Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Nothing To Do With Families


The Republican Party used to style itself as the party of family values. It has now officially adopted a policy of breaking up families. Richard Wolff writes:

Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security adopted a new policy to start criminal prosecutions of parents crossing the border illegally, and to place their children in protective custody. It wasn’t enough to deport undocumented people. Now the Trump administration would actively break up their families.
This is not just an inhuman policy that violates any meaning of the words “family values”. It’s also recklessly incompetent about children’s safety, since the federal government has lost track of almost 1,500 of children in its supposed custody. For the American Civil Liberties Union, it’s unconstitutional because it denies migrant families due process.

What's the justification for the policy? All of those illegal immigrants, Mr. Trump says, are criminals:

We all know what kind of criminals Donald Trump has in mind when he talks about undocumented people: the tiny sliver who form part of the brutal MS-13 gang. 
For Trump, there is a vast army of MS-13 murderers out there, a force that rivals our own military in size. Otherwise it’s hard to understand the numbers he cited at the top of his infamous discussion about California’s so-called sanctuary laws earlier this month.
“California’s law provides safe harbor to some of the most vicious and violent offenders on Earth, like MS-13 gang members, putting innocent men, women and children at the mercy of these sadistic criminals,” he said. “But we’re moving them out of this country by the thousands. MS-13, we’re grabbing them by the thousands and we’re getting them out.”
By the thousands. Thousands and thousands of gang members getting deported, meaning the gang represents, what, hundreds of thousands of people? The FBI estimated the gang’s numbers between 6,000 and 10,000 in the US.
“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in – and we’re stopping a lot of them – but we’re taking people of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.” Trump says.

And what is Ivanka Trump doing? She says she's a “wife, mother, sister, daughter.” But being a daughter comes first. Being a wife and mother doesn't -- because she wants to be president one day:

According to Michael Wolff, Ivanka believes she will be the first woman president. Such delusions are not just a personal affliction apparently: her own mother thinks she’ll run for president in 15 years or so. She might start laying the groundwork by blocking her own father’s policies separating children from their parents.

 But her values are her father's values -- and they have nothing to do with families.

Image: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images


6 comments:

The Mound of Sound said...


Trump had the mendacity to suggest the separation of immigrant children, as young as one year old, from their mothers was something horrible that the Democrats had put in place. That's a total fabrication. That was Trump's doing, in its entirety. However his Gullibillies, to the extent they find this forced separation odious, will probably believe it was the Democrats' handiwork. How far America has fallen. This time they may not bounce back. They may have gotten in much too deep.

Owen Gray said...

It's truly remarkable that such a sizable number of Americans continue to believe Trump's lies, Mound. If they are that gullible, they're doomed.

John B. said...

I agree on Ivanka. Just like dad, her personal values seem to revolve around her personal fortunes. And like him, she's also quite full of herself. Very focussed. You couldn't stuff any more ego and self-interest into that package with a ten-ton jack. Superior genes and breeding.

I wasn't gifted with the genes to work with, but I realize that it's my duty to teach my descendants to be more like her before it's too late. Did Trump write a book on child rearing? How about Ivana?

Trailblazer said...

On the photo the father's smile tells it all!!

TB

Owen Gray said...

It makes a big difference when your father makes you the heir to millions fo dollars, TB. That smug smile suggests tremendous self satisfaction. These folks no nothing about being refugees.

Owen Gray said...

Both Donald and Ivanka inherited their wealth, John. Both were born on third base and both are convinced they hit a home run.