America is a horror show. We had the anecdotal stories before now. Mothers have been telling journalists for the past week that ICE agents and border patrol agents literally stole their babies. Mothers were nursing their babies, holding onto their small children, and those babies were ripped from their arms. We’ve seen the images of children being kept in cages at these detention centers too, but there haven’t been any images of the actual stolen babies (nor can anyone confirm where all the stolen little girls are). Now we know, because the Associated Press broke the news last night: the babies and young toddlers are being sent to “tender age shelters” in South Texas. Shelters as in plural – there are multiple tender age shelters filled with stolen, traumatized babies and toddlers. The news broke at the end of Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show. This is what happened:
Maddow is a professional broadcaster, used to breaking news and emotional stories about traumatic events, but the AP report broadsided her and she couldn’t handle it. She’s human. She later apologized on Twitter for crying on air and added information about the stolen babies being caged in detention centers away from their parents.
America is a horror show.
A few hours before Maddow went on the air, Fox News was doing a segment about the children being kept in cages by the American government. One guest was trying to describe the report, which came out yesterday, of a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome who has been forcibly separated from her parents. A story of a traumatized little girl with Down syndrome was hilarious to Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump employee and current Fox News talking head. He greeted the story with a “womp womp.”
Sociopath Corey Lewandowski responds "Womp Womp" to story of a Down Syndrome child being taken for her mother. pic.twitter.com/Jv9YBmmuxB
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 20, 2018
America is a horror show.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show.
I’m enraged and feeling helpless. I’m at a total loss of words.
I feel the same. I made a small donation to RAICES. You can google it to see what they are doing to help. This is horrifying and it is so important that we stay horrified and not let this monster and his cult normalize it.
I have donated to both RAICES and Al Otro Lado. I have friends affiliated with both organizations. Here are their websites. https://actionnetwork.org/groups/raices-refugee-and-immigrant-center-for-education-and-legal-services https://alotrolado.org/
Also call the UNHCR. The US should be sanctioned, it won’t happen but it should be proposed. And maybe they can send some Hollywood people to gaze sadly at the detained children.
Right now “breaking news”: Dump is trying to make everyone believe that “No REPUBLICAN wants to separate families” (his words!), and of course, he’s blaming it on Dems (like what about the 8 yrs. of Bush??). He has his whole cabinet parroting and boosting “his” words. I am still in a rage about this, shouting back at the tv… I am in serious danger of having a rage-stroke over these a$$wipes!!
The fact that pretty much EVERY major city in the country has marches planned for June 30… and the phone calls flooding representatives… Isn’t is something like 83% of the country (not counting his Nazi base) DO NOT WANT THIS!!!
He keeps talking about being “weak, allowing the country to be overrun by MILLIONS of people”… WTF is he talking about?? AAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
@Jan he is such an evil pos. How many kids won’t make it back to their families? This is a gigantic mess of his own making. I hate him.
Call your Representatives and Senators, even if they are Democrats. Let them know you oppose this – they’re the ones facing voters this fall.
I called my senators, Cruz and Cornyn (both evil). Cruz’s aide literally laughed and said super sarcastically that he’d “pass my concerns on” then hung up. Cornyn’s aide just said “ok” and hung up.
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/18/heres-list-organizations-are-mobilizing-help-separated-immigrant-child/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=5562387051
That’s a list of organizations in Texas/South Texas that are currently mobilizing to help these children and their parents. And on June 30, rallies will be held in many cities across the US (and the globe!). See the website for #KeepingFamiliesTogether. I’m going to my local one, you can bet that.
Anastasia, I’m going to be in the Los Angeles one, and sent out the link to the website to everyone I know. We will be a HUGE contingency here. Also, as pointed out, EVERYONE needs to call reps, in BOTH parties and keep up the pressure!
Anastasia, I called Cruz and Cornyn as well and when I finally got through Cruz’s guy blew me off as well with a smug “No one cares more about the security of Texas children than the senator and he’s eager to ensure we have policies in place that support that.” WTF is that political double speak supposed to mean?
I’m planning to go to the June 30th rally in Austin with my 9 year old (leaving my 2 month old at home because there are too many anti vaxxers in Austin for me to bring him along!).
This issue of what we’re doing to these children (while I recognize is just part for the course for the way America deals with marginalized people throughout its history) is too damn much to take. I can’t stop thinking about it.
It’s absolutely heartbreaking, isn’t it, HeyThere!? I just saw a grab of that that heartless, vile thing, Anne Coulter, which absolutely turned my stomach. What happened to people like her, that they can be so lacking in empathy and humanity that they would happily cage another human, and worse, an innocent child, and say they deserve it? I’ve been asking this same question ever since our government (Australia) thought up the great idea of lsplitting up families seeking asylum, and then incarcerating them behind razor wire fences in tin huts under a blazing sun in a god-forsaken off-shore island made of guano. Yes, we thought of it first. I’m ashamed of my country. This same chapter will be a blight on the history of both our countries. Shame Australia. Shame America.
I’m just sickened by the whole thing. To the point of physical exhaustion. And the Trump-ers around my neck of the woods keep saying “But you don’t have kids…why do you even care?”
Look, a-holes. My personal choice not to bring a child into this world has nothing to do with my empathy towards these shredded families, or my anger at this sh!t show of a regime. My common sense and basic human decency (both of which ANY Trump supporter is totally lacking) dictates that.
They can eff right off. And left off, too while they’re at it. You can but your buns I’ll be attending ANY rally to support these immigrants. This second-generation American, that is.
Sadly an to Australia’s shame, our current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull planted such ideas in Trump’s head. I remember it being a talking point of one of their conversations.
Trump and his ilk are cancerous. They need to be locked away. Americans must mobilise to vote them out and help the vulnerable (those likely to be harrassed) to vote.
I called my senator’s office , let them know my mind on this travesty and blatant racism and fascism, emailed his office too because I just couldn’t not. I’ll be marching on June 30th. Sons of bitches want to make America into Nazi germany. I’m so angry at the cowardly rethugs and the orange fascist and at the same time filled with sorrow for the separated families. Can’t begin to imagine what the ids are going through.
Everyone can do something, even if it is simply to donate money. I am *so proud* of my Celebitches for making their voices heard and standing up to tyranny.
This is the link to the list of DOJ accredited organizations – charities that offer free or low cost legal services to immigrants in proceedings. You can contact the ones in your area about volunteer opportunities:
https://www.justice.gov/eoir/recognized-organizations-and-accredited-representatives-roster-state-and-city
They almost certainly need people who are willing to do research and help put together asylum cases for children, as well as accompany them to court hearings.
Here is another volunteer opportunity specifically involving unaccompanied minors:
https://www.theyoungcenter.org/volunteer-at-the-young-center/
Today June 20,2018 This is America now.
I pray that those babies and children see their parents again.
God Have Mercy on this country.
This has always been America. America has always been a horror show. There’s just no masking it now.
May the members of this deranged, deplorable, inhumane administration and their offspring never have a moment of peace for as long as they live.
May they continue to be hounded by these decisions forever and ever.
May they be punished for it greatly now and after.
May they suffer.
Yes! Most of these people at the border are indigenous Americans. This is just the continuation of a centuries old policy that destroys indigenous communities and families.
amen.
Aang, yes exactly! It’s been this way since they came to these shores.
Yes. For once it is being exposed.
They’ll be fine, that’s the hardest part to swallow; they’ll get promoted, get raises, get huge bonuses. If they happen to crash and burn in politics, they’ll be rewarded with high ranking private sector jobs in companies which truly control government anyways. The cycle continues. They’ll always be in charge. They’ll sleep soundly, eat great, have the best healthcare, go to the best schools, drive the nicest cars, and never have to interact with any of the human casualties of their greed and ignorance.
June 20 – World Refugee Day.
The current ituation beggars belief. Drump might hang his head in utter shame, if he had an iota of shame and humanity, that is.
