From the start that is what it meant. I knew it. Glad you knew it too. Praying on the fear and anger of white people who don't understand who made them poor. Wanting a by-gone era when rural America was white...
Guess what. Rural America never was white. It was just segregated, so the only people rural white people saw were white. The only people rural black people saw were black, and so forth. When people are afraid to step out of their exclusive ghettos (yeah, white ghettos are still ghettos), they don't know who's out there.
Actually, I'm somewhat misusing the word "ghetto" because that word usually refers specifically to urban neighborhoods packed with unassimilated minority individuals. I saw, however, similar neighborhoods in suburban Massachusetts in the first half of the 20th century. The same dynamics were at work there as we expect to see in urban ghettos: high unemployment, limited access to resources, and a decline in quality of life. A similar phenomenon exists in rural ghettos as well. Hence my use of the word "ghetto" for such areas in all three settings.
Basically, the phenomenon appears in all races and ethnic groups. It's the old saying, "Birds of a feather flock together." This phenomenon is called "kin selection" by ethologists. It is the observed preference of all animals to associate with others that "look like me." Look around you. If your neighbors all look like you, act like you, and think like you, you live in a ghetto. It limits your experiences, options, and knowledge.
You forgot the part where some believe they’re vastly superior—born with a supposed right to declare others inferior. That poisonous delusion has fueled oppression for centuries."
The "poisonous delusion" IS the oppression! Note, however, that kinship selection competes with its polar opposite, symbiosis. Symbiosis is the tendency to include "others" in our preferred groups. For example, humans keep pets in a relationship that benefits the survivability of both species. Wild cat populations are endangered, while domestic cat populations have to be controlled.
I once pointed out that, "If you have an elephant for a friend, you don't need to invent a forklift." This is the reason DEI is important for good corporate governance.
Well, "race" refers to color (and a few other attributes). We're all the same species. America's racial divide is equivalent to Collie dogs being prejudiced against German Shepherds.
Those kinship groups, as well as unrelated affiliate groups provide cross-sectional support for their members with real survival value. It's not just for look-alikes, although throughout history tribal forces have worked like this. But, as Mr. Mamdani appears to have discovered, people can and do affiliate and work together to resolve common problems and meet common needs.
Knoxville integrated the schools for my last year of high school. I was amazed at how many black people lived in my school district. Not that there were all that many, but we never saw them.
A friend who is black/white told of her father saying that down in texass school segregation was whites on one side of the room and blacks on the other. Good order was maintained as long as you sat on your side of the room.
Yes, my father is black and American Indian, raised Catholic and he married my white, secular Jewish mom. I look tan. My family ranges in color from blue-black to blonde and red-head. Luckily I grew up in NYC in the 1960's. My black cousins, while living in rich areas, experienced racism big-time as did my dad. I witnessed it. This is lynch-pin (excuse the expression) that keeps Americans from looking at the Upper Classes...and fighting each other...always has been. Skin color.
My friend has a beautiful permanent tan. I have no protection from the sun other than covering up or staying out of the sun. I brown and peel or burn and peel. I am jealous of folks who can enjoy the sun.
Disagree, think you are missing the point in contemporary America. Color isn’t the big deal it’s class/ culture. You can buy what you want, live where you want, etc. but no matter your skin color, but today people are being held back by cash/class/culture no matter their color.
Interesting. All my neighbors look like me, older, white, same economic status, but speak with them and you will find we are very different in terms of education, religion, culture, and politics. Like me, I’ld guess some of them would have had grandfathers would fist fight because of different origin countries and religions. Hmmm..
I grew up in a community that was 99% white, and there were plenty of confrontations, often violent. Protestants vs Catholics. Blue collar vs white collar. High school graduates vs college graduates. Gill netters vs line fishermen. Loggers vs mill workers. I suspect the US would never have become a country if there hadn’t been indigenous and African people to demonize, thereby creating a white identity for disparate European immigrants to rally around.
But having white skin offers privilege in this country; you will not be stopped while driving as tan-brown-black. Nun's wear habits, but if you were a hijab you may be stopped, but not if you are orthodox and wear a shied(?)...This is selective racism.
Actually, the original "ghettos" were neighborhoods that were gated and locked - from the outside - basically prisons. The Warsaw ghetto is the best known example of this.
This is the core principle of in-group/out-group attribution theory in psychology. It's a form of intergroup bias where people's attributions for other groups are biased in a way that favors their in-group and discriminates against out-group…. The word ghetto originated in Europe to describe Jewish neighborhoods.
Since Reconstruction, rural America has pretty much been populated by white people. The percentage of Black farmers and ranchers was never high and it's been declining since Reconstruction. That said, MAGA plans to force Black Americans and other humans into major cities as a form of internment.
MAGA wish to move freely in the countryside to reshape the continent to better meet to their non-human needs. In particular they will clear-cut the trees and remove most vegetation. They might use Elon Musk's tunneling equipment (The Boring Company) to make new communities which hold their preferred atmospheric mix. They likely will relocate humans from beachfront communities as they connect the tunnels to beaches.
Amen. That’s what it is. I’m white and I know this. I believe we are experiencing the death throes of the KKK legacy and white rule in the US. MAGA is flailing. We will defeat them.
The Trump administration, GOP state legislatures, and SCOTUS are working 24/7 to stop free and fair elections.
Gerrymandering, intimidation, a new census, relentless propaganda.
Voting out Republicans in 2026 is more wishful thinking than reality, and becomes less plausible by the day.
I don't know what "dragging them out" means. Who exactly is going to stand up against armed ICE officers with "shoot to kill" orders after a fixed election?
Ok buddy… the American Revolutionaries were so outmatched. Ukraine was going to be toppled in 3 days. You really think this weak ass government can stand up to us? Get into a march in a big city. Stand with 100,000 pissed off democracy-loving patriots like I have, then you’ll feel and understand our power.
Many folks are prepped to ventilate some ICE officers. Seriously. Let’s hope we don’t get there, but I figure we will. Our economy will nose dive and few things create anger at the government as much as people losing it all.
More homes in my area have guns than don’t. Many of us are willing die to protect (y)our kids’ liberty, and we’ll take a few fascists with us on the way out - a fine way to serve one’s country.
It’s either that or a few congressional Repubelickins can step up and stop the whole mess. Or you can choose to live under tyranny and submit. I’d rather die for the cause if that’s what it takes.
Sorry, but I've heard people puff up their chest about "fighting back" since 2018, and very little has been done.
