Concentration Camp Labor

 

I have worried about this idea since Trump got in in January because I’ve heard it before… that when Trump got elected a lot of people started buying stock in private prisons and companies that are contracted by states to run prisons. This is a very nefarious idea to denaturalize people and then arrest them and put them in a prison where you can make money off them. Is this what they will do?

Concentration Camp Labor

Cannot Become Normal

Timothy Snyder, Jul 04, 2025 (Substack)

With the passage of Trump's death bill, we face the prospect of many great harms, including an archipelago of concentration camps across the United States.

Concentration camps are sites of tempting slave labor. Among many other aims, the Soviets used concentration camp labor to build canals and work mines. The Nazi German concentration camp system followed a capitalist version of the same logic: it drew in businesses with the prospect of inexpensive labor.

We know this and have no excuse not to act.


What happens next in the U.S.? Workers who are presented as "undocumented" will be taken to the camps. Perhaps they will work in the camps themselves, as slaves to government projects. But more likely they will be offered to American companies on special terms: a one-time payment to the government, for example, with no need for wages or benefits. In the simplest version, and perhaps the most likely, detained people will be offered back to the companies for which they were just working. Their stay in the concentration camp will be presented as a purge or a legalization for which companies should be grateful. Trump has already said that this is the idea, calling it "owner responsibility."

We should remember what drew I.G Farben into Auschwitz: profit. But there are of course precedents for extreme exploitation in American history, including but not limited to the history of chattel slavery. And slavery is not entirely illegal in the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment allows slavery if only as punishment for a crime. The people described as "undocumented" or "denaturalized" (and other categories sure to be invented soon) are portrayed as criminals.

READ MORE:
https://snyder.substack.com/p/concentration-camp-labor

EXCUSES FROM LISA MURKOWSKI

July 1, 11 AM

She posts on FB:

This was one of the hardest votes I have taken during my time in the Senate.

My goal throughout the reconciliation process has been to make a bad bill better for Alaska, and in many ways, we have done that. In addition to extending pro-growth tax cuts, a larger child tax credit, and no tax on tips or overtime, we made a historic investment and modernization of the Coast Guard; enhanced our border security and national defense; funded aviation safety, including AWOS/VWOS systems that will save lives; and provided tax-exempt status for the Community Development Quota Program to help western Alaska communities establish a sustainable economy, among other provisions.

We have advanced new opportunities for resource development in the NPR-A, the Coastal Plain, and Cook Inlet that will help us create jobs and increase the share of revenues our state receives. I also co-led the Senate effort to restore a slightly longer phase-out for wind and solar tax credits while deleting a punitive excise tax targeting them.

Those provisions will benefit our economy, but it is the people of Alaska that I worry about the most, especially when it comes to the potential loss of social safety net programs—Medicaid coverage and SNAP benefits—that our most vulnerable populations rely on.

To address the bill’s shortcomings, we have helped our communities through a $50 billion rural health fund. This will mean hundreds of millions of dollars for Alaska hospitals, community health centers, and other providers. We secured commitments from the CMS Administrator to continue to address longstanding priorities which will directly help Bartlett, Fairbanks Memorial, Central Peninsula, and other hospitals in Alaska.

In the SNAP program, we have added tribal exemptions for work requirements, delayed cost-share penalties to help Alaska get benefits to the people who need them, and included work requirement waivers that align with our Medicaid policies. We also secured commitments from the Secretary of Agriculture to provide additional flexibilities to Alaska for SNAP.

But, let’s not kid ourselves. This has been an awful process—a frantic rush to meet an artificial deadline that has tested every limit of this institution. While we have worked to improve the present bill for Alaska, it is not good enough for the rest of our nation—and we all know it.

My sincere hope is that this is not the final product. This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the President’s desk. We need to work together to get this right. 

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1291561145665338&id=100044343943390&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=ad0hoGHTmkzVlh2I#

PROTECT PUBLIC LANDS

 

POP-UP ARIAL PHOTO OP

FRIDAY, JUNE 27TH

Join us at Pioneer Park at

6:00 pm

Coming up Friday, there's a chance to stand up against selling public land. The Republican budget bill that might get voted on as early as Friday morning had threatened to sell off 77 million acres of Alaskan land held by the Forest Service and BLM, without oversight or a chance to object. 

The parliamentarian said that clause must be struck from the bill but Republicans are currently trying to reword it so it can pass. Please note, they are doing this to help pay for tax cuts to billionaires.

