— janey v. ❄ (@nycjaneyvee) June 25, 2018
No judges, no hearings, no due process, no rule of law
Jun 24th, 2018 12:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonTrump getting worse by the hour. Now he’s announcing that immigrants who cross the border illegally should have no due process.
We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order. Most children come without parents…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2018
He was saying it in Las Vegas yesterday:
While in Las Vegas on Saturday, Mr. Trump told supporters that he thought the immigration system needed fewer judges — putting him in conflict with a proposal by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, to expand the number of judges in an effort to process cases more quickly. Mr. Trump also suggested last week that he opposed adding judges because many of them could be corrupt.
He has criticized immigration judges for weeks, saying they were not effective in stopping the flow of people coming into the country, sometimes using incorrect numbers to make his point.
That is, sometimes lying to make his point. He’s the president. He has a responsibility to get his facts right before he vomits out his hate-rants.
That’s not how any of this works. https://t.co/yq25jWEEIx
— ACLU (@ACLU) June 24, 2018
Trump’s assertion of unreviewable power to serve as prosecutor, judge, and jury of every asylum-seeker’s claim of right to be here has no basis in our Constitution or laws. It is a power grab one would expect of a fascist dictator, beyond even George IIIhttps://t.co/cDReZBujD4
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 24, 2018
Do your housework cheerfully as unto the Lord
Jun 24th, 2018 11:23 am | By Ophelia BensonA Good Christian Woman who goes by the name “The Transformed Wife” dispenses Good Christian Wisdom on Facebook (founded by Jesus shortly after he did the loaves and fishes trick). She dispenses it by writing it in writing in a little notebook and then taking a photo of the writing. So quaint yet tech-savvy at the same time! A couple of days ago she dispensed Ladies Serve Your Men Wisdom:
Do you “expect” your husband to help w/ household chores? If you do, you won’t have a happy marriage b/c expectations destroy relationships. If he helps, great + if not, do your housework cheerfully as unto the Lord. Remember, you didn’t marry your husband to help w/the household chores. You married him to be your protector + provider.
Well if she married him to be her protector and provider then that’s a set of expectations, surely.
Side issue: why do people abbreviate “because” and “with” and no other words (apart from “and” which has actual symbols)? Where did that come from? Does writing “w/” instead of “with” really save that much time? And why does poor useful logical “because” need to be shrunk? I don’t get it.
Symptomatic
Jun 24th, 2018 10:35 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump loves shiny things. Really shiny. The shinier the better. Shiny shiny shiny.
Since Bill Clinton occupied the White House, the commemorative medallions known as challenge coins have been stately symbols of the presidency coveted by the military, law enforcement personnel and a small circle of collectors.
Then came Donald J. Trump.
His presidency has yielded more — and more elaborate — coins that are shinier, flashier and even bigger, setting off a boom for coin manufacturers, counterfeiters and collectors, with one official Trump challenge coin recently fetching $1,000 on eBay.
Among those produced in recent months by members of a White House military unit is a coin featuring Mr. Trump’s private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, on the front, and the presidential seal, the White House and Air Force One on the back. Another has Pope Francis on one side and the president’s face set against the White House on the other.
Shiny. So shiny.
The car is a nice touch.
Outside ethics watchdogs say the “Make America Great Again” coins shouldn’t be distributed to military personnel — a traditional use of presidential challenge coins — since the military is supposed to be walled off from politics.
And those watchdogs warn that coins featuring Mr. Trump’s properties, such as Mar-a-Lago, should not be produced using government resources — including funds, work hours or even phone calls and emails — since federal ethics laws prohibit the use of public resources to promote private businesses.
The Mar-a-Lago coins are akin to “a metallic tourist brochure,” said Norman L. Eisen, a former ethics lawyer in President Barack Obama’s White House and the chairman of a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Killjoy.
After The New York Times inquired about the coins, agency personnel abruptly canceled plans for a coin featuring the president’s signature Trump Tower in Manhattan and his golf course in Bedminster, N.J.
