While we are on the subject of wasting taxpayer money: the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE) wasted $21.7 billion in taxpayer money…in just six months.
Idiots running the government hear civil war and can only think of two sides, each in their own uniforms, going up against each other, and they know they can win that fight.
That's not what the Second Civil War's going to be. It's going to be an asymmetric war like Iraq with IEDs and ambushes.
Is there any way back to a society that even gives lip service to the idea of equity and fairness at this point?
I'm in a blue state, in one of the safest demographics possible, and I'm terrified.
It's just a matter of time at this point until they start killing anyone they don't like and then throwing up their hands when the economy tanks and the US becomes a pariah state, and saying 'why did this happen?'
We live in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts, with our Lesbian Governor, a handful of GOP in the state House and Senate. There have been several ICE raids here, the most talked about one was a High School student picked up after volleyball practice.
I am terrified that I will get a call that Mild Jr has been picked up at the Home Depot in Nashua (across the state line from where he lives). They've put together a package of his papers (passport, naturalization papers, etc) in case he gets picked up.
I hope it doesn't come to that. DSO works in a library, and there's already concern about ICE invading them - and disappearing library staff as well as the nominal targets, which has been discussed within the library community and is considered well within the realm of possibility.
We already have a family attorney who is very much part of the resistance. They're prepared to step up if necessary.
It's a slippery slope into a lot of uncertainty and fear. Stay true. Shine the light. Don't open the damn door when they show up. And they will show up. Trust.
Ta, Marcie. A couple of weeks ago on our drive to the pied-à-nuage from the city, we saw a caravan of military vehicles (Humvees and troop transport trucks). They looked like National Guard, but not NY NG. We don't know where they were from or what they were doing. They all pulled in for fuel along the Thruway; IIRC those Humvees get terrible mileage (like seven or eight mpg).
"The U.S. military leadership (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and NORTHCOM) need to feel — for the first time — the urgency of the homeland defense mission. They need to understand the threat, what’s at stake, and the political importance the administration has placed on this issue."
No sir, they actually don't. This is political theater and ICE is the entity creating the fear and danger within the country. If they weren't doing what they are doing in the patently illegal and unprofessional ways they are doing it, then the protests wouldn't be widespread and focused on this particular problem of the Trump regime.
When you are actively creating the problem, you don't get to cajole other people into pretending it's an emergency.
They're coming to NYC, count on it. Both Zyx and I work with immigrants. We're coming up with a plan, code words and the like in case one of us gets arrested, might put a civil rights attorney on retainer. Hell of a thing for our retirement year, isn't it?
They like the benefits like iPhones and Android phones and the like, but they really hate that the people who have the technical skills to design and build them often aren't white americans. The ones who think this way are the same ones who skated in science and math classes in school and who allowed their kids to do the same - it's always someone else's responsibility to create these wonderful toys.
We've shed staff who have moved to Canada or elsewhere bc even in the Valley, there's a lot of invective directed towards people who are perceived as foreign (often by older former auto-workers and the like, but it comes from other people as well).
Sounds like the chuds occupying space in the secretary's office are worried that an fattened DHS means DoD *won't* be part of the fun and games going forward, for years.
There's still a backlog of over 40,000 untested rape kits in this country. Let's hope prioritizing poop samples for non-medical reasons doesn't jump the queue.
Until we get leaders for whom governing is more important than ruling, the downward spiral will continue: Republicans gain control and drag us further into Balkanized theocracy and oligarchy; self-neutered Democrats get the upper hand and patch a few leaks. Ever downward.
My question is do we have the backbone for the necessary Nürnberg-style trials or Truth-and-Reconciliation committees? I don't think so. I think we're a nation of under-the-carpet sweepers.
>> do we have the backbone for the necessary Nürnberg-style trials or Truth-and-Reconciliation committees?
TLDR = no
The failure to deal appropriately with Confederate military and governance after the Civil War set the tone. There will not be consequences until the electorate is no longer dominated by white supremacist ideas, and that demographic change is exactly what the current administration is trying to prevent.
Read the tweets - the right wing is now openly saying that only white people were legitimately involved in the creation of the United States and any number of technologies, ignoring any number of examples to the contrary (Elijah McCoy anyone?....NASA calculators who did the math for ballistic trajectories?)
