How To Destroy A Country

by C.A. Matthews

This isn’t something most of us thought we’d ever see in our lifetimes. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but why now?

The United States of America is being destroyed from within—on purpose by its oligarchy, apparently. There’s no need to blame any other country or “terrorists” (foreign or domestic) for its destruction. Americans are perfectly able to tear themselves apart without outside help, thank you very much. They almost succeeded in doing so about 166 years ago, and there are many who wish it had been accomplished way back then.

The funny thing is that many Americans don’t see the destruction of their country happening currently. Do you call that “woeful ignorance” or “willful ignorance” on their parts?

I’m sure once the DOA tag has been tied to their collective toes Americans will understand that the USA is dead and gone for good. Until then, they’ll happily remain blissfully bamboozled (i.e., brainwashed or propagandized). They’ll keep convincing themselves that tomorrow will be their lucky day. They’ll keep praying that they’ll never need to see a doctor before they’ve landed a job with decent private health insurance as a perk. The self-destructive elements inherent in the American capitalist system get lost in the details, in other words.

Nobody acknowledges the downside of one American having a trillion dollars to his name at the expense of 340 million other people with far less who actually have to pay taxes. Nobody thinks of how denying universal health care to all Americans creates an unhealthy underclass that has nothing left to live for except revolution. Nobody gives a flying f*** about the homeless, the mentally ill, or the disabled living on the streets—directly beside tents occupied by well-employed Millennials who still can’t afford an average rent in Silicon Valley or most large cities in the US.

Don’t agree with me that US is disintegrating? Below (on Substack) are some recent headlines illustrating how the bomb fuse of chaos has already been lit and lobbed by the ruling elites upon the Land of the Sort-of Free and the Home of the Wannabe Brave. It’s just a matter of time now until it blows up in one big Ka-BOOM! Even now you can hear the clock ticking: Tick tick tick…

 

To read some recent headlines that demonstrate what's happening to the country (and what Americans should do about it), please copy or click on the following link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll be able to read the rest of this article, find related links, see more graphics, and leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly email posts, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

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Food: The Most Lethal Weapon

by C.A. Matthews

Our early morning emergency protest proved challenging. When I arrived, I discovered the entire street in front of the building where our Congresswoman’s district office is located in the process of being torn up. There were drainage pipes being replaced along with concrete mixers and gravel trucks and graders galore. Once I figured out where to park and how to cross the construction area to get to the front door, I found my fellow protesters already hard at work banging loudly on their pots and pans.

The noisy demonstration was to draw attention to the mass starvation of the inhabitants of Gaza. Israel has killed 20.7% of Gaza's population in the past 22 months, or approximately 434,000 people by some estimates.

I don’t hold out much hope for any positive actions coming from our representative, Marcy Kaptur, a conservative Democrat fully in the zy0nists’ pockets. Perhaps we could guilt her into doing something right in Congress for a change. Marcy almost lost her last election, so the longest-serving Congresswoman really should be more cognizant of pleasing her voters, right?

After several minutes of clanking pots together and chanting, “Stop starving Gaza!” a woman in a catering uniform wheeled a cart full of pastries, fruit trays, and large coffee flasks into the building. How ironic! Here we were protesting against the deliberate withholding of food to the people of Gaza, instigated by the US government’s GHF faux humanitarian program, and the occupants of perhaps Congresswoman Kaptur’s office upstairs were about to stuff their faces full of delicious goodies in celebration for a job well done. For me, this cruel comparison of using food as both a means to hurt some and as a means to reward others is an image that will never be forgotten.

A few days later, I joined in a protest march through the University of Toledo where an outdoor arts show was being held on the main mall. The deer-in-the-headlight stares we received from onlookers were more than plentiful. You’d think these very well-heeled folks buying expensive art weren’t aware of the genocide happening in Gaza and that the US was playing a big part in it.

