Today's word: Contradiction

Today's post is pretty quick...but maddening.  Yes, tRump's all-over-the-friggin'-map verbal vomit machine is at it again.

from Huffington Post, used without permission

So, this morning...in the Pacific time zone, both Putin and tRump asserted that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 elections.  A Time post on their joint press conference quoted the Cheeto-in-Chief, "My people came to me — [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats came to me and some others. They said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin — he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be."  However, Politico reported that just yesterday, he told CBS's Jeff Glor, "The DNC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked. They had bad defenses, and they were able to be hacked."  So, on the one hand it didn't happen, but on the other it's the DNC's fault it happened to them.

In rhetoric, this is a simple contradiction.  Symbolically we could present it as this: Let A = Russia meddled with the US elections. For more than a year and a half, tRump has been asserting -A [not A], which would could be formulated as: It is not the case that Russia meddled with the 2016 elections.  However, his assertion that the DNC is at fault for being hacked by the Russians relies on a tacit assertion that they did, in fact, meddle with the elections by hacking the DNC.  Thus, the illustrious Cheeto is trying to assert both A and -A at the same time.  This is a pretty clear example of classical contradiction.

from 2empowerthyself.com, not used with permission

To make matters worse, the tRump's assertion contradicts his own Homeland Security team's concern about cyber attacks from Russia.  CNN reported that DHS Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, "warned state officials on Saturday that the threat from Russia targeting US elections has not dissipated."  She did try to walk back the level of the threat, saying that the threat seems not to be as great for the 2018 mid-terms as it was for the 2016 Presidential elections...but walking back still relies on A--that Russia did meddle with US elections.  Furthermore, tRump's Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coates, warned that Russian meddling in the 2018 mid-terms is at a "critical point" and that the lights are "blinking red" for cyber attacks.

So...which is it, tRumpty Dumb-pty? A or -A?  Isn't that a bit like saying, "No, my daughter's not pregnant" one minute, then blaming her boyfriend for not using a condom?

image by shadowjess2000 from Deviant Art, used without permission

A response to immigration detention centers

I’m going to be a bit more “philosophical” in this post than I’ve been in others because I think it’s always good to articulate one’s principles.  The brother of an old friend of mine challenged a meme I posted about the current administration’s (CA) anti-immigrant policies and this got me thinking.  So, I thought I would take a bit of time to articulate some of the ideas that have been driving my opposition to the CA—I’m not going to try and be comprehensive here, but give some thoughts.

A rabbi and University of Alabama Professor I have gotten to know over the last couple of years, Steven L. Jacobs gave a presentation at a recent Holocaust and Genocide Studies conference, in which he warned against over-playing comparisons between the current socio-political climate with that of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, noting that there are some significant differences, but he did recognize that there are certainly similarities.  In my own everyday life, I have begun to refer to the CA as being “proto-Fascist” (I was grateful when Jacobs agreed with using this strategy).  I think it might be a good time to discuss what it is about the CA that puts it on the road towards Fascism.

For a basic starting point, I’ll take some ideas from Asaf Kedar’s entry on Fascism from SAGE’s Encyclopedia of Political Theory. [1]  I'm not going to try and be comprehensive here, but some of the salient points of Fascism at play in my critique are:

1. “virulent nationalism”—This idea is all over the CA, from the America First policy/doctrine to Steve Bannon’s touting of “economic nationalism.”   This is, of course, the source of the xenophobia and racism at the heart of Fascism.
2. “political authoritarianism”—This shows up statements from the President that he has authority to pardon himself,  to odd demagogic cabinet meetings that  start with praise fests, to his own declarations about "absolute right" to control the justice department, to Stephen Miller’s claim that immigration policy will be "unquestioned."  
3. “a systematic, hierarchical organization of society to harness it in service of the national interest—without, however, dismantling the fundamental structures of capitalism, primarily wage labor and private property”—This is a complex idea, but part of it making economics and national security the central pillar of every decision and pounding the proverbial pulpit with this language at every opportunity.  This showed up in the President’s announcing an end to war games with South Korea because it first “save us a tremendous amount of money” and then because they are “provocative” 
4. “sustain efforts of war and imperial conquest”—The current president’s fascination with the military and political violence is disconcerting from his dropping the largest conventional bomb ever built, to his unveiled threats against North Korea, to his near constant threat posture in the Middle East, even to the point of his own chiefs of staff questioning his judgement—take the proposed new space-oriented branch of the armed forces, or the push back against his desire for a military parade. 
5. “a deep, urgent sense of cultural crisis”—The CA’s rhetoric of crisis shows up in so many of its public statements.  Last year, the President tried to falsely claim that murder rates were the highest in nearly half a century and the administration still tries to make a dubious connection between immigration and a rise in crime…not to mention the claim that immigration is a drain on the economy, when research calls that claim into question at best.  
6. “active, systematic embrace of modern technology and an equally systematic manipulation of mass society, mass politics, and mass communication”—This shows up in multiple ways, most disturbingly in the administration’s attempt to discredit almost all news media outlets, except Fox and other overtly right-wing outlets...and let us not forget his odd relationship with Sean Hanity nor his policy by Twitter tendency.

