Millions Protest Trump; Cite Civil Liberties, Hate, Inequality, Environment

Nearly 100,000 protested Donald Trump at
a Madison Wisconsin rally on Jan 21 2017

Resistance as an Act of Faith in Democracy

The adminstration of Donald Trump faces hostile, popular and organized opposition arrayed against this new president holding to unwanted policies amid widespread personal revulsion.

Popular sentiment was displayed in some 600 Women Rallies for Rights events held one day after the inauguration on Saturday, (NYT), (Twitter).

Millions took to the streets across the world as Americans seek new paths of opposition to this right-wing figure who ran on a platform of hate, retaliation against political enemies, and anti-science postures causing anxiety over the future of democracy. Trump's approval rating, already at historical lows, has now plummeted to 32 percent.

The White House site now resembles a rightwing political campaign web-page, using the same language as the 2015-16 Trump campaign.

As Trump hands over control of the government to billionaires, corporations and open racists, the shock of the election of Trump has millions shaken in their faith of democracy, and the intelligence and decency of white America.

From Charlie P. Pierce at Esquire

Faces of resistance at Madison Wisconsin at pro-people
rally Jan 21, 2017. At front is Kate Stormer

"Take Hitler and stick him on the funny page!"

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In 1978, there was a fairly big protest in Washington in favor of the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Janet Dunn came down from Connecticut. Her daughter Laurie came with her. The crowd was big. The Dunns were excited. The ERA, of course, never passed because what was then called The New Right mobilized against it primarily through an activist woman named Phyllis Schlafly. On Saturday, I caught up with Laurie and Janet Dunn, as well as Janet's son, Mitchell, in the middle of an immovable mass of humanity that filled a wide boulevard from building to building on either side. Mitchell was leading the way. Laurie was working from behind, asking people to make some sort of room for them. Janet was in a wheelchair. After all, she's 91-years-old now.

As we moved through the throng as a sort of small parade of our own—The Dunns picked up a few folks in their wake as they moved along, including me—Janet became something of a star. There would be room to move for a few dozen yards and then we would come up on one of the video screens carrying the speeches from the main stage at 3rd Street and Independence and the crowd would solidify again. And you'd hear Ashley Judd or Michael Moore or Debbie Wasserman Schultz—yeah, I couldn't believe it, either—for a few minutes and then Laurie and the rest of us would start politely asking the folks to make a hole and make it wide.
- Read the rest of Pierce's dispatch at Esquire -

Sharon Captain at pro-equality, anti-Trump
rally in Duluth, Minnesota, Jan. 21, 2017
(Facebook)

In 20th century America, it was a decades-long parlor game ruminating over the face of fascism in America, should it arrive. Fascism has always been here, but most of us have not noticed until it touches us personally.

Now, a fascist is in the White House and Americans are looking to their futures and they are determined, they are scared, and there is no stopping Americans working together against fascism.

Popular opinion has smashed the worst of presidents, the most destructive of wars, and the cruelest systems of injustice.

Fascism is ever busy, hate is a force never at rest.

The idea, the slander, that fascism and hate will prevail over liberty and love is belied by the multitudes who in the words of Bertrand Russell cast hope over fear. Trump as troller-in-chief wishes despair and hopelessness on America; such is the object of the fascist.

From Russell's Proposed Roads To Freedom - Socialism, Anarchism and Syndicalism, (1918, Cornwall Press, Inc, Cornwall New York), [Chapter VIII, The World As It Could Be Made]:

... Those whose lives are fruitful to themselves, to their friends, or to the world are inspired by hope and sustained by joy: they see in imagination the things that might be and the way in which they are to be brought into existence. In their private relations they are not pre-occupied with anxiety lest they should lose such affection and respect as they receive: they are engaged in giving affection and respect freely, and the reward comes of itself without their seeking. In their work they are not haunted by jealousy of competitors, but concerned with the actual matter that has to be done. In politics, they do not spend time and passion defending unjust privileges of their class or nation, but they aim at making the world as a whole happier, less cruel, less full of conflict between rival greeds, and more full of human beings whose growth has not been dwarfed and stunted by oppression.

A life lived in this spirit--the spirit that aims at creating rather than possessing--has a certain fundamental happiness, of which it cannot be wholly robbed by adverse circumstances. This is the way of life recommended in the Gospels, and by all the great teachers of the world. Those who have found it are freed from the tyranny of fear, since what they value most in their lives is not at the mercy of outside power. If all men could summon up the courage and the vision to live in this way in spite of obstacles and discouragement, there would be no need for the regeneration of the world to begin by political and economic reform: all that is needed in the way of reform would come automatically, without resistance, owing to the moral regeneration of individuals. But the teaching of Christ has been nominally accepted by the world for many centuries, and yet those who follow it are still persecuted as they were before the time of Constantine. Experience has proved that few are able to see through the apparent evils of an outcast's life to the inner joy that comes of faith and creative hope. If the domination of fear is to be overcome, it is not enough, as regards the mass of men, to preach courage and indifference to misfortune: it is necessary to remove the causes of fear, to make a good life no longer an unsuccessful one in a worldly sense, and to diminish the harm that can be inflicted upon those who are not wary in self- defense. ...

Resistance is strong

Tracking Hate during the Trump Administration

Goya Por una navaja (For a clasp knife). A garroted priest
grasps a crucifix in his hands. Pinned to his chest is a
description of the crime for which he was
killed—possession of a knife (Disasters of War;
Plate 34, Wikiwand).

Post-election analyses have attempted to discern the meaning of the Donald Trump election.

