Ivanka Trump Statement on Child Separation: Annotated Statement

In case you were wondering, being completely tone-deaf is apparently hereditary.  Ivanka Trump would do well to engage in some serious self-reflection on her supposed values.  Below is her tweet celebrating her father's brave "reversal" of a human rights and child abuse travesty he created.  In the interest of context and truth, my annotations are inserted, but the text of the tweet is copy / pasted from her original text.

Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border. 

It's action he could have taken more than a month ago or, better yet, he could have not destroyed these families in the first place.  In fact, he has been saying for weeks that he couldn't end this by executive order because it was a "Democrat policy."

Congress must now act

I see you're complicit in the use of these families as legislative hostages too.  Congress has been trying to act.  They've given your dad multiple immigration compromise bills with conditions he previously said he could agree to only for him to change his mind because he didn't get enough money for his pointless wall.  This is the same predatory behavior used by hostage takers and domestic abusers all over the world.  It is disgusting.

+ find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values;

Based upon your "charity" work, your lack of statement on this issue before now and the way you flaunted your ability to hug your child during this travesty that is just one of many your dad has helped visit upon the innocent, I'm guessing that we don't share as many values with you as you think.  These kids were abused by the mere act of taking them away and isolating them from their parents.  When these traumatized innocents were screaming in fear, because of your dad a well meaning caregiver could not even give them a hug.  Where the hell was your advocacy for women and families during this?  How dare you spread your sanctimonious filth after the fact (not that anybody who pays attention actually believes this is over).

You want a long lasting solution consistent with our values?  Convince your dad to fire his entire administration and then resign.  That would be half of the battle for America right there.

the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families

The only "American values" your father and the administration you work for care about is making as much money as possible at whatever cost necessary, even if that cost is only felt by others.  He has implemented a policy that is a violation of people's human rights.  He gets no credit for supposedly ending a travesty he created deliberately.

And you, Ivanka Trump, get no credit for sitting quietly by while your father / boss did this to children that you supposedly care about.

Joe Arpaio: Disgrace, Racist, Criminal

I have been looking for things to say about the pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio from his federal conviction for criminal contempt of court.  I want to rail about how disgusting his actions were, how antagonistic not only the decision to pardon him was but the timing of it as well.

I cannot imagine how marginalized his victims feel seeing their tormentor pardoned without a penalty.  The high of seeing the man who seemed bulletproof for so long finally be held accountable only to have that accountability swept away like it was nothing must be devastating.  I know that, but I do not feel it like his victims do.

Many others have done a fine job of detailing the deplorable behavior and criminal acts by this supposed agent of the law.  I cannot add to the conversation there, but I cannot stay silent.

Arpaio, between his conviction and pardon, attempted to scare his racist and / or ignorant audience by telling them that if the big bad government can come after an innocent law man doing his job (paraphrasing his words), then they can come after “anybody.” My response to his contention is this: You’re damned right, and that is as it should be!

Anybody who systematically violates the rights of citizens and doze so largely on the basis of race and in the name of electoral politics should absolutely expect the government to respond with righteous justice and accountability.  Nobody should expect that they will be able to hide and cower behind a badge or behind the oversized tie of an unqualified and equally cynical (and / or racist) executive trying to distract from his own self-inflicted political wounds and controversies.

Violence and Unrest in Milwaukee

Rally for justice.  Rally for truth. Rally to grieve with those who mourn.

Now is not the time for anger and judgement about what happened in Milwaukee that left a young man dead at the hands of a police officer.  The time for anger and judgement will come, but it is only with full information that anger and judgement, when warranted, can be directed to the right place.  The truth is that there are probably no clean hands when it comes to the problems of violence in our country and that includes you and me.

I would argue that if Smith, the young man who was killed, raised a gun to an officer, it is tough to blame that officer for responding with deadly force.  Even if it is true that the police officer that shot and killed Smith did so with actual legal and moral justification, that does nothing to detract from the conversation that needs to happen what our community expectations of police are and how we deal with race relations in this country.  In fact, I would go so far as to argue that recognition by those would be and have been critical of police that this latest incident was justified (if true) would go a long way toward establishing the actual, constructive dialogue needed to actually accomplish any meaningful reform.

Conversely, if it turns out that the officer did not act with full legal or moral justification, a prompt and proper response from the police department and any other applicable authorities would help establish that necessary conversation.  Everybody needs to stop trying so hard to make facts fit the narrative that they're pushing that they forget that nothing worthwhile gets accomplished without keeping a solid focus on the truth, whatever it may be.

This cannot continue to be a shouting match between two groups of people.  Neither has a monopoly on righteousness.  Neither has completely clean hands.  Neither can solve the problems of our society and keep the peace on its own.

Now is the time to cry, pray, mourn and gather.  It is also the time to listen, learn, consider, converse and remember that lives of all colors matter.  We all have a responsibility to leave a world, country and community to our children in which they can live theirs to the fullest.

Looking For Answers in Colorado

To start, I don't expect to find any answers about what happened in Colorado.  My only hope is to figure out what questions are the right ones to ask.  Our initial question is to ask "why?"  It's not a bad question to ask, but it is too broad.  Without narrowing the question, trying to figure out "why" would be too large of a task to expect to even make progress on.  Until more information comes out, any discussion of motivation or thought process of James Holmes, the shooter, is merely an exercise in speculation.  Still, there some broad themes worth pondering.

My first thought was wondering what connections people would draw between the shooter/shooting and the Dark Knight Rises.  I'll admit that as a huge fan of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies, I risk getting defensive.  With that disclaimer in mind, I think that drawing connections between this or any movie is a folly.  While it's certainly been said before, it's worth repeating.  A mind fragile enough to be pushed over the edge by a movie would almost inevitably be pushed over the edge by something.  While there are certainly similarities between the way the attack was planned and the type of attacks executed by The Joker in The Dark Knight (not to mention the outrageous hair color), this is not evidence that Heath Ledger's amazing character had any influence in motivating these murders.  That said, it's difficult to deny that there wasn't some influence upon the form that his murderous ambition took.

Holmes was, by all accounts, a very smart young man.  Enough attention has been paid to his brain power that it's worth asking why nobody saw what most would consider a brain defect.  While the dream of predicting this type of behavior through study of the brain may be a reality someday, today it remains a dream.  Many will try to look back at "signs" that were visible ahead of time.  We should not fall into the trap of this "confirmation bias" type of retrospection.  I can only hope that when we finally achieve the necessary understanding of the brain to make these predictions without the benefit of hindsight, we not only have the ability to treat the problem, but we also have a way to give people access to the care they need.

Finally, there are the guns.  While it's fair to say that James Holmes killed the people in that theater, it's undeniable that his guns allowed him to do that much more efficiently.  I'm not a gun owner, but as a Wisconsinite, I appreciate the place that guns have in our culture.  That said, the availability of guns to those who have no business owning them is something that should trouble us all.  I cannot claim to have the solution to this problem, but I think that it's time to reevaluate how we think about guns.  Marijuana faces exponentially higher restrictions than guns, and I doubt you can find credible statistics to show that pot is as dangerous as a gun in the hands of a madman.

These are just some of the broad themes that the tragedy in Colorado brings to my mind.  I'm sure that as more information comes out, further questions will be raised.  Answers, however, will be much more difficult to find.