June 28, 2019

I want to make a close study of a section of the transcript of last night's debate — the part about race that ended with Kamala Harris yelling at Biden.

I could not listen to the substance last night. With TV, I'm tuned into the images and emotion. I'm not going to be distracted by the substance, and I know I'll have the transcript later. (I got mine at WaPo.)

I feel that the emotional high point came when Kamala Harris was yelling at Joe Biden. Here's how Drudge depicts it:




It was the emotional high, so that means I was at my lowest substance absorbency. I need to parse the transcript to see exactly how that rolled out and how I think about it in the dark storm of morning.

It began right after the break, with the second set of moderators, Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow. Maddow's first question, addressed to Pete Buttigieg, was very specific:
In the last five years, civil rights activists in our country have led a national debate over race and the criminal justice system. Your community of South Bend, Indiana, has recently been in uproar over an officer-involved shooting. The police force in South Bend is now 6 percent black in a city that is 26 percent black. Why has that not improved over your two terms as mayor?
Of course, Buttigieg had to have been completely prepared to answer this question, so let's see what he had:
Because I couldn't get it done. My community is in anguish right now because of an officer-involved shooting, a black man, Eric Logan, killed by a white officer. And I'm not allowed to take sides until the investigation comes back. The officer said he was attacked with a knife, but he didn't have his body camera on. It's a mess. And we're hurting.

And I could walk you through all of the things that we have done as a community, all of the steps that we took, from bias training to de-escalation, but it didn't save the life of Eric Logan. And when I look into his mother's eyes, I have to face the fact that nothing that I say will bring him back.

This is an issue that is facing our community and so many communities around the country. And until we move policing out from the shadow of systemic racism...
That's the key phrase: "the shadow of systemic racism."
... whatever this particular incident teaches us, we will be left with the bigger problem of the fact that there is a wall of mistrust put up one racist act at a time, not just from what's happened in the past, but from what's happening around the country in the present. It threatens the well-being of every community.

And I am determined to bring about a day when a white person driving a vehicle and a black person driving a vehicle, when they see a police officer approaching, feels the exact same thing... a feeling not of fear but of safety. I am determined to bring that day about.
How good was Buttigieg? It seems clear and articulate, but we're on our own understanding what "systemic racism" is and how it can ever be eradicated. All Buttigieg did with his answer is move from the specific — the shooting of Eric Logan — to the highly general — racism, it's everywhere, interwoven with everything. That's a way to make the specific disappear. Why pick on me about South Bend and Eric Logan, when it's just a manifestation of that general thing that is everywhere, all the time? And by the way, I have nothing to offer about what to do about it. I simply bemoan it and want it gone. 

He stops when Maddow stops him (saves him?). Times up. Hickenlooper starts interrupting. For reasons that I do not understand, Maddow gives Hickenlooper 30 seconds. (Perhaps there's a rule that they can ask to cut in and be given some time and that the total time will be kept track of and equalized, but the time was not equalized. Biden ended up with over 10 minutes and Yang with less than 3 minutes.)

Hickenlooper says:
I think that the question they're asking in South Bend and I think across the country is why has it taken so long? We had a shooting when I first became mayor, 10 years before Ferguson.
I had to look it up: Hickenlooper was mayor of Denver (from 2003 to 2011).
And the community came together and we created an Office of the Independent Monitor, a Civilian Oversight Commission, and we diversified the police force in two years. We actually did de-escalation training. I think the real question that America should be asking is why, five years after Ferguson, every city doesn't have this level of police accountability.
Now, that's specific. And Hickenlooper distinguishes himself as a mayor of a big city, with city experience and acquired wisdom. He was a mayor and a governor. He's got the executive background. Hickenlooper was ready to step on Pete, and he did it quite neatly (although I didn't pick that up last night because I was just so annoyed at the disorderly interruption and because I am vaguely repelled by Hickenlooper's teeth, which are not TV-ready).

Buttigieg claims a right to respond and isn't stopped as he defends himself:
Look, we have taken so many steps toward police accountability that, you know, the FOP just denounced me for too much accountability. We're obviously not there yet, and I accept responsibility for that because I'm in charge.
In real time "FOP" would sail over my head, but I know it means "Fraternal Order of Police." And if he's taken "so many steps," why didn't he talk about them when he got the question about why things have not improved in his 2 terms as mayor? Buttigieg still doesn't say what the "steps" were. He just refers to them.

Then Swalwell breaks in with a knockout punch: "If the camera wasn't on and that was the policy, you should fire the chief."

Buttigieg does not counter that direct hit. He just says: "So under Indiana law, this will be investigated and there will be accountability for the officer involved." Ugh! The telltale "So" at the beginning of an answer. It means, I'm not going to respond to what you're asking for but it reminds me of somewhere else I can go.

Swalwell repeats his point: "But you're the mayor. You should fire the chief -- if that's the policy and someone died."

Buttigieg does not get another chance at that, because Marianne Williamson — of all people — breaks in. She says:
All of these issues are extremely important, but they are specifics; they are symptoms. And the underlying cause has to do with deep, deep, deep realms of racial injustice, both in our criminal justice system and in our economic system. 
That's essentially repeating Buttigieg's idea of "the shadow of systemic racism." So general. But she's got a specific remedy:
And the Democratic Party should be on the side of reparations for slavery for this very reason. 
Whoa! She said "reparations." The word appears nowhere else in the transcript of last night's debate (or in the previous night's debate).

She continues:
I do not believe... (APPLAUSE) ... I do not believe that the average American is a racist, but the average American is woefully undereducated about the history of race in the United States.
Maddow thanks her, and there's a lot of cross talk, which Chuck Todd tries to manage, but then Kamala Harris's voice rises to the top:
As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak... on the issue of race.
There is applause, and Maddow gives her the floor,  but only for "30 seconds, because we're going to come back to you on this again in just a moment." Harris seems to go much longer than 30 seconds (because she settles into rambling speechmaking):
Okay. So on the issue of race, I couldn't agree more that this is an issue that is still not being talked about truthfully and honestly. I -- there is not a black man I know, be he a relative, a friend or a co-worker, who has not been the subject of some form of profiling or discrimination. Growing up, my sister and I had to deal with the neighbor who told us her parents couldn't play with us because she -- because we were black. And I will say also that -- that, in this campaign, we have also heard -- and I'm going to now direct this at Vice President Biden, I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. But I also believe, and it's personal -- and I was actually very -- it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.
So... she is not addressing the problem of police shootings. She meandered about as if wondering what to do or how to link things up to what she needed to do and attack Biden. And then she just went for it and shifted to the topic of long-ago school desegregation. After talking about herself as a little girl — above, "Growing up, my sister and I had to deal with the neighbor..." — she returns to the image of herself as a little girl:
And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me.
That's her credential: She herself experienced busing.
So I will tell you that, on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. 
To be "intellectual" is not to "take it seriously"?
We have to act swiftly. 
About busing? Or is this a general approach — don't intellectualize, just do something, quick. I'm confused, but the next thing she says gets back to the police topic:
As attorney general of California, I was very proud to put in place a requirement that all my special agents would wear body cameras and keep those cameras on.
Maddow thanks her and turns to Biden. He has been "invoked," so he gets "a chance to respond." He says:
It's a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true, number one. Number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I'm happy to do that. I was a public defender. I didn't become a prosecutor. 
Ah! That's the attack he will be making. He's friendlier to black people because he was on the side of the defense (long ago, in his lawyer days), and she was the prosecution.
I came out and I left a good law firm to become a public defender, when, in fact -- when, in fact...(APPLAUSE) ... when, in fact, my city was in flames because of the assassination of Dr. King, number one. Number two...
I like this "number one, number two" locution. It says: I'll say this clear and fast.
... as the U.S. -- excuse me, as the vice president of the United States, I worked with a man who, in fact, we worked very hard to see to it we dealt with these issues in a major, major way. The fact is that, in terms of bussing, the bussing, I never -- you would have been able to go to school the same exact way because it was a local decision made by your city council. That's fine. That's one of the things I argued for, that we should not be -- we should be breaking down these lines.
Pro-federalism. That's good. That's an idea that's useful for moderation and consensus (and also, traditionally, to allow racially backward policies to linger).
But so the bottom line here is, look, everything I have done in my career, I ran because of civil rights, I continue to think we have to make fundamental changes in civil rights, and those civil rights, by the way, include not just only African Americans, but the LGBT community.
Fine. Quick. Not braggy. He sounds like a good man, a real person, with a long, long history, and Kamala Harris has to take another shot. She drills in, like a prosecutor:
But, Vice President Biden, do you agree today -- do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose bussing in America then? Do you agree?
He answers:
I did not oppose bussing in America. What I opposed is bussing ordered by the Department of Education. That's what I opposed. I did not oppose...
That might be too fussy for debate-watchers to like, but it is federalism, and I think a good portion of Americans believe in it. Don't we want local control of schools? Maybe not.

Harris says:
Well, there was a failure of states to integrate public schools in America. I was part of the second class to integrate Berkeley, California, public schools almost two decades after Brown v. Board of Education.
Biden aptly inserts: "Because your city council made that decision. It was a local decision."

As if she doesn't understand his point, she says: "So that's where the federal government must step in." I guess she means if the local decision goes the wrong way, the feds step in. Local government gets to function separately if it goes in the direction the elite sees as progressive, but if the locals have other ideas they must be corrected by the feds. This is the version of federalism that the left has long favored.
That's why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. (APPLAUSE) That's why we need to pass the Equality Act. That's why we need to pass the ERA, because there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.
Biden lacks either the wit or the desire to defend a stronger version of federalism. He doesn't go off on state and local government as laboratories of democracy or anything about valuing decentralized decision-making. He just jumps at the ERA (which is an escape from the topic of race). He says:
I supported the ERA from the very beginning. I'm the guy that extended the Voting Rights Act for 25 years. We got to the place where we got 98 out of 98 votes in the United States Senate doing it. I've also argued very strongly that we, in fact, deal with the notion of denying people access to the ballot box. I agree that everybody, once they, in fact -- anyway, my time is up. I'm sorry.
I liked the way he suddenly stopped at the expiration of time. Everyone else was always trying to grab more time. I saw some people joking that the old politico said "my time is up," but I liked the crisp observation of the time limit (even if he did it because he was tired of defending himself or knew he was doing too much hopping from topic to topic and worried about seeming incoherent and geriatric).

Who got the better of this interchange? To me, it was clearly Biden. I didn't like Harris's attack on Biden when I was experiencing it emotionally, watching TV late at night, and I don't like it now, as I examine the transcript this morning. She yelled at him, and she would have won if he had broken down and just yelled at her or if he'd gotten confused and said something wrong. But he made sense, and though I could see on TV that he was aggravated by the attack, on the page, he's completely lucid. He gets his points in and the points are sound. That's all I need him to do. I am not won over by Harris's "That little girl was me" pathos or her prosecutorial aggression. But maybe a lot of people think she won the night. It didn't work on me. I woke up this morning with an okay, it's Biden feeling.

130 comments:

Fernandinande said...

It seems clear and articulate, but we're on our own understanding what "systemic racism" is and how it can ever be eradicated.

"Systemic" is Newspeak for "imaginary".

gilbar said...

so, they asked Butibut why The police force in South Bend is now 6 percent black in a city that is 26 percent black. Why has that not improved over your two terms as mayor?

and his response, to why so few blacks on the force is:
Because I couldn't get it done... Eric Logan, killed by a white officer. And I'm not allowed to take sides until the investigation comes back.


So, he COULDN'T GET IT DONE (in Two terms as mayor), because he's "not allowed to take sides"

Professor, i know that there are often typos in your posts when you first put them up, because you put them up fast (which we appreciate); and i think you had a typo when you wrote

How good was Buttigieg? It seems clear and articulate

Unknown said...