It's indisputable: Trump's relentless invectives against blacks, Latinos, women, Muslims, and LGBTQ Americans, (actually running a campaign on an open platform of hate), did not disqualify this lunatic who has created a disturbing 21st-century alliance with Russia, domestic white supremacists, the 'Christian' right, the rightist elements of the FBI and totalitarian movements around the globe.

Most Americans recognize Trump as a pathological liar and a malignant sociopath, but nevertheless some 25 percent of the electorate still voted for him. But the votes do not support coherent policies beyond transferring money and power to billionaires and diminishing civil liberties.

The fact is that most Trump voters do not care about public policy, do not know public policy, macro-economics, fiscal policy, monetary policy and federalism, for example. Trump voters are not too keen on Constitutional democracy as a system of governance, period.

Trump is a visceral embodiment of resentment and angst, a figure that says 'fuck you' to blacks, Latinos, immigrants, liberal Jews, Hillary Clinton, multi-national corporations and others while Trump promises to erect an America-first edifice—a vague, nonsensical construct hazy in the "post-truth, post-fact, post-everything Trump fog," (Schwarz, The Intercept). Trump is the strutting reenactment of the American myth.

Much of the corporate press—refusing to jettison the ridiculous journalistic conventions of neutrality and nihilism—has come to the realization that pretending that Trump is not a fascist and burying its collective head in the sand is no longer a tenable approach to reporting the news.

Now comes a corrective action from the New York Times, an editorial column entitled This Week in Hate that tracks hate crimes and harassment around the country since the election of Donald Trump.

Begun last year and now in full operation one day after the inauguration, the Times has decided to chronicle what is happening in the faith that knowledge begets action. The Times' publishing decision is an important step.

From This Week in Hate:

This Week in Hate highlights hate crimes and harassment around the country since the election of Donald Trump.
Reliable data on hate crimes is hard to come by. As reports of racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic harassment and attacks poured in after the election of Donald Trump, many Americans wondered whether they represented a nationwide increase in hate crime. While the Southern Poverty Law Center saw a dramatic increase in reports after the election, it’s not yet clear whether this indicates a nationwide trend.

That’s one reason This Week in Hate is joining with ProPublica and a coalition of other organizations to work on, a project that aims to gather data on hate crimes and incidents of bias around the country. Documenting Hate will analyze information from law enforcement, news reports, nonprofit groups and individuals in order to investigate topics like how many hate crimes occur annually, which parts of the country have the highest prevalence and whether the frequency or severity of hate crimes has changed since the election of Mr. Trump. This Week in Hate and several news organizations will publish results from those investigations. Here are some reports of hate crimes and harassment that have drawn public attention in recent days.

• As many as 16 Jewish community facilities in the Eastern United States received bomb threats last Monday. At a community center in Rockville, Md., more than 300 people, including 200 preschoolers, were evacuated. No bombs were found at the facilities, but the F.B.I. is investigating the threats.
• A swastika and the word “bomb” were found on a bathroom wall at a Jewish community center on Staten Island last Wednesday. Police investigated and did not find a bomb.
 • Last Monday, a woman in Nampa, Idaho, discovered that her car had been vandalized with the words “go back”; paint was poured over the car, its windows were smashed and its radio and air conditioner were damaged. The car’s owner was born in Nigeria but is not a recent immigrant. Police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.
• A former Republican Party county chairman in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, discovered last Monday that his van had been vandalized with an anti-Trump message.
• The garage of a family in Sylvania Township, a suburb of Toledo, Ohio, was vandalized last Tuesday with a swastika and a racist message aimed at Arabs. Police are investigating the incident. One of the family members, 21-year-old Malak Ayache, has painted over the vandalism with the message “Toledo [heart]s Arabs” to mark the support her family has received from neighbors since the incident. “I honestly want everyone to know that this negative, hateful act is not going to affect this family,” she said.

Documenting Hate has developed a form to help people report hate crimes or incidents of bias for inclusion in the data analysis. If you have experienced, witnessed or read about a hate crime or incident of bias or harassment, you can use the form to send information about the incident to the Documenting Hate partners, including This Week in Hate.

The form is not a report to law enforcement or any government agency. You can access the form here
If you have experienced harassment, these resources may be helpful. If you witness harassment, here are some tips for responding. You can contact This Week in Hate at weekinhate@nytimes.com #

Here's How We Beat Those Frackers

Following the carnage in Wisconsin, a friend asked, "What the hell?  What's it take to beat those fuckers?"

The question and sentiment are legion across the country.

The answer is simple, organize a bit more, (Juan Cole). That's it, with the corollary that we ought to consider supporting those involved in organizing.

Some details include extirpating the DNC pukes and replacing the lot with the like of Rep. Keith Ellison, (D-Minnesota).

With respect to whites stupid enough to vote for Donald Trump, do not a cede an inch to these bigots and assorted human garbage. As a life-long Wisconsin citizen, I know these people.

Says Bernie this morning, "When my presidential campaign came to an end, I pledged to my supporters that the political revolution would continue. And now, more than ever, that must happen. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. When we stand together and don’t let demagogues divide us up by race, gender or national origin, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. We must go forward, not backward," (NYT).

 Listen to voices such as Michael Moore, and John Pavolovitz.

And, ala spring and summer 2016, if assorted fools admonish we should all unify around Trump for the good of America, the same fools who have not apologized for their rally-around-Hillary-over-Sanders nonsense, ignore these asses and organize some more for progressives.

Scott Walker's Warrant from God

Candidates running for political office claiming mandate from supernatural-religious forces typically are not widely found in classical liberal America outside of the Bible Belt and rural sectors of the states.

Scott Walker is an outlier, a product of segregationist white suburbia of the greater Milwaukee urban region and its toxic racial politics (Mal Contends) (MacGillis, The New Republic).

