Angry Mom: I See Dead Children
I see dead children.
There is no way to reconcile what the Trump administration has done — seizing children from their parents, some so young they are still breastfeeding — and the facilities they’ve established to house them without coming to the conclusion there are dead children.
@Asher_Wolf explains the situation in this Twitter thread, beginning with this tweet:
Only people who’ve never had or cared for infants and children would not know this already. If you are a parent you know this; you’ve already had to keep a child cool, calm, hydrated which can be challenging while traveling even under the best conditions.
The circumstances which drove these refugees to the border for asylum placed these children under enormous stress, unrelieved by travel across Central America and Mexico, worsened by heat across the southwest. Add the stress of interception and detention by Border Patrol on top of separation from parents — these children and babies are extremely vulnerable.
Stuff them in cages inside buildings not built to specifications for human occupation, or warehouse them in goddamned tents in unrelenting summer heat, with who knows how many qualified personnel to care for them.
There are reports some children have not received adequate food. Have they received enough water and other fluids? If they can’t feed themselves, have personnel offered the infants and toddlers enough bottles?
Looking at the best infant and child mortality rates in other countries, there would be several deaths. This is the U.S., though, which is the worst among the top 20 wealthiest countries. Looking at the recent history of refugees fleeing Syria and other parts of the middle east for EU states, there are likely more deaths than normal. We must face this truth and begin to account for all the children, alive or dead.
But so far no facilities with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers have been opened to members of Congress or journalists. Only boys have been seen on camera. Where are the girls? Where are the children under five years of age?
Journalists have asked where they are.
REPORTER: A couple of questions. One, why is the government only releasing images of the boys being held? Where are the girls? Where are the young toddlers?
NIELSEN: I don’t know. I’m not familiar with those particular images so I would have —
REPORTER: Do you know where they are? Do you know where the girls are? Do you know where the young toddlers are?
NIELSEN: We have children in D.H.S. care both, but as you know, most of the children after 72 hours are transferred to H.H.S. So I don’t know what pictures you’re referencing but I would have to refer you to H.H.S.
REPORTER: We’ve seen images of boys but we just haven’t seen any of the girls, any of the young toddlers and you’re saying they are being well cared for. So how could you make that claim if you don’t know where they are?
NIELSEN: It is not that I don’t know where they are. I’m saying that the vast majority of children are held by Health and Human Services. We transfer them after 72 hours.
I don’t know what pictures you’re speaking about. But perhaps they’re —
REPORTER: Pictures have been released to the public, they’ve been aired all over national television.
NIELSEN: O.K., by D.H.S. or H.H.S.?
REPORTER: By [inaudible] .H.S.
NIELSEN: So let’s find out from H.H.S. I don’t think there is anything other than [cross talk] the pictures —
REPORTER: [cross talk] released by your department. I mean, they’ve have been aired all over national television throughout the day, the kids being held in the cages. We’ve only seen the boys.
NIELSEN: I will, I will look into that. I’m not aware that there’s another picture. Yes.
That DHS Secretary Nielsen can’t offer a coherent answer when asked is ridiculous and absolutely unacceptable.
That the entire administration cannot offer a consistent response to any questions is doubly so.
None of this assures me they aren’t hiding something behind all this prevarication. At this point the lack of a unified response to questions is deliberate; they’ve had ample time to get their shit together. The inconsistency itself might be a means to create a smoke screen, forcing journalists, Congress, and the public to track and compare their answers rather than storm the facilities and get the truth.
Right now, on the face of it, this administration is hiding children’s bodies, alive and possibly dead.
I don’t care about Trump’s bullshit kabuki gesture that he’ll sign something about the families separation policy. I don’t care who they point to within the administration to blame for this willful humanitarian disaster, this ethnic cleansing, this genocide waiting full disclosure, though the buck ultimately stops at the desk in the Oval Office. Until they show us otherwise and account for every single tiny human being which they have taken and for whom they are acting in parents’ or guardians’ stead, I see dead children.
somehow, I think the governator of texass will prevent the children’s bodies from washing up on the shores of padre isle in bright red t-shirts.
.
to have terrible optics first requires both journalistic access and an optical recording device.
This is an administration that has purposely destroyed the structure of the federal government. There is no one in charge. It may be that they don’t have the ability to keep the records on the children they have in concentration camps. Of course, this is what they wanted. Chaos kills and the Trump administration was founded on cruelty and mayhem. For Trump this is just a variation of a game/talent contest.
Agreed. Chaos is what follows Trump like bad breath follows eating a basket of onions. Trump defines the inevitable as if it were a talent. Chaos and vicious cruelty are his briar patch.
I believe the chaos Trump consistently creates reflects his own internal state of mind — he wants to externalize the chaos to embody it, make it concrete, and then step back a bit while feeling powerful (and safer while others enact his state of mind). The tragic piece of this is that he is surrounded by such evil people like Miller and Bannon, who only serve to feed Trump’s vortex of chaos.
Absolutely agree. Trump trots out, “I’ll sign, I’ll sign!” in order to hold off the townsfolk mob, as if he were the sheriff played by Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles. He’s the one holding himself hostage.
More importantly, Trump does not say what he’ll sign or how it would replace the mess he created. He is being advised by the same people who came up with this mess. So, the odds are not good its replacement regime will be better. It will differentenough to divert attention, but not better. And it will require opponents to retool, wasting further resources without improving anything anywhere in America.
For Steve Miller and his patrons, it’s a war of attrition. He plans to win it, in part, because exhausting the other side while riling the base (cheaper than actually giving it anything) is entirely the point.
This time they failed to coordinate with the congressional GOP in order to have a bill ready to go to undo their hostage taking.
Next time they take hostages, they’ll have their list of demands ready to go in the House and Senate. And the media will talk about there being blame on both sides, and demand why the Democrats won’t meet the GOP halfway to free the hostages from their cages.
Part of what he signed, per Charles P. Pierce:
“The Secretary of Defense shall take all legally available measures to provide to the Secretary, upon request, any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families, and shall construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law. The Secretary, to the extent permitted by law, shall be responsible for reimbursement for the use of these facilities.”
Death camps for cuties?
Typically poor writing. Adds nothing new, pretends to solve a problem Trump generated in the first place, which didn’t require a new EO.
So SecDef is asked to share some of the acreage of his many bases in the SW, if he wants to and can under existing law. As usual, the Trump process looks like a fraternity house floor on Sunday morning.
DHS, for example, is supposed to “reimburse” SecDef, but only for “the use of these facilities”. That puts the building, the access roads, and other unidentified items on the DoD budget.
And why would SecDef front the money without an assurance of reimbursement, regardless of the cash pile SecDef might be sitting on – most of which is already allocated.
All that has to be worked out between DoD, DHS, OMB, et al., plus the inevitable outside contractors. New facilities, utilities and access ways have to be constructed, and protocols for their use and access have to be formulated before any new resources become available.
People will be waiting a long time before anything changes. But that was the point. The cruelty will continue until further notice. And to make his base feel better, the people at issue here are “alien families.” Mulder…Mulder…where’s Scully?
Correction. The SecDef facilities at issue here are not confined to the American SW. They could be anywhere the SecDef has facilities, which is the whole globe.
First they arrested immigrant families, broke them up, disposed of the children separately, sent the little girls and babies in particular far far away, while claiming This is not what’s happening or if it is it’s not new or only Congress can stop it or I just used my signature to stop doing these things that didn’t exist aren’t news which only Congress can stop, even tho the words in the piece of paper I signed don’t say we’re doing these things or they’re new or only Congress can stop them or what if anything NOW new to the not new things that’re not happening will be done to stop them (if they existed) from just continuing tomorrow, no different from today.
