Another One Bites the Dust

Murray Energy Corp., a big coal mining corporation has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bob Murray — the chairman, president and CEO , is big time Trump supporter. He donated $300,000 to Trump's inauguration. In spite of Trump's attempt to boost coal by reducing environmental protections and even pushing for subsidies, coal continues to decline. This time it's economic realities that are at work, not environmentalism.

The Truth About Jeff Bezos

Recently a 48 year old man named Billy Foister died while working at an Amazon warehouse. This has brought new attention to the abusive and dangerous conditions that exist at Amazon. Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is reputed to be "worth" $150 billion and is currently working on a scheme for private space flight. It has now become apparent the Bezos has ruined entire industries, primarily in the retail sector, and is subjecting his employees to crude exploitation. And we're supposed to admire Bezos? Maybe we should put him in a rocket and shoot him into space.

Clarence Thomas: Racial Pessimist or Vulgar Opportunist?

Vox recently published an article by Sean Illing titled "The racial pessimism of Clarence Thomas: Corey Robin on Thomas’s black nationalism and why more people should understand it." It is a lengthy article, and of course it examines how Clarence Thomas advocates a weird mixture of "Black nationalism" and Booker-T-self-help-nonsense.
Toward the middle of the article there is an interesting exchange. According to Illing:

"Thomas’s opposition to affirmative action or really any attempt at improving race relations looks a lot different to me after reading your book. You argue that Thomas isn’t objecting to these things because he denies the underlying injustices but rather because he rejects anything that smacks of “white paternalism.”

Robin responds: "For Thomas, it means that there’s an assumption among white liberals that the job of the American ruling class through the state is to improve the lot of African Americans and to use the state to rectify these past injustices. And Thomas just doesn’t believe that it’s impossible to remedy these injustices, he also believes that the acts of paternalism end up perpetuating the injustices."

The thing is that Thomas himself owes his position to the "paternalism" of white conservatives. So what's the difference? Clarence Thomas is pernicious stooge who has sold out his own people to the racist white establishment.

Willing Seller, Willing Buyer

Trump's farm bailout, to compensate farmers for his ridiculous trade policies, has so far cost us $28 billion. Now the automobile bailout of 2009 only cost $12 billion. Remember how Rick Santelli started the "Tea Party" back in 2009, supposedly against "wasteful spending?" Santelli has now turned into a Trump stooge, which shows that he was full of shit all along. In terms of farm subsidies, it is clear that a GOP voting block is selling its votes for cash, and Trump is using public funds to buy their votes. The Trumpers say that they don't want to pay to support immigrants. So why should we pay to support GOPers?

Justice at Last?

Amber Guyger, ex-Dallas cop, was convicted of killing her African-American neighbor and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. It is extremely rare for a white cop to be convicted of killing a black person, as we all know. Maybe Guyger's crimes was too egregious: she barged into the victim's (Botham Jean) apartment because she thought it was her own. How idiotic is that. Guyger's sense of white privilege is so enlarged that she thought she could get away with killing a black man. And Yes, Amber Guyger is a racist. She made racist text messages, including one in which she disparaged the observance of Martin Luther King day, writing that participants should get "pepper spray in the genital area." Guyger mad several other such messages, which explains what her motivation was.