So, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court ruling on Trump’s travel ban. Despite his rhetoric clearly indicating what it is, the Supreme Court decided that his public statements shouldn’t count in determining the legality of the ban. It’s frustrating and Un-American at it’s heart, but here it stands. The swing vote on this verdict, as is historically the case in these situations was Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy, in his statement wanted to assure everybody, that he hates religious and racial intolerance, and that this was not about that. This was about the constitution dammit! Also, he wants everyone to know (in a very subtle way, without using anyone’s names explicitly) that this isn’t the court’s permission for important people to disregard the constitution. Because that’s still what’s important! No one is above the law! And yet, those words probably fall on deaf ears. Or at least distracted ears, distracted from the loud gloating of the President, who sees this as nothing less than a win for him.
I was kind of wondering when Donald Trump was going to comment on the whole situation with Sarah Huckabee Sanders being asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant. It was just one of those events that would be a perfect little distraction for him to talk about something ultimately unimportant, but still something he could make sound like some kind of personal injustice. Of course the way he was going to see this was as a supreme injustice. I mean, how unfair of someone to refuse to serve another because of personal beliefs! (No one on his side of the aisle seems to see the irony regarding their stance on this and their stance on allowing the refusal of service to gay people for the very same reason). But the hilarious part was that Trump basically attacked the restaurant for being gross. I mean, he’s never set foot in the place, so his claims are baseless, but for him to attack the cleanly standards of a restaurant, and implying shady health and safety standards is deeply hypocritical. For the record, from all indication, the Red Hen is a lovely little spot, that looks perfectly sanitary, and their health and safety record reflects that. On the other hand, You have Trump brand restaurants including the dining establishment in his precious Mar-a-Lago, with health violations a mile long, many of them long standing issues that never get fixed. As late as last November, the kitchen in Mar-a-Lago had as many as 15 violations. And some of the long standing ones are pretty bad. We’re talking cockroaches bad. So it’s hard to take him seriously as a judge of good health and safety standard.
So I’ve been reading articles about trade negotiations with China, and one of their big complaints is consistency. They’re frustrated because Donald Trump doesn’t seem to know what he wants out of a trade deal, and keeps moving the goal post, regardless of how willing they seem to be in dealing. And the more I think about that, the more I can put into context things like Trump declaring that illegal immigrants should be kicked out of the countries, no due process, despite that being unconstitutional to the extreme. Trump is basically a toddler. He has expectations that he’s going to be taken care of in every aspect of his life. If he wants something, like a toddler, he doesn’t take into consideration what it takes to get it, or even if it’s permissible. That doesn’t even cross his mind. He just knows that he wants something, and that the people around him, like a toddler’s understanding of his parents, are there to make that happen. But unlike actual parents, the people around Trump are ACTUALLY there to make his whims happen, which has meant skirting the law and the very foundations of what is allowed.
I kind of feel bad for Melania Trump. I feel like the people who should be worried about her optics aren’t doing their job. Now, realistically, no one should have needed to tell her that it was inappropriate to wear a jacket that said “I really don’t care, do u?” in big white letters on the back while visiting a detention center holding kids separated from their parents. But fashion was previously a big part of her life, and I suppose that jacket is fashionable, and perhaps this was just a blindspot. But blindspot or not, as the first lady, especially in this administration, maybe putting herself in a position where her sincerity is put into question wasn’t the best of ideas.
So after weeks of claiming that the separation of families at the borders was both A) Out of his hands/Not his fault and B) A totally necessary thing, Donald Trump is signing an executive order to end the vile practice that has been the result of persecuting and prosecuting asylum seekers, hoping to find refuge from awful conditions at home. On a near daily basis, Trump has claimed that this practice was the result of legislation enacted by Democrats and that it was on them to fix it. He claimed with vigor that there was nothing he could do. Now, a number of high ranking government officials who know the logistics of this predicament have very vocally disagreed that this was out of his hands. That he could make this go away with a phone call. That this practice was part of a wider protocol to deter immigrant asylum seekers from seeking refuge. Trump vehemently denied this was the case. Then on Wednesday, he went and basically made the call he claimed he was incapable of making. If the weight of that ridiculousness gives you a headache, well, welcome to the United States of America!
