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.
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message616868/pg1
“In 1832 Andrew Jackson, the newly elected president said: You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out.”
He said this in response to a Congress who was getting ready to pass into law, the 2nd Bank Act of the United States of America. Because of Jackson, the bill was defeated and it was later during his administration that the national debt of the USA was zero. In fact, it was the only time in the entire history of the USA that we owed nothing to nobody.
Four years after the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1791 president George Washington was coerced into signing the 1st Bank Act of the USA. This returned the banking authority into the hands of the “Bank of England”. George Washington was a brilliant military commander, but as a president he was an idiot. America’s first real traitor was not Benedict Arnold, it was a banker by the name of Alexander Hamilton. It was Hamilton who convinced Washington the Bank Act was needed.
What goes around comes around. Years later Hamilton was gunned down in a pistol duel by Aaron Burr, who had served as VP under Jefferson’s administration. Jefferson argued relentlessly against Hamilton and the need for a centralized bank.
All of this can be verified on the web or in your local library… enjoy.”
http://abolishthefederalreserve.org/
Thanks Willis for your understanding. We got there at last!
Now hopefully you understand the major difference between “Migration” and “Imigration”
I admit, they sound similar, but as we have seen, they have very different meanings. Hopefully your swallows will never emigrate!
By the way, your excellent Smithsonian museum categorises Bison as being a North American native species http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/main.cfm
as does wikipaedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison
and Yahoo http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090927104947AAMWCfH
even this one http://www.educationalimages.com/it110014.htm
Except you Willis, and you are entitled to your opinion,
I wonder if someone has an opinion that no mammal can be native to any place because they displaced what was left of the poor old dinosaurs. But on the other hand, is there not evidence they displaced the amphibians? and so on. One thing we can agree on. I bet the Mastodons did not run Casinos and had very little influence in major climate change.
The original human inhabitants, and the bands of their descendants, are properly referred to as Indigenous Peoples. Those in the United States are referred to as American Indians.
This is from a prominent American Indian, Professor of Law at UCLA, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of an American Indian Nation, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma, Angela Riley. I know Professor Riley, and was a student of hers in another law school. Because this terminology is what Professor Riley uses professionally and on the internet, it is good enough for me. It should be good enough for all.
Roger Sowell says:
August 17, 2011 at 10:55 pm
Unfortunately, it’s not good enough for all, as evidenced by the number of people who decided that “American Indian” was henceforth non-PC anathema, and that the people formerly known as “American Indians” should now be known as “Native Americans” …
w.
Alas, the great suffering of the children, for whom “Cowboys and Indians” must now be “Newcomers versus Natives.”