Month: July 2019

It’s okay for Nancy Pelosi to scold progressives in public but not okay for progressives to scold so-called ‘centrists’ in public

benfell

Pacific Gas & Electric

Katherine Blunt, “Judge Orders PG&E to Respond to Journal Article,” Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-orders-pg-e-to-respond-to-journal-article-11562799414

Katherine Blunt and Russell Gold, “PG&E Knew for Years Its Lines Could Spark Wildfires, and Didn’t Fix Them,” Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-knew-for-years-its-lines-could-spark-wildfires-and-didnt-fix-them-11562768885

Brexit

Just about the entire British political class lined up in support of the British ambassador to the U.S., whose private cables critical of Donald Trump were leaked, except for one: The prime minister-apparent.[1]

Peter Walker et al., “Johnson has thrown US ambassador under the bus, say top Tories,” Guardian, July 10, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/10/kim-darroch-resigns-as-uk-ambassador-to-us-after-leaked-trump-comment

Nancy Pelosi

I have agreed with Nancy Pelosi on impeachment[2] and suspected she was the right person to take on Donald Trump on migration.[3]

But the simple fact is that neoliberal party leadership fucked up[4] on the bill funding concentration camps.[5] They have themselves, not progressives, but themselves, to blame for this.

So what’s Nancy Pelosi doing? First, she criticizes progressives in public and now she tells progressives not to criticize so-called ‘centrists’ in public.[6]

This is blatant hypocrisy. But hey, this is the neoliberal party we’re talking about. Hypocrisy is what they’re all about. And frankly, it recalls the Obama Administration’s “hippie punching” dumping on progressives that exposed the reality of the neoliberal party’s expectation that progressives should support neoconservative and neoliberal policies,[7] because defeating the evil Republicans is the only thing that matters. What’s pathetic is that even after all this, progressives still fall for it.

Rachael Bade and Mike DeBonis, “‘Outright disrespectful’: Four House women struggle as Pelosi isolates them,” Washington Post, July 10, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/outright-disrespectful-four-house-women-struggle-as-pelosi-isolates-them/2019/07/10/a33c63a8-a33f-11e9-b7b4-95e30869bd15_story.html

Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris, “‘Do not tweet’: Pelosi scolds progressives in closed-door meeting,” Politico, July 10, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/10/pelosi-progressives-twitter-1405763

Iran

Richard Spencer and Lucy Fisher, “Royal Navy sees off Iranian attempt to intercept British tanker,” Times, July 11, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/iranian-boats-attempt-to-seize-british-tanker-in-the-gulf-9v5pq7kzl?region=global

Census

Matt Zapotosky, “Second federal judge blocks Justice Dept. bid to replace census attorneys,” Washington Post, July 10, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/second-federal-judge-blocks-justice-dept-bid-to-replace-census-attorneys/2019/07/10/4a82fb80-a35a-11e9-b732-41a79c2551bf_story.html

Seung Min Kim, Tara Bahrampour, and John Wagner, “Trump retreats on adding citizenship question to 2020 Census,” Washington Post, July 11, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-to-hold-news-conference-on-census-as-he-mulls-executive-action-to-add-a-citizenship-question/2019/07/11/c0eb7cb6-a3c8-11e9-b8c8-75dae2607e60_story.html

