Why should ICE be spending hundreds of millions of dollars transporting and imprisoning people around the world? It’s illogical, but perhaps that’s what it means to be a racist in Trump’s America?
For all their grandeur and elegance, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are steeped in an ideology of supremacy. These documents enshrine rights in theory, yet in practice, their language has been wielded to exclude, divide, and legitimize inequality.
Today, we speak of ‘citizens’ and ‘non-citizens,’ ‘lawful’ and ‘unlawful’ immigrants, labels that mask a refusal to recognize others as fully human, thereby justifying their mistreatment. In drawing distinctions, the descendants of settlers and immigrants replicate the very persecution their ancestors fled or inflicted.
The rhetoric of rights, and "Due Process" when not universally applied, becomes the language of exclusion: a way to justify privilege for some while denying dignity to others.
Well said. We can't ever forget who wrote the US Constitution and Bill of Rights--white slave-owning/land-owning males. It was always about keeping them and their capitalist buddies on top of the heap. The rest of us are just here to serve them or to be disposed of as they wish when we don't.
Great description of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. As far as I'm concerned, the whole Patriot Act is unconstitutional, which means Homeland Security and ICE are unconstitutional.
They do nothing for the security of American citizens, and the old Immigration & Naturalization Service did a far better job of controlling the border and immigration.
I agree that the Patriot Act was unconstitutional and totally unnecessary UNLESS the oligarchs were planning all along on using it to censor, imprison, and manipulate us for whatever reasons when a ripe time arrived. I think the entire idea of Homeland Security was a disaster from the get-go, and now I know why it gave me such a bad feeling when it was first created. What I wouldn't give to go back in time and stop them from enacting all of these disasters!
Of course they were planning it. They laid it out in the PNAC papers - they needed a 'Pearl Harbor' type event to solve the issue of 'too much democracy.'
Yeah, it's always dangerous having "too much democracy" or so thinks the oligarchs. True democracy has never really been much of a problem in the US of A, but any hint of democracy in the 21st century has been quickly blotted out before the idea could spread. And immigrants make the perfect scapegoats too, especially the non W.A.S.P. ones.
Oh, they were planning it all along. It was unconstitutional then. It is unconstitutional now. Now it is more likely that the Patriot Act will be struck down, at least in part, precisely because the federal government is finally using it out in the open, and cases are making it to court.
Funny how that works, but it does, and has worked that way for a couple of centuries.
As the old saying goes, "When your enemy is making mistakes--don't correct him." I just hate that we've had to wait almost 25 years to expose the Patriot Act for the unconstitutional mess that it is. I hate it that we've used it to murder millions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. I hate it that we're currently using it to deport immigrants and citizens alike. But it's good that more folks are finally seeing the P.A. for the wicked law that it is. Maybe this will bring about true democracy in this mixed up nation at last.
"Wouldn’t you like tax dollars to go toward things that help people rather than hurt people?" I dream of this and it seems so reasonable, and so far from where we are.
Thanks for spelling this out. It's got to be a hard time to be living in the USA.
Yeah, the nightmares don't stop here south of the Canadian border. Between the high food prices and the fears of arrest, you don't get much restful sleep. Do you think they'd let me ask for political asylum up there?
A little bit of good news today is that Mohsen Mahdawi was released from ICE custody. He was the young man kidnapped when he came in for his citizenship interview at his local USCIS office!
Re: political asylum, I don't know, but if I was an American, especially one that objected to the genocide in Gaza, I'd be trying to find a way to move to Canada.
