The War is Over

Ok. It’s time for the south to finally admit the war is over.

For years the defenders of the old confederacy have clung to the notion that the war is raging on. The heroes of the old confederacy are still memorialized by statues and revisionist history. Some still fly the flag of the losers.

Even here in the north I see a few folks proudly fly the flag of racism. The stars and bars. A symbol of racism. They fly it proudly.

But yesterday Irene Triplett finally passed away. She died in her nursing home in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Irene Triplett was the last American getting a pension from the Civil War. Yes, the Civil War.

HUH? A pension from the Civil War. Yes. The US hands out well over $40,000,000,000 (billion) dollars each year in pensions to the survivors, widows and children of war veterans. Veterans of the Vietnam War, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Korea, WW2 and even the Spanish-American war.

Until this month the US taxpayers were sending Irene Triplett the sum of $73.13 every month. To honor the service of her father in the Civil War. Yepper, it is an odd set of circumstances. She is the daughter sired by him to his second wife. He was 84 years old. What a man!! And because of her disabilities she qualified, even as an adult, for a lifetime of support from the feds.

Her father was a southern soldier boy who saw the light and defected to the Union. He did so a few days before Gettysburg. Good timing. Later he joined the Union company of “Kirk’s Raiders” and fought for the winning side. Hence the pension.

So let Irene Triplett rest in peace. She is the last direct link to the war to save the Union. The last link to the defeat of the stars and bars and the end of slavery.

And across the south the monuments to the traitors , like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and others , have been dismantled. Torn down. Placed in storage. Confined to the dustbin of history, like the slave owners who wanted to destroy the Union.

Of course racism lingers on. It is a long battle. One I won’t see the end of. But the tide of history seems to be drowning the racist, the flag wavers of the old south and the modern day alt-righters.

Irene Triplett can rest in peace. The war is over. Some folks just have not figured it out.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/04/she-was-last-american-collect-civil-war-pension-7313-month-she-just-died/

Business as Usual, the Death Penalty

Business as usual, part 1.

A black guy in Minnesota is suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Did he do it? Who knows? Did he KNOWINGLY pass a bad bill? Who knows?At any rate he was tracked down and arrested. Handcuffed. Unarmed. Did not resist arrest. Walked off quietly with cops to their patrol car. Was placed on the ground, handcuffed and helpless and murdered. A man put his knee with full body weight on his neck as he plead for his life. Four cops watch him die. Business as usual.

A black kid is walking home in his own neighborhood in Florida. Eating his Skittles. Unarmed. Minding his own business. A guy follows him. A guy stalks him. The guy who is following him feels his life is in danger . So he continues to follow him. They clash. The unarmed black kid is shot to death. The jury acquits. Business as usual.

A black man on the East coast is selling cigarettes. Illegal. You can’t sell cigarettes on the street. The police come to get him. Drag him to the ground. Choke him. He pleads for his life. They kill him. They watch him die. Business as usual.

A little black boy in Cleveland is playing in the park outside his home. He is playing cops and robbers. He has a toy gun. The police pull up in a car. Start shooting. Kill him. His sister tries to get to him to comfort him. The police keep her away. They stand around and watch him bleed to death. Business as usual.

A black man is jogging on a public street in Georgia. He is hunted down by 3 white men and shot to death. The local police and district attorney find no reason to charge these men with a crime. He might have been a criminal. Maybe. Business as usual.

The murder of black citizens is not surprising. It is business as usual.

Business as usual, part 2. Imagine this. I bet you can’t.

A white woman is suspected of passing a bad $20 bill. The police arrest her and kneel on her neck. Killing her.

A white kid is walking in his own neighborhood. A black man feels threatened so he kills him. The black man is acquitted by the jury.

A white man is selling cigarettes illegally. Four black policemen drag him to the ground and choke him to death.

A little white boy is playing cops and robbers in the park near his home. A police car with a black cop pulls up and shoots the boy, killing him.

A white woman is jogging down the street. Three black men think she is a possible burglar. They kill her.

Can you imagine? The death penalty.

Passing a $20 bill. Walking in your own neighborhood. Selling cigarettes. Playing in your park. Jogging.

If you are black, those activities will get you the death penalty. Business as usual.

JWB

It was February. A 25 year old man named Ahmaud Arbery was jogging down the street in Brunswick,  Georgia, USA.

He wasn’t bothering anyone. He jogged regularly. Trying to stay in shape. Minding his own business.

The McMichael boys thought he looked suspicious.  Gregory McMichael  thought the man looked like a burglar. There had been burglaries in the area and this guy might be the guy who was doing it. That is why he was jogging in broad daylight . Where anyone could easily identify him.