This country never had “god”. We have done horrible horrid things to minority groups throughout our history. Now this generation gets to see it first hand. We just use god to mask the evil underneath.
I hope you guys can fix this at midterms. Got my fingers crossed for you America!
Me too! I sat at my desk and cried when I listened to that audio.
Thank you! We need you rooting for us! It’s so horrible on a daily basis and just when you think it can’t get worse….. Checks and balances are supposed to prevent this – but we have one party in control that has swung so far out – I can’t see that they will ever come back from it. And, I’m ashamed to say that he still has a base.
I wept with her.
I’ve teared up at least 5 times today. Feeling so emotional.
I can’t watch. I can’t take anymore. I am also crying very often throughout the day. I could not sleep last night, literally could not sleep all night. I have two children to care for and I’m trying to keep it together.
I spent a lot of time last night laying beside my sleeping three year old son and just breathing through the fear and horror, the very thought of he and my baby girl being ripped from me… I can’t believe people are living this nightmare right now.
I have never in my life felt to desperate and sorrowful about our nation. I am not doing OK and I’m sure I’m not alone.
Yeah I find myself tearing up at the most random moments: in the middle of a work-out class, grocery-shopping, etc. Whenever I’m alone and feeling the full weight of what we are doing to these people.
I really don’t see how we come back from this. That being said, the only tiny silver lining (if you can call it that) is all of this happening 5 months before the midterms. If people are angry, they are more likely to vote. I’m really hoping that people will finally see how vile the GOP is and vote these M-Fers out.
The real platform of the party is now apparent for all to see. And indications are that their zero-experience leader plans to keep pushing this issue into midterms.
Not that I fully trust surveys after the last election, but I cannot wait for the next approval poll. I suspect it will dip back down to the low 30s.
I’m glad I’m not the only one feeling so emotional lately. I cry everyday at least once seeing all this going on, it’s horrifying and heartbreaking. I feel helpless.
Kitten, we need to keep these stories front and center the closer we get to mid-terms. You can bet your life savings on the fact that Repubs will try to bury these stories in the public memory with anything they can grab onto. It will be up to decent human beings to keep these stories in the forefront. It will require real news outlets to continue reporting on these stories. If Repubs try to put a bandaid on this, it will be up to us to rip it off and remind voters the wound they’ve inflicted on this country.
As one commentor stated on a different thread, there is a generation of voters who will always, always, always vote R. No matter what. It is up to younger generations to vote en masse. That was a problem in 2016. The apathy of younger generations. The closer we get to mid-terms, the more I want to see the survivors from MSDHS and other school shootings in the media. Urging their classmates and peers to get out and vote. I want to see college students campaigning on campuses. I grew up in an area that was all about guns, god and country. Kids growing up here vote R because their parents do. It’s always been that way. Total indoctrination. I hear my 10 year old nephew talking about how great Trump is because he hears it from his parents. As an atheist who hates guns and has never believed the US is the greatest country in the world just by being the US, it was difficult growing up here. I love hearing the voices of this generation of woke young people. It gives me hope.
@ Rachel- you are completely right. I am baffled as to why, from the beginning of Trump’s tenure, the narrative was how to get Trump’s base to turn, when nearly half the country didn’t vote. THOSE are the people we need to concentrate on, the ones who thought Clinton was the same as Trump and didn’t care until their apathy let Trump slide in.
And yet Trump’s approval rating are up. People are voting for extremist right-wing Republicans in the primaries. There appear to be plenty of people who agree with him and what he’s doing.
Get out, vote, get *all* Republicans out. They are all complicit.
Same here. Crying in the car, the gym. Trying to put on a brave face for my boys. It’s getting harder and harder.
I was tearful with each news show but I completely lost it watching her. Full on ugly cry. This *is* a constitutionally crisis. Trump is legit kidnapping children. There is no one to stop him!!! The Republican Congress have gained money and power through Trump and don’t plan on impeaching him.
All I can say to my fellow Americans is make sure your passport is up to date, gather important documents and jewelry in a carry-on, and save up money for a plane flight out of the USA just in case Trump goes full Nazi. I am not kidding. We have no protection.
And who will take us in? We need to stay and fight.
I cried too. Now I’m too angry to cry. Rachel Maddow weeping is a sign that it’s time to start burning things down.
@Sedanos EXACTLY
I was watching Rachel’s show last night when that happened. I had already cried, but seeing her unable to read tore me to pieces. I admit to being the type who tears up at Folgers commercials at Christmas, and seeing the very professional Rachel unable to proceed did me in.
I wouldn’t mind good, sane Americans coming. But the nutters can stay out.
These people have no soul.
I love Maddow. She’s smart, she’s detailed, and she has a heart.
I wish I could say this was as low as we could go as a nation, but it isn’t.
45 tastes blood in the water and he likes it. He’s just getting started.
I agree. I remember when Trump was asked if he’d bring back water boarding and he said ‘Yes and much worse’. He probably figures that if he continues down this path he’ll stem the flow of the migrants coming into America and force Congress to pay for his wall.
That wall has zero chance of happening and he knows it. He is trying to appease his sick headed base and get their mind off of the wall. His actions will stop the flow. He will then be able to brag about it. Oh & that Weasel Steve Miller is behind everything. Its that fascist & racist turds idea.
God help us all, but I think you are right. We haven’t even come close to hitting rock bottom in this country. 💔
The Pope has now condemned the separation of children at our border. I’m afraid to see how much lower Trump will go.
Honestly, we’ve already gone lower. America was founded on genocide and slavery. We shouldn’t put forward any suggestion there isn’t a moral line we won’t cross.
You’re so right. It’s so infuriating that most Americans, without questioning, gave accepted the myth that America’s enormous prosperity is just through the blessing of god, and affirms we are deserving of it. What’s further destructive is the ignorant circular logic that we can do no wrong as long as we continue to be prosperous.
The FACT is that America has been enormously prosperous because, as you point out, it’s founded on land and resources that were stolen from indigenous people who were mass murdered, incarcerated, forcibly assimilated and reduced to exist in poverty as ” savages” rather than be recognized as abused, marginalized human beings.
The rest of America’s “Great Prosperity” is do to the slavery! After that, it’s due to mass immigrant labor lifting up verging industries like railroads, mass farming,,etc. the list goes on.
America is a great country for many reasons but not because we’re just blessed by God. We have a very greedy, dark history with plenty of blood on are hands.
My extended family all claim to be religious. Serious, go to church every Sunday, I won’t let anyone within hearing or typing distance forget that I’m a Christian, serious. I posted on Facebook, arguing that separating the children from their families is immoral and it is entirely within the capability of the American government to keep families together in detention before deporting them.
My family members attacked me. Called me stupid. Claim the Trump administration is keeping America safe. Serves them right for doing illegal stuff.
I have been physically ill, coming to the realization that people are so morally empty that they, who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, would choose to support something like this.
I am so sick, you have no idea.
Jeff Sessions’s church is putting him on trial.
God bless the Methodists.
I wonder if they can ban him from their church?
I’d like the UK to rescind Trump’s visit. Failing that, lets Brits turn out and let him know how much he is despised.
Paul Ryan and all those Congress Catholics who are not going to lift a finger should be kicked out of the Church for this.
LIZB, the comments on instagram have been terrifying to read! White women, young white men(from what I saw for the most part) saying they don’t care and that the parents are criminals, and what about all the tears for the abortions?! Ummmmm, what the actual fuck am I reading?!?! I’m embarrassed and horrified right now! This white woman is enraged. Dogs at rescue shelters get treated better than these babies/toddlers/children!!!!!!
not quite…the dogs are put down in droves (by put down, I don’t mean not being carried around, I mean put down to dead). At least the children won’t be put down.
My question is more around what will happen to the children whose parents have already been deported. Who will be their foster parent?
