Lawrence O'Donnell is an ignoramous and Cain basically destroyed his interview lol

**triggerhappy2005** · 10-11-11, 11:40 AM

Honestly Alundil, I don't have anything against Cain. I don't think I would vote for him since he has, imo, too much of a myopic business view on things. It seems to me that his tax plan caters too much to rich folk but what would you expect of an ex-CEO?

At the end of the day it won't really matter who gets elected, (R) or (D), because the problems we have are structural. Our current political and economic system led us here and will keep us here.

**Pint** · 10-11-11, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by Alundil

At any rate, Belafonte then goes on to speak about the prison population and it's minority make percentages. And unemployment and it's minority percentages. He claims then that black people "aren't having the best time of it." How is that related to Cain or a criticism of Cain? No idea. Non sequitur if you ask me.

You missed his point. Cain is saying everything is on the level, Belafonte gave a rebuttal. Hes not criticizing Cain so much as being critical of Cain's repeated opinion that black Americans are getting the same deal as everyone else. I don't know if its still true or not but Belafonte was nearly broke in the 70's after donating his earnings from his success in the 50's and 60's to civil causes in the US.

**Alundil** · 10-11-11, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by Pint

You missed his point. Cain is saying everything is on the level, Belafonte gave a rebuttal. Hes not criticizing Cain so much as being critical of Cain's repeated opinion that black Americans are getting the same deal as everyone else. I don't know if its still true or not but Belafonte was nearly broke in the 70's after donating his earnings from his success in the 50's and 60's to civil causes in the US.

I don't think I missed it all. I get that he disagrees with Cain over this. Disagreeing is fine. But whether Belafonte is broke, used to be broke, is still somewhere in between is immaterial.

The larger issue (and it's almost the exact same issue that I have with O'Donnell's idiocy) is that he is claiming (and I'll not quote it again but the quote I listed earlier was verbatim from his interview) that Cain, and other black people in government who happen to be Republican/Conservative, is a puppet of some Republican ploy to dupe people (specifically minorities) into voting a certain way. That is patently ridiculous, and smacks of racist stereotyping in and of itself. Not necessarily of the normal type of claimed racism, but certainly in the sense that "All blacks (or minorities) must vote democrat and be "liberally" minded otherwise they are not being true to their race or they are selling out or they are uncle toms or other assorted forms of hogwash.

It's intellectually dishonest and a character attack of the worst kind. Racial politics has become the norm and it's so idiotic that is defies accurate description.

**Pint** · 10-11-11, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by Alundil

He then complains that Cain got lucky and tries to parallel that luck into a lack of knowledge about the plight of blacks? So let me get this straight...successful (or as Belafonte puts it "lucky") blacks have no perspective on their own history or the things that the black community has gone though? Got it. I guess it's time to stop listening to Harry Belafonte for the same reason? Cause he's a lucky rich SOB too. Right?

I put in that he spent the money he made while he was a popular singer because of the part I underlined, its an apples and oranges comparison. Someone like Cain isn't blind to the stats in this area he is just of the opinion that it is self imposed where as Belafonte would say its from external pressure. I think your right in a way to call Belafonte for his subtle patronizing of Rice or Powell, you can almost hear him saying uncle tom in his head while he was being audible. I'm not trying to shove your post into the mud, just your observations were in need of some some refinement.

**Alundil** · 10-11-11, 03:08 PM

The thing is....I don't think it's either. It isn't possible for either point to catch all cases. But I certainly believe that there is some choice involved in the situations that a great many people find themselves in now. Bad choices beget bad results. And it has nothing to do with race otherwise there would be fewer poor whites than any other group and that is not the case. Stupid choices are color blind.

Sent via highly charged bolt of electricity.