Archive for the ‘Immigration’ Category

The Peopling of British North America

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

If, as I speculated recently, all the books, news, magazines and video materials I’ve been reading are a sneaky way for me to avoid returning to my book they at least have the salutory affect of reminding me about the importance of keeping clear eyed vision. I’ll deal a little of that out in a post later today one my favorite subject the Red Plan and the future of the Duluth Schools. But for now I’ll retreat to my reading last night from the book Barbarous Years.

The title of this post is part of that book’s subtitle. After a tough slog through chapter one on the nature of the Early American (Indian) tribes of the Atlantic seaboard prior to the first British invasion I’ve managed to get page 100. The last chapter was pretty gripping much like a slasher film.

I’ve long known that the early British “settler” of Virginia dropped like flies. I didn’t know all the details until last night. Much is still left to my imagination but the numbers make D-Day casualties look like a picnic. (more…)

The chickens are coming home to roost…

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

…and leave a lot of droppings in the GOP’s coup.

I find it ironic that the GOP which in the Reagan years once vilified (correctly) the Democrats for being a bunch of special interests is now suffering the same fate having become a party of its own special interests. This point was brought home by two stories in the press today on how the public has retreated from two central guideposts of the GOP cannon.

From the DNT’s first Page – “Support for legal abortion continunes to grow”:

As if to further bolster the argument that liberalism is having a resurgence in the United States, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that, for the first time ever, a majority of Americans – 54 percent – now believe abortion should be legal all or most of the time. Even more broadly, a full 70 percent believe that Roe v. Wade – the controversial decision that, 40 years ago, guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion, at least in the first trimester of pregnancy – should not be overturned.

Darned DNT doesn’t have their story on its site. I got this from the Christian Science Monitor (A paper that my Dad subscribed to for years) The DNT’s story mentions that ten years ago rather than 54% it was only 44 percent of the public that believed abortion should be legal. More critically the number of Republicans who feel intensely about this issue is shrinking.

The other poll issue was on page three and was about making it easier for illegal immigrants to enter the US. Once again the DNT’s story is only in newsprint. This comes from ABC:

“More than 6 in 10 Americans now favor allowing illegal immigrants to eventually become U.S. citizens, a major increase in support driven by a turnaround in Republicans’ opinions after the 2012 elections.(the story goes on to say that two years ago instead of 60% support it was only 47% support.

Two more GOP special interests that have taken a big hit are the NRA’s no compromise Second Amendment enthusiasts and the religious lobby that wants to keep gays closeted or make them normal. Expect the GOP’s Global warming and science deniers to fall from grace next.

I’ve waited for this all to happen since 1992 when I made my first break with the GOP and ran a quixotic independent campaign for Congress. I returned to the fold afterwords for about ten years but was kept on the margin by the new leaders of the party that were happy to go to conventions and explain that folks like me were the worst butchers in the history of the world. I guess they were accommodationists because after publicly announcing that I was worse than Papa Stalin, Adolph Hitler and Mao combined they were always very nice to me.

As my buddy (who seems to have given up emailing me) often says I’ve got my undies in a bunch over Republicans when Democrats can be expected to overreach with their rhetoric. It makes me think that before I die I should start attending GOP caucuses again (since my political future went over the cliff twenty ago) on the off chance that I can bring a little Lincoln pragmatism back to the party.

I have some personal theories about both parties and their excesses during my lifetime. I think that the GOP was overrun by College Republicans who all majored in business and decided that ethical considerations were a waste of time when short term tactics like stomping out independent thinking would lead to better election results and paychecks. In this regard they were as amoral as the mortgage industry’s specialists who approved unjustified home loans or Vatican priests who preferred to cover up and pay off the victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The book I hope to write someday will chronicle a different age when a similar sort ran the DFL in Northern Minnesota – political hacks with their hands out for government dollars.

Thus it was and ever shall be. Don’t believe me? Watch Spielberg’s Lincoln and enjoy the comic performance of James Spader as the 13th Amendment’s amoral, arm-twisting lobbyist.