There are, of course many other aspects of Fascism, but I want to get at the specific point, namely the immigrant detention camps.  Here is the meme I re-posted:

I think it’s important to consider the women who issued this quote, Aviva Dautch.  She recently earned her PhD from London University and is currently Poet in Residence at London’s Jewish History Museum and is the recipient of the Lily Safra Award from Brandies University for her academic work in Jewish Women’s History.  I point this out as a way of showing this is not simple pundit klatch, but is an observation of someone who has put in a good deal of time researching and publishing in the area of Jewish studies.

One complaint I have seen about the claim this quote rests on is that the comparison between these immigrant detention camps and Nazi concentration camps is over blown, that it is simply hyperbolic.  There is no system to exterminate immigrants, the complaints point out.  True enough, but this claim relies on a very narrow conception of Nazi concentration camps: the extermination camps.  In the entire camp system, only six built specifically for extermination: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Majdanek.  The hundreds of other camps were for detention and forced labor.  The National Holocaust Museum offers this definition of the concept:

The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy. 

Distinguishing between types of camps is crucial for critiques of immigrant detention centers.  The first concentration camps were built in 1933 and were originally for political prisoners, homosexuals, Gypsies, and Jehova’s Witnesses.  Importantly, these camps could be filled with potential enemies of the state, which could be defined as loosely as local authorities and the SS wanted to define it.  Significantly, as the SS took over the entire camp system, their actions were not subject to judicial review.  Jewish persons did not become specific targets until after the annexation of Austria (March 1938) and Kristalnacht (Nov 1938) and the original intent of detaining Jews was to deport them to Poland. [2]  There was even a plan to deport European Jews to the Island of Madagasgar.  Extermination camps did not exist until 1941 with the opening of Chelmno.  I recount this history to show how the assumption of death camps misses the point for those of us critical of immigration camp.  

So how are the immigration centers like concentration camps?

1. The first similarity is that the centers are being created for detaining persons the CA would prefer to deport.  Granted, the reasons for deportation are different; thus,while the basic intent is not equivalent, it is comparable.
2. The next is that there is pretty open xenophobia associated with these camps.  The President's antipathy towards people  from south of the border is pretty well demonstrated in his comments about Latino populations and policies that will likely have a detrimental effect on Latino populations. This, of course is just an aspect of his general xenophobia, demonstrated by his "shithole" countries comment in January.
3. Part of the current anti-immigrant wave is the threat of MS-13 gang members and the "rapists" and "drug dealers" coming in to the country.  Evan Sernoffsky and Joe Garofoli pointed out in a recent San Francisco Chronicle piece that while MS-13 is a threat to California communities, that threat is not ubiquitous and has actually lessened in some areas; in Los Angeles, where the gang was first formed, it is at its weakest point, according to Jorga Leap, a UCLA professor of social welfare.   Furthermore, she asserted that the CA's constantly calling attention to the gang may actually be aiding in recruitment efforts.  This, is of course, just one state, but it shows that the threat narrative rests on shaky ground. A Senate Judiciary report found that only 0.02% out of 260,000 youth coming across the border were associated with MS-13.  That is cause for concern, but it seems to fall short of the apocryphal narrative the administration puts forward.  Additionally, as pointed out in point 5 above, there is no real solid evidence that immigration and crime rates are positively related.  Recently, the President has linked a so-called rise in crime in Germany to immigration, claiming that last year there was a 10% increase in crime.  According to Philip Seibt from Germany's news magazine Der Spiegel,there has been no such jump in crime.  Last year, actually, reported crime was the lowest it has been since 1992.  Interestingly, Seibert's work does show an uptick by crime from certain immigrant groups--southeastern Europeans and North Africans—but not enough to warrant the doomsday scenario the President has presented.  Related to this is an exaggerated sense of illegal immigration; Katie Benner and Caitlin Dickinson in a recent New York Times piece wrote that the number of Border Patrol stops this past year has been the lowest since 1971. 
4. Associated with the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany were the Nuremberg Laws, which basically disenfranchised Jews and even criminalized some activities.  Now there doesn't yet seem to be anything this drastic in the works for the current CA, however, Attorney General Jeff Session's recent policy changes regarding people seeking refugee status for fleeing domestic and other "non-state" violence sends a similar kind of message to potential immigrants: You are not wanted, stay and die in your own country.  It is using legal policy in the service of nationalism.[3]  
5. Just this week, the President tweeted that he wants deportations with "no judges or court cases."  He is advocating for ending due process and judicial review.  As stated above, this became a feature of the Nazi concentration camp system.  Thus, the President is openly pushing for a power enjoyed by the SS.
6. Just this week, a papers were filed in federal court in which six Latinos held in a Virginia youth detention center allege they were abused and mistreated, including being handcuffed to chairs, having bags placed over their heads and being "left nude shivering in concrete cells."  This, unfortunately, fits in with a very discomforting pattern of abuse in the Border Patrol and ICE ranks.  The ACLU and University of Chicago Law School recently published a report on over 30,000 pages released under FOIA that document many cases of abuse between 2009 and 2014, including physical, verbal, and even sexual abuse.  Additionally, Alice Speri of The Intercept, recently wrote about 1,224 documented complaints against the Border Patrol and ICE between 2010 and Sep. 2017.  Most of these complaints, of course, predate the CA showing that there may be an pervasive pattern of abuse of child immigrants among immigration services already.  An atmosphere of abuse, of course, was a key feature of concentration camps; and, while the level of abuse may not be as extreme, is any level permissible?
7. Just as I was getting ready to post this, a story appeared in The Daily Beast about current and former military personnel being opposed to these detention centers being housed on military bases.  Steve Kleinman, a retired Air Force veteran said the plan "smacks of totalitarianism."  Raf Naboa, former Army sargent, lamented “America’s military once liberated people from concentration camps.  It beggars the mind and our morality that it might be used to secure them.”

