All Experts Redux: Origin Of Saturn's Ring System

 Question:  I've read somewhere Saturn's rings are the result of one of its Moons coming apart and orbiting it. Can this be true?

ANSWER:

For decades planetary astronomers have tried to solve the mystery of the origin for Saturn's rings. A paper in the Sept. 15, 2022 issue of Science, provided a coherent theory that an ancient Saturnian moon named Chrysalis had become the rings. Jack Wisdom (MIT Professor of Planetary Science) and his colleagues proposed that tidal forces tore apart the unfortunate moon a mere 100 to 200 million years ago or so. The scenario could also explain Saturn’s axial tilt, and the somewhat elongated orbit of the planet’s largest moon, Titan.   '

  A 2022 paper proposed breakup of moon Chrysalis to explain rings

Cassini mission Image of Saturn looking down at Saturn's  N. Pole

In the words of Tracy Becker, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado:

 "It's always nice to find solutions that can elegantly explain multiple different observations."

Which is an understatement, and which lends Wisdom et al's  theory enormous ballast.

Wisdom and his collaborators note that Saturn’s precession — the slow wobble of its spin axis — has almost, but not quite the same period as the precession of the orbit of Neptune. The researchers thus suggest there was once a true spin-orbit resonance between the two planets. Currently, that no longer exists given that there is roughly a 1 percent divergence. But the closeness suggested a hitherto unknown factor might account for the difference. And this turned out to be the moon Chrysalis, for which simulations disclosed that a Titan-Chrysalis resonance made the latter's orbit chaotic.  That orbit was then "pumped" to higher and higher eccentricity drastically altering Chrysalis' distance from Saturn creating closer and closer encounters with the moons Titan and Iapetus.

Then about 100 My ago the exaggerated eccentricity caused Chrysalis to be ejected from the immediate original system causing it to get so close to Saturn that tidal forces ripped it apart - thereby forming the ring system we see today.  Not surprisingly, as Chrysalis disintegrated and became the rings the once fine tuned resonance diminished until there is a one percent difference today - in the resonance between Neptune and Saturn.

Additionally, the relatively rapid drifting-away of Titan (which currently spirals outward at about 11 centimeters per year) might have lowered Saturn’s axial precession period until the resonance locked in hundreds of millions of years ago. That’s when Saturn’s spin axis started to tilt, possibly up to 36° at that time, according to the team’s calculations.  Thus, the disintegration of the hypothesized moon Chrysalis to become the rings also led to the extraordinary tilt of Saturn's spin axis.

We need here to go a tad more "into the weeds":  When Titan drifted outward, Chrysalis became trapped in a 3:1 resonance with Titan, orbiting Saturn once for every three times Titan swung around. But the resonance didn’t last: Computer simulations by the Wisdom et al team show that the orbit of Chrysalis would have become chaotic, with the moon experiencing a couple of close encounters with both Titan and Iapetus before being ejected out of the Saturnian system, or ending up so close to the planet that it was torn asunder by tidal forces.  As was noted earlier.

The elimination of an icy moon (about as massive as Iapetus) would suddenly change Saturn’s precession period, diverging the planet from its spin-orbit resonance with Neptune. Saturn’s axial tilt (or obliquity) would start to decrease again (at present, it’s 26.7°). The earlier close encounters with Titan might explain this giant moon’s relatively high orbital eccentricity. And if Chrysalis was indeed ripped apart, Saturn’s impressive ring system is composed of its icy remains.  

FYI, not all astronomers have bought into this scenario. Luke Dones (Southwest Research Institute, Boulder) insisted he was:

 “impressed that Wisdom and his colleagues can reproduce both the obliquity of Saturn and Titan's eccentricity. It’s a clever idea.” 

But, he added, 

“They take for granted that the rings are young, which is not established. We don't know the dust impact rate on the rings, and we don't understand what happens when dust hits the rings at high velocities.”

But in my opinion this is nitpicking and doesn't do service to the other observed aspects the Wisdom ring origin theory can account for. In an accompanying commentary in Science, Maryame El Moutamid (Cornell University) described the Chrysalis scenario as:

 “a plausible mechanism for explaining Saturn’s close proximity to the precession resonance with Neptune and the seemingly young age of its rings.” 

There are some details of the work that could be improved upon, of course. To estimate how much the computed moment of inertia depends on the assumptions, the Wisdom team used three additional approaches to construct models of the interior of Saturn. These models, however, only matched the gravitational moments J₂, J₄, and J₆ without invoking differential rotation.  

