times change

If I were to write a blog enthusiastically describing my desire to shoot, maim and kill my enemies, including the President of the United States in my enemies list, or even stating a deep seated wish that the president simply drop dead, the secret service would be all over me.  It is likely that I would be arrested, and just as likely that I would be convicted of threatening him.  

Don't believe me?  Google "The Bullet and the Ballot -- Dominic Manno".  In 1981, Dominic Manno was a student at the University of Pennsylvania.  I had graduated two years earlier and knew Dominic slightly, as he was in a couple of my classes.  By 1981, he was a columnist for the Daily Pennsylvanian.  It was around this time that President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley.  In a column he wrote shortly after that, Dominic wrote something to the effect that his first reaction after hearing the news was hoping that that Reagan died.  At the time, he was a young, immature twenty-one year old college student.  He did not seem to have an actual death wish for President Reagan.  He clearly had no ability to carry out any death wish towards him.  The column resulted in the secret service descending upon the University and grilling Dominic over his alleged desire to see Reagan dead.  Whether or not he really wanted the President to die of his wounds does not seem to have mattered much.  Whether or not a columnist for a college newspaper had the wherewithal, the ability, the desire to kill the President, cause him actual harm or inspire others to try to harm him also does not seem to have mattered much.  Dominic had written an article published in a student newspaper of reasonable distribution in which he stated that his initial reaction to the President being shot was to hope for his death.

As a result of this article, it is my understanding that Dominic Manno was hounded out of a career he was hoping for, whatever that career may have been.  I do not know ultimately how things turned out for him; however, I had heard through the seventies and eighties student grapevine at Penn that things were not good, and it was primarily because of the backlash to his column.

The moral of the story is that it is not a good thing to threaten or have bad thoughts about anyone, let alone the President of the United States and then to reduce those thoughts to writing to be published...

Unless, of course, your name happens to be Donald Trump (I know, I broke the rule of mentioning his name here in this blog), and you happen to be the one publishing rants wishing for the death of those you deem to be your enemies.

On the offhand chance you spent the Columbus Day weekend happily vacationing on Jupiter, at a pro-you know who rally held at his you-know-who Doral Resort in Florida attended by his son of the same name and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a video was shown.  It depicted a Cadet Bone Spurs entering a church, the scene taken and doctored from a 2014 movie, and going on a shooting rampage, gruesomely killing characters who were depicted as CNN and other members of the media he does not like.  Included in the video was a montage in which he apparently pistol whips John McCain, who for those remaining on Jupiter is likely still dead anyway, shoots Hilary Clinton, a former presidential candidate and standard bearer of her party, and also shoots Barack Obama.  Putting aside the utter tastelessness of this video and the question of why anyone on the entire planet may have thought showing this anywhere, let alone making the video in the first place may have been a good idea, let us consider this much:

1.  The video condones killing members of the media, and would seem to suggest that according to this president, encouraging psychopaths in training to kill members of the media is a good idea.  Last I heard, this was illegal.

2.  The video somehow seems to think it may be funny to show a man who used the excuse of bone spurs which may or may not have actually existed, blugeoning a war hero, who spent years in captivity in Vietnam and then sent on to serve his country as a public servant honorably, even if you did not agree with his politics, which I did not.  We will not even get into the fact that somebody thought it was a great idea to show an image of this mighty midget allegedly pistol whipping the image of a man who is already dead.

3.  The video encourages shooting Hilary Clinton.  The former first lady, senator from New York and Secretary of State.  We have first hand knowledge in these parts of just how seriously the secret service takes any perceived threat to Hilary Clinton.  Last I heard, making legitimate threats to the safety of Hilary Clinton was illegal.

4.  The video depicts and encourages some lunatic to try to kill Barack Obama, the former president and man this buffoon in the White House obviously knows he will never match up with at any level at all.  THIS IS ILLEGAL.  Thus far, as far as I know there has been no move to interview whoever made this video, whoever showed it at Bone Spurs Doral National, or whoever thought it was a good idea in the first place.

