Declines in market-shares and in approval ratings, inspire the bourgeoisie and their agents to extreme, (and bizarre) measures. The "irrational" nature of the US withdrawing from trade pacts structured, negotiated, and pursued by the US, because the pacts are "bad deals for US workers" is precisely paralleled by the issuance of an executive order restricting immigration and refugee admissions because "hundreds of foreign-born individuals have been convicted or implicated in terrorism-related crimes since September 11, 2001, including foreign nationals who entered the United States after claiming asylum; after receiving visitor, student, or employment visas; or through the US refugee resettlement programs." It's all about the other; it's always about the other, the "foreigner," the enemy.
Nothing fulfills the narcissistic disorder like an enemy, except more enemies.
That a capitalist, that any capitalist would cite a trade agreement as a "bad deal for workers," any workers anywhere, is not just like a rat or rats blaming a flea or fleas for an epidemic of plague, it is the rats blaming the fleas for the outbreak of plague.
That the pumpkin-headed lout who is president of the United States, chief agent of a system that wreaks violence daily on residents and non , would issue an executive order to "protect Americans from terrorism by foreign nationals" is the plague.
The order is presented in language straight from the website of the current senator from Alabama-Attorney General-designate, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
History, you know, is not above the sick joke. Consider that a man named in honor of both the president of slaveholders' republic built upon terrorism practiced daily against black laborers and named after the "Little Napoleon," P.G.T. Beauregard, the first Confederate Brigadier General, who abandoned his post in the US Army so that he might assume command of the slaveholders' troops in Charleston, South Carolina, and launch the attack on Fort Sumter; that man, with those names; that man who used the Voting Rights Act to prosecute those in Alabama active in registering and aiding black voters; that man who has endorsed and defended the flag of traitors, the symbol of the slaveholders' rebellion against a duly elected and constitutional government, that man is the man selected to take this oath of office:
I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter So help me God.Sick enough for you? Sick enough to not laugh? I hear that.
Anyway, back on June 22, 2016, senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, assisted by the ever loyal senator Rafael Edward Cruz (known for his brilliant political maneuvers, like joining a protest against the closure of government buildings brought about by his role in forcing a complete government shutdown) issued the following press release:
WASHINGTON—Based on open-source research conducted on a list provided by the Department of Justice, the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest has determined that at least 380 of the 580 individuals convicted of terrorism or terrorism-related offenses between September 11, 2001 and December 31, 2014, were born abroad.
On August 12, 2015, December 3, 2015, and January 11, 2016, letters were sent to the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and State, requesting the immigration histories of individuals implicated in terrorism since early 2014. For over 10 months, the Obama Administration has refused to provide this crucial and easily accessible information.
Since sending the last letter on January 11, however, the Subcommittee has identified 18 additional individuals implicated in terrorism since early 2014 – bringing the total to 131, of whom at least 16 were initially admitted to the United States as refugees, and at least 17 of whom are the natural-born citizen children of immigrants.
However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) did provide the Subcommittee with a list it maintains of 580 individuals not only implicated, but convicted, of terrorism or terrorism-related offenses between September 11, 2001 and December 31, 2014. DOJ has deferred to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide immigration background information regarding these individuals, but to this day, DHS has not done so – despite having the information on the foreign-born easily accessible in its records and databases.
Using this list, the Subcommittee conducted open-source research and determined that at least 380 of the 580 were foreign-born (71 were confirmed natural-born, and the remaining 129 are not known). Of the 380 foreign-born, at least 24 were initially admitted to the United States as refugees, and at least 33 had overstayed their visas. Additionally, of those born abroad, at least 62 were from Pakistan, 28 were from Lebanon, 22 were Palestinian, 21 were from Somalia, 20 were from Yemen, 19 were from Iraq, 16 were from Jordan, 17 were from Egypt, and 10 were from Afghanistan.Clever, no? Thirteen years, 580 convictions, of which 380 may be from other countries, and 200 might be from the US. Out of 325 million people... over 13 years.
The US Department of State reports that for the last 5 years its foreign service posts have issued on average about 500,000 immigrant visas per year. In addition, for years 2012-2015 about 9 million non-immigrant visas, including B1/B2 border crossing cards (for citizens of Mexico) were issued each year.
Let's make it simple and say that all 33 convictions of visa violators occurred during the Obama administration between 2008 and 2014. So using our averages, that's 33 out of 47,500,000 visas issued or 1 in every 1.5 million. To put that in perspective, your chance of being hit by lightning in 2017 is 1 in 960,000.
Of the 347 remaining, I counted 198 US citizens, 74 (in my count) were designated as "natural born," leaving 124 foreign born US citizens. The US Department of Homeland Security reports authorizing citizenship for about 6.6 million foreign-born nationals in the period 2004-2014. Let's say all 124 of the foreign born US citizens convicted for terrorism related activities were awarded citizenship between 2004 and 2014, that's 124 out of 6.6 million, 1 in every 50,000. To put that in perspective, your chance of being hit by lightning sometime during your lifetime is 1 in 12,000.
Which group poses the least threat, had the lowest numbers convicted for terrorist related crimes? If you said "illegal aliens" or "undocumented persons" (my preference)... bull's-eye, catnip! You win the Jeep Wrangler, and the trip to Bermuda!
Despite the fact that Mexico and Latin America are dumping nothing but rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and other "bad hombres"-- according to Trump and Trump-ets-- on the US, these sorts are the least likely to be "implicated" in or convicted of terrorist related activities. That's probably because they're working two jobs and don't have the time.
Greater numbers of native born US citizens were convicted of terrorist activities than the combined numbers of lawful permanent residents and those who violated the terms of their visas, so if the argument is going to be made that it isn't the frequency of occurrence, it's the incidences of occurrence that matters, watch out for the native-born like Trump, Sessions, and question-mark Cruz.
And that's the point-- the point of the "terror-mongering," the "foreign-national threat," the clampdown on immigration, a point made clear in the penalizing of "sanctuary cities." This isn't about protecting anyone from anything. This is all about building the machinery of repression for use against the most serious threat facing US capitalism: it's native born population.
The day before the executive order, Trump met with the heads of the building trades unions and the sheet metal workers union, and placed them firmly in his back pocket, next to the wallet is filled with promissory notes that read on one side "Infrastructure Guaranteed by Donald J. Trump" and on the other "Not Worth the Paper Printed On."
Having put the unions to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, or so he thinks, Trump can get back to his life's work, which is of course, scoring points for Trump; boosting his ratings; finding the sucker every minute.
There is, in the universe of capital, a point where the different curves of psychopathology, hucksterism, leverage, trade wars, and repression converge, condense. The force propelling that convergence is impaired accumulation.
The point of convergence is reached as capital needs to drive the value of labor-power, the wage, below its cost of reproduction; forcing the extraction of surplus value through the liquidation of human beings.
Executive orders give way to emergency orders as the unraveling of trade alliances, the attacks on immigrants, the mythical leveraged infrastructure projects, all fail to sustain profit.
It is the vital interest of all workers to oppose the expansion of police powers, these attacks on immigrants.
January 27, 201
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