05 June 20
David Sirota | In America, the Rich Get Immunity. The Rest of Us Get "Law and Order"
David Sirota, Jacobin
Excerpt: "America is a country that eagerly hands out get-out-of-jail-free cards to the rich and powerful, and rubber bullets, tear gas, and jail sentences to the rest. The protesters on the street this weekend were trying to change that."
David Sirota, Jacobin
Excerpt: "America is a country that eagerly hands out get-out-of-jail-free cards to the rich and powerful, and rubber bullets, tear gas, and jail sentences to the rest. The protesters on the street this weekend were trying to change that."
EXCERPTS:
ne of the crown jewels of the Constitution is the Fourteenth Amendment — which promises that there will be “equal protection” for all people under our laws. And yet we all know this is a farce. In America, we routinely offer legal immunity to the rich and powerful, while giving the iron fist to everyone else. It is an ugly dichotomy we don’t talk much about — but it has been on display during this past week of protests roiling cities across the country.
Take the events that transpired in New York. There, the government deployed law enforcement to conduct mass arrests of protesters, and also to run them over and violently attack them in the name of “law and order.” At the same time, the government granted health care executives legal immunity for their profit-maximizing decisions that may have contributed to the deaths of thousands of people in nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic.
In Washington, it’s the same thing. We have a president who tweets about “law and order” literally at the same time his party is pushing a proposal that would shield corporate executives and prevent them from being held liable for endangering their workers during the COVID-19 emergency.
Those new liability protections would be in addition to the de facto immunity he’s already giving his corporate friends: indeed, at a time when the Trump administration has dramatically increased immigration prosecutions, it has driven prosecutions of white-collar and environmental crimes to historic lows. That was an extension of trends that started under Obama, who increased immigration deportations and cracked down on whistleblowers while reducing white-collar prosecutions.
The result of all this was summarized by former labor secretary Robert Reich: “More peaceful protesters and journalists have been jailed in the past week than all the bankers who were jailed for fraud during the financial collapse.”
Police Get “Qualified Immunity,” Trump Shuts Down Anti-Brutality Initiative, States Pass Anti-Protest Laws
Not surprisingly, this dichotomy extends to the realm of criminal justice and civil liberties. Our legal system now grants “qualified immunity” to police officers and public officials when they violate Americans’ constitutional rights.
As law enforcement brutality has been getting worse in recent years, Trump shut down the Justice Department’s initiative to scrutinize local police conduct — and then he made it even easier for local police departments to obtain excess military weaponry. He did this at the very same time research has shown a link between police violence and the increased use of the Pentagon program that provides arms to local law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in at least six states have offered legislation in recent years to protect people who run over protesters — a move that was all too common this weekend. Some of the measures had support from local police unions and associations.
For everyone else, it has been the opposite of immunity — Republican politicians who so often pretend to be defenders of liberty are now offering dissenters new “tough on crime” bills to try to criminalize protest.
From 2015 to 2019, there were 116 bills introduced in state legislatures to restrict the right to protest, and fifteen states passed those restrictions into law, according to a new report from PEN America, a journalism advocacy group. This is a new phenomenon — before Trump took office, there were almost no such state initiatives.
The report notes that the laws reflect the selective use of “law and order” — they deliver harsher punishment to protesters while limiting “the liability of public or private actors for harm caused to protesters” and creating “carve-outs for law enforcement action against protesters.”
Immunity Is Now Baked Into Our Political Culture
Immunity for the powerful, crackdowns against the people — this discrepancy is now baked into our laws and embedded in our political culture itself. And that’s not only the fault of politicians — it is our fault, too, because our elections and culture tend to reward it.
George W. Bush lied us into a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, and yet he is routinely treated as a lovable, statesman-like figure. Donald Trump scammed investors and bilked vendors — and he was rewarded by being elected president.
Trump’s likely general election opponent, Joe Biden, authored the crime bill (and still defends it), helped Republicans pass the bankruptcy bill, and helped Bush lead America into the Iraq War — and he was rewarded first by being named vice president, and then by being given the Democratic presidential nomination. His campaign is being advised by Rahm Emanuel, who remains at the highest reaches of Democratic politics even after having left public office in disgrace after his administration covered up video of police murdering a teenager.
Meanwhile, the same Democratic Party tried to throw Bernie Sanders off the New York ballot, works to crush progressive primary campaigns, and threatens to blacklist consultants who work for grassroots candidates who dare to run against corrupt incumbents — while party operatives are apparently permitted to work for corporate interests that attack the party’s candidates.
