We are governed by monsters:
The Trump administration has arrested 170 undocumented immigrants who came forward to try to take migrant children out of government custody, federal officials said Monday. More than 100 of those arrested had no criminal record.
This is pure Trump/Sessions cruelty-as-policy:
The arrests follow a move by President Donald Trump’s administration earlier this year that allowed immigration authorities to examine the criminal background and legal status of anyone who steps forward to sponsor unaccompanied migrant children — usually parents or close relatives already in the U.S. — as well as any other adults living in their home.
That rule allowed ICE to collect biometric data, including fingerprints, of the sponsors as well as other adults in the home.
The obvious consequences of this move are two-fold. For one:
Advocates for migrant children argue that increased background checks and arrests will scare away potential sponsors, resulting in more children being stuck in long-term federal custody while they seek legal permission to stay in the U.S. An adult’s immigration status is irrelevant to whether a home is safe for a child, and a child’s welfare should be the only focus of such background checks, advocates argue.
My only quibble with Tal Kopan’s writing above is that, while I get while the conventions of journalism dictate this kind of attribution, it’s not just advocates who argue that the threat of arrest scares people away from taking a given action…pretty much everyone gets the point here.
In any event, terrorizing would be loving care-takers of these unaccompanied kids has an immedate corollary: they will be — I won’t say cared-for, but warehoused by a government and an agency actively, intentionally, purposefully, unable to do a good job of it:
Children’s advocates fear that conditions for migrant youths could worsen as the number in federal custody grows. The Health and Human Services care system was intended to be a bridge for often traumatized children into a more stable home while they sought legal status in the U.S. Advocates fear the administration is treating it like a penal system.
The increase has been beyond what the network of shelters across the country can accommodate.
Again, the word “fear” might be more accurately replaced by “expect” or “are documenting”…but the point is clear enough.
To recap: the US government holds children they cannot care for — in some, perhaps many cases, kids that our border polizei stole from their parents. They actively seek out members of the public who can care for these kids — who need not just food and shelter and affection, but schooling and all the daily life of growing up, almost all of which a US internment camp (never call it a Kinder Konzentrationslager) can provide. Then they destroy dozens more families by arresting those willing to extend their household and family to include a child in need.
Donald Trump — but more, everyone in the Republican Party who does not recoil in horror from this depravity — are moral monsters. And that is, for now, every nationally elected member of the GOP. The Republicans run the House (for a couple of weeks more) and the Senate…they could say that no, this is a step too far. They have not. They are complicit; accessories and co-conspirators.
I am not a Christian, but I know that a great many are among those who have designed, implemented and provided the political cover for this evil. I know that the Republican Party as a whole parades its Christian virtue as both its essential character and as the only legitimate source of moral value available to any American.
And to them — all of them, from Dear Hairpiece on down — I say y’all best hope that the afterlife you declare you believe in ain’t real. For I give you Jesus himself, telling you where your sorry asses will end up:
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment…
Adriaen van der Werffe, The flight into Egypt, 1710.
Jeffro
Looks like Mulvaney is going to be chief of staff, in addition to his two other full-time jobs.
Had no idea he was Jared-caliber material. Great job Mick!
Lapassionara
They are evil, and their actions are despicable. Anyone who supports this is a moral monster.
The only thing I know to do is to donate to the ACLU.
schrodingers_cat
Cruelty is the point of all R policies.
Mnemosyne
I would also be curious to find out how many of the family members who stepped forward whose immigration papers were in order were nevertheless denied custody of the kids, and on what grounds. Because I suspect it was a sting/fishing expedition from the start and they never really intended to let those family members take custody. ?
jl
I think that TL is too generous on his quibble. If it can be documented that almost all researchers and workers agree that the Trumpster measures serve no purpose other than to intimidate people, then the article should say so. There is certainly good documentation that more humane and reasonable measures worked well under previous administrations, there was very good compliance with previous policies. So, if that kind of attribution is SOP journalistic practice, then it is chickenshit SOP and should be changed.
