More on Reparations

 I'm opposed to reparations. It probably violates the equal protection clause. Citizens of the United States are entitled to "equal protection of the laws."

Reparations would punish white, Hispanic and Asian citizens for things they didn't do in order to compensate black people for things they didn't suffer. If you can find an ex-slave feel free to compensate him or her.

It would also probably violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which "prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin."

You would be discriminating against white, Hispanic and Asian citizens by using their taxes to give money to black citizens simply because they may have descended from a slave.

If they had been slaves that might be different. But no black person alive today was a slave.

I'll tell you something else that I would argue it might violate. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 of the Constitution which prohibits Bills of Attainder. A bill allocating reparations would be punishing white, Hispanic and Asians citizens without a judicial trial and so may be a Bill of Attainder.

Here's the bottom line. We are either a nation of laws or we're not. We can't pick and choose what laws to follow simply because we want to do something and that goes double for the Constitution.

I contend that reparations would require a Constitutional Amendment and a repeal or modification of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Debt Ceiling

This is starting to get serious. Kevin McCarthy has put a proposal on the table which Biden and company have called not serious.

If these two guys were serious about actually governing the country then I think there's a reasonable compromise here.

McCarthy wants to roll back to 2022 Discretionary Spending. The Discretionary Spending budget in 2022 was $1.722 trillion. The President's 2023 proposal is $1.748 trillion. That's a difference or $26 billion or 1.5% of the new budget proposal. Are these people seriously telling me that they can't resolve 1.5% in Discretionary Spending?

The biggest chunk of Discretionary Spending is Defense which was $751 billion in 2022. Other than that there really isn't a single big chunk of money but we're only talking 1.5%.

Note that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP are not part of Discretionary Spending and wouldn't be affected by this part of McCarthy's proposal. All of these items are part of Mandatory Spending. Some of McCarthy's other proposals are more questionable. - Stricter work requirements. McCarthy wants to raise the age limit for SNAP recipients from 49 to 55. I don't see a problem with this considering most people work well into their 60s and many are forced to work into their 70s because Social Security doesn't provide enough to live on.

- Take back unspent Covid-19 relief funds. Offhand I don't see a problem with this either.

- Cancel the IRS budget increase. This would be just dumb. It will pay for itself and McCarthy should be embarrassed to make such a demand. I suspect that this is here to appease the Freedom Caucus.

- Cancel Green Energy incentives. This also sounds to me like it's a foolish thing to do. Green Technology is the future and even the oil companies should have figured that out by now.

- Cancel the $400 billion loan forgiveness program. Biden will never do this. Why not just let the SCOTUS have its say? If someone can convince them that the plaintiffs actually have standing I suspect they'll kill it. But it's not clear the court is convinced they have standing so this is a good gamble for both sides. This is also probably in there to make the Freedom Caucus happy. So negotiate. Work out the 1.5% reduction, accept the raised age requirement and taking back the Covid funds in exchange for letting the IRS budget increase and Green Energy incentives stay. Let the loan forgiveness plan play out in the courts. With Democratic support McCarthy doesn't need the Freedom Caucus.

The Corona Virus, April 24, 2023

 US Cases

OK, so I've been really lazy and busy so I have three weeks worth of data but I don't have national numbers for last week. I've also cut back to listing  just 2023.

Dec 31-Jan 6 -  471,548

Jan 7- Jan 13 - 430,045

Jan 14-Jan 20-331,401

Jan 21-Jan 27-323,428

Jan 28-Feb 3- 284,798

Feb 4 -Feb 10-277,984

Feb 11-Feb 17-260,120

Feb 18-Feb 24-241,626

Feb 25-Mar  3-237,986

Mar 4-Mar 10-206,486

Mar 11-Mar 17-161,476

Mar 18-Mar 24-133,520

Mar 25-Mar 31-138,481

Apr 1 - Apr 7 -   120,530

Apr 8 - Apr 14- 101,145

Apr 15 - Apr 21-Unavailable

 The National numbers have steadily dropped first by 13% and then by 16.1%.

