395 Comments

Thank you Professor Richardson. It was interesting to me in my review of the 900+ pages of Project 2025 (https://open.substack.com/pub/bomdia/p/project-2025-the-heritage-foundation) that China as U.S. enemy number one was a recurring theme throughout almost every section.

While the United States always seems to need a scary monster in order to justify spending over half of every dollar of our tax revenue on "defense" and military adventure, the provocation toward China is, at a minimum, problematic.

There is certainly economic competition between us, however, to characterize them as our enemy at a time in which the criminal Putin continues his attacks on Ukraine while threatening the U.S., U.K. and Europe with nuclear escalation seems a poor strategy.

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Indeed. This is all part of 'the plan'. Framing China as a main enemy while Putin threatens Ukraine and others seems unwise. It diverts attention from more urgent threats and risks worsening relations with a key economic partner, which could destabilize international efforts and priorities.

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I am caught between ironies.

1. According to many sources I live in the "Hong Kong of the west". Chinese developers/Chinese money through E Visas developed much of downtown Miami. We still seek foreign money to develop much of the US. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenparis/2018/01/16/why-chinese-investors-love-miami-hong-kong-of-the-west/

2. Although I love Chinese food, there aren't many good Chinese restaurants left because the kids go into finance or the professions and refuse to work in the food/hospitality industry.

3. The Chinese military stole my identity when they hacked into my security clearance in 2015. To a reasonable degree of probability, the attack was carried out by the Jiangsu State Security Department, a subsidiary of the Government of China's Ministry of State Security spy agency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20largest%20breaches,of%20State%20Security%20spy%20agency.

They got my FBI background checks, all my financial data, my health records, probably my DNA.

Our government, including 4 years of Trump administration has done little about it. My book was offered free on Chinese internet sites, and I seem to have security problems, none provable, like being banned by X, and Facebook requesting my SSN and Driver's license.

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Well Lordy, Daniel. This is of interest since my husband and I have OPM connections and I had never heard a word about this fiasco. I also was banned from. X and FB but for saying that chump was sympathetic to Nazis. One never knows what reading HCR will uncover…. Hope you got your life back.

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The long version of the story is that once upon a time, my office was a consultant to the Chinese government, part of the Yale China project to teach law in China. https://law.yale.edu/china-center/about-us

Our CJ made a couple of trips, We had a Chinese intern -- here to learn about US administrative law. He defected -- now living in Singapore.

I don't think that the breach was directed at us, but......

Both the CJ and I were also off duty officers of the ABA. I was involved in ROLI. https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/rule_of_law/

My involvement was pretty much limited to Cuba. Not China. I was told that the Cuban government had rejected my name when the State Department was considering a ROLI project. Probably due to my book, Breaking Up with Cuba.

I think the CJ had retired long before 2015. He was the principal connection to the China Project, and thus our involvement.

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We were NASA employees. Both with security clearances, but no connection to China. Never had any indication or evidence of data breach. ATT did that for us.

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There was a time we got many of the best scientists from all over the world, and were able to keep many of them. Others were used and then tossed aside so much so that they left (lucky for Canada in some cases). Some like Oppenheimer, stayed, but we pushed Qian Xuesen out (after keeping him here for a while thinking the information he learned here would be obsolete when he went to China). Guess who became the Father of Chinese Rocketry as he and they kept on working and learning, seemingly including areas we pay less attention to as in the Queqiao-2 communications relay satellite that entered lunar orbit on Mar 24 to enable near continuous communications with ground sites on the side always facing away from Earth.

I believe he wanted to stay here and would have been more advantageous to us on our team than on theirs. I appreciate all who work on peaceful uses of space for all of us, no matter where they have to, or choose to work from.

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What’s a CJ?

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Chief judge.

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What is ROLI? I tried googling, but came up with two items: 1) musical instruments, or 2) the ceremonial dot in the middle of the forehead in India. Neither seems related to the ABA, so I need to ask.

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Rule of Law Initiative - American Bar Association https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/rule_of_law/?login

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I think it is all about perspective and sound bytes. I do not minimize what happened to you...but I do wonder why not more is being done to stop countries (all the countries that steal our data) from stealing our data. And if something is being done, why we not hearing more about it.

And as far as foreign nationals buying property, let's talk about individuals from other countries (such as Saudi Arabia who are buying up properties and water rights) also.

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Susan, how much less scary is it that "our own" car companies "steal" or rather collect data of all sorts every time we drive and share it with insurance companies who then charge us higher rates if we have been found to have various "infractions" like accelerating too fast, turning too hard, braking too abruptly, etc. And all this skips past the issues of data-mining by those ubiquitous social media like Facebook, Google, Apple, etc.

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Yes!!!!!!!

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There's not a whole lot of actions from that side that are _not_ performative. They need "the other" to demonize to keep the followers riled up. Sad but true. And more than a little pathetic.

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Daniel, what a nightmare! I hope that it’s been straightened out by now. I very much fear that something similar may be awaiting those who fall for the promises of inexpensive clothing offered by TEMU.

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Remember Mary it was American legislators which underwrote the globalization treaties in the 70s which undercut the textile and manufacturing industries allowing "offshore" industry to sell into the USA (and Canada) wiping North American industries (and labour unions) out. Walmart and Costco et al "thank" their governments for doing that. American consumers, undercut by wealth inequality and the death of unions, do too.

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These vehicles have been available for sale in China, and maybe elsewhere. The company, BYD (Build Your Dreams), have so far not been allowed in the U.S., I think due to tariffs. At $10,000, to me it would be devastating if they were allowed to be sold here. When I saw the piece last night, all I could think of is the negative effect it would have for U.S. workers, as their pay would probably be the first to go in the effort to stay competitive.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/chinas-leading-electric-vehicle-maker-selling-cars-for-10000/vi-BB1lVrss#details

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I think that 10K was for other markets, in US models would sell in the $30K range and up for luxury models. The tariff is currently 24% imposed by Trump and maintained by Biden. Europe is having the same problem, of labour union employed companies out competed by an outright lower paid foreign business. American businesses want BYM entry "delayed" until they can do catchup, whatever that means. Btw, it isn't just BYM that's a major Chinese ev player. They are running a cut throat competition in China, and suffering from reduced exports. And it sounds like Tictoc/Chinese gov paranoia in the US is seeping into the auto business as well.

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Yes, just one of the hits to the lower and middle classes brought to us by neo liberalism. There was no effort to retrain workers or to offer compensation. The good news is that open trade with developing countries significantly reduced poverty.

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Yes Elizabeth, this is the dilemma of world trade. It should be a balancing act between protecting domestic manufacturers and spreading prosperity. So the responsible path is tariffs and import limits but that takes a responsible government.

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But, but (tongue firmly planted in cheek), we could buy silk clothing for cheap!

duckingandrunning...............................

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It seems that convincing people that all people are created equal is difficult, and it becomes almost impossible when THEY might cost you money.

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Wow, Daniel! Is there more to this story? Identity theft generally is a very big deal these days in the untamed world of the Internet.

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Well to add a thread to Daniel's tale, there's this:

The FBI has ID'ed several attempts at industrial espionage by Chinese immigrants who have established residence here, and subsequently are pressured (including possibly extortion) by China's government to do service for their country of origin. 10 years ago I was in a jury pool (not selected) in federal court in San Francisco for a case involving theft of trade secrets from Dupont, specifically the manufacturing process for titanium dioxide*. A married couple who had lived in the states for some time were approached by Chinese agents to make contacts inside Dupont and acquire the process plans. They did so (possibly via more than one route), and were prosecuted along with two Dupont engineers (another committed suicide). The prosecutions were reportedly the first convictions under the industrial espionage law passed in 1996.

There's lots going on we can only guess at...

