Small Horrors

A few stories to remind everyone what we’re facing—just in case we might relax:

Remember Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old who was wearing a Spider-Man hat when he was picked up by ICE and used as bait to apprehend his father?

Last week, a federal judge set strict conditions for the pair’s release from detention in Texas, which was duly carried out. Now, what passes for our government has moved to end asylum proceedings for the family, so that they can be swiftly deported. Why such treatment? Is Liam’s father a convicted criminal? A member of a drug cartel? An international terrorist? No. The obvious reason is that this is retaliation for having illustrated—again—how brutal our government is.

By the way, the family cannot be sent back to Ecuador, apparently, so the government is trying to ship them to some third country, almost surely one with which they have no contact or experience. Would congressional Republicans stand for such treatment if those involved were, say white Afrikaners?

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In Washington state, seven naturalization ceremonies, the final step in the extremely long process to become, a citizen have been canceled abruptly. That seems to be part of a pattern for immigrants from 19 countries that Donald Trump has deemed to be “high-risk,” as posing national security and public safety risks. You will not be surprised to learn that the people from those nations are not white. According to PBS, one woman went to her scheduled ceremony at Faneuil Hall in Boston, only to learn that her induction had been canceled when officials went down the line of people waiting, asking what country they were from, and taking people out of the line if they gave the wrong answer. (At that point, given all that they have gone through, I should think it reasonable for those in line to answer, “I am from the United States of America.”)

While on the subject of immigration, note that Trump’s much-touted “gold card” visa has been challenged in court as an illegal pay-to-play scheme. “The lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., by the American Association of University Professors and a group of immigrant professionals who argue that the program violates federal immigration law by prioritizing financial contributions over the merit-based criteria Congress established for employment-based visas.” So much for the tired, the poor, the wretched refuse who built this nation. (One of my favorite stories is about the Sicilian immigrant who wrote to the people back home, “Not only are the streets not paved with gold, but they expect us to pave them.”)

Oh, and don’t forget that Donald Trump’s ancestors arrived on these shores as undocumented immigrants. Tell everyone you know.

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Less dramatic, perhaps, than those stories, but at least as meaningful, this from The New York Times:

The C.I.A.’s World Factbook, a repository of facts on nations from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe that for six decades provided detailed figures on birth and death rates and major exports, relied upon first by government agents and eventually researchers, educators, journalists and more, was shuttered without warning on Wednesday.

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For more than six decades, the Factbook served as a free public reference guide, first in print and then eventually online, offering regularly updated data on economics, populations, government and geography. The Factbook, published by the world’s premier spy agency, was long considered an objective source in an increasingly subjective information ecosystem.

There has been, of course, no explanation from those behind this assault on knowledge, but it is all of a piece with the hostility to free inquiry and truthful information that has beset us for more than a year now.

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I am sure you have heard about this, but I could not leave without mentioning Trump’s late-night post, in which he portrayed Barak and Michele Obama as apes. The post was taken down after expressions of horror and disgust, including some expression of mild distaste from a few Republicans, but not before Karolyin’ Leavitt, the president’s press secretary called the outcry “fake outrage.”

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Need I point out that Democrats should be working overtime crying to the rafters that Donald Trump is not only more corrupt than all of his predecessors put together, but also demented and senile? That every hour he is in office is a danger to the nation and the world? Those facts cannot be repeated too often.

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The stories above may seem small compared to the great events of the day, but the Talmud says that one who saves a life saves the world. What, then, can we say of one who destroys a life, even if that does not involve killing?

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