“Is it Cruelty, or is it corruption? That's a
question that comes up whenever we learn about some new,
extraordinary abuse by the Trump administration—something that
seems to happen just about every week. And the answer, usually, is
both” (1) So wrote economist
Paul Krugman, recently, in The New York Times.
Krugman was writing about “the atrocities the U.S.
is committing against migrants from Central America. Oh, and save
the fake outrage. Yes, they are atrocities and yes, the detention
centers meet the historical definition of concentration camps.” (2)
Krugman contents that tRUMP sees cruelty as serving both
a political strategy and policy tool; on the one hand it is hoped to
reduce the number of immigrants seeking asylum and on the other hand
satisfy the blood lust of his knuckle-dragging political 'base'.
But, as Krugman cannot help but noting—there is money to be made.
With tRUMP—always the transactional bastard—it's always about the
money.
In this case “a majority of detained migrants are
being held in camps run by corporations with close ties to the
Republican Party.
“And when I say close ties, we're talking about
personal rewards as well as campaign contributions. A couple of
months ago, John Kelly, Trump's former chief of staff, joined the
board of Calilburn International, which runs the infamous Homestead
Detention center for migrant children”. (4)
No one emerges from the shadow of Disgustus unsoiled.
Everyone becomes a parasite.
This leads us to the question of privatization—a
movement that began in earnest during the Reagan years and has
quickly morphed into a form of crony capitalism. Everything from
school lunches, to local zoning and building code enforcement, to
street cleaning, to running the municipal marina has been turned over
to the tender attentions of capitalist pigs with wholly predictable
results. Not only has the nation gained a glimpse of the horrors of
what is transpiring at the border, but reversing a policy started
under Obama to de-privatize prisons, the nation once again is on the
path of underpaying and under-training personnel, and shaving
expenses on food and medical care. Where the I.C.E. Detention camps
lead, the federal prisons will soon follow. Soon, like in some
banana republic, inmates will be required to pay for their own
incarceration making certain that once incarcerated those imprisoned
will never again see the light of day.
Slowly, determinedly, step-by-step the nation creeps
toward fascism. Behold the countenance of our bloated Caesar as he
pauses basking in manufactured adoration. Behold our orange
spray-painted Mussolini. Behold the cheap counterfeit posing as the
genuine article.
An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh
Impeach and Imprison.
____________- Krugman, Paul. “Trump and The Merchants Of Detention” The New York Times. Tuesday, July 9, 2019. Page A27
- ibid
- ibid
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