*Titanium dioxide is enormously useful for hundreds of different products, and manufactured widely, but at the time Dupont was apparently the only company that could produce it without resorting to extremely toxic techniques. The prosecution claimed that was the main reason for the process theft.

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It was sympathetic Europeans/Americans too? who provided the Russians with specs to make an atom bomb in the 40s. I think the first Russian was a copy of Fat Boy... the topic of industrial espionage is huge, Russians indulged, hardly invented by the Chinese. And... I wonder... how much of that goes among among "the Friendlies"? other American or eg European corpos etc. ... a sniff from Google... "Corporate espionage is far more common than most people realize and is a very real and present threat to company confidential data and materials.Aug 1, 2022

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Frank, I remember my dad telling me a story about the competition just spying through the windows where he worked to steal a process. The company was Metal Forming, then locally owned in Elkhart, Indiana, and the spies were not foreigners. It no longer exists, first bought by a Pennsylvania company which was then bought by Wah Chang...not even the buildings exist. Elkhart went from being a very diversified prosperous town when I was growing up to the poster child for economical downturn and Obama visited more than once.

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Wow! You are definitely a citizen of the world! Sorry that you had to suffer at the hands of the spying and hacking that threatens too many.

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I am sorry this happened to you and completely understand. However,

China and the United States both have an economic interest. But I am not justifying what they did was right. It was completely wrong for what they did to you. There is good and bad in every race in this country.

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"Like" is definitely the wrong response to your situation, but I've never seen a sympathetic outrage emoji.

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But fits right in to DJTs new whine of retribution. The sooner that bastard goes away the better.

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George & Michael, while I know much less about the USA and our international relations and machinations, I DO know well the human tendency when two people get together to talk about a third person in an effort to stabilize or strengthen the relationship between the two and save them from having to discuss difficult or strained aspects of their own relationship. It is the time-honored tradition of gossip. It is also the time-honored fall-back of politicians over the ages to vilify "The Other," anyone or any peoples who look different, act different, speak different, eat different, celebrate different gods, or believe different. These are similar impulses which seem inherent in human relationships and thinking. It is much easier to look outwards at what "they" ought to change or how to keep "them" away from us and out of our lives than to look at what we can and should do to improve our lives and the earth we live on. Having already "improved" our competitiveness and success commercially to the point we have altered the very habitat and planet we live on, we are finding that people who live in other habitats which are fast becoming unlivable for both environmental as well as political reasons now want to come to the "land of milk and honey." And now we are afraid of "them" and seek legislative ways to limit or eliminate "them" as if that will improve our own success and survival. It may have worked in past centuries but we have succeeded to such an extent we are now dealing with all of humanity's capacity to survive into the future. While we have been able to change who becomes the "they" over time, we cannot change the inexorable effect of our hyper-population of the planet and the attendant despoiling of our planet's resources.

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I find it ironic that the "others" who get targeted as problematic, ate those with the least amount of political influence.

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Jenn, they're easy "others" because we don't worry so much what they might do back at us.

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Thank you -you might be familiar with john a. powell’s work at Berkeley? https://belonging.berkeley.edu/john-powell

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Remember how the tfg administration kept trying to deflect blame for election interference to Ukraine from Russia? This reminds me of that effort.

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Wise insight that needs to be kept in mind as we go forward.

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Bingo!

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I wish there was some truly intellectual thought process behind the deprioritization of Russia on the Repub list of "Things to Be Outraged About" in comparison to China or Iran, but the actual reason is simply that Russia is the dictatorship with white Christians in it, while the others have a distinct lack of white people or Christians.

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Will, it’s similar to the blind eye turned to Nazi sympathizers of German descent in WWII (who had advocated for the overthrow of the US government), while those of Japanese descent (who had not advocated for any overthrow) were rounded up and placed in internment camps. Even building an enclave complete with housing for Hitler was not enough if you were blonde and blue eyed.

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Great comparison, Mary.

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Call it out Will. Bigotry with a big capital B.

Our little New England town is struggling with diversity. Most of us are celebrating it. But there are a quite a few "old Yankees" who think differently and see the variety of people moving here as a threat.

It is simple. You either celebrate humanity, the species. Or you carve us up into competing tribes. For some it hasn't changed since we stopped living in trees.

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Yes. I see a lot of that on the Maine coast. People will complain about the supposed "open border" while local retail and hospitality industries suffer from not nearly enough workers. But hey, can't have those "other" people working here.

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We were Mainers for 15 years. I miss it so much. As Innkerpers we were acutely aware of the staffing problems at the eateries we recommended to our guests. The waitstaff and housekeepers were largely largely from away - far away.

I read of restaurants in Portland that closed for lack of staff.

But I am so old that I remember that it was almost a right of passage for teenagers to WORK during their summers in vacation locations. Apparently that's not cool or trending now. Everybody's loss. Waiting table is a must for learning customer service skills. And having some empathy for servers forever...

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Yes, several closed around here for that very reason. Back when I was going to UMaine, I had several friends who came down here (Bar Harbor) for the summer to wait tables (this was the early 80's). Now that's nearly impossible because there's just nowhere affordable to stay.

I never worked in food service but if you're "old," you might remember the store LaVerdiere's?

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Nope. Our time in Maine was a bit later. We left in 2013 and our Inns were in York. I know, some called that area greater Boston. /s

But we did honeymoon in Boothbay and Bar Harbor. That's when I was running a big box store in "L A". Lived in Scarborough then. Higgins Beach.

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You nailed it

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Conservatives had it so much easier when they could call out against "godless Communists"!

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Who are the remaining conservative politicians in the US excluding the Fascists who, by definition are conservatives?

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As far as I can tell, it’s a very short list: Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and to a much lesser degree, Mitt Romney. The Republican Party is dead. True conservatives are likely just conservative Democrats now. It’s the fascist MAGA Party now.

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They are our "betters" who are entitled to keep their lessers in check, lol. Say, are those abbreviations of all the states you may have lived in?

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Yes, I can't hold a job. Actually, there are a few others - IN, MO & IA.

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:) lol (i hope)

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Putin’s Russia exploits this. The Russian Gov spends a lot of money through the Russian Orthodox Church in many outreach and relationship development to America’s White Evangelical communities. Russia has paid for white only American Pastors to travel to Russia to speak at events/dinners/“cultural exchanges”. This is a part of Russia’s “active measures” to destabilize rival countries. “You are either with us, and anti Muslim” or “you are part of the Muslim invasion”. The religion and racism component is a farce. What Russia really wants is dictatorships in smaller countries as oligarchy monopoly trading partners ( not democracies with business regulation, and fair tax codes). If this sounds familiar, it’s his R’s frame the relationship with China.

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Will, did you just use the phrase "truly intellectual thought process" and "Repub" in the same sentence? I thought the two were mutually exclusive. <sarcasm>

You did nail it in the second half of that sentence by pointing out the obvious correlation between skin color and what imaginary sky pilot one bends their knee to.

These people are nucking futs.

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It's racism, plain and simple. Is there an intellectual thought process behind something so base? Call a spade a spade.

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That is what I was saying. We can NOT pretend like there is intellectual reasoning. The real reason is so open, obvious, and old as the hills.

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One great similarity, George, between U.S. and China.

Over 50 years ago the Chinese had their "cultural revolution," killing thousands of professors, writers, and other intellectuals. Many more -- millions -- suffered "re-education" centers (torture).

Also over 50 years ago the Powell memo in the U.S. began replacing humanities in K-12 with standardized testing whose instruments dictated all instruction.

At the university level, ALEC worked with state legislatures to reduce funding, cut tenure, and introduce hordes of "contingent labor" (low pay, without contracts, without benefits) which would eventually be doing two-thirds of all university teaching. Students would be turned over to the banks to pay for their education -- where tuition went up, up, up and there occurred the greatest mass of debt in any sector ever in U.S. history.

