Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Calling Liz Warren “Pocahontas” Is a Good Thing
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and President Donald Trump.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren is known for lying about being Native American to get a job at Harvard, but she’s not the first “Fauxcahontas” I’ve come across. As some on Ricochet know, I was once in the cheese business. About 20 to 25 percent of my business was with the DOD. They bought what was commonly referred to as commodity cheese. Think gasoline. For the most part gasoline is gasoline is gasoline as long as it meets certain standards. If an intersection has four gas stations, everything being equal, you buy from the one with the lowest price. The cheese that the DOD bought was like that.
The contracts were given to the lowest bidder, period. Bids were priced to the tenth of one cent. If two bidders were tied, the contract was rebid. Ties were fairly common. My gross markup was often about 10 percent. This gives you an idea how competitive it could be. I usually had a dedicated crew of about 30 souls including truck drivers assigned to this segment of the business. As competitive as it could be, I still thought it was worth it. They bought large volumes which helped my buying power and they paid well (most of the time).
All was well until sometime in the late ’80s. That is when affirmative action was introduced to the bidding process. In all their wisdom, Congress gave “minority ” bidders a 10 percent advantage. Even after its introduction, I got my share of business. It wasn’t something that could easily be replicated.
Then in about ’92/’93, I began losing every bid and so did all my competitors except for a new one. It was a minority bidder in Wisconsin identified as a female Native American. This went on for months. I had no choice but to institute the first-ever layoff at my business. This company came out of nowhere. Rumors started up, claiming that things were not as they appeared. Deliveries were not being made in a timely manner, if at all. The owner did not appear to be Native American. I hired a private detective.
I turned out that the owner wasn’t Native American — in fact, she wasn’t American at all. She and her husband were Russians. They were allowed in the US because they claimed religious persecution. They were Jewish, perhaps, at least that was their claim. What they really were was crooks. They had rented a small, bankrupt cheese plant and got favorable terms from the local government and bank. They defrauded their bank, were borrowing against their DOD contract, and not delivering the entire amount so they could pocket the difference.
You ask how this could happen. It took a long time to sort out. The minority status was self-reported and the DOD was not allowed to challenge the claim. Even with my PI report, they were forbidden to intervene, even as their logistics system was in chaos. After a certain time, if a bidder didn’t deliver, they could rebid the contract but, as crazy as it sounds, the minority bidder also could rebid — and did. I finally bit the bullet and got my congressman, Rick Santorum, involved.
I never found out how he did it, but Santorum got it straight quick. Within two weeks, I was getting contracts again. After a couple of years, the Native American Russians went to jail. Meanwhile, I had 30 displaced people whose lives were totally disrupted. They all had family. Two divorces were blamed on the layoff. I lost half of my team and had to hire and train new employees. All because of a Fauxcahontas or a Lieawatha.
Sen. Liz Warren probably didn’t affect as many lives, but she took someone’s position who was more worthy than her. She undoubtedly filled young skulls full of leftist mush at Harvard. Her very Senate seat is fake owing to deception. She is a thief and a liar. I have more respect for someone who shoplifts at a convenience store. If I had the same opportunity as President Trump, I would call her a lot worse than Pocahontas.
Published in Politics
He didn’t use that term against a Native American. If he had, you’d have a point.
I’m glad you complained to Rep. Santorum. I’m against Congressional constituent services, but you did good. If Rep. Santorum had done the right thing (or the better thing) he would have got Congress to reform the DOD purchasing procedures to guarantee this sort of thing would not happen again to you or anyone else, and that if it had, there would have been some effective recourse other than calling up your Representative.
My Quebecois great-great grandfather who immigrated to the United States in the 1880s married a Chippewa woman, my great-great grandmother. Their son, my great grandfather, grew up on a reservation in North Dakota.
So Elizabeth Warren can stuff it.
What the media gloss over, is she committed affirmative action fraud. By claiming to be a member of a group with special affirmative action status she got a job at Harvard (or an Ivy League school – if not there) … Has the media ever thought about the real consequences to others who didnt get the job, or other natives that where not considered because Harvard had filled the quota?
Unlike the awful movie “Soul Man” I dont think she was ever confronted by people she screwed over.
Agreed however at the time he was also running for the senate if my memory serves me. If anything things have become much worse. There are more victim categories . The only way to fix it is to end affirmative action all together.
For certain classes of individuals, everything Trump says is a racial slur. One such class is Democrats.
Indeed!
Another class is polite and considerate Americans.
Can you imagine Reagan, Mrs. Thatcher, Coolidge or Lincoln using a racial slur? They are the icons of our movement, and our membership levels are named for them. Barry Goldwater was famous for his respect for Native Americans, and his many trips to Arizona Indian Reservations.
There is nothing polite and considerate about faking one’s heritage to gain employment at the expense of others.
