• sp3ctr4l
    link
    fedilink
    1778 months ago

    Hey, anybody remember 12ish years ago when Alex Jones’ worst fear was that Obama was going to use executive power to order the military to be deployed on American soil, violating Posse Comitatus, to massively round up and inter a bunch of Americans in FEMA reducation / death camps?

    Anyone?

    No one?

    Whoo boy, growing up in a fundamentalist Christian household where I was the only one to go to college and everyone else became a Q Anon zombie sure was fuuuunnnnn!

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      78 months ago

      I don’t remember that actually. I’m not saying he didn’t say those things. I’m just saying that I never listened to a word that mouth breather said.

      • sp3ctr4l
        link
        fedilink
        4
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        I successfully ghosted mine to the point that they probably think I am dead.

        Also moved many hundreds of miles away lol.

    • humble peat digger
      link
      fedilink
      English
      48 months ago

      I remember that. He would usually say martial law. I think national emergencies are different and invoked more often by both Dems and GOP. Could be wrong

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      38 months ago

      I guess if it was just illegal immigrants then it wouldn’t be Americans, so it wouldn’t be what they feared. But very close.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      2
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Being from austin and listening to him on the radio way back while driving occasionally yea I member

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    108 months ago

    To declare a “National Emergency”, he probably needs a cause. How does American law deal with those “National Emergency” situations? Does he need some proof? Does he need confirmation from somewhere?

  • Fat Tony
    link
    fedilink
    48 months ago

    Well at least we’re getting close to a somewhat interesting dystopia. /s

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    38 months ago

    He’s not going to succeed at his goals unless he essentially suspends the constitution. Which I wouldn’t put past him necessarily but for now these headlines are pretty sensational.

    Everybody is protected by the fifth amendment regardless of citizenship status or if they are here “legally” or not. We’re all entitled to due process and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure so long as we’re standing on American soil. Running after families just minding their business and demanding papers please is far fetched. Going after already established criminals however is a lot easier and low hanging fruit. And I’m not talking about people who’s only crime is being here illegally, I’m talking about people who are that + another crime. And sorry but I don’t feel sympathy for those people who make life harder for everyone else…

    Even if they do go after everyone they don’t have the infrastructure in place to process people. The highest deportations happened under Obama (take that, hysterical pissing in their pants liberals) at 230k a year and the system was barely functioning and is further backlogged now than ever. How the fuck is trump gonna manage to deport a million a year?

    He’s full of hot air. Hell deport criminals and claim a win.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      28 months ago

      I would be honestly less concerned if I thought the administration would be successful in deporting people. I think you’re relying heavily on “due process” here, when the reality is they can just accuse you of a crime, deny you bail, and then hold you pretty much indefinitely. You let the ones who can get lawyers out and you’ve pretty effectively filtered the population for wealth.

      The Nazi death camps started as temporary internment camps with the intent to deport Jews eventually.

      Then they just ended up with a whole bunch of people in camps with nowhere to send them and were like, “well, we might as well get some work out of some and kill the rest” and it sort of escalated from there.

      Which with their “camps for the mentally ill, homeless, and drug addicted” and “deportation emergency” sounds alarmingly similar.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        1
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        First sentence: unless he suspends the constitution

        I’m not saying the rhetoric isn’t concerning, I’m saying he doesn’t have the machine set up to make it happen. Could it happen? Absolutely.

  • frustrated_phagocytosis
    link
    fedilink
    378 months ago

    Nothing cheaper than using the military, no siree. What’s the going rate for toilet seats at the Pentagon these days?

    • Noxy
      link
      fedilink
      English
      68 months ago

      $30k, about 50% more than hammers

      tho that’s in 1996 dollars

    • Bakkoda
      link
      fedilink
      English
      88 months ago

      Wait till you see how much Boeing charges for soap dispensers

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        28 months ago

        In fairness, they can’t just pop down to the hardware store and use one of those soap dispensers, since the changes in air pressure at altitude would cause them to leak all their contents or pop.

        The average dispenser is basically two one-way valves, and a flexible tube you compress to squeeze it out (or a bottle with a pump). Everything inside would be forced out by the lower air pressure.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            38 months ago

            Planes don’t maintain sea-level atmospheric pressure the whole time. That’s why your ears pop in-flight.

            • BeardedBlaze
              link
              fedilink
              1
              edit-2
              8 months ago

              They barely ever do. Only when landing to an airport at sea level. Upon take off, the cabin pressure is gradually increased until the regulatory 8000 ft, which is maintained majority of the flight.