Good article even though I knew a lot of it such as undocumented paying taxes. There is so much blame to go around for this. I am in the ScheerPost Facebook group. They all detest demorcats and Biden and Harris as well. Of course it's not like they don't hate Trumdp either. They were all in favor of Jill Stein. There is just know way that a 3rd party is going to win in this country. I blame the voters. Not so much the Trump voters, but the voters who sat out and Biden voters who voted for Trump. Did they expect things to be different the 2nd time around. As for Trump voters, certainly not are all rubes. But what did they get from Trump the first time around? I know that there are voters that don't think there is any difference between the parties. I would say that they are wrong. I blame the media as well for doing such a crappy job of reporting. If a politician is lying say they are lying. How hard is that. I blame Republican politicians. Not all are deep in the woods for Trump. They are worried about being primaried. Tough. Kind of goes for Democrats two. I know that there were a couple of Democrats that were primaried out. I blame he Supreme Court as well. They are tenured, so to speak. What can Trump do to them. I know Alito and Thomas are hopless But Roberts, Gorsuch, and Barrett should know better as to where they are steering the country. I am reading the book the 5th Risk. It is not really a diatribe against Trump or any policies, but about the people that head the different agencies. None of the people had a clue what they agencies they were hired to lead had no idea what the agencieed did and were not interested in learning. Of coursre the stable genious doesn't know either and is listening to the Heritage Think Tank. It so depressing.
It is depressing and overwhelming at times, agreed. We've got to keep our morale up and not become totally hopeless, but it is trying while living under this corrupt system some call "end stage capitalism" or "late stage capitalism," but I just call "hell on Earth with billionaires calling the shots." As long as corporations are legal "persons" and those with all the money have all the control of the government apparatus, then neither of the duopoly factions (Red or Blue teams) will ever serve the people's interests. If it serves the billionaires to lock us all up in El Salvador or Gitmo, that's just what they'll have their handpicked politicians do to us.
Those with the massive amounts of money have set themselves up quite well over the past 40 years or so, and the Citizens United ruling was no fluke. As many have said long before I was born, whenever you mix corporatism/big money with capitalism you eventually wind up with fascism. They were right. It's time for all of us to fight back against fascism, not so much at the rigged ballot boxes with nothing but greedy, airhead candidates that only work for the billionaires who pay them, but in the streets with general strikes, boycotts, sit-ins, shut-downs and other kinds civil disobedience. I wrote about this a few weeks past: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com/p/pursuing-political-defiance
David Korabell, you're correct. The 2022 year end US government reports surmised that the immigrants (green card & illegal) had paid some $96 plus Billions on all taxes in America. On average for a few decades past they have paid into the SS Trust Fund in the $$$Billions annually, and sadly some will never be guaranteed to collect those benefits. DOGE backers like Russell Vought are racist. He's a Religious Bigot as the power behind much for the Racist Heritage Foundation driving this Trumpism. They seek to "Privatize" all for their gains with using the money to benefit their "Big Club" (George Carlin) aka the "Rich". "They're coming for your SS. and they'll get it to hand out to their rich friends" Carlin.
Thanks for your kind words, Mario. I often wonder what do those at the top of the pyramid get out of being so cruel to the rest of us. Sure, they're taking our tax money, denying us our SS benefits, but do they have to be so nasty and break up families by deporting hard-working immigrants?
The one thing you omitted is immigration is good for the economy. They contribute to the economy, many create businesses and jobs. Historically, the US has seen economic decline following implementation of anti-immigration policies.
I keep wondering if Trump is planning for a recession to 'rescue' America from and feed into his fascist agenda.
Well, it was a pretty long blog post as it was… But I did mention that immigrants do pay taxes and are very successful entrepreneurs. That’s sort of implying they’re good for the economy, right?
But it really makes zero sense to me why Trump wants to torture and deport hard-working immigrants (and others who are being mistaken for immigrants) when our history tells us that immigrants are much more helpful than harmful to the US. Xenophobia/racism/elitism really messes up your mind when you get into high office!
The thing that shocks me is level of denial by supporters. Much like the Gaza genocide , people refuse to see what is right in front of them.
I had someone tell me that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was legally deported and that ICE had a legal warrant. This, after the government and SCOTUS confirmed it was illegal.
Sounds like cognitive dissonance to me. Some people can't bear the idea that their favorite president, The Orange Man, could ever do anything "wrong", so they keep making up stories that everything he's doing is above board and legal. You wonder what it will take to snap them out of this fantasy--being deported themselves?
