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In the Time magazine article, Trump said that he would deport whole families in lieu of breaking them up -- deporting, therefore, legal citizens along with those without documentation. The demonization of immigrants is insanely cruel, wholly evil, and must be prevented with all our might. No more camps, no more cages. Stop the hate!

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“The demonization of immigrants is insanely cruel, wholly evil, and must be prevented with all our might.”

Yes! Roxanna, put this sign on billboards at the county and city lines in every state across the country. Thank you!

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Agree. That's a billboard we need!

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Quick, get Rick Wilson's attention. If anyone can get billboards up, he can.

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I am all for billboards as a way of getting some messages across as the MAGAs do not listen to any news that is not right-wing.

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Yard signs with non-accusatory facts go a long way as well. I have utilized them and they work.

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Such a billboard would have no impact and likely would just reinforce their desired goals. Remember, the cruelty is a feature not a bug.

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There are some who voted for Trump and who did not believe what he said -- that he was 'just being Trump' -- firefighters who voted for Trump after he gave them cold pizza saw how quickly the Mumps cancelled benefits for 911 responders in the budget omnibus bill. There are people who can be reached, who will return to the sane and the compassionate.

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The deportations that will tear families apart will create untold trauma. As a mental health therapist specializing in complex trauma I find this criminal. Isn't there any law against this cruelty?

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4dEdited

Separating children from their parents is unconscionable. As is forcing families back to the terrible conditions that caused them to flee in the first place.

Will we go back to the days when people hid Jews and runaway slaves in their attics and barns?

The time is coming when Americans must choose between integrity and complacency.

May we please choose well.

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I live in Texas. I have already thought that if I were faced with a decision to "hide" a family that was facing illegal deportation or to let our government traumatize these families by separation and/or deportation - I hope I am brave enough to make the moral choice. As someone with C-PTSD, it's the very least I can do.

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I am with you, Linda. I will do what I have to in order to help anyone in need of my help. My life wouldn't be worth living if I turned my back on someone who needed to evade this horrible cruelty.

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Our neighbor who is from Mexico has family in Florida. She told me that people are voluntarily fleeing by the numbers to avoid detention centers where a slew of atrocities occur. Geez, give these people a break!

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It is state supported mass child abuse.

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Exactly!

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Since when has the law mattered to the orange traitor? Now, he is filling the most important posts with like minded criminals. We have to make sure the courts step in and fight this cruel man and his policies every step of the way.

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The only bright spot right now, is watching the billionaires fight with the criminals, e.g., Bannon and Musk.

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Plus TRUMP the felon!

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Hopefully, they'll do each other in.

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One among many sources of trauma. I have frequently thought about the impact of Ukrainian-Russian fighting, Gaza-Israeli conflict, Myanmar, and many other areas along with the deportation cruelty. What might we see of humanity and humanity’s ability to function decades from now. All these traumatic events feel so destructive to the entirety of humanity.

I read, see, and hear of this global cruelty along with the oppression of individuals who are deemed “different” or women who are denied healthcare in the anti-abortion efforts. There are just so many ways that seem to harm each of us - the U.S. and the global community.

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I, too, am a therapist and share this profound concern. The cynical part of me believes that those who support this heinous plan do not care. They somehow believe that any outcome is justifiable. I am sad, but will not be silent. Our voice is the only power we have at this moment in time.

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Trump's children except for one, all have immigrant mothers. They also have immigrant grandparents or foreign grandparents. JD Vance's wife is first generation, his in-laws are immigrants. They are both raising hatred for immigrants with their policies that could affect their families. It is hateful. We should protest this.

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Good point! That's something the Lincoln Project should put on billboards near Andrews AFB and along the route to the WH.

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They should lead by example:

tRuMp and Vance should deport their own families first!!

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They should GO WITH THEIRVFAMILIES!

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I would caution that talking points like this should differentiate between legal and illegal immigration. When talking to a Trump supporter, we need to know if any of those spouses, or Vance's in-laws, immigrated illegally. Otherwise, we sound like "open border" liberals. I think all of us are for humane, rational immigration, and we don't serve the cause if we fall into their awful characterization, even unfairly.

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JB my point is that raising hatred against "immigrants" as a category is dangerous and makes their own families less safe. In the 1930s when illegal immigrants were deported, so were US citizens who looked like them even though they had been born and raised in the US and had papers to prove it.

