In the rancid, distorted, bigoted world of Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions, human life begins at conception and ends at America’s southern border.
And I’m not so sure the same can’t be said of the ass clowns we refer to as our Louisiana Congressional delegation.
Another certainty is that Session’s quoting the Bible notwithstanding, neither man can lay legitimate claim to being a Christian. That right was forfeited the instant the decision was made that innocent children, some of them still breast-feeding, should be ripped from their mother’s arms and warehoused in an empty Walmart store in Brownsville, Texas.
Acquaintances have ridiculed me for previous comparisons of idiot Trump to Hitler. Those comparisons were never more valid than now. When is the last time you saw an American president:
- Rip more than 1300 children from their families for no greater offense than seeking asylum?
- Incorrectly cite a Bible verse as justification for doing so?
- Express the desire to emulate China’s President Xi in becoming President for life?
- Have his lackeys follow the example of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un’s lackeys by sitting at attention when Dear Leader speaks? (and before you try to tell me he was “just kidding,” save your breath. He wasn’t. He was dead serious.)
- Call the media “America’s greatest enemy”? (Okay, that may not be Hitler, per se, but it’s pretty darn close to another mad man named Nixon.)
And while we’re on the subject, I wonder if anyone has bothered to check to see if these might be private prisons contracting to hold these kids—for a nice profit, of course.
Oh, and don’t even bother to invoke the names of Obama or Clinton. Obama had his flaws as any human does, but he never once pulled the stunts and uttered the nonsense Trump has and while he had some less than stellar appointments to his cabinet, not one of them was named Scott Pruitt or Mick Mulvaney or Ben Carson or Betsy Devos or Wilbur Ross (Ross is the Commerce Secretary who was head of the Bank of Cyprus, an acknowledged vehicle for massive Russian money laundering. No Russian collusion? You can do your own Google search). And Clinton is not, was not, and will never be President so don’t even try to bring her into the mix.
In other words, let’s keep the conversation about a man who:
- Repeatedly declared bankruptcy but always came back—with other people’s money, much of it from the Deutsche Bank, another bank that plays ball with the Russians who have money to wash;
- Has a bad habit of not paying his contractors;
- Ran a bogus real estate college in Florida that bilked students out of millions while failing to deliver on its promises—a college that was under investigation by the Florida attorney general…until Trump made a generous contribution to her election campaign, and then the investigation was conveniently dropped;
- A man who has no respect for women whatsoever (don’t take Stormy Daniels’ word for it; just listen to the Billy Bush tape);
- A man who does everything in his power to discredit, insult, and humiliate his justice department, the FBI, the IRS, the media, Congress, and anyone else who dares criticize him;
- A man who cannot, for the life of him, maintain any consistency in his positions on issues, positions which sometimes change hourly;
- A man who steadfastly refuses to make public his income taxes (gee, what could he be afraid of?);
- A man who uses his position to help his family and himself financially (just look at the way in which he gave the Chinese firm ZTE a big break on his tariffs just as his daughter got nine trademark approvals from the Chinese government.)
I could go on, but why bother? If you are a Trump devotee, you’re not going to change your mind if it were proven that he was a serial axe murderer. You would simply regurgitate his and Fox News’ favorite response: fake news.
So, I will just end by saying this: If you are going to run around spewing your mantra of family values—whether as a Republican candidate or as a supporter of said candidate—while looking the other way as children are torn from their families, then you, my friend, are a damned liar and a hypocrite.
That goes for John Neely Kennedy, Bill Cassidy, Garrett Graves, Clay Higgins, Steve Scalise, Mike Johnson, or Ralph Abraham.
You are lying cowards, one and all, if you can advocate family values on one hand and imprisonment of children on the other.
And you’re certainly no Christian.
Louisiana Voice 
And all God’s people said “Amen!”
Amen!
Thank you, Tom! What’s happening in our country is truly horrifying. And for Trump to publically admit that these despicable acts are designed to manipulate the Democrats into supporting some bill is beyond abuse of power. It’s downright criminal & he should be impeached & tried in a court law. My heart breaks for all of the children & families being tortured and ripped apart by this administration & I pray that swift justice is brought down on the perpetrators asap. God help America.
