Because Cleanliness is Next To … What Was That?

June 20, 2019 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized

Oh no.

The Trump administration’s Justice Dept. lawyers say migrant children detained in federal concentration camps do not need soap or toothbrushes despite a settlement agreement that requires the U.S. Government to keep them in “safe and sanitary” facilities.

I really don’t even know what to say.  What kind of cruel insanity is this? They can’t even wash their hands after going to the bathroom or eating?

Prisoners get soap, dammit.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

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0 Comments to “Because Cleanliness is Next To … What Was That?”


  1. Jane & PKM says:

    Children. IQ4.5’s maladministration has no concept of how to provide children with the mere basics of humane treatment. While our Congress sits on its hands allowing this to happen, the only remedy is to appeal to the UN through the International Red Cross and demand as a minimum the standards of the Geneva Conventions be met. Children. Donnie would have them treated with less compassion and dignity as one would expects as a prisoner of war.

    https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/publications/icrc-002-0173.pdf

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  2. Linda Phipps says:

    Trump’s sanctimonious followers just don’t care. Maybe all their children have pinworms so it’s sort of natural, hmmmmm? I also understand that scouring the cult just makes they fight back harder, but if we can just give one of them an apoplexy ….

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  3. megasoid says:

    The current castigation of AOC over the correct usage of the term – concentration camps by wailing GOPenalsystem lovers, does invoke holocaust imagery in the making.

    Sanitation failures will give rise to all manner of infections, and yes, deaths in these camps.

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  4. Grandma Ada says:

    I hope at some point there is an international trial with Trump and his administrators on the inhumane treatment. I don’t know that the US courts could hold him accountable.

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  5. megasoid says:

    Even six million dead began with a single digit.

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  6. In the 80’s, just after we’d married, my mom was in the beginning of her Evangelical period, going to different churches to find the proper charismatic flavor. We got mailings on the dangers of demonic Buddhists, Taoists, atheists..pretty much the whole Jack Chick enemies list…as well as going all in for the Republican Party.
    The late wife was fascinated by ancient Egypt, and low grade occultism, and would claim, betimes, to be a witch. She would stew silently to one of Mom’s efforts to warn us, telling about what some or other preacher had said about Carmen Sandeigo (she was the gateway to Satan!!!), e.g.
    Once she began a rant about the New Age, and it’s hellish pedigree..and I was able to say “Yes it’s awful, mom! I saw Nancy Reagan’s astrologer on Phil Donohue! Can you believe folks fall for that nonsense?”
    The subject was immediately changed.

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  7. Liz Efting says:

    Such a sad statement. I wonder if your president’s son gets soap to wash his hands…..America has truly joined the list of shit hole countries. It used to be a great country, but no more. Hopefully your next president can undo some of the harm, but it will take decades to get you back to pre-trump.
    In my humble, honest, Canadian, opinion.

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  8. megasoid @ 4,

    And history of 1930’s Germany repeats itself in the country of free and justice for all.

    This is cruel and inhumane. It needs to be stopped.

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  9. weakgrip says:

    treat them and the adult for what they really are, prisoners of war.

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  10. free should be freedom

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  11. Republicans act offended when people refer to these facilities as concentration camps or prisons. Then they take away soap and toothbrushes from their already flimsy and indefensible arguments that these are not jails, or fenced in camps.

    As long as Fox guards the coop, and cooped up captives and political talking point hostages, one starts to wonder why those who argue for less than 21st century humane treatment of other human beings want to build a wall, when they can’t even see the line they’ve crossed.

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  12. thatotherjean says:

    Cruelty is the point of this administration’s treatment of immigrant children. Our current administration is vile, and they need to be stopped, but I have no idea how. We have a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals–does a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children exist? Can the ACLU take the perpetrators of this outrage to court in an expedited way? AOC was right.

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  13. There is the famous story of the ASPCA took a child in its care and went to court to prove that if a child is treated as badly or worse than a dog, then it must be a dog and the ASPCA has the manifest right to do its job. Maybe this should happen again.

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  14. Teh Gerg says:

    There should be a term for government by total a**holes.

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  15. Sandridge says:

    AOC and some others are calling these places “concentration camps”. Why the hell aren’t ALL Democratic politicians and ‘mover-shakers’ blasting out a unified, coordinated message about this?
    Why not? Because the effen Democrats still focking suck at ‘MESSAGING’ compared to the Rethugs!

