The Wolf is Inside

Fascism...

A charged  word or descriptor.  And a very misunderstood word.  And a politically charged word that has negative connotations.

I have a habit of identifying some right wing conservatives as fascists.  And boy, does it piss them off.

But I am not speaking flippantly.  As a MA in Government I had to sit through plenty of political philosophy oriented classes; some of the most difficult that I had to take.

And fascism was identified, defined, discussed, used as a template, explained as a negative and a positive term; etc.  

Fascism can become the sickness of authoritarianism. Totalitarianism can result from a fascist regime, as the authoritarian aspects take over all government, resulting in a dictator.  This does not always happen, usually fascist movements result in minority parties, who often take up conservative Christian goals, like anti-abortion or anti-birth control, but remain in the democratic (not party) Parliament as an irritation, but not having enough votes to govern. For example, there is a fascist party right now in Italy with about 3% share.  

But the urge to morph into a one person rule is hard to exist regardless of how small the movement.  

A good example is the dictator Franco in Spain before WWII.  His was a conservative Christian fascist movement, that moved into a dictatorship around militaristic means to an authoritarian end.

The enemy?  Socialistic Communism.  And the Civil War that ensued was a preview for the world of the fascist led WWII.

Now what does this have to do with America today?

Political theorists and observers are picking up fascist tendencies in the right wing conservative movement, organized around President Trump (whose political behavior and methods (if he has any) are fascist.  His followers, many from the Christian Right, are reacting to the liberalization of society led by the LGBT and progressive movements that put civil rights and social justice as societal goals.

And there has been change to be sure.  And that change very much threatens the fascist mindset.

This conflict of ideas manifests itself in a major political tactic that Trump used to get elected.  Even though California had been lost probably forever to the Republican Party due to the anti-immigrant politics of Pete Wilson in the 1990s, Trump surprised everyone by adopting a “WALL” as a solution to what he said was a rampant immigration problem.  

There is no such problem in any widespread way in America now.  There was in the 1990s, but that has abated.  But Trump resurrected the issue in a highly successful political way and got elected using it.

Europe has fallen to its allure as well, swinging right, spawning the Brexit movement, and threatening the European Union.  In Europe’s case there IS a refugee/immigration problem, as Africa reels from global climate change effects causing mass migration, and the war in Syria and Iraq pushed people to flee the violence.  And the fascist movements in Europe (which is chilling considering Europe’s last infatuation with this form of extremism) have gained a lot of political advantage by using racism and xenophobia in predictable ways.

Fear is the friend of fascism.  People are spooked easily when there is a perceived external threat.  And, having thousands of war refugees trying to get into your county is definitely worrisome to say the least.  And fascists use that, through “dog whistles” of racism to motivate hate of outsiders and build a political base.  

Always, look for anti-Semitic dog whistles, it is the backbone of classic fascism.

And it works.  And it is easy, because there is a template that has worked before in the years 1929 to 1945.   Spain, Germany, France and Japan all swung to the right during those years of world depression and finally global conflict.  Authoritarianism also manifest itself in Russia, through the Communist fascism of Stalin.  America and England, although remaining liberal democracies, also followed strong authoritarian leaders in Roosevelt and Churchill.  

It was not a good time for Democratic countries.  The Depression was blamed on “international bankers who were Jews”.  This was nonsense of course, but again, find a scapegoat is classic fascist methodology.  

Today, in America and Europe the same tactics are being used for political advantage.  In the United States the “greatest generation” is mostly dead, leaving their children the “baby boomers” in charge.  We, I am a baby boomer, do not have the first hand experience with fascism that drove our parents to basically have to kill the movement by killing a lot of people.

Fascism ended with atomic bombs being used in Japan to shock the fascist regime into quitting.  It took that much to get them to quit.  

Which brings us the the really distressing part.  America is more than flirting with fascism right now.  Trump is a classic fascist; authoritarian, using right wing Christian principles (anti-Gay, anti-birth control, definitely pro state sponsored Christianity) doctrine to gain power.  

It reminds one of parliamentary right wing Christian Parties in Europe, who use authoritarianism  to deny people their rights.  These groups are anti-liberal as well, and do not sponsor or support democratic decision making.  

They have taken over the U.S. Congress, making it impossible to deal with any real issues for the last eight, now going on nine years, in opposition to an African American President.

