Saturday, October 13, 2018
About Kanye West
"I'm trying to right my wrongs
But it's funny, those wrongs
Helped me write this song."
So, yeah, we are living in this weird time where a black rapper is a Republican hero and country singer is championing Democrats. But, most people agree, Kanye West's rant at the White House this week was pretty epic:
Look-- I personally have given a rant at the White House, so I have a little experience with this. And the interesting thing is that some of what Kanye said-- such as the part about the murder rate in Chicago going down of late-- is both true and important to say in the time and place that he said it. Other stuff he said, of course, was just kooky and sometimes dangerously wrong.
One point I hear people coming back to is his apparent condemnation of the 13th Amendment, which got rid of slavery in the US. Sure, that sounds bad. I think, though, that Kanye is just doing a really bad job of making a more subtle point. Here is the 13th Amendment:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
I think that Kanye was talking about the clause which allows for slavery or involuntary servitude "except as punishment for a crime," given the context of his other condemnation of over-incarceration.
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I think there's an op-ed in that; an important point to make.
I wish that meeting had not been televised; And its timing was bad, during the worst of Hurricane Michael.
It was crazy but in an odd way reassuring: the President sitting there mute for a half hour listening to a smart, mentally ill person rant. Reminded me that presidents--Lincoln, apparently--used to hold "office hours" where anybody in the public could come in and spill their problems. It was sort of like that, except that it filled Trump's lust for public adulation from celebrities.
You've been a meeting with Kim Kardashian. Maybe you could offer to be Kanye's "anger translator." (See Keegan Michael Key for that reference . . .)
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I wish that meeting had not been televised; And its timing was bad, during the worst of Hurricane Michael.
It was crazy but in an odd way reassuring: the President sitting there mute for a half hour listening to a smart, mentally ill person rant. Reminded me that presidents--Lincoln, apparently--used to hold "office hours" where anybody in the public could come in and spill their problems. It was sort of like that, except that it filled Trump's lust for public adulation from celebrities.
You've been a meeting with Kim Kardashian. Maybe you could offer to be Kanye's "anger translator." (See Keegan Michael Key for that reference . . .)
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