Now is the time for all good persons to come to the aid of themselves and their fellow human beings! Americans can't allow this desecration of the Constitution to continue. For all it's faults, it still offers some semblance of sanity and humanity in this insane world. Share this article with everyone you know, up to and including your elected representatives.
Excellent idea. Keep spreading the word (article link) with others. An informed public is a strong and dangerous public. Americans can't afford to play it safe in this rising tide of fascism. Power to the people!
That ICE are now an American Gestapo should now be recognised as a given but while America has never actually been under a fascist regime before the ground-work for this was layed by Donald Rumsfeld and others during the war on terror when they IMPOSED the policy of extraordinary rendition on a besieged CIA that had been caught asleep at the wheel during the 9/11 attacks. At the time I pointed out that Hitler had established most of the Nazi death camps OUTSIDE of Germany in order that they be beyond the reach of the German legal system and this was clearly Rumsfeld's template. That the same policy would later be directed against asylum seekers and refugees and even settled immigrants the moment that immigration was framed as a problem category by the new rules of the manufacture of consent, and thus by the new fascism was only a matter of time. I believe Australia was the first nominally democratic country to go down this route and was eagerly copied by Britain's Suella Braverman, the fascist Home Secretary in Rishi Sunak's lame duck Tory government. At the time and subsequently, Kier Starmer's counterfiet Labour leadership and subsequent continuity Tory government, and Yvette Cooper in particular, opposed the grotesque Rwanda scheme purely on the grounds that "the numbers didn't add up." This didn't stop Scab Starmer, who has taken his lead on immigration from the fascists of Reform UK from looking to the fascist government of Georgia Meloni in Italy and its grotesque re-interpretation of the anti-Mafia laws (which were effective in a completely different context) as a role model and template for dealing with the immigration issue citing Albania as a possible "safe country" to which asylum seekers can be deported. All Trump has done is to strip this latent fascist policy of all mystification and semblance of humanity and render manifest its rotten content as yet another final solution. The photo opportunity in which a member of Trump's government, in fascist MAGA baseball cap, posed in front of human beings in small cages, due to be deported to the Project 2025 Hell Hole that is El Salvadore, spoke volumes and the arrest of a Judge shows where all this is headed. Meanwhile, such is Starmer's commitment to a fascist inspired racist immigration policy, alongside discredited economic policies of austerity and neo-liberalism, that he'd rather suck the cock of Adolf Hitler's stunt double in the White House and accept the terms of a trade deal with Trump's fascist US (tax breaks to big tech, privatise the NHS, extend the purge of the public sector by DOGE to the UK) than rejoin the Customs Union and accept free movement of people within Europe.
Good stuff here, Roger. Yes, the move toward fascism didn't happen overnight in the US or begin with Trump (or even Donald Rumsfeld). But a fascist/corporatist/war-machine state was perhaps inevitable in this corrupt capitalist system that feeds on endless wars for oil and evil resource/land grabs. Immigrants have always made excellent scapegoats for the fascists to use and blame and to make excuses for why they keep taking our civil liberties away. We have to keep exposing the fascists' lies in order to stop them!
Excellent, and I learned things I didn't know. But I do have one quibble. You repeatedly call all this "senseless." It is not at all senseless. It's quite deliberate and purposeful. When you're trying to usher in fascism, you need a scapegoat, and you need to normalize aggressive and unaccountable actions by your police, or whatever you call your brownshirts. In Germany in the 30's Jews were the obvious scapegoat, they'd been the traditional scapegoats in Europe. for centuries In the US, immigrants and blacks could via for traditional scapegoat status, but since the Trumpists still claim they aren't racists, going after blacks is more problematic--and "non- citizens" equates fairly well with "Other". I believe humans are hardwired with Us versus Them instincts, though the identities of the two are variable, fill in the blanks.
