Posts Tagged ‘immigration’
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on March 13, 2020 at 12:44 am
Donald Trump has been compared to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Gaius Caligula. But perhaps his counterpart lies not in history but in fiction.
Specifically, the fictional news anchor Howard Beale in Network, the 1976 satire written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. It starred Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight.
Howard Beale (Finch) the longtime anchor of the UBS Evening News, is about to be fired because of declining ratings.
So he announces on live television that he will commit suicide on next Tuesday’s broadcast.
UBS fires him, but then agrees to let Beale appear one more time to leave with dignity.
But once Beale is back on the air, he launches into a rant that contains the most famous—and most often-quoted—line in the film:
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter….
“We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat….
“So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'”
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network
Beale is clearly losing it. But his outburst causes the newscast’s ratings to spike. Instead of pulling him off the air, the top brass of UBS decide to exploit Beale’s antics.
Soon he’s hosting a new program called The Howard Beale Show, where he’s billed as “the mad prophet of the airwaves.” Ultimately, the show becomes the most highly rated program on television.
But then Beale’s ratings slide as audiences find his sermons on the dehumanization of society depressing.
To rid themselves of Beale and boost their season-opener ratings, the network’s top executives hire a band of terrorists called the Ecumenical Liberation Army to assassinate Beale—on the air!
Forty years after Network, Right-wing voters sent “reality show” host and real estate mogul Donald Trump to the White House.
Donald Trump
Republicans have reveled in his antics and enthusiastically supported his most heinous acts, which have included:
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, calling it “the enemy of the American people.”
- Repeatedly “hinting” that he wants to be “President-for-Life.”
- Allowing predatory corporations to subvert Federal regulatory protections for consumers and the environment.
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—for unanimously agreeing that Russia interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
- Shutting down the Federal Government for more than a month on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico.
- Pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide “dirt” on Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic Presidential candidate Joseph Biden—and threatening to withhold military aid if Zelensky refused.
The greed-obsessed honchos of the fictional UBS Network believed they could parley Howard Beale’s madness into greater profits.
Similarly, power-obsessed Republicans in the House and Senate believe they can parley Donald Trump’s tyrannical and unstable nature into lifetime tenure for themselves.
They have silently watched—or given their enthusiastic support—as he has attacked one cherished American institution after another:
- A free press
- An incorruptible Justice Department
- An independent judiciary.
Yet, like the executives at UBS, Congressional Republicans may soon be forced to turn on their most poisonous creation.
Right-wing Fox News Network gave its enthusiastic support to Trump during the 2016 Presidential race. And it has continued to do so throughout his more than three-year Presidency.
But on September 22, 2019, Fox News declared: “Many voters are frustrated with how the federal government is working and a growing number are nervous about the economy….
“Fifty-one percent say the economy is in only fair or poor shape.
“[Trump’s] job ratings on every other issue tested are underwater: national security (45 approve-48 disapprove), immigration (42-54), international trade (38-53), foreign policy (36-54), guns (35-56), health care (34-56) and Afghanistan (31-49).
“Currently, 45 percent approve of the overall job the president’s doing, while 54 percent disapprove.
“About two-thirds (64 percent) think many people — if not nearly all people — in government are corrupt, and almost half (46 percent) say the Trump administration is more corrupt than previous ones.”
This was before the Coronavirus pandemic hit the United States—and the Trump administration’s inept mishandling of it. While Trump insists that everything is under control, there aren’t enough testing kits for the ever-growing number of victims. More importantly, there is no vaccine for the virus.
Republicans may soon be forced to face the following dilemma:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by supporting Trump? Or:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by deserting him?
This is how Republicans define morality today.
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 23, 2019 at 12:04 am
Donald Trump has been compared to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Gaius Caligula. But perhaps his counterpart lies not in history but in fiction.
Specifically, the fictional news anchor Howard Beale in Network, the 1976 satire written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. It starred Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight.
Howard Beale (Finch) the longtime anchor of the UBS Evening News, is about to be fired because of declining ratings.
So he announces on live television that he will commit suicide on next Tuesday’s broadcast.
UBS fires him, but then agrees to let Beale appear one more time to leave with dignity.
But once Beale is back on the air, he launches into a rant that contains the most famous—and most often-quoted—line in the film:
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter….
“We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat….
“So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'”
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network
Beale is clearly losing it. But his outburst causes the newscast’s ratings to spike. Instead of pulling him off the air, the top brass of UBS decide to exploit Beale’s antics.
Soon he’s hosting a new program called The Howard Beale Show, where he’s billed as “the mad prophet of the airwaves.” Ultimately, the show becomes the most highly rated program on television.
But then Beale’s ratings slide as audiences find his sermons on the dehumanization of society depressing.
To rid themselves of Beale and boost their season-opener ratings, the network’s top executives hire a band of terrorists called the Ecumenical Liberation Army to assassinate Beale—on the air!
Forty years after Network, Right-wing voters sent “reality show” host and real estate mogul Donald Trump to the White House.
Donald Trump
Republicans have reveled in his antics and enthusiastically supported his most heinous acts, which have included:
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, calling it “the enemy of the American people.”