Please remember that many of the detainees were in the country !LEGALLY!!!1!!! They followed all the rules seeking asylum from dangerous and even deadly conditions in their home countries. Whenever you hear of someone snatched on the courtroom steps this is someone doing everything legally and it is a short step for these goons from detain them to disappear them. Yes, I know that the disappeared were murdered and we are not there yet, but it will happen soon. Also too- When only the criminal immigrants avoid being snatched, then the only remaining immigrants will be the criminals.
I don't think these cosplaying Stormtroopers have the cojones to actually go after violent undocumented immigrants—picking low-hanging fruit is their specialty, which is ironic considering their enthusiasm for arresting and detaining people who actually DO pick fruit.
Good point. Let’s send them all undercover. They can get jobs picking produce, cutting up animals in packing plants, replacing roofs after hurricanes, all the fun jobs. If they get fired from the undercover work than they lose their cozy, kewl ICE job as well.
The Hegseth boys are a waste of flesh.
Do you know what would cost a lot less than the price per prisoner of rounding up immigrants?
Releasing the Epstein files.
While we are on the subject of wasting taxpayer money: the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE) wasted $21.7 billion in taxpayer money…in just six months.
Hegseth isn't ready for urban warfare. Neither is Noem or any of these clowns.
Idiots running the government hear civil war and can only think of two sides, each in their own uniforms, going up against each other, and they know they can win that fight.
That's not what the Second Civil War's going to be. It's going to be an asymmetric war like Iraq with IEDs and ambushes.
A populace that's armed to their teeth is going to make things extra spicy too.
That, and a lot of murdering one's neighbors. Like Rwanda, but all over the US
Is there any way back to a society that even gives lip service to the idea of equity and fairness at this point?
I'm in a blue state, in one of the safest demographics possible, and I'm terrified.
It's just a matter of time at this point until they start killing anyone they don't like and then throwing up their hands when the economy tanks and the US becomes a pariah state, and saying 'why did this happen?'
They will know why it happened..... Ok, faux will tell them but it will be Woke Coastal Globalism Socialism Loving Elites.
Equity? You mean the E in DEI???? It is no more.
Today we have UIE - Uniformity, Inequity and Exclusion
Before long, they're going to have IEDs.
We live in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts, with our Lesbian Governor, a handful of GOP in the state House and Senate. There have been several ICE raids here, the most talked about one was a High School student picked up after volleyball practice.
I am terrified that I will get a call that Mild Jr has been picked up at the Home Depot in Nashua (across the state line from where he lives). They've put together a package of his papers (passport, naturalization papers, etc) in case he gets picked up.
I'm in the Alabama district of California, and pretty fair skinned, but even I'm considering putting my passport card into my wallet with my license.
Mild Jr will be getting a passport card, too.
I have my passport with me. And I am paler than pale.
I'm so sorry you have to worry about that.
Thanks, we know a couple of immigration attorneys, in case we need help. We should probably put one on retainer.
I hope it doesn't come to that. DSO works in a library, and there's already concern about ICE invading them - and disappearing library staff as well as the nominal targets, which has been discussed within the library community and is considered well within the realm of possibility.
We already have a family attorney who is very much part of the resistance. They're prepared to step up if necessary.
Phil Hegseth, Petey's little brother, and another misfit unemployable loser? You can't make this stuff up.
The only thing more worthless is the boss's nephew.
It's a slippery slope into a lot of uncertainty and fear. Stay true. Shine the light. Don't open the damn door when they show up. And they will show up. Trust.
Ta, Marcie. A couple of weeks ago on our drive to the pied-à-nuage from the city, we saw a caravan of military vehicles (Humvees and troop transport trucks). They looked like National Guard, but not NY NG. We don't know where they were from or what they were doing. They all pulled in for fuel along the Thruway; IIRC those Humvees get terrible mileage (like seven or eight mpg).
As a fellow New Yorker also trying to look out for other NYers -- do you have a tip on which exit on the Thruway you saw these guys at, Z ...?
this time of year most state's NG do their 2 week "summer camp" deployment
Tru Dat.
The DH was in the NYS National Guard (his unit was in Hempstead on the Island) and spent his yearly 2 weeks in Ft. Drum up in Watertown.
