"70 Percent Of The Workers Are Gone"

 

Much like the dire downstream economic impacts of the Malignant Fascist's America- sabotaging tariffs, the impacts of his ICE goon squads targeting immigrant farm workers are already starting to be seen:

Lisa Tate is a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura County, California, an area that produces billions of dollars worth of fruit and vegetables each year, much of it hand-picked by immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

 

Tate knows the farms around her well. And she says she can see with her own eyes how raids carried out by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the area’s fields earlier this month, part of President Donald Trump’s migration crackdown, have frightened off workers.

 

“In the fields, I would say 70% of the workers are gone,” she said in an interview. “If 70% of your workforce doesn’t show up, 70% of your crop doesn’t get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don’t want to do this work. Most farmers here are barely breaking even. I fear this has created a tipping point where many will go bust.”

 

In the vast agricultural lands north of Los Angeles, stretching from Ventura County into the state’s central valley, two farmers, two field supervisors and four immigrant farmworkers told Reuters this month that the ICE raids have led a majority of workers to stop showing up.

 

That means crops are not being picked and fruit and vegetables are rotting at peak harvest time, they said.  [snip] 

Most economists and politicians acknowledge that many of America’s agricultural workers are in the country illegally, but say a sharp reduction in their numbers could have devastating impacts on the food supply chain and farm-belt economies.

 

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said an estimated 80% of farmworkers in the U.S. were foreign-born, with nearly half of them in the country illegally. Losing them will cause price hikes for consumers, he said.

 

“This is bad for supply chains, bad for the agricultural industry,” Holtz-Eakin said.

Over a third of U.S. vegetables and over three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The state’s farms and ranches generated nearly $60 billion in agricultural sales in 2023. 

And the chill extends beyond undocumented immigrants:

ICE operations in California’s farmland were scaring even those who are authorized, said Greg Tesch, who runs a farm in central California.

 

“Nobody feels safe when they hear the word ICE, even the documented people. We know that the neighborhood is full of a combination of those with and without documents,” Tesch said.

 

“If things are ripe, such as our neighbors have bell peppers here, (if) they don’t harvest within two or three days, the crop is sunburned or over mature,” said Tesch. “We need the labor.”

The MF's disastrous "One Big Beautiful Bill" for billionaires, likely to be pass in one egregious form or another, contains money for hiring an additional 10,000 ICE goons by 2029, and $59 billion for detention facilities and deportation operations, meaning the problem will only get much worse.

The sheer cruel inhumanity of the MF's indiscriminate, mass deportation policy -- the real impacts it's having on families all over the country -- should be more than enough for anyone with a conscience to be deeply offended.  But, add to that the impact the MF's immigrant dragnet will have on food prices and availability, and many Americans who couldn't find their moral outrage over the immigration raids may soon find their pecuniary outrage when their wallets get a lot lighter.

 

(Photo:  immigrant workers in Florida harvesting a zucchini crop / Joe Raedie, Getty)

LA Dodgers Stand Up For Their Community

 

One of Major League Baseball's iconic teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers, is making a statement about its values in support of the community it's part of:

The Los Angeles Dodgers have committed $1 million toward direct financial assistance for families of immigrants impacted by the surge in detentions and deportations in the region, the team announced on Friday.

The Dodgers will partner with the city to get the money to those in "critical need," with more announcements expected in the coming days involving local community and labor organizations. The baseball team, which has a large Latino fanbase, aims to expand its outreach through these partnerships.

The news comes two weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began raids across the city, leading to calls from some Dodgers fans for the team to take a stand against the federal government's mass deportation efforts.

 

"What's happening in Los Angeles has reverberated among thousands upon thousands of people, and we have heard the calls for us to take a leading role on behalf of those affected," Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement.

 

"We believe that by committing resources and taking action, we will continue to support and uplift the communities of Greater Los Angeles."

The team stopped short of calling for an end to the raids, something a coalition of over 50 community, labor, faith, and immigrant rights leaders had asked for them to do in a petition sent to the ball club earlier in the day.

LA Mayor Karen Bass thanked the Dodgers for supporting the city's immigrant community.

 

"These last weeks have sent shockwaves of fear rippling through every neighborhood and have had a direct impact on our economy," Bass said in a statement.

 

"My message to all Angelenos is clear: We will stick together during this time and we will not turn our backs on one another — that's what makes this the greatest city in the world."

 

Friday's announcement comes a day after the Dodgers said they had denied ICE agents access to the parking lot at Dodger Stadium.

 

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said on Thursday that CBP vehicles used the parking lot briefly and that their presence "had nothing to do with the Dodgers." [Ed. -- bullshit; they were there to intimidate, if not kidnap,  Dodger fans.]

