newrepublic--2020-06-02--Bill de Blasio Has Failed

Bill de Blasio Has Failed

In recent days , New York Police Department officers have violently thrown protesters to the ground , arrested journalists , maced a state senator , and used a car door to strike a man standing in the street .
In one video that circulated on social media , a police officer removed the face mask of a black man , whose hands were in the air , to pepper spray him .
There is abundant evidence that the NYPD has escalated confrontations with protesters who have been agitating against police brutality , and there are a number of documented instances @ @ @ @ @ @ @ age of live-streamed protest , there are surely other instances of unprovoked aggression that have gone undocumented .
Asked about video showing two police cars plowing through a crowd in Brooklyn , Mayor Bill de Blasio was unambiguous : It was actually the protesters ’ fault .
Although he described the video as “ upsetting , ” de Blasio said it was “ inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers.
” The officers , he continued , had no choice but to “ get out ” of an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the protestors had just gotten out of the way we wouldn ’ t be talking about this situation , ” he said .
It was de Blasio at his most obtuse , no small accomplishment given his seven bumbling years as mayor .
He had surely seen video that proved that his description of events was inaccurate—the police were not surrounded , they chose to drive through a crowd .
Later , he praised police officers for displaying “ restraint ” over the weekend .
The NYPD ’ s Sergeants Benevolent Association , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country , repaid his kindness by doxxing his daughter Chiara , who was arrested while protesting in Manhattan on Sunday evening .
The Sergeants Benevolent Society tweeted out an internal arrest report , which contained her drivers license and address , something the NYPD does not usually do .
De Blasio has since tried to shift course .
Perhaps sensing that the Sergeants Benevolent Association , a habitual line-stepper , had finally gone too far , he condemned the officers who drove into a crowd , and demanded the investigation of another who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Square .
But it was too late .
De Blasio ’ s abject deference to the cops has been the crowning failure of a miserable coronavirus season , which began with the mayor bungling the city ’ s initial response to the pandemic and insisting on maintaining his ridiculous regimen at his gym in Park Slope even as everyone else entered lockdown .

The irony is that he is as hated by police officers now as he was in 2014. Earlier this year, after an officer was shot, the Sergeants Benevolent Association tweeted, “Mayor DeBlasio, the members of the NYPD are declaring war on you! We do not respect you, DO NOT visit us in hospitals. You sold the NYPD to the vile creatures, the 1% who hate cops but vote for you. NYPD cops have been assassinated because of you. This isn’t over, Game on!”
If there was ever evidence that police departments are rogue forces out of control of civilian governments, surely this was it. When the protests started, de Blasio could have seized the moment to sympathize with the protesters and demand reform and greater accountability. He could have used his own experience of clashing with the police unions as a lesson for other mayors and for the country as a whole. He could have at least acknowledged the reality on the streets, a reality that was evident to the whole world.
Instead, de Blasio, not unlike Donald Trump, shrank from sight. Over the weekend, he tweeted that he was driving around the city to check on how police were treating protesters and vice versa. This was city leadership as performance art. Unable to convey that he was actually in charge of the city, he presented himself as somehow omnipresent. He displayed all the authority of a substitute teacher.


newrepublic--2020-06-02--The Police Were a Mistake

The Police Were a Mistake

Contrary to most of American folklore , the Founding Fathers were not a supernaturally wise monolith .
Leading revolutionary figures like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton may have shared certain broad values , such as a commitment to republicanism , but they often passionately disagreed about what , exactly , the new nation ’ s political systems should look like .
The Constitution that they ultimately wrote is more of a compromise between those differences than a perfect resolution to them .
One issue where the Founders were virtually unanimous , however , was their fear of standing armies .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Rubicon to Oliver Cromwell ’ s New Model Army to the forces mustered by European monarchies , large armed forces in peacetime invariably threatened a free people ’ s rights .
Many of the 13 Colonies ’ postindependence constitutions included declarations that standing armies “ are dangerous to liberty , [ and ] they ought not to be kept up.
” John Adams warned that they should be “ watched with a jealous eye , ” while Thomas Jefferson referred to them as an “ engine of oppression.
” Those fears deeply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tools for Congress and the president to keep the military under civilian control .
“ A standing military force with an overgrown executive will not long be safe companions to liberty , ” Madison said in a speech to the Constitutional Convention .
“ The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home .
Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war whenever a revolt was apprehended .
Throughout all Europe , the armies kept up under the pretext of defending have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on new meaning as civil unrest spread throughout the country over the last several days .
Tens of thousands of Americans took to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd , a 46-year-old black man who was brutally killed by four Minneapolis police officers last week , and the culture of police brutality and militarism that has permitted a long list of similar killings .
In response , police officers in cities across the country have largely responded violently , with abusive and authoritarian tactics .
Social media networks are flooded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elderly pedestrians and innocent bystanders into pavement , bludgeoning journalists or pelting them with rubber bullets , and dispersing lawful crowds with tear gas and overwhelming force .

One of the paradoxes of modern policing is that the officials best equipped to violate an American’s rights also receive the most legal protections from scrutiny and accountability when it happens.
Other institutional hurdles stand between elected officials and police oversight. One of the paradoxes of modern policing is that the officials best equipped to violate an American’s rights also receive the most legal protections from scrutiny and accountability when it happens. Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis officer who killed George Floyd, had received at least 17 misconduct complaints in the course of his tenure; had his career been derailed by any of them, Floyd would be alive today. Police unions often negotiate contracts that require complaint records to be regularly purged from local databases, delay investigations into misconduct, and limit civilian leadership’s ability to fire officers who are found culpable. On the few occasions when officers are actually kicked off the force, they are often hired by departments in other cities that aren’t aware of their previous work history.
Courts have added other barriers to police accountability. In theory, state and local government officials can be sued in federal court for violating a person’s civil rights under Section 1983, a key provision in the Civil Rights Act of 1871. But the Supreme Court has steadily curtailed Section 1983’s scope with a judicial doctrine known as qualified immunity, which shields the police and other officials from lawsuits under certain circumstances. In recent years, the court has made it even easier for courts to dismiss Section 1983 cases against cops in particular. Though the rulings have drawn criticism across the ideological spectrum, the justices appear no closer to changing course.
That sense of impunity compounds other problems. For one, police officers in many large American cities often don’t actually live in the neighborhoods they police. In 2014, for instance, FiveThirtyEight found that in Minneapolis, only 10 percent of officers—and only 5 percent of white officers—actually lived in the city limits. The NYPD even has a rule that uniformed officers aren’t allowed to live in the precinct where they work, meaning that the city’s communities aren’t patrolled by people who actually live there. When residents in these communities feel like they’re being overpoliced by an outside force over which they have no control, it’s because they are.


newrepublic--2020-06-03--A Quiet Workplace Revolution in the Shadow of Silicon Valley

As the deputy director of research for a large union chapter , Criscitiello had helped nursing professionals organize into worker cooperatives and thought the daycare seemed like a good candidate .
Co-ops can take various shapes , but rather than any legal description , what makes a worker co-op drills down to two central features : employee ownership and democratic control through a board of directors , an elected body composed of at least 50 percent employees .
If they could pull this idea off , collective ownership would protect both employees and clients against the whims of the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It might be strange to see unions back the making of workers into managers , when their mission typically sees these roles as adversarial .
But Criscitiello told me that her priority is building people power .
A greater say in the company ’ s affairs can translate into better pay , as the workers ’ interests finally align with the owners ’ .
Co-ops present a chance to set and protect one ’ s work conditions , a waning privilege as the gig economy expands its tentacles , while all around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from both state legislatures and courtrooms hostile to labor rights .
For undocumented worker-owners , this model can mean a living wage without risking their livelihood : Owner status limits the personal information that gets reported to the federal government .
( Through Form I-9 , employers must certify that their employees are legally permitted to work on U.S. soil , but the administrative court that decides employment cases involving immigration status , the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer , has ruled that worker-owners don ’ t need to fill out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reality , Criscitiello believes that unions can not keep doing more of the same .
“ It ’ s time for a new paradigm , ” she said .
With the co-managers on their side , Hall and Criscitiello reached out to potential investors with a pitch that would ’ ve laughed them out of Silicon Valley .
There was a lot to love about the daycare , and it was doing well financially , facts that they made sure to emphasize .
But they were also frank that this was a social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was not the most lucrative option , under the traditional rubric that guides these kinds of decisions .
There was no question that investors could obtain stronger returns elsewhere , but Hall told them that putting their money in the daycare “ was a thing to do because you really are attached to the institution and the people who run it and the place that your dog really cares about.
” In her pitch , Hall warned that this could potentially be a high-risk loan , that investors might hand the keys to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ control on the company ’ s board .
Their stake would be small and profit modest , if any .
The building would be held by the co-op .
If the property ever sold , the workers would have a say in the distribution of the profits .

