Trump is Shocking but not New

The headline comes from one of Ted Rall's blog posts. Here's an excerpt:

"Government oppression of dissidents in America has a rich and foul history. During the 1999 Seattle WTO protests, which included many college students, Bill Clinton’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (the predecessor of ICE) detained and initiated deportation proceedings against students from Canada and Europe who were arrested for opposing free trade agreements. Under Reagan, the INS moved to deport African students who participated in rallies urging colleges to pull investments out of apartheid-era South Africa. Nixon’s FBI and INS worked to revoke the visas of students who protested the Vietnam War, particularly those from Canada and Latin America. George W. Bush conducted “extraordinary renditions,” including off U.S. streets, where individuals like Maher Arar, who was entirely innocent, were detained without charge and sent to third countries for interrogation that included torture, under the guise of national security."

...

"Though the Trump Administration will almost certainly fall short of its goal of deporting a million people it alleges are in the United States illegally, this White House looks exceptionally aggressive against illegal immigration due to moves like deporting 238 alleged (but probably not) Venezuelan gang members to a private for-profit gulag in a third country with which they have no affiliation, El Salvador, and refusing to bring back one it admits was expelled illegally as the result of an “administrative error.”

"But the real Deporters in Chief were Bill Clinton, who 'removed' 11.4 million undocumented workers from the U.S., and George W. Bush, with 8.3 million. The Bush Administration kidnapped 'enemy combatants' without due process and shipped them the U.S. concentration camp at Guantánamo Bay.Detainees from countries like Afghanistan, Yemen and others were held in a third country (Cuba) without being returned to their home nations. Some were later transferred to fourth countries like Albania or Qatar for resettlement or further detention."

Rall omits mentioning that the Obama administration tripled his predecessor's (Bush 43) rate of deportation, but you get the idea. 

The whole thing is worth a read 

Also worth a look: 

The Dirty Little Secret the Democratic Party Keeps

Excerpt: "If there’s one thing Democrats are good at, it’s performance. The Democrats have made a cottage industry out of selling themselves as champions of marginalized communities. They hoist their rainbow flags, drape themselves in kente cloth, and drop Black Lives Matter tweets like they’re passing out free samples at Costco. And yet, when you look at their actual policies and, more importantly, the people they choose to surround themselves with? It’s the same tired donor class with deep pockets and shallow empathy." 

This reminds me of Cory Booker's "Filibuster"... there was no legislation he was holding up. He was just showboating.