Elections 2018

Another one bites the dust…

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Awww, prof, was it not correct? :laughing:

(ETA: subtlety, not just “the winners” but “The dominant powers.” Kissinger certainly was not a winner, as such.)

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Election results certification dates, 2018

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Perhaps you should go back and have an honest look at your recent comments over the last few months.

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Just as an interesting tangent…

The fact of early objection to slavery by a minority of Whites is often used as a demonstration that acceptance of slavery was not universal or inevitable.

But it’s interesting that this argument is specifically focused on White resistance to slavery. The views of the slaves themselves do not come into it; we may assume they were opposed from the beginning, but their perspective is rarely considered. The endorsement of Whites is required before that objection is taken seriously.

Even amongst abolitionists, White supremacy still holds sway.

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Enlightened, thoughtful and monstrous. They’re not incompatible.

YMMV.

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I only partially agree here, because of the direction of the historiography in the past 20-30 years. A part of that is due to fewer direct documents by enslaved or formerly enslaved peoples (there are a few that address their enslavement, though). But there is plenty of documentation about resistance from slaves themselves. Slave ship rebellions are evidence of the enslaved opposing slavery, even if their direct words are not recorded (their actions do speak louder). As are the many rebellions in the new world against slavery (from Haiti, to the German Coast, Prosser, and Turner uprisings in the US, among many other less well known). I also think newer scholarship about slavery in the US has focused on the words and deeds of the enslaved to a much greater degree. Their perspective IS being considered by historians now. Add to that, the very crucial role that free blacks and former slaves played in the abolitionist movement, and how much respect many of them actually got at the time, which is now being reincorporated back into the narrative of the movement.

I don’t suggest that the abolitionist movement didn’t have a white supremacist wing (it tended to be the people who were more interested in recolonization of African Americans back to Africa and those who were more concerned about the labor issue, I think), just that at the time, African Americans were indeed active, had a voice, and shaped the movement as much if not more than say William Lloyd Garrison.

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i’ve told anyone who’s willing to listen that kissinger is one of the biggest untried war criminals living in the u.s. and that’s really saying something. i’ve been on that since about 1977, almost as long as i’ve been on about reagan representing the worst aspects of the american psyche.

i find myself concurring in part and dissenting in part. while the contributions the enslaved themselves made to the cause of abolition are undeniable i also think garrison gave the literate freed blacks, if not a voice, a megaphone with which to allow their voices to be heard more keenly. in my opinion, garrison’s greatest virtue was his consistency of focus on the morality of enslaving other humans. from the beginning to the end of his publication of the “liberator” he was clear in his denunciation of that act as SIN and all those slaveholders, all the slave catchers, all the slave traders, were all guilty of an enormous moral failing. he also never wavered from his belief that the freed blacks were americans and should be accorded all the same rights and privileges that were accorded to other americans.

his greatest failing, i think, came in his withdrawal from the fight after slavery had been abolished and not staying involved through the process of reconstruction, a time when his voice would have helped push forward a more just result.

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Although the propagandists played their part, Black scholars these days tend to place more weight on the physical resistance of the enslaved themselves.

The thing that broke the Atlantic slave trade was not the rhetoric of abolitionists; it was the Haitian Revolution and the Jamaican uprisings.

Similarly, in the USA:

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So someone analyzed all of Ted Cruz’s tweets from several weeks before and right after Election Day, and noticed that he uncharacteristically adopted the use of the phrase “y’all” just before the election, but not so much a month or more ago, and not so much immediately following the election.

Coincides with my ranting at republicans during the same time frame.

“Y’all CRAZY!”

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Democratic voters tend to vote later than Republican voters. I’ve seen on several occasions the more progressive of the general election candidates pull ahead and win if the first night shows them behind by a 0.8% margin

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In the two weeks following Election Day in the Utah 4th District , Republican Rep. Mia Love and Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams took turns in first place as more mail-in votes were alternately reported in Utah County (Love’s political base) and Salt Lake County (McAdams’s base). At last, on Nov. 20, both counties certified their results, and McAdams ended up on top by 694 votes, or 0.26 percentage points. A 0.25-point margin would have triggered a recount.

Source: We’re Tracking The Unresolved Midterm Races | FiveThirtyEight

Don’t you just love results that end up just above the recount threshold? Echoes of Scott Walker’s loss here.

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Meanwhile, on the other side of the world…

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Lips and arsehole?

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Another one bites the dust (officially)

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OK, I am a white male and claim no authority when it comes to discussing how women think (just ask my wife if you doubt me) but this was an interesting analysis of the appeal of racism to white women. Disturbing, and I suspect oversimplified, but in a brief read it almost has to be. And points out yet another hurdle that must be cleared to achieve real equality.

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