How Black Americans Were Robbed of $66 Million & 14 Million Acres of Land

[History Thread]

So I have a funny story about Governor General Jules Leger. I was working in the gardens on the grounds as a summer student in 1972 (might have been 1973, I can't quite remember, but it was the first year that women were hired as labourers by the NCC).1/

One of the things that we had to do was rake The pebble gravel on the paths and that was my task this particular day. I was out raking when I saw a Columbo type man dressed in a fedora and a crumpled raincoat approach me.2/

At that time the grounds were open to the public so it wasn't particularly surprising to have someone wander up and we chatted. I realized that he had recently had a stroke and that his English, while fluent, was a little slow. 3/

Anyway, we had a very nice chat and the next time I saw him in the garden, I showed him some baby rabbits that had a nest in the front rotundra. He thought they were pretty adorable.4/

I was able to pick one up for him to hold, but it was difficult for him because one of his hands was quite paralyzed. Anyway, he thought this was very lovely and our regular chats continued.4/

In 1937, a trucker got frustrated waiting for his cargo to be unloaded. He later sold his company for $1.1 billion.

Here’s the story of how Malcom McLean made a billion dollars and which startup could be following in his footsteps. (Inspired by our episode with @laurabehrenswu)

In the early 1950s, the shipping industry was a dying business.

New York’s docks were handling half as much domestic cargo in the early 1950s as they had been in the depressed 1930s.

In thirty years, no one had invested significant money in coastal shipping.

Why?

As McLean found out, loading ships was difficult and slow.

A truck or train would deliver items to the port. Each item was unloaded separately, recorded, and carried to storage.

When a ship was ready, each item was taken from storage, counted again, and hauled on-board.

The cost of this labor was significant. As one expert at the time explained:

“A four-thousand-mile voyage for a shipment might consume 50 percent of its costs in covering just the two ten-mile movements through two ports.”

Yet, despite the industry’s issues, it felt little pressure to change.

Foreigners were barred from operating domestically. Cartels ran international routes. And gov. subsidies eased the pain of labor costs.

Reshaping the industry needed an outsider.

Enter Malcolm McLean.

Consider that Late Registration came out in 2005.

A 15 year old would only know Kanye as a maga hat embarrassment.

The Selfish Gene came out in 1976. Anyone under 44 only knows dawkins in his bigot form.

The milkshake duck time horizon

Dawkins, for instance, has now been a bigot for much longer than he was a respected scientist.

Kanye has been an embarrassment for much longer than he was a talented rapper.

It's like how a 120-year old has spent half their life as an elderly person.

At some point, the milkshake duck has been one so long that no one remembers the milkshake anymore.

It's just the racist duck, or the terf duck, or the virulently islamophobic duck. Or all three, and for brevity simply called the asshole duck

In 1927, a young Spanish boy, aged 8, - who would become the 18th Duque de Alberquerque - sat in a cinema watching a newsreel of the Grand National.
In that moment, an impossible dream was born.
Born on the 15 December 1918, the boy - Beltran de Osorio y Diez de Rivera

- was so enchanted that he resolved one day win to the great race himself.
Aged 33, the Duke - having ridden in French steeplechases - made his Grand National debut in 1952, putting up ten pound overweight on his own eight-year-old Brown Jack lll (Pic), trained by Peter Cazalet.

The tall Spaniard fell at the sixth, sustaining cracked ribs and concussion

His second attempt came eleven years later aboard the Irish-bred Jonjo (named after its joint owners John O'Hagen and Joe Thompson).
Together the 44-year-old Duke and the 13-year-old Jonjo completed the

first circuit safely enough and were well up with the leaders when being unluckily brought down at the 21st.
In 1965 the Duke took a bad fall from Groomsman at Valentine's and was taken to Walton General Hospital with a broken leg

His ride in 1966 was on the doubtful stayer

L'Empereur who had to pulled up at the 26th

He was back again in 1973, pulling Nereo up at the Canal Turn. He finished 8th on the same horse the following year.

Yet another bad fall a week before the 1975 National resulted in yet another broken leg, ruling him out of the race,

You think the Gamestop short squeeze is the greatest ever? Not. Even. Close.

This is the story of Piggly Wiggly and one man taking on Wall Street ALONE.

Buckle up, because this is one of the craziest stories in investment history.

It all started in 1919 when a man by the name of Clarence Saunders invented the first modern supermarket—Piggly Wiggly stores.

Before this time, people had to go into a store, give the clerk a shopping list, and then wait for their items to be gathered and brought out.

Saunders changed all that when he created a retail self-service market where people could pick the items themselves and pay on the way out.

People loved the idea so much that within 3 years there were over 1,200 Piggly Wiggly stores in the U.S.

With this success, Saunders began licensing the Piggly Wiggly name out to other retailers.

Unfortunately, some of these retailers in the northeast began going out of business in the fall of 1922, all while using the Piggly Wiggly name.

Traders on Wall Street heard of these closings and decided that they had an opportunity on their hands.

They began shorting Piggly Wiggly while also spreading rumors that the parent corporation was in trouble.


Within a week the price dropped from $50 to $40 a share.