Who Owns Palestine?

People keep talking about Palestine as Arab land. Even I have used that term when discussing the refusal to accept the UN partition plan.

But what is the legal basis for that claim? I never thought about it in those terms. I simply figured that the Arabs lived there so they considered it their land. However it turns out there is a legal basis for the Arab claim that Palestine is an Arab state or should be an Arab state.

Of course it's the fault of the British.

During World War I the British made multiple agreements with different parties about the land controlled by the Ottoman Empire. 

One of these agreements was in a series of letters between Sharif Husayn of Mecca and Sir Henry McMahon in which agreement was reached about Arab aid against the Ottoman Empire in exchange for British recognition of an independent Arab state.

In a letter dated July 14th, 1915 Sharif Husayn laid out the Arab conditions including the anticipated boundaries of the Arab state.

"Firstly.- England will acknowledge the independence of the Arab countries, bounded on the north by Mersina and Adana up to the 37th degree of latitude, on which degree fall Birijik, Urfa, Mardin, Midiat, Jezirat (Ibn 'Umar), Amadia, up to the border of Persia; on the east by the borders of Persia up to the Gulf of Basra; on the south by the Indian Ocean, with the exception of the position of Aden to remain as it is; on the west by the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea up to Mersina. England to approve the proclamation of an Arab Khalifate of Islam."

In a letter dated August 30th, 1915, McMahon responded: "With regard to the questions of limits and boundaries, it would appear to be premature to consume our time in discussing such details in the heat of war..."

Sharif Husayn expressed his disappointment with this response in a letter dated September 9th, 1915:

"Nevertheless, your Excellency will pardon me and permit me to say clearly that the coolness and hesitation which you have displayed in the question of the limits and boundaries... might be taken to infer an estrangement or something of the sort."

McMahon in a letter dated October 24th, 1915 moved to alleviate Sharif Husayn's concerns.

"I regret that you should have received from my last letter the impression that I regarded the question of the limits and boundaries with coldness and hesitation; such was not the case, but it appeared to me that the time had not yet come when that question could be discussed in a conclusive manner. 

I have realised, however, from your last letter that you regard this question as one of vital and urgent importance. I have, therefore, lost no time in informing the Government of Great Britain of the contents of your letter, and it is with great pleasure that I communicate to you on their behalf the following statement, which I am confident you will receive with satisfaction:- 

The two districts of Mersina and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and should be excluded from the limits demanded."

"With the above modification, and without prejudice of our existing treaties with Arab chiefs, we accept those limits."

The British took the position that this excluded Palestine from the agreed upon boundaries and the Palestinian Arabs claimed that it did not. Talks intended to resolve the differences failed and in the White Paper of 1939 Britain stated:

"In the recent discussions the Arab delegations have repeated the contention that Palestine was included within the area in which Sir Henry McMahon, on behalf of the British Government, in October, 1915, undertook to recognise and support Arab independence...His Majesty's Government regret the misunderstandings which have arisen as regards some of the phrases used. For their part they can only adhere...to the view that the whole of Palestine west of Jordan was excluded from Sir Henry McMahon's pledge, and they therefore cannot agree that the McMahon correspondence forms a just basis for the claim that Palestine should be converted into an Arab State."

In the same White Paper Britain rejects the idea of the whole of Palestine becoming a Jewish State.

"When it is asked what is meant by the development of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, it may be answered that it is not the imposition of a Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but the further development of the existing Jewish community, with the assistance of Jews in other parts of the world, in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and pride."

What the paper does suggest is a multi-national state with each group participating in the government in proportion to the size of the population.

"The independent State should be one in which Arabs and Jews share government in such a way as to ensure that the essential interests of each community are safeguarded."

This recommendation contradicted the conclusion of the 1937 Peel Commission that concluded that Palestine had two distinct societies with irreconcilable political demands, thus making it necessary to partition the land.

Racial Profiling?

We were coming home from a Giants' football game one night a few years ago. As we were passing through town there was a black dude with dreadlocks driving a beat up old Pinto pulled over. We have three police cars in town and two of them had this guy bracketed. My daughter looked over, shook her head and said "he had no chance." 

My town is 89% white and 10% Asian. The other 1% are mixed race or Hispanic. The police know every car that belongs in town. They can reel off what cars are expected to be parked at what houses. The other thing is that my town is basically a dead end. There is almost no reason to be there unless you're going there especially at night. 

So, racial profiling or not?

Stolen Palestinian Land

I just watched a video about Israeli settlements in the West Bank being on stolen Palestinian land. But I have a problem with this description.

How did this become stolen "Palestinian" land when the Palestinians never controlled it? 

- Prior to WW I the West Bank was part of the Ottoman Empire.

- From 1918 to 1922 all of Palestine was occupied by British troops. 

- From 1922 until 1948 it was under British control as part of the Mandate for Palestine. 

- In 1947 it was part of the proposed Arab State in the UN partition plan. However the Arabs rejected the plan and never took control of the West Bank. 

- After the 1948 war the West Bank was under Jordanian occupation and Jordan formally annexed it in 1950. 

- In 1967 Jordan, in keeping with its military pact with Egypt, attacked Israel. After bloody hand to hand fighting Israel captured the West Bank. 

- In 1988 Jordan relinquished any claims to the West Bank and recognized the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian People." 

- In 1995, under the Oslo Agreement, the West Bank was divided into three zones as a transitional arrangement. Zone A under Palestinian control, Zone B under joint Palestinian and Israeli control and Zone C under Israeli control. The settlements are in Zone C. 

So the land upon which the settlements are built were never under Palestinian control. How does one steal something from someone who never owned it?

Trump Guilty on all 34 Counts in New York

Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records at his trial in New York.

I have to admit that I'm really surprised by the verdict. I was expecting a hung jury or at best guilty on one or two counts and not guilty on the rest.

So, now what? These are E Felonies and it's my understanding that, especially with no previous convictions, that it's highly unlikely that Trump will get any jail time.

So does this really matter? Yes, I think it does. It emphasizes the point that no one is above the law even if I expect a sentence the equivalent of "now Donny, say three Hail Marys and promise never to do this again."

Lung Issues - May 17th, 2024

I got the results from the blood test and, surprise, I don't have Tuberculosis.

I suppose I should be happy that everything is negative but it makes you wonder.

In the meantime, I went back to the eye doctor and everything is terrific except that my right eye protrudes slightly. So she wants me to contact my PCD about a thyroid test.

It never ends. It never does.

Lung Issues - May 6th, 2024

So I saw the infectious disease lady doctor today. They did require masks in the office interestingly enough.

She said when they looked at the biopsy they detected a class of bacteria of which tuberculosis is a member so everyone immediately freaked out.

So, they did four pathology tests and all of them were negative for TB but they didn't send a sample to microbiology to do a culture. So that's what she wants me to do.

She doesn't think I have TB but a blood test and culture will settle it once and for all. So I need to make an appointment for a blood test.

It never ends. It never does.

The War in Gaza II

Pro-Hamas protestors are causing havoc on college campuses at mostly so-called elite college campuses.

The protests are asking the US to stop arming Israel, demanding a ceasefire and generally supporting the Palestinian cause. They're often also breaking laws which has gotten some reactions from police and campus officials.

There is more than a touch of anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism and youthful stupidity among the protestors.

On the one hand I sympathize with calls for ceasefire; war is never a good thing. On the other hand I wonder at the naivete being displayed.

Hamas still holds 100 hostages. They need to be returned either before, or as part of, any ceasefire agreement. That is the bare minimum. Then the shooting can stop and humanitarian supplies can flow into Gaza.

Before the ceasefire can be permanent I suspect Israel will want some way of insuring that this doesn't happen again in the future. This is the part that worries me.

I doubt these kids, or even the teachers that appeared to have brainwashed them, have any clue as to the actual history of the conflict. Most of the protestors don't even remember 9/11. They are supporting the same sort of terrorists that attacked the twin towers and have set off bombs in Europe and in Israel.

These are not good people and do not deserve your support.

Of course the response will be that they're not supporting terrorists but peace and providing the innocent, peaceful Palestinian people a land of their own. Or even restoring the country "back" to the Palestinians which is what "from the river to the sea" means.

