Looking For Answers In All The Wrong Places

Rogue cops, white or black or brown or yellow, are not an existential threat to Black Americans. They exist, but in numbers so tiny that while they are a threat to individuals of all colors they simply are not the reason in any part, large or small, that millions of Black Americans live in squalid conditions in big city Black communities. Nor do they contribute in any meaningful way to the carnage that occurs daily in big city Black communities across the America.

White Supremacists are not an existential threat to Black Americans. They also exist, but in numbers so small that while they can represent a threat to individual Black Americans and other Americans of color (and some of us who are considered "white"), they do not contribute in any meaningful way to the carnage that occurs daily in big city Black communities across America.

Racists exist in America, but a combination of laws and social ostracizing has rendered them toothless. They can hate all they want but are powerless to meaningfully affect the lives of  Black Americans or any of the other routinely hated groups of Americans. We have forced them to hate privately and quietly. A very welcome achievement.

The existential threat to Black Americans is actually Black Americans and the politicians for whom they vote.

Baltimore, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Washington, D.C. are all run by Democrats and have been for decades. Black Americans vote, almost exclusively, for Democrats.

With the exception of Minneapolis, all have had Black run administrations, on and off, for years. What do the millions of Black Americans have to show for their fealty to Democrats and their own racist voting patterns? Addiction, black on black crime and murder by the 10's of thousands, cultural collapse and poverty.

What we are seeing in the streets is a massive attempt at legerdemain, gaslighting and yet another attempt to blame the problems on anyone and anything other than those responsible, themselves. An all too human failing.

I proposed a plan to rescue the Black community in 2015 .

That it was not acted upon is not surprising considering that I have not earned much of an audience for my policy prescriptions. Perhaps my suggestion was simply no good. Always a possibility. It is instructive to read though, considering we are, once again, being victimized by the same "victims" we were five years ago and for the same "reasons".

As I wrote in  another 2015 post,

" Ugly, racialist movements like "Black Lives Matter" only serve to make those of us who believed in the fight for equality cringe and stand down. Apparently nothing is enough so why bother."

This and That # 10

I may have mentioned that I buy the local newspaper most Sundays. Coupons for the little lady, sports section for me. Sometimes I read an opinion article or two.

The paper always seems to have at least one major story describing the awful, racist country we have created.

A few months ago this gem was published.

"Fifty years after the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in lending, African Americans and Latinos continue to be routinely denied conventional mortgage loans at rates far higher than their white counterparts."

Twenty-five paragraphs later, yes, 25, the authors share a minor detail with us:

" Credit score was not included because that information is not publicly available."

Oh. Do you think that might account for the discrepancies the authors are complaining of, rather than rampant, systemic racism? The authors didn't bother to ask the denied putative purchasers they interviewed for their credit scores. Their answer might have killed the narrative. How such garbage gets published is a mystery to me.

You might wonder why I would read a forty paragraph story about a subject of little interest to me. The answer is that I love this country and as soon as I read the headline I smelled a rat. I was not at all surprised to find it. This happens far too often.

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I watched some of the NBA playoffs. The things these men are able to do are, to me, astonishing.

I wrote about Lebron James once before. He was complaining that no matter how rich a black man gets he still has to struggle against racism and rarely gets any respect.

He is a truly amazing athlete. And, to all appearances, a nice enough guy, like most people, in my experience.

He is also a prime example of what I mean when I suggest that white privilege is really in the heads of people of color. White people know better.

I would encourage Mr. James to think about all the respect a few other really rich guys get, because after all, if you are rich and white you are automatically afforded it. White privilege and all.

I notice Donald Trump getting all manner of respect, all day, every day, in the press. Is that the sort of respect you want Mr. James? You know, the kind that comes, in your victim's prism, automatically because Trump is white.

Perhaps you would enjoy all the respect the incredibly rich, incredibly white, Koch brothers enjoy.

"The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House". (Emphasis added.)

Mr. James, having a great deal of money does not earn you respect no matter your color. 

In my experience it is more likely to earn you a great deal of contempt and jealousy.

You might earn more respect, since you seem to feel deprived of it, if you placed your right hand over your heart during the playing of our national anthem rather than linking arms with a teammate and appearing entirely disinterested, as you did last night.

You are no doubt familiar with the saying that we reap what we sow. Try showing some respect to the people from whom you want it. That strategy often works. Good luck.

This and That # 4

Poor LeBron James.

I watched some of Game 1 of the NBA Finals the other day. At one point the commentators began discussing the tragedy that had recently befallen Mr. James.

Apparently his house was vandalized .

