peggysue2
peggysue2's JournalThis Is Why We're Fighting: the Rise of the Strongman Presidency, One-Man Rule
Turkey didn't slide into a one-man debacle overnight. It crept in on cat's feet, became increasingly autocratic (particularly since the curious, if not staged coup of several years ago) and if Erdogan wins--he's already announced an unofficial victory--One Man Rule will be a lock. Like the Trumpster and his minions, Erdogan believes in a strong security force over the Rule of Law or an independent judiciary. In fact today, the Trumpster's comments against immigrants--just deport 'em, forget due process--is a clear warning. The Trumpster and Erdogan also share an affection for Putin and his oligarchs.
How strange and coincidental.
Not really. Thugs and the lawless come in all nationalities, an equal opportunity career path.
In November, we can shut this down, neuter the danger in the United States. We dare not miss. Because our lives depend on it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkish-voters-cast-ballots-in-election-seen-as-a-test-for-erdogan/2018/06/24/3044f63a-74b5-11e8-bda1-18e53a448a14_story.html?utm_term=.5162a11534cb
The Trumpster's Cabinet Meeting, The Short Version
For anyone who missed the televised cabinet meeting or cannot bear watching the Trumpster on the C-span video, I offer the short version, another chapter in MAGA: Make Americans Gag Again
The problems on the border are all the Democratic Party's fault. Schumer and Pelosi have put out the word: do not cooperate, obstruct everything and anything. And this is all about human trafficking (oh please, don't let this be another projection).
The filibuster is a bust which prevents Trumpy from doing what needs to be done, yada, yada. But those pictures of the kids really bothered him and the Democratic Party doesn't care, will not agree to funding for the upkeep and care of the children and just want more judges. Other countries don't do this; they put their money into security but the Democrats don't care because they simply want open borders and think the chaos will help them in November.
Btw, there's going to be a Red Wave from the polls the Trumpster is checking in his stable genius brain.
Mexico is also a huge problem because they refuse to do anything about the immigrants walking through their country, waves of immigrants walking through like it was Central Park (Best analogy).
And just in case you weren't aware, the summit with Kim Jong un was a you-u-ge success. The people in Asia love us for what we've done. All over Asia they're loving us because everyone was talking war with North Korea before the Trumpster and 'Mike' took office. During the Obama Administration that's all people were talking about (funny I don't remember that during the Obama years. I specifically recall the Trumpster beating the war drums--the fire and fury proclamation).
And the economic picture is rosy, the best in the entire history of the United States, maybe the Universe!
The End
(except for Mulvaney, who I did not listen to but no doubt described dismantling the Department of Education and wedding it to the Labor Department and the closing prayer: Please God, keep Mueller off our asses.). 
The Monsters Have Retreated a Half-Step but The Hollow Men Remain
The immigration policy that the Trumpster and his acolytes have embraced is ghastly in and of itself. Terrorizing children, shredding family connections and pointing fingers of blame at everyone but themselves has infuriated the public and brought professional journalists to tears.
One can only guess how bad the polling has been on this issue, the internal polling not the numbers the public sees. Because make no mistake, this is what this half-step back is all about. The Trumpster and his enablers have not developed hearts and souls overnight. They’ve simply realized that their position is a no-win, despite Miller’s protests to the contrary. Perhaps Nielsen finally drew a line after her public shaming: reverse this order or I resign and go public.
Marie Antoinette moments are often shattering.
As good as this reversal appears, feels, the Hollow Men are still in place. Immigrant children have been separated from their families and the task to reunite them will be long and arduous. Some of these kids have already been handed off to foster care, entered into the labyrinth of Social Services. The scars will last because trust has been irrevocably broken. The damage will be lasting both for the children and the country.
I found it amusing the Trumpster cancelled the Congressional picnic, said it was inappropriate at the moment. Does that impropriety include tonight’s campaign rally in Minnesota where The Donald can feel the love?? Does it include Mike Pompeo’s tone deaf tweet this morning celebrating World Refugee Day or Jeff Session’s disappointment in rescinding child separation, infant incarceration, cruelty on a massive scale?
Guaranteed, The Hollow Men are merely resetting the machines at the Monster Factory. Time is short. Their work is never done.
Nor is ours.
Samantha Bee releases NYT's stalled audio of Miller's interview
Laughs have been in short supply this week but Full Frontal made a major attempt. It's good to laugh, btw, in the face of horror. Why? Because it keeps us sane. Or at least not raving crazy. So, take a listen. And give yourself a hee-haw.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/samantha-bee-reveals-the-withheld-recording-from-stephen-millers-nyt-interview_us_5b29b29ae4b05d6c16c8b6f1
Miller has become the face and voice of the Trumpster's worst instincts. Deservedly so, methinks.