Hickenlooper made an interestingly specific pronouncement. You can sort of check it here:

Police Department Race and Ethnicity Demographic Data

The data is from 2013. Denver's police force matches the Black population pretty well. Not so well on the Hispanic population.

South Bend's police force doesn't match well to any minority, but interestingly enough, employs a higher percentage of Blacks police officers.

William said...

Any possibility that Logan, as opposed to systemic racism or police misconduct, might bear some responsibility for his sad ending.

Shouting Thomas said...

Same old gigantic bullshit that we just need to be educated about racism.

Every fucking asshole liberal huckster has been yammering endlessly about racism my entire life.

Any problem any person might have is caused by some bigot somewhere.

The idiot baseline premise of Democratic Party politics.

LYNNDH said...

How far was she bused? My wife and I, both white, were bused. Does that count?
Dems seem to be saying that all cops are racist and all Blacks are never violent.
I wonder how the Hispanic community feels about all the emphasis on Blacks and nothing about them except about illegals.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Kamala won the emotional segment of the audience over, that is about 80% of the spectators and 100% of the moderators. They immediately declared her the winner. Seems to be a lot of fear of promoting Biden amongst the MSNBC-DNC employees.

bagoh20 said...

If we were trying to pick the biggest asshole from a crowded field of them, Swalwell would get my vote. Just a horrible and highly un-American person.

Tommy Duncan said...

Systemic racism is an easier political slogan than personal responsibility. System racism is forever, an eternal issue. Personal responsibility was lost when the "greatest generation" started dying off.

rcocean said...

"Growing up, my sister and I had to deal with the neighbor who told us her parents couldn't play with us because she -- because we were black."

This is a lie. She couldn't play with us because she was pushy, loud, and domineering. I know, because i was that boy.

rcocean said...

Maybe the neighbors liked black people, but disliked Indians. Ever think of that, Harris?

rcocean said...

Is it Bussing with two "ss"? I thought is was just "Busing".

Expat(ish) said...

Does anyone in American really feel like they've been able or allowed to skip "the race conversation?"

Anyway, I also experience forced bussing in FL when I was a sprout. My classes in my school went from 15-16 kids to 35-38 kids when "the black school" was closed down. We went from relatively silent LMC white kids in desks to a chaotic black/white scrum of kids at crowded desks - 3 kids at a 2 kid desk to make the classes fit.

I loved it. I loved it when they switched us to some crazy "learn from a class room in a box" SRL thing. I loved that black kid who played the bongo's as he walked from class-to-class.

There was very very little violence. There weren't any brown kids either, which is weird in South Florida, but I wasn't used to seeing them in class so didn't miss them.

Do I get a voice in the debate?

-XC

TheDopeFromHope said...

If I were Biden, I would have said to Harris: "So Senator, you sound like you're in favor of forced busing. I'd like you to tell the American people, right now, that that is your position. The floor is yours."

And were I Trump, I'd tweet that the Democrats want to go back to forced busing of the 1960s-70s.

Tommy Duncan said...

Kamala played the "street credibility" card. But offered no solutions, just the promise that racism is systemic and eternal.

rehajm said...

I’m in awe someone has a mindset to write 2,700 words on this. Is this the longest Althouse post ever? However, all of it just one point for rhhardin’s schtick. Okay, maybe worth two.

mccullough said...

The moderators should have flat out asked the candidates if they favor or don’t favor banning unions for police.

These were lightweight questions of lightweight candidates.

Mayor Pete can’t just fire white police officers and replace them with black officers. It’s because there is a union. Mayor Pete is a lightweight. And a jargon junkie. Say “the police union in South Bend.” Most people don’t know what FOP is.

Do Democrats favor at will employment for police officers so they can be fired at any time. And if yes, then why not for teachers and other government employees.

It is difficult to get rid of shitty government workers. Harder than voting out hacks like Harris.

Make these morons take a stand on difficult issues.

And then ask why none of them ever became a police officer. It’s an easy job from the cheap seats of elected office. Kamala didn’t have the guts or dedication to walk a beat in Oakland. Neither did Hick or any of them.

bagoh20 said...

Hickenlooper's answer was good, but the real answer is for Blacks to stop stealing, shooting, stabbing and killing. That would lower the overall crime rate by more than half, and the overwhelming portion of the benefits would be to Blacks themselves - far more valuable and important than reparations could ever be. I can't take any of the rhetoric or even the actions seriously on this topic when we can't we even discuss the real solution, the only solution. If the Dems really cared about Blacks, they would find a way to get that message out, but they don't.

Fernandinande said...

Try a googly on

south bend kelly's pub shooting

which occurred a week after the shooting about which "my community is in anguish right now", and where one guy was killed and 10 others shot and there was a semi-riot at the hospital.

Any news since 5 days ago?
What were the race(s) of the people who were shot?

Michael Fitzgerald said...

The feeling I get when Democrat party members start talking politics must be similar to the feelings of white farmers in South Africa listening to the ANC and politicians like Julius Malema.

Fuck these goddam democrat party bigots.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Rachel Maddow and Adam Schit(D) are 2 conspiracy pimping nut jobs. They sell lies and propaganda for the corruptocrat message machine.

Rachel Maddow is the female Alex Jones.

That she is a debate moderator is total insanity. Shame on the democrats. This is how radical they have become.

rcocean said...

People need to understand that while Joe Biden is an extreme Left Kook - he's not going FIGHT the extreme left kooks. He never has. He'll cave and pander. He's always been a 100 ADA type and as Liberals has gotten more and more extreme over the last 30 years, he's gone left too.

I'd rather have an honest Lefty like Bernie. And topic change - the D's are laying low on Reparations for NOW. They're for it, but understand its unpopular. So they'll send out dog-whistles - for NOW.

bagoh20 said...

So if they fire the police chief, get 26% of the police force to be Black, and rename city hall after Tupac, how does that help your family deal with the Black youths shooting it out in front of your house, and jacking up your kids at school?