Wisdom admits also they "constructed interior models using four different sets of assumptions". For a range of rotation periods, the corresponding moments of inertia are shown in his paper's Fig. 1 in terms of the normalized angular momentum: the product of the moment of inertia and the rotation rate, normalized by:

M R_e ²   Ö GM/ R_e ³

where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of Saturn, and R_e is its fiducial equatorial radius, taken to be 60,268 km

See Also:

``Loss of a satellite could explain Saturn' obliquity and young rings'' 

Trump & Cohort Predicted To Lose Their Iran War Of Choice By China's "Nostradamus" - What A Shock!

   "You dopes don't understand I'm a King and can do anything I want!

 Prof.  Jiang Xueqin (center) on why Trump will lose to Iran

"Why doesn't someone call out Trump for the unstable megalomaniac that he is. Enough of the mealy-mouthed euphemisms!” – NY Times comment

"Hegseth. Kennedy. Noem. Vance. Johnson. Bondi. Mullin. The list goes on and on. Bootlicking, ambitious amateurs. People without experience and without conscience. And a President who starts a war —yes, a WAR— to distract from his mishandling of the economy and his intimate association with Epstein. And Congress lets it happen? WHO ARE WE?"- NY Times Comment

 "The U.S. cannot run the world. It has neither the technological or political dominance to do that. Neither do other nations want that." - Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, 'U.S. War Against Iran is Doomed to Fail', Youtube video

"What kind of peace do I mean and what kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, and the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and build a better life for their children—not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace in all time." - JFK, Juine 10, 1963, speech at American University.

"What a truly awful Presidential regime we have in place. They have no values or principles, other than bullying others, and pursuing their own lust for power and money. Their main governing effort is to divide and degrade American society, and their incompetence across the board is staggering. Everyday we wake to discover yet another outrage or disgusting action the criminals have made." - WaPO comment

“pResident” Bonespurs Trump declared on Friday that he would settle for nothing short of “unconditional surrender” by Iran, the latest and broadest expansion of his goals for the conflict, and one that could portend a much longer conflict if he persists in that aim.

Six days into the Israeli and American bombing campaign, Iran has shown no interest, at least publicly, in surrendering.  Why should it given we now know Putin’s Russia is giving Iran Intel on targeting American forces, e.g.

Russia is giving Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces, officials say - The Washington Post

Noting:

"Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East, the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating — even indirectly — in the war, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence.

The assistance, which has not been previously reported, signals that the rapidly expanding conflict now features one of America’s chief nuclear-armed competitors with exquisite intelligence capabilities. Since the war began Saturday, Russia has passed Iran the locations of U.S. military assets, including warships and aircraft, said the three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity."

And a Chinese-Canadian Professor of Predictive History has predicted Trump’s America will ultimately lose this war to Iran.  

Professor Jiang Predicts: US WILL LOSE Iran War

Before anyone gasps in shock or disbelief he or she needs to see the full Youtube video of Prof  Jiang Xueqin' exhaustive reasoning and why he is referred to as the “Chinese Nostradamus”.  This is given he’s already gotten 2 of his three 2024 predictions right (that Trump would win in 2024 and that he’d start a war with Iran.) This war he said in his video discussion was driven by Trump's hubris after taking out Maduro in Venezuela.  Sure enough, we read in a piece in the Friday NY Times:

"Trump keeps returning to the goal of regime change. He has repeatedly cited the model of the American action in Venezuela, where U.S. forces removed Nicolás Maduro and sanctioned the ascension of his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, saying she could run the country as long as she complied with American demands, particularly access to oil.

Trump has resisted suggestions that Iran — a country with 92 million people, nearly three times the size of Venezuela’s population, and a government run by clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — differs in every respect from Venezuela. As the five time draft dodger babbled on in a brief telephone conversation Friday when he told CNN: It’s going to work very easily. It’s going to work like in Venezuela,”  

But the man is delusional and indeed, not at all well in his senile orange head. Former Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, appearing on CNN (Fareed Zakaria show) yesterday was blunt: Iran regards this war as "existential" and will pull out all the stops to preserve itself. Given Iran lacks the air power of its two primary opponents (U.S. and Israel) it will resort to a massive campaign of destruction of operations, striking oil and gas facilities, water supplies in the surrounding states.  Indeed, the lead story in yesterday's Wall Street Journal ('Attacks on Desalination Drag Water Supplies Into War With Iran')  again make clear Iran isn't playing games. And as Prof. Jiang observed, devastation of the Saudi desalination plants means the kingdom runs out of water in 2 weeks.