              You experience the same pressure changes while driving in the mountains, with the good ol’ ear popping.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      248 months ago

      The whole toilet seat thing is as misunderstood. If the Air force needs a new toilet seat for one of it’s jets, and that jet isn’t in production anymore, and you can’t just go to homedepot for aircraft parts, then you have to order a bespoke seat.

      Now setting up the tooling for an injection molded plastic seat, only to produce a limited run, maybe in the dozens, $10,000 per seat is a reasonable price.

      I’m sure the Pentagon buys toilet seats at the regular price. The interesting thing about Pentagon bathrooms is that it has double the number it needs because of segregation.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        88 months ago

        There also the fact that the government has to buy domestic as much as possible. Not to say they don’t use corruption to transfer wealth via those contracts.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    1108 months ago

    Drive through rural America and see how many underpopulated small towns there are. Shuttered businesses for lack of customers. Abandoned buildings. These places need people.

    • circuitfarmer
      link
      fedilink
      228 months ago

      Don’t worry. This isn’t the only Trump plan that will tank the economy. I just wish the rest of us didn’t have to suffer because of all those idiots not paying attention.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      388 months ago

      Funny thing is that even the immigrants are smart enough to know the shouldn’t settle in these places because they’re going down the toilet. But the locals? We’re being ignored! Save our useless town with no economic prospects, no educated workforce, and no infrastructure to support anything worthwhile! No, of course we won’t move!. …while they proceed to vote against any social policy that might help them or their future generations out of their trap.

      • Queen HawlSera
        link
        fedilink
        English
        22
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        No, of course we won’t move

        Try “Can’t”

        I don’t know why you city slickers think packing up all your shit and moving into a new house in a new town is free, but it isn’t. We ARE being ignored, worse than that, we’re being left to die.

        You wanna get me outta the ruins of farmland? Send a bus to pick me up, make sure there’s a two month paid in advance hotel waiting for me when I get there, and have me a job waiting.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          2
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          Fwiw (I sure hope this is not an empty platitude), as a trans woman who’d love to be able to feel safe outside of cities in blue states, who very much knows and experienced that it’s not free:

          You’re absolutely right.

          I read this back early 2016, been reeling from it ever since: https://morecrows.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/unnecessariat/

          We have been divided by the american mythos of “pinko city slicker vs rugged indvidualist rednecks” and the truth is it’s all so the boss can take the whole plate of cookies, while scapegoating your brown/queer/whatever co-worker “He’s gonna eat your cookie”

          I refuse, at least for my inner child anyway, to surrender the love I have for my fellow common person, regardless of where you’re from. Sweeping generalization.

          There’s lots of blame to go around. Big Pharma, Politicians, the way in which the midwest and south’s entire economies that were always built on the idea of very high capital using extractive methods to get resources out of the land either cotton or mining or oil or water or agri business, those economies always depend on a few people with a lot of money, and then a whole bunch of people who are poor.

          I blame them, not you. I see you. We are not alone. There has got to be a better way.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          88 months ago

          But the rural parts are also extremely unwelcoming. I have a remote job and those places are typically beautiful and cheap. But it’s Trump country where everyone hates people of color, lgbtq, people of no religion, and anyone different. New money could be injected there plenty by the openness of digital work, but who wants to go be surrounded by hate and Trump supporters?

          Sorry, not generalizing about you specifically, but the areas for sure.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          12
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          Yeah. I get that. I’m actually super aware of the difficulty in upending your life and spending years making shit money with the hope it will get better. I’ve done it.

          But seeing as you “country bumpkins” (are we really doing lousy stereotypes?) constantly tell others to pick themselves up by their bootstraps while undercutting social programs as well I figure it was fair game. Y’know, the same people working jobs that minimum wage hasn’t kept up with for more than a decade but keep getting told those jobs aren’t supposed to support a living. No, of course you won’t move. No, you don’t want anything that might change the situation either. No, you won’t take advantage of loans or other assistance and upend your life to make a major change, because doing that sucks and is risky. But that thought process never applies to other people. Crabs in a bucket. Just reinstate some magical yesteryear that in reality pretty much sucked just as bad except for the part where mom still made dinners for you. Your comment is in a nutshell all of this. We won’t change, and fuck those fictional guys over there for taking advantage of a system that doesn’t actually exist.