    Below is a great quote from a commenter on a Daily Kos article on the topic:
    .
    “Tiny example: Why are not all Dems saying AOC is correct to call them “concentration camps” and why are not all Dems pointing out that the Rep outrage is over the “calling them” and not the “doing them”?”
    .
    Even I am sickened by what this criminal regime has been doing [and I used to associate with BP/Customs ‘La Migra’ people, so had a working knowledge of it].
    I write this as one who is way to the right of most of y’all on the subject of illegal immigration [and ‘amnesty’ claims]. I’m one of very few commenters here and elsewhere, who has actually lived on the Mexican border [most of my life, from 5-15 miles away]. I’ve driven countless times over that border and through the interior checkpoints. Drove by the Bayview detention center zillions of times on my way to SPI/PI, even have kinfolk who work there, been around many of the other Valley ICE centers, like Ursula [even worked on Ursula Road, but miles from the center].

    This crap is beyond the pale. The Dems need to get their messaging shit together and simply point out that much of what is going on now is a criminal atrocity. And I don’t mean any of that insanity about “open borders, eliminate ICE”, etc.

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  16. Sandridge says:

    Teh Gerg,
    A ‘Sphinctocracy’?

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  17. megasoid says:

    Article:

    “I’m a Jewish historian. Yes, we should call border detention centers “concentration camps.”

    It isn’t just accurate. It’s necessary.

    https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/6/20/18693058/aoc-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-concentration-camps-immigration-border

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  18. megasoid says:

    “Applying the term “concentration camp” to the indefinite detention without trial of thousands of civilians in inhumane conditions — under armed guard and without adequate provisions or medical care — is not just appropriate, it’s necessary. Invoking the word does not demean the memory of the Holocaust. Instead, the lessons of the Holocaust will be lost if we refuse to engage with them.

    https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/6/20/18693058/aoc-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-concentration-camps-immigration-border

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  19. They don’t think it would be fair if the kids got more than Trump’s base.

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  20. lazrgrl says:

    Why aren’t millions of us in the streets?
    My mom’s Ghanian home aide says Americans are lazy and just want to watch events on TV.

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  21. megasoid says:

    A facility to house over 1,000 undocumented children is set to open Monday in Carrizo Springs, Texas—just days after almost 250 groups called on Congress to decriminalize migration and chart a new course for the country’s border policies.

    The Carrizo Springs concentration camp, which was initially built by Stratton Oilfield Systems as worker housing, will be run by Texas non-profit BCFS Health and Human Services for the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). BCFS runs child detention centers for the federal government in Tornillo, Texas, roughly 489 miles from the Carrizo Springs facility.

    HHS spokesperson Victoria Palmer confirmed to Common Dreams that the agency was using Carrizo Springs as a camp to hold children.

    “All children will be sheltered in hard-sided structures at the Carrizo Springs facility,” said Palmer. “Semi-permanent soft-sided structures will be used for support operations.”

    Federal policies on immigration, however, are trending in a more punitive direction. HHS is reportedly no longer funding education or legal services for the children it’s holding prisoner, though the department is continuing to build facilities to hold them, like in Carrizo Springs.

    In a tweet reporting on the Texas concentration camp’s imminent opening, WFAA reporter Jason Whitley said the facility would “house more than 1,000 captured children.” That language drew anger from immigrant rights advocates like Melissa Mark-Viverito, the interim president of Latino Victory US, who urged observers and reporter to not “concede to the GOP’s attempt to control the language we use to describe this administration sponsored horror.”

    “This is not normal!” added Mark-Viverito.

    https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/20/trump-prepares-open-new-captured-children-facility-texas-hundreds-rights-groups-call

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  22. Joe Hill says:

    What part of this don’t these people understand? These are KIDS!!! Kids who mostly had no choice about coming here and are being held with no end in sight. How in heavens name can all his Evangelical supporters not be speaking up?

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  23. eyesoars says:

    Teh Gerg@16:

    There’s kakistocracy, government by the worst. The shoe fits…

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  24. Sandridge:
    I couldn’t agree more that the left sucks at messaging.
    But IMHO its because so many of us still believe that a free press will inform the electorate enough that a majority will be able to see enough truth to make the right decisions. Sounds simple.
    I think that use to be the case.
    Before the right started spending untold billions learning how to subvert the fourth estate.
    Decades ago.
    I don’t know how we reach people who only consume propaganda, disguised as news.
    But I feel this in my bones.
    If we don’t find a way to start getting more people to listen to actual news, we’re sliding faster and faster down the slippery slope of the kinda facism the Founding Father’s were terrified of.
    Our belief in a free press providing the checks on the powerful is a soothing, comfortable thing a lot of us cling to. Why shouldn’t it? It was established. It’s a thing.
    The pesky little problem is freedom of speech.
    The Founding idea of our democracy.
    Which the right adulterate on a daily basis.

