Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has issued a new report (PDF) asserting that the Early Asian Immigrants (incorrectly referred to as “Native” Americans) are hit the hardest by “climate-induced weather extremes”. I’ll leave aside the obvious problems with that fanciful claim, and the oddity of the idea of “climate-induced weather” whatever that means, to look at the NWF’s proposed solution to their imaginary problem.
Their solution? Well, their brilliant plan is that everyone but the Immigrants should pony up some money to give to the Immigrants.
Now, the history of the Early Asian Immigrants is a sad and tragic one. They were cheated, lied to, killed indiscriminately, and their culture and ways were denigrated and often destroyed.
The response of the US Government, after many years, was to give the remaining tribes of Immigrants their own nations. These are sovereign areas with their own leaders, where many US laws do not apply. Me, I’d give just about anything to be able to write my own laws, and not have to obey some US laws. But I don’t get to.
Now, however, the NWF wants to change the rules. They want to alter the laws so that the separate Immigrant nations can not only be sovereign and independent and run casinos and not be subject to various state laws, but they can also suck up tax money paid by people who live in my nation. As an example of what they want to change, they say:
Indian [sic] Tribes are also excluded —– because of statutes, regulations, or practice —– from dozens of federal natural resource programs that provide assistance to states, local governments, and other entities.
Well … yes indeed, they are excluded from using my tax money for a host of things, and for very good reasons. That’s the price they pay for independence and sovereignty, that they don’t get treated the same as other US citizens, or like a State, or like a local government—because they aren’t any of those things, they are a sovereign nation with all that implies. For example, I can’t go on the reservation and do what I want, that’s the Immigrant national land. Immigrants don’t have to follow a variety of laws, and rightly so. And I don’t get any money from tribal funds that they are getting from Immigrant casinos, casinos that are illegal for me to operate.
So while I definitely feel for the Immigrants, who historically have suffered unimaginably, they can’t have it both ways. If they want to be full participants in the American rush to have the US government reimburse them for every imaginary problem, they can’t also be exempt from various laws and State taxes and some even from Federal taxes and get to have their own nations. If they want the full panoply of dubious benefits that the rest of the citizens get, sorry, they’ve got to become just like me, subject to all of the nonsense which us Late European Immigrants have to put up with.
Or they could just pay for the things that they need from their casino takings … which were $7,300,000,000 ($7.3 billion with a “b”) just in California alone in 2009, and $26,400,000,000 nationally, and on which in many states they paid no state taxes. I say they should use their own money for that kind of quixotic quest. If they want to use my taxes to fight imaginary menaces, well, they should have to pay taxes just like I do and be subject to the same idiotic rules that constrain me.
In any case, if the Immigrants are entitled to my tax money, it seems only fair that in return I should be able to open my own casino. But I don’t need to make billions. If I can only make a few million dollars from my casino, I assure you that I can protect myself against the worst that man-made warming can do, and save the Government a pile of money in the process … plus I’ll pay all applicable taxes on my takings.
It’s a win-win kind of deal.
w.
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UPDATE:
Willis has free reign to publish here, however this is not an article (in its present form) I would have published if consulted. Once published, I can’t put the cat back in the bag. – Anthony
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A note from the author. Anthony has most graciously given me the room to write here without censorship or interference or suggestions of any type,and has my great thanks for the freedom. As such, I ask that everyone be clear that what I write is mine, and what Anthony writes is his. He is passionate about his causes, as am I about mine. I thought long and hard about this before I posted it, as I do with all of my posts, but even more so because it is a touchy subject. I re-wrote it several times to try to make it clearer and clearer.
Now, I could have just said “Ooooh, too hot to handle” and picked a less controversial subject … but if Anthony and I and all the guest posters did that, this would be the most boring blog on the planet.
All I ask is that people quote my words when they object, because most people are treating this subject like a web-based Rorschach test, and reading into it all of their hopes, fears, and prejudices.
Again, my thanks to Anthony for his marvelous blog,
w.