Thanks, Tom, for calling out the hypocrites. Hoping the World Court calls out trump for human rights violations. Remember the old days, when the US held the high moral ground and held other countries accountable for human rights violations? Trump wants to emulate his new friend and take the USA down, so he can be on the level of a brutal dictator. It’s not far down the slippery slope, and soon he can proudly proclaim himself in goosestep with Kim Jong Un and North Korea.
Do not oppress the foreigners at the gate, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Exodus 22;21
Guess all those anti-immigrant types forgot their ancestors were also foreigners at the gate – unless they were Native Americans. And remember what was done to them?
In my humble opinion, the blame for separation of children from parents are the very parents who elected to violate US law by entering country illegally and by exposing said children to potential danger. Additionally, what would you have one do, turn children loose on streets ? We care for these children, likely far better than their life before their parents broke the law. These people are NOT here seeking asylum; they are here to make a living illegally in the USA. This is not Trump or Sessions fault, but the adults who made poor choices.And for some other responses made – this IS NOT an issue of immigration, but of ILLEGAL immigration.And as far as I am concerned, rights are for citizens, not lawbreakers. If you pick and choose which laws you wish to have enforced, what is the point of having any laws at all ?
Zoe, once again, you’ve managed to ignore certain points in order to advance your argument. You’re obviously a very intelligent person but you have blind spots. You are incorrect in asserting the parents are not seeking asylum; they are. But even if you are correct in that, it is helpless, innocent children who are suffering. Put yourself in a similar position and let us say, for the moment, that you break some law that doesn’t physically harm someone else–in other words, a misdemeanor rather than a felony. Do you think that’s grounds to tear your children away from you and deposit them in some place like an abandoned Walmart. These are children, for god’s sake. Show a little compassion instead of kissing Trump’s and Sessions’ asses.
Human rights aren’t for all… humans? Is that what you meant to say? Amazing
American Constitutional Rights are for citizens. Human rights are not generic nor universal as different countries have widely varying standards. What you mean to say (I assume) is that your opinion is that human rights are being violated.In this instance, Parents are locked up prior to pending hearing, and if entry is denied, parents are exiled (along with children). Would you prefer we lock up children as well ? I am truly amazed at people today who are defending ILLEGAL immigration. Do you guys know what a country is or are we all living in John Lennon’s “Imagine”. This country simply cannot accept every poor helpless soul who elects to sneak into our country for a better way of life. Yes, I do sympathize with anyone who is downtrodden,but let us be realistic, what will be the long term effect of non-regulated illegal immigration ?. Personal responsibility was once a hallmark of the American way. People who enter this nation illegally show a total lack of personal responsibility.
I am not “kissing” anyones ass. I do not think Sessions is an effective Attorney General, and actually, part of our problem in Washington D.C. Following is an example of how the Democrat Party felt about illegals:https://www.facebook.com/numbersusa/videos/1817643644958989/UzpfSTE0OTAyNDE0MzI6MTAyMTIyNjM0OTc3NzExODA/
I can show many others (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama etc). saying the very same thing as Trump. Evidently, when one likes a person, one agrees with whatever they say. If one does not and that person says basically the same thing as the favored person, he is an idiot.
The job of the President is to enforce the law as written by the Congress. If you guys are dissatisfied with the law, change it.Congress will not pass a law on this issue because illegals are being used as a political football. These children are being used like the miss-treated animals we see on late night television; suddenly we care. This policy has been going on since at least Bill Clinton era and no one was concerned; why now ?
zoe1970: “Evidently, when one likes a person, one agrees with whatever they say. ”
The most unvarnished truth in your post as it relates to at least one person.
People who liked President Obama excused his negatives because they believed his was a decent, honorable, professional and respectable presidency and we accepted the fact that no human being is perfect and no president is perfect. He was our leader and I was never embarrassed by him or the way our country was perceived by the rest of the world.
In the case of President Trump, and speaking for myself only, I base everything I think about him on what he unquestionably says and does – not how these things are reported, but by simply watching and listening to him. And, yes, I will admit I do not like him – and that is a gross understatement. I believe he is the worst thing that ever happened to this country – and, again, I do not base this on editorials of any kind. I base it on the person I see and hear everyday. It is not possible to separate the person from the position they hold. I do not trust him to do the right thing for anybody, but himself and I firmly believe our country is headed in the wrong direction.
