God Bless the Child...Just Not in the U.S.

I wish that I could have chosen another topic for my weekly toon, but this is it. The barbarity of the Trump administration, the enabling cowardly Republicans and, lest we forget, the Democrats who were only too happy to support similar policies under the Obama administration...all out of fear of looking "weak."

How exactly does anyone look weak by protecting vulnerable children and adults? Does anyone have any idea of what asylum seekers have had to go through before they ever reach the border? It was only with the heart-breaking images and sounds of children being snatched from their parents and kept in holding pens that so-called "leaders" finally spoke up to voice their opposition to Trump's Zero Tolerance policy. You didn't hear them making too much noise 4 years ago, when unaccompanied minors were fleeing from the terror of their homes in Central America.

News Flash. Keeping families together in ICE detention centers has proven hazardous to asylum seekers' and immigrants' health. There are high rates of incidence sexual abuse and exploitation, dehumanizing treatment and then there's just the trauma of being incarcerated for the "crime" of trying to escape the violent conditions and consequences created by decades of militaristic U.S. foreign policy in Central America.

And while many of us would all like to focus on Trump for being the source of this amoral policy, many of us would also like to ignore the United States' long, ignominious history of brutalizing children with the enslavement and trade of Africans, the genocide of Native Americans, and our continued refusal to pull children out of poverty, choosing instead to spin nonsensical myths to justify our callousness, which are really just exercises in blaming the victim.

So, yes, let's criticize Trump and the Republicans. Yes, let's make them pay in the upcoming midterms, But let's not think for one minute that even if they were all swept from office tomorrow that we, as a nation, would finally do right by our children.

Nativism Scene

Just back from a vay-kay in Belgium. While I took a break from work, I kept up with the news. Big mistake. It's already cliche to say that the Trump administration can't go any lower. Well, it's gone lower...again. Its decision to implement a policy of separating parents from children when refugee families, seeking asylum in the U.S., cross the border has been rightly called barbaric. Sadly, it's only the logical extension of the same policies that the Obama and Bush administrations had in place. So, of course, leave it to the Trump administration to take it to a whole new level of cruelty, abuse, nativism and national abasement.

I don't really have much more to say, except that for every day we tolerate this policy, we are revealing ourselves for who we really are as a society. Let's see if I'm forced to repeat myself again next month during the next round of our nationwide limbo dance to hell.

Let's all see just how low we can go.

Flashback to High School English

What was the book they made us all read in 9th grade? ...Maybe as a not-so-subtle warning to all of us hormone-addled teens: there would be consequences if we were all to go on and conform to our peers' cruel, savage behavior in the hallways. Oh yeah, that one. Lord William Golding's classic, Lord of the Flies. If I remember correctly, our teacher even showed us the black and white film adaptation, which reminded me of a mash up between a Hitchcock film and an episode of Survivor, except that with its depiction of the gruesome goings on between the "tribes" on the island it was hardly PG-rated.

Which brings us to the Donald and his tribe of savages, er sorry, the Republican Party, which has mindlessly followed him down the primrose path to iniquity and utter institutional degradation. Together, they've managed to ramrod through the most far-right policy agenda, which is setting this country back decades and rolling back the socioeconomic progress so many fought so hard to achieve.

Not to let the Democrats off the hook. They have had that deer in the headlights look with no coherent strategy to combat this onslaught on our values and institutions and no viable alternative. Maybe it's because the Democrats' policies were only marginally less abhorrent and unjust. Anybody remember Obama as the "Deporter in Chief" or Hilary advocating for deporting Central American children fleeing violence that bipartisan U.S. foreign policy had aided and abetted?

Anyway, along the way, the GOP has not only swallowed but vociferously supported Trump's 3,000+ lies. Job well done, fellas. Job well done.I guess I should be somewhat heartened that now Trent Gowdy, of the Benghazi Fake Scandal fame, and other GOP "leaders" are now backing off Trump's latest distracting lie: that the Obama administration was "spying" on the Trump campaign. But I'm not. Instead, my question to these amoral hypocritical hacks is what made this lie any more unacceptable than the other 3,000+ he's told since he's been in office? I'm sure they have some self-serving bit of flimflammery to justify their decision. Can you say midterms, boys and girls?

Okay, 'nuff said. Here's the toon. Enjoy and G-d bless.

Ready for Some Football?

No, I'm not. And if I didn't have an excuse earlier, watching the National Football League's mealy-mouthed response to President Trump's blatantly racist attacks on black athletes expressing their views on police brutality...If watching the NFL give a free pass to wife beaters and child abusers until they were shamed by the media into doing something about it...If watching the NFL allow players to beat each other into a bloody pulp with irreversible brain damage and then suppressing evidence of concussions...If, if, if. As if I needed yet another excuse.

I have run out of excuses. I'm no longer going to watch or read about the NFL, after being a die hard fan for over 45 years of the team with the most racist names in professional sports.

The NFL's shameless, spineless kowtowing to the Orange Menace and then exerting its control over the players, 80% of whom are men of color, their bodies and their constitutional rights to free speech were all too much for me to stomach. Stick a fork in me. I'm done. No more. No más. Ça y'est. Bas!