One art hawker even pulled out an American flag and started waving it and shouting angrily at our lack of patriotism as we repeatedly marched past his booth. None of these art-lovers looked like they’d ever missed a meal in their lives—and a few looked like they’d eaten more than enough for two or three persons in their lifetimes.

When it comes down to it, food is the most lethal weapon. Withhold it—and your enemies weaken and starve to death. Lavish it upon them—and your enemies could become your allies or at least less hostile to you, as long as you keep feeding them. Food is the ultimate way to control human beings, forcing them to respond the way you want them to with a minimum of effort. Other than depriving people of oxygen, there’s probably not a control substance in the known universe that’s quite so versatile.

Now you know the real secret behind the starving of millions of Palestinians. Starvation might take a bit longer to accomplish its goal than simply bombing cities, villages, and bodies into rubble, but it’s a relatively simple thing to do. What’s happening currently in Gaza is called a forced famine as it is man-made and not due to natural causes. And withholding food is much cheaper than building or buying bombs, jets, tanks, and other weapons—a win-win situation for aggressors...

 

To learn more about how and where food has been used as a weapon, both in the past and present-day, please continue reading the rest of this article on Substack. Just copy or click on this link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

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This article is the 530th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

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It’s been a long two years, hasn’t it? So many people have stopped speaking to others they don’t see eye-to-eye with. To quote an old cliché: Things will never be the same again...

 

Imagine Living In A World…

by C.A. Matthews

Imagine living in a world where you could get arrested for saying “Don’t kill the children!” because it might hurt the feelings of the killer.

Imagine living in a world where all children are cherished and taken well care of, always have enough to eat, a safe place to live, access to a decent education, and medical care whenever necessary.

Imagine living in a world where your country uses your tax dollars to provide the armaments, bombs, planes, and bullets for a genocide of innocents and won’t allow you to speak out against these war crimes upon pain of prosecution.

Imagine living in a world where you are free to speak your mind about the immorality of genocidal war crimes no matter how it casts a dark shadow upon the reputations of those in power, the oligarchs their political henchmen, and their celebrity endorsers, and your tax dollars go to support programs that actually serve the public.

Imagine living in a world where proxy wars have become commonplace and your tax dollars go to finance these conflicts in order for wealthy CEOs in the oil industry, the military-industrial complex and related industries to make even more billions at the expense of millions of lives.

Imagine living in a world where the polluting fossil fuels industry is no more because clean and plentiful sources of green energy from the sun, the wind, the tides, and the geothermal activities of the Earth itself have been developed and made available to all, thus making the need to start wars for oil and other resource grabs entirely unnecessary...

 

To imagine what life would be like living in a better world, please continue reading the rest of this article on Substack. Just copy or click on this link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people! 

 

This article is the 524th blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or at Buy Me a Coffee or at Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you.

Fighting Words

Fighting Words
by C. A. Matthews

 

If you’ve ever wondered what people were talking about when they say something like, “The US is essentially an oligarchy,” then welcome to the club. All those “ten dollar words” some insist upon using can be downright confusing and make one feel lost in the conversation. Never fear! The following brief explanations and illustrations will have you using those sophisticated-sounding, ten dollar words like a pro in no time.

Gerontocracy

A public incident this past week brought up a excellent example of this word. Everyone on my Twitter feed couldn’t get enough of Mitch McConnell’s second big blank-out moment at a press conference.

According to Wikipedia: “A gerontocracy is a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population. In many political structures, power within the ruling class accumulates with age, making the oldest individuals the holders of the most power.”

Whenever you hear the US being called a gerontocracy, realize that it is people like McConnell, Diane Feinstein, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden that make it so. Our Supreme Court justices are also good examples of a gerontocracy, as they are able to hold their positions of power until they keel over, such as in the case of Justice Ruth Ginsburg.

