Former First Lady Laura Bush has never been a particularly “political” person. She rarely chimed in on political issues publicly when her husband was president, and she discusses politics even less now that her husband is out of office. But in Trump’s America, even non-political people are standing up against Trump’s concentration camps for children. The Trump administration has ripped thousands of children away from their parents as these families seek to immigrate into the United States. The parents, in some cases, are only being charged with misdemeanors, but their children – some of them babies, still nursing – are being taken away and put in camps and makeshift tent cities. It’s one of the most appalling and devastating human rights issues I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. And the situation is so bad that even Laura Bush is writing op-eds about it:
On Sunday, a day we as a nation set aside to honor fathers and the bonds of family, I was among the millions of Americans who watched images of children who have been torn from their parents. In the six weeks between April 19 and May 31, the Department of Homeland Security has sent nearly 2,000 children to mass detention centers or foster care. More than 100 of these children are younger than 4 years old. The reason for these separations is a zero-tolerance policy for their parents, who are accused of illegally crossing our borders.
I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart. Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso. These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history. We also know that this treatment inflicts trauma; interned Japanese have been two times as likely to suffer cardiovascular disease or die prematurely than those who were not interned.
Americans pride ourselves on being a moral nation, on being the nation that sends humanitarian relief to places devastated by natural disasters or famine or war. We pride ourselves on believing that people should be seen for the content of their character, not the color of their skin. We pride ourselves on acceptance. If we are truly that country, then it is our obligation to reunite these detained children with their parents — and to stop separating parents and children in the first place. People on all sides agree that our immigration system isn’t working, but the injustice of zero tolerance is not the answer. I moved away from Washington almost a decade ago, but I know there are good people at all levels of government who can do better to fix this.
Recently, Colleen Kraft, who heads the American Academy of Pediatrics, visited a shelter run by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. She reported that while there were beds, toys, crayons, a playground and diaper changes, the people working at the shelter had been instructed not to pick up or touch the children to comfort them. Imagine not being able to pick up a child who is not yet out of diapers.
Michelle Obama already told the Deplorables about Donald Trump. But they didn’t listen. Will they listen to Laura Bush? Maybe, maybe not. But Republicans are f–king kidding themselves if they think this Trump policy won’t affect them in the midterms. This hurts them with white women. Granted, those are the same white women who voted for white supremacist Donald Trump by a hefty margin. Those white women are going to have a hell of a time explaining it to themselves why their president is ripping children away from their parents and putting babies into concentration camps.
Meanwhile, this was Melania Trump’s stupid statement. Both sides! I bet she doesn’t even know that her office issued a statement.
NEW: Statement from @FLOTUS spokeswoman @StephGrisham45 to me regarding what’s happening to kids at our borders: pic.twitter.com/fpsfHJSOTa
— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) June 17, 2018
""I'm going to take your child to get bathed." That's one we see again and again. … The child goes off, and in a half an hour, twenty minutes, the parent inquires, "Where is my five-year-old?" … And they say, "You won’t be seeing your child again."" https://t.co/syfG0u7UL2
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 17, 2018
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.
Well Laura nice of you to speak up, shame you didn’t ten plus years ago, when your husband was bombing the shit out poor Iraqi children.
Yes. And maybe she can call out Trump and his Republican enablers by name, too. This is all way too genteel when lives are at stake.
They’re a cruel lot, all of them.
They’re all complicit idiots. (And yes, I know this is an old pic, BUT…) I do love that it looks like she’s flipping the bird in that pic, and I choose to think she’s sending it out personally to Dump and his gang (so there! lol 😄)
See Naomi, I have a question. Should Laura not have released a statement about this and be accused of staying silent on this issue? Yeah, her husband’s policies obliterated Iraq, but at least she was able to say something now.
Pia, as Who are these People said, I don’t have time for people who are happy to stay quiet when it’s their favour. The republicans control both houses, they could shut down the is disgusting issue in a second but they don’t. Laura Bush for me is like McCain. I’m not going to cheerlead her for saying something against the child separation practice, it’s basic human decency. For far too long we praise people for doing their bare minimum of decency.
PIA – wait, what? His bad decisions destroyed a whole country, there should be no “at least” anything.
Thanks for this, I like your point: “For far too long we praise people for doing their bare minimum of decency.”
At work i had to manage four older co-workers but was not their manager. I would ” praise people for doing their bare minimum of decency” all the time with this group.