Well, the Palestinians never "had" the land so they can't get it "back." The last owners were the Ottoman Empire if we ignore the British during Mandatory Palestine.

They are supporting terrorists. This artificial line between Hamas and the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza is nonsense. Hamas crossed the border in an unprovoked attack and murdered, kidnapped and raped innocent people.

This led to a declaration of war. Waging war in reprisal for an attack is not genocide. Is Israel breaking international law and committing war crimes by attacking civilian targets? That might be a valid charge but I don't know for certain. I know with certainty that Hamas violated the Geneva Convention but two wrongs generally don't make a right.

 The question of Israel breaking international law is, unfortunately, a lot more complicated than most people think and simply making accusations doesn't make it so. There are lots of exceptions in the Geneva Convention because combatants, especially in urban warfare, have a bad habit of being in civilian targets.

So it would take a while to sort this out assuming anyone ever bothers.

To my mind you can't attack someone, commit a bunch of atrocities, and then whine that the people you attacked aren't being nice to you.

Lung Issues - April 30, 2024

I got my biopsy results today and I do not have cancer. That's a good thing.

I didn't even get a chance to celebrate before Dr. Shapiro said but there's some inflammation in the lung, which explains everything we saw, but you might have a slight infection somewhere. So, I want you to see an infectious disease doctor.

WTF man? Another doctor? I get to see Shapiro again in six months.

He gave me a reference but when I called their office the doctor wasn't there and they said they couldn't make an appointment without talking to her. So I'm waiting for a return call.

Then I started thinking about this. The practice is called "Ridgewood Infectious Diseases." What kind of infectious diseases? Contagious infectious diseases? I'd rather not catch something when I go to their office.

 

A Wealth Tax

 I've see a number of progresses recently trying to resurrect the idea of a wealth tax.

The number of current OECD members that have collected revenue from net wealth taxes grew from eight in 1965 to a peak of 12 in 1996 to just five in 2020. In France the tax has been cut back to only real estate and in Spain if you live in Madrid you're exempt (I think I see a way of getting around it in Spain). 

Switzerland does the best with this sort of tax and it accounts for 5.12% of revenues. Among the five countries which have some sort of wealth tax revenues from the tax amount to only 1.5% of revenues.

The US generated $4.4 trillion in revenue in 2023. So if we did as well as Switzerland, and we probably won't, that would net about $225 billion. That's a nice chunk of change but only about 13% of the current budget deficit.

Then comes the question of Constitutionality. An honest appraisal of whether the Constitution would allow a wealth tax would probably revolve around whether it is a "direct" tax.

Article 1 Section 9 Clause 4 provides: “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”

However, Article I Section 8 Clause 1 provides Congress’s general taxing power: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence [sic] and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”

The "uniform" requirement in Section 8 seems to conflict with the apportionment requirement in Section 9. 

But there is a difference between theory and practicality.

I see no way to get a wealth tax past this SCOTUS. We'd be much better off reforming the income tax tables and closing loopholes to shift the tax burden from the working class to the wealthy. We know with absolute certainly that would be Constitutional. Or at least I think we know that. With this SCOTUS you never know for sure.

Forty Plus Years of Inflation

Do young folks have it harder today? There is a lot of argument about that on the internet so I decided to let the numbers do the talking.

The median home price in Q2 1980 was $64,000. In Q2 2024 it was $414,500. Based upon inflation we would expect it to be $247,741. 

The average tuition cost for public universities in 1980 was $804. In 2022 it was $9,750. Based upon inflation we would expect it to be $2,840. 

The average tuition cost for private universities in 1980 was $3,617. In 2022 it was $35,248. Based upon inflation we would expect it to be $12,780. 

The median household income in 1980 was $26,430. In 2023 it was $80,610. Based upon inflation we would expect it to be $96,843. 

So home prices and tuition have outpaced inflation and median income has fallen short.

Those are the numbers. Life is DEFINITELY harder today.

Let's be honest, in addition the minefield was certainly less dense. I graduated college in 1969 from the City University of New York. It was tuition free and I lived with my parents and commuted until I graduated so no student debt. 

I had a $300 1961 Mercury Comet that my dad gave me so no car loan. He replaced the Comet with a $150 Ford Fairlane. 

There were no charge cards so no charge card debt. There was no internet, cable TV or cell phones so these expenses just didn't exist. 

Air fares were regulated so no one but the rich could afford to fly with any regularity so vacations were pretty much limited to where you could get to by car. With no internet there was no online shopping with all the potential pitfalls that come with that. 

Plus, every decent company provided good health insurance AND a real life pension.

So my question is, WTF happened? I thought technology was supposed to make things cheaper and better? 

Damnit - I Caught My Daughters Cold

OK, this is more than a little annoying. I have a low grade fever and I'm still choking up some congealed blood.

Lung Issues - April 23, 2024

Well, the biopsy is done.

Things didn't start out well. We pressed the 1R button in the elevator and we got an angry noise. OK, on to the steps. Two nice young guys held open the gate and the door for me. I never felt so old in my life.

I signed in at the desk and they sent up down one floor and along this looong hallway with the history of Valley Hospital along the wall to Diagnostic Imaging.

I made my presence known and, luckily, since I had already logged in online I had nothing to do but sit down. They had nice chairs, sturdy and wide. I could have gotten two of me in each of those chairs.

The took me inside about 15 minutes late, after I had dragged my sorry read end out of bed at 6:30 too, and put me in what looked like an Emergency Room room. 

I had to strip to the waist and lie down on the stretcher while they hooked me up to the monitors. Then the nurse says she's going to hook up an IV. I asked what was in the IV and she said nothing. It was just in case I passed out and had to medicate me.

THAT didn't do much for me but I decided to just let it go. My wife got a little chair in the corner which she swore wasn't nearly as comfortable, or sturdy, as the ones in the waiting area.

A few minutes later a doctor came in and gave me a summary of what he was going to do.

A few minutes after that they rolled me to the CT Scanner.

So the way things worked was they were taking pictures with the CT Scanner; I had my arms up over my head and the doctor was lining up his needle jab in the corner of my chest but not quite under my arm. They gave me a little local anesthetic and then the doctor did his thing. He asked me if I wanted something to relax me but I said no. He said that he didn't think I would but he had to ask. I suppose that's why they didn't want me to drive just in case I had taken the stuff.

It took about 20 minutes all told and I heard four clicks which, if I remember, means he took four samples.

After it was done he asked me if I felt like I needed to clear my throat and warned me there might be some blood when I did.

Holy shit was there blood. I never saw so much red. They gave me paper towels and a spit bag to deposit them it. Shit, there was a lot of blood. The doctor laughed and said, eh, I've seen worse."

That actually made me feel better. I am glad my wife didn't see this. It started to let up after a couple of minutes and they wheeled me back to the room. I spit up a bit more but very little once back in the room.

I got to lay there for about an hour and then they wheeled me down the hallway for a chest X-Ray.  A half hour after that they let me go.

They said six to seven days until the results are in which could be a minor problem since my office visit with Dr. Shapiro is in exactly a week.

If the results turn out to be not good, things will get ugly. But, there's nothing I can do about that now,

Lung Issues - April 22, 2024

The biopsy is tomorrow. The idea of dragging my rear end out of bed at 6:45 in order to get to the hospital by 7:45 or so really doesn't thrill me but you do but you have to do.

We went last Thursday to check out where the entrance to the new hospital building was and I never saw so many confused people. There's a parking garage attached and you go to 1R o get to the entrance,

Not the most obvious way to go but now we know. I assume people will get used to it as time goes by. Any new thing can be confusing I suppose but on the way out there were two poor woman that couldn't find their cars.

They could also really use some speed bumps in the garage. People were speeding through the place.

Anyway, I'm going to hit the sack early tonight and we shall see what we shall see.

Some Notes on Slavery

It's hard for us looking back to understand how complicated people found the issue of slavery. Even many that conceded the evil of the institution didn't think that an immediate across the board emancipation was going to work. 

Many were convinced that the freed slaves would have to be "expatriated" somewhere. 

