I got locked up in a train car four times today...

...after I finished helping build it.

To add insult to injury, Azazello shoved me toward the car repeatedly, with the butt of his rifle, and loaded me into the car.

http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2017/07/are-you-an-america...

“Are You an American, or Are You Not?”

BisbeeDeportation.jpg

On July 12th, 1917, over a thousand striking mineworkers and their supporters were kidnapped and illegally deported from Bisbee, Arizona, in one of the largest vigilante actions in American history. In Borderline Americans: Racial Division and Labor War in the Arizona Borderlands, historian Katherine Benton-Cohen treats the episode as a critical moment in the historical creation of racial boundaries, one that the town of Bisbee is now marking with a series of events and conversations aimed at shaping a public reckoning with these issues that so obviously still vex the nation. Below, Benton-Cohen considers the “Bisbee Deportation” and the discussions now taking place around its centennial.

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Arrow's picture

You UN-american radical scum...you must be from...RUSSIA!!!

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I want a Pony!

Alligator Ed's picture

Obviously, you must be a copper-coated trouble maker. Get back in you car!

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Bisbonian's picture

@Alligator Ed , being made about the Deportation. Az and I had fun being a part of it. Can't wait to see it!

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Alligator Ed's picture

@Bisbonian and its opening date. Any distinguishing features to watch for? I doubt they let you take your flute to the set.

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Bisbonian's picture

@Alligator Ed , because of the 100 year anniversary of the Deportation. I am not sure when it will be released, but I will announce it.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Alligator Ed's picture

@Bisbonian

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Azazello is a Russian. Or maybe a Muslim.

It is amazing what previous generations went thru to win the tights we are losing without a peep.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich

According to wiki, "Azazello is a character Azazello is a character from the novel The Master and Margarita by the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov." Not having read the novel, I don't know how it describes Azazello. However, the surname stumped ancestry.com I would Italian or Spanish, which would be my guess about most (but not all) surnames that end in vowels.

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menace! lol!
I may have to make a trip down to Bisbee to see the events.
dmich is correct. We just give up our rights with so little fight.
Glad you participated in this movie.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

yellopig's picture

Azazello doesn't sound like a 'Merkin name to me either.
On the other hand, Bisbonian doesn't look much like a Mexican, so there's that too. Who was in charge of casting?

Anyway, I'm glad you guys had fun!

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“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett

Bisbonian's picture

@yellopig , were Mexicans, but there were also Irish, Cornish, English, Serbs, Croats, and others. Azazello is actually of Slovenian descent, and he was cast as a deputy...and I was cast as a striker, even though one of my relatives wore the white arm-band of a Deputy, a hundred years ago. Quirky casting, yes.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

mimi's picture

@Bisbonian
I think made the right decision. Azazello in my imagination was a "dangerous guy" with a "gun". Where does that come from? Ah, here it comes from:

Krisentreffen - Slowakische Armee vermisst 300.000 Schuss Munition -
Der slowakische Staatspräsident Andrej Kiska hat ein Krisentreffen angesetzt.
Der Grund: In den Militärbeständen fehlen Tausende Schuss Munition.

(posted July 4rth - uh, oh - now my suspiciouns of Azazello makes even more sense)

(freely translated: - Slovakian army misses 300 000 rounds of amnunition - President Andrej Kiska called for a crisis meeting)

So, Azazello sikritly flew to Slowakia, stole all the ammunition to play the mean guy in the Bisbee 17 movie and that on the fourth of July? Crazy

nah, nah, nah ... oh well, I learned something I was not aware of .. (shame on me) .. Slovenia and Slovakia ... too close for my comfort...

Two big countries, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, broke into several smaller states. Two of them have similar names: Slovakia and Slovenia. By their natives, they are called Slovensko and Slovenija. ... While Slovenia suffered of a war conflict, Slovakia separated from its Czech neighbour in a peaceful way.

Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and how does Azazello fits into that? Is he Slovenian or Slowakian ? (Oh I forgot, he is a good American now, of course... I-m so happy )

See, when all that breaking down was happening, I had only US TV available to watch. Now I have the caucus99percent and the wiki folks on the intertubes. Thank God. How is that for the unintended consequence or reading c99p? There is something to learn in here... Smile

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@yellopig

immigrants from some other country, even members of First Nations. According to the DNA Project, the latter emigrated to this continent from Russia. However, they did get here somewhere between 50,000 and 130,000 years before Columbus (who, of course, was an Italian financed by Spain and was preceded here by both Amerigo Vespucci and Leif Ericson). https://www.seeker.com/culture/archaeology/earliest-evidence-of-humans-i... And, of course, Florida, California and New Mexico were settled well before 1620, esp. California.

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yellopig's picture

@HenryAWallace I guess you thought I didn't know that.

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“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett

Azazello's picture

@yellopig
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDmDwvZSlPw width:400 height:240]

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Bisbonian's picture

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

snoopydawg's picture

people are still okay with the illegal spying on us because they say that they have nothing to hide and if it keeps us safe from the terrorists, they don't have a problem with it.
What they don't understand is that it's not just the illegal spying on us that is wrong, it's that TPTB can manufacture false evidence and plant it on people.

