Tag Archives: immigration

condescending twatbags, family, music, narcissists, politicians, politics

Pseudogranny and Ron DeSadist both strike again!

Today is turning out to be a slightly better day than yesterday was. For one thing, I think I’m FINALLY done moving most of my music collection. So far today, I’ve spent a little under four hours on this project. BUT– it does appear that I might be about done with the job, at long last. I may run across a few greyed out songs or whatever, but there are a lot fewer now than there were even 24 hours ago.

For another thing, younger daughter sent the most adorable video this morning. Back in late March, Bill and I visited Hohenzollern for the second time in our lives. Hohenzollern, for those who don’t know, is a beautiful castle in the hamlet of Hechingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. After our visit, I told Bill I thought we should see if they had any cute souvenirs for his grandkids. We picked up a few items, but it took several weeks before Bill finally managed to mail the box. It arrived yesterday, so younger daughter videoed the kids opening the box and reacting to the gifts.

We bought a little stuffed hedgehog for the youngest, who just turned one. Hedgehogs in the wild aren’t really a thing in the USA, but we have them in Europe. In fact, there’s one who lives in our backyard and appears every August.

For the granddaughter, we bought a purple and white princess dress. It has a metal ring hoop, so it’s poofed out. Younger daughter says her daughter is very girly and has lots of costume dresses, but she probably didn’t have one that came from an actual castle (actually, it came from Canada, according to the label). Anyway, she put it on and loved it. It looks like she has some growing room, too, so that’s a good thing!

And finally, for the oldest, we got a wooden sword and shield. The shield says “Hohenzollern Berg” on it. When he saw it in the box, he grabbed it, closed his eyes, and hugged it to his chest with a big smile and an exclamation that he’d been wanting a sword. His reaction was just so adorable! Younger daughter said that he’d been wanting a sword, but we didn’t know that when we were at the castle. It was a lucky guess. Pseudogranny strikes again! 😉

We also sent Haribo candies– gummies and whatnot. That made younger daughter excited! There was also a 3-D postcard in there, but hopefully it didn’t get tossed out. I don’t think she noticed it, because it was in the bag with the hedgehog. Bill had quite an ordeal trying to send the box. The postal system has gotten a lot stricter about the labels on packages going through the APO system. Probably the best part of the gift was the bubble wrap Bill used.

So… that video put me in a good mood. I like to see the grandkids happy!

Then I read about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, aka Ron DeSadist… Well, technically, what I read wasn’t about ol’ Ron. He hasn’t officially taken “credit” for the second plane full of migrants that landed in California yesterday. The planes were reportedly affiliated with a Florida based company called Vertol Systems Company Inc. The contractor that carried the migrants was participating in the migrant transportation system administered by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management.

Now, it would be sketchy enough if the migrants had come from Florida, but they were actually picked up in Texas and brought to New Mexico, where they were put on planes to California’s state capital, Sacramento, and dumped at a church. Again, DeSantis hasn’t commented on this situation, but his hands are all over it.

Ron DeSantis has pulled this shit before. Last year, he was behind sending a group of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts from Texas. Some governors think this is an appropriate way to protest what they see as Joe Biden’s lack of action in stopping illegal immigration. When I read or hear about these political stunts, it just makes me sick. I would NEVER vote for a politician that thinks this is okay, even though those people who were sent to California are probably going to be better off in the long run. The more I hear about this shit, the more I think most Republicans are not only brain dead, but they lack heart, too. They certainly aren’t behaving like Christians.

Does DeSantis not realize that these are human beings he’s using as political pawns? These are people who are looking for a better life. Very few Americans can claim that they originated in the United States. Most of us are descended from immigrants. I think it’s reprehensible that DeSantis and his like minded political pals find it acceptable to round up people and send them to places where local officials aren’t prepared to receive them.

Personally, I think Ron DeSantis and his like minded pals should be arrested and prosecuted for human trafficking. He certainly has no business being president, either. I am SO SICK of the political shit show instigated by Trump, his MAGA moron posse, and all of the wannabes, like DeSantis. I hate the idea of any of them leading the United States. I would like to see some REAL CONSEQUENCES handed down to these idiots who use human beings in this way, just to rile up the people who still think Trump is some kind of god.