And the profs -- all went into neutered silos. Humanities anathema everywhere. Students instead flocked to the safety of ethnic silos --and needs for trigger warnings for any personal challenges ever, anywhere.

U.S. and China -- both huge victims to death of humanities ever again in public.

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Thanks Phil. Low-cost labor productivity yields wealth concentration to the top. Reagan's impact upon the affordability of higher education has caused most students to graduate with significant debt -constraining them to revenue producing work -regardless of their area of passion or interest (granted a generalization -but it's why there are far more plaintiff lawyers than civil rights lawyers, for example). The loss of humanities, arts, philosophy and other important areas may be terrific for the "Gross National Product" -but as you say, it does nothing for the overall mental health or collective conscience of a society.

If you care about meaningful democracy, investment in education and fact-based information should be a priority, instead of subsidies for industries that are leading the way toward climate/environmental catastrophe.

Politicizing education because "it's not patriotic enough" or "may hurt people's feelings" is no longer an education, it's an indoctrination into hyper-consuming obedience.

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Agreed exactly, George.

I remember over 50 years ago, when I was taking the full day necessary for final mustering out of the army, and all of us "ETS-ing" out that April day had to wait in one large assembly hall for our papers to be processed.

For hours we had on a big screen in front of us video, with sound, non-stop advertising gear for tennis, skiing, ping pong, bowling, hunting, motorbikes, archery, and multiple other sports currently then all involving upped costs. Plus the jet-skis for upper levels of sound pollution. All terrain vehicles (ATVs) for ripping up land.

This was why we were napalming, dropping hundreds of tons of bombs, setting up concertina wire and claymores everywhere, and forcing hundreds of thousands of rural women, children, and elderly into guard-tower-set and barbed wire "New Life Centers"?

Yes, George "indoctrination into hyper-consuming obedience."

Trouble is, the fear, paranoia, distrust of "others" now being exploited by so many politicians, pastors, and social media billionaires for people systematically deprived of humanities (and history, and civics, and essay writing) in schools all turned over to our most vulgar of numbering, packaging, commodifying, ruling elites.

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More orthopedic surgeons and ophthalmologists than family practitioners and pediatricians-same is true in medicine. A six figure debt coming out of school changes priorities.

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Our problems, as a nation, in a nutshell. Thanks George.

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Thanks Susan -it's a nut all of us want to crack (and at least hit with a heavy blue-tinted sledgehammer) in 'Roevember'.

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Indoctrination = authoritarianism - exclusivity - scarcity - opportunity for selected people

Education = democratization - inclusion - abundance - opportunity for more people

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ALEC has been one of the worst destroyers of democracy, state by state. Quiet, unobtrusive, under the radar, and efficiently coordinating all kinds of evil, from one state to another. Sort of like prohibition was passed at the state level since it would not pass at the national level. The creep kept creeping, like a metastasizing cancer. Can be lethal before the host knows what’s afflicting it.

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County level too. The Libertarian/“Constitutional” sheriffs. Koch started the county take overs, then the state legislatures. ALEC is some real oligarchical propagandist bullsh!t.

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Yep, paws on every level of government. I remember them from the bathroom brouhaha several years ago, but they had made inroads long before that.

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writers of fill-in-the- blank legislation

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“We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves" -George Orwell, 1984

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exactly what they do, spreads like wildfire across the country.

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Politics is not ignored by power seeking, greedy people

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Their favorite way to shop

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Someone else that recognizes the seeds of this right wing crap: the LPM.

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It is a common mistake that people believe we spend 50% of the federal budget on the military.

In reality, 50% of discretionary spending- which is about 28-30% of the federal budget- is spent on the military.

That means about 13-15% of the federal budget is allocated for the military.

Non-discretionary spending makes up the bulk of the federal budget- (about 70%) and most of that goes to programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.

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They can’t make Putin or Russia enemy #1 as he is tfg bosom Buddy.

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Very true MaryLee. I'm sure Trump would still like to see his hotel, resort, and offices built in Russia (where there's no extradition treaty either).

From "The Mueller Report":

"On November 4, 2015, the day after the Trump Organization transmitted the LOI (Letter of Intent), Felix Sater emailed Cohen suggesting that the Trump (Tower) Moscow Project could be used to increase candidate Trump's chances at being elected."

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Agreed George, you should stress that the economic ties mainly "bind". US would get instant inflation if all those relatively cheap imports suddenly stopped. Americans have "made in China" through the homes, etc, galore. I just finished an imo on this a few minutes ago.

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Project 2025 has some illogical ideas. Ignore Putin and lose military alliance/NATO and this economic ties with our biggest trade partner the EU. Frame the relation ship with our other largest economic partner China as “enemy #1”. I have the authors of Project 2025, who’s left to trade with then? Globalization is a set of problems to be solved, not a conspiracy of fear mongering and retreat to isolationism.

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Thank you Ted. Nationalistic isolationism never bodes well for global cooperation and peace.

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Right!?! It’s as if some people never paid attention in history classes, let alone studied Economics! Now they are R congressman, and one idiot is running for president.

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They have been elected.......the R congressmen.......so the problem remains with the voters.

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I agree with you George 👍!We need to keep an eye on Putin!

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Yes, I’d like for the prison guards at The Hague keep an eye on him for all peace-loving people worldwide.

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Thank you sir.

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Clearly deflecting enmity onto China makes sense to MAGA because if T wins, Putin becomes a respected ally.

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Maybe a diversion...I often hear people throw their nationalist anger toward China not Russia.

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I saw that too. Project 2025 contains a remarkable amount of anti-Chinese rhetoric. Most of it is designed to drive paranoia concerning trade positions and tariffs or intellectual property theft and national security concerns posed by Chinese graduate students.

In fact China appears so often in the plan that I began to suspect there was more afoot than provoking hate.

I hope they aren't crazy enough to want a war with China.

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Thanks Bob. They are incompetent and corrupt enough. And having TFG at the top of the ticket doesn’t bode well for sanity.

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I'm not sure people realize how close to the edge we are. If 45,000 votes were spread carefully throughout Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin, those states could have gone to Trump.

After a critical reading of Project 2025 I know they ain't joking when they say they're going to de-construct the administrative state.

I don't know if they have enough levers in place to steal the election, but I know it'll be contested.

If Biden wins, Trump won't accept it. Then what?

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The threats to local election officials should all have been rapidly dealt with, with long prison sentences. The failure to pursue each threat as a domestic terrorist attack on our system is baffling, even when it leads to a vastly corrupt Supreme Court, particularly with Thomas’ lobbyist, insurrection funding spouse.

Trump thrives on judicial delay, chaos and confusion -all of the elements that can quickly escalate to violence (as it did on January 6th).

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The voter suppression laws and the delays in trials are all predictable.

Nothing here surprises me at all. From Trump's violent rhetoric regarding just about anything to his threats of retribution. It's been like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

Here in Arizona things might get a little sporty post-election. I'll be in Washington state for the summer soon. But when I return...

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They are our enemy. Their espionage is pervasive. It only takes a second to pull up very credible sources on the threat of China to the United States.

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Should we declare war Barbara? Since they are the enemy? Internment camps then?

Count me out.

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https://www.fbi.gov/investigate

The counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States.

Confronting this threat is the FBI’s top counterintelligence priority.

To be clear, the adversary is not the Chinese people or people of Chinese descent or heritage. The threat comes from the programs and policies pursued by an authoritarian government.

The Chinese government is employing tactics that seek to influence lawmakers and public opinion to achieve policies that are more favorable to China.

At the same time, the Chinese government is seeking to become the world’s greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions.

China’s efforts target businesses, academic institutions, researchers, lawmakers, and the general public and will require a whole-of-society response. The government and the private sector must commit to working together to better understand and counter the threat.