The downside of life in a gerontocracy has nothing to do with ageism as much as it has to do with a concentration of power stagnating in the hands of a few elderly individuals who won’t retire timely and pass their positions of control onto others. Ideas of how to run a country can become very stale and, frankly, old-fashioned and out-of-touch with current reality when persons in their 80s or 90s refuse to step down. If we allowed young’uns in their 30s, 40s and 50s to step up and try newer, more timely ideas, a lot of society's problems could be cured.

In other words, being labeled a gerontocracy isn’t exactly a compliment for any nation. It means you’re stuck in your ways for the worse, not for the better. And all because of the next word on our list—

Oligarchy

I must have heard this word a thousand times, thinking I understood exactly what it meant, before I looked it up in a dictionary and realizing that I didn’t.

In an oligarchy, power rests with a small number of people. Wikipedia states that “These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.”

Whenever I hear someone say or write, “The government of the US is an oligarchy,” I have to stop and think hard about what they’re saying. It doesn’t make sense at first. After all, we aren’t being ruled by a military junta or a monarchy. What small group of people could they mean when they accuse the US of being ruled by “oligarchs” or actually being an oligarchy?

Look at the definition above for gerontocracy and you’ll see one such small number of people, the elderly, in power. Consider some of their other defining characteristics in this group… Could it be they’re all quite wealthy? Yes, they most certainly are. Does this small group of wealthy, older persons exercise political power or run huge multinational corporations where they can exercise power over the lives of billions of others? Yes, they do.

To easily gain and maintain positions of power and control in American society, one can’t be dirt poor or without the connections that can only be gained by attending elite schools such as Harvard and Yale. If you do a little research, you’ll understand that those in the highest positions of power in the US government and Big Business belong to a very small club, and you’re probably not a member of it—unless your mommy and daddy left you a sizable fortune and hooked you up with other powerful people in their networks.

Sorry to say, but even if a person of relatively meager means makes it big in American politics (or business), by the time they retire from office or their corporate position (if they ever do), their net worth will have been multiplied by many factors of ten. Web sites such as Open Secrets can show you just how much our elected officials are taking from corporate lobbyists for passing favorable legislation and how much their private bank accounts have grown.

A recent example of a president who went from "rags to riches" is Barack Obama. When Obama entered the White House, his family's net worth made them barely millionaires at $1.3 million. When he left office eight years later, his net worth had skyrocketed to $70 million. American presidents only make $400,000 per year. Looking at his increased net worth, do you really think Obama wasn’t influenced by small group of persons who possessed great wealth and corporate power who "gifted" him for his hard work for them? Looking at the number of bombs dropped during his administration and his nickname of “O-bomber,” can you understand how Obama was influenced by the military-industrial complex and the power of these corporations while in office?

That’s what is meant whenever the US is labeled an oligarchy. The small number of wealthy, powerful people (the oligarchs or billionaires) who ultimately determine political policies don’t necessarily have to be elected to office—they just have to “own” (bribe) the people they do allow to be elected to office. How hard is it to resist promised millions of dollars just to act as the oligarchs’ puppet?

The answer is I don’t think any politician really can resist that temptation. They just take the money and do as their corporate owners tell them to and smile as they lie to their constituents. It’s easier that way.

Plutocracy

Sometimes you’ll hear the word plutocracy used instead of oligarchy when it comes to labeling what sort of government the US has. It is a more specific term, and it has nothing to do with the former ninth planet, Mickey Mouse’s dog, or the Roman god of the underworld.

The Wikipedia definition simply states that, “A plutocracy or plutarchy is a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income.”

As previously mentioned, the concentration of power in the US is in the hands of mostly older (mostly white male) individuals who are wealthy and act as puppets of even wealthier oligarchs. These oligarchs/billionaires usually own or run huge multinational corporations. They like having their friends in government on their side, especially when it comes to them being able to pollute land, sea, and air freely and engage in other morally ambiguous activities. Consider how the US government allowed the billionaire Sackler family of Purdue Pharmaceuticals to claim their opioid OxyContin wasn't addictive, leading to thousands of overdoses and deaths of ordinary Americans. The Sacklers haven't spent one hour in jail to this day.

