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My NextDoor account was suspended because I posted a link to the Accidental Speaker. Seems that NextDoor does not like musing on national politics. I thought that the readers needed a break from postings on lost dogs and lousy plumbers. My bad. But how do they explain their embrace of Black Lives Matter?

If Bill Clinton was the first black president then Joe Biden said that he was the first black woman to serve with a black president. Does that mean he is a black cross dressing, transwoman passing for white? Who knew.

Biden and his surrogates have only one warning against Trump – that he is a “threat to democracy.” But what about the FBI and the Steele dossier? What about the Russian conspiracy hoax? What about the 51 intelligence gnomes lying about Hunter’s laptop? What about lawfare and the “Justice” department actions against Trump and his allies? What about the expansion of the administrative state? What about ignoring the rulings from the Supreme Court? Aren’t all these “threats to democracy Joe?”

Isn’t it interesting that the democrats are losing their minds over the Supreme Court ruling of limited immunity for the president? Consider that Biden said that the decision was a “treat to democracy”. Can’t they find another pet phase? Biden said that there are now “virtually no limits on what the president can do.” He apparently does not realize the irony of his statement. He should now be happy for if Trump is elected, won’t Biden be shielded from retribution since all of his acts were conducted in his official capacity as president? Biden ended his lament with “May God help preserve our democracy.” Indeed.

By the way Joe (and all the folks on the left) we do not have a democracy to preserve. We have a representative republic. We elect politicians to represent our interests. The senate is surely not a democracy with two senators from each state, regardless of population. Neither is the House of Representatives. The average population per member is 760,000. But Delaware has one representative and 960,000 residents. Why don’t those “threat to democracy” folk demand that we jettison both the senate and the house and have a national vote on every bill? These wailers also want the Supreme Court expanded but I have heard no one wanting the House of Representatives to be expanded to “better represent democracy.” And by the way, haven’t they learned their lessons with regard to the Supreme Court? I guess they haven’t heard that what goes around comes around.

What ever happened to “We will build the wall and Mexico will pay for it”?

Someone wrote that this may be the first election where the majority of people voting for one candidate are doing so because they detest the other candidate. I guess they forgot about Hillary Clinton. BTW, has anyone associated with the Clintons turned up dead lately?

Trump needs to pick a VP who will be an outstanding two term president. If Biden had picked another black woman, say Val Demmings, there would not be all the gnashing of teeth about succession. I still fault Reagan for naming George Bush rather than Jack Kemp as his running mate. Kemp was a solid conservative with strong support in the black community. A President Kemp would have carried on Reagan’s legacy and paved the way for a stronger less partisan America. Instead we got George Bush.

Biden is on a string of loses. First there was the disastrous debate. Now everyone wants him to abdicate – except his family and Biden himself. Second, the courts keep stopping his tuition debt pandering. Third, Chevron has been repealed, limiting the administrative state. Fourth, the courts have ruled against regulatory overreach by the FTC and the SEC. Fifth, Biden’s pause on liquid natural gas exports has been overturned. Six, Biden’s rewrite of Title IX which changes the definition of sex to include gender identities has been blocked. Thank goodness for the republican AGs for their suits targeting regulatory overreach. Of course our “representatives” in congress have been doing nothing but sitting on their thumbs.

Previous, I listed some of the Biden initiatives. Here they are again:

1. Climate change: no new pipelines, restrictions on drilling, encouraging financial institutions not to lend to gas and oil producers, cited climate change as an essential element of national security and foreign policy. Shutting down liquid natural gas exports.
2. Embracing “green new deal”
3. End of energy independence
4. Equity plans for all federal agencies 
5. Inflation
6. Weaponization of the Department of “Justice”
7. Open borders: ended funding for the border wall, rescind the “Stay in Mexico” policy
8. $1.9 trillion Covid “relief” bill: Only 9% allocated to public health issues
9. $2.2 trillion “infrastructure” bill
10. Support of Critical Race Theory
11. Rewriting Title IX to include transgenders
12. Support for the teaching of gender identity to K-3 students
13. Ending ban on transgenders in military
14. Woke military
15. Raised minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour
16. Established a White House gender policy council
17. Stops withdrawal from World Health Organization
18. Restart Iran nuclear agreement
19. Pauses student loan repayments
20. Extending the foreclosure moratorium
21. Rejoins Paris climate accord
22. Rescinds Trump’s 1776 Commission that was established as a counter to the New York Times 1619 Project
23. Including noncitizens in the Census
24. “Build Back Better” progressive wish list
25. Soft on crime
26. Attempts at rescinding the Second Amendment
27. Federal takeover of elections
28. Commission to study the packing of the Supreme Court
29. Universal pre-K, free community college, expansion of child tax credit
30. Increased regulatory burdens at a cost of $100 billion annually

Did I leave out anything?

