For most white Americans, the term “white supremacy” brings to mind the Ku Klux Klan, slavery, lynching, maybe Nazis, folks using the n-word as a slur, and other obvious displays of racism. We may be less inclined to see white supremacy in a welfare office, or in legislators drafting a new bill, or a family choosing where to buy their new home. Nevertheless, white supremacy manifests in these activities, as well–not to mention many more.

This could be considered a more practical companion piece to what I wrote yesterday. I was initially on the fence as to whether I should write strictly informational–that is, non-editorial/opinion articles–but I think there are areas where I can provide useful information to people, and this is one of them. My credentials in the credit realm are 7 years working for a receivables management software company, as well as 17 years of utilizing credit in various forms: mortgages, auto loans, personal bank loans, credit cards, students loans.

Full disclosure: I am currently paying federal student loans that I obtained while in college. I never finished college and it was never a huge amount (about $6000), nor do I expect any kind of reform to ever benefit me, but it would be unfair to say I’m a completely disinterested party. That said, student loans are big business in the United States. The federal government makes over $40 billion in profits on student loans annually, to say nothing of what private firms make.

It’s officially a week since I started this blog. Sunday seems like as good a day as any to write about the blog itself–a low-traffic day is the best time for self-indulgence, right? I’ve not yet figured out what the day to day rotation should be. Maybe there shouldn’t be one. I’ve settled on Saturday as “link roundup” day, and perhaps Sunday works for posts like this, where I discuss the blog itself–what I’ve done, what I plan to do in the future.

I had a thought to, once a week, post links that I found interesting throughout the week but didn’t use in any posts. So, I’ll do that today, and that may well be the Saturday ritual for this blog. Enjoy! * [Emotional outsourcing: why structural approaches to jealousy fail](https://www.morethantwo.com/emotional-outsourcing-why-structural-approaches-to-jealousy-fail) -- An intriguing examination of jealousy and how it pertains to polyamorous relationships. * [Attention K-Mart Shoppers](https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers) -- A collection of music and ad spots played over the PA systems at K-Mart stores in the late '80s and early '90s.

These days, encryption is everywhere. On the Internet, what was once used mostly to protect online purchases has become practical enough to secure almost all of our interactions with websites and online services. This is a good thing. What’s not so good is that encryption and the way we use it are both dangerously fallible. Malicious hackers break into supposedly secure systems all the time, to say nothing of what government agencies like the NSA have accomplished.

The Intercept has a new series on drone warfare out now, called The Drone Papers. I’ll share some of the highlights from the first installment, to the extent something so grim can have “highlights.” From The Assassination Complex: While every president since Gerald Ford has upheld an executive order banning assassinations by U.S. personnel, Congress has avoided legislating the issue or even [defining](http://fas.org/irp/crs/RS21037.pdf) the word “assassination.” This has allowed proponents of the drone wars to rebrand assassinations with more palatable characterizations, such as the term du jour, “targeted killings.

Although a few years old, today I came across this piece by Charlotte Shane in _The New Inquiry._ I highly recommend reading it, but be forewarned that it contains frank and rather graphic descriptions of rape. I will avoid graphic details here, but this will be an exploration of the points she raised. This is no doubt a difficult topic for many people. Shane takes issue with this popular narrative about rape:

“An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.” This folk saying is frequently used to summarize the ideal American work ethic. Every able-bodied adult, in the absence of spouse or some other independent means of financial support, is expected to carry their own weight by working one or more jobs in exchange for a wage or salary. It’s a simple concept, and of course it’s a basic principle of our economic system.

The kids are off school, the banks are closed, but most of us with jobs still have to work today. In that sense, the second Monday in October doesn’t always feel like a “real” holiday, so perhaps we don’t give it the amount of thought it deserves. Though it didn’t become a federal holiday until 1937, Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the so-called New World has been celebrated since not long after the first European colonies were established in the Americas.