motherjones--2020-12-26--“These Men Were Undeserving”: FBI Investigator Slams Trump’s Blackwater Pardons

Earlier this week , Fox News host Pete Hegseth asked God to bless President Donald Trump for showing the “ courage ” to pardon the former Blackwater contractors convicted of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007 .
A new account from Thomas O ’ Connor , one of the FBI agents who investigated the killings , shows what God is being asked to bestow his blessing upon .
In 2014 , four guards—Dustin Heard , Evan Liberty , Nicholas Slatten , and Paul Slough—were convicted for their role in the massacre .
Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The other three were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 30 years .
As O ’ Connor explains in an op-ed published by CNN , “ I know that these men were undeserving of pardons because I was a member of the FBI Evidence Response Team that traveled to Iraq and investigated the site of these killings.
” The site of the killings was Nisour Square , and they took place after a Blackwater team leader requested permission to leave the protected Green Zone to help bring back a US official @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The request was denied , but he and his mercenary colleagues left the Green Zone anyway and took positions in the square in their combat vehicles .
From there , O ’ Connor explains : Two Iraqi traffic officers stopped the traffic going toward the four armored vehicles .
One of the first cars in that stopped traffic was a white KIA occupied by a woman and her son .
The woman was a local doctor and the son , who was driving the car , was going to medical school to follow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What happened next began the Nisour Square shootings .
A sniper [ Slatten ] on the Raven 23 team placed his rifle out a porthole of the Bearcat armored vehicle and fired at the driver of the white KIA .
The man was struck and killed by the bullet .
After Slatten killed the doctor ’ s son , his team members opened fire as well : A few cars behind the white Kia , a 9-year-old-boy was killed while sitting in the back seat of a Suzuki SUV : These were the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people they were convicted of killing .
O ’ Connor and other FBI investigators found no forensic evidence that the Blackwater guards had been fired upon .
Instead , they found evidence of a cover up .
The president has now responded by letting them off .
This isn ’ t the first time Trump has intervened on behalf of people accused or convicted of committing wartime atrocities .
Last year , Trump restored the rank of former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher after he was acquitted on a murder charge for fatally stabbing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ served with Gallagher had called him “ freaking evil , ” “ toxic , ” and “ perfectly O.K .
with killing anybody that was moving.
” In 2019 , Trump also pardoned an Army lieutenant convicted of killing two Afghans and an Army major facing murder charges .
Hegseth , an Iraq War veteran , had been pushing for those pardons .
He advocated for the Blackwater killers , too .
In a statement earlier this week , the White House claimed that pardoning those guards was “ broadly supported by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to suggest that , the first piece of evidence it cited was that Hegseth supported it .
Taken together , the episode pulled together some of Trump ’ s worst habits into a single package .
Trump associated himself with an act of cruelty that his mind sees as strength .
The opinion of a Fox News host became the supposed arbiter of what average Americans believed .
And Trump had the chance to turn on the TV and hear the network give him God ’ s blessing for absolving men who his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ children .

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Earlier this week, Fox News host Pete Hegseth asked God to bless President Donald Trump for showing the “courage” to pardon the former Blackwater contractors convicted of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007. A new account from Thomas O’Connor, one of the FBI agents who investigated the killings, shows what God is being asked to bestow his blessing upon.
The Blackwater guards that Trump pardoned were convicted of opening fire on and killing Iraqi civilians, including children, in the 2007 Nisour Square Massacre in Baghdad. Today, Fox News' Pete Hegseth: "God bless the president for having the courage … to pardon those men." pic.twitter.com/KWQcua7J3r — The Recount (@therecount) December 23, 2020
In 2014, four guards—Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten, and Paul Slough—were convicted for their role in the massacre. Slatten was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The other three were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 30 years.
As O’Connor explains in an op-ed published by CNN, “I know that these men were undeserving of pardons because I was a member of the FBI Evidence Response Team that traveled to Iraq and investigated the site of these killings.”
The site of the killings was Nisour Square, and they took place after a Blackwater team leader requested permission to leave the protected Green Zone to help bring back a US official being guarded nearby by other contractors. The request was denied, but he and his mercenary colleagues left the Green Zone anyway and took positions in the square in their combat vehicles. From there, O’Connor explains:
Two Iraqi traffic officers stopped the traffic going toward the four armored vehicles. One of the first cars in that stopped traffic was a white KIA occupied by a woman and her son. The woman was a local doctor and the son, who was driving the car, was going to medical school to follow in his mother’s footsteps. What happened next began the Nisour Square shootings. A sniper [Slatten] on the Raven 23 team placed his rifle out a porthole of the Bearcat armored vehicle and fired at the driver of the white KIA. The man was struck and killed by the bullet.
After Slatten killed the doctor’s son, his team members opened fire as well:
The gunfire was directed into the white KIA, killing the women seated in the front passenger seat. These rounds were from a rifle and a large turret gun. A grenade was fired from the turret gunners’ rifle mounted launcher. The grenade skipped off the ground under the driver’s door exploding and causing the gas line to rupture and set the car ablaze.
A few cars behind the white Kia, a 9-year-old-boy was killed while sitting in the back seat of a Suzuki SUV:
When the shooting stopped and the Blackwater team began to move, Mohammed exited the driver door and opened a rear passenger door. Ali, who had been slumped against the door, fell into his father’s arms. Ali had been struck with a Blackwater round, which entered the rear driver side door and hit the boy in the head. As his father reached for his 9-year-old son, Ali’s brains fell out onto the street and onto his father’s feet.
These were the stories of just three of the 14 people they were convicted of killing. O’Connor and other FBI investigators found no forensic evidence that the Blackwater guards had been fired upon. Instead, they found evidence of a cover up. The president has now responded by letting them off.
This isn’t the first time Trump has intervened on behalf of people accused or convicted of committing wartime atrocities. Last year, Trump restored the rank of former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher after he was acquitted on a murder charge for fatally stabbing a captured teenager. Fellow SEALs who served with Gallagher had called him “freaking evil,” “toxic,” and “ perfectly O.K. with killing anybody that was moving.” In 2019, Trump also pardoned an Army lieutenant convicted of killing two Afghans and an Army major facing murder charges.
Hegseth, an Iraq War veteran, had been pushing for those pardons. He advocated for the Blackwater killers, too. In a statement earlier this week, the White House claimed that pardoning those guards was “broadly supported by the public.” While there’s nothing to suggest that, the first piece of evidence it cited was that Hegseth supported it.
Taken together, the episode pulled together some of Trump’s worst habits into a single package. Trump associated himself with an act of cruelty that his mind sees as strength. The opinion of a Fox News host became the supposed arbiter of what average Americans believed. And Trump had the chance to turn on the TV and hear the network give him God’s blessing for absolving men who his fellow citizens had found guilty of slaughtering children.


motherjones--2020-12-26--How Republicans Are Keeping the Worst Boxing Day Traditions Alive

As an American who attended college in Canada , I assumed Boxing Day was the day you returned unwanted Christmas gifts and bought other stuff on sale .
I wasn ’ t entirely wrong about the second part , but my grasp of the holiday was notional at best .
So to ask a question I should have posed more than a decade ago : What is Boxing Day ?
This much we can say : Officially , it ’ s a bank holiday after Christmas that ’ s observed in the United Kingdom and other parts of the Commonwealth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sports , go to the pub , and shop .
But how exactly Boxing Day came to be is disputed , though there is general agreement that the holiday is charitable in origin .
One theory about the etymology of the day ’ s name is that churches would collect boxes of alms in the run up to Christmas , and finally unbox and distribute them to the needy on Saint Stephen ’ s Day , which falls on December 26 , who was known for his service to the poor .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on workers going door to door in search of yearly Christmas tips known as “ boxes.
” A poem in “ The Comic Almanack ” published in 1843 describes milkmaids , bakers , butchers—alongside “ scavengers ” and “ turncocks ” —showing up to plead for their Christmas box .
The Scrooge-ish author imagines that , having siphoned off some of his wealth , they “ all get drunk , and strip to fight/To prove it is a Boxing Day.
” Finally , Boxing Day may have evolved from employers in Victorian England @ @ @ @ @ @ @ food , and gifts after spending their Christmas waiting on their employers .
The servants would then get December 26 off to spend with their families , as the aristocrats enjoyed high tea and leftovers without them .
As Mrs. Beeton ’ s Everyday Cookery , a Victorian guide to homemaking , recommended in 1872 , servants should get a Christmas box on their final quarterly payday of the year : December 25 .
The goal was to “ encourage good service and promote kindly feelings.
” With that background , its fair @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grander , year-round tradition , observed all the world over : the rich trying to appease poorer people without parting with a meaningful share of wealth .
This year , Amazon announced $ 300 holiday bonuses for full-time employees that it will cost the company $ 500 million .
That ’ s less than one percent of the wealth Jeff Bezos has amassed during the pandemic .
In Washington , after months of back and forth over COVID relief—a delay that ’ s left families destitute and desperate—Mitch McConnell allowed stimulus spending to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of promoting the kindly feelings of Georgia voters who will soon determine whether his Republicans hold the Senate , and he remains majority leader .
His $ 600 Christmas boxes should be arriving any day .