  1. [1]Peter Walker et al., “Johnson has thrown US ambassador under the bus, say top Tories,” Guardian, July 10, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/10/kim-darroch-resigns-as-uk-ambassador-to-us-after-leaked-trump-comment↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “Why Nancy Pelosi is right about impeachment,” Not Housebroken, May 22, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/05/22/why-nancy-pelosi-is-right-about-impeachment/; David Benfell, “Calls for impeachment are the latest displays of the naturalistic fallacy and system justification,” Not Housebroken, May 23, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/05/23/calls-for-impeachment-are-the-latest-displays-of-the-naturalistic-fallacy-and-system-justification/↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “It might actually be a good thing that Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House right now,” Not Housebroken, January 12, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/01/12/it-might-actually-be-a-good-thing-that-nancy-pelosi-is-speaker-of-the-house-right-now/↩
  4. [4]Mike DeBonis and Rachael Bade, “‘A betrayal’: Inside the bitter rift between Pelosi and Schumer over border bill,” Washington Post, June 28, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/a-betrayal-inside-the-bitter-rift-between-pelosi-and-schumer-over-border-bill/2019/06/28/26fbb3b8-99bf-11e9-8d0a-5edd7e2025b1_story.html↩
  5. [5]Lauren Fox et al., “House passes border funding bill after Pelosi reversal outrages progressives,” CNN, June 27, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/27/politics/border-funding-migrant-crisis-nancy-pelosi-house-senate-bills/index.html↩
  6. [6]Rachael Bade and Mike DeBonis, “‘Outright disrespectful’: Four House women struggle as Pelosi isolates them,” Washington Post, July 10, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/outright-disrespectful-four-house-women-struggle-as-pelosi-isolates-them/2019/07/10/a33c63a8-a33f-11e9-b7b4-95e30869bd15_story.html; Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris, “‘Do not tweet’: Pelosi scolds progressives in closed-door meeting,” Politico, July 10, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/10/pelosi-progressives-twitter-1405763; Amber Phillips, “Nancy Pelosi’s clumsy rebuke of the liberals in her party,” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/08/nancy-pelosis-clumsy-rebuke-liberals-her-party/↩
  7. [7]The Obama administration established a record for ‘hippie-punching’ early on, only appealing to the left-wing when it sought their votes. Blue Texan [pseud.], “Ed Rendell Tells Democratic Base to “Get Over It” on Rachel Maddow,” Firedoglake, September 23, 2010, http://firedoglake.com/2010/09/23/early-morning-swim-ed-rendell-tells-democratic-base-to-get-over-it-on-rachel-maddow/; Blue Texan [pseud.], “Stop Whining, Liberals!” Firedoglake, September 27, 2010, http://firedoglake.com/2010/09/27/late-night-stop-whining-liberals/; Michael Falcone, “Opposite Day On The Campaign Trail?” ABC News, September 21, 2010, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/09/election-2010-opposite-day-on-the-campaign-trail/; Glenn Greenwald, “Obama’s view of liberal criticisms,” Salon, September 17, 2010, http://www.salon.com/2010/09/17/obama_139/; David Neiwert, “President Obama lashes out at his liberal critics: Choice is to ‘get things done’ or feel ‘sanctimonious’,” Crooks and Liars, December 7, 2010, http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/president-obama-lashes-out-his-liber; Heather Digby Parton, “‘It’s always the hippies’ fault’: Why the left treats its idealists all wrong,” Salon, February 5, 2015, http://www.salon.com/2015/02/05/its_always_the_hippies_fault_why_the_left_treats_its_idealists_all_wrong/; Greg Sargent, “Liberal blogger directly confronts David Axelrod, accuses White House of ‘hippie punching’,” Washington Post, September 23, 2010, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/09/liberal_blogger_directly_confr.html; Stephen Stromberg, “Joe Biden scolds progressives — and he’s right,” Washington Post, September 16, 2010, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/09/joe_biden_scolds_progressives.html; Sam Youngman, “White House unloads anger over criticism from ‘professional left’,” Hill, August 10, 2010, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/113431-white-house-unloads-on-professional-left↩

It’s Donald Trump’s modus operandi: Vicious bullying and cruelty

benfell

Donald Trump

I suppose this was the only logical outcome. Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. has resigned.[1] Because Donald Trump threw a temper tantrum. But just as it was hard to argue with the private assessments offered by the ambassador to his home government,[2] it’s hard to argue with his assessment now that his position is untenable.[3]

EuroNews, “Sir Kim Darroch, the UK’s ambassador to the US, resigns after row over leaked Trump emails,” July 10, 2019, https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/10/sir-kim-darroch-the-uk-s-ambassador-to-the-us-resigns-after-row-over-leaked-trump-emails

Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, and Betsy Klein, “Appeals court hands Trump a victory over Democratic challenge to DC hotel,” CNN, July 10, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/10/politics/court-ruling-trump-hotels/index.html

Migration

This can’t really be a surprise either, given the horrific conditions of abuse previously reported. Some migrant kids are reporting sexual assaults and retaliation at the concentration camps.[4] To my knowledge this story has not been picked up by any one other than NBC News. And again, it is completely in line with what Philip Zimbardo would almost certainly have predicted.[5]

Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley, “Migrant kids in overcrowded Arizona border station allege sex assault, retaliation from U.S. agents,” NBC News, July 9, 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/migrant-kids-overcrowded-arizona-border-station-allege-sex-assault-retaliation-n1027886

