Blog

March 18, 2024

Knoxville Focis

knoxfocus.com

Harold A Black

Late last year when most of the world was shocked by the barbaric attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians, there was almost universal support of Israel. However, in November 2023 I wrote “One thing is certain. As the war progresses people will forget the atrocities that caused it and will turn against the Israelis as the progressive Western press will blame Israel for the suffering of the Palestinians. Hopefully, Israel will ignore all noise and do what it considers best in order to survive.” I don’t claim to be prophetic but with Hamas hiding behind civilians by putting their facilities in hospitals, schools and masques, it was clear that civilian casualties were going to result from any Israeli retaliation. Such as been the case but I have always had serious doubts as to the casualty figures.  Virtually every news sources interjects in its coverage that the fighting “has left more than 30,000 Palestinians dead, according to Gaza health authorities, who don’t distinguish between civilians and militants.” Even the Wall Street Journal, which should know better always includes this quote in its reporting. I have no doubt that civilians have been killed – and that is the fault of Hamas using civilians as shields. However, Hamas is likely lying to evoke sympathy and turn the West against Israel. Remember when it was reported that 400 people had been killed by an Israeli missile at a Gaza hospital? The press ran with that story and there were mass protests throughout the West. Then we all found out that the missile was one that had been fired by Hamas and had landed in the hospital’s parking lot. Yet the media continues to promote the Hamas numbers unchallenged perhaps due to the antisemitism on the far left. 

Yes the pictures of civilians – in particular children – are powerful. Yet so were the pictures from Viet Nam causing our soldiers to be called “baby killers” and spat upon and cursed when they returned home. Dead and wounded children are heartbreaking. However, what Israel is not doing is noteworthy. They are not explicitly attacking civilians unlike the Allies’ carpet bombing of Dresden and our fire bombing of Japanese cities. One of our generals stated that if we had lost the war, we would have been convicted of war crimes. From February 13 – 15, 1945, British and US bombers dropped 2,700 tons of explosives on the German city of Dresden killing 30,000 civilians. On March 9,1945 the US dropped over 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo. The houses were primarily made of wood and over 100,00 Japanese citizens died. War crimes indeed. 

Again those are purely civilian casualties with no military targets. On the other hand, the Hamas figures are inflated and have been exposed as such. Early on Biden and the administration’s spokesman, John Kirby, expressed skepticism about Hamas’ figures. Biden said he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.” Kirby said “We can’t take anything coming out of Hamas, including the so-called Ministry of Health, at face value.” Now everyone, including the administration, has bought into the civilian casualty figures from Hamas and Biden is now trying to appease both the Israelis and the pro Hamas crowd. Biden stills says he supports arms and aid to Israel but he has tried to coddle the leftists in his party by criticizing Israeli strategy and sanctioning some Israelis on the West Bank. Biden and his secretary of state Blinken (where are Wynken and Nod?) have even advocated creation of a Palestinian state – something that the Palestinians themselves reject. The Israelis are poised to go into Rafah, the last remaining stronghold of Hamas. Biden has told Israel to essentially stand down and that Rafah is a “red line.” Yet, as the Israelis well know, leaving Rafah intact also leaves Hamas with battalions of fighters with tunnels into Egypt bringing supplies and weapons. Thus, leaving Rafah gives victory to Hamas. That realization has united all the factions in Israel. Not going into Rafah would be political suicide for Netanyahu. 

As I wrote, Israel should ignore the noise and the criticism. Biden doesn’t go to sleep surrounded by people that want to exterminate Americans and erase America. Although Israel is an ally, it has always looked out for itself first. It has conducted spying, misinformation, manipulation and bribing of its allies to further its own interests. It is inconceivable that its people will ever forget the Hamas atrocities and even consider a cease fire until Hamas is reduced to single terrorist bombers and writers of antisemitic propaganda.

