"Well hello there,” the call begins as the sounds of drums and monkeys can be heard in the background, according to the New York Times. “I is Andrew Gillum."WaPo is amplifying the call, and it seems likely that everyone who might vote in Florida will at least read the text of the call. I've long been skeptical of exaggerated racist incidents — like the recent case of the man that urinated on a little girl and called her the N-word. I didn't blog that when it came out, because I didn't want to amplify a lie, which is what it turned out to be.
"We Negroes . . . done made mud huts while white folk waste a bunch of time making their home out of wood an stone."
The speaker goes on to say he'll pass a law letting African Americans evade arrest “if the Negro know fo' sho he didn't do nothin'."
It is unclear how many people heard the call.
A spokesman for the GOP candidate for governor (Ron DeSantis) said: "This is absolutely appalling and disgusting — and hopefully whoever is behind this has to answer for this despicable action. Our campaign has and will continue to focus solely on the issues that Floridians care about and uniting our state as we continue to build on our success."
The robocall seems designed to keep alive the accusation that DeSantis displayed racism when he said "The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. That is not going to work. That’s not going to be good for Florida."
The word "monkey" — even used as a verb — was portrayed as intentionally stimulating racial feelings against the black candidate Gillum. The new robo call "begins as the sounds of... monkeys can be heard in the background."
It was Gillum supporters who made the "monkey this up" quote go viral, so I assume they think that accusations that the other candidate is racist helps Gillum's cause, and the new robocall leans in the same direction. But maybe you think DeSantis has more to gain from that robocall, because people really are racist and will be moved to vote against Gillum. I think it's more likely that the racist interpretation of "monkey up" and the follow-on robocall will edge people toward showing that they are not racist, which they can do by voting for Gillum. I don't have a way to know the mind of the Florida voter, but I suspect that the words after "monkey this up" — "by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state"— are what have the most power to move the voters, and the racism charges are a wonderful distraction.
So who made the robocall?
A disclaimer at the end of the robo-call says it was produced by the Road to Power, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic group based in Idaho. The Southern Poverty Law Center has noted a recent rise in robo-calls across the country, describing them as a “new, high-tech, computer-delivered brand of hate,” according to the Times.If you were making a false-flag robocall, it would be clever to end it with the assertion that it was produced by the Road to Power. I don't know why the Washington Post calls that a "disclaimer." It's a claimer, not a disclaimer, but I don't know if it's true. At least WaPo tried to reach Rhodes, but if you asked him if he made these robocalls, what would he say, and how would you know if he was lying?
The Road to Power is also the group behind the most unsubtle attempt to turn the killing of Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa into anti-immigration policy and a 2018 campaign talking point....
According to the Des Moines Register, the man producing the robo-calls is named Scott Rhodes, of Sandpoint, Idaho. He has been linked to similar campaigns in California, Alexandria, Va., and Charlottesville. Rhodes could not immediately be reached for comment.
You know, there's a lot of fakery out there, a lot of chaos-making and trollery. We need to handle it well, and yet what's happening — instead of us all learning good skepticism — is seizing upon whatever pops out and leveraging it for your own political cause. That is, roiling emotion and adding to the confusion.
Posts
128 comments:
It's gotta be from the Russians, right?
"It's gotta be from the Russians, right?"
Exactly.
I was going to put that in the post, but I worried about too many layers of confusion.
"This is absolutely appalling and disgusting — and hopefully whoever is behind this has to answer for this despicable action.
it seems Really Unlikely that the Gillum campaign will EVER have to answer for this
"I think it's more likely that the racist interpretation of "monkey up" and the follow-on robocall will edge people toward showing that they are not racist, which they can do by voting for Gillum."
Is that why you voted for that airhead weasel Obama? In the privacy of the voting booth, you were suddenly overcome by the need to prove you are not racist, even though no one would know it but you. Perhaps you are the one who needs to be convinced. What if you were racist. Would that be so bad? Which is worse, racist or willfully oblivious?
The outrage trigger is the only problem.
There are too many women in the audience.
...has noted a recent rise in robo-calls across the country
No shit. The feds have surrendered. I've petitioned the FCC to ban user access to caller ID. This feature should be owned and operated by the licensed utility.
So far they have ignored my petition, and so has both of my Senators.
I believe Caller ID will result in the total collapse of the telephone system.
Get your money out of telephone stocks.
I currently am showing over 100 phone numbers in my block list, and it is fruitless, as they just pick another random number.
They’re still doing that?
The fly is not reasoning well just now. A man buzzes at its ears. This is enough to render it incapable of good advice. If I would have it find truth, I should chase away this animal which holds its reason in check and disquiets that intelligence which governs kingdoms.
- Lautreamont
Yeah, the robocalls, of which I get several a day, are random dialed calls. They do use the area code and, since I have a 949 area code on my cell phone, they tend to be 949 area code. Many people keep cell phone numbers when they move.
My phone ringer has been off since 1990, which is completely successful in blocking robocalls.
This is also how you distract the media from reporting honestly about the deficiencies in your candidate's position, by giving them something simple to flap their gums about.
