Monthly Archives: September 2020

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

When did Bill Barr turn into Alex Jones, screaming and swearing about cabals of evil Democrats threatening to overthrow the government? Wasnt he supposed to be a starchy institutionalist whod been in DC forever and would be a steady hand on the tiller at the Justice Department?

Apparently not! Hes threatening to jail protestors, spouting nutball conspiracy theories about Democrats trying to steal the election with mail-in ballots, and all but shouting I AM THE LAW!

Okay, lets run this one down Top 6 listicle style, because thats what weve been reduced to in the hellscape that is 2020.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Barr told prosecutors on a conference call last week to prepare for protests to increase in size and intensity in the lead-up to the election.

And how should they prepare for the exercise of First Amendment-protected speech by American citizens?

By readying to file federal charges in the rare instance when protestors get violent, even when state charges might apply. Charges up to and including sedition, because throwing a Molotov cocktail at a federal courthouse is apparently the same as plotting to overthrow the government these days.

On the same call, Barr wondered if there were some way the DOJ could charge Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, who has come in for a raft of abuse from the president, for allowing a police-autonomous zone this summer. Totally normal!

Take it away, Bill Barr:

Just think about the way we vote now. You have a precinct, your name is on a list, you go in and say who you are, you go behind a curtain, no one is allowed to go in there to influence you, and no one can tell how you voted. All of that is gone with mail-in voting. Theres no secret vote. You have to associate the envelope in the mailing and the name of whos sending it in, with the ballot.

Theres no more secret vote with mail-in vote. A secret vote prevents selling and buying votes. So now were back in the business of selling and buying votes. Capricious distribution of ballots means (ballot) harvesting, undue influence, outright coercion, paying off a postman, heres a few hundred dollars, give me some of your ballots.

Literally none of this nonsense he spewed to the Chicago Tribune ever happened. Its pure fiction (Ed. Note: Indeed it is, as we discussed with Professor Rick Hasen here).

The president just spent the entire morning tweeting that theres no way he could lose unless the election is rigged, and the Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary for Public Affairs was fired yesterday for telling his supporters to buy guns and ammunition in a lunatic rant about Democratic hit squads.

There are Trump supporters telling reporters that theyll commit suicide if Biden wins in November, with one believer in the rampant pedophilia conspiracies flogged in the Trump wingnuttosphere telling Time, I would honestly try to leave the country. And if that wasnt an option, I would probably take my children and sit in the garage and turn my car on and it would be over.

But Bill Barr hasnt heard anything at all about that.

You know liberals project. All this bullshit about how the president is going to stay in office and seize power? Ive never heard of any of that crap. I mean, Im the attorney general. I would think I would have heard about it. They are projecting. They are creating an incendiary situation where there will be loss of confidence in the vote.

Someone will say the president just won Nevada. Oh, wait a minute! We just discovered 100,000 ballots! Every vote will be counted! Yeah, but we dont know where these freaking votes came from.

Bill Barr cannot abide a loss of confidence in the vote! But if the absentee ballots dont reflect the same-day vote totals, how will you know where those freaking votes come from?

Remember when Attorney General Loretta Lynch chatted with Bill Clinton for 15 minutes on an airplane tarmac, and then had to recuse herself from an entire federal investigation because the political impropriety was a major scandal?

Well, apparently, the rules are different now. Bill Barr has every right to exert political influence on prosecutions affecting the president or his friend, and anyone who suggests that an equal justice system relies on a separation of politics from law enforcement is just a whiny baby.

Name one successful organization or institution where the lowest level employees decisions are deemed sacrosanct, there arent. There arent any letting the most junior members set the agenda, Barr said during a speech yesterday at Hillsdale College. It might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it is no way to run a federal agency.

Barr went on to defend his absolute right to direct federal prosecutors to employ one standard for the presidents political allies, and one for everyone else.

These people are agents of the attorney general. As I say, FBI agents, whose agent do you think you are? And I say, What exactly am I interfering with? When you boil it right down, its the will of the most junior member of the organization who has some idea he wants to do something. What makes that sacrosanct?