I would point out that the US has 14% immigrant population. The UAE has 87% immigrants yet they do not have a problem with immigrants like we do. Germany, my other country is also developing an anti-immigrant stance thanks to the leadership of the right wing AfD against immigrant. Germany also has only 14% immigrants in the population. Fortunately the city I live in, which has a much higher percentage than nationally, at 33% is welcoming to immigrants.

The USA anti-immigrant movement started in the early 1990s as a White Supremacist militia initiative according to the book Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Prof. Kathleen Belew. It was conceived of as a less obvious racist plan to bring about a White run planet. They allied with White Christian Nationalists and other White Supremacists around the world.

Why is it that countries who are White Supremacist have such a big problem with immigrants who are not White, while countries like UAE do not have this problem because they understand that immigrants are needed and are good for their economy? I am not saying that being anti-immigrants is a White's only movement here, because the lies being spread and the poor management of immigrants is leading to hostility too.

My problem with immigrants coming here is that as they come in droves from illiberal countries, some of which is because the US government has manipulated their leadership over decades to make it not responsive to the people, people are bringing the illiberal values they are raised under with them to the US and when they become citizens this is how they are voting. At this point the US is not that attractive to people coming from countries with more liberal values.

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I don't disagree with your points at all. I am simply focused on what talking points might make the slightest dent to Trump supporters.

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Sure. I was not making talking points for Trump supporters, because that would need to be an ad campaign, that is complex and simple at the same time.

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I suspect “their” families are exempt! Of course.

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As JD Vance's children go to school they are possible targets of hatred. It is horrid to subject them to that.

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That may be. And that is sad. However their father has called for and supported this path for immigrants. He may not have meant his own, but that’s what happens when you hate.

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Demonization of immigrants is insanely cruel, deporting United States citizens because they have undocumented people in their families is illegal.

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I joined the ACLU last Fall which is set up in order for anyone to assert their legal rights. Just search "Know Your Rights| Immigrant Rights| ACLU".

Then just select a real scenario which can be typical ICE & the right to remain silent or Trump II difficult such as protecting yourself & U.S. citizen family members:

For example: "I've been arrested and need to challenge a deportation order".

Just be ready for different scenarios.

"We're in this Together"

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Yes but in the case of young children, the parents have the option to take their US citizen offspring with them if they are deported. Having a US citizen child does not give the parent a right to stay in the US if they are undocumented. They can take the child with them if deported or leave them here, but they can't stay themselves. So at least theoretically it becomes a parental decision.

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Bull!

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If you are gong to retort like that you might have the intelligence to state what your argument is. What I stated is true. I have no idea what you are contending.

Please explain.

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Their "Man of the Year."

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Dear Time Magazine:

F*** you.

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Well said.

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Isn’t that so unbelievable!

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Remember, Time Magazine's Man of the Year is for good or ill. It is not always a gold medal.

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I had no idea; maybe you've seen a "Time" edition of The Onion? (Joking aside, I didn't know that and don't recall another Time front-page reward for awfulness; do you?) Or if satire was intended, heavy quotes hung on the phrase were necessary — Time isn't known for its satire, nor our country's general readers their healthy skepticism.

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1938 - Adolph Hitler

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Times' person of the year is not an award for accomplishment. It is simply recognition of the person the Times see as having shaped the news in that year. Yes, in the past, there have been selections that were also less than stellar human beings.

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It is truly evil, but we have a truly evil person coming in to our White House. What do you expect? Evilness all around, and he has immunity for all his actions from Jan 20 onwards. Plenty of evil to accomplish with unlimited time and money and the power of the maga government of the former great country of ours.

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True, and the paradox of using a heart to agree was conflicting; slightly painful.

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I know. I wish it were some other sort of symbol or simply "agree". Though I like using the heart for encouragement and support of people, too.

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But are they actually deported? Unfortunately, the worse option (camps and cages) is cheaper. Camps/cages where they'd be slaughtered because it's trump. I really don't think it's an exaggeration to say how close 1 is to WW3.

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No more camps, no more cages. Absolutely. Bumper sticker. Rallying chant. Thank you.

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Roxanna, I'm borrowing the phrase No more camps, no more cages for another piece I'm writing. Happy to give you credit, but I'm definitely borrowing it!

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Hopefully, your local & statewide electeds do have a soul because frankly Roxanna, Trump & his cabal don't give a damn.

It's imperative we send emails, letters & leave voice mails for our electeds so that they are overwhelmed by people who do have a soul & actually care about more than money & unscrupulous behavior. Every30 days just 3 little communications. It won't take more than 15 minutes.