Should stop with that mindset.
You’re right Naomi. You gave me something to think about there.
Come on. She issued a statement publicly. Did you expect her to publicly condemn her own husband while he was in office? I will also note that the two times Laura Bush has been very outspoken was related to children’s issues and fear. After 9/11, I remember her talking at great length about comforting children, making them feel safe and listening to their fears. Now, she’s speaking from that same place. Her op-ed is not only courageous but also fully consistent with issues she’s spoken about in the past.
Naomi and WATP, you’re absolutely right, but at this point, in the here and now, I’ll take what I can get. We need all hands on deck, even if they’re not being as overtly condemning as we want.
How low will Trump go
Don’t ask.. he may show you he has no limits.
Both sides?!? This is policy purely from this administration. The Republicans control both houses of Congress, The White House, and the Justice Department. THIS IS ON THEM.
This will go down as one of the darkest times in this country, which is saying a lot.
+1
Exactly. Not to mention: I just read that every single Republican senator is against the bill that would end this policy (the Keep Families Together Act).
Meanwhile, 48 Democrats are in support of it……..which I believe is 98%.
100% now. Manchin capitulated this morning.
If the mainstream press would stop interviewing Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, and start interviewing Democrats on this situation, then maybe people could understand that the Democrats can be a viable opposition party and there are no “both sides.”
This story and these pictures need to be pushed in people’s face throughout October and into November. Keeping it in the media now doesn’t help. Collective voter memory is so short it’s basically non-existent. Dems need to go all out with print and tv ads with these images and reiterating how vile this man is. Keep it in people’s faces.
+1
if 45 really wanted to end it, he could use the power of the executive order, which he seems to LOVE for some things.
apparently not for ending this heinous policy, though.
he says that it’s a “good negotiating tool”…yeah, because thousands of children’s lives are what you should bargain with.
these people are evil, soulless GHOULS.
Absolutely no executive order is necessary. This is policy, not law. All he needs to do is pick up the phone and say stop.
Agreed. But both sides do need to come together to overwhelmingly pass something related to immigration. This stupid Hastert Rule (named after a pedophile, no less) requires the majority be able to pass something on its own. It’s stupid and needs to be put to rest. Ripping children from their parents and putting them in internment camps should not be a bipartisan issue.
@Morning Coffee
Unfortunately there is no both sides coming together. The GOP and Trump demand that funding for the border wall and/or limiting the number of immigrants/ family unification has to be part of any compromise. It’s a hostage situation. Founding the border wall will take even more money from children and social safety nets. Reducing immigration is essentially “only Whites need apply”.
With Trump in office, the GOP doesn’t have to negotiate. Unfortunately it will take pressure from GOP voters to get them to change their mind.
“This will go down as one of the darkest times in this country, which is saying a lot.”
It really will.
It was so troubling to see the stories and the images.
Not to pile on, but I am REALLY disturbed that the 4,600 dead citizens in Puerto Rico has faded from the news so quickly. There are so many barbaric things being done in our name under this administration.
History will hold us all accountable. Vote in the midterms, my friends.
Talk some sense into them? I doubt it. Look at the vile comments about this story on other platforms. Anyone who dare questions anything dear leader does is attacked.
Yeah, I keep seeing “maybe if they’d come over legally their kids wouldn’t have to pay the price.” No amount of telling them that seeking asylum is not illegal does anything, nor does saying that this is too steep a price for families to pay for misdemeanor. Heartless bastards, all of them.
Done arguing with them. When you tell them that it is indeed LEGAL to seek asylum via border port, the next response is “why should it be our responsibility to house people who are seeking asylum? Shouldn’t their country help them instead?”
As if the US didn’t have a HUGE hand in destabilizing Central America.
So we helped to create the violent conditions that these people are fleeing and then when they look to us for help, we take their kids and send them away. It’s so cruel and inhumane. The Deplorables are the most barbaric people I have ever had the misfortune of interacting with. Just utterly soulless…
And then they scream: OBAMA DID iT! Uhm, no. Trump is stealing toddlers from parents legally seeking asylum. Obama was dealing with unaccompanied minors illegally crossing the border. Different scenario.
Yes. And where is the press in providing this essential context?
This is how they win. We’re logical people, and we expect others to accept the truth as, you know, the truth. When they don’t, it’s like banging out heads against a wall. We can only keep it up for so long. While they can go on living in ignorance forever. So eventually, we have to just stop to save our own sanity.