So, one could say that the US government has elements of a gerontocracy, an oligarchy, and is a plutocracy as well. Rich, older (generally white and male) persons tend to hold the most positions of power, in both elected positions in government and appointed positions in corporations. Which leads us to our next term—

Corporatocracy

“Corporatocracy is an economic, political and judicial system controlled by business corporations or corporate interests. The concept has been used in explanations of bank bailouts, excessive pay for CEOs, as well as complaints such as the exploitation of national treasuries, people, and natural resources.” —Wikipedia

This makes perfect sense. The small number of powerful and wealthy individuals who run things in the US are controlled by business corporations and corporate interests. The Open Secrets web site can fill you in on the specifics. It’s no secret that since the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that “money is speech” and “corporations are people.”

At the end of the day, we ordinary people have to face facts: We don’t have enough money to matter to the politicians. All the politicians do what they’re told by those who hand them suitcases stuffed to the gunnels with lobbyist cash. (Learn more at the Move to Amend web site.)

The famous and often quoted Princeton University Study shows this to be true. Average citizens’ appeals are routinely ignored. Corporations and corporate interests are routinely catered to.

Repeat after me: “Money is speech. Corporations are people.” Very, very important people indeed.

Which leads us to our next term that explains how this has come about so completely in a mere blink of an eye.

Kakistocracy

“A kakistocracy is a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.” —Wikipedia

Do you know any “worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens” who have been installed into high office? Neoliberals will yell, “Orange Man bad!” or Donald Trump. Neocons will yell, “Biden Crime Family!” and not be far off the mark, as more details regarding the payments made by the Ukrainian corporation Burisma Energy to Hunter Biden are revealed in court.
 

When it comes down to it, there’s nothing new or special about the lack of morality with either Trump or Biden. Unscrupulous people have been elected or appointed to office for over two centuries. Pick up a history book and read about the illegal dealings going on in the cabinets of presidents Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, and Ronald Reagan. Read the recent headlines about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni taking luxury vacations, property, and other payments from  billionaires. Taking political office, either elected or appointed, is rightfully seen as one big con-job by many Americans.

We almost expect our politicians to be crooks in the US. Look at Richard Nixon. He’s not seen as being unworthy of high office in 2023 as much as he was back in 1974 when he resigned after the Watergate Scandal broke. Nixon was just stupid enough to get caught is how most see him today. Most politicos have better lawyers nowadays and will get off without even a jail term.

If you think it’s odd that the corporate oligarchs, who choose their politician-puppets for their corporations’ benefit, would employ criminals and morally weak individuals to do their bidding, think again. Who else would put the billionaires’ welfare above that of the ordinary citizens’?

A person with a well-developed sense of right and wrong wouldn’t let ordinary Americans with no health care suffer and die like our current lot of politician-puppets do in order to please their Big Pharma donors. A person with a well-developed sense of right and wrong wouldn’t let people sleep in the streets, homeless, when there are more empty houses and apartments currently than there are homeless individuals. A person with a well-developed sense of right and wrong wouldn’t just ignore what the US military-industrial complex is doing around the world with their grabbing of natural resources and then installing “friendly regimes” that will continue to “do business” with American corporations.

A person with a well-developed sense of right and wrong probably wouldn’t be allowed to live long or serve if they actually did get elected to the presidency. The oligarchs/billionaires would make doubly sure of that. This makes our last term that much more poignant.

Democracy

“Democracy is a system of government in which power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or through freely elected representatives.” —Britannica

If the US is an oligarchy, a gerontocracy, a plutocracy and a kakistocracy, can it be a democracy at the same time? I would say no. Is the power actually “vested in the people” or is it vested in the oligarchs and their corporate interests? Do we “freely elect representatives” if candidates representing alternative viewpoints from alternative parties (third parties) are regularly railroaded right off the ballot by the establishment party/parties that take billions of dollars from corporate donors to do their bidding?