None of this is an anomaly. This is what America is: a place that eagerly gives out get-out-of-jail-free cards to the powerful, while meting out harsh punishment to everyone else.
The question now is whether we can imagine a society that is different?
Can we imagine a legal system that punishes police violence and bigotry, repeals doctrines like “qualified immunity,” and protects the right to peaceably protest?
Can we imagine an economy that protects fleeced homeowners and impoverished renters from draconian bankruptcy laws, and instead deploys the iron first of law enforcement against the actual looters who are pillaging our communities — the politicians, lobbyists, and corporate CEOs who just stole $4 trillion from the public treasury?
Can we imagine a political system that holds elected officials accountable for their crimes, and empowers the leaders who are trying to fix the system?
In other words: Can we imagine a better America?
Many of our politicians clearly can’t — this is the world they have deliberately constructed, and they are perfectly happy to sit in their fortified bunkers as the world burns.
But the peaceful protesters braving threats of retribution and violence suggest at least some can still imagine that better world. Now it’s up to all of us to create it.
Authorities clear Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., on Monday, while across the street at the White House, President Trump said he would send the military to U.S. cities if local officials don't end unrest. (photo: Alex Brandon/AP)
Trump Shares Letter That Calls Peaceful Protesters 'Terrorists'
Paul LeBlanc, CNN
LeBlanc writes: "President Donald Trump on Thursday shared a letter on Twitter that referred to the peaceful protesters who were forcibly dispersed from a park near the White House on Monday evening as 'terrorists.'"
Paul LeBlanc, CNN
LeBlanc writes: "President Donald Trump on Thursday shared a letter on Twitter that referred to the peaceful protesters who were forcibly dispersed from a park near the White House on Monday evening as 'terrorists.'"
The letter from veteran attorney and former Trump lawyer John Dowd appears to be addressed to former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and rebuts Mattis' Wednesday statement castigating Trump's response to the nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
"The phony protesters near Lafayette were not peaceful and are not real," Dowd's letter claimed, without citing any evidence. "They are terrorists using idle hate filled students to burn and destroy. They were abusing and disrespecting the police when the police were preparing the area for the 1900 curfew."
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the description of the protesters as "terrorists."
The President's decision to share the letter and its shocking description of Americans exercising their constitutional rights comes as he continues to lean into his strongman approach to the ongoing demonstrations. On Monday, he declared himself "your President of law and order" as the peaceful protesters just outside the White House gates were dispersed with gas, flash bangs and rubber bullets, apparently so he could visit a nearby church.
He remained at the boarded-up building, brandishing a Bible for the cameras, for only a matter of minutes before returning to the White House.
The letter drew condemnation from the Modern Military Association of America, a nonprofit organization for the LGBTQ military and veteran community.
"Donald Trump just crossed a very serious line that demands swift and forceful condemnation by every Member of Congress," said the group's interim executive director, Air Force veteran Jennifer Dane. "Promoting a letter that labels American citizens peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights as 'terrorists' is an egregious breach of his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Now more than ever, it is absolutely crucial that Trump be held accountable for his reckless actions."
The episode followed nearly a week of protests across the country that at times have turned violent over the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis.
In response to the President's approach, Mattis released a statement Wednesday cautioning that the US "must reject any thinking of our cities as a 'battlespace' that our uniformed military is called upon to 'dominate.' "
"At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society," Mattis wrote.
The President has repeatedly defended his response to the protests and even tweeted later Thursday evening that he didn't have a problem with the National Guard helicopter that was seen flying low over protesters in Washington on Monday night.
The District of Columbia National Guard is investigating the matter and an inquiry has also been requested by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
"The problem is not the very talented, low-flying helicopter pilots wanting to save our city, the problem is the arsonists, looters, criminals, and anarchists, wanting to destroy it (and our Country)!" Trump tweeted.
The helicopter had a "stated mission" in part to "deter" criminal activity including rioting and looting by keeping a presence overhead, according to a defense official who has direct knowledge of the orders the crew was given. The official declined to be identified because the Washington National Guard is now investigating whether flights were conducted appropriately.
The Lakota UH-72 was also supposed to also deter "unlawful assembly," provide medical evacuation from the crowd if needed and provide surveillance to command and control for force protection, the official said.
The investigation, the official said, is focusing on how those orders resulted in the low-level flights, which sent debris flying and intimidated civilians, the official said.