That the media willingly follows their masters' lead speaks for itself.
"Don't follow leaders, watch the mediaers," a poet once said.
Caller ID is a Trojan Horse
Write your Senators and Congresspersons, that if they don't fix Caller ID, you will help fund Moslem ISIL terrorists.
It's too over the top to have come from Repubs. However, it's not too over the top to come from the side that thinks all Repubs think and speak like this. It's Bullshit with a capital B. I would look first at groups from David Brock's lineup. Who funds SPLC? (beside millions of good-hearted individuals mistakenly thinking they're doing good).
This is too over the top, and of course, the media thinks this is how much of the country thinks. WaPo runs with this?
It's so over the top, it's as if it came from someone who doesn't even live here, but knows the media will peddle anything that paints half the country like this.
Bone up, people. This is Bullshit. Gillum (and his team) are playing this way too much already. It's pathetic.
Michael K said...
"Yeah, the robocalls, of which I get several a day, are random dialed calls."
If they are random-dialed, why do you get several a day? I don't get any.
After the Dylan Roof shooting, white people were asked to examine their racial biases. After the Mollie Tibbets murder, white people were asked to examine their biases.
I call bullshit, without the civility.
If it weren't for hoaxes, we'd have no incidences.
"However, it's not too over the top to come from the side that thinks all Repubs think and speak like this."
Indeed. LLR Chuck often speaks of Trump voters in precisely this way. Exactly as the leftists do.
Hmmmmmmm
America's a big country, and you don't have to travel far and wide to find some lunatic spouting racist nonsense. But why do the media pretend that such a person is some kind of spokesman for white people. There are, on a per capital basis, far more lunatics on the other side of barrier. David Duke will not be invited to attend Doris Day's funeral.
"Kingfish, I is regusted."
One thing I notice, is that my wifes Google Phone system is pretty effective at blocking calls. When I open the spam folder it shows a bunch of calls each day. Which is nice, because she doesn't want to waste time clicking the block feature.
My T-Mobile phone shows many of them as "Likely Scam" as a free service. You can block these automatically using your account settings.
You can also pay $4 a month for added feature of seeing a name instead of a number. This was pretty neat, as they gave me a 30 day trial. But I somehow resent having to pay for it. Congress should pay for it. Along with free education and free food, and free F-35 airplanes for Israel.
There have been so many so called "racial incidents" that when videos are released, all of the perpetrators have been black. So, my knee jerk reaction is to say bullshit.
Ann Althouse said...
"It's gotta be from the Russians, right?"
Exactly.
I was going to put that in the post, but I worried about too many layers of confusion.
Too subtle Ann.
They are leftists. They won’t figure it out.
William said......you don't have to travel far and wide to find some lunatic
Free-Ranging Insane
They even get Go Fund Me pages...
The Monkey Wrench Gang were pro-monkeying:
[The book] was so influential that the term "monkeywrench" has come to mean, besides sabotage and damage to machines, any sabotage, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems.
Here's Wikipedia on Monkey Wrench:
The monkey wrench, known as gas grips in the UK, is an adjustable wrench.... The term monkey wrench is also used colloquially to refer to the pipe wrench, owing to their broadly similar shapes.
These are also known as a Ford wrench owing to this type of wrench being included in the tool kit supplied with every Ford Model A. They are still used by aircraft technicians, chiefly when large but low torque fasteners are involved....
The World English Dictionary gives a nautical definition for monkey, as a modifier "denoting a small light structure or piece of equipment contrived to suit an immediate purpose: a monkey foresail ; a monkey bridge."
Sounds like Mr. Rhodes is making a monkey out of the media. But that's a different derivation.
Total false flag, and almost certainly from a group trying to make the list-information voters think it cake from the right.
Maybe the NYT’s new white-hating editor commissioned it.
I call total BS.
All I know is that Gillum wants to raise taxes on businesses by 40% and turn us into Illinois. No, thanks. I'll vote for DeSantis.
"No shit. The feds have surrendered. I've petitioned the FCC to ban user access to caller ID. This feature should be owned and operated by the licensed utility."
My solution is not to answer the phone unless I can see who's calling.
The phone is becoming useless.
Didn't McCain accuse GW Bush of the same thing based entirely on one woman's second account of her son receiving a call in South Carolina?
And McCain invited Bush to his funeral, where he gave Michelle Obama a candy.
Listen to Joe Liberman droning on about "one of" McCain's "favorite targets"... [you have to turn on the volume to hear the audio]
One of his favorite targets was the sabbath elevators in Israel hotels, preprogrammed to stop at every floor. John had many virtues, but patience was not one of them. Therefore, a ride on those shabot elevators weren't the happiest times we spent together. I say this to say in stories how full and genuine were his acceptance of my practices which were different from what he knew, but to make a larger point. I can tell you everything we did together around the world and here in Washington and across America, he showed that same acceptance, respect, curiosity about everybody's religious observances, and about everything else about them that was different from himself and his own experiences.