Adolph Hitler foresaw this in America.  He famously derided America’s opposition to his racism by pointing out that America mistreated Native Americans and African Americans throughout its history.  In effect, he called for authoritarian solutions in America to our problems and of course planned a military “solution” that included killing African Americans, Jews and practically everyone.

Which gets us to the worst forms of fascism; that history has shown can be stopped with as I so tragically say, “With a bullet in the head”.

Why so violent you say?  Isn’t that the same thing the fascist are preaching?

Unfortunately for mankind, when Germany and Japan were going through the last stages of certain defeat; a remarkable thing happened.  First at Okinawa then in Berlin, fascists  killed themselves and their children rather than surrender.  Japanese fascist leaders would not quit, even when Germany surrendered after Hitler and most of his close advisors killed themselves and their families.  The Japanese authoritarians even armed their citizens with pitchforks to attack the American invaders and fighting to the death.  The bullet to the head in Japan’s case were two nuclear bombs that wiped out two entire cities.  

Finally, after those two “bullets to the head” the death grip of Japanese fascism was broken.

In the wake of that horror, of 55,000,000 people killed, the United States entered a period of about 10 years with anti-fascist educational films, of which I watched several in the 7th and 8th grade.  

Xenophobia and racism were exposed in those films as defining and explaining totalitarianism to a group of middle schoolers in 1959.  And we listened because the teachers who were showing us the film and teaching the lesson, were all veterans who had killed fascists or watched their buddies killed by fascists.

And there was no mincing words, fascism was evil, it was Un-American, it was wrong, and we had to be constantly on the alert, otherwise it could happen again, and it could happen in America.

Actually, it already was happening and had been happening for a century at least in the south, with the fascist Jim Crowe regimes that discriminated against Jews, Blacks, Browns and even Methodists!  In short, the south already had fascism in the Bible Belt, using once again conservative Christianity to discriminate against minority groups and hold tight to political control by white supremacists of the region.  It took a President being assassinated and the leadership of a former white supremacist to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that finally began a peaceful transition from fascism in the south.

But white supremacist fascism did not die easily...it resurrected itself, as fascism is want to do, in the Trump Birther movement, that actually was a springboard to renew the deep racism in America into  a backlash that got Trump elected.

And America took a violent turn to fascist government.  It happened so fast because as we are finding out, it was aided and abetted by Russian fascist (Putin is a classic corporate fascist) movement that is using technology in an open war on liberal democracies.  The 2016 election was decided by fascist interference in the election.

So, after all that warning we had back in the 1960s, fascism is taking over our country right in front of our eyes.  Trump is a classic fascist; rules as an authoritarian, male dominated, and stereotypes minorities and immigrants to “build his base” of power.

As a totalitarian he has failed to staff government bureaucracies and focused all leadership on himself and a small group of followers; classic fascist totalitarian political behavior.

Corporate supporters have bankrolled Trump’s accession; the Koch Brothers who are classic fascists being one obvious example of billionaires supporting authoritarian leaders.

And of course, the Christian Right is involved in this to the hilt; seeking to roll back the LGBT gains of the Obama Administration, seeking overturning Roe v Wade, seeking an end to government sponsored birth control.  

All off these are classic fascist goals that culminate in finding a scapegoat, and external threat; the Muslin and racially “inferior” immigrant refugees of Africa, Mexico and the Middle East.

Hitler predicted that America would be fertile ground for fascism.  He actually developed his racist program against the Jews based on some of the same laws and injustices that Jim Crowe southerners had used for a 100 years to scapegoat the African Americans.  He studied the genocide of Native Americans from studying the reservation system of the West, removing the victims from view; then killing them; typical of the concentration camp system...

Hitler knew America had deep fascist potential, it just needed  the right circumstances.

Roosevelt knew this also.  But to his credit, he resisted calls to become a dictator; several commentators begged him to take over the government, but his belief in the value of liberal democracy to the American Dream was too strong.

The American First movement, who admired what Hitler was doing, led by Lindberg, was a fascist admiring bunch, who preached supporting Germany by keeping America out of the war.  They advocated anti-Semitic goals and were anti-democracy, authoritarian and admired the totalitarian “miracle” that the Nazi regime represented in the late 30s...