Sad. They would have made such lovely metallic tourist brochures.
People who have traveled with Mr. Trump say he has become enthralled by challenge coins, attributing his interest to his appreciation for military traditions and might, as well as his attraction to gaudy displays of gilded excess. That fascination grew during the presidential campaign, when he would receive coins from law enforcement and military personnel whom he encountered at stops.
Shiny. Shiny, mama. Shiny shiny shiny shiny shiny shiny shiny shiny shiny.
Ew lady dirt
Jun 24th, 2018 9:56 am | By Ophelia BensonAnother showy public display of women-loathing delays another El Al flight out of New York.
Last week, a scheduled El Al flight from New York’s JFK Airport to Israel sat on the runway for more than an hour after four ultra-Orthodox men refused to take their ticketed seats next to women.
It was not the first time this has happened at El Al, which was hit by a court ruling last year barring the airline from asking passengers to move based on gender.
Throw them off the damn plane, says I. No refund, no rescheduling.
El Al flight attendants struggled to resolve the fracas as the four men refused to speak to any of the stewardesses.
Put them off the plane. They can’t refuse to sit down next to black people or refuse to speak to black flight attendants so why the fuck should they be allowed to do it to women?
Eventually the flight attendants did ask people to move and two women did agree to move and the plane left 75 minutes late.
The two women who were asked to move on last week’s flight can file a lawsuit, according to Karen Saar, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Religious Action Center, which is linked to the Reform movement.
The gesture by El Al goes against an Israeli court ruling issued in June 2017 that awarded Holocaust survivor Renee Rabinowitz damages after an El Al flight attendant asked her to switch seats because an ultra-Orthodox man wouldn’t sit next to her.
The judge also requested that El Al train their crew members to prevent such occurrences.
“Women are being asked to move, and that’s illegal,” said Saar. “It was done after El Al, almost to the day a year ago, agreed that all of their employees would be trained so it wouldn’t happen again.”
Just say no. Tell the men to get off if they don’t like it. Escort them non-violently off if they refuse to go voluntarily.
El Al apologized for the incident but said the plane was not held up as long as reported.
“The flight left 18 minutes late and not as claimed in the uploaded [Facebook] post,” said Anat Friedman, a spokeswoman for El Al.
El Al added in a statement, “Any discrimination by passengers is strictly prohibited. El Al crew members are doing everything that they can to provide good and courteous service to a wide range of passengers, and to try to assist them. This is in order to take off on time and to bring passengers to their destination with the utmost security and comfort.”
But El Al ignore the court ruling and carried out the religious fanatics’ discriminatory misogynist demands.
If the men are that damn Orthodox then they can walk back to Israel.
He said the staff is a little concerned
Jun 23rd, 2018 4:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Post has details on what went down at The Little Red Hen. Nothing lurid, just what people were thinking and how it played out.
The owner was at home yesterday evening when the chef called to tell her Sanders was there.
“He said the staff is a little concerned. What should we do?” [Stephanie] Wilkinson told The Washington Post. “I said I’d be down to see if it’s true.”
It seemed unlikely to her that President Trump’s press secretary should be dining at a 26-seat restaurant in rural Virginia. But then, it was unlikely that her entire staff would have misidentified Sanders, who had arrived last to a table of eight booked under her husband’s name.
As she made the short drive to the Red Hen, Wilkinson knew only this:
She knew Lexington, population 7,000, had voted overwhelmingly against Trump in a county that voted overwhelmingly for him. She knew the community was deeply divided over such issues as Confederate flags. She knew, she said, that her restaurant and its half-dozen servers and cooks had managed to stay in business for 10 years by keeping politics off the menu.
And she knew — she believed — that Sarah Huckabee Sanders worked in the service of an “inhumane and unethical” administration. That she publicly defended the president’s cruelest policies, and that that could not stand.
She doesn’t love confrontation, and she doesn’t love putting a big target on her restaurant but
“This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals.”
This is after a week in which Sanders has been defending Trump’s loathsome actions on immigration and the abduction of immigrants’ children.
