Thanks for your response, subgenius.
subgenius wrote:my mistake, I must have been confused with his 1986 Ellis Island Award :
The Ellis Island Medals of Honor embody the spirit of America in their celebration of patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity. They recognize individuals who have made it their mission to share with those less fortunate their wealth of knowledge, indomitable courage, boundless compassion, unique talents and selfless generosity; all while maintaining the traditions of their ethnic heritage as they uphold the ideals and spirit of America. As always, NECO remains dedicated to the maintenance and restoration of America’s greatest symbol of its immigrant history, Ellis Island.
all those awards look alike don't they?
nevertheless, what a clever white supremacist to play the long, long, long con, eh?
Yes, interesting argument. So, New York City businessman William Denis Fugazy, who was later convicted of perjury for lying to the court in his bankruptcy to funnel money to his kids, set up an award because he was upset that medals of liberty were awarded to people of the wrong ethnicities. Donald Trump, another New York businessman of even more dubious ethics, receives one of these awards. Michael Cohen, the bottom feeding lawyer, tries to pass off this Who's Who of New York award as something that it is not, and now Trump fans idly use this as evidence that he is not a racist.
If we back to your original claim, the distance between your mistaken idea of what this showed, and the reality of what it actually is, is a gaping wide chasm. No, this does not prove anything about Donald Trump's views or feelings about race. This is Donald Trump receiving an empty beanie pin from one of his pals of the New York elite.
subgenius wrote:association? just because he's white, correct?
No, because he wed himself to Steve Bannon, one of the leading lights of the alt-right. Bannon, of course, is anti-immigration, and accused the Catholic Church of supporting immigration to fill its own pews. Speaking to the National Front in France, Marie Le Pen's right-wing, anti-immigrant party, Bannon said:
“Let them call you racists. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists,” he said. “Wear it as a badge of honor.”
Remember that Marie Le Pen's father was a Holocaust denier who associated with Nazi collaborators.
Recall, also, that Jeff Sessions praised a 1924 law restricting immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, and therein especially Italians and Jews, and from Africa and the Middle East. It also banned immigration from East Asia entirely.
subgenius wrote:your fantasy isn't real and your evidence can't be imaginary, by the way.
What fantasy? What imaginary evidence?
subgenius wrote:that's an ignorant claim, his quote was "Some Very Fine People on Both Sides" ...and the context was after he noted that not every protestor was a nazi.
quit being a sheep, learn facts.
OK, so, let's think about this a little more clearly. "Very fine people on both sides" means that there were very fine people among the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis at the Virginia rally. Of course, Trump's comments were received with jubilation by the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis who were happy to have been praised by the president, and also not condemned for their actions.
Rhetoric is about one says
and what one neglects to say. This is an ancient art, going back millennia. The Greeks and Romans were particularly skilled in the art of rhetoric. Skilled rhetoricians know how to send a message by omitting something that would ordinarily be expected in a certain context.
The situation Trump addressed demanded his unequivocal, strong condemnation of white supremacists and Neo-Nazis. These groups were beside themselves with joy when Trump did not condemn them. Later, he was compelled to do so, but he then equivocated after he was made to do so. Trump has gone out of his way to avoid offending white supremacists and Neo-Nazis. When he is compelled to condemn them, he will try to walk back his comments, lest he alienate these "very fine people" whose support he desires.
Andrew Anglin, former administrator of the Daily Stormer, praised Trump's words, and forgave him for being compelled to walk some of it back:
"I knew Trump was eventually going to be like meh, whatever," Anglin wrote. "Trump only disavowed us at the point of a Jewish weapon. So I'm not disavowing him."
David Duke said:
"Thank you President Trump for your honesty and courage to tell the truth about Charlottesville and condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa".
subgenius wrote:yet the documents the ACLU just acquired from the Obama years show horrible abuse of children in those detention centers... but you just didn't know, neither did anyone right?
nevertheless, the policy wasn't cruel, no more cruel than any citizen getting arrested and having child services show up. So spare the hair fire.
OK, so here's the deal. As far as I am concerned, this argument is about Trump. Otherwise, it becomes incoherent. Whataboutism is not a rabbit hole I will fall into. Address the evidence regarding Trump. We are not in an argument about Obama's or Clinton's racism. Referring to their policies without specificity, and vaguely to the ACLU, etc., is really just a dodge. The question before us is whether the Trump administration's treatment of immigrants is both lopsided (much harsher on POCs than whites) and aggravated over prior administrations. The specific problem with Trump's treatment of the issue is
his zero-tolerance policy, which resulted in the mistreatment, and perhaps illegal treatment, of asylum-seekers as criminals and then the separation of children from their families in a completely feckless and destructive way, housing those POC minors, some as young as infants and toddlers, in jail-like conditions, and forcibly administering powerful psychotropics to them.
I would appreciate you addressing the specifics of these issues as opposed to offering vague allusions, employing whataboutisms, and indulging in provocative jabs. If I read "whatabout" Obama or Clinton, I will view that as non-responsive. Because, my interest in here is not to prove who is uniquely guilty of racism. American immigration policy is fundamentally ethnically biased, and it impacts certain ethnic groups disproportionally. Any president who does not work to improve the situation or who worsens it should be viewed as culpable. Of course, Trump is different inasmuch as he has deliberately stoked hatred against people entering this country across its southern border, using a strategy of rhetorical denigration reminiscent of Nazi propaganda against the Jews in the 1930s.
My interest is to know how POC Trump supporters overlook all of the various warning signs and evidences of Trump pandering to racist ideologues, and likely holding racist views himself, all with real impact on POC (such as treating POC asylum-seekers like hardened criminals).
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist