I told y’all Nuzzi was a professional assassin:
I would have waited until I was called on to play it, but I was not being called on. After another reporter’s phone began loudly ringing with a melodic jingle, I figured the briefing room could probably deal with a more important disturbance.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) June 18, 2018
Donald Trump doesn’t even pretend to believe in any of the pieties he reads (badly) off the teleprompter, but he most certain does believe in his bigly media presence. All of a sudden child-internment has started interfering with his TV image — not to mention the fortunes of the GOP come November, insofar as he cares about that — and it’s gotta be chafing him like a sandy swimsuit one size too small.
This feels new(ish). In the past, lots of left-of-center opinion writers or analyst types would call administration statements lies, and maybe a few straight reporters would join in. But with this Nielsen presser … it feels like all the straight reporters are calling them out.
— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz) June 18, 2018
Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but I’m hoping more pressure on this ugly bruise will encourage Lord Smallgloves to discover that *somebody* (probably Nielsen, she’s only a woman after all) cruelly misled him over the whole situation, and will have to be publicly humiliated and stripped of their (her) Oval Office Occupancy epaulets…
“Trump’s usual ability to bury a negative story under confusing messaging and chaotic news doesn’t seem to be working the same way it has in the past.” https://t.co/FUJxWc0mzb
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 19, 2018
We've seen plenty of cases where question framing has a dramatic effect on responses. Here, support for family separation stays between 27-32% across some fairly different ways of asking.
— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) June 18, 2018
Quinnipiac poll: Americans oppose the family separation policy for undocumented immigrants 66-27%.
Republicans support it 55-35%. pic.twitter.com/ElrOCbiIUc
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 18, 2018
It's true that a majority of Republicans approve—but it's a narrow majority (~55%) when Trump usually gets 80-90% of the GOP backing him. Plus, independents are overwhelmingly opposed. Headlines that focused on high levels of Republican approval are sort of missing the point.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) June 18, 2018
I know the Trump whisperers around the president seem capable of convincing him that base plays are sufficient to pursue his agenda. But no one sane can look at a topline of 28% and feel comfy. Especially since the base play is getting you fewer than 6 in 10 of your guys.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) June 18, 2018
It's so weird how populism, once implemented, is unpopular. https://t.co/VPOb2dAQ9X
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 19, 2018
Most Americans oppose the policy of separating children & their parents at the border . Most of the rest would be screaming bloody murder if it was being done by Obama or Clinton.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) June 19, 2018
Jim, Foolish Literalist
his lizard-brain survival instinct gets that the GOP congress is protecting him
OTOH
oldgold
“Infest!” Human beings do not infest.
Mike R
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: bingo
LAO
@oldgold: So, I guess it’s really not about MS-13? Boy, am I surprised.
Mike R
@oldgold:
Maybe not in most cases but the Trump family and cadre certainly are infesting the white house.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
Yeah, that tends to happen when children are involved. Lots of evangelicals and forced birthers are experiencing a crisis of conscience over this disgusting “policy”.
I’m happy that the Trump flunkies are starting to sweat.
terraformer
Boy, the dog-whistles are increasingly lowering to well within the range of human hearing sensitivity.
LAO
it just occurred to me this disgusting, immoral policy has managed to knock the Mueller/Russian investigation out of the news. Maybe in Trump’s lizard brain, he considers it successful.
Betty Cracker
@oldgold: It’s eliminationist rhetoric. Extermination is how you handle infestations.
Roger Moore
@oldgold:
Which is the whole point of using that language. Trump and Miller don’t believe non-whites are really human, and they’re trying to get other on board with their beliefs by deliberately dehumanizing them.