This Is How We Fight!
Governors are pulling their Guards from the border, refusing to spend resources and manpower on the Trumpster's monstrous border policy that punishes children and families.
https://twitter.com/MollyMcKew/status/1009167216435220481
This is how we fight! Keeping the pressure on and not letting up.
How We Become Monsters
The monsters of childhood nightmare no longer live under the bed. They breathe and talk and walk among us; they double down on every abuse and cruelty; they speak of infestations and crime and all manner of horrific consequences if we—the public— do not follow their mandates, their prescriptions for the future or criticize their actions.
The monsters distract and lie with ever-growing intensity. They blatantly call reports of inhumanity over-wrought, fictional and dishonest. Abby Huntsman on Fox News said that the the separation of children from their families is unsustainable but that the kids are not being held in cages (don’t trust your lying eyes) and they’re not being gassed.
Is Abby Huntsman a monster? What she said is monstrous. The panel agreeing and nodding their heads is monstrous in its acquiescence. Spreading false equivalencies to an audience (well, we’re not gassing these people so it’s not bad or inhumane behavior) is a monstrous equation, a cognitive and emotional disconnect to what most people consider basic decency.
How do we become monsters?
When we remain silent, passive and/or apathetic. When we are willing to believe and say what is clearly untrue, beyond the pale, all in the service of monstrous policy or a particular political brand.
This is not new.
We need not scramble back to Hitler’s Germany but merely take a stroll with George Takei in his Op-Ed over at Foreign Policy, “At Least During the Internment . . . Are Words I Thought I’d Never Utter.” Takei lived this nightmare as a five-year old but as he states in his essay, he had his parents to protect him. This was enormously important because:
When a government acts capriciously, especially against a powerless and much-reviled group, it is hard to describe the terror and anxiety. There is nowhere to turn, because the only people with the power to help have trained their guns and dogs upon you. You are without rights, held without charge or trial. The world is upside down, information-less, and indifferent or even hostile to your plight.
Indifference is a pathway to monster-making. Fear-mongering is a road to monster-making. Racist and/or ethnic hatred and resentment is a trail leading straight to the monster factory.
Or we can detour from the path, shouting down the liars, the fear-mongers, the racists.
This is a defining moment for America. We’re with ‘em or against ‘em. There’s no gray area in the matter, no appeasement nor compromise.
We’re either decent human beings or we’re monsters.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/06/19/at-least-during-the-internment-are-words-i-thought-id-never-utter-family-separation-children-border/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-and-friends-defends-trumps-family-separation-policy
Btw, I’m listening to the Trumpster right now addressing the NFIB, National Federation of Independent Business. He is spouting his usual psychopathic reasoning. But he spoke a moment of truth: he doesn’t want more judges to handle the overflow at the border; he wants more police.
Monster Alert!
MAGA: Mobsters Are Governing America
Let the Party Begin! DC's rolling billboard. LOL
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We have our loop down. <a href="https://t.co/g2orQLd0n7">https://t.co/g2orQLd0n7</a> <a href="https://t.co/TjHd5PaaDb">pic.twitter.com/TjHd5PaaDb</a></p>— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueFactsStated/status/1008785165253046273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gotta Love it!
Sorry for the embed Gobblety-gook.
Child Actors Worthy of an Oscar
Yes, you knew it was coming and someone would go there. In this case, it is Ann Coulter charging that the images of caged immigrants, children specifically, are populated by child actors weeping, appearing stressed out and traumatized on cue for the cameras.
A ploy, an act. They are reading from a liberal script, Coulter claims, and she begs that the Trumpster not fall for it. This article was published at Breitbart. I refuse to provide a link to a racist rag.
Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), has said there simply is no policy to separate parents from their children.
If you can’t justify abusive policy dictums, just deny they exist.
She will not, she stated, apologize for enforcing the law. That would be the law that does not require abusing, terrorizing children.
Evil elf Jeff Sessions reiterated these comments in New Orleans where he accepted an Award for Awfulness from the Sheriff’s Association.
Then there’s the Border Patrol who feels ‘uncomfortable’ with the use of the word ‘cages.’ Although the term may be accurate, the spokesman said, the people are not being treated like animals.
That’s reassuring.
However, we already have our first substantiated allegation of child sexual abuse by a US deputy. A 4-year old child repeatedly molested while the child’s mother was threatened with deportation if she alerted anyone.