It is not by accident that Trump has adopted the essence of America First into “Make America Great Again”...

Remember, there was a depression that made it easy to recruit to the fascist cause.  Fascism grows when times are hard; it offers a simple solution to complex problems.  It offers militaristic solutions to problems, offering to destroy enemies, send immigrants home, and as Trump put it, eliminate the problem with fire...when referring to North Korea.  

The use of such authoritarian language is vintage fascism.

So the wolf is no longer knocking on the door, the danger of a fascist take over of our government is no longer an outside threat, the wolf is inside with us already.

The Reckoning.  

The Tragedy of Shasta County

The tragedy of rural California.

(Record Searchlight January 2017).  

After three straight months of no movement, Shasta County's unemployment rate in December inched up to 6.7 percent, despite strong job gains in the private education and health services, and retail sectors, the state reported Friday.

The county's jobless rate had been stuck at 6.4 percent since September. The unemployment rate in December 2015 was 7.5 percent.

Sheila Stock, a state labor analyst based in Redding, said Shasta County has added 6,700 private sector jobs since December 2011. Government sector jobs have declined by 700 in that same time period.

Last month, there were an estimated 400 jobs added in private education and health services. Boosted by the holiday shopping season, retailers in Shasta County added an estimated 100 jobs in December.

“So more employers still felt the need to hire more people in the holiday season,” Stock said.

Stock considers September through December the retail hiring season, and this year the county added 500 jobs in the sector over those four months.

“In 2015, we added 300 jobs. But 2013 and 2014 both saw 600 job gains in that time period,” Stock said.

December’s 6.7 percent unemployment rate was the lowest for the month since 2006, when it also stood at 6.7 percent.

California's unemployment rate in December was 5 percent, unchanged from November. A year ago, the rate was 5.7 percent.

There were an estimated 200 fewer people working in the professional and business services sector  and 100 fewer individuals working in leisure and hospitality. The mining, logging and construction sector lost 200 jobs from November to December, though the estimated 3,000 people working in that sector last month was unchanged from a year ago.

A survey of help wanted ads in December showed demand high in Shasta County was high for registered nurses and truck drivers. Teacher assistants, retail workers and physical therapists also were wanted.

The unemployment rate in Siskiyou County in December was 9.2 in December, up from 7.8 percent in November. Tehama County’s unemployment rate last month 6.9 percent, up from 6.4 percent in November. The unemployment rate in Trinity County in December was 6.6 percent, up from 6.4 percent in November.

All numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

These figures do not lie...Shasta County like many inland counties in California lags way behind the more affluent and economic urban areas.  

And why is that?  I have argued for years against the conservative wave that hit rural California as part of the Reagan Revolution in the 1970s.  That Revolution has seen its ebb since the disastrous governorship of Pete Wilson, who foolishly tied the Republican Party to the xenophobia of immigration fear.  

Meanwhile the state got more and more diverse, leaving even Orange County voting Democratic.  

The irony here is Latinos, the target of most of the xenophobia, are by their Catholic roots, social conservatives.  It would have been easy for Republicans to appeal to them in the 1990s.  But no, Wilson foolishly tied the economic downturn of the George P. Bush era (which really was caused by Reagan’s tax cuts) to immigration from Mexico.  He profited personally, getting elected twice, but tied Republicans to a losing position and handed the state over to the Democrats, who decided to become the party of diversity both locally and nationally.

This is very ironic, considering that the Democrats were the segregationist party until 1970.  But Nixon changed all that, and his southern strategy won the south for the Republican Party, but lost California (the birthplace of the Reagan Revolution) for the foreseeable future.

The problem is many whites ran north and inland in their retirement.  They avoided the ethnic diversity that is still growing in the cities, and established conservative hegemony inland, unfortunately where nobody lived.  

The other effect, was economic.  The economy of California is truly a global one.  The digital economy thrives on world markets (Apple Computer, born in California, is a good example).  And the jobs have exploded in number, making California the sixth largest economy on earth.

Not so inland.  The conservatives, and they are relatively few, run inland counties.  And their repressive leadership, that seeks to keep minorities out, that is virulently anti-immigration, runs off entrepreneurs, discourages economic growth.  