I'll stick with hoops, maybe even learn to enjoy ice hockey now that the Washington Capitals are in the Stanley Cup, after largely ignoring them for the past 45+ years. I'll just take it one Sunday at a time, because I don't want to willingly provide the NFL with one more media hit or dollar of advertising revenue. They don't deserve all of the unfair, competitive advantages they've been gifted only to abuse this privilege to further fill their purses while exploiting players with impunity.

The NFL and its owners are, with few exceptions, greedy, entitled old white men who still treat players like chattel and fans like marks. The owner of the team I rooted for for 45+ years is the poster child of this vile form of narcissism, but he's still a distant second this country's narcissist-in-chief, who has never lost an opportunity to unload his deep-seeded hatred of people of color for political gain. All of these plutocrats are despicable, and I hope that one day karmic justice delivers to them what they deserve, a taste of their own vile medicine.

Not Tonight - or Any Night - She's Got a Headache

In his tireless mission to make America hate again, the Donald has decided to reinstate the "gag rule" domestically. For those who may not be familiar with it, the gag rule is an oldie but goody from the Republican Party's Top 10 policies for denying women their right to choose which forms of reproductive health they can access and use.  The way it works is that if a health care provider offers a woman an abortion (and soon, wait for it, modern day contraception) or refers her to someplace where she can access it, then that health care provider will lose federal government funding, effectively shutting them down.

The upshot is that women who are economically better off will have no problem accessing whichever care options they prefer; it will be the poorer women who will have their choice denied and their health worsened as a result. That's why Republican administrations usually begin with reinstating the gag rule overseas, because (white) Americans don't give a toss about women of color, especially poor ones who are sight unseen. It's a slam dunk - white Americans get a three-fer. They get to express their heartfelt racism, xenophobia and misogyny all at the same time. Best of all, it enables them to feel better about themselves for being unrepentant white supremacists.

Oh, and lest we forget, in their twisted vision of what's right, the gag rule helps keep as many women as possible in their "place" - barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen - again sight unseen.

I'm sure there will be law suits filed, and I've heard the pundits opine that this move is just more red meat for the Trump base so that they can bellow and roar about sticking it to those effete coastal snobs. I just hope that once they're all done a' hootin' and a' hollerin' they might take a minute to notice that it won't be so easy to take their own mothers, daughters and sisters to get the health care they need, because - SURPRISE! The same clinics that safeguard women's rights to choose are often times the very same ones that provide preventative primary health care services, especially to lower income women. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Hope they can find a doctor to patch THAT up.

Sending Our Very Best

This past week, another "fringe" GOP candidate went down to defeat, after Trump bowed to pressure from the "mainstream" Republican Party elites and tweeted to his troll army to vote for Don Blankenship's opponents instead. It must have hurt Trump to do that, because it went against every fibroid in his rotten core to have to tear down a fellow xenophobe/racist, his brother from another mother.

Blankenship was another failed business man who, like Trump, showed blatant disregard for his employees, even covering up fatal violations of mining law and regulations that ultimately led to their demise. Not that Blankenship showed so much as an ounce of remorse. Instead, like most right-wingers, he wrapped himself in the blanket of victimhood, whining about oppressive government regulators and insisting on a free pass for his murderous behavior that cost 29 men their lives.

He'd make good company with another failed GOP candidate - Roy Moore. His serial crime of preference was having sex with underage girls. And, like Blankenship, he shamelessly plagiarized the Trump campaign script of fear, hatred and disregard for norms. Not surprisingly, in the deep red state of Alabama, he came within a few votes of actually winning his race.

All of that got me to thinking...what if these two "malcreados" showed up at the U.S.-Mexican border? Would our neighbors be willing to let them enter into their country? After all, even if they are a murder and a rapist, they don't represent all Americans, some of whom the Mexicans probably assume, are good people. Still, one good turn deserves another. La policia would give them a taste of Mexico's vaunted justice system and let them enjoy the hospitality of Mexico's finest prisons, where they no doubt belong.

Show Me the Money...Shot

Thank goodness President Trump provides such an excellent role model for our children of how NOT to behave. The constant lying, the cruel objectification, exploitation and disposal of people, the bullying, and the total lack of anything resembling a moral compass. He makes parenting so much easier for all of us. "Keep it up and you'll wind up like you know who...No eat your dad gum peas!"

The crickets have been chirping up a storm because I have yet to hear a single peep from any member of the Republican Party after Trump all but admitted that he had lied and had broken the law with his acknowledgement of having previous knowledge of the payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. That came after his new consigliere, Rudy "Tutti Fruiti" Giuliani, put his foot into it on the Hannity Show. That was must-see TV, watching Sean Hannity drop a nutty deposit in his Depends as Giuliani hammered one nail after another into the Trump administration's coffin.

What ensued was the predictable scrambling by Trump's aides, trying to walk back this catastrophic admission and even new, more creative ways of denying what just happened while throwing Rudy under the bus for not knowing what he was talking about, and then denying that as well. So many clowns, so many pratfalls, so sad, so very sad.

I think it's time we rename the Potomac after that river that runs through Egypt.