The latest news out of Boston is that people are starting to really push back against ICE, trying to protect their neighbours at personal cost. ICE agents also keep operating without identifying themselves, without warrants, and they have started detaining and even deporting US citizens. In the US, where there are more guns than there are people. This is a powderkeg, waiting to blow.

And I have no confidence that their government is going to try to deescalate things. If we allow ourselves to dabble into conspiracy thinking and ascribe to malice what can just as well be ascribed to stupidity, we can just as well say there is a deliberate strategy by the US government to provoke violence. Trump signed that Executive Order to allow the use of military and national security assets to be used for policing. The Project 2025 guy has famously said that «the revolution will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”». And with Trump fucking up their economy, he will need to refocus to some internal enemy, to also clamp down on the inevitable economic discontent.

Aaaand to top it all up, historically, things heat up as temperatures heat up. It’s coming, folks. Am I paranoid here? I don’t think I am.

How is this going to impact us? Are we going to have a surge of political asylum claimants and/or refugees from the States? The first ones have already started trickling in.

And what the hell are we doing to prepare for this? In the short term, this is going to put stress on social services, housing, employment, healthcare, etc. In the medium term, we could be seeing anti-refugee backlash (e.g., an influx of a bunch of angloamericans in QC might re-ignite language tensions) and political tension with the US demanding deportations of asylum claimant dissidents (some of whom might have violent charges against them, e.g., for fighting back against ICE).

I feel like the guy from the meme a bit. But, guys! Guys! WTF.