Just when you thought Texas Red politics (read: power struggle) had become predictable---it did.
Texas Red’s Governor took a page out of his mentor’s playbook of typical “w” and Rove dirty tricks.
Reportedly Mike Toomey, goper friend of Rick Perry as well as former chief of staff, has been going all out to make certain Green Party candidates get on the November ballot. This would almost surely siphon off votes that would otherwise go to Democrat Bill White.
Don’t know about you but certainly I can see why it is the founders had such disdain for “political parties.”
Judge blocks Green Party candidates from Texas ballot
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-greenparty_25tex.ART.State.Edition1.296ca89.html
The power dynamic of our republic is undergoing an enormous transformation---and for the common folk as is the norm there is little, if any, good in it. The power has always been with a tiny fraction of the top one (1%) percent of the collective, the oligarchs. Realize that the top one (1%) is worth more than the bottom ninety-five (95%) percent of our collective. (Only three (3%) of Americans earn $300,000.00 or more annually) after that the drop is very steep.
Once there was a time when it was pretty much known or at least speculated that all power was concentrated in the hands of but a very few. The oligarchs are now out in the open. That’s “audacity.”
David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest, articulated that real power doesn’t reside with those whose names are household items but in those whose names we’ve never spoken. Those individuals don’t want to be known. The real power is not in pontificating on camera. That makes those people vulnerable. No, the real power is in owning and manipulating one or more of those types.
This republic has always had at least the illusion of freedom for its folk---today, not so much.
That’s likely the result of almost a decade of totalitarian-like concentration of power with the gopers. Recall that for almost the entire “ought” decade gopers controlled all three branches of our government. Even the elaborate process of checks and balances the founders put in place could not ultimately withstand the influence of wealth. It really never had a chance.
That was followed by a meltdown that insured for years---make that decades to come---that the oligarchs remain firmly in control.
The supremes gave them a sweet deal with this year’s ruling in favor of corporations in politics. (See: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts supporting or attacking political candidates).
The founders had a very healthy distrust of government. Who could blame them? Anyone with even a layman’s knowledge of history or political science is aware of the abuses of those who “govern.” And by the way, understand there is no perfect government.
When I see efforts such as this week’s congressional effort to address the condition the supremes put in place with the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission I realize that the oligarchs are not a monolithic entity.
House Approves the DISCLOSE Act - A Critical First Step in Addressing Unlimited Corporate Money in Politics
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=3156
Meanwhile in Bexar County someone has finally spoken up about immigration. That it is the shallow and self-interested mayor should tell you something.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
SA City Council passes resolution condemning AZ immigration law
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/SA-City-Council-passes-resolution-condemning-AZ/fAV41fZh_U2GcSfrEtzZvg.cspx
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission
David Halberstam on the Economic Fears of Americans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GFRDD7zY2c
David Halberstam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Halberstam
The Best and the Brightest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_and_the_Brightest
Tulane 2003 Commencement Address - David Halberstam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqRgtaRMGtw
Julian Bond: Freedom, Equality, and Privacy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0H8MDhrsKQ
Howard Zinn on Obama: "If you want to end terrorism, you have to stop being terrorists"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbzkhu1CiVU&feature=related
Tony Soprano : Politics In America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuKhRYwrZZw
Texas Red
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Public Policy and American “values” (two)
What a week it was, it really was.
The quintessential poster boy, Joe Barton (Texas Red goper), of the compassionate conservatives pervasive throughout this land apologized to the oligarchs---in this case BP.
“The Texas Republican, the House's top recipient of oil industry campaign contributions since 1990, apologized Thursday for apologizing to the chief of the British company that befouled the Gulf of Mexico with a massive oil spill.”
It is understandable that Barton did so. He is after all beholden. I often speak of the bootlicking, rock star wannabe steppin’fetchit lapdogs of the oligarchs. It is not so often I have a perfect example (to say little of articles and youtube video) to share.
In terms the compassionate conservatives are most likely to understand, if Joe had been present at the Valley of Elah, site of the showdown between David and Goliath, Joe would have been Goliath’s cheerleader.
