Hospitals: The New Law Enforcement Agencies!

by B.J. on 8/03/2008 11:11:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

"What that does for us, it puts a strain on our system, where we're unable to provide adequate care for our own citizens," said Alan Kelly, vice president of Scottsdale Healthcare in Arizona

These US health care facilities seem to take the Hippocratic oath of "do no harm" to new unprecedented and broader levels each time I read about them in the news.

Characteristic of this culture of consumption and wasting, the new thing seems to be all about dumping patients.

First, stories of dumping patients on skid row in LA.


Now, hospitals are actually carrying out deportations.


"Many American hospitals are taking it upon themselves to repatriate seriously injured or ill immigrants because they cannot find nursing homes willing to accept them without insurance."


It's an American institution, if you can't find a way to fix the problem, you waste lots of resources to "dump" the "problem" elsewhere and have them fix it.

This is kind of like how Los Angeles County will soon run out of landfill space, and as of 2009 ship their trash over 200 miles by rail over to Brawley, CA never to deal with it again.

Hospitals seemingly running out of nursing home or rehab space, will go out of their way to ship their patients via plane to what appears to be their own country never to deal with them again.

The company line on these deportations seems to be the following:
1) immigrants take up our resources
2) nursing homes and rehab programs won't take them because they are uninsured
3) were federally regulated to put uninsured patients on Medicaid in "appropriate" care, so basically were trapped! Help!


1) The irony is that we already do a good job of taking other people's resources, but their complaints are never really taken into account. Naturally, when you take something away from people forcibly and without their mass consent, they will probably want to get things back. It's pretty much a social version of kharma.

Whether its logging, deforesting, mining, oil drilling, declaring war, it's probably safe to assue that were in some other country with borders, making agreements with people who run their countries like drug cartels, essentially stealing people's stuff for profit.

Wasting of resources? Americans already consume 25% of the world's electricity being only 5% of the world's population. It's vomit-inducing everytime someone says that "immigrants are consuming our resources" A lot of Americans do not have the right to EVER say this without being massively hypocritical.

The only thing is that our consumption and waste of world and other country's stuff never enters people's imagination unless they are dedicated environmentalists and can be safely identified eco-nuts.

2) What gets me is that according to these hospitals, deporting them is such a costly adventure.

In spite of costly litigation issues, cost of the flight, they still go through with it anyway! Twisted inspirational proof that even with limited funds as hospitals have, you can sort of make what you want happen, happen.

They've long violated the Hippocratic Oath when

It seems like a case where these hospital administrators are taking the opportunity to absolve themselves of responsibility, perhaps make an ideological statement while appearing to hold up to federal and ethical standards.

This issue in particular, of undocumented people in long-term health care, doesn't appear to be one of purely economics. The hospitals are not dealing with such an overwhelming amount of immigrants, that these immigrants are being ignored and falling through the cracks because there aren't many of these cases in the first place. Since the patients in these situations require long-term care, they aren't exactly patients that doctors can mindlessly sift through.

Judging from the quotes of one of the representative hospital administrators and the trends of hospitals who are more likely to deport immigrants, it doesn't appear to be cases of unintentional uncontrollable decisions, but actually rather calculated and intentional.

As usual, there's either a profit and/or ideologically-flawed Americanist mechanism at work. At any rate, the lack of care given to him is based solely on artifical, human-created boundary lines.

If a visitor from another planet were to assess our political stage, he'd probably seize upon that the concept: Artifical, human-created imaginary boundary lines.

Lines that only exist because humans decided that they need exist as if nothing of meaning happens outside those boundaries and nothing will benefit from it either.

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Casually Suggesting Racism in the AP News Wire: Cities with the Most Volunteers

by B.J. on 7/29/2008 11:36:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

Here's an example of one way to subtly show your bigotry if you're an AP writer.