  1. [1]EuroNews, “Sir Kim Darroch, the UK’s ambassador to the US, resigns after row over leaked Trump emails,” July 10, 2019, https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/10/sir-kim-darroch-the-uk-s-ambassador-to-the-us-resigns-after-row-over-leaked-trump-emails↩
  2. [2]Mark Landler, “Leaked British Cables Critical of Trump Lead to Diplomatic Uproar,” New York Times, July 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/donald-trump-kim-darroch.html; Josh Rogin, “British ambassador’s leaked cables are far from ‘bombshells,’” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/08/british-ambassadors-leaked-cables-are-far-bombshells/; Steven Swinford, “Donald Trump attacks ‘stupid’ envoy and ‘foolish’ Theresa May,” Times, July 9, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/liam-fox-should-stop-kowtowing-to-donald-trump-say-envoys-allies-gg79r9cl6↩
  3. [3]EuroNews, “Sir Kim Darroch, the UK’s ambassador to the US, resigns after row over leaked Trump emails,” July 10, 2019, https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/10/sir-kim-darroch-the-uk-s-ambassador-to-the-us-resigns-after-row-over-leaked-trump-emails↩
  4. [4]Priscilla Alvarez, “Lawmakers, including Ocasio-Cortez, lash out over conditions following border facility tours,” CNN, July 2, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-clint-texas-facility/index.html; Caitlin Dickerson, “‘There Is a Stench’: No Soap and Overcrowding in Detention Centers for Migrant Children,” New York Times, June 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/migrant-children-border-soap.html; Adam Harris, “An Astonishing Government Report on Conditions at the Border,” Atlantic, July 3, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/07/government-report-details-inhumane-conditions-migrant-facilities/593242/; Miriam Jordan, “Judge Orders Swift Action to Improve Conditions for Migrant Children in Texas,” New York Times, June 29, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/us/migrant-children-detention-texas.html; Alejandro Lazo and Jacob Gershman, “Lawsuit Alleges Government Mistreatment of Migrant Children,” Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lawsuit-alleges-government-mistreatment-of-migrant-children-11561608969; Sam Levin, “‘Happy hunting!’ Immigration agents swapped cheery messages about raids, records reveal,” Guardian, July 3, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/03/ice-us-immigration-messages-raids; Katie Mettler, Mike DeBonis, and Reis Thebault, “Border agents confiscated lawmakers’ phones. Joaquin Castro captured photo and video anyway,” Washington Post, July 2, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/02/ocasio-cortez-says-dispute-with-border-patrol-agents-started-after-one-tried-take-stealth-selfie/; Geneva Sands and Nick Valencia, “2nd Customs and Border Protection-connected secret Facebook group shows mocking images,” CNN, July 5, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/cbp-second-facebook-group-images/index.html↩
  5. [5]Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (New York: Random House, 2008).↩

The British are insufficiently subservient to Donald Trump

benfell

Census

Ted Hesson and Josh Gerstein, “Why Trump will likely lose the census citizenship fight,” Politico, July 8, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/08/trump-census-citizenship-2020-1573574

Felicia Sonmez and Matt Zapotosky, “Plaintiffs seek to block Justice Department from changing lawyers in census citizenship case,” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/plaintiffs-seek-to-block-justice-department-from-changing-lawyers-in-census-citizenship-case/2019/07/08/307182d6-a1e6-11e9-b732-41a79c2551bf_story.html

Matt Zapotosky, “Federal judge rejects Trump administration’s bid to swap out lawyers for Census case on citizenship question,” Washington Post, July 9, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-judge-rejects-trump-administrations-bid-to-swap-out-lawyers-for-census-case-on-citizenship-question/2019/07/09/d12f811e-a24f-11e9-b7b4-95e30869bd15_story.html

Donald Trump

Donald Trump is throwing a tantrum[1] because the British ambassador said privately[2] what everyone who’s serious already knows to be true.[3] No one who’s serious seriously blames the ambassador—the cables were leaked and it is an ambassador’s job to be candid with their home government about the political situation in the country they’re in—but it’s awkward while Britain goes through a leadership transition due to the Brexit mess, in which Theresa May discounted Trump’s advice.[4] And Trump would have preferred Nigel Farage as ambassador anyway.[5]

Mark Landler, “Leaked British Cables Critical of Trump Lead to Diplomatic Uproar,” New York Times, July 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/donald-trump-kim-darroch.html

Josh Rogin, “British ambassador’s leaked cables are far from ‘bombshells,’” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/08/british-ambassadors-leaked-cables-are-far-bombshells/

Steven Swinford, “Donald Trump attacks ‘stupid’ envoy and ‘foolish’ Theresa May,” Times, July 9, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/liam-fox-should-stop-kowtowing-to-donald-trump-say-envoys-allies-gg79r9cl6

Social Networks

The courts seem to be finding, and not just with Donald Trump, that politicians are using their Twitter accounts to communicate with constituents about official business. They cannot “block” some of those constituents when those constituents voice opinions they don’t like[6] but they might still be able to “mute” them.[7]

Corinne Ramey, “President Trump Can’t Block Twitter Users, Federal Appeals Court Rules,” Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-trump-cant-block-twitter-users-federal-appeals-court-rules-11562685206

Kamala Harris

She sounded awfully good in the debate against Joe Biden,[8] but her record as a district attorney and as California’s attorney general paints a far uglier picture,[9] even before we get to the systemic issues of criminal injustice.[10]

Marjorie Cohn, “Kamala Harris Has a Distinguished Career of Serving Injustice,” Truthout, July 8, 2019, https://truthout.org/articles/kamala-harris-has-a-distinguished-career-of-serving-injustice/

