Disney's disservice to America

 

Disney+ is doing a disservice to this country with it’s recent Proud Family episode with a rap, Juneteenth, regarding black history that is a false narrative.

Slavery and the racism that followed slavery was a horrible tragedy in the past but misrepresenting what this country was founded on, the relative contribution of various populations, and what are the factors of the disparities that exist today does a disservice to the United States and all of its populations, including black Americans.

First, like Hannah Nicole Jones’ false narrative of US History that claims the United States was formed to preserve slavery, Juneteenth repeatedly claims that the United States was built on slavery and that salves built this country (see lyrics below.)

A review of slaves, immigrants and citizens of the United States shows that the actual numbers of slaves brought to the United States (~250,000), the ultimate number of slaves (~4 million), and the number of descendants of slaves compared to the total number of immigrants, and non-black citizens in the United States has always been small percentage of the populations and that the immigrants and non-black citizens were a large majority of the populations and no doubt contributed significantly to building the United States.

Second, is that it is well recognized that this country was actually founded through the “Great Compromise” between the Northern States that were against slavery and the Southern States that were for slavery.  This country outlawed bring new slaves into the US in 1808, the first year this was allowed by the constitution.  This country limited new slave states to match non-slave states to prevent slave states from gaining control (Missouri Compromise).  This country then had one of the costliest, deadliest wars to end slavery (the Civil War.)

Juneteenth also claims that the descendants of slaves in America have earned and continue to earn reparations. It is not clear how these descendants TODAY have earned anything.  Just as citizens and immigrants are required to work hard to improve their lives, all citizens of all colors should be given equal opportunities.  And TODAY that is the case.  Yes, there was systemic racism in the past, but since the 60’s this has been illegal, discouraged and ever exceedingly rare and in fact, through Affirmative Action, blacks have been given a form of reparations where all things being equal they have been given preference in jobs and educational opportunities and this advantage has had an incredible value.

Last is the ludicrous claim by Juneteenth that blacks have made me, and all others, rich.  I am a mix of 2^nd and 3^rd generation immigrant from Croatia and Mexico and my ancestors worked hard to improve their lives and provide opportunities to their children.  They scrimped, the saved, they sacrificed.  They had “the talk”, they encouraged hard work, education and Judeo-Christian values.  It is impossible for me to see how anyone made me rich. TODAY, any systemic racism that may exist is minor, and is an unimportant factor in explaining the disparity that exists today between blacks and whites.  The disparities today are primarily one of culture. I saw my ancestors work hard to get ahead.  I see immigrants from all of the world, including black immigrants, working hard to get ahead.  They succeed.  There is no systemic racism today stopping anyone from working hard to get ahead and from having and raising children that can get ahead.

Disney+ Proud Family Explaining Juneteenth - February 1, 2023 (Lyrics)

This country was built on slavery.

Which means slaves built this country, tilled this land from sea to sea. First there was rice, tabaco, sugar cane, then Whitney did his thing and cotton became king. And we were its soldiers, four million strong, fighting for America’s freedom even though we remained America’s slaves. Built this country, the descendants of slaves continue to build it

Slaves built this country

And we the descendants of slaves in America have earned reparations for their suffering and continue to earn reparations every moment we spend submerged in a systemic prejudice racism and white supremacy that America was founded with and still has not atoned for.

Slaves built this country

 Not only field hands but carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, musicians, inventors built cities from Jamestown to New Orleans to Banneker’s Washington. Forty acres and a mule. We’ll take the 40 acres. Keep the mule.

We made your families rich, from the southern plantations heirs, to the northern bankers, to the New England ship owners, the founding fathers, former Presidents, current senators, the illuminati, the New World Order

Slaves built this country

Turner, Frederick D. Then they say Lincoln freed the slaves, but slaves were men and women and only we can free ourselves. Emancipation is not freedom. Jim Crow, segregation, redlining, Public schools feeding private prisons, where we become slaves again.

As we celebrate Juneteenth for the umpteenth time our account is still outstanding, cause this country was built on slavery.

Which means slaves built his country and we demand our 40 acres and a mule. Bump that. You can keep the mule. Keep the forty. We’re taking our freedom

Biden still stopping stoves

The Energy Department proposal, published Wednesday, sets first-of-their-kind limits on energy consumption for the stoves 

https://www.regulations.gov/document/EERE-2014-BT-STD-0005-0096

ChapGPT Biased and CRAZY

Biased and CRAZY 

ChatGPT is a relatively new web based artificial intelligence program that is quite good and can actually answer most questions, creat content, etc., BUT turns out its programmers have their own political biases that will limit its usefulness. One example below. 

Culture or Poverty?

 

Leading Cause of Death for Young Black Males: Homicide not Police.

Using the most recent data from the CDC, 2021, on the cause of death and the Washington Post's Police Shootings we see that blacks are being murdered at more than 10 times the rate of whites and almost 100 times the rate they are shot by police and even of these police shootings only 3.4% were of unarmed victims. And based on the 2020 FBI Crime in the United States 88% of black homicides are committed by blacks. 