Title of the News Story: "Miami Ranks Lowest in Volunteering"

Leads off with...
"MIAMI (July 27) - Blame it on the traffic. Or the number of new immigrants. Or the allure of the beach. Whatever the reason, Miami has secured the bottom spot -- No. 50 among major U.S. cities -- in new rankings of the percentage of adults who volunteer."


http://news.aol.com/article/miami-ranks-lowest-in-volunteering/102329

Blame it on...the number of new immigrants for low marks in volunteering. It's interesting how you can blame a whole swath of people tagged "immigrants" in the same way you can blame inanimate things like traffic and your desire to go to the beach.

Then expecting only the finest of scholarly thought, I looked over at the comments section to see how they would receive this article, and sure enough the Rhodes Scholars came out for this...


"No suprise here. The fact that people in Miami do not volunteer is a preview of what the United States is rapidly becoming. Not a unified nation but a collection of a few major immigrant groups interested in enjoying our economy not giving anything back to the culture. And it isn't just Miami that's the problem. Nor is it just Hispanic immigrants. Many recent immigrant groups from Asia are equally self-centered. Kiss the U.S. good bye and welcome the new two class economic system."


"Florida might as well be a different country now. It has a different culture, language, and mind-set than the rest of the U.S. Hispanic organizations have said they intend to take back the lands once controlled by Spain. The Reconquista Movement. It's working. California has a record budget deficit due to social services granted to all people in CA. The burden of recent undocumented immigrations is bankrupting them. They'll have no choice but legalize them and bring them into the tax base. One way or the other they will regain political control."


"South FL is basically a different country and different world. On the outside it's money dripping - huge yachts, fancy restaurants, expensive exotic cars, expensive stores, but there is a huge underworld non English speaking people. When we've been down there I feel like I'm in a foreign country with very little English being spoken and if it is, is usually spoken with a Hispanic or Caribbean accent. It is a fun place to visit, but would NEVER want to live there!!


"Okay..here's the deal in Miami...they're are alot of young kids running around trying to live above their means cus that's what most of them do there. They are too damn self absorbed to think of others in need.Then you can add in the immigration situation. Those that come to Miami...typically from Cuba...are too busy trying to find work and make enough money to help their familes that are still in Cuba.The organizations that need volunteers should use a gorilla warfare type of advertising. Mostly at night at the clubs, or outside the clubs...you might actually get a bunch of kids that moved from the higher states in ratings and convince them there are stilll people in need there."


There's nothing at all in the content of the report regarding immigrants, but that won't stop people from using it as a platform to vent their racism! Those who write up this wire report tell us that we have their permission to blame them anyway! Nope, we don't need to have a reason to blame groups of people whom you don't understand, you can just sort of...do it. Pretty cool, huh?

Peculiar is even the images to hammer this not-so-subtle racism either.



Another brown illegal hanging his head in shame for taking an American job.

Compared to images from cities with the most volunteers.

Good ole Austin Texas with the 'Murrican flag.





The nice old white families in Portland Oregon.

Surely, you won't find immigrants tainting the American spirit in Austin, TX or Portland, OR.

What's interesting is the fact that economic and city infrastructure is not targeted for questioning at all, and probably has more to do with volunteering than anything else.

The city of Vice, a city of vices, and a city built on Disney World, NY. They all seem to be built on corporation-operated, thrill-seeking tourist attractions. The first three especially don't strike me as cities with tight communal, familial, and spatial networks, and therefore, they aren't afforded the opportunity to volunteer as much.
I would think people volunteer mostly through opportunity and strong personal networks and communities.

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A Libertarian's Dream? The City of Dubai

by B.J. on 7/18/2008 09:07:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

I've heard about Dubai in Michael Jordan's escapades around the world. His place to golf.

Business people seem to like talking about visiting the luxuries and "modernity" of Dubai.

Some people want to retire there.

But its a city of excess. Malls. Sprawl.

As I've learned from Heather Rodgers' Gone Tomorrow, with tons of excess combined with cleanliness comes a lot of hidden truths.

Essentially, a lot of labor gets fucked out.

Mike Davis was interviewed.

Quotes of interest:

The Barksdale, Stanfield organizations essentially ran Baltimore like the ruling families rule Dubai. However, the difference is that those at the top in Dubai were handed what they got.

