Garrett -”Try imagining a country where that’s not the case.” Ain’t that the truth.

Try imagining a country where that’s not the case.

of course, but this particular sentence is only one part of the picture I am drawing–out of context it sounds maive…in context of the paragraph it makes psense…

that’s right, people whose whole life is spinning upside down out of control, who are walking around in a daze and don’t know what hit them, who can’t keep their heads above water financially and in all other ways, who have their dignity and rights stomped on on a daily basis, those people are to blame for everything. they are abetting the ruling class, as if they had a choice. blame the victim.

those people don’t have time to read/comment on theories.

while you sit in your armchair and pontificate. and deal your wisdom.

who the hell cares about your sympathies.

Try imagining a country where that’s not the case.

Thanks for the book review, Lloyd. I’ll have to check it out.

evie wrote: “However “wrong” the courts and the racket are, I’m hard pressed for sympathy to workers who aid and abet the depraved ruling class.”

Of course, their intent is to survive and for their loved ones to survive. Aiding and abetting the depraved ruling class is an unfortunate side effect. Sadly, most all of us are aiding the depraved ruling class…some more than others, I suppose. I don’t have a TV, I recycle, yada, yada, yada…but I’m not raising hell the way I should. Am I too scared to disrupt my life as is? Perhaps I am.

One year ago 7,000 (IBEW) Local 733 shipyard workers in Pascagoula went on strike over wages. It may be that Northrop is bringing in scab labor from India to gradually replace union workers.

It has not always been a law. I also bet that there are millions of white folks who have never been asked for their ID. Furthermore, the idea of roadblocks merely to check people’s IDs smacks of totalitarianism. Just because it has happened and may be a law does not mean it is okay or should be accepted. The fact that this practice is now widely accepted and has been validated by the courts does not make it right, it only means that the courts represent a certain part of society–many who never have to show ID. It’s not a mechanism to make people safe, it’s a mecahinsimto keep the unwanted out of places they are not wanted.

And how/where do these poor immigrants get $20,000 to buy a job, and why would they even want to come to the US - doesn’t the whole world hate us?
They don’t get the $20, 000–they have to either borrow it or they get it taken out of their first year’s worth of paychecks.

And also, how many black men around New Orleans were denied jobs b/c workers were imported?
This is part of the reason companies imported workers–so they wouldn’t have to thire black Americans. The developers want the black folk out!

1. We get that North American Union and erase the borders - eventually we might erase all borders. But it could make the “redistribution of wealth” more out of reach as there will be so many more to share it with.

2. We encourage immigrants to return home and overthrow their own economically oppressive governments and maybe the US peeple can copy that.

Having to present valid identification applies to anyone in the US, has for many decades. If you have no ID you risk being charged with loitering, vacrancy, etc. Or maybe white folks were never subject to this law?

And how/where do these poor immigrants get $20,000 to buy a job, and why would they even want to come to the US - doesn’t the whole world hate us?

And also, how many black men around New Orleans were denied jobs b/c workers were imported?

This book is more painful to read than Eichmann in Jerusalem, Germinal, or the pornographic The Rehnquist Choice by John Dean. But everyone should try. The book first describes how white Americans have kept their residential neighborhoods white since about 1920. Initially, by simply murdering African-Americans trying to move in. Then with widespread restrictive deed covenants. More recently, with loan institution redlining, and low-income public housing under-funding and ripoffs. Most recently, add, with pervasive real estate agent ruses, misdirection, and discouragement. This history needed telling clearly and succinctly. Subsequently, the book defines “apartheid” rigorously and identifies it in sixteen urban areas in the country, urban areas containing a substantial percentage of all African-Americans. The book then looks at the living conditions of the most isolated, homeless and hopeless, drug-and-violence-obsessed African-Americans, and identifies apartheid as a cause, if not the cause, of these conditions.

John Dean’s book says that Nixon in the early 1970’s required his three Supreme Court appointees, the most important of whom was Chief Justice William Rehnquist, to be “right” on the race-residential question and, essentially, to look with disfavor on federal efforts to enforce the Fair Housing Act with respect to single-family homes. Consequently, American residential neighborhoods — already less integrated in 1970 than in 1920 — are less integrated now than in 1970. Between 1920 and 1970 the racial prejudice of individuals probably could be blamed. In the thirty…years since Rehnquist commenced to “put his stamp” on the United States Supreme Court, it’s been the snowballing insanity of our electoral system and its deformed progenies, based on money and gerrymandering undisturbed by Court rulings, that get the credit.

(October 27, 2004)