Amen.
Yashar Ali included another quote from Toni Morrison in the thread that states something I’ve been feeling acutely of late, not only regarding racism, but also regarding the need to address the walking compendia of pathologies that are rampant in our public life and decisionmaking:
Gex
@Fair Economist: What will continuing to pay them or starting to pay them the way they currently do things do?
Patricia Kayden
@hueyplong: Well, you’re missing the point: President Obama was Black.
Patricia Kayden
@prostratedragon: I love that paragraph from and. Morrison. This is why we shouldn’t waste time taking to racists. There’s nothing I as a Black woman can do or say which will humanize me in their eyes. No need to bother.
jl
@catclub: “If mental health is so important, what has your administration done?”
Simple. Cut funding. It’s Trumpstertown, Jake.
Trump did sort of vaguely call for adoption of California style red flag laws to take guns out of the hands of people who are a demonstrable danger to themselves or others. But without pledging to put pressure on McConnell and GOP Senate, it is an empty gesture. Nice if the corporate press could notice that. But it would be inconvenient for the hordes of GOP hack operatives who seem to feed the corporate press its national political material to bring that up. Was convenient to bring it up when Obama or other Democrats were president.
catclub
OT: I think there are at least three really important things going on in the world right now.
1. Hong Kong Protests
2. India and Kashmir and Pakistan.
3. Brexit
Brexit seems to be on a summer lull, but the other two look really important for the world.
The common thread seems to be right wing over-reach. (but if it works, is it over-reach? time will tell).
also, compare the response of the US press (right-wing) to Ebola in Congo during 2014 before the election, and now.
crickets.
sherparick1
I would add Paul Krugman and Jamelle Bouie as reasons to read the NYT. Also David Leonhardt. The political desk is a dumpster fire and has been since the Bush I Administration.
trollhattan
Stay classy, Texas.
With their excellent Governor Abbott, I expect commendations for all involved by Friday.
Hoodie
@Fair Economist: Seriously? So I should watch FoxNews, but only Shep Smith? Fox will just pay Hannity more with the subsidy. Corporations do all kinds of non-market responsive things, they can be as irrational actors as their customers and can do so for a long time if they have market power. The NYT will run itself into the ground thinking it’s doing what it’s readership wants. It’s only national competition is the WaPo, it has a long way to fall.
Mandalay
@rikyrah:
He’s even worse than that. Not only did he shit on Clinton’s campaign in 2016, but when Trump got elected he blamed white people rather than look in the mirror.
Eddie Glaude in 2016:
Eddie Glaude in 2017:
Eddie Glaude in 2018:
Apart from his obvious failings with self-reflection and honesty, Eddie Glaude is as dumb as a box of rocks. And until he admits he fucked up in 2016 his opinions are worthless, because he’s just going to spout whatever is politically convenient for Eddie Glaude.
jl
@catclub: The corporate press’ national affairs coverage, and also any topic that has a racist or xenophobic angle to national politics is run by GOP hacks whispering BS in their ears.
As Jerry Brown said to the California press as they chased him down some corridor (paraphrase): You people are like little lapdogs, whenever the GOP farts, you run to sniff it.
Need more Democrat politicians to talk straight to the press, like Jerry Brown and Barney Frank.
MomSense
Did I hear correctly that the White House announced flags will return to full staff on 8/8???
Surely the FBI, DOJ, and DNI all told the president that was an exceedingly bad and inappropriate date. Literally the HH date the white supremacists and neo NAZIs love so much.
jl
@Hoodie: I think Fox News lets Shep Smith run his show, and Mike Wallace do a few good interviews with GOPers just to keep the facade of their “Fair and Balanced” facade. I guess they do some good. If any Democratic politician feels the need to deal with Fox News, they should only deal with those two. Other than that, doesn’t mean much. People like Smith and, often but not always, Wallace, are in some ways, loss leaders, just as you explain.
Roger Moore
@jonas:
I was being absolutely serious in what I said. White supremacists start from a position of believing that whites deserve to be in control of the country. They think that’s the natural order of the world. Anything that interferes with that control is not just wrong but evil, and they, as whites, are within their rights to use any means necessary to reassert their control.
This is the core of why they’re perfectly fine cutting a treasonous bargain with Russia (and previously with Iran and North Vietnam) to win an election. Democracy is only an acceptable form of government as long as it leaves control in the hands of whites. If non-whites- or a coalition of non-whites and white race traitors, which is more or less the same thing- can win, we have to jettison Democracy so we can preserve white supremacy.
WhatsMyNym
@Fair Economist:
That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all year. TFNYT has been a republican mouthpiece since they printed their 1st paper. That’s why it exists.
Steeplejack
@geg6:
I looked up Jiang, who gave us that piercing bit of analysis. She’s 34, a graduate of William & Mary, and she got a master’s in broadcast journalism at Syracuse. She’s strictly a TV “reporter”; she worked at two local stations in Salisbury, MD, and Baltimore and peaked at WCBS in New York for three years before joining CBS in 2015.
I’m showing my bias, but one thing the national press is missing these days is solid reporters who have experience doing shoe-leather reporting down in the trenches, usually at the local level. Not sure how much of that Ms. Jiang did. It’s not showing up in her current work!
But, hey, the New York Times did a Style piece on her wedding last year to Luther Lowe, college classmate and now “global vice president for public policy at Yelp.” Yay!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Pretty impressive for a dead guy.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The ghost of Mike Wallace takes possession of Chris Wallace when he does good interviews with GOPer politicians.
Everyone knows that. Many people are saying that. Believe me.
Edit: and Mike Wallace has been doing great work recently.
Roger Moore
@Hoodie:
This. Corporations are ultimately run by small groups of human beings, and those human beings are just as prone to the kinds of stupid mistakes as their customers. They can actually be worse than their customers, because their customers are a big enough group to have the advantage of the wisdom of crowds, while corporate leadership can get sucked into groupthink and all the other logical mistakes small, insular groups are prone to.
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
He knows, which is precisely why he’s pushing so hard to do it.
Aleta
It’s good that Michelle Goldberg’s op ed openly links the radicalization force of the internet to the radicalization forces of the presidency being used by T (and Pence, CBP officers and GOP reps). (Especially since the rest of the NYT still omits that it + other MSM was a normalized force all set up for them when they arrived, and its willingness a force multiplier.)
Starfish
@James E Powell: General disdain for Southerners and/or strivers that allowed them to write all those pieces about white people that looked like anthropological studies rather than true understanding of other humans
James E Powell
@Turgidson:
Can you really blame them? Obama insisted on being black every day!
ThresherK
@Mandalay:
He’s a black man who probably rested assured that Clinton would get elected and thought he had the luxury of snowflaking for someone else. Screw that mindset; I know a lefties who celebrated “I voted for a woman today–Jill Stein!”. Glaude and those purity trolls share the same mind.
Ruckus
@James E Powell:
The Clintons are carpetbaggers, because Bill is from the south and became president.
And no it doesn’t have to make any sense.
Geeno
I saw this and knew immediately that the jackals must be told.
ThresherK
@Geeno: Heehee. Boffo stuff, especially considering how difficult it is to satirize what has become RW reality.
zhena gogolia
@Geeno:
Brilliant.
Steeplejack
@Geeno:
Heh, funny. Also: “Trump aides go into crisis mode after pesident’s errant remarks condemning white supremacy.”
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah: I did not know that about him. So another Cornel West then.
catclub
@Roger Moore:
I think you are making too much over it. Having flags at half staff means nothing to them, in the first place, so returning them to normal also means nothing.
joel hanes
@jl:
Trump did sort of vaguely call for adoption of California style red flag laws to take guns out of the hands of people who are a demonstrable danger to themselves or others.
One of Trump’s first official acts was to cancel an Obama administration initiative that would have prevented people with certain kinds of psychological illnesses from easily purchasing guns.
Neldob
@Geeno: A little too close to reality.
joel hanes
@catclub:
0. Climate change
jl
Except when GOPer hacks thought saying Obama wasn’t ‘authentically’ black, would split African-American support.
After Obama was elected that line was dropped, since obviously it didn’t work.
Might be an example of everything being projection with the GOP and reactionaries: they naturally assume everyone is as bigoted as they are.
Edit: and I remember after Obama was elected, Kerry type attacks of being elitist were rolled out from time to time. Once the mustard he put on his burger was deemed to fancy, or something. But the straight up racism was such a hit with their supporters, that was soon the mainstay. That was where the real passion and commitment was.
MomSense
@catclub:
I completely disagree. These groups are really keyed in to symbolism and to looking for signs from politicians that they are sympathetic.
