I think Herndon meant to express the idea that Northam is hopelessly vulnerable and he only accidentally referred to a circular firing squad.
I don't think he is. What's his motivation to resign? If he goes, he's defeated, and no one will care about him anymore. Where will he go? And those who are pressuring him to leave — how can they do anything more? And are they exposing themselves to political injury? Is that accidental invocation of the circular firing squad a little too apt?
Who first thought up that image of the circular firing squad? I'm seeing this in The Nation, "The Circular Firing Squad Isn’t Amusing Anymore/The left is tearing itself apart," by Danny Goldberg in July 2017:
This coming October 9 will mark the 50th anniversary of Che Guevara’s murder. Yet the pathology underlying his famous quip that when the American left is asked to form a firing squad it gets into a circle is as relevant today as a Rachel Maddow response to Kellyanne Conway’s spin du jour.It comes from Che Guevara? I tried to confirm that and could not. And The Nation calls it "famous." Wikiquote has a huge collection of Che Guevara quotes, and the only one about a firing squad — marked as "disputed" — is...
To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the paredón [execution wall].If you think of the killing as the destruction of a person's career and social standing, that has plenty of resonance in America today. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. Isn't that what's being done to Northam? And shouldn't we feel good then that our firing squads form a circle?
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It's not that the "circular firing squad" comes from Che. It's that the American leftist ethos comes from Che.
I find his recalcitrant attitude to the politically correct to be amusing.
He's 60 years old, has enough money, is term limited. He's never going to be a cabinet secretary. He won't be able to be Senator.
Only thing I can see for him to resign is the implied threats to ruin his family. Perhaps he is negotiating with the Party Elders to ensure they are take care of.
But maybe the only way to ensure some normalcy for his family is to serve out his term as governor. Let this stuff pass. Bill Clinton would never in a million years resign under these circumstances.
Maybe Northam has a strong backbone.
People really don't understand guns.
Well, some people don't.
-XC
PS - there is something else circular that this resembles....
I'm extremely happy to see the Left live by its own rules. That being said this seems like an overreaction. Let's assume the Governor is one of the men depicted in the picture. I honestly don't know which character he would have to be to be more offensive, so chose whichever one seems the most offensive. He still shouldn't resign for something like this. It doesn't make it right for him to have done, and his claim that everyone was doing it in 1984 is ridiculous, but even the most offensive joke is still just a joke. On a scale of 1 to 10 of bad things it is hard to see how it can rise above a 2.
Now some may argue, it isn't that it is an offensive joke, it is that it shows he may be racist in his heart and can't be trusted to have power. If that were true, wouldn't there be other evidence of him in the intervening 30 years being racist?
In a "circular firing squad" each man fires at the man in front of him.
The "firing squad circling around him" here are all trying to get a shot at "him" in the center.
Totally different.
"And shouldn't we feel good then that our firing squads form a circle?"
Peculiar choice of possessive there, Althouse.
Never apologize. Never explain.
Fairfax now suggesting sex-assault leak coming from somewhere around said circular-firing-squad...looking in the direction of Gov's office....while pointing with both fingers.
Like I said before, still think he can govern? None of these people forgive or forget what's being said right now.
I'm reminded less of circular firing squad and more of Mexican standoff.
Everybodys' gonna need 2 guns for this one...
A "Lord of the Flies" kind of thing?
"And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate."
Dostoevsky "Demons" - he was a prophet. The events of 1905-22 bore out his scenario. Indeed, that book could have been written 50 years later, with only minor tweaks. Its interesting, and very weird, reading it with full knowledge of subsequent events.
Granted this stuff was floating about in Dostoevsky's day, and not just in Russia.
The whole ethos doesn't come from Che. You see it in Paris, 1789, in Garibaldi, in the Commune of 1870. Che was a latecomer.
If you think of the killing as the destruction of a person's career and social standing, that has plenty of resonance in America today. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.
Some might call it a "choice", or a mid-term abortion.
I think I have figured out the mystery of the plaid pants.