The GOP seems to have a Nazi problem. Seriously. At least 3 congressional GOP candidates have openly admitted to being white supremacists with Nazi and neo-Nazi sympathies. There was a period of time when finding that kind of information out would have been something to end a political career. It feels like several giant leaps backward that it’s being used to kickstart them. To their credit, the mainstream Republican party does see this as an inconvenience. They’ve been doing their level best to keep their image away from that ideology, and disavowing these upstarts openly, but it’s still unfortunate to note that these candidates seem to be gaining momentum rather than stalling out. But what happens when these outliers become less abnormal?
I have to say, Donald Trump shows just how quickly a hot streak can end. He as riding pretty high on the end ride of his North Korea summit. Regardless of the criticisms you could throw his way regarding how he handled it, the fact is that it seems like, for the time being, tensions have been de-escalated. That is a positive development. Couple that with his already improving approval numbers, which regardless of your opinion on it, is undoubtedly true, and Trump is sitting kind of pretty at the start of the summer. Then his treatment of asylum seekers and families at the border comes to light, the separation of families at the border, the literal cages children are being kept in, the concentration camp comparisons, the blatant lies about who is at fault for this process, saying he hates it and is blameless while simultaneously defending it’s necessity….it’s been a real fiasco. Now he’s withdrawing the US from the United Nations Human Rights council, citing Israel’s treatment, but the sheer irony of that in the face of how we’re treating immigrants…Listen, I can’t give you approval ratings numbers, but spoiler alert, several polls have shown consistently that the MAJORITY of people are pretty damn nonplussed about this whole separation of families thing. The guy is very much playing a one step forward, 2 steps back kind of game.
The disturbing new trend amongst hardcore conservatives to try and keep you from empathizing with children in distress seems to be to accuse any crying child you see as being some kind of Crisis actor meant to manipulate people’s emotions. Multiple people seem to be trying to sell this theory with the children detained by ICE, those separated from their parents. It’s a similar situation to the situation where Conservatives and NRA advocates accused multiple survivors of bein paid actors. As ridiculous and baseless as those claims were, the ones spouted openly by people like Ann Coulter in this situation are (somehow) even less credible and even more disgusting. Kids who are practically toddlers, many who are detained in massive cages (Cage isn’t my word. Border patrol uncomfortably admits cages are used), are hardly equipped to be selling a fake show for cameras. Have you ever seen child actors perform? I would hardly call most of them THAT convincing. More realistically, the images and videos we are seeing are devastated CHILDREN being traumatized and devastated by their horrific predicament. I don’t know…maybe I’m just being naïve. But it’s far better to be naïve than a monster, so I’ll take it.
The more that I read stories of kids getting separated from their parents at borders, the more I read of the damaging effects it’s having, including a devastating story about a father who committed suicide, the more I and I think most of the country is wondering when this senseless cruelty will end. At a certain point, I’m hoping Trump won’t be able to hide behind the lie that he isn’t responsible for this, and will mandate this stop happening. I’m hoping that for once in his time in office, public pressure will force his hand to do something outside of his agenda against immigration. Cruelty should never be acceptable, and it should be even less acceptable when played in the name of politics. Innocent people are having their lives destroyed over the pride of powerful men.
So, Trump reportedly gave Kim Jong Un his personal phone number, a direct line to him…which is weird. I get the feeling most leaders of nations actually allied to the US don’t have that, but a murderous dictator who has a history of sabotage and subterfuge, and of murdering family members, does. Now, there are some legit security concerns with that. There is a lot that a tech savvy person could do with a phone number, or if you’re not tech savvy, but do have an army of hackers at your disposal. But more than that, why would you want a crazy person having the ability to call you and chat? I feel like Trump should know better. If you’ve ever dated a crazy person who calls you at 3 in the morning to spread their crazy, then you know better.
Mind the Exit 