When she got there she found that it was no mistake, there was the press secretary.
Several Red Hen employees were gay, she said. They knew Sanders had defended Trump’s desire to bar transgender people from the military. This month, they had all watched her evade questions and defend a Trump policy that caused migrant children to be separated from their parents.
“Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave,” Wilkinson told her staff, she said. “They said yes.”
So, without any joy, she did.
“I said, ‘I’m the owner,’ ” she recalled, ” ‘I’d like you to come out to the patio with me for a word.’ ”
They stepped outside, into another small enclosure, but at least out of the crowded restaurant.
“I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion,” Wilkinson said. “I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation.
“I said, ‘I’d like to ask you to leave.’ ”
Sanders said that’s fine, and the others in the party went with her. They offered to pay for the cheese plate and drinks they’d already had but Wilkinson said no, it’s on the house. (Sanders didn’t mention that in her official press secretary tweet.)
The restaurant is closed for this evening; Wilkinson doesn’t know if this will destroy her business or not.
Just kidding
Jun 23rd, 2018 10:35 am | By Ophelia BensonThat thing Trump said after his jovial meeting with Kim? “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea”? Apparently it was one of his jokes.
US President Donald Trump has renewed sanctions on North Korea, citing an “extraordinary threat” from its nuclear weapons – just 10 days after saying there was no risk from Pyongyang.
“There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,” he tweeted on 13 June, a day after meeting the country’s leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
…
Democrats say the latest White House language contradicts the president’s earlier boasts about the success of the Singapore summit. In another tweet on 13 June, he said Americans could “sleep well tonight!”.
Democrats say? Come on now. It’s not a party matter. Trump did say what Trump did say.
Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
“There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” That’s what he said. Many of us pointed out at the time that the claim was ludicrous, but the claim is what it is; he said it.
Before taking office people were assuming that we were going to War with North Korea. President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer – sleep well tonight!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
We said that was ludicrous too. He still said it.
If that’s her best…
Jun 23rd, 2018 10:22 am | By Ophelia BensonNo, that’s not true.
Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) June 23, 2018
I don’t really think it’s cool for restaurants to tell people to get out because they work for Trump, but her claim that she does her best to treat people respectfully is horseshit. She’s an adult, she can control what comes out of her mouth, and what comes out is not always respectful. Just the other day she told Jim Acosta he has a hard time understanding even short words.
Updating to add:
Not a surprise these days exactly, but this “magnanimous” message is of course Sanders using a government position and Twitter account in a manner that will cause supporters to target a private citizen for harassment or worse. https://t.co/LsAdVjYcG5
— Oliver Burkeman (@oliverburkeman) June 23, 2018
Ah yes, so she is. I overlooked that aspect. She named the restaurant and its location and specified the person – with all the might of the US presidency behind her. On Twitter. That’s way more not cool than telling her to leave.
More overt every day
Jun 23rd, 2018 10:11 am | By Ophelia BensonToday in disgusting 2.
Nancy Pelosi introduces her campaign committee for the take back of the House. pic.twitter.com/yKDhkVubck
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) June 23, 2018
Immortality
Jun 23rd, 2018 10:10 am | By Ophelia BensonPresident Donald Trump appears to have autographed photos of deceased young people that were featured at a White House event Friday highlighting victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
There were 11 photos total being held up by family members who had lost loved ones, and all of the photos bore Trump’s unmistakably scrawled signature in large-tipped black pen.
Autographing the photos was an unusual decision, in that it appeared to combine the celebrity element of an autograph with the solemn image of a dead loved one.
Typical of Trump though. Classic Trump. Trump all over.
Blood libels
Jun 22nd, 2018 4:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonUgh, god, this is so stupid and so vicious.
President Donald Trump on Friday put a spotlight on families who lost loved ones killed by undocumented immigrants — calling them victims of “permanent separation” — as he sought to shift the attention away from his administration’s recently halted policy of separating migrant families at the border.
