Posted on 10/05/2013 11:08:30 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The US government shutdown enters its fifth day, a week after the horrific carnage by a mentally ill African-American man in which he kills a dozen people before he is cut down by police. An emotionally unstable African-American woman crashes a security fence near the White House and leads a hair-trigger alert cops on a high-speed car chase before she is mowed down by cops using overwhelming force.
On Friday, another man, also African-American, pours gasoline on himself in front of the Capitol sets fire to himself in a rare attempt at self-immolation in the United States. It is not clear if the effort, foiled by passers-by, is related to the shutdown, but a visitor from more turbulent parts of the globe may well think the US is going the way of the Third World, given the kind of unrest that is roiling Washington DC.
It is no coincidence that all three incidents, regardless of their connection to the shutdown, involve African-Americans. Decades after achieving civil rights and enjoying affirmative action, African-Americans in the US continue to be disadvantaged, suffering some of the highest unemployment and incarceration rates for minorities anywhere in the world.
In many ways, the current shutdown is part of a proxy fight between deeply conservative white lawmakers who see the Obama administration's agenda as favoring blacks and minorities versus liberal legislators trying to set right historical and contemporary imbalances. While it is commonly acknowledged that African-Americans are greatly dependent on government subsidies and dole (in the same way as India's minorities are), the small cabal of Tea Party lawmakers represent a mostly-white constituency in Middle America that resents against any government role — such as the mandatory enforcement of health insurance through Obamacare — in their life.
This is the broad background to the government shutdown that has now entered its fifth day and first weekend with no sign of resolution. The effects of the shutdown are now being felt gradually across the country. While administrative activities are starting to stall in some areas where government exercises a regulatory role, it was believed that private enterprise would not be particularly affected by the shutdown.
But stories of mishaps and hardships are now starting to trickle in from private domain. For instance, many weddings, anniversaries, and parties planned in and around national parks and monuments (which are run by the federal Department of Interior) have had to be cancelled or postponed. From Yellowstone to Yosemite, from Grand Canyon to Grand Coulee, tourism and hospitality business are taking a hit as towns whose local economies depend on it are feeling the heat of the shutdown. In fact, there are reports of some states and town defying the center to keep parks open so that the local economy is not hit.
Meantime, the wrangling in Washington continues with both parties seeking to extract political mileage out of the impasse. Polls show Republicans are taking a greater hit, but the deeply conservative lawmakers who are holding the more moderate wing of the party hostage are in safe, unshakeable seats — the last white redoubts in America where Democrats are seen as villains.
On Friday, the White House had to reel back comments attributed to an unnamed senior administration official in which he boasted, "We are winning ... It doesn't really matter to us how long the shutdown lasts because what matters is the end result." White House spokesman Jay Carney's take: "It is categorically our position that the government should be reopened today, now, in half an hour."
But for the weekend at least, the metaphorical lights are still off in Washington DC. The man who tried to immolate himself near the air and space museum close to the Capitol is out of danger, thanks to joggers in the mall area who ripped off their t-shirts to put out the fire even as another person was reported to be filming him. It was still not clear what possessed him to try self-immolation. It was just another strange day at a strange time in the US capital.
Yes yes yes and the Clown in Command is openly displaying his big feet and riding around in a car far too small for his big head.
Yep. He's a wog: Members of Al-Ali tribe live in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan.
The Indian castte system is no ideal, but the worst antisemite and communist I’ve ever seen had that system as the main chip on his shoulder for a hatred of india that went as deep as Adolf’s for the Jews.
He worked there for a while, and didn’t get the respect he felt entitled to.
Geez. Eating beans and playing with matches?
If African Americans ARE disadvantaged (and all the stats seem to show they are), in spite of all the government support and affirmitive action initiatives, why does no one ever report the obvious connection that those actions just simply are not working? Moreover, why does no commentator in the media point out that trying to solve a social ill by increasing amounts of the same bad medicine is sheer folly?
The conclusion I draw is that these programs are mostly designed to make white liberals feel good about themselves. Assuage all that terrible guilt and so on, and not to actually help minorities.
“Here in DC, we knew that the Navy Yard killer was a black person after several hours, but nothing was mentioned in the original reports.
The woman who was killed in her car was not identified by any racial description for more than 5-8 hours. Only when they had her name and where she lived, did they post a photograph.”
what are you whinning about? do you realize the advantage white Christian men have? just take employment in tv commercials, for example. even though they take great pains to make sure tv commercials are diverse (usually one black male, black female, Asian, white female, some kind of Hispanic, and then pulling up the rear, the white male).
but, you white boys have any portrayal of criminals (like for adt home protection, the burglar is always a white guy), all to yourself.
I just travelled through San Francisco International Airport today. To make my connection, I had to walk across the tarmac to stand in line for 45 minutes to get on a bus with a bunch of other sweaty passengers, which broke down on the way to the next gate.
I've had better experiences in third world countries.
We are a third world country.
It's not because of race, though. It's because of socialism.
Well, I read elsewhere that the man who set himself on fire has died. So the part about him being “out of danger” is wrong too.
LOL! Is making sense of a new area of study for you?
Sounds like Chidanand gets his information about America from Bill Maher and Chris Mathews.
Yep
As Paul Newman said as Judge Roy Bean, nothing worse than a reformed Whore
He forgets the 11 white victims in the navy yard slaying.
Little brown turd.
First I heard that the man who lit himself on fire was AA.
“We are a third world country”
Yes, with the morals of the Weimar Republic.
We have racist, fascist trash in charge of our government, and said government has sponsored narco-terrorism and endorsed racism.
Blacks are not so stupid nor united
Nor whites so resolute
Older blacks down south would tell young bloods don’t be stupid
Woods are harder to handle once they set off
The two whose stories we know were mentally ill.
Blacks have long prided themselves on not being mass murderers the way white men are. Add in the DC snipers and the guy at the Navy yard, however, and we’ve got full racial representation in that bunch.
The common denominator FWIW is mentally ill men. The dental hygienist seems to have broken the glass ceiling on suicide by cop, however—if that was her intention.
A good English teacher would ask him to justify his use of the adjectives in this sentence. Being mostly-white has nothing to do with action of the subject. He attempts to make the Tea Party appear racist, but being against the role of government in the lives of the American people, as what he states is not justified to his premise. The piece is an attempt at propaganda. Remove all the racist rhetoric which fails to support his thesis and I'd bet most people would take up with the Tea Party, not against it.
What did he get wrong? It’s pretty obvious that the man on fire is black. The two trying to assist him are white.
Hey, Danny--so what does the epidemic of Hindus (not Muslims in India) engaging in these vicious, deadly gang rapes of women in public say about India?
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