The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Sunday
Jun212015
The Commentariat -- June 22, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a Depression-era government program that allows the government to take raisins from growers to boost market prices is an unconstitutional taking of private property. The court ruled 8 to 1 that the government could not take the raisins without adequate compensation.... Justices will issue more opinions on Thursday and Friday, and end their work for the term next week."
Wonders Never Cease. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican presidential candidate from South Carolina, will call on Monday for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the state's Capitol.... Mr. Graham is expected to make the announcement during a 4 p.m. news conference with Gov. Nikki Haley, who is also expected to call for the flag's removal, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported on Monday. The paper also said South Carolina's other senator, Tim Scott, a Republican, would call for the flag to come down.... Mr. Graham initially said that he would be fine with it being taken down but acknowledged that the flag was 'part of who we are.'"
The Supremes will be issuing some orders & at least one opinion this morning. ScotusBlog is liveblogging the proceedings, beginning at 9 am ET. ...
... UPDATE: No huge opinions today. One important Fourth Amendment case -- Patel. Still waiting to find out when the Court will meet next.
NEW: Michael Shear & Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "... President Obama said the legacy of slavery still 'casts a long shadow' on American life, and he said that choosing not to say the word 'nigger' in public does not eliminate racism from society. In a wide-ranging conversation about race, including his own upbringing as a man born to a black father and a white woman, Mr. Obama insisted that there was no question that race relations have improved in his lifetime. But he also said that racism was still deeply embedded in the United States. 'The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow, and that's still part of our DNA that's passed on,' the president said during an interview for Marc Maron's 'WTF' podcast that was released on Monday." Maron's interview is here. His pages are very slow-loaders today, so I didn't have time to wait for the page to come up. The Website's front page is here. ...
... DeNeen Brown & Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "Emanuel AME Church swung open its doors for services Sunday, four days after a 21-year-old white man who told police he wanted 'to start a race war' allegedly killed the pastor and eight congregants attending a Bible study in the church basement. Hundreds lined up in the hot Charleston sun to climb the stairs to the sanctuary of 'Mother Emanuel,' one of the country's oldest African American churches and one with a rich history of resilience." ...
... "The Home of Racism." Paul Lewis & Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "The prisoner in cell 1140B at Charleston County detention center is Michael Slager, 33, the North Charleston police officer who was charged with murder 10 weeks ago, after video footage surfaced showing him shooting a black man, Walter Scott, in the back as he fled, unarmed. On Thursday, Slager was joined in the Administrative Segregation Unit by Dylann Roof, less than 48 hours after the 21-year-old allegedly walked into a historically black church in the city, prayed with worshipers and then opened fire." ...
... ** Yoni Appelbaum of the Atlantic: "It was in Charleston, South Carolina that the fiery secessionist Edmund Ruffin fired the first shot of the war. And on June 17, 1865 -- exactly 150 years before the Charleston attacks -- Ruffin learned of the South's surrender, reportedly wrapped himself in a Confederate flag, and then took his own life rather than accept defeat. Those, like Roof, who now want a secessionist banner of their own can order one from the Ruffin Flag Company.... [The history of the confederate flag] is not seriously contested.... The flag was created by an army raised to kill in defense of slavery, revived by a movement that killed in defense of segregation, and now flaunted by a man who killed nine innocents in defense of white supremacy." CW: See also Presidential Race below. ...
... E. J. Dionne: "If this history is all about yesteryear, why does South Carolina continue to fly the Confederate battle flag on the grounds of its state Capitol?... And remember: The flag was put up in 1962 as the civil rights movement gained strength. White supremacy is central to the flag's heritage." ...