Kitten – My pet theory is that American history specifically ignores the years of CIA intervention in South America specifically because it undermines the argument “Why is this our problem?”
It is part of our problem. We helped cause it. They just don’t want you to know that.
Yup. Their Dear Leader and his cronies are up up to their eyeballs in shady business dealings, the Dotard brags about not paying taxes, and then him and his fan club have the gall to lecture the rest of us on “the rule of law.
Remember those who put out a sorrowful tweet but did absolutely nothing to stop this atrocity.
I saw comments on FB saying “Too bad this is an Obama policy” and a meme that showed kids in cages and with “OBAMA” under it.
I was tempted to correct them, but then I realized I was dealing with either a Russian bot or a Trump fanatic, and they wouldn’t be able to understand the truth about the policies and the differences. Sometimes I do get tempted to comment, just to help the people that might see those comments and think they are factual, but I realized it is just a waste of energy.
Did Laura Bush come out and say she voted for Hillary, or was that Barbara? Either way, Laura voted for Hillary I’m sure. She’s always been more liberal than her husband. Her daughters too.
Anyway, I’m glad she did this. Whatever helps stop this atrocity.
I think the elder Bushes voted for Hillary but W and Laura said they didn’t vote for a POTUS. Who knows though, maybe she did secretly.
I am seething with rage over this. And I don’t understand anyone who isn’t.
Completely agree. Baffled by the people who are hiding behind “but they broke the law.” And cant help thinking that if this is the sh*t we know about, how terrifying must the covert crap going on be?
The “taking the children for a bath” thing is so chillingly reminiscent of Nazi death camps – it’s like they want us to make the comparison.
They won’t listen. The standard response is that if you don’t want your kid taken from you, you shouldn’t be here illegally. Attempts to explain to these scum that they aren’t here illegally, that they are LEGALLY seeking asylum and presenting themselves at border checkpoints, not coming through the unguarded desert, are for naught. They have their script and they cling to it. And Melania’s spokeswoman always spouts the Trump line. That statement is nothing more than Melania agreeing that these kids should be held hostage to that damn Wall.
And Nagini posted loving photos of her daddy and her kids with Jared for Father’s Day on Instagram where she gets a softer response than on Twitter.
I think we’re close to the two-year anniversary of when she promised to show her own immigration records.
Interesting when she weighs in on anything immigration-related. Maybe they just need a rich benefactor to somehow get them an “Einstein visa”.
It’s like talking to a wall. His supporters are so far past gone, it’s scary.
Propaganda works. A few months’ back, we watched “Judgment at Nuremberg” for about the 4th time and the lines about the ‘fever’ that gripped Nazi Germany stayed with me. People have been in the grip of a fever fueled by race hatred and it has not broken yet.
Exactly. And that they’re getting the children away by claiming to give them baths, that sends chills down my spine. We all know who else took children to camps and separated them from their parents to supposedly clean them…
As an aside, it is also completely legal to seek asylum after crossing into the US. It is not mandatory to present yourself at a border checkpoint to apply for asylum.
Well, she doesn’t actually name the people in charge of this policy. So.
Yes, this is country-club-level disapproval. I guess the NY Times would consider this a scathing comment that could effect change, but when the tone is sorrow and dismay instead of fury and disgust, nothing will change. The Bush dynasty was the transition between old-guard Republicans and today’s radical, racist theocracy. They greased the path and aren’t in a position to stop this now. At least, that I’ve seen.
This is his attempt to hold these kids for ransom..if dems want them released, they’ll have to vote for a lot of things that are terribly wrong. Putting these poor children in tents in the Texas heat is a disaster waiting to happen..just inexcusable.
Exactly. He’s holding these children hostage and using them as pawns for things like the wall and laws he wants to make for immigration. Putting them in tents in the Texas summer weather should be considered as torture and something a dictator would do
Yeah, the children are his bargaining chip.
It’s the art of the deal.
I read on Daily Beast that many Republican voters are in support of Trump’s policy of ripping kids from their parents, that’s why you can’t really say for a fact that it would affect them in the midterms. Another point to note is that Trump would NEVER do anything to that he thinks would hurt his voters. Those are the people who matter to him and he knows they love what he’s doing. It’s sad. In a related development, Thomas Markle gave an exclusive interview to GMB and said Harry told him to give Donald Trump a chance because he (Markle) hates Trump. When Piers asked if he thinks Harry is a Trump supporter, he said at the time, Harry may have been but he hopes he no more supports Trump. He also said Harry told him Brexi was an experiment worth taking. I tend to believe this aspect because the Queen has in the past been accused of showing support for Brexit.
