Reparations, a Concept Whose Time Has Come – TPC “Summer Vaca” Column

24 Monday Jun 2019

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Reparations, a Concept Whose Time Has Come

 

This week, the gang at TPC is on vacation – a summer tradition and well earned. However, National Affairs never stop, relent, nor sleep. Ergo, this week the C.F. Floyd National Affairs Column slums here at my little old blog. Welcome! Getting right down to it,

Last week, on “Juneteenth” – a holy day among the tribes of the central Congo, I believe – a very special committee hearing convened in Mordor. Specifically, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution (yeah, one wonders if they have another subcommittee on powdered wigs or dinosaurs…) held forth on H.R. 40 (2019), the brainchild (if that’s even possible) of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-La-La land).

This is the first Bill addressed in Congress proposing formal … well, let’s let Mrs. Jackson Lee’s work speak for itself:

A BILL

To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

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This Act may be cited as the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act”.

Knowing that it does not get any better than the above, feel free to waste time reading THE WHOLE BILL.

Before we discuss the … merits… of H.R. 40 … okay, there are no merits, but uh, let’s have a little history anyway. I’ll spin it in a way to support the reparations racket (which I do in fact support). Did you know that,

Black Africans used to build spaceship pyramids? They did before they were enslaved in America in 1619. All true.

Black Africans are (were) the “real” Egyptians, real Hebrews, real Muslims, and even the real Black Africans.

There was no slavery in Africa, prior to the arrival of those wicked men from “Roots.” Africans, Arabs, and other Semitic peoples had absolutely nothing to do with slavery. Just whites. Time to pay!

The very first registered slave-owner in America was certainly NOT a black man… No.

No whites were ever held in slavery in America or anywhere else. Do not let the damned Irish and Slavs try to deceive you.

Blacks in America are almost all slaves today and have been since 1619 (maybe since 619!).

Blacks in America are almost entirely treated as chattel property, without autonomy or the right to own property, vote, or hold office. (This makes Sheila Jackson Lee’s existence as an elected official all the more remarkable).

No Civil War, Presidential Proclamation, law, or Constitutional Amendment was ever even considered to ameliorate this terrible injustice.

Blacks in America, if they are allowed schooling, are schooled in segregated institutions.

No-one named Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, or Maynard Jackson ever lived.

There were no civil rights movement and attendant laws in the middle of the 20th Century.

Except for the extremely odd case of Sheila Jackson Lee (and a few very other strange cases), there are no Black elected officials in America.

Out of … a whole lot of white guys … no Black American has ever served as President. Ever. Certainly not as recently as three years ago.

And – I’ll just throw this in for fantasy measure – there are no other races or ethnic divisions in America. It’s just oppressive whites and oppressed blacks. We also have no demographic, societal, educational, economic, political, or other troubles to worry about.

So, one can plainly see that reparations for something no-one alive today ever had anything to do with, is the right thing to do. That’s not just the accelerationist in me talking. Okay, honestly it is…

Whatever you do, please pay no heed to right-wing, white supremacist, Nazi extremists like Coleman Hughes, who testified at the hearing on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan:

He and his “justice for the dead at the price of justice for the living” crap are just pure hate.  Instead, all those of you still working and singing on the Political Plantation, listen to the great wisdom of the Chairman, Mas’ (((Cohen))). “Chill!” like the man ordered. Don’t be “presumptive,” as he condescended. Know your place and your rank on the totem pole. If scraps come your way, then be grateful.

Looking beyond certain failure in the current Senate or on Trump’s desk, the fact the hearing was held and taken with any degree of seriousness, tells you something about America The United States This Place Between Mexico and Canada. If this passes, and some form of it may in time, then it will be just another heap of dirt in the grave of civilization on these shores. Bluntly, anyone who supports this scheme, at face value and for the “reasons” listed in the Bill, proves himself not necessarily African, but most certainly not American. Take the loot and then go home?

Note: Other big doin’s around the Nation include Bernie Sanders’s surprisingly good idea to cancel ALL student loan debt. We have “strong” sanctions on Iran (again, still). And, we have no Southern border whatsoever. This, that, maybe more, maybe something else, when TPC resumes on Sunday, the 30th. I may participate in the looming SUPER POST! Stay tuned. Please remember to tip your server as you exit perrinlovett[dot]me…

“Crazy” Uncle Bernie Starts to Make Sense

24 Monday Jun 2019

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It’s a good start, what the Senator is set to propose: canceling ALL student debt in the United States.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will propose on Monday eliminating all $1.6 trillion of student debt held in the United States, a significant escalation of the policy fight in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary two days before the candidates’ first debate in Miami.

