Promises Made, Promises Unkempt

Even when writing about Trump, I don’t have it in me to write long diatribes every time there’s latest 20-car pile-up tsunami of fascist actions by him and his administration.  Which pretty much is going to be every day.  To be clear, I’ll keep doing so on occasion – it would be near-impossible not to – but not every day.  Not only do I not have it in me to write that much, but I’m equally sure people don’t have it in them to read that much.  It’s exhausting. 

And yes, I know that’s much of the point.  But the thing is, I realized, almost only one of the fascist actions is problematic enough to cause trouble – not just for the country – but for Trump and his MAGOP party’s approval.  If it was just “Elon Musk and his college students gain access to all Americans’ private finances,” that headline enough will creep out most Americans.  Or “Trump wants to send U.S. troops to Gaza to ‘own’ it ‘permanently’ and remove all Palestinians in order to rebuild beachfront property.”  That mere headline alone, too, should gut American consciences.  Or “Trump sends ICE agents into churches and schools.”  Or “Trump’s Attorney General shuts down FBI policy to investigate foreign election interference.”  (Yes, that’s real!!)  Or “Unelected world’s richest man, Trump’s biggest donor of $280 million, closes U.S. department on international assistance which has saved 25 million lives and has made friends and national allies across the globe.”  Or “Trump wants to make Canada the 51st state.”  Or “Trump threatens U.S. ally in effort to buy Greenland.”  Or…or…or…or…

Any one of these, by their headline alone is plenty enough for people to get instantly, or sicken most of them.  And if you dump all of them together, or dump a ream of pages about each individual outrage every day, it risks becoming white noise.  Sometimes, it’s necessary – if only to blow off steam.  But usually, there is enough coverage everywhere in the news and on the Internet to provide an overabundance of a Trump banquet of dross.

So, I sense it’s far better, on occasion, to just make a point and then get out.

I don’t know how successful I’ll be at that.  But it’s nice to have a goal.  And a more clear head without tsunami’s flooding out of one’s ears.

So, we’ll start the new concept with this –

Trump and his acolytes have been ranting for years about how there are supposedly 15 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.  That’s not remotely true, the number is far fewer, but they’re the ones “outraged,” so let’s be kind and go with their number for our purposes here.

And Trump said that he was going to round them all up starting on Day One, and deport them, and get them out of the country.  All of them.  Without weeks or months.  Every one of the 15 million.  And on Day One, Trump did start.  And it’s been horrible, and disruptive and shameful.  It’s also been something else – ludicrously ineffective.  If it wasn’t for the hell rained on those under threat, it would be comically ineffective.

Within two weeks, there have been a few planeloads of undocumented immigrants flown out of the country.  I don’t know the exact number, let’s been generous and say it’s been a couple hundred.  Which, by my math, is less than 15 million.  In fact, after just these same two weeks, parts of the round-up program have already forced a slowdown, since detention centers are already at 109% capacity.  Something that all experts relentlessly said was the obvious outcome for those Trump officials insisting they’d deport 15 million people within weeks or months.

And this program reached a highpoint of incompetent performance art yesterday when ICE invited Fox to go on a ride-along in Texas with a hundred agents or so, when they expected to arrest scores of gang members.

They arrested one suspected gang member.  And he hasn’t been deported, of course.  He’s only under arrest.

And here’s the thing:  at this rate, Trump and his band of ICE agents will arrest what they insist are 15 million undocumented immigrants in 41,096 years.  They won’t all be deported by then, of course, and many will likely be released for being wrongly arrested.  But the Trump MAGOP base can sleep easily now, knowing that in the year 43,121 A.D., Trump will be a small part of the way to accomplishing what he said he’d have done by the summer…

And that's the problem for Trump.  He promised his base that the 15 million undocumented immigrants (his number) would be deported and gone for the U.S. within months of him being elected.  His supporters want that.  And (my guess) they probably aren't going to be patient having to wait for that promise to be partly fulfilled in 41,096 years.

And a fun final bonus: 

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has said that his department will be revisiting the idea of media ride-alongs on ICE raids.  And may stop them.  Because of…logistical problems.