Gregory is 64. His son, Travis, is 34. They didn’t call the police. They decided that with their shotgun and hand gun they could solve the problem themselves.

So, they go in their truck and tracked down the suspicious jogger. The truck that displayed the famous “Don’t Tread  On Me” flag. True patriots. The jogger who was running on a public street. In the middle of the day. The jogger who just might be a burglar. Might be. You never know.

So the McMichael’s (and maybe an unidentified 3rd person) got in their pickup. And chased down the jogger. They stopped their truck in the middle of the street and waited for him. They confronted him. They pointed a shotgun at him.

He tried to take the shotgun away. Something happened. He was shot. Twice. He died.

Gregory McMichael told the police what happened. The jogger was suspicious. Maybe he was a burglar. We told him to stop and he wouldn’t stop.

Gregory McMichael is a retired police officer. His son, Travis , had a 9 mm pistol stolen on January 1. The gun was left sitting in his truck . He parked it on the street and forgot to lock it. Someone took it. No one knew who. That was the only burglary reported in the area in January or February.

The jogger, a 25 year old former high school football player, was seen jogging. In the middle of the day. On a public street. The McMichael’s decided he may have been the burglar. They decided it was their right to pull weapons on him and stop him. A citizen’s arrest.

No charges were filed against the former police officer or his son. No charges. They had acted reasonably. They had the right to pull weapons on a citizen jogging down the street. The killing of Ahmaud Arbery was justified.

The prosecutor in the case, a family friend who recused himself wrote that the murder was justified. George Barnhill, was ok with the killing. ……“It appears their intent was to stop and hold this criminal suspect until law enforcement arrived. Under Georgia Law, this is perfectly legal,” Barnhill wrote of the McMichaels.

The unarmed jogger who was murdered, it might be noted, was black. And he had been arrested once, as a 19 year old, for possession of a weapon. But the McMichael’s would not have known that. End of story. JWB. Jogging While Black. Add that to DWB  (Driving While Black), BMWB (Being Male While Black) and EWB (Existing While Black). All crimes which justify civilian executions.

Not the end of the story. Months after the cold blooded murder of a black man by the son of a white police officer a video surfaced. Three months after the murder.  A video even Georgia justice could not ignore.

So, now people in Georgia are demanding justice. A grand jury is finally being impaneled. A new prosecutor has the case. But only after three months. And after the tape of the murder somehow emerged. We shall see. Don’t get your hopes up. Remember Trayvon, the boy who was murdered in Florida?  If you are a betting man, don’t bet on justice.

If you are a black man, don’t bet your life. Not in the south. Not if you are black. Stay home. Your life is in danger. Not because of the corona virus, but just because you are black.

JWB.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/05/ahmaud-arbery-killing/

https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/dispatcher-what-was-he-doing-wrong/article_fe51cdd4-3bb6-5815-9dec-ddcdc8f879f8.html

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-shooting-of-ahmaud-arbery-an-unarmed-black-man-is-roiling-georgia?ref=home

Embrace Your Race (ism)

It’s about time.

For many years the racists have had to hide in the shadows. Like slimy snakes in the grass. Like moles in their holes. Like cockroaches in the cracks. You get the picture.

Being a racist is as American as the melody of the Star Spangled Banner. Oh. Wait. That was actually the melody of an old English drinking song. But, you know what I mean.

The colonists were racist. The founding fathers were racist. Even Honest Abe, if he were to tell the truth, was a racist. Racism permeates the history of the American people.

Just in my lifetime we had the good old days of Jim Crow. Negroes drinking from the same public fountains as real Americans? Outrageous. Marrying white folks. Not in the good old days. Eating in a white restaurant? No gonna happen. Ah. Good times for all.

Then something happened. The socialists. The equal rights crowd. The PC police.

All of a sudden it was “wrong” to be a racist. There something “wrong” with lynching. It was “wrong” to tell taxpaying citizens they could not have the same rights as the rest of us. The communists trying to tell the rest of us how to live.

But, thank the good lord Jesus, times are a changing  back. Back to the good old days when racists didn’t have to hide, but wore their hoods with pride. I said “hoods”, not “hoodies”. Don’t be confused.

Now we finally have a real man in the White House. WHITE House. Not “Negro” House. Not “Person of Color” House. WHITE HOUSE. Built by white folks, for a white president. (OK, maybe the Negroes did help a little bit in building the White House, but they got room and board).

And our real man in the White House finally tells it like it is. Send them back. Ship em back to where they came from. Put on the hoods and take out the trash. No need to hide any longer. No need to pretend . No need to whisper your racist hate. The man at the top is on your side.

Embrace your racism. It’s a new day in America. The cockroaches no longer scatter when the lights come out. Welcome to Trump’s America.

 

Understanding Trump

If you are a logical person or a reasonable person Mr Trump may be hard to understand. His decisions, the way he treats people, his lies, his tweets may all seem the rantings of a loon.

After 3 years of campaigning and watching him on the stage I have come to some understanding of why he makes the kinds of decisions he makes. While on the surface they make no sense, if you can put yourself in his mind (and there is plenty of room) you may be able to make sense of him.

I was trained as an anthropologist, which is important. What an anthropologist tries to do is understand people who think in ways that are quite different from what we might consider “normal” in our society.

For example, the Yanomami (or Yanamamo) have a ritual they perform when someone dies. They cremate the body and mix the ashes of the deceased into a “stew”. The family then passes around the stew and everyone takes a drink. On the surface this is pretty disgusting and makes no sense.

However, to the Yanomami this action shows the highest regard for the dead. The dead become part of the living.The dead person becomes one with those who are still alive. It is the ultimate spiritual and physical connection. Odd behavior to us, but completely “normal” under their belief system.

So, when we look at Trump’s decisions we should not assume he holds the same values, beliefs, life experiences, etc. as a normal American. We should instead, an an anthropologist, try to understand his motives and beliefs by his actions. We should assume nothing, but rather look for a pattern of behavior to better understand the motives of that behavior.

For example, Trump is obsessed with destroying the ACA, also called Obamacare. Now, this program provides health insurance to millions of Americans. When the GOP tried to destroy it the outrage was so great that they could not do so. People like it. It guarantees health insurance for the working poor and supports the private insurance industry. Yet, Mr Trump insists he wants it ended, with no plan to help the 20-40,000,000 Americans who would lose insurance if he succeeds.

A logical person might ask: Why? Why try to destroy a popular program that is working? Now, if a better alternative was offered there might be a reasonable discussion. But there is no alternative offered, just the end of Obamacare.

Combine this with his other illogical actions concerning the border wall. His call for an investigation of Smollett, the black guy in Chicago, his history of discrimination against African-Americans in housing, etc. and a clear picture emerges.

He is a racist. Anything Obama did, no matter how helpful to the citizens, he is intent on undoing. While he criticizes black Americans and calls for all kinds of “investigations”, he never criticizes white supremacists or calls for investigations of police who kill blacks.

If you look at Mr Trump’s decisions and take the view that he is a racist, they all make perfect sense. His attacks on the people of Puerto Rico , Mexicans, ripping brown children from their parents, saying he wants more folks from Norway, etc. The overall , inevitable controlling factor, from the point of view of an anthropologist, is that this man makes policy decisions based on skin color.

Another area where Mr Trump’s decisions seem incomprehensible is his relationships with various foreign leaders. While he “loves” Kim Jung Un and respects Putin, he criticizes the leaders of democracies.

Why would an American president humiliate himself before Putin. Why kowtow to the dictator of Saudi Arabia? Why talk about his love relationship with Kim Jung Un? All three of these men are vile dictators who murder their political opponents. They kill newsmen. They destroy all critics. All three have raided the wealth of their own people and live like kings while so many in their countries have nothing.

What is the underlying attraction these men have as far as Trump is concerned? What is it about his value system that makes them attractive to him?

The conclusion I have reached is not that they “have anything on him”, like “compromat”. Rather, he admires brutality and physical strength. He sees the way these men “control” their populations with terror and he admires that. He sees that as a positive value. Leaders who are feared and bowed down to. Above questioning.

Why has he gone through so many cabinet members and advisers? He needs “yes men” around him. People who will tell him he is the greatest thing on Earth. Sycophants. Anyone who would disagree with him is put in his place or fired. No opinions other than that the the supreme leader can be allowed.

So, any decisions he makes must be unquestioned. He values complete loyalty to him and a disregard for any legal or normative structures. He losses the battle for the wall, so he simply says he will violate the law and build it anyway. If his political opponents disagree they should be destroyed. The free press must be destroyed, as well. There can be no exchange of ideas, only capitulation. In his world view that is the way a “great leader” acts.

Now, I am not justifying Mr Trump’s actions. Only trying to make sense of them. He does have guiding principles, even though he is probably not even cognizant of them himself.

He believes in strong man rule and the inherent superiority of light skinned people. If you keep in mind those 2 principles all of his actions, tweets, speeches, violations of the law and norms make sense.

