So Trump Has Suddenly Found "Compassion" To Stop Family Separations? Don't Buy It For A second!

"Hmmmmm...how many more of those migrant kids can I send to concentration camps?"

Let us first accept as an axiom that the Trump cabal lies habitually and basically anything they say can be treated as a LIE. The evidence for this - all objective - has been on display the past week or so as various lies, large and small, have been trotted out not only by Trump (e.g. "I can't change this, only congress can!", "the Dems are responsible for the law they have to change it." etc.) as well as Kristjen Nielsen i.e.. "This is not a policy. Period!".

So given this axiom, then nothing the Trump bunch says or does can be accepted at face value which brings us to the alleged "executive order" signed by Trump yesterday following which which many media sources say he "caved in" or "retreated".  Horse pockey!

These media nabobs  appear to have fallen hook, line and sinker for Trump's  latest 'rope a dope' that he has stopped the child separations from parents with an executive order. Well, here's a newsflash for any who've fallen for this bull shit: NONE of those 2,342  separated kids - now "gone to the four winds" - are to be grandfathered into Trump's supposed "compassionate" E.O.   Trump may have signed an executive order to end the separation of families at the southern border, but his administration is not making any special efforts to immediately reunite the 2,342 children who have already been separated from their parents under his “zero tolerance” policy.

 That means none of those kids - including the toddlers and infants interred at the child concentration camps...errrr..."tender age shelters" -   are to be reunited with their parents anytime soon.

Indeed, as one commentator put it on 'All In'  last night, these forlorn kids have been sent off to the 4 winds, many still suffering from bedbugs, chickenpox, lice and other diseases, as NY Mayor  Bill DeBlasio described in an interview on New York One.

SO Trump's pathological lies continue on an epic scale, and since the fish rots from the head down, it follows his lackeys will continue to lie too.

According to an analysis by The Post’s Fact Checker through the end of May, Trump had made 3,251 false or misleading claims in 497 days — an average of 6.5 such claims per day of his presidency," Parker writes. But this rate seems to be increasing, she notes.

According to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman :

"Trump is lying, obfuscating and inventing his own version of reality more frequently - a period that began post-Cohen raid but which intensified in recent days.

Two major issues have prompted a deluge of new falsehoods,  Parker notes: the FBI inspector general report on Hillary Clinton's email investigation, and the administration's policy of separating immigrant families at the border.

Basically, Trump has had to compulsively lie in the latter case - using every permutation of falsity - to cover his fat ass that HE was the one who implemented the zero tolerance policy barely 60 days ago. HE and HE alone, not the Dems, not Obama, not Bush Jr. or Bill Clinton.  

In regard to this executive order, let's be clear it does not and cannot override the Flores Agreement, i.e. that children cannot be detained for more than 20 days.  Now, since the bullshit executive order  says ok, kids and adults can be together - but  still detained - that means those kids again must be separated after twenty days.  Trump likely knew this all along, which is why this E.O. is just a fig leaf to shelter him and his odious administration from public blow back on his hideous policy.

Sessions has evidently asked a federal judge in California to modify the Flores Agreement so that the kids can be detained longer with parents (hence not be separated) but that is doubtful.  Without modification of the agreement, congress has less than 3 weeks to come up with a permanent solution, and there is no evidence at all they will, or can.

And again, there is nothing being done at all to reunite the 2,342 kids (including infants, toddlers) already separated - and who are now spread across 17 states- thanks to the Trump Nazis spiriting them out on covert plane flights.  (The major commercial airlines have now adopted a non-cooperation policy so will no longer be flying kids to other destinations while their parents are incarcerated.)

According to Sen. Tim Kaine, on 'All In' last night:

"If they are not going to reunite these kids with their families, then the American public needs to stay outraged until they do. This is a humanitarian atrocity that this administration created - a separation of families, devastating to the children and devastating to the parents."

The executive order itself, has loopholes large enough to drive proverbial 'Mack trucks' through, i.e.

"it is the policy of this Administration to maintain family unity, including by detaining alien families together, where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources."

In other words, if those available resources are lacking there will be no obligation - according to the E.O. - to maintain family unity.   Four major questions also surface as one inspects the content of the E.O.:

1) Will the families be detained indefinitely?

2) Where will the families be detained?

3) What will be the process to determine their future status?

4) Will you still treat lawful asylum seekers as criminals?

The last hearkens back to Sessions' statement last week that the U.S. will no longer treat well founded claims, e.g. of escaping from violence, as admissible. If not admissible for asylum the migrants then become criminals.

