Deport immigrants-economy tanks. Welcome immigrants-economy grows.

A tale of two countries. Immigrants fill jobs, rent homes, pay taxes, purchase goods and services, and the US is deporting them as fast as we can. Grab a martini. You're going to need it.

Today is Global Martini Day. You'll need one after you read this.

Trump ran on a platform of improving the economy, lowering inflation, and deporting millions of immigrants. The MAGAts ate it up. Guess how that's working out. At the end of Biden’s term, the United States economy was the envy of the world. The folks at Meidas+ remind us “how the US economy was booming at the end of last year under Biden. Reuters: “At the end of last year,economy was at full employment and steadily growing above trend, inflation was on track to fall to the Fed's 2% target, and the central bank expected to steadily ease borrowing costs. ‘The US economy is just performing very, very well,’ Jerome Powell said after the Fed's Dec 17-18 meeting. ‘The outlook is pretty bright.’” So, that's where Trump started, and things are going downhill. From Reuters, “In new economic projections released alongside the Fed's statement, policymakers sketched a modestly stagflationary picture of the economy, with growth in 2025 slowing to 1.4%, unemployment rising to 4.5%, and inflation ending the year at 3%, well above the current level. Powell also said, “Everyone that I know is forecasting a meaningful increase in inflation in coming months from tariffs.”

So, growth is slowing, inflation is rising, unemployment is going up. Some of this stems from the TACO effect on tariffs, but what else would we expect when the DOGEBAGS fired thousands of people (illegally) and held up or cancelled funding (illegally) from numerous government agencies. In addition, masked ICE thugs are showing up unannounced at offices, restaurants, farms, and factories to detain and deport thousands of immigrants. Very few of these immigrants are the hardened criminals that Trump claims have invaded the country. Instead, many of them, while undocumented, have been productive members of the economy for decades, working and paying taxes, and raising families. Many have even been found to be in the country legally and ICE kidnaps them anyway apparently just to amp up the fear factor and the cruelty. Their goal is 3000 per day so it is logical to expect the economy to decline every day that they meet their goal.

Now we can contrast this economic model with that being followed in another country. From the Washington Post, “As the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants and asylum seekers brings tear gas, protests and raids to the streets of the United States, Spain is positioning itself as a counterpoint: a new land of opportunity. In this nation of 48 million with long colonial links to the New World, an influx of predominantly Latin American immigrants is helping fuel one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. The Spanish economic transformation is unfolding as the center-left government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has streamlined immigration rules while offering legal status to roughly 700,000 irregular migrants since 2021.” A bill now being negotiated in Spain’s Congress of Deputies could grant legal amnesty to hundreds of thousands more. Also from the Post:

Under Sánchez, Spain has leaned in as few other nations to diversity, equity and inclusion. A new government rule effective May 1 compels companies with more than 50 employees to enact antidiscrimination policies protecting LGBTQ+ workers . . .Sira Rego, a minister in Sánchez’s government, said she was glad to see immigrants choosing Spain. “It makes me feel a certain pride because it represents the kind of country we want to build: a welcoming country with rights.”

Isn't that interesting? I'm young enough to remember when Americans were proud to have a welcoming country where everyone, including immigrants, had rights.

Immigration is also helping drive the strongest period of economic growth since Spain’s construction boom in the mid-2000s. Between 2022 and 2024, average GDP per capita increased 2.9 percent — the strongest of the E.U.’s four largest economies. A report published this year by the Bank of Spain estimates that up to 25 percent of that growth was linked to the influx of foreign workers paying taxes, filling jobs, renting homes and purchasing goods and services.

Fascinating! Welcoming immigrants has led to Spain becoming the strongest of the four largest economies in the E.U. And why? Because immigrants are filling jobs, renting homes, paying taxes, and purchasing goods and services. I wonder why we didn't think of that in the United States. What we are doing instead is deporting as many immigrants as we possibly can.

I am going to repeat that and I want you to think about it for at least the rest of the weekend. Immigrants are filling jobs, renting homes, paying taxes, and purchasing goods and services, and we are deporting them as fast as we can. Could our government be that fucking stupid?

Yes, yes our government could be that fucking stupid. Just look at the Fox news brain trust hired by Trump. But the real key is that our billionaire government oligarchs don't care if you benefit from the economy, only that they benefit from the economy, and they have the support of a racist, misogynist, and white supremicist cult that elected a malignant narcissist and convicted felon as president. One last time.

Immigrants are filling jobs, renting homes, paying taxes, and purchasing goods and services, and we are deporting them as fast as we can. I'm going to start drinking now. Make that two martinis.