US Politics Mega-thread - Page 654

Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was being paid by a global consulting firm when he sent a letter to the president of Romania last week that contradicted the U.S. government’s official position.

Giuliani’s letter to Romanian President Klaus Iohannis appears to take sides in a fight at the top of the Romanian government over how to rein in high-level corruption.

The former New York mayor’s letter criticizes the “excesses” of Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), contrary to U.S. State Department policy, which has been supportive of the agency’s efforts. Although the missive does not claim to have been sent on President Trump’s authority, Romanian politicians seeking to blunt the power of the DNA have already used it to sow doubt about the U.S. government’s position.

In the letter, dated August 22 and first reported by Mediafax, Giuliani writes that the DNA has overstepped its bounds, “including: intimidation of judges, defense lawyers, and witnesses; unconstitutional phone tapping; forced confessions; and, unfair judicial processes.”

Giuliani calls for an amnesty to be extended “to those who have been prosecuted and convicted through the excesses of the DNA.”

On August 30 2018 01:58 Plansix wrote:
There is a good article from 2014 about how that phrase has this racist baggage in the US. Maybe abroad too. It isn't overtly super racist, but always seems to be used by white folks describing a well educated black person. It raises the same flag for me that "S/he is one of the good ones" raises when people talk about any minority.

When we call a person of color articulate, it can suggest—either intentionally or unintentionally—that she’s exceptional, whereas, by contrast, it can suggest that white people are automatically assumed to be articulate.

On August 30 2018 05:03 Uldridge wrote:


So, just to get this straight;
-White people always, like it's conditioned, say this phrase when they hear an educated black person speak.
-The article citing a study on internalized racism (or better yet, stereotypes, since it works for black and white people), but not disclosing any of the intricacies of the study, confirms that internalized stereotypes are a thing.
-Every white person considers himself as articulate and we all think so of one another.
-The observation that a black educated person is articulate and commenting that is racist because it's some kind of unexpected feature of a black man and not just a simple observation.


The article saying: , is basically the crux of the issue here, where it assumes white people feel superior intellectually because they say those words when they hear an educated black person speak. This feels like a satirical bit referencing a time where your same "he's one of the good one's" was a truly racially divided USA.

Please tell me, how far do you want to go with the stripping of every nuance in social interactions? When will phrases be neutral enough so it won't keep you up at night?

On August 30 2018 05:03 Uldridge wrote:


So, just to get this straight;
-White people always, like it's conditioned, say this phrase when they hear an educated black person speak.
-The article citing a study on internalized racism (or better yet, stereotypes, since it works for black and white people), but not disclosing any of the intricacies of the study, confirms that internalized stereotypes are a thing.
-Every white person considers himself as articulate and we all think so of one another.
-The observation that a black educated person is articulate and commenting that is racist because it's some kind of unexpected feature of a black man and not just a simple observation.


The article saying: , is basically the crux of the issue here, where it assumes white people feel superior intellectually because they say those words when they hear an educated black person speak. This feels like a satirical bit referencing a time where your same "he's one of the good one's" was a truly racially divided USA.

Please tell me, how far do you want to go with the stripping of every nuance in social interactions? When will phrases be neutral enough so it won't keep you up at night?

On August 30 2018 04:46 IyMoon wrote:
But is he a foreign agent in this play? Isn't he acting as a US citizen? Is it because he is paid from a foreign source?

"Carrie Menkel-Meadow, a legal-ethics professor at the University of California at Irvine, said it is generally unwise for the president’s attorney to have foreign business clients, because of the high likelihood they will have competing interests.

“I think Rudy believes because he is doing the job pro bono the rules do not apply to him, but they do,” Menkel-Meadow said.

In May, the former New York mayor delivered a paid speech in Washington to Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian resistance group formerly listed by the State Department as a terrorist organisation from 1997 to 2012, in which he called for regime change in Tehran. His consulting firm has also reportedly kept a list of clientele from cities across the globe, who have hired him to help with their security and police practices.

Such actions are considered "political activity" under FARA, according to Josh Rosenstein, an attorney with the firm Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock and an expert on the foreign agent statute. "The speech in Washington on behalf of MEK constituted measurable political activity under virtually any reading of the statute," he said.

On August 30 2018 05:29 Uldridge wrote:
So what kind of language would you use if you wanted to express how impressed you were with someone being articulate?

On August 30 2018 01:58 Plansix wrote:
There is a good article from 2014 about how that phrase has this racist baggage in the US. Maybe abroad too. It isn't overtly super racist, but always seems to be used by white folks describing a well educated black person. It raises the same flag for me that "S/he is one of the good ones" raises when people talk about any minority.