(Sorry to subject you to him…)
(the full transcript is here)
http://time.com/5497569/donald-trump-oval-office-address-transcript/
Some excerpts:
“Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War.
In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records, including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. Over the years, thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country, and thousands more lives will be lost if we don’t act right now.
This is a humanitarian crisis — a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul.
The border wall would very quickly pay for itself. The cost of illegal drugs exceeds $500 billion a year — vastly more than the $5.7 billion we have requested from Congress. The wall will also be paid for, indirectly, by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico.
Day after day, precious lives are cut short by those who have violated our borders. In California, an Air Force veteran was raped, murdered, and beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien with a long criminal history. In Georgia, an illegal alien was recently charged with murder for killing, beheading, and dismembering his neighbor. In Maryland, MS-13 gang members who arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors were arrested and charged last year after viciously stabbing and beating a 16-year-old girl.
Over the last several years, I’ve met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration. I’ve held the hands of the weeping mothers and embraced the grief-stricken fathers. So sad. So terrible. I will never forget the pain in their eyes, the tremble in their voices, and the sadness gripping their souls.
How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?”
(He just declared open season on brown people for political points and bucks.)
Pelosi and Schumer’s weak-ass response:
(the full transcript is here.)
Some excerpts:
Pelosi: “The fact is: We all agree that we need to secure our borders, while honoring our values [the kinder, gentler ICE™ we hear mentioned?]: we can build the infrastructure and roads at our ports of entry; we can install new technology to scan cars and trucks for drugs coming into our nation; we can hire the personnel we need to facilitate trade and immigration at the border; and we can fund more innovation to detect unauthorized crossings.
The fact is: the women and children at the border are not a security threat, they are a humanitarian challenge – a challenge that President Trump’s own cruel and counterproductive policies have only deepened.”
(But oh, those male rapists and murderers and drug mules…look out!)
Schumer:
“Make no mistake: Democrats and the President both want stronger border security. However, we sharply disagree with the President about the most effective way to do it.
The symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty, not a thirty-foot wall.”
(Laugh Track, Chuckles. ‘Bring me your tired, your poor, your hungry…’)
What they did NOT say I’ll hand over to Barry Grey, wsws:
“The official Democratic response was given by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Their perfunctory remarks were punctuated by protestations of support for “border security” and appeals for bipartisan compromise, while lacking any concrete demands for a halt to the administration’s antidemocratic measures against immigrants. There was no call to free the incarcerated families and children, halt the Gestapo-type work place raids, tear down the tent city internment camps and the growing network of prisons for immigrants, or end the systematic violation of the right to asylum.
The one true statement Trump made in his speech was a reminder that Schumer and Pelosi had supported and voted for a border wall in the past, including offering just last year to back $25 billion for Trump’s wall in return for a broader—and punitive—immigration package.
Most remarkable was the absence in their remarks of any warning about the deeply antidemocratic implications of the measures already taken by the Trump administration or the fundamental and far-reaching implications of the White House’s threat to bypass Congress and order the military to build the wall under a state of emergency.
This underscores the fact that there is no democratic side in the political conflict within the ruling elite that has given rise to the government shutdown. The Democrats are allied with the predominant sections of the military and intelligence apparatus, which are using the Mueller anti-Russia probe and other investigations to either force Trump to adopt a more aggressive policy in the Middle East and against Russia or remove him from office altogether. They work to strengthen the police agencies of the state and operate with the methods of palace coup, while spearheading the drive to criminalize political opposition and censor the internet.”
Two poems by Raymond Nat Turner, blackagendareport.com
7 Year Olds Dying In Third Reich ‘Detention’
“Papi, are we there—
are we almost there?”
Wide-eyed incantation
of a child, three feet plus/
60 pounds.
Exodus leaving the lowland
six days before birthday 7…
“Papi, are we there—
are we almost there?”
Beaming birthday celebrant
on the bus munching an un-
crushed pink frosted cookie
from Papi’s beat up backpack
“Papi, are we there—
are we almost there?”