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What?! That certainly is going from A to Z George. I meant no such thing and I believe you know it. I have close relatives from China, George. Rhetoric such as yours is what fuels unnecessary reactive behavior. Playing kum ba ya with the Chinese situation is foolish and ignores the complexities of this situation. Many Chinese here in the States are wanting to simply live their lives here. Many Chinese are also compromised and do perform espionage. Why? They have relatives back home in China.

The Chinese Government is and has been conducting massive espionage in this Country. I posted sources on Chinese espionage. I recommend you read them.

International relations is a supremely complex labyrinth akin to an iceberg. What we see is nothing compared to the complete picture. To base our assessment on history and emotions is foolhardy and dangerous.

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My granddaughter is set to learn chinese as a tenth grader (next year).

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Just responding to your previous response.

“They are our enemy.”

Your words. Not mine. I am well aware diplomatic relations are challenging, even among allies. When you start with the premise “THEY are the enemy” -that is war mongering. We compete economically. Yes there are spies. We have them too. It is not unilateral. We interfere in elections and sovereign nations too. Remember Kissinger and Allende? U.S. intervention in El Salvador? The School of the Americas?

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They are our enemy George. The Chinese Government means to overtake the United States. That makes them our enemy. Getting all emotional and pulling in every piece of American history in apples to oranges comparisons doesn't change the situation we find ourselves in today. Once again. Please read the information I have posted.

Please note the nuance. The Chinese Government is our enemy. All the Chinese people are not our enemy.

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Discrimination against immigrants, like Florida's property-buying restrictions for Chinese nationals, undermines the democratic principle of equality before the law. It also reflects an authoritarian impulse by singling out a group based on nationality, which erodes individual freedoms and fairness in society.

Just more authoritarianism in the guise of patriotism.

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Think of it as a pretty solid toe hold.

Florida has been demonstrated it's very good at singling out a group. I'm curious to see what the women who have been singled out do about the amendment on the ballot.

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Perhaps a million unregistered in Florida trend heavily Democratic. Register Democrats -- save Democracy.

https://www.fieldteam6.org/

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Does this include the former incarcerated that have served their time, but the Republicans have prevented fro registering to vote by requiring them to pay all fines and debts to Florida, but the state won't tell them how much they owe?

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Yes. Many of them need lawyers, however, to straighten things out.

Some, unfortunately, are Trumpers.

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The election has already begun its drama authored by the autocratic man and his megalomaniacs!

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The most recent poll from Marist/NPR shows the two leading issues among Dems and Independents are the rise of fascism and the rise of extremism. These are the most mentioned issues among all voters as well.

Significantly, the poll notes these were the top issues in 2022, when the Dems far surpassed expectations of reporters and the current narrative at that time. The election was NOT about the economy and immigration with most of the voters. Then, the rise of fascism and the threat to Democracy was number one issue among Dems and Indies

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/6/2239270/-Poll-Rise-of-fascism-and-extremism-is-voters-top-concern?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_5&pm_medium=web

Let's keep this in mind, as we closely watch the conservative false narrative about inflation and the border!

Apparently, we are about to repeat a "Blue Wave" akin to our most recent elections ... if Dems continue to push this concern, which we will!

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Michael Corthell,

Can US citizens buy land in China or Russia??? Just curious. Maybe I should ask the Koch brothers?....or do they rent?

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What good is the Declaration of Independence that says all man are created equal when Republicans keep ignoring it? It's hypocritical and it's racism.

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!!

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These thoughts were meant for a Letter from several days back, but took too long to cohere. Even now, they are quite voluminous. The last few sentence of today's Letter - plus a few items in today's papers - made me glad I kept them, even if they are now more tangentially than directly related...

It is funny, I can't remember much of my math anymore, but I still remember the prayer.

I can rattle off the Hanukkah prayer in Hebrew and English both, and know what each side of the dreidel says, and can taste the latkes now. There was nothing but childhood comfort in those memories. That is how tradition can and should be. I am not Jewish in that I don't belong to the religion; I am agnostic. Yet my grandpa was, and we used to do a few days of the holiday out of respect for his memory. I am told I am like him, though we never met. I have a Jewish last name and look very Jewish, dark beard, bigger nose, glasses, all of it. I had a friend in high school who tried calling me Motel (from Fiddler in the Roof) and have been mistaken for an exchange student named Youssef in a bookshop (sorry to disappoint). When you *seem* a thing, you become aware of it, especially if it is a thing many people irrationally dislike. It doesn't matter if you *are* that thing or not, only that people think you are for you to live in danger, because prejudice is not rational. You don't have to be an immigrant for the xenophobe to yell "illegal!" and shove you in the spermarket, you don't have to be gay for the homophobe to yell "fag!" and shove you against your locker, you don't have to be fat or skinny or short or tall or smart or dumb or anything that some ugly people believe is bad even though it isn't. I remember my mother getting tearful when a few family friends asked if her sons were feeling safe after the 45th president was un-elected. People asked again after Charlottsville, or gave sympathetic looks. Personally I never did feel unsafe, only because I am cocky and have a surfeit of arguably unearned attitude.

For the first time these past few days, I *do* feel a bit unsafe. The call seems to be coming from inside the house. How else should I feel when I see a photo in the paper of people who look like they should be my friends climbing over their college gates holding fire and a sign proclaiming their love for a Leninist terrorist leader who advocates for the only Jewish nation to be erased? Or statements from a student leader saying that people like me who support the existence of that country (a group that includes the POTUS) should be "grateful" to not be "murdered" because we "don't deserve to exist"? How about my demographic brethren tearing down the flag of my country - the flag I was raised to never let touch the ground - and replacing it with the flag of a foreign nation that has no freedoms of protest, currently run by terrorists whose stated aim is to have me murdered many times over?

Worse than the wild eyes of the radicals is the blind spot that, deliberately or not, so many otherwise progressively-minded people really do maintain around anti-Semitism. We accept that the group that is impacted by prejudice should get to decide what that prejudice looks like to them, and when they describe it to us we should take it to heart and not participate. Absolutely vital... but apparently Jews are exempt. If someone described Blacks as stealing welfare to buy off a baby mama or Latinos as taking jobs to send money to the cartel, we would correctly condemn this as virulent racist. Yet the number of times I've seen people hammer the narrative that the only majority-Jewish country on Earth is the ultimate in the evils of colonialism, and has been controlling media coverage and our politicians through money and propaganda (AIPAC! wOoOoO!) is jaw-dropping. That this is frequently accepted as a potentially valid perspective is even more disappointing, and any attempt to help people understand how blazingly, incontrovertibly anti-semetic it all is usually gets hand-waved away as overreaction.

Anti-semites know this indifference is an advantage to them. They also see the incredible violence coming from Gaza and know that peoples' common empathy can now be manipulated into an advantage to them. They have seen their window of opportunity, and it has been astounding to see them be successful at pressing their rhetoric to an excess of virulence and past the limits of plausibility... and have otherwise progressive people go along. The warp speed at which the latest chapter in a historical cycle of tragedy has gone from "indiscrimminate disregard" to "possible war crimes" to "war crimes" to "slaughter" to "ethnic cleansing" to "genocide" (regardless of facts or context), coupled with the speed at which the upset-but-not-radicalized among us have gone from "uncaring" to "denying" to "complicit" to - according to Ms. Omar - actively "pro-genocide" makes the blood go cold, then boil.

Yet I do not want fear and anger to corrupt my commitment to principles and open-mindedness, so the other day I turned to Dad for a reality check. Dad was active in student organizing and photojournalism during the famous UC Berkeley events of 68-69, where he at one point stood feet away from MLK and at another was knocked unconcious by police club. (Political resume: lifelong anti-war progressive, who campaigned for RFK & McGovern and supported Bernie in '16.) It was time to seek out an elder to set me straight.

