I still am noodling about how exactly to define Trump Derangement beyond listing the symptoms. I’d say, for example, that a retired and distinguished lawyer re-posting with favor a typical Occupy Democrats Facebook rant qualifies as one. This particular Occupy Democrat post—is that group worse than Move-On, better, or the same?—expressed outrage over “US citizen and Army veteran George Retes'” testimony to Congress over (if he is to be believed) a mistaken arrest and abusive treatment by I.C.E., as it mistook him as an illegal immigrant. Naturally, since he was recruited by Democrats to impugn the agency, my friend (and a somewhat famous classmate who has been engaging in what I would call borderline unethical conduct by regularly attacking his former client, President Trump) automatically accepted his account over that of Homeland Security, which in a release rebutted Retes’ claim as well as that of others who have been cited by critics as being falsely detained or arrested.
Let’s assume arguendo that Retes was wrongly detained (DHS says he was arrested for assaulting an I.C.E. officer, which seem plausible, since there’s a lot of that going on and elected Democrat officials are encouraging it). A single or even several missteps by law enforcement as it tries to clean up a mass refusal to enforce U.S. laws over many years, resulting in millions of illegal aliens, many of them criminals, in the country who need to be emptied out are to be expected. The open borders policies of the Biden Administration were apparently regarded as a fait accompli: “Ha ha, there’s nothing you can do about it now, it’s too big a problem to fix now!” President Trump’s “Hold my beer!” response has surprised the open borders gang, and they are apoplectic. Mistakes are inevitable in any operation of such scope, and when citizens are mistreated they should have access to compensation. But the ones to blame are those who caused the dire situation that must be addressed: the wave of millions of illegal immigrants and the party that encouraged and facilitated their illegal entry.
“This is all happening because of Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Kristi Noem, and their anti-immigrant and anti-American enablers!” thundered Rep. Garcia,”the Occupy Democrats post reported.
They are anti-illegal immigrants, and regarding them every American citizen should be “anti-.”
Occupy Democrats comments, “Stomach-turning, blood-chilling, and sickening are the only words that can describe the treatment of American citizens by Trump’s Gestapo thugs. As soon as Democrats retake Congress, stripping I.C.E. of all of its funding and initiating immediate prosecutions needs to be the first thing on the menu.”
Eliminating I.C.E. because of isolated errors is the same thinking that caused Democratic leaders to advocate de-funding the police after a lifetime hood died resisting arrest and overdosing on fentanyl under the knee of a negligent police officer in Minneapolis. How does a learned, legally trained individual endorse such nonsense? His addendum to the Occupy Democrats screed might as well have been ghost written by the group:
“…Trump’s purpose cannot be to gain political points by violating the rights of American immigrants and citizens alike—from the start of his administration public approval of his cruel immigration program has plummeted, even among Republicans and even among those who voted for Trump in 2024. Doubling down on the violent and lawless treatment of peaceful immigrants can only cause Trump more political harm.There can be no explanation for Trump’s unlawful and inhumane anti-immigrant program—perhaps the better word is “pogrom”—than the sheer pleasure it gives Donald Trump and Stephen Miller to inflict immense cruelty on people who are powerless to protect or defend themselves.In short, our president and his White House revel in such cruelty and take pride and pleasure in it. I’m sorry to say it seems to be as simple, and as horrifying, as that.No right-thinking American can feel anything but shame and fury over Trump’s disgraceful anti-immigrant actions. Never before in our history has a president deliberately unleashed federal law enforcement agents to swarm the streets of our cities and towns like snarling dogs to terrorize and ruin the lives of peaceful Americans and communities.”
Well.
1. Again, the targets are illegal immigrants. Until a critic grants his or her audience that simple measure of honesty, I really can’t respect the position.
2. Law enforcement isn’t cruel. This is increasingly a social justice fallacy being promoted to the weak of mind and unsound of ethical principles.
3. If support for the enforcement policy has “plummeted,” it is only because of the slanted reporting by the Axis media and the mischaracterization by its pundits, and the depressing reactions by once functioning minds like that of my friend.
4. “Pogrom”? Seriously?
5. What does “peaceful” have to do with any of this? The issue isn’t peace, the issue is flagrant law breaking, communities and activists that actively enable it, and the government’s duty to enforce the law.
