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US Politics: The Accountability Problem


Fragile Bird

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30 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

No one is going to let a Canadian witness their racism.  

Honestly, when did black face become a huge cultural no-no? I'm asking out of ignorance because I assume it was well before I was born (late 80's).

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I'm totally cool with Northam and Fairfax resigning, probably Herring too, would be nice though if they could figure out a way to do this without turning the state over to an unelected Republican. 

Okay, I have solved what needs to happen. All three must go, but it has to be done very carefully. Fairfax has to go first. Then the Senate president pro tem becomes the acting LT. Northam can then replace him with a popular Democrat, like someone who previously served in the roll and can reelection. Northam then resigns, make the new LT the governor. Then Herring has to resign. This would make two Republicans the LT and AG, but again, the power of appointment belongs to the governor, and he can replace both of them. That's how you keep all three seats in the Dems hands while removing all three current politicians. 

You're welcome.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/06/virginia-governor-northam-fairfax-herring-1152310

 

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Well, my brother was down there from the age of 18 to 22, was a frat member, lived with Americans closely for those four years, I don't think they could hide any KKK hoods from him and I doubt they went to secret parties that he wasn't invited to in blackface.

I didn't ask whether any of his fellow students were racist. We talked about the events in Virginia (like most Canadians, we identify with Democrats) and he couldn't believe what's going on, particularly since Northam and Herring are both younger than he is. He said no way would anyone while he was there do blackface or wear KKK hoods, it was wrong and they knew it.

eta You could argue he knew the students in the dorms, but day students may have gone home and done stuff he never knew about, I guess. But maybe the kids there weren't as rich and privileged as medical students.  :dunno:

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1 minute ago, Mexal said:

 

Bro, you know I got nothing but respect for you and Zac 'QB Whisperer' Taylor, but are you just gonna dangle a Jeff Bezos tweet with no explanation? I can't click on that shit without a hook stronger than crack.

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Just now, Jace, Basilissa said:

Bro, you know I got nothing but respect for you and Zac 'QB Whisperer' Taylor, but are you just gonna dangle a Jeff Bezos tweet with no explanation? I can't click on that shit without a hook stronger than crack.

National Enquirer trying to blackmail him with dick picks.

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In southern Missouri in the 80s and 90s at least blackface wasn’t uncommon especially for Halloween (zillions of white kids dressing up for Halloween as michael Jackson or Steve Urkel or will Smith or various rappers, athletes or musicians) and amongst kids I remember one kid doing the michael Jackson and the moonwalk at a middle school talent show, wouldn’t be surprised if it was blackface. And for adults I definitely remember my dad having to use our crappy hi8 camera to record a chamber of commerce fundraising event and many of the “acts” that the (white) town Nobs put on were definitely in blackface. Sammy Davis jr, and michael Jackson as I recall but my memory is probably off. 

I know exactly when I found out blackface was both wrong and also had an attached term I had never heard before “blackface” which was when I rented spike lees bamboozled shortly after it came out on video, so probably 2000 or 2001, in my late high school years. Before that I had no idea, and I doubt my parents did either.

dressing up as KKK was utterly and totally beyond the pale though, everyone knew that was wrong. 

Besides, in southern Missouri, they’d just dress up as baldknobbers instead, which is uh, totally a different thing, yup, as the extremely slight change in costume would indicate :rolleyes:

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I just came here to post this news. CNN is reporting on it right now. Bezos says The National Enquirer tried to blackmail him, by saying that unless the Washington Post did certain things (lie for them) they would publish, well, what Mexal says are dick pics.

Extortion and blackmail are the terms Bezos used.

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6 minutes ago, lokisnow said:

In southern Missouri in the 80s and 90s at least blackface wasn’t uncommon especially for Halloween (zillions of white kids dressing up for Halloween as michael Jackson or Steve Urkel or will Smith or various rappers, athletes or musicians) and amongst kids I remember one kid doing the michael Jackson and the moonwalk at a middle school talent show, wouldn’t be surprised if it was blackface. And for adults I definitely remember my dad having to use our crappy hi8 camera to record a chamber of commerce fundraising event and many of the “acts” that the (white) town Nobs put on were definitely in blackface. Sammy Davis jr, and michael Jackson as I recall but my memory is probably off. 