Thus far, he has not condemned the video.  His spokesperson has... well, sort of... but he has not.  Stephanie Grisham stepping forward with a tweet that the president does not condone violent political videos tells me nothing.  Let me hear it from him.

And not in a god damn tweet.

To our Commander in Chief:

If you believe in more of the Constitution than the Second Amendment; specifically, if you believe in the First Amendment.

If you believe it is wrong to show any video that depicts you committing violence.

If you believe it is wrong to encourage violence against the press.

If you believe it is wrong to encourage violence against people you believe are your political enemies, even if they are people who simply disagree with you.

If you believe it is and should be illegal to try to kill or encourage the killing of a former Secretary of State and a former President of the United States.

If you believe all or part of the above, then... 

CONTACT ALL OF THE NEWS NETWORKS, EVEN FOX.  TELL THEM YOU NEED ABOUT TWO MINUTES OF AIR TIME ON A MATTER OF SOCIETAL IMPORTANCE.  GET YOUR ASS IN FRONT OF A TELEVISION CAMERA.

AND TELL US THAT THIS VIDEO IS ABHORRENT AND THAT YOU REJECT EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR.

Because until we see it directly from you, we will not believe a word of it.  What we will believe is that you want somebody to kill members of the media and public servants, including a former secretary of state and standard bearer for the office you now hold, and an ex-president you simply do not match up to, and would be more than happy to see any of them killed.

Dominic Manno was wrong to put his thoughts on the subject out there, even if he did not mean to actually harm anyone.  He was twenty-one.  

YOU ARE THE FUCKING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.  YOU ARE SEVENTY-TWO YEARS OLD.  YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO ACT LIKE YOU KNOW BETTER.

How about you finally show us you do...  

logic in the age of you know who

Either it's real hot out there or the world is moving at an ever increasing rate.  There have been so many idiotic moments in the past few days, my head is spinning.  Below is a brief guide to just a few.

1.  The Looming Recession.

More and more respected economists are predicting a recession in the coming twelve to eighteen months.  Powerful economic indicators point in that direction.  Cadet bone spurs vehemently denies a recession is going to happen and claims it cannot, because his tax cuts, which nearly entirely went to the uber rich have left so much money in everyone's hands that a recession cannot possibly happen.

Huh?

Let's start with the obvious point.  If you give tax breaks to people that don't need them, they are not going to spread the wealth.  This has been proven over and over again, but remains one of his big talking points, using, of course, only the best words.  If you give an uber rich person a huge tax break, they are going to buy an island as a further tax shelter or just pocket the money.  If you give it to a corporation, they will either stockpile the money, give their executives a raise or buy back their stock, thereby increasing the value of the stock, and, shock of shocks, increase the value of the holdings of their executives.  The people who need something extra usually end up with a combination of nothing or next to nothing.  They are the ones spending money.  If they do not have anything extra, there is no extra spending money for them to go out and spend the country's way out of a recession.

2.  The Looming Recession 2.

After saying there is no looming recession, he now says he is thinking of lowering the payroll tax and the tax on sales of assets to fight off that which he says is not going to happen.

Personally, this is my favorite of the entire bunch of this stuff.   For those who have been paying attention, we have seen this one before.

He wants to cut the payroll tax.  Ok.  More money right away in the pockets of those who are not self-employed.  Here's a hint -- Those of us, or at least most of us who are self-employed do not pay a payroll tax.  We pay ourselves out of the proceeds of our businesses.  We do not write payroll checks for ourselves.  We do not maintain payroll accounts for ourselves.  We pay our taxes in other ways, like quarterly estimates.  The self-employed -- like the cadet bones spurs before he became president -- are primarily not going to be effected by this.

But I digress...