Say "no"!

Who: Outdoor enthusiasts, public land users, hunters, hikers, and those who fish. 

When: This Friday June 27th at 6pm.

Where: Outside of Pioneer Park’s Dance Hall, Fairbanks. 

What: Join us for a pop up aerial photo op protesting the sale of public land, which is currently included in the budget reconciliation bill being considered by the Senate. No signs necessary!

https://www.mobilize.us/farnorthindivisible/event/807710/

Parliamentarian Blocks 'Big, Ugly Bill' Public Lands Sale and Offshore Drilling Policies

 

While calling the public lands decision "an important victory," one campaigner also warned that "this threat is far from over."

Critics of Republican efforts to continue wrecking the planet celebrated some small victories after the U.S. Senate parliamentarian on Monday advised that multiple provisions cannot be passed as part of a megabill that only requires a simple majority.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough found that some GOP legislative proposals about offshore drilling and mandatory public land sales could not be included in the package due to the so-called Byrd Rule, which bars provisions considered "extraneous to the purpose of implementing budget resolution policies."

Specifically, MacDonough axed a provision that deems offshore oil and gas projects as automatically compliant with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), nullifying their environmental review processes. She also ruled against a proposal requiring offshore fossil fuel leases to be issued to successful bidders within 90 days after the sale, and a separate mandate for the sale of millions of acres of public land.

READ MORE:

Common Dreams

By Jessica Corbett
Jun 24, 2025

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-public-lands 

U.S. completes strikes on Iran nuclear sites, Trump says

 

June 21, 20258:04 PM ET // NPR

The U.S. military has joined with Israel to launch military strikes against Iran, a dramatic escalation in the years-long effort by both nations to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

"We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan," President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.

"All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter."

Trump said in a subsequent post that he would address the nation at 10 p.m. ET.

Saturday's attack marks the first act of direct military involvement by the U.S. in the rapidly escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.

It included a strike on the heavily-fortified Fordo nuclear site, according to Trump, which is located roughly 300 feet under a mountain about 100 miles south of Tehran. It's a move that Israel has been lobbying the U.S. to carry out, given that only the U.S. has the kind of powerful "bunker buster" bomb capable of reaching the site. Known as the GBU-57 MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator), the bomb can only be transported by one specific U.S. warplane, the B-2 stealth bomber, due to its immense 30,000 pound weight.

READ MORE:

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/21/nx-s1-5441127/iran-us-strike-nuclear-trump

No Kings Rally in Fairbanks, Alaska

JUNE 14th, 2025

FAIRBANKS, ALASKA

PIONEER PARK

We counted 1400 protesters at Pioneer Park on June 14th in Fairbanks, Alaska. The local paper, the Newsminer, said there were 2000 people there. The protest was peaceful and felt like a pleasant outing in the park. Volunteers raised over $1500 for the Bread Line. 

VIDEO

Later in the day, there were even more people than in this video--no gaps in crowds.

Alaska Beacon

June 14th

Protests were held in at least 24 communities condemning abuse of executive power, immigration crackdown and cuts to public services

As the Trump administration hosted a multimillion dollar military parade in Washington, D.C., marking the Army’s 250th anniversary and President Donald Trump’s birthday, and amid escalating military and law enforcement force against immigrants and protesters of immigration enforcement actions, thousands of Alaskans rallied in communities large and small, joining nationwide “No Kings” protests against Trump.

In Anchorage, a crowd lined L Street holding handmade signs, waving flags and cheering, as cars honked in support.

Stephanie Schulling held a protest sign reading, “no sign is big enough for all the reasons I’m here.” She said as a social worker, she feels an ethical responsibility to show up and protest “the issues with people being disappeared, the issues with DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency), the issues with the possibility of Medicaid, Social Security, you know, all those sorts of safety nets going away. It’s unthinkable.”

Signs and speeches from community advocates condemned the Trump administration as overreaching its power and authority, and called for protecting democracy and equal rights, including for immigrant and transgender communities. The crowd then marched along L Street to the Delaney Park Strip for an afternoon Juneteenth celebration.

“People are really, really scared, and I think their fear has turned into action,” said Erin Jackson-Hill, an organizer and executive director of Stand Up Alaska, a nonprofit social justice organization.