But HEY! Not Just The Times But Even The Post are acting as if something stopped, or changed, or are being fixed, or something something, today.
It’s SUMMERTIME: time for fun times at camp for all the kiddies.
This will, of course, all end well and no one will ever get sick, or old, or die.
There are already known deaths from mistreatment of adults.
How to deal with these monsters. Two steps forward to their hell and one step back. Trump will sign order banning separation of families, fine print to follow, maybe after the NK private talk transcript comes out. https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/gop-leaders-voice-hope-that-bill-addressing-family-separations-will-pass-thursday/2018/06/20/cc79db9a-7480-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html
Sessions denying asylum to victims of gang violence, domestic abuse, and the lack of facilities private concentration camps predicts that they will just turn all asylum seekers back at the border now because no room to keep them together instead of allowing a few hundred a day in.
The GOP and the administration from inauguration day and before are very clear. They want to deport 11 million people, 8 million who are in the work force. Human rights violations to be ignored. Despite this lame walk back from Trump GOP now forever stands as the party of child abusers and murderers.
Thanks for posting this. My wife and I have raised three and our daughter is now raising our two granddaughters who are 2 and 4. In the best of situations simply weird things happen to infants and youngsters – their immune systems are developing much less adaptation to the physical and psychological environment. Bad reaction to improper formula and even food. There are those here that know more than me of this.
A daily briefing needs to be demanded by the press and others that includes a gross accounting of the movement, age, sex, etc of each child be reported in gross numbers. How is the connection between separated family members being maintained. What is the process for re-uniting families. And I’d add the briefing to include how many are healthy and how they are being cared for – and yes how many are critically ill or have died.
As you say, the physical and emotional stress levels will be off the charts. The younger the child, the more permanent and disabling the dysfunction. The stress and dysfunction spread: siblings, parents, friends, caregivers. Thousands become tens of thousands. All by design. What’s the civil analogue of war crime?
Absolutely correct on the expanding impact of this trauma to tens of thousands. And that doesn’t take into account the epi-genetic effects, i.e., the “trauma gene.” Discovered at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in November 2015, mutation in neurogenesis occurs with an individual’s experience of trauma, genetically replicated and passed onto children as a permanent part of the child’s genetic sequence, then to the grandchildren, etc.
My adoptive son has this gene (C677T) and to our geneticist’s shock, he carries it homozygous (from both biological parents). It is correlated with early-onset cardiac insufficiency, Parkison’s disease, early-onset dementia and some forms of psychiatric disorders.
It can be treated (somewhat expensively) but the treatment meds must be taken daily, for life. The medications (for my son, a custom compound) have been effective. If meds are consistently taken, it is possible to mediate the transmission of the gene to children, but both parents must be tested and/or diagnosed.
I cannot help but weep for all those thousands of children, the external, internal, emotional and genetic damage that is inflicted on them, their families, and their future generations.
And that’s intentional. Or at least they don’t see it as a negative, so they see no reason to go out of their way to avoid it. They need the immigrants to be broken people, and the vast majority of them currently and historically, from wherever, have been happy and productive and vibrant – and that drives the Nazis absolutely mad. They need them to be scared, and isolated, and scurrying in the shadows. Then they can be really dealt with like they’ve been saying all along. This is not new, it’s happened before.
Criminal negligence?
crimes against humanity.
Boko Haram is one point of departure.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Immigrant-children-s-shelter-considered-for-12999084.php
The “tender care” facility that’s being proposed in Houston is just east of the center of town, right between I-69 and the light rail. The address (file under “shit you can’t make up) is 419 Emancipation Ave. It’s already been labeled on Google Maps as “Baby Jail”.
I’m not sure about Frodo, but it’s pretty clear Orwell still lives.
Rayne! I was just asking about you.
Good piece, nothing to add. I get (literally) a pain deep in my gut when I watch coverage of this. The crying kids audio was killer. It’s visceral and I’m not a parent. How can anyone who is support this?
I can’t listen to the recording. I know already what it will sound like and what it will do to me physically, mentally, spiritually. But hearing the voices of those children in torment fools us into thinking rescue for them is possible. There are voices which surely will never be heard from again. It’s those missing voices which truly haunt me.
Don’t listen to it. Don’t listen to it. I listened to it by accident when clicking-thru on an Ari Melber vid at Crooks&Liars. It’ll fuck you up. Maybe that’s a necessary price. But …. I don’t know: something about those voices has knocked the wind out of me.
Lawsuit documenting child deaths, abuse and use of drugs on children in Texas child jails.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4525292-420-2-Exhibit-Vol-2-Exs-21-30-Pages-109-73.html
Michael Cohen:
“As the son of a Polish holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family separation policy is heart wrenching,” Cohen wrote. “While I strongly support measures that will secure our porous borders, children should never be used as bargaining chips.”
I call bullshit on Mike. Him saying this is him using these kids (tangentially) as a bargaining chip. He thinks there’s an angle here that helps him. His track record can’t lead us to any other conclusion.
Maybe. Maybe he’s yanking Trump’s chain. Maybe he actually has some feelings, who knows? From what people have said about him, he at least loves his own kids. I don’t believe that is true about Trump. They are only good as extensions of himself, what they can do for him, or how they make him look, but likely not valued as separate individuals. I don’t think Trump knows love or compassion. I don’t know enough about Cohen to come to any conclusions.
As much as I hate Michael Cohen there’s a difference between white collar, financial, legal, political type crimes, of which he’s committed many and crimes involving the abuse of children (and/or people) which involves being truly psychopathic.
I’d like to hope that Michael Cohen, while being a scumbag, actually cares about children.
That’s where Trump crossed the line. Money laundering, colluding with Russians to win an election, lying about porn stars, all that can be waved away as a certain type of crime not involving violence.
But hurting children….man….hurting children takes a certain kind of person.
functional definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
This seems shallow to me, but it’s a starting point.
Hmm, link seems to be down. If it’s still down tomorrow I’ll repost from web archives.
Well, it’s still down, and archive.org doesn’t have the page.
Here’s a working link:
http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/traits.html
I say “shallow” because it’s descriptive of behaviors; there’s no real attempt to get inside the mind of extreme narcissists.
Oh, and IANAPsych… either. Caveat emptor.
Rayne: you see what I see.
Every person that I have talked to this week is emotionally on edge, exhausted, furious, and absolutely shocked. Several simply can no longer hear or see news; it’s too raw. It’s too visceral.
And some of those people that I’ve heard are evangelicals. When Jeff Sessions used the Bible to sanctify this mess, he really, really stepped in it. People can forgive a whole lot, but they don’t forgive ripping preschoolers from their parents, nor the deaths of innocents.
Meanwhile, Kelly Anne Conway, Nielson, and the other Trumpolini’s seem to believe that the pictures are to blame; the audio tapes are to blame. Which is probably what Goebbels would have said in this situation.
I’ve never seen such angry, aggressive driving as I did today in DC & environs. It was unimaginable! Cutting in, cutting off, honking — even people in a Prius, mini-Cooper, or Smartcar. People are so mad, and it feels likes it’s coming to the point of breaking.