Just as important if you have a social media account post on there as well asking everyone to do the same.

Please, please, please! 😍😍😍

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My question would be: What happens to the businesses, homes, belongings etc of all of these "deported" families? Has no one read our history? What happened to all the businesses, homes, and belongings of Japanese-Americans during WW2?

This sure does begin to look familiar to me. Camps?

And these individuals and families were American citizens! As are many of the ones they want to deport presently.

Think back to hundreds of years ago and what was done to indigenous populations - "removal" - and take-over of the land they lived on.

So I guess the dumpster and his crew really just seem to be "patriotic" Amurricans, dont they?

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I should have added, of course, all of this is history, which far too many children AND their parents, dont want taught in our schools. Wonder why?

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“is insanely cruel…..” Yes, but the cruelty is the point. As horrific it is (and will be) cruelty is their intent.

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This was so upsetting then, as it will be. I spent my life as an elementary school principal. I loved everyday. Anyone who knows about life would never harm children like this. This is just evil.

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Trump is a narcissist. He doesn't have an empathetic bone in his body. He couldn't care less about others unless pretending that he cares benefits him. We can't expect him to show compassion toward others. He just doesn't have it in him. Scary in a man who will make decisions for a country full of people.

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And we elected him....

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He doesn’t care because he simply doesn’t view others as real people.

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When his karma comes calling he is going to make a wailing sound that will be able to be heard for centuries. 💥🤬

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These people, not just tRump, just HATE. They are afraid that immigrants are somehow threatening to them. They don't realize how much they contribute to our economy and culture. They just want something to focus their hate and fear on. I am soooo tired of all the hate in this country and this world!

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I cross-stitched a HUGE poster saying Families Belong Together last time around. I cannot believe I need to again post it on my balcony facing our six lane road. Shame on Republicans.

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Donald Trump is not interested in his “making America great again” agenda. He is definitely not fit to govern. The Statue of Liberty will be shedding a tear soon. Let’s give the immigration lawyers a huge shout out for all the work they are going to have to do.

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With this incoming administration --- hell bent as it apparently is on adding an estimated $5T to the national debt with tax cuts and no realistic plan on how to pay for them --- economic reality will soon rise up and bite it in the ass when it comes to deporting or otherwise removing even a token number of undocumented immigrants from the U.S. economy. A few sobering numbers for even the deluded so-called policy makers in the party formerly known as Republican.

* In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $75.6 billion in taxes, including $46.8 billion in federal taxes and $29.3 billion in state and local taxes. They also contributed $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare. And while undocumented immigrants contribute to these benefits, they're ineligible for many of them, including Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance.

* Mass deportations and/or internment would cause significant labor shocks across multiple key industries, with especially acute impacts on construction, agriculture, and the hospitality sector.

Agriculture: 25% of all farm workers in the US are undocumented.

Construction: 17% of US construction workers are undocumented.

Maintenance: 19% of maintenance workers are undocumented.

Removing that labor would disrupt all forms of construction across the nation, from homes to businesses to basic infrastructure. As industries suffer, hundreds of thousands of U.S.-born workers could lose their jobs. And let's not even consider the cost of groceries that I seem to recall Demento was going to magically decrease. Remember the crops rotting in the fields of Alabama and Georgia because of then new immigration laws? Multiply that many times over.

These statistics are just the tip of the iceberg. They do not include the actual cost of implementing this threatened draconian policy, by one estimate to be half a trillion dollars --- to say nothing of the horrific potential human costs. For example, an estimated 5.1M U.S. citizen children live with an undocumented family member. And exactly how much closer does this get us to even making an attempt to fix the long-standing problems of immigration and especially at the southern border? It is a domestic terror campaign, nothing more. Let's see how long this perverted pipe dream lasts when Big Ag or Big Food and the heavy hitters in construction and its suppliers start clearing their throats.

And as the Congressional Budget Office noted earlier this year, the idea that immigrants are making things worse for U.S.-born workers is just plain wrong. The reality is that the labor market is absorbing immigrants at a rapid pace, while simultaneously maintaining record-low unemployment for U.S.-born workers. The CBO also pointed out that immigration is contributing to strong economic growth — with future immigration forecasted to boost real gross domestic product by 2% over the next 10 years—as well as increasing government revenue. Immigrants are also complementing U.S.-born workers by contributing to overall population and workforce growth.