I’m not brave enough to go looking in the hate sites – but I bet they approve and took notice.
jl
@joel hanes: Thanks for reminding me. The speech was a fraud. As I noted, Trump didn’t call on GOP Senate to stop blocking everything. And without that, and actual follow-up, it means nothing. Of course, Trump doesn’t have the focus to follow up, and is too pliable to the last person to come in and talk with him, anyway.
A national affairs news media that was trying to actually analyze the situation, as opposed to running a boring and fugly reality show, would have noted that.
Maybe they will, but I haven’t noticed anything yet.
catclub
@joel hanes: yes. but notable changes in my list are happening on week to month timescales.
That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it. I am amazed that I floss my teeth because somebody told me if I didn’t I would regret it in ten years.
With climate change: “you need to change so somebody else will not suffer in 50 years” is a hard sell.
(and yes I know there are obvious effects now.)
Tenar Arha
@jl: The speech was awful, even for him & the GOP’s general awfulness. Red flag laws are designed to remove the guns, not commit people. And I noticed online how people with serious mental health issues really noticed how he talked about changing laws to allow for involuntary commitment.
KSinMA
@Aleta: That’s lovely.
Elizabelle
@Aleta: I cannot get into Twitter at all. Today or yesterday. (That happening to anyone else? I should probably just reboot my computer.)
Anyhoo: is the Toni Morrison advice something you can cut and paste for me? I would love to see it.
Thank you.
Elizabelle
Marvelous. Bring it on. WaPost website headline and blurb:
J R in WV
@Turgidson:
To whiny old racists, nothing is worse than suddenly having a black boss, which is what happened when President Obama was elected. Think about it. Horrifying reversal of the “way thing should be” with all white racists on top and all minority folk on the bottom.
Suddenly there’s a black family in the White House, on Air Force One, traveling around the world representing the US to foreign dignitaries. Racists cannot imagine anything worse, literally. Nothing. The nuclear end of the world would have been less bad to the racists.
It took me a little while to realize this was what was happening in their tiny minds, why birtherism happened, why we saw those horrible drawings of the president as witch doctor. Those obscene acts were all vain attempts by racists to repair the damage to their tiny egos by having a black man as the leader of the nation.
So to help myself I remind me that only a very sick and somewhat demented person would need to do that kind of obscene ritualistic nonsense. And very, very small in every possible way, that’s why they are the way they are.
Remember how unattractive the white people trying to call the cops on black people having a picnic in the park are? They know they’re ugly inside, that’s why they’re acting out the way they are.
J R in WV
@James E Powell:
Pretty simple, really. Neither of them were from New York — they were rural yokels. Yes, I know Hillary is really from an upscale neighborhood in the Chicago area, which to the Timesmen was still a yokel.
Remember the inner circle DC socialites who told each other,”This is not their town — this is OUR town!” ? The NY Times spent the next 30 years attempting to make that so, and finally, in the 2016 election, they did so. To our very great misfortune.
TriassicSands
I’m sorry, but that’s a really ridiculous (and inaccurate) statement. As Elizabelle (and others have) pointed out above, Paul Krugman is still writing for that page. I think Goldberg ‘s voice is eloquent and important, but Krugman combines his deep knowledge of economics with an inexhaustible passion to expose the crimes and incompetence of Trump and the Republicans. When I finish a Goldberg column I invariably think “I agree with that.” But I’m much less likely to have learned anything new. With Krugman, I get both. Op-Ed columns can do more than simply reflect my own personal passions.
I hope they both continue to write for years to come, but if I had to (reluctantly) give up one, it wouldn’t be Krugman.
There are others who appear on the Op-Ed page who are worth reading (at least sometimes).
John, if you had written that in your opinion Goldberg is the best reason to read the NYT Op-Ed page, I might not have agreed, but I wouldn’t have bothered to quibble.
Kirk Spencer
@ThresherK: Alternately, he didn’t vote for Clinton because, to quote a young man at work, “I don’t think a woman should be president.” Hated Trump, but didn’t vote.
I had reason to discuss this with him the other day and he’s unrepentant. Won’t vote for Harris or Warren or any other nominated woman regardless.
Racism is a problem, but given we elected a black man and not a white woman I’m gonna say the misogyny is worse. Just my opinion, of course.