Her small, soft hands celebrating
Heroics of an unshaven face chasing
Dreams; dreams of pine tree scents
and small gifts—compliments of magic
of his hands. Dreams of the doll her
Mother promised, before dying suddenly;
Dreams of asylum from violence, fleeing
extractive capitalism’s suction tube tentacles…
Papi also had dreams of “J-Bird,” as he
called her, teaching school and university
with compassion and skill she instructed
stick dolls he’d crafted from fallen branches
“Papi, are we there—
are we almost there?”
springing up and down on her
invisible trampoline, Papi’s promises
of a Christmas tree and celebration in
California, in America…racing through
her amazed and amazing mind.
Papi was proud. His back burned and
ached. He clenched his teeth, when she
dozed off to sleep. His stomach growled,
rattling sunken sides. He went without
eating so her belly would be full. He took
tiny swigs of water so she’d have enough…
(Football fans who love players that ‘play
through pain;’ Basketball fans who love
players that ‘create their own shots,’ does
chasing dreams thousands of miles through
government/gang infested swamps—bad back
7 yr. old in tow—show up in your thicket of
statistics and fantasy?)
“Papi, are we there—
are we almost there?”
To her the bumpy ride jarring dreams,
juggling her belly up and down was an
Adventure. And Papi had prepared her for
it with bedtime stories where everyone lived
Happily ever after…
Arriving at a ‘border’ swarming with
uniformed thugs: 3/5 human—igloos
pumping raw sewage through veins
whistling “Dixie” prying Papi and “J-Bird”
Apart.
Her forehead a 105 degree radiator; body
spasming, eyes rolling ‘round in their sockets
tummy evicting food Papi fed her—
Terrorist tricks to breach the border, enter the
U.S.— as were delirious, distorted, slow motion
Last words…
“Papi, are we there—
are we almost there?”
Waiting on Capitalist Hill…
Trumpeted Blue Wave Bar & Grill, at the foot of
Capitalist Hill
Hearty meals for labor’s dime, truncated time…
Heard ads, read rave reviews, received frenzied
phone calls from friends touting Single-Payer
Pasta to die for; delicious Grilled Green New
Deal and Gluten Free Education; otherworldly
Affordable Housing Hors d’oeuvres—and taste
of the hereafter Impeachment Cobbler!
Could this be true—another case of deja vu—
frowning Maître D; hearing throat-clearing?
“Hmm…” our reservation… can’t be found?
Finally seated besides swinging doors—pots,
pans, plates, ‘talk’ show banter serenading us…
Until a mummified moll appears hands on hips,
hissing, “You order antipasti?
Fresh out, hon’—how ‘bout a heaping helping of
Unca Jim?” Presto! A servile, overbearing Black
server’s at our throats and 1% boots…
They mock our orders in shrill unison and high-five:
“Off the table! Off the table! Off the table! Off the table!”
We shout, “What do you fuckin’ serve?” They shoot back,
“You knew the menu—you knew what we do—Order up!
Pentagon Cooked Books on Endless War Endive; War-
Profiteer Pork Chops with Dictator du Jour Soup; Apartheid
State Steak,White Phosphorus Seared; Blackened Bailout on
Toasted Too Big To Fail Flatbread; Order up! Wall Street Stew,
some sweet nothings too? 1% Pineapple Upside Down Cake?
