Ken Padgett

  Al Jolson in Wonder Bar 1934 I run a YouTube channel that hosts clips of major stars wearing blackface in movies and TV. These clips are important because of their historical and cultural value, and should be available to the general public. Most of them are available now, but for how long? At any time the studios can change their minds about allowing these clips and take down my entire channel with a series of copyright strikes.  After getting a copyright strike, you can argue it should be considered "Fair Use for Educational Purposes" but that won't change YouTube's mind, because they don't want to get in the middle. You can also appeal to the owners of the media who file the claim, but they have no incentive to agree to any Fair Use.  The only other option is to dispute the claim with YouTube and then prepare for a copyright lawsuit from a media company. Testing your claim in court would likely not go well, because the media corporations have tailored the c...

  Summary:  The problems that justify reparations should be solved before you start the reparations Reparations are intended to compensate African-Americans whose ancestors were slaves and lived through the Jim Crow era.  According to the NAACP, "Reparations would involve a national apology, rights to the cannabis industry, financial payment, social service benefits, and land grants to every descendant of an enslaved African American and Black person a descendant of those living in the United States including during American slavery until the Jim Crow era in1965." Opponents say is that it's "impossible to place a monetary value on the impact of slavery"   Actually some people in San Francisco have placed a monetary value on the impact of slavery: Here are some of the more than 100 recommendations made by a city-appointed reparations committee: Payments of $5 million to every eligible Black adult, the elimination of personal debt and tax burdens, guaranteed annua...

  Higher education should be free, but it's not, and not likely to be anytime soon. We're blowing a bunch of money already, so why not give these people a break? Because paying off a bunch of student loans now will only make higher education more expensive for those who follow.   Lots of deserving people are mired in debt and would love some help too. How easy will it be for Republicans to use this to divide people?  When measured by income, the poorest one-fifth of Americans hold about 8 percent of all student debt in America. In contrast, the wealthiest one-fifth of American households have a third of all student debt. If you want to fix some things, and many things need fixing, maybe don't start with a cohort that is so easily portrayed by the other side as elite, when you couldn't even keep the COVID-era SNAP payments going. As a result of Democrats failure to protect children, 30 million Americans lost the help they desperately need to feed their hungry childr...

  Empathy should be reserved for victims of unfortunate circumstances—not celebrities who think laws/rules don’t apply to them. If Griner is a victim of anything, it's her own inflated sense of importance. When you leave America, you leave American justice and are at the mercy of foreigners and their laws. People caught with illegal drugs in a foreign country are subject to the drug laws of that country, not those of the United States. Sentences range from fines to years of hard labor and even the death penalty. Griner knew she was visiting an authoritarian country with horrible jails, that was about to go to war against Ukraine and was threatening the US, and she broke the law of that country. She now claims it was an "accident" but even if you accept that excuse, it still wouldn't make it in our national interest to make her a cause celebre or trade some high value Russian prisoner for her. So many in the media and online are trying to make this about her race...

    A year ago today on January 6, 2021, a violent mob attacked the US Capitol to try and overturn the election of Joe Biden and keep Donald Trump in office. We all watched the horrifying scenes on TV and many of us cried. The mob would have succeeded if not for the courage and dedication of the Capitol Police, many of whom were seriously injured. The mob was inspired by outrageous lies about a “stolen election” that were repeated endlessly by Trump, Right-wing media and many Republican members of Congress.  During the attack, many members of Congress on both sides of the isle were scared shitless and were cowering up in the balconies. Trump watched the attack with great joy and when the calls came in from Republicans and Fox News personalities asking Trump to call it off, he scoffed. Several hours later he finally made a video telling his supporters to "go home now," while continuing to falsely insist that his reelection was stolen.  After the attack, some Republica...