As Gil Scott-Heron said in “Winter in America”, “four more years of that?”

The left does not care about reducing emissions. It has other objectives being accomplished through the draconian measures being mandated by the Biden Administration. If they cared about emissions they would embrace nuclear, clean coal, low carbon fuel development and other measures instead of being obsessed the with impossible goal of zero emissions.

How can a group named Black Lives Matter be pro-abortion?

What does President Biden have in common with an electric car? Neither can go very far without a rest.

A new survey finds that 57% of American millennial electric-vehicle owners say they are likely to switch back to a gasoline-powered car. 

I don’t give money to able bodied panhandlers. With all the now hiring signs, apparently they can make more money begging than by going to work – and it is tax free too!

However, I do give money often to those physically disabled and if they have a dog, almost 100 percent.

Universities are bringing back the SAT and ACT because although test scores are going down, GPAs are going up.

California is still talking about reparations. Are the blacks going to have to prove that they are descended from slaves? Are immigrants, Native Americans, Mexicans and Asians going to have to pay reparations to black folk?

Is there any evidence that blacks descended from slaves are worse off than blacks who are not?

Even if Trump wins, there won’t be much change in business policy regarding climate. They have invested too much and been bribed too much with all the trillions from the government to go back.

Trump is a short timer and he is likely to prove as unpopular as Biden.

The republicans need to make abortion cease to be an issue. Of course no matter what they do, the left with try to keep the issue on the front burner because it gets them votes from suburban white women and black women. The republicans should endorse all forms of birth control. Polls show that the vast majority of voters are not opposed to abortion within the first six weeks. However, the majority – even democrats – oppose abortion after that. The republicans in their national platform should not oppose early abortions, oppose a nationwide ban on abortions and leave it up to the states.

During the celebration of Juneteenth, there was the usual wasted discussion on what should actually be emancipation day for black Americans. Some pointed to January 1, 1863 when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation rather than June 19, 1865. However, the slaves were not freed by that action which proclaimed that the slaves were “forever free” in those states at war with the Union. Slaves were not therefore not freed anywhere. My great grandmother said that they knew of the proclamation and did not throw down their shackles and run off the plantation shouting “Lawdy, we is free!” Rather, they went back to work. Juneteenth marked when the last slaves were notified of their freedom. However, that means that the others were already free. Some have pointed to the 13^th Amendment which was ratified on December 8, 1865 when slavery was abolished de jure, even though all the slaves had already been freed de facto. My point is that it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that the abomination that is chattel slavery was ended in the United States.

Drain the Swamp?

Trump wants to “drain the swamp” mainly because the vast majority of federal workers are democrats. He won’t succeed. Trump feels that lower level federal employees work against his agenda and effectively sabotage his agenda. He wants to attack mid level employees by instituting something called Schedule F which makes it easier to fire federal workers. However, Schedule F would only affect 50,000 of the 2.5 million workers. Any effort to impose it would be tied up in court and not adjudicated until long after Trump had left office. Moreover, just like Biden who rescinded Trump’s prior Schedule F orders, any democrat president would also rescind it. So Trump is wasting his time. More effective are the Supreme Court actions to disable Chevron – the Supreme Court ruling that empowered the regulatory agencies to write regulations somewhat implied by enabling legislation. Recently, the republican AGs have sued the Biden Administration claiming that the regulators have been exceeding their legislative authority. It is curious that the republican House of Representatives has essentially sat on its thumbs allowing Biden to run roughshod over the economy.

Recently the Supreme Court has ruled on cases that affect Chevron. The first case involved New Jersey fishermen being forced to pay for third party on board monitors by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The fishermen contended that this was done without authorization from Congress. The Supreme Court agreed. In so doing, the court overturned Chevron. Chief Justice Roberts wrote “Perhaps most fundamentally, Chevron’s presumption is misguided because agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do.” The second blow to the administrative state came in a ruling that the Securities and Exchange Commission cannot bring a charge of a violation and then prosecute it in house. The court ruled that defendants have the right to have their case heard by a jury. The government had argued that it was enforcing a “public right” created by Congress and given to the administrative state. Of course, the vote was 6-3 with Justice Sotomayor lamenting that court was dismantling the administrative state. Would that be true.