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As an American who attended college in Canada, I assumed Boxing Day was the day you returned unwanted Christmas gifts and bought other stuff on sale. I wasn’t entirely wrong about the second part, but my grasp of the holiday was notional at best. So to ask a question I should have posed more than a decade ago: What is Boxing Day?
Boxing Day is part of year-round, global, tradition: the rich trying to appease the poor without parting with a meaningful share of wealth.
This much we can say: Officially, it’s a bank holiday after Christmas that’s observed in the United Kingdom and other parts of the Commonwealth, and—in normal times—a chance to watch sports, go to the pub, and shop.
But how exactly Boxing Day came to be is disputed, though there is general agreement that the holiday is charitable in origin.
One theory about the etymology of the day’s name is that churches would collect boxes of alms in the run up to Christmas, and finally unbox and distribute them to the needy on Saint Stephen’s Day, which falls on December 26, who was known for his service to the poor.
As National Geographic explained, another theory focuses on workers going door to door in search of yearly Christmas tips known as “boxes.” A poem in “The Comic Almanack” published in 1843 describes milkmaids, bakers, butchers—alongside “scavengers” and “turncocks”—showing up to plead for their Christmas box. The Scrooge-ish author imagines that, having siphoned off some of his wealth, they “all get drunk, and strip to fight/To prove it is a Boxing Day.”
Finally, Boxing Day may have evolved from employers in Victorian England giving their servants boxes of money, food, and gifts after spending their Christmas waiting on their employers. The servants would then get December 26 off to spend with their families, as the aristocrats enjoyed high tea and leftovers without them. As Mrs. Beeton’s Everyday Cookery, a Victorian guide to homemaking, recommended in 1872, servants should get a Christmas box on their final quarterly payday of the year: December 25. The goal was to “encourage good service and promote kindly feelings.”
With that background, its fair to place Boxing Day inside of a grander, year-round tradition, observed all the world over: the rich trying to appease poorer people without parting with a meaningful share of wealth.
This year, Amazon announced $300 holiday bonuses for full-time employees that it will cost the company $500 million. That’s less than one percent of the wealth Jeff Bezos has amassed during the pandemic. In Washington, after months of back and forth over COVID relief—a delay that’s left families destitute and desperate—Mitch McConnell allowed stimulus spending to go through, perhaps in the hopes of promoting the kindly feelings of Georgia voters who will soon determine whether his Republicans hold the Senate, and he remains majority leader.
His $600 Christmas boxes should be arriving any day.


motherjones--2020-12-28--At Least One Thing Was Great About 2020: These Photobooks

When I sat down to write up my favorite books of the year , I realized , unexpectedly , a number of them are of work made in the past .
Not re-published books , but work coming out now for the first time , photographed in the ’ 70s and ’ 80s .
A sign of the times , or of my own preference in photobooks these days ?
The pandemic may have played a small role , scuttling plans to work on and finish books .
Whatever the reason , it ’ s been great to see excellent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re-imaged , as is the case with Sam Contis ’ book Day Sleeper , in which she revisits photos made by Dorothea Lange .
A couple notable exceptions to the throwbacks are works by Rian Dundon and Lam Yik Fei .
Dundon has been out on the street of Portland nearly every day since May 29 , documenting the protests , and his work is collected in two excellent zines , Protest City and Protest City 2 .
Likewise , Lam brought New York Times readers stunning work from the frontlines of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kickstarter-funded photobook , Won Yuhng .
This selection isn ’ t meant as a buying guide so much as highlighting photobooks and zines that resonated over the year .
As such , some are already out of print , but still worth tracking down .
Though the term “ necessary fictions ” might sound like a glib remark from Kellyanne Conway , from the perspective of Debi Cornwall ’ s new photo book , it is much more a Rumsfeldian turn of phrase .
This book is a follow-up of sorts to Cornwall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Guatanamo Bay—exploring the prison itself , prisoners who have been released , and the incongruity of it all .
In her newest work , Cornwall turns her eye to the mock villages and cities built on military bases around the United States with the idea of giving soldiers realistic training before landing in Iraq or Afghanistan .
It ’ s a theater of the absurd , or a “ necessary fiction.
” Iraqi refugees are paid to act as locals living in these villages , to foment faux trouble for the trainees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ move through these areas with B-movie-like FX prosthetic war wounds .
Everyone wears laser-tag-like gear .
It all makes sense when looked at through the lens of war .
Though if you step back just a bit with a critical eye , the farce of it goes beyond the feeling of being on an old movie set taken over by 256th Infantry Brigade of the Louisiana National Guard .
And this is where Cornwall ’ s work really shines : She intersperses the detail shots of mock villages , portraits of the role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wounds with pages of text .
Cornwall quotes from training manuals , politicians ’ statements on war , and interviews she ’ s conducted with both civilian and enlisted role players .
It ’ s these carefully selected words that brings the project into relief , taking it beyond being a curiosity .
It ’ s a smart book .
The photos are great , but all in all , as a book , it ’ s exceptional .
The Station is notable for being the final book Chris Killip published before his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also notable for being thoroughly awesome—an in-the-pit look at small-town UK punk circa 1985 .
Killip wasn ’ t a punk , but as an avid chronicler of British life , he made his way to The Station , a punk club in Gateshead , a large town in Northeast England , across the Tyne River from Newcastle .
More than focusing on bands , Killip turned his 4 x 5 camera on the punks in the crowd .
The large format of the book—tall , not thick ; this isn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subject , as counter-intuitive as that may seem .
It puts you right there .
You can almost feel ( and smell ) the flesh and sweat and spikes and leather of the punks dancing to songs railing against Thatcher and Reagan .
This work sat largely untouched for decades .
Killip ’ s son found the contact sheets in 2016 and prodded his father to publish it .
The story goes something like this : British music photographer Janette Beckmann was in Los Angeles in the early ’ 80s to check out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an article about an East LA gang known as El Hoyo Maravilla .
The reporter took Beckmann out to Maravilla Park and introduced her .
Beckmann set out , making incredible portraits of these kids .
Beckmann says everyone had their poses down .
And though there ’ s plenty of standing tough against heavily graffiti ’ d walls , this small book ( a zine , really ) captures these East LA kids with the same intensity Beckmann photographed first-wave UK punks and New York City B Boys of the ’ 80s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Suburbia covered some of the same ground , Mimi Plumb ’ s look at the still-young East Bay suburbs of the mid-1970s has something more of an eye-level view .
Less voyeuristic .