Quite a remarkable assertion: that all polite and considerate Americans consider each word out of the president’s mouth to be a racial slur. Perhaps you are confused about the meaning of the term racial slur or perhaps you belong to one of the other categories, some of which can not be named. Alternatively, perhaps you are confused about the meaning of the word everything.
Our membership tiers are named for Washington, Lincoln, Coolidge, Mrs. Thatcher and Reagan. Can you imagine them ever using a racial slur?
I can’t imagine any of them smearing President Trump with slurs the way you are doing.
I also recall George H.W. Bush endorsing the Democrat candidate for Loiuisana in 1991 over Republican David Duke.
Agree to disagree:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/donald-trump-cant-even-get-the-pocahontas-joke-right-2017-02-13
1) I voted for Trump in the general election and I support his Presidency.
2) I do not concur with the author Brett Arends(of the article I tagged here for this comment) that the term “Pocahontas” is a racist slur, nor do I question the “intellectual maturity” of Trump supporters for embracing name “Pocahontas” for Elizabeth Warren.
3) My point is that if Trump (and everyone else for that matter) had stuck with the original “Fauxcahontas” it is less likely it would be considered a racial slur …. although it’s a safe bet the (D)’s/MSM would have tried to turn it into a racial slur either way.
4) Having done a deep dive for this little comment, it does appear that as of today everyone simply concludes the name used to poke fun at Elizabeth Warren’s faux Native American heritage is, and always has been “Pocahontas”, and original “Fauxcahontas” (sometimes attributed to Rush Limbaugh and then made famous when used by Scott Brown in the 2012 Massachusetts US Senate race) appears to have been lost in the rabbit hole of political history ….
From the wiki on the topic. Good to see that the universities protect their own. :/
I love cheese (mostly the “fancy,” very smelly kinds) and I’m sure that I eat way too much of it. Out of curiosity, can you give us more details about this “commodity” cheese? What would it be comparable to at my local supermarket? What did the DOD do with it?
Ummm…actually, yes. There’s no excuse for using racial slurs (and Trump didn’t), but it’s also possible to be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good. The people that you mentioned are just that: people, not saints.
Maybe – we trace back to Burnt Church. My Mom got her Canadian certification of Indian status card (apologies for likely butchering the terminology here) a couple of years ago, made her very happy. She’s not Canadian, but has lived in Vermont for the past, um, 40 years or so. When I was a kid she would take us to pow-wows, etc, and we had friends in Quebec we visited at Kahnawake.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_Church_First_Nation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahnawake
More so than I can imagine them being sanctimonious.
I’m kind of surprised that someone hasn’t leaked these records. I guess that they’ve probably been destroyed.
She’s not conservative. They protect their own.
A lot of people have been complaining (elsewhere) that choosing that time to call her that name was inappropriate.
I don’t see it that way. If he hadn’t said it at that time, no one would have paid attention. Instead, people who hate Trump and will always hate Trump have fainting spells, and the rest of the world actually pays attention. Most people didn’t know about her fraud. Now a lot more do. That wouldn’t be the case had he not called her that in that setting.
While I voted for and support Trump, using a ceremony honoring Native American WWII veterans to crack a Pocahontas joke about Elizabeth Warren is probably not the time nor the place.
But in an odd twist of fate, all the (D)/MSM calculated anti-Trump outrage probably does boomerang right back at them by further highlighting potential 2020 (D) Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren’s infamous resume fraud.
The DOD sub agency the DPSC, defense personnel support center bought Cheese to feed the troops. Lots of cheddar, mozzarella,provolone, American cheese. They served all five branches. I would assume there was a lot of mac and cheese and pizza and sandwiches made. It was sent all over the world.
That you call it a racial slur doesn’t make it a racial slur. Are you sure by calling the quip a racial slur you aren’t making a racial slur? They’re so delicately PC they can’t see the humor in referring to a faux native American with a real native American name everybody recognizes and uses? Definitely a racial slur.
Can I imagine that a slur slipped out. Yes, but only as a mistake. Not as a deliberate affront to others, and certainly not repeatedly.
in other news, Trump is reportedly again insisting that Obama was not born in the United States, and is now suggesting that it isn’t his voice on the Access Hollywood. If these reports are inaccurate, then that leads to two shocking conclusions. Either Trump is a deliberate liar, or this is more evidence of Trump’s incapacity, and inability to do his job.
You may have missed what I had previous said. I live in a county that is 30% Native. I had a Navajo client in the office yesterday and asked if Trump calling Warren “Pocahontas” was a slur to her. She said that it was and showed me her Facebook post. She was not being PC. She was being human, and felt diminished by Trump.
I think he was trying to highlight bad cultural appropriation by a cynical and terrible person, and flubbed the line.
You might consider whether the Native people who are not the kind who would find themselves in your office and are not responding to your leading questions would agree. I’ve generally found that it’s risky to assume that one Native American’s opinion represents those of every other one.
That’s fair. I hope that Trump never uses that name again. If he doesn’t, then it can be called a flub. But if he persists, it is no longer a flub, but a slur.