Protesters link arms near the makeshift memorial in honor of George Floyd on June 1 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., many wearing masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. (photo: AFP)
Black Lives Matter Is Suing Trump and the Federal Government Over Force Used Against Protesters Outside the White House
Zoe Tillman, BuzzFeed
Tillman writes: "The DC chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing federal law enforcement officers of violating the constitutional rights of peaceful demonstrators who were forcibly cleared from a park north of the White House so President Donald Trump could walk through for a photo op earlier this week."
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Zoe Tillman, BuzzFeed
Tillman writes: "The DC chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing federal law enforcement officers of violating the constitutional rights of peaceful demonstrators who were forcibly cleared from a park north of the White House so President Donald Trump could walk through for a photo op earlier this week."
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Voters cast ballots at a polling location in Washington, D.C., on June 2, 2020. (photo: Andrew Harrer/Getty)
Insurgent Progressive Candidates Scored Big Victories in Down-Ballot Elections This Week
Ryan Grim, Aída Chávez and Akela Lacy, The Intercept
Excerpt: "From New Mexico to Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., progressive challengers to Democratic incumbents scored a series of victories on Tuesday night, continuing to grind out an insurgency that in just a few years has dramatically reshaped the politics of the Democratic Party."
Ryan Grim, Aída Chávez and Akela Lacy, The Intercept
Excerpt: "From New Mexico to Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., progressive challengers to Democratic incumbents scored a series of victories on Tuesday night, continuing to grind out an insurgency that in just a few years has dramatically reshaped the politics of the Democratic Party."
In the wake of Bernie Sanders’s surge and then rapid collapse in the Democratic presidential primary, speculation about the demise of the progressive wing of the party, and a dismissal of the entire idea of organizing as a means toward power has been rampant, but leftist candidates at the local level continue to notch the kind of victories that force incumbents to pay attention.
In Pennsylvania, a progressive force has been coalescing since the election of President Donald Trump in November 2016, with radical activists allying with what’s become known as “the resistance” in a way that has gone smoother than elsewhere in the country. That alliance has meant that many of the same forces have organized both victories at the ballot box and street demonstrations, in both major cities and small towns.
Organizers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, launched Lancaster Stands Up in the days after Trump’s victory and have gone on to block the privatization of local prison services, elect allies to council and school board seats, win a Democratic congressional nomination and, in recent days, put together the largest street protests in the city’s modern memory. The model has gone statewide, with an umbrella organization, Pennsylvania Stand Up, of nine chapters, including Eerie Stands Up, Lehigh Valley Stands Up, and others. Another of its chapters, Reclaim Philadelphia, is an effort by local activists, with help from the Working Families Party, to take back control of the city from establishment Democrats with ties to real estate developers and major corporate players.
That effort got a major boost Tuesday night, when insurgent Nikil Saval, a co-founder of Reclaim Philadelphia, knocked off longtime incumbent state Sen. Larry Farnese, who had held the seat since 2008. For the previous 30 years, it had been held by a legendary South Philly politician, Vincent Fumo, who took over the seat when the incumbent went to prison for corruption. Fumo, likewise, left the seat for prison. For the left to claim Fumo’s seat is a major symbolic victory in a closely watched contest.
[LARRY FARNESE IS A DEMOCRAT]
Rick Krajewski, another Reclaim organizer running in a competitive West/Southwest Philly House district against a more moderate opponent, has a solid chance of winning. (WFP did not endorse either Krajewski or Saval.) Krajewski won a late endorsement from Sanders, and he told The Intercept on Wednesday he had expected to be trailing slightly among in-person votes, and to make it up with mail-in ballots, as his was the only campaign to organize a robust mail operation. But instead, with 5,500 ballots counted, Krajewski is leading by 4 percentage points among in-person votes, with roughly 7,000 mail-in ballots still to be counted.
Progressives also rallied around Nydea Graves, who ran for a Coatesville City Council seat and ousted an incumbent in a special election. Coatesville, in Chester County, is roughly the midpoint between Lancaster City and Philadelphia, and Graves is a leader of the local Chester County Stands Up chapter.
The left is also threatening to expand on gains it made in hotly contested city council races last year. Councilwoman Kendra Brooks won in 2019 with the backing of Reclaim Philadelphia and the Working Families Party, making inroads into the type of working-class, predominantly black neighborhoods where the left has struggled to gain traction in the past — a failure that is used to undercut the left’s claim to legitimately represent a broad, multicultural working-class movement. Brooks’s ally, Pastor Nicolas O’Rourke, lost a city council race the same year but went on to become Pennsylvania organizing director for the WFP. Brooks and O’Rourke teamed up to help 25-year-old Bernard Williams win the nomination for the area’s state House seat. A win would give the insurgent left deeper inroads in the area, solidifying Brooks’s victory; as of Wednesday afternoon, Williams trailed by a single percentage point among in-person votes, but mail-in ballots could push him to the top.
