Here It Comes

One of the not-so-subtle dangers of living through the transition to an authoritarian society is falling into the trap of “at least I’m okay.”

We are all going to be tested in this regard soon, apparently on “Day 1” of the Trump administration, when his promised mass deportation of immigrants gets underway.

Probably no one reading my words will be affected directly at first. The initial target of Trump’s immigration czars will be specific members of the Latino community, ostensibly those alleged to have criminal records, but the roundups will quickly spread to encompass undocumented individuals living peacefully on the margins of affluent white society.

The Myth of the Hardened Criminal will quickly be discarded because there will be hardly any of those to be found. But this has never been about criminals anyway.

Meanwhile, many of us will start to lose a gardener here, a housecleaner there, or even a beloved nanny when one day they just don’t show up for work. We won’t know why; nobody will tell us. Most will just disappear

So what will be happening to the deportees? 

The architects of Trump’s policy — Stephen Miller, an overt racist, and career border agent Tom Homan — are the same guys who created the “family separation“ policy during Trump 1.0. That is the policy of deliberately ripping children from their parents in order to create mass terror among the Latino community. They’ve vowed to do it again, now on a much greater scale.

And these architects of terror will not stop with the “illegal” people Trump has so effectively demonized.

They’ve already explicitly promised to round up certain American citizens as they forcibly remove millions of people from their homes. These are the children born here to undocumented parents; they are now to be deported as well, which is a violation of the very essence of a society based in law. While immigration judges will theoretically be required to evaluate the legality of such cases one by one, that guardrail will fail when Trump appoints ‘judges’ who support his initiative..

So what choices do we have as this racist spectacle proceeds before our eyes? Again, it won’t be happening to you or to me, for now. But it most definitely will be happening to “we,” as in “We the people.” 

This is precisely how a democracy dies.

Despots always divide and conquer, picking off the weakest and most vulnerable at the start. Next will be the persecution of dissidents, political opponents, those who in Trumpian terms, compose the “enemy within.”

History is clear on what will follow but less clear on how this will all turn out. Democracy’s odds will be much better if the resistance starts on Day 1.

HEADLINES:

• Dead Last — Authoritarian rule always entails corruption. With Donald Trump in office, watch your wallet. (New Yorker)

• Ruben Gallego defeats Kari Lake in Arizona Senate race (NPR)

• Trump expected to announce Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy (CNN)

• Trump Expected to Choose Marco Rubio as Next Secretary of State (BBC)

• Trump prepares immigration crackdown with Miller, Homan posts (WP)

• President-elect Donald Trump said he wouldn’t be a dictator — "except for Day 1." Here’s a look at what he has said he will do once he takes office. [AP]

• Trump Adviser Sends Ominous Warning to Justice Department Lawyers (TNR)

• As Trump Returns to Power, Allies and Adversaries Expect a Wave of Revenge (NYT)

• Round 2 in the Trump-vs-Mexico matchup looks ominous for Mexico (AP)

• Spirit Airlines and JetBlue planes struck by gunfire in Haiti (ABC)

• Afghanistan attends U.N. climate talks for first time since Taliban return to power (AP)

• “Energy transition” has been profoundly misunderstood (Economist)

• Aid to Gaza falls to lowest level in 11 months despite US ultimatum to Israel (Guardian)

• US carries out second consecutive night of strikes in Yemen, defense official says (CNN)

• A new era dawns. America’s tech bros now strut their stuff in the corridors of power (Guardian)

• Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch (Technology Review)

• How a stubborn computer scientist accidentally launched the deep learning boom (Ars Technica)

• Mentally Broken Nation Starts Dressing, Speaking Like Frank Sinatra (The Onion)

 

The Rise and Fall

My choice is normally to look for the positive in situations. While that can be difficult at times, there would be little use in me adding my voice to the monstrous roar of negativity that greets anyone following current events.

And let’s face it — the news is all bad right now.

Things are bad because of the election, and they may get worse before they get better, but I believe in our collective ability to overcome Trump’s imminent threat to our democracy.

And I believe that ultimately we will.

But first we have to be informed. And then we will need to stay alert. A broad-based resistance to what promises to be a slow slide toward autocracy will form the basis of a democratic recovery starting with the midterm elections of 2026.

That is the story I look forward to — the recovery of our norms — two years from now. For now, we all need to stay informed and notice the detail of autocracy’s rise. Among those details will be the seeds of the campaign we will wage together to provoke autocracy’s fall.