So, many of us recognize that there is not a one-to-one correspondence with the Nazi concentration camps, but there very disconcerting similarities.  Again, the Nazi camp system started as a series of prisons and detention centers, but quickly escalated to something far more sinister.  Would that ever happen in the US?  Well, yes it has.  Concentration camps were used during the forced migrations of Native Americans.  In a column for Indian Country Today, Elicia Goodsoldier quotes  Pulitzer Prize winning author, John Toland, who wrote:

Hitler’s concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of English and United States history. He admired the camps for Boer prisoners in South Africa and for the Indians in the wild west; and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America’s extermination—by starvation and uneven combat—of the red savages who could not be tamed by captivity.

Toland specifically named the Bosque Redondo served as an inspiration.  Naomi Gingold did a piece for PRI about an internment camp in Prescott, AZ in which both Japanese and Native Americans were held, working on a large irrigation project.  This, of course, touches on the Japanese internment.  Many of us who oppose the immigration camps do so with the idea of not seeing this kind of thing happening again. 

1. Asaf Kedar.  (2010).  Fascism.  In Marc Bevir (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Political Theory, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.  Retrieved fromSage Knowledge EBooks, http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/ 9781412958660.n168 

2. See also https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005144

3. Of course, fleeing non-state violence has not been part of immigration policy for very long (in 2014 Obama made it a valid condition), but it was a policy recognizing the many reasons people immigrate to the US in the first place, including many of European descent.

Dead Prezes Tweet tRump

Amazing what you can find when you dig around in Twitter!  Turns out some of tRump's dead colleagues are pretty skeptical about the Tantrumer-in-Chief...

Would it be safe to say that Lincoln still has more cred with African Americans that Lord Cheeto?

Damn...#ReaganRoastsIt...

Of course, looks like Taft may be a bit friendlier...but...#SarcasmHappens...

Today's Word: Vorbild

Image by @markheybo from Flckr, CC BY

A German word I'm fond of is Vorbild, a word that can be translated as "example," "model," "role model," or "archetype."  When we break the word into its parts though, the interesting aspects of the word really pop out; vor means (roughly) "in front of" or "before," the ancestor to the English prefix, fore.  The second part of the word, Bild, can be translated as "picture" or "image."  So, on the level of literal translation, a Vorbild is an image we carry in front of ourselves and to which we aspire or to which we are drawn.  In this sense, Obi Wan Kenobi is a Vorbild for Luke Skywalker.

Images from https://medium.com/@davidnett_89374/the-jedi-problem-f9c7aa2b7284 and https://www.businessinsider.com.au/star-wars-episode-viii-wrap-date-2016-7  

This matter of having Vorbilder (the plural form) is a rather significant part of being human and...yes, can lead us to the Dark Side.

This week, I have had an interesting and disturbing epiphany about a potential Vorbild for Stephen Miller:

Images from http://time.com/3880669/goebbels-in-geneva-1933-behind-a-classic-alfred-eisenstaedt-photo/ and https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/stephen-miller-contender-communications-director-jim-acosta 

A month before the infamous Wansseekonferenz in which the Nazis hashed out the Endloesung (the Final Solution), the annihilation of European Jews--before that, they were apparently only in second gear?--there was another meeting of high-level Nazis that Josef Goebbels (Nazi propaganda minister) attended and wrote about in his diary:

With respect of the Jewish Question, the Führer has decided to make a clean sweep. He prophesied to the Jews that if they again brought about a world war, they would live to see their annihilation in it. That wasn’t just a catchword… If the German people have now again sacrificed 160,000 dead on the eastern front, then those responsible for this bloody conflict will have to pay with their lives.

