I think before the internet, there was plenty of blackface costumes out there that were just rooted in ignorance. I remember in 5th or 6th grade (around 1989) we were doing some school skit, someone was playing Mike Tyson and talked about finding something to rub on his face to make it black. Fortunately, a teacher immediately shot that down and gave just a brief lesson about why that was no good. But we honestly just didn't know - skin color was just skin color and we were way more racially innocent than the teachers correcting us. I can see that ignorance lasting longer, even into young adulthood, in communities where you don't have good role models shutting it down. It really is something you have to learn is wrong. It's harder to have that excuse now. And you'd expect more from someone who would become Governor, even in that era, especially when they were an adult.

Nice to see racists are represented in both political parties.

EDIT: Seeing how everyone was beating up people on the right since there were absolutely NO racist democrats...

In this day and age, absolutely not.

Before we go all "Both sides..." remember that Northram is being savagely attacked by his own party right now and there are no calls from the right for Trump or Steve King to step down.

But the Klan robe is absolutely positively out of bounds and he knew it.

We beat up racists on the right because we should be fucking ridding our nation of racism. And their party fucking defends them do the bitter end and actively attempts to normalize such behavior. Are you serious?! As others have pointed out, his own party is calling for this racist to resign.

If Mueller's investigation finds corrupt democrats in congress working with the same russians that the Trump Campaign was working with, that's GREAT!!! Get them ALL the fuck out. Root out the corruption, remove it, protect our god damn democracy. This isn't a team sport.

Yeah, I saw this earlier and it's almost sad that this is the world we live in. The GOP has no problem grabbing their pitchforks for Northam and Franken, but we have white supremacists in the Trump Administration and an openly White Supremacist member of Congress that is 100% ok because the GOP is really the party of power at all costs.

So I know I will be in the minority ...

Unless Northam has shown a pattern of racism, I would let this go. Does it excuse it? No, but those were different times, there was less sensitivity to these issues by whites then etc.

Now if it comes up Northam has done similar things or have been heard to say racist stuff over the past 30+ years, that's a different matter.

When is it time for a Governor to resign: when the press asks “Gov., are you the one in blackface or are you the one in the white hood?”

He's the Coonman after all

He's known about a time he appeared in blackface for decades and kept it secret. This isn't about what he did 35 years ago, it's about a guy that tried to hide it and only when he was caught expressed remorse. If he had owned up to this previously it would be a different matter IMO, but he didn't. He's been lying by omission the whole time.

So you do think every other politician tells voters about all the skeletons in their closet or something?

It's only one incident that I know of. Even if it was 2-3-4 in his college days, if there is no/little evidence of his racism since then, I vote we let it go and mark it up to teenage, young adulthood stupidity. I think its reasonable to judge a man and give more weight to his past 10-20 years.

The vast majority of us would not want to be held hostage to stupid things we did way back when.

Not really sure that's a winning argument tbh

"White people were more okay with making fun of racial minorities then so we shouldn't hold it against a white person that they behaved abominably because their white peers were okay with it" is not terribly exculpatory.

The bar has been lowered so far below what I thought was bottom I'm willing to let almost anyone stay. Time is on your side. The trump motto is just waiting it out and eventually, it blows over and he's been right. So do so and live to fight another day.

The argument is - it was a long time ago, if he hasn't shown a pattern or it hasn't been repeated in the past 10-20 years, let it go as youthful stupidity. We've all done stupid things as young people, we've all got things to be ashamed of.

Wasn't this the same argument you used with Hugh Freeze at Mississippi?

I can actually buy forgiveness. It's important. We do need to learn to forgive one another. That doesn't change the fact that something like this completely neuters you as an executive and a champion on behalf of minority groups. It's not really about whether someone deserves a second chance, it's about whether they can be effective at all in office.

Plus, what radii said.

If they want me to believe they are different now, yes. Northam rolled the dice hoping that this would never be discovered.

Just in terms of party politics this was incredibly reckless. John Edwards reckless. If Gillespie had found this Northam certainly would have lost.

Maybe the Rs knew about it but didn't want to split the racist vote. ;)

Not think it was me re: Hugh Freeze (but, in retrospect, I would have forgiven Petrino as AR was doing really well under him :) )

You are right. It would be a lot better if he said it was him, I was young and stupid etc. please forgive me. I've been a pediatric neurosurgeon and I've taken care of all people regardless of race, I've advocated for confederate statues to be taken down etc. I've not shown a pattern etc. whatever.