In other words, as Mr. Sullivan put it, Iran will escalate attacks and devastation across the whole region. This is exactly what Prof. Jiang predicted, as well as Jeffrey Sachs in his own recent take. But the Trumpers and King Orange Fungus himself were too dumb to game plan this "mosaic defense into their gung-ho fantasy. They believed it would be a 'cakewalk' like in Venezuela, just take out the top guy and it's a win.  But Iran isn't Venezuela and has the basic firepower to reduce most of the region to ashes if Israel and the Trumpkins keep up their futile bombings. (And recall Iran survived the most one-sided war it had ever fought last June).

Just since these recent Trump -incepted hostilities began, Iran has:

- Hit the U.A.E. oil hub of Jebel Ali

-Struck the alternative loading site across the peninsula at Fujeirah

- Struck the  critical Qatari liquefied natural gas site at Ras Laffan

- Attacked a number of ships trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz - where a fifth of the world' oil must pass

As for sending the Kurds or the animated anti-regime Iranian protesters in to take down the regime, David Schenker - who served as Trump's top Middle East official in his first term, said (WSJ, Saturday, p. A6):

"You have this euphoria but it will wear of quickly. There's always some irrational exuberance that has to be tempered with the bleak reality."

And what is the bleak reality?

Jake Sullivan spelled it out yesterday to Fareed Zakaria on CNN with a simple observation:  These 'irregulars' would have to contend with at least 200,000 of the well-equipped and hardened Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as 400,000 Iranian army regulars. In other words, it'd be a one-sided slaughter. But neither Dotard or his boy scout DUI former FOX blabber Hegseth is smart enough to factor it in. (I.e. WSJ Saturday: "Trump has reveled in the images and videos of Iranians celebrating after Khamenei's death")

 So will these  and the Kurds get Trump out of his "improvised, ineffective war plan"  (Zakaria's term)?  Hardly, because they're outmatched as Jake Sullivan pointed out. Besides, Trump's  bestie Putin already has his number – as per the WaPo piece – and Prof. Jiang has forecast an ignominious loss - already unfolding with spiking gas prices.   This is what happens when a major war isn't planned for, and the ones at the top managing the attacks and 'strategy' are fools, idiots, lapdogs and incompetents.

See Also

Trump Administration | War

Trump and Hegseth Are Writing Their Own Rules of War

by Heather Digby Parton | March 8, 2026 - 5:05am | permalink

— from Salon

One of the reasons so many Americans never believed Donald Trump’s promise to end the “forever wars” was a simple observation. To all but his most fanatical followers, it’s clear he possesses a megalomaniacal personality and violent temperament. How could someone with such characteristics resist the urge to lead a war? It seemed fundamental to his personality and his desire to go down in history.

During the 2016 campaign the country was still dealing with fairly regular terrorist attacks from followers of ISIS, and despite Trump’s professed disdain for the leadership that took the U.S. into Afghanistan and Iraq, it was clear when you listened closely to him that he was contemptuous of their apparent unwillingness to take the gloves off. He was never some kind of peacenik. After all, Trump confessed to being a big fan of torture, casually saying, “Would I approve waterboarding? You bet your a*s I would. In a heartbeat. I would approve more than that. It works. And if it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway for what they do to us.”

» article continues...

And:

Economic Policy

Trump’s Iran War Is an Affordability Disaster

by Brian Garvey | March 9, 2026 - 5:15am | permalink

We are one week into Trump’s war on Iran. Gas prices are already up more than 11%. The Dow Jones has erased all of its 2026 gains.

These are the real, immediate costs of a new war of choice. Wars in the Middle East are expensive, and ordinary people pay the price.

The War Tax at the Pump — and Beyond

Twenty percent of the world’s oil travels through the Strait of Hormuz. That path is now shut off. The results are predictable.

» article continues...

And:

Donald Trump

Way in Over His Head’: How Trump’s Mythmaking Concealed His True Incompetence

by Adam Lynch | March 10, 2026 - 5:25am | permalink

— from Alternet

New Republic Editor Michael Tomasky says he’s surprised the reality of Trump’s intelligence managed to escape so many Americans who voted for him.

