MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
"[I]t’s hard to believe [Clinton]'s serious about fighting for racial justice unless you pretend her 2008 campaign against Obama never happened. If you remember that period, there’s good reason to believe today’s promises are nothing more than lip-service to a community she sees as key to winning the nomination."
Comments
You little shit, Hal. The "American" attack was about Obama's loudly proclaimed roots in Indonesia (that somehow made him a foreign policy expert at 8) and Hawaii while also claiming his grandparents' roots in Kansas and WWII war experience. The rest of the photo stuff etc is bullshit. You're a nasty piece of work, as is the Huffpost writer, and hardly make anyone feel warm towards your candidate.
Heres the full Penn memo for those interested.
http://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/4097983/Penn-Strategy-Memo-3-19-07
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 6:19pm
One question: Who is James Rucker and why should I care what he says?
by Ramona on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 6:47pm
Uh, that's 2 questions :-)
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 6:50pm
Yeah, but it's just one sentence. (Okay, you got me.)
by Ramona on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 6:54pm
Because he's intelligent, articulate, and sets out with documented facts the racism inherent in Clinton's 2008 campaign.
by HSG on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 7:13pm
Did anybody tell him it's 2016 now?
by Ramona on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 8:28pm
Right and again she's running a racially divisive campaign as Rucker points out and as I point out here.
by HSG on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 9:00am
She's running a campaign. So is Bernie. Why wouldn't they go after other's weak points? But to call it "racially divisive" is just ridiculous. It's no such thing. I don't care how much you and this Rucker guy insist it is.
by Ramona on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 9:09am
You're too fucking funny. She's racistly bad for *appealing to blacks & Hispanics*??? Is this your white privilege speaking or you really believe this shit?
Presumably she still has her bitter white guns & religion base in the Appalachians, and she made lots of inroads with the Jewish vote as Senator for Israel, so she's only missing young people, and they can hop on anytime - she's got Taylor Swift, Kanye & Kimmy K, Lena Dunham, Beyoncé, Katy Perry.... quite the party
by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 9:13am
Bernie Sanders focused his discussions on groups of white Progressives for 30 years in Congress and this was not racially divisive? Sanders now pick black surrogates who essentially tell black people that they are not authentically black if the vote for Hillary Clinton and this is not racially divisive? It is demonstrably true that Bernie thinks that economics trumps race. It is hard for him to see racism as a problem. He lumps black and Latinos in with the majority community. One size fits all for Bernie. Thus Bernie wins in an analysis by someone who views actually discussing the specific concerns of a minority community as being racially divisive.
The problem with color-blindness is that it benefits only the majority community. For many in minority communities, the feeling is if you can't see color, you can't see me. Many therefore cannot see Bernie Sanders as their first choice for President. He is a one-trick pony who focuses on economics. He is in a bubble and he is too old to change. The more Bernie supporters explain Bernie, the more fearful I become.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 9:38am
Do you think the Clinton brand of slice and dice politics has been good for black America or white America or America?
by HSG on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 7:09pm
Your question points out our differences, you see the Clintons as the problem.I see the GOP and their front runners as bigger problems. Look at the reaction to the Trump rally in Chicago tonight. That is a result of Trump's divisive campaign, not anything the Clintons did. The Republicans pledged to make Obama a one term President. They blocked much of what Obama wanted to do. Republicans try to keep blacks from voting. If you see the Clintons as the biggest obstacle to the problems black America face you are mistaken.
Obama had an aggressive Primary race. Tempers flared. PUMAs vowed to vote against Obama. Obama was elected twice. Hillary was Obama's Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton is not a problem. The crime bill that Bernie Sanders voted for and the Clintons promoted was a mistake. Black legislators and voters supported the crime bill.
