Rep. Brad Schneider's Staff's Racist Treatment of Black Employee Should Remind Us of Lynching, Tuskegee, Ethnic Cleansing

     Three days ago - on July 15th, 2021 - a story about racially disparaging remarks, made by an employee of Democratic Illinois Congressman Brad Schneider named Karyn Davidman, made international headlines, as the DailyMail published an article titled "Black staffer for Democrat Rep. Brad Schneider SUES his office after her white supervisor told her to 'get a rope and put it around her neck' then 'pigeon-holed' her when she complained".

     The article explains that, "According to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Davidman relayed a story to [former staffer Patrice] Campbell regarding lanyards worn to secure face masks and used to guard against COVID-19 infection."

     It continues, "During the March discussion, Davidman told Campbell, who is the only Black employee in Schneider's office, according to the lawsuit, "You are going to have to get a rope and put it around your neck."

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9793147/Black-staffer-Democrat-Rep-Brad-Schneiders-office-supervisors-lynching-comments.html?fbclid=IwAR1BAc8gbsjwXy_Pl_xKcL7tBOYzp3CWF_Q1vuq42LckyqcElDlDMPIcT-s

     Presumably, Davidman told Campbell to use that rope as a lanyard, to help secure her face mask onto her face.
     Campbell considered this remark to be racially insensitive, because the comment about a rope reminded her of lynchings of black people.
     http://www.rollcall.com/2021/07/15/rep-brad-schneiders-office-sued-for-hostile-work-environment-retaliation-against-black-employee/?fbclid=IwAR0PzZx1XAuzluL7C98bzr

     I want to whole-heartedly condemn this reprehensible and racially (probably deliberately) insensitive behavior. No employee in the public sector should ever experience discrimination.

     [In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I ran against Brad Schneider, as a write-in candidate, in 2016 and 2020.]

     Throughout mid-2020, when I attended various Black Lives Matter and George Floyd protests, I criticized Congressman Schneider's office for accepting money from what are arguably pro-war and racist sources.

     http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2020/02/where-does-congressman-brad-schneider.html

     Once at a B.L.M. event attended by Schneider, I drowned-out Schneider's speech as soon as he begun talking, with a chant of "Brad takes bribes from the Israeli lobby that trains our racist police (clap, clap)".

     I said this because Schneider's campaigns, combined, have accepted half a million dollars from the Israeli lobby, and $23,000 from the top companies servicing the Military-Industrial Complex (Boeing, etc.). This money was accepted at a time when it had recently been revealed that Israeli Defense Forces (I.D.F.) soldiers had been involved in a program to assist in the training of police officers from New York City. Numerous journalists have criticized this training program as racist, claiming that it teaches racial profiling. (Hence my chant)

     The treatment of Patrice Campbell by Karyn Davidman is especially horrifying to me, as a person who has criticized Schneider's office for racism in the past, and as someone who has studied the history of genocide and eugenics in the 20th century.

     I have suspected - since early 2020 - that (while the government underreacted in some areas) when the government overreacted to the Covid-19 outbreak, it sometimes disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minorities (as well as the poor).

     For example:

     1) In the early days of the pandemic, a rumor spread that African-Americans could not get the disease, or were less likely to get the disease. Soon after, scientific data showed that the opposite was true.

     http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/08/us-blacks-3-times-more-likely-whites-get-covid-19

     2) Soon after California shut down, and six-foot physical distancing was ordered, Gavin Newsom was photographed sitting at a table with other members of the political elite, suggesting that being wealthy and powerful exempted them - but not the poor, who are disproportionately people of color - from coronavirus restrictions.

     3. African-Americans may be less likely, in general, to get vaccinated, because many African-Americans remember the Tuskegee Experiments (in which the government allowed men with syphilis to go untreated, after they were being told that they would receive free medical treatment from the government).

     Because Karyn Davidman told Patrice Campbell to use a rope around her neck to secure her face mask into place - supposedly "for her own good" or for the sake of her health - should remind all of us of not only the history of lynching, but also because of the Tuskegee Experiments.

     The Democrats are offering us "free medical care", but only on the condition that the costs of that "free" medicine be passed onto the next generation (instead of reforming taxes and the budget to solve the funding problem). They are also obligating the states and the people to relinquish their rights to regulate medical insurance.

     The Democrats also expect us all to submit to a progressive ideology that supports eugenics to every bit the same extent as the Republican Party ideology. The Democratic Party is the party of slavery, the party of conserving the environment so steadfastly (for attention) that they cease caring about humans' rights to live in harmony with nature, and the party of aborting black babies in the womb instead of solving the social and economic problems that lead people to want to get abortions.

     What happened to Patrice Campbell should remind us not only of lynching, the Tuskegee Experiment, and tempting people into tolerating fascism by offering promises of medical care (as the Nazis did when Germany annexed Austria).

     It should also remind us of several other events throughout history:

     1) The spraying of black people with fire hoses under the orders of Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor;

     2) The spraying of atheist, socialist, and anarchist women in 1930s Spain, which was done by fascist, Carlist Spanish Catholics, in the name of "cleansing them of sin";

     3) The Bath Riots of 1917 (during the presidency of Democrat Woodrow Wilson), which took place at the Ciudad Juarez / El Paso border crossing. A teenage girl caused a riot after immigrant women - including pregnant women - were exposed to GASOLINE BATHS and ZYKLON-B. American border guards were also raping some of the girls and women. The women were told that they were being exposed to the harsh chemicals in order to "de-louse" them, despite the fact that the Mexican typhus epidemic ended ten years prior to this event. One of the women remarked, "Why do they think we're so dirty?"; and

     4) The Holocaust during World War II, in which the Nazis used the same chemical used by Americans to "de-louse" Mexican immigrants - Zyklon-B - to murder Jews (and people who helped Jews attempt to escape, and other "undesirables") intentionally.

     Nazis ordered Jews to enter shower chambers, and given bars of soap, and told to prepare for showers (which were then filled with poison gas). That shows that those Jews believed that they were being given medical treatment, in the form of a shower. But, of course, it turned out to be poisonous Zyklon-B gas (the vapor of hydrocyanic acid), and it killed them.

     We must not forget that the American use of Zyklon-B predates the Nazi use of it by more than twenty years. We must not forget that people have been lured into fascism - and to their deaths - with the promises of free medical care.

     Such "medical care" could include anything from therapeutic showers to being exposed to dangerous de-lousing chemicals (that either might or will kill you), to getting radiation for cancer therapy, to trying coronavirus drugs that carry high risks of heart disease, to being given Munchhausen's Syndrome, to being drugged with experimental anti-psychotic medications, to being emotionally traumatized through experimental psychotherapy, to being medically neglected, to being euthanized (euthanasia literally meaning "good death").

     The Nazi twin studies, and various grotesque experiments by Dr. Josef Mengele, were done under the guise of "medical research". So were the Tuskegee Experiments, and experiments that humanized mice, and "gain-of-function" research, and so many more.

     It should seem obvious to us, by now, that there is no possible way to read a white superior telling a black employee "get a rope and put it around your neck" to secure a face mask into place - other than a racially disparaging remark.

     This reflects and reveals an underlying racial bias - by the public government - against African-Americans. It is evident in the enforcement of Coronavirus restrictions recently, and in the eugenicist history of progressivism and neo-liberal "democracy" generally and historically.

     Schneider staffer Karyn Davidman did this because she thinks that black people are dirty, or at least more likely to pass coronavirus to her.