What’s a rock star wannabe to do? It’s either do the bidding of the oligarchs or go find a real job. The job of representatives was never meant to be a career Joe. Members of congress were supposed to represent their constituents, the folk of their respective districts---not their corporate sponsors. Such is the state of our republic.
Speaking of the state of our republic---last time I checked we still have a Bill of Rights, though you really can’t tell. We’re becoming more and more of the police state George Orwell saw in 1948.
NPR reported this week that, “In an email message to his supporters, obtained by The Daily Beast, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, says he is preparing to post a classified video of an air strike on an Afghan village.
According to reporter Philip Shenon, the incident is "believed to be the most lethal combat strike in Afghanistan — in terms of civilian deaths — since the United States invaded the country."
In April, WikiLeaks decrypted and released a video, shot from an Apache helicopter, that showed the killing of a group of Iraqis, including two Reuters employees.
Last week, Wired's Threat Level blog reported the Pentagon had arrested Specialist Bradley Manning, "an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of State Department records to whistleblower site WikiLeaks."
Meanwhile some gopers want to deprive you and me of more of our privacy rights. That’s right, they want no more prepaid cell phones (you know like the one Matt Damon uses in the Bourne movie) without knowing who’s buying it. Why? “Terrists” of course---but don’t lose sight of the fact that before it was “terrists” it was “communists.” It’s always going to be some boogey man opportunists use to frighten Americans into giving up privacy, civil rights or beit freedom.
I agree with Benjamin Franklin’s take, “those who willingly give up civil liberty for security---deserve neither.”
Hasta Siempre,
Public Policy and American “values” (two)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m6d19-Public-Policy-and-American-values-two#
WikiLeaks Preparing To Release Video Of Afghan Air Strike, Site's Founder Says
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/06/16/127878528/wikileaks-preparing-to-release-video-of-afghan-air-strike-site-s-founder-says
Wikileaks.org
http://wikileaks.org/
Such a night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX2LOu5gzic
Rep. Barton Apologizes for BP Apology
(WASHINGTON) — Who's sorry now? Rep. Joe Barton, that's who.
The Texas Republican, the House's top recipient of oil industry campaign contributions since 1990, apologized Thursday for apologizing to the chief of the British company that befouled the Gulf of Mexico with a massive oil spill.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1997693,00.html?xid=rss-politics&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fpolitics+%28TIME%3A+Top+Politics+Stories%29#ixzz0rIPUo5ul
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1997693,00.html?xid=rss-politics&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fpolitics+%28TIME%3A+Top+Politics+Stories%29
Rep. Joe Barton Apologizes To BP For $20 Billion Claims Fund
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv0siXm2cpc
Joe Barton, gopper
http://joebarton.house.gov/Default.aspx
WikiLeaks releases secret video of journalists, civilians killed in Baghdad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyQsgkncxcc&has_verified=1
The quintessential poster boy, Joe Barton (Texas Red goper), of the compassionate conservatives pervasive throughout this land apologized to the oligarchs---in this case BP.
“The Texas Republican, the House's top recipient of oil industry campaign contributions since 1990, apologized Thursday for apologizing to the chief of the British company that befouled the Gulf of Mexico with a massive oil spill.”
It is understandable that Barton did so. He is after all beholden. I often speak of the bootlicking, rock star wannabe steppin’fetchit lapdogs of the oligarchs. It is not so often I have a perfect example (to say little of articles and youtube video) to share.
In terms the compassionate conservatives are most likely to understand, if Joe had been present at the Valley of Elah, site of the showdown between David and Goliath, Joe would have been Goliath’s cheerleader.
What’s a rock star wannabe to do? It’s either do the bidding of the oligarchs or go find a real job. The job of representatives was never meant to be a career Joe. Members of congress were supposed to represent their constituents, the folk of their respective districts---not their corporate sponsors. Such is the state of our republic.
Speaking of the state of our republic---last time I checked we still have a Bill of Rights, though you really can’t tell. We’re becoming more and more of the police state George Orwell saw in 1948.
NPR reported this week that, “In an email message to his supporters, obtained by The Daily Beast, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, says he is preparing to post a classified video of an air strike on an Afghan village.
