June 19, 2018

"Trump defiant as crisis grows over family separation at the border."

That's the headline at The Washington Post, with this video of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen vigorously defending Trump's policy:



From the article:
The president on Monday voiced defiance and continued to falsely blame congressional Democrats for what he decried as a “horrible and tough” situation. But Trump is empowered to immediately order border agents to stop separating families as a result of his “zero tolerance” enforcement policy.
The insertion of the word "falsely" is such a distracting signal that WaPo doesn't want to be looked upon as neutrally professional journalism. If what Trump is saying is wrong for some reason, that should be brought out, with factual statements, somewhere else in the story. I also don't like "voiced defiant" (or, from the headline, "Trump defiant"). For one thing, it purports to know his state of mind. For another, it refers to something that he's defying before setting up what that is. We're dropped into the middle of things, and Trump is all emotional and spouting lies. I feel like I'm reading a pulp fiction novel.
The president asserted that the parents illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with their children “could be murderers and thieves and so much else,” echoing his incendiary remarks about immigrants at his campaign launch in 2015. And in a series of dark tweets, he warned that undocumented immigrants could increase gang crime and usher in cultural changes.

“The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” Trump said in a midday speech. “You look at what’s happening in Europe, you look at what’s happening in other places. We can’t allow that to happen to the United States. Not on my watch.”
So he's doing more of the kind of talk that won him the election in 2016. What makes Democrats in politics and the media believe it will work out differently this time? Big bets are being made on which high-emotion scenario will capture the hearts of voting Americans. I wish this were not forefronted as the issue for 2018. Whatever happened to the IG's report or North Korea or — for that matter — Russia collusion and impeachment?
The crisis garnered round-the-clock television news coverage, with journalists reporting about their first glimpses of the ­concrete-floor and metal-cage conditions inside the detention centers.
So no human beings were making the decision to devote round-the-clock coverage of this issue. The "crisis" did the acting. The abstraction — there's that bullshit wordgarnered the coverage.
Nielsen acknowledged that she was not keeping pace with coverage of the crisis, including audio of wailing children published a few hours earlier by ProPublica....
As if her job is to monitor the media, and how to enforce the law should be determined by what video has been chosen to run on television. Nielsen should have her own accurate sources and should work on performing her duties, not spend her time consuming journalism/propaganda and continually modify what she is doing in response to the imagined mood of the country. The test will come when the elections arrive, more than 4 months from now. Will crying, "caged" children fill our TV screens that long?
Trump has been closely monitoring the coverage...
Yeah, Trump, who we've been told spends too much time watching television.
... but has been suspicious of it...
LOL. That's what he does.  Watches TV suspiciously. If you're going to watch the news on TV — a horrible practice (I can't stand it) — that's what you should do, watch suspiciously.
... telling associates he believes that the media cherry-picks the most dramatic images and stories to portray his administration in a negative light, according to one senior administration official.
Well, of course. What competent watcher of television would not conclude that the images are cherry-picked for drama? As for negativity to the Trump administration, can you be a competent TV watcher and believe the concern here really is purely for the welfare of children?
Meanwhile, Trump and his advisers were unable to stanch the wellspring of public opposition. 
I'm skeptical of the phrase "wellspring of public opposition." There are surveys — the article refers to a CNN poll and a Quinnipiac poll showing 67/68% of Americans disapprove of separating children from parents — but I suspect that millions of Americans want what they voted for in 2016, which is strong immigration enforcement, and these people may not want to talk about the innocents who get hurt along the way and they may embrace the idea (that Nielsen stated clearly) that the children are being hurt by the adults who are taking them on a dangerous, criminal journey or suspect that many of these children are not so young and are already involved in gang violence and will bring more of that violence into the United States. What about that wellspring of public sentiment?

By the way, "stanch the wellspring" is a mixed metaphor. "To stanch" is to stop the flow of blood or other fluid from a wound in a living body. A "wellspring" is the source of a river emerging from the ground. These are emotive, colorful words, but they have concrete meaning and they're being used in a way that makes no sense.*
Some Republican elected officials joined Democrats in expressing moral outrage and calling for an immediate end to the administration’s family separation policy.
Are these people saying that what they want is that the adults who arrive with children and make a claim for asylum should — as before — gain free access to the United States? Or do they just express their "moral outrage" and leave it there?
______________________

* And — one more time — I've got to remind you of what George Orwell said about dying metaphors:
Dying metaphors. A newly invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a visual image, while on the other hand a metaphor which is technically "dead" (e.g. iron resolution) has in effect reverted to being an ordinary word and can generally be used without loss of vividness. But in between these two classes there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves. Examples are: Ring the changes on, take up the cudgel for, toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to shoulder with, play into the hands of, no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubled waters, on the order of the day, Achilles' heel, swan song, hotbed. Many of these are used without knowledge of their meaning (what is a "rift," for instance?), and incompatible metaphors are frequently mixed, a sure sign that the writer is not interested in what he is saying.

382 comments:

1 – 200 of 382   Newer›   Newest»
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

They are going to fold.

The Drill SGT said...

"So he's doing more of the kind of talk that won him the election in 2018"

2016?

David Begley said...

How about Trump stalwart? Trump principled. Trump enforces the law.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Foldable. Folderol. Folderal. Folderico. Foldover.

Ann Althouse said...

@The Drill SGT

Thanks. I caught that myself, but I appreciate all corrections. I have the habit of publishing and then correcting, but I still miss things so feel free to nudge me about any typo/mistake.

TrespassersW said...

"They" who?

David Begley said...

How are these people going to react when this Russia thing turns up nothing on Trump, Comey and McCabe get indicted and Trump wins 40 states?

stevew said...

@DB: This is how they react and will react, find something else to get all outraged about. Howling at the moon, the sun, and the stars.

-sw

rhhardin said...

Whatever happened to the IG's report or North Korea or — for that matter — Russia collusion and impeachment?

It disappeared as it was supposed to under children in cages.

David Begley said...

“Whatever happened to the IG's report or North Korea or — for that matter — Russia collusion and impeachment?”

Bingo! Althouse figured it out. The Dems KNOW they are losing all of those issues so they had to switch to kids. Kids in politics. Ann hates that and rightly so.

rhhardin said...

Free birth control for children in cages.

rhhardin said...

Mix boys with girls two years younger, to match interests. It's the 72 virgin attraction.

Fabi said...

Have we asked Stormy Daniels about this "crisis"?

Anonymous said...

The crazy thing is they don't see the logical step for Trump is to say "immigration pause from everywhere for four years til we have no backlog of these cases."

It would drive everyone pushing this agenda into more spinning fits.

The journolist folks seem to think its win-win: that since the GOP is going to fold on this, Trump will lose; if the GOP don't, they'll be voted out and he can be impeached.

I think Trump is unlikely to care about the cowardly GOP. I think we may do something unexpected.

Curious George said...

“The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” Trump said in a midday speech. “You look at what’s happening in Europe, you look at what’s happening in other places. We can’t allow that to happen to the United States. Not on my watch.”

Motherfuckin' right.

rhhardin said...

It's all a women allowed to vote problem, like every other problem we have.

If they can't vote, there's no reason to appeal to them with this crap. They'd just have soap opera channels instead of news channels.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Why stop now when you can get headlines like these?

Fox host Laura Ingraham under fire for calling detention centers 'SUMMER CAMPS' for immigrant children as pictures reveal the 'tent cities' where thousands are kept separated from their parents

'Do not fall for it, Mr President': Outrage as Ann Coulter says 'weeping and crying' immigrant children in detention centers are 'CHILD ACTORS'

roesch/voltaire said...

Those crying child actors and Syrian children with toy guns featured by Drudge will keep the Trump base convinced the zero policy is correct

rhhardin said...