     Karyn Davidman said this because she is a racist, and her comment confirms that the Democratic Party is, and has always been and will always be, the party of the Ku Klux Klan (which openly supported the party during the first half of the 20th century).

     If Karyn Davidman wants Patrice Campbell to wear a mask so badly, then I suggest that Karyn Davidman first show herself for who she really is, by getting a hold of a white Klan mask, and securing it firmly over her own head.

     If people like Davidman are going to endorse this kind of treatment of African-Americans, then I suggest they move to Arizona and become Republicans. There, Republicans want to use Zyklon-B - the same chemical used to kill Jews in the Holocaust, and "de-louse" and humiliate Mexicans - as part of execution of death row inmates.

     http://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/us/arizona-zyklon-b-gas-chamber.html

     We must not allow the government to tempt us into submission to fascism and eugenics as the "cost" of "free" medical care.

     We must not allow people to pressure or order us to submit to forcible sterilization; whether that comes in the form of sterilizing Native American woman and Mexican immigrants against their will with poisonous chemicals, or merely pressuring people to use hand sanitizers (some of which contain toxic wood alcohol) and allow others to spray them with Lysol in stores for not wearing masks.

     You are under no obligation to tell anyone whether you have been vaccinated, as the condition of entering private property. For one, you have a right - recognized by the Fifth Amendment - not to incriminate yourself. Second, H.I.P.A.A. laws protect doctor-patient confidentiality.
      [For more information, see the following link:
     http://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/february-2020-hipaa-and-novel-coronavirus.pdf
     "the protections of the Privacy Rule are not set aside during an emergency."]

     We must learn to recognize eugenicist behavior - and ethnic cleansing - when we see it, or we will not learn the full lessons of the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement.

     There is no "national body" that can get sick, and we must stop subscribing to the fascist notions (i.e., corpus mysticum, the mystical body of the state; and the "social contagion theory") that there is.
     http://www.routledge.com/Contagion-and-the-National-Body-The-Organism-Metaphor-in-American-Thoug

     We can't get each other sick if we stay far away enough from each other. Please stay at least six feet away from me, and if necessary, tell me to stay at least six feet away from you. Aside from that, stop telling me what to do with my body.

     With the government as corrupt and discriminatory as it is, there is no need to further accustom ourselves to obeying whatever orders are given by others (that is, aside from "get away from me").

 
     
     

Written and published on July 18th, 2021
Expanded on July 19th, 2021
Edited and Expanded on July 26th, 2021

Questions About Race Relations and Racial Politics in America (and a Few Answers)

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Definitions of Racism, Prejudice, Discrimination, Stereotypes (etc.)
III. Hispanic-American Issues, Immigration, and "Where Are You From?"
IV. Political Correctness (incl. P.C. Language on College Campuses)
V. Racial Politics: Trump vs. the Democratic Party
VI. Reparations, Affirmative Action, and "Reverse Discrimination"
VII. Native American Issues
VIII. Busing and Black Incarceration

I. Introduction

     The following 28 sets of questions were written as part of the planning stages of my appearance on  an episode of a public access television show based in Highland Park, Illinois. The topics of that episode are race in America and political correctness.

     I believe that these questions are the most important and relevant questions that need to be asked, in order to produce a thorough discussion of race relations.

     I did not answer all of the questions that follow (I refrained from answering questions #7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14-19, 22-26, and 28). However, my readers should be able to discern my opinion from the way I worded most of those questions.

     In case it's necessary to explain my positions any further, I support political correctness and safe spaces, but only when they don't interfere with the right to free expression and the right to debate what the truth is. And I do believe that Donald Trump is a white supremacist and a racist, and I have criticized (and will continue to criticize) the Trump Administration's immigration policies as reminiscent of the Nazi regime that governed Germany during World War II and the Holocaust.

     Along with many of these sets of questions, I have included links to news articles, so that the reader can learn more about the original context of the news about American racial politics to which I am referring.

II. Definitions of Racism, Prejudice, Discrimination, Stereotypes (etc.)

     1. What is the definition of “racism”? What is the definition of “racial supremacy”?

     Answer: Racism is “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race, based on the belief that one's own race is superior.” Additionally, the term “racism” is often used as shorthand (or a synonym) for “racial supremacy” and “the belief in, or promotion of, racial stereotypes”.

     Racial supremacy, in particular, is “the racist belief that one's race is superior to others, and that therefore that race should dominate, subjugate, or control other races, or the belief that the superior race is entitled to do so.”

     2. Is the term “racist” being overused? Does calling everything “racist” diminish the seriousness of racial hatred? Why has this term become so popular recently?

     Answer: Because many people lump racial prejudice, racial supremacy / racial superiority, racial stereotyping, and racial discrimination in with racism, and refer to all of those things (as well as making insensitive jokes about race) as “racist” actions.

     The term “racism” has thus become a convenient descriptor for any and all actions which could be described as racially insensitive. The popularity of the word's use in recent years, could owe in part to the fact that the word now refers to a wider and less specific set of arguably racist actions and statements than it used to.

     On the other hand, those who feel that it is appropriate to call a lot of people and things “racist”, do so because they believe that racism is now practiced mostly covertly, as opposed to overtly. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-60s featured obvious, public, out-in-the-open discrimination against, and segregation of, African-Americans; not just in private and on business properties, but by the government itself. Some of those who consider racism a serious problem, believe that racism has become harder to detect, and some even believe that we are being subconsciously programmed to support white supremacy, by sectors of our society such as government and advertising.

     3. What is the definition of “racial prejudices”?

     Answer: “Preconceived opinions about race, which are not based on reason or actual experience.”

     4. What is the definition of “racial discrimination”?

     Answer: “Preferential treatment on the basis of race.”

     5. What is the definition of a “racial stereotype”?

     Answer: “A widely held, but fixed and oversimplified, image or idea, of a particular race of people.”

     6. What is the difference between a positive stereotype and a negative stereotype?

     Answer: A negative stereotype is deliberately intended to be hurtful, while a positive stereotype is usually intended as a joke and is usually not intended to offend anyone.

     However, positive stereotypes can still be hurtful, such as the positive stereotypes that “Jewish people are good with money” and “all Asians are good at math”. These ideas are stereotypes about positive traits, but they are still generalizations, so they are still harmful because they contribute to the belief that all members of a certain group are the same.

III. Hispanic-American Issues, Immigration, and "Where Are You From?"

     7. Is it insensitive to refer to Hispanics as “Mexicans”, or as “Spanish people”? Should we be careful about using the term “Mexican” and “Spanish” to describe Latino, Hispanic, or Chicano people who might not even be from Mexico or Spain to begin with?

     8. Former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was recently criticized for asking reporter Andrew Feinberg “What's your ethnicity?” in response to his asking her to explain Trump's tweet telling four congresswomen to “go back” to their districts. The reporter replied that he was American, but Conway kept asking, because she wanted to know where the reporter's parents were from.

     Was it racially insensitive of Donald Trump to suggest that his critics in Congress “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe”, when three out of the four people he was criticizing were born in the United States, rather than abroad?

     Is it racially insensitive to suggest that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “from Puerto Rico” just because her parents are Puerto Rican; and that Rashida Tlaib is “from Palestine” just because her parents are Palestinian? Wouldn't that imply that Ayanna Pressly is every bit as much “from Africa” as Ilhan Omar is? What about a Jewish-American person who was born in America, but has never been to Israel? Where is that person “from”, if not America or Israel?