- Repeatedly “hinting” that he wants to be “President-for-Life.”
- Allowing predatory corporations to subvert Federal regulatory protections for consumers and the environment.
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—for unanimously agreeing that Russia interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
- Shutting down the Federal Government for more than a month on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico.
- Pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide “dirt” on Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic Presidential candidate Joseph Biden—and threatening to withhold military aid if Zelensky refused.
The greed-obsessed honchos of the fictional UBS Network believed they could parley Howard Beale’s madness into greater profits.
Similarly, power-obsessed Republicans in the House and Senate believe they can parley Donald Trump’s tyrannical and unstable nature into lifetime tenure for themselves.
They have silently watched—or given their enthusiastic support—as he has attacked one cherished American institution after another:
- A free press
- An incorruptible Justice Department
- An independent judiciary.
Yet, like the executives at UBS, Congressional Republicans may soon be forced to turn on their most poisonous creation.
Right-wing Fox News Network gave its enthusiastic support to Trump during the 2016 Presidential race. And it has continued to do so throughout his almost three-year Presidency.
But on September 21, its website reported the following:
“Fifty-nine percent of voters are extremely interested in the 2020 presidential election. That’s a number typically only seen right before an election.
“In addition, more Democrats (65 percent) than Republicans (60 percent) are extremely interested in the election and more Democrats (69 percent) than Republicans (63 percent) are extremely motivated about voting in 2020. That helps Democratic candidates top President Donald Trump in potential head-to-head matchups.”
And in a September 22 story, Fox News declared: “Many voters are frustrated with how the federal government is working and a growing number are nervous about the economy….
“Fifty-one percent say the economy is in only fair or poor shape.
“His job ratings on every other issue tested are underwater: national security (45 approve-48 disapprove), immigration (42-54), international trade (38-53), foreign policy (36-54), guns (35-56), health care (34-56), and Afghanistan (31-49).
“Currently, 45 percent approve of the overall job the president’s doing, while 54 percent disapprove.
“About two-thirds (64 percent) think many people — if not nearly all people — in government are corrupt, and almost half (46 percent) say the Trump administration is more corrupt than previous ones.”
Republicans may soon be forced to face the following dilemma:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by supporting Trump? Or:
- Can I hold onto my power—and privileges—by deserting him?
This is how Republicans define morality today.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on June 7, 2019 at 12:07 am
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) was an Italian Renaissance historian, diplomat and writer. Two of his books continue to profoundly influence modern politics: The Prince and The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy.
The Prince has often been damned as a dictator’s guide on how to gain and hold power. But The Discourses outlines how citizens in a republic can maintain their liberty.
Niccolo Machiavelli
In Chapter 26 of The Discourses, he advises:
I hold it to be a proof of great prudence for men to abstain from threats and insulting words towards any one, for neither the one nor the other in any way diminishes the strength of the enemy—but the one makes him more cautious, and the other increases his hatred of you, and makes him more persevering in his efforts to injure you.
If Trump has read Machiavelli, he’s utterly forgotten the Florentine statesman’s advice. Or he decided long ago that it simply didn’t apply to him.
Consider his treatment of Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, in advance of his scheduled June 3 visit to the United Kingdom.
Interviewed by London’s The Sun newspaper on May 31, Trump said it would be his great honor to once again meet with 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth II. Then the conversation turned to Markle—and Trump’s uncanny ability to inflame rather than nurture relations between longtime allies.
Markle, an American citizen born in Los Angeles in 1981, had accused Trump of being “divisive” and “misogynistic” during the 2016 Presidential campaign.
Meghan Markle
Northern Ireland Office [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D
The Sun reporter told Trump that Markle, 37, was on maternity leave with her three-week-old son, Archie. As a result, she would not join other members of the royal family in meeting with the President.
“Are you sorry not to see her? Because she wasn’t so nice about you during the campaign. I don’t know if you saw that,” the Sun reporter added.
Trump: “I didn’t know that, no. I didn’t know that. No, I hope she’s OK. I did not know that, no.”
Reporter: “She said she’d move to Canada if you got elected. It turned out she moved to Britain.”
Trump: “A lot of people moving here, so what can I say? No, I didn’t know that she was nasty.”
Donald Trump
The remark predictably triggered a torrent of outrage among Britons. So, equally predictably, on June 1 the President’s “Official Trump War Room” Twitter account went into denial.
“Fake News CNN is at it again, falsely claiming President Trump called Meghan Markle ‘nasty,’” the account tweeted. Accompanying the tweet was a 44-second audio clip of Trump’s interview with The Sun. “Here is what he actually said. Listen for yourself!”
The only problem with the clip: It completely validated reports that Trump had used the word “nasty.”
Having insulted the Duchess of Sussex before leaving for Great Britain, Trump decided to launch another missile-insult while he was still in flight.
On June 1, The (London) Observer had published an opinion column by London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The headline: “It’s Un-British to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Donald Trump.”
And Khan hadn’t spared any reasons for his verdict:
“Praising the ‘very fine people on both sides’ when torch-wielding white supremacists and antisemites marched through the streets clashing with anti-racist campaigners. Threatening to veto a ban on the use of rape as a weapon of war.
“Setting an immigration policy that forcefully separates young children from their parents at the border. The deliberate use of xenophobia, racism and “otherness” as an electoral tactic. Introducing a travel ban to a number of predominately Muslim countries. Lying deliberately and repeatedly to the public.
“No, these are not the actions of European dictators of the 1930s and 40s. Nor the military juntas of the 1970s and 80s. I’m not talking about Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un. These are the actions of the leader of our closest ally, the president of the United States of America….
“History teaches us of the danger of being afraid to speak truth to power and the risk of failing to defend our values from the rise of the far right. At this challenging time in global politics, it’s more important than ever that we remember that lesson.”
As Air Force One was on its final approach to Britain, Trump, like a petulant child, tweeted back.
“@SadiqKhan, who by all accounts has done a terrible job as Mayor of London, has been foolishly ‘nasty’ to the visiting President of the United States, by far the most important ally of the United Kingdom. He is a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me….
“….Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit. Landing now!”
Khan’s spokesman said “childish insults” should be “beneath the president of the United States.”
But they aren’t. They’re simply the stock-in-trade of a childish dictator.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on October 25, 2018 at 12:15 am
The parallels between the Nazi party and the administration of Donald Trump continue to mount.
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Less than one month later, a fire gave him unprecedented control over the country.
At about 9 p.m. on February 27, a fire erupted within the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament. By 11:30, the Berlin Fire Department had put out the fire—but most of the building had already been gutted.
Reichstag fire
The next day, at Hitler’s request, President Paul von Hindenburg signed the Reichstag Fire Decree into law, citing Article 48 of the Weimar Republic Constitution.
This suspended most civil liberties in Germany, including:
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom of the press
- The right to free association and public assembly
- Habeas corpus and
- Secrecy of the mails and telephone.
Adolf Hitler
These rights were not restored until Nazi Germany collapsed in May, 1945.
Marinus van der Lubbe, a Duitch council communist, was found near the building and claimed that he, acting alone, had set the fire. He was convicted of setting the fire and sent to the guillotine on January 10, 1934.
The Nazis charged that Van der Lubbe was part of a Communist conspiracy to burn down the Reichstag and seize power.
Many foreign journalists—such as William L. Shirer (later author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich) believed the Nazis had set the fire. This suspicion was given added weight during the Nuremberg war crimes trials.
General Franz Halder, who had often clashed with Hitler over military strategy, stated in an affidavit that Hermann Goering, Hitler’s right-hand man, had boasted about setting the fire:
“On the occasion of a lunch on the Führer’s birthday [on April 20] in 1943, the people around the Führer turned the conversation to the Reichstag building and its artistic value.
“I heard with my own ears how Goering broke into the conversation and shouted: ‘The only one who really knows about the Reichstag building is I, for I set fire to it.’ And saying this he slapped his thigh.”
Herman Goering
Goering dismissed Halder’s accusation as “utter nonsense.”
Now, fast forward to 2018—and a caravan of 7,000 migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and, El Salvador determinedly heading for the United States border.
Their goal: To illegally enter the United States, claiming they are victims of poverty and violence.
For President Donald Trump, this comes at an ideal time. He has made illegal immigration his Number One hot button issue. And he needs one.
- He is currently under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for documented ties between his 2016 Presidential campaign and Russian Intelligence agents.
- His nominee for the United States Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, was confirmed despite being charged as an alleged rapist.
- He has hurled numerous slanders against women—including the woman, Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of trying to rape her at a party in 1982.
- On October 2, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Instead of voicing outrage at this butchery, Trump sided with the patently false claims of the Saudi regime.
Donald Trump
On October 18, Trump appeared at a campaign rally at Missoula, Montana, on behalf of Republican Matt Rosendale against Democratic Senator Jon Tester.
Trump—never one to tell the truth when a lie seems better—charged:
- “Democrats are paying members of the caravan to try and get into the United States to harm Republicans in the midterms.”
- “But a lot of money has been passing to people to come up and try and get to the border by Election Day, because they think that’s a negative for us. Number one, they’re being stopped. And number two, regardless, that’s our issue.”
- “The one thing, they stick together, but they wanted that caravan and there are those that say that caravan didn’t just happen. It didn’t just happen. A lot of reasons that caravan, 4,000 people.”
He has offered absolutely no proof to back up any of these slanders.
But there is another possibility to explain the timing of the caravan: That Republican—or at least Right-wing—operatives have funneled money and organizational support to its organizers.
For the moment, there is no proof that the Right is involved.
But there’s also no proof that it isn’t.
And the CIA is notorious for secretly financing a large number of “left-wing” organizations that exist to discredit left-wing interests. Among these: The National Student Association in the United States and many socialist European unions.
Just as it suited Adolf Hitler’s purposes for the Reichstag to catch fire, so, too, does it suit Trump’s to have a caravan of thousands of Central Americans marching toward the United States border:
- He’s using the caravan to stir up the Republican base in the midterm elections.
- He’s using the caravan to divert attention from his and his party’s embarrassing actions.
- He has accused Democrats of somehow organizing the caravan
- He’s charged that gang members and Middle Eastern terrorists are among its members.