Abraham Lincoln proposed shipping the ex-slaves to Central America, the Caribbean or Africa. On August 14, 1862, Lincoln met at the White House delegation of black leaders and proposed voluntary emigration of African Americans to countries outside the U.S. “Your race suffer from living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated.” 

Stephen Douglas essentially told him he was nuts but Lincoln tried to establish a colony on the island of Île à Vache in Haiti anyway. 

It was an unmitigated disaster and Lincoln accepted that the freed slaves would have to be assimilated into white society.

When Was America Great?

I'm no fan of Trump and his followers. People have taken to asking his MAGA supporters, since they want to make America great AGAIN, when they think America was great?

I'd like to answer that question.

America was great when we looked to the future rather than living in the past. Slavery is over and 600,000 men paid in blood before it ended. 

 Jim Crow is over. Enough people put their heads together and did something about it. 

The past is the past. How about we recognize the problems of the present and try to address them? How about we worry about the drugs and the crime and the unwed mothers and the lack of affordable healthcare and the absent fathers and that children can't read and that people can't live on their salaries?

How are those for facts? 

I heard a black woman on the radio recently refer to the five little girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. Yes, that was a tragedy but what about the 1,300 teens and 276 children killed last year? 

We can't do anything about the past but we can do something about the current problems and the future. 

I'm 75 years old and I'm going to tell you that I've never seen a bigger group of fools than exists today. Every day I watch the rich and the media drive wedges between people to insure that we can't get together and make things better.

Iran Launches Strikes Against Israel

In retaliation for an Israeli air strike on Iran's consular offices in Syria Iran has launched 100-200 missile and drones at Israel.

Iran telegraphed the attack and launched mostly slow moving assets. Virtually all of the missiles and drones appear to have been shot down by Israeli, US and Jordanian forces.

The question is what happens next?

There are reports that an Iranian spokesman has said the the "matter can be considered concluded" unless there is more violence.

So far Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and militias in the West Bank don't appear to have participated in the attack. Hamas, in Gaza, is pretty much in tatters already.

The ball may be in Israel's court. Hopefully they'll let the matter drop but I somehow doubt it.

What is a Woman?

The question "what is a woman" is tossed around by mostly right wing pundits as a sort of gotcha question.

The question "what is a woman" looks for a simple answer to what can be a complex situation. 

Let's start by asking if someone is talking about sex or gender when they ask the question? Sex and gender, despite many people using the terms interchangeably, are actually two different things. Sex is based upon physical characteristics such as chromosomes and genitalia. Gender defines the behavior and attitudes that society associates with a given sex.

The thing with gender is that it can vary from society to society and over time in any given society. Neither my mother nor my mother-in-law ever learned how to drive because that wasn't something that women did in their generation.

When people deviate from gender expectations we call that "gender non-conformity." Gender is something of a spectrum with man on one end, woman on the other end, and varying degrees of gender non-conformity in between. I suppose a "woman" on the gender spectrum would be someone who mostly exhibits behaviors and attitudes that society associates with the female sex.

A good example would be the fictional character Albert Goldman played by Nathan Hale in the movie "The Birdcage." Albert is a physical male but acts like the caricature of a female.

If the question refers to sex and not gender then I would say that it perhaps should be phrased as "what is a female" instead but let's go with "what is a woman" in reference to sex.

I can give an example. My wife is a woman but not every woman is my wife. I could say that a woman is someone with no Y chromosome but then where do people with Swyer Syndrome fit in?

Someone with Swyer syndrome has XY chromosomes but underdeveloped female sex organs. They don't produce ova but, if the uterus is reasonably developed, some can become pregnant with a donated egg or embryo and give birth.

I could say that a woman is someone with female genitalia but there are females with ambiguous or abnormal genitalia but they're still women. Some can even possibly become pregnant and give birth with donated eggs or embryos like those with Swyer Syndrome can.

You can't say that a woman is someone who can get pregnant and give birth because many women, due to age or physical issues, can't do that.

The problem really becomes that for any definition exceptions can be found. So the question doesn't have a simple answer.

Lung Issues - April 10, 2024

I had a collapsed lung in November of 2021 which stubbornly wouldn't reinflate. So they called in a thoracic surgeon to repair the lung. He saw a spot on the lung which he didn't like and took it out while he was in there.

The spot turned out to be cancerous and I've been going for regular CT Scans to monitor the situation. Yesterday I went to hear the surgeon's latest interpretation of the scan.

He's not happy with how one nodule, right near the one he removed two years ago, is acting and is sending me for a biopsy.

I have to get blood drawn tomorrow and then go for the biopsy on the 23rd. I see the surgeon again on the 30th to get the results.

It sounds like this biopsy is a bit of a big deal. I need to be at the brand new Valley Hospital at 8 AM. The instructions say they will give me a local anesthetic and then use a CT Scanner to stick a needle into the area of my lung in question. That should be fun.

The thing that really concerns me is they say there is a reasonable chance that the lung could collapse slightly, or not so slightly, and I really don't need to go through that again. Then I get monitored for a couple of hours I suppose just in case the lung collapses.

I'm not allowed to drive afterwards and I wonder why that's the case? So my wife has to go with me. I suppose we shall see what we shall see.

The War in Gaza

The war in Gaza continues and casualties are mounting especially among the Palestinian civilian population.

The Gaza Health Ministry claims 30,000 Palestinians have been killed but doesn't differentiate between combatants and civilians. Hamas admits to 6,000 fighters killed while the IDF claims 12,000. Either way, assuming the Health Ministry numbers are correct, which is a big if, then something like 18,000-24,000 civilians have died. The media always adds "mostly women and children." Given normal demographics I would it's mostly children. Funny how feminism isn't a thing when it comes to war.

War sucks and urban warfare really sucks when one side is embedded in buildings without any regard for possible civilian casualties. The strategy here is clear. Hamas crosses the border, commits a bunch of atrocities and then cries when the Israelis respond. Hamas are terrorists, murderers and rapists and the Palestinians in Gaza have been supporting them for 20 years.

Which is not to say they deserve what's going on. No one deserves this kind of stuff. Unfortunately it happens in a war. That's why war is to be avoided.

A lot of people are calling for a ceasefire including the UN Security Council. But they're not asking for the return of the remaining hostages at the same time. I suspect that's a non-starter. How many hostages are still alive? I've seen an estimate of about 100 but who knows? About 100 were returned during a previous ceasefire and I believe 30 or so have been declared as killed.

It's unclear to me what the Israeli end game is here beyond the return of the remaining hostages. I'm not sure they have one and that could be a real problem.

Bill Mahar on Slavery

Bill Mahar went on a bit of a rant about slavery that some "progressive" sites have labeled as horrendous. I watched the clip and I didn't see anything horrendous about it beyond some truths that some folks don't want to acknowledge.

The whole point Maher is making is that slavery was a common horror all over the word and that's true. Modern "progressives" seem to think that slavery was unique to North America. OK, when he started talking about "you have to cancel Jesus" because he never spoke out against it, that was a little weird I'll give you that. 

He then went on to complain about people wanting to cancel historical figures because they owned slaves. Yes, people have demanded that statues of Washington, Jefferson and even Ulysses S. Grant, because he had a slave that he freed, be torn down because they owned slaves in an era where lots of people, including black people in the US, owned slaves. Can you spell "presentism?" 

The authors of the Constitution mistakenly thought that slavery was on the way out and would disappear within the next ten or twenty years. Even the slaveholding states thought that this was the case which is why they didn't get too upset over Article 1, Section 9 which allowed Congress to make the importation of slaves illegal in 20 years. That's exactly what happened on January 1, 1808 based upon an 1807 bill signed into law by Thomas Jefferson. 

In the meantime slavery was either abolished or being phased out in all of the northern states by 1808.

Unfortunately, the gods laugh at the foolishness of mortals and the invention of the Cotton Gin in 1793 suddenly made an institution of questionable economic value into one that appeared to be enormously profitable. Cotton production exploded from 700 hectares in 1790 to 17,000 hectares in 1800 and then to over a million hectares in 1861. 

The ironic thing was that slavery was still a millstone around the southern economy. It made a handful of people rich but generally kept the entire area as something of an economic backwater. Free labor would have been much more productive and improved things for everyone including the plantation owners.