He wants to cut payroll taxes.  Those whose paychecks are effected by the payroll tax may cheer.  At least his supporter will.  More money in the pocket with each paycheck.  Great!!!  But...

He is not cutting the federal income tax rates.  Only Congress can do that.  So you have more money in your pocket with each paycheck, but come April 15, you still have to pay your taxes, and those taxes are the same annual rate as before.  If you have not put the extra money aside to pay those taxes, you will dig deeper into your pockets when you prepare your annual return.  The result?  You have not saved any money at all, and will probably be scrambling to pay what you owe.  If you need an extension, you will end up paying interest on what you owe; therefore, you will have ultimately paid more.

He wants to pair this with a cut in the rate charged for sales of assets.  Most of us are not selling assets.  This something that only really rich guys, corporations and self-employed do.  Note as well that cutting the rate on the sales of assets, unlike cutting the payroll tax, is something that will be reflected in an annual tax return; therefore, it is not recaptured by the government come April.  So the rich guys, the corporations and the self-employed once again get a break while the rest of us get an illusion.

So to fight off a recession that he says is not going to happen, he is doing what he always does...  cutting payroll tax without changing income tax rates, so that most people who are not paying attention will end up paying more in April, and then cutting taxes on sales of assets, which is something that mostly only rich guys and corporations are concerned with.

Bottom line -- he is proposing another tax cut for the rich to fight off a recession that he says is not going to happen, while the rest of us in the long run get nothing.

And here's another hint --

If you cut tax rates, any tax rates, without replacing it with another funding source, the budget deficit grows further.  The growing deficits and associated debt owed by the government is only one factor, but it is a factor causing economists to predict the looming recession.  So in other words, to fend off a recession he says is not going to happen, he is proposing something that is contributing to the belief that a recession is going to happen.

3.  The Looming Recession 3.

He told his adoring fans in New Hampshire that their 401(k)s will be useless if he does not win the election.  It appears that may be the case anyway, so instead of putting somebody in office who might stave economic disaster off, we might as well stick with what we know and let it happen.

4.  Greenland Uber Alles.

He wants to buy Greenland.  Let's repeat that one.

He wants to buy Greenland.

It's a really big real estate deal.

Bigly even.

And he's really, really good at really bigly real estate deals.

He promises he will not build a golden tower with his name on it if he is allowed to buy Greenland, which means if he does buy Greenland, we can expect to see a mostly empty tower with his name on it somewhere near Greenland Beach, with a boarded up casino on the first floor occupied primarily by puffins and polar bears some time in the next twenty years.

Denmark will not sell him Greenland.

So, in a huff, he cancels a state meeting with the Danish prime minister after saying that the sale of Greenland was not on the meeting's agenda.

Let's face it.  Buying Greenland will cost a lot of money.  But then again, we would be buying it from Denmark.

Denmark.

The mighty fighting Danes.

I bet it would cost less if we just invaded Denmark and took it.  You think the mighty fighting Danes are going to take us on/? Over Greenland?   It's war I say!!  If you thought 'The Mouse that Roared" was good fiction, just wait until you see the great non-fiction, the shock and awe of "The Great Danes that Barked'!!  Greenland would be ours faster than winning a trade war or finishing Al Queada could ever be!!!

He wants to buy Greenland...

5.  The Loyal Jew.

He now says any Jew who does not vote for him is ignorant and disloyal.  I was not aware that voting choice was a sign of loyalty to one who does not demonstrate an iota of loyalty to anything except himself.

A note to cadet bone spurs...

Not every Jew is enamored with everything Israel does, even if we are proud to be Jews.  Being a Jew, an American Jew, does not equate to being an Israeli.  You can love being an American.  You can love being a Jew.  You can love Israel, and still not approve of everything the Israelis do, especially when bullied by this president, who does not have a clue as to what being a Jew is, is a completely ignorant buffoon, and has not a single drop of loyalty to anything in his body other than to himself.

