Torture. Let's call a spade a spade. We are torturing children. We are torturing the woman who likely has breast cancer. Inmates in federal prison who have committed serious crimes receive better treatment than this. Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell receives MUCH better treatment than this.
Refusing to give an 18 month old medication after 10 days in the hospital. Shame on any Trump voter that says “well I didn’t vote for this.” Yeah you did … you did vote for this!
Those Evangelicals must have their own secret bible with different teachings of Jesus Christ. I had no idea that some Christians believe that Christianity is the same as masochism—I always thought that they were 2 completely different things.
I recently saw an interview of an evangelical pastor who essentially maintains that only white people are allowed in heaven. Jesus, of course, was blond haired and blue-eyed despite being a Jew from the middle east.
I was shouting for the people in the back of the class. I am in a mood that makes me want to call out MAGA bullshit for what it is. I might need to change my name to Karen—or better yet—Negative Nancy. 🤬
It might be emotionally satisfying to blame this on Trump or the evil people in his administration. But those are the wrong targets. American citizens at large are absolutely responsible for this horror. 77 million Americans voted for this. They knew what they were voting for. While there is a growing resistance, it is largely among people who opposed Trump in the first place. Among those 77 million voters, any movement away from supporting this has been very slight and very quiet.
Farmers in Iowa voted for this. Police officers in Tennessee voted for this. Truck drivers in Ohio voted for this. Rich guys in New York and California voted for this. Old ladies who attend church every Sunday in Kansas voted for this. Not only did white Evangelical pastors vote for this, they told their congregations it would be sinful not to vote for this. In every state, red or blue, if you go out in public, you will be mingling with people who voted for this. Not only did they vote for this, they don't actually care about "those people" living in inhuman conditions in concentration camps.
What is wrong with America? How did we get to this point of moral collapse? It truly took a village.
Today is my b'day and I got emails from a sister and a neighbor/friend who I'm 99% sure both voted for this. I don't know how to reply. I want to scream at them, "HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE A NICE DAY WHEN THE PERSON YOU HELPED PUT IN THE WH IS DESTROYING EVERYTHING GOOD, AND MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING B/C OF HIM AND HIS REGIME???"
I'm sure they're both willfully oblivious to the horror stories; and I don't want to play the "pretend everything's OK" game. A retired friend told me this morning that his med for rheumatoid arthritis went from $0 copay to $2K/mo. thanks to the health care cuts, so of course he can't continue. I want to rub examples like that in their faces and ask if they're happy now, and proud of themselves?
Many days, I feel the same way. I can't bring myself to make a phone call I would normally make. I don't go to a meeting I would normally attend. It just takes too much emotional energy. Sometimes I feel helpless to do anything that matters. Other times I feel Americans don't deserve a competent and fair government, so why should I care? But I try not to give up.
There are a lot of ways to push back. You can do it publicly, by going to rallies and carrying signs. You can also do it quietly. People are building networks, out of sight, to help the communities that are being targeted. They take children to school and pick them up, or they get homework from teachers and take it to the families. They build a food bank at a school or a church. They make connections between someone afraid to go to their regular job and someone who needs work done and can pay cash. They patronize a restaurant or business owned by immigrants. They prepare safe houses for when the really bad shit happens. You can also talk to your grandkids about how important it is to be nice to classmates who are having a bad day and acting weird. Explain the things that might be causing their stress, and that just having a friend say something kind may help them get through the day.
Forums like this one at the Bulwark are important. I keep posting about the importance of not focusing too much on Trump and the current gang of perverts in government. They could all go away tonight, and we wouldn't be much better off tomorrow. Our society is profoundly sick, and we need to understand the root causes. What has happened to the people who voted for this? Decades of public policy contributed to the destruction of the American character. We need a vigorous debate about what we need to change. I want to know what you think.