    A good ole Case knife is a thing of soothing comfortable dependability to lotsa guys I’ve known through the years.
    And metaphorically speaking, if we don’t quit keep bringing a Case knife to an AK-47 fight, we’re screwed.

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  25. If we don’t quit bringing.
    Not keep bringing.

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  26. Also, sphinctocracy is great for us.
    But methinks it would evoke images of regal, people-headed Lions in the minds of the Limbaugh/AILES’ reality.

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  27. Sandridge says:

    P.P., the Case knife-AK-47 is a good analogy for the asymmetrical messaging match-up of D vs. R.
    The problem with ” find a way to start getting more people to listen to actual news” is: where do you find “actual news”? It’s all slanted rightward to some degree now. Even PBS, witch I usually watch, has slowly been bent to the right in much of it’s news and programming [much of it is in the “production” and editorial processes, which can be subtle].
    .

    megasoid,
    The high temp was 106 or 108deg F in Carrizo Springs yesterday, same today and for the next week or months. It’s been sweltering forever down here in S TX. The temp/heat is one thing, but dewpoints have been ~80deg+, which is ‘dripping wet’ humidity and astronomical heat indexes.
    They’re putting those kids in housing units that were built/used by Eagle Ford Shale oil workers, these ‘camps’ sprang up all over this region [I’ve got at least 50 of them within 10 miles of here, of different sizes; really amazing what has happened with the ‘boom’ of the last 10 years.].
    I would guess that the buildings are substandard, dirty, reek of oil and tobacco, etc., but they probably have noisy crappy, very cold air conditioners.

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  28. Linda Phipps says:

    Joe Hill: I have had the entire evangelical movement in the cross hairs (yep I said it) for a very long time. The good old – time “Moral Majority” is not even close to moral, and sadly makes the majority of the noise. If there are decent ones out there, why are they hiding.

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  29. megasoid says:

    I did my basic training in Amarillo many years ago. Also worked 130 miles out in the Gulf for a month in 12 hour shifts.

    The trailers had one small bathroom at the end and we slept in bunks with the sound of Lincoln generators 24/7. It still pales in comparison. This would be a living nightmare for a young child.

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  30. Lisbeth Echeandia says:

    We know all this is happening … and it continues to happen. “The Trump administration argued in front of a Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday that the government is not required to give soap or toothbrushes to children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border and can have them sleep on concrete floors in frigid, overcrowded cells, despite a settlement agreement that requires detainees be kept in “safe and sanitary” facilities.”
    I know there are many great organizations trying to keep the spotlight on these atrocities and doing what they can to help. I believe the administration will continue to make it harder for anyone to report what is actually going on in these camps. Military control, no access by lawyers or activists or faith groups and no media. The deliberate cruelty and inhumanity is not completely unexpected, but that so many go along with it, is.

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  31. This is the NSGOP’s beta test of their new health care program, known as LED, for Let ’em Die.

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  32. Jane & PKM says:

    Sarah Fabian arguing for the IQ45 maladministration is suggestive of much needed improvement in the justice system: send attorneys to prison with their clients.

    Nixon leads the pack with 76 criminal indictments, 55 convictions and 15 prison sentences. Dubya and Reagan are a statistical tie for second place. Then came Donnie. His maladministration could double the pack numbers with ‘only’ his attorneys figured into the statistics.

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  33. Sandridge says:

    The Texass Rethugs in Austin are pissing away another almost $1 Billion of our state tax money in the upcoming budget period [2020-2021] duplicating/usurping a Federal government function.
    Hope y’all do like me and spend as little money on anything that has a state tax on it [sales taxes mostly]. All those other things are hard to beat.
    I have to pay an exorbitant fee [imo] every 2 years for a state vessel registration [it’s lots more than your car/truck reg fee], even with a federal USCG vessel documentation. USCG documented vessels/yachts over 115′ long are exempt somehow…guess who owns those big yachts? A little one, shaft ’em. Most states exempt documented vessels [dbl tax] iirc.
    .