Not every Jew is enamored with everything America does, even if we as Jewish Americans are proud of our country.  There is no loyalty oath required to be recited in this country.  That is covered by the First Amendment.  I am not required to be loyal to you.  I will not be loyal to you, even if, as a Jewish American, I am loyal to my country when you are not.

As I said in another forum, if voting for him is a sign of loyalty, you may as well accuse me of treason.

Voting for him is something that ain't never going to happen with this Jew.  I would venture to say it ain't going to happen with a single member of this Jew's family either.  While I would not call any of us ignorant, I will cheerfully identify us all as disloyal.  Every one of us.

So deport us.

Every.  Single.  One.  Of.  Us.

I will have my bags packed and ready.  I will sell my assets and take the tax break.  I will move my remaining assets to wherever I go, including my 401(k) that is now worthless because I am not voting for you.  Once I move, I will not be paying your taxes, thereby contributing to the looming recession, which is not going to happen anyway.  At least my tax dollars are not going to go towards the purchase of Greenland.

He wants to buy Greenland...

western values

Steven Miller, his primary immigration adviser, may be the only person in America is more loathsome than cadet bone spurs.  Considering his penchant for the truth and his empty bombast, combined with the fact that he has never served in the military he professes to love so much, we might as well call him "cadet bone spurs, jr.".  On Fox Sunday this week, he defended the president's vile attack against The Squad, four freshman congresswomen, who all happen to be female and minorities, by stating that each of the four do not represent "our Western Values", as if this somehow gives both he and his mentor the right to attack them in vicious, racist terms.  As is the case with his mentor, he did not mention what those "western values" might be.  So it got me to wondering...

Perhaps Mr. Miller was referring to the discovery of the new world, by that font of western values, Christopher Columbus, who then enslaved and murdered the natives he found upon landing in Bimini and other points in the Caribbean from 1492 going forward, simply because he was apparently shocked that they were not Christian and did not look like him.

Maybe he was referring to the importation of Black slaves, kidnapped in their countries, or in many cases sold by their own countrymen into slavery and brought here against their will to serve their white masters, who were obviously leaning upon their knowledge of western values at the time, resulting ultimately in the Civil War, Jim Crow, segregation, discrimination throughout our western values society, and racism that persists to this day, because the Black slaves did not look like their masters or the old white guard that remains in power to this day in the halls of government.

Or maybe still, he was referring to that time honored western value of making treaties with Native Americans, breaking the treaties, removing them from their ancient lands, defiling their holy sites, and forcing them onto reservations where they are allowed to live in abject poverty and alcoholism to this day, all the while noting that they do not look like the rest of us.

If not, surely he was referring to that western value of stealing of land and homes of Japanese Americans, who all do not look like us, forcing them to what they called "Relocation Centers", but were, in fact, prisons (they all had barbed wire and armed guards.  The "guests" were not allowed to leave.  What would you call them?), simply because they were of Japanese ancestry and ignoring the fact that they were Americans.  They did not, and do not look like us; therefore, they do not need an apology of any kind.  Thank you for staying out of the way while under armed guard.  For those who served in the military during this time, thank you for your service.  Now go home and shut up.

Or how about that great show of western values when the MS St. Louis was turned away from all American ports in 1939, a ship containing approximately eight hundred Jews fleeing the Nazis, which was then sent back to Germany, where many of them were killed in the Holocaust, all because they did not sound like the rest of us.

So, in the interest of our fabulous history of western values, it would appear quite possible that he was referring to our humanitarian gesture of seizing immigrants of Central American countries and Mexico, fleeing violence and corruption in their countries, only to stumble into violence and corruption in this country, have their children ripped from their arms, be sent back home to undoubtedly become victims in their countries of origin, and have their sons and daughters lost in the system, all because they do not look like us.

They do not "share our Western Values".

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Rashida Tlaib
Ilhan Omar.
Ayanna Pressley

All Americans.

All minorities.

All women.

All do not look like "us".

