Thursday, August 13, 2020

Everything's the same. There ain't nothin' changed.

 I have some Actual Paying Work to get done tonight, so we're going to knock this out right quick. Fortunately, we've still got plenty of Kamala Harris stuff to talk about. Apparently, Wingnut Intelligencia went decided to go full-goose loony right out the gate.

 The funny thing is until Trump started out remaking himself on Twitter, the whole Birther thing was fairly fringe. It first popped up on some Z-list wingnut blog before Obama got the nomination. I don't think it was the same folks who claimed Michelle had said "Kill Whitey" on tape, but it may have. Anyhow, the Clinton people did some opposition result and it came up nothing - naturally - and stayed on the lunatic fringe until Trump used it to make himself a public figure.

 Twelve years later, and there are still plenty of conservatives who're convinced that not only is Barack Obama not a native-born citizen, but the Republican Party and every government in the entire world is in on the con. This is the level of folks we're dealing with here. Unfortunately, the lunatic fringe has become the GOP mainstream, so the last 12 or so hours have been them going apeshit over Kamala Harris' eligibility. And here's why that's not only stupid but racist.

 For one, there is absolutely no question that she is an American citizen. She was born in Oakland, CA, and according to the 14th Amendment, that's it. Her dad was from Jamaica and her mom was from India, but both were naturalized citizens when she was born. Again, the 14th Amendment is very clear on this. There is absolutely no argument about this. Racists have called her an "anchor baby," which just means that, yes, she is a citizen.

 The height of this horseshit came from a column in Newsweek by Chapman University law professor John Eastman. His column was pretty much the above paragraph, followed by several paragraphs of "but maybe that's not so". The saddest part of this is seeing how far the once very respectable name of Newsweek has fallen. They were sold by The Washington Post for a nickel ten years ago to some far-right Christian Dominionist group that isn't "The Family," apparently, and have been running columns by the likes of Charlie Kirk and this clown.

 The opinion section is run by some yo-yo named Josh Hammer, who's a member of the same bunch of right-wing extremists as Eastman, The Claremont Institute. That wasn't mentioned in the column, by the way. For that matter, neither was the little nugget of information that Eastman ran for the same Attorney General of California back in 2010 that Harris won and brought her to national prominence. He didn't make it out of the Republican primary - finished third, actually - but is it possible he's still got some sand in his ass about being beaten by a woman of color? It would be irresponsible to not speculate.

 Even in his column defending the original mess of bullshit, Hammer said the "controversy" wouldn't go away. Well, no shit, sleazeball, way to add fuel to the fire. Way to make it mainstream and give it credence. There was no question about this, especially considering Eastman wrote a piece a couple years ago defending (rightly) the eligibility of Ted Cruz. He was born in Canada but to an American citizen, for what it's worth.

 And this, friends and neighbors, is what the next 80-something days are going to be like. We're already seeing people profess confusion over whether Harris is "black" or "Indian" or if having a Jamaican father means she's "black" enough or "African American". Laura Ingraham, She-Wolf of the SS, said on her hate hour that Harris had an ancestor in Jamaica that was a slave owner. This was supposed to be a sick burn, despite Frau Laura not stopping to think just why a black woman might have a slave-owning ancestor.

 If nothing else, this affair exposes the rank dumbness of far too many white Americans. They can't handle mixed heritages or ethnicities that don't fall neatly into census boxes. They get a hard-on for Confederate statues while pretending the horrors of slavery didn't happen, much less still have after-effects in the present. They claim the Left is "obsessed" with race when they spread stupid, ignorant shit like this at the drop of the hat.

 Look, bubba. If you're questioning about Harris' citizenship, you're a racist. If you use the phrase "anchor baby," you're racist. If you're trying to parse whether she's black enough or Indian or whatever, you're a racist. Deal with it. This is your party now. Hell, Trump is trying to scare white suburbanites by telling them Corey Booker - the Wayne Brady of American politics - will come after them if Biden wins. Own it. Embrace it. No one is fooled into thinking otherwise.

 Hell, I just wonder how long it's going to be before Trump's dumbass says something about Harris' Indian heritage but he thinks it's American Indigenous rather than someone from India. You know it's coming. You could almost set your watch by it.

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