Dennis G.

Remember the Rights of the Migrant!

by Dennis G.| July 27, 20141:33 pm| 168 Comments

This post is in: Immigration, Open Threads, The Brown Enemy Within

Migration is a human thing. As an animal, this is what we do and have done for two hundred thousand years or so. More than 40,000 years ago migrants from Africa made cave paintings in Europe and cave paintings they made in India may be older still. Recorded human history is less than 20,000 years old (if we want to be really generous with the archaeological record). Humans are migrants. It is what we do. All history is the story of us moving about this spinning blue ball. This is known.

Given the scale of human history; borders, fences and other barriers to migration are a very recent development and the idea that you can stop human migration with non-porous borders is a very recent fantasy. There are some who want America to embrace this fantasy. Unsurprisingly, the wingnut plan to create these non-porous barriers is firmly rooted in our mythologies of race. These mythologies make it easy for white or white approved migrants to come and stay with or without documentation, while other migrants face extra hurdles and fear mongering design to turn them into “the enemy”. This is the standard wingnut reaction to migration and immigration from the Know Nothings to the Tea Party, from the Chinese Exclusion Act to border fences. Policies rooted in race-based fears never work and always lead to trouble. And yet, that is the only type of policy today’s conservatives can imagine. The current movement of child migrants of color may strike fear in the hearts of these wingnut cowards, but these kids are not now and never will be a threat to America. They are just humans doing what humans have done for two hundred thousand years: move about the planet.

Without the free flow of migrants around the world since 1492, we would not be here. Since Columbus mistook an island in the Caribbean for India, it is very rare to find an example of violent migrants attacking the people they met on this continent or any other continent with one major exception: European migrants. It turns out that European migrants were extremely violent people.

I’m a descendant of these European migrants and when we came to America we did not assimilate into the existing culture or co-exist with them. Instead, we engaged in active ethnic cleansing–killing or driving off the people who used to live on the land we now call home. When we seized too much land to managed, we ~~captured~~ imported people and made them into slaves–just to enhance our profits. By the time America was founded in 1776, we looked to the West and followed a rinse. wash, repeat pattern of conquest.

This is what we did in Texas. The Texicans flooded Northern Mexico in the early 1800s. Turns out that they were migrants who did not care about the borders of Mexico or any immigration laws concerning the land they wished to migrate upon. These Texicans demanded that their universal right of migration trumped any and all laws of the Mexican government. When the Mexican government responded with a demand that Mexican law should be respected, the Texicans launched a violent rebellion.

The Alamo was a battle for the rights of the migrant that is now firmly rooted in the mythology of Texas and America. I find it way off the irony charts that today’s white wingnuts embrace the position of the Mexicans who attacked the Alamo as they demand that new migrants respect borders that were created through a migration that refused to respect borders.

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Remember the Rights of the Migrant!Post + Comments (168)

Of course, that irony will be lost on the modern wingnut. For these folks, the human right of migration is a conditional right granted only to people that they define as white or who have “earned” approval from white conservatives. Light-skinned Cubans fleeing Castro? Great you’re in. Eastern Europeans fleeing the old Soviet Union? Free pass to move about the Country. Brown children fleeing problems created by American policies? Fuck off.

In the USA of wingnut fantasies, white folks have a right to migration, while people of color do not unless they are able to convince white conservatives that their right to migration should be respected or grudgingly tolerated. It is a sad and old American story. You can see this pattern repeated in the history of our Country, as white conservatives of each era define “good” or “bad” migrants/immigrants on the basis of race and the accepted concept of whiteness being used at that moment.

So, 140 years ago, the common definition of whiteness, excluded Italians and Irish (who–before their acceptance into the club–were only near-white). In 1940 it still excluded Jews. Over time more groups have been accepted as “white,” while other groups still wait for that magical and benefit-packed recognition from white conservatives. Certain Cubans are now white and become “safe” if they put a toe on the beach, while all those brown children fleeing the failure and fallout of Reagan’s dirty war in Central America are still not-white and considered “illegal.”

About 111 years ago, My Grandfather arrived in America as an unaccompanied minor. His Mother died during the passage from Ireland. He arrived in New York as an immigrant orphan and was “sold” to a series of farmers as a child laborer. Eventually a decent family rescued him, adopted him, and created part of the American narrative told by my family. I’m certain that his papers were not in order (decades of family research into the matter make a very strong case that he was completely undocumented). He was a paperless, motherless child and yet he joined the huddled masses yearning to be free. He, along with millions and millions of other “white” or “near-white” European migrants were accepted and embraced as Americans.

