Tag: Prosecution Initiative

Trump’s ‘Prosecution Initiative’ Crisis Update For June 19th, 2018

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

For no other reason than to simply establish where thing are in my own mind, here is an overview of where things stand in this entirely self-concocted immigrant family separation policy crisis on the part of Donald J. Trump. I hope this gets wrapped up pretty quick and I don’t have to a lot of these, but as of right now, things aren’t looking good.

A little background. This crisis began when, at the behest of tin-pot Hitler Stephen Miller, Trump through Attorney General Jeff Sessions enacted a “zero tolerance” policy when it came to people coming across the American Southwest border illegally. Remember, this is a “policy” not a law and Trump, if he had an ounce of human decency, could fix this problem quite quickly. The memo that established this policy is below.

This set off a chain of events that we are now dealing with. As a result of this zero tolerance policy, hundreds, if not thousands of children have been ripped from their families, some of them, allegedly, out of their mother’s arms after having been told they would be given a bath.

Anyway, the news has been coming hard and fast today when it comes to this story. The president tweeted this morning that immigrants were going to “infest” the nation.

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of news whipping the nation’s attention this way and that. It was difficult to grasp what was gong on at times the news popped up so quickly. Some 600 members of the United Methodist Church condemned member Jeff Sessons’ involvement in this clusterfuck. This joined a whole host of religious leaders and groups who echoed a similar sentiment over the course of the last few days.

Things continued to get crazier and crazier as celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti of all people has jumped into the fray, representing about 20 immigrants who have been torn from their families.

It was was one of those news days that didn’t seem like it was going to end, with news breaking left and right during the course of it. A growing chorus of politicians jumped into the mess all demanding one thing — either a law be passed that fixed this issue, or that Trump would show some compassion and fix the damn thing himself. Ted Cruz came up with some bait and switch legislation that purports to fix the problem at hand, but in reality actually makes matters worse. A group of 12 Republican Senators sent a letter to their former colleague Sessions to put a pause on the “prosecution initiative” policy until Congress could pull its head out of its ass long enough to fix the problem. The letter is below.

There was, in general, a flurry of pretty meaningless jabber by an array of Congressmen and Senators angling to appease an angry electorate. But the simple fact remains that this “prosecution imitative” continues to be in place and there doesn’t seem to be any fix for it in the near future. Trump refuses to accept what he’s done is wrong and Congress is so divided and slow moving that it could be a week or more before anything finally gets done about it.

So, we wait. I hope this gets wrapped up in the next day or so, but it’s not looking good. God only knows how bad things are going to get if Trump sticks to his guns.

Shelton Bumgarner is a writer and photographer livings in Richmond, Va. He may be reached at migukin (at) gmail (dot) com.

Scream About Trump’s Fourth Reich’s ‘Prosecution Initiative’ At The Top Of Your Lungs

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

We live in surreal, obscene times when the U.S. government feels obliged to treat the children of asylum seekers as more than animals under a policy known as the “Prosecution Initiative.” I do not feel that the name of this policy is well known enough. It’s all we should be talking about on social media.

The “Prosecution Initiative” should become something so loaded in the nation’s collective conscience that it’s mention nearly brings a conversation to a standstill. We need to use it as a rhetorical bludgeon at every opportunity. To my ears, it sounds so ominous to begin with that it wouldn’t take too much effort to attain that goal.

We’re in a crisis and we need to use everything we can find to end this policy as quickly as possible. If we repeat the term “Prosecution Initiative” over and over and over again at every turn, that would help make it clear that this is not a law, but rather a policy, or an initiative.

This is a marathon now, not a sprint, so this is part of a pitched political battle that will take significantly longer than it otherwise should. The Trump Administration is trying to defend the indefensible. We have to remind them of this at every opportunity and putting a stigma on the term “Prosecution Initiative” would further that goal.