"there's a lot of fakery out there, a lot of chaos-making and trolley. We need to handle it well, and yet what's happening — instead of us all learning good skepticism — is seizing upon whatever pops out and leveraging it for your own political cause. That is, roiling emotion and adding to the confusion."
What confusion? Dems gonna race-bait. Prove you're not a racist by voting for the lefty black man/woman. Worked in '08, when moderates I know said they were going to vote for the "best person" who was more "pragmatic."
Anyway, lamenting "chaos" and "confusion" and "roiling emotion" is allowing yourself to be manipulated by the prog shtick. They now play on the emotion that politics has gotten too emotional. "Vote Dem to dial it down." It's a clever conceit to enable emotion-driven, rather than ideology- or policy-driven, voters to rationalize their vote unemotionally. It'll work.
"I currently am showing over 100 phone numbers in my block list, and it is fruitless, as they just pick another random number."
Right. It's not worth your time to block those calls. Just stop answering the phone. See if they leave a message. I occasionally get one that leaves a message — it seems to always be in Chinese.
Jupiter said......random-dialed
The phone number they are calling from is random. They pick one, and Congress and the FCC doesn't care that they have this terrorist access point.
Never make a monkey out of a molehill.
Monkey Wrench
What have we done with innocence?
It disappeared with time, it never made much sense
Adolescent resident
Wasting another night on planning my revenge
One in ten
One in ten
One in ten
Don't wanna be your monkey wrench
One more indecent accident
I'd rather leave than suffer this
I'll never be your monkey wrench
All this time to make amends
What do you do when all your enemies are friends?
Now and then I'll try to bend
Under pressure, wind up snapping in the end
Temper One last thing before I quit!
I never wanted any more than I could fit into my head!
I still remember every single word you said,
And all the shit that somehow came along with it!
Still, there's one thing that comforts me
Since I was always caged and now I'm free
Don't wanna be your monkey wrench
One more indecent accident
I'd rather leave than suffer this
A twitterverse of Machiavellis. With IP phone and PR tools all available free on a 30 day trial. So much noise. The one who can shout the loudest is the winner?
I had a problem with my landline for over two months. Apparently AT& T had a cable cut somewhere and that took a while to fix then the cable from there to another cable was also cut and had to be fixed and then from the street to the house.......just as I was blissfully no longer bothered by robocalls and pleasantly surprised by how nice it is not to bothered as soon as it was all finally fixed, tada, the harassment resumes.
As for Gillum, he is the sacrificial lamb for the Democrats. A Communist isn't going to get elected governor of Florida.
If I got a call like this, it wouldn't move me to vote for the black candidate to prove I'm not a racist. If anything, it would make me want to prove I can't be intimidated. There's no way the Republicans are behind these calls. So it's either an un-sanctioned group or the Democrats themselves. I know where my suspicions are.
My voicemail explicitly tells people if I don’t recognize the number I probably wont answer and to leave a message if they want to get a message to me.
So who made the robocall?
Crack did it.
If people want to talk to me, they need to leave a message. Our business is required to have a phone number by the state, but we aren’t required to answer it. 20th century stuff these phones. I have three millennial daughters who live in other states, getting to an actual phone conversation does not start with dialing their number.
The robocalls have metastasized to the cell. I no longer answer unless I see the name of someone I know on caller ID. Better yet, don't call me at all unless you first text and ask if I am available. The telephone, as noted, has become useless.
Rhodes to face the music
....
Rhodes apparently moved to Bonner County sometime in 2015 and, along with mounting race- and gender-baited robocall and e-mail campaigns against Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad’s successful run for office, was caught on video leaving CDs of anti-Semitic material on the cars and trucks of students at SHS last November.
He also has been accused of harassing a black Sandpoint businessman with hate mail that, one mailing at a time, spelled out the N-word and sending bogus magazine subscriptions addressed to “Stu Pidkune” to the same individual.
Rhodes, it should be noted, denies any involvement in the above events. And, even if he was involved, he was quoted as saying in a subsequent news article, it wasn’t illegal, anyway. He does, however, appear to be directly involved in an online podcast called The Road to Power, where a host who has been identified as Rhodes broadcasts to a total of 19 online subscribers with Nazi-themed anti-Semitic and anti-African American propaganda. The robocalls that spurred Beights to action closed with information that they were “paid for by RoadtoPower.com.”
In many episodes — the latest post is dated from about a week ago — the unnamed host, Nazi cap and all, announces that the podcast originates from “very white, very racist North Idaho.”
In a separate series of robocalls targeting U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein of California as “a traitorous Jew,” the caller alleged to be Rhodes invited people to “relocate to North Idaho, where very white is very right.”
Multiple attempts to contact the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force — which, in the past, has played a pivotal role in battling racism in the region — were not successful and calls and e-mails went unreturned.
Beights, meanwhile, hopes to use legal avenues to turn the tables on the caller. Inspired by whimsy, he will, if approved by the county, have his army of clown accordionists play the Carly Rae Jepsen song “Call Me Maybe” over and over again as an artistic thumbing of the nose.