A few half-day protests...that's it.
Lawyers are fighting valiantly, activists are doing what they can, but 99% of Americans are treating this like a spectator sport...pretending that social media posting is "resistance".
What is stopping you today from confronting ICE officers?
Even Republicans are getting upset about the falling economy! Independents favor Democrats by 15 points for the 2026 elections. Have you seen the town hall meetings held by Congressional Republicans???
Trump never got past what we learned in late ‘50s social studies classes: Historical figures of note were all white males - generals, kings and popes. I
btw - My memory may be off, but it seems to me that California tried something like this in the late 60s, and discovered that - lo and behold - native-born Americans weren’t willing to spend very long days in the field doing “stoop” labor even for good pay!
There used to be a working system of migrant labor crossing back and forth but the fascists put a marine general from the Viet Nam war in charge of border security.
ICE is not doing border security. They showed up at the California governors press conference doing nothing but a show of intimidation. They are federal agents now starting to take on police work - detaining motorists based on color and smashing windows. The Posse Comitatus Act, enacted in 1878, restricts the use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement purposes. While not technically a branch of the “military” they sure as hell look like it with their armaments, guns, fatigues and vehicles.
One (but not the only) reason for putting soldiers in uniform is to give them anonymity. Lack of individuality gives them a sense of psychological safety to perform acts they normally would consider immoral, such as killing, raping, and pillaging. (Studies showed that only 15%-25% of soldiers in WWII combat fired their weapons at the enemy.) Of course, putting on masks overtly provides that same anonymity, which is why ICE agents, like old-west bandits, do it. They're ashamed of what they're being asked to do.
The article was talking about deporting labor. It reminded me of that podcast and a piece of history I had never heard of.
It is the crux of our immigration issues and the misconceptions about migrant labor.
I try to think in terms of communication with our opponents. How can yours and my understanding of what we are seeing be understood by our maga neighbors?
We have too many issues to convey to a mass of people that can only think in the binary. FUCK TRUMP only goes so far. But, FUCK TRUMP!
I commented above that some poor guy was killed earlier in the week when he ran to escape an ICE raid at our local Home Depot. Afterwards, on our local community FB pages, a disturbing number of people made comments along the lines of, "Well, he shouldn't have come here, should he?" "He was illegal." etc. About some poor 54 year old man trying to find work being terrorized and dying. With the MAGAts, the racism and hatred of the "other" is everything. (FWIW, the city as a whole voted heavily for Harris.)
I'm surprised we haven't seen ICE stop the wrong people and get into a firefight. Statistically, it's only a matter of time because of the number of firearms in this country. A lot of the ICE yahoos would get killed because they're untrained bullies in uniforms.
The problem isn't necessarily the work or the pay...
It's being able to work to pay for more than simply the child-care that permits them to work...essentially with no pay, while their children are (perhaps) with strangers.
Why have a job, if the ONLY advantage is to be away from their children 8 - 12 hours/day? (Well, you know what I mean...)
There is a straight line from Slavery in this country to Hitler’s Nazis and back to the current regime. The Lost Cause is still alive-just like Donnie, they still think they won👹
Nearly everything that happened in that movie bore no resemblance to what .actually happened in reality. That’s what I meant by fantasy, or delusion if you prefer. But I agree it’s coming back, by the direction of an increasingly illegitimate federal government. I’m not sure we’ll even make it to the midterms
What? You think he learned anything in social studies classes? I remind you that he was reprimanded for punching his second grade teacher in the face. I suspect Lil' Donnie was a piece of work (or wood, maybe) even way back when.
Your comment brought to mind Pinocchio (the marionette whose nose grew every time he told a lie) and Giupetto, which I fear I am conflating with Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob.
But T’s >30 k lies in his first term alone at, say, one inch per lie, would give him a nose . . . . at > 30,000 inches that’s more than 2,500 feet - or nearly one half mile long!
I wish I were a cartoonist - I could have some fun with this!
In VA, the jail population that works outside gets paid $2/hour. They have to work to pay off their boots and ourtside uniforms. They get paid about every 60 days. I know. I helped the incarcerated read the fine print from jail contracts. The county contracts for more but keeps the bulk. See the documentary 13th. It’s now free to watch. It documents the history of slavery to chain gang labor to current incarceration labor.
The GOP base is "basically" down to racists, misogynists, and religious zealots. There's no rational faction left. And yet, while the MAGA cultists do their best to destroy the country, the silence from the oligarchs who own congress is deafening. When the MAGA cult is finally driven out, the hammer needs to fall on the craven billionaire class who were willing to tacitly support the destruction of the US government in return for their 30 pieces of silver tax cuts.
Sadly I recieved an invitation from Smithsonian to take their magazine but how can I trust what they may publish as they capitulate to the "new order".
Make America Gray Again might fit the traditional colors of the US Civil War plus various literary references to certain extraterrestrials as Grays. And for all we know, maga is a word in their language.
It’s more than an acronym. We are facing the demographic force of the greying of America. Aging baby boomers, the 2025 population cliff of not replacing ourselves, labor shortage to care for the elderly, and a growing elderly homeless population. Not one to ever follow Fox News - ever - but -
After the war or immigrants is declared over, I expect the next "war" will be on the elderly.
They've already pillaged Medicaid. Next will be Medicare.
Social Security is too important to the MAGA rank-and-file to attack directly, so expect subterfuge. I think they'll start disqualifying SS recipients based on administrative minutiae, like if you have a spouse with a job… or later, an adult child with a job. Or a foreign address… or later, a Blue State address.
Even "white" people should be very afraid. If armed, masked men can kidnap anyone off the streets with impunity based solely on skin tone, then anyone who can tan is vulnerable. Don Jr is very dark for example (black hair and eyes and brown skin). And we all know how this goes. That white guy with the 'man bun' is next because he is obviously a liberal. That butchy looking white woman is obviously a lesbian and therefore against Trump so she goes too. And then there are the individual abuses that will happen. ICE agent doesn't like that white guy who flirted with his wife, so he gets disappeared.
Great point. Even 60 minutes has caved. Its last program was a human interest story. Heartfelt to be sure. But this is what you report about as our democracy is crumbling. For shame, 60 Minutes.
"He who wishes to establish an absolute power, such as ancient writers called a tyranny, must change everything. …. He should destroy the old cities and build new ones. …. He should leave nothing unchanged, so that there should be neither rank, nor grade, nor honor, nor wealth, that should not be recognized as coming from him." – Machiavelli.