          • Queen HawlSera
            link
            fedilink
            English
            48 months ago

            I’m actually in a blue county, rural blue areas exist. We know the Republicans wanna eat us, but we wanna know why the Democrats aren’t doing anything outside of barely keeping the wolves at bay.

            We’re not dumb, we know the Republicans will end social programs keeping us alive, but we all see the writing on the wall. We know that we will die here.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              58 months ago

              I find it hard to disagree with anything you said. Having lived in towns small enough to make someone say “There’s a town here?” That is definitely the case.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        98 months ago

        Tack on the attempts to maintain high/high quality amenities in sparsely populated, low tax revenue areas, and you have a nice fat deficit for your small town compounding that problem.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      148 months ago

      Yeah but they don’t want those people. Now who are those people they don’t want? Brown people, black people, queer people, woke people, educated people, different people…

    • Ragdoll X
      link
      fedilink
      59
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      It’s kind of wild to me how many really small towns there are in the US. About 32% of towns in the U.S. have less than 500 residents.

      For comparison, here in Brazil I lived most of my life in a town with ~35K residents and it was already considered a small rural town. Some of my family lives in a neighboring town with ~11K residents, and even in my hometown people joke about how small it is, and that there’s basically nothing going on there. 1288 of towns in Brazil have less than 5K residents, or about 23.1%, and there are no towns with less than 500 residents. Meanwhile in the US 76% of towns have less than 5K residents.

      Again, it’s just kind of wild to me. I remember playing (reading?) the Echo VN and thinking “Man, a dying town with only 50 people? That doesn’t sound realistic,” but apparently that’s way more common than I thought.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        468 months ago

        My slightly educated guess would be that’s a consequence of America’s race westward in the 1800’s, only stopping long enough to annihilate the indigenous population and set up a rest stop for the next batch.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          138 months ago

          It’s more modern than that. I don’t have time to look for stats, but I believe there’s been general migration to cities for like half a century or more

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            168 months ago

            Of course, but I’m talking about why all these little towns existed in the first place. It’s not like they were all bustling metropolises before everyone left. ;)

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              4
              edit-2
              8 months ago

              The stereotype is always a coal mining town. There used to be a mine employing many people, but now it’s automated or the mine played out

              The town I grew up in was a bustling town with one dominant employer. When that employer moved out it left a big gap and an entire generation of younger people moved away

              The town my father grew up in was never bustling. However it was a significant center of a rural area with many family farms. By the time I was growing up, those farms were no longer economical, so people moved away and there’s no need for a population center

              A small town I used to visit all the time was once a bustling tourist town, but no one goes there anymore. It’s really just regional now, instead of the busy season drawing people from anywhere between Montreal and NYC. It’s probably cheap flying as much as anything else: who wants to vacation on a cold beach when you can hop a flight down south for the same cost

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              68 months ago

              A lot were busy manufacturing, mining, or farming towns.

              The mines run out or become unprofitable.

              The manufacturing has largely moved to out of the states, or been automated.

              And big farms and grocery stores have squeezed independent farmers out of everywhere but the farmers markets near rich cities.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          68 months ago

          Bingo, the town I went to school in had barely 500 people when the school which had taken over for two other closed schools kids. It’s even less now. My grade was the largest at 32 kids too. There were former “towns” dotted all over from the rush west where train tracks used to be. All gone now and just somewhere used for cow shelter in the winter. These towns were simply stops for railroad cars to result water on the route west. Once that wasn’t needed the slow march to 0 began. My nearest non family member was over 7 miles away. There is a lot of interior USA that is really sparsely populated and is really just returning to pre colonial eras of mainly giant farmland or grazing pastures.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          348 months ago

          Railroads played big role. Trains needed more water or coal to run the engine. So every 15 to 20 miles or so, depending on terrain, a water depot was erected, and there a new town popped up. Some survived. Some didnt. Few are thriving. Just pull up a map and follow a rail line in the great plains region of the usa. Then just measure it out. Its impossible to miss once you notice it.

          • Boomer Humor Doomergod
            link
            fedilink
            English
            78 months ago

            The same thing happened again when they built the interstates. Pixar made a documentary about it with talking cars.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        98 months ago

        We also have “towns” that are insufficient in size and unlisted or are under another towns “address”. A town near me has less than 1000 people and that includes the towns under it that are 3-5mi apart.

