101 Comments

Where are the Christians? Where are the believers in biblical doctrine to help your fellow man? Empty, empty, empty people parroting their abusers. I am just sick.

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I have asked this before and I will ask it again, “how come I can’t hear from inside my closed up house, a thunderous roar coming from every pulpit in Christendom, decrying the vile acts being done to the least among us. Where is the righteous anger at such profoundly evil acts? What, are they whispering? How come the all the true believers among us are not up in arms at the theft of their sacred belief system?” THIS SANCTIMONIOUS CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IS UTTER HORSESHIT!

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“Nationalism: one of the effective ways in which the modern man escapes life’s ethical problems .”

- Reinhold Niebuhr

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And:

“The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan values and ends is the source of all religious fanaticism. ”

― again , from Niebuhr

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“With God on our side….”

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There is no god.

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My response was a quote from an early Bob Dylan song.

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CINO and RINO...Trump's scum followers!

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The charismatics are preaching retribution, not Jesus’ teachings.

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And lining their pockets, big time.

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"I am a jealous god,"

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The moral clarity of this article is a bracing reminder of how threadbare and chatty most reporting is these days.

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Amen, Amen, Amen, Jonathan!

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The Devil is always in the detail. I for one am waiting with enthusiasm to the first attempt to deny birthright citizenship. Maybe that will wake up the brain dead fourth estate?

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I believe T***p waved the banner of denying birthright citizensip when interviewed this weekend.

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How is it possible to delete a section of the 14th Amendment by executive order?

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I believe that in T***p's dusty, stuffed-with-stuff cranial attic (not to be dignified with the word "brain") he believes he can do *anything* by executive order. Bill Barr encouraged this fantasy in his 2017 memo arguing the proposition that the president is *the* law of the land, and the recent SSOTUS (Supreme Sycophants of the United States) decision granting the President virtual immunity confirms it to T***p.

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Well, he may think he can do this by simply commanding the elimination of Section 1, but Congress would have to approve it by 2/3 vote and then 3/4 of the states would have to approve it. Ain’t gonna happen.

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He did.

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Has it been established that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are U.S. citizens? If djt succeeds in overturning constitutional birthright citizenship what are the chances of getting his branch of the drumpf family declared illegal?

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Or Elon's Mom, or Melania herself? Is he going to deport Barron as an anchor baby once his citizenship is revoked?

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Actually, now I wonder if T's mother, an immigrant herself, ever became a US citizen?

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I don’t think she ever did…but can’t confirm for sure.

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Snopes deals with the question. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trumps-mother-immigrant/

New York's Eastern District Court issued Mary Anne MacLeod Trump's naturalization certificate on 10 March 1942.

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OFF-TOPIC SUBSTACK USER INTERFACE CHANGE You *can* still COLLAPSE a comment or thread without resort to pull-down menu: Tap blank part of name line above the comment. If thread, as in the past you also can tap string dangling at left of text.

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Thank you. I have no idea where Substack user rules are..........

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I've never been able to find any and doubt anyone has. That's why, when I turn up something new by accident or by poking around, I share.

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Thank you, again!

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It seems to me that Miller is not Trump's hand-puppet but that Trump - empty suit that he is - is Miller's hand-puppet.

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The real new axis of evil in the United States is Stephen Miller, K$H Patel and Steve Bannon.

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Don't forget the muskrat

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Thank you for calling this deportation plan what it is: crimes against humanity. Keep manning the fort. Its fortification in resolve is helping me face even reading about what their dastardly plans are and the suffering that will ensue. All power to your pen!

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If Trump attempts this it will be Nazi Germany all over again. Your scenario of Haitians being rounded up described the roundup of Jews, Gypsies, and other people who weren't Aryan under Hitler. My dad fought in WWII and I'm glad he isn't alive to see Americans becoming the Nazis he fought against.

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My parents were victims of the Holocaust. Dad was from Poland and my mom, Berlin. Her parents were gassed at the camp known as Chelmno in 1942. Nazis kept very ample notes on each person they imprisoned and those they murdered.

