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Saturday, June 30, 2018

Cartoon: Bible Stories with Jeff Sessions - Holy Family Separation



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Friday, June 29, 2018

This Nation Is Beginning to Realize the Full Extent of What It Did to Itself in November 2016

Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

The country's head is clearing. The spell of the reality show presidency is wearing off.

ptimism may be illusory, but it’s all we have at this point, so, when it stirs, anywhere, it’s worthy of nurture and support. Over the past week, ever since the administration’s crimes against humanity along the southern border were revealed, there became an edge to the political opposition that has not been there through all the marches and the rhetoric that have attended this government since the president was inaugurated. Up until now, all of the #Resistance has contained a barely acknowledged undercurrent of futility. It was not that the opposition was empty. It was that it generally broke like a wave on a seawall when it collided with the immutable fact that the president’s party controlled every lever of political power at the federal level, as well as a great number of them out in the states, too.

The week just passed has changed the calculations. The images from the border, and the White House’s fatheaded trolling of the situation, seems to have shaken up everyone in Washington to the point at which alliances are more fluid than they have been since January of 2017. There seems little doubt that the Republicans in the House of Representatives are riven with ideological chaos, struck numb by the basic conundrum of modern conservatism: When your whole political identity is defined by the proposition that government is not the solution, but, rather, the problem, you don’t know how to operate it when fortune and gerrymandering hand you the wheel.

You can fake it pretty convincingly, doing the bidding of your donor class and knuckling the powerless and making a nice living for yourself, as long as events pursue a fairly predictable course for which there are familiar precedents in your experience. You can even see the setbacks coming from around the corner. Even your defeats are predictable and, thus, explainable—or, at least, spinnable. Can’t repeal Obamacare? RINOs like John McCain!

The problem arises when something unpredictable happens, and the government you control has to be fast on its feet, and you don’t know how that really works. A hurricane and a flood drowns New Orleans, and the luxury horse-show official you put in charge of the country’s emergency management system—because who cares, right?—finds that he’s really not up to the job. Or, suddenly, you find that, no matter how hot the emotions run at your rallies or how brightly your favorite TV network polishes your apple, or how hard you pitch the snake oil that got you elected, the country will not stand for being complicit in the kidnapping and caging of children.

The pictures begin to pile up. The mirror in which the country prefers to see itself cracks into a million sharp shards that begin to cut your political life away.

You can feel the difference in the air. The members of the governing party, uneasy about the prospects for this year’s midterms anyway, are fairly trembling at the moment, seeing in their mind’s eyes a hundred 30-second spots of weeping toddlers behind chain-link walls. The president has gone completely incoherent, standing firm until he doesn’t, looking for help in the Congress that he’ll never get, and reversing himself so swiftly on his one signature issue that he’s probably screwed himself up to the ankles in the floor of the Oval Office. By Friday afternoon, he was back on the electric Twitter machine, yapping about the Democrats and “their phony stories of sadness and grief.” And a hundred Republican candidates dive back behind the couch.

The country’s head is clearing. The country’s vision is coming back into focus and it can see for the first time the length and breadth of the damage it has done to itself.

The country is hearing the voices that the cacophony of fear and anger had drowned out for almost three years. The spell, such as it was, and in most places, may be wearing off at last. The hallucinatory effect of a reality-show presidency is dispersing like a foul, smoky mist over a muddy battlefield.

The migrant crisis is going to go down through history as one of the most destructive series of own-goals in the history of American politics. The establishment of the “zero-tolerance” policy made the child-nabbing inevitable. The president’s own rhetoric—indeed, the raison d’etre of his entire campaign—trapped him into at first defending the indefensible and then abandoning what was perhaps the only consistent policy idea he ever had—outside of enriching himself and his family, that is. Then the cameras began to roll, and the nation’s gorge began to rise, and the president couldn’t stand the pressure that was mounting around him. Of course, because he knows nothing about anything, including how to actually be president, he bungled even his own abject surrender. He’s spent the days since signing his executive order railing against what he felt compelled to do and arguing against himself and losing anyway.

That’s the optimism, and it may, in fact, be illusory, but the power balance in our politics seemed to shift this week. Terrible policies are still coming from the various agencies. Scott Pruitt remains a grifter of nearly inhuman proportions, and a vandal besides. Neil Gorsuch continues to prove himself to be the reliable conservative hack for whom the Republicans stole a Supreme Court seat. But the crisis at the border is a leg-hold trap for all of them. There’s no way for them to keep faith with themselves and get out from under the humanitarian disaster they concocted. One day, maybe, brave Guatemalan mothers and their very brave children may be said to have saved the American Republic from slow-motion and giddy suicide. Some even may be our fellow citizens by then, and we should remember to thank them.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

How to treat Trump and his supporters - Shame them, shun them, and show them the door.



Paradox of Tolerance: should we tolerate intolerance?
Donald Trump is the worst of our species. He ran a blatantly racist campaign. He kidnaps babies and children from their parents who are refugees and migrants. He defends NeoNazis. He calls Latin countries "shithole countries." His Cabinet is full of blatant racists and fascists. His followers are emboldened, so it's time to jettison them all out of civil society.
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, a staunch conservative and never-Trumper, wrote a column, “Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the lost art of shunning,” in response to the Red Hen incident of last week (and which Trump stupidly tweeted about today), which should give the Republican establishment pause. A clip:
Unsurprisingly, the restaurant confrontations became a source of debate on cable television. On CNN, Ana Navarro tartly observed, “You make choices in life. And there is a cost to being an accomplice to this cruel, deceitful administration.” So, are these reactions to Trump aides reassuring and appropriate acts of social ostracism that communicate to the cogs in a barbaric bureaucracy that they cannot escape the consequences of their actions? Alternatively, should we view these as a sign of our descent into incivility, evidence that we are so polarized we literally cannot stand to be in the same room as those with whom we disagree?
It depends on how you view the child-separation policy. If you think the decision to separate children from parents as a means of deterring  other asylum seekers is simply one more policy choice, like tax cuts or negotiations with North Korea, then, yes, screaming at political opponents is inappropriate. Such conduct is contrary to the democratic notion that we do not personally destroy our political opponents but, rather, respect differences and learn to fight and perhaps compromise on another day. If, however, you think the child-separation policy is in a different class — a human rights crime, an inhumane policy for which the public was primed by efforts to dehumanize a group of people (“animals,” “infest,” etc.) — then it is both natural and appropriate for decent human beings to shame and shun the practitioners of such a policy.
Rubin isn’t alone. There is a Sea-Change-Movement happening that is finally gaining a foot-hold: One Cannot Stand Silent and Watch Atrocities With the Excuse of ‘Tolerance’, or even reticence and fear (David Axelrod, I’m looking at you). The Washington Post entered the discussion today, and is calling for “civility” and to “Let the Trump team eat in peace.” I say no. None of the children, or their parents, or their family members, or a sizable number of ICE officials who hate the child separation policy are able to eat in peace. They aren’t sleeping in peace, walking in peace, or working in peace. The babies and children ripped from their parents will likely have life-long damage to their physical and mental health. There is no reason—none—that the Trump administration has given to institute this inhumane policy except that it is a cruel “deterrent” to migration to the US.

Calling out evil before us isn’t “uncivil,” but should not devolve into vulgarity. Monsters should not be given a peaceful dinner, a peaceful workplace, a peaceful walk in the park, or a peaceful evening at home until they stop their monstrous actions and defense of those actions.

Dem leadership—Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer are calling for “unity” and saying it “isn’t American to call for harassment of political opponents,” both in response to Rep. Maxine Waters’ call for protests (termed “harassment” by Republicans, of course) against the Trump administration. (h/t Randallt) There is credible worry that some children and adults in detention will die.  “Unity” and “voting in November” are not immediate strategies to change public opinion to force the Trump administration to stop the child separation policy. There will be no happy ending if Trump and the Republicans are allowed to reshape the United States of America into their twisted, adolescent, and demented Autocratic world view. It is time to make a stand, even if it is uncomfortable — and perhaps terribly uncomfortable. 

