Bringing The Hate

Bigotry can come from an individual of any ethnic group, from government, business, the public at large, academe, or anywhere. In this case (video below), it comes in a five minute-plus segment edited from a chat on The Root.

The professor of Women and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, regrettably the state university of New Jersey, did get one thing right, remarking "but I do think that all of us can sort of agree that a politics that says, like, "there are superior and inferior human beings just isn't the way to go."  Unfortunately, everything  else she says suggests that she doesn't believe that. Cooper continued

And that's the thing that white people don't trust us to do because are so corrupt, you know their thinking is morally and spiritually bankrupt about power, that they can't let-you know, they can't- they fear viscerally, existentially, that letting go of power because they cannot imagine there's another way to be. It's that you either dominate or are dominated.

Cooper doesn't not specify racists or Republicans or politicians, let alone name names of individuals determined to dominate. Bigots do not. Instead, it is "white people."  They're wealthy, they're poor, they're middle class. The only thing they may in common may be their whiteness.

And that they are- well, "so corrupt," the morally and spiritually bankrupt people of society. Moreover

and it's like, no, that's what white humans did, white human beings thought they're the world here, and we own it. Prior to that, black and brown people had been sailing across oceans, interacting with each other for centuries without subjugation, domination, and colonialism.

That's what the professor would like us to believe. However, history does not agree because, as an historian and former mayor of Ghana's capital city explains

Europeans weren’t going out and capturing Africans. They couldn’t — they got sick and died from illnesses like malaria. Some African ethnic groups went into business, warring with other groups so they could capture prisoners they sold as slaves to the Europeans. Amarteifio says they were organized and intentional about it.

“To pursue slavery successfully, you need a highly organized group because somebody has to go out there — somebody has to locate the victims; somebody has to lead an army there; somebody has to capture them, transport them to the selling centers; all the time, keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't revolt,” he said. “And then sell them, and move on.”

Someone often was black, truly an inconvenient truth proving that neither virtue nor vice resides in any one race alone. But aside from excusing the corporate and politically powerful- but I repeat myself- Cooper simply makes things up. She claims

It's not that white people don't know what they have done. They know. They fear there is no other way to be human than the way in which they are human, which is- so you talk to white people and you have a reckoning about it, they say stuff like "It's just human nature. If you all had this power, you would have done the same thing.

"It's just human nature- if you had all this power, you would have done the same thing: said no white person ever.  And again: it's the whole group of "white people," evil knowing what they have done while weak and cowering in fear.

It does no good to point out the obvious- that if any professor (white or otherwise) had made Cooper's arguments in reverse, she would have been promptly fired and probably blacklisted. Aside from whatever protection for hate speech there may be in the contract between the union and the college, Rutgers University is a public institution and the First Amendment of the US Constitution may be applicable. Moreover, cancel culture has gone far enough, and too far. 

Still, Rutgers University, which will retain Brittany Cooper without hesitation, does have a responsibility. It is responsible to declare that these remarks do not represent the college's views and that Ms. Cooper will remain a professor there as long as she fulfills the terms of her contract, and only because she fulfills the terms of her contract. If it does not- and we all know it will not- it will be a de facto endorsement of bigotry at a state university.

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Less Than Transformative

Noting the announcement by President Biden of the framework of a $1.75 billion soft infrastructure bill, The Washington Post reported

The architect of the original $3.5 trillion plan, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), similarly encouraged House Democrats to hold off on voting until “clear language” is finalized on the safety net bill with the support of 50 senators. He said he continues to work to advance issues including a more robust expansion of Medicare, but he also described the $1.75 trillion compromise as transformational, saying it is “the kind of legislation [that hasn’t] passed in Congress since the 1960s.”

Thursday’s new framework includes prekindergarten programs that White House aides described as part of the largest one-time education investment[s] since the creation of public high school. The $1.75 trillion plan also includes new aid to help families afford child care and extends tax credits that millions of parents are receiving in the form of monthly checks.