An authoritarian and vindictive lifelong politician, Walker's claim of the Almighty's blessing ought to alarm Americans. Racism and God do not equate with a pluralistic America.

Check out Scott Walker tells supporters: ‘I am certain’ my 2016 presidential run ‘is God’s plan for me,’ (Dolan, Raw Story). [Originally reported in RightWingWatch by Peter Montgomery.]

This is a 10-alarm fire.

Housing Apartheid Blasted—Segregation, Racism Produced Scott Walker

The New York Times has an editorial implying not much has changed in the last five decades in the dedication of white American racists perpetrating segregated housing.

Worth noting is Wisconsin's Scott Walker is a political product of the virulent racism of the greater Milwaukee urban region, as GOP appeals to racism accelerate. (MacGillis, TNR) (Mal Contends)

As a lifelong resident of Wisconsin, I would alert readers a race riot this summer is a distinct possibility, as Milwaukee police remain a largely Republican and vile brand, and white Republican  hate radio and Scott Walker drum up racist taunts almost daily.

Notes the Times:

[R]age and unrest was thoroughly explained five decades ago by President Lyndon Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission. The commission’s report was released in 1968 — the year that the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. touched off riots in 125 cities — and contains the most candid indictment of racism and segregation seen in such a document, before or since.

The commission told white Americans what black citizens already knew: that the country was 'moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.' It linked the devastating riots that consumed Detroit and Newark in 1967 to residential segregation that had been sustained and made worse by federal policies that concentrated poor black citizens in ghettos. It also said that discrimination and segregation had become a threat to 'the future of every American.'

Could be a really fun summer in Milwaukee this year, but residents contacted say the possibility of violence against white racists as openly racist whites inflame the region is just assumed a part of living in the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Bad Night for Racists at the Oscars, and in Madison, Wisconsin

Musicians John Legend and Common won an Oscar last night for their beautiful Glory from Selma.

Locally, racists at the Madison, Wisconsin Meadowood Neighborhood Association used the weekend to applaud the arrest of a black man for pot-related charges, as the prison-industrial state and the concentration of black men into prisons and jails continues unabated.

One thing that can bring Scott Walker and law-and-order democrats together are hate-inspired neighborhood associations like Meadowood, cheering on the arrests of Wisconsin black folks.

"Wisconsin’s prisons now house about eight times as many inmates as they did in 1970, and the state has the dubious distinction of incarcerating a higher percentage of black men than any other state. Walker’s strategy on prison-related issues exposed his fundamental political approach," notes Roger Bybee in AlterNet.

Typical Madison, Wisconsin entries to the neighborhood associations like Meadowood on Madison's southwest side read: "Our Neighborhood Community Police On (sic) the Job.‏" Arresting black people. Vile.

Black Lives do matter, on the southwest side not so much, and the work for equality and civil rights continues from Ferguson to Madison.

From last night at the Oscars:

Brad Schimel Is Unfit for Office

Republican Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel said he would have defended the ban on interracial marriage had he been Wisconsin attorney general before states' ban on interracial marriage was struck down as unconstitutional in 1967. (Marley, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Schimel is a candidate for Wisconsin attorney general running against District Attorney of Jefferson County, Susan Happ.

This is really all you need to know about Brad Schimel.

As part of the new Republican Party, Schimel has little regard for the Constitutional rights of Wisconsin citizens; would not stand up for Constitutional rights; and would make a horrible attorney general.

Schimel's position is of course in keeping with an open hostility by the Republican Party to people of color.

Milwaukee Hate Radio, Segregation and Scott Walker Exposed

In the lede for The New Republic cover piece entitled, The Unelectable Whiteness of Scott Walker, Milwaukee hate radio personality, Mark Belling is featured in this fact-laden piece that Republicans fear and loathe more than even a young, black man walking down the street.

Alec MacGillis' piece is supported with facts, data and analysis that presents to the nation the greater Milwaukee urban segregation and race baiting that have been the bain of Wisconsin politics for decades.

Another one of the hate radio stars featured in the piece is Charlie Sykes who retorts that MacGillis simply wrote a hit piece, a "heavy stew of urban legend, reheated unionista talking points, cherry-picked anecdotes and the usual journalistic hackery."

Alright, following is one ingredient featured from the heavy stew of urban legend that Sykes implied never actually happened in which Belling mocks Wisconsin's first African-American member of Congress, Gwen Moore: "Gwen Moore simply occupies a seat. A very large seat. ... The woman is so fat and out of shape, she literally can’t get to the floor to vote anymore. ... It’s time to vote and here’s Gwen: ‘I’m out of breath! Blew-ee, blew-ee!’ (Here Belling affected the exertions of an overweight black woman.)" Typical Belling, make up your own mind if it's toxic and racist.

White Wisconsin Racists Prefer the Term, 'Articulate Conservative'

Scott Walker on cover of The New Republic

Update: Comment from one jbkburack in The New Republic (TNR): "To TNR and its fans, we out here are all flyover yahoos. They think we will not call them out and they can get away with total garbage like this, but we have called them out, and you can be sure Scott Walker will a lot more yet before he's done."

Scott Walker calling someone out more often? Maybe at his next unscripted town hall meeting, the fact that Scott Walker refuses such events of no relevancy to Wisconsin Republicans.
---
White Wisconsin reacts to Alec MacGillis' The New Republic piece on Scott Walker and racism with disbelief and denial

MacGillis has reported on racism in the greater Milwaukee urban area, in Scott Walker's campaign, in Milwaukee hate radio, all furthered by massive infusions of Koch and other rightwing money.

Republicans are shocked to the point of disbelief. Actually, they deny the facts or insipid accusations.