It might be strange to see unions back the making of workers into managers, when their mission typically sees these roles as adversarial. But Criscitiello told me that her priority is building people power. A greater say in the company’s affairs can translate into better pay, as the workers’ interests finally align with the owners’. Co-ops present a chance to set and protect one’s work conditions, a waning privilege as the gig economy expands its tentacles, while all around the country, public-sector unions fend off attacks from both state legislatures and courtrooms hostile to labor rights. For undocumented worker-owners, this model can mean a living wage without risking their livelihood: Owner status limits the personal information that gets reported to the federal government. (Through Form I-9, employers must certify that their employees are legally permitted to work on U.S. soil, but the administrative court that decides employment cases involving immigration status, the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer, has ruled that worker-owners don’t need to fill out this form.) In this grim reality, Criscitiello believes that unions cannot keep doing more of the same. “It’s time for a new paradigm,” she said.
With the co-managers on their side, Hall and Criscitiello reached out to potential investors with a pitch that would’ve laughed them out of Silicon Valley. There was a lot to love about the daycare, and it was doing well financially, facts that they made sure to emphasize. But they were also frank that this was a social investment, which is to say it was not the most lucrative option, under the traditional rubric that guides these kinds of decisions. There was no question that investors could obtain stronger returns elsewhere, but Hall told them that putting their money in the daycare “was a thing to do because you really are attached to the institution and the people who run it and the place that your dog really cares about.”
In her pitch, Hall warned that this could potentially be a high-risk loan, that investors might hand the keys to the workers and have little say or control on the company’s board. Their stake would be small and profit modest, if any. The building would be held by the co-op. If the property ever sold, the workers would have a say in the distribution of the profits.


newrepublic--2020-06-03--Climate Change Is Going to Hit Palestine Particularly Hard

Israel just made it through a brutal , record-breaking heat wave .
Temperatures hit 105 degrees Fahrenheit in Tel Aviv , 98 degrees in Jerusalem , and 113 degrees in Jericho .
The government had to lift the requirement for masks and suspend many schools yet again , just after post-coronavirus re-openings .
The scorching temperatures caused record electricity usage .
Wildfires broke out in the south of the country .
The elderly suffered heatstroke , and three people died .
This all happened in May : the fifth-hottest month of the year in Israel .
The climate crisis is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Middle East .
Israel will see its summer extended by two months , and days in the summer will reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit .
Precipitation will decrease by as much as 25 percent , a terrifying jump in water-scarcity for an already arid region .
And while there will be less precipitation overall , when it falls , it will come in storms , causing floods , storm surges , and heavy infrastructural damage .
But in a pattern likely to play out throughout the world , these disasters will not be felt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Instead , by and large Palestinians will face the worst of the region ’ s many coming climate disasters .
“ We have quite good knowledge of how the climate will evolve in the region , ” Assaf Hochman , a climate researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology , told me .
In coming years , Israel will see streams go dry , more forest fires , more invasive species , and an increased risk of disease outbreak , both infectious and vector-borne .
The cost of agriculture will rise due @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and damage from storms , floods , and droughts .
“ It ’ s not an exaggeration that it will be unsafe to go outside in the summer .
And the political context in the region is making it difficult to adapt.
” Research by Michael Mason , the Director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics , shows that Israeli and Palestinian reports on climate change have almost entirely ignored climate change ’ s role as a threat multiplier in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and the conflict ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ climate crisis .
But there ’ s ample research showing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will make the impacts of the climate crisis more severe .
Specifically , the Israeli military occupation is already exacerbating climate-related resource shortages for Palestinians in the West Bank , Gaza Strip , and Golan Heights .

Despite Israel’s status as a leader in green technology, the Israeli government has offered no serious policy response to climate change, per a report by the Israel Union for Environmental Defense. The country has failed to meet its low-bar Paris Agreement targets. (The targets are so modest that Israel could increase its overall emissions while still meeting them.) In fact, most Israelis aren’t particularly concerned about the climate crisis in the first place.
In a 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center, Israel was found to be the least concerned about climate change out of 26 countries surveyed. Just 38 percent of Israeli respondents said they saw climate change as a major threat. Israel’s National Adaptation Plan for climate change, originally proposed in 2009, was finally passed in July 2018. The plan largely focuses on the military’s strategic needs, while lacking fundamental elements such as a strategy for using green energy, instead putting forward a plan to shift to natural gas. (Natural gas still produces significant carbon dioxide emissions.) Politicians have rarely talked about climate change amid Israel’s ongoing political chaos, following three elections that failed to produce a governing coalition. As in Palestine, most climate change advocacy work in Israel comes from private nongovernmental organizations such as the aforementioned Israel Union for Environmental Defense.
“When climate change bites, it will exacerbate and multiply the preexisting inequalities already in place.”
Israeli climate activists are frustrated. “The government hasn’t been doing nearly enough,” said Michael Bäcklund, an Israeli climate activist, striker, and organizer with Strike 4 Future Israel. “We have been saying that climate policies in Europe are not perfect and not enough, but they’re nonexistent in Israel.” The problem extends to public discourse more generally, he added: “The public doesn’t really understand what climate change is. Many think it’s related to the ozone layer. And the media doesn’t connect natural disasters like floods, which have been occurring much more frequently in the past 10 to 15 years, to the climate crisis.”


newrepublic--2020-06-03--Vaccines Don’t Make Money

Vaccines Don’t Make Money

Victory in the so-called race for a coronavirus vaccine rests on the skills of a handful of private companies whose @ @ @ @ @ public good .
Can Big Pharma deliver what we need to recover from this pandemic @ @ @ @ @ ?
On Episode 9 of The Politics of Everything , hosts Laura Marsh and Alex @ @ @ @ @ a regular contributor to The New Republic , about patent monopolies , the history of @ @ @ @ @ States , and the promise of alternative models of drug production .
Later in the @ @ @ @ @ talk with the book and film critic Lidija Haas about Rodham , Curtis Sittenfeld ’ @ @ @ @ @ life of Hillary Clinton .

Victory in the so-called race for a coronavirus vaccine rests on the skills of a handful of private companies whose primary motivation is hardly the public good. Can Big Pharma deliver what we need to recover from this pandemic and prevent others from occurring? On Episode 9 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene interview Alexander Zaitchik, a regular contributor to The New Republic, about patent monopolies, the history of vaccine development in the United States, and the promise of alternative models of drug production.
Later in the episode, Alex and Laura talk with the book and film critic Lidija Haas about Rodham, Curtis Sittenfeld’s counterfactual novelization of the life of Hillary Clinton.


newrepublic--2020-06-03--The Brands Don’t Care About George Floyd’s Death

Ages ago , when the country was slowly careening into the coronavirus pandemic , corporate marketing departments across the land pursued an unsubtle advertising strategy .
By mid-April , seemingly every commercial airing on cable TV , radio , streaming services , podcasts , and online videos blared some combination of the same hollow message : We ’ re all in this together , from our family to yours .
It was disarming to hear these messages of reassurance , given the clear evidence that we were not all in this together : The federal government , and many states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the virus , leading to mass death .
But it was also infuriating : another example of capitalism wrapping its fingers around the latest tragedy and squeezing every last penny from Covid-19 victims .
Listening to companies like Uber and Amazon use their 30-second ads to call their employees “ heroes , ” while they continued to underpay them and ignore their pleas for increased protection from the coronavirus was almost hilariously myopic .
In the wake of the Minneapolis cop killing of George Floyd and the subsequent nationwide protests against racist policing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to attention to peddle “ corporate social responsibility.
” Where the coronavirus messages and commercials spoke of coming together , corporations are now trying to insert themselves into the social justice scene , posting statements against racism and promising donations to fight it .
It ’ s no more or less genuine than their Covid-19 campaign—a ham-fisted marketing tactic to distract from the fact that corporations are reaping hundreds of billions in tax cuts and refunds while Americans are left to do the actual work of surviving a pandemic and abolishing systemic racism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Consider this brief sampling of corporate banality : “ To be silent is to be complicit .
Black Lives Matter , ” Netflix tweeted on May 30 .
“ We support Black lives .
Today , and every day , ” Disney-owned Hulu echoed six hours later .
“ For Once , Don ’ t Do It , ” said a Nike ad .
“ Without the Black community , Reebok would not exist .
America would not exist , ” read the competing shoe company ’ s home page .
“ There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or hatred , ” stated McKinsey .
“ We will not stand for racism , ” said the Atlanta Braves , incredibly .
The Washington Football Slurs even got in on it , posting a black box in solidarity .
NextDoor , a cesspool for racist gentrifiers and profilers , put out a message stating , “ Everyone should feel safe in their neighborhood.
” Even PAW Patrol , the animated TV show for children , posted a solidarity message :

This sort of response is now standard practice within corporate America. As Vulture’s E. Alex Jung wrote Tuesday in a searing column on brand opportunism, “The personal is political is an opportunity for brand awareness.” Today, any brand that fails to release a statement is inviting controversy. To wit: Madison Square Garden and New York Knicks owner James Dolan, a man nobody should ever want to hear from unless the sentence starts with, “I’m selling,” was dinged for MSG’s lack of a statement.
Some executives have taken their virtue-signaling a step further by tossing measly sums of their personal fortunes at safe politicians. Cruise through the OpenSecrets pages of people like Zuckerberg or Nike CEO John Donahue, and you’ll find donation after donation to establishment Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, tech-loving Cory Booker. Ahead of the 2018 midterms, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos played the patriot card, pledging $10 million to veteran candidates (while also quadrupling his company’s spending in Virginia state politics ahead of the company’s push for a new headquarters near D.C.).
All of these self-congratulatory messages and conspicuous donations serve a singular purpose: to provide the executive class with political and social cover. Meanwhile, the billion-dollar corporations it oversees are flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists. (Amazon ranked ninth in 2019 in terms of overall lobbying funds; Facebook was tenth.) For companies seeking to avoid controversy but still make off with sacks of the public’s money, it’s far easier to pull the strings on the Democratic side, cash in on the Republican tax cuts, and mimic the language of people of color who are putting their lives on the line for justice. And why wouldn’t they? In America, corporations are people, too. The only difference is that they don’t get called out on cable news for looting the country.


