The Ideological Box

In the Robert B. Parker novel "The Widening Gyre", Spenser is tasked with protecting a congressman running for a Senate seat. In a discussion with a seasoned political reporter named Cosgrove. Spenser asks Cosgrove about the congressman he's working for.

"He really is a born again, fundamentalist Christian. And that limits him. His options are so proscribed by his convictions he can't legislate very well. He's not a big thinker either. He's impatient with complicated issues, because he doesn't understand them. Often he doesn't even know they're complicated."

The Widening Gyre was written in 1983.

Sound familiar? 32 years later. Sure the hell does to me.

Borders Two

In the 30’s Germany’s Jewish population was less than 1% of the total population of the country and Jews were blamed for all of Germany’s problems that lead to Hitler’s “Final Solution”.  In reality, Germany’s problems, economic and otherwise were directly linked to the settlement of WWI and the punishment the Allies thought Germany deserved. Hitler used Germany’s problems caused by the war to rise to power and we all know how that ended.

Now in the US, immigrants, legal and illegal, are being blamed and hammered daily for our problems, economic and otherwise. A popular and powerful Iowa radio talk show host proposed that all illegals after given a warning of 60 days to leave would become “property of the state” and would be put to work. The audience loved it. Apparently chattel slavery is popular in Iowa.

Yesterday a Republican presidential candidate said it might be a good idea to deploy armed drones along the border of the US and Mexico. Dr. Ben Carson thinks there is a military solution to the illegal immigration problem. Border state wedding parties beware. The constitution be damned.

We have almost 2,000 miles of border with Mexico, 1200 of it is in Texas. At the moment, in Texas there is 110 miles of fence, eventually about 670 miles will be fenced. No, there will never be a continuous fence along our Southern border, no matter what Trump and other Republicans say.

The most effective border fence ever built was the fence between East and West Germany during the cold war. It consisted of multiple fences of barbed wire, mine fields, towers with machine guns, thousands of guards with dogs patrolling 24/7. You know why it was so effective? The standing order was shoot to kill. Are we ready for that? Some of us apparently are.

There is a lot of talk about “birth right citizenship” contained in the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution. Birth right citizenship has been settled law in the US for almost 150 years, it was written to insure the rights of recently freed slaves and their children. When it was debated, a senator brought up Chinese citizenship, the answer was “Yes.” Chinese born in the US were citizens. End of story. There is no way, the 14^th Amendment is going to be changed. It requires ¾ of the states voting to change it. Politicians in a state like Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada or California would be cutting their political throats to back it. Backing the change would destroy not only the politicians, but their party as well. The issue can be demagogued, but it’s not going to happen.

Here’s why:

If it was possible to change the 14^th Amendment and eliminate birthright citizenship, how would the change be implemented? Would current families be grandfathered into the system or would all families be purged. For example if Grandpa Lopez slipped across the border 50 years ago, got a job, got married, bought a house, he and Grandma Lopez had 4 kids who are by law citizens, those kids got married had kids would the entire family be illegal? Or would it only apply to Jose Gonzalez and his wife and two kids, (US citizens) who’ve only been here for 5-10-20 years? How far back would the law reach? There are families here who were illegal 4 generations ago, maybe longer.

The logistics of deportation would be a nightmare, if you put 50 illegals on a bus at the border and sent them back across the border, and you sent a bus every 10 minutes, 24/7 it would take more than 7 years to deport everyone. The next time you hear a politician yelling about a fence. Shut off the TV and vote for somebody who has a clue. And keep in mind Hispanics aren't the only illegals.

Thanks.

A Question for our Politicians

The Iran agreement...


Here’s the question for every wavering Democrat and every Republican: “If you choose to reject the deal and go against the rest of the world, how much will you raise taxes and how many kids from your district are you willing to sacrifice to go to war with Iran at the behest of AIPAC, the Likud party, Netanyahu and Neo con wet dreams?”

Here are the military estimates of the costs of a war with Iran...

Likely US troop deaths: 15,000, Likely US troops lightly injured: 270,000, Likely US troops more seriously wounded: 90,000

Direct cost of war: $5.1 trillion, Cost of caring for wounded troops over lifetime: $9 trillion to $18 trillion

Likely Iranian deaths: 300,000 to 1 million,Likely Iranian injured: 900,0000 to 3 million, Iranian displaced: 12 million (out of 75 million)

Opportunity cost to US: $23 trillion

This works out to about 35 dead kids per congressional district

So how ’bout it, you fuckers? How much are you willing to raise taxes to pay for this?

What High School senior class of kids are you willing to look in the eye and say “Sorry, but three dozen of you need to die.”

And if you think Israel is going to do anything on their own , you're out of you're mind.

Thanks to the Balloon Juice blog and Juan Cole...

"Deep in the Heart of Texas"

 

Greg Abbot is the Texas Attorney General and since Rick Perry announced that he isn’t going to run again, Abbot is the Republican front runner and is he is a Texas sized asshole!

Exhibit 1.

Abbot brags “I go into the office in the morning, sue President Obama and then I go home.”

He’s a horse shit lawyer, he’s sued the feds 27 times and won 5 times, costing Texans millions and millions in court fees.

Exhibit 2.

Abbot had a tree fall on him in 2004, he sued and won 10 million dollars. He is in a wheelchair for life. Immediately after he won his judgment, he led a fight in Texas for Tort Reform (from his wheelchair) to lower settlements like the one he won in court. If the fucking tree fell on him today, the maximum he’d get is $250,000.

Exhibit 3.

Abbot is now suing the feds over the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Championed by Bob Dole and signed into law by George H. W. Bush) It’s the law that makes public buildings handicapped accessible, prevents discriminatory hiring practices, etc. Abbot must have a magic flying wheelchair (or plenty of burly Teas Rangers to haul his ass around) that doesn’t need curb cuts, he doesn’t need handicapped urinals to piss in or since I’m sure as Attorney General and probably down the road as Governor he’ll have drivers so he won’t need to worry about handicapped parking spots.

Sick bastard.

I think we’d be much better off, as Rick Perry once hinted, if Texas would just secede from the Union. Then we could take all our military bases, the Johnson Space Center, cut them out of FAA airport controls and every other piece of the federal government that they obviously despise and then move that border fence to the Oklahoma border. Maybe we’d get really lucky and Oklahoma would join Texas.

Best part is Texas college football teams would have to play themselves, over and over and over.

As my old friend JB, a true “blue” Texan says, “The Republicans in Texas have turned the state into Mississippi with good roads and if they fuck up the schools any more than they have, smart parents will be sending their kids to school in Nuevo Laredo.”