Without a doubt this is about the lowest the US has ever stooped. The current administration has acted against laws, against norms and against morality in jailing babies and children at the Mexican border. It is unconscienable.
While others have dwelt on the horrendous details of what has gone on at the border, I would like to discuss a couple of related issues that have understandably gotten lost in the mix:
- Now do you understand why the Founders separated Church and State?
“Religion: The last refuge of the scoundrel” goes the old saying. To see Jeff Sessions trot out some religious text to justify this unconscienable act seems just par for the course for an administration that is hell bent on doing whatever it wants. Religion has been used to justify all sorts of horrific acts in history, so it should come as no surprise it was used here. Mixing religion with secular power has always been a toxic mixture.
In an article at thinkprogress.org Andrew Seidel discusses where Sessions got his ideas to justify such a tragedy. From a minister named Ralph Drollinger:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions ignited a public theological debate last week when he used the Bible, specifically Romans 13, to justify the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S. border. He likely took his cues from the White House Bible Study (WHBS), a weekly Bible study for members of the president’s cabinet organized by Ralph Drollinger of Capitol Ministries.
According to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, significant staff time and resources go into coordinating the Bible study every week. Documents also show that Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who defended the policy during a press conference Monday, is heavily involved with the WHBS. In fact, she’s the only cabinet official whose direct email address appears on the electronic invitations to the WHBS.
The day before Sessions’ remarks last Thursday, the White House Bible Study held a meeting centered on “The Importance of Parenting and the Course of the Nation.” The first paragraphs discuss “obedience to a nation’s laws” and cite Proverbs 28:4 and Romans 1:32[2] . (There are a number of spelling and Bible citation errors in the packet, including “1 Corinthians 9:27a,” as well as Romans 1:32, which may be a typo intended to cite Romans 13:2, the chapter Sessions used to justify the separation policy.)
<< much more at the link>>
- We have no checks and balances as Republicans in congress have decided it is more important to rule as a unified party than it is to put the good of the nation first.
Thus the checks and balances that the Framers so carefully worked out that would stop a would be self-appointed dictator have been rendered useless by compliant members of congress whose only concern is getting re-elected. Getting re-elected in their minds goes hand-in-glove with being supplicant to Trump. Their cowardice in his face is the stuff that science fiction horror stories are made of.
And yes, Ernst and Grassley are among the worst.
- CHiP and using children and the disabled, elderly and poor as hostages to get what they want
In all the massive reports that have been broadcast in the past week or so, the fact that this action was taken so Trump could get funding for his insane wall has been somewhat lost. Can you even imagine that this guy is so cold, so heartless that he will shatter the lives of babies and children and their parents? Neither will ever recover from the kidnapping of these children by the US government. All this TO BUILD A MONUMENT OF HATE TO HIS EGO?
Republicans in congress and the administration have been trying to defund the CHiP program to pay for their huge tax give away to the wealthy. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are all headed for the chopping block for the same reason. Tax cuts for the wealthy are much more important to Republicans than the general good.
- Iowa’s top racist, Steve King, is still out of touch with reality as he fully supports the administration:
In a Republican Party now indistinguishable from white nationalism, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has long played footsie with white supremacists, neo-Confederates, European extremists and open endorsers of both Hitler and his Nazis. He is also the defacto leader of Republican immigration policy, and those two things are not, by any stretch, coincidental.
It was obvious that King would be fully and vocally supportive of the administration’s new “zero tolerance” policy and resulting child detention camps.
“These are children that are cared for with better care than they get in their home country,” he said. “They get a warm and a comfortable place to sleep, they get medical care like a lot of kids in this country don’t get, they get three squares a day. They get exercise fresh air. So I don’t know how you could ask for more than that.”
Yep, where the rest of the world sees the horrific ripping of babies and children from their families as a crime in reality, King sees a fantasy land of sweetness and light. Where the rest of the world sees chain link fence cages and concrete floors or tent cities in the sweltering heat King sees nothing. It must be wonderful to be so out of touch.
Which begs the questions – does Kim Reynolds agree with King’s positions? If not why is he still on her campaign board?
Had to get this off my chest.
Action alert from Iowa PIRG (Public Interest Research Group)
Please read and share this column by Pulitzer prize winning journalist Art Cullen, of 
Trump has to go and take his Republican friends with him. Here’s a message from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee – 