Acceptance of migration is why America grew and became an exceptional nation. I do not understand the current culture of fear concerning the undocumented migrants in our country or the wingnut hysteria concerning yet another wave of children migrating to America. From Jamestown to Plymouth to the 13 Colonies to westward expansion to the many waves of European immigrants–each migration to America included young people. Millions of European migrants were children. Many and more came without papers. We are a strong Nation because we embraced the reality of human migration.

A conversation to build on that American strength, to create policies and laws that recognize the reality and right of human migration would look very different than our current conversation that is bogged down by the race-based fears and fantasies of the modern American white wingnut. As long as the wingnuts get to frame these conversation with their chicken-shit racism masquerading as a concern, we will be at odds with human history and their fantasies about God-given white privileged will continue to hurt America and make the Nation weaker.

Who knows what will happen, but if it was up to me, I would ignore the wingnut fear of people of color and craft policies that would acknowledge the human right of migration, bring people out of the shadows, give them a path to citizenship and free them to help make America thrive and survive. After all, migration is what humans do and so I do not see a downside in embracing reality.

And with that, how about an open thread.

Cheers

The Two-State Solution is a dead parrot

by Dennis G.| July 15, 20142:04 pm| 144 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs

With all the crazy from American wingnuts this summer, it is possible that folks missed the announcement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Friday that the Two-State solution is officially dead (emphasis added):

While other states were collapsing, said Netanyahu, Israel was not — because of the strength of its leadership, its army and its people. [snip]
Amid the current conflict, he elaborated, “I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan” — a reference to the Jordan Valley and the West Bank — as Kerry had urged during a US-led peace effort that collapsed in April.

Of course, this isn’t news to anybody who has been paying any attention to the I/P conflict over the years. The Israeli right was never going to accept a Two-State solution and has never negotiated in good faith. This has been clear since one of their own assassinated Rabin and the Right through Sharon and later Netanyahu seized control of the political process.

Until he up and died, it was always easy to blame failure on Arafat (who sometimes helped the Israeli Right scuttle peace talks). But Arafat has been dead for a decade. Now Hamas is presented as the auto-reason why Israel can never enter into serious negotiations to settle the conflict. Hamas and the Israeli Right are very good at tag-teaming to death any movement towards peace.

Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat’s successor, has tried to find an Israeli negotiating partner for over a decade, but he would have better luck trying to ride a unicorn.

The Two-State Solution is dead. There will be a One-State Solution, the only question now is what will that single state look like.

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The Two-State Solution is a dead parrotPost + Comments (144)

Noam Sheizaf at +972 (an independent web magazine focusing on I/P life and politics) has been investigating just what kind of One-State solution the Israeli Right has planned. It is a depressing read as Sheizaf details the kind of One-State Solution that is being created through the slow, steady and relentless boil of the status quo:

The right-wing figures and settlers I spoke to have some different nuances among them, but generally, their one-state solution would look like this: gradually and unilaterally, Israel would annex the West Bank (different time frames were given for this process – from five to 25 years); beginning with Area C and then moving to B and A. Barring security clearances (and according to some – loyalty oaths), all Palestinians will end up having blue Israeli identity cards with full rights. The army will return to dealing mostly with national defense, and the police will take over civilian policing duties in the annexed territory.
Constitutional measures that will define Israel as a Jewish State would take place in advance (some mentioned passing a basic law defining Israel as a Jewish State, something Netanyahu is already promoting). Palestinian refugees will not be allowed back. Gaza will not be annexed, and will turn to a fully independent region, separated from the State of Israel. [snip]
Separating Gaza from their model is necessary for right-wing one staters in order to maintain a Jewish majority in the unified state.

This vision of a One-State Solution is being created by the status quo, the never-ending confiscation of land and the ongoing establishment of new “facts on the ground”. Sheizaf points out that the driver in Israeli politics (left, right and center) is avoiding resolution of the I/P conflict while protecting the status quo from change:

The problem is political. The status quo in the West Bank is the common denominator of the Israeli political system. This is what the public wants, and the politicians realize that. I advise readers not to allow themselves to be too impressed by the occasional poll stating most of the Jewish public still supports the two-state solution. This is the result of a choice between one state and two states. In the rare cases when respondents to a poll are faced with a third option – maintaining things as they are while avoiding international measures against Israel – the majority migrates to the status quo option. The consensus over the status quo is what allows Lapid, Bennet and Livni to maintain their coalition, and it is the reason Netanyahu – a man who has taken the idea of keeping things as they are and turned it into an art form – has been able to maintain power for so long.