I read an article about how a person was eating his lunch outside and an undercover police officer started going through his car . When the person questioned the cop asking him why he was going through his car, the cop just walked away.
This cop could have planted evidence in his car and then arrested the person.
This type of act could be done to anyone. Plant incriminating material on people's computers, phones or a number of other things.

One of the NDAA that Obama signed says that the military can arrest people, and hold them indefinitely without charges or a trial.

This is the consequences of people saying they have nothing to hide.

Plus look at how the tsa kept adding new restrictions on people who fly.
When they first were created, I hoped that people would stop flying until the tsa folded. Instead, people said they were willing to give up their right of unwarranted search and seizure if it kept them safe.
We know that the tsa has failed every weapons test. Yet people still allow themselves, their elderly parents and kids to be groped by the tsa. It's worked so well that they have taken their show on the road and people allow themselves to be searched and groped at ball games, concerts and other gatherings.

I will not participate in this unconstitutional activity.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg  
https://dailyinspirationblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/when-they-take-awa...

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@snoopydawg

We could, I suppose, start an armed revolution, but we'd likely be mowed down in short order and maybe become a footnote in history. Or not.

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snoopydawg's picture

@HenryAWallace to their rights. As I stated, they say that they have nothing to hide so where is the harm.
I am very aware that our government has taken our rights. The Patriot act was waiting to be signed as soon as it was convenient. 9/11 gave them the excuse followed by the Military Commissions act.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

orlbucfan's picture

busting innocent people for decades! Nothing new there. Sigh.... Rec'd!! Smile @snoopydawg

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Under public pressure, President Woodrow Wilson created a federal mediation commission to investigate. Among the appointees was a young Harvard Law School professor named Felix Frankfurter. He was appalled by what he found in Bisbee. He spent the evenings wandering the canyon streets with a Catholic priest and contemplating evil. The strikers, Frankfurter observed, “feel they were not treated as men.” Theirs was a “fight for the status of free manhood.” The federal commission concluded the deportation was “wholly illegal,” but no one was ever convicted.

Fast forward a century. This month, in a time of divisive politics and resurgent nativism, the town of Bisbee is reckoning and remembering. Artists, scholars, local historians, retired miners, and Wobblies (yes, there are a few left) are holding book talks, art installations, museum exhibits, and a symposium on the event. A documentary film crew is chronicling the event, staging guerrilla re-enactments, and interviewing local people on their family stories and perspectives—pro and con. The town is plastered with posters advertising discussions and debates about a day that people in Bisbee did not discuss for decades. Many people are talking openly about that day—which literally divided the community—for the first time.

Thank you.

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Bisbonian's picture

@peachcreek , it has been a very interesting week. We went last night to see a local showing of "An Injury to One" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342570/

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Steven D's picture

I cannot visit Bisbee this month.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Bisbonian's picture

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Azazello's picture

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Bisbonian's picture

@Azazello , I am in a union...

Did you like that part where I got hit in the head with a board? That particular wall fell down during the night, in a storm...so we were putting it back up. It was a bit worse for wear at that point.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Mark from Queens's picture

circles.

To me, the linchpin is the twin regressive states we find ourselves most dominated by are, which are the propaganda of American Exceptionalism and the pursuit of the purposely elusive American Dream. We are indoctrinated into this thinking by relentless propaganda, which starts in the public school education system.

I would not have known of these stories, and related ones such as the Ludlow Massacre, were it not for Howard Zinn. If Zinn's "People' History..." were taught we'd know that for generation after generation there's been a brazen flouting of the law by the wealthy corporation owners and their henchmen in the police dept's. We'd also come face to face with the unavoidable bottom line fact that there's a two-tiered justice system which immunizes those people from "rule of law." We'd also know that freedom is illusory here, and that any advancements socially made to make the lives better of the vast working and middle class are because of sacrifices made by protesters, unions and radical dissenters.

Because we don't know our history, our real history such as the story of Bisbee, we're bound to keep spinning our wheels, with a populace tethered to fantasies of achieving some unattainable American Dream (and the bribed with endless cheap disposable le goods made by slave labor in SW Asia to ease the pain when it doesn't happen) and that this country in the Greatest In The World(TM) (again, not knowing our history in which the Rich rule over ad call all the shots in government legislation and enforcement).

All schools should teach Zinn. We'd have a much different populace then, if we knew these stories instead of the propaganda designed to transform the population into obedient consumers.

Found this when looking for his covering of Bisbee:

Thanks for the essay. It's hopeful that the whole town seems involved with the telling of this story. Our power ultimately resides in being able telling these stories and making sure they're not forgotten. There's inspiration everywhere, but it's not ever going to be found in the mainstream.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

ggersh's picture

@Mark from Queens our "real" history is seldom if ever taught, we only get
the watered down, disneyland type hype of what amerika truly is.

Here's more they never taught.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/eugene_v_debs_and_the_kingdom_of_evi...

Debs feared the rise of the monolithic corporate state. He foresaw that corporations, unchecked, would expand to “continental proportions and swallow up the national resources and the means of production and distribution.” If that happened, he warned, the long “night of capitalism will be dark.”

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley