A seven-year-old Guatemalan girl died on December 6th in the custody of the US Border Patrol. She and her father were apprehended with a group of 163 migrants near Antelope Wells, NM.
Reportedly, she hadnât eaten, or consumed water for several days. She began vomiting on a bus that was taking her to a holding facility at Lordsburg NM, a 90-mile trip. She was not breathing when she arrived at Lordsburg, and was resuscitated there by the Border Patrol. She was then helicoptered to a hospital in El Paso, Texas. At the hospital, the girl was revived after going into cardiac arrest, but died less than 24 hours later.
Asked if food and water were given to the child, DHS blamed the father for taking his daughter on the dangerous journey to the US. But, she didnât die on the 3,000-mile journey. She died in the US and in Border Patrol custody. She died while she was the BPâs responsibility.
The government is responsible for the health and safety of migrants they detain. They have to do better:
Trump has promised either he gets a wall, or we get a shutdown:
Trump ran into a wall he could have avoided:
Finding what you deserve:
White House Christmas carols wonât be much fun this year:
Trump is the story in America. I would bet that ninety-eight percent of all Americans mention his name at least once a day. And when itâs come to that, when you focus on one man, I know Donald 40 years â I know the good side of Donald and I know the bad side of Donald â I think he would like to be a dictator. I think he would love to be able to just run things. So, he causes a lot of this. Then his fight with the media and fake news. Iâve been in the media a long time….And at all my years at CNN, in my years at Mutual Radio, I have never seen a conversation where a producer said to a host âpitch the story this way. Angle it that way. Donât tell the truth.â Never saw it. Never saw it.
I know, you werenât sure that Larry was still alive. He is, and heâs not wrong. Here are more of King’s quotes:
So when CNN started covering Trump â they were the first â they covered every speech he made and then they made Trump the story. But, they covered him as a character. They carried every speech he made. They carried him more than Fox News, at the beginning. And so they built the whole thing up and the Republicans had a lot of candidates and they all had weaknesses.
Larry has a point. We spend waay too much time talking about what Trump talks about. People havenât been addicted like this to the news before, and it isnât healthy for us as individuals or as a country.
Sure, it would be terrific if people knew all the facts about issues before they voted, but social media, the internet and cable news no longer trade in truth. Theyâre in it for the money, not for the news.
We canât uncover the truth without serious digging.
Think about the Jim Acosta affair at Trumpâs Thursday press conference. Acosta confronts Trump, Trump wants to move on, but Acosta doesnât think they are done, and wants to follow up with another question. A young female intern tries to take the microphone away from Acosta without success, and the WH says Acosta laid hands on the intern, then sends out a video to shame Acosta.
But, the video was doctored, according to the WaPo:
White House shares doctored video to support punishment of journalist Jim Acosta: https://wapo.st/2JPGGSA
And the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, defends releasing a doctored video.
Hold that thought. On Friday, Trump says that he doesnât know Matt Whitaker, the guy he just appointed as Interim Attorney General. That sounds strange, no executive appoints a person that he/she doesnât know. So, here are two quotes from Trump about Whitaker. They are both as uncomplicated as a statement can be:
The truth is that he clearly knew Matt Whitaker when he said he didnât know him. The sad part for America is that he has no guilt, and no shame, when he contradicts himself on something knowable.
There is little truth from Trump, or in his administration, so why does the media cover him so slavishly?
Wrongo recommends that the Main Stream Media immediately reduce their coverage of Trump by 50%. By cutting it in half, two wonderful things will happen:
First, the countryâs obsession with his lies will weaken. Peopleâs stress levels will be reduced.
Second, it will drive Trump crazy. He will say even bigger whoppers to try and get America to reconnect, and mainline more Trumpiness.
Both outcomes would be completely acceptable to Wrongo.
Enough for today! Time for Wrongo to heed his own prescription. Letâs all take a few deep breaths, and relax. Poke around in the pantry, find your favorite coffee, and brew up a nice, fresh cup, just the way you like it.
Station yourself near a big, south-facing window, and take in the natural world. Here in the northeast, itâs raining for the third weekend in a row, so weâre staying inside once again.
Now, listen to âSpiegel im Spiegel for Cello and Pianoâ, written by the Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt in 1978. Wikipedia says that since 2010, Pärt has been the most performed living composer in the world.
This is a beautiful, although minimalist piece. It is said that Keith Jarrett once said classical music showed him how to play fewer notes and make more music.
This piece proves Jarretâs point. It should calm you down, because it’s so pleasing to the ear:
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Monument Basin, Canyonlands NP – 2018 photo by baffledsloth
The NYT published an anonymous op-ed from a senior Trump administration official who claims to be part of a group of senior officials that deliberately ignore Trumpâs orders on certain decisions.
It means that a bunch of unelected Republican termites are running the country. It reaffirms what both the Bob Woodward book is saying, along with the many similar reports from staffers in the White House.
But what good does it do us to know this? And what are the motives of the anonymous writer?
He/she says they are telling us this because itâs in the national interest for us to know that a few Republican guardians are watching out for the country. Despite what they think, this shows Republicans at their absolute worst, trying to have it both ways. They’re happily getting items on the GOP domestic agenda through the Congress, but they say they are trying to protect us from the worst of Trumpâs excesses.
The insiders are merrily going about implementing the hard-right policy choices that Trump supports â tax cuts for the wealthy, gutting regulations, ruining our health insurance, and packing the Supreme Court with a generationâs worth of ideologues. But they donât like Trumpâs temperament and occasionally off-the-rails instincts about the Constitution and foreign policy.
Wrongo thinks that the author has sacrificed country, honor and decency for tax cuts and a more robust military. And is writing this now simply a ploy? Scott Simon had the following take:
I think @potus may be happy to read this. The criticisms are nothing he hasn’t heard. But the article is no call to action. It says, if you like tax breaks & court picks, âwe will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction.â
OTOH, David Frum at The Atlantic, says:
This Is a Constitutional Crisis. If the presidentâs closest advisers believe that he is morally and intellectually unfit for his high office, they have a duty to do their utmost to remove him from it, by the lawful means at hand.
But while the conspirators thought about invoking the 25th Amendment, they did nothing about it.
The takeaway is that conservative conspirators inside the WH have chosen to disobey the orders of the President of the United States. This is an overt refusal to accept any boundaries and limits to their power. Justifying that by saying they are patriotic, should be terrifying.
If an insider thinks that Trump is unfit for office, he/she should testify before Congress. But that wonât happen, because Trump is about to get them everything theyâve ever dreamed of. Progressives and Democrats know that Trump is an egomaniacal monster. Republicans: Please, donât tell us that you know that too, and that we ought to work with you to stop him.
You created this monster, you stop him. But, they have no intention of doing that. It wasnât the purpose of the op-ed. Chris Hayes had it right when he tweeted:
The op-ed is an attempt to take out an insurance policy for the GOP and conservatism if and when things get much, much worse. It’s a very public hedge meant to preserve the reputation of the GOP’s entire political and governing class.
Now, for the NYT: There isn’t any argument that would explain publishing this op-ed. It doesnât serve the country. In fact, itâs entirely self-serving for the author and the Times. It tells us that Republicans in the administration are orchestrating a slow-rolling coup, but thatâs ok, because the GOP is patriotically watching out for us.
The NYT op-ed has done nothing to advance our thinking about Trump, or about the people around him.
At the same time, if Trump is too distracted to know that his orders arenât being followed, is it really a coup? Trump could do more than just request that his orders be carried out. He could follow-up and see what is being done. Apparently, he doesnât. It seems clear to all that Trump wasn’t capable of doing this, and/or he doesn’t give a fuck.
What is clear, besides Trump being incapable of performing duties of president, is the NYT is failing the country in our current moment of need.
Bryce Canyon NP at sunrise – 2018 photo by ThePeachster
McCain will lie in state in Arizonaâs capitol. Then, he will lie in state in the Capitol Building rotunda in Washington. Two former presidents will give eulogies at his funeral. Wrongo mused with a relative about why John McCain is being treated so differently from most other politicians who die in office.
She said: âAmerica has no heroes.â
John McCain was a senator. His own party never fully trusted him. Democrats never knew what to make of him. He was occasionally with them, but he was against them on everything else. He called himself a maverick; he was certainly a pain. Why are we celebrating McCain as an American hero?
We are at the confluence of two tides in our history. First, we lionize our soldiers. We thank them for their service, we call them warriors. McCain spent 5+ years in a POW prison. He was tortured, and survived. So he is a heroic face for a war that we lost, a war we are still conflicted about, 40 years later.
In our intervening wars, there are individual soldier-heroes, but few stand out to us. The wars grind on, and the stories of the war heroes of our current time are fuzzy. The soldiers serve multiple tours, or we hear that they are coping with terrible post-traumatic stress. We have few contemporary genuine military heroes.
Second, our politicians have long since ceased to be heroic. McCain served six terms in the US Senate. He was old school, and some this week are calling him the âlast lionâ of the Senate. That tells us that despite the longevity of several other politicians of McCainâs (and Wrongoâs) generation, those who remain are merely ordinary.
The media wants us to believe that every American politician who dies is a great American. They seem to think that if that ever breaks down, America may stop being Great. This quasi-religious veneration of politicians is unbecoming of us as a people. It has transformed the majority of public offices into ones that are attractive mostly to people who are unfit to hold them.
In todayâs politics, weâre usually trying hard to avoid electing the greater fool among the terrible options available to us. Most of the time, we have done that. But here we are: Donald Trump canât carry John McCainâs jock, but heâs our president. This is from John Pavlovitz:
As the funeral for Senator John McCain approaches, we find ourselves in yet another occasion of national consequence; one our supposed Commander-In-Chief is intentionally excluded from because he is beneath the dignity and capability the moment requires.
More:
This moment plays itself out whenever there is a national tragedy, whenever compassion or decency or strength or goodness are required; whenever an adult leader would be called upon to actually lead us.
Unsurprisingly, these minimal efforts are a bridge too far for Donald Trump.
Thereâs something to be said for being able to display grace and compassion upon the untimely passing of your adversary. After all, youâve outlived him.
Where will we find our heroes in the next few years? It seems almost certain they will not come from Congress or the White House.
McCain was far from the hero that we are portraying him to be, now that heâs gone. But it shouldnât require something heroic from Trump or his advisors to do the right thing.
Our culture is on the skids, led by our small president and his party.
Letâs give the last words to Pavlovitz:
In the meantime, just as today, weâll all have to work together to fill in the spectacular gaps in leadership and compassion and intelligence and dignity that used to be filled by our Presidents.
We simply donât have one right now.
UPDATE:Â After the column above was written, the White House, facing a national outpouring of scorn, relented, and once again lowered flags on the WH grounds to half staff in honor of John McCain. Politicians on both sides, along with veteransâ groups, slammed President Trump as vindictive and petty.
The message was sent, and received by our small president.
Despite re-lowering the flag, and providing a military escort for McCain’s coffin, the point remains that Trump isn’t capable of compassion, or dignity. He’s not a leader.
Wizard Island in winter. Crater Lake, OR – photo by Livid Narwhal
How do we avoid talking about him when he reveals himself so completely? We could split hairs, and discuss whether to call him a racist, or a white supremacist, but why bother? How is this any different from the way he’s always been? Â We’re talking about a guy who wanted the Central Park Five executed, and took out full page ads in the New York papers to say so at the time. They were later found innocent.
Trump has become the GOPâs id. He uses an air horn while the rest of them know to use a dog whistle. He asks:
Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here? Why do we need more Haitians?
Answer: For the same reason your grandfather and mother fled their countries. Americans weren’t clamoring for more Germans and Scots in their day, either.
It is possible that his comment was calculated. The far right wasnât happy after Trump, during the bipartisan immigration photo op, showed off his stable genius skills, only to end up looking like he had no clue about the GOP’s immigration policy. GOP House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried reeling him back in, but the stable genius was insisting that the GOP try to give the Dems what they wanted on immigration and DACA.
Immigration is a red line for all deplorables. So maybe calling the countries of black and brown people “shitholes” was just the ticket, to let his base know he still has their backs. And then saying white immigrants “from Norway” are cool, drove it home.
This kind of talk has been normalized. White business leaders and politicians, as recently as the 1970s talked like that, and no one gave it a second thought. Since then, racist talk became shameful. But Trump’s open bigotry carries no shame for him, or for others who engage in it. His base loves him, because now they can come out of the closet with their hate.
And itâs ok, if you accept the argument that PC talk is a worse sin than showing your naked prejudices to the world.
This is how he was raised, and how people talk in his circle of friends. He’s mouthed off like this his entire life with zero consequences. Heâs not likely to suffer any consequences from this either. Remember, this is a man who doesn’t understand why we can’t actually use nuclear weapons.
We need to remember this every day until 11/06/2018. And every day after that until Trump can no longer hurt America.
Wrongo certainly requires soothing, and so do you. Maybe weâll go and see âThe Postâ this weekend, to remember a time when newspapers had the courage to take on a president.
In the meantime, sit back and make yourself a vente cup of Ethiopian Fancy ($19/lb.) from San Franciscoâs Henryâs House of Coffee. Now, put your feet up and listen to the âSonata in G Minor for Violoncello and Continuoâ by Henry Eccles. Eccles was an English violinist and composer in the Baroque era. He was a member of the Royal Band of Queen Anne. He moved to Paris, and entered the service of King Louis XIV. This recording has Simca Heled on violoncello and Edward Brewer on harpsichord, although it is often played with a double bass and piano, or violin and piano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI5NYRz7EQw
Those who read the Wrongologist in email can view the video here.
Trump, in an extraordinary defense of his mental capacity and fitness for office, described himself on Saturday as a âgeniusâ and âa very stable genius at that.â
Very Stable Genius has the Biggest Button. Very Stable Genius could probably solve the opioid crisis on his first try, if only he would try. This is Trumpâs version of Nixonâs “I am not a crook.” The fact that he has to say heâs smart says he has a really big problem. And if America doesnât believe him, it could be enough to cripple him.
If he could read, shit would really hit the fan:
The vaudeville act ends:
Trump is the best negotiator:
The two Koreas are taking about NorKo participating in the Winter Olympics. What could go wrong?
Iran takes up Trumpâs mantra:
Mitt looks for his principles. They seem to be missing:
Trump gives Congress a message about the 2018 legislative agenda:
Bryce Canyon NP at sunrise – 2018 photo by 