MomSense
@oldgold:
This is genocidal language.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Betty Cracker:
He’s doubling down. I’m not surprised, sadly. Jim is right. He can’t back down because he’s never wrong. This man was never suited to be President, yet the EC saw fit to elect him anyway. Those people, much like the those that voted for him, and Putin, are responsible for this. And you’re right, that is eliminationist rhetoric, and it is dehumanizing. That’s how you get whole groups of people to kill other groups of people; you make them seem less than human, and therefore, easier to kill from a moral prospective.
efgoldman
@LAO:
Possibly, but Mueller’s office is beavering away, quitely
JPL
Today was the first time that I felt that the dentist office was relaxing. When I returned home, I discovered that Trump is lying on twitter again. Shocking!
LAO
@Roger Moore: This to me, the process of dehumanizing people of color, is the most frightening aspect of the Trump Administration and it’s enablers.
LAO
@efgoldman: How are you feeling EFG? And I was happy (not really the right word) to see the other day, that you wife and MIL may see some justice, yet.
Roger Moore
@LAO:
I suspect something close to the opposite. To the extent he has beliefs, racism is one of his core beliefs, and the desire to implement racists policies is one of the things that drove him to run for president. He hates the Mueller investigation because it’s a distraction from the real business of running the government, like tearing immigrant children from their families.
westyny
Apparatchiks all over the “news” channels arguing that the administration is compelled to follow the law when refugees don’t present themselves at points of entry and rather cross the border illegally. But the administration has closed points of entry, denying the human right of refugees to legally seek asylum. I’m reminded of our turning away the ship of jewish refugees during WWII.
bluehill
@MomSense: Slope is getting slipperier.
Platonailedit
Question – When will the courts step in to stop this atrocity? Or will they take the separation of powers weaselly way out?
rikyrah
If you need a primer on what’s happening, and are faced with
Dolt45’ers or Purity Leftists, here you go:
1. NO President has done this. Not in modern times. Not Obama. Not Shrub.Not Clinton.Not Bush the Elder. Not Reagan. Not. Carter. You get my point.
2. THIS is a POLICY. Not a LAW. A POLICY.
3. This is a POLICY created by Dolt45, first floated by ‘ Ain’t Shyt’ Kelly, when he was at DHS
4. This doesn’t just cover people crossing ‘ illegally.’ – Even if it did, it would still be pure evil.
5. This policy is ALSO being applied to those WHO SEEK ASYLUM. – Which is a LEGAL Process.
6. At the points of entry where folks would seek Asylum – THEY HAVE NOW CLOSED THEM, thus FORCING folks to try and enter the United States illegally.
7. Entering the United States illegally is a MISDEMEANOR. People are losing their children over a MISDEMEANOR.
8. They have no provable process as to HOW they are keeping track of parent and child.
9. Some folks, who have ALREADY BEEN DEPORTED- HAVE NOT HAD THEIR CHILDREN RETURNED TO THEM.
10. EVEN IF, you have family in the United States that would be willing to look after your child – THIS ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT RELEASE THE CHILDREN TO YOUR FAMILY.
11. They are NOT keeping SIBLINGS TOGETHER.
These are the bullet points of this pure unadulterated evil. If you have anymore, please add.
Yarrow
@LAO: That is what some of us were saying yesterday. That probably initially Trump didn’t mind this story because it knocked Mueller/Manafort/Cohen, etc. out of the news. Of course they’re all for this policy but additionally, the way Trump looks at things, anything that can get the Russia investigation out of the news is a good thing.
It’s just that this time it has backfired on him. This story is so awful that it won’t go away. People are turning on Trump and blaming him for it. He’s trying to double down, because that has worked before, but even his Republican voters are unhappy about this policy. Republicans in Congress aren’t behind him on it–they see which way the wind is blowing.
It sure has knocked the Russia investigation out of the news for the moment but it’s not working in Trump’s favor this time. He doesn’t know how to handle this situation. That’s why he’s flailing.