Thus, the court is a much more effective way of dismantling the administrative state, i.e. the swamp, than the clumsy use of Schedule F. However, this does not mean that Trump cannot do something about the administrative state. He can move the agencies out of Washington. He does not need congressional approval to do so. A case in point is my old agency the National Credit Union Administration. When I was there in the early 1980s the agency moved within DC. Twenty years later it moved to Virginia. It did not ask permission of the congress. It just moved. I believe that the credit unions benefited with the move. Although some credit union managers grouse about treatment from examiners, on the whole the agency has become more responsive to the needs of the credit unions and the millions they serve.

When I studied the Fed as a young economist, I found that the actions and recommendations of the reserve bank presidents on the Open Market Committee were starkly different from those of the Governors. The difference likely emanated from the reserve bank presidents being located around the country while the governors all resided in the DC MSA. The presidents work and live around people with real jobs while the governors live around those whose sole existence is due to the presence of the federal government. A reserve bank president is more likely to hear his neighbor talk about the local football game while the governor’s neighbor is more interested in the rate of inflation and interest rates. Also the reserve bank presidents get monthly reports from their directors who are nongovernment citizens – bankers, lawyers, academics, business executives – and those reports influence their decision making. I saw that first hand when I served on the Atlanta Fed’s branch board in Nashville. I believe that federal decision making would be less harmful if the agencies left the swamp and went where real people did real jobs for a living. So where should they go? I would leave Defense, Treasury and State in DC. As to the other cabinet agencies:

Homeland Security – Eagle Pass, TX (the epicenter of the illegal crisis)

Interior – Juneau, AK (large percentage of federal land ownership)

Agriculture – Ames, IA (second in agriculture production)

Commerce – Boston

Labor – Detroit 

Health and Human Services – Jackson, MS (the poorest state)

Housing and Urban Development – Philadelphia (part of the most urbanized area)

Transportation – Seattle (home of Boeing)

Energy – Houston

Education – Little Rock (I like Huckabee Sanders school choice initiative)

Veterans Affairs – Bedford, VA (site of the D-Day Memorial)

What about the Fed? Send it to Kansas City (middle America and great BBQ)

The winner gets an F.

The “presidential” debate was curious at best. First, calling it “presidential” is a stretch. I, for one, could not sit through 90 minutes of listening to either candidate so I watched a baseball game. I did manage to listen to clips from the debate later.  It was apparent that Trump’s strategy was to say cool and let Biden slobber all over himself. The question is why was anyone surprised of Biden’s incoherence? He has been stumbling, mumbling and bumbling for more than a year now. Why did the Biden camp agree to have the debate before the democrat convention? They knew he would be bad. The pundits knew it would be bad so they could all call for him stepping aside. As a matter of fact, was anyone surprised that he would be awful? So now the democrat operatives can publicly moan and groan and hope for a new nominee at the convention. Who? The most mentioned are Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Witmer and J. B. Pritzker who would all be worse than Biden. Imagine the harm that a young articulate leftist socialist democrat in the White House could do enacting their climate, DEI, border openness, illegal migrant citizenship anti-Israel agenda. What about Kamala Harris? Not nominating Harris would alienate black democrats and create even more turmoil in the party. But Harris is likely unelectable not because of race but because she has been a simply awful vice president – which is saying a lot. Isn’t it ironic that the only people now wanting Harris to be president are some republicans? Rick Scott and Mike Lee are calling for evoking the 25^thAmendment which would make Harris president. Perhaps they feel that if Harris were president now, then she would get the nomination and be beatable. Is there a democrat who would not be a disaster? Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania comes to mind.

What I find interesting is that there is very little analysis of Trump’s performance. Of course the New York Times would characterize it as “relentless attacks and falsehoods”. But wasn’t that how most others characterized Biden’s? But even Trump’s sympathizers conceded that he was light on substance and did not come armed with data and facts. Some pointed that he did not aggressively attack Biden’s climate policy and the economy but focused mainly on the border. It’s the economy stupid! Both Trump and Biden were given to hyperbole with Trump calling the border the most dangerous place in the world and saying that everyone wanted abortion returned to the states. However, even Trump’s critics who gave him an F admitted that Biden did even worse (F-?). I was in Washington and a dear friend said that she would vote for Sammy (her Labrador retriever) before she would vote for Trump. I said that I would vote for Sammy too but unfortunately Sammy was not running for president.

