I think I've figured out at least part of the endgame. In creating these concentration camps around the country, Trump is establishing a way for a new "convict lease system," which was used in post-Civil War Georgia to great effect. Convicts were "given" to political buddies of the rulers and they worked coal mines, turpentine stores and built roads. If one died, because of a lack of food, infection from injury or an attack by a fellow inmate, no big deal, there were always hundreds waiting to take the dead man's place. The "hardened criminals" who have picked cherries and framed houses and cut pig carcasses will now be doing so for free. Thus further enriching King Donald's toadies. Sydney is looking better and better.
Not "possible" but certain -- Trump said as much in Iowa last week. "Owner responsibility" was the phrase he used, referring to the idea of allowing farmers to keep their undocumented worker (and documented ones too, no doubt) as prison labour rather than house them in the concentration camps. Slavery is back on the agenda, people.
We have always had the system. That's a reason why we are here. It's just they probably will not throw a bone to any level of employment. I cant figure out why several events have not been federal law breakers to several individuals. Why not just detained and arrest them?
Makes perfect sense that this group of degenerates would latch onto something that already exists; that is an exception to prohibiting slavery in the US Constitution (13th Amendment) and almost all state constitutions.
Multiple times he said he would put the farmers in charge. Once he mentioned vouching for them. The Des Moines Register reported that as “ President Donald Trump told Iowans he's going to "put the farmers in charge" when it comes to deporting agricultural workers who are in the country illegally.”
IOW, giving each farmer, food processor, meat packer etc, the threat of deportation if they don’t like prison wages & working conditions.
Steven, Adam Kinzinger pointed out something. Look at the $$$$$ miller is making/where it is from. That will lead you to what's next/why/where. He's making $$$$$$$$ from thiel/plantir. miller's stock/mutual fund/bonds portfolio will reveal all. How much of that portfolio is public?
You are absolutely right about this. Sources in the news have speculated that Trump is patting himself on the back because he believes this is a great way to have free labor in the fields and mines…a real money-saver? G-D help us.
And one of those who used convict labor to enrich himself, Joe Brown, has a building named for him on the University of Georgia campus. Efforts to have his name removed were prohibited by chuckleheads running the State Board of Regents.
This is not the first time that the US has imprisoned people in interment camps, Roosevelt did it during WWII. The US has always been a racist society, starting with the genocide of the native Americans. We enslaved blacks for almost 100 years. It took until 1966 to finally undue Jim Crow policies in the south. In 1924 the immigration act limited the number of people allowed into the country based on what countries they were coming from.
Everything we are going through today has happened before in our history. The reason people are upset is because it hasn’t happened in over 60 years and people forget and are never taught about our horrors in school.
Will we over come this, yes. When enough pain is felt by the majority of people they will revolt. It’s coming and soon.
Were the interned Japanese Americans forced into labor? I think children were sent to school and people there carried on in traditional roles of teachers, etc. Jim Crow-ish policies are still in force in the South, only now it's called red lining and predatory lending and re-segreated schools. Black people were enslaved 400 years in the U.S., not 100. The scale and funding of this craven effort isn't like anything that has happened before.
Yes. Japanese including those who were American citizens were assigned jobs. — Students were sent to school every morning, and adult internees were given jobs, usually farming or maintaining the physical plant. Each camp had a governing council, and many of the institutions of normal community life—newspapers, businesses, sports teams, concerts, places of worship—grew and thrived within the barbed wire. At the same time, however, camp life worked to erode some of the most distinctive tenets of the Japanese American community.
… More importantly, however, paying jobs were only given to U.S. citizens-that is, to the Nisei. The younger generation, as the breadwinners, soon began to take on leadership roles in the internee community, while the Issei, who had worked for decades to build up businesses and lead their families, found themselves sidelined. … — https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/japanese/behind-the-wire/
This is likely part of their unspoken plan. This is not the time to be silent as our Democracy dies. Stand up and speak out. "Make America a Democracy Again"
This is a sleeping giant. The public needs to stop looking at prison labor as a freebie. I remember there was a documentary style look at the GA modern version. It was profitable to extend the sentences of inmates, even more so those who had needed skills. If memory serves me, there were allegations of planting drugs in cells to do so.
