US Politics February 2019: This is one of the great losers of all time.

maura otm, follow the money

xpost I saw an interview with one of his medical school classmates, iirc, and they said everyone knew about the pictures and were shocked it took this long for them to come out.

Even if it's an organized effort by the GOP, it's not like they're inventing a picture of the gov in fucking blackface and/or a klan robe, or an accusation of sexual assault or whatever. Now, why this is happening now ... who knows. Why did all the Al Franken stuff come out when it did?

the candidates are breaking these stories themselves!

politicians*

in both cases because they were "unearthed" and promoted by RW media outlets/opposition researchers

the candidates are breaking these stories themselves!

this is only true in Herring's case, I think?

minstrel shows were still popular in cville into the 1970s and people have lauded their participation in minstrel shows in very, very recent obituaries.

Robert Byrd (an actual Klan member) was in the Senate til his death in 2010

George Wallace renounced his racism and won a fourth and final term in 1982 with a large amount of black support. He also appointed several African-Americans to the state cabinet.

A lot worse than dressing up like Kurtis Blow in that dude's personal history.

Can't believe that anyone schooled in his personal history could have ever believed his renunciation of racism was the tiniest bit sincere.

The michael jackson thing he admitted to seems qualitatively different than the minstrel photo with the kkk guy.

OF COURSE Morbius is still getting mileage out of "Robert Byrd was in the Klan!!!"

xpost He became a born again Christian, right? Point being that he couldn't make anyone trust him except through his words and actions, whether they believed him or not. Whether that's enough to justify forgiving one of the most virulent racists in US history is a different debate, but I suppose related to what we're talking about now.

a morbs in the thread is worth a byrd in the klan

I am ok with all these jackasses resigning if it means less-->0 people wear blackface or push down heads for coercive oral sex.

xpost Speaking of the MJ thing, the only explanation I can think of for his confusing bullshitery is him being told there was a picture of him in blackface in the yearbook, him thinking of the admitted MJ incident and then immediately saying yeah, it's me, my bad, and then seeing the picture of someone in blackface next to someone in a Klan Kostume and thinking, whoa, I said I dressed up as MJ once, but that's not me hanging with a klansman! But that's not what he said. What he said only flies - and still doesn't excuse his actions - if he's not sure it's him in blackface or the klan uniform, because the implication is that he did it enough that he can't be sure. His heartfelt mea culpa only makes him look worse.

Is that second thing what the lieutenant governor is accused of?

Yeah. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/2019/02/06/daed33aa-2a30-11e9-b2fc-721718903bfc_story.html

Installing Cox as governor by "conveniently" "discovering" preexisting flaws in the D officials all at once is amusing, on a nakedly Machiavellian level. But I am not sure it will fly.

... have you ever met a Republican?

That sounds worse than wearing blackface in the 80s. xp

does it really even matter whether it's him in either the blackface or klan uni??

If this is all calculated perfectly by republicans to install a republican than hat’s off i guess.

Impressive stuff

when we said more black faces in government, we should have been specific.

— shalewa sharpe (@silkyjumbo) February 6, 2019

xp granny i think he’s claiming he thinks he’s neither but isn’t sure

right, but I'm saying it doesn't matter if he was in the pic or not. it's on his yearbook page! are we to believe he never saw it or had anyone inform him about what was on it???

The very existence of the GOP at this particular point in time seems to be overwhelmingly predicated upon their exploitation of any and every possible loophole. Like they only ever win because they're always using a fucking Game Genie.

I dont think i ever looked at my yearbook page for college. I have heard of people manipulating other people’s yearbook page for revenge. It’s improbable that this happened here but who knows.

isn't sure

because wearing a klan outfit or blackface was just not unusual enough to recall with any exactitude?

Have their been polls of black virginia voters on this? That’s whose perspective matters, not mine

again, NOBODY saw that page and was like "uh dude have you looked at your yearbook page????????"?? gimme a break

Med school yearbook page??? Idk

I am unaware if my grad school had anything like a yearbook. I’m assuming not but I don’t know.

I’m not defending the dude, but i do think it’s plausible he forgot about the existence of this photo and maybe he never even saw it

It caught him off guard, obviously

so you're not confident that there isn't a super racist photo on your college yrbook page, got it

They interviewed the yearbook guy who did yearbooks that year and Eastern VA Med actually stopped with the yearbooks in 2014 because of students posing in confederate uniforms.

lol @ my friend Shalewa being linked in this thread by someone who's not me or crüt.

I’m 99.9999999999999999999% sure but i also have never seen that yearbook xp

xpost in summary when Northam was going to school there, students submitted the pictures they wanted included on their pages.

I take this as a sign that there isn't going to be billions for a wall in whatever's taking shape:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that she would be willing to support any compromise border security legislation that emerges from a bipartisan committee and that she has urged the White House to adopt the same “hands-off” posture.

Her comments come as congressional negotiators are seeking a deal that has to be approved by Feb. 15 — and satisfy President Trump’s demand for border-wall funding — to avert another partial government shutdown.

Pelosi told reporters that she thinks the House and Senate negotiators could reach a deal by the end of this week if “left to their own devices.”

Pelosi said she relayed to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), one of the lead negotiators, that “whatever you all come to an agreement on, bipartisan agreement, I will support it.”

My friends and I wrote some extremely suspect stuff in my HS yearbook, which at the time we thought was highly ironic and deeply hilarious. Just thinking about it makes me cringe. I'm pretty sure at some point, I tore up and threw away my yearbook. I'll never run for elected office but I'm sure glad it doesn't exist any longer.

xp

A friend wrote, "I like you even though you're gay" in my senior yearbook, which horrified but then he right and I almost emailed to thank him years later until I learned he worked as an orderly in a hospital.

it’s plausible he forgot about the existence of this photo and maybe he never even saw it

But his inability to state whether he is a person in the photo only depends upon his uncertainty whether he ever wore blackface or a klan robe and hood. If he knew he'd never done such a thing in his life, he would be certain he could not be in the photo. I'm sure as heck certain I never did anything like that, and I am older than he is.

Morbius is still getting mileage out of "Robert Byrd was in the Klan!!!"

idgi man, i was just telling young-uns who may not know. I myself thought Byrd had died closer to 2000. No "mileage" involved, I think Northam should've hit the ejector seat on Saturday.

Trivial, but funny: a right-wing Arkansas state senator is calling for a boycott of a Little Rock club because the band Eyehategod (who are great btw) put a picture of him eating a baby on the poster for their show.

yeeesh, it keeps getting worse for this guy

Ralph Northam Admits He Once Engaged In Pedophilia As Part Of Michael Jackson Costume https://t.co/FVTF1avy9M pic.twitter.com/GTT5JwxZS5

— The Onion (@TheOnion) February 6, 2019

He looks like a Halloween Nixon mask and a Reagan mask got melted together.

omigod

The very existence of the GOP at this particular point in time seems to be overwhelmingly predicated upon their exploitation of any and every possible loophole. Like they only ever win because they're always using a fucking Game Genie.

― But people get sick on earth in their human form (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 6 February 2019 20:56 (one hour ago) Permalink

I think Northam needs to go, Fairfax probably needs to go, and the AG may/not need to go (after nominating a new Dem Lt. Gov. and AG).

Having said that, Dems need to be crowdsourcing some serious research into every Republican officeholder in the country, pronto. There has to be a lot out there.

Even if Republicans that are caught do not step down, it rips off the mask of "non-racist" civility and helps tie their cryptoracist policies to explicitly racist actions.