Fernandinande said...

"Forced racial school busing (which in the U.S. is spelled with one S, not two) has been pretty much memoryholed. For example, the 1978 implementation of busing in Los Angeles — shipping white kids an hour from the San Fernando Valley to South-Central — caused the near instant White Flight of almost all the Jewish students from L.A. public schools. But who can remember events that happened in such an obscure location to such a marginalized ethnicity with so little access to the media?"

Ken B said...

I fully agree with your analysis of Harris-Biden. The story everywhere is she killed him. The problem is that we took the exchange seriously AND intellectually.

rcocean said...

To the D's Ferguson wasn't a made up controversy where people lied about a man getting shot by the police (hands up, don't shoot). And then rioted over the lies. Instead, its all about the WHITE police being out of control and having to be reined in and controlled.

Facts don't matter. They'll take the Obama policy of hamstringing the police and double down.

mccullough said...

Hick’s answer was trash. If the turnover in the Denver PD didn’t happen then the white percentage would have remained high. He has nothing to do with it.

Also, does Hick believe that black officers should only patrol black neighborhoods and white officers white neighborhoods.

Junior officers are sent to patrol the shiftiest areas. Seniority dictates that senior officers get priority in assignments.

Hick is just another rich white guy who lives in a rich white guy neighborhood. If he lilies black People he would live in their neighborhood. So would Harris and the rest.

But they don’t want to live in these neighborhoods.

mccullough said...

Biden was right about busing. Harris is still a little girl.

rcocean said...

Here's my memory of busing. We had a next door neighbor who got bused cross-town when he was in junior high. it was an extra 30 minutes each way. The parents were liberals, so they didn't fight it. They just sold the house and moved to a new school district.

Ken B said...

I was disturbed by Hickenlooper talking about Ferguson as if the problem there had been a bad cop. The cop did nothing wrong and “Hands up dont shoot” was a lie.

rcocean said...

Hickinlooper has no chance. He's too old. Too white. Too weird looking. And he has a funny name.

chickelit said...

Ken B said...I fully agree with your analysis of Harris-Biden. The story everywhere is she killed him. The problem is that we took the exchange seriously AND intellectually.

Speak for yourself. I saw through Harris's emotionalism and recorded that reaction seconds after she said it. It's in last night's thread.

mccullough said...

Hick is a racist.

rcocean said...

Personally, I loved Harris in this exchange. I'm looking forward to Biden, Bernie, and Harris going toe-to-toe in the future. The spunky black girl with a racial chip on her shoulder going up against Old Slow Joe.

mccullough said...

Harris is a racist.

rhhardin said...

Scott Adams says today Biden lost badly to Harris. I take it Adams is judging the effect on the female audience, which he calls persuasion filtering.

Older women aren't completely lucid but still could teach the younger women that they are not skeptical enough and ought to watch out for that and bias is out. ("I'm thinking like a woman and maybe ought not to in national politics.")

Andy Krause said...

I had no idea that Harris is now black. I had read that her father is Jamaican and her mother is from India. I guess this is "cultural dexterity".

The Vault Dweller said...

So Biden's comments about working with the two Democratic Senators who were segregationists were in the news before this debate, but did they get into the news because some other candidate, like Corey Booker was talking about them, or was it just talking heads in the media who brought it up first?

Ken B said...

Chickelit
What an odd comment. You tell me,speak for yourself but agree with me. This could be a fun game, I will post a series of comments and if you agree you can reply “ Speak for yourself!”

Here is the first one: raping puppies is bad.

mccullough said...

Booker is fully black. Harris is half black. So Booker is the one who should be supported. Also, Booker’s family didn’t own slaves like Harris family.

When is Harris going to personally pay reparations to the descendants of those her ancestors owned.

The Vault Dweller said...

I had no idea that Harris is now black I remember a video where Don Lemon was really energized about the point that Kamala Harris was Black, but she was not African American. African American meaning a person who is descended from former slaves in America.

Roughcoat said...

I'm reminded of the South Boston bussing fiasco -- black kids bussed to Southie Irish working-class schools, and Southie Irish working class kids bussed to black schools. Both groups were bullied mercilessly and relentlessly, and sometimes violently assaulted at the schools they were bussed to. But the worst violence was, of course, perpetrated by blacks against the white kids. Nobody remembers that. The media focused on the crowds of angry white people yelling racist epithets at black kids as they stepped off their buses, not on black thugs beating up white kids on the playgrounds and in the halls of their wretched schools.

AlbertAnonymous said...

This will be the tactic... again. “We need a conversation about race”.

But they don’t want a “conversation”. They want to use race as a cudgel, so they claim they just want a conversation and then no matter what you say, they call you racist. Because anything that doesn’t fit their narrative, their viewpoint, is considered racist, more systemic racism, you don’t even know you’re racist but you’re racist...

Or, like Kamala did to Joe, they say “I don’t think he’s racist but....” and then call him racist anyway with some other words.

No, like the movie War Games, the only winning move is not to play. Don’t engage in the “conversation” because it’s a trap. They’re using it as a cudgel, and they know it. If you’re against reparations, you’re a racist. If you don’t think every police shooting of a black man is systemic racism, you’re a racist. If you even mention the racial progress in this country up until BHO’s presidency, yup. Racist. If you, God forbid, try to discuss what role personal responsibility and or work ethic generally might play .... you’re the worst kind of racist.

“Racist” still has the power to destroy people’s reputation and political career. That why they’re still wielding the weapon.

Ken B said...

Hardin
Adams thinks facts don’t matter. As far as winning hearts and minds and votes and donations he is probably right about who won.

Infinite Monkeys said...

He's friendlier to black people because he was on the side of the defense (long ago, in his lawyer days), and she was the prosecution.

Is he saying that black people are criminals? Otherwise, being defense vs. prosecution shouldn't matter, as long as the goal is to carry out the laws.

narciso said...