-"Economics in Dubai have changed dramatically since 9/11 as the U.S. Administration realized that putting all their economic and political investments in Saudi Arabia was potentially dangerous. Also since the 1970's the Gulf countries learned from their bad experience in knowing that basing the economy on vast oil profits only could mean that with quick changes to oil markets their economies could be left with nothing.

Dubai is the product of a long range investment project and Dubai has been particularly skilled perhaps if not brilliant in this regard. However it must be highlighted that this economic plan doesn't ensure jobs for people within the region, as Dubai has utilized a plantation strategy invented by the British and then copied by the U.S., now being implemented in Dubai."

With such an economy that doesn't ensure jobs, what exactly happens to labor?

-"Stefan Christoff: Concerning labor in Dubai in your article extensive article on Dubai, Sinister Paradise, you write that, "Dubai, together with its emirate neighbors, has achieved the state of the art in the disenfranchisement of labor. Trade unions, strikes, and agitators are illegal, and 99% of the private-sector workforce are easily deportable non-citizens. Indeed, the deep thinkers at the American Enterprise and Cato institutes must salivate when they contemplate the system of classes and entitlements in Dubai." So regarding this passage can you provide more details concerning labor conditions in Dubai?

Mike Davis: Now the above outlines the theory behind Dubai.s labor policies, however labor has showed that it is capable of fighting and organizing in Dubai. Labor organizing is driven by desperate labor conditions that many visitors to Dubai don't see or willingly ignore. It is estimated that upwards of one-million foreigner workers are currently in Dubai, living in conditions that multiple human rights organizations have condemned.

Hundreds-of-thousands of foreign workers live in camps, often without air conditioning, who are bused each morning to construction sites at which these workers are doing some of the hardest manual labor in the world with temperatures at times reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Dubai is widely accused of covering up high numbers of workers deaths on these massive construction sites, including the Burj Dubai tower currently under construction.

Despite Dubai's friendly face and openness to western vices, people who travel to Dubai to do independent research on the conditions of workers are often deported from the country. Last year an Indian-American academic researcher who wanted to study the labor conditions for foreign workers in Dubai was detained within twenty-four hours upon arrival then deported."

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Beijing Kicking Out Foreigners

by B.J. on 7/01/2008 07:02:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

"Aparently they need to get a higher class of foreigners for the games." - 'Yell

Yesterday, at about 7:30 PM Pacific Time, I get a call from one, Daniel Larson, Oakland native with the sailor's discourse, Leon Powe's classmate, future mother-fuckin' Golden Gate University Law school graduate.

He says he's in LA! Back from another year at Beijing. Just like he said on the facebook, but I rarely take anyone's promises seriously on facebook.


During his time there, he carved up a niche as an English language teacher. He went from university students to rich kids. He had enough money to rent an apartment and pile it on when he got here. He even got some of that live orange-tang. This motherfucker was living the life.

Then they tell him that they won't be able to renew his visa.

So he was here. First thing he did was go to the 99 cents store to buy a pair of socks and toothpaste. 99 Cents store is unabomber crazy ridic. Went to eat expensive-ass hipster Mexican food, with 'Yell putting his Negro O Modelo in a fuckin' wine glass. Then simmered down with a string of NBA Street 2 games.

I just found it interesting this when I read in the LA Times this article about Chinese visas not being renewed.

Turns out the 'Yell is just one small part of a mass eviction. So I was basically chilling with a live-walking news story yesterday.

If he renewed his visa, it would've cost him $1100 US dollars as opposed to the $20 he usually paid. Somewhat out of range for a guy who got his money under the table and in cash.

Apparently, during the olympics people will now have to walk around at all times with their papers. Now that's immigration enforcement to the max. Kinda ironic that the borders are getting tighter at a time when they want to show their connection to the international community.

The rich international community.

This was supposed to be a big coming out party in terms of certifying itself as a cosmopolitan globalized middle-class burgeoisie-lifestyle and experience. Stadiums were to be built, new infrastructure and transportation was developed, slums were to be cleared.

