What happened this weekend? Well, those who thought that the NFC North was the strongest division in the NFL were proved decisively wrong when the Lions lost to the “lowly” Commanders, leaving the division zero-and-three in the playoffs, with each of the three participants losing by double-digits. In fact, if there was anything “good” to say about the Packers, they lost to a better team they expected to lose to, but by a closer margin than their division compatriots against "lesser" opponents.
But more
importantly I made my way to the local Best Buy which is about the only place
left that still sells PCs and laptops in-store, and found an HP Envy laptop that was
in my price-range with the new “Core Ultra” processor, after Intel ditched the
“generation” designation for its latest processors. It’s a low-wattage i7
equivalent, meaning it is supposed to have both OK power and battery life, which is good for
working in places that don’t have an electrical plug available and all you are doing is
writing. It lasted 6 hours before the battery gave out while on “best power efficiency” mode. Pretty good, actually.
This also means I am all “powered up” to take on the Trump administration, although I’m not sure yet in what fashion, since simply repeating the same thing over and over again what we already know is going to happen and why seems a bit tedious and tiresome.
Anyways, we can start off by pointing out that Trump and his allies are defiling the MLK Jr. holiday today with their bald-faced racism, which Republicans always deliberately “misinterpret” and twist by verbal gymnastics into incomprehensibly shapes. I mean do out-and-out racists (or those who have merely “negative” attitudes about minorities) actually have any credibility when pointing to the line about “content of character”? Let’s be honest about this: the underrepresented minorities who are most targeted are those seeking higher education and better jobs to improve themselves—so you know that this is more about the characterlessness of those offended by such desires, particularly those who have no desire to improve themselves, or think they are the center of universe that no person of the wrong "color" has a right to infringe upon, if they look at that dark-souled character more closely in the mirror.
Trump proves his own racism by including in his Day One executive orders the ending what he calls part of the “DEI” agenda—environmental justice—which concerns the habit of constructing projects with negative environmental and economic impacts in poor, minority and the generally less well-connected communities—you know, not in the white “NIMBY” neighborhoods. And this doesn’t even effect merely minority communities; as mentioned the “data centers” constructed in rural areas—mostly in the south—have little more economic impact that highway construction, creating some temporary work but resulting in few, if any, actual long-term jobs for the locals. The “long-term” result in these projects in rural communities are severe negative environmental, power and water impacts. Does Trump care if there is “collateral damage” to his anti-DEI, racist agenda? Hell no! If those people were dumb enough to vote for him…
Of course that is nothing compared to what Trump and his fellow fascists have in store for those ugly brown-skinned people; of course if they all looked like Melania, it might be a different story. Naturally it is impossible to be honest about anything in this country, and the media of course is full of uninformed people who have idea of the history of racism against Hispanics in this country because—let’s face it—no one wants to know.
Racism has been the defining feature of U.S. immigration policy concerning Hispanics, in particular since 1965. Ending the Bracero program without instituting a legal avenue to replace it led to an instant increase in illegal immigration when employers had little choice but to employ them if they wanted to stay in business, seeing that all those “natives” didn’t come running in take those jobs they claimed were “theirs.”
Instead of recognizing reality, U.S. lawmakers simply allowed the status quo to continue, occasionally using immigration for partisan political purposes if it was useful to them The exception was the immigration laws of 1986 and 1996, that only made the problem worse; rather than make it less onerous to legally work in this country and allow cross-border traffic without fear (as during the Bracero period), these laws simply continued the criminalization of immigration, and in the latter law, began the truth that it is the U.S. that is sending its "criminals," especially U.S.-bred gangs, to foreign countries ill-equipped to deal with them.
And obviously (or not so “obviously” to the historically ignorant), the U.S. had (and has) engaged in the support of oppressive right-wing murder regimes in Latin America, particularly in Central America. The most hypocritical belief in the U.S. is that there are no “legitimate” asylum seekers from Central America seeking to escape violence. Among the “foreign leaders”—mainly fellow fascists—invited to Trump’s inauguration was El Salvador’s current "democratically-elected" dictator, Nayib Bukele, who “ironically” is battling U.S.-bred gangs deported to his country, and he will see more “criminals” deported to his country if the Laken Riley law is put into effect as expected.
In regard to that, it is remarkable that brown-skinned people who are legal residents must be more “perfect” than their U.S. citizen counterparts; even being accused of a “petty crime” is enough to damn them from this country. Crimes can be committed against them by a U.S. citizen, but a Green Card holder who finds the neighbor’s dog in his yard might be accused of “theft” and put into deportation proceedings. I mean, that is the kind of thing this law allows. Given that we have a convicted felon as president, the hypocrisy cannot be gainsaid. If the media had done its job, it would have discussed these issues and “humanized” these people; instead the media is also full of ignorant people too concerned with the affairs of their “own kind.”
Migrants obviously do not consider themselves “invaders,” but simply human beings with human needs and expect to work in this country, and most of them do. We have been told time and again by economists that the “illegal” work force in this country contributes greatly to both the economy and the tax revenue. If they were allowed here legally, people would be allowed to realize that. But no, people don't like looking at them, and so there has to be a “national emergency” at the border, in which the military is directed “to prioritize our borders by repelling all forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking and other criminal activities”—all which is a deliberate misinterpretation of what is happening.
That isn’t all that Trump is planning with his Day One executive orders: refugee resettlement is to be “suspended,” international law in regard to asylum seekers will be ignored and under no circumstance will any asylum request be granted to any brown-skinned person from south of border. Any brown-skinned child born in this country will be denied birthright citizenship, because, you know, they might eventually vote like all those Hispanic voters who were fool enough to believe Trump’s claim on the campaign trail that he would only begin deporting “criminals” when he forgot to mention he thinks all brown-skinned people (save those from India) are “criminals.” But like Hitler, he’s letting his racist underlings like Tom Holman and KristiNoem take care of the “details.”
