Sorry, 'historian.' I like this country and it people, even if the government and its economic system usually sucks.

Along with being an internationalist, I'm a Woody Guthrie patriot of sorts. My folks have been here early on--one Grandfather in Miles Standish's miltia at Plymouth Colony, seven in the Revolutionary War, two great uncles signed the Declaration of Independence, and died for it, dozens who spilled their blood against the slavocracy. But hardly any were 'upper crust.' Plenty of uncles, aunts and cousins fought union battles in the 1930s, and some died in Western PA's steel mills, including my grandfather, before the unions made them a little safer, at least. All of them were immigrants, and when capital dragged some of them here to those mines and mills, they didn't give a damn whether they had papers or not.

No, I've got roots and blood in this soil, but I appreciate that the roots of Blacks, Native peoples and those descended from the Spaniards go even deeper, whatever 'laws' our robber baron rulers came up with to justify theft. I appreciate my country's strengths and its weaknesses, and I keep my shoulder to the wheel to have it a better place when I leave this life than when I entered it.

So, as they say where I come from, take your crappy insults and put them where the sun doesn't shine.

But if you want an honest discussion of ideas, please continue.