This again is Nazi type thinking.  Criminalize all those deemed 2nd class humans.

In the words of  Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also interviewed last night by Hayes, and filing a lawsuit against the Trump admin.:

"I don't think the deception has stopped. I believe the executive order is a sham. I think it was a press release to vent some of the anger. I don't even think it's legally enforceable. The executive order says they're going to set up family detention centers. The only problem is there are no family detention centers. 

There is the Flores case, where this has been litigated for twenty years.  And the  Court has said you cannot put young people in a detention center with adults except for a very brief period of time. So you can't set up a family detention center.  And then you see the words in the executive order as allowed by law and available resources.  But the court is not going to allow them to put young people in detention centers. That is how we got here in the first place."

This also appears to comport with what long time Flores case specialist Peter Schey said last night on Lawrence O'Donnell's 'Last Word'.  This is in reference to the Trumpies trying to modify the Flores Agreement to allow placing kids with parents in unlicensed facilities. (The Flares case only allowed licensed facilities and only for the limited 20 day period).

Further, as Mr. Schey emphasized, the Flores Agreement specifically detailed all licensed facilities had to be equipped with the means to deal with children, including staff having the requisite training to ensure the psychological well being as well as health of child detainees. This emphatically will hot apply if the kids are shipped off with their parents to military bases, as the despicable Trumpies want.

Given as Gov. Cuomo said, the chances of getting those licensed facilities - as permanent detention venues- are slim and none, then we finally do see what a sickening sham this E.O. is. And as Mr. Schey added, there is no plan at all to reunite those already separated thousands of kids with parents.

Conclusion: This executive order about which so much is being made in terms of 'retreat" is merely another cynical lie at the expense of those isolated kids, and the trust of the American people. The sooner these sick bastards go down in flames, the better!

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/79730/in-kiddie-concentration-camps-a-turning-point

And:  From Henry Giroux  

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/henry-giroux/79768/trump-s-war-on-children-is-an-act-of-state-terrorism

Excerpt:

Separating children from their parents is indeed a form of terrorism and it points not only to a society that has lost its moral compass, but has also descended into such darkness that it demands both the loudest forms of moral outrage and a collective resistance aimed at eliminating the narratives, power relations and values that support it.

Amnesty International has called Trump’s current decision to separate children from their parents and warehouse them in cages and tents as a cruel policy that amounts to “nothing short of torture.” Many of the parents whose children have been taken away from them entered the country legally, unwittingly exposing what resembles a state-sanctioned policy of racial cleansing.

And:  From Jill Richardson

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/jill-richardson/79767/immigrant-kids-are-suffering-trauma-that-will-last-years

Excerpt:

"I grew up in a wealthy, white, educated family, and I was born a U.S. citizen. I was able to get therapy. Most of the children Trump is locking in cages likely won’t get that opportunity. Already pediatricians are warning about the lasting damage they’re likely to suffer from this cruel treatment.

Now we’ve found out why Trump is doing this: It’s a bargaining chip in order to get his dumb wall, even though net migration across the border has been zero or negative in recent years (and a wall would scarcely prevent it anyhow)"

Colorado Prepares To Fight AG Sessions & Trump Feds Over Marijuana

AG  Jeff Sessions comes across like a character out of the 1936 farce "Reefer Madness".

The recent remarks of AG and proto-Confederate leftover Jeff Sessions against states with recreational marijuana laws, now has Colorado lawmakers ready to defend the state's $1 billion market and thousands of jobs dependent on that market.  Sessions' antagonistic remarks in a number of venues, some of which I highlight below, set Colorado lawmakers' on edge from their first utterance two weeks ago. Now, they are ready to do whatever necessary to defend the CO economy (faltering because of fracking pullbacks owing to a glut of shale oil)  and that includes revision of existing laws spawned by Colorado's Amendment 64 - passed by a clear majority of the state's voters in 2012.

Sessions' recent aggressive and outdated remarks meanwhile harken back to an era where virtually nothing was understood about marijuana and hence, it  served as a vehicle for government propaganda and control.  Who can forget the 1936 government -produced farce entitled "Reefer madness"?   This was an obvious propaganda exploitation effort revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try marijuana. Their travails extend from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness.  At least one voice over insinuates that "these are bad people" doing the business of spreading demon weed.    This farce could have been produced by Jeff Sessions, given its cornpone, low brow cheap messaging, especially after Sessions was recently heard  to bloviate "good people don't smoke marijuana". Uh, yes they do, especially if they have physical infirmities and diseases which the weed ameliorates. Or, they're on cancer treatments (like chemo) and it helps them stop barfing enough to eat.