'New Jersey Cases

Dec 31-Jan 6 -  15,562

Jan 7- Jan 13 -  13,735

Jan 14-Jan 20- 10,529

Jan 21-Jan 27- 10,150

Jan 28-Feb 3-   8.910

Feb 4 -Feb 10-  8,326

Feb 11-Feb 17-  6,690

Feb 18-Feb 24- 5,545

Feb 25-Mar  3- 4,590

Mar 4-Mar 10- 3,772

Mar 11-Mar 17-3,334

Mar 18-Mar 24-2,996

Mar 25-Mar 31-2,626

Apr 1 - Apr 7 -   2,285

Apr 8 - Apr 14- 2,548

Apr 15 - Apr 21-2,170

New Jersey had a bit of a wiggle there but overall continues to drop.

Bergen County Cases

Dec 31-Jan 6 -   1,759

Jan 7- Jan 13 -   1,517

Jan 14-Jan 20-  1,074

Jan 21-Jan 27-  1.046

Jan 28-Feb 3-     903

Feb 4 -Feb 10-    884

Feb 11-Feb 17-    604

Feb 18-Feb 24-  525

Feb 25-Mar  3-  448

Mar 4-Mar 10-  375

Mar 11-Mar 17- 376

Mar 18-Mar 24-381

Mar 25-Mar 31-202

Apr 1 - Apr 7 -   205

Apr 8 - Apr 14- 378

Apr 15 - Apr 21-315

I'm not sure what happened with that big jump Apr 8 - Apr 14. There is a pool of cases not allocated to counties so maybe they've been allocating them.

My dentist has finished doing his thing. I see the oral surgeon on May 1 about that root. My tongue feels better now that the permanent crowns are in.

I got the CT scan. My pulmonologist looked at it and said nothing appears to have changed although the official report wasn't available yet. The Thoracic say one of the larger nodules appears to have shrunk. He didn't have the official report either but said everything else looked the same. I get to this again in three months.

My generator is acting up. About a week ago it shut itself off and sent me a E2800 error code. There was a tech here the week before to do yearly maintenance so maybe there's a connection? Anyway, I checked and the code is triggered when someone turns off one of the two emergency switches, I went out to check and reset the unit but the tech had locked the top.

So, I went to look for the key. I found what I thought was the key but it didn't fit. I spent the next half hour looking around. Finally, I thought about it and decided this had to be the key. I went out with a flashlight this time and discovered that you had to push down on the front of the lock in order to get the key in. Both emergency switches looked closed so I reset the unit and it came back up. It ran its weekly maintenance check two days later and seemed OK.

Unfortunately last night it happened again. I reset the unit but then three hours later it happened again. So I left it off and called the electrician this morning. They're sending someone to check tomorrow.

The Corona Virus, April 9, 2023

 US Cases

Yes I've been lazy and I have two weeks of updates as a result.

Sep 5  -Sep 11- 463,113

Sep 12 Sep 18- 431,984

Sep 19 Sep 25- 379,673

Sep 26 Oct 2-   327,481

Oct 3 - Oct 9-  284,417

Oct 10-Oct 16-263,879

Oct 17-Oct 23-264,187

Oct 24-Oct 30-258,083

Oct 31-Nov 6- 279,769

Nov 5-Nov 11-279,503

Nov 12-Nov 18-282.037

Nov 19-Nov 25-298,683

Nov 26-Dec 2 -359,499

Dec 3-Dec 9 -  459,157

Dec 10-Dec 16-458,297

Dec 17-Dec 23-493,563

Dec 24-Dec 30-409,633

Dec 31-Jan 6 -  471,548

Jan 7- Jan 13 - 430,045

Jan 14-Jan 20-331,401

Jan 21-Jan 27-323,428

Jan 28-Feb 3- 284,798

Feb 4 -Feb 10-277,984

Feb 11-Feb 17-260,120

Feb 18-Feb 24-241,626

Feb 25-Mar  3-237,986

Mar 4-Mar 10-206,486

Mar 11-Mar 17-161,476

Mar 18-Mar 24-133,520

Mar 25-Apr 1-  138,481

 The National numbers dropped by 17.3% but then went up slightly the following week by 3,7%