To me, this passage is chilling when we consider the combative nature of Stephen Miller, one of the last remaining "original" advisers to tRump and the junkyard dog of immigration in the Pennsylvania Ave. circus.  Miller is a staunch nativist and a belligerent player in the current debate on immigration and the future of the Dreamers.  He attended the meeting where tRump called Haiti and African nations "shithole" countries and was part of the sloppy clean up efforts afterwards.

Miller has been so intransigent about immigration policy and his desire to make America white again, that long-time Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham (SC), who has never been accused of being too liberal, basically called him an obstructionist.

Goebbels hated Jews.  Miller hates immigrants.  Is Miller psychotic and evil as Goebbels?  Hopefully not, but we have to remember, that Luke was also young and naive...and look where he ended up.

Now, I realize that Miller could actually find this comparison to Goebbels flattering, which should be of concern to Americans...as opposed to Amerikans.  Hopefully, though, he can keep in mind the fact that Hitler's main talking head ended up in a bad way--poisoned his children, double suicide with his wife, and then partially burned.  

Image from http://markfelton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Goebbels-Corpse-300x188.jpg

I don't believe violence offers lasting solutions and the re-emergence of the open politics of hate reinforces this notion.  If we want the Stephen Millers to fail, we need to be part of the marching and yelling against him and others of his subspecies.  And hopefully Miller can end up repentant like Darth Vader.

Image from: http://weknowmemes.com/generator/uploads/generated/g1421242900248402193.jpg

Today's word: Gaslighting

Image from: https://themindsjournal.com/10-things-ive-learned-about-gaslighting-as-an-abuse-tactic/

Oh, geez, where to start with this one!  If you haven’t seen the 1944 film Gaslight, you need to.  It’s an amazingly frustrating foreshadowing of the tRump administration…except that it’s a story that ends after 114 minutes, whereas the tRump circus just goes on and on and on. 

Image from pxhere.com, CC 0

Rebecca Lee, in a PsychCentral post on gaslighting, wrote that gaslighting is “an extreme form of emotional manipulation” that seeks to “[control] the way someone sees themselves and their reality” and “destabilize a person from the outside in” through “tactics such as denial, lying, and contradiction.”  Other writers add deflection, story changing, blame shifting, and emotional/psychological/verbal abuse to the mix of gaslighting behaviors.  In most cases, the abuser has a personality disorder, like narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc.

Image from https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/donald-trump-black-bg-e1516025231890.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=3464

Unfortunately, gaslighting also describes very well the tRump White House’s modus operandi in dealing with the public and true to form, this past week has seen several attempts at gaslighting from the big cheeseball himself and his cadre.  Let’s look at the “shithole” debacle for a moment.   Last Thursday in a meeting with legislators, tRump complained about having to take in immigrants from “shithole countries” like El Salvador, Haiti, and African countries.  First off, tRump’s comment was a kind of contradiction to the apparent goodwill performance at the bipartisan immigration meeting he hosted at the White House just two days before…so there’s one symptom.  

Then there was this fecal nugget from the White House staff:

The President's "shithole" remark is being received much differently inside of the White House than it is outside of it. Though this might enrage Washington, staffers predict the comment will resonate with his base, much like his attacks on NFL players who kneel during the National Anthem did not alienate it. (From the CNN article in the previous link)

Yup, the White House is counting on support for tRump’s racist, xenophobic remark, expecting that his devotees will not just accept his abusive speech, but prefer and defend it.  A second symptom.   

Since tRump's oral diarrhea, pundits have tried pass off the comment as simple “bar talk,” a kind of deflection in that they have tried to steer attention away from the White House resident and towards some amorphous group of drunk everymen and everywomen.  Symptom three.  

Image from Max Pixel, CC 0

Next Rand Paul jumped in, trying to say that calling attention to tRump’s racism is an obstruction to immigration policy discussions: "You can’t have an immigration compromise if everybody’s out there calling the president a racist...They’re actually destroying the setting ... in which anything meaningful can happen on immigration.”  Shifting blame, a fourth symptom.

For a fifth symptom, we have denial on several different fronts.  First of all, tRump himself denies having said it, Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen swore under oath that she did not hear the comment, Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue deny that the comments were made, and there have been efforts to say the Adolescent-in-Chief said "shithouse" instead of "shithole"...as if that makes any difference.  All these claims and claims of absence run the gamut from obfuscation to outright denial.  Actually, they could also be considered a sixth symptom, story changing.