Some undocumented immigrants turn out to be criminals…because some percentage of any large population will turn out to be criminals. Immigrants are in fact less likely to be criminals than non-immigrants.
“You know, you hear the other side. You never hear this side. You don’t know what’s going on. These are the American citizens permanently separated from their loved ones. The word permanently being the word that you have to think about,” the president said Friday afternoon.
“They’re not separated for a day or two days. These were permanently separated because they were killed by illegal aliens. These are the families the media ignores. They don’t talk about them. Very unfair.”
While any death is tragic, a February 2018 study by the Cato Institute using 2015 crime statistics from Texas found immigrants in the country illegally were 25 percent less likely to be convicted of homicide than native-born Americans. (Legal immigrants were 87 percent less likely.)
According to the study, immigrants in the country illegally were also 11.5 percent less likely than native-born Americans to be convicted of sexual assault and 79 percent less likely to be convicted of larceny.
Take notes, Donald.
A separate March 2018 study in the journal Criminology looked at whether violent crime increases as the number of immigrants living illegally in a community goes up. Researchers found it does not. If anything, the opposite is true: Violent crime appears to fall when more immigrants are living in a community illegally.
Trump disputed those findings during his White House event Friday but he did not offer evidence to the contrary.
In the past, the president has exaggerated threats facing the U.S. to justify his travel ban, tough-on-crime measures and a now-folded commission on voter fraud.
In other words he has lied about such things, over and over, including after people have told him he’s talking shite.
This intense focus on immediate needs
Jun 22nd, 2018 11:52 am | By Ophelia BensonReturning to Jesse Singal’s Atlantic piece on children who say they are trans…
The current era of gender-identity awareness has undoubtedly made life easier for many young people who feel constricted by the sometimes-oppressive nature of gender expectations. A rich new language has taken root, granting kids who might have felt alone or excluded the words they need to describe their experiences.
I’m not sure about that – I’m not sure the new language is genuinely rich. Is it rich or is it impoverished to decide that if you don’t like lipstick and high heels then you are a boy? Is it rich to substitute the trans vocabulary for the feminist vocabulary? Is it better to find your True Gender or to conclude that gender is bullshit?
Singal notes that professional science-based organizations advise caution and deliberation when it comes to physical alterations for children and teenagers.
The American Psychological Association’s guidelines sound a similar note, explaining the benefits of hormones but also noting that “adolescents can become intensely focused on their immediate desires.” It goes on: “This intense focus on immediate needs may create challenges in assuring that adolescents are cognitively and emotionally able to make life-altering decisions.”
The leading professional organizations offer this guidance. But some clinicians are moving toward a faster process. And other resources, including those produced by major LGBTQ organizations, place the emphasis on acceptance rather than inquiry.
Acceptance, affirmation, celebration, all very much instead of and in opposition to inquiry. That should have sent up warning flags long ago.
Ignoring the diversity of these experiences and focusing only on those who were effectively “born in the wrong body” could cause harm. That is the argument of a small but vocal group of men and women who have transitioned, only to return to their assigned sex. Many of these so-called detransitioners argue that their dysphoria was caused not by a deep-seated mismatch between their gender identity and their body but rather by mental-health problems, trauma, societal misogyny, or some combination of these and other factors. They say they were nudged toward the physical interventions of hormones or surgery by peer pressure or by clinicians who overlooked other potential explanations for their distress.
Singal of course has been piled on for saying that. No inquiry allowed.
Their phony stories of sadness and grief
Jun 22nd, 2018 11:20 am | By Ophelia BensonThis guy.
We must maintain a Strong Southern Border. We cannot allow our Country to be overrun by illegal immigrants as the Democrats tell their phony stories of sadness and grief, hoping it will help them in the elections. Obama and others had the same pictures, and did nothing about it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2018
Meeting
Jun 22nd, 2018 10:44 am | By Ophelia BensonMaajid Nawaz, the British Muslim reformer who recently recovered a large monetary settlement from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), is scheduled to meet with SPLC president Richard Cohen next week to demand an explanation for its decision to label him an “anti-Muslim extremist,” National Review learned Friday in an exclusive interview with Nawaz.
That is, to ask for an explanation. It sounds less pugnacious than that paragraph suggests.
Now, Nawaz wants answers. He reached out to Cohen following the settlement and Cohen replied Thursday night agreeing to the meeting.
“I’m going to fly out to New York in the coming week or so for the specific purpose of meeting with [Cohen] in private for however long it takes — a day, two days. And I have two objectives: I want to understand what the fuck happened. I really want to understand how on earth this could have happened,” Nawaz says. “I have my suspicions about whether the SPLC has been influenced by CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, and other Islamist-leaning organizations. In other words, was this a hit job? Did the SPLC go out and say, ‘Hey, Muslim community, we want to know who’s anti-Muslim,’ and instead of those organizations giving them genuine anti-Muslim individuals, they decided to use that as an opportunity to basically go after their opponents politically?”
That sounds very plausible. People here are naïve about CAIR: they think it’s a liberal anti-discrimination group and don’t realize how Islamist-leaning it is. CAIR of course is careful not to enlighten them.
Cohen and the SPLC were too quick to view the Muslim community as a “homogenous” group likely to understand all criticism as an affront, Nawaz says. During their meeting, the radio host and activist hopes to educate Cohen as to the explosive contest between fundamentalism and liberalism that is occurring within the Islamic community, citing political divisions within mainstream American society as a reference point.
I hope Cohen listens, I really do. The SPLC understands that there are reactionary theocratic Christian groups, certainly, so why can’t they understand that there are equivalent Islamic groups?
“I want to say to him, ‘You guys are getting it seriously wrong, which means you don’t understand the Muslim community. You need help and I’m prepared to help you understand the Muslim community but that will require a huge cognitive shift. It will require that you recognize that the debate that you have within the wider society about liberalism verses conservatism is a debate we’re having within our Muslim community, between liberalism and fundamentalism.’”
I hope Cohen listens.
A brag too many
Jun 22nd, 2018 10:11 am | By Ophelia BensonThe U.S. Marine who marched with neo-Nazis in last summer’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been found guilty in a summary court-martial after he reportedly bragged online about participating in the violence that day.
Lance Cpl. Vasillios Pistolis was convicted Monday of failing to obey an order or regulation and making a false official statement under Articles 92 and 107 in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the 2nd Marine Logistics Group.
Perhaps the regulation was something to do with beating up civilians.
The people behind you have a bus to catch
Jun 22nd, 2018 9:50 am | By Ophelia BensonIt still amazes me to see how people get lost in the maze of Jargon Absolutism – of treating certain sanctified verbal formulas as if they were reality itself. Say it and it becomes true no matter how nonsensical the content.
#nonbinary #gender identities are valid. #nonbinary people exist within and contribute to our society, and yet their very existence is denied.
People who identify as #nonbinary or #genderneutral or #genderqueer or #genderfluid ought to be recognised.https://t.co/lkS6yzBBTK
— Dr Adrian Harrop (@DrAdrianHarrop) June 22, 2018
Blar blar identities are valid – the sacred formula is uttered and the molecules are changed. But what does it mean? What does it mean to say an “identity” is “valid”?
Identity can be a prosaic factual matter to do with some basic facts about who one is, as with an ID card to use a service one has paid for or registered for or both. It starts with name and can included date of birth, place of birth, sex, address, height and weight, eye color – neutral emotionless facts. That kind of identity is valid if the facts are correct and invalid if any of the facts have been falsified. That’s neither political nor interesting. But DOCTOR Adrian Harrop isn’t talking about that kind of identity, he’s talking about the new, holy, sacred kind of identity, that has no precise definition but is all the more mandatory for that. The less factual it is, the more the harrops need to shout about its validity on Twitter.