This is why the efforts to restart Peace Talks have and will fail. It is why Abbas and Kerry do not have an Israeli negotiating partner. Any Peace Talks, let alone any final settlement, would threaten the status quo and any Israeli politician who endorsed such a change would be tossed out on his or her ear.

So, the Two-State solution is dead. A One-State solution—where Palestinians are de facto second-class citizens and Gaza is a maintained as containment prison for the unfortunate population trapped within its borders–will be created through the steady drip, drip drip of the status quo and occupation.

Unless: something happens to make the price of the status quo too high. In that case, Sheizaf points out:

But once there is enough pressure for change on Israel, I assume that most of the Jewish public will move quickly to adopt the two-state solution, because it would rather keep 100 percent of the assets on 78 percent of the land, as opposed to keeping 50 percent of power and assets on 100 percent of the land.

Somehow, I doubt that there will ever be pressure strong enough to make the price of the status quo too high for the Israeli Right (and our wingnuts at home). I do not see Israeli politics ever changing enough to abandon the status quo and re-animate the corpse of the Two-State Solution. The system is locked down and inflexible. The cycle is on an endless loop of death, hopelessness, occupation, and violence. The human rights violations by all sides will go on and on and on…

The sad rinse, wash, repeat of the status quo keeps grinding forward–without even the desire for change.

Our policy of unquestioning support for Israel is not really doing that State any favors. When a buddy is in a self-destructive cycle, a real friend does not look the other way or enable their behavior. A real pal tells the truth even when it will hurt. Israeli is in crisis and the only real way to help is to abandon the policy of unquestioning support. We need to tell them when their shit is fucked up. We need to put pressure on their very destructive status quo. That’s what a real friend would do.

Of course doing that would mean violating an American political status quo, so I’m guessing that will happen shortly after we all get our flying ponies.

Cheers

Image: A map of Palestine, circa 1865

I beg to differ with the wanker from Teatardickistan…

by Dennis G.| July 9, 20147:42 pm| 120 Comments

This post is in: Fables Of The Reconstruction, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Assholes, Clown Shoes

I get that the White Walkers of the Tea Party are upset that their candidate, Chris McDaniel, did not win the run-off election in Mississippi. An election going the other way is always a disappointment to any partisan left, right or extreme right. This time, the salt in their pain of defeat seems to be that Thad Cochran shamelessly appealed to black folks to vote in what should have been (in the Teatard view) a white’s only conservative primary–because beyond the officially sanctioned token minorities (who are known, named and on teevee), all ~~Republicans~~ conservatives are always assumed to be white.

The race betrayal of Cochran must have NBF spinning in his grave. No wonder McDaniel and the Teatards are outraged and pumping up the rhetoric*:

“Let’s make it very clear today,” McDaniel said at July 5 “freedom rally.” “After what we saw the other night, which is clearly the most unethical election in the history of this state…and might…and might…very well be the most illegal election in the history of this state [emphasis added]. We will let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and for alike. The people of this state will do anything to preserve the torch of liberty. We will bear any burden, fight any foe, to make sure that corruption is finally rooted out of the election process in this state.”

This was a ballsy statement. After all we are talking about Mississippi, a place where violent intimidation of voters was born. It was the Mississippi Plan of 1874 that the South used to end Reconstruction and strip Afirican-Americans of their rights for almost another hundred years. White terrorists murdered around 300 citizens as part of the 1874 elections and another 150 as part of the 1876 election. This model of White Terrorism was then exported throughout the South by motivational speakers and guidebooks.

I somehow think the Mississippi elections of 1874 and 1876 were–without question–the most unethical elections in the long and sad history of that perennially always failing state…and quite likely, the most illegal elections in the history of any fucking State.

(For those who like to dig into original source material, this Senate testimony from 1877 as to denial of elective franchise in Mississippi during the elections of 1875 and 1876 might help to underscore the lie to the Teatardick worldview).

And yet, because Negroes were involved, I’m sure the “free” citizens of Teatardickistan will disagree and think me mad.

How about and open thread…

Cheers

*Apologies for the Buzzfeed link. Here is one to the GOS.

I beg to differ with the wanker from Teatardickistan…Post + Comments (120)

Spit take…

by Dennis G.| July 9, 201412:29 am| 169 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Mainstream Media's McCain Mancrush

Washington is a funny town.

I took a break from work and went for a walk. It was a hot day, so I stopped and got a nice cranberry lemonade. Very refreshing. I took a sip, turned the corner and saw the above image in a free distribution box. I laughed so hard I sprayed in a full-on spit take.