According to reporter Philip Shenon, the incident is "believed to be the most lethal combat strike in Afghanistan — in terms of civilian deaths — since the United States invaded the country."
In April, WikiLeaks decrypted and released a video, shot from an Apache helicopter, that showed the killing of a group of Iraqis, including two Reuters employees.
Last week, Wired's Threat Level blog reported the Pentagon had arrested Specialist Bradley Manning, "an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of State Department records to whistleblower site WikiLeaks."
Meanwhile some gopers want to deprive you and me of more of our privacy rights. That’s right, they want no more prepaid cell phones (you know like the one Matt Damon uses in the Bourne movie) without knowing who’s buying it. Why? “Terrists” of course---but don’t lose sight of the fact that before it was “terrists” it was “communists.” It’s always going to be some boogey man opportunists use to frighten Americans into giving up privacy, civil rights or beit freedom.
I agree with Benjamin Franklin’s take, “those who willingly give up civil liberty for security---deserve neither.”
Hasta Siempre,
Public Policy and American “values” (two)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m6d19-Public-Policy-and-American-values-two#
WikiLeaks Preparing To Release Video Of Afghan Air Strike, Site's Founder Says
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/06/16/127878528/wikileaks-preparing-to-release-video-of-afghan-air-strike-site-s-founder-says
Wikileaks.org
http://wikileaks.org/
Such a night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX2LOu5gzic
Rep. Barton Apologizes for BP Apology
(WASHINGTON) — Who's sorry now? Rep. Joe Barton, that's who.
The Texas Republican, the House's top recipient of oil industry campaign contributions since 1990, apologized Thursday for apologizing to the chief of the British company that befouled the Gulf of Mexico with a massive oil spill.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1997693,00.html?xid=rss-politics&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fpolitics+%28TIME%3A+Top+Politics+Stories%29#ixzz0rIPUo5ul
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1997693,00.html?xid=rss-politics&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fpolitics+%28TIME%3A+Top+Politics+Stories%29
Rep. Joe Barton Apologizes To BP For $20 Billion Claims Fund
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv0siXm2cpc
Joe Barton, gopper
http://joebarton.house.gov/Default.aspx
WikiLeaks releases secret video of journalists, civilians killed in Baghdad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyQsgkncxcc&has_verified=1
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Public Policy and American “values”
What exactly are “American values?” What happened to “principles?”
The insidious, inexorable, and maybe psychotic morphing of American “values” is a process in motion.
When I hear people talk about our “values” I always think $1.99 a pound designer coffee---now that’s a value!
Are American “values” the developing of a more sophisticated, unseen and remote form of death by stealth UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) guided by young hands in Nevada? Certainly it is life imitating art if a surreal glide toward a “Terminator” world. There are bootlickers of the oligarchs in congress who wish drones patrolling our domestic air space even now. Call that the camel’s nose under the tent.
Every day around the globe there are at least 7,000 drones, UAVs, in the sky. Today there are more Americans being trained to fly them than to fly conventional airframes. Put another way, there are more predator drones flying and killing in the Obama administration than in the warmongering “w” administration. Change!
When we grow up having the majority’s “values” foisted on us many accept those “values” as “truth” ideas that may not represent a universal sense of reality. These “truths” are simply what the majority forces on the defenseless minority or minorities. Think of it as what Jefferson and the other founders referred to as tyranny by majority.
Growing up in Anglo-Saxon dominated America fifty years ago meant having Christmas and Easter foisted on us; today maybe a little less so.
Do our values finally say that a plant long used by humans, made criminal by tobacco-industry lobbyists and the majority’s scare-mongering may find its way into the mainstream?
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia already approve of the use of marijuana---it kills no one.
All fifty states approve of tobacco use. Tobacco kills 500,000 Americans every year. Around the world 5 million people annually die from using it. It costs us $100’s of millions of dollars in Medicare/Medicaid benefits annually for us to essentially underwrite, i.e. insure the product liability risk for big tobacco. Yet, until last year there was not even a minimal effort to “regulate” tobacco. This speaks to big tobacco’s control over the lapdogs in congress.