6. Throwing around pejorative words like “cruel”, “lawless”, “terrorizing,” and “pogrom” in deliberate defiance of reality while omitting the rather essential and clarifying adjective “illegal” from the key noun “immigrant” is dishonest and self-indicting advocacy.
7. Siding with a group like Occupy Democrats is, moreover, proof of hysteria and corruption.
Ethics Alarms 
What happened to Laken Riley was cruel.
Why do these people hate Laken Riley?
“This is all happening because of Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Kristi Noem, and their anti-immigrant and anti-American enablers!” thundered Rep. Garcia,”
How can it be Trumps fault it was Congress that passed the legislation that caused the problem by creating rules to follow. This is like blaming the teacher for punishing the spitball shooter7th grader.
When did Garcia propose a bill to make open borders legal?
What someone needs to do is publicly announce the number of immigrants that entered the country legally…LEGALLY…this past year. The Trump Administration let every one of those people in.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump Derangement Syndrome isn’t classified some day as a mental illness. For all of their supposed veneration of facts, the Democrats and their allies have thoroughly corrupted their followers, especially the young generation, into rejecting facts that argue in favor of Trump’s policies.
The other day on Reddit (yes, I know), someone made the ridiculous argument that Republicans are hypocrites for complaining about Anchor Babies when both Ivana and Melania Trump were immigrants who gave birth to children before becoming citizens.
When advised that Anchor Babies are not children born to legal immigrants but to pregnant illegal immigrants or visitors who hope to deliver an American citizen that will “anchor” the parent to the United States, a commenter countered with:
“Honestly I don’t even know really what the fucking hell an anchor baby is and I really don’t care. I just know that these guys are fucking psychopaths and shouldn’t be running anything.”
In other words, don’t confuse him with facts, his mind is made up.
“The Difference Between Genius And Stupidity Is That Genius Has Its Limits.” A. Einstein
PWS
I’ve not heard that quote before, Paul…but I already love it!! I will be repeating it.
“I’ve not heard that quote before, Paul…but I already love it!!”
Brevity is the soul of reality, and the source is (IMO) unimpeachable.
“I will be repeating it.”
H/T Steve Witherspoon; it’s one of his faves and I borrowed it from him.
PWS
Are American citizens who resist or interfere with regular police as they carry out their law enforcement duties arrested for doing so? Of course they are. I can understand Trump accepting Retes version of events publicly for political purposes but that does not mean he will change course. What would Retes want to have happen to someone physically blocking his entrance to his home? Would he want legal action taken against those barring his access to his property? I am sure he would.
No one wants to see a citizen or legal resident picked up simply because of skin color but the fact remains that the vast majority of illegal aliens are not white Europeans. That means that non-white illegal aliens are the ones causing problems for the legal non-white aliens or citizens here in the US. You cannot escape disproportionate impact on enforcement of rules if the breakers of rules are disproportionately high in number.
I would point out that some politicians have called out citizens to “RESIST” the Trump administration. I see bumper stickers on cars with that sticker next to the Rainbow flag and the tolerance requests. It is understandable that some people will take that to heart and actually think it means physically resisting or interfering with law enforcement. The same people who promote resistance to lawful orders are the first to run away from any culpability for promoting those ideas.
So just for arguments sake Democrats take control of the House and defund ICE. Who will prevent the influx of those wishing to do us harm through any number of ways. Redistricting maps will have to be constantly be redrawn because drug traffickers will have free access to every entry point to bring their products of death to the US. As usage grows more people die from overdoses and every person wanting to suckle on the teat of the US taxpayer will show up seeking their “FAIR SHARE” of global wealth.
The open borders policies of the Biden Administration were apparently regarded as a fait accompli: “Ha ha, there’s nothing you can do about it now, it’s too big a problem to fix now!” President Trump’s “Hold my beer!” response has surprised the open borders gang, and they are apoplectic.
This is an interesting point, and I think it’s emblematic of Democrat strategy over the last decade or so, if one could even accuse the Democrats of having a strategy: If you can’t convince people that you’re right, break the system that’s in place to the point where something has to be done, and your plan is the only one that’s reasonable.