I suppose the boys are not allowed to have knives, so they can't idle the time away whittling something.

Knitting needles for the girls are probably not allowed either.

All the have is CNN all day, like in airports.

info@ysb said...

It’s the “crisis du jour”. Poll tested, media driven. Right on cue, the stories appear, the same actors go on the news and Congressmen and women rush to the border. This is not a new issue. It has been going on for years. It’s just the most recent issue that they think they can attack Trump and Republicans. Throw a crisis against the wall (no pun intended) and see if it sticks. There will be another crisis soon, bet on it.

rhhardin said...

Open detention centers in El Salvador. Some such country would like the foreign income, probably. And they already have these people, so it's not dragging down the culture.

rhhardin said...

You could go free range with some isolated island, like lord of the flies.

Jeff Brokaw said...

The various scenarios and the laws that cover them make this a very complicated situation, which of course the media ignores.

Seems to me the laws need fixing to allow a different process to take hold, so we can lock up the kids too, the entire "family", for several weeks while the asylum claim gets evaluated for the illegal border crossing perps.

Or, just automatically deny any asylum claim for illegal border crossings, and ship them back. Family stays together. Fixed!

Humperdink said...

This is why Trump is president and the other 15 or 16 mealy-mouth primary candidates are not.

Tommy Duncan said...

"I feel like I'm reading a pulp fiction novel."

Ann is too generous. At least you can throw a novel in the trash. The progressive media won't go away.

Fabi said...

Only six more fake crises until Election Day!

rhhardin said...

Put them all in mental hospitals, to prevent psychic damage.

Hagar said...

Trump is defying them, the MSM; the Democrats are just trying to keep up.

Tank said...

If it's a crisis, it's almost surely bullshit.

The parents caused this by breaking into our country. They can solve it by voluntarily going home with their children.

Tank said...

Can we send them all to Gitmo together?

I hear they have soccer fields.

Curious George said...

Don't fall for it Mr. President. Democrats would separate these children and run them through a wood chipper to get rid of Trump...or in this case save their bacon from the IG Report details.

Anonymous said...

Nicely dissected.

I do think you're being unfair to pulp-fiction writers, though. Their writing is a model of restraint and subtlety compared to the garish (nicely judged adjective, btw) prose of MSM propagandists.

Hagar said...

And once more: this is an invasion, not immigration. AA might want to comment on how we insensibly give up the battle when we adopt the enemy's language.

Humperdink said...

There is a pattern here. Permit to 'splain.

Ever wonder why San Francisco and Seattle lead the league in homelessness? They agree to house, cloth and feed any and all at taxpayer expense. That is, until they can't. Why don't the homeless assimilate *cough*? They do not need to, that's why. Same with unfettered immigration.

Thank you President Trump.

rhhardin said...

100 things to do with children in jail. Google comes through.

https://www.sesamestreet.org/toolkits/incarceration

except the video won't play on my computer. I'm sure it would be helpful though.

Unknown said...

This issue could be lucidly explained to people. What do you rather have for the children? A temporary discomfort or years of working in the underground sex trafficking ring?

Ann Althouse said...

"It's all a women allowed to vote problem, like every other problem we have. If they can't vote, there's no reason to appeal to them with this crap. They'd just have soap opera channels instead of news channels."

I thought the guys' perspective was to deal with the actual reality. Women do have the vote. It's not going away. So what are you going to do about it? Say something practical and reality-based or concede that men are not what you continually hold them out to be.

The whole challenge of life is for you men to figure out how to interact with women. Are you going to stand back and observe that it's difficult (or impossible)? Your idea of what a man is collapses on itself.

Voters (women and also many men) are emotional. Politics are emotional. You can give up and withdraw, but that only leaves the field to the people who are trying to play. Trump is trying. Why he bothered to come down from his tower to do this is a great mystery, but he is trying and even seems to take joy in what he's doing as he's assailed continually (and loved only by deplorables). What are you doing? He does talk to women (as well as men) and he does deal with the emotion that permeates everything.

Jeff Brokaw said...

It drives me crazy how easily a single picture, plus nonstop media coverage, can so easily manipulate so many people, without benefit of any facts or even a cursory understanding of the situation on the ground.

Seems kinda embarrassing ...

Fabi said...

Buy one fake crisis, get the second at half price! Hurry -- offer expires 6 November 2018!

Jersey Fled said...

The left finally has an issue that they can argue on a strictly emotional basis. That's why the 24/7 coverage. That's why the emotionally loaded wording in the WAPO article. This is their wheelhouse. It's all they know how to do.

What they don't understand is that this doesn't gain them anything, except maybe firing up their base. About 1/3 of the country agrees with Trump. The remaining Trump supporters who disagree with him on this issue agree with him on practically everything else. And the last thing they are going to do is suddenly become Democrats. That particular cure is worse than the disease.

How many times have we seen Trump face adversity and come out smelling like a rose. The "Russian Collusion" fable comes to mind. Trump is now stronger while his adversaries have been exposed for the swamp creatures that they are.

No matter how this ends, with a change in the law, or Trump standing firm, or even with him backing off, he won't be damaged. He is unstoppable.

Kevin said...

How are these people going to react when this Russia thing turns up nothing on Trump

The Russian collusion thing was never about Russia or collusion. The IG's report shows it was an operation run by people dedicated to keeping Trump from being president, and when their obstruction of the investigation into Hillary's server wasn't enough they immediately shifted to finding some pretext for the Dems to cow the GOPe into voting for impeachment.

When Mueller's report comes out with nothing on Trump we will be in the middle of another made-up issue consuming every bit of oxygen in the news cycle to keep people from seeing the real game going on.

Collusion!
Obstruction!
Stormy Daniels!
Campaign finance violations!
Trump insults Canada!
Trump's charity!
Kids in cages!

A week from now people are going to notice Trump still hasn't caved and the Dems haven't moved an inch to do anything about those kids. Just as it begins to dawn on people that maybe the Dems aren't serious about solving this issue, some other manufactured "crisis" is going to come up.

The easy bet is on something like Trump has gotten us into a trade war with China (because both sides have upped the ante in negotiations). But whatever it turns out to be, the same people who brought you children in cages have already moved on and are deciding what it will be.

The dogs continue to bark, but the people driving the caravan are already moving on.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Ann Althouse said...
The whole challenge of life is for you men to figure out how to interact with women.


If this were the 'whole challenge of life' I would have packed it in a while ago.

Tank said...

The sad thing is not that the left has created another bogus crisis, it's that so many feckless cucks like Romney and Bush and ARM and Chuck et al are too chickenshit to stand firm; instead, they are with the left (revealing themselves).

Does Romney even have a set of balls under his magic underwear?

Kevin said...

It drives me crazy how easily a single picture, plus nonstop media coverage, can so easily manipulate so many people, without benefit of any facts or even a cursory understanding of the situation on the ground.

Especially when the picture was taken during the Obama Administration...

Browndog said...

Even this morning, MSM are showing pics from the Obama era of 'children in cages' to prove Trump puts children in cages.

It is now an established fact. The only question is how do "we" get "our" children out of the Trump Cages.

rhhardin said...

I thought the guys' perspective was to deal with the actual reality. Women do have the vote. It's not going away. So what are you going to do about it? Say something practical and reality-based or concede that men are not what you continually hold them out to be.

The idea is to make women self-aware. There are times that women's style of analysis is ruinous to systems. Stop thinking that the style you like applies everywhere.

When guys disagree it's a clue you've reached that point. Not proof but a clue.

One thing is look at the long-term effects instead of today's effects and see if it's different, if you can think long-term. That's pretty much what men and women disagree about.

You get long term by abstracting from details; you get short term by heading for details. Men do the former, women the latter.

Each applies in its own domain. Country and neighborhood, respectively.

Kevin said...

Does Romney even have a set of balls under his magic underwear?

Romney is so easily manipulated by the press he was manipulated into letting Obama have a second term.

Fabi said...

Have an idea for a fake crisis? Submit it to journolist@fakenews.org. Win fabulous prizes!

rhhardin said...

Trump's deal is disparaging PC and favoring analysis. Women don't like him.

The deep state republicans are the ones living in fear of women. Everything they say it tailored to women. But they do horrible analysis to achieve it.

Will said...

I am struck by how the reporter insists on ignoring what Kirstjen Nielsen says and instead just filibusters Nielsen's point. There is no give and take here. Instead the reporter wants to be a player instead of an observer.

If the reporter thinks Kirstjen Nielsen is incorrect or lying then the thing to do is to cross examine her and lay Nielsen open like a fish. But this reporter is too blinded to try to do actual journalism. Does she not realize that this unwillingness undercuts any belief I might have in the reporter's "facts"?

When a Secretary of government disputes you and your "facts" the response is not to go back and restate your soliloquy word-for-word.

We saw this last week too when the "gentleman" who represents Playboy and CNN in the press room completely lost it with Sarah Sanders.

This derangement by the Press is not helping them win anyone over.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Tank said...
The sad thing is not that the left has created another bogus crisis, it's that so many feckless cucks like Romney and Bush and ARM and Chuck et al are too chickenshit to stand firm; instead, they are with the left (revealing themselves).


Or, it's not necessarily a bad thing to have sufficient political nous to understand when you have a losing issue. Even Ted Cruz has figured it out and Breitbart front-paged him.

Kevin said...

The only question is how do "we" get "our" children out of the Trump Cages.

How many are lining up today to foster those kids while their parents' asylum cases are winding their way through the proper channels?

After the 9th day of taking care of someone else's kid, you think people might start to wonder why their parents didn't just go to the port of entry and fill out the proper forms.

rhhardin said...

The whole challenge of life is for you men to figure out how to interact with women.

Nothing about math?

rhhardin said...

Or, it's not necessarily a bad thing to have sufficient political nous to understand when you have a losing issue.

Hyle beats nous.

Kevin said...

Chuck et al are too chickenshit to stand firm

Now, now, Chuck's with Her (Kirstjen).

This is the best you can get. He's all-in on Trump's policy but has to do it in a way in which he remains a #NeverTrump-er in good standing in case there are any future meetings.

It's kind of a medium-firmness chickenshit.

Clyde said...

The Democrat-Media complex has manufactured this "crisis." In reality, it's not a crisis at all. The illegal immigrants DON'T have a right to come to this country, and if they do, they can expect to be separated from their children while they are locked up, rather than being released like fish back into a stream. Illegals, if you don't want to be separated from your kids, don't come here with them. Stay at home in your own country where you belong.

/rant

Tommy Duncan said...

"Buy one fake crisis, get the second at half price! Hurry -- offer expires 6 November 2018"

Collusion!
Obstruction!
Stormy Daniels!
Campaign finance violations!
Trump insults Canada!
Trump's charity!
Kids in cages!


Democrats love issues. Governance for Democrats is an unending campaign for political advantage.

Republicans, on the other hand, avoid issues and like to hide under the bed when asked to govern.

Henry said...

But Trump is empowered to immediately order border agents to stop separating families as a result of his “zero tolerance” enforcement policy.

For fuck's sake. The separation is mandated by law. Trump can't order border agents to stop separating families without going counter to court orders otherwise. What Trump can do is order border agents to stop apprehending people. Or to switch back to catch and release. I think that is the correct response under the circumstances and would appreciate the people pretending to be reporters to make this plain.

Kevin said...

Nothing about math?

Math has a definite solution.

Kevin said...

Governance for Democrats is an unending campaign for political advantage.

The Democrats are the permanent opposition party. If you can't see it by now, everything the Republicans are for, they are against.

This is why they are unsuited to govern. Community organizers delight in rounding up people with grievances, not doing anything to end them.

Fabi said...

"Tired of losing elections? Sick of not controlling any branch of the government? Does your stomach hurt just thinking about debating ideas on their merits? Hi -- Billy Mays, here -- introducing the Scand-O-Matic 2018! Just insert a fake news story or old photograph into the hopper, shake twice, and sprinkle the magic dust over the electorate! Purchase in the next two minutes and I'll throw in a 32 oz. package of Pelosi-A-Way! Supplies are limited -- order now!"

rhhardin said...

"Nothing about math?"

Math has a definite solution.


Hence its appeal. Here, at last, everything will be settled once and for all.

No woman is interested in that for long.

Curious George said...

"Collusion!
Obstruction!
Stormy Daniels!
Campaign finance violations!
Trump insults Canada!
Trump's charity!
Kids in cages!"

All!

Anonymous said...

rh: It's all a women allowed to vote problem, like every other problem we have.

If they can't vote, there's no reason to appeal to them with this crap. They'd just have soap opera channels instead of news channels.


Too late to fix that by repealing the 19th. Women voting has long since forced all politics down to that level, resulting in an odd development in which only white men vote like men, white women less so (but still more manly-ly than other groups), and everybody else votes like soap opera women.

Browndog said...

I accidentally watched Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's press conference in full. I had my doubts about her, but have a new found respect. As she was reading her opening statement, she had to know there wasn't a reporter in the room listening. All they wanted was for her to finish, so they could pounce. She handled it beautifully.

Kevin said...

Or to switch back to catch and release.

So if I bring in a load of Fentanyl across the border and also bring a kid with me, you have to release us both because "we don't break up families?"

Oh no, no one's arguing that.

Well then I guess we do break up families. It's just a matter of how many and for what severity of crime.

Henry said...

On another point. This is a real crisis. It's a slow-motion, ever-present crisis, but it's real. It's real for the poor people caught in the system and its real for the border agents, courts, and government services overwhelmed for lack of resources and piss-poor policy.

gilbar said...

rhardin said: Knitting needles for the girls are probably not allowed either.
But, the thing of it is; there don't seem to BE (m)any girls. This seems to be just like europe, (nearly) all military aged males. I figure this is why they keep using the O'Bama pix; current pix would show too many teenaged boys, and no(t many) girls.

I also wonder how many Parents there are? Are they parents, or are they some guy that Says he's a parent?
I guess the thing to do, is just let 'em all in; no questions asked... 'cause otherwise it looks bad, right?

HoneyBee said...

When legal American citizens are put in jail, they too are separated from their children. Why should the children of illegal immigrants, who after all have broken the law coming here in the first place, be treated any differently. The parents are the one's who are risking their "children's" lives by subjecting them to an arduous dangerous journey with the possible risk of death. Ultimately, they are responsible. In the long run it is kinder to the children to discourage these parents from subjecting them to these risks. All this "Oh the children" emoting is just bullshit. The legal citizens of this country need to be protected from dangerous illegal immigrants. Immigrants must be vetted before being allowed in. Our safety should come first. These children are safe in the facilities which is more than you can say about their previous condition under their parent's control.

Henry said...

@Kevin -- Don't confuse the easy cases with the hard. That's the media's game.

Kevin said...

Republicans, on the other hand, avoid issues and like to hide under the bed when asked to govern.

Republicans like to run on the issues, issues the Dems have decided they can have.

In the rare situations where those issues turn out to have appeal to the voters and lead to a win, the media becomes so upset they immediately work to discredit the issue and turn it into enough of a negative that the Republican will drop it so the Dems can pick it back up.

You even saw this blatantly advertised by the media: Trump's no Republican. Who knows how he'll actually govern? This was all telegraphing of the strategy to get Trump to make deals which the Dems could show to his base that he'd sold out his principles.

That's the problem the media is having with Trump. The guy doesn't know he's supposed to drop the issues which got him elected.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
HoneyBee said...

