Today's Churchiness

My default position is that I can do without religion. Churches are too often scams - especially the big ones, which are really nothing more than musical theater.

But I'll give credit when it's due.

Try to ignore the pearl-clutching style of the anchor - as if she's reporting on the landing of shape-shifting lizard people from outer space (thanks, Alex Jones).

"Battle at the Border"? What the fuck, lady?

And sorry not sorry, but the field reporter's attitude felt a little condescending - like she can't believe the producer is forcing her to tell the story of some dirty hippie clergy people doing something inappropriately critical of Lord Commander Marmalade's glorious efforts to stem the tide of the brown hordes sweeping over us from the south... don't forget this is Mike Pence country.

Be Afraid

...because if you're not afraid, you might start acting like you're free.

From NYT OpEd:

Today's Tweet

Irony. Subtlety. Comeuppance. Hypocrisy. Nothing sinks in - these people are impervious to everything that governs the normal functioning of a decent civil society. This is The Banality of Evil.

Go back and tell them you're seeking asylum there. By law they have to let you in, and only a depraved monster devoid of morals would defend turning you away. https://t.co/I7a8j0q8pv

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) June 23, 2018

No Good Video

In the furor over Melania's jacket and the naked political opportunism of a White House desperate to stop stepping on its own dick with a track shoe, we lost sight of the fact that Melania was supposed to visit the McAllen Border Patrol Station too.

Instead, we got some nice "optics" from a place called Upbring (part of Lutheran Social Services Inc) - a "non-profit" facility aimed at care for child abuse survivors (now there's an interesting little Freudian twist).

Anyway:

I'm not beating up on the Lutherans, btw, although I'll say again that I purely hate the idea of handing any tax dollars to any religious organization for any reason, but that's another rant.

The point is that Melania didn't visit the McAllen Border Patrol Station, where we've cloistered some goodly number of kids in a makeshift prison camp. That part of the mission was scrubbed. Because - well, it kinda got to rainin'...

They already had their nice pictures of a place they told us held some immigrant kids. So they either had to bar cameras at the next stop because comparing the two joints would prob'ly make the second one look pretty fuckin' awful, or they could make up some shit to pretend they just couldn't get there, or whatever.

And about those pictures - I didn't see every single one of them, but I didn't see any kids either.

I guess I'm also wondering what might happen to the private donations that Upbring actively solicits, now that they've gotten million of dollars worth of free publicity.

It reminds me of the practice of the English sovereign granting special favors to a particular dressmaker or whiskey distiller.  Merit-Based Free-Market Capitalism my dyin' ass. 

Today's Tweet - The Sequel

Shit gets worse

U.S Border Patrol ran over an O’odham man today on the Tohono O’odham Nation.
This is an example of the fear O’odham have to face everyday because BP ravage our communities & are careless with our lives. pic.twitter.com/ZEbVlIe5cl

— Indivisible Tohono (@Indivisible_TO) June 15, 2018

 

The Tohono O'odham Nation, or Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, is a major reservation located in southern Arizona, encompassing portions of Pima County, Pinal County, and -  wait for it - Maricopa County.

Would anybody with a living thinking brain be at all surprised if we find out Joe Arpaio had a hand in formulating this bullshit policy?

On Immigration

Nish Kumar, BBC Two:

Today's Tweet

Speaking Spanish, in a place where it's not expected(?), is now considered Probable Cause.

Border Patrol agent detained two US Citizens because they were speaking Spanish at a gas station.

"I came and saw that you guys were speaking Spanish which is very unheard of up here."

Sickening. He should be fired! Please spread. pic.twitter.com/3KkpnCpObc

— Together we rise 🙌🏾 (@Matsamon) May 21, 2018

BTW - that was no accident. That agent didn't take that action on a whim, or because he was bored. His commanders told him that's how we do things now.

This is the Daddy State.

A Short Reminder

From October 2015 - it's not like people weren't trying to warn us about what was coming.

The Mob Abides

This is Arizona state representative Eric Descheenie:

I've heard this one floating around the net, and finally decided to look it up.

Surprise surprise, it does indeed show knuckleheaded "anti-immigration" freaks letting their shit overrule whatever shriveled critical thinking skills they still retain.

Snopes:

The incident occurred during a chaotic, five-hour long demonstration on 25 January 2018 at the Arizona capitol building where roughly a dozen anti-immigration activists turned out to protest the social justice lobbying group Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) — though the group was there to advocate for pro-labor legislation, not immigration. Protesters alleged that LUCHA was “trying to advance social, racial and economic justice for DACA recipients, illegal aliens and their illegal families.” According to state lawmakers who were at the scene, the protesters were visibly armed.
The protesters were raggin' on Descheenie (who is of Navajo descent), questioning whether or not he was in this country legally.

A Native-American; an American Aboriginal - they needed him to be "alien"; they saw him as "alien"; so they went after him because he looked alien.