I know exactly when I found out blackface was both wrong and also had an attached term I had never heard before “blackface” which was when I rented spike lees bamboozled shortly after it came out on video, so probably 2000 or 2001, in my late high school years. Before that I had no idea, and I doubt my parents did either.

dressing up as KKK was utterly and totally beyond the pale though, everyone knew that was wrong. 

Besodes, in southern Missouri, they’d just dress up as baldknobbers instead, which is uh, totally a different thing, yup, as the extremely slight change in costume would indicate :rolleyes:

I remember debating in a highschool English class during my sophomore year "when blackface was ok" so 1998 or 1999 and the consensus was "only in a production of Othello, and only if there are no black actors available".  This was in rural CT (it does exist!).  I was pretty surprised when I moved to DC for college and saw how widespread casual racism was.  Where I grew up you expected to hear this shit from older relatives, but it was weird hearing it from peers.

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High prescription drug prices are a crucial vulnerability for trump with the Obama-trump voters in the states that gave him the presidency.  Hammering trump on how he has rigged prices higher for big pharma and promising to burn big pharma to the ground and promise to slash and cap prices could be a very effective way for democrats to sweep the entire region, not just the presidency.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/07/democratic-focus-groups-may-have-identified-hidden-vulnerability-trump/

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Very interesting point being made on CNN right now.

David Pecker, AMI et al signed a non-prosecution agreement with the Mueller team (well, the DoJ) and one of the terms of that agreement was that they would not commit anymore crimes. They got immunity for cooperating with the inquiry.

Question - is what Bezos revealed a crime? And therefore does that nullify the non-prosecution agreement?

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26 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Because they are public servants and should be held to a higher standard.  How are Northam's black constituents supposed to just accept this, especially when he was such a douchebag about how he handled it?  

Edit: and I'm not saying they should even be condemned - they just don't get to be a fucking Governor!

So, what, anyone with any kind of shady past should never run for public office? If you had a criminal conviction at any time in your past you cannot ever be elected to high office, no matter the stainless life of public service you may have lived in the intervening years? Why can't you be a governor even with past instances of bad behaviour? 

Are you trying to get me in trouble by baiting me into whitesplaining how black people should feel? I'm not about to tell black people how to think or what to feel when it comes to being the victims of racist behavior, and the threshold they should apply when it comes to forgiveness and letting bygones be bygones. I do hope there is room for forgiveness though, when there is genuine remorse for past wrongdoings. In an attempt to examine the situation in a non-whitesplainy manner I would like to credit African Americans with the ability to take into account both recent and past behaviour when making a judgement about whether a white person is worthy of their continued support to represent them in government.

Redemption and rehabilitation must be available to everyone including to the extent where they are not barred from any future endeavour. If you say "you're forgiven, but you can never do X" then that means the person isn't really forgiven, especially if it's X that the person really wants to do.

Even the worst dregs of society need to know there is a path back to being a fully functioning contributing member of society. They may never achieve it, but the path must be open to them if they choose to walk it.

 

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1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Honestly, when did black face become a huge cultural no-no? I'm asking out of ignorance because I assume it was well before I was born (late 80's).

There was a "Gimme a Break" episode in 1984 that was pretty on point about blackface. It's something that stuck with me and I was just seven years old.

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I'm not sure why the frat example from the last thread was being discussed like it's was punishment of individuals. Unless I'm misunderstanding, it wasn't the individual kids that lost frat privileges, it was the frat itself - the organisation - that lost privileges and the organisation that was being punished. Even if that ignorance excuse flew for individuals, groups like a frat need to be held to a higher standard as they have institutional knowledge and should have people responsible for ensuring they don't breech codes of conduct or other behavioral standards. Suspension is one of the few things you can do to punish such a group and happens far less than it should.

But knowing how equivalent organizations behave here in Aus I'm skeptical the frat was ignorant, much more likely is they believed themselves above rules.

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