March 15, 2024

Also attending my niece’s inauguration as president of Harvey Mudd College were my two wonderful cousins from Gray, GA (who also attended my commencement address at the University of Georgia in December). At Harvey Mudd, they ran into Barbara Krauthamer, Emory University’s Dean of Arts and Sciences. It was an amazing experience. One of my cousins had seen Dr Krathamer’s lecture on C-Span on photographs of blacks during and post slavery and was stunned to meet her. The reason is that the last photo in Krathamer’s book – one that she spent some time on in the lecture – was that of my cousins’ maternal great grand mother, Minerva Graves Black. I was also stunned because in the photo are her two children. The boy is her son, Frank Black who married my grandfather’s sister and is my grandfather’s brother-in-law. I knew her and often visited her on our trips to Gray. I recall her has being one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. She was especially close to my mother. Note that Minerva Graves Black and her husband were not related to my father who was from Americus, GA. This is why I tell people that I have Blacks on both sides of the family. Isn’t it a small world? Krauthamer has a slew of wonderful lectures on the south and slavery of blacks including being slaves of Native Americans. Here is the lecture which I recommend highly that you take time to view. photo. https://www.c-span.org/video/?410238-1/emancipation-legacy-photos

March 15, 2024

At my niece’s inauguration as president of Harvey Mudd College (Claremont, CA), the event was marred by pro Hamas protestors. The delegates were in their academic regalia in a building across from the campus auditorium of Pomona College. Before the doors opened to the auditorium around two dozen protestors covered themselves with sheets and lay down blocking the entrance. After about an hour delay, the police escorted the platform speakers and family into the auditorium through the back door. The rest of the delegates and the audience were taken to another facility on the Mudd campus where the inauguration was live streamed. The police would not open the front door to prevent the protestors from coming inside the auditorium. I, and a few others, were upset. But my niece and most of the delegates who were from other universities were not. Later at lunch, one college president just shrugged off the protest saying “This is the world in which we now live.” Here in Knoxville, the protestors would have been asked to leave and if they refused, would have been “escorted” away. Later there was a campus lunch under a massive tent where the delegates, students and townspeople gathered. It was the perfect venue for a protest. Instead, it was peaceful, uneventful and celebratory. I wonder if any of the protestors were there enjoying the wonderful cuisine?

The early polls show Biden may lose 40 percent of the Hispanic votes. I thought the Hispanics were supposed to be overwhelmingly democrats? On my annual deer hunting trip to Eagle Pass, TX – the epicenter of the illegal immigrant crisis – the rancher’s wife and mother who are Mexican-Americans are incredibly vocal to being inundated with illegals. That area ousted their democrat congressman with a republican. Apparently, the Hispanics are not embracing the inflow.

Fox News is the only media outlet that regularly broadcasts from Eagle Pass. They are actually doing a disservice because they only interview the white ranchers. They should be exclusively interviewing the town residents who have seen their social services, hospitals and town overwhelmed by the illegals. Eagle Pass is a town of 28,000 residents – mostly Hispanic. The number of illegal encounters by the Border Patrol is often 4,000 a day. On top of that number there are the gotaways, mostly young men who do not turn themselves in claiming asylum. Overall it is estimated that during Biden’s term, over 10 million illegals have entered the country. Most will stay. Also, illegals from 145 countries have come across the border. Those from Central America outnumber those coming from Mexico.

Again, what is the motivation for the democrats’ open door policy? The notion that they are importing new voters, as I have often noted, is likely to fail since most Hispanics are practicing Catholics, opposed to LBGTQ+, hardworking and have nuclear families. They also resent because called “Latinx” – the woke term loved by the left. Anyway, illegals cannot vote in national elections and there is pushback in the leftist communities who want to let them vote in local elections. Some say that the elite on the left support the inflow for the cheap labor. They need construction workers, workers in packing plants, lawn service and labor for menial jobs. But that would alienate labor unions and those minorities being displaced by the illegals. Another reason is that the influx is needed to save social security with new contributors to bolster the social security “fund”. The final reason is to preserve national political power with the illegals replacing the citizens who have fled democrat run states. The Census count on which congressional representation is based, does not ask for citizenship status.

Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, on the Senate floor called for the ouster of Netanyahu. I don’t know if this is unprecedented but I don’t remember Schumer calling for a regime change in Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Congo, China of even Iran. What gives? The Israelis are united on this issue and Netanyahu is likely the most “moderate” of the Israeli leaders. An election at this juncture would see someone more closely aligned to the Zionists as president. That president would have less regard for civilians, try to oust the Palestinians from the West Bank and call for a resettlement of Gaza. Schumer has always been a manipulative schemer but I never thought he was a fool.

Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema the two democrat senators opposed to ending the filibuster are leaving the senate. (Yes I know Sinema is an “independent”). Manchin is going to be replaced by a republican. The democrat running to replace Sinema (Rep. Ruben Gallego) calls the filibuster a “Jim Crow relic”. Guess we know where he stands. I have no doubt that if the dems keep control of the Senate that they will vote to end the filibuster. The next time the House, Senate and president are all democrats, the filibuster – the only firewall left to stanch the march to socialism – will disappear.

Musk’s brain implant is frightening. Brain implants, AI and a national digital currency will lead to total government control regardless of which party is in power because in the end neither party would be able to resist the temptation to control the masses.

Harold A Black

March 13, 2024

Go back in your history and you will find poverty. I am not poor. Neither is anyone in my family. I have a Phd. Both my children have MBAs. My late borther had a Phd as do his two children. My parents both had masters degrees. Their siblings all had college degrees. Dad’s parents did not finish high school. His father drove a coal truck. His mother was a maid. They had seven children that lived (two others died in infancy). His mother refused to let her daughters do housework saying that she was not raising the next generation of maids. The boys did the housework but apparently my father did not do any of the cooking. All seven children went to HBCUs. His sisters all were school teachers. One brother was career Air Force. Another brother was an independent businessman. Another became a lawyer and later a municipal judge. Dad was initially the black agricultural extension agent in south Georgia – in those days there were enough black farmers to merit their own extension agent. Of course there was a white extension agent for the white farmers. Dad later morphed into an elementary principal where he met and married my mother. Dad and his brothers worked seasonally as migrant workers to pay for their schooling. He and his brothers also worked to help pay for their sisters’ education.

Mother’s father was a farmer with a primary school education. Her mother was a high school graduate who had to go to a private boarding school in Macon because there was no high school for blacks in her hometown of Gray, GA. With that high school degree granted from Ballard Boarding School for Girls in 1906, she was certified as being qualified to teach “Negro children in the state of Georgia”. I asked my mother how could her grandfather (Milous Towles) afford to send his daughter Mary to boarding school. Mother said “He was an entrepreneur.” I asked, “What does that mean?” Mother replied, “He was a bootlegger.” Pop Milous was illiterate. I have a deed with his “X” on it saying that it was his mark. However, he wanted a different future for his children. My grandmother became the one room schoolmarm for black children in Gray. Mother went to Fort Valley State College (now university). Fort Valley was then a two year school and mother got her degree which was what was now necessary to teach school. Two years later, when Fort Valley became a four year school Mother went back to get another degree. She only had enough money for one year but Fort Valley let her work in the registrar’s office her senior year and waived all her tuition and fees. Mother then received the very first 4 year degree awarded by Fort Valley. She was forever grateful and made a significant donation to the university every year until she died at 101. She is considered the mother of the university which created the Harriet Barfield Black Society in her honor.

I do not know anything about Dad’s family prior to his parents. However, I know much of my mother’s history on her mother’s side. Her maternal grandmother lived with them at the farm in Gray. Ma Mat was born a slave and said she was “picking cotton on Bonners’ Hill when Sherman marched up it.” She marveled at my grandparent’s status and loved their house, even though at that time it had an outhouse. She was proud of how far she had traveled from slavery to the farmhouse in Gray.

