JoshuaPundit on Aug 02 2013:
Alea iacta est… The Council Has Spoken!, the votes have been cast, and we have the results for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.
“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” - Booker T. Washington
“No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems — of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.” – Thomas Sowell
This week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s The Great Divider is my reaction to President Obama’s little speech on race after the Zimmerman verdict.What he had to say pretty much passed unnoticed by the legacy media, but as I point out, a lot of what he had to say merited notice for what it revealed about him and his mindset. Here’s a slice:
Video: Obama Talks About Trayvon, part 1
Video: Obama Talks About Trayvon, part 2
President Obama had a few things to say last Friday about the Zimmerman trial, about Trayvon Martin, and of course about race.
It amazes me that the full import of his remarks will pass unnoticed by the legacy press and indeed by most of America. Because what the president had to say was nothing less than astounding coming from a sitting president of the United States.
It’s necessary to translate his remarks. As the president said, context is important.
President Obama started out after the pro forma remarks by upping the ante. Now, it’s not just that if he had a son he would have looked like Trayvon, but that 35 years ago he was Trayvon:
But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling. You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African- American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that — that doesn’t go away.
The president said this while violent protests that amounted to riots were going on in many locales and random whites were being assaulted by blacks using ‘justice for Trayvon’ as their excuse.
This is quite similar to the logic terrorism groupies try to foist on the unwary to justify terrorist activities; ‘well you know I certainly don’t condone violence but you have to understand their rage.’ Needless to say, that never works the other way around when objects of terrorism like the Israelis defend themselves. Any response is deemed ‘disproportionate’. And make no mistake. President Obama’s excusing the Trayvon riots on the basis of experiences and history is yet another important message, given that all important context. When he says “this experience and history doesn’t go away” he is not only justifying that violence but letting America know that no matter what, our country is guilty and no matter how much money or good will we expend, it will never be enough. It will never end.
Which means of course that according to President Obama, blacks of necessity have to nourish grievance for eternity and are not responsible for their own actions, no matter what.
That was President Obama’s central message. As I pointed out earlier, President Obama’s entire stance on this is political in nature . Trayvon Martin was a useful smokescreen to divert attention from his own failures, the scandals permeating his administration and a tool to get black voters to the polls in record numbers in 2014 to support his agenda. It’s worth remembering that it was Obama’s Department of Justice that actually played a significant part in orchestrating, funding and organizing the violent protests that made the Trayvon Martin shooting a national issue. Because there’s money and power to be had by nourishing that black sense of grievance.
Roll that over in your mind a moment. Here we have a president whose Department of Justice deliberately assisted in fanning the flames that turned an obscure local incident into a national racial firestorm led, coordinated and abetted by President Obama’s intimate associate Al Sharpton. We have the president’s own willingness to exacerbate things further by making a national statement inserting himself into the matter and by.putting political pressure on local authorities to prosecute someone who had already been cleared of any wrongdoing after a through investigation by police with a case so shoddily put together that the special prosecutor had to bypass the grand jury mechanism standard in such cases to even have George Zimmerman charged and brought to trial.
Yes, President Obama’s quite right that the sense of racial grievance doesn’t go away. Especially when you deliberately pour gasoline on it .
The president’s attempt to embellish this message by whining about the indignities he supposedly suffered as a young black male..being watched when he went shopping in a store, walking across the street and hearing door locks on cars click, having women in an elevator clutch their purses tighter..’ was even more ridiculous coming from someone who has lived a life of privilege and ease his entire life and has known nothing but the best America has to offer.
Yes, this picture of the racist hell the president endured 35 years ago while going to the ultra elite Punahou Prep School in Hawaii tells it all, doesn’t it?
More at the link
In our non-Council category, the winner was Bill Whittle with The Lynching submitted by The Watcher. It’s an extraordinary video that examines the Zimmerman trial and in particular things about Trayvon Martin that would have a definite bearing on the public perception of the case if the media had covered them as they did every detail of George Zimmerman’s life. Do watch it.
Video: The Lynching
OK, here are this week’s full results. Only Bookworm was unable to vote this week but was not subject to the usual two thirds voter penalty:
Council Winners
- *First place with 4 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit – The Great Divider
- Second place with 3 votes – The Right Planet – The So-Called ‘Dialog on Race’
- Third place with 1 vote – The Razor - Primary Care Physicians: Between A Rock and a Hard Place
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room - Rolling In The Deep… With Communists
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Liberty’s Spirit - It’s Only Dead Jews-Who Cares? Not the Obama Administration For Certain
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Nice Deb - Drip-Drip-Drip – New Obama Scandal Emerges At DOE – Drip-Drip – Whistleblowers Illegally Gagged – Drip-Drip-Drip
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Political Commentator - The Weiner-Huma-Hillary Unholy Alliance!
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – What happens when you hire complete nitwits
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! – The NRSC Asks ‘Are You Still a Republican?’ – I’m Not Sure How to Answer That!
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Bookworm Room – A bit of Irish history with some sightseeing thrown in too
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – Not Dead Yet
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Simply Jews – Pissing on your mobile – it is a coming thing
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Sinai Insurgency
Non-Council Winners
- First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Bill Whittle - The Lynching submitted by The Watcher
- Second place *t* with 2 votes – Diana West – Why Won’t the Media Cover Huma Abedin’s Ties to Global Jihad Movement? submitted by The Noisy Room
- Second place *t* with 2 votes – Caroline Glick – How to Respond to EU Sanctions submitted by Joshuapundit
- Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Zenpundit - How to Lose the Next War submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
- Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - According To Hoyt - Forever Young submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
- Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Hot Air – Man, all of these “phony scandals” have really been getting in the way of this economic recovery we’re in submitted by Rhymes With Right
- Fourth place with 1 vote - Michael Totten – Tunisia on the Brink submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Elder of Ziyon – The Elephants in the Room 2013 submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Adina Kutnicki – Obama: Shield For Islamic Regimes exposed His Hand submitted by The Political Commentator
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Kevin Jackson/American Thinker – Obama, Alinsky and the Devil submitted by The Right Planet
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Roger L. Simon – Christie, Paul, Libertarianism, and the NSA submitted by The Razor
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Joel Pollack/Big Journalism – WSJ: Obama Worst President for Middle Class ‘in Modern Times’ submitted by Nice Debt
Honorable Mentions
- Ask Marion – Spying on America – Thor to O’Reilly: My Contacts Tell Me Government is Recording All Phone Calls - Updated
- Maggie’s Notebook – North Carolina: Teacher Tenure Reform Passed
- The Pirate’s Cove – Don’t Forget, Warming Really Isn’t About The Surface Temperature
Related: Forum: What Effect Do You Think Barack Obama’s Presidency Has Had On Race Relations? Why?
See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter…..’cause we’re cool like that!