Lastly, symptom seven: lying.  On Sunday tRump said in a quick interview that he is not a racist:

“The least racist person”?  Whatever he was trying to say with that that little scatmint is hollow as his own head in light of the many instances of racism in his ridiculous history from unfair housing practices, to advocating for the death penalty for the Central Park 5 (who were exonerated in court, but the Donald still maintains they did it), to leading the birther crapgumbo, and on.  If you need a refresher, this opinion piece in the New York Times could help out. 

Oh, and there was this verbal defecation from Sarah Huckabee Sanders:

I'm not sure how to classify this unmitigated stupidity.  Her claim that tRump having a show on NBC shows he's not racist is mindbogglingly asinine.  What, TV shows are immune to racists and racism?  No.  As a matter of fact they are full of institutional and cultural racism...better now than in the past, more racism-lite than racism-free.  I guess sheer idiocy must be a new symptom.  Number eight. 

Given tRump's horrid diet, his gas stinks.  Just stinks.

The Eyes of the World Are Watching Now

It's been too long since I have written...and there are unfortunate reasons for this.  But I cannot be quiet about the events of this past week.  What happened in Charlottesville, VA was horrendous!  The actions of the white supremacists, the neo nazis, and the kkk--I am refusing to capitalize these names in an effort to diminish them--were shameful in any and every respect. They are terrorists, just like members/supporters of isis, al qaeda, boko haram, al-shabaab, and other groups and they are hypocrites when they claim they stand for Christianity and freedom.  No!  They stand for death and oppression.  Unfortunately, tRump has shown his true colors this week in showing himself as an ally to the voices of American hate--even the conservative-leaning Washington Examiner has had a hard time explaining tRump's weak reaction to the events.

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

TODAY, THOUGH, I WANT TO EXPRESS GRATITUDE AND HOPE.

Saint Paul, MN

In reading about and seeing images and video clips of what happened last weekend and in the days following, I cannot help but be grateful that there were more counter protestors than racists on Saturday, that spontaneous vigils sprang up all over the country, that protesters disrupted and shut down one of the racist organizer's follow up press conference, and that business leaders and other public figures are denouncing tRump in force for his flaccid response to these hate groups. I grieve for all the injured and for the death of Heather Heyer, but I applaud her mother's prophesy that Alex Fields's cowardly running her down with his car will indeed magnify her commitment to social justice and compassion for the marginalized in our country.

I have been preparing to facilitate a book group this coming fall semester at Saint Martin's University, where I work, where we will read Trevor Noah's memoir, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood,and today I have been pulling together some resources for the group, including materials on the South African victory over Apartheid and their continuing struggle against hate.  I can never consider that history without thinking of Peter Gabriel's amazing tribute to Steven Biko, the courageous anti-Apartheid activist who was beaten to death while in police custody.

Steven Biko

 Below is a goose-bump inspiring performance of "Biko" in South Africa.

On June 18, 2011, I had the pleasure of attending Gabirel's concert at the Starlight Theater in Kansas City with my daughter and when he played this song at the end of the first set, I doubt there was one dry eye in the place.  I was so pleased to share that moment with my daughter and I was proud (I don't use that phrase too often) that she knew all the words and sang with the rest of us.

There are moments in "Biko" when any person with a conscience should get goosebumps and/or teary eyes, not least of which are when he sings the lines:

You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will only blow them higher

In South Africa, Biko's death along with the massacres at Sharpsville and Soweto were moments when the fire started.  In the US, incidents like the arrest of Rosa Parks, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Children's March in Alabama, the Selma Bridge, and later on the election of Shirley Chisholm, the beating of Rodney King, the election of Barak Obama, the terrible high-profile instances of police brutality, and other instances have all started fires.  Time will tell whether Charlottesville is a candle or a fire.  I hope it's an inferno.

San Diego, CA

The plight of persons of color in the US is a long dark history of brutality, violence, and exploitation.  We still have a long, long path before we see real social justice and equity in our country, but I think it's important to take a moment to acknowledge that the reaction to Charlottesville has offered hope.

Another important moment in Gabriel's song, though, comes at the end:

And they eyes of the world
Are watching now
Watching now

Gabriel has traditionally walked off the stage before this song ends, a gesture meant to remind us, the audience members, that it is our responsibility to fan the flames of equity and justice, to help burn down the houses of hate in our society and culture.

The eyes of the world really are watching.  Let's all grab a metaphorical torches and do a better job.

Shadows of Doubt

[Please excuse my absence last week...a death in the family occurred and we had to address that.]