newrepublic--2020-06-03--Protest Medics on Being Targeted by the Police, in Their Own Words

Protests can often feel like communities in miniature , and as thousands of people across the country continue to turn out in the wake of the recent police killings of George Floyd , Breonna Taylor , and Tony McDade , parallel economies of care have emerged : pockets of collaborative leadership develop organically as people lead chants , close gaps in the flow of marchers , and help keep pace .
Others , in cities from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis and Los Angeles , station themselves along march routes with bottles of water , hand sanitizer , and masks .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from space in their lime green hats , notebooks in hand , are the legal observers .
Medics , professional and self-trained , are often distinguishable by their large backpacks and white helmets or hats with red crosses , sometimes fashioned with tape .
In these moments , it ’ s clear that more than just showing up in rejection of violent systems , protesters are also demonstrating , in real time , the world they are trying to build .
In recent days , in response to these demonstrations of care , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves .
They have destroyed water supplies stationed to keep people hydrated in intense heat .
They have indiscriminately used tear gas against crowds .
We reached out to some of these protest care workers to talk about what brought them into those roles , and their experiences with the police over the last week .
“ The cops at the protest that day wouldn ’ t make eye contact , ” one said .
“ They were laughing at one point .
I think they think this is funny.
” Interviews have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
On what brought them out into the streets Sabrina Johnson , personal trainer , community medic , Los Angeles : I had gotten involved with Ground Game—grassroots community organizers who are part of the Los Angeles Covid-19 Mutual Aid Network—because the city hasn ’ t been doing much around Covid .
We help get supplies from neighbors to other neighbors .
Part of that was doing a community medic training .
Last Wednesday , there was a protest with Black Lives Matter LA , and a couple of us who are also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protest .
We were there when the police officer drove through a crowd , and a man was on the hood of the police car and was injured .
A couple of us rushed over and tried to help out before the ambulance arrived , and at that point , I realized that I needed to have my medic bag with me at all of these protests going forward .

Then this random group of people came running around the corner with this firehose—no one knew where they had come from. They hooked it up to the fire hydrant, and I helped hold up the hose, and we put out this fire. That was adjacent to a home that was really close to the flames, and that was our first priority. If that house would have caught on fire, it would have put the adjacent row of homes at risk.
Shirin: On Friday night, I was washing out someone’s eyes on a sidewalk, fairly removed from the protests, when someone kicked me in the back, and it was a police officer trying to tell us that we had to move. And I was trying to communicate to him that we would comply as soon as possible, but the woman I was helping could not see and could not get up. We were surrounded, and one of the officers grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into a nearby park. And I had to finish and help her there.
Sabrina: One of the most traumatic injuries I saw, it was a woman who police had shot with rubber projectiles, directly at her face. It completely split her face open. She was losing a lot of blood. She had a mask that had been folded up, and someone had given her a bandanna, and those were completely soaked with blood, and she’s holding them with pressure. I grabbed her and her friend who was helping her get through the crowds. She couldn’t really walk, she was starting to go in and out like she was going to faint, and I couldn’t get her back to where medics were. I took her under the eaves of some stores and was trying to treat her, and somebody else came over, an EMT, and he said, “Can I help?” I said, “Here’s my bag, get in there, get gloves on.”


newrepublic--2020-06-03--Are You Really Surprised by Our Authoritarian President?

Over a year and a half , or a political eon , ago the focal point of our political discourse was a caravan of migrants trekking through Central America and Mexico in the hopes of winning asylum in the United States .
The president , amplified by the conservative press and Republican candidates in the midterm elections , insisted “ criminals and unknown Middle Easterners ” abetted by Democrats would overrun the border and invade the country ; journalists reported in vain that the caravan comprised aspirant workers and families fleeing violence and destitution .
And although the right ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of invasion inspired a gunman who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue , a large faction of the punditry insisted that Democratic candidates hadn ’ t indulged the president ’ s paranoid fantasies enough .
In a characteristic piece for The Atlantic , David Frum argued that liberals had become “ massively discomfited by the caravan , ” and that the situation presented Trump with an extraordinary “ political opportunity.
” “ Here is exactly the kind of issue that excites more conservative Americans , ” he wrote , “ and empowers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Two weeks later , conservative Americans and their blustery , angry champion lost the midterm elections in a rout , having lost the support of many suburban voters Trump and Republicans had hoped to frighten with the caravan .
The issue promptly vanished from Trump ’ s rhetoric and the headlines , but not before inspiring a remarkable policy response from the White House .
Just over a week before the election , it was announced that over 5,000 active-duty troops would be sent to the border to intercept the caravan .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Southern Border , ” Trump tweeted on Halloween morning .
“ We will NOT let these Caravans , which are also made up of some very bad thugs and gang members , into the U.S. ” Despite assurances from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen that asylum-seekers would not be shot by American soldiers , Trump suggested they potentially would , in a press conference five days before voters went to the polls .
“ They want to throw rocks at our military , our military fights back , ” he said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ it—I told them : Consider it a rifle .
When they throw rocks , like they did at the Mexico military and police , I said : Consider it a rifle .
”

Of course, they wound up losing it. The stunt brought international criticism and intensified the media’s ire—enough so that some of the president’s critics began saying strange things. There’s certainty all around that America has now well and truly begun its stride toward authoritarianism. And CNN religion commentator Father Edward Beck was among those who asked on Twitter, evidently innocent of the history of all Christendom, whether the Bible had “ever been used in a more disingenuous and exploitative way.” The guilelessness of all this is staggering—it would surprise many of our racial minorities, gay and queer Americans, women who’ve sought abortions, and Muslims, among others, to learn that Donald Trump inaugurated American totalitarianism this week. These are groups intimately familiar with the willingness of our politicians to deploy violence and repression for the sake of empty religious symbolism.
Authoritarianism is what sent demonstrators to Lafayette Square in the first place.
Authoritarianism is what sent demonstrators to Lafayette Square in the first place. A man has been killed by a state-sponsored thug; across the country, citizens rising to protest are being bludgeoned and gassed by historically unaccountable authorities. What happened Monday was a small step in evolution, not the beginning of a great conversion. To the extent it was the high-water mark of anything, it was perhaps the apotheosis, in political imagery anyway, of conservative social politics—the whole ideological infrastructure summarized and made plain within the space of an hour. No, we’ve been told, the state shouldn’t go out of its way to make the disadvantaged whole or bring law and order to an economy controlled by gamblers, gluttons, and cheats. But it can be brought to bear, with overwhelming brutality, against people conservative Americans deem to be inferior and unworthy of our government’s attention.
The unworthies include and have long included the residents of Washington, D.C., a majority-minority city now functionally under occupation—thanks, in large part, to the efforts of civil rights–era segregationists and their ideological heirs in the contemporary Republican Party, to deny them autonomy. On Tuesday and Wednesday, pictures circulated of riot police from an alphabet soup of federal agencies standing around in the city’s streets doing essentially nothing. Like those troops still stationed at the border, they will spend most of their days making themselves useful as stagehands for the kind of security theater the last Republican administration perfected during the War on Terror. The troops stationed in Washington, though, will see action—taking truncheons to demonstrators and the press as soldiers in a culture war that armored vehicles have carted from the realm of metaphor into physical reality. There are boots on the ground, commanders in camo have reviewed units in the field, and Army helicopters are flying overhead. On Monday night, they hovered low enough to topple trees and send debris hurtling toward pedestrians. The formal name for this tactic, which the military uses to suppress insurgents in combat zones, is “show of force.”


newrepublic--2020-06-03--The Police Take the Side of White Vigilantes

What would lead a police department—not a few misbehaving officers but every officer on the street , in this instance—to dismiss a heavily armed man as no threat ( to either their own safety or the safety of the community ) in one case , while , in another , viewing an unarmed local activist as so much of a threat that multiple cops decided to surround and brutally beat him with batons ?
The incidents in Chicago and Philadelphia are evidence that American police across the country share a coherent ideology .
Armed white boys don ’ t code @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anarchists ” and angry black people do ( even if the protesters are the ones at least attempting to engage in constitutionally protected behavior , while the roving white gangs are flagrantly violating the law ) .
That disconnect , the galling image of watching the law so obviously tossed aside under certain circumstances , highlights a fundamental truth about what ’ s happening across the United States .
The police are not using brutality to enforce “ the law.
” They ’ re using the law to enforce something else : a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them , worth fighting for .
The words “ white supremacy ” make some people shut their brains off ( especially when so many cops are indeed black and so many people they ’ re brutalizing during these clashes are white ) , but the order , and the ideology , that these police departments , from Kansas City to Minneapolis to Philadelphia , are enforcing is one that dates back to the beginning of our country ’ s history , one that relies on the domination and subjugation of particular classes and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that , if given power , they would turn around and return the favor .
That is what makes the response to these protests so brutal , so urgent , for the police : In town after town , they seem to ignore any course of action that might de-escalate tensions in favor of the ones that only serve to prolong the conflict .
Make no mistake : Cops have allowed other demonstrations , even very large ones , to play out with minimal or no interference .
Heavily armed right-wingers marched on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the spread of Covid-19 , and the police universally treated them as peaceful and lawful demonstrators , even as they threatened lawmakers and burned at least one governor in effigy .
There were no violent crackdowns , no curfews , no brawls on the streets , no kettling or mass arrests .
There was no tear gas .
No major George Floyd–inspired protest has received the same courtesy , as far as I can tell .
Fifty cops decked out in full riot gear descended on 14 quietly protesting students in Hoover , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them all .

