Yup. That’s what concerns me about opening back up. We need to, but we are more or less not keen on doing any of the things that would help us stay open.
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I have loved that statement from the time I was old enough to truly understand it’s meaning.
Most hell no.
I think the tipping point for me was the labeling of Washington (General/President), and wanting to tear down his statue…without obviously knowing a damn thing about his History except that he owned slaves.
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Speaking of not knowing history, Beyonce has a new song out to celebrate Juneteenth, her African roots and the utopia that Africa used to be. Here’s a line: “Four hunnid billi’, Mansa Musa (Woo).” While America is standing up to racism and saying we need to tear down statues of racists and slave owners, she manages to pay tribute to Mansa Musa, someone who owned thousands of slaves. She should sing a song about how great America is since you obviously don’t need talent or intelligence to be a success here. Judging by the lyrics you don’t even need to know English.
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She forgot to name drop Tippu Tip?
Also, it’s worth noting that she’s mentioning the Yoruba while omitting the Igbo who are regularly getting fucked over in Nigeria by both them and Hausa.
I’m surprised she didn’t mention the Dahomey Amazons.
The irony is that, in this quest to somehow celebrate (black) African exceptionalism, we see that people were no different there.
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I dont think the point was to show Africans were better morally than europeans, the point was to show an example of how Africans and black people had an worthy historical culture and worthy historical figures, but that is not really taught… the history taught in american schools spends very little time on African history (egyptian history excepted) in my experience.
Yes, one could for example teach about the revolutionary military tactics of the Zulu impi (double envelopment, aka the bull’s horns) devised by Shaka that enabled them to build a massive empire that was only thwarted by conflict with the Europeans, that wasn’t necessarily one sided.
But that would also have to mention the fact that Shaka was, besides being a military genious, also a raging psychopath which would in effect destroy the woke version of the 18th century racist myth about the “noble savage”.
What about the centuries old war between the Arabs from the Sahel and coastal Africans - Yoruba vs. Hausa in Nigeria, for example?
The biggest tank battle post WW2 occured in Africa, between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
But diving into a history of a continent inhabited by 1,2 billion human beings divided into hundreds and hundreds of ethnicities and cultures with a history of colonial wars (Arabs vs. coastal Africans, Amharis vs. Somalis), mighty empires and regional powers would kill the Wakanda woke fantasies.
It doesn’t spend much time on any history outside of America.
She can sing about Mansa Musa, a slave owner, and it’s not an issue. Ask yourself what would happen if someone came out with a song that reflected positively on Columbus and the Spanish Conquistadors (because they too are worthy historical figures). The fact that she mentions repeatedly things like thrones and kings, which is praising monarchy, conquest and colonization, is saying that those things are worthy of praise.
IDK, we learned about the chinese and japanese empires, European empires, Empires of central and south american, as well as the local tribes of the area i grew up. But the only African history we learned was egyptians.
I interpret the second part different from you. I interpret it as bringing attention to African history and how powerful and “worthy” african historical figures are to learn about. I dont think they are arguing that African kings, and historical leaders were great people, just that they are historically significant but in american we arent really taught about them despite their descendants helping to build this country and being a significant portion of the current population.
Maybe you can read gibberish better than I because I think they are arguing that those people were great. Keep in mind, we are talking about Beyonce and whoever wrote the song for her. They aren’t exactly geniuses.
Who is speaking gibberish? Seem pretty easy to understand to me. And what makes you think Beyonce is “not exactly a genius”? And do you have to be a genius to read about and understand history?
Name dropping one of the biggest slave owners in the history of the continent - in a positive context - would suggest so, yes.
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And ironically releasing it on Juneteenth.
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I saw in the news that the Tulsa rally had around 6,200 people. I believe team Trump expected around 60,000 (20K in the stadium, and 40K in overflow). My guess is corona had an impact on turnout, as well as a teenage prank coming from tiktok apparently (in which they RSVP’d and did not go). Not sure the impact of either.
Is this going to be the new normal for Trump’s rallies? Do they go to smaller venues? Film them differently? Is this just an anomaly?
What impact do you think the rallies have on the vote in November? I am of the opinion that rallies help Trump more than they do Biden. I think many votes for Biden are just voting for not Trump. I think Trump has a far more excited base, but I think that base is less than 50% of the population.
Reading gibberish. The lyrics to that masterpiece. I think anyone with a high school diploma would be unable to write that.
She makes me think that.
No. You need to care enough to do so.
Fake news. Trump will probably say 62 million people there, but could only let that amount in because something something liberal.
Could just be an anomaly. I mean the date changed on this, etc. Team Trump is going to make damn well sure the next one has a packed crowd even if they have to pay people to show up. Zero chance he is ok with that type of optics again. Trump likes these things because he wants people to cheer him on. He’s not going to do anything crazy like call for common ground and unity consistently. You can damn sure bet that he’s berated his team for this and the next one will be much better attended even if they have to bus people in from other places.
Limited. I mean for the most part it’s the people most excited about seeing you who shows up. Rallies are typically attended by people who don’t need any convincing to vote for you. I don’t imagine many Trump rallies feature people who were going to vote Biden until they went to the rally and changed their mind.
No doubt about it. Biden’s not exciting anyone. The most compelling argument for Biden is he’s not Trump. The thing is that’s an incredibly compelling argument. You could cut ads that just feature Trump treating people horribly, obvious lies, etc and then at the end just say “I have my own issues but vote for me because I’m not that guy.”
I don’t think it’s close when it comes to the excited base part. But to me that base is far less than 50% of we go off the floor/ceiling of his historical approval numbers. That said he doesn’t need it to be higher or anything. He just needs it to carry in the right spots. He has plenty of paths that can lead to an electoral victory with a popular vote loss again.
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Do you think there is anything of substance in the renewed vigor of Trump trying to delegitimize the up coming election?
It shows me exactly the kind of person I always knew he was and why I called prior to 2016 that he’d destroy more the longer he was around, and more than people thought possible.
I don’t need substance outside of Trump, the very fact that he is SAYING stuff like that is a precedent I never thought I would live to see in America.
I’m thinking very hard about working for a campaign against Trump. This is a recent development, since as much as I dislike him I have been largely content to simply vote against him next time round.
I don’t want people saying shit like that anywhere near the seat of power.
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Not particularly no but I’m not sure exactly what you mean by this so I hesitate to answer because I may have missed something. Republicans have been trying to make it harder for people to vote for quite a while now. It’s frustrating, but not exactly new behavior simply about Trump. People who fit categories that typically vote Democrat any potential roadblock that keeps them from voting is a worthwhile pursuit for them. Everyone is all about making sure everyone’s voice is heard…well as long as those voices are going to vote for your side.
Without going down the what’s worth doing vs what’s not about that rabbit hole I’m not sure what else you mean. I don’t believe any truth to the idea that Trump will lose and simply refuse to leave office. Now if it’s even remotely close of course he will fight and use everything in his power to try and figure out how to make it to where he does win, but those scenarios would probably need to be 2000 election levels of thin margin.
I could definitely see him saying the results of the election are flawed, etc he’s probably not going to simply lose in anything and make a gracious speech and now out. But I haven’t ever found much to the idea that he’s simply going to lose the election and then say he’s never coming out of the White House.
I do think he wants that excuse of they stole it with dead voters or whatever should he lose. That’s just to save face though like anything else. It’s going to have to be someone else’s fault just like everything else. We’re talking about an over 70 year old baby after all.
But I haven’t been following things super close recently so maybe something took place other than his previous comments/actions?