Hey Willis, the NWF talk about Lake Mead in that report in the context of droughts, but they left off this graph.
http://lakemead.water-data.com/graphingengine.php?graphing=1+back_days=
I agree. You have just about covered it all.
I can’t claim to be a native of any other country except the one where I was born; The U.S.A.
Some natives are more equal than other natives.
I’m reminded of the definition of a financial market broker as “someone who invests your money until it is all gone”. Government officials are there to find new and innovative ways to spend your money until it is all gone.
I was like National wildlife federation where have I heard that name before, oh yes in connection with being the lapdog for various oily organizations like BP, happily receiving “dirty money” peddling petrochemical based toys from china in gas stations. And weren’t NWF also quite amicable towards BP’s deep sea drilling before before…the accident.
Simple solution – remove the NWF’s ‘charitable’ status and impose a tax on all donations they receive. Give that the Early Asian Immigrants ….
You can moan about them being tax exempt, but you know what? They didn’t ask you to come to their country and [snip]. They were happy enough before the settlers arrived and set up to FED and the Income Tax shake-down. The settlers came and decided to run a [snip] economy based on borrowing money from China to buy crap from China so that China can emit the CO2 for them – and have the jobs and prosperity that goes with it. The Indians did not ask you or your ancestors to come and do that. And now you want them to pay taxes into your crappy economic system too? What, it is not enough what happened to them already? You want more?!
Good lord, Willis. When you’re making up your own private personal word for something, you’re not entitled to [sic] the normal ordinary word. Words are supposed to communicate meanings, and Indian conveys the meaning of that ethnic group to everyone but you.
‘But glory doesn’t mean “a nice knock-down argument”,’ Alice objected.
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
NWF has a “Tribal Lands Global Warming Manager”?????
Gotta love the complaint about “..much of the housing is in isolated areas and lacks electricity and running water”. The fault of whom?? With such high unemployment, you’d think they’d be hiring themselves to do Tribal (public) Works Projects and fix the problem.
But isn’t the generation of electricity one of the principle evils causing “global warming”, along with their use of all the other modern conveniences like cars and trucks? As Willis so clearly points out, they want it both ways. What I must be missing is why the NWF is involved.
Maybe the simple answer would be found by following the money.
Mr E
Your writing brightens up my day – thanks
Dave G
Perhaps those with Neanderthal genes should sue those with only “modern” human genes for wiping out their ancestors.
Native Americans is NOT an incorrect reference. If Native Americans aren’t “native” after 14 thousand years or more, then the word “native” has NO meaning.
Early Asian Immigrants properly refers to the Chinese of the early 1800’s. Fourteen thousand years before them were the Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early, Early Asian Immigrants…..
@chris SMith — either you forgot the /sarc or you are showing your true colors — [snip]
A couple of things. First, like Dave Stephens pointed out, Native American is not an incorrect word. I am Native Ameican as is my whole family, my wife, etc. We are Native Americans or even Indians. We are NOT Early Asian Immigrants. Second, most of the tribes are not rewriting the laws. They aren’t wanting it both ways. Most of them are actually holding the US government to it’s rightful obligations. The Native Americans didn’t surrender unconditionally. They signed treaties with the United States. These treaties had various conditions attached to them. The terms of which have been ignored or have been altered under a mutually agreeable new set of terms. If you want to blame anyone, blame the “white people” who weren’t able to wipe out the “Indians” and had to resort to signing treaties, some of which had very favorable conditions for the “Indians”.
If ya didn’t do the crime ya shouldn’t have to pay the fine or do the time. Isn’t there a statue of limitations in New Yak harbor that says something like that somewhere close to her bossom? It’s on a tablet, right? No?!? Ohhhhh… ahhhh this guy from Canada says it’s writen in magic marker inside her head.
Willis Eschenbach, your ignorance of Native American history, and their current status and problems is appalling. Your insensitivity in writing this drivel is even worse. Shame on you!
Roger E. Sowell, Esq.
