Ta-Nehisi Coates and Obama

[Berzerker]

Rush Limbaugh got busted more than a decade ago... but yes, too many regulations distort drug use. They banned pot and traffickers increased the heroin and cocaine. They had a war on coke and it was replaced with crack and then meth. Now we have even more powerful painkillers. The pattern seems to show the effects are worse than the causes, or the cure is deadlier than the disease.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Rush Limbaugh got busted more than a decade ago... but yes, too many regulations distort drug use. They banned pot and traffickers increased the heroin and cocaine. They had a war on coke and it was replaced with crack and then meth. Now we have even more powerful painkillers. The pattern seems to show the effects are worse than the causes, or the cure is deadlier than the disease.

AGAIN, Corporations set up LEGAL Pill mills for persciption drugs
The point Iam making is the drug epidemic was started by LEGALIZING opiodes as cheap, safe and affordable. Thats how we got here

 

[Lexicus]

wow, you moved them goal posts right out of the stadium... No, I dont, 'repairing' slavery by enslaving people is not a moral endeavor.

I didn't move the goalposts, though it may appear to you as though I did so due to your fixation on the drug war and apparent lack of knowledge of Coates' past writing. The "specific policy solutions" Coates alludes to are massive redistribution of wealth from white to black people, ie, reparations, not merely for slavery but for what followed as well.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

How is the drug war race-blind?

The drug war is a classic example of an 'officially' race-blind, yet actually incredibly racist, policy. Ending the drug-war is also a race-blind but likely to be racist policy - again, we have already seen with e.g. the legalization of recreational marijuana in some states that it is not bringing an end to racial disparities in drug enforcement. Legalizing marijuana is a race-blind policy too.

More generally I would recommend anyone in this thread read this piece for some context re: Coates-Obama dialogue. It is long but well worth it and makes some of the same points made in the OP's piece in more depth.

Unless and until one's skin color stops having such a large impact on one's life, there is no reason not to be mindful of it.

Bingo. This is what's so perplexing about the arguments leveled against identity politics and "reverse racism." It boils down essentially to people being ignorant or in denial about the massive racial disparities that exist right now.

 

[Berzerker]

AGAIN, Corporations set up LEGAL Pill mills for persciption drugs. The point Iam making is the drug epidemic was started by LEGALIZING opiodes as cheap, safe and affordable. Thats how we got here

When were they legalized?

I didn't move the goalposts, though it may appear to you as though I did so due to your fixation on the drug war and apparent lack of knowledge of Coates' past writing. The "specific policy solutions" Coates alludes to are massive redistribution of wealth from white to black people, ie, reparations, not merely for slavery but for what followed as well.

Here's the goal posts:

"Ironically, this is exactly the sort of race-blind policy proposal that Ta-Nehisi is repudiating in the sentence you quoted."

Ending the drug war is a race blind policy proposal Coates repudiates. Thats your argument. I can see why you moved them out of the stadium.

The drug war is a classic example of an 'officially' race-blind, yet actually incredibly racist, policy. Ending the drug-war is also a race-blind but likely to be racist policy - again, we have already seen with e.g. the legalization of recreational marijuana in some states that it is not bringing an end to racial disparities in drug enforcement. Legalizing marijuana is a race-blind policy too.

Who made it official? Are you suggesting before legalization black, brown and white people were being arrested for pot 'equally'? Legalizing pot did away with any racial disparities involving pot.

 

[Lexicus]

Here's the goal posts:

"Ironically, this is exactly the sort of race-blind policy proposal that Ta-Nehisi is repudiating in the sentence you quoted."

Ending the drug war is a race blind policy proposal Coates repudiates. Thats your argument. I can see why you moved them out of the stadium.

I explain why I haven't moved the goal posts and your response is essentially: 'nuh-uh.' Well, okay then.

Who made it official? Are you suggesting before legalization black, brown and white people were being arrested for pot 'equally'? Legalizing pot did away with any racial disparities involving pot.

No it didn't Berzerker. You obviously have no idea what the hell you are talking about. Google "racial disparity Colorado pot" and you'll soon see what I mean.

 

[Berzerker]

I explain why I haven't moved the goal posts and your response is essentially: 'nuh-uh.' Well, okay then.

You changed the subject from Coates alleged repudiation of ending the drug war to reparations.

No it didn't Berzerker. You obviously have no idea what the hell you are talking about. Google "racial disparity Colorado pot" and you'll soon see what I mean.

Aint my job to google evidence you need to support your argument... Explain to me how there are racial disparities in pot arrests in Colorado if its legal. Doesn't even make sense, if its legal people aint being arrested any more. And if there were racial disparities when it was illegal, then ending the war on pot was not race blind.

 

[Lexicus]

You changed the subject from Coates alleged repudiation of ending the drug war to reparations.

Explain to me how there are racial disparities in pot arrests in Colorado if its legal. Doesn't even make sense,

Moon comes in, tide comes out. You can't explain that...makes no sense

 

[FriendlyFire]

When were they legalized?

Time to arrest Rush then right ?
I dont actually mind if Ohio or Kansas wants to try something radical, the epidemic crisis has been building for a while now
Legalizing it would only remove most of the criminal element and problems associated with criminal organizations, you still have to deal with all the other problems that exist with drug usage

 

[Tristan_C]

In short, the thesis of Ta-Nehisi Coates' latest essay latest essay is that Trump is the "first white president" in the sense that whiteness requires the presence of people of color--especially Black people in the case of the US--against whom whites can define themselves.

Whoa, if I had to wipe my ass with that essay I'd worry about infections. Thanks for linking it though. It was a fun read.

On why the GOP was so hell-bent on obstructing everything Obama did:

It was thought by Obama and some of his allies that this toxicity was the result of a relentless assault waged by Fox News and right-wing talk radio.

That is quite correct but only a marginal piece of the picture. The GOP only slowed him down some and made him lean on executive orders to carry out his agenda.

My own theory was that Obama is likeable, and to hell with whatever he said or did. People were crazy about him. The world was so excited in 08, that he got handed a Nobel Prize for getting elected. His approval numbers did not track the price of oil or other economic indicators very closely, nor the reliance on executive orders to get the rubbish through. He won reelection and retained the devotion of the WH press corps throughout the eight years. Meanwhile, his party was shoved out of other elected seats at a catastrophic rate, and a hardline fiscal conservative movement appeared out of nowhere in 2009 that achieved, and retains to this date, ten percent control of congress.

This all suggests, strongly, a general aversion to connecting President Obama with one's beef over particular government policies and legislation, foreign and domestic, for '09-'16. Talk radio may hate him, but the general inclination has been to pin the government's performance on Republicans and Democrats in Congress during this period.

 

[Berzerker]

Moon comes in, tide comes out. You can't explain that...makes no sense

aloha

Time to arrest Rush then right ?
I dont actually mind if Ohio or Kansas wants to try something radical, the epidemic crisis has been building for a while now
Legalizing it would only remove most of the criminal element and problems associated with criminal organizations, you still have to deal with all the other problems that exist with drug usage

You didn't answer the question