Just ask Green Party US members how difficult it is to get their candidates on the ballot in most states. You’ll be shocked. That’s where those unscrupulous people really come into their own, twisting rules and bending laws to prevent any competition to the corporate-owned puppets.

While living in an actual democracy might be a nice dream to have, it’s not the political reality of the twenty-first century United States of America. And that’s why we have to learn what all these “ten dollar words” mean so we can have meaningful conversations with others on how to go about undoing all the harms this small group of mostly aging, white male oligarchs have done to our country. Because to do nothing and to pretend we’re living in a democracy is essentially to give up and give in to the billionaires/oligarchs and their environmental and societal destructive agenda.

Give up? I don’t know about you, but them’s fighting words. I say, "Power to the people—not the corporations!" (And the billionaires and their lackeys don't count as "people," either.)

Related Articles and Interesting Links

Mitch McConnell’s Flash of Humanity https://consortiumnews.com/2023/09/01/caitlin-johnstone-mitch-mcconnells-flash-of-humanity/

Don't Ignore Politics, Just Ignore The Fake Kind
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/dont-ignore-politics-just-ignore

Making a Killing: The US Opioid Epidemic https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/01/03/making-killing-us-opioid-epidemic 

Presidents' Net Worth, Before and After Taking Office https://blog.cheapism.com/what-presidents-are-worth 

The Number of Bombs Dropped by the US in Each of the Last 15 Years https://247wallst.com/special-report/2022/03/05/the-number-of-weapons-the-us-released-every-year-since-2007/2/

Move to Amend https://www.movetoamend.org/amendment  

Study: Congress Literally Doesn't Care What You Think https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/ 

Open Secrets https://www.opensecrets.org

New Filings Reveal More Luxury Trips and Opaque Payments to Clarence Thomas' Wife, Ginni  https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/09/new-filings-reveal-more-luxury-trips-and-opaque-payments-to-clarence-thomas-wife-ginni/

Sitting on the Dock at the Hague https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/03/sitting-in-dock-at-hague.html

GoFundMe Go To Hell https://www.racket.news/p/gofundme-go-to-hell

Opposing The Empire Means Widening Our Circles Of Compassion
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/opposing-the-empire-means-widening

Tracking Orwellian Change: New Meanings of "Deep State" and "Working Class" https://www.racket.news/p/tracking-orwellian-change-new-meanings

Living on a War Planet https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/30/living-on-a-war-planet/

US Victim of Own Propaganda in Ukraine War
https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/30/us-victim-of-own-propaganda-in-ukraine-war/

Another Regime in ‘French Africa’ Is Toppled https://consortiumnews.com/2023/08/30/another-regime-in-french-west-africa-is-toppled/

Shocked By Niger Coup, Victoria Nuland Appeared ‘Desperate’ During Africa Tour https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/30/shocked-by-niger-coup-victoria-nuland-appeared-desperate-during-africa-tour/

UN Strengthens Children’s Rights To Fight Climate Change In Court https://popularresistance.org/un-strengthens-childrens-rights-to-fight-climate-change-in-court/

After Wildfires, Native Hawaiian Farmers Resist Attempt To Shift Blame https://popularresistance.org/after-devastating-wildfires-native-hawaiian-farmers-resist-attempt-to-shift-blame/

Colonialism And Capitalism Are Decimating Our Forests
https://popularresistance.org/new-film-colonialism-and-capitalism-are-decimating-our-forests/

Wave of Actions to End Fossil Fuels https://www.acttoendfossilfuels.org

California Becomes Largest Economy to Back Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty
https://truthout.org/articles/california-becomes-largest-economy-to-back-fossil-fuel-nonproliferation-treaty/

The Climate Crisis Will End When Capitalism Ends https://popularresistance.org/the-climate-crisis-will-end-when-capitalism-ends/ 

We Still Have a Dream https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/03/we-still-have-a-dream/

