We’ve Seen This Playbook Before by Janet Maika’i Rudolph

ICE has been doing mass round-ups of anyone who looks like “the other.” The people cheered.  “This is my country,” they shouted to the deportees. “Go back where you came from.” The people are flush with excitement thinking this is what we voted for, meanwhile ignoring that they came from someplace too. We know this is a publicity stunt. How? Dr. Phil tagged along on one of round-ups.  Newly minted secretary Kristi Noem also took her role in the spotlight attending one in NYC and saying dehumanizing words I will not repeat here. 

We’ve seen this playbook before. Creating chaos, disorientation and suffering for political points, TV or other publicity ratings. It doesn’t end well – EVER!

The NY Times had a report of how deportees were treated in a dehumanizing manner, being held on a broken plane in the Amazonian heat with no AC, people shackled, children were on board.  There are always people available to treat other people as less than human. “I was just doing my job.”  “I was only following orders.” 

We’ve seen this playbook before.  It doesn’t end well – EVER!

The administration has already opened Guantanamo Bay to house upwards of 30,000 immigrants. The phrase “concentration camp” was not used in any press release, but I fail to understand the difference. They claim it is the “worst of the worst.” Another phrase to dehumanize people and make such treatment feel like it is OK. The plan is to deport tens of thousands of people based on an identifying aspect of them, to a place that is isolated, under military control, and far from the “prying eyes” of human rights activists or legal counsel. And as of this writing, they are bringing El Salvador into the mix, not a place known for civil rights.

We’ve seen this playbook before.  It doesn’t end well – EVER!

I have an image in my head that I struggle to remove. I can’t erase it because it is actual and happening in real time: Doctors standing over a pregnant woman who is having a miscarriage and bleeding out. “Is she close enough to death, so we can treat her?” one of them asks. “I’m not sure,” answers another. “Is the hospital lawyer available?” all the while ignoring that they are standing over the living body of a woman who loves and is loved but has no rights as long as the fetus inside her had a muscle mass that continues to spasm and sounds like it could be, might be a heart beat.  It is a new iteration of the Malleus Mallificarum which instructed overseers to check a women’s body for signs of sin. Death being the penalty.  A failed pregnancy is sin in our new world order.

We’ve seen this playbook before. It doesn’t end well – EVER! 

Certain lawmakers look upon our children and instead of seeing the treasure of the future, see a drag on the economy, a leech who feeds off the government. It appears that in patriarchy one’s only value in life is in being gainfully employed. Mitt Romney already told us that there are only makers and takers in this world.  Hungry five-year-olds are obviously takers.

We’ve seen this paybook before. It doesn’t end well – EVER!

The “strongman” who really isn’t strong at all but weak, weak, weak, needs people to pick on to boost his standing. He claims to be installed by god making no cruelty, no crimes, no violence too horrific because, after all, god has put his stamp of approval on his mission. The is the modern iteration of the Crusades.

We’ve seen this paybook before. It doesn’t end well – EVER!

The “self-proclaimed god endowed man” who thinks he is strong but is weak, weak, weak because he runs on the belief that god gave him unlimited power. Such a person sets up vulnerable populations to be scapegoats for when things go wrong. It could be anything; country of origin, LGBQT+, religion, immigration status. De-humanizing language is used. One’s existence is made legally vulnerable by withdrawing protections. Any excuse to isolate, demonize and convince the populace that if only “those people” were not around, their lives would be so much better.  

Oh man, We’ve seen this paybook before. It doesn’t end well – EVER!

And now there is a whole new subset of grifters and weak “strongmen” who would perpetrate violence on our countries capitol and have already expressed their disdain for the most vulnerable populations. Now pardoned, they are empowered once again to buy and carry guns, to commit crimes with impunity. Open the prison doors and you have recruited and armed a private army in this new world order. It is already happening as random people are dressing up as fake ICE agents and “arresting” people, presumably Latinos.

We’ve seen this paybook before. It doesn’t end well – EVER!

As for renaming Mt. Denali in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, they are distractions.  Bread and circuses for the masses. I propose the Gulf of Quetzalcoatl. Perhaps the Gulf of Kukulkan. Taking ownership of what doesn’t belong to you and the country, re-writing history.

We’ve seen this paybook before. It doesn’t end well – EVER!

The movie Wall Street in 1987 had the tag line “greed is good again.” That went viral (or its equivalent in its time period).  We are living in a time where our tag line is “cruelty is good again.” And once that human quality is unleashed, history has shown us that there is no shut off valve until heartbreaking violence has played itself out.

We’ve seen this playbook before.  It doesn’t end well – EVER!