Tea Party Meeting Erupts as Politician Urges "Compassion" for Migrant Children

If one wants a good glimpse at the ugliness which is today's Christofascist/Tea Party controlled Republican Party, a good example is what happened at a A town hall meeting held by Texas Tea Party state Rep. David Simpson (R).  Simpson committed the heresy of supposedly not doing enough to stop undocumented Central American children and youths from flooding the border.  Of course, these Tea Party folks are 85% or more self-identified conservative Christians, so their reaction shows how little they care about the Gospel message.  If they aren't controlling the sex lives of other people and feigning piety on Sunday mornings at church, they really want nothing to do with the true Christian message.  A piece in The Raw Story looks at the batshitery that erupted this week. Here are highlights:

A town hall meeting held by Texas Tea Party state Rep. David Simpson (R) on Wednesday got heated as Simpson’s constituents railed at him for not doing more to stop the influx of unaccompanied, undocumented minors coming to the United States from Central and South America. 

The Longview, Texas News-Journal reported that the conservative attendees expressed health concerns, religious fears and doubts about Simpson’s commitment to putting his “constituents first.”

Simpson attempted to tell the crowd of about 160 residents that the thousands of children arriving at the Mexico-U.S. border are fleeing lives of violence and abuse, including gangsters who specialize in trafficking children as sex slaves. Texans should treat the children with compassion, he said, a notion that his audience summarily rejected.

After Simpson’s slide show of the faces of some of the border children, Longview resident Terri Hill said, “I believe your constituents should come first when you talk about people who are impacted. You are to represent us, and we have children. These [migrant children] are people that are coming in with leprosy, tuberculosis, polio.”

Another resident, Ben Denson, expressed fear that the children could be disease-carriers.

We need a lot of things, but what we don’t need is more people at the trough,” said Thomas Rolland to Simpson. “These people are not coming in with a good, Christian heart. Most of them are criminals, anyway.”

Simpson protested, “These children are fodder in this. They are being assaulted.”

“I don’t believe in amnesty,” he assured the crowd. “I don’t believe in treating people who’ve crossed the border as a murderer…I do think there should be a path, a legal path, for naturalization or citizenship. We’re a nation of immigrants.”

It sounds like Simpson needs to switch political parties.  He may also want to avoid hanging around the modern day Pharisees of the GOP base.   The GOP base continues to provide the best argument around as to why one would want to walk away from both the GOP and Christianity.

Pope Francis: Immigrant Children Must Be 'Welcomed And Protected'

While he still has not taken needed action to sack bishops and cardinals who were involved in covering up the rape of children and youths by Catholic priests, nonetheless Pope Francis is proving to be a pain in side of disingenuous, anti-immigrant Republicans. One has to wonder how pretend Catholics Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz will try to dissemble and try to avoid papal condemnation if they prostitute themselves to the anti-immigrant racists of the GOP base. Perverse as it may be, I cannot help by smile at Francis' ability to put the total hypocrisy of nasty individuals like Ryan and Cruz on display.  Here are highlights from Huffington Post on Pope Francis' effort to throw down a gauntlet to anti-immigrant Republicans:

Pope Francis confronted the "racist and xenophobic attitudes" that often face undocumented immigrants by addressing the thousands of unaccompanied children included in their ranks.

In a message delivered to the Mexico-Holy See Colloquium on Migration and Development on Monday, the pope drew attention to these migrant children who he said often undertake the dangerous border crossing alone in order to escape violence in their home countries:

"This humanitarian emergency requires, as a first urgent measure, these children be welcomed and protected. These measures, however, will not be sufficient, unless they are accompanied by policies that inform people about the dangers of such a journey and, above all, that promote development in their countries of origin."

Pope Francis noted the urgency of this predicament, saying that the numbers of migrant children "are increasing day by day." U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that more than 50,000 unaccompanied migrant children have crossed the Southwest border so far in 2014.

While Pope Francis delivered his message, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin spoke at Mexico's Foreign Relations Secretariat and urged clergy and foreign ministers to protect young migrants.

"Whether they travel for reasons of poverty, violence or the hope of uniting with families on the other side of the border," Parolin said, "it is urgent to protect and assist them, because their frailty is greater and they're defenseless, they're at the mercy of any abuse or misfortune."

The cardinal reiterated the Vatican's support for this cause, saying, "The church will always support at the national and international level any initiative directed at the adoption of correct policies."

Outside of the church, though, the pope also called for the international community to take steps toward finding a humanitarian solution to the immigration crisis. 

On Sunday Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell met privately with dozens of governors of states that will host thousands of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America. The program, initiated by the Obama administration, will go into affect in October and aims to tackle the growing influx of child migrants. 

Would that the mainstream media would have the balls to confront anti-immigrant Republicans and demand an answer as to how they reconcile their supposed Christian faith with treating immigrant children like disposable garbage.  These people are foul hypocrites and they need to be exposed for what they truly are.

Will The GOP Punt on the Border Crisis?

Republicans - including those in Congress - like to rant, demand that Barack Obama be impeached or sued, etc., but one thing they do not like to do is come up with any sort of policy solutions be it on proposals to replace or improve Obamacare or deal with the border crises involving tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children.  Good forbid that a real proposal be put forth made or a real decision be made.  That might upset the lunatic GOP base or perhaps convince voters that the GOP's proposals suck.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at why the GOP may simply punt and do nothing about the border crisis.  Here are excerpts:

So who’s being a reasonable Republican on the border issue? Well raise my rent if isn’t Karl Rove, who said  on Fox Thursday morning that “Republicans have to look at this as an opportunity that they have to work.” Yes, Rove has a track record of pushing the GOP to seek Latino votes, so he has what the fair and balanced pundits call “credibility” on the issue; but with that Machiavel, you never know—he could be saying it knowing that his “responsible” reputation on the issue will spark a rebellion that will ensure that President Obama’s request fails.

