THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

EXERCISE 2

1. The date is June 17 1972
2. Five men are about to get caught breaking into Washington D.C offices of the Democratic headquarters located in the Watergate hotel and office building.
3. The purpose of their break in to bug their offices and listen in their conversations
4. A Republican, Richard Nixon is president. He was first elected in 1968 and is running for a second term. He wins
5. Thanks largely to the work of two reporters from the Washington post newspaper, Nixon's administration is found to be guilty of: 

• unethical and illegal campaign activities                             
• The misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars of unaccounted for campaign donations and 
• a political espionage campaign headed by the CREEP Committee to Re - Elect the President and involving the White House and the Justice department
• By the time its all over in the summer of 1974 many White House officials and others are charged and convicted of felonies, and do serious jail time, and faced with impeachment, President Nixon resigns  

VOCABULARY

On your own paper, write definitions of the following as you watch and discuss the movie.

1. bugging: conceal a miniature microphone in (a room or telephone) in order to monitor or record someone's conversations.
2. General Accounting Office (GAO):  is an independent agency that investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.
3. Canuck letter: was a forged letter to the editor of the Manchester Union Leader, published February 24, 1972, two weeks before the New Hampshire primary of the 1972 United States presidential election.
4. On the record: used in reference to the making of an official or public statement.
5. Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP):  a fundraising organization of United States President Richard Nixon's administration. Besides its re-election activities, CRP employed money laundering and slush funds and was directly and actively involved in the Watergate scandal.[2]
6. Set up: a scheme or trick intended to incriminate or deceive someone
7. Cover up: an attempt to prevent people's discovering the truth about a serious mistake or crime
8. Slush fund: a reserve of money used for illicit purposes, especially political bribery.
9. Covert operations:an operation that is so planned and executed as to conceal the identity of or permit plausible denial by the sponsor.
10. Verbatim notes: Using exactly the same words; corresponding word for word. word for word
11. Deep background:  the status of an interview which must not be quoted in a publication, even without attribution

EXERCISE 1

The following 10 people played  key roles in the Watergate affair. Explain each of their roles and what positions they occupied at the time. Research what each of the people have been doing now.  

• Carl Bernstein: Carl Bernstein is an American investigative journalist and author. Along with Bob Woodward at The Washington Post, he did the majority of the most important news reporting on the Watergate scandal
• Ben Bradlee: was executive editor of The Washington Post from 1968 to 1991. He became a national figure during the presidency of Richard Nixon, when he challenged the federal government over the right to publish the Pentagon Papers and oversaw the publication of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's stories documenting the Watergate scandal. At his death he held the title of vice president at-large of the Post.
• Patrick Buchanan: Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster
• Archibald Cox: The first special prosecutor in the Watergate affair, Archibald Cox had a long career in law and politics.  He was an American lawyer, legal scholar and professor, whose career alternated between academia and government. As a faculty member at the Harvard Law School, he became one of the early experts in federal labor law
• H.R Bob Hadleman:  was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate scandal
• E. Howard Hunt: was an American intelligence officer and writer. From 1949 to 1970, Hunt served as a CIA officer. Hunt and Liddy engineered the Watergate burglaries and other undercover operations for the Nixon Administration. In the ensuing Watergate scandal
• Leon Jaworski: was the second special prosecutor during the Watergate Scandal. He was appointed to that position on November 1, 1973, soon after the Saturday Night Massacre of October 19–20  
• G. Gordon Liddy: George Gordon Battle Liddy, better known as G. Gordon Liddy, is a retired American lawyer who is best known as the chief operative in the White House Plumbers unit that existed from July–September 1971, during Richard Nixon's presidency
• James McCord: James Walter McCord, Jr. is a former CIA officer, later involved, as an electronics expert, in the burglaries which precipitated the Watergate scandal
• Bob Woodward: Robert Upshur "Bob" Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter and is now an associate editor of the Post

Why Being Pro-Black Isn’t the Same as Being Anti-White

Reasons Why Being Pro-Black Isn’t the Same as Being Anti-White

Author: Wazi Maret Davis

In the present movement for Black lives, I’ve encountered many white people who have expressed negative, and antagonistic feelings about the unapologetic ways Black folks resist and lift themselves up. It seems, at times, as if the most “well-intentioned,” or what you might call “liberal,” of white people will still strongly proclaim that #AllLivesMatter before even attempting to mutter the words #BlackLivesMatter – much less consider the very intentional relevance of that statement. These feelings are nothing new – in fact, white people centering whiteness have historically existed throughout Black resistance movements.

Blackness, in this society, is seen as threatening and movements that uplift Black people are certainly not exempt from that perceived threat. Whether it looks like, Malcolm X telling Black people to love the Black skin they’re in, or  James Brown telling us to “Say it loud:”  I’m Black and I’m proud.” Loving Blackness, lifting up Blackness, and asserting Black Power can be frightening for a lot of white folks who just don’t understand, who refuse to understand. As a result, those who find themselves in the fight for Black liberation are often told by threatened white folks that because we are “pro-Black,” we must be “anti-white.” We are often called reverse racists and bigots. I do not hate you because you are white.

Stop Your White Fragility – It’s Racial Violence and Here’s Why

Stop Your White Fragility – It’s Racial Violence and Here’s Why

Author: Amelia Shroyer

Everything I’m going to say has already been said, better and with frequency by other people of colour. But it seems like when it comes to racism (just like men and feminism), white people need to hear it from other white people. So let me state this plainly: White people, you are massively failing with your white fragility. When you are asked to do the very least in empathetic listening, you center entire conversations around our own feelings.

