Civil Commotion

Jeff Sessions inexplicably cited the Bible yesterday to justify separating the children of illegal border-crossers from their parents. So far as I am able to sort it out, here is what is going on.

Federal law forbids housing children with imprisoned parents who await prosecution. So far, so good; children should not be in prison.

The Trump administration’s new zero tolerance policy requires that all illegal border-crossers be imprisoned and prosecuted (the charge is a federal misdemeanor). Since the parents are in prison awaiting trial, the children are separated from them and removed to temporary housing.

The law didn’t contemplate prosecuting all attempts to cross the border, however, so what we have here is — maybe — an unintended consequence. I say “maybe” because gratuitous cruelty is a commonplace within Trump’s orbit, and a couple of administration officials have made offhand remarks that suggest a deliberate policy of separating children from their parents as a device for discouraging attempts to cross the border.

Enter Pious Jeff when confronted with reports that an infant was separated from the mother who was breastfeeding it.

I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.

Presidential Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, daughter of famed Holy Man Mike Huckabee, struck a similar note:

it’s very biblical to enforce the law.

The Biblical instruction at issue appears to come from Romans 13:

¹ Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

² Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

³ For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

⁴ For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

⁵ Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

So there you go: Jesus doesn’t want those children to be with their parents, and He put Trump and Sessions there to enforce His will — and you can look forward to eternal damnation if you don’t shut up, suck-it-up, and do as you’re told.

The other possibility, I guess, is that the Bible is full of degrading nonsense — but only wicked people believe that.

The president believes what he wants to believe, creates a reality that fits his delusions, and then insists, with extraordinary energy and stamina, that his delusions are the truth. His psychological illness, moreover, is capable of outlasting anyone else’s mental health. Objective reality that contradicts his delusions is discounted as “fake news” propagated by “our country’s greatest enemy,” i.e., reporters. If someone behaved like this in my actual life, if someone kept insisting that the sea was red and the sky green, I’d assume they were a few sandwiches short of a picnic. It’s vital for us to remember this every day: Almost no one else in public life is so openly living in his own disturbed world.

Andrew Sullivan

There plainly is something amiss with the Buffoon-in-Chief’s data processing. I don’t know what name to give it, or even whether is has a name, but he certainly is well past garden variety lying.

It is equally certain that neither the Cabinet nor the Republican-controlled Congress can be relied upon to do its plain duty and put him out of office — and there is no more important business before the country than defending itself from Donald Trump.

I am not especially surprised by the perfervid loyalty evangelicals exhibit for Trump; they have merely transferred their devotion from one authoritarian cult to another. There is precedent for that; recall, for a particularly egregious example, how easily the Japanese transferred their loyalty for their Emperor-god to MacArthur at the end of World War II. I am taken aback by the comprehensive failure of character exhibited by congressional Republicans — and shame on all of us if the midterm elections aren’t ruinous for them.

… of its investigation of James Comey and the Clinton e-mail investigation has been released and is available here. It’s 568-pages long, so I haven’t read it yet. I have read the Executive Summary, and it doesn’t point toward anything that isn’t already common knowledge.

1. Comey violated procedural norms in his pre-election press conferences, the first to announce that there would not be a recommendation for prosecution of Hilary Clinton, and the second announcing that the investigation was being reopened.

2. Comey’s violation of established policies was insubordinate, but not animated by bias for or against either candidate.

3. Some FBI agents loathe the Liar-in-Chief.

I share the view that Comey made a very serious mistake, but am disinclined to view him as harshly as some others. Knowing that Trump was also under investigation, and for crimes that flirt with treason — about which he said nothing — placed him in an extraordinary, probably unprecedented, situation; we should not judge him too harshly if he did an awkward job of attempting to thread that needle. What precedent, after all, could he consult?

In the event, he undoubtedly tipped fence-sitting voters toward Trump.

Though there doesn’t appear to be anything new in the report, Trump will probably turn this into a narrative about ‘deep state’ hostility to him.

Scanning the Executive Summary, and scanning some of the commentary that is already appearing, I am struck once again by how little (much of) the public understands about the work life of professionals — the shorthand vocabulary, the often sardonic and frequently cynical or self-deprecating humor, the responsibilities and ethical constraints. Every single day, civil engineers prepare designs for clients whose project they dislike, lawyers represent clients that they don’t want to see within 5-miles of their family, doctors and nurses provide care to clients they despise, journalists accurately report events that sicken them. Every day.

I wonder, occasionally, if Joe Citizen has any idea what goes on inside the army of well-educated professionals who keep society functioning, or if Mr. Citizen even knows it exists.

Trump Agrees to Let Kim Jong Un Have Pence as Manservant

As new details emerge from this week’s summit in Singapore, the White House has confirmed that Donald J. Trump unilaterally offered to let Kim Jong Un have Mike Pence as his personal manservant.

The offer reportedly came after Kim spoke glowingly to Trump about the Vice-President’s obsequiousness, sources said.

“Even by North Korean standards, Pence puts my toadies to shame,” Kim reportedly said.