“Because Rhodes is spending his life making unwanted phone calls to people, I thought that was the right choice,” he said. “And have you heard that song? It’s terrible.”
Which, according to Beights, makes it perfect. One can’t help but recall the news footage of beleaguered Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega, who finally surrendered to U.S. troops after being subjected to classic rock music played at full volume day and night outside his compound. Was the Charlottesville accordion player inspired by that scene?
“Well,” he confessed, “I did think of Gen. Noriega.
“But our intent is not to disturb anyone other than Mr. Rhodes,” he added. “Hopefully, people will understand our intent and come out and jam with us.”
Previous accordion experience is not mandatory, Beights pointed out, as he expects to have plenty of experienced players on hand due to his musical contacts across the nation.
“The accordion community is a strong one,” he said. “It’s just a group of like-minded, free-spirited individuals, so it’s easy to pull them together.”
Additionally — as if it extracts any of the unbridled terror from the mental image of clowns playing accordions — Beights stressed that “anyone who is scared should know that we’re not real clowns.”
“It’s these guys on the fringe who are a bunch of clowns,” he said. “They’re silly, so we’re going to be silly, too. In our current environment, we’ve started treating them like they deserve our attention. That’s why I’m planning this — to give them the kind of attention they deserve.”
....
It is more likely than not that the call, if it occurred at all, is being put up by Gillum supporters. I write this because of the quotes from the call- it is just too ham-handed and stereotypical to likely be an authentic example of racism- it really is a caricature of a racist.
However, I think this sort of thing has lost its effectiveness- you can only play the race card so often before people just start ignoring it altogether.
That is, roiling emotion and adding to the confusion.
They use the tactic because it has served them well in the past with about 50% of the electorate.
However, I think this sort of thing has lost its effectiveness- you can only play the race card so often before people just start ignoring it altogether.
The White people being called racist are learning to ignore it or fight back...but I bet it works extremely well in motivating Black voters who are told every day that this is how White people think and behave.
Sniff. A distinct lack of imagination.
As Ms. McArdle famously said: racism isn't loud; it's a rolled eye. A hidden nod. A quite emphasized word with a fellow adherent.
So this is someone trying to troll voters and drum up sympathy, liberal guilt...what not.
And after MOST racist incidents have been created by the minority in question, just as three out of three headline rape cases have been proven false, I think I would feel resentful.
Not that any journalist is driven to dig out the facts on this. They have their racial scapegoat. Story over and now we move on to the character assassination.
There's only two races left:
1. Assholes
2. Darlings
Generally speaking, only assholes want to be in politics.
I mean, look at McCain and Kerry. Their rich wives know what's what.
I've been thinking about changing my Voicemail forward to the FBI in Dallas.
Give the bastards something to do besides spam non-Progressives.
Only the people with best intentions make robocalls like that-- nothing to see here lets just go golfing again.
It’s so consistent with the Dem’s “they’re going to put y’all back in chains” schtick that it couldn’t be anyone else. Funny how artless it is. They must think their target audience is really, really, stupid.
"Right. It's not worth your time to block those calls. Just stop answering the phone. See if they leave a message. I occasionally get one that leaves a message — it seems to always be in Chinese."
IPhones and iPads have a feature for responding to incoming calls with a text message of your choosing. I have one that says, essentially: "text me your contact information and I will call you back". I use it over not answering in most cases to keep the annoying rings down, if I don't recognize the caller. Only gotten one response, a complaint by someone in PHX that they didn't call me and we're going to beat my ass if I didn't go away. Which reinforces what Dr K said - many, if not most of the caller ids you see are fake, and many of these callers pick the fake number based on your number. Sometimes you see just your area code, but sometimes you see the first six digits of your phone number, and, for me, still using a N NV telephone number, that is a dead giveaway of being fake (so I don't give them a courtesy of sending that text message, just immediately rejecting those calls. Let me add that it looks like any calls with numbers prefixed with a "1" country code are also probably fake - you can't text them, for one thing.
It’s also a comment on how radically the Dem’s MSM machine is cratering. If the old agitprop was still working there’d be no need to risk being caught at these sort of monkeyshines.
"I occasionally get one that leaves a message — it seems to always be in Chinese."
That's interesting as I thought it had to do with the California area code.
My kids never answer the phone. I have to text them.
I have all the numbers I want to answer on caller ID on the cell phone so, if I see a 949 call I don't recognize, it goes to voicemail.
isnt that how we got Sharpton?
This is the modus operandi of Nigerian phishers. Also, a signature practice of the diversity racket.
Black hole... whore.
Stoking diversity. Vote for us. Send us money.
Tibbetts was an American victim of an illegal alien. This differs from homegrown criminals. Each community is responsible for policing their own. The anti-nativist factions of the left of center, and the businesses that exploit labor arbitrage, need to be exposed for what they normalize in America, in Mexico, and abroad.
SPLC is at the forefront of stoking diversity and anti-nativism.