It also helps one understand that so many Americans share that world view. After all, Mr Trump has plenty of support. You will never understand Mr Trump unless you understand that fact as well. He is not alone in his core beliefs. Admiration for authoritarian rule and racism. A lethal combination.

A Skunk of A Different Color

I went out this morning to clear the snow from my driveway. All 100 yards of it. I noticed some of the usual animal tracks in the snow.

There were the deer, who cross the road here to get to Flint Creek. And , of course a number of squirrel prints . There was one I didn’t recognize. It was like a thick tunnel across the newly fallen snow. I thought it might belong to the weasel or mink we saw a few years ago.

As it happened my neighbor, I will call him Sparky, was driving his tractor/plow down the road. Now, Sparky is a good old boy who used to be a deer hunter. He no longer kills animals. I recall one year he took down a deer near our adjoining property with one shot from his back porch. So, he knows guns.

And Sparky will always come over during really heavy snowfalls and plow out my driveway. A couple times a year. He won’t take payment for it, so I usually leave a couple of six packs of brew on this front deck . Sparky knows animals.

So, I stopped him and asked him about the snow trail. Yep. He said it was skunk. They had seen skunks in their yard this morning and he was pretty sure they had ambled this way. Skunks it was.

There is a family of skunks that drops by in the fall, usually in the middle of the night. They dig up the yard looking for grubs, I presume. I have seen them and watched as they slowly make there way, unafraid.

A couple years ago I noticed something odd. I mentioned it to Sparky and he assured me that my eyes were not deceiving me, he had seen it ,too.

For those of you unfamiliar with skunks. They are an amazing deep black color. With an even more amazingly bright white stripe down the back. The black and the white are pure, bold and uncompromising. As black and white as it gets.

Except for this family. One of the skunks is the exact opposite of this color pattern. Where the others are black, he is white. A white skunk with a big bold black stripe down his back. An oddity. An aberration. A skunk like no other.

The other skunks don’t seem to mind. He is, after all, just a skunk of a different color.

Too bad humans aren’t more like skunks.

The Virgin Mary Test

There is a new test for holding office in the US. It is the Virgin Mary Test.

For those unfamiliar with good old Christianity, let me explain exactly who the Virgin Mary was.

She was the mother of Jesus. She gave birth to Jesus even though she had never had sexual intercourse, even with her husband. Never. Ever. She was as pure as the driven snow.

The perfect woman. Mother. Virgin. Unspoiled. Untouched. Like a 3 day old donut at a vegan buffet.

She never had to apologize or be contrite. Why not? Because she never did anything wrong. The ultimate Politically Correct human being. Let us adore her. Amen.

The governor of Virginia is under attack. 35 years ago he was in a photo. A racist photo. The photo showed him in blackface or a KKK robe. Maybe as part of some Halloween party. Who knows. It was in his college yearbook. He was an obvious racist. No doubt. Right there for all to see.

And he has admitted it. It was him. 35 years ago. He did wrong. Since then, as governor of Virginia he has lead the charge against racism. Spoke out loudly against the racists at Charlottesville when our POTUS was silent. Advocated for a woman’s right to control her own reproduction. Fought for a voting rights bill that made sure his black citizens would have an equal right to vote in Virginia. Ran for office with an African-American as his lieutenant governor. And won.

But now the entire Democratic establishment has spoken. I was watching MSNBC as “pundits”, black, white, women, men., are all calling for his resignation. They are horrified! Outraged! One even said this photo of him in blackface has reopened the “old wounds of racism”.

And here I am. Thinking that racism had never ended. Someone should have told me.

Not only the pundits, but the list of Democrats who want to be president weighed in.

Kamala Harris called for his resignation because…” Leaders are called to a higher standard….”

Julian Castro…his behavior was unconscionable…he must resign….

Booker, Warren, Gillibrand…all called for his resignation.

The governor of Virginia, if he is going to run as a Democrat, must be The Virgin Mary. Pure. Holy. Untainted. Ever.

Of course, the REAL racists, many in the GOP, are gleeful. They have the yearbooks, the photos, the emails, the friends, the discussions, the drunken parties of ALL the Democratic candidates for president.

The holier than thou , jump on the bandwagon crew. Did Harris ever have an affair with a married man, as some have suggested? Did Warren ever claim Native American heritage? Did Booker ever work to oppose liberal reforms in New Jersey? Did Gillibrand ever have an A rating from the NRA before she “saw the light”?

Did any white candidate ever laugh at a “negro “joke? Did any male candidate ever make a disparaging or sexist comment about a girl? Did any minority candidate ever make a “honky” joke? Did any female candidate ever make a disparaging remark about a man?