Starting in 1942, Himmler directed the General Government’s plan to kidnap “racially valuable” Polish children for Aryanization under the Lebensborn project. The children age 4-12 were taken primarily from Silesia (western Poland), placed in German homes (ideally SS officer homes) and camps. Over 200,000 Polish children ended up in Germany, after the “selections,” which sent the remaining children to the ghetto (Lodz). After the war, only 15-20% were returned to Poland or a relative. The few identified and tracked were traumatized for life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2qjWzvwcNk
Sessions’ biblical justification opens up a logical can of worms. One of the favorite arguments used by the gun lobby is that an armed populace is necessary to ensure that a tyrannical government can be overthrown. The very same argument could be used to rule out that option.
Most surprising to me is Huckabee Sanders… it will not have escaped anyone’s attention that SHS is avoiding reporters.
Whatever she expected when she took the job, it’s an easy guess that she wasn’t expecting this.
Which seems telling to me … I keep hearing that there is nothing Трамп can do to turn off his supporters… seems like SHS is turned off.
Or at least seeing personal consequences that she doesn’t feel she signed up for.
We should ask for help from UNICEF in order to guarantee not one child is trafficked. Or at least have a visable organization suggest it. The response would be telling.
@Rayne, perfect post. I listened to the tape, it’s a horror.
What are the chances the MSM will win this round, or even step up, and NOT let the administration turn this into an issue of legislation?
This system must be a magnet for every sexual predator out there to submit a resume for the next job opening.
I am distraught.
Six months from now there will be some official behind a podium saying, “Well if those kids didn’t want to be raped, they should have thought about that before they broke the law.” Press will report it as some variation on the “Opinions Differ…” theme.
Apparently SHS has enough of a soul to defer lying for Kaiser Quisling on this topic. Who knew? It also appears that the alleged “caving” on the Democratic bill was more palace kabuki. KQ wants his wall at 25 B$ and has threatened a government shutdown.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/sarah-sanders-tired-defending-trump-stephen-millers-gloating-child-jails-infuriates-west-wing-staff/
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/trump-signs-order-temporarily-ending-family-separation-policy-days-falsely-blaming-democrats/ Note that the palace will continue its policy.
Cue the “troubled and concerned” GOP response to palace overreach. Note they are still proceeding with environmental destruction and other core activities while outrage is still boiling (rightly) on this topic. However, I have not heard of any actual action from Pence (not even a peep from such a prominent “Christian”) or any of the GOP government officeholders on any level (note no names are in the piece).
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/gop-leaders-livid-trump-turned-republican-party-party-family-separation-report/
Indeed, Liz Cheney gaveled down on having the kids be heard, as if there was any more evidence needed to show her vileness that is a GOP feature, not a bug.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/dems-bring-migrant-kids-house-floor-protest-family-separation-shouted-gop-decorum-breach/
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-admin-no-surprise-lawmaker-visits-to-child-detention-centers-no-talking-to-kids
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/20/1773783/-Is-this-where-the-girls-are-Being-spirited-away-literally-under-cover-in-the-dead-of-night
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/20/1773867/-Court-documents-claim-that-immigrant-children-are-being-forcibly-injected-with-psychiatric-drugs
Lastly, this came up in Prime Minister’s Questions by the SNP (~21 minute mark) asking whether PMTM is still willing to invite Kaiser Quisling. She will still invite him for “serious questioning”, since as Blackford noted, the UK also has an indefinite detention policy of immigrants.
I had attempted to post a series of links to GOP peccadillos, and am getting blocked from doing so by the admin here. It’s kind of offensive to censor content that is neither trolling nor dishonest.
I think there is a filter that stops certain kinds of links. Some links are perceived as being dangerous when they may not be.
It’s a built-in security measure meant to ensure comments with a lot of links are screened; spammers commonly attempt to weasel by with link-rich comments. It’s not personal. If you share more than a couple of links at any time it’s possible a comment may go to moderation for this reason; we will do our best to free it as soon as possible. Your patience is appreciated as is your understanding that websites allowing comments are under a constant barrage of attacks from spammers.
p.s. I have to free my own comments when they contain numerous links. Again, IT’S NOT PERSONAL.
These detention centers are effective Black Sites. I say that because it’s unclear where they all are and trying to get in and assess them is a black hole. Every single site should be made public and routinely visited (and evaluated) by Red Cross, UN and other agencies. There has got to be total transparency. That’s the bottom line here. Because no matter what Trump has signed or said, it is absolutely necessary that there be outside, independent, ongoing evaluations here. (I want airtight, unannounced visits!)
Next: How soon will these families be reunited? These children should not have to spend one more day isolated from their parents. And the US owes every traumatized child adequate therapy and mitigation of the harm already done to them.
I hope the public is energized and alarmed enough to keep the pressure on. It’s a MUST.
There was never any intention to reunite families. Every action is designed to prevent future identification & prevent unification- Walmart prison garb, confiscation of all personal items, from clothing=to stuffed toys-to pencils & paper-to rosary beads. This is not the organized genocide of the Nazis or Khumar Rouge, this is our government conducting a Boco Haram-style kidnapping and committing Crimes Against Humanity.
Yes, Gitmo has come to the mainland & the Lolita Express has been revamped for cargo
Taking any familiar object (from a parent-deprived child), an object that is a “security blanket” – an emotional tie to the parent – is the LAST STRAW!
That constitutes child torture.
I am sickened.
We must keep up the pressure and demand accountability. We are nowhere near where we need to be.
@Palli:
Curious, that.
It’s almost as if ulterior motives are involved.
Incidentally, you saw that the Admin has announced that Congresscritters have to make two-week reservations to visit a site?
Not everyone will be unhappy, look at what Deplorable
MAnn had to say, and she was not alone.https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/america-died-ann-coulter-cries-bitter-tears-report-trump-will-end-baby-jail-policy/
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/trump-fans-whine-reports-baby-jails-quit-trying-make-us-feel-teary-eyed-children/
As far as accountability and transparency goes, it’ll be two weeks even for members of Congress to visit but no inconvenient questions. No wonder Kaiser Quisling loves Kim Jong Un (and Vlad, and Xie, and Rodrigo).
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-admin-no-surprise-lawmaker-visits-to-child-detention-centers-no-talking-to-kids
Lastly, there is some corporate pushback noting that American is not usually on the forefront of good behavior in the air but was first in line here.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/us-airlines-ask-government-not-put-separated-migrant-children-flights/
If there were to be realistic mitigation, it would cost millions and millions of dollars: they need to pay for life-time PTSD therapy, neurological damage, effects of developmental trauma (All the child therapies: speech therapy, OT, PT, reading) AND adequate psychotherapy. Safe and consistent housing and parental attachment. I hope each one of these children sues the government and receives their own substantial “war reparations,” because that’s what it should be called. It is so shameful.
I endorse every word!
Reparations are due!
Regarding what is going on under the radar while attention is focused on the kids (as it should be), we see the merry band of vandals is still at it. We need to hammer on all fronts at all times.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/20/1773774/-Trump-repeals-National-Ocean-Policy-opening-the-seas-to-more-industrial-uses
Also, too, yet another attempt to repeal Obamacare.
grateful lurker here: in all the mayhem & malice this has been a very heartening thread to read. thankyou all for being sane & articulate & vocal. -regards, a.v.
PM Trudeau is under some heat for not suspending the agreement on the border, but I would guess that the real reason is that Kaiser Quisling would then just shovel everyone into Canada and make it Justin’s problem.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/canada-pm-justin-trudeau-pressured-suspend-us-refugee-agreement-face-unacceptable-policy/
Trump has ended nothing. His policy stands, it is just harder to see. This EO is about optics. Change, if it happens, is months away and we don’t know what it will look like. Pity no one running a newspaper seems to know that.