But, but . . . The Law.
Yes, the Rule of Law exists and must be protected. But when the Rule of Law is perverted, twisted in order to justify harm and abuse, the perversion must be called out. In this case, the law as written does not require ripping apart families or traumatizing children. The defenders of a wicked policy are simply . . . lying to cover their own asses and muddy the waters.
The Trumpster insists crime has increased by 30% when, in fact, crime is at a 20-30 year low. Oh btw, immigrants are far less likely to commit crime in country than native born citizens.
I probably don’t have to tell you that using the Law to justify all manner of horror was effectively utilized by the Nazis to imprison, work to death and execute undesirables by the millions.
We are approaching an Event Horizon. The danger is all too real.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/border-patrol-very-uncomfortable-with-word-cages
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/06/18/deputy-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-girl-4-threatening-to-have-mother-deported-if-she-spoke-up/?utm_term=.ddcf04a63a79
https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/crime-2017-updated-analysis
http://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2017/aug/03/antonio-villaraigosa/mostly-true-undocumented-immigrants-less-likely-co/
The Powerful Effect of a Single Image
The current policy of separating families simply isn't playing well. Politically speaking for the Trumpsters.
They never considered the moral aspect of the policy and no matter how many enablers insist that they are honest--Huckabee Sanders--or that they have a conscience and are Catholic--Kelly Ann Conway--or that the Law of the Land is blessed and sanctioned by God--grinning Jeff Sessions--they are losing badly in the humane/decency department.
Why?
Because this is the brain fart of good ole Stevie Miller, aka Baby Goebbels. From what I've read he suggested and convinced the Trumpster that ripping kids from their parents' arms was the way to go, could serve as credible leverage in the immigration wars.
Gotta hand it to MIller. When he's wrong, he's really, really wrong.
What the policy has produced is the soon-to-be iconic image of a young child in laceless red sneakers, her face twisted in fear and anguish. It's the sort of photo that gets stamped on the brain like that famous photo of the naked child in Vietnam (Napalm Girl) or the fireman carrying a dead child from the rubble of Oklahoma City. It's the sort of image that lasts.
Oops.
The only upside to this indecent policy move? The political fallout could very well end Miller's tenure, so that he can go back to where he came from (under a rock?) and be the neighborhood crank.
As for the ongoing, majority opposition--the letters, the marches, the phone calls? The efforts are exposing the rot, the blackened heart at the center of the Trumpster Administration. Like vampires, these people hate sunlight; the exposure is an instant killer, particularly with a boss who will never admit a wrong. Listening this afternoon to GOP members trying to justify the decision, talk around it, etc was . . . painful. Makes you wonder how adult men and women can become so divorced from rational, moral thinking.
So, speaking up for these kids and their parents serve two purposes: doing the right, humane thing, following through with basic American values and thrusting a sword into the heart of the walking dead.
There's been much speculation that a porn star might tip the scale, open a hornet's nest on all things Trumpster connected. Who would have predicted that it might be a small, frightened child, separated from her family, doing what frightened children do--crying openly, her face twisted with anguish.
And those little red sneakers!
And a little child shall lead them.
Art of the Steal, Art of the Moron
Rick Wilson, Never-Trumper Extraordinaire, has another piece up, a thank you to The Donald for all he’s done to ensure world peace. Did you know that there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea because . . .
Little Kim promised while dreaming of future condos and mini Trump Towers.
So, we’re good. As are our Asian allies who are waiting for the flowers to drop from the sky.
BTW, Wilson’s piece was written in response to all the MAGA folks distressed by his lack of gratitude to the Great Man’s accomplishments. Thus, the proper response and gushing compliments. Here’s a sample:
Thank you, Mr. President, for reminding us that Kim Jong Un is talented. I couldn’t agree more. He’s talented at killing his uncles, half-brothers, cousins, and countrymen with poison, anti-aircraft guns, chemical weapons, and flamethrowers. He’s talented at starving his people, systematically reducing their life expectancy, health, and even height because of the chronic malnutrition his evil policies entail. He’s talented like his father and grandfather before him at rooking Western leaders. They’re talented at proposing deals they never had the slightest intention of keeping.
Enjoy!
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-negotiating-style-is-pure-art-of-the-moron?source=twitter&via=desktop
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Name: PegGender: Female
Hometown: New Jersey
Home country: USA
Current location: Wilmington, DE
Member since: Sat Feb 6, 2016, 08:31 PM
Number of posts: 11,354