I have great admiration for those who came before me. By growing up in an educated household, both my brother and I could read before we went to school. In fact we both skipped the first grade. I graduated from high school at 16, from the University of Georgia at 20 and received a Phd from Ohio State at 25. Both my brother and I never had a thought about not going to college. The only question was where. I think my parents wanted us to go to an HBCU but they were not insistent. Although we both received early admission scholarships to Morehouse out of the 10^th an 11^th grades, neither one of us had a desire to graduate early. My brother wanted to be an engineer. Since he could not go to Georgia Tech because of segregation, he went to Purdue. The state of Georgia paid his out of state tuition since he was majoring in a subject not offered at one of the state’s three black HBCUs. I had thought I wanted to be a physicist. Fortunately, I received a National Foundation Grant to spend part of the summer between my junior and senior high school years to study physics at Norfolk State University. I quickly learned that college physics was light years different from high school physics and I had better rethink my career path. I decided to follow my brother to Purdue, saying that I would major in engineering. However, the University of Georgia was ordered to desegregate in my junior year. The state took away the tuition grant to black students. My father told me he did not have enough to send both of us to Purdue and I would have to find someplace else. Although I got several scholarships to HBCUs and a band scholarship to Ohio State (ironically). I found the University of Georgia.

My parents paid for our college and gave us a stipend so we wouldn’t have to work – just concentrate on your studies we were told. We knew our history and knew we had it easy. We did not have to leave school to be migrant workers to pay for our education like our Dad. We did not have to fear that the money would run out and we would have to leave school without the degree like my mother. We were not destined to do manual labor or clean house for white people. We did not use “X” as our signature. We did not have to pick cotton under the sweltering Georgia sun and be fed in the fields from hog troughs like Ma Mat. Yet because of all those and the others who went before them, we are forever in their debt. There may be educated poor black folk. But I do not know any. The surest way out of poverty is through education. That is obvious. Yet most black politicians and civil rights organizations are against school choice. This simply means that they have created an industry out of poor black folk and the end of poverty would cut off the money flowing from guilty white people. I am ashamed of the NAACP, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Ibram X. Kendi and all the antiracism race hustlers. They do us all a disservice.

March 12, 2024

Last year the NAACP issued a “travel advisory” warning blacks that Florida was a “hate state” hostile to people of color. This was in response to Ron DeSantis’ rejection of the AP course on black history. That course was more one of political and social indoctrination to the views of the left than one of history with sections on queer blacks in history, Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project’s re-writing of American history. DeSantis commissioned a group of scholars to write a more accurate rendering of history. Those who jumped on the anti-DeSantis bandwagon said that he was erasing black history when he fact they were the ones who denigrated black accomplishments in the face of the vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow.

Now the NAACP has struck again urging black athletes not to go to Florida colleges and universities in response to the state eliminating DEI staff and DEI programs from its schools. The president of the NAACP (who is from Mississippi) and its chairman (who lives in Tampa) in a letter to the president of the NCAA said “While it is our duty to spread awareness and encourage action around these egregious assaults, we also recognize that protest can come at a price. The sad reality is, for many Black student- athletes, collegiate sports may be their sole opportunity at achieving the upward mobility necessary to propel them into their rightful places in society.” “Florida’s rampant anti-Black policies are a direct threat to the advancement of our young people and their ability to compete in a global economy,” the NAACP’s president said in a statement. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion are paramount (to) ensuring equitable and effective educational outcomes.” “The value Black and other college athletes bring to large universities is unmatched. If these institutions are unable to completely invest in those athletes, it’s time they take their talents elsewhere.” Emmitt Smith, one of the University of Florida’s most notable alumni opined “We need diverse thinking and backgrounds to enhance our University and the DEI department is necessary to accomplish those goals.”