I jest, a bit, but I’m just making the point that we have now reassumed the familiar and always soul-crushing position of gaming out how the Republicans are going to decide what to do with Obama’s $3.7 billion request to deal with the problem. On the one hand we have Rove and people like Lindsey Graham, who fears that the GOP will start shouldering the blame if it doesn’t act: “If we do that, then we’re going to get blamed for perpetuating the problem.” 

On the other, you’ve got your usual assortment of tea people who think the whole thing is a “charade,” to quote South Carolina GOP Rep. Mick Mulvaney.  Most of these folks will probably coalesce around some piece of legislation, just so they look responsible to the know-nothing observer, but of course it will be legislation that’s entirely focused on border security, which isn’t really what this problem is about. It’s about: processing these kids more rapidly; maybe changing that 2008 law that made it easier for them to stay, which the administration, against some Democratic objections, is already trying to do; and treating them more humanely while they’re here. But their base wants to hear people thunder about border security, so they will inevitably thunder about border security—and possibly force Obama to sign a law that won’t fix the problem, a fact that they, also being Machiavels, will know ahead of time.

Here, meanwhile, is the thing to understand about this $3.7 billion. You’re going to hear Republicans complain, if they haven’t started already, about the fact that roughly half ($1.8 billion) of this amount would be directed not to the manly Bureau of Throwing Brown People Back to the Coyotes but to the Department of Health and Human Services. This will, I would imagine, emerge as a central GOP talking point over the next few days, because HHS is one of those bleeding heart, girly-man agencies. 

[T]here’s a good reason half the money is going to HHS. Under that 2008 law—passed, as you’ve no doubt read by now, unanimously by both houses (unanimously, of course, includes Republicans) and signed by President Bush—when a Border Patrol agent nabs a kid from anywhere south of Mexico, the agent has to turn the kid over to HHS to make a determination about whether the kid can stay. A Bush law. 

Which raises two points. One, until that law is changed, HHS has to get a big cut of the purse. And two, if the Republicans resist Obama’s efforts to change that law, how exactly can they call themselves tough on border security?

Well, yes. We know how. We’ve all seen this movie way too many times. I don’t know what the Republicans will end up doing here, but it will be dictated by the usual two factors. First, the outrage of the base. It’s cranking up already—oppose Obama here, or you will get a primary

The second factor will be their internal polls. If the polls suggest what Graham said, they’ll compromise. They did once in the Obama era on a big thing—the fiscal cliff deal. Then, their polls were telling them that they were going to be blamed if midnight struck and the Bush tax cuts expired and everyone’s tax rates increased. If the polls now tell them very clearly that most voters—let’s refine that; most likely 2014 voters—are going to blame them for the irresolution of this problem, they’ll compromise. Otherwise, they will oppose. 

Once upon a time Republicans did what was right because, well because it was the right thing to do.  Those days are long gone.  As are many sane and decent individuals who once considered themselves Republicans. 

Mega Church Pastor: Jesus Would Have Wanted a Border Fence

Robert Jeffress - Foul hypocrite and modern day Pharisee

It is stunning how today's "godly folk" use the Christian moniker yet act in a ways diametrically the opposite of the principles announced by Christ and the behavior he exhibited if one believes the Gospel narratives.  Christ's focus was the poor and down trodden and he socialized with the outcasts of the society of his day.  The main targets of Christ's condemnation?  The Pharisees who we see reincarnated in today's conservative Christians who are best known for their hypocrisy and utter hatred towards anyone who doesn't think, look and love like they do.  With thousands of undocumented children in custody along the USA's southern border what does Texas mega church Pastor Robert Jeffress pontificate?  That Jesus would have wanted a border fence to keep out the poor, needy and those fleeing violence in their home countries.  One has to wonder, if there is a God, when will a lightning bolt strike down Jeffress and the many professional Christians that are killing the Christian brand.  A piece in The Raw Story looks at Jeffress' foul batshitery where he claims sending children back to face violence and oppression is the "compassionate" thing to do:

Texas megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress on Thursday cited Jesus Christ to Fox News as reason that the federal government should build a border fence, which he said was the most compassionate thing that could be done for immigrant children.

Jeffress argued that “the most compassionate thing we can do for these children is to secure the border.”

He compared the border to a swimming pool without a fence: “If you’re a homeowner with a swimming pool that doesn’t have a fence around it, and a neighborhood child wanders in and drowns, you’re liable because you have enticed that child into a dangerous situation. The remedy is to build a fence.”

“What we are doing by having these unsecured borders is we are enticing children and mothers to make this dangerous journey,” the Christian leader added. “Yes, we want to show compassion to the children who are here, but the most compassionate thing we can do is secure the borders.”

Jeffress ended his interview with a religious message to the “many Christians” who watch Fox & Friends.  “They’re wondering what the right thing to do is,” he noted. “Yes, Jesus loved children, but he also respected law. He said, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars.”  “So, we need to do both. Show compassion, but secure the borders.”

Jeffress' real problem with these children is that (i) they are not white and (ii) they are not evangelical Protestants.   I agree with author Anne Rice - I don't want to be called a Christian anymore because I do not in any way want to be associated with horrible people like Jeffress, Tony Perkins and many others who make the Pharisees of the Bible look like kind, compassionate charity dispensers in comparison.