The incidents in Chicago and Philadelphia are evidence that American police across the country share a coherent ideology. Armed white boys don’t code as a threat to them; “anarchists” and angry black people do (even if the protesters are the ones at least attempting to engage in constitutionally protected behavior, while the roving white gangs are flagrantly violating the law). That disconnect, the galling image of watching the law so obviously tossed aside under certain circumstances, highlights a fundamental truth about what’s happening across the United States. The police are not using brutality to enforce “the law.” They’re using the law to enforce something else: a particular social order that is, to them, worth fighting for.
The words “white supremacy” make some people shut their brains off (especially when so many cops are indeed black and so many people they’re brutalizing during these clashes are white), but the order, and the ideology, that these police departments, from Kansas City to Minneapolis to Philadelphia, are enforcing is one that dates back to the beginning of our country’s history, one that relies on the domination and subjugation of particular classes and groups, often out of the fear that, if given power, they would turn around and return the favor. That is what makes the response to these protests so brutal, so urgent, for the police: In town after town, they seem to ignore any course of action that might de-escalate tensions in favor of the ones that only serve to prolong the conflict.
Make no mistake: Cops have allowed other demonstrations, even very large ones, to play out with minimal or no interference. Heavily armed right-wingers marched on statehouses last month decrying measures to arrest the spread of Covid-19, and the police universally treated them as peaceful and lawful demonstrators, even as they threatened lawmakers and burned at least one governor in effigy. There were no violent crackdowns, no curfews, no brawls on the streets, no kettling or mass arrests. There was no tear gas. No major George Floyd–inspired protest has received the same courtesy, as far as I can tell. Fifty cops decked out in full riot gear descended on 14 quietly protesting students in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, and arrested them all.


newrepublic--2020-06-04--The Stock Market Is an Engine of Civic Destruction

Even before it lit the fuse on that cannon , equity markets “ ballooned , ” anticipating the huge cushion of Fed cash .
Boeing , for example , said it was “ rejecting ” a corporate bailout—but it issued $ 25 billion in bonds , which Dayen said was “ entirely made possible by the Fed ’ s implicit guarantee of corporate bond markets.
” Carnival Cruises , a company that by all measures of human happiness and worth should not exist , took an understandably huge hit from the coronavirus pandemic .
Thanks to the Fed ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ able to secure $ 5.75 billion in loans in March , at a far lower rate than the hedge fund loan sharks it had been considering earlier that month .
The Fed saved it hundreds of millions of dollars , and its market cap grew by $ 3.5 billion ; a nice cushion for the likely future waves of coronavirus .
All this was thanks to , according to an account in The Wall Street Journal , investors ’ “ fear of missing out ” on the good deal .
The FOMO economy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told CNBC this week : “ We have a giant Fed cycle that looks like it ’ s never going to stop.
” The stock market has , of course , never been wrong about the prospect of endless returns .
As Dayen noted , Congress did not have to cede all its power in structuring this rescue to the Fed , but “ rescuing investors—rich people like members of Congress and the donors they listen to—makes it easier for Congress to keep ignoring the needs of everyone else.
” It is clearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hold hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in stocks—who themselves would find their portfolios kept afloat by their own actions—are the ones tasked with deciding what to do with the stock market .
In this way , the handful of Republicans who took their confidential briefings on the coronavirus situation and spun that knowledge into gold are mostly a different type of corrupt from the rest .
This does not detract from the sordid disgrace of this particular scandal .
If these members did indeed profit from the knowledge of a coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ least 100,000 Americans , they should be in prison ; this is the sort of thing that makes one wistful for angry mobs with pitchforks or perhaps putting them in the medieval stocks , for a more fitting punishment .
But the more intractable problem is that members of Congress are so rich in the first place , and that this very wealth warps their incentives when it comes to regulating Wall Street—no matter how it ’ s invested , or how detached they are from that process .
As The Intercept ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the stock market pushes us “ psychologically to the right … shredding our instincts for social solidarity.
” It gives even regular , middle-class Americans a financial incentive—a literal investment—in things that are otherwise totally opposed to their interests , encouraging fossil fuel companies to continue our death march towards climate change , and health insurance companies to exert an iron grip on Americans ’ throats .
If your retirement income is tied up in United Health stock , you would stand to lose financially if the government took over providing health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instituted a public option that eroded some of the company ’ s market share .
This is bad enough if you are simply some Boomer growing more conservative as your wealth grows ; it is far worse if that same dynamic applies to members of Congress , who are tasked with making decisions to benefit all of us , not just those with big portfolios .

As Dayen noted, Congress did not have to cede all its power in structuring this rescue to the Fed, but “rescuing investors—rich people like members of Congress and the donors they listen to—makes it easier for Congress to keep ignoring the needs of everyone else.” It is clearly a problem that members of Congress who hold hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in stocks—who themselves would find their portfolios kept afloat by their own actions—are the ones tasked with deciding what to do with the stock market. In this way, the handful of Republicans who took their confidential briefings on the coronavirus situation and spun that knowledge into gold are mostly a different type of corrupt from the rest.
This does not detract from the sordid disgrace of this particular scandal. If these members did indeed profit from the knowledge of a coming pandemic that has so far killed at least 100,000 Americans, they should be in prison; this is the sort of thing that makes one wistful for angry mobs with pitchforks or perhaps putting them in the medieval stocks, for a more fitting punishment. But the more intractable problem is that members of Congress are so rich in the first place, and that this very wealth warps their incentives when it comes to regulating Wall Street—no matter how it’s invested, or how detached they are from that process.
As The Intercept’s Jon Schwarz pointed out in March, the stock market pushes us “psychologically to the right … shredding our instincts for social solidarity.” It gives even regular, middle-class Americans a financial incentive—a literal investment—in things that are otherwise totally opposed to their interests, encouraging fossil fuel companies to continue our death march towards climate change, and health insurance companies to exert an iron grip on Americans’ throats. If your retirement income is tied up in United Health stock, you would stand to lose financially if the government took over providing health insurance to everyone or even if it instituted a public option that eroded some of the company’s market share. This is bad enough if you are simply some Boomer growing more conservative as your wealth grows; it is far worse if that same dynamic applies to members of Congress, who are tasked with making decisions to benefit all of us, not just those with big portfolios.


newrepublic--2020-06-04--The Militarization of the American Hometown

On Saturday , my 13-year-old stepdaughter announced with some force that she wanted to go to the first peaceful protest against police brutality in our hometown of Fayetteville , Arkansas .
The protest was Monday night .
As a non-legal guardian , I was not within my power to say no , although I would ’ ve .
She would have hated me and imagined , wrongly , I don ’ t care about the cause .
She ’ s a kid with a preternatural knack for finding lost animals , the person who traps a spider in a glass @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
She ’ s got big eyes and really wants to see it all .
I know that type .
I am that type .
Still , I ’ ve had 26 more years than her to see things , and I hope she never sees much of what I have .
I was thinking about her eyes on Sunday , when I was the first one into Walmart at 7 A.M. , managing my anxiety by finding supplies to fill three field-expedient personal protective equipment kits .
I ’ d given @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protection from the war , so I grabbed ballistic shooting glasses .
I once worked under a sergeant major whose eye was sliced by a bullet ricocheting off concrete in Mogadishu the early ’ 90s , and he always lectured me about eyepro .
I guess that ’ s a useful lesson .
This whole thing has my head spinning .
I ’ ve always been most comfortable writing from the fringe , and now the social fabric in America is tearing enough that everything is fringe .
In early April , taking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me , I ’ d mused that the quarantines and unemployment and racism and government dysfunction made “ a dream scenario for covert-action plans : a mighty nation , bifurcated between its urban coasts and its rural center , strung this tight.
” Under these conditions , I imagined , a small group of people with the right resources could spark an “ American Spring , ” or the boogaloo .
Walking my dogs “ through the ghost town of central Fayetteville , I saw slick posters with slabby white-on-black text reading ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Did It ’ next to flyers for a rent strike .
Maybe , ” I wrote , “ it wouldn ’ t even take two months.
” My family notices I ’ m tense .
Short .
Worried .
I try to explain why , but it comes out like a sergeant ranting at a private for not having their boots tied properly .
My family loves me , but they don ’ t understand where I ’ m coming from .
Fayetteville is a college town .
They ’ ve been to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a problem .
When they look at a patch of land , they see it totally differently than I do , and I ’ m glad for that .