     Is it racially insensitive to ask someone where their family is from; to keep asking where someone is “from” until they tell you about an ancestor that wasn't born in America? Is it reasonable for someone to be upset or offended by being asked such a question?

Sources:

Kellyanne Conway asks reporter “What is your ethnicity?”:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/conway-reporter-ethnicity-trump

IV. Political Correctness (incl. P.C. Language on College Campuses)

      9. What is the definition of “politically correct”?

     Answer: “Conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities, should be eliminated.”

     10. Some Americans feel that the culture of political correctness has gone too far. Critics of “P.C. language” (politically correct language) say that it causes people to be too cautious about the words they use. They say that worrying about avoiding offending people could make us afraid to speak the truth, and might even cause a “free speech chilling effect”.

     Do you believe that using “politically correct language” is a good way to help promote respectful dialogue about race in America? Or do you believe that P.C. language has gone too far? (And if you think it has gone too far, what are some examples of it going too far, that you object to?)

     11. The conversation about political correctness extends to not only race and ethnicity and nationality, but also to religion, biological sex, and gender identity. Thus, the treatment of transgender individuals, as well as of non-whites, has become an important and controversial issue on college campuses.

     Several years ago, in Toronto, Canada, psychology professor Dr. Jordan Peterson became notorious for refusing to refer to his students by their preferred pronoun, saying “I am not going to be a mouthpiece for language that I detest.” This came at a time when Canada was considering Bill C-16, a proposed bill by the Canadian parliament that would have prohibited gender discrimination on campuses, but also would have required people to use the gender pronouns which others prefer.

     Given that anti-discrimination could potentially threaten the freedom of speech in Canada – and maybe even result in “compelled speech” or “government mandated speech” - is there a realistic chance that the same kinds of laws limiting the freedom of speech on campus, could be implemented at universities here in America?

Source:

Dr. Jordan Peterson on why he won't use people's preferred pronouns:

http://ideapod.com/why-jordan-peterson-wont-refer-to-transgender-people-by-their-preferred-pronouns/

12. What are “safe spaces”?

     Answer: “Places, including some college campuses, which are intended to be free from bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening or upsetting actions, ideas, or conversations.”

     Practices common in “safe spaces” are “trigger warnings” and protections from “micro-aggressions”. Trigger warnings are warnings that information may upset listeners, while “micro-aggressions” are uses of offensive, “aggressive” language, which cause others to feel attacked.

     13. In 2016, the University of Chicago received praise for defending academic freedom and freedom of speech, for announcing that it would not be creating “safe spaces” for students. The university announced that it would not disinvite speakers, invited to speak on controversial topics, if students protested and demanded disinvitation.

     As a reminder, riots broke out in Berkeley in 2017, after the University of California at Berkeley decided not to disinvite controversial “alt-right” speakers, including Milo Yiannopoulos and Lauren Southern.

     Do you believe that the need for political correctness – and so-called “safe spaces” on campus - help college students learn about race in America, history, etc.? Or are you worried that these things shelter students from reality, and from an educational experience that's meant to expose them to ideas that conflict with and challenge their own ideas? What kinds of protections do students need on campus, if any?

Sources:

Riots occur after University of California Berkeley cancels Milo Yiannopoulos event:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/us/milo-yiannopoulos-berkeley/index.html

University of Chicago announces “no safe spaces”:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/08/30/so-you-like-the-university-of-chicagos-rejection-of-safe-spaces-for-students-consider-this/?utm_term=.29de2be54271
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9601

V. Racial Politics: Trump vs. the Democratic Party

     14. Do you believe that President Trump a racist? Why or why not?

Why do people think he's racist? What has he said, or done, that indicates that he is a white supremacist?

     15. Is the Trump Administration's immigration policy racist? Is it intrinsically racist to exclude immigrants on the basis of national origin, or is just an issue of the president stressing the need to enforce existing law?

     16. Many defenders of the president have pointed out that some immigration policies - such as separation of children from families, and knocking-over water left for migrants – were started under the Obama Administration. The Trump Administration says it's just enforcing existing laws.

     The Obama Administration has been criticized for setting deportation records. But Obama and Hillary Clinton also supported D.A.C.A. (Deferred Action for Child Arrivals).

     Did the Obama Administration help immigrants? Was Obama's immigration policy good for America? Should Hillary Clinton have done something more to help immigrants, besides just support D.A.C.A., if she expected to prove herself more pro-immigrant than Trump, and win the presidency?

Sources:

Obama sets deportation records:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obamas-deportation-policy-numbers/story?id=41715661

Hillary's mixed record on immigration:
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/09/10/hillary-clinton-once-said-illegal-child-immigrants-should-be-sent-back/23203204/

     17. “The Squad” - the quartet of four progressive Democratic legislators whom are all women of color – have become well-known for their outspoken criticism of Donald Trump, and his administration's policy towards immigration, the B.D.S. movement, and other issues. They have even called for his impeachment.

     Trump and the Squad have called each other “racist” back and forth several times, over several issues, especially the issue of whether the treatment of undocumented immigrants at the border is comparable to the conditions seen in Nazi concentration camps. The Squad accuses Trump of racial antipathy against people of Hispanic or African origin; while Trump accuses the Squad of racism for supposedly always making his statements about race, and for their arguably anti-Semitic criticism of the State of Israel.

     Whose statements are “less politically correct”; the president's, or the Squad's? Is it always racially insensitive to compare the treatment of undocumented immigrants to the treatment of victims of the Holocaust, or is it possible to warn people against repeating another potential Holocaust-like situation without diminishing the seriousness of that crime against humanity?

     What could be done to improve U.S.-Jewish and U.S.-Islamic relations, without offending the political, religious, and racial sensibilities of any of those groups?

     18. Statistics show that black home ownership rates did not go up or down from the beginning to the end of the Obama Administration. Unemployment among blacks is down, but that could be due to decreased enrollment in unemployment benefits, and the way unemployment is measured.

     That, and the fact that black homeownership rates are not currently at an all-time high (as Trump has claimed) point to the possibility that the Trump Administration is being “irrationally exuberant” about how much it has improved the financial situation of black Americans. In fact, black homeownership is now at an all-time low.

     Did Obama help African-Americans? Why did the majority of blacks vote for Trump instead of Hillary in 2016? Have African-Americans been doing better economically and financially under Trump than under Obama, or is it still too early to tell?

Source:

Black homeownership at 50-year low:

http://www.nareb.com/african-american-homeownership-falls-50-year-low/

VI. Reparations, Affirmative Action, and "Reverse Discrimination"

     19. Some Americans still feel that the history of slavery, segregation, discrimination, and poverty that have plagued African-Americans, still has too much of an effect on their ability to get ahead in the economy. Many Americans who feel this way, believe that reparations for slavery are an appropriate and necessary response to the financial struggles of black descendants of formerly enslaved people.

     Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson is running on a platform that includes reparations, with an amount of money to be negotiated at a later date ($200-$500 billion), be disbursed over a period of 20 years, for the purposes of reconciliation with the black community, and, as she says, as “payment for the debt that is owed”. The money would be paid to a reparations commission, made up of a panel of black leaders.

     Presidential candidate Andrew Yang has proposed a somewhat similar plan. Yang's “Freedom Dividend” is a universal basic income plan, which will be payable to all Americans who want to participate in it, not just African-Americans. However, Yang says that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supported the basic income idea, and the Freedom Dividend could become sort of a surrogate for reparations if Yang became president.