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We have employed landscaping companies for over 15 years. Every landscape crew is Spanish-speaking with one member who is bilingual. These men are hard workers, efficient and courteous.

One owner told us that he had white, American born friends who said they could do the job. He chuckled and said they wouldn't last a day.

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We built a new house on the farm two years ago. It was a Spanish speaking crew who came in to roof it.

We were absolutely blown away at the level of expertise and their determination to get the roof done. The foreman said to me "we will be done tomorrow around 2 PM" and they were. One of my favorite crews that worked on this house.

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The numbers are shocking but somehow MAGA is convinced those people have taken their jobs and are their oppressors all while ignoring who is actually oppressing them. Always the victim and Trump has given them leave to cry non-stop about things that don’t even affect them.

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That is because our population is too uneducated to understand the benefits of immigrants to the economy. Clearly they have very little understanding of government or economics. A terrible shame in a country that has a public education system.

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A largely failed education system due to parents demanding: Don't fail, discipline, teach subjects that might hurt their children's feelings or self-worth, or .....? You get the picture. Teachers did not fail! Parents and School boards? Well you be the judge. My schooling was in the 1940's and 50's and continues to this day. Even back then we were not taught "true history", probably for the same reasons it is not being taught today! However, I can not remember any banned book, subject, or question I could not ask. Teachers were respected and respected their obligations to students and parents. Oh, yeah! We did not have "Standardized testing." Teachers cared about their students then! I believe they still do!

It is time to give back to teachers control of their classrooms, support the Department of Education, and kick out MAGA. Last but, but not least; believe in your children and their ability to make good decisions and become good citizens!

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Or we used to have a real public education system. Not for 20 years, though. Sad.

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See my comment about part of why MAGAts don’t know.

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Thank you. Prior to the election I tried in my industry (hospitality) by posting stats. The only fault I had with the Harris/Walz campaign was not using these and giving lots of real people examples as they did with abortion. It’s when home care and other medical care or day care providers don’t show up; when offices are uncleaned; renovations stopped; no food regardless of price; and without this income the US economy falls flat on the Oval Office that MAYBE, if it happens to enough MAGAts, there will be an outcry.

(Where is) JD wants more babies born if they clearly aren’t like his: grands of immigrants. The hypocrisy is nuts.

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Joyce, I'd like to get your ideas about this. Robert Reich has good ideas about the federal court system as a resource for slowing down and even stopping Donald Trump.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/see-you-in-court

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Thanks for this terrific write-up from Robert Reich on these issues.

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It is the cruelty that matters with the GOP. Remember that.

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It is the point, their raison d'etre

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I unfortunately agree, and I fear that it will be worse this time around due to the in-fighting in MAGA. For Elon to get what he wants with H-1B visas (and I think he will), Trump will feel evermore the need to give his rally-goers the red meat they want, which is visible, Roman amphitheater-like deportation footage. The cruelty will be the point.

I think the counter-messaging we can send is that, for the religious, this is cruel treatment of God's children, and, for the non- or less religious, this will hurt the economy.

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This can't be allowed to happen again. It was barbaric. Those children and those families are traumatized for life. Who knows what happened to the parents who were deported? They left their countries to save their children and they lost their children and possibly their lives. Please,let's not wait until it happens again to speak up and come forward. The time to march and rally and lobby is before this happens again.

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The cruelty is the point with these <utilize appropriate pejorative >

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Unfortunately it’s only the beginning of the evil facing us because so many people didn’t learn history.

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And chose to look the other way, forgetting in most cases we all descend from immigrants, many of whom were considered ill-fit to be here regardless of why or how they came, or were brought here chained to each other in the holds of ships to be sold repeatedly for labor.

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Mass deportation while demonizing socialism—one wonders how much the federal government will subsidize those (Southern) states building Konzentrationslagers for the awful brown skinned people to be deported. (It should be noted that the South generally takes more from the government than it gives.) And one wonders how long it will take for Trump to deport nasty Africans who pretend to be American. Then Muslims, then Jews, then …

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How about South Africans?

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Chuckling. May we chose just one?

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Or 2 or 3…..

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We would all like that! Elon Musk is from South Africa and Peter Thiel lived in South Africa too. Yeech!

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I'm against demonizing groups of people, but you have a point that there are certain immigrants we would be better off without.

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I'm not against South Africans in general. Just the one.

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Yeah, I assumed that was what you meant.