- He’s using the caravan to rally support for stricter immigration laws, including funding for his border wall.
Thus, Democrats have nothing to gain by sponsoring hordes of marchers. But the Right has plenty.
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In History, Humor, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on January 1, 2018 at 12:10 am
On June 8, 2010, newspapers around the world headlined the latest triumph of Politically Correct language.
The Israeli government had apologized for circulating a video parodying the lyrics of Michael Jackson’s hit, “We Are the World.” Its purpose: To mock terrorists from the Gaza flotilla smuggling arms into Gaza.
In early June, 2010, six Hamas ships set out in defiance of the Israel’s blockade of Gaza. One of those ships, the Mavi Marmara, suffered nine casualties during a subsequent Israeli raid on the flotilla.
In the video, Israelis dressed up as terrorists offer their own take on the incident through song.
Among its lyrics:
We’ll make the world
Abandon reason.
We’ll make them all believe that the Hamas
Is Momma Theresa.
We are peaceful travelers
We’re waving our own knives.
The truth will never find its way to your TV.
Click here: The Flotilla Choir Presents We Con The World – YouTube
The Israeli Government Press Office distributed footage of the music video to foreign journalists on June 4, but then sent an apology to reporters just hours later, insisting it had been an accident.
“The contents of the video in no way represent the official policy of either the Government Press Office or of the State of Israel,” Israel’s Government Press Office later told CNN.
But the retraction did not stop “We Con the World” from becoming an Internet hit, getting over three million views in less than a week
By issuing such an apology the Israeli government forfeited a vital weapon in its ongoing struggle for not simply sovereignty but survival: Ridicule.
Every great tyrant has feared the laughter of his enemies. For that reason, the Roman Emperor Augustus banished the satirical poet, Ovid, from Rome and the KGB worked overtime to suppress anti-Communist jokes.
It’s clear that Israeli bureaucrats—like American ones—have caught the Political Correctness disease, where even the most criminally depraved are off-limits as targets for satire.
During most of the eight-year Presidency of Bill Clinton, the State Department applied the “rogue state” moniker to nations like Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
In a 1994 lecture, Madeleine Albright, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defined a rogue state as one that actively tried to undermine the international system.
But in 2000, the State Department declared that it would no longer refer to such nations as “rogues.” Instead, they would now be referred to as “states of concern.”
“Rogue,” said a State Department spokesman, was “inflammatory,” and might hamper the efforts of the United States to reach agreements with its sworn enemies.
In short, it’s become Politically Incorrect to refer to even our sworn enemies as enemies.
As Steven Emerson, president of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) puts it: “If you can’t name your enemy, how can you defeat him?”
During World War 11, GIs—and their commanders—routinely referred to German soldiers as “Krauts.” Japanese soldiers were universally referred to as “Japs.”
Throughout the Vietnam war, North Vietnamese troops were called “gooks,” “dinks” and “Charlie.” During the 1991 Gulf War, American soldiers called Iraqi soldiers “ragheads.”
Admittedly, that’s not the sort of language to use in polite company.
But there is nothing polite about war, and it’s unrealistic to expect those whose lives could be snuffed out at any moment to be Politically Correct in talking about deadly enemies.
The United States has been at war with Islamic nations since September 11, 2001. But terms such as “jihadist,” “jihadi” and “mujahedeen” are now officially forbidden by the Pentagon.
So is “Islamofascism,” a term often used to describe Islamic aggression against other countries—especially non-Muslim ones.
Similarly, the American government now seeks to impose the same Political Correctness restrictions on how to refer to daily invasions of its sovereign borders.
“Illegal alien” is taboo—although totally accurate. An “alien” is defined as “a foreigner, especially one who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where they are living.”
And a foreigner who violates another country’s immigration laws is in that country illegally.
“Undocumented immigrant” is the new fashionable term to be used by all federal agents charged with enforcing Anmerica’s immigration laws.
Liberals feel that this sounds nicer, and won’t offend our “little brown brothers” south of the Rio Grande.
“Undocumented immigrant” makes it seem as though the mass violations of America’s national border are no big deal. You might even think the illegal alien simply lost his legal papers while sneaking across the border.
More than 500 years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science, laid out the guidelines for effective propaganda. In his notorious book, The Prince, he wrote:
…Men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are….
Apparently, many people in government are now convinced: If you don’t admit there is a problem, the problem doesn’t exist.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on February 1, 2016 at 12:01 am
Yes, like a toxic waste plant that spews out poison every four years, it’s Presidential primary time for the Republican party.
And its two most radical and ruthless candidates for President are flinging slime with gusto.
Rafael “Ted” Cruz, the United States Senator from Texas, has accused his rival, billionaire businessman Donald Trump, of having “New York values.”
And during the January 14th Republican Presidential debate in South Carolina, he defined these as:
“Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage and focus on money and the media.”
Among Right-wingers, “liberal,” “pro-abortion” and “pro-gay” are the ultimate in insults.
But Donald Trump was quick to respond with an explosive charge of his own: Rafael Cruz is not an American citizen–and therefore not eligible to be President.
What made this accusation so effective was Cruz’ having been born outside the United States–in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to an American mother and a Cuban father.