Originally it had been financed by a church group under the title "Tell Your Children". Its primary mandate was circulation and screening to parents as a  putative morality tale, attempting to teach them about the dangers of any cannabis use by their kiddies. Perhaps two decades later any viewing of this dreck became so laughable that it emerged as a cult film - shown to audiences primarily as joke material. Which is rightly the niche to which it belongs..

Enter now Sessions, ardent segregationist and putative top "lawman",  who plans a new "war on pot", despite the fact any such crusade will directly affect millions of Trump voters - which may well cost the GOP the 2020 presidential election. Let's also process, factoring into this, that MJ has helped propel billions of dollars into states' tax coffers that otherwise wouldn't have been available. Not to mention thousands of jobs - especially for returned vets-  who otherwise might be unemployed - or only able to be Walmart workers.  In Colorado, these vets are putting their service skills to use by acting as guards for transport of MJ retail sales money. As one Iraq vet said, "if I lost this job I don't know what the hell I'd do, especially at the pay rate".  Is Sessions and his DOJ bunch prepared to live with this if they mount an attack on all MJ states?

Sessions said in Arizona last Tuesday, “you would have thought the biggest issue in America was when I said, ‘I don’t think America’s going to be a better place if they sell marijuana at every corner grocery store.’ (People) didn’t like that; I’m surprised they didn’t like that.”

But like most of Sessions’ blurtations on cannabis, he was dead wrong, and showed his take was more fit for fake news hysteria. Consider that marijuana is non-deadly, and barely 9 percent of those who try it develop an addiction.  By contrast, heroin is an opioid that killed more than 12,000 Americans in 2015, and 23 percent of heroin users become addicted. (Worth noting: Prescription opioids such as OxyContin, morphine and Vicodin accounted for an additional 16,000 American deaths in 2015.)  If Sessions were really serious about combating a drug epidemic and not merely posturing, he'd go into coal country where opioids are now proliferating.

Sessions recently said, “I think one of (Obama’s) great failures … is his lax treatment in comments on marijuana.” It’s true that Obama told The New Yorker in 2014, “I don’t think (marijuana) is more dangerous than alcohol.” In 2016 Obama told Rolling Stone he believed cannabis should be treated like “cigarettes and alcohol.” Sessions blasted such remarks as lax, but they were actually fact-based. A straightforward research effort, including stats from the National Institutes of Health would have disclosed to Sessions that excessive alcohol use kills nearly 90,000 people each year in the U.S., while cannabis use alone is responsible for zero deaths in recorded history.

Alcohol and opioids combined kill more than 100,000 Americans each year, cannabis kills none. That is, there are no existing statistics to show cannabis has been singularly connected to any traffic deaths or other deaths.  There have been claims by assorted exploitative agents of misinformation to link MJ either to murders they themselves committed or the suicides of others, but not to the extent of isolating MJ as any unique, proven culprit. For example, Richard Kirk of Denver has claimed he should be found not guilty of first-degree murder because he was having "edible marijuana-induced hallucinations" when he shot his wife.  But most sober people put this in the same category as mass killer Ted Bundy's blaming his exposure to porn for his serial killing of women in the 1970s-80s

Journalists have also easily tracked down megabytes of anti-cannabis propaganda from Sessions’ recent interviews on the subject, and his “corner grocery store” opinion was far from the most egregious.  Sessions’ supposed surprise on the subject  is also unfathomable and discloses his brain may be trapped in a 1950s time warp. Or, possibly even the 1936 era of "Reefer Madness".  Why should Sessions be surprised that Americans “didn’t like” his anti-legalization stance in an era when 60 percent of Americans want legal cannabis, one in eight U.S. adults say they currently consume marijuana and state legalization initiatives are going eight for nine on Election Day?   Let alone his baseless campaign against a non-lethal plant-based drug that has, by every available metric, proven itself to be significantly safer than many of the other substances we vend recreationally?

In this light and with good ol' Johnny Reb Jeff on the warpath, Colorado is now taking defensive steps to protect itself against fed assault on Sessions' watch. That includes state lawmakers (including GOP) signing a "in case of crackdown" bill to allow cannabis recreational cultivators to transfer their plants to the medical arena to avoid federal confiscation. As we know, the medical MJ side has been around much longer than the recreational and will be much harder for good ol' boy Sessions and his crew to undermine. (The major downside is that the state would collect a lot less in taxes because medical MJ is taxed at a significantly lower rate).

