2020 Democrat candidates are now supporting reparations for slavery

You may love President Trump or you may hate him, but right now he is all that is standing between us and these Democrats. Don't you wake up every day wondering what the left will do to us next? TD

Peter Barry Chowka  "On February 21, a New York Times feature story about proposals for the government to pay American blacks reparations for slavery has moved the issue closer to the front burner in the lead up to next year's presidential elections.  The article's title summarized the story: "2020 Democrats Embrace Race-Conscious Policies, Including Reparations."  Largely overshadowed on an incredibly busy news day was the disclosure that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), one of the early frontrunners for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, is now enthusiastically on the reparations bandwagon:

Ms. Warren also said she supported reparations for black Americans impacted by slavery — a policy that experts say could cost several trillion dollars.

. . .  "The Times noted that the pro-reparations policy has also been embraced by another prominent candidate for the 2020 nomination:

Last week, Senator Kamala Harris of California agreed with a radio host's recent suggestion that government reparations for black Americans were necessary to address the legacies of slavery and discrimination.  Ms. Harris later affirmed that support in a statement to The Times.

"The Times confirmed the existence of a plethora of additional race-based policy proposals by Democrats, attributing them to virtuous ends:" . . .

There are so very many African-Americans who have in the past been terribly mistreated by whites, especially under Jim Crow laws. I recall in my own time black guards standing unserved and uninvited outside eating places while Nazi POWs were fed during transport. There were the Tuskegee Airmen who were mocked in spite of their excellent combat record in WW2; towns I was in where black GIs disappeared because all the establishments I myself could enter had "Whites only" signs. 

If only we could undo those shamed by being asked to leave businesses and community events; those having been victimized by a legal system that stood against them and supported those white bigots who cheated them, including - I fear - members of my own family in the deep South.

It is those Americans I wish so badly that we could undo the wrong we have done them. But I cannot bear the thought of further enriching the likes of Al Sharpton, Farrakhan, and Maxine Waters along with those crowds who loot and burn cities; those who gather flash mobs to pick businesses clean and those enjoying the "knock-out game". Further, I can see that a case could be made for reparations being owed by black activists to those murdered by rioters, or had their livelihoods destroyed because of their words.

Not one dime should go to those chanting "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon"!

I fear there may sadly be no way to compensate those who have genuinely suffered degradation in the past without all the well-intentioned reparations (whatever those might be) sucked into the hands of those hoping to enrich themselves by their demagoguery.

Electing this particular black president seemed to have been worse than nothing. 

The Tunnel Dweller.

Bernie blows his big chance to explain socialism in Venezuela

. . . "Sanders argues that the real danger in Venezuela is U.S. intervention, not starving people .  If someone has to starve so the U.S. doesn't intervene, he's obviously all in, because Trump's brandished weapon, aid, can't be allowed in if a socialist government says "no.' "

Monica Showalter  "Bernie Sanders, 77, who's been defending socialist Venezuela for years, and who'd now like to be our president, has some explaining to do.

"An MSNBC interviewer, captured on video by The Right Scoop, gave him just that opportunity, as you can see from this screen shot here:

. . . "Blowing out the private sector through price controls and currency controls, all in the name of "fairness," is a pretty good way to leave just oil as the only money game in town as an unintended (or, given that these are socialists at war with the "greedy" private sector, intended) consequence of socialism writ large.

"Socialist central planning from the state, in that government-knows-best way of Bernie Sanders and all his socialist allies, is another way to Venezuelify a nation through socialism.  In 2003, Venezuela's strongman Hugo Chávez, following his Cowen-described creation of conditions for the destruction of the private sector through the expansion of government, nevertheless still had the state oil industry as his money source to ensure his permanent power, which he justified as "la revolución."  Instead of guarding the oil like Gollum's ring, which would have required free-market business practices, he fired all the oil experts and replaced them with politically connected cronies chosen for their socialism and then spent the oil company's earnings on welfare instead of operational investment, as a normal company would do.

"That's a really good way to run out of other people's money.

"Is Bernie Sanders saying he'd never dream of doing any such things in the name of "fairness" or "ending greed" or "the people"?

"Of course not.  That's why he can't answer the question.

"What's more, Sanders's last statements are a mishmash of true and false premises, which make the rest of his response inchoate." . . .

Spare me all the pieties about Jussie Smollett

"The rush to exploit the alleged but phony hate crime was unseemly because of all the holes in the story. But blinded by hatred of Trump, and anxious to benefit themselves, people like Don Lemon of CNN and Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris sought to benefit themselves."

Thomas Lifson
"[Disclaimer: Jussie Smollett, like all defendants, is entitled to the presumption of innocence in his forthcoming trial[s].  The following analysis is based on the assumption that the evidence presented by assistant state's attorney Risa Lanier is valid and that the charges against him are true.  Registered voters in Cook County, who are members of his potential jury pool, are strongly cautioned that reading further may make them ineligible to sit in judgment at trial.]"

. . . "According to the information presented by police superintendent Eddie Johnson and prosecutor Risa Lanier, greed was one root of the hoax.  Smollett's pay per episode of Empire has been variously reported as as low as $65,000 and as high as $125,000.  Either figure puts him in the dreaded one percent at the top of the income distribution.  Progressives love to lecture us about the injustice of high incomes but always exempt their own.  Being a progressive is akin to the papal indulgences of the Middle Ages.

But there is another obvious motive: political — hatred of Donald Trump.  Drudge has been featuring a picture of him that says it all:"

. . . "While all reports of crime, including "hate crimes," deserve thorough investigation, the fact is that fake hate crime reports are epidemic — Tawana Brawley, Duke lacrosse, UVA fraternities, and many other lesser known instances.  An entire website, http://www.fakehatecrimes.org, is devoted to the epidemic, and they currently have 349 items, including Smollett.  I have repeatedly made the point that there is not enough hate to go around, because our politics and society reward people who claim to be victims." . . .