Yet neither the NAACP or Smith did not show how the elimination of DEI would negatively impact the education of black students and in particular black athletes. Moreover, there is no evidence that the existence of DEI has furthered the academic achievement of black students. But evidence does not matter. I presume that the NAACP president wants the five star Florida athletes to also shun the HBCUs in the state that have athletic programs. I am waiting to hear the protests coming from the coaches at Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman. Perhaps he is hoping that those athletes will come to the more welcoming and inclusive state of Mississippi. I suggest that they come instead to the University of Georgia, Ohio State University and of course to the University of Tennessee.

March 9, 2024

I don’t go to movies and I seldom watch them at home. Maybe this was a result of my growing up in the segregated south. The first run movies were in segregated theatres and my parents refused to go sit in the balcony. I can’t remember what our theatres showed but I do remember going to them every now and then with friends. It was a social outing. But I felt imprisoned in the theatre being held captive for 3 hours. I never could get pass the fact that the actors were acting with all the fake imagery – cue the rubber shark! Now the imagery is lifelike but it is still fake and the actors are still acting. I would occasionally watch a movie at home where I could pause the movie and go do productive stuff. Sometimes it would take me days just to get through a single movie. Nevertheless, I actually liked some film noir like the Bogart movies, Pulp Fiction and Choose Me. On a recent flight to Los Angeles, the entertainment video screen in the plane had dozens of movies. None of them appealed to me so I listened to my music instead. On the flight back, I tried to watch Star Trek Discovery and found it simply awful. I did watch the first season of Halo which at least was not boring.

The last movie I saw in the theatre was Saving Private Ryan only because my other half’s father was a Bedford Boy and in the first wave at D-Day. Before that I went with my son and his family to see one of the Star Wars movies when he was in UTs MBA program. Aside from my aversion to the movies, I do not like what the movie makers are peddling. They are among the leading leftists in the country despite gaining their riches through capitalism. Much like their fellow leftists, Hollywood makes all the appropriate clucking noises to appease themselves and their fellow “progressives”. Yet Hollywood remains a predominately white male good old boys club. Few blacks are members of the academy and remember it is the academy that nominates itself and votes itself Oscars. You would think in these “woke” days that the Oscar nominees would be black, women, Hispanic and transgender demonstrating Hollywood’s commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity. So you would expect “Till” to receive a best picture nomination and nominations for Warrior King which starred black women, produced by a black woman and directed by a black woman. But no. There were no blacks nominated in any major category. The white good old boys once again nominated themselves and will vote themselves the Oscars. Not surprising the hash tag “Oscars so white” has resurfaced.

Thomas Sowell once remarked that when some white person professor starts spouting off about diversity and inclusion to ask “How many republicans are in your sociology department?” In Hollywood, one can ask how many black directors do you have? How many black producers? How many blacks actors in meaningful roles? The left pays lip service to DEI and the latest academy award nominations are further evidence of their hypocrisy.

Harold A Black

Knoxville Focus

knoxfocus.com

March 4, 2024

A couple years ago I wrote an article on why the progressive media insists that we capitalize the “b” in black when it refers to race. As was the case with the movement of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and the teaching of Critical Race Theory in our schools, the change was motivated by white guilt associated with the death of George Floyd. The Associated Press changed the case justifying it by saying “AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa. The lowercase black is a color, not a person. AP style will continue to lowercase the term white in racial, ethnic and cultural senses.” 

