Heartlessness

Something serious for a change.

There was a “Religious Freedom Summit” at the White House last week. Another of those bullshxt things, like the Social Media Summit the week before. Meant to appeal to Trump’s base, but not to be meaningful in any way. 

Its okay doing something just for political purposes, but then at least prepare for it. While the religious freedom guys are only interested in Christian (Tal)evangelicals and Israel, as a fig leaf, there was a Tibetan monk who had fled Chinese oppression, a Rohingya refugee, and Nobel Prize winner Nadia Murad, a Yazidi. These 3 and some others then had an Oval Office meeting with Trump.

That meeting was so awful that I won’t even post a link to the video. If you haven’t seen it yet, it is easily findable on the net. While there is never a bottom that Trump cannot sink below, this exchange with the 3 people above was beneath awful. First of all, he remained seated in his chair, not looking at them. He didn’t seem to know where the Rohingya were, or why the Tibetan monk had to flee. But worst of all was this exchange with Nadia.

-Nadia Murad: “They [ISIS] Killed my mom, my six brothers” 

-Donald Trump: “Where are they now?”  (WHAT????)

-Murad: “They Killed them..they are in the mass graves in Sinjar” 

[Trump nods...]

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Others’ comments:

Dan Rather on CBS: When you hear the story of a woman who has witnessed and experienced unspeakable horrors, who has lost her family to murder, you have the decency to face her and get out of your chair. And if you are the president you should know what she’s talking about.

Walter Shaub: What’s really appalling is the look on his face after she explains this to him. Then, when she’s done, he cheerfully pipes up “and you got a Nobel Prize?” The pained look on her face when he chirps that is hard to watch. He simply lacks the part of the brain capable of empathy.

Roger Cohen in NYT:

Allow me to render the scene in the present tense. Trump sits there at his desk, an uncomprehending, unsympathetic, uninterested cardboard dummy. He looks straight ahead for much of the time, not at her, his chin jutting in his best effort at a Mussolini pose. He cannot heave his bulk from the chair for this brave young woman. He cannot look at her.

Every now and again, in a disdainful manner, he swivels his head toward her and other survivors of religious persecution. When Murad says, “They killed my mom, my six brothers,” Trump responds: “Where are they now?”

Why this extraordinary attitude from Trump? Well, at a guess, Murad is a woman, and she is brown, and he is incapable of empathy, 

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Looks like for Trump, it was all about finding out how he could get the Nobel Prize. What those 3 people had faced was of no concern to him. They were 3 refugees after all. And a few hours later, he was at his rally, railing against Ilhan Omar, another refugee, till the crowd chanted “Send her back”. And the next day the news broke that the White House was looking at bringing refugees allowed into the US to zero next year.

So much for the great Religious Freedom Summit and its Tal(evangelicals). Almost all the speakers were Christian nut jobs. Not a word of criticism of Trump and his refugee policies, though Jesus was also effectively a refugee.

Maybe they should temporarily change the name of the US to IS (Indifferent States of America). That will at least honestly reflect current administration policies.