The only bright side I can see to this mess is that it might set the stage for actual workable and human immigration reform if/when the criminal Trupsters get thrown out of power. There is growing popular disapproval over these outrages, and that can serve as a critical base of popular support for good reform. If ConsrvaDems start pre-caving on immigration because a quarter of the population is dead-ender Trump fanatics who will never approve, we should tell them to go to hell.
When the time comes, there is good reason to do what Truman did on his move to integrate the armed forces after WWII (very loose paraphrase of Truman): “Well, too damn bad if the racists don’t like it, maybe they shouldn’t have beat up returning black combat vets. so effem.”
SiubhanDuinne
I think I’ll find my old CD of Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ and listen to the Flight Into Egypt section with these youngsters — the little Guatemalan girl who died in U.S. custody, and all the other migrant children who were scared, seized, and separated — in mind.
Lully lullay, thou tiny child….
NotMax
independently edited for reality.
;)
RosieAndSam
Other things to do are to donate to the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, firrp.org and also to Annunciation House in El Paso, annunciationhouse.org
Chetan Murthy
@jl:
And not just for the reason that it’s humane (which is already enough). But also b/c FFS, those folks will be our fellow Dems one day, and we need ’em. Every undocumented immigrant is a soldier in this war on white supremacy.
Ksmiami
@schrodingers_cat: is it wrong to state plainly that Republicans don’t deserve to share America. The entire party must be destroyed
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
How was your installation into the Women’s Club? What did you end up wearing? And did the Club President make a speech?
debbie
Didn’t DHS ask for these immigrants to take care of the children? There has got to be a lawsuit in this deception.
Geoboy
Can we book an airplane and get a group rate to ship all these assholes to the Hague?
jl
@Chetan Murthy: That might be true in the short to medium run. Over longer term, supposing the GOP can reform itself, they could restart their outreach to their favored ‘model minorities’ (which in the past have included East and South Asians, Hispanics, and Muslims -believe it or don’t, and Jews). Hard to believe it would work, but look at the previous amazing swings in party support over four or five election cycles.
Of course, if the GOP cannot reform itself, it will go the way of the High Federalists, and Whigs, and we’ll have a political tectonic shift and a new major party system, so who knows what would happen then.
My main concern is that when theDems regain power to pass legislation, they need to pass legislation that helps lives of the majority of the population. I’ve heard some Dems (mostly from the anti-Pelosi frat bros) bleating that they have to be careful about doing this or that, or they’ll piss off like a quarter of the public. So what? The only thing that will please them is more racist and authoritarian Trumpster BS.
The Lodger
The story puts children’s advocates against DHS spokespeople and makes readers guess what non-experts who have achieved a normal level of moral development would think about what is happening to the children. It’s as if no one else gets to own an opinion.
Chetan Murthy
@jl:
Oh, I believe it: read about it during Dubya’s reign of error. And everything you write is correct. Everything. I was sentient during the 80s, and remember how the Dems tacked right, b/c the first job of a political party is to take power. And I’m thrilled to see that the Dems -can- tack left, and view it as part of our job to *make* them tack left.
None of this Seth Moulton/Tim Ryan namby-pamby bothsiderist view-from-nowhere *bullshit*. I am -so- looking forward to donating to Moulton’s primary opponent, whomever she may be.
joel hanes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywNxroKiN4
A Ghost To Most
Congress is in the process of legalizing hemp production once more.
Good thing; we’re going to need the rope.
J R in WV
Tom writes:
Allow me to attempt to make this more correct: “I am not a Christian, but I know that a great many
areclaim to be, but are not actually, among those who have designed, implemented and provided the political cover for this evil.”While I too am not a Christian at all, I think this is more accurate than the original sentence. No one who is a real Christian would do the things that these monsters are doing. No one. If Christianity is even nearly real, these people are indeed doomed to the Hell spoken of in the verses Tom quotes above.
jl
@Chetan Murthy: Primarying Moulton will be a good bet. Sad what has happened to some of the anti-Pelosi bros, they used to be brave people who did good things. Now, they are a true hot mess. Read this tweet of how incompetently they operate. Pelosi’s genius didn’t hand them situations like that described below. An average grade school PTA president would have done the same thing to them.
