“This is not who we are.” Americans are saying this about the forced separation of children from their migrant parents at the border with Mexico. They said it about torture. Yet we keep doing these horrible things over and over again. So it isn’t really true. These horrible acts are exactly who we are.
Actually, Forced Child Separations Are All-American
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
51 Comments. Leave new
As a thousand angry Indians come riding over the hill, the Lone Ranger turns to his faithful companion and says, “Tonto, we’re in a heap of trouble”
Tonto replies, “What mean ‘we’ paleface?”
In the same spirit (sorta) I ask, “What mean ‘we’ Ted?” … have you done personally these things? If so, I hereby cancel my Patreon donation.
Yeah, some of our fellow Americans have done these things in the past, and continue to support them until this day. Others of us see what this country could be if it would only live up to its (hypothetical) founding principles.
Good point, it’s not “we” really. But you know what I mean.
Yuh, I know’d dat.
I sometimes get tired of being held accountable for actions of others; especially when I object to those actions in the first place. Double-plus especially when the blowback affects sweet, lil’ ol’ me.
Soundtrack: Monster by Steppenwolf.
On Steppenwolf live, John Kay introduces the number by saying something to the effect that, “despite all the problems with this country, there are still too many good things to let it all go down the drain”
http://www.metrolyrics.com/monster-lyrics-steppenwolf.html
“[D]espite all the problems with this country, there are still too many good things to let it all go down the drain” is a good paraphrase of Frederick Douglas when he spoke in opposition to the many black people who wanted to leave the US after dealing with the failed promises of Reconstruction after the US Civil War.
Interesting that the people who excoriate the United States choose to stay; they have any number of countries where they could go to give aid and comfort.
@AT
You know don’t seem to know who Frederick Douglas was or be able to imagine why he had a problem with life in the good ole USA.
@Glenn
Wasn’t Fred a slave whose mistress committed the crime of teaching him to read? He was allowed to earn money on the docks of Baltimore and even keep some of it?
And he went on to write his memoirs, now required reading in high schools and colleges?
My parents gave me a “kiddie” book about him when I was a child.
Well, if he had a problem with life in the good old USA, think what it might have been like in good old Africa.
Why is it always better to be ruled by one’s own when others might do a better job of it? Surely that is what the lovely migrants realize as they scamper over several countries in their quest to get here?
“Interesting that the people who excoriate the United States choose to stay; they have any number of countries where they could go to give aid and comfort.”
Good point – so why DO you stay here? You pretty much hate everything that makes this country great. You’d be more comfortable in Saudi Arabia – you could teach superstition in schools, discriminate against women and even stone gays to death. Wouldn’t that be fun?
@CH
I could see myself working for their morality police, but I might be too conservative for Saudi Arabia.
Why must you always attack ME? You would be one of the waiters throwing me out of a restaurant or a heckler staging a protest outside of my home.
You do realize that your rhetoric will only give rise to someone you would consider far worse than Trump?
> Why must you always attack ME?
Because you always attack any and everyone who is different than YOU. Is it really that hard to connect the dots?
On that day when you learn to play nice with others, I will play nice with you.
@CH
The Persecuted One hangs a sign on his back that says “Kick Me” and then cries when he gets kicked.
Someone once said that the easiest way to disabuse one’s self of notions about the Christian God is to read the Bible.
So in that spirit, I have begun my long delayed reading of Mein Kampf.
AH, like most RWNJs, felt he was under-appreciated and abused.
Some things really don’t change.
AH walks among us still today.
@Glenn,
yep, I have the same conversation over & over on the internetz. I still don’t understand the respondents , but repetition leads me to believe that they are as sincere as they are clueless.
CH: Water is wet
OG: No it’s not! You’re a big poopy-head!
CH: Nyuh-uh! You’re the poopy-head!
OG: Weh! Weh! Weh! You called me a poopy-head!!!!!
I am not the first to point out the Big Media Lie, but when Americans are detained by law enforcement, they are separated from their kids because no one wants children in adult facilities.
Why should these migrants be privileged over our own citizens?
And couldn’t migrants solve this problem themselves, by staying in their own countries?
Illegal immigration is closer to a traffic ticket than a felony. Illegal immigrant parents ought not to be subjected to prison.
If migrants could stay in their own countries, the vast majority would. It’s often a matter of life and death.
Such as Yanela Hernandez?
And presumably you would be okay with DNA testing to ensure that these groups really are families?
And since you say that it is a matter of life and death, why don’t these caravans choose flee to one of their closer neighbors instead of coming to the Great Satan?
@AT
“And couldn’t migrants solve this problem themselves, by staying in their own countries?”
And couldn’t US migration problems solve themselves, by Americans staying in their own country?
The American propensity for making war, given the 800 US military bases in other countries, and the devastation of Central American nations due to overthrow of their governments by the “Great Satan” (of your reference), makes their grip on life in these puppet-run governments tenuous.
People have asked me why I don’t leave this country if I don’t like its foreign policies. My response is that I’d rather be from where the big guns are being aimed than where they are being aimed at.
A pro-gun person should easily see the logic in this.
@Glenn
Look, if these folks are indeed refugees, the first safe country rule applies, and it is not the United States.
@AT
So now the Americans are calling for compliance with international laws that it exempts itself from by its status as “The (the one and only) Exceptional Nation”.
@Glenn
By exceptional, do you mean superior? Not all nations are exceptional. If all nations were exceptional, they would not allow themselves to be dominated by others.
If we were really calling for compliance, we would expel all those illegally within our borders.
Hopefully, we’ll get to that once we build the wall.
> By exceptional, do you mean superior?
No, although that’s how the RWNJs usually interpret the phrase. “American Exceptionalism” actually refers to the belief that ‘murika is ‘exceptional,’ and is therefore not constrained by the same rules as everyone else.
It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re exceptional, just ask any spoiled five-year-old. The problem is in convincing *other* people that they should follow rules which don’t apply to you.
@CH
Well, if your country has 800 military bases (ye gods, I did not think it was that many) around the world and the rest of the world wants to migrate to your country and you do not want to migrate to theirs, logic tells me that your country is superior.
> logic tells me that your country is superior.
Logic tells me that a superior military force is a superior military force. Period.
That does not tell me that said country is superior in other ways, such as morals, ethics, compassion, empathy – you know, stuff that Jesus liked?
If a country uses military superiority to force its will on others, then that country is morally *inferior.*
Let’s bring this home, your argument boils down to “might makes right” – so, okay, if I sneak up behind you and club you with an antelope’s thighbone, then I am in the right. Further, I am right to take all your stuff and sex your wife.
That doesn’t sound like a “civilization” I want to live in, but on the other hand I am pretty good with my antelope’s thighbone…
Well, can we agree that the nation with the superior military probably does not have its citizens living in mud huts, fanning themselves with palm fronds? Look at Britain, for example. All the poetry, novels, paintings, and music behind that Empire. Guatemala really cannot compare, can it?
And let’s leave Jesus (and the homos) out of this one, shall we? Jesus was not Ceasar’s spiritual advisor.
Last week, ICE seized 21 assault rifles and 800 rounds of ammunition that had come over the border to Laredo, Texas. These are the guns that kill Americans; a low grade war is being waged against our citizens.
God Bless ICE!
How many of those assault rifles came from the US in the first place? How many assault rifles do *you* own? How did a convicted felon manage to stockpile an arsenal, anyway?
In New Jersey., ICE seized 9 kilos of heroin and 50 pounds of crystal moth. Two Hispanics were arrested.
These are the drugs that are coming into our country to kill our people.
“A federal operation dubbed Fast and Furious allowed weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of suspected gun smugglers so the arms could be traced to the higher echelons of Mexican drug cartels. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the operation, has lost track of hundreds of firearms, many of which have been linked to crimes, including the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/atf-fast-furious-sg-storygallery.html
Gun-smuggling cartel figures possibly were paid FBI informants
Congressional investigators probing the controversial “Fast and Furious” anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants.
The US turns other countries into shooting galleries then complains when people who don’t want to play war games flee from hostile conditions created by the US to the US.
“Fast and Furious ” was under the Obama administration? An Eric Holder project?
@AT
That’s correct, AT.
From my perspective, it’s also irrelevant that “Fast and Furious” was under Obama, but still on point.
@Glenn
Why irrelevant? I thought Obama was the magical president and his justice department above all scandal.
In any event, the Daily Mail reports ICE has nabbed more than 5000 criminal immigrants breaking into America, including members of the Mexican Mafia, 18th Street Gang, and MS-13.
Why does the British media have to do the job of America’s media?
@AT
“I thought Obama was the magical president and his justice department above all scandal.”
Then you were a fool.
@Glenn
He did turn out to be a bit of a Pox Obama, didn’t he?
@AT
Obama never fooled me, not even in the beginning.
Democrats even (or as usual, when meeting challenges to their favored party, and in this they’re as bad as Republicans) called me Republican, rather than consider my arguments against him on the merits.
Paul Street, it turned out, covered most of my objections to Obama, so read one of his books on him if you want to know more, because I don’t have the time for all that now.