What is interesting is that the so-called conservative media has meekly followed suit. Why? I haven’t a clue. The Wall Street Journal capitalizes “b” in its articles but still yields to the wishes of the writers on its opinion pages where some continue not to capitalize “b”. I sent the Journal a query as to why. What I got back was the same Associated Press nonsense. The Journal’s response in part was that “Black is an identifier that is about more than a skin color. The adjective white doesn’t define a cohesive ethno-cultural group in the way Black does, and therefore will remain lowercase in the Journal.” Excuse me? What is the ”cohesive ethno-cultural group” that the Journal talking about? Certainly there is nothing cohesive about blacks in America, Africa, or anywhere else in the world. In fact, American blacks are the perhaps the least cohesive ethno-cultural group in the world. We don’t look alike. We don’t think alike (much to the chagrin of the progressives). Our African ancestors came from hundreds of tribal groups with different cultures and different languages who were as radically different as the Navaho are from the Apaches. Southern blacks are culturally different from northern blacks. There are distinct differences in blacks in education, nuclear family, church attendance by regions in the United States. Outside America, there is nothing virtually common about blacks in the Caribbean, those in South America, Central America, various African countries and those in Europe and Asia save having an African ancestor. So please point out the “cohesive ethno-culturalness.”

Another example of conservatives caving into the progressive nonsense is that of a conservative organization which contracted with me and others to write articles on whether systemic racism exists in education and in housing. In my piece on housing, I did not capitalize black. However, the two white writers capitalized both “black” and “white”. The other black writer capitalized “black” but not “white”. When the papers were edited, the editor capitalized “black” and not “white.” I insisted that my style should remain the same, as did the others. The editor responded that the conservative think tank was adhering the University of Chicago style manual which had adopted the AP spelling. Needless to say, I am disappointed that those who claim to be on the right have succumbed to the dictates of the left. Next thing you know, they will be using their preferred pronouns and calling a trans “male” he and a trans “woman” she. Oh wait. They do that too.

Its whites who make these silly rules. Capitalizing blacks but not whites is an artifice. It is an attempt to elevate blacks above whites in a manner that does not alter any existing inequalities. It is an attempt by whites to feel good about themselves without changing anything material. Ask these progressives “How many blacks are in your country club, live in your neighborhood, go to your church, are in your fraternity or sorority, in your book club, in your poker game, in your life?” If progressives and the left really wanted to do something meaningful, they would address the lack of proficiency in reading and math amongst our school children by raising proficiency levels. They have done the opposite and dumbed down curricula and are deemphasizing math and reading. What is apparent is that the left has no interest in furthering the wellbeing of blacks. Changing our use of the language does not alter a thing. As George Orwell noted, certain word usage narrows the range of thought to the point that individuals in society are not as capable of a broader range of thought. It is time for conservatives to quit adopting the language of the left.

Harold A Black

March 3, 2024

I just returned from California where my niece Dr. Harriet Black Nembhard was installed as the new president of Harvey Mudd College – often referred to as one of the best, if not the best, undergraduate schools in America. Mudd focuses on the sciences, engineering, computer science and mathematics. However, it is a science based institution with a soul. Mudd’s mission statement is that it “seeks to educate engineers, scientists, and mathematicians well versed in all of these areas and in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts so that they may assume leadership in their fields with a clear understanding of the impact of their work on society.” Its students and faculty have serious smarts. The composite SAT scores are 1480-1560 with ACTs 34-36. It has a small student body of less than 1,000. It is expensive with annual cost of $80,000+, a 10 percent acceptance rate and is the college with the highest starting salaries of its graduates. Its literature says that “Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is one of the premier engineering, science and mathematics colleges in the United States. HMC educates engineers, scientists and mathematicians who become leaders in their fields and have a clear understanding of the impact their work has on society. For more than 50 years, HMC has led the way with interactive undergraduate research opportunities on par with graduate institutions. HMC has a strong focus on the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, exceptional faculty members who challenge students to achieve beyond their expectations and one of the nation’s highest rates of graduates who go on to earn PhDs in the sciences. HMC’s graduates are highly trained scientists, technologists, educators, entrepreneurs and other professionals.” Mudd is also dedicated to diversity and inclusion and does so without relaxing its rigorous standards.