Was Social Security Racist?

I ran into a claim today that the original Social Security bill was racist because it excluded agricultural and domestic workers most of whom were black.

A little background investigation led me to understand that this claim was accurate but misleading. It was accurate that agricultural and domestic workers were originally not eligible but NOT because they were specifically excluded but because they were outside of the groups that were included.

The Social Security Act of 1935 was a complicated bill that contained 11 Titles and authorized 7 distinct programs. Only Title II was what we now know as Social Security. It was the only one of the 7 programs that was solely a federal program. The rest were federal and state supported (think today's Medicaid). 

All of the racism claims, even those by well known historians, confuse the racial motives associated with programs other than Title II with Title II. Title II did not exclude blacks, nor did it exclude agricultural and domestic workers, rather it only included those workers regularly employed in commerce and industry. 

This left out a whole slew of occupations in addition to agricultural and domestic workers (which usually drives the racism claim) including the self employed, merchant seamen and members of congress. Of the 20 million workers excluded 15 million were white.

So this is a highly dubious claim based upon manipulating the truth to make it say what you want it to say even though it's bullshit.

So...I'm a lot Poorer

I got my taxes done today and had to fork over $9,642 for the federal government and $1,273 for the state bringing my total tax bills to $35,251 for the feds and $5,326 for the state.

Well, I suppose it could be worse.

The War in Gaza

Why is it only the Jews that aren't allowed to strike back when they're attacked? 

I'd like to ask those protesting against Israel whether they agree that Hamas needs to be destroyed. If yes then how do they propose that can be done? If no then I'd like to know why not?

It's not a genocide. That's just name-calling which is a well known propaganda technique. It's war and war sucks. That's why you don't start one. Clearly these youngsters have never had the misfortune of engaging in urban warfare. Every death should be laid at the feet of Hamas. They were the ones that crossed the border and murdered 1400 people, raped helpless women and kidnapped 250 others or have they forgotten that? Hamas is the problem that needs to be eradicated. I don't understand why these young people are supporting terrorists, rapists and murderers. 

Were the Allies committing genocide during World War II against the Germans and Japanese? On February 13-15, 1945 over a thousand British and US bombers destroyed the city of Dresden killing an estimated 25,000 civilians. On March 9, 1945 280 US B-29s dropped incendiary bombs on Tokyo killing an estimated 100,000 civilians. Then there was Hiroshima, 70,000 dead and Nagasaki, 40,000 dead. An estimated 125,000 civilians died during the battle of Berlin. Like I said, war sucks. That's why you don't start one.

Great and Small Minds

 A quote originally attributed to Socrates and then paraphrased by Eleanor Roosevelt goes like this:

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Trump Stays on the Ballot

Unsurprisingly the Supreme Court has decided, in a 9-0 decision, that Trump can't be kept off the ballot based upon the 14th Amendments clause about insurrection barring someone from holding office.

Three states, Colorado, Maine and Illinois, had wanted to keep him off the primary ballot.

I say "unsurprisingly" because Trump hasn't actually been convicted of anything.

What is Non-Binary?

Non-Binary is a term that literally means "not two choices." There can be one choice or three or more choices but there can't be exactly two.

But I'm confused as to what it means when applied to gender.

I say gender and not sex because sex and gender are different things. From the American Psychological Association: 

"Sex is assigned at birth, refers to one’s biological status as either male or female, and is associated primarily with physical attributes such as chromosomes, hormone prevalence, and external and internal anatomy. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for boys and men or girls and women." 

If you don't understand this you're going to always be confused. Also, a lot of people appear to be equating non binary and gender fluid. The latter is as least feasible because gender nonconformity has been a thing for a long time. But I have no idea what Non-Binary means.

Ignoring Intersex, there are only two sexes and therefore by definition only two genders. So what the hell is Non-Binary?

Presidential Rankings

The results of the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey are in. The top five presidents are:

#1 - Abraham Lincoln at 93.87

#2 - Franklyn Roosevelt at 90.83

#3 - George Washington at 90.32

#4 - Theodore Roosevelt at 78.58

#5 - Thomas Jefferson at 77.53

I'm always surprised that Thomas Jefferson doesn't come in higher. The man got us a great deal on the Louisiana Purchase didn't he?

As for the most recent presidents.

#7 - Barack Obama at 73.8

#12 - Bill Clinton at 66.42

#14 - Joe Biden at 62.66

#32 - George W. Bush at 40.43

#45 - Donald Trump at 10.92

Yup, the Donald came in dead last even falling behind James Buchannan at 16.71 which is quite an accomplishment considering Buchannan sat around playing with his dick while the country deteriorated into civil war.

I'm not sure why Obama is ahead of Eisenhower at #8  and I don't get Biden at #14 either. Is he really better then Woodrow Wilson at #15 and Ronald Reagan at #16?  Jimmy Carter at #22 surprises me as well. Did I miss something during Carter's presidency? 

Anyway, this is this years list from the "experts."

Hidden Forms of Discrimination?

Both the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the feminist movement of the 1970s were enormous successes. Let's face it, these movements were necessary because if they hadn't occurred then nothing would have changed.

But what both movements discovered was that equal opportunity does not necessarily translate into equal success. This realization led to the development of Critical Race Theory and a lot of feminist whining about "the patriarchy."

Once each movement had addressed the visible forms of discrimination, yet still didn't achieve what they consider parity, they concluded that there must be subtle, invisible forms of discrimination at work. Blacks developed the concept of "Systemic Racism" and feminists came up with "the patriarchy." Republicans, not to be undone, come up with the "deep state." 

Notice that no one thought to look for natural differences to explain the discrepancies. Everyone immediately assumed it was some outside force working against them.

Blacks score about 10-15 points lower on IQ tests than whites. Hispanics are somewhere in between and East Asians and Ashkenazi score about five points higher than whites. No one knows why this is the case and I'm not sure that anyone really understands what IQ measures but we do know that it is a good predictor of life and academic success.

This discrepancy has persisted for decades and probably isn't going away anytime soon. Even if this discrepancy didn't exist, whites have such a huge historical advantage that it's not surprising that blacks aren't achieving parity. There is no need for any hidden discrimination in the form of "Systemic Racism."

So what about women? Women have two problems when competing with men. One is fairly well accepted and the other more controversial. The first is that men are more aggressive. If one chooses a male and a female at random there is about a 60% chance that the male is more aggressive. But at the extremes, the overwhelming majority of the most aggressive individuals are male.

Trust me, no one becomes CEO of a Fortune 500 Company without being very, very aggressive. This also accounts for the so-called "gender pay gap." Men work longer hours and take on more dangerous and higher paying jobs and that's why there's a pay difference.

The second and far more controversial problem is the claim that men and women have slightly differently shaped IQ curves. The curve for women is slightly taller and narrower while the curve for men is slightly wider and flatter. 

In the average the differences are meaningless but at the extremes they become significant. As one psychologist described it the shape of the men's curve, assuming it really is that way, would mean more dumbbells but also more Nobels.

I don't hear feminists whining about men winning most of the Darwin Awards but they do complain about men dominating the CEO positions and Nobel prizes.

So, I lean toward rejecting the existence of hidden forces and suspect it's just the ways things are. This is why I reject the whole concept of DEI. Equity is not a reasonable objective if there are natural differences and variations.

Trump Wins New Hampshire

Trump won New Hampshire but not by that big a margin. Nikki Haley came in second and Ron DeSantis has now dropped out.

Unless he is kidnapped by space aliens Trump will be the GOP nominee. Can you still run for president if you're in jail?

Trump's strategy has always been to delay the various criminal trials that he's facing until after the 2024 election and that strategy appears to be working.

Trump Wins Iowa

 Well, Trump had an overwhelming victory in the Iowa caucuses. No real surprise there.

His opposition for the GOP nomination is down to Nikki Halley and Ron DeSantis. Anyone want to take bets on their chances of heading him off?

Trump's Chances in 2024

Too many people seem to think that Trump's chances are uphill in the 2024 election but I disagree.

Writing Trump off is being too rational and logical. In a sane world I would agree 100%. Unfortunately I’m not sure that we live in a sane world at the moment. 

