NYT seems to think "The Final Solution" was a bold housing policy

[jerwin]

The Communists said that the neutron bomb was the perfect capitalist weapon, that it killed people and preserved property. Our response was that the neutron bomb was the perfect Communist weapon because it would kill capitalists and preserve the means of production. But that was a propaganda tit-for-tat exercise.

https://adst.org/2016/07/the-neutron-bomb-a-negotiating-dud/

[FGD135]

@Brainspore

1. How would the government even finance mass deportations on that scale? Apprehending, processing and transporting 11 million people is not something our government has the resources to do, especially since Republicans have refused to authorize money for more immigration judges to help work through the backlog of immigration cases we already have.

Easy. Fascist governments have provided plenty of templates for this sort of thing:

• Have the deportees pay for it by seizing everything they have.
• Co-opt the local self-styled militias, give them some sort of badge and free reign.
• Have an established IT consultancy compile lists of people by harvesting data from social networks.
• Cattle wagons and trucks are cheap and, um, “seat” quite a lot of persons.
• There is no need for judges when there is no due process. If they want to keep up appearances they can get a couple of guys to rubber-stamp the lists.
• Bonus points for making all of this technically “legal”; if needs be retroactively.

Did I forget anything? Oh yes, shove anyone who objects into one of the cattle cars as well.

[katin]

So… do we know why the NYT has gone so badly off the rails lately? By which I don’t mean to imply that the paper was pure as driven snow at some earlier point; I canceled my subscription years ago. But the current egregiousness seems to point to some sort of change at the top that I personally don’t know about. Can someone help me out here?

[gracchus]

@FGD135

Fascist governments have provided plenty of templates for this sort of thing

Indeed they have. Not that the NYT will discuss those parts of this “plan” for affordable housing.

@katin

So… do we know why the NYT has gone so badly off the rails lately?

It’s baked into in the outlet. It’s just been brought into stark relief by one of the candidates representing the duopoly it accepts as a source of stability being both completely unsuitable and a threat to democracy (a lesser priority than stability for the NYT).

As ever, it comes down to their desired audience. Quoting myself, in order for the outlet to truly oppose a MAGA statement or policy it…

@gracchus

would have to be undeniable and a source of financial concern to his conservative Wall Street donors, to the point that they were talking about it openly at the cocktail parties the senior editors/courtiers are allowed to attend.

Otherwise, Joe Kahn and his ilk are going to keep pretending that this is a person who’s fit to hold the office of President. The more he declines, the more pieces we’ll see about MAGAts in Real American™ diners expressing their support for him.

The NYT serves a very specific audience: high net worth individuals who live or once lived in Manhattan or gentrified Brooklyn, and to a lesser extent those realistically working toward that status. Their ideology doesn’t matter to its editors so much as their financial and social class. When you read and appreciate the good, solid reporting that the paper does – it does a lot of that as well as part of its service – and you’re not in that club, keep in mind that that they’re table scraps.

This tacit support for MAGA Republicanism comes in many forms. For example, here’s Nick Kristof this morning, white-knighting on behalf of the rubes who support America’s foremost and most long-standing public grifter:

Here’s Why We Shouldn’t Demean Trump Voters

Educated liberals often view the conservative working class with a whiff of condescension that is both unfair and counterproductive.

It’s our fault, y’see, for pointing out that they’re being conned.

[Anyone know why the NYT isn’t one-boxing anymore? Answers in the appropriate meta topic , please]

[fuzzyfungus]

I’m not sure that team GOP would particularly mind excuses to paint due process as an unaffordable obstacle to doing what must be done; or to trot out cronyism and austerity as the clear solution to any economic disruption.

[smulder]

“Congratulations, recruit! You’ve just been confirmed by the Senate!”

[gatto]

@FGD135

Did I forget anything?

in addition to your list, he’s talked about using us troops and national guard to do this. so they could start by using existing funding, and then use emergency funding without any difficulties

and the great /s thing is that it’s no longer illegal for the president to use military force this way, nor does the congress really hold the purse strings anymore since a gop led administration can also (il)legally redirect money however it wants

[Oboo_San]

I thought she was quite good in “Grease” but to use her for depopulation seems a little OTT.

[katin]

Thanks very much for that.