In her early 20s , just at the start of her career , Plumb returned to her hometown of Walnut Creek , photographing what had been her youthful stomping grounds .
With a focus on children running amok through the hills and neighborhoods , Plumb ’ s knowledge of this land , her inspired eye and beautiful , raw talent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of the photos are quiet , yet tight with tension of looming development , looming adolescence , looming trouble .
There ’ s an innocence here—or more , the feeling of being on the edge of a loss of innocence .
The book carries a stillness of a pond with a rock about to be thrown into it .
It ’ s likely this undercurrent comes partially from the work being released almost 40 years after it was made .
We know where the story goes .
It ’ s taut with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the photos .
And that ’ s to say , The White Sky delivers more than a hit of nostalgia .
Yes , it captures a time and place gone forever , but the simple beauty found in a very mundane place makes these photos , this book , special .
Since 2005 , Craig Atkinson from Café Royal Books , a prolific zine publisher , has produced what has got to be one of the most thorough visual documentations of a time and place .
Focusing exclusively on the British Isles ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Café Royal produces simple photo zines—and a lot of them , roughly 70 titles a year .
Atkinson has a deep vein of work to mine , covering the deepest crevices of British life , high points and low .
Most of the zines tend to focus on work made in the ’ 60s through the ’ 90s : Protests and riots , seaside vacations , workers on the job .
Playing and fighting .
It feels as if Atkinson is reviving , if not saving work that would otherwise be forgotten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ From heavyweights like Martin Parr and Chris Killip to many , many more lesser known photographers , Café Royal ’ s offerings are always a treat .
Very simple layouts , focusing on the work .
This year ’ s standouts include…well , honestly , there are too many to list .
It ’ s not cheap , but the best bang for your buck is the annual subscription .
You likely know a David Godlis photo , whether you realize it or not .
This is especially true if you like rock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York 1970s rock and roll .
Or , even if you don ’ t , you probably still know a Godlis photo .
Patti Smith gently touching her face at night under a Bleeker Street sign .
The Ramones belting one out at CBGB ’ s .
Debbie Harry on the prowl .
This book is not a book of the Godlis photos you know , but it ’ s of the same time , of the same style .
Like a lot of photographers , he regularly carried a camera , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him .
Godlis captured that era of New York .
All the grit and grime and everything people hated at the time but romanticize now , whether they were there or not : businessmen walking under XXX movie theater signs in Times Square , women with amazing wigs smoking incredible cigarettes on the sidewalk .
Boiled down , Godlis Street is more than a dizzy romp through a fantasized , fetishized New York .
This is raw , exceptional street photography .
It ’ s loose , but not overly so .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but not for effect .
Godlis was a young man with a camera and wide open eyes taking in what he saw .
F/16 vision .
Taking it all in .
It ’ s great to see Godlis get his due in this regard .
If you happen to follow him on Instagram ( you should ) , you ’ ve seen these photos and hoped for a book .
Dreams do come true .
With it ’ s Weegee-like look ( direct flash photos made at night ) , Ken Light @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harshness that should make the reader uncomfortable .
Light traveled with US Border Patrol through the Otay Mesa in San Diego from 1983-1987 , as it looked for people crossing the border .
Caught at their most vulnerable—by the agents and by Light ’ s flash—the subjects of Midnight La Frontera make immediate the fear , desperation , and determination of crossing into the United States .
This is reinforced by the introduction of José Ángel Navejas , author of the book Illegal : Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant , recounting his own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the country through this very same stretch of rugged land .
Photographically , it is masterful in the moments and emotions captured .
Contextually , particularly in light of hyper-vilification of migrants by Donald Trump , the rawness of some images can be jarring .
Yet it ’ s important to have this unvarnished look at the treatment of immigrants , even if the images are 35 years old .
Not too hard to imagine how much worse it ’ s gotten .
From the earliest days of the protests in Portland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the street with a low-key point-and-shoot camera .
As the protests dragged on through the summer , Dundon made a point to go out virtually every night to make photos , document the good , bad , and ugly .
He put in the work and it shows in these two zines published by Nighted Life .
His slightly off-kilter , direct-flash images drag you into the streets alongside antifa , Proud Boys , government agents , police , the media , and just random protesters and curiosity seekers .
The result @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made in a long time .
It has a unique voice that fits the moment , rather than trying to recreate the same old tired approach to protests .
It actually says something about what is going on , weaving through the tear gas and long guns and livestreamers .
In her previous book , Deep Spring , Sam Contis smartly wove her own images with archival photos , playing with ideas around the role of historical photographs , mythologies , and stereotypes .
A lot of photographers try this sort of thing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Contis ’ latest book , Day Sleeper , extends this idea by re-editing rarely seen Dorothea Lange photographs shot in California from the 1930s through the early ’ 60s .
It ’ s one thing to sift through rarely seen archives from a small school , as in Deep Spring .
It ’ s another to plunge into the archives of one of America ’ s most celebrated photographers and come up with such a pearl .
Contis leaned heavily on the “ everyday ” photos Lange made : photos of her family @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Francisco and Oakland—work made for herself , not on assignment .
Despite consisting entirely of photos made 60-90 years ago , Day Sleeper has a thoroughly contemporary feel .
Contis ’ deft editing and sequencing , balanced around frequent images she found of people sleeping—the “ day sleeper ” —gives the book a certain feeling of disorientation , a familiar world that feels slightly askew .
As familiar as you may feel you are with Lange ’ s work , this book will make you see her in a whole new , modern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ photos in the New York Times during the 2019 Hong Kong protests , Lam Yik Fei ’ s dramatic images stood out for capturing the intensity of the protracted street battles , as well as for being so colorful and compositionally smart .
Just as the tear gas cleared , Lam got a Kickstarter going for a book that collects his harrowing images of one of the most important moments in Hong Kong ’ s history .
It ’ s always interesting seeing how well strong news photos hold up in a different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A series of photos from an event or even a months-long protest don ’ t always make for a strong , cohesive book ; in this case , they do .
Lam serves up lots of chaotic moments on the streets , along with a few quiet shots of protesters regrouping , catching their breath .
Of course , we know how this moment in history turned out , with protest leaders being jailed or fleeing Hong Kong .
That makes this collection a little bittersweet , but still remarkable .

