Before the 2016 election Donald Trump came up with the “fake news” claim for any media that gave him negative coverage; he lied and got called out, he was racist and got called out, he incited violence and got called out. And he kept insisting that all the “fake news” media were suffering lower ratings or diminished circulation because they were all “fake.” Well, tonight in North Dakota he changed course again, boasting that all the “fake news” ratings have gone up because they’re covering him. Which is it, Trump, you narcissistic nitwit?

Supreme Court Justice Kennedy has announced his retirement, effective July 31st, giving Trump his second Supreme Court appointment. News sources everywhere are frantically covering his campaign list of 25 SCOTUS candidates, all of whom are of course decidedly “conservative.” But this week’s two court decisions upholding his travel ban and protecting discrimination against the LGBT community will have emboldened him in his simple-minded way, and he’ll want to please his “base.” What better way to do that than nominate “Judge” Jeanine Pirro, one of his most consistent and vitriolic supporters from Fox News? And Trump has made it clear that he values “loyalty” above everything else, meaning fealty to him. How the hell else did we end up with Jeff Sessions, Scott Pruitt, Ben Carson, Betsy DeVos, Ryan Zinke, Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller, Sarah Sanders and the rest of the utterly immoral, incompetent administration now in place?
This will have repercussions for decades to come – Trump will move civil rights and human dignity back to the 19th century.

Sarah Sanders was recently asked to leave a Virginia restaurant because of the administration that employs her, and the restaurant owner said that it was also because several LGBT people work there and they were uncomfortable serving her. Keep in mind that Sanders’ boss, his Attorney General, and essentially the entire Republican party he controls are harshly critical of anyone who is LGBT and have worked to allow discrimination against an entire group of people. Sanders’ Bible-thumping, bigoted father is one of the worst of the bunch. Sanders tweeted;
“Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”
Yep, she actually tweeted that, and violated federal law about using her official account to do so. This is the same Sarah Huckabee Sanders who, as the White House Press Secretary, routinely lies and repeats lies, refuses to answer questions and evades answering truthfully and openly when the press attempts to get her to do her job, and is often rude, condescending and insulting to what she and her boss call “Fake News.”
Trump promised to “drain the swamp” and it appears he has – but only so he could refill it with the contents of a moral cesspool. That seems to be the only place he and his entire administration, and the party he now controls, can function. Before we can ever hope to “Make American Great Again” we’ll have to hope somehow we can make it clean again.

Brian Kilmeade of Fox News recently commented that it doesn’t matter what Trump and his policies do to immigrant children, they “aren’t our kids.” He later walked it back a little and Geraldo Rivera walked it back a little more, but Fox News said nothing and the rest of Fox’s “opinion” contributors remained silent, or said worse things. But it does matter, and they are “our kids” – every child torn from a parent is our child, every child who goes to bed alone or afraid or hungry is ours, they belong to all of us. All the Donald Trump’s and Stephen Miller’s, every Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity who dehumanize and demonize children because of where they were born or the color of their skin or the beliefs of their parents will never be enough to stamp approval on cruelty and will never change the fact that it takes more than a village to raise a child, it takes all of us, the whole world, to raise every child, and it always will. When we fail to protect just one child, we are all diminished. Trump and his sycophantic minions are rapidly diminishing our collective well of decency and we are approaching the point where we may never be able to replenish it.

Children have no choice in who their parents will be, nor the circumstances or geography wherein they start life. But if they did, and I were a child facing that choice, I would want parents with the courage to sacrifice everything trying to keep me safe and make my life better than theirs. Better to find those parents in a third-world country than choose a posturing, preening father utterly devoid of moral courage or compassion, even though that father might be rich, might even have somehow become the leader of a powerful nation – if that father were Donald Trump, I would decline and look south, where I could start life with good and decent people who are not governed by a ruling party utterly devoid of principle and courage. Better that third-world country than the most powerful nation in history when that once great and proud nation is becoming the worst shithole in history.

As part of its unrelenting attacks on immigrants the Trump administration is now stepping up efforts to find naturalized citizens who may not have been truthful on their citizenship applications; if it’s found they were not truthful their citizenship could be revoked and expose them to deportation.
The first target of that office should be Melania Trump, who originally came to the U.S. not on a work visa but on a visitor’s visa, and promptly took modeling jobs, having been paid $20,000 before she obtained the appropriate work visa. She quickly bypassed the standard path to citizenship by applying for an “Einstein visa,” i.e., she claimed to have exceptional ability – as a model, though it seems she was never an especially successful model. She also claimed to have a college degree in design and architecture, though college records indicate she dropped out after one year to begin modeling in Slovenia. With this string of deception and violations her citizenship should be revoked, and she should be immediately scheduled for deportation back to Slovenia. And Melania’s parents should also be arrested and deported since she brought them here through “chain migration,” based on her own fraudulent application.
If Baron Trump is left in the care of his father he would be well on his way to becoming another of the vapid, spoiled, useless offspring of Donald Trump – just like his four half brothers and sisters. Maybe when his mother is deported ICE could grab him and lose him in the system, along with several hundred other children torn from their parents – but only for his own good.