***

“Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders—presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power. Some of these leaders dismantle democracy quickly, as Hitler did in the wake of the 1933 Reichstag fire in Germany. More often, though, democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps.”
― Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die

HEADLINES:

• Trump talked to Putin, told Russian leader not to escalate in Ukraine (WP)

• Kremlin says reports of Trump-Putin call about Ukraine are ‘pure fiction’ (Guardian)

• As Trump’s win tests the world order, diplomats are fretting over what it means for the planet (CNN)

• Trump’s reelection casts a shadow over the start of global climate negotiations (NPR)

• Trump appoints UN ambassador Elise Stefanik and border tsar Tom Homan (BBC)

• Smile, Flatter and Barter: How the World Is Prepping for Trump Part II (NYT)

• Trump on Day 1: Begin deportation push, pardon Jan. 6 rioters and make his criminal cases vanish (AP)

• Lebanon, Gaza and Syria hit by deadly Israeli strikes, reports say (CNN)

• The right-wing organization in Trump’s ear replacing the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 (Independent)

• How Kamala Harris — and Joe Biden — lost to Donald Trump (WP)

• There’s a Lot of Fighting Over Why Harris Lost. But Everyone Seems to Want to Avoid This Explanation. (Slate)

• Democrats face a reckoning and a long rebuilding. There is no quick fix. (WP)

• NY parks employee dies fighting fires; air quality warnings are issued in New York and New Jersey (AP)

• How Tech Created a ‘Recipe for Loneliness’ (NYT)

• AGI is coming faster than we think — we must get ready now (Venture Beat)

• Near plans to build world’s largest 1.4T parameter open-source AI model (Cointelegraph)

• Large Behavior Models Surpass Large Language Models To Create AI That Walks And Talks (Forbes)

• CIA Realizes It’s Been Using Black Highlighters All These Years (The Onion)

 

The Waiting Room

“This is how elected autocrats subvert democracy—packing and “weaponizing” the courts and other neutral agencies, buying off the media and the private sector (or bullying them into silence), and rewriting the rules of politics to tilt the playing field against opponents. The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of democracy—gradually, subtly, and even legally—to kill it.”
― Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die

***

So it feels like we’re all gathered in an emergency room following a terrible accident and we’re awaiting word on the fate of the victim, who was badly injured and may not survive.

They call him Uncle Sam.

He’s semi-conscious but the internal bleeding may not be able to be stopped. The options for doctors to intervene and save him are limited. We all are aware that a priest is hovering nearby.

Our uncle was elderly, it’s true, but we thought he was in good health and that he would live forever. After all, he survived a brutal assault four years ago in January that left him bruised and battered but more or less intact. Now that his death appears to be imminent, we realize several things:

• For too long, we took him for granted.

• We grew accustomed to criticizing him for his imperfections, never thinking we might so easily lose him.

• We never told him enough that we loved him.

But as a reporter I must insist that there is one detail wrong in this story. What happened to Uncle Sam was not an accident.

Once he passes on, it will be classified as a murder.

HEADLINES:

• Israelis Fear For Hostages As Qatar Says Gaza Mediation On Hold (AFP)

• Biden’s last chance for Middle East peace (Reuters)

• Our Commitment in This Moment — It Can Happen Here (New Yorker)

• With Trump Tariffs Looming, Businesses Try to ‘Run From a Moving Target’ (NYT)

• Silicon Valley protested Trump in 2016. Now it wants to work with him. (WP)

• Biden to host Trump at the White House on Wednesday (NBC)

• Burdened by what had been: Kamala Harris couldn’t convince voters (USA Today)

• China throws a twist into COP29 climate-talk agenda (Reuters)

• Dangerous air quality hits New York as brush fires erupt in Northeast (ABC)

• US charges Iranian man in plot to kill Trump (Reuters)

• How ChatGPT Brought Down an Online Education Giant (WSJ)

• Meet the AI robot whose artwork sold for over $1m (BBC)

• The Death of Search — AI is transforming how billions navigate the web. A lot will be lost in the process. (Atlantic)

• Man Wearing ‘I Vorted’ Sticker Beginning To Worry That Wasn’t Legitimate Polling Place (The Onion)

LYRICS:

“Murder on Music Row” by George Strait

Nobody saw him running from sixteenth avenue.
They never found the fingerprint or the weapon that was used.
But someone killed country music, cut out its heart and soul.
They got away with murder down on music row.

The almighty dollar and the lust for worldwide fame
Slowly killed tradition and for that someone should hang 
(oh, you tell them Alan).
They all say not guilty, but the evidence will show
That murder was committed down on music row.

For the steel guitars no longer cry and fiddles barely play,
But drums and rock 'n roll guitars are mixed up in your face.
Old Hank wouldn't have a chance on today's radio
Since they committed murder down on music row.

They thought no one would miss it, once it was dead and gone
They said no one would buy them old drinking and cheating songs (I'll still buy'em)
Well there ain't no justice in it and the hard facts are cold
Murder's been committed down on music row.

Oh, the steel guitars no longer cry and you can't hear fiddles play
With drums and rock 'n roll guitars mixed right up in your face
Why, the Hag, he wouldn't have a chance on today's radio
Since they committed murder down on music row
Why, they even tell the Possum to pack up and go back home

There's been an awful murder down on music row.