Here are some examples of courage beyond the Red Hen Restaurant owner: 

To the group that started it all—Democratic Socialists of America—a big Thank You:

More protesters outside Sec. Nielsen’s house blare audio of kids crying who were separated from their parents: 

Robert Di Niro: 
Maxine Waters — encourages us all to use our First Amendment right to protest Trump and his minions (will post video when I locate an embed link).
Rep. Maxine Waters claimed the favor of the Almighty during a speech at a Capitol Hill "Keep Families Together" rally on Saturday. She said cabinet members and highly visible Trump enablers should expect harassment at restaurants, gas stations, shopping places, and even their homes until they change their immigration policy. Several have already been confronted at public places.
Agree, Maxine. Totally. “Harassment” of fascists and NeoNazi’s is not uncivil; it is the constitutional right to protest against tyranny. 

Seth Rogen — turned down a photo op with Speaker Paul Ryan recently, and told him:
While attending a summit on brain health, organized by former Massachusetts Republican governor Mitt Romney, Rogen ran into Ryan, who was there with his teenage sons. He recalled the conversation to Colbert, saying the representative from Wisconsin shook his hand and asked if he could get a photo. “No way, man!” Rogen said during the encounter.
“Furthermore,” Rogen said. “I hate what you’re doing to the country at this moment, and I count the days till you no longer have one iota of the power that you currently have.”
The UK: (Trump will visit the UK during the week of July 13, 2018.)
LONDON — A 20-foot-tall inflatable orange baby with the face of President Donald Trump could float over Britain’s parliament next month, one of many acts of protest planned to coincide with Trump's first visit to the U.K. since taking office.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to march in London, Scotland and elsewhere during his trip, which takes place amid a growing transatlantic trade war and global dismay at the treatment of immigrant families at the U.S. border….
Mass anti-Trump marches have been more than a year in the planning, after May first extended an invitation for Trump to visit the U.K. in early 2017.
The largest are planned in London, where organizers of Together Against Trump estimate up to 100,000 people, including labor unions and rights groups, will march through the center of the city to Trafalgar Square.
Evan Rachel Wood: took part in a hunger strike to protest Trump immigration policies

Protests at the border

COURAGE IS WHAT IS REQUIRED OF US NOW
#RESIST!

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

No, Denying Sarah Huckabee Sanders Dinner Service Is Not Discrimination

Sarah Huckabee Sanders. (photo: Getty Images)
Sarah Huckabee Sanders. (photo: Getty Images)

By Josephine Yurcaba, ThinkProgress

ver the past several days, lawmakers, pundits, and journalists have waxed poetic about the need for “civility,” following the decision by Red Hen owner Stephanie Wilkinson to refuse service to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders last Friday night.

“I’m not a huge fan of confrontation,” Wilkinson said, according to The Washington Post. “I have a business, and I want the business to thrive. This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals.”

The “morals” argument has been used by businesses to (successfully) deny service to LGBTQ people, as a recent Supreme Court ruling has shown. USA Today published an Op-ed Sunday arguing that the Red Hen’s LGBTQ employees should have stood up for Sanders because they “understand bias.” If progressives want to be consistent in their views, commentators argue, they must oppose the use of morals to justify discrimination based on political affiliation. Alternatively, if it’s okay to refuse service to Sanders, many think it is logically consistent to refuse service to a gay couple.

But such arguments contain an incredibly dangerous assumption: that the morals behind refusing to serve LGBTQ people are the same as the morals behind refusing to serve Trump administration officials. They’re not.

The idea that no one set of morals can point to a universal truth is called moral relativism, and it’s a tactic the Trump administration relies on repeatedly to justify policy that hurts marginalized groups, and then to silence dissent with calls for “civility.” In reality, refusing to serve LGBTQ people and refusing to serve a representative of the Trump administration are vastly different moral decisions — and one is better than the other.

Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop who was affirmed by the Supreme Court earlier this month in his right to refuse service to an LGBTQ couple, said he did so based on his religious beliefs, which inform his morals. Phillips’ moral decision was thus grounded in an interpretation of the Bible that says homosexuality is a sin.

Wilkinson’s morals, on the other hand, are grounded in empirical, factual evidence, and anecdotal evidence. In her interview with the Post, she said some of her employees are gay, and they know Sanders defended Trump’s policy to ban transgender people from serving in the military. The American people have also seen Sanders lie repeatedly about the effects of Trump’s policies. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported a 19 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2016, according to recent FBI data, and many argue that Trump’s rhetoric about Muslims and his recently upheld Muslim ban are contributing factors. Americans also recently heard the cries of immigrant children held in detention centers after they were separated from their parents — families the administration has loose plans to reunite eventually.

Contrary to what many elected officials have said, religious morals often have little basis in fact or data. And there aren’t many anecdotal or emotional stories that justify opposition to LGBTQ people as a group, for instance, unless they’re stories from people who already have a bias against LGBTQ people. Despite that, the effects of giving legal recognition to morals that oppose being LGBTQ results in violence against those people, persistent workplace discrimination, and higher rates of depression and suicide.

Not only is there no factual basis for Phillips’ morals to oppose same-sex marriage, his sincerely held beliefs have a negative impact on people. Unlike Phillips, Wilkinson’s moral decision was the result of recorded evidence that shows Trump administration policies have hurt people, and that Sanders has defended those policies. The Red Hen’s decision to deny Sanders did not contribute to a larger system of violence against an oppressed group. Sanders, in fact, holds the power, and the only result of Wilkinson denying her service was that she didn’t get to eat dinner at that particular restaurant.

The Trump administration and much of the religious right want Americans to think that personal morals are always right — regardless of the justifications behind them — because they are personal. That’s the driving force behind moral relativism. But the problem is that it’s simply not true that all decisions based on morals are good.

We don’t live in a vacuum, and we have evidence that informs why certain moral decisions, though once widely held by religious people, are no longer good moral decisions. Because we have the capacity to make these deductions, it’s time we stopped allowing morals defined by one person’s religion to justify rights abuses like discrimination against LGBTQ people and restrictions on access to health care like abortion.

Moral relativism like that used to equate Phillips’ morals to Wilkinson’s is dangerous to democracy. Phillips’ morals are discrimination hiding behind the first amendment, and the culture those morals create prevents LGBTQ people from living free from danger. Wilkinson’s morals do the opposite, by taking a stand against the oppression of marginalized people. The morals behind these decisions are not only different — only one set is just that: moral.

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Trumpism is a cult


If you are defending ripping children from parents...you are in a cult

Growing up in the ‘80s my mom was always worried about cults. I have no idea why, my guess is she saw something on 60 Minutes, or 20/20 and then was worried I would run off and join a cult. I do recall watching one of the news magazine shows with her as a teenager—it was one in which they described the signs you are in a cult.

Thirty some odd years removed from that memory I could not find that particular episode, or list of how you know you are in a cult. But I did find a more recent version of the list.
1. Opposing critical thinking
2. Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving
3. Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture
4. Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders
5. Dishonoring the family unit
6. Crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership)
7. Separation from the Church
I read that list and I see the modern day Republican Party, specifically, die hard Trump supporters. It is clear that they oppose any kind of critical thinking. Take the recent statement by Tucker Carlson of Fox News:
"If you're looking to understand what's actually happening in this country, always assume the opposite of whatever they're telling you on the big news stations.”
In other words, only listen to what we tell you. You do not need to think about it, just believe us, and only us. There is no need for you to take in information from other sources, there is no need to think about what we tell you—other sources are not real. Even the current White House resident does this daily in his Twitter feed.

The fake news, i.e. don’t listen to them, only to me. Don’t think about the issues, just take my word for it. I have seen this in my own friends who lean to the right. Recently, I posted this to my Facebook feed, “Taking kids away from parents is immoral.” The responses below are a combination of responses from conservative friends. ...

