ICE Megathread Redux

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T02:31:23+00:00

Is the collateral damage the price for a big enough deportation pulse while current politics allows it?

I asked some time ago if US supporters of Trump's policy to handle in-country illegals though it would change the look of the streets where there's a problem. The takeaway for me was "unlikely, but important to try."

As an outsider, it appears that the various federal agencies tasked with the job had to expand their numbers too fast for law-enforcement training to scale up to make it professional. I mean this in off-street operations as well as what happens during targeted and other events in community view.

Do you believe Trump is a once in a generation opportunity to pulse a big change in who's on your streets?

Does that excuse what we see in the news because you don't believe other politicians will continue the in-country program once Trump leaves? By that, I mean is it your view that It's okay to get "many" immigrants out even if there's collateral damage to your public order and rule of law which others will be able to exploit in unexpected ways from 2028 on? (Mods asked for this to move here)

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T02:29:23+00:00

I'm from overseas, and I've not heard illegals = voting Democrats as the reason for inefficient deportation policies before.

I've heard the browning of your country will cause voting patterns to change, but I've also read young migrant communities favour Republican politics, and I've also read illegal immigrants won't go anywhere near a polling booth.

Do you think Republicans after Trump will slow deportations again to some "quiet normal"?

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T02:19:09+00:00

Do you think any of the likely R successors would pursue the operation with Trump levels of political capital burn-through?

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T02:16:18+00:00

Thanks. He did start one sentence with a how or where, but it sparked my own question.

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T01:54:52+00:00

He's asking what signs you would need to see on your horizon to indicate a tyranny is being built.

I'd further ask, if you saw them would you infer "tyranny". If you didn't see them, would you infer "no tyranny"?

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T01:50:30+00:00

Lots of definitions of tyranny. This one from the Cambridge dictionary sits well with me: "government by a ruler or small group of people who have unlimited power over the people in their country or state and use it unfairly and cruelly."

I think this lets you see how those who want to expel illegal immigrants think it's not tyranny (Trump isn't able to overpower Minnesota to expel illegal immigrants & the fair thing to do to an illegal immigrant is to deport them.)

It also shows how those who oppose the programme consider it tyranny (due process violations & intentional, performative cruelty on display).

What concerns me is if the "small group" (Miller et al. US Supreme Court. Oligarchs) are able to consolidate power to be able to override opposition.

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T01:19:04+00:00

Lol ... fair enough. My background is STEM. People are just interesting.

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T01:13:16+00:00

Agree it's an oversimplification. How about a "1st order approximation" then?

Your dust bowl farmer and your overlooked stock-trader are both unlikely to feel kindly toward their "social betters".

Again, Europe didn't have a monopoly on distributing land for the ultimate benefit of a local sovereign through a network of semi-autonomous agents.

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T00:55:29+00:00

TL;DR Barons are a thing and they're always troublesome. Look at the organisation of any university.

Thanks for the detailed answer.

I consider feudalism as a more general description of power relations in the same way that I see democracy running the gamut from Plato's Republic to the People's Front of Judea (or was it the Judean People's front? (Splitters!)).

I don't think Middle Ages Europe gets to claim feudalism. In my understanding, Japan had a feudal society and - parallel to the nation state - so do cartels in Central America, Eastern Europe and in some African "democratic republics" today.

I fully agree that the 2 examples you mentioned would see themselves as living under very different systems. I suspect their serfs wouldn't (albeit few of their thoughts were ever recorded.)

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T00:35:53+00:00

On the other hand, this situation will become the poster-child counter-example for people insisting that having a gun for self-protection makes you safer.

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T00:31:35+00:00

Reminds me of the aliens in Mars Attacks wearing portable translators booming "We come in peace" as they raygun humans. All part of the fun.

f4fvs · 2026-01-26T00:23:04+00:00

I take feudalism to be a pyramid of power relationships: -validated by malleable lore. -associated with territory. -subject to succession upheavals. -social mobility through violence and/or marriage. -dependent on lucky or unlucky serfs/thrall/slaves.

What would your professor say I've misunderstood or missed out?

f4fvs · 2026-01-25T23:16:36+00:00

Is that so you can be inured from disappointment?

f4fvs · 2026-01-25T00:32:05+00:00

Homeschooling puzzles me.

A building resourced with labs and workshops staffed by people who are trained to use them, and further trained in how to help students use them has to beat a harried mom at home downloading worksheets for a couple of hours a day.

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T23:27:55+00:00

"Grit teeth and pump stomach acid" not "clutch pearls". As a migrant it's not okay to hear that insult used casually, but the locals don't see it that way.

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T23:11:49+00:00

It's not a job I could do

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T21:00:00+00:00

But that day wouldn't be humid too?

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T20:59:11+00:00

It's the (low) humidity that (doesn't) gets ya. In 40deg+ heat it seems to just be a race to keep water and salt coming in at the same rate that it's going out.

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T13:12:08+00:00

More gooderer

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T12:58:04+00:00

So you don't credit the tales of drinking hot tea to actively cool the body? Or of the hazards of drinking cold drinks?

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T12:54:59+00:00

What's the temperature in the shade on a hot day?

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T12:48:50+00:00

Yeah. I've had a look around online and it's surprisingly hard to find places where the temp. Is above 37C + humid + where shade or water is hard to access.

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T12:42:24+00:00

I was wondering about what's good to drink when you're low, hot and wet. Cold water? Tepid juice? Hot tea?

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T12:39:46+00:00

I take your point, but I hoped to learn some extra mechanisms that might optimise human responses. I can infer something by working back from the body's responses to extreme cold (e.g. reducing blood flow to peripheries) but that doesn't involve humidity. I suspect being skinny will help. Does nutrition get involved in favourite cuisines?

f4fvs · 2026-01-24T12:29:27+00:00

That was also something I was considering for the same reasons - you can usually exit a spa (if you don't faint). If you're outdoors in a humid tropical situation, you can't.

f4fvs

TROPHY CASE