Offensive above all is how - seemingly beginning under trump's misrule - the Border Patrol and ICE agents are intentionally splitting up families "in order to send a message". This message just happens to be "Hey, Mexico and Central America! The United States is now led by a group of rampaging assholes!"
'Cause only assholes would take a baby getting nursed by her mother.
The situation has gotten enough attention - especially after a reporter did a recent tour of a detention facility (converted from an empty Wal-Mart, how's THAT for symbolic?) - to where the DC Press Corps tried asking the White House Press Room about what was going on.
The answers they got? Shut up and don't question your government overlords.
Specifically, Attorney General Sessions came out and quoted the Bible at everybody: "Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution. I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order..."
So Sessions wants to quote the Bible at us to justify inhumane and sadistic behavior?
This is what I thought immediately in response:
This is what the Lord says:
“A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.” - Jeremiah 31:15
That gets quoted again in Matthew from the Gospels, specifically the part where Herod massacres every boy child in an attempt to kill the Baby Jesus. HOW'S THAT FOR A BIBLICAL REFERENCE, SESSIONS YOU SONOFABITCH PHARISEE.
But that's not the Biblical quote most have been going for. The more common quotes have been:
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." - Leviticus 19:33
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me...” - Matthew 25:35
The proper Christian response to immigration is to be more humane; to improve our system of asylum to allow those fleeing persecution, terror and war; to keep families intact and safe.
The proper American response to immigration should be to realize that ALL Americans come from everywhere - my ancestors were immigrants, we are ALL the sons and daughters of immigrants - by virtue that those who seek our shores WANT to be Americans.
On both counts, trump and his buddy Sessions and pretty much EVERY Republican who revels in bashing immigrants - not just the illegals, but even the ones who are Naturalized and working towards Citizenship - are failing. There are missing children, sacrificed to lapsed mismanagement and neglect and God knows what else. They don't care. Worse, they're enjoying this.
Sadists and Pharisees, the lot of them. Hypocrites and criminals all.
America should be better than this, people. We should be treating children better than this. Goddamn us.
1 comment:
They're holding kidnapped, crying, children in cages, and raging about the amorality of the left.
We have to win this time. Like Krugman said, if they hold the congress, the ACA is toast next year. Then you can add tens of thousands of poor people who will die from lack of healthcare to the prison camps for children they are running.
They are evil, but unlike in the movies, in real life evil doesn't always lose.
The vote-cheating is ramping up, meaning we have to win by ten points to break even, so god damn it, we have to beat them by twenty. Or fifteen. Or eleven... we just can't let them slide another one past us while feeling that they are so awful that our victory is inevitable.
The good news is that we have been winning so far. We have a flood of fired up female candidates this time, running on healthcare, a living wage, equality, and anti-corruption, who certainly won't be hurt by the anti-Fergus backlash, but aren't running on that alone.
The bad news is that the Democrats have a well documented ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, so we do have work to do.
The other good news is that doing that work can keep us from losing hope and going insane in the mean time. Feel helpless in the face of those children in those cages?
Find a candidate and make some phone calls. Register some people to vote. Do any and all of those things that you always wish someone would have done before election day. Talk to your people and make sure they're all registered and have a ride to the polling place. Get that stuff in place now, and you'll make sure those votes get cast, no matter what kind of nonsense goes down between now and then.
-Doug in Oakland
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