Interestingly—especially in the wake of the New Orleans attack—Trump is declaring the Mexican drug cartels “terrorist organizations” despite the fact they technically do not fit the description of what a “terrorist” is in this country; I mean why wasn’t the Mafia declared a “terrorist organization” during its most violent period? Because they were technically “white.” The fact is that the cartels are far more dangerous in Mexico than they are in the U.S., so what is Trump’s “plan” to combat them? Is he going to “invade” Mexico? Is he going to have the military send air strikes in the country? Is he going to combat drug use and dealing in this country, which is done mainly by U.S. citizens, like the ones I pointed out in the previous post? It is all so hypocritical.
And a symptom of the fact that racism has many disguises. Noem, governor of South Dakota and the proposed DHS head, has been called a racist of the Native American tribes in her state. Along with the Republican legislature, she has tried her hand at suppressing tribal voting in U.S. elections, and had made various accusations about tribes doing “business” with Mexican cartels and engaging in sex and human trafficking, which has angered tribal leaders demanding proof of said accusations. Last year the Rosebud Sioux Tribe issued this statement:
Governor Noem’s racially prejudiced remarks about tribal presidents and tribal councils being focused on a ‘political agenda’ are simply not true. Governor Noem’s malicious remarks that tribal officials ‘benefit’ from the presence of cartels without any evidence, is made without any basis in truth and is defamatory and libelous…(and from) ignorance and with the intention to fuel a racially based and discriminatory narrative toward Native people.
Nine tribes subsequently banned Noem from entering their reservations, stating that she had no interest in improving education and jobs on reservations, but in simply playing racist partisan politics at their expense. Having previously exposed herself by deploying South Dakota national guard personnel to the southern border for no reason other than her personal issues, Noem repeatedly demonstrated that she is less interested in “national security” than simply acting out on her own race hatreds with the “gloves off” and fists out.
During her confirmation hearing, Noem repeatedly pivoted back to the border regardless of the question, even when it was pointed out to her that the recent New Orleans terrorist attack was by a U.S. citizen and not even Hispanic. Noem, like “border czar” Holman, has "Mexican" on the brain and is totally without any humanity, if fact they even “give a shit”—as Holman said he didn't if you think he is racist or not.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Trump is employing the Nazi playbook in the way Aldous Huxley explained in Brave New World Revisited, because everything else he has planned lacks any semblance of reality. To fulfill his “vision,” Trump’s cabinet nominees have been accused of well-coached “saying the right things” and outright lying about their past stances in order to get confirmed, with Republicans playing the game with softball questions.
And obviously not concerned about their own "rights." The expected OMB head Russ Vought, who is one of the designers of Project 2025, which Trump claimed he knew “nothing” about, repeatedly obfuscated during his hearings, and it is clear he intends to ignore Congressional budgets if any money is targeted to “liberal” states or “socialist” public funding. In the past he threatened “mass layoffs and firings, particularly at some of the agencies that we don’t even think should exist” as he told Tucker Carlson. Of course what he means is anyone who is “suspected” of not being a “team player.”
Trump’s plan to “restore” the economy that is already larger than it has ever been seems to also have been constructed with little thought of reality. The U.S. already produces more oil than it can use, but as pointed out here 1 it is in many cases the “wrong kind.” The U.S, still imports much of its oil needs because foreign oil is cheaper than what is produced in this country. The U.S. is also a net-exporter of oil, meaning it exports more than it imports; obviously exporting oil serves foreign policy goals—and if it didn’t import oil from Saudi Arabia, it would have less “leverage” in the Middle East. Most of the oil imported from overseas is “heavy” and in the past U.S. refineries were designed for this type of oil. In the U.S., much of the oil is “light,” for which there is less refinery infrastructure.
Of course Trump
doesn’t understand any of this, and his “drill-baby-drill” executive order is
utterly pointless and will do nothing to drive down oil prices than they
already are, because people can only drive around so much and oil companies are
not going to sacrifice profits for Trump’s benefit. All his “energy” plans will
do is needlessly destroy public lands. And I wonder if his ending of the
“electric vehicle mandate” sends some sort of “message” to Elon Musk.
What does Trump plan to do with inflation? I mean, wasn’t that the “Number One” issue behind all the “economic insecurity” we were told about, despite the fact that this country saw record employment during the Biden administration? We are told that Trump has an “all-government” response to bringing down prices, but why should we believe that? What we discover is that Trump doesn’t actually have a “plan” because it would require the cooperation of his growing cadre of billionaire friends who preferred to put the “savings” in their own pockets.
Trump’s belief that cutting even more regulations and “red tape” will reduce prices doesn't have that effect at all, only producing mass irresponsibility and chaos, as we saw in 2007 and 2008 what happens when you gut regulations for the financial sector. And what will tariffs do? You think that billionaires are going put working people’s interests before their own and “eat” the additional cost?
All Trump and his fascist cohorts have to work on is racism to disguise their anti-people policies. Even the Affordable Care Act is under siege again. I don’t know why the media keeps calling it “Obamacare,” because that disguises what it is supposed to be all about—you know, affordable care. The people who oppose what is good for working people in favor of what is good for businesses and billionaires are the people Trump has formulating policy.
That is what you were warned about if you voted for Trump, and you just didn’t listen. We should be prepared for the hellscape that Pieter Bruegel portrayed in his painting Triumph of Death...
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