I doubt Harry told him anything at all. Thomas Markle is by now shown to be a liar – at the least an exaggerator and prevaricator.
Omg, I’m so upset over this! I can’t believe this is happening. It sounds to me like Trump is going to use this as a bargaining chip. Give him the wall, and he’ll stop it. What hell are we living in now?
The GOP used the health of 9 million children as a bargaining CHIP to screw over the Dreamers during the last government shut down, so this isn’t surprising. What is surprising is how quickly the MAGAts seem to have forgotten that Mexico was supposed to pay for the wall….
Wasn’t there a story somewhere that after they took away a mother’s child under FALSE pretenses, and the mother was finally “allowed” (in quotes) to look for the child, she was given a helpline number that was DELIBERATELY wrong?
Seems like they really have no intention in reuniting the families, more like “haha, you fell into our trap, now prepare to be milked for all you’re worth!”
I read on the Daily Fail, that the excuse to take away children was to allow them a shower…..
It’s more than in the Daily Mail. They say they’re going to bathe them and of course the parents never see them again. It’s hard to imagine how any of these children can be reunited with their parents or even their siblings; the government clearly has zero interest in their well-being or futures.
Hopefully she can. After Melania’s trolling yesterday, it’s great to remind Americans that they had true, classy and intelligent first ladies rather than overpriced blowup dolls trafficking in misinformation.
She has no real influence over the Republican party. She has no real influence over Trump voters. This just makes some people feel good, and the NY TImes feel as if it’s running some kind of important op-ed.
To say I am not a W fan is a big understatement. I was very active against him, and was the media coordinator for a well known peace group at the time. Nothing since has changed my opinion about him.
I am not cheering Laura. But IMO anything that helps shame Trump, or infuriates him, is a good thing. And the timing of the piece was perfect because Melanie had just released her statement echoing the monster, and white women in the media were actually claiming she slammed him. This shut that right down.
Good for Ms. Bush. I always thought she struggled both with an introverted personality in a public station and the lunacy of her husband’s politics.
At first I thought the horror of this policy would finally tank his evangelical support base but I saw a clip of Trump saying this was all the Democrats fault, which I’m sure is the Fox News mantra on the subject (and generally) so I don’t even know if the Christian right ever hears the truth.
How would they hear it if all they listen to is propaganda and their ministers?
Impossible to talk some sense into anyone as heartless, cruel, and ignorant as Trump and his team. I’m 40 years old, and I would be crushed and scared if I entered a foreign country with my parents and I was purposely separated from them by strangers, didn’t see them for days, and was surrounded by nobody I knew. My heart breaks for these kids and their parents
When Trump said the “animal” word and some parts of the internet and traditional media cheered, I just knew there’s no more reasoning with them.
That at this day and age there are still swathes of people it’s okay to classify whole nations as animals… unbelievable. And definitely nobody will get through to them.
Your first sentence basically describes how the Third Reich started and how Hitler became a demi-god to some. EZ WANTS to be like him, he said he wants his people to treat him like the NK’s treat Kim.
I abhor that Emperor Zero feeds his base and then lies about it to the general population (and the world).
My spirits were lifted a bit when I saw that Mr Avenatti said he is jumping into the child-separation fray. I hope he can be as much a thorn in the side of the Dotard on this dark issue as he’s been on payments to Stormy Daniels (and others).
After all, Superman wears Avenatti underwear to bed!
If Avenatti’s firm can provide legal services representing children and parents, that’s great; I just hope he doesn’t make it all about him — many advocacy groups have been working for decades on the border and maybe he can help fund them.
Yeah, he’s better off helping with funding, despite all these celebrity lawyers out here acting like they can do anything legal, I doubt a trial lawyer knows jack about immigration law, best leave that to the professionals.
Why would you think they cared? They don’t any nothing will make them care.
Frankly, with Democratic leadership continuing to be MIA, it probably won’t even cause a ripple at the mid-terms, because his base either loves it or they feel like, “Well, it IS awful, but they’re here illegally and maybe this will stop people from coming here now and it’s really for their own safety right? RIGHT??”.
