There is an interesting fight brewing in Congress after various cities indicated that they may not only pay reparations but use federal pandemic funds for such payments. There has been a long call for federal reparations with various Democratic bills introduced in Congress. BET founder Robert Johnson has called for $14 trillion in federal reparations. However, cities like Providence, Rhode Island are not waiting. They insist that federal reparations funds are already effectively approved as part of their pandemic relief.
We have been discussing how California’s Reparations Task Force has presented a bill for $569 billion for reparations while cities like San Francisco have a reparation board demanding $5 million per eligible black resident.
Other cities are saying that the federal government can foot the bill. They are relying on massive payments of federal money under the American Rescue Plan (ARP). They insist that Congress put so few conditions on the money that they can use it for reparations.
The $1.9 billion dollars in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was passed on a loose mandate to encourage economic stimulus and deal with the economic and health effects of the pandemic and ongoing recession. Advocates are arguing that the pandemic exacerbated the lingering effects of slavery for the Black community. Every Republican (and one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine) voted against the Act.
FOX Business reported that Providence, Rhode Island has already dedicated $10 million in pandemic relief toward creating the Providence Municipal Reparations Commission to address “racial equity.” Likewise, officials in Shelby County, Tennessee (where Memphis is located) voted to spend $5 million to study the possibility of a long-term reparations program. The county said it may use pandemic funds for the effort.
Other cities are moving forward with reparation task forces, including most recently Boston. As in cities like San Francisco, the Boston reparations will cover not just slavery but more “recent” housing and economic inequities. Mayor Michelle Wu declared “For four hundred years, the brutal practice of enslavement and recent policies like redlining, the busing crisis, and exclusion from City contracting have denied Black Americans pathways to build generational wealth, secure stable housing, and live freely.”
Likewise, this week, Washtenaw County in Ann Arbor, Michigan approved its own commission based on reparations approved by cities like Evanston, Illinois. It was described as “An evolution of an exploratory committee led by the Racial Equity Office, the Advisory Council on Reparations will be a perpetual body of Commissioner appointed subject matter experts representing relevant sectors.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) introduced a new federal reparations bill that would create a new federal commission similar to those of states like California. It is supported by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-DE), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Patty Murray (D-WA).
Some 190 organizations now support federal reparations including the ACLU and Amnesty International.
Our Judicial system is a sham, a circus, all politics, be it “reparations”, George Soros DAs literally getting away with murder of incidents and now evidently grand juries. We need to bring back public hangings and shooting duels.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/emily-kohrs-talking-georgia-grand-jury-process-reckless-rcna71864
*** Take it from a former prosecutor: Emily Kohrs’ media tour is reckless ***
Why the blood pressure of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must be spiking.
“Even more alarming were some of the things Kohrs said about her own experience. She said she swore in one witness while holding a Ninja Turtle ice pop she had received at the district attorney’s office ice cream party. A what?! Why on Earth would grand jurors be socializing with the prosecutors? A grand jury is an independent body, and prosecutors are trained to maintain a professional distance and avoid engaging in interactions that could be perceived as influencing their decisions.”
I watched some of the interviews of Kohrs.
If she is the forewoman of the grand jury, what do the rest of the jury look like?
I actually feel bad for the DA. Must of been like watching a train wreck.
Oops! Bad choice of words. Sorry.
My great great grand parents, on my father’s side, and their home, were deeply involved with the underground railroad, helping hundreds get through. Am I owed a large cash handout??
My great, great grandfather fought for the Union Army. Where’s my check?
Black people need back to the beginning of the supply chain. Angola!
Wha’chu talkin’bout Willis!
REPARATIONS ARE AND MUST BE AN AFRICAN OBLIGATION
The Naturalization Act of 1802, comprising immigration law in full force and effect on January 1, 1863, required compassionate repatriation of freed slaves whose legal status had been altered from that of “property” to “illegal alien” by the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798 and 1802 [four iterations – they meant it]
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof…
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The inverse of the Naturalization Act of 1802 is “…may NOT be admitted…” and, therefore, must be expelled.
To wit,
“…[A]ny Alien [NOT] being a free white person,…may [NOT] be admitted to become a citizen thereof….”
Illegal aliens must have been repatriated to their countries of origin in 1863.
Illegal aliens must be provided reparations by the descendants of those who illegally abducted and sold them.
Those who maintained documented, legal possession were and remain unconstrained and released from obligation.
Abraham Lincoln nefariously and iniquitously violated law and fundamental law deliberately and routinely.
