The Ugly Historical Echoes of Kennedy’s Comments on Autism

By Jessica Grose Opinion Writer in the NYT (thanks to Ed M)

Last week Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held his first news briefing as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to address a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about rates of autism among children in the United States.

He used the opportunity to spread falsehoods. Kennedy claimed that “studying genetic causes” of autism is a “dead end.” That’s because “we know it’s environmental exposure. Genes do not cause epidemics,” he continued. While there may be environmental factors that contribute to autism, my newsroom colleagues point out, “scientists have known since the 1970s that genetics contribute to the development of the neurodevelopmental disorder.”

But that’s not all Kennedy said about people with autism. Shortly after mentioning that a study calculated the “cost of treating autism in this country by 2035 will be a trillion dollars a year,” he said, “Autism destroys families, but more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children.” He added:

These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.

These comments are plainly untrue. Many people with autism have pushed back, saying they can write poems and play baseball. The popular reality TV show “Love on the Spectrum” proves that Kennedy was wrong about dating. After the backlash, he went on the Fox News program “Hannity” to clarify that his original remarks were meant to refer to children with “low-functioning autism,” who are about a quarter of those diagnosed with the disorder.

I don’t think that clarification makes Kennedy’s initial remarks generous or correct. To my ears, the grimmest part of what he said is not about the ability to play baseball; it’s that he started this litany with paying taxes and having jobs. That implies that those who are not able to be gainfully employed are somehow lesser citizens — that they’re destroyed. This way of speaking is further evidence that he is not fit to be in charge of the health of the country. (continued)

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Smoke signals

Thanks to Pam P.

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Gov. Josh Shapiro: Finding Moral Clarity After an Arsonist’s Attack

By Josh Shapiro — Mr. Shapiro is the governor of Pennsylvania (thanks to Mary Jane F.)

I woke up to yelling in the hallway.

A few seconds later, there was a bang on the door.

It was just after 2 a.m., and a state trooper in the hallway of our private living quarters at the governor’s residence said there was a fire in the building. We needed to evacuate immediately.

My wife, Lori, and I ran to the bedrooms where our kids and two dogs were sleeping. We got them up quickly and followed the trooper down a back stairwell to the driveway.

At that point, standing in the cold, damp air, knowing that all the kids were accounted for, we began to wonder what had happened.

We thought it must be some kind of accident — perhaps a candle had been left burning and tipped over, something had short-circuited or there had been a malfunction in the kitchen.

But once the fire was extinguished — and firefighters were tackling the last few hot spots — the chief of the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire took me back inside to see the damage.

As I walked through the doorway, my nose burned from the smell of smoke. It was eerily quiet, but I could hear water dripping from the ceiling. My feet sloshed on the soaked floor.

The beautiful state dining room — where my family and I celebrated our Passover Seder with family and community just a few hours earlier — was completely destroyed.

Windows were smashed in, and there was glass everywhere. Some tables were turned over, and others had just melted away. Artwork from the New Deal era that had hung on display for visitors to enjoy had disintegrated into the walls. Plates we had eaten our Seder dinner on were broken and covered in soot. The Haggadah — our prayer book for the Seder — was burned so badly, only a few short lines of text were recognizable.

The devastation was shocking, and to me, it did not appear to be an accident. The damage was too extreme. It looked like a bomb had gone off in the middle of our home.

As I looked around in horror, I found myself picturing where each of my kids and our guests sat the previous evening as we prayed and recounted the story of our ancestors escaping bondage thousands of years ago.

As we moved our family to a secure location, I began receiving updates from the Pennsylvania State Police on what had happened: I was told with certainty that the fire was a deliberate, targeted attack by an arsonist.

As we would learn in the coming days, the alleged arsonist had intended to beat me with the hammer he carried with him when he broke into the governor’s residence, had he found me there.

As our kids woke up that morning after a traumatic night, Lori and I thought it was important to tell them honestly what we knew and what we didn’t.