Hey Dad, do we have an opinion on the protests? Silence, then... "It depends on if they are pro-Palestine or anti-Israel." What makes it one or the other? "Are they focusing on demanding that we send the UN or something similar in to help those poor people or are they demanding that we punish and abandon Israel?" More of the latter, it seems. "They're ignorant hooligans who either don't understand the big picture or are anti-semitic, plain and simple." Are you sure that is the right way to describe them? "I regret that hooligan is a British word, but yes." Some people say anti-Zionism is distinct from anti-semitism. "Zionism won in the '40s. Ever since, it just means Jew. They know they can't say that outright, so people use the word Zionism as a cover and a dog-whistle. Just like any neo-Nazis; they know what they mean." People are claiming sympathy for what they see as Palestinian oppression... "Look, this 'aggression' bullshit... I've been alive for this whole thing. Every decade or so they try to end Israel, and every time they get their asses handed to them times twenty. It's been 80 years, you've lost and are going to lose. Stay where you are, get along with your neighbors, and you could have a lovely place to live if you put your energy into that instead. This time is truly ugly, though. Netanyahu is an awful, awful guy." I'm just asking you because thousands have been arrested and people are comparing it to '68. "That is ridiculous! Try hundreds arrested a day at ONE school! We were protesting for our lives and our brothers' lives, and even then my friends and I knew not to break anything and that if someone started to run hot you would make them cool down, because the police could be brutal to everyone otherwise. Today? I like street theater as much as the next guy, but the performance has to end eventually."

Conversations like this (edited for brevity) are playing out in living rooms across America, away from Internet forums and comments sections. If perspectives like mine are being developed across the country by people who have always considered themselves progressive in other ways, imagine the views being hardened by a more centrist voter, let alone a right-leaning one. When Republicans attempt to tie the recent protests to their anti-intellectual crusade against higher ed, they are being as cynical and hypocritical as they always are. Yet they are doing so because they have been given an opening to do so by privileged fringe-dwellers who seem to think that literally dressing in the garb of jihad and sprawling skinhead slogans on library walls will be something inspiring. My contempt for the shameless lawmakers is equaled or surpassed by my disgust for these hooligans (thanks, Dad!) who have spent valuable days reaffirming the worst possible views of my generation in the eyes of countless millions, thereby making true progress toward peace more difficult. To blame most of all are the college administrators, fanning delusions of gradeur among the students to distract from their role in the money mill. Unwilling to risk causing a scene by laying down some common sense, inevitably the ugliest scenes were caused on their campuses anyway.

It has been a lonely, exhausting, scary week, and I am pissed as ever can be, but mostly... I am so, so glad I'm not in college anymore. Good riddance.

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Will, thank you for a truly scary viewpoint that has not been widely shared by national news media. Thank you for the courage and the generosity to give us a window into the feeling of being hated for nothing more than your genetics. Anti-semitism is not clickbait; if it’s covered at all, the picture painted is of a lone student concerned by the anti-semitic slogans chanted by the crowds. It’s fueled nightly by pictures of destroyed neighborhoods and reports of multitudes of children killed. The coverage of grieving relatives of Jews killed again showcases small groups, ignoring the fear engendered worldwide.

Most of white Americans have not experienced being discriminated against. My only experience of being on the wrong side of the hatred against “the other” occurred when I was mistaken for a black person drinking from the “white” water fountain in an Oklahoma public library (I was jerked away from the fountain by my very curly black hair while subjected to hissed angry, venomous, speech). It was a window into the hatred that saturated my racially segregated neighborhood (where a barbecue was held to thank the family who had sold their house at a loss to keep the neighborhood white).

Unfortunately, history has shown us that the best way to defuse hatred is to have a diverse group of friends. Once again thank you for sharing, for treating us like friends.

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Thank YOU, Mary. I have grown to recognize many people's names here and consider you all friends as well. :-)

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Will, that is such an honor.

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I am saddened by how you and millions of others are treated by ignorant jerks.

Being a white man born and raised in the midwest, I can only empathize with how you must feel as well as most people of color and LGBTQ+ orientation. Can our country survive another 4 years of Trump's hateful rhetoric?

To think that some 30% of the voters think that Trump walks on water while he spews his hateful and non-sensical BS makes me physically ill. Thanks for sharing Will.

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Thank you for a view from the eye of the storm.

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Always a pleasure to read really good writing especially when it’s true. Thanks Will.

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Your writing whacked me on the side of the head (in a good way) and your "Hey Dad . . . . " conversation lands in me as a gift. That understanding complexity is challenging me daily is an understatement.

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Will, I understand why this took so long to cohere, and I am very glad you saved it, because your voice and perspective are crucial and your writing is so clear and informative. As for me, I am also a target (as a masculine-presenting lesbian) and I understand where you're coming from to a tiny degree.

A Substack writer I follow posted this several days ago:

https://open.substack.com/pub/tcinla757/p/the-revolutionary-cosplay-of-the?r=3hlhv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

In response to that essay, I wrote the following:

"My very pedestrian assessment:

On October 7th, Hamas did a bad thing. Israel was warned about the “bad thing” and ignored the warning. Oh, but Israel created Hamas and the environment for Hamas to justify doing a “bad thing”. Then, Israel responded with 10 times the devastation in retaliation for Hamas’s “bad thing”. The saga continues with both sides being sort of right and very wrong at the same time.

“Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.” (Buffalo Springfield)"

Your prose is far better than mine. My simple thoughts are: You can be disgusted with how this is being handled, be sad for Israel and Palestine at the same time, and be reasonably certain that common sense has flown out the window.

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Yup. You are right on point (as was Stephen Stills). Astonishing how there are few to no people to like in this situation. Everybody is wrong. Hamas? Most possible level of wrong. Sheer evil. IDF? Also wrong. College protestors? Wrong. Counterprotestors? Wrong. Police response? Wrong (though not all cases). College Presidents? Wrong. Repub politicians? Wrong.

Imho there are only a few people playing their roles properly. One is the President, with his honorable attempt to walk this impossible, threadbare tightrope internationally while providing just the right balance of understanding-but-firm in his statements at home. The other is Jose Andreas and the heads of other orgs doing their best to get food to civilians at great risk. Those people I respect. Everyone else? Common sense gone fishing.

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World Central Kitchen is my #1 donation choice. They do amazing work.

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You are correct.

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Will, from Cal,

Thank you for expressing yourself so personally.

It is Netanyahu who is a major "bad player" in the conflict in Gaza. As long as he can keep the destruction going, as long as he can stay in office, he can avoid prosecution.

I believe in freedom of faith. Those who choose not to designate faith in their personal lives have that honest freedom.

What I see in Gaza from the news is destruction of families...destruction of schools, hospitals, apartment buildings.....some living in tents because they are required to move to "safer" places.

If Hamas is the enemy why can the elite Israeli forces , who have had years of experience in combating this group not find them and the hostages? In my opinion Netanyahu has brought in the "big guns" from the US...knowing in the past we have unconditionally supported the Jewish people and Israel in particular. THIS IS A DIFFERENT SENERIO!!!! Netanyahu is trying to save himself. He wants Gaza for himself. His support may also be from Jewish people who follow the ancient idea that Gaza should be their land. Some Jewish people have chosen to build homes on land that legally belongs to Gaza and to the Palestinian people. In my opinion , he is using our friendship and support in the past to engage in this massive destruction of a people who just want to simply hope for survival for one more day.

Hamas did not just happen. It is an organization built on both hate and survival.