The shorter guy wearing the plaid pants in the high-school photograph is the same guy who is wearing the Ku Klux Klan costume in the medical-school photograph.
The plaid pants indicate that that guy is a "wild and crazy guy". The mentality that would make him wear the plaid pants is the same mentality that would make him wear the Ku Klux Klan costume.
He was a friend of Northam in high school and remained a friend when Northam was in medical school. Because they still were friends, they decided to go together to the party that featured a dance contest.
This shorter friend lent his plaid pants to Northam to complete Northam's Michael Jackson look -- because Jackson often wore pants that were rather small.
The shorter friend -- the "wild and crazy guy" -- wore the Ku Klux Klan costume.
-----
I speculate further that the shorter friend comes from a family that had been involved in the Ku Klux Klan in the past. That's why he had a Ku Klux Klan costume, and that's why Northam is keeping his friend's identity secret.
-----
All this drama is going into my novel The Brotherhood of the Traveling Pants. It's going to be the best novel ever!
"Only thing I can see for him to resign is the implied threats to ruin his family. "
This is becoming a much more common threat.
In small unit tactics they teach that ambush with enfilade fire is the most effective.
S |
H |
O | TARGET
O |
T |
E |
R |
S |________________
S H O O T E R S
Never fire in such a way where your fields break 90 degrees except at towards the target. In this case Northam is a shooter, and Fairfax is a shooter, and the target is this administration. Perfect crossfire.
there's also bely's petersberg, which is more contemporary to the period, there is a thinly disguised azev, the social revolutionary who was also working for the okrana, which caused a scandal when that was revealed,
mccullough said...
He's 60 years old, has enough money, is term limited. He's never going to be a cabinet secretary. He won't be able to be Senator.
Only thing I can see for him to resign is the implied threats to ruin his family. Perhaps he is negotiating with the Party Elders to ensure they are take care of.
As I pointed out two days ago from the Godfather II :
Tom Hagen : [they were] always given a chance... to let their families keep their fortunes. Right?
Frank Pentangeli : Yeah, but only the rich guys, Tom. The little guys got knocked off and all their estates went to the Emperors. Unless they went home and killed themselves, then nothing happened. And the families... the families were taken care of.
Tom Hagen : That was a good break. A nice deal.
Frank Pentangeli : Yeah... They went home... and sat in a hot bath... opened up their veins... and bled to death... and sometimes they had a little party before they did it.
As I said, maybe this is Northam's "little party".
As time passes, a few Blacks will speak out in Governor Northam's defense.
Then the tide might turn.
After the tide turns, a preference cascade in Northam's favor will develop among Blacks.
If the Left can't get feed one of their own to the guillotine, how the hell are they supposed to bring down Trump when it's his turn?
Sacrifice in the name of Get Trump!
Actually, the entire thing looks like it is a circle jerk.
Has anyone checked Jake Tapper's yearbooks yet?
If only Justice Kavanaugh had done black-face in high school instead of beer, and had slept with Willie Brown to get his first couple of positions, then we could just say, "so what?" and move on....
If I were the governor of Virginia, I think I would hunker down, say I was in "Executive Time," watch TV and think of ways to eat snacks without getting my fingers oily.
I would also give press conferences that required more bleeping than a rapper in a Super Bowl halftime show.
Both sides are equably culpable..right? The Left bears no responsibility because "both sides do it" right?
Just for the record...who on the Right has been demanding that Northam resign? What Leftwingers have been hounded by mobs out of public places? What Leftwingers have been prevented from speaking on college campuses?
These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.
This was literally the Left's position during the Kavanaugh show trial....and no one on the Left has yet to pay a price for violating them.
NAACP has called for his resignation. That right there - not including the 20 some odd other orgs that have joined this circled firing squad - is more than enough.
Like a racoonman being hunted by rapid dogs on all sides it is only a matter of time before he gives up and decides to moonwalk away from the job.
"the only one about a firing squad — marked as "disputed" — is...
