The Price Of Force

Max Weber notably defined the state as an entity with a "monopoly of violence over a given territory."  That definition always strikes my students as strange until we break it down.  Whether the state is Sweden or North Korea, that state shares the characteristic of removing the use of force or violence from the hands of individuals and placing that use of force in the hands of institutions that ideally serve to create a stable state.

What we are seeing in the United State today is some of those institutions have blurred the lines about what they should do and what they can do.  The great contribution of Anglo-American political thought - stretching from the Magna Carta to the Constitution - is that for a state to be legitimate, it must be bound by its own laws.

This rule of law is the most essential element of legitimate democratic governance.

But for it to work properly, the state must be bound by the laws it sets over the people and itself.  Russia, for instance, had a rule limiting the presidency to two terms.  When Putin decided he didn't like that, he effectively scrapped it.  He basically decided that he didn't need to abide by the laws, so he ignored them.

The problem America is having right now is that some of the institutions that we invest with the power to commit violence on our behalf are not showing the necessary respect for that vital rule of law.

The outrage over the overzealous use of force by police and the systematic use of torture by the CIA is basically linked to the idea of institutions out of the reach of the rule of law.

The ultimate truth about what happened in the case of Michael Brown may never be known, but Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and others are clearer.  And they paint a picture of policing institutions that are not bound by the laws that bind others.  The idea that you can kill someone in broad daylight who is not armed and not even go to trial suggests that the laws that apply to all of us - and even to the police themselves - are no longer working.

As John McCain said yesterday at the release of the Senate torture report, America helped craft the international treaties that forbid torture.  We helped create and signed the Geneva Conventions.  We put laws on the books after the Philippines War that prohibit forms of torture.  And then we ignored those limits when it became mildly inconvenient to abide by them.

Both of these trends reflect the broader, pants-wetting cowardice that we are exhibiting repeatedly in America today.  We are so scared of black men and Muslim terrorists that a large segment of the population is willing to throw over the fundamental achievement of American political philosophy: namely that the government should be bound by its own laws.

This is truly distressing.  Especially when you see mouth breathing morans losing their shit over the idea that America isn't perfect.

The events of the last few years and months represent a challenge to what America thinks it stands for.  If you want to blindly cling to a false image of what America is like a child clinging to a security blanket, then you aren't really worthy of being part of the conversation about what America should be.

We Tortured Some Folks

The torture report seems to be about what I expected.  It is both not a surprise and yet surprising in its details.

The following is clear:

- It was more brutal than we were told.
- It produced almost no information of value.
- It was pushed from Washington rather than from the field.

And sadly no one will go to jail for this.  Thank God no one in the CIA stole some cigarellos.

The Next Two Years Could Be Fun

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/9/7358655/obama-colbert#ooid=A1M2k2cjoLTDfsef2NURV21IC0P716zL

Torture Report Coming Soon

My guess is that it will be sorely lacking in real revelations.  It will have been redacted beyond comprehension.  I do hope that they lay bare some of the worst abuses.  I realize that we will never see real justice for those who dragged the reputation of the United States through the sewer by torturing the guilty and not guilty alike.

But for the accuracy of history, this needs to be aired and clarified.

(And no, this won't cause anyone to hate us more than they already do.)

The Coming Suckage

It starts with the backlash against police brutality and campus sexual assault.

There is then a backlash against the backlash against police brutality and campus sexual assault.

So we have people saying Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and Michael Brown deserved to die for some reason.  And that "Jackie" and the Cosby accusers are doing it for the fame.  Or something.

And this backlash against the backlash will create its own backlash.  

In the end, we will retreat into our tribal camps and throw stones at each other.

And black men will continue to die and women will continue to be raped.  And one side of that tribal divide will apparently be okay with that.

My Life Is About To Suck

Wrestling tournament today, 24 term papers to grade, 3 advisee letters to write, creating the AP US exam, helping organize my department's exam...All by Wednesday.

Pray for me, a sinner, in the hour of my need...

Well, This Will Make You Sick

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/5/7342489/rape-assault-violence-graphic

I don't know what happened at UVA.  But that doesn't mean rape isn't a huge issue.