All with names that do not sound like ours.

All citizens of this country.

All actively serving this country as members of Congress.

All of whom stand up for their rights and the rights of the people of this country as specifically granted in the very Constitution those old, rich, spoiled rotten white guys claim to revere, which ultimately means all four stand for the rights of the rest of us, even those spoiled rotten bastards.

So now you know whenever cadet bone spurs and cadet bone spurs, jr. talk about "Western Values", precisely what they are actually talking about.

the real work starts now

This is not an endorsement of any one particular candidate, unless you figure that this amounts to an endorsement of whomever ends up running against cadet bone spurs.  This includes anyone who may run against him in the republican primaries.

There has been a lost of gnashing of teeth already over positions taken by the announced candidates on the left for president, which includes just about every registered democrat in the country, with the possible exception of Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, the guy at the deli counter down the street, my mother and me.  I would note that I would highly endorse my mother over me in case you are thinking of drafting somebody to run.  Come to think of it, I would endorse the guy at the deli counter, Captain Kangeroo and either of my cats over me.  But I digress...

Some of the positions taken by the democratic candidates to date are nice, such as universal healthcare, forgiveness of student debt, easing of immigration imposed by this administration, etc.  They are not, however, the kinds of positions that are going to play well with moderate republicans, if there are any left, and independents, the very core group needed to overcome the possibility of a second term.  Tom Friedman noted in his column in the Times last week that the democrats need to nominate somebody sane, who can rationally set forth a reasonable platform that can appeal not just to a majority of voters, but a majority of voters in the strategic states needed to achieve an electoral majority.

And as we are all too painfully aware, it is an electoral majority that counts.  We know there are a number of states that he knows he cannot win, and will therefore ignore or simply insult as the election approaches.  California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington and Connecticut will not be in his radar during the next election cycle, if only to invoke the cry of sanctuary cities and democrat socialists run amok.  Throw in Oregon, New Jersey and Rhode Island, and you have 139 electoral votes.  That leaves the democrats just a tad more than halfway there.  NBC News and the New York Times have both noted recently that the strategy being evoked by the administration could further polarize the country to the extent of allowing him to lose the popular vote by more than five million this time, but still come away with the electoral majority, and thereby the election.  For the good of this country; heck, for the good of mankind in general, we cannot allow this to happen.  I cannot stress this enough.

WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN.

So how do we go about doing this, getting the other 131 electoral votes needed and ending this nightmare?

1.  As Tom Friedman and others have said, we must start by having the democrats nominate somebody sane, who can articulate reasonable policies in reasonable terms, without alienating all but the most hardcore MAGA, whose vote nobody else is getting, even if cadet bone spurs were to kidnap their first born and sell the child into slavery.  So don't worry about alienating a hardcore MAGA anyway.  They are not going to vote for your candidate regardless of what you, he or anyone else says or doees.

But in the process do not alienate a MAGA in such a way that alienates a moderate, who did not like him in 2016, but did so anyway because he/she could not bring him/herself to vote for her.  That's the vote we need.

2.  He is going to try to drag this through the mud, even worse than the last election, because frankly, he really does not have much of anything else.  By the time this one is over, we are all going to need to shower for a month.  So...

     a.  The nominated candidate must stay above the fray, if only to the extent of pointing out that he has no positions, just mudslinging.  The candidate has to come across as sane and level headed.  The candidate has to be the one who does not stoop to his level.  This does not mean we do not have attack dogs, simply that the candidate and his slate are not those dogs.  We already know who the attack dogs are.  He has chosen them for us, and they will do a great job attacking him, mostly because they are ready, willing and able to do it, and do it better than he can.  Since he has chosen to attack "The Squad", let him.  Let him go after four freshman congresswomen, minorities all, one of whom will actually be on the ticket.  Let him continue to be distracted by these four women, all of whom are smarter than he is, and who are willing to attack back, and keep him from going after the actual candidate.  As he attacks the four women, feel free to come to their defense and point out the he is concentrating on attacking four minority woman, simply because they are minority women, and ignoring important issues of the day.  But keep the candidate out of it.

