They’re giving reparations to black people . . . I think I feel black today.

One of my ancestors was a Scot who fought in a battle against the English and was tried for treason against the crown and sent to America as a slave, not an indentured servant. Can I get in on that reparation stuff?

Yup, I also have ancestors who were repressed. So I guess I’m entitled too.

Sorry about the long comment. I just started babbling and I finally had to make myself shut up. Anyway you don't have to read any of it if you don't want to.

What I wonder about reparations is what happens if a person is either half, quarter, eighth black? If they are half black do they get half the amount someone who is completely black. And if they are quarter do they get a quarter and so on. What if the black person's parents or grandparent or some other ancestor immigrated from an African country some time after the Civil War? Do they get reparations even though none of their ancestors were slaves... well at least slaves in the United States.

Considering that there were 10's of thousands of blacks who owned black slaves do they get reparations and then have to give it back? I don't know the number but there were several Native Americans who also owned slaves, do they have to pay reparations or do they get a pass because, as the left calls them, they are "brown people"?

There were a whole lot of Irish who came to America many as slaves and others were indentured servants. Do they get reparations also? What about the Chinese railroad workers? Sure they got wages but they were not enough to live on and they were forced into labor as well.

If slavery is defined by someone else claiming 100% of the products of another persons labor then at what percentage is it no longer slavery. If say the Federal Government decided in 1913 it was going to impose a certain percentage of our labor then that means we work a certain percentage for the government.

Tax Freedom Day is April 24th. That is the day that if you take all of the money that the government steals from you as a lump sum and then determine how long it takes to pay that lump sum, the average America would work from January 1st to April 24th as a slave to the government (https://taxfoundation.org/tax-freedom-day-2016-april-24). The rest of the year is ours. So April is the 4th month does that mean we get 1/3 of the amount of reparations?

I agree with most of what you say. There are also groups of American citizens who were repressed under the eye of the federal government, such as Mormons who had to flee the boundaries of the US because of an extermination order against them by the government.

As for tax freedom day, it’s not really slavery to the government because we get benefits in return for our taxes. What’s bad is the disproportionate tax rates paid by the rich while the poor get a pass yet we all share the benefits equally. Thus, the need for a flat tax where we all pay the same rate no mater what our income is.

It's funny you should mention the Mormons because I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2000 my wife and I moved to the state where the extermination order was signed. In 2010 we moved the the state where the Latter-day Saints fled to. Neither of us are originally from those states.

We do get some benefits from the Federal government but they take far from us than we get back. So it does go back to an issue of slavery. Even a slave doesn't have all of their labor taken from them. They have to be fed, clothed and housed. That being said that meant even in the days of slavery a slave did not have 100% stolen from them.

Our current tax rate is between 33% and 35%. If we get some return on our investment then whatever that percentage is can be subtract that amount from the 33% to 35%. Everything else after that becomes slavery by degree.

I’m a Latter-day Saint too. Too bad the federal government doesn’t follow the same type of donation and welfare system as the Church.

Exactly.

"what happens if a person is either half, quarter, eighth black" - I know, right? Thorny questionl.

Just look at Malia & Sasha Obama (just as an example that everyone can relate to). I think that they'd only get 1/2 reparations at best. I mean, they're 75% black, but the black on Barack's side comes from his father who came to this country in the 1900s from Aftrica and has no slave blood from that side of the family tree.

Maybe everyone will have to get "23 and me" before they can claim any money.

I think that is an excellent idea. 23 and me, Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, and any other of those DNA/Genealogy websites. They need to prove that their ancestry is African and they were in the United States as a slave between 1787 and 1862. Because if they weren't living in 1787, when the Constitution was ratified, then they are the UK's problem. 1862 was when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, so if they weren't in the United States prior to that then they could not have been slaves.

Plus they should all be given 40 acres and a mule, as promised, instead of money. The Federal government has seized a ton of land in the western states. 79.6% of Nevada and 63.1% of Utah is owned by the Federal Government. So there is a whole lot of BLM land (Bureau of Land Management, not Black Lives Matter) that they can give to those who prove they were descendants of slave. Western Arizona has a whole lot of wild mules that can be rounded up and domesticated for use on the 40 acres of land.

"Western Arizona has a whole lot of wild mules that can be rounded up and domesticated for use on the 40 acres of land."

WILD MULES! I LOVE THIS GUY!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/03/04/burros-are-running-amok-in-arizona-john-mccain-wants-congress-to-take-action/

Burros AKA Donkeys AKA Jackasses AKA Asses are NOT Mules, which, as everyone knows are the - wait for it - STERILE mule hybrid offspring of female horses and male donkeys.
There are no wild mules.

Where are you from again?

And they have wild mules as well in both Arizona and Nevada. Have you ever been to Nevada or Arizona?

Yeah, widdle pumpkin, hope that bill passes soon to sterilize them *pats head*

What are you even talking about?