In fact, Barr went so far as to say that political interference in the administration of justice isgood and proper, deriding career prosecutors whodo not have the political legitimacy to be the public face for tough decisions and they lack the political buy-in necessary to publicly defend those decisions.

Political buy-in? What the hell happened to balls and strikes?

In short, the attorney general, senior DOJ officials, and US attorneys are indeed political. But they are political in a good and necessary sense, Barr continued, doing his best Eva Peron impression.

Oh, yes, he did.

You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history.

Fred Korematsu might like a word, sir!

Almost 200,000 Americans are dead, and every day we watch other countries who buckled down and did the work returning to something like normal life. Meanwhile, the highest law enforcement officer in the land is likening routine public health measures to slavery.

Since Bill Barr is trotting out his favorite excuse for police brutality again, lets just flag it here.

Theyre not interested in Black lives, Barr said of the protestors. Theyre interested in props, a small number of Blacks who are killed by police during conflicts with police usually less than a dozen a year who they can use as props to achieve a much broader political agenda.

In point of fact, upwards of 200 Black people are shot and killed by American police every year, not less than a dozen, and African Americans are more than 2.8 times as likely to be shot by police as white people.

But Barr only counts the police shootings where the victim was unarmed. He said it in June to NPR:

Well, there are 8,000 Blacks who are killed every year. Eighty-five percent of them are killed by gunshots. Virtually all of those are Blacks on Blacks. I think that there are a number of the statistics on police shootings of unarmed, unarmed individuals are not skewed toward the African American. There are many whites who are shot unarmed by police.

And he said it again in September to CNN:

I think the narrative that the police are on some, you know, epidemic of shooting unarmed Black men is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that thats based on race. The fact of the matter is very rare for an unarmed African American to be shot by a white police officer.

If the Second Amendment guarantees Americans the right to possess automatic weapons, then why does the mere presence of a knife in the possession of a Black person justify his execution by the police?

Yeah, hes off the rails. Bugf*ck insane. Were fast approaching rubber room territory. Its a problem.

Barr Tells Prosecutors to Consider Charging Violent Protesters With Sedition [WSJ]Column: AG Bill Barr says federal corruption hunters never at a loss for work in Chicago [Chicago Tribune]Remarks by Attorney General William P. Barr at Hillsdale College Constitution Day Event [DOJ]

Elizabeth Dye (@5DollarFeminist) lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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Sorry To Interrupt Your Pumpkin Spice Latte, But The Attorney General Has LOST HIS DAMN MIND - Above the Law

As the presidential race enters its final weeks, President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden both hope to compel voters to the polls by drawing contrasts with their opponent, swapping barbs intended to paint the other as unfit. Most politicians draw the line at trash talk, recognizing that seeming too divisive could hamper their efforts to appeal to as many voters as they can. Trump, however, is known for harsher rhetoric, for instance labeling former President Barack Obama a traitor and criticizing supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement as terrorists. His goal appears to be rallying his ardent backers instead of widening his support.

Making oneself odious to most of society, as in gettinga gang tattoo, is known as costly signal deployment. Professor Joshua D. Greene 97, an experimental psychologist who studies the scientific underpinnings of moral judgments and decision-making, spoke with the Gazette via email about the likely rationale behind such a strategy, and what has changed since his acclaimed 2013 bookMoral Tribes: Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them.

GAZETTE: Both Biden and Trump have framed the 2020 election as an existential choice between a dark, corrupt, and dangerous dystopia brought about by their opponent and the halcyon world they promise to deliver. Its The Soul of America or Trumps America. How do peoples natural impulses to want to be winners, or the party in power, versus those who believe its important to be part of a majority, or on the right side of history, complicate this election?

GREENE: Complicate is a major understatement. The great innovation of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power deciding things by vote rather than by violence. But that requires a shared willingness to accept some big political losses. That shared commitment to living by the vote is under grave threat. But the threat is not symmetrical, and we should avoid the mistake of false equivalence.Trump has been actively undermining the democratic process since before he was elected in 2016. In 2016 he would not commit to accepting the outcome of the election if he were to lose. And even after the election he did not accept that he lost the popular vote,claimingwithout evidence that millions of fraudulent ballots were cast for his opponent. His view is Either I win, or its fraud. And this view is endorsed by a large number of Republicans.

