Did I Get This Right? Trump Can't Stop Immigration Flow, So He Tells Mexico They Have To?

Binary choices are where there are only two options:  war or peace, socialist or capitalist, democratic or socialistic, us or them, friend or enemy, win or lose, old or young, rich or poor, good or bad.    

But the world is much more complicated.  When have we not been at war since WWII?  When have we had peace?  I'd say we have had varying degrees of both for the last 70 years.

One of the most socialistic institutions in the United States is also one of the most celebrated:  the US military.  Members of the military hand over all the major decisions in their lives for relatively little pay - where they will live, what they do, when they do it.  Health care.  It pays for their education.  It also requires them to kill other people and risk being killed as well.

Is Russia a friend of the US?  Is North Korea?  Is Cuba?  Mexico?  Canada?   Or are they enemies?  Or can they be friends some time and enemies other times?  Does it make sense to even use those words?  Would it not make more sense to say supporters at times and opponents at other times?

Some of the greatest scientists, artists, business leaders who made great contributions to the world, also did terrible things at times.  Are they good people or bad people?  Or can we all be both good and bad simultaneously?  Should we reject their contributions to humanity because they also were sexist, or racist, or had sex with the wrong people, or cheated one way or another?

A person's stature varies from year to year, from age to age, depending on how well their good deeds are publicized and their bad deeds suppressed and the changing norms of the people in power.

If you want to understand what's happening on the border, I suggest you know about one of Steve Bannon's favorite books - The Camp Of The Saints -which I posted about here - and apparently was taken to heart by Trump advisor Stephen Miller.   The book is hateful and pits the world between 'them' (the dirty masses of the poor nations) and 'us' (the white defenders of Western civilization.)  The post has excerpts to give you a sense of that binary mindset to give you a sense of what truly sick people are helping to run this country, without having to read it all.  But those who know nothing about this book, can't really understands the depths of depravity that Trump has been surrounded by, and probably is submersed in himself.

The book also shows the sort of propaganda strategies that the far right is using to turn enough people into haters so they can stay in power.