My adult son and I live in a one bedroom apartment because there is no affordable living here in Vancouver, BC Canada. He stays because I couldn’t afford (at this late stage in my life) to live alone because I have made life/work decisions based on morals and principles. I would take in a kid in a heartbeat if I could. We’d manage and yes, it might get overwhelming occasionally, but a crowded home is better than no home at all, it seems to me.
Hey Surly, you probably wont see this anymore. But you sound like a beautiful soul. Im sure youve shone sunlight on those souls you have encountered in your life. It takes unfathomable courage to live life the way you did, and it is people like you who make the world a better place. Love from the other end of the world.
I don’t get how anyone can be so brainwashed. I just don’t.
I’ve cut of a part of my family because of their deeply religious stance and defending of the Church (which is curently trying to curb women’s rights in my country).
The world is going downhill and I just don’t want to have that kind of influence and hate in my life and on my conscience.
So good for you and I feel you. Big hug.
I have a few of thay kind of “Christian” in my family too … if the actual Jesus from the bible showed up, they would revile him.
I’ve thought about that, too. The Bible predicts exactly how people are acting now. Lovers of their own selves, lovers of money, boasters, abusive, arrogant…
CommentingBunny -Not to worry. Jesus would be turned away at the airport. He looked like a terrorist. And a Secret Muslim. From Palestine.
I’m sorry for your experience 🙁 I’ve been feeling really helpless on the other side of the world, but I’m still hoping to see justice and the rise of the American people in protest against this atrocity… I’m actually holding my breath for it. It’s horrifying.
Your family members are more racist than they are religious. I’m sorry that you are dealing with this shock.
I was raised Catholic and am no longer observant for multiple reasons, but still attend church when I visit my father, just to make him happy. I was disappointed but not shocked to hear no mention of the appalling treatment of migrants in detention camps at the border in the homily this week. My dad lives in the middle of Paul Ryan’s district in Wisconsin and the vast majority of church regulars likely voted for Ryan, Trump, and Scott Walker. In my view, they have much to atone for. Of course, there was the obligatory pitch for the Jesus vacation aka the mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
That must have been just that priest for whatever reason. The Bishops Conference has spoken out against Trump’s policy, as has the Pope. The Mass I attended prayers were offered for the families
I was raised Catholic too. I even showed them how the US Catholic bishops (a VERY conservative organization) have called this situation immoral. It didn’t make a difference to them. Disgusting.
Our parish priest was so angry about this. He said if you don’t want to hear about politics don’t come to church, don’t look at a cross. Christ died a political prisoner.He also said if your first language isn’t Navajo or Cree you are an immigrant. He got a standing ovation.
A month ago someone on Twitter wrote that sympathy for gang members crossing the border (I know…) wasn’t a hill to die on and a Jesuit priest replied, “The hill was Golgotha and that was the point, among others.” It was brilliant.
I am sorry Liz.
This is tearing families apart. I suppose much like the Vietnam war did. My mother has been nasty the last few days and I finally asked her, what is your problem lately? Her sister is coming in with her husband to visit. My mom told me her fb page is filled with filth and hate. She doesn’t want her here and she doesn’t know what to do about it.
There’s a lot of pain. We can feel so alone, so lost. So lonely. I try to just hang on to the knowledge that these children need us. They need our voices, they need our bodies on the front lines. I am throwing myself into that work. It’s the best I can do. Sometimes I still feel as if I am going crazy anyway. Despair.
I don’t know if this is the right place for this, but what has happened to us?
Like is this how the Christian Right have always been and they just kept that on the down-low? Have they just been emboldened by the Nazi in the White House?
I feel like an enormous swath of this country has turned into something completely monstrous, almost demonic. The complete disregard for human life. Hell, not even disregard but like actual gloating and boasting about it, almost a pride in acting like this. It’s like people have been completely brainwashed, like “owning the libs” trumps literally everything else, any shred of human decency. I just can’t fathom it. Was I always naive? I feel so stupid.
They were always there. For myself, I think that the election of Obama made me think that we had crossed a big hump in the road, and that though they were still there, they no longer had the numbers. I was very wrong. My whiteness insulated me from just how wide and deep the fascist, authoritarian right is in this country.
I also think that the advent of social media has helped to amplify the opinions of these people. I’m pretty sure there were fear-mongering, conspiracy-theory-loving, bigoted RWNJS during GW Bush’s reign of terror, but I don’t remember their collective voice being so loud and belligerent. They also have their opinions validated by other like-minded bigots as well as Faux News, Infowars, Breitbart, etc.
Exactly, and the election of Obama, a black man, and the nomination of Hillary, a woman, triggered something in them and all that awfulness burst out into the open. But we’ve always had this in our country — people who defended slavery, selling children (sometimes their own children with slave women) away from their parents, taking Native children from their families and sending them to boarding schools for their “best interest,” interning Japanese families during WWII. The Civil Rights Movement made a lot of important changes (as did abolitionist movement) and got them written into the constitution (14th and 15th Amendment) and the law, but those protections are being attacked and dismantled as we speak.
Helpless, sleepless and enraged.
Tears, angry, migraine.
My dad joked (in response to a Facebook post) about needing to “keep an eye on” my own children so that they are not taken. I gagged. We have avoided talking about most Trump things, but I will be grilling him and if he supports this in any way, I’m not going to see him. He won’t see his grandkids, let’s see how that feels.
They are religious, that is the problem. They aren’t true Christ followers. They are slaves to their church ideas, the man in the pulpit, and right wing politics. Jesus believers, they aren’t and know very little about their Bible. Answer them in all scripture backing up Christs and god pro immigrant scripture. There is a lot of pro immigrant scripture in the Bible, in fact Jesus himself was an illegal when his family fled into Egypt. Remind them of this all the time, Jesus was an illegal. Shut them up with their own Bible.
Jesus was also a migrant worker. For anyone who wishes to explore what the Bible actually says about immigration, I urge you to check out my colleague Bruce Hake’s analysis:
http://www.hake.com/pc/staff/bruce-hake-publications/open/
Thank you Bearcat a great read and saved it, Evangelicals should practice what God actually commanded them to do but here we are and there they are in the corner slapping hands with the Devil.
@BearcatLawyer
Thank you. I’m putting that on my Facebook page for my Republican Bible-thumping Orange County high school friends.
@Isabelle and Natalia – Bruce will be so pleased.
Your family is brainwashed. So is part of my family. I’ve basically give up on them.
Thank you all for your reponses… I feel less alone now.
Yes, how can people agree with this policy? How can you not have empathy for people seeking asylum? How can you not recognize your privilege?
News shows have a lot to answer for in this. Watching the coverage on Fox and other right wing news outlets is terrifying. There are outright falsehoods, bogus justifications…. that is what people read and how they justify this. There is an information divide that is horrifying.
We are reading Madeline Albright’s new book now and the parallels between this (not just this horrific policy, but Trump’s fundamental undermining of the concept of truth and systematic lashing out at anyone who disagrees with him) and the early days of Hitler are horrifying. Truly.
My friend, who is a Christian missionary and church leader, gently supported not ripping babies from their parents’ arms on Facebook. Her friends ripped her apart. All devout Christians. All lacking empathy. She deleted her post. How can these people claim to love Jesus and do this to children?!
omg. wtf…. This must be what Europe felt like watching Fascism and Nazism take hold….I feel sick to my stomach watching this from Canada…..America, I think it’s time for a revolution.
CBC had a story about how Canada removes migrant children from parents for months. I believe the U.S. policy is 20 days and some will never get their kids back. I hope people will research what their counties are doing to address illegal immigration.
I say that yesterday and was calling my MP’s office this morning. I think there are some protests here in Ottawa planned…What a fucking world we are living in…
I wonder if that’s why Trudeau said yesterday that he/we wouldn’t get involved in this battle?
I wonder if he is worried about enraging Trump further during this trade war and negotiations. I agree with the NDP and others who have said that Canada should suspend the Safe Third Country Agreement. How can we say that the US is a safe country for asylum seekers and that they uphold human rights?