** ..."Original Sin." Paul Krugman: "... the racial divide is still a defining feature of our political economy, the reason America is unique among advanced nations in its harsh treatment of the less fortunate and its willingness to tolerate unnecessary suffering among its citizens.... Political scientist Larry Bartels ... showed that the working-class turn against Democrats wasn't a national phenomenon -- it was entirely restricted to the South.... Race made Reaganism possible.... [A second study, by conservative writers,] concluded that race is central, because in America programs that help the needy are all too often seen as programs that help Those People.... More than 80 percent of the population in [ACA] Medicaid-refusing America lives in states that practiced slavery before the Civil War." ...
... Dylann Roof, Global Terrorist. Morris Dees & Richard Cohen of the Southern Poverty Law Center, in a New York Times op-ed: "When, according to survivors, Mr. Roof told the victims at the prayer meeting that black people were 'taking over the country,' he was expressing sentiments that unite white nationalists from the United States and Canada to Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Unlike those of the civil rights era, whose main goal was to maintain Jim Crow in the American South, today's white supremacists don't see borders; they see a white tribe under attack by people of color across the globe." ...
... See also yesterday's Commentariat, re: FBI Director James Comey's remarkable cluelessness. ...
... Over on Breitbart, someone called AWR Hawkins helpfully explains that the reason mass murderers target churches & schools instead of NRA meetings is that people in churches & schools aren't likely to be armed. So forget all the other links above. Hawkins has the key. Wonder if s/he has any idea that the NRA does in fact commonly restrict or ban guns at their meetings. ...
... What if you're a black person & the volunteer fireman charged with rescuing you from a burning building thinks murdering black people is a "good deed"?
Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "Their industry already upended with the passage of the federal health care law, insurance companies are facing another upheaval if the Supreme Court rules that millions of Americans are not eligible for subsidies to help defray the cost of their coverage."
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama, whose cool, no-drama style has for years set him apart from the extroverted politicians so common in Washington, has been getting emotional lately. It has happened at the White House and on Capitol Hill as he makes the case for parts of his legacy that are at risk, like his health care law and trade agenda, or when he speaks about slain hostages, civilians killed by drones and racially motivated shootings."
The Enforcers. Matt Fuller of Roll Call: "After three conservative House Republicans were kicked off the whip team as a result of voting against a rule for trade legislation on June 11, a new round of punishment is being meted out: Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz has taken away the gavel of Subcommittee Chairman Mark Meadows."
Reuters: "People who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian, Pope Francis said on Sunday."
Ian Traynor & John Hooper of the Guardian: "Greece's international creditors are aiming to strike a deal to stop Athens defaulting on its debt and possibly tumbling out of the euro by extending its bailout by six months and supplying up to €18bn (£12.9bn) in rescue funds. The negotiators representing Greece's lenders are also proposing to pledge debt relief for the austerity-battered country -- but officials stressed that a breakthrough hinged on a positive response from the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras."
Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday rebuffed the French idea of restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with international support and the backing of a United Nations Security Council resolution."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd., NBC Racist Edition. Samantha Page of Think Progress: "While the country -- and South Carolina, in particular -- is once again debating racism in America, NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday offered a video of men in prison expressing regret for their own gun violence. All of the men in the video are black. The segment was part of Sunday's show, which focused on the recent killing of nine black people at a bible study group in Charleston, South Carolina.... '... we simply ask you to look at this as a colorblind issue,'" host Chuck Todd said. Emphasis added. Includes video. ...
... Chuck Todd's Idea of a Mea Culpa: Um, we put this together before a white guy shot & killed nine people in church. We discussed not airing it in light of the massacre, but decided what the hell. No use wasting great footage. "I hope folks view the gun video as a part of the conversation we should all be having and not the totality of it." ...
... John Cole of Balloon Juice: "Are there no black people working in positions of authority at NBC? I mean, seriously. Just one black friend is all he needed to tell him how fucking tone deaf and stupid it would be to show this THIS weekend."
... digby: "I honestly don't know what to say.... What in the world was he thinking talking about it in the context of black murderers when we haven't even buried the 9 people who were gunned down by a white supremacist? Good lord."
