monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Quote:

I trust he earned that nickname.

I don't know what "earning" such a name would imply. It would seem to me that, in the guy's career of public service, that if he were acting as a racist there would be more examples than this stuff dug up from the past and the alleged "refusal" to shake the hand of a debate opponent — from the video it doesn't look as if he even knew the guy's hand was being offered. Yet the media descriptions would make it seem as if he flat out refused rather than the simple explanation that his attention was directed at the host at the time. I think he's getting this treatment because of the abortion controversy and I'm not piling on without a much better reason to conclude that he's a "racist".

I thought MSM were your chums.

Hightor sides with Coonman.

Quote:

What was his nickname in the yearbook? Coonchucker?

One account I've seen claimed that those guys were into taking names from the old Amos/Andy program, e.g. "Amos", "Andy", "Kingfish", "Calhoun", "Lightnin" et. al.

Friends and relatives of inmates stuck in cells without power or heat at a prison in New York have held a protest against their detention conditions.

Protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility in Brooklyn, chanted: "Where is the heat"?

Many inmates have not been able to contact the outside world for days, following a partial power failure.

Members of Congress who visited the prison on Saturday described the situation there as a "nightmare".

"It is like living in a closet without lights," said Representative Nydia Velázquez, a Democrat whose district includes the prison.

She said temperatures in some cells were as low as 49 F (9.5C).

Says the adolescent who calls the former President "Obunga".

L'œuvre récompense la maîtrisse.

Jussie Smollett: Update on a LYING HOLLYWOOD SCUMBAG

It should be pretty clear to all who followed this story, that Jussie Smollett is just another lying Hollywood scumbag.

He’s just an anti-American, anti-Trump run of the mill Hollywood racist.

Sorry, Republicans. You can’t call out Northam for racism and give Trump a pass.
That’s hypocrisy, full stop.

By Tom Nichols

Tom Nichols is a professor at the Harvard Extension School. He is the author of “The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters.”

Finally, the GOP is calling out a chief executive for his appalling insensitivity on an issue of race: Saturday, via Twitter, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, decried that chief executive’s “past racist behavior” and said “He should resign.” In two tweets posted on Saturday, Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel listed off what she sees as that same chief executive’s callousness on race, including, apparently, his appearance, in a photo, 35 years ago, in which one person is in blackface and the other is wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood. The conduct that these Republicans denounced clearly deserves condemnation, no matter how or when it occurred.

Unfortunately, they’ve reserved their scorn for one chief executive, Virginia’s Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, and held back when it comes to criticizing a chief executive from their own party, President Trump, for his racially divisive statements and public positions. That is naked hypocrisy.

Northam, without doubt, brought this criticism on himself: Friday he released a statement apologizing for appearing, in a 1984 medical school yearbook photo, “in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive,” saying, “I am deeply sorry for the decision I made.” Then on Saturday, he went before live cameras to say, “I believe then, and now, that I am not either of the people,” in the photo in question. A risible, flimsy explanation, unacceptable for anyone, let alone the governor of a state.

Republicans, sensing a relatively rare moment when, for once, the other party had to own a race-relations debacle, joined (Democrats) in calling for Northam’s ouster. In addition to McCarthy and McDaniel, Virginia GOP chair Jack Wilson called on Northam to step down, saying the governor has “lost the moral ability” to lead. Ever since Election Day 2016, when Trump’s supporters promised he wouldn’t be as awful as his critics — including me — warned he would be, Republicans have longed for a moment when they could at least pretend to gain the high moral ground.

But while Democrats, and decent people everywhere, have a right to demand that Northam step down, Republicans who continue to support a party dominated by Trump can’t be taken seriously on this point.

Trump’s record on race issues is abysmal. For years, he fueled birtherism to attack President Barack Obama. He once argued that a federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel, couldn’t be impartial in a case involving Trump because, as Trump said, “He’s a Mexican. We’re building a wall between here and Mexico.” Early in his presidential candidacy, Trump called for a “total and complete ban on Muslims entering the country.” In office, he ruminated on America needing more immigrants from places such as Norway and fewer immigrants from “shithole” countries, referencing Haiti, El Salvador and African countries.

Despite polls taken at various times during his presidency which show that significant percentages of Americans either see Trump as racist or, at a minimum, someone who has “emboldened” racists, the president still enjoys the support of members of his party in Congress and 78 percent approval among Republicans in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll. For the most part, the party has indulged his race-baiting comments and his crude handling of racial issues. But somehow party leaders, who stand firmly behind him, and a national party which just passed a resolution expressing “undivided support” for him, seems to have no qualms about calling out Northam.

How Northam got all the way to the Virginia statehouse without the yearbook photo being discovered will wind up as a case study in future training for political opposition researchers and for reporters. Regardless of how it happened, it’s fair to view his inconsistent statements and conclude that he never thought he would have to explain any of this until after it became public. That disingenuousness is damning in itself, and if the voters and elected leaders of Virginia decide that this episode disqualifies him from serving honorably in office — it appears they do — that’s their choice. (I happen to agree with them.)

Democrats don’t have completely clean hands on race issues; if nothing else, the Northam episode illustrates that. But when commentators such as David Limbaugh ask if Trump supporters must “forfeit the right to pass any moral judgments” because of their continual excuse-making for him, the only reply is: yes. Criticizing Northam for “past racist behavior” and his present equivocation after more than two years of overlooking an astonishing record of divisiveness reflects little more than a self-serving, morally repellent double standard. There are plenty of good arguments for kicking Northam out of his job. The newfound racial piety of a party that sold its soul to Trump isn’t one of them.

Covington Lawyers Send Legal Notices to Over 50 Media Orgs, Politicians and Celebrities

The list of potential lawsuits includes presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, the New York Times, CNN, Maggie Haberman, Savannah Guthrie, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and many many more. Preservation letters were sent out on Friday.

Totalitarianism: Buying A Hammer Now Makes You A Terrorist In The UK

If you need a hammer for any reason, the United Kingdom’s counter-terrorism policing unit will consider you a potential terrorist. They are also asking that anyone who sees someone doing something suspicious, like purchasing a hammer, to report it to the enforcers.