My fellow Floridians, in case you have not seen a photo of me I wish to take this opportunity to state my entire platform: "Race, Race, Race". ( And screw the FBI stool pigeons))
Gahrie said...“The White people being called racist are learning to ignore it or fight back...but I bet it works extremely well in motivating Black voters who are told every day that this is how White people think and behave.”
I think that’s the goal, and it’s despicable.
I’m trying to figure out a strategy for dealing with all the robocalls, and this thread is useful. I still have a land line and a flip phone. I may need to ditch the land line and upgrade to an iPhone.
Gahrie's comment (11:22) certainly explains Crack, doesn't it?
Question. Could the Democrats hope to survive as a party unless they can keep the majority of black voters poor? If black voters earn enough money to feel the pinch of taxes what will become of Democrat economic policies?
Hello? Hello? Goodbye.
"I call total BS."
Yup. False flag for sure.
Phony racial incidents happen all the time on college campuses. It's a growing industry.
roesch/voltaire said...Only the people with best intentions make robocalls like that-- nothing to see here lets just go golfing again.
--
Right? I mean..like..this is a national crisis!
Just think what those 19 subscribers of his might do!
Only the people with best intentions make robocalls like that-- nothing to see here lets just go golfing again.
There is no anti-Republican calumny so blatantly preposterous that R/V won’t swallow it whole.
Michael K said...”That's interesting as I thought it had to do with the California area code.”
I get the Chinese calls too and I live in Madison.
As Ms. McArdle famously said: racism isn't loud; it's a rolled eye. A hidden nod. A quite emphasized word with a fellow adherent.
She seems pretty up on it. That’s what writers call authentic detail. The kinds of stuff their readers read and say, “wow, that person must really come from that milieu.”
Original Mike said......I may need to ditch the land line
Yes. Look at the taxes you are paying! Pull the plug.
We have a cable Internet so have pretty reliable access. I bought an OBI200 for my wife, and plugged it into the router and the home phone lines.
Then you go to Google Voice and pick a phone number, and you will get your phone service via the Internet for free. We picked a number in Dallas (doesn't have to be in your town) so my wife could talk to her friends and business suppliers as a local call.
I think they have better things than the OBI200 now. We didn't need FAX, so there is a model with two lines, and I suspect a more modern version. Ours is a few years old.
Google Voice web page, and Google Hangout are both easy to use.
Megan McArdle knows that because that’s how she and her companions react when they catch a whiff of the Trump support if their travels take them anywhere near a WalMart.
Then you go to Google Voice and pick a phone number, and you will get your phone service via the Internet for free.
If you aren’t paying, you are the product.
Regarding robocalls. We lost our land line at the very beginning of a lengthy Verizon strike, and we learned that all we missed out on were the political polling, push polling, and robocalls. We got along with cell phones and no land line perfectly well. So when we downsized to our new home we didn't bother and after two years still don't miss our land line.
We do get robocalls on our cell phones now and then, including Chinese language ones. We have a friend who speaks Mandarin, and according to her the message tells us that we must report to the Chinese embassy immediately. Some sort of scam, we presume. We perhaps got on their list because we attended that woman's wedding. Who knows?
I had a service from Verizon that was pretty good at flagging stuff as potential spam. It cost $3 a month, but was worth it. But they have found a way around it. So now I just figure that if it’s important, they will leave a message, and I have “visual voicemail” so I can see at a glance whats in a message. The phone company could identify the culprit, and they should do so.
A good question to ask yourself is who is being motivated to vote in which direction by these calls? Do genuine anti-black racists really need to be prompted this far in advance of the election to vote against the guy? Personally, I am voting against him because his socialist policies are nuts.
There is no roiling confusion.
There is just racist race baiting, by the media and the Democrats.
The Republicans are not participating in any of this. They are defending themselves against hideous false accusations.
Let's be very clear about who is playing and who is not playing.
Anybody who thinks he deliberately used the word 'monkey' as a reference to his opponent's race is screwed in the head.
I mean, really? Even David Duke isn't that stupid.
Which prompts the question: How do pollsters poll if nobody answers the phone for them?
The morning after the recent flooding in the Madison area, both cell service and cable internet was out for a few hours.
Landline worked fine. We only have one phone in the house hooked up to the landline, but it was a good reminder about reliabiljty.
It's a Moby attack all the way. It's fake, but TROOF!
Maybe Crackwhore did it. He's good at audio recording, and at monkeying up things.
Interesting that Scott D. Rhodes thinks that Sandpoint, and nearby, would be a good place for that sort of thing any more. Sure, 20-30 years ago when the FBI killed Vicki Weaver up on Ruby Ridge, 20 miles north, and the skin heads and militias were dominating Hayden Lake 30 miles south, but that sort of white supremist racism has been priced out of that area. My partner is kicking herself for walking away from a nice chunk of land by Hayden Lake because of the militia people there at the time. Hayden Lake is now a suburb of Coeur D'Alene, that has some of the most expensive real estate in ID. And those who can't afford CdA, are going to Sandpoint. I was looking at real estate there maybe a month ago, and it's gotten a bit pricey.
