I just wanted to share with you some pictures of the people that we need a wall on the southern border to protect us from, the people who constitute a ‘national emergency’ …
Scary, aren’t they? Personally, I find this one scarier …
I am asked, “Why does Donald Trump hate and fear immigrants so much?” I have no readily available answer, but it sets the wheels turning in my mind … why does he? We know what he says, but we also know that is only hateful rhetoric designed to instill fear in his 30% – 40% base who must be kept in fear so that they will continue to cling to him, to support him. He says that those trying to immigrate to the U.S. are animals, not people. He tells his base that the migrants are murderers, criminals, and rapists and that we are in danger from them. But he knows better, for otherwise why would he feel safe at Mar-a-Lago or at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, both of which have undocumented immigrants on staff?
Why, then, does he fear them? The answer is that he doesn’t fear the immigrants … he fears losing his base if they ever figure out the whopping lies he has told them. His rhetoric about migrants is a tool, nothing more. Let us meet a few of the migrants that attempted to come to this country in the latest caravan … the caravan that Trump has wasted so much of our money sending troops to “defend us against”.
Meet Jennifer and her daughter Lucia. They fled Honduras because life there was very hard and had become increasingly difficult because of the persistent violence.
And here’s Junior and his mother Maria. Junior’s father was killed by gangs in Honduras.
And here is 17-year-old Maeli. She joined the caravan with her young son because she feared for their safety in Honduras. They’ve been largely met with kindness on the long journey north, but things have been tense in Tijuana. She and other migrants had been staying in a makeshift camp on the beach when a crowd of local residents threw stones at them.
And this is Juan Carlos, 16 years of age. The gang members that killed his two uncles in Honduras were pressuring him to either join their gang, else be killed himself.
Now here we have Nelson. Nelson is legally allowed to cross the border, and has three children living in Pennsylvania. So why is Nelson part of the migrant caravan? He said he wanted to experience the solidarity of the caravan, so he was traveling with them. He will wait until the rest are able to cross, he said, before he does.
So far, I haven’t seen anybody that looks like they are here to murder and rape us, have you? As I have said before, surely there are some unsavory characters who traveled with the caravan, but … people, look around the U.S. You want to see unsavory characters? Look at the “Proud Boys”, look at the followers of Richard Spencer … those who have swastikas tattooed on their bodies. Look at the white-hood-wearing cowards of the KKK who make their mischief anonymously, then run. Look, for that matter, at the likes of former Judge Roy Moore of Alabama. I could go on all day naming people in this country, citizens who were born right here, that I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley.
Keith Luke, convicted rapist/murderer who “just wanted to kill non-whites”
So back to the original question. There is nothing to fear from these people and Donald Trump knows it because he has “illegal” immigrants working for him in his estates. Donald Trump is a racist, a bigot, and a white supremacist. Remember Charlottesville? He claimed the white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups who held that rally were ‘very fine people’. When he came under fire even from his own party for those remarks, he walked them back for one day, and then repeated them. But is he really a racist, or does it just suit his purpose to be one?
Donald Trump has disparaged Hispanics, African-Americans, Middle-Easterners, Asians … but the only time I have heard him speak of a white person in the same terms was if they were democrats or journalists or women or handicapped or Jewish. He puts down women every chance he gets. He denigrates and mocks the disabled. Remember his mockery of reporter Serge Kovaleski? It truly reminded me of something a high school freshman might do. Trump doesn’t just hate immigrants … Trump hates everybody. If you can do something for him … a vote, campaign donations … then he will pretend to like you. But the truth is that Trump thinks anyone who is not just like him is second-rate, and thankfully there are few who are ‘just like him’. In order to satisfy his own ego, he must de-humanize the rest of us in one way or another. In order to satisfy his dwindling base, he must keep up the lies that immigrants are dangerous, women and African-Americans are stupid, and so on.
I suspect that Donald Trump doesn’t fear immigrants at all, for they provide him with a much-needed platform to keep his base cowering and looking to him for protection.
Photos courtesy of the New York Times. For more, please see the original article.
The migrant caravan that Donald Trump said we should be so afraid of, that he said was filled with murderers, rapists, and even some Middle-Eastern terrorists, the one he sent troops to the border to defend against, has finally arrived. Here is what all those “bad hombres” look like:
Lesly, age six, sits in her donated stroller. She has cerebral palsy and cannot walk
María Cáceres and her 15-year-old son Javier. Javier has Down’s Syndrome.
Migrants pushing strollers on the road to … ???
A migrant and her young daughter, who have just had teargas thrown in their faces
Yes, folks, these are but a few of those “stone cold criminals” as Trump referred to them in his early morning tweet:
I cannot say, nor would I, that out of the thousands of people in this caravan, there may not be a few who have committed crimes. Take a thousand people at random from the middle of any city in the U.S., and odds are that you will find a few who have committed crimes. But overall, this is a migrant caravan comprised of families fleeing the violence in their native countries, primarily Honduras.