Dan O'Donnell of WISN sets everyone straight: "This stupidity is as inaccurate as it is insipid. Walker won in 2010 because he presented a clearer and more articulate conservative message in the primary and then relatively easily defeated Tom Barrett in the general election because of widespread distaste for liberalism as it existed under eight years of Governor Doyle and a little over a year of President Obama (and his stunningly unpopular health care reform)."

MacGillis, damn east coast type, coming over to our side of the country and telling everyone that Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha counties are racist and segregated from Milwaukee.

Charlie Sykes of White Wisconsin offers this reaction at WTMJ:

"As hit jobs go, this is pretty run-of-the-mill, except for its length and the fact that it is the cover story of the once-prestigious New Republic:  The Unelectable Whiteness of Scott Walker: A journey through the poisonous, racially divided world that produced a Republican star."

The unsubtlety of the headline pretty much gives you the feel for this over-the-top and meandering trip through the fever swamps of anti-Walkerism.  Suffice it to say that writer Alec MacGillis establishes that he has frequented every anti-Walker website and twitter feed... and has fed deeply. His article is a heavy stew of urban legend, reheated unionista talking points, cherry-picked anecdotes and the usual journalistic hackery."

Well, I'm glad that's cleared up. For a moment I had thought that attacks on voting rights and racist jokes, and attacks on the city of Milwaukee are per se racist acts.

One thing Sykes knows is how to be subtle when discussing them.

MacGillis also implies Scott Walker can't think on his feet. From the white perspective, I guess MacGillis missed all those unscripted town hall question-and-answer sessions.

On the other hand the fact that Scott Walker refuses unscripted town hall question-and-answer sessions might suggest something about the candidate chosen by God to lead Wisconsin, America, who knows where Walker can go with his articulate conservative message.

Scott Walker Gets Skewered in The New Republic

The notion that Scott Walker is a presidential pretender, a small-time provincial riding vile bigotries as a vehicle up the Wisconsin Republican Party is gaining increasing currency.

Alec MacGillis has the most perceptive analysis I've seen in the national political press in today's The New Republic: The Unelectable Whiteness of Scott Walker, A journey through the poisonous, racially divided world that produced a Republican.

Existing racism in the greater Milwaukee region and a life steeped in religious fundamentalism made Scott Walker, not constrained or repulsed by open displays of bigotry against "wetback" and African American voters.

Rather, Walker dives into bigotry as a siren call for his launching pad as a toady of the Koch brothers and billionaires' from whom Walker takes his orders.

The February release of emails from Walker's secret and illegal political operation run of the Milwaukee County Executive's office has exposed Walker as a deceitful operator who for over a decade has surrounded himself with a group of people, his top staff, who resemble nothing so much as a bunch of racists, anti-Semites and hicks. (The Progressive, February 19, 2014)

MacGillis' piece is a must-read, and the most comprehensive yet chronicling Scott Walker and the dangerous hate mongering games Walker plays.

Marine who lost leg in Iraq booed by right-wing Christians

Eric Alva, who lost his leg serving in Iraq,
was booed by right-wing Christians
for speaking out in support of a proposed
San Antonio ordinance to ban anti-gay discrimination.

A Marine serves downrange in Iraq; comes home after losing his leg; and after rehab speaks out and stands up for anti-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation, gender identity and veteran status at a hearing at the City Council chambers in San Antonio, Texas this week.

Said Eric Alva, " I already spoke and even some of the religious groups even booed me as I spoke. Such disrespect as they preach the word of God."

Caught wind of this from the Wisconsin Gazette.

Righwinger "Councilwoman Elisa Chan went on an anti-gay tirade while discussing the ordinance privately in her office on May 21. James Stevens, a 28-year-old aide to Chan, secretly recorded her hateful remarks and released the audio to the San Antonio Express-News."

From Eva Ruth Moravec of the San Antonio Express-News. Said Eric Alva, age 42:

"I said that if this ordinance doesn't pass, I could be fired from a job and even thrown out of a restaurant, and people started to boo me. I was real hurt by that. It was unbelievable."

Alva was the first American injured in the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He received a medical discharge and was awarded the Purple Heart. His prosthetic leg was visible Wednesday, under his khaki shorts. News of Alva's 3-minute speech spread via social media that night.

Yes, America just melts under the love and compassion of rightwing Christian love.

On a positive note, the anti-bias, pro-equality measure is expected to pass.

Republican Racism is an Air Raid Siren, Not a Dog Whistle

Damn blacks.

From Ron Paul's phony libertarianism [incursions on liberty and equality are fine if done by state governments, but not by the federal government] to Newt Gingrinch's naked plays to states' rights and racism, the South Carolina GOP primary campaign has marked an ugly demonstration of America's original sin continuing unabated today—racism.

Think AIG, outsourcing and corruption caused the Great Recession; nooo, it was the blacks, says the GOP.

Republican candidates are overtly signaling that whiteness and American identity are intertwined.

By Chauncey DeVega

On his MSNBC show Hardball, Chris Matthews called out Newt Gingrich and other Republicans for what he described as their "dog whistle" appeals to white racism during the South Carolina debate on Monday night.

He was correct in identifying the work that racism does for the Tea Party GOP and its candidates in their efforts to win over white conservative voters. However, Chris Matthews was too generous and kind. Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and other Republican candidates are not engaging in subtle dog whistles to their faithful, where racism and white racial anxiety hides in the background, masked and hidden by other language.

Definitions matter: dog whistle politics are based on a signal or cue to the in-group, and one so subtle that those not in the know will overlook it as no more than quixotic background noise, a blip, a comment without context or meaning.