Monala
@The Moar You Know: They often cite evidence of Obama’s “racism” as incidents such as Obama saying that Trayvon Martin, “could have been my son,” as if Obama’s expression of empathy for a kid who had lost his life was in any way comparable to calling Mexicans rapists, black athletes sons of bitches, and African countries sh*tholes. That or his fairly mild criticism of the Cambridge Police “acting stupidly” when they arrested a black professor for breaking into his own home.
greenergood
@henqiguai: She was the greatest American fiction writer of the late 20-early 21st century; she was the equivalent of Melville in defining and also challenging American culture. The more I see her defined as ‘Black Woman US’ writer, the more I get pissed off – not that because she is defined by those labels, but because the labels seem to limit her, rather than releasing her. Her fiction was always a challenge, and an exploration of worlds so many of us [i.e., me, white] Americans hadn’t a clue, but were amazed to discover when we did . She changed my perspective (perception?) – forever Thank you Ms Morrison
misterpuff
@catclub: And TFNYT ran with the Russia Influence denials.
dww44
@Betty Cracker: I must have missed this. What day/edition was that? Can it still be accessed?
Janesays
@schrodingers_cat:
The FTFNYT sucks, but that’s an unnecessary and unwarranted slam on an excellent journalist. She’s not a “supposedly wonderful op-ed writer” – she’s a wonderful op-ed writer. Period.
Do you think Charles Blow sucks, too? Jamelle Bouie? Paul Krugman?
You don’t have to sell me on the bad far outweighing the good at the the Grey Lady these days – there are a lot more terrible writers like Ross Douthat, Brett Stephens, David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, etc. than there are good ones like those mentioned above, but that doesn’t negate the value of the work put out by those good writers.
J R in WV
@Janesays:
Yes, there are a few good writers at the NY Times, but to read those writers, you must also support Dowd, Douthat, et al. Many of us are no longer willing to do so.
Thanks for your attention to this matter. Sorry you missed the point til now.
dww44
@rikyrah: Gee, I didn’t know that. Am sort of shocked that he did that in 2016. He was very passionate in that piece on Nicole Wallace’s show that’s being linked. Saw a replay of it on Velshi/Rule’s MSNBC show earlier. Glaude gets a lot of air time on many of the MSNBC shows..
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
I think it’s quite possible that they are amazed that everyone doesn’t agree with them. They are the chosen ones and see no other possible explanation for race than that whites exist to show their superiority and everyone else exists to prove that.
dww44
@Janesays: But what does carry the day is their supposedly straight news reporting and its framing. Misleading, biased, conservative leaning framing is very damaging to liberals, especially when the conservative world and media still promotes the NYT as the ultimate bastion for the left when it clearly isn’t. They need to be held to account and it would be so nice if we had another national media outlet.
janesays
@J R in WV: I missed no point. She condescendingly referred to Michelle Goldberg as a “supposedly wonderful op-ed writer”, and I was calling out that characterization, because it was bullshit.
I don’t subscribe to the NYT either… but I know how to bypass the paywall for pieces that I actually do want to read.
TriassicSands
@J R in WV:
And you seem to be missing a point as well. There is a lot in the Times that has nothing to do with politics. I spend much more time reading articles about science, medicine, the arts, etc. than I spend reading about politics. I also criticize the Times political coverage on a regular basis. I want the Times to exist and do a better job on politics. You, apparently, just want the Times to die. Myself, I have no doubt which would be a better outcome.
bob
@ joel hanes
Absolutely !
It’s just that corporate owned news ain’t never going to allow those voices to be heard or seen in any of their offerings that they call news. That is not in the quarterly profits bylaws. There are exceptions once in a while.
But not this putz:
Do I even have to mention David Freakin’ Brooks continuing to spew 800 mixmaster mash week in and week out at the NYT.
But yes I agree Michelle Goldberg is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and an exception to the rule at the NYT. From my point view she tells it like it is. She has my vote to be on the panel to ask the candidates questions at the candidates debate
bob
Off topic:
I forgot to add: Moscow Mitch,Moscow Mitch,Moscow Mitch,Moscow Mitch,Moscow Mitch,Moscow Mitch,Moscow Mitch,Moscow Mitch,Moscow Mitch, is a Moscow Mitch!
Mitch if you happen to read this you are still a Moscow Mitch.
Sincerely, honestly…