For months, we have been discussing how Democratic politicians would deal with massive reparation demands after campaigning for years on such payments being a moral imperative. As proposals rose to as much as $5 million a person, Newsom went silent. Now, California’s Reparations Task Force has issued recommendations for reparation payments as well as a slew of other benefits for black citizens. Newsom has finally responded by what sounded like the common birthday card that reads “I couldn’t afford a present so I gave you this card instead.” With California billions in the red, Newsom appears to be sending up a trial balloon on offering heartfelt apologies, promises of reform, and no cash.
In addition to the cash payments, the Task Force called for eligible residents to receive $13,619 for each year of residency due to racism in health care; $148,099 or $3,366 for each year between 1933 and 1977 for housing discrimination; and $2,352 during the 49-year period between 1971 and 2020 for mass incarceration and racist policing.
Newsom told Fox News Digital that reparation”is about much more than cash payments.” Instead, he stressed:
“we’ve already been hard at work addressing: breaking down barriers to vote, bolstering resources to address hate, enacting sweeping law enforcement and justice reforms to build trust and safety, strengthening economic mobility — all while investing billions to root out disparities and improve equity in housing, education, healthcare, and well beyond. This work must continue.”
Good luck with that.
Citing “reforms” already in place makes the Task Force look like the ultimate bait-and-switch. It makes black voters look like chumps given recent polling showing a massive shift in the Black community on the question: 77 percent of Black Americans now support reparations.
For years, Newsom and other Democratic politicians have campaigned on reparations and that bill has now come due. A card and an apology is not going to cut it.
Just last week, speakers demanded cash in large amounts. Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Cal.) declared that “Reparations are not a luxury, but a human right long overdue for millions of Americans. We are demanding that the government pay their tax.”
She was not talking about a heartfelt apology.
Nor were others at the hearing.
In prior hearings, speakers have been asking “where’s the money.” Some warned the Democratic task force that they would not vote for the party unless they received money before the 2024 elections.
San Francisco’s board of supervisors is also facing the same expectations after a recommendation of its African American Reparations Advisory Committee to give $5 million to each eligible Black resident as reparations.
Some balked at even that figure. Reverend Tony Pierce asked “Where’s the money? Where’s the cash? Where’s the check?” “$5 million, San Francisco’s already made a move. $5 million is nothing.”
Some congressional Democrats have pushed for similar federal reparations and passed a bill out of the House Judiciary Committee in 2021 that failed to receive a floor vote. BET founder Robert Johnson has called for $14 trillion in federal reparations.
Even Disney has gotten into the act with a controversial children’s episode in which cartoon children demand reparations.
The years of calls for reparations have created a greater expectation, even an urgency. One well-known California activist declared: “It’s a debt that’s owed, we worked for free. We’re not asking; we’re telling you.”
As I wrote earlier, this bill has come due for Newsom and he now appears to be making the long-awaited pivot away from payments. As expected, it is a bit late for the pivot after politicking on the issue for years to gain votes.
As one minister declared at the hearing last week, “Tell Governor Newsom we’re coming. He knows me.”
I’m waiting for Chuck Schumer, Jamie Raskin, and other members of Congress both past and present to put out a statement that goes something like this:
“When Egypt offers reparations for the 400 years of slavery suffered by the generations of Hebrews it enslaved, then maybe the ancestors of slaves in America can begin to talk of reparations.”
This reparations demand is not going to end well. Too many people’s expectations have been raised unconscionably high to take “no” for an answer. Governor Newsom really opened Pandora’s with his astonishingly and irresponsibly skewed (only one member is not a potential recipient) reparations task force that was inevitably going to conclude for the need of a large cash payment. Once Pandora’s box has been opened, Governor Newsom, and the rest of the nation, will be hard pressed to get everything back in the box.
The problem when you embrace the mob rule is if you do not give the mob what they want, they come after you. IIRC, states do not print their own money. Either they have the money or they don’t. California doesn’t have the money. If they tax the producers enough to cover the windfall, the California economy will never recover. Getting 5million sounds great until you find a loaf of bread is 200k. Gas is 10k/gallon.
@Arnold
Indeed, and has done so with generations that can barely tie their shoes such is their emotional immaturity and ignorance. It isn’t going to end well *at all*. They will come back to bite the dems hard, and we will all be hurt in the process. There is no end to the modern liberal politician’s idiocy and selfishness. They are a plague on this earth. I’m still thinking Robespierre will have a sequel, eventually, and it ain’t gonna be pretty.
