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Tag Archives: concentration camps

This is America – 2019

19 Wednesday Jun 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

asylum, concentration camps, Donald Trump, immigration, Resist

This morning:

MZS @mattzollerseitz
The only silver lining of this concentration camp discussion is that it instantly tells you who the American version of Hitler’s “good Germans” are.
5:39 AM – 19 Jun 2019

If you’ve ever wondered what you would have done in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s you’re doing it now.

#resist

One must never, ever criticize the family business

18 Tuesday Jun 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

concentration camps, Dick Cheney, Donald Trump, immigration, Liz Cheney, social media, Twitter

This morning on Twitter, from Liz Cheney (r) (a U.S. Representative from Wyoming):

Liz Cheney @Liz_Cheney
Please @AOC do us all a favor and spend just a few minutes learning some actual history. 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this.
[….]
9:25 AM – 18 Jun 2019

Some of the responses:

Actually if you do some research you would know that there was a huge difference between concentration camps and death camps. May I suggest you travel to Terezín then Dachau to see for yourself.

To be fair, the Cheney family are huge experts on human rights violations …

Jew here who spent three years as a professional historical researcher. Before I block you so insipid, morally bankrupt comments like your don’t darken my timeline again, two things:

1. They’re concentration camps
2. This ain’t your lane

please @Liz_Cheney, daughter of war criminal-profiteer – as you are not a Jew or a member of a rebuked community just please STFU about us. Your comments are sacrilegious, whereas @AOC actually is way ahead of you in every way imaginable.

Yeah, we’ve got pedants debating what “counts” as a “real” concentration camp, instead of thinking about what they lead to. The last words of the Republic will be “well, actually…”

2016: “You act like Trump will be building concentration camps.”

2019: “I think calling them ‘concentration camps’ is inflammatory.”

Here’s some actual history for you:

During World War II, the Japanese American internees at Heart Mountain — in your state of Wyoming — called that a “concentration camp” as well.

.@Liz_Cheney, don’t speak for me or my Jewish ancestors. In fact, @AOC is correct. You don’t understand history. You demean their memory by failing to see that “Never Again” is now. By supporting Trump, you promote cruelty, concentration camps, and racism

The history here is just not complicated. I’m just waiting for Liz to say actually concentration camps are good!

Jew here. @AOC’s point is exactly why we say “Never forget.” The Holocaust did not begin with the murder of 6 million Jews. It began with the same dehumanization, deportation, and internment we see today. You, sickeningly, invoke the Holocaust to minimize their suffering. Shame.

Also, Liz, we prefer you don’t say “exterminated” about people. That’s for rats and cockroaches (both Nazi metaphors for the Jews they murdered, incidentally!).

If I were the daughter of a man who lied to start a war for his own gain that annihilated 1/2 million humans, Id keep my head down & mouth shut. Your head is up your *** while you mouth off with stunning, indefensible ignorance. Way to not have learned a damn thing, #LizCheney

Also, the Holocaust did not start with the death of 6 million.

It started with an authoritarian populist scapegoating a despised minority for his country’s economic problems, and increasingly using govt power to terrorize them.

Warmonger’s daughter says what?

Go fuck yourself Liz. Like you care about Jews or minorities.

Hey, Liz – I’m glad you want to learn history. Let’s start.

The Holocaust began in Hitler’s ninth year in power, after years of Hitler saying the things Trump is saying now.

Kristallnacht would be in 2022 if we keep on the same pace, which we have so far.

Thanks for listening.

I guess I’m not surprised that the daughter of a war criminal would be mad about calling concentration camps what they are.

ICYMI The daughter of a war criminal is scolding a person for calling out a humanitarian crisis.

Idk Liz, could you maybe read up on all the death your own father caused before lecturing someone utilizing an entirely incorrect interpretation of what a concentration camp actually is

Imagine being the daughter of a war criminal who literally has no heart and asking other people to learn history. Biden might like your family but the rest of us remember your dad belongs in The Hague.