As gilbar noted, almost all these"children" appear to be mature teenage boys. Many of them look like adults. Definitely feels more like an invasion of young men looking for better job opportunities than bunch of babies sucking on pacifiers.

Sprezzatura said...

“but I suspect that millions of Americans want what they voted for in 2016, which is strong immigration enforcement, and these people may not want to talk about the innocents who get hurt along the way and they may embrace the idea”’

Sheesh, y’all make a fuss when your racism is called out, and ya also fuss when it’s kept on the DL.

Anonymous said...

rh: Trump's deal is disparaging PC and favoring analysis. Women don't like him.

The deep state republicans are the ones living in fear of women. Everything they say it tailored to women. But they do horrible analysis to achieve it.


I love the "soap opera women" thing, but your analysis would be improved by scrutinizing other demographic factors besides sex.

As it stands it's way too white-centric.

Fabi said...

Racism -- drink!

Ignorance is Bliss said...

A simple solution would be to allow the families to enter the country and live where they wanted until their asylum claim is decided, trusting them to show up for hearings, and to leave if they are denied asylum.

And we could do that, if we could count on the state and local governments, and the large majority of citizens, to uphold our immigration laws. But we can't, so we cant.

Kevin said...

This is a real crisis. It's a slow-motion, ever-present crisis, but it's real.

And it has been for some time. And previous administrations have punted it.

Look, Trump tried to force the issue by setting a time limit on the Dreamers. A single judge stepped in to stop him, giving the Dems an extended timeline to take back control of government so they can grant them amnesty without any of the other things Trump wants.

Trump, as any good dealmaker, looked for other areas of leverage. He's tired of watching people come over the border while he's in charge, and he's doing whatever he can to stop it. That this is now creating a pool of people who need housing and are flooding the courts is both a strategy to keep more from coming and a tool to ratchet up pressure on the Dems to deal with the issue.

The moment it occurs to the Dems he's not going to back down and the only solution is to pass immigration reform, they'll drop this issue like the hot potato it will have become. They have no intention of dealing with immigration before the midterms.

Paco Wové said...

"cucks like ... ARM"

ARM's not a 'cuck'. He's a partisan lefty and always has been.

zipity said...

Fortunatley for my wife, I shower in the basement bathroom, two floors below her sleeping in the morning.

So she can't hear me loudly cursing the blatantly biased, and smug "reporting" on NPR.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Even the ancient Greeks have weighed in against this policy.

Tank said...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Tank said...

The sad thing is not that the left has created another bogus crisis, it's that so many feckless cucks like Romney and Bush and ARM and Chuck et al are too chickenshit to stand firm; instead, they are with the left (revealing themselves).

Or, it's not necessarily a bad thing to have sufficient political nous to understand when you have a losing issue. Even Ted Cruz has figured it out and Breitbart front-paged him.


There is always some reason to cuck out. Oooooo it's a tough issue; use it, exploit it, have some guts and show principle and a willingness to follow the law. Trump has offered great compromises to move the immigration debate along; the Dems don't want that, they want a crisis. You have to stand up to them; don't give a feckin inch. The people we are talking about are invaders. They have no "right" to be here. They have shunned the legal process and broken into our country, like burglars in the night.

Browndog said...

Why does the media, all in unison, suddenly report on the same thing? And only that thing?

Agitprop.

This isn't about the law, or the kids. This is about making you angry at Trump. A rational, calm person might see this as an issue of child trafficking. Get the mob angry over Trump Cages and child trafficking doesn't even exist.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

rhhardin said...

Hyle beats nous.

I always have trouble remembering the rules of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Hyle, Nous.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The media are lying about the "wellspring". Americans want a halt to illegal border crossings and illegal immigration.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

This whole thing is to change the subject away from the damning IG report.

mockturtle said...

When a two-year-old throws a temper tantrum, the worst thing you can do is reward the behavior by appeasement. Best thing? Ignore it. The Progs/MSM act like toddlers. Let's ignore their tantrums and go about the business at hand.

Fernandinande said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
buwaya said...

I repeat myself of course, but...
This is an organized, centrally directed propaganda system, a powerful well funded machine.

You cannot argue with this, it is not made of humans. You can't argue against it either, unless you have a machine of similar size and effectiveness.

If you have enough political power, you can reach into the interests of its owners, and destroy them, or at least threaten them sufficiently to negotiate.

This is not the situation you all learned about in your ancient civics classes. That was always largely an idealistic fiction. Much more a fiction now.

Hagar said...

You defeat fascism by fighting the fascists; not by discussing the pros and cons of fascism.

Fernandinande said...

mockturtle said...The Progs/MSM act like toddlers.

Appearing this AM: Childishness:
"Portraits in the Louis Bornstein Family Amphitheater will be dispersed to help foster a more diverse environment."

Fernandinande said...

Rough men will sleep soundly in their beds once the fascist octopus's jack boots are thrown into the melting pot.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary Clinton - FRAUD.

2014 - "send them back"

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The MSM are democrat party operatives with bylines.

Roughcoat said...

I have great respect for Orwell, but c'mon, the complaint about dying metaphors is really nit-picky and dumb. They're used as a way of facilitating communication, and interaction. They're also poetic and colorful in the their archaism, a way of preserving our past. We shouldn't have to invent new metaphors to keep up with changing times. The idea that we should is nuts. And: they're not "dying." They are in active use. At the end of the day, or even at the beginning, language is a convenience of the heart. Curiously, Orwell's apparent desire to eliminate or at least curb the use of on dying metaphors seems an extension of the Newspeak concept, which he invented -- and condemned.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The more the Media and the Democrats (but I do repeat myself) hammer on about the poor children ripped from the arms of their mothers (note...never the fathers) who are illegally invading our country.....the less I give a rip about any of them. Children, mothers, fathers and especially Democrats.

In fact, the more they whinge about it, I desire even MORE draconian measures to just make it stop.

Make the illegals stop. Make the media stop. Make the Democrats stop. Just MAKE. IT. STOP.

I am sick of all of them and their manufactured hysteria. If they don't stop the fake news, someone will will manufacture some real hysteria.

Michael K said...

Blogger David Begley said...
How are these people going to react when this Russia thing turns up nothing on Trump, Comey and McCabe get indicted and Trump wins 40 states?


The whole point of this manufactured crisis is to hide the OIG and the evidence that the Collusion thing is collapsed.

For the first time, I am starting to agree with buwaya that there s a single force behind all the present uproar.

It happened suddenly and across all the leftist media but also dragged in some old GOP types like Laura Bush.

If Cruz is joining the claque, maybe it's a bigger issue in Texas. It is not making him look strong.

This has all the signs of an organized crisis.

Matt Sablan said...

Are Democrats lining up to support Ted Cruz's proposal -- whatever it is?

Roughcoat said...

I repeat myself of course

I scarcely noticed.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Nielsen gave an outstanding performance at the press conference, to 100% hostile, semi-cleverly framed questions (for which the questioner cared little about the answers) that carried implied guilt, with a lot of repetition of "zero tolerance" and innumerable references to other DNC-Media reports. This whole gang of self-referential nabobs is a sorry excuse for a "Press Corps," functioning as they do as the official arm of the Democratic party and as the opposition to any Republican in power.

