The Good Guys Are Winning
By picking Martha’s Vineyard as the receptacle for his diabolical plan to own the libs and humiliate the immigrants, Ron DeSantis has gotten himself into a heap of legal trouble. He didn’t shock and offend the Kennedys and celebrities and dupe them into behaving just like Republicans by dumping dirty foreigners in their backyards. They didn’t out themselves as being closeted haters by spitting on them and telling them to go back to their country like Republicans do. Quite the contrary. His plan was to embarrass northern liberal elites like the southern White Citizens Councils did during the Civil Rights era when they came up with “Reverse Freedom Rides” where they gave Black people one-way tickets to northern cities and tricked them with the promise of jobs, housing, and better lives but that never happened. They were stranded once they arrived.
DeSantis and his racist team didn’t do their homework. Massachusetts was a bad choice to stage a political stunt like this. Massachusetts was the first state to abolish slavery. Martha’s Vineyard was part of the underground railroad. Black people have been welcome there since the 1800s. The liberal elite who live there have been mingling with them and middle class beach goers for centuries. Maya Angelou liked going there because it was “a safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
DeSantis also unwittingly timed his immigrant dump on the anniversary of the Europeans setting sail for the new world to invade it and claim it as their own. Massachusetts is where the origins story of America begins, home of Plymouth Rock where the pilgrims landed. The Mayflower set sail on September 16, 1620, 402 years ago today. The ship was filled with 102 white people, 40 of whom were religious nuts known as Separatists who wanted to relocate to their own world to get freaky with Jesus. The rest were capitalists hoping to cash in on the new world. It took them 66 days to get to the new world where misogyny, freaky Jesus, European supremacy, capitalism and muskets would prevail. The white Europeans weren’t greeted with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie by the people who had been living there for thousands of years like kindergarteners are taught in America today. It was muskets vs arrows. The original Americans felt threatened and defended themselves against the Europeans, who thought of themselves as the original Americans.
Massachusetts may bear the brunt of white supremacist history on the United States of America timeline for being the official landing place of colonization and home to the infamous Salem witch trials, but it also gets space on the that timeline for Harvard, the first American university, the first American printing press and first American newspaper, the first public school and public library, the first church built by freed slaves, the first abolitionist newspaper, the first National Women’s Right Convention, and the Boston Tea Party — all liberal ideas that advanced not only the nation, but humankind.
W.E.B DuBois, one of the original founders of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the first African American to go to Harvard and get a doctorate, was born and raised in integrated Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1868. He spent his life fighting for and insisting on full civil rights and political representation for Black people and the end of the colonial era.
A lot of good guys come from Massachusetts.
DeSantis did this for free publicity, but he didn’t get the kind he expected. What he did was a crime. This was human trafficking. Penalties are even greater if you smuggle aliens. Governor Newsom of California has formally requested the DOJ to begin an immediate investigation as well as other officials, activists and civil rights groups.
The migrants from Venezuela are not “illegal immigrants.” They came here legally to seek asylum. They followed the law and were duped into getting on a plane, lured by a woman named Perla who had been prowling the streets of San Antonio looking for victims on Ron DeSantis’ behalf. She promised them work visas in Boston if they’d come with her, only to be abandoned once they got to Martha’s Vineyard where they were met by photographers to capture reactions hired by DeSantis. He coordinated with Fox News for an exclusive story. The weary travelers had to walk 3 miles to a community center where they were treated with dignity and respect by residents who had no idea that they were being used for MAGA Republican gain. Immigration attorney Rachel Self interviewed the migrants and concluded that this was a kidnapping.
In other news, Fulton County DA Fani Willis says her team has the evidence she needs on 17 known targets so that a number of them will get jail time.
The Select Committee released a recording of communications over a walkie-talkie app among Oath Keepers who were inside the Capitol on January 6. They were sharing intelligence and taking orders from Trump via Twitter.
Mark Meadows has been cooperating with the DOJ.
Trump’s MAGA Judge Cannon denied the DOJ’s motion to stay the parts of her ruling so they will appeal. She appointed a special master, Judge Raymond Dearie, who was Trump’s choice but is fine with the DOJ because he’s not insane or a MAGA Republican.
A railroad strike has been averted thanks to our Labor Secretary Marty Walsh who is a former union official, Pete Buttigieg, our Transportation Secretary, various department heads, union leaders, and the closer, President Joe Biden, our most pro-union president in decades. The deadline for a deal was today and one was reached with hours to spare, saving the economy $1 billion a day in losses after 2 ½ years of negotiations. Workers haven’t had a contract in over 3 years. While workers lost their jobs during the Trump administration due to the Covid debacle, corporations made a killing with cutbacks and ripping workers off by trimming benefits and being stingy with scheduling time. Workers had no protections without a contract. Last year, profits for Union Pacific jumped 12% to $21.8 billion and BNSF 11.6% to $22.5 billion. Between November 2018 and December 2020, the industry lost 40,000 jobs (1/4 of rail workers), but stock buybacks continued and those at the top got very, very rich. Workers who were spared lived in fear of a medical or family emergency because they could get written up and fired if they took any time off. Because they were short staffed, workers were overworked and vulnerable to accidents. Smaller crews meant more dangerous working conditions. Workers decided to organize over time, more pay, better benefits and improved working conditions. It took awhile, but they got it! 24% pay raise over the next 5 years, one paid sick day (union leaders wanted 15, up from none), and no penalties for missing time due to illness or medical emergencies.
Before Trump, the railroad industry, which our economy depends on to transport consumer goods, materials, and fuel, had been stable for 25 years. Now that Trump is gone, Mr. Amtrak Biden, the former senator who took the train in and out of DC as senator for decades, Mr. Middle Class, Mr. Union, has made history again by showing up for the little guy and saying no to the big guy. “We’re not caving.”
The good guys are winning. The good guys are winning. THE GOOD GUYS ARE WINNING!
