The Bureau of Labor Statistics can add one more to the unemployment count — that being John Sanders, the Customs and Border Protection agency's acting commissioner. What a damn shame. He was doing such a capital job, for which any true-believing fascist would gladly write him a letter of recommendation.
Sanders' resignation came amid reports that 100 Central American children have been re-sentenced to Trump's Konzentrationslager in Clint, Texas. There they'll enjoy luscious accommodations of extraordinarily close quarters — claustrophobiacs need not apply — and of course they'll want to bring their own bathtub, clothing that's been washed at least once this year, and, well, food.
In a separate Times article — infamous by now — a visit to the Clint facility by a team of lawyers produced reports that justify what some might mistake as this post's opening lightheartedness of exceptionally poor taste. Because — "Children as young as 7 and 8, many of them wearing clothes caked with snot and tears are caring for infants they’ve just met," related the lawyers, via the Times. "Toddlers without diapers are relieving themselves in their pants. Teenage mothers are wearing clothes stained with breast milk."
Most of the youthful inmates haven't showered or washed their clothes since arriving in Clint. "They have no access to toothbrushes, toothpaste or soap." Said Columbia Law School's facility-visiting director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, Elora Mukherjee, "There is a stench. The overwhelming majority of children have not bathed since they crossed the border." (Even "the Taliban gave me toothpaste and soap," tweeted journalist and former captive David Rohde.)
Guards, it was further reported, wear "face masks to protect themselves from the unsanitary conditions." They also — I kid you not — pack weapons, presumably to protect themselves from savage 3-year-olds who could pounce and viciously attack any minute.
A Justice Department lawyer has claimed before a U.S. Court of Appeals that the government was free to deprive the children of soap and toothbrushes, and to furnish them with nothing but a concrete floor, intensely lit throughout the night, on which to sleep.
Last, Trump has denied, in customary form, any knowledge of John Sanders as well as his gross mismanagement of the Customs and Border "Protection" agency. "I didn’t speak to him. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him actually. We have some very good people running it," he said. "And, you know, I don’t know anything about it. I hear he’s a very good man, a good person. I don’t know him. I don’t think I ever spoke to him."
Virtually every day, Donald Tump does something that stains the once-dignified character of the United States. Only then does he claim ignorance; he's the Sergeant Schultz of the American presidency. Meanwhile, one might think that his Christian, church-going base would recheck the Scriptures — upon which they rely for personal guidance (and that should tell you something about their inability to independently arrive at a wholesome system of ethics) — and thereby discover the towering discrepancy between malign Trumpism and benevolent Christianity. But, perhaps benevolent Christianity is simply a commonly presumed thing of the past. If it isn't, Trump's base is working hard to make it one.
The Trump-Sanders Affair is about far more than a Christianity-forsaken detention facility in Clint, Texas.
"Konzentrationslager" -- I think you mean Stalag Trump 1.
Posted by: shsavage | June 26, 2019 at 08:27 AM
And of course He Who is Lower Than the Belly of a Snake slithers under the Blame Obama/Blame democrats rock with the rest of the right wing hate brigade. It must be very crowded under there. And even if true, why wouldn't he try to show how much better than Obama he is by implementing more humane policies? Obama's out of power and continuing to blame him is only an admission of how incompetent Trump is. But maybe that's the point. It fits right in with the republican Government-is-the-Problem narrative. How many more millions will suffer under this party's power grab?
Posted by: AnneJ | June 26, 2019 at 09:24 AM