@Marie
This is misleading. You are positing a false equivalency without providing the facts. Stop!
Marie – I suggest that people google
CBC Canada migrant children
to pick up the stories. The ones I read did not match your description. Unaccompanied minors are ones who have crossed the border without family. Canadian policy is to avoid separating families, although I see a big problem when the accompanying parent is the father. They keep children with mothers but fathers are apparently only allowed to visit.
Trudeau has made a statement about the situation in the US being unacceptable, by the way. He knows Canada’s real policies and knows they are not doing the deliberate damage that current US policy is doing. But yes, they and others need to rethink their own policies to avoid problems for families.
I have a link to one story because I could not find the other one. The numbers for Canada are not as high as U.S. numbers.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/canada-detention-children-united-states-1.4709632
I always spend the hour with Rachel M..last night was the first time we cried together..she shouldn’t apologize for being human..the soulless faux guests are the ones that should be caged
I watched Rachel too and cried along with her. What’s happening is heartbreaking. Kidnapping children and basically holding them hostage and used as “leverage” is obscene. Trump, Sessions, Miller and the entire GOP, as well as Lewandowski and all the brain-dead Deplorables, should burn in hell for this. The party of “family values”? Only if the families are white, I guess.
I think she broke this time because she was just handed the AP release and hadn’t read it before, so she hadn’t had a chance to deal with it emotionally. This is an appropriate reaction to such gruesome news, but we don’t usually see it because usually they have read things before the show and are able to put themselves into objective mode.
But this situation is just too much, and shows what happens when you allow someone who really has no empathy at all anywhere near the Oval Office. Showing images of the children won’t help – people lacking empathy don’t respond normally to such images. Trump probably is baffled by the response. Even Republicans in Congress are saying he can and should stop it any time, that despite Trump’s claims, the Democrats have nothing to do with it.
The language Trump uses when talking about these people is terribly dangerous. He says they are “infesting” the US. (Hitler talked that way about Jews.) Plus he keeps calling them criminals when most are applying for asylum, which is not a criminal act. Otherwise, crossing a border illegally is at worst a misdemeanor. Trump is calling them smugglers and traffickers because they brought their children with them. So they were supposed to leave the kids at home when things were unsafe enough back home that they made such a journey to get away from the thugs? The children are not at risk from their parents but rather from ICE, which is hiring staff rapidly to deal with the 67 kids a day they are kidnapping, and predators might see an opportunity since ICE is not known for careful vetting. Such hateful language just inspires violence against everybody tagged as maybe an immigrant.
My worry is that parents will not be given the help they need to find their children, especially if the parents have already been deported. ICE has started shipping babies and children to other states as far away as Michigan and New York. They are basically trying to hide the evidence… They really need to pay to bring back deported parents so they can stay with their children (and help locate them) until the kids can be safely deported with their families. Admit it was a terrible mistake, promise never to do it again, and locate and return every child speedily. No excuses. No more hostage-taking. Pay for your own damn wall with a GoFundMe, Mr. Trump.
And people are still ok with it. Will still bend over backwards to defend it and blame the parents. I’ve begun defriending those people on Facebook. I just can’t anymore. I defriended a family member over this.
Exactly, I used to ignore them, but I’ve been pushing back. I suspect I’ll be defriending soon. If you can’t see the horror in this and come back with, but look how nice the facilities are or their parents broke the law so they deserve this trauma, I don’t even know what to say to you. It is the face of evil
Keep reminding people that asking for asylum is not illegal, and crossing a border illegally is a misdemeanor. It used to be even less than that in the legal sense. This is like taking your kids away for a parking ticket.
This isn’t about deportation. It’s about abuse of children. There are international rules about treatment of refugees. You can decide to deny entry, but you can’t abuse refugees in order to deter other refugees from trying to come (which Sessions and Trump admitted is a motivation for the gruesome policy). This is clear from treaties.
Plus it’s a logistical nightmare. Babies and young children can’t give contact info and can’t understand what’s going on. And the staff at those detention centers are told not to ever touch them. So children in high distress can’t be picked up or hugged to comfort them. And we know what happens to babies and young children who do not get enough human touch. Damage can be long-term.
Already parents are being deported without their children. Imagine trying to get your children back when you’ve just been flown to Guatemala. I think ICE already has lost track of the young kids. How are they going to be reunited with their parents?
The planned June 30 protests are a good idea, but ten days is a lifetime to a baby and young child. This has to be stopped NOW. Those children need to be returned to their parents NOW. Bring back their deported parents to be with them in those cages while the idiots in government come to their senses. Do DNA tests if you have to. But get those kids back with their parents NOW.
JFC. Is this all a nightmare? can someone please wake up all of us? Please?
From the outside, this all feels terrible and frightening: for all of my life the reoports about atrocious crimes around the world are constantly pouring in, but it was always about third world countries, decades old dictatorships, oil-rich countries….
now it’s US. IDK if I’m making myself clear:
to live through a war in your childhood and see the same atrocities keep happening all over the world, although for the last..l50, we are constantly promising ourselves more humanity, more protection for children, more investing into happy childhoods…
the opposite is happening. the country who boasted as the “leader of the free world”, “the constant protector of democratic and fair world” became comparable to Nazi Germany in the making.
Don’t get me wrong, all countries have their problems. School shootings and the fact that BLM movement is necessary to this day is scary. But this? This is terrifying and unhuman. This is Gilead with a different starting point. This is breaking of a civilization. Similar to Italy denying the rescued refugees, but even more cruel, more atrocious.
the world has gone upside down for me. I truly think all bets are off. the world has gone completely mad.
i was always optimistic and always thought that “in what world are we bringing are children into” was to dramatic and exxagerated. But since this… I just don’t see how will we explain ourselves to future generations. Our kids will asks us where we were and what we did when this started, mark my words.
Just the other day I was reading the news and thinking, this is Gilead in real life and with small alterations…
The people who claim to be “pro-life” and yell about “killing babies” are weirdly quiet right now.
They’re only “pro-life” until the baby is out of the womb, and then they don’t give a damn.
Oh they are out there trying to deflect from this with their “what about abortion” BS. Makes me sick. They don’t actually care about children born or unborn
My mom was telling my aunt about how my brother doesn’t like to eat things like veal bc of the inhumane way the baby calves are treated. Of course my aunt immediately switched to “oh but he is fine with babies dying” (meaning abortion)? Of course she is also silent on the atrocities along the border and the cages. These religious people are a special brand of ignorant.
They’re actually still yelling about “killing babies”. Anything to deflect from the atrociously inhumane policies that they support.
Has anyone got any snappy retort for the “what about abortions” crowd? This is absolutely not the same but I’m so angry and frustrated I can’t think straight.
You might say that their mothers obviously didn’t abort them, so what’s the point? This is about abuse of children. Nobody is insisting that they be given asylum, just that they must not be separated from their parents (who by the way, didn’t abort them) because that is traumatic and damaging long-term and also makes tracking the kids and reuniting them with parents (who didn’t abort them) extremely difficult.
“You say life is precious and abortion is wrong. You say every child deserves a mother and a father. These children were not aborted and have parents who are able to care for them. In fact, they love their children so much they are willing to give up everything they have ever known to protect them from the gangs and violence that plague their native countries. If you really are pro-life, you should condemn the recent policy changes of this administration and fight for these kids and their parents just as hard as you fight for embryos.”
This is child abuse. Any member of the Trump administration who has not resigned in horror over this is an unfit parent. That includes “Special Advisers,” who like to post pictures of themselves with their kids.
Amen. I’ve seen a couple reports of her asking “Daddy” what he’s going to do but when he ignores her she doesn’t press him. Shocker.