The left also appears to have taken out one-time progressive champion state Sen. Daylin Leach, the subject of a slew of sexual misconduct and harassment allegations. As of Wednesday afternoon, WFP-backed Amanda Cappelletti had a comfortable lead.
Progressive Jessica Benham is also leading in a state House race against Ed Moeller, a conservative, anti-choice member of the Democratic establishment who had the backing of the Fraternal Order of Police in this Pittsburgh-area contest.
And Emily Kinkead is leading incumbent state Rep. Adam Ravenstahl, brother of the former mayor of Pittsburgh. Kinkead is allied with democratic socialist state Reps. Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato, who were first elected in 2018, and will grow their power once she arrives in Harrisburg. Innamorato was unopposed in her primary this cycle, while the party establishment came hard for Lee in her race, but she crushed her opponent, leading by more than 50 percentage points, with votes still to be counted.
[ Adam Ravenstahl is a DEMOCRAT]
Voters in Washington, D.C., also pushed the city council to the left, with an insurgent victory in Ward 4 by former D.C. assistant attorney general Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist, against incumbent Brandon Todd. Ward 4 covers some gentrifying neighborhoods as well as historically middle-class black neighborhoods; George performed best in the gentrifying areas, as many left insurgents do, but she also won convincingly across the ward, which has for years been represented by business-friendly candidates. That includes Adrian Fenty, who went on to become mayor and left a handpicked successor, Muriel Bowser, in his place. When Bowser ascended to mayor, she tapped Todd for the seat. George was helped by a large coalition — stretching from WFP to Democratic Socialists of America — that included an independent progressive city councilwoman, Elissa Silverman, who was first elected at-large in 2014 and fended off a well-financed challenge from the city’s developers in 2018 to hold her seat. The developers’ failure to take out Silverman, followed by their defeat at the hands of her ally, George, signals a shift in the city’s local politics.
In Iowa, leftist candidate J.D. Scholten is once again the Democratic nominee in the 4th Congressional District, following an uncontested primary in the race to replace Rep. Steve King. The incumbent Republican and white supremacist lost his seat by more than 9 percentage points during yesterday’s Republican primary. King, who has a long history of saying and doing racist things, narrowly defeated Scholten in 2018 with a margin of 3 percentage points. King, who has been in Congress since 2003, was censured by his colleagues in the House and stripped of committee assignments over comments defending white supremacy. His overt racism has put what used to be a solidly Republican seat at risk, and he was defeated by state Sen. Randy Feesntra, who has the backing of President Donald Trump. Scholten, whose platform includes Medicare for All, breaking up big agriculture and supporting small farmers to build a sustainable rural economy, and workers’ bargaining rights, will face off against Feenstra in November.
In New Mexico, an all-women slate of progressives challenged five recalcitrant incumbents under the banner of a coalition dubbed “No Corporate Democrats.” Four of the five women ousted long-serving members of the state Senate who had stood in the way of the progressive agenda for years in this deep blue state. Another allied progressive, who wasn’t officially part of the coalition, unseated an anti-choice Democrat. The defeated incumbents include state Senate leadership figures.
Eric Griego, New Mexico state director for the Working Families Party, which had backed the progressives, said their victories are the “last gasp” of the moderate, corporate wing of the party on a state and local level. He noted that these victories build on the gains progressives made in the 2018 wave elections, when one of the longest-serving members of the state House of Representatives, conservative Democrat Debbie Rodella, was defeated by Susan Herrera.
“With them gone, we think this is going to open up a lot of really, really monumental legislation that the state has needed for generations,” Griego said. The progressives’ priorities include fully funding early childhood programs, releasing the state’s dependence on oil and gas, and repealing an arcane law that criminalizes abortion, he added. “The other really big one is potentially expanding the social safety net whether it’s healthcare or childhood education.”
An unprecedented number of absentee ballots has led to delays, so the votes are still being counted, but the Working Families Party declared victory in all five races Wednesday afternoon.
Siah Correa Hemphill, an educator and school psychologist, won overwhelmingly in District 28, unseating state Sen. Gabe Ramos. In District 38, Carrie Hamblen, a pioneer in New Mexico’s fight for LGBTQ rights and marriage equality, is locked in a tight race against Senate President Pro Tempore Mary Kay Papen. Ballots are still being counted in the extremely close race, with Hamblen leading by about 139 votes as of Wednesday afternoon.
