Usa Thread

[Bangkoktraveler]

Santorium has dropped out of the race.

 

Looks like Romney will get the nood.

 

This race could be very entertaining.

[Bangkoktraveler]

Zimmerman's lawyers have walked.

 

Looks like Zimmerman may still have to stand for a trial.

[Steve]

I remember my mother watching Opera one day years ago when she had on some black radicals demanding "reparations" for their ancestors being kept in slavery. They demanded $40,000 for every black person in the USA. (This was in the 1990s. I expect their demands have gone up.) They said, "If we don't get it, we're gonna take!" Whatever the fark that means ...

 

Opera went to the audience for comments. One well dressed black man took the mike and said that African Americans lived in a wonderful country and shared all of its benefits. If they wanted reparations, fine. Take the money and fly to Africa to live. They couldn't have it both ways, America or the money. The radicals and most of the audience began shouting at him, calling him an Uncle Tom and everything else you can think of. If he'd said it outside of the studio, no doubt they'd have physically attacked him. That one program gave white viewers something to think about.

 

Slavery ended more than 150 years ago. Does the English part me owe me money for what England did to my Irish ancestors centuries ago? I hadly think so. Reparations to the slaves would be fine ... but they are all long dead. African Americans do have plenty to complain about though, since they are the only group in America that was legally discriminated against. That went on for over 90 years after slavery ended. Just think of all the Jim Crow laws, which I am old enough to remember a bit. It wasn't just in the South either. Look up the Brown vs the Board of Education decision and tell me what state it happened it. You might be surprised.

 

I like to point to the military for an example. I saw next to no problems over race in combat arms units in Vietnam. We were all brothers who looked out for each other. (Non-combat arms units might be different, unfortunately.) When I was an Army instructor in the 1990s, I saw that racism had almost diasppeared among career soldiers. One of my buddies - a black senior NCO from Georgia - remarked one day at how common interracial marriages were becoming among the GIs. Black and white marriages were something that no one even seemed to notice. Race had become more or less unimportant. It should be.

 

The fringe will always make certain demands. You know 99% of Blacks want? Not special treatment. Not 40 acres and a mule. Just a decent job and equal treament and advancement. Blacks, like everyone else, want to know if they work harder and smarter they will get advancement. I've been in companies where you scratch your head at who got promoted. Some have that corporate look. Sports is the one main equalizer. A guy is faster, stronger, its hard to argue against him being played more. For the most part America is pretty fair.

 

The opposite of these guys are the white supremist who want a separate country and advocate just as if not crazier notions. This play is no where close as being representative as the general feelings of Black Americans.

 

Nowadays if you're a smart cookie you get promoted. The Black guys I've met that went to Ivy league schools aren't struggling. You'll hear things from all groups. You'll hear some Jews in America speak of anti semitism and if there is one group that has iimmense success far more than their numbers its Jews. However you'll still hear that there is rampant anti semitism by a few. Same with the women. Who are now the majority in law schools and possibly there in medical schools. Its no big deal now to see a woman CEO or lead partner in a law firm. In fact, the last few jos I held in America had female bosses.

 

This 'Opera' is just some fringe person having a moan.

[Flashermac]

My dad had a black colleague my family liked a lot, another aerospace engineer. He used to say that slavery must have been tough for his ancestors, but thank God they had been captured and sent to America. Otherwise, he'd still be in Africa. He'd visited Africa and wanted no part of it.

 

Unfortunately, there are still some racists left in America. Every time he visited our home, our nutty neighbour would turn up her nose at us and not talk to us for a week or more. Strange thing was that her ancestors were Portuguese from the Azores Islands and almost as dark as he was, He had 2 university degrees, I don't think she'd finished high school.

[Steve]

Santorium has dropped out of the race.

 

Looks like Romney will get the nood.

 

This race could be very entertaining.

 

This was always going to be a question of when not if Romney gets the nomination. The RNC backed him and whoever the RNC backs gets the lionshare of money. The vast majority of sitting Repubs weren't going to endorse the others in the field because its obvious Romney is going to be who you have to deal with.

 

As I aaid, I can't think of any time in modern times where whomever the national committee wanted, didn't get the nomination. Dubya was told to run in '00 and he got the nomination. The '00 McCain (not the '08 one who was a different person) was a much better candidate than Dubya all around but he was elbowed out at every turn, even being lied about (saying he had a black baby when he in fact adopted a baby, plus so what if he did adopt a black baby?).