‘[E]ven if they aren’t that troubled by the mendacity and malevolence, the man is just wildly incompetent,” said Tomasky. “A mountain range of mythmaking has gone into creating the Trump persona over the years; by him, by a pliant business press in his real estate days, and, since he entered politics, by a right-wing media that would make the old Soviet press agencies blush and a party of cowardly sycophants, most of whom know very well that he shouldn’t be in charge of a high-volume McDonald’s, let alone the executive branch of the federal government, but would rather let the country collapse than say so.”

And now we’re at war with a Middle East ant nest with 60 million people. Gas prices are up about 60 cents a gallon in the war’s first week. The Dow dropped is now well below 50,000. Also on Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February.

» article continues...

And:

There are two winners in Iran. Neither one is America.

And:

YOUTUBE videos:

“Israel Will Regret War With Iran” - Israeli Military Expert

And:

Jeffrey Sachs (clip): U.S. War Against Iran Is Doomed to Fail

And:

Missiles Over Tel Aviv: Why Iran at 10% Is Most Dangerous

And:

Total IDIOTS Are Leading America’s War In Iran

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

And:

With Iran, Trump Takes the U.S. to War Without the Public’s Support - The New York Times

Excerpt:

Trump likes to assert that he has accomplished things no other president has. With the opening of his military assault against Iran, he has achieved another distinction: He is the first president in the era of modern polling to take the United States to war without the support of the public.

Traditionally, Americans stand behind their president when he first orders troops into battle, generally sticking with him unless it drags on, casualties mount and victory seems increasingly elusive. With Mr. Trump’s war against Iran, the public has skipped the rally-around-the-president phase this time.

Support for his ferocious bombardment of Iran has ranged from 27 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll to 41 percent in a CNN survey, far below the level of public backing that Mr. Trump’s predecessors initially enjoyed when they used force overseas. Given that wars tend to grow less popular over time, the initial negative response portends political challenges for Mr. Trump and his fellow Republicans the longer the fighting continues.

And:

Opinion | Russian, China win as U.S. uses missiles on Iran and oil prices rise - The Washington Post

Once More DST Comes Back To 'Bite ' Our Circadian Rhythms - Inviting A Host Of Bad Health Outcomes

 

"It’s not one hour twice a year. It’s a misalignment of our biologic clocks for eight months of the year. When we talk about DST and the relationship to light we are talking about profound impacts on the biological clock, which is a structure rooted in the brain. It impacts brain functions such as sleep-wake patterns and daytime alertness,”-    Beth Ann Malow, MD, Burry Chair in Cognitive Childhood Development, and professor of Neurology and Pediatrics in the Sleep Disorders Division at Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center

"'The 'Sunshine Protection Act' doesn't provide additional daylight. While we may associate Spring with more daylight, that's a result of the natural lengthening of days, not the changing of the clock. All the new law would do is move one hour of darkness from the evening to the morning. In Fargo, ND under year round DST, sunrise on Dec. 21 would be after 9 a.m. for example."  Lisa Lewis, LA Times

"We should be ending daylight saving time, not making it permanent. Mornings have been miserable for our family as we wake up in the darkness. I can’t imagine having to do this all winter. If we’re not going to move our clocks, then standard time makes more sense. Our clocks should read 12 p.m. as close to solar noon as possible.."  Letter writer in Denver Post, after permanent change to DST (in U.S. Senate)  was announced (March 8, 2022).

The idiotic seasonal time change misnamed "spring forward" in the form of "daylight saving time"  will occur this Sunday, March 8 – more than 1 week before the actual (astronomical) start of spring. Thus, at 2 a.m. all local times will suddenly become 3 a.m. and every manjack loses an hour of sleep. (Especially bad if one has to work Sunday, say at a supermarket or fast food restaurant.)

I've always felt DST or 'Daylight Saving Time' was a dumb notion. I mean you already have a natural clock cycle in standard time, based on actual Sun positions, so why mess with it? But since the U.S. labor sector and its corporate overseers generally demand a rigid work schedule, I could see at least some minimal benefit to family guys who couldn't get home from the office until nearly 6.30 or 7:00 p.m. and wanted some time to go out and play catch with the kids - or just take a walk.  This was generally an understandable and practical application. (At the same time, of course, workers will have to adjust to waking up an hour earlier for work by tomorrow - traced to increased frequency of heart attacks owing to the disruption of the circadian rhythm.)