Yes, it is much more serious. The basic reason for this being that it falls neatly into that space, which was outlined in Martin Niemöller’s plangent poem: First They Came. Since they haven’t come for us yet, it is not top of mind. But, trust me, Stephen Miller, and Russell Vought have thought it through to it’s fascist term, where we have concentration camps warmly welcoming everybody from undocumented immigrants to political dissenters.
I'm old enough to remember John McCain telling his White proto-MAGA audience that they would not pick lettuce, only to have a couple of his listeners shout out that they'd happily do that for $50 an hour. I think that mindset--that somehow picking lettuce will become a lucrative career and yet the price of lettuce will magically remain low--pervades much of the MAGA approach to the economy. It's all magic smoke and mirrors that doesn't work the way any of those so-called experts say it does--and when the experts are proven correct? Well, it's all just a conspiracy to make Donald Trump look bad.
Reading about the subject, there seems to be a consensus that the system as it is cannot function without low wages for hard jobs (modern slavery). 50$ an hour is probably what is needed for a family of 4 to afford housing, healthcare, and education in our everything for profit capitalist society. Anyone having a full-time job should be paid enough to live. And I find the activity of picking lettuce more important than Amazon or Google whose main activity is enshitification.
No. You forget McCain's foray into MAGA land with Sara Palin. You forget his hard work to ensure the banking/savings & loan corruption of the 1980s did not harm his corrupt friends. You forget the derogatory terms he used on his wife in public. He had good points, but he was not to be trusted.
IOW, I think what you're saying is that by electing Obama (who was black, you know), we roused the sleeping MAGAt beast who was outraged that a black man would ever hold a position of power "above" them. I remember reading a NY Times piece during one of Obama's terms about a white Southern woman who went from Repub to Dem - and one of the reasons for the switch was listening to her friends, when speaking of Obama, say, "I'm so tired off seeing that black face." It brought the outright racists out from under their rocks, and, well, here we are.
McCain would have been yet another instance of kicking the can down the road. A caste system with only wealthy white “Christian” males as Brahmins has always been at odds with the sentiments expressed in the Declaration of Independence. McCain would only have temporarily delayed open conflict.
And there will be all kinds of unpleasant ripple effects coming from this. Farmers don't grow produce for the fun of it. They expect a reasonable return and when they can't harvest or sell what they grow - they will lose their farms. if that happens often enough, the banks go down with them,,, and on and on. And what of all the things those agriculture workers bought with their meagre pay? The bodegas go down. In the aggregate, The US will be much poorer. tRump is an economic disaster in slow motion.
Yes farmers are struggling. Combine the loss of workforce, they are getting hit with market restrictions for their crops. The reality of U.S.A.I.D. was that the US government bought much of the percentage of US farm crops to distribute across the globe. That market has disappeared. China, prior to Trumps last term, bought significant amounts of crops from US farmers. With trumps tariffs (that Biden maintained), China has resourced crops to be sourced from Brazil. Small/medium family farms are a small percentage of farms and those that exist will be in trouble. The vast majority of farmers are large companies. They may be able to survive, but are already operating under very slim margins and may not as well.
But farmers are on social media and watch FOX. They want to be on the "right" side of the culture wars, which are still fought constantly on right wing media. Identity politics over substance severely weakened the Democratic party.
It may feel like slow motion now, because it's just beginning. A vehicle that plunges off a roadside cliff doesn't reach terminal velocity right away, but the acceleration due to gravity is inexorable. Then it's terror all the way down to the crash. The pace will pick up rapidly.
Farm labor is *skilled* labor. The skills are handed down in families. The unskilled are not able to do the work physically, and they ruin the produce. They don't know how to tend the growing plants. They pick at the wrong time, they mishandle, they mispack, they don't protect the produce, and it becomes worthless. All alternatives (slaves from the urban incarcerated, high school athletes, unemployed, offering a high wage and charging premium prices) have failed because of this. Think of it this way: how many Americans would pitch to Aaron Judge if offered $100? And how many could strike him out?
The majority of farms in the US are corporations with employees, who work under farm managers. The labor doesn’t require high level of skills. It does require tenacity and grit. Laboring on a farm is hard work….which is why much of the labor is immigrants who don’t have many other options.
When I share this information, I often feel like I'm discussing reality with psychotics. 1/3 of the public shares in Trump's delusions and 1/3 are disconnected from political life entirely. The facts about the effects of Trump administration policy seem to have little effect on public discourse. The MSM are no help; I read the NYT and other major outlets, and when they cover the administration they either soft-pedal what's going on or leave it out entirely. It's why I'm glad the Democrats in the TX legislature are ripping up their "permission slips." Until enough people openly take oppositional stances - repeatedly -- the administration will continue to roll over our rights and our prosperity.
That is true, few people can discern the impact of Trump policies....until it hits their lives and pockets. I am angry that he is making us, middle class, pay more for everything in every possible way he can, with tariffs (we pay), child care, elderly care, higher healthcare premiums, worse access to good research, weakened consumer protections....
I live in the Hudson Valley, about 1.5 hours by car from NYC. Neighbors hired a tree cutter to take down several trees which threaten their house as they age. The tree cutter and staff worked for one day. The next day, the staff didn't show up for work. After a week, the tree cutter's trucks are still there, as are the remaining trees. The staff may or may not have been undocumented, but the situation reflects the knock-on effects of an already tight labor market, made worse by deportations.
The same sort of thing is happening here in New Jersey. There has been a turn-over in the lawn care companies, with the ones I saw in Spring being replaced by ones I've never seen before.
I'm in the middle of reading Erik Larson's phenomenal book on Hitler's rise, "In the Garden of Beasts." Comparisons between the Third Reich and MAGA can quickly become overblown, but one cannot deny there are disturbing similarities these days, and they are only getting worse by the day. At what point is the line crossed, and then what?
I try and avoid comparing America's fascists to Nazis, because Nazis are a bit of an outlier. The fascism of Spain or Italy is more typical, and I imagine that's where America's fascists are headed, a full authoritarian police state with deportations, not genocide and not trying to take over the world.
I went to the World Press Photo exhibition the other day to indulge in a bit of misery. One of the photos was taken in El Salvador and the narrative explained how, to tackle gangs, the government suspended various human rights. The result; horrific abuses of power and crushing with utter indifference entirely innocent people.
I guess Americans used to think ‘I’m glad I don’t live somewhere like that’ but no more.
