Patterico's Pontifications

2/8/2019

Still Tumbling Down The Virginia Rabbit Hole: Gov. Northam Image Rehab Includes Reading “Roots”

Filed under: General — Dana @ 3:14 pm



[guest post by Dana]

You have got to be kidding me.

In spite of calls for his resignation by a few prominent Democrats, including Rev. Al Sharpton and the Virginia black legislative caucus, Gov. Northam of Virginia is digging in and refusing to resign. He is now on a mission to repair his image as he tries to make amends for having offended so many Virginians. While at first admitting that he was in the racist yearbook photograph, and then later denying it, he’s now working with a P.R. firm to do damage control.

In the interest of brevity, here’s the set-up and the kicker:

His office has begun to explore how it might recalibrate Northam’s legislative agenda to focus closely on race and equality, sources close to the governor tell BuzzFeed News. The move would mark a brazen attempt to hang onto his office by shifting the conversation away from Northam’s admission of having once worn blackface and his denials that he is featured in the racist yearbook photo, either as the person in blackface or the person in a Klan outfit. Northam’s policy team is looking at crafting a set of proposals based on the premise that the governor’s mistakes have rendered him keenly aware of inequity and the lack of justice faced by black Virginians 400 years after the first African people arrived in the Commonwealth, at Point Comfort, in 1619.

The centerpiece proposal is not complete in its scope or in terms of what it will seek to accomplish. But there are many possibilities being considered for a broad platform: increasing resources for affordable housing; setting new, more equitable standards in small business procurement; implementing programs that expand economic opportunity for entrepreneurs; pumping money into public services like education and transportation.

“Now that he knows better he is going to do better,” a Northam adviser said.

[…]

Northam doesn’t plan to hold any more press conferences any time soon. Advisers are in the midst of negotiations with major networks for a nationally televised interview they hope will humanize him. Additionally, his advisers have assigned the governor homework: He’s begun to read Alex Haley’s “Roots”, and “The Case for Reparations,” the seminal essay in The Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

How is it possible that a 59-year old governor of Virginia does not know just about everything one needs to know about racism in America, and, particularly, in his very own state? As ridiculous as this all seems, Northam’s rehab efforts might actually work now that there has been a second accusation of sexual assault leveled against Lt. Gov. Fairfax.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

102 Responses to “Still Tumbling Down The Virginia Rabbit Hole: Gov. Northam Image Rehab Includes Reading “Roots””

  1. What next, for cryin’ out loud??

    Dana (023079)

  2. First the Jerk, then Bulworth, now Northam. Oh well, at least there’s a season worth of episodes for a reboot of A Different World.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  3. oh lord spare us, from quilted Northam’s sanctimony,

    narciso (d1f714)

  4. I can’t believe that a state that produced Washington, Jefferson and the like is now producing this–I’m afraid to open the paper tomorrow to see what else has happened–the State of Virginia has now jumped the shark.

    Rochf (877dba)

  5. his value proposition’s how he didn’t do rape on the womens like how justin does

    his wholehearted contempt for the african americans of virginia isn’t really a factor here so there’s really no upside in wallowing in it like this that i can see

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  6. when bezos brings the pillows, and throws rocks at Gillespie, your secret is safe for a while,

    narciso (d1f714)

  7. Still no word on the specifics of the roots of the who and why surrounding the San Antonio, TX., bunch that let a dance contestant moonwalk in blackface then judge him the winner.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  8. Meanwhile in the city in the abyss, hijinks continue.

    Narciso (d76f90)

  9. Ben Sasse said it. “These people” will do anything to keep their phony-baloney jobs.

    nk (dbc370)

  10. he should read the writings of malcolm X.

    lany (aace7e)

  11. the State of Virginia has now jumped the shark.

    “The Dumpster-Fire State”

    Dave (29ea72)

  12. @4. Why? It produced the likes of Robert E. Lee, traitor to the United States.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  13. Narciso you might be right in the mayoral aspect, note how mini-Giuliani tupolev’d himself in eyes of the cop ghettos by appearing sympathetic to L. McDonald. If it’s the other story, Smollie needs to find 2 white fentanyl-addled patsies and quick.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  14. That link doesn’t work. I can see why they based Gotham for batman begins

    Narciso (d76f90)

  15. Just go whole hog and alter Chas. Krauthammer’s recommendation by adding DCs population to Virginia (i/o MD) for congressional apportionament purposes (1 re but not 2 sens).

