3 Stories You Should Read 4/17/2018: William Barr, Notre Dame, Far Right
Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
In the category of: Clear agendas
THE FAR RIGHT DOESN’T WANT TO BEAT THE LEFT; IT WANTS TO EXTERMINATE IT
Every right-wing authoritarian movement has one thing in common: a brutal clampdown on any persons or groups who promote equality.
Right-wing pundits have joked about murdering people on the left for years. In the 1990s, talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh quipped, “I tell people: ‘Don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus—living fossils—so we will never forget what these people stood for.'” His words were echoed recently by the neo-Nazi Chris Cantwell, who ranted in a Gab post that leftists should face “complete and total destruction.” Memes and jokes about “free helicopter rides” for leftists like Bernie Sanders have become common on the right as well. This is a reference to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who murdered some of his left-wing opponents by throwing them from helicopters.
In the category of: Follow the money.
The reaction of the rich to the Notre Dame fire teaches us a lot about the world we live in
It would be incredibly cheap to suggest that it is in some way wrong to give money for the restoration. There is a value that transcends simple economics in restoring testaments to civilization. Better that Notre Dame remains a symbol of European history than €300 million rests in a billionaire’s bank account.
But the immediacy and magnitude of their response tells us something very important about the society we live in.
If two men in a world of more than 7 billion people can provide €300million to restore Notre Dame, within six hours, then there is enough money in the world to feed every mouth, shelter every family and educate every child. The failure to do so is a matter of will, and a matter of system.
The failure to do so comes from our failure to recognise the mundane emergencies that claims lives all around us every single day. Works of art and architectural history and beauty rely on the ingenuity of people, and it is people who must be protected above all else.
Brick and mortar and stained-glass might burn, but they do not bleed, and they do not starve, and they do not suffer. Humans suffer. Everywhere in the world, from Paris to Persepolis, people are suffering. But their suffering is every day. It does not light up a front page, and it does not inspire immediate donations from the world’s wealthiest men.
In the category of: The President’s pawn.
Barr’s unilateral ruling won’t affect families seeking asylum, but could make it much harder for adults to get released.
Attorney General William Barr has unilaterally revoked the right of asylum seekers who enter the US illegally to ask an immigration judge for release on bond.
The decision, released Tuesday night, is the first time Barr has used the attorney general’s power to issue binding precedent on the immigration courts that determine whether immigrants can be deported from the US — a power that has been used aggressively by President Donald Trump’s attorneys general. (Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is partly responsible for Barr’s Tuesday night ruling, since he selected the case, Matter of M-S-, for attorney general review in October 2018.)
If Barr’s ruling is allowed to go into effect, which it is set to do in 90 days, the only way for an asylum seeker to be released from detention during the weeks or months it takes for her case to be heard by a judge would be for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to allow her to be released on parole. The ACLU has vowed to sue to block the ruling.