But Nielsen calmly and repreatedly explained that:

+ Prior admins also separated children from parents because that is the law as applied to illegal crossing
+ Bush signed the law into effect in 2008 that specifically requires release of minors after 20 days
+ Which leads to separation because it takes longer than 20 days to adjudicate the claim of refugee status for the parents, and children (by law) cannot be held in detention with the parents
+ But which is all moot if the parents cross legally at any border entry point
+ Only parents who cross ILLEGALLY are separated and that is 100% on the parents who chose an illegal entry over declaring their status at a checkpoint
+ Complicated by the fact there's been over 1000% (yes four zeroes) increase in "families" declaring refugee status in the last three months
+ And so far this year 314% increase in adults traveling with children who are not their children (who have to be separated to determine if they are trafficking in children)

So the system has been flooded by people trying the refugee gambit and that huge caravan that did go to a controlled border crossing (so those families stayed together while refugee status was being determined) that sucked up all available ICE resources in SoCal. It was striking to me how that thread of the story -- the Big Caravan, which was so important a few months ago -- is now a non-story, absent from the press gaggle. Who cares?

Just like nobody cared when Bush and Obama did it. And of course Obama's solution when the resources at the border was overwhelmed was to institute "catch and release" to keep families together (and ignore our laws) until a Federal court put the end to that "workaround" in 2013. Nielsen made clear that if DHS/ICE follows the law this is the outcome. If people want a different approach to children at the border fix the law. It is a "loophole" she said many times that migrants have learned [from whom, I wonder?] to exploit, darting across the border and claiming refugee status. By law we investigate those claims, and Obama's solution was to release kids and parents and hope they showed up for the hearing in a few months. They don't. They just get IN.

And that's what the DNC-Media wants: flood the zone. Get as many new voters in before the Wall as possible. Nielsen followed by Sanders kept the focus on fixing the law, making Congress do it's job. It was like they were the only adults in that room. The Press gaggle is such a junior high lunchroom-level blob of idiots.

MD Greene said...

The traditional media have turned into daily instruction manuals on how to think like people who work in the traditional media.

The old theory -- journalists go out and ask people questions and then file stories describing the answers to those questions -- seems to have gone out the window. The result is a bunch people in newsrooms talking to each other and then sharing their wisdom with the great unwashed.

What's striking is the incuriosity of it all. I don't learn much by talking to myself.

Call me crazy, but I think children belong with their parents and the responsibility for this lies mostly with the parents.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"Implied guilt" - that's a great way to describe how the hack press treats anyone NOT a corruptocrat.

mockturtle said...

Make the illegals stop. Make the media stop. Make the Democrats stop. Just MAKE. IT. STOP.

My mother was convinced that shooting people illegally crossing the border would have a dramatic effect on the traffic.

rhhardin said...

It's not a cage. It's a chain-link living room.

Armstrong and Getty

Matt Sablan said...

"+ And so far this year 314% increase in adults traveling with children who are not their children (who have to be separated to determine if they are trafficking in children)"

-- Wait. What? That... that's a pretty damning statistic that does a lot to make me understand the situation better. There's not a lot of good options, but "let people leave with kids that may not be theirs" is... probably among the worst option.

Sydney said...

I'm skeptical of the phrase "wellspring of public opposition."

Me, too. The party pushing this (i.e. DNC/MSM complex) should think twice about how it could be received among the poor urban demographic, which traditionally votes for their agenda. Don't they realize how often poor black people are subject to having their children taken away by Child Protective Services? Heck, just showing up late to collect your kid at daycare can subject you to an investigation by CPS. I can't imagine those voters would be too sympathetic to the plight of illegal immigrants.

rhhardin said...

Jesus wants to punch Nancy Pelosi in the face, and he's not really into that sort of thing.

Armstrong and Getty

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

oh and Jeb and Romney - go eat shit.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Make the illegals stop. Make the media stop. Make the Democrats stop. Just MAKE. IT. STOP.

Mockturtle: My mother was convinced that shooting people illegally crossing the border would have a dramatic effect on the traffic.

Here is the deal. If the government will not protect the people and when the government (read that as media and democrats) is actively working against the people to harm them.....the people themselves will take measures to protect their own interests and their own lives.

Those measures will not be pretty. It has been done in the past and will be done again in the future. This is a lesson that seems to need repeating over and over.

tcrosse said...

Enforcement of Immigration laws has been woefully adequate.

Fernandinande said...

rhhardin said...Free birth control for children in cages.

They could line the cage bottoms with Washington Post newspaper articles.

Seriously, though -
"I believe in making the world safe for our children, but not for our children's children, because I don't think children should be having sex." -- Handey

William said...

The media has really flooded the zone on this issue. It has not raised awareness of the issue so much as it has raised suspicion of the media. The coverage seems manipulative and one sided.......The Bergdahl effect: I would have been sympathetic to Bowie Bergdahl. He seemed like a screwed up guy who made a catastrophic decision, but, when the the President gave him a Rose Garden ceremony, I became more antagonistic towards him.......The media really, truly hate Trump. They keep looking for an issue that will justify their hate. Some issues like the Russia collusion thing seem fraudulent. The Stormy Daniels thing looks legit, but, sadly, it doesn't inspire sufficient hate. This kids in cages thing looks promising. They'll keep working it, but they don't seem to realize that their virulent hatred of Trump is one reason why his popularity numbers keep going up.

Browndog said...

For some reason, they think they have Trump right where they want him. Hysteria over "the children", total media saturation, 4 first ladies weeping, hell--even Bill O'Rielly piped up yesterday to say Trump can't win this.

Oddly, this humanitarian crisis just happens to coincide with the NeverTrumpers introducing DACA amnesty Bills in the House last week. The strategy is to use this 'crisis' to force a floor vote, and use democrats to pass it.

It's almost as if they're all in on it.

Yes, Trump will have no choice but to free the children his cages. Once amnesty is passed, Trump loses his base, and liberals will rule America for a millennia!

Using children as human shields works every time. So they think. My money is on Trump and MAGA.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I am amazed at how many of our elected officials are hell-bent on representing illegal aliens and their children instead of me. That sucks.

buwaya said...

Its a single system that coordinates messaging across multiple media organizations under what appear to be different ownership structures.

Or are they? The prevalence of hedge funds as holders of equity and debt also, serves to anonymize owners. This is not new, in various forms it was always common enough, but in modern times much more so.

Some of the ownership issues make one wonder. CBS-Viacom for instance, is supposedly privately held by Sumner Redstone, However, they have had financial problems, quite conveniently in 2008-2009, and have plenty of debt. Held by who, and who therefore has been calling the shots over there?

An ambitious journalist could, probably, find out some surprising things.

buwaya said...

"It's almost as if they are all in on it."

Well, yes, they are.
This is a consistent pattern.
Its just been getting more obvious over time.

Fernandinande said...

Someone mentioned that nearly all these "children" seem to be boys - are they also 20-some years old, like many of the pitiful migrant children in Europe?

And.

Anonymous said...

AA: I thought the guys' perspective was to deal with the actual reality. Women do have the vote. It's not going away. So what are you going to do about it? Say something practical and reality-based or concede that men are not what you continually hold them out to be.

rh's only failing re social issues is that he hasn't figured out that "assume you have a can opener" is a punch line, not a premise.

Fabi said...

My #FakeParents tried to invade the United States and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.

Fernandinande said...

When "They" say 'migrant', think 'invader'.

rhhardin said...

If you let women vote, the press becomes the government.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
buwaya said...

Re rhardin -
The practical takeaway from the fact of the womens vote (among other things) is not that anything can be done, but that decline and disaster are inevitable. There is nothing to be done (outside of personal/subculture survival) until you reach a crisis, the form of which can't be predicted.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Some Republican elected officials joined Democrats in expressing moral outrage and calling for an immediate end to the administration’s family separation policy.


Ann replied:

"Are these people saying that what they want is that the adults who arrive with children and make a claim for asylum should — as before — gain free access to the United States? Or do they just express their "moral outrage" and leave it there?"

Free access is the ultimate goal. Moral outrage is the big show to get us there.
We are to stop thinking for ourselves, feel the manufactured outrage and open our mean little hearts because we owe the entire world access to our nation. Just let everyone pour in.