Some how I would never describe John McCain as the “Conscience of the Senate”. Even though he was against torture, he still reversed himself and supported it when Bush was President. Despite stated misgivings, he was still solid for Bush’s Iraq war . Hell, for more than a decade, John McCain has never heard of a conflict anywhere in the world that he doesn’t want to turn into a full blown shooting war (I thinks he’s wanted to send US troops to fight in a dozen conflicts so far this year).

John McCain is not a foreign policy expert, unless “foreign policy expert” is a new term of art for an old coot who is always wrong about any and every world event.

McCain is also firmly pro-corruption. Remember when he stopped investigating the Abramoff scandal in exchange for Grover Norquist’s support for his failed 2008 WH run? Oh, and then there was the Keating Five and the long, long list of many other scandals that will always follow him around.

Calling John McCain the “Conscience of the Senate” is risible.

I would have gone with “Angry Old Man of the Senate” or ‘Raging Irrational ID of the Senate” or “Endless War Cheerleader of the Senate” or “Bitter Defeated-by-a black-man Crank of the Senate” or “Aging Asshole of the Senate” or something else.

There were lots of choices the little-read conservative rag could have used, but connecting McCain to “conscience” is just funny. Especially if you know anything about the auto-partisan, pro-corruption, war-infatuated very, very senior Senator from Arizona.

How about another open thread.

Cheers

Spit take…Post + Comments (169)

Orange has a new Presidentin’ while Black Lawsuit…

by Dennis G.| July 6, 20149:18 pm| 55 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Post-racial America, Teabagger Stupidity

Many years ago I used to spend my Sunday afternoons listening to the Sunday ~~news/talk shows~~ wankerfest shows on C-span radio. I gave it up when I began to my feel brain cells dying in pain from the relentless stupidity. Today, I had to run an errand and the car radio was tuned to C-span. So, I caught a few minutes of a CNN panel ~~discussing~~ yelling about something that might have been a political issue. It was hard to tell.

Through the din, I did pick up that John Boehner had somebody ghost write a post for him that was published on the former news network’s web site. As the panel began to argue about the ~~God~~ SCOTUS given right for white men to control any and all lady parts I reached my destination.

I avoided C-span on the way home. Once there, I decided that I should read the post created for the great orange invertebrate. Turns out that the word salad has something to do with suing Barack Obama.

The reasons stated to justify Boehner’s lawsuit are fuzzy, unconnected to the law, the Constitution, logic or even reality. That will no doubt make it a winning stunt and distraction for the White Walkers animating the corpse of the GOP.

If enough of these zombies can be motivated to vote in November, the oligarchs who run the show will make more money. And nothing will mobilize the Teatardick base of the GOP like an appeal to racial code talking.

The base is outraged that a black man is President. They are outraged that he dares to exercise the exact same type of Presidential powers that white Presidents have used in the past. They are outrage that he does not seek permission of the white GOP minority before he acts.

John Boehner gets the outrage of his base. He fears his base and needs them at the same time. To fluff them he will do anything. And so he is preparing to sue the President of the United States for the “crime” of being an uppity negro.

Take the racial code-talking away and there is nothing to support or justify his lawsuit at all.

As silly as this lawsuit will be, sillier still will be the way that the very serious people inside the beltway will pretend that race has nothing to do with it.

Should be a fun summer.

Cheers

Orange has a new Presidentin’ while Black Lawsuit…Post + Comments (55)

There’s that number again…

by Dennis G.| July 5, 20149:51 pm| 92 Comments

This post is in: Crazification Factor, Open Threads, Clown Shoes, Good News For Conservatives

Perhaps the GOP just wanted to celebrate P.T Barnum’s birthday as the true father our Country.

How else to explain this appeal to the suckers who were born every minute over the last few decades who still might believe in the greatness of George W Bush.

The price is a dead give away that this is excellent snark.

$27 is the crazification factor at work and a direct appeal to the neo-Confederate hive animating the long dead corpse of what was once the Republican Party.

As the Party of Lincoln is now little more than an army of White Walkers (emphasis on the “white”), this kind of amusing sucker bait is not a surprise. 27% of their base will surely pay $27 to proudly wear a shirt that confirms their stupidity for all to see.

Such a bamboozle is a wonderful way to celebrate P.T. Barnum’s birthday.

I’ve been on a long walk-about which has taken me far from regular blogging, but that’s another story for later.

Good to be back.

How about an open thread.