If black lives matter, and I think they do along with all other lives, I am amazed that more people, especially the Democrats and BLM, are not focusing on reducing the black homicides.

And while poverty is a minor factor in crime rate, it is clear that there are other key factors correlated with race that are associated with higher crime rates

Couldn’t resist

 

So sad

Regardless of whether Joe Biden is lying, misinformed or confused this is so sad. Maybe sadder is how many people will believe him and a little the mainstream media will care.

Omar Out

Even MSNBC understands

“The decibel level at which Democrats are arguing in Omar’s favor is designed to convince you that a grave injustice is being done to her. But the relevant precedents, Omar’s conduct and the case her fellow Democrats made against her betrays the theater of it all.”

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ilhan-omars-committee-removal-was-long-time-coming-rcna68872

48% of Democrats can’t denounce socialism

House of Representative Resolution: “Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America,”

For: 219 Republicans , 109 Democrats

Against: 86 Democrats

Present: 14 Democrats

Vaccines-Biden stuck on impulse power

Trump’s Operation Warp Speed developed a 1st generation, new vaccine for a new virus in an astonishingly short time and was the highest benefit to cost ratio of any government program since the Manhattan Project.(1)

Unfortunately, Biden seems to be stuck in impulse drive and has done little to accelerate the development of the 2nd generation vaccine needed. 

Since early 2022 there have been calls to develop 2nd generation vaccines and since August 2022 it was clear that repeated mRNA boosters making essentially the same spike protein antigen was problematic. mRNA Boosters seem to cause B cells to switch from producing IgG1/3 to producing IgG4. This class switch was associated with a reduced capacity of the spike-specific antibodies to mediate antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis and complement deposition  This reduction in booster vaccine efficacy was not seen with adenoviral vectors. (1)(2)

(1)https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/04/an-operation-warp-speed-for-nasal-vaccines.html

(2)https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciimmunol.ade2798?rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed&url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org

ChatGPT - Biased

ChatGPT is a relatively new web based artificial intelligence program that is quite good and can actually answer most questions, creat content, etc., BUT turns out its programmers have their own political biases that will limit its usefulness. One example below. 

Biden is intellectually dishonest

Lying - to make an untrue statement with the intent to deceive.

Intellectually Dishonest - to make a factual statement out of context with the intent to deceive.

Biden often makes claims that sound like he is doing a great job: reducing debt, lower gas prices, lower inflation, lower deficits, more jobs, etc.  However, if you listen carefully, he makes these claims relative to arbitrary baselines, often influenced by the negative effect of the pandemic. If his claims are looked at in context they are completely intellectually dishonest.

A quick review of Biden's first 2 years:

Fixing the debt problem - NOPE - The US continues to increase the size of its debt and more critical, significantly increasing the size of it's unfunded liabilities (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.) Money doesn't grow on trees and someday the US will have a big problem with its debt that will require massive cuts to entitlements either directly or indirectly through significant inflation.

Gasoline Prices - NOPE - still higher, still restricting crude production and still stealing from strategic oil reserve.

Natural Gas Prices - NOPE - still higher and still restricting production.

Inflation - NOPE - prices are higher and climbing faster.

Mortgage Rates - NOPE - higher.

Deficits - NOPE - still higher than normal.

Jobs - NOPE - too many people not working

 

Biden killing nuclear power

NRC (1) staff has proposed an alternative risk evaluation approach in the draft Part 53 rule, the alternative evaluation of risk insights (AERI), that results in mathematically impossible conditions(2).

(1) https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/fs-reactor-license-renewal.html

(2) https://thebreakthrough.imgix.net/AERI-whitepaper-2.pdf

World NEEDS more nuclear energy

The increased intensity of energy usage has been a critical factor in the successful development of the world.  Energy for industrialization, farming, light, fresh plentiful inexpensive food, clean water,  temperature control, computers, transportation, medical equipment, etc, have all contributed to the successful development of the developed world. The world currently consumes ~565 EJ (1 exajoule = 174 million barrels of oil.)

However, and unfortunately, there are still billions of people on the earth, primarily in undeveloped parts of the world, that do not have access to cheap abundant energy and are still living with limited food, temperature control, access to medical care, transportation etc. 

It is estimated that the world will need 1.6-2.8 times more energy than currently produced to provide adequate energy supply for the developed world to attain the standard of living of the developed world.

With this clear need for significant more energy for the world the questions becomes one of what type of energy should be used.

There is a current trend towards claiming that renewable, primarily wind and solar,  energy is the answer based on the claim that these energy sources are clean and have reached the cost of fossil fuels.

However, what is ignored in this position, ignoring any discussion regarding their cleanness, is their hidden cost.  For both wind and solar there is a significant additional cost required because there are extended periods when the wind doesn't blow, or blows to hard, and when the sun doesn't shine.  This means that when you add electrical generating capacity based on solar or wind, you have to build and operate a completely additional redundant system to cover the time that renewables aren't produce.  Whether these are fossil fuel, nuclear, or energy storage, they are costly and required.

