House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings (D-MD) blasted the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday after the DHS cancelled the committee’s scheduled tours at 11 migrant detention facilities.
I really like this Cummings guy.
Trump’s concentration camps are very literally a crime against humanity, and every decision-maker at the top should be tried in The Hague.
The Trump regime has a lot to hide. If they didn’t, they’d allow Cummings to tour the concentration camps. Cummings needs to keep pushing.
Damn right. The time for 'reasonableness is over. time to call atrocity out.
Slightly OT but, refusing to name and treat an atrocity as such is to blunt coherent civic action against it, a tactic so-called moderate right-wingers know all too well; e.g.,
... One reason slavery was not abolished in America through the political process, as it was in Britain, is that abolitionists were rhetorically straitjacketed by the proposition that they were the hard-liners who sought to curtail freedom. When the Charleston Mercury wrote that it was the “duty” of Northerners to “prove” that they were willing to defend Southerners against “fanatics,” Northern newspapers reprinted the editorial. Northerners, not Southerners, had to watch what they said and strain to compromise so they didn’t confirm the dictatorial notion Southern rhetoricians had implanted in the public mind. ...
If you hear somebody lament, as Bret Stephens does, that political “opinions that were considered reasonable and normal” not too long ago now must be “delivered in whispers,” it might be antebellum reasoning. If somebody says — as Harris has — that our politics are at risk of ignoring common sense, logic or the realities of human biology, it might be antebellum reasoning. If somebody such as Nicholas Kristof says they don’t like noxious thinkers but urges us to give them platforms for the sake of “protecting dissonant and unwelcome voices,” it might be antebellum reasoning. The truth is that we have more avenues now for free expression in America than we’ve ever had.
—Eve Fairbanks (The 'reasonable' rebels)
“The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek…” —Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice, 1596)
There needs to be consequences for the behavior of this administration and that goes all the way down.
Sometimes I feel like he’s the last man left who cares -on a deep, heartfelt level. I realize that’s unfair to so many other Dems who also care, but Congressman Cummings has maintained his integrity, demonstrated his passion on this issue, and maintained his composure through the vilest racist slanders. And he keeps moving forward despite this Administration’s illegal efforts to subvert every investigation. It feels like he’s kept his faith in our government and our Constitution, which I appreciate, because my own is flagging.
I appreciate him so much because of how he carries himself through adversity. Just a terrific role model.
I sincerely hope that the Dem nominee hammers Trump about this during the debates. Watch him either squirm or go all-out Nazi on live t.v.
One of my great fears is that when and if this nightmare ever ends there will be no consequences, that we’ll once again be instructed to “look forward not backwards.” Impunity being granted is one of the reasons we find ourselves in this situation. Just as silence equals complicity, immunity equals carte blanche to commit further atrocities.
As usual, not a few twitter and blog commenters (on other sites) are trotting out the cliché which goes along the lines of “Yeah, that’ll work; another sternly worded letter. DO SOMETHING. There’s some variance but it’s pretty much a similar sentiment. Now, without doubt, many of these “cris de coeur” are from genuinely frustrated progressives, but I strongly suspect that many are composed by paid trolls whose object is to create and amplify frustration and division in the Democratic party.
The frustration is justifiable, but we should all keep in mind that nihilistic, cynical and furtive elements both on the extreme right and left as well as foreign operatives are trying mightily to manipulate us and our opinions. I don’t need trolls to tell me at whom and at what I should be angry.
Democrats need to understand that many Americans actually approve this kind of things, how many crazy uncles do we have in the USA? And many more that enjoy the cruelty against migrants without admiring it… anything less is “open borders” and if it makes black democrats from rat-infested Baltimore mad, that a cherry on top!
You would be surprised how many people will actually cheer at Trump going neo-nazi…
So, a person of color griping about how other people of color are being mistreated. I can see this is going to go nowhere, fast.
There should be no need to arrange visits. Our highest elected officials should be able to walk up to the door of any federal facility anywhere (I’ll allow some exemptions for national security stuff-- which no prison or detention facility could possibly be) and be able to have a full tour of the place on the spot.
I suspect the entire discussion will be turned around on the Dem nominee.
Unless, of course, it’s Kamala. She stands for no nonsense from anyone, least of all this nutcase.
Trump can merely declare it’s a national emergency, and detention centers are biohazard zones off limits to everyone but people with HAZMAT certifications. Or something. Whatever the laws are don’t really mattter, no one is going to hold Trump to them anyway.
Sadly, the Hague has no jurisdiction over the US. The Bush administration cleverly withdrew the US from the Rome Treaty (establishing the International Criminal Court) on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, an unwitting announcement of their intention to commit war crimes in Iraq.
Essentially, the US could only be brought before the ICC in The Hague on the say-so of the UN Security Council. Guess who has absolute veto power over what the UN Security Council does.
Hmmm? I wonder what’s up. He’s tweeting shit, but he could do that during a
Cocainerrall high or have one of his ghost tweeters do it. Did Angela Merkel finally lose patience and kick him in the nuts?
ETA Also, from the always droll Aaron:
Bollocks?
What definition of “humanity” are you referencing? If it’s the Republican definition the camps accord perfectly.
I worked with a guy who wanted Clinton impeached for the Monica thing.
When I pointed out he was a pig who cheated on both wives, cheated on those he was cheating on he said ,“but I’m not the President”.
He is a racist,and a pig, lazy and a Trumper.
He and his sons and many others is what civilized people are up against.
“I would bring back waterboarding, and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding,”
Donald Trump