    Gubner Abbott is on this, like stink on shit:

    “…Abbott announced Friday that the state will deploy 1,000 troops from the Texas National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to aid the federal government with border security efforts.
    “There is an escalating crisis at the border – a crisis Congress is refusing to fix,” said Abbott, who was flanked by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, along with Brig. Gen. Tracy Norris, the adjutant general of the Texas National Guard, during a news conference at the Texas Capitol.

    Abbott said the troops will have two main roles: to help at temporary holding facilities for single adult migrants in the Rio Grande Valley and in El Paso, and to help Border Patrol units along ports of entry. The federal government, he said, will pay “100 percent of the costs of this short-term mission,” which will roughly double the number of Texas troops currently stationed at the border.

    …Abbott, who signed a 2020-21 state budget earlier this month that has $800 million earmarked for border security operations. …”
    .
    https://therivardreport.com/texas-will-deploy-1000-national-guard-troops-to-the-border-amid-migrant-surge/

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  34. Reports are that the thugs are planning to stage wide spread “raids” targeting people of color starting on Sunday morning.

    Sounds like they are preparing to stage raids on churches?
    Why else target Sunday mornings?
    I hope that all churches that may have members that may be undocumented have the video running if the ice agents kick in the door of a church while services are being conducted.

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  35. Paul ADK says:

    Of course, with this crew?

    If soap is required then they’re probably going to start making it.

    Again.

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  36. Lunargent says:

    I so fervently wish that Karma was a reliable outcome.

    Because then every one of the people responsible for this atrocity, this CRIME – would be incarcerated under the exact same conditions.

    Starting with that appalling idiot twit who testified in front of the panel, down to the workers doling out half-spoiled food. But most especially to everyone formulating and implementing this vile policy
    .
    I want them all arrested in whatever clothes they’re wearing, driven to a facility in the middle of a desert, and locked in a wire enclosure. Then they can just sit there. With no lawyers. No medical care. No change of clothes. No goddamned soap or toothbrush. Nowhere to sit or sleep except a concrete floor. A foil blanket. The lights on 24 hours a day. Oh, and of course, no touching – it’s against the rules.

    Of course, this treatment is a violation of every international standard of care for incarcerated individuals. It’s utterly inhumane. But I would argue; haven’t the “people” responsible for what’s being done to these children already forfeited their humanity?

    Right now, I’m deeply ashamed to be a citizen of this country.

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  37. panthercityhorn says:

    An article that speaks to what level the current administration has sunk. Herr Twitler is making me ashamed too Lunargent.https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a27813648/concentration-camps-southern-border-migrant-detention-facilities-trump/

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  38. Trump and his maladministration believe these *camps* are benign and there are no inherent problems with either the facilities or treatment of the children. Facilities — nice euphemism for concentration camp!

    Perhaps Trump and his vile toadies should send their children and grandchildren to spend a couple of fun-filled week at “Camp Concentration”.

    Every child deserves to experience life without the basic necessities. What child hasn’t dreamt of not having to wash their hands after going potty or before eating? No baths? Golden! Not having to brush their teeth? Yay! Staying up all night with the lights on (no flashlights under the duvets for these souls), sleeping rough like real campers do under the stars? This is an opportunity of a lifetime!

    But not to worry, republithugs — your little angels will be well protected by the armed guards patrolling the *campgrounds* just to keep them safe and secure. Or frightened half to death. And as an added bonus to your little angels camping experience they will experience PTSD for the rest of their lives — if they survive.

    Any individual that thinks this situation is acceptable does not deserve to draw breath. It stuns me to know the majority of these politicians in agreement with this policy are parents and grandparents and they let these atrocities continue. His base voters are for it because of ignorance, hatred and fear. I weep for society.

    Change.org has a petition out to the United Nations calling for an investigation into the horrific situation of children being kept in these facilities. There is no mention of the deplorable conditions that have been added (or subtracted in the case of schooling and playtime).

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  39. Jane & PKM says:

    Brave New Films created this short, shareable film to light a fire under citizens to help families being torn apart by Trump’s cruel immigration policy. https://crooksandliars.com/2019/06/americas-deadly-immigration-policy-summed

    After you watch the film, share it with:
    Three elected officials. Find your federal representatives here. Send them an email, call their office or tweet at them.
    Two local news outlets. Write an op-ed and share the video with members of your local media.
    One friend or family member. Help spread the word and ask them to share.

    List of organizations to join the fight: https://www.bravenewfilms.org/reunite_act

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