Who Will Stop Obama's Job-Killing Agenda?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/321000-jobs-added-unemployment-unchanged

I have a theory, backed up by nothing beyond a general sense of history, that the economy of the last 50 years is pretty much tied to energy costs.  When energy costs are high - the '70s, the last ten years or so - then the economy suffers.  When energy costs fall - the '80s and late '90s - the economy grows.

This is basically saying that taking large amounts of consumer dollars (perhaps better understood as "demand") and effectively lighting them on fire in order to power things is a really shitty way to expend a limited amount of demand-power.

It's a correlation with a tenuous theory attached to it, I know, but I like it.

The US has been outperforming Europe and Japan since 2008.  This is partly because both the Democrats from 2008-2011 and the Federal Reserve have pursued an expansionary fiscal and monetary policy.  Japan is in a liquidity trap (among other things) and Europe has foolishly pursued austerity (thanks, Germany!).

But if the forecasts are right that US growth will start to slow because the rest of the world is still sluggish, we could see the rest of the world perk up as energy prices fall.

This could create a nice economic condition leading into 2016.

Obviously, this is a recognition that Presidents and even Congress have limited abilities to effect the economy.  This is especially true in the era of divided and combative governance.

But if Obama gets slagged for things that aren't his fault, perhaps he should get credit for things he didn't really do.  (Although you can argue that his decision to anger environmentalists by allowing the shale oil gas revolution is important.)

South Carolina, Bastion Of Civil Rights

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/south-carolina-3-indictments-cops

What's the difference between SC and Staten Island or Ferguson?

A District Attorney who has the balls to hold the police accountable.

The Democratic Party In A Nutshell

Democrats make great policy and lousy politics.

Three Great Reads

Today was crazy loco.

So I offer these three excellent reads:

Ezra Klein explains why The New Republic can't really succeed.

Amanda Taub explains why cops can basically get away with murder.

Conor Williams writes a really compelling explanation of why both conservatives and liberals have turned a blind eye to decades of Blue on Black violence.

Open Season

I've felt that body cams on cops would be a nice step to insure that police do not abuse the power we give them.

But the case of Eric Garner shows that even evidence alone won't matter.  The decision not to indict the cop who choked him to death has drawn surprising outrage from conservative commentators.  Whereas the essential question of what actually happened continues to haunt the Michael Brown case, we know what happened with Garner.  It's all on camera.

And still the cop isn't even charged.

Whereas liberals tend to equate what happened with Garner (and the kid in Cleveland and the guy in Utah and the guy in Walmart) with what happened with Brown, conservatives don't.  For liberals, Garner and Brown's deaths are part of an overarching pattern of police violence used against African American men.  Conservatives simply assert that Brown was a "thug" and got what was coming to him.

The impact of cameras on cops will not lead to more police being charged with crimes, because apparently you can't charge a cop with a crime.

But it might eventually lead to a change in the law.

And that would be worth it.

UPDATE: I think a clear reform should be that any case that involves a police officer killing a civilian where there was no weapon on the civilian there should be a special prosecutor to handle it.  No more use of the same prosecutors who work with the police.

Wither Now?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-war-immigration-fizzles

A continuing resolution would be a not-bad thing, providing it takes us past March.  But it does appear, once again, that GOP leadership gets it.  They can't keep attacking Hispanics.  And any fight over Obama's immigration reforms - especially a high profile fight like a shutdown - will hurt them.

At the moment, they have managed to corral their xenophobic wing(nuts), but we will see how long that lasts.

Constitutional Scholars, Every Last One Of Them

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-censure-obama

So, Obama changes immigration policy via executive order - like Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush have all done before him.

The GOP freaks out, because that's what they do.

Impeachment isn't going to happen (sadly, I think that would crystallize the crazy).

So, to protest the President's "unconstitutional" actions, the GOP Congress is going to go with...an unconstitutional action.

Well played, dipshits.

Off To The Dentist

Because - combined with three airport pickups in 24 hours - that's how I need to start the 19 day period I fondly call "Slouching Towards Bethlehem."