'New Jersey Cases

Sep 5  -Sep 11-   9,895

Sep 12 Sep 18-  10,371

Sep 19 Sep 25-  13,288

Sep 26 Oct 2-   11,477

Oct 3 - Oct 9-   10,159

Oct 10-Oct 16-  9,034

Oct 17-Oct 23-  8.767

Oct 24-Oct 30- 9,538

Oct 31-Nov 6-   9,498

Nov 5-Nov 11-9,327

Nov 12-Nov 18-8,942

Nov 19-Nov 25-7,696

Nov 26-Dec 2 -11,437

Dec 3-Dec 9 -  12,519

Dec 10-Dec 16-14,246

Dec 17-Dec 23-14,424

Dec 24-Dec 30-13,241

Dec 31-Jan 6 -  15,562

Jan 7- Jan 13 -  13,735

Jan 14-Jan 20- 10,529

Jan 21-Jan 27- 10,150

Jan 28-Feb 3-   8.910

Feb 4 -Feb 10-  8,326

Feb 11-Feb 17-  6,690

Feb 18-Feb 24- 5,545

Feb 25-Mar  3- 4,590

Mar 4-Mar 10- 3,772

Mar 11-Mar 17-3,334

Mar 18-Mar 24-2,996

Mar 25-Apr 1-   2,626

New Jersey were down both weeks. The first around 10.1% and the second by 12.3%.

Bergen County Cases

Sep 5  -Sep 11-   1,107

Sep 12 Sep 18-   1,109

Sep 19 Sep 25-  1,486

Sep 26 Oct 2-    1,328

Oct 3 - Oct 9-    1,104

Oct 10-Oct 16-  1.019

Oct 17-Oct 23-  1,116

Oct 24-Oct 30- 1,161

Oct 31-Nov 6-   1,263

Nov 5-Nov 11-1,256

Nov 12-Nov 18-1,186

Nov 19-Nov 25-1,103

Nov 26-Dec 2 - 1,551

Dec 3-Dec 9 -   1,570

Dec 10-Dec 16-1,722

Dec 17-Dec 23-1,806

Dec 24-Dec 30-1,733

Dec 31-Jan 6 -   1,759

Jan 7- Jan 13 -   1,517

Jan 14-Jan 20-  1,074

Jan 21-Jan 27-  1.046

Jan 28-Feb 3-     903

Feb 4 -Feb 10-    884

Feb 11-Feb 17-    604

Feb 18-Feb 24-  525

Feb 25-Mar  3-  448

Mar 4-Mar 10-  375

Mar 11-Mar 17- 376

Mar 18-Mar 24-381

Mar 25-Apr 1-   202

Bergen County had another slight rise of 1.3% but then had a big drop of 47%

I suspect the temp that my dentist put in has been chewing up my tongue and its been quite annoying. It's not worth calling about and I go back a week from Monday. I have an appointment with the oral surgeon on May 1.

My taxes are done. I had to pay less than last year but still a decent amount.

I've been taking my blood pressure for the hell of it. The highest its been is 126/73. The rest of the time its been right around 115/70 so I don't get it. Actually most of the time its been more like 105/65.

Bad news coming up over the next two weeks. We do the CT scan on Wednesday, I see the pulmonologist on Thursday and then next Tuesday I get to see the Thoracic surgeon. Yuck. The best I can hope for here is no news.

Reparations for Slavery

I am utterly opposed to reparations for slavery. In San Francisco a group is recommending paying $5 million to each black citizen. This is absurd.

I have never voted Republican and that's saying a lot since I cast my first vote in 1969. However, I see so many fundamental things wrong with the reparations movement being pushed by Democrats that I don't see how I can stay with the party. I may have cast my last ballot.

-- It punishes people who didn't do anything wrong. People living today are not liable for slavery. This violates a fundamental tenet of justice. You do not punish one person for the sins of another.

-- It rewards people that were never slaves. This violates another fundamental tenet of justice. You do not reward one person for the suffering of another.

-- The amounts being considered in places such as San Francisco are ludicrous.

-- Reparations at the national level would result in a massive flow of wealth from Blue States, who mostly weren't slave states, to Red States, many of whom were slave states, because that's where most Black people live.

-- If one thing based upon race is OK then anything based upon race is OK. This is opening the Pandora's box that the 14th Amendment was meant to close. This is a greater danger to democracy than all the Trumps and DeSantis's ever spawned.