     Will reparations help African-Americans recover from slavery, or help them get ahead financially? Or are reparations hurtful to African-Americans' independence and self-esteem because they assume that all black people need this assistance?

     What are some potential obstacles to getting a reparations bill passed in Congress?

Sources:

Marianne Williamson on reparations:
http://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/marianne-williamson-best-defense-reparations-2020-debates.html
http://theweek.com/speedreads/855969/marianne-williamson-slavery-reparations-not-financial-assistance-but-debt-that-owed

Andrew Yang supports basic income, and so did MLK:
http://twitter.com/andrewyang/status/1135578919195877376?lang=en

     20. In 2016, white Texas student Abigail Fisher lost the second of her two U.S. Supreme Court lawsuits (after winning the first) against the University of Texas at Austin, which she alleged did not admit her because of its affirmative action program and its preference for non-white students.

     Affirmative action is a college admission policy which intends to “tip the playing field in the other direction” in order to account for the advantages whites have had in getting opportunities to go to college. Some consider college affirmative action policies “reverse discrimination” or “reverse racism”. Perhaps the same could be said about reparations.

What is the definition of “reverse discrimination”?

     Answer: “”The practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups known to have been discriminated against previously.”

     To put it another way, “reverse discrimination” is discrimination against members of a social group or class which believes itself to be superior, practiced by members of the supposedly inferior class which usually finds itself discriminated against.”

In modern America, the term “reverse racism” usually refers to alleged discrimination against whites by non-whites.

Source:

Abigail Fisher's affirmative action lawsuit:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36928990

     21. What are some other practices – aside from reparations and affirmative action - that could be described as “reverse discrimination” or “reverse racism”?

     Answer: One example is the assumption that all white people are racists or white supremacists. Another example is the increasingly popular practice in the Democratic Party of openly and intentionally giving more speaking time to women and non-whites, than to white men.

     22. Are reparations and affirmative action necessary to make up for America's history of unequal treatment of non-whites? Or do these policies themselves perpetuate racism, just in the opposite direction (that is, against whites)?

VII. Native American Issues

     23. In May, Democrats including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren pulled a bill that would have affirmed the federal reservation designation of tribal lands in Massachusetts, after Trump called the bill “unfair”. Proponents of the bill conjectured that Trump's casino deals in the state, may present a conflict of interest, which could explain Trump's opposition to designating the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe reservation as trust land.

     What do you think would help Native Americans more; giving them more (or possibly better) land, or giving them casinos? Or will it be necessary to enact some sort of reparations -type bill, to improve relations between the U.S. federal Government and the Indian tribes?

Source:

Trump calls Warren bill on Indian lands “unfair”, Trump's casino deal may present conflict of interest:

http://www.apnews.com/6d236a2b9bd94383b25a86e2de3cdf7f

     24. In October 2018, Elizabeth Warren's DNA results were released, revealing that her ethnic background is between 0.09% and 1.5% Native American. Warren has since apologized to the Cherokee Nation for trying to use the DNA test to justify her claim that she has Native American heritage.

     However, prior to that apology, Warren's critics accused her of exaggerating the extent of her Native American heritage, in order to get special treatment such as a minority college scholarship and political clout.

     Are Warren's critics right? Does Warren have a right to recognize her Native American heritage (as little as it is), or is it racially and politically insensitive of her to move forward with her campaign, given that she has offended the very community she claims to come from?

Source:

Warren apologizes to Cherokee Nation over DNA test:
http://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/politics/elizabeth-warren-apology-to-cherokee-nation/index.html

VIII. Busing and Black Incarceration

     25. In July, during the first round of debates for the Democratic nomination for president, California Senator Kamala Harris confronted Joe Biden over his opposition to busing of black and white students to public schools. Biden was against school busing in the early 1970s, at a time when President Richard Nixon was urging the desegregation of public schools “with all deliberate speed”.

     Biden has also been criticized for having authored the Clinton omnibus crime bill (The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994), which put one or two million non-violent offenders in jail, most of them black and brown.

     Do these positions on busing and crime control, suggest that Joe Biden is a racist? Can Biden win the presidency, or even the Democratic nomination, if he continues to be dogged by the same sorts of rumors of racism which have followed President Trump?

Sources:

Kamala Harris criticizes Joe Biden over 1970s busing position:

http://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/kamala-harris-joe-biden-busing-battle-could-be-win-for-democrats.html
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/28/18965923/joe-biden-school-desegregation-busing-democratic-primary

     26. Members of the so-called “Alt-Right” - such as Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos - have gained notoriety for using statistics to dispute claims that blacks are subject to harsh arrests and sentences more often than whites are.

     What are the statistics anyway? Do African-Americans really serve longer sentences than whites, and are they more likely to be killed by police during arrests than white people are? How do these facts compare with statistics about the rates at which blacks commit violent crimes?

     Is it “racist” to point out that violent crimes are disproportionately committed by African-Americans? Or is it more “racist” to fail to consider that the history of racial discrimination and poverty, may have contributed to the current high black crime rates which we are seeing today?

Sources:

Data showing that law enforcement is tougher on blacks:

http://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/?_ga=2.23669560.328588455.1564568723-1721968894.1564568723

http://www.prisonpolicy.org/visuals/race_and_ethnicity.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw-ITqBRB7EiwAZ1c5U3DA-Fab6ROQDJF6ViOgsDtB52nlKrp5HXZcnutSnH0FJPAZ9gqv6RoC_KMQAvD_BwE

     27. Many people wishing to be “politically correct” refer to the imprisonment of black people as “modern-day slavery” and “The new Jim Crow”? Why is that? Why do some people think that slavery never ended, and was never abolished?

     Answer: Considering the high number of African-Americans whom are incarcerated – many of them unable to vote – it's arguable that prisons are continuing the legacy of slavery, albeit under a different guise.

     The facts that most prisoners are forced to work, and unable to vote, mean that they have no freedom but must work (like slaves), while they are counted under the census but their voting power is given to legislators whom they cannot choose (also like slaves).

     The 13^th Amendment prohibited slavery, but permitted “involuntary servitude” as a punishment for committing a crime. But if we consider that many people are in prison for victimless crimes, locking them up – and taking away their freedoms, their vote, and their rights to own property - could hardly be considered a just punishment.

Sources:

Black incarceration and prison labor are “modern-day slavery”:

http://www.history.com/news/13th-amendment-slavery-loophole-jim-crow-prisons

http://www.huffpost.com/entry/america-never-abolished-slavery_b_6777420

     28. What do you think are the most important things that the American people, and/or the U.S. Government, can do, to help promote reconciliation and justice, in a way that heals racial, ethnic, and religious antipathies and divisions?