So, yes, I fully agree with your statement – as it relates to President Trump.
A quote in NEWSWEEK (Google it-published online yesterday) from a man who actually knows the POTUS:
“President Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal ghostwriter said that the president would “murder as many enemies as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un” if he had the same power and lack of consequence.
“The writer also suggested the president had the “inner sense of emptiness” and “sociopathy” to become a dictator.”
I base my view of the POTUS strictly on what I see and hear him do, not on what anybody else says about him, but this guy actually knows him. His views precisely mirror the impression I have.
Did any of us in our wildest dreams imagine we would have such a POTUS? I still wake up every morning hoping this has all been a nightmare. Unfortunately it is and unfortunately it is real.
Mr. Winham – I think your assessment of trump is spot on – frighteningly so. And the fact that so many “americans” support authoritarianism is even more frightening. It is illustrative of how the Third Reich ascended in Germany just over a century ago.
“Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.” Georges Santayana
I keep hearing this “I have got mine…I don’t want others to have any!” This is simply not a sustainable doctrine for our country. And, the arrogance to declare that America cannot affird to accept anymore immigrants is breathtaking. It is good to see what others among us are thinking in order to understand the depth of our problems.
So if a President is doing his job and actually having the border patrol & immigration enforce the law, and we think that’s a good idea, we’re un-Christian? Politics, politics, politics. Ripping babies from their Mother’s breast, putting babies in cages, really. These poor people are being used as Pawns by both parties. “If” the bleeding heart liberals meant what they say, they would be at the border helping people immigrate legally. They would help them seek asylum. But no, it’s better to not do anything but point the finger and cry Un-Christian. Common sense has left Washington DC and it’s been gone a long time. The democrats who are crying foul now are the same ones who said we need tough immigration laws. It’s all politics. And we’re the pawns.
Much as I’d like to debate you on this, Sidwit, I can’t. The reason? Your points are far too accurate. Where would I start, by defending Democrats? Can’t do that with either party. And if you have read this blog long enough, you will have seen where I have used your last sentence more than a few times. There is one thing: I don’t prefer “to not do anything but point the finger…” We both agree that no real effort toward a viable solution has been put forward—by either party.
Wouldn’t it be a lot simpler, cheaper, and more humane to simply escort these people with their family units intact back to the border on first offense? Regardless, the purely punitive measure of separating children from their parents and warehousing them – again simply to punish their parents for attempting to seek a better life for them, is immoral and indefensible.
Actually it would be simpler to have border security, whether that be a wall or some other but effective means of controlling the illegal trafficking across the border! Regardless of what anyone thinks or believes the situation at hand can’t be all blamed on Trump whether you like him or not. If you want to how I formed this position, having spent time on the border at some of the facilities used for detainees, most of the same practices were being used and the time period of the two previous administrations. Yes there is blame to share if you so choose to do that.
President Obama did his job – more illegal immigrants were deported under his administration than in any other in recent memory. BUT – many of the undocumented people deported were working in factories, food processing plants, etc. And children were not taken from their parents and families ripped apart. It is possible to “do your job” without being heartless and cruel. Many of the would-be immigrants are seeking asylum and are being treated like criminals.
Just back from a week in Honduras and this was the first trip in 14 years where the international flight was met by an ICE agent who looked like he eats trucks for breakfast – intimidating everyone walked off the plane. Most passengers were Americans, some Hondurans and other Central Americans, all with legal documents. You can’t get on a plane without a passport, and airline staff are very strict. Been there.
Sidwit – don’t lose your breath with the crowd reading and writing in this blog. For them, facts and details do not matter (or worse, they only matter if it helps their half cooked arguments). And they really believe they are much better Christians than anybody who thinks different than them.
For example, this crowd has never heard of the “Flores Consent Decree”. I just mention this as an example. Never mind the details, and yes, never mind the law. The law is only helpful if this crowd agrees with it; however, if they don’t (but you do) you are a heartless, fascist, repugnant being. And it is astonishing, because some readers and writers in this blog actually worked in government, and they should know what it means to comply with statute. But alas, when it fits their purposes, statutes are only suggestions.
As I said, Sidwit, don’t lose your breath.
Alex, I believe your argument could be applied to both sides in just about any debate–you included. You and Sidwit are no different than Earthmother or Tom. We all try to get our point across and the Republicans have been doing a lot better job at at than the Democrats, who at times, don’t seem to have a point.