I was focused on being a good dad, a good husband and a good governor — in that order.

We shared with them that the fire hadn’t been an accident, that someone had done this intentionally. (continued)

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Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge gains recognition for trees more than 300 years old

Thanks to Pam P. for noting this small but significant contribution to Earth Day

The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge has officially been recognized by the Old Growth Forest Network, a nonprofit dedicated to identifying and preserving ancient forests across the United States.

The designation applies to 32 acres of old growth forest within Humbug Marsh, a 405-acre site located just south of the refuge’s Trenton, Michigan visitor center. The marsh, which is considered the last undeveloped mile of the Detroit River along the U.S. mainland, contains trees estimated to be 300 years old.

“We know through historical records that the Humbug Marsh property [around 32 acres of it] has been relatively untouched for about 300 years,” said park ranger Alex Gilford.

The Old Growth Forest Network aims to recognize at least one accessible old growth forest per county in Michigan. 

Gilford says visitors to the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge should look for two types of trees.

“Two tree species that are most notable when you go into that area anyone can see are our oak trees, white oak trees, and our shagbark hickory trees. These are really big diameter trees, they’re really old,” he said. 

The Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge spans from Ecorse to Toledo, managing over 6,200 acres.

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Can’t help

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Earth Day

By Heather Cox Richardson

Today is Earth Day, celebrated for the first time in 1970. The spark for the first Earth Day was the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. A marine biologist and best-selling author, Carson showed the devastating effects of people on nature by documenting the effect of modern pesticides on the natural world. She focused on the popular pesticide DDT, which had been developed in 1939 and used to clear islands in the South Pacific of malaria-carrying mosquitoes during World War II. Deployed as an insect killer in the U.S. after the war, DDT was poisoning the natural food chain in American waters.

DDT sprayed on vegetation washed into the oceans. It concentrated in fish, which were then eaten by birds of prey, especially ospreys. The DDT caused the birds to lay eggs with abnormally thin eggshells, so thin the eggs cracked in the nest when the parent birds tried to incubate them. And so the birds began to die off.

Carson was unable to interest any publishing company in the story of DDT. Finally, frustrated at the popular lack of interest in the story behind the devastation of birds, she decided to write the story anyway, turning out a highly readable book with 55 pages of footnotes to make her case.

When The New Yorker began to serialize Carson’s book in June 1962, chemical company leaders were scathing. “If man were to faithfully follow the teachings of Miss Carson,” an executive of the American Cyanamid Company said, “we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the earth.” Officers of Monsanto questioned Carson’s sanity.

But her portrait of the dangerous overuse of chemicals and their effect on living organisms caught readers’ attention. They were willing to listen. Carson’s book sold more than half a million copies in 24 countries.

Democratic president John F. Kennedy asked the President’s Science Advisory Committee to look into Carson’s argument, and the committee vindicated her. Before she died of breast cancer in 1964, Carson noted: “Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself? [We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.” (continued)

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One more scam to beware of

Thanks to Mary M.

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Noble Prize winner talks about future of AI

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What is ‘ordo amoris?’ Vice President JD Vance invokes this medieval Catholic concept

Ed note: As reported in the NYT Pope Francis and JD Vance don’t see eye to eye on what loving the neighbor should mean. “Pope Francis on Tuesday harshly criticized President Trump’s policy of mass deportations and urged Catholics to reject anti-immigrant narratives in an unusually direct attack on the American administration.

In an open letter to American bishops, Francis said that deporting people who often come from difficult situations violates the “dignity of many men and women, and of entire families.”

The pope wrote that he had “followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” adding that any policy built on force “begins badly and will end badly.”

By  THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Vice President JD Vance recently cited medieval Catholic theology in justifying the immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump.

“Just google ‘ordo amoris,’” he posted Jan. 30 on the social media platform X.

He posted this in reply to criticism over statements he made in a Fox News interview: “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.” He claimed that the “far left” has inverted that.