"The U.S. military leadership (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and NORTHCOM) need to feel — for the first time — the urgency of the homeland defense mission. They need to understand the threat, what’s at stake, and the political importance the administration has placed on this issue."
No sir, they actually don't. This is political theater and ICE is the entity creating the fear and danger within the country. If they weren't doing what they are doing in the patently illegal and unprofessional ways they are doing it, then the protests wouldn't be widespread and focused on this particular problem of the Trump regime.
When you are actively creating the problem, you don't get to cajole other people into pretending it's an emergency.
You get to do it if you have the guns.
They're coming to NYC, count on it. Both Zyx and I work with immigrants. We're coming up with a plan, code words and the like in case one of us gets arrested, might put a civil rights attorney on retainer. Hell of a thing for our retirement year, isn't it?
Thank you both for the work you're doing.
Incidental reminder, MAGA opposes all immigration. ALL immigration. ALL.
Even Russian mail-order brides?
Nope, Trump welcomes that poor, put-upon minority group: white South Africans.
Yeh, except for the white-people immigrants who came here when the Indians were in charge of things. Those immigrants are okay.
And Norweigans, they are OK. But not those fucking Finns....
As we pointed out when DonOLD first talked about "sh*thole countries" back during his first term?
There's literally no reason why the Norwegians would ever want to come, especially now
They like the benefits like iPhones and Android phones and the like, but they really hate that the people who have the technical skills to design and build them often aren't white americans. The ones who think this way are the same ones who skated in science and math classes in school and who allowed their kids to do the same - it's always someone else's responsibility to create these wonderful toys.
We've shed staff who have moved to Canada or elsewhere bc even in the Valley, there's a lot of invective directed towards people who are perceived as foreign (often by older former auto-workers and the like, but it comes from other people as well).
kinda wanna start referring to him as Burger Boss
Sounds like the chuds occupying space in the secretary's office are worried that an fattened DHS means DoD *won't* be part of the fun and games going forward, for years.
Since ICE now has a bigger budget than the Marine Corps, they have a right to worry
but there is DNA in poop.
There's still a backlog of over 40,000 untested rape kits in this country. Let's hope prioritizing poop samples for non-medical reasons doesn't jump the queue.
Gonna have to denazify the military. Personally, I think anyone involved in LA needs a dishonorable. "Following orders" doesn't cut it
We couldn't even de-traitor our own Congress.
Until we get leaders for whom governing is more important than ruling, the downward spiral will continue: Republicans gain control and drag us further into Balkanized theocracy and oligarchy; self-neutered Democrats get the upper hand and patch a few leaks. Ever downward.
My question is do we have the backbone for the necessary Nürnberg-style trials or Truth-and-Reconciliation committees? I don't think so. I think we're a nation of under-the-carpet sweepers.
>> do we have the backbone for the necessary Nürnberg-style trials or Truth-and-Reconciliation committees?
TLDR = no
The failure to deal appropriately with Confederate military and governance after the Civil War set the tone. There will not be consequences until the electorate is no longer dominated by white supremacist ideas, and that demographic change is exactly what the current administration is trying to prevent.
Read the tweets - the right wing is now openly saying that only white people were legitimately involved in the creation of the United States and any number of technologies, ignoring any number of examples to the contrary (Elijah McCoy anyone?....NASA calculators who did the math for ballistic trajectories?)
Please remember that many of the detainees were in the country !LEGALLY!!!1!!! They followed all the rules seeking asylum from dangerous and even deadly conditions in their home countries. Whenever you hear of someone snatched on the courtroom steps this is someone doing everything legally and it is a short step for these goons from detain them to disappear them. Yes, I know that the disappeared were murdered and we are not there yet, but it will happen soon. Also too- When only the criminal immigrants avoid being snatched, then the only remaining immigrants will be the criminals.
We are there. There have been multiple people detained by ice who have died now.
We are very much there.
I don't think these cosplaying Stormtroopers have the cojones to actually go after violent undocumented immigrants—picking low-hanging fruit is their specialty, which is ironic considering their enthusiasm for arresting and detaining people who actually DO pick fruit.
Good point. Let’s send them all undercover. They can get jobs picking produce, cutting up animals in packing plants, replacing roofs after hurricanes, all the fun jobs. If they get fired from the undercover work than they lose their cozy, kewl ICE job as well.