Hey Willis, the subjects of many names receive lots in the way of Federal Programs.
Search this document for the word “Indian” and you can finds upwards of 10 billion in annual funds.
Well said Dave Stephens!!
After giving the report a quick read through, and seeing all of the imbecilic contradictions, I might have missed something, where is the pestilence? You can’t have all that anthropogenic disruption and not call in the locusts… Not a Hollywood biblical epic without them. Disappointing.
@Twiggy
Locusts? – they were Soooo last year 😉 http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/australia-faces-worst-plague-of-locusts-in-75-years-2089919.html
@chris Smith – One hopes you’re being sarcastic. If not, study the history of early North American colonization by Europeans and you will find the “Indian” attitude toward the colonists to be much more complicated. The tribes of the North American east coast were engaged in competitive empire building, and the settlers were seen as sources of advanced weapons, military allies, and trading partners. To that extent, yes, the settlers WERE invited. The later tribes of the Plains were so big that they could only camp in one place for less than a week before the land was completely wasted and they had to move on. As for today, one wonders how much money made by Indian casinos has passed through China in one way or another.
They sure know how to play the guilt card. Native Americans will surely know that this is all complete bull cr@p, and that cold is what kills, and that colder times are in fact what’s coming. They know that climate cycles around, and surely must be snickering at the white man’s idiocy in believing not only that warmer is bad, but that he is responsible for it, in addition to all other “climate extremes” – floods, drought, fires, plus extreme cold, ice and snow. But, he will take the white man’s guilt-inspired climate dough gladly, and laugh all the way to the bank.
Read with interest, Willis — but as an Australian any comments may seem kinda “racist” if I made them. Perhaps I can risk “human nature”…
I get Willis’ point, and it’s well made. Genetically speaking he’s right. We can trace the genes.
I also understand the discomfort that comes from realizing that the world isn’t as we were taught it is – there were probably multiple adventures across the Bering Strait, not just during the last ice age. Those from the last ice age are just being discovered, so the previous adventurers may not have faired as well as the last ones.
As far as the NWF is concerned – just another hog, trying to find another trough. Much like the ASPCA – a lot of $ going to advertising, to create a lot of $ going to advertising, repeat. Oh, I forgot the salary increases going to the association managers due to their brilliant management of the association and the raising of so much money for a good cause.
So called indigenous Americans did not all arrive at the same time on the same bus. They came at different times, in different waves over thousands of years. I don’t imagine that late comers were welcomed with open arms, and it is silly to award the American Indian with some sort of superior moral status. It is probable that nobody got a warm welcome.
Just because Europeans were even later immigrating doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have come. To think that a few million stone age inhabitants should have kept an entire hemisphere from the rest of the world is not realistic.
Willis is right. The American Indian has been treated shabbily, and the NWF is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
I grew up on an indian reservation in western New York State in a town that was and possibly still is the only incorporated US city completely inside an indian reservation. The land is leased from the tribe. The disputes that have arisen between the tribe and local, state, and federal governments are legion and the past 20 years have been the worst. There’s very little friction between individuals that live on the reservation it’s all between governments. The residents of the township and people from outside the reservation enjoy a lot of those tax advantages. No taxes on gasoline, tobacco, beer, wine, liquor, and so forth. There’s a large casino and big hotel just outside town built about 10 years ago that’s now the largest employer for people who live there and which attracts tourists who spend money at local stores and whatnot. Profits from the casino are shared with the city to defray the cost of city services and keep it looking good. The primary problem is that indians, who are not at all poor, are buying up homes in the city. Some 38% and rising of all the homes in the city are indian-owned and they are exempt from property taxes. So a rapidly declining number of homeowners are stuck footing the bill to pay for police, fire department, and schools which are services shared equally by everyone. The sovereign nation thing is rather exaggerated and pretty much exists in name only. Tribal justice system is generally limited to misdemeanors (no punishments greater than one year imprisonment) and only applies to tribe members. So visiting an indian reservation isn’t like crossing the border into Mexico. Not even close.