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Hitler's "enemy list" was broader and deeper than you presented and was backed by a highly developed documented ideology. For the most part, Hitler's inner circle consisted of those who were with him from the get-go and were selected because they publicly and privately did not get along. (Did so for obvious reasons and did play out over the short-lived 3rd Reich). Hitler had world domination as a driver as well as something the German people were saddled with, the punishing Treaty of Versailles and a global recession.

America rounded up, demonized, and dehumanized more minorities than Hitler managed Hitler took note of that fact. Something you did not note. (It's common knowledge although that fact is a victim of whitewashing.)

Trump and Hitler are not comparable whether in shape, style, or substance 1930-1945 is not similar to 2015-202x. The USG bears no resemblance at all to the German government of those dark days. And the US Mil command would not go along quietly to swearing an Oath to a person that trumps (intentionally selected) their oath to the 2nd US Constitution. Nor would Congress fund or permit a private army that answers only to Trump as Hitler did w/the Waffen SS. Americans are not Germans of that zeitgeist and America is not a small-sized nation as Germany was then. There are few similarities beyond one man w/bad hair and the other with a bad moustache.

Your late Father's mil service is acknowledged and honored. That said, no living person knows how and what a deceased person would say or do if they were brought back to life. There are plenty of common refrains that should be struck from American discourse. What a dead person (the Lazarus Effect) would say or do is near the top of the list.

Trump has little control over events that unfold on their own, both at home and abroad. Those events do more to define a President/CinC and an Adm, than any rhetoric or in many instances plans. That's the number one reason looking back for this or that w/o looking at how time is already shaping the future is flawed.

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It's all a matter of racism abetted by hypocrisy. White immigrants from S. Africa, Slovenia, or European countries, like the ones in his own family and administration, are welcomed. Dark skinned people beyond those needed to burn his steaks, manicure his golf courses and maintain his properties not so much. Demented Donald will soon lose interest once his clumsy attempts draw some bad press, declare victory, and move on to his real interest, marketing trinkets to his guileless rubes and profiting from overseas real estate branding.

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I'm worried about the crazy people who wrote Project 2025 and their willingness to persist in the face of bad press.

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Equally culpable and despicable are the immigrants, now US citizens, who voted for trump out of resentment for the "illegals" who didn't do things the "right way" and who have received aid that they never got. Their bitter solution is to send "them" these lesser than new immigrants, to concentration camps and/or to their deaths by starvation and gang violence in the country that they were forced to flee for their lives. This is the depraved, vile hatred that trump has wrought.

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Despicable as the upcoming "project" is, this kind of treatment of brown skinned immigrants has been going on for decades under both Dem and Rep administrations. Have a look at Jonathan Blitzer's book, "Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here." There have also been resisters all along, but a whole lot of Americans have taken no action.

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The US also deported white immigrants thought to be Communists during the Eisenhower administration.

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The incoming wrecking crew are despicable…but we already know that.

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“border czar” Tom Homan is what he looks like: a thug. I saw him interviewed, and the guy talks like a mafioso; he looked at the interviewer like he wanted to strangle her.

Tom Homan will be merciless. That is why he was selected. He expects and wants to kill people.

One of the worst things about Trump (and his voters) is that before he was ever President, he thought torture was a good thing and that he would do "more of it". He is now even crazier.

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While true O and Joe deported or expelled (under Trump's Title 42 Authority, the actual word is expulsion) ...are you sitting down...Circa 5M and 4M (inc number final number after term expires) respectfully. Trump? Just north of 1M in his term. The expulsion number not found and ain't playing fetch over it, just yet.

Niithah O or Joe had a hard lard ass like Miller or Homan. Didn't need one cuz Ds are results-oriented and ain't big talkers.

Enslaved blacks and my kind know all too well about forced relocations and family separations including that of children. Latin families know Operation Wetback and Japanese families know all to well about internment camps. All the aforementioned understand America's toleration of such immoral acts that are also lawful.

Framers and Founders made that clear where they stood, the law over all else. So all the appeal to OMG an infant taken from her/his Mum or a Grandmother separated from her seeds and grandchildren is more about emotion than morality. In non-white families (as you witnessed in SEA) family is everything. It's one unit in full practice not just in theory.