Well, Liz, actually they are concentration camps. And the US operated them against US citizens who had Japanese backgrounds during WW2. Please, take a seat, and let someone knowledgeable speak.

How dare you @Liz_Cheney? If you had any grasp of history, you would know that the Holocaust did not start with gas chambers, it started by moving “undesirables” into camps where they could be concentrated, away from the general populace. Sound familiar?

The final solution started with dehumanizing a group of people. That is what is happening today.

Sorry, Liz, but the Holocaust STARTED with detainment. It’s a tragedy that those who protested then were detained themselves or shouted down. And that’s what you’re doing, right… now.

As more tragedies happen in our custody, we will remember you said this.

What is going on now in the States is literally what was happening in the Reich at the beginning of the war.

Read a book, Cheney. These are concentration camps.

Read a book and feel shame.

Concentration camps aren’t necessarily camps where they kill people, that’s death camps. Concentration camps are where they put a load of people in effectively a prison without trial, which is exactly what the USA does. They’re often the first step on the way towards death camps

People like you, powerful people who equivocate and deflect, who provide cover to monsters, take all the mystery out of how modern societies commit genocide.

We see you. We see what you are doing.

Let’s see…
Overcrowding, check.
Inadequate food, water, and medical care, check.
Separating families, check.
Abuse by staff, check.
Indefinite detention, check.
No access to legal recourse, check.

Ok…what word should we use for these places?

how do you think the holocaust started liz

Funny how Republicans want to redefine words and history to pretend that “concentration camp” must mean “death camp”, and then further claim that anything short of this is okay.

I’m Jewish. People like you think of the Holocaust only in terms of the final outcome. It began though with fear mongering, pogroms, and the ghettoizing of Jews. There was a build up to the camps. What is happening at our border carries the same spirit of Germany in 1938.

I know, I know, it’s far easier for @Liz_Cheney to take advantage of Americans’ misunderstanding of history and what concentration camps are to rant that @AOC is saying the US government is running death camps. That doesn’t change the fact that we are running concentration camps.

You don’t speak for me. As someone who has family that was lost in the Holocaust, I don’t need an apology from AOC. What’s happening at the border is horrible and the reason we say Never Again.

My grandmother survived four years at Auschwitz. Her entire family was killed. From the stories she has told me, Donald Trump is indeed running concentration camps. We don’t know how many people are dying. They didn’t either in the 1930s.

Sit down, Liz.

The Holocaust began with the demonization of Jews and other minorities and culminated in the camps. My father, of blessed memory, survived Buchenwald, but was persecuted well before his transport there. @Liz_Cheney, do not minimize the hate, bigotry, and prejudice that exists.

This is a cowardly dodge @Liz_Cheney. Using historical memory as a human shield for your own complicity in current atrocity is… an atrocity.

Please, describe what’s happening in a way that doesn’t sound like a concentration camp?

Have they started using the old Japanese internment camps yet? You know, if you’ve got a bunch of old concentration camps laying around, you.might as well use them? Am I right, Liz?

Austrian here. AOC is en pointe. It starts always small, but when u r putting kids in camps, u r wayyy down the lane kinda all the way into fascism.
They r concentration camps.

“GOP representative gets offended when someone calls their draconian policies by their actual names”

You know what? This tweet disgraces every decent and good American. Not to mention history, the dead, and why we fought World War II

Don’t mind me. I’m just here to watch the war criminal’s daughter train to claim the moral high ground with the usual historical illiteracy.

Look, I know you’ve got lots of experience trying to rationalize away crimes against humanity — I mean, Thanksgiving would be awkward otherwise! — but maybe leave this one to people who know what they’re talking about.

I realize that if there’s one thing the Cheney family knows, it’s War Crimes. Still – ‘actual history’ isn’t on your side on this one. Just please remember when you do your research ‘good guys on both sides’ does NOT apply to these camps. Don’t need you coming back with ideas.

I’d recommend learning the history yourself. Holocaust and concentration camp historians have classified the immigration centers as concentration camps. Based on *checks notes* the history that Liz Cheney did not read.