The reports are that he made a comment that she said: “Daddy, the images aren’t good.” All that monster cares about is her image and her brand. She probably was in favor of this plan, very little comes out of his office that doesn’t have her input. And she gleefully used her youngest as a prop and then her daughter to sell this image of the perfect white mommy as the news reports were surfacing about the brown kids. Her dog whistles backfired on her and she’s being called out for her ‘silence.” She’s not being silent when she dresses a kid in 3 layers of flannel pajamas to pose for a picture on an 85 degrees Sunday morning. A poll came out the other day showing her with a very low approval rating, while Chelsea and Jenna Bush got much higher ratings, almost double hers.
Stories from insiders say they are happy with the images, the videos, happy with what is happening. They want this all over the news and they want to blame Democrats for it. The Trumpsters, in and outside the White House, LOVE this is happening.
America, you voted for this. You going to deal?
All those previous administrations, Clinton/Bush/Obama et al, gifted things way worse than this to other countries. You’re crying because you’ve got a tiny fraction of the stuff you made happen in other countries happening in your own country. Better late than never to find your empathy, I suppose. Harden up and do something about it now that it affects you in your previously oblivious existence.
this is completely wrong stance. Truthfully, american administration is not harming it’s own-that’s the reason they got away with it. they are doing it to desperate people in need, who should be protected by all the human rights conventions and decrees-The one from Geneve comes first to mind-but considering they are vulnerable, poor, unprotected and undocumented, Trump goverment is lashing out at them in worst possible ways. if they were Americans, Trump would be much more careful, much more apologetic and critized sooner, to high heaven. I don’t think this would pass as easily as it is now.
let’s say it like this: US brought it’s human rights violations it did abroad-home.
Many other countries have the same stance towards refugees: when we were refugees, we were humans; but those other refugees, they are subhumans. This is just the most cruel way to demonstrate that stance.
You seem to not understand how our elections work, it isn’t that simple. America voting system is based on not maintaining one power too long with many districts voting in wide scale elections. Don’t simply what you seem to not know.
I did not vote for him or this.
Actually. No.
i get your point. america has forced “american exceptionalism” and “democracy” on other countries, only to leave prematurely and create this EXACT kind of vacuum for strongmen dictatorships to emerge and f*ck stuff up for a long time. but, much like the innocent people affected in failed american semi-imperialism and world policing, the majority of americans don’t actually have representation at this point either.
This is what boggles my mind. My so called Facebook friends think this is OKAY. Even those who did not vote for that bastard. Not all of them, but too many of them. I can’t grasp what is going on. I had them posting the Hillary Clinton interview from CNN and all said she wanted kids taken and put in cages too. Dumb asses can’t even read what they share. When I pointed the quotes from HC interview they called me a liar. Then I was told to stop comparing Jews, Japanese and Native American people to what is going on now.
WTF is wrong with people.
Chef Grace, I’m seeing the same crap on Instagram. I’m appalled at the number of parents who think this is okay. It’s so many of them. I can’t even read their comments anymore. I don’t understand how any parent, or person with a heart, could feel it’s okay. Oh and everyone on instagram is just blaming Obama because we all know how much people love to blame that man. Ugh!
I love all the non-Jewish people who are all over Twitter saying that this is unequivocally NOT like Nazi Germany.
BTW, Censorship was rampant throughout Nazi Germany. Censorship ensured that Germans could only see what the Nazi hierarchy wanted them to see, hear what they wanted them to hear, read only what the Nazis deemed acceptable.
Read this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/us/politics/refugees-revenue-cost-report-trump.html
I saw one alt-right pundit, whose name escapes me, try to go after George Takei for saying this was worse than the internment camps. Because some conservative white guy would know more about the internment camps than Takei who grew up in one.
God forgive me, I never thought I would say something positive about internment camps, but as George Takei wrote yesterday, at least he got to stay with his parents.
I cannot believe this is the USA in 2018. Yet it is.
It’s simple- there are millions of racists, more than we imagined. Also, it doesn’t affect their privileged, comfy lives. It’s mainly just annoying news to them. They don’t like discomfort.
They also believe that Nazism= Final Solution and not all the steps leading to it.
Grace, delete those FB ‘friends’. Get rid of them. Don’t pollute your mind with their filth. Better yet, get off FB.
Here in Australia, indigenous babies were stolen from their mothers forcibly as a matter of government policy right up until the early 1970’s. The emotional/financial/spiritual damage that resulted for aboriginal people will always be felt in this country, damage that ruined an important and precious culture forever. Your country will not get over this unless you move fast. It is like a stain that can never come out, no matter how many times you wash.
Good Luck.
same thing in Canada with the Residential School system (which only really ended in the 90s), and then the Sixties Scoop..and even now sadly.
Was going to say the same as OriginalLala. This is actually still happening in Canada, but because they’re brown babies it’s okay. Children are still stripped away from their Moms in hospitals on the basis of their skin color. One of my friends is a lawyer. Her daughter had a baby at the age of 20 and she was prepared. She was over-prepared in case it happened to her daughter at the hospital. The system in many colonized countries is racist.
my mom was one of those babies in Canada. It leaves a lasting mark forever.
It is horrific that Trump and the Republicans (and quite a few citizens it seems) will first of all willingly take kids from parents, but that they would do so as a bargaining tactic for a wall.
They’re so blatant about it. Kidnappers use children as bargaining chips to get money.
And international protocols say you can’t abuse refugees in order to deter others from arriving. You can deny entry, but you can’t abuse them. Separating kids from parents and siblings is the dumbest idea ever, the logistics just became incredibly more difficult with that move. They are scrambling to set up detention for 67 new kids per day and hire staff etc., all of which could be avoided (along with all the major trauma) by simply detaining family units together.
No coincidence at all that Michael Cohen will be flipping on Emperor Zero by week’s end.
Sorry world that it’s taking so long. We are working on it. We ask for patience.
Americans: register all your peeps to vote in November. Time to flip the House in the very least.
DOJ/FBI: time to ratchet up the pressure on these mobsters. Stat!
Mr Mueller: time to burn some witches at the stake!
Like a ray of light through the clouds…Eric posts. 🙂
I would love to celebrate Cohen flipping this weekend. I hope it happens!
Hey Eric, curious what you think about Trump changing his mind? He’s announced that on Wednesday he will sign something that will keep families together. Other pundits (yes you are pundit/oracle-like) are saying Trump blinked, and admitted he screwed up and had no right to do this.
Let’s not celebrate until we see what Trump has signed…. even if the separation of families is stopped, they have to undo the damage already done. They have to find the kids and return them to the parents, included the deported parents.
Here is the most depressing thing about all of this.
The economy is great. Which means there could be little change during mid-terms. It could also mean the re-election of Trump. Because it always comes down to money.
None of these people, Trump, Sessions, Lewandowski, Ivanka, Jared, Ryan, McConnell will suffer any kind of consequences. Just think of all the people involved in the Iraq war during the Bush admin, which resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, and no one was punished for that.
This is how America works. It all comes down to money. And they have it. So they will continue to rule and succeed.
This is the truest statement of all.
It’s nice to think that the average person supporting this is a torch burning, khakis-wearing, white supremacist, but it’s the wealthy, stock owning, 401K growing, fiscal conservatives who pull the strings, and they are doing just fine. They sleep at night because they give zero cares to humans they can’t leave tax sheltered inheritances to.
We can scream as loudly as we want to at them about the atrocities happening in front of them, but this is their long game and they assume collateral damage is a part of the deal.
DHS released the cost of these Baby Concentration Camps. It’ll be $5 million a month. A MONTH! And a lifetime of trauma for the ones that experienced it and inter-generational trauma for their families.
Meanwhile the cost of separating kids from their parents and housing them in Trump’s tent cities is $775 per child per night.
So the new immigration policy is both lucrative and costly: lucrative for the private nonprofits that are being contracted to shelter these people and costly to the American govt/taxpayers.
What a mess.
We are headed for a recession. All of 2018’s gains have been wiped out by the trade war, massive deregulations and the slashing of our labor force with ICE operating as a rogue police force. There is no way we don’t suffer an economic depression, although probably not before the mid terms.