Him: It is Bill Clinton's fault (Screenshot of a tweet is provided as proof).
Me: No, it is not and here are three links from valid news sources, and one legal site proving why it is not.
Him: What about Elian Gonzalez?
Me: That has nothing to do with the current situation.
Him: That was Clinton's fault too.
Me: No, it was a custody battle between two parents who lived in different countries. The FBI went in armed as they feared that the house was being defended by armed Cuban expatriates. (Several links from multiple sources about this custody battle provided.)
Him: Pretty sure the genocide of native Americans is more shameful ... as well as our current treatment of them.
Me: There are a lot of shameful acts in our history - just because one is more shameful than another does not mean what is going on now is any less awful.
I would also be remiss if I did not point out that this is a classic case of whataboutism - in which an example of a shameful act is given in the original story; and in an effort (unconscious, or conscious) is made to deflect the horrible act the shameful act is being compared to by bringing up another equally as bad act.
Internment of Japanese-Americans = Bad
Treatment/genocide of Native Americans = Bad
Separating children from parents in detention centers = Bad
Him: Look at this section of US code. … It says kids should be taken into custody.
Me: Read that closer, that says unaccompanied minors.
Him: Well some of the kids are pretending to be parents...so they are unaccompanied.
Me: No they are not — provides multiple links.
Him: If you support abortion you are being a hypocrite by being outraged over this.
Me: sigh...
Every one of those responses can be traced back to conservative media, every single one. And none of them have any basis in reality. The fact is that Jeff Sessions signed off on this zero tolerance policy. This is on the Trump administration—period. But in the eyes of a Trump cultist, he can do no wrong.

Isolating and penalizing members for leaving. We see this on a small scale every day, but there are larger examples as well. The Bush family has spoken out against this policy—not toeing the new Trump line. So, they were punished when Donald Trump Jr. canceled an appearance at a fundraiser for George P. Bush. Also, look how former Trump associates have been treated. Manafort, once the leader of the Trump campaign is now someone who once worked for Trump, and who Trump barely knew.

Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture, crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership), separation from the Church—I am combing these three as they all deal with religion. We can all see these.

Taking children away from their parents is clearly not biblical—yet members of the Trump administration have repeatedly quoted scripture to defend this heinous policy.

Right-leaning Christians claim the moral high ground, that marriage is between one man and one woman, that divorce should never happen, and adultery is a sin—these so-called Christians have strayed so far from the church that Jeff Sessions’ own denomination, the United Methodist Church, have charged him with violating church law:

Pursuant to Paragraph 2702.3 of the 2016 United Methodist Book of Discipline, we hereby charge Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Attorney General of the United States, a professing member and/or active participant of Ashland Place United Methodist Church (Mobile, Alabama) and Clarendon United Methodist Church (Alexandria, Virginia), with the chargeable offenses of:
  • Child Abuse (examples: advocacy for and implementation of documented practices that indefinitely separate thousands of young children from their parents; holding thousands of children in mass incarceration facilities with little to no structured educational or socio-­‐emotional support)
  • Immorality (examples: the use of violence against children to deter immigration; advocating and supporting the separation of children from their families; refusal of refugee/asylee status to those fleeing gang or sexual violence; oppression of those seeking asylum or attempting to enter the United States with refugee status; directing employees and staff members to kidnap children from their parents)
  • Racial discrimination (examples: stopping investigations of police departments charged with racial discrimination; attempting to criminalize Black Lives Matter and other racial justice activist groups; targeting incarceration for those engaged in undocumented border crossings as well as those who present with requests for asylum, with a particular focus on those perceived as Muslim or LatinX)
  • Dissemination of doctrines contrary to the standards of doctrine of the United Methodist Church (examples: the misuse of Romans 13 to indicate the necessity of obedience to secular law, which is in stark contrast to Disciplinary commitments to supporting freedom of conscience and resistance to unjust laws
Seeking inappropriate loyalty to leaders:

"He speaks and his people sit up in attention. I want my people to do the same."
And finally, dishonoring the family unit. What could possibly be more dishonorable than separating children from their parents?