Sanders is proposing that the federal government pay to wipe clean the student debt held by 45 million Americans – including all private and graduate school debt – as part of a package that also would make public universities, community colleges and trade schools tuition-free.

Sanders is proposing to pay for these plans with a tax on Wall Street his campaign says will raise more than $2 trillion over 10 years, though some tax experts give lower revenue estimates.

A few things:

The tax isn’t even necessary.

This, however funded, would be substantially cheaper than the bankster bailout from Too Big To Fail. Unlike that scheme, Sanders’s proposal would benefit the American people.

Before libertardians and “CONservatives” wail about “a deal’s a deal,” kindly consider the original terms of the underlying deals.

And, this is a good start – on the way to repudiating all $74 Trillion in existing total US debt. There’s a very simple way to do it – and to “pay it all off” – within the scope of existing law. After that’s accomplished, new debt should be illegal, in the current mode of many jurisdictions’ misdemeanor drug possession laws: catch an individual with debt, seize the promissory note and any remaining funds – for destruction; catch someone manufacturing debt, felony and hard jail time.

It will be interesting to if this gets traction.

discedite fures!

Queen Elizabeth Finally Acknowledges Migration Problems

23 Sunday Jun 2019

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Englands’ do nothing monarch is horrified, horrified I tell you, about an infestation of rats and mice in her palace.

BUCKINGHAM Palace has called in a pest ­control squad to tackle a plague of rats and mice said to have left the Queen “horrified”.

Officials decided to get help with the problem after a rat was spotted tearing through the kitchens.

On Saturday night a source said: “Mice and rats are increasingly problematic in the capital, especially in very old buildings.

“Staff in the lower quarters especially have become quite used to seeing little brown mice tearing along the ­corridors.

“There isn’t a huge amount that can be done.

“But council pest control did come in to put down poison and examine the problem.

Your Majesty, this is exactly how your legacy subjects feel about their Island Home being overrun with a sad assortment of “new Britons.” That too is a problem. And, there is something that can be done about it. Call in the other pest squad.

Disposable People on Disposable Ships

23 Sunday Jun 2019

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UPDATE: the following, original focuses on the “smart” littoral combat ships of the US Navy. An example of how well they work, with their smart new crews, was displayed Monday when one collided with a freighter parked in Montreal harbor. Why does the smart new Navy keep driving ships into freighters?

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The Atlantic examines the Navy’s “smart” ships, the LCSs and extrapolates to the wider, modern workforce.

And he discovered another correlation in his test: The people who did best tended to score high on “openness to new experience”—a personality trait that is normally not a major job-performance predictor and that, in certain contexts, roughly translates to “distractibility.” To borrow the management expert Peter Drucker’s formulation, people with this trait are less focused on doing things right, and more likely to wonder whether they’re doing the right things.

High in fluid intelligence, low in experience, not terribly conscientious, open to potential distraction—this is not the classic profile of a winning job candidate. But what if it is the profile of the winning job candidate of the future? If that’s the case, some important implications would arise.

One concerns “grit”—a mind-set, much vaunted these days in educational and professional circles, that allows people to commit tenaciously to doing one thing well. Angela Duckworth, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor, has written powerfully about the value of grit—putting your head down, blocking out distractions, committing over a course of many years to a chosen path. Her writing traces an intellectual lineage that can also be found in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, which explains extraordinary success as a function of endless, dedicated practice—10,000 hours or more. These ideas are inherently appealing; they suggest that dedication can be more important than raw talent, that the dogged and conscientious will be rewarded in the end.

These trends are more prevalent in certain fields and in certain locations. I think they have the potential to change, for the better, how people are employed – giving more power to the employee. However, I don’t think that’s the future. Human (herd) nature will intervene, and there’s the robotic/AI/civilizational collapse think, proceeding unopposed. In the end, like the LCS sailors, most folks will have to abandon ship.

Lessons, if heeded, for far-distant generations.

They’re Not Going Back

22 Saturday Jun 2019

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Wait two days. Two weeks. Two years…

Trump delays limited deportation enforcement in search of a “deal.” Like what? Are they going to agree to go home voluntarily? No. They are here to stay – for now.

From the Tweeter in Chief:

At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start!

They, many of them, will go home – as soon as the coming hostilities begin in earnest. That’ll be just a little longer than a two-year delay. But, not by much.