Now let's turn our attention to Sanders. Sanders has been in Congress for 30 years and has nothing to show for it. He has taken the purity view of not voting for bills that were not perfect. So after accomplishing nothing in Congress, I am supposed to trust him to save the black community. He never came to the black community and has nothing to show that he has Donne for the black community. Compare Sanders ineffective career to the accomplishments of Senator Ted Kennedy.
The Clintons are nowhere near the top of my list of dangers facing the black community. It is telling that they are your focus. Given the fact that Sanders has been an ineffective Senator, why should I trust him to be able to do anything. If Sanders were Kennedy, we could have a conversation.
Tell me something concrete that Sanders has done other than suggested someone Primary President Obama. You focus on how bad the Clintons are, but never produce anything concrete that Sanders has done. He does have excellent position papers.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 9:01pm
Very cogent statement of the situation not only for the black community but the nation.
Although the impact may be lost on Hal. Whose feet are planted on a foundation of ideological fantasy as insubstantial as Sanders record.
by NCD on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 9:58pm
"You see the Clintons as the problem.I see the GOP and their front runners as bigger problems[.]"
I interpret this to mean we both see the Clintons as part of the problem and the GOP as bigger problems. If this is what you mean, we agree.
"The Clintons are nowhere near the top of my list of dangers facing the black community. It is telling that they are your focus."
I am focusing on the Clintons now because Hillary is running for President and for the reasons I have set out ad nauseum I believe she would be a much worse President for all Americans than Bernie Sanders. Regarding the Republican candidates, they are all loathsome.
"Given the fact that Sanders has been an ineffective Senator, why should I trust him to be able to do anything."
We obviously disagree on whether Sanders has accomplished anything. I have listed various successes here on several occasions but never very prominently. So here goes again:
-------------
In 2015, he won the Veterans of Foreign Wars award for best member of Congress. Here's the announcement:
Given how much Sanders talks about single-payer healthcare, you'd think he played at least some role when the Affordable Care Act was being legislated. He did. As Common Dreams noted on December 19, 2009:
It turns out these centers have been so important to the success of the program, President Obama announced last year that the opening of "hundreds [more] community health centers in underserved areas nationwide with funding from the Affordable Care Act."
These days, progressive legislators don't always have the opportunity to make a significant mark since passing laws that benefit the public has become increasingly tricky given the influence of big money over the system. Still Sanders has obviously made a difference for veterans and communities without adequate numbers of healthcare providers. When he was Mayor of Burlington in 80s, he pushed successfully a number of initiatives that made the city a better place to live for rich and poor alike. The Nation Magazine details these in What Kind of Mayor was Bernie Sanders. Here are just a few highlights:
by HSG on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 11:37am
Hal, your article says $169 million or roughly $500k per community center. Maybe (probably) these are useful, but spendwise theyre such a drop in the ocean of trillion dollar health care.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 12:11pm
There is question about how much oversight of the VA Sanders conducted as Chair of the Senate committee responsible for the VA
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/05/the-veterans-scandal-on...
A CNN host accused Sanders of sounding like a lawyer for the VA rather then someone charged with oversight
http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/cnn-hounds-bernie-sanders-va-scandal-you-s...
Black activists in Vermont say that they were invisible to Bernie Sanders. Sanders was blind to issues of race.
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/17/black_activists_in_vermont_complain_they...
by rmrd0000 on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 12:33pm
I am so glad that James Rucker came along to tell black voters about the events leading up to the election of Barack Obama. Blacks are obviously to lazy and stupid to remember 2008. Blacks don't remember PUMAs. Perhaps blacks remember that Hillary Clinton was the President's Secretary of State. Does Mr. Rucker suffer from amnesia? How oblivious do people have to be to write an article about 2008, neglect events of subsequent years, and then circle to 2008 as if we have all been frozen in time. Amnesia is the only reasonable explanation for the HuffPost article's conclusion.