For example, during the 2004 election, President Bush's mention of the infamous Dredd Scott Supreme Court decision had nothing to do with African Americans and slavery. Rather, it was a wink to a rabidly anti-choice conservative Right-wing audience that Roe vs. Wade would be overturned by his administration.

In 2008, McCain-Palin featured a negative campaign ad which borrowed from the movie The Ten Commandments and suggested that Barack Obama was the Anti-Christ. If one was not part of the Left Behind Jesus Camp Christian Nationalist Dominionist crowd, the visuals and narrative of the commercial were odd, bizarre, utterly strange, and devoid of context. The ugliness of these symbols and metaphors were so covert, that they made sense for those outside of the targeted audience only after Time magazine thoroughly deconstructed the campaign adand its malicious intent.

In 2012, Republican candidates are using overt signals, what are for all intents and purposes blaring air raid sirens and signal flares that race, whiteness, and American identity are deeply intertwined. The appeals to white racism by the Tea Party GOP during the primaries are not background rhythms or subdued choruses. They are the driving guitars of Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla," the chorus of Jay-Z's "99 Problems," the opening moments of the Notorious B.I.G's "Kick in the Door," or the flipped samples of Justice's "Stress". You feel it. You know it. To deny the obvious is to close one's ears to a driving drum line and cadence that travels up through your shoes...and to your bones.

Jewish family in NAZI Germany

How else can a fair observer excuse away Republican arguments that blacks are lazy parasites, whose children should live in work houses and pick up mops and brooms to learn a work ethic, that "illegal" immigrants should be killed by electric fences, or Muslim Americans should be subject to racial profiling, marked like the "Juden" of Nazi Germany?

In all, the Tea Party GOP's campaign for the presidency rests upon marshaling white anger and rage at The Usurper, a perpetual Other, and one not fit for the presidency by virtue of his birth and skin color--he who we know as President Barack Obama. If Birtherism is not based on this calculation, on what else does it rest?

Race matters to the Tea Party GOP. It matters overtly. And it matters to the white populists of the Republican Party without apology or subtlety. This leads to the following practical question: how do we separate the subtle dog whistle from blaring conservative racism? What are the elements of the racial appeal? How can we identify it so that reasonable folk can neuter and castrate it? Is this even possible?

Knowing is half the battle. To that end, let's work through elements of the puzzle:

The speaker effect. Using one of the most gross examples, when Newt Gingrich talks about lazy blacks on welfare and food stamps who do not know the meaning of hard work he is mindful of his audience. Remember, politics is ultimately about the creation and reinforcement of imagined communities. Gingrich, Santorum, Perry, and Paul know exactly how to talk to their respective audiences in order to get a response. To point: white conservative populists have disdain for non-whites, see them as lazy, outside of the polity, and as rightful targets for appeals based on symbolic racism. In the eyes of the Right, "those people" are not "real Americans." They never can be.

The audience as a public who receives, internalizes, and circulates the Tea Party GOP message about race, white racial resentment, white oppression, and hostility to people of color. The folks in the audience and on the stage during the Republican primary debates "get" the terms of the conversation. In fact, they are deeply attuned to the language and rhetoric of the New Right, as anyone who either goes to one of these events, or votes in a primary election, are deeply invested in its outcome, and a return to white American normality. In all, they are chasing nostalgia and a Leave it to Beaver vision and lie of America. This audience is also "tuned in" to politics. Gingrich and his peers are sending signals to a group primed and ready for his racial appeals...without a need for explanation.

This reality speaks to why there should be no surprise when Republican audiences cheer the death penalty, dying people without insurance, or heckle soldiers who happen to be gay. There are unstated rules, a script, which govern social norms and behavior. The outliers who go to political debates are intimately familiar with this language. Like marks at a professional wrestling event they know when to boo and when to cheer.

Context matters. In isolation, perhaps it would be a more difficult case to suggest that Gingrich's appeals to white audiences about lazy blacks are predominantly and clearly about white racism. However, given that communities are created through speech, and that "discourse" is about a sense of shared meaning with unstated assumptions, any argument for conservative colorblindness is judged to be insincere.

In South Carolina, where the Confederate flag still flies, there was Ron Paul (a bigot whose newsletters continue to suggest that African Americans are ravenous, craven, criminal, stupid beasts); Rick Santorum (a man fascinated by bestiality and the idea that blacks are parasites who only want to live off of white people); and Newt Gingrich who sees all African-Americans and Latinos as being on welfare and the public dole until proven otherwise. In total, these candidates are a rogues gallery where white supremacist attitudes towards non-whites is a standing rule, one only to be disputed after the fact.

Juan Williams is an object of abuse, a means to prove a point. Juan Williams is a paid pinata for white conservatives. I do not know if he was legitimately hurt and surprised by their reaction to him, or if his pain was not feigned, and rather sincere and real. In understanding the logic of Republican racism and naked appeals beyond the dog whistle, Williams was the stand-in, the object of abuse through which to actualize rage and hostility. Barack Obama was not available. Any black body would do. The cheering, snide glee of Newt Gingrich dressing down uppity "Juan," and the audience's cheering of a "boy" being put in his place, would be missed by only the most in denial observer.

Juan Williams is/was a repository for the fecal matter of white conservative bigotry, and a need to maintain superiority over negroes who dare not to step off of the sidewalk when white folks pass. That in another life Juan Williams would be a critic of "negro agitators" during the Civil Rights movement is coincidental to his designated role on Fox News: he is exemplary of Joel Kovel's theories about white supremacy, and how it manifests as a White society which is collectively (and individually) stuck in the fecal phase of human psychological development--it is all over his face. Juan Williams smiles while cashing his checks at the prospect of his politicalcoprophagia at the ass end of conservative politics. He revels in playing the role of the human centipede.