This is why end justifies the means is terrible way to do things.
Democrats aren’t MIA – they have a bill that needs just a few Republicans to sign on (a veto-proof majority would be even better, but again, that REQUIRES REPUBLICAN VOTES). Democratic congressional representatives have been in Texas marching, visiting the camps *when allowed,* demanding answers, and posting what they see and hear. You know where they are MIA? On the Sunday morning talk shows, which are busy interviewing the likes of Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway. You won’t read about them in the press, whose stories cite Republicans far more than Democrats. They seem like they’re MIA but they’re not.
You know who’s missing in action? 51 Republican Senators and the entire Republican majority in the House of Representatives. “Good Christian” Mike Pence. And a whole host of others, such as Yummy Mummy/White House Advisor Ivanka Trump.
Joe Kennedy and Beto O’Rourke were at the Tornillo Port this weekend. They are doing their jobs–they are doing what the can to bring attention to they issue (in addition to the bill you mentioned). Honestly, before this atrocious immigration policy was initiated, I thought Beto was probably the best Dem candidate we could have put up in a traditionally GOP district like TX02. But after watching him fight tirelessly for these immigrants, I am 100% sure of it. If he doesn’t beat Cruz, at least we know that we couldn’t have done better than Beto. He’s really great IMO.
At the risk of sounding crass, the awful atrocities that are occurring on GOP watch could greatly favor us in the midterms, especially if people like Beto and others seize the opportunity to walk the walk, instead of lukewarm statements on Twitter with no actual action.
Princess Nagini has been very busy posting Father’s Day pictures on Instagram where she gets a nicer reception that she does on Twitter.
Talking of Nagini and her dolt brothers, they are criminals, right? Just not arrested yet. So, if asylum seekers are criminals and their children need to be taken away from them, shouldn’t the kids of Nagini/Jarrod and dolt brothers also be removed to the cages? Seems only fair and equal treatment.
They have not been MIA.
They would be much better able to stop this if people voted for them though, instead of staying at home.
I doubt very much Melania knows what is going on with the children being taken from their parents. More like her husband told her office to release a statement to take some heat off 45
Also wasn’t there some questions about Melania’s own path to becoming a citizen?
What? Of course she knows what’s going on. How could she not? She’s just a complicit, POS like all the rest of them.
#BeBest
She knows, she just doesn’t care.
I’ll be over here crying and vomiting.
And please, I’m not American, but I beg you not to count on white women. Don’t do it.
“I’ll be over here crying and vomiting.”
that’s literally how I was Saturday AM, reading about this stuff. AND how 45 is trying to blame the democrats.
Walter Shaub the former director of the office of govt ethics, who resigned in protest, was tweeting a lot over the weekend. Tweeting that we need mass protests and where are the organizers. Moveon answered “we hear you, stay tuned”. This morning Shaub tweeted that there will be news tonight about organized marches. Since Moveon will be involved, I will guess these will be nationwide. I am hoping it’s for this coming weekend because we need to move fast.
So you can follow that to see details. We need an uprising IMO. If they can get away with baby camps, many of us will eventually end up in camps. Believe this.
It’s for a nationwide strike this Tuesday-Thursday. PLEASE PARTICIPATE. Do not shop, do not go to work, SAVE YOURSELVES, SAVE YOUR DEMOCRACY. Americans, you are the only ones who can do this for yourselves. There is no superhero on the way, November is too late, and there is no “other” group of people to do the dirty work for you no matter where you live.
Weekend marches are not enough. SHUT DOWN THE ECONOMY. It doesn’t take much to do it. Your fellow humans in S Korea, Poland and many other places around the globe have done this. WHY NOT YOU? You are living on the knife’s edge at this point, no matter how “normal” things appear around you. No matter how secure your “bubble” appears to be, if you do not act on behalf of others who are not safe in or outside your bubble, then your self-absorption shows and it’s on you. If you don’t show up, I think other democracies will absolutely judge you to be lazy and uninterested in preserving your democracy. And you know what? They’d be right.
No, I believe this is something different. I will participate in the strike, but that won’t work. The deplorables will just spend more those days. Massive marches and civil disobedience are needed, especially at ground zero, texas. But at the capital too. Media coverage will be wall to wall right now. Right at this moment.
No joke. I spent the morning writing scathing messages to every politician from the White House on down, and I hesitated when I saw they required my contact information, address, phone and email, for me to be able to send the messages. Because I’m genuinely terrified. If this isn’t stopped, they will come for the rest of us eventually.