Adolfo FloresVerified account @aflores
The Department of Health and Human Services said the children who have already been separated will not be reunited with their parents. “For the minors currently in the unaccompanied alien children program, the sponsorship process will proceed as usual”
Saagar EnjetiVerified account @esaagar
Lawyers I’ve spoken to say @POTUS exec order is a total disaster. 1/ it’s vaguely worded and extremely open to “criminal” interpretation 2. Authorities have few facilities atm to detain whole families 3. There’s no reason to believe 9th circuit judge won’t immediately strike down
https://twitter.com/esaagar/status/1009559208273022977
Sounds like kidnapping and human trafficking.
crimes against humanity, eh?
Maybe Trump will be arrested the next time he leaves the US.
I would prefer to see him arrested inside the US.
I agree, this is a continuing disaster. But the MSM has already given Trump credit for having fixed it, in exchange for a little political theater.
Unlike when Trump originated this policy, this time Trump had a dog and pony show and signed an EO. The NYT and Guardian are giving him props for something he hasn’t done yet. Shame on them.
In a normal environment, when a major policy change happens, agency heads conform their new and recent actions to it, because for the chance want of a day or month, circumstances would have different. San Francisco, for example, is seeking to void thousands of prior cannabis-related convictions because they would run afoul of its new policy.
The tell that the Trump administration hasn’t changed its policy at all is that it is undoing nothing. Prior separations will continue down the chaotic path they started on. And little will change for some time.
That’s because Trump’s EO, for example, cleverly requires DHS to coordinate with DoD – a massive bureaucracy that changes direction slowly and reluctantly – to provide new resources meant to implement this supposed new policy.
Equally clever, the EO provides no money, no process or direction for how to do what it proclaims, no process to resolve inevitable conflicts, no sense of urgency.
It is safe to say that this EO was crafted towards delaying change rather than to effect it. The MSM’s credulous coverage enables that delay and the continuing human carnage it will generate.
The good news is that I think there are unusually high odds that the press will figure this out faster than usual. The bad news is that I would still put the odds well below 50-50, maybe one in three, and the turnaround time will take at least a week, if it happens at all.
I have a slight glimmer of hope when David Folkenflick of NPR openly rejected NPR policy and and said Nielsen’s lies were lies. But I know that it won’t have any effect overall -NPR will still be following the official line of the supposed liberal media that Trump has solved the crisis.
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/20/621876079/when-the-white-house-cant-be-believed
Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo already put up why and how this EO is a sham set up to blame judges. The legal beagles who yammer on cable will have a lot of heavy lifting to educate the public, but I believe that a whole lot of people are genuinely interested, and also deeply suspicious of Trump. They need to understand the crap that he’s pulling, and it will only confirm that he is not trustworthy.
But Sessions trying to pawn this off as a legal move, as Biblically approved… it’s breathtaking. Maybe I have too many Madonna and Child images in my world, but at the heart of my Catholic childhood was the madonna. I’ve been heartened to see how many Catholic priests and religious leaders have weighed in; that’s the silver lining.
If you want to deepen the irony, watch the new Beyonce-JayZ music video “Apesh!t”, shot in the Louvre among imagery of madonnas with infants. What a world…!
In a secular society, where there is supposed to be separation of church and state, it’s absurd and outrageous that the bible is being used for policy/legislative purpose or rationale.
Look at the bright side: Трамп and Sessions are leading the evangelical / fundie community to discredit themselves.
Yeah, I know: small comfort.
I actually find it compelling to watch: the evangelicals that I’m in contact with seem to regard Sessions’ use of the Bible as a kind of ‘blasphemy’ (if I’m hearing astutely); as a terrible misuse of scripture. This is surely having some strange effect; these same evangelicals voted Trump because they simply could not stomach Hillary, and they are staunchly anti-abortion.
And I have not yet had a chance to talk with any of my Latino, Eastern Washington contacts, for whom the word ‘familia’ has a very rich, complex meaning. Trump and Sessions really, really stepped in it.
I don’t know any dyed-in-the-wool-of-the-Lamb Talibangelicals, but I’ve seen claims in multiple places that few of the forced-birther advocacy groups have come out against the Трамп Admin’s family separation policy. IIRC the Susan B. Anthony List was mentioned as having said nothing.
I have no contacts within the evangelical community, so caveat emptor.
Rude Pundit has a “self-interest” take on this:
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2018/06/quickie-one-reason-that-evangelicals.html
“We report, you decide.”
Perhaps there’s a divergence between the evangelicals on the ground and fortced-birther advocacy organizations. TPM has this up this morning:
Because, you know, they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
More: it’s Planned Parenthood’s fault! Or, or … it’s the PARENTs‘ fault! What were those silly parents thinking?!?
Y’know, one might wonder if these guys are really interested in family welfare at all.
Nothing like tossing a strawman diversion into the mix.
Expecting Confabulist in Chief to show up (briefly) for a photo op: foul-shotting rolls of paper towels … to wailing children. Hey, a similar thing worked in Puerto Rico! That Executive Order sure did the trick.
is there some way to spin this as russias fault? you want to be consistent here at ew!
Why hello first time visitor! Who would you like to blame it on instead of Russia? The Trump administration, perhaps? Specifically the persons who launched the “zero tolerance” effort on 25 January 2017?
Edit — 2:01 p.m. EDT 21-JUN-2017 —
I though I should check through the last eight weeks archives to see if there were any drive-by comments under your email address. What should I find but a number deleted by other moderators for trolling under the same email address but a different name! Technically that’s ‘sockpuppeting‘ and it is not permitted.
Save the trollery for a different site.
Rayne, I admire your forebearance.
A blast from the past about the DHS head. Incompetence is normal for her.
https://first-draft.com/2018/06/20/kirstjens-katrina-connection/
8pm Duluth
90,000 people packed in to cheer their beloved President. A country split in half. How long before we turn on each other?
Miller, Bannon and Trump already have.
I don’t think it’s half and half. That’s what the dickhead wants you to believe.
We’re already there. So far it’s only manifested itself in lone wolves or collaborative bombing attempts like the one in Kansas targeting apartments occupied by immigrants. The question is better posed to the narcissist at the podium; he won’t fall apart tonight because his ego has been stroked, but at some point he will crash. Will he collapse inward on himself? Attempt to flee his discomfort? Or will he lash out and whip up a frenzy like Rwanda in 1994?
The thin veneer of civilization . .
“the customs and sanctions which lead human beings to behave well constitute a thin veneer over our baser instincts, a veneer which is threatened by destructive and selfish impulses from moment to moment.”
There’s selfishness, to even a minimal degree which, in a way, is a necessity for survival. Then there’s the sadistic inclination toward innocents which is not a basic human characteristic that is universal.
That is Trump, Putin and Bannon’s plan to destroy America on the bonfire of racial hatred. Important to differentiate between the cult leaders and the cult followers. Their plan is make their followers the “enemy” of the just, don’t fall for it.
I think trump & Fox be doing the Rwanda strategy all along and waiting for the right moment to call out the full force of the NRA.
When I was younger I imagined this American against American war several times. Somehow, even with as many guns as our country has, we call it a culture war.
