In another of his late-night (ALL CAPS) screeds, Trump lashed out at Canada this week because someone showed him an anti-tariff ad paid for by the government of Ontario.
Angered by the ad, which featured a quote from Ronald Reagan, Trump cut off all trade negotiations with our neighbor to the north, where tariffs are already taking a toll, particularly in the aluminum, steel, auto and lumber sectors.
This move caught my attention, partly because I’m half-Canadian — my Dad was born and lived util he was 10 on a farm outside London, Ontario. His stories about growing up in the country animated my childhood, and I’ve always held Canadians in a special regard as a result.
My other half is Scottish, as my mother was born and spent her childhood in Eaglesham, a village outside Glasgow. So far, as near as I can determine, Trump seems kindly inclined toward the Scots, probable because they let him build a giant golf course there.
That could change, of course, should Trump make a bad putt.
All of this came to me as I pondered the fate of many of the other immigrants around me, those without the benefit of white skin and the legal citizenship I hold by virtue of my naturalized immigrant parents marrying and conceiving me in Detroit.
The point is that like almost everybody else in the U.S., my family got here recently. We used to agree that that was one of the things that made our country great — that we welcomed people from everywhere.
But Trump and his core advisors have thrown all that away, choosing instead to demonize migrants, blame them (along with “leftists”) for all our domestic problems, and building a private army (ICE) to grab them off the streets, round them up and deport them to God knows where to rot in some of the world’s worst prisons run by his fellow would-be strongmen.
He is trampling on the legal and human rights of millions of people, but Trump doesn’t care about the law and he certainly doesn’t believe in human rights.
That leaves it up to us — you and me — to care. We are all migrants of one stripe or another and we have to stand together against this awful man’s Gestapo-like private army with its horrific actions.
After all, in one sense we are all “illegal aliens” — if Trump’s says so. The armed, masked men in unmarked cars rounding up our neighbors will one day be coming for us — unless we stop him now and reclaim our rights under the Constitution.
HEADLINES:
Justice Department Will Monitor Elections in California and New Jersey (NYT)
PM Mark Carney says Canada will double non-US exports as Canadians can’t rely on US (ABC)
The Peril of a White House That Flaunts Its Indifference to the Law (NYT)
U.S. sending aircraft carrier strike group to Latin America in major buildup (CBS)
Letitia James Pleads Not Guilty as Battle Over Trump-Urged Prosecution Begins (NYT)
Agents clash with Bay Area protesters even as federal threat loses steam (SJMN)
Trump Calls Off Federal Operation in San Francisco (NYT)
They’ve Never Been Arrested. Why Does the FBI List Thousands of Service Members as Likely Criminals? (Mother Jones)
At least 2 historic magnolia trees, Kennedy Garden appear to have been removed to make way for Trump’s White House ballroom (ABC)
Trump’s favorability has fallen among Hispanics since January, a new AP-NORC poll finds (AP)
Hakeem Jeffries Gives Mamdani Last-Minute Endorsement for N.Y.C. Mayor (NYT)
Average Obamacare premiums are set to rise 30 percent, documents show (WP)
Measles Outbreaks Across the US Spread As Vaccination Rates Fall (Bloomberg)
Cameron Crowe: Still Uncool After All These Years (Hollywood Reporter)
Behind the Curtain: The ever-growing AI inequality gap (Axios)
We let OpenAI’s “Agent Mode” surf the web for us—here’s what happened (ArsTechnica)
Trump Touts Productive Call With Putin About Ballroom Sconces (Onion)