Tobacco companies paid little of the verdicts levied against them in the 1990’s. In the decade following those decisions the tobacco industry increased nicotine in cigarettes another 11% as if to say, “so there!”
Our lapdog congress had to agree to a $50B dollar tax credit to the tobacco industry in order to leverage the last minimum wage increase. Are those American “values?”
More:
Public Policy and American “values”
CIA, Military Rely Heavily On Predator Drones
AMOS: It has been reported that there are now more service members training to become a drone pilot - which essentially means you're watching a computer and flying by joystick - than those training to fly traditional warplanes. What does that say about the U.S. reliance on drones?
Mr. SINGER: We're experiencing a revolution in technology right now. We've gone from using a handful of these systems when our forces invaded Iraq, to now we have over 7,000 in the air. Who should be able to use it? Which is really what this debate is about. Should the Predator be a military technology, or is it something that you want, you know, intelligence agencies using? Or Department of Homeland Security also has its own systems like this. We're going through a massive change right now that raises a lot of questions we need to figure out.
Reports: Military Fails To Diagnose Brain Injuries
Marijuana's Black Market: Will It Stay Or Will It Go?
Colorado Tightens Medical Marijuana Rules
Pot Radio: Traffic, Weather And Drug Bust Tips
400 Marijuana Dispensaries To Close In Los Angeles
The Man Bankrolling California's Pot Initiative
Drug Courts Confront Relaxed Attitudes Toward Pot
Medical marijuana is legal in 14 states
Calif. Pot Movement Adopts Glossier Approach
Medicinal Marijuana: A Patient-Driven Phenomenon
George Carlin On Drugs And Marijuana
The insidious, inexorable, and maybe psychotic morphing of American “values” is a process in motion.
When I hear people talk about our “values” I always think $1.99 a pound designer coffee---now that’s a value!
Are American “values” the developing of a more sophisticated, unseen and remote form of death by stealth UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) guided by young hands in Nevada? Certainly it is life imitating art if a surreal glide toward a “Terminator” world. There are bootlickers of the oligarchs in congress who wish drones patrolling our domestic air space even now. Call that the camel’s nose under the tent.
Every day around the globe there are at least 7,000 drones, UAVs, in the sky. Today there are more Americans being trained to fly them than to fly conventional airframes. Put another way, there are more predator drones flying and killing in the Obama administration than in the warmongering “w” administration. Change!
When we grow up having the majority’s “values” foisted on us many accept those “values” as “truth” ideas that may not represent a universal sense of reality. These “truths” are simply what the majority forces on the defenseless minority or minorities. Think of it as what Jefferson and the other founders referred to as tyranny by majority.
Growing up in Anglo-Saxon dominated America fifty years ago meant having Christmas and Easter foisted on us; today maybe a little less so.
Do our values finally say that a plant long used by humans, made criminal by tobacco-industry lobbyists and the majority’s scare-mongering may find its way into the mainstream?
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia already approve of the use of marijuana---it kills no one.
All fifty states approve of tobacco use. Tobacco kills 500,000 Americans every year. Around the world 5 million people annually die from using it. It costs us $100’s of millions of dollars in Medicare/Medicaid benefits annually for us to essentially underwrite, i.e. insure the product liability risk for big tobacco. Yet, until last year there was not even a minimal effort to “regulate” tobacco. This speaks to big tobacco’s control over the lapdogs in congress.
Tobacco companies paid little of the verdicts levied against them in the 1990’s. In the decade following those decisions the tobacco industry increased nicotine in cigarettes another 11% as if to say, “so there!”
Our lapdog congress had to agree to a $50B dollar tax credit to the tobacco industry in order to leverage the last minimum wage increase. Are those American “values?”
More:
Public Policy and American “values”
CIA, Military Rely Heavily On Predator Drones
AMOS: It has been reported that there are now more service members training to become a drone pilot - which essentially means you're watching a computer and flying by joystick - than those training to fly traditional warplanes. What does that say about the U.S. reliance on drones?