CliosFanBoy
@terraformer: there are foghorns that are more subtle than this bunch.
rikyrah
Immigrant kids tell CBS they go hungry in Trump camps after being fed only ‘apples and water’ https://t.co/MkRSCXLlIN
— Raw Story (@RawStory) June 19, 2018
Doug R
55% of 26% is 14.3%. I think they’re overadjusting for party affiliation. The actual numbers are probably lower.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@rikyrah:
Excellent. Thank you for this, rikyrah.
rikyrah
I absolutely relate.
A time of hatred
LAO
@Roger Moore: I see your point and I do agree that restricting legal immigration was a foundational goal of this presidency — especially for people like Stephen Miller.
@Yarrow: I think that this Administration is surprised at the backlash. But, I expect it won’t make a difference. The only the voters can stop them — democrats need to take the House and the Senate.
debit
@efgoldman: I keep thinking of the end of All the President’s Men, where Nixon is giving a speech to cheers while Woodward and Bernstein are grimly typing away. Mueller and his team are grimly typing away.
efgoldman
@LAO:
Looks like the state will accept manslaughter, which means he’s already served most of his sentence waiting for trial.
But… the feds have him stone cold on firearms charges that add up to about 40 years. He’ll die in prison. State or federal, we don’t care.
Betty Cracker
I think Anne Laurie is probably right in the OP: If Trump does do a climb-down from this disastrous policy, he’ll blame Nielsen for it. Possibly Kelly too. Maybe he’ll use this situation to get rid of Kelly and Nielsen, throwing them under the bus for a policy that originated in his office.
rikyrah
The simplicity of the evil cuts through the bullshyt.
People understand CHILDREN IN CAGES.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@rikyrah:
Oh my god. This is going to spiral into a humanitarian crisis, if isn’t already there, all because a racist asshole can’t admit he’s wrong, can’t back down, and he has tons of enablers in his administration and without to try to cover for him. Fuck.
I suspect that only winning back the House and getting the power of the purse will at least stop this from getting worse.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Only thing that thrills him more than praise.
SFAW
@rikyrah:
From the linked opinion piece.
Few times have truer words been written.
And Shitgibbon’s maladministration, and the diehard Shitgibbonistas, are evil.
Doug R
@Doug R: Editor won’t load my edited comment, so here:
55% of 26% is 14.3%
7% of 29% is 2.0%
24% of 43% is 10.3%
Total would be 26.3%, less than Alan Keyes got against Barack Obama for Senate. We’re in Dick Cheney approval territory here.
That’s based on gallup’s latest party affiliation poll.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx
Barbara
@LAO: Knocking Mueller out of the news is actually a good thing for the investigation. Most of the news involves Republicans trying to mislead the general public into believing that there is information, like the recent OIG report, to show that it is a witch hunt, etc.
Josie
@Betty Cracker:
I hope it also puts Miller under the bus, which rolls back and forth several times.
LAO
@Barbara: I agree,
WestTexan70
No, Nate Silver — we need to focus on the fact that a MAJORITY of Goopers are OK with Nazi-like behavior. These are bad people and we need to remember it.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t think he’ll see it that way. He sees this as being part of his signature policy, dealing with immigration. The purpose of DHS is to implement his policy and to defend it. If he’s forced to cave, it will be because his point woman on the policy failed to defend it in public, not because the policy was disastrously unpopular, so it will be only fair that she will have to resign.
Mike in NC
Putin is hoping that his puppet’s immoral and stupid immigration policy leads to rioting and bloodshed on the border. Makes for good TV imagery overseas.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@LAO: I’m more than fine with that. Mueller is doing his job and would prefer not to be in the news anyway. Like everyone else, I am finding it hard to grit my teeth and wait for the Law to proceed at its slow majestic pace, but I know I have to. I’m just fine with it being out of the little brains of the flying monkeys till the investigation ripens all the way.
James Powell
This is another example of the press/media’s complete lack of self-awareness. Trump has no ability to bury stories. Only the press/media decide what gets covered and how it gets covered. The press/media bury stories under piles of “some say” and “both sides” bullshit. The press/media let stories that would be screaming headlines for a Clinton administration go completely uncovered.