Cheers

There’s that number again…Post + Comments (92)

A public service announcement

by Dennis G.| July 22, 20131:07 pm| 59 Comments

This post is in: Politics, Post-racial America, Republican Venality, Assholes, Outrage

One of the slimiest keep-to-the-shadow conservative groups is the Conservative Majority Fund. Their main tactic is to pick an area and carpet bomb it with anti-Obama robocalls. The text of the calls change with the times and have moved from a Birther message to an election message to a Benghazi/IRS/Chicago-politics/White folks are doomed message. In all their efforts, they make it clear that the President is a dangerous outsider who must be impeached/stopped/obstructed. Race is the context and the frame for the efforts. I know this firsthand as they have been calling Maryland over the last few days and I just got another call this morning.

When they first called a few days ago, I went through their phone tree and pushed the buttons to tell them to take my number off their list. It didn’t work. They called again and again.

So after my call this morning, I looked up their FEC filing. Their address turns out to be a UPS store mail box. Their Treasure is a long-time conservative foot soldier named Scott B. MacKenzie from Northern Virginia.

The Conservative Majority Fund does their best to hide and make it impossible to contact them. Still, there are Federal forms that must be filed and some require something more than the address of your UPS mail drop box. One of these was their Statement of Organization filed with the FEC on July 9, 2012. This one included a phone number for Scott B. MacKenzie, 703-868-1776.

So I gave him a call to ask that he stop robocalling my house with his racist nosense. He answered the phone and seemed surprised. He took my name and number and claimed the calls would stopped. It was satisfying to reach one of the nutters behind this type of abuse and tell him to stop.

As a public service, I offer the phone number they shared with the FEC as a point of contact to reach Scott and the Conservative Majority Fund. Anybody else who is being harassed by their repeated racist robocalls, might want to give Scott a call and ask him to stop. Perhaps if enough folks call Scott, he and his group might decide to change their robocall strategy or at least try to narrow their call list to the ever shrinking group of angry and old white wingnut whackos.

Cheers

A public service announcementPost + Comments (59)

David Brooks vs Paula Deen

by Dennis G.| July 5, 201310:17 pm| 111 Comments

This post is in: David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute, Post-racial America

Like others, I was struck by Master Brook’s op ed in the NYTs today, especially the kicker:

“It’s not that Egypt doesn’t have a recipe for a democratic transition. It seems to lack even the basic mental ingredients.”

It was classic Bobo. Of course Egypt doesn’t have the tools–they’re not white. His column whitesplains why the Egyptians are doomed–and of course it has something to do with Bobo’s fantasies that there is a White race and that it is the pinnacle of human civilization. In Bobo’s world, great white men created the only institutions and traditions that can lead to success and the only way that the lessor races can improve their lot in life is by following that Anglo-Saxon roadmap. Sadly, in Bobo’s telling, this is a journey that they will never successfully complete without the advice and kindly assistance of their betters.

As always, Bobo skates right up to the line, but leaves just enough ambiguity so that he can claim “who me” if anybody points out his bias for and dedication to white male superiority and privilege.

Which brings me to Paula Deen, a teevee celebrity with none of Brook’s code talkin’ skills. Turns out she uses the word nigger, fantasizes about a slave catered wedding and tries to have a lawsuit thrown out of court because a white person can’t possibly sue her for talkin’ trash about Negroes. Like Brooks, Deen moves though the world with a strong sense of white superiority and privilege. Unlike Brooks, she had no idea about the rules of code talking–and that was her downfall. It seems that using the word “nigger” was the taboo line she crossed, because she had said and done a lot of whack things in the past without any real notice. If Deen had study Bobo, she would have learned not to use that word and the Brookian rules for ways that white folks can talk about their superiority and priviledge without causing blow-back.

Take another example from a couple of weeks ago. Bobo joined E.J. Dionne on NPR for their weekly chat about politics. As they discussed immigration, Bobo whitesplained the concern that all the brown folks were changing America for the worse (emphasis added):

We will have 36 billion new immigrants, 16 – I’m sorry – million additional people. And so the real question is, is this changing our country sociologically and culturally. To me, this has always been the core concern of a lot of opponents and all the other stuff has been window dressing. So now we’re getting down to the core issue.

The notion that immigrants are a threat to fantasies of a white America has been around since before the Nation was founded. The entire notion of race and “whiteness” and white superiority was invented here in America. This myth of white superiority–and not slavery–is the original stain on our Country. Slavery was just a byproduct.

And then there is another recent Bobo column where he triples down on his fear of a brown planet:

Soon, we will no longer be an outpost of Europe, but a nation of mutts, a nation with hundreds of fluid ethnicities from around the world, intermarrying and intermingling. Americans of European descent are already a minority among 5-year-olds. European-Americans will be a minority over all in 30 years at the latest, and probably sooner.
If enacted, the immigration reform bill would accelerate these trends. [snip]
As we stand on the cusp of this New America, it’s understandable to feel some anxiety.