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When I sat down to write up my favorite books of the year, I realized, unexpectedly, a number of them are of work made in the past. Not re-published books, but work coming out now for the first time, photographed in the ’70s and ’80s. A sign of the times, or of my own preference in photobooks these days? The pandemic may have played a small role, scuttling plans to work on and finish books. Whatever the reason, it’s been great to see excellent work saved from obscurity, published or re-imaged, as is the case with Sam Contis’ book Day Sleeper, in which she revisits photos made by Dorothea Lange.
A couple notable exceptions to the throwbacks are works by Rian Dundon and Lam Yik Fei. Dundon has been out on the street of Portland nearly every day since May 29, documenting the protests, and his work is collected in two excellent zines, Protest City and Protest City 2. Likewise, Lam brought New York Times readers stunning work from the frontlines of the Hong Kong protests, collected in a Kickstarter-funded photobook, Won Yuhng.
This selection isn’t meant as a buying guide so much as highlighting photobooks and zines that resonated over the year. As such, some are already out of print, but still worth tracking down.
Debi Cornwall — Necessary Fictions (Radius)
Though the term “necessary fictions” might sound like a glib remark from Kellyanne Conway, from the perspective of Debi Cornwall’s new photo book, it is much more a Rumsfeldian turn of phrase.
This book is a follow-up of sorts to Cornwall’s exceptional examination of the prison at Guatanamo Bay—exploring the prison itself, prisoners who have been released, and the incongruity of it all. In her newest work, Cornwall turns her eye to the mock villages and cities built on military bases around the United States with the idea of giving soldiers realistic training before landing in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s a theater of the absurd, or a “necessary fiction.” Iraqi refugees are paid to act as locals living in these villages, to foment faux trouble for the trainees. Soldiers involved in the training protocol move through these areas with B-movie-like FX prosthetic war wounds. Everyone wears laser-tag-like gear. It all makes sense when looked at through the lens of war. Though if you step back just a bit with a critical eye, the farce of it goes beyond the feeling of being on an old movie set taken over by 256th Infantry Brigade of the Louisiana National Guard. And this is where Cornwall’s work really shines: She intersperses the detail shots of mock villages, portraits of the role players, and a portfolio of fake wounds with pages of text. Cornwall quotes from training manuals, politicians’ statements on war, and interviews she’s conducted with both civilian and enlisted role players. It’s these carefully selected words that brings the project into relief, taking it beyond being a curiosity.
It’s a smart book. The photos are great, but all in all, as a book, it’s exceptional.
Chris Killip — The Station (Steidl)
The Station is notable for being the final book Chris Killip published before his death this year. It’s also notable for being thoroughly awesome—an in-the-pit look at small-town UK punk circa 1985.
Killip wasn’t a punk, but as an avid chronicler of British life, he made his way to The Station, a punk club in Gateshead, a large town in Northeast England, across the Tyne River from Newcastle. More than focusing on bands, Killip turned his 4 x 5 camera on the punks in the crowd. The large format of the book—tall, not thick; this isn’t a heavy tome—and gorgeous printing fits the subject, as counter-intuitive as that may seem. It puts you right there. You can almost feel (and smell) the flesh and sweat and spikes and leather of the punks dancing to songs railing against Thatcher and Reagan. This work sat largely untouched for decades. Killip’s son found the contact sheets in 2016 and prodded his father to publish it.
Janette Beckman — El Hoyo Maravilla (Dashwood)
The story goes something like this: British music photographer Janette Beckman was in Los Angeles in the early ’80s to check out the punk scene. She ran across an article about an East LA gang known as El Hoyo Maravilla. The reporter took Beckman out to Maravilla Park and introduced her. Beckman set out, making incredible portraits of these kids. Beckman says everyone had their poses down. And though there’s plenty of standing tough against heavily graffiti’d walls, this small book (a zine, really) captures these East LA kids with the same intensity Beckman photographed first-wave UK punks and New York City B Boys of the ’80s.
Mimi Plumb — The White Sky (Stanley/Barker)
Though Bill Owens’ classic photobook Suburbia covered some of the same ground, Mimi Plumb’s look at the still-young East Bay suburbs of the mid-1970s has something more of an eye-level view. Less voyeuristic. In her early 20s, just at the start of her career, Plumb returned to her hometown of Walnut Creek, photographing what had been her youthful stomping grounds. With a focus on children running amok through the hills and neighborhoods, Plumb’s knowledge of this land, her inspired eye and beautiful, raw talent, lets this life shine.
A lot of the photos are quiet, yet tight with tension of looming development, looming adolescence, looming trouble. There’s an innocence here—or more, the feeling of being on the edge of a loss of innocence. The book carries a stillness of a pond with a rock about to be thrown into it. It’s likely this undercurrent comes partially from the work being released almost 40 years after it was made. We know where the story goes. It’s taut with a restlessness vibrating through Plumb and into the photos. And that’s to say, The White Sky delivers more than a hit of nostalgia. Yes, it captures a time and place gone forever, but the simple beauty found in a very mundane place makes these photos, this book, special.
Since 2005, Craig Atkinson from Café Royal Books, a prolific zine publisher, has produced what has got to be one of the most thorough visual documentations of a time and place. Focusing exclusively on the British Isles (and British photographers making work elsewhere), Café Royal produces simple photo zines—and a lot of them, roughly 70 titles a year. Atkinson has a deep vein of work to mine, covering the deepest crevices of British life, high points and low. Most of the zines tend to focus on work made in the ’60s through the ’90s: Protests and riots, seaside vacations, workers on the job. Playing and fighting. It feels as if Atkinson is reviving, if not saving work that would otherwise be forgotten as neglected negatives on sagging shelves. From heavyweights like Martin Parr and Chris Killip to many, many more lesser known photographers, Café Royal’s offerings are always a treat. Very simple layouts, focusing on the work. This year’s standouts include…well, honestly, there are too many to list. It’s not cheap, but the best bang for your buck is the annual subscription.
Godlis — Godlis Streets (Reel Art Press)
You likely know a David Godlis photo, whether you realize it or not. This is especially true if you like rock and roll, particularly if you like New York 1970s rock and roll. Or, even if you don’t, you probably still know a Godlis photo. Patti Smith gently touching her face at night under a Bleeker Street sign. The Ramones belting one out at CBGB’s. Debbie Harry on the prowl.
This book is not a book of the Godlis photos you know, but it’s of the same time, of the same style. Like a lot of photographers, he regularly carried a camera, taking photos of what’s around him. Godlis captured that era of New York. All the grit and grime and everything people hated at the time but romanticize now, whether they were there or not: businessmen walking under XXX movie theater signs in Times Square, women with amazing wigs smoking incredible cigarettes on the sidewalk.
Boiled down, Godlis Street is more than a dizzy romp through a fantasized, fetishized New York. This is raw, exceptional street photography. It’s loose, but not overly so. It’s black and white and grainy, but not for effect. Godlis was a young man with a camera and wide open eyes taking in what he saw. F/16 vision. Taking it all in. It’s great to see Godlis get his due in this regard. If you happen to follow him on Instagram (you should), you’ve seen these photos and hoped for a book. Dreams do come true.
Ken Light — Midnight La Frontera (TBW)
With it’s Weegee-like look (direct flash photos made at night), Ken Light’s latest book has a certain harshness that should make the reader uncomfortable. Light traveled with US Border Patrol through the Otay Mesa in San Diego from 1983-1987, as it looked for people crossing the border. Caught at their most vulnerable—by the agents and by Light’s flash—the subjects of Midnight La Frontera make immediate the fear, desperation, and determination of crossing into the United States. This is reinforced by the introduction of José Ángel Navejas, author of the book Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant, recounting his own attempts (and success) in crossing into the country through this very same stretch of rugged land.
Photographically, it is masterful in the moments and emotions captured. Contextually, particularly in light of hyper-vilification of migrants by Donald Trump, the rawness of some images can be jarring. Yet it’s important to have this unvarnished look at the treatment of immigrants, even if the images are 35 years old. Not too hard to imagine how much worse it’s gotten.
From the earliest days of the protests in Portland this year, Rian Dundon was out on the street with a low-key point-and-shoot camera. As the protests dragged on through the summer, Dundon made a point to go out virtually every night to make photos, document the good, bad, and ugly. He put in the work and it shows in these two zines published by Nighted Life. His slightly off-kilter, direct-flash images drag you into the streets alongside antifa, Proud Boys, government agents, police, the media, and just random protesters and curiosity seekers. The result is some of the best protest photography made in a long time. It has a unique voice that fits the moment, rather than trying to recreate the same old tired approach to protests. It actually says something about what is going on, weaving through the tear gas and long guns and livestreamers.
Sam Contis/Dorothea Lange — Day Sleeper (Mack)
In her previous book, Deep Spring, Sam Contis smartly wove her own images with archival photos, playing with ideas around the role of historical photographs, mythologies, and stereotypes. A lot of photographers try this sort of thing, but usually come up short. Contis’ latest book, Day Sleeper, extends this idea by re-editing rarely seen Dorothea Lange photographs shot in California from the 1930s through the early ’60s. It’s one thing to sift through rarely seen archives from a small school, as in Deep Spring. It’s another to plunge into the archives of one of America’s most celebrated photographers and come up with such a pearl. Contis leaned heavily on the “everyday” photos Lange made: photos of her family, street photography she made in San Francisco and Oakland—work made for herself, not on assignment. Despite consisting entirely of photos made 60-90 years ago, Day Sleeper has a thoroughly contemporary feel. Contis’ deft editing and sequencing, balanced around frequent images she found of people sleeping—the “day sleeper”—gives the book a certain feeling of disorientation, a familiar world that feels slightly askew. As familiar as you may feel you are with Lange’s work, this book will make you see her in a whole new, modern light.
Lam Yik Fei — Woh Yuhng (Bronwie)
Landing a number of A1 photos in the New York Times during the 2019 Hong Kong protests, Lam Yik Fei’s dramatic images stood out for capturing the intensity of the protracted street battles, as well as for being so colorful and compositionally smart. Just as the tear gas cleared, Lam got a Kickstarter going for a book that collects his harrowing images of one of the most important moments in Hong Kong’s history.
It’s always interesting seeing how well strong news photos hold up in a different context, such as a book. A series of photos from an event or even a months-long protest don’t always make for a strong, cohesive book; in this case, they do. Lam serves up lots of chaotic moments on the streets, along with a few quiet shots of protesters regrouping, catching their breath. Of course, we know how this moment in history turned out, with protest leaders being jailed or fleeing Hong Kong. That makes this collection a little bittersweet, but still remarkable.


