The Civil Rights Act
The significance of the Civil Rights Act cannot be overstated. It may be the single most important piece of legislation ever passed since 1960. It effectively ended “separate but equal.” All of those “white only” signs had to come down. Segregation had ended. The Civil Rights Act also required equal opportunity in hiring, firing, and promotions. It created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It completed what Brown v. Board of Education began. Under that law, the federal government could file lawsuits to force desegregation. It could withdraw federal funding if you were found to discriminate in a school district.
The Civil Rights Act was quickly followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. All of those hurdles and barriers to voting were removed—no more literacy tests, no more poll taxes, no more discrimination in voting. The Voting Rights Act allowed for majority minority districts, meaning that states couldn’t dilute the votes of Blacks, Hispanics, or women, for that matter. This single provision allowed for minority representation in the House of Representatives.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court just overturned this provision by a six-to-three margin. Now, states like Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and other southern states—and even some in the Midwest, like Ohio, or the West, like Utah—may rush to redraw their maps to dilute minority votes. Getting this overturned will be no easy feat. It will take a long, sustained effort, just like overturning Citizens United. This is bad, very bad.
Cryptocurrency
Donald Trump continues to enrich himself. It is hard for me to understand why nobody has tried to stop Donald Trump and his embrace of cryptocurrency. Soon after returning to the office, Donald Trump embraced cryptocurrency, having originally called it a scam.
In my opinion, cryptocurrency is no more than a Ponzi scheme. Each coin has no inherent value; its value is made up and agreed upon by people trading cryptocurrency. Donald Trump has made an estimated $1.5 billion to $2 billion in one year trading cryptocurrency. If you want to look for corruption, here it is. The best way to bribe Donald Trump is to buy into World Liberty Financial (Donald Trump’s crypto venture).
What are we doing, allowing this man to profit off the presidency? Why isn’t this illegal? (It is, of course, under numerous laws, including the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.)
Why can’t Congress grow a spine and investigate this bribery? (That’s a rhetorical question.) The president’s acts of bribery, extortion, and outright theft are not even taking place secretly, behind closed doors, but right out in the open, right in front of our faces. Why do the people, and the people’s representatives, allow this to continue?
This has to stop! We must amend the Constitution and give the Emoluments Clause some teeth. While we are at it, we need to add an amendment that solidifies the Voting Rights Act and fixes the Second Amendment! And we need to clearly state that corporations are not people or citizens. We need to take our country back!
