Opuscula Conservative’s Embarrassment

TRUE CONFESSION: I CONSIDER MYSELF a more or less conservative. I still walk on the street side of the sidewalk when I stroll with my Spouse. I say “Yes sir” and “Yes ma'am” in response to a question, regardless of the inquisitor’s age, sex, or race, and I think my home is my castle. I believe in law and order and I am ashamed by rogue cops and bullies in general.

I normally vote a “split ticket,” making my mark for the candidate I consider most qualified for the job, regardless of sex, race, or political party.

But some people who try to pass as “conservatives” embarrass me.

This morning I saw a fellow with a TRUMP baseball cap telling a “reporter” that “no one is going to make ME wear a mask.”

My immediate reaction cannot be recorded in this family blog.

My second reaction was to call the guy a (potential) murderer.

I have seen too many people with MAGA or Trump baseball caps going around bare faced. (I remember when “bare faced” was followed by “lie” or “liar.” It seems appropriate for these pseudo-conservatives.)

I blame these scofflaws on Trump who, for a very long time, paraded around sans mask.

Worse, he encouraged disregard of social distancing.

I would expect that of a “progressive” who feels he, or she, is “entitled” to do whatever pleases them whenever it pleases them.

But a person claiming to be a (political) conservative?

Never.

Admittedly, I am a geezer and I have “underlying health issues.”

My First Born is a Law Enforcement Officer, a LEO, and while he no longer is a beat cop, he has friends who are on the street.

OK, so you prefer the anarchy of the so-called Black Lives Matter rioters.

Why would you want to infect your fellow rioters — regardless of your political position — with a disease that can prove fatal?

I use the term “Black Lives Matter” with the caveat that too many people — black, white, brown, and “other” — are using a black’s death as an excuse to destroy America and as a springboard for anti-Semitism.

Floyd’s death was unfortunate. The cop who had his knee on Floyd is charged with murder and, hopefully, will receive a fair trail and, if found guilty, be sentenced accordingly.

That won’t bring Floyd back.

Neither will rioting and anarchy.

Last night in Dade County (Miami) Florida, a black infant was shot by another black person. Elsewhere in the county, more blacks were shot and killed by other blacks. All in ONE NIGHT. Unfortunately, this is a fact of life (and death) in many black communities. Where are the protests against blacks killing blacks?

Florida now has the unfortunate distinction of having — after California — the second highest rate of COVID-19 — the Chinese virus, Trump is right — in the country.

Dade County leads the state.

Dade County has passed emergency measures making it a crime to go out in public sans a mask. The first offense, if found guilty in a court, is a $100 fine. The fine increases if/as the scofflaw continues to disregard the law and his, or her, fellow humans’ health.

I’m sure the “progressives” will find my suggestion on how to handle these potential murderers offensive, but rather than give a citation to appear in court, take the offender into custody and place the offender in a cell with others who also refuse to wear a mask. Let them infect each other.

Political stupidity.

When the Chinese virus first got our attention, the “leaders” of Dade County took over a public building and set it up to handle masses of infected citizens and non-citizens (South Florida became a preferred destination for infected New Yorkers and Florida’s {Republican} governor did nothing to stop the influx of carriers). When the threat of mass hospitalizations subsided, the building was closed.

Now, area hospitals are at near capacity and the same “leaders” — following their peers in Chelm¹ — allow the facility to remain shuttered.

A true conservative NEVER would endanger another person’s life in such a callous, cavalier fashion.

Granted, the masks can be uncomfortable — they are poorly designed and hurt the ears — and they do make it harder to breathe, especially in summer’s heat, and they can muffle the voice.

Masks need to be washed or replaced frequently.

BUT, masks and “social distancing” DO reduce transmission of the virus.

Masks are a small price to pay to be socially responsible.

Unconstitutional? That may be a matter for the courts. In the meantime, it IS against the law in Dade County to go about sans face covering. More than that, it is a violation of common sense.

If you insist on going about bare faced, take off your MAGA and TRUMP hats. Stop embarrassing true conservatives.

 

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Sources

1. Stories from Chelm: https://tinyurl.com/y67bxso4

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Embarrassed

Opuscula For REAL Black Power Just look at America

I NORMALLY DO NOT “cut-n-paste” someone’s work in total on my blog, but in this case . . .

The author of the following, Valerie Sobel, did her homework. The only change I made to her work, posted on Arutz Sheva at https://tinyurl.com/y64thmx2 under the heading Power to illusions: Let me confuse you with the facts is to alphabetically sort each of her lists. I did not add nor subtract so much as a punctuation mark.

 

 

Historians of the future will have a hard time figuring out how so many organized groups of strident jackasses succeeded in leading us around by the nose and morally intimidating the majority into silence.”

Thomas Sowell

Except...no one is silent. They’re tripping over each other proclaiming America a racist country. And not because one George Floyd and19 violent, black criminals died (in 2019) at the hands of white-supremacists, the men in blue, who killed many more whites that year. And not because the mainstream media, social media, Hollywood, sports figures, kneeling congress Democrats, Biden, and every corporation touting the popular idea tells us so every hour on the hour.

Yes, there is racism in America. That is not the same as calling America a racist country. America is a racist country because the Black Lives Matter movement, not only exists, but has managed to amass millions in funding, position itself on everyone’s lips, streets, in corporate offices and policies for hiring, and infiltrate the psyche of every uninformed millennial and intimidated passerby.

Just what does BLM and its supporting base of liberals know about institutional American racism towards blacks that we don’t?

What really goes on in the "systemically racist" America and why do all Americans need to kneel and repent for their collective sin? And why does every individual and organization need to plaster a large black square in support of ending this horrendous record of discrimination towards African Americans?

The United States of America acted in the following ways, detailed below, towards the 13% black minority. The nation is or has been in possession of:

* 100 Black Men of America

* 101 Black Only Colleges

* 114 Museums are dedicated entirely to African American heritage, culture & experience

* 194 black judges on US District Courts. Current percentage of black District Court judges is 14%.

* 226 African-American judges on the federal bench (past and present), as of January 2, 2020.

* 25.4% Blacks in Jazz music.

* 39 black judges on US Courts of Appeals

* 4 out of 25 major cities of the US have black mayors.

* 47 out of 126 women serving in the 116th U.S. Congress, or 37.3%, are women of color.

* 7 Black Entertainment Networks: BET, TV One, Revolt, Bounce TV, Aspire TV, Soul of the South TV, The Africa Channel

* 70 % of all Football players are black.

* 70% Blacks in Major League (white players reached a new low at 27.7 %.)

* 74.7% Blacks in the National Basketball League

* 75 Black Only College Graduation ceremonies, held in non-black Universities including Harvard.

* 9 black judges on Miscellaneous Federal Courts

* A 27% black presidential Cabinet under a very white President, Bill Clinton, the highest black representation to date. During the same term of a black President, Barak Obama, the number of blacks in the presidential Cabinet sank to 6%.