motherjones--2020-12-28--Monsters of 2020: The People Who Gutted Minor League Baseball

A few years back , I was at a minor league baseball game in Geneva , Illinois , watching the Kane County Cougars play the mighty Burlington Bees , when a player on the visiting side looked up from his folding chair in the bullpen and asked me how long it would take to get to Chicago from there .
At the time I found it amusing ( this kid really called me “ sir ” ) .
Ever since I ’ ve found it kind of affecting .
At the lowest levels of the minors , a baseball game @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what is happening—stripped of the histories and stakes that shape a big league matchup—feels smaller , but your sense of the people playing it is overloaded .
You can sit along the third-base line , feet up on the dividing wall , and hear everything : the ambient noise of warmups ; teenagers from Georgia and the Dominican trying out each others ’ slang ; the exultation and frustration .
The veil of mystique that separates performers from fans often slips , if it ’ s there at all .
I ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a time with total strangers .
The question about Chicago was the whole minor league experience , in a way .
You ’ re somewhere in the exurbs , trying to make it to the city .
Most people never will .
I told him it was half an hour by car .
There will be 40 fewer minor leagues farm teams next year than there were in 2019 .
Those cutbacks hit hardest in the South and Midwest .
West Virginia lost all four of its minor-league franchises .
The entire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It has been reconstituted as a summer league for unpaid college athletes . )
The minor leagues—which rely on in-person interactions like concessions and ticket sales—were hit hard when the pandemic forced the cancellation of their 2020 seasons , but that ’ s not why these franchises got kicked to the curb .
Plans to dramatically reduce the number of minor league franchises and players were in the works long before that , because Major League Baseball is filled with insufferable ghouls .
You don ’ t have to speculate about why big-league @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by 25 percent .
They brag about it .
In a 2019 piece at FiveThirtyEight titled “ Do We Even Need Minor League Baseball ?
” baseball insiders argued that the minors were an inefficient way of grooming players to become major leaguers .
There were more effective ways to , say , add velocity to a teenager ’ s fastball or improve a hitter ’ s launch angle than playing games—this kind of work could be done at closed-door facilities , and any time of year .
And there were just so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those prospects , when only 10 percent of them will ever get to Chicago ?
It should go without saying that one of the teams driving this movement—though by no means the only one—was the Houston Astros : Of course they did .
At the time , the Astros were being feted as baseball ’ s new meritocrats .
Their ex-McKinsey general manager reshaped the organization with a consultant ’ s eye that allowed them to win by being smarter .
Then , just a few weeks after that story ran , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Series with an elaborate ( and in retrospect hilarious ! )
cheating scheme in which team personnel would bang on trash cans to indicate what pitch was coming next .
It turns out “ rules ” are the ultimate inefficiency .
Paying lots of people to play baseball was a problem , in developmental and financial terms , to be solved by paying substantially fewer people to play less baseball , in substantially fewer places .
It ’ s a testament to the almost religious levels of self-absorption among Major League owners and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( or perhaps just did not care ) about just how awful it sounds to tell people , publicly , that baseball games are a wasteful byproduct of professional baseball , as opposed to the entire point of professional baseball .
Even as other sports produce better highlights or cooler players , baseball ’ s great asset is that it ’ s there .
A game is a nice place to be , with friends or family , reasonably close to where you live .
It ’ s a beer garden and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happy hour , a place to go when you ’ re on the road and you don ’ t want to be alone .
One turn-of-the-century Masshole called his saloon “ Third Base , ” because it was the last place you stop on your way home .
The jargon ’ s changed but the spirit ’ s the same : It ’ s a kind of Third Place .
Most people who go to these games will not particularly care if a pitcher throws 90 miles per hour instead of 93 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ tell you what happened on the field at all .
Getting rid of the ubiquity that ’ s sustained its popularity for 150 years gets sold as streamlining .
It ’ s really just strip-mining .
I mourn the overhaul from the comfort of a city that still has three professional baseball teams .
But , still , it hit us .
In November , the New York Yankees cut ties with their Staten Island affiliate , as part of this huge and historic contraction in minor league baseball .
Richmond Bank Ballpark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ best places to watch a baseball game in the United States , won ’ t have a team anymore .
This is a tragedy .
The park is a five-minute walk from the ferry , and right on the water .
If you sit in the right spot , you have a spectacular view of Lower Manhattan .
Huge ocean-going ships pass just beyond the right field fence .
The Staten Island Yankees of the short-season class-A New York–Penn League have played there since 1999 .
It is entry-level baseball ; the players @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time I was there I witnessed a game-winning pickle .
I find this crushing , as a baseball fan , but it ’ s not just a baseball story .
By this point in the 21st century , you should know enough to run full speed away from people who talk about optimization—people who take over beloved institutions with little appreciation for what those institutions actually do , who talk about getting better by getting leaner , about rooting out inefficiencies and pivoting into a new “ space.
” These people buy newspapers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company and make you build a stage for the announcement where they lay you off .
They take over the post office and , well , you know .
As the pandemic blew up the global economy , those trends were only exacerbated .
Governments might let crises go to waste but big businesses don ’ t .
They use these moments to accelerate consolidation and remake industries .
Most of America ’ s largest companies laid off employees during the pandemic even as they turned a profit .
What little leverage minor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their 2020 seasons , although some , like the Staten Island Yankees , are pursuing their options in court .
This month , after the realignment became official , the league offered a tepid helping hand to the franchises it had consigned to the scrap heap .
Some of them will be absorbed into MLB-sanctioned summer leagues for college baseball players or “ draft leagues ” for players looking to showcase their wares for scouts—which is to say , they will be replacing rosters of low-paid workers with unpaid amateur volunteers .
Others @ @ @ @ @ @ @ try their luck in the independent leagues .
Nearly two dozen franchises are still figuring out what , if anything , they ’ ll do next .
For years , baseball sold you a dream .
In 2020 , it snapped its fingers .

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A few years back, I was at a minor league baseball game in Geneva, Illinois, watching the Kane County Cougars play the mighty Burlington Bees, when a player on the visiting side looked up from his folding chair in the bullpen and asked me how long it would take to get to Chicago from there.
At the time I found it amusing (this kid really called me “sir”). Ever since I’ve found it kind of affecting. At the lowest levels of the minors, a baseball game feels astonishingly intimate. Your grasp of what is happening—stripped of the histories and stakes that shape a big league matchup—feels smaller, but your sense of the people playing it is overloaded. You can sit along the third-base line, feet up on the dividing wall, and hear everything: the ambient noise of warmups; teenagers from Georgia and the Dominican trying out each others’ slang; the exultation and frustration. The veil of mystique that separates performers from fans often slips, if it’s there at all. I’ve seen players carry on conversations for innings at a time with total strangers.
The question about Chicago was the whole minor league experience, in a way. You’re somewhere in the exurbs, trying to make it to the city. Most people never will. I told him it was half an hour by car.
There will be 40 fewer minor leagues farm teams next year than there were in 2019. Those cutbacks hit hardest in the South and Midwest. West Virginia lost all four of its minor-league franchises. The entire Appalachian League got the boot. (It has been reconstituted as a summer league for unpaid college athletes.) The minor leagues—which rely on in-person interactions like concessions and ticket sales—were hit hard when the pandemic forced the cancellation of their 2020 seasons, but that’s not why these franchises got kicked to the curb. Plans to dramatically reduce the number of minor league franchises and players were in the works long before that, because Major League Baseball is filled with insufferable ghouls.
You don’t have to speculate about why big-league clubs decided to reduce their minor-league affiliates by 25 percent. They brag about it. In a 2019 piece at FiveThirtyEight titled “Do We Even Need Minor League Baseball?” baseball insiders argued that the minors were an inefficient way of grooming players to become major leaguers. There were more effective ways to, say, add velocity to a teenager’s fastball or improve a hitter’s launch angle than playing games—this kind of work could be done at closed-door facilities, and any time of year. And there were just so many minor leaguers. Why pay all those prospects, when only 10 percent of them will ever get to Chicago?
It should go without saying that one of the teams driving this movement—though by no means the only one—was the Houston Astros:
[T]he Houston Astros, a model of modern player development, bucked that trend a few years ago. After the 2017 season, they reduced their affiliate count from nine to seven clubs. The Astros believed they could become a more efficient producer of talent with fewer farm clubs.
Of course they did. At the time, the Astros were being feted as baseball’s new meritocrats. Their ex-McKinsey general manager reshaped the organization with a consultant’s eye that allowed them to win by being smarter. Then, just a few weeks after that story ran, we learned that they actually won their World Series with an elaborate (and in retrospect hilarious!) cheating scheme in which team personnel would bang on trash cans to indicate what pitch was coming next. It turns out “rules” are the ultimate inefficiency.
Paying lots of people to play baseball was a problem, in developmental and financial terms, to be solved by paying substantially fewer people to play less baseball, in substantially fewer places. It’s a testament to the almost religious levels of self-absorption among Major League owners and executives that they didn’t think (or perhaps just did not care) about just how awful it sounds to tell people, publicly, that baseball games are a wasteful byproduct of professional baseball, as opposed to the entire point of professional baseball.
Even as other sports produce better highlights or cooler players, baseball’s great asset is that it’s there. A game is a nice place to be, with friends or family, reasonably close to where you live. It’s a beer garden and a playground, a Hinge date, a happy hour, a place to go when you’re on the road and you don’t want to be alone. One turn-of-the-century Masshole called his saloon “Third Base,” because it was the last place you stop on your way home. The jargon’s changed but the spirit’s the same: It’s a kind of Third Place. Most people who go to these games will not particularly care if a pitcher throws 90 miles per hour instead of 93. They might not even be able to tell you what happened on the field at all. Getting rid of the ubiquity that’s sustained its popularity for 150 years gets sold as streamlining. It’s really just strip-mining.
I mourn the overhaul from the comfort of a city that still has three professional baseball teams. But, still, it hit us. In November, the New York Yankees cut ties with their Staten Island affiliate, as part of this huge and historic contraction in minor league baseball. Richmond Bank Ballpark on Staten Island, one of the best places to watch a baseball game in the United States, won’t have a team anymore.
This is a tragedy. The park is a five-minute walk from the ferry, and right on the water. If you sit in the right spot, you have a spectacular view of Lower Manhattan. Huge ocean-going ships pass just beyond the right field fence. The Staten Island Yankees of the short-season class-A New York–Penn League have played there since 1999. It is entry-level baseball; the players are talented but raw. The last time I was there I witnessed a game-winning pickle.
I find this crushing, as a baseball fan, but it’s not just a baseball story. By this point in the 21st century, you should know enough to run full speed away from people who talk about optimization—people who take over beloved institutions with little appreciation for what those institutions actually do, who talk about getting better by getting leaner, about rooting out inefficiencies and pivoting into a new “space.” These people buy newspapers and gut them. They buy your company and make you build a stage for the announcement where they lay you off. They take over the post office and, well, you know. As the pandemic blew up the global economy, those trends were only exacerbated. Governments might let crises go to waste but big businesses don’t. They use these moments to accelerate consolidation and remake industries. Most of America’s largest companies laid off employees during the pandemic even as they turned a profit.
What little leverage minor league franchises might have had disappeared with their 2020 seasons, although some, like the Staten Island Yankees, are pursuing their options in court. This month, after the realignment became official, the league offered a tepid helping hand to the franchises it had consigned to the scrap heap. Some of them will be absorbed into MLB-sanctioned summer leagues for college baseball players or “draft leagues” for players looking to showcase their wares for scouts—which is to say, they will be replacing rosters of low-paid workers with unpaid amateur volunteers. Others are abandoning the farm system entirely to try their luck in the independent leagues. Nearly two dozen franchises are still figuring out what, if anything, they’ll do next.
For years, baseball sold you a dream. In 2020, it snapped its fingers.


