Mass deportations: I want to know...
Today is Black Friday, a most perverse day in our culture.
Each year, there is violence, mayhem, and near riots at America’s big box stores. Americans melt down into consumerist madness over their divine right to buy cheap plastic crap and consumer electronics made in China, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and dozens of other countries upon whom MAGA will soon declare a destabilizing trade war. It will economically crush millions of Americans — with Trump’s base being hardest hit.
I didn’t like Joe Biden’s inflation, but what Trump is going to unleash is going to be next level.
All there is to do now is sit and wait for the impact of his economic genius to be felt by ordinary people.
Right now, MAGA is heady with their restoration to power. Soon, they will have it.
Stephen Miller and Tom Homan have made clear that the mass deportation begins at high noon, with the first volley of artillery salutes rendered to the new commander in chief, who looks an awful lot like the worst one we have ever had over nearly 248 years.
The details, so far, about the plan remain wafer-thin, while Homan’s bluster remains thick. Here are some examples:
It would be unfair not to mention that Homan was provoked by the grand-standing mayor of Denver.
Mayor Mike Johnston holds no writ to violate federal law because he doesn’t like Trump, and thinks people with no legal status should stay illegally when the one thing about Trump’s exaggerated mandate made clear was that Biden’s failures paved the way for draconian enforcement. Elections have consequences and democrats hold no power in Washington beyond the minority.
Mayor Johnston’s petulance should not be confused for defiance, which winces at stupidity. His foolishness should be ignored, not followed.
Performative, empty, hollow, idiotized, “look at me” politics is one of the reasons we may soon have camps opening in America. The appalling begets the truly atrocious, which is but a prelude for the abominations to come.
What are we to call the camps?
This is no trivial matter. Let’s get it right up front.
I think it is something that matters a great deal. Governor Greg Abbott thinks we are about to set forward on a great cause. On Tuesday, in Homan’s presence, at an event with Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and National Guard troops, he signaled strong cooperation between the state and federal government with Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Here is what he said:
There's help on the way. The cavalry is here, quite literally with us here today.
Here is one of the few news accounts offering detail about any of the logistical elements around the great sayonara from US soil.
I want to know more. Much more. I want every detail.
Beyond that, I am curious about who else wants the details. Who will be recording and documenting everything? Who will be painstakingly hunting for the memos, plans, blueprints and the finest threads of detail via public records requests and every other conceivable lawful avenue to discover what is being done to 18 million human beings, including children, in our name?
Trump winning the election has given him temporary power with many less limits than all of his predecessors. Yet, he remains restrained by the enshrinement of individual rights and liberties that are not lessened or cheapened by either the president’s ignorance or disdain for them.
I speculated about the great goodbye last week, but I am insatiably curious about the details:
There is some important work that must be done by a combination of non-profit groups, religious organizations, news organizations, and other activist communities in preparation for the execution of Trump’s plan.
There is information that must be learned.
Who are the responsible parties and officers for the execution of Trump’s executive orders implementing the deportation plans?
What are their names, titles, positions, statutory authority and daily orders?
What is their precise chain of command? Specifically, what are the chains of command in each camp and sub-camp, or any other facility regarding medical, educational, humanitarian, legal and other issues that arise from the involuntary detention of 18 million people who need basic necessities before they are delivered to where exactly?
Who are the inspector generals at each facility, and what is their chain of command up to the secretary level?
What access will be given within the camps to congressional delegations and committee staff, including minority staff, to investigate and audit their function and conduct constitutionally-mandated oversight of the executive branch?
What faith institutions and international organizations will have access to the camps?
Will the media have access?
Will the access be restricted?
Are the detained detainees, prisoners, or accused suspects? What is their legal status, and what are their rights?
Since these are non-US citizens in US custody, will they have consular access to officials from their home countries?
Will the federal government seek to subpoena records from faith institutions like the Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles to aid in identifying individuals for deportation?
Serious question: what is the euphemism for all of this? “Enforcement action?”
Imagining it is, does the Catholic Church have a position deeper than the shot fired across the Trumpian bow by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops?
Has any corporate media even bothered to ask?
Has the church already battened down the hatches, and ordered non-compliance if compliance is demanded by the aggressive Mr. Homan, for instance?
Unlike the mayor of Denver, the archdiocese will be most difficult to bring to heel. Knowing where the tree to fight behind can be found is often the difference between life or death, or in this metaphor, winning or losing.
The First Amendment is a truly glorious creation. It has claim on being one of humanity’s all-time greatest ideas. All Americans should have the deepest gratitude for it.
There can be no secrets and no dark corners in these camps — or whatever it is they are to be called.
Teddy Schliefer, a superb investigative reporters who specialize in money and politics with The New York Times, has written an astonishing tale of billionaire fecklessness. It should be frozen in amber, and delivered to all of those who remain scratching their heads about how Trump won.
Fools are easily conquered, no matter how much money they may have.
The moment at hand requires someone to fund a gargantuan effort to make, track, log and disseminate vast troves of information about these camps. What is happening from public records requests?
Who is doing that?
Who is the primary funder?
Do news organizations intend to do it? What legal aid groups intend to do it?
