Wednesday, July 11, 2018

The Tender Mercies Of The White Collar Elite For The Other Members Of Their Class Will Be On Full Display In This As All Past Judiciary Committee Confirmation Hearings

If you haven't watched the segment of Sam Seder's Majority Report last night, you should REMEMBER THE CHILDREN, as you do.  The title of the WaPo piece he were mocking,From "Kellyanne Conway to Stephen Miller, Trump’s advisers face taunts from hecklers around D.C." by Paul Schwartzman and Josh Dawsey.   If you haven't gotten Sam Seder's, Michael Brooks, et al's take on the story you should.  

The Trump regime is violating a court order that these thugs reunite the children they abducted and have been holding in baby concentration camps with their parents, the deadline on reuniting ALL 102 of the children under five they hold and they've not complied, even though these kidnapping blackmailers have both the children and their parents in custody. 

It doesn't look like they ever intended to comply with the court order that they do so, apparently they figure their bosses ability to ignore court orders covers them with a penumbra of impunity.  We have yet to see if they're correct, as Charles Pierce pointed out, they didn't comply with a clear order of a judge and yet none of the thugs are in jail.  

Federal San Diego Judge Dana Sabraw initially gave the government a July 10 deadline to reunite the 102 children under the age of 5 who were ripped from their undocumented parents because of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. Sabraw allowed the Trump administration an extension on that deadline Monday after Justice Department lawyer Sarah Fabian said she only expected about half of the kids to be reconnected with their parents. But, in a court filing Tuesday, Fabian revealed that a mere four of the 102 children under 5 had been reunified with their parents, adding she expected another 34 to be reunited by the end of the day. If accurate, that brings the total number of reunified kids to 38 — which amounts to just above one-third of all the children.

. . . Fabian maintained in the court papers the government is in “compliance with the Court’s order,” even though it blew Sabraw’s initial deadline and didn’t live up to its subsequent promises. The American Civil Liberties Union — which successfully argued last month the Trump administration must reunite the separated migrant families — called bull. “Plaintiffs recognize that Defendants cannot yet reunify the parents who are currently being held in criminal custody,” ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt wrote in a response filing. “But as to all other Class Members with children under five, the government is not in compliance with the clear deadline ordered by the Court."

And with that claim by attorney Fabian that they are in compliance, I don't have any hesitation to point out she is the one who became famous last Friday when she said she couldn't be working on the weekend because she was dog-sitting, one would imagine so her friends dog wouldn't have to spend the weekend in canine confinement while scores of babies and thousands of other kidnapped children were in jail.  Something some lawyers and those in the media, even those opposed to Trump's kidnapping and blackmail scheme, perhaps turning into trafficking in babies, have said she shouldn't be faulted over her priorities but with that claim in court, fuck with the comity of the white collar class for its own. 

Charles Pierce's question of why no one went to jail over this is an excellent one, in the world of the underclasses that most Americans live in people go to jail for violating not only a judge's order but an extension asked for and granted on the basis of promises of compliance. 

Charles Pierce made one error in his piece, at the very end he said,  "This is barely organized crime."  What it is is unconcealed organized crime which isn't called that because of that comity white collar people, judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and, obviously journalists give to people of their class. 

Americans have to call bull shit on that practice because it is a large part of how we got into this dangerous position in the first place.  And, believe me, it won't be the Ivy-may as well be Ivy class of highly paid professionals that will call it bull shit because that would be indelicate.

If you want an excellent example of that, go over the past confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices, keeping emetics on hand as, especially considering their behavior on the Supreme Court, listening to their lies and those told on their behalf will make you sick.

I would especially point out that of Samuel Alito, in which Professor Ronald Sullivan pointed out how Alito, as a member of a lower court, had pooh-poohed the strip search of a 10-year-old girl on the basis that her rights and dignity were nothing, while, in another case, he expressed the most articulate indignation and outrage when the wife of a wealthy veterinarian, an affluent adult, was strip searched.  The child was not a suspect in a crime, the wealthy adult was.  You can find that testimony beginning on page 734 of the transcript.  Something that Republican and some Democratic Senators apparently had no problem with as they voted to confirm him, something many members of Alito's court, his law school chums and other lawyers associated with him weren't bothered by, either, as they testified what a wonderful person, what a wonderful judge he was, some of them supposedly liberals.   I listened to the whole thing and their praise turned my stomach, as did their empty, obviously lying assertions that he could be counted on to produce justice on the basis of the evidence and not his personal ideology and to serve the inequality which was the brand he represented and still represents on the Supreme Court. 

When the disgusting, disgraceful Alan Dershowitz introduced us to the word "testilying," the practice of lying while giving testimony, he was talking about cops who lie under oath to get a conviction.  But that practice is never called that when it's done by white-collar liars of the kind who lied for Samuel Alito, lies because every single person who said he would be impartial were lying, they knew they were lying, all of the Senators and all of the journalists . . . everyone in the room knew they were lying and the consequences of their pretense is that the country is on the cusp of overt fascism.  And Alan Dershowitz is supporting that even as he lies about his political and ethical position.  

The white collar world is largely based on lying of that kind, especially that of the law and, even more so, journalism.  And those lies are told on behalf of the bald class interest of affluent elite professionals for each other and on behalf of their patrons who are the real elite.  And yet they have to wonder why the plebs are distrustful, suspicious and cynical.  I remember the 2008 campaign from the blue collar class which I live in and, by income, am a member of, people wanted to believe Barack Obama was going to produce all manner of justice, they really wanted to believe he would.  And, in response to that, he appointed Eric Holder as Attorney General, the man who let off the richest of the gangsters who had tanked the economy through massive theft and cheating and bilking, destroying lives.  He let them off entirely.   That as much as racism led to the disasterous election of 2010.  If they had put the gangsters in jail, they'd have been working class heroes, which I think they would not have wanted to be, preferring the honors of their own class. 

If you want to pretend we don't already know that Brett Kavanaugh will lie during his confirmation hearings, he's already gotten away with it during previous confirmation hearings with impunity, why would he possibly imagine there will be any cost for him doing so, now?   Dick Durban, to his credit, is pointing this out. 




2 comments:

  1. No, the government never intended to comply fully with the court order, because the government never intended to reunite these children and their parents. Hence the headless chicken routine as they scramble to respond.

    As for jailing someone, there's the same problem here that arises in a criminal action against a corporation: who individually do you hold liable? Captain of the Ship doctrine doesn't apply that strictly in criminal law. Criminal contempt could put someone in jail, but who? The hapless DOJ lawyer assigned the thankless task of defending this clusterfuck? The head of ICE, the Border Patrol, HHS, Homeland Security? The POTUS?

    As a purely legal matter, you never get there. It's not just a matter of inchoate liability, it's a matter of who, individually, is in criminal contempt of the court?
    Who, individually, is the U.S. government, and responsible for the failure to comply with this court order in all particulars?

    This is why you vote, rather than pout and stay home. This is why you don't elect idiots to the highest office in the land. Because the tools of government are not precise enough to act as legal tweezers and pull the splinter out; and because no matter how small the man, the office is really, really big. We are learning that object lesson now. Here's hoping we survive the lesson as a nation, and learn from it the way Germany learned from Hitler.

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    Replies
    1. Besides, when an individual takes children from parents by force, it's kidnapping. When governments do it, it's policy.

      Same as it ever was.

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