REMINISCE

Carl Bernstein, one of the men who helped discover President Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal was a speaker for the main graduation ceremonies at the May 2008 Commencement for University of Maryland College Park. As I sat in my cap and gown, bedazzled and looking fabulous; clutching my cell phone texting in one hand, my flask full of tequila in the other, I had a bit of a revelation. I watched somewhat buzzed, as some of my fellow graduates dozed off, and I was just about to follow suit until I heard Mr. Bernstein say “I don’t understand why your generation does not question its leadership.”

I listened half drunkenly (5-7 shots prior to the graduation ceremonies has that effect on most people) but his point was blindingly clear. Our generation is brilliant, but for some reason we have allowed the last 8 years to go on with no one accepting responsibility for getting us into this position in which we now stand. An article on the Huffington Post today ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/will-the-madoff-debacle-f_b_151219.html ) created a resurgence in the emotions I felt on that May afternoon. The atrocities of the Bush Administration, the financial industry, & Wall Street are to say the least, DISGUSTING. Not only with the current economic recession, but in regards to the Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, Fish and Wildlife Services, Iraq, Afghanistan, tax laws, the record breaking budget deficit….the list goes on and on of areas in which the government and our leaders have either deceived or failed us completely.




Millenials/ EchoBoomers/Generation Y, we have come of age in the Information Era. It seems like more investigative journalism is devoted to the latest scandals and clubbing activities of celebrities and pseudo-celebrities even (yes you, LC, Heidi, Spencer, Real Housewives, and the rest of you talentless pieces of flotsam on cable networks) than to issues that affect our daily lives and ultimately, our futures. We have endless resources at our fingertips, yet I feel for so long we have let those in power commit injustices to us and the world, with ZERO accountability for their actions. Many of us may ask “what CAN we do?” well, there are things like blogs, to educate people and share opinions, possibly even come up with plans of action. There are also groups in different areas and college campuses, for example Community Roots (http://croots.org/) headquartered at NYU and my alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park. Should we overthrow the government?…No, of course not. But we should make educated choices in picking our leadership at a federal, state, and local level. And when those leaders fail us, we most of the time, have the authority to rally and impeach them, get them out of office, or at the very least, shame them through some means of public humiliation.


Here’s one thing I don’t understand and which perfectly explains the country’s attitude of relative ambivalence to our governments’ failures. An MSNBC poll ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904 ) cites 89% of those polled feel that Bush’s actions as President justify impeachment. In June of this year Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D), introduced 35 articles of impeachment against Dubya. The Judiciary Committee heard the resolution yet; it was not pursued any further. Also hearings at the Congressional and State party level have been raised supporting the impeachment of Bush. Democrats in Congress did not pursue it any further in order not to cause a stir of disunity before the Presidential election, and of course now they have much bigger items on their plate than impeaching Bush. Its crazy to me that we impeached a President over 10 years ago for getting his dick sucked and not telling the whole truth about it, yet let a guy go SCOT FREE when he is responsible for the deaths of over 4000 troops and billions of dollars wasted in a horribly managed war, along with about a dozen blatant violations of the US Constitution. I guess the millions of sperm that met their end on Monica Lewinskys infamous blue dress mean more to America than the billions of taxpayers dollars (including a budget surplus) squandered over the past 8 years.

It seems like so many people feel that Bush should pay for his wrongdoings, yet no one wants to stand up and enforce any type of punishment. Not to Bush, nor to any of the executives who still collect their million dollar bonuses while their workers get laid off and their company accepts bailout money from taxpayers because they essentially FAILED at being profitable. No one seems to want to make these people pay; or at the VERY least, admit that they failed, and APOLOGIZE for the results of their ineptitude.

My sentiments toward this country and my generation in particular can be summed up in two quotes from once of my favorite movies and tv show:

“WAKE UP, PEOPLE”
~Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee

“ASK QUESTIONS, TAKE CHANCES, MAKE MISTAKES”
~The Magic School Bus, Ms. Frizzle

LET THE BACKLASH BEGIN!

You’re probably going to think I’m racist, but I’m no more racist than any other American; which is to say that I have prejudices, we all do, but I would never do any racist action or anything of violence to anyone solely because of their race or ethnicity. I have to preclude this blog entry with that because I’ve gotten harsh criticism from people whenever I express my views against accommodations made for illegal immigrants in this country.