Let’s talk to María Cáceres (pictured above). María was a tortilla vendor in San Pedro Sula, Honduras when gang members killed two of her brothers and burned down her house. She said she wants asylum in the United States, but really just “wants life to get better now.”
These are people who have, over the past two months, crossed mountains, walked through forests, crossed rivers, been soaked by rains, bitten and stung by insects, all because they are seeking a better life for their children and themselves. When they crossed into Mexico, riot police attacked them with clubs and teargas, yet they persevered.
And then yesterday, U.S. authorities closed off the busiest port of entry along the U.S. border with Mexico and fired tear gas. What a welcome to these poor travelers … these human beings! 
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement Sunday that the port of entry was closed “to ensure public safety in response to large numbers of migrants seeking to enter the U.S. illegally.” Frankly, Ms. Nielsen, I would be more afraid of these soldiers than I would be of the migrants. Public safety??? I think not.
Donald Trump, Kirstjen Nielsen and others calling to close the border, to deny these migrants asylum, lack normal human compassion. They would deny thousands the right to opportunity, the right to safety, for political purposes. The U.S. was once known as a country that welcomed asylum seekers, that understood what a wonderful thing diversity was. Somewhere along the line, we lost our compassion, we lost our humanity.
Trump’s threat to “close the border permanently” is against the law, however as he believes himself to be above the law, believes that the laws do not apply if they are at odds with his whims, I suspect there will be legal challenges and hate-filled rhetoric bouncing about for the next several months. Just another step in our decline toward becoming a third-world country. I don’t know about you, but I don’t wish to live in a country where the borders are closed, a country that treats human beings seeking asylum as if they were criminals. 
I haven’t done any ‘Snarky Snippets’ for a week or so, for the elections and the surrounding detritus have taken up a large portion of my time and energies. But today, I am settling back in and had a few things to say about this ‘n that.
California is currently suffering three major wildfires, one of which, the Camp Fire, is now the most destructive recorded in state history. The blaze destroyed the entire town of Paradise, north of Sacramento, and has killed at least nine people. About three dozen more remain missing.
Donald Trump had nary a word to say about the fires until 3:00 a.m. yesterday morning, when he tweeted …
What a guy, eh? So caring, kind and compassionate for the people who have lost loved ones, lost their homes and businesses … But, setting aside his typical inhumanity for the moment, with his words he has, once again, shown his ignorance. He did not bother to do his homework, to attempt to learn something about the situation before spouting off at the thumbs.
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has acknowledged that a downed power line is most likely the cause of the Camp Fire, although no official cause has yet been announced. High winds are the major factor in the rapid spread of the other two fires, and overall, a lack of rainfall contributed to all three.
I’m sure the people of California, not to mention the firefighters who are risking their lives to try to save lives and property, must be heartened by and appreciative of Trump’s words … not! Think before you tweet should become his new mantra and somebody in his administration should plaster it over all the walls in his office and living quarters!
Either Trump’s handlers have not learned their lesson, or they are not up for the job and we need to hire new handlers, aka babysitters. I would have thought that by now they would have learned not to let the man leave the country. He does not play well with others. He does enough damage here at home, but every single time he has traveled abroad, he has further damaged our relations with our allies. Friday was no exception.
Trump arrived in France Friday to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the end of World War I and meet with world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron. Moments after landing, Trump tweeted an attack on Macron …
Given the level of venom Trump has directed toward European leaders in the past, who can blame members of the EU for feeling a need for protection, even against the U.S.? Yet another case where “think before you tweet” might have been sound advice.
Remember a week or so ago, right before the mid-term elections, when Trump was so scared of his party losing their majority in the House that he was grasping at straws, trying to inject a new level of fear in voters in hopes of winning their votes? And remember how, as a part of all that, he sent U.S. troops to the southern border, claiming that the caravan of migrants that was, at that time, some 1,000 miles away, was just filled with ruffians, criminals and even … gasp … Middle-Eastern terrorists!!! And the whole thing, he claimed, was funded by George Soros and his band of merry democrats!
Well, everything was a huge lie, except that he did send troops to the border. No reason, really, but he couldn’t very well claim there was an impending “invasion” without looking tough by sending troops, now could he? Besides which, the ‘man’ has been dying to play with his new toys (the military) for nigh on two years now, and here was the perfect trumped-up (pun intended) excuse!
Only thing is … while there is a migrant caravan, it is not anything but poor, starving migrants fleeing the violence in their own country, trying to protect their innocent children. And they won’t even arrive at our southern border until sometime in December. So … what’s going on now with the nearly 6,000 men and women who were ordered to go down there and quell the “invasion”? Gin rummy. Poker. Sitting ‘round a campfire telling dirty jokes. No electricity. Won’t be home for Thanksgiving.
Pentagon officials privately derided the deployment as an expensive waste of time and resources, and a morale killer to boot. ‘Privately’ … I guess they are all afraid to do their jobs and advise their commander of the realities. But the other thing is … guess who’s paying for all this and guess how much it’s costing? Yes, my friends, you and I are paying for it, even though we neither need nor want it. As to the cost … a final cost estimate of the deployment has not been made available. But Defense Department budget officials say that if the number of troops sent to the border does reach the 15,000 Trump has threatened, the price tag could hit $200 million, with no specific budget allocation from which to draw. Remember those “tax cuts” that only benefited the wealthy 1%? Do the math.