I mean, it’s hard to make predictions in Trump America but with 67% (and growing) of the population opposing the new family separation policy, I do think that this could seal their fate in the midterms. VIOTE! Voting these monsters out is our last hope.
I think people fail to realize that when unemployment is so low, economies NEED immigration to support economic growth.
The Dow is in the red for the year, 6 months in. We are facing inflation, partially as a natural result of low unemployment…but we will also have inflation because of trade wars. I don’t know if the economy will be able to handle such rapid inflation all at one time.
Paul Ryan has released his budget proposals, and they rely on incredible cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
Additionally, deregulation increases the likelihood of a bubble bursting. Retail real estate has been really suffering lately, and malls are dying. If the malls come crashing down, it could take a lot of local economies with them.
These things might not hit the citizenry by the midterms, but I think these waves will crest by 2020.
Exactly. Even if the economy turns, they’re so rich that they’re insulated from any real suffering. They’ll just hunker down and ride it out, snap up all the free falling real estate, secure the best loans, invest in plummeting stocks and commodities. All the while sleeping like babies, eating the best food, driving the best cars, receiving the best healthcare, sending their kids to the best private schools, going home to safe gated communities and never interacting with anyone other than their immediate circle and the help.
Then, when the worst is over, they’ll all get cushy high ranking private sector jobs and have just as much control over legislation as ever. Probably more.
Rinse and repeat.
Are people really defending this? How? I can’t imagine what kind of excuse you have to come up with to justify separating children from their parents. WTF
I really liked what Michel Moore wrote on his facebook regarding this, perfectly said.
They’re defending it because they think it is THE LAW. That is their explanation. And it was made THE LAW by Obama. You can’t convince them of anything. Once Obama’s name is mentioned, they go into Trump mode.
As in blame it on the democrats and Obama. They are the evil ones. Dumb asses.
I can’t even anymore.
Or Clinton. They claim it was a 1996 law signed by Clinton. They are wrong. I was on twitter last night with three imbeciles telling me it was the law. I kept asking for a specific citation and 2 of them started posting from some script claiming it was the law. i asked them what they were quoting from and they just kept calling me stupid, couldn’t I see they were giving me “the law” and what didn’t I understand. I repeatedly asked them for the statutory citation. When I pointed out that federal statutes are written in proper formal English and do not include contractions like “don’t,” they melted down and started posting racist crap. The third just kept asking me why I don’t want laws enforced and couldn’t tell me what law he was talking about. I asked him why he wanted 4 year old girls raped and then denied the comfort of their mothers. He said that wasn’t happening & then I posted the link to the news report. He shut up.
Yes, I was dealing with people who kept blaming Obama and Clinton saying it was the law. They have no use for facts, but I think of others who might read their posts and think they are truthful, so I feel compelled to correct them.
Here’s the DOJ website where they announce the “NEW” policy and state that Sessions directed the US attorneys along the southwest border to adopt a new policy. There has clearly been a change in policy.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-announces-zero-tolerance-policy-criminal-illegal-entry
If kids were routinely separated from parents by Bush and Obama – then why is ICE scrambling to set up detention centers for children and babies now? Trump has claimed that Obama detained twice as many children this way. Where are the detention facilities for babies and toddlers and young children, then?
People are also confused about the term “unaccompanied minors”. These are minors who have crossed the border on their own, without a parent. These are typically teens. The term does not apply to babies and children who have been forcibly taken from their accompanying parents. They are now “unaccompanied” only because you kidnapped them. They did not cross the border that way.
Exactly, jwoolman. They are (intentionally) twisting the children who came by themselves under Obama with the children who came with their parents and where then separated under Trump.
They say it’s because the parents are committing a crime. That’s all. That’s enough for them. Take their children away, create unnecessary life-long trauma for all and horrible experiences for HUMAN BEINGS in search of a better life. They deserve it. Words are not enough to describe how I feel about this sitting on the other side of the world in Eastern Europe, watching this horror show…
Yes! I’m currently trying to explain to someone who wrote something negative to my short, loving post that her mom was a hardcore criminal and she was in foster care for 14 years. She blames her mom not the president. I’m like hi there, sorry that happened to you but you clearly don’t understand what is actually happening. I can’t with these people! “But the parents are criminals!!!!” Ummm, nope. They are running from criminals! Sorry, I’ll probably comment 100 times today because I’m outraged.
Border crossing is a MISDEMEANOR! I keep seeing the meme comparing these people to drug dealers, etc. No one gets their kids taken away for a misdemeanor. Even serial killers are allowed to call and speak with their children.
See, I am not sure this is a hill I would want to die on. Our laws historically have not punished children for the perceived wrongs of otheir parents. Here is the analogy I have been using against these law and order types:
You are driving with your kids in the car when you get stopped for speeding (speeding is a misdemeanour in most states but can be treated as a civil instead of criminal offense in many cases). The cop tells you that he has no choice but to take you to jail and charge you with a crime instead of just writing you a ticket and ordering you to show up in traffic court. Because your kids are with you, he has to call CPS and put them in foster care until you sort out your speeding case. Except CPS is not necessarily going to keep them nearby and in fact has the right to send them anywhere in the US where there is a shelter bed or foster home without your knowledge or permission. CPS does not have to keep you updated on the whereabouts of your kids and has no plans to reunite you once you pay your speeding ticket and get out of jail. And it does not matter one bit that you were only speeding to get away from a murderous stalker who has been harassing you for months and has threatened to kill your entire family.
I always end with, “Now do you understand why supporting this policy is immoral and makes you look like an unfeeling jerk?”
I truly have no words. This is terrifying and heartbreaking. I have contacts (not friends anymore) who think that this is okay and I just cannot fathom how morally bankrupt or brainwashed they are. I’m in England but this still breaks my heart, I think this must be America’s decline or they will partner up with Russia, North Korea and China and not forgetting Israel (even though I’m a supporter of Israel, I don’t think their current prime minister is leading them in the right path).
The US government has also withdrawn from the UN Human Rights council as well probably so they won’t be prosecuted.
Does that really stop them from being prosecuted? Is there no governing world body that can charge that puke with kidnapping or human rights atrocities? What about the World Health Organization? These children are being horribly traumatized.
America is not prepared for this, american citizens are not prepared for this. Institutions will not help anymore. Get your power back, organize, take the streets, strike, call for international news, boicott. We are doing it in Catalonia, we did it and do it in Peru , we are fighting for our rights. But is has to be offline, it has to be in person, so take your power back, it is time for american citizens to fight, and it is time for you to have basic human rights like a proper free healthcare system, your freedom of speech and your privacy back.
‘It has to be offline’
Good point.
Yes, you did it after years and years of what happened in your country. This is but new to the younger generations here and we haven’t got the stage yet of outrage. We will get there when the economy tanks, like it has in your county. Real truth is people protest when their own environment and safety is threatened.
But your environment IS threatened! children in cages?!!, children shot dead in schools??!, unnarmend citizens shot by police?!, american citizens shot dead in church?!, sick amercians dying without access to medical attention?!…I cannot think of many things worse than that for a 1st world country, with money and resources…Extreme right is growing everywere, it is 1942 again, but this time is worldwide truly…
You haven’t got the stage of outrage yet? All I can read on this side is outrage – rightfully. Cora is absolutely right,take it offline. Do something, take it to the streets and I’m not talking about a march or rally here or there. Take it to the streets every month or every week. I often think of the lyrics from the musical Hamilton ‘this is not a moment, it’s a movement’ when I go online and see outraged tweets and comments. Social media gives us the feeling of a movement, but it’s not. It is actually just a moment if it stays online only/mostly.
I come from the former GDR and I’ve seen the monday demonstrations. We even had them in my very small town. Yes, it took people years to find the courage to demonstrate but they did. Those are pictures we will remember. No tweet, no comment, no meme can ever be as powerful as people protesting in the streets.
And Isabelle, I’m sorry if I sound angry with you or if it comes across as attacking you. I feel just as helpless as many on here. I often think the US can’t come back from this, at least not in our lifetime. But actually, this is not true. This world has seen worse and you and we can come back from this. We can learn from history – good or bad.
Greenmother your post at all didn’t anger me. We should be outraged but we aren’t and it won’t happen anytime soon. My opinion most Americans are extremely apathetic and really don’t care at all. They only care about their position and surroundings. This is caused by the good fortune many have had in America, it allowed them to ignore the poverty & problems underneath. We had the privilege of safety for so long, we now no longer realize internal threats to our country. We now become angry when our personal family, job or community is threatened. Our past wealth, gluttony and entertainment has robbed & brainwashed us into not caring for the other. It is a process to get to the point of outrage in the streets. Honestly think the only thing that would wake us up would be war or the collapse of the economy.
Isabelle, now I got you. I really hope for all of you and all of us that the point of outrage and the point of return comes without a war and without the collapse of the economy. Thank you for your reply and explanation 🙂
Absolutely agree with you Isabelle. Unfortunately I thing the Conservative right-wing has enjoyed a long time of triumph in American politics regardless of their lies and out right cheating because of the “Dept culture” that immediately took hold by the late 80’s with the Reagan administration doing away with banking and consumer regulations and promoting credit cards as the new American way.
This led to a false sense of wealth enjoyed by almost all sectors of the population even of lower classes barely making enough to take on any kind of dept. They were handing out credit cards on college campuses to freshman. That’s how I got my first credit card and dept to got with it.
Working classes were able to participate in material “wealth” (DEBT) like never before. Everyone could live like the Jones’ as long as they could make the monthly minimum payment on ALL their credit cards (most Americans have 2+). This is how working people and middle class totally missed that wages, nation wide, had stayed the same for close to 40 yrs and still haven’t grown to match the GDP.
So yeah, If people don’t realize that they’re NOT prospering and in fact the reverse that they are falling farther away from real opportunities to earn livable wages, access to affordable health care, education and housing. Not to mention having secure civil rights and real access to the political process. — Then you have an entire population that has been essentially pacified to the realities of their state.
The world feels sick watching this happen with you America. My genuine sympathies that you have this horrific administration in power. I wish you strength through the powerlessness and we’re all routing for wrongs to be put to rights.
It’s no secret that “business as normal” America had a serious amount of concerning issues (racism, sexism, gun violence – not to diminish those things, they still need changing) but this feels like a whole other circle of hell to me.
i hope Corey Lewandowski gets horribly burned down to the guts and lives.
Shove the sad trombone up his ass. Womp womp.
Enough are outraged about his comment, that he may end up gutted like a fish
I loved this tweet: https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/1009394307789475840
Lol. Flop flop, womp womp
Who can blame her? I’m sickened by this sickening spectacle and it has to stop-I can’t imagine forcible separation from my special needs child-I’d have to be murdered for it to happen
The United States of America withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council. Let that sit for a minute. I remember when he was elected MSNBC dis a town hall featuring Trump Voters along side non-Trump voters. It was right after the Muslim ban and a Muslim young woman told a white male, Trump voter that she was scared that something will happen to her and other Muslims. That first is the ban, next will be policies to round up Muslims. The man said to her, very fervently, that “this is America. We have checks on presidents and she is safe.” I wonder about that man right now. How does he feel now. America is no longer a place where Human rights is something we hold dear. People NEED to be VERY scared.
They could at the very least give the kids proper blankets and pillows. That’s the least they can do.
Trump wants these children traumatized and he’s happy when parents are outraged. He’s never been able to strike out at so many of his ‘enemies’ at the same time before. He’s walking around feeling 10 feet tall these days. He lives for attention and he’s happiest if he can get it while hurting someone.
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902).
Ok how much of this crap as a people are we going to put up with.Nothing is being done about guns so prepare for another school shooting in the future.The country is allowing this cruel,inhumanitarian policy at the border to continue ,and the icing on the cake:the Republican party now wants to sneak in cutting Medicare and Social Security to pay for their big tax cuts to the wealthy.This country needs to wake up and in a big way!
Maddow/Reid/O’Donnell are my Holy Trinity when it comes to news…they have EARNED that honor…I grew up on Cronkite…and Max Robinson…Peter Jennings…Dan Rather…I grew up getting facts…not propaganda…and those (3) harken back to that…
I have watched Rachel since she first aired on September 8, 2008…and she is a pro…through and through…however, since Tramp got elected…this poor woman has had more than a few emotional breakdowns over the air…
I do not blame her….
All we need is one terrorist attack, OR, one “terrorist attack” (ala putin) before the midterms, and America is over. This is what is haunting me right now.
Oh f-ck. You are so freaking right, Darla.
We should specify that the terrorist attack must be committed by a brown foreigner, white male Americans are fine.
But yeah, if that happens we are screwed.
Oh yeah, I should have specified that. They don’t consider mass shootings by white guys terrorism, so more of those won’t matter at all. Just another day in America!
I’ve followed this site for years and have never commented before but feel compelled to do so now. I have a five year old daughter and the fact that children her age are being subjected to such inhumane treatment is heartbreaking. This tragedy has shaken me to my core. I’m Canadian. Besides giving money to the charities that have been recommended here, what can I do? Besides wishing that this evil administration gets the comeuppance they so richly deserve?
We can pressure the government to grant amnesty to these families. They did something if the sort during the travel ban days and we can convince them to do it perhaps- the liberals are by no means altruistic – as a way to stick it to Trump for the trade tariffs….
Contact your MP about suspending the Safe Third Country Agreement which sends asylum seekers back to the US if they land there first. Our government is tiptoeing around it right now instead of acting on it.
Definitely the US is not a safe place to send anybody these days. We don’t know what our government will do next, they are so out of control. Refugees are definitely not safe here, either from our government or our citizens. Trump has brought out the worst in us.
They are shipping the kidnapped children to other areas of the country now, even as far as New York City and Michigan. Getting them back to their parents will be another nightmare, especially the preverbal ones. Parents have been deported without their children. Everybody is understandably frantic.
I saw this happen in real time on TRMS and it was so heartbreaking, especially when you watch her show regularly and know what a professional she is.
It makes me physically I’ll go think of all those young children crying themselves to sleep at night. Wondering how they are even keeping track of all the babies since they can’t speak and don’t know their own names yet. I just cannot fathom the inhumanity I am seeing.
These kind of shameful acts should be in our history books, not happening in 2018.
The Post Save America website has a list of advocate groups you can donate to, or think about calling your local representative.
I’ve had to unfriend two of my husband’s cousin’s on FB in the past 24 hrs. One posted a meme in support of this and how trump is being picked on. The other cousin posted about how Democrats were cheering when Elian Gonzalez was sent back to Cuba. I’ll be civil when I see them in real life but I’ve lost all respect for them and see them as terrible human beings.
Me46 – does your cousin realize that Elián Gonzales was being returned to his only living parent, his father? His parents were divorced. His mother drowned on the way to the US with her boyfriend, she had brought the child without the father’s permission. The father did not want to leave Cuba. It’s amazingly lucky that Elián survived himself. He had paternal relatives in Miami who were trying to keep him, but the government eventually agreed that he should be returned to his father. Elián is now an engineer in Cuba. He says that he always wanted to return to his dad, but the relatives kept trying to confuse him by saying bad things about his father. It seemed to all be about political differences, not abuse. The father was doing fine in Cuba and had no problem with the changes or with Fidel Castro. His relatives did have a problem with the changes and emigrated to Miami. Which is fine, until they tried to keep the boy from his dad.
So we’re talking about a custody battle, where the mother had tried to illegally enter the US and brought her young son on a dangerous journey…. I don’t think the relevance of the story is what your cousin thinks.