But Bobo being Bobo, he does see a ray of hope–all these new immigrants could join white Americans and embrace their traditional hatred of the blacks:

The most interesting and problematic flashpoint may be between immigrants and African-Americans. We now have this bogus category, “minority,” in which we lump the supposed rainbow coalition of immigrants and blacks. But, in fact, tensions between “minority” groups could soon be more plainly obvious than any solidarity.

The idea that conflicts between non-white folks can be exploited to protect white privilege seems to give Bobo a stiffie. And yet, he is the one who is doomed.

His entire false construction of a superior Anglo-Saxon/Nordic/White/European race and civilization is collapsing under the weight of reality. Deen, Brooks, the Tea Party, the GOP and their fellow travelers are very troubled by this turn of events. They fear living in a world without the benefit of unearned white privilege.

Deen has lost her job for expressing her fear without using code, while Brooks keeps his job because he knows how to use the code as he whitesplains the world.

Cheers

ps: I’ve been on a walk-about as of late (more about that in another post).

David Brooks vs Paula DeenPost + Comments (111)

Found art…

by Dennis G.| January 25, 201311:33 pm| 129 Comments

This post is in: Glibertarianism, Open Threads, Going Galt

After reading about Doug’s Twitter travails, I flipped on the teevee to explore options for checking out this evening. I saw the above and marveled at the perfection of the image. Sure, it doesn’t capture the essence of Ayn Rand with the same precision as these 56 words, but I thought it was close.

How are you wasting your evening?

Cheers

Found art…Post + Comments (129)

I’ll drink to that…

by Dennis G.| January 23, 20138:30 pm| 98 Comments

This post is in: Election 2014, Open Threads, Good News For Conservatives

It seems that the weeping orange one is sharing his fears:

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he believes the primary goal of President Obama’s second term is to “annihilate the Republican Party.”
“Given what we heard yesterday about the president’s vision for his second term, it’s pretty clear to me that he knows he can’t do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans,” Boehner said in a speech Tuesday to The Ripon Society. “So we’re expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party.
“And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal — to just shove us into the dustbin of history.”

Sounds like a plan to me. From where I sit, it can’t happen fast enough.

All I want to know is how can I help annihilate these fuckers over the next 22 months.

I’m in. How about you?

What else is going on?

Cheers

ps: somehow, all of this reminds me of an Obama interview from November 2007
(especially that last bit).

I’ll drink to that…Post + Comments (98)

What he said…

by Dennis G.| January 21, 201310:56 am| 114 Comments

This post is in: Black Jimmy Carter, Open Threads, Good News For Conservatives

I think this tweet from Van Jones captures a lot of my feelings this morning:

The wails of wingnut rage sound like sweet music as they continue their war against reality. Yes, they are dangerous and they will continue to do great damage, but today I am filled with hope. Hope that these losers are on a fast track to the dustbin of history.

And yet–just like four years ago–I’m sure they are making new plots for a comeback. I wonder where Luntz, Newt, McConnell, Ryan and the gang will meet for dinner tonight to make their plans for another four years of epic fail. Their playbook is exhausted. Perhaps an enterprising reporter will follow Luntz around tonight to report on which failed tactics they’ll repeat this time around. Regardless of what they try this time around, the President and the rest of us will be ready for them.

It is a great day.

Cheers

What he said…Post + Comments (114)

The Chicago Way…

by Dennis G.| January 18, 20131:33 am| 37 Comments

This post is in: Black Jimmy Carter, Open Threads, Politics

Do you remember that scene from The Untouchables where Sean Connery schools Kevin Costner about how to take down Al Capone:

Malone: You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really wanna get him? You see what I’m saying is, what are you prepared to do?
Ness: Anything within the law.
Malone: And *then* what are you prepared to do? If you open the can on these worms you must be prepared to go all the way. Because they’re not gonna give up the fight, until one of you is dead.
Ness: I want to get Capone! I don’t know how to do it.
Malone: You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That’s* the *Chicago* way! And that’s how you get Capone. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I’m offering you a deal. Do you want this deal?

Well, I was reminded of that when I saw a clip of Robert Gibbs on Morning Joe earlier this week:

“The NRA is continually trumpeting they increased their membership by ‘x’ amount in this month. The president has the most exciting campaign apparatus ever built. It’s time to turn that loose. It’s time to turn that loose for something more than just an election. If the NRA’s got a list, then Obama for America has a bigger list and it is time to get activated again.”

