Category Archives: Politics

Politics, politico

The double standard with child migrants

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The double standard with child migrants
Ricky Gonzales

There are many instances, in which I’m in discussion/debate with some knuckle dragging moron who refuses to see the point I’m getting across. So one technique I use to combat this is “movie analogy.” I usually reference a movie that is a classic, and widely known to be influential and informative to “pop culture.”

So for instance, if I’m debating someone on immigrations issues – specifically concerning Cuban Immigration and Cuban Americans v.s. the way Mexican Migration is viewed, I might reference the movie Scarface, which depicts how the United States granted political asylum to Cubano refugees, because they were fleeing what the U.S. perceived a “hostile government.” People were more easily given refugee status because the U.S. hated commies. Funny because right now, commies own most of our debt, and make all the crap people buy at Walmart, but I digress.

With regard to the recent controversies enswirled with this Central American refugee children issue, a new “movie analogy” has come to mind; Godfather II. Why Godfather II? Anyone who has seen it knows it is interlaced with the story of the “present,” interlaced with Vito Coreleone’s “past.” Specifically to Vito Corleone’s past, we see him as a child, fleeing Sicily – fleeing being murdered by the local crime boss, fleeing ALONE, to the United States. We then see little Vito Corleone go to Ellis Island, with a huge, vast wave of other immigrants from several other European Countries.vito-corleone-ellis-island(sm)

We then see how young Vito Corleone’s name had been changed from Vito Andolini by some some dumbass clerk at Ellis Island. This was written into the script, because it references what occurred to so many European immigrants who came to Ellis Island. That’s right, their names were different because of grammatical errors. Boo friggin hoo! What a horrible immigration experience.

 

As young Vito Corleone goes through his in processing, it is discovered he has a disease! That’s right, little Vito Corleone has small pox, and cannot be admitted into New York. They put the poor little bastard in his own room, (with an actual bed!)  in quarantine, presumably for a few months until he gets healthy, gets released and eventually becomes one of the largest crime bosses in the United States.

Wait a f*cking minute! Do I see another of many double standards of American Culture? Vito Corleone gets freely admitted into the United States, through Ellis Island, even though he is diseased and unaccompanied by either parent? Vito Corleone gets freely admitted into the United States, through Ellis Island, even though he came via Europe; another land mass, and crossed a whole ocean to get to the United States?

And yet, 90,000 little “vito corleones,” from the same continent as the United States, who are ALSO fleeing for their very lives are being called “diseased hordes,” and sleeping on concrete floors, surrounded by chainlink, just like dogs in a pound. And they too are escaping crime, and crime bosses.

Undocumented Immigrant Buses Turned Away in CaliforniaSo the attitudes of anti-migration (via the Mexican border) carried by the Tea Baggers, the Minutemen, the militias, politicians, etc. are PURELY racist, xenophobic, and Euro-centric. Unless of course, they feel about Vito Corleone the same way they feel about the 90,000 kids from Central America; that he should have been given a teddy bear, and a soccer ball, and sent back to the place from which he came.

Interview, with Liberation News

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Link to the article: http://www.liberationnews.org/brown-berets-provide-security-for-albuquerque-march-to-end-police-brutality/

Albuquerque Brown Berets at march vs. police brutality

“I could be one of the ones that was taken out.”

Ricky Gonzales, Albuquerque native and Prime Minister of the Nuevo Mexico Chapter of the Carnalismo Brown Berets, reflected on an experience he had with the Albuquerque Police Department 5 years ago. In his case, it was mistaken identity.

Ricky was at a friend’s apartment when he saw that APD was outside preparing for a raid. “I want to see what happens. I walked out of [the friend’s] apartment. I had assault rifles, lasers and SWAT guns pointed at my chest. I’m carrying a phone charger in my hand, it’s night, it could be mistaken for anything. So, luckily, nothing happened…but it could have gone a completely different way.”

The Brown Berets are a Chicano/Mexican American community organization that was born during the late 1960s and is still active. Their mission is to help those who are oppressed and need a voice.

The Brown Berets, including Ricky, were at the June 21 March Against Police Brutality in Albuquerque to assist with security and show solidarity. They do a lot more than provide security, though. “I like to think of the Brown Berets as a multilateral organization,” says Ricky. They do outreach to gangs, food drives, and toy drives for children born in prison. The Brown Berets do this without much of a budget, Ricky says, “We just fund things ourselves and invest sweat equity”.

According to Ricky, re-education is a major initiative of the Brown Berets. “A lot of our work has to do with re-educating ourselves and others. A lot of us Chicanos were raised with a certain version [of history], not necessarily where we really came from or what really happened. [Being born on] this side of the border and being American and not Mexican [is an accident of birth]. Chicano people here in Albuquerque exempt themselves from the fight of people south of the border – an imaginary line. A lot of [our work] is about re-educating these [Chicanos] to know we’re all the same.”