Written on July 30th and 31st, 2019

Published on July 31st, 2019

Forty-Seven Reasons Why I'm Concerned About a Resurgence of Nazism in America (Incomplete)

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Most Americans Don't Mind Sacrificing Liberty or Privacy in Exchange for the Illusion of Security
2. The T.S.A. Confiscates Our Things and Sells Them on the Cheap, Like the Nazis Did to the Jews
3. Both I.C.E. and the Nazis Used the Promise of Showers to Deceive Their Prisoners

4. Most Americans Don't Mind Spending too Much, Working too Hard, to Earn Special Treatment
5. Unpaid Prison Labor and For-Profit Prisons Are on the Rise
6. Fear-Mongering About Disease-Carrying Immigrants Prompts Calls for Ethnic Cleansing
7. U.S. Immigration Authorities Sprayed Immigrants with Zyklon-B, Once Used to Gas Jews
8. Authorities Are Spraying People with Noxious Gas at the Border Right Now
9. Calling Welfare Recipients and Immigrants “Parasites” Normalizes Dehumanization
10. Americans of Both Major Parties Justify Abortion if it's of “the Right Race”
11. Immigrants Are Depicted as Invading Hordes of Barbarians, Like the Jews Were

12. Immigrants Are Depicted as Both “Lazy” and “Taking Your Jobs”, Like the Jews Were
13. President Trump Has Promulgated Stereotypes About Hispanics, Muslims, and Jews
14. President Trump Said He'd Consider Creating a Database of Muslim-Americans
15. President Trump Encourages His Supporters to Harm Protesters and Dissidents
16. Trump's Ex-Wife Claims He Reads and Admires the Fascist Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini
17. President Trump Wants to Amend or Repeal the Birthright Citizenship Clause
18. The President Wants Dictatorial Power, and Congress Has Historically Given it to Him
19. The 2020 Census Could Be Used as an Excuse to Arrest and Deport Undocumented Immigrants
20. The U.S. Already Practices Internment of “Undesirables” and Maintains Concentration Camps
21. People Still Excuse F.D.R. for Refusing to Let Undocumented Jewish Refugees In
22. The Democratic Party's Love of Big Government Makes Authoritarianism Unavoidable
23. An I.C.E. Official Said They're “Just Following Orders”, Like the Nazi Adolf Eichmann Did
24. Trump's Former Press Correspondent Claimed That the Nazis Never Used Chemical Weapons
25. Ultra-Nationalism, Nativism, and Extreme Anti-Immigration Policies Are the New Normal

26. American Citizens in Good Standing Are Already Losing Their Citizenship Without Cause

27. Right-Wingers in Germany, Austria, Italy, etc. Hope to Form an "Axis" to Solve Immigration
28. Democrats' Enthusiastic Support for Assimilation Plays Right into Republicans' Hands

29. Americans of Both Major Parties Demonize the Far Left, Communism, and All Things Foreign
30. Obama Democrats Made it Difficult to Get Away with Calling the President Racist or Fascist

31. Strong Anti-Fascism is Virtually Non-Existent in Libertarian Circles, the One Place it Matters
32. I.C.E. Separates People by Age and Sex, Like the Nazis Did
33. I.C.E. Confiscates Religious Items, Like the Nazis and Communists Did
34. Post-9/11 Fear of Foreigners and Middle Easterners Threatens the Safety of Jewish People
35. A Growing Number of Americans Want to Silence Discussion of Israel
36. All Criticism of the State of Israel is Deemed Anti-Semitic, and This Silences Jewish Voices
37. Promoting Jewish Stereotypes is Publicly Acceptable in America Nowadays
38. Many Jewish-Americans Have Been Legally, and Voluntarily, Disarmed
39. Israeli Ultra-Nationalism is on the Rise, and Gaza is Already a Concentration Camp
40. George W. Bush's Grandfather Was a War Profiteer, and Bush Loyalists Are Still in Office
41. American Companies That Financed Nazis and the Holocaust Are Still Around, and Popular
42. Americans and Soviets Imported Nazi Scientists As Part of Operation Paperclip
43. Americans Call for More Non-White Police, While Nazis Rewarded Loyalty with Police Posts
44. Many Americans Are Desensitized to Violence, and See Mass Murder as Something Funny
45. A Literal Nazi Ran for U.S. House of Representatives and Won His Nomination Uncontested
46. American Culture is Awash in Alcohol, Which Was Given to Jews to Cope with Their Conditions
47. American Culture Values Competitiveness in Sports, the Economy, and Even Survival

Conclusion

Content

Introduction

     The October 27^th Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh – in which 11 Jewish-Americans were shot to death in the midst of their morning prayer¹ – confirmed many Americans' fears that the threat of violent anti-Semitism is real. Many are beginning to wonder whether actual Nazism itself is on the rise in America today² (as opposed to just plain American imperialism and authoritarianism, like we're used to seeing every day).³

     On November 19^th, a video was uploaded to the YouTube channel youthleadermagazine, entitled “Jeremy Ornstein Sunrise Movement 1: Adults – Face Harsh Reality – GROW UP!”.⁴ In the video, an 18-year-old Jewish-American student from Massachusetts named Jeremy Ornstein, speaks outside of once and future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's office in Washington, D.C.. Accompanied by scores of students holding signs reading “Green New Deal”, Mr. Ornstein described his brother finding the Holocaust memoirs of their grandparent who had immigrated from Hungary.

     According to Ornstein, “I walked in, and almost immediately to my right, I saw a book on the table, and read that the Nazis pretended the gas chambers were showers to kill the Jews. And I remembered that I was devastated by that fact, and all of my resolve fell from my shoulders. And before I left that room, I had to grow up. So many times in the past few years, I have had to grow up. Like the first, second, and third time I read about kids being shot in schools. And when we all learned about the lead in the water in Flint. And every time that I read or see about the aftermath of climate-fueled disasters.”⁴

     Mr. Ornstein then described being on the phone with his father while the shooter in Pittsburgh was still active, and went on to challenge Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leadership to “grow up” like he did.

     In his speech – perhaps intentionally, perhaps unwittingly - Ornstein seemed to be drawing a parallel between the Nazis' deceptive promise of showers for the Jews in their custody, and the government's failed promise of clean, potable drinking water to the people of Flint, Michigan.⁵ Each involved a promise of water and cleanliness, and neither promise was fulfilled.

     Ornstein is right to call his government out for failing to deliver on its promise, and to challenge the Democratic Party leadership to stand up to the opposition party. While it would be difficult to argue that Jeremy Ornstein and his ancestors were not victimized by their governments, it is hard to ignore the tragic irony of his situation: he is coerced into trusting a government which has already deceived him many times before. Moreover, he is begging one party to protect him from the other.

     Ornstein described repeatedly being let down by the Democratic leadership, albeit while wearing a T-shirt bearing the words “we have a right to good jobs and a livable future”, and while admitting that the Nazis baited their Jewish victims with promises that they'd take care of them and give them showers. It would be unfair to blame the victims in these situations, but I'm compelled to admit that Ornstein's message is, sadly, not as self-aware as it could be.

     In my opinion, one of the main lessons of the fact that Nazis pretended that gas chambers were showers - and gave the Jews soap to wash up with as they were being unwittingly led to their deaths (although some knew, or at least suspected, what was happening)⁶ - is that governments are willing to tempt their people with promises of care, riches, jobs, and other nice things, even if those governments eventually want those very same people dead.

     The use of showers as an excuse to “exterminate” people, is just one small example in a long line of policies influenced by the “ethnic cleansing” mindset.^{7, 8} A nation which adopts this mindset will posit that the nation, its moral culture, and the human gene pool need to be “cleansed” of “alien” and “sub-human” elements, and takes this as an ideology of “racial hygiene”, to underlie and inform its public health policy.⁹ This idea – and the idea that we're all being fattened-up, and made to surrender all sorts of measures of privacy, independence, and even security, for the sake of the illusion of security, and a little special treatment – is what I intend to explore in the remainder of this essay.

     I see many reasons why the administration of President Donald Trump could, should, and must be described as imperialistic and authoritarian, and even as dictatorial, fascistic, and Naziesque. This essay is intended as a precise enumeration of the forty-five reasons why I feel that way, and what parallels I see between the current treatment of immigrants to the United States by I.C.E., and the treatment of Jewish prisoners by the Nazi S.S. (schutzstaffel; “storm troopers”) before and during the Holocaust.