And this is moved along by a number of stories trying to “win” the morning:

President Barack Obama’s remaining campaign apparatus will relaunch Sunday as a tax-exempt group to support his second term agenda, a senior Democrat familiar with the plans confirms to POLITICO.
The new organization will be separate from the Democratic National Committee, with Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina serving as the national chair of the group. [snip]
The Obama campaign seems to have already heeded Gibbs’ advice — a Thursday email under Messina’s name asked supporters to stand with the White House on gun control.

Yep, I’m fired up, ready to go and ready to bring it. How about you? Have you called your CongressCritter yet?

What else is Open Thread worthy?

Cheers

The Chicago Way…Post + Comments (37)

Call the question…

by Dennis G.| January 4, 20132:12 pm| 137 Comments

This post is in: Lindsey Graham's Fee Fees, The Party of Fiscal Responsibility, Good News For Conservatives, Our Failed Political Establishment, Teabagger Stupidity

The fiscal ~~cliff~~ curb has been stepped over. And now the chatter is focused on the coming trio of Wingnut-manufactured points of doom: the Debt Ceiling, the Sequester and keeping the Federal Government funded. Of the three, two have firm deadlines for action. Without new legislation, the Federal Government will need to shut down after March 27, 2013 and the automatic budget cuts of the 2011 Sequester will begin on March 1, 2013. Failing to resolve either (or both) of these flashpoints would be a bother and cause some trouble, but it would also be in the zone of normal impotent Wingnut foolishness. The GOP would be blamed for any and all problems. I expect they will eventually capitulate as more and more folks realized that the only objective of the modern Conservative movement is chaos.

That brings us to the debt limit. The wingnuts have very little leverage when it comes to the Sequester and a Government shutdown, but they have convinced themselves that taking the global economy hostage might improve their chances. And even here they are a deeply silly and insane group of grifters. They demand that the President agree to pay a ransom before they’ll allow the USA to pay its bills, but they also refuse to say what that ransom should be. They are like kidnappers who demand that you guess how much you’ll have to pay to get get back your daughter while promising to kill her if you guess wrong. It would be impossible to negotiate with such criminals and it is impossible to negotiate with the GOP over the Debt Ceiling.

The GOP (and many in the media) would like to link all three of these items in one new “Grand Bargain” negotiation/crisis/deal and drag it out through March, but that would be crazy. The Debt Ceiling is not like the other two flashpoints–there is nothing about it that can or should be negotiated. It is just about paying for the things that you’ve already bought (while the other two are about what you might or might not buy–or earn–in the future).

The wingnuts are like an inept sitcom Father who decides that he’ll stop paying all the family’s bills as a way to force them to agree to his budget/plan for a family vacation to Wally World. Every time he argues that he’s being “financially responsible” the laugh track gets turned to eleven.

There isn’t any reason to wait until February or March to have the Debt Ceiling fight. President Obama should call the question. Let’s have the Debt Ceiling fight now. It won’t be any uglier now than it will be later, so let’s get it over it.

Technically we hit the Debt Ceiling last Monday. The Treasury Department has some tricks and dodges they can use to buy time for Congress to act, but they do not need to use them all. They could pick any date in the near future and say that this is when we can no longer pay our bills unless Congress takes action. I say, make that date January 29, 2013 and refused to have a single negotiation with Congress about the matter. If Congress doesn’t act by then, then February’s Social Security checks and everything else will not be paid. I don’t think that the Wingnuts have the sand for this fight (and if they do, you can always lay down the coin as a way to buy time until they fold).

Raising the debt limit is going to invoke a wingnut frenzy of self-destruction and stupidity whenever it happens and waiting (or linking it to other issues) will not improve things.

Let’s call the question and get this Debt Ceiling fight behind us.

Cheers

Call the question…Post + Comments (137)

Everyday low prices…

by Dennis G.| December 18, 201210:36 pm| 83 Comments

This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Gun nuts

I don’t shop at Walmart. I made that choice back in the 1980s when the company’s growth model called for it to sweep into small towns and destroy the local mom & pop businesses to make shopping at Walmart the only game in town and/or county. I liked the diversity of small businesses in rural America and mourned their destruction, and so I didn’t support Walmart.

Over the decades many more reasons to avoid Walmart bubbled to the surface. By the late 1990s it was clear that the company had a tendency to buy cheaply built products/garments that were often manufactured in sweatshops. Labor and environment problems at their stores, warehouses and throughout their supply chain were also common place. In the wake of some bad publicity, Walmart has paid some lip service to putting in a code of conduct for their suppliers and have been spreading some cash around to green-wash their act. But as of just a few weeks ago, workers sewing clothes for the company are still dying in fires caused by greed, safety violations and locked fire escapes. Walmart’s ongoing use of Sweatshop labor is one example, but the company has many other social justice and environmental problems embedded in their supply chain and the way they do business.