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“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
– Blaise Pascal
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“The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail.”
– Abraham Lincoln
If US intends to go ahead with this insane plan, US should get a credit offsetting reparations for the 50+ years of welfare payments made to blacks.
If any federal money is used to pay these racist, unconstitutional reparations, would it not be defensible to withhold the proportion of one’s federal taxes owed equal to proportion that such reparations represented in the federal budget for the forthcoming or prior year?
If this bill somehow passes (and ignoring its inherent unconstitutionality), you will see a massive tax protest the likes of which you have never seen. Millions will refuse to pay a dime for such confiscation.
….white Americans will have hard earned money extorted from them by the government to pay for something from which they have derived no benefit. Money hard earned creating a first world civilisation from which all derive benefit.
All Americans are now on welfare, but especially old White Americans: Medicare and Social Security
I earned my social security! Don’t know about you.
Robert Hill, Hilary Clinton thinks social security is a gift to us from the federal government.
Earned it, you paid into it with your money.
I received an involuntary “buyout” from Generous Motors many, many decades ago.
You should receive an involuntary “buyout” from Social Security as it “withers on the vine” and transitions into the free markets of the private sector.
Allow me to recommend the very private enterprise, Vanguard Mutual Fund Family, for your retirement investment plan needs.
The Constitution denies Congress any power to tax for Social Security.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a communist (i.e. Alger Hiss et al.) and unconstitutional high criminal.
I did too. And my military retirement. Signed up for what others would not have considered in their wildest dreams.
Robert you paid a tax on your income.
There is no such thing as a Social Security Account. It is a fiction. SCOTUS has already ruled as such.
Robert, this is a long ago resolved issue.
There is no actual link between the taxes collected from you and the payments you MIGHT someday receive.
If you go to SS and they tell you anything – that is until they change their mind.
Your money i GONE – it was gone long ago. No one invested it.
They just burned it.
For a while – it is likely you will get back what SS says you will get back.
We have not yet reached the point at which reality exceeds embarrasment and they have to admit they have burned all the money paid in.
But we will get there. I hope you have capital somewhere besides SS.
If you are not already retired – you should be socking money away.
Because you will be lucky to get 50cents on the dollar from SS.
Except it is contributory I paid approx. $180,000.00 SS and $169,000.00 for Medicare over 55 years.
mets53, you paid an income tax. The govt lies to you about you “paying into” anything.
Old white Americans. I had to make out paychecks, money is taken out of all of our paycheks to pay for Medicare and social security. And if you don’t pay your taxes you could end up in jail. These two programs are not free.
This constitutional crime must be struck down by the Supreme Court, the Justices of which have sworn and oath to support the clear meaning and intent of the Constitution.
Congress has the Article 1, Section 8, power to tax for only debt, defense and “…general Welfare…,” aka infrastructure, aka ALL, OR THE WHOLE, PROCEED WELL, as roads, water, post office, electricity, sewer, rubbish collection, telecom, internet, or other commodities and services that are not readily available in the free markets of the private sector.
Read it.
Congress has no power to tax for individual welfare, specific welfare, particular welfare, charity or favor.
SS and Medicare provide, not for all or the whole, but for only citizens over 65 years of age – a very small, individual, specific, particular subset of the American population, perhaps it is charity or favor, Congress cannot tax for that either.
There are seven major welfare programs in America, they include:
Medicaid
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Child’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
housing assistance
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
Those and all other welfare programs are government subsidies for low-income families and individuals who have incomes that fall below a percentage of the federal poverty level. Additionally, welfare programs have a maximum income requirement, ensuring those above the set income requirement do not receive the program’s assistance.
Medicare and Social Security are not among them. That is because Medicare and Social Security are not welfare. They are benefits [earned] throughout persons’ working years and paid to them on retirement.
…matriculation affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, HHS, HUD, EPA, Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
They are benefits [earned] throughout persons’ working years and paid to them on retirement.
SCOTUS has ruled SS is nothing but an income tax. The govt sends you a monthly check, but there is nothing “earned”.
You can find a spread sheet on line and plug in yearly income. Take 14.75% of that number, and compound 3% annual interest every month. You will be amaze at what that number is after 40 years. Triple of the pitence SS “pays” out.
The dream and strategy of the democrats is to have the blue states get access to the federal government tax stream where they can fleece the taxpayers and their offspring. They got the COVID money and now are going to use it to manipulate the “voters”.