I agree that what Trump and Co. are doing is quite deliberate and has a purpose (for them at least), but in my heart of hearts I can't help but call it all "senseless." In the end, this xenophobic, anti-immigrant, race-baiting type of behaviors will only cause the entire system to collapse upon itself, most likely destroying both the fascists and their victims alike. Perhaps that is their purpose for doing this, but at such a high cost? I suppose the billionaires figure they don't need most of the 99%, and deporting many of us is the most convenient way of disposing of all us? Time to fight back!
I keep wondering about that too. Seems Musk's motive in trying to fire as many federal workers as possible is his notion that he'll be able to replace them with AI--which his companies will be in on the action on that, and if the AIs can't really replace humans, make lots of mistakes--well most of what federal workers do benefits ordinary people and if we're harmed, these people simply don't care. They'd like to eliminate programs that don't make the rich richer, in order to streamline government and cut their own taxes (even further). The military is the best gravy train for corporations looking to make money off government, so it's being expanded beyond the bounds of sanity even while every program the 99% depend on is being slashed.
I do wonder a little about the fervor of their anti-immigrant push--because the rich depend on servants and laborers and meatworkers and agricultural laborers--AI ain't gonna replace all that. For years they're pushed the anti-immigrant thing so the immigrants will be terrorized into putting up with shitty, underpaid, illegal work conditions etc, counting on the worsening conditions south of the border to keep them coming anyway. But they seem to have gone all in now on a foaming-at-the-mouth hatred and delight of persecuting immigrants...and their eagerness to despoil the environment and impoverish almost everyone--it obviously can't work, the economy can't stay afloat on just the luxury spending of the 1%
I can see this as the update to "Twelve Years A Slave," but there will be no "happy ending" possibly for those Trump ships out of the country to El Salvador. Can you imagine the stink if ICE grabs a zy-0h-nist or two by mistake and ships them to the torture prison there?
Excellent piece! This should be required reading by all Trump Administrators and Trump acolytes. They can all use the education in one of the Constitution's most important basic rights. Well done!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Frank. We really do need to educate Trump and his trumplings on the finer points of our Constitution, don't we? Please feel free to send them all the link to this article. Let's see what kind of response we get!
For all their grandeur and elegance, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are steeped in an ideology of supremacy. These documents enshrine rights in theory, yet in practice, their language has been wielded to exclude, divide, and legitimize inequality.
Today, we speak of ‘citizens’ and ‘non-citizens,’ ‘lawful’ and ‘unlawful’ immigrants, labels that mask a refusal to recognize others as fully human, thereby justifying their mistreatment. In drawing distinctions, the descendants of settlers and immigrants replicate the very persecution their ancestors fled or inflicted.
The rhetoric of rights, and "Due Process" when not universally applied, becomes the language of exclusion: a way to justify privilege for some while denying dignity to others.
Well said. We can't ever forget who wrote the US Constitution and Bill of Rights--white slave-owning/land-owning males. It was always about keeping them and their capitalist buddies on top of the heap. The rest of us are just here to serve them or to be disposed of as they wish when we don't.
Great description of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. As far as I'm concerned, the whole Patriot Act is unconstitutional, which means Homeland Security and ICE are unconstitutional.
They do nothing for the security of American citizens, and the old Immigration & Naturalization Service did a far better job of controlling the border and immigration.
I agree that the Patriot Act was unconstitutional and totally unnecessary UNLESS the oligarchs were planning all along on using it to censor, imprison, and manipulate us for whatever reasons when a ripe time arrived. I think the entire idea of Homeland Security was a disaster from the get-go, and now I know why it gave me such a bad feeling when it was first created. What I wouldn't give to go back in time and stop them from enacting all of these disasters!
Of course they were planning it. They laid it out in the PNAC papers - they needed a 'Pearl Harbor' type event to solve the issue of 'too much democracy.'
Yeah, it's always dangerous having "too much democracy" or so thinks the oligarchs. True democracy has never really been much of a problem in the US of A, but any hint of democracy in the 21st century has been quickly blotted out before the idea could spread. And immigrants make the perfect scapegoats too, especially the non W.A.S.P. ones.