1. Most Americans Don't Mind Sacrificing Liberty or Privacy in Exchange for the Illusion of Security

     Regarding a tax dispute in Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”¹⁰ Although Franklin made that statement in favor of taxation for the purposes of funding collective defense,¹¹ the statement has been characterized as one in favor of greater privacy and less government intrusion in our lives.¹²

     Franklin's point is well taken; the political ramifications of the attacks of September 11^th, 2001 – in particular, the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act,¹³ and the 2012 N.D.A.A. (National Defense Authorization Act)^{14, 15} – have demonstrated just how much privacy, independence, integrity, and peace Americans have been willing to put up with paying, in order for the illusions of safety and security,¹⁶ and in exchange for a little bit of convenience^{17, 18} and special treatment.

     As a result of the Patriot Act, omnibus defense budgets whose riders affirmed the policies of the Patriot Act, and subsequent Supreme Court decisions; the Bill of Rights,¹⁹ habeas corpus,²⁰ the principles of the Magna Carta,²¹ and the rule of law,²² are effectively null and void.

     F.B.I. agents write their own search warrants.²³ Courts have made it easier for police officers to follow us into our homes,²⁴ and to declare us domestic terrorists,²⁵ deny our right to trial,²⁶ and freeze our assets so that we can't defend ourselves in court.^{27, 28} Citizen and judiciary complacency with “Stop-and-Frisk” laws²⁹ have rendered the decision in Terry v. Ohio practically meaningless,³⁰ all but ignoring our right to resist officers who violate our safety, and even violate the law itself, in the course of their duties.^{31, 32}

     However, 9/11 did not change everything; as many of these restrictive measures were in place long before the attacks. As the result of a Supreme Court decision made in the 1980s (Warren v. D.C.),³³ police are rarely held responsible for their crimes,³⁴ and never held to an expectation that they will protect and serve all the people.³⁵ As the result of a Clinton-era law,³⁶ local police departments all over the country are in possession of weapons of war, from machine guns, to tanks, to drones, etc..³⁷

     Those offenses against the people, as well as the intrusions into our privacy via warrantless wiretaps³⁸ and other forms of domestic surveillance, have been well-documented (of course, not well enough). But those points aside, it should not escape our attention that the Transportation Security Administration posted a whopping 95% failure rate in a 2015 study, catching only 3 out of 70 concealed weapons.³⁹

     The T.S.A. does create what Franklin described; the feeling of “a little temporary safety”. But the T.S.A.'s failure shows that this feeling of safety is just that; a feeling, an illusion. Given this fact, the reckless invasions of privacy, bodily autonomy, and physical comfort which are reflected in its policies concerning pat-downs and body scanners,⁴⁰ should prompt us to question whether there is anything at all in these practices which benefits us (the people paying for it, and the people subjected to it).

     Today, anyone is welcome in America who steadfastly trusts, and is loyal to, the police. Some Americans want to believe so badly that the police are doing the right thing, that they are willing to excuse the unnecessary use of force (and the disproportionate use of that force against non-whites⁴¹) – or an excessively complicated and even conflicting set of directions for surrender⁴² – in order for an officer of the law to subdue an arrestee. Recent years have seen Americans arrested after failing to obey orders due to an inability to hear those orders in the first place, whether it's because they're deaf,⁴³ listening to music on headphones,⁴⁴ mentally disabled,⁴⁵ a legally armed security guard who simply didn't hear the order to drop the weapon,⁴⁶ or even already paralyzed and in a coma.⁴⁷

     This devoted trust of police officers and their commands, have given rise to the idea that “all you have to do is comply, and you won't get hurt.”⁴⁸ American comedian Bill Burr remarked sarcastically, “Look, it's really simple. All you have to do is comply, and you won't get your ass kicked by police. When they tell you to get down, you get down. When they tell you to turn in your gun, you turn in your gun. When they tell you to get in the boxcar, you get in the fucking boxcar. Why in the Hell is this so difficult to understand, people?”⁴⁹ In the words of author Patrick S. Tomlinson, “'Just do what they say and you won't get hurt' is what we tell hostages, not free citizens interacting with police.”⁵⁰

     As the old saying goes, “If you give someone an inch, they will take a mile.” That is, if you let someone tell you what to do, they'll continue doing it. Then, before you know it, you're just doing as you're told, without questioning it, instead of doing what you want to do.

     Although is is not required to think for yourself in our society, it is also not prohibited, and that is for a reason. If you let other people direct your life, eventually you will end up their puppet, and the executor of their will, and you may have to give up your identity, your well-being, or even your life in order to serve out somebody else's sick purposes. It's usually acceptable to refuse to obey orders that seriously violate your conscience and your sense of morality, and having a healthy distrust of authority is not only acceptable; it's part of our heritage as Americans (from the Revolutionary War).⁵¹

     As you read the remainder of this article, when I discuss American policies currently in place – I invite you to ask yourself how this policy affects Jewish-Americans. Set aside how it affects Americans who are not Jewish, and then consider the possibility that non-Jewish Americans' freedoms might be curtailed solely to make curtailments of Jewish citizens' freedoms seem normal, or “not as bad” by comparison.

      Opponents may say, “See, the Jews and the non-Jews both have to do something they don't want to do, that's called sacrifice,⁵² and it's what you do in a society to compromise”.⁵³ But consider the possibility, instead, that two wrongs don't make a right. Also, consider that condemning people to equal misery, is equality, but only equality in suffering.⁵⁴

2. The T.S.A. Confiscates Our Things and Sells Them on the Cheap, Like the Nazis Did to the Jews

     The Transportation Security Administration confiscates more than half a million dollars in spare change alone from travelers every year.⁵⁵ Not only that, they sell the items they confiscate from us on the cheap,⁵⁶ and you can go online^{57, 58} to find out how to buy those items back from them in government-sponsored police auctions.

     After a 1938 Nazi law required Jewish residents to register their wealth and their valuable possessions, the Nazis confiscated many Jews' possessions.⁵⁹ While some Jews were legally ordered to sell their possessions, others were left with no realistic alternative available but to sell their most cherished possessions in order to afford to leave the country, while others were forced to abandon their property in order leave the country. At times, Jews' property was sold to finance the government, and/or in order to finance the Jews' own deportation at the hands of the Nazis.⁶⁰

     American travelers - and sports fans,^{61, 62} and concert-goers - have almost gotten accustomed to abandoning their possessions with little or no notice or thought, when entering public property, or someone else's private property. Perhaps this is, to a large extent, a result of the T.S.A.'s rule banning containers of liquid larger than 3 ounces (in order to decrease the likelihood that a liquid-based plastic explosive or “gel-ignite” could be smuggled aboard an airplane flight).⁶³

     Once in 2012, I myself decided not to attend a speech by President Obama because the online invitation for the event suggested that security would confiscate my bottle of water on the way in.⁶⁴ It's hard to go see a band at a festival, concert, or even a punk bar, without showing your I.D. to prove that you're of legal drinking age, pay too much for the ticket, get your hand stamped and/or let them put a bracelet on you (to signify that you've paid already), and, possibly, be asked to throw away any food and drinks we might have on us. It seems excessive.