Jonathan, I enjoy all your writings. I am exhausted by the perpetual whining of some of our society. This is so destructive to our culture and society. We should offer reparations for anyone in the form of an airline ticket to any country of their choice if they renounce their citizenship and promise to never try to return. That’s it. Nothing else. Don’t care what color you are. Raise your hand and get out. If you don’t leave then you are obligated to STFU.
100% agree. They can go to the place they say has free health care and everyone can read. It is so beautiful and tropical. Lovely. It is just 90 mile down from Key West. They will love it there. The people living there love it so much that they get on inflatables and hope the current and wind gets them to the USA.
Bravo. I could not agree more.
Amen.
I will give them some money – lots.
But they may not return.
This is theft; outright theft. If there were any honest people still working in the federal government, we’d report this as fraud, waste and abuse. Unfortunately, it will fall on deaf ears.
That’s a big if…
Americans have been paying unjustified REPARATIONS since 1964 to the tune of $15,000,000,000,000+ (Trillion) to the Democratic created Welfare system. free money; free education; free transportation; free housing and prisons and these reparations have turned America into a 3rd World country. If these low lifes want more FREE, then they get a one-way ticket back to where they and their ancestors came from.
MDW, LBJ’s great society. All it produced was single family households.
Repatriation was and is required by immigration law of 1863.
There MUST be a massive “EXIT” tax before repatriation – some individuals may require a huge, nay, generational, repatriation tax loan, to facilitate the act, which must be obtained from countries of origin.
So be it.
Reparations is just a push by the Black Race Leaders to scam money like they do when there is a White-Black issue they can try to get money from such as the George Floyd arrest in Minneapolis. If they get some money it will not be enough as they will always want more.
No slaves are still alive, we fought a Civil War that killed and wounded many thousands of people and destroyed countless towns and cities, and later the Democrats started the KKK and Segregation to keep the Blacks separate but that was changed by the Republicans, and in the 1960s the Civil Rights Acts were passed with the Republicans in the Congress and Affirmative Action has given the Blacks help since the 1960s in College before other races so they have been given help no matter how well they are financially.
My ancestors lived in Canada during the time of slavery in the US. The black people should be paying reparations to me since my ancestors helped black people fleeing slavery in the US
Apparently, it’s not illegal to buy votes with taxpayer money.
It is, but they continue to get away with it.
Given the extensive pre and post civil war history of the Democratic party to champion the cause of slave holder’s rights and later creating and upholding Jim Crow laws, I support any effort to make the Democratic party financially responsible for full restitution for this terrible injustice.
What a bunch of n*gger sh*t!
Someone explain to me how the people living in SE Ohio, Eastern KY or parts of WVa are examples of generational wealth?
Same with rural Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Some live in what looks like war torn areas. Blankets for doors and windows. Not taxpayer housing.
whig98, must be institutional racism and white privilege.
Jonathan: Reparations for the descendants of slavery are a big and growing issue around the country. The Georgia firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene opposes them. She thinks the situation has become so dire for white people that she has proposed a “national divorce” so red and blue states can separate. She has appeared on right-wing media to expand her proposal. While she doesn’t want a second civil war she proposes, for example, that the Dept. of Education be abolished so “red states and blue states would be in control of education in each state”. That means in red states “they would not allow any type of gender lies being taught in their schools, LGBTQ teachers would be fired…” In red states MTG wants parents to decide on school curriculum. MTG would even go farther. Dems who move to a red state would be prohibited from voting for 5 years–apparently in an effort to purge them of their “woke” ideas. MTG doesn’t see any problem in depriving US citizens of the right to vote.
I know it sounds extreme–stripping citizens of the right to vote. But in this “age of rage”, as you call it, all sorts of bizarre ideas are bubbling up. Right-wing politicians are try to exploit the rage. But MTG is no out liar. She is a close ally of GO House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and sits on the House Homeland Committee. What MTG forgets is she took an oath to support and protect the Constitution–and that means opposing succession. But succession has support in some states. Last year the GOP controlled Idaho House actually passed a bill that would allow a portion of conservative rural eastern Oregon to join Idaho.
Say what you will about reparations it is an issue that deserves attention because we now recognize that Black people have been deprived of the ordinary rights of citizenship–the right to vote and to own property, the right to equal access to heath care and a quality education. It’s long past that we try to right those wrongs.
I want reparations from the Africans that sold slaves to my ancestors because now I am stuck with the slaves’ offspring and they are mostly a detriment to western civilization.
That is one of the best statements of the day!