Black reparations was always a Ta-Nehisi Coates pipedream.* The Dims dutifully took up the issue and when the bill came to the table they went to the bathroom never to return to the issue again. (Californication is bankrupt by the way — https://www.hoover.org/research/california-defaults-185-billion-debt-leaving-state-businesses-holding-bag). The upshot will be they’ll blame Republicans and, of course, Trump. Dims are so patronizing and demeaning of blacks it’s a wonder they vote for them in droves. Maybe this will wake them up to the scam they’ve suffered yet again. If they take to the LA streets now, at least we could understand the reason as opposed to a death 2000 miles away with precious little facts and a whole lot of raw emotion going on.
*As in opium, as in drug den, as in ain’t real.
I’ve never understood why people like Lebron James don’t pool their large wealth together and form a bank and invest in the people of cities like Detroit or Chicago. If the white man has been so bad and racist, then show us up by lending to inner city people. What’s stopping them?
Jim22:
It brings up a good point. Most oppressed ethnic groups have done just that to overcome finacial disrimination. See the story of the once-proud Bank of America (nee Bank of Italy in San Francisco) as one example I know about. Given all the black millionaires wrought by that “planatation system” known as professional sports you’d think so wouldn’t you?
https://www.occ.treas.gov/about/who-we-are/history/1866-1913/1866-1913-bank-of-america.html
Mespo,
That’s an interesting story about Giannini. And he wasn’t even wealthy like the black millionaires. Now if Lebron came out and tried and showed that the racists were blocking him from creating a bank and lending, than I will march with him. But something tells me, Lebron doesn’t think it’s a wise investment.
jim22 that is a question that cannot be asked;
One quick example, though it does not involve minorities. Zuckerberg gave Newark schools $100 million. Nothing happened. Consultants took all the grift and teacher unions sabotaged any new ideas. Money is not the problem. Leadership is the problem. Leadership in schools all come from….wait for it….schools.
But, back on topic, I live next to an Indian settlement. I have asked people close to the Settlement how many successful Natives, come back or give back to the Settlement. He wasn’t aware of much. Of course now they are getting a stipend from the Casino. But the management is largely non native. (The Tribe does the hiring.)
Think of the effect of reparations to Blacks: to growth of the economy, to home prices and rents, to the auto industry. Most of the money will end up in the pockets of white businessmen. White man’s burden, indeed.
OT,
House probe unveils fresh evidence contradicting Joe Biden claims about family’s foreign deals
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/house-probe-unveils-fresh-evidence-contradicting-joe-bidens-claim
Upstate Farmer:
Here is a quote from the Daily Caller:
““While Vice President Biden was lecturing Romania on anti-corruption policies, in reality he was a walking billboard for his son and family to collect money. Hunter Biden and his associates capitalized on a lucrative financial relationship with a Romanian national who was under investigation for and later convicted of corruption in Romania. The Bidens received over $1 million for the deal and 16 of the 17 payments to their associate’s account that funneled the Biden’s money occurred while Joe Biden was vice president. In fact, the money stops flowing from the Romanian national soon after Joe Biden leaves the vice presidency. This is a pattern of influence-peddling,” Comer said.
. . . .
“The committee is concerned by the complicated, suspicious network of over 20 companies we have identified that the Biden family and their associates used to enrich themselves. Most of these companies were limited liability committees formed during Joe Biden’s vice presidency. The bank records show the Biden family, their associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals and their companies,” Comer said.”
https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/10/james-comer-biden-family-hide-ten-million-foreign-payments/?
We can’t blame foreign governments and businesses for bribing our public officials, directly or through their family members. But we can blame the people who make excuses for those officials and the people who vote the officials into office.
Gavin Newsom is the governor, not the legislature nor the king. He has no authority, even if the money is there, to dispose of it as he chooses.
This whole matter is nonsense, both on the part of Democrats as well as Republicans. Each trying to manipulate their voters, rather than do anything that would make a difference.
Please help us understand how the Republicans have manipulated their voters here. This issue is wholly owned by the Democrats.
