shadowmayor
shadowmayor's JournalThe view from a bloody border town
Our poor peaceful little town of El Paso is now bathed in blood and we've joined the ranks of so many other sad communities in our country. We are seething and mourning and dumbstruck by the idea of a white racist young man driving all the way from Dallas to gun down "Mexicans" in one of our busiest Walmarts.
Many have inquired to see if we are alright, and some were convinced it must be one of those "terrorists" crossing our border. Sadly, this town is now known for having children in cages and scary immigrants crawling over the wall with "knives in their teeth". And now we will be known as the place where another hateful, cowardly, asshole with a gun murdered people.
I went with my daughter to donate blood and there must have been 700 people in line. We will donate later this week. The outpouring was uplifting and that is the El Paso that I've known and loved for nearly 25 years. Apparently, thousands have shown up to donate blood.
I tell lots of people that one of the secrets to this place is the fact that I, a white man, am a minority here. El Paso is a warm and welcoming place. If you drive by on I-10 it may look like another rusty, dusty, border town. But lift up the carpet and take a look around and you'll find a lot of soul and beauty here.
The news is saying that El Paso and Juarez are both lungs in the same body. Nobody and I mean nobody says that shit about our cities. In fact, many say it's one big city separated by a border, and more recently, by a wall.
We are a racist country. We do separate children from parents - through slavery, Indian shcools, poor houses and orphanages and now border refugees. And we do nothing when gun nuts explode in our midst with their hatred, racism, fear, and complete lack of concern. The fact that it came home to our El Paso today, makes it very difficult to digest.
And at the end of it all, we again ask the same tired question: Why?
Lyin' Ted and Cardboard Cornyn ain't real Texans. They don't neighbor.
An open letter to our two Texas Senators because you don’t neighbor:
We couldn't help but notice your hurry and worry about the pending damage and destruction that was headed our way when Hurricane Harvey announced his intention to illegally cross into Texas. Your letter to the President on August 25 was an urgent cry for help to aid our fellow Texans in a time of crisis. On behalf of the Governor, you wrote:
“Given the potential catastrophic impact that the Hurricane may have on Texas communities, we strongly support this request and urge you to provide any and all emergency protective measures available by a major disaster declaration.”
And what a crisis this Harvey has become! Harvey, birthed in the warm dry air above the Western Sahara, was captured and ferried across the Atlantic to be sold and delivered to the Caribbean. But Harvey had other ideas and he escaped. Ultimately, he decided to head north to the land of the free. A more unwelcome alien than this Harvey is hard to fathom. Except perhaps, if you can remember, those who survived a storm called Sandy back in 2012. I’m fairly certain those folks in New Jersey and New York have a pretty good idea of what it feels like to be in Houston or many other places in Texas right about now.
I’m sure you’re both hoping not too many of us will remember your cavalier approach to the suffering of your fellow citizens way back in 2012. In fact, you count on people not remembering what you do, on so many levels. For those of us who haven’t forgotten, you know that you cannot count on our support come election time. It’s the people who have forgotten that you must count on. As for those who don’t care, you can always count on the support of the uncaring. It’s your stock in trade.
Problem is, that’s not how real Texans are brought up. You see, when folks down the road need help, we believe that helping them is the most important thing. We don’t need to be told, it’s something we fundamentally understand by about the age of 4 or 5. Same holds true with our fellow Americans. When the good people in New Jersey are suffering, we think it’s best to do all we can to help out.
But not you two. You saw Sandy as another opportunity to stick a finger in the eye of the Obama presidency. You’ll place politics above helping people whenever it suits you. And when you need the help, well you ask for it just like the rest of us do, and hope that we won’t treat you the way you treat others. Kinda the opposite of the Golden Rule if’n you ask me?
Out in far west Texas we’ve got a term we use for people like Senators Ted and John – they don’t neighbor! See neighbors take care of each other and lend a helping hand to folks when they need it. Not Ted. Not John. When NJ and NY and others were drowning under the Sandy floods, these two clowns cried about the money Obama was going to spend on helping people. They asked for equal cuts in other parts of the budget to offset FEMA spending. Why in the hell would they do this? Because Ted Cruz and John Cornyn don’t neighbor, that’s why.
Shame on people who don’t neighbor. Shame on both of our Senators. And shame on those who don’t care about others. And the thing of it is, even if you won’t help us, we will help you when you need it. Because that’s how we’re raised in Texas and that’s how you neighbor.