No it is not a leap of logic to think this is going in the same direction. Our tyrants in the WH don’t waste time reinventing the wheel.
• This article is from July 2024, Louisiana. It also references punishment, solitary confinement, in AR for not participating in work programs AND:
— The Associated Press found some prison farms nationwide have in recent years supplied millions of dollars worth of crops — including soy, corn and wheat — to massive global companies like Tyson Foods, Louis Dreyfus, Consolidated Grain and Barge and Riceland Foods. Agricultural goods produced through prison labor end up in the supply chains of popular brands like Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Ballpark hot dogs and Pepsi … —
• “Free” prison labor was quite widespread and is deeply embedded in our prison system. Only a handful of states have removed the exception to slavery - prison labor - from their state constitutions. It remains in the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution. It continued in under the radar & new forms after it was outlawed about 100 yrs ago.
• Because I was working on an issues re: a bogus training program at a facility I received anonymous calls about abuse of employees & inmates. To my surprise I also got calls about some jails still quietly leasing prisoners and/or seeking out individuals to charge & arrest offering a choice. Conviction versus charges being dropped in return for working on certain private events / projects the charges would be dropped. This was the late ‘80s. Years later I saw a news story when an inmate was injured working on a the personal property of a rural KY judge.
• For private production work KY law requires minimum federal wages. The facility & work must be in Dept of Corrections property (except agriculture). Several states do not require payments to prisoners for their labor.
Another reason to publicly resist. it is not enough to protest every now and then. Join Indivisible or a similar organization and spend time every week demonstrating your distaste for the regime. You will make new friends and take solace from associating with dedicated like minded Americans. We can bring this to an end but we all have to act.
Thank you, Steven. We should NOT lose sight of this part of the bill…the HUGE increase in funding for the American concentration camp system and gestapo, not to mention funding for the wall, that if Trump has his way, will have spears on top? At the same time, he wants to defund FEMA completely so that he, alone, will decide who gets disaster relief?
The Statue of Liberty plaque should now read, “Bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to work for free…”
Terrifying. Watching from the other side of the world, the very last place I want to visit now is the “United” states of America, where I have many dear friends. How low your country has fallen, and will continue to fall even lower while this monstrous fascist regime is in place.
And even if it were possible to think that this ghastly inhumanity was in any way acceptable - these foul plans will cripple the economy, devastate the tourism industry as tourists are warned off, and possibly result in the secession of liberal states such as California. Where is this huge budget coming from? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if California refuses to continue to pay its taxes over to this illegitimate regime.
Horrible times to live in. The recovery, even if it’s possible, will take decades. I won’t live to see it.
My heart is broken for the now extinct shining city on the hill.
The budget is not based in reality. It is coming from out of the air, the air expelled from the rapidly deflating balloon that was once the US economy. Check out the long-term bond rate. The air that would keep the balloon inflated is becoming .esser and more costly.
I appreciate your strongly worded essay, Steven. I know it is going to take much, much more than occasional protests and some successful lawsuits to save the sinking ship of American democracy. I'm afraid that by the time the midterms arrive, the fascists will have succeeded in their efforts to prevent wide swaths of citizens from voting, and in shattering confidence in the electoral system, so that even IF the midterms take place (and I'm not optimistic about that) they will be so thoroughly corrupted that nothing will change. I am NOT giving up, nor encouraging others to give up -- but we have to be realistic about where things are and what needs to be done. What is being done right now is not sufficient to put a stop to the complete takeover of the government by those who believe that fascism is the way to go. Trump and his minions are not hiding their intentions nor their illegal actions, and now have the ability to finance a very large Gestapo-like army to detain, disappear and deport not only immigrants but citizens, and make no mistake, they will do so. As you say, things are going to get much worse. Will the American people fold, or will they fight? And by "fight" I don't mean posts on social media or the occasional protest march....
