BAD PRESIDENT
How to Debate Republican Family Members This 4th of July – and Win
Today is the United States of America’s birthday.
And just like our own birthdays, it gets celebrated whether or not the past year was a success.
America doesn’t have much to celebrate as it turns 242 years old, but celebrate we shall.
For most Americans, the holiday means getting together with friends and family, including that one racist uncle who will spend the day talking fawningly about Trump’s big, beautiful border wall.
When that happens, you’re going to want to debate him. And you’re going to want to win.
Here is a guide to what the wingnuts are currently obsessed with, from someone who is professionally obligated to watch more Fox News than any sane person should.
Everyone crossing the border without authorization is acting illegally and that’s why we lock them up.
People from both sides of the aisle tend to casually refer to unauthorized border crossings as though they’re all illegal. They’re not, because the United States is obligated by international law to grant asylum to qualified people. The requirements to qualify for asylum are complex, but asylum should be granted to someone who fears persecution in their home country based on political opinion or being part of a particular social group when their home country’s government is either involved in the persecution or unable to stop it.
So there’s a good argument for the prototypical family of indigenous people from a rural Guatemalan village who is being targeted by Narcos who view indigenous people as subhuman and/or want to force them to participate in a violent criminal enterprise. That means those people are legally allowed to come to the United States. They don’t have to “wait their turn” or any of that.
Trump and his agents are acting illegally by automatically detaining asylum seekers, a judge just ruled.
Trump and his supporters make a big deal about these folks needing to go to an officially designated port of entry to qualify for asylum. You can’t request asylum until you’re on American soil, so if the Trumpistas can block them from getting to American soil then the U.S. has no obligation to grant them asylum.
But that’s not the law—asylum seekers can make an unauthorized arrival by sneaking past immigration control and then file their paperwork. They have not necessarily committed a crime by doing so.
Crossing the border without authorization is a serious crime and we need to detain the people who do it. We detain them apart from their children because you can’t bring your kids to jail with you.
Crossing the border without authorization—what Reoublicans call “illegally”—is a Class B misdemeanor. As a crime, this is as serious as drawing with a marker on a dollar bill.
We don’t put people in jail for drawing a mustache on a dollar bill, let alone take their kid away and lock them in a cage inside an abandoned Walmart.
Once a migrant is here, being here without proper documentation is a civil infraction—but it’s not an infraction if they turn in paperwork to apply for asylum.
Obama was also locking up migrant kids and all the photos you see are of kids locked up during Obama’s administration.
The Obama administration did detain migrant children, and deported a lot of people. Despite what the right claims about amnesty, the former president was extremely aggressive in policing immigration.
But those children you see locked up under Obama were not forcibly separated from their parents at the border. They were “unaccompanied minors” who made their way north on their own and got caught at the border.
The difference is that Trump intentionally and cruelly took kids from their parents—including very small children and babies.
The girl in that famous photo later used on the cover of Time was not separated from her mother.
This is true—it’s also true that lots of little girls just like her were.
Democrats are destroying the country with a lack of civility—such as by refusing to serve fried chicken to Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“Civility” is the right’s latest obsession. Essentially, everyone on Fox New seems worried that if people stop treating collaborators nicely in public, it will be miserable for current collaborators and harder to recruit new ones.
Without resorting to whataboutism, it’s worth remembering that the root of Donald Trump’s appeal is his undermining of our culture’s norms. He’s said things that other politicians won’t say and done things that other politicians won’t do. The list is too long to even start into.
People have responded by resisting Trump and his collaborators in ways both big and small. That includes confronting them in restaurants.
When Obama was president, Republicans cheered when a bakery refused to serve Joe Biden.
Republicans also cheered when religious bakeries refused to make cakes for gay weddings.
Cake is not a sacred part of a wedding ceremony or the subject of any religious rituals. To say it’s OK for someone to refuse to serve a regular gay couple because you don’t like their personal choices but that it’s wrong to refuse to serve someone who constantly tells lies and took kids away from their parents and locked them in cages seems hypocritical.
Trump succeeded in North Korea and the media won’t give him credit.
People on the right are obsessed with the fact that North Korea destroyed its nuclear test site with great fanfare. What they don’t understand is that happened because North Korea no longer needs to test nuclear weapons—it knows they work, it built them, it has the missiles to fire them at us.
North Korea destroying its missile test site was a celebration of its successful tests, not of acquiesce to Trump.
What did happen is that Trump legitimized a dictator by negotiating with him as an equal.
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BAD PRESIDENT
Large Majority of Americans Say Iran Conflict Should End, Hasn’t Met Any of Trump’s Goals
A large majority of Americans say that not only should the Iran conflict end immediately, but that President Donald Trump has not reached any of his stated goals for starting the conflict in the first place.
Over three-quarters of Americans, 78%, said in a new CBS News/YouGov poll the conflict in Iran should end “now.” Only 22% said it would be better to keep fighting until Iran agrees to “give up more” concessions to the United States.
Americans also felt that Trump’s stated goals for starting the conflict had not been met. When asked if Iran had been stopped from threatening other countries, only 32% said it had. A similar proportion, 31%, think that the conflict “permanently stopped” nuclear programs in the country. Even fewer think that the conflict has led to pro-U.S. leaders taking charge—only 21%—and slightly more, 26%, think that the U.S. has brought safety and freedom to the Iranian people. Overall, 69% say the Iran conflict was “not worth the cost.”
READ MORE: MAGA Revolt Erupts as Trump’s Own Hawks Turn Against His Iran Deal
The results remained relatively steady across demographics, with the exception of Americans who identified as conservative. But even then, the conservative responses were not as much in Trump’s favor as one might expect. When asked if the Iran conflict should end now, while liberals and moderates strongly agreed, at 95% and 80% respectively, a majority of conservatives, 61%, also agreed.