You argue with people of color about their lived experiences of racism, and you are quick with the reply “not all white people!” and “all lives matter” and totally miss the point. You ask people of colour to educate you – and to be “nice” about it. You talk about our good intentions. You bring up the times we were also treated badly. Why? Because you can, because you are white. As white people living in white supremacy type of society, you have the power to take that focus because society values your words more than those of people of color.

It’s hard to even recognize you’re doing it. But it has to change. You have to be able to comprehend a point about racism without demanding that a person patiently hold your hand and explain it to you very delicately as to avoid hurting your feelings. Let’s just get this out of the way: The fact is, if you’re white in America, you’ve likely said, thought, or done something racist. It’s just a fact. You were all brought up in a white supremacist culture, and the culture continues to exist now. The author Amelia says, “ Whatever it is, we have to face that shit. And it’s hard. And it should be hard. We’ve had everything handed to us; we can’t demand racial enlightenment on a silver platter, too. We have to do the work.”

Being Educated Won’t Save Me (Or You) From Racism

Being Educated Won’t Save Me (Or You) From Racism

Author: Latria graham

It is a difficult time in the world to be a black scholar. November 19, 2015, portraits of Black professors are defaced – at, of all places, Harvard Law School. Among them was professor Annette Gordon-Reed, a fellow Dartmouth alum, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. My breaking point was a meme making its rounds on the Internet in the wake of the Mizzou protests. It’s a picture of Jonathan Butler, the Black student who led the hunger strike, with a photoshopped baseball cap on his head, and a statement asserting that he’s not an impoverished student fighting for change, but a graduate student whose family’s net worth is estimated to be millions. Stop. Stop right there. I don’t need to know Butler’s background,. The details don’t matter to me; I know enough. These are Black people in hostile situations, set against the backdrop of a hostile world. Tyler Perry gets pulled over in his Mercedes, just like my brother does, and just like every Black person I’ve ever talked to about the phenomenon of “driving while Black” does. There aren’t any tickets, or any warnings issued. It’s the world’s way of saying “we’re watching.”

Being a privileged person – whether it is through education or income – is supposed to make you the exception to a bias. But sometimes a bias or prejudice is so strong that there are no exceptions – which, like the flashing lights of a police car in the rearview mirror, comes as a shock. But it shouldn’t. Respectability will not save us. Money isn’t always a way to escape. Education is not a guaranteed savior. Talking “white,” living right, and following the law will not shield us from hateful bigotry. The aftermath: “It’s not about race. We’re sorry. We thought you were someone else.” How many times will the oppressor use that line? I want to know who they think I am. Who they think my people are. It’s easier to spout lies and excuses than it is to explain them to someone who is hurting, who has to process trauma in real time.

I wrote this because it needed to be said. It needed to be explained that no matter how hard I try and reach for the stars I would never be great at least not in the eyes of my ivory counterparts. Equality is a myth that we will continue to fight for. It will forever be so close yet so far away.

Dear Men: Toxic Masculinity Is Imprisoning Us, and It’s Time to Set Yourselves Free

Dear Men: Toxic Masculinity Is Imprisoning Us, and It’s Time to Set Ourselves Free

Author: David Greenwald

Hypermasculinity is a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality. “ Rejecting male critiques, as a man, was a pretty easy burden for me to bear. I am white, straight, and cisgender: I never had to deal with the abuse and marginalization that faces people of color and the LGBTQIA+ community,” says the author.  The problem that young boys face is the fact that at every turn, the masculine path is clearly set in front of them. Strength, anger, endurance, violence, stoicism. This is for boys, this is for girls. Don’t dress like this, don’t watch this, don’t listen to this. Don’t, don’t, don’t. What could possibly happen, dudes? Could it be that you might experience a wider view of the human experience? Could it be that women are people and sensitivity is a universal quality? The effort to define manhood is a source of artificial strength, a buttress against crumbling walls. Men who aspire to such stereotypes are searching for a safe and simple path, the same way people turn toward religion or any form of dogma.

I wrote this article because as a feminist, I know that breaking down the toxic social expectations around women is work intended to free them. To allow them to experience life and been understood as the whole and complicated people we all are. I know that men are just as trapped and just as much in need of liberation. That is, if they can face their fears of anything coded as feminine, gay, or merely different. Aren’t men supposed to be brave? Men don’t have to be anything. You just have to be you

Tavis Smiley Calls Out Trump's Racism, Media's Complicity In Selling It

Tavis Smiley Calls Out Trump's Racism, Media's Complicity In Selling It

Author : Ryan Grenoble

Tv Host Tavis Smiley is tired of Donald Trump’s crap and so am I. Racism underlies Trump's high poll numbers, said Smiley, and the media is complicit in selling it. "It wasn't about calling him out, I tried to tell the truth -- and I think that's what you and I are supposed to be doing in this media business that we're in," Smiley said. "Donald Trump is an unrepentant, irascible, religious and racial arsonist." "And by religious and racial arsonist," he explained, "I simply mean that when you go after people like Muslims, because of their faith ... when you go after people like immigrants, and there's a race issue involved here ... I don't know what else to call that."

Smiley then argued the media must do a better job of connecting the dots between Trump's popularity and support from the "night side" of America. What happens to be annoyning is that we keep talking about Trump rising in the polls as if it is somehow happening miraculously. It’s happening because he’s appealing to a certain base voter in this country. He’s appealing to a certain side of America and that’s why he’s rising in the polls, and we should stop covering that up. “We don’t need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture,” a man identified by Reuters as Jared Taylor, editor of a white supremacist magazine says.

I wrote this article because it's time to start speaking  out. We all know that Donald trump is advancing because of his racist views, let us acknowledge the fact that some part of America is still racist. Let us acknowledge that white supremacy is still an issue that runs rampant in the country. Let us make things more black and white and disregard the grey area.