motherjones--2020-12-28--Monsters of 2020: Miles Taylor

Monsters of 2020: Miles Taylor

Just before the election , Miles Taylor revealed that he ’ d written the anonymous New York Times op-ed “ I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration ” while serving as the Department of Homeland Security ’ s deputy chief of staff .
I was curious what kind of person would present himself as a heroic resister after having helped lead a department that separated thousands of families at the border .
So I did some Googling and found 2020 ’ s Monster of the Meritocracy .
Taylor ’ s path to power started in the halls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a congressional page as a teenager , he ran into Vice President Dick Cheney and wished him luck in his reelection bid .
Taylor wondered in his high school paper why he , a Democrat , would wish a Republican good luck .
But in what would become a pattern , he cut himself some slack .
While his classmates were worrying about how they looked to that “ special someone , ” he was worrying about how he looked to the vice president .
He styled himself a young insider , having @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sen. Dick Lugar ( R-Ind. )
.
On a break from Indiana University , he interned for the Defense Department and then for Cheney before becoming , at 20 , the youngest political appointee in the Bush administration after getting a spot at DHS .
As a Marshall Scholar , he split his time between Washington and Oxford while working to open a DC charter school , write a book on “ The Rise and Fall of America ’ s Post-9/11 ‘ Freedom Agenda , ’ ” and produce a documentary about congressional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the Republican staff of the House Homeland Security Committee .
Taylor could have left Capitol Hill for any number of lucrative ( if mildly monstrous ) gigs .
Instead , under President Donald Trump , he rejoined DHS , which had just implemented the first Muslim ban .
From there , he quickly rose from an adviser position to chief of staff of the 240,000-person department .
Here are a few of the things DHS did as Taylor climbed the ladder there : It implemented a new Muslim ban , which Taylor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some 700,000 immigrants who ’ d come to the country as children of their work permits , and it tried to do the same to hundreds of thousands of people who ’ d been living with Temporary Protected Status for decades .
It announced a wealth test for prospective immigrants .
It separated thousands of families at the border and forced asylum seekers to wait in dangerous Mexican border cities , where they were extorted and kidnapped .
What exactly Taylor was doing while all this happened is unclear .
In his telling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for example , that he tried to stop , or at least slow down , the “ zero tolerance ” policy that split up families at the border .
A Trump administration official provided a different perspective to BuzzFeed , saying , “ On multiple occasions , I sat within inches of Miles Taylor during meetings solely focused on ‘ zero tolerance ’ policy , and he was neither silent nor vocally opposed to the weighty decisions before us.
” We do know that none of Trump ’ s assaults on immigrants prompted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he decided to write it because Trump resisted lowering flags to half-mast after John McCain died .
Taylor faced no immediate consequences for his work at DHS .
After he left , Google quickly hired him as its head of national security policy engagement .
When some employees later objected , the company misled them by saying Taylor was “ not involved in the family separation policy.
” As emails obtained by BuzzFeed showed , Taylor provided talking points and a “ Protecting Children Narrative ” to then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen as she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy .
Along with his Google responsibilities , Taylor found time to write his book , the # 1 New York Times bestseller A Warning .
In the book , the author , “ Anonymous , ” writes that family separation was a stain on the country and the leaders of DHS without revealing that he was one of them .
Taylor later said he regretted not doing more to stop the policy .
But when news broke a few months afterward that more than 500 parents separated from their children still hadn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to his usual obfuscating , falsely suggesting that it was because a lot of the parents didn ’ t want to “ claim ” their kids .
A week before the election , Taylor revealed he was Anonymous .
By December , he was playing the victim .
A Washington Post profile reported that he was moving between undisclosed locations after receiving death threats , that his finances were in “ tatters ” but not in tatters enough to be without private security , and that he ’ s had “ serious marital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ someone with electoral ambitions , he wouldn ’ t say whether he was planning to run for office .
The meritocracy has more rungs to climb .

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Just before the election, Miles Taylor revealed that he’d written the anonymous New York Times op-ed “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” while serving as the Department of Homeland Security’s deputy chief of staff. I was curious what kind of person would present himself as a heroic resister after having helped lead a department that separated thousands of families at the border. So I did some Googling and found 2020’s Monster of the Meritocracy.
Taylor’s path to power started in the halls of Congress, where, working as a congressional page as a teenager, he ran into Vice President Dick Cheney and wished him luck in his reelection bid. Taylor wondered in his high school paper why he, a Democrat, would wish a Republican good luck. But in what would become a pattern, he cut himself some slack. While his classmates were worrying about how they looked to that “special someone,” he was worrying about how he looked to the vice president. He styled himself a young insider, having already interviewed Chris Matthews and dined with Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.).
On a break from Indiana University, he interned for the Defense Department and then for Cheney before becoming, at 20, the youngest political appointee in the Bush administration after getting a spot at DHS. As a Marshall Scholar, he split his time between Washington and Oxford while working to open a DC charter school, write a book on “The Rise and Fall of America’s Post-9/11 ‘Freedom Agenda,’” and produce a documentary about congressional pages. After Oxford, he worked on the Republican staff of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Taylor could have left Capitol Hill for any number of lucrative (if mildly monstrous) gigs. Instead, under President Donald Trump, he rejoined DHS, which had just implemented the first Muslim ban. From there, he quickly rose from an adviser position to chief of staff of the 240,000-person department.
Here are a few of the things DHS did as Taylor climbed the ladder there: It implemented a new Muslim ban, which Taylor publicly defended. It moved to strip some 700,000 immigrants who’d come to the country as children of their work permits, and it tried to do the same to hundreds of thousands of people who’d been living with Temporary Protected Status for decades. It announced a wealth test for prospective immigrants. It separated thousands of families at the border and forced asylum seekers to wait in dangerous Mexican border cities, where they were extorted and kidnapped.
What exactly Taylor was doing while all this happened is unclear. In his telling, he resisted. He claimed, for example, that he tried to stop, or at least slow down, the “zero tolerance” policy that split up families at the border. A Trump administration official provided a different perspective to BuzzFeed, saying, “On multiple occasions, I sat within inches of Miles Taylor during meetings solely focused on ‘zero tolerance’ policy, and he was neither silent nor vocally opposed to the weighty decisions before us.” We do know that none of Trump’s assaults on immigrants prompted Taylor to publish his anonymous op-ed; he decided to write it because Trump resisted lowering flags to half-mast after John McCain died.
Taylor faced no immediate consequences for his work at DHS. After he left, Google quickly hired him as its head of national security policy engagement. When some employees later objected, the company misled them by saying Taylor was “not involved in the family separation policy.” As emails obtained by BuzzFeed showed, Taylor provided talking points and a “Protecting Children Narrative” to then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen as she claimed that there was no family separation policy.
Along with his Google responsibilities, Taylor found time to write his book, the #1 New York Times bestseller A Warning. In the book, the author, “Anonymous,” writes that family separation was a stain on the country and the leaders of DHS without revealing that he was one of them. Taylor later said he regretted not doing more to stop the policy. But when news broke a few months afterward that more than 500 parents separated from their children still hadn’t been found, Taylor returned to his usual obfuscating, falsely suggesting that it was because a lot of the parents didn’t want to “claim” their kids.
This is the way Miles Taylor talked about family separation LAST WEEK ("It's horrible. But…") when news broke parents of 545 separated kids still cannot be located. He later deleted the tweet. pic.twitter.com/2QW0TpsNVv — Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) October 28, 2020
A week before the election, Taylor revealed he was Anonymous. By December, he was playing the victim. A Washington Post profile reported that he was moving between undisclosed locations after receiving death threats, that his finances were in “tatters” but not in tatters enough to be without private security, and that he’s had “serious marital problems.” Told that he sounded like someone with electoral ambitions, he wouldn’t say whether he was planning to run for office. The meritocracy has more rungs to climb.