But Harrop wants this sacred kind of identity to be confirmed on the factual identity documents as well as in the throbbing hearts of devotees. That’s ludicrous. It’s like insisting that passports should include one’s favorite book or video game or city or bird. That’s not what passports are for. Passports aren’t little diary entries, and the officials who check them and stamp them don’t have time to learn about the glorious unique fascinating personality of the person presenting the passport. Yeah? When you show your passport you’re one of hundreds of people in a line of people and it’s not an occasion for showing off. Go ahead, be “nonbinary” if you’re dumb enough to think that means something, but passports don’t need that particular bit of your personality and it’s just boring tedious vanity to make a fuss about it.
And no their “existence” is not “denied” simply because their meaningless self-description is not included in their passports. My passport doesn’t say that I’m a nerd and yet I continue to exist.
She wore it at Andrews temp 81 Fahrenheit
Jun 21st, 2018 4:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonA skeptical world responds.
Which one is it? The First Lady's office said this was just a jacket. https://t.co/39AyQsg6tL
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 21, 2018
Sir, this directly contradicts what her spokesperson says (no message intended) and what we all know (that it was a true sentiment and the Trumps really don’t care). Get your story straight! https://t.co/QuB6O3jZL8
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) June 21, 2018
So the exact opposite of what her spokeswoman said? Gotcha. https://t.co/fjbquWomTC
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 21, 2018
I was inclined to give the benefit of the doubt, but now it's just petulant and inappropriate. If the First Lady of the United States has something to say on a question of important policy, she should say it. If what she has to say is that she doesn't care, that's despicable. https://t.co/teszBRgioY
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) June 21, 2018
I suppose tomorrow she’ll visit more captive children, wearing a jacket that says “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.”
No it wasn’t an accidental wardrobe mishap
Jun 21st, 2018 4:26 pm | By Ophelia BensonTritler explains.
“I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” written on the back of Melania’s jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2018
There was no hidden message
Jun 21st, 2018 1:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonAaaaaaaaaand this just in:
FLOTUS spox confirms Mrs. Trump wore a jacket to visit border kids that reads: "I really don't care. Do you?" Spox says: "It's a jacket. There was no hidden message. After today's important visit to Texas, I hope the media isn't going to choose to focus on her wardrobe." pic.twitter.com/Bp4Z8n455G
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 21, 2018
Well it’s certainly true there was no hidden message, it’s about as unhidden and overt and explicit as it could be.
I’m gobsmacked. What the hell was she thinking? What were the people around her thinking? What was anyone thinking?
Maybe they’re about to cut all our throats and that’s their mocking goodbye.
Scowl in place
Jun 21st, 2018 12:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonTrump still being a shit one day after brief attempt to look less like a shit; world unsurprised.
A day after a rare retreat on the issue of separating immigrant children from their parents, President Trump lashed out angrily on Thursday at what he called “extremist, open-border Democrats” and again falsely blamed them for the political crisis that continues to roil his administration.
Mr. Trump, choosing hard-edged remarks at a cabinet meeting hours before the House was scheduled to vote on overhauling immigration laws, begged for Democratic support on the legislation even as he said Democratic lawmakers were causing “tremendous damage and destruction and lives.” And he repeated his false claim that Democrats forced family separations.
“They don’t care about the children. They don’t care about the injury. They don’t care about the problems,” Mr. Trump said, a scowl on his face and his arms crossed. “They don’t care about anything.”
The president’s stream-of-consciousness commentary also included an attack on Mexico for what he claimed was a failure to help stop illegal immigration into the United States. He said the trek through Mexico from Central America was like a walk through Central Park in New York City.
Yes, certainly, like a walk through Central Park, which is half a mile wide.
Meanwhile he sent the little woman off to Texas to pretend to care.
Melania Trump, the first lady, traveled on Thursday to a facility in McAllen, Tex., that is holding 55 children who have been separated from their parents. Mrs. Trump took a tour of the facility, called New Hope Children’s Shelter, and met with some of the children being held there.
In one classroom, she met with a group of children, some of whom spoke to her in English and others in Spanish, which was translated by their teacher.
Into Slovenian?
Officials at the facility say that the children held there are allowed to communicate with their families by phone twice a week.
Oh, my, how generous and kind.