* A black Attorney General (female)

* A black Attorney General (male)

* A black National Anthem

* A black President

* A black U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

* African American Planning Commission (AAPC)

* American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE)

* Black assistants to a U.S. President for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs

* Black History Month (February of each year)

* Black Holiday: Kwanzaa, an annual celebration of African-American culture held from December 26 to January 1

* Black Music Action Coalition

* Black Only Bars

* Black Only Clubs

* Black Rodeos for black cowboys only. The National Black Rodeo finals are held annually at the CenturyLink Center in Brossier City, La.

* Black Senior Advisors to a U.S. President

* Blacks in Technology (BIT)

* ColorComm (for black women only)

* Incalculable and predominant % in popular dance, popular culture, popular music and the recording industry.

* Information Technology Senior Management Forum: black professionals at senior levels in technology

* Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies for people of color

* National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME)

* National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

* National Association of African-American in Human Resources

* National Association of Black Accountants, Inc.

* National Association of Black Journalists

* National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC)

* National Black Justice Commission (LGBTQ)

* National Black MBA Association

* National Black Nurses Association (NBNA)

* National Coalition of 100 Black Women (NCBW)

* National Council of Negro Women, Inc. (NCNW)

* National Medical Association (NMA promotes the collective interests of physicians and patients of African descent.

* National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)

* National Society of Black Physicists

* National Urban League

* Organization of Black Designers

* The Association of Black Psychologists

* The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC): 49 black members of Congress. (153 African Americans, to date, have served in the United States Congress)

* The Executive Leadership Council: for the development of global black leaders.

* The National Black Bar Association

* The Partnership, Inc.

* The United States Senate: 10 African-American elected or appointed office holders.

* Two black Supreme Court judges

* U.S. Black Chambers (advocacy for the realization of economic empowerment of blacks)

* United Negro College Fund (UNCF)

Affirmative action, a set of laws, policies, guidelines, and admin practices to boost employment and participation of blacks at every level of society includes government-mandated, government-approved and voluntary private programs as far back as 1961.

There are over 2.6 million African American owned businesses in the U.S, up from 1.9 million in 2007. African Americans have operated virtually every kind of company, but some of the most prominent Black-owned businesses have been insurance companies, banks, recording labels, funeral parlors, barber shops, beauty salons, restaurants, soul food restaurants, record stores, and bookstores.

Prince George's County (Maryland) is one of the most affluent African American-majority counties in the United States, with five of its communities identified in a 2015 top ten list.

Top 7 Fastest-Growing Black-Owned Companies with mostly black employees are:

* Blacc Spot Media.

* Active Faith Sports.

* Greenup Industries.

* MCB Lighting & Electrical

* Mobile Defenders.

* Preparing People Barber Styling College.

* RWD Consulting.

According to Black Enterprise Magazine2: “Black-owned businesses account for a substantial amount of U.S. revenue. The top 100 African American-owned companies together generated almost $30 billion in revenues and employed more than 71,000 workers in 2018. Most of these firms have been established in the last few decades, and many are still led by their entrepreneurial founders.

*Black Enterprise2 Magazine compiles an annual list of the top 100 Black Businesses by revenue, growth an employment. Top 6 are:

ACT-1 Group, Inc. 2018 Revenue: $2.80 billion

Bridgewater Interiors, LLC, 2018 Revenue: $1.96 billion

Coca-Cola Beverages Florida L.L.C. , 2018 Revenue: $1.31 billion

Vista Equity Partners 2018 Revenue: Unpublished

World Wide Technology, Inc. 2018 Revenue: $11.28 billion

Below is only a partial list of Black Magazines in the US:

* African American Golfers Digest

* American Legacy Magazine

* Black Bride & Groom Magazine

* Black Enterprise Magazine

* Black Family Digest

* Black MBA Magazine

* Crisis Magazine

* Cuisine Noir Magazine

* Diverse: Issues In Higher Education

* DiversityInc Magazine

* Ebony and Jet Magazines

* Entrepreneurs of Color (E.O.C.) Magazine

* Essence Magazine

* Harlem World Magazine

* HBCU Connect - The Magazine

* Heart and Soul Magazine

* Hip Hop Weekly

* Journey To Wellness Magazine

* King Magazine

* Monarch Magazine

* New Vision (NV) Magazine

* Real Health Magazine

* Target Market News Magazine

* The Network Journal

* The Source Magazine

* Upscale Magazine,

* Vibe

* XXL Magazine

Now, wouldn't every country and every minority welcome this?

Imagine re-reading all of the aforementioned while subbing the word “white” for “black” each time.

The pageantry of BLM virtue-signalling by useful idiots should be over. It’s run its course. And not because of BLM’s official, loud and proud Jew-hatred, calls for killing of police officers and horrifying violence on American streets, actual murder of police officers and over 350 injured, looting of businesses, intimidation of society at large and continuous killing of their other blacks. It’s over because the game of pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes is over.

Fabricated racism, the priceless possession of today’s liberal, exists to seed outrage, division and dissatisfaction for the purpose of one and only intended goal - the anti-Trump vote at the ballot box. They know that grandpa Biden needs all the help he can get.

The BLM enthusiasts care nothing for months-long Covid-spreading by their rioters , their country’s actual track record, their fellow Americans, their safety, livelihood and well-being. And absolutely nothing for black lives or anyone’s lives. They’ve turned 2020 into the Year of The Empowered Criminal while granting BLM’s platform of tyrannical Marxism and rabid antsemitism exclusive moral authority, unequivocal legitimacy and very sharp teeth.

These enthusiasts were able to achieve a huge cultural shift by their relentless physical and emotional intimidation of society. Monument toppling was a mere test run for their Stalinist-inspired reputation and career toppling. Fear-based subjugation of politicians, journalists, editors, schools, businesses and general populace into BLM groupthink requiring total devotion to the cause is now complete.

The palpable danger of job/income loss and public lynching for the crime of non-compliant heresy on social media or in “polite company”, is breeding a society of obedient sheep intent on preserving their own paycheck and survival, to hell with facts, truth and morality. History repeating for the umpteenth time.

To wonder how a mere 15% of official Nazis could enlist the other 85% of German populace into the holy grail of complete continental dominance and an obliteration of an entire race is to exhibit cluelessness about human nature and the ultimate power of fear.

We are the implicitly consenting participants in this apocalyptic cultural destruction by liberal kneelers and their first-prize-for-victimhood holders. Our freedom of choice and moral compass have been highjacked; our minds manipulated to give power to illusions.

And we know it. And that means all of us - white and black.

 

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on REAL Black Power

Opuscula Biden ignores both Facts and handlers’ Advice on U.S. history

Update for 24 July 2020

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX-01) calls on Congress to ban any political organization or party that has ever held a public position supporting slavery or the Confederate States of America, citing the racist history of the Democratic party. (https://youtu.be/lRR5IQmMXEU)

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JOE BIDEN, THE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE, on Wednesday called President Trump the country’s first racist to be elected to the White House.