Vance posted that the concept is “basic common sense” because one’s moral duties to one’s children outweigh those “to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away.”

What is ‘ordo amoris’?

It’s been translated as “order of love” or “order of charity.” It’s a concept discussed by St. Augustine, an ancient theologian, who said everyone and everything should be loved in its own proper way.

“Now he is a man of just and holy life who … neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less, nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves that less or more which ought to be loved equally,” Augustine wrote.

JD Vance meets Pope Francis on Easter Sunday after tangle over migration

“Further, all men are to be loved equally,” Augustine wrote. “But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.”

St. Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th century, expounded on this theme while also noting it depends on circumstances.

“We ought to be most beneficent towards those who are most closely connected with us,” he wrote. “And yet this may vary according to the various requirements of time, place, or matter in hand: because in certain cases one ought, for instance, to succor a stranger, in extreme necessity, rather than one’s own father, if he is not in such urgent need.”

The modern catechism of the Catholic Church briefly refers to the “order of charity” where it cites obligations to honor one’s parents and be good citizens.

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The rebel

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Word of the year by the Economist in 2024

from Wikipedia (thanks to Mary M.)

kakistocracy (/ˌkækɪˈstɒkrəsi/ KAK-ist-OK-rə-see) is a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.[1]: 54 [2][3] The word was coined as early as the 17th century,[4] and is derived from two Greek words, kákistos (κάκιστος, ‘worst’) and krátos (κράτος, ‘rule’), with a literal meaning of ‘government by the worst people’.[5]

History

The earliest use of the word dates to the 17th century, in Paul Gosnold‘s A sermon preached at the publique fast the ninth day of Aug. 1644 at St. Maries, Oxford, before the honorable members of the two Houses of Parliament there assembled:[4]

Therefore we need not make any scruple of praying against such: against those Sanctimonious Incendiaries, who have fetched fire from heaven to set their Country in combustion, have pretended Religion to raise and maintaine a most wicked rebellion: against those Nero‘s, who have ripped up the wombe of the mother that bare them, and wounded the breasts that gave them sucke: against those Cannibal’s who feed upon the flesh and are drunke with the bloud of their own brethren: against those Catiline’s who seeke their private ends in the publicke disturbance, and have set the Kingdome on fire to rost their owne egges: against those tempests of the State, those restlesse spirits who can no longer live, then be stickling and medling; who are stung with a perpetuall itch of changing and innovating, transforming our old Hierarchy into a new Presbytery, and this againe into a newer Independency; and our well-temperd Monarchy into a mad kinde of Kakistocracy. Good Lord![6]

English author Thomas Love Peacock used the term in his 1829 novel The Misfortunes of Elphin, in which he explains that kakistocracy represents the opposite of aristocracy, as aristos (ἄριστος) means “excellent” in Greek.[7] In his 1838 Memoir on Slavery (which he supported), U.S. Senator William Harper compared kakistocracy to anarchy, and said it had seldom occurred:[8]

Anarchy is not so much the absence of government as the government of the worst—not aristocracy but kakistocracy—a state of things, which to the honor of our nature, has seldom obtained amongst men, and which perhaps was only fully exemplified during the worst times of the French revolution, when that horrid hell burnt with its most horrid flame. In such a state of things, to be accused is to be condemned—to protect the innocent is to be guilty; and what perhaps is the worst effect, even men of better nature, to whom their own deeds are abhorrent, are goaded by terror to be forward and emulous in deeds of guilt and violence.