He should just have apologized.

Maybe I'm missing something here because I've not kept up with Northam. Has he been accused/shown to have racist tendencies in the past 10-20-30 years?

Russia's propaganda machine discovers 2020 Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard

Probably not a selling point.

You're right, with Freeze you said his personal life was his personal life. Different argument.

Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - 2017 College Football Offseason...Stoops Retires

Okay, thought you were referring to a Freeze racist statement. Give Freeze credit for denouncing the confederate flag.

TBF, I also believe Bill's indiscretions were between him and Hillary. He should not have lied and try to redefine what "sex" was.

I'm not aware of a Democrat who is worse than Tulsi Gabbard. I'm a staunchly anti-third party person, but a Gabbard-Trump election is probably what would break me.

Yes fine youthful stupidity

except that "let it go" is a thing that gets applied exclusively to white indiscretions, and that compounds the problem.

If Northam had been a black man, and had somehow been recorded 20 years ago making "jokes" about assaulting white women, do you think anybody would chalk that up to "youthful stupidity"? Anybody at all?

If Brock Turner had been a black man, do you think he gets 30 days because "we shouldn't destroy his life for 20 minutes of action"?

It's a repeating pattern. Sometimes the offense involves physical assault and sometimes it's more akin to emotional denigration, but excuses are nearly always on behalf of the white offender because "boys will be boys," and the same defenders don't show up when the skin color of the offender changes.

And that's especially problematic when the offense in question is committed by the white person *against* a minority group, because it just reinforces the idea that minorities aren't really equal citizens. If a white person does it, we'll excuse it, but if a minority does it, we must destroy them.

There is truth in what you say re: different standards with whites. This is especially more so 30+ years ago but I do think its getting better, especially as the baby boom generation passes the baton.

If your argument is there are different standards and whites very often get the benefit of doubt. No doubt, I agree.

If you argument is there are different standards and that's why Northam who did this racist thing but has not shown a pattern in the past 10-20-30 years, should be called a racist and give up his career, I disagree with.

Two wrongs don't make a right.



With that said ..

His apology and then somewhat retraction is pretty weird. This shows he is not sorry or it really wasn't him in the picture (doubtful). This is what I would flag him on, not the initial picture.

You're my spirit animal.

Gabbard is possibly a worse option than Trump.

I tend to agree with this. I will add that 1984 wasn't all that long ago and I don't think putting yourself in blackface or KKK robes was something that would normally go in a yearbook. With that said I think this was done for the shock value than pure racism. I don't know Northam's heart.

I'm personally out of outrage at this moment an don't really care what happened 30 years ago unless like you said there's a pattern that continues to this day.

Also I've done some really stupid stuff in my day and I'm not going to stand on a pedestal condemning others for something that happened 30 years ago.

I'm surprised (though I shouldn't be) that liberal Hollywood also keeps hiring Mark Wahlberg considering what he did was far worse than a yearbook photo.

I wouldn't say Deepwater Horizon was quite that bad.

So when Trump declares a national emergency over the Wall, everyone should retweet the photo of him playing golf with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger yesterday in Florida.

If we've learned anything from the #metoo movement its that liberal hollywood is full of horrible people that have also played a huge part in normalizing a lot of truly terrible behavior. Not every politician is a racist, or colluding with foreign governments in shady ways, not every movie producer is a rapist, but people in powerful positions sometimes abuse that power in horrible ways, and if the people around them defend these things, its also awful and should be called out and everyone in these circles should be held accountable. This is regardless of political affiliation or whether they make good movies.

Don't let shitty people get away with being shitty.

Probably just me, but going thru the arrest and toss process for 21 Savage 1 week before the Grammys and 3 weeks before the Oscars is a questionable decision

Holy crap. The Lt. Gov of VA just agreed that he thinks Northam and his people are behind the sexual assault allegations that came out today. I guess Northam's plan is to burn everything to the ground.

There's a disturbing amount of "if I can't be in charge of it, I'd rather destroy it" in elected officials today.

dola--caveat that I haven't been following any of this too closely, so it might be that the allegations against the Lt. Gov. are credible. No reason to to wait and see and investigate.

Why? I don't get the relevance, seriously.

1) Bad optics for a president to be playing golf when there's a potential national emergency going on.

2) The hypocritical Trump was very critical about how much golf Obama played.