But everything seems to have been sour so far: from the international torch relays being crashed by protestors to the fact that tourism is down.

Maybe it's my reactionary response to American media discourse, but I feel bad for Beijing in relation to the rest of the world cities who've hosted Olympics. Didn't seem like those other cities had to go through half the crap that they have.

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Do You Have What It Takes to Be an ICE Agent?

by B.J. on 3/02/2008 04:25:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

I'm not sure how they do these interviews, but I know that one of things I'd look for in a prospective employee would be enough enthusiasm. Enough enthusiasm just so they can get the job done.

I'm sure the guy in the article below supplied more than enough. He probably scored really high in the sections of motivation, willingness to conduct random raids, ruining PEOPLE'S livelihoods --- traits that ICE values dearly and holds in high regard.

Well, he's dead now.

Bright side is that the gene pool is somewhat improved, unless he left a kid behind and imbued him with similar beliefs, but hopefully there's still hope yet.


Full Article

"An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killed himself after an armed standoff with an officer and three colleagues, Grand Prairie police said Wednesday.

Police discovered a suitcase full of pornography, a flag bearing a swastika and more than a half dozen weapons after finding Mark Juvette dead early Wednesday. Juvette, 40, was an agent with ICE's Dallas Office of Detention and Removal, which transports detainees, manages them while in custody and deports illegal immigrants."

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The Walls of a Nation

by B.J. on 1/25/2008 04:30:00 AM 0 comments Print this post



Full Article

"Borders everywhere attract violence, violence prompts fences, and eventually fences can mutate into walls. Then everyone pays attention because a wall turns a legal distinction into a visual slap in the face. We seem to love walls, but are embarrassed by them because they say something unpleasant about the neighbors—and us. They flow from two sources: fear and the desire for control."


"The boundary between Mexico and the United States has always been zealously insisted upon by both countries.

But initially Mexicans moved north at will. The U.S. patrols of the border that began in 1904 were mainly to keep out illegal Asian immigrants. Almost 900,000 Mexicans legally entered the United States to flee the violence of the revolution. Low population in both nations and the need for labor in the American Southwest made this migration a non-event for decades. The flow of illegal immigrants exploded after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the early 1990s, a pact that was supposed to end illegal immigration but wound up dislocating millions of Mexican peasant farmers and many small-industrial workers.

The result: Naco was overrun by immigrants on their way north. At night, dozens, sometimes hundreds, of immigrants would crowd into motel rooms and storage rental sheds along the highway. The local desert was stomped into a powder of dust. Naco residents found their homes broken into by desperate migrants. Then came the wall in 1996, and the flow of people spread into the high desert outside the town."

I don't like at all what "Nat Geo" has done in yesteryears or what it currently does on TV (with the exception of a certain Dog Whisperer), but I can agree with most of what is written in this particular article.

They view immigration from a "human history viewpoint", which in this case means that they are likely to see the artificiality (read, bullshittiness) of "laws" created by a bunch of people to keep other people out.

What strikes me in the picture above is that fish and other marine life, don't really give that much of a shit about the man-made border and will probably weave in and around it. We won't make any attempt soon (not that I know of!) to restrict their movements, just that of other humans who happened to not have been born here (which obviously makes them different from us).

Amazing how we deal with members of our own species.

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Divide and Conquer: Border Patrol and Race

by B.J. on 1/18/2008 11:53:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

"Border Patrol seeking black recruits in South; Effort aims to meet Bush
goal, boost minority numbers," The Washington Times, January 12, 2008
Saturday, NATION; A03. Copyright 2008 The Washington Times LLC. All
Rights Reserved.

The U.S. Border Patrol has begun an aggressive recruiting campaign
across the Southeast for qualified black candidates as part of President
Bush's goal of hiring 6,000 new agents by the end of this year.

Border Patrol spokeswoman Andrea J. Zortman said members of the recruitment team will be in the Southeast beginning this month to share their experiences while stationed at various regions along the border and to discuss opportunities within the agency. It is the first time the agency, working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and CBP Human Resource Management, has put together a recruitment team made up entirely of black agents.