Rusty said...

Roy Jacobsen said...
"They" who?
The democrats.
Of course, ARM being a facist, thinks the admin. is going to f


old. The admin will compromise. ARM will declare victory and Trump will get what he asked for in the first place.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

"Surely it is the beginning of the unraveling of democracy when the body who makes the laws, instead of changing them, tells the enforcement body not to enforce the law," Nielsen said. "I ask Congress to act this week so that we can secure our borders and uphold our humanitarian ideas."

Browndog said...

JUST ANNOUNCED: Major protest to Keep Families Together on June 30th in Washington *and* communities around the country. Go to http://familiesbelongtogether.org to plug into events. All hands on deck NOW to end this brutality and move towards freedom for all: kids AND their families.

-Anna Galland

Moveon.org

_____

This summer is going to be lit!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
William said...

Trump wants to curate our immigrants.....Curate isn't a dead metaphor, but it's too au courant. It's alive, but it inspires distrust and dislike. It's one of those words that literate people use to bring attention to their literacy.

MadisonMan said...

If only the IG had been less critical of Hillary, we could hear more about Russia. But no. Instead, the outrage machine has to gin up the plight of immigrants entering the country illegally, and the ramifications that spring forth from that.

Sydney said...

American citizens don't even have to commit a crime or be in jail to have their kids taken away. All it takes is an allegation that launches a serious investigation and there go the kids while things are investigated. Back in the 1990's there was a rash of this going on in response to some high profile child neglect cases. It didn't take much to trigger separation of children and families. Moral of the story - we shouldn't let media hysteria dictate policy

Wince said...

What I heard Sessions himself say last night was that those entering through ports of entry are not separated.

That those being separated were apprehended crossing the border outside the established ports of entry, and that those NOT entering through established ports of entry are much more likely to be involved in human smuggling and criminal activity.

For that matter, crossing the border surreptitiously in between ports of entry with children itself is an act of endangerment that requires separation.

Similar to the police discovering you've left your kid in the car while you shop or play the slots.

Fritz said...

If any US citizen treated his kids like the illegal immigrants are treating theirs, the local departments of children's welfare would take them away in heartbeat.

A modest proposal. Take the kids away from their parents permanently, indoctrinate them to love the United States, make super soldiers out of them. Think Janissaries. Give them citizenship once they kill someone from the cartels.

Fernandinande said...

Go to http://familiesbelongtogether.org to plug

"Welcome, !

Not ? Click here."

+++

Classy website! Not ?

Sydney said...

Similar to the police discovering you've left your kid in the car while you shop or play the slots.

Exactly, EDH. That will get you separated from your kids everywhere in the USA.

chuck said...

> This has all the signs of an organized crisis.

Yep. Hey, what happened to Stormy Daniels? This "crisis" differs in that I think Trump has more room to maneuver. Could be interesting.

Michael K said...

I would have been sympathetic to Bowie Bergdahl. He seemed like a screwed up guy who made a catastrophic decision,

How would you like to be the doctor who declared him qualified after the Coast Guard had kicked him out of Basic Training ?

Fourth time with piece of crap blogger.

Fifth.

Fernandinande said...

Are they all boys? Are the 'children' 20+ years old?

Yes, it's the "Daily Mail", so no doubt they went of their way to find a picture that was barely not 100% men.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

democrats support illegal immigration

buwaya said...

An example of the effect of ownership, or funder, pressure on media organizations is the very recent and underreported actions of Stripe, an online payment processing company, that offers financial transaction management to internet-based companies.

A very hot company, Stripe, competition for more established outfits. Peter Thiel was an early investor, though superceded by much deeper pockets.

Last week they withheld their services from two Patreon-alternatives, which were formed in response to political restrictions by Patreon, and a Youtube alternative, also formed due to censorship by Youtube. Stripe explained, quite honestly, that these actions were a response to pressure exerted by its financiers and potential investors, that objected to the uncontrolled nature (read, potential politics) of these Patreon and Youtube competitors.

Money talks. Money also wants to keep you from talking.

Anonymous said...

Browndog:

"JUST ANNOUNCED: Major protest to Keep Families Together on June 30th in Washington *and* communities around the country. Go to http://familiesbelongtogether.org to plug into events. All hands on deck NOW to end this brutality and move towards freedom for all: kids AND their families.

-Anna Galland

Moveon.org"



I hope they all wear their pussy hats.

Bob Boyd said...

Clearly we need a wall, a big beautiful wall.

Etienne said...

My comment on the cages is that it is not really a cage.

It is a wall. It happens to look like a cage, but it is just a security wall, and it has a security gate.

It looks like it is used for SECURITY!

buwaya said...

Stormy Daniels and Cohen and Russia are indeed previous iterations of this phenomenon of coordinated messaging campaigns.

Suddenly something is 100% urgent and floods all media venues.
And then if it does not work it is just as abruptly turned off, in spite of there being no resolution to the crisis, such as it was.

dreams said...

The only reason this is a crisis is because the corrupt liberal media is trying to distract from all of Trump's recent successes.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

For that matter, crossing the border surreptitiously in between ports of entry with children itself is an act of endangerment that requires separation.

Similar to the police discovering you've left your kid in the car while you shop or play the slots.



hey - that doesn't fit the hack press(D) narrative.

dreams said...

Given Trump's ability to make good things happen, I expect to see more and more corrupt liberal media manufactured crisis.

Tim said...

Send them all back. Build the wall. Tax remittances to Mexico . No asylum, no jail, just send them back. No welfare.

Sebastian said...

"I feel like I'm reading a pulp fiction novel."

Nah. Just the usual prog propaganda.

And a distraction from NK, the economy, the IG report, "country moving in the right direction," and so on. As noted in the cafe thread yesterday, but great minds etc. etc.

But perhaps more useful than the previous Trump "scandals": there's no evidence of Russia collusion (well, there is, but only on Hill's end), Comey and his minions turn out to be dirty bastards (Trump was right, can't have that), Trump was going to get us into a nuclear war until he didn't (a modest success, can't have that either), Stormy, oh well, it turned out no one cared about Stormy, so what else is there?

Kids! Trump is mean to kids! That'll work. Considering the target audience, it will.

mockturtle said...

Angle-Dyne aptly asserts: rh's only failing re social issues is that he hasn't figured out that "assume you have a can opener" is a punch line, not a premise.

This.

chickelit said...

“The whole challenge of life is for you men to figure out how to interact with women.”

Man cannot live by broad alone.

Martin said...

This reminds me of the "Parkland kids," a ginned up agitprop campaign using sympathetic children but ultimately offering no real thought or answers.

The problem is real but the answer will NOT be to stop arresting and detaining adults who violate the immigration laws, even if the bring children with them.


So, what IS the answer? Just like with the Parkland gun control thing, I see a lot of ginned up emotion but no specific proposals.

Michael K said...

Stripe explained, quite honestly, that these actions were a response to pressure exerted by its financiers and potential investors, that objected to the uncontrolled nature (read, potential politics) of these Patreon and Youtube competitors.

That is why we will soon be reduced to Samizdat publications.

Still, the Berlin Wall did fall.

dreams said...

And this.

"Democrats are desperate, that’s for sure.

President Donald Trump has brought about a booming economy, where businesses have doled out bonuses while going on nationwide hiring sprees. The unemployment sits below 4 percent. Meanwhile, ISIS — once a daily presence in the news, in part for its members’ constant issuance of threats against Israel, the West, the White House, the pope, etc. — is barely talked about any more.

And now, with North Korea, Trump has tipped his diplomatic hat — something that neither Dems nor establishment-minded Republicans thought he had in his closet. Barack Obama was supposed to be the great diplomat. Trump? A circus act.