Shasta County is a perfect example.  Right now the Bethel Church, a very conservative evangelical church, is in the process of taking over the City Council.  There is a State of Jefferson movement, seeking to link up with counties in Oregon to form a new, conservative led state.  It doesn’t have a chance, but it is a rallying point for a increasingly right wing agenda.

Meanwhile the young people are leaving.  I even left, a Redding native of many years, who raised my family there.  I left for other reasons of course, but political ones were up there.  

I could not stomach watching my hometown destroy itself.  The crushing blow was a two time failure to pass a small sales tax increase to rebuild the police force and fire departments; that had been decimated by the cutbacks of the Great Recession.  For a $2.50 per month average increase in sales tax, Redding conservatives have turned down twice a measure that would make their city safer and less prone to the fire that could destroy the whole town.  

You see Shasta County sits on a powder keg; the city sits bottom of foothills from three sides, that if the wind is right, will blow a fire right into the downtown.  And the fire protection has been cut.

Moreover young people are leaving in droves...the city is shrinking.

Redding was a model city once, its City Manager government was respected all over the state.  Now, with conservatives running the show, Redding is a laughing stock....

The latest is the opioid epidemic, that is killing Redding citizens and driving petty crime up (with little police protection; remember they voted down the police force renewal).  And the poverty rate grows.  And the schools shrink, or go to Charter Schools, that lessen educational quality all the time.

And the professionals are now beginning to abandon the town, doctors are leaving....

Then there is global warming, that pushes Redding temperatures to record levels every year.  This year, with the drought growing brush at record rates, we are headed into October, which is the fire month, with a tinder dry land and less firemen.  It is the perfect storm.

Meanwhile a Supervisor started a rant on Facebook about the Sanctuary City California just passed.  They are going nuts up there, which is interesting since “illegals” hardly exist up there (there is not work).

But they push out their chests and proclaim their hatred for Democrats and Liberals who they blame for all their misfortunes; which is interesting because conservatives have been running local governments and dominate state elected representative offices for the past forty years!  It seems to me they might start asking their representatives where is the “beef” as they slide further into poverty.  Fact is their representative are from the agricultural corporate world who represent their selfish interests and don’t give a rip about who elected them...and the people of Shasta County don’t get it.  

The blame?  It’s on the conservative short sighted leadership, that is continuing Wilson’s hate campaign and have of course hooked up with Trump’s Xenophobic lies.  And who do they blame.....the Democrats of course, who haven’t run the county for forty years!

I suppose if they get their dream of the State of Jefferson they will immediately build a wall along the Siskiyou Mountains...good luck because the ill conceived state will fail before the ink is dry on its Constitution.  

You see Shasta County is already one of the state’s poorest counties; it gets more aid per capital, Medical; etc, than almost every other county.  If they join the state of Jefferson Shasta County and others  will literally starve to death...seniors will die, children will die just from the Medical cuts alone...

You see Shasta County can be poor, and a sanctuary for scared white people who have fled the cities because “they” live there; precisely because of their political attitudes.  But the dirty little secret is this:  Seniors do not suffer from this.  They get their Medical, Medicaid, In Home Support Services, etc., etc...and all the opioids they can take....

The people who suffer are young people with families, who cannot find good jobs and are leaving in droves.  The people who will suffer is the death of Redding, Red Bluff and even Chico (more liberal) killed by the same idiocy that killed Detroit, Kansas; etc...

Regulate?

Ok the debate has started. We need to discuss reforming our gun control laws. We need universal gun registration, background checks a national data base of all guns, outlaw semi automatic and automatic assault rifles and pistols...we need to comply with regulations to possess weapons SAFELY!

Oh no I hear you saying. No registrations, no background checks,etc.  We have our rights...it’s a free country

Oh Really...THINK on this:

1. All of your cars are registered and insured by mandate.
2. You are registered for the draft, for Social Security, licensed to drive, licensed to fly, you are licensed to fish and to hunt....there are data bases that track you associated with all of these.
3. Your appliances are all registered if you want them warranted.
4. All of your electronic appliances are registered, leaving an Mac and IP Address every time you send an email or open a web site.   Facebook and Google track your tastes and buying habits.
5. Your credit card registers you, and tracks your credit...
6. Your credit score is registered. If it is too low you can’t get that new car!  But you don’t go nuts, you work to improve your credit.
7. If you own a home it is deeded, registered insured tracked kept in a police address data base.   If you remodel you have to get a building permit and have inspections by law.
8. If you have a mortgage it is a deed of trust and is registered.   You fill out reams of forms to do this without a peep!