To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the paredón [execution wall]."
Disputed, eh? But catches the spirit well enough. Brought to you by the left since 1789. 100 million and counting.
In perspective, Ted Kennedy killed a woman (the first casualty in the war on women) and lied about it without any discernible effect on his political career.
Where will he go? Where will he go?? He'll go to Dancing With The Stars! He'll be moonwalking his brains out. Sadly, not in blackface, because it is Disney, after all, and they know better than to open that particular can of worms. But in a sequined glove. Moonwalking into America's hearts.
There are Media suggestions that (a) Fairfax camp leaked the blackface photo against Northam, and (b) in response, Northam leaked or re-leaked the sexual assault "allegations" against Fairfax.
An anonymous source said it!
Black face?? He should really resign for wearing those pants!!
As someone who finds politican-mocking therapeutic, I am enjoying this Northam Spectacle greatly. It's almost as enjoyable as pundit-mocking.
I'm still hoping Northam will not resign. If he hangs on 'til the SOTU, he's not leaving at all IMO.
Kahty Griffin is a Che.
Anitfa is a Che.
People so filled with rage toward the not-Hillary voter, they want death.
If you are going to send in the helicopter to collect the deposed dictator, doesn’t there have to be some kind of deal for a cushy retirement? Wouldn’t the same dynamic apply here?
Are They Everywhere or Are We Paranoid?
Richard Fernandez recalls where this insanity all started.
Let.. Gov. Justin Fairfax, when asked if Northam’s camp leaked sexual assault allegation against Fairfax, says he doesn’t think it’s a coincidence allegation is coming out now. #13NewsNow
so much for moving on and working together!
I am re-titling my novel BrotherHOOD of the Traveling Pants.
I speculate that Ralph Northam (dressed as Michael Jackson) and his shorter "wild and crazy" friend (dressed as a Ku Klux Klanner) danced together to the song Ebony and Ivory, sung by Paul McCarney and Stevie Wonder. That song was released in 1982, while Northam was in medical school.
They might have danced also to the song Say Say Say, sung by McCartney and Jackson, released in 1983, also while Northam was in medical school.
The dance perhaps was done to a medley of McCartney songs.
It's a circle yerk
Looks to me like now we have the Gov and Lt Gov. pacing out on main street in front of the ok corral for a duel.
Stay tuned to see who is the quicker draw.
Lovely
Mo Udall used the circular firing squad joke in his 1976 presidential run. I doubt it was original to him.
These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.
These procedures are middle-class detail? Whaaaa?
No the middle class/trade class was put up against the wall and murdered.
That’s what the ruling and want-to-be-ruling class does.
well it's like james Rhodes and tony stark, at the Malibu pad,
The more I think about it, the more I think that the guy wearing the Ku Klux Klan costume came from a family that had been involved with the Klan.
That's how he had that costume.
That's also why Northam does not want to name him. Northam figures that naming this friend from a Klan family will only make his own situation worse.
Lots of people must have been at that party. After all, the party included a dance contest, which Northam won.
Why haven't any of those people come forward and told the story?
Maybe the explanation is that Northam indeed expressed racist opinions at that time of this life. A person who likes Northam and was at the party does not want to come forward and open that can of worms.
What's his motivation to resign?
In the old days someone from the party leadership would broker a deal with a donor for a non-public sinecure in exchange for his resignation. It used to be a law firm job.
Maybe he's holding out for a better deal.
Someone else in my home is watching CNN, which is reporting that President Trump is stupid because he spends a lot of his time watching television.
I'm smarter than that. I spend much of my own time speculating in blog comments about the plaid pants in those two photographs.
So its time for ThunderDome. Two men enter, one man leaves. The current gov and lt gov need to get thrown into a locked room, with several weapons available in said room - no guns. When the mayhem stops - thats the new gov.
Its only fair.
Or just nuke 'em from space to be sure.
Where's the danged popcorn when you need it? /sarc
"Coonman" is an odd nickname. Yes, young people do and say stupid things, and they should be allowed to. But, those young people who grow up to be Democrat politicians, who constantly play the race card, well, not a lotta leeway for those types.