Those wrongs and all the others have long been righted. All that is left to address dwindling feelings and remnants of victimhood it seems is to wash it away with money. Find a fair, equitable and incorruptible way to do that and all who identify themselves by race might move on from a nation’s tragic past none of them had anything to do with.
It is better to say nothing and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
I suspect you are opening your financial books and home to our black brethren?
I lost IQ points reading your last sentence. You cannot penalize people today for things which were done several generations back.
I don’t know of any black people who have recently (in the last 20 years) been deprived of the ordinary rights of citizenship. Please provide examples since you’ve made this accusation.
” It’s long past that we try to right those wrongs.”
These wrongs have long been righted. All communities face problems created by others and laws unfair to them. Thank goodness we changed many of those discriminatory laws, but one wonders how some can remain ignorant of the changes.
You sound like a person unwilling to work for his benefits and expects to be supported for the rest of his life along with future generations be recipients of gifts you aren’t entitled to.
If you don’t have something you need, get a job and work for it.
Ok, so then find the living individuals that can prove they were “denied the right to vote and to own property..” and give them money regardless of race. I doubt you will find any living person that has been denied the right to vote or own property, but if you do, cut them a check.
Might be a few Japanese Americans that fall into that category, maybe a few living Native Americans, other than that I don’t think you’ll get many applicants.
Long past that “we” right those wrongs? Then let me be the first to volunteer a portion of your 401k, pension, et al. to further the dreams and aspirations of the “habitually oppressed” in these “Divided States of America.”
Blacks got all of these rights in 1964 (some prior) and were only blocked by Democrats. So now everyone should pay for 60 years of inaction and the racist views of one political party?
Ain’t happening.
Just because you and other idiots think something is consequention – does not make it so.
No Reparations are not a big and growing issue.
They remain stupid nonsense, that should be shutdown immediately. That those on the left are too stupid to understand that is not the fault of ordinary people who are not foooled by this idiocy.
You live in the least racist country on the planet. Iy you are black in the US – your odds of being the victim of racism are greater in Africa.
Not all that long ago the Hutu masacred 800,000 Tutsi.
If you are the descendant of slaves in this country – that would be because other Blacks enslaved your ancestors and sold them.
If you want reparations – look to them.
If you are balck and american – Be thankful – you could be black and african. Wacanda is a myth. There is no place on earth that you are better off being Black than in the US. You could have the misfortune of instead of being born of the ancestors of slave, to have been born of the ancestors of those in
Africa that actually enslaved your ancestors.
If you are black in the US – you are among the top 1% of the world. You could have been born almost anywhere else in the world and have a far $hittier life.
Regardless, Black White, or anything else – NO ONE OWES YOU ANYTHING.
You could have been born 100,000 years ago – regardless of your Race life would have been nasty. brutishj and short.
You have more opertunity in the US to do well to have a great life than anywhere else in the world.
No one giving you $1,000, or $1,000,000 will change the fact that your life is your responsibility and will be whatever you make of it.
Dumping a bunch of currency into your wallet will not make your future any better.
You own your life – not anyone else, and only you can make your life good.
What planet are you from. Welfare has paid it already.
I hope individual African Americans don’t think they are going to get a check. This money is going to go to different organizations. NAACP, BLM, municipalities and states. And somehow the democrat party will end up with a sizable chunk of change from this bundoggle. 14 trillion on top of what, 32 trillion dollar national debt. I feel sorry for the millinials and those that are younger. Doesn’t that come out to a national debt of 46 trillion dollars.
Let them bring on the reparations. It will be interesting to see how the hard working Democratic blue collar worker takes to paying reparations when he knows that he and his ancestors had nothing to do with slavery. His ancestors lived in the slums of New York but they didn’t stay there because they believed in hard work. Please don’t tell the Democrats that this is amazingly stupid. When your enemy is doing something to defeat himself don’t stop him from doing it.
Excellent point.
The Democrat leaders today are doing more to foment racial division in this country than ever before. Not since 1946 in Germany has race been such an issue. I was born to second generation immigrants in the segregated South and grew up during the civil rights era. I didn’t see this sort of hatred of whites that we see today. And fortunately, I did not grow up in a racist household. If the first round of reparations–the fruits of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and all its federal and state statutory and case law progeny–then what makes us think throwing money at the Democrat party and its cronies today will make a difference?
Mr Turley, your deimal points are off a few places:
NOT: “The $1.9 billion dollars in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021”
$1.9 TRILLION