An armored vehicle parked on a municipal complex bugged my dad, and when something bugs Dr. Gary E. Farwell, U.S. Air Force (Retired), he takes action. After we lost my brother, Marc, in a helicopter crash in Germany, he became a Gold Star Dad. He wrote about the bifurcated status of military Gold Star Families for The New York Times’ At War blog and The Wall Street Journal. When Donald Trump assailed Gold Star father Khizr Khan for supporting Hillary Clinton, Dad weighed in in our old local paper in Virginia. “I’m with the Khans—and I’m a right-wing Republican,” he said. “My heart goes out to the Khan family, I can relate to the Khan family. I cannot relate to these people who are supposed to be running our country, to be inspiring respect for our country.”
Consequently, Dad had some things to say about our Northwest Arkansas MRAP. In a letter he sent to the city councils, mayors, and police chiefs of Prairie Grove, Farmington, and Fayetteville—and then repeated in person to anyone in the city government who would hear his case—he correctly called the armored vehicle “a complex, unwieldy machine” ill-suited to dispense public safety on Prairie Grove’s streets. “To some, they are seen as symbols of a martial police department who sees the citizens as adversaries who need intimidation. To others it’s a cool new toy to be explored and manipulated,” he wrote. “However, even the mayor admitted to me that he wouldn’t trade even one police car for it, and the main reason for it sitting in the parking lot is that it was ‘free.’” (Sure, they didn’t have to pay for the MRAP up front, but neither had they anticipated the long-term costs of maintenance, fuel, and insurance.)
I thought it was a good letter. The militarization of police—who consistently act like badly trained counterinsurgency stormtroopers in minority communities—has been a bugaboo of mine since I got back from the war. Nothing cures a white person of the perception that cops are there to help like getting arrested regularly. That’s been me, between nine and 12 times, depending on your math and definition of “arrested” versus “detained”—for nonviolent, nondestructive misdemeanors. I was drunk every time the cuffs went on, and a couple of the cops were nice, too, but I remember being arrested by assholes, mostly. The one time it really went sideways, I almost escaped the police car, arriving at the police station hog-tied in a red-rope restraint with fresh bruises and abrasions but also alive. And fortunate to be white, I know.


newrepublic--2020-06-04--Defunding the Police Is Good Climate Policy

State governments account for 62 percent of prison and incarceration funding , whereas 84 percent of police funding is done by local governments according to the Urban Institute .
Amidst slowly easing coronavirus shutdown restrictions , sharply rising unemployment and weak federal support , both state and local governments face budget gaps .
Barring federal intervention , there will be brutal budget fights in the weeks and months to come .
Police departments and prisons are more likely to be spared in the worst of such cuts , while already threadbare safety nets—now on full display in the pandemic—tend to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a miniature version of politics that play out at the federal level , where there are seemingly unlimited funds available for new fighter jets , border enforcement and military adventurism but talk of tight belts and austerity when it comes to improving people ’ s lives—the lives of Black Americans especially .
The kinds of Humvees now roaming the streets of American cities to intimidate protesters have long been used to secure U.S. access to oil abroad ; inflated budgets for policing , borders and military are increasingly wielded to beat back climate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have pointed out , the line between foreign and domestic policy has never been as clear as many like to think .
If xenophobic governments in Europe offer any indication , the lines between carceral and climate policy will only get fuzzier as temperatures rise .
A 2017 report by the Center for Popular Democracy , Black Youth Project 100 and Law for Black Lives found that spending in major U.S. cities on policing far outpaces that spent on vital services , with huge chunks of city budgets devoted toward outfitting officers as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surveyed , Minneapolis devoted 35.8 percent of its general fund expenditures toward policing .
As they fuel systemic racism , massive police and prison budgets stymie attempts to build a more sustainable society .
At the local level , especially , the types of climate policy that mayors and city councils have leverage over are also the investments campaigners in the movement for black lives have urged to make communities safer and stronger : affordable housing , rapid bus transit , and jobs programs .
Budgets that revolve around criminalizing black communities , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the climate crisis .
Following the lead of longtime climate and environmental justice organizers , advocates of a Green New Deal have acknowledged its need for targeted investment in the black and brown communities subject to environmental racism and chronic disinvestment .
Toward that end , Franklin Delano Roosevelt ’ s Depression-era stimulus , which itself helped exacerbate some of those problems , needn ’ t be the only historical reference point for figuring out how to build a better world .
Spearheaded by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outlined an ambitious program to eliminate poverty in the U.S. within 10 years through full employment , higher wages , healthcare , and a host of other measures intended to extend the gains of the civil rights movement toward broader economic justice .
“ It will mean more money in your pocket , ” the plan ’ s authors wrote , “ It will mean better schools for your children .
It will mean better homes for you and your neighbors .
It will mean clean air to breathe and comfortable cities to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical care when you are sick.
” An ever-growing number of green groups have released statements expressing solidarity with protesters and denouncing police brutality , white supremacy and the increasingly warlike rhetoric from the White House .
With Democratic and Republican chief executives both likely to lurch toward austerity in the months of years to come , there ’ s plenty of common cause to be found in calls to defund the police and invest in more generous , democratic and green public sphere , well beyond the scope of what any carbon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activists , that will mean seeing decarbonization less as a narrow battle for line items that incentivize renewables than as a contest to shape who and what society values in a climate-changed 21st century ; many , including in the Sunrise Movement , are already making these connections .
If Black lives really do matter to climate advocates , defunding the police should too .

State governments account for 62 percent of prison and incarceration funding, whereas 84 percent of police funding is done by local governments according to the Urban Institute. Amid slowly easing coronavirus shutdown restrictions, sharply rising unemployment, and weak federal support, both state and local governments face budget gaps. Barring federal intervention, there will be brutal budget fights in the weeks and months to come. Police departments and prisons are more likely to be spared in the worst of such cuts, while already threadbare safety nets—now on full display in the pandemic—tend to get even thinner. It’s a miniature version of the politics that play out at the federal level, where there are seemingly unlimited funds available for new fighter jets, border enforcement, and military adventurism but talk of tight belts and austerity when it comes to improving people’s lives—the lives of black Americans, especially. The kinds of Humvees now roaming the streets of American cities to intimidate protesters have long been used to secure U.S. access to oil abroad; inflated budgets for policing, borders, and military are increasingly wielded to beat back climate refugees. As scholars including Stuart Schrader have pointed out, the line between foreign and domestic policy has never been as clear as many like to think. If xenophobic governments in Europe offer any indication, the lines between carceral and climate policy will only get fuzzier as temperatures rise.
A 2017 report by the Center for Popular Democracy, Black Youth Project 100, and Law for Black Lives found that spending in major U.S. cities on policing far outpaces that on vital services, with huge chunks of city budgets devoted to outfitting officers, as vital services starve: In the years surveyed, Minneapolis devoted 35.8 percent of its general fund expenditures toward policing. As they fuel systemic racism, massive police and prison budgets stymie attempts to build a more sustainable society. At the local level, especially, the types of climate policy that mayors and city councils have leverage over are also the investments campaigners in the movement for black lives have urged to make communities safer and stronger: affordable housing, rapid bus transit, and jobs programs. Budgets that revolve around criminalizing black communities, that is, are ill-suited for taking on the climate crisis.
Following the lead of longtime climate and environmental justice organizers, advocates of a Green New Deal have acknowledged its need for targeted investment in the black and brown communities subject to environmental racism and chronic disinvestment. Toward that end, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Depression-era stimulus, which itself helped exacerbate some of those problems, needn’t be the only historical reference point for figuring out how to build a better world. Spearheaded by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, the Freedom Budget, launched in 1966, outlined an ambitious program to eliminate poverty in the United States within 10 years through full employment, higher wages, health care, and a host of other measures intended to extend the gains of the civil rights movement toward broader economic justice. “It will mean more money in your pocket,” the plan’s authors wrote. “It will mean better schools for your children. It will mean better homes for you and your neighbors. It will mean clean air to breathe and comfortable cities to live in. It will mean adequate medical care when you are sick.”


newrepublic--2020-06-04--At The New York Times, an Uprising Over James Bennet’s Incompetence

Less than two weeks ago , amid the pandemic and the explosion of demonstrations against police violence across the country , Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton unveiled a shocking bill that went largely unnoticed .
The bill , the Secure Campus Act , would ban Chinese students from receiving visas to participate in graduate or postgraduate STEM programs .
A month earlier , on Fox News , Cotton said it was “ a scandal ” that “ we have trained so many of the Chinese Communist Party ’ s brightest minds to go back to China.
” ( Studies suggest that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States after graduation , no small feat given how hostile and baffling the U.S. immigration apparatus is . )
Cotton also said that Chinese students should only be able to study things like “ Shakespeare ” and “ The Federalist Papers ” in the U.S. , adding : “ They don ’ t need to learn quantum computing.
” That three sitting members of Congress could introduce such a bill , targeting Chinese visa applicants based explicitly and solely on their national origin , without it making much of a dent in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sorry state we ’ re in .
This bill is racist , and it is also quite clearly fascist : It is designed to whip up fear and fury about Chinese people , punishing students who come here for completely legitimate reasons—and whose contributions to America and to human progress are , obviously , invaluable .
This was all I could think about when I saw that Cotton had been granted space to publish a piece in The New York Times ’ opinion section , titled : “ Send In the Troops.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all the supposed standards of the Liberal Media , should already be ostracized , even without calling for the military to “ restore order ” to the streets .
( As far as I can tell , the Times did not even write about Cotton ’ s bill when it was released ; Cotton ’ s op-ed did , however , make assertions that the paper ’ s reporting had already proven false . )
A senator pushing the Chinese Exclusion Act 2.0 should not be James Bennet ’ s first call , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far been too biased in favor of the right to protest .
Yet here Cotton is , in the pages of the paper of record , on the thirty-first anniversary of the beginning of the Tiananmen Square massacre , arguing for the president to invoke the Insurrection Act to create “ an overwhelming show of force to disperse , detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers ” from the military .
It shouldn ’ t go unmentioned that the streets of Washington , D.C. , have already been overrun with at least 15 different kinds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bureau of Prisons officers who wore no identification and refused to identify themselves to the media .
Or that , on the same day that law enforcement teargassed peaceful protesters so the president could awkwardly hold up a Bible in front of a church , dozens of police officers trapped peaceful protesters on Swann Street NW—while a CVS was being looted downtown .
This is order being restored—one kind of order , at least .