Mr. SINGER: We're experiencing a revolution in technology right now. We've gone from using a handful of these systems when our forces invaded Iraq, to now we have over 7,000 in the air. Who should be able to use it? Which is really what this debate is about. Should the Predator be a military technology, or is it something that you want, you know, intelligence agencies using? Or Department of Homeland Security also has its own systems like this. We're going through a massive change right now that raises a lot of questions we need to figure out.
Reports: Military Fails To Diagnose Brain Injuries
Marijuana's Black Market: Will It Stay Or Will It Go?
Colorado Tightens Medical Marijuana Rules
Pot Radio: Traffic, Weather And Drug Bust Tips
400 Marijuana Dispensaries To Close In Los Angeles
The Man Bankrolling California's Pot Initiative
Drug Courts Confront Relaxed Attitudes Toward Pot
Medical marijuana is legal in 14 states
Calif. Pot Movement Adopts Glossier Approach
Medicinal Marijuana: A Patient-Driven Phenomenon
George Carlin On Drugs And Marijuana
Monday, June 14, 2010
America the Beautiful vs Texas Red
There is so much going on in the world and in this nation that it is tempting to want to touch on all topics. However, when family and friends who are not usually into politics or current events want to speak of almost nothing else I listen.
The killings of two men, Sergio Hernandez, 15 a student and Anastasio Hernandez, 32 father of five within the past two weeks by border agents of the U.S. has gotten the attention of those living on both sides of the Rio Grande.
This killing spree seems inspired by Arizona’s SB 1070 genocide by legislation. European invaders have managed to eradicate by homicide many of the original inhabitants of this entire hemisphere. The terroristic actions of those invaders have been aggravated by their centuries-long occupation and now their continued genocidal tendencies toward people who look like me.
In my previous discussion I spoke of the psychotically irrational and narcissistic penchant for those who migrated to Tejas just a few generations ago to declare themselves “Native Texans.”
I’m not oblivious to the fact that there are opposing views to the immigration issue. However, it is important to take note of just whose opposing view it is.The oligarchs who run this nation have had it made because of the existence of those who migrate here from the lands south of the Rio Grande. Those who call themselves “Native Texans” have long since benefited from the labor of those they call “illegals” the undocumented workers.
The study supply of cheap labor has kept wages irrationally low. Those in power have been able to keep more of the profits of this exploitation. Poor Mexican-Americans are in the unenviable predicament of having to compete with fellow countrymen for jobs.
Meanwhile Americans in general have had the benefit of cheap labor to harvest crops across America. Migrants’ status is only marginally better than that of slaves and never in question when they are putting artificially low priced food in supermarkets, restaurants and dinner tables.
This seemingly near in-exhaustible supply of cheap labor from the south has had Americans in general and the oligarchs in particular spoiled. It is part and parcel of the culture and mindset of this land. After all, Africa-Americans cleared most of the nation and then worked plantations to make racists rich. Chinese-Americans built the railroads that connected the east and west of this country making travel and domination possible. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have long provided general labor. All three worked the American sweat shop and continue to do so even in places like the Marianas.
Over the past 234 years powerful (European) men, their interests (transnational corporations) and political processes have exploited the people and resources of the lands south of the Rio Grande to their benefit and to the detriment of its indigenous peoples. The heavy boot of the European has long been at the neck of the original inhabitants of this hemisphere from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
This exploitation has left few options for the people of those lands. European oligarchies across most of Central and South America have worked and are working in league with American-based transnational corporations to wring every drop of natural resources, blood and sweat from those lands. The governments of those lands have been the domain of the European since the first Europeans foisted their genocide-enabled will.
On this side of the Rio Grande the poor of the lands south of that river face both discrimination and exploitation matching that of their respective homelands. This is largely true whether those who look like me are documented or not.
Their choices are few. They can stay in their homelands where they are systematically marginalized and exploited by European oligarchs (only in Israel are there more European-Jews for example than there are in Argentina). The poor of Central and South America often make another “choice.” [When one does something because there is no other viable option is it really a choice?] The poor risk life and limb to come to this land. We do sell the idea around the globe that we are the land of opportunity, “land of the brave and the home of the free.”