Neither Biden nor other prominent Democrats have done anything like this. Biden and the Democrats are not making baseless claims about voter fraud in order to discredit their electoral losses. Whats new in the Trump era is not that both sides strongly preferwinning to losing. Its that the President himself is using systematic misinformation, the solicitation of foreign interference, threats of violence, and his power over government agencies (most notably the Postal Service) in order to disrupt the democratic process. And to the extent that the Democrats are worried about a second Trump term, its because they understand the stakes.

GAZETTE: In a recent New York Times piece, you are quoted calling Trump an expert at saying what his supporters want to hear, and you described his deliberately provocative and divisive remarks as performing a function similar to gang tattoos. Can you explain what you meant, and what are some examples of signaling that Trump and Biden have used so far in their campaigns?

GREENE: Trump isnt merely saying things that his base likes to hear. All politicians do that, and to the extent that they can do so honestly, thats exactly what they are supposed to do. But Trump does more than this in his use of costly signals. A tattoo is a costly signal. You can tell your romantic partner that you love them, but theres nothing stopping you from changing your mind the next day. But if you get a tattoo of your partners name, youve sent a much stronger signal about how committed you are. Likewise, a gang tattoo binds you to the gang, especially if its in a highly visible place such as the neck or the face. It makes you scary and unappealing to most people, limiting your social options, and thus, binding you to the gang. Trumps blatant bigotry, misogyny, and incitements to violence make him completely unacceptable to liberals and moderates. And, thus, his comments function like gang tattoos. Hes not merely saying things that his supporters want to hear. By making himself permanently and unequivocally unacceptable to the opposition, hes proving his loyalty to their side. This is why, I think, the Republican base trusts Trump like no other.

There is costly signaling on the left, but its not coming from Biden, who is trying to appeal to as many voters as possible. Bernie Sanders is a better example. Why does Bernie Sanders call himself a socialist? What he advocates does not meet thetraditional dictionary definition of socialism. And politicians in Europe who hold similar views typically refer to themselves as social democrats rather than democratic socialists. Socialism has traditionally been a scare word in American politics. Conservatives use it as an epithet to describe policies such as the Affordable Care Act, which, ironically, is very much a market-oriented approach to achieving universal health insurance. Its puzzling, then, that a politician would choose to describe himself with a scare word when he could accurately describe his views withless-scary words. But it makes sense if one thinks of this as a costly signal. By calling himself a socialist, Sanders makes it very clear where his loyalty lies, as vanishingly few Republicans would support someone who calls himself a socialist.

GAZETTE: Bidens frequent references to the loss of his first wife and daughter and to his early career in Congress as a single dad widower are intended to highlight his character and relatability to working parents. And yet, these tragic experiences are fairly uncommon and may suggest to some who cannot relate to them that perhaps Biden is different from them or, worse, may instill the idea that because Biden suffered emotional trauma, he would be a problematic leader. Are those examples of costly signals?

GREENE: I would not characterize those as costly signals. A costly signal is not any signal about a cost that one has paid. And it is not just any case of signaling. A costly signal in the relevant sense is a signal that demonstrates ones commitment (or other valued trait) through the paying of a cost. Biden has presumably suffered greatly as a result of his personal losses, but the fact that hes suffered those losses and is willing to talk about them does nothing to demonstrate (or undermine) his commitment to his political team. It may make him a more sympathetic, relatable, or otherwise appealing person, but in sending these messages he is, again, saying things that he hopes will appeal to both sides. By contrast, when Trump leads chants of Lock her up and makes vague comments about how maybe the Second Amendment people can do something about Hillary Clinton if she becomes president, hes not attempting to broaden his appeal. He is bonding with his base by saying things that are completely unacceptable to liberals and moderates, and thus demonstrating that he will never betray them, never change sides.

In short, if youre saying broadly appealing things without giving something up, without limiting your options,youre not sending costly signals. If youre saying things that prove your loyalty to Us by making yourself completely unacceptable to Them, then you are sending costly signals.

GAZETTE: How effective is costly signal deployment, and what are the potential harms? It used to be thought that winning in politics was about expanding appeal, not narrowing it. Dont Us versus Them ultimatums based on political ideology, race, class, religion, education, etc., drive away all but extremists?