What’s that line? Villago delenda est?
Roger Moore
@Josie:
I doubt it. The blame is always going to go to the people implementing and defending the policy, not to the people crafting it. That’s because admitting it was a policy failure and not an implementation failure would point the arrow of blame too close to Trump.
Ruviana
@oldgold: @Betty Cracker: @MomSense: Nits Make Lice The great David Neiwert. His whole series bears rereading.
schrodingers_cat
He is going to double down. He always does when the subject is xenophobia and bigotry.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rikyrah: I also think the MSM is starting to getting they could be the next ones into cages.
? Martin
@rikyrah: For me, it’s not even Trump that draws my anger. Every population has sociopaths, and it’s not the sociopaths fault that their wiring is busted. But I’m a public servant, and the job of institutions is to insulate the public from these forces. Trump doesn’t make me angry so much as the rank and file Republicans that are willing to look the other way. It’s their job to protect us when someone like this gets into a position of authority and they’re completely, and knowingly failing that.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
He won’t blame Stephen Miller? He must be afraid of Miller. Spooky dude.
Gin & Tonic
@LAO: I mentioned that yesterday and it wasn’t a popular view.
different-church-lady
Cole has a tweet on the sidebar:
Make no mistake about it: Trump’s base is fine with cruelty to immigrants because they do not recognize immigrants as human beings.
D58826
When Der Fuhrer passes from this world (and we all hoist a glass in celebration) Satan is going to have to open a new level of H*** just for for Trump. Even Satan has standards.
Now in no way what so ever justifying what is happening, splitting up families will not deter these refugees. A parent has a choice stay home and see their kids murdered or cross the border and be separated from their kids. But at least the kids are safe. They will get medical care and 3 meals a day. The parent will not have to live in fear that the child will be murdered by a drug gang. Maybe separation is the lesser of two evils. Shopie’s choice in real time
GregB
The pictures of Trump and Kim in gold frames plastered all over the west wing have the internets.
The evil is all consuming.
rikyrah
WHERE.ARE.THE.GIRLS.
randy khan
@rikyrah:
I think you missed the most obvious one: Separating children from their parents is a terrible thing. We do it only in the most dire circumstances, where we believe that leaving the kids with their parents will be actively harmful to the kids. To do it as a way to get leverage in political negotiations is morally repugnant.
I say this because I don’t want to let up on the point that this is a moral horror show and because I want to keep the focus on the kids.
rikyrah
@westyny:
There are so many comparisons, aren’t there?
No Drought No More
Those old enough to remember the march to Baghdad may recall the little Iraqi boy whose arms were shot off by an American shell that killed his family.
The same Americans that successfully plotted that foreign war have now plotted its domestic equivalent; they are currently waging it; they have once again committed Americans to fight it; and it entails equally vicious attacks on children and their families.
Those people may call themselves republicans or by any other name, but they are indisputably this: out-and-out American fascists. Why any decent American would hesitate for a second to call them that is something I will never understand.
There’s no satisfaction in repeating as much, other than to take a bit of heart that more and more Americans are finally coming around to view those people in just that light, too. I tend to think it will prove a watershed event in the political history of the United States.
SteverinoCT
@rikyrah: This reminds me of The Guns Of August by Barbara Tuchmann, when telling of the rape of Belgium:
The Trump admin, and its ICE troops, should be so remembered.
Teddys Person
@Roger Moore: I agree. There is a reason Miller sticks to the shadows (besides his vampiric tendencies). Dolt45 will have to scapegoat someone who’s publicly tried to defend this shitshow. Nielsen will be the first under the bus wheels. Who knows about Kelly, he may have kompromat on Dolt45 that provides some job security.
japa21
For curiosity sake, I checked Gallup’s weekly Trump approval rating, which comes out on Monday. He had moved up to 45% approval/50% disapproval yesterday, up 3 points from the week before. I am assuming most of that is due (for some totally bizarre reason) to the Bad Hair Summit in Singapore. Much of the child kidnapping story was just starting to break over the weekend to most of the country. If it doesn’t drop drastically this upcoming week I will be totally disgusted in my fellow Americans (I already am with a large number of them).
feebog
Would it be too much to ask pundits and Democrats to stop calling on Trump to change this policy? He isn’t going to change jack shit. He knows by now the optics suck. He does not care. He owns this policy and he is not going to back down.
Doug R
@japa21: Monday approval would be based on the previous week, so almost none of the internment camp story had broken yet. And what had actually happened at the summit hadn’t sunk in yet.
Plus the downslope is always slower because the polling organizations adjust for party affiliation, which is based on previous percentages. The easier way for a trump voter to step away is to claim they’re “independent”.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
That is a beautiful essay.
jc
This whole shit-show reminds me once again that Trump is a divider, not a uniter. He wins by driving wedges, telling lie after lie. It’s always about controlling the media narrative, and this separation “policy” is going off the rails for Don the Con and his minions. They’ll only change course when their ratings numbers fall into the danger zone. Their fundamental lack of compassion is showing, and they deserve every ounce of revulsion they receive from civilized people.
JPL
@rikyrah:
https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1009101320484216832
The conditions must be pretty bad, if the only image they released was a 2016 photo. I’m really concerned.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This!
Trump cannot accept responsibility for any act that is unpleasant. Everything he decrees must be good and result in his being praised. At the same time, he enjoys being cruel, and in delegating cruelty to others.
He is irrational, but trapped in that he cannot be seen to back down.
Yarrow
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: They’ve already been in pens. Trump put them in pens at all of his rallies during the election. Probably at those since, but I haven’t paid attention.
They were STUPID to go along with it. They should have refused to cover him if they had to go in a pen. Stop it in its tracks. He lives on media attention. They should have taken it away during the election. He would have folded because he needed that sweet, sweet media hit.
Chip Daniels
@rikyrah:
I have Trumpists in my extended family.
I struggle to be civil and understanding, but I am losing that struggle.
I have to acknowledge that these people are like the ones who could be sweet and charming to their kin, but spit viciously at those little girls integrating a school, or turn away the boatload of Jews in 1939.
JMG
@Yarrow: The reporters did as they were told by their employers. It was cable news, a medium almost exclusively used by senior citizens, which doted on Trump because their core audience is crabby old white people frightened and angered by their perception of their own mortality. Also, a lot of them are racists.
sdhays
I disagree with this. Most of the rest would be calling for Obama or Clinton’s impeachment because they weren’t going far enough.
LAO
Well, there is a certain internal consistency here:
Yarrow
@JMG: It wasn’t just cable news. All reporters went into the pen. News organizations (employers) should have stood strong and said no.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
Trump won’t change the policy. Putting children in cages pisses off liberals.
zhena gogolia
@Chip Daniels:
I like the simple, powerful way the essay says — you can’t turn this hatred into love for these Nazis, but you can turn it into love for the people they are oppressing.
QuaintIrene
Yup, thats what Democrats really want. To transform this country into a blasted hellscape, as long as it means we win…..oh,whoops, you’re projecting again, Mr. President.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
That’s three govs that I’m aware of– Baker, Hickenlooper and now Hogan
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@LAO: You know what the best part is? Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia will still be on the Council.
Stan
The SS Saint Louis episode was before WW2…..May -June 1939. Your point is completely valid of course.
Stan
In November 2016, close to a majority of American voters were OK with what were clearly policies and a politician flirting, at least, with nazism.
But also worth noting that the program the nazis carried out, plus the stuff they intended to do but couldn’t do, in Central and eastern Europe are awfully hard to distinguish policies actually carried out in the USA in the period from Jackson to 1900 or so.
ruemara
@Chip Daniels: Yes. It doesn’t mean you don’t have love for them, but it does mean you should understand that there is another, horrible side to them. Plus you shouldn’t be surprised if eventually, you see that side for your failure to cosign their hatreds.
swbarnes2
@rikyrah: I think it’s going to turn out that the girls and babies are being given to “good Christian” families to adopt. Oops, no paperwork, they can’t be traced.
Geeno
@swbarnes2: Sex slaves, regular slaves or dead most likely.
Dev Null
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Josh Marshall has a good analysis here.
Counter to the suggestions in the comments I’ve read so far (I’m at about #15), David Graham thinks that the Admin regards the controversy as politically useful. If he’s correct, the Admin will, uh, heighten the contradictions rather than plane off the rough edges.
patroclus
The facts are different, but this is essentially dozens of Elian Gonzalez cases happening every single week. And remember how the right wing exploded over that.
Villago Delenda Est
Donald believes in his hatred of anyone with tan or darker skin
LAO
@patroclus: except that Elian was being returned to a parent (his father).
MoxieM
@rikyrah: Many have wondered. I’ll just note that the ProPublica tape is from either a mixed (?) or from a girls facility, since it’s a girl on tape asking for her aunt. The attorney who made that tape would know, although I hope her identity is very deeply buried. Reassuring, however, to know that a civil rights lawyer made it in to a camp where 5 yo girls are being held. (did I just type that? Puke.)
Dev Null
@rikyrah: Still reading comments, so others have probably mentioned these additions, but (in no particular order):
* DHS has no process in place to reunite families. Paperwork appears to be incomplete or non-existent.
* Trump has said explicitly that he’s using kids as hostages to get his wall.
* Republicans hold House, Senate, and presidency. If Republicans wanted this to end, they could end it.
And a couple of links (not sure where I got them):
https://twitter.com/DaveClark_AFP/status/1008816061104492550/photo/1
https://www.facebook.com/TheGoodLordAbove/photos/a.608095492611491.1073741834.157750900979288/2506415916112763/
TenguPhule
There’s that pesky number again.
TenguPhule
@Villago Delenda Est:
Donald doesn’t believe anyone other then himself is a real person.
Villago Delenda Est
@TenguPhule: Fair point.
Dev Null
Трамп wraps himself in the flag:
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/1009126784279998464/photo/1
Dev Null
The Atlantic has photos of a concentration camp for brown kids.
Not particularly interesting photos IMO, but still.
Trabb's Boy
Alas, the Dems need to give him an out. Trump never, ever backs down, and these poor children are being scarred for life. Any republican bill that stops it. Family incarceration together is nothing compared to separation. Giving the idiot money for his wall is nothing compared to separation.
This is probably the only situation where I’d say it’s better to lose than to fight, but holding out for anything means more kids with lifelong trauma, greater potential for violence, suicide, trafficking. This is worse than a foreign organization holding individuals hostage. It is not worth children’s lives to discourage this in the future.
Of course there should be loud as fuck yelling over his declaration of “success”.
JR
@oldgold: Trump infests
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@LAO: I’m more than fine with that. Mueller and the various state attorneys general don’t need publicity to do their jobs. And though I’m as impatient as anybody with the slow majestic pace of the Law, I am willing to wait for it to fully ripen. I’m perfectly happy for the scandal to be out of the tiny lizard brains of the flying monkeys while that is happening.
Tick-tock, as the saying goes.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
This Republican infestation has gotten well out of control.
Can we contract the Canadians to send in the exterminators?
Dev Null
@rikyrah: Yesterday Joe Manchin signed onto DiFi’s Keep Families Together Act. All 49 Dem senators support the bill. Not a single Republican senator supports the bill.
Voxsplainers here and here.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Apples, water, chips.
I will bet anything the logistics for these camps are FUBAR and these kids are not getting enough real food, just junk food and the occasional fruit.
