Political Irony

© Blue Delliquanti

Not to mention that tactics like race-based gerrymandering and voter suppression laws will only work for so long before these these not-really-a-minority-any-more groups figure out that they can wield a tremendous amount of political power. Where will that leave all the Fox News loving racists?

A week or so ago, the Chicago Cubs had a bit of a disaster. Four and a half innings into the game it started raining — hard — but they didn’t have enough grounds crew to cover the field with tarps quickly enough. The attempt to cover the field was so pitiful the audience booed. Finally, after a long delay and with the field an unplayable mess, the game was called because of rain. Which gave a 2-0 win to the Cubs.

Their opponents, the SF Giants, protested the call and won. It was the first successful protest in major league baseball in 28 years. So the game was resumed two days later.

Now here’s the ironic part. It turns out that the Cubs had sent home ten workers from the grounds crew earlier that evening. Why did they do that? Because if those employees had worked more hours then the Cubs would have had to provide health insurance under Obamacare.

The Cubs claim that they were just trying to control costs, which is pretty funny considering that they are one of the top five baseball teams in revenues. An official with another team put it bluntly — he called them “cheap”. “Embarrassing” said another official, “and they got caught”.

Jon Stewart nails it again, with humor.

My favorite quote is the guy who says “You know who talks about race? Racists.” Isn’t he talking about race? Does that mean he is identifying himself as a racist? If so, then I’m agreeing with him!

Three law enforcement officers (from three different police departments) involved in the Ferguson events have been suspended because of their extremely racist words and actions. How extreme? Here are some examples, courtesy of New York magazine:

St. Louis County officer Dan Page appears in a video posted to YouTube of an hour long speech he gave to the Oath Keepers, where he calls black people “little perverts”, Obama “that illegal alien claiming to be president”, gay people “sodomites”, Muslims “they will kill you”. But most troubling is his attitude toward killing:

I personally believe in Jesus Christ as my lord savior, but I’m also a killer. I’ve killed a lot. And if I need to, I’ll kill a whole bunch more. If you don’t want to get killed, don’t show up in front of me, it’s that simple. I have no problem with it. God did not raise me to be a coward.

Officer Page originally gained notoriety because he pushed CNN anchor Don Lemon while he was reporting live during a demonstration in Ferguson.

Next is Officer Matthew Pappert who works for the Glendale Police Department, which operates near where Michael Brown was killed by the police. After the protests started, Pappert started posting racist remarks to his Facebook page, including “These protesters should have been put down like a rabid dog the first night.” Pappert also called the demonstrators “a burden on society and a blight on the community” and “thugs” and suggested that “a Muslim with a backpack” deal with them somehow.

Last but not least is St. Ann Police Department officer Ray Albers, who came to fame for pointing a semi-automatic assault rifle at protestors in front of the media, to whom he threatened “I will fucking kill you”. When asked for his name by a reporter whom he had just shoved, he responded “Go fuck yourself.”

How does war mongering work? Well, first you plant the seeds of fear.

So it is hardly any surprise that presidential candidate and governor of Texas Rick Perry told an audience at the conservative Heritage Foundation in DC that it is a “very real possibility” that terrorists from the extremest group ISIS may have crossed into the US at the southern border. He did add that he has absolutely no evidence to support this, but the point he made is that as long as the border is insecure “individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states could be” taking advantage of the situation. “We need to have clear and compelling forces, both law and enforcement and otherwise, to send the message that the border is secure.”

Of course, making a border as long and isolated as the US southern border completely secure is completely impossible. And even if you could, how would you stop a terrorist-filled boat from landing anywhere on our extensive coastlines? It just reminds me of Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) that threw hundreds of billions of dollars at defense contractors to guard against a threat that turned out to be a tempest in a teapot.

Perry went on to call for a stronger response to ISIS, including even more airstrikes. “When they talk about limited airstrikes, they place a great emphasis on the word ‘limited,’ yet clearly more airstrikes are necessary. Nothing less than a sustained air campaign to degrade and destroy ISIS forces is required.” And when asked by a reporter if he would support combat troops on the ground, Perry responded “all your options have to be open”.

The message of fear was amplified by a member of the Republican National Committee, who on her radio show said that the children from Central America coming across our border could be “highly trained as warriors who will meet up with their group here and actually rise up against us as Americans.” Her guest, a member of the Tea Party, agreed: “We do know that Hamas and Hezbollah run several training camps in Venezuela and other South American countries, and they are training these young – these youths – beginning as early as 8 or 9 years old through the MS13 gangs. They are being trained as warriors, you’re absolutely right.”

While I have a great deal of sympathy for the opinion that when we invaded Iraq (based on lies and misinformation), we broke it and now we have responsibility for fixing it. But the real question is what can we do that won’t merely make the situation worse?