This. Is. SCARY.
Annie, when they do release the info for the coming marches, I won’t click “attending” on facebook. I feel the same way, there’s no reason to make it easy for them to find me.
It took Laura Bush to shame the Republican Party and Administration. If Barbara Bush was alive, she would have done the same.
They have no shame. They really don’t care. They keep parroting the Asshole-in-Chief’s lies. Their former god, Ronnie wouldn’t get through to them. They’re irredemable at this point.
They are not ashamed. The Orange Dotard is tweeting this morning about immigration, Germany and MS-13. Because, the parents of all the kids he is stealing are all members of MS-13.
On that note I would like to point out that Germans are not turning against their “leadership”. This is some infighting sh*t about power, the “people” aren’t doing anything. And crime is NOT “way up”!!! It’s down. That orange piece of moldy cheddar better not build camps for children while pointing at us!
Oh and what is this Berlin coalition? Bitch that’t not what it’s called.
THEY ARE FLEEING MS-13 FOR F*CK’S SAKE!!!!!
These people are seeking asylum from the violence imposed by MS-13, which is an American export. We helped to create the vacuum that allowed MS-13 to flourish with our various interventions in the Salvadoran civil war and prior.
So MS-13 are the bad guys (that we created) but people fleeing MS-13 don’t deserve to be protected or saved because they’re brown immigrants.
I hate this. I wanna tear my hair out arguing with the idiots that support this asshole. This country is pure shit.
Kitten,
I heard that ICE is putting down “associated with MS-13” in the files of people who have been VICTIMIZED by MS-13. This is evil.
Barbara Bush was alive when she could have shamed her own son and his Administration. Laura Bush can’t shame people who already cannot feel shame. If they could be shamed, they wouldn’t have done this in the first place. The Republican Party is a nativist, white supremicist, radical right-wing Christian theocracy. They’re all John Birchers and they don’t give a s–t about anyone but their own kind.
This is horrible! I am so scared for these children! There is no way they are getting the care, love or attention they need while separated from their parents in these makeshift shelters! Who is making sure they are not abused? Who is making sure they are well taken care of and safe?!?!?!
Supposedly, illegal immigrants are a drain on our economy? So tell me how much money is it costing taxpayers to house, feed and prosecute everyone who come across the border? And to house and feed all of the children? This is a push for them to get their wall. Disgusting.
Most of these people feel that crossing the border will help their children have a better life, a chance. Only to have them taken from them. Unbelievable!!!!
This is cruel and makes no sense!!!
Here are organizations that are working to help families separated at the border. They need money. We are not helpless.
https://www.refinery29.com/2018/06/201849/how-to-help-parents-children-kids-separated-border
Call your Senators and either urge them to support S3036, the Keep Families Together Act, or thank them for co-sponsoring. Call your Representatives to do the same for House Resolution 927, which forcefully condemns the zero tolerance policy as a form of child abuse, and “HELP Separated Children Act” (H.R. 5950), which would provide protections and establish humane protocols for DHS officers when interacting with children whose parents are involved in immigration enforcement actions.
I’m sorry. I have no thoughtful comments. I’m just burnt out on evil and stupid, and worse in some ways, gaslighting by our fellow citizens.
Take the day off and do some nice things for yourself.
Then come back when you’re ready to fight another day.
Hugs.
We’re there with you.
Surprised so many people in the comments today are criticising Laura Bush for speaking out. I’m not defending her husband or what he did during his time in office, but I think it’s a positive development that both Laura Bush and Melania Trump spoke out. This is not okay. None of this is okay and anyone who can help put pressure on this administration to stop this heart-breaking policy should be encouraged to do so.
Melania did not speak out against this. She put the blame on Democrats, who have nothing to do with this policy
It wasn’t even a direct statement from Melania, if you look at the wording.
Nope – not going to happen. There are still too many quietly clapping about this.
Deplorables love this.
I’m ashamed this is happening in the 21st century and I’m outraged that history keeps repeating itself.
I never expected this of the US. It goes to show that no country is great and that every country can become a monster when led by the wrong person.
Americans who give Trump and his behavior up to a 40% approval rating, who continue to elect radical and racist right-wing no-nothing politicians to local, state and federal office, are not merely “being led.” This is who the country is, this is who it’s always been: Deeply divided, appeasing Southerners (now, Southerners living throughout the country) and property rights, appealing to higher values because of the founders’ partial awareness of the power of its lower values. When you strip away the best elements of American life, this is what you get.