So if jobs and economies win elections, and national security and citizens’ feelings of safety factor in any at the voting booths, too, it’s not only Trump-like candidates who are seeing a clear finish line to election and re-election. It’s Trump.

Now come the children at the border — the teary-eyed, heart-pulling, emotionally raw children. And voila, Democrats have their new campaign wedge.

It doesn’t matter that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen slapped back the false narratives of the media by saying the majority of children coming into America via the U.S.-Mexico border are not with parents, but rather alone."

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/19/desperate-democrats-bedazzled-political-prospect-c/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

Anonymous said...

Here's a question that popped into my head last night and I am interested on what the people here think.

WHO IS PROVIDING THE LOGISTIC SUPPORT TO MOVE THIS MANY PEOPLE FROM CENTRAL AMERICA THROUGH MEXICO TO THE US BORDER?

Here's why I am curious: The First Marine Division has a total of about 19,000 men and women. Never mind the bullets part just ask yourself what kind of logistical support - food, water, shelter, sanitation, footwear - it would take to support the !stMarDiv walking from the southern border of Mexico to the US border.

Then think of this: "In FY 2016, there were over 59,000 unaccompanied alien children that were apprehended during a border crossing" (CNN).

That's about three divisions of Marines walking or being transported - if they are lucky - across Mexico. It can't be done without money and some even minimal logistical support.

So I ask once again:WHO IS PROVIDING THE LOGISTIC SUPPORT TO MOVE THIS MANY PEOPLE FROM CENTRAL AMERICA THROUGH MEXICO TO THE US BORDER?

chickelit said...

Hillary Clinton wrote: “What’s happening to families at the border right now is horrific: Nursing infants ripped away from their mothers. Parents told their toddlers are being taken to bathe or play, only to realize hours later that they aren’t coming back. Children incarcerated in warehouses and, according to more than one account, kept in cages. This is a moral and humanitarian crisis. Everyone of us who has ever held a child in their arms, and every human being with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged.”

So glad I’m not on Facebook. Those videos of nursing infants being ripped from their mothers must be heartbreaking.

steve uhr said...

Thin mattresses on concrete floors. High fences. Space blankets. US government run out of cots? Seems like politics entered into these decisions. Part of a negotiation strategy to get money for the wall (that Mexico was supposed to pay for)

buwaya said...

It doesn't take much logistical support to cross Mexico from Central America.
A couple of hundred dollars for bus tickets, and many hitch rides on freight trains - there was an incident a few years ago of a Mexican freight derailment, which threw 1000 people, mostly Central Americans headed for El Norte, off it.

Mexico does not have functional internal security, or not for so trivial a problem in the context of Mexico's other troubles, so these people can wander through Mexico at will. Whats interesting is that Mexico lets them through its own border with Guatemala. Granted its a rugged border mostly, but these people seem to come through the established crossings.

buwaya said...

It does seem though that someone is recruiting children in Central America to make the journey north. It wouldn't take a lot of money, as a grubstake, to get a large number started. Not compared to the amounts spent on US politics.

Michael K said...

Part of a negotiation strategy to get money for the wall (that Mexico was supposed to pay for)

Steve, this is a strategy to get the OIG and Strzok off the TV,

chickelit said...

“Whats interesting is that Mexico lets them through its own border with Guatemala. Granted its a rugged border mostly, but these people seem to come through the established crossings.”

Perhaps Mexico sees the Guatemalans as footsoldiers in the reconquista.

readering said...

Talk about catering to one's audience ....

Browndog said...

I’m calling on Kirstjen Nielsen to resign as Secretary of Homeland Security. Under her watch, our government has committed human rights abuses by breaking up families along the southern border. And she has ​failed to be accountable to and transparent with the American people.

-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Ca)

Browndog said...

These people are not coming to America. They are being imported using the Cloward-Piven strategy.

Achilles said...

This "crisis" is so obvious and astroturfed.

The leftists pushing it are just stupid.

Cruz will get his "emergency" legislation passed and Trump will sign it and tell the nation how he solved a problem Obama couldn't solve.

Then the left will move on to the next "crisis."

All to keep from having to report on the previous "crisis's."



If you type or read the word crisis enough it starts to look weird.

Achilles said...

readering said...
Talk about catering to one's audience ....


No kidding.

The globalists just have to tell their media tools to hype some "crisis" that has been occurring for decades and shazam! their are a bunch of drooling idiot lefties sucking on their thumbs waving bloody shirts around screaming about pictures of kids in cages from the Obama administration.

Drago said...

The drug cartels needs lots and lots of little unaccompanied kids to feed into their sex slavery operations and by gum the democrats/lefties/MSM/LLR's are not going to stop until the underage sex slave pipeline is filled.

Anonymous said...

@Buwaya

I agree that it would not take" much logistical" support. But even the minimal amount is a fair amount. Just think about providing water, alone, to the numbers of people moving across Mexico. Is someone parking "water buffaloes" at strategic points and if so who? Where did those thousands who were thrown off the freight train get water - never mind food. Ask yourself also how people who have probably not ever traveled 50 miles from their homes can possibly find their way across Mexico unaided.

And ask yourself this: how do you load 1000 people onto box cars without some organization and assistance? It certainly can't be done by running alongside and jumping on.

Also if we take your number of a couple of hundred bucks per person then just moving the 59,000 unaccompanied "children" in 2016 cost somebody over $1million. Where's that kind of money coming from?



Drago said...

steve uhr: "Thin mattresses on concrete floors. High fences. Space blankets. US government run out of cots? Seems like politics entered into these decisions. Part of a negotiation strategy to get money for the wall (that Mexico was supposed to pay for)"

Wow.

Not even an effective regurgitation of BS lefty talking points, even with lots and lots of helpful examples out there.

Well, I suppose we really have seen the upper threshold of usefulness Uhr occupies for the left.

Unexpectedly.

Chuck said...

I say again to your readers, Althouse; check out the C-SPAN video of Secretary Nielsen's opening of the Monday White House press briefing. She is magnificent.

Here's a case where I am fully on board with the Trump Administration policy. And as far as that goes, I am to the right of much of the Republican Party.

I just wish that we had someone better than Trump to articulate it.

Achilles said...

Chuck said...


I just wish that we had someone better than Trump to articulate it.


No you don't.

The proof is in the pudding.


Ray - SoCal said...

Feels Alinsky - make the other side live by their rules.

Amadeus 48 said...

The bulletin is out, and the papers have the message. The failing and flailing Chicago Tribune puts this subheadline at the top of the front page:" President again brushes aside criticism of separating families, again falsely blames Democrats for policy." The herd of independent minds has spoken.

What kind of parents would take their children into this situation?

Sad.

chickelit said...

Steve chimes in like Uhrwerk.

Ray - SoCal said...

Legal insurrection losing amazon affiliate was another strike against non mainstream view sites.

Twitter being sued by a white nationalist on their claim freedom of Speech and it going forward is interesting.

Clyde said...

Fabi said...
My #FakeParents tried to invade the United States and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.


"Lousy t-shirt," hell! I read about one ICE facility where the illegals were allowed to pick out six outfits apiece from racks of designer clothing, no doubt provided at taxpayer expense.

chuck said...

Stripe explained, quite honestly, that these actions were a response to pressure exerted by its financiers and potential investors

TR's malefactors of great wealth:

"Too much cannot be said against the men of wealth who sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a more ignoble character than the mere money-getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses"

chickelit said...

“What kind of parents would take their children into this situation?” <—This.

Few of us with an immigrant heritage have the story of being sent here alone as a child. The sending of children across the border alone is at best a cynical ploy to exploit leniency in our laws. It’s not fathers and mothers hoping for a better life for their children, and willing to risk their childrens’ lives. Send in the kids in first to exploit the breech. The adults can come later and will not be separated. At worst it’s pure evil: a wreckless disregard for human life and a most un-Christian invasion and coveting of neighbors.