We went out for a b'day dinner to the best restaurant in town. But before that, we went to an anti-ICE protest at the courthouse organized by - get this - some local HS kids! We're in a very MAGA-friendly part of rural western NC, where you can ride thru the parking lot of that HS and see Confederate flags flying from the beds of pick-ups. A lot of us old folks were at the protest b/c we're so proud of these kids - some of whom are Hispanic. They were playing Hispanic music and dancing, and had lots of great signs. We were on the sidewalk on both sides of Main St., and lots of folks blew their horns and waved as they drove by. It was encouraging.
If you really are getting angry, even in old age there is a certain grim joy in passive resistance. Print out some meme you agree with on the internet, go for a walk and put up 20 copies of it on lamp-posts with superglue. It doesnt change much but if everybody does it it will change some. Thats the Minnesotan way.
James please, please, please stop preaching to the choir about how many evil people in the country voted for this. I am pretty sure that most of us on here are aware that other Americans voted for this and don’t need further reminders. It’s like a mule kick to my chest every time I see this—I feel enough guilt just being an American citizen sometimes. The worst part is that it’s my overseas Facebook friends who constantly remind me that I’m a Good American.
There are times when I can’t handle any more. If I don’t vent my frustration after reading similar comments several times in the same day I will likely lose my shit. Believe me, this was me being nice—nobody cut me any slack on my birthday a few days ago, and it was a painful milestone birthday. This is me being moderately snippy.
I've experienced how Trump voters think. Being very waspy I can ask people what they think. They say its a shame, but too bad they didn't stay in their countries. They should all go back. If the conditions are terrible in their country than work to change those conditions and don't come here. Doesn't matter if they're babies or small children.
The immigrants wont get sympathy from them. Especially since many Trump voters are dirt poor and not well educated. They believe the authorities.
I 100% understand your frustration. But I want to fix it, not take a moral accounting, so let's skip over all the yelling at people and explain to them how to make a better choice next time, okay? "Seventy seven million of you are morally irredeemable" is not a winning message for the liberal coalition, nor is it, y'know, liberal.
The people committing the crimes described in this piece can't be punished enough. The idiots who gave them license out of ignorance need to be pardoned, for our sake if not theirs.
This. I keep wondering when my country, which I was soooo proud of as I sang "The Great American Melting Pot" as a kid went. I thought we were rowing together toward an egalitarian pluralistic democracy but in the past decade plus, I have learned what an idiot I was to believe what people said.
I see my own children and grandchildren in every one of these children. I weep at the thought of human beings at the age of growth and need and wonder being carted off and put in one of these squalid, nightmarish, for-profit detention centers alongside traumatized parents (many of them in turn having been torn away from a loving spouse).
Our country will never recover from this stain: and nor should it. We are commanded to care for the least among us, not to terrorize and betray and abuse them.
Just horrid. This is important reporting and we need more of it. To each person who has said this is not like the Nazis, I have said, either you don't consider Black and Brown people as human, or you are not paying attention. These are concentration camps, and requires continued push back. I wish we could get pictures of people who are detained so that we can put them on our posters when we demonstrate.
People had no clue how many people Nazis had killed until after the war. And we likewise have no clue how many ICE has killed in the last year. Their standard practices - randomly whisking people off to different facilities for seemingly no reason - are practically designed to make it easy for people to "disappear."
Yes. Let us hope however, that we do not wait until our numbers get like the Nazis who killed their own citizens as well as citizens of other countries. I am glad Americans are standing up to ICE in protests, filming, and going to court to demand an end to the barbaric acts of this regime.
I know this issue expands administrations but could we please have Democrats argue for some of the funding to go towards at least getting these people who are detained the medical attention they deserve and some third party oversight. Their budget is 190 billion under the BBB.
This treatment is inhumane and a black mark on our institutions. The DHS spokeswoman is nothing but a flack and liar with no sense of shame. How a judge who should clearly know better can look away from the medical issues described here shocking and clearly someone who is incapable of doing what is right.
By insisting on detainment for asylum seekers awaiting hearings, the Trump administration has brought the child-care situation on itself. Biden's idea--to release them into the community with bracelets, report phones, etc.--was innovative and far superior. Families held together and most if not all supported themselves by working. Biden's and the bi-partisan group of Senators other idea, to fund a thousand more hearing officers, a hundred fentanyl-sniffing machines, etc., was also better.
Adrian, Thanks for sharing this God awful truth. I wish you could get a Senator to give you some time on the Senate floor to tell this story on the record and for Americans to hear. Those Republican Senators need to know what their asinine confirmation votes have wrought on our country and our humanity. The people you documented are not being treated like criminals, they're being treated like animals.
My usual sentiment these days is that I hate it here. I’m not proud to be an American, I’m ashamed.
Watching Middle Eastern countries, we wonder how young kids turn to terrorism (think Gaza) and gangs, and now I understand. When they’ve been treated by our government as trash, their families brutalized, how can we expect them to ever lead a normal happy life?
I think you'll find that hatred is forgiven. Didn't someone who was EXTREMELY Christian say something about it would be better for them to have a millstone hung round their neck and be drowned in the sea?
I completely understand. I’ve struggled with it as well. I was able to find some sense of balance by hating the behavior and pity for the enforcers. Pity because of the generational shame they have inflicted on their families and the degradation of their own souls.
Torture. Let's call a spade a spade. We are torturing children. We are torturing the woman who likely has breast cancer. Inmates in federal prison who have committed serious crimes receive better treatment than this. Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell receives MUCH better treatment than this.
No words. Thank you for your reporting.
💯
Refusing to give an 18 month old medication after 10 days in the hospital. Shame on any Trump voter that says “well I didn’t vote for this.” Yeah you did … you did vote for this!
But they are Evangelical Christians voting for the policies of Christ who was all down on deportations and family separations.
Those Evangelicals must have their own secret bible with different teachings of Jesus Christ. I had no idea that some Christians believe that Christianity is the same as masochism—I always thought that they were 2 completely different things.
I recently saw an interview of an evangelical pastor who essentially maintains that only white people are allowed in heaven. Jesus, of course, was blond haired and blue-eyed despite being a Jew from the middle east.
That was sarcasm. My point was their actions are the antithesis of Christian belief.
I was shouting for the people in the back of the class. I am in a mood that makes me want to call out MAGA bullshit for what it is. I might need to change my name to Karen—or better yet—Negative Nancy. 🤬
😢 brainwashed by the cult.
The party of life, doncha know.
I think you mean the party of birth at all costs. Forget about any after-care.
It might be emotionally satisfying to blame this on Trump or the evil people in his administration. But those are the wrong targets. American citizens at large are absolutely responsible for this horror. 77 million Americans voted for this. They knew what they were voting for. While there is a growing resistance, it is largely among people who opposed Trump in the first place. Among those 77 million voters, any movement away from supporting this has been very slight and very quiet.
Farmers in Iowa voted for this. Police officers in Tennessee voted for this. Truck drivers in Ohio voted for this. Rich guys in New York and California voted for this. Old ladies who attend church every Sunday in Kansas voted for this. Not only did white Evangelical pastors vote for this, they told their congregations it would be sinful not to vote for this. In every state, red or blue, if you go out in public, you will be mingling with people who voted for this. Not only did they vote for this, they don't actually care about "those people" living in inhuman conditions in concentration camps.
What is wrong with America? How did we get to this point of moral collapse? It truly took a village.
Today is my b'day and I got emails from a sister and a neighbor/friend who I'm 99% sure both voted for this. I don't know how to reply. I want to scream at them, "HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE A NICE DAY WHEN THE PERSON YOU HELPED PUT IN THE WH IS DESTROYING EVERYTHING GOOD, AND MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING B/C OF HIM AND HIS REGIME???"
I'm sure they're both willfully oblivious to the horror stories; and I don't want to play the "pretend everything's OK" game. A retired friend told me this morning that his med for rheumatoid arthritis went from $0 copay to $2K/mo. thanks to the health care cuts, so of course he can't continue. I want to rub examples like that in their faces and ask if they're happy now, and proud of themselves?
Many days, I feel the same way. I can't bring myself to make a phone call I would normally make. I don't go to a meeting I would normally attend. It just takes too much emotional energy. Sometimes I feel helpless to do anything that matters. Other times I feel Americans don't deserve a competent and fair government, so why should I care? But I try not to give up.
There are a lot of ways to push back. You can do it publicly, by going to rallies and carrying signs. You can also do it quietly. People are building networks, out of sight, to help the communities that are being targeted. They take children to school and pick them up, or they get homework from teachers and take it to the families. They build a food bank at a school or a church. They make connections between someone afraid to go to their regular job and someone who needs work done and can pay cash. They patronize a restaurant or business owned by immigrants. They prepare safe houses for when the really bad shit happens. You can also talk to your grandkids about how important it is to be nice to classmates who are having a bad day and acting weird. Explain the things that might be causing their stress, and that just having a friend say something kind may help them get through the day.
Forums like this one at the Bulwark are important. I keep posting about the importance of not focusing too much on Trump and the current gang of perverts in government. They could all go away tonight, and we wouldn't be much better off tomorrow. Our society is profoundly sick, and we need to understand the root causes. What has happened to the people who voted for this? Decades of public policy contributed to the destruction of the American character. We need a vigorous debate about what we need to change. I want to know what you think.
Happy birthday!
This is eloquent and profound; thank you.
We went out for a b'day dinner to the best restaurant in town. But before that, we went to an anti-ICE protest at the courthouse organized by - get this - some local HS kids! We're in a very MAGA-friendly part of rural western NC, where you can ride thru the parking lot of that HS and see Confederate flags flying from the beds of pick-ups. A lot of us old folks were at the protest b/c we're so proud of these kids - some of whom are Hispanic. They were playing Hispanic music and dancing, and had lots of great signs. We were on the sidewalk on both sides of Main St., and lots of folks blew their horns and waved as they drove by. It was encouraging.
Thank you again for your kind and sincere words.
This right here IS an honest to god like! Out celebrating a better future in the works 😊 🎂
If you really are getting angry, even in old age there is a certain grim joy in passive resistance. Print out some meme you agree with on the internet, go for a walk and put up 20 copies of it on lamp-posts with superglue. It doesnt change much but if everybody does it it will change some. Thats the Minnesotan way.
These horror stories are never touched upon on Fox entertainment so willfully oblivious is exactly it.
But they watch Fox because they know it’s false and one sided. People who only check one source for everything know what they are doing.
Just like they faithfully watched The Apprentice for 12 years and totally believed that was who they were voting for.
Drummer - not truly a "Like" - just acknowledging your feelings here.
May you have a birthday ahead on this road, where the world's in a better place.
James please, please, please stop preaching to the choir about how many evil people in the country voted for this. I am pretty sure that most of us on here are aware that other Americans voted for this and don’t need further reminders. It’s like a mule kick to my chest every time I see this—I feel enough guilt just being an American citizen sometimes. The worst part is that it’s my overseas Facebook friends who constantly remind me that I’m a Good American.
There are times when I can’t handle any more. If I don’t vent my frustration after reading similar comments several times in the same day I will likely lose my shit. Believe me, this was me being nice—nobody cut me any slack on my birthday a few days ago, and it was a painful milestone birthday. This is me being moderately snippy.
I've experienced how Trump voters think. Being very waspy I can ask people what they think. They say its a shame, but too bad they didn't stay in their countries. They should all go back. If the conditions are terrible in their country than work to change those conditions and don't come here. Doesn't matter if they're babies or small children.
The immigrants wont get sympathy from them. Especially since many Trump voters are dirt poor and not well educated. They believe the authorities.
I 100% understand your frustration. But I want to fix it, not take a moral accounting, so let's skip over all the yelling at people and explain to them how to make a better choice next time, okay? "Seventy seven million of you are morally irredeemable" is not a winning message for the liberal coalition, nor is it, y'know, liberal.
The people committing the crimes described in this piece can't be punished enough. The idiots who gave them license out of ignorance need to be pardoned, for our sake if not theirs.
This. I keep wondering when my country, which I was soooo proud of as I sang "The Great American Melting Pot" as a kid went. I thought we were rowing together toward an egalitarian pluralistic democracy but in the past decade plus, I have learned what an idiot I was to believe what people said.
I think you hit the nail squarely onthe head.
Thank you for your outstanding reporting on this. Hard to read... but important to know.
I see my own children and grandchildren in every one of these children. I weep at the thought of human beings at the age of growth and need and wonder being carted off and put in one of these squalid, nightmarish, for-profit detention centers alongside traumatized parents (many of them in turn having been torn away from a loving spouse).
Our country will never recover from this stain: and nor should it. We are commanded to care for the least among us, not to terrorize and betray and abuse them.
Adrian - Thank you for your reporting. As hard as it is, it's important to bear witness to the depravity that this Administration has unleashed.
Just horrid. This is important reporting and we need more of it. To each person who has said this is not like the Nazis, I have said, either you don't consider Black and Brown people as human, or you are not paying attention. These are concentration camps, and requires continued push back. I wish we could get pictures of people who are detained so that we can put them on our posters when we demonstrate.
People had no clue how many people Nazis had killed until after the war. And we likewise have no clue how many ICE has killed in the last year. Their standard practices - randomly whisking people off to different facilities for seemingly no reason - are practically designed to make it easy for people to "disappear."
Yes. Let us hope however, that we do not wait until our numbers get like the Nazis who killed their own citizens as well as citizens of other countries. I am glad Americans are standing up to ICE in protests, filming, and going to court to demand an end to the barbaric acts of this regime.
I know this issue expands administrations but could we please have Democrats argue for some of the funding to go towards at least getting these people who are detained the medical attention they deserve and some third party oversight. Their budget is 190 billion under the BBB.
Republicans don’t even care about healthcare for citizens. They definitely won’t care about these unfortunate people. 😢
This treatment is inhumane and a black mark on our institutions. The DHS spokeswoman is nothing but a flack and liar with no sense of shame. How a judge who should clearly know better can look away from the medical issues described here shocking and clearly someone who is incapable of doing what is right.
By insisting on detainment for asylum seekers awaiting hearings, the Trump administration has brought the child-care situation on itself. Biden's idea--to release them into the community with bracelets, report phones, etc.--was innovative and far superior. Families held together and most if not all supported themselves by working. Biden's and the bi-partisan group of Senators other idea, to fund a thousand more hearing officers, a hundred fentanyl-sniffing machines, etc., was also better.
The whole world has been turned upside down because of this one evil individual. Just think about that.
Adrian, Thanks for sharing this God awful truth. I wish you could get a Senator to give you some time on the Senate floor to tell this story on the record and for Americans to hear. Those Republican Senators need to know what their asinine confirmation votes have wrought on our country and our humanity. The people you documented are not being treated like criminals, they're being treated like animals.
I dont want to live on this planet anymore.
Does a country that commits these kinds of atrocities in the year of our lord 2026 even deserve to exist?
Seems we've lost the plot my friends.
"I don't want to live on this planet anymore." I say this at least once a day now.
I had to stop reading about halfway through and come back. What are we doing to each other? This is generational trauma.
My usual sentiment these days is that I hate it here. I’m not proud to be an American, I’m ashamed.
Watching Middle Eastern countries, we wonder how young kids turn to terrorism (think Gaza) and gangs, and now I understand. When they’ve been treated by our government as trash, their families brutalized, how can we expect them to ever lead a normal happy life?
My heart breaks.
Thank you for doing this reporting.
No words, indeed. Action instead. Perhaps directly, immediately, while the cases go through the courts. Unknown. How many children will die? Unknown.
Not very Christian of me, but I hate these people.
I think you'll find that hatred is forgiven. Didn't someone who was EXTREMELY Christian say something about it would be better for them to have a millstone hung round their neck and be drowned in the sea?
Was just now thinking of that verse.
I completely understand. I’ve struggled with it as well. I was able to find some sense of balance by hating the behavior and pity for the enforcers. Pity because of the generational shame they have inflicted on their families and the degradation of their own souls.
I hate them too! This is just awful.