the government tracks property more carefully than it did these children.
Having worked at the Army’s software implementation and spent time at one of their depots in upstate PA, I can assure you that they have some of the worst property tracking of any organization I’ve worked for. My colleagues and I would walk around the repair depot to find equipment stored outside in the elements with two and three foot tall weeds growing up through them.
It was a pretty good guess from my two colleagues, who had extensive experience with the military, that no one knew this stuff was there.
Sounds like the same principles have been applied to this scenario.
Trump and Co. keep pushing this is a deterrent, so traumatizing kids and parents was part of the plan, but was this their only plan? Did they announce this in the countries where these refugees are coming from? Did they post something at the border? Did they staff up the legal ports of entry? How did they communicate this change besides doing what they did?
The legal battle will play out in the usual way. As much stress as this administration puts on it, the rule of law rarely just goes “poof” overnight. Nothing personal but I’m getting impatient with all this pessimism. There’s nothing knowing or insightful about assuming the Trump camp is all-powerful and can do what it wants. It isn’t and can’t. To think otherwise is defeatist and simply not correct.
Not trying to be defeatist or pessimistic. I am observing that this administration has not yet legally ‘paid’ for anything they’ve done to date. Public opinion has been the only thing to sway them and even that is done grudgingly (e.g., the EO on the separation of families, which they had no intention of making earlier on).
SCOTUS yesterday found in favor of the Muslim ban, despite that they somewhat held their noses on it. Almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and DDT, so while they weren’t thrilled with it, they did find for the administration, giving Trump a huge optic win. This was done by NOT adhering to the rules of engagement and McConnell stacking the court by refusing to hear on Merrick Garland.
I sincerely hope you’re right. I sincerely hope that the penalty/penalties on day 31 are swift and strong. Someone needs to demonstrate that we do operate by rule of law. This should and must be the first step.
I just think it would be comforting to anyone to think about how the obvious moral repugnance of this sadistic attempt at extortion is making whole segments, certainly the majority, of society act against it, including specific legal action by the ACLU, 17 state attorneys general, and I’m sure others. It’s simply not correct to say or think that the administration has paid no price for this. If this were popular, truly popular, I’d be packing up and making plans to emigrate. But it’s not. We still live in the world we once lived in. We made a huge mistake and elected Trump president, but the world didn’t change overnight. Most of us know it’s wrong to take refugees’ children and scatter them to the winds. We’re acting on that knowledge. It’s not correct to think he’s getting away with this.
One of the clear reasons Donald Trump must be remove from office asap is his animus his administration has for people of color, particularly Latinos. Who could imagine such a cruel inhumane government separating children from their parents without any tracking method of rejoining them again? Donald Trump recently referred the Latino parents as a infestation just as the NAZIs referred to the Jewish people. The percentage of Latinos living in the United States is 17% and are the second largest segment of our population. If Donald Trump can mistreat Latinos with impunity, it begs the question of what will he do to blacks, Asians, and the LGBTQ populations who will not vote Republican because of their views of non-Christians who are non-whites?
The question is whether a Democratic majority will have the guts to find a (nonviolent) way to get rid of him.
I’m very skeptical on that point, but they can go a long way towards convincing me that they’re up for really fighting the fascist takeover by holding up the appointment of Kennedy’s replacement until after the new Congress is seated in 2019 (yes, a lame duck Republican congress is quite capable of shoving through a right wing idealogue between the election and Jan 3… does anyone even doubt it?)