@dannybarefoot
Y’all, @sethmoulton is a hot mess.
https://twitter.com/dannybarefoot/status/1073574224441298944
delk
Too busy fighting the War on Christmas to actually practice Christianity.
rikyrah
They are Evil azz, lowdown, nogood muthaphuckas ???
rikyrah
These are the policies that the GOP represent. Anyone who purses their lips in support of Dolt45…this is who they are.
And, but another example of why there will be no forgiveness of those who helped this happen.
A Ghost To Most
Jen Rubin says what I’m thinking:
Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy. The wheels of democracy have not stopped.
dexwood
@rikyrah:
May this be their epitaph.
Chris Johnson
@Lapassionara: You’re gonna have to learn something else. We all are.
zhena gogolia
@A Ghost To Most:
Boy, the people on Jon Zal’s twitter feed are really counting their chickens. I’m not so sanguine, but I’m glad to see some people are.
SiubhanDuinne
@ Tom Levenson, top:
This is far from the first time I’ve noticed that you, and Adam Silverman, and any number of ethnic/secular/religious Jews (and a wide swath of other self-professed non-Christians) know The Holy Bible and the synoptic Gospels and Church history FAR better than most of us WASPs and cradle Catholics.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
I see that I’m not the first to edit that sentence…
Thank you to everyone that reflects that these monsters cannot be Christian by any stretch of the imagination. Rope will do. Long term residence in Florence CO supermax would be OK too.
Chetan Murthy
@jl: Oh wow, that’s *delicious*! Thank you so much for the pointer!
SNORT!
Gvg
As a former foster mom, I want to tell you that this also degrades the care that American born children in foster care get. There are only so many people who actually carry through and foster. If you actually care, you mostly have to give up each foster, back to their family, when situations improve or custody gets decided. This causes you heartbreak you know will happen before you start. Sometimes you worry and never know for sure things were really fixed. It also costs money. The reimbursements are cheap because the system found out making it profitable, meant you got money grubbers not caregivers, so the sums are barely enough if you are really careful, and most of us choose to lose money. You don’t want to treat fosters differently than your own for instance and anyway, if you care, it’s just nice to give to children.
When economic times get hard, abuse reports go up, and our local HRS has to decide which children are in actual danger, and remove them. A factor in the choice is having an available bed. They can’t take a child unless they have a safe home to take him. Hard times also cause some foster parents to drop out because they are shorter of money. If they are actually placing these kids, they are taking spaces that are always short anyway.
So when they warehouse these kids, it’s because there probably aren’t actually any real homes to put them in. If our case workers removed without defined real investigated cause, left them in unbackground checked safe care, left them without water, didn’t document everything…they would go to jail. I really want to see some state AG just start arresting everyone who is doing this stuff because it’s all against the laws and there aren’t separate laws for immigrants, illegal or legal. I think a few ice officers arrested for kidnapping would change things pretty quick. Parents and daycare workers get charged with manslaughter for leaving children in hot cars. The BP people who let the child die, should be arrested, not just for the child, but all the other prisoners who weren’t given water. Drive it home, that the law does not allow killing non citizens.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: This is what going to a Jesuit high school and a Methodist university does to a person…
TS (the original)
@A Ghost To Most:
He must now, or will soon, regret the day when he decided his best attack on Barack Obama would be to run for President. As usual the smart guy knew this day would come.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
Not to mention a Scottish university named for a saint.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: We’ll be at my Mike’s family for Xmas. His sister in law is a Koch relative and is an attorney. Compassion is seen as weakness. If cruelty is required to avoid the slightest hint of weakness then it is the proper thing.
In the not too distant future we will no longer join them for any holiday. It is simply too much distress.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
There’s a Saint Glenlivet? who knew?
:)
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
All of us Celts, Katie.