In this country we have been able to live with "freedom of religion". This has not happened without prejudice or "we are better than others in our Biblical interpretation of the Bible" issues. Also especially in the past, "those who do not have a faith or reject God are bad people"....."we are better...God's chosen". I would ask...you have been loved not because you or I are good but because we have come to the realization that we are desperately sinful...that we can never fix this situation...and we are in the same situation as each and every human creation. If you have received Christ...it is because you believe that through His suffering...through the shedding of His blood...and through His resurrection that we can live spiritually while inhabiting a physical body. Christ demonstrated to those who have come to believe... the way we should choose to live ie "Love one another as I have loved you".....by pouring out our lives to serve, to forgive, to encourage, to serve using the talents and gifts we have been given or gained through opportunity of dealing with pain or blessings. We are not to judge others because their faith is different or because some have chosen to not live with a specific faith. If we as believers were to be judged for many of our human thoughts and actions, hell would be too good for us! In my faith it is Christ within, NOT ME. So even as a believer, if I do something "good", it is Christ in me meeting a need...being patient...being kind....listening without judgement.

Will, thank you for sharing who you are...so personally. You are one of the reasons I appreciate Heather's letters and readers. I believe my life is better because of each of you.

I am thankful we can protest. It is a freedom our forefathers fought for. Wearing a scarf on your head does not make you a citizen of another nation or a believer in their faith. Just stirring up trouble....filling your days with disruption and demonstrations on property without permission is not cool but disrespectful.

Respectful debate at a designated time at a designated space allowing security if necessary is not a bad thing. We can express ourselves without disrupting the graduation of others who have spent money and years of study to achieve a diploma. It is a time for family and friends to gather and celebrate.

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Thank you, Emily. This is a generous and heartfelt response. I am not a religious person in general, but still I adore your central message. If more people lived with the true spirit of Jesus as you do the world would be so much more peaceful and beautiful.

You make some outstanding points in your last two paragraphs. Protest is a fundamental right. Yet time, place, and manner restrictions have always applied, and for good reason. I think any reasonable observer would agree what we have seen this last week or so is way over the line, and the most shameful part about it all is that by prioritizing absolutist fidelity to their own radicalism, these participants have alienated otherwise likely allies and taken attention away from what should be the focus: not punishment or purity, but PEACE.

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Will, your dad is a wise man. As someone with a similar ethnic background, I've looked upon the protests with increasing concern.

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Will, that is an excellent, moving personal tale that needs to be printed where more people will read it. I can relate and agree with your outlook.

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I am very glad I read this so thank you. Thank you for speaking here to those who have shouted "genocide". Thank you for your respect for your elder. Thank you for sharing your pain. Thank you for a perspective that has gotten lost among the screams and violence on our colleges and universities.

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Thank you Heather for this great write up. I know you mention the Chinese Exclusion Act once in a while, and I appreciate it.

When they repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act, December 17, 1943, my Dad (an American citizen) and Mom were waiting for the repeal to happen in Chongqing. My Mom's quota number was #32, of 105 Chinese allowed in the United States in 1944.

There have always been strong ties with the American and Chinese people. During WWII, the Chinese saved many downed US airmen, at peril to the Chinese and their families. In fact they got so good at it, when an airman went down, and the Japanese rushed over, the airman was already gone. In reprisal for saving some of the Doolittle Raiders, the Japanese killed about 250,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians, and besides bludgeoning, burning, bombing, and shooting people, they used biological weapons. The children of the US veterans who fought in China, still keep the long friendships alive with those who saved their Dads. I'm hoping people remain level headed and remember the good parts of history.

We all know Trump is a racist. He's BFF with Putin. Funny how Russians can buy property in Florida and Trump even launders money with the property he's sold them. But, Chinese are scary, even me who has had 4 generations on US soil, because I wonder why. It's like some people are still fighting the Civil War. Some Americans echo the long standing prejudice of the Chinese.

If Trump wins, it'll be a scary time. Maybe we should have a plan, just in case.

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Some people unfortunately seem to have trouble with differentiating between a country's government and its nationality. I absolutely find the country of China to be *currently* quite opposed to my values. They are ruthlessly authoritarian and exploitative, a massive polluter, etc. Yet I harbor no ill will or suspicion for any given person currently or formerly from China, and it saddens and boggles me that other people do. We have a huge Asian population where I currently live; I have studied and worked with many Chinese people (both immigrants and native-born), and have yet to meet anyone who wasn't lovely. People are people, is that really so hard to grasp?

Thank you for sharing the anecdote about your Mom's number. Only 105 people allowed for a whole year is nuts. Your parents must have had such bravery to travel such a ways knowing there would be almost no one who understood their specific experiences when they arrived. I can only imagine...

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Your empathy should spread like wildfire

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Will. I have had the good fortune to work for companies in 37 states, Canada, Mexico and a few European countries. I have had Russians, Chinese, Philippines and Indians work for me and with me.

One of the business principles a mentor of mine taught me early in my career was, "everyone deserves to be treated with respect." Another was, "if you need to correct someone, do it in private." These rules have served me well through out my life."

Several people I have worked with over the years, tell me I am so kind. It used to surprise me, because why wouldn't we treat each other with kindness.

But, my wife constantly reminds me that I am an entitled white man in a country of mostly white people. I know I am treated differently and I am sorry about that.

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Unfortunately, we white men do not have a monopoly on being horrible.

I get weirded out on the occasions when people act like what I think of as basic politeness, like holding a door open or getting someone a drink of water, is SO KIND. They mean to compliment me but I honestly have no way to receive it, because I can't figure out how to pretend like I'm awesome for doing something that should be absolutely normal.

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Every morning Maxine (my dog) and I go to Freshies, your typical convenience store that sells donuts, breakfast sandwiches, coffee, cigarettes (lots of cigarettes) and lottery tickets. Anyway, about 1 out of 20 customers at 5:30 am is a woman. We all hold the door for each other and everyone politely (well almost everyone) says "thank you sir." It probably seems weird to non-regulars but we're all comfortable with it even though we don't know each other.

Note: The people from "away" are returning to their summer homes and summer businesses in ME. And in about a month thousands of people a day will descend upon Acadia National Park. If you haven't been here, there is one road on and off the island, and almost everyone drives by Freshies, so it gets very busy in the summer. Us locals (I'm actually from "away" because I wasn't born here. You are not and never will be a Mainer if you were not born here)

will still hold the doors for the tourists and go about our business not feeling awesome or anything at all. 😎

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Thanks Will. I'm a late in life fan of WWII history, so looking back at all these lessons I never learned. The Chinese held off Japan almost on their own from 1931-1941 from the taking of Manchuria in 1931 on. Richard Frank the historian said upwards of 30 million people died from the consequences of war. In one case, the Chinese military let a dam go killing millions of Chinese civilians, hoping to delay the Japanese. Then Pearl Harbor with the war lasting until the atomic bombs. It would have been a different world if Japan would have won, if Germany would have one. But then Korea and Vietnam had China on the other side. The lessons are there, but I don't know what the answers are.

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No one will be safe, not even Trump groupies, and I fear we could see a hate of the day or week in which Trump singles out particular People for hate and rage.

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No one IS safe while he walks free.

No one anywhere in the world.

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No where to run, sad to say

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No choice then but to take a stand and fight.

For country, for mankind, for our miraculous planet.

Just think of the opportunity. Now, in real life, to live up to politicians' most absurd, outrageous claims for America and Americans. To be our champions and stand up for true freedom, for country, for humanity, for life on Earth! To BE, however briefly, "the indispensible nation".

Not just the usual old verbiage in a politician's mouth. The real thing.

It's either that or couch potatoes waiting for the frying pan.

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Peter, as one of the political sleepwalkers between the 80’s and 2016, my hope is that those who always knew and the newly awakened can prevail and move us a step closer to the dream of “one people, undivided, with liberty and justice for all”.

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Been aware for many years. Focus used to be on wildlife and environment. Politics became number one as the insanity spread with Fox

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You’re correct about that.

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Susan, thank you for your WWII stories of unsung Chinese heroes.

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It was wise in Germany as the insanity spread like wildfire.

