Notices by Keith Ammann @ PAX Unplugged (keithammann@dice.camp)

I've seen some posts advertising Black Friday "gaming deals," all with links to Amazon.

Amazon workers around the world are on strike this weekend. Don't cross the picket line. Support your local, independent book and game stores instead. #TTRPG #AmazonStrike #ShopLocal https://uniglobalunion.org/news/make-amazon-pay-strikes-2024/

As the son of an immigrant, I want to talk about legal and illegal immigration and Trump's stated desire to deport millions of undocumented immigrants—a cruel, unfair and dangerous proposal, but I don't think it's actually about deporting the undocumented.

I think it's worse than that. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/19/politics/trump-mass-deportation-cost-cec/index.html 1/15

So first we need to ask, why does the United States have so much illegal immigration? And the unpleasant answer is, because that's what conservatives want.

Yes, they're the ones always complaining about it.

But they're also the ones benefiting from it the most. 2/15

Migration 101: Movement from country to country is driven by "push factors" and "pull factors."

Push factors—poverty, violent crime, government instability, political persecution, natural disasters and, increasingly, climate change—are what drive people to leave their home countries. 3/15

We can ease these pressures a little bit through aid and targeted policy, but for the most part, push factors are beyond our control. If people don't want to live in Sokovia anymore because Sokovia is a crap place to live, we can't make them stay. 4/15

Pull factors are what make people who've decided to leave decide to come HERE. And guess what three things the United States offers that migrants find attractive?

Political freedom.
Social stability.
JOBS.

Specifically, under-the-table jobs. 5/15

Now, here's the connection the jackasses who refer to undocumented migrants as "illegals" don't want you to make.

If you enter the United States illegally, you can't get work unless someone KNOWINGLY breaks the law and hires you anyway. There are too many checks in our system. 6/15

Bosses hire undocumented workers under the table in order to dodge labor laws—workplace safety, wage and hour, payroll taxes and so forth. They can abuse undocumented workers in ways they can't abuse employees secure in their citizenship, because the threat of deportation always looms. 7/15

In other words, THERE CAN BE NO ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION WITHOUT ILLEGAL HIRING.

Funny how some folks will justify calling the undocumented "illegals" because "They're breaking the law!!!!11!!!" yet those same folks NEVER refer to these bosses, who are ALSO breaking the law, as "illegals." 8/15

And that brings us to the question of why people immigrate illegally rather than legally. The answer to which is, because the same conservatives who publicly deplore illegal immigration have made the legal immigration process a byzantine nightmare of fees, delays, red tape and humiliation. 9/15

They WANT people to migrate illegally, because illegal immigration gives them an exploitable underclass—and a culture-war wedge issue. The LAST thing they want is for foreigners to come here, become naturalized citizens, and get fully vested in their legal rights and civil liberties. 10/15

Need an example? In 2018, Esquire reported on an Iowa dairy farm owned by relatives of former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a loyal Trump ally. You can guess the twist. (Use your browser's reader mode if you're stopped by the paywall.) https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/ 11/15

So if they're benefiting so extensively from undocumented labor, why the threat of mass deportation?

Because they're not primarily interested in deporting the undocumented.

To quote the chess grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch, "The threat is stronger than the execution." 12/15

The threat of mass deportation isn't aimed at the undocumented, whose existence is precarious already. It's aimed at Latines, South and Southeast Asians, and Africans who are here LEGALLY—but can be detained on a pretext and forced to prove it, under threat of violence or expulsion. 13/15

An underappreciated aspect of authoritarianism is that authoritarian states are planted so thick with laws, anyone, however law-abiding by nature, could inadvertently break one at any time—or be accused of having done so—and face the state's wrath.

It chills dissent. 14/15

THAT is the goal of "mass deportation," not to get rid of undocumented immigrants, but to create a new exploitable underclass by THREATENING to deport anyone, citizen or not, who rocks the boat.

Remember, the first concentration camps weren't for Jews. They were for political prisoners. 15/15

Most of you probably follow me because I'm a voice in TTRPGs, and I'll get back to talking about that soon, I promise. But there's something about me you need to know.

My father was born in Germany in 1940.

My daughter was born in 2018. 1/10

My father spent the first dozen years of his life living under right-wing authoritarian rule and its aftermath … and I'll be damned if I'll allow that to happen to my daughter.

Everything—EVERYTHING—takes a backseat to that for me.

So this year's elections mean a lot. 2/10

Most Americans—though, frankly, fewer these days than ought to—understand, at least in an abstract sense, that Nazism was bad.

That knowledge isn't abstract for me. It's family history. It's concrete and PERSONAL. The resurgence of Nazi thought, rhetoric and tactics floods me with rage. 3/10

@feditips is a good account to look at for tips on how to do these sorts of things. @originalbarbas @newbiedm