Even Gov. John Hickenlooper is now getting involved and has advised lawmakers on the optimal defensive approaches as a possible Trumpie fed crackdown looms. Once an Amendment 64- MJ skeptic "Hick" said in a recent Denver Post interview:

"I'd say that the (marijuana) experiment - as it continues to move forward- has gone certainly better than I anticipated and I think better than many people have anticipated."

This was not long after having, earlier this month, joined other governors of states that have legalized cannabis consumption in sending a letter to Sessions. In that missive, the governors requested the Trump cabinet members to "engage with us before embarking on any changes to the regulatory and enforcement system". 

Hick himself has held out no hope for any reversal of existing policies without great mishap. This in turn has driven him to cooperate with state legislators to toughen defenses.  One of these is to scrap the implementation of recreational MJ clubs, at least for now, until Sessions casts his jaundiced eyes on some other hot topic (porn?) . Recall "Initiative 300" passed in CO last November.  This extends Amendment 64 and allows MJ users to use it publicly, e.g. in bars, cafes and even Yoga studios. Hitherto, those who purchased MJ had to return to their own homes and be out of public view.

The good aspect is Colorado is prepared to go to the mat against any potential Sessions' MJ crusade, to protect jobs and economic interests. As one lawmaker wryly commented: "Funny how these guys come down on the 'nanny state' - unless it's a nanny state they advocate."

Indeed.  So, it really appears the invocation of "nanny state" depends on which citizen actions require a state "nanny".

If The "Alt Right" Aren't Nazis Why Are They Giving the Nazi Salute?

This is a question that bears repeating and emphasis, especially - remember - it is the deluded members of the Right who've tried to pin the "National Socialist" - Nazi tail on the left. See e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2010/07/getting-socialist-thingie-straight-once.html

But this emerges as codswallop rife with cow manure now that The Atlantic has captured the denizens of one Alt Right group - the National Policy Institute- in full throated homage to Nazi ideals and agendas with their 'Hail Trump!" (Ger. "Heil Trump!") salutes and "Sieg Heils"  See e.g. this bunch at their recent gathering in D.C. after Trump's rise to power:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/richard-spencer-speech-npi/508379/

Are there parallels with more distant history, especially in Germany after Hitler rose to the Chancellory? Yes, and much of this background has been provided by German author Konrad Heiden in his mesmerizing book, The Fuehrer.   Heiden, unlike most who write about the Third Reich and Hitler today, actually lived at the time.  He was one of the first to hear the young Hitler's rousing, anti-Semitic orations even as he recognized the perverse self-serving ideology and narcissism at work. (One now ascendant again after Trump has been voted in and appointed Stephen Bannon to his inner circle. ) This as Heiden worked as a staff reporter for The Frankfurter Zeitung.   Heiden was also one of the few writers at the time, despite the Reich laws, to stand against Nazism.

This elicits the question of what Hitler's N.S.D.A.P. or Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei  has in common with the National Policy Institute apart from shouting "Heil Hitler/Hail Trump". In fact, as Heiden points out (p. 468, 'Heil Hitler' was the greeting of the  N.S.D.A.P.  while "Front Heil!" was the greeting of the Stahlhelm (Steel Helmet) itself derived from the Vaterländische Front, VF   or Fatherland Front  - which is the closest analog to the National Policy Institute today. This is given both are devoted to pure Nationalism and the removal of "untermenschen". (More below).

Heiden in his earlier German version 'Hitler- Das Leben Eines Diktators' (1936), of his remarkable book, traces extreme German Nationalism as embodied in  the Volkisch movement extant in Germany since the Middle Ages. It extolled a eugenic Aryanism and invested much of it in myths traced back to ancient Nordic origins. It also incorporated Christian rituals, such as the Passion Play at Oberammagau, in which the Jews were featured as "Christ killers". In other words, it was the Volkisch movement  - embodied in a cultural anti-Semitism  that had gone on for centuries, which Hitler then applied as justification for the Final Solution. (And which he crudely described in Mein Kampf). 

And just as the Jews were deemed untermenschen in the Reich, and hence listed in a National Registry for identification purposes, so also are Muslims earmarked for a similar fate under Trump's appointed White Aryan Nationalists, as exemplified by the National Policy Institute and the alt Right movement in general.

While it is true that Hitler had a rabid hatred of Bolshevism, which he tied to Jews (Karl Marx in particular) this in itself would not have made Jews a "threat" to his expansion demands for Lebensraum. Indeed, he saw the Jews as no "threats" at all but as inconvenient impediments or better, vermin, to be exterminated in line with the Volkisch mindset. 