Rafael “Ted” Cruz
The U.S. Constitution specifically states that “No person except a natural born citizen…shall be eligible to the office of President.”
Cruz has argued that because his mother was an American, he became an American citizen at birth. But courts have never ruled on the issue of what constitutes a “natural-born” citizen.
And, at a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire, Trump smacked Cruz with an even more incendiary attack:
“Ted Cruz may not be a US citizen, right? But he’s an anchor baby. No, Ted Cruz is an anchor baby in Canada. But Canada doesn’t accept anchor babies.”
“Anchor baby” is a Politically Incorrect term for usually poor, non-white aliens entering the United States to have a child born on American soil, which grants automatic citizenship.
And if the child is a citizen, its parents stand an excellent chance of being allowed to stay.
Trump asserts that children born in the United States to illegal aliens are not American citizens, as they are today considered under the law.
Donald Trump
At first, the issue of Cruz’ eligibility seemed confined to Republican politicians and those likely to vote for them. But then others outside the Right began weighing in.
Mary McManamon, a Constitutional law professor at Widener University’s Delaware Law School, concluded in an Op-Ed for The Washington Post:
“Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is not a natural-born citizen and therefore is not eligible to be president or vice president of the United States.”
How did this all start? With the ultimate target of Republican hatred–Barack Obama.
Ever since Obama became a Presidential candidate in 2008, Republicans have accused him of being ineligible to hold office.
Without a political scandal (such as Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky) to fasten on, the Republican party opted for slander: Obama was born in Kenya–not Honolulu–and thus was not an American citizen.
From this there could be only one conclusion: He would be an illegitimate President, and should be removed from office if elected.
And this smear campaign continued after he won the 2008 election. Right-wingers like Trump insisted that Obama “prove” his citizenship fitness to hold office.
During his first two years in office, Obama tried to ignore the charge.
But polls repeatedly showed that large segments of the country believed it. Finally, even Obama’s closest advisers warned him: You must address this and put it to rest.
So, on April 27, 2011, the President released the long-form version of his Hawaii birth certificate.
The long-form version of President Obama’s birth certificate
For the vast majority of Americans, this settled the issue. In 2012, to the fury of Republicans, Obama won a second, four-year term.
Fast forward to the 2016 Presidential race.
Donald Trump, seeking to destroy his foremost rival, lobs the “anchor baby” charge against Rafael Cruz.
To most Americans, this conjures up the image of poor Mexicans flooding across the United States border to apply for welfare.
It’s a highly effective way to inflame the elderly, white voters who make up the base of the Republican party.
But it’s also guaranteed to inflame millions of Hispanic Americans–those who are here legally as well as those who are here illegally.
The Republican party has long earned the hatred and distrust of most Hispanic Americans through its calls to “seal off the border” and deport Hispanic illegal aliens.
And, in 2012, millions of Hispanics gave President Obama a second term.
So long as Cruz stays in the race, Trump will continue to use the “birther” issue against him. And it will continue to dog him, as it did Obama.
But it will continue to anger most of the 55 millions Hispanics living within the United States.
The votes of elderly whites command the attention of Republican primary candidates. But Hispanic voters will play a decisive role in the general election.
Thus, Republicans may come to regret their use of the “birther” issue as they learn the truth of Shakespeare’s line: “The evil that men do lives after them.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on December 9, 2014 at 12:55 am
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus want President Barack Obama to invite the families of Michael Brown and Eric Garner to his State of the Union address in January, 2015.
Chief among these is Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), who said: “I think that would be appropriate and fitting. It would help educate and sensitize other members and humanize some of the issues that we’re going to confront.”
And Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Georgia) stated: “Those families are symbols of an issue that needs to be urgently addressed in America.”
If Obama does not invite the families, Black Caucus members suggested that they might use their guest tickets to invite them.
But they claimed that no invitations have yet been extended for the President’s speech.
Obama is expected to speak about the Brown and Garner deaths during his speech.
The State of the Union address delivered by the President of the United States to a joint session of Congress every January.
The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows Presidents to outline their legislative agenda and their national priorities.
President Barack Obama giving his State of the Union address
The address fulfills Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which requires the President to from time to time give Congress information on the “state of the union.”
For decades, Presidents have invited specific guests to join the First Lady in the gallery of the House of Representatives. These guests enable the Chief Executive to symbolize the policy points he wishes to make.
For his 2002 State of the Union speech, President George W. Bush invited Hamid Karzai, the interim leader of Afghanistan. This underscored the commitment of American troops to ridding that country of its Talibanistic elements.
Inviting members of the Brown and Garner families as Obama’s favored guests would send a message to both Americans and the world beyond.
But it would prove a highly controversial act of symbolism.
In the case of the family of Michael Brown:
Michael Brown (left) roughing up a store owner
Lesley Mcspadden
Louis Head calls for arson in Ferguson
Does the President of the United States really want to link himself to this family of thugdom?
Then there is the family of Eric Garner, who died in a police chokehold on July 17.
While no incriminating evidence has yet come to light concerning his relatives, Garner himself had a lengthy police record.
State of the Union addresses are occasions where the President seeks to rally Congress–and, more importantly, the nation–behind goals that are certain to have widespread support.
