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INSTANT ANALYSIS: My Two Cents; Carl Davidson (KD); Facebook; February 28, 2017.
You can learn more about BCR’s leftster management here. “Leftster” is the combination of leftist and gangster, inspired by the left-originated “bankster.”
I mostly completed this review in February/March but it fell between the cracks until late June.
For your education and entertainment. I have to give KD credit for watching Remarks by President Trump in Joint Address to Congress. I can’t stand most speeches by politicians regardless of ideology or political party so I tend to rely on transcripts. Be sure to fact-check the speech, KD’s “instant analysis,” and my comments.
Carl Davidson (KD): “INSTANT ANALYSIS: MY TWO CENTS. ‘Thin Gruel’ is the term I groaned at the TV as President Trump made his way out of the Chamber, meaning it was long on applause lines and short on substance. I was a little taken aback at the abrupt end, expecting he would eventually get to something.
“But after a moment or two, I felt my initial reaction was too kind. It was mainly a speech promoting fear today wrapped in tomorrow’s air castles of glory. In the face of complex problems, we got scapegoats—murderous illegal immigrants, cold-blooded, heartless inner city murderers, crazed religious fanatics slaying anyone within their reach halfway around the world.
“Are the examples he gave true? Undoubtedly. But where was the context? The millions of migrant workers who slave in our fields to nurture their families, the decades of urban profit-seeking leaving communities gutted and impoverished, with generations with nothing but bad choices, an Islamic world unjustly subjected to ‘shock and awe’ leaving hundreds of thousands dead in deserts and ancient cities for the sake of putting a relative handful of bin Laden devotees out of business—none of this served to raise our understanding of our quandaries and, indeed, our injustices. All you need do is mutter ‘drug cartel’ and ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’ and somehow you’ve waved a magic wand.”
[RWC] Let’s say there are “millions of migrant workers who slave in our fields to nurture their families.” Who’s responsible?
Since the U.S. is a hell hole, why don’t lefties encourage Mexicans to stay home or go to places like Cuba, Venezuela, and so on?
“It was also a speech laced with American nationalism. I guess we can be thankful for small favors when an American president doesn’t present himself as ‘the leader of the free world,’ but simply of our country. But even that is also too kind. Trump promised a huge expansion of our military, when it’s already the most powerful in the world many times over. Even some 120 Pentagon advocates questioned his priorities earlier in the day. Trump wants to slash the State Dept. budget and foreign aid—the tools of ‘soft power’ and diplomacy—for the sake of iron fists without velvet gloves.”
[RWC] I didn’t find any instances of a U.S. president “present[ing] himself as ‘the leader of the free world,’” but it was only a quick check.
“I have news for him. In a world of asymmetrical warfare and insurgencies of all sorts around the failed states of failed Empires, bluster doesn’t get you very far. And some of those who are not failed states—China, Iran—are not pushovers. You attack them at your peril.”
[RWC] Other than people we’re already at war with, I missed the part where DT said he wanted to attack anyone.
“On trade Trump gave us a nice story about Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and the unfair 100% tariff they faced in Japan. I’m sure there are more where that came from. But again, context matters. Want happens to Mexican farmers when US corn is dumped in their country at less than the cost of production? I can assure you of one thing. They will scale any wall before they allow their children to starve.”
[RWC] KD’s been peddling his corn story since at least 2013.
If true, KD would rightly have a problem with the U.S. “dumping” corn in Mexico. KD, however, doesn’t address Mexico dumping labor in the U.S. That’s what happens when we don’t enforce our laws. Imagine what would happen if we had an open border. KD is a member of the USW and it supports an open border.
Leo Gerard [USW CEO, foreign-national (Canadian)] gave a Pittsburgh May Day (5/1/13) speech from a truck sporting a banner reading “SOLIDARITY HAS NO BORDERS – COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM NOW.” Perhaps labor-union management can explain how “NO BORDERS” will help union members.
When I mentioned the open border issue in a BCT discussion thread, SEIU operative Danny Sainovich wrote, “As to borders- taken out of context. Unions have no borders, we universally support workers on either side of a border. As to comprehensive immigration reform, that would pass in Congress but it has never gotten to a full vote.”
At least one admin of the Beaver County Reds (BCR) website didn’t think my comment was “taken out of context.” After being on the BCR website since 5/2/2013, the May Day photos disappeared sometime between Mar 26, 2017 7:32pm (the timestamp on my comment) and about 9am the next morning. I don’t know who deleted the photos, but KD posts the vast majority of the website’s articles, including the one in which the photos appeared for nearly four years. This was not the first time BCR deleted inconvenient content from its website.