Mandalay
@A Ghost To Most:
Well if there are serious legal charges he’s surely gone, but it’s easy to see how he might survive politically, and Rubin should know better. His base is rock solid, and if Mueller fails to land any serious charges against him he’ll surely get a boost.
Trump’s approval/disapproval rating on September 1 was 40.3% approve / 54.5% disapprove. Now, over three months later the numbers are 42.6% approve / 51.6% disapprove. Sure they are lousy numbers, but they are not catastrophic, and Trump has become MORE popular in the past few months! Throw in a boost of a few points if he’s not charged with anything serious and Trump will use the whole shebang as the basis for his 2020 campaign: “The Deep State and those weak, corrupt Democrats lied and tried to bring me down. But they failed! THEY FAILED!”
It ain’t over till it’s over.
BC in Illinois
@A Ghost To Most:
Jen Rubin:
(1) By nature, I schedule things by their end-date. (“This has to be done by Thursday, so that by Wednesday . . . and by Tuesday . . .” — my mindset on Sunday.) I have a countdown clock that tells me that the 2020 election is 690 days away.
(2) I worked hard for a (unsuccessful) congressional candidate recently. A look at my ActBlue account indicates that I was contributing–and showing up for events–a full year before Missouri’s August 2018 primary. The people who organized the campaign were working on it well before that.
(3) Therefore, it seems to me, that if the GOP waits for the day of Trump’s resignation, before someone puts together an organization for a substitute candidate, then they are screwed.
–What if they decide that he has to go, but he won’t leave?
–Is there anyone actually ready to announce that they will primary him? Who?
–Is there a 2019 Republican ready to be Gene McCarthy of 1967? I think that RFK got in later, I don’t remember when McGovern emerged, but someone had to say–a year before the election–that “I’m running.” Who will that be daring candidate in 2019? Kasich? Our Daring Leader — John Kasich!! I don’t see it.
Now, I know, that for the GOP, many of these decisions are made by a consensus of the donor class. But there still needs to be organization. And an Anti-Trump GOP organization. It will not “appear.” Someone has to be organizing it. Now. This spring. Before the Trumptanic disappears beneath the waves.
Is this happening? They have three, six months to get a move on. I don’t see it.
rikyrah
Evan Rosenfeld (@Evan_Rosenfeld) Tweeted:
Vox: Manafort advised admin officials in the spring & summer of 2017 on how to politically undermine the FBI & Mueller investigation. He also gave them advice on how some of the witnesses against both him and the president might be discredited
https://t.co/MZjzWYxFUP @murraywaas https://twitter.com/Evan_Rosenfeld/status/1073622065108770816?s=17
The Dangerman
My nail clippings contain more Christianity then Trump possesses; it’s unfortunate he has been able to deceive so many (with the amazing help of Fox News, et al), who eat his shot up hook, lie, and stinker. These people are going to have one amazing surprise someday (and I mean here on Earth, no Spiritual arguments being made here).
SiubhanDuinne
@BC in Illinois:
I obviously have no more insight or information than anyone else, but let’s just say I wouldn’t be shocked to see Willard “White Horse” Mittens Romney emerge as a 2020 GOP primary contender.
Suzanne
@Mandalay:
Robert Mueller could prove that Trump told Putin, “Thank you sir, may I have another” and literally gave him the nuclear codes, and they would not care. There is nothing bad enough to make these people feel shame.
So they have to be kept from voting.
Fair Economist
@BC in Illinois: On top of everything else, the current primary schedule requires a much earlier announcement than in the days of McCarthy and RFK. Texas and California are joining the March 3 Super Tuesday, so any candidate not able to qualify and credibly contest Super Tuesday has virtually no chance of nomination. For California that means the candidate’s nominating petition and candidate statement must be in by Dec 6, 2019, and any candidate will need a lot of money to get air time and precinct workers; even more if they haven’t started several months before that. I’d say any candidate probably needs to be announced with a working organization by the September 2019, which means they need to be working behind the scenes to have an org ready by May or June at the latest, and probably now if they don’t have some special advantage.