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Why not prohibitions against Russian oligarchs, who actually actively work against our democracy? Any response, GOP? Their hypocrisy and complete lack of decency know no bounds.

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Ahhh, but they have money. That makes all the difference. And if teaming up with people like Trimp or McConnell is any indication, they really know who to get with to launder their money.

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To be fair, Trump and his blushing bride did claim to make a couple hundred bucks while he was President. But then again, somehow the mandatory IRS audits for the von Trump family didn't happen between 2017 and 2021. Hmmmm??

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There are no words for the disgust I have for the GOP in general. Wake up citizens because your freedoms are being restricted or actually taken away, one by one. The GOP state legislatures are completely and totally responsible for our return to medieval times. Wake up America! We are no longer the United States of America. Better pick the state you want to live in very carefully because your rights and Liberties depend on it.

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With you, Christine. I’m a former PA gal-I miss it daily-living in Florida because of job and family. I don’t think folks truly get the ongoing existential threat the GOP actually is. Project 2025 pretty clearly lays it out-establishing white wealthy men and some of their women as our overlords, while the rest of us work to support THEIR lifestyle. The murder of democracy is their goal-and they have been playing the long game while we are just becoming aware of it.

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Christine, I absolutely agree with you here. The issue among the MAGAts in my midst is that, so far, they only see that the "others" of us (not white <insert letters here> men) are the ones whose rights are being curtailed, which is fine and dandy with them.

<letters: Christian, heteronormative, cisgendered: CHC>

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They are truly the Party of Trump now. They are repressive regressives and not conservatives.

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Partly, because they help Trump and other realty moguls launder their ill-begotten gains.

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Thank you for summarizing a description of the sad history regarding immigration from China to the U.S. The latest chapter in Florida is a reminder that history tends to repeat itself and that racism is still one of the root causes behind many Republican policies.

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Right up there with greed and power.

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It is hard to read any real history of the US and continue to support the sentiment of freedom and dignity for all, save as a spritz of perfume covering persistently rank racism and classism.

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I think Obama had a good phrase for looking at it all: "The United States is always in the process of becoming." (long before Michelle's book). We're a very young country on the world's stage, and many of us are hoping the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.

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Speaking of Obama, my Florida Freedom Caucus Rep was the one who sponsored the birther bill. He is retiring…..good riddance. In my local paper today he justified the much-maligned bill by claiming former President Chester Arthur, who as HCR noted signed into law the Chinese Exclusion Act, was born in Canada.

Flashback with Colbert on Rep Posey’s bill:

https://www.cc.com/video/dbshcz/the-colbert-report-illegitimate-grandson-of-an-alligator

🐊

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I’m dying here! 😂

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🤣

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Sometimes statements like Obama’s strike me as a kind of fatalistic optimism, such as Little Ophan Annie’s “Tomorrow is another day.” There needs to be a trailing adjective (or is it an adverb?) like “better” or “worse.”

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As a Drama degree holder, I am legally obligated to correct you. "Tomorrow is another day" is what Scarlett says at the end of Gone with the Wind. The song "Tomorrow" in the musical Annie features the willfully naive line "The sun will come up tomorrow" and the more poignant "I love you, tomorrow/You're always a day away."

Ok ok my work here is done. Go back to your lives, citizens.

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Alternatively, we could realize that the truth is neither that this country is neither God nor the devil, but a complex and contradictory society that is experiencing a slow but incredible march away from the brutal nature of much of its founding and toward fulfillment of the higher ideals of much of its founding, and it is incumbent upon us to assist.

The more you read of any history, the more disturbing details you will uncover, yet the more astounding progress will also look. The US is a particularly stark exemplar of this dichotomy, but far from the only one.

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Yep. Three steps forward and two steps back is still progress. It’s just demoralizing to fight the same battles over and over because so many just don’t pay attention. *SIGH*

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Agreed, Will.

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I no longer recite or sing “Liberty and justice for all” or “land of the free.”

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"With liberty and justice for most of the people who can afford to pay for it"

I'm fine leaving off the "free" in the NA. It is too high to sing!

**Side bar: Once, our marching band played at our local short-season Class A minor league baseball team, and we got to play "The Star Spangled Banner." Two of our drafted percussionists did not read percussion music, so I wrote the words:

Oh, say can you BOOM CRASH

By the dawn's early BOOM CRASH

What so proudly we BOOM CRASH

etc.

Our snare drummer knew the piece and kept the snare roll going.

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Star Spangled Banner is a bad anthem, on multiple levels. It is impossible for most people to sing properly, despite originating as a drinking song. Yet not even an American drinking song, but a British one, no less. The tune doesn't fit the lyric, which is itself somehow both florid and jingoistic.

It should have been America the Beautiful, which is hummable, homegrown, pastoral, and has several beautiful stanzas. Sorry not sorry.

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No need to apologize. I agree 100%.

I link a combo of verses:

O beautiful for patriot dreams that sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

In dimm’d by human tears

America, America, God nend thine ev’ry flaw

Confirm thy soul in self control

Thy liberty in law.

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Wow! As a long-time resident of California, 1947-2014, I was very aware of the intermittent long and tortured history of Chinese immigrants into the state. Your post deepens my understanding, and I am deeply appreciative. Thank you!

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It's not a new trick. When there's no villain handy (or if you want to distract attention away from the real villains), just select some inoffensive minority and get started making accusations.

As long as they look different and can be singled out, that's all you need. The public falls for it every time.

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By restricting women's right to health care, hopefully the maganazis and evangelicals have cut off their noses to spite their faces. Trump was dumb enough to tell Haley voters he didn't want them in the POT (Party of Trump) tent. He brags about being responsible for overturning Roe v Wade. In Idaho, it was revealed during the SCOTUS hearings that 22% of all Ob-Gyns in ID have either retired or left the state and that 50% of the OBs that deal with high risk pregnancies have left the state.

It reminds me of the joke from 2020 - "A woman voting for any Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders."

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Repubs are masters at this point in time

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"My thought is this is not a place for me anymore."

Just about now, many are having that thought. It seems that those of us who could relatively safely 'ride out the storm' ought do so. Thoughtful presence and courageous participation is essential. (And to confound the fascists' will to be rid of us.)

Yesterday, Tom Nichols quoted Anne Applebaum "the so-called fire hose of falsehood ultimately produces not outrage but nihilism . . . you are not going to participate in any politics at all.”

Earlier, The Museum of Political Corruption announced their Nellie Bly award for investigative reporting to a ProPublica team whose sustained work "exposed the shadow world of access and unreported riches among Supreme Court Justices."

“Reporting on the decades-long campaign to secure conservative influence on the courts and the effort by wealthy conservatives to ply Supreme Court Justices with gifts took time, extensive resources, patience and fortitude," said ProPublica Senior Editor Jesse Eisinger.

And another ProPublica team received a Pulitzer for "Groundbreaking and ambitious reporting that pierced the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the Supreme Court to reveal how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel, pushing the Court to adopt its first code of conduct."

The Pulitzers recognize the wide ranging work of so many in the media who daily look for and provide us with reliable information. I think it important to keep this work in mind - and support however we can, because it supports us in our efforts to understand and to make positive change.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/06/china-russia-republican-party-relations/678271/

https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2024

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My wife had that thought out loud a couple of days ago. We are under 100 miles from the Canadian border. And it's WIDE open for hundreds of miles.......

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We’ll probably never know the full extent of the deals that Jared and Ivanka set up for themselves with foreign countries (Saudi Arabia, China) while working for free in the White House, because they love their country.

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One of the true things about the American experiment, is that it cycles regularly through moments of progress and regression. More often than not, the elements of progress survive the ravages of regression and make the country stronger. It is a two steps forward, one step back approach that is both infuriating and inspiring. We are now in an age of regression. The anti-democratic forces arrayed against the body politic are rolling forward at a seemingly unstoppable pace. But Americans, in their darkest hours, have fought back against these forces, holding them at bay and making the country stronger and safer for all. Maybe I am overly optimistic, everything points to the forces of good taking a beating. But I want to believe that Americans, come November, will unequivocally reject the path to authoritarianism and set the country back on course.