So who would Jesus bomb?
Here we go again folks! MSNBC is in full war-monger mode. Tweety mentioned how it would be generous of the US to "intervene". Such a nice man. The NY Times and WaPo are leading the charge again to kill people in the middle east. And for what reason? Did Assad use sarin gas on people as claimed by so many?
Not so fast folks. We've seen this before. In 2013, the "line in the sand" episodes - Khan al Assal & Ghouta - neither of which were definitively proven to be from Assad's forces, these same new outlets screamed for intervention and bombings and death because Assad had used chemical weapons. Unfortunately for these voices, it turned out to not be the case. The Times retraction years later was tepid at best and only half-assed. Haven't we been down the Iraq has WMD's road before? Why do we jump to conclusions because our propaganda media outlets cheer for war?
Assad has been gaining the upper hand in Syria. Peace negotiations are set to begin in Brussels. Why would he do this now?
I'm not saying he did or didn't use poison gas. I am saying that nobody has any definitive evidence and the last time this happened we were lied to by the media and our government agencies.
So here we are in the new Trump era, and I see my fellow left-leaning liberals jumping on the war bandwagon. When you find yourself aligned with McCain and the New York Times and right wing radio hosts, it may be time to check your position. And MSNBC sounds more and more like Fox News circa 2003.
Everybody, especially the DoD needs to take a breath. Instead we get to hear the "we must take action" BS pouring out of MSNBC.
Don't settle for the BS
There's no can't in American. Sounds trite, simple, and even childish. But this simple phrase can freeze even the most hard-boiled conservative. It questions their Americanism, their courage, and their belief in what is truly possible. Want to get out of our "crushing" debt. A massive public works program for green energy, high speed rail, better roads, bridges, and dams and watch every federal dollar turn into 5 or 6 or 7 as the money flows through local economies.
There's no can't in American. We won't try because we're too stupid? Not clever enough to figure out complex problems. Tell that to Eisenhower in WWII. Tell that to Thomas Edison. We've been figuring out complex problems and issues for as long as we've been a country. Now you wish to quit. Well, I don't think we're a nation of quitters.
We want a better country, not to keep living in the mess we have today. We owe it to future generations.
There's no can't in American. We're not stupid quitters. We want to take care of our grandchildren. Why are conservatives against any of these ideals? This war of words and ideas can be fought successfully if, as Thomas Frank and others remind us; if we learn to use the right messages.
The Big Short Movie
I highly recommend that America flock to this movie like we do for Star Wars. Well, one can hope? However, if you want to have a peaceful holidays, best wait until after Christmas. Took my oldest son and 14 year old daughter to see it late last night. When we got home, my daughter said: "How in the hell am I supposed to go to sleep now? I'm really really pissed-off." All I could tell her was to not worry too much as every little thing that Congress has tried to rein in the greedy careless assholes who run the show has been nibbled away, taken apart and de-fanged by the Republicans and some of the spineless whores posing as Democrats. It's the usual response by the United States of Amnesia. My son who has a degree in Mathematics and is finishing a Masters in Economics just shook his head and said: "Thank god they made it funny in parts, otherwise it would be too depressing to make it as a movie."
The sturm and drang of the primary season can be captivating and even consuming. Meanwhile, stocks are soaring, Fukushima is spewing (and Japan is going to host an Olympics!), wars are raging, Americans are incarcerated and the common thread to all of this is that nobody is held accountable. Why none of the banks were busted up? why these Wall Street buttholes get bonuses instead of sentences and fines? and why do we go along with paying for their mess? are questions I find so infuriating and now to my young daughter as well.
As the Stooges might say - 'Tis the season to eat, drink, and beat Larry
And please go see The Big Short.
Made in America
Born and bred in the good ol' USA, this cowardly turd is just another prime example of a white, Christian, hate-filled, all-American terrorist who uses guns to slaughter unarmed innocents. The frames of Trevor were spot-on!!! I am far, far more likely to get shot by an angry, fearful white man packing heat than any gang banger, any black or any Hispanic, or even Mexican; and I live less than two miles from the Mexican border. Too many hotheads carrying and waiting for their chance to defend something, or worse - waiting to snap. And I'm supposed to be afraid of ISIS or ebola or BLM? Give me a break! It's the white terrorists among us that are one bad day away from either sticking their head in the deep fryer at the Burger King or walking into a school, church, PP building, govt. building, or park to unload their frustrations. I'm tired of these assholes, the assholes who "defend" them with a wink-wink and our BS media. And why is it that so many of these white assholes are taken alive? Just wondering.