Walmart is all about profits and downshifting to costs to others. Which explains why they treat their workers so poorly (something exposed by the recent Black Friday protests). In Walmart’s business plan anything goes–even bribery–if it will help their bottom line. So it is not a surprise that they turned to sales of automatic weapons and ammo as a way to keep their profits up during a recession. In fact, Walmart has made the Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle the most popular assault weapon in America. No wonder that the AR-15 has become the gun of choice for so many mass murderers–Walmart makes it easy to buy at everyday low prices.

Wingnut conspiracy theories and hatred of a Black President led to an increase in gun and ammo sales. Walmart saw an opportunity for profit and aggressively jumped into assault weapons market. The Nation has the details:

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Everyday low prices…Post + Comments (83)

Make it monthly…

by Dennis G.| December 16, 20125:29 pm| 112 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Gun nuts, Open Threads, Seriously

Like most, I’ve been stunned and shocked over the last few days.

The pattern is tragically clear. In the wake of the latest mass shooting, we have a conversation about mental illness (mostly, in ways to avoid talking about guns). Yes, there are always some who dare to suggest that it might be time to talk about new gun laws, but that conversation is quickly shut down out of political fear of the gun lobby–especially fear of the NRA.

What we do not do–ever–is talk about all the political organizations on the Right–like the NRA–that fuel paranoid delusion and the manufactured outrage 24/7 as their core reason for existence. And yes, I said “Right” as I can not think of a single organization of the “Left” that uses delusion, lies and endless attacks on reality as their prime organizing tool and I can hardly think of an organization on the “Right” that doesn’t. This isn’t a both-side-do-it moment. Conservative thought in America is broken. They sell crazy talk, anger and fear. They have created a space where every paranoid sense of persecution is justified–and even honorable. They sell the idea that any extreme action taken in response to these political delusions is a virtue.

The relentless wingnut attack on reality–where every conspiracy theory is valid and all anger about your pet delusion is justified–is not harmless. Lives are damaged, blood is drawn and people die. It is a feature, not a bug of a War on Reality. From the NRA to Americans for Tax Reform to the Koch Brothers to the Heritage Foundation to Fox News to the Birthers to well, any of them, the modern conservative movement has mainstreamed paranoid fantasies and the manufactured anger required to support them. I am not at all surprised that media and cultural acceptance that the endless stream of political-based paranoid delusions should be treated as justifiable reason for rage and extreme actions would inspires some random nut case to act on his private iteration of rage and crazy.

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Make it monthly…Post + Comments (112)

Since Friday, the NRA has not posted anything on Twitter and their Facebook page has been taken down. They are re-grouping to figure out the best way to repackage their money-making paranoid conspiracy theories about the Second Amendment in light of this latest spasm of mass murder by a gun nut. Just before they went dark, the NRA celebrated that they had 1.7 million followers on Twitter. Overall, the NRA has about 4.3 million members. This is where their power comes from. Most of those members are simply folks who own guns as tools for sport or hunting and care about gun safety. OTOH, some–including all the NRA Leadership–are conservative wingnuts who worry about Black Helicopters and an endless stream of paranoid fantasies. Those sane members of the NRA need to take control away from the crazy wingnuts or split to form a new group focused on gun safety and sensible gun laws.

And there needs to be a counterweight to the NRA if this Nation is ever going to be able to talk about guns, gun violence and the paranoid delusions that fuel mass murder. The closest thing we have now is the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. I think if their membership and donation base can grow, it will put real preassure on the NRA. It will put real preasure on our political leaders to deal with gun violence.

You can take action to support the Brady Campaign here.

You can make a donation to the Brady Campaign here. That is what I did this morning. In fact, I decided to make my support monthly. You can too. And you can support them on Twitter and on Facebook.

The best action that you can take if you’re disgusted by the endless waves of gun violence is to organize. The Brady Campaign has been fighting this fight for decades. With resources and support they will be able to do more. When politicians fear the Brady Campaign more than they fear the NRA then our gun laws will change. And when the paranoid wingnuts running the NRA are driven out, Reality will win another victory over the so-call Conservative movement.

If we organize, we will win. As The Doors said:

The old get old, and the young get stronger.
May take a week, and it may take longer.
They got the guns, but we got the numbers.
Gonna win yeah, we’re taking over.
Come on!
Yeah!

Cheers

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