Presidential Race
Party of the Confederacy. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Even after online pictures of the suspect in the massacre, Dylann Roof, holding the Confederate flag and a gun surfaced on Saturday, none of the [Republican presidential] candidates who appeared on Sunday's political television programs were willing to say flatly whether it should continue to fly at the South Carolina Capitol. The most prominent Democratic contender, Hillary Rodham Clinton, said in 2007 that the flag should be removed." ...
... Party of Avowed Racists. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "The leader of a rightwing group that Dylann Roof allegedly credits with helping to radicalise him against black people before Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum. Earl Holt has given $65,000 to Republican campaign funds in recent years while inflammatory remarks -- including that black people were 'the laziest, stupidest and most criminally-inclined race in the history of the world' -- were posted online in his name." ...
... Here's a New York Times update by Eric Lichtblau: Cruz said he would return Holt's campaign donations. ...
... Steve M. has more on Earl Holt, his disgusting views, & the many GOP candidates he's backed with bucks.
News Ledes
New York Times: "DNA matching that of two escaped killers was found in a cabin in the remote resort of Mountain View, N.Y., 15 heavily wooded miles west of the state prison in Dannemora, an official briefed on the investigation said on Monday morning.... The forensic evidence indicated that the men had been there within the last 48 hours.... A pair of prison-issued underwear was also found in the cabin...."
The New York Times has a "breaking news" banner that the U.N. has found that both Israel & Palestine may be guilty of war crimes. No story as of 7:35 am ET. ...
... Update: "A United Nations investigation found 'serious violations of international humanitarian law' that 'may amount to war crimes' by both Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip during their bloody battle last summer, according to a report released on Monday in Geneva."
Washington Post: "A key Army commander in the U.S. war against the Islamic State has been reprimanded by the Pentagon for steering a defense contract to a firm run by two of his former classmates at West Point, becoming the latest high-ranking officer to land in trouble for personal misconduct. Maj. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard, who as the Army's deputy commander for operations in the Middle East oversaw the training of Iraqi forces, was formally reprimanded in February after a three-year investigation by the Army's inspector general."
Washington Post: "Walter Scheib, the 61-year-old former White House executive chef who had been missing in New Mexico's rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains for more than a week, was discovered dead late Sunday night by a search and rescue crew."
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Reader Comments (18)
Per:http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/why-is-the-flag-still-there/396431/. I couldn't help but think about the misguided Ruffin and then thought: what if we made doggie-poo bags with the confederate flag on the outside? Piles of dogshit contained in confederate flag plastic bags. I'm thinking like the Santorum of Dan Savage for them and their flag.
Two thoughts, hmmm, make that three.
Had a brief Fathers' Day discussion of the terror attack in Charleston with my two sons this evening. Why won't the Koch-Confederates (maybe the RC name Akhilleus has bestowed on them, where they go by "Confederate" only, anticipates at large part of the answer) call the attack what it is, out and out "terrorism.?" But really, no surprise here; the Right's Orwellian rhetoric calls nothing by its real name. We won in Vietnam. Iraq attacked us. It's the Obama Crash of 2005 and oh, yeah, (winter snowpack already entirely gone in the Cascade Mountains, but we had a hellava summer this Spring) there is no climate change. Obviously not.
Getting so many things wrong is odd behavior for champion finger-pointers and name-callers, one would think.
I've concluded there is often something very cowardly about Rightwing blunt--call it like it is, cowboy1--speech. They are very good at picking on the defenseless like minorities or the poor...but politically, they are afraid of their own shadow. Wouldn't want to offend a single racist voter. Certainly not anyone with big bucks who might cross my palm... Wouldn't be prudent, would it?
Am I the only one who feels a teensy sorry for the obviously confused and misled Charleston murderer? I suspect there other people in his life who share the blame and should share the punishment he will undoubtedly receive. It has to be a long list, some who knew him personally, some like Jon Swaine with his money and website, reported on above, some employed by the Faux News hate machine...and all these cowards (back to cowards again) will remain unscathed and free to do more cowardly dirty work, safe behind the curtain, manipulating their cracked and broken puppets.
