A Quibble

Today is my Uncle Frank's birthday. He reads the blog, so feel free to wish him a happy birthday in the comments. 

Last week I shared a graphic I found on Bluesky about the ICE raids snatching more non-criminals than criminals (even though they said they'd go after the criminals). One comment attacked the veracity of the statistics used. 

And, the thing is, I don't care. I don't care if the statistics were wrong. (I mean, I won't knowingly share fake statistics. There's enough false information out there. No need to add to it.) My point was that the masked thugs kidnapping people off the streets are indiscriminate. The comment talked about all undocumented immigrants being criminals. 

(Of course, the thugs are kidnapping citizens and legal immigrants. These aren't targeted raids. They're going after brown people and people who are "hindering" their kidnapping attempts.) 

This whole thing is not about immigration. The legal immigration system is broken. 

This whole thing is a racist dog whistle trying to "cleanse" this country of non-white people. (If you didn't catch that, you're not paying attention.) And, it's also a way for the thug in charge to punish the parts of the country that have gone loudly anti this regime. 

The cruelty is the point. 

(It's only hurting the economy. And yet, they're still planning to ramp this up to make it even more cruel.) 

And those who are arguing any sort of "but they deserve this" are arguing for concentration camps. Which are designed to be cruel. No one deserves to be rounded up and thrown into these terrible locations (many times for the profit of the concentration camp owners). 

If you think we're being "overrun" by immigrants, you're a racist. Have you been to any place that has a lot of immigrants? I live here. Really, we're not being overrun. We're fine. 

I've been in the newcomer classes at the middle and high school. Some of them are badly behaved. But I don't fear for my life. 

I fear for their lives, now. Because with this indiscriminate kidnapping and imprisonment, how many of them might be swept up in that? And yes, they're going after kids. 

We're just a step or two away from death camps. Seriously. The rhetoric has started. These human beings are being called dehumanizing names. That's how it starts. 

And I had a comment attacking the statistics. 

Don't apologize for the concentration camps. Oppose them. Loudly. Call your reps. Remind people that this sort of thing has happened before, and as a whole the world was horrified. 

The people doing this deserve to be tried for Crimes Against Humanity. The atrocities are already happening. We must all oppose this. Now.