So much stuff. So little time.

Every time I see an electric Hummer ($100,000+) or a Tesla Cybertruck ($85,000+) somehow I am reminded of P.T. Barnum.

Speaking of P.T. Barnum, the Alaskan democrat party has decided in their official platform to advocate a rapid transition away from fossil fuels to “renewable energy.” Mind you, gas and oil provide the bulk of the revenue to the state. The party now opposes all new exploration and drilling and endorses carbon pricing. One would think that the platform would doom the reelection chances of representative Mary Peltola who is severely criticized as being out of touch with everyday Alaskans and is in a tough race with the state’s lieutenant governor. But there is no explaining stupidity.

The Department of Defense is sponsoring a company called BioMade whose website says its mission is to “enable domestic bioindustrial manufacturing at all scales, develop technologies to enhance U.S. bioindustrial competitiveness, de-risk investment in relevant infrastructure, and expand the biomanufacturing workforce to realize the economic promise of industrial biotechnology.” I haven’t a clue what all that gobbledygook means but the bottom line is the company manufactures lab grown meat. Why would the Department of Defense sponsor such a company, you ask? Apparently, the goal is to feed soldiers lab grown meat (yuk!) in order to reduce the military’s carbon footprint. I kid you not. I’m sure this will be a great recruiting tool. If this isn’t a call for new leadership at the Pentagon I don’t know what is.

The Trump verdict seems to have awaken the Congressional republicans out of their slumber. Six senators (including our Bill Hagerty) have pledged to block the fast tracking confirmation of at least 44 of Biden’s nominees. This does not mean that they will block confirmation only slow it down. I guess we should be grateful that these senators are doing something but it snacks of posturing. I wish they would stop the usual business of the senate until they attack the real issues that face us today. And by the way, why only 6 republican senators? Where are the other 41?

The IAAF (World Athletics Foundation) has lowered the level of nanomoles per liter of blood for males to compete as women from 10 to 5. This is still too high for the vast majority of women have a level of 2.5 nanomoles per liter while 10 is the lowest for men. While some women have levels at 5, this is rare (unless they were from East Germany) and the rule should be that the athlete must be female at birth and through puberty to compete as a woman. Otherwise a person who is male at birth and through puberty will have physical advantages over women.

Wil(lia)m Thomas lost his appeal to compete in the Olympics. The ruling was that he “lacked standing.”  Actually, Thomas lacks a bit more than “standing.” Thomas was allowed to compete in NCAA events while at Penn leading a member of the NCAA Committee on Infractions to resign stating that the NCAA policies were regressive and discriminated against female student athletes. I am surprised that Penn who just wanted to win and named Thomas “Woman” athlete of the year didn’t put men on all of their women’s sports teams. Penn told its women swimmers to shut up or get off the team. I am surprised that they acquiesced.

Thomas was a mediocre male swimmer and apparently craved attention and craved trophies that he could not get competing as a man. The NCAA then adopted a policy that punted. It declared that the eligibility of the trans athletics would correspond to the policy determined by the particular sport’s international federation. Contrast this wimpy approach to that of the NAIA, the body governing mostly small colleges. Their council of presidents unanimously approved a policy banning trans athletes from competing in women’s sports. The policy is all athletes may participate in NAIA- sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological birth sex is female and who have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed to participate in women’s sports. If the athlete has begun hormone therapy then he/she may participate in all team activities except interscholastic competition. Methinks the NCAA should grow a set and follow the lead of the NAIA. That Wil(lia)m Thomas was allowed to compete is a travesty. That the Biden administration is trying to force the transgender participation in women’s and girls’ sports through Title IX is also a travesty. I just wish everyone would start just saying “no.”

So much stuff. So little time.

More Random Thoughts

Kamala Harris headlined a political rally for Angela Alsobrooks, the democratic candidate for Senate in Maryland. Alsobrooks is county executive of Prince Georges County and defeated dem representative David Trone in the democrat primary. Trone is the multibillionaire from Total Wine who bought his seat in Congress and spent $60 million of his own money in a losing effort in the Senate primary. Good riddance. I am glad he lost. Harris used the occasion to tout Alsobrooks’ support for gun control legislation. Alsobrooks said that she would hold gun manufacturers accountable “for the immense harm that they have caused our state and country.” That is interesting. Figures show that in 2022 they were about 48,000 firearm-related deaths in the US. More than half were suicides. Forty percent were classified as homicides That means that less than 20,000 are the cause of the “immense harm” cited by Alsobrooks. Consider that there were 46,000 vehicle deaths in 2022. I guess Alsobrooks is going to hold the automobile manufactures accountable for the immense harm that they are causing our country as well. Alsobrooks also stated that firearms were the largest killer of young people. This is not even close to the truth. The biggest killer of young blacks is the abortion industry with 500,000 deaths per year! Yet I bet Alsobrooks supports abortion on demand.