Sending in troops to control protests against racism, organized and attended largely by black people, is an attempt to enforce white supremacy.
The obvious and inevitable outcome of sending in the troops, the only reason you would do so, is to do violence. Troops are not some magical invocation of order; they establish order through violence. They are violence. We know Cotton expects, even welcomes this, because of his recent tweet that advocated murdering “rioters and looters,” by calling for “no quarter” for them—a military phrase that means killing the enemy instead of accepting their surrender. Sending in troops to control protests against racism, organized and attended largely by black people, is an attempt to enforce white supremacy; to tell dissenters that the state considers you a threat. Calling for “overwhelming force” is, just like his Chinese students bill, a way of signaling that he is a fascist.
The decision to publish the op-ed has been met with an unprecedented amount of public criticism from Times staffers. The News Guild, which represents Times staff and also represents the staff of The New Republic, released a statement condemning the decision to publish the piece. Many staffers tweeted a variation on the sentiment that publishing the op-ed puts black Times staffers, or black people in general, in danger. Usually, public criticism of a bad Times op-ed, from regular offenders Bret Stephens or Bari Weiss, is limited to cryptic subtweets. There is a reason for this: The Times essentially forbids staffers from criticizing the opinion columnists, particularly for the news side.
Last year, the Times’ executive editor Dean Baquet told his newsroom that people retweeting or even simply liking tweets critical of the paper was “really painful” for him. “Let’s catch our breath before tweeting stupid stuff or stuff that hurts the paper—or treats our own colleagues in a way that we would never treat them in person,” he told the staff. (This was right after the paper’s Washington editor, Jonathan Weisman, tweeted an embarrassing thread that implied Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were not really from the Midwest: Obviously, certain people are given more leeway to tweet “stuff that hurts the paper.”) Last night, a former climate reporter for the Times, Kendra Pierre-Louis, revealed that “if you are an NYTimes employee and tweet something Bret Stephens doesn’t like he will take the tweet and complain about it to your manager.” The fact that the paper punishes public criticisms of the opinion section is an open secret; media people who are friends with Times staffers know this. So it is all the more remarkable that last night, the dam broke, and the paper’s Potemkin neutrality was finally revealed to be a sham.


newrepublic--2020-06-04--Minneapolis in the Aftermath

Minneapolis in the Aftermath

On the far side of the Mississippi , Lake Street becomes Marshall Avenue , and the bridge between the two is known as the Lake Street-Marshall Bridge .
In 2007 , I lived just on the other side of that bridge , and sometimes I biked across what is an entirely unremarkable span above America ’ s most mythical arterial waterway .
I ’ d been told that in the last few days the bridge had been watched at night by a menacing National Guard presence .
Presumably , this was an effort—unsuccessful , it turns out—to prevent rioting and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the more genteel of the Twin Cities .
When I arrived at 5 p.m. Monday , however , the bridge was open , at least partly , and the action was limited to a few Black Lives Matter protesters on a corner .
They waved signs and cheered as passing drivers honked in solidarity .
The east side of Lake Street had remained mostly untouched by any destruction related to the protests .
The only apparent damage here was self-inflicted : business owners hastily attaching sheets of plywood and particleboard to their windows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ markers to spell out “ Black Lives Matter ” or “ Justice for George , ” either in an effort to demonstrate sympathy with an understandable rage or in an attempt to inspire looters to pause and reflect on what their true motives might be , exactly .
Other signs and tags were addressed to abstract audiences : “ We < 3 U Mpls , ” “ We Love You South Minneapolis , ” “ We Love Lake Street.
” It was as though they understood that a riot is never the expression @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to attach themselves to the community writ large .
A bit further west , I stopped at a pub called Merlin ’ s Rest , open for pints at a handful of outdoor tables .
I met three white men who , once they decided I was a trustworthy reporter , related a few anecdotes that weren ’ t dramatic enough to have cracked the cable news schedule .
A white dude in full camo and a balaclava was seen right here in this neighborhood abandoning a vehicle stuffed with logs soaked in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off .
Other improvised incendiary devices had been discovered and reported to police .
There were pictures .
And they also spoke of the case of the man driving a semi-and-trailer rig .
Not the guy on the Interstate 35 bridge—that was yesterday , ancient history—but a different driver , who sped his rig down a residential street and crowded four bicyclists , clipping one of them .
There was a police report , I was told .
The men insisted that they were not suggesting that much of the Minneapolis violence had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Still , they asked whether I really thought it was possible that looters and rioters enraged about the death of George Floyd would have had the foresight to prepare complicated explosive mechanisms .
Let ’ s just say , they said , that local folks had gotten good , really fast , at spotting cars with no license plates lurking around their neighborhoods .
One of the men I spoke with was Dan Timlin , lifelong Midwesterner , resident of the Twin Cities since 1992 .
Timlin described the Minneapolis Moline tractor factory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the part of Lake Street now hit hardest by looting and burning .
For Timlin , the saddest part was that one of the last standing buildings of the factory—which employed thousands who lived in the cute tree-lined bungalow neighborhoods that flanked Lake Street to the north and south—had been destroyed , along with the Hexagon Bar , a landmark music venue that was the last of a whole string of neighborhood pubs that catered to the factory workers .

The east side of Lake Street had remained mostly untouched by any destruction related to the protests. The only apparent damage here was self-inflicted: business owners hastily attaching sheets of plywood and particleboard to their windows. They used spray paint and large markers to spell out “Black Lives Matter” or “Justice for George,” either in an effort to demonstrate sympathy with an understandable rage or in an attempt to inspire looters to pause and reflect on what their true motives might be, exactly. Other signs and tags were addressed to abstract audiences: “We <3 U Mpls,” “We Love You South Minneapolis,” “We Love Lake Street.” It was as though they understood that a riot is never the expression of an individual mind and thereby sought to attach themselves to the community writ large.
A bit further west, I stopped at a pub called Merlin’s Rest, open for pints at a handful of outdoor tables. I met three white men who, once they decided I was a trustworthy reporter, related a few anecdotes that weren’t dramatic enough to have cracked the cable news schedule. A white dude in full camo and a balaclava was seen right here in this neighborhood abandoning a vehicle stuffed with logs soaked in gasoline. The makeshift bomb never went off. Other improvised incendiary devices had been discovered and reported to police. There were pictures. And they also spoke of the case of the man driving a semi-and-trailer rig. Not the guy on the Interstate 35 bridge—that was yesterday, ancient history—but a different driver, who sped his rig down a residential street and crowded four bicyclists, clipping one of them. There was a police report, I was told. The men insisted that they were not suggesting that much of the Minneapolis violence had been the work of outside agitators. Still, they asked whether I really thought it was possible that looters and rioters enraged about the death of George Floyd would have had the foresight to prepare complicated explosive mechanisms. Let’s just say, they said, that local folks had gotten good, really fast, at spotting cars with no license plates lurking around their neighborhoods.
One of the men I spoke with was Dan Timlin, lifelong Midwesterner, resident of the Twin Cities since 1992. Timlin described the Minneapolis Moline tractor factory that for years had dominated the landscape of the part of Lake Street now hit hardest by looting and burning. For Timlin, the saddest part was that one of the last standing buildings of the factory—which employed thousands who lived in the cute tree-lined bungalow neighborhoods that flanked Lake Street to the north and south—had been destroyed, along with the Hexagon Bar, a landmark music venue that was the last of a whole string of neighborhood pubs that catered to the factory workers.


newrepublic--2020-06-04--Police Blinded Me in One Eye. I Can Still See Why My Country’s on Fire.