In District 35, Neomi Martinez-Parra has a nearly 10 percentage point lead over state Sen. John Arthur Smith, who has been in office since 1989 and serves as the head of the Senate Finance Committee. Pam Cordova, a retired educator, also appears to be on track to victory, leading state Sen. Clemente Sanchez by over 1,000 votes, as of Wednesday morning. Cordova was backed by local labor groups and unions, EMILY’s List, and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich.
Noreen Kelly, a Navajo elder and environmental activist who ran with No Corporate Democrats, is the only candidate on the slate who lost. She jumped in late in the race, formally launching in March, and struggled to get her campaign off the ground.
Leo Jaramillo, chair of the Rio Arriba County Commission, wasn’t officially on the No Corporate Democrat slate, but his victory is being celebrated by the Working Families Party and other allied progressive groups. Jaramillo defeated five-term incumbent state Sen. Richard Martinez, an anti-choice lawmaker who was also one of four Democrats to vote against New Mexico’s “red-flag” gun law, in District 5. The embattled state senator had faced calls to step down after being convicted and jailed for drunk driving last year. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked Martinez to resign from his seat, saying he was “obligated to reflect on his actions and how best to reconcile them with his position as a public servant in the state Legislature, in particular his status as chairman of an influential committee,” but no personal reckoning had taken place.
Oil and gas companies, which wield enormous influence over the state’s budget and politicians, pumped at least $1 million into New Mexico’s state Senate races, including Chevron Oil spending $700,000 in support of the incumbents. But some of the challengers, like Jaramillo and Correa Hemphill, had garnered broader coalitions of support across the progressive wing of the party and with top Democrats like Lujan Grisham and Heinrich. To help boost the candidates, the WFP joined other groups in making tens of thousands of calls, sending out mail, and investing in radio and texting.
The No Corporate Democrats coalition was modeled after New York’s No IDC coalition, which in 2018 unseated conservative Democrats who were allied with Republicans, known as the Independent Democratic Conference. Progressives in New Mexico were tasked with the challenge of branding incumbents that work with Republicans, Griego said. Despite pushing candidates in a few risky, tough races, the coalition, which included reproductive rights groups, environmental groups, and the nonprofit organization OLÉ, pulled it off.
A recent report from the Treasury Inspectory General found that over 850,000 wealthy Americans failed to pay their taxes. (photo: iStock)
IRS Fails to Pursue Thousands of Rich Tax Cheats, Watchdog Says
Laura Davison, Bloomberg
Davison writes: "The Internal Revenue Service is letting hundreds of thousands of high-income individuals duck their tax obligations, according to a government watchdog report."
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Laura Davison, Bloomberg
Davison writes: "The Internal Revenue Service is letting hundreds of thousands of high-income individuals duck their tax obligations, according to a government watchdog report."
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Princess Basmah at a discussion on the role of women in the Middle East at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., on April 12, 2017. (photo: Mandel Ngan/Getty)
Family Fears Grow for Activists Detained in Notorious Saudi Prison
Ruth Michaelson and Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Relatives of prisoners held in a sprawling complex outside Riyadh say they fear prison conditions and denial of medical treatment are risking the lives of detainees including members of the Saudi royal family."
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Ruth Michaelson and Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Relatives of prisoners held in a sprawling complex outside Riyadh say they fear prison conditions and denial of medical treatment are risking the lives of detainees including members of the Saudi royal family."
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A wild elephant on the road in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand, in November. (photo: Adam Dean/The New York Times)
Elephants, Long Endangered by Crowds in Thailand, Reclaim a National Park
Hannah Beech and Muktita Suhartono, The New York Times
Excerpt: "For as long as the elephants could remember - and that is a long time - the path to the river snaked down the hillside through jungle so dense a troop of pachyderms could simply vanish."
Hannah Beech and Muktita Suhartono, The New York Times
Excerpt: "For as long as the elephants could remember - and that is a long time - the path to the river snaked down the hillside through jungle so dense a troop of pachyderms could simply vanish."
Tourist trails helped push elephants to their deaths in Thailand’s oldest nature preserve. The coronavirus lockdown is allowing them to roam freely again.
But about three decades ago, humans decided they, too, wanted to get to the river, to gaze at the waterfalls that cascaded into the Khao Yai National Park in central Thailand. The humans paved over part of the elephants’ trail with cement. They built toilets and snack kiosks.
The elephants, though, still needed to reach the river. They hewed close to the old route, the one imprinted on generations of pachyderm brains, but not so close that the day-trippers, with their picnics of sticky rice and grilled pork, would see them.
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