A cite from Elder:

"Every one of the 13 states and most of the major cities that will become part of the confederacy had substantial numbers of black slave owners. New Orleans...had the most. A staggering 28% of free blacks in the Crescent City owned slaves."

• Here's a tweet via Kaus:

Ryan James Girdusky @RyanGirdusky 11h

There is no one less qualified to be a spokesperson for the GOP than Elise Stefanik

Pro-amnesty
Pro-globalism
Anti-border wall
Anti-Trumps tariffs

Say No To Stefanik

• Meanwhile....

I am not very nice about this. When someone mentions that this or that American historical figure - or Columbus - should be labeled a criminal, I say, "OK. Which warlike aboriginal savages who took slaves should we revere and emulate?"

They do not have an answer, because the entire purpose of their comment was to signal virtue.

In this world angels are few on the ground. The North now simply lies about it.

This is something that illustrates nicely my observation that discontent is the price of awareness. Since learning is so much work for some, they simply do not know - and then, ignorance is offered as an excuse.

Back when slavery was legal, did the law specify that only blacks could be enslaved? Or could it happen to other races as well (including whites)?

(Where's Coney?)

It's a geography question.

IIRC, "♬ To the shores of Tripoli ♫" referred specifically to early American naval suppression of Muslim (?) pirates in the Med, who liked to enslave seafaring whites from Europe. See yonder.

Conan/Anyone, pls advise

Native Americans often enslaved the captives from other tribes that they did not torture and execute.
It was likely more the rule than the exception.

When your society lacks the technology to power mechanical engines, the only two alternatives are animal power and human power. Almost all pre-industrial societies practiced slavery.

Conan/Anyone, pls advise ~ Crid at May 12, 2021 8:20 AM

It did. It referenced Jefferson sending multiple US Navy expeditions to suppress piracy by Muslim pirates using the Barbary states on the north coast of Africa - Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers - as their bases.

Navy Commodore, Stephen Decatur. led US Marines on a raid to rescue captured sailors and burn a captured American ship. This and his later exploits in the War of 1812 made him an American hero.

Millions of Europeans were estimated to have been captured and sold as slaves in North Africa and the Middle East from Barbary piracy.

"The Halls of Montezuma" references Marine actions in the 1848 War with Mexico.

Where am I? I live in Charlotte, NC these days. Moved out of California (Bay Area) in 2016.

Back when slavery was legal, did the law specify that only blacks could be enslaved?

Millions of Europeans were estimated to have been captured and sold as slaves in North Africa and the Middle East from Barbary piracy.

I meant specifically in the US; I see my question didn't make that clear.

> Moved out of California
> (Bay Area) in 2016.

I meant in the discussion, but it's good to be out, right? The things I loved most about Cali will always be there, but two sets of riots is plenty of sets of riots, thankyouverymuch. "Most of my life there" is a fine calculation for such things.

In an inexplicable Karmic violation, Cali has revenue now. You'll never guess who wants urgently to spend it rather than give it back to the people they took it from.

Back when slavery was legal, did the law specify that only blacks could be enslaved?

Millions of Europeans were estimated to have been captured and sold as slaves in North Africa and the Middle East from Barbary piracy.

I meant specifically in the US; I see my question didn't make that clear.

Rex Little at May 12, 2021 9:08 AM

No, Indentured servitude was essentially the same thing, with a theoretical end date that often never arrived.

The reason African Slavery became such a thing in the south. Is because they were the ones with their genetic resistance to malaria who could survive the climate.

Historical records seem to indicate that many of the freed slaves after the Civil war were so white they could easily pass as European, and often did, going west to erase contact with their origins. Sally Hemmings was Martha Jefferson with a light tan, and most likely her half sister.
Genetic testing indicated that my red haired, freckled incredibly fair skinned mother had at least one recent African ancestor. Most people alive today in the south and western US who are not recent immigrants, do.

We are all mixed race, and a bunch of really genetically illiterate people pay way too much attention to Phenotypes when trying to discern someone’s origins.

> Native Americans often enslaved
> the captives from other tribes

A few years ago there was a visit to the Fort Pitt Museum at the confluence forming the Ohio River. On the way in, I thought 'This will be a mundane but probably air-conditioned thing to do in downtown Pittsburgh while we wait for our dinner reservation...'

But it was one of the best museum visits of a lifetime, with a fascinating exhibition regarding the point made by Ruralcounsel. But to call whites captured by local tribes 'slaves' cheats the meaning: The captives who weren't killed, most often women and children, were integrated into the tribal societies. Yeah, they had to work in brutal conditions and they weren't spending holidays with their extended families… But brutal, unending toil was typical for everyone in those centuries (17th? 18th?). There were tales of complicated —usefully complicated— loyalties, wherein some of the children grew up to perform essentially ambassadorial exchanges.

I always meant to send a letter of congratulations to the director of that museum, because I was expecting a narrative of trite tragedy or resentment for purposes of social pandering… And it was anything but that. It would challenge anyone's priors, and do so through scholarship. It's easy to fear that in a contemporary woke environment, that wouldn't be permitted.

Aha! The guy who supervised the show still works there, email goes out tonight.

In an inexplicable Karmic violation, Cali has revenue now. You'll never guess who wants urgently to spend it rather than give it back to the people they took it from.

Crid at May 12, 2021 9:33 AM

It's a cardinal rule of bureaucracy to never save money, because if you do, the next year they will cut your budget by exactly the same amount you saved.

Nickeloden is sure spending quite a lot of money on reviving the Jimmy Neutron franchise:

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1392260512252051461

How fantasy characters use a bow & arrow:

https://mobile.twitter.com/astarsent/status/1392468696531193866

You want complicated?

Business Insider is reporting that Uber used 50 (fifty!) shell companies to avoid paying billions in taxes.

In other news, the Corps of Engineers is reporting that the Biden administration has re-started construction on a 13.4 mile stretch of the border wall.

"Business Insider is reporting that Uber used 50 (fifty!) shell companies to avoid paying billions in taxes."

Likely one in each state (or whatever tax jurisdiction they operate in, like DC), and just using a subsidiary corporate or LLC structure, which are pass-thru entities. The taxes get paid, just at a different level.

Without knowing more details, sounds like a "gotcha" article written by someone who doesn't know tax law.

"Without knowing more details, sounds like a "gotcha" article written by someone who doesn't know tax law."

Yeah, I can't post links here, so I went to the Business Insider article for details on the non-US non-China international tax avoidance scheme run through about 50 Dutch shell companies, as documented by the Center for International Tax Accountability And Research:

"Uber has been using a complex tax shelter involving around 50 Dutch shell companies to reduce its global tax bill, according to recent research from the Center for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research.

In 2019, Uber claimed $4.5 billion in global operating losses (excluding the US and China) for tax purposes — in reality, it brought in $5.8 billion in operating revenue, according to CICTAR, an Australia-based research group."