There are various ways to describe the activities of ICE in today’s America, but I don’t think “chaos” is a good one.
I’d go with “institutionalized lawlessness and cruelty,” which has turned the United States into a fascist, rogue nation.
To the reader who sent me this:
By “reach the stars,” I presume you have some sort of metaphorical meaning in mind, e.g., “accomplish great things.”
In any case, I’ll be both pleased and impressed if humankind still has some sort of organized and quasi-civil form to it 50 years hence. This too will require cooperation, if only in our quest to stave off environmental collapse by decarbonizing our transportation and energy sectors, and stop destroying our rainforests.
We’re impressed with good people’s bravery when they resign from their career positions in protest of things that are clearly wrong. But we’re saddened to realize that this means that the concentration of cowards who remain just increased.
At left is a reminder of how anxious Trump supporters are for a distraction from current events at the White House.
If you were to flick on Fox News right now, there is an excellent chance you would be told about something that Biden did in his presidency that could be construed as bad or wrong.
Shouldn’t we be more interested in what’s going on today?
It’s also a reminder of a fundamental difference between the two men as human beings. Where Biden did his best to help those who needed it most, Trump’s first thought is to punish those who happen to live in states that voted against him.
Fortunately, there are market forces at work that put limits on the devastation. For example, the low price of solar PV here and around the world has given rise to the use of solar panels as fencing, because in many places it’s cheaper than wood.
How is it that half of America looks at Donald Trump and doesn’t find him morally repellent?” David Brooks asks. “He lies, cheats, steals, betrays, and behaves cruelly and corruptly, and more than 70 million Americans find him, at the very least, morally acceptable. Some even see him as heroic, admirable, and wonderful.”
There are people who thought Elon Musk and Donald Trump were going to team up and use some blend of competence, selflessness, and honesty to eliminate wasteful government spending so as to benefit the American people.
They are called “idiots.”
If you’re looking for the poster child of this phenomenon, let me introduce you to Trump advisor Marc Andreessen, and his assertion that “universities will pay the price for DEI.”
U.S. universities have been cranking out well educated young people for 400 years, and, generally, without too much trouble or controversy. The issue that is actually of concern here, of course, is very few of these graduates are Trump supporters. That’s because higher education provides the tools that are required to perceive that Trump is a sociopathic liar who has no more business running the United States than any other of the world’s criminal dictators.
I met a young couple the other day who politely asked me about solar and wind, and the environmental problems they cause.
I responded that “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” In other words, there are no energy-related processes that are 100% free of negative environmental consequences.
Nuclear comes as close as anything, and may eventually win the day, if the promise of fusion or the fission of thorium can be realized.
Until that day, if it comes at all, solar and wind are offsetting the consumption of fossil fuels, especially burning coal, which has horrific consequences to all life forms on this planet.
When I was in business, my sales team would occasionally write proposals for services that my company had never delivered, and someone would ask, “Craig, if we get this project, how will we deal with it?” My normal response: “I’m not sure. When and if the prospect signs off, I’ll figure it out then. There is no reason to solve problems that don’t exist, when there are so many that actually do.”
The same applies to immigration. These people pick our crops, clean our hotel rooms, bus our dishes, build our houses, do our gardening, and watch our children. Virtually all of them are law-abiding and hard-working. They form a segment of our society that works just fine.
Want to talk about problems that do exist? The list might begin with environmental collapse, the end of U.S. democracy, the dismantling of the federal government so as to further enrich billionaires, lousy education, the rejection of science, healthcare, poverty, homelessness, and never-ending religious wars abroad.
In this 
In a recent post I warned again the folly of solving problems that don’t exist, given that there are so many that actually do
