Yesterday, Trump's lawyers sent a letter to Congress regarding the impeachment process. On Sunday, Trump announced we were pulling out of Syria. I have thoughts.

On Impeachment

1) Trump's letter repeated the claim his call with the Ukrainians was "perfectly good." Yeah, not so much.

2) The letter demanded that the House follow various procedures, including giving subpoena power to the Republican minority. The thing is the only requirement of the House is to vote articles of impeachment to the Senate. How they get to that is up to them.

3) Regarding subpoena power - the former Republican House and the current Republican Senate had or have subpoena power. They didn't and aren't using it. Maybe they know the people they call aren't going to say what Trump would like them to say?

4) The letter basically dares Congress to vote on an inquiry. If they do, much of Trump's already-scanty legal cover goes away. Calmer heads would have just stuck with not cooperating. But Trump is not calm, and his followers really want a fight. It looks like they'll get one.

On Syria

1) I was not particularly in favor of our getting involved in Syria. However, once you get involved, just jumping out with no planning or notice is as bad or worse than jumping in.

2) Given Trump's economic interests, it's hard not to wonder if the pull-out was intended to help grease the skids on Trump Tower Turkey.

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Here in the USA, if you call the police and ask them to investigate your neighbor, very early in the conversation the police will ask "for what?" They will then quickly follow that up with "what evidence do you have?" Now, they're not looking for you to provide enough evidence to haul your neighbor in front of a judge, but you had better have more facts than "well my neighbor's got shifty eyes."

In the Land of Trump, Fox News and Modern Conservatives, (for whatever daylight exists between those entities) this basic evidentiary requirement gets waived. So despite the fact that there was no evidence Obama was born anywhere else than Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, we got treated to Trump personally demanding an investigation into his place of birth. In fact, I firmly believe the merciless if well-deserved mocking Trump got at a White House Correspondent's dinner over the subject is why Trump ran for President in the first place.

Now, Trump and Fellow Travelers are demanding investigations into the Bidens. Again, no evidence is required. In fact, the one "questionable" thing, Joe Biden's request that a Ukrainian prosecutor be fired, was backed at the time by Republicans in Congress.

But this attitude that no facts are required explains why Trump continues to demand foreign governments investigate Biden. In Trump's mind, he's doing nothing wrong. Biden must be dirty, and if efforts to produce the dirt fail that's not because he's clean but proof of a coverup. So now what we must decide is if we want as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the United States a man who will use his badge for personal benefit.

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Herewith is exhibit number 3459 as to why it's better to be lucky than good.

Yesterday, my primary life mission was to drive my parents to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago for my Mom's post-operative visit. Mom's medical report was good and the drive down and back was uneventful, albeit involving heavy traffic coming home. (We left Northwestern at 3 PM, which means we hit rush hour.)

Last night, we went out to dinner. I drove. My car was a bit sluggish in starting after dinner but not terribly bad. The next morning it barely cranked at all, and when it did fire up I got several warning lights on my console. So I took it to the dealership, where to get it into the service bay they had to jump-start it. In the bay, they replaced the battery and applied a software update to clear a problem with the HVAC.

Obviously, had the battery died yesterday, things would have sucked. A dead battery in the morning would have meant me driving Dad's car downtown. A dead battery in the afternoon would have meant trying to get a jump in the parking lot. Possible but painful. Again, sheer luck.

Two side notes. First, my GM Onstar system did email me that I was having battery issues. Alas, the email came late last night and I missed it in my rush to get out in the morning. Second, when I posted a brief note about the battery on Twitter, the Sears Twitter-bot sent me a note offering a discount on a new battery. Too late, Sears - I posted to Twitter from the dealership.

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Herewith is my draft schedule for Windycon, to be held November 15-17 at the Westin in Lombard IL.

Create Your World - Friday, 11-15-2019 - 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm - Lilac B
Although traditional Space Opera may cut the corners when it comes to planetary science, a sense of place is still a major part of it. From planning the environment of the planet to determining who or what lives there, it is always important. Our panelist discuss issues necessary to build your own exotic planet and what corners you can cut.


Strategies and Tactics in Space Battles - Friday, 11-15-2019 - 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm - Lilac D
Space battles are not just naval battles in space! There’s a lot to consider when writing or fighting battles in space. Lack of gravity, immense distances, the vacuum, and communications all have to be considered when you take your war off solid ground. Find out more from our panelists.


Readings - Saturday, 11-16-2019 - 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm - Mueller Grand Ballroom H
Half-hour readings by Windycon author attendees.