The inability to deal with the concept of time found in the Rucker article is only mimicked by the Republican claim that the KKK is a left wing organization. The claim is made based on the fact that Democrats were, a word indicating passage of time, racists and Klan members. Time passed, the Democrats became more Progressive. The military was desegregated. LBJ signed the Civil Rights bills. Dixiecrats joined the GOP. Today, the GOP blacks minority voting. The Klan and other white supremacist groups prefer the leading Republican candidate.
Tomorrow Dr. Ben Carson will endorse Donald Trump. Carson will remind us that the GOP is the Party of Lincoln and that the GOP freed the slaves. Carson will show the same lack of historical knowledge (or amnesia) as Mr Rucker.
Trevor Noah did a great job of explaining the importance of history
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/gz12hb/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-who...
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 9:58pm
Blacks should also be aware that in 2006 Sanders' website noted his tough on crime stance .In 2007, Hillary was speaking about the reforms needed in criminal justice and note the mistakes made in the 90s. Clinton released her justice reform plan first. Sanders only released a justice reform plan after the challenge from Black Lives Matter.
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/sanders-now-a-reformer-once-boasted-of-be...
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 8:15am
I can understand someone not wanting to support Hillary Clinton because of all the baggage that comes with her, or because she is more to the center than one might like, but the notion that she ran a racially divisive campaign in 2008 is belied both by actual events and corroborated by the extraordinary support that the Secretary is now receiving in the African American community. I don't think you can say that you know something that, for example, Congressman Lewis, does not know.
by Bruce Levine on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 11:42am
Hallo Bruce!!!
by armchair guerrilla on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 10:49am
Uh, Congrssman Lewis probably doesnt know the Theory of Constraints, Lean Manufacturing, offshore cluster behavior and conversational Chinese. He aint *that* smart. What was the question again?
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 11:06am
Gee, I guess those black folks really don't know what's good for them. Apparently, this even includes the POTUS. Here is what he had to say recently about that racist campaign Hillary ran in 2008:
Well, here's my view: that whoever the nominee is is going to need the other person's supporters. And I think it is entirely legitimate to draw sharp contrasts where there are contrasts and it is important, however, to maintain a tone in which people feel as if you’re playing fair. And I think Hillary has done that so far, and I think that the truth is in 2007 and 2008, sometimes my supporters and my staff, I think, got too huffy about what were legitimate questions she was raising. And, you know, there were times where I think the media probably was a little unfair to her and tilted a little my way in the — in calling her out when she was tough and not calling some of our folks out as much when we were tough in ads.
by armchair guerrilla on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 10:48am
Easy for you to be complacent sitting in your armchair, but we're out here on the front lines of the Blog Wars!!! Take no prisoners. It's a cruel heartless business, but someone's gotta do it.
by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 11:00am
It is not just Hal. Cornel West is very condescending when it comes to blacks who disagree with his view of the world. The President, Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, and Melissa Harris-Perry have all felt West's verbal venom. Mr Rucker,, Michelle Alexander, and others seem to believe that blacks are stupid. Blacks are so dumb that they cannot remember the events leading up to the election of the first black President. None of the writers who question the intelligence of the black community deal with the fact that Sanders wanted someone to oppose Obama's reelection.Why should blacks trust Sanders?
by rmrd0000 on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 11:29am
Thanks rmrd. I don't think you have accused me of being condescending (although I could do without the "it's not just Hal"). If I am, please call me out. It seems we disagree vehemently on whether Hillary Clinton would be a good President but to me you have not "crossed the line". If I "cross the line", please advise/explain. For the record, I have not "question[ed] the intelligence" of anybody who has decided to support Clinton in this election. I do question the decision of course.
by HSG on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 12:02pm
I was accusing Cornel West of being condescending. The others seem to think that black remain frozen in a 2008 time trap. The situation in 2016 is different.
Edit to add
Sanders proposed a challenger to Obama's reelection, that is more than the simple disagreements with Obama that he claims in interviews.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/the-obama-campaign-remembers-2012-very...
by rmrd0000 on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 12:23pm