The excuse of ignorance and a lack of memory. One does not need to understand the root of a thing in order to buy into its power. White conservatives (and others) who traffic in racism do not necessarily need to be able to explain how blacks came to be associated in the White racist mind with apes. Likewise, those who hate Jews do not need to be able to give an exegesis on Nazi propaganda in order to be expert anti-Semites.

This is one of the greatest tools and defenses of the contemporary white racist--I didn't know that, you are being unfair!; You are "playing the race card" for calling out my association of the Obama with watermelons and apes as "racist"; I never associated blacks with welfare or crime, people like you are the real bigots for calling attention to how Republicans talk about such things, we are really all Americans!; stop talking about slavery, my family never owned black people!; (and of course) whites are oppressed in America by Barack Obama!

There is a collective reservoir of symbols, assumptions, and narratives that individuals borrow from in a given society in order to make sense of their world. Knowing the wellspring helps; it is not a requirement to perpetuate common sense understanding(s) of the world.

Ultimately, Chris Matthews was correct in the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. To defeat President Obama, the Republican Party is wallowing in white racism in order to win over racially and economically insecure white voters. However, Gingrich and company are doing this overtly. There is little subtlety. Looking forward, the 2012 Presidential season will make the infamous Willie Horton ad of the 1988 presidential election look like a celebration of Dr. King's birthday. The challenge for liberals, progressives, and reasonable conservatives, is how to make the Republican Party pay for their race baiting, and desperate reaching back to the Civil War, Redemption, and Birth of a Nation as playbooks in order to defeat the United States' first Black President.

Sadly, matters may be so dire that the white identity politics of years past are now "new school" rather than "old school." To marshal that fear, insecurity, and anger one does not need nuance, sophistication, or dog whistles. White conservatives can put such feelings on blast and gin up the psychological wages of white fear, white anxiety, and white rage to try to defeat Barack Obama.

As always, the past isn't even past. It is yesterday. Get ready folks. What occurred in South Carolina is only a warm up for what the Tea Party GOP is preparing to unleash in the months to come. What is coming to pass will be an ugly, wild ride.


Scott Walker friends at AIG January fundraiser during Recall



Crazy, stupid and mean

By Phoenix Woman

The members of the self-styled Morality Party just can’t stop doing and saying immoral (not to mention stupid, cruel, bigoted and hypocritical) things:

– From ThinkProgress: “The audience at Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate in Orlando, Florida commemorated this week’s repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by booing Stephen Hill, a gay soldier, as he asked Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) about open service in the military. Without condemning the audience reaction, Santorum responded to Hill’s question by proclaiming that ‘any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military’ and promising to reinstate the 1993 policy.”

– Earlier this month, during the first (and Tea-Party-sponsored) GOP presidential debate, the audience yelled out “Yeeeeahhhh!” for the latter option when the moderator asked if a person without insurance who needed intensive long-term medical care should receive it or if we should “let him die”; this was originally thought by some to be just a grim joke on the audience’s part, but after what happened to Stephen Hill, I kinda doubt that idea.

– The same Republicans who are making the most noise over the Bush-backed Solyndra loan guarantee (yeah, Diaper David Vitter, I’m looking at you) are being oddly quiet over Bush’s role in making it happen, just as they’re being oddly quiet over their own support of loan guarantees and outright grants (aka free taxpayer money, folks) for energy-related projects in their own Republican districts. And you won’t hear Darrell Issa talk much about the burgeoning San Bernardino Airport scandal that’s unfolding, complete with an FBI raid, in the home district of Issa’s fellow California Republican congressman, Jerry Lewis, the former head of the House Appropriations Committee and a big fan of the Berdoo Boondoggle:

FBI agents and other law enforcement officers raided the San Bernardino International Airport Authority office and storage units as well as a home and offices used by Scot Spencer, a convicted felon who was awarded two no-bid agreements in 2007 to build a commercial airport at the former Norton Air Force Base. [...]

The cost to build the [San Bernardino, California International] airport — which includes a luxury Million Air corporate jet terminal and a four-gate passenger concourse — has grown from $45 million to $142.5 million in local and federal taxpayer funds.

Interestingly, Scot Spencer, the convicted felon behind the airport boondoggle, has gone missing: Bill Ingraham, the airport’s aviation director, said Wednesday that he didn’t know where Mr. Spencer might be, and that he hadn’t talked with him in about a week.

– Speaking of convicted felons and the Republicans who love them, let me introduce you to Frank Vennes, buddy and major campaign contributor to Michele Bachmann. What was that about crony capitalism again, Michele?

– And just as Michele Bachmann’s embrace of Joe Arpaio is one of the many things making it harder for saner, more pragmatic Republicans to woo back Hispanic voters and convince them that the GOP isn’t really dominated by insanely racist Tea Partiers, the fact that “Numbers USA” and “Californians for Population Stabilization”, two of anti-immigrant activist John Tanton’s many front groups (he’s to immigrant hate what Pete Peterson is to Social Security hate) are now running anti-immigrant TV ads. Not anti-undocumented-immigrant, but anti-immigrant, period — letting the mask slip on Tanton’s racism and his racist affiliations.

Like President Clinton before him, President Obama seems to be very lucky in the sort of enemies he faces. They may well be openly repulsive enough for him to win re-election.

Repeal Day - Don't Ask, Don't Tell Ended

As some of the estimated 49,000
active-duty gay troops come
forward when the law barring gays
from serving openly goes ends,
a Military Times poll shows tolerance
of open service continues to rise.