I do like Citizen's idea...made me smile. Thanks.
I was raised in Virginia, and attended public schools there. Each year, in addition to U.S. and world history, there was a separate text and course material dedicated to Virginia history. A good deal of early U.S. history was, after all, made in Virginia.
Slavery was depicted as, at worst, a necessary evil. The dominate image was of simple darkies, toiling happily in sun, singing spirituals, under the stern but kindly eye of 'Ol Massa.
The Civil War (the recent unpleasantness was referred to as "the War Between the States") was depicted more as a tragedy for the State of Virginia, than a victory for freedom and national union. Lee, Jackson, Stuart and other Confederate generals were portrayed as the greatest military geniuses who ever lived, and the epitome of honor, nobility, and every Christian virtue.
My father and uncles, his friends, every adult male role model in my childhood, were all Civil War enthusiasts. And, they believed to the depths of their souls that non-white people were genetically inferior and must be repressed in order for civilization to prosper.
Such an upbringing is difficult for a young lad to shake off -- many never do.
Hey kids! Kay-Tel Records presents.....Ta-Da...
The Washington Post's Greatest Hits. Act now and you'll get two, I say two, of their favorites, right away, like, right now.
Today's Hit Wonders, are especial faves of the "liberatrian" owned, Republican run former excellent newspaper and current fish wrapper the Washington Post. First, the song all Post staffers hum to themselves as they go about their day. Second, the song being adopted now by anyone writing about that poor misdirected kid from South Carolina, BFF of white supremacists, the NRA, and the GOP.
Okay, so let's take the first. Both siderism is a chronic condition for which there appears to be no cure, but this is just too slimy. Today's Morning Mix in the Post offers this assessment of the political reactions to the news that the same white supremacist group that helped to inspire Dylann Roof to murder nine innocents purely because of their race (not their religion or the fact that they weren't all carrying Glocks), had donated considerable amounts to certain politicians of a certain political party. But you'd never know if from the lede:
"Campaigns distance themselves from ‘white supremacist’ leader’s donations"
See what I mean? "Campaigns...", not "Republican campaigns..." The upshot being that a reader glancing through the headlines gets the impression that Democrats were also the recipient of racist largesse. It also helps to diminish the "ouch" factor for Republican racists and friends and tolerators of racists.
But the Morning Mixed Up section offers links to other WaPo pieces on Mr. Roof. One, about his racist manifesto appears, curiously (or not, if your mind wanders in that direction) under the Health/Science section. At first I thought "Health and Science"? WTF do the writings of this burgeoning little Reaganite have to do with health and.....and then it hit me. Of course: health. He's got mental problems. He's just a mixed up kid, kinda like these kids.
But stay tuned, WaPo editors, staffers and publisher will be sending out all their favorite hits. Next week, two all-time favorites guaranteed to put the supremacist into the white.
Insidious is a good word. So is asshole.
Chuck Todd has never been a respected and impartial source for unfiltered news. Mostly, he's been a go-along to get-along hack. A guy whose calls pols would gladly return because they knew he would never challenge their wildest assertions, unsupported assumptions or bald-faced lies. He's like the kid who wants desperately to be in with the bad kids, so they can easily manipulate him to do things like eat dog turds while they laugh at him.
He said as much when he confessed that asking hard questions might mean empty seats on Sunday morning.
But he's gone beyond just being the sorry-ass loser who just wants to be liked by the cool kids by going ahead with a piece--a largely racist piece into the bargain--he knew to be wildly inappropriate. Why? Because just saying "Well, we already had it in the can and..." is just not a good enough reason. It's not a reason at all. News people, good ones anyway, especially at that level should be able to accommodate problems and come up with a back up--on the fly, if necessary. Upchuck couldn't run without a script? He didn't feel confident in his ability to wing it? And not only that, but this wasn't something that was dropped in his lap Sunday morning. He had a few days to change the rundown and come up with something else. In fact, he had plenty of time to edit a completely different package.
