The topic of xenophobia reared its head with a member offering this story:
Acres of orange groves sat unpicked in Kern County this week as word of Border Patrol raids circulated through Messenger chats and images of federal agents detaining laborers spread on local Facebook groups.
The Border Patrol conducted unannounced raids throughout Bakersfield on Tuesday, descending on businesses where day laborers and field workers gather. Agents in unmarked SUVs rounded up people in vans outside a Home Depot and gas station that serves a breakfast popular with field workers.
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This is Day 3: We have who-knows-how-many-years-to-go… to go.
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A member here offered this: And now we’re abandoning the Afghans who helped us fight the Taliban back when that was a priority.
Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S., including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump’s order suspending U.S. refugee programs, a U.S. official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.
The person posting this link said: This is spelled out in Project 2025 (you’ll be hearing Project 2025… over & over again… for forever)
Trump is firing federal workers who aren’t trump supporters and he’s hiring 1,000’s of MAGA approved workers who have been “loyalty” vetted over the past few months.
Also, in reference to Elon, this image to the right was posted:
The above link and comment was followed with a historically framed observation:
It would appear the private job sector is getting the message… and it’s only day 3.
I expect we’ll be seeing this over & over across the free-market spectrum – especially with DEI initiatives, which I’m already beginning to see emerge in media reports. As the days go on, I expect we’ll have a clear sense of who will be targeted.
All i can add to this comment is…fascism
The Colbert video was provided as an excellent example of what “so far” means… so far.
Official MAGA motto: I don’t believe it because I didn’t see it. Now, if I see it, I would believe it.
NOTE: The Sgt. Schulze, “I see nothing, I know nothing” GIF won’t be reposted over and over and over and over and over again.
BUT WAIT!!! THERE”S MORE!!!
In this “Brave New World”, it will be our comedians who provide the best news accounts and interviews with newsmakers.
BUCKLE UP!!!
According to Ronny Chieng, Trump did not like being roasted by Bishop Rachel Maddow… I mean Bishop Mariann Budde.
The bottom line, according to our member posting the video, is that Trump didn’t like it and he swears to who-knows-who… “I will only ever visit that goddamn church when I stand in front of the sign with a bible in my hand.”
And I will proclaim, “OUCH! OUCH! IT BURNS! OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!!!”
Let the Barrage of Lies Go On… DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY… IT IS DAY 3
Among the topics was Trump’s move on Monday to pardon, commute the prison sentences or dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Hannity asked why people who were violent towards police were included.
Trump claimed that they had suffered unduly harsh prison conditions then falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen despite courts, officials and his own attorney general finding otherwise. “They were protesting the vote because they knew the election was rigged and they were protesting the vote and you should be allowed to protest the vote,” he said.
“Is South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on the verge of being forced out of office for declaring martial law nearly a week ago?’
Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court has voted 5-2 to bar ex-president Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years.
“Mr Bolsonaro was found guilty of abusing his power ahead of last year’s presidential poll.
He had been accused of undermining Brazilian democracy by falsely claiming that the electronic ballots used were vulnerable to hacking and fraud.
Mr Bolsonaro’s lawyers are expected to appeal against the verdict.”
A member from the left side of the political dial voices an opinion:
The battle for truth and equal justice for all is underway… worldwide.
History informs us the outcome is indeterminable at this time.
I’m including 2 links (above) demonstrating how two fascist/authoritarian/totalitarian leaders are struggling to hold on to power.
A conversation ensued amongst several of our members:
“It’s entirely possible “trump fever” will break before uniform public loyalty becomes an enforceable reality.”
******
“That is a subject about which we feel differently. I would say there’s less than a 50% chance of that happening.”
******
“In my opinion,, the future will brutally difficult. There will be blood.”
******
“My greater hope lies more in that Trump won’t actually choose to go as far as he could. But I can’t rationally justify such hope; it may be because I have an optimistic baseline in some ways.”
******
“At this point, I’m optimistically hopeful about the future.”
******
“Yes. That’s where I’m at. And keeping an eye open for the clues that it’s time to leave the country, including getting financial assets out. Unfortunately, those clues so far are about in line with worst-case scenarios I’ve imagined for the initial time period. Which is stepping up my attention level.”
“I expect vast amounts of financial capital will be sucked up from the general population to fill the pockets of the fascists.”
******
“My style of optimism about the “human condition” informs me that not all horrible potentials result in the manifestation and realization of worst case outcomes.”
******
“I believe our current worldwide diversity will be an enduring strength in opposition to the evils of populism, xenophobia and totalitarianism.”
******
“My optimism is filled with pessimism; I expect that even the less than worst case outcomes will leave a debris field of human and capital carnage and plenty of PTSD to mar generations to come.”
******
“It may take something like WWII with 60 million dead. Of course now, with nukes and bioweapons, that might be small number.”
******
“The thing is, in mid-20th century Europe, people had a place to go – America. That is unless one was among the doomed passengers on the St Louis.”
“… former Brazilian President Bolsonaro has been formally charged with attempting a coup to stay in office after losing the 2022 election.”
February 19, 2025
A member reacted to the link above:
Ever since the fascistic “Contract with America” in 1994, my “spidey-sense” has been tingling. It started buzzing during the leadup to up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Later, when Fox and Roger Ailes created the “tea-party”, I began sounding the fascism/totalitarianism alarm.
A quick aside, I have very routinely pointed my concerns at the perpetual state of play between the worldwide forces of conformity and diversity which have been on display in democracies since the end of WWll. In my opinion, an argument can be made that these the struggles predate WWll; however, for the purposes of our modern conversation, I think WWll is an appropriate starting point.
Narrowing the scope to the United States, the murder of Emmitt Till began to dramatically change the civil/human rights narrative along with other horrors such as, “The Blinding of Isaac Woodard”.
Link below:
What we think of as norms and the democratic guardrails of a civilized society can be incredibly horrifying as witnessed during the normalized simplicity of Jim Crow – in those times when “America was Great!”
Link below:
A member provided the Project 2025 link above from 10/01/2024 and the video below from 06/18/2024.
The Comment: With what employees? In the real world, an unemployment rate of 5% or lower is often considered full employment.
Unemployment Rate in the United States decreased to 4.10 percent in December from 4.20 percent in November of 2024.
Unless there’s an intention to provoke an economic crisis along with inflation to increase unemployment to the point where companies can “afford” to have the work done in the US, this strikes me as an extraordinarily stupid strategy.
But would possibly be in character.
The Reply:
It’s important to remember one rule applicable to the Trump management ethos:
brinksmanship + chaos + loyalty to trump makes $$$ for trump.
This conversation happened:
“With what employees?”
“He hasn’t announced it yet, but the plan is for the United States to absorb/merge with Mexico.”
“We can call it AmeriCo.”
“In the middle ground of bodies of water… The Gulf of Americo…? Americo does sorta sound like a good name for an oil & gas company.”
This seems like a good way to end this day: Lauren Boebert & Nancy Mace checking genitalia.