Donald Trump’s acting director of the
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services agency, Ken
Cuccinelli, did an interview with NPR this morning that is quickly
gaining a lot of attention. The man in charge of our immigration
services shocked listeners by offering a new, twisted version of words
at the base of the Statue of Liberty, the very symbol of America and
immigration.
The bronze plaque at the Statue of Liberty features an 1883 poem by Emma Lazarus
titled “The New Colossus.” Lazarus’ words became a beacon for America, a
symbol of pride, and the poem is most famously remembered for
these lines:
"Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Ken Cuccinelli offered his own take on the motto, claiming it should read, “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge."
In fact, long before Cuccinelli was installed in his role as acting
director of immigration services, he’s had disdain for immigrants. When
he was the attorney general of Virginia, he did an interview with a
conservative radio station in which he compared the rat control
problem in Washington, D.C., to immigrant families. Seriously. From DCist:
Cuccinelli: Well,
I saw the same rat story about D.C. that y’all have been talking about.
What you may not know is that last year, in its finite wisdom, the D.C.
City Council passed a new law, or a triumph of animal rights over human
health, where those pest control people you suggested they bring in
aren’t allowed to kill the rats. They have to relocate the rats and not
only that — that’s actually not the worst part — they cannot break up
the families of the rats. Now, as actual experts in pest control will
tell you, if you don’t move an animal at least 25 miles, it’ll come
back. And so what’s the solution to that? Well, cross a river.
Host: Send ’em over to Virginia, that’s right.
Cuccinelli: Guess why I care about that sort of thing?
Other host: I bet.
Cuccinelli: Anyway,
it is worse than our immigration policy — you can’t break up families.
Or raccoons or all the rest and you can’t even kill them. Unbelievable.
I for one look forward to Ken Cuccinelli inevitably leaving the Trump
administration even more disgraced than when he arrived. Because that
is how it ends for every deplorable rat who joins this administration.
I’ll be here for it.
Until then, please enjoy the work of Emma Lazarus and remember these words, which are both our past and our future.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame."Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries sheWith silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Emma Lazarus
November 2, 1883
A group of 17 Christan church leaders under the banner of ‘Christians Against Christian Nationalism’ have issued an
official statement. It condemns the Christian Right’s constant attacks
on other faiths and their efforts to bring about a Christian
fundamentalist theocracy in the United States.
Their warning is clear: “Christian nationalism provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation.” Adding that it goes hand in hand with white nationalism.
The group points out that the Constitution — the foundation of American law (the only one that counts) — makes it clear that: “Whether we worship at a church, mosque, synagogue or temple, America has no second-class faiths. All are equal under the U.S. Constitution.”
Too often we hear from the reactionary religious right that America
was founded as a ‘Judeo-Christian nation’. This historical rewrite will
come as a hell of a surprise to generations of Jews who were locked out
of the best schools, country clubs, and professional firms by these very
same sanctimonious gits.
Anyone who has read the New Testament — that’s the Christian bit
— knows Jesus was silent on the virtues of America, and of nationalism
in general. The Bible overall has one ‘chosen people’ — the Jews - and
the only ‘promised land’ was Israel. The teaming amalgam of race, creed,
color, and nationality that became the United States was terra
incognita to the Divine Son - and left unmentioned by his Father.
America's history with Christianity has been a mixed bag. To many, it
has provided sustenance, structure, strength, and solace. But for a few
rapine opportunists, it has ‘proved’ the ‘legality’ of slavery and
justified the meanest treatment of minorities. It was core to the KKK
and the symbols of fundamentalist Christianity march
goose-step, hand-in-hand, with neo-Nazi iconography.
The religious right may be politically and eschatologically one with
Zion, but their philosophy is a veneer over their anti-Semitism. And as
for other minorities, the conservative evangelical, pro-America
crusaders make no secret of their scorn for these ‘lesser’ breeds.
On the one hand, they may decry the violence visited upon Christians
in the Middle-East, Africa, and Western Asia. But on the other hand,
they visit violence and casual cruelty on the good Christians escaping
persecution in Central America.
Even other Christian Americans, be they black or brown, gay or
mainstream or some combination are disdained. These Christian
absolutists scorn liberal Christians as socialist and unpatriotic - and
paint them as haters of America.