American poet James Russell Lowell used the term in 1876, in a letter to Joel Benton, writing, “What fills me with doubt and dismay is the degradation of the moral tone. Is it or is it not a result of Democracy? Is ours a ‘government of the people by the people for the people,’ or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?”[9]

Usage

The term is generally used by critics of a national government. It has been used variously in the past to describe the Russian government under Boris Yeltsin and later, under Vladimir Putin,[10] the government of Egypt under Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi,[11] governments in sub-Saharan Africa,[12] the government of the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte,[13] and the governments under some United States presidents.[14]

The term was used to describe the first presidency of Donald Trump, going viral[4] in 2017 when used by MSNBC host Joy Reid and again, in 2018 when former CIA Director John Brennan used the term.[15] The term also was used by commentators in numerous newspapers,[16][17][18] political publications,[19][20] and books[21][22] to describe the first Trump administration.

In late 2024, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration was described as a kakistocracy.[23]

The term was named word of the year by The Economist in 2024.[24]

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It’s time to expand your vocabulary

Thanks to Tim B.

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Movie title message

Just read them in sequence!

Thanks to Tim B.

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A baker’s view of Easter and Passover

Thanks to Ed M.

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Hooked on the Mariners?

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First They Came – by Pastor Martin Niemöller

from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Ed note: Martin Niemöller is best known for writing First They Came, but he is a complicated figure. Initially an antisemitic Nazi supporter, his views changed when he was imprisoned in a concentration camp for speaking out against Nazi control of churches. From Wikipedia: “Niemöller was arrested on 1 July 1937. On 2 March 1938, he was tried by a “Special Court” for activities against the state. He was given Sonder- und Ehrenhaft status (‘special or honourable detention’). He received a 2,000 Reichsmark fine and seven months’ imprisonment. But as he had been detained pre-trial for longer than the seven-month jail term, he was released by the court after sentencing. However, he was immediately rearrested by Himmler‘s Gestapo – presumably because Rudolf Hess found the sentence too lenient and decided to take “merciless action” against him.[14] He was interned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps for “protective custody” from 1938 to 1945.[21]

Posted in Government, Politics, Religion | Leave a comment

Need to smile? Enjoy the one-liners!

Thanks to Ed M.

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What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal.

Ed note: This “call to action” by David Brooks is a challenge to us all. What steps strategically will help to slow the tsunami of dysfunctional destructive edits coming from the White House? Doing nothing, thus caving in, isn’t an option. We may need to face some economic pain in having mass demonstrations and civil disruptions. It seems we need a strong centrist leader to lead us back to the center–not left or right. We’ve seen that divisive mode. But where are those leaders who can stand up to the bullying and work to bring us together as a nation?

By David Brooks Opinion Columnist in the NYT (thanks to Diane C.)

In the beginning there was agony. Under the empires of old, the strong did what they willed and the weak suffered what they must.

But over the centuries, people built the sinews of civilization: Constitutions to restrain power, international alliances to promote peace, legal systems to peacefully settle disputes, scientific institutions to cure disease, news outlets to advance public understanding, charitable organizations to ease suffering, businesses to build wealth and spread prosperity, and universities to preserve, transmit and advance the glories of our way of life. These institutions make our lives sweet, loving and creative, rather than nasty, brutish and short.

Trumpism is threatening all of that. It is primarily about the acquisition of power — power for its own sake. It is a multifront assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men, so of course any institutions that might restrain power must be weakened or destroyed. Trumpism is about ego, appetite and acquisitiveness and is driven by a primal aversion to the higher elements of the human spirit — learning, compassion, scientific wonder, the pursuit of justice.

So far, we have treated the various assaults of President Trump and the acolytes in his administration as a series of different attacks. In one lane they are going after law firms. In another they savaged U.S.A.I.D. In another they’re attacking our universities. On yet another front they’re undermining NATO and on another they’re upending global trade.

But that’s the wrong way to think about it. These are not separate battles. This is a single effort to undo the parts of the civilizational order that might restrain Trump’s acquisition of power. And it will take a concerted response to beat it back.

