What that hack Maureen Dowd just defended: Pelosi caves on concentration camps

No big deal. Just billions for more institutionalized abuse, is all. And that latte-sipping board-sitters will cheer -- yeah, fuck the loser progs like AOC who, like, aren't into funding concentration camps, the pussies.

Jacobin for the history, and the win.

Dowd doing her job here. That's her job: flipping her pushing-seventy, dyed-red hair like some millennial snark machine in the service of corporate Democrats and disgustingly neoliberalized, weaponized faux-feminism.

Sure, Pelosi funds concentration camps...but look how she accessorizes!

Mehdi Hasan, picked almost at random, laying down the sane and moral response to Pelosi.

More from TYT:



And here's an NPR reporter -- NPR! -- calling this what it is: moving toward genocide. Straight-up, motherfucking genocide. It's already concentration camps, of course.

But for the love of God, don't hurt any Trumper's wittle fee-fees about what they support! That'd be just immoral and cruel.

Some choice quotes:

AMY GOODMAN: You have President Trump saying that the jailed migrants are, quote, “very happy.” And now you have this report, by border agents themselves, of the outbreak of scabies, chickenpox, shingles in the child jail at Clint. Can you talk about the overall picture there?

JOHN CARLOS FREY: It’s common. I even hate to say that out loud. This is the way that we treat migrants. This is policy. The facilities that we keep migrants in are not equipped to handle that large of a population. There are no beds in these facilities. There are no showers. There’s no medical staff. There’s no cafeteria. That’s how we treat them.

And this is on purpose. This policy has been in place for almost 20 years now, a policy of deterrence. If you come and you visit our jails, if you happen to be arrested and you go through the processing here, we want to rough you up. We want you to remember that if you come to the United States, you are not welcome. And we want that message to get all the way back to your home country so that other people do not attempt it. This idea of how children are being treated is also policy. This inhumane treatment of children is to send a message back to families, saying, “Don’t bring them. Don’t bring your kids, because they’re not going to be treated well.” And that is the deterrence strategy. I think the administration has even admitted so.

[...]

I have not seen it like this before. I have not seen us close the door to the degree that we have. I don’t think that the administration—and I’m going to say Republicans in Congress, for that matter—really care about these individuals. They’re being portrayed as invaders. I think Trump has referred to them as an “infestation.” So, if that’s who they are, then why even bother giving them any chance at asylum?

[...]

AMY GOODMAN: So, your thoughts on New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was among those who did not vote for that $4.6 billion to go to the border? She recently came under fire for comments made in an Instagram video in which she called immigrant prisons concentration camps.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border. And that is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, later defending her remarks, tweeting, “And for the shrieking Republicans who don’t know the difference: concentration camps are not the same as death camps. Concentration camps are considered by experts as 'the mass detention of civilians without trial.' And that’s exactly what this administration is doing.” And yesterday in the Capitol, you had 18 Jewish activists shoring up her comments, saying, “Never again means never again.”

JOHN CARLOS FREY: Where are the voices? Where are the leaders? I mean, if you start to see children getting sick, if you start to see children dying, if these images of children sleeping on concrete floors, being separated from their parents—if lawmakers aren’t willing to speak up, we’re basically tacitly allowing this to happen on our own soil. They are concentration camps. I know that people get up in arms about words and semantics here, and I understand why, but we need a call a spade a spade here; otherwise, we’re just going to allow it to continue.

[...]

With respect to Border Patrol brutality and the way that they treat migrants, this is a story that has formed my career. I mean, this is why I come and I speak with all of you, is because of the way the U.S. treats migrants, for the most part.

You’re talking about a case where an unarmed 15-year-old boy was shot 10 times in the back, standing in Mexico, while a U.S. agent standing in the United States opened fire and killed him. That Border Patrol agent was indicted, and there was a trial, and he was found not guilty. The boy never raised a weapon.

AMY GOODMAN: Cruz Velazquez.

JOHN CARLOS FREY: Yes, in Nogales, Mexico. He never raised a weapon. He was unarmed. The only thing that was in his pocket was a cellphone. He’s dead. Mexican nationals can’t sue the United States, either, for wrongful death. So, this family is without their kid and no legal recourse. This is U.S. policy.

[...]

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: So, what do you see as the way forward here? Because, clearly, there is still a significant portion of the American population that is rallying to President Trump’s continued insistence on closing the border, and yet more and more people are continuing to come. The president is talking now about mass raids again, threatening mass raids again. Where do you see the country moving?

JOHN CARLOS FREY: I don’t see it getting any better. I don’t want to be a pessimist, but this is the worst I’ve ever seen it, and I’ve been reporting on these issues for a long time. You have a president of the United States who is vilifying these people to the point where it’s OK that they die, to the point where it’s OK that we incarcerate children and we treat them inhumanely. That is OK by our federal government. I don’t see anyone in his party speaking out against these actions or advocating on behalf of migrant children. Children, we’re not advocating for. So this is a serious problem. As long as we have the leader of our country advocating for more of the same, I think we’re going to see more of the same. And it’s very hard for Congress to break through.

[...]

I hate to say it—it sounds so hyperbolic to say it—but the more that I’m looking at this lately, we’re on the step-by-step approach to genocide here. We are in the process of dehumanizing people to such a degree that it is OK for them to die, even to the point where the government is saying, “Let them die. Let’s prosecute the humanitarian who’s trying to save their life. Let’s put him in jail so he can’t save their lives.” We are allowing people to die, children in custody, people crossing the border. You know, I’m passionate about it, of course, but I’m also standing on very solid ground here. If we take a look at any history where this kind of a movement has happened, the government has turned its back. Where are the people screaming that this guy is saving lives, as opposed to trying to put him in jail for putting water out? That, to me, is a shock.

[...]

AMY GOODMAN: When we last talked to you, you talked about how hundreds of migrants were feared dead in mass graves at the Barry Goldwater bombing range in Arizona. Are there any updates on this?

JOHN CARLOS FREY: There are no updates. The federal government has closed off this region from humanitarian assistance. There is a stretch of land in Arizona that migrants cross through to get to a road. It’s about 30 miles of a bombing range, that Border Patrol agents don’t touch, that human rights people, advocates, humanitarians don’t touch. And we have had 911 calls from this region. We know that people have died there, and we know that people need water there. And the government has forbidden. Year after year, there are petitions to at least put out some form of humanitarian assistance, and we haven’t. I am convinced there are mass graves. There are hundreds of bodies that have been left unrecovered. We’ve been trying for a long time to get in to document that, but we’re not allowed.