The question seems to be what energy source might be best.  Based on economics, if you believe that fossil fuels have a significant externality, then nuclear fuel would be the most cost effective solution and specifically the Small Modular Reactors (SMR) recently developed that greatly improve the already safety of nuclear power.

And for those concerned about the storage of nuclear power waste there are two pragmatic solutions.  First is to just store long term the small amount of waste.  A typical large nuclear power plant might produce a cubic yard of solid nuclear waste. Second, and even better, would be to utilize high temperature nuclear reactors to further burn/utilize the spent fuel from SMRs to generate more electricity, more fuel and reduce the remaining waste to a tiny fraction, ~6 inch cube. 

ESG hurts

Legally maximizing shareholder value keeps politics out of markets and  will be best for everyone’s wealth. 

Adding additional constraints on companies can never help.

Pressuring companies to add any efficiencies to society, or their business operations is not a good idea

Hmmmmmm

 

Fair Tax proposal good starting point

Our income tax system is extremely complicated and a significant cost on society. It taxes investment and work. The current tax code is approximately 2000 pages in the associated rulings over 9000 pages. 

The minimum tax burden today is estimated to be 32.3%, on incremental income, i.e. working more and making more. This includes income tax, Social Security, tax, Medicare, tax and corporate taxes. Everyone needs understand that corporate taxes are essentially passed on to consumers, workers, and shareholders, essentially taxing them.

There is a proposal to replace the entire IRS income tax with a consumption tax of 23% and offer a cash payment to all households up to the equivalent consumption tax at the poverty level. 

A consumption tax is the most efficient way to tax and economy. 

I support, the concept of a fair tax. 

Proposal:

Consumption tax if 23% of what you spend. 

Provide cash payments to offset consumption tax up to poverty level income/consumption. 

Current:

Income tax minimum 10%

SS tax 12.4%

Medicare tax 2.9%

Corporate tax passed on to customers, workers and shareholders ~7% 

Minimum 32.3% on ALL income

You spend less than you make.

No IRS reduces cost of government

No complicated forms reduces cost of tax prep

Why don't these black lives matter to BLM?

 

Leading Cause of Death for Young Black Males: Homicide not Police.

Using the most recent data from the CDC, 2021, on the cause of death and the Washington Post's Police Shootings we see that blacks are being murdered at more than 10 times the rate of whites and almost 100 times the rate they are shot by police and even of these police shootings only 3.4% were of unarmed victims. And based on the 2020 FBI Crime in the United States 88% of black homicides are committed by blacks. 

If black lives matter, and I think they do along with all other lives, I am amazed that more people, especially the Democrats and BLM, are not focusing on reducing the black homicides.

And while poverty is a minor factor in crime rate, it is clear that there are other key factors correlated with race that are associated with higher crime rates

Border (Still) Out of Control

Biden’s border policies continue to be a mess, put many innocents at risk AND allow Mexican cartels to get rich.

I support immigration. A lot of immigration. But legal immigration, with a mix of merit based  (engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, doctors, mathematicians, etc.) and opportunity-based (people who want to work hard, adopt American values, and get ahead). 

(Note-The numbers are the apprehensions. We do not know how many people get through without being apprehended.)

Woke is wrong

The invasion of our education system by wokeness  will only increase the disparities. Just a small sample of the craziness:

Alison Collins, the Vice President of the San Francisco Board of Education, has declared meritocracy to be racist even in the selection of students at advanced or gifted programs.

Professor Natalie Gosnell has declared that astrophysics is a racist field. “As an astrophysicist, I’m a product of institutions that are steeped in systemic racism and white supremacy…The [tenets] of white supremacy that show up [in physics] of individualism and exceptionalism and perfectionism… it’s either-or thinking, and there’s…no subtlety, there’s no gray area.”

University of Rhode Island and Director of Graduate Studies of History Erik Loomis who has defended the murder of a conservative protester and said that he saw “nothing wrong” with such acts of violence. (A view defended by other academics). Loomis is now back in the news with a declaration that “Science, statistics, and technology are all inherently racist because they are developed by racists who live in a racist society, 

University of Illinois math professor Rochelle Gutierrez triggered a national controversy over her work “Building Support for Scholarly Practices in Mathematics Methods” in which she criticized math classes as a “tool of whiteness.” 

CUNY Professor Laurie Rubel has published a peer-reviewed article in the  Journal of Mathematics Education arguing that the concepts of meritocracy and “color-blindness” are ideological precepts that work against minorities. 

Alan Derskowitz, writing in Newsweek, piled on: “Colleges Are Now A Breeding Ground for Mediocrity, Not Meritocracy.” 

Are Woke University Policies Killing People? They May Soon mindingthecampus.org

Sky not falling

Sky not falling

The US doesn’t need to default on its debt even if the debt ceiling is not raised

There is no economic reason that a debt limit should force a default.  The Treasury could easily pay interest and principal on treasury debt before any other payment.  Congress could even pass a law stating that fact.

Treasury secretary Janet Yellen should say out loud, right now "we pay principal and interest on treasury debt first, before anything else." President Biden should back her up.

Two points on the debt limit, 1 serious 1 fun johnhcochrane.blogspot.com