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  16. Reading Roots? Quaint. But what color is his lawn jockey?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  17. DC has already planted enough seed pods in northern virginia.

    Narciso (d76f90)

  18. Students are responsible for what they submit, remember how they roasted George Allen more much less.

    Narciso (d76f90)

  19. Politicians are w***res and it’s their onus to appear attractive to their Johns the voters.

    nk (dbc370)

  20. Brown Sugar Brown Make-up

    Great-great-Grandpap owned some cotton fields
    And slaves from the market down in New Orleans
    Ralphie Northam had been doin’ all right
    But baby-kills and blackface got ’em all uptight

    Brown make-up, dat’s what the Times guy wrote
    Brown make-up, let’s have another vote

    Drums beatin’ cold, Fairfax blood runs hot
    Democrat party’s wonderin’ when it’s gonna stop
    Rapin’ gals and forcin’ whuppin’ skull
    His credibility’s gone all void and null

    Brown make-up, dat’s what the Times guy wrote
    Brown make-up, let’s have another vote
    Date rapin’, dat’s when a “no” means “yes”
    Date rapin’, won’t stand for second best

    I bet Obama woulda made it right
    They called him black but teh guy’s half-white
    I’m no school boy but I know what I like
    We should all tell them just go fly a kite

    Brown make-up, dat’s what the Times guy wrote
    Brown make-up, let’s have another vote
    I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  21. This is almost too funny to be real.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1094002116174270465

    harkin (75c725)

  22. And that’s why Gotham on the lakefront is the way it is. Dont get me wrong we had the commissioner who smoked crack and moved to Australia, another who had his lawyer two time him while he was in jail, and other folk

    Narciso (d76f90)

  23. Heh, Haiku!

    nk (dbc370)

  24. Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/8/2019 @ 5:43 pm

    Bravo!

    felipe (023cc9)

  25. Bravo coronello, they need an extra pair of clownshoes

    Narciso (d76f90)

  26. Thanks guys!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  27. Watcha trying to show us, harkin? Twitter says I’m rate-limited.

    nk (dbc370)

  28. Quilted northam was using the argument the costumed perpetrators were beer drinkers as evidence, and hes touting craft beers

    Narciso (d76f90)

  29. Kishnevi @ 18,

    You know, this sure seems to be thing in modern VA. I suspect a whole lot of lawmakers who grew up in VA and went to school there are desperately scouring their yearbooks. And I think there are probably a whole lot of them sweating bullets these days.

    Dana (023079)

  30. Interesting footage of the 6AM raid on Roger Stone’s house from Stone’s front porch camera looking out on the street and another angle on the entryway near the front door. You can see CNN arriving an hour early, setting up the camera and tripod behind their SUV and taking it down putting it in the back. Then the Feds show up and CNN hops back out and grabs their gear.

    All above board, standard procedure, happens every day…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  31. Kishnevi (e2dc4e) — 2/8/2019 @ 5:18 pm (Edit)

    30 years from now: “Grandpa, what did you do during the Great Yearbook Reckoning of 2018-19?”

    JVW (54fd0b)

  32. Anybody who thinks that the FBI, which had its own TV show with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., did not tip CNN to the “Raid On Roger Stone” TV episode is also a Millenial.

    J. Nancy Swish brought reporters along when “he personally arrested” Alvin Karpis. Then it turned out that neither he nor any of his men had brought handcuffs. They had to tie Karpis with their neckties. That was funny.

    nk (dbc370)

  33. I can admit that Hoover was ruthless and racist but that other legend comes from dubious sources,

    Narciso (d76f90)

  34. So quilted northam will not have to read about like in the last link why killing children is bad, but the prog sins are derigeur.