The Washington Post reported that Biden said that Trump frequently refers to the pandemic as the “China virus,” saying, “the way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from, is absolutely sickening.”

“No sitting president has ever done this,” Biden said. “Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has.”¹

 

 

TO ITS CREDIT, the left-leaning WashPost did challenge Biden’s remark:

Though Biden calls Trump the first racist to be president, history shows the United States has had leaders who either were openly racist, such as enslavers, used racist language, expressed racist views, or enacted racist policies.

Symone Sanders, a Biden campaign senior adviser, acknowledged that although Trump isn’t the first racist president, he’s unique in modern history.

“There have been a number of racist American presidents, but Trump stands out — especially in modern history — because he made running on racism and division his calling card and won,” Sanders said.

 

WHO IS A “RACIST”?

Katrina Pierson, a Trump campaign senior adviser, did directly address Biden’s comments, calling them “an insult to the intelligence of black voters” and pointed to remarks Biden has made in the past. Biden last year faced criticism from his Democratic primary opponents when he spoke favorably of his ability to work with segregationist senators, and he once had to apologize for calling Barack Obama “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

There is no question that Trump has called the Covid-19 virus the “Chinese virus.” That is where the virus originated; about that there also is no question. Unlike the mis-named “Spanish Flu”² of 1918, this malady’s point of origin is correctly identified.

How identifying a killer by its point of origin is “racist” is beyond this scrivener’s comprehension. True, Trump HAS complained that China has taken advantage of the U.S. (under both Democrat and Republican administrations) and, true, Trump has moved to punish China for its behavior; still, as with the “Chinese” flu, the truth is the truth, no matter who speaks it.

Not all influenza pandemics originate in China, albeit most do start there.

The “Swine Flu” epidemic originated in Veracruz, Mexico. Health workers traced the virus to a pig farm in this southeastern Mexican state.³

A few “racist” presidents

Martin Van Buren ordered the U.S. Army into the Cherokee Nation. The soldiers rounded up as many Cherokees as they could into temporary stockades and subsequently marched the captives, led by John Ross, to the Indian Territory in 1838 and 1839.⁴

Chester A. Arthur signed the "Chinese Exclusion Act" passed by Congress in 1882⁵, provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration.

Abraham Lincoln stated, "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people, I as much as any man am in favor of the superior position assigned to the white race." (The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to areas which were loyal to, or controlled by, the Union. Slavery was not actually abolished in the U.S. until the passage of the 13th Amendment which was declared ratified on December 6, 1865.)⁶ Lincoln's remarks may be why the so-called Black Lives Matter miscreants attempted to deface the Lincoln Monument.

In 1864, Lincoln was president when deportation of the Navajos by the U.S. government occurred when 8,000 Navajos were forcibly relocated to an internment camp in Bosque Redondo, where, under armed guards, more than 3,500 Navajo and Mescalero Apache men, women, and children died from starvation and disease.

Then there was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

FDR interned thousands of Japanese because they were Japanese. He feared a Fifth Column. (He ALWAYS suspected anyone outside his social set of being part of a Fifth Column.) Being a fair man, he also sent a few Germans and Italians to camp, as well.⁷ Eleanor Roosevelt, a fierce proponent of civil rights, hoped to change her husband’s mind, but when she brought the subject up with him, he interrupted her and told her never to mention it again.

FDR repeatedly ignored Jewish appeals to accept refugees from the nazis. Initially because he wanted to remain on good trading terms with the nazi government.

According to Rafael Medoff, in his book The Jews Should Keep Quiet, ⁸

The U.S. immigration system severely limited the number of German Jews admitted during the nazi years to about 26,000 annually — but even that quota was less than 25% filled during most of the Hitler era, because the Roosevelt administration piled on so many extra requirements for would-be immigrants. For example, starting in 1941, merely leaving behind a close relative in Europe would be enough to disqualify an applicant — on the absurd assumption that the nazis could threaten the relative and thereby force the immigrant into spying for Hitler.

In 1923, as a member of the Harvard board of directors, Roosevelt decided there were too many Jewish students at the college and helped institute a quota to limit the number admitted. In 1938, he privately suggested that Jews in Poland were dominating the economy and were therefore to blame for provoking anti-Semitism there. In 1941, he remarked at a Cabinet meeting that there were too many Jews among federal employees in Oregon. In 1943, he told government officials in Allied-liberated North Africa that the number of local Jews in various professions “should be definitely limited” so as to “eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany.”

Unfortunately, FDR’s anti-Semitism can fill a book — and it did. Portions of the book (ibid.) may be read at https://tinyurl.com/yyez6qye .

The Clintons “Crime Bill Destroyed Our Communities,” a reference to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which is now considered a disaster because it caused the incarceration rate among the black community to skyrocket. The legislation was such a debacle that Mr. Clinton said last year he regrets signing the bill. But at Thursday’s rally, the former president angrily attempted to justify another Clinton outrage from 1994: Ms. Clinton calling black gang members “super predators” who must be “brought to heel.”⁹

Bill Clinton¹⁰ “has no civil rights policy. He has, in fact, failed to address concretely the issue of racism, and instead has made every effort to distance himself from civil rights advocates.” Herbert Hill ¹¹

Barack Obama¹² is a liberal who cannot deal with a conservative, He

(a) snubbed Israel’s prime minister ¹³

(b) gave the PLO/PFLP US$221 million on his last day in office¹⁴

Obama’s decision not to block a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements laid bare all the grievances the two men have nursed since shortly after they took office in 2009. For Mr. Netanyahu, it was the final betrayal by a president who was supposed to be an ally but never really was. For Mr. Obama, it was the inevitable result of Mr. Netanyahu’s own stubborn defiance of international concerns with his policies.

Short list

Harry S Truman, of Missouri, did what FDR would not do: he integrated the military. Truman also appointed the first black to a Cabinet position.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, did what FDR would not do; he integrated schools.

Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas, did what FDR would not do; he created the Great Society. While FDR created a multitude of programs during the depression, most benefited whites; LBJ’s plan was (more or less) color blind.

Richard M. Nixon didn’t particularly like Jews, but despite his Secretary of State, he aided Israel when it needed help.

Geo. Bush appointed Colin Powell as the first black Secretary of State. Condoleezza Rice was the second black Secretary of State; appointed to the post in Bush’s second term.

Is he senile, ignorant, or both?

Something obviously is wrong with a man who neither knows history nor listens to his handlers who (apparently) tried to shield him from this latest gaffe, his latest “foot in mouth” performance.

Trump is not a racist — he has brought more blacks into office than any president before him.

Because he wants to build a wall to keep out illegals, especially drug smugglers and assorted violent criminals, does that make him a racist? Or does that make him an American president trying to uphold the Constitution and protect ALL of America’s citizens.

Has he, like Biden, put his foot in his mouth and said, or tweeted, something unpresidential. Without a doubt.

Is Trump the best man for the office?

No, but he is better than the alternative (Biden).

Americans are facing an election between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Unfortunately it also is an election between the rule of law and anarchists; the middle ground is deserted by any and all who might bring reason and civility to the table.