Um just one thing wrong with that:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/she-lied-kamala-harris-says-she-was-in-second-integrated-class-in-berkeley-but-yearbok-pictures-prove-shes-lying/

Susan said...

I guess the fact that she lied about being in the second segregated class doesn't matter.

Biden is still dead in the water.

Fen said...

but we're on our own understanding what "systemic racism" is and how it can ever be eradicated.

That's easy - it can never be eradicated, because it's an illusion. Manifested by the same crowd that yelled "witchcraft!" at the people that stood in their way. Your plan to eradicate Big Foot will have more success.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

She continues:

Kamala: "I do not believe... (APPLAUSE) ... I do not believe that the average American is a racist, but the average American is woefully undereducated about the history of race in the United States."

Are ya freaking kidding me?

Watch PBS during black history month for starters. All we get is the slavery guilt trip. It's a horrible mark on our history, but the idea that we aren't reminded of it K-12 and beyond is nuts.

bagoh20 said...

Does anyone really think the Democrats or their policies can help what ails Blacks? Not that the Republican have answers, but they aren't trying to make it worse, except when they pander, which never really helps them anyway.

narciso said...

And her dad isnt Ken on her pot promotion, the whole point of getting someone with foreign experience is they aren't racked with the same hangups as Americans, but she dials it to eleven

rcocean said...

"In 1969, Biden resumed practicing law in Wilmington, first as a public defender and then at a firm headed by Sid Balick, a locally active Democrat"

Biden did not "leave a wealthy law firm to be a public defender" - his record at law school was bad, and he only briefly served at it, before moving on to another law firm and then to politics. He keeps talking about how he's this and how he's that. Biden went to law school, was a lawyer for a few years and by 1969 he was in politics.

He's 76 y/o and he's spent 50 years in Politics. He's not a working class guy, he's a rich Pol.

bagoh20 said...

Tough love is real love but doesn't look like it, and what looks like love isn't love at all.

Fen said...

Does anyone in American really feel like they've been able or allowed to skip "the race conversation?"

Yes, in the Marines. Skin color was no more relevant than hair color. And if you screwed up, it was your fault, not the fault of some systemic boogey monster.

Paradise.

Unknown said...

Grew up in Saint Louis, where Fed Judge William Hungate

ordered busing to produce equal outcomes

Everyone hated it

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/25/us/st-louis-students-bused-to-suburbs.html

Unknown said...

Harris is playing nice to fool you

the bottled up bitch will come out

oh yes

Fen said...

Harris: the average American is woefully under-educated about the history of race in the United States.

Let's start by finding out how many of your African ancestors participated in the Slave Trade by rounding up rival tribes and selling them.

The we can educate African-Americans on how much they owe in Reparations. Because odds are, if you are descended from American slaves, you are also descended from African slave traders.

How about a "conversation" on that, Kamala?

buwaya said...

What does substance have to do with anything?
Very few care, or know enough to distinguish substance from emotion.
The "debate" is more like a very bad opera, with everyone trying to sing the lead, in what might as well be Italian.

Heartless Aztec said...

Ms Harris lies...

https://educationrealist.wordpress.com/2019/06/28/more-than-gotcha-kamalas-busing-blunder/

narciso said...

Perhaps in esperanto, I didnt expect she would be this much of a fraud, tulsi is still the best of the bunch no obvious fraud

rehajm said...

Watch PBS during black history month for starters. All we get is the slavery guilt trip.

Shit- try tuning in to watch an episode of Anthony Bourdain. Same thing.

Ice Nine said...

>>Blogger Andy Krause said...
I had no idea that Harris is now black. I had read that her father is Jamaican and her mother is from India. I guess this is "cultural dexterity".<<

So? Almost all Jamaicans are Black and millions of Indians are too.

Mike Sylwester said...

Hickenlooper:
I think the real question that America should be asking is why, five years after Ferguson, every city doesn't have this level of police accountability.

The US Justice Department, headed by Eric Holder, investigated the Ferguson incident and found no fault in the actions of police officer Darren Wilson.

Furthermore, a Missouri grand jury investigated the incident and likewise found no fault in the actions of police officer Wilson.

This incident became a national story because three Black young people -- Dorian Johnson, Piaget Crenshaw and Tiffany Mitchell -- lied that they had seen Wilson shoot Michael Brown in the middle of a neighborhood street at noon while Brown was raising his hands and trying to surrender. In fact, none of those three actually had seen Wilson shoot Brown.

The three should have been prosecuted for perjury because they repeated their lies to the grand jury. Although they were not prosecuted, the US Justice Department and the grand jury understood that the three had lied. That is why police officer Wilson was essentially exonerated.

See my blog about the Ferguson incident.

Nonapod said...

It's kind of annoying that when I Google for information on the actual incident (the shooting of Eric Jack Logan) I just get the barest of information and a whole lot of what I feel is heavily biased interpretations.

So far the facts I have gleaned are that a white police officer was patrolling an area were there has been reports of car theft. The officer's dash and body camera were both off because he was driving slowly without his emergency lights on, and evidently they both only become active when an officer has his emergency lights on? At first glance that seems like a bad policy, but I'll admit I'm ill informed about how these cameras work and why.

The officer came upon this guy who the officer says appeared to be armed with a knife. The police officer shot him when he refused to drop the knife? I can't seem to find any more info than that without sifting through what seems like a lot of hyperbole.

It's really frustrating. I just want the bare facts, not interpretations. I don't need to be told what I should think.

Freeman Hunt said...

An observation of social media:

Whoever yells in righteous indignation is proclaimed the winner.

Related: We're not living in the smartest of times. Maybe pretty average times though.

mikee said...

PUBLIC NOTICE: As a person of pallor whose ancestors left Europe for the North American continent in the 1880s to 1900s, I renounce any and all personal or ancestral responsibility for slavery of Africans and African Americans in the United States and the rest of the New World. In fact, as a descendant of Scotch, Irish, Dutch and Slav descent, I declare my personal lack of responsibility for slavery even beyond my ancestors' arrivals on these shores, going back to the Treaty of Westphalia, at least, and perhaps longer.