It was a stand- up triple for the Dodgers, if not a home run that some had wanted.  LA's professional soccer clubs -- the LAFC and the Angel City FC -- have issued statements of support for immigrants. Other LA sports franchises, and sports franchises and their leagues in general, have so far opted to stay on the sidelines, to their everlasting discredit.

In the meantime, we're rooting for the Dodgers to win the NL pennant and go on to win the World Series (in which case, bet they wouldn't get a White House invite).

QOTD -- The Real Insurrectionists

 

“You know what he did on Day 1?  He pardoned hundreds of violent felons who brutally beat police officers.  That's the insurrection.  The notion that Donald Trump and his minions—his sycophants here in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, who are nothing more than a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda—are going to lecture America about issues of law and order?  Get lost. We’re not feeling you at all.  You have zero credibility on this issue.” -- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), on MAGAt Republican efforts to turn protests on the brutal and illegal ICE raids in Los Angeles into an "insurrection" that the Malignant Fascist can use to crack down on dissent and create an authoritarian, one-man-rule state.  The real insurrectionists were those on January 6, 2021, who stormed the Capitol at the urging of the head insurrectionist Malignant Fascist.  

The only enhancement we'd make to Jeffries' comment would be to tell these MAGAts not to "get lost," but to "go fuck yourselves."

Trump's Escalation In Los Angeles

 

Stephen Colbert covers the Malignant Fascist's, shocking, provocative actions in Los Angeles intended to create conditions for a power grab.

California Sues Over National Guard Deployment

California Attorney Rob Bonta announced today that the State of California is suing the Malignant Fascist over his decision to deploy California National Guard troops in Los Angeles, provoking a backlash from LA residents. From NBC News:

"Bonta said President Donald Trump's move to federalize 2,000 members of the state National Guard on Saturday in response to protests against the administration's immigration actions was unnecessary and an 'infringement' on Gov. Gavin Newsom's authority.

The suit will seek a court finding that Trump’s order was illegal, he said.

'The president is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. Federalizing the California National Guard is an abuse of the President’s authority under the law — and not one we take lightly. We’re asking a court to put a stop to the unlawful, unprecedented order,' Bonta said.

Bonta also argued that the move took crucial resources away from wildfire season, and that the administration 'had trampled over our state's sovereignty.'" (our emphasis)

As many commentators have been stressing today, the MF has been itching to use National Guard troops in so-called sanctuary states as his goons in ICE violently raid restaurants, hardware stores and parking lots not for gang members, but for undocumented immigrants looking for work or working tough jobs. It's a test case for not only his lawless immigration policies as implemented by ICE, but may lay the groundwork for a declaration of martial law under the Insurrection Act where he would seize dictatorial powers under the pretext of subduing an insurrection.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

As a youngster, Barry McCovey Jr. would sneak through metal gates and hide from security guards just to catch a steelhead trout in Blue Creek amid northwestern California redwoods.

Since time immemorial, his ancestors from the Yurok Tribe had fished, hunted and gathered in this watershed flanked by coastal forests. But for more than 100 years, these lands were owned and managed by timber companies, severing the tribe’s access to its homelands.

When McCovey started working as a fisheries technician, the company would let him go there to do his job.

“Snorkeling Blue Creek ... I felt the significance of that place to myself and to our people, and I knew then that we had to do whatever we could to try and get that back,” McCovey said.

After a 23-year effort and $56 million, that became reality.

Roughly 73 square miles (189 square kilometers) of homelands have been returned to the Yurok, more than doubling the tribe’s land holdings, according to a deal announced Thursday.  Completion of the land-back conservation deal along the lower Klamath River — a partnership with Western Rivers Conservancy and other environmental groups — is being called the largest in California history. 

The Yurok Tribe had 90% of its territory taken during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, suffering massacres and disease from settlers.

“To go from when I was a kid and 20 years ago even, from being afraid to go out there to having it be back in tribal hands … is incredible,” said McCovey, director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department. [snip]

Beth Rose Middleton Manning, a University of California, Davis professor of Native American Studies, said Indigenous people’s perspective — living in relation with the lands, waterways and wildlife — is becoming widely recognized, and is a stark contrast to Western views.

“Management of a forest to grow conifers for sale is very different from thinking about the ecosystem and the different plants and animals and people as part of it and how we all play a role,” she said.

The Yurok people will now manage these lands and waterways. The tribe’s plans include reintroducing fire as a forest management tool, clearing lands for prairie restoration, removing invasive species and planting trees while providing work for some of the tribe’s more than 5,000 members and helping restore salmon and wildlife...