CNN sure is trying to pressure Governor Northam to resign.
Fortunately for Northam, relatively few people watch CNN.
In my household there are four people. The other three watch CNN. I am the only native-born US citizen. Two of them are not citizens.
The other three all love CNN because they hate Trump for wanting to enforce the USA's immigration laws. They all want to be able to enable their relatives to immigrate to the USA some day.
5:22 - Mike Sylwester - the hack D press are not going to dig for that information, either.
I'm probably wrong about this, but when I saw part of the press conference, I had the idea that his wife is the power behind the throne. I wondered if she was the one who said, "It's not you in the picture, now get your a$$ out there and tell them and you're not resigning-- eff em all!"
When did Ralph Northam get the nickname Coonman?
Was he called Coonman while he was in high school?
If he got the nickname Coonman while in medical school, maybe he got the name because of this dance contest. If so, maybe that's why nobody at the party wants to talk about this situation now.
Maybe he indeed was a racist!
Let the chips fall where they may!!
However, this story turns out, I will make it work in my novel BrotherHOOD of the Traveling Pants.
Ronan Farrow published an unverified and, for that matter, not easily credible story about Kavanaugh. Farrow said he published the story in the hope that other women would come forward......Maybe Northam is hoping for something similar with Fairfax. If another woman does come forward, Fairfax is a goner. If think most Dems would prefer a Michael Jackson impersonator over a rapist. Well, I might be wrong about this. It's very difficult to figure out the valences of the Dems. They're very unstable and in constant flux.......The Wash Post is extraordinarily hypocritical. Everything about this story makes the Dems and their media allies look just awful......The only upside for Northam is that maybe his remarks about making babies comfortable before killing them is due to his ineptitude rather than to diabolical evil. For a major league player, he sure is clumsy.
You wonder how Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, et al. entangle themselves in telling stupid lies to Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller.
How can anybody be so stupid? Just tell the simple truth!!!
Then you see Governor Ralph Northam entangle himself in telling stupid lies to the public about this yearbook photograph.
How can anybody be so stupid? Just tell the simple truth!!!
Che Guevara was a monster, "Castro's Murderer". Castro himself could see he was too crazy to have in the central government, so he let him just do what he did best, e.g., personally shooting teenagers in the head.
Just Google "guevara murderer" if you need details.
The Left still can't bring themselves to admit this.
The extreme attention paid by the Left to non-issues like the Northam affair serves to distract many from the sordid past and present of Leftism. What ink is to squid, what chaff is to military aircraft, is the accusation of racism to the Left.
A circular firing squad would be best we could hope for in this wretched affair.
Che Guevara was a Communist asshole, who murdered many. The Left gives him a pass, because he rode a motorcycle and stuck it "to the man."
Problem: By 1967, Che thought Castro had gone soft and complacent, and was slow to foment their revolutionary communism in South America. So Che left Cuba for further adventures, got bolloxed up in Bolivia, got caught, and was killed. Famed CIA agent Felix Rodriquez helped catch Che in the jungle.
Now that the lunatic lefty governor of VA is trading accusations and counter-accusations against the lunatic lefty Lt Gov of VA, my heart goes out to LLR Chuck who now finds himself in a Smear Merchant circular firing squad pickle...only dem targets in sight which goes against his LLR-NPC programming and will almost certainly lead to another (likely) emotional meltdown where he once again begins attacking children and spewing racist insults.
I think it's funny that some people think Northram shouldn't resign over wearing blackface and/or a Klan outfit a few years back. As though that were the reason he's being pressured to resign!
"Now that the lunatic lefty governor of VA is trading accusations and counter-accusations against the lunatic lefty Lt Gov of VA"
You know, the real problem here is that they have a lefty governor and a lefty lt. governor.
As are ours in California, and much worse as they have the State Senate and Assembly too.
Their antics, and whether they get on or not, are much less important than the underlying fact.
