Friday, May 12

Guest Blogger - Douglas Hoffman

ka005a2
kiss the frog


When I was in Washington State for Christmas last year and only had internet access for a half an hour a day or so, the only blog I read every time I logged on was Balls and Walnuts. This man can excite you with sci fi, bitch out Bush, fix your kid's ear infection, review romance novels, and make a kick ass pesto...so of course he's married. Nevertheless, a true renaissance man.

His post will make you angry, and will make you think. That is so sexy.

I'm honored to have him here today. -BG


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The Mexican Question


For some folks, genocide is just another tool in the toolbox. On April 27, Nashville radio talk show host Phil Valentine recommended that Border Patrol Agents shoot illegal immigrants, and the crowd cheered. (Hat tip to Tennessee Guerilla Woman.)

That's a lot of shooting, but they don't call it the "white man's burden" for nothing. No one said turning America into an Aryan nation would be easy.

Genocide has a long if not proud history here in the States. Let's give a passing nod to the liquidation of Native Americans, our most successful genocidal campaign, something no doubt fondly remembered by the people who wish the same for "Islamofascists," i.e., any practicing Moslem -- people like Michael Savage:

In April 2006 Savage, a Bronx-born Jew, called for the murder of 100 million muslims, saying ""intelligent people, wealthy people...are very depressed by the weakness that America is showing to these psychotics in the Muslim world. They say, ‘Oh, there’s a billion of them’…. I said, ‘So, kill 100 million of them, then there’d be 900 million of them.’ I mean...would you rather us die than them?...Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because you’re going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later.” (Quoted in Wikipedia.)


Asshole. The fact that he looks like a hairy version of my grandpa nauseates me. The fact that any Jew could blithely call for genocide makes me want to scream.

Okay, Hoffman, calm down, get back on topic.

Yes, let's stick to a discussion of homegrown genocide, the kind that doesn't require a trip overseas, the kind that will rely on an army of pistol-packin' Minutemen (which my wife pronounces my-NOOT-men) itching to shoot anything nonwhite and warmblooded. And why shouldn't the Minutemen fulfill their destiny? They have history on their side.

In 1845, President James Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to move his forces into disputed territory near the Rio Grande (disputed by the Americans, that is). Taylor arrived in March 1846. By April 1846, Polk's move achieved its desired effect: not one, but two lethal incidents occurred, involving the deaths of Taylor's men. The Mexicans had supposedly drawn first blood, and now the US could claim the moral upper hand. From Polk's speech to Congress: "But now, after repeated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil . . ." American soil being a dubious claim at best.

Despite the opposition of the antislavery Whigs (who feared a southwestern land-grab would only add to the South's power), Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of war. Public support was spotty, but public opposition was spottier still. According to Howard Zinn,

The churches, for the most part, were either outspokenly for the war or timidly silent. Generally, no one but the Congregational, Quaker, and Unitarian churches spoke clearly against the war.


However, as always, certain strident voices made themselves heard. A writer in the American Review, the Michael Savage of his day, "talked of Mexicans yielding to 'a superior population, insensibly oozing into her territories, changing her customs, and out-living, out-trading, exterminating her weaker blood . . .'" The New York Herald made it sound like a good thing: ". . . we believe it is part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country." And God, of course, loved the idea of conquest, too: "That the redemption from 7,000,000 of souls from all the vices that infest the human race, is the ostensible object . . . appears manifest." (All quotes from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, linked above.)

What followed was a relatively short but bloody war, with heavy losses on both sides. Despite the successful land grab, the historical outcome was by no means blissful. The Mexican-American war increased internal tensions over slavery, ultimately leading to the American Civil War, the most deadly war in US history, where 620,000 Americans died.

We now have an escalating war of rhetoric against illegal dark-skinned immigrants, a cold war which may soon heat up. American Aryans fear their soon-to-be-minority status. How afraid are they? When will their racism become more bold, and when will it translate into lethal action? Is it that far-fetched to imagine it spilling over to encompass our legal Hispanic citizens?

Is it that far-fetched to imagine another American Civil War -- this time, a race war?