So I was reading about Herbert Hoover in preparations for writing another blog and I came across the Mexican Repatriation Act. From 1928-1937 up to 2 million illegal and legal immigrants, citizens, and aliens were forcefully deported to Mexico. The reason was that American sentiment was that Mexicans were taking away jobs and aid from American citizens during the early stages of the Great Depression. Unfortunately, it turned into a classic example of the rampant xenophobia in the USA in the 1920s, with more than 60% of those deported being legal immigrants or American citizens. However, I agree with the premise of the program, and I believe something like it should be part of an economic stimulus program today.

Today, every time I mention sumthin about illegal immigrants gots to go, someone always responds with “theyre not takin food off your plate” or “theyre doing the jobs that Americans don’t want to do” or “you’re so racist” “They’re boosting our economy with cheap labor”. What they fail to realize is that my sentiments against immigrants have nothing to do with their country of origin or socioeconomic status. It mainly has to do with their ILLEGAL status. First of all, they aren’t takin food off my plate, but they are using my tax dollars to pay for services offered to their children. They send their children to schools here ; 90% of the time it’s a public school, which is funded by taxes. Illegal workers don’t pay taxes to the federal or state governments, so basically citizens foot the bill for things used by children of non citizens. Second, they are not doing jobs Americans don’t want to do; they are doing jobs that would be offered to Americans at higher wages, but they’re doing it for lower wages because they’re illegal and basically have no legal right to demand minimum wage from their employers, and if they tried to start a legal battle, they aren’t protected by US laws as illegals, and would prolly be deported by the government. Cleaning hotels, kitchens, other domestic jobs and construction jobs used to be done by American minorities, not illegal immigrants; and things were that way for decades until the influx of illegals, mainly from Latin countries. Its not that Americans don’t want to do these jobs, the unemployment level among minorities consistently has always been higher than that of whites. It the fact that employers would much rather pay an illegal $4 an hour rather than have to pay an American $5.15 and offer them benefits.

Also this cheap labor is NOT good for our economy. Those wages that illegals earn are not taxed. The money they earn also is not put back into the US economy on goods and services. Some of it is of course, but much of it is sent back to their home country to help their family there. Jobs are taken away from American citizens; so you have the double whammy of unemployment and money lost to US businesses; as a DIRECT result of illegal immigrants working and living here. How in the balls is that any type of good for our economy?

Being an illegal immigrant is a crime, no matter if you are from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Spain, Ethiopia, England, or Scotland. Those who are illegal need to be deported or there needs to be some comprehensive plan for legalization. Bush tried to get a plan passed and it got shut down by his own Republicans because they consider legalization some sort of amnesty. Which it isn’t, it’s a path to citizenship. So basically for the past 20 years, the US has chose to do NOTHING and let the problem get blasted out of proportion ie an estimated 10 MILLION illegals in the US today. I personally think there should be a period of time where they are able to begin a period of legalization. If they pass, then welcome to American citizenry. If you fail, (ie have a criminal record, will need government aid of any sort, are mentally unstable ) ADIOS AMIGO, BON VOYAGE, MON FRERE…you GOTS to go. They even get a free ride home! And if you decide not to apply for legalization, well then you are knowingly and intentionally committing a crime and your ass needs to be deported. At that point, I definitely agree with immigration raids. It’s sad, because yeh, families will be broken up, a lot of these people are not criminals or delinquents, but when the legalization period passes, you are choosing to be illegal if you didn’t apply, and you must pay the price.

Such a plan will cost taxpayer money, but in effect will create jobs as well. Create jobs in enforcing the deportations, but also allow many positions to open up for American citizens, who will have to be paid minimum wage. I know this has the potential to turn into violence because a lot of people have animosity towards immigrants of certain ethnicities, and we all know law enforcement aren’t always the highest on the IQ totem pole. It just so happens that our media chooses to focus on those of Hispanic origin as the troublemakers; but in my opinion, if you’re here illegally, no matter where you’re from, you need to BOUNCE, son.

