There could be no more brilliant response to the comments by Trump & Netanyahu that Palestinians are taught from early childhood to hate: Rafeef Ziadah reading her poem “We Teach Life, Sir,” November 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKucPh9xHtM

Curious political phenomenon: when Obama was elected, many who objected to criticizing his policies blamed everything on Bush, saying it would take time to clean up what Obama had inherited from Bush. That went on for quite a while like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Now there’s a current which denounces Obama & liberals every time there’s a criticism of Trump. It’s the same current that supports Assad & Putin. It’s not unlikely that if you could look back at who objected to criticism of Obama they would be many of the same people objecting to criticism of Trump.

The Associated Press reports they have obtained a draft memo from the Trump administration proposing to mobilize up to 100,000 National Guard troops to round up undocumented immigrants. Apparently one of the snags is getting approval from several governors to mobilize troops since National Guard troops are under dual control by states & the federal government.

This militarization of immigration enforcement would necessarily usurp the Bill of Rights & create a jackboot political environment. There need to be massive, international protests against this monstrous proposal if it is acted on.

Let it be said that those who continue to defend Trump against the nonsense of a “soft coup” by the “establishment” or the “deep state,” are choosing to side with the most reactionary & racist political forces in the world. It would be a good time for them to investigate the origins of the term “national socialism” because that’s where they’re headed.

A local TV station held a town hall forum on undocumented immigration & the border wall which is a ten minute drive for most of us. Three of the four panelists were white, senior, affluent US citizens. One was a rancher who didn’t like refugees crossing his land, associated them with drug smuggling, didn’t like Pakistanis & other nationalities coming here, & referred to immigrants as “illegal aliens.” The fourth panelist was a retired sheriff of Mexican ancestry whose family has probably been here 100 years; he was the better of the four of them.

Generally at events here, both Spanish & English are spoken (necessarily) but when a woman got up & asked a question in Spanish, there was shouting that this was America & English should be spoken.

It is absolutely astonishing & appalling that a forum on immigration would be held on the US-Mexican border without an immigrant or immigrant advocate & with a mostly gringo panel. Yesterday was “Day Without Immigrants” so there were thousands of immigrants available to speak. Someone needed to say loud & clear that they are undocumented immigrants, not illegal aliens. No human is illegal.

We might be watching Trump shattering psychologically. Gosh it’s fun.