Twelve years ago, the Atlantic published “The Case for Reparations,” a stunning piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
In it, Coates painfully details how slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, and racist housing policies have inflicted lasting harm on African Americans, depriving them of the ability to build the kind of generational wealth that white families often take for granted.
The article helped revive serious conversations about reparations that led, eventually, to a unique but yet-unrealized effort in California.
Over the decades, many citizens have benefited from reparations; Japanese Americans who were imprisoned during World War II, Native American and African American farmers who were discriminated against when the federal government denied them access to credit, loans, land assistance programs and disaster relief. Locally, Santa Monica paid thousands of dollars to the family of a black man whose land was confiscated. In Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles County returned land known as Bruce's Beach to the descendants of a black couple who had been kicked off their property in 1924.
Other countries have also used reparations to atone for major grievances.
The German government has paid Holocaust survivors. Canada has compensated survivors of its indigenous boarding schools. New Zealand has reached an agreement with Maori tribes for confiscating tribal lands. In post-apartheid South Africa, a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” brought some healing to the victims of that racist system.
All were ethical attempts to repair real harms inflicted on citizens by their governments.
And then there is President Trump, hell-bent on finding new ways to embarrass America. Trump has now decided to funnel nearly $1.8 billion of taxpayer money into an “Anti-Arms Fund” to compensate people who believe they are victims of government overreach.
A memo distributed to Republican senators by the Justice Department suggests that large numbers of Americans have suffered from “legal warfare and militarization,” vague partisan concepts that have no real meaning in the law.
That could include, according to the memo, “millions of Americans whose online speech was censored at the behest of the government, parents silenced on school boards, senators whose records were subpoenaed, churchgoers targeted by the FBI, and so on.”
Etc?
The most controversial potential beneficiaries of the fund are the insurrectionists who ransacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, injuring dozens of police officers, some of whom later died. In one of the first official acts of his second term, Trump issued blanket pardons and commutations for the entire mob.
When Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, he declined to say whether those who attacked police would be barred from receiving money. “People who hurt police officers get compensation all the time,” he said, a stunning example of moral vacuousness. “Anyone can apply.”
This scam is nothing less than reparations for the insurrectionists, most of whom are white. They are all totally unworthy because they brought the suffering (and legal bills) on themselves.
“This is just stupid,” said North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. “This is beyond acceptable.”
The payments will be determined by a five-member committee appointed by Trump's attorney general and will be made in secret.
The fund arises from a settlement of Trump's absurd $10 billion lawsuit against the government (essentially himself) after an IRS contractor turned over 15 years of Trump's tax returns to the New York Times. (The contractor, who pleaded guilty, is serving a five-year federal prison sentence.)
Trump dropped the lawsuit in exchange for the Justice Department, led by his former personal defense attorney Blanche, creating the fund.
Oh, and by the way, the Justice Department quietly announced, the IRS will be “forever prohibited” from auditing Trump, his children, and his companies.
“Has there ever been an episode of presidential corruption so flagrant and threatening to the constitutional order?” asked the New York Times editorial board.
Two of the officers who were injured in the attack on the Capitol (Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges, who was repeatedly assaulted and pinned against a door frame) are suing the government to stop this charade.
“The Fund's mere existence sends a clear and chilling message: those who perpetrate violence in the name of President Trump will not only avoid punishment, but will be rewarded with riches,” the lawsuit states.
In Republican circles, it would appear that a mutiny is underway.
“So the country's top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault police officers?” said Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell. “Completely stupid, morally wrong – take your pick.”
On Thursday, House members introduced a bipartisan bill to close the fund.
That afternoon, NPR featured an interview with Jake Lang, who was in prison for using a bat to attack police on Jan. 6, and was awaiting trial when Trump issued his broad pardons.
Lang, a white nationalist provocateur who waxes lyrical about his racism and hatred of Muslims, Jews and immigrants, told NPR that he believes the payment his government will receive will be “more than a million dollars.”
“If you sacrifice for your country, if you do right in the face of evil, you will be rewarded,” Lang said. “That's the message President Trump is sending.”
Yeah, well, Trump is definitely sending a message. But that's not all.
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