    Narciso (d76f90)

  35. Nope. It was in all the papers. It was also in the FBI stories comics, and in Karpis’s biography.

    nk (dbc370)

  36. If you mean “J. Nancy Swish”, I got that from Stephen Hunter’s (the author of The Second Saladin) book, G-Man. 😉

    nk (dbc370)

  37. Ever seen a secret policeman who is eager to share credit from fouche in the revolution to andropov?

    Narciso (d76f90)

  38. Narciso (d76f90) — 2/8/2019 @ 6:19 pm

    The revisionist theory is actually an old one. Starting with the Talmud, rabbinic writers suggested the offering to Baal or Moloch was really a ceremony in which the child walked or was carried by an adult between two fires
    and was thereby dedicated or consecrated to the pagan deity. And of all the incidents in which a Jewish king (or Moabite, in one instance) is specifically mentioned as doing the ritual, all use a term that is vaguer than that the one used in the Biblical quotes used in the article, and allows for either view. Similar with Jepthah’s daughter. In fact the one instance where human sacrifice is definitely depicted is the one which did not end in sacrifice: the Binding of Isaac, who tradition says was an adult at the time (to be precise, 39 years old) (derived from the fact that immediately after this episode, the matriarch Sarah dies).

    Kishnevi (e2dc4e)

  39. True but the archaeological evidence was what interested me?

    Narciso (d76f90)

  40. the Binding of Isaac, who tradition says was an adult at the time (to be precise, 39 years old)

    Which would have made Abraham 140. That was one sprightly old man. You know what I think? I don’t think they had calendars back then.

    nk (dbc370)

  41. Lmao over brown makeup

    mg (827274)

  42. So a stupid stunt magnified by his own subsequent self righteousness is more important than ritual slaughter.

    Narciso (d76f90)

  43. Which would have made Abraham 140. That was one sprightly old man. You know what I think? I don’t think they had calendars back then.

    Genesis 25 says Abe died at age 175, and implies that his six sons by his other wife Keturah were born after Sarah’s death. So yes, he was a sprightly old man.

    But the narrative in Genesis 18 specifically mentions that at the time of Isaac’s birth, Abraham was old and Sarah was at the very least past menopause, and this was a miracle. Hence her laughter at the promise she would have a child, God’s answer “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”, and the little dialogue that ensues, in which she tells God she wasn’t laughing, and He answers “Yes, you were”.

    The name Yitzchak/Isaac is btw derived from this episode: it derives from the word meaning “laugh”.

    But if you follow the Biblical chronology, you will notice that the enormous lifespans dwindle rapidly. The last ones to specifically have long lifespans are Moses (120 years old), Aaron and Miriam (no specific ages given but the text implies they died a year or so before Moses and of course were older than him), and finally Joshua who the text says lived to the age of 110.

    Kishnevi (e2dc4e)

  44. Didnt roots turn out to have taken ‘liberties’ with the material.

    Narciso (d76f90)

  45. 29 – Watcha trying to show us, harkin? Twitter says I’m rate-limited

    Hmmmm, works for me.

    Apparently Northam’s staff says neither person in yearbook photo can be him because they are holding beers in their right hands, and he’s left-handed.

    So of course someone retweets Northam from a few months ago saying he’s celebrating National Beer Lovers Day….which includes a photo of him holding a beer…..in his right hand.

    harkin (75c725)

  46. Usually if Twitter says you are rate limited, reload the page will work.

    I guess Northam’s staff never heard of a two fisted drinker.

    Kishnevi (e2dc4e)

  47. Thank you. It was an idiotic defense even without the beer festival photo.

    nk (dbc370)

  48. Alex Haley was a fraud: he plagiarized roots from a white Englishman.

    Jb (372b88)

  49. It produced the likes of Robert E. Lee, traitor to the United States.

    Lee was never charged with, not convicted of treason, and was amnestied by Johnson.

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  50. So, after the whole blackface scandal, the two white guys will get off, and they’ll hang the black feller.

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  51. every ignorant southern white trash democrat will tell you that the civil war was about states rights and don’t ask the states right to do what? by the way if you ask a southern babtist why their is a separation from the the babtist church they won’t know or tell you they don’t know. same with southern methodists.

    lany (aace7e)

  52. @53. Lee betrayed his country and his heritage; he took up arms and waged war against the United States of America and killed American citizens. There isn’t enough piss on the planet to pour on his grave. So let’s keep those statues of him out in the open so pigeons can keep pooping out the appropriate honors.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  53. Lee was never charged with, not convicted of treason, and was amnestied by Johnson.

    No he wasn’t.

    Applied for, but never received, restoration of his citizenship rights before he died.

    He was amnestied posthumously by Congress in 1975.