But then a new meme struck which hailed the benefits of DST as an "energy saver" and my bull pocky  and PR radar instantly went off.  I smelled BS through and through and now, a new book, 'Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of  Daylight Saving Time'  ' (by Michael Downing) confirms my suspicion that there are no real energy savings and in fact more energy waste.

In one recent local news segment, the following hypothesis was offered by the (FOX) news anchor:

"The thinking is, with an extra hour of daylight, Americans will be outside more, in their homes left and therefore not using as much energy."

To which one skeptic responded in a subsequent Colorado Gazette observation:

"Well they got right the first half, that Daylight Saving pushes us out of our houses - but when Americans go the ball park or the Mall at the end of the day, we don't walk there.

Here's the dirty secret: Daylight Saving increases gasoline consumption and it's not a small matter. The National Association of Convenience Stores, who sell 80 percent of our gasoline, says that the one month of extra daylight we got recently in 2005 was worth one billion dollars to them".

That is a staggering amount of gasoline and oil consumed! Also a large amount of carbon (almost 0.2gT) added to the atmosphere, even as we are approaching a critical threshold (551gT) beyond which we will surpass the 2 deg. Celsius marker - leading to recurring violent weather, extended heat waves and droughts and new diseases entering temperate latitudes.

Who benefits then?

The writer expatiated:

"Golfers benefit because of course, golf courses are too large to illuminate. So the golf industry days every extra month of daylight savings is worth about four hundred million dollars in greens fees and equipment sales. Similarly, the barbecue industry profits. Everybody associated with outdoor recreational sports loves daylight savings."

But leave out the energy aspect, DST is just a plain calamity for the nation's health - not to mention triggering drowsiness in drivers still not adapted because their circadian rhythms haven't yet adjusted. Indeed, a recent Stanford study, see link at the bottom, noted:

"Every spring, Americans dutifully adjust their clocks forward to daylight saving time, and every fall, back to standard time — but no one seems very happy about it. The biannual time shift is not only inconvenient, it’s also known to be acutely bad for our health. The collective loss of an hour of sleep on the second Sunday in March has been linked to more heart attacks and fatal traffic accidents in the ensuing days.  

Now, a study by Stanford researchers finds there are longer-term hazards and better alternatives. They compared three different time policies: permanent standard time, permanent daylight saving time and biannual shifting to see how these affected circadian rhythms and health across the country. (Circadian rhythm is the body's innate 24-hour cock which regulates physical processes). ....Indeed, by modeling light exposure, circadian impacts and health characteristics county by county, the researchers estimate that permanent standard time would prevent some 300,000 cases of stroke per year and result in 2.6 million fewer people having obesity

300, 000 strokes per year could be obviated by getting rid of DST?! Think of that.  Think of the impact on medical bill savings, preserving quality of life!  Think of 2.6 million fewer Americans with obesity!

Prof. Beth Ann Malow of Vanderbilt offered her own thesis (back in 2019)  that the year in and year out switching times is bad for the brain, e.g

https://news.vumc.org/2019/11/04/malow-daylight-saving-time-brain-impact-commentary/

She may have a point. There is also good evidence it significantly lowers productivity which the economists are always fretting over.  Thus, a survey conducted by the American Association of Sleep Medicine showed that  55 % of Americans reported feeling tired  after the transition to DST.  Further, "the group's health advisory says moving into and out of DST can adversely affect sleeping and waking patterns for 5- 7 days."

Well, think about it. Whereas before the DST switch you awakened at 7:15 a.m. to arrive at work by 8:00 a.m. that now becomes effectively a wake up time of 6:15 a.m. because the clock time is moved one hour ahead. Everything is shifted and you're trying to catch up to the change because of it, as well as having lost an hour of sleep - and also on successive days. 

Is there a practical compromise that ought to at least be possible?  My suggested compromise is to limit the time applicable to DST between the equinoxes, spring (Mar. 21) and fall(Sept. 22).  So, instead of commencing DST Sunday at 2 a.m. the powers-that -be would have waited until the nearest Sunday to the Spring equinox - which this year would be March 20th..  Similarly, DST would end at the Sunday nearest the Autumnal equinox. 

It would also stop the nonsensical early morning  burning of energy (because it's still dark outside), for workers and students, once the days get shorter - as they do for temperate climes near mid-October.  The net effect of these changes would knock off almost two months of DST at a significant energy savings- as well as sparing the planet from more carbon load in the atmosphere.

Don't look for our lawmakers to go along with it, though. They are more invested in putting more moola in the pockets of businesses that can exploit DST for their own ends.

See Also:

Daylight saving time increases drowsy driving risk, safety experts warn 

And:

Study suggests most Americans would be healthier without daylight saving time

And:

States Object to Changing the Clocks for Daylight Saving Time | Almanac.com

The Economic Reasons Why Nearly 3 Out Of 5 Americans Believe Trump Is Going Too Far In His Mass Deportations

 

Thirteen months into the reign of the First Felon President and Traitor, a growing majority of Americans have soured on his handling of immigration, with 58 percent saying he has gone too far deporting undocumented immigrants, a rise of eight points since last fall, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. The survey finds that a slightly higher number, 62 percent, oppose the aggressive tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a result that comes after federal immigration personnel shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month. More than half the public is “upset” or “angry” about enforcement operations in that city, especially as they've been targeting peaceful immigrant workers doing jobs that contribute to the economy.

Which raises the question: What will happen when 100,000- 200,000 are interred at Trump's prison camps - if they are allowed to exist? A sober answer appeared in the past weekend's WSJ:  the economy will basically collapse.  As Sol Trujillo writes in his Feb 18 WSJ piece ('Mass Deportations Sabotage the Economy'):

"The U.S. economy has long been the world’s most powerful. America’s strength rests on sustained capital investment—but also on a growing supply of labor. More workers means more production, consumers and demand. The Trump administration’s mass deportations threaten to break that virtuous circle.

The U.S. was already slowly approaching zero labor-force growth as fertility fell and the population aged. What kept the country from a demographic disaster was immigration. The 3,000-person-a-day arrest quota for immigration enforcement looks like an act of economic self-sabotage."

Trujillo then goes on to cite a Cato Institute report - using Dept. of Homeland Security data -  showing that 73% of those detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement between Oct. 1 and Nov.15  had no criminal convictions.  What this means is that Trump para-Nazi acolyte Stephen Miller's yen to round up "one million" to deport (or incarcerate) has already had to go to the 'low hanging fruit' since most real criminals have already been locked up or dispatched.

As Trujillo goes on to back this up:

"Research from the Center for Migration Studies finds that the undocumented workforce in the U.S. is large and overwhelmingly employed across key sectors of the economy.  Many of the 675,000 immigrants deported last year were working to build data centers, manufacturing plants, energy infrastructure and housing. Who will take their place when the U.S. has 6 million unfilled jobs?"

Good question. But an even more trenchant point made is that these insane deportations will exact a cost on citizens too. To support this, Trujillo cites data from The Peterson Institute for International Economics which projected (in a 2024 report) that deporting 1.3 million workers would raise consumer prices 1.5% within 3 years as labor shortages worsen.

This isn't Einsteinian relativity. With a much smaller labor pool employers in those critical areas (like manufacturing, home construction, agriculture) will have to cough up more $$$ to get American workers. That higher pay translates into higher prices for American consumers, and that in turn translates into inflation.  But that cannot go on for too long without businesses losing profits. As Trujillo observes:

"As the lack of workforce tamps down business growth, fewer U.S. born workers get hired as a result so consumption also declines. The Brookings Institute the U.S. lost between $40 billion and $60 billion in consumer spending in 2025 because of deportations.... Add to this lost tax revenue from immigrants themselves. (A 2024 American Immigration Council Report found that immigrants paid more than $70 billion in federal, state and  local taxes."

In other words, this mindless assault on immigrant workers, done merely for spectacle and intimidation, is basically cutting our own economic throats.  Hell, even perpetual Trump cheerleader Barton Swaim - weighing in on a mix of comments in the weekend Journal- begged for the DHS to stop going after hard working immigrants. He basically said: "They're doing righteous hard work and helping their families and businesses, leave them alone!"

Good idea!

See Also:Tru

Trump's immigration crackdown is hurting the construction industry : NPR

And:

A Chilling Effect: Increased Immigration Enforcement Jeopardizes Child Care and Mothers’ Employment

And:

How the current immigration crackdown is impacting food and farmworkers - FoodPrintmp Administration

And:

Immigration

Trump’s Assault on Immigrants Hurts U.S.-Born Workers, Too

by Sarah Lazare | February 5, 2026 - 5:43am | permalink

— from OtherWords

In late 2025, federal immigration authorities detained a non-union janitor who’d accused contractors for Minnesota’s Ramsey County of wage theft.

The worker is now in deportation proceedings. But his courage helped win policy changes in Ramsey County, and his fierce advocacy in a similar wage theft case in nearby Hennepin County also paid off: more than 70 subcontracted workers for Hennepin County received nearly $400,000 in back pay in December 2025.

When someone who fights for workers is detained, “it sends a chill,” Greg Nammacher, president of SEIU Local 26, told me. “When the workers who are stepping up to try and reveal violations are silenced, the standard comes down for the whole industry.”

The Trump administration claims that its assault on immigrants will protect American workers. But its masked, armed federal agents are creating hostile environments for all workers, not just immigrants.

» article continues...

Trump’s Concentration Camp Buildout for ICE Must Be Stopped

by Sarah van Gelder | February 21, 2026 - 6:10am | permalink

When ICE agents injure and abuse people on city streets, they often do so in full public view, with witnesses recording their actions. Behind the high walls of ICE detention facilities, though, elected officials, attorneys, and detainees describe unchecked abuse.

ICE now detains more people than at any point in its history. Three out of four have no criminal conviction; only one in 20 been convicted of a violent crime, according to an analysis by the Cato Institute. Yet the 73,000 currently detained is not enough for the agenda of Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem. With billions in new federal funding, ICE is working to expand its detention network to a scale that will dwarf the federal prison system.

“I think every American should be alarmed,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “They are building and have built a black box system that disappears people, both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.”

» article continues...

Sharing Some Photos of My Peace Corps Service For Peace Corp's 65th Anniversary- And 'Peace Corps Week'

Message in email from Peacecorps.gov:

Happy Peace Corps Week, Returned Volunteers!

 

This week kicks off the 65^th anniversary year of the Peace Corps, and we’re celebrating the incredible impact Volunteers have made around the world and back home in the U.S.

 

You are an integral part of the Peace Corps’ legacy as one of close to 250,000 RPCVs who have served in 144 countries. Since 1961, Volunteers have been building relationships, advancing locally prioritized projects, and modeling values of partnership and respect. Your service, from strengthening food security and leading health campaigns to teaching English and supporting entrepreneurs, has left a lasting impact both abroad and at home.

 

Currently, around 3,000 Volunteers are serving in 60+ countries. Meet currently serving Volunteers and learn more about their work:

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

As per the above email, Peace Corps this week celebrates its 65th anniversary, e.g. 

Peace Corps - Peace Corps celebrates 65th Anniversary with launch of new nostalgia-themed recruitment campaign

 For those of us who served in the Eastern Caribbean it is a similar special week for our own service.  My own service in Barbados was briefly described originally in a Dec. 7, 2010 post wherein I outlined my reasons for joining. 

The four years spent mainly on the island nation were varied in terms of contributions, experiences and challenges - and also included training new PCVs on the nearby island of St. Lucia.  What follows below are photos gathered through the years starting with the PC training in Philadelphia and Lincoln Univ. in Amish country, then on to Barbados. 

                                                   July 2, 1971 - In Philly for PC training

                                                   Side visit to Liberty Bell on July 4th

                                       Barbados display in Sylvania Hotel lobby

 Lining up for 1st barrage of vaccines

This was at Lincoln University where we had the most intense PC training. Shots included those for tetanus, typhoid, diphtheria, Yellow fever, Immuno-globulin, Hepatitis A, B.

        Soon after arrival in Barbados, a Rhode Island volunteer and me in Bridgetown for supplies.

                        Broad Street, Bridgetown from Pelican Restaurant.

                                          Bridgetown Careenage - where supply ships dock

Woman carries sack of rice down a Bridgetown street.

Poorer homes in the neighborhood I lived

My aunt & cousin visit me in May, 1972 - stay at my place

St Lucy Secondary where I taught 1st 3 yrs.

Teaching a class in General Science

Original Hilton Hotel and Pebble Beach - where we chilled out

Me at Pebble Beach - 3 days after arrival in Bim

Independence Day parade down Dalkeith Rd.

Castries, St. Lucia - where I helped train new PCVs

The majestic Pitons in St. Lucia - 5 hrs. from Castries

Me, with rainforest waterfall on way to Pitons

Woman washes clothes in river near Pitons

Visit to Soufriere Volcano in St. Lucia

Hot steam escaping from volcano fumarole.

See Also:

Brane Space: The Peace Corps 'Cuts and Runs'? Total Disinformational Codswallop