Gangs

Many feel that the major problem in the black communities is the lack of fathers in the homes. How did this happen? In the 60's about 25% of young women were having babies without being married and that has risen to 72% today. What changed? As part of the civil rights movement young women were told that if they had a baby, the government would set them up in their own apartment and pay all of their expenses. This told the young men that they were no longer needed and they felt rejected and responded by what has become known as dissing your women. Women were degraded by the young men in their actions and in their music. It was a cultural shift. As the men left behind their family responsibilities they joined gangs and got themselves in trouble with the law. In 1960 the incarceration rate among black males was 1,313 per 100,000 and today it is 4,500 per 100,000. Many of these young men see school as a waste of time and that limits their career choices and adds pressure to join the gangs.

Unemployment reform

The extra $600 per week added to the state unemployment compensation is due to expire at the end of this month. This extra benefit means that 70% of the beneficiaries are earning more by not working. For example if you were earning $15 dollars per hour or $600 per week your state unemployment would be $300 but you get an additional $600 from the Feds so your total gross income increases from $600 to $900. If they are going to renew this some suggest that it should be changed so that you cannot earn more by not working. In the above example that means the federal benefit would be $300 which would replace the persons lost earnings. That seems reasonable.

Fathers

I have always maintained that the root of the problem in the inner cities is the lack of fathers in the homes. Here is part of a speech given by Obama when he was president. Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it. But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing — missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.  You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.

Faubus

The recent decision by Trump to send federal agents into certain cities has caused a stir among democrats. They say the local officials have not asked Trump for help and they do not want any of Trumps agents coming into their city. I am reminded of Little Rock, AR in 1957 when Governor Orville Faubus stopped black students from entering Central High School. Faubus said he did not need any federal assistance and didn't want any. The Governor told the Arkansas State Police to stand down and President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent in federal troops from 101st Airborne. These troops were armed. Ike sent a letter to Faubus in which he wrote,"The only assurance I can give you is that the Federal Constitution will be upheld by me by every legal means at my command. This move was welcomed by liberals across the country and Faubus was a democratic governor. Much has changed since the 50's but the constitution is still the same.

Peaceful protest

Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter are two recent protest and this led to a discussion as to the difference between legal, peaceful protest and those which involve vandalism, burning, shooting and killing commonly referred to as violent protesting or rioting. In both of these protest the majority of people were peaceful but some were not and it is this minority that gets most of the attention at least on Fox. The old adage of, if it bleeds it leads in no longer the rule at other news outlets. A good example of peaceful protest was the Tea Party that started in 2009 and went on for over five years. These protesters were mostly white, middle income blue collar types composed of fundamentalist christian libertarian populist who proposed low taxes and limited government. At their peak they represented about 10% of the population. Their rallies involved speeches, carrying signs and flag waving. There was one report of a fist fight at one rally but for the most part things were peaceful.

Protest

Watching the news about the protest, both peaceful and violent reminds me of the Viet Nam protest during the late 60's. It is not that wide spread but in cities like Portland and Seattle it is similar. It those days law enforcement and local governments were on the same side trying to quell the violence but today the mayor and the police chief are on opposite sides and this leads to more violence. Portland was experiencing nightly disruptions for six weeks and recently federal troops were sent in and they are now blamed for the problem. As cities around the country begin to de-fund the police the violence could spread. Many feel there is a political component to the mess saying that the dislike of Trump has caused otherwise peaceful people to react violently. Trump is seen as the equivalent of the War in the 60's even to the point of burning the American flag. Some predicted this kind of activity if Trump had lost but few expected it with a Trump victory.

Names

Shakespeare said, what's in a name, and when a Muslim officer at Fort Hood raised his gun, shouted Ala Akbar and killed 13 fellow service men it was call work place violence and last night protesters in Portland broke into a building and set it on fire and this was called night time activities. The old Harry Truman approach of calling a spade a spade has been replaced with euphemisms.

Schools open

Using the benefit of hindsight the big mistake in handling of the virus was not placing the emphasis on seniors. The same situation is now arising with school openings. Data shows that over 3% of people who get the virus die but the data shows that 60% of these are seniors but only .015% are children under age 18. For children this is not much different from the flu. It would make sense to open schools and any teachers who are senior or any who have underlying health conditions could be excused.

Biden says

Joe Biden said that Trump has done nothing except divide the country. Trump has canceled the Iran nuclear deal, dropped out of the Paris Accords, turned away from the Trans Pacific Agreement, increased tariffs on China and Europe to make things more fair, moved countries in the United Nations to pay more, forced NATO member to pay up, redid NAFTA which caused Mexico to pay higher wages and increased money into the US by $80 billion per year (could be used to pay for the wall), built many miles of new wall along the border, set up opportunity zones in inner cities, joined with Blacks to redo the sentencing rules set up by Obama, achieved the highest employment of minorities in history, allowed Vets to go to private hospitals rather than wait, made it possible to fire incompetent VA employees, increased wages of blue collar workers, lowered taxes and got rid of many regulations. Biden may not agree with these changes but to say Trump did nothing is not correct.

Native Americans

Recently a statue of Columbus was damaged. It was an emotional response to real or perceived past injustice. There was little thought given to the action. Suppose when the colonist arrived and saw there were people here they just went back to Europe. The industrial revolution would have by-passed the Native Americans and they would still be fighting among the tribes over territory and food supply. There are over five million Native Americans and 80% live off the reservation. About 25% live in poverty and many of those suffer from alcoholism and drug addiction but millions live productive lives striving for a better life for their children. There is much that can be done to improve their situation but tearing down a Columbus statue is not high on the list. Like any improvements for minorities one of the first steps is better education and better drug treatments.

Guilt and privilege

Many feel that Martin Luther King's quote of judging a man by the color of his character not the color of his skin was taken out of context and misused by conservatives to justify what others see as racist ideas. Be that as it may, the quote itself is meaningful and sets forth a moral ideal that warrants our attention. When people use phrases like white guilt and white privilege they are judging based on skin color and that should be unacceptable.

Communism and power

Xi Jinping recently led the news as he used his power to change the rules so he could be president for life. This is not that unusual for communist countries. Putin in Russia also used his power to allow him to become president for life. Daniel Ortega president of Nicaragua and he also changed the rules to allow him to run extra terms. He has been president since 2007 and will stay as long as he wants. In Cuba Castro and his brother ruled for 70 years and only recently gave up power because of age. Of course the Kim family in North Korea has ruled forever. They can get away with this because only a small minority of the citizens are members of the party and they control all the government jobs and thus the power. In China only 90 million people out of 1,300 million (7%) are members. This is what Orwell meant when he said everyone is equal except some are more equal.

New green deal

Joe Biden spoke today about his plan to spur on the economy and create jobs. He spoke about climate change something not in the news for some time now. He reminded us that in nine years climate change will bring on a disaster from which the world could not recover. He proposes to spend two trillion dollars on green new deal jobs building solar panels and wind mills along with new battery technology. CO2 emissions in the USA have been declining while in China they are rising and China currently produces twice as much as the USA. Building solar panels near power plants is sensible and should be combined with building the same around any permanent structure including homes. As more power is produced by natural gas in combination with solar the idea of electric cars makes sense. There are limitations on what batteries can do. Batteries are not practical for large farm tractors, heavy construction equipment like bulldozers, semi trucks, locomotives, ocean liners and airplanes. Even garbage trucks and buses are suspect when it comes to battery power. In today's world the majority of solar panels are made in China and the number installed in the USA is growing because of the low cost of imported panels but panels made in the USA are more expensive and would raise the cost of solar. It would be more practical to spend the $2 trillion on roads and bridges. This requires a loosening of environmental regulations so that projects could start quickly or to say it in another way, the projects must be shovel ready.

Economy and jobs

For over 30 years covering eight presidential elections the working people were promised that their wages would rise and their lives would be better but it never happened. Many feel that the Trump election was, among other things, a cry for help by the working people. Biden's economic plan is to save the middle class to save America. Biden has been in Washington for over 50 years and it was during those years that the American worker was left behind as they watched their jobs go overseas. When Trump said to put America first he got the same reaction as when he said America was exceptional. He said that allowing China into the WTO accelerated the transfer of jobs away from America's working people to China. He said unfair trade practices (tariffs) cost American jobs. He said big business and government coordinated in the moving of jobs out of the county. Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex perhaps he should have included the big business government partnership.

Virus and other things

Concern about the virus is taking on a new look. NFL players say it is too dangerous to play but would consider it if they all got guaranteed contracts like they have in the NBA and MLB. Teachers in many districts are saying going back to school is too risky unless they get higher pay and smaller class size. Even some states are conflicting the virus with unfunded pension plans.

