Re: Guest Post - The Surge

1

I finally got to reading that. It just sounds unlivable.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 5-18 6:27 PM
horizontal rule
2

This might be their shot at a third amendment violation so they can go 10 for 10.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 06- 5-18 7:18 PM
horizontal rule
3

The 3rd amendment might be a reach, but the part of the 5th that Trump appointees aren't using ("nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation) seems applicable. Like staking out a route for the wall through the butterfly-peoples' land, I would think they could sue.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 6:05 AM
horizontal rule
4

I realize that "let's compensate people who own property and ignore the poor victims" isn't exactly solving the whole problem, but I don't have another suggestion beyond winning a whole bunch of elections over the next decade. I blame late capitalism.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 6:07 AM
horizontal rule
5

4: Late? I'm just getting started!


Posted by: Opinionated Capitalism | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 6:23 AM
horizontal rule
6

That's what always annoyed me about the term "late capitalism". Maybe we're really in High Middle Capitalism.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 6:38 AM
horizontal rule
7

I think that's optimistic.

Also, it seems to me that if you want to have more law enforcement and lower taxes, you've pretty much decided you want poor people to be abused. It would cost more money to hire, train, and supervise enough people to do something less intrusive.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 6:49 AM
horizontal rule
8

Capitalism's late, but not pregnant.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 6:53 AM
horizontal rule
9

8: You're wrong! Capitalism is pregnant! I'm going to pop out any day now!


Posted by: Opinionated Fully Formed Socialist Utopia | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 7:06 AM
horizontal rule
10

3,4

Pretty much every push to expand the fence and the Border Patrol's authority to show up on private property without warning has been met with lawsuits. I don't believe these have typically accomplished much, and they're likely to accomplish even less as the GOP stacks the court with more partisan judges who are forming their careers in the context of anti-immigrant fervor.

Probably one of the most horrific things about this expansion is that it takes place in the context of impoverished border town economies, with CBP and ICE functioning together as sort of a reactionary Keynesian jobs program so that participating in a police state is one of few secure paths to the middle class for people who don't want to move out of the area.

Electing more Democrats might help, especially now that people are beginning to wake up to the horrors of the status quo, but I also worry about how quickly the most horrid crimes of the American status quo slip off of peoples' radars once Democrats become the ones responsible for them, even for a few months.


Posted by: Trivers | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 9:48 AM
horizontal rule
11

The Texas border is so deeply weird and so fucking important. If we could get enough people there who are potential Democrats to vote Democratic you could permanently change Texas and the entire country. That would do it, game over, we win. Texas border Latinos could easily be the country's most important political constituency. But AFAICT the border is thought of by basically everyone as some kind of weird liminal third world zone where rules like "Americans don't live in literal shanty towns with tropical disease" don't apply and even somebody like Beto O'Rourke who is kinda from the region and can get some enthusiasm can't get enough enthusaism to move the politics.

California and (I think) Arizona don't really have the "border" in quite the same way, there's San Diego/Chula Vista/San Ysidro/Otay Mesa but those aren't really the same. Imperial Beach is almost the border and I like it because it's one old fashioned 70s style still kinda trashy seeming California beach town.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 10:48 AM
horizontal rule
12

Well, the CA/Mex border isn't a river valley, right?


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 10:49 AM
horizontal rule
13

True!


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 10:50 AM
horizontal rule
14

And won't be, with that attitude.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 10:51 AM
horizontal rule
15

11

Turnout in the Rio Grande Valley hovers around 25%.... Christ. I can't for the life of me figure out why the state party isn't pouring practically all of its resources into driving turnout there and in El Paso.

O'Rourke has more enthusiasm than I expected. I see lots of yard signs for him in Dallas, even in some of the wealthier areas. The El Paso left isn't crazy about him though, which I think has hampered efforts to get the left to organize for him throughout the state.


Posted by: Trivers | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 11:51 AM
horizontal rule
16

My high school principal lives in El Paso and is, or was in 1980s Nebraska, a Democrat. She should probably do something about that. On the other hand, she must be close to 70 by now.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06- 6-18 11:55 AM
horizontal rule
17

This related story is particularly depressing: https://eldiariony.com/2018/06/04/un-soldado-delato-a-mi-esposo-a-la-migra/

Pizza guy turns up with delivery for a military base in NY, the gate guards ask to see his Ausweis, call immigration, and get him arrested.

I can't imagine that pizza place will be making any more deliveries to that army base. And, if it does, I would certainly not be inclined to eat any of the pizzas it delivered.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 06- 7-18 4:13 AM
horizontal rule
18

17 No real NYC pizza place should make deliveries there again. Let them order from Domino's.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 06- 7-18 6:33 AM
horizontal rule