        • Ms. ArmoredThirteen
          link
          fedilink
          28 months ago

          One of my friends lives in what used to be considered a town. Currently it has a population of like 10 people 4 of which are their family and another is one of their roommates. It is now part of the nearest town about 20 miles away and makes for some logistical novelties like mail delivery and school bus routes

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      188 months ago

      The east coast is densely populated. California and large areas of the west coast is densely populated.

      But Ohio to the Rockies? Uhhhh…there’s corn. We got corn. Do you like corn?

      Yeah. There’s a reason nobody can name anything in Nebraska. Nobodys ever been there. Not even sure they have corn there.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        78 months ago

        The east coast has more big cities than those other places, but there are still. HUGE number of teeny-tiny dying towns all up and down the eastern seaboard.

        • Boomer Humor Doomergod
          link
          fedilink
          English
          48 months ago

          You can find these places less than a hundred miles from NYC. Just drive to Scranton, go south on I-81, and get off at any exit.

      • Cousin Mose
        link
        fedilink
        English
        88 months ago

        I’m from Iowa and have been through Nebraska (no one stops in Nebraska) and I’m here to report: yes, they do have corn there.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    368 months ago

    This move actually makes zero fucking sense. Having people in our country who are willing to work less money than the average citizen labor costs are low. That basically means more money for him and his oligarch buddies.

    He’s already won the election. He doesn’t have to keep posturing like this. And he’s not going to be elected again, so either he (hopefully) has no third term, or he’ll prevent the 2028 elections from being free and fair.

    My prediction is that nothing will actually come of this and he’s saying this to keep his approval rating high.

    Either that or he’s even more racist than he is greedy and self-centered

    • I'll be on [email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      518 months ago

      He’s already won the election. He doesn’t have to keep posturing like this.

      That was never his end goal, and you’re naive to think otherwise.

      As for the rest, you’re missing a key step - to get them all “deported”, first they need to be rounded up, and put in camps (we already past this point a while back), and then since they’re already in camps, they might as well be put to work. For free (another point we’ve past). When they start dying off in big enough numbers for it to affect production, there will be another group marked for “deportation” and rounded up for their turn.

      This isn’t fascism’s first fucking rodeo, and it isn’t only now getting started, it has been in motion for a good while now.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      9
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Actually serves pretty well if one’s goal were to further destabilise things. People have already been convinced that illegal immigrants are to blame for all economic problems (even though it is easier to prove the extreme opposite through a cursory search on the internet), maybe if the downward slope is gentle enough, people won’t start doubting the efficacy of the initially applied solution. Maybe the point was to get them to the next level, get them angry at something else after everything is done with the false problem.

      I just don’t see Trump actually wanting what’s his version of “best” for the country. I think he’s on a power play, and the country’s just the kindling.

      Maybe I’m talking complete nonsense, but this feels like a… logical escalation. To what, I cannot fathom, although we’ve seen similar movements preclude Totalitarian/Authoritarian regime solidification periods before, where the desperate masses clung to the wrong solution.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        198 months ago

        I just want to point out that declaring a state of emergency to “deal with” illegal immigrants will allow the construction of large camps all over the country where undesirables can be ‘concentrated’ for ‘processing’.

        After rounding up illegal immigrants, maybe they’ll invalidate the status of legal immigrants that knowingly employed, illegal immigrants. Or housed illegal immigrants. Or defended illegal immigrants. Of course these people will need to be detained in the same camps while it all gets processed.

        The condition of the camps won’t be great, maybe the detainees can work in specially approved facilities while immigration status gets processed, this will help alleviate the cost of camp maintenance and improve living conditions.

        Maybe the detainees can be rented out to local plantations to subsidize the cost of feeding them.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      1
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      He’s not going to deport what can easily be made into slave labor and he’s not going to need a third term if he even makes it all the way through his second without croaking, being 25th’d out by his own people or some nice defenestration. The point is to make sure Republicans/Russia never again leave office, not that Trump doesn’t.

    • LousyCornMuffins
      link
      fedilink
      English
      38 months ago

      Somewhere between fourth and seventh myself. Unless you’ve got citizenship somewhere else why? Statelessness is not something to aspire to.

  • atro_city
    link
    fedilink
    598 months ago

    How are people going to be selected for deportation? This feels eerily like what Hitler started doing with Jews.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      18 months ago

      They start with a convenient group (immigrants, legal or not), and will proceed from there. Ask your history teacher about what happened in Germany after 1933, just replace the Jews with PoCs.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      198 months ago

      It’s a pretext. And can expand to anyone the state doesn’t want around.

