How dare you call Jeff Sessions a Nazi! Some people have been doing that, and he was quick to point out the difference: Nazis kept Jews from leaving, while Sessions is keeping foreigners from entering. Big difference, ergo not Nazis. Another difference: The Nazis gave Sophie a choice.
The shit show has gone on for about 72 hours now, and it’s ramping up today with the release of a heart-wrenching audiotape of border personnel laughing as children wail. I haven’t worked up the nerve to listen yet.
Like Monty Python’s Black Knight, Trump cannot process having lost a fight, so he prevaricates away, flailing like Doc Ock in Spidey’s web. But why are Republicans floating so many lame justifications for this PR nightmare? Because, Amanda Marcotte points out, that’s how conservatives crowdsource their propaganda. Their voters approve of the policy, in sharp contrast to the rest of the country:
55% of self-identified Republican voters in the Quinnipiac poll said they approve of the president separating immigrant children from their families. In the CNN poll, the number was slightly higher: 58% of GOP voters back the policy.
The solons at the Wall Street Journal can read polls even if Trump can’t, and they erupted in a yammering frenzy, calling for revocation of the policy to end “an election-year nightmare.”
Interesting item at Daily Kos about a Hillary Clinton speech in which she got passionate about the children being used as pawns, and the crowd went wild. Hillary Rodham has been advocating for children since before she added Clinton to her name, so she might have found the right issue for raising her post-election voice without people shushing her.
Oh, I almost forgot: Trump, playing Spaceman Spiff, announced he wants a standalone military Space Force to give America military dominance in space, which would violate the treaty demilitarizing space that we made everyone else sign. Maybe he really is Spaceman Spiff, whose every adventure began with him crash-landing on an alien planet.
Here’s what vaping hath wrought: Cigarette smoking in the U.S. has reached a new low, with plummeting use by teens fueling the exodus. Only 16% of the adult population — and only 9% of teens — still puffs the real stuff.