The little money the exploited can put together is quite often paid to “coyotes” or human traffickers to bring them here. The life of the “illegal” is a dangerous, pitiful one. Their collective problem of having been born in their respective geographic location is only exacerbated by also having been born poor and on the wrong side of the river.
They don’t climb into a gas-guzzler “American style” and drive here. They walk, hitch rides on trains, buses, cars to come here to work so they can feed their families back home.
Once here---a daunting enough accomplishment they take on hard labor. They labor under the hot sun or in what is for them unnaturally cold environments to build our schools, roads, homes and hospitals.
In some states, California, for example these undocumented workers are exploited, harnessed by economic forces but not allowed a driver’s license.
Now they are stressed, pressed and depressed by the system that exploits them no matter the side of the divide. Worse those who look like me are also now killed.
That some strides have been made by some Mexican-Americans cannot be denied. Yet how many of them have you heard decry the deaths of Sergio Hernandez, 15 a student and Anastasio Hernandez, 32 father of five or the passing of SB 1070 in Arizona?
In the 1970’s and 1980’s killing Mexicans and Mexican-Americans was a past time, a sport for law enforcement in this land in general and in Tejas in particular. Push back by civil rights activists halted that---but alas apparently only for a short time.
Hasta Siempre
Univision Shows Cell Phone Video Of Border Shooting
Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka , 15 student
Mexico anger high as US Border Patrol kills teen
Anastasio Hernandez, 32 father of five
Who is boycotting Arizona?
Latino USA
Hispanics abandon Arizona, fleeing economy, immigration law
Ex-Cop Faces Trial In Racially Charged Murder Case
Oscar Grant, 22, grocery store worker and father
The killings of two men, Sergio Hernandez, 15 a student and Anastasio Hernandez, 32 father of five within the past two weeks by border agents of the U.S. has gotten the attention of those living on both sides of the Rio Grande.
This killing spree seems inspired by Arizona’s SB 1070 genocide by legislation. European invaders have managed to eradicate by homicide many of the original inhabitants of this entire hemisphere. The terroristic actions of those invaders have been aggravated by their centuries-long occupation and now their continued genocidal tendencies toward people who look like me.
In my previous discussion I spoke of the psychotically irrational and narcissistic penchant for those who migrated to Tejas just a few generations ago to declare themselves “Native Texans.”
I’m not oblivious to the fact that there are opposing views to the immigration issue. However, it is important to take note of just whose opposing view it is.The oligarchs who run this nation have had it made because of the existence of those who migrate here from the lands south of the Rio Grande. Those who call themselves “Native Texans” have long since benefited from the labor of those they call “illegals” the undocumented workers.
The study supply of cheap labor has kept wages irrationally low. Those in power have been able to keep more of the profits of this exploitation. Poor Mexican-Americans are in the unenviable predicament of having to compete with fellow countrymen for jobs.
Meanwhile Americans in general have had the benefit of cheap labor to harvest crops across America. Migrants’ status is only marginally better than that of slaves and never in question when they are putting artificially low priced food in supermarkets, restaurants and dinner tables.
This seemingly near in-exhaustible supply of cheap labor from the south has had Americans in general and the oligarchs in particular spoiled. It is part and parcel of the culture and mindset of this land. After all, Africa-Americans cleared most of the nation and then worked plantations to make racists rich. Chinese-Americans built the railroads that connected the east and west of this country making travel and domination possible. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have long provided general labor. All three worked the American sweat shop and continue to do so even in places like the Marianas.
Over the past 234 years powerful (European) men, their interests (transnational corporations) and political processes have exploited the people and resources of the lands south of the Rio Grande to their benefit and to the detriment of its indigenous peoples. The heavy boot of the European has long been at the neck of the original inhabitants of this hemisphere from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
This exploitation has left few options for the people of those lands. European oligarchies across most of Central and South America have worked and are working in league with American-based transnational corporations to wring every drop of natural resources, blood and sweat from those lands. The governments of those lands have been the domain of the European since the first Europeans foisted their genocide-enabled will.
On this side of the Rio Grande the poor of the lands south of that river face both discrimination and exploitation matching that of their respective homelands. This is largely true whether those who look like me are documented or not.