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Only the dark ones.

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All this.

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And - *sigh* - much, much more.

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I'm a minister (Presbyterian, ret.) and when I read Jeff Session quoting the Apostle Paul in Romans 13 as a justification for separating families, I thought I would vomit. I don't believe in a literal "Pearly Gates," but there are moment when I wish I could. Nothing would please me more than to visualize Jeff Sessions in front of St. Peter trying his best to talk his way in.

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I always think of Matthew 7:21. KJV

Some of those Christians have totally missed the Message. They may indeed have surprise at the Gates.

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Let's make that public backlash more visible than just offering "thoughts and prayers," writing indignant Substack posts, or contacting our elected representatives. Get out there, demonstrate, obstruct wherever possible the implementation of this viciously cruel policy. Block the roundups. Picket the camps. Boycott the companies that supply the camps. Above all, make yourself heard. Easy for me to say, here in Hawaii, but who knows how far the Trump stain penetrates?

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Thanks, James, for bringing the focus to what we need to do. With my local Indivisible group, we’re training our members for rapid response to ICE/CBP actions against our immigrant community members. We’re skilling up for deportation defense, and offering Know Your Rights training and information to immigrants in our community. There are great state level organizations across the country with training and resources to help local groups organize. At the national level Mijente.org is outstanding.

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Boycott whoever provides transportation. Those with voting Representatives and Senators vote for those of us who have none. Please. Speak for us because they don’t hear us.

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>>>It’s hard to believe people didn’t take Trump seriously during the campaign when he talked about mass deportations, but that sentiment that deportation is only meant for “bad guys” and that their friends, family, babysitter, and so forth are “good guys” is bound to develop. <<<

Clearly, Democrats and liberals took Trump seriously and have expressed grave concerns about the return of these actions. MAGAworld also took it seriously but for different reasons.

At the bottom of the well, it is not about jobs, which many in MAGAworld do not want and would never do; it is instead the vindictiveness and viciousness of their racism that allows them to take pleasure in mass deportations and in seeing family separations happen again... vicariously enjoying the suffering. It is the same psychological Othering as happened in Nazi Germany, to otherwise ordinary German citizens, where the Jews were concerned. Historically speaking, this is a repeated pattern across the world, going back centuries.

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Exactly! These morons want entertainment as if it were the Roman Colosseum.

Trump supporters wouldn’t know magnanimity if it hit them between the eyes.

They are feral humans.

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>>> They are feral humans. <<<

Which Musk and Ramaswamy are now pointing out, to the great chagrin, yammering, and saber rattling of said persons.

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I just could not say I "like" this one because it is horrific to think that grown adults would think it OK to separate children from their parents, people who claim to be "christian." OK, they lie about the faith they are professing because love of one's neighbor superceeds anything Paul or anyone else in Christianity says. Besides, Trump has no clue what christianity or anything else is. He has dementia, so whatever idea gets stuck in his head is what he will push and he will, of course, double down and find sycophants who will bow to him and say, "yes Lord, whatever you say," that is when they are not whispering in his ear what he should be saying and doing. That is disgusting, no, actually, that whole deportation intent is evil. There is no other word for it, EVIL! And that so many Americans voted for evil is really disturbing to me and should disturb everyone else too. It is surely racism along with a whole lot of other smaller evils like hatred of children that are not one's own. It makes me wonder how much those Trumpers and Trumpettes love their own kids or are they just genetic connections to the future that they can control and make them be whatever their parents want them to be. I am not sure of that, but it would not surprise me. We who care, no matter what faith we profess or if we have no formal faith, we need to stand against the evil that is about to take office when he should actually be in jail for the crimes he has committed. I hope Trumpers and Trumpettes come to see just what evil can do to harm people, perhaps even them and their families. We'll see.

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The hypocrisy is shocking. Family values? Ha!

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It’s impossible for a sociopath to feel empathy for others, and these people are not even real to him.

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I am afraid reliance on posse comitatus is misplaced. There are plenty of loopholes. It doesn’t even apply to National Guard call ups by complicit governors. It seems Abbott has the authority gleefully to drown children in the Rio Grande. It is a mess. If I were in the Pentagon, I would not go anywhere near any efforts to ignore the Commander in Chief. The illegal order defense does not inspire much confidence. Those efforts are likely to be viewed as conspiracy to commit treason. This Court will ascribe great discretion to the Commander in Chief making the decisions not practically justiciable, like political gerrymandering.

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