It's been a minute since I blogged (is 5 years a minute?). I don't know what it is about today that made it the day this thing comes back online ... but here we go.
I know that there are dozens upon dozens of people out there writing (eloquently) about what is going on in our country right now, so there is a little voice in my head that says ... what is the point of one more voice? What is the point of my voice?
But of course, our current situation is not the result of too many people speaking out against racism, sexism, capitalism, hatred, is it?
So ok then. Here I am again, to add my voice to the electric sea.
So here's today's topic ... a pretty quick take on a couple of the things that have been on my mind lately, and some links for more information.
A couple weeks ago, watching videos of my hometown being riddled with devastating ICE raids a thought dropped like a little pebble, from my mind, down my throat, through my heart, into my gut. I suddenly saw myself in a German village, watching those new, mysterious trains go by.
Thought number two arose in the past few days ... reading articles (see The Guardian, among others: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/01/ice-raids-crops-california-farms) about all the farms in California whose labor force has been cut by up to 70%, food left rotting in the fields unpicked, because the farm workers have either been sucked up by ICE, or are afraid to show up for work for fear of detention and deportation.
It doesn't take much beyond 2+2=4 to realize that the upshot of this immigration crackdown is going to be shortages and price hikes for food. The farms are going to need workers. As will other industries, construction among them.
But here's the thing. The Murder Bill that just passed and is being signed into law by His Majesty today has allocated more money for ICE than most countries allocate for their entire militaries. The upshot of this is going to be both a domestic military force under Trump/MAGA control, and the creation of perhaps dozens of Concentration Camps all across the country.
And those immigrants, newly termed not only "illegal" but "criminal" are just sitting there ... a perfect labor force. And since the 13th Amendment which freed the slaves actually contains a loophole that allows slavery (I am ashamed to say I did not know this until today) as punishment for a crime (some might call it forced labor to make it sound ... what, nicer? more civilized?) ... it will even be marginally legal for the Administration and the Prison Contractors they work with to sell the immigrants' labor back to Farms, Construction Companies, Manufacturers, etc.
The US will have brought back slavery in the name of cheap labor and "purging illegals".
And if you think that this Administration will stop at immigrants ... you should read up on your history. Or even just read the famous poem, "And then they came for me". Post Civil War, included among the "crimes" that could be used to re-enslave the recently freed slaves were things like "vagrancy" (so, homelessness or joblessness). The Black Codes allowed local authorities to jail black people for minor infractions, and then put them back to work as forced labor. So slavery all over again.
All this information is available in books and online. From news sites and reputable historians. Though the gutting of the Department of Education and destruction of "DEI" initiatives is going to make learning about our own history harder than ever. And when we forget our history, we definitely doom ourselves to repeat it.
I mean, we are doing so right now.
I'm definitely not alone in extrapolating from current events to come to this conclusion, and certainly not an expert. Timothy Snyder, however, is an expert on Fascist regimes, and he just put out an article on Substack today on this very subject.
Read it here: https://snyder.substack.com/p/concentration-camp-labor?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=310897&post_id=167518650&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=26vfgy&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Snyder has some recommendations about things we can do right now. Including getting CEO's to pledge not to use slave labor now or in the future. As he says, this may seem like a small thing, but it opens an aperture of possibility to stop this from happening before it becomes the new normal.
One other thing he didn't mention that seems worth looking into is that there has long been a movement in the US to close the slavery loophole in the 13th Amendment. Senator Merkley (here in Oregon) was one of the Co-Sponsors of a Bill about this. It seems to have been introduced in Congress but no idea where it's gone to, or if it just died. But heck, we need that law passed, ASAP, so it seems like it's worth making some noise about it.
See more on that bill here: https://www.merkley.senate.gov/sen-merkley-co-sponsors-bill-to-close-slavery-loophole-in-13th-amendment/
Happy 4th of July everyone. Let Freedom Ring.
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