The Republican Party we knew no longer exists. This is the cult of Trump—and all cults eventually end badly.

Monday, June 25, 2018

The face of Trump's obscene immigration policy

View image on Twitter

Immigrants & Muslims Are Trump's Jews ... Until He Comes for the Actual Jews

Undocumented immigrants from El Salvador wait to be deported on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation flight bound for San Salvador in Mesa, Arizona. (photo: John Moore/Getty)
Undocumented immigrants from El Salvador wait to be deported on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation flight bound for San Salvador in Mesa, Arizona. (photo: John Moore/Getty)

By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News

25 June 18
 

ake no mistake: Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions’ assault on immigrant families and their “tactic” of separating parents from their children are right out of the Nazi playbook.

It’s no accident US immigrations officials were telling parents they’re taking kids to “bathe,” then making them disappear … and then telling their parents they will never see them again.

This ghoulish reminder of Auschwitz shames us all. It should also terrify us. And make us ACT!

However removed we may think we are, WE are next, and so are our children.

This regime loves torture and dictatorship, and aspires to both.

Thugs like these have nothing of value to offer, so they rule with hate, fear, and scapegoating.

Many of these families are coming to our borders legally seeking asylum. Some families under assault are not even immigrants, they are merely of Hispanic origin or appearance.

There’s no immigrant “crisis” in the United States any more than there was a “Jewish Question” in Hitler’s Germany.

Hitler needed an object of hate to become absolute ruler. Jews comprised 1% of the German population. They were handy.

Hitler spared a Jewish family doctor and a Nobel prize-winning cancer researcher (Otto Warburg) just as Trump might spare Jared Kushner and Michael Cohen.

But however much hate and terror this regime needs to generate, Trump will do it.

Like Adolph, Donald can’t rule without making America hate again. Immigrants and Muslims are where he started. Hispanics, blacks, Iranians, Asians, “globalists,” not to mention gays, Jehovah’s Witnesses, people with disabilities … it’s all the same.

Their – OUR – time will come.

The regime’s real need is to hide its complete inability to govern. And to divide and distract the population.

Blaming these families for “breaking the law” is like blaming Poland’s cavalry for provoking Hitler’s invasion. Blaming the Democrats while banning them from inspecting the camps is like charging the Red Cross with running the gas chambers.

Our prison system is a corporate profit center. With more than two million prisoners, it’s the largest in history after Hitler’s concentration/death camps and Stalin’s gulag.

It’s been filled largely by the Drug War.

But more than half our states have now legalized cannabis for medical and/or recreational use. America’s for-profit prisons – like Trump hotels – could lose “customers.”

Since Nixon launched the Drug War in 1971, more than 41,000,000 Americans have been imprisoned on nonviolent drug-related charges. Most arrests have been for pot, and most have been of blacks and Hispanics.

The Drug War means to generate prison profits and guarantee that people of color can’t vote.

Trump’s assault on these families means to scare their community from the polls.

And to send us ALL a message: the GOP will do to human children what the Nazis did.

The Nazis claimed it was to “purify the race.” Sessions says it’s a “Biblical” obligation.

No matter the pretext: if they can rip children from parents – ANY children from ANY parents – tase them, cage them, traumatize them for life, treat them like sub-humans … they will absolutely do it to you and YOUR children … or worse.

And they want you to know this.

Be afraid. Be very afraid … and then ACT!!!