I really think that living in Germany has made me more empathetic toward immigrants. I know my situation isn’t quite the same as theirs is, but I am struck by how welcoming most Germans have been to Bill and me. I think of how I would feel if some political asswipe decided to send me to some other German city just to make a point to political rivals. That just sucks… and it’s shameful. I hope the new arrivals will be treated with more kindness and humanity, in any case.

Of course, now Pence has also joined the fray… I think 2024 is going to be an epic political shitshow. I probably need to see a doctor soon, but honestly, I’m so tired of this crap that I think I might just let the chips fall where they may. The sooner I get beamed up, the better.

But, at least the grandkids had reason to smile, right? And my music library is mostly fixed. So those are two good things that happened. Now, I think I will take Noyzi for a walk… try to burn off some of my beer gut… 😉 (and yes, Susanne, walking can help burn off a beer gut.)

Featured photo is a shot of the video we watched. That was the shield we got for oldest grandkid. It came with a sword.

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Trump

Trump screws over the overseas born children of certain veterans

Today, the Internet is abuzz with commentary about Trump’s latest stupidity. He’s decided that children born abroad to non-citizen or naturalized U.S. government or military personnel will not automatically be citizens of the United States. At first, it looked like he was trying to say that all children born abroad to U.S. citizens would have to request citizenship, but I see that notion was clarified.

Frankly, I’m beginning to feel like my U.S. citizenship is a burden anyway, but I was born in Virginia to Virginia born parents, so I’m an American through and through. It still makes me angry for the brave people who have given their lives to government or military service. While non-citizen U.S. soldiers aren’t necessarily the norm, there are some people who would be affected by this new policy, which is set to take effect in October.

Trump’s policy is apparently aimed at non-citizen government and military servicemembers who have not lived in the United States for at least five years. It would not affect children born to parents where at least one is an American citizen and has lived in the U.S. for at least five years. While I’m sure some citizens are fine with that, it does seem pretty shitty to do this to military families. It’s hard enough having to live far away from home, risking your life for your work in support of your country. And if you aren’t a citizen and are doing that work, I think it’s doubly shitty to support this kind of policy. I think Trump’s new policy sucks, and it will shoot him in the foot. A lot of his supporters are veterans… although I think veterans who support Trump are pretty stupid. He doesn’t care about them.

It’s hard not to feel hopeless these days. It seems like there are so many people out there who just seem to want to make things harder. Donald Trump is at the top of the list of people who care only about themselves and what they can get. It’s depressing to see the country I grew up in and was always taught was all about freedom and a new way of life, is now about caging children at the border and screwing them out of citizenship. I’m tired of seeing selfish, irresponsible, hateful people get what they want, while decent, hardworking, fair-minded people get screwed. It sucks that our president is such an unrepentant asshole. I think it’s funny that when I Google “unrepentant asshole” images, Trump’s face is the first one to surface.

I don’t have the energy to write more about this today, though. I’m preoccupied with other things that suck right now. One thing that can certainly fuck right off is the hot weather. I’m ready for September, when the temperatures will become less oppressive.

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movies, Trump

Are we in 1970s era Romania?

This morning, I watched a video by Rachel Maddow about a Trump administrator who has been tracking girls’ pregnancies in an attempt to force them to give birth. Scott Lloyd, the very pro-life former head of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement and author of a paper entitled “Why you can’t be pro-life and pro-contraception”, was featured on Maddow’s piece revealing how, as recently as June 2018, his staff members were tracking the menstrual periods and pregnancies of girls between the ages of 12 and 17 living in shelters run by his office. I could explain what was in the video, but I really think you should watch it yourself. It’s extremely creepy. Or, if you’d rather read an article, here’s an irreverent one by Emily Alford on Jezebel.com. If you have time, you should also read this article about Scott Lloyd’s “work” with migrant families.

So how did we find out about Lloyd’s shenanigans? It’s due to the bravery and determination of a girl who had come to the United States for help. Despite being in a foreign land and not yet of age, she managed to get help from attorneys who sued on her behalf.

Scott Lloyd sought to block a teenaged rape victim from getting an abortion. The 17 year old girl was one of many youngsters who had come to the United States hoping for asylum. She was sent alone to a shelter, run by Lloyd’s office. Lloyd determined that he would make it his priority as head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement that no girls would have access to abortions. The 17 year old had arranged her own transportation at her own expense to and from her doctor’s office, but Lloyd’s staff basically held her hostage at the shelter, trying to force her to stay pregnant long enough so that it would be illegal for her to have an abortion. Somehow, the girl managed to get herself to lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and they sued. The girl got her abortion, but only because she had the gumption to sue for the right, which is currently protected by U.S. law. In the wake of the lawsuit, it came to light that countless other girls, some as young as 12, were being forced to remain pregnant, even after they were raped.

To make things even creepier, staff members at the shelters were providing spreadsheets to Lloyd, detailing very personal information about the girls. He tracked their periods, whether or not they were pregnant and if they had asked for an abortion, how they became pregnant, and how far along they were. Lloyd also directed a staff member to read to one girl what happens during an abortion. He also tried to force them to see medical providers who subscribed to his pro-life views.

As I was listening to Maddow’s show this morning, I was reminded of a different country and a different time period. In the 1960s, Romania had a very liberal policy regarding abortion and birth control. Because many women were in the work force and there was a low standard of living in Romania, abortion and birth control were allowed. In fact, abortion was used as a family planning method there, because there wasn’t much birth control available and what was available was expensive. I wasn’t surprised to read about the abortions used in that manner. It was the same way in Armenia when I was there. I knew one woman who had seven abortions because there was no money for birth control and the men were reluctant to use condoms.

Anyway, in 1966, the Communist Party decided that the birth rate in Romania needed to be higher. They wanted Romania’s population to rise from 23 million people to 30 million. That’s how Decree 770 was created. Nicolae Ceausescu, who led Romania during that time, authorized the decree, which required all women to be monitored by gynecologists every month. Women who had miscarriages had to endure extensive investigations to be certain that the miscarriages weren’t actually abortions. All abortions and contraceptive methods were declared illegal, except for women over age 45 (later reduced to 40 in 1974, then raised to 45 again in 1985), women who had already borne 4 children (later raised to 5), women whose lives would be threatened by pregnancy or childbirth, or women who were rape or incest victims. Actually, it sounds like Ceausescu’s regime may have been more liberal than Lloyd’s policy is!

Decree 770 led to many women having babies they couldn’t afford. The children often ended up in orphanages, not because they were actually orphans, but because their parents couldn’t take care of them. The mortality rate among pregnant women was at its highest ever during Ceausescu’s regime, when Decree 770 was enforced. The Securitate, Romania’s secret police, kept a close watch on surgeries done in hospitals to enforce this very creepy and intrusive policy. Moreover, many children born during this regime were malnourished and suffered from physical, mental, and emotional handicaps, or were raised in horrifying conditions that led to a rise in child mortality. Many women sought illegal abortions, which were extremely risky for many reasons, legal and medical.

As I sit here listening to Rachel Maddow’s spot on this topic for the second time today, I am once again amazed at how the United States has allowed a monster like Donald Trump to run the country… and appoint disgusting, perverted creeps like Scott Lloyd to run government agencies, particularly when they have absolutely no relevant experience. All Lloyd is good for is pushing Trump’s revolting agenda.

It’s going to take a long time for the United States to recover from this disastrous administration and its attack on anyone who isn’t a white, Republican male. It’s going to take an even longer time for the United States to regain its reputation after electing this ignorant buffoon to office.

If you are interested in watching a fascinating film about abortion in Romania during Decree 770, I highly recommend the movie 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. It’s in Romanian and set in 1987, when Decree 770 was still law. Although the subject matter isn’t very pleasant, it’s definitely eye-opening… and for me, it’s a little creepy, because the sights and sounds remind me of 90s era Armenia.

If you can stomach the subject matter, this is a pretty fascinating film.

Truly, I think it’s beyond sick that Scott Lloyd, paid by our tax dollars, was tracking the menstrual periods of migrant girls who have come to the United States looking for help. It’s even sicker that he’s doing everything in his power to prevent these young girls from getting help after they’ve been raped and gotten pregnant. It’s absolutely shameful that instead of helping these girls, Scott Lloyd was victimizing them again and invading their privacy in what should be among the most personal aspects of their lives. And even though he’s been censured by the court, he was still obsessively tracking these girls’ periods and pregnancies just months ago. What a sick, sick man.

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