A friend of mine, who lives on the same lake as Sandpoint (Pend O'rielle), flies a lot, and ends up in 1st class a bit as a result. Which means that he ends up sitting next to a number of rich people flying in and out of Spokane. One seat mate in particular made an impression. He had a fund named after him, that this friend recognized, and had moved from Vail to CdA, because he could get what he had in Vail at a much lower altitude, and had a nice lake right by too. And a dozen of his friends had followed him. We are talking multimillion dollar rustic log cabins on the lake there. A lot of them. Lake CdA though has bad wind for sailing, so is mostly a motorboat lake (a bunch of big fast ones, and old classic varnished wood speed boats). Pend O'Rielle, 40 miles north, has better wind (sailboat race there this weekend), and a good ski area right by Sandpoint. Not Vail level of course, but still maybe a dozen lifts, and recently huge amounts of snow, so that in May you can ski in the morning and sail in the afternoon, not 20 miles away. Pend O'Rielle is unique in lakes. Deep enough that it doesn't freeze, and seismically inactive, which is why the Navy does sonic research at the other end of the lake. And with the spillover money from CdA moving to Sandpoint, it has gotten nicely yuppified. Art galleries, nice restaurants, quaint shops, etc. I keep trying to talk my partner into selling this place and moving down river to Sandpoint, to no avail, since she has 30 years of history here, and where they raised their kids in the summers to get them out of the AZ heat.
A long way of saying that racism, white supremacy, etc are much less tolerated around that part of N ID than it was 20-30 years ago. I think that the general tenor of the article that Walter linked to showed this.
Funny that they used the word 'Negro' instead of the Forbidden Word.
"I occasionally get one that leaves a message — it seems to always be in Chinese."
What a racist assumption! You hear some kind of Sino-Tibetan language and ASSUME it's Chinese. Do you know Chinese? Did you ever study it? Do you know anyone who speaks it? Can you even distinguish it from other East Asian languages?
It could just as easily be Thai, Laotian, Hmong, or some other ching-chong.
”Landline worked fine. We only have one phone in the house hooked up to the landline, but it was a good reminder about reliabiljty.”
That’s why we’ve kept it, and the answering machine works as a filter, but I’m getting fed up with the robocalls and the expense. The answering machine is starting to get flaky. I think it’s death will be the cue to pull the plug.
Regarding Google voice, I won’t have anything to do with Google. They are evil.
Ann,
"I've long been skeptical of exaggerated racist incidents — like the recent case of the man that urinated on a little girl and called her the N-word."
How many incidents did I post, here, on that same day - which turned out to be real? It's funny how they've all been ignored, so white people can (repeatedly) crow they found an untrue one - which they act like apparently negates all the others, plus their effects on blacks across the nation (who are used to seeing this type of behavior) I guess. They don't exist because ONE WAS WRONG.
For people who claim not to be "white people" y'all sure do have a strange way of collectively acting on certain stories (and not others), coming to the same conclusions, etc.
Here's my weird take.
We have all this crap, because of one reason.
Women vote.
If only men voted, nobody would care. If someone wanked on about "racism" - the other guys would say "Suck it up, buttercup - talk about politics".
But because of women - its all about feelings. And harsh words. And being a victim.
9/2/18, 1:38 PM Delete
Ann,
"You know, there's a lot of fakery out there, a lot of chaos-making and trollery."
Yes, and I know we're not taking it seriously, or the fact the Left unleashed it.
"We need to handle it well, and yet what's happening — instead of us all learning good skepticism — is seizing upon whatever pops out and leveraging it for your own political cause."
How many times does science have to remind us facts are not going to get us there? We have to take action. Y'all are not defending "free speech" when you defend deliberate liars - which is what we're dealing with - not "an opposing point of view".
"That is, roiling emotion and adding to the confusion."
I see most people as doing that now, because cowardice dictates it as the safest route, while trying to look engaged.
Here's my weird take.
It's not that weird...I've been saying the same thing for more than a decade.
Repeal the 19th.
"The Road to Power is also the group behind the most unsubtle attempt to turn the killing of Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa into anti-immigration policy and a 2018 campaign talking point"
-- So they're like David Hogg?
"Which is worse, racist or willfully oblivious?"
-- Racist. Not noticing things, or even being like the parents who don't turn a blind eye to their kids worse traits, is a failing, but not as great a moral failing as racism.
How many times does science have to remind us facts are not going to get us there? We have to take action. Y’all are not defending "free speech" when you defend deliberate liars - which is what we're dealing with - not "an opposing point of view".
Who gets the power to decide when somebody is a liar? Because that person then has the power to decide everything you get to know. I know it’s complicated, Crack, but yeah, if the liar is not breaking any laws, I don’t want to hand over the power to another person to decide what is and isn’t complete bullshit.
There is roughly a snowball's chance in hell that these calls had anything to do with either candidate.
"There are 4 charges pending against your name, and you need to call us before the local cops take you into custody."