In court cases, jurors are instructed to convict the defendant if they are convinced "beyond a shadow of doubt" of their guilt.  In the film (made from a play) 12 Angry Men, Henry Fonda's character has a shadow of a doubt and faces the wrath of the other eleven jurors, but convinces them through patience and logic to pass a verdict of "not guilty" on the young defendant being tried for murder.

Still from 12 Angry Men

Well, the jury is out on tRump's latest romp with his toys the other night when he ordered a missile attack on a Syrian military base in reaction to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons.  He said it was carried out both in the interest of national security and in defense of international treaties that ban using the chemical weapons that caused the horrible deaths of "beautiful babies"--the same one he refuses to let enter the country.

The Syrian government's use of chemical weapons, of course, is unconscionable and grossly immoral, but was tRump's reaction justified?

US politicians on both sides of the proverbial aisle seemed to trip over themselves to endorse the strike, including Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who said the attack "in Syria appears to be a proportional response to the [Assad] regime’s use of chemical weapons,”  but added this caution: “If the President intends to escalate the U.S. military’s involvement in Syria, he must come to Congress for an Authorization for Use of Military Force, which is tailored to meet the threat and prevent another open-ended war in the Middle East.”  Senate Majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) responded unequivocally, “I think the president had the authority to do what he he did. And I’m glad he did it.”  Senator John McCain (R-AZ) also supported the action.  Laura Barron Lopez and Michael McAuliff, with the Huffington Post, reported that while legislators seem to approve of the action, they cannot seem to articulate the legal grounds for it.  Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) said he will  "let the international lawyers look at the details of how they view it,” while Senator Jon Testor (D-MT) was a bit more hesitant, “It can be argued on both sides...I think we need an [Authorization for the Use of Military Force] that actually addresses this issue. We don’t have one right now.”

This question of whether tRump's action was actually legal is also being contested in legal circles.  Harold Koh, a former State Department legal adviser and current Yale University law professor, seems to feel it was legally grounded, arguing that one key function of international law is to protect human rights, which were clearly violated in Assad's chemical attack.  Additionally, the attack does not imply that we are at war with Syria, “If this is a one-and-done, Congress isn’t going to challenge it.”  Others have argued that tRump's claim that the attack was carried out in the interest of national security rests on such a vague notion of the concept that it may be possible to justify almost any action taken for that stated reason as legal and constitutional.  Alex Emmons, with The Intercept, reported that the legal community is divided about the legality of the attack, with Constitutional, human rights, and international lawyers saying the attack had no legal basis.  Jack Goldsmith at the Harvard Law School claimed the attack “exceeds all prior precedents under domestic and international law.”  Louis Fisher with the Constitution Project concurred, “President Trump has no constitutional authority to unilaterally commit the nation to war against Syria.”  Hina Shamsi with the ACLU tweeted that the strike had “no legit[imate] domestic or international law basis.”  And Fionnuala Ni Aolain from the University of Minnesota Law School observed that the attack was “a slide into self-justificatory unilateralism by the United States [that] should not be celebrated nor validated.”

In looking at this incident, what emerges is several shadows of doubt surrounding this attack and tRump's actions have done nothing to ameliorate concerns about the right wing's self-stylized image of Amerika as "legal enforcer," which comes off as brash vigilantism to many others in the rest of the world.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay, public domain

tRump's Mental Health

A couple links from this past week: a couple friends linked to this piece from The Onion: Aides Wrestle Drill from Trump's Hands as He Tries to Remove Obama Listening Device from Skull

Another friend linked to this piece about a bus in Denmark that trolls tRump:

Satire Rules!

tRump's Contiunuing Nazi/Fascist Problem

Nazi/Fascists are like cockroaches: they stick around and around and around.

Image by chuckharding53 from Flickr, not used with permission

Well, tRump is either finding that out...or perhaps knew it all along.  As the tRump campaign machinery geared up in 2015, Business Insider reported that in a 1990 interview, Ivana Trump reported that her ex-husband kept a book of Hitler's speeches next to his bed, ostensibly to learn oratory.

Image by frankieleon from Flickr, CC BY

 Then there was tRump's association with and hiring of Steve Bannon, his reluctance to denounce David Duke and the the KKK, and his standing with Neo-Nazis.  All this could be dismissed as posturing and politicking, of course...though that argument rings hollower and hollower with time.  And then there's the bruhaha over Sebastian L. v. Gorka.

Image from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Newsweek called Gorka a "second-tier White House foreign policy advisor" who has managed to make a name for himself and get more "facetime" in the media than others in his position in the past.  Gorka is a former employee of Bannon's at Breitbart, a notoriously right-wing so-called news source.  In right-wing circles, Gorka has achieved a reputation as an expert on Middle-Eastern terrorism, despite the fact that he does not speak Arabic and has not studied in the Middle-East, as reported by  Daniel Nexon in a column on the Foreign Policy website.   Nexon, an associate professor in the Department of Governement and  Foreign Service at Georgetown University, offered a critique of Gorka's academic credentials, noting that he is not very well-known in academic circles on terrorism, having only one peer-reviewed article to his credit and his PhD dissertation advisor at Corvinus University in Hungary has expertise in neither national security nor terrorism.