Ms. Zortman said the team is looking for candidates who can successfully undergo a rigorous screening process, which includes a written examination, structured interview, foreign-language proficiency test, drug testing, medical examination, physical fitness test and a background investigation...]"

Seems like border patrol, the militaries, and prisons are the institutions that really really love affirmative action.

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Small Similarities Between Two Opponents

by B.J. on 1/13/2008 06:12:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."
Dr. Martin Luther King

Both quotes from respected figures of the past.

Both cite inaction of regular people.

First quote was on the profile of Dr. Deborah Schuman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute, a vehicle used by anti-immigrant groups to exaggerate violent crimes committed by immigrants

Second quote is on the email signature of a faith-based immigrants rights organizer in Colorado, Fidel, "Butch" Montoya

What's interesting is how they would use these quotes in the context of their work --- both to incite people into action.

The difference is that I'm less partial to the Violent Crime monger because of her proclivity to label, divide, and demonize people.

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by B.J. on 1/06/2008 07:01:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

What Immigrants Can Be Deported For

Link to Article

"In the last 10 years, U.S. immigration officials have been deporting Asian Pacific American (APA) immigrants with a zeal and cunning not seen since the Chinese Exclusion Acts of the 1880s.

The catalyst was the new immigration legislation in 1996 that greatly expanded what’s considered a “deportable crime.” As a result, relatively minor offenses, like shoplifting or “joy-riding,” can lead to removal from the United States.

Here’s another kicker — the 1996 immigration changes are retroactive. Therefore, offenses committed long before the 1996 changes — are subject to review, detention, and expulsion. For example, a now law-abiding 50-year-old immigrant man is susceptible to deportation for a crime he committed — and served time for — as a teen 20 years ago, at an age when he could not grasp the severe consequences of his actions."



"So is anyone deportable? Pretty much — non-citizens with a criminal conviction, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and legal immigrants such as refugees, students, business people, and those who had been involved in war or a humanitarian disaster — are considered deportable if the crime fits. And, immigration officials said being married to a U.S. citizen doesn’t automatically guarantee that you’re safe.

Surely then, only hardened criminals and violent felons are deported, right? Actually, any violation of your status in the United States can potentially lead to deportation proceedings. This includes staying beyond the period authorized, as in student visas, or entering without proper documents.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data in a 2007 Human Rights Watch report, 65 percent of immigrants deported for crimes in 2005 had been convicted of non-violent offenses, including non-violent theft offenses such as shoplifting; 21 percent were deported for offenses involving violence against people; and 15 percent were deported for “other” crimes. Currently, 2,000 Cambodians are detained in the United States, while 5,000 Vietnamese are imprisoned until the government of Vietnam accepts deportees, which it currently does not, or until they are released through a waiver or appeal. To date, over half a million people have been deported from American shores.

As reported by Human Rights Watch, many of those deported arrived in the United States as children and were lawful permanent residents who lived legally in the country for decades. The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) confirms this in an earlier 2002 report (the year the Cambodian government declared its repatriation agreement with the United States, which stated it would now accept deportees) which reported the immigrants were an average of nine years old when they entered America and had lived in the country for an average of 20 years."

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Immigrants and Goods

by B.J. on 1/04/2008 11:56:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

"Nations need to realize that if you're allowing the free movement of goods, … you have to allow for the free movement of labor" - Niurka Pineiro of the International Organization of Migration on NAFTA's free trade policies

Essentially, what the US is doing is stealing stuff from other people's lands and then telling people who only follow the depletion of those resources that they can't get back and retrieve it.

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by B.J. on 12/18/2007 12:29:00 PM 0 comments Print this post

'Nations need to realize that if you're allowing the free movement of goods, … you have to allow for the free movement of labor,' Niurka Pineiro, International Organization for Migration

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The World Explained.

by B.J. on 11/30/2007 10:25:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

This here is an Eco-Map of the world's dynamics.

A World Map

It takes more than one sitting to really get a feel for what this work is.

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