So why the heart attack if you have to register your gun, or get a license to have it (you do that if you hunt)?  Why go nuts if the government can do a background check on you to qualify to get a lethal weapon, but not a peep when credit checks are run on you to buy anything of value?

You stand for hours at the DMV to take a TEST to prove you can drive. But there is no test to prove you can safely handle a firearm, not a national one or state one in most states.   You give thousand of dollars to the NRA so that you won’t have to comply to ANYTHING to have a tool that kills things. Cars can kill things...you take a test to drive a car....no test to use a tool that kills people!

Finally you work for your entire working life to develop a resume of what education you have, of training you have, and letters of recommendation to get a job....but go nuts if a resume was required to carry a weapon.   It is my right....it says so in the 2nd Amendment....what about the Preamble, the 14th Amendment, the parts about having rights to live unafraid and safe?

We all conform...we all give up our liberty conditionally EVERY DAY.....So why go nuts if you to have to do responsible compliance to possess a lethal weapon?

Why?

What We Have to Do

I had been in dozens of schools, as a teacher, coach and administrator.  I had just finished an assignment in the toughest school in our district, Pioneer, a highly regarded Continuation School, when I arrived at my last assignment; a Superintendent Principal at a small mountain district in rural California.  

The continuation school won state honors under my leadership, but more as a testimonial to the good work the staff had been doing for years for “at-risk” students.  They were experts at taking angry young men and women, damaged children if you will, and getting them back on track to graduation; making citizens out of potential criminals.

And it was not for the faint of heart, it was not easy.  It was the hardest work I had ever done.  It wasn’t for everyone.  And it took courage and resilience to show up for work everyday and listen to the stories, that ultimately every time was a result of childhood abuse; sexual and otherwise, abandonment and poverty.

Take that and multiply it times 100 and you get working in racially segregated urban areas.  The violence is multiplied many time; the anger many times.  

Take that and multiply it by 1000 if you work in a Native American community.

That was my last assignment.  It was almost like by accident.  I had a serious conflict with my Superintendent in my Pioneer assignment.  He for some reason, wanted to seriously reduce our efforts to help at risk youth.  He started to dismantle what had been in evidence for years and I fought him.  It came down my leaving or lawsuits.  I took leaving.

And I wound up next to a Native American rancheria (reservation). The population was about 40% Native American, the rest very conservative ranchers.

I called it cowboys and Indians.  

The first fight I was brought into to deal with was a wake up call.  I used all the tricks of the trade I had used at Pioneer (an alternative school for tough street wise kids) and went nowhere.

They did not say a thing, they looked down and seemed to accept what I was saying as I suspended them for a couple days and sent them home after I tried to call their parents.  Parents very seldom could be found, we usually had one of our bus drivers drive them to the “res” with a van.  

I was told by my secretary, as they left, they had massively disrespected me.  “They were telling you to F off”, she said.  I said how, they were respectful, didn’t argue with me, took their punishment quietly.

She told me, “They never looked up at you, they looked down.  To a Native American that is the utmost sign of disrespect”.

I did not know that, and I am 1/16 Cherokee.  I didn’t have a clue what I was getting into.

And so it went.  It was many times worse than Del Palo Heights, where I started my teaching journey.  And when I tell people I taught in the “Heights” people shake their head and say “My God, you taught there?”

So I have been “there”, but never like what existed in the rural corner of California that had a reservation of many tribes existing in squalor, pain, and the lack of hope.

For two years I tried to learn.  I did what I could.  And I was amazed by the resiliency of the people, of how some were surviving just fine, and their children, both white and brown, were succeeding.  And the others, the suicides, the prostitution of 12 year olds, the little boys and girls running the streets of the reservation at 3:00 in the morning because their parents (whoever that was) was too wasted to take care of them; they still haunt my dreams even today!

And of the federal government, who ignored them.  Of the pathetic level of support for the people of the reservation who were basically in prison there.  

And the leadership of the reservation who worked hard for their people, who were supported many times by my staff, and who were finally graduating Native Americans from the school system; the first graduate was in the late 1990s, the district had been there for almost 100 years!