motherjones--2020-12-29--Monsters of 2020: Sonny Perdue

Monsters of 2020: Sonny Perdue

Presumably , some political appointees who served in the Trump administration did so with earnest intentions , hoping to bring dignity and professionalism to the task of advancing the Republican agenda of deregulation , austerity ( for non-cronies ) , and upward wealth redistribution .
Then there were the full-on MAGA-bots like , say , Sonny Perdue , Georgia politician and agribusiness entrepreneur who became agriculture secretary .
He spent his 2020 like he spent the other years of his Washington stint : flattering his boss at every opportunity , and lavishing largesse on political allies while undercutting poor people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of an easy-going Southern version of the president he served so zealously .
Like Trump , he ’ s a former Democrat who ascended to political power ( in Perdue ’ s case , Georgia governor ) in a stunning 2002 upset .
As governor , from 2003 until 2011 , he celebrated the state ’ s legacy of chattel slavery—signing 2009 legislation making April “ Confederate History and Heritage Month , ” honoring the “ more than 90,000 brave men and women who served the Confederate States of America.
” He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suppression , signing into law one of the nation ’ s first “ strict ” ID laws .
Purdue ’ s voter-fraud myth turned legislation merged with another racist fantasy , also fervently indulged by Trump , that undocumented immigrants burden taxpayers by siphoning welfare benefits .
“ It is simply unacceptable for people to sneak into this country illegally on Thursday , obtain a government-issued ID on Friday , head for the welfare office on Monday , and cast a vote on Tuesday , ” he declared , backing up his false @ @ @ @ @ @ @ undocumented workers .
His anti-immigrant machinations worked all too well , creating a crippling labor shortage for Georgia ’ s immigrant-dependent farms and poultry slaughterhouses .
As governor , Perdue mastered the Trumpian strategy of using know-nothing bigotry as a beard for brazen self-dealing , sometimes involving his own family .
In 2005 , Georgia state Rep. Larry O ’ Neal—Perdue ’ s personal lawyer—managed to pass what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called a “ seemingly mundane tax bill ” that included a “ a last-minute change ” that saved the governor an estimated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2010 , at the tail end of his second term as governor , Perdue named his cousin , David Perdue—who had just stepped down as chief executive of Dollar General discount stores—to the board of the Georgia Ports Authority .
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution it was a plum post for the political novice , which he used as springboard that helped propel him to a US Senate seat in 2014 .
In this 2017 post , I recount some of the port-related shenanigans the Perdue cousins got up to together , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ David Perdue is now locked in a tight runoff election that could decide which party controls the Senate in the next Congress . )
Meanwhile , in 2020 , the pandemic ravaged meatpacking workers and put millions of out of work , causing a surge in the need for food assistance—both very much areas of concern for the agriculture department .
@ SecretarySonny ( to use his folksy Twitter handle ) stayed the course that characterized his entire time at UDSA .
The COVID-19 crisis served as yet another opportunity to promote the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impeding his pursuit of a pro-agribusiness , anti-worker agenda .
In July , with the economic fallout from the pandemic generating a massive hunger crisis , Perdue alighted in North Carolina , a key swing state , to stage a rally promoting congressionally mandated food aid as an example of the personal benevolence of Donald Trump .
The harangue , which ended with the ag secretary leading a chant of “ four more years , ” earned Perdue a knuckle-rap from the Office of Special Counsel for violating the Hatch Act , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the job .
The Perdue USDA also insisted that federally funded grocery boxes distributed by food banks contain a letter signed by Trump , touting the administration ’ s coronavirus response .
While Perdue puffed up the generosity of his boss , the USDA was busy botching the food-relief effort , awarding fat contracts to distributors ill-equipped to handle them , with the result that “ some parts of the country got a lot of food , while others got very little , ” NPR reported .
Undeterred by the pandemic-led spike in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a long-held goal : boosting work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that would eliminate food aid for at least 1.2 million people—about a third of them households containing senior citizens , nearly a quarter with children , and 11 percent with a disabled person , according to nonpartisan think tank Mathematica .
Not satisfied with fighting to take food off the tables of poor families , Perdue also set his sights on farm workers .
At the beginning of 2020 , Perdue yearned publicly for a way to cut federally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guest visas .
Then the pandemic hit , ripping through migrant farm worker communities , who toiled on with little in the way of protective gear or opportunities for social distancing .
Perdue ’ s response ?
He continued his effort to cut their wages , ultimately teaming with the Department of Labor on a rule change that will result in an aggregate wage cut worth $ 170.68 million over the next ten years—a transfer of money from low-wage workers to relatively wealthy farm owners .
Similarly , while the pandemic ravaged meatpacking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of mid-December , the ag department kept on with a trend it had started in 2019 : allowing giant poultry companies to speed up their slaughterhouse kill lines .
Faster kill lines boost packer profits even as they put already pandemic-stressed workers under greater strain , while also making proper social distancing even more difficult .
An investigation by the Food and Environment Reporting Network ’ s Leah Douglas found that at least 40 percent of chicken plants operating at the higher speeds experienced COVID outbreaks , versus 14 percent for the overall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turn , emerged as primary vectors for spreading the pathogen to surrounding communities .
The Perdue USDA ’ s largesse to large-scale farmers and agribusinesses went beyond cutting wages and protective measures for their workers .
In July , as the general election heated up , the department tapped a Depression-era funding mechanism called the Commodity Credit Corporation to come up with $ 14 billion—without having to consult Congress—to hand to producers of commodities like corn , soybeans and wheat , ostensibly for losses due to the coronavirus .
Using the CCC to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2016— is a signature move of Perdue ’ s USDA .
Citing export losses from Trump ’ s trade war with China , the USDA lavished mainly huge soybean , hog , and cotton farmers with $ 28 billion in 2018 and 2019—more than double the price tag of President Barack Obama ’ s 2009 auto bailout .
Through it all , Perdue maintained his extraordinary podcast , The Sonnyside of the Farm , a monthly testament to the genius of his boss and the glory of big agribusiness .
Launched in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ House of Representatives announced an impeachment inquiry against Trump , the show began with an appearance from Sarah Huckabee Sanders .
Entitled “ President Trump ’ s Affection for American Farmers , ” the episode featured the host and former White House press secretary competing to see who could lavish the most praise on Trump .
Was it Sanders with “ the most fun , engaging , charming , and charismatic people I ’ ve ever been around ” ?
Or Perdue ’ s observation of how Trump “ has an amazing instinctive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jury is still out .
In the podcast ’ s final episode before the election , released Oct. 29 , Perdue hosted another MAGA loyalist , the high-living former Wall Street man and TV personality Larry Kudlow , the non-economist who Trump improbably chose to lead the National Economic Council .
Kudlow used the opportunity to fluff Trump ’ s economic record .
He praised the tax cuts and the program of deregulation , which , he claimed , “ benefitted the people who needed it most , ” those “ in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s little wonder , that Trump would train his benevolence on the “ little people , ” because “ he ’ s a blue-collar guy ” who “ worked for years in the construction yards , with all kinds of folks , all colors , ” Kudlow informed Perdue ’ s listeners .
Enlivened by these bald lies , and perhaps feeling a competitive spark , Perdue replied that Trump is “ the embodiment of the amazing spirit that built this country.
” He sounded quite satisfied after a year spent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ damage to poor people and food-system workers during a deadly pandemic that the administration did so very little to control .