Recently, however, Gorka has been called into the spotlight for something a bit more sinister.  A Jewish publication out of New York, Forward, recently reported that Gorka is associated with Vitezi Rend, a group that collaborated with the Nazis during WWII.  Several pictures have been posted of Gorka wearing a medal from the group.

Gorka at an inauguration ball, with the medal pinned to his traditional Hungarian jacket; image from US Uncut

 A still from an episode of Fox News's Sean Hanity show; image from the Times of Israel

According to a short history on Vitezi Rend, the organization is a nationalist entity formed in 1920 after Hungary fought a series of post-WWI conflicts with Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania, as well as fending off a communist revolution--incidentally, the website claims that this revolution "introduced Hungary to the phenomenon of class warfare," a rather audacious claim for a former imperial seat.  Furthermore, the history claims that France and Great Britain backed the Czechs, Yugoslavians, and Romanians, a claim that echoes Nazi sentiments for whipping up their supporters during WWII.  Vitezi Rend can be translated as Order of Knights/Heroes/the Valiant and members were distinguished veterans who were given land claims and inheritable titles signified by appending a "v" before their last names...such as v. Gorka.  When the Soviet Union occupied Hungary after the Second World War, the organization was declared Fascist and outlawed.

The Newsweek article noted the US Memorial Holocaust Museum's claimed that during the war, Vitezi Rend members under the direction of the nationalist, Miklos Horthy, functioned much like the infamous Nazi Einsatzgruppen, paramilitary groups that murdered Jews throughout Eastern Europe and rounded up Jews for deportation to the concentration camps.

Hitler’s chief deportations expert, S.S. Lt. Colonel Adolf Eichmann, "was surprised at how actively and enthusiastically Hungarian authorities collaborated to achieve what was clearly a common purpose...initiating many anti-Jewish measures on their own.”

Nexon noted several strains in Gorka's dissertation that should raise concern.  Gorka claimed that the modern state is not equipped to deal with the threat posed by al Qaeda (it is not a big stretch to insert ISIS at this point) and that

...the ideal solution would involve a tightly integrated supranational security apparatus, but since "we are unable for various reasons (foremostly political) to create supranational solutions," the only viable alternative is for states to develop a "unified multi-agency approach" [that] involves getting rid of the "internal barriers between the police force, the army and various intelligence services," although Gorka implies that constitutional barriers might pose a problem.

Considering the almost seamless integration between the SS and the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, Gorka's claim is chilling.  He essentially called for a totalitarian state that makes war not only on "external enemies," but also its own population.

A 1941 Nazi propaganda poster that translates as, "Day of the German Police"; image from Wikimedia Commons, public domain

In his defense, Gorka said he wears the medal as a tribute to his father, but the group (as reported in the Forward article) claims that the son is also a life-long member.  Gorka himself told Tablet Magazine that he is not a sworn member of Vitezi Rend.  However, Larry Cohler-Esses, the writer of the Forward piece told Amy Goodwin on Democracy Now! that he was told by three sources in Vitezi Rend that Gorka had been inducted into the organization:

Well, the Vitézi Rend has some pretty firm rules. You do not get to wear the medal and use the "v" initial unless you join. And joining involves taking a lifelong oath, a oath of fealty to the organization and its principles and to Hungarian nationalism, which the organization is steeped in. We spoke with a senior member of the group, who took note of the "v" that he used both on his doctoral dissertation in Hungary and when he testified before Congress. And he said, "Of course. No 'v' without the oath." So, under these terms of the organization, if he was trying to honor his father, he was dishonoring the rules of the organization that his father was honored by. And I cannot read his mind. I was not in Hungary. But we then found three separate sources in the organization who said he did take the oath, he was initiated in the formal initiation ceremony into the organization.

Goodman noted that David Duke tried to defend Gorka, tweeting "How is Sebastian Gorka a 'Nazi'? The man is not only pro-[Israel], he is also pro-Jewish. Strange time to be alive–(((they’ve))) truly lost it."  Too bad for Duke that his protestation that Gorka is not antisemitic because he is pro-Israel ignores the fact that the concept of "Semite" includes Arabs as well as Jews (see the entry for Semites in the Encyclopedia Judaica).

I wonder whether Gorka also has a copy of Hitler speeches on his night stand.  I'll bet he either has a copy in his library or a bookmark on Chrome.