Congressional Republicans fiercely oppose Obama’s unilateral decision to shelter up to five million illegal aliens from deportation and enable them to work in the country legally.
They have heatedly debated various ways of opposing him on this–including once again shutting down the government, forbidding him to appear before Congress to give his State of the Union address and cutting off fuel to Air Force One. Click here: Ground Air Force One? GOP Proposals to Stop Obama on Immigration – Washington Wire – WSJ
Inviting as his guests members of families whose members have a documented history of lawbreaking would prove widely divisive along racial lines.
Overhwleming majorities of whites continue to believe that Obama is “not one of us.” And members of law enforcement of all races would believe that Obama was taking the side of known criminals against them.
With only two more years in office, Obama will need all the unity he can create if he hopes to enact much of his remaining agenda.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics on July 14, 2014 at 10:37 am
On June 8, 2010, newspapers around the world headlined the latest triumph of Politically Correct language.
The Israeli government had apologized for circulating a video parodying the lyrics of Michael Jackson’s hit, “We Are the World.” Its purpose: To mock terrorists from the Gaza flotilla smuggling arms into Gaza.
In early June, 2010, six Hamas ships set out in defiance of the Israel’s blockade of Gaza. One of those ships, the Mavi Marmara, suffered nine casualties during a subsequent Israeli raid on the flotilla.
In the video, Israelis dressed up as activists offer their own take on the incident through song.
Among its lyrics:
We’ll make the world
Abandon reason
We’ll make them all believe that the Hamas
Is Momma Theresa
We are peaceful travelers
We’re waving our own knives
The truth will never find its way to your TV
Click here: The Flotilla Choir Presents We Con The World – YouTube
The Israeli Government Press Office distributed footage of the music video to foreign journalists on June 4, but then sent an apology to reporters just hours later, insisting it had been an accident.
“The contents of the video in no way represent the official policy of either the Government Press Office or of the State of Israel,” Israel’s Government Press Office later told CNN.
But the retraction did not stop “We Con the World” from becoming an Internet hit, getting over three million views in less than a week
By issuing such an apology the Israeli government forfeited a vital weapon in its ongoing struggle for not simply sovereignty but survival: Ridicule.
Every great tyrant has feared the laughter of his enemies. For that reason, the Roman Emperor Augustus banished the satirical poet, Ovid, from Rome and the KGB worked overtime to suppress anti-Communist jokes.
It’s clear that Israeli bureaucrats–like American ones–have caught the Political Correctness disease, where even the most criminally depraved are off-limits as targets for satire.
During most of the eight-year Presidency of Bill Clinton, the State Department applied the “rogue state” moniker to nations like Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
In a 1994 lecture, Madeleine Albright, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defined a rogue state as one that actively tried to undermine the international system.
But in 2000, the State Department declared that it would no longer refer to such nations as “rogues.” Instead, they would now be referred to as “states of concern.”
“Rogue,” said a State Department spokesman, was inflammatory, and might hamper the efforts of the United States to reach agreements with its sworn enemies.
In short, it’s become Politically Incorrect to refer to even our sworn enemies as enemies.
As Steven Emerson, president of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) puts it: “If you can’t name your enemy, how can you defeat him?”
During World War 11, GIs–and their commanders–routinely referred to German soldiers as “krauts.” Japense soldiers were universally referred to as “Japs.”
Throughout the Vietnam war, North Vietnamese troops were called “gooks,” “dinks” and “Charlie.” During the 1991 Gulf War, American soldiers called Iraqi soldiers “ragheads.”
Admittedly, that’s not the sort of language to use in polite company.
But there is nothing polite about war, and it’s unrealistic to expect those whose lives could be snuffed out at any moment to be Politically Correct in talking about their enemies.
The United States has been at war with Islamic nations since September 11, 2001. But terms such as “jihadist,” “jihadi” and “mujahedeen” are now officially forbidden by the Pentagon.
So is “Islamofascism,” a term often used to describe Islamic aggression against other countries–especially non-Muslim ones.
Similarly, the American government now seeks to impose the same Political Correctness restrictions on how to refer to daily invasions of its sovereign bordeers.
“Illegal alien” is taboo–although totally accurate. An “alien” is defined as “a foreigner, especially one who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where they are living.”
And a foreigner who violates another country’s immigration laws is in that country illegally.
“Undocumented immigrant” is the new fashionable term to be used by all federal agents charged with enforcing our immigration laws.
Liberals feel that this sounds nicer, and won’t offend our “little brown brothers” south of the Rio Grande.
“Undocumented immigrant” makes it seem as though the mass violations of America’s national border are no big deal. You might even think the illegal alien simply lost his legal papers while sneaking across the border.
More than 500 years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science, laid out the guidelines for effective propaganda. In his notorious book, The Prince, he wrote:
…Men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are….
Apparently, many people in government are now convinced: If you don’t admit there is a problem, the problem doesn’t exist.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics on June 9, 2010 at 9:46 pm
During most of the eight-year Presidency of Bill Clinton, the State Department often referred to nations like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as “rogue states.”
In a 1994 lecture, Madeleine Albright, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defined a rogue state as one that actively tried to undermine the international system.