Writers Workshop - Sunday - Sunday, 11-17-2019 - 9:00 am to 12:00 pm - ISFiC Suite - Room 1612
For the nineteenth straight year, Windycon will be hosting a writers’ workshop. Get a little taste of what it’s like to attend Clarion in our manuscript critique session. Pros will read your story or novel chapter – up to 7,500 words – and offer constructive advice in a moderated three-hour session. The workshop sessions take place in the hotel, but away from the fray of regular convention activity. You must be a registered Windycon-goer to participate. A $20.00 fee is required to cover various costs. All manuscripts must be received by Friday, October 11. Please leave a comment below if you are interested in submitting.

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The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy called and said I had to write an article on impeachment. (BTW, I'm still waiting for the check for the last time they called.) So herewith, thoughts:

1) Regardless of what the Bidens did, it's an abuse of power for a sitting US President to call a foreign leader and press them to investigate US citizens. This is especially the case if those US citizens are not fugitives from justice or otherwise can't be tried in US courts.

2) Again regardless of what the Bidens did, it's an abuse of power to have your private attorney, Rudy Giuliani, work with the State Department to set up meetings to press said foreign power to conduct an investigation.

3) "But what about what they did?" is not an excuse. That excuse stopped working for me in first grade.

4) John Scalzi is on-point about the political calculus on why the Democrats were slow-walking impeachment. Basically, it's highly unlikely Pelosi will get enough Republican Senators to vote to remove Trump from office. But if the Senate doesn't vote to remove with these allegations, it will be clearly partisan politics.

5) Various alt-right types are cackling that the Democrats have "walked into an impeachment trap." Given that to them, Trump can literally do no wrong, I'm not sure I agree. The key point here is that this is not the Clinton impeachment. We're not trying to remove somebody for cheating on his wife. This is more like Nixon, where felonies were committed to fix an election.

6) Some have speculated that Trump either wants to be impeached and/or is playing some multi-dimensional chess game to manipulate events. I am dubious. I think he is a narcissist and engaged in classic gaslighting. This is learned but semi-conscious behavior aimed at getting what the gaslighter wants done in the moment. After all, there were dozens of more subtle and more importantly less traceable ways to get the message to the Ukrainians that they needed to find dirt on the Bidens if they wanted the money.

7) Finally, I think this whole process will be slow, messy as hell and unpleasant. I am looking forward to it with all the eagerness and joy I look forward to my next colonoscopy.

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On Saturday, I went to my local eat-and-drink movie house to watch the new SF flick Ad Astra. I have opinions.

1) I found the movie a bit ponderous. Some of that is characteristic of the plot, which is basically Heart of Darkness as interpreted by Apocalypse Now. Some of that is just because it's ponderous.
2) The spaceflight sequences are very much anti-2001, with tech that looks almost retro.
3) Much of the science is wonky.
4) You'd better like Brad Pitt - he is in every scene. Everybody else is a third banana or worse.
5) The visuals are stunning.
6) I found the ending a bit hokey.

Having said all of that, I did enjoy the movie, but overall I'd rate it a B.

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I'm not a fan of my car's GPS system - rather I prefer to know where I'm going. But last night it saved my bacon. I was in lovely downtown Montgomery Illinois (the first town south of Aurora) for a Rotary event. My GPS sent me home via 75th Street.

In Naperville, the cops had my side of 75th street completely blocked off. No explanation, just "you must exit now." The exit was into a subdivision with dark, narrow and winding streets. There was no marked detour laid out, it was just "figure it out yourself, buster!"

Fortunately, I was using my car's GPS so it did the figuring out for me. It wasn't an entirely non frustrating trip - the GPS logically kept taking me to the next major road to tie back into 75th Street, except two of them were also blocked by cops. Fortunately, I did make it home.

Thanks, GPS!

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There's a famous saying which I've always attributed to the US Marine Corps. "Once is accident. Twice is coincidence. The third time is enemy action." The Internet tells me that this is actually from James Bond. Auric Goldfinger tells Mr. Bond that it's a saying from Chicago.

I mention this because, for the second time, we learn that Jerry Falwell Jr. Pushed ‘Sweet Deal’ For Personal Trainer On Liberty U. Facilities. Yet another athletic young man (a personal trainer) got physical with Falwell and ended up with a suitcase full of money. All we need now is to learn Michael Cohen, Trump's Fixer of Zipper Malfunctions, drew up the deal.

Tell me again how a Christian minister preaching a religion of poverty gets this kind of money. Tell me again why anybody follows said minister.