Video: APD Shoot Homeless man in Sandia Mtns

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James Boyd, a 38-year-old homeless man with mental illness issues, was shot by the Albuquerque PD on Sunday, March 16 2014 after he became engaged in an hours-long standoff with officers who caught him illegally camping in the Sandia foothills.

APD released video footage taken from the helmetcam of an officer on the scene of the crime that depicts a cop opening fire on Boyd while his back was turned to the police. The clip has since been widely circulated online and the Carnalismo Brown Berets have also circulated the clip.

In the video, Boyd tells the police, “Don’t change up the agreement, I’m going to try to walk with you.” As he reaches for his belongings, however, an officer says “Do it” and a flash-bang device is fired at the suspect while a law enforcement dog is let loose. Boyd

remains standing a few yards from the police seemingly unaffected by the blast, but moments later, the police say, he reached for something that they believed to be a knife, prompting Officers Dominque Perez and Keith Sandy to fire a total of six shots into the man.

APD have been known to make this excuse up before, and even shot a young man dead while he was holding a plastic spork. Unfortunately the was no video of that incident.

As Boyd laid motionless on a rock with his face in a pool of blood, the police continued to bark orders at him before firing further rounds of non-lethal ammunition.

After APD released the video, New Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden said that the video showed that the shooting is justified.

With regards to this month’s incident, Chief Eden said Boyd posed a
“direct threat” to his officers and cited Garner v. Tennessee, a Supreme
Court of the United States decision that found that the police can use
deadly force in certain circumstances.

Albuquerque police have shot more people than the New York Police Department since 2010, despite being one-sixteenth the size, and have been the subject of a Department of
Justice federal probe when the APD’s fatal shooting record was called
into question.

The findings from the DOJ Report can be found on www.brownberetsnewmexico.com

Brown Beret Jose Maria Vasquez with American GI Forum Speaks

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As many of our members are Military Veterans, we Carnalismo Brown Berets do support our Veterans, and support helping them in many of the pitfalls they encounter upon returning from war and combat. These issues with hospital shortages are rampant in states in Aztlan (US Southwest) that cover huge expanses, but have low, or rural populations. Sr. Vasquez speaks on the disparity and lack of resources for Veterans, and how absurd and wasteful (or misallocated) government spending can be.

 

Brown Berets, National Brown Berets, Brown Beret National Organization, Los Brown Berets, Aztlan, La Causa

Carnalismo Brown Berets, San Anto at protest against John Boehner

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The Carnalismo Brown Berets de San Anto and many others participated in a Community Protest against Speaker John Boehner for lack of leadership to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform The Rally was held outside of the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel where Speaker John Boehner spoke for a luncheon for a Chamber of Commerce. The Carnalismo Brown Berets and Bexar County Young Tejano Dems ( https://www.facebook.com/BexarCountyYoungTejanoDemocrats) delivered a Letter to Speaker John Boehner’s staff advocating for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Protest was organized by the Bexar County Young Tejano Democrats, with the support of the Brown Berets San Antonio,Texas Young Democrats, Henry Rodriguez of LULAC Concilio Zapatista, Texas Organizing Project, Mujers Unidas Domesticas, San Antonio Immigrant Youth Movement (S.A.I.Y.M.), and Mission Democrats of Bexar County among others.

Our very own Victor San Miguel was quoted in the San Antonio Current! Link Below:

http://blogs.sacurrent.com/thedaily/house-speaker-john-boehners-san-antonio-visit-draws-immigration-protest/

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

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Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism (“Fascism Anyone?,” Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine’s policy.

The 14 characteristics are:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

 

Burque dodges a bullet-squelches anti-abortion ban

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Yesterday, after an historic election (the only of its kind) Burque residents voiced their vote, and told meddling, tea bagging oppressors to butt out of women’s rights, when it comes down to late term abortion.
It is very ironic and duplicitous of the tea baggers and republicans who bitch and whine about government being too far sweeping only to try to ply legislation to suppress others based on their religious tenets.
As Brown Berets, we do NOT welcome this tea bagging element in Burque, Nuevo Mexico, or Aztlan as a whole. These tea baggers and republicans are often the same suppressive people who support legislation that seeks to oppress our Chicano people, the poor, and other minorities. These same greedy pigs want the government to butt out of their money, but to intervene on social matters such as Civil Rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, social services and social welfare programs as well as public programs or infrastructure.
Tea baggers and republicans are continually being funded by private special interest groups, corporations, and individuals, such as the vile ass wipe Koch Brothers. The funding toward the groups bring other special interests to the table, such as ALEC, a group aimed at schmoozing republican legislators, and tailor fitting the language to write bills that would continually stymie the poor, while oppressing their personal rights and privacy, and greasing the wheels of the corporate machine by means of deregulation.
The tea baggers and neo cons are truly a cancer to Aztlan, and the US as well. They are seeking every method possible to impose their will onto the rest of the people by bank rolling politicians, corporate media, and propoganda spewed to complacent people.
Yesterday’s vote is a victory for Albuquerque, for women’s reproductive rights, and for the rest of us who are sick of these gutless, cowardly religious zealots who continually stand in the way of progress in our civilization!