Messages like that are why you still need to have a landline. I'm just grateful the IRS gave me the chance to settle this before the local cops were involved. It is also encouraging that the IRS is outsourcing to agents on the subcontinent: your tax dollars hard at work.
For that matter, Crack, do you want someone else deciding which opinions you can and can't hear? Don't trust yourself to sort through it all?
Robother
That is my second favorite scam call, the first being an Indian man informing me he has deduced a problem with my computer. I love to get those calls and play along for as long as I can keep the caller from understanding he is wasting his time. It usually ends when I tell them my screen, after his many prompts, reads "Go fuck yourself." I love those calls.
Diversitist, with a foundation of colorful clumps of cells. Denying individual dignity and color judgments.
"A long way of saying "
Indeed.
”That is my second favorite scam call, the first being an Indian man informing me he has deduced a problem with my computer. I love to get those calls and play along for as long as I can keep the caller from understanding he is wasting his time. It usually ends when I tell them my screen, after his many prompts, reads "Go fuck yourself." I love those calls.”
Last month I strung one of these guys out for two days. After 20 minutes or so I told him I had to look into what he was telling me and to call me back tomorrow. Surprisingly, he did!
You know, there's a lot of fakery out there, a lot of chaos-making and trollery. We need to handle it well.
Penn Jillette had an interesting formulation in a recent interview, roughly paraphrasing, ‘For the entirety of human history our problems were too few calories and too little information, but now our problems are too many calories and too much information. We have to adjust.’
In other words, we need to become experts at winnowing fact from fiction given too much information. Right now we’re really bad at it so we’re reverting to tribal impulses.
"Scare the voters" calls are a staple of D politics in Florida. Lawton Chiles did the same thing against Jeb Bush in the 90's.
Of course, Chiles and team denied it for years, but truth did eventually come out.
I suspect the same thing happened here. And as others have pointed out, if these were real racists, they would not have used the word "negro".
To me, the only story here is: Did Gillum know this was going to happen?
The only hope the Democrats have down here is to mount the auger bit and dig. This is only the first shot.
It will maximize black turnout. It's also reflects what they think of their opposition. It is also fun. Immediate vs deferred gratification. DeSantis is certainly no paragon, but he will win with historic numbers. It's going to be spectacularly ugly.
The man nominally behind Road To Power is real and has used robocall tactics before. This particular one doesn't quite fit with his style so I'm not so sure it wasn't a false flag which credited his organization, but it could have been him, or not.
I listened to a bit of his podcasts and he's a Nazi, a real one, or at least that's his claim. He has about 20 followers on his podcasts and he could be the real deal or he could be an agent provocateur.
Someone is supporting him and if we assess who benefits, then he may well be a complete fraud. He is much too well spoken and [mis]informed, particularly about the Jews, to fit the profile of a typical American Nazi - all three of them.
Of his 20 followers, I estimate that 4 are FBI agents, two are CIA, and 2 are from the ADL.
Most of the others are commies who got confused.
I suspect it's a fake, but after all, we all are big monkees.
tim in vermont said...
"Who gets the power to decide when somebody is a liar?"
That is tough, isn't it? They make it so difficult these days.
If only there was some way to narrow it down,...
tim in vermont said...
"For that matter, Crack, do you want someone else deciding which opinions you can and can't hear? Don't trust yourself to sort through it all?"
None of your off-the-shelf arguments (meaning unoriginal, meaning you're patronizing me as though you think I'm as silly as you are, meaning you're clueless to anything but dogma) are what I'm talking about. I'm not a Jr. High school kid taking civics for the first time, tim. SO OF COURSE I DON'T WANT SOMEONE ELSE DECIDING WHICH OPINIONS WE CAN AND CAN'T HEAR - Y'HEAR?
Why I'm compelled to talk to someone, dumb enough to imagine an adult American would think otherwise, is beyond me.
Is this like how Hillary was "disgusted" that all the little children heard Trumps Access Hollywood tape when her campaign was the one talking about it 20 times a day?
I'm looking at the video I posted and wondering, what in the world do you guys think would be so terrible about America, if Tyler Henry couldn't get taken seriously? If we saw LESS of LaToya Jackson, Theresa Caputo or Rosie O'Donnell? All those liberal newscasters? What would the political fallout be? How could it be bad in this media environment?
I'm not talking about choosing anyone to be Reality Czar - just take reality seriously enough to act like it exists.
I tried to analyze the phrases in that call to see if they identify a speaker from any particular place in the USA. I didn't get anywhere as I'm not an expert but based on Google searches and my memories of the Fifties it did seem like a non-native speaker stringing together phrases mostly from books and TV of the Forties and Fifties.
Mr. Nazi does use the term "Negro" in his podcasts
"We Negroes" is a term used by Langston Hughes and Richard Wright in the Forties. "White folk" is a term used by WEB DuBois.
"Well hello there" is a phrase Hispanics use.
"making their home" is used in the Midwest.
"made out of wood and stone" is a phrase from the Deuteronomy "idols made out of wood and stone"
"didn't do nothin" is a phrase that English teachers attacked when used by students in the Fifties but I'm not sure they still teach grammar in the schools.