UK May Block Assange’s Attendance at Appeal to European Court of Human Rights https://truthout.org/articles/uk-may-block-assanges-attendance-at-appeal-to-european-court-of-human-rights/

Our Collective Trauma is the Road to Tyranny https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/our-collective-trauma-is-the-road 

 

Seen on the formerly known as Twitter:

What the hell is this? Why are people like Biden, Feinstein and Mitch McConnell still in positions of power and leadership roles when they are literally malfunctioning? What is this? Why are these people making decisions about our future when they're mental unfit? This is a mess! https://t.co/GpD7Ar61c3

— ✊🏾🇱🇷MisFitBlackGirl💁🏿‍♀️LIB_QN32☭ (@LibQn32) August 31, 2023

https://twitter.com/LibQn32/status/1697051987861295448

https://twitter.com/ProudSocialist/status/1699164752797126950 

 

The Unwelcoming Society

The Unwelcoming Society

by C. A. Matthews

When my mother first got off the ship in the United States of America, I wonder… Did she feel welcomed?

It was right before the start of the second World War. Mom had lived in Brazil all of her young life. Now, her parents thrust her into a strange, new world full of different people, weather, flora and fauna. Being scolded by her mother to “speak only English,” she soon lost the ability to converse in Portuguese, remembering only snatches of songs and nursery rhymes in later years. Mom learned that she had to speak English only because now she was American, for better or worse.

Nowadays, it almost always seems to be “for the worse” whenever an immigrant attempts to enter the US. They may be desperate to escape persecution and violence in their home country, but once they arrive in the US or at its border, their fears not only aren’t relieved—they’re often magnified.

I wrote about the end of the infamous Title 42 program and the new Biden Asylum-Transit ban a couple of months ago in The New Title 42. The mainstream media’s continual emphasis on the urban myth of the US southern border becoming inundated with immigrant hordes after the pandemic ban was lifted has not happened. However, the re-traumatization of asylum-seekers seeking safety has just begun.

How welcoming is that?

From the terrorists masquerading as Customs Border Patrol agents at our borders, to the outright Jim Crow decrees from our state legislatures, it can’t get much more unwelcoming in the United States of America in the year 2023 CE. If you think I’m kidding, get a load of this:

A group of Chinese citizens who live, work, study, and raise families in Florida, as well as a real estate brokerage firm in Florida that primarily serves clients of Chinese descent, are filing a lawsuit to combat Florida’s discriminatory property law, SB 264. Signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the legislation unfairly restricts most Chinese citizens — and most citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea — from purchasing homes in the state. Unless the courts act, the law will take effect on July 1, 2023…

Today’s lawsuit argues that SB 264 will codify and expand housing discrimination against people of Asian descent in violation of the Constitution and the Fair Housing Act. It will also cast an undue burden of suspicion on anyone seeking to buy property whose name sounds remotely Asian, Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan, or Syrian. 

Gov. DeSantis has argued that this law is necessary to protect Florida from the Chinese Communist Party and its activities. But this misguided rationale unfairly equates Chinese people with the actions of their government, and there is no evidence of national security harm resulting from real estate ownership by Chinese people in Florida. From Chinese Immigrants Sue Florida Over Unconstitutional, Discriminatory Law

This horrible law brings to mind the first immigration law passed in the United States, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882:

From 1882 until 1943, most Chinese immigrants were barred from entering the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the nation's first law to ban immigration by race or nationality. All Chinese people--except travelers, merchants, teachers, students, and those born in the United States--were barred from entering the country. Federal law prohibited Chinese residents, no matter how long they had legally worked in the United States, from becoming naturalized citizens… The Geary Act, passed in 1892, required Chinese aliens to carry a residence certificate with them at all times upon penalty of deportation. Immigration officials and police officers conducted spot checks in canneries, mines, and lodging houses and demanded that every Chinese person show these residence certificates. --From Digital History

We’re really come a long, long way in the good ol’ US of A, haven’t we?