I hope not. Because the Democratic Party has now laid down the minimum requirements for office. Virginity. Purity. Of thought, word and deed for your entire life. There can be no deviation. No mistakes. No sins. Confession will not be enough. A life of good works will not be enough.

The opposition researchers of the GOP are smugly waiting in the wings. They can be patient. They will wait until the last man or woman is standing. Then they will unleash the gods of human perfection on the Democratic nominee.

The Virgin Mary never ran for office. Why not? Because in her youth she once told a joke about a Roman soldier. Ended her career.

And Nobody Came

Back in the days of the Vietnam War there was a poster that was famous.

It read: What if they gave a war and nobody came.

Yesterday’s massive march for the right wing made me think of that poster.

You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of the Charlottesville Nazi and KKK march. It was during that march that a young woman was murdered by a coward driving his car into her. It was that march that prompted Mr Trump to say that there were fine people on both sides. A whole lot of fine Nazis. And Klan members.

For the Trump-Nazi-KKK coalition this was just the first step. The new movement was taking hold. A new wave of ultra right wing White Power bigotry was going to sweep America.

So, a year later, we have the right wing setting out to demonstrate at out nation’s capital. To demonstrate the strength of the “movement”. We all braced for the thousands of racists and white “nationalists” intent on the show of power. Intent on making America White again . (Of course, anyone with a 4th grade education knows America was never “white” to begin with).

The great “Unite the Right” (or more aptly “Unite the White”) rally was held yesterday. And in a nation of 330,000,000 or so people the rally attracted thousands. Well, the thousands were actually protesting the rally.

The “Unite the White’ rally ended up with not even two dozen men and one woman. Fewer than 25 people marching for racism and White Power. There were 3 times as many journalists covering the non-event. So much for the “mass movement” of hate they hoped to engender. Americans are better than that.

So, what if they gave a White Power rally and nobody showed up…except the press and protesters against the rally? Must have some very sad racists hanging their heads today. The balloon of racism they hoped to share with other , decent Americans, was POPPED. Some very, very sad racists. And at least one lives in the White House.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/unite-the-right-fizzles-amid-a-boisterous-counter-protes/567374/

 

Trump IS the GOP

There seems to be widespread denial in the GOP. Many Republican leaders and former leaders have distanced themselves from Donald Trump. People like Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and the Bushes. Folks like Mitch McConnell and Paul  Ryan. John Mc Cain. (Of course others, like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio,  Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani have fully supported Trump’s campaign)

Some have silently distanced themselves. Just not  actively supporting him. Others have been vocal in refusing to support his candidacy.

They don’t like his “tone” . They don’t like his racism. They oppose his misogynistic statements. They cannot support his claims that our elections are somehow “rigged” against him. He does not, according to them, represent the values of  the Republican Party.

They are hypocrites.

Donald Trump IS the natural and predictable result of the tactics and rhetoric of the last 30 years emanating from the GOP. He did not “steal” the nomination of the GOP;  he was selected. He is not an outlier, he is at the very core of the new GOP. All the forces that were drawn together to win the nomination of the party have been trending for years in his direction.

First. Denial of the legitimacy of Barack Obama. This has been the key focus of the GOP for the last 8 years. So what that the majority of Americans voted for him and his policies? Before he took office the GOP , under Mitch McConnell, made it clear that the goal of the party was to “make him fail”. If the people did not want GOP policies, then the GOP would  simply stand in the way of the people. And they did. Trump’s assertion that elections are “rigged” is simply an extension of that mindset. If a Dem wins the Oval Office, we will refuse to recognize the will of the people.

Second. The Hate Clinton Machine. Since Bill Clinton took office  (elected by the people) the GOP has used millions of tax payer dollars to try to destroy both Clintons. We saw the Whitewater investigations which led nowhere.  We saw the joke of an impeachment trial which led nowhere. We saw 8 investigations of the tragic  killings in Benghazi which led nowhere. Now we see email revelations and FBI investigations which are leading nowhere. The GOP  has used the mechanisms of government to assault the Clintons, ignoring evidence when it does fit their hopes. And Trump simply is an extension of that process. Calling his political opponent a “criminal”, “Crooked Hillary”  and encouraging “lock her up” chants at his rallies. The natural extension of the GOP tactics.