I suggest all you other late arrivals get your public notices posted as soon as possible, so that when the reparations payment brigades roll into your town you, too, can scoff at them.

Take that, Democrats, and sit on it, and spin fast.

Carol said...

Is it Bussing with two "ss"? I thought is was just "Busing".

It's "busing." "Bussing" means kissing.

Unless you're at the New Yorker which uses its own weird stylebook.

Bay Area Guy said...

"Biden stammers as Kamala eats him alive!"

Willie Brown use to stammer when Kamala ate him alive.....

Drago said...

I feel really bad for the LLR's.

With so many dreamy dem candidates, how can they be expected to settle on just one?

I am waiting for another pro-dem/leftist article by David French outlining 'The Conservative Case For Letting ALL The Democrat Candidates Win'

harrogate said...

The Dem candidates should care about how their rhetoric and policies make you feel exactly to the same degree that Donald J. Trump and Mitch McConnell care about how their rhetoric and policies make me feel.

Mike Sylwester said...

The US Justice Department published an 86-page report about the Ferguson incident.

The Missouri grand jury published practically all of the testimony and evidence -- many hundreds of pages.

Those publications provide ample reasons to conclude that police officer Darren Wilson acted correctly in the incident.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Kamala lied.
No one cares.

Browndog said...

"Raise your hand if your government plan will provide coverage for undocumented immigrants"

All ten raise their hand.

When asked about it after the debate, Kamala Harris said she misunderstood the question.

rcocean said...

"African American meaning a person who is descended from former slaves in America."

Yeah, Harris isn't. Her Jamaican dad, a Stanford Professor left her at a young age, and the single Indian Mom moved to Canada when she was 12. She went to Hindu Temple AND a Baptist Church as a young girl. Not your typical AA.

Obama, course was raised by Whites in Hawaii. Tiger Woods is 1/2 Thai and his father was about 50% AA. Colin Powell is descended from Caribbean blacks. Susan Rice has Jamaican Grandparents. Surprisingly, Condelezza Rice is 100% AA.

Fernandinande said...

we diversified the police force in two years.

"To answer this question, the authors construct a data set of all confirmed uses of lethal force by police officers in the United States in 2014 and 2015. They find that although minority[sic; not Asians] suspects are disproportionately killed by police, white officers appear to be no more likely to use lethal force against minorities than nonwhite officers."

Full PDF

rcocean said...

Again, does anyone believe that Harris will FIGHT to keep illegals from getting free health care? Medicare for all - she's for it - and "all" means all.

Mike Sylwester said...

Kamala Harris
As attorney general of California, I was very proud to put in place a requirement that all my special agents would wear body cameras and keep those cameras on.

In the Ferguson incident, police officer Darren Wilson was not wearing a camera.

However, seven eyewitnesses -- who were either Black or half-Black -- testified under oath that Michael Brown was shot while he was running persistently at Wilson.

gerry said...

Harris has a very poor memory for personal facts. Or she does not know history. Or she simply lied because she knew media would not check her statements.

Jupiter said...

"All of these issues are extremely important, but they are specifics; they are symptoms. And the underlying cause has to do with deep, deep, deep realms of racial injustice, both in our criminal justice system and in our economic system."

Maybe even in our genetic system.

jaydub said...

I'm struck by the fact that the mayor of South Bend, none of the other Democrat candidates nor our hostess seem to have even considered that the white cop may be the innocent party in this mess. Here are some facts about South Bend, IN under "Mayor Pete's" leadership for your consideration:

South Bend has a higher violent crime rate than 97% of other US cities, including: 10.49 violent crimes per 1000 residents (IN is 3.99), 1 chance in 20 of becoming a victim of property crime (1 in 41 in IN), 147 crimes per sq mile in South Bend, and 30 per sq mile in IN. The chances of being murdered in South Bend are three times greater than the rest of IN, raped over 2 times greater, robbed over three times greater, and assaulted over 2 times greater.

There are a lot more severe public safety problems in South Bend than the fact that the police force is only 6% black.

n.n said...

"the shadow of systemic racism."

An emanation from the penumbra or twilight fringe.

That said, he's right. Diversity is an archaic and progressive problem.

Fernandinande said...

Educationrealist is great.

All ten raise their hand.
When asked about it after the debate, Kamala Harris said she misunderstood the question.


Maybe she thought the question was "Who wants to lose the election?"

Bay Area Guy said...

Here's the dilemma I face:

1. I do actually believe that Biden has the best shot at beating Trump -- despite the gaffes, flaws, and hair-sniffing. There's millions of middle-age, middle-class, mostly boring white Americans, who aren't political junkies, and just buy into his, "aw shucks" appeal. Name recognition, association with Obama, reasonably moderate sounding, will be enough.

2. So, I want Biden taken out.

3. But I also hate to admit that Kamala has some vim and vigor and will be the leading candidate in 2024. She's going places. I don't want her to take Biden out, and then assume his stature.

4. Ideally, I'd like Kamala to take out Biden, thus freeing the opening for Bernie. But Kamala may just get stronger and take out a second old white guy.

It's a greasy pole to the top, Baby!

n.n said...

"African American meaning a person who is descended from former slaves in America."

What do they call Americans of African descent? Besides 1/2.

rcocean said...

Here's Joe Scarborough's dumb take:

I’ve got to say he ceded his time, which was unbelievable,” Scarborough added. “But also, there were about 10 different things he could have said, 10 different ways he could have responded to Kamala. Every one of them would have been the right answer. Instead, Joe Biden did something he would have never done when he was on top of his game: He resorted to states’ rights. No, you don’t do that. At a Democratic primary — you don’t do that in a Republican primary when you’re talking about race issues when you’re talking about integration because that is what segregationists in the Deep South talked about in the ’50s, the ’60s, and the early 70s.”

Lurker21 said...