I’m ready for a new set of racketeers to take over America. I just hope we get a long interim where idealists reign before they succumb to the pleasures of power.

Underground

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Tonight’s PBS program about William Still was a truly excellent telling of one of the principal conductors of the Underground Railroad.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Abe Lincoln’s hero Henry Clay made Canada all that much more important to Americans who valued freedom.

Damn wet backs – Go get’um Alabama

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Hey, send this guy to Minnesota.

Good fences make good neighbors

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

Especially at $4 million a mile.

Et tu Lou?

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

These right wingy talking heads keep getting exposed for the frauds so many are. Despite Lou Dobb’s millions he won’t spend the money to hire legal and documented workers.

Arizona low ways

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Maybe the police will ask the kids in the school for their birth certificates. The school is in Arizona afterall.

Some facts that complicate illegal immigration

Thursday, October 26th, 2006

Boneheaded ideas infect all ideologues.  Fifteen years ago “liberals” wanted Spanish-speaking children in public schools to be taught in Spanish.  These are the years when their brains are most ready to learn English.

Today ideological conservatives want to deport all the illegal immigrants.

I’ve said that solving this will be immensely complicated. A recent news story makes clear how impossible this will be. Mexico’s economy would tank then much of America’s economy would tank. The story doesn’t say this explicitly but its hard to conclude otherwise.

Remember the Alamo

Monday, September 25th, 2006

Today’s story about how all 16 US intelligence agencies have concluded that the Bush Administration’s War on Terror has undermined American security shows what happens when you mix the American traditional “can do” spirit with an intermittent no-nothingism which sweeps the land. I’m reminded of an old joke:

There is a Brit a Frenchman a Texan and a Mexican sitting on a plane which is experiencing mechanical problems. When the pilot reports to his passengers that the plane will go down if it can’t get lose some weight the Brit gets up, salutes, and says “God save the Queen” and jumps off. A short time later when told that more weight must be removed the Frenchman stands, salutes and says “Vive la France” and jumps out.

When this still doesn’t solve the problem the pilot makes the announcement yet again. This time the Texan stands up salutes and says “Remember the Alamo.” He picks up the Mexican and throws him off the plane.

Non-standard labor

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

After the BBC news it was off to breakfast in the hotel and the complimentary copies of the Financial Times and International Herald Tribune. While I read the Tribune’s story about the Danish police breaking up an alleged terror plot in Hans Christian Anderson’s home of Odense, which we passed through two days ago, Claudia read about Europe’s answer to illegal immigration in the Times. Non-standard labor. This is the new world threat and the origin of the alleged Danish terrorists – illegals who work dirt-cheap under threat of constant arrest in barrios or slums, with no government protection for things like mistreatment or loss of life and limb.

Then I read about the poor child workers in India who now face being liberated from the slavery of middle-class Indian families who employ them as domestic help. It seems India has now passed a law making such employment illegal and threatening a two-year jail term to any middle-class Indian family who takes such a child off the streets. Now these middle-class families will have to bribe police to keep the kids or send them back to the streets.

What challenges for the brave new world. Fortunately there were some stories about silly stuff like the birth of the boy to Japan’s royal family and the escape of the Austrian girl from the man who put her in an underground cell for eight years. It’s nice to have distractions from the real world.

An Irish Catholic against Latin Catholics

Monday, August 21st, 2006

This summary of Pat Buchanan’s new book on the Drudge Report makes clear that the conservative pundit thinks Mexico’s about to reclaim America north of the Rio Grand.

Of course, Pat should be pleased that Mexico, following the will of the Catholic Church, does not encourage birth control. If America is taken over it will be by Pat’s fellow churchmen.

The Republican Party’s Most Wanted Criminals

Sunday, July 9th, 2006

from the Washington Post:

“I looked at this stump and said, ‘I’m a useless person now,’ ” he recalled. ” ‘What will I do in the world?’ My American Dream ended on that train.”