Am optimistic a Trump 2nd term will result in a rebirth of the better angels of our nature. Am not going to get in the gutter w/Trump and his flock. It's not mu kind's way

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I think History's view is that when White Americans don't have Black, Brown, or Asian people to push around, they love to push around each other. I think we are about to start pushing EVERYBODY around who disagrees with Trump.

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Would be a mistake to allow it to happen whether to self or to others.

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Homan and Steve Cheung make a great looking pair of thugs.

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A big fat thug! A real live sonofabitch!

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With the exception of the white racists in Texas who can't wait to get started, where is Trump going to go for his photo ops? Springfield, Ohio - for sure. Aurora, CO - Yep! And then where? Some blue city in a red or blue state. Why? Maximum confrontation, maximum cruelty, likely maximum bloodshed. And then he can declare martial law, and if Hegseth is sober enough, will order tanks into the streets in blue cities to enforce it.

Why there? Because Big Ag needs undocumented workers. Construction in Floriduh, Ally-Bammy, and other red states need undocumented labor. And they will not be touched.

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I live in DeSantistan, know we need these laborers!

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Then where? I have no difficulty envisioning NYC's Republicrat mayor Eric Adams standing shoulder-to-hip next to the big liar at a press conference on Staten Island for maximum ill effect

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Blue California is the largest agricultural state. Without undocumented laborers we can kiss all those fruits, nuts, veggies and milk goodbye. Then watch prices for produce and milk soar. And folks blamed Dems for inflation? They ain’t seen nothing’ yet!

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Their tolerance for senseless cruelty is bottomless.

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I often wonder what Stephen Miller would have been like had Rosie-Maria Gonzalez not turned down his invitation to be his date at the Santa Monica High School senior prom.

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Still an asshole...betcha!!!

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She knew he was a Pendejo.

Translation

pubic hair

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Mi Espanol no bueno but in the 70s my Mexican friends in elementary school told me that means a$$h0le

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Oh, Cal!

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According to his uncle who has denounced him, yes!

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Plus, and a very, very, very big one: what was a Joosh boy whose family lived in Santa Monica's "north of Montana" neighborhood ("north of Montana Avenue" is the equivalent of NYC's Upper East Side) doing at public Santa Monica "Samo" High, when he "should" have been at private Harvard-Westlake, Crossroads, or Brentwood? Underreported (I saw it only in one profile) was his father taking a financial hit during a downturn at just about the time Concentration Camp Miller was entering high school, which would explain Samo. It also hints at "north of Montana" kids his age, the ones he grew up with, suddenly looking down on him, or with barely concealed pity, for having to go to Samo.

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That's really useful explanatory info. Rosie-Maria Gonzalez's rejection would have been an even more bitter pill after this.

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Pill, or psychological condom?

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Point well taken, Lawrence.

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This is the New America. Where children under the past and future king (SCOTUS anointed) are separated from parents, more than a thousand never reunited, where people who attempted to overthrow our nation will be pardoned en mass, where laws no longer matter nor the US Constitution, only what Dear Leader declares as what is right, what needs to be done. Where American safety nets like Social Security and Medicare are on the table to be cut- in spite of promises. Soon more boondoggles like Medicare Advantage will be coming and the "suckers" will applaud and do happy dances as they sign up for "better, cheaper and more efficient" health care private programs to replace the "horrible" safety nets put in place by those who cared about our people. And of course the almost trillion dollar a year military industrial complex will remain sacrosanct.

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In a portion of the Salon column not included here, Lucian writes, "Some detained and separated children still have not been reunited with their parents six years later." The Wikipedia article, "Trump administration family separation policy" provides details. In March 2024, the ACLU estimated that 2,000 kidnapped children had not been reunited with their parents. In addition, "The [Trump] administration refused to provide funds to cover the expenses of reuniting families, and volunteer organizations provided both volunteers and funding." "[I]n January 2021, President Biden signed an executive order establishing a family reunification task force within the government to work with the ACLU steering committee."

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Kidnapping, trafficking, theft - and child abuse.

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