The way in which this person imagines blacks speaking "if the Negro know fo' sho he did not do nothin.” isn't the way in which they are shown speaking on the media and hasn't been for years - but it is the way they were shown in the Fifties. The current trend is street talk or standard English or switching between the two - and has been since the Nineties, at least.
In short, this is more clearly out-of-date speech patterns than it is any ethnic group of region. Maybe it's the Russians!!! ничего́ себе́!
The attention being paid to the "Negro" tape is proof, if you needed any, that the Florida Democrats (and probably Democrats elsewhere) are worried as Hell that they're going to lose a significant percentage of the Black vote. The Republicans don't need to get very much of the Black vote to skewer the Democrats, because the Dems need awfully close to 100%, and good turn-out, to win. "Racism" is a strategy to do that. It's worked before.
"Hands up, don't shoot! was a lie and you have to accept it!"
"Fine - let's unravel more lies."
"Oh, we can't do that - Freedom of Speech."
I should mention that Mr. Nazi is a young man so he wouldn't naturally come up with all this Forties/Fifties out-of-date stuff. It took work to get it all wrong like that.
an political campaign, that doesn't mention his long standing fbi investigation, Shirley they can't be serious?
Y'know 99% of us, who aren't racist, don't immediately think of watermelon, fried chicken, Aunt Jemiana, primates, cotton, lawn ornaments, criminals, laziness, etc. when we see a black person.
I guess its a Boomer thing.
Until you characters die off, we'll have to continue with this nonsense.
As someone else stated up thread, the Democrats have to CONSTANTLY beat the racism drum because they need 90% of blacks to vote Democrat or they're finished.
Hey, the KKK is coming for you black folks, better go out and vote Democrat!
”I guess its a Boomer thing.”
Boomers don’t either.
Here's the stupidest thing about the whole "racist dog-whistle" claim.
If one of the candidates is white and the other is black, the racist isn't going to vote for the black candidate. Because he's a racist.
No whistling required.
Why I’m compelled to talk to someone, dumb enough to imagine an adult American would think otherwise, is beyond me.
Then who the fuck is going to shut up Alex Jones?
Let’s move the conversation forward then
:
What was your comment about Alex Jones being a “conservative hero” about because many here defended his right to free speech?
what in the world do you guys think would be so terrible about America, if Tyler Henry couldn't get taken seriously? If we saw LESS of LaToya Jackson, Theresa Caputo or Rosie O'Donnell?
Please expand on this thought. How will we see less of them? What will the mechanism be? Will trusted people decide what we should and should not see?
Lying is a national pastime. As far as mediums go there might be a valid one but James Randi has found only false ones. Wealth is achieved by hidden knowledge. How much deceit is needed to stay hidden?
A disclaimer at the end of the robo-call says it was produced by the Road to Power, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic group based in Idaho.
That can't be anything other than a moby front group for Democrats.
I always think when the Dems claim some benign phrase is a dogwhistle the only ones who hear it are Democrats who are obsessed with race. No Republican candidate wants national attention claiming he or she is racist, so I have to think the phrase "monkey around" was used in the manner normal non-race obsessed people would use it. It reminds me of the left claiming Harambe was racist... it actually took me a minute to figure out why, probably because unlike loons on the left I thought apes were, well just apes.
I believe the correct term is "din' do nuffin'".
tim in vermont said...
"Then who the fuck is going to shut up Alex Jones?"
You are dense-as-fuck.
tim in vermont said...
"What was your comment about Alex Jones being a “conservative hero” about because many here defended his right to free speech?"
It was about the Right, playing into the Democrat cult's hands, by claiming free speech for liars. I understand defending unpopular opinions - I am an unpopular opinion and I expect to be defended - so you didn't hear me say shit about the tiki torch marchers, or there being "good people on both sides" or anything like that.
But Alex Jones admitted - in court - that he's lying to us. Gwyneth Paltrow admitted she's lying to us - on Jimmy Kimmel and in print recently - so who's condemning them but themselves? No one forces people to tune into what they're doing, but, you know as well as I do, NO ONE IS FORCING THEM TO LIE TO US, EITHER. Gwyneth Paltrow, when told she was endangering lives, dared her critics to "bring your A-Game".
I want to see how she looks when that happens.
I suspect that the culprit behind this disgust robocall is on the left.
Going on personal experience, a few weeks ago I responded to a tweet posted by Mediaite regarding that horrendous exchange Phil Mudd and Paris Dennard. Moments later, I received a response from someone.
It was a nasty response to Dennard, a Black Republican and me, also a Black Republican although I'm not actually sure that she had put two and two together.
"@PARRISDENNARD and whoever your white apologist handlers might be:
This is what Black Murrica thinks of YOU."
A photo of a Black jockey was attached to the tweet.
I tracked her down to her LinkedIn page. She's a Black Democrat, elitist and fundraiser for Obama for America.
This is who Progressives are. They are not beneath throwing out the race card and blaming it on others.
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