The earliest reference to a circular firing squad that I can find in Google Books is in 1971, in a discussion (as far as I can tell from the snippet) of religious factionalism:
https://books.google.com/books?id=TnF5AAAAMAAJ&q=%22circular+firing+squad%22&dq=%22circular+firing+squad%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEx6b5rKPgAhV-HzQIHVq2Ag8Q6AEINzAD
From the way it's used, however, the author seems to expect the reader to have heard it before.
Most subsequent references are in a political context, as here.
Remind me why people wear Che t-shirts? Yes- he stuck it to the man. Actually many hundreds of men. And women.
OT: If You Still Think 'MAGA Hat Kid' Nick Sandmann Did Something Wrong, Watch This Video
There are so many racist commenters swirling about on Althouse. Y'all secretly admire Natham. Y'all need to plan your next White Supremacist Rally at the White House. Schlump will lead the parade as the Grand Wizard.
The problem is that the reason for the firing squad is nonsense. Common sense kicks in, just not in the media.
Trumpit - LOL nice try. He's all yours, honey.
Alice, Bob, and Carol arrange a three-way duel. Alice is a poor shot, hitting her target only 1/3 of the time on average. Bob is better, hitting his target 2/3 of the time. Carol is a sure shot. They take turns shooting, first Alice, then Bob, the Carol, then back to Alice, and so on until one is left. What is Alice's best course of action?
The solution is that Alice is better off missing than hitting Carol or Bob, so she should shoot into the air. Indeed, then Bob will shoot Carol, and it can be shown that it gives the greatest probability of survival for Alice. But I wonder if Bob should not voluntary shoot into the air too, so that Carol will do the same, and no one be shot. If this is the case, Alice survival probability is 1. What do you think of it? What is Alice survival probability?
- puzzle puzzled at. discussion at
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/687272/a-three-way-duel-probability-puzzle
Northram has zero political career left, and probably no chance at any other decent job for at least another 5 years. He has no economic value at all. If I were him, and I'm glad I'm not, I'd stick it out just for the paycheck.
"And shouldn't we feel good then that our firing squads form a circle?"
What do you mean "we"?
He might get work as a Michael Jackson impersonator. I think thats why wifey ixnayed the oonwalkmay.
I always thought the circular firing squad was exclusively for Republicans
A pentagram is better.
Trumpit- the racist in question is a Democrat, as was Robert Byrd before him. A lot easier to denigrate the racists in your own party than to start on the imaginary racists your party always finds in the Republicans. Republicans had Abraham Lincoln. Dems had Stephen Decatur. Which one was pro-slavery? Dems have always been the party of racists. That's why they pander to the underclass, because they know their racial inferiors are incapable of bettering themselves. Which is why the Dems always lie about trying to help the poor. If they ACTUALLY improved the lives of the poor and the underclass, they'd risk them getting an education and becoming Republicans. I know you're incapable of rational thought- I guess they can't prescribe strong enough meds. But it's fun to see how inane you can get and still indulge your superiority complex. Good luck with that.
I agree with Althouse on this. If he stays or if he goes, he is toast. He will be persona non grata for the support network. Everyone who even thinks of working for/with him will be faced by that look and 'Wow! Really?'
And who wants that on their resume. No one on the Left. They saw what they keep doing to Trump's staffers.
Plus, he is only allowed to go for one term before seeking reelection.
But now that he has been lynched (pun intended), one wonders if, being tarred forever as a racist, he would try to go Republican, either as an FU to Democrats AND Republicans (see, 'they are racists' sort of thing) or just to do a Jeffords.
It didn't work for Jeffords, that lying sleazy turn coat pants weasel, either.
Did Fairfax work for John Edwards as his "body man."?
Are you people still responding to trumpit and Ritmo ?
Jeeez.
This is crazier than house of cards and that's saying something.
The Puritanism of the left lacks a pathway to redemption. Somebody (was it Will Chamberlain?) wrote that and it is absolutely true. Northam quits and he’s socially done. Remember how they treated George Wallace after he recanted?