STOP AND THINK!!!
What’s EXTREMELY IMPORTANT and MISSING or IGNORED by all media outlets regarding the children now separated from parents and kept in cages?
It seems that NO ONE has done a FOIA request for records regarding abuse, assault, rape, etc. involving the caretakers.
No one knows where these people come from or if they are completely vetted before starting work. Are they drug tested?
What employee discipline has occurred since the program started?
Where are those who require constant medical care being kept?
What type of physical exams are given when the children enter the system?
Are there enough caretakers to nurture, love and caress the many babies and young children who need 24-hour attention? Seems that there should be a large number of diaper changers!
How many of the older children have been acting out in bad fights. Are they getting counseling?
How many have a mental disability or other serious health problems: Autism, Down’s Syndrome, Cancer…?
How many health specialists are on call; psychologists…
Honestly, I’m praying that the DOJ investigation outcome results in dumping trump, his family, and those who support him, elected or otherwise, and his lies and deception.
The Louisiana reality is that only a microscopic voter cadre would support him for any position in any parish or city election.
Bob Mhoon
This just in:
“”We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says, calling out critics of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that calls for separating families who cross the border illegally.”
“Nielsen defended the policy in a series of tweets on Sunday night; earlier in the weekend, her agency said it had separated nearly 2,000 children from adults over the course of six weeks at the U.S. southern border.”
Sources: NPR, CNN, Fox News
Is it any wonder nobody knows who to believe about anything anymore?
Begin satiric comment: Next thing we know, we will hear the children are all being treated in clinics for any physical or emotional problems before being returned to the loving arms of their parents and all will be humanely returned to their countries of origin. End satiric comment.
.
Hold the presses, my last comment was not satire apparently. This just in, 8 minutes ago, from USA Today:
“Nielsen, in a speech to the National Sheriffs’ Association in New Orleans, said the children are provided food, medical attention, education and anything else they might need.”
As C. B. Forgotston (RIP) said so often: “You can’t make this stuff up, folks.”
For anybody who has a shred of interest on what the law actually says, instead of hysterically accusing people of not being Christian:
https://www.scribd.com/document/382036079/Letter-to-DOJ-and-DHS-Responding-to-Commission-Statement-About-Separation-of-Families-6-15-2018
In this letter, the law is laid out very clearly.
Again, for whoever is interested in facts, not hysterics.
Your cite would appear to be a letter expressing the opinion of one person based on an interpretation of a federal consent decree and common sense.
The opening sentences of this opinion/letter are, “I write as one member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and not on behalf of the Commission as a whole. The majority of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has issued a statement condemning the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security for separating parents and children who cross the border illegally.”
I would not call it “what the law actually says”, nor even a definitive opinion, but I’m no attorney.
That said, why is it necessary for you to accuse people with opinions different from yours of “hysterics” and to presume anybody is uninterested in facts? I think the main problem is that nowadays “facts” are hard to come by. Even harder to come by are objective representation and assessment of them when they are found.
Conservative thinkers are vilified on this page for having a different point of view. I have heard so much propaganda from the Press on this issue I sometimes think that George Orwell’s 1984 press is alive and well. Photos of kids taken so they appear to be behind fencing, photos taken back in 2015 and shown to make people believe this is happening now, carefully editing remarks to take statements out of context and putting them into the spin zone of rhetoric. The bottom line is that laws are being enforced, they have been politically partially enforced for the past 12 years. Kids are not removed from parents unless the illegal immigrant decides they want to file for asylum, which now puts the issue into another bureaucratic time delay. Kids cannot be held for more than 20 days I believe the law states, then they are released to relatives or guardians or kept in HHS holding areas that are much nicer than the areas provided by the Obama regime. The bottom line is that these people are being used as pawns, you are being used as pawns, and until we demand our legislators to stop representing special interests and start representing us – nothing will change.
to Zoe1970: It is my personal belief that people make their own personal curses with their own mouths. If the 1970 in your identifier is an indication of your age, and if you’re not a grandmother yet, grandparent-hood might be in your future. So when you lose your grandchild, remember your statements of today. Perhaps then you will be able to identify with those parents who have lost their children… but then again, maybe not.
Okay, this thread is probably dead, but at the end of this post is a link to a clear description of this whole thing – a flowchart, followed by a detailed narrative. I still find myself wondering why, in this day and age and with today’s databases and technology, if people cannot prove they are here legally why they can’t, as a family unit, simply be deported. I realize this would bypass due process, but it would appear the only thing due process is doing in the case of illegal immigration is costing a lot of money (A WHOLE LOT) and increasing a bureaucracy that is accomplishing nothing productive, but everything punitive. Carrying Sidwit’s narrative a step further, Ann Coulter has made the ridiculous allegation that the children are actually actors. If you believe that, I have a gently used cable-stayed bridge for sale near my home.
https://www.axios.com/what-happens-when-a-family-crosses-the-border-9ee93bb1-ed32-4e73-b2dd-5f51eb86b16b.html
Mr. Winham, I find it amazing that people who simply dislike Trump for “teariing families” apart had no problem when Clinton, Bush, or Obama did the exact same thing. This law has been in effect since that time. What is different how ? As for “simply deporting family’s, do you realize these people come here by the thousands….it simply is not that simple. And they do not all enter through points of entry.And furthermore, statistics show that these children are not always family members, but human ttrafficing is involved. And to Jeanette, I do have a two year old grandchild whom I would kill for. But I can assure you, I would never drag him a thousand miles on foot to a place that may or may not accept us..And let us not forget; these people seeking “asylum” can stay in Mexico and not be separated.I also note that if any one of us breaks the law here or in another country, we will be “torn away” from our children. Unless we are Hillary Clinton or FBI agents. And Sidwit, your post is spot on.
As I tried to make a point of earlier, there are fairer, more humane and CHEAPER ways to handle this. In addition to the emotional issues and treatment of humans as something other than human, the cost of holding migrant children who have been separated from their parents in newly created ‘tent cities’ is $775 per person per night, according to an official at the Department of Health and Human Services — far higher than the cost of keeping children with their parents in detention centers or holding them in more permanent buildings. And the cost of simply deporting the whole family as quickly as possible without separating it has to be a lot cheaper than locking any of its members up.
Anyhow, logic doesn’t seem to play a significant role in our whole immigration policy (or, many of our others), but if we want to make an argument for strictly enforcing our laws, many of our appointed and elected officials would be streaming into our prisons, so let’s not attempt to take the moral high ground from that point of view.
P. S. Not that I actually expect the addressees to see them, I sent emails to my congressional delegation expressing my opinion about the current administration yesterday as did many of my friends. I did not mention this issue specifically because it is simply another in a long list of the reasons I cannot accept the actions of this president and, since members of congress are the only potential agents of change, they (like all his supporters) are accountable for supporting his actions for what I believe to be purely self-serving reasons. I did not insult them. I simply pointed out the reasons I take the position I take.
I would encourage everybody to write them. We can at least hope their staffs keep tick sheets of constituents’ issues. We can also be seriously looking for alternatives when election times roll around for them if we find fault with their blind allegiance and/or tacit support of policies we find egregious. If we only get cut-and-paste responses, there’s at least a chance the computer that generated them kept a record of the issues for the staff to compile.
I would suggest a reversal of what performers often say at the end of running shows, “If you don’t like what they are doing, tell them. If you like what they are doing, don’t tell anybody.” – a joke, much like what our country is becoming.
great stuff. I agree with Mr. Winham and Tom, I want to demonstrate against my Congressman Ralph Abraham who opened an office in St.Francisville and is a coward and a joke. ron thompson
So now the POTUS is signing an executive order providing for doing pretty much exactly what OBAMA did, i. e., detaining the families together. And HILLARY and other Democrats were highly critical of OBAMA for that policy and TRUMP was highly critical of the OBAMA policy and of everything HILLARY. So who do we blame here – W? Oops, can’t do that, he’s a REPUBLICAN.
I wonder if any of the sheep who prostrate themselves before Ms. Sanders at the worthless White House press briefings will ask her about these things. I can hear her now, “The President’s policy is radically different from that of Obama’s and Clinton had no policy.” Yeah, right, Sarah.
I got a response to my letter to Senator Kennedy and it was actually responsive to my concerns about how our POTUS is performing. Again, I encourage everyone to make your opinions known.