John McCain, the religious right and bigots of all stripes quake in moral terror at the thought that equality, civil rights and duty ought drive service in the U.S. military
The Department of Defense has a special website, laudable, and almost comical on answering questions arising from the historic repeal reflecting the ignorance and cowardice of so many Americans turning their backs on their fellows. You don't stand for the rights of your fellow Americans, what do you stand for?

"Repeal Day Memo" reads the top sub-head, an example of how ridiculous are so many in the American Evangelical, Dominionist movement who read today's headlines in horror.



President Barack Obama
"As of September 20th, service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country. Our military will no longer be deprived of the talents and skills of patriotic Americans just because they happen to be gay or lesbian."
President of the United States
July 22, 2011

Secretary Leon E. Panetta
"All men and women who serve this nation in uniform -- no matter their race, color, creed, religion, or sexual orientation -- do so with great dignity, bravery, and dedication. As secretary of defense, I am committed to promoting an environment free from personal, social, or institutional barriers that prevent service members from rising to the highest level of responsibility that their talents and capabilities warrant."
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta
July 22, 2011

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen

“My confidence in our ability to accomplish this work rests primarily on the fact that our people are capable, well-led and thoroughly professional. I have never served with finer men and women. They will, I am certain, carry out repeal and continue to serve this country with the same high standards and dignity that have defined the U.S. military throughout our history.”

Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff
July 22, 2011

Some People Are More Equal Than Others

'More Equal Than Others' … it’s the assumption shared by the oppressing class in societies and communities the world-over, and their useful idiots—The bigot and his militant cousin, the Brown Shirt.

If you’re in Israel, the less-equal are the Palestinians or Arabs [unless you are a favored Arab dictator].

In America, despite its pretence to pluralism and civil rights, the contemporary less-equal include the gay, lesbian, Arab, Persian, black, anybody not willing to sell out to moneyed interests.

Other examples abound, and the oppression is always justified in self defense with self-glorification used in some manner. Consonant with self-glorification, the delusion requires dehumanizing the less-equal.

Examples are obvious to the thinking mind: Women, working men, and on and on.

Want to grant all Americans full rights to fight for their country or at least serve in the Armed Forces? Can’t do that. We need inequality for the sake of good order, discipline and morale in defense of an institution.

Want Americans of the same sex to marry? No, can’t do that, it will ruin your marriage and this sacred institution, so we deny gays and lesbians in self defense.

Progress happens, and decades later we look back in disbelief that blacks and whites could not marry, that blacks and whites could not serve together in the military, or eat at the same lunch counter.

Said Robert F. Kennedy, a man who grew as a man out of tragedy, then fighting for justice [what fools today call political correctness]:

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.

Fine words, great ideals.

But reading the words in so many pages of those few without the moral courage to stand with the gays, the lesbians, the blacks, I want to puke.

The ADL and its marriage to the enemies of tolerance

- The ADL is oblivious to the fact that they are making an alliance of convenience with the enemies of tolerance, the Christian right -

The ADL had already given up its commitment to tolerance, see Religious Right Figures Signing Pro-war Statement Identified by ADL as Assaulting Tolerance and Pluralism in 1994, so it was not great surprise to see it oppose the building of an Islamic Center in lower Manhattan.

The ADL is not oblivious, as Paul Krugman says yesterday; it's self-consciously committed.

The First Amendment must make way to the demands of war and intolerance.

By Paul Krugman

Peter Beinart has an excellent piece on how the Israeli occupation of the West Bank inexorably led the Anti-Defamation League into abandoning its principles, culminating in the awful decision to call for banning the Islamic Center in lower Manhattan.

Let me add two thoughts.

First, this has been building for a very long time. I remember my first visit to Israel, in 1981; even then older Israeli academics, veterans of an earlier era (literally — many of them had fought in 1967 and 1973), would talk grimly about the Likud government and its harsh policies, saying things like “I feel as if we’re living under a foreign occupation.” And it’s only gotten worse since then.

Second, Beinart doesn’t talk as much as I’d like about how this relates to U.S. politics. As he says, American liberals, while they fiercely support Israel’s right to exist, can’t bring themselves to support the policies of Israel’s current government. So the Israel-is-always-right crowd has gravitated to people who don’t have any problem with the occupation — which means the American hard right, including the Christian right. And they seem oblivious to the fact that they are thus making an alliance of convenience with the enemies of tolerance.

Anyway, it has been gratifying to see how many people understand just how wrong the ADL was; and special props to Mayor Bloomberg, who said exactly the right things.

Marriage Discrimination Ruled Unconstitutional

- Judge rules due process and equal protection rights violated by bigoted California Constitution. A total legal victory for equal rights, and defeat for the Mormons and bigots -

by Adam Bink at Proposition Eight Trial Tracker

I just finished reading the meat of the decision. Chief Judge Vaughn Walker has ruled Prop 8 is unconstitutional on both Equal Protection and Due Process grounds. Huge win. The decision is likely to be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Developing…

Here’s the conclusion from the decision.

CONCLUSION
Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis,the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

REMEDIES
Plaintiffs have demonstrated by overwhelming evidence that Proposition 8 violates their due process and equal protection rights and that they will continue to suffer these constitutional violations until state officials cease enforcement of Proposition 8. California is able to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, as it has already issued 18,000 marriage licenses to same-sex couples and has not suffered any demonstrated harm as a result, see FF 64-66; moreover, California officials have chosen not to defend Proposition 8 in these proceedings.

Because Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, the court orders entry of judgment permanently enjoining its enforcement; prohibiting the official defendants from applying or enforcing Proposition 8 and directing the official defendants that all persons under their control or supervision shall not apply or enforce Proposition 8. The clerk is DIRECTED to enter judgment without bond in favor of plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenors and against defendants anddefendant-intervenors pursuant to FRCP 58.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

The full decision can be found here.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

Plaintiffs challenge Proposition 8 under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Each challenge is independently meritorious, as Proposition 8 both unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation.