I have three concerns that lead me to doubt the battle is that uphill. 

The first is that perceptions mean more than reality and far too many people seem to believe that the economy is in worse shape than it is. The media isn’t helping here by constantly pounding the drum of doom for no reason. 

The second is that the southern border is a disaster and refugees being shipped all over the country is a failure in leadership. The federal government should be stepping up to help alleviate the crises in New York and Chicago. How it should do that is beyond my pay grade but that’s why they get the big bucks. 

The third is that Democrats are so talented at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It seems every day there is a news story about a Democrat or Democratic led city doing something that is almost guaranteed to piss people off. Examples include: 

* The mayor of Boston giving a persons of color only Christmas gathering. 

* The mayor of Chicago saying that reparations are the way to fight crime. 

* AOC excusing flash mobs looting stores by saying they’re trying to feed their families. 

* Pittsburgh paying a California firm $50k to show teachers why math is racist and how to take “white supremacy” out of the math classroom. 

This type of stuff appeals to emptions and emotions are often what determines elections. Luckily the memory of the electorate is short so these things should be soon forgotten but they keep doing stuff like this.

Modern Cost of Home Alone Groceries

 During the Christmas season a number of places were comparing the cost of Kevin's shopping spree in "Home Alone" to current prices and coming up with some really big numbers. The Daily Mail came up with $68.99 for Kevin's $20 worth of items in 1990 which sounded a bit high to me.

I checked with Stop & Shop online in New Jersey and the total came out to $46.41. Of course one of the variables is size which isn't specified for all items. I included 8 rolls of toilet paper, 45.5 ounces of laundry detergent, 60 dryer sheets and a pack of 50 army men. If we go to 105 oz of detergent and 120 dryer sheets it goes up to $54.86 but I don't think the detergent was that big or he had 8 rolls of toilet paper. 

The other side of the coin is that median household income in 1990 was $30,636. In 2022 it was $74,580 which represented a drop due to Covid because in 2020 it was $76,330. 

 I will also say that Stop & Shop online is typically more expensive for non perishable items such as laundry detergent and toilet paper than say Walmart. The 8 rolls of toilet paper was $8.59 but I can get 9 rolls of the same brand at Walmart for $6.36. The 105 oz laundry detergent was $9.48 at Walmart rather than $10.24. The 120 dryer sheets were $4.92 rather than $5.99. So buying the paper goods and detergent at Walmart in even the larger sizes would only be $50.88 or an increase of 2.56 times. 

And the really good news is if you spend $35 Walmart delivers, for free, right to your door. So the prices increased between 2.34 times and 2.77 times according to the numbers I found and median household income increased by about 2.43 times. So this seems pretty close to right especially since I don't think Kevin bought the larger sizes. 

 An increase to $68.99 would be a big issue because that would be an increase of 3.48 times compared to a household median income increase of 2.43 times. My advice to the Daily Mail is find a new place to shop.

Trump on Immigration

 Trump has been attacking immigration recently at his rallies and implying that immigrants are "poisoning" American society.

This is of course causing howls of fascism and claims that he is using the precise language of Hitler in Mein Kampf.

That is essentially using Level 1 of Graham's Hierarchy of Argument. People are calling him a fascist and comparing him to Hitler. That's just "Name-Calling." That's appropriate for toddlers in the playground but not for political commentary. I think we need to move up the hierarchy and address the claim itself. In 2023, in the US, are immigrants having a positive or a negative effect? Are some immigrants having a positive effect and others a negative one? I honestly don't know although every immigrant that I've encountered recently seems to be having a positive effect. 

This is not the first time in American history that there have been people that were anti-immigrant. Refer to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. So, rather than attacking the guy who said it how about we address the claims being made? I know very little about immigration policy so I don't feel qualified to evaluate the question. I could be wrong but I suspect the quote from Mein Kampf people are mostly referring to is as follows: 

"What history taught us about the policy followed by the House of Habsburg was corroborated by our own everyday experiences. In the north and in the south the poison of foreign races was eating into the body of our people, and even Vienna was steadily becoming more and more a non-German city." 

 Hitler uses "poison" or its derivatives fully 56 times in Mein Kampf. He accuses anyone he doesn't like, including Jews, political opponents (Socialist and Marxist), writers, actors and intellectuals in general of poisoning either the German people, German society, the German government or the German military. 

 Hitler was an equal opportunity hater. But that doesn't automatically mean everything he said was wrong. 

Historically he was right about the House of Habsburg in Austria-Hungary although he was talking about an empire with essentially conquered peoples rather than immigrants so I don't really think it applies. The polyglot empire was doomed to fail because it couldn't balance all of the competing political and cultural agendas. 

After WW I it was dismembered into multiple countries along ethnic lines.

Why Amazon Rules

One of my smoke detectors started acting up. It was sounding three low chirps about every minute. I knew that wasn't low battery because that's one chirp.

I knew it wasn't a carbon dioxide warning because that's four really loud beeps repeatedly and smoke was three really loud beeps repeatedly. Besides there was no smoke.

I took it down, dusted it off and changed the batteries just in case. It was OK for about three days and then did it again at about 3 AM. I took the thing down and took out the batteries to shut it up.

The next day I pulled up the manual and found, buried near the end, that three low chirps every minute is an end of life warning.

Great, the detector I had was a First Alert, battery operated, CO and smoke detector that screwed into a ceiling mount. What I really wanted was the exact same detector so I could screw the new detector into the existing mount.

On to Amazon. I typed in First Alert and the model number into the search function and, as is usual with Amazon, I got a page of options. However one of them was marked "You Bought this Last in 2016." 

The problem of finding a compatible detector was immediately solved AND they delivered it that afternoon. I didn't even remember that I had bought it on Amazon.

But, Amazon knows all. All hail the great god Amazon.

Gallup's Poll on Transgender Athletes

 Gallup has released a poll done in May of 2023 that reports that 69% of Americans hold the opinion that "birth gender" should dictate sports participation. I assume what they actually mean is birth sex.

This is up 7% from 2021. This doesn't surprise me given the number of cases of trans athletes dominating female competition.

More Democrats are starting to get the message as now they agree with everyone else by a slim 48%-47% margin. In 2021 it was 55%-41% in favor of athletes competing in sports based upon their gender identity.

This strikes me as a no brainer. We segregate based upon sex and not gender. Athletes that have gone through puberty as a male should not be competing against athletes that went through puberty as a female.

That 75 Year Number

When discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict people keep throwing around 75 years. While that may mark the birth of the state of Israel it's not really accurate.

75 years would be 1948 and the war of 1948 in which an Arab coalition attempted to destroy the newly declared nation of Israel. Now it doesn't matter whether one believes that war was justified or not. What matters is who controlled what at the end of it. 

The UN had voted to kick the British out (see Mandate for Palestine) and partition Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. That plan fell apart pretty quickly as the Arabs rejected the plan and the Jews declared the existence of the state of Israel. What was a Palestine civil war spread as Egypt, Jordan and Syria joined the conflict. 

Once the war ended Jordan controlled the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza and Israel controlled everything else. 

Jordan annexed the West Bank in 1950. Egypt set up a puppet Palestinian government in Gaza which never really had any authority. Things remained that way until 1967. 

 In 1956 the Egyptians nationalized the Suez Canal because, why not, it's on their territory. They also closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. This led to an invasion of Egypt by British, French and Israeli forces which captured the canal. After both the Soviet Union and the United States expressed opposition to the invasion the British, French and Israeli forces withdrew essentially with their tails between their legs. 

In 1967, Egypt again closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping despite warnings from Israel that this would be viewed as a casus belli. The resulting war saw Israel capture the West Bank from Jordan, Gaza from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. 

Jordan relinquished all claims to the West Bank in 1988 and recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization as "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." 

Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and the Golan Heights in 1981. In 2005 Israel withdrew from Gaza and Northern Samaria. 

The West Bank is currently divided into three zones A, B and C. Zone A (18%) is administered by the Palestinian Authority. Zone B (22%) is administered by the Palestinian Authority but with joint Israeli security control. Zone C (60%) is administered by Israel, contains all of the Israeli settlements and divides Zones A and B into hundreds of separate areas.