War Pigs
The fact that these buttholes walk freely among us is truly remarkable. All that is required is compliance, a population smothered in propaganda and raised in a culture of deference to the rich and powerful. Acquiescence and knee bending is the hallmark of modern America. So few of us care to even examine what is really going on here. Too many are lost in working, spending, surviving, or entertaining to think about how the system is run. And a vast number are ignorant, not even capable of considering the idea that those running the show are playing all sides, always making money, especially off the misery of their fellow man. Every time I see or hear Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, or that smarmy oily worm Rove I want to throw a rock through the screen and open my front door, run into the streets and scream Help me please, for I so want to murder and maim these people.
I know that as a warrior for peace, these thoughts are a break from the better path, but these war pigs just get to keep on keeping on.
What the hell did the people of Iraq (fill in your chosen place) ever do to the people of the US?
Why aren't these people locked up and facing the gallows at the Hague?
And why aren't we busy teaching our children the truth?
The Shadow Mayor
WMD's my ass!
I spent 2005 a.k.a OIF3 or two Thomas (suck on this) Friedman units worth of time in Abu Ghraib prison where we brought liberty and freedom to thousands of Iraqis detained and trapped inside of fences within 18’ high walls. Abu was home of the original uprising following our invasion, the compound where Saddam and his sons executed thousands of prisoners using a gallows chamber, plain old pistols, and American made chipper-shredders. Body disposal was a huge problem for them, so the chipper-shredders were employed to grind the dead (and sometimes alive and howling) criminals into pulp and bury them within the prison grounds. Unfortunately, the stench proved untenable, and crematoria kilns were installed. I know this as I dug trench after trench to bury large electrical lines uncovering bones, rotting flesh, teeth and portions of scalps and skulls throughout the grounds. KBR had subcontracted the construction work for the detainee compounds, and all the main electrical cables were simply laid on the ground to be stomped on by our soldiers and detainees, and for vehicles to smash. You can be sure KBR was paid in full. Apparently Abu Ghraib prison was selected in July 03 by that well known incarceration expert and war pig Wolfowitz as he found it to be centrally located. The list of fuck-ups, disasters, and wanton disregard for the Iraqi people is endless. It really was a case of: Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people and kill them. Hardy fuckin' har har.
Did the soldiers torture and humiliate prisoners before we arrived? You betchya as Palin might say. But those who ran the show – the contract employees and the officers didn't get blamed - naturally. The murders and rapes and more were never released to the public. Wonder why? Why were only the lower enlisted fried for what was an approved policy? General Karpinski was demoted for trying to tell the truth, not for any detainee abuse.
Didn't believe in the war before I went, while I was there, and certainly not after I returned. But I was a soldier, and I couldn't live with the thought of another going in my place - it's a long, complicated story. I was part of Donny Rumsfeld’s back-door draft; a stop-lossed, cross-leveled engineer sent in with the MP reserves out of NY. We had more bullets, RPG's, mortars and rockets rained on Abu Ghraib than any other spot in Iraq. It was truly a hell-hole beyond description. As one old sergeant aptly put it: “God did not create enough ‘suck’ in the entire universe for this place”. Hell even the Marines who came over from Fallujah in late 2004 told me they’d rather be back there as Abu was much worse. We were stuck behind walls like rats in a cage, with no field of vision just waiting for chunks of lead and exploding metal to land on our heads or in our midst.
I was stunned by the number of my fellow soldiers who just knew that Saddam was in cahoots with OBL and that he definitely had WMD’s. And I’m still amazed that so few Americans know that in the first part of 2005, the reservists and guard soldiers outnumbered the active duty. Ol’ Rummy was sure we were just a Friedman unit (six months) or two away from freedom breaking out all over Iraq. I’m still waiting for the flowers to land at my feet? Crooked, deceitful, ignorant all describe the administration, but first and foremost they were truly incompetent, as were most of the suck-up generals and flag officers.
We were told we were a liberating force, and not an occupying force. We were on a mission to restore America’s honor and dignity by winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people one detainee at a time. Camp Remembrance where most of the Iraqis were detained was to remind us all of those brave firemen and police officers who died on 9-11. Yet while we were there, the boy president (what’s the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, I thought they were all Muslims?) let it slip that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks in NY. Not to be deterred, we charlie-miked (continued the mission) for the rest of the year. I had a front row view of the phony elections, drove down the broken roads and saw the murderous carnage unleashed by our war machine, and listened intently to groups of Sunni prisoners tell me around May of ‘05 that the US should leave as we were killing too many people and the Shiites were taking over. That was the point where the civil war was a done deal. Upon my return in December 2005, Fox News raged furiously against any mention of civil war in Iraq. They were only about a year late in my opinion.
I spoke out openly against the invasion much to the chagrin of many (especially the command staff) in our unit, but by the end of the tour, a great number had changed their minds. Late at night soldiers would stop by my cell (we slept in the prison due to all the mortars and rockets) to ask me if I was really serious about this whole war being a great big lie when we were back a Ft. Dix getting ready to deploy. Some told me that at first they thought I was crazy, or some kind of peacenik, but many were quickly coming to realize that they’d been fed a line of complete bullshit. Of the 5000 prisoners, um I mean detainees, we held at any given time at least half (probably much more) were not guilty of anything. Most had simply been rounded up in sweeps. Senators Schumer and Clinton were sent several letters begging them to help remove the Iraqis from Abu Ghraib as it was in violation of the Geneva conventions regarding protecting those under an army's charge and keeping them safe from harm and away from the field of battle. Crickets on that one folks, big crickets.
One direct and unintended consequence of boy George’s folly is that ISIS was formed in our prisons, er detention centers like Abu Ghraib, Cropper and Bucca. I refuse to refer to them as ISIS as they're really Al Qaeda 3.0. Why weren't any of our generals fired? Why were our politicians and media so easily fooled by the bullshit surge? I came back to a brain dead country that had no idea what was going on, much of it in our name. And on and on it goes. The myth of the surge may never die, who knows?
To sum it all up, we took a country apart; massacred its people, destroyed its valuable infrastructure; their roads, sewage systems, power grids and opened the door for Al Qaeda and other radicals to come take root. Baghdad had a brewery before we invaded. That’s right folks, we went after the Arab country that allowed beer! Christians openly owned liquor stores and sold it quietly to their neighboring Muslims. I first met our favorite interpreter David while sharing dinner. I asked him, David isn’t a Muslim name is it? He said no, it was Hebrew. He told me he had converted as a young man and his family was OK with his decision and that there were tens of thousands of Jewish people living peacefully in Iraq before the war began. Sunnis and Shiites intermarried, the Yazidis weren’t being persecuted and for the most part, Iraq was secular and modern. That’s why OBL hated Saddam. Was Saddam a good guy? Hell no. But we decided to destroy an Arab country that was far more progressive than many of its neighbors, and unleashed a civil war from hell, the consequences of which have yet to be fully formed or even understood. And they had beer. Even more importantly, Iraq had NO WMD’s.
So when some dip-shit repuke tries to thank me for defending our freedom, I am no longer polite. I tell them: "No, let me thank you for voting for the bastards who led us into a terrible war, where millions of Iraqis lie dead and homeless and suffering, where our treasure was hemorrhaged to feed KBR and other private war profiteers and where my buddies and I came back broken both physically and psychically. And now we're expected to man-up and be quiet about all that shit?"
And if a democrat dares to thank me, I simply reply: "You have got to be fucking kidding me right? Because if you don't know what a terrible insult that is, well lend me your ear, and I'll tell you a little bit about what war is really like, and I am positive you won't enjoy it one goddamned bit!"
And I always ask, "What the hell did the people of Iraq ever do to the people of the USA?"
Time again to exhale - The Shadow Mayor
Note: Friedman when asked by Charlie Rose what we should be saying to the Iraqi people when we were kicking down their doors and terrifying them in the dark of night replied: “Tell them to suck on this” which makes him a first-class war pig. He also kept telling America that the war was going to turn around in the next six months, or as it is now known as, 1 Friedman unit.
This post was originally my response to a post by Quixote1818 about a Facebook message: Veteran Has Had It With Republicans: ‘Don’t You Dare Thank Me For My Military Service’ by Jim Adams. I’ve added some background to the original post. Le Taz Hot and several others encouraged me to make this an OP. Thanks to all for your encouragement. Please feel free to use this or disseminate freely as you see fit.