I have been weeping since Friday night , because that is the night I was shot in the face .
I have , since then , begun to piece together what happened to me : It wasn ’ t a rubber bullet , it was a foam bullet .
I was standing near Minneapolis ’ s Third Police Precinct .
I will not regain sight in my left eye .
I will need more surgeries .
But I have not been crying for my lost vision ; rather , it feels as though my body is reacting to what is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been coming for years ; anyone with wisdom has felt it in their bones .
You can not elevate to leadership the most base elements of humanity , the most amoral and reckless and cruel , and think that things will go well for the nation .
Back in 2016 , a week or so before the presidential election , I wrote a piece about how Donald Trump ’ s campaign speeches were openly fascist , how they spiked fear in those parts of my soul that remember being raised as a nativist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t say Trumpism was a form of fascism—it was considered a bit hysterical .
That remained true in mainstream consensus throughout 2017 and 2018 .
Sometime last year , more people started to realize that the norms were shattering , and they weren ’ t reassembling by way of any magnetic properties of self-healing constitutionalism .
It was after we put migrant kids in camps and after the president started encouraging people to batter the press and after impeachment , but before the current stage of authoritarian collapse , which has us gassing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Fascism is always a slow slide into routinized mayhem , noticeable to most people only in retrospect .
Since I was shot , I have been worldwide front-page news : China is using my bloodied face as propaganda , for instance .
Hundreds , if not thousands , of interview requests have flooded in .
All anyone wants to talk about is freedom of the press , if I am angry , what I will do next .
I think that I am angry—but no more than I was this time last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ burn for the pleasure of our vainglorious leader .
I lost an eye ; George Floyd lost his life .
What right do I have to rage on my own behalf ?

A few days after that, I was taking photos on the highway where protesters were blocking traffic. Media were behind concrete barriers, clearly working as press rather than participants. An officer dressed all in black with plastic shin guards and elbow pads, dangling zip ties from his belt, pepper-sprayed me point-blank in the face. I have a picture of him somewhere, three feet away from me, shot when my camera was staring down the muzzle of his chemical weapon, and the hatred and glee twisting his face still gives me nightmares.
I am thinking about him a lot in recent days, as I watch footage of TV crews being arrested on live air and police spraying what they call “less lethal” rounds into crowds indiscriminately. I am thinking about him as I scroll Twitter, where brave men hide behind burner accounts to tell me “play stupid games win stupid prizes”—alt-right shorthand for calling me a traitor, to either the country or my race. In their discursive world, good white ladies are not supposed to scream that Black lives matter or point out the bigotry inherent in a system of law enforcement that started with slave patrols. White women, to those kinds of men, are not supposed to do much of anything except be quiescent until it is time to have babies or furnish a sexual pretext for some good old-fashioned racism. We are certainly not supposed to refuse to learn our lesson, even after we have been punished by having an eye put out.
Perhaps my best and worst quality is my defiance: I am by nature a frontline sort of person. That is how, over the last half-decade, I have come to document a series of events that would be war crimes if this conflict were international rather than internal. Those things are done with impunity in America, and none of it is new. What is new is that this lawlessness has trickled up into the White House—and now people who have until recently been able to blithely ignore it all are being harmed. The oligarchs and masters of the economy are being hurt by our feckless foreign policy and economic unrest, and the average suburbanite is watching the country burn to the ground while the president tweets encouragement not for the traumatized nation but for the fires.


newrepublic--2020-06-05--The Radically Inclusive Music of Ornette Coleman

Describing the way Ornette Coleman ’ s music sounds is a challenge , and Golia rounds up some delightful attempts by music critics past .
“ Eldritch wrongness ” is a phrase from Brian Morton ’ s obituary of Coleman for The Wire , describing the sinister sounds Morton thought were the result of Coleman ’ s misapprehensions about musical theory as a child .
Francis Davis wrote in the Atlantic Monthly in 1972 that , “ Perhaps the trick of listening to his performances lies in an ability to hear rhythm as melody , the way he seems to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ musicians did , ” which is genuinely helpful advice .
In notes hastily written while “ under the spell of a first discovery ” of The Shape of Jazz to Come , Martin Williams wrote that “ if you put a conventional chord under my note , you limit the number of choices I have for my next note ; if you do not , my melody may move freely in a far greater choice of directions.
” For Williams , this innovation was an escape hatch for a musical form in stasis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the walls that those harmonies have built and restore melody.
” Critics were as much in search of a language for the avant garde as for a summary of a record .
Coleman resisted critical language , Golia notes , quoting his disdain for people who “ don ’ t trust their reactions to art or music unless there is a verbal explanation for it.
” Coleman had a gnomic way with words himself , however .
“ How do you turn emotion into knowledge ?
That ’ s what I try to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ once wrote .
In the liner notes to Change of the Century ( 1960 ) , he reminds us that “ the only thing that matters is whether you feel it or not .
You can ’ t intellectualize music ; to reduce it analytically is often is to reduce it to nothing very important.
” A long section of The Territory and the Adventure is about an arts venue in Fort Worth called Caravan of Dreams , complete with utopian geodesic domes and a millionaire funder .
Coleman played there many times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Worth belatedly recognized him as a hometown hero .
Golia , it turns out , was often the person at the door taking tickets : She worked there from 1985 to 1992 .
So we finish where we started , at a jazz club .
It ’ s sad to think of long-lost venues like the Five Spot , where all sorts of different people jumbled together .
The critic Whitney Balliett remembers it as “ intricately awash with music and reaction , reaction and music.
” Even the Caravan of Dreams is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is also sad to contemplate how little remains of that old avant garde New York music scene , which blossomed under the direction of black adventurers like Coleman .

Describing the way Ornette Coleman’s music sounds is a challenge, and Golia rounds up some delightful attempts by music critics past. “Eldritch wrongness” is a phrase from Brian Morton’s obituary of Coleman for The Wire, describing the sinister sounds Morton thought were the result of Coleman’s misapprehensions about musical theory as a child. Francis Davis wrote in The Atlantic Monthly in 1972 that, “Perhaps the trick of listening to his performances lies in an ability to hear rhythm as melody, the way he seems to do, and the way early jazz musicians did,” which is genuinely helpful advice. In notes hastily jotted while “under the spell of a first discovery” of The Shape of Jazz to Come, Martin Williams wrote that “if you put a conventional chord under my note, you limit the number of choices I have for my next note; if you do not, my melody may move freely in a far greater choice of directions.” For Williams, this innovation was an escape hatch for a musical form in stasis: “Someone had to break through the walls that those harmonies have built and restore melody.”
Critics were as much in search of a language for the avant-garde as for a summary of a record. Coleman resisted critical language, Golia notes, quoting his disdain for people who “don’t trust their reactions to art or music unless there is a verbal explanation for it.” Coleman had a gnomic way with words himself, however. “How do you turn emotion into knowledge? That’s what I try to do with my horn,” he once wrote. In the liner notes to Change of the Century (1960), he reminds us that “the only thing that matters is whether you feel it or not. You can’t intellectualize music; to reduce it analytically is often to reduce it to nothing very important.”
A long section of The Territory and the Adventure is about an arts venue in Fort Worth called Caravan of Dreams, complete with utopian geodesic domes and a millionaire funder. Coleman played there many times in his later life, when Fort Worth belatedly recognized him as a hometown hero. Golia, it turns out, was often the person at the door taking tickets: She worked there from 1985 to 1992.


newrepublic--2020-06-05--The Christian Martyrdom Movement Ascends to the White House

Four months and several thousand news cycles ago , Harvard historian James Kloppenberg wrote in Commonweal about his former student Pete Buttigieg , then the rising star in the Democratic presidential primary field .
A lifelong overachiever , the former South Bend mayor probably made writing “ Reading Buttigieg ” easy .
At 38 , he had already published a memoir , and two decades of academic papers , newspaper articles , and stump speeches were available to anyone interested in parsing his words to find out how he reached such heights so soon .
As a former teacher of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kloppenberg ’ s essay what it must be like for a professor to watch a student suddenly attain national renown .
Friends who teach writing , as I once did , often relate the pride they feel seeing young women and men who sat in their classrooms launch careers as authors or journalists .
This spring I had a different experience : A former student became the most prominent storyteller in America , and now the future of the country seems to hang on the meaning of the stories she might tell .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ McEnany since she was in my memoir writing class at Georgetown a dozen years ago .
My first thought upon hearing in April that she had become President Trump ’ s new press secretary , shortly before her 32nd birthday , was that it wasn ’ t much of a surprise .
When I knew her , she was an intern for the Bush White House and had already worked for Hannity & Colmes on Fox News .
Noticeably more driven than many of her peers , she seemed bound for success at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As I am no longer a teacher of writing but a historian of American religion , I ’ ve come to see McEnany ’ s rise as more broadly significant than just the next step in an ambitious career : She represents an untold side of the oft-told story of conservative evangelicals ’ wholehearted embrace of Trump .

Stop reading now if you’re looking for classroom anecdotes that will make McEnany look either silly or predestined for her new role. I have no interest in providing fodder for her detractors or her fans. But there is some historical context missing from recent coverage of her appointment, something that may prove important for interpreting this latest stage of White House messaging.
News stories about McEnany have largely focused on her short career as a media pugilist, someone willing to “go toe to toe with the toughest anchors and commentators,” as fellow cable news pundit Steve Miller told The Guardian. Often judged a made-for-TV mouthpiece, one of the “characters in a drama” cast by CNN president Jeff Zucker, she has shown a combative willingness to turn Trump’s “most despicable actions into signs of his greatness,” as Jeb Bush’s former communications director Tim Miller has said. Yet a look at her earlier work suggests her motives may be deeper, and a bit more complicated.
In our limited interactions, I found McEnany to be pleasant, smart, and sincere. She stands out in my memory mainly because her politics were different from most of the class’s, even though politics rarely came up. Students took the memoir course to learn how to tell stories grounded in their personal experiences. That’s how I learned that, though the class took place in 2008, my students were less shaped by the September 11 attacks than I had expected. An earlier eruption of violence in American life seemed far more formative: the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School.


newrepublic--2020-06-05--Where America Developed a Taste for State Violence

As tensions mounted between the U.S. and Soviet Union amid the postwar rubble of Western Europe , many of the countries then emerging from colonization , along with those that had not been pulled into the fighting for reasons of geographic and political distance , worked hard to avoid taking sides .
They tried to stay out of the incipient contest between capitalism and communism , and steer clear of superpower interference .
They referred to themselves as the “ Third World , ” a term introduced in the early 1950s to signal independence from the capitalist countries led by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the system of satellite states orbiting the Soviet Union ( Second World ) .
Before it developed what many see as pejorative connotations , the Third World was an emancipatory ideal .
At a conference in the Indonesian city of Bandung in 1955 , representatives from 29 Asian and African nations gathered in solidarity to push that promise toward reality .
They considered matters of economic development , decolonization , and the role of the Third World in the Cold War .
“ Like peace , freedom is indivisible .
There is no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as there is no such thing as being half alive , ” proclaimed Sukarno , Indonesia ’ s charismatic first president , in his legendary address .
By rooting the pursuit of social justice within a broad anti-colonial struggle rather than anti-imperialism per se , Sukarno sought to rally nonaligned nations while not antagonizing the U.S. , which had recently engineered coups in Guatemala and Iran .
An ideologically coherent intergovernmental bloc that the Third World could call its own seemed to be forming , led in large part by Sukarno , whose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dutch only six years previously .
Brazil sent an “ unofficial diplomatic observer ” but did not formally embrace the effort .
For a while , Third World insistence on foreign policy independence was well and good from Washington ’ s perspective so long as Communists were kept in check .
This changed definitively with the success of the Cuban Revolution on January 1 , 1959 .
By the mid-1960s , it no longer seemed that the leaders of important countries like Indonesia and Brazil were willing or able to contain Communist advances @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On March 21 , 1964 , Thomas Mann , assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration , suggested that “ the United States will not in the future take an a priori position against governments coming to power through military coups.
” This policy , which became known as the Mann Doctrine , was seen by military conspirators in Brazil as a green light to move against President João Goulart .
The democratically elected leader was ousted in a right-wing coup within two weeks .
Mann spoke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fall .
“ I hope you ’ re as happy about Brazil as I am , ” he said , adding that the coup in Brazil was probably “ the most important thing ” to happen in the hemisphere since the Cuban Revolution .
Johnson was pleased but sensitive to how U.S. participation might be perceived abroad .
“ I hope they give us some credit instead of hell , ” he said .
That the U.S. president would expect gratitude from Brazilians in that moment is telling .
For one thing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narcissism , the idea that U.S. interests are the default interests of the world .
But Johnson ’ s comment also indicates a sincere belief in the righteousness of interrupting democratic processes to box out communism .
Never mind that Brazil was not actually on the verge of a Communist takeover .
Conservatives speculated wildly that it could be , at some point , an inkling that spelled Goulart ’ s demise .
Better safe than sorry .

At a conference in the Indonesian city of Bandung in 1955, representatives from 29 Asian and African nations gathered in solidarity to push that promise toward reality. They considered matters of economic development, decolonization, and the role of the Third World in the Cold War. “Like peace, freedom is indivisible. There is no such thing as being half free, as there is no such thing as being half alive,” proclaimed Sukarno, Indonesia’s charismatic first president, in his legendary address. By rooting the pursuit of social justice within a broad anti-colonial struggle rather than anti-imperialism per se, Sukarno sought to rally nonaligned nations while not antagonizing the U.S., which had recently engineered coups in Guatemala and Iran. An ideologically coherent intergovernmental bloc that the Third World could call its own seemed to be forming, led in large part by Sukarno, whose own country had secured independence from the Dutch only six years previously. Brazil sent an “unofficial diplomatic observer” but did not formally embrace the effort.
“Like peace, freedom is indivisible. There is no such thing as being half free, as there is no such thing as being half alive,” Sukarno proclaimed.
For a while, Third World insistence on foreign policy independence was well and good from Washington’s perspective so long as Communists were kept in check. This changed definitively with the success of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. By the mid-1960s, it no longer seemed that the leaders of important countries like Indonesia and Brazil were willing or able to contain Communist advances. A firmer hand was needed. On March 21, 1964, Thomas Mann, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, suggested that “the United States will not in the future take an a priori position against governments coming to power through military coups.” This policy, which became known as the Mann Doctrine, was seen by military conspirators in Brazil as a green light to move against President João Goulart. The democratically elected leader was ousted in a right-wing coup within two weeks.
Mann spoke with Johnson shortly after Goulart’s fall. “I hope you’re as happy about Brazil as I am,” he said, adding that the coup in Brazil was probably “the most important thing” to happen in the hemisphere since the Cuban Revolution. Johnson was pleased but sensitive to how U.S. participation might be perceived abroad. “I hope they give us some credit instead of hell,” he said. That the U.S. president would expect gratitude from Brazilians in that moment is telling. For one thing, it is a pithy articulation of strategic narcissism, the idea that U.S. interests are the default interests of the world. But Johnson’s comment also indicates a sincere belief in the righteousness of interrupting democratic processes to box out communism. Never mind that Brazil was not actually on the verge of a Communist takeover. Conservatives speculated wildly that it could be, at some point, an inkling that spelled Goulart’s demise. Better safe than sorry.


newrepublic--2020-06-05--This Is a Good Moment to Hear Joe Biden’s Thoughts on Attorneys General

President Donald Trump ’ s grip on the Republican Party is now so tight that it ’ s easy to forget the unease with which most of its establishment viewed him in 2015 and 2016 .
Some of that unease sprang from his racism , sexism , and authoritarianism , which Republican elites feared might imperil the GOP ’ s electoral chances .
But much of it was ideological .
Trump , after all , was not a movement conservative or a longtime Republican official .
Prior to his reinvention as a presidential candidate , Trump had largely left the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , insofar as he left a discernible ideological trail at all .
Part of the story of 2016 is how Trump vanquished once-rising stars like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz by winning primaries , securing an insurmountable delegate lead , and energizing his own wing of the party .
The other part is how he made implicit and explicit bargains with American conservatism ’ s various factions , pledging to help them achieve their long-sought goals if they helped pave his road to power , or at least did not try to obstruct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ struck with the conservative legal movement , which had spent a half-century working to remake the federal courts in their own image .
Trump has no apparent interest in constitutional interpretation or the makeup of the federal judiciary beyond his own self-interest .
At one point in the primaries , he said his sister Maryanne Trump Barry , a federal judge at the time , would make a “ phenomenal ” Supreme Court justice , then backtracked and claimed he meant it jokingly .
By September 2016 , Trump had released two shortlists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the Supreme Court , winning over some high-profile Republicans who had eschewed him .
“ For some time , I have been seeking greater specificity on this issue , and today the Trump campaign provided that , releasing a very strong list of potential Supreme Court nominees—including Sen. Mike Lee , who would make an extraordinary justice—and making an explicit commitment to nominate only from that list , ” Texas Senator Ted Cruz said in a statement announcing his endorsement of Trump .
“ This commitment matters , and it provides a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support Trump .
”

The vice presidential pick will be a critical one given Biden’s age and the occasional report that he may consider not running for a second term if he wins. But vice presidents usually play a modest role in day-to-day governance. Releasing a shortlist of attorney general nominees would be a far more insightful glimpse into a potential Biden presidency. It would provide wary and unenthusiastic progressives with a tangible sign that he would govern with their interests in mind. And it would allow Biden to set up a potent contrast with the Trump administration and its current approach to the Justice Department.
I noted in March that the attorney general would likely be the most consequential Cabinet pick made by the next Democratic president. Whoever Biden chooses would immediately confront a host of complex matters: moving immigration policy away from draconian Trump-era practices, expanding civil rights enforcement and federal scrutiny of police abuses, investigating abuses of power and corruption in the previous administration, and more. Biden’s pick for attorney general would also have to rebuild public confidence in the Justice Department in the wake of Attorney General Bill Barr, under whose leadership it largely functioned as a heavily armed version of the White House Counsel’s Office.
Under federal election law, it’s illegal for presidential candidates to offer appointments in exchange for political support. The statute in question is written broadly enough that it could be legally questionable for Biden to announce a specific person for a specific position before the election. As Vox’s Dylan Matthews noted in 2016, it’s unfortunate that the law effectively prevents presidential candidates from naming a “shadow Cabinet,” akin to those found in Canada, Britain, and other Westminster countries. That would give voters a much greater insight into how each potential administration would function. Fortunately, Trump’s campaign in 2016 at least showed that a shortlist is on a much firmer legal footing.