Platonailedit
wtf is going on? After literally getting the get out of jail card, treasonous fucker flynn is backtracking?
jl
@SiubhanDuinne: If so, we’ll be seeing that dinner pic with Trump where Mitt had a grin that went very well with what he was eating. Let’s see how hard that is to find….
OK, just took 20 seconds for so.. As soon as I typed in ‘Trump Mitt’ Google finished it for me (“Trump Mitt Romney dinner”). I think Guardian story has the best pic (edit: shows Mitt’s grin to the best advantage).
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/mitt-romney-praises-donald-trump-dinner-twitter
And then we have all of Mitt’s brave statements during his Senate campaign, with were Tim Ryan/Seth Moulton-esque in all their glory.
Edit2: that seems to be a very very popular picture, BTW. Whole page full of them.
Betty Cracker
This story and the one about the US Border Patrol failing to render aid to a dehydrated 7-year-old girl in their custody who subsequently died has rendered me utterly heartsick and ashamed to be an American.
Mandalay
@Suzanne:
That works for me, but a more economical approach would be to throw some slam dunk charges against Trump: lying to the feds, lying on his tax returns, corrupt campaign payments, accepting foreign campaign donations, accepting bribes…
Make it so that he can’t run in 2020, or (even better) let him run with all those charges hanging over his head every day of the campaign.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: I wore black dress pants, a black and white top, burnt orange cardigan with dangly pearl earrings and an antique coral and pearl pendant* of a similar design to that in the link, worn on a simple gold chain. Booties and a handmade Indian scarf.
The induction was nice. We got a rose, a copy of the by-laws and a book with contact info of other members and the dues for the first year are paid!
* This belonged to husband kitteh’s grandma.
jl
@Betty Cracker: The administration response was despicable: “We didn’t bring her all that way” (paraphrase). But, she’d been in custody for more than 8 hours. But no exam, no basic first aid or welfare check, nothing done until a life-threatening crisis struck, and then was too late.
Chetan Murthy
@BC in Illinois:
All of this assumes that there’ll be a primary fight. I’m not so sure of that. And in that case, well, we all know: “Dems fall in love; GrOPers fall in line”. I can see somebody declaring in the late spring of 2020, and the entire GrOPer apparatus just falling in line. In short, a “moneybags primary” of top donors making the decision.
Of course I prefer to agree with you. B/c that would be *delicious* to watch. The flailing, the flailing!
jl
@Mandalay: If Trump base locks him in for 2020 nomination, maybe GOP will remember that several big city mayors served part of their terms from jail. At least, they were mayor for a few weeks until they were bounced and an acting replacement was appointed . Maybe it took that long for local officials to figure out what to do. I think last case of that was about 100 years ago now (edit: could take advantage of that, work it into a ye olde tymey MAGA theme).
But, hey, why not fly that up the flag pole. Get the dude reelected, and then get rid of him and put in the GOP veep. I’d give. .um.. not much, for that plan working.
Mandalay
@Platonailedit:
Yes he is. Papadopoulos showed that you can plead guilty, then go after Mueller without consequences, which I found astounding at the time.
So now Flynn is only doing what the coffee boy did successfully last month, and he seems to be getting away with it so far.
jl
@Mandalay: Trump changes his mind so much, and is so antic and frantic, always a good time to throw out some chum for a pardon, maybe. Some of the bracktracking might make Fox News. Pedants will spout here that a pardon creates more problems than it solves, and Flynn is doing no time IIRC as it now stands. But it is Trump’s decision, not anyone with an ounce of sense.
laura
@Betty Cracker: at least eight hours with no water for that child and everyone else who surrendered themselves to border patrol.
All done in our name.
For profit and for kicks.
I hate this america being made so great and all.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
Sounds beautiful! I know you’ll be a great asset!
jl
@laura: Hell, you’d do a simple dehydration test on a hiker who’d been lost for a few hours on a hot day. For Christ’s sake. Really truly vile what hey did, or didn’t, do.