Take Erick Erickson. This evangelical philosopher and bosom buddy of
Mike Pence tweeted scorn at Pete Buttigieg — not for being gay — but for
being a lightweight Christian saying :
Erick Erickson @EWErickson
Just a reminder that Pete Buttigieg is an Episcopalian, so his understanding of Christianity isn't very deep or serious.
The Episcopal Church is the American offshoot of the Anglican Church
formed after the American Revolution by Anglian priests who would no
longer swear allegiance to George III. Its roots go back to 1534. So why
does Erickson sneer at it?
In all likelihood, because it is too Christlike — by which I mean too
liberal. The Church is against the death penalty. It supported civil
rights and affirmative action. It is pro-gay marriage and has liturgies
to bless such unions. It is behind full legal equality for LGBTQ people
and ordains women and gays.
This kind of acceptance of people as God
made them is not going to impress an all-American bigot such as
Erickson. In his mind, a deep and serious understanding of Christianity
requires a whip — whether it be actual or metaphorical.
For Erickson and the rest of the evangelical
crowd, religion is no more than a power grab. Jerry Falwell got the
political ball rolling with the creation of the Moral Majority. This
merry band of sinners backed the completely irreligious and divorced
(back when that was still shocking) Ronald Reagan. They rode ‘states
rights’ and other dog whistles to preeminence.
Jimmy Carter, a man of profound faith, was deemed insufficiently antagonistic to enough people to pass their muster.
Fast forward to 2016, and the next
generation of expedient ‘Christians’ threw their lot in with a man so
wholly lacking in Christianity that their hypocrisy was laid bare,
visible to all. But the conservative evangelicals had met their
soul-mate in shamelessness. And in a devil’s pact, they gave him the
votes to enthroned him as their conduit to power.
Are 17 religious leaders going to make a
difference? I don’t know. Jesus only had 12 disciples. The leaders of
the National Cathedral in DC have added their voice And there are millions of Americans who, if they vote in 2020, can scour this stain off America’s soul.
Donald Trump has put in a great deal of effort in bragging that he
was able, through his Unparalleled Business Guy Powers, to slash the
price of the newly planned Air Force One planes by over a billion
dollars. (He did this by asking Boeing to lower the price, something
that no past leader had ever considered. Truly, a master of the art
form.)
Surprise! The cost of the new planes, which was once said to be $3.2
billion after Trump said he had negotiated it down from about $4
billion, but which his staff claimed was actually going to be $5 billion in order to support Trump's claim that he was saving $1.4 billon, actually turns out to be $5.2 billion.
Of that, Boeing gets $3.9 billion—a figure revealed in 2018—which is itself more than $3.2 billion. The rest is earmarked for building hangars and other associated costs.
Again, it should be noted that the original Trump White House
estimate for the program, the number they were using as a scandalous
misuse of taxpayer money that only Donald Trump, Business Guy, could
save us from, was $5 billion. $5.2 is ... more than that?
The poison-filled, spring-loaded traps, called M-44s, are used by Wildlife Services for the benefit of farmers and ranchers
he
Trump administration has reauthorized government officials to use
controversial poison devices – dubbed “cyanide bombs” by critics – to
kill coyotes, foxes and other animals across the US.
The spring-loaded traps, called M-44s, are filled with
sodium cyanide and are most frequently deployed by Wildlife Services, a
federal agency in the US Department of Agriculture that kills vast
numbers of wild animals each year, primarily for the benefit of private
farmers and ranchers.
In 2018, Wildlife Services reported that its agents
had dispatched more than 1.5 million native animals, from beavers to
black bears, wolves, ducks and owls. Roughly 6,500 of them were killed
by M-44s.
On Tuesday, after completing the first phase of a
routine review, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that it
would allow sodium cyanide’s continued use in M-44s across the country
on an interim basis.
Yet the traps are facing increasing opposition, and
have, in the past, led to the inadvertent deaths of endangered species
and domestic pets and caused harm to humans.
In 2017, a teenage boy named Canyon Mansfield
was hiking with his dog in the woods behind his family’s home in
Pocatello, Idaho when Mansfield’s dog triggered a cyanide trap that
sprayed a plume of poison dust into the air. The dog died on the spot
and Mansfield was rushed to the hospital, where he ultimately recovered.