America is in sad straits, difficult times.

There are those — China for example — waiting for America to falter, to become a second class nation such as England and those that populate Europe.

If anyone wants to discuss racism and freedoms, look to China where racism abounds (ask a Muslim) and freedoms do not.

Trump may not be the best candidate, but he is better than the Democrat alternative.

Parting thought

During the campaign, Biden has forgotten Barack Obama’s name repeatedly, proclaimed he was running for Senate, declared that over 150 million people have been killed by gun violence since 2007, confused his wife with his sister, confused Angela Merkel with Margaret Thatcher, and confused Theresa May twice with Margaret Thatcher. He’s issued an endless litany of baffling and embarrassing statements, including, “Tomorrow’s Super Thursday,” “We choose truth over facts,” “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids,” “Why, why, why, why, why, why, why?” and “We hold these truths to be self-evident: all men and women created by the, go, you know the, you know the thing.”
The Best of Biden: https://youtu.be/1VMKF3lRoqw
More on Biden's faux pas at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzBdBj5QWyY

 

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Sources

1 Washington Post: https://tinyurl.com/y5axejr5

2. “Spanish flu”: https://tinyurl.com/rmv6v9x

3. “Swine flu”: https://tinyurl.com/y2l6bmyh

4. Van Buren: https://tinyurl.com/yc8p76oy

5. Arthur: https://tinyurl.com/yacyswvt

6. Lincoln: https://tinyurl.com/y37v8l82

7. FDR & Japanese: https://tinyurl.com/yahl2s3g

8. FDR & Jews: The Jews Should Keep Quiet, Rafael Medoff, JPS, ISBN 978-0-8276-1470-30

9. Clintons: https://tinyurl.com/y3fr85g6

10. Clinton: Racism or Realpolitik? www.jstor.com

11. Hill: https://tinyurl.com/y3j7uzfk

12. Obama: https://tinyurl.com/y5rmwyqv

13. Obama & Netanyahu: https://tinyurl.com/yxbpv2et

14: Obama & PLO/PFLP: https://tinyurl.com/y399b8nh

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Presidential Racism

Opuscula Chinese virus Excuse for many Failures to execute

THIS TIME IT IS NOT TRUMP’S FAULT. (Or, maybe it is: Joe, Nancy and Chuck surely will let us know.)

Every vendor that fails to meet its own deadlines blames the failure on the Chinese virus.

 

 

THREE MONTHS AGO, my defective Taurus Model 692 was delivered to the company’s new Georgia facility on April 3, 2020.

The issues were relatively minor:

• Fix the lousy finish that shows bare metal after less than 100 rounds of ammunition
• Reduce the trigger pull to something manageable – that is, not requiring two hands to fire the revolver
• Repair a fault in the casting of the frame

Normally Taurus claims repair turn-around times are about six (6) weeks.

After six weeks passed with no word from Taurus I asked what was happening with the revolver.

“We told you it would be three MONTHS” (by my simple count, that’s 12 weeks) I was told by a person with an attitude. How dare a customer expect turn around in an advertised time (six weeks).

On June 28 I used Taurus’ web site to leave a message demanding return of the weapon.

No response.

I realize Taurus is closed for the weekend, but I — obviously foolishly — thought that I would have a response by Close of Business (COB) Monday.

Nothing.

Tuesday comes and Tuesday goes.

Nothing.

Wednesday I have a “Chat” session with “Veronica.” “Veronica” may be a pseudonym used by multiple people depending on the day of the week or the time of day.

“Veronica” told me the gun still was not repaired. It’s because of the “conditions.” I assume “conditions” means “Chinese virus.” Or maybe the repair personnel decided to go hunting or fishing — any season open in June?

In any event, the gun still was not fixed.

“Veronica” assured me that someone from another department would call me in one of two days to arrange to return the weapon. The question remains: Calendar days or “Taurus” days that, apparently, are not the same.

The call came four days later.

I was told the work was “almost done” and that Taurus could not return my gun until it was done with it.

I got the gun back on July 17, 2020.

The gun was made in Brasil^cq. Taurus could have sent the gun back to Brasil, melted it down and re-cast it, sans defect, in the three months Taurus sat on the gun in Georgia.

Things were no better when Taurus was located in Miami, and the repair folks are about the same — useless.

Will I buy another Taurus?

In a word: No.

Will I recommend Taurus?

Again: No.

Adding insult to injury, Taurus USED TO HAVE a “lifetime” warranty. The Model 629 came with a one year warranty that was largely used up with the gun sitting in Taurus’ Georgia facility not being repaired.

My Model 692 was purchased because it has interchangeable cylinders: one for .38/.357 Magnum rounds and one for 9mm ammunition in “star” (a/k/a “moon” or “stellar”) clips. (See

https://tinyurl.com/yb3o9bfn for more on using 9mm cartridges and “clips.”)

I had fired less than 100 rounds of .38, .357 Magnum, and 9mm before the gun went back to Taurus.

I traded another Taurus .38/.357 Magnum revolver (and a fistful of cash) for the 692.

Firing .357 Magnums with the old 5-shooter was painful.

The 692 is almost a pleasure.

It has a soft grip that absorbs a lot of the .357’s recoil. The 692 also is a heavier gun, which also helps.

I can only fire the 692 in single-action mode; the trigger pull in double-action (DA) is too “heavy.” I was getting pretty good at “thumbing” the hammer before the gun went off to Georgia.

The “star” clips are a little inconvenient to load/unload (although practice and a pair of needle nose pliers help). Unloading and loading a 7-round “clip” into the cylinder is much faster than loading seven rounds of loose cartridges. In a pressure situation, the 9mm/star clips win hands down.

Until recently I was of the opinion that if I wanted stopping power, I had to fire .357 Magnum.

First of all, that’s not entirely accurate. Nine’s can pack a wallop.

I do not want bullets going through a body into an innocent bystander (so I carefully check cartridge specs before buying any ammunition).

Turns out, then, for this shooter, 9 mm is becoming to caliber of choice.

KNOWING THEN WHAT I KNOW today about 9mm vs. .38/.357 Magnum, I would have bought an American-made 9mm revolver such as

• Ruger Blackhawk Convertible with 2 cylinders: 9mm, .38/.357 Magnum
• Smith and Wesson, multiple models
• Kimber

Colt, while made in America, does not offer a 9mm wheel gun. (That seems strange given it was “the gun that won the West.”)

Ruger and S&W are more expensive than Taurus, but one hopes the quality of the weapon and support is better than Taurus.

Why a wheel gun? Semi-autos usually hold more ammunition in their magazines.

In a word: Reliability.

In another three words: Ease of maintenance.

There simply is less to go wrong with a revolver.

Since they normally are not field stripped for cleaning, unlike semi-autos, there is less chance that something will go wrong with reassembly.

With each cartridge in its own chamber, the cartridges do not need to be fed into a firing chamber; they already are there.

True, if a revolver is mistreated and never cleaned — normally a five or 10 minute job — the cylinder could jam or fail to align properly. Having owned a semi-auto, I know that if a cartridge fails to feed, the user has to clear it before firing again.

If a cartridge in a semi-auto fails to fire, the gun is useless until the dud is removed.

If a cartridge fails to fire in a wheel gun, the next cartridge moves into place.

The only problem I have had with wheel guns, and this may be unique to Taurus, is that ammunition from Liberty Ammunition will not immediately eject from either of the two Taurus revolvers I have owned. (I complained to Taurus AND to Liberty, to no avail.)

 

What did Taurus DO?

Taurus had my gun for more than SEVEN weeks.

Taurus was told, in writing and in pictures what needed to be done:

1. Fix the finish so bare metal would be covered.

2. Lighten the DA trigger pull

3. Do something with a small crack in the frame.

In seven — count them, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 —weeks Taurus managed to accomplish only one — right, ONE — task.

The DA trigger pull now is acceptable.

The bare metal remains bare.

The small crack on the frame remains as it was.

The bare metal does not — now — present a problem. I keep a light coat of Ballistol CLP on all parts, inside and out.

The small crack may, or may not, “grow” as the weapon is fired over time. I probably will take it to a real gunsmith for a second opinion. If the crack is not an issue, Taurus would have been well advised to tell me “Don’t worry about the crack; it’s just in the finish.”

When I originally received the 962 it came with the admonishment that there was a one year warranty.

When it came back from “repair,” it came with a piece of paper stating it now had a lifetime warranty — comparable to Taurus’ better built competitors.

To its credit, Taurus paid FedEx shipping both ways.

This morning (19 JUL) I applied an alcohol rub to all the gun’s surfaces, internal and external, and then quickly applied CLP gun oil. Were it not for the Chinese virus, the only application would have been gun oil.

The gun was clean when it left my house and it was clean when it returned. Taurus claims it fired 21 rounds with the gun. If it did, the crew gets a gold star for cleaning the barrel and chambers; the gun was as clean as when it was shipped to Georgia.

Some good words

There ARE good things to say about Taurus wheel guns. (I have no experience with Taurus semi-autos and would not own a semi-auto regardless of manufacturer.)

While the Model 605 I previously owned would beat up my palms firing .357 magnums, the spongy grip on the 692 gentles the .357’s recoil so that firing 50 rounds is about the same as firing 50 rounds of standard .38 FMJ.

Th 692 has a longer barrel and it is ported, a feature some love and others hate. Porting is supposed to reduce recoil.

I bought the 692 sight-unseen because it has inter-changeable cylinders. I had my doubts about 9mm vs. .38 SPL and .357 magnum. Once the 9mm cartridges are set in the moon/star/stellar clips, they can rapidly be loaded/ejected from the cylinder, seven rounds at a time. With the .38/.357, trying to load individual cartridges can be time consuming and awkward, especially under pressure.

My personal “bottom line”

Given the option to buy a new Taurus or a used “name” gun (e.g., Kimber, Ruger, Smith & Wesson) buy the used “name” gun. (All the guns just named are made in the U.S.A.)

The 692 is a great idea for people who don’t know what they want (previously my situation).

The only drawback I see to a wheel gun is less capacity. The 692 holds seven rounds and Taurus correctly recommends that the chamber under the hammer be left empty. Countering the comparable lack of capacity is the ease, speed, and simplicity of cleaning the weapon. No disassembly required.

Pre-loading 49 9mm rounds into 7 moon/star/stellar clips should provide enough ammunition or almost any occasion. (The 692 is supplied with five clips. More are available from Taurus.) Loading the clips requires minimal patience; unloading cases from the clips is easy with needle nose pliers. There are several devices to load/unload the clips, all available “for a price.”

Besides, if you can’t hit the target with 5, 6, or 7 rounds, you need to spend more time at the range.

 

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Blame the virus

Opuscula Who’s to blame For continuing Attacks on Iran?

 

IRAN IS SUFFERING ATTACK AFTER ATTACK on its infrastructure.

The ayatollahs stopped short of blaming either the Great Satan (the U.S.) or the Little Satan (Israel), but still make noise.

Neither the U.S. nor Israel admit to either committing the strikes or having anything to do with the strikes.

 

 

IF IT IS NOT THE U.S. OR ISRAEL, could it be that the Persians finally are fed up with the ayatollahs?

The Persians turned out one despotic ruler, the Shah, and got another, the Grand Ayatollah, in return. Having succeeded once, are they about to try again?

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right)

 

Not everyone is happy

According to an article in Newsweek¹,

The Iranian regime has long battled multiple militant insurgencies in different parts of the country, whether separatist groups among Kurdish, Baloch, and Arab communities or extremist religious groups like those pledging allegiance to what remains of the Islamic State organization.

Almost everyone knows about the Kurds, but the Baloch are an unknown.

Wikipedia² describes the Baloch thus:

The Baloch are an Iranian people who live mainly in the Balochistan region of the southeastern-most edge of the Iranian plateau in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. There are also diaspora communities in neighboring regions, including those in India; and having a significant diaspora in the Arabian Peninsula

Persians do not consider themselves “Arabs,” and generally look down on Arabs as lesser people.

Not mentioned in the Newsweek piece are the on-going conflict between the dominant Shi’a and a minority Sunni Muslims.

 

Foreign aid

During World War 2, the Allies provided financial and military support to “partisans” fighting the nazis.

In most cases, foreign nationals — personnel from the Allied countries — were not sent to aid the partisans. (Inserting a foreign national, particularly one native to the country fighting the nazis happened, but the most common assistance was weapons, communications gear, an intelligence, the latter a two-way street.)

Many of the occupied nations had governments in exile, safely ensconced far from the fighting; often in London.

Iran has one, perhaps two, groups claiming to be its “government in exile.”

Newsweek³

On July 13, 2019, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudi Giuliani, addressed an Iranian opposition group called the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK) at the group's tightly guarded encampment in rural Albania, where some 3,400 members have been preparing for the overthrow of the clerical regime in Tehran.

Calling the MEK Iran's "government-in-exile," Giuliani assured MEK members that the Trump administration regards the group as an acceptable replacement for the current regime. "It gives us confidence that if we make those efforts to overthrow that horrible regime, sooner rather than later, we will not only save lives but we will be able to entrust the transition of Iran to a very responsible group of people," the former New York City mayor told his cheering audience.

At the same time, there is a Wikipedia entry⁴ that

The National Council of Iran (NCI), officially the National Council of Iran for Free Elections, is a loosely based umbrella group of the exiled opposition to Iran's Islamic Republic government. It serves as Reza Pahlavi's government in exile in order to either reclaim the former throne, or as the new president of Iran, after overthrowing the current government.

The NCI is based in Paris, France.

The Newsweek piece³ notes that

The opposition groups remain deeply divided, which undermines their chances of ever taking power, Iran experts say. Over the years, several opposition groups have tried repeatedly to form a united front against Tehran, but their attempts have failed because of clashing histories, agendas and personalities.

President Trump apparently is not promoting a regime change in Iran; preferring to challenge the ayatollahs with sanctions. Yet, Giuliani was promoting regime change when he met with the MEK, ibid.

MEK has, according to Newsweek, a long history that dates back to the overthrow of the shah. It was behind the take-over of the U.S. embassy in Tehran; it “broke with Khomeini over his decision to release the American hostages.”

Lesson not learned? The U.S. supported the Taliban in Afghanistan against Russia. Once the Russians were kicked out of the country, the Taliban turned on the U.S. The MEK already has a bad history with the U.S., but the Pahlavi group, while friendly to the U.S. when the U.S. kept it in power, was over-thrown by the ayatollahs and the MEK. Is Iran worth America’s involvement?

Israel has a history with Iran that predates the ayatollahs.

Israeli communications gear found its way to Arab armies via Iran when the Persians sold Israeli military radios with a Made in Persia label.

There is a very large population of ex-pat Iranians in Israel and they are active in all segments of Israeli society.

Iran and Israel seem to be — Israel refuses to acknowledge it — in a cyber war in which, if Iranian claims are true, Israel seems to have better defenses and better offenses. Iran allegedly attempted to attack Israeli water resources (and failed) and Israel allegedly attempted to interrupt operations at an Iranian port (and succeeded).

For its part, Iran has a blatant Fifth Column in Israel’s Knesset; members who support the overthrow of the Israeli state.

On the other hand, Israel’s Mossad has been known to infiltrate agents into foreign countries.

Attacks on Iran

Foxnews.com⁵ reports that

Black smoke rose as flames engulfed the Shahid Tondgooyan petrochemical plant in the Khuzestan province of Iran late Sunday afternoon.

Hours earlier, more than 500 miles away, detonations rocked the basement of an old, nondescript home in a northern pocket of Tehran. The two-story dwelling was said to have housed at least 30 gas cylinders that were used for unclear purposes.

Both incidents came fewer than two days after a string of explosions – and power outages – were reported west of Tehran in the early hours of Friday. Local reports indicated that multiple “mortar-like sounds similar to anti-aircraft missiles” were heard.

The blasts reportedly took place at an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) missile depot.

These most recent attacks happened on the heels of multiple other mysterious explosions at sensitive sites over the course of the last three weeks – and no one is precisely sure what is going on, other than its rattling of the regime and stymieing its controversial nuclear program.

A short timeline:

June 26 at a liquid fuel production center that makes ballistic missiles in Khojir, near Parchin, southeast of the capital.

June 30, 19 people died following an explosion at a medical center in Tehran.

July 2, the Natanz uranium enrichment plant was struck by a mammoth blast

July 3, an unexplained fire erupted at a power plant in the southwest city of Shiraz, triggering a power outage in the region.

July 4 yet another explosion and inferno tore through a power plant in Ahwaz, while at the same time, a chlorine gas leak was detected at a Karoun petrochemical plant in Mahshahr, about 75 miles away.

 

Foreign or domestic?

The BBC’s Persian service reported that just after midnight on June 30, some of its journalists received an email from a group purporting to be the "Homeland Cheetahs" – comprised of anti-government, underground dissidents – claiming credit for earlier attacks. The outlet also said they were informed of the Natanz attack hours before it was documented by officials.

David Kennedy, CEO of TrustedSec and a former NSA and Marine Corps cyber-intelligence expert asks “was this a cyber-attack or physical sabotage, the answer could be 'both.' The most likely suspects are the U.S. and Israel working in tandem. Both countries have very sophisticated cyber warfare units and significant capabilities when it comes to cyber-kinetic attacks," Kennedy explained "An attack of this magnitude would require a great deal of planning and preparation, and is very complex because you are exploiting industrial control systems and air-gapped devices."

Inside, outside, neither, both. The ayatollah’s so far are avoiding the issue.

 

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Sources

1. Newsweek: https://tinyurl.com/ycn9vqlm

2. Baloch: https://tinyurl.com/yad4pvgd

3. MEK: https://tinyurl.com/yd3ujcy2

4. NCI: https://tinyurl.com/y9w4fpyq

5. Fox: https://tinyurl.com/y6wuphcm

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Attacks on Iran

Opuscula Who’s killing The language? Ignorant media

>

 

WHEN I WAS IN THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS — back when Gasoline Alley was fixing flivers — I considered it incumbent upon me to “educate” the reader.

The best way to accomplish this, I believed, was to use correct English language and grammar and to introduce new ideas — for example, the metric system.

I did not always succeed, but I tried.

 

 

THIS MORNING ON THE “NEWS” I heard and read on the tube that “Florida hospitals are busting at the seams.”

What is wrong with that?

I’m bursting to share with you what is wrong.

A “bust” is, according to Merriam-Webster.com

1: art : a sculptured representation of the upper part of the human figure including the head and neck and usually part of the shoulders and breast

2 : the upper part of the human torso between neck and waist especially : the breasts of a woman

Conversely, “burst” is defined by the same source as

1: to break open, apart, or into pieces usually from impact or from pressure from within

2a : to give way from an excess of emotion

b : to give vent suddenly to a repressed emotion burst i

3a : to emerge or spring suddenly

b : launch, plunge

4 : to be filled to the breaking point

As a print media reporter and editor, I suppose it is unfair to expect tv and radio news readers to have any command of the language. Most, I’m informed, have others write the words for them,, ergo, “news readers,” a/k/a “talking heads,” bobble or otherwise.

This is not a matter of University of Chicago/Harvard/GPO vs. Fowler. It is a matter correct use of the language.

 

Teachers cannot teach what they don’t know

Today’s media is not solely (only) to blame for the dreadful state of the language.

Advertising, with few exceptions, is a major contributor. (The exception that comes to mind is an old Winston cigarette commercial about the product’s “taste.”)

I covered courts in California (and elsewhere). One incident I remember was a letter from a collegian (at Chico State, if I recall correctly) who, trying to wiggle out of a traffic ticket wrote a largely unintelligible letter to the judge (who shared it with me as public record). The lad’s mistake: the judge loved the language even more than this scrivener.

Perhaps today’s teachers never learned BASIC English when they were in the primary and secondary grades.

If they don’t KNOW the subject, how can they TEACH the subject?

 

Very unique and other “fox paws”

My Spouse, who has English as her third or fourth language, used to compete with or children (before they grew up and moved out) on who would react fastest when some fool talking head said something was “very” or “most” unique.

The only modifier for “unique” is “almost.” Otherwise, something is, or is not, unique.

Again, from Merriam-Webster.com:

1: being the only one : sole

2a : being without a like or equal : unequaled

b : distinctively characteristic : peculiar sense 1

c : able to be distinguished from all others of its class or type

The last word in the list above, “type” brings to mind a lesson I learned early in my scholastic career.

Types OF, and Kinds OF are not acceptable in proper grammatical society. Rather, rework a sentence such as: There are many “types of” flowers to There are flowers of many types.