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It's been in the news of late that Trump wanted to buy Greenland from Denmark. This suggestion has prompted a lot of hilarity. Most of the hilarity is not based on the merits of the deal. (There ARE some merits - we have two military bases on Greenland for a reason.) The hilarity comes from two reasons.

First, buying a large chunk of a country is something that should be given rather more thought than you would give to selecting a variety of pop from a vending machine. There is absolutely no evidence that this "deal" was given even that level of thought.

Second, the "deal" was announced via Twitter on Monday. Today the Republicans are selling t-shirts with Greenland shown as part of the USA. It gives the impression that we should be glad Trump doesn't come out against deodorant or bathing, lest the stench in our public places grow too much.

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Various thoughts on a Monday.

Thought #1

I was with my Rotary club working both the National Night Out event and a festival in Darien. I was struck by some of the outfits people wore to the various events.

Thought #2

Via my LinkedIn feed, I found this site: Google Project Sunroof. It allows you to put in your street address and get an estimate of whether or not solar power panels on your roof would save you money or not. For my address, the savings were substantial. I don't know how they were calculated so I don't know how accurate they were. I pass the link on for entertainment value.

Thought #3

Last week, ICE raided seven plants in Mississippi to arrest ~700 illegal immigrants. None of the managers were arrested. It is clear to me that ICE is being used to do what American businesses have done since the Revolution, namely keep wages low by bringing in new immigrants whenever the old immigrants start demanding a fair deal. The swamp is not being drained.

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Last weekend I went to see the new Quentin Tarantino movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Some of the trailers would give one the impression that the movie is about the Sharon Tate murders and the Manson "family." It's not - although both sets of people are in the movie.

The movie is about Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth, a fading actor and his long-time stunt double. It's a long movie, frankly almost plotless. What plot there is revolves around Rick's struggles in a Hollywood that's getting out of the business of making Westerns and into more modern stuff.

Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robie (who has very few lines of dialog) is there largely for color. The Mansons are in the movie primarily to keep the audience interested. Really, the whole thing is Quentin trying to capture a time and a place.

I find my reaction to the movie confused. In many respects, it was like going to a museum to look at the old stuff. The fact that there was a plot (of sorts) going on was almost besides the point.

The closest the movie got to making any sort of point about much of anything was to highlight how random the Tate murder was. That's an interesting point, I guess, but how relevant it was to anything else I leave to others to decide.

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I'm writing a historical fiction novel set in 1986. I had reason to wonder in the course of the novel how significant a lump sum of $50,000 would be to a college freshman. I found a web page which listed how much a US Navy officer would get paid in 1986 - the first full year of my active duty career.

I discovered that I would have made around $20,000 gross in 1986. Now I was far from rich, but I was quite comfortable as a new college graduate with than income level.

My Twitter feed, ironically, also blew up with links to this site - menus (with prices!) by year.

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The other day I stated that my place of employment was offering discounts on pop if you used a debit or credit card. They are offering discounts, but the reason isn't because it's cheaper to use a card. The reason is they want people to test their new contactless debit card and this is the incentive.

Every once in a while I make a mistake.

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I use Outlook 365 personal edition for my personal email via Comcast. I use the IMAP protocol for this account, which means my PC does not delete email from the account, so I can see emails on my phone and PC. I HAD this account set up so that Comcast emails would go to my personal folders.

Well, early last week, my Outlook 365 stopped connecting to Comcast. On Saturday, I did some troubleshooting. Lo and behold, now Outlook 365 will not let you deliver mail to a personal folder, at least not from an IMAP email. Nope, you have to have a separate folder structure for that. Yes, there USED to be a way to make that happy, but the button to do it has disappeared.

The suggested workaround is to create a custom search folder which will aggregate all email from your various accounts. When I found that "suggestion" I was tired of playing reindeer games with email.

This is why I'm not fond of subscription-based software.

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My place of work, like many places, has a pair of vending machines in the break room. They recently put credit / debit card readers on the machines in addition to the bill and coin feeds. I just today realized that if you use a credit card to buy something, it's cheaper. Like 85 cents for a pop with cash, 50 cents with card. I assume it's significantly cheaper for the vending company to not have to come out and empty the machine.

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I guess it must be said: demanding a black woman "go back to her country" is racist, full stop. This is of course in response to Trump's demand that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar goes back to Somalia. It's especially racist in that the "logic" is that she's trying to make America like Somalia.

She left Somalia when she was six. She came to America when she was 10. She became a US citizen at age 17. She's American, whether Trump likes it or not.