America has become an awful fascist and corrupt country. No trust anymore. The coup is over. Say bye bye to any next elections. And bow to that big awful deranged and obsessed convict. On your knees!! Unless... the people finally wake up and say No pasaran. Fuck von trump and his goons
You are heading for a civil war - Slouching towards Bethlehem (Yeats). The militia are in D.C to protect the presidency and the administration anticipating such a development. After all who would have guessed January 6.
Clearly, these ICE agents are "Trump's Gestapo." That there are Americans who are perfectly fine with this situation is distressing. There have always been simply bad people, but I find it hard to hold in any high regard those who are still loyal Republicans. They are either oblivious or they are not really good people. I think "amnesty" may be extended to Trump voters who now realize their error and have joined the Resistance. The rest are hopeless and must be somehow marginalized.
Yes, and the day that America finds out it needs to attract workers, no one will want to come. The US has enjoyed a sort of "Exorbitant privilege" in unskilled labor because it was seen as the place where you could build a life with hard work, unlike many other countries, where your rights were not respected. etc. Instead, thanks to ICE, the US is gaining a reputation for repression and abuse. Did you ever wonder why illegal immigrants came to the US and did not dream of going to China? It will be hard to persuade the needed workers to come back after the Gulags. ICE is destroying something of great value for the US, the good will and good reputation as a democratic country. Why not concentrate on fixing the visa and entry system? .. offer illegal workers a way to stay temporarily, pay taxes, travel back home on legal transportation. Oh and send Steve Miller to El Salvador.
It is sad and unnecessary. The US needs immigrants, even undocumented ones, especially ones who have been good non-citizens for years or decades.
There's nothing wrong with securing the border. Even some democrats support that. Republicans have used immigration as a wedge issue in elections for years (as have democrats in some ways).
It is more than unfortunate that innocent people, and now American citizens (indirectly) are suffering because of overly aggressive and sometimes illegal enforcement actions happening now. The administration has overplayed its hand. It might take a while for that to register. It’ll probably take a decisive mid-term victory to reverse some of the damage.
It was Trump who quashed an immigration bill before the election. Too bad Congress can’t step in and restore some order to immigration enforcement and paths to citizenship.
In the EU, citizenship eligibility starts at 5-10 years.
Quibble: "Even some Democrats support [securing the border]." I would say that ALL Democrats support securing the border. It is just a matter of the ways it is secured. We also support enhanced legal immigration and have wanted to greatly increase the number of pathways to various visa programs and the number of pathways to citizenship.
Many who are being rounded up are already here legally and whose rights are being abused by nameless and faceless goons.
For most of my 75 years, my country has made it more and more difficult for assholes to operate publicly. Racist assholes, sexist assholes, just assholes on principle, often backed by local law enforcement, often comprising local law enforcement. The asshole jocks who picked on the kid with glasses in the locker room, you know who I mean. To them, Jefferson's "pursuit of happiness" included the God-given right to act like assholes toward people who couldn't fight back. When Roe was decided over 50 years ago, most of them didn't even notice. But then it occurred to many that this was a great issue for women-haters to gather around. So much of what makes up the GOP is "find something that pisses off formerly entitled assholes and then whip it up." Now, suddenly, it's admirable again to act like an asshole as long as the target of your ire has first been made illegitimate.
You could call the Trump resurgence The Revenge of the Assholes.
Im to the point where I truly wonder if bankrupting farmers is the end game. The vultures like Vance buy it up. All those people in ICE facilities are then made to work these fields as slave labor. I shudder at the thought we care so little about our neighbors.
MAGA is “Make America White Again”. Not only this, but look at Trump’s efforts to erase slavery from the Smithsonian.
From the start that is what it meant. I knew it. Glad you knew it too. Praying on the fear and anger of white people who don't understand who made them poor. Wanting a by-gone era when rural America was white...
Guess what. Rural America never was white. It was just segregated, so the only people rural white people saw were white. The only people rural black people saw were black, and so forth. When people are afraid to step out of their exclusive ghettos (yeah, white ghettos are still ghettos), they don't know who's out there.
Actually, I'm somewhat misusing the word "ghetto" because that word usually refers specifically to urban neighborhoods packed with unassimilated minority individuals. I saw, however, similar neighborhoods in suburban Massachusetts in the first half of the 20th century. The same dynamics were at work there as we expect to see in urban ghettos: high unemployment, limited access to resources, and a decline in quality of life. A similar phenomenon exists in rural ghettos as well. Hence my use of the word "ghetto" for such areas in all three settings.
Basically, the phenomenon appears in all races and ethnic groups. It's the old saying, "Birds of a feather flock together." This phenomenon is called "kin selection" by ethologists. It is the observed preference of all animals to associate with others that "look like me." Look around you. If your neighbors all look like you, act like you, and think like you, you live in a ghetto. It limits your experiences, options, and knowledge.
We are all the same race. Just different colors, ethnicity and culture.
You forgot the part where some believe they’re vastly superior—born with a supposed right to declare others inferior. That poisonous delusion has fueled oppression for centuries."
The "poisonous delusion" IS the oppression! Note, however, that kinship selection competes with its polar opposite, symbiosis. Symbiosis is the tendency to include "others" in our preferred groups. For example, humans keep pets in a relationship that benefits the survivability of both species. Wild cat populations are endangered, while domestic cat populations have to be controlled.
I once pointed out that, "If you have an elephant for a friend, you don't need to invent a forklift." This is the reason DEI is important for good corporate governance.
Well, "race" refers to color (and a few other attributes). We're all the same species. America's racial divide is equivalent to Collie dogs being prejudiced against German Shepherds.
Those kinship groups, as well as unrelated affiliate groups provide cross-sectional support for their members with real survival value. It's not just for look-alikes, although throughout history tribal forces have worked like this. But, as Mr. Mamdani appears to have discovered, people can and do affiliate and work together to resolve common problems and meet common needs.
A not so clever spam bot. Reported.
Knoxville integrated the schools for my last year of high school. I was amazed at how many black people lived in my school district. Not that there were all that many, but we never saw them.
Re; Rural Segregation
A friend who is black/white told of her father saying that down in texass school segregation was whites on one side of the room and blacks on the other. Good order was maintained as long as you sat on your side of the room.
Yes, my father is black and American Indian, raised Catholic and he married my white, secular Jewish mom. I look tan. My family ranges in color from blue-black to blonde and red-head. Luckily I grew up in NYC in the 1960's. My black cousins, while living in rich areas, experienced racism big-time as did my dad. I witnessed it. This is lynch-pin (excuse the expression) that keeps Americans from looking at the Upper Classes...and fighting each other...always has been. Skin color.