That Harris is considered an asset by the Alsobrooks campaign speaks volumes about the voters of Maryland who gave Biden a 20 point victory over Trump. Her opponent is the former governor Larry Hogan who is the rare republican to win statewide office in Maryland and was elected for two terms. Hogan is the type of republican that purists hate and label as RINO. Yet he is the only republican with a chance to win in Maryland. If he does win, don’t be surprised if he is the first republican whose voting record actually would overlap with at least one democrat senator. The purest on the right may be carping about Hogan’s positions but they should shut up. Hogan would be preferable to Alsobrooks.

A recent poll shows that 61 percent of Jews will vote for Biden and only 23 percent support Trump, despite Biden’s actions regarding Israel. This is virtually the same as Jewish support in the 2020 election.. Eighty-five percent feel strongly connected to Israel and say it is important for the US to support Israel. Ninety three percent of those polled said that antisemitism in the US is a serious problem and 55 percent say that Biden is better at combatting antisemitism than Trump. Huh? Have the Jews been paying attention to the pandering to the Muslims by Biden? I need someone to explain these poll numbers to me. Blacks have been cited as a blindly loyal voting bloc for the democrats. Perhaps it is time to add the Jews to the list. 

Hamas has reported that 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israelis retaliated to the killing of 1,200 of their citizens on October 7. The pro-Hamas mob in the western world has labeled this as genocide and has vigorously protested Israel’s conduct of the war prompting a flareup of antisemitism.

I wonder what the same folks would call the killing of almost 500,000 unborn blacks per year? Genocide? Antiblack? Certainly not. But 500,000 abortions are performed on black women yearly. Think of this: over the past 10 years there are almost 5 million fewer blacks alive. The neo-Nazis rejoice – along with AOC, Raphael Warnock and members of the Squad who are people of color.

The CDC reports that 42 percent are non-Hispanic black women, 30 percent are non-Hispanic white women, 22 percent Hispanic and 6 percent other races. I find this astounding since blacks are only 14 percent of the US population. In New York City the number of abortions exceed the number of live births. I have written before how Planned Parenthood was founded by the racist Margaret Sanger to limit black births as a form of genocide. Planned Parenthood is predatory targeting black women and is disproportionately in majority black census tracts. Dick Gregory, the great comedian once equated abortion with genocide and at one time there were billboards in black communities stating “Black children are an endangered species.” Don’t misunderstand me. I am not opposed to birth control. But I am against the use of abortion for birth control. Abortion has been cited as the main reason for Biden’s support among suburban white women. Since apparently relatively few suburban white women get abortions, does this mean that they are antiblack? The stance of politicians of color can likely be traced to their financial supporters in the abortion industries. Isn’t this what they call “useful idiots?”

Margaret Sanger once said that Planned Parenthood recruits black ministers to promote their abortion clinics. Raphael Warnock calls himself a “pro-choice pastor”. How supposedly men of God can embrace abortion is beyond me. Perhaps their God will have a reckoning with them in their afterlife. Of course, Warnock is now a US Senator and probably feels beholden to his fellow leftists to spout the party line. Nonetheless, it is still troubling that he appears to have neither a heart nor a soul.

The EU is poised to follow the lead of the US in imposing stiff tariffs on Chinese EVs citing their low cost constitutes an unfair advantage to European carmakers. Ironically, the European carmakers have mostly opposed the imposition of the tariffs because of their heavy involvement in China. Many have manufacturing facilities there used both for the Chinese market and for importing to Europe. The question is whether cars in China made by European countries will be subject to the tariffs. The Europeans claim that the Chinese EVs are not only low cost but are also heavily subsidized. But don’t the Europeans subsidize their autos? The US with its China tariffs also subsidizes EVs and heavily subsidizes green industries as well as agricultural and industrial products. Criticizing China is disingenuous at best and is a case of the kettle calling the pot black – is that racist?

I have been waiting for the ethanol industry to revolt against going green. Ethanol is a gasoline additive derived from corn. It is a lousy additive with zero positives. It only exists to pander to the corn growers, especially in Iowa. The ethanol special interests are somewhat late in realizing that Biden’s green mandates threaten their boondoggle and have sued the EPA to preserve their cash cow. I guess now the ethanol lobby will contend that ethanol is a low carbon fuel and vehicles that run on it are actually green and should be exempt from the EPA madness.

Again it seems reasonable to me to set as a goal a level of carbon emissions that generate a minimal amount of harm – assuming that carbon is harmful. Instead of banning fossil fuel products, the administration should fund research on getting to that target, such as alternative fuels, more efficient engines and the like. Instead of wasting money on inefficient energy such as solar and wind to power the grid, the government should concentrate on nuclear and clean coal. Solar panels would be for individual structures only. Wind turbines only exist because of government subsidies which would be eliminated. The trillions of dollars spent on most green stuff has largely been as a political payoff ignoring economics. Such waste is rarely beneficial except to the environmental grifters.

A friend sent me this:

POLL

Why Do people want to change sexes?

a. It’s cooler than a tattoo

b. Boys wnat those girl trophies

c. The Rachel Levine look is in

d. Your fashion choices double

e. Mental health care is so boring

Speaking of trans, at the Rays-Orioles game in St. Petersburg a young man was wearing a t-shirt showing the tour dates of something called the Trans Siberian Orchestra. I had visions of these LGBTQ+ folks dressed in heavy fur coats mushing Siberian huskies while eating bear paws and baikal omul. But no, it is an American heavy metal band.

Never mind.

Happy Fathers’ Day 2024

My dad died on August 13, 2002. He was in the hospital terminally ill. He knew he was dying and had said to me that he had once wanted to make it to his birthday on November 19 but had changed his mind. Now he just wanted to live until my daughter delivered his latest great grandchild. My granddaughter arrived the morning of August 13 and twelve hours later Dad died. He saw pictures of his new great granddaughter who my daughter named Haley Savannah: Haley after Alex Haley (who was a friend of mine) and Savannah as a tribute to my father who graduated from Savannah State University. Dad could now go peacefully knowing that he had a healthy beautiful great granddaughter named “Savannah.”

Dad was strong, forceful and very strict (with me). He did not tolerate excuses. He used to say to never apologize. Just do better next time. He said that I was entitled to my opinion, so long as I kept it to myself. He did not care what I wanted to be – so long as I was the best I could be. I remember when he pointed out some young men hanging out on a street corner and said “if you ever hang on a corner, make the others jealous of how you hang.” He said that envy was a waste of time and to make others “envious of you.” He rarely showed affection and almost never offered praise. He demanded strict obedience. But he never exercised corporal punishment. He never struck us in anger. 

My older brother was the favorite son and was treated differently. He was the one with straight “A’s”. But I loved my brother and he was my best friend until his junior year at Purdue. After that we never recaptured our past closeness.

I was a very good student but apparently not good enough. Dad was visibly disappointed with me when unlike my brother I was neither the valedictorian or salutatorian of my high school class even though I graduated with high honors and was a member of the National Honor Society. I was two years ahead in school graduating from high school at 16. I never had a date in high school. I was often miserable at home and looked forward to leaving for college even if that college was the University of Georgia in 1962.

When I was admitted to Georgia as their first black male freshman, Dad said to shut out the noise and focus on my objectives. He said to work hard and find my limits and then find someone to help me push through them. He cautioned me saying I would not have any friends (thankfully he was wrong) and to be prepared for any adversity. After my first quarter at Georgia where I had endured my room being set on fire, my windows broken most nights, fire crackers dropped down the slats in the door, no one sitting on the same row in class and other incidents too numerous to name here, Dad got my grades. I never told him of what I was going through because I knew he would not be sympathetic. He opened my grades (they were addressed to him), balled them up, threw them on the floor and pointed his finger at me saying “Never bring grades like these again into my house.” Puzzled, I unfurled them and saw an A, a B+ and a B. I cried and told my mom to take me back to Athens. When a couple of quarters later I made all A’s, Dad said “Don’t they give A+ at that place?” I hated being home and found that I rather stay at the university with all that was going on than to come home on the weekends.