     But more importantly, it conditions us to put up with similar treatment by government, and by people who invite us onto their property. People should not have to choose to abandon water and food, - two of our most urgent needs - in order to be allowed onto private or public property. Nursing mothers should not have to throw away breast milk,⁶⁵ and cancer patients should not have to be attacked for not enjoying being grabbed by T.S.A. agents,⁶⁶ solely in order order to fly “safely” across their own country. Yet Americans put up with this sort of treatment every day – enduring all forms of medical torture - simply to get from Point A to Point B. The fact that the T.S.A. is selling our possessions back to us, only adds insult to injury.

     If this is all really “for our protection”, then clearly something is wrong. The right to be secure in our persons, papers, and property includes the rights of bodily autonomy, physical integrity, the right to defend oneself, and the right to possess items including medication, so long as we do not use those possessions to harm others. No government should have the right to force or pressure us to abandon, destroy, nor sell our property in order to cooperate with it, nor in order to cease cooperating with it (by terminating our citizenship).

     The fact that non-Jewish travelers suffer these indignities and deprivations, ought not be any less worrisome than the fact that Jewish travelers suffer them. And the fact that they both suffer, only helps to conceal the facts that 1) Jewish travelers are grossly inconvenienced by these measures, and 2) no traveler, concert-goer, nor sports fan – either Jew or Gentile – need undergo them.

     Those who remember the victims of the Holocaust, and whom have learned its lessons, would do well to consider that if they keep checking their possessions at the door (to the property, or the country, whatever the case may be), then they might eventually be asked, or even expected, to check even more of their property, and their right to privacy, and their identity and heritage, at the door. This is a slippery slope that will lead us to think that privacy, property, and the right to express ourselves are things that have to be earned at grave costs.

     But indeed they are, because so many have fought for them. That is why we must cherish the right to own possessions (as long as we don't use them to hurt others or gain leverage over people), and cherish our right to privacy, and to express ourselves, or else we will lose those rights.

3. Both I.C.E. and the Nazis Used the Promise of Showers as a Way to Deceive Their Prisoners

     According to witnesses, gas chambers at the Dachau extermination facility were disguised as “Brause Bad” (“shower baths”),⁶ and their ceilings were even studded with fake shower heads made of sheet metal.⁶⁷ The German reputation for cleanliness had culminated in an ideology of “racial hygiene”,⁹ wherein inferior races can be washed away from the “body” of the German volk (“the German people”) as diseases and parasites are washed away from pure white Aryan skin along with the dark soot. The disease may be given as typhus, but the “virus” that the Nazis intended to “wash away” was Jewishness.

     The book Crystal Night details how the Nazis allowed Jews to purchase food and cigarettes as a consolation for being deported.⁶⁸ This fact ought to teach us that when all of our "freedoms" are only exercised after paying, and when specifically permitted by government through permits and licensing, government can be made-out to look benevolent for simply removing the obstacles it placed between its employers (we the people) and the things we want. As Ayn Rand said, through her Fountainhead character Howard Roark, who will let me is "not the point. The point is, who will stop me?"⁶⁹

     To Jews arriving in Dachau, the fake shower heads probably provided a brief moment of hope that the Nazis intended to, at least, keep them healthy enough to work themselves half to death. But history shows us that the permissions, allotments, variances, and even gifts that come from government, are merely as a “betrayal with a kiss" (as in the story of Judas's betrayal of Jesus). It is said to “Beware Greeks bearing gifts”, but it is also said not to “look a gift-horse in the mouth”. I prefer the former quotation.

     This is why I have written this article; to caution people about the twin dangers, which always go hand-in-hand: of totalitarianism (the Republicans) and totalitarianism-enablers (Democrats). Of Nazism (the Neo-Nazis and Trump loyalists) and the apathy and neutrality which make it possible. Let no one diminish what horrors the one is capable of inflicting, and the other of excusing, permitting, and being accomplice and accessory.

     Time and time again, the establishment Democrats, under leaders like Nancy Pelosi, have let young men like Jeremy Ornstein down. Democrats betray their own voters – supposedly a party of, by, and for workers and people of color – and turn around and push Republican policies on their own people. Then they try to make up for it by attaching riders to bills, and bargaining for slightly less repression, in order to tempt the left-leaning public with political goodies and treats; special favors intended as bargaining chips so that they'll vote them back into office.

     Democratic Republicanism, even of the Progressive or Democratic Socialist varieties, only serves to make unfulfillable and unaffordable promises to the American people, while using those promises to distract from not just their own impossibility and unaffordability, but also from the horrendous legislation the goodies are attached to. For example, Senator Bernie Sanders voted to support the 1994 crime control bill that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. That law led to the incarceration of at least a million non-violent offenders, but Sanders decided to support the bill because it included protection against victims of domestic violence.⁷⁰

     Whether it's a robust social safety net as a compromise for having to pay for the military-industrial complex, or compensation to farmers as consolation for getting “punished” by tariffs,⁷¹ the supporters of both major parties have been bought-out. Americans can't tell when they're just being fattened-up for the slaughter. They think they can buy their way out of a system that unabashedly fumbles for excuses to confiscate their property, and rules their lives, and regulates their money, and controls that money's value. The goodies and treats promised in exchange for the welfare-warfare state “compromise” are soaked with blood, and are inedible.

     When we think of Jews being saved from “extermination”, one thing that comes to mind is Nazi Party member Oskar Schindler, who is credited with saving the lives of over a thousand Jewish people by employing them in his factories.⁷² One wonders how many would-be Holocaust victims were saved solely because other people were not saved. I am reminded of the story of Rabbi Chaim Rumkowski, whom the Nazis gave a position as the head of the Council of Elders of the ghetto in Lodz (or Litzmannstadt) ghetto in Poland. Rabbi Rumkowski eventually called on ghetto-dwelling Jews to give up their elderly, their children, and themselves. All the while, Rumkowski performed a role similar to that of Schindler: shape which Jews survive, and which Jews escape the country. As a matter of fact, a 1942 speech⁷³ by Rumkowski shows that he thought of himself as a surgeon, with the collective body of the Jewish people before him on the operating table, believing that he needed to “cut off limbs in order to save the body”.⁷³ Captive Jews knew that it would help them to curry favor with Rumkowski (and with Jewish community leaders in other ghettos, and also with their Nazi captors).

     The sad facts that many Jews tried to ingratiate themselves to their captors through submitting to back-breaking labor, and through assimilating (for example, through their dress and appearance, and through converting to Christianity), and ingratiated themselves to the members of their own communities assigned to represent them, ought not serve as a mark of shame. But the consequences of those actions are felt today; Jews are not alone among the many peoples of America, or of the world, who cower at the feet of those who pledge and pretend to protect, serve, defend, and represent us (military, police, politicians, and bureaucratic special interests alike) whether they follow through on those promises or not.

     I'm disturbed by the contrast between that fact, and the fact that the Jewish tradition is one of peaceful disagreement, civil disobedience, and non-conformity. The shared trauma of the Holocaust and the horrors of police violence and domestic surveillance in post-9/11 America have produced a society wherein Jews and non-Jews alike have been intimidated into submission; into willfully divulging all of their personal information,⁷⁴ and registering many of their valuable possessions instead of insisting upon owning them outright.⁷⁵ America and Israel alike are societies full of people who have experienced Stockholm Syndrome;⁷⁶ if not at the hands of genocidal captors, then at least at the hands of their own tyrannical, imperialist government.

     Cooperation and authority are all well and good. But if it's cooperation with authority, or if you didn't give the authority to the authority figure willingly, or if it's cooperation with people who want you dead, then cooperating would be unwise because it would be submission to tyranny. It is not necessary to negotiate with our captors; not when it is possible to fight back, or when it is possible to prevent ourselves from falling into our captors' control in the first place. We can and must fight back against the demands and expectations that our possessions and privacy should be simply thrown away, so that we can enter someone's property, enter public property for which our taxes paid, or exercise our natural freedom to travel across the Earth.

