News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead...
Trump's brownshirts? Corruption? Both?
A group of prominent military contractors, including former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, has pitched the Trump White House on a proposal to carry out mass deportations through a network of “processing camps” on military bases, a private fleet of 100 planes, and a “small army” of private citizens empowered to make arrests. The blueprint — laid out in a 26-page document President Donald Trump’s advisers received before the inauguration — carries an estimated price tag of $25 billion and recommends a range of aggressive tactics to rapidly deport 12 million people before the 2026 midterms...
We will assume that Trump decides to go along with the Erik Prince proposal on the theory that he applies to everything he does as president of the United States, which is figure out right up front how much he can skim from every billion-dollar contract he eyeballs coming down the pike for him to sign....You already know from what happened with Blackwater in Iraq what's going to happen on the streets of the good old USA. People are going to get shot by trigger-happy Blackwater hired guns.
Politico published a useful piece yesterday, revealing a fascist scheme to create a private – and highly profitable – paramilitary operation to carry out the Trump regime's mass-kidnapping-and-deportation scheme. It's no surprise that the disgusting Erik Prince is behind it.
And as the National Interest commentary observes, the most probable explanation – given the near-impossibility that this could work – is corruption. But the Truscott post also points out that if this thing happens, it will bring staggering bloodshed to cities and towns across the nation.
The people who would be hired for this domestic "army" would undoubtedly come from the ranks of Americans who hold bigoted views and have a propensity for violence. They would be this century's Brownshirts. (If they have read any history they'd know that Hitler turned on them.)
I could buy the general notion here, since it would involve pervasive corruption, further enriching Trump and his selected partners. But I tend to think it's more likely that the regime will order the U.S. military into our streets, once it has completely purged leaders who believe in the Constitution.
There are lots of other ways to divert taxpayers' money into Trump world pockets. Running a police state – Trump's obvious goal – will probably require real soldiers, not mere vigilantes.
...Not a single White House reporter objected in any way, challenged Donald Trump in any way, about telling that lie straight to them. They just counted it as another question answered by Donald Trump. There are some very good White House reporters, very good. But enough of them are so weak and ineffectual that they become essential components of the clown show themselves. They are characters in the clown show.
Lawrence O'Donnell's commentary yesterday slammed America's liar(s)-in-chief (Trump and Musk), for their demonstrations of almost pure deceit and ignorance at this week's "cabinet meeting" at the White House. It was an event that served solely as a platform for ugly, dangerous bullshit. It's worth watching for that reminder alone.
But with few exceptions, our "news" media covered the clown show, as O'Donnell described it, as just another White House event. And this led to some of the best press criticism I've seen in a while (he does this almost every day at this point, but still, this one was special).
I worry that MSNBC, which has been moving toward a bended-knee stance lately, might jettison O'Donnell the way it did Joy Reid and several other top hosts. At this point, we'd down to just a few Big Media personalities who have the spines to do their job.
Next Friday, scientists and supporters of science will rally in Washington and other cities, in a collection of events they're dubbing "Stand Up for Science". Their goal is to help the public understand what is at stake in the Trump regime's concerted effort to de-fund honest research in the United States while it pursues a propaganda campaign against the scientific method.
The goals of the rallies are listed out on their site: Secure and expand scientific funding, end censorship and political interference in science, and defend diversity, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility (DEIA) in science.
Those goals would be important at any time, but with an increasingly tyrannical government — and one that’s targeting science institutions like the National Institutes of Health, NSF, NASA, and more — it’s absolutely critical. It’s also extremely important to remember that these attacks are not just on science, but also on the scientists who do the research. Trump has specifically aimed his bigotry at Blacks, women, people of color, transgender folks, disabled people, and more, saying that DEIA is unfair to white people. That’s absolute BS. Helping those who have been historically marginalized and underserved doesn’t create a bias against whites, it makes sure that everyone has a fair shot.
What's happening is baffling for any number of reasons, but makes bizarro-world sense if you've been paying attention to Trump and his apparatchiks. The baffling part is why any administration would want to make the U.S. vastly less competitive globally – why it would hand such a key component of the most prosperous nation the world has ever seen over to our enemies.
The weird consistency of this insanity is two-fold. First, it fits with the radical right-wing notions, pushed primarily by racists, so-called "Christian" nationalists, and fossil-fuel companies, that embrace know-nothing bigotry and reject reality in favor of religious ideology and money. Second, it's part of a broader process – common in dictatorships – whereby truth is rendered meaningless, where Dear Leader tells the cult what the "truth" actually is, and screw all logic. Power is the goal, and it's worked again and again through history.
If there's a Stand Up for Science rally in your city, please consider attending.
This newsletter is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money. For more details, please read my About page.
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