But in 2000, the State Department declared that it would no longer call such nations “rogues.” Instead, they would now be referred to as “states of concern.”
State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said that “rogue” was inflammatory, and might hamper the efforts of the United States to reach agreements with its potential adversaries.
In short, it’s become Politically Incorrect to refer to even our sworn enemies as enemies.
As Steven Emerson, president of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) puts it: “If you can’t name your enemy, how can you defeat him?”
The following are excerpts from that June 19, 2000 press briefing where the announcement was made.
Q: On a related matter, the Secretary [of State, Madeleine Albright] said today, this morning, that the United States has abandoned the expression “rogue states” in favor of “states of concern.” I wondered if you could sort of give us an idea of the ideological shift that’s involved in this change in terminology.
MR. BOUCHER: All right. The phrase “states of concern” is a more general phrase. I think that the issue was whether you have one policy that tries to fit all, and when all these states are opposed to the peace process and opposed to the international situation and opposed to any form of liberalization and democracy, it’s easy to describe in one basket.
* * * * *
So the point, I think, is just a recognition that we have seen some evolution in different ways in different places, and that we will deal appropriately with each one based on the kind of evolution we’re seeing and what we think is possible in terms of getting them to live more harmoniously with the international environment and, in particular, to address the concerns that the United States has.
* * * * *
Q: Is “rogue state” then out of the lexicon as of today?
MR. BOUCHER: I haven’t used it for a while.
Q: Is it possible that some states will still be referred to as “rogue states” if they —
MR. BOUCHER: If they want to be rogues, they can be rogues, but generally we have not been using the term for a while, I think.
Q: So it’s not a matter of some countries continue to be “rogue states” and others have progressed to “states of concern;” all of them henceforth are “states of concern”?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes.
Q: But does this lower the bar for what a “state of concern” is, now that there’s no “rogue state”?
MR. BOUCHER: Does this lower the bar? No, because, as I said, it’s more a description than a change in policy, because the issue is: Are various countries whose activities around the world have been troubling to us, are they actually dealing with the issues that we have been concerned about? And if we are able to encourage them or pressure them or otherwise produce changes in their behavior, and therefore a change in our relationship, we’re willing to do that. If they’re not, then we’re going to keep our sanctions on and we’re going to keep our restrictions on and we’re not going to change our policies.
Q: PR-wise, does that make it easier for the Administration if you ease sanctions on a “state of concern” than if you ease sanctions on a “rogue state”? So isn’t this just as much for you as it is them?
MR. BOUCHER: No, I think the determination will be state by state, where if we do something with an individual country that people think is unmerited, I think we’ll hear about it.
Q: Can you tell us how many there are?
MR. BOUCHER: No.
* * * * *
Q: So are the same seven countries – or however many countries it was that were considered “rogue states” before – are they all now considered “states of concern”?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes, they would be. But I have to say the point is not to categorize them; the point is to deal with each country on the basis of what we can accomplish in terms of what we care about.
Q: But when you change the category, that is necessarily a categorization.
MR. BOUCHER: We’ll discuss that over lunch sometime. I think that’s too philosophical for me to deal with from the podium.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Humor, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics on June 9, 2010 at 7:42 pm
On June 8, 2010, AOL News carried a story that must have sent Moshe Dayan and David Ben-Gurion spinning in their graves.
“Israel Apologizes for Music Video Mocking Gaza Flotilla,” ran the headline, and then, for those who couldn’t believe their eyes, there was this:
June 8 – The Israeli government has apologized for circulating a satirical video that uses Michael Jackson’s hit single “We Are the World” to mock activists from the Gaza flotilla.
“There’s no people dying, so the best that we can do is create the greatest bluff of all,” one refrain in the parody goes.
In early June, 2010, week nine people aboard the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships carrying aid to Gaza in defiance of Israel’s blockade, were killed under hotly contested circumstances during an Israeli raid on the flotilla.
In the video, Israelis dressed up as activists offer their own take on the incident through song.
…The Israeli Government Press Office distributed footage of the music video to foreign journalists on June 4, but then sent an apology to reporters just hours later, insisting it had been an accident.
“The contents of the video in no way represent the official policy of either the Government Press Office or of the State of Israel,” Israel’s Government Press Office later told CNN.
But such a retraction did not stop “We Con the World” from becoming an Internet hit. So far it has been viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube.
* * * * *
By issuing such an apology the Israeli government forfeited a vital weapon in its ongoing struggle for not simply sovereignty but survival: Ridicule.
Every great tyrant has feared the laughter of his enemies. For that reason, the Roman Emperor Augustus banished the satirical poet, Ovid, from Rome and the KGB worked overtime to suppress anti-Communist jokes.
And as the same news story affirms, issuing an apology “did not stop ‘We Con the World’ from becoming an Internet hit.” So Israel’s enemies will be ranting every time they hear the original song, because they’ll know that, from now on, there will be those who never forget its parody.
It appears that Israeli bureaucrats, like American ones, have caught a fatal case of the Political Correctness disease, where even the most criminally depraved are off-limits as targets for satire.