This is America...this is the America that is still there, that stands as testimonial to white supremacy of hate and racism.  And the other America that refuses to give up, that fights back, that kneels during the National Anthem to show America that we have a great amount of work to do.

I have no regrets.  I went into the monster.  Many do, and it breaks them, they quit because it takes courage, sometimes physical courage; it takes heart, and it takes a social conscience that is able to say, don’t take it personal, they don’t hate you, they hate “it”, in may ways the clown in the sewer from the movie, that seeks to kills us all with its hate and prejudice.

Only thing, the “clown”, it...has yellow hair and flies around in Air Force One.

We need a new effort in America...we have done good work, but we have just uncovered “it”...he still lurks in our hearts, we have a President who uses it, personifies it, dividing us for his political gain.     

But we need a new generation to go into the Heights, into the agony, the pain, and educate...educate...educate....teach the hopeless that there is hope.

As I walk amongst my fellow students at Sac State, and I see the effort working, I see diversity, Black, Brown, White walking to classes together; far more  diverse than it was for me as a graduate student 45 years ago.  It is working, we are getting there.

So keep kneeling at football games, keep reminding us that we have more work to do....to unite this country as a place for equal opportunity for all!

What we don’t want to do, is accept Trump’s negativity and his hate...and what YOU have to do is quit helping him...

FUBAR

The Vietnam War...

It smashes across my confidence, across my empathy, across my sensibility just as it did so many years ago.

The lying...and the absolute inability to understand a war for independence, much like ours, that America never did understand.  We could not understand national independence movements against a colonial power!   After our Declaration of Independence!  After those immortal words we were playing the role of England!!!!

And why we didn’t understand that is what smashes my confidence, crosses my empathy and crosses my sensibility now more than ever.

The belligerent confidence in the force of arms to solve problems is at the core of this.  At the core is are the scores of War Movies I watched, with John Wayne and others, the just war movies, as we destroyed Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo.

The Just War, the end to Hitler, the idealism of destroying fascism.  All those were thrown at us, especially in the good guy, bad guy depiction of the war that was spoon fed to us in my last year of high school.

In 1965 many of my classmates enlisted...many also went to college.  But the nation was ready for war, people even talked that it could erase the humiliation of the “Bay of Pigs”.  After all, this was another just war, using the force of arms to solve problems (Communism).

But in my first year of college, while debating Mitt Romney in a dorm room about Vietnam, I began to read about the history of Southeast Asia.  The nagging history of the Viet Minh, of the Japanese occupation, and of the desire of Vietnam to be independent of colonial domination.

I remember Romney, who openly talked about his father running for President in 1968, in response to the inconsistency of Johnson...The only inconsistency in Johnson was that he was lying so much he didn’t make sense.  The troops were writing home.  The war that could not be lost, was being lost.  And the cure was more troops.

Deferments began to be in jeopardy.  The small groups of concern became thousands of anti-war protests.  The reaction of being called a communist for stating what history has confirmed, Vietnam was the wrong war in the wrong place.

But we didn’t know that then.  There was the threat of Communism.  The Soviet Union supported Vietnam along with China.  This was a struggle of communism versus liberal democracy; of the good guys versus the bad guys.

Besides that, the college students protesting the war were only doing it to save their own skins right?  

But questions grew like, where was the threat to our true national security.  Like, why didn’t the South Vietnamese fight harder.  Why were there constant reports of betrayals, or running from the enemy.

And later, after Tet, the reports of American atrocities.  The thing went seriously sidewise!

By that time, the opposition was overwhelming.  The reports of heroin and other drugs running rampant in the G.I.s.  Of the dirty little secret that was so kept from us when we were young, that war ultimately cannot be justified.

And at the same time the Civil Rights Movement was gaining steam.  We began to see American’s original sin; white supremacy, as G.I.s shot the “little brown people” in a rush to build a body count; with the stated objective  to “kill them all”.

And, at that same time, Native American History was discovered, showing that same strategy had been used against them; that atrocity after atrocity was evident in an American genocide.

The officers, in basic training actually called hunting Viet Cong as Indian hunting...of Viet Cong territory as Indian Territory...the same kill them all approach from 1875 was being used in 1967!

And that was the stated objective of the American effort in Vietnam, kill them all.  