"A racist slur was spray-painted on the front gate of James' Los Angeles home, LA police told CNN."

His "home"? Why the sudden humility?

"The 9,350-square-foot house was custom built by "mansion specialist" Ken Ungar in 2011 for a real estate developer, his wife, and their family. The house wasn't listed on the open market, but Curbed has gotten its hands on photos of the house taken a few years back; you can just mentally superimpose the 6'8" James into them."

Yes, this poor, benighted man, who said, in response to the vandalism of his $21,000,000 "home",

 "No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough, and we got a long way to go," James said."

Poor thing.

I am assuming that the racial slur painted on his front gate was "nigger" or some variation of it. Our press is so pathetically hamstrung by political correctness I can't find an actual description of the offending term.

I wrote in This and That # 3 about all the fake hate crimes being reported in order to keep us white folk, particularly Trump supporters, on the defensive.

What if this turns out to have been done by a black guy? My limited exposure to popular black culture has confirmed that black people call each other nigger and whore all the time. So if a black guy did it, a virtual certainty in my opinion, is it still a racist slur?

You be the judge.

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This has a certain evergreen quality to it, particularly as the markets set new records.

Paul Krugman: The Economic Fallout

By Paul Krugman

Comment 2016-11-09T00:42:44-05:00 12:42 AM ET

It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover?

Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear.

Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.

Under any circumstances, putting an irresponsible, ignorant man who takes his advice from all the wrong people in charge of the nation with the world’s most important economy would be very bad news." (Emphasis added)

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

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When the lunatics run the asylum. In this case, California .

"The state Senate on Wednesday voted to no longer make it a felony for someone infected with HIV to knowingly expose others to the disease by having unprotected sex without telling his or her partner about the infection."

It is the rationale that is the kicker.

" “These laws are irrational and discriminatory,” Wiener told the Senate, adding that the current felony status is “creating an incentive not to be tested, because if you don’t know your status you can’t be guilty of a felony.”" Seriously? There are too many levels on which this is stupid to bother with analysis.

Do you recognize the  formulation? Why do we not arrest illegal aliens simply for being illegal aliens? Because if we arrest ordinary illegals, the rationale goes, they might be reluctant to help us solve crimes in their communities.

Brilliant. What if there were no illegals? Well, no crime in their communities. Problem solved.

Thanks Chelsea

I never thought I would have any reason for quoting Chelsea Clinton.

“We have to realize, especially at this moment, that sexism is not an opinion. Islamophobia is not an opinion. Racism is not an opinion. Homophobia is not an opinion. Jingoism is not an opinion. So I think that in our posture of listening, we also have to get comfortable with standing up and speaking out.”

But, here I am. She has articulated the answer to a puzzle I have been thinking about for some time.

I have mentioned before that the left is not interested in debate. They just want us to shut up and sit down.

Their method is shaming. But that is only the surface. The tactic underpinning that method is much more insidious.

Racism, sexism and homophobia are well defined terms. We all understand what they mean and none of those ism's are anything any of us would want to be identified with. The last 60 years of Western Civilization have proven that decisively. 

Might any of us, in his heart of hearts be any or all of those things? Emphatically yes. We cannot however, indulge those opinions in any way meaningfully detrimental to the objects of our prejudices. Not only are all of those real ism's against the law with respect to all commercial transactions and government interactions, they are abhorrent to most of those we want and need to interact with daily. Expression of these ism's in their real form finds one immediately ostracized except at the very fringes of society where few of us want to reside and fewer still actually reside.

In order to continue to impose their beliefs on us the left has expanded the definition of those ism's beyond recognition, but they still get to use the words.

Racism now means criticizing the opinions of black people (see any opposition to Obama), not lynching or otherwise illegally discriminating against them. Homophobia means opposing same sex marriage, not arresting, beating, ostracizing and otherwise illegally discriminating against homosexuals. Sexism now means being opposed to the distribution of tampons to women at no charge to them, paid for by men, not keeping women from voting, out of higher education and the professions, not paying them less than men for the same work.

Islamophobia? Well what is it? It is whatever they say it is at the moment. I oppose Islam for what it has always been, a superstition (like all the religions, only worse) and what it has become, a murderous and triumphal anti-democratic ideology. I am powerless to adversely affect proponents of that religion for the reasons described above, in  any meaningful way. According to Clinton and her ilk I am not even allowed to hold this opinion. 

Jingoism? Good grief. That she would confuse renewed American confidence with jingoism is hardly surprising given her adherence to the modern leftist notion of America's awfulness.

None of the things in the previous paragraphs have anything to do with the real definitions of those ism's. Nothing. Do not sit down and shut up!