What is they say about glass houses? I’m pretty confident that anybody with the name Cheney is disqualified from spouting outrage.

Welcome to America in 2019.

On understanding what it is to be patriotic

04 Wednesday Jul 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

#resist, 4th of July, arrest, civil diobedience, concentration camps, Donald Trump, immigration, Jefferson City, missouri, parade, patriotism, protest

Civil disobedience.

This is a story about a patriot in Jefferson City, Missouri who acted in defense of everything good about America yesterday. She was arrested for her trouble.

Sue Gibson, in her own words:

I got to Jefferson City’s Independence Day parade location early Tuesday evening and walked along High Street looking for TV cameras and anyone I knew who might take pictures of my planned action.

The only news outlet I saw was KRCG, the Sinclair station, and I did not think they would air it.

I found no one to whom I felt comfortable disclosing.

A woman I encountered on the sidewalk complimented my t-shirt (I Stand with Missouri Women) and showed me her tattoo that read LIBERAL.

We chatted about how hard it is to live here as progressives.

I am thinking: This is wild. She might be a police spy, or am I just very lucky to have run onto her? I gave her both my personal contact card and my Indivisible card, and we parted.

The parade started with motorcycle cops in the lead and I let them get over a block away before even considering jumping in. I was right by the judges’ grandstand and after introducing the three judges, the announcer started talking about the parade theme: Diversity and how people come to America’s shores blah blah blah. And I thought: It has to be right now! So I jumped in and stopped the parade holding my sign Babies are in cages above my head.

I remember no sound. My experience was just everyone looking at me with their mouths hanging open. Two parade organizers came along in their golf cart. The woman said, OK. You’ve made your point. Will you let us have our parade now? I stood stationary. They conferred and decided to invite me to march in the parade with my sign so the parade could proceed.

Meanwhile, I see two cops approaching on foot. The first one gets there and agrees that I can join the parade. The second one isn’t having it; orders me out of the street. I don’t move. He snatches my sign, whirls me around and cuffs me. Starts pushing me toward the curb.

The crowd cheers my arrest. All they want is a parade to celebrate America. The organizers are visibly disturbed, shouting at the crowd: “What is wrong with you? Stop it!”

But kids will ask their parents what was that that happened today, and that is what I wanted. And the organizers were conflicted. That tension within individuals is what I hoped for as well.

The cops are taking me to their car on a side street and I see that woman I just met filming or photographing with her phone!!!!! She has my email address, so surely she will send it! How serendipitous is that?

Oh, a thing a cop said before they put me in the car: “She’s one of those.” (I had incurred a charge of failure to obey an officer on two different days recently with the Poor People’s Campaign.) The arresting officer said, “Yeah, I figured it out. I recognize her.” I dare not jaywalk from now on[.]

Then I spent time with two delightful women in the holding cell having great conversation about injustices. A holding cell is a terrific place to organize! I will be taking one of them to vote for her first time ever! She got released first, and by the time I got home, she had friended me on Facebook.

And the bail bondswoman was like-minded and thrilled with what I had done; took a photo of me with my sign to share with her mother and her one like-minded sibling. And gave me a discount!

Court date: August 8.
Charge: Failure to obey.

Sue Gibson’s sign (front and back):

What a badass – civil disobedience, getting arrested, and organizing in a holding cell. Is this a great country, or what?

Someone posted video of Sue Gibson’s arrest on a community social media page.

Some of the comments on the page:

Run her ass over!

Well that’s a little violent. I hope you’re not actually suggesting someone commit voluntary manslaughter.

Stay out of the road.

…when you serve your country, you are preserving not only the rights of your family and friends, but the rights of Americans who don’t always share your beliefs. These individuals are your country, your fellow citizens, not “morons,” and are entitled to express opinions. She harmed no one, she made her statement, and she knew her consequences. You may need someone to stand up like that for you some day.

