Indefinite Detention, NRA Boot Licking, Antisemitism, and a Trumpian Temper Tantrum
I wish I could write something witty and perhaps even snarky about politics in the United States today. But I can’t. There’s just so much evil, vile, and just plain ignorant stuff going on. So here’s a summary of what I wish I didn’t have to report today.
Since Monday:
The United States government has announced a policy of indefinite detention in (can we call them concentration yet?) camps for families, including children by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being transferred from border custody.
Here are some grisly details.
Children should never be in detention, period, and it’s the children who will suffer the most because this administration has already shown itself to be wholly incapable of watching over kids. We know this because a court just had to tell officials that, yes, kids actually do require soap, toothbrushes, and other basic necessities, and in June, attorneys forced border officials into hospitalizing four detained toddlers, one of whom was so sick her “eyes were rolled back in her head.”
Not so Fun Fact-- Nearly half the people in Germany's concentration camps died of communicable diseases. ‘Our’ government is now refusing to provide flu vaccines at border detention facilities, despite knowing at least three children held in detention centers at the Mexican border have died, in part, from the flu.
Let Them Eat Cake --The Trump administration plans to issue a new policy that would deny work permits to asylum-seekers who cross the border without authorization as well as those who are convicted of a felony, and significantly delay when those qualified to apply for a permit can do so, according to two sources close to the administration.
The NRA called, and Trump said “Yes, Sir.”
Tick, Tick...In the weeks since the country was shaken by the massacres in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, law enforcement officials say they have already foiled six more separate mass shootings or white supremacist attacks across the US. Four of the foiled plots appeared to involve men espousing far-right views, with online posts targeting LGBTQ people, Jewish people, black Americans, Latinos and Muslims. And four of the six suspects were white men in their 20s, with all but one thought to be armed.
In the days following the El Paso acts of terrorism, the President promised to back “meaningful” legislation to introduce “intelligent background checks.” This promise ignored the fact that the House of Representatives passed such legislation months ago, and it has gone nowhere because the Senate majority leader won’t even allow discussion on the subject.
Via The Atlantic:
At the time, his words seemed to indicate a softening of sorts, as though Trump had completed the transition from wanting to seriously consider universal background checks to being dead set against them. But sources close to this president told me that Trump’s eventual siding with the NRA was never in question. “Trump always knew where he had to end up,” a GOP operative in constant contact with the White House told me.
The gun lobby certainly made sure of it. Over the past two weeks, even after quickly batting down Trump’s Rose Garden fantasy, NRA officials continued to flood the White House and Congress alike with calls. They communicated with White House staffers, if not the president himself, up to several times a day. According to the NRA official, there was even talk of LaPierre joining Trump last week in Bedminster.
The White House view on the subject changed to "People don't realize we have very strong background checks right now," following a phone call from an organization that funded his 2016 campaign to the tune of $30 million.
Via The New York Times:
President Trump spent at least 30 minutes on the phone Tuesday with Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, the latest conversation in an aggressive campaign by gun rights advocates to influence the White House in the weeks since the back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.
The call ended the way that Mr. LaPierre had hoped it would: with Mr. Trump espousing N.R.A. talking points in the Oval Office and warning of the radical steps he said Democrats wanted to take in violation of the Second Amendment.
Islamophobia + AntiSemitism, all in a day’s work for Trump. And then he doubled down.
Via Daily Kos:
In yet another attack on Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, Trump said Tuesday that “Where have [Democrats] gone where they are defending these two people over the state of Israel? And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”
This was a bizarre twist on the ugly accusations of dual loyalty that have long been directed at American Jews, usually a claim that Jewish people are more loyal to Israel than to the U.S. It’s one more instance of Trump deploying white supremacist tropes, and as J Street’s Logan Bayroff responded, “It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and ‘disloyal.’ But it is no surprise that the president’s racist, disingenuous attacks on progressive women of color in Congress have now transitioned into smears against Jews.”
In 2018, 79% of Jewish people voted for Democrats and in 2016, 71% voted for Clinton. So when Trump says that “any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” he is talking about the vast majority.
Responding to a storm of criticism over his remarks, the President made a very poor choice by sharing tweets of praise from a well-known conspiracy theorist.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1164138795475881986?s=20
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1164138797220671488?s=20
For those of you less familiar with the far fringes of American politics, here is a sampling of Wayne Allen Root’s other pronouncements:
Obama is a secret gay Muslim
The killer of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville was paid by Soros
The Las Vegas shooting was done by Muslims
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was motivated by ‘penis envy’.
Defending Alabama pedophile Roy Moore by alleging that Clinton and Obama had Gay relationships"
UPDATE: It gets worse. Now Trump is the "chosen one."
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1164227209328046080?s=20
Even more far out...
https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1164238193018986497?s=20
Denmark Says No Greenland for You, Trump
The President has postponed a scheduled state visit to Denmark in early September, following that country’s rejection of his proposal to buy Greenland.
His feelings were hurt.
https://twitter.com/EamonJavers/status/1164202644023533568?s=20
And, as to be expected, there’s another dimension to the story. It seems former Pres. Obama also has a visit to Denmark scheduled for next month. Perhaps our stable genius feared comparisons of the crowd sizes drawn by his predecessor.
***
I could on because there’s so much more, but enough for one day. If you’d made it his far, you deserve a laugh. Go ahead and click to watch a plea for ending our national plague of... well, I'll let George tell you.
https://twitter.com/TheDerekSeguin/status/1160936986275958787?s=20
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Email me at DougPorter@WordsAndDeedsBlog.com