My niece is the perfect president for Mudd. Engineers are generally pretty smart but her selection as president also speaks well for their judgment. Harriet is a brilliant and insightful scholar, internationally recognized for her pioneering work in heathcare engineering. She is also a prominent figure in STEM education. I am proud that she has dedicated her academic research to making a difference and has had impacts on medical research including Parkinson’s disease. She is actually coming home to Mudd which is part of the Claremont Colleges. Harriet has undergraduate degrees from Arizona State and from Claremont McKenna College. She has been in place since July 1 and has already made positive impressions among students, faculty and staff. All are highly praiseworthy of her leadership and of course her intellect.

When she told me that she was leaving her position as dean of the college of engineering at the University of Iowa to become Mudd’s sixth president, I was elated. Given her skills, her perspective, her view of academics and college education, I knew she was going into a perfect situation. Surrounded by very smart faculty and smart students who work hard and expect to be worked hard she has been called to lead through example. It is ideal. Harvey Mudd is fortunate to have her and she will lead them to even greater heights.

Random Thoughts

February 25, 2024

Some have said that the game plan for the Democrats is to have noncitizens voting. Well San Francisco has just appointed a non citizen (a Chinese) to its Board of Electors. That’s right. A person who cannot vote is going to be supervising those who can. The new board member gave her acceptance speech in Chinese. Only in California.

Major League baseball has new uniforms. The players hate them. Also the uniforms have proved to be revealing under certain conditions. I am certain that the Dodger fans were excited to see Shoei Othani. But perhaps they are seeing a little too much of him.

A school system in Georgia has fired a teacher who read a pro gender propaganda book to fifth graders that encouraged kids to go “beyond binary.” Certainly Georgia is not California where teachers are fired for not reading pro gender propaganda. Also certainly not in Biden’s woke federal government where the VA suspended a doctor who openly questioned the policy of allowing males to occupy the same private spaces as women veterans.

The judge who fined Trump $350 million was stupid. That figure is excessive and will likely be overturned. Only Trump haters would cheer such a figure. The judge would have been smarter had he found Trump guilty and fined him $1 million. Trump would have likely paid the fine since appealing it would probably cost him more than that in legal fees. The democrats would applaud the guilty verdict and the rest of us could put that episode behind us.

I have not burned one brain cell over the Trump indictments. However, did you notice that all the attorney generals, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg and Letitia James are democrats and all are black?

I was asked why black men were increasingly favoring Trump. I guess someone must think that I am the spokesman for black men. I am not. Is there a spokesman for white men? I can give an opinion however. It is that blacks sympathize with Trump being the victim of uneven application of the law. Blacks have been on the receiving end of disproportionate arrest, punishment and imprisonment than whites for the same crimes. Now Trump is being indicted for the same or lesser offenses than Joe Biden. Its clear to all and especially revealing for black men who are constantly reminded that justice is not blind.

I don’t watch basketball. But while going through the channels I stumbled on a women’s basketball game. What was interesting was that all of the players on the floor for one team were white and there were only two black players, both sitting on the bench in warmups. In men’s basketball it is reversed with the players on the end of the bench in warmups all most always being white.

It is also interesting to read of all the brouhaha surrounding Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and her setting of an NCAA scoring record. Truth be told, the record is bogus. Clark broke the scoring totals of Kelsey Plum who played for the University of Washington. However, Plum’s “record” of 3,527 points exists because, for whatever reason, the NCAA does not recognize statistics from the AIAA (Association of Intercollegiate Athletes for Women) which was the governing body for women’s sports until 1982. Their record holder is Lynette Woodward who played for Kansas and scored 3,649 points. Many famous figures in the women’s game state that Woodward should be record holder and that Clark’s “record” should come with an asterisk. It is curious that the NCAA has not merged the AIAA’s statistics into its own. The NFL merged the statistics of the AFL when it merged. Major League baseball has merged the statistics of the Negro Leagues. Yet the NCAA is ignoring the accomplishments of women who played before 1981. Moreover, Lynette Woodward is not even the highest scoring women’s basketball player. That distinction is for Pearl Moore who played for Francis Marion college for 1975-1979 and scored 4,061 points. But Francis Marion is a Division II school and the official “record” is for Division I schools.

