Giving up the ghost of Ronald Reagan...And the out-of-control Border Control
Last week we reported that a voter-suppression bill had passed the Pennsylvania legislature and was awaiting the signature of the state’s Democratic governor in order to become law. An update: He has decided to veto it.
I have an essay in this Sunday’s Outlook section of the Washington Post, adapted from my book, which tries to answer the question of what on earth is wrong with Democratic party leaders. The answer, I think, has to do with the Reagan era. The piece is linked here, but if you live in the DC area you might as well wait to read it in the paper. (Also, buy the book!)
The border situation continues to spiral. It doesn’t seem to have fully sunk in that there was a private Facebook group of some 10,000 current and former Border Patrol employees, many of them in supervisory roles, that in many respects was indistinguishable from a standard racist Facebook hate group. Their word for immigrants is “tonks” -- a reference to the sound their flashlights make when they smash them against the heads of men, women, and children fleeing (US-driven) violence in Central America. The group was exposed last week by ProPublica, but a reporter of ours had gotten access to it previously (though had yet to publish his story), and was able to archive much of the material before the group started trying to delete it. What he found is appalling enough that the entire leadership of this rogue agency ought to resign in disgrace. Story here.
Debbie Nathan recently won an Edward R. Murrow award for her reporting for The Intercept at the border and she’s out now with a new blockbuster story, exposing a Trump administration plan to hold mass video hearings for thousands of migrants at once.
And Alexander Zaitchik filed this report from the Brazilian rainforest, where a battle is being fought to stall Jair Bolsanaro’s attempt to completely bulldoze it. Aside from everything else, it’s the last great carbon sink on this teetering planet, and if it gets destroyed, it’s hard to see how we can turn this around.
At least we have the World Cup to watch tomorrow morning?