Working in immigration advocacy, I am always shocked at how woefully ignorant most Americans are of how poorly we treat and have treated immigrants. Consider this sobering fact: It wasn’t until the middle of America’s involvement in World War II (1943) that Chinese-American persons—people of Chinese ancestry, born and raised in families that had lived for several generations in the US—were allowed to become naturalized citizens.

Just because your last name was Li or Chin, and it wasn’t Smith or Schmidt, you couldn’t vote even though you were born in the US, went to school all your life in the US, and raised your own family in the US. You and your children weren’t entitled to any benefits of citizenship simply because your ancestors were born far, far away, across a big, wide ocean. Funny how those “Smiths” and “Schmidts” whose ancestors also came across an ocean were able to claim US citizenship and vote without any problems, though.

Wonder what the big difference is between these two groups, persons of European ancestry and those of Asian ancestry? Hmm... Do you think it has anything to do with their skin color perhaps?

And you think the Chinese had (and still have) it bad? When did American Indians become US citizens? Their ancestors have dwelt on the North American continent for tens of thousands of years, but most who live within the boundaries of the USA were not able to call themselves American citizens until… No, not 1776 or 1865, but 1924. It actually took until the second decade of the twentieth century for Native Americans to be considered “American.” 

Now, convince me just how “welcoming” American society is if it can't even acknowledge the original inhabitants of this continent or keep any of the treaties it made with their leaders. I'll wait.

The US is so “welcoming” that we don't even believe that having enough food to eat is a human right. Imagine that! We voted against that proposal in the United Nations, of all places. That attitude certainly goes a long way in explaining our homeless and hunger problems, doesn't it? It's not that Americans can't feed and house our own people, it's that we don't want to.

But it isn’t always about race and ethnicity in the US when it comes to being unwelcoming. Senator Rick Scott (another Floridian) this past week has decided that those who are professed “socialists” aren’t welcome in his state. This announcement has really put a crimp in my vacation plans. I wanted to go south and visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in Florida, along with my sister and brother-in-law who recently retired there. Senator Scott says he doesn’t want any of my no-good socialist money in his state. It’s not good enough for the likes of Florida, like Chinese people’s money isn't, or Cubans’, or Venezuelans’, Syrians’, Iranians’, Russians’, and North Koreans’ money.

If you are trans or non-binary, you’re not wanted in the Sunshine State, either. It’s almost as if your gender identification is seen as a contagious disease. Give Florida its due—they’re racist, fascistic, and terrified of people who don’t meet their expectations of what a boy or a girl is supposed to be like. You could call it “Equal Opportunity Bigotry.”

I know it’s not only the state of Florida that has passed these prejudiced decrees recently, but it is the perfect example of evil in action. Florida is full of hateful opportunists who are riding a wave of terror of “otherness” and hoping to make a profit while doing so. Look at what color Florida is on this map and what it stands for:

It's nothing to be proud of, in my opinion. I wouldn't be planning a vacation to Disney World or Universal Studios, in other words, unless you're a raving homophobic/transphobic, anti-Asian, anti-socialist. Then, by all means, go right ahead! (Just don't bother to return home. We can isolate all you bigots in Florida with a simple “border wall” at the top of the peninsula. We don't want your kind of “immigrant” in our states.)

A year ago, it was all “Hate the Russians! Love Zelensky! Who needs to spend billions on universal health care when America can spend it on the military-industrial complex and make our Congress members with insider stock trading deals richer!” And soon it will be, “Stop eating Chinese food and hate the Chinese! We’re at war with China over… over...”  

Gee, I forget! Why is the US mad at China? Is it because the have decent reserves of lithium? Silicon chip manufacturing? Or because they’ve been trying to bring about a diplomatic end to the conflict in Ukraine, saving lives and ending the madness in the process?  