And that lost me.  They lost me while I was a soldier.  They lost me forever.  Genocide was what Germany did!

And my peers, many who served in Vietnam were lost for different reasons, but with the same result; a deep unabashed cynicism; a deep distrust of American government, a FUBAR reality.

And today we look up at Trump, the ultimate FUBAR reaction to a reality that you could make no other reason out of, than to say it was FUBAR....

The reckoning!

Relevant History?

Again, what Native American history really was a genocide which includes the destruction of culture and history in the victims.   A relevant and accurate telling of Native American History is one of a culture’s ethnocentrism, racism and greed obliterating another.  

The history was changed alright,  into a lie to hide this tragedy of humanity.  I am sure you are aware of the Doctrine of Discovery, which was used to seize lands from Native Americans who wouldn't or couldn't (language barrier) declare themselves Christian.  The Pope had declared that only Christians could claim land for their sovereign (the Pope) in the New World.  This was allegedly to keep European Nations from going to war over the "New World"....they did anyway.  

And this practice was the beginning of a systematic ethnic cleansing of continents of North, Central and South America.

After the Civil War, the task was completed under the guise of Manifest Destiny and spreading Democracy to Hawaii and beyond.  The reason this history has been changed and lied about is there is debt to be paid for  the land the Europeans stole, including California to Massachusetts and beyond.  Stole...like not paid for.  Over and over and over again treaties were broken, agreements shredded  because it was easier to exterminate the Indians and take their land.    And the land was given to immigrants who were fleeing the feudal system of Europe and Asia; providing the opportunities that are the backbone of American democracy…Problem is, the whole thing is a con, a cover for out and out stealing of land.

Have you ever been to an Indian Reservation or Rancheria?  It is one of the worst places on the planet...poverty, suicide, drug addiction, and death.  The effects of having a culture destroyed are still playing out.

You are right history should be studied in its entirety  The fact that Native Americans had wars against each other's tribes is true, but the casualty rates were far below the thousands who were continually massacred....the bounties that were paid...the annihilation of game (buffalo etc) to starve the Native Americans out.  

And to say not many Native Americans would not  give up the technology of today and actually like “progress"is excuse me...bullshit.  To even imply that Native Americans are better than they were before western "civilization" is so tone deaf white supremacist it  does not deserve a reply...But here it goes anyway.

I am part Native American, a Stanford Graduate with a Masters Degree and contributed 36 years of my life to educating young people....contributions of Native Americans are all over the place.  I like technology and the modern lifestyle as much as anybody else.  But I also have seen the reservation, I also am a descendent of a lynching.    And I think reparations need to be paid.  And I know lots of Native Americans who live in squalor who barely exist, some are now homeless, while their land makes a fortunes for the “others”.  

But the debt is still owed...reparations need to be paid...The land was not yours to take.  

And the tragedy is that there was plenty of land to parcel out to the Native Americans and acculturation could have been done so much better except for this:  white supremacy drove the interactions of the cultures from Native Americans to African Americans.  

The Doctrine of Discovery put white Christians at the top of society for no other reason that by superior force of guns, certainly Jesus is nowhere in this equation (in fact he would be appalled if he came back to witness what was done).

 It is white supremacy that drives even this discussion....you cannot see it I guess...because the cultural bias is so embedded that it is seeps out all the time.  White supremacy has tainted American History from 1492 on. 

Look, Western Civilization has done wondrous things...it also has caused two huge world wars, and RIGHT NOW has the world poised on the edge of nuclear annihilation.  

And, the climate RIGHT NOW is poisoned by warming that has obliterated Texas and is just about to destroy Florida, with more to come.  

I call what is coming the Reckoning...and the odds are, after just electing a mad man as President that whatever is left of the world will look back on what western civilization did to the Native Americans and what it did to the climate as a brutal attack as my ancestors said so eloquently on the "human beings”.  Western culture forgot a long time ago what it meant to treat people as human beings.  How else does the Holocaust happen?  What culture in history has done this to as many over and over again?  

History always needs to be relevant all right , and where we are headed I don't want to go....but the true, relevant  history of western culture is one of destruction, death, and …..A Reckoning of Biblical Proportions!

Convential Wisdom Bought and Paid For

Conventional wisdom can be a death knell for us all.  Special interests like big oil and gas can use it with deadly effect.