Dev Null
@TenguPhule: Sounds like Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Remembering the caterer who contracted with FEMA to deliver gazillions of meals … I wonder who gets the grift this time…
Dev Null
Vichy Times says that family separation is intended specifically as a rally the base strategy.
Former head of ICE says some migrant family separations will be permanent.
IANAL, but this sure feels like a crime against humanity.
More on Stephen Miller and “triggering the libs”.
TenguPhule
@D58826:
Trump is determined to prove this very very wrong.
TenguPhule
@Dev Null:
Worse, I don’t think they did actually bid out a new contract for this. It would have raised flags in the federal procurement system if they had. I think they’ve modified one of the ongoing military base contracts to supply these camps. And I don’t think they budgeted anywhere near enough supplies for it or the right kinds. Kids 24/7 are completely different from a PX or summer camp training.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
We’re going to be answering for this grotesquerie of a president and of an administration forever, as we should. The rest of the world now sees us as more dangerous than Iran. This is our Trail of Tears for our time. We’re going to have to atone for this. It’s going to take a whole lot of “apology tours” and all I can say is that I hope that whoever comes into office after this unspeakable homunculus gets right on it from the first day.
Shana
@LAO: Meanwhile, Mueller continues to work, gathering information that will (we hope) sink Trump and his cohorts. And this news, of the child separation policy, is infinitely worse than the news dripping out of the Mueller probe. Not sure that’s a bad thing.
Uncle Cosmo
@MomSense: It may be worth noting that Zyklon B was developed (& intended to be used) as a pesticide. (You could look it up.) Mass murder of Untermenschen was an off-label application.
zhena gogolia
@Shana:
It’s not “infinitely worse than the news dripping out of the Mueller probe.” It is THE DIRECT RESULT of what’s being uncovered in the Mueller probe.
Dev Null
McClatchy says US lost track of 6000 kids.
A Trail of Tears indeed (@SDPfMea).
Трамп defiant as Senate Republicans craft “narrow” legislation.
Ksmiami
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I expect that winning in November and burning the fukkin White House down is the only way to ameliorate the situation
Bobby Thomson
@oldgold: don’t know why people compare him to Hitler. Such a mystery.
Ruckus
@D58826:
You are right about how horrible it is for a lot of people who are asking for asylum. But if you think that people spend weeks trying to get here with child, children, infants, living rough, are thinking that losing their kids, is OK, you are nuts.
Dev Null
@Dev Null: Brain misfire. The author is McKay Coppins, as the byline at the link indicates. Graham has two other articles at the Atlantic about the separation policy, but not (directly) about Stephen Miller.
Dev Null
@TenguPhule: Interesting. I don’t know enough about the topic to know what questions to ask.
Could you provide a mini-‘splainer? Or if you’ve posted on this topic before, do you have a link?
Dev Null
@Ruckus: And then there’s the fact that it’s quite the assumption to think that the kids will be safe.
How did that work for Puerto Rico?
TenguPhule
@Dev Null: Federal Contracts are normally awarded by the government through an open bidding process that can be accessed online. Every major and minor contract not barred by classification is available for review in a database accessible by contractors and the general public. If HHS had opened up a new contract, it would have popped up and the identity of the contractor would also be known. So far, there’s no reports of any new HHS contract which would meet the logistics needed for these internment camps.
Ergo, the conclusion is that an existing contract was modified by HHS for the camps.
Dman
@MomSense:
and began calling for a “final war” to “exterminate” the Tutsi. The code word was ‘cut down the tall trees’
Dev Null
@TenguPhule: Ah. Fedbizopps, I suppose. I remember it as being specific to the agency I worked for, because the agency contracts were the only ones I looked at, but now that you mention it, that couldn’t be right. And I have some vague recollection – and probably bookmarks – of another contracts site that I think was department-specific… but it’s been a few years, and I was only peripherally involved in contracts.
Still, stupid of me not to have made the connection.
Thanks for the explanation.