2) - Sure, but that has nothing do with the Wall. On 1), what can he do about what the Wall instead of playing golf? I mean, it's not as if Congress is offering to fund the wall if he'll just stay off the links more.

He can go back to congress and prove what a masterful negotiator he is?

The bolded bit is where you're missing the point. If Northam had been a black man and been recorded 20 years ago "joking" about assaulting women, it wouldn't *matter* what the prevailing pattern of behavior in the years since was.

He'd be targeted for political destruction.

Because he's a white man, people are falling over themselves to excuse the behavior away as "it was a different time and he's not like that NOW so it's probably just youthful indiscretions" as though people don't, as they age, learn not to use the Outside Voice for some things.

Well, people not named Donald Trump do.

As you say, though, his response to this whole thing is super weird.

And that suggests to me there's more there than "youthful indiscretions." If that's all it was - he was young, dumb, and stupid and did a stupid, dumb thing because he was young, his rationalizing wouldn't be this contortionate.

I'd have different feelings about the "young and dumb" defense if it was a high school yearbook.

For some reason, I expect more maturity or a higher level of cognizance out of people in medical school. We don't generally give new doctors the benefit of a "young and dumb" defense if their negligence kills somebody. I realize that dressing up in blackface isn't a professional medical skill...but it does get at adult judgment.

I grew up in uncultured, redneck, casually racist rural Indiana for my entire young life and yet managed not to put on blackface for anything. So I'm a little baffled, admittedly, about 1) how such a circumstance arises, and 2) why anyone would want to do it if the circumstance did arise. Maybe we just didn't take our Michael Jackson contests seriously enough.

Hooooo-hoooo! *grabs crotch*

This is supposed to be a functioning democracy. Trump going to play golf instead of working day and night to get his national emergency fixed means one branch of govt is not functioning correctly.



Let's put this in a way-a real national emergency existed. Let's say that massive earthquake they have been predicting for the mid-west finally happens. Massive amount of death and destruction. Do you want your President to be playing golf with Jack and Tiger or working with Congress and federal agencies to help people as quickly and efficiently as possible?


He's using his Wall as just such a national emergency and then going to play golf.

What is a cat-calling owl?

I finally got around to watching the Northam presser where he offered as evidence that he didn't do blackface in *that* photo the fact that he remembers doing blackface a different time.





That dummy was actually going to moonwalk if his wife hadn't stopped him. He was checking to see if he had room. What on EARTH???

Per Thomas Piketty roughly 60% of America's wealth is inherited, meaning most of America's riches are owned by people who didn't work for them. https://t.co/zBo8XYepm0 pic.twitter.com/uG1ExgCa8Y

— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) February 4, 2019

And they can just collect interest nearly tax-free or invest it with a lower tax rate than working. But I guess most should just learn to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

Your Guide to Tonight’s Trumpian Word Vomit - The Bulwark

Rick Wilson grants no quarter

And that's by a Republican strategist

Inheritance is the biggest form of welfare in this country.

He should be working to find ways to save you all from the bad, bad foreigners instead of saying "Nah, wall or nothing. No wall ? Guess i'll have the day off".

Either it's an emergency or it isn't. And if you say it is, you better treat it as one even if it means compromising a little or, you know, bring yourself to order some underling to educate you about alternative courses of action.

Again, what specifically can he do right now on the Wall though? He's communicated with Congress on what he thinks is needed. He's issued orders to the relevant federal agencies. I'm with you on the 'working night and day' stuff if there's actual stuff that can be done. But unless there's something practical on the Wall that he can do which he isn't doing, choosing instead to go play golf, then this is just another example of not being content with the umpteen bazillion actual things Trump is doing wrong, and inventing new ones that are spurious. In your example, after the president has done everything he can do vis a vis congress and federal agencies, I couldn't care less what he does with his time.

My point here was that if he goes national emergency on the Wall, he's now equating this with a real national emergency like I described. Where thousands of people are in imment danger of losing their life/property. No doubt there's some danger involved with the border, but mostly this is a crisis HE made up to be much more worse than it actually is. If he thinks the border is that much of a threat to America, he should be working non-stop to fix it with Congress, not taking a vacation in Florida to play golf.



If this was government working normally, I wouldn't be having a problem with him priortizing the Wall over most anything else, and then going to play golf after he worked to achieve it/try to achieve it. But him threatening a national emergency over something he largely created and then go and play golf is not govt working correctly

I'm with Brian on this. At a different level and from a different direction. But honestly, I've got so much of my anger wrapped up in the countless criminal enterprises our president, his campaign, his cabinet, his charity, and his inauguration committee seem to have committed that I just feel like comments about his golf game are a waste of time and a distraction.

dola, Trump declaring a national emergency over the wall is such a massive farce, that taking little extra digs about him playing golf, again, almost distract from how serious and significant and negligent his positions are.

I just passed a woman on the street dressed like Alexandria Ocasico-Cortez. I am pretty politically aware, but it would never occur to me to cosplay a state of the Union address. :-)

My question is still the same one: doing what, specifically? What can he communicate/engage with Congress on vis a vis this that hasn't already done? What information/discussion does Congress need from him that didn't happen during the run-up to the 'shutdown', the shutdown itself, and the period which has followed it? We agree that the Wall isn't a good idea, but that's beside the point here. And they don't even want him involved right now:

I was reading this correctly, it seems. We weren’t in a sweet spot, but our rate dropped 6 points despite making a hair more. Our taxable income increased by $5600, but total taxes paid decreased by $9,300 after the credits were applied. I’d think we’re a fairly typical college-educated dual-income family of four in our age range.

On another note, I filed as early as I could this time because it was clear that we were getting a refund. E-filed a week ago today. Federal refund came to my bank account today. Is it normally that fast?

Last year, ours came pretty quickly, within a week, I think.

You just don't understand his genius.

:banghead:

My God he's a terrible speaker on teleprompter.

I'd maybe qualify that also by living in a low state income and property tax state. The blue state tax is real.

Because property taxes aren't deductible? (State income taxes either?) Or is there another hit that I'm missing?

State local and property taxes are capped at a 10000 deduction is what I assume he’s referring to?

Correct. In Minneapolis, the median married home owner with median income level is going to exceed that deduction. I'm guessing you see that multiplied in places like NY and SF where property values and incomes are higher.

Ahhh...I see that now on my return. Actually, that did affect us. Our state/local was right at 10K, so we lost all deduction on real estate/personal property. The child tax credit more than made up for that, though. Referencing a discussion about this from last year, that's a pure *credit*, not a deduction, thus a $4K reduction to our tax bill right off the top, in other words. Looking over my return in more detail, here are the items that stand out...

• We lost 4.5K in deductions for state/local/property
• Our income tax on the whole was lower because of being in a lower percentage bracket in the new system.
• We gained a new $4K credit for having two children.

So basically the more kids you have the better this is, but that can be at least partially offset by higher state/local/property taxers in one's locale. I have no idea how NC compares to the rest of the country on this, but for us the child tax credit more than made up for the lost deduction amount.

I did my taxes last night (Indiana) with similar results to yours, Ben.

I have super-low property taxes and a relatively small mortgage, so they've never really factored into my tax formula. As pretty much a direct result, I've just taken the standard deduction for the last 10 years. So, between the increased standard deduction, the child tax credit, and the lower rate, I netted about $800 more on my return this year than last with no substantial changes. My witholding was also down about $600 from the previous year.

It looks like tax reform put about back $1500 into my pocket for 2018.

Going to stand by this take.

I didn't watch the speech or any of the reactions (as is my custom). I logged in this morning to process the feedback, and it appears that the SOTU and the response and the Bernie response were all . . . normal? That's the twist I didn't see coming.

From NY Magazine:

As of right now

Va Gov--blackface scandal

Va Lt. Gov--Sex scandal

Va Atty Gen--probable blackface scandal

I'm not sure how far down the Va. line of succession goes, but we might end up with the guy who mans the butter churn in Colonial Williamsburg as governor because he's the only public person in the state who hasn't appeared in blackface or sexually harassed a staffer.

Apparently the guy in line after those three is the GOP Speaker of the House. So it will be interesting to see how many Dems who were loudly calling for the Gov to resign suddenly get quiet now that that choice might hurt the party.

Probably why the Governor dug in his heels. " You ****ers did it too!"

If Northam resigns, then Fairfax takes charge. He could then appoint a Lt. Gov, who would take charge if Fairfax resigned. That's their way of avoiding the speaker taking over.

However, I doubt Fairfax will resign unless there is a 2nd accusation that comes out or if it gets reported/verified by a less partisan source.

House Intelligence Committee votes to release transcripts to Mueller. They include Donald Trump Jr, Hope Hicks, Jared Kushner, Corey Lewandowski and others.