But they're not part of a racist mob looking for an excuse to satisfy their blood lust.

On The Border

John Oliver, Last Week Tonight

It's A Ladder, Einstein

Dear @realDonaldTrump: Here's a friendly reminder from @VicenteFoxQue that Mexico will not pay for your wall. pic.twitter.com/Osg8ZUYLlG

— Super Deluxe (@superdeluxe) June 7, 2017

It's Who We Are Now

From deep in Real America, we get the story of another 45* voter, learning that selective thinking can easily end up looking a whole lot like bad karma.

Buzzfeed:

A Mexican man who spent almost two decades living in the United States was deported back to his home country late Tuesday, separating him from his US-born wife, who voted for President Donald Trump.

Roberto Beristain, 43, had been in custody since he was detained on Feb. 6 during a routine check-in with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. After spending almost two months in detention centers across six states, the Indiana resident was suddenly taken alone to Juarez, Mexico, late Tuesday night, he said in a statement released by his attorneys, who had filed legal petitions requesting his release.
- and -

For many years, ICE agents took no action against Beristain, despite the order of removal against him. As he bought a local restaurant in Granger, Indiana, he checked in annually with officials, and was even able to obtain a driver's license, social security card, and work permit, according to his family.

Under Obama-era directives, ICE had concentrated mainly on deporting criminals and those who posed a threat to public safety. However, following President Trump's signing of an executive order in January on immigration, emboldened ICE agents have been detaining hundreds of undocumented immigrants, including those not charged with any crimes.

Helen Beristain told Indiana Public Media she voted for Trump, believing he would not deport "good people."

Wondering

One of these guys will kill you eventually.

The other one is a kid who's wondering what it'll take just to get some people to act like human fucking beings.

Outwardly Cranky

Gary, who graduated high school with a smokin' 2.0 GPA, is complaining loudly about how Majeed (a Neurologist) wants to steal his job.

Ever notice how a lotta these job-stealing immigrants are coming from countries where they help kids with the cost of college and shit?

I wonder if that might work here.

hat tip = Vicki W-E

Go Qualify Yourself

If you're dumb enough to be convinced that a guy will take your job when you're also convinced he can't even say, "I need a job" in English, then you're not the guy I want doin' that job.

Alex Nails It

Something about "the mouths of babes" maybe?

Today's Doc Maddow

Listen and learn - she has a doctorate in this shit, so there's something she can teach us.

And now that you've learned a little something about The Know Nothings, it gets really hard not to hear it when it pops up (starting at about 4:35 when Wolf is asking Trump about harassment).

Today's Other Tweet

"We're gonna track 'em..."
Yeah that seems like a great idea... #TrumpAZ pic.twitter.com/vHwH59BXGr

— Brad Pritchett (@bradpritchett) September 1, 2016

Among Trump's Christian Right followers, I wonder if there's any inkling of "the mark of the beast" that filters through.

Cuz let's not try to fool ourselves - if we're going to be able to tell "the good ones from the bad ones", then everybody has to get a tag.

PS) this is very Slippery Slope-y, but sometimes those slopes are real and sometimes those real slopes are very slippery.

On The Wall

For the 1,255 miles of the US-Mexico border that's made up of the Rio Grande, where exactly will Mr Trump's wall stand?

The border more or less runs right down the middle of the river - and you literally can't build the thing in the water.

So do you build it on the Mexico side?  Since Mexico doesn't want anything to do with our silly wall, it seems kinda doubtful they'll allow that.

But if we build it on the US side, then don't we kinda lose access to the river itself?

There's an awful lot of that riverfront that's private land.  Do you plan to condemn 100 or 500 or 1000 miles of private property thru Eminent Domain and then forcibly take possession of the land if necessary?

Maybe that's why the Trumpkinites have restarted the talk about a "Virtual Wall" or "Technological Wall" or a "Digital Wall".  Except that every time surrogates try to ameliorate anything, Trump comes back and either re-doubles down or flipflops and denies he ever said anything like that you must be crazy or you're dishonest and disgusting and I'd really like one of my guys to punch you right in the head no not really but maybe yeah kinda.

And in the meantime, we all just get to wait for whatever Trump has to say so this rolling clusterfuck can keep its death-grip on the news cycle.

He's got us all trained to sit here panting and wagging our furry tails like good little Press Poodles.

PoliticusUSA:

To the surprise of no one outside of those who voted for Trump in the Republican primary, the border wall was a lie. In fact, Republican members of Congress have been suggesting since Trump announced his plan to “build the wall” that they didn’t support it, and would not pass the appropriations needed to construct a wall.

Like cousin Trae said - here's hoping he dies in a tragic hairspray accident. And soon.

Today's Question

...is pretty much the same question I have almost every week.

Why is a 30-minute comedy show doing a better job reporting on these issues than the army of Corporate Press Poodles?