California is a bundle of contradictions. It is simultaneously the American promised land–it is literally where the American Dream was first formulated–and a declining hellhole of a state where the major industry is whining for dollars.

There are few regions on Earth that contain so much beauty. From Death Valley’s forbidding and stark wonders,  Yosemite’s majestic vistas, the majesty of the Pacific Coast Highway, and then there are the beaches. Even San Francisco is beautiful if you can ignore the human waste littering the place.

If only the Leftists would leave the place alone it would do nothing but thrive.

Not gonna happen, but we can dream, can’t we?

Gavin Newsom is clearly setting himself up for a run for the presidency, and in the tradition of all Democrats he intends to bribe his way into the White House. Hence his initiative to pay reparations to all the black folks in California. As things stand it is only the hint of an idea of a concept of a brain fart, but there is now a commission to examine how best to do it.

I think you know what is happening. The grifters are lining up to make their case for why the money spigot should be opened wide. We will be treated to a long line of people who have never been slaves explaining to people who have never owned slaves why they should donate billions to apologize to long-dead slaves in a state that never held slaves.

Makes sense. If you are a Democrat.

The Daily Mail has an amusing take on the proceedings. With an entire continent and an ocean separating them from the proceedings the humor is easier to see.

A black California businessman demanded $600,000 from California taxpayers during the first meeting of the state’s reparations task force on Wednesday.

Deliberations began on how to quantify how financial compensation might be calculated and what might be required to prove eligibility.

One of those who spoke at the public hearing was 35-year-old entrepreneur and the first black professional tri-athlete, Max Fennell who said that every person should get $350,000 in compensation to close the racial wealth gap and Black-owned businesses should receive $250,000, which would help them to flourish.

Fennell added: ‘It’s a debt that’s owed, we worked for free,’ he said. ‘We’re not asking; we’re telling you.’

He concluded his remarks by saying: ‘The tangibles of what I’m asking for is $350,000 per black American in California that’s tangible, small business grant $250,000 and land 15-20 acres.’ 

Fennell posted a video on Instagram showing him at the hearings, with around 60 others, alongside the caption: ‘Witnessing history with the tribe.’

The first black professional tri-athelete apparently spent his youth working for free, and it is time to pay up. And he is not asking; he’s telling.

Seems fair. $600,000 and 15-20 acres of land in California. Perhaps along the coast, where building some condos might yield the greatest fiscal returns? Being a tri-athelete is taxing and Mr. Fennell worked hard for us without compensation. He worked for free.

Well, uh, no. He didn’t. He, along with most people living in California, is immensely privileged compared to most people in the world. Slaves brought to America clearly were among the most oppressed people of their time and deserved much more than they got after the Civil War, but history is hardly filled with stories where the good guys win totally and the bad guys pay their due. Pretty sure that Germany has not paid it’s bill for all the damage done during World War II and the genocide of the Jews.

Imagine going after the Mongols for all the damage they did a few hundred years back. Millions dead and enslaved.

I hate to point out the obvious, but history is one long list of atrocities interspersed with occasional moments of peace. The relative stability and remarkable economic rise of the United States has given people a mistaken sense that the “arc of history bends towards justice,” but actually most of the time it doesn’t work out that way.

Even our “justice” system doesn’t really compensate for the crimes–it merely punishes the criminals. I think we can safely assume that American slaveholders have paid their dues by dying. Account closed.

If we were talking about compensating actual former slaves I would jump on board the bandwagon, but we are more than a century too late to do that. As for compensation for redlining and discrimination? Well, get in line. I live in a neighborhood which was where Jews were allowed to live, as they were forbidden to live in other parts of the city. It sucks that this happened, but nobody is lining up to pay off the descendants of Minneapolis Jews. Or the Irish. Or the Italians.

If you want to compensate people for the oppression inflicted on their ancestors, you would soon find that everybody owes everybody because we are all descended from oppressors and oppressed people. Go back far enough and your great grandparent’s uncle killed somebody on your great aunt’s side of the family. The original owners of African slaves were Africans. Should we investigate lineages back that far to sharpen our accounting?

Looking backwards means that you aren’t looking forwards. And looking forward is what California used to be all about. Even 30 years ago the state was vibrant and drawing in scads of new people. It is now losing both people and businesses because the people in power are more concerned with dividing up the spoils than creating new wealth.

It’s sad, because California is lovely and has so much promise.

Too bad they are squandering it on silliness like this.