So concludes today’s batch of snarky snippets … but I still have more in me, so … stay tuned!
Okay, so I’m not exactly next in line for poet laureate. It’s a gloomy, cold and rainy afternoon here, but at least it’s Friday. It is also daughter Chris’ birthday (48, but don’t tell her I told you!), and so I have some extra things to get done this afternoon, such as baking her favourite cake that takes a few hours, as it is a multi-stage process.
The news has been full this week, and I don’t know about you, but I’m still reeling from it all, only believing a small portion of what I’m hearing. The one keyword that sums it all up is chaos. In fact, that word seems to sum up the last 21 months since the inauguration of … well, you-know-who. I thought that since I need to be doing some other things this afternoon, and since you’re on news overload anyway, a few cartoons might be the better way to start off the weekend.
Let me just give you a few samples from this evening’s headlines:
Limbaugh on bomb threats to Democrats: ‘Republicans just don’t do this kind of thing’ – The Hill
Reports that suspicious package was sent to White House are incorrect: source – Reuters
Trump supporters cook up wild conspiracy theory about George Soros bombing himself as distraction from caravan – RawStory
Fox News expert claims mail bombs could be sent by liberals ‘trying to get the Democratic vote out’ – RawStory
The View’s Meghan McCain compares bombs targeting Dems to Republicans getting ‘heckled at restaurants’ – MSNBC
Trump decries ‘political violence’ after years of stoking it – Politico
Trump: ‘Do you see how nice I am behaving tonight?’ – Politico
Let’s take a look at Limbaugh. Apparently, he was studying under Alex Jones, the master of conspiracy theory, for several years and now that Alex has been essentially neutered, Limbaugh has taken over.
“Republicans just don’t do this kind of thing. Even though every event, like mass shootings, remember, every mass shooting there is, the Democrats in the media try to make everybody think right off the bat that some tea partier did it, or some talk radio fan did it, or some Fox News viewer did it. Turns out, it’s never, ever the case.”
Hmmmm … anybody remember Pizzagate? Charlottesville? He went on to say that, since none of the bombs actually went off, it was the work of a ‘democratic operative’ trying to give the appearance that there are ‘mobs everywhere’. It should be noted that there is not a shred of evidence to support any of his statements. Alex could have done it better.
Then there was the suspicious package allegedly sent to the White House … a package that never was, but that was briefly reported by CNN with no immediate retraction. Well, in fairness, CNN was dealing with their own problems at the time.
And what about poor ol’ George Soros? This guy gets the blame by conservatives for every single thing that happens for which they have no other explanation. Soros, for those who may not know, is a keenly intelligent investor, business magnate, and most of all, one of the top philanthropists in the world. He has an acute understanding of how the stock market works, how governments operate and why, and just about anything else you might ask of him. But he’s always the heavy. I suspect that long after he is dead, certain elements will continue to blame him for the world’s ills.
Some Trump supporters are claiming that the bombs sent to prominent enemies of Trump are part of an elaborate plot, orchestrated by Soros to shift the 2018 midterm elections. One Trump fan even went so far as to accuse Soros of trying to bomb himself to distract America from the migrant caravan that he believes Soros is funding. Ay ay ay ay ay!!! Chinga**! (Horty Rex will understand)
Donald Trump once suggested that “Second Amendment people” could take matters into their own hands if Hillary Clinton won the election. In 2016, he encouraged the roughing-up of protesters at his campaign rallies. Last year, Trump tweeted a video of himself tackling a man with a CNN logo superimposed across his face, adding the hashtag #FraudNewsCNN. And just last week, he actually praised republican congressman Greg Gianforte who was convicted of assault for body-slamming a reporter with The Guardian who simply asked him a question.
And now … last night, after a day of chaos amid the lies, speculation and conspiracy theories from only the republican side of the aisle … he has the unmitigated gall to say …
“Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective. By the way, do you see how nice I’m behaving today? Have you ever seen this?”
Was that supposed to be a joke? Was it meant to be funny? If so, it fell flat. Where, I ask you folks, is the captain of this ship? Where is the president who should be leading the nation to peace, who should be trying to heal the rift between right and left instead of stoking it? I will tell you where he is NOT … he is NOT at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. For the past nearly two years, we have been a rudderless ship, adrift with little or no direction. Today, however, we are no longer adrift, but are in the middle of a tempestuous storm that is threatening to take this ship down.
Let’s get the pertinent facts clear here:
I end this rant with a suggestion — a plea, actually. I’m tired. You’re tired. We’re all tired, no matter what party affiliation, skin colour, religion or gender. Too much pure bullshit erodes our psyche. When you come to the end of this post, do me and yourself a favour … go hug someone. I don’t care who you hug … your neighbor, a stranger passing by, your spouse, kid or significant other, the family dog … just go hug them tight and say, “I love you”. Please?
Filosofa's Word 