GREENE: Yes, its absolutely a problem. For Republicans, its an inter-party problem: Youre either for Trump or against him, and theres nothing in between. The Republican Party has exiled or subdued pretty much all non-Trumpy Republican politicians. For Democrats, its an intra-party problem: If youre not sufficiently progressive, then youre as bad as Trump.

GAZETTE: Whats changed since you wrote Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them, and how?

GREENE: Conservatives and Republicans have traditionally characterized themselves as champions of limited government and individual freedom, as well as champions of traditional values, such as honesty and commitment to community and family. In Moral Tribes, I took a different view:

In sum, American social conservatives are not best described as people who place special value on authority, sanctity, and loyalty, but rather as tribal loyalists loyal to their own authorities, their own religion, and themselves. This doesnt make them evil, but it does make them parochial, tribal. In this theyre akin to the worlds other socially conservative tribes, from the Taliban in Afghanistan to European nationalists.

Back in 2013, the idea that the Republican Party was the party of American nationalism was not so obvious. Now, its pretty obvious. Indeed, Trump hascalled himself a nationalist, something that prominent politicians did not do before Trump.

This interview was lightly edited for clarity and length.

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A look at how Trump's pointed rhetoric binds him to his tribe and it to him - Harvard Gazette

With the presidential debate right around the corner on September 29, the SIU community discussed their political leanings, thoughts on public policy and opinions on the presidential candidates.

Partisan divisions seem to be greater than ever, yet individuals on the left and right found some common ground.

Scott McClurg, a political science and journalism professor at SIU, identified the most important issues to people on both sides of the political spectrum.

The most important issues to Democrats are race relations, COVID-19, health care, immigration, McClurg said.

McClurg said younger generations with left leaning values tend to focus on environmental issues regarding climate change, and social justice issues like LGBTQ rights, and police brutality.

Conservatives are an interesting case. They care about economic freedom, immigration and the idea of America First, McClurg said. The President talks a lot about relations with other countries.

McClurg said younger generations with right political leaning tend to focus on second amendment rights, and pro-life candidates.

Emily Caminiti, the chair of Young Democratic Socialists of America at SIU, defines her political beliefs as achieving the end of capitalism through electoral means.

Caminiti said prominent figures in the Democratic Socialist party have tried and failed to get into the electoral system, citing Bernie Sanders who ran in the Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses in 2016 and 2020.

Social democracy is the main focus of Democratic Socialism, Caminiti said.

Zachary Meyer J.D, former candidate for state representative and SIU Law school alumnus, aligns his views within the lens of the Republican party.

Being a Republican is a core focus on our individual freedoms without extensive government involvement in our day to day lives, Meyer said.

Caminiti and Meyer shared their opinions on the platforms of the Republican and Democratic presidential election candidates.

I believe that President Trump has been doing a tremendous job. He has passed many bills that have helped everyday citizens, Meyer said.

Meyer said Trump has made astounding accomplishments despite the ridicule he has received throughout his presidency.

The President passed criminal justice reform. He is hoping to secure our borders to help make sure that the American citizens are safe, Meyer said.

Meyer said Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris present issues politically.

Kamala Harrris record as a prosecutor is concerning to me with her withholding evidence. I believe Joe Biden wont be able to make the full term if he is elected as president, Meyer said.

Caminiti isnt satisfied with either of the presidential candidates.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence are horrible human beings, Caminiti said.

However, Caminiti found Biden and Harris to be inadequate Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Neither Biden nor Harris align with my own values. Im willing to vote for them just to get rid of Trump, Caminiti said.

When it comes to mail-in voting due to COVID-19 Caminiti and Meyer are on different sides of the spectrum.

During the Illinois primary, a lot of cases were tied to people going into vote. Its safer to vote by mail and it should be expanded, Caminiti said.

Meyer said mail-in voting can present multiple issues when it comes to voting on time.

Mail-in voting can be delayed, lost in transit, or delivered to the wrong address, Meyer said. The best and safest way to ensure that your vote is recorded is to vote in person.