Third. The stereotyping of blacks and Hispanics as criminals and on welfare. Who can forget the great (false) stories told by Saint Ronald Reagan about “welfare queens”? Or the overtly racist “Willie Horton” ads of GHW Bush?  The overturning of sections of the Voting Rights Act followed immediately by the passing of voter suppression laws. All part of the GOP mantra of “them” versus”us”. The defection on the late 1960s and early 1970s of racist southern Democrats, first to George Wallace and then to the southern GOP.  And the GOP welcomed these voters and welcomed their votes. They brought racism into the core of the new GOP. They brought in the people who passed and supported Jim Crow laws.  Donald Trump did not create this movement, although he has long contributed to it. He simply is the end product of  party that has welcomed racists and is now housing them. People that Barry Goldwater or Dwight Eisenhower would have rejected out of hand. Refused to allow into the GOP.. Now they are the core. Donald Trump is their natural leader.

Fourth. The frustration of some white men over the increasingly public  and powerful role of women in society. The GOP, at least in part, yearns for the” good old days”. What were these good old days? When a woman would not dare report abuse because the man was head of the household? When a woman could not file for divorce? When a woman could  not take out a loan without her husband’s permission? When a woman was expected to stay home except to pickup the kids and shop? When girls were encouraged to be cheerleaders but not athletes? A fantasy of male dominance. To be sure, this is not the majority of the GOP. But the GOP has intentionally sought those men who feel  their “rights” over women have been stripped from them. Those nasty women. Who do they think they are? Ironically, it is even some GOP women who support this fantasy. The anti-Planned Parenthood, anti-equal pay, anti-right to choose GOP was not created by Trump. He is simply the natural conclusion of the philosophy. So strong women are “nasty”. And while it is fine for him to have 5 kids with 3 different women, if Hillary Clinton had 5 kids with 3 different men it would be considered a crime without redemption.

So, don’t cry for the GOP. They invited in the racists. They actively sought out the sexists. They have spent years trying to delegitimize the very idea of government, especially any Democrat elected to high office.And they have used the machine of government to focus 25 years of attacks on both Bill and Hilary Clinton.

Is it any wonder that the Fox viewers and others have become so hostile and angry? They have been fed and nurtured by the lies and distortions and negativity of the GOP. And few, if any, in the GOP have ever stood up and said: “Wait. That is going too far”.

Trump did not create the current GOP. He didn’t lay the track for the locomotive. He didn’t fill the passenger cars with the angry, howling masses. The GOP did that.He simply climbed on board the train of hate, racism and ignorance and took over the conductor’s seat.

Trump is not an out of touch interloper. He IS the GOP.

 

 

The New Old GOP

Just for fun I decided to check out the NY Times archives to see what was happening on the day I was born . The archives, called the “Times Machine” is supposed to have every newspaper ever published by the Times. Since I have a digital subscription to the NYT , I get it for free. Not sure if it is available to all.

I found the paper from my date of birth in 1950 and perused the stories. The USA had just recognized the Bao Dai government of Viet Nam while the Soviet Union was recognizing Ho Chi Minh. I guess we know how that played out.

J. Edgar Hoover, that good old cross dressing head of the FBI was asking Congress more more money for more agents to fight the 54,000 “card carrying” communists and millions of “fellow travelers”. He was received with open arms. We know how that played out.

Labor disputes in the coal industry. A strike on hold in the telephone industry.  (Remember when you simply had a black phone and didn’t need a law or economics degree to figure out the contracts?). The courts ruled that the NY City transit authority would  have to give back pay to workers, upon which the transit authority said they would have to raise fares.

Stuck deep in the paper, on page 18, above the half page Ballantine beer ad and next to the new Magnavox 16″ TV offer (a whopping $299.50 , a heck of a lot of money in those days when the average family income was $3,300) was an article titled:

RETREAT ON RIGHTS CHARGED TO GOP, Democratic Congress Leaders Assail 1950 Statement of Party Principles.

To summarize, the article told how the Dems had forced a civil rights agenda into their platform over the opposition of the Dixiecrats. (In a few years it would be the Southern Dems who would walk out of the Democratic party and form their own Dixiecrat Party and then subsequently join the GOP years later). This article related how the GOP, along with the southern Dems, were blocking a vote on  the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC). This commission had been created by Executive Order 8802 by FDR and and supported by Truman.It simply stated that there can be no  discrimination in hiring in the defense industry or government based on race, color, creed or national origin. This order was expanded by Truman to include the military by Executive Order 9981.

In combination with the southern Dems the GOP in the Senate was allowing a filibuster so the law could never come up for a vote. They refused to support the north Dems in invoking cloture and shutting down the southern filibuster. Some suggested the GOP represented “liberty against socialism” although a number of northern GOPers supported civil rights  and were not happy about the position of the leadership. After all, the GOP platform SUPPORTED civil rights.

What stuck me the most, however , about this article on the day I was born were the words of Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. He stated that the Republican position was a retreat from their own party platform which supported civil  rights.