During most of the eight-year Presidency of Bill Clinton, the State Department often applied the “rogue state” moniker to nations like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.
In a 1994 lecture, Madeleine Albright, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defined a rogue state as one that actively tried to undermine the international system.
But in 2000, the State Department declared that it would no longer refer to such nations as “rogues.” Instead, they would now be referred to as “states of concern.”
“Rogue,” said a State Department spokesman, was inflammatory, and might hamper the efforts of the United States to reach agreements with its sworn enemies.
In short, it’s become Politically Incorrect to refer to even our sworn enemies as enemies.
As Steven Emerson, president of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) puts it: “If you can’t name your enemy, how can you defeat him?”
During World War 11, GIs–and their commanders–routinely referred to German soldiers as “krauts.” Japense soldiers were universally referred to as “Japs.”
Throughout the Vietnam war, North Vietnamese troops were called “gooks,” “dinks” and “Charlie.”
During the 1991 Gulf War, American soldiers called Iraqi soldiers “ragheads.”
Admittedly, that’s not the sort of language to use in polite company.
But there is nothing polite about war, and it’s unrealistic to expect those whose lives could be snuffed out at any moment to be Politically Correct in talking about their enemies.
Similarly, the American government now seeks to impose the same Political Correctness restructions on how to refer to daily invasions of its sovereign bordeers.
“Illegal alien” is taboo–although totally accurate. An “alien” is defined as “a foreigner, especially one who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where they are living.”
And a foreigner who violates another country’s immigration laws is in that country illegally.
“Undocumented immigrant” is the new fashionable term to be used by all federal agents charged with enforcing our immigration laws.
Liberals feel that this sounds nicer, and thus won’t offend our “little brown brothers” south of the Rio Grande.
“Undocumented immigrant” makes it seem as though the mass violation of America’s national borders is no big deal. You might even think the alien simply lost his legal papers while sneaking across the border.
More than 500 years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science, laid out the guidelines for effective propaganda.
In his notorious book, The Prince, he wrote:
…Men in general judge more by the eyes than by the hands, for every one can see, but very few have to feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them.
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DONALD TRUMP AS HOWARD BEALE
In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on March 13, 2020 at 12:44 amDonald Trump has been compared to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Gaius Caligula. But perhaps his counterpart lies not in history but in fiction.
Specifically, the fictional news anchor Howard Beale in Network, the 1976 satire written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. It starred Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight.
Howard Beale (Finch) the longtime anchor of the UBS Evening News, is about to be fired because of declining ratings.
So he announces on live television that he will commit suicide on next Tuesday’s broadcast.
UBS fires him, but then agrees to let Beale appear one more time to leave with dignity.
But once Beale is back on the air, he launches into a rant that contains the most famous—and most often-quoted—line in the film:
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter….
“We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat….
“So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'”
Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network
Beale is clearly losing it. But his outburst causes the newscast’s ratings to spike. Instead of pulling him off the air, the top brass of UBS decide to exploit Beale’s antics.
Soon he’s hosting a new program called The Howard Beale Show, where he’s billed as “the mad prophet of the airwaves.” Ultimately, the show becomes the most highly rated program on television.
But then Beale’s ratings slide as audiences find his sermons on the dehumanization of society depressing.
To rid themselves of Beale and boost their season-opener ratings, the network’s top executives hire a band of terrorists called the Ecumenical Liberation Army to assassinate Beale—on the air!
Forty years after Network, Right-wing voters sent “reality show” host and real estate mogul Donald Trump to the White House.
Donald Trump
Republicans have reveled in his antics and enthusiastically supported his most heinous acts, which have included:
The greed-obsessed honchos of the fictional UBS Network believed they could parley Howard Beale’s madness into greater profits.
Similarly, power-obsessed Republicans in the House and Senate believe they can parley Donald Trump’s tyrannical and unstable nature into lifetime tenure for themselves.
They have silently watched—or given their enthusiastic support—as he has attacked one cherished American institution after another:
Yet, like the executives at UBS, Congressional Republicans may soon be forced to turn on their most poisonous creation.
Right-wing Fox News Network gave its enthusiastic support to Trump during the 2016 Presidential race. And it has continued to do so throughout his more than three-year Presidency.
But on September 22, 2019, Fox News declared: “Many voters are frustrated with how the federal government is working and a growing number are nervous about the economy….
“Fifty-one percent say the economy is in only fair or poor shape.
“[Trump’s] job ratings on every other issue tested are underwater: national security (45 approve-48 disapprove), immigration (42-54), international trade (38-53), foreign policy (36-54), guns (35-56), health care (34-56) and Afghanistan (31-49).
“Currently, 45 percent approve of the overall job the president’s doing, while 54 percent disapprove.
“About two-thirds (64 percent) think many people — if not nearly all people — in government are corrupt, and almost half (46 percent) say the Trump administration is more corrupt than previous ones.”
This was before the Coronavirus pandemic hit the United States—and the Trump administration’s inept mishandling of it. While Trump insists that everything is under control, there aren’t enough testing kits for the ever-growing number of victims. More importantly, there is no vaccine for the virus.
Republicans may soon be forced to face the following dilemma:
This is how Republicans define morality today.
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