18 comments:

  1. Michael Savage aside, I'm a Union guy. I don't care about race, we as Americans are many races. My problem with illegal immigration has to do with the undercutting of our wages. Employers hire illegals below market wages and drive down the wages of citizens. I believe our government is complicent in this because it's "good for business." I think the Minute Men are doing us all a favor, but I don't believe illegals should be shot! I believe in immigration, I believe Mexicans and all races should be able to come here, but there does have to be regulation or we have no border. The best way to regulate this is by making sure employers are paying all workers at least minimum wage, that would go a long way in solving the problem and it's cheaper and less messy then genocide.

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  2. Anonymous10:17 AM

    I'm with you on the minimum wage, but I have problems with restriction of immigration. Too often in our history, this has been an excuse for racist policies. I would open the borders. Closed borders are similar to illegalization of drugs -- a foolish, doomed-to-failure policy.

    That said . . . dammit, why did I think I had to write a serious post? Can it get any more serious? Genocide. What a buzz kill.

    Blue Gal, thanks for the Kermit manties. Kiss the frog indeed.

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  3. Likewise on the wages issue...and it ought to be cracking down on the employers who abuse this and their workers...as it it on the illegals they abuse.

    I'm very pro-immigration -- legal immigration! I think we should accelerate the process of legalizing the folks who want to become Americans and follow the rules.

    Plus - It cuts the knees out from employers abusing them for their illegal status and getting away with paying substandard low wages (which the GW *Guest-Worker program only exacerbates) - it brings them into the tax base for both providing for their children's schools and social services (like all us other tax payers must do) and it makes keeping track of folks easier within our system than under tha radar as illegals.

    However, it has to be accompanied with some border controls as well. It's not a matter of Closed or Open - but of control as to who is entering and what controls they can have over this influx of people.

    COWS
    Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our
    government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago,
    right to the stall where she sleeps in the state of Washington. And
    they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to
    locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe
    we should give them all a cow.

    :-D

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  4. Anonymous1:48 PM

    Thanks, Karen. I'd like to see restrictions placed with regard to illness and criminal behavior, just as we've always done (in the Ellis Island days, that is). Otherwise, yes -- expedite legalization, turn 'em into tax-paying citizens.

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  5. Anonymous1:50 PM

    Hey, blogenfreude! A fatwa on both your houses ;) Thanks for stopping by.

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  6. Let's hear it for those Congregational Quakers! Woo! Woo!

    Interesting how the Right always accuses folks on the Left of "playing the race card" whenever some issue connected with race comes up that they don't want to deal with or which makes them look wrong (like, everything), but boy, they'll USE race every chance they get to pump up a phony issue like this one.

    Nice post. Well put.

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  7. I heard the "cow tracking" argument on the radio yesterday: Oxy-boy's stand-in was using this as an "argument."

    Does that mean we should ear tag every immigrant, like they do with beef cattle? You know, one of those little things they attach with a staple gun? How about we just ear tag EVERYBODY, so we always know where all of us are? Besides, then we wouldn't have to depend on the PHONE COMPANY to keep track of us for George and his pals.

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  8. Nice frog, Douglas.

    I'm also all for legal immigration, because it helps everyone. Legal immigrants would be able to earn living wages, would not live in terror, would not be exploited. Oh, wait, we've got a Republican administration. They're into exploitation.

    As for the cow thing, don't cell phones do the same thing as an ear tag?

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  9. Anonymous3:08 PM

    I think that requirin' a minimum wage (higher than th'current in most states) would take care of most of th'problem.

    Corporations think of their 'bottom line'; period. Make 'em think beyond that. Make them think of doin' things accordin' t'th' law--I know, I know it's a stretch an' would make most o'their brains an'wallets hurt, but I think it would deal with so many problems that Americans face.

    Let's just face it, it's th'United States of Corporations right now, not th'United States of America.

    Fantastic job, Doug! Raisin' a tankard o'grog fer ye right now!

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  10. Discussions of wages and labor issues aside, this is also an issue of racism, pure and simple. A terrific editorial in the Birmingham News said that "Illegal" is being used here (we have a lot of Mexican immigrants, btw) in the same way the N word was used in the early '60s. There are even some "sons of Confederates" (mofo-ers) calling for an Alabama version of the Minutemen. They can't close the border with Mississippi fast enough for me.

    Blogenfreude's up tomorrow, kids. Ain't this fun?

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  11. I'm with Knight on the wage issue. The Republicans have turned a manufacturing nation into a service sector economy with adults inverting burgers.
    A living wage is only a start.

    An' a tankard o' grog fer de good Captain!

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  12. Anonymous4:48 PM

    Hey, QM! I hope ye think th'ship be sailin' fine...we miss ye!

    Yoga K, ye just want t'see this Pirate Queen tipsy!

    QM Blue Gal won't be standin' fer it; I have t'steer her ship. ;)

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  13. Anonymous9:22 PM

    Step away from the computer for a few hours, and the whole place goes to heck!

    We'll never see a mandatory minimum wage under a Republican administration. It'll infringe way too much on corporate profits -- and those Fortune 500 CEOs are the ones who really run this country.

    Hey -- let's talk about unionizing Walmart! Woo-hoo!

    Thanks for stopping by, folks, and thanks for the kind comments ;)

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  14. Anonymous9:27 PM

    Arrrrgh! Wally World an' th' Cap'n have Class Action Lawsuit talk pendin' now fer 3 years...hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em.

    Sorry. I let meself get away fer a moment...

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  15. I can cite any number of events in American history that fit this formula.

    The true White Man's Burden that sticks out with me is The Spanish-American war of 1898. America decided to get in on the Imperialist game and fought a totally unnecessary war with Spain to get some territorial possessions.

    So, regarding Helter Skelter, which is coming down fast. The race war?

    I don't see a race war. I see conflict between minorities, certainly. A lot of resentment between African-Americans and Latinos has begun to fester and grow---over who is going to be the dominate minority. I predict you'll have some serious political and legal battles over that.

    But an all out war? I don't think so. I think that Aryan whites will be fighting for control of the pie with Latinos and African-Americans. They already feel threatened by the idea of a pluralistic society. People like my father and Pat Buchanan believe that if White folks relinquish control of the country to African-Americans or Latinos that they will be marginalized and subjugated.

    Do we insist on assimilation? If we had a race war, would this country be divided into two or three smaller countries?

    Or is this all much ado about nothing?

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  16. So the White Man's Burden then, is a sort of paternalistic concept that believes that white folk know better than folk with different colored skin pigment. And in truth, white folk set this system up.

    In the past thirty to forty years we've elevated black folk from second class citizens to first class citizens. And the paternalistic attitudes of LBJ and his Great Society were that we would take African-Americans and pretty much turn them into White people. See, the problem with that is that Black folk didn't want to be White. And they still don't. They want their own ethnic identity.

    Should we expect this same phenomenon with Latinos?

    How do you account for the sad state of the African-American community? A society where a majority of black men are in prison and many children are raised by single parents.

    Who do you blame? White people? Black people?

    How do we get beyond White Man's Burden?

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  17. Anonymous10:30 PM

    I don't have an answer, Kevin.

    I'm happiest in a pluralistic environment. That's what my high school was like, and that's one of the things I liked best about Los Angeles. I think there's really something to be said about no single group having dominance.

    Whites (white males*) hold all the economic power right now and most of the political power. At a minimum, it would be nice to see a levelling of the political playing field.

    *Cap'n Dyke: when are you and your fellow pirates gonna do something about this? I'd gladly live in servitude to a clan of pirate dykes. Think about it.

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  18. Anonymous10:58 PM

    Doug, let me be gettin' with me 1st Lieu/QuarterMistress when she gets back.

    Ye see, women in any country can make or break it, iffin they get th'mind to. It's just history talkin'. Get th'women in this country mad enough an' it's 'Bob's yer uncle' t'Bushie an' his Mob.

    Ye may be aboard th'ship afore ye know it...;)

    ReplyDelete

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