…when you impede traffic, a parade, or any other flow of moving vehicles you are a moron she could have chosen a better way to show her beliefs/opinion

…although her protest may have stopped a parade celebrating freedom, she is free to make that choice. The fact that you resort to name callling says something about how her behavior affected you, not about her.

Since this is Independence Day, and you are celebrating it in the way you choose, because we are free, I think it’s terrific that this person made a choice to show her concern for immigrant children in a way that harmed none of you, but caused all of you to express your feelings as well. Happy Independence Day. We are free, and we have a duty to make sure we stay free. That means we are free to express our opinions.

Go, read all of the comments.

Previously:

Be the badass on the right (June 29, 2018)

Families Belong Together – Columbia, Missouri – June 30, 2018

01 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

children, Columbia, concentration camps, Donald Trump, immigration, missouri, protest, Resist

On Saturday morning approximately 500 individuals attended the Families Belong Together rally and march which started in front of the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia, Missouri. The event was one of around 700 rallies and marches held across the country yesterday in opposition to Donald Trump’s (r) policies of separating immigrant children from their parents and placing them in concentration camps.

“Caring” – June 30, 2018

“How would you feel…?” – June 30, 2018

“Love resists” – June 30, 2018

Organizers from campaigns and the “No on Propisition A” (opposed to “right to get paid less”) campaign worked the crowd.

“Amnesty is not illegal” – June 30, 2018

“History will remember” – June 30, 2018

The jury is still out on that in Donald Trump’s (r) America.

Reverend Sarah Klaassen, Rock Bridge Christian Church, Columbia, Missouri – June 30, 2018

There were a number of speakers at the rally.

“Families belong together” – June 30, 2018

“Cruelty is not strength” – June 30, 2018

“Resist” – June 30, 2018

And then they marched.

Activism is about showing up, registering to vote, getting the vote out, and voting.

#resist

Previously:

That was so last century (June 30, 2018)

The triumph of privatization (June 30, 2018)

The triumph of privatization

30 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

children, Columbia, concentration camps, Donald Trump, immigration, missouri, protest, Resist

At this morning’s Families Belong Together rally in front of the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia, Missouri:

“Trump hotels” – June 30, 2018

Someone is making more money, right?

Previously:

That was so last century )June 30, 2018)

That was so last century

30 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

#resist, children, Columbia, concentration camps, Donald Trump, immigration, missouri, protest

At this morning’s Families Belong Together rally in front of the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia, Missouri:

The New Colossus.

Not in Donald Trump’s (r) America.

KC Rally for Muslims, Immigrants, & Refugees – Kansas City – June 29, 2018

30 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#resist, children, concentration camps, Donald Trump, immigration, Kansas City, missouri, Muslim ban, protest

Yesterday evening Muslim community and interfaith organizations held a KC Rally for Muslims, Immigrants, & Refugees by the J.C. Nichols Fountain at Mill Creek Park near the entrance to the Plaza in Kansas City. About 150 individuals showed up to demonstrate and to hear speakers including a poet, imams and a rabbi. All spoke of peace, love and justice.

There was a proactive Kansas City Police presence.

“Why should love stop at the borders?” – June 29, 2018

“No Muslim ban” – June 29, 2018

“I really do care. Do you” – June 29, 2018

“Friends and neighbors” – June 29, 2018

“No ban, no wall” – June 29, 2018

“Only love can drive hate out” – June 29, 2018

Poet.

About an hour into the rally a group of right wingnut anti-Muslim counter-protestors showed up. Wearing t-shirts emblazoned with “no immigrants, no Muslims, no refugees.”

The individual on the right is so badass they deserve another photo posting in our blog.

The badass on the right.

It was difficult to get decent images of this group, the good guys kept blocking the direct view with their signs.

Editorial comment.

His editor would cut the first line and the fourth line, then call it truth in advertising.

Diversity fail.

Celebrating diversity – June 29, 2018

It’s quite simple, really, if you single out a religious minority you’re a bigot. That’s it.