Yes, I understand that a former English prime minister and one-time war corespondent is said to have complained about English grammar, up with which I will not put. Still, critics believe he was an accomplished writer. Perhaps not on the order of Hubert Horatio Humphrey or William Francis Buckley, but of some renown.

Among the “fox paws” (faux pas) I most often encounter are misuse of over and under.

Over is above something. Over the rainbow.¹

Under is beneath something. Under the boardwalk.^{2a, 2b}

More than and greater than deal in quantities, measurements. Greater than 500 pounds; more than Mach 2.

Less than is the opposite of “more than and greater than.”

Far too many media mavins (from Hebrew “מבין” or person who understands, an expert) have a problem with “ly” as in “he acted quickly” that become “he acted quick.”

Granted, English is a “living language,” but I would posit that the media personalities and their writers are killing it.

“Professor ‘enry ‘iggings” of My Fair Lady³ nee’ Pygmalion⁴ a fame was correct when he loudly proclaimed: ”Why can’t the English learn to speak . . . the language?”

 

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Sources

1. Over: https://tinyurl.com/nhl8nch

2. Under: a - https://tinyurl.com/ycc7j8e8 b - Ecclesiastes קהלת 1:9

3. My Fair Lady: https://tinyurl.com/yapypcmh

4. Pygmalion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(play)

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on ENGLISH

Opuscula Reparations? For whom?

SOME BLACKS ARE DEMANDING “REPARATIONS” for their great-grandparents slavery.

They already GOT “reparations.”

The people who DESERVE reparations — sans quote marks — are the American Indians, “Native Americans” if you prefer.

 

 

North America was populated by indigenous peoples when the Europeans discovered the continent. Who was the first European to land on North American shores is open to debate, and, frankly Scarlet, this scrivener doesn’t care.

What is a fact — and the truth, too — is that the Europeans

  * Could not have survived a year sans native assistance

  * Brought diseases with them that decimated the indigenous population

  * Came to despise the people who taught them how to survive.

The Europeans used the Indians to fight the wars between England and Franch, and introduced the Indians to scalping their enemy as an early “body count” practice. Scalping was not a native invention.

As the Europeans gained control of the land, they forced the Indians out.

Most American school children of my generation know about the Cherokee Trail of Tears that cost the lives of thousands of Indians.^{1, 2}

The Cherokees had an established democracy, they had a spoken and written language, and the land they occupied was coveted by the Europeans. To free up the land, the Cherokees were rounded up and marched to Oklahoma.³

The Oklahoma Historical Society⁴ recorded the Indians “removal” from the east and south.

The expansion of Anglo-American settlement into the Trans-Appalachian west led to the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, forcing all eastern tribes to move to new homelands west of the Mississippi River in the Indian Territory. The Five Tribes purchased new lands in present-day Oklahoma, but some relocated farther north. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 led to renewed white settlement in these territories, and the immigrant tribes located there were soon under pressure to move on. Texas, too, forced out all remaining tribes in 1859. The Civil War ended the removals temporarily.

“Chief Little Wound and family. Oglala Lakota. 1899. (Heyn Photo)
Source - Denver Public Library Digital Collections

The Northern Plains Reservation Aid site⁵ concurs, adding

The removal concept was further refined after the mid-century when it became evident that U.S. expansion planned to claim the West as well as the East. U.S. government officials concluded unspecified tracts of “Indian Territory” needed to be more sharply defined into reservations. Those opposing westward expansion were rounded up and forcibly confined to the reservations. This instigated the Great Plains wars of the 1860s-1880s.

Not all Indians were driven west.

The Seminoles moved into Florida’s swamp land where they were joined by other Indians and escaped slaves.

Since the federal government was (wisely) unwilling to do battle in the swamps, it used lies and deception to capture some Seminole leaders.

The Indians fought several wars with Federal troops before finally moving where the Federals would not go.⁶.

Today, the Seminole nation and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida own large chunks of Florida real estate.

This was not always the case.
According to the Miccosukee site⁷

As soon as the United States acquired Florida, it began urging the Indians there to leave their lands and relocate along with other Southeastern tribes to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River, in what is now present-day Oklahoma. 

In the spring of 1832 the Seminoles were called to a meeting at Payne's Landing on the Oklawaha River. The treaty negotiated with the U.S. government called for the Seminoles to move west, if the land was found to be suitable. A delegation of seven chiefs toured the area for several months and, on March 28, 1833, signed what they believed to be a statement that the new land was suitable for consideration.

Upon their return to Florida, however, there was disagreement as to the terms of the treaty.  Many of the chiefs stated that they had not committed to move their people to the new territory and that they had been coerced, through force and misinterpretation into signing.  Even some U.S. Army officers claimed that the chiefs had been "wheedled and bullied into signing." Others noted evidence of trickery in how the treaty was phrased.

'Chief Joseph and Family Members, Circa 1877'
Giclee Print - F.M. Sargent @ AllPosters.com

Until the Indians “discovered” gambling and until the Federal government allowed the Indians to use the independent nations’ lands as they saw fit, most indigenous Americans lived in poverty. There were exceptions, but they were few.

Today, most western reservation Indians remain on federal handouts or charity.⁸.

In order to succeed, Indians must leave the reservation and face racism from the non-Indian population. Even in Hollywood, the bastion of liberalism, movie “Indians” usually were “white with color added.” This despite some having outstanding war records.

The Indians, like blacks and other minorities, have their own “movement.” In the past it got some press for blocking roads, but the American Indian Movement (AIM) remains, if not nationally active, still in business.⁹. HOWEVER, unlike Black Lives Matter (BLM) it’s members generally refrain from destroying small businesses on which they depend or disrupting political sessions with which they disagree.

An aside: I lived in the Inter-Mountain West where “BLM” meant “Bureau of Land Management.”

IF ANY MINORITY deserves “reparations,” it is the indigenous American Indian.

They were here before the Europeans arrived on the east coast and via Mexico.

They were murdered by the Europeans in search of ore or simply fertile land.

They were force-marched from their lands to reservations and then from there, when the land was coveted by the government, to other reservations.

The Federal government consistently lied to the Indians and often cheated them out of the promised assistance.

I am not an Indian. I have no Indian relatives. I am not beholden to any Indians.

I am a native-born U.S. citizen who wonders why black Americans are demanding reparations when the Federal government has provided programs (i.e. “reparations”) at least since LBJ’s Great Society was unveiled in 1964 to help blacks, and others, to get an education, to improve job skills, to get off the dole. As I key this, the year is 2020 — that is at least 55 years ago. Paying “reparations” will do most of the welfare recipients only temporary succor at best, just like the Covid 19-related handouts (that we’ll have to pay for later).

 

---

 

Sources

1. Trail of Tears (US History.com): https://tinyurl.com/y5xe9wef

2. Trail of Tears (Cherokee Museum): https://tinyurl.com/yawqbobe

3. Brief Cherokee history: https://tinyurl.com/ydz4by7a

4. OHS: https://tinyurl.com/ybpsw9bc

5. NPR: https://tinyurl.com/z5nbjkn

6. Seminole Wars: https://tinyurl.com/ybwsyrl8

7. Miccosukee Tribe: https://tinyurl.com/y84es9xy

8. Plains poverty: https://tinyurl.com/y8kwevg7

9. AIM: http://www.aimovement.org/ggc/index.html

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on reparations

Opuscula This is the new American anthem?

ACCORDING TO A USA TODAY¹ release,

Starting with the nationally televised regular-season opener between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 10, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,”² also known as the Black national anthem, will be performed before every Week 1 kickoff, before "The Star-Spangled Banner," according to a person familiar with ongoing discussions. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because plans have not yet been finalized and announced by NFL officials. (Emphasis mine)

TIMES THEY ARE A’CHANGIN’

The Associated Press (AP), the “final authority” for many in the media, has by fiat determined that black, when used in conjunction with people of color must be initial capital³, at least for “black.” I will assume that “brown” must have an initial capital as well.

BUT, per the AP, “white” is lower case, small “w.”

I suspect AP will make an exception when “white” precedes the word “extremists” to emphasize the (lack of) color of these particular extremists.

The AP article notes that

“Not having a capital letter has felt disrespectful,” said David Lanham, director of communications for the Brooking Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “There is a shared cultural identity with Black Americans and that goes through our shared experiences. That also goes to the lack of geographic history as a result of slavery.”

I don’t mind the change to initial cap for black people, but I DO object to the selectiveness of AP’s fiat — let each individual racial attribute be capitalized: Black, Brown, Red* White, Yellow*.

* Both “Red” and “Yellow” are incorrectly applied to American Indians and Orientals.

AP needs to capitalize Bi-Sexual (two capitals!), Gay, as in homosexual men, vs. happy people, Lesbian, Queer, Transvestite and Tranny (vs. “tranny” as slang for a transmission). How it intends to capitalize “?” could be a major problem for AP.

Straight people, that is, anyone who is other than in an LGBTQ? category can remain lower case. No one cares, anyway.

By the way, will someone please explain why homosexual males are “gay” (OK, ‘Gay’) while homosexual females are Lesbians? Are all the women from the Isle of Lesbos lesbians?⁴

 

Back to the anthem

Since the Democrats lost the election in 2016, the country has been driven asunder.

Leftists on one extreme, White (it’s my blog, I capitalize what I want) Nationalists on the other extreme.

Rather than civil discussion of differences — differences can be good — we have become a nation of screamers. Once tolerant of differences, we now are intolerant bigots, hate mongers.

So, if the USA Today article is correct — and as a former print journalist I will take a “wait and see” stance — and the “black” national anthem is to be played/sung BEFORE the Start Spangled Banner, can we next expect a Black Power flag to fly ABOVE Old Glory?

That may be a rhetorical question: Can those who so hate America, who want to destroy the good with the bad, come to terms with each other long enough to create a pennant?

Black Power.

Democrat,

Rainbow.

Most Americans, those who are born in the USA and those who came here for one reason or another, legal immigrants and illegal immigrants alike, believe America still is a better place to live, to improve their lives, than almost anyplace else on the planet. If anyone in America disagrees with this, they can leave; go anyplace that will have them. Unlike totalitarian countries, unless a person is a wanted criminal, he or she may leave the country at any time for any place that will accept them.

There are more than 51 — FIFTY ONE — countries with Muslim populations of 50% or more.⁵

There are 51 — FIFTY ONE — African states with predominately black regimes. ⁶

As it happens, white (White?) Americans, including future presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson were among the members of the American Colonization Society formed to create a nation for free blacks to return to Africa. This was 50 years before the U.S. would abolish slavery. Over the next three decades, the society secured land in West Africa and shipped people to the colony, which became the nation of Liberia in 1847.⁷

Lincoln actively pursued a re-colonization well after signing the Emancipation Proclamation. ⁸

According to 2014 estimates, more than 3,000 African-Americans and people of Caribbean descent live in Ghana, a country of about 26 million people.  Ghana welcomes the immigrants.⁹

According to the BBC¹⁰

Having vowed to quit the US after being the victim of what he believed was a racially motivated arrest by police officers, African American Obadele Kambon relocated to Ghana in 2008 - and has never looked back.

Dr Kambon has now built a successful life in the place that was once at the heart of the slave trade, and enjoys the freedom which, he says, was denied to him in the US, his birthplace.

Bottom line A Black or Muslim who finds life in America unsatisfactory, has many options to relocate. Leftists — Communists and Socialists, a/k/a “progressives” — likewise have many counties that would welcome them.¹¹

India’s Bollywood might welcome Hollywood’s malcontents; the people who promised — then failed to deliver — that if this or that person won an election, they would leave the country. Unfortunately that was a lie; they still are here fomenting dissension and sowing hatred wherever they find fertile ground such as colleges.

There is no “perfect” society.

A totalitarian government would suit people who are blind to other’s opinions. For them, egalitarianism is extended to those who either believe as they believe or who are subservient to their wishes — slaves and illegals who do their master’s bidding in silence.

Democracy, which America almost has, is for people who are able to civilly discuss issues; who can come to a consensus or compromise that is acceptable — even grudgingly — to all concerned.

If someone wants to play a so-called “black national anthem” they can do it AFTER the U.S.’ National anthem. As far as I know, the U.S. is NOT a “black nation” to have a “black national anthem.” The U.S. is a nation of many people, all of whom bleed red.

Frankly, for my part I would prefer a number of singable songs in lieu of Mr. Key’s effort. Key is unacceptable to “progressive” blacks since he owned slaves in Maryland.¹² God Bless America (except this offends atheists), America the Beautiful, or Woody Guthrie’s This land is your land would be my picks. Mr. Guthrie, to the best of my knowledge, never owned slaves. (Wouldn’t Guthrie’s song “rock the stadiums.”)

America has had a good run. But like Rome, ancient Greece, England, the former Soviet Union, and all the rest, its time may have arrived.

If civil discourse cannot be resumed, if people continue to disrupt normal life and, worse, riot and destroy properties in their own neighborhoods, I fear for the nation.

I would not want to be 20 years old again.

 

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Sources

1. USA Today: https://tinyurl.com/y9yarrj3

2. Black anthem: https://tinyurl.com/yh2yr4tt

3. AP fiat: https://tinyurl.com/ybr7onnd

4. Lesbians and Lesbos: https://tinyurl.com/yarbrm2g

5. Muslim controlled countries: https://tinyurl.com/yam352ly

6. Black controlled countries: https://tinyurl.com/uafymqm

7. Liberia: https://tinyurl.com/yd9yrvfx

8. Lincoln: https://tinyurl.com/y2r78yd7

9. Ghana: https://tinyurl.com/ycnco7rn

10. BBC: https://tinyurl.com/y2w3ouax

11. Places for “progressives”: https://tinyurl.com/ooc6efa

12. Key: https://tinyurl.com/yan8dop8

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

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