Flip-the-House Flan with Trickle Down Tea? Hey, take it or
leave it, hon’…
Or, talk to the bosses: Tony Missiles, Jake Greasy Thumb
Oil, Al Big Ag, Bugsy Big Pharma, Crazy Joe Protection…”
(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
No, wendye, that was Time’s error – what he said was ‘how much more American blood must be shed…’ At least I am supposing that, or that he misspoke, intending to say what I have said. Of course he didn’t say what you implied. That, however one believes of Trump, is not what he intended to say. Let’s be fair.
i did not imply anything, juliania; i grabbed the quote from Time, as there was no way i wanted to listen to his lying smears of the asylum seekers, not that i ever want to listen to him. so i’m not trying to be unfair. so what did he say in your ‘…’ then? and two examples equals what, boss tweet?
i do have link i’d provided over yonder as t how many ‘terrorists’ were arrested, apparently .02 percent of all who’d crossed the border over a long period of time. this one, iirc, but my eyes seem worse today than usual, so i won’t try to make sure:
on edit: this one: 6.) There is no evidence that criminal groups like the MS-13 are taking advantage of the U.S. asylum or immigration system to place gang leaders in the United States.
wola.org’s fact sheet
snoopy dog over yonder caused me to go looking for this creepy news from the new york times, though. the RT version:
https://www.rt.com/usa/448664-fbi-investigate-trump-russia-ties/
dunno that the times version had mentioned ‘putin/russian agent julian assange’, though. not as far as i could see.
i grabbed the bloomberg transcript, and they say also: ‘How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?’
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-12/trump-s-wall-emergency-may-end-one-conflict-but-create-another
But he wouldn’t be talking about shedding the blood of brown people when earlier he was describing the thousands of Americans being killed and the need to prevent that. More of those thousands(whether or not they exist) are the ones whose blood is being shed in his statement. If he did indeed say ‘we’ (I haven’t listened to it either, and am not going to) my guess is he just mangled ‘be’ in the speech, being an older person who does regretfully do such things. The meaning is thus – we’ve had the blood of thousands shed – how many more?
ah…the penny finally drops. bless your heart, here’s the background.
he campaigned on building ‘the wall’, and although the Ds had offered to fund it w/ a comprehensive package of mega-billions earlier, eh ignored the offer, as i understand it. so given they wouldn’t fork over the requested $5.7 billion for it, he shut the government down.
the vile speech was in aid of his ‘manufactured crisis’ to get the funding and justify 22 days now of gummint shutdown, a minimum of 800,000 federal workers w/o pay. dunno how many are required to work w/ no pay, but quite a few. friday was the first day without checks.
but bless your heart, those were all lies and smears, and as i indicated in the OP created an ‘open season’ on killing brown people. many militias are on the border doing just that, but even more so now under this prez.
but look: all he could come up with was three alleged murders to make his case for massive criminality among the asylum seekers. otherwise, they were rapists, violent offenders, drug runners, and look at the numbers he claimed in the transcript (which are bogus as all giddy-up).
there is no crisis!
Thanks for giving the transcript. These are volatile times, and the march on the border has placed this country in a very difficult position. It reminds me that a similar event of the past was the armada that came from Cuba, which consisted of numbers of Cuban prisoners, and was just plain scary, I would believe, for people living along Florida’s coastlines, whatever one thinks of either government.
I do take your point that the Dems are behaving duplicitously. They are using this issue in their ongoing Russiagate destabilization of , whatever you think of Trump, his attempt to govern. In doing so they are more traitorous than he is. Not only will their tactics backfire, they will destabilize the government itself.
Not a good thing.
given everything we know now about ‘the news’, one might wonder if those reports of those scary cuban prisoners was even so (thanks for the reminder). because: bay of pigs, and trying to wrest the new government post-revolution. same thing: socialist cuba needed taking back by way of the CIA because fidel was a socialist. and to read what the castros have accomplished for cubans is breath-taking. but as with VZ now, other bolivarian nations in the south, they are ‘direct threats to the security of amerka’.
while i was gabbing the RT link, i saw a headline that pompeo (iirc) is calling openly to remove maduro from power. he was inaugurated yesterday/two days ago for his second term as president. think of the smears against him and his government; my stars.
but yes, the dems’ duplicity is ugly; they don’t even really care about the effects of workers and citizens(the WIC program) shutdown save to attack trump..