#resist

Previously:

No, we cannot (June 29, 2018)

Children understand (June 29, 2018)

As we are all (June 29, 2018)

Be the badass on the right (June 29, 2018)

Be the badass on the right

29 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

children, concentration camps, Donald Trump, immigration, Kansas City, missouri, Muslim ban, protest, Resist

This evening at the KC Rally for Muslims, Immigrants, & Refugees by the J.C. Nichols Fountain at Mill Creek Park near the entrance to the Plaza in Kansas City – the first of the anti-Muslim counter protesters:

We will only be saved by millions of ordinary people acting every day as individuals with moral courage and heroism.

Previously:

No, we cannot (June 29, 2018)

Children understand (June 29, 2018)

As we are all (June 29, 2018)

Hey, Sarah, Leni Riefenstahl had to put up with the same kind of “incivility” in 1938

26 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#resist, children, concentration camps, Donald Trump, history, Hollywood, incivility, Leni Riefenstahl, lying, Media, Nazis, Sarah Sanders

Madera Tribune, Number 24, 30 November 1938
GIRL FRIEND, OF HITLER IS NOT WANTED
Anti-Nazi League Protest to Hollywood Visit of Leni Riefenstahl

HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 30. Advertisements bought by the Hollywood anti-nazi league today blared in big, black type: “There is no room in Hollywood for Leni Riefenstahl.” Miss Riefenstahl is the darkhaired German actress frequently mentioned as “Hitler’s girl friend.” She is in Hollywood for her first look at the American film studios. Hardly had Miss Riefenstahl settled her bags and given out another interview denying anything beyond a “business relationship” with Adolph Hitler, when the antinazi league went to work. It bought space in the Hollywood trade papers and urged the film colony to give the German actress a cold shoulder. The same kind of snub was given Premier Mussolini’s son, Vittorio, when he visited here last year. Young Mussolini went home abruptly, and reputedly angrily.

Apparently, Leni Riefenstahl and her dining party of twelve were refused service at a “Cabaret”. For being Nazis.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

#resist

Mayor Sly James – Cosecha KC Rally to Protect Families – Kansas City, Missouri – June 24, 2018

25 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

#resist, children, concentration camps, Cosecha KC, Donald Trump, immigration, Kansas City, Mayor, missouri, protest, Sly James

Yesterday afternoon over 1,000 people gathered at Mill Creek Park in Kansas City for the Cosecha KC Rally to Protect Families to protest the treatment of asylum seeking immigrants and children by the Trump administration.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James spoke at the rally.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James – June 24, 2018

Mayor Sly James: [….] Good afternoon. [applause] Thank you all for being here to show the rest of the country, and everybody wants to listen and know, that this is how the American people feel . We do not support what’s going on in DC. [cheers, applause] The young lady mentioned that she had a couple of relatives in the Marine Corps. I was in the Marine Corps. None of us put on our uniform in order to see people stopped at our borders and caged and separated from their families. [cheers, applause] That wasn’t what we were ready to fight for. We were fighting for liberty, justice for all. For all. There were no limitations put on the all. It didn’t say all the people who are here. It didn’t say all the people who wanted to be here. It said all. And that has been lost in DC.

This is nothing but politics. We have to stand and fight this because if we don’t at the end of the day it’s not about them, it’s about us. We define what our country is about. [cheers, applause] We are the ones who say what’s right and wrong. We’re the ones who unite families. We’re the ones that care. We’re the ones that live here. These are our neighbors. These are our friends. This is our city. It’s not theirs.

This is not a game. These are children that are being separated from their families. It is traumatizing. It is inhuman. It is immoral. It is wrong. We must stop it. Now. [cheers, applause] [….]

#resist

Previously:

Melania’s claim to fashion immortality (June 24, 2018)

Don’t take away my rights, I’m still using them… (June 24, 2018)

No human being is illegal… (June 24, 2018)

Cosecha KC Rally to Protect Families – Kansas City, Missouri – June 24, 2018 (June 25, 2018)

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