When it comes to health care, the White House plan expands Medicare to cover new hearing benefits. The plan would lengthen the life of tax credits that have helped roughly 9 million Americans afford health insurance purchased on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. And it would provide new tax credits to help roughly 4 million low-income people afford health insurance in a dozen states that have not expanded Medicaid under the ACA.

Charlie Peters argues

Liberal carping notwithstanding, these are not small beer to those of us who lived through Bill Clinton’s pitching for school uniforms and Barack Obama’s hiring of Bob Rubin and Timothy Geithner. Neither are they consolation prizes to the millions of families who will see their kids off to pre-K without having to take out a home equity loan, or the millions of people who will be able to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act now in spite of their wingnut governors. Take the win and press on is not a bad strategy. You can get there that way.

I don't know what "take the win" means, especially because as of Friday afternoon, there is no bill but only a framework, and no assurance that even if the tepid bill is enacted as described by the President that the approximately $1.75 billion reconciliation bill will be enacted. Progressives have demanded that the two measures be passed in tandem because if the tepid bipartisan bill is passed and signed first, any reconciliation bill passed afterward is likely to be a shell of its former self.. Once upon a time, Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed the progressive strategy, as did President Biden.

We now know who holds the cards within the Democratic Party and it's not the left, the Speaker, or even the President.   Upon reaching agreement in July with the budget committee on a bill which could be passed by reconciliation

"The budget committee has come to an agreement. The budget resolution with instructions will be $3.5 trillion," (Senate Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer said, speaking to reporters with Sanders and other members of the panel. "Every major program that President Biden has asked us for is funded in a robust way."

The deal will also include funding for expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing and addressing climate change — key asks from progressives, including Sanders. A Democratic aide familiar with the deal said that the budget resolution will also include language prohibiting taxes from being raised on individuals who make less than $400,000 or small businesses.

It hasn't worked out that way. Medicare will not be expanded to cover dental and vision care- though hearing aids were left in- and the full-scale attack on climate change is looking like a small foray.

Presently, Democrats may have no choice but to "take the win," though if this is the transformative change Joe Biden, Charlie Pierce, and others claim it is, one might legitimately ask what President Obama was doing for eight years (hint: very little). 

However, that "win" looks a lot like progressives being rolled. Consider that when Schumer cited the $3.5 trillion figure, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, one of the two Democratic opponents of the ambitious proposal, already had

previously suggested to ABC News that he was interested in a smaller figure, saying that "if that’s $1 trillion or $1.5 trillion or $2 trillion, whatever that comes out to be over a 10-year period, that’s what I would be voting for."

Manchin at that time, in July, was willing- given a little cajoling, ego enrichment, and maybe a couple of things for West Virginia- to approve a $2 trillion package. Fourteen weeks later, after intense negotiation, progressives and Mr. Build Back Better reportedly have been able to get Manchin up to $1.75 trillion.

Even those of us who never advanced in math class beyond Algebra know that $1.75 trillion is less than $2.00 trillion. Nonetheless Pierce, whose sentiments probably will be echoed along the ideological gamut of Democrats from John Bel Edwards to Ilhan Omar once this process is complete, maintains

It is a radical rethinking of national priorities, and implicit in Sanders’ remarks is the undeniable truth that, if you want this package of proposals improved, and if you want to maintain the momentum for change that it signifies, elect more Democrats to the Senate and watch their smoke.

Electing more Democrats clearly is the best solution. For now, however, that smell wafting through the air is the Democratic left getting smoked.

 

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Historical Nonsense, Unquestioned

Please leave us out of this.

This will fall on deaf ears, especially because the media is frightened to ask questions about religion. Anne Thompson of NBC News interviewed Senior Pastor Ken Peters of Patriot Church, located on the outskirts of Knoxville.  As the video below indicates, Peters remarks

This nation was founded on predominately Christian values by predominately Christian people. We just want to keep that in play. We just want to keep our roots alive and not let this reconstruction- this tearing up of our nation's rots and a new set of values is being pushed on us. It literally is.

Thompson could have asked either about whose values or what values Peter was referring to, about the Christian roots of the nation, or both.  She either asked about only the first or her inquiry about the second was edited out.

That's unfortunate (not surprising) because although a few of the Founding Fathers were orthodox Christians, most wee not. The vast majority were believers in, or affected by, Deism, which

inevitably subverted orthodox Christianity. Persons influenced by the movement had little reason to read the Bible, to pray, to attend church, or to participate in such rites as baptism, Holy Communion, and the laying on of hands (confirmation) by bishops. With the notable exceptions of Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison, Deism seems to have had little effect on women....

But Deistic thought was immensely popular in colleges from the middle of the 18th into the 19th century. Thus, it influenced many educated (as well as uneducated) males of the Revolutionary generation. Although such men would generally continue their public affiliation with Christianity after college, they might inwardly hold unorthodox religious views. Depending on the extent to which Americans of Christian background were influenced by Deism, their religious beliefs would fall into three categories: non-Christian Deism, Christian Deism, and orthodox Christianity....

If the nation owes much to the Judeo-Christian tradition, it is also indebted to Deism, a movement of reason and equality that influenced the Founding Fathers to embrace liberal political ideals remarkable for their time.

Unfortunately, whatever the interest of Deists in social justice, the U.S. Constitution did not outlaw slavery and by one reckoning, fourteen (14) of the Fathers owned slaves at one time and only seven (7) did not. The former group ran the gamut from George Washington to the relatively unknown Benjamin Rush. 

The claim by Reverend Peters that "this nation was founded on predominately Christian values by predominately Christian people" fails on either one or two grounds.  The preponderance of evidence indicates that most of those people either were not "Christian" as evangelists such as Peters defines them, generally as believers in Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. Alternatively, they were Christians, with the vast majority supportive, or at least accepting, of the ownership of other human beings.

Yet journalists routinely fail to challenge evangelicals to defend their notion of a Christian nation founded on Christian values. While the myth persists and is even reinforced, increasing numbers of young Americans learn that some of the heroes of colonial America owned slaves, un-Christian behavior indulged in primarily by secularists.

Reverend Peters and his ilk, inadvertently or otherwise, further the association of Christianity with the practice of slavery. Those of us who identify as Christians, whether Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Orthodox, must begin to denounce this dangerous distortion of American history. I won't hold my breath.

 

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Money Talks. Teachers Can Take A Hike.

they featured it in their 2012 yearbook. How fair would it be to say, "You're fired, even though we know you've been at this for a decade and we never said anything about it before"?

The school's administrators, on the other hand...

— Mike Kohary (@mkohary) October 23, 2021

 Mr. Kohary was tweeting of this:

 

Never said anything about it before is significant additionally because we also have this:

  .  

And this:

 

And this: 

 

In contrast to the obnoxious and offensive act of one individual in Riverside, California, the three war chants- the first two from 2021, the last from 2020- the teams (professional) and programs (college) condone, encourage, and participate in these reprehensible traditions. They persist, and with only minimal protest, not even 1% as great as we were regaled with last summer in the Black Lives Matter movement.  Professional sports teams and Division 1-A football programs make gobs of money; teachers, not quite as much.

The Riverside, California teacher, unnamed as of this moment, has been placed on leave pending investigation. Unless the penalty imposed by the state-employer upon her is extremely minor, her union should fight her punishment. It may be a violation of the collective bargaining agreement, a sad example of cancel culture, or a violation of the First Amendment's guarantee that government will not restrict speech. But whatever it is, celebrating practice of stereotyping tribes indigenous to this continent, practiced by the Atlanta Braves, Florida State Seminoles, and Kansas City Chiefs is hypocrisy of the highest order. 

 

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Spreading Coronavirus, Indiscriminately

If you paid attention to mainstream media, progressives, cable news of the left, right, or center, or to practically an opinion maker, you would have concluded that police nationwide do a great job other than their forays into racism, marked by gross mistreatment of blacks.