My friend has a beautiful permanent tan. I have no protection from the sun other than covering up or staying out of the sun. I brown and peel or burn and peel. I am jealous of folks who can enjoy the sun.
Disagree, think you are missing the point in contemporary America. Color isn’t the big deal it’s class/ culture. You can buy what you want, live where you want, etc. but no matter your skin color, but today people are being held back by cash/class/culture no matter their color.
Perhaps you should read Krugman's article again. And the definition of racial profiling.
I get it. It's about money. If you are rich, you can get whatever you want, get away with murder, etc. The 3% own more than the 50% of us.
Interesting. All my neighbors look like me, older, white, same economic status, but speak with them and you will find we are very different in terms of education, religion, culture, and politics. Like me, I’ld guess some of them would have had grandfathers would fist fight because of different origin countries and religions. Hmmm..
I grew up in a community that was 99% white, and there were plenty of confrontations, often violent. Protestants vs Catholics. Blue collar vs white collar. High school graduates vs college graduates. Gill netters vs line fishermen. Loggers vs mill workers. I suspect the US would never have become a country if there hadn’t been indigenous and African people to demonize, thereby creating a white identity for disparate European immigrants to rally around.
I've been to family reunions here in Appalachia where fist fights broke out. Remember Hatfield vs. McCoy? White supremacy is wishful thinking.
Exactly, poor white forever.
Amen- people lov e to fight and have a reason to do it outside their homes.
Godfrey Cambridge had one of the best comments on white, religious racism I've heard.
He said he had to walk thru a white Christian neighborhood each day to school and every day he got set upon by the whites.
One day he was told, "my god is bigger than your god, my god is stronger than your god, my god is smarter than yours".
Godfrey replied, "he better be smarter cause you people tell him everything!"
But having white skin offers privilege in this country; you will not be stopped while driving as tan-brown-black. Nun's wear habits, but if you were a hijab you may be stopped, but not if you are orthodox and wear a shied(?)...This is selective racism.
Actually, the original "ghettos" were neighborhoods that were gated and locked - from the outside - basically prisons. The Warsaw ghetto is the best known example of this.
"Birds of a feather flock together."
This seems to be less the case in Canada, which has an ethic of "multi-cultural diversity" as opposed to the "melting pot" ethic of the US.
This is the core principle of in-group/out-group attribution theory in psychology. It's a form of intergroup bias where people's attributions for other groups are biased in a way that favors their in-group and discriminates against out-group…. The word ghetto originated in Europe to describe Jewish neighborhoods.
Since Reconstruction, rural America has pretty much been populated by white people. The percentage of Black farmers and ranchers was never high and it's been declining since Reconstruction. That said, MAGA plans to force Black Americans and other humans into major cities as a form of internment.
MAGA wish to move freely in the countryside to reshape the continent to better meet to their non-human needs. In particular they will clear-cut the trees and remove most vegetation. They might use Elon Musk's tunneling equipment (The Boring Company) to make new communities which hold their preferred atmospheric mix. They likely will relocate humans from beachfront communities as they connect the tunnels to beaches.
First they gotta get rid of the middle class.
Maybe they can raise the gasoline price inside cities so the middle class is stuck.
Its a little out there.
Amen. That’s what it is. I’m white and I know this. I believe we are experiencing the death throes of the KKK legacy and white rule in the US. MAGA is flailing. We will defeat them.
How will we defeat them?
Vote them out. If that doesn’t work, drag them out. Some will be hurt. Some will die. This is the cost of liberty.
The Trump administration, GOP state legislatures, and SCOTUS are working 24/7 to stop free and fair elections.
Gerrymandering, intimidation, a new census, relentless propaganda.
Voting out Republicans in 2026 is more wishful thinking than reality, and becomes less plausible by the day.
I don't know what "dragging them out" means. Who exactly is going to stand up against armed ICE officers with "shoot to kill" orders after a fixed election?
This is a fantasy.
Ok buddy… the American Revolutionaries were so outmatched. Ukraine was going to be toppled in 3 days. You really think this weak ass government can stand up to us? Get into a march in a big city. Stand with 100,000 pissed off democracy-loving patriots like I have, then you’ll feel and understand our power.
Many folks are prepped to ventilate some ICE officers. Seriously. Let’s hope we don’t get there, but I figure we will. Our economy will nose dive and few things create anger at the government as much as people losing it all.
More homes in my area have guns than don’t. Many of us are willing die to protect (y)our kids’ liberty, and we’ll take a few fascists with us on the way out - a fine way to serve one’s country.
It’s either that or a few congressional Repubelickins can step up and stop the whole mess. Or you can choose to live under tyranny and submit. I’d rather die for the cause if that’s what it takes.
Sorry, but I've heard people puff up their chest about "fighting back" since 2018, and very little has been done.
A few half-day protests...that's it.
Lawyers are fighting valiantly, activists are doing what they can, but 99% of Americans are treating this like a spectator sport...pretending that social media posting is "resistance".
What is stopping you today from confronting ICE officers?
Exactly! Don’t think about what they will do to you, think about what you’re going to do to them.
Even a hopeful fantasy is better than what MAGA wants us to feel now...
I understand the sentiment, but fantasies allow us to be lulled into inaction.
It's far, far later than people believe.
Our ability to vote them out may be disappearing....
Its going to take a general strike.
Even Republicans are getting upset about the falling economy! Independents favor Democrats by 15 points for the 2026 elections. Have you seen the town hall meetings held by Congressional Republicans???
Im not sure how you're planning on defeating then, but you've definitely got them out in the open now.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton, "It's the racism, stupid."
Trump never got past what we learned in late ‘50s social studies classes: Historical figures of note were all white males - generals, kings and popes. I
btw - My memory may be off, but it seems to me that California tried something like this in the late 60s, and discovered that - lo and behold - native-born Americans weren’t willing to spend very long days in the field doing “stoop” labor even for good pay!
There used to be a working system of migrant labor crossing back and forth but the fascists put a marine general from the Viet Nam war in charge of border security.
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/general-chapmans-last-stand
Same people, different generation.
ICE is not doing border security. They showed up at the California governors press conference doing nothing but a show of intimidation. They are federal agents now starting to take on police work - detaining motorists based on color and smashing windows. The Posse Comitatus Act, enacted in 1878, restricts the use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement purposes. While not technically a branch of the “military” they sure as hell look like it with their armaments, guns, fatigues and vehicles.