Oh, they were planning it all along. It was unconstitutional then. It is unconstitutional now. Now it is more likely that the Patriot Act will be struck down, at least in part, precisely because the federal government is finally using it out in the open, and cases are making it to court.
Funny how that works, but it does, and has worked that way for a couple of centuries.
As the old saying goes, "When your enemy is making mistakes--don't correct him." I just hate that we've had to wait almost 25 years to expose the Patriot Act for the unconstitutional mess that it is. I hate it that we've used it to murder millions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. I hate it that we're currently using it to deport immigrants and citizens alike. But it's good that more folks are finally seeing the P.A. for the wicked law that it is. Maybe this will bring about true democracy in this mixed up nation at last.
"Wouldn’t you like tax dollars to go toward things that help people rather than hurt people?" I dream of this and it seems so reasonable, and so far from where we are.
Thanks for spelling this out. It's got to be a hard time to be living in the USA.
Yeah, the nightmares don't stop here south of the Canadian border. Between the high food prices and the fears of arrest, you don't get much restful sleep. Do you think they'd let me ask for political asylum up there?
A little bit of good news today is that Mohsen Mahdawi was released from ICE custody. He was the young man kidnapped when he came in for his citizenship interview at his local USCIS office!
That is good news.
Re: political asylum, I don't know, but if I was an American, especially one that objected to the genocide in Gaza, I'd be trying to find a way to move to Canada.
Good article even though I knew a lot of it such as undocumented paying taxes. There is so much blame to go around for this. I am in the ScheerPost Facebook group. They all detest demorcats and Biden and Harris as well. Of course it's not like they don't hate Trumdp either. They were all in favor of Jill Stein. There is just know way that a 3rd party is going to win in this country. I blame the voters. Not so much the Trump voters, but the voters who sat out and Biden voters who voted for Trump. Did they expect things to be different the 2nd time around. As for Trump voters, certainly not are all rubes. But what did they get from Trump the first time around? I know that there are voters that don't think there is any difference between the parties. I would say that they are wrong. I blame the media as well for doing such a crappy job of reporting. If a politician is lying say they are lying. How hard is that. I blame Republican politicians. Not all are deep in the woods for Trump. They are worried about being primaried. Tough. Kind of goes for Democrats two. I know that there were a couple of Democrats that were primaried out. I blame he Supreme Court as well. They are tenured, so to speak. What can Trump do to them. I know Alito and Thomas are hopless But Roberts, Gorsuch, and Barrett should know better as to where they are steering the country. I am reading the book the 5th Risk. It is not really a diatribe against Trump or any policies, but about the people that head the different agencies. None of the people had a clue what they agencies they were hired to lead had no idea what the agencieed did and were not interested in learning. Of coursre the stable genious doesn't know either and is listening to the Heritage Think Tank. It so depressing.
It is depressing and overwhelming at times, agreed. We've got to keep our morale up and not become totally hopeless, but it is trying while living under this corrupt system some call "end stage capitalism" or "late stage capitalism," but I just call "hell on Earth with billionaires calling the shots." As long as corporations are legal "persons" and those with all the money have all the control of the government apparatus, then neither of the duopoly factions (Red or Blue teams) will ever serve the people's interests. If it serves the billionaires to lock us all up in El Salvador or Gitmo, that's just what they'll have their handpicked politicians do to us.
Those with the massive amounts of money have set themselves up quite well over the past 40 years or so, and the Citizens United ruling was no fluke. As many have said long before I was born, whenever you mix corporatism/big money with capitalism you eventually wind up with fascism. They were right. It's time for all of us to fight back against fascism, not so much at the rigged ballot boxes with nothing but greedy, airhead candidates that only work for the billionaires who pay them, but in the streets with general strikes, boycotts, sit-ins, shut-downs and other kinds civil disobedience. I wrote about this a few weeks past: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com/p/pursuing-political-defiance
David Korabell, you're correct. The 2022 year end US government reports surmised that the immigrants (green card & illegal) had paid some $96 plus Billions on all taxes in America. On average for a few decades past they have paid into the SS Trust Fund in the $$$Billions annually, and sadly some will never be guaranteed to collect those benefits. DOGE backers like Russell Vought are racist. He's a Religious Bigot as the power behind much for the Racist Heritage Foundation driving this Trumpism. They seek to "Privatize" all for their gains with using the money to benefit their "Big Club" (George Carlin) aka the "Rich". "They're coming for your SS. and they'll get it to hand out to their rich friends" Carlin.
