Day: March 18, 2018

Justice cannot prevail when, as it has, ideology displaces inquiry

benfell

Updates

  1. March 17, 1:36 pm:
    • It is looking more and more like Donald Trump is heading, in his own erratic way, towards firing Robert Mueller.[1] Which, of course, is mindbogglingly stupid, but then well, that’s Trump. (James Comey)
    • Did Andrew McCabe keep notes of his interactions with the White House, just as his ex-boss James Comey had done? Of course he did. Word has it he’s turned those notes over to Robert Mueller.[2]
  2. March 17, 7:03 pm:
    • A funny thing when Bob Goodlatte hosted an event expecting to showcase support for a hardline anti-immigration bill from hispanic conservatives. A bunch of them didn’t show up.[3] Idiot. (Unauthorized migration)
  3. March 17, 11:35 pm:
    • For an article that cites the outrage of four Democrats, James Comey obliquely, and John Brennan, the Hill attaches the headline, “McCabe firing roils Washington.”[4] Funny, I thought Washington, D.C., was a bigger place than that, and that it had a few Republicans.
  4. March 18, 7:30 am:
    • In a certain way, Jennifer Rubin sees the same inevitability as Jonathan Chait. Where Chait focuses on the apparent inevitability of Trump firing Robert Mueller,[5] Rubin sees an inevitability of Donald Trump incriminating himself.[6] Both of these inevitabilities are self-destructive and probably sooner rather than later. (James Comey)
    • Added a tweet from Matthew Yglesias under James Comey which partly addresses my comment above on the Hill article by Max Greenwood.

James Comey

Adam Serwer, “McCabe’s Firing Chips Away at the Justice Department’s Independence,” Atlantic, March 16, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/presidential-target-andrew-mccabe-was-just-fired-from-the-fbi/555857/

Jonathan Chait, “Trump Is Taking Out His Enemies And Turning Toward Robert Mueller,” New York, March 17, 2018, http://amp.nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/trump-is-taking-out-his-enemies-and-turning-toward-mueller.html

Max Greenwood, “McCabe firing roils Washington,” Hill, March 17, 2018, http://thehill.com/homenews/news/378971-mccabe-firing-roils-washington

Jennifer Rubin, “McCabe’s firing shows yet again how readily Trump incriminates himself,” Washington Post, March 17, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/03/17/mccabes-firing-shows-yet-again-how-readily-trump-incriminates-himself/

Aruna Viswanatha, Rebecca Ballhaus, and Del Quentin Wilber, “Andrew McCabe Kept Notes About Conversations With Trump, Gave Them to Mueller,” Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-lawyer-citing-mccabes-firing-calls-for-end-to-mueller-probe-1521309707

Polarization

Rebecca Goldstein places too much faith in the availability of ‘objective’ truth and she is wrong to diminish individual perspectives but, at the same time, she is correct in warning against the absence of a common basis for discourse. And she is right to say that ‘truth’ has not merely become polarized but a badge of political affiliation.[7] This is ideology, where adherents enmesh allegiance to a particular set of claims with a self-righteous group identity. For me, this is more terrifying than the particulars of any claim: Ideology has displaced inquiry. There is no justice in this path.

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, “Truth Isn’t the Problem—We Are,” Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/truth-isnt-the-problemwe-are-1521124562

Unauthorized migration

Rafael Bernal, “GOP immigration bill stirs tension among Hispanic conservatives,” Hill, March 17, 2018, http://thehill.com/latino/378873-gop-immigration-bill-stirs-tension-among-hispanic-conservatives

  1. [1]Jonathan Chait, “Trump Is Taking Out His Enemies And Turning Toward Robert Mueller,” New York, March 17, 2018, http://amp.nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/trump-is-taking-out-his-enemies-and-turning-toward-mueller.html↩
  2. [2]Aruna Viswanatha, Rebecca Ballhaus, and Del Quentin Wilber, “Andrew McCabe Kept Notes About Conversations With Trump, Gave Them to Mueller,” Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-lawyer-citing-mccabes-firing-calls-for-end-to-mueller-probe-1521309707↩
  3. [3]Rafael Bernal, “GOP immigration bill stirs tension among Hispanic conservatives,” Hill, March 17, 2018, http://thehill.com/latino/378873-gop-immigration-bill-stirs-tension-among-hispanic-conservatives↩
  4. [4]Max Greenwood, “McCabe firing roils Washington,” Hill, March 17, 2018, http://thehill.com/homenews/news/378971-mccabe-firing-roils-washington↩
  5. [5]Jonathan Chait, “Trump Is Taking Out His Enemies And Turning Toward Robert Mueller,” New York, March 17, 2018, http://amp.nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/trump-is-taking-out-his-enemies-and-turning-toward-mueller.html↩
  6. [6]Jennifer Rubin, “McCabe’s firing shows yet again how readily Trump incriminates himself,” Washington Post, March 17, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/03/17/mccabes-firing-shows-yet-again-how-readily-trump-incriminates-himself/↩
  7. [7]Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, “Truth Isn’t the Problem—We Are,” Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/truth-isnt-the-problemwe-are-1521124562↩