Why he didn't has two possible reasons, and they are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are intertwined. One. He's lazy. Two, he's incompetent. Remember the Peter Principle? Upchuck Todd is an example of someone rising to his own level of incompetence. He's never been a true newsman. Never really been nearly as knowledgeable and accomplished as NBC wanted to believe and wanted us to believe. He's always been a cheap hack. His predictions have most always been wrong. His insights are dreadfully uninsightful, and his questions are easy pitches like you see at first grade batting practice. Which brings us to corporate owned news operations. Fox is just the most obvious example of an operation run by and for specific ideological and political set of rules, but other operations are not immune to the requirements of not pissing off certain people. When you have corporate suits weighing in on who should and should not be able to speak with the network logo plastered across the screen, you're less likely to get hard-nosed, thoughtful, skeptical news people.
Much more likely, you'll get someone like Chuck Todd.
Oh yeah, it occurs to me that there's a third reason for Todd running that piece. Besides being lazy and incompetent. And this one may be the real reason.
Many of his guests, especially from the right side of the aisle, are either racists or friends and supporters of racists. And running that piece makes for a strong possibility that Chuck Todd is a friend of and supporter of racists and wants them all to know it. Wink, wink, "See? I get it. Those darkies are just sooooooo violent".
Pig.
I just finished reading David Remnick's take on the S.C. shooting where he marvels at the capacity for a few of the victim's relatives who profess forgiveness for Roof. (see below)
I consider myself a compassionate and empathetic person––have done a hell of a lot of forgiving in my lifetime––but I question why forgiveness for heinous acts such as this one is considered positive–-an act of mercy, as it were. Yes, I get the religious basis for this, but what kind of message is this, really? To forgive means to let loose of the hatred, or the fury or simply the terrible ache that will never leave and this forgiveness is directed at someone who has destroyed you and others because he, himself is a twisted, sick, despicable human being, who, from what I have read, is not one bit sorry for his actions and like most of these lone terrorists (yes, I am calling these kinds of shootings acts of terror) he wanted to shoot himself in the end, but had run out of bullets.
MLK proffered forgiveness after the church bombing in which young girls were killed. I recall being appalled at that. So I'm asking––why is this a good thing? Remnick mentions Roof's hatred of Jews, also––should we forgive those that perpetrated the Holocaust? How far should we go on this?
On another note: the character of Jesus says, "Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do." I always found this strange, if not somewhat amusing since this "Father" that Jesus is addressing is the God from the old testament who was a ruthless, hateful, vengeful, jealous sombitch who wasn't in the market for too much forgiving–-or mercy for that matter.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/mercy-and-a-manifesto-in-charleston
NRA acolytes have been virulently challenging the stories circulating last April that they enforce a gun ban at their national convention. While that's not entirely true, there have been partial bans at all national events, where their board members meet, at least since 2010. This means that at some level, they understand how stupid it is to let people with concealed and loaded weapons into places with a lot of people, something the Breitbart "writer" (see Marie's link, above) humping out the theory that bad guys are attracted to places with lots of people who are not carrying guns, appears not have considered. Just one reason for the quotes around the word writer. There are other reasons too....dense is one.
But I did read, in a piece about these decisions based in uncharacteristic common sense, this quote that says a lot about the mental state of some gun-humpers:
"NRA member Dan Utz of the Chicago area says he tries never to patronize establishments that don’t allow guns. In this case [a music event at Bridgestone Arena], he says he may have to break his rule.
'I paid for the tickets and they’re non-refundable, so I will probably go...Had I known before, I can’t say for sure that I wouldn’t have, but I would have strongly considered not [going].'"
He tries never to patronize establishments that don't allow guns. Now either he's making a personal statement of political preferences, or there's something else going on. What does it say about someone who is afraid to go anywhere without a loaded weapon? To a freakin' concert, fercrissakes. He wasn't going to Altamont to see the Stones, guarded by Hell's Angels, in 1969. He was going to see country musicians in Bridgestone Arena in the heart of downtown Nashville. But he almost didn't go because NO GUNS. What was he expecting? "Oh shit, that bass player hit a bad note. Where's my gun?" "Jesus, that guy spilled my beer! I'm gonna cap his ass." Or maybe it's just "Hey, baby. Wanna feel my magazine?"
There are some seriously fucked up people out there, guys.
PD,
Just a guess, but several ideas come to mind concerning your question about forgiveness in the face of what some would consider unforgiveable.
First, I think these people in Charleston who have lost loved ones because of who they were, and no other reason, are setting an example, which of course will be overlooked, by all those wingers who consider themselves sterling exemplars of the Christian faith. Forgiveness, like love of one's neighbor is a primary feature of the Christian religion. Love and forgiveness go hand in hand. But for many, the two never meet. In fact, the two rarely show up at all. Does anyone feel that famous self-professed holy roller George W. Bush knew anything about either love or forgiveness? He certainly didn't know much about truth or competency.
I'm not suggesting that we, as a nation, should turn the other cheek if we've been attacked, but we attacked the wrong people. And then hated them for it and kicked the shit out of them. We see too many examples (Westboro Baptists) of Christians who demonstrate hate and vengeance on a regular basis but little of forgiveness and love for one's neighbor (take their food stamps away, don't let them vote, put them in jail and throw away the keys and when they get out, kick them!).
The other side of it is the debilitating effect of hatred. Black Americans have plenty of reasons to hate if they so chose, but hatred is a terrible burden. Perhaps choosing to not act on your right to hate has the benefit of freeing you from decades of misery that can never be assuaged.
Just a thought.
If I were Lester Holt, I'd get up out of my shiny new anchor chair, walk down the hall, & box Chuck Todd's white-boy ears. Better yet, if Lester is also NBC's news director as Brian Williams was, he should go on Press the Meat this coming Sunday & fire Chuck on-air.
Marie
Marie,
Just read Charlie Pierce's take on Mr. Upchuck. He agrees with you that people (people, including Chuck) need to lose their jobs over this. Don't hold your breath. Todd is the safe choice for the Grahams and McCains and Pauls and Ryans and Brookses. He won't challenge them or ever make them feel uncomfortable so they'll come back every Sunday and build their shit towers in the sky. And it's obvious that that appeals to NBC execs more than having a professional journalist who seeks truth and doesn't easily suffer liars or fools.
Suffer away, Chuck. Your job as Media Mediocrity is secure.
And not for nothin' but Todd's excuse for this debacle was that his staff told him to hold the line. Seriously? I ask my staff for suggestions but then I do what I believe to be the right thing. If something goes sideways I don't point at them. Blaming your staff for your terrible decision is cowardly and shiftless.
Could you picture Walter Cronkite scurrying to cover his ass for something he showed on the air and whining "My staff. They told me to do it"?
Have some balls, douchebag. You fuck up, you take the hit. It's like a ballplayer blaming his batting coach when he strikes out.
Chuck Todd. He's not just incompetent. He's gutless too.
Ak kind of got me going with the "Campaigns...", not "Republican campaigns..." bit from the Post. Then I read this bit and .... http://news.yahoo.com/uniquely-nasty--the-u-s--governments-war-on-gays-191808993.html. This terrible person Republican Styles Bridges and his partner in assholeness from Wyoming reminded me verbatim of of Ted Cruz's Jeff Roe, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/meet-ted-cruz-karl-rove-jeff-roe. I think the only way to fight people this bad is to focus light on their abysmal past conduct. This is exactly opposite of what all the GOP candidates for president have done about running away from the racism celebrated by the confederate flag. They're waiting for this news cycle to change.
And while we're on the subject of brave Republicans running away...leave us not forget Li'l Randy (who seems to do quite a bit of running away, now that I think of it) and his BFF Jack Hunter, a co-author with Paul of the book "Teabaggers Go to Washington and Fuck.It.Up" or something, and former bigwig in the Paul political machine.
Here's the Little One with Hunter, and here's Hunter as he really is in his white supremacist heart of hearts.
I'd run too.
Oh, and btw, Randy's explanation for the Charleston terror killings? "Not understanding where salvation comes from."
??
I think my explanation is more logical: "I like peanut butter. Can you skate?"
150 years after the end of the Civil War and still much of the South is awash in virulent racism and the Stars and Bars still waves over Charleston. Why on earth did we bother sending millions of our citizens to their deaths for that result? We should have let them go, erected a big wall at the Mason-Dixon line and welcomed black escapees.
Calyban: I know you are partly being facetious, but having a CSA on the southern border would not have been the end of it, and unleashing "Manifest Destiny Slavery" on the Caribbean, Central America and some of our territories would have been a bigger strategic disaster than the Civil War. It would not have been tenable. And, assuming that the UK threw in with the Confederacy (as they leaned until Antietam), you can bet that Canada would not have been the amiable partner we have enjoyed since we last invaded them. The North really had no choice but to crush the rebellion (although Lord knows they tried to wriggle out for the first two years.)
The real error was in letting the rebel states and persons back into full polity before establishing a viable place in the economy, education system, and political life, for the ex-slaves. In many ways, we just allowed much of the old system to settle back in, under different names. And, recall that even in the North many hated slavery but wanted to have no truck with Africans. Southerners weren't and aren't the only racists round heah.
@digby's question about what was Chuck Todd thinking? IMHO he wasn't thinking.
I have been pondering of late how many generations it will take before the Black/White color line is erased--and racism is no longer an issue in our hazy/dazy nation? Wish I were a mathematician, so I could come up with a schema that would explain (theoretically) how many years it will take for our population to be so mixed that there will no longer be Black/White? Except, of course, in some very isolated areas--mostly in the South--where people copulate and reproduce with close (White) relatives.
All I can come up with is that this will not happen in OUR lifetimes. Our children's? Doubtful. Their children's? Also doubtful. Our great, great grandchildren? Just possibly. What do my more scientific and/or mathematical RC friends think?
P.S. This is the only reason I want to hang around for a very long time. I am absolutely obsessed with the idea of no racism. Cannot imagine America without it. What will be our next national delusion? Besides guns? (-:
Kate,
I think there are several general conditions that must be applied to any mathematical construct when considering racism.
First, the human factor. As long as humans subscribe to tribal relations, somthing we've only had for, oh, a couple million years, there will always be a certain amount of racism, even if it exists in small amounts. Since human nature is unlikely to change dramatically over the next 5 or 6 or even 10 generations (we're about 7 generations removed from the Civil War and Confederate battle flags still fly over official buildings in the South), we're faced with a problem.
If we translate this problem into a form of calculus it means that the goal of a society exhibiting no features of racial animosity would be similar to an asymptote which demonstrates that as the distance between a curve (the level of racism) and a line (a state free of all racism), approaches zero, they tend toward infinity. Meaning, you can get most of the way there, but not all the way.
But this is still largely theoretical. The world we live in is far from theoretical and all calculations in this universe must deal with the C factor (Confederates) which in turn is linked inextricably to the NBF constant (Nathan Bedford Forrest and his followers). The inclusion of these terms is sure to make the problem largely unsolvable (kinda like Forrest's Last Theorem). This may not be the case in all possible universes, but in our universe, the NBF constant has been a self-replicating term for centuries, even before it was known by that name.
So CxNBF will always be a limiting factor on the eradication of racism.
In other words, assholes add up to problems for a long time, battle flag or no battle flag.