I think it’s safe to say the vast majority of Americans favor legal immigration. I also think it’s safe to say the vast majority of Americans recognize we need rules to control whom we let in and the rate. Today’s left does not appear to support this position.
It’s obvious most border crashers are not engineers, doctors, and so on. Large numbers of undereducated and unskilled residents, whether illegal or legal, depress wages for everyone. The undereducated, unskilled, and English-illiterate also place a heavier demand on so-called “safety net” programs and public schools, meaning more taxes for legal residents. There are considerations other than purely economic, however. On the non-economic side, throw in an inability to speak/read/write English and we have a double whammy. Large numbers of the undereducated, unskilled, and English-illiterate tend to segregate themselves – out of desire or perceived necessity - instead of assimilate. This is bad for society. Legal immigration is great and most of us support it. What isn’t great is any policy that doesn’t allow us to assimilate immigrants at a rate that benefits us all. Even the U.S. has limits on its rate of assimilation. Naturally, not all immigrants are undereducated and unskilled. My paternal-grandmother’s family was an example.
“Trump praised Eisenhower for building the Interstate Highway system. Indeed Ike did, but he managed it by keeping FDR’s old wartime high tax rate at above 90 percent. Trump, on the other hand, is going to fund all his huge and great infrastructure projects with tax cuts and pixie dust, meaning that the working class, and not the people with serious money, will pay for them, if they ever get off the ground.”
[RWC] If you want to see businesses die or move overseas, jack up the rate to 91%. KD failed to mention the only thing that made the 91% rate “tolerable” was all the “special interest” deductions, exemptions, and so on that most of us hate. One reason our top marginal tax rates are lower today than in Ike’s era is today’s rates don’t have all those “special interest” deductions, exemptions, and so on. Who on Earth would tolerate giving 91% of their earnings to someone else?
“To wrap this up, I think one of his points was particularly cruel. He picked a young woman as an example of what can happen when you pluck a bright student out of a poor school in the name of ‘choice.’”
[RWC] FYI, KD should have been more careful and told readers when he referred to “choice” he didn’t mean abortion.
Okay, let’s see what KD thought was “particularly cruel.” DT said,
“But to achieve this future, we must enrich the mind and the souls of every American child. Education is the civil rights issue of our time. (Applause.) I am calling upon members of both parties to pass an education bill that funds school choice for disadvantaged youth, including millions of African American and Latino children. (Applause.) These families should be free to choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious, or home school that is right for them. (Applause.)
“Joining us tonight in the gallery is a remarkable woman, Denisha Merriweather. As a young girl, Denisha struggled in school and failed third grade twice. But then she was able to enroll in a private center for learning -- a great learning center -- with the help of a tax credit and a scholarship program.
“Today, she is the first in her family to graduate, not just from high school, but from college. Later this year she will get her master’s degree in social work. We want all children to be able to break the cycle of poverty just like Denisha. (Applause.)”
No question, this was “particularly cruel.”
“Are such stories true? Indeed they are, I spent several years working in some of the toughest schools in Chicago, and I met a decent number of young geniuses making their way in harsh situations. Suppose these kids were plucked out by ‘choice’? Those of us on the spot ask an embarrassing question. For every one you take out, ten, 20 or more will remain behind, but with fewer funds. What happens to them? Do they have more options or less?”
[RWC] And there’s what communism is about; everyone must fail.
When KD claimed he “spent several years working in some of the toughest schools in Chicago,” I believe he was referring to Networking for Democracy. According to a website that sells his books, “Davidson was a founder of Networking for Democracy, a Chicago-based group of grassroots activists working two decades around the digital divide and other issues raised by the impact of technology on society. He taught computer repair to low-income women, prisoners, ex-offenders, and inner city youth in community technology centers, high schools and after-school programs.” Does anyone want to guess what else KD taught these folks? Given how much ideology and politics appear to saturate his life, I would be surprised if KD checked his ideology and politics at the door.
“The great thing about our public schools is no child is turned away. But we also know that schools alone can’t solve poverty and injustice. Trump had no kind word for the victims of police violence. But he had plenty for tougher police. Kids in these neighborhoods have faced little except ‘tough’ police for their entire lives. More of the same isn’t going to cut it.
“The country needs serious green industrial and clean energy programs. Trump promised clean air and water, but in his first week, he got rid of a regulation preventing coal companies from dumping toxic slurry in mountain streams. We’ll seek our truths from facts, Mr. Trump, not from nationalist rhetoric or ‘facts’ from alternate universes.”
[RWC] For his sake I hope KD’s new house isn’t made of glass. I have a series entitled “They know they can’t win if they don’t lie” and KD is a frequent example.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity. <g>
© 2004-2017 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.