He never said he was proud of me or that he loved me, not even when I was appointed by Jimmy Carter to the first National Credit Union Administration Board. It wasn’t in his DNA. Yet when I would go to church, people would come up to me and tell me how proud he was of me. He boasted on me and my accomplishments. I used to say “Are you sure you are talking about Eldred Black?” As a matter of fact I used to tell my friends that Eldred was Spanish for “the terrible.” El Dread.

Both Mom and Dad were among the first blacks were sent to white schools when the public schools in Atlanta finally got around to integrating faculties. Mother went to an elementary school that was ironically only 15 minutes from the house, saving her 45 minutes commuting. She said that the blacks working at the school were overjoyed that she was there because they had been treated like servants by the white teachers who forced them to serve them in the cafeteria and clean up behind them. Dad was sent as an assistant principal to a high school that sat in between black Section 8 housing and white Section 8 housing. He never talked about his experiences but at his funeral one former student said that Dad single handily stopped race fights daily and ended up defusing volatile situations. He commanded respect. The students – both black and white – loved him. I remember when he had a biology home room at my high school his students would call him “Daddy Black” – behind his back. They would tell me how lucky I was to have him as a father. Again I used to say “Are we talking about the same Eldred Black?” Dad was a powerful role model to all the hundreds of students he touched and all that knew him. There are now men named “Eldred” because of him.

He also worked full time at night as a postal clerk. The Atlanta Post Office was one of the few with an integrated work environment. However, all the black clerks had college degrees while all the white ones had high school degrees. Only the white supervisors had college degrees. That rankled Dad. He understood what his place was in the segregated south and would have been fine with it if segregation were voluntary. He had no desire to live in their neighborhoods, go to their churches, eat in their restaurants, go to their theatres or even go to their schools. But he deeply resented being told he could not. He also forcefully pushed back against the mantra that somehow blacks were inferior when he saw that was a lie on a daily basis. I remember him saying during the suit to integrate the University of Georgia that “I am paying my taxes to that school and yet they won’t let me go there.” But I never heard him say a derogatory word against whites until I was, ironically, set to go to Georgia. Dad said “Show those crackers who’s not qualified.”

I have talked with contemporaries and most had similar dealings with their fathers. Those dads were of a generation where they viewed showing love and offering praise as a weakness that would cause us to not work as hard. That we all were successful may be testimony to that treatment. However, I would not recommend it.

Dad and I had our “come to Jesus” moment when finally I told him how I felt about how I was treated growing up. I was then a tenured full professor with a vita full of publications and awards. He simply said he was just trying to be a father. He offered no apology. But I did not expect one. He still never said he was proud of me. He still never said he loved me. He just could not bring himself to do that. He did not ask for forgiveness nor would I ever forgive him. Yet we grew closer as we both aged leading my mother to ask why she and I did not get along as well as I got along with him. His death was not a surprise. My nephew was there and said that Dad died peacefully, undoubtedly contented with his life and the accomplishments of his two sons and his grandchildren.  

Well, I love you Dad. Happy Father’s Day.

A friend of mine wanted me to contribute to an event celebrating Juneteenth. The celebration included support for expanding voter registration, teaching about slavery and black history and advocating for a woman’s “right to choose.” I told him that I was all in favor of expanding voter registration but he should add voter education to the statement. I was in favor to teaching an accurate accounting of slavery and black history (not the woke version) but I was opposed to carte blanche advocacy of abortion. I told him that the mantra used of “my body my choice” was inaccurate since it was not the woman’s body that was in peril but the baby’s. I also said that the main issue of importance to me was k-3 reading and math proficiency. He said that he would include wording on proficiency but would not change the language regarding abortion on demand. I told him that in that case I would not make a contribution.

Isn’t it interesting that abortion is the main social item that separates republicans from the democrats? It has always puzzled me why the sides line up like they do. I think it is reasonable to say that most abortions are performed on democrats not republicans. That means that the democrats are decreasing the number of their future voters. Shouldn’t the democrats then be against abortion and the republicans be for it? Consider that there are over one million abortions performed each year. The CDC reports that 42 percent are non-Hispanic black women, 30 percent are non-Hispanic white women, 22 percent Hispanic and 6 percent other races. I find this astounding since blacks are only 14 percent of the US population. In New York City the number of abortions exceed the number of live births. I have written before how Planned Parenthood was founded by the racist Margaret Sanger to limit black births and is a form of genocide. Planned Parenthood is predatory targeting black women and is disproportionately in majority black census tracts. Given that black women are among the most loyal of the democrat constituency it is safe to assume that the majority of those aborted black babies would have grown up to be democrat voters. Therefore, it seems to me that the republicans should change tactics and become vocal supporters of abortion. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see how the democrats would react?

