Pic Of The Season -- 'Tis No Reason To Be Jolly

A Nativity scene at Claremont United Methodist Church depicts the Holy Family separated as refugees in cages.

(The Rev. Karen Clark Ristine)

News item: "A Methodist church in Claremont unveiled a Nativity scene Saturday night depicting Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees in cages, likening one of the most well-known images of the Christmas season to photos that have become synonymous with criticism of the Trump administration’s border separation policies.

"The display, which has stoked debate on the Facebook page of the church’s lead pastor, shows classic Nativity figurines of Joseph and Mary in cages on either side of a cage containing the manger of Jesus.

“'We see this as, in some ways, the Holy Family standing in for the nameless families,” said the Rev. Karen Clark Ristine, the lead pastor at Claremont United Methodist Church. “We’ve heard of their plight; we’ve seen how these asylum seekers have been greeted and treated. We wanted the Holy Family to stand in for those nameless people because they also were refugees.'”

(h/t MBouffant)

Crying Immigrant Child Photo Wins World Press Top Prize

(John Moore/ Getty Images)

This is the world's image of America under Trump:

A viral image of a crying Honduran child at the U.S.-Mexico border has won the 2019 World Press Photo contest’s Photo of the Year prize.

The Amsterdam-based World Press Photo Foundation announced the winners of the annual awards on Thursday, honoring the best photojournalism of the prior year.

The winning photo, “Crying Girl on the Border,” was taken by Getty Images photojournalist John Moore. It shows the 2-year-old child crying while her mother, a Honduran asylum-seeker, is detained by U.S. border agents at the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas.

Even though the mother and child were later released together pending an asylum hearing, the photo still captures the searing emotion of an innocent caught up in a traumatizing situation. 

Children caged, families separated, all so that Trump can look tough to his frothing, callous, racist base. It's never been more depressing to be an American.

Trump's Continuing Border Abomination

The stories of the 2,551 immigrant children separated from their parents at the southern border have been shocking and horrific. The casual cruelty and human rights violations occurred right in front of us and in our names. The separations weren't an unintended consequence of sociopathic bigot Donald "Rump" Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, they were the main feature, the weapon of choice to dissuade the immigration of families.

Another court-ordered deadline passed on Friday, with hundreds of children still separated from their parents. with some 650 children classified as "ineligible" to be reunited with their parents by the Rump administration. The reason for their ineligibility was a deceptive form they were pressured to sign that allowed their children -- some very young -- to pursue asylum and stay as long as the parents would agree to be deported. The cold and sinister Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen "Shame" Nielsen explained the situation this way:

"'If the parents contact us and they want to be reunited, of course we will work with them. But as you know, as part of the way the process works, the parents always have the choice to take the children with them,' Nielsen said, making no commitment to reunifying deported parents by a hard deadline.

Nielsen said the parents could reach out to the U.S. government through consulates in their home countries. But Leon lives in rural Guatemala, 7 hours away from the capital." (our emphasis)

Some despicable trickery was used by the goons of Nielsen's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to get the signatures:

"For many of the 463 parents, the waivers they signed did not clearly explain their rights. One form first given by ICE to separated parents asked them to sign on one of two lines, indicating they would leave the country with or without their children. It did not state that they were waiving their right to be reunified in the future and it did not allow parents to consider whether they still had a chance at asylum." (our emphasis)

Until these human rights violations are resolved, the court needs to hold every official from "Shame" on down through the ICE organization in contempt, with stiff fines attached.