Scary Lies to Keep You Afraid

This is really the kind of stupid shit that eight-year-olds tell their four-year-old siblings to keep them terrified and biddable.  We all grew out of it.  Except the toddler-in-chief and his repug enablers.

Nancy LeTourneau at Political Animal:

So here’s what Trump doesn’t want you to know: rich white people were fine with bringing in immigrants from a country whose civil war was financed by the United States because they wanted “the help” to clean their toilets and tend their gardens. That was cool because the brown folks were cordoned off in areas with struggling schools and high crime rates.

Now Trump needs an issue to rile up his base and get them out to the polls in November. He wants them to equate undocumented immigrants with MS-13 gang members and be very, very afraid. Here are some numbers to keep in mind:

1. There are roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
2. According to the FBI, there are 8,000-10,000 MS-13 gang members in the country, but not all of them are undocumented.
3. Even if all MS-13 gang members were undocumented, they would represent less that .09 percent of undocumented immigrants in the country.

The truth is that I’m not actually an MS-13 lover. I support the efforts of law enforcement to hold those who have committed crimes accountable. But I also know a scam when I see one—especially when it has its roots in racism and fascism. Calling MS-13 gang members “animals” is the latest way that Trump is attempting to fear-monger support for his administration and for Republican candidates. It is an incredibly dangerous ploy that is aimed at turning this country into something many of us wouldn’t recognize as a democracy. So if standing up against that threat makes me an MS-13 lover in the minds of fascists, I say, “bring it on!”