Even though the United States of America is an empire in decline thanks to the self-destructive policies of the oligarchy, we can take comfort in knowing we’ll have the world’s first “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility.
Who needs public schools, affordable health, reliable infrastructure, and steady jobs when you can instead invest that money into private prisons? The Republican Billionaire Bill that gives tax cuts to the rich and guts Medicaid somehow found $175 billion for ICE and adds 4,000 new agents and more detention facilities.
Republicans created this “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp in just 8 days. It seems that when they put their mind to it, they can get things done if it benefits their cruelty and corporate donors. Not so much for their own base, which is set to lose rural hospitals and nursing homes thanks to this bill. Private prisons, in particular, have been huge beneficiaries of the Trump regime, with their stocks soaring right after the election. Doubling down on the cruelty, Trump said he wants to open more of these concentration camps across America and is willing to strip some Americans of their citizenship. This is on top of his commitment to kidnap and deport legal immigrants, and even citizens, to foreign prisons without due process.
The Hunger Games, Squid Games, and The Running Man are no longer just dystopian fiction, but now serve as likely blueprints for MAGA. Just a reminder that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem allegedly pitched a reality TV show where immigrants fight for their citizenship.
You are allowed to be shocked by all of this craven brutality, but you can’t be surprised. This is what America has always been. This is a country where families came out to celebrate public lynchings of Black men in the 20th century. This is a country that almost destroyed itself to preserve slavery. This is a country that decided to annihilate itself and elected a corrupt criminal because it couldn’t bear to elect a Black woman.
The horrors that we have witnessed just this week alone - including billionaires pouring money to destroy and smear Zohran Mamdani - are all reflective of the original twin sins of America: white supremacy and capitalism. It’s always been racism and greed that have fueled Trump and MAGA, and now it threatens to burn us all down, regardless of our color.
In this mid-week Democracy-ish check-in, Danielle and I spin the Wheel from Hell and discuss some of the latest news headlines that reflect our dark days ahead, and we offer a sober but hopeful analysis of what we must do to resist fascism and maintain our sanity.
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