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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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)

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

This really is a full service blog.

Call the National Guard if your insurrection lasts more than four hours.

How does anyone do Gilligan’s Island as trump world and not cast Jared as Gilligan?

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

The math demands it!

Consistently wrong since 2002

Where tasty lettuce and good mustard aren’t elitist.

I personally stopped the public option…

Han shot first.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

No one could have predicted…

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

All this crying. this is why i don’t click on stuff.

I can’t take this shit today. I just can’t.

Remember the Rights of the Migrant!

The Two-State Solution is a dead parrot

I beg to differ with the wanker from Teatardickistan…

Spit take…

Orange has a new Presidentin’ while Black Lawsuit…

There’s that number again…

A public service announcement