@Glenn
I did look it up and the ego and laziness do not surprise me in the least, but I would argue that Obama was a transformational president, albeit in awful ways.
Of course, Crazy Horse would attack me, but allowing the mentally disturbed to use the restroom and the pronoun of their choice was a blow from which we are still trying to recover.
Hey, Everyone!
I actually looked up the law on illegal entry into the United States! Here is what it says:
US Code 1325 Improper Entry by an Alien
Any alien who enters the United States at a place other than that designated by immigration officers or eludes inspection by immigration officers or attempts to obtain entry by false representation shall be fined or imprisoned not more than six months for the first commission and for subsequent commission not more than two years.
As you can see, there are criminal penalties for illegal entry to the U.S.
Catch and Release is completely illegal!
WSJ reports today on migrant mothers turning themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol.
Of course, they’re turning themselves in, on my dime. The Refugee Racket costs Americans 1.1 billion a year, food, housing, medical, and naturally, lawyers!
In more good news, the travel ban has been upheld.
Well, I have not attacked anyone different from myself on this comment section at least, and still you manage to keep it up.
I feel persecuted.
BUILD THE WALL
God, are you really that oblivious? You’ve been attacking refugees and defending discrimination in nearly every post you’ve made here.
> I feel persecuted.
And therein lies the problem. You evidently believe that the bullies are the real victims here. I’ve seen it so many times I have to accept that it’s a real thing, but I will never understand it.
I look over my comments and I plead innocence.
I just question adopting the entire mestizo population of Central America and wonder why my country should serve as a safety valve for other peoples.
> I look over my comments and I plead innocence.
Yes, that’s what I said, “Oblivious”
“I just question adopting the entire mestizo population of Central America ”
“BUILD THE WALL”
“In more good news, the travel ban has been upheld.”
“The Refugee Racket ”
“a low grade war is being waged against our citizens. ”
“God Bless ICE!”
” Two Hispanics were arrested.”
“ICE has nabbed more than 5000 criminal immigrants breaking into America, including members of the Mexican Mafia, 18th Street Gang, and MS-13.”
“Why should these migrants be privileged over our own citizens?”
“Such as Yanela Hernandez?
And presumably you would be okay with DNA testing to ensure that these groups really are families?”
“By exceptional, do you mean superior?”
“think what it might have been like in good old Africa. ”
I repeat myself: “Oblivious” – you evidently feel that you are making objective, unbiased statements. Yet unbeknownst to you, your hatred, fear, and insecurity is playing at full volume.
You are fooling nobody but yourself.
@CH
I am making valid points that you may try to rebut, if you wish.
You can’t stand that someone disagrees with so you call them a racist (or homophobe or whatever.) You don’t like the free interchange of ideas. How dare anyone entertain a different point of view on immigration into the United States!
Your name calling borders on facism.
> Your name calling borders on facism.
“Homo”
“Faggot”
“Faggy”
“Slut”
“Whore”
“Moozies”
“Dolt”
“Idiot”
Pot, meet kettle.
I have never called you any of those things.
@Glenn
Opening paragraph of Mein Kampf is fascinating. Hitler could not have possibly had a better understanding of human nature.
I expect that you will find as much in Mein Kampf that validates your positions as I will find for you.
The banality of evil, and all that.
For your amusement, Hitler complains about disrespect for teachers here on P32, Ralph Manheim translation:
“[T]he very mother and father, even in the presence of the children, talk about his teacher and school in terms which are not fit to be repeated, and are more inclined to curse the latter to their face than to take their little offspring across their knees and teach them some sense.”
You have to like that!
I do indeed!
Adolf gets an awful rap, doesn’t he? Especially considering that he was trying to save Europe from a far more pernicious force and that when compared to the other evil dictators of the twentieth century, he was a minor murderer.
Bolshevik should be a slur the equivalent of Nazi.
By all means, please speak more about this AH who inspires you so. Don’t be shy.
Many Americans liked Hitler, and many Nazi Germans liked America’s race laws.
Hitler’s German lawmakers wanted to incorporate American racism into their laws, but found the “one drop rule” too extreme, even for them.
Read “Hitlers American Model” if this has piqued your interest.
“Hitler’s”
@Glenn
The British royal family liked old Adolf, too, and many of its members were married to prominent Nazis.
How was Adolf any different from Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Mao, Enver Pasha, Kim Il Sung, etc, etc? They all murdered millions, didn’t they, and yet only AH’s name is invoked to personify evil. Could it be who the victims were?
As for the race laws, explain to me the difference between the Nazi race laws and the Amerindian laws which are based on blood quantum. As Renfield yelled in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, “The blood is the life!”