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A Golden Age of Oligarchs
Last month, Elon Musk said something about the Trump election with which we agree. He said “this was no ordinary victory. This was a fork in the road of human civilization.“ How true. Now our democracy, however, restricted by class and race, is in the process of being replaced by a super wealthy oligarchy. There are more than 800 billionaires in the United States. They are now in the saddle.
The Citizens United Supreme Court case of 2010 eased the process. Trump was elected with money, truly big money from 10 people. Elon Musk alone contributed $277 million. Biden himself in his farewell address warned of the takeover by an oligarchy. Echoing President Eisenhower‘s famous warning of a military industrial complex, Biden talked about the “tech industrial complex.“
This second Trump term will not be like the first. It won’t be incoherent and chaotic. This has been guaranteed by the Heritage Foundation which wrote a 920 page playbook for dismantling democracy.
The process has begun with Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord and calling for more drilling. “Drill baby drill” is his mantra. This is a race towards human extinction. On January 21st he pulled out of the World Health Organization. The day he was sworn in he pardoned some 1500 people who participated, and even lead the January 6th insurrection. This is a greenlight for fascist mobs who now must feel they can get away with anything.
The Democratic Party has greased the skids for this transition. It cannot be relied on for the defense of the American people. Biden and Harris after accurately calling Trump a fascist to the last few weeks of the election, then did an about face welcoming him in to the White House saying they would cooperate with him and praising the peaceful transition, a transition that Trump if he lost promised not to abide by.
Guest – Chris Hedges, the journalist and author spent two decades as a foreign correspondent serving as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 14 books including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and The Death of the Liberal Class. Chris’ forthcoming book is titled A Genocide Foretold.
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Resistance Continues As Mass Deportation Plan Ramps Up
Well, it’s begun. Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants back to their home countries, or if need be, elsewhere, began in earnest in Chicago last week, and in other places, as well. A relatively small number were rounded up, including a few U.S. citizens. I guess they just didn’t look “American” enough to escape an initial arrest. An even larger number of immigrants left voluntarily, too frightened to stay. Chicago, being a “sanctuary city” its local policing officials refused to help in the round ups and expulsions. That of course, brought threats from the Trump Administration that they, and any others in the country who did not fully cooperate with federal ICE officials and cops during such raids, might be prosecuted.
Of course, Trump and his loyal sycophants were quick to take to the airwaves in defense of the round up with their bogus charges that immigrants are criminals and are taking jobs from real Americans. Never mind that the crime rate for undocumented immigrants is much lower than for us “real Americans,” and that the vast majority of the jobs they do are mainly jobs most Americans simply will not do.
So, to review the new deportation plans of the Trump Administration, its methods of operation, its likely costs, its likely success rate, and the threats of prosecuting anyone who interferes with the effort, or in the case of local officials who won’t cooperate with it, we are pleased to have with us today a leading expert on all matters having to do with the plight of immigrants in America and the new effort to deport millions of them,
Guest – attorney Victor Narro is a nationally known expert on immigrant rights and low-wage workers, and has been involved in these efforts for over 40 years now. He is currently a Project Director for the UCLA Labor Center and Core Faculty for the UCLA Department of Labor Studies, where he teaches classes that focus on immigrant rights, social justice and the labor movement. And Victor Narro is also Core Faculty for the Public Interest Law Program at UCLA School of Law. Victor Narro’s latest book is The Activist Spirit—Towards a Radical Solidarity, published by Hard Ball Press.
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