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Presumably, some political appointees who served in the Trump administration did so with earnest intentions, hoping to bring dignity and professionalism to the task of advancing the Republican agenda of deregulation, austerity (for non-cronies), and upward wealth redistribution. Then there were the full-on MAGA-bots like Sonny Perdue, the Georgia politician and agribusiness entrepreneur who became agriculture secretary. He spent his 2020 like he spent the other years of his Washington stint: flattering his boss at every opportunity, and lavishing largesse on political allies while undercutting poor people and food-system workers.
Perdue is a kind of an easy-going Southern version of the president he served so zealously. Like Trump, he’s a former Democrat who ascended to political power (in Perdue’s case, Georgia governor) in a stunning upset. As governor from 2003 until 2011, he celebrated the state’s legacy of chattel slavery—signing 2009 legislation making April “Confederate History and Heritage Month,” honoring the “more than 90,000 brave men and women who served the Confederate States of America.” He was an early adopter of race-motivated voter suppression, signing into law one of the nation’s first “strict” ID laws.
Purdue merged the voter-fraud myth with another racist fantasy, also fervently indulged by Trump, that undocumented immigrants burden taxpayers by siphoning welfare benefits. “It is simply unacceptable for people to sneak into this country illegally on Thursday, obtain a government-issued ID on Friday, head for the welfare office on Monday, and cast a vote on Tuesday,” he declared, backing up his rancid lies with a crackdown on undocumented people. His anti-immigrant machinations worked all too well, creating a crippling labor shortage for Georgia’s immigrant-dependent farms and poultry slaughterhouses.
As governor, Perdue mastered the Trumpian strategy of using know-nothing bigotry as a beard for brazen self-dealing, sometimes involving his own family. In 2005, Georgia state Rep. Larry O’Neal—Perdue’s personal lawyer—managed to pass what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called a “seemingly mundane tax bill” that included a “a last-minute change” that saved the governor an estimated $100,000 in state taxes.
In 2010, at the tail end of his second term as governor, Perdue named his cousin, David Perdue—who had just stepped down as chief executive of Dollar General discount stores—to the board of the Georgia Ports Authority. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , it was a plum post for the political novice, which he used as a springboard that helped propel him to a US Senate seat in 2014. In this 2017 post, I recount some of the port-related shenanigans the cousins Perdue got up to together, including launching a port-reliant export business. (David Perdue is now locked in a tight runoff election that could decide which party controls the Senate in the next Congress.)
Meanwhile, in 2020, the pandemic ravaged meatpacking workers and put millions out of work, causing a surge in the need for food assistance—both very much areas of concern for the agriculture department. @SecretarySonny (to use his folksy Twitter handle) stayed the course that characterized his entire time at UDSA. The COVID-19 crisis served as yet another opportunity to promote the political fortunes of his boss, without impeding his pursuit of a pro-agribusiness, anti-worker agenda. In July, with the economic fallout from the pandemic generating a massive hunger crisis, Perdue alighted on North Carolina, a key swing state, to stage a rally promoting congressionally mandated food aid as an example of the personal benevolence of Donald Trump. The harangue, which ended with the ag secretary leading a chant of “four more years,” earned Perdue a knuckle-rap from the Office of Special Counsel for violating the Hatch Act, which forbids government employees from campaigning while on the job. The Perdue USDA also insisted that federally funded grocery boxes distributed by food banks contain a letter signed by Trump, touting the administration’s coronavirus response.
While Perdue puffed up the generosity of his boss, the USDA was busy botching the food-relief effort.
While Perdue puffed up the generosity of his boss, the USDA was busy botching the food-relief effort, awarding fat contracts to distributors ill-equipped to handle them, with the result that “some parts of the country got a lot of food, while others got very little,” NPR reported.
Undeterred by the pandemic-led spike in hunger, Perdue also doubled- and tripled-down on a long-held goal: boosting work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that would eliminate food aid for at least 1.2 million people—about a third of them households containing senior citizens, nearly a quarter with children, and 11 percent with a disabled person, according to nonpartisan think tank Mathematica.
Not satisfied with fighting to take food off the tables of poor families, Perdue also set his sights on farm workers. At the beginning of 2020, Perdue yearned publicly for a way to cut federally mandated wages for migrant farm workers on guest visas. Then the pandemic hit, ripping through migrant farm worker communities, who toiled on with little in the way of protective gear or opportunities for social distancing. Perdue’s response? He continued his effort to cut their wages, ultimately teaming with the Department of Labor on a rule change that will result in an aggregate wage cut worth at least $170.68 million annually over the next ten years—a transfer of money from low-wage workers to relatively wealthy farm owners.
Similarly, while the pandemic savaged meatpacking workers, killing at least 563 as of mid-December, the ag department kept on with a trend it had started in 2019: allowing giant poultry companies to speed up their slaughterhouse kill lines. Faster kill lines boost packer profits even as they put already pandemic-stressed workers under greater strain, while also making proper social distancing even more difficult. An investigation by the Food and Environment Reporting Network’s Leah Douglas found that at least 40 percent of chicken plants operating at the higher speeds experienced COVID outbreaks, versus 14 percent for the overall meat sector. Coronavirus-riddled slaughterhouses, in turn, emerged as primary vectors for spreading the pathogen to surrounding communities.
The Perdue USDA’s largesse to large-scale farmers and agribusinesses went beyond cutting wages and protective measures for their workers. In July, as the general election heated up, the department tapped a Depression-era funding mechanism called the Commodity Credit Corporation to come up with $14 billion—without having to consult Congress—to hand to producers of commodities like corn, soybeans and wheat, ostensibly for losses due to the coronavirus. Using the CCC to hand billions to big farmers—major Trump supporters in 2016— is a signature move of Perdue’s USDA. Citing export losses from Trump’s trade war with China, the USDA lavished mainly huge soybean, hog, and cotton farmers with $28 billion in 2018 and 2019—more than double the price tag of President Barack Obama’s 2009 auto bailout.
Through it all, Perdue maintained his extraordinary podcast, The Sonnyside of the Farm, a monthly testament to the genius of his boss and the glory of big agribusiness.
Through it all, Perdue maintained his extraordinary podcast, The Sonnyside of the Farm, a monthly testament to the genius of his boss and the glory of big agribusiness. Launched in October 2019, a week after the House of Representatives announced an impeachment inquiry against Trump, the show began with an appearance from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Entitled “President Trump’s Affection for American Farmers,” the episode featured the host and former White House press secretary competing to see who could lavish the most praise on Trump. Sanders: “one of the the most fun, engaging, charming, and charismatic people I’ve ever been around.” Perdue: “he has an amazing instinctive ability to make decisions.”
In the podcast’s final episode before the election, released Oct. 29, Perdue hosted another MAGA loyalist, the high-living former Wall Street man and TV personality Larry Kudlow, the non-economist who Trump improbably chose to lead the National Economic Council. Kudlow used the opportunity to fluff Trump’s economic record. He praised the tax cuts and the program of deregulation, which, he claimed, “benefitted the people who needed it most,” those “in the middle, and the lower rungs.” It’s little wonder that Trump would train his benevolence on the little people, because “he’s a blue-collar guy” who “worked for years in the construction yards, with all kinds of folks, all colors,” Kudlow informed Perdue’s listeners.
Enlivened by these bald lies, and perhaps feeling a competitive spark, Perdue replied that Trump is “the embodiment of the amazing spirit that built this country.” He sounded quite satisfied after a year spent campaigning for his boss while inflicting lasting damage to poor people and food-system workers during a deadly pandemic that the administration did so very little to control.