    Dave (1bb933)

  54. @55. It’s the ghostly culture of confederate apologists that gives cover to excuse the past and fosters a rationale for continued incidents of blackface and nooses w/new generations.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  55. Failure to divide up the traitors’ plantations among their freed slaves was inexcusable.

    At the time of his death, Lincoln seemed to be aiming for an even more lenient reconstruction, but I can’t imagine that, had he lived, he would have been as oblivious to the plight of the blacks as Johnson was.

    Dave (1bb933)

  56. From wiki, so for what it’s worth…
    “In 1865, after the war, Lee was paroled and signed an oath of allegiance, asking to have his citizenship of the United States restored. Lee’s application was misplaced; as a result, he did not receive a pardon and his citizenship was not restored.[8] In 1865, Lee became president of Washington College (later Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia; in that position, he supported reconciliation between North and South.[9] Lee accepted “the extinction of slavery” provided for by the Thirteenth Amendment, but publicly opposed racial equality and granting African Americans the right to vote and other political rights.[10][11][12] Lee died in 1870. In 1975, the U.S. Congressposthumously restored Lee’s citizenship effective June 13, 1865.[8]

    Lee opposed the construction of public memorials to Confederate rebellion on the grounds that they would prevent the healing of wounds inflicted during the war.[9] Nevertheless, after his death, Lee became an icon used by promoters of “Lost Cause” mythology, who sought to romanticize the Confederate cause and strengthen white supremacy in the South.[9] Later in the 20th century, particularly following the civil rights movement, historians reassessed Lee; his reputation fell based on his failure to support rights for freedmen after the war, and even his strategic choices as a military leader fell under scrutiny.[11][13]”

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  57. He like rommel a professional military man, but like him had made some bad compromise, but compare him with the likes of Bedford Forrest the heydrich or skorzeny of the Confederate movement, the butcher of ft. Pillow

    Narciso (7a3154)

  58. If only there was a satirical show of some kind:
    https://mobile.twitter.com/gelles/status/1094223120041418753

    Narciso (7a3154)

  59. While people are urinating on those who added a net deficit to civil order, maybe save a few squirts to those with responsibility/authority who have failed to teach our youth how to deal with reality:

    “We are seeing an epidemic of mental illness on college campuses across the country. According to national data, 40% of undergraduate students have felt so depressed within the past year that it’s been difficult for them to function, 10% have seriously considered suicide, and these numbers are higher than the numbers for kids and young adults of the same age who are not attending college.”

    harkin (e15868)

  60. Trade schools make America great.

    mg (c86ea9)

  61. While people are urinating on those who added a net deficit to civil order, maybe save a few squirts to those with responsibility/authority who have failed to teach our youth how to deal with reality

    Their parents?

    Yesterday we were being pilloried for “indoctrinating the youth”.

    Today you want to urinate on us for not indoctrinating the youth?

    Make up your mind, because I’ll have to decide which one of Newton’s Laws to skip so I can “teach our youth how to deal with reality”…

    Dave (1bb933)

  62. Dave cant keep two thoughts in his mind at the same time, sad, progressivism undermined founding principles. That had somehow survived.

    Narciso (7a3154)

  63. Narciso (7a3154) — 2/9/2019 @ 8:04 am

    Thank you for the personal attack.

    Dave (1bb933)

  64. As the invisible serfs collar has notated, the fault lies in Soviet designed constructivist education templates 5hat have been operating since the 70s, funded by the usual suspects Rockefeller Ford Carnegie foundations.

    Narciso (7a3154)

  65. North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse. He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket – an Economic one!

    actual tweet by Donald Trump a few minutes ago

    Dave (1bb933)

  66. Now as we saw in Boston, was the north that much more hospitable to African Americans probably except the credentialed set who are insulated from their own experiments causes their pound of strife.

    Narciso (7a3154)

  67. How is it possible that a 59-year old governor of Virginia does not know just about everything one needs to know about racism in America, and, particularly, in his very own state?

    Unfortunately this is possible because white people have long failed to teach ourselves the truth about our own history, preferring instead to teach that anything involving race is radioactive and should be avoided and feared at all costs. It is the last bastion of political correctness that nearly everyone agrees on: don’t talk about race and racism because it is unbearable to white people.

    Sure, read Roots, read Ta-Nehesi Coates. Also, resign, dude. You gotta go.