Achilles said...

steve uhr said...
Thin mattresses on concrete floors. High fences. Space blankets. US government run out of cots? Seems like politics entered into these decisions. Part of a negotiation strategy to get money for the wall (that Mexico was supposed to pay for)


For this strategy to work Trump would have to think you leftists gave two shits about those kids.

Trump knows, just like the rest of us, that you don't care, at all, about the welfare of these kids.

They are just the latest bloody shirt you wave at your political opponents.

That is why you are using pictures taken during the Obama administration to create a crisis.

Your silence during the Obama admin just demonstrates how much you actually care.

Seeing Red said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...

Has Obama himself weighed in yet to declare “this is not who we are; this not who I was”

??

Seeing Red said...

Take the money from their House districts. They’ll shut up.

Birkel said...

Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire:

Wish in one hand and shit in the other.

See which hand fills up first.

Qwinn said...

chickelit... mostly agreed, but not always. See the Peter Pan flights out of Cuba. The Church was able to get the kids out, but the parents weren't allowed (by Castro) to follow. Those parents had to send their kids alone as the only way to get them out of a communist dictatorship. It was a heartbreaking decision for them, not a ploy to gain entry for the parents. The parents' bar wasn't the US not letting them in, it was Castro not letting them out.

buwaya said...

Khesanh,

Being brought up in the third world, I don't wonder.

People do things like this all the time. They can self-organize, communicate with each other, take advice, people along the way will sell them food and water (Mexico is a populous country with multitudes of retail establishments), guides will offer their services, for a fee. Guides will set up informal networks across Mexico.
There are US facilitating businesses, with country-specific remittance srrvices and telecom plans so you can provide help for the folks back home - keep an eye peeled for ads in neighborhood shops in hispanic neighborhoods. This is organic.

I have seen a hundred people pack themselves into and onto a provincial bus (illegally). With baggage and provisions.

No-one needed to organize it!
If you are used to giving orders to make things happen, you can be surprised at things happening on their own, but given an incentive they will.

I doubt anyone needed to organize the same thing on those trains. Maybe there is a payoff to guards at the freight yard, or maybe not even that - the persuasiveness of "its none of my business" in the face of a crowd of hundreds cannot be overstated.

As for money, maybe someone is handing it out somewhere in Guatemala or Nicaragua, maybe paying for kids, but if so it need not be a lot. A few million in the context of US politics is small change. For the most part though the cost of this is peoples savings, or remittances from relatives in El Norte.

mockturtle said...

The sending of children across the border alone is at best a cynical ploy to exploit leniency in our laws.

It is, indeed, chickelit.

mockturtle said...

Browndog quotes Kamala Harris: I’m calling on Kirstjen Nielsen to resign as Secretary of Homeland Security. Under her watch, our government has committed human rights abuses by breaking up families along the southern border. And she has ​failed to be accountable to and transparent with the American people.

Hyperbole and knee-jerk outrage have gone beyond their normal bounds. Buwaya is most likely correct that this is all part of a carefully orchestrated plan to undermine our country. We should not be suckered into the media's collective hand-wringing. Their outrage should be a signal for us to look the other way, as with the toddler's tantrum. In the meantime, however, we must--as Trump is doing--forge ahead with the business of saving our country by doing what needs doing. Not by listening to a bunch of hysterical women and beta men.

buwaya said...

Nielsen, whatever her qualities, is not the sort of person who can put herself in front of a latent populist parade. Its a fantasy of some intellectuals that their preferences and tastes are politically relevant. But they aren't. Reality does not follow desire.

Leadership is a mysterious thing. Some can, some can't, and when someone has it it is a gift, or curse, of providence. Quibbles are useless.

The best illustration of this that I know of, was the famous confrontation in Salamanca, between Unamuno the philosopher and Millan Astray, the creator of the elite African units (the Legion and the Regulares) Franco wielded as his shock troops. Though both were ferocious Spanish nationalists, Unamuno quibbled about Millan Astray's violent language. Unamuno failed to understand that Millan Astray was not speaking to university undergraduates.

chickelit said...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...”They are going to fold.”

Not like a cheap suit, I hope.

cubanbob said...

Korematsu is still the law of the land. Trump ought to take a tip from FDR and reopen Manzanar. House the illegal aliens and their children there and establish an immigration court there as well. The families are kept together, the illegals aren't competing with minimum wage workers for jobs, its probably cheaper to cloth, feed and house them in the camps than the current welfare cost for illegals and crime will probably be lessened. Put a runway in the facility and after the immigration court denies entry, fly them to the country they entered from. Those that do get accepted in, their family's are kept intact and in the interim they may have acquired some English language skills, possibly job skills and the kids receive some education.

Pookie Number 2 said...

I just wish that we had someone better than Trump to articulate it.

Trump has actually proven to be pheonemenally capable at articulating his positions above the insincere shrieking of people that complain in malicious bad faith (“Chucks”, for short).

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Whatever happened to the IG's report or North Korea or — for that matter — Russia collusion and impeachment?”

Nothing, they’re still there. No one has forgotten about them, or shouldn’t.

Real American said...

This is just another media driven outrage - anything to get the IG Report off the front page. It arrived right on cue.

Trump is doing what he does when he's right - double down. These leftists don't give a shit about these kids being separated from their criminal parents. Most didn't arrive with their parents anyway - but facts will never get in the way of a good Democrat/media meltdown. They want open borders because they think that helps them win elections. Well, if we're enforcing the law and not doing "catch and release" that reduces the number of potential Dem voters in the mid-terms and beyond if they ever get citizenship (as if that matters!).

If Trump gives in on this, it won't be enough. Dems will push for catch and release so the illegals get away - never to be heard from again, except when they're bused to the local polling place on election day to vote Democrat.

chickelit said...

“...people that complain in malicious bad faith (“Chucks”, for short).”

“Chuckhold” is homophonic with “chuckled” but should not to be confused with something Chuck-led.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“House the illegal aliens and their children there and establish an immigration court there as well. The families are kept together...

I said this yesterday, except I said use old military bases to house the families together. If they aren’t eligible for asylum send them back to their home countries, families intact.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Hyperbole and knee-jerk outrage have gone beyond their normal bounds. Buwaya is most likely correct that this is all part of a carefully orchestrated plan to undermine our country.”

We saw 8 solid years of this under Obama.

buwaya said...

"No one has forgotten about them"

Define no one.
Political memory is non-existent. Its human nature.
The defining case is truly ancient, that of the Athenian admirals after the battle of Arginusae (406BC). The Athenian populace was whipped up into a rage about unexpectedly heavy losses in that nearly-decisive battle, which had followed a series of brilliant operations. Nearly decisive, if in their rage they had not then executed their ebtire naval leadership, that had just turned the tide of the war. The war then predictably turned against Athens.
This was long used as an argument against democracy.

Jim at said...

Trump is following through on the number one issue that got him elected.

How refreshing.

Michael said...

Maybe these illegals will learn to love their children enough not to drag them across a thousand dangerous miles to illegally enter another country. It is too bad for the Dems that this isn't October, but it isn't, it's June and this urgent urgent issue of the tortured children ripped from the arms of their loving parents will be forgotten by September.
Do the Dems think it is safer to be drug along across a very dangerous Mexico than to be in a safe place in San Diego albeit separated from their criminal parents?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Trump is standing up there at this very moment saying “we don’t want judges.” He doesn’t want more judges to speed up the time these people have to be held? What? So he’s going to take away the children to keep the asylum seekers and illegal border crossers from coming. What he’s saying at this very moment rocking his shoulders back and forth like Il Duce is going to be written up in history books one day, it won’t look good for him. He’s a disgrace.

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