But let us bear in mind the Jews weren't the only "undesirables" to Hitler and the Nazis. In fact, he wanted the elimination of all those deemed to be members of inferior races or nationalities, including: Slavs, Gypsies, the disabled or mentally enfeebled, and  homosexuals as well. (Blacks would also have been included but essentially numbered zero in German population statistics at the time of Hitler's final power grab on March 23, 1933.)  Heiden described Hitler's thinking in his own words, in The Fuehrer, p. 257:

"If Germany should get a million children each year and eliminate seven to eight hundred thousand  of the weakest, in the end the result would be an increase in power."


Heiden's point is that Hitler believed he could attain the "American" eugenic ideal by brutally murdering those he regarded as the weakest, including those seen as a human sub-species: the Jews.

Now, to more firmly establish parallels: It is actually the Stahlhelm to which the National Policy Institute is most closely compared from a historical perspective. This is because - as Heiden notes (p. 239) it was in this group that the leading and more educated classes placed their trust for advancement of nationalist imperatives. This as opposed to the more working class -composed Sturm Abteilung. In like manner, to advance its own agenda, the  National Policy Institute depends on more college educated white men as opposed to working class men.

Another prime parallel is that both have evidently gorged on Josef Goebbels' propaganda with the National Policy Institute actually translating some of his tracts from the original German. It is most plausible that they included this segment of one Goebbel's tract (The Nazi -Sozi, 1932) cited by Heiden:

"Certainly the Jew is also a man, but the flea is also an animal. And the other animals do not harbor and cultivate the flea but exterminate it"

Which was directly incorporated by Reinhardt Heydrich and others in implementing the Final Solution. DO the tracts being translated by the  National Policy Institute reflect the same disgusting notions and vile language? We can only surmise they do, which is why so many neo-Nazis, White Aryans and others hail the election of Trump because it's set their vicious memes free. Indeed, Richard Spencer in his screed shown in the link above actually refers to the U.S. media in the original Nazi parlance "Judenpresse" used by the Nazis. (Jewish press.)

All of which settles once and for all which side of the ideological spectrum the alt Right is on: the side of fascism and Nazism.  Again, Ian Kershaw in his magnificent account of Hitler’s rise to power (‘Hitler Nemesis’) describes in detail how the NSDAP party members would regularly beat Marxists, socialists, and any leftists on the streets while holding up signs that read: “Tot dem Marxem!” (Death to Marxists!)  Since Marxists are, in fact, Socialists first and foremost, it would make no sense for a true Socialist party to encourage anyone to do that.

If these geniuses who insist Hitler "wasn't of the Right" were correct, then WHY did they beat up on Marxists, Socialists and Commies of the LEFT?  But this shows how even these whackos abhor comparisons with Hitler and the Nazis, even when they encourage Nazi salutes! (As shown in the youtube link above). This fact is unassailable: with the spectacle of alt Right loonies giving Nazi salutes they are clearly pro-Nazi and if they subscribe to Nazism's agendas they are full Nazis. As my sister-in-law Krimhilde put it: "Being a Nazi isn't simply being a formal party member.  It is embracing Nazi ideals and agendas."

The saddest chapter in Heiden's lengthy book has to be XXIII ('Coup D 'Etat by Instalments') where we learn how fast the German electorate regretted its ill-advised choice to help Hitler attain power. When the overt persecution of the Jews and others did finally begin, we are informed (p. 456):

"Up until this time, foreign countries, as well as the German public, had been lulled by the National Socialists in the comfortable faith that 'things would not be so bad', that the anti-Jewish agitation was not meant so seriously ...Now it turned out this was a lie. The anti-Semitic agitation was meant seriously. The persecution of political enemies, bestial as it was, was part of the political struggle but the attack on Jews was an attack on a peaceful group".

Will Americans come to rue their decision to unleash Trump and his minions, as the Germans did with Hitler - and when it was too late? We can only guess. But a first important marker and indicator will be the Senate hearings for racist hate monger Jeff  Sessions as Attorney General. If the Dems roll over on this, it will be almost as bad as the Reichstag voting for the Enabling Act.. Bottom line: at the risk of our nation's own integrity we cannot allow an alt Right segregationist and white nationalist to occupy the top seat of law enforcement - come Hell or high water.

As for "fake news"  anyone reading this blog can be assured that is a non-starter. That's because I rely on multiple independent (including historical) sources which can all be cross-checked. More on this in a future post.