But Bush can take $1.6 billion from our troops in Iraq for domestic politics.

Thursday, June 8th, 2006

As I just said, my words are unprintable!

Once again Bush shafts the troops for Domestic political considerations.

Thursday, June 8th, 2006

Appeasing angry anti-immigrant Republicans is more important than giving our troops in Iraq replacement pieces for the equipment that is falling apart. The words I have for the President are not printable.

How do the Mexicans treat their illegals?

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

Worse than us and they use their army to patrol the border.

A new Anne Frank in hiding?

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

We could have saved Anne Frank from Holland too if only she’d been allowed to come to America. The Dutch must be smoking too much pot these days to give a rip.

The Irish Model

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

As I was looking for a suitable reference to America’s long history of prejudice against the Catholics I found this interesting web page. It debunks the NINA memories of American Irish. (No Irish Need Apply) Regardless of the truth of the NINA signs anti-Catholic prejudice flourished until even after John Kennedy. Perhaps our current Da Vinci Code mania is a little echo of this past.

The comment on the page which intrigued me the most was about the resistance to doing well in school. Well Duh, any boy knows this. The boy who knows all the answers is likely to be unpopular with his less academic fellows who would rather get their play and aggressions out on the playground than in text books which are the preserve of the people who look down their noses at you.

This attitude is crippling. Its particulary devastating in the black inner city and it could become a problem with the growing Hispanic population. It is exacerbated by unequal school finance.

“This was part of the most sickening aspect of Irish-American life in those days: the assumption that if you rose above an acceptable level of mediocrity, you were guilty of the sin of pride. You were to accept your place and stay in it for the rest of your life; the true rewards would be given to you in heaven, after you were dead. There was ferocious pressure to conform, to avoid breaking out of the pack; self-denial was the supreme virtue…it was arrogant, a sin of pride, to conceive of a life beyond the certainties, rhythms, and traditions of the Neighborhood. Sometimes the attitude was expressed directlyMore often, it was implied. But the Neighborhood view of the world had fierce power. Who did I think I was?”

Our nation’s unwillingness to fully integrate and inspire newcomers when they are young and maleable will have unfortunate repercussions long into the future. Just look at western Europe and their unhappy and only partially assimilated young Muslims.

South of the Border

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

It occurred to me yesterday that as the 9/11 terrorists blew up the World Trade Towers the anti-immigration coalition seems intent on blowing up the Statue of Liberty – at least metaphorically. Its not the first time in our history that we’ve panicked about all those foriegners crossing our borders. There was anti Irish/Catholic sentiment from the potato famine years through the Civil War. There was the Yellow Peril Era and after 1st World War the Red Scare during which we rounded up immigrants with dangerous ideas and shipped them back to Europe.

I heard a sociologist once say that on average a person begins to get uncomfortable with his neighborhood when 7% of the neighbors start coming from somewhere else. In the 1950′s and 60′s fifties whole blocks of white people would buy a house rather than let its owner sell it to a black family. When those neighborhoods were breached “white flight” often ensued.The current rush to build a Berlin Wall on our Mexican border is coming from Southwestern states. The white residents there are getting a worried about all their brown skinned gardeners and nannies. Their solution is to build a wall.

This is the most rational commentary I’ve read yet about the hysteria over the Mexican/American border. Money Quote:

“Apparently, we’ve reached a tipping point of sorts; a perfect storm of post-9/11 security concern, cultural angst, and labor protectionism. Unfortunately, the restrictionists appear to be far more interested in simply doing something than in effectively resolving those concerns. There are, in the end, solutions far more consistent with US values, national security and the free-market wariness of government.”

Oh Yeah?

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006

“I think that the national anthem ought to be sung in English.”

                                                             George W Bush

Where will the next wave of guest workers come from?

Thursday, April 6th, 2006

Mark Kirkorian’s NPR commentary on immigration is fascinating and unexpected. I read recently that Mexico is one of the world’s richer nations which adds weight to Mr. Kirkorian’s observations. Listen to the audio