As Trip mentions, it’s not half and half. It’s a divide and conquer strategy. If he has a solid, say 40% public approval rating, he just needs to subdivide the remaining 60%. He doesn’t need more than half the population since voting is based on representative voting and the EC, and can therefore be affected by low turnout of those against Trump. The most effective ways of doing that are to depress the remaining 60% by having them feel as though their opposition will win and there is no hope at the polls. Despondency does a lot in terms of keeping people from voting. Plus gerrymandering and the usual GOP tricks, as well as the barrage of news and hateful rhetoric on the internet. It’s all culminating in an attempt to demoralize those against Trump, keep them from forming any kind of meaningful opposition, and the constant lies keep everyone in a state of being unsure about what the truth is anymore.
It is far easier for Trump to deal with his opponents if they are broken up into groups of 5 and 10%- remember, he just needs his base of 35-40% to stick with him, which is why he’s doing everything he can to maintain his cult and energize his base.
Related to the post topic- I’ve heard that part of this strategy requires relatives to pick these children up. But of course now, under the guise of background checks, these individuals will be carefully screened for not only being in the US illegally, but this policy may extend to “reviewing” their residency applications to ensure there were no “mistakes” that could result it deportation. The children are effectively being used as traps to collect illegal immigrants already in the country, along WITH detaining and deporting their parents (since they’ve invalidated many of the usual claims for asylum). For the Trump admin, this results in are parents being deported without their children, and if they’re lucky, they can even catch some “illegal aliens” (my God, I hate the term alien- such a dehumanizing word!) while they’re at it. Two birds with one stone. You almost have to be in awe of the callousness that this administration has displayed- this tactic is still working on them on many levels, most notably with their base, where they are maintaining their support as outlined above.
In as much as they have done it unto the pizza delivery guy, ye do it unto me.
We have the illusion of Trump’s vast popularity. We also have the supposed ‘left-leaning’ who think they are being admirable in admonishing the anti-Trump demographic. Becoming completely demoralized, feeling powerless, and in the minority is all part of the gaming.
***sorry this is so long. It’s actually a smaller portion of the article than it appears.
Thanks for that. Do watch excerpt length; Fair Use runs about 100-300 words. I will let this one go because the content is difficult to break.
The illusion of popularity could easily be broken if the public simply did two things: quit watching Fox and stopped using Facebook. These two businesses punch above their weight because they occupy too much broadcast and internet bandwidth. Neither of them have served the common welfare though Fox is required to by FCC’s broadcast licensing mission, and the second has yet to catch a clue.
Sadly, because Fox’s audience is older and more likely to rely on broadcast- than internet-distributed news content — no thanks to stifled competition in high-speed internet access across much of the US — they won’t unplug from Fox’s glass teat. And Facebook’s near-monopoly on social media also makes it difficult for users to unplug.
In spite of Fox’s and Facebook’s oversize reach, there is no excuse today for anyone not to know what the truth is. Cameras are ubiquitous with cellphones and drones abound — we can see nearly everything a satellite can see from above, and more from ground level. Our problem is the loss of net neutrality which could block investigative content. We must do more rapidly to develop mesh networks and other ad hoc alternatives if we are to overcome perception of occupation by what is isn’t a plurality let alone a majority.
But then we have this:
In which the big issue of the day for the NYT is “civility”.
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1009764136950157317
History:
How media ‘fluff’ helped Hitler rise to power
Some of the most iconic photos of Adolf Hitler show him at his most intense, eyes alight with frenetic energy as he addresses an audience or salutes a crowd.
Equally haunting, however, are another set of images that are oft-forgotten: In the years preceding World War II, news outlets from home magazines to the New York Times ran profiles of the Nazi leader that portrayed him as a country gentleman — a man who ate vegetarian, played catch with his dogs and took post-meal strolls outside his mountain estate….“The 1930s marked the rise of celebrity culture, in the era of talking movies, radio and new lifestyle magazines,” Stratigakos said. “People developed a strong desire to know what the private person was like behind the public facade. Hitler’s propagandists took advantage of the new celebrity culture and even helped to shape it.”
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2015/08/034.html
“Liberal” news outlets, like the Times, aren’t necessarily ‘fluffing’, but they are softening the edges with bothside-isms, and playing devil’s advocate for the administration. They have normalized Trump in that they treat him and his policies as a rational side to be heard from (from people like Miller). Then they play cover, not releasing tapes or transcripts, as requested by a white supremacist. They boil it all down to the nations’ problems being about civility (not civil rights). They are on the wrong side side of history now, as they were then.
Never mind cable news outlets where, again, “liberal” channels offer constant interviews with Trump propaganda mouthpieces, reinforcing it, with meek challenge.
Leave it to the Vichy Times to focus on “civility” when the Admin is putting babies in steel cages in concentration camps.
That’s why, even if he might have skeletons of his own, I like that Avenatti has been relentless, playing Trump’s game. Honey badger has no f-ks to give:
The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger (original narration by Randall)
(https)://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
Good vid, thanks! We need more Avenattis.
Yes, I agree with your net neutrality comment. (too late to edit)
I officially deleted my FB account 6/10. Four more days to go in plotting my course to freedom. If you should decide to do as well, don’t forget to delete all apps or they will still have your info s/p FB profile deletion.
Never installed that POS on my mobile devices or any app that relied on FB.
I deleted every single item from my FB account now years ago, one event, one comment, one like and friending at a time.
And I never used my real name or my real location when I opened the account more than 10 years ago because I didn’t trust it then. Nothing FB has done since then ever changed my initial perception of them as sketchy on privacy and security.
Trip,
Thanks for pointing this out. I generally cringe when Godwin’s law rears it’s ugly head – it tends to drive discussion to the gutter. But the link and sentiments expressed are insightful, prescriptive,and very chilling.
Drumpf held a rally last night in my state and I can’t help draw parallels between the expressions of the die kleine Leute in cited piece and some of the comments of attendees to last night’s event.
Mike Godwin says Godwin’s Law is dead. Check his tweet from this week.
Rayne,
Thanks for the link. I was definitely unaware. And thank you for the poignant and thought provoking post. You clearly touched a bunch of folks here.
Fran
Maybe 9,000, just to be clear. That’s the maximum capacity of the Duluth arena, and based on previous Trump rallies, they’re not seated to capacity and cameras won’t show the empty top tier seats.
144 attendees would still be a gross number (ha!), but it’s worth being careful here not to overinflate his drawing power.
There is a long history of child abduction by right-wing governments, especially in the Americas, Spain, and (with a more explicitly religious flavor) Ireland. I blogged a partial history here, and additional history specifically on Native Americans is presented by another blogger here.
Like rape, child abduction is a tool of war. That is how Trump is using it.
And I would not be surprised, Rayne, if there are child casualties.
I found this comment at Balloon Juice illuminating. Not sure there’s anything new about the disjoint threads, but “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” … or so it seems to me.
From the cited piece, an excerpt from that long, insightful comment by Martin (emphasis mine), who says, in part, “this is a situation where all of the incentives are aligned against success.” He ends with this:
In TrumpWorld, they get a promotion and raise, instead of going to the hoosegow. Accountability will have to start at the top then. I believe he calls himself Donald J. Trump.
from Vanity Fair . .
White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has all but become the face of the issue, a development that even supporters of Trump’s “zero-tolerance” position say is damaging the White House. “Stephen actually enjoys seeing those pictures at the border,” an outside White House adviser said. “He’s a twisted guy, the way he was raised and picked on. There’s always been a way he’s gone about this. He’s Waffen-SS.”
DrFunguy cited the following from Trump’s EO
“The Secretary of Defense shall take all legally available measures to provide to the Secretary, upon request, any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families, and shall construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law. The Secretary, to the extent permitted by law, shall be responsible for reimbursement for the use of these facilities.”
Is there any chance that Trump’s EO making SecDef responsible for family detention also makes family detention centers subject to The Geneva Convention? Can the Red Cross or a Congressman or a Senator now demand visitation at the family detention centers?
These make impossible to repair even just the existing outrage:
1. Trumpalos never wanted to fix it, don’t now and never will want to.
2. There’s no indication the admin worked up any
plan or system whatsoever to even keep track of the separations or track the shattered family members post break-up, let alone restore them.
One nice thing about living in the Age of Iphones is there’ll be no lack of visuals on mass Trumpalo rallies, from which a New Age Leni Riefenstahl will produce a documentary that will work to prevent this from ever happening again … again.
Regarding #2, a reunification process could use DNA matching, assuming enough trust could be established for already-deported parents, or undocumented parents here, to come forward to find their kids. At least siblings could be matched and reunited from the various Black Sites. (…ugh, I can’t believe that’s a thing)
We’d have to remove DHS, ICE, and all the other Nazi organizations, and let NGOs and human beings with a soul and a conscience run the program.
BTW, go Microsoft Empoyees – -https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-employees-pressure-leadership-to-cancel-ice-c-1826965297
DNA would be a best approach in the absence of other traceable data but there are several problems: it’s not 100% accurate, consent is still required (and who will consent for displaced children?), and it creates a precedent of tracking a population by DNA.
This humanitarian disaster will have long and deep repercussions for more than a lifetime.
Except: Look at the backlog of DNA testing on rape kits (YEARS, in some cases, decades). They can’t even organize a chain of transport and paper trail connection, can you imagine the clusterfuck of organizing DNA testing, with the additional cost of more hiring, additional equipment, plus the facilities in which to accomplish it? They won’t spend money to improve these people’s lives, but they will enrich the private sector profiting from it.
Expect Miller to propose bar code tattoos as part of his humane solution to the problem caused by the alien invaders.
I wish that was a joke.
They’re not sufficiently competent to arrange for that.
And if adoption is an objective, even a tertiary objective, tattoo-ing would defeat the purpose. (And I’m not even drinking yet…)
Let’s make sure we’re not conflating state and local failures with regard to processing rape kits and potential federal efforts.
There are also other unpleasant reasons why rape kit processing rates shouldn’t be compared. Face it: government has been misogynist and reinforced rape culture because it has been and remains male dominated. We can only hope this will change soon. The impetus to track families of alien children may be very different if white nationalists want them out of the country.
State and local failures can be attributed to misogyny ( considering them less significant crimes), but also to inadequate (maybe #s of) testing sites, and slow turnaround.
And why do you think there’s inadequate testing sites and slow turnaround? Misogyny is structural, just as is racism.
Fair enough point.
TNR has a squib on problems with the use of DNA.
Not conclusive, but cautionary.
Lawsuit against one of the shelters still in operation:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4525292-420-2-Exhibit-Vol-2-Exs-21-30-Pages-109-73.html
Written in 2014, (prior to Trump) unaccompanied children at shelter abused, more details in article:
Federal agency’s shelter oversight raises questions
This fall, a group of senators called for the U.S. Government Accountability Office to review ORR’s financial oversight of grantees and its ability to accommodate the influx of children. Lawmakers ordered ORR in March 2013 to write regulations to comply with the Prison Rape Elimination Act, to strengthen standards for preventing and punishing abuse. The agency released a copy of the proposed rule on Friday that sets a June deadline for shelters to meet the new guidelines.Olson said he called ORR with questions about Shiloh this summer, and it sent him a letter with basic information. He remains frustrated. “The one thing that comes out over and over is the lack of transparency,” he said. “Tell us what is going on down there.”
_____________________________
To be sure, Shiloh takes in challenging cases, including children who arrive from Central America traumatized by their journeys or the violence they witnessed at home….
Some instances of abuse:
Staff members made mentally disabled foster girls fight for an after-school snack in 2008, the state found. It put Daystar on probation after a 44-year-old staff member was prosecuted for having sex with a foster girl from California.
Then a 16-year-old boy died in 2010 after being restrained inside a closet. Yenne’s office took a case against two Daystar staff members to a grand jury, which did not indict them.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Federal-agency-s-shelter-oversight-raises-5969617.php
Kids were also given heavy doses of multiple drugs.
A long line indeed: (add a little coaching by Putin, this is all to divide and conquer).
this incident was put to rest. All false. No truth. I worked in the mental hospital at that time. Docs and nurses believed these kids. The number of deaths surrounding this are beyond suspicious. Including a plane crash involving the prime investigator on his way back from gathering key evidence. A teen girl who was sentenced to 25 years for perjury and a few bad checks, she served 4.5 years. (For perjury!! And recanted).
.nytimes.com/1988/12/18/us/a-lurid-mysterious-scandal-begins-taking-shape-in-omaha.html
counterpunch.org/2012/09/10/still-evil-after-all-these-years/
.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/04/01/omahas-hurricane-of-scandal/f762dad7-c72c-415e-a17c-bd4ece10fa44/
Trump is misdirecting us. His EO is not a fix, it is a delaying tactic. It will not result in better treatment for anyone.
He is channeling more money into this sink hole, and will tell the voters he has to cut back elsewhere, to MAGA. More money will flow to DoD contractors, presumably on the usual cost-plus basis, who will build any few facilities on DoD bases. Nothing about whose budget those end up in. DoD is apparently allowed to bill DHS for “the use of the facilities,” but given the curious nature of Pentagon accounting, who knows how that “use” will be billed and when.
Trump doubled down on electioneering last night. He’s still running against Hillary and will do so through November. It’s who he hates, attacking her still scores highly in polls. Trump is still running on a racist, nativist platform.
His agencies still have no idea how to do what they’ve been tasked to do. DoJ is overwhelmed. DoD lawyers will now be trying civil immigration cases on the border. DHS is overwhelmed. Chaos reigns. Standard Trump. Kids, what kids?
Meanwhile, Trump floats the idea of merging the Departments of Labor and Education. More chaos. Voters will be told it’s all the Democrats fault. If the Dems don’t start using their best voters louder more often, Trump will be right.
@Delavegalaw compared Trumps EO to a lulling letter by a fraudster, intent on keeping the con afloat for another go round, which seemed apt to me. Chaos is always an opportunity to these guys, where the first line is to blame the victim or some other guy who used to be in charge; the EO wasn’t part of the original strategy, but hey-ho its just another opportunity to sow chaos shift the blame and maybe score some credit with some gullibles.
I used to think that Team Trump would fragment under the stress of all the crazy, and there are some signs of dissent in the ranks over this debacle, however what is dispiriting is the number of Trump mouthpieces popping up to cheer him on – so I realise he has an endless supply of assholes who want a piece of his political action and will work towards any and every piece of cynicalcrazy which might appeal to him.
This question has probably been asked and answered multiple times already, but if so I missed the exchange(s).
Several of us have called baby jails etc a “crime against humanity”. Others have used different descriptions.
IANAL. I don’t pretend that my description is accurate.
What is the accurate description?
I found these two links:
https://www.justsecurity.org/58269/zero-tolerance-detention-children-torture-international-law/
https://www.lawfareblog.com/legal-considerations-separating-families-border
I saw nothing at Balkin’s site.
I really, *srsly* want these fsckers to pay a price for the lives they have screwed up. And secondarily, for the disrepute they have brought on America.
I feel soiled by the actions of my country’s government.
I’m not asking about practicality, at least not primarily. I think I am asking “were they brought up before a criminal court, either federal or international, what crimes would they likely be charged with?”
(No toolbar, again. Can’t figure out how to get one.)
FWIW:
ACLU lawsuit
Something that really bothers me about this whole immigration topic:
While Sessions and his protege Miller are continuing their lifelong effort to win an unwinnable argument against the “illegals,” and while we are watching government-sponsored (“of the people, by the people, for the people”) child abuse occurring nationwide in real time, something more sinister operates in the shadows with impunity. But what about those who employ these immigrant people? Farmers, meat packers, warehouses, contractors, etc.
No jobs, no immigrants. Might still get some asylum seekers, but no flood of job seekers. This has been a sick, dysfunctional relationship since at least WWII. We in the US wink and nod and encourage the cheap and easily controlled newcomers, pretending that we don’t know damn good and well that they came here “illegally,” and then to save face we call them names and treat them like shit. No jobs, no immigrants.
I suggest that the employers of these immigrants, who are overwhelmingly white, Christian and republican, be put in cages. Paula White have a problem, or Franklin-son-of-Billy, or Hagee, or any of the evangelicals? Nope. Crickets. Beware of republicans in Christian clothing!
It is dishonest to state, on one hand, that we have full employment and that there is now a need for “guest workers” at places such as Mar a Lago and Bedminster, and, on the other hand, to state that these “guests” are animals and should be treated as such.
If there is a legitimate shortage of labor, then these people should be treated as people and we should have an honest, open relationship with them, as we would with any other business associate. But if the only shortage is a shortage of dirt cheap and easily controlled slaves, then we should just carry on as we have been.
That would require a serious assessment of the problem, identification of the root causes, and weighing of the options. We can choose to pay legal immigrants and US citizens to perform all of the jobs that ‘illegals’ perform today. It will just come at a higher cost.
You might pay double to have your lawn or house work done. Fast food will get more expensive. Many ‘self made’ entrepreneurs and business owners will see their business fail without the ability to exploit the powerless for their own ends.
But that requires biting the hand that feeds. And the end result of that is loss of elections and power.
Far easier to whip up the base with lies, aspersions and FUD. Then, only die kleine Leute feel the pain. And on the upside, the kleptocracy continues to wield power and pocket the treasures of the state.
In other news:
https://thinkprogress.org/virginia-prison-subjects-immigrant-kids-to-horrific-conditions-0a91bcefaa30/
“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
Also, too: “‘immediately’ is open to interpretation” …
https://thinkprogress.org/kobach-defies-court-voter-id-72f3279dd2a0/
Why isn’t Kobach in Club Fed?
So DoJ will “temporarily suspend” criminal prosecutions for low-level misdemeanor immigration violations because its “zero tolerance” policy overwhelmed its ability to mount any prosecutions on any subject. That’s not a change of policy. It’s a delay until DoJ can staff up. I assume that means DoJ will keep would be immigrants and asylum seekers in jail even longer.
Jefferson Beauregard asked DoD JAG lawyers to come help out at the border, but Jeffy wanted to stick Mattis with the bill. (All while further militarizing the border. The DoD assist to DHS regarding housing facilities that Trump’s EO calls for does the same.)
Given the hardball the Pentagon plays over its budgets, I suspect Jeffy got nuffink from Mattis on that. Then there’s the standard bureaucratic problem Jeffy might not have thought through: he who pays for shit, controls it.
I’m not sure there’s anything here, but the implication seems to be that the Administration put in place their family separation policy at least party to feed the evangelical adoption industry:
https://www.facebook.com/emm.pea.1/posts/1989097937800888
Which could be why most of the forced-birthers have been silent.
Might as well call it child trafficking.
No idea who the writer is. Forwarded to me by a generally knowledgeable party, but caveat emptor.
“Orphan theology” at MoJo from 2013.
It’s about good christianist white people saving little brown people from the hell of living their own lives, in their own cultures, in their own language and family networks.
Australia for decades used forced adoption to aculturate aboriginal children. The US did the same for Native Americans, trying to obliterate their culture. The Carlisle School in Pennsylvania is one example.
The Brits did it to their own after WWII, shipping children unwanted by the elite (born to the poor, the unwed, or simply orphaned) to places like Australia and Canada. It took several decades for the government reluctantly and parsimoniously to acknowledge the crimes flowing from its negligent distribution of children often to lives of torment and abuse. Then there are the Irish Catholic orphan homes run by the Order of the Sacred Heart of Freddy Krueger, where it pays not to drink the well water.
Trump is resurrecting an ancient evil. It makes him and Miller and Bannon feel at home. It also reduces the standing of America in the world, much to Mr. Putin’s delight. He didn’t invent our frailties, but he loves to make them more destructive so that he can fill the resulting vacuum.
Call me naive, but if evidence can be found that “they” (pick your definition of “they”) are trafficking kiddies, the whole house of cards could come tumbling down.
Especially if either DeVos or Трамп (hey, why choose one when you can have both) are taking a cut …
~shakes head to clear it~
We are truly through the looking glass and into the sewer.
Back during the Administration of Bush the Lesser, Kevin Drum wrote (sorry, no link, this is from memory) something along the lines that what he really hated about that Admin was that they were soooo bad that he found himself entertaining bizarre conspiracy theories.
Or as Brad Delong wrote back in 2005,
(Pretty sure Delong adapted that from Haldane or Keynes …)
Speaking of Mr. Putin, I just had this completely insane thought. Totally bonkers, so pay no attention.
But … Magnitsky Act. I wonder what fraction of evangelical adoptions came from Russia prior to the passage of the Magnitsky Act.
Another historical link:
I realize that this sounds bonkers. It sure sounds bonkers to me. And I am sure I speak for everyone here when I say that no one ever would suggest that Трамп Administration policies might be tainted by corruption.
Odd, though, those kids sent to Bethany Christian Services, an adoption agency funded by Betsy DeVos. Yeah, yeah, they’ll be fostered, not adopted. Unless the kids parents can’t be located, amirite? Unpossible, I know. But work with me here: if they can’t find the parents … what then?
Surely the lesser evil would be to put the kids up for adoption.
Pay no attention to that loon Laura Ingraham. It’s just a coincidence. Or perhaps she’s just jumping to the end game.
One more, hopefully the last. If it’s true that Трамп is always about projection, then “suck on this” (in the immortal words of The Mustache of Wisdom).
As the writer says, “Trump’s comments are darkly ironic.”
This is odd:
https://twitter.com/pbump/status/1009860714914250752
h/t Betty Cracker at Balloon-Juice
I thought for certain that was photoshopped. She can’t not know how shitty that comes across on the day she’s visiting the detention center, right?
Not photoshopped, apparently. TPM has a report on it too.
If that was intended in how it came across, she deserves Trump.
I just read your second link. If she didn’t intend it, then she is as stupid as a bag of rocks. Since when does Melanie don a $39 jacket? Isn’t that a bit low rent for her?
Beats the hell outta me.
Passive-aggressive undercutting Трамп? She didn’t want to be the face of the Admin nor travel to Texas, and she wants everyone to know it?
I agree, it makes no sense.
Marcy retweeted this:
The maker of this coat sells Nazi stuff. Now I highly doubt it was a mistake.