No, she's not married to her brother. She's been married twice - one man at a time - both times to men with the first name of Ahmed, which is as common as John is in English-speaking countries. One was a US citizen when they married, the other a British citizen. (He went back to Britain.)

In short, the only reason Trump is mad at Omar is that she's the wrong skin color, the wrong sex, and doesn't kiss his ass. Anybody who says otherwise is delusional.

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I had occasion to visit the Salt Lake City area over the 4th of July weekend. Herewith, some random thoughts.

1. The greater Salt Lake City area is very north-and-south. All of metro Salt Lake and thus the majority of people in the state are jammed into a strip of land around 10 to 15 miles wide between the lake and the Wasatch Mountains. The later are shockingly steep, in many places being barely less than cliffs. As a result, there is really one main north-south road, I-15. If things are flowing on that road, traffic is good. If not, well, you’re stuck.
2. Utah has funny laws regarding the sale and consumption of alcohol. Before the law changed in 2009 most places serving alcohol were at least nominally “private clubs.” Now, as I understand it, Utah has three classes of places serving booze to the public., to wit: Bars. These are over-21 only places, and they allow you to actually see the booze like in a regular bar.  Restaurants. These can let in all ages, but you must order food and the drinks are brought out from a back room, even if they have a physical bar area.  Taverns. These can serve beer only. Many local microbreweries (of which the SLC area has a lot) have this class of license which means they only sell their beer.
3. Utah is a desert. (Yeah, news flash.) Salt Lake City is a high desert (around 4,500 feet high) and so gets cold in winter. In summer, it gets hot (90s) but there’s so little humidity that if you can find some shade and/or a breeze it’s quite comfortable. At night, it tends to drop off pretty quickly, which again makes for comfortable evenings.
4. I learned the high-low desert difference at the Natural History Museum of Utah, which I visited on Sunday. The museum was well worth the admission price. (https://nhmu.utah.edu/)
5. Also while in Utah, I visited Temple Square, which is the heart of the Mormon Church and right in the middle of downtown Salt Lake City. It was a surprisingly small area, although pleasant enough. Architecturally, it’s just okay – the buildings are either uninspired copies of European church architecture or modern buildings. Having said that, when in Utah one does what Utahans do.

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On my trip to Utah, I visited the Golden Spike National Historical Park in Promontory Utah. Promontory is the name for a bit of high ground just north and west of the Great Salt Lake. Back in 1869, it was picked as the site to link up the first Transcontinental Railroad, not because it had any intrinsic value, but because it was a handy spot on the map. So, on May 10, 1869, they held a ceremony to complete the railroad. Basically, by nightfall that day, everybody was gone and the place was just a stretch of railroad track in the middle of nowhere.

It's still in the middle of nowhere, except now there's a National Park with a rather spare visitor's center. If you go, you can see replica steam-powered locomotives roll down the tracks, and on weekends they reenact the ceremony. It's a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

Of note to the title is the closest town to Promontory, namely Corinne, Utah. The town was founded less than a month after the railroad was finished, and for a decade or so thereafter, it was the site of a serious attempt to create a second power structure (other than the Mormons) in what was then the Utah territory. The attempt failed, and the town eventually became a sleepy Mormon farm village.

As far as Promontory, in 1904, the Union Pacific built the Lucin Cutoff, a route that crossed over the Great Salt Lake near Ogden Utah, cutting over a hundred miles off of the route. As a result, the old tracks (except for a few miles that tied Corinne into Ogden) were abandoned. In WWII, the tracks themselves were pulled up and recycled for the war effort. It wasn't until the late 1950s that tracks came back when the site went into government hands.

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The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton



North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn



South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr.

Arthur Middleton



Massachusetts

John Hancock

Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton



Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton



Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean



New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris



New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark



New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple



Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry



Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery



Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott



New Hampshire

Matthew Thornton

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Yesterday, a group of US Congressmen forced their way into a border camp - actually a concentration camp - being used to hold immigrants awaiting asylum hearings. See the article here. Note that the inmates are not yet illegal - if they win their asylum cases they become legal.

The conditions inside were not as bad as concentration camps ran by Nazis. That's a low bar to be sure, but the conditions were by any reasonable standard appalling. It is inhumane that my taxes are being used to mistreat people and to pay others to do so.

In related news, a right-wing activist has busily posted lies about the Congressional visit. This despite the activist not being even in the same state as the visit. If you have to lie about the visit to distract from the treatment, you have a problem.

I am not in favor of people entering the US illegally, and I suspect many of the inmates at these camps are economic refugees, not human rights refugees. That does not excuse maltreatment. Human rights are for all humans, not just some.

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