It doesn’t take much to start a hate campaign against another country or ethnic or racial or political or gender group in the US. I sure wish our so-called “leaders” could do something to stop all this hate-mongering and sit down like rational adults and work out their differences with others in the best interest of every living thing on the planet before a nuclear war breaks out. (And no, corporations aren’t people, so they don’t count as “living things.”)

You could say that I’m just more than a little tired of the United States leading the way in all this worldwide nastiness; aren’t you?

The initials “US” are very appropriate. The initials “US” can also stand for the “Unwelcoming Society.” It's what we've become—or perhaps we've always been this way? It's time we stopped and took steps to reverse this horrid trend, don't you think?

 

Related Articles and Articles of Interest

Digital History: The Chinese Exclusion Act https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3291

Chinese Immigrants Sue Florida Over Unconstitutional, Discriminatory Law https://popularresistance.org/chinese-immigrants-sue-florida-over-unconstitutional-and-discriminatory-law/

ICE, Homeland Security Accused Of Targeting Outspoken Migrant Worker For Deportation https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/27/ice-homeland-security-accused-of-targeting-outspoken-migrant-worker-for-deportation/

Afghan families traverse most of Latin America to seek asylum at the US border https://theworld.org/stories/2023-05-17/afghan-families-traverse-most-latin-america-seek-asylum-us-border

Why are these Afghan refugees still stuck in limbo? https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/05/24/two-years-after-us-withdrawal-afghan-refugees-still-stuck-in-limbo/ 

Dozens of GoFundMe Users Seek Funds to Flee States Passing Transphobic Laws  https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/31/dozens-of-gofundme-users-seek-funds-to-flee-states-passing-transphobic-laws/

Target Accused of “Selling Out the LGBTQ+ Community to Extremists”  https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/27/target-accused-of-selling-out-the-lgbtq-community-to-extremists-after-pulling-pride-merchandise/

 

Many transgender health bills came from a handful of far-right interest groups https://apnews.com/article/transgender-health-model-legislation-5cc4a7cb4ab69150f670d06fd0f361ab

About Quislings
https://popularresistance.org/about-quislings/

East Palestine, 100 Days Later
https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/25/east-palestine-100-days-later/

US Troops To Train Peruvian Armed Forces, Proves US Behind Coup  https://popularresistance.org/us-troops-to-train-peruvian-armed-forces-proves-us-behind-coup/

$1.1 Trillion Was Spent On Militarism And War Last Year
https://popularresistance.org/new-report-1-1-trillion-or-62-of-the-federal-discretionary-budget-was-spent-on-militarism-and-war-last-year/

 

Washington-Insider Jeffrey Sachs on US Provoking Ukraine War | SYSTEM UPDATE https://youtu.be/kU7UzrJeX6E

Ukraine: Why Negotiations Are the Only Rational Option in the Face of Climate https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/25/ukraine-why-negotiations-are-the-only-rational-option-in-the-face-of-climate-chaos-and-nuclear-dangers/

 

Yes, Those Bioweapons Labs in Ukraine are a Real Thing

https://joebrunoli.substack.com/p/yes-those-bioweapons-labs-in-ukraine-are-a-real-thing-fad3785f3818

Media's Complete U-Turn After Russia Wins Bakhmut
https://youtu.be/O3kr4ZZl5FA

Fossil Fuel Companies Owe $5.4 Trillion In Reparations, Study Says
https://popularresistance.org/fossil-fuel-companies-owe-5-4-trillion-in-reparations-study-says/

10 Years After Snowden: Some Things Are Better, Some We’re Still Fighting For https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/23/10-years-after-snowden-some-things-are-better-some-were-still-fighting-for/

The Democratic Party’s Crucifixion of Matt Taibbi https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-democratic-partys-crucifixion

Manufactured crisis over US debt ceiling sets stage for bipartisan assault on Social Security and Medicare https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/05/25/pers-m25.html 

Kissinger vs. ‘The Most Dangerous Man in America’ https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/28/kissinger-vs-the-most-dangerous-man-in-america/

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