However, if you've been reading this blog since, oh, roughly May 25, 2020, you would have observed that I never have been on the "Black Lives Matter" nor the "Blue Lives Matter" bandwagon. Most police officers serve honorably and well while many do not. A majority of those are motivated by factors other than. And so in early September, KTLA in Los Angeles would report that 132 members of law enforcement agencies

are known to have died of COVID-19 in 2021, as of Monday, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. In Florida alone last month, six people affiliated with law enforcement died over a 10-day period.

In the first half of 2021, 71 law enforcement officials in the U.S. died from the virus — a small decrease compared to the 76 who died in the same time period in 2020, per data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Last year, the total figure was 241 — making the virus the the leading cause of law enforcement line-of-duty deaths.

Despite the deaths, police officers and other first responders are among those most hesitant to get the vaccine and their cases continue to grow. No national statistics show the vaccination rate for America’s entire population of first responders but individual police and fire departments across the country report figures far below the national rate of 74% of adults who have had at least one dose.

Police officers and first responders are among those most hesitant to get the vaccine. Police especially are in frequent contact with the public and those who refuse to be vaccinated pose a particular threat to the people they are hired to protect and serve. They may claim to love "USA" but they care little for the people who live here.

The NYPD and other municipal workers just blocked traffic on the Brooklyn bridge, not to protest murders, but to protest vaccine mandates.

pic.twitter.com/MAPQOCyaXV

— Read Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (@JoshuaPotash) October 25, 2021

By now, there are more police officers vaccinated than those who are not. Congratulations to a profession in which a narrow majority wants to live and not endanger the lives of other Americans ,ones who claim European, Latin American, African, Asian, or tribal heritage.  That should be a reminder that: 1) black lives matter; 2) blue lives matter; 3) human lives matter. If "we're all in this together," all of us can be imperiled by a a degenerate number of men and women in blue.

 

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Prioritizing Identity

The accolades, focused on identity, were plenty on that cool and cloudy day of November 12, 2018 in Washington, D.C. 

Scott Dworkin, co-founder and director of The Democratic Coalition, tweeted "BREAKING: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has officially won her campaign for Senate in Arizona. Senator-Elect Sinema is the first woman to even serve as a US Senator from AZ." Appearing on the official Twitter account of the Democratic National Committee was "FLIP ALERT: Kyrsten Sinema has won in Arizona. Krysten ran on the issues that matter most to Arizonans- health care, the economy, and equality for all. We couldn't be more thrilled to se this smart, tenacious woman elected to the US Senate."

However, my favorite was from Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay woman to have been elected to the US Senate. She tweeted- honestly- "Congratulations to Kyrsten Sinema on a well-deserved victory. The upper chamber is lucky to have your steady leadership."

You many know where this is going, especially with that "steady leadership" thing.  Politico on Wednesday noted

As they seek to finalize President Joe Biden’s social spending plan by the end of the week, Sinema (D-Ariz.) remains opposed to one of the party's chief goals of raising tax rates on high-income earners and corporations, a long-sought objective since former President Donald Trump signed his 2017 tax cut law.

Now, party leaders are working behind the scenes to target the wealthy and corporate America without crossing what increasingly appears like a red line to Sinema, according to Democratic lawmakers and aides following the bill.

Though Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has advocated raising rates on high-income earners, corporations and capital gains, Sinema has landed to the right of Manchin on tax policy. And Democrats need to choose, quickly, to keep trying to convince Sinema or to craft workarounds that she can accept....

And many Democrats have grown frustrated with how much control Sinema is exerting, and the secretive way she wields it.

“This is a guessing game with Senator Sinema. Yeah, we're all supposed to be on the same team. And that means transparency, communication and collaboration. Without it, it makes this significantly more challenging,” said Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas). “I don't know what the red lines are for one U.S. senator who has an amazing amount of power.”

Now, that is steady leadership, just as ex-president Trump continues to provide non-judgmental, unity-seeking leadership.  The jubilation felt by many Democrats upon the election of a bisexual because she is LGBTQ contrasts sharply with Justice Thurgood Marshall's much greater wisdom of thirty years ago when he was asked about selecting a replacement for him:: "I think the important factor is to pick the best person for the job, not on the basis of race one way or the other. I mean for picking the wrong Negro and saying 'I'm picking him because he's a Negro.'  I'm opposed to that...  I think the important factor is to pick the best person for the job, not on the basis of race one way or the other."

 

 

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Race, Race, And More Race

Mention to northeasterners of an advanced age Freddy's Fashion Mart, Crown Heights, and Steve Pagones, and they may know to whom you're referring. Swap out Steve Pagones for Tawana Brawley, and they almost surely will.  Allow Glen Loury to remind us of that day in November, 1987 when

.... a 15-year-old black girl was found lying in a garbage bag, smeared with feces, with various racial slurs and epithets written in charcoal on her body. She said that she’d been raped by six white men and that two were law-enforcement officials. Mr. Sharpton relentlessly championed her cause. And yet, after seven months of examining police and medical records, a grand jury found “overwhelming evidence” that Ms. Brawley had fabricated her entire story.

Yet Mr. Sharpton proceeded to accuse the prosecutor, Steven Pagones, of being one of the perpetrators of the alleged abduction and rape. Mr. Sharpton was successfully sued (along with Ms. Brawley’s lawyers, Anthony H. Maddox Jr. and C. Vernon Mason Sr.) for defamation. The jury in this civil action found Mr. Sharpton liable for making seven defamatory statements about Mr. Pagones, whose life fell apart as a result of the entire episode. Mr. Sharpton refused to pay his share of damages, which was later paid by a number of his supporters, and he has refused to apologize.

To this day, as reported in a fawning profile in March, 2018 unfortunately appearing in The New York Times, Sharpton defiantly defends his actions in this matter, stating "If I had to choose between a 15-year-old black girl and a white legal system that has always done us wrong, I’m going with her."

As a New Jerseyan of a certain age, I recall  being confident that the matter was a hoax, only because it was obviously so. . And now anyone who has a clue would recognize the same Al Sharpton defending racial bias and discrimination. Politico reports

The Rev. Al Sharpton has made calls to at least one member of Congress to convey his concerns that the full axing of the so-called carried interest loophole that’s being discussed for inclusion in the reconciliation bill would hurt Black businesspeople trying to build wealth, four sources tell Daniel.

 — Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), a member of the House Financial Services Committee and chair of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, told POLITICO that Sharpton called her twice in mid-September to ask her whether a carve-out for those businesspeople could be created. Such a carve-out would be unprecedented and of questionable legality. Two sources said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) has also called Sharpton to hear his views on this issue, and a spokesperson for the congressman said the two spoke “about ways to help Black-owned businesses. Reverend Sharpton’s National Action Network has a chapter in Las Vegas, and he and Congressman Horsford speak often about priorities for the Black community"....

Asked about his stance on this issue, Sharpton said in a brief interview that he “raised a question about whether there could be a carve-out about Black first-generation people who say that it affects their money. … I’m concerned about the unintended consequences.” He said he was not being paid to bring the issue up with lawmakers, calling it a position of his National Action Network, which has worked on advancing civil rights for decades. Sharpton said later that he wanted the businesspeople's concerns to be considered as Congress deliberates the provision. “I’m concerned that Black businesses that I fought for be heard and that their concerns be heard,” he said.

Al Sharpton is lobbying against closing the carried interest loophole in the Biden budget - a rule that allows billionaire investors to pay as low as 20% on taxes, lower than their janitors -- and he's saying he's doing it to protect Black businesspeople trying to build wealth. pic.twitter.com/SK26TNwo1u

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) October 21, 2021

Sharpton evidently is not concerned about small businesses. He's not concerned about even black small businesses.  He's concerned about wealthy black business owners.

Al Sharpton is lobbying against closing the carried interest loophole in the Biden budget - a rule that allows billionaire investors to pay as low as 20% on taxes, lower than their janitors -- and he's saying he's doing it to protect Black businesspeople trying to build wealth.

That's because Al Sharpton has little interest in social justice even less in economic justice.  His passion is race, and he is little more than a race hustler.  Yet he retains credibility among some Democratic politicians as well as a show on MSNBC, which should be disturbing among people who actually do care about social and economic justice.

 

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