The article further states:

“The Senator declared that the Republican statement used “the kind of language that the Dixiecrats would have accepted for the 1948 Democratic plank”

“This may be the FIRST STEP in the LEGAL LOVE-MAKING between Senate Republicans and southern Democrats on the civil rights issue”, he added. “They have engaged in illicit love, as indicated in voting, for  about a year-and-a quarter”. (Capitals mine)

So, the attempt to make fair labor practices the  permanent law of the land failed in 1950 due to the combined efforts of Dixiecrats and the GOP leadership.

Perhaps the “new” GOP of is not so “new” after all. Was this the “first step” in moving the GOP and southern Dems closer together? The basis for the “Southern Strategy” of Nixon? The beginning of the conscious attempt by the GOP to attract racists to the party rather than join in the fight against racism? Was Humphrey correct in his analysis?

To review. Two Democratic presidents use executive orders to expand rights for certain categories of Americans. The GOP fights them every step of the way and refuses to even consider legislation granting rights. Some GOPers claim it is a battle between “Liberty versus socialism”.

Sound familiar?

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_8802

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Employment_Practice_Committee

http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/02/08/issue.html

My Heritage: The Flag of Freedom

My  battle flag flies proudly over my front yard. It is my heritage. My flag of freedom.

Some say it represents racism and repression. I disagree.

My battle flag was flown over great victories … although in the end it was flown sadly in defeat. Still, I am proud of the men who  fought for that flag. They died for their race. The white race. They died to defend their way of life from those who would oppose it.

The heritage behind my flag is a long and honored one. It goes back for centuries. Respect my heritage. Thousands died in battles against those who would take away our way of life. Some said that our way of life was wrong because we enslaved others. But that was our right. Under the law. All was legal. Who has the right to change our laws?

Some say my flag represents racism. Nonsense. It represents the way things are or should be. Those who are inferior were given jobs to do. Life time employment. Those laborers, who some called “slaves” helped make us economically strong. We needed their labor. And , as the superior race, they accepted their place.

Until the outsiders caused problems. The so-called “democracy” lovers who said we should not enslave others because of their skin color or ethnicity. The buddinskies.  Those who wanted everyone to be “equal”.

Some say my flag is a flag of violence. And terror. Yes, sometimes we  had to destroy the elements of rebellion among the inferior population. We have had to keep them at bay with whippings and hangings and fear.  Otherwise these inferiors would overrun the masters. So be it. What some call “terror” we call “law and order”  No society can exist without it.

My flag recognizes that we are not all born “equal”. Some deserve to be master. Some are born to serve as workers and slaves.

I am proud of my ancestors who died fighting for those ideals. For the rights of the white man to be master.  For the right of the state to determine its own system and not be imposed upon by others. The flag of freedom flies proudly from the flagpole in my front yard.

It is my heritage. I am German. My flag is the Swastika.

The NRA: Al-Qaeda’s Best Friend

(Somewhere in the deepest caves in Afghanistan a meeting of the Al-Qaeda leadership is taking place.)

Mustafa Waynoofa La Pierre: Allah Be Praised. Where are the corn chips? Ah. Good. Welcome to the first meeting of the Al-Qaeda chapter of the National Rifle Association.  Although our funds are running low we feel the $35 membership is well worth the cost.  Not only do we get insurance if any of our guns are stolen, but we also get a free subscription to “American Hunter”. I think it is a guide to hunting Americans. Questions?

Mohammed bin O’Reilly: Why are we joining this American organization? Allah Be Praised. Is it not an organization of loyal Americans?

MustafaWaynoofa La Pierre : I know it seems strange. Allah and AK-47s Be Praised. But our accountants have done a cost-benefit analysis and we decided this was the best bang for the buck, so to speak.

Abdullah Zimmerman:  Explain that. Our goal is to kill Americans. Not protect them. We lured them to Iraq and Afghanistan to kill them. And it worked. Allah and George Bush Be Praised.

John Wilkes Boothafa: And we spent so much time planning 9/11. Look how many we killed. Allah and Cheney Be Praised. Now you are saying we should join the Americans! Never.

Mustafa Waynoofa La Pierre: Hear me out. Joining the NRA is the easiest, cheapest way to kill Americans. And isn’t that out goal? Allah and Fox News Be Praised.  In Iraq and Afghanistan we have killed fewer than 7,000 Americans! And it has taken us 13 years ! Fewer than 3,000 in the attacks on 9/11. We thought that was good. HAH!

Many shouting in the room: Praise Allah. Kill the infidels! Allah Be Praised.

