People have a vested interest in keeping these policies going. They make for easy plunder.

As the Tea Party has vividly demonstrated, it’s possible to “primary” out leaders who don’t do what you want them to do.

Exactly. Some people like to throw around the struggle against wealth inequality as some continuous slow fight to overcome that original sin of slavery, but there are many laws and practices that actively work to destroy the opportunity for African Americans to gain long term wealth. And it’s not just the leadership…

YES. It’s been hard enough convincing people that slavery actually had any impact on the present, but it’s just one part. Redlining is still around.

We need to travel back in time to after WWII and subsidize black veterans buying houses the way we did for white veterans and allow them to accrue generations of wealth from value of that home.

This is an old problem that was exacerbated by the concept of digitalized wealth, where making, saving, and spending money became something that could be accomplished with the transfer of numbers on a computer screen in fractions of a second. As well, since the problem mostly affects those without much influence on a…

The Republican obsession with repealing the estate tax is a prime example of this phenomenon.

“The systematic draining of property (real and personal) from black families which has happened under predatory lending, civil forfeiture, and eminent domain is a thoroughly recent affair.”

Something that has to be addressed is that reparations are not only with regards to slavery, nor Jim Crow. The systematic draining of property (real and personal) from black families which has happened under predatory lending, civil forfeiture, and eminent domain is a thoroughly recent affair.

There’s lots to focus on…

I’d say a far bigger driver of inequality sticking around is the fact that many people don’t mind it.

There’s a reason Massachusetts is mentioned as rejecting raising the cap on charters: It has the best public schools in the nation.

Don’t you agree there is quite a difference here? Typically, these seats are filled by generally competent people with relevant experience in their respective fields. While these people may lean in a different direction politically, the Senate generally acknowledges that elections have consequences, and does it’s duty…

I’m a NY’er, so I know all about state-mandated curriculums and exams (go fuck yourself, Board of Regents). In excess they’re awful and restrictive. That being said, I do believe the state (that’s general “state”, as in any government) has a significant interest in keeping its population adequately educated, as an…

The idea that a ruling class would kill the quality of education to ensure more underlings in the future sounds like something from a dystopian novel, but I cannot think of any other rationale behind moves like this.

In a conversation about DeVos and education, No Child Left Behind came up. Republicans are up in arms against it despite it being their idea in the first place. NCLB created empirical, factual data about how inequitable our education system is. In trying to create educator accountability, they accidentally created…

Except those cities are majority black. Even the least educated black people know better than to vote Republican.

Also makes the next generation of Amway sellers!

Always remember: Bad schools make future Republicans! If don’t bother to teach kids how to think, they won’t bother to learn. This locks in your base for the next generation.

Just wanted to give the podcast a recommendation. Through episode 6. Well thought out and structured.

I’ve always fiercely envied the naturally athletic and physical—not that I think any sport or physical activity is always effortless, but I see people who are just so at home in their bodies, who get such joy from movement.