Their choices are few. They can stay in their homelands where they are systematically marginalized and exploited by European oligarchs (only in Israel are there more European-Jews for example than there are in Argentina). The poor of Central and South America often make another “choice.” [When one does something because there is no other viable option is it really a choice?] The poor risk life and limb to come to this land. We do sell the idea around the globe that we are the land of opportunity, “land of the brave and the home of the free.”
The little money the exploited can put together is quite often paid to “coyotes” or human traffickers to bring them here. The life of the “illegal” is a dangerous, pitiful one. Their collective problem of having been born in their respective geographic location is only exacerbated by also having been born poor and on the wrong side of the river.
They don’t climb into a gas-guzzler “American style” and drive here. They walk, hitch rides on trains, buses, cars to come here to work so they can feed their families back home.
Once here---a daunting enough accomplishment they take on hard labor. They labor under the hot sun or in what is for them unnaturally cold environments to build our schools, roads, homes and hospitals.
In some states, California, for example these undocumented workers are exploited, harnessed by economic forces but not allowed a driver’s license.
Now they are stressed, pressed and depressed by the system that exploits them no matter the side of the divide. Worse those who look like me are also now killed.
That some strides have been made by some Mexican-Americans cannot be denied. Yet how many of them have you heard decry the deaths of Sergio Hernandez, 15 a student and Anastasio Hernandez, 32 father of five or the passing of SB 1070 in Arizona?
In the 1970’s and 1980’s killing Mexicans and Mexican-Americans was a past time, a sport for law enforcement in this land in general and in Tejas in particular. Push back by civil rights activists halted that---but alas apparently only for a short time.
Hasta Siempre
Univision Shows Cell Phone Video Of Border Shooting
Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka , 15 student
Mexico anger high as US Border Patrol kills teen
Anastasio Hernandez, 32 father of five
Who is boycotting Arizona?
Latino USA
Hispanics abandon Arizona, fleeing economy, immigration law
Ex-Cop Faces Trial In Racially Charged Murder Case
Oscar Grant, 22, grocery store worker and father
Saturday, June 5, 2010
America the Beautiful? Texas Red; fatal and spreading
Nations and cultures are usually brought down by forces from within. It only seems to the casual observer that the nation or culture succumbed to pressures from without.
Those who might declare themselves to be “Native Texans” are not so different from those (of all stripes) who declare themselves better than the others---those “illegals” because they are here “legally.” “Legally” really--- what does that mean?
The inhabitants of this hemisphere had long been present when invaded by terrorists (the present occupiers) and in genocidal fashion almost rendered extinct. No doubt Europeans and British invaders were viewed more as terrorists and “illegals” than “gods” by those they would soon torture, kill, oppress and exploit and whose lands the invaders would comfiscate. Another view is little more than wishful thinking and full blown sugar-coated delusional. Almost as delusional as holding companies in England and Europe selling land in the New World they did not own had not seen and for which they had no documentation. Talk about illegal.
I see the “powers that be” doing the same thing in the Middle East they did here---re-creating the inhabitants in their own image. In this hemisphere the long hair of the natives was shorn. European and British (white people’s) idea of clothing replaced nudity or leather clothing. European religions forcefully replaced nature-based spirituality. The writings of the “heathens” “injuns” by another name were burned and replaced by eloquent writings telling the vanquished second class citizen that it was going to be alright because, “all men are created equal.” Two-hundred thirty four years later it’s still not the case and even less so for women.
Now invader-occupiers use artificially drawn boundaries not unlike children in a schoolyard declaring anyone on the other side of the boundary excluded. But our “leaders” weren’t and aren’t children. They were and are exploiters of the people and lands from el Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego (yes, England including Las Malvinas). The bounty of those lands was played out, the folk of the region decimated. Their only hope of sustaining their families was finding work in el norte.
It is not possible to make this up. The promoters of the “white male system” have throughout time repeated the process over and over. It is what the promoters of that system do.
The question is what would these European and British-Americans do if that were done to them? Yet we spend a considerable amount of money we don’t have to do all of the above and to enable Israelis to do the same. Here in this nation we exclude the undocumented from their native lands when they are not needed or the feeling of scarcity is predominant. This is of course humorous because there may not be money to feed the hungry or to fix our decaying infrastructure but there is always more than enough money to unilaterally and pre-emptively attack another country and to hunt for those the oligarchs find inimical to their existence.
Is what we have here so much better that we just have to foist it on everyone else? Why would the rest of the world taking a close look at who we are and what we do want to be like us? And really given our penchant for pre-emptively invading and bombing people do we really want another us out there?
Our forces of governance take an ever sharper internecine turn. That makes for a “house divided.”
I admit it is almost impossible for invader-occupiers to see or understand what they do to those they invade. These words are for those who might.
Hasta Siempre,
America the Beautiful? Texas Red Fatal and Spreading
Women's Reality: An Emerging Female System
The People Speak
The People Speak *
Howard Zinn's "The People Speak"
The making of policy in America: the foundational reality
George Carlin Talks War And American Politics
Senators Fed Up With Secret Blocks On Nominees
Single mother of six forced out of public housing
Nikki Haley Called Ethnic Slur by South Carolina Lawmaker
Suspects Must Invoke Miranda Right To Stay Silent
Those who might declare themselves to be “Native Texans” are not so different from those (of all stripes) who declare themselves better than the others---those “illegals” because they are here “legally.” “Legally” really--- what does that mean?
The inhabitants of this hemisphere had long been present when invaded by terrorists (the present occupiers) and in genocidal fashion almost rendered extinct. No doubt Europeans and British invaders were viewed more as terrorists and “illegals” than “gods” by those they would soon torture, kill, oppress and exploit and whose lands the invaders would comfiscate. Another view is little more than wishful thinking and full blown sugar-coated delusional. Almost as delusional as holding companies in England and Europe selling land in the New World they did not own had not seen and for which they had no documentation. Talk about illegal.
I see the “powers that be” doing the same thing in the Middle East they did here---re-creating the inhabitants in their own image. In this hemisphere the long hair of the natives was shorn. European and British (white people’s) idea of clothing replaced nudity or leather clothing. European religions forcefully replaced nature-based spirituality. The writings of the “heathens” “injuns” by another name were burned and replaced by eloquent writings telling the vanquished second class citizen that it was going to be alright because, “all men are created equal.” Two-hundred thirty four years later it’s still not the case and even less so for women.
Now invader-occupiers use artificially drawn boundaries not unlike children in a schoolyard declaring anyone on the other side of the boundary excluded. But our “leaders” weren’t and aren’t children. They were and are exploiters of the people and lands from el Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego (yes, England including Las Malvinas). The bounty of those lands was played out, the folk of the region decimated. Their only hope of sustaining their families was finding work in el norte.
It is not possible to make this up. The promoters of the “white male system” have throughout time repeated the process over and over. It is what the promoters of that system do.
The question is what would these European and British-Americans do if that were done to them? Yet we spend a considerable amount of money we don’t have to do all of the above and to enable Israelis to do the same. Here in this nation we exclude the undocumented from their native lands when they are not needed or the feeling of scarcity is predominant. This is of course humorous because there may not be money to feed the hungry or to fix our decaying infrastructure but there is always more than enough money to unilaterally and pre-emptively attack another country and to hunt for those the oligarchs find inimical to their existence.
Is what we have here so much better that we just have to foist it on everyone else? Why would the rest of the world taking a close look at who we are and what we do want to be like us? And really given our penchant for pre-emptively invading and bombing people do we really want another us out there?
Our forces of governance take an ever sharper internecine turn. That makes for a “house divided.”
I admit it is almost impossible for invader-occupiers to see or understand what they do to those they invade. These words are for those who might.
Hasta Siempre,
America the Beautiful? Texas Red Fatal and Spreading
Women's Reality: An Emerging Female System
The People Speak
The People Speak *
Howard Zinn's "The People Speak"
The making of policy in America: the foundational reality
George Carlin Talks War And American Politics
Senators Fed Up With Secret Blocks On Nominees
Single mother of six forced out of public housing
Nikki Haley Called Ethnic Slur by South Carolina Lawmaker
Suspects Must Invoke Miranda Right To Stay Silent
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