One (but not the only) reason for putting soldiers in uniform is to give them anonymity. Lack of individuality gives them a sense of psychological safety to perform acts they normally would consider immoral, such as killing, raping, and pillaging. (Studies showed that only 15%-25% of soldiers in WWII combat fired their weapons at the enemy.) Of course, putting on masks overtly provides that same anonymity, which is why ICE agents, like old-west bandits, do it. They're ashamed of what they're being asked to do.
It's a Gestapo, plain and simple. We have to get real.
I am taking offense with your description of our soldiers as rapist and pillagers”
I get that.
The article was talking about deporting labor. It reminded me of that podcast and a piece of history I had never heard of.
It is the crux of our immigration issues and the misconceptions about migrant labor.
I try to think in terms of communication with our opponents. How can yours and my understanding of what we are seeing be understood by our maga neighbors?
We have too many issues to convey to a mass of people that can only think in the binary. FUCK TRUMP only goes so far. But, FUCK TRUMP!
I commented above that some poor guy was killed earlier in the week when he ran to escape an ICE raid at our local Home Depot. Afterwards, on our local community FB pages, a disturbing number of people made comments along the lines of, "Well, he shouldn't have come here, should he?" "He was illegal." etc. About some poor 54 year old man trying to find work being terrorized and dying. With the MAGAts, the racism and hatred of the "other" is everything. (FWIW, the city as a whole voted heavily for Harris.)
Brown Shirts without badges or uniform. Stazi, SAS, etc.
I'm surprised we haven't seen ICE stop the wrong people and get into a firefight. Statistically, it's only a matter of time because of the number of firearms in this country. A lot of the ICE yahoos would get killed because they're untrained bullies in uniforms.
It seems as if large numbers of ICE converge on a single person. They have to have overwhelming odds, apparently.
The problem isn't necessarily the work or the pay...
It's being able to work to pay for more than simply the child-care that permits them to work...essentially with no pay, while their children are (perhaps) with strangers.
Why have a job, if the ONLY advantage is to be away from their children 8 - 12 hours/day? (Well, you know what I mean...)
There was an experiment like that in North Carolina in 2013:
He still lives in the time when the Lost Cause dominated US history teaching. He thinks Gone With the Wind and Birth of a Nation are documentaries.
There is a straight line from Slavery in this country to Hitler’s Nazis and back to the current regime. The Lost Cause is still alive-just like Donnie, they still think they won👹
Birth of a Nation kind of was...
Nah. It was pretty much a fantasy.
Respectfully, Edwin,
I've lived in the rural Deep South for >60 years, and it's STILL true to some degree.
An awful lot of it will be true again, if the midterms get tanked.
Nearly everything that happened in that movie bore no resemblance to what .actually happened in reality. That’s what I meant by fantasy, or delusion if you prefer. But I agree it’s coming back, by the direction of an increasingly illegitimate federal government. I’m not sure we’ll even make it to the midterms
What? You think he learned anything in social studies classes? I remind you that he was reprimanded for punching his second grade teacher in the face. I suspect Lil' Donnie was a piece of work (or wood, maybe) even way back when.
His folks didn't send him to military school b/c they thought he'd want a career in the military. It was b/c he was incorrigible.
And because then they wouldn't have to see him at all for months at a time?
What’s more concerning to me is that so many voters seem to worship him.
Your comment brought to mind Pinocchio (the marionette whose nose grew every time he told a lie) and Giupetto, which I fear I am conflating with Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob.
But T’s >30 k lies in his first term alone at, say, one inch per lie, would give him a nose . . . . at > 30,000 inches that’s more than 2,500 feet - or nearly one half mile long!
I wish I were a cartoonist - I could have some fun with this!
But I don’t remember how that story ends.
🤷🏽♀️
I expect that those in detention will be forced into agricultural and construction labor. IOW enslaved.
In VA, the jail population that works outside gets paid $2/hour. They have to work to pay off their boots and ourtside uniforms. They get paid about every 60 days. I know. I helped the incarcerated read the fine print from jail contracts. The county contracts for more but keeps the bulk. See the documentary 13th. It’s now free to watch. It documents the history of slavery to chain gang labor to current incarceration labor.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_(film)
Yeah, in 1st grade Memphis Tenn we were taken to two places, the Wonderbread factory and the Shelby County Penal Farm.
At the Penal Farm I saw lots of black men in striped uniforms and the biggest hog I've ever seen.
I knew even then that something was wrong there, and the treatment of blacks was... obvious. It was racist.
That was in the early 60s when Tennessee had the no.3 rated public schools in the nation. It was a few more years before I figured Wonderbread out.
It's not food.
I suppose some of my cohort liked seeing black men being abused, but most were very quiet and reserved and normally they weren't.
The GOP base is "basically" down to racists, misogynists, and religious zealots. There's no rational faction left. And yet, while the MAGA cultists do their best to destroy the country, the silence from the oligarchs who own congress is deafening. When the MAGA cult is finally driven out, the hammer needs to fall on the craven billionaire class who were willing to tacitly support the destruction of the US government in return for their 30 pieces of silver tax cuts.
💯
Sadly I recieved an invitation from Smithsonian to take their magazine but how can I trust what they may publish as they capitulate to the "new order".
Doesn't Rupert Murdoch own it now?
He wants to talk about the good parts of slavery.
Make America Gray Again might fit the traditional colors of the US Civil War plus various literary references to certain extraterrestrials as Grays. And for all we know, maga is a word in their language.
Never thought of the MAGA acronym as that. Good one.
It’s more than an acronym. We are facing the demographic force of the greying of America. Aging baby boomers, the 2025 population cliff of not replacing ourselves, labor shortage to care for the elderly, and a growing elderly homeless population. Not one to ever follow Fox News - ever - but -
https://fortune.com/2023/12/02/housing-baby-boomers-aging-homelessness-elderly/
After the war or immigrants is declared over, I expect the next "war" will be on the elderly.
They've already pillaged Medicaid. Next will be Medicare.
Social Security is too important to the MAGA rank-and-file to attack directly, so expect subterfuge. I think they'll start disqualifying SS recipients based on administrative minutiae, like if you have a spouse with a job… or later, an adult child with a job. Or a foreign address… or later, a Blue State address.
That's already happening to poor women:
https://joadt.substack.com/p/the-paperwork-will-kill-you
Bullies pick on the weak.
