Two details from this week’s news cycle that broke me. Both from Ohio:
ICE forcing Haitian immigrants to wear ankle monitors.
Rep. Max Miller refusing to return his child’s bunny, a comfort stuffy.
These two news stories perfectly illustrate the cruelty of MAGA in both the micro and macro sense. Cruelty to an entire community, many of whom came to the US as refugees, and cruelty to your toddler daughter as a way of punishing your ex-wife. I can’t help but think of the same picture meme from The Office. The heinous acts might be different, but the villain is the same.
Let’s start with the ankle monitors, or “a new humiliation” as immigration advocates are calling it. ICE is demanding this of Haitians who came to America legally, under a TPS status that the Trump Regime has now taken away from them. Thanks to JD Vance amplifying disinformation about his then-constituents, you’re probably most familiar with the Haitian community in Springfield, OH. Springfield and surrounding communities are currently preparing for an escalation in ICE abductions and raids.
We’re only as safe as our most vulnerable, and as we’ve seen in Minnesota, LA, Chicago, DC, and smaller communities that haven’t had the national news when ICE targets and terrorizes immigrant communities, it impacts the entire community. No one is safe from ICE violence, and even when ICE kills innocent people, there’s no recourse or accountability. Even if you think you’re safe and protected, you’re potentially impacted when ICE is active in your community.
Still, I suspect many of my readers can more closely relate to Rep. Miller’s ex-wife and toddler, and the alleged violence they endured. The details are horrific, and I won’t present them as trauma porn by listing them here. But anyone who has ever been adjacent to domestic violence will recognize Miller’s behavior. It’s by-the-book abuser shit. Miller’s behavior will also be familiar to any woman who’s divorced or broken up with an abusive partner. Or any child of divorce where the father was an abuser.
But let’s hone in on the bunny. As a parent, a constant source of anxiety is that you’ll somehow lose your kid’s comfort stuffy. It’s why one of my sons has 5 identical stuffies of his beloved fox, Red. Toddlers especially can rely heavily on their comfort stuffy to reduce anxiety and feel safe. Miller refused to give his daughter’s stuffy back as a way of punishing his ex-wife. There’s a well-documented history of him doing it repeatedly. Further traumatizing an already traumatized child because he can. The micro version of The Cruelty is the Point.
Miller’s ex-wife is the daughter of Ohio MAGA Senator Bernie Moreno, who has called on his ex-son-in-law to resign. MAGA has, for the most part, stood by Miller, though that could change if polls show his reelection effort might be in danger. If Moreno was hoping that the Trump Regime and MAGA would rally behind him and his family, he was sorely mistaken. He belongs to a movement that believes they have the right to terrorize anyone for any reason without consequence, including his daughter and granddaughter.
Senator Moreno is as pro-ICE as they come, even as the Trump Regime deploys ICE repeatedly to terrorize his constituents and the communities he was elected to represent. He’s continually empowered and enabled an America that allows and celebrates acts of violence and terror on a massive scale and in his daughter’s own home. Moreno helped put abusers in power and celebrated their rise. Somehow I doubt he has enough self-awareness to realize this, but I’d love to be wrong.
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ICYMI
Inside a Mass Shooter’s Harrowing History With ChatGPT (Mother Jones)
New Poll Finds Black Women Have Lost Faith in Washington But Not in Their Vote (TheRoot)
Coda
That’s all for this week, folks. I’ll be back next Sunday before taking the last couple of weeks of August off. Leaving you with Josh Johnson’s set on Andrew Tate in jail that had me rolling this week. Enjoy.
Both of my kids had comfort objects. My daughter, in particular, had one that HAD to both look right AND smell right. If we washed her stuffed clown, she would protest that it was "dirty," until I rubbed the foot with a combination of my perfume and maple syrup. No one with a heart messes with the comfort object. Srsly.