  1. [1]Steven Swinford, “Donald Trump attacks ‘stupid’ envoy and ‘foolish’ Theresa May,” Times, July 9, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/liam-fox-should-stop-kowtowing-to-donald-trump-say-envoys-allies-gg79r9cl6↩
  2. [2]Mark Landler, “Leaked British Cables Critical of Trump Lead to Diplomatic Uproar,” New York Times, July 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/donald-trump-kim-darroch.html↩
  3. [3]Josh Rogin, “British ambassador’s leaked cables are far from ‘bombshells,’” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/08/british-ambassadors-leaked-cables-are-far-bombshells/↩
  4. [4]Mark Landler, “Leaked British Cables Critical of Trump Lead to Diplomatic Uproar,” New York Times, July 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/donald-trump-kim-darroch.html; Steven Swinford, “Donald Trump attacks ‘stupid’ envoy and ‘foolish’ Theresa May,” Times, July 9, 2019, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/liam-fox-should-stop-kowtowing-to-donald-trump-say-envoys-allies-gg79r9cl6↩
  5. [5]Nicky Woolf and Jessica Elgot, “Nigel Farage would be great UK ambassador to US, says Donald Trump,” Guardian, November 22, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/22/nigel-farage-uk-ambassador-us-donald-trump↩
  6. [6]Corinne Ramey, “President Trump Can’t Block Twitter Users, Federal Appeals Court Rules,” Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-trump-cant-block-twitter-users-federal-appeals-court-rules-11562685206↩
  7. [7]British Broadcasting Corporation, “Trump told to mute Twitter critics, not block them, by New York judge,” March 9, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43344837↩
  8. [8]Mark Z. Barabak, “Seven takeaways from Democratic debate Night 2: Sparks from Biden and Harris, honesty from Buttigieg,” Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-2020-democratic-debate-miami-takeaways-20190627-story.html; Stephen Collinson, “Joe Biden throws own campaign into turmoil after Harris attacks his record on race,” CNN, June 28, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/politics/first-democratic-debate-night-2-analysis/index.html; Maeve Reston, “Harris’ attack on Joe Biden steals spotlight at Democratic primary debate,” CNN, June 28, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/27/politics/democratic-primary-debate-night-two-joe-biden-bernie-sanders-kamala-harris/index.html↩
  9. [9]Marjorie Cohn, “Kamala Harris Has a Distinguished Career of Serving Injustice,” Truthout, July 8, 2019, https://truthout.org/articles/kamala-harris-has-a-distinguished-career-of-serving-injustice/↩
  10. [10]Ernest Drucker, A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America(New York: New Press, 2011); Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 7th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2004); Dan Simon, In Doubt: The Psychology of the Criminal Justice Process (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2012).↩

Trump administration allegedly to hoist ‘toxic pseudo-constitutional sludge’ up the flagpole and see if it flies

benfell

Census

Garrett Epps thinks he—even he, mournfully, is not quite so confident—puts an end to the notion of Donald Trump getting his oh-so-precious citizenship question in the 2020 Census, legally at least. It’s not really a question of the Constitution, he writes: “Not to put too fine a point on it, I haven’t had to wade through such toxic pseudo-constitutional sludge since the last time I sneaked into an Oregon militia meeting.” He believes arguments in support of a do-over simply don’t fly. Which, for him, leaves a question of whether Trump will defy the Supreme Court.[1]

The aforementioned “sludge” explicitly includes[2] Hugh Hewitt’s argument for an executive order and not one but three questions, including one explicitly on legal status,[3] and Josh Blackmun’s argument citing the 14th and 15th Amendments.[4]

I want to believe Epps. But it’s important to note that these mother fuckers are all—each and every damned one of them—lawyers. I hope Epps is right. But the scorn he heaps on his colleagues’ arguments might be over the top.

Garrett Epps, “The Census Case Could Provoke a Constitutional Crisis,” Atlantic, July 8, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/census-case-could-provoke-constitutional-crisis/593425/

Josh Gerstein, “Justice Department replaces attorneys in census citizenship-question battle,” Politico, July 8, 2019, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/08/justice-department-census-citizenship-question-battle-1399523

J. M. Rieger, “The Trump administration has changed its story on the census citizenship question at least 10 times in four months,” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/08/trump-administration-has-changed-its-story-census-citizenship-question-least-times-four-months/

Nancy Pelosi

Amber Phillips, “Nancy Pelosi’s clumsy rebuke of the liberals in her party,” Washington Post, July 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/08/nancy-pelosis-clumsy-rebuke-liberals-her-party/

  1. [1]Garrett Epps, “The Census Case Could Provoke a Constitutional Crisis,” Atlantic, July 8, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/census-case-could-provoke-constitutional-crisis/593425/↩
  2. [2]Garrett Epps, “The Census Case Could Provoke a Constitutional Crisis,” Atlantic, July 8, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/census-case-could-provoke-constitutional-crisis/593425/↩
  3. [3]Hugh Hewitt, “The census belongs to the president. He needs to get it back. Here’s how,” Washington Post, June 29, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/29/census-belongs-president-he-needs-get-it-back-heres-how/↩
  4. [4]Josh Blackman, quoted at length in Eugene Volokh, “Is the Government Required to Count the Number of Citizens in Each State?” Reason, April 25, 2019, https://reason.com/2019/04/25/is-the-government-required-to-count-the-number-of-citizens-in-each-state/↩

The Free Market Did Not Bring Down the Berlin Wall

benfell

Melvyn P. Leffler, “The Free Market Did Not Bring Down the Berlin Wall,” Foreign Policy, November 7, 2014, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/11/07/berlin_wall_fall_25_anniversary_reagan_bush_germany_merkel_cold_war_free_market_capitalism

John Feffer, “Did the Fall of the Berlin Wall Produce the Trump Presidency?” Foreign Policy in Focus, November 13, 2019, https://fpif.org/did-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-produce-the-trump-presidency/

Oh gee, an economic plan for Palestine. See what happened to the last one.

benfell

Palestine

This is what economic development means to the Palestinians:
07_09:10:47-2
The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel, fair use.[1]

Israel destroys whatever the Palestinians build and, with its blockade of Gaza, seeks to stop them from building anything at all. And it continues an ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians in the territory it controls, both inside and outside the 1967 borders. So Jared Kushner’s plan[2] means only more destruction. And yes, Binyamin Netanyahu is absolutely a fascist[3] as he relies on right-wing coalitions that include parties devoted to annexation of the West Bank to build governments.

Raphael Ahren, “As Bahrain showed, even Trump’s Arab allies see two-state solution as essential,” Times of Israel, July 5, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-bahrain-showed-even-trumps-arab-allies-see-two-state-solution-as-essential/

  1. [1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  2. [2]Raphael Ahren, “As Bahrain showed, even Trump’s Arab allies see two-state solution as essential,” Times of Israel, July 5, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-bahrain-showed-even-trumps-arab-allies-see-two-state-solution-as-essential/↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “A simple definition of fascism,” Not Housebroken, July 6, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/07/06/a-simple-definition-of-fascism/↩

More ‘bad apples’ at Customs and Border Patrol

benfell

So I was bored with the weather in California. There generally are not four real seasons in California, just a ‘wet’ season and a dry season, only through most of my adult life, the wet seasons haven’t been very wet. So it’s mostly just been dry, so much so that when in the last few years we got a few seasons that might count as ‘normal,’ people thought they were deluges.

So, today, here in Pittsburgh, I got a ride that took me near the Whole Foods where I had a few things to pick up. It was well-timed.

The sky was so dark by the time I pulled into the parking lot, my automatic headlights had come on. I probably hadn’t been in the store five minutes, certainly not ten, but as I came out the rain was truly torrential and I was surrounded by thunder and lightning. I was drenched by the time I got to my car and the torrent continued as I drove home and walked back to my apartment.

Now, this is rain.

Migration

Brian Resnick,[1] get the fuck over yourself and retract. Every piece of this story[2] confirms Philip Zimbardo’s work.[3] Every single piece.

Geneva Sands and Nick Valencia, “2nd Customs and Border Protection-connected secret Facebook group shows mocking images,” CNN, July 5, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/cbp-second-facebook-group-images/index.html

  1. [1]Brian Resnick, “The Stanford Prison Experiment was massively influential. We just learned it was a fraud,” Vox, June 13, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17449118/stanford-prison-experiment-fraud-psychology-replication; Brian Resnick, “Philip Zimbardo defends the Stanford Prison Experiment, his most famous work,” Vox, June 28, 2018, https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/28/17509470/stanford-prison-experiment-zimbardo-interview↩
  2. [2]Priscilla Alvarez, “Lawmakers, including Ocasio-Cortez, lash out over conditions following border facility tours,” CNN, July 2, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-clint-texas-facility/index.html; Caitlin Dickerson, “‘There Is a Stench’: No Soap and Overcrowding in Detention Centers for Migrant Children,” New York Times, June 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/migrant-children-border-soap.html; Adam Harris, “An Astonishing Government Report on Conditions at the Border,” Atlantic, July 3, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/07/government-report-details-inhumane-conditions-migrant-facilities/593242/; Miriam Jordan, “Judge Orders Swift Action to Improve Conditions for Migrant Children in Texas,” New York Times, June 29, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/us/migrant-children-detention-texas.html; Alejandro Lazo and Jacob Gershman, “Lawsuit Alleges Government Mistreatment of Migrant Children,” Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lawsuit-alleges-government-mistreatment-of-migrant-children-11561608969; Sam Levin, “‘Happy hunting!’ Immigration agents swapped cheery messages about raids, records reveal,” Guardian, July 3, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/03/ice-us-immigration-messages-raids; Katie Mettler, Mike DeBonis, and Reis Thebault, “Border agents confiscated lawmakers’ phones. Joaquin Castro captured photo and video anyway,” Washington Post, July 2, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/02/ocasio-cortez-says-dispute-with-border-patrol-agents-started-after-one-tried-take-stealth-selfie/; Geneva Sands and Nick Valencia, “2nd Customs and Border Protection-connected secret Facebook group shows mocking images,” CNN, July 5, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/cbp-second-facebook-group-images/index.html↩
  3. [3]Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (New York: Random House, 2008).↩

Raining on Donald Trump’s parade

benfell

IMG_20190705_195607
I finally got a close-up of those orange flowers I’ve been seeing recently. I don’t think they’ll be in bloom very much longer—despite the copious amounts of rain we’ve been receiving, a preponderance now seem to have wilted.

Donald Trump

So Donald Trump made himself the butt of many jokes at his war celebration by suggesting that the U.S. Revolutionary Army seized airports. A writer at the Guardian also noticed that he conflated the War of 1812 with the U.S. Revolution.[1]

It can’t quite be said that Trump explained this away: “I knew the speech very well so I was able to do it without a teleprompter but the teleprompter did go out and it was actually hard to look at anyway because there was rain all over it.”[2]

So:

  1. Never ever rely on technology for your speech. Test the fuck out of the technology before you use it. Always have notes. Yes, they taught me this when I was an undergraduate. Yes, I got burned once or twice when I failed to do this. And yes, I taught this to my own public speaking students. This is basic stuff.
  2. Trump’s claim that he “knew the speech very well”[3] is undermined by the gaffes. I mean, really, if you’ve been caught without your notes, would you really think to say the Revolutionary Army seized the airports? Really?

But of course we already knew Trump is an idiot, in addition to being a racist, misogynist, Islamophobic, transphobic (I’m sure I’m missing something, maybe more than one thing) delusional raging narcissist-in-chief. So there’s really not much more to be said about this. I hope.

British Broadcasting Corporation, “Trump blames ‘airports’ gaffe on teleprompter,” July 5, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/48885319

Kate Lyons, “Flight of fancy: Trump claims 1775 revolutionary army ‘took over airports,’” Guardian, July 5, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/05/flight-of-fancy-trump-claims-1775-revolutionary-army-took-over-airports

Census

After the Supreme Court called the government’s reason for the question “contrived,” many wondered how the government could suddenly come up with a new rationale.

“What were they going to say?” said Dale Ho, director of the Voting Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union and a lead attorney for plaintiffs in the New York lawsuit. “ ‘Here’s our real reason? Or here’s a new reason?’ Well, that’s kind of reverse engineering on a decision that’s already been made, which was the very definition of pretextual. . . . We had them in an inevitable checkmate.”[4]

Thomas Wolf, counsel with the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, said there is “no path” forward for the government to add the question at this point.

“The court vacated the Voting Rights Act rationale as a contrived pretext,” he said. “What they’re trying to do now is the textbook definition of a pretext — telling the court, ‘We plan to do this but we don’t know why yet.’ ”[5]

Tara Bahrampour et al., “Trump administration scrambles to save citizenship question on census,” Washington Post, July 4, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-scrambles-to-save-citizenship-question-on-census/2019/07/04/238fe3fa-9e85-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html

Tara Bahrampour and John Wagner, “Government lawyers step up effort to get a citizenship question on 2020 Census, court filing shows,” Washington Post, July 5, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/trump-says-he-is-thinking-of-executive-order-to-revive-census-citizenship-question/2019/07/05/d3ec5986-9f20-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html

Aaron Blake, “Trump just admitted something he probably shouldn’t have about the census citizenship question,” Washington Post, July 5, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/05/trump-just-admitted-something-he-probably-shouldnt-have-about-census-citizenship-question/

  1. [1]Kate Lyons, “Flight of fancy: Trump claims 1775 revolutionary army ‘took over airports,’” Guardian, July 5, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/05/flight-of-fancy-trump-claims-1775-revolutionary-army-took-over-airports↩
  2. [2]Donald Trump, quoted in British Broadcasting Corporation, “Trump blames ‘airports’ gaffe on teleprompter,” July 5, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/48885319↩
  3. [3]British Broadcasting Corporation, “Trump blames ‘airports’ gaffe on teleprompter,” July 5, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/48885319↩
  4. [4]Tara Bahrampour et al., “Trump administration scrambles to save citizenship question on census,” Washington Post, July 4, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-scrambles-to-save-citizenship-question-on-census/2019/07/04/238fe3fa-9e85-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html↩
  5. [5]Tara Bahrampour and John Wagner, “Government lawyers step up effort to get a citizenship question on 2020 Census, court filing shows,” Washington Post, July 5, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/trump-says-he-is-thinking-of-executive-order-to-revive-census-citizenship-question/2019/07/05/d3ec5986-9f20-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html↩

Fascism, U.S. style

benfell

Census

I was thinking possibly that this story[1] would offer some advancement in understanding from the one[2] I included in yesterday’s issue. The answer is no, not really.