Edit: simple evaluation takes far less than a minute and no equipment except good eyesight and two fingers.
jl
Simple skin test for dehydration
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/water-skin-test-hydration-skin-turgor-dehydration-a8340466.html
Chetan Murthy
@jl: We all know the answer to this riddle: it’s part of the plan, that children [and adults] will die of dehydration. Part of the plan. And I’m sure it’s all arranged so that there’ll be plausible deniability for the perpetrators.
Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot
Most Evangelicals, half the Catholics, even most of the Mormons (as sweet and kind as most I’ve met appear to be) in this country aren’t “Christian” at all, in the all-important sense (as they themselves would claim it to be) of being “Christ-like” (i.e., Sermon on the Mount Jesus).
Their support, whether fervent or tacit, of this hateful fascist shit is all the proof anyone could need of their abject fraudulence. Their holier-than-thou hypocrisy was plenty apparent before, of course. Now it shines with the brightness of an exploding nuclear bomb.
SiubhanDuinne
@laura:
This is the part that just fucking kills me. How dare they?
Ohio Mom
@BC in Illinois: I would be surprised if Kasich *didn’t* announce. He’s probably waiting patiently for Trump to implode. That’s what I would do.
I imagine there is plenty of wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes for any number of potential Republican candidates.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Chetan Murthy:
“Plausible deniability” only matters for holding these people legally accountable. These people won’t be dealt with in a legal manner if they keep this shit up.
Not something I want to happen (at least that way), but it will happen if they keep this fascist shit.
Redshift
OT, but out of morbid curiosity, I’ve stayed on the White House email list that I signed up for in the Obama era. Mostly it’s this weird thing of being professionally written (unlike most other things this clown show puts out) but full of stories from wingnut blogs and publications saying they’re doing a great job.
But today, there was an especially ludicrous but about how liberals and conservatives alike were praising Jared’s leadership in the criminal justice reform bill.
WTF? Had anyone heard of him when being involved with it, much less leading on it?
They’ve gone from only trying to fool their base, to trying to fool themselves. I can’t imagine anyone else believing it or even caring.
jl
@Ohio Mom: I think, much as I disagree with him and really don’t like the old coot, Kasich the only GOPer who showed any qualification for the office, might actually spit out a couple of good policies to balance out some of the bad, and didn’t make a damn fool of himself in the primary. But, all of those are 100 percent disqualifying for GOP primary base, so not sure what his chances are. Can the GOP just ditch the primaries and anoint him? Then he might have a chance.
schrodingers_cat
@Redshift: Actually, I saw in passing that Chuck Grassley was praising Jared for the criminal justice reform bill on the Snooze Hour. I did a headdesk and switched the channel.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: Aww thanks!
Platonailedit
Win by using all kinda of crooked and then stay in power using all kinda crooked.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jeffro:
I saw on wiki, that his tenure at the CFPB ended this month. Is he no longer the director of that bureau now that he’s been appointed as “acting” COS? It would be pretty comical if he held all three positions at the same time, counting his position at the OBM.
Amir Khalid
@Ohio Mom:
Presumably they’re all thinking, “If that maroon can be President, why not me?”
Mandalay
@Chetan Murthy:
You beat me to it. I don’t think that they actually high five each other when they hear that a seven year old girl died, but I’m sure that they are pleased with that outcome in a detached, abstract sense.
I thought the same about Charlottesville. Trump, Miller, Sessions and others in the Administration didn’t remotely give a shit either way about the victim or the killer on a personal level, but I’m sure they were pleased when they learned about what had taken place. They WANTED bad shit to happen.
jl
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I have to wonder if there is some legal liability, if normal justice can be administered. You take someone into custody, and you are responsible for their welfare.
There are standards of care for people who’ve been lost or out and about in the outside who may not know what to do. Simple questions you ask, simple exams you do. it’s taught in any intro wilderness or any, actually, first aid course, anyplace. Dehydration checks, and other stuff, just takes a coupe of minutes, and no special equipment. None of that seems to have been done on anyone. You would make double sure to do a simple exam on kids, elderly, pregnant women. If someone has standing, there should be a lawsuit. Not sure how far it would get with Trumpsters rigging things, though.