Excellent article. Trump with his following at the top of that pyramidic power are racists.
Thanks for your kind words, Mario. I often wonder what do those at the top of the pyramid get out of being so cruel to the rest of us. Sure, they're taking our tax money, denying us our SS benefits, but do they have to be so nasty and break up families by deporting hard-working immigrants?
The one thing you omitted is immigration is good for the economy. They contribute to the economy, many create businesses and jobs. Historically, the US has seen economic decline following implementation of anti-immigration policies.
I keep wondering if Trump is planning for a recession to 'rescue' America from and feed into his fascist agenda.
Well, it was a pretty long blog post as it was… But I did mention that immigrants do pay taxes and are very successful entrepreneurs. That’s sort of implying they’re good for the economy, right?
But it really makes zero sense to me why Trump wants to torture and deport hard-working immigrants (and others who are being mistaken for immigrants) when our history tells us that immigrants are much more helpful than harmful to the US. Xenophobia/racism/elitism really messes up your mind when you get into high office!
The thing that shocks me is level of denial by supporters. Much like the Gaza genocide , people refuse to see what is right in front of them.
I had someone tell me that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was legally deported and that ICE had a legal warrant. This, after the government and SCOTUS confirmed it was illegal.
Sounds like cognitive dissonance to me. Some people can't bear the idea that their favorite president, The Orange Man, could ever do anything "wrong", so they keep making up stories that everything he's doing is above board and legal. You wonder what it will take to snap them out of this fantasy--being deported themselves?
Now is the time for all good persons to come to the aid of themselves and their fellow human beings! Americans can't allow this desecration of the Constitution to continue. For all it's faults, it still offers some semblance of sanity and humanity in this insane world. Share this article with everyone you know, up to and including your elected representatives.
Excellent idea. Keep spreading the word (article link) with others. An informed public is a strong and dangerous public. Americans can't afford to play it safe in this rising tide of fascism. Power to the people!
That ICE are now an American Gestapo should now be recognised as a given but while America has never actually been under a fascist regime before the ground-work for this was layed by Donald Rumsfeld and others during the war on terror when they IMPOSED the policy of extraordinary rendition on a besieged CIA that had been caught asleep at the wheel during the 9/11 attacks. At the time I pointed out that Hitler had established most of the Nazi death camps OUTSIDE of Germany in order that they be beyond the reach of the German legal system and this was clearly Rumsfeld's template. That the same policy would later be directed against asylum seekers and refugees and even settled immigrants the moment that immigration was framed as a problem category by the new rules of the manufacture of consent, and thus by the new fascism was only a matter of time. I believe Australia was the first nominally democratic country to go down this route and was eagerly copied by Britain's Suella Braverman, the fascist Home Secretary in Rishi Sunak's lame duck Tory government. At the time and subsequently, Kier Starmer's counterfiet Labour leadership and subsequent continuity Tory government, and Yvette Cooper in particular, opposed the grotesque Rwanda scheme purely on the grounds that "the numbers didn't add up." This didn't stop Scab Starmer, who has taken his lead on immigration from the fascists of Reform UK from looking to the fascist government of Georgia Meloni in Italy and its grotesque re-interpretation of the anti-Mafia laws (which were effective in a completely different context) as a role model and template for dealing with the immigration issue citing Albania as a possible "safe country" to which asylum seekers can be deported. All Trump has done is to strip this latent fascist policy of all mystification and semblance of humanity and render manifest its rotten content as yet another final solution. The photo opportunity in which a member of Trump's government, in fascist MAGA baseball cap, posed in front of human beings in small cages, due to be deported to the Project 2025 Hell Hole that is El Salvadore, spoke volumes and the arrest of a Judge shows where all this is headed. Meanwhile, such is Starmer's commitment to a fascist inspired racist immigration policy, alongside discredited economic policies of austerity and neo-liberalism, that he'd rather suck the cock of Adolf Hitler's stunt double in the White House and accept the terms of a trade deal with Trump's fascist US (tax breaks to big tech, privatise the NHS, extend the purge of the public sector by DOGE to the UK) than rejoin the Customs Union and accept free movement of people within Europe.