They fucked up here, frankly, because the Republican plan is obvious and relatively cheap compared to the alternative of trying to build the infrastructure to deal with the influx of people. It also didn’t have a narrative on how the end result of the policy, a whole lot more immigrants (both legal and illegal) than usual, would actually improve anyone’s life. I mean, we can talk about empathy and kindness all we want, but those things are luxuries, especially in a cost of living crisis. The only people who were ever going to be better off were the immigrants and the politicians who were using the immigrants to carve out house seats by census.
An example of where this strategy is probably going to be successful: Republicans have shot themselves squarely in the taint on healthcare. Because yes… They were right: Obamacare fucked things up. But it’s not enough to just be right, you also need a plan. A clear alternative that can be articulated in a way that makes sense to people. It’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle: There are too many people on ACA plans to just pull it entirely, not only because of the outcome to them, but because they’d be creating a segment of Americans absolutely galvanized against them. And these subsidies aren’t going to work because there are people paying upwards of $1000 month in insurance, that’s before you get to things like deductibles, and a $100 tax credit isn’t going to cut it. Unless Republicans can come up with a realistic alternative that doesn’t completely alienate 25% of America, the Democrats are probably going to win on universal healthcare because they shattered an already strained system and they’re not going to help you work against the thing that they’re all generally aimed at.
There is an alternative- price controls on health care providers.
No one seems to ask why insurance is needed to pay for health care, when it is not needed to opay for auto repairs.
There is an alternative- price controls on health care providers.
No argument from me…. But is that a generally agreed upon Republican position?
No one seems to ask why insurance is needed to pay for health care, when it is not needed to pay for auto repairs.
I mean… No one asks it because it’s a dumb question: First off, it literally is… You do need insurance to drive. Secondly, even if that weren’t true, while you could theoretically repair anything on any vehicle given enough time, money and stubbornness, realistically the amount you’re really ever going to pay to repair a vehicle is going to be capped at the value of a replacement vehicle.
You can buy a new car, you can’t go out and get a new body. At least not yet. Which means that instead of sending your body to the scrappers when it’s cancer ridden or old, we have an obvious vested interest in spending theoretically unlimited amounts of money to try to keep the old bird on the road as long as we can, and that’s going to be more expensive both in terms of scope and scale. Even if you put in cost controls on literally everything medically relevant, rational, self-interested people will still end up spending more than they ever would on any car on a long enough scale.
We do have price controls–they’re called “reimbursement rates”.
They also don’t work, because they encourage waste via substitution charges and outright fraud.
Suppose an elderly and mobile patent needs an $300 orthopedic cushion because the patent sits all day reading and doing puzzles. Since it’s not “essential”, reimbursement on such a thing is nil. A $1,000 wheelchair comes standard with such a cushion, but being reimbursed at essential level, it’s cheaper for the consumer to take off the cushion and chuck the chair in the closet.
Unfortunately, we are not and maybe cannot be privy to the facts of any particular situation involving ICE, so, we are reduced to belief flavored by confirmation bias. Thus, we might say of someone claiming to be falsely arrested, “if he is to be believed”, while at the same time accepting at face value that “Homeland Security … rebutted” his claim. We also might believe that one person did something because there is a lot of that going on, or, alternatively, we might believe ICE is acting like brutal thugs because there have been a lot of reports of that. At times like this, it is a huge disadvantage to be kinda middle of the road – those on the far left and the far right have no need to think or try to discern the facts of a case; their choice is already made.
Unfortunately, we are not and maybe cannot be privy to the facts of any particular situation involving ICE, so, we are reduced to belief flavored by confirmation bias.
Bingo, HJ. And I resent it,
ESpecially as there were mistaken or even fraudulent claims of police misconduct.
“Medicare rates are set to double!” Uh, shouldn’t that be something along the lines of “The massive subsidies that were foolishly put in place during the Wuhan Flu response, AKA, the most massive fiscal and public policy disaster on record, were meant to be temporary and are well past the time they were set to expire and years after the Wuhan Flu exited the scene?” This whole discussion reminds me of “Trump has failed to bring prices down!” You know, the prices that went through the roof as a result of things like the Inflation Reduction Act (I can hardly type that name for that Biden era give away without bursting into gales of laughter).