We have an invasion of the southern border, crime is out of control, the economy is sputtering, war in Ukraine, fentanyl deaths skyrocketing and a corrupt Whitehouse administration. What to do? Oh, yes, let’s declare war on small businesses, middle class, gas stoves and air conditioners. Let’s not forget to make people who were not or never were slaveholders pay others who were never slaves money that we don’t have. Where does the money come from? The government must pay its tax? That is brilliant. Where does the tax come from? Those who have a job, show up to work, and pay taxes.
My late mother-in-law grew up in squalor, no running water, her dad died in the depression and she and here brothers and sisters nearly starved to death. Her brother got work with the CCC and sent all his money home. It was the first time he ever had three square meals. They eventually got on their feet and more. My grandfather farmed with mules. They had no electricity nor running water. My grandmother fed the family from a garden and from selling eggs and butter. I could go on and I bet every person on this site could do the same and much more. How did they pull themselves out of this situation? They worked. The planned. They sacrificed and they did not have whipped cream on their strawberries (so to speak). The same story could be told millions and millions of times, over and over. That is the beauty of this nation. Not the class warfare that is being waged by malignant politicians and robber barons.
What to do? Let’s move on. Let us depose these spoiled, selfish, self-righteous troublemakers, these glitter rich politicians who hate America and everything about America. They need to be tossed out like yesterdays trash. I would love to see them give all their money to pay for reparations and reduce themselves down to zero assets and have to work for a living. But alas, that will never happen. They are content to trash this nation and what it stands for, foist their Marxist-Communist ideas on others while enjoying the good life for themselves.
The sad part about this whole situation is that less than 20% of this nation are truly in the camp of “Team crazy” but they are the ones with the bullhorn and are the ones stirring up trouble. The rest of the nation “Team Normal” are watching with disbelief. If they get what they are truly promoting, then all those people who are fleeing tyrants to come to our border and try to get a shot at life will have done so in vain.
I have never heard or seen this expressed better.
E.M.
Well said.
EM:
“My late mother-in-law grew up in squalor, no running water, her dad died in the depression and she and here brothers and sisters nearly starved to death. Her brother got work with the CCC and sent all his money home. It was the first time he ever had three square meals. They eventually got on their feet and more. My grandfather farmed with mules. They had no electricity nor running water. My grandmother fed the family from a garden and from selling eggs and butter.”
*********************************
Great story, EM (inspring even),and even better commentary.
Query: Where do I get my “Team Normal” jersey?
Bill O’Rielly.
Here’s George Santos’s indictment, including several counts of wire fraud, theft of public money and unemployment fraud, and false statements on his House disclosure reports:
https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-05/santos.indictment.pdf
Yes, and though not proven coincidence becomes less likely. Yet the evidence against Santos is puny and most on both sides of the aisle want him out.
Compare this to the corruption of Joe Biden and his family. Nothing was done for years or even when a laptop loaded with evidence against him was found.
For the most corruption I have ever read, about an important American official, left to fester read:
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/house-probe-unveils-fresh-evidence-contradicting-joe-bidens-claim?utm_source=breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter
https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2023-05/Bank%20Memorandum%205.10.23.pdf
ATS hides such actions by a lot of “what abouts” that are comparably insignificant.
” Committee has Reviewed Thousands of Bank Records: The Committee has obtained thousands of relevant bank records via subpoenas.
The Complicated Network of Biden Family and Associates’ Companies: Biden family members and business associates created a web of over 20 companies—most were limited liability companies formed during Joe Biden’s vice presidency.
The Biden Family Received Millions of Dollars from Foreign Sources: Bank records show the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals’ companies. The Committee has identified payments to Biden family members from foreign companies while Joe Biden served as Vice President and after he left public office.”
What I find most interesting is how much people portend the alleged illegal dealings Trump did.
Then, when we are provided with real hard evidence of bribery, pay to play, they deny any such wrong doings and immediately go to their go to: Whataboutism!!!!!
They think we are that dumb.
But we are not. We see the corruption for what it is. We see the Biden Crime Family for what they are.
Something I ponder on, this could be the final nail in the coffin for the Biden admin. There are some Democrats who have to be looking at this as a opportunity, like Newsome, Harris, Kennedy or even HRC.
If you were in their positions, would you not see this as an opportunity to seize?
!!!-RUN AWAY-!!!, !!-Run Away-!!, !-run away-! – Gavin won’t last to 2026, It’s his M.O.