Concise Definition of an "Uncle Tom": Ben Carson

Image from http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_10/1924641/170306-ben-carson-hud-washington-750a_16620062097aa057e9d3eff634104db4.nbcnews-fp-1200-800.jpg

“That’s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity.  There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.” (from boston.com)

Image from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8b/26/f7/8b26f7063dc9ef923fcee47f0683ee11.jpg

Either Ben Carson put a wire in his head and scrambled his own brains or he doesn't seem to have learned anything in history class or from his grandparents...or maybe he's just satisfied with the really strange bone tRump threw him.  Anybody out there know what's going on in Uncle Tom's cranial cavity?  Something's supposed to be in there, right?

Red Herrings and Injustice

While the Russia connection with the tRump campaign is deeply disturbing and disconcerting and his off-the-chain claims about Obama wire tapping tRump Tower are problematic, I wonder if we are falling for the showman's tricks again...petulantly thrown out red herrings.  If they are not his red herrings, then those around them are using his verbal fertilizer that way.

Image by Durova from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

With all the bluster about Putin, Russia, and tRump's possible/probable paranoia, I'm concerned about some of the behind-the-curtain shenanigans and what they could mean for our future.

Image from Pintrest

This week some of the tRump administration's plans for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came to light and one of the most heinous revelations is that the administration wants to cut the budget by 24% and staffing by 20%, which includes eliminating the office for environmental justice, which means that environmental racism will be even more unchecked.  For those who may not be familiar with the term--it is not a high traffic term--environmental justice is defined by the office itself as:

...the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Environmental racism refers to the to the fact that marginalized communities comprised of people of color are frequently exposed to much higher levels of pollution, thus exposed to much higher risk than predominantly white communities.  The Goldman Environmental Fund noted that race

...plays a determining role in environmental policies regarding land use, zoning and regulations. As a result, African American, Latino, indigenous and low-income communities are more likely to live next to a coal-fired power plant, landfill, refinery or other highly polluting facility. These communities bear a disproportionate burden of toxic contamination as a result of pollution in and around their neighborhoods. Moreover, these communities have historically had a diminished response capacity to fight back against such policies.

Image by Alfred Palmer from Wikimedia Commons, public domain

One of the most recent devastating examples of environmental racism has been the Flint, MI water crisis.  In this case, the choice to switch the city water supply to the Flint River was pitched as a cost-saving measure, but it was a case of environmental classism and racism because Flint is a very poor city with a high population of people of color.  In a 2016 story for The New York Times, John Eligon starts with an inescapable question: "If Flint were rich and mostly white, would Michigan’s state government have responded more quickly and aggressively to complaints about its lead-polluted water?"  The thousands of emails released about the water crisis show that the population of the city was less important that cost-cutting and so they were deemed to be functionally dispensable, even though race was not explicitly mentioned.  Eligon observed that

Environmental decisions are often related to political power. In some cities, garbage incinerators have been built in African-American neighborhoods that do not have the political clout to block them. In Michigan, where blacks are 14 percent of the population and the state government is dominated by Republicans, Flint has little political power.

 So, while the Flint crisis may not have been an overt gesture of environmental racism, it is an example of systemic or institutional racism, a manifestation of Whiteness.  The dangerous nature of the water was well known, indeed, "years ago ]the river[ was a repository for industrial waste from the city’s once booming, now almost extinct, factories," Eligon wrote, but the people of flint were all but invisible to the state.

Ruth Frankenberg wrote that Whiteness is a "'stand point,' a place from which White people look at ourselves, at others, and at society" and is "a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed" (as cited in DiAngelo, 2011, p. 56).*  DiAngelo expounds on this point when she observed that

Whiteness is thus conceptualized as a constellation of processes and practices [that are] dynamic, relational, and operating at all times on a myriad of levels.  These processes and practices include basic rights, values, beliefs, perspectives and experiences purportedly to be commonly shared by all but which are actually only consistently afforded to white people. (p. 56)

Whiteness is largely invisible to those who benefit from it and thus makes very little sense to them when learning of it, but it can have very real and even drastic effects on people of color.  In the case of Flint, the environmental racism manifested itself in that decision makers completely ignored the health risk for the sake of finances.  Profits over people.

A young woman in Louisiana's Cancer Alley, image from Pintrest

Another maddeningly tragic example is Louisiana's infamous Cancer alley on the Delta, where largely African-American communities are constantly exposed to carcinogens from "over 150 petrol companies and 17 refineries," according to a 2015 article on The IND Monthly website, leading to unusually high rates of cancer in an 85 mile stretch aling the Mississippi River.  (For a fuller description of Cancer Alley and other instances of environmental racism, see Dr. Robert Ballard's Dumping in Dixie.)

If tRump's proposed cuts to the EPA hold up, there are sure to be at least dozens of more Flints and Cancer Alleys in our future.

* DiAngelo, R.  (2011).  White fragility.  International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3), 54-70.