It sounds like Hickenlooper schooled Buttigieg far more thoroughly than Harris schooled Biden.

But nobody noticed ...

Because it wasn't about race ...

Oh, wait ... it was ...

But it wasn't (because they were both white guys) ...

It used to be said that governors made better candidates than senators, because governors (and mayors) have had real-world administrative experience. They ran things.

But it seems like many governors (and mayors) are just time-servers. When they run for president they talk about their big plans, but they were not able to accomplish much as governors (or mayors).

rcocean said...

"South Bend has a higher violent crime rate than 97% of other US cities,"

But they love their mayor Pete. Democrats just seem to like crime. They run all these crime ridden cities and keep electing the same left-wing democrats over and over again.

Maybe, its only the Center-Right that cares about crime.

rcocean said...

Its like SF. They had a massive homeless problem in the 80s and here it is 2019 and they STILL have a massive homeless problem despite spending more and more and more.

They also have shit on the streets problem, but they don't want to do anything about it. Friends tell me its never got this bad before, but SF was always a "dirty" city. And the residents seem to like it. Since they never elect anybody who's not a leftwing kook.

Howard said...

Kamala is best when she is in attack mode.

Anonymous said...

mikee: PUBLIC NOTICE: As a person of pallor whose ancestors left Europe for the North American continent in the 1880s to 1900s, I renounce any and all personal or ancestral responsibility for slavery of Africans and African Americans in the United States and the rest of the New World.
[...]

I suggest all you other late arrivals get your public notices posted as soon as possible, so that when the reparations payment brigades roll into your town you, too, can scoff at them.


So, you're conceding that the reparations payment brigades' demands are legitimate, you just want to make sure nobody confuses you with the real bad guys.

So, you're fine with your ancestors taking advantage of the opportunities of a country after those Bad Whites had carved it out of the wilderness, and done all the heavy lifting, but you're woke enough to be on board with throwing their descendants under the bus. "Yeah, you're right, noble reparations activists, you're entitled to those bad white people's assets. We're not like them! We're good whites! We'll be happy to join you in memory-holing Washington and Jefferson and..."

I know (I hope) you're speaking in jest here, but I see this brain-dead "but my ancestors weren't even here yet" line thrown around in earnest way too often. C'mon people, try a little harder to think things through here.

As a person of pallor some of whose ancestors were here prior to the Civil War, I'm going to tell the racketeers to pound sand, too. Hope you're not relying on them to respect finer points of genealogy among the intended marks.

Yancey Ward said...

I wrote the following comment 3 hours before the debate yesterday:

"So, who will the media proclaim as the winner tonight- you know they have already written their stories, so the debate itself won't matter. I think they clearly would rather have Warren or any female candidate in preference to Biden, so the stories will be that Biden faltered tonight, which should open the door for Harris to win tonight even if she suffers a stroke and falls into a coma before the 1st question.

Also, all the stories will be that Sanders imploded, and that Buttuvwxyz performed well for a gay guy."

6/27/19, 6:24 PM


Here are the headlines up this morning at RealClearPolitics:

"Harris Breaks Out, Delivering Most Memorable Moments of the Night"

"Biden Falters in His First Big Test"

Nothing there about Bernie and Buttuvwxyz, but not bad for my prediction. The best that Biden got in the headlines was "Biden Bruised, But Still Standing", by Walter Shapiro.

The media don't want Biden, and I agree with Ms. Althouse, from a pure analytical point of view, Biden did get the best of Harris there, but it simply won't matter. Poor Sleepy Joe Biden, he finally puts together a good coherent argument, and pretty much everyone who matters thinks he got crushed. That's karma for ya!

Dave Begley said...

Bay:

If Harris shows up in CB on the 4th and I get to ask my question, she's toast.

rcocean said...

I hope Bernie or Harris wins. Lets have a honest debate, with an honest leftist. Biden is a fraud, who just pretends to be "moderate" and "normal".

HoodlumDoodlum said...

She yelled at him

Oh wow. It's 2019--everyone should know it's sexist to even notice such things, much less refer to them in a disapproving way.

Bay Area Guy said...

Begley:

You gotta ask Kammy about her time with Willie Brown. If captured on videotaped, you are dining out for free for the next month!

Nichevo said...


harrogate said...
The Dem candidates should care about how their rhetoric and policies make you feel exactly to the same degree that Donald J. Trump and Mitch McConnell care about how their rhetoric and policies make me feel.

6/28/19, 10:17 AM


On the level, are you that dumb?

dreams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

One disturbing thing that struck me was how Biden and Harris appear on TV to be the exact same color. How are eeeevil Republicans supposed to discriminate on the basis of race when everybody is resolving to the same shade among the ruling class? It’s a scheme, along with all this trans talk, designed to deny us the ability to discern standard differences like sex and ethnicity. Pernicious sameness I say! I’m suspicious. And actually, Joe might be just a teensy bit darker than Kamala. Hmmm.

dreams said...

The peoples prefer emotion over logic so therefore the black woman, who was once a little girl who experienced busing scored that round. She just wants to help the peoples.

Lurker21 said...

If Harris lived in Berkeley, her primary school would have had busing for racial integration and she would have been in one one of the early classes undergoing the busing program. But was she living in a Black neighborhood and bused to a White school? Or was she living in a White neighborhood, in which case, she most likely wouldn't have been bused to a Black school?

narayanan said...

Fernandistein said... It seems clear and articulate, but we're on our own understanding what "systemic racism" is and how it can ever be eradicated.

Really Professora - we're on our own understanding what "systemic racism" is ??!!!

As long as Every Form you fill out has boxes for RACE the system requires it.

narayanan said...

If the schools were segregated - does that mean all white schools had all white teachers and also the other way?

Was there any bussing for the teachers?

Francisco D said...

It's a greasy pole to the top, Baby!

BAG,

As I am led to believe, Senator Harris rode that greasy pole to get to where she is now.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

That was in the +/- 10 min we watched last night. IIRC Harris' harangue lasted abt 2 minutes, following Rachel Madvox saying "You have 30 seconds."