It's extremely important that we continue to draw a strong distinction between really bad policies, like the tax breaks and defunding of social assistance, and the truly criminal and chilling transition from a nation of policy debate (however sickening the result) to a nation of fascist, strongman rule.
It's also important to stress that while our national economy used to be a zero sum game-- take some funding away from one thing to pay for another--this is not even remotely the case today. The argument that defunding SNAP is in order to increase "border security," an exchange of a few billion, is lip service when we are adding trillions to the deficit column of the spreadsheet. Noem and Homan got all the money they could possible have wished for and more, to carry out a fever dream of dystopian proportions.
As for Mike Johnson on his knees . . . . revolting, really.
Steven, What a bleak, but undoubtedly accurate forecast you project! How sad…how frightening! The noose tRump has placed around our necks tightens daily. Unfortunately…words are not going to set us free!! Knowing that successful (for good Americans) Mid Term elections will mean tRump’s demise. He appears to be busy installing barriers to keep that from ever happening like changing voting rules, etc., up to and including actually canceling the Election. I really think our alternatives to letting this happen become less each and every day! I attended our local “No Kings” rally…the atmosphere was light and carefree. After all were all friends and neighbors. Nobody feared a truck with hooded Goons with truncheons and plastic handcuffs was going to show up…that was somewhere else. Of course, it might be our own National Guard, our friends and neighbors, nothing to worry about! Yeah right!!!!
Remember…we now have American Concentration Camps! Who knows…one may be coming to your quiet little town soon! Recall what tRump said, “he wouldn’t be against putting bad Americans in them!” Go back and look at the History Books depicting Hitler’s Goons, aka SS or Brown Shirts, forcing families into “Cattle Cars” many to never be seen again! Turn to today’s News to see frightened families cowering together…some in restraints, waiting to be deported…or worse!!!
I remember working with fellows with numbers tattooed on their forearms. Most of whom would never explain to us curious “Kids” what they meant!
We may be soon faced with totally unexpected challenges…as well as, being forced to make life altering decisions?
Their plan is coming together faster than I could have imagined. I thought that it would take at least a year to get to this point. The frightening thing is we know their end game, a dictatorship and police state, back by a multitude of hateful MAGA people when will endure anything as long as it hurts others worse. They didn’t think that they would be affected, but now that they are they still blame Biden and the Democrats. They are like the last Nazi holdouts in Berlin. When the Trump Regime ultimately collapses, they will be lost.
The cruelty is the point! The dehumanization of people is a foundational step in the establishment of a dictatorship.
We have to stop this now. If even 20% of the people who voted for Kamala Harris are willing to take to the streets and to keep doing so on an ongoing basis, we will bring this regime down.
I live in flyover country where people think news events happen Over There to Those People. I am brown (and 5th generation American) and wear my passport in a clear, shiny pouch around my neck. To prompt the question and make it clear that They are Us.
the pleasure they get out of the sadism cannot be defined in words it can only be seen by the deaths, the starvation, the illnesses, it is the planned vile cruelty to any people that are not RICH WHITE MEN...
I think I've figured out at least part of the endgame. In creating these concentration camps around the country, Trump is establishing a way for a new "convict lease system," which was used in post-Civil War Georgia to great effect. Convicts were "given" to political buddies of the rulers and they worked coal mines, turpentine stores and built roads. If one died, because of a lack of food, infection from injury or an attack by a fellow inmate, no big deal, there were always hundreds waiting to take the dead man's place. The "hardened criminals" who have picked cherries and framed houses and cut pig carcasses will now be doing so for free. Thus further enriching King Donald's toadies. Sydney is looking better and better.
Very possible he and his private prison pals see an opportunity for free labor.
Not "possible" but certain -- Trump said as much in Iowa last week. "Owner responsibility" was the phrase he used, referring to the idea of allowing farmers to keep their undocumented worker (and documented ones too, no doubt) as prison labour rather than house them in the concentration camps. Slavery is back on the agenda, people.
We have always had the system. That's a reason why we are here. It's just they probably will not throw a bone to any level of employment. I cant figure out why several events have not been federal law breakers to several individuals. Why not just detained and arrest them?
Makes perfect sense that this group of degenerates would latch onto something that already exists; that is an exception to prohibiting slavery in the US Constitution (13th Amendment) and almost all state constitutions.
Multiple times he said he would put the farmers in charge. Once he mentioned vouching for them. The Des Moines Register reported that as “ President Donald Trump told Iowans he's going to "put the farmers in charge" when it comes to deporting agricultural workers who are in the country illegally.”
IOW, giving each farmer, food processor, meat packer etc, the threat of deportation if they don’t like prison wages & working conditions.
This is the federal ‘pay’ for inmates. https://www.bop.gov/inmates/custody_and_care/work_programs.jsp
If they somehow put them under state law it would different state to state. In some states the pay rate is $0.00.
https://njsbf.org/2025/04/24/from-convict-leasing-to-todays-prison-labor-system/
On the other hand if “employers” are allowed to deduct housing and food ……
Steven, Adam Kinzinger pointed out something. Look at the $$$$$ miller is making/where it is from. That will lead you to what's next/why/where. He's making $$$$$$$$ from thiel/plantir. miller's stock/mutual fund/bonds portfolio will reveal all. How much of that portfolio is public?
You are absolutely right about this. Sources in the news have speculated that Trump is patting himself on the back because he believes this is a great way to have free labor in the fields and mines…a real money-saver? G-D help us.
And one of those who used convict labor to enrich himself, Joe Brown, has a building named for him on the University of Georgia campus. Efforts to have his name removed were prohibited by chuckleheads running the State Board of Regents.
This is not the first time that the US has imprisoned people in interment camps, Roosevelt did it during WWII. The US has always been a racist society, starting with the genocide of the native Americans. We enslaved blacks for almost 100 years. It took until 1966 to finally undue Jim Crow policies in the south. In 1924 the immigration act limited the number of people allowed into the country based on what countries they were coming from.
Everything we are going through today has happened before in our history. The reason people are upset is because it hasn’t happened in over 60 years and people forget and are never taught about our horrors in school.
Will we over come this, yes. When enough pain is felt by the majority of people they will revolt. It’s coming and soon.
Were the interned Japanese Americans forced into labor? I think children were sent to school and people there carried on in traditional roles of teachers, etc. Jim Crow-ish policies are still in force in the South, only now it's called red lining and predatory lending and re-segreated schools. Black people were enslaved 400 years in the U.S., not 100. The scale and funding of this craven effort isn't like anything that has happened before.
Yes. Japanese including those who were American citizens were assigned jobs. — Students were sent to school every morning, and adult internees were given jobs, usually farming or maintaining the physical plant. Each camp had a governing council, and many of the institutions of normal community life—newspapers, businesses, sports teams, concerts, places of worship—grew and thrived within the barbed wire. At the same time, however, camp life worked to erode some of the most distinctive tenets of the Japanese American community.
… More importantly, however, paying jobs were only given to U.S. citizens-that is, to the Nisei. The younger generation, as the breadwinners, soon began to take on leadership roles in the internee community, while the Issei, who had worked for decades to build up businesses and lead their families, found themselves sidelined. … — https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/japanese/behind-the-wire/
This is likely part of their unspoken plan. This is not the time to be silent as our Democracy dies. Stand up and speak out. "Make America a Democracy Again"
This is a sleeping giant. The public needs to stop looking at prison labor as a freebie. I remember there was a documentary style look at the GA modern version. It was profitable to extend the sentences of inmates, even more so those who had needed skills. If memory serves me, there were allegations of planting drugs in cells to do so.
No it is not a leap of logic to think this is going in the same direction. Our tyrants in the WH don’t waste time reinventing the wheel.