There's not much "good" in the news lately, but stories like this keep us hopeful in the midst of the bad and the ugly...

The bad:

Tear gas was fired at protesters in Los Angeles on Sunday when some demonstrators moved close to National Guard troops and shouted insults at them, hours after President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the military over the objections of the governor and mayor.

The confrontation broke out as hundreds of people protested in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where several of the newly-arrived National Guard troops stood shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields.

Video showed uniformed officers shooting off the smoke-filled canisters as they advanced into the street, forcing protesters to retreat. It was not immediately clear what prompted the use of chemical irritants or which law enforcement agency fired them.

Minutes later, loud popping sounds erupted again, as some protesters chanted “go home” and “shame.” One person was taken to the ground by uniformed officers. Another appeared to be bleeding from their head. 

Around 300 National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles early Sunday on orders from Trump, who accused Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats of failing to stanch recent protests targeting immigration agents.

The move appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts. 

The deployment followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.

As federal agents set up a staging area Saturday near a Home Depot in Paramount, demonstrators attempted to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls.

Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed above 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement...

He's not just picking a fight with the biggest (Democratic) state in the Union.  This, as Sen. Bernie Sanders said, is “a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism.”

The ugly: 

The Trump administration’s cancellation of $766 million in contracts to develop mRNA vaccines against potential pandemic flu viruses is the latest blow to national defense, former health security officials said. They warned that the U.S. could be at the mercy of other countries in the next pandemic.

“The administration’s actions are gutting our deterrence from biological threats,” said Beth Cameron, a senior adviser to the Brown University Pandemic Center and a former director at the White House National Security Council. “Canceling this investment is a signal that we are changing our posture on pandemic preparedness,” she added, “and that is not good for the American people.”

Flu pandemics killed up to 103 million people worldwide last century, researchers estimate.

In anticipation of the next big one, the U.S. government began bolstering the nation’s pandemic flu defenses during the George W. Bush administration. These strategies were designed by the security council and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority at the Department of Health and Human Services, among other agencies. The plans rely on rolling out vaccines rapidly in a pandemic. Moving fast hinges on producing vaccines domestically, ensuring their safety, and getting them into arms across the nation through the public health system.

The Trump administration is undermining each of these steps as it guts health agencies, cuts research and health budgets, and issues perplexing policy changes, health security experts said.  [snip]

Limited supplies means the United States would have to wait in line for mRNA vaccines made abroad. States and cities may compete against one another for deals with outside governments and companies, like they did for medical equipment at the peak of the covid pandemic.

“I fear we will once again see the kind of hunger games we saw in 2020,” Cameron said...

"Hunger games."  What an apt description of the Malignant Fascist's actions as he sabotages everything that's been created for the benefit of our country's health, prosperity, and security.  We're entering the "new  Dark Age."

QOTD -- Grave Danger

 

"... There have always been a few clear break points, rubicon thresholds in the Trump autocracy storyline where the entire legitimacy of the state and the freedom of American citizens could go sideways very, very fast. This has always been one of the most obvious ones. There’s no need here for the Guard. The irritant is the wildly inflammatory raids by militarized ICE squads. But even assuming those continue the Guard still isn’t necessary. The President has triggered this crisis and is now using it to exercise military authority within a state against the wishes of the state’s civilian elected leaders – Mayor, Governor, congressional representatives, etc. This is 100% Trump. He’s created the situation and now he’s exploiting it.

"We’re very clearly entering a moment of grave danger. My main thought about this is to remember – as we’ve said in other contexts – that the fight to preserve the American republic remains fundamentally one over public opinion. The President has a lot of power here for violence and mischief. But he’s not in charge of what people think about it, whether they think his actions are legitimate, wise, anything they support. You can dismiss whether public opinion matters in a case like this. I disagree. It’s fundamentally what it’s all about, what will eventually decide all of this. So I hope all the players here, in the decisions they make, keep that in mind." -- Josh Marshall, TPM, writing about the Malignant Fascist's provocations in Los Angeles, first with the heavy- handed raids by masked, militarized ICE thugs, then in his response to the legitimate protests arising from those brutal, unprovoked raids.

 

They WANT An "Insurrection"

Chaos agent and would- be king Malignant Fascist has been cooling temperatures fanning the flames over the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles:

Perhaps protesters wouldn't be as likely to wear masks if tear gas wasn't being deployed, or if people weren't being "disappeared" in broad daylight without warrants.  (Also, what about those ICE thugs' masks?  "What do these people have to hide, and why?")