Mustafa Waynoofa La Pierre: Wait ! Wait ! During that same period in the US Americans with guns killed over 420,000 Americans. That is more than all Americans  killed in all the wars since WW2. Allah and the NRA Be Praised. In fact, more Americans have been killed by guns since 9/11 than ALL Americans killed in WW2 by the Germans and Japanese combined. Allah and La Pierre Be Praised !

Abdullah James Earl Rayoofa: This is embarrassing. You mean we spent all this time and money and energy and sacrifice trying to kill Americans and we have this result?

Mustafa Waynoofa La Pierre: We have been fools. Allah and Smith and Wesson Be Praised. Instead of wasting our time and energy on plots to destroy Americans we could have simply joined and supported the NRA. They do a much better job a killing Americans than we could ever dream of.  They make sure every hateful, mentally ill American can get a gun. Not to mention children . There is a special place in paradise for Wayne La Pierre. He will certainly have many virgins…unless he shoots them first.

Muhammed bin Huckabee: So. What should we do? Allah and Cop Killer Bullets Be Praised.

Mustafa Waynoofa La Pierre: Easy. Just fill in the form. Include your VISA card number and join. You will get a free magazine, insurance for your guns and the knowledge that you are helping stop  any sane laws to control guns in America. Think of all those American children that you are helping murder! And as a bonus, the NRA is the only organization that hates the American president more than we do! They will make sure American keep killing Americans.  When it comes to killing Americans, nobody does it better. They have a saying in the ungodly, Satan-worshiping USA. If you can’t beat em, join em. And when it comes to helping people  kill Americans, nobody beats the NRA.

Racist Mike Votes

I met Racist Mike this week.

I was visiting my daughter and her husband in their new (old) home in New Jersey…check that..New Joicy.

While  I was working on the back deck the neighbor, Racist Mike leaned over his deck and started a conversation. By the way, at the time of the conversation I had no  idea his  name was Racist Mike. Never met him before.

The conversation started innocuously enough. Talking about golf. I learned he was a great golfer in his youth. I am a hacker. If I lose fewer than three balls on the local 9 hole course I consider it a great round.  Mike used to shoot in the 60s. Till he hurt his back.

After golf I learned that Racist Mike grew up in this part of Jersey and had no desire to visit the Finger Lakes, where I live. No desire to see the world. No Marco Polo is Racist Mike. This area was all he needed to  see.  OK.  We can’t all strive to push the limits of adventure posed by the Garden State Parkway. God knows where it leads !

I  also learned (as you can guess, Racist Mike did most of the talking in this “conversation”)  that his old neighborhood,  just a few miles from here , was now overrun by the “Spanish”. Visions of Generalissimo Franco and his army trudging through Belleville flitted in my brain. Death to traitors. Tapas, anyone?

Then of course, we moved on to the “blacks”. The “blacks ” might be coming to Racist Mike’s neighborhood and he wasn’t thrilled. I am not sure if he knows any “blacks” but he has strong opinions about them.  Kind of how I feel about alien beings from Alph Centuari. Never met one, but I am pretty sure we wouldn’t get along. I wanted to suggest to him  any “blacks” who could afford a $ 400,000 home probably would not want him as a neighbor. But I didn’t.

Next up: Obama and the Ferguson , Missouri shooting. I learned that the police officer in Ferguson was attacked by the black thug and was forced to defend himself by pumping the guy full  of lead. And that Obama and that “black Attorney General” supported black thugs. (To his undying credit, Racist Mike does not use the “N” word. He is a real PC racist.) And, that, my friends , is why the  Democrats will never win another presidential election! You heard it here first, from Racist Mike.

Before I could respond and perhaps start a brawl in my daughter’s new neighborhood I heard a voice from inside the house. “Dad, I need your help here”. It was a way out and I took it. Once inside, my daughter said she didn’t need help but was just giving me an out from Racist Mike’s encyclopedia of ignorance. Thank you, sweetie.

I don’t know where Racist Mike gets his belief system. Probably a combination of growing up in “simpler times” and a steady diet of Rupert Murdoch and Rush Limbaugh. There is only so much room in the brain. Maybe the tolerant, smart stuff fell out.  Or , maybe it is just old age. He is 73.  Or maybe his contact with blacks has been limited to his Rap Music video collection. Hence the thug imagery. Whatever.

One thing for sure. Racist Mike votes. Racist Mike, and people like him , make sure they get registered and vote. They help determine who will be in Congress and who may be in the White House.  People like  Racist Mike form the base of the Tea Party, and now, the Republican Party. Something to think about.

Racist Mike votes. Do you ?