• This article is from July 2024, Louisiana. It also references punishment, solitary confinement, in AR for not participating in work programs AND:
— The Associated Press found some prison farms nationwide have in recent years supplied millions of dollars worth of crops — including soy, corn and wheat — to massive global companies like Tyson Foods, Louis Dreyfus, Consolidated Grain and Barge and Riceland Foods. Agricultural goods produced through prison labor end up in the supply chains of popular brands like Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Ballpark hot dogs and Pepsi … —
https://apnews.com/article/prisons-labor-lawsuit-investigation-b41d72f87dc22e0a351a1a8f5345b9bc
• “Free” prison labor was quite widespread and is deeply embedded in our prison system. Only a handful of states have removed the exception to slavery - prison labor - from their state constitutions. It remains in the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution. It continued in under the radar & new forms after it was outlawed about 100 yrs ago.
• Because I was working on an issues re: a bogus training program at a facility I received anonymous calls about abuse of employees & inmates. To my surprise I also got calls about some jails still quietly leasing prisoners and/or seeking out individuals to charge & arrest offering a choice. Conviction versus charges being dropped in return for working on certain private events / projects the charges would be dropped. This was the late ‘80s. Years later I saw a news story when an inmate was injured working on a the personal property of a rural KY judge.
• Work release for the government (“self-use”) and non-profits. In a Workers Compensation case from not so many years ago the “pay” was 63 cents a day and a shorter sentence: 1 day for each week worked. https://elc.ky.gov/Workers-Compensation/Board%20Opinions/Ralph%20Jones%20vs%20Franklin%20County%20Jail%20etal%20201901189.pdf
• For private production work KY law requires minimum federal wages. The facility & work must be in Dept of Corrections property (except agriculture). Several states do not require payments to prisoners for their labor.
https://njsbf.org/2025/04/24/from-convict-leasing-to-todays-prison-labor-system/
These are necessary and accurate, stunning and sad statistics of the state of our beautiful country of which it is important we be reminded.
We are together
We are the Majority
We must never give in.
💙💙🇺🇸💙💙
Another reason to publicly resist. it is not enough to protest every now and then. Join Indivisible or a similar organization and spend time every week demonstrating your distaste for the regime. You will make new friends and take solace from associating with dedicated like minded Americans. We can bring this to an end but we all have to act.
Not surprised, heartsick.
Thank you, Steven. We should NOT lose sight of this part of the bill…the HUGE increase in funding for the American concentration camp system and gestapo, not to mention funding for the wall, that if Trump has his way, will have spears on top? At the same time, he wants to defund FEMA completely so that he, alone, will decide who gets disaster relief?
The Statue of Liberty plaque should now read, “Bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to work for free…”
Terrifying. Watching from the other side of the world, the very last place I want to visit now is the “United” states of America, where I have many dear friends. How low your country has fallen, and will continue to fall even lower while this monstrous fascist regime is in place.
And even if it were possible to think that this ghastly inhumanity was in any way acceptable - these foul plans will cripple the economy, devastate the tourism industry as tourists are warned off, and possibly result in the secession of liberal states such as California. Where is this huge budget coming from? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if California refuses to continue to pay its taxes over to this illegitimate regime.
Horrible times to live in. The recovery, even if it’s possible, will take decades. I won’t live to see it.
My heart is broken for the now extinct shining city on the hill.
The budget is not based in reality. It is coming from out of the air, the air expelled from the rapidly deflating balloon that was once the US economy. Check out the long-term bond rate. The air that would keep the balloon inflated is becoming .esser and more costly.
