Mural in downtown Las Vegas of the latest abuse of our national ideals by artist and British immigrant Izaac Zevalking, aka Recycled Propaganda. Photo by Mat Luschek / Las-Vegas Review-Journal

In the latest act of rewriting history and poetry with a noxious racist twist, Ken Cuccinelli, temp head of trying to keep brown people out of our pristine country, clarified his claim that America only welcomes people who can "stand on their own two feet" by adding that, oh yeah, also they need to be white. Trying to justify yet another pointlessly cruel Trumpian move to cut residence approvals in half by denying green cards to legal immigrants who have used public benefits, the acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services infamously told NPR this week we should rewrite Emma Lazarus' Statue of Liberty poem to say, “Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge” - evidently missing the fact that a president who's spent over $108 million in golf trips, stolen untold millions in illegal emoluments, and purloined billions in "tax cuts" for fat cats represents a far greater financial burden than any hapless families trying to feed their kids. Doubling down the next day, Cuccinelli told CNN the poem only referred to "people coming from Europe.” Thus did he abandon any pretense of not being a flagrant white nationalist in the mold of Stephen Miller, David Duke, Richard Spencer - who once said the poem embodied “ugliness, weakness, and deformity” - by saying the quiet part out loud: America is for white people.

Cuccinelli has been widely slammed for his ignorance - France gifted us Lady Liberty in part to celebrate Emancipation - and his detestable racism, neither of which surprises coming from a guy so inflammatory even Mitch McConnell knew he could never be confirmed. An Obama birther who's compared immigrants to rats, named Steve King one of his faves, sued to kill Obamacare and urged invoking war powers against the migrant "invasion," he long fought against LGBTQ rights and once sought both to legalize firing workers for speaking Spanish and make them ineligible for unemployment benefits - a move a colleague deemed “the most mean-spirited piece of legislation" he'd seen in 30 years. His latest offense against decency prompted the trending hashtag #CuccinelliResign, speculation the changes are in fact aimed at deporting money-grubbing Slovenian escorts, and a lawsuit by two California counties opposing rules that threaten the health of millions and "unfairly target hard-working, lawful immigrants while sowing fear and confusion in our communities.” The legal challenge is expected to be the first of many, by the National Immigration Law Center and other advocacy groups. Unrepentant, Cuccinelli on Thursday took a sneering selfie with and then ejected a replica Lady Liberty sent by protesters, thus making it exquisitely clear just who needs to be ejected as an unworthy "public charge."

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Some of those money-and benefits-grubbing immigrants