So far, each sector Trump has assaulted has responded independently — the law firms seek to protect themselves, the universities, separately, try to do the same. Yes, a group of firms banded together in support of the firm Perkins Coie, but in other cases it’s individual law firms trying to secure their separate peace with Trump. Yes, Harvard eventually drew a line in the sand, but Columbia cut a deal. This is a disastrous strategy that ensures that Trump will trample on one victim after another. He divides and conquers. (continued on page 2 on the website www.syline725.com)

Posted in Economics, Education, Government, Law, Politics | Leave a comment

Among the prisoners

Thanks to Mike C.

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‘This Should Be Shocking:’ Read a Federal Appeals Panel’s Sharp Rebuke of the Trump Administration

By Adam Liptak and Alan Feuer in the NYT

Ed note: I hope we all have a chance to read this beautiful 7 page ruling below from the conservative Judge Wilkson. It states in clear language that we all (citizens or not) have a right to have due process of the law when facing legal action against us. The language of the ruling is not only clear but draws an eloquent picture of how things should be between the President and the law. Hopefully, this document will live on.

A federal appeals court in Virginia issued a striking opinion on Thursday, reaffirming that the Trump administration had to take a more active approach in seeking the release of a Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador last month despite a court order expressly forbidding him from being sent there.

But the opinion, authored by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a conservative jurist appointed by President Ronald Reagan, contained far more than simple legal instructions to the White House. The brief order also rebuked Trump officials for their apparent disregard of the bedrock principles of due process and for allowing a man whom they have acknowledged they wrongfully deported to continue to languish in a foreign prison.

At the same time, Judge Wilkinson, in an almost elegiac tone, gave an emphatic reminder that American democracy rests in part on mutual respect between the executive and judicial branches and lamented recent attacks by President Trump and his allies on the federal courts.

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Ordering your eggs

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One Simple Hack to Ruin Your Easter

The price of eggs has some online creators suggesting that potatoes are a suitable alternative. Please believe me, they are wrong.

By Kaitlyn Tiffany in the Atlantic (thanks to Mary M.)

Like countless others who have left their hometown to live a sinful, secular life in a fantastic American city, I no longer actively practice Christianity. But a few times a year, my upbringing whispers to me across space and time, and I have to listen. The sound is loudest at Easter, which, aside from being the most important Christian holiday, is also the most fun.

I could talk about Easter all day. The daffodils, the brunch. The color scheme, the smell of grass, the annual screening of VeggieTales: An Easter Carol, which is the same story as Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, except that it’s set at Easter and all the characters are vegetables who work in a factory (the Scrooge character is a zucchini). And most of all, the Easter eggs! Of all the seasonal crafts, this one is the easiest (no carving) and the most satisfying (edible).

This year, because of shocking egg prices, people with online lifestyle brands—or people who aspire to have online lifestyle brands—have suggested numerous ways to keep the dyeing tradition alive without shelling out for eggs. For instance, you can dye jumbo-size marshmallows, or you can make peanut-butter eggs that you then coat in colored white chocolate. You can paint rocks. The story has been widely covered, by local TV and radio stations and even The New York Times. “Easter Eggs Are So Expensive Americans Are Dyeing Potatoes,” the Times reported (though most of the story was about one dairy farmer who’d replaced real eggs with plastic replicas for an annual Easter-egg hunt).

I don’t think many people are actually making Easter spuds. Like baking Goldfish or making breakfast cereal from scratch, dyeing potatoes seems mostly like a good idea for a video to post online. Many Instagram commenters reacted to the Easter potatoes by saying things such as “What in the great depression is this” and “These potatoes make me sad.” And yet, because I love Easter and am curious about the world, I decided to try it myself—just to see if it was somehow any fun.