House Intel panel votes to release Russia interview transcripts to Mueller | TheHill

Sounds like all Fairfax did was probably ghost someone. He probably used his position at the time so it’s not like he’s a great guy.

There's a reason Republicans got destroyed in the suburbs of bigger states (New York, Illinois, California). The Republican reps voted to increase taxes on their own constituents.

I would be ok, except for losing the business mileage deduction. That ruined me.

Woman from HS on FB shared her SO's experience (also from HS). Union welder, lost some $18k in deductions (including union dues). Said he has never owed before but owes $4k this year.

Haven't checked out ours yet. They are really simple (basically just W2s and mortgage/property deductions) but I'm always afraid of finding out the total.

Now THAT is some imagery.

From what I can ascertain my rebate will be lower, but still be a rebate ... not wholly surprised and I expect a fair few people will be 'surprised' that their tax cut is actually for them a penalty because they used to claim 'x' and can't any more ...

Looks like I'll get about half the rebate I normally get. There's a little extra income, but most of it is losing deductibles related to the house.

We were a net even on income, down about 40% on our return, but we also had less withheld throughout the year. I need to dig back in to figure out what the actual net change was.

I drove 51,000 miles for work last year.
At ~.50 mile it adds up to a bunch.


But Im getting my re-done by a 2nd opinion. My CPA Ive used forever retired last year. New guy, maybe great but he says no mileage deduction this year, but Im reading differently online.


2nd opinion for Friday

85000 miles. I lost money

You drove 85000 miles for work?

I read an article today that said that the new tax bill last year made tax cuts for a majority of U.S. filers, but people are ending up with smaller refunds and even paying when they never did before because the bill also changed the calculations on how witholding is done on payroll checks.

Basically, taxes are lower but witholding as a percentage was even lower than that, and as a result, a lot more people are seeing a drop in their returns.

I'm getting my taxes done in a couple weeks. Kinda worried what I will find out.

That's a ton of miles. What type of work do you do if you don't me asking?

Haven’t posted in a while, but I still lurk. Figured I would chime in with my experience.

My accountant e-filed for my wife and I last night. We just have the standard deductions (no kids either). Our household income went up about 12k in 2018. All that said, our refund was only a few hundred less than in 2018.

So much of politics, political opinion, and policy ends up being guided by the tiny share of complicated issues that people can actually absorb and understand. It's positively alarming.

This issue shapes up that way. A person with identical tax-relevant circumstances in 2017 and 2018 might end up paying lower total taxes, getting a lower year-end refund (because withholding was basically adjusted correctly), and could end up getting pissed off at... well, probably whomever he was already pissed off at, for other reasons, since that's how politics works.


Personally, I'm going to be a victim of the limits on state and local tax deductibility and personal exemptions, which I fully expect to wipe out just about any rate-reduction benefit for my (very complicated) return. And in my state, with a pretty broad income tax, we might get clipped for extra state and county income taxes by the feds' decision to push most taxpayers to standard deductions. Many families in this state surely will, even if not mine.

(Incidentally, I'm not laying a claim that my family needed or deserved a tax cut. Our country has a pretty staggering debt accumulated and still growing, and it seems to me that relatively stable to good times in the economy are the times for us to collectively gain ground in that regard)

See, e.g., how often gas prices come up in elections.

It's amazing to me that the National Prayer Breakfast is still a thing now that we know that Russian intelligence basically used it as speed dating for operatives and the GOP establishment.

Why do you hate Jesus, JPhillips?

Nominee for Attorney General passes committee confirmation vote along party lines to move on to Confirmation vote next week.


Acting AG Whitaker scheduled to testify before House Judicary tomorrow has said today he is still willing to testify if Chairman Nadler does not subpoena him today or tomorrow. Committee along party lines again votes to have a subpoena ready if Whitaker does not testify or invokes executive priviledge

So John McCain's widow Cindy who is the co-chair of Arizona's Human Trafficking Council, thought she spotted a case of trafficking taking place at the Phoenix airport because she spotted a woman with a child of a different ethnicty. She went to the police about and claimed she had just stopped the crime. She didn't-nothing was wrong after police investigated:


Attention Required! | Cloudflare

Where we stand now on the budget deal. There's hope for a compromise with Congress.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/07/polit...ons/index.html

Pretty embarrassing for her. Not sure what she saw that was suspicious (give her the benefit of doubt, hope it wasn't just skin color) but to claim she was right at that time is troubling. The investigators either gave her the wrong info or she just jumped to conclusions she shouldn't have.