Newsom vows to finish four-year term if reelected governor
https://apnews.com/article/gavin-newsom-california-government-and-politics-elections-8c3a310f39beee9513587854e6a41e8b
Ha – Like I believe that!
Lt. Gov. Kounalakis announces 2026 run to replace Newsom
https://www.foxla.com/news/lt-gov-kounalakis-announces-2026-run-to-replace-newsom
Grifters, grifters, grifters. Every side of this argument. Wait a couple of months and you’ll be able to pay them double with worthless US currency.
Newsom has no intention of paying for it out of an vacuous state treasury. He will turn on a dime and demand that the federal government fund the amounts, doubling down by arguing that this is not a California obligation, but a federal obligation, not only to California residents but to the country as a whole. If the feds balk, well, that’s now Newsom’s fault.
Misued the word “vacuous”. Apologies.
Only 77% of Calif. Blacks support this? Why isn’t that figure 100%? Only $5million, why not $50 million or even $500 million per person? Both thoughts are unrealistic and way out of bounds. Then there must be reparations to the interred Japanese from WWII. What about those who lost whole families during the holocaust? The government can’t right a wrong that happened generations ago. We must each make a life and lifestyle for ourself. Don’t rely on Uncle Sam to do this for you! California is already in a deficit, it can’t make payments with what they don’t have other than to tax everyone else who was not responsible for occurrences 170+ years ago? The idea got votes for the Dems, now they can’t realistically deliver!
This might not be the best issue for Newsome to try to ride on in his bid a the DNC nominee. For that matter, it looks like it just might backfire on him.
Of course the real question I have is where is the money going to come from? Making promises for reparations with other peoples money is not a real good idea. This has all the makings of creating even more division in America.
Our current financial situation is not exactly stellar.
More countries are joining the BRICS, and more are using other currencies other than the dollar for international trade.
There is little doubt any actual payment of reparations will face a court challenge based on the Equal Protection Clause. How does the government payout of cash based on race not violation equal protection? There are probably any number of lawyers chomping at the bit to represent the challengers.
And the issue is sure to be decided, ultimately, by Scotus. I personally don’t give reparations a good chance of survival before that august tribunal.
Can anyone provide a reason reparations might actually survive a court challenge?
They can look like chumps or they can look like freeloaders and scam artists. There’s no pretty ending to this hoax. Democrats have bought the black vote since the 1960s, and now they’re running out of money to pay for future votes. And none of them ever thought that promising millions and delivering bupkas would bring some kind of retaliation? Barbara Lee is the ultimate charlatan because we all know why she’s joining the pack. Backing out of this will bring about riots and violence, because that’s what the Democrats and the black community have been promoting since Floyd. And you can bet the Asians and Hispanics in CA will not be on the side of the money grabbers.
This is going to get so out of hand that even Gov. Nuisance will leave for Florida, probably in the dead of the night.
😂🤣
Newsom is leading the brigade for the downfall of America, if his policies are so great why are so many leaving the state: with the number of businesses shuttering cities will soon look the covid era,
Samuel Johnson,
Just read an article that T-Mobile is closing its flagship store in San Fran.
Other stores that have left the downtown San Fran area: Office Depot, The Container Store, Anthropologie, Whole Foods, Disney Store, Armani Exchange, CB2, and Saks Off 5th, Walgreens, CVS.
Those are just the big stores. Does not include all the small businesses that have closed.
“Other stores that have left the downtown San Fran area . . .”
Add Nordstrom, closing both of its downtown stores.
“A growing number of retailers and businesses are leaving the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees, coupled with the fact that these significant issues are preventing an economic recovery of the area.”
That’s the economy and the standard of living in your crime-infested, blue cities.
Samuel Johnson, I love your name, are you looking for a Boswell?
The Democrats are the same people that encourage riots er, protests, enable looting in our cities, and rampant crime through lax arrests and radical DAs and then when businesses leave the cities they claim it is racism that there are no drug stores or supermarkets in the city.
Name a policy of the left that is good: Border? Crime? Inflation? Trans insanity? Energy? Foreign policy? Now you will understand why the democrats do two things, they will not debate and they fight free speech.
HullBobby,
Hard to argue that.
Yesterday Karen S. pointed out everything that was wrong with leftists policies.
Pay reparations to the victims of slavery. Makes me think of the lawyer who owed a dead man some money. So he put a check in his coffin.