Random musings

My NextDoor account was suspended. I guess they want more queries about the best plumber than one about the best government.

I don’t understand the attraction of plug-in hybrids. You get only about 30 miles as an EV. I guess that might do for a short daily commute. You have both the gas engine and an electric motor with battery. Doesn’t this just make the vehicle heavier, more complicated and more expensive to maintain and fix? So wouldn’t you get a better vehicle if you eliminate either the EV or the gas part? 

Isn’t it interesting that many of those on the left feigning outrage over Alito’s upside down American flag are the same ones who have professed hate for the flag? I hear no condemnation from the same whiners on the left over those who say that the flag is racist and a symbol of hate.

I must admit there are times in which I am tempted to turn my American flag postage stamps upside down.

So why is Biden trying to tell the Israelis how to fight their war? Who anointed him in the first place?

Surveys show that Trump’s conviction did not move the polls and that he and Biden remain tied. That Biden is actually tied shows what a terrible candidate is Donald Trump. A cardboard cutout would be up by 20 points.

This may be one of the few elections where the choice of vice president may actually matter. A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris for president. Does anyone think that Biden will be able to last 4 more years if reelected? I wonder if the dems will change VPs due to the thought of the voters not voting for Biden because of a President Harris. 

I just returned from a camping trip to Florida towing my fifth wheel behind my diesel pickup. For the first time I saw a number of EVs on the highway with out of state tags. In Florida EVs abound, just like in west Knoxville. My daughter who lives in northern Virginia said that there EVs are as plentiful as rabbits. So I wonder if all the EVs have had a noticeable impact on energy consumption and energy prices. Worldwide fossil fuel energy consumption continues to rise as developing countries increase their consumption. Recall the president of an African country in response to the Paris Accord said that no country ever emerged from poverty using expensive energy. Well fossil fuel consumption is higher now than before the Paris Accord was signed.

Going to Florida we saw two sites where the landscape was covered by solar panels. This strikes me as an incredibly wasteful use of resources. This is not putting these panels in a desert but on arable land. I guess it is because of all the Federal handouts subsidizing solar. It seems to me that if the government gives incentives it should heavily subsidize solar for the home while funding nuclear power if it wants to force a movement away from fossil, rather than using inefficient solar and wind to generate power for everyone.

The results in the European elections should send a warning to the greenies in this country – but they are tone deaf. The growth of the European right coupled with the loss of seats on the left are due to the consequences of aggressively going green. The shutting down of nuclear plants and coal plants made the situation worse. The higher costs of energy are being painfully felt forcing a slowdown in the transition to a carbon free environment. This is because of the stupidity of the left. Why not say how much carbon is a good thing rather than trying to eliminate it totally? I am reminded of the comments of a friend with a $100,000 stereo system who said that for $20,000 you could capture 95% of the sound. But you have to spend an additional $20,000 for every one percent gain but you can never capture 100%. The same is true for carbon emissions.

The green left is overplaying its hand. Yes, they have gotten the endorsements of western governments. But most of us in opposition are more opposed to the heavy handed government edicts than to the idea of green energy (if market driven).

Trump has proposed to make tips nontaxable. If he wants a winning issue he should take my recommendation to make the salaries of all active duty military tax exempt.

Benny Gantz has quit Netanyahu’s cabinet with the statement that “Fateful strategic decisions are stuck due to hesitancy and procrastination out of political considerations.” Sounds like Biden and Blinken’s nosing into Israel’s business has produced a fallout where military decisions are being trumped by political ones. Sounds like Viet Nam.

How do the panhandlers get to their street corners?

I don’t give to able bodied beggars. With all the “now hiring” signs out there, economics tells us that the panhandlers must be making more by begging than by getting a job.

I will occasionally give to disabled panhandlers and always if they have a dog.

Lastly, did you see where the left wing media is trashing Byron Donalds? They already hate him because he is a nonapologetic black conservative and are now contending that he said that Jim Crow was a good thing for black families. Of course Donalds said no such thing but the media knows that the vast majority of the public are intellectually lazy and will not read what Donalds actually said. He stated the well known fact that there were more nuclear families and children born into them prior to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society not that Jim Crow was good for black families.  But as Hitler’s Joseph Goebbels once said that if you tell a lie enough times, it will become the truth.