     This is the condition we find ourselves in today: that we've allowed ourselves to be deceived. We believe that eating and smoking are privileges instead of rights, that do not have to be merely paid for but also permitted by the government. Many of us have been tricked into thinking that access to clean water is a privilege as well. That collecting rain water is not a right (when it can be done safely, and without affecting our neighbors).⁷⁷ That you have to pay taxes in some towns and municipalities – including my own former hometown of Lake Bluff, Illinois (as recently as June 2017) - in order to access its beaches.⁷⁸

     Where people can be tricked into thinking that clean water and showers are a privilege, rather than a right, they can be tricked into being so grateful for those things, that they can be convinced to give up anything and everything in order to receive them; their freedom, their clothing, anything.

     Yet most Americans are willing to give up food and drinks just to get into a movie theater or concert, give up small weapons they might need for self-defense just to get in anywhere, and give up their right to expect privacy wherever they go outside their own home. But most people don't even have “their own home”, because the bank and the government can always take it away.

     Whenever public utilities providers fail to deliver clean water, suitable, for drinking and bathing, to the people who pay their salaries - and whenever government places unnecessary obstructions to solving the problem when water must be delivered to people who need it – we should let our government's failed promises remind us of the Nazis' willful betrayal.

     But most importantly, I.C.E. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) did use the promise of baths – not showers, like the Jews, mind you; but baths - in order to trick immigrant women into allowing officials to take their children away.

     According to Texas-based federal public defender Miguel Nogueres, “Every day we hear that parents are being separated from their children and are given different reasons for the separation. Some are told the truth. Others are told that [their] children are being taken for a break to play, or bathe, or sleep, … little white lies to ameliorate an exploding situation. The parents will realize they were lied to when they meet us before court.”⁷⁹

     In a June 10, 2018 article for the Boston Globe, entitled “'Children are being used as a tool' in Trump's effort to stop border crossings”,⁸⁰ Liz Goodwin reported that “[Azalea] Aleman-Bendiks, the public defender, said several of her clients have told her their children were taken from them by Border Patrol agents who said they were going to give them a bath. As the hours passed, it dawned on the mothers the kids were not coming back.”

     Goodwin continues, “In late May, separated parents in McAllen [Texas] were given a number to call HHS [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] and try to locate their children. It was the wrong number. Last week [early June 2018], parents were given a handwritten note telling them to call ICE – not HHS – if they wanted information about how to reunite with their children. But parents did not have access to phones at the time, rendering the number useless.”

     Supporters of President Trump's immigration policy doubt that the above story has any veracity; they do not believe that there is any truth behind the claim that immigrant children were separated from their parents through promises of baths. But it is the truth, and any student of history should hear serious alarm bells ringing in his head at the similarity between this incident and the Nazis' gassing of Jews after they were told they were about to take showers.

     Sure, this is slightly different, because the Jews were gassed to death, while the immigrant children are merely missing... but to those who would make that argument, I ask: What makes you so certain that many of those immigrant children didn't die too?

4. Most Americans Don't Mind Spending too Much, Working too Hard, to Earn Special Treatment
5. Unpaid Prison Labor and For-Profit Prisons Are on the Rise
6. Fear-Mongering About Disease-Carrying Immigrants Prompts Calls for Ethnic Cleansing
7. U.S. Immigration Authorities Sprayed Immigrants with Zyklon-B, Once Used to Gas Jews
8. Authorities Are Spraying People with Noxious Gas at the Border Right Now
9. Calling Welfare Recipients and Immigrants “Parasites” Normalizes Dehumanization
10. Americans of Both Major Parties Justify Abortion if it's of “the Right Race”
11. Immigrants Are Depicted as Invading Hordes of Barbarians, Like the Jews Were

12. Immigrants Are Depicted as Both “Lazy” and “Taking Your Jobs”, Like the Jews Were
13. President Trump Has Promulgated Stereotypes About Hispanics, Muslims, and Jews
14. President Trump Said He'd Consider Creating a Database of Muslim-Americans
15. President Trump Encourages His Supporters to Harm Protesters and Dissidents
16. Trump's Ex-Wife Claims He Reads and Admires the Fascist Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini
17. President Trump Wants to Amend or Repeal the Birthright Citizenship Clause
18. The President Wants Dictatorial Power, and Congress Has Historically Given it to Him
19. The 2020 Census Could Be Used as an Excuse to Arrest and Deport Undocumented Immigrants
20. The U.S. Already Practices Internment of “Undesirables” and Maintains Concentration Camps
21. People Still Excuse F.D.R. for Refusing to Let Undocumented Jewish Refugees In
22. The Democratic Party's Love of Big Government Makes Authoritarianism Unavoidable
23. An I.C.E. Official Said They're “Just Following Orders”, Like the Nazi Adolf Eichmann Did
24. Trump's Former Press Correspondent Claimed That the Nazis Never Used Chemical Weapons
25. Ultra-Nationalism, Nativism, and Extreme Anti-Immigration Policies Are the New Normal

26. American Citizens in Good Standing Are Already Losing Their Citizenship Without Cause

27. Right-Wingers in Germany, Austria, Italy, etc. Hope to Form an "Axis" to Solve Immigration
28. Democrats' Enthusiastic Support for Assimilation Plays Right into Republicans' Hands

29. Americans of Both Major Parties Demonize the Far Left, Communism, and All Things Foreign
30. Obama Democrats Made it Difficult to Get Away with Calling the President Racist or Fascist

31. Strong Anti-Fascism is Virtually Non-Existent in Libertarian Circles, the One Place it Matters
32. I.C.E. Separates People by Age and Sex, Like the Nazis Did
33. I.C.E. Confiscates Religious Items, Like the Nazis and Communists Did
34. Post-9/11 Fear of Foreigners and Middle Easterners Threatens the Safety of Jewish People
35. A Growing Number of Americans Want to Silence Discussion of Israel
36. All Criticism of the State of Israel is Deemed Anti-Semitic, and This Silences Jewish Voices
37. Promoting Jewish Stereotypes is Publicly Acceptable in America Nowadays
38. Many Jewish-Americans Have Been Legally, and Voluntarily, Disarmed
39. Israeli Ultra-Nationalism is on the Rise, and Gaza is Already a Concentration Camp
40. George W. Bush's Grandfather Was a War Profiteer, and Bush Loyalists Are Still in Office
41. American Companies That Financed Nazis and the Holocaust Are Still Around, and Popular
42. Americans and Soviets Imported Nazi Scientists As Part of Operation Paperclip
43. Americans Call for More Non-White Police, While Nazis Rewarded Loyalty with Police Posts
44. Many Americans Are Desensitized to Violence, and See Mass Murder as Something Funny
45. A Literal Nazi Ran for U.S. House of Representatives and Won His Nomination Uncontested
46. American Culture is Awash in Alcohol, Which Was Given to Jews to Cope with Their Conditions
47. American Culture Values Competitiveness in Sports, the Economy, and Even Survival

     The explanation for reasons #4-#47 will be posted here soon.

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Written on November 20^th through 22nd, 2018

Originally Published on November 22nd, 2018
Ending of Section #3 Added on November 23rd, 2018
Edited and Expanded on November 28th and December 19th, 2018
Edited on November 30th, 2018