comment: >
  
  Ah yes. That traditional Republikkkan Christmas spirit of using people without means as political pawns. That's the holiday spirit. 
  They get federal funding for the border. Take away their federal funding.
context: Nothing owns the libs like abusing vulnerable minorities. >
  
  And committing Federal crimes for human trafficking. >
  
  It’s the same thing bro these people aren’t being taken willingly and all the previous people misplaced this way have said they were lied to. That’s like the definition of human trafficking bro, just because they’re taken to a Dem’s house to punk them or a dungeon it’s legit the same difference for these people. >
  
  No? You're the one comparing these.
  The scenario you're bringing up is composed of three crimes: kidnapping, human trafficking, and sexual slavery (which is itself a composite of a bunch of individual crimes, but that's not the point here). You're the one grouping this particular composite crime under the banner of "human trafficking," when, in reality, human trafficking is simply a crime that happens within this composite, and can happen independently of it as well. >
  
  It’s not productive to compare victims of different crimes and try to figure out which ones we can and can’t sympathize with or who had it the worst. Many things are crimes and the perpetrators of crimes are punished and prevented from reoffending in an ideal world regardless of the severity of the crime or the level of victimization they put on their victim.
  Human trafficking is “Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.” At least that’s the definition according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. There can be a sexual component to the crime and that would be called sex trafficking and be a similar yet separate crime with a separate definition. Also people who are sex trafficked are victimized to varying degrees but if someone is sex trafficked it doesn’t matter how badly they were victimized they were still sex trafficked and it doesn’t minimize other peoples experience to call it what it is. Likewise for human trafficking, just because you didn’t traffic humans as bad as the other guy doesn’t mean you don’t go to jail for it! >
  
  Can we stop exploiting vulnerable groups to use as political props? Super weird >
  
  Isn't the whole fecking Christian Christmas story about accepting two migrants/wanders in (minus the whole barn part) not kicking them out to somewhere completely unknown? 
  Doesn't putting them on a bus on Christmas eve defeat that message >
  
  I'm sorry, did you expect Conservative Christians to know and understand a story from the Bible? >
  
  Ahhh I see how I was wrong. If only someone could dumb it down for them to get.. Say like a picture book or something for 5 year Olds? >
  
  Among many things that frustrates me is the shear cruelty of this stunt. These are people who have gone through a lot of suffering. You would think a “Christian” a day before their high holy day would show compassion to these people. Fuck Abbot. I guess it is more important to own the libs and get a couple of minutes on Fox. >
  
  Stop using people for politics! These are PEOPLE!! >
  
  
  These are PEOPLE!!
  
  Not to the GOP. That should be the biggest take away from this whole thing. >
  
  Correcto. They refer to them more easily as animals or a disease. Only suitable to be wiped out and systematically destroyed. Like stray dogs with rabies. >
  
  There was a country in Europe that did that a while back. >
  
  I think I've heard of that. Can't remember which though. Tip of the tongue. >
  
  How does anyone still support Republicans? This is so disgusting. >
  
  The people who support them admire them for their casual cruelty.
  It really is as simple as that. >
  
  Yep, Pretty simple.  Republican voters are just shitty people with shitty morals. 
  They look at an event like this and are amped by the creativity of making a point about "open borders" and think they are making liberals look bad by forcing them to acknowledge what a real problem illegal immigrants are.
  Nevermind the fact that they are bussing people around and dropping them off in the freezing cold with no plans for shelter or care just to make a political point. >
  
  This is why I don’t care how nice a conservative Christian is, I have less respect for them.  I grew up in a very conservative area and they always preach kindness and love, do charity work, etc. All looks good on the surface until you see their actual views and their nationalism that is more important to their supposed Christian beliefs. 
  They are truly hateful and while everyone who goes to those churches aren’t that way, it is physically impossible to be in the presence of a conservative Christian church and not see the racism, sexism, nationalism, etc proudly on display. >
  
  Conservatives, pretty much by definition, are very empathetic towards people they define as their "in group" and very anti-empathetic towards people who they define as part of an "out group".
  Like, white Southern Baptist churches in the south may be full of literal Klan supporters, but those people are certainly very kind and supportive towards each other. >
  
  You're not wrong, but look at how widespread sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse and neglect are in conservative communities. Patriarchal, hierarchal systems use altruism as a way to control their members (that is, make lower-ranking members dependent on higher-ranking ones), not necessarily out of empathy. >
  
  You can really tell that this was a campaign/stunt that was paid for because we've seen posts about it show up regularly long after it bombed. 
  The people behind it are working their asses off to get internet trolls and radicals to crowd source a narrative that will make it a success. >
  
  They are going to fail miserably. It certainly didn't give them any boost in November and it's not going to help them in two years. >
  
  Gov Abbott beat Beto 55-44.  He certainly did benefit from the policies.  Many voters in the border counties are also fed up with the constant flow of illegals and the feds refusing to enforce border security. >
  
  Because people have sold them on an idea that borders work in ways they don’t. It’s not cold war Berlin. >
  
  Militarization of the Berlin border actually DID work during the Cold War.   Unfortunately, neither party wants that. >
  
  …how is that “unfortunate?” >
  
  I don’t know how old you are, but I have a perspective of city areas that weren’t so damm crowded!  There was no demand that single family homes should be destroyed to make room for hideous high rise apartment complexes, much less subsidized low income housing for impoverished immigrants.
  Since 1980, we have gone from about 225 mil to now 330 mil!- about a 45% increase in 40 years. 
  Our quality of American life is diminished with too many ppl and not enough resources to maintain a good quality of life.  Do you ever consider the effects on our safety nets like Social Security, Medicaid & Social Security?
  There are elderly legal immigrants now who hardly have worked in this country who are entitled to full Ss, Medicaid and Medicare.  Do you care about the current native-born elderly in this country who have actually contributed to those nets throughout their entire working lives?    
  What about the costs to taxpayers to provide education and healthcare to the illegal/legal immigrant women and their kids?    We are all forced to subsidize the costs of illegals while businesses are laughing all the way to the bank.  The businesses get cheap labor while we commoners get to subsidize the immigrants’ lifestyles to detriment of our own.  See how that works? >
  
  Great, you're a NIMBY. 
  Affordable housing for all. If you want to live in single family housing move to the suburbs. >
  
  If that’s what you refer to as standing up for our way of life, then I’m fine with your definition.  Which dog do you have in this?  Are you an immigrant or child of an immigrant?  Do you care how our tax dollars are wasted? >
  
  "Our way of life" is for individuals to live as they see fit. That's literally what our founders decided in rejection of European backwarndess and "tradition." >
  
  I find this story very confusing. 
  What's the legality of this? They were dropped off at near the VP's residence as an obvious political stunt, but what was the final destination? >
  
  That WAS the final destination. A big "fuck you and yours" from the party supported by a majority of "Christians." >
  
  That wasn't the final destination though. >
  
  On the plus side, there are no power outages in D.C.