     b.  This means the candidate has to stick to issues that matter, where cadet bone spurs has no inkling how to talk, let alone set forth what he stands for.  For nearly four years now, he has told us he is going to introduce grand and glorious initiatives.  The best health care.  The best intrastructure.  The best farm bill.  The best trade policy.  The details never come out.  Nobody ever asks him what the details are or how he intends to propose and pass anything.  When he is pressed, he falls back on "you will see the details when it comes out, and believe me, you will love it".  Only the details almost never come out.  When they sometimes do, the details are always a variation of tax cuts for the rich.  Want great health care?  Tax cuts for the rich.  Want tax reform?  Tax cuts for the rich.  Infrastructure?  Privatize infrastructure, and then cut taxes on the rich folks who get the contracts.  The candidate must have reasonable proposals, perhaps not going as far as universal health care, which I personally would love to see, but know will not get passed at this time.  I'll settle for now for a strengthening of Obamacare and further expansion of medicaid as called for under the ACA.  Stress the policies and make him debate the policies, not the junk.  If he tries to put the junk out there in the debates, leave him stranded out there with his garbage.

     c.  About the only real issue he will talk about, one that does not involve trashing everybody else, is the economy.  Yes, on the surface the economy is doing fine, at least if all you look at in the economy is the Dow Jones average and the unemployment rate.  We can concede the Dow and the unemployment rate, while noting that when he was sworn in, the economy was doing fine, and he has really done nothing to spur anything further.  Tax cuts for billionaires has a bill coming due that is going to drag everyone else down soon, and there will be nobody to blame when that happens.  So let him crow about the Dow and the unemployment rate.  Point out that poor paying jobs may make for a low unemployment rate, but do not put sufficient food on the table.  Point out the fact that real wages are not going up, that farmers are going under due to his trade polices, that he has fostered class warfare through his tax policies.  Let him talk about his economy -- and then talk about the economy effecting real people.  You know, everybody else.

3.  We know that he will try to find a way to at least pit the country against itself.  White against Black.  Straight against LBGTQ.  Hispanics, Muslims, anyone he does not like or does not consider worthy of his efforts, such as they are, will all be in the cross hairs.  This considered, either the candidate or the candidate's running mate must be a member of one of the target communities.  It might even be nice if both the candidate and the running mate are one of the target communities.  A candidate on the ticket who appeals to communities that he has deliberately alienated will solve the problem from the last election of these communities not liking him, but feeling alienated or taken for granted by Hilary or by the way she campaigned.  I have frequently asked people what they believe the result of the election would have been in 2016 if Hilary had picked Cory Booker for her running mate, rather than rewarding Tom Kaine for a lifetime of political loyalty to the Clintons.  A Black man or woman on the ticket, either on top or in support, could effectively blunt a portion of his racist slime, while at the same time, bringing out the minority vote.

4.  Do not get distracted by the fact that your candidate does not end up being the nominee.  A major reason he is now the president is that Bernie and his supporters thought they were cheated by the process the last time around, and therefore, would not support her.  Then there were those who would not support Hilary under any circumstances, even as they knew that any vote that was not for her in the last election was a vote for him, so they wrote in Joe Biden, even though he was not running and could not win.  Or Bernie.  Or Mickey Mouse.  I can already see the lines forming again, once again in a circular firing squad, as the Bernie supporters vow not to support any other candidate, the progressives vow not to support a candidate who does not hew to every progressive issue -- as they see it.  Those of you doing this must stop.  You are only paving the way for four more years of him.  As I said here on November 4, 2018:

"There is no perfect candidate.

"There is no perfect cause.

"If you are waiting for either before you head to the polls, you will never vote.

"And that is why he is president today".