His parents are suing Wildlife Services over the poisoning.
Mansfield’s case made national headlines and has fueled opposition
to M-44s. In May, in response to advocacy by environmental groups,
Oregon’s governor Kate Brown signed a ban on the use of the traps in the
state. In 2017, Wildlife Services agreed to temporarily halt
the use of M-44s in Colorado after environmental groups sued. The
agency also stopped using them in Idaho after the Mansfield case came to
light.
In the months before the EPA announced the
reauthorization, conservation groups and members of the public flooded
the agency with comments calling for a complete national ban on the
predator-killing poison. According to an analysis provided by the Center
for Biological Diversity, which is a leading opponent of M-44s, 99.9%
of all comments received by the EPA opposed the reauthorization of
sodium cyanide for predator control purposes.
Although the agency took a different view, it did
impose new restrictions on the use of M-44s. Among other things, the
agency will now prohibit government officials from placing M-44s within
100 feet of public roads or trails. The agency’s reauthorization
decision is only an interim one and a final decision on the matter is
expected to come down after 2021.
Brooks Fahy, the executive director of the
environmental group Predator Defense and a leading opponent of M-44s,
denounced the EPA’s decision.
It is a “complete disaster”, he said. “[The EPA]
ignored the facts and they ignored cases that, without a doubt,
demonstrate that there is no way M-44s can be used safely.”
In response to the Guardian’s request for comment, the EPA referenced the documentation of the decision on its website.
Andre and Jordan Anchondo stopped in a Walmart
in El Paso, Texas, a few days ago to get back-to-school supplies for
their 6-year-old daughter, as well as goods for a barbecue they were
having at their new home later that day. Both were murdered trying to
protect their infant son Paul.
Days later, Donald and Melania made
their way to El Paso to “comfort” the survivors and first responders.
Rep. Veronica Escobar says that she tried to speak with Trump ahead of
the visit to talk about the impact of the racist language he uses, and
that Trump refused to take the call. His staff said he was “too busy.”
So Rep. Escobar refused to meet with Trump, saying, “I
declined the invitation because I refuse to be an accessory to his
visit. I refuse to join without a dialogue about the pain his racist and
hateful words & actions have caused our community and country.”
The eight survivors who are still hospitalized must have felt the
same, because they all refused to meet with Trump at the hospital.
Instead, Donald and Melania walked around the hospital, where Trump
cracked jokes, acting more like the stand-up comedian in chief than a
president offering comfort in a time of national crisis.
In fact, the White House refused to let reporters tour the Dayton and
El Paso hospitals with Trump. Officials told the White House press pool
that they didn’t want the day to be about photo ops, that this was
serious business, after all.
Except it was about photo ops for Donald Trump, and doesn’t appear to
have been about much else. Hospital officials in El Paso told CNN’s Jim
Acosta that the president had a “lack of empathy” and made staff feel
uncomfortable when he kept disparaging Beto O’Rourke and bringing up the
size of his crowd at an El Paso rally a few months ago. The White House
team apparently also arranged for two survivors, who’d already been
checked out of the hospital, to come back for that photo op.
Incredibly,
ghoulishly, one of those survivors was the infant son of Andre
and Jordan Anchondo. Look at this man in the photo above, posing like
this with a baby whose parents were murdered only days before.
Be best, Melania. This is not normal. This is indecent, grotesque, narcissistic. In a nutshell, it is classic Trump.
ne
of the most frustrating parts of being an American during these past
couple years has been trying to process the sheer tonnage of lies, the
endless vitriol and stupidity, the unyielding crassness, cynicism, and
self-aggrandizement, not to mention the sheer cruelty coming on a daily
basis from Donald Trump. It is so overwhelming that it all sort of
blends into one nightmarish mountain range of bullshit.
At a certain point, the brain gives up. There is no
sense trying to remember his childish taunts, malicious calumnies, and
transparently empty boasts. Just wait a few minutes. There’ll be a new
one.
Keeping track of, let alone cataloguing, his daily
stream of effluent, quickly became an impossible exercise, especially, I
would imagine, for the poor souls whose job it is to do just that. But
every once in a while, I will find a new category of affront that
screams, “point me out!”