At the time, the US applied the wet-dry rule. If people from Cuba were stopped at sea or while walking through the water to shore, they would be sent back to Cuba. If they made it to dry shore, they generally were allowed to stay.
I’m sure she does but she has the mindset that the only reason why people are upset about this is because it’s trump doing it.
Where is the international community on this? We’ve invaded countries for less!
Too awful. I haven’t been able to listen to the audio of the children crying
Why cant some of these big donors like the Koch brothers go to the Republican Congress and say if you don’t stop this S*** show we are going to stop out funding.They would listen to them,they did so with the Tax Bill
Well the House is voting on a bill tomorrow that will end separating these kids from their parents.I guess even the Koch brothers as well as other big donors could not stomach this amount of horror
Yes, I have also donated to RAICES as well as some other organizations. Also, organize or participate in protests and actions against this horror. Call your reps. Even if they don’t support the torture of parents and children (mine don’t)- call them anyway and let them know you want email updates of what they are doing to stop this, that you will not let this go and you hold them accountable. Put the pressure on and keep it on.
If you want to cry some more, read this. While ignoring allegations of psychological harm, the Administration has been defending itself against allegations of abuse by saying that the kids have been placed in safe secure locations that are staffed by professionals. Really? https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/20/separated-migrant-children-are-headed-toward-shelters-history-abuse-an/
United States is a horror show. America is a continent that has had to put up with United States imperialistic shit for too long, I honestly don’t care if United States decided to press the self destruction button electing Trump (autodetermination right and all that) but treating babies and toddlers worst than they treat animals is a low point even for a country that has had no trepidation in plotting coups and helping dictators causing thousands of deaths all over the world.
You are right though. There are some Americans who would cry at seeing dogs taken away from their owners, abused and put in cages….but those same people don’t give a sh*t about Mexican children being taken away from their parents. Racist f*ckers are living for this sh*t right now and probably celebrating while chowing down on their Mexican/Chinese/Indian take-out. Hypocrites.
I can’t help but imagine if Trump had lost, Hilary or Bernie had won…how different the world would be right now. All this emotional stress is taking it’s toll…on EVERYONE.
My stomach hurts constantly, and I’ve cried so many times. I posted it above, but in case anyone wants to take action, here’s a list of Texas organizations helping the kids and their parents:
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/18/heres-list-organizations-are-mobilizing-help-separated-immigrant-child/?utm_campaign=trib-social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=5562387051
Also, there are rallies everywhere on June 30. #KeepFamiliesTogether
Corrupt
You corrupt
Bring corruption to all that you touch
Hold
You’ll behold
And beholden for all that you’ve done
And spell
Cast a spell
Cast a spell on the country you run
And risk
You will risk
You will risk all their lives and their souls
And burn
You will burn
You will burn in hell
yeah You’ll burn in hell
You’ll burn in hell
Yeah you’ll burn in hell for your sins
About a dozen governors, both Republicans and Democrats, have announced that they won’t approve sending their states’ national guards down to the US/Mexican border. Good for them.
I’m in Wisconsin and our lovely governor whom I hope is unemployed in November just announced that a couple dozen WI National Guard members will be going down to Arizona. Those individuals could be helping in northern Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota where roads and bridges were damaged due to heavy flooding this past week. In one area of Wisconsin, it’s the third year in a row that this has happened. I hope that they remember who felt it was more important to send the WI National Guard down to Arizona where they’ll tear apart families instead of having them stay home and help clean up flooding damage. Maybe they’ll have some sense and blame him for failing to respond, and vote him out of office.
I love Rachel. When will all this madness and evil STOP?? I cant stand it anymore. 😫
Though I have cried a lot over all the violence and destruction in recent years I have not cried this hard since Hurricane Katrina.
I put this on my Facebook wall just now:
“We’re gonna traffic children, esp little girls, AND YOU CAN’T STOP US.” — the U.S. Government
Trump just signed an Executive Order to keep families together. Not stopping the zero tolerance policy though so now everyone will just be jailed together immediately. yay. No details on whether and how separated families will be reunited. I just feel deflated/depressed and can’t concentrate at all on anything.
@Kate!!! Yes!!! I just came here to say the same thing!! Is it weird I just started sobbing that this is happening!!! Now…..how to reunite all the families?!?! ***continues to ugly cry****
Not weird – completely understandable. I feel slightly less on edge (like capable of getting some work done) but there is still such a big fight to get these families reunited and I don’t hold much hope that he will go so far as to fix that since he’s taking heat from all sides on this Executive Order (sane human beings saying it wasn’t enough and soulless racists saying he shouldn’t have “given in” at all).
We just have to maintain our energy and outrage and sorrow until one of the government branches fixes this. Everyone keep harassing your representatives, sign petitions, attend protests, donate money to organizations that help, post on your social network, talk to everyone you can about it so it doesn’t fall off our collective radar.
The scars these children will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.
It’s so awful, I can’t even concentrate on anything.
The republicans are the most evil, creatures I can think of, I hope they get one day what they deserve and some.
Americans are patient people, in my country there would be General Strikes held on daily basis.
When it comes to children, we have zero tolerance here.
The Orange Nazi and his vile crew would be chased out of the White House pretty quick, revolution would be happening.
It seems that there is high tolerance for such disgrace in America.
@ JANE : I don’t understand how Americans are not flooding the streets of United States protesting this Cruel Trump Regime. Majority of them didn’t even vote for this horrid trash.
If you don’t stand up for children, who do you stand up for?????
Well Americans may be patient but they’re also complacent. And frankly they’re now scared, because if they went to the streets now they just be mowed down by bullets instead of the water hoses that were used in the 60’s during the Civil Rights Movement.
I have been going back in forth with some trump loving “fake news” spewing troll on instagram all day! She won’t leave me alone! She’s telling me I’m wrong when all I posted was it’s bad to take babies from their caregivers! Literally calling me names and crap and why am I engaging the troll on insta?!?! Ahhhh!!! I’m done replying to her since she knows everything and I know nothing.
I’m Canadian, but I’m human first.
I feel helpless, angry and so stunned, but I need to do something.
Can someone please suggest a place that I could donate funds to, so these poor, sweet children could somehow be helped?
Is there anything that could be done in Canada, can I call my MP, but what can they do?
Oh, this is so horrible
I fear for those little girls that will likely be “lost” and what will become of them. This feels so much like a convenient sanctioned trafficking situation.
I know. I am terrified for them.
He has reversed the order to separate them. I have a sneaking suspicion that he knew that he would face impeachment over this if he didn’t act. I couldn’t imagine any other reason.
I am still trying to get entirely through reading this thread. I am so proud of everyone here for their stand on this issue: their compassion, their humanity and their activism. I just don’t know what I or many of us would do without Celebitchy. I live way out in the country and don’t have TV right now so the Internet is what I have. The Celebitchy website is doing a great service to those of us who care deeply about this type of issue. I’m so thankful. Celebitchy has long been my 1st go to and last go to every day for various reasons.
I am so embarrassed to live in this country with this horrible administration who have no souls. They care about objects….guns, money…but couldn’t care less about people.
Her compassion just overwhelmed her emotions. It’s difficult to read and see, let alone report on this..
I find this Trump Administration revolting in every way.
I did not vote for this fool. He is a disgrace to the office of President. Period.
As for the emotions during reading a newscast…I understand the high level of emotion BUT, during the Kennedys, MLK, killings and the Vietnam War reporting Walter Cronkite delivered the news without becoming overwhelmed by his emotions. Reporting these awful stories IMO, the newscasters must keep their emotions in check in order to keep the focus on the humanity in the stories. Otherwise the report becomes about how the newscaster was emotional. In These awful, criminally heartbreaking stories the focus must be kept on the victims. Not on the newscaster/reporter.
Trump and his entire administration are unforgivable in this situation. As LBJ was haunted by his handling of the Vietnam War, so Trump should be haunted by this story of tearing apart children and parents. Vile, vile man.