 

Romney is unlikely to win though as it stands now. A lot has to happen between now and then.

[Steve]

My dad had a black colleague my family liked a lot, another aerospace engineer. He used to say that slavery must have been tough for his ancestors, but thank God they had been captured and sent to America. Otherwise, he'd still be in Africa. He'd visited Africa and wanted no part of it.

 

Unfortunately, there are still some racists left in America. Every time he visited our home, our nutty neighbour would turn up her nose at us and not talk to us for a week or more. Strange thing was that her ancestors were Portuguese from the Azores Islands and almost as dark as he was, He had 2 university degrees, I don't think she'd finished high school.

 

America is a great country. I love it dearly but I wouldn't agree with your dad's engineer friend. I'd rather live in a hut, being a hunter, gatherer, ignorant of modern things but happy than having any one go through the horrors that the slaves had to just so that I could live better. NOTHING is worth your freedom. Not even the promise of your progeny being part of the greatest country on earth. Even if it meant my progeny would one day become President or Oprah or CEO of TimeWarner. I was poor but happy growing up. I wouldn't give that experience up to be born in Beverly Hills to a rich family. I've seen many rich but very unhappy people. That's just me though.

 

Present day Africa would have been different perhaps if it weren't for colonialism. To be fair Africa has had ample tiime to correct itself but many of the present problems are tribal. It comes from rival tribes being colonized in the same area and the European powers were adept of playing one against the other. In most colonial countries one tribe got the preferential treatment. Africa was like north America with the indians. They were tribal. The borders, just like the borders of American states were arbitrary. Created by the colonials and often split tribes making some part of a British colony and the remaining part of the French colony perhaps. Many of the present day poverty and such stems from a power vacuum that occured after colonialism and its almost always tribal-based. Present day Africa is partially a result of the continent being colonized. What would it look like if it weren't? Backwards in terms of modernism? Sure. Would it have the same problems and be in the same state if it weren't colonized? Look at how rich Africa is in natural resources that were exploited for hundreds of years. Would things be the same? Perhaps but I'm not so sure. Even if it was, I can't fathom the value of all those millons of any people having to go through what the slaves went through. Many Jews got to come to America because they were Auchwitz victims and America took 'their share' as other nations did. I'd like to ask their progeny if it was worth their grandparents living the horrors there for their chance to come to America eventually instead of living in some small poor village in belorussia, Hungary or Latvia.

[Steve]

Stunning lack of diversity in Obama campaign, photos reveal

 

 

 

Funny thing was back in '08 he (and his wife) were being painted as some pro black, quasi militant, anti American, anti white wolves in sheeps clothing. The Rev. Wright association, the meeting with the Weatherman, his community organizing, his wife's supposed paper seen as anti white. Now he's being painted as not sensitive to black employment. lol. He can't win either way.

 

I wrote back in '08 as I do now saying that the black power elite in politics never liked him and backed Hillary. They still don't and Obama still has forgotten. With the two exceptions of Holder and the UN amabassador, I don't think there are any other black high level appointees by Obama. Again, the black masses love him but the poiticians don't. He was never their man. A few have said some things. Maxine Waters, Rev Al. The black congresspersons have no choice. If they don't support Obama, their black constituents will turn on them.

[Flashermac]

Africa's borders were drawn by the colonial powers. They divided tribal groups in contrast to what the natural borders would have been. It is such a mess now that no country wants to allow another to "correct" its borders. This was the reason that virtually all of Africa turned on Biafra in its stuggle to regain its indepence in the 1960s. Biafra was an historic country, heavily Christian too. But it was included in Nigeria without having anything to say about it. When Biafrans were being attacked in Muslim parts of Nigeria, Biafrans had enough and declared their independence. A bloody civil war resulted, with the USSR and UK aiding the Nigerians.

 

http://en.wikipedia....erian_Civil_War

[Bangkoktraveler]

News media now claim Zimmerman is going to get charged.

 

New media claim Zimmerman is no longer in Florida.

 

 

Sounds like this is going to be an interesting case.

[Bangkoktraveler]

Zimmerman turned him self in and was subsequently arrested.