“In Alaska especially, we really hold on to our freedoms and our independence, and we’re not gonna bow down to a king,” she said. “And so the ‘No Kings’ march is a way to stand up and say, ‘We don’t have kings in this country, we don’t want a king!’ The country got founded because we didn’t want a king. And we certainly don’t want Donald Trump to be the king.”

READ MORE:

https://alaskabeacon.com/2025/06/14/alaskans-rally-across-the-state-for-democracy-and-no-kings-protest-against-trump/ 

Budget Reconciliation Bill Public Lands Giveaway!

 WRITE YOUR SENATORS TO OBJECT!

DON’T LET THEM SELL OFF OUR PUBLIC LANDS!

120 million acres of public lands eligible for sale in SENR budget reconciliation package

Top-Line Summary & Analysis of SENR Reconciliation Bill Text

The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee budget reconciliation bill text released June 11 includes a range of extraordinary giveaways aimed at privatizing public lands and advancing energy dominance at the expense of public lands and resources.
Key takeaways on the public lands sell-off title:

The bill forces the arbitrary sale of at least 2 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands in 11 Western states over the next five years, and it gives the secretaries of the interior and agriculture broad discretion to choose which places should be sold off. This, just weeks after bipartisan outrage over land sell off text threatened passage of the House bill. That provision was ultimately removed from the House bill and should be removed from the Senate accordingly.


The bill directs what is likely the largest single sale of national public lands in modern history to help cut taxes for the richest people in the country. It trades ordinary Americans’ access to outdoor recreation for a short-term payoff that disproportionately benefits the privileged and well-connected.


Public lands eligible for sale in the bill encompass over 120 million acres, including local recreation areas, wilderness study areas, inventoried roadless areas, critical wildlife habitat and big game migration corridors.


The bill’s process for selling off lands runs at breakneck speed, demanding the nomination of tracts within 30 days, then every 60 days until the arbitrary multi-million-acre goal is met, all without hearings, debate or public input.


The bill sets up relatively under-resourced state and local governments to lose open bidding wars to well-heeled commercial interests. It also fails to give sovereign Tribal Nations the right of first refusal to bid on lands, even for areas that are a part of their traditional homelands or contain sacred sites.


The public lands sell-off provision masquerades as a way to provide more housing, but it lacks safeguards to ensure land is used for that purpose, and it sets up a system where lands could be sold or resold for non-housing uses after just 10 years. Research suggests that very little of the land managed by the BLM and USFS is actually suitable for housing.


Land agencies already have ways to identify public lands for uses like housing if it serves community needs. Jury-rigging a new way to force such “disposal” as part of the budget reconciliation process sets up a precedent to quickly liquidate huge chunks of America’s treasured lands in the future whenever politicians have a pet project to pay for.

READ MORE:

https://www.wilderness.org/articles/media-resources/120-million-acres-public-lands-eligible-sale-senr-budget-reconciliation-package

--------------------------------------------------------------------

SAMPLE LETTER

Subject: Oppose Reconciliation Bill’s Public Lands Sell-Off Provision

Dear Senator [Last Name],

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the public land sell-off provisions included in the current Senate Energy and Natural Resources (SENR) budget reconciliation package. This bill represents the most sweeping attack on national public lands in modern U.S. history, with up to 120 million acres—including 77 million acres in Alaska—made eligible for sale.

The bill mandates the forced sale of at least 2 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land over just five years, across 11 Western states. The pace of this liquidation is alarming: agencies are required to nominate tracts within 30 days of passage and then every 60 days until the quota is met—leaving little room for public input, environmental review, or community planning.

Even more troubling, the bill gives broad discretion to the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to decide which lands are sold, with no real safeguards in place to protect lands of ecological, cultural, or recreational importance. This process sets a dangerous precedent—establishing a political mechanism to sell off America’s public lands in the name of short-term budget goals or ideological pet projects.

Though the bill claims to address housing needs, the policy is deeply flawed. Research shows that most BLM and Forest Service lands are unsuitable for development, and even when sold, the lands can be used or resold for non-housing purposes after just 10 years. The existing legal framework already allows land agencies to identify and reallocate land for housing when it serves the public good. There is no need for this reckless, large-scale liquidation.

In reality, this bill prioritizes tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans at the expense of our shared natural heritage. America’s public lands are not a bank account to be raided—they are essential to our identity, our ecosystems, and future generations.

I urge you to oppose this budget reconciliation package unless the public land disposal provisions are completely removed. Please protect our public lands, our communities, and our values.

Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State, ZIP]
[Email Address]
[Phone Number]