I’m a Southerner. Please don’t lump me in with these monsters.
I find it funny that so many people are counting on this to be the thing that turns white women against trump. Trump voters aren’t going to suddenly identify with these women who have had their children ripped from them because of some bond of motherhood, or because they will somehow be able to put themselves in these women’s place and imagine their own babies ripped from them. It isn’t going to happen. I’ve had the displeasure of knowing some trump supporting women and none of this will bother them because they see brown babies as “less than” and less deserving of human rights than their own white children. It disgusts and saddens me and I truly feel that we are on the path to violation of human rights on a scale that has never been seen before in America. Right now it feels like trump and his administration are seeing what they can get away with. Each stunt he pulls is more brazen than the last and all he gets in return is lukewarm chastisement from republicans, ineffective howling from democrats, protests that accomplish nothing and “look over there!!” Broadcasts from the mainstream media designed to keep people focused on the wrong things.
Sorry for the rant but things seem completely hopeless and it hurts seeing my country being reduced to this. I want off this planet right now. 😫
I’d love to find out, were the election held today, whether he’d still receive a majority of white women votes.
But I really think he still would.
WW Trump voters won’t change their minds, I completely agree. But I have seen WW who generally didn’t show much concern/interest in this administration (yeah I know–eyeroll) suddenly becoming more engaged. I think this could really motivate previously nonvoting WW to vote. The WW who still support Trump are a lost cause–like every Trump supporter. Very hard to change the hearts and minds of the bigoted Faux News crowd.
I think people forget sometimes that it was 53% of white women WHO VOTED, who voted for Trump. It wasn’t 53% of all white women. Note that what I wrote below is not to defend any groups, but to see what there is to win come next elections.
Because, actually, there is a lot to win.
Let’s start from the least harmful (in my view) to the most harmful of the white women during the last election.
-Women who voted for Hillary and were vocal about her needing support.
-Women who voted for Hillary, but didn’t do much to talk about it.
-Women who voted for Hillary, but talked a lot about how they didn’t really like doing so (perhaps influenced by the email smear campaign). They might have turned off other potential voters from voting.
-Women who voted a left leaning third party. Hopefully, they will vote Democrat this time. I guess a high amount of them will, as they are likely to be disgusted with Trump.
-Women who didn’t vote because they were taken in by the smear campaigns. I think there is a lot to be won here, since a lot of them were well-meaning. If you know such women, help convince them to vote, though quite a few will anyway.
-Women who were too lazy to vote, because ‘Hillary wil win anyway’. I hope you learned your lesson.
-Women who were ‘too woke’ to vote for Hillary. They dislike Trump’s policies much more than they would have disliked Hillary’s, but spent a lot of time on social media talking about how Hillary was just as bad. I think part of it was them wanting to show off how they were too smart to fall for ‘Hillary’s lies’, even though they fell right into the trap of doing what the Republicans wanted. I hope they learned their lesson, but in some cases I doubt it.
-Women who voted for Trump because their parents did so too/told them to, or because they thought Trump was the god-fearing candidate. Some of these have woken up. No clue how many will go as far as support a democrat, but there is something to win here.
-Absolute deplorables. Usually a mixture of dumb, vicious and indocrinated to hate women. Often very keen to suck up to men.
And finally, there is one more group that will be voting:
-Young women that turned 18 between the general elections and the midterms. Welcome to the vote. You did nothing wrong and I hope you will do the right thing by actually voting.
That’s a pretty solid (and hopeful) analysis. I hope you’re right.
I do think that even in the most recent high-stakes Cali primaries, the voter turnout was pretty abysmal, even though voter it was actually up from prior years.
Americans have an apathy problem that is really unique to our culture. We just cannot be bothered to vote, especially in state and local elections.
I hope people mobilize and get out there in November because can’t continue like this for another two years…
@Kitten, you’re right. All we can do is encourage people to vote and show where fake news is fake.
A good example of how this works is how people on this website show the difference between Obama and Trump policies (even though the deplorables claim it’s the same).
