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I think that instead of reparations we should invest in massive government bureaucracies focused on helping those most impacted by slavery and its legacy by offering them different types of direct and indirect aid. The aid will have strings attached and will be hard to say no to, but hey, it will be aid. We should also set aside entire government spending programs for such folks, and then maybe mandate that they be hired disproportionately into government jobs because they have been hurt by the legacy of slavery. We can give them land, perhaps livestock.
After we do all that, we can eliminate discrimination based on standardized tests, or in lending based on the quality of neighborhoods. Let’s make all that illegal.
Once we have done all this, we can wonder whether the damage wrought by our solutions (it will result in a sub population that is On average less educated, far poorer, and far more likely to be caught for criminal activity than was the case before our “solutions” go into effect) is simply the legacy of slavery writ large, or the result of really bad policy.
Of course the answer will have to be that it is because of the legacy of slavery, because policy scrutiny requires accountability and anybody who ever advocated for slavery much less owned a slave is long dead and we can blame them with impunity.
All that said (and it has all been done), I’m not opposed to the notion of reparations, I just don’t know that it solves what advocates think it solves. Borrow all that money, hand it out to every black person in America regardless of whether they are the direct descendants of slaves still living in shacks in the low country of South Carolina or newly-minted immigrants from Nigeria, and you will not see the massive social problems go away. Markets don’t work that way. The cash will flow into the hands of those it’s flowing into now.
The most uncomfortable discussion about black inequality is the discussion that includes the question of why black Americans had more stable families and institutions under the rule of Jim Crow than under the “protection” of equal opportunity policy. Plumb those depths for some real discomfort. For some reason, values of education, thrift, hard work, and family stability WHICH EXISTED IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY IN SPADES DURING THE EARLY 20th CENTURY—post slavery, have been, on average, deprioritized.
Good commentary on this in the wsj yesterday.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-left-hijacked-civil-rights-11610748711
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)The founders would have called those pages “freedom of speech.” Right or wrong, they aren’t policy.
militarizing the Capitol? That’s policy in action.
Remember the stink about Trump’s military parade? Kinda funny now isn’t it.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)I had to dig to find the transcript, too, because I had heard he incited a riot. It’s subtle, and I get that a suggestion is all it takes, but I don’t think the words themselves amount to inciting a riot. It also made my eyes bleed to read the way the guy talks. ugh.
I actually think the LACK of coverage of what the president actually said is very telling. I never saw the speech. I never have actually seen coverage of him actually “inciting.” I have only seen commentary on it.
Now, that doesn’t absolve him of not immediately leading people toward peaceful assembly. Then again, mostly peaceful protests have been happening all hear.
I also note something strange. Despite the really awful violence in the Capitol which I wholeheartedly disavow, it’s amazing how little damage was done by a “riot.” I mean, a riot at your local Wendy’s burns the thing to the ground. A riot in the galleries at the Capitol doesn’t even touch a painting on the wall. What gives?
Is it possible that a bunch of people strolled into the Capitol as a protest, and that a few people got unruly and violent when challenged? That’s not a riot. That’s not an insurrection. It’s criminal trespass, for sure. It’s certainly not polite.
They didn’t even bring fireworks.
Until I know differently, though, it was a riot.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)That’s an excellent point.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)screw steve kerr
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Man, I gotta tell you…Trump not only jumped the shark, he jumped the whole darned ocean.
Not a great man, but we knew that. now he will go down in history not as the iconoclast I had hoped, but as one who fomented insurrection during the transition of power.
Not good.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)I note the shrill cries against the feds seem to have gotten quieter and quieter. Maybe it’s just because I’ve stopped listening.
As in all things, the last mile is hardest. Still, the Dems can round up millions of additional votes in a day but can’t deliver a few million shots across big cities in a month??? What gives? Oh, you actually have to have the people present to receive the shots. Got it.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)I’m certainly past it. It’s pretty much a disgrace at this point.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)I’m surprised but wish him well. It’s striking to me that a guy with such clear flaws ended up with so many very senior chances. I’m probably a harsh grader when it comes to character, but someone with a track record of (getting caught) showing up at work drunk rarely gets another chance at CEO.
That and the fact that the guy was videotaped eating a booger gives me the willies.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Why don’t the homeless occupy zuckerberg’s property? Any insight into that? How secure is his block in SF?
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)“Trespassers will be shot.”
That’s the sign that is missing from all this. The criminals live under a cloak of victimhood because they are “homeless.” The reality is they are stealing private property, and the scale of the theft has to amount to grand larceny at this point.
I have to think that there are many ways of managing around this, but with current bizarre eviction laws, I’m not sure.
One thing is certain: the Covid year will make a lot of people think twice about being a landlord.
Property rights just aren’t what they use to be in some places.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Ploy
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)[quote quote=4015]Preening idiot governor. Great line. I’m left trying to figure out which one when there are so many to choose from.[/quote]
exactly.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)Funny how that works, isn’t it?
There’s going to be a lot of discussion on Covid that gets shut down now that our heroes are in charge and / or we can’t blame the feds for the issues.
That, and I suspect the other reason (which is why the old CEB, then thunderdome, were really shut down…), is recruiting. An honest assessment of the California situation probably has some negative resonance for recruiting, and so why not just stop the conversation. That’s how we roll at Stanford, and pretty much at every neo liberal institution in America. From “let the winds of freedom blow” to “we can’t HANDLE the truth!”
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)I never expected trump to concede without caveats. I do think he has carried the fight long enough regarding election challenges. I also think they have uncovered enough crud that congress ought to take a closer look at election integrity (again).
Sadly, it’s all just a game. Last time it was russia as the refrain while massive malfeasance by the prior administration was ignored. This time it’s election fraud by inner city machines while ignoring the fiscal disasters that are congressional leaders.
One thing is sure: trump may never be remembered for it, but the push for a vaccine from the feds will be seen as a national success equivalent to the Manhattan or Apollo projects. And yet the complaint will be that Trump didn’t wear a mask. Go figure.
Trump is not a great man. But, we knew that. His pardons look just as petty as any president’s. He has been a better president in the American tradition than anybody wants to admit. Maybe, just maybe, he will help prove that the American system, where the feds stay in their lanes and the states are allowed to manage theirs, is actually a really good one. Well, unless you live under a preening idiot governor.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)