Sarah Palin: Obama Is Pushing 'Myth That Racial Profiling Is Part' of Arizona Immigration Law

Amid a backlash from civil libertairans and law enforcement officials, Sarah Palin defedned Arizona's new immigration bill.

Sarah Palin appeared on Fox News and straightened out the record: No racial profiling in Arizona after-all. Sure, if you look brown and have no papers, you land in jail. The Fourth Amendment, the 14th Amendment, these rights are for wusses.

From Huffington:

Sarah Palin called Arizona's controversial new immigration bill a "reasonable...wake up call" Tuesday, and criticized President Obama for "perpetuating this myth that racial profiling is a part of this law."

In an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity -- who introduced the segment by accusing "pro-illegal immigration" protesters of not actually reading the legislation -- Sarah Palin said "there is no ability or opportunity in there for the racial profiling" in the law.

Critics have argued that the broader powers of law enforcement officials to stop and question suspected illegals who would, with this legislation, be considered to be "breaking the law" if they are in the state, will inevitably lead to racial profiling.

Palin, however, denied these claims.

"Shame on the lamestream media again for turning this into something that it is not," Palin insisted. "Governor Jan Brewer did what she had to do as the CEO of that state to help protect the citizens of her state she had to do what the federal government has refused to do and that is help secure the borders."

Teabaggers Are Stupid White People - Video

Teabaggers are the same, old, white, xenophobic, racist garbage. Good for a laugh, but never let racism go by unchallenged. Cuéntame -- "a place for Latinos and the public in general to connect with fellow fans, bloggers, activists, artists, musicians, journalists" challenges the racism of the Teabaggers.

¡Hola,

As hosts of Cuéntame we want to tell you a bit about ourselves, the project and about our latest campaign against Tea Party racism and violence.

Both Ofelia and I have seen with great sadness and frustration how Tea Partiers have unjustly and unfairly targeted the Latino community to further their political agenda. This is why our latest campaign exposing Tea Party racism has hit a nerve, not only within the Latino community but also with many folks across the country who like us are fed-up of all the hatred, the violence and the bigotry peddled by teabaggers.

From calling Mexicans 'filthy, stinking animals,' to listening the likes of Tom Tancredo and Sarah Palin deliver hateful speech after hateful speech to the increase use of violence in their words and actions, Teabaggers have come out in full force against our community.

We are fed up and are ready to fight back. You can help us not only by watching and spreading our videos, but also by joining our [FaceBook] page ... and recruiting your friends - Latino or not - to do the same.

The Last Acceptable Bigotries in America

Befitting our political culture, appeals to the contemporary American bigot are accomplished with sophisticated brands, images, impressions, and coded vocabulary, and not overt prejudices and stereotypes.

But there are two exceptions to this operative prohibition against overt bigotry: Arabs and gays. Two bigoted parties, long-time Editor-in-Chief and owner of The New Republic, Martin Peretz, and the Republican Party, reveal this dynamic.

As for gays [a broad term] the Republican Party and the religious right appear to owe their very reason for existence to the compulsion to marginalize and deny gays due process and equal protection under the law so often are gays the political scapegoat of GOP-religious right operatives. So, we're not surprised to find U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (R) dissenting in a landmark civil rights case, LAWRENCE V. TEXAS (02-102), writing:

Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children’s schools, or as boarders in their home. They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive.

This is retrograde and repulsive thinking to most Americans, but not most Republicans. Almost daily, we can find anti-gay appeal from Republicans.

Arabs and The New Republic's Martin Peretz

Arabs also enjoy a distinct status as the object of acceptable bigotry in this current milieu (environment) extending across partisan lines. An often bipartisan consensus keeps Ahmad in his place in America. Glenn Greenwald's The Right Kind of Bigotry is nothing short of spectacular in revealing this bigotry widely unchallenged. If you read nothing else, read this 300-word piece below, singling out The New Republic's Martin Peretz as a self-admitted bigot who is also a disingenuous slander artist.

From the long-time Editor-in-Chief and owner of The New Republic, [Martin Peretz] this morning [March 6]:

There were moments--long moments--during the Iraq war when I had my doubts. Even deep doubts. Frankly, I couldn’t quite imagine any venture requiring trust with Arabs turning out especially well. This is, you will say, my prejudice. But some prejudices are built on real facts, and history generally proves me right. Go ahead, prove me wrong.

The point here is so obvious that it makes itself. In the bolded sentence, replace the word ‘Arabs’ with ‘Jews’ and ask yourself: how much time would lapse before the author of such a sentence would be vehemently scorned and shunned by all decent people, formally condemned by a litany of organizations, and have his livelihood placed in jeopardy? Or replace the word ‘Arabs’ in that sentence with ’Jews’ or ‘blacks’ or ’Latinos’ or even ‘whites’ or virtually any other identifiable demographic group and ask yourself this: how many people would treat a magazine edited and owned by such a person as a remotely respectable or mainstream publication (notwithstanding the several decent journalists employed there)? Yet Marty Peretz spits out the most bigoted sentiments of this type -- and he's been doing this for years, as is well known -- and very little happens, because, for multiple reasons, this specific type of hate-mongering remains basically permitted in American political discourse. The double standard at play here is as extreme and self-evident as it is pernicious, but it doesn't matter. And we'll all wait with bated breath for the next installment of The New Republic's righteous, accusatory attacks on the entirely fictitious manifestations of the one strain of bigotry that bothers them, because they're such credible arbiters and opponents of prejudice.