Stupid Republicans trying to pander the “Latino vote”

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Since their landslide defeat in the 2012 Presidential Elections – they have shifted their stances to pander to what the media calls the “Latino Vote.” The figures suggest that non-whites carried 75% of the vote and that “Latinos” accounted for 65% – overwhelming number tilted in favor of Barack Obama.When the GOP realized this, they began changing their stance on “Immigration Reform,” something unprecedented until now.

It has loooooong been a theory of mine that white, xenophobic, discriminatory attitudes against Mexican Migrants has stemmed from something much larger, much higher, and with lots of funding – a specific agenda. This agenda lies in the facts and figures, the projections that Mexcanos, Mexican-Americans, etc. would outnumber all other minorites, and even the white majority in the United States – both through the influx of Immigrants, and through their off spring. Realizing this, an agenda has been put forth for at least two decades to suppress this influx, and oppress those already in the United States. My theory has long been that this agenda was implemented because somewhere, in some dark, smoke-filled room, the puppet masters realized they stood to be out numbered, out voted, etc.

Combine this with the overall fear and cultural divisiveness that exists among many whites, and “Hispano’s” who arte United States citizens. Arizona in particular has long been a draw for the white, affluent retiree snowbirds, making their own migrations from their home states and settling in Arizona. Their influx pushed a lot of the existent people out or away, and continues to with Bills such as SB 1070, and sh*thead Sheriffs, such as Joe Arpaio. Combine that with their legislators, and Governor Jan Brewer, and you have a recipe for a hostile state, against Chicano’s and Mexicano’s.

So, for some time, Republicans and white xenophobic “Nativists” have had it pretty comfy, insofar as they have been able to freely oppress our Gente, suppress our votes, and our Voz. But we overcame, we were persistent, and we showed up at the polls. We had volunteers going into our communities and registering more and more of us to vote.

So, the stupid, idiotic Republicans realized this, and started propping up thier poster boy, Senator Marco Rubio. Rubio himself is a “teabagger” Republican, with the same twisted, hostile ideaology of greed, racism, and oppressive social conservativism. He has spoken out against “illegal immigration,” and has supported Bills such as SB 1070. And now the GOP is propping him up, and grooming him to help get the “Latino Vote.” Further more, those same hypocrites are shifting their stance on immigration, and trying to be friendlier about it. They’re grasping for straws.

Marco Rubio does NOT represent our Gente/Raza! He is a sellout, and being of Cuban descent he does not understand the Chicano struggle. Cubans since the 50s’ have been able to enjoy a much more lax “migration” to the US. With the US Government declaring Cuba a hostile Commie Government, Cubanos were able to free come to the US, and get granted asylum the minute they stepped off the boat. This is in stark contrst to the Chicano people, who though they are larger land-locked, and on the same Continent as the United States and Canada live in despair over a line that was drawn either to the north or south of them. And although the US hasn’t proclaimed Mexico a hostile Government, it is one that is rife with corruption, crime, and no discernible middle class.

So her citizens opt for aspirations for a better life, in America “land of opportunity.” But they repeatedly get pushed back, oppressed, forced to take more illicit or desperate measures to get into the States. They then get villified or painted lazy, dirty, treacherous people with an inherent trait toward criminality, or abuses of social programs. Lets get one thing clear; There are more white people on welfare in the United States than any other race or culture. The figures are there.

We shouldn’t buy into the pandering strategy of the GOP. They think they can pidgeon hole us, or lump us all into one-category and call it “Latino.” This simply doesn’t exist with our Gente. We aren’t one blend, of one category, and until the Republicans realize this their strategies will fail.

In the coming weeks, we’re going to put out a section of “sellouts” on our websites, citing hostile Chicano’s/Chicana’s such as NM Governor Suzana Martinez. Her Abuelo migrated “illegally” from Mexico to the States but she continually supports hostile legislation against her own people. We’re going to shed light on dignitaries such as her who do more to supress our Gente than to help us.