GAWD! I think it was open mic all around, and the "moderators" whipping up chaos. Too much chaos before bedtime. We bailed when R.M. told Pet Butteredegg "I'm giving you another 10 seconds because what you said was totally irrelevant to the question." Went looking for Jerry Springer re-runs on YouTube.


Biff said...

Speaking of "systemic racism," an interesting thing happened yesterday on the Yale alumni Facebook group. A black, gay alum in the group said some kind things about Texas and Republicans. The result was that other black alums launched into the most vile, racist, hateful comment thread I've seen anywhere in a long time. It was hard to believe that people actually were proud to have their names attached to such awful comments. The thread has been removed, but I wish it remained as a testament to the level of racism and oppression within the black community. Truly disgusting.

rcocean said...

Stop writing "Bussing" its "Busing"!!

Howard said...

Do you suppose Joe thinks Kamala to be "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking gal. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

PB said...

Kamala lied. At full volume indignancy. Very like Obama.

Bay Area Guy said...

Well, at least one dumb-ass MSNBC leftist has some common sense -- Joe Scarborough.

Scarborough apologizes for 'disaster' of 2020 Democratic debate on MSNBC.

"With apologies to our friends and watching, last night was a disaster for the Democratic Party," Scarborough said Friday on "Morning Joe." "My only hope is people were not watching and I will tell you why."

“If you’re an American and this is your introduction to these candidates and the Democratic Party, and all you see are 12 people yelling at each other, trying to interrupt each other, insulting each other, you’re like, ‘You know what. I thought Donald Trump was a clown show. I’m changing the channel.'”

No shit, Joe.

Yancey Ward said...

That is Joe prepping the stage for someone who isn't officially in the race yet. Guess who is coming to dinner!

narciso said...

no one puts joey in the corner,

Rabel said...

"Swalwell repeats his point: 'But you're the mayor. You should fire the chief -- if that's the policy and someone died.'"

This was followed immediately by, for me, the high point of the night:

The Mayor Pete death stare.

Sort of a gay Jedi thing. I hope Swalwell is OK today.

gilbar said...

so, Kamela is saying that if she hadn't been bussed in elementary school when she was six, that she never would have become a DA?

I never realized she'd started That young. Whose dick was she bussing in 1st grade?
I didn't think she'd started sucking cocks for political favors,until her twenties

Drago said...

Yancey Ward: "That is Joe prepping the stage for someone who isn't officially in the race yet. Guess who is coming to dinner!"

Michelle.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Rachel Area 51 Maddow running a debate is like Alex Jones running a debate.

Earnest Prole said...

Mayor Pete concluded, “You can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but I for one am not going to stand here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!"

JAORE said...

"systemic racism" ... how it can ever be eradicated.
?

As soon as guys like Sharpton are not able to make a damn fine living, and thousands of others are not able to make a good living off race bating, the problem solves itself.

harrogate said...

Lol @ Nichevo and anyone else here who thinks that the Dems somehow owe more deference to your thoughts than the GOP owes to the people who don’t vote for them

Richard Dolan said...

Nice analysis of the Dem back-and-forth. But AA is clearly not part of the intended audience, none of whom could care less about federalism. And if you put it to Biden that way, he would flummox around and end up agreeing that when it comes to civil rights (as understood in lefty land) generally and race issues specifically, federalism as a value is so 1970s.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Joe shot himself in the foot--while it was in his mouth!!

Michael K said...

Lol @ Nichevo and anyone else here who thinks that the Dems somehow owe more deference to your thoughts than the GOP owes to the people who don’t vote for them

Hey, lefty, I go to the circus for this stuff. Where else do you see a free circus ?

narciso said...

Heh animal house, that's what the debate was like?

chickelit said...

harrogate said...Lol @ Nichevo and anyone else here who thinks that the Dems somehow owe more deference to your thoughts than the GOP owes to the people who don’t vote for them

Heh. I voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary and for Trump in the general. Why? Because the Republican Primary is members only in CA. If the primary were held to tomorrow, I'd vote for Biden over Harris without hesitation, unless they too closed their primary.

But thank you for giving me yet another reason to discount your thoughts!

Unknown said...

Bernie will lose

but he turned the party he will not join

into Commie clones

The Open boarders and free health care party is gonna lose

chickelit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...

PB said...Kamala lied. At full volume indignancy. Very like Obama.

If you thought Obama was immune to hard criticism by the press, wait until you see how they treat Harris. It's almost the whole reason why she's being pushed into the role -- special exemption from criticism.

Serious question: Has anyone ever read any real critique of Harris in the MSM? Would they do their job in in Harris presidency or would it be another 4 (possibly 8) year paid vacation? No wonder the Press loves her! Trump makes them actually work.

Richard Dillman said...

Poweliine has two interesting posts on Harris’s dissembling. Berkeley schools were fully integrated by 1963, before she was born,
And both her parents were Ph.D’s , with the father teaching at Stanford. She went to Berkeley schools for two years, before her mother moved her to Canada, where she finished her pre-college schooling. She spent many summers living in India to be near grandparents.
She was not a poor child; she was raised in an affluent family with many perogatives. She is distorting her background to score
cheap political points.

gilbar said...

so,
If we get rid of ICE
and decriminalize illegal entry
and promise Full and Free health care to any and all illegal aliens
so that Literally scores of hundreds of millions of people pour across our open borders
.
.
.
will that raise My taxes? or will 'getting the rich to pay "their fair share" cover it?'

MayBee said...

So dumb for her to make busing her rallying cry.
According to the Washington post:
The year that Joe Biden entered the Senate, in 1973, Gallup asked Americans whether they thought busing children from one neighborhood to another was the best means of integrating the nation’s public schools.

Five percent of those surveyed said they favored that approach; broken into racial groups, 4 percent of whites and 9 percent of blacks said they supported busing.


Nobody liked it then. And nobody likes it now.