Now the New York Times is kicking in its two cents on the mass deportation reality TV episode that Donald Trump has planned to commence on Tuesday. The Times is reporting that this is a week long fest, to start the day after Trump takes office and conclude on the following Monday. So yes, folks, it’s political circus time, shock and awe time, spectacle and theatrics. And if that was ALL it was, and people didn’t get hurt, then it would be fine.
But that’s not all that it is. People will be rounded up — not in the incredible proportions which Trump has promised — but enough people will be roughed up, terrorized, degraded and possibly seriously injured when all is said and done. That the Republican party has fallen to this is yet another mark of shame against them. Trump has always been more talk than action, this will be no different.
Mr. Trump often threatened nationwide deportation raids when he was last in the White House, shocking many of his ICE officials. He achieved mixed results.
In 2019, Mr. Trump promoted a blitz-like effort to target roughly 2,000 migrants who were in the United States illegally as a show of force against migration. Just 35 people were detained in the operation.
In 2019, ICE removed more than 267,000 people — the highest annual total during the Trump administration. That pales in comparison to the high mark that occurred under President Barack Obama, who deported more than 400,000 people in one year.
This last stat is one that gets buried. The Democrats have got and I mean GOT to get a grip on messaging. The picture Trump paints is of Democrats being passive about illegal immigration or even complicit, but NEVER do you see the Democrats fight back in real time, one on one, with this statistic or any statistic which would be helpful.
Disinformation and propaganda is what got us here. Trump spreads it like manure and the Democrats don’t fight back in kind. This is not an original thought to me. Not by a long shot. Lincoln Project has said it, Meidas News has said it, Mary Trump has said it, the Bulwark has said it, I can keep typing names until my fingers get bloody. And those outlets publish the truth. And the New York Times has published the stat again but it’s at the end of an article about what Trump intends to do this week to create spectacle.
We are at war. The culture war is real. And we can either get on board to fight fire with fire, fight lies with facts, or we can give up. The way political news is covered has got to change and there has to be leftist pushback to right-wing insanity. It is as simple as that.
Trump is a master propagandist and grifter. That’s what you’re going to see this week. He’s going after Chicago as a sanctuary city. I don’t think he’ll have the hubris to try much in California which would leave Denver as another venue for Tom Homan to stage a dramatic raid.
The plan, called “Operation Safeguard” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would start on Tuesday, the day after Mr. Trump is inaugurated, and last until the following Monday, according to the people familiar with it and the correspondence. The dates were still being finalized, however, and could change.
The size of the planned operation was unclear. ICE routinely conducts deportations in cities throughout the United States. But the agency was taking additional steps to ramp up enforcement for the operation and tied it to Mr. Trump’s inauguration in a message sent to personnel throughout the agency.
Hundreds of agents were asked to volunteer and participate in the “post-inauguration” operation targeting immigrants in the United States illegally. ICE is planning on sending roughly 150 agents to Chicago for the raids.
Let’s see what happens Tuesday.
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I just see the Democrat and the Republican parties as corporations. hope this helps 👍
Either refer to the DEMOCRATIC Party correctly, or get your ass off this site.
There is NO excuse for anyone–ANYONE–who frequents this site to use that REPUBLICAN-CREATED SLUR. In case you’ve forgotten, Newt Gingrich promoted the use of “Democrat Party” to link Democrats with “rats”; all he didn’t do was to write it out as DemocRAT.
A single person is a “Democrat.” A group of people are “Democrats.” The Party to which they belong is the “Democratic Party.” They promote DEMOCRATIC values. We can forgive the Party of Deliberate Hatred, Ignorance and Stupidity to misrepresent us but *we* should know better and *we* should be better.
Amen, Brother! The purposeful slur of the name of the party to which I belong drives me up a tree! Every time I hear or read it, I can’t help thinking of some (not all, but some) members of the GOP who sound like they flunked third grade who seem to use the shortened spelling. Maybe they think pronouncing those last two letters is too much. If they had progressed further in school, they might have learned the difference.
More talk than action, but I suspect ICE’s budget will be based on the talk, with the difference being pocketed by trump’s appointees and of course some finding its way back to him.
There won’t be as much action as talk, but my fear is that the small increments of action are a method of keeping our opposition at bay! It will be harder for us to march or demonstrate or show our outrage when smaller raids are spread across many areas. Every one of these cruelties must be protested, but keeping up will be hard.
Ursula, I feel “stuck” regarding push back against the tRump mid-administration. I live in Minnesota. Both of our Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, and my Congressional Representative Betty McCollum are staunchly Democratic and vote for a solidly liberal agenda. I am 77 years old and walk with a walker. The last protest I marched in was the day after tRump’s first inauguration eight year ago in my state’s Capitol, St. Paul. But I won’t be marching any more! What can I do to register my protest against tRump or even one specific issue. I live in a senior apartment facility where it’s against the rules to display any political materials in the building, and even discussing one’s views on politics in front of a group of residents is frowned upon. I’ve written my Congress Critters so often, their names pop up in my search window if I type in the first initial of their names!! (Well, that last one was a bit of a stretch!) What can I do? You will probably say I should write articles for Politizoom! But I read YOUR news feed to LEARN FROM THE BEST! Any other suggestions? How can I feel I am really helping with The Resistance?
First of all keep contacting your Democratic federal elected officials. Urge them to raise hell whenever and however they can, and in fact you EXPECT that of them. Second, there is nothing that prevents you from contacting OTHER elected officials. Both Democrats and Republicans. Some try to limit you by contact forms to their office that require a zip code in their state/district. That’s easy enough to look up and besides, you’ve lived a long enough life to probably know people all over the country, most of whom probably think like you do. So say you are writing in support of your friend who has the misfortune to be stuck with a puke GOPer in office. Third, MN has a state legislature too and your state is famous for having close elections and sometimes going back and forth when it comes to who’s in control. State GOPers getting heat will at times talk to their federal counterparts and if you and enough others keep the pressure on they WILL mention the heat they are catching. It might even prompt some saner lower level folks to primary the asshats who increasingly populate the Capitol with “performance” politics. Finally, get in touch with your local/county Democratic Party office. If they aren’t all that organized or active that’s something you can help build. If they are up and running they will always have things you can do. Lists of people to text, email or call. Or, one of my favorites (which is limited due to my budget) send postcards too. For people our age there’s something about getting a short handwritten note that carries real weight. Hope that helps
Denis, thank you for pointing out actions I did not realize I could do. I appreciate that.
“Their minds are filled with big ideas, images, and distorted facts”…Bob Dylan from the song Idiot Wind.