A slight majority of conservatives, 53%, thought Iran’s nuclear programs had been permanently stopped. They were split on the question of whether Iran would threaten other countries—48% of conservatives said Iran would stop, while 52% said they wouldn’t. When it came to replacing Iran’s leaders with pro-U.S. ones or bringing freedom to Iranian citizens, a majority of conservatives agreed that hadn’t happened.
The survey was conducted between June 17-19, and surveyed 2,519 adults. It has a 2.4% margin of error.
While the Iranian conflict has caused new leaders to take control of the country—former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in airstrikes in February—he was replaced by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei. The younger Khamenei is widely described as being more conservative than his father, and the Atlantic Council think tank said he has ties to clerics it described as the “most ideologically extremist,” according to Axios.
Though Trump has claimed Iran’s military is “totally destroyed,” he’s also warned that the country could have a nuclear bomb “within six months.” However, the first report from the International Atomic Energy Agency since the Iran conflict started says that there has been no major change to the country’s nuclear program, according to Reuters.
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump vowed not to invite South Africa to the 2026 meeting of the G20 over a debunked conspiracy theory he continues to push.
Writing to his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday afternoon, Trump announced that the U.S. did not attend this year’s G20 meeting in Johannesburg, and, in turn, wouldn’t let South Africa attend next year’s meeting in Miami.
“The United States did not attend the G20 in South Africa, because the South African Government refuses to acknowledge or address the horrific Human Right Abuses endured by Afrikaners, and other descendants of Dutch, French, and German settlers. To put it more bluntly, they are killing white people, and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them. Perhaps, worst of all, the soon to be out of business New York Times and the Fake News Media won’t issue a word against this genocide. That’s why all the Liars and Pretenders of the Radical Left Media are going out of business! At the conclusion of the G20, South Africa refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative from our U.S. Embassy, who attended the Closing Ceremony. Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year. South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote.
READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene: Christians Helping Resettle Migrants and Refugees Are Controlled by ‘Satan’
Trump’s claims of human rights abuses against Afrikaners has been widely debunked. Trump says that the South African government, in retribution for apartheid-era institutional racism, is punishing the white population of the country. The conspiracy theory alleges that South Africa is engaging in “white genocide” against the Afrikaners, according to NPR.
While Trump is correct that the “fake news media won’t issue a word against this genocide,” it’s because it’s not happening. Even Afrikaners have denied that there is an “existential threat” against them, according to France24.
“We reject the narrative that casts Afrikaners as victims of racial persecution in post-apartheid South Africa. This framing, now being used to support the far-right ‘Great Replacement’ theory in the United States, is not only misleading, but also dangerous. It distorts the realities of South Africa, weaponizes our history, and reduces a complex social context and necessary levelling of playing fields into a simplistic symbol of white decline,” a letter from several prominent Afrikaners reads.
“Let us be clear: South Africa faces serious challenges – crime, inequality, and the enduring legacy of apartheid. But these issues affect South Africans of all races. To cherry-pick white suffering and elevate it above others is dishonest and harmful. It feeds extremist ideologies that perpetuate division and have inspired real-world violence, including mass shootings.”
The letter was signed by 46 Afrikaners in South Africa, including professors, journalists and more. It was sent in response to Trump’s first overture to the conspiracy theory, which was to allow Afrikaners to come to the United States as refugees—all while the number of real refugees the U.S. will accept has been lowered from 125,000 to just 7,500.
Image via Reuters
After sharing a meme appearing to threaten the city of Chicago with war, President Donald Trump has backtracked, saying he only wants “to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them.”
On Saturday morning, Trump posted to Truth Social an AI-generated meme captioned “Chipocalypse Now.” It depicts Trump sitting in front of the Chicago skyline as black helicopters fly in and fire rages behind him.
“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” the meme read.
After facing criticism over what many saw as a threat to declare war on an American city, the president tried to soften his original tone.
READ MORE: Judge Rules LA Troop Use Illegal as Trump Rants Chicago Is ‘Murder Capital of the World’
“We’re not going to war. We’re going to clean up our cities,” Trump told reporters on Sunday according to WLS-TV. “We’re going to clear them up so they don’t kill every five people every weekend. That’s not war. That’s common sense.”
Monday morning, he continued to reframe his original post as an offer of help.
“6 people were murdered in Chicago this weekend, 12 others were shot, and in serious condition. This would mean that over the past number of weeks, approximately 50 people were killed, and hundreds were shot, many expected to die. Governor Pritzker just stated that he doesn’t want Federal Government HELP! WHY??? What is wrong with this guy, and the 5% in Polls Mayor. I want to help the people of Chicago, not hurt them. Only the Criminals will be hurt! We can move fast and stop this madness. The City and State have not been able to do the job. People of Illinois should band together and DEMAND PROTECTION. IT IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE!!! ACT NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s reference to Gov. JB Pritzker refusing help likely refers to his response to the original meme.
“The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator,” Pritzker tweeted Saturday.
It should be noted that though Trump has reframed his threat to Chicago, it hasn’t substantially changed. About 40 minutes before his post, he wrote another one about deploying the National Guard to Washington, DC.
“Washington, D.C. IS A SAFE ZONE IN JUST A MATTER OF WEEKS. Thank you, President Trump. Who’s Next???” Trump wrote.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to deploy federal troops to Democrat-led cities in addition to Washington. This summer he sent troops to Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE protests, an act a federal judge ruled violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which bans the use of military forces for law enforcement on American soil.
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