Most immigrants regardless of their legal or illegal status are upstanding people. People like them deserve to become American citizens. If you don’t wish to become citizens, go back to your country; or get a visa, work here, then when your visa’s up, go back to your country. This is the land of opportunity, not a free pad to crash at.

I MAY BE WRONG, BUT I DOUBT IT

Back in February, I predicted a recession or depression for the United States in 2008. Not on the blog of course, but to my NIH (National Institutes of Health) coworkers. I remember exactly why I predicted it too. I had read on WashingtonPost.com I believe, that CitiGroup had posted 10 billion in losses. I was like O SHIT. When’s the last time credit companies were posting billions in losses?…um the GREAT DEPRESSION. Then I looked at why they lost so much and a lot of it had to do with the defaulting mortgage crisi which began in the summer of 2007. I was like, they aren’t going to be able to regain those losses ever because if the people cant pay their mortgages now, they damn sure cant pay them later. Everyone who I told was like, “oh no, things will get better.” Or “dayum, why are you so pessimistic, its just a bump in the road”. But then what happened?…Gas reached $4 and $5 in some places, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost every month, GDP (gross domestic product) went down, and as of December 1, 2008; the USA is officially in a recession.

So here’s another prediction, but I REEEAAAALLY hope I’m wrong. Okay, so the Big Three automakers didn’t get their precious bailout. GM and Chrysler supposedly don’t have enough cash on hand to get them to Dec 31 (Ford is allegedly okai for a few more months, but still wants some taxpayer moolah). The only way they stay afloat is if Bush/Paulson allows some of the $700 billion financial industry bailout fund go to them for an emergency loan. * By the way, there is no oversight board for the bailout funds in DECEMBER when the conditions of allowing the bailout stated there would be an oversight board when it was authorized in OCTOBER.* So I really don’t know if GM and Chrysler are gonna get bailed out but I do hope so, just because our economy cant afford for them to go bankrupt right now. Maybe we could’ve withstood it as recently as May or June, but not now.

So if the Big 3 go under, we can pretty much count on another Great Depression. And you know how we’re going to get out of it?….World War 3. Yes, as of December 12, 2008; I’m officially predicting it within the next 2 years. Damn, I hope I’m wrong. But you know FDR did not fix the Great Depression. World War 2 did. I’m afraid history might repeat itself and the only way we’re going to get out of the impending Depression is going to be a global war. Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t going to get us out of it because we don’t supply anything to anyone to fight those wars. We fight them, pay for what we do over there with American dollars, yet get no revenue, much less profit from those wars…unless you count “safety of the American People” which isn’t exactly tangible and quite questionable; and can be more closely attributed to the work of the Department of Homeland Security than to the military’s efforts.

You know where the next world war will probably start?…my bets are on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Here’s the 2 reasons why: First, not many people know that Pakistan was on the brink of nuclear war with India about 3 years ago. They really don’t fux with each other. Now you had the Mumbai attacks around Thanksgiving and Indians are PISSED with Pakistan because the terror group that committed the attacks was allegedy based in Pakistan. Pakistan is also the new hideout of the Taliban. Now with Obama’s pledge to put more resources in Afghanistan and do whatever necessary to find Bin Laden, including crossing the border into Pakistan, we have an impending shitstorm. The new powder keg is in the Middle East. Expect things to get worse when our presence in Iraq diminishes and Iran infiltrates and subsequently takes over.

Now you can say that Obama wont take us to war over there but guess what, if something pops off in the United States again (Pearl Harbor sent us to WWII; 9/11 sent us to Afghanistan in the first place) we will be all up in the Middle East mix; or Obama will have his picture in the dictionary next to BITCHASSNESS. I truly hope I’m wrong only because I do not want to see a World War in my lifetime. Especially since everyone and their cousins have nuclear weapons now. Let’s hope the world leaders realize how dangerous those weapons are and choose to fight fairly (if there is such a thing these days). Honestly I just see it coming, and as of right now, I don’t see a way to get out of this mess without war =(

Stay tuned for my next entry, which will further explain why history is repeating itself, with Bush’s Herbert Hoover-esque handling of the credit crisis. Its pretty crazy, this fool is almost exactly repeating Hoovers actions...What a dumbass.
JANUARY 20TH CANT COME FAST ENOUGH!!