I can’t get through this without bawling. I miss my kids when I am away from them for a day. I could not begin to imagine how it would feel to have them ripped away and not know where they are or who they are with. And the trauma being done to those children is beyond inhumane. Not being allowed to offer the children any comfort, what kind of sickness is that? Offering a crying baby or toddler some physical comfort is the most basic thing a person can do. What kind of people are working in these facilities that they are ok with this.
Everything about this is designed to rob these people of their dignity and humanity. I am honestly terrified that Trump and his cohorts are gearing up to offer a “final solution” and this is their way of setting the stage.
I have a 7-week-old baby and am breastfeeding. Reading about nursing infants being taken away from mothers made me cry so hard I threw up. I donated funds to a dear college friend of mine. She’s a physician and she and a group of other women doctors, most of whom are moms, are raising money for the KIND (kids in need of defense) organisation which has been around and helping immigrant and refugee children for a decade. It’s a solid group if anyone is looking to send money that will be used well for these precious children. I feel so sick and powerless. I truly hope that white women think about this when they vote in November. But won’t count on it:-(
I read that they are even stopping the kids from consoling each other. No hugs are allowed. They’re so heartless.
I don’t think that this will sway any deplorables though. I think we need to reach out to people who didn’t vote. The deplorables are set in their ways. They drank the koolaide. Just look at the farmers who are suffering from the easily winnable trade wars. They are suffering yet they still support th dotard. But I don’t feel any sympathy for them. It’s a case of you reap what you sow.
These people have convinced themselves brown people are not human. Nobody should feel sorry for them. We should not extend even a modicum of goodwill their way. Anybody who has read a history book knows exactly where this is heading, especially now that they’re discussing stripping citizenship away from legal immigrants, too.
They’ve chosen their side. Treat them as the would-be Nazis they are: a legitimate danger to society as we know it.
This is absolutely where I’m at. No sympathy, no understanding, no attempting to “reach across the aisle”. These people can go eff themselves.
A deportation officer was just arrested for sexually assaulting a 4yr old girl, telling her mother if she told they would be deported. These are the monsters in charge. Horrified.
Stop with the “white women” excuse. Millions of white women voted for Hillary and are just as outraged as “non-white” women.
I feel like this administration bought a copy of The Hunger Games and decided the Capitol’s ideology of threatening and harming children’s lives as a way to terrorize the adult population into compliance was a great idea.
WHERE ARE ALL THE STUDENT PROTESTERS OF THE SIXTIES? They’re in their seventies now and should be giving their help to organize against the Fourth Reich. I’m sure they hated Trump then and can’t see them having a change of heart with his current crimes against humanity. Come on and lend a hand before he gets re-elected due to society’s complacent behavior towards the orange idiot.
They are busy working and paying back their crippling debts.
The separation of parents and children is just one aspect of the US’ immigration politics. “Scare them off.”
The desirability of the US as a target destination for economic refugees/migrants is due to the fact that a lot of “democratic” countries in the Americas don’t offer much or any prospects to the average person. This lack of prospects in turn is a result of corruption and plutocracy and censorship and of failed political and military interventions of other countries and a couple more reasons. my point is this: the worldwide refugee / economic migration crisis has been caused by the West to some degree. Our desastrous wars and our desastrous economic policies cause people to flee or leave their home countries. We need fairer policies and politics. A better less biased less censord less superficial press. …
As long as that huge complex of problems isn’t solved we can either close borders or let in anybody. The latter will result in quickly declining living standards for everybody in our countries.
Please notice that none of those people who support refugees and immigrants do ever mention this complex of problems.
The Massachusetts National Guard will NOT participate in this vicious cruelty. Plans to send a helicopter unit has been cancelled by our Republican governor.
OMFG Americans! This is a human rights violation of epic proportions! Are they also going to tattoo numbers onto the kids arms? WTF. Get up and protest people. Someone needs to stand up for these innocent children. Good for Laura Bush. Put an end to this nonsense people. Do better.
Mrs Bush isn’t talking sense into anybody but she is currying favour with the public by making seemingly “common sense and humanist” statements. It is pr. She had no problem with ISIS and the war on the axis of evil which her husband started and which is one of the roots of today’s wars in the near and middle east. She never talks about the latter things but she talks about Trump. It is pr for the Bush family. They are a politically prominent family and sooner or later they will try to launch a new (family or close to the family) candidate into politics (if they haven’t already). Didn’t Jenna Bush marry some guy who has an interest in politics?
Yep, Henry Chase Hager’s family is a political family, too, Republican good old south, of course.