Scott Lemieux at LG&M has a long-form piece on the disaster-to-come that will be the Trump47 deportationpalooza. This from Radley Balko:
"Trump approached the presidency like he ran his businesses — like a
mob boss. He thought the Justice Department should have been his personal law firm, and has vowed to weaponize it against
his opponents should he win again. It isn’t at all difficult to imagine
how, once in place, this deportation force might be used to enforce
Trump’s other authoritarian impulses and campaign promises, like
infiltrating blue cities to “fight crime,’“ arrest homeless people, or
to beat — and possibly shoot — people who stage protests against his policies.
Deporting even a fraction of 15 million people would also wreck the economy. Inflation would soar (especially when combined with Trump’s plan to slap a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on imports), and the U.S. would likely spiral into a recession, possibly a depression.
Naturally, House Speaker Mike Johnson has expressed his enthusiastic support.
Trump and Miller aren’t going to deport 15 million people in four
years. It just isn’t possible. But the important thing — the thing that
ought to be immediately disqualifying — is that they plan to try"
Very much yes.
But - here's the Extra Stupid Special Sauce; you want to see an industrialized nation with what amounts to a de-facto complete immigration ban?
Japan.
"The number of vacant houses in Japan has surged to a record
high of nine million – more than enough for each person in New York City
– as the east Asian country continues to struggle with its
ever-declining population.
Abandoned houses are known in Japan as “akiya” – a term that
usually refers to derelict residential homes tucked away in rural
areas.
But more akiya are being seen in major cities, such as Tokyo
and Kyoto, and that’s a problem for a government that’s already
grappling with an aging population and an alarming fall in the number of
children born each year.
“This is a symptom of Japan’s population decline,” said
Jeffrey Hall, a lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies in
Chiba. “It’s not really a problem of building too many houses” but “a
problem of not having enough people,” he said."
No matter what fucking Nick Fuentes - a Peak Republican Dumbfuck if ever breathed - "thinks" (if that's a valid term for the residual electrical impulses in his fat head), the American public, and American women in particular, aren't going to start popping out his sprogs enough to wash the dishes, wipe the asses, pick the crops, and clean the chicken carcasses.
Kids are fucking expensive! And hard, unpaid work! Remember the GOP mantra: "If you can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em." Amirite? Well..?
Kiboshing divorce and abortion ain't gonna help, either.
The bottom line is that most large industrial nations see an overall decline in native resident births as the dearth of needs for farmhands and shop assistants become obvious and kids become, in effect, a luxury good, an indulgence.
The planned Operation Endlösung (look it up...) is fucked up for many reasons.
But, like so much of Trump47, the bottomless stupidity is one that is far too often left unsaid.
Again, I'm not nearly so arsed at being ruled by evil traitors.
It's the being ruled by these fucking dumbfucks that really stings.
Update 11/14: Bill Scher at Washington Monthly has a worthwhile long read:
"Overall, immigration is good. You wouldn’t want to live in a country
where nobody wanted to get in. Without a steady flow of incoming
workers, businesses—particularly in specific sectors such as
agriculture, meatpacking, and construction—would strain to find workers.
Some companies would shutter, and others would provide clunkier service
while increasing costs. Small-to-mid-size cities would lose population
and revenue, forcing cuts in schools, police, and so on.
However, too much immigration in a short period causes acute
disruptions. States and cities struggle to find sufficient lodging.
Schools can’t handle sudden increases in students who need to learn
English. As with just-right inflation, Goldilocks immigration policy
engineers an amount that’s just right—relatively slow, steady, reliable,
and predictable."
I've been banging this drum for literally decades.
"So instead we get this idiotic argument that all we need to do is fence
these little heatherns out and everything will be Good. God will once
again be White and in His Heaven, the food will magically get harvested,
processed, cooked and served by Real (i.e. white) Americans who will
suddenly, magically, want to work for the pittance we want to pay for
these jobs to prevent our food, clothing and service costs from
reflecting what it would cost to pay humans actually living wages to do
these things.
As Hadrian himself might have said: Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.
It is your business when your neighbor's house is on fire."
Fuck but these people are so goddamn stupid it's astounding they remember to breathe. The problem is vast and involves dozens of polities and millions of people. Using "deport the brutes" to solve the problem is like trying to fix a pocketwatch with a hammer.
But watch these idiots do it.
We did Portland then drove out to the coast, so we had a long car ride just to talk. During a conversation about politics sis mentioned unnamed “friends” who were Republicans but were “nice people”; not overtly racist, sexist, etc. She lives in a piece of rural New York state, so I find that entirely believable that she knows these kind of people.
“They’re Nazis.” I replied. “Nazis are never “nice people”; they’re Nazis. We fought a whole war and incinerated whole cities full of them.”
“But…these aren’t bad people.” she insisted.
“Yes. They are. Just like there were sweet old grannies and kind men and cute kiddies in Dresden, they’re Nazis. You can’t excuse them because they’re “nice”. They have to be fought, and, if need be, killed.”
She was silent. But couldn’t agree. Just didn’t want to face that.
And that’s why we’re here.
“And when their Orange Fuhrer wins, and he sends his soldiers out here to Portland, and they shoot me down in the street because I’ll fight rather than surrender to Nazis, your “nice” Republicans will be happy about that, now, won’t they?”
And she had nothing to say.
Update 10/28: Bret Devereaux says the same things better and more completely.