Airborne virus

The World Health Organization (WHO) has now concluded that the virus is airborne. While mask can stop the spread of droplets caused by talking and coughing the virus can go right through the holes in the mask. Once in the air in Walmart the air conditioning system quickly spreads the virus throughout the store. Those who understand microbes realize that the holes in the mask are as big as a house to the virus and knew from the start that the mask would not stop the virus from spreading. That is why wearing a mask will stop the droplets which contain the virus but not the virus.

Baltimore murder rate

There are 84,000 students in the 13 Baltimore High Schools and not one is proficient in math. The city spends $17,000 per student which is the forth highest city in the country. Baltimore has the highest homicide rate based on murders per 100,000 population and it ranks near the top in all other violent crimes.

Blacks in prison

Today on the news it was pointed out that Blacks account for 37% of the prison population but Black males are only 6% of the general population. While this is disturbing, the data on convicted felons helps to explain some of the disproportionate number of Black males in prison. Blacks were convicted of 54% of murders, 53% of robberies, 30% of assaults and 30% of burglaries. These are major felons and go to prison by law. None of these are drug convictions.

Voodoo

Tesla stock started the year at $443 and today its at $1,400. Tesla's 185 million outstanding shares means the company is worth over 250 billion dollars which means it has surpassed Toyota to become the worlds most valuable car company. Tesla sold 367,000 cars in 2019 and Toyota sold 2,383,000. Market gurus are waning that Tesla is overvalued and will take a fall and the more they warn the more people buy the stock. Not only do I not understand the market, I don't understand the people who participate in the market. It must be voodoo investing.

Little lives matter

This past weekend many people were murdered in various cities around the country including five children in Chicago, Atlanta and Washington DC. Will their families have a two hour broadcast on cable news channels where they can express their grief. Will relatives and other friends come forth and expound upon the virtues of these children. They had broken no laws and had never even been charged with any crime. The pain their parents will endure is real and these little lives matter.

Amazon reinvestment

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 as a company to sell books online. He got a $250,000 loan from his parents and started the company in the garage of his rented home. He reinvested his profits into the company and thus the company began to grow. By 1995 online sales were $20,000 per week and the company went public selling at $18 per share. In 1999 Amazon using profits bought its first company a practice that continues today. The company grew rapidly and by 2011 had 30,000 employees, by 2016 180,000 and today almost 700,000 full time employees. Companies pay no income tax on money that is reinvested and thus that money is leveraged for future growth. Many people feel there is something inherently wrong with Bezos owning $160 billion dollars in stock. Some feel the government should force him to sell the stock and give that money to the government where they could then redistribute it to those the government feels are more deserving. Others feel there should be a tax on wealth which would allow the government to collect the money and use it to help those in need.

Authority

Most of the discipline problems in schools are caused by the student who has not learned respect for authority. This is one of the many lessons children learn from their parents. The process is simple. The children are exposed to firm but expanding guide lines as they grow. When you are four years old, you cannot play in the street by yourself. When you are eight years old, you cannot go downtown by yourself and when you are 12 years old you cannot paint the house by yourself. As they mature they are learning respect for the parents authority. When this is learned in the early years it carries with them to school where they learn respect for the authority vested in the position of teacher. Note it does not say respect for the teacher, a person they have just met. You don't have to respect the governor but you respect the office of governor. In the military you don't salute the man but you salute the uniform. After you leave school you learn respect for the boss and for the police officer but in each case it is not person but the position the person holds. It can be both but usually respect for the person must be earned. Students who are fortunate enough to learn this valuable lesson at home will not be disruptive in the classroom and later they will be productive citizens who will show respect for authority.

Police and gangs

The experts on TV keep saying that we must get to the real reason for the riots and protest and many seem to think the police are the problem and for sure that is part of the problem. They point out the number of young black men who are killed by police. The data shows that police shootings account for about 1,000 deaths per year and 300 of the victims are young black males. This is 30% of the deaths and black males only comprise 6% of the population. On average 6,000 black men are murdered each year and 5,400 are killed by other black men. This is mostly the result of gangs fighting over drugs. Why are so many young black men involved with drugs? First off 65% of black children are in single parent homes and more than half of these live below the poverty line. These same children have low test scores, high drop out rates and disproportionately high discipline problems and suspensions. When these students become young adults they do not have the skills and/or the necessary self discipline to get and maintain jobs and thus they migrate toward gangs. Perhaps the roots of the problems starts long before the run in with police. As experts concentrate on police behavior they run the risk of neglecting other areas of concern.