With RFK in at the FDA, all they have to do is ban antibiotics. Flu and pneumonia will quickly "fix" the excess elderly problem, the "natural" way.
<ouch> I recently had oral surgery that might not have been possible without antibiotics, I have such a dirty mouth!
Thanks for sharing.
Even "white" people should be very afraid. If armed, masked men can kidnap anyone off the streets with impunity based solely on skin tone, then anyone who can tan is vulnerable. Don Jr is very dark for example (black hair and eyes and brown skin). And we all know how this goes. That white guy with the 'man bun' is next because he is obviously a liberal. That butchy looking white woman is obviously a lesbian and therefore against Trump so she goes too. And then there are the individual abuses that will happen. ICE agent doesn't like that white guy who flirted with his wife, so he gets disappeared.
I’d say it’s “Make America Gross Again”—which is exactly what Trump is doing.
This is much more serious than the media are giving it credit for. This is part of the fascism playbook.
Great point. Even 60 minutes has caved. Its last program was a human interest story. Heartfelt to be sure. But this is what you report about as our democracy is crumbling. For shame, 60 Minutes.
Dan Rather, from the older days of 60 Minutes and now over 90, has a Substack and he hasn’t caved. You can subscribe for free.
https://steady.substack.com/
No surprise about 60 minutes after what happened to Colbert!
Remember, all the actual journalists quit 60 minutes and CBS.
The legacy media is truly complicit.
And their business is entertainment. They give the people what they want, just like Perdue Pharma and OxyContin.
"He who wishes to establish an absolute power, such as ancient writers called a tyranny, must change everything. …. He should destroy the old cities and build new ones. …. He should leave nothing unchanged, so that there should be neither rank, nor grade, nor honor, nor wealth, that should not be recognized as coming from him." – Machiavelli.
right out of the fascist book
Yes, it is much more serious. The basic reason for this being that it falls neatly into that space, which was outlined in Martin Niemöller’s plangent poem: First They Came. Since they haven’t come for us yet, it is not top of mind. But, trust me, Stephen Miller, and Russell Vought have thought it through to it’s fascist term, where we have concentration camps warmly welcoming everybody from undocumented immigrants to political dissenters.
Absolutely part of the fascism playbook!
I'm old enough to remember John McCain telling his White proto-MAGA audience that they would not pick lettuce, only to have a couple of his listeners shout out that they'd happily do that for $50 an hour. I think that mindset--that somehow picking lettuce will become a lucrative career and yet the price of lettuce will magically remain low--pervades much of the MAGA approach to the economy. It's all magic smoke and mirrors that doesn't work the way any of those so-called experts say it does--and when the experts are proven correct? Well, it's all just a conspiracy to make Donald Trump look bad.
Reading about the subject, there seems to be a consensus that the system as it is cannot function without low wages for hard jobs (modern slavery). 50$ an hour is probably what is needed for a family of 4 to afford housing, healthcare, and education in our everything for profit capitalist society. Anyone having a full-time job should be paid enough to live. And I find the activity of picking lettuce more important than Amazon or Google whose main activity is enshitification.
No. You forget McCain's foray into MAGA land with Sara Palin. You forget his hard work to ensure the banking/savings & loan corruption of the 1980s did not harm his corrupt friends. You forget the derogatory terms he used on his wife in public. He had good points, but he was not to be trusted.
And yet, as a measure of how far the US has fallen, especially the GOP, people like McCain and GW Bush, are now looking like wise statesmen.
IOW, I think what you're saying is that by electing Obama (who was black, you know), we roused the sleeping MAGAt beast who was outraged that a black man would ever hold a position of power "above" them. I remember reading a NY Times piece during one of Obama's terms about a white Southern woman who went from Repub to Dem - and one of the reasons for the switch was listening to her friends, when speaking of Obama, say, "I'm so tired off seeing that black face." It brought the outright racists out from under their rocks, and, well, here we are.
McCain would have been yet another instance of kicking the can down the road. A caste system with only wealthy white “Christian” males as Brahmins has always been at odds with the sentiments expressed in the Declaration of Independence. McCain would only have temporarily delayed open conflict.
The results of deportations are already seen in the pricing of vegetables.
And there will be all kinds of unpleasant ripple effects coming from this. Farmers don't grow produce for the fun of it. They expect a reasonable return and when they can't harvest or sell what they grow - they will lose their farms. if that happens often enough, the banks go down with them,,, and on and on. And what of all the things those agriculture workers bought with their meagre pay? The bodegas go down. In the aggregate, The US will be much poorer. tRump is an economic disaster in slow motion.
Yes farmers are struggling. Combine the loss of workforce, they are getting hit with market restrictions for their crops. The reality of U.S.A.I.D. was that the US government bought much of the percentage of US farm crops to distribute across the globe. That market has disappeared. China, prior to Trumps last term, bought significant amounts of crops from US farmers. With trumps tariffs (that Biden maintained), China has resourced crops to be sourced from Brazil. Small/medium family farms are a small percentage of farms and those that exist will be in trouble. The vast majority of farmers are large companies. They may be able to survive, but are already operating under very slim margins and may not as well.
But farmers are on social media and watch FOX. They want to be on the "right" side of the culture wars, which are still fought constantly on right wing media. Identity politics over substance severely weakened the Democratic party.
How many farmers have already “lost” their farms to foreign investors, hedge funds and other types of investment companies?
tRump has honked off pretty much everyone else in the world. Who is going to buy all the corn, soybeans, cotton, peanuts, etc?
It may feel like slow motion now, because it's just beginning. A vehicle that plunges off a roadside cliff doesn't reach terminal velocity right away, but the acceleration due to gravity is inexorable. Then it's terror all the way down to the crash. The pace will pick up rapidly.
Soon the whole world may be begging for more "slow motion", for lack of other options.
Farm labor is *skilled* labor. The skills are handed down in families. The unskilled are not able to do the work physically, and they ruin the produce. They don't know how to tend the growing plants. They pick at the wrong time, they mishandle, they mispack, they don't protect the produce, and it becomes worthless. All alternatives (slaves from the urban incarcerated, high school athletes, unemployed, offering a high wage and charging premium prices) have failed because of this. Think of it this way: how many Americans would pitch to Aaron Judge if offered $100? And how many could strike him out?
The majority of farms in the US are corporations with employees, who work under farm managers. The labor doesn’t require high level of skills. It does require tenacity and grit. Laboring on a farm is hard work….which is why much of the labor is immigrants who don’t have many other options.