Harvey Wasserman’s radio shows are at prn.fm and KPFK-Pacifica, 90.7FM/Los Angeles. His Life & Death Spiral of US History, from Deganawidah to the Donald will soon be available at solartopia.org.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

This might have been the most embarrassing day in the history of the Fox News network

Laura Ingraham and Jeff Sessions making a mockery of decency and morality

Just when you think Fox News can’t go any lower, they find a sinkhole. Monday, while people nationwide were grappling with images of children being held in cages and were listening to the stomach-churning cries of a young girl repeatedly crying, “Noooo, Papa! Nooo, Papa!” as border agents tore her from her father in an audio recording snuck out of a Texas detention facility, the folks over at Fox News were clearly sticking to their marching orders: blame Democrats and downplay the cruelty that is clearly on display for the world to see. Here’s a round-up of the more callous, hateful, embarrassing and downright jaw-dropping moments their entire line-up shoved to viewers throughout the day. Buckle up and ride this embarrassing wave until the end.

The morning began with the bubbly Fox & Friends crew helpfully Foxsplaining to viewers that the children aren’t really being kept in cages. You see, they are “merely chain-link walls” to create rooms. Small rooms, but hey! Definitely not cages! Nothing to worry about Fox viewers, toooooootally not cages. (If you missed it, please view that video rage-inducing below.)

But, it was the evening and night time line-up that provided the best of the worst for Fox News. Let’s work our way through the crazy by starting with Tucker Carlson’s White Supremacy Power Hour. Carlson has really unleashed his racism since Donald Trump was elected and last night it was on full display as he went back and forth between dismissing critics of this border cruelty because many of the people publicly decrying this policy probably “don’t even have kids” (what?) and complaining “their goal is to change your country forever.” It doesn’t take a genius to decipher Tucker’s message to his white audience.

And with no irony detected whatsoever, Carlson’s guest, acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said the comparison to Nazis is unfair because “they are simply following orders.”

Next up, Sean Hannity spent his show trying to create news by once again bashing Hillary Clinton and the now-closed email investigation, the same investigation that Republicans have gone back over and over and over again. The same investigation that didn’t result in any charges and won’t in the future, no matter how much Republicans wish it were so. But, here’s Sean kicking that horse for the delight of his #1 viewer and best pal, Donald Trump.

Perhaps Sean and Donald were angry with Hillary Clinton after she grabbed headlines and wild applause yesterday when she called out Donald Trump's blatant immigration lies and said it's time for women to lead.
via GIPHY 

But, nothing, and I mean NOTHING could top The Ingraham Angle with host Laura Ingraham and special guest, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. First up, Laura Ingraham laughed off the suggestion that tearing kids, including babies, from their parents and sticking them in cages inside a former Walmart amounted to child abuse. Ingraham wanted her audience to know, these child prisons are “essentially summer camps!”

What the hell kind of summer camp does Laura Ingraham send her kids to? We have one working as a summer camp counselor right now and you know what they are doing? Zip lining, learning how to care for animals, doing craft projects, creating variety show skits and making s’mores over a campfire.

But, my God, nothing could prepare us for what came next on Ingraham’s show. Attorney General Jeff Sessions joined Ingraham to beat back the growing, legitimate comparisons between the concentration camps of Germany and these border facilities and the indefinite lock-up of migrants. Hitler whipped up nationalism using many of these same techniques, scapegoating Jewish people and immigrants. So, how did Sessions bat down these comparisons? By claiming they are nothing like the Nazis because Hitler wouldn’t let the Jews leave Germany. See? Tooooootally different.

Serious question, what is wrong with these people? Where were they radicalized to be so cruel and inhumane? Every action they take is more un-American and deplorable than the last. It is past time for Congress start acting as the check and balance they were intended to be. The only way this stops is if they find their spines and/or the American people send them to the unemployment lines in November. In the meantime, pick up the phone and call your elected representatives today to demand this policy end and these children are reunited with their parents.
WASHINGTON - AUGUST 18:  The phone number of the U.S. Capitol switchboard is displayed during a news conference to call on Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to open up a debate on offshore drilling on Capitol Hill August 18, 2008 in Washington, DC. House Republicans have urged people to call Democratic House Representatives in their districts to return to the Congress from their recess for the debate.  (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
If you get voicemail here, please Google the state office numbers of your elected representatives. Staffers are far more likely to pick-up these calls in the individual offices across the country.