Adam KlasfeldVerified account @KlasfeldReports 1h1 hour ago
Adam Klasfeld
Real News: @Zara, the maker of the First Lady’s flak jacket, has been accused of habitually marketing Nazi-themed attire and was sued three years ago for a corporate culture their attorney found brimming with racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and homophobia. https://www.courthousenews.com/bias-suit-paints-blistering-picture-of-zara/
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1009937599304273920
Great minds think in the same rut.
Me too.
Fearless Leader thinks so too!
Maybe.
CBP, to save a little face perhaps and to stick it to average travelers, has set up a checkpoint stopping all southbound traffic in Maine, asking for, “Papers, pleeze.”
It did the same last week in New Hampshire and picked up a total of five people lacking current paperwork. Lord knows what the average price per head that cost. Mind you, CBP mounts these daily on the freeways two hours either side of San Diego. Hard to get to LA or Phoenix without going through one.
Like everything else in the Trump administration, it’s not very good value for money. But money isn’t the issue; Trump assumes he can always get more from somebody else whenever he needs it. This is about normalizing the militarization of Amerika, which is predicated, in part, on demonizing little brown people, citizens or not. All to keep us safe, as Dr. Szell might put it.
ACLU of New Hamster :-) reminds us, on its web site, that folks have the right to stfu when stopped by CBP.
“The CBP told motorists that they were “required” to answer their questions. This is inaccurate. All individuals going through these checkpoints have the right to say absolutely nothing.”
“CBP officials also told individuals that, if they did not answer questions, they would be indefinitely detained until they agreed to answer. This too is not only a legally inaccurate statement, but it flies in the face of the Fourth Amendment and the cases interpreting it. The refusal to answer questions does not create reasonable suspicion or probable cause to prolong a stop at these checkpoints. If a person refuses to comply and CBP cannot promptly determine the person’s immigration status, CBP must immediately release that person.”
https://www.aclu-nh.org/en/news/aclu-nhs-statement-woodstock-border-patrol-checkpoint
The separation of children and families has been going on for hundreds of years. This is not new: Although abhorrent (!).
In the EU we lost track of 12.000 children it was reported (2-3 years ago). And that is just what we know/read/has been reported. The true picture is far, far worse. What you are seeing in the USA now is the implementation of processes and rules to support a fascist regime. It is fascism with ICE as the SA (Sturmabteilung).
Being annoyed, angry, irritated, whatever: requires the element of being surprised that this is happening. This is not a surprise: It will become far, far worse pretty soon. These things always escalate.
You will see the building of internment (concentration) camps, children will die (statistically speaking some have already). The structural implementation of process to root out the non desirable elements.
The creation of databases and the empowerment of f***ing numb-nut dumb assholes with a sherrifs badge to ‘guard’ the unwanted. And offcourse, the rampart abuse of power against women and children and the structural abuse in the form of rape, torture, imprisonment, slavery and death.
All this will be expeddited by a terrorist attack or bomb (Gulf of Tonkin for instance).
The Mexican government should reach out to the U.N. and the International Court in The Hague and sue them for crimes against humanity (kidnapping of children for instance – I am not a lawyer I don’t know). Then under the RICO stature send every ICE employee to jail.
Your president just became a (war) criminal in my opinion. Not to mention the action with regards to sustaining the war in Yemen and Syria. And it is not Trump alone: it is the number 2,3,4 men in his administration that are the true evils. Hating Trump is pointless: It is the next guy, the ‘anti-Trump’ that will become elected that will be the last of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You know what to expect from Trump; he is preditable. That’s why they put him there. His motivations are quite transparent. He sure is somebody’s b*tch. And it ain’t the Russians. They just sit back and watch the show (China becoming #1).
These dramatic scenes and actions keep you occupied so you won’t see what’s coming. It will become far, far worse. The climate change impact will take us by surprise because we didn’t see it coming because Melania wore a jacket with a slogan on it.
The only way to learn what is going on with the female captives and the infant/toddler captives is for some brave member of an administration, like a top prosecuting attorney or governor to work with a high level judge, like the senior state supreme court justice, to obtain a search warrant based upon the information and belief that child abuse of an intolerable and illegal level is being systematically conducted in certain facilities, to wit:
Facility one, located at:
managed by DHHR
listing known or suspected details about this facility
Facility two, located at:
managed by contract firm
listing known or suspected details about this facility
Etc.
Then to obtain confidentially the enthusiastic services of a LEO, preferably with SWAT teams and vehicles or aircraft sufficient to make forced entry to all facilities noted above, along with camera crews designated to preserve information as these raids are conducted, so as to minimize panic among the captives and maximize it among the captors. Teams to include medical and psychological teams prepared to take control of the well being of the captors and to preserve evidence of the condition of the captives at the time of their liberation.
Then to execute forced entry to all the identified facilities while suppressing communications capability from those facilities while control is established over the captors sufficient to put them under arrest for receiving and holding kidnapped and abused children and infants while not advising the proper authorities as required by law.
Any suspected facilities of the type being planned to be opened and taken into control of the proper authorities should be under complete surveillance during the time while preparations are being made to rescue the children being held captive, and if all such facilities are not to be opened simultaneously, those not scheduled for immediate entry should be under heightened surveillance until they can be taken under control.
Obviously taking control of all these facilities at once will be a huge challenge, yet doing it a few at a time allows the perpetrators to begin to conceal ongoing crimes and to attack victims being held prisoner. Treating the rescued prisoners, identifying them, associating them with their parents, collecting evidence of crimes committed against them will be a superhuman effort requiring huge teams to be brought together to conduct medical evaluations of all the victims to determine if additional crimes have been committed in addition to the kidnapping and illegal movement.
Records showing the numbers and ID of the captives and arrivals and departures will have to be carefully collected and evaluated to determine how many children should have been present at each facility, and any discrepancy in the numbers should be investigated for possible illegal transfers of children into different illegal hands.
Menus and documentary evidence as to the type and amount of food and water each captive was provided and how much of that which was provided was consumed. If there is no evidence of how much food and water was consumed by a specific individual, it mush be assumed the captors did not care how much food intake was going on, that’s evidence of another crime, failing to document food intake indicated they didn’t care if malnutrition was going to be a problem for the captives.
IANAL nor an I associated with law enforcement, so I have no doubt omitted many necessary tasks — but a search warrant and entry teams are the first thing to organize, those professionals should be able to develop an operational plan intended to rescue the captives and preserve the evidence of their treatment, good and bad. Medical exams of all the captives, postmortems of those not still alive at the time of entry. Yes, we all know that at least a few children in these terrible circumstances may have died under the best and luckiest circumstances, which will not be the kind of circumstances I expect to find.
Some facilities may be managed properly while others are not. All facilities will have cooperated with the holding of captives after their kidnapping. Some facilities may have captives who have been further abused after being illegally taken from their families. Arrest for every captor in the facilities should be a given, the actual charges in addition to being an accomplice to kidnapping will depend upon the condition of the captives and the documentary, physical, medical, and asurveillance data and interviews with staff, victims and witnesses.
Without this kind of immediate investigation we will never know what happened to the children being held captive in violation of child care requirements all over the world. We owe it to the parents and families of the captive children AND to the international community to discover what has happened to the captive children in as much detail and with as much certainty as possible, in order to provide evidence sufficient to indict and convict those guilty of misconduct with regard to these children. Including those at the top of management of this whole Cluster Fuck, who allowed this policy change to go forward with virtually no planning to keep these children in good condition and properly identified.