My local Brooklyn grocery store didn’t have the classic Paas egg-dyeing tablets, so I bought an “organic” kit that cost three times as much ($6.99) and expensed it to The Atlantic. I bought a dozen eggs ($6.49) and a bag of Yukon Gold potatoes that were light-colored enough to dye and small enough to display in a carton ($5.99), and expensed those to The Atlantic too. Then I looked online for advice on how to proceed; mostly, I wanted to know whether I should cook the potatoes before or after dyeing them. A popular homemaking blog called The Kitchn gave detailed instructions on how to dye Easter potatoes and “save some cash while flexing your creativity for the Easter Bunny this year.” The suggestions—which included soaking the potatoes in ground turmeric, shredded beets, or three cups of mashed blueberries—were not as cost-effective as promised. (Such a volume of fruit could cost north of $15.) But I did find out that I should decorate the potatoes and then cook them. (continued)

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News Commentary by Heather Cox Richardson

Ed note: Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter gives context to current events that is more readable and incisive than most commentators. I’ll try to more frequently post her essays because of the need to put the daily chaos into some kind of rational analysis. As a historian she helps put the news into a context we don’t often find elsewhere.

Today, U.S. president Donald J. Trump met in the Oval Office with the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, along with a number of Cabinet members and White House staff, who answered questions for the press. The meeting appeared to be as staged as Trump’s February meeting with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, designed to send a message. At the meeting, Trump and Bukele, who is clearly doing Trump’s bidding, announced they would not bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home, defying the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bukele was livestreaming the event on his official X account and wearing a lapel microphone as he and Trump walked into the Oval Office, so Trump’s pre-meeting private comments were audible in the video Bukele posted. “We want to do homegrown criminals next…. The homegrowns.” Trump told Bukele. “You gotta build about five more places.” Bukele appeared to answer, “Yeah, we’ve got space.” “All right,” Trump replied.

Rather than being appalled, the people in the room—including Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Attorney General Pam Bondi—erupted in laughter.

At the meeting, it was clear that Trump’s team has cooked up a plan to leave Abrego Garcia without legal recourse to his freedom, a plan that looks much like Trump’s past abuses of the legal system. The White House says the U.S. has no jurisdiction over El Salvador, while Bukele says he has no authority to release a “terrorist” into the U.S. (Abrego Garcia maintains a full-time job, is married to a U.S. citizen, has three children, and has never been charged or convicted of anything.) No one can make Trump arrange for Abrego Garcia’s release, the administration says, because the Constitution gives the president control over foreign affairs.

Marcy Wheeler of Empty Wheel noted that “all the people who should be submitting sworn declarations before [U.S. District Court] Judge Paula Xinis made comments not burdened by oaths or the risk of contempt, rehearsed comments for the cameras.” They falsely claimed that a court had ruled Abrego Garcia was a terrorist, and insisted the whole case was about the president’s power to control foreign affairs.

As NPR’s Steven Inskeep put it: “If I understand this correctly, the US president has launched a trade war against the world, believes he can force the EU and China to meet his terms, is determined to annex Canada and Greenland, but is powerless before the sovereign might of El Salvador. Is that it?” (continued)

Posted in Crime, Government, Immigration, Law | Leave a comment

Taxes

Thanks to MaryLou P.

A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong, and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.

Everybody should pay his income tax with a smile. I tried it, but they wanted cash.

I went to Washington and visited the Tax Department. I just wanted to see the people I’m working for.

I’m putting all my money in taxes–it is the only thing sure to go up.

Patrick Henry should come back to see what taxation with representation is like.

A taxpayer is a person who has the government on his payroll.

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Ai Wei-Wei’s movie: “Never Sorry” – Thursday

On Thursday this week in the Cascade Room we are showing Ai Wei-Wei’s movie
“Ai Wei-Wei: Never Sorry.” 7:30 pm. Spread the word. Thanks to Don C.

From 2008 to 2010, Beijing-based journalist and filmmaker Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to internationally renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Klayman documented Ai’s artistic process in preparation for major museum exhibitions, his intimate exchanges with family members and his increasingly public clashes with the Chinese government. Klayman’s detailed portrait of the artist provides a nuanced exploration of contemporary China and one of its most compelling public figures.

If you can’t make the movie in the Cascade Room, it is available on this YouTube link.

Posted in Advocacy, Art, Uncategorized | Leave a comment