Please make sure to vote in the VERY IMPORTANT election, whenever that is…

The Quiet Spaces

22 Saturday Jun 2019

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Sometimes the Old Gray Lady has a very interesting idea or story. Here’s one about the fading tranquility of happy, wireless-free life in a land gone media mad.

The off-grid places are disappearing. And that’s as it should be. We must wire up rural America; cell service is now a utility almost as essential as electricity or heat. In April, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it will hold the biggest auction of radio spectrum in this country’s history; the auction, scheduled for late this year, is part of an effort to spread cell coverage to even the most remote towns ahead of the rollout of 5G networks.

Unfortunately, ownership of the telecommunication grids will go to corporate giants rather than to the communities themselves. But even so, small towns are fighting to be wired up. It’s likely that in 10 or so years, the country will be blanketed with signal, from sea to shining sea.

I’m hopeful that when that happens, we might retain just a few quiet places where it’s still possible to disconnect.

Activists have already created “dark sky reserves” to protect wilderness from artificial light. In the future, might we also create “privacy reserves” where we can go to escape the ubiquitous internet?

The irony is that, even as I type this on a laptop, wi-fi connected to Skynet, and with a stupid phone by my side, I consider that maybe all the technology could have been a mistake. To back 20 years. Or, 40. 400?

Summer 2019

22 Saturday Jun 2019

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I missed it yesterday, so happy first FULL day of Summer!

Next week is TPC’s annual “off week,” or so I just read at TPC. I’ll still do a fun column and post it here. Supposedly, there’s to be a super section on June 30; Might have something for that too.

Carry on.

Nuclear “Strategic Stability”

21 Friday Jun 2019

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If achieved, will rapidly give way to logistical collapse. Someone at the Pentagram knows this, paying attention to the alarming (if predictable) results of the analysis of Civil War 2.0 fallout. But the DOD still hosts a large cadre of idiots.

NUCLEAR weapons could still create “decisive results” and break stalemates during a war, Pentagon top brass have claimed.

The ominous new document – since deleted – is called ‘Nuclear Operations’ and suggests military chiefs could once again use the weapons of mass destruction to “restore strategic stability.”

Arms control experts say the doctrine marks a dangerous shift towards the idea of actually fighting and winning a full-scale nuclear conflict.

“Using nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability,” the joint chiefs’ document states.

“Specifically, the use of a nuclear weapon will fundamentally change the scope of a battle and create conditions that affect how commanders will prevail in conflict.”

Whose commanders?

The odds of a meltdown, collapse, or terminal domestic war, the remains of America, are a near mathematical certainty. I think the odds of heavy bombing and/or artillery barrages hovers north of 50%. Can we add the odds of nuk-u-lar weapons to the mix? 10%? 20%? Let’s hope the rumors about tritium scarcity are true.

When it comes, the primary death toll culprits will probably be disease and starvation, rather than Mark 83s. However it happens, it will cut into these newly released population estimates.

The graying of America continues.

The national median age rose to 38.2 years last year, according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. That suggests half of the U.S. population is more than 38-years-old and half is younger. By gender, the median for woman is 39.5 while for men its 36.9 years.

The aging of America is widespread with 49 of 50 states showing an uptick in older residents. North Dakota was the only state to see a decline in its median age, from 37 years in 2010 to 35.2 in 2018.

“This aging (phenomenon) is driven in large part by baby boomers crossing over the 65-year-old mark,” said Luke Rogers, the Chief of the Population Estimates Branch at the Census Bureau.

A decline in birth rates is another reason. The number of U.S. births fell to lowest level in 32 years in 2018.

There were less than 3.9 million babies under age 1 as of July 1, 2018. This represents the smallest age cohort until age 64. The largest age cohort is 27-year-olds, making up 4.8 million of the population.

Bombs for boomers? That might be a strategy.

Cool Hand Trump

21 Friday Jun 2019

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Let’s hope this lasts. Trump calls off Iranian airstrike:

Officials said the president had initially approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries.

The operation was underway in its early stages when it was called off, a senior administration official said. Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles had been fired when word came to stand down, the official said.

The abrupt reversal put a halt to what would have been the president’s third military action against targets in the Middle East. Mr. Trump had struck twice at targets in Syria, in 2017 and 2018.

It was not clear whether Mr. Trump simply changed his mind on the strikes or whether the administration altered course because of logistics or strategy. It was also not clear whether the attacks might still go forward.

Let’s hope he realized he’s being lied to by the neocon nuts. Maybe he’ll just launch them at Iran.