      Deportation doesn’t have to be immediate, you could end up in a cage indefinitely.

      Portland Oregon was a sneak preview of what Trump will do (Sending federal resources where they are explicitly not wanted, and kidnapping citizens)

      • Boomer Humor Doomergod
        link
        fedilink
        English
        58 months ago

        People know all about the concentration camps, but the amount of slave labor used in Nazi Germany was massive. In addition to working in factories they literally brought slaves from the Eastern Front to work in German households as maids, and dressed it up like they were happy to be there.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      98 months ago

      https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/us/politics/denaturalization-immigrants-justice-department.html

      Looks like they’re gonna strip citizenship from “terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization

      Whatever “fraudsters” means… Made a mistake on the citizen application? FRAUDSTER! DEPORTED! Do all of your documents have exactly the same name, middle name, and spelling? No?? IDENTITY THIEF! DEPORTED!

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        148 months ago

        Well actually, folks tried to tell Harris stop supporting genocide or it’s Trump. You don’t blame voters, you blame the individual politician for not listening to the. Kamala is single handedly responsible for all of just as Hillary was.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          98 months ago

          She would’ve lost a ton of campaign funding if she did. It’s not that simple. Millionaire/billionaire interests also have a huge influence on the democratic party.

          If you want to blame someone, blame the ultra-rich. They are the ones that have eroded democracy.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            108 months ago

            Or, i dunno, maybe the Republicans for going full fucking fascism? It’s always “Kamala this” or “DNC that” but it’s the REPUBLICANS THAT ARE THE FUCKING NAZIS. How is Kamala more responsible for Trump than Mitch McConnell…?

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              58 months ago

              Imo she’s not. But the Republican party is just a more blatant tool of the ultra-rich. They are the real enemy.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          268 months ago

          No. You blame the voters for taking fascism over an imperfect candidate. If you didnt vote for Harris you are to blame and deserve everything that is going to happen.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            48 months ago

            False. You blame Democrats for choosing it. You’re thinking about it the way THEY want you to think about it. Divisively.

            • Forbo
              link
              fedilink
              48 months ago

              Blame the fucked electoral system that is completely flawed from a game theory perspective. Doesn’t matter the candidates, their positions, or which election cycle it is, the thing is buggy and broken as shit, and we’ve never bothered patching it.

          • John Richard
            link
            fedilink
            98 months ago

            No, it is your own ignorance as why you lost and while you’ll lose again in 4 years unless you sort yourself out and observe what happened. We tried telling you… and it was always, “c’mon just support the genocide, it’ll be worse if you don’t.” Then it drifted to… “Kamala and Joe don’t help fund genocide, it is the Republicans that make them do it. Kamala is trying to protect the Palestinians from being mass murdered.”

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          178 months ago

          I absolutely blame some voters. Especially the ones who refused to vote for a female leader even though they didn’t like Trump. Especially the ones who refused to vote at all because neither candidate was “perfect”.

          I can slice it many ways, but none of those ways are, “Kamala is single handedly responsible”.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            128 months ago

            When enough voters say end the genocide or bust, don’t be surprised when you bust after announcing continued support for genocide.

            Politicians need to learn to listen to voters. Do not blame voters for this trump presidentency, blame the DNC.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              5
              edit-2
              8 months ago

              I blame the DNC plenty, but I don’t blame them solely. There are many, many people that deserve blame.

              Things aren’t black and white, they’re blurred lines of grey.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                48 months ago

                If the voters say they’re black and white it doesn’t matter. The politicians need to play ball, not the other way.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  8
                  edit-2
                  8 months ago

                  Or we just need to guillotine the politicians.

                  I’m sick of playing a game to cater to them, they need to cater to us.

                • ObliviousEnlightenment
                  link
                  fedilink
                  28 months ago

                  Thanks for answering the question, excuse me if your position doesnt make a lick of sense. I would think harm reduction is a worthwhile goal if Gaza is such a travesty, but I guess nuking the whole place would be better apparently

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      68 months ago

      The incoming Trump administration doesn’t even know who they are planning to deport. The criteria right now could be literally anything from “these specific known individuals who are illegal aliens and also criminals” to “anyone Trump or ICE doesn’t like, including legal citizens who are political dissidents”.

      If there was ever a time to own a gun in America, now is that time. Protect yourselves, people. The no-knock raids are just around the corner.