Going into heavily Latino communities in LA with militarized ICE thugs was clearly a major provocation.  While state and local officials have been trying to cool the temperatures, Vice President "JDivan" Vance and evil mook Stephen Miller tried to make the case that an insurrection was afoot:

“Insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers, while one half of America’s political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil,” Vice President JD Vance posted on X late on Saturday.

Senior White House aide Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, described the protests as a “violent insurrection.”

All the "insurrection" projection, of course, is to set the stage for an invocation of the Insurrection Act in LA in the hope that the unrest spreads to more cities and blue states, which is the goal of every good fascist in the regime, making it easier for the Malignant Fascist to order more crack downs and, in their fever dreams, declare martial law and rule by fiat.  Forewarned is forearmed.

Here are Gov. Newsom's statements on National Guard deployment and peaceful protests:


The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.

LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice. We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need.

The Guard has been admirably serving LA throughout recovery.

This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.

___________________

The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle.

Don’t give them one.

Never use violence. Speak out peacefully.

 

But here we are once again, with Americans set against Americans, divisions being exploited, cruelty and brutality deployed, and a sense that there's no way to avoid a violent outcome.

BONUS: A former DHS official warns that the MF's move with the National Guard was pre-planned to give him the pretext to impose martial law.

(Photo:  Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Image)

 

Gangster Nation News

 

News items this morning on our gangster nation, with a self- aggrandizing crime boss feeding at the public trough while his thugs continue to terrorize communities.

Anything for Dear Leader

President Donald Trump's senior officials have marshaled taxpayer resources to the tune of $1 billion, just on various projects to keep Trump personally happy, Rolling Stone reported [$$] on Friday.

This comes after the president has already received widespread criticism for the self-aggrandizing aspects of his Cabinet meetings, including having them all sit in a room full of "Gulf of America" merchandise, referencing his executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

"Trump’s demands for flattery are costing a fortune," reported Ryan Bort, Asawin Suebsaeng, and Andrew Perez. His new administration is only a few months in, and already the total price of just three such initiatives — a flashy, Trump-flattering ad campaign from the Department of Homeland Security, a gigantic military parade in Washington, D.C., on Trump’s birthday, and the repurposing of a palatial airplane from Qatar as Trump’s new Air Force One that he can use in his post-presidency — will easily top $1 billion. And that’s just the beginning."

Political author Anthony DiMaggio said that these efforts “have to do with a president who needs to be not only at the center of a media circus, but who needs to be told ritualistically over and over how great he is. What’s interesting to me about this, as a political scientist, is that it’s not just a personality-based thing or a defect. It’s a broader pattern that has to do with behaviors that are overlapping with authoritarian politics and ideology.”

According to the report, these policies to keep the president flattered pervade into everything. For instance, after Attorney General Pam Bondi made a widely-mocked boast that fentanyl seizures under the Trump administration saved 119 million lives, staffers went scouring the internet for examples of Democrats "flipping the f--- out" over Bondi's remarks, that they could compile into a printout and hand to Trump to improve his mood.

The same day this report was made public, Trump announced on social media another vanity project, to add a $100 million ballroom onto the White House.  (our emphasis)

... as they propose butchering Medicaid/Medicare, SNAP, science and technology, education, etc.

ICE thugs make more warrantless arrests

The Department of Homeland Security conducted raids on multiple locations across Los Angeles on Friday, clashing with the crowds of people who gathered to protest.

Masked agents were recorded pulling several people out of two LA-area Home Depot stores and the clothing manufacturer Ambient Apparel’s headquarters in LA’s Fashion District.  Immigration advocates said the raids also included four other locations, including a doughnut shop.

There has not yet been confirmation of how many people were taken into custody during the coordinated sweeps.

At an afternoon press conference, Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights, said at least 45 people were arrested without warrants.

“Our community is under attack and is being terrorized. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now,” Salas told the crowd.

The protest only grew as the afternoon wore on. By 6pm local time, hundreds of people assembled around the federal building in downtown Los Angeles, where those taken into custody during the raids are being held.

Earlier in the day, armed agents clad in heavy protective and tactical gear, including some who wore gas masks, could be seen on video and through aerial footage pushing individuals and trying to corral large groups that congregated to challenge the raids.

Smoke grenades were reportedly thrown near the crowds and pepper spray was used as the federal officers attempted to clear the area. As the demonstrations continued into the evening, videos showed officers firing less-lethal weapons toward protestors... (our emphasis)

These paramilitary fascists let loose by the corrupt Malignant Fascist must face a reckoning -- from the top echelons to the foot soldiers "just doing their job."  We can't allow this to be the future of this country, for the lawlessness to be normalized, and the cruelty not punished.  As Americans, we must never forget what is being done in our name.