We have already seen what two and a half years of him have brought.  We are stuck holding our breath that he does not do more in the next one and a half years of his term, regardless of election results.

Pull together.

WE SIMPLY CANNOT HAVE ANOTHER FOUR YEARS OF THIS.

concentration camps and labels

One of the most nonsensical arguments in years is ramping up and going viral around the country, maybe even around the world for that matter.

Is it a concentration camp?  Is it a detention camp?  Is it summer camp?  Does it really make a difference what we are calling what is going on at our southern border courtesy of this administration?

The use of the term "concentration camp" is fraught with historical significance and imagery.  The administration apologists are screeching that it is an insult to Jews around the world, and especially the survivors of the Holocaust to call them concentration camps.  This having been said, I don't hear a word from these same people about what is going on in those camps.  I would further note that I do not speak for an entire people; however, I am a Jew, and I am one of the lucky ones.  The part of my family that got out in time included my father's parents.  The rest of the family is gone.  On behalf of at least myself, I would note that this Jew is not at all insulted that some are calling these abominations concentration camps.  I also do not believe anyone should be insulted by the truth ingrained in the term as it applies to what is going on.

But...

Maybe it is too much for some people to call what is going on at our southern border concentration camp.  Maybe we ought to hold off on calling the hellholes and the conditions that immigrants, and especially immigrant children are being held under "concentration camps".  Maybe by doing that, we are allowing them to get away with hijacking the argument and getting us all stuck in semantics, thereby ignoring the real problem.

And we all know what the real problem is.

The real problem is not what you call these hellholes.  You don't like "concentration camp"?  Fine.  I don't imagine you want to follow Laura Ingraham and call them "summer camp".  At least at the summer camps I attended and worked at, they made you shower, they made you brush your teeth, they gave you a real bed to sleep in, even if it was not all that comfortable, and they turned out the lights at night so you had a fighting chance to get some sleep.  At summer camp, they also took pains to make sure you were writing regularly to your parents, and making efforts to keep parents advised as to how you were doing.

So call them what you want.  Concentration Camps.  Detention Centers.  Summer Camps.  Hellholes.  Heck, call them the White House Annex for Marauding Hordes of Displaced Hispanic Children.

Just don't get caught up in arguing semantics and lose sight of the real atrocities taking place right here, right now, and right in front of us.

We are separating children, including infants and toddlers, from their families all because their parents came here seeking asylum from the violence and poverty of their own countries.  While statistical certainty exists to believe that not every single one of those seeking to come to this country are angels, our history, our heritage, indeed what makes this country the United States of America is that we accept those seeking asylum into this great melting pot, thereby enriching us with their customs and traditions, and expanding the greatness of what is this country.  What we ought to be doing is welcoming these people with open arms into our society.  Helping them assimilate and start new and productive lives here.

Instead, we are treating them like animals.  No, we are treating them worse than animals.  At least we feed our pets, and if they are sick, we take them to the vet.  We are now starving children.  We have created an entire generation of young people who are likely to carry the scars of their detention in these hellholes the rest of their lives, regardless of how this now turns out.  We are reading stories of ten year olds having to cuddle and nurture two year olds, all the while having to remind us that they are children too.  Do we really need to be reading this sort of thing?  Then we are reading about volunteers bringing food, clothing, soaps, diapers, etc., to these hellholes, only to be denied entry and only to have the donations refused.

So do not get distracted by the greatest distraction machine ever to manipulate public opinion from what really matters.  Do not get caught up in what to call this.  Regardless of label, it is an atrocity and a crime against humanity.

Do not let those who try to distract and say this would stop if only the Democrats would agree to immigration reform.  Remember, this administration and their apologists have the ability at any time to stop this.  You do not commit acts of barbarity to score political points at the expense of children.  This is not American.  This is not who we ever were, let alone who we aspire to be.

Remember when...

Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shores
Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door

Emma Lazarus must be weeping.

So should the rest of us.