The Israeli-Gaza War Continues

The Israelis have invaded northern Gaza and continue to use airstrikes against targets. The casualty are rising and reportedly have exceeded 11,000.

This is urban warfare and civilians are caught in the crossfire. It's also the type of war where it's difficult to tell the difference between Hamas fighters and civilians. In other words it's a mess.

Two incidents stand out in particular.

The first was a bombing by Israel of a refugee camp where a Hamas senior commander was reported to be located. The attack killed about 50 people and the last I heard it was unclear whether the senior commander was killed.

The other is actions around the Al Shifa hospital which is Gaza's largest hospital. This is the stuff nightmares are made of. The hospital has no power and almost no supplies. Newborn premies are dying because there is no electricity to run their incubators.

There has been fighting near the hospital and the Israelis have entered the hospital grounds in search of Hamas fighters, weapons caches and tunnels. The IDF has claimed they have located a tunnel, a vehicle with weapons and the body of one of the Israeli hostages.

The hospital has effectively been occupied by the IDF and isolated from the outside world. This means that every day that goes by will result in the death of more patient including babies.

Israel is walking a fine line here. Two wrongs don't make a right and you can't avenge an atrocity by committing another atrocity or at least hopefully we're better than that.

Now I'm going to capture some history here for future reference.

The Palestinians have had Gaza since 2005. They have had total autonomy. Instead of focusing on building a decent life for themselves they voted to give Hamas control and Hamas has used Gaza as a staging ground for attacks against Israel. 

This has led to a blockade of Gaza by both Israel and Egypt and hardships for the people living there.

 Jordan controlled the West Bank from 1948 until 1967. They could have established a Palestinian state. Instead they decided to annex the territory in 1950. Jordan renounced claims to the West Bank in 1988 recognizing the PLO as "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." Of course they lost control of the West Bank to Israel in 1967. 

 Egypt controlled Gaza from 1948 to 1967 and set up a puppet Palestinian government which never really had any political power. Egypt could have established a Palestinian state but chose not to. Israel took Gaza from Egypt in 1967 and withdrew in 2005.

The Question of Transgender

You probably need a doctorate in psychiatry or psychology to understand what Gender Dysphoria is but I'm not going to let that stop me. I am simply amazed by the misinformation going around on both sides of this argument. 

 You cannot change your sex. Sex is a physical attribute that is unchangeable. You can't go into every cell and flip an X chromosome into a Y chromosome nor is there any surgery that I'm aware of that can give someone with XX chromosomes the ability to produce sperm or someone with XY chromosomes the ability to produce ovum. Then again there are some males that can't produce sperm and some females that can't produce ovum so it's not that simple. 

 But gender is not the same thing as sex. Gender defines societies expectations about the attitudes and actions associated with a given sex. When you have the physical characteristics of a male but the psychology of a female (sorry feminists but men and women do have different psychologies) or vice versa that causes all sorts of stress and psychological issues. 

 Some people decide to go with their psychology and have reconstructive surgery to change their physical attributes to line up more with their psychology. Others simply accept gender non-conformity as their normal. Honestly, as long as someone isn't negatively impacting someone else, I don't care what they decide to do.

Note that "as long as someone isn't negatively impacting someone else." I think allowing athletes that have gone through puberty as males to compete against athletes that went through puberty as females is negatively impacting female athletes. 

The same goes for people who still have male plumbing invading female privacy areas such as locker rooms and rest rooms.

Mike Johnson Becomes 56th Speaker

Well the Republicans finally managed to agree on a Speaker and have elected Mike Johnson. 

I don't think this is a good pick but I suppose we'll have to see how things work out. Honestly, I wouldn't be thrilled with Hakeem Jeffries either.

Let's face it; I'm old and grouchy and nothing makes me happy anymore.

The Republicans Pick Mike Johnson

The latest pick by the Republican Party for Speaker is Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Johnson is an asshole Republican which may be redundant these days.

He claims expertise in Constitutional Law yet signed an amicus brief in 2020 signed by 100 Republican congressmen supporting the Texas Lawsuit attempting to overthrow the 2020 election. 

You remember that lawsuit right? The one the Supreme Court drop kicked out the door? The one not even the SCOTUS conservatives could stomach?

Signing that brief alone should be enough to disqualify him.

The Republicans Select Tom Emmer

From the nine candidates the Republicans selected the majority whip Tom Emmer from Minnesota as their choice for Speaker of the House.

This makes sense. After all many people consider the majority whip the number two guy.

He didn't come close to getting the required votes.

Reportedly six new challengers have entered the lists.

• Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida
• Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee
• Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee
• Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma
• Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana
• Rep. Roger Williams of Texas

We shall see what we shall see.

Speaker of the House

 The House of Representatives has been without a Speaker for about three weeks now. How did this happen you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

Kevin McCarthy was Speaker and, in order to prevent a government shutdown, came to a temporary solution with Democrats to keep the government operating for 45 days.

A number of the right wing caucus types didn't like this and essentially put a motion to kick McCarthy out. It was essentially a no confidence vote. The Democrats gleefully jumped on this and went along with. I think this was a big mistake but there's not much we can do about that now.

First the Republicans put up Steve Scalise but he couldn't get enough votes because the Republicans are hopelessly fractured and the Democrats all voted got Hakeem Jeffries so no one could get an absolute majority. Scalise then withdrew.

Next Jim "The Traitor" Jordon threw his hat in the ring but even the Republicans aren't that far gone so he couldn't get enough votes either. Finally, in a secret ballot the Republicans voted to remove his name from consideration. Again the Democrats all voted for Hakeem Jeffries.

Now nine Republicans have stepped up for the job. eight white guys and one black dude. Apparently there are no women in the Republican Party.

This is happening because the Republicans have a very small majority and a right wing caucus that played hooky when the brains were given out. The rules are also stupid. If simply the person with the most votes, rather than an absolute majority, won then the Republicans would be forced to vote for the guy their party put up or accept a Democrat Speaker.

I have a solution. We rent out MetLife Stadium. We put these nine guys on the field with socks packed with horse manure and let them fight it out. The last man standing becomes Speaker. We could sell tickets plus put it on pay per view and take a big chunk out of the budget deficit.

A Tale of Two Wars

The war in the Ukraine continues to drag on. As far as I can tell it's bogged down into a stalemate. Casualties are serious with estimates nearing 500,000. 

I can see no end in sight especially now that the Israelis are looking for weapons from the same US stockpiles as the Ukrainians.

Now that McCarthy has been kicked out as Speaker and the post remains vacant I don't see any new appropriations any time soon either. To make matters worse the Republicans would probably strongly support aid for Israel but for Ukraine not so much. 

I don't think the Democrats are stupid enough to hold up aid for Israel if aid to Ukraine isn't included but the Democrats have surprised me before with their ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

In Gaza civilians and foreigners are trying to get out of the way of a possible Israeli ground invasion by fleeing south. Unfortunately the Egyptians have closed the Rafah crossing from Gaza into the Sinai.

This is causing multiple problems. First people with foreign passports, including a number of Muslim Americans, are unable to leave Gaza; second, Palestinians refugees fleeing the fighting have no place to go and third, aid supplies can't get into Gaza. There is a long line of trucks waiting to bring relief supplies into Gaza but the crossing is closed.

Whether the Israelis will actually launch a ground invasion remains to be seen. It could be a big bluff intended to get civilians out of the area so more airstrikes can be launched without worrying about extensive collateral damage.

There continue to be reports about fighting in the north between Hezbollah and Israel and the Israelis have reportedly bombed airports in Damascus and Aleppo to prevent their use for ferrying in supplies from Iran.

The US has dispatched Strike Group 12 with the USS Gerald R. Ford to the eastern Mediterranean. Strike Group 2 with the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is also enroute to the Mediterranean but its ultimate destination hasn't been announced. Britain has dispatched a Royal Navy task force to the area to help in "humanitarian efforts" or at least that's the official word.

That's a whole lot of firepower moving into the area.

You Have to Know When to Fold Them

Democrats in general, and so-called Progressives in particular, do not seem to understand when they have a loosing hand and should just fold.

Supporting the Palestinian cause after the horrific terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians is a loosing hand.