Caminiti said Trumps handling of the COVID-19 pandemic reflects poorly on the nation as a whole.

State governors did what they could when it comes to COVID-19 without a coherent federal response, Caminiti said.

Caminiti said unemployment protections will soon run out.

We couldve had a rent and utilities freeze so everybody could self isolate while this happened. Trumps response to the coronavirus could be called a crime against humanity, Caminiti said.

Meyer said new information comes out everyday about the virus so the federal government is unsure what steps to take to keep everyone safe.

If you look at the statistics, suicides have skyrocketed, and many businesses will not be able to recover, Meyer said.

As a small business owner Meyer said he believes businesses should have been allowed to be open since the beginning of the pandemic.

Small businesses are the backbone of this nation, especially in small areas like Southern Illinois. It should be up to the business owners if they want to close; they should not be held hostage by the government, Meyer said.

Caminiti and Meyer both value policy surrounding the economy but their means to an end differ.

Caminiti said the economy greatly matters to younger generations because these generational cohorts will have to deal with bad economic conditions in the future.

We are expected to have less money than our parents did and possibly shorter lives because of the health effects of poverty, Caminiti said.

Meyer, on the other hand, said the economy has recovered over the past four years as a result of Trumps presidency.

Jobs are coming back, the economy and all the markets are at a record high, Meyer said.

Caminiti said the companies need for profit above all else is not sustainable, especially from an environmental perspective.

These fossil fuel companies are responsible for all the climate denialists around now. They consistently muddied the waters about this so that they could keep making money, Caminiti said.

Meyer said there is no science to tell what will happen as a result of a changing climate.

The earth has its cycles. Its something that is changing and should be addressed but there are ways that it must be done to ensure that were not destroying our economy and the livelihoods of people who are alive today, Meyer said.

Caminiti and Meyer voiced their opinions on current social justice movements like Black Lives Matter.

Caminiti is in support of the movement, massive police reform and defunding the police.

I want that money to be reallocated to things that address the cause of crime like poverty, mental health centers, education, just community resources, Caminiti said.

Meyer stands behind peaceful protests in cities across the United States.

I support police officers but I do not support murderers. The right to protest and have free speech is something that makes America great, Meyer said.

Meyer said we should increase funding of police departments.

We need to ensure officers have more training, and put more officers on the street to receive backup, Meyer said.

Clashes between opposing groups at Black Lives Matter protests have also amplified conversations of gun control and the 2nd amendment.

There should be more measures of record keeping when it comes to guns. I do not want to ban them completely but there should be a reduction in the types of weapons that we use, Caminiti said.

As a strong supporter of the 2nd amendment, Meyer said Americans stand at risk of losing our nation without gun use.

Tuition for collegiate education is another issue that is splitting the polls. According to Bernie Sanders campaign platform, Sanders proposed to cancel all student loan debt for the some 45 million Americans who owe about $1.6 trillion and place a cap on student loan interest rates going forward at 1.88 percent.

In 2018, the Young Democratic Socialists of America at SIU launched a petition to end student debt and make SIU tuition free.

People are often deterred by the cost [of higher education] and get stuck in low wage jobs that they are not passionate about, Caminiti said.

Meyer is opposed to making college tuition free.

There will be an influx of people and the degree will become worthless. It will drive down salaries because of supply and demand. It reduces the value of the degree, Meyer said.

One thing Caminiti, Meyer and McClurg can all agree upon is the power of voting.

Caminiti gave a message to younger voters who might opt out of voting in local, state and federal elections.

I understand they feel dejected and broken down but there are local issues that are important, Caminiti said.

Meyer said regardless of political affiliation all citizens who can vote should.

They need to make sure they are informed on what ballot initiatives there are, what the candidates stand for and try to get involved as much as possible with politics and voting. No one should go in there blindly, Meyer said.

McClurg said if young people opt out of voting they will make no impact at all.

Individual people dont change things, groups of people do, were all part of a group. As young people they can be very important, McClurg said.

Reporter Oreoluwa Ojewuyi can be reached at [emailprotected] or on twitter @odojewuyi.

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If you don't participate you have no impact at all: Politically active community members discuss the 2020 presidential election - Daily Egyptian