I appreciate your strongly worded essay, Steven. I know it is going to take much, much more than occasional protests and some successful lawsuits to save the sinking ship of American democracy. I'm afraid that by the time the midterms arrive, the fascists will have succeeded in their efforts to prevent wide swaths of citizens from voting, and in shattering confidence in the electoral system, so that even IF the midterms take place (and I'm not optimistic about that) they will be so thoroughly corrupted that nothing will change. I am NOT giving up, nor encouraging others to give up -- but we have to be realistic about where things are and what needs to be done. What is being done right now is not sufficient to put a stop to the complete takeover of the government by those who believe that fascism is the way to go. Trump and his minions are not hiding their intentions nor their illegal actions, and now have the ability to finance a very large Gestapo-like army to detain, disappear and deport not only immigrants but citizens, and make no mistake, they will do so. As you say, things are going to get much worse. Will the American people fold, or will they fight? And by "fight" I don't mean posts on social media or the occasional protest march....
It's extremely important that we continue to draw a strong distinction between really bad policies, like the tax breaks and defunding of social assistance, and the truly criminal and chilling transition from a nation of policy debate (however sickening the result) to a nation of fascist, strongman rule.
It's also important to stress that while our national economy used to be a zero sum game-- take some funding away from one thing to pay for another--this is not even remotely the case today. The argument that defunding SNAP is in order to increase "border security," an exchange of a few billion, is lip service when we are adding trillions to the deficit column of the spreadsheet. Noem and Homan got all the money they could possible have wished for and more, to carry out a fever dream of dystopian proportions.
As for Mike Johnson on his knees . . . . revolting, really.
Steven, What a bleak, but undoubtedly accurate forecast you project! How sad…how frightening! The noose tRump has placed around our necks tightens daily. Unfortunately…words are not going to set us free!! Knowing that successful (for good Americans) Mid Term elections will mean tRump’s demise. He appears to be busy installing barriers to keep that from ever happening like changing voting rules, etc., up to and including actually canceling the Election. I really think our alternatives to letting this happen become less each and every day! I attended our local “No Kings” rally…the atmosphere was light and carefree. After all were all friends and neighbors. Nobody feared a truck with hooded Goons with truncheons and plastic handcuffs was going to show up…that was somewhere else. Of course, it might be our own National Guard, our friends and neighbors, nothing to worry about! Yeah right!!!!
Remember…we now have American Concentration Camps! Who knows…one may be coming to your quiet little town soon! Recall what tRump said, “he wouldn’t be against putting bad Americans in them!” Go back and look at the History Books depicting Hitler’s Goons, aka SS or Brown Shirts, forcing families into “Cattle Cars” many to never be seen again! Turn to today’s News to see frightened families cowering together…some in restraints, waiting to be deported…or worse!!!
I remember working with fellows with numbers tattooed on their forearms. Most of whom would never explain to us curious “Kids” what they meant!
We may be soon faced with totally unexpected challenges…as well as, being forced to make life altering decisions?
The fact that there is Alligator Alcatraz, a de facto concentration camp in our country, says that the hate is real and, sadly, only beginning.
Trump plan-Create a non man's land and profit off of slavery.
Wondering if he is going to work us back to the 3/5 compromise.
Truly disgusted by all of this
Steven,
Their plan is coming together faster than I could have imagined. I thought that it would take at least a year to get to this point. The frightening thing is we know their end game, a dictatorship and police state, back by a multitude of hateful MAGA people when will endure anything as long as it hurts others worse. They didn’t think that they would be affected, but now that they are they still blame Biden and the Democrats. They are like the last Nazi holdouts in Berlin. When the Trump Regime ultimately collapses, they will be lost.
All the best. Keep writing and watch your six.
Steve Dundas
The cruelty is the point! The dehumanization of people is a foundational step in the establishment of a dictatorship.
We have to stop this now. If even 20% of the people who voted for Kamala Harris are willing to take to the streets and to keep doing so on an ongoing basis, we will bring this regime down.
Let's go!
Simply put, I DECENT!
I live in flyover country where people think news events happen Over There to Those People. I am brown (and 5th generation American) and wear my passport in a clear, shiny pouch around my neck. To prompt the question and make it clear that They are Us.
the pleasure they get out of the sadism cannot be defined in words it can only be seen by the deaths, the starvation, the illnesses, it is the planned vile cruelty to any people that are not RICH WHITE MEN...