Chetan Murthy
@jl: I believe I read someplace that federal facilities for housing undocumented immigrants are -specifically- exempted from state laws regarding treatment of inmates, child welfare checks, etc. Ditto military bases.
Matt McIrvin
@A Ghost To Most: Trump’s popularity hasn’t declined at all. If only a third of Americans believe he’s innocent, some of the others must approve of his crimes, since they think he’s doing great.
Ohio Mom
@Amir Khalid: They are also probably each thinking they could the savior: the one who brings the Republican Party back into respectability. After all, at a minimum, they all have manners, unlike Trump.
My fear is that a lot of everyday Republican voters who are appalled at Trump, and inching away from identifying with the party — the archetypal suburban moms who are my neighbors — will fall back in line if the candidate is a nice-seeming guy like Kasich. (Please note, he’s been my governor for two terms and he’s been a wolf in sheeps clothing).
Redshift
@Platonailedit:
I don’t think it’s that major. His lawyers included this weird bit in their sentencing memo that he should be given some slack because the FBI agents hadn’t reminded him that lying to the FBI is a crime. I assume they must have had some reason they thought it would help, but I can’t see it. The Mueller statement sounds like it’s responding to that.
Mnemosyne
The child’s name and photo have been released: she was Jakelin Ameí Rosmery Caal Maquin.
https://mobile.twitter.com/jacobsoboroff/status/1073706103882436608
Last night’s hateful assholes seem to be getting shouted down on Twitter by non-sociopaths, so that’s kind of good. But now there’s a weird urban legend floating around claiming that the child’s father didn’t give her anything to eat or drink on their journey and kept it all for himself, because apparently that’s a totally normal thing for a parent to do. Fuckers.
NotMax
@Redshift
In the same document, his lawyers state he has, professionally, had numerous previous interactions with the F.B.I. in prior years, which cancels out their specious whine.
Redshift
@NotMax: Yeah, I would love to have our resident lawyers’ take on what that was about, other than “throw everything at the real and see what sticks,” which doesn’t seem like an effective legal strategy.
Lapassionara
@Chris Johnson: Yes. Thanks.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: Such a beautiful name. And a darling little girl.
Perhaps her loss will help save others. Tragic story. Her father must be devastated.
Matt
@Mnemosyne:
TBH, starving their own kid to save themselves is *exactly* what the average Trumpkin would do.
boatboy_srq
Edited for nightmarishly believable potential.
jl
@Mnemosyne: ” But now there’s a weird urban legend floating around claiming that the child’s father didn’t give her anything to eat or drink on their journey and kept it all for himself, ”
Stupid ignorant and vicious non-point that means nothing. The girl was taken into custody eight hours before she got into trouble. If father was so ngeligent then the child would show obvious signs of a problem when admitted to custody. The authorities who had custody should have seen it with a simple exam that took a minute or two, and fixed in a a few more minutes.
More likely the girl was in OK so-so shape when she came in, and due to incompetent and malfeasant management, got into to trouble and no one noticed, again, due to incompetence and malfeasance (though I don’t know, but that is more likely).
Bonnie
Great commentary. I believe that this country and those peoples involved in this horror will suffer in the future. Bad things are coming to this country and people who voted for Trump. Unfortunately, it will affect all people of this country. Before Trump was elected (or was he really?), I had turned 70 years old and giving much thought to the fact that I had more past than future. However, I am contented with the idea that I may die before the worst of the results of this great sin will be put upon this country and its people.
Procopius
@Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot: I used to think there were no real Christians. My sample was, like, the 700 Club, on the radio when I was a kid. Since I retired from the Army and moved to Thailand I’ve had to revise that opinion. I’ve even encountered two missionaries who I think are real Christians, one a Baptist surgeon, the other a Catholic (Jesuit?) Priest who lives and works in the Klong Toey Slum. I’ve got a couple of cousins I’ve met through Facebook who I think are real Christians, so there are some. I’m not, but I don’t claim to be.