And that is Trump’s unwillingness to step up during a
moment of national pain and deliver a speech meant to provide some
comfort to Americans in a manner that makes you believe he gives shit.
Remember, this is a guy who criticized President Obama for using a
teleprompter. Yet, when he spoke yesterday about the tragedies in El
Paso and Dayton, his expressionless face appeared to be mounted on a
swivel-head, turning mechanically from one prompter to another in a way
that suggested that he was reading the words for the first time and that
he really felt he had better things to do.
Mr. President, when more than thirty people are
randomly gunned down by two men in two American cities within hours of
each other, and one of the killers had written a manifesto borrowing
heavily from your own words, it’s time to step up and at least say
something that, while not particularly comforting, (not your forte), at
least sounds sincere. Some tips. Practice the speech. Start by reading
it. Several times. That way, when you say the words for the cameras,
they will seem familiar to you and you may understand why you are saying
what you’re saying. Try to rewrite the speech, if just slightly, in
your own words – enough to make it sound like you mean what are saying.
Don’t gin up emotion if you don’t have any to gin up. But at least make
an attempt to pretend that you grieve for those who died and their
friends and family.
Don’t go to El Paso. Or to Dayton. But especially El
Paso. The families and friends of those who were massacred there have
every right to believe that your words from the moment you started your
campaign at Trump Tower, then throughout your campaign, and to the very
day of the shooting – that those words encouraged the shooter and that
their loved ones may very well be alive were it not for the hatred
you’ve been spewing almost daily.
Give the speech – a new speech – that expresses
heartfelt sadness and grief. Do it from the Oval Office, not from one
of your golf courses. And try to make it sound like you’re sincere, even
if you’re not. That will require some work. But it will be worth it.
Understand how desperate all of us are for some reassurance that there
are indeed limits to your unfeeling cruelty.
Please. Not just for the
people of El Paso and Dayton. But for all Americans.
Former Florida Republican Rep. David Jolly has never had a great relationship with his party. Pointing out how beholden to big donors GOP officials are to 60 Minutes
went down like a lead balloon filled with Republican integrity.
Jolly
was on MSNBC with Nicolle Wallace on Monday to talk about the recent
mass shootings, Donald Trump’s continued white supremacist rhetoric, and
the GOP’s inaction on gun safety legislation. Asked about Trump’s
rhetoric, Jolly agreed with Beto O’Rourke’s sentiments, but added that
focusing solely on Donald Trump gave a pass to Republicans who have been
complicit in their silence regarding such rhetoric, saying, “It is
their silence that has normalized this escalation of this narrative
across the country that Trump continues to reinforce.”
But he also pointed out that his former party’s “inaction on
reasonable gun control measures” is probably the largest factor here. He
told Wallace that he failed to “move the needle” within his party on
the subject of gun safety, and that the GOP needs to face a reckoning,
saying in no uncertain terms:
Republicans will never do anything on gun control. Nothing. Ever. They won't. Think about Las Vegas. They did nothing when 500 people were injured. The Pulse nightclub, 50 killed. The question for the nation was, do we allow terrorists, suspected terrorists, to buy firearms, Republicans did nothing. Parkland, they did nothing. Emanuel AME in South Carolina, nothing. Go to Sandy Hook in Connecticut, nothing. The Jewish temple in Pittsburgh, nothing. The Jewish temple in San Diego, nothing. Sutherland Springs Evangelical Church in Texas, nothing. Now we have Texas, now we have Ohio in the same weekend, and all we get is silence. So I say that because if this is the issue that informs your ideology, as a voter, the strength to draw in this moment is to commit to beating Republicans. Beat ‘em. Beat every single one of ‘em. Even the safe ones in the House—beat ‘em.
Jolly went on to sound like a regular Daily Kos diarist, telling
presidential candidates who can to drop out of the national race in
order to beat Republican senators, and “when the Democratic Party finds
their nominee, beat Donald Trump.” I can’t disagree with him here.
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ne
of the most frustrating parts of being an American during these past
couple years has been trying to process the sheer tonnage of lies, the
endless vitriol and stupidity, the unyielding crassness, cynicism, and
self-aggrandizement, not to mention the sheer cruelty coming on a daily
basis from Donald Trump. It is so overwhelming that it all sort of
blends into one nightmarish mountain range of bullshit.