That doesn't mean people can't express humanitarian concerns about the impact of the war on Gaza civilians. Israel is apparently preparing a ground invasion and has warned about 1.1 million civilians to vacate southern Gaza within 24 hours. That may not be logistically feasible.

The UN feels it is not feasible and a number of Democratic Representatives have chimed in as well. Leading the charge are Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The former has already demonstrated that she's a traitor and really should STFU. The latter has no iron in this fire and should just sit quietly in the corner and allow the adults to handle things.

I understand that people are concerned that this could become a humanitarian crisis but war sucks and Hamas started the killing. Maybe they should have thought of the consequences before they went around murdering children?

Actions have consequences and Gaza has happily allowed Hamas to rule the area for over a decade. Now they're about to pay the price for that.

However, Israel needs to be a little careful. An all out assault with little or no concern for the welfare of civilians, including large numbers of woman and children, would not only be morally wrong but could backfire on them in the International Court of Opinion big time.

I don't think Netanyahu has the intelligence to realize this but hopefully smarter, and calmer, heads in the Israeli government understand the danger. I doubt delaying any planned assault for 48 hours to give civilians a chance to get out of the way is going to matter all that much.

If you are sensing a bit of uncertainty on my part that's a good call. I'd like to see Hamas eradicated but not at any cost.

Hamas Attacks Israel

 Hamas has launched a massive terrorist attack from Gaza against the people of Israel. I say the people of Israel because they appear to be more interested in targeting helpless women and children than in taking on the Israeli military.

This isn't a military operation. It's an exercise in terrorism.

Israel has responded with extensive military operations against the Gaza strip. Unfortunately the extent of the reprisal insures that many Palestinian women and children will die as well.

Here's a fucking idea. Let a battalion of the Hamas cowards meet a battalion of the IDF in the Negev and see how things work out.

There have been reports of exchanges of gunfire in the North between Hezbollah and Israel as well so there is the danger of a widening of the conflict.

There are several questions that need to be asked.

First, who's actually behind the attack? Is it all Hamas or are the Iranians involved? Early US intelligence reports seem to indicate that Iran as surprised as anyone else.

That's brings us to our second question. How did Israeli and other western intelligence services miss this?

Finally, what impact will this have on the Israeli-Saudi Arabia negotiations?

So-called Progressives haven't covered themselves with glory over this with Representatives Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib actually calling for the US to END Israeli assistance.

Now I have another reason for hating those two and they can go to Hell.

It's Been a While

 Gee, two months since I bothered to write anything. I have two excuses. 

The first is my "w" key is dead (or almost dead) on my laptop so writing anything is annoying. I have a remove keyboard off to the side and have to reach over for a "w."

The second is I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3.

Anyway, Trump has been indicted multiple times and there is a stirring of efforts to get him banned from being on the ballot. I don't see that working because he hasn't been convicted of anything yet.

In the meantime he is clearly going to win the Republican nomination and polls show him tied or even slightly ahead of Biden for the general election. I find this utterly absurd. All I can say is that people get the government they deserve.

In Washington the Republican House can't seem to get their act together for a spending bill and if they don't do something we'll have a government shutdown at the end of next week. Oh goodie.

October is shaping up as a bad month for me with multiple trips to multiple doctors including the big CT Scan to check for lung cancer. Oh well, we all have to die of something.

I'll try to spend a little more attention to the old blog just for the hell of it going forward.

Florida is at it Again

Florida is at it again. They published new African American History standards which included teaching that "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” 

Obviously people jumped all over that. I sort of scratched my head and thought well imagine what they could have learned if they were free?

However, Florida's African American History Standard's Workgroup put out a response defending the claim. In it they included 16 names of blacks who, as slaves, had learned skills that they used to benefit themselves in later life.

I decided to check those names because, hey, Google is my friend.

Ned Cobb - Cobb was born in 1885 so he was never a slave.

Henry Blair - Blair was born in Maryland in 1807 but there is no record of him ever being a slave.

Lewis Latimer - Latimer was born in Massachusetts. He was the son of escaped slaves but he himself was apparently never a slave.

John Henry - Henry is an American folk hero who may, or may not, have actually existed. According to historian Scott Reynolds Nelson, the actual John Henry was born in New Jersey in 1848 so, again, if that's true he was never a slave.

James Forten - Forten was born in Philadelphia in 1766 and was never a slave.

Paul Cuffe - Cuffe was born in Massachusetts in 1759. He was the son of an emancipated slave but was himself never a slave.

Betty Washington Lewis - The only Betty Washington Lewis I can find is George Washington's sister so I don't know. 

Jupiter Hammon - Hammon was a slave in New York. He was allowed a rudimentary education and was the first black man in North American to be published. He was also an Anglican preacher that preached against the evils of slavery. Many of his poems were about slavery as well. He passed away in 1806. He appears to have remained a slave his entire life.

John Chavis - Chavis was born in North Carolina in 1763 and was an educator and Presbyterian minister. He fought in the Continental Army during the revolution but was never a slave.

William Whipper - Whipper was born in 1804 in Pennsylvania. He was the son of his enslaved mother and her white owner. He supported the Underground Railroad but does not appear to have ever been a slave.

Crispus Attucks - Attucks was born in 1723 in Massachusetts and was killed during the Boston Massacre in 1770. He had been a sailor and was either a freeman or an escaped slave. At least one report identified him as a Nantucket Indian so who knows?

Elizabeth Keckley - Keckley was born into slavery into Virginia. She learned to be a seamstress while enslaved and eventually earned enough money to buy her freedom in 1855. She opened a business in Washington DC and became the dressmaker for Mary Todd Lincoln in 1861. 

James Thomas - There are way too many people named James Thomas so I'm not sure who this was.

Marietta Carter - I could not find any reference to a Marietta Carter.

Betsey Stockton - Stockton was born into slavery in Princeton, New Jersey in 1798. She became a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Princeton in 1817 and may have been freed the same year. She was commissioned as a missionary and sailed for Hawaii in 1822. She returned in 1835 and taught at a school for Native Americans in Canada and a school for blacks in Princeton. I'm going to say that she learned most of what she learned after she was freed.

Booker T. Washington - Washington was born in slavery in Virginia in 1856. He was nine when he gained his freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation when Union Troops occupied the area where he lived.

So, of the sixteen names presented to defend the Florida Workgroup's claim, eight appear to have never been slaves. Hell, one wasn't born until 1885. 

Two, Washington and Stockton, appear to have been freed before they learned any useful skills. 

One, Attucks, learned his sailing skill either after he escaped slavery or was never a slave. He might not even have been black.

Three I just couldn't find any information on in my Google searches.

That leaves two, Keckley and Hammon that learned useful skills as a slave. So, if you include the three that I couldn't locate assuming that the Workgroup had better sources than I did, that would be five out of sixteen.

That's pretty pathetic.

More on the Affirmative Action Decision

Wow, progressives commentators, black and white, are not thrilled with this decision. They are all over the map with their criticisms and this is a bit of a problem. Not only are they contradicting each other but occasionally they contradict themselves.

They all seem to have a special ire for Justice Clarence Thomas not only because he voted to end Affirmative Action but apparently because he took a nasty swipe at Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson which was really uncalled for.

The main point of contradiction is over whether students accepted as a result of Affirmative Action were qualified applicants.

On the one hand Affirmative Action supporters claim that every student accepted under Affirmative Action was qualified and on the other hand they claim that these students would no longer qualify. Which is it? If they're qualified then why do they need Affirmative Action? If they're not qualified then they shouldn't be taking the place of someone who is qualified just because of their race. 

 If the issue is actually that not enough minority students qualify then that is an entirely different problem that needs to be addressed starting in Kindergarten or perhaps even earlier. 

Criticizing Justice Thomas, while it may be justified, doesn't change anything. Affirmative Action has been in place for a long time yet the gap between races in median income hasn't improved. In fact one could argue it has gotten worse. What exactly is the end game here? Affirmative Action was never intended to be permanent. It may help a few individuals, which proponents claim were qualified anyway, but it doesn't seem to be helping communities as a whole.