Some related links I’ve been through this week:
The Intercept, By Greg Grandin, The Border Patrol Has Been a Cult of Brutality Since 1924, January 12
The History of Racial Violence on the Mexico-Texas Border: Refusing to Forget
oh, my, greyson smythe. even scanning both has made my stomach roil. unable to remember why i’d held the name ‘greg grandin’ as worthy, i bingled just now and found him on democracy now! on dec. 19, 2018. i might try to read that shorter version (at least first) of what seems to be somewhat similar.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/19/greg_grandin_how_us_policies_punished
a long, long piece by ron unz came in on the popular resistance newsletter, rather confusing as he’d spent a lotta ink deconstruction ‘blame’ for various immigration laws, so i finally gave up, sent it to myself, but the entire essay was configured around the myth of what he calls ‘hispanic’ crime.
nice to see you, hope life is going well for you, or at least most of it. ;-)
Hi Wendy,
Yeah, I recognized Grandin’s name, too; this came back as the only thing he’s written for The Intercept, but there’s a lot over at Counterpunch.
I’m fine, thanks. You?
Smythe
ah, the penny drops again, and thank you for his oeuvre at CP g smythe. now i recall his essays, esp. on latin america. the portion i’d clipped from his DN transcript was fascinating, as i hadn’t known of that convenient perfidy by clinton.
good to hear you’re fine; i’m ‘well enuff for who it’s for’, a tweaked version of what’ often said around these parts. ; )
‘Greg Grandin: How U.S. Policies Punished Central Americans, Long Before Jakelin Caal Maquín’s Death’, democracy now, 12/19:
“GREG GRANDIN: Yeah, look, the Trump administration is vile, but this history predates the Trump administration. And my co-author of the piece that you mentioned, Liz Oglesby, has written a lot about this, the way that, since starting in the 1990s, pretty much concordant—corresponding to the signing of NAFTA, the Clinton administration, Bill Clinton, began to militarize the border, making relatively safe urban passages—shutting them down and forcing migrants into the desert. This was intentional. Clinton officials said we can use geography as an ally, meaning we could use the torments of the desert in order—as deterrents to keep migrants out. That didn’t happen. The desperation, largely caused by economic policies like NAFTA, continued to force, displace hundreds of thousands, millions of peasants off their land. They had nowhere to go. They came to the United States.
And all the militarization of the border did was it raised the cost—it ended seasonal migration. It changed the nature of migration, because once you did make it into the United States, you were captured. You couldn’t go back and forth. You had to stay here. So, increasingly, the demographic profile of migration changed. You came with your whole family, rather than a worker would go work, come back, go and work. So, in some ways, the militarization of the border didn’t stop migration. It actually created a captive, undocumented, vulnerable population of tens of millions of people in the United States, that is one aspect of this interlocking set of policies that have just been catastrophic for North America.”
the transcript
some folks over yonder at c99% maintained that soros or others are funding the caravans, and i think they were thinking of caravans of cars and trucks or something. but i did read earlier than many supporters helped them along the way with gifts of water, food, maybe even pesos.
but these photos from the atlantic in october put paid to the notion that most aren’t on foot, and often…barefoot, although i don’t remember if these pics showed that.
i’d forgotten to bring this over earlier:
ProPublica has a new investigation up:
Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes
I started to quote from it, but this is a family blog – so I’ll just link to it with a Parental Advisory implied: https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes
thank you, greyson. george marlowe at wsws has it up as well.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/07/02/immi-j02.html
he reminds us of this:
“While Ocasio-Cortez visited the El Paso facility Monday to decry the conditions and was the object of violent shaming and derision by the Border Patrol, she also bears responsibility for the crimes being carried out in these concentration camps.
Her crocodile tears notwithstanding, Ocasio-Cortez voted last week to allow a vote in the House to pass the Democratic-approved Senate bill to give $4.6 billion for Trump’s concentration camps. She has towed the line of Nancy Pelosi and leading Democrats in giving support to Trump’s war on immigrants while feigning occasional sympathy for the horrendous conditions they face.”
what a con artist is aoc: