Saturday, April 6, 2019
The New York Times reports:
"The special counsel’s report on the investigation into Russia’s election interference will be made public by mid-April, Attorney General William P. Barr told lawmakers on Friday, adding that the White House would not see the document before he sent it to Congress.
“Everyone will soon be able to read it,” Mr. Barr wrote in a letter to the chairmen of the congressional judiciary committees."
In the past, special counsel reports were given to congress with few or no redactions in the report or underlying evidence and exhibits. Barr claims he will redact redact from the report material subject to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure, material the intelligence community deems could compromise sensitive sources, grand jury material, and material that could affect ongoing matters and information that would infringe upon the personal privacy of peripheral third parties. Despite his claim otherwise, Barr is not required to redact most or any of what he plans to redact. Congressional intelligence committees, or at least key members, routinely get access to essentially all such information, sensitive or not.
President Trump hired Barr to protect himself from the rule of law. Barr applied for the job by submitting an unsolicited memo to Trump that criticized the Mueller investigation. In essence, Barr was telling Trump he would be protected from the rule of law by undermining and/or hiding the Mueller report to the extent he would be capable of doing so.
Barr's lie of omission and the opacity it justifies: In testimony in his Senate confirmation hearing, Barr promised he would be as transparent as possible and release as much of the Mueller report as he could.
What he did not tell the Senate was that what could previously be released would no longer apply. He lied by not telling the Senate he was going to establish new "rules" that would limit information disclosure as much as needed to protect Trump from the both law and from embarrassments to himself and his adult children. That was a massive lie of omission that Barr used to con the Senate into confirming his as Attorney General.
That lie of omission is what will justify Barr's unjustifiable opacity in hiding the Mueller report from congress and the public.
This is yet another authoritarian attack on democracy, democratic norms and institutions, and the rule of law. Barr is hiding truth. Mueller refused to do his job by indicting one or more of Trump's adult children or following through with making recommendations. Congressional republicans and the republican party generally approves of all of this. All of these actions and policies constitute major blows to an already weak rule of law as applied to politics. This is evidence of the rise a rule of law concept where the law is for partisan purposes only. Supporters and the in-party get to ignore the law. Opponents and the opposing party will feel its sting.
America is sliding into a kleptocratic tyranny tinged with a vindictive, rapacious Christian theocracy. Two institutions still stand. The democratic House is one and the 2020 elections is the other. Both are under sustained attack, and if they fall it isn't clear what is left to stop America's slide into dictatorship.
B&B orig: 3/30/19
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Evangelical Christian Worries
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Conservatives and Evangelical Christians constitute the core of public support for President Trump. Many of them have felt besieged and under direct attack for decades. In retrospect, it may have been the case that America's changing social and legal landscape was simply too much for these groups to tolerate. The backlash gave us Trump and the rise of anti-democratic authoritarianism.
The Washington Post writes:
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, evangelicals became anxious about perceived threats to white Christian culture in America. In 1962 and 1963, the Supreme Court removed prayer and mandatory Bible reading from public schools. The Hart-Cellar Act of 1965 increased diversity in the country by opening it to large numbers of non-western immigrants, who brought their diverse religious beliefs with them.
In 1971, the Supreme Court, in Green v. Connolly, stripped the tax-exempt status from institutions that discriminated in their admissions policies based on race. This affected a host of Southern Christian schools and academies, many of which saw the decision in terms of “big government” threatening their religious liberty — the liberty to discriminate based upon their reading of the Bible.
And, of course, in 1973 the Court supported a women’s right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade.
Jerry Falwell, a Baptist minister from Lynchburg, Va., formed the Moral Majority to “train, mobilize, and electrify the Religious Right” in preparation to fight a “holy war” for the moral soul of America. Falwell’s organization played a major role in electing Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 and shaped a vision for white conservative evangelical political activity that remains strong today.
Today, the Christian right remains focused on the Supreme Court, which many evangelicals see as the chief impediment to their agenda on issues ranging from school prayer to LGBTQ rights to abortion. Their political playbook requires evangelicals to elect an attentive president who, in turn, will appoint socially conservative federal judges. Once these judges are in place, evangelicals believe they will be better positioned to win the battles over these key issues; saving the nation would avoid divine punishment for its sins.
That idea has remained so potent over the decades because it is embedded in evangelical churches. Pastors use their pulpits to speak about these cultural issues. Adult education classes in churches often focus on such topics. Members of small-group Bible studies discuss them. Some church leaders consistently stoke fear in their congregations by pointing to threats to religious liberty, both real and imagined."
Asymmetric war: With a mindset driven by fear and grounded in infallible religious moral rectitude, one can see a little about why there is little or no interest in compromise. To the Evangelical mindset, compromise makes no sense. But that righteous fervor blinds Evangelicals to another truth: Each of their counterattacks, say by overturning Roe v. Wade, often or always constitutes a much more aggressive attack on people who disagree. In the case of abortion, Roe forces no woman to get an abortion against her will. On the other hand, Evangelicals are eager to force their religious belief on women by blocking access to abortion for women who want one. That is highly intrusive."
The threats here are not symmetrical. Evangelicals simply cannot see the asymmetry, maybe because they know they cannot be wrong. At present, the state is far more threatened by the church than the other way around.
B&B orig: 4/5/19
Conservatives and Evangelical Christians constitute the core of public support for President Trump. Many of them have felt besieged and under direct attack for decades. In retrospect, it may have been the case that America's changing social and legal landscape was simply too much for these groups to tolerate. The backlash gave us Trump and the rise of anti-democratic authoritarianism.
The Washington Post writes:
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, evangelicals became anxious about perceived threats to white Christian culture in America. In 1962 and 1963, the Supreme Court removed prayer and mandatory Bible reading from public schools. The Hart-Cellar Act of 1965 increased diversity in the country by opening it to large numbers of non-western immigrants, who brought their diverse religious beliefs with them.
In 1971, the Supreme Court, in Green v. Connolly, stripped the tax-exempt status from institutions that discriminated in their admissions policies based on race. This affected a host of Southern Christian schools and academies, many of which saw the decision in terms of “big government” threatening their religious liberty — the liberty to discriminate based upon their reading of the Bible.
And, of course, in 1973 the Court supported a women’s right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade.
Jerry Falwell, a Baptist minister from Lynchburg, Va., formed the Moral Majority to “train, mobilize, and electrify the Religious Right” in preparation to fight a “holy war” for the moral soul of America. Falwell’s organization played a major role in electing Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 and shaped a vision for white conservative evangelical political activity that remains strong today.
Today, the Christian right remains focused on the Supreme Court, which many evangelicals see as the chief impediment to their agenda on issues ranging from school prayer to LGBTQ rights to abortion. Their political playbook requires evangelicals to elect an attentive president who, in turn, will appoint socially conservative federal judges. Once these judges are in place, evangelicals believe they will be better positioned to win the battles over these key issues; saving the nation would avoid divine punishment for its sins.
That idea has remained so potent over the decades because it is embedded in evangelical churches. Pastors use their pulpits to speak about these cultural issues. Adult education classes in churches often focus on such topics. Members of small-group Bible studies discuss them. Some church leaders consistently stoke fear in their congregations by pointing to threats to religious liberty, both real and imagined."
Asymmetric war: With a mindset driven by fear and grounded in infallible religious moral rectitude, one can see a little about why there is little or no interest in compromise. To the Evangelical mindset, compromise makes no sense. But that righteous fervor blinds Evangelicals to another truth: Each of their counterattacks, say by overturning Roe v. Wade, often or always constitutes a much more aggressive attack on people who disagree. In the case of abortion, Roe forces no woman to get an abortion against her will. On the other hand, Evangelicals are eager to force their religious belief on women by blocking access to abortion for women who want one. That is highly intrusive."
The threats here are not symmetrical. Evangelicals simply cannot see the asymmetry, maybe because they know they cannot be wrong. At present, the state is far more threatened by the church than the other way around.
B&B orig: 4/5/19
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
The 2018 Presidential Greatness Survey
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
The 2018 Presidential Greatness Survey is posted below. The highlights are that people who are expert in presidents and presidential politics ranked President Trump (1) last in terms of greatness, and (2) highest in terms of being polarizing. Professor Rottinghaus graciously sent the 13-page study report to me, which is posted below.
Monday, March 25, 2019
The Science of Morality & Human Well-Being
March 25, 2019
Nihilism: 1. the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless; 2. belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated
In the last few months, some commentary here and elsewhere have raised the idea that many concepts related to politics, concepts relating to concepts such as good and evil, fact and non-fact, logic and illogic, and truth and lie are essentially meaningless. Meaninglessness arises from subjectivity that can be inherent in things one might think of as mostly objective. For example, some people believe it is a fact that there is a strong consensus among expert climate scientists that anthropogenic global warming is real. About 27% of Americans reject that as false and no amount of discussion and citing fact sources will change most (~ 98% ?) of those minds.
Does that mean there is no way to discern facts or truth from lies or misinformation? When it comes to morality, is nihilism basically correct and contemplating morality from any point of view is too subjective to be meaningful in any way?
In another example, the rule of law concept is seen by some analysts as an essentially contested concept, which is something subjective and not definable such that a large majority of people will agree on what the rule of law is and when it applies. If the rule of law cannot be defined, how can what is moral and what isn't be defined?
Pragmatic rationalism: The anti-bias ideology advocated here, “pragmatic rationalism”, is built on four core moral values, (1) respect for objective facts and truth, to the extent they can be ascertained, (2) application of less biased logic (conscious reasoning) to the facts and truths, (3) service to the public interest, which is conceived as a transparent competition of ideas constrained by facts and logic, and (4) reasonable compromise in view of political, social and other relevant factors. If nihilism is correct, the anti-bias ideology is nonsense.
Science and morality: In his 2010 book, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, neuroscientist Sam Harris argues there can be enough objectivity in matters of morals and human behavior and well-being that there is a great deal of objectivity in morality. In essence, Harris is arguing that science can find things that foster human well-being by tending to make people, e.g., happy, unhappy, and socially integrated or not. On morals, religion, secularism and the role of science in discovering morality, Harris writes:
Nihilism: 1. the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless; 2. belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated
In the last few months, some commentary here and elsewhere have raised the idea that many concepts related to politics, concepts relating to concepts such as good and evil, fact and non-fact, logic and illogic, and truth and lie are essentially meaningless. Meaninglessness arises from subjectivity that can be inherent in things one might think of as mostly objective. For example, some people believe it is a fact that there is a strong consensus among expert climate scientists that anthropogenic global warming is real. About 27% of Americans reject that as false and no amount of discussion and citing fact sources will change most (~ 98% ?) of those minds.
Does that mean there is no way to discern facts or truth from lies or misinformation? When it comes to morality, is nihilism basically correct and contemplating morality from any point of view is too subjective to be meaningful in any way?
In another example, the rule of law concept is seen by some analysts as an essentially contested concept, which is something subjective and not definable such that a large majority of people will agree on what the rule of law is and when it applies. If the rule of law cannot be defined, how can what is moral and what isn't be defined?
Pragmatic rationalism: The anti-bias ideology advocated here, “pragmatic rationalism”, is built on four core moral values, (1) respect for objective facts and truth, to the extent they can be ascertained, (2) application of less biased logic (conscious reasoning) to the facts and truths, (3) service to the public interest, which is conceived as a transparent competition of ideas constrained by facts and logic, and (4) reasonable compromise in view of political, social and other relevant factors. If nihilism is correct, the anti-bias ideology is nonsense.
Science and morality: In his 2010 book, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, neuroscientist Sam Harris argues there can be enough objectivity in matters of morals and human behavior and well-being that there is a great deal of objectivity in morality. In essence, Harris is arguing that science can find things that foster human well-being by tending to make people, e.g., happy, unhappy, and socially integrated or not. On morals, religion, secularism and the role of science in discovering morality, Harris writes:
On the first account, to speak of moral truth is, of necessity, to invoke God; on the second, it is merely to give voice to one’s apish urges, cultural biases and philosophical confusion. My purpose is to persuade you that both sides in this debate are wrong. The goal of this book is to begin a conversation about how moral truth can be understood in the context of science.
While the argument I make in this book is bound to be controversial, it rests on a very simple premise: human well-being entirely depends on events in the world and on states of the human brain. A more detailed understanding of these truths will force us to draw clear distinctions between different ways of living in society with one another, judging some to be better or worse, more or less true to the facts, and more or less ethical. I am not suggesting that we are guaranteed to resolve every moral controversy through science. Differences of opinion will remain—but opinions will be increasingly constrained by facts.
Does our inability to gather the relevant data oblige us to respect all opinions equally? Of course not. In the same way, the fact that we may not be able to resolve specific moral dilemmas does not suggest that all competing responses to them are equally valid. In my experience, mistaking no answers in practice for no answers in principle is a great source of moral confusion.
The the deeper point is that there simply must be answers to questions of this kind, whether we know them or not. And these are not areas where we can afford to respect the “traditions” of others and agree to disagree. . . . . I hope to show that when we are talking about values, we are actually talking about an interdependent world of facts.
There are facts to be understood about how thoughts and intentions arise in the human brain; there are further facts to be known about how these behaviors influence the world and the experience of other conscious beings. We will see that facts of this sort will exhaust what we can reasonably mean by terms like “good” and “evil”. They will increasingly fall within the purview of science and run far deeper than a person’s religious affiliation. Just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, we will see that there is no such thing as Christian or Muslim morality. Indeed, I will argue that morality should be considered an undeveloped branch of science.
Having received tens of thousands of emails and letters from people at every point on the continuum between faith and doubt, I can say with some confidence that a shared belief in the limitations of reason lies at the bottom of these cultural divides. Both sides [Christian conservatives and secular liberals] believe that reason is powerless to answer the most important questions in human life.
The scientific community’s reluctance to take a stand on moral issues has come at a price. It has made science appear divorced, in principle, from the most important questions of human life.
It seems inevitable, however, that science will gradually encompass life’s deepest questions. How we respond to the resulting collision of worldviews will influence the the progress of science, of course, but may also determine whether we succeed in building global civilization based on shared values. . . . . Only a rational understanding of human well-being will allow billions of us to coexist peacefully, converging on the same social, political, economic and environmental goals. A science of human flourishing may seem a long way off, but to achieve it, we must first acknowledge that the intellectual terrain actually exists.Harris is right, nihilism is wrong: If Harris is correct that intellectual moral terrain actually exists and is subject to scientific scrutiny, then pragmatic rationalism would seem to be a political counterpart of Harris’ vision of what can lead to human well-being for the long run. Maybe because of personal bias and/or the amazingly good fit between what Harris argues and the core moral values that pragmatic rationalism is built on, Harris is right. Science can shed light on an at least somewhat objective vision of right and wrong, good and evil. Nihilism is wrong and destructive of both self and civilization.
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