February is Black History Month. Some wag said it was because there were fewer days in February than any other month. If you are interested in reading about historical blacks that you never knew about, I encourage you to look at Bob Woodson’s 1776 Unites page.

February 25, 2024

This is my daughter’s birthday. So happy birthday. I love you and am proud that you are my daughter.

I voted February 19th in Tennessee’s March 5 primary. No I did not enter a time warp into the future. Rather I voted early. I arrived when the polls opened and there was already a line. We love early voting in my precinct. On election day, the lines are long and the wait is longer, so we vote early. For the life of me I don’t understand the Republican establishment’s opposition to early voting. Clearly, Republicans vote early because in my precinct most voters were Republicans. I can understand the angst that comes from mail in ballots which are ripe for fraud because it seems that only the Democrats have figured out how to cheat. But early voting at polling places is secure. Here in Knoxville we are asked for either a driver’s license or a voter registration card in order to vote. We do not have to show proof of citizenship. However, when one registers to vote, most states (I presume all states) make you swear that you are a citizen. The state is supposed to check to make certain that you swore the truth. Arizona has purged over 400 voters from its rolls when it determined that that noncitizens had registered. Not surprisingly most of the noncitizens had registered to vote when they got their driver’s licenses. 

Perhaps the Republican establishment figures that if voting only occurs on election day, that the Democrats are less likely to vote than Republicans. Economics would postulate that those people willing to stand in long lines for lengthy periods have lower opportunity costs than those who are less willing to stand in line. If opportunity costs are high, then voters are losing considerable earnings by standing in line. Since it is illegal to hire a surrogate to vote for you, the choice would be to either forego earnings and vote or not. Thus, those people with lower opportunity costs such as retirees, the unemployed or stay at home spouses would be the ones to dominate voting. If these voters were predominately Democrats, then the Republicans should embrace early voting. Rather they oppose it. Perhaps the opposition stems from the fact that over 50 percent of Democrats vote early versus 35 percent of Republicans. Also a higher percentage of women vote early versus the men. I hope this isn’t interpreted as sexist, but if women are likely to be the stay at home spouse, then their voting early is contrary to the predictions of economics in that they have lower opportunity costs. However, they do have the greater advantage of being able to vote at any time during the polling window. 

I voted for Ron DeSantis. Yes I know that he suspended his campaign. But DeSantis had proven to me that he would have made the best president. I liked most of the things that he did in Florida and wanted them repeated nationally. I did not like his interaction with Nikki Haley when they were the only two left but hopefully he learned his lessons and will be back for another run in four years. 

I did not like Nikki Haley. She seemed too fond of direct military intervention into foreign disputes. This must be a South Carolina thing because Lindsey Graham always wants to bomb somebody. I didn’t understand her position of having to register to be on the internet and its chilling effect on free speech. Her response on the cause of the Civil War where she omitted slavery seemed to harken on a fear of alienating the die hearts who champion the mournful “Lost Cause” position on southern slavery. Haley impressed me as being not sincere and an opportunist.  Her core values were not evident. I wish that she had run on her record in South Carolina. For a person of color to be elected and reelected governor there is an accomplishment that should be touted. The confederate flag was removed from the state capitol on her watch. She was the one who appointed Tim Scott to the senate. She supported voter ID laws and opposed the resettlement on Syrian refugees in the state. As governor she focused on small business development and cutting of taxes and burdens on small businesses. Surely these would have made for attractive platforms on a run for the presidency. But somehow she seemed to be more focused on other areas. Perhaps she thought her time as US ambassador to the United Nations was more important in a presidential race than being governor of a small southern state. But Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton showed that not to be the case. Haley should have heeded their example.