My feeling last night was that it can’t possibly go far. And the obstacles to including the citizenship question still seem insurmountable or at least very nearly so.[3] But it sounds like Donald Trump isn’t taking an effective Supreme Court no[4] for an answer.

And this is a president who I don’t think even has the mental capacity to regard himself as above the law. Rather, and I realize this may seem like splitting hairs, it seems to me he believes that his lawyers can do anything; that no defeat, even at the level of the Supreme Court, is permanent; that any problem can be solved through lawyering; and if it isn’t solved, it means his lawyers are incompetent. (I had forgotten that Hugh Hewitt may indeed offer a path forward for something even worse: Three questions, including one explicitly about legal status, instead of one, merely about citizenship.[5] But CNN seems to find a consensus among legal experts that this will not work.[6]) Further, I think he feels entirely righteous (does he ever not feel righteous about anything?) about the privilege (there have been a few times in my life when I could have used such access) he has to access this kind of lawyering.

Tara Bahrampour, Matt Zapotosky, and Josh Dawsey, “Reversing course, Trump administration will look for a way to add citizenship question to 2020 Census,” Washington Post, July 3, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-appears-to-contradict-his-own-administration-on-census-citizenship-question/2019/07/03/b720bb94-9da4-11e9-b27f-ed2942f73d70_story.html

Ariane de Vogue and Maegan Vazquez, “Trump faces ‘limited paths forward’ on census citizenship question,” CNN, July 4, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/04/politics/census-path-forward-white-house/index.html

Migration

What we see with the Customs and Border Patrol,[7] we are beginning to see with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.[8] But of course, yet again, we’ll be expected to see these as “a few bad apples.” Again, Philip Zimbardo tells us to expect otherwise.[9] I’m still waiting for a retraction from Brian Resnick.[10]

Sam Levin, “‘Happy hunting!’ Immigration agents swapped cheery messages about raids, records reveal,” Guardian, July 3, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/03/ice-us-immigration-messages-raids

Nonhuman Animals

Ross Andersen, “A Journey Into the Animal Mind,” Atlantic, March 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/what-the-crow-knows/580726/

War on Drugs

Lakshi De Vass Gunawardena, “Are We Fighting a Losing Battle in the War Against Drugs?” InterPress Service, July 3, 2019, http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/07/fighting-losing-battle-war-drugs/

  1. [1]Tara Bahrampour, Matt Zapotosky, and Josh Dawsey, “Reversing course, Trump administration will look for a way to add citizenship question to 2020 Census,” Washington Post, July 3, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-appears-to-contradict-his-own-administration-on-census-citizenship-question/2019/07/03/b720bb94-9da4-11e9-b27f-ed2942f73d70_story.html↩
  2. [2]Noah Bierman and David G. Savage, “Citizen question may be back on 2020 census as Trump administration reverses course again,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-census-immigration-tweet-supreme-court-20190703-story.html↩
  3. [3]Tara Bahrampour, Matt Zapotosky, and Josh Dawsey, “Reversing course, Trump administration will look for a way to add citizenship question to 2020 Census,” Washington Post, July 3, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-appears-to-contradict-his-own-administration-on-census-citizenship-question/2019/07/03/b720bb94-9da4-11e9-b27f-ed2942f73d70_story.html; Ariane de Vogue and Maegan Vazquez, “Trump faces ‘limited paths forward’ on census citizenship question,” CNN, July 4, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/04/politics/census-path-forward-white-house/index.html↩
  4. [4]Garrett Epps, “Is the Citizenship Question Dead?” Atlantic, June 27, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/court-wants-real-reason-citizenship-question/592864/; Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung, “Trump fumes as Supreme Court blocks census citizenship question,” Reuters, June 27, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-census/trump-fumes-as-supreme-court-blocks-census-citizenship-question-idUSKCN1TS1BL↩
  5. [5]Hugh Hewitt, “The census belongs to the president. He needs to get it back. Here’s how,” Washington Post, June 29, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/29/census-belongs-president-he-needs-get-it-back-heres-how/↩
  6. [6]Ariane de Vogue and Maegan Vazquez, “Trump faces ‘limited paths forward’ on census citizenship question,” CNN, July 4, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/04/politics/census-path-forward-white-house/index.html↩
  7. [7]Priscilla Alvarez, “Lawmakers, including Ocasio-Cortez, lash out over conditions following border facility tours,” CNN, July 2, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-clint-texas-facility/index.html; Caitlin Dickerson, “‘There Is a Stench’: No Soap and Overcrowding in Detention Centers for Migrant Children,” New York Times, June 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/migrant-children-border-soap.html; Adam Harris, “An Astonishing Government Report on Conditions at the Border,” Atlantic, July 3, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/07/government-report-details-inhumane-conditions-migrant-facilities/593242/; Miriam Jordan, “Judge Orders Swift Action to Improve Conditions for Migrant Children in Texas,” New York Times, June 29, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/us/migrant-children-detention-texas.html; Alejandro Lazo and Jacob Gershman, “Lawsuit Alleges Government Mistreatment of Migrant Children,” Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lawsuit-alleges-government-mistreatment-of-migrant-children-11561608969; Katie Mettler, Mike DeBonis, and Reis Thebault, “Border agents confiscated lawmakers’ phones. Joaquin Castro captured photo and video anyway,” Washington Post, July 2, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/02/ocasio-cortez-says-dispute-with-border-patrol-agents-started-after-one-tried-take-stealth-selfie/↩
  8. [8]Sam Levin, “‘Happy hunting!’ Immigration agents swapped cheery messages about raids, records reveal,” Guardian, July 3, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/03/ice-us-immigration-messages-raids↩
  9. [9]Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (New York: Random House, 2008).↩
  10. [10]Brian Resnick, “The Stanford Prison Experiment was massively influential. We just learned it was a fraud,” Vox, June 13, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17449118/stanford-prison-experiment-fraud-psychology-replication; Brian Resnick, “Philip Zimbardo defends the Stanford Prison Experiment, his most famous work,” Vox, June 28, 2018, https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/28/17509470/stanford-prison-experiment-zimbardo-interview↩

Migration and the 4th of July, even before the 4th of July

benfell

It’s not even July 4th yet and people around here are shooting off fireworks like there is no tomorrow. I can’t, for the life of me, understand the appeal. I hate the noise.

Migration

Department of Homeland Security investigators have now confirmed much of what has previously been reported but Trump administration and Customs and Border Patrol officials denied[1] about conditions in the concentration camps for migrants along the southern border.[2]

Katie Mettler, Mike DeBonis, and Reis Thebault, “Border agents confiscated lawmakers’ phones. Joaquin Castro captured photo and video anyway,” Washington Post, July 2, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/02/ocasio-cortez-says-dispute-with-border-patrol-agents-started-after-one-tried-take-stealth-selfie/

Maura Dolan, “Trump may not use military money for border wall, federal appeals court decides,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-trump-border-wall-military-funds-9th-circuit-20190703-story.html

Adam Harris, “An Astonishing Government Report on Conditions at the Border,” Atlantic, July 3, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/07/government-report-details-inhumane-conditions-migrant-facilities/593242/

Nike

There is a new blog post entitled, “Colin Kaepernick is right.”

Eli Rosenberg and Michael Brice-Saddler, “A GOP governor wants to cancel a Nike contract after flag-shoe flap, but the city it’s headed for isn’t backing down,” Washington Post, July 3, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/03/gop-governor-wants-cancel-nike-contract-city-its-headed-isnt-backing-down/

Census

Noah Bierman and David G. Savage, “Citizen question may be back on 2020 census as Trump administration reverses course again,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-census-immigration-tweet-supreme-court-20190703-story.html

  1. [1]Adam Harris, “An Astonishing Government Report on Conditions at the Border,” Atlantic, July 3, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/07/government-report-details-inhumane-conditions-migrant-facilities/593242/↩
  2. [2]Priscilla Alvarez, “Lawmakers, including Ocasio-Cortez, lash out over conditions following border facility tours,” CNN, July 2, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-clint-texas-facility/index.html; Caitlin Dickerson, “‘There Is a Stench’: No Soap and Overcrowding in Detention Centers for Migrant Children,” New York Times, June 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/migrant-children-border-soap.html; Miriam Jordan, “Judge Orders Swift Action to Improve Conditions for Migrant Children in Texas,” New York Times, June 29, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/us/migrant-children-detention-texas.html; Alejandro Lazo and Jacob Gershman, “Lawsuit Alleges Government Mistreatment of Migrant Children,” Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/lawsuit-alleges-government-mistreatment-of-migrant-children-11561608969; Katie Mettler, Mike DeBonis, and Reis Thebault, “Border agents confiscated lawmakers’ phones. Joaquin Castro captured photo and video anyway,” Washington Post, July 2, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/02/ocasio-cortez-says-dispute-with-border-patrol-agents-started-after-one-tried-take-stealth-selfie/; ↩