Right now we watch in horror as one hurricane after another explodes through the southeast.  We watch in horror as wildfires destroy hundreds of square miles, fed by temperature levels in the 100s.

We watch in horror as Africa and the Mideast struggle with violent upheavals fed by drought and famine.

And we elect a climate denier.  That’s right the United States, in a classic example of special interests (and I’m counting Russia here) went exactly the wrong way in combating global climate change, setting any kind of real effort to save the earth back dozens of years.  When Russia interfered in the election, by helping Trump, it did so for a purpose...Russia’s economy depends on oil and gas production even more than we do!  Global warming gets you arrested in Russia!

It is the same thing as electing Reagan whose first thing was to take the solar panels off the White House.  The message was clear:  coal is king...and global warming accelerated. 

He did that, like Trump pulling us out of the Paris Accords, because he was paid to do it. 

Both were paid in a manner of speaking by the oil and gas cabals, both here and overseas, that sees profit above everything.  Who knows, and they know, that global warming is a real man made thing, their fuel is what is doing it, but they don’t care….they will all be dead when it really kicks into high gear.

Only problem is, it is kicking into high gear RIGHT NOW!

So Trump, now becomes hurricane Donald, trying to show how well prepared we are, as global warming super storms virtually destroy the economy.

The hurricanes and the fires will cost trillions...the rise the the sea levels will be more...and we will soon join Africa and the Middle East and India; etc., in mountains of debt, and financial ruin.

And it will happen right now...Our debt ridden economy that cannot afford decent medical care, is being blown up right now by hurricanes, tornadoes, and fires.

But will we get out of our cars?  Will we demand mass transit and pay for it?  Hell no its all about me!

ME….ME….ME...ME….ME...ME...ME..

In football, where I  played and coached, that attitude has one result:  you get beat!

NO, because conventional wisdom, bought and paid for by oil and gas and coal, dictates that this is all a ruse, a China conspiracy according to Trump who destroyed American leadership in this battle for survival, by voiding the Paris Agreement.  Right there he probably doomed our grandchildren!  We do it everyday when we jump in our cars and drive endless miles to work.

It was not fair;  Trump lied. “I won’t be the mayor of Paris but the mayor of Detroit”...(Hell he won’t dare go to Detroit).

In fact it was fair, it did admit to the “developing nations like India” that the industrialized west had cheated and contributed the bulk of CO2 to the atmosphere, and now sanctimoniously wanted to curb emissions...so language was put into the agreement pledging help to quickly change to clean energy production for India and other “emerging nations”.  That “compromise” might of saved us…..until Trump voided the Agreement!

And Solar City and other clean energy companies led the charge.  The oil and gas companies pledged quietly that they would kill the Paris Accords PRECISELY because of the clean energy aspect, the compromise that got the Paris Agreement passed by all but two nations!

Killing the Paris Accord had everything to do with big oil, coal and gas!

Trump is a shill of oil, coal and gas.  He is owned by them.  The Secretary of State is a former CEO for Exxon for God’s sake.

And if you talk to the ordinary American they will tell you, with conviction, that the global warming thing is overblown, that conventional wisdom and common sense dictates that we are exaggerating.

Tell Texas that...tell Florida that.

Florida right now has to pump water off city streets in Miami everyday at high tide, because the ocean levels have raised so much due to global warming.  The Republican Governor of the state has kept this quiet, even threatening all state employees with being reprimanded if they even utter the words “global warming”.

And today, he is pleading with his citizens to basically evacuate the ENTIRE STATE!  How is he going to hide this?

And you, you keep driving...you keep ignoring the bus...you even make sure junior gets their car so they can drive to school like the “cool kids”...as parking lots burst and commutes go up to 100 miles one way everyday.

Try highway 80 lately from Sacramento to the Bay Area...try the Altamont Pass lately?

So we keep pouring CO2 into the atmosphere, at it was  106 in San Francisco and you are putting a gun to your grandchildren’s heads.

We can fix this...but we can’t do it until we stop electing Republicans….they are bought and paid for by oil, gas and coal…..

Some Democrats are too, but the clean energy industry has had to go Democratic because the Republicans are OWNED by big oil

And we can’t do it with Trump as President.

The Reckoning!