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Eric, the missing variable in your "cycles regularly through moments of progress and regression" is the prevalence of the "24 hour "news" cycle" and social media platforms. I think that these two factors have made this period of regression 10X what it would be were those variables absent.

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Besides, the periods of regression have always been longer than the periods of progress. I guess it’s fair to say the period from 1933 to 1965 was mostly progress, but I’d be surprised if there were another period of progress that long.

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Oddly enough, we are living through a period of progress right now, but to progress we have had to fix so many things the POT has broken over the past 40 years.

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Yes. Five years of progress (2 with Obama and 3 with Biden). Interrupted by four years of extreme regression. And preceded by eight catastrophic years with the nitwit and twelve years of backsliding with Clinton and the nitwit’s father, not to mention eight years of Reagan preparing the population for Christofascism.

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Agreed

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Both you and Rex make valid points to which you can add stacked courts, an inept Congress, Citizens United, and a myriad of other exacerbating problems. The realist in me sees a country on the brink. It's the optimist, that one little spark, that keeps me sane.

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My wife and I have lived in several states and have visited several foreign countries.

The US can no longer be considered a 1st world country. If Trump is reelected, we may divest ourselves of all of our US hard assets and move to one of the true first world countries.

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I have lived abroad for the past 24 years - South Korea for 13 and Taiwan for the past 11. My wife, who is Taiwanese, wants to move to the States. One reason is that she has never lived in a country other than Taiwan and wants the experience, and another is to get her green card, so if we have to move back - my mother is aging and will probably need care - she will be able to work. I am, given the present state of things, reluctant to return.

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I understand your conundrum Eric. Hopefully after November life in the US will be more stable.

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Your optimism is commendable; unfortunately I do not share it. The hatred that lives in people’s hearts for “others” has been released by tffg and has been normalized.

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Unfortunately, regression is most often accompanied by repression. The entire gender with two XX chromosomes have lost the access to safe and quality health care in almost 1/2 the states. LGBTQ+ people have lost even more rights than women. And people of color are not welcome in the Party of Trump tent, even if they lick TFG's boots.

And to accomplish these goals they use hate speech, lies spreading fear amongst the white folk.

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"A recession that hit California in the wake of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869..."

I'm surprised that HCR didn't note that it was Chinese laborers who constructed the California leg of the railroad through the Sierra Nevada across Donner Pass into Sacremento, not a small accomplishment, and then on into San Francisco. It seems the Chinese were much better workers than the Irish laborers who worked east of California.

"In San Francisco, Irish-born drayman Denis Kearney had built a successful business moving goods around the city by wagon. .... Initially, Kearney praised Chinese workers, but he quickly began to blame them for white workingmen’s economic problems. He began to demand that employers fire all their Chinese workers, using the slogan: 'The Chinese must go.'”

Kearny is memorialized by Kearny St. in San Francisco which runs north/south from Filbert St. on Telegraph Hill in North Beach to Market St. and, in some kind of irony, along the way forms the eastern boundry of San Francisco's Chinatown.

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Ralph, I knew of the issues of the Chinese laborers in the construction of the railroad; Pendleton, OR had its own Chinatown in the early days of the 1900's. I had not heard of the Irish hatred of the Chinese laborers however. I've driven down Kearney St. and love the irony of its border with Chinatown.

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Every little mining town in eastern Oregon had a Chinatown. Pendelton has it's commercially successful "Underground Tour", but you'll get a more truthful version at Oregon State Park's Kam Wah Chung in John Day.

Or read "Massacred for Gold" by R. Gregory Nokes for insight into how the Chinese fared in Oregon during the gold rush days.

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I’ve been to the Kam Wah Chang House.

When I got the Underground tour ours was led by a Chinese descendant of that group of settlers. It was “not your tourist version” as we were there for a conference.

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It's ALWAYS amazing, gobsmacking, staggering (and other expletives not so polite) how the most intolerant "Americans " are frequently fairly newly arrived immigrants themselves. The Irish complaining about the Chinese when they were treated the same way in Boston and New York not so long ago. And the French in Lewiston, Maine whining about the Somalian refugees just within the last 20 years when the French were treated like crap when they came here 100 or so years ago. How soon we forget what a privilege it is to live in America comared to all the places we came from whenever we came. We didn't come here as tourists but because America was seen as a "better place" for economic and/or social reasons. But as soon as we did, some of us were immediately intolerant of those after us who came for the same reason we did.

The new Florida law is as outrageous as how Japanes/American citizens were treated in WW2 and hopefully it will get shot down through public outrage and through refferendum and the courts.

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When I was a dorm counselor in college, a freshman asked me if I was Jewish, because he wanted me to know where he came from, Hyannisport MA, "no dogs or Jews were allowed." He had a particularly Irish surname, so I asked if he were of Irish heritage, which he was. And yet, I cautioned him, you can smile as if there's something funny about "no dogs and Jews" and not recall the "No Irish need apply" signs.

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I was flabbergasted when I found out that the Irish were not considered "white" for the longest time. These are the palest people on Earth! They are designed for fog and rain only!

Just goes to show the whole racket is about power and hierarchical dominance, period.

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William Whitman,

We tried to destroy the native Americans. We pushed most of them into terrible places no one else would have chosen to live. One place that is beautiful is in the mountains of NC where Cherokees have lived.....but with much poverty until Harrah's Cherokee Casino and other casinos soon followed.

Our church served in Cherokee, repairing homes. One of the leaders responding to the casinos which he and his wife did not approve, said well, maybe the extra money will put shoes on our little children.

We do not make the best choices because "money" is too much of a priority. The well being of our fellowman is further down the line.

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It’s a very difficult world in which we live. How do we avoid the depradations of racism, jingoism and “fear of fear itself” and yet maintain our vigilance to legitimate national security threats by those who game our aspirations to openness and fairness against us?

How do we remain fair and unbiased to the racial and religious pluralisms in America, yet guard against Chinese, or other, national government efforts to weaken American resolve or major US infrastructure through cyber attacks, theft and espionage? Quite obviously, that is what the Chinese government is trying to do: find and exploit every US weakness! And we have often been naively asleep to those exploitation objectives.

And the Chinese government tries to find disaffected Chinese nationals as part of that campaign to weaken American security. That much has been credibly established by our national security services. Racism against others has potential for exploitation! Perhaps this is not a popular conviction to hold, but what then should a responsible citizen do?

What we can by dint of our individual differences! Be aware, but try to be as fair and open as our awareness and maturity allows us to be while not ignoring the above problems to national security. We live in a difficult world, and being mindlessly hostile to others, or naively ignorant of how we are being exploited by others is unhelpful.

It is hard to responsibly uphold America’s best democratic values, and be responsibly suspicious of others! Some find it easier to be naive, racist or succumb to authoritarianism!

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Yikes, HCR. American history is complicated for sure. Throughout our history, we have been an equal discriminator of most non-whites, even many whites. But do not diminish in any way the seriousness of the Chinese veiled threats to American interests. It is real and growing. Our current, excellent FBI Director points to Chinese threats to our grid, infrastructure, and cybersecurity as great and alarming. The Director opens more cases of Chinese espionage than the next ten foreign assaults combined. Research, development, and theft of trade secrets on a grand scale cannot be dismissed as xenophobia. Veiled Chinese purchases near US military bases is no joke. Chinese attacks on American companies' computer systems are nothing short of alarming. The facts are plain. If you think not, I have the remnants of a huge Chinese computer station simply weather ballooning across our country, which our Air Force had to shoot down, for sale.

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