More and more I cast my hope on Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was “slain before the foundation of the earth.” God foresaw the inevitability of sin and provided an escape before it was even committed. Today’s left rejects Christ and with it, redemption.
Sorry to go all Jesus-y on you but that’s the way it is. You know it, I know it, even Kristen Gillibrand knows it somewhere in that dark, withered heart of hers.
Wallace won as governor after that time.
True, but he never shed his racist image.
Just like they went thirty years back with Zell Miller, who had worked for lester maddox.
One problem for Fairfax is that his "victim" is quite compelling as victims go.
Trumpit: "Schlump will lead the parade as the Grand Wizard."
Trump will attend in a Robert Byrd outfit?
We have lost all perspective and we have no forgiveness. Is this really who we want to be? A 35 yr old photo on a yearbook page?
Btw,LLR Chuck's favorite network, MSNBC, though to be honest MSNBC is a bit too conservative for Chuck's tastes, today officially blamed Trump for the dem hack infanticide-advocate gov appearing in blackface 35 years ago.
Literally.
Not a joke.
Even our accomplished Smear Merchant/child attacking/racist commenter Chuck had to be impressed with that one!
Whaddya say Chuck? Howzabouta big "huzzah" for your Team Left on that one?
After what the corruptocrats did to Kavanaugh - they can eat some of that Karmic schadenfreude with a spoon.
Time machine duh, they also visited smollett in chicago before that.
Yes Ann, the comments about the due process and simple fairness you didn’t care about being denied to Kavanaugh really do matter.
...motivated by pure hate
That fits our Guevaraistas Inga and Ritmo to a tee. Why else who Inga show up here? To be subjected to the howls of derisive laughter her inanities provoke? As for Ritmo, he hates everyone more socially successful than himself, which is everyone.
Is it just me or does the press seemed genuinely peeved that they can't hound politicians out of office on a whim like they used to? It's bad enough Trump is impervious to their continual gusts of "At long last you have no decency? Resign Sir!" to which Trump just laughs in their face. Now this Gov. is ignoring them too. How can this be?!?!
“Is it just me or does the press seemed genuinely peeved that they can't hound politicians out of office on a whim like they used to?”
Is it the press or their bosses who are so peeved?
Isn't this conversation confusing a circular firing squad with a circle jerk?
And the lefties thought all those Tea Party people bought Rules for Radicals as intellectual exercises.
MAGA hat vs Che shirt - compare and contrast. 90% of final grade.
"The circular fire squad isn't funny anymore" - since when?
Michael K said...
"Are you people still responding to trumpit and Ritmo ?
Jeeez."
In my defense I'm trying to help Trumpit work through her passive agressive hatred of her mother. She has a lot of unresolved issues with her father as well.
ritmo, who?
Well, he won’t resign. So, this needs....a referendum! And keep voting until we get the result we want!
"Now some may argue, it isn't that it is an offensive joke, it is that it shows he may be racist in his heart and can't be trusted to have power. If that were true, wouldn't there be other evidence of him in the intervening 30 years being racist?"
Like refusing to shake the hand of a Black Lieutenant Governor candidate?
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/watch-ralph-northam-refuses-to-shake-his-black-opponents-hand/
"This coming October 9 will mark the 50th anniversary of Che Guevara’s murder."
Che Guevara wasn't murdered.
As to Che Guevara, it's alleged that he seemed to particularly enjoy killing little boys.
"NAACP has called for his resignation. That right there - not including the 20 some odd other orgs that have joined this circled firing squad - is more than enough."
Enough for what? Impeachment?
There's no upside at all to Fairfax if he resigns, so why would he? And, as bad as it looks now, if he reliably delivers the goods to various interest groups over the next four years then when his term is up the chorus may change to, "Isn't it time to ... move on already?".
I think the origin of the "circular firing squad" is this Thomas Nast cartoon from 1871, though it contains no guns.
http://coffeewithken.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html
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