Yes. It’s the same in almost all states. It’s easy to look up as crop insurance payments are listed each year and reported by owning entity.
When I share this information, I often feel like I'm discussing reality with psychotics. 1/3 of the public shares in Trump's delusions and 1/3 are disconnected from political life entirely. The facts about the effects of Trump administration policy seem to have little effect on public discourse. The MSM are no help; I read the NYT and other major outlets, and when they cover the administration they either soft-pedal what's going on or leave it out entirely. It's why I'm glad the Democrats in the TX legislature are ripping up their "permission slips." Until enough people openly take oppositional stances - repeatedly -- the administration will continue to roll over our rights and our prosperity.
That is true, few people can discern the impact of Trump policies....until it hits their lives and pockets. I am angry that he is making us, middle class, pay more for everything in every possible way he can, with tariffs (we pay), child care, elderly care, higher healthcare premiums, worse access to good research, weakened consumer protections....
I live in the Hudson Valley, about 1.5 hours by car from NYC. Neighbors hired a tree cutter to take down several trees which threaten their house as they age. The tree cutter and staff worked for one day. The next day, the staff didn't show up for work. After a week, the tree cutter's trucks are still there, as are the remaining trees. The staff may or may not have been undocumented, but the situation reflects the knock-on effects of an already tight labor market, made worse by deportations.
The same sort of thing is happening here in New Jersey. There has been a turn-over in the lawn care companies, with the ones I saw in Spring being replaced by ones I've never seen before.
I'm in the middle of reading Erik Larson's phenomenal book on Hitler's rise, "In the Garden of Beasts." Comparisons between the Third Reich and MAGA can quickly become overblown, but one cannot deny there are disturbing similarities these days, and they are only getting worse by the day. At what point is the line crossed, and then what?
I try and avoid comparing America's fascists to Nazis, because Nazis are a bit of an outlier. The fascism of Spain or Italy is more typical, and I imagine that's where America's fascists are headed, a full authoritarian police state with deportations, not genocide and not trying to take over the world.
Larson is great! Thanks for the lead - I'll see if the library can get it.
I got it on ThriftBooks for less than six dollars.
I went to the World Press Photo exhibition the other day to indulge in a bit of misery. One of the photos was taken in El Salvador and the narrative explained how, to tackle gangs, the government suspended various human rights. The result; horrific abuses of power and crushing with utter indifference entirely innocent people.
I guess Americans used to think ‘I’m glad I don’t live somewhere like that’ but no more.
America has become an awful fascist and corrupt country. No trust anymore. The coup is over. Say bye bye to any next elections. And bow to that big awful deranged and obsessed convict. On your knees!! Unless... the people finally wake up and say No pasaran. Fuck von trump and his goons
You are heading for a civil war - Slouching towards Bethlehem (Yeats). The militia are in D.C to protect the presidency and the administration anticipating such a development. After all who would have guessed January 6.
I agree.
Labor Day protests are near you. Find one,make a sign, wear comfortable shoes and get out there and make your voice heard.
3% of the population is the tripping point for change. No bellyaching, walk the walk.
Clearly, these ICE agents are "Trump's Gestapo." That there are Americans who are perfectly fine with this situation is distressing. There have always been simply bad people, but I find it hard to hold in any high regard those who are still loyal Republicans. They are either oblivious or they are not really good people. I think "amnesty" may be extended to Trump voters who now realize their error and have joined the Resistance. The rest are hopeless and must be somehow marginalized.
At this point in time, if you support Trump, you are definitely not a "good person."
Yes, and the day that America finds out it needs to attract workers, no one will want to come. The US has enjoyed a sort of "Exorbitant privilege" in unskilled labor because it was seen as the place where you could build a life with hard work, unlike many other countries, where your rights were not respected. etc. Instead, thanks to ICE, the US is gaining a reputation for repression and abuse. Did you ever wonder why illegal immigrants came to the US and did not dream of going to China? It will be hard to persuade the needed workers to come back after the Gulags. ICE is destroying something of great value for the US, the good will and good reputation as a democratic country. Why not concentrate on fixing the visa and entry system? .. offer illegal workers a way to stay temporarily, pay taxes, travel back home on legal transportation. Oh and send Steve Miller to El Salvador.
It is sad and unnecessary. The US needs immigrants, even undocumented ones, especially ones who have been good non-citizens for years or decades.
There's nothing wrong with securing the border. Even some democrats support that. Republicans have used immigration as a wedge issue in elections for years (as have democrats in some ways).
It is more than unfortunate that innocent people, and now American citizens (indirectly) are suffering because of overly aggressive and sometimes illegal enforcement actions happening now. The administration has overplayed its hand. It might take a while for that to register. It’ll probably take a decisive mid-term victory to reverse some of the damage.
It was Trump who quashed an immigration bill before the election. Too bad Congress can’t step in and restore some order to immigration enforcement and paths to citizenship.
In the EU, citizenship eligibility starts at 5-10 years.
I guess Congress is at least trying to step in: https://www.wired.com/story/senate-probe-uncovers-widespread-abuse-in-ice-custody/
Checks and balances don't work if people look the other way.
Quibble: "Even some Democrats support [securing the border]." I would say that ALL Democrats support securing the border. It is just a matter of the ways it is secured. We also support enhanced legal immigration and have wanted to greatly increase the number of pathways to various visa programs and the number of pathways to citizenship.
Many who are being rounded up are already here legally and whose rights are being abused by nameless and faceless goons.
For most of my 75 years, my country has made it more and more difficult for assholes to operate publicly. Racist assholes, sexist assholes, just assholes on principle, often backed by local law enforcement, often comprising local law enforcement. The asshole jocks who picked on the kid with glasses in the locker room, you know who I mean. To them, Jefferson's "pursuit of happiness" included the God-given right to act like assholes toward people who couldn't fight back. When Roe was decided over 50 years ago, most of them didn't even notice. But then it occurred to many that this was a great issue for women-haters to gather around. So much of what makes up the GOP is "find something that pisses off formerly entitled assholes and then whip it up." Now, suddenly, it's admirable again to act like an asshole as long as the target of your ire has first been made illegitimate.
You could call the Trump resurgence The Revenge of the Assholes.
Alabama tried banning immigrants years ago, and the unpicked tomatoes rotted in the fields.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/14/alabama-immigration-law-workers
Im to the point where I truly wonder if bankrupting farmers is the end game. The vultures like Vance buy it up. All those people in ICE facilities are then made to work these fields as slave labor. I shudder at the thought we care so little about our neighbors.