ABC/Ipsos Poll on Court Decisions

ABC/Ipsos did a poll on the three recent Supreme Court decisions and the American people sort of agree with the court.

On the web designer refusing to do an LGBTQ+ wedding sites it was almost an even split with 43% approving the decision and 42% opposing it. An interesting thing that came out on this case was that there may not have been a real case. Apparently no one asked the web designed to do a gay web page but she just applied for an exemption anyway.

Only 15% of Democrats approved of the decision compared to 68% of Republicans and 49% of Independents.

On striking down Biden's loan forgiveness program 45% were in favor and 40% were opposed. Unsurprisingly older Americans were more likely to be in favor of the decision with 61% of those over 65 approving but only 31% of those under 30.

71% of Republicans and 49% of Independents supported the decision but only 17% of Democrats.

The most support was for the designing ending Affirmative Action based upon race with 52% approving and only 32% disapproving. Whites and Asians approved the decision by 60% and 58% respectively. Latinos and Hispanics split 40%-40% and only blacks disapproved 52%-25%.

A majority of Republicans (75%) and Independents (58%) approved but only 26% of Democrats approved.

Supreme Court Decisions

There were three big decisions over the last two days.

First, as expected, the Supreme Court shot down Affirmative Action at least with respect to using race as a criterion for college admission. The decision only affects race and not things such as socio-economic class or geography.

I think this was a good decision. Using race as a criterion strikes me as dangerous. If colleges can use race as a criterion for admission then why can't companies use it as a criterion for hiring? If colleges really want "diversity" then I would think that socio-economic class would be a better criterion anyway.

The second had to do with a web designer that didn't want to do websites for LGBTQ+ clients because it (1) violated her freedom of religion and (2) violated her freedom of speech because it would force her to "say" things that she didn't believe.

The whole case was a bit of a stretch in my opinion but the court ruled that she could decline based upon freedom of speech. I don't know about this one. It seems to me that it opens the door for all sorts of abuse.

The third case was the long awaited decision on Biden's student loan forgiveness program. I thought the court might let this stand but apparently not. They ruled that the Department of Education exceeded its authority and shut the program down. 

Biden immediately announced an alternate legal avenue for doing the same thing. I suppose they had Plan B waiting in the wings just in case. I'm sure this will also be challenged so we shall see. 

Juneteenth

Juneteenth as a holiday upsets my sense of order. People keep calling it the day slavery ended and that's just not true.

Slavery hadn't ended in the entire US by June 19th, 1865. Only in the states of the Confederacy in areas not under Union control. Slavery didn't end until December 6th, 1865 when the 13th Amendment was ratified. June 19th, 1865 is simply the date when some random group of slaves found out they had been freed by presidential order two years previously. The only "holiday" that made less sense than "Juneteenth" was "Columbus Day" which celebrated some Italian dude, working for Spain, who accidentally bumped into Hispaniola, while trying to find India and proceeded to treat the indigenous people there terribly. Dates which might make more sense would be December 6th as explained above, September 22nd which was the date on which Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 or April 3rd which was the date that black regiments (some say the first was the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry and others that it was the 29th Connecticut Infantry) entered Richmond and insured that the Confederacy, and by extension slavery, were doomed. Oh, by the way, the freed slaves were not citizens in June of 1865 because the Dred Scott decision was still in force. The 14th Amendment fixed that so June 9th, the date that the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 and the former slaves became citizens, might make more sense as well.

Some may call this petty but I find it annoying that those who whine about the distortion of history have no problem with distorting it themselves when it serves their purpose.

Why I'm no Longer "Woke"

When "woke" simply meant an awareness to realizing that some people weren't treated equally it was a positive thing. But over the last couple of years it has become toxic. Suddenly everything is racist or sexist or some other sort of oppression.

- There's a morbidly obese woman on TicTok with a petition demanding that the FAA force the airlines to give obese people free extra seats because obese people are oppressed. That's insanity.

- There's a black woman with a video claiming that fat phobia is equivalent to racism and therefore being thin and working out are forms of white supremacy. That's even more insane.

- In California they're trying to introduce "equity based" mathematics whatever the hell that is. That sounds insane as well because anything associated with "equity" rather than "equality" tends to be insane.

When justified demands for equality morph into unjustified demands for equity or special privilege then we have a problem.

Apparently I have male privilege, white privilege and something called thin privilege so I should be coming up with ways to atone for all of this privilege. The first step apparently is to ask people what their preferred pronouns are before I can speak to them. Why I would need to know someone's third person pronouns when I'm speaking to them directly I haven't figured out yet.

All of this would be comical if it didn't result in a backlash even among people that would normally be sympathetic. The race card has been played so often and so wrongly that I no longer care if someone thinks I'm a racist. I saw an article this morning calling the SNAP work requirements included in the debt ceiling deal "racist." Regardless of what you think of those work requirements how can something that applies to everyone, and in this applies to more white people, be "racist?"

The Republicans know they have a winning story here because way too many people are fed up with this bullshit.

Medicare for All

I think Medicare for All would be a good thing but I think people are underestimating how hard it would be to implement.

People keep talking about the defense budget as if a hefty cut in the defense budget would pay for all of the progressive wish list.

The defense budget is peanuts compared to what Medicare for All would cost. In 2022 the defense budget was $747 billion. Medicare was $709 billion, Medicaid/CHIP was $695 billion. That's a total of $1.4 trillion for health coverage for 158 million people (93 million Medicaid, 65 million Medicare). There are 334 million people in the US so a simple extrapolation implies that Medicare for All would cost about $2.9 trillion. Note that this includes the estimated $600 billion in administrative costs saved by eliminating the insurance middle men. So that's a shortfall of about $1.5 trillion. The total revenue of the federal government in 2022 was $4.9 trillion including payroll taxes so MFA would cost something like 60% of current revenues and the shortfall would represent over 30% of current revenues. There's no way this is being funded without a broad new tax such as a Value Added Tax on non-essential items including cars and electronic devices. Food, clothing and other essentials would have to be exempt. Try negotiating this in our current political climate. But that's not the big problem. The big problem is that our current medical infrastructure in many places around the country might be incapable of handling the increased demand. That would mean we would also have to invest in additional medical infrastructure including, most importantly, more trained personnel. Note that neither of these two things is a reason not to have Medicare for All but it's going to take a lot more will power than a lot of people would like to admit.

The Debt Ceiling II

 The clowns in Washington can't seem to get their act together. Biden after months of saying that he wasn't going to negotiate is negotiating but, at least so far, there is no agreement. I can't even say with any certainty what, if anything, has been agreed to or what the current proposals are.

Reportedly the wok requirements for Medicaid are a major sticking point. 

A group of Democratic Senators led by Bernie Sanders have proposed that Biden invoke the 14th Amendment. A group of 210 Democratic House Members have proposed the same thing. But Biden appears loathe to do so without a previous OK from the courts which of course he's not going to get.

Invoking the 14th Amendment would be better than defaulting so I hope that someone is explaining the to Biden. 

The Corona Virus, May 21, 2023

President Biden has lifted the Covid emergency in the US. The World Health Organization has ended it worldwide and New Jersey is no longer reliably updating its website.

So, after three years I'm signing off on my Covid updates. I will continue to monitor what information is available but unless things start to go to hell I'm done publishing any numbers.

On the personal front, my root is out and I'm still a tad sore. My care has been serviced and the Generator has been fine.

The Corona Virus, May 8, 2023

 US Cases

Both the WHO and the US have declared the emergency over so Covid case numbers are getting harder to find. New Jersey, so far, is still posting but who knows for how long. If this isn't the final post then it's close. Thank goodness.

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- 94,140

Apr 22 - Apr 28-88,210

Apr 29 - May 5 - Unavailable

'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

Apr 22 -Apr 28-1,323

Apr 29 - May 5 -1,019

New Jersey almost got below a thousand case. It just missed.

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

Apr 22 -Apr 28-283

Apr 29 - May 5 -133

The blip in Bergen County appears to have resolved itself as the numbers are playing with going under 100.

The Oral Surgeon will take out the root on the 11th. After that we'll see. He's good so I'm going to listen to what he says.

The technician looked at the generator and couldn't find any problem. It's been behaving since then (knock on wood). So go figure.