    And for that matter, so does the lieutenant governor, and that other dude who admitted being in blackface, and the senate majority leader. Plenty of politicians don’t embrace racism openly. Even in Virginia.

    TR (2c5752)

  68. the times just had a revelation about that,

    narciso (d1f714)

  69. Lol @ teaching kids to grow up into thinking, self sufficient adults = ‘indoctrination’.

    And yes the parents are at most fault but the schools and media are right up there.

    If that offends you maybe bust out the coloring books and silly putty.

    harkin (75c725)

  70. Lol @ teaching kids to grow up into thinking, self sufficient adults = ‘indoctrination’.

    How would you suggest I work suicide prevention and personal self-sufficiency into my physics courses?

    Do you suppose students are depressed because the course material isn’t rigorous or challenging enough? Or the opposite?

    Dave (1bb933)

  71. I’m certain you’ll figure it out.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  72. Will Northam be a viable, full-term Cletus?

    Tune in next week…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  73. Do you suppose students are depressed because the course material isn’t rigorous or challenging enough?

    Not the course material. Their lives. If they were busier just trying to find something to eat, never mind being eaten by something else, they wouldn’t have time to feel sorry for themselves in-between playing with their iPhones and gender bits.

    nk (dbc370)

  74. Pomposity in full bloom…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  75. Maybe I should start each of my lectures with a daily affirmation.

    Dave (1bb933)

  76. 79… gender bits? Ha!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  77. Or your daily constitutional…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  78. If they were busier just trying to find something to eat, never mind being eaten by something else, they wouldn’t have time to feel sorry for themselves in-between playing with their iPhones and gender bits.

    Well, in fairness, the women do have sexual assaults by future Democrat politicians to contend with…

    Dave (1bb933)

  79. between the islamist, felons and illegals, this ‘selected’ electorate, doesn’t really ask much of them,

    narciso (d1f714)

  80. Since we’ve moved to First World problems, I don’t suppose there is a way to make butter cheese-crisping hot without having it, the butter, turn brown? Real butter, from cows, unsalted.

    nk (dbc370)

  81. nk (dbc370) — 2/9/2019 @ 10:47 am

    Try using Ghee (clarified butter). Smoking point of 485 degrees F

    felipe (023cc9)

  82. Thank you, felipe.

    nk (dbc370)

  83. @61. ‘Speer-itied’ apologists; as if Lee was the ‘good Nazi’ of his time.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  84. Nk–hurry, if you want to eat dairy and meat–AOC’s New Green Deal is based, in part, on getting rid of methane-producing cows

    Rochf (877dba)

  85. @71. The U.S. finally got him on a mission to Vietnam; Hanoi no less. He can stay at the Hilton. They have a real one now.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  86. Sean Davis
    @seanmdav
    Have Virginia Democrats paused to consider the implications of a statewide blackface/KKK scandal that somehow results only in the resignation of the black guy?

    harkin (75c725)

  87. @89 – Indeed, who could object to a statue of a brilliant architect and engineer like Herr Doktor Speer in the middle of Skokie or Tel Aviv?

    Dave (1bb933)

  88. i like good statues (pretty ones) but i do not like ugly statues

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  89. Do you suppose students are depressed because the course material isn’t rigorous or challenging enough?

    Not sure, the only time I hear about exams is when they demand postponement because election results have hurt their widdle feewings.

    harkin (75c725)

  90. harkin (75c725) — 2/9/2019 @ 11:45 am

    While the Twitter meme potential is certainly off the charts here, I don’t think there’s a very close equivalence between wearing politically-incorrect make-up and committing rape and/or sexual assault.

    Dave (1bb933)

  91. @94. Marbled beef is pretty good, too, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  92. Well skorzeny ended up a Mossad operative, where he helped target the rocket ring in Egypt while he trained the PLO and the ira on the side

    Narciso (4a80de)

  93. By this time next week, he’ll be eating soul food and shouting Dy-no-mite!

    Brendan (444932)

  94. By this time next week, he’ll be eating soul food and shouting Dy-no-mite!

    As a true act of repentance and rejection of white privilege, maybe he could darken his skin John Howard Griffin-style and experience life as an African-American in the South first hand.

    Oh, wait…

    Dave (1bb933)

  95. @99. Next presser: Afro Sheen.

    DCSCA (797bc0)


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