My Manana Friend and The Madness Not Believed

Raul made it back from the hooplah. We haven't discussed the views of laws and borders. I doubt we will. However, I have discussed these things with a woman who is from a South American country, a naturalized citizen with friends in Mexico, and illegal friends here.

In the world of Raul, Monday, changed to Tuesday, and Tuesday is now Thursday. I am a bit of a manana guy myself so I can handle it. I just hope all this insanity hasn't given him a case of gringo hate.

The news has done a great job of convincing people of things not based in fact. I also credit various groups for that. Scare people and they are vulnerable to believing any lie you want to spread. This is happening to a degree on more than one side of the question. But how many people look at what is the real problem?

The big danger of not looking at the tax system, the way services are handled and the corruption all up and down the system is that the cure ends up being more painful than people think. Already there are those who want to use national ID to make all better. No thanks. The potential level of control and the potential clamp on legitimate dissent is not good. Not to mention that if one were to get into the databases and corrupt them, it would make the stupidity of using a single number like social security for all things look safe and brilliant.

So, while we freak out because of the fact that people enter the country illegally, then get used by power seeking groups looking for power, those who created the problem are scheming yet more measures which screw citizens. There are better ways, but it would require overhauling the tax system and reserving many services to citizens. At the same time, I think the honest yet desperate workers who cross back and forth every day could have an easier go of it should these things be implemented.

As it is, we have a government which has been strangely complicit in the commerce done by gangs and cartels. They have left border communities out in the cold. The issue is not a racial one. It is an issue of corruption in our government, the Mexican government, and groups, some with non profit and lobby status, which are out for money and power.

Every news blurb I heard described the AZ law as one which required police to demand papers from anyone suspected of being illegally here. That is patently false. The fact that the person had to have been detained for a crime or infraction first, is left out. I still don't think the law is the best way to go, but I'd rather people oppose it based on truth rather than hype.

They should also look at why many in Arizona felt something had to be done. The law mirrors and refers to federal law. The national government has ignored the problems, the violent drug people, and in many cases punished agents who defended themselves against these elements in the course of doing their jobs. That is a huge scandal which has been covered up.

The dumb ass cities that pass resolutions for boycott or other measures regarding Arizona are in no position to tell anyone else how to run their government. Bankrupt California cities can't even get their own insanity under control. Once again they don't appear to have read the law. If even 10% of those demonstrating and boycotting had read and tried to objectively analyze it, I would be surprised.

The same people who are upset about this are fine with treating everyone as guilty and harassing citizens under the excuse of drug war or the war on terror. Or the goddamed environment. It is very difficult to buy the sincerity of either of those in light of how the borders are handled. And in light of how they treated agents who made life less easy for violent smugglers.

In the mean time the people who have been tacitly encouraged to work here without documentation are caught in the middle, convinced the evil white people hate them, and all sorts of things that aren't true. People who have no contact with sincere workers, who just do what their peers do by slipping in and finding day work and that sort of thing, tend to think some of the blanket characterizations are real.

It's a mess, like everything being put in public discussion lately. Nothing but propaganda all around.

Look how disappointed many in the news were that it wasn't a disgruntled white guy who tried to blow up New York? Some went so far as to theorize that the guy was a "right wing militiaman" upset with the healthcare bill. They did it on the air as if they had some inside knowledge. Totally made up. And why is right wing always linked with militia and bigots? Left wing are the ones who see everything first in terms of race and ethnicity, and last or never in terms of principle. Never in terms of real freedom.

In talking to people it becomes clear that they refuse to look at things in terms of reality, right and wrong, true and false. They are for anything that promotes their group, even if that promotion has elements to it that aren't moral, as in at the expense of others who owe them nothing. The trouble is, that kind of thing can turn so that it applies to some other group at your group's expense.

Few bother to examine the immigration policies of other countries in this mess. Mexico will kick your ass if you jump borders or do any number of things; like not have your documentation on hand. They can stop you and demand to see it any time. That goes for local cops and national military alike. Penalties are harsh. You pretty much have to buy your way into a place like new Zealand. They particularly don't want old foreigners trying locate there. Money tends to do a lot there, but even then it has to be just right.

Unbelievable how the totalitarians in this country are so nuts. They use illegals hoping to get them the vote, while smearing citizens who do not want a nanny state or one that bleeds them dry while limiting opportunities. The whole thing is too bad. The rift between black, white and everything else that has been promoted over the last few years is not constructive. People view everyone unlike themselves with more suspicion than they did just a few years ago. This is going the wrong direction. It was supposed to improve, not get worse.

So many tales of victimization and the resulting exploitation of same would lose much if truth were really allowed to surface. So, the charlatans continue to twist and fabricate.

Little note to la raza: if Mexico were to get California, and all the other states you claim were taken from you, then you'd have to give much of it back to the Aztecs, and much to other tribes. Up here would not be part of the Aztec territory. Then, because the Aztecs took much from other groups, they'd have to give that territory back, then those may have to give it back to whomever was there when they showed up. Before long, if the whole world goes by your reasoning toward the USA, not much will be left. I guess we'll all whittle it down to wherever Paradise is.

That's why I hate demonstrations and power seeking groups based upon ethnicity. Mine or anyone else's. They inevitably lose the truth and become run by people whose motives are less than pure, less than reasonable. I noticed that with demonstrations of the late sixties, union-when I was unfortunately a member, and many crowd and mob actions. Sometimes assemblies have good purpose, but I avoid it whenever possible. Doesn't mean I cooperate with the status quo, governmentally or otherwise. I often don't.

I think the illegal immigrant population are pawns and the real threat is found in our government and many of the groups which push class hatred.

I'm of the mind that the oil rig explosion was not accidental or due to bad design and negligence. When they claimed they were sending SWAT teams, I assumed they'd decided it was a case of criminal activity or terrorists or maybe Hugo Chavez.
Now, the stories are different. Nonsensical in most cases.

I used to be all for the kind of people who are in power now getting their way. I figured it would screw up things so bad that people would rise up and demand a free society with minimal oversight. Now I realize that the screw up is as suspected, but the reaction of the majority is not. Even those who object to how it is evolving rarely want real freedom. They compromise far too much and can't resist certain policies that really should not be part of this country.

So, we do the best we can, keep a tent handy in case we have to live as health care fugitives in the wilderness somewhere, and keep an eye out for hot chicks--just because.