WMD's my ass
Thanks for posting this. I spent 2005 or OIF3 or two Thomas Friedman (suck on this) units worth of time in Abu Ghraib prison where we brought liberty and freedom to thousands of Iraqis detained and trapped inside of fences within high walls. Didn't believe in the war before I went, while I was there, and certainly not after I returned. But I was a soldier, and I couldn't live with the thought of another going in my place - it's complicated. I was a stop-lossed, cross-leveled engineer sent in with the MP reserves out of NY. We had more lead, RPG's and mortars and rockets rained on Abu Ghraib than any spot in Iraq. It was truly a hell-hole beyond description. Did the soldiers torture and humiliate prisoners before we arrived? You betchya as Palin might say. But those who ran the show - contract employees and officers didn't get blamed - naturally. The deaths and rapes and more were never released to the public. Wonder why?
We were told we were a liberating force, and not an occupying force. Camp Remembrance where most of the Iraqis were detained was to remind us all of those brave firemen and police officers who died on 9-11. Yet while we were there, the boy president let it slip that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks in NY. Not to be deterred, we charlie-miked for the rest of the year. Had a front row view of the phony elections, drove down the roads and saw the murderous carnage unleashed by our war machine, and listened intently to groups of Sunni prisoners tell me around May of 05 that the US should leave as we were killing too many people and the Shiites were taking over. That was the point where the civil war was a done deal, thanks to our war pigs in charge.
I spoke out openly against the invasion to the chagrin of many in our unit at first, but by the end of the tour, a great many had changed their minds. Senators Schumer and Clinton were sent several letters begging them to help remove the Iraqis from Abu Ghraib as it was in violation of the Geneva conventions regarding protecting those under an army's charge and keeping them from harm and away from the field of battle. Crickets on that one folks, big crickets.
ISIS was formed in our prisons, er detention centers like Abu Ghraib and Bucca. I refuse to refer to them as ISIS as they're really Al Qaeda 3.0. Why weren't any of our generals fired? Why were our politicians and media so easily fooled by the bullshit surge? I came back to a brain dead country that had no idea what was going on, much of it in our name.
Apparently Abu was selected by that well known incarceration and war expert Wolfowitz as he found it to be centrally located. The list of fuck-ups, disasters, and wanton disregard for the Iraqi people is endless. It really was a case of: Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people and kill them. Hardy fuckin' har har.
So when a dip-shit repuke tries to thank me, I am no longer polite. I tell them: "No, let me thank you for voting for the bastards who led us into a terrible war, where millions of Iraqis lie dead and homeless and suffering, where our treasure was hemorrhaged to feed KBR and other private war profiteers and where my buddies and I came back broken both physically and psychically. And now we're expected to man-up and be quiet about all that shit?"
And if a democrat dares to thank me, I simply reply: "You have got to be fucking kidding me right? Because if you don't know what a terrible insult that is, well lend me your ear, and I'll tell you a little bit about what war is really like, and I am positive you won't enjoy it one goddamned bit!"
And I always ask, "what the hell did the people of Iraq ever do to the people of the USA?"
Time to exhale
The Shadow Mayor
Absofrigginlutely!
I am with you 100%. My hatred for that man is pure. And my disgust for those small-minded citizens who lionized this criminal cannot be properly expressed. Nixon messed with Johnson's peace negotiations to win the 68 election. Reagan bribed the mullahs in Iran to delay the release of hostages to win the 80 election. Bush steals the 2000 election and yet - silence.
Thom Hartmann first pointed out (at least to my reckoning) that in 1980 the USA was No. 1 in exporting manufactured goods; importing raw materials; and lending money to other countries. By 2005 we had become No. 1 in importing manufactured goods; exporting raw materials, and the world's largest borrower of money.
The phony "invasion" of Grenada took place shortly after 242 Marines were killed in Beirut. Ronny tucked tail and ran. Nobody on the chicken hawk side cared one bit.
I sometimes wonder if America suffered a giant collective aneurysm during the Regan era.
Thanks for coming to work!
The Shadow Mayor
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Gender: MaleHometown: El Paso
Home country: Planet Earth
Current location: Living Room
Member since: Sun Dec 16, 2012, 07:57 PM
Number of posts: 1,325