Good stuff here, Roger. Yes, the move toward fascism didn't happen overnight in the US or begin with Trump (or even Donald Rumsfeld). But a fascist/corporatist/war-machine state was perhaps inevitable in this corrupt capitalist system that feeds on endless wars for oil and evil resource/land grabs. Immigrants have always made excellent scapegoats for the fascists to use and blame and to make excuses for why they keep taking our civil liberties away. We have to keep exposing the fascists' lies in order to stop them!
Excellent, and I learned things I didn't know. But I do have one quibble. You repeatedly call all this "senseless." It is not at all senseless. It's quite deliberate and purposeful. When you're trying to usher in fascism, you need a scapegoat, and you need to normalize aggressive and unaccountable actions by your police, or whatever you call your brownshirts. In Germany in the 30's Jews were the obvious scapegoat, they'd been the traditional scapegoats in Europe. for centuries In the US, immigrants and blacks could via for traditional scapegoat status, but since the Trumpists still claim they aren't racists, going after blacks is more problematic--and "non- citizens" equates fairly well with "Other". I believe humans are hardwired with Us versus Them instincts, though the identities of the two are variable, fill in the blanks.
I agree that what Trump and Co. are doing is quite deliberate and has a purpose (for them at least), but in my heart of hearts I can't help but call it all "senseless." In the end, this xenophobic, anti-immigrant, race-baiting type of behaviors will only cause the entire system to collapse upon itself, most likely destroying both the fascists and their victims alike. Perhaps that is their purpose for doing this, but at such a high cost? I suppose the billionaires figure they don't need most of the 99%, and deporting many of us is the most convenient way of disposing of all us? Time to fight back!
I keep wondering about that too. Seems Musk's motive in trying to fire as many federal workers as possible is his notion that he'll be able to replace them with AI--which his companies will be in on the action on that, and if the AIs can't really replace humans, make lots of mistakes--well most of what federal workers do benefits ordinary people and if we're harmed, these people simply don't care. They'd like to eliminate programs that don't make the rich richer, in order to streamline government and cut their own taxes (even further). The military is the best gravy train for corporations looking to make money off government, so it's being expanded beyond the bounds of sanity even while every program the 99% depend on is being slashed.
I do wonder a little about the fervor of their anti-immigrant push--because the rich depend on servants and laborers and meatworkers and agricultural laborers--AI ain't gonna replace all that. For years they're pushed the anti-immigrant thing so the immigrants will be terrorized into putting up with shitty, underpaid, illegal work conditions etc, counting on the worsening conditions south of the border to keep them coming anyway. But they seem to have gone all in now on a foaming-at-the-mouth hatred and delight of persecuting immigrants...and their eagerness to despoil the environment and impoverish almost everyone--it obviously can't work, the economy can't stay afloat on just the luxury spending of the 1%
The "Much Ado About Nothing" skit is the leadin to "Twelve Years A Slave", recast for 2025.
I can see this as the update to "Twelve Years A Slave," but there will be no "happy ending" possibly for those Trump ships out of the country to El Salvador. Can you imagine the stink if ICE grabs a zy-0h-nist or two by mistake and ships them to the torture prison there?
Excellent piece! This should be required reading by all Trump Administrators and Trump acolytes. They can all use the education in one of the Constitution's most important basic rights. Well done!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Frank. We really do need to educate Trump and his trumplings on the finer points of our Constitution, don't we? Please feel free to send them all the link to this article. Let's see what kind of response we get!