What is the best, most economical and efficient way to meaningfully do the work that will be fundamental to the foundation of short-term recovery, first victory, and ultimate political triumph, riding a wave of reform and renewal that comes immediately behind the repudiation of MAGA that is as inevitable as its unfitness for power?
All of these things must be done, and will be done.
Who will seek to lead that effort? Who has standing to bring people together, and say, “This is what we must commit to?”
Who can make an American argument and a moral one?
Who can make the case that what is about to happen must be followed because, within hours of its commencement, it is likely to go off the rails?
Trump may be above the law, but his supplicants, sycophants, enablers, retainers and posse of misfits, seekers, pretenders fraudsters and criminals most certainly are not. Justice has a long arm in America when it comes to abuses of human rights, life, dignity and property.
I wonder if the news media is prepared to tell the stories of families who will be quickly murdered or raped when they are returned home. I’d like to know as many details about what happened to every person cast out that is possible to know. I suspect the records of these actions will one day be housed in a vast archive where much forensic work can be spared with a bit of forethought.
Thinking about Governor Abbott’s exhortations towards national cruelty I’d like to make a bet.
I just wish there was somewhere to place it.
I’d like to see what the line might be about how many statues and monuments there will be to the memory of the men and women who lead the great deportation 100 years from now. I truly wonder.
I don’t think there will be a single one. Zero.
I think the remembrances of the event to come will linger in shame and infamy.
In fact, I am certain.
I am certain because America hasn’t decided to do anything yet — beyond tell Trump to do something that he said he would, and that it would be beautiful, easy, cheap, uncomplicated, and lead to making America a disgusting, venal, hideous and corrupt land truly great again.
I wanted to share a story. It’s about Auschwitz. It is worth knowing.
The lessons from that era are not about what the Nazis completed in the end, but around each step, and then the next towards completing it. The most mundane of acts released the most intense evil in the history of mankind:
Trump isn’t going to build an American Auschwitz or Dachau, but what will be built will be terrible.
It will stand on its own weight and its own merit. Auschwitz matters because of the question that will be asked, looking back with humility and perspective from the benefit of hindsight about the disgrace to come.
The question that will be asked is, “How did Americans, who knew about Auschwitz and Dachau, the Japanese internment camps, segregation, Jim Crow, slavery, and the destruction of 600 generations of Indigenous peoples’ culture through disease, famine, starvation, conquest and horrible abuse, let this next abuse happen?”
It will be a terrible indictment of us.
They will need to know because it is more likely than not that those people will be an awful lot like us. Hopefully better.
Maybe they can learn things we couldn’t, and stop bad things from happening that we were unable to.
Either way, they will draw on the lesson. Let us hope they will have the wisdom to learn from what we must tragically document.
"I didn’t like Joe Biden’s inflation, but what Trump is going to unleash is going to be next level."
Steve, it was not Biden's inflation. Quite the opposite. His administration limited the economic impact of covid, shortages and supply chain interruptions, very effectively.
Well done Steve, but I’m not sure his deportation plan will be executed as advertised. Wall Street won the Treasury battle: For now! And Bessent isn’t going to go along with a blanket tariff on Mexico, Canada, or China, for the matter.
And from all accounts, Trump is already claiming victory against Mexico, by literally doing nothing; as to be expected! So he’s already collapsing faster than a cheap lounge chair! And as the wise Cowboy once said: Trump is all hat, and no cattle!
Moreover, Bessent must be reminding Trump that his deportation and tariffs policies will increase inflation, since half of the construction workers are undocumented. Additionally, over one million agricultural workers are undocumented. And approximately half of our hospitality workers are undocumented!
If Trump implemented his agenda as promised; food prices, construction costs, and hotel and resort fees will increase exponentially. Not to mention, undocumented immigrants account for close to $3 trillion in annual GDP, and close to $500 billion in annual tax revenue. They also pay FICA: Social Security and Medicare; two programs they will never be eligible for, so they’re essentially helping to fund many of our unfunded liabilities we can’t pay for.
Furthermore, if Trump is true to his word about tax cuts, while trying to implement his tariffs and deportation agenda, then our economy will implode by the fourth quarter of 2026. Moreover, the short-term Treasury Yield Curve is currently inverted, which means the bond markets are reacting very cautiously, and sending a message; regardless of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee’s actions, the bond markets will set the interest rates, and they will be higher than the fed target rate. Thus, costing America more to borrow into the future. This will have a tremendous impact on our cost to service the debt; reducing our discretionary income for all other programs, including Medicare, Social Security, and the military.
That said, Trump has a fight brewing within his inner circle. The Wall Street Master’s of the Universe, who are singlehandedly supporting Trump’s DJT stock (TMTG), making his a REAL billionaire; they can dump it at any time! Or the religious fascist’s like Miller, who are hell bent on creating perpetual crisis (Shock Doctrine), based on chaos and cruelty; just because they can!
The bottom line: grab your popcorn, and smoke a bowl, because it’s going to be a very bumpy ride. And until we know the winners and losers, expect lots of uncertainty, and market volatility; just the way MAGA and Trump like it! IMHO!…:)