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surly01 · 4 years ago

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The Week the World Changed: Feb. 2, 2020

Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on February 2, 2020

“Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.”

― Julius Caesar

Certain weeks in history resonate with a significance not always understood at the time, but made clearer as the days pass into months, years, and into history. The week of October 14,1066 the Battle of Hastings was fought, leading to the Norman conquest of England and the end of Anglo-Saxon rule. During the week of April 12,1861, Pierre Beauregard ordered the shelling of Fort Sumter, and with that act of sedition the beginning of America's Civil War. The week of June 28, 1914 a Bosnian separatist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the presumptive Hapsburg heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and touched off a series of events that led to the first World War. One could make a case that the past week may join them in the ranks of infamy: the US Senate, for all intents and purposes, elevated a king; Great Britain left the European Union; and the Wuhan coronavirus, an agent of uncertain communicability but established lethality, was making its way across the globe via air routes.

After his return to Rome and settling the resultant civil war, Julius Caesar, noting the ranks of the Roman Senate had been depleted, appointed many new senators, partisans all. In this way did Caesar grease the skids for the exercise of unlimited power, to be checked only by one of history's most famous assassinations.The Senate had elevated Julius Caesar to "dictator in perpetuity" among the various titles and honors the Senate bestowed upon him, one month before his assassination in February, 44 BC.

This week we witnessed another wholly co-opted legislative body render itself impotent and hold another executive beyond the reach of law and accountability, as it decided to not entertain witnesses at Trump's impeachment trial. WaPo reports the Senate set to acquit Trump next week after bid for witnesses is defeated. Retiring 79-year old Lamar Alexander gave the game away when he folded his chin-stroking concerns. Lisa Murkowski did likewise. All 47 Democrats and two Republicans, Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, vote in favor of hearing witnesses in an impressive display of party loyalty.

Alexander thus explained himself:

I worked with other senators to make sure that we have the right to ask for more documents and witnesses, but there is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution's high bar for an impeachable offense. There is no need for more evidence to prove that the president asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter; he said this on television on October 3, 2019, and during his July 25, 2019, telephone call with the president of Ukraine. There is no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; the House managers have proved this with what they call a "mountain of overwhelming evidence."

But so what? Just to make sure you didn't miss it: Alexander (and the other Senate Rs) hold that bribery, extortion and misappropriating Congressionally allocated funds for foreign aid is A-OK. Likewise foreign interference in Presidential elections: the door is wide open. Alexander acknowledged the illegality of Trump’s actions while also concluding that those actions don't meet the standard for removal. He said there was no need to call witnesses, because the Democrats had already proved the facts of their case against Trump. It just wasn't impeachment-worthy.

One wonders what would be. It is clear, as The Guardian observed, Even a smoking gun would not be enough. House lawyers like Alan Dershowitz argued that if the President thinks that his actions are in the national interest, he can get away with anything that crosses his mind. Thus the unitary executive dream of Richard Nixon is realized: "If the President does it, it can't be illegal." The Trump team has out-brazened Nixon in withholding evidence, ignoring subpoenas, alternately bribing and intimidating jurors, and extending "executive privilege" well past all previous limits. And the Senate has effectively signed off on this, placing Trump beyond accountability or consequence.

One recognizes that A Trial Without Witnesses Is No Trial at All. Senate Republicans were quite clear that no amount of evidence was going to oblige them to remove an active felon from office, because judges, abortion, Israel, and most importantly, that sweet, sweet boodle flowing in from billionaire bunkers, Las Vegas casinos and St. Petersburg banks, all of it flowing over the body politic like a steady, soothing stream of warm urine.

In the New Yorker, Susan Glasser put the Senate out of its misery with a fine article, The Senate Can Stop Pretending Now.

Alexander’s late-night statement was no real surprise. The “closest friend” to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—as McConnell made sure to point out to the Times, earlier this week—Alexander ended up where most Senate Republicans were always expected to end up. He criticized Trump but refused to vote to remove him from office. After making that decision, Alexander went a step further and said that there was no real need to hear any of the evidence that Trump has so far successfully ordered his Administration not to provide. Even the last-minute revelation, on Sunday night, in the Times, of Bolton’s unpublished manuscript, could not sway Alexander; he knew enough.

When your mind is made up, who needs additional evidence? One marvels at the way that fear of Trump has knuckled these solons. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy noted on TV that there appeared to be two impeachment trials: for Democrats, one about Trump's crimes; and for Republicans, one about the malfeasances of the "deep state" and the "fake news media." Apparently "laws" only account when Repugs can use them as weapons on Dems. And while on the subject of "laws," let's not forget that Rand Paul, that human pustule with a bad toupee, tried to work the alleged whistle-blower’s name into a question on the Senate floor. John Roberts woke from his otherwise deep sleep to have none of that. So Paul took to a press conference and to Twitter to reveal the whistleblower's supposed identity. That used to be a crime.

And Charlie Pierce, in Lamar Alexander Has Ushered in the Age of Fearful Men, gets it exact:

Late Thursday night, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, pretty much sank the effort to have witnesses testify in the impeachment trial of the president, and Alexander did so in a statement that is going to go down in the annals of unmitigated weaselspeak…

Alexander is being a poltroon on so many different levels here. In addition to arguing that a guilty president* is guilty but should go unpunished, Alexander is claiming that the solution to a ratfcked election is to hope the next one isn’t ratfcked. Good Christ, what a waste of a handsome piece of office furniture in the Senate chamber this man has turned out to be.

As your government slips away as surely as a cabal murdered Caesar, keep in mind thst Trump and his minions have orchestrated a limited TV series for a remarkably uninformed audience: According to the Annenberg Civics Knowledge Survey, 1 in 5 Americans can’t name single branch of U.S. government. Other findings:

In 2019, 2 in 5 Americans (39%) were able to name all three branches of government.

More than half of Americans (55%) correctly said it’s inaccurate to state that people who are in the U.S. illegally do not have any rights under the Constitution. In other words, that people who are in the U.S. illegally do have some rights under the Constitution.

More than a third of those surveyed (37 percent) cannot name any of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

When my daughter was in high school, I was astonished to learn that she had NOT had a civics class. Apparently some of what we used to learn in civics is covered in "US History," and we all know how well history classes were taught. By high school football coaches reading from an open textbook. So a majority of people taking their place as adults have no idea how the government is supposed to work. And they vote. Enjoy your republic.

In Brexit news, The UK has now left the European Union, after 47 years inside the bloc. The Prime minister, a lower-octane Trump, rang the gong celebrating his own success and pledged to make no concessions to the EU in negotiating necessary trade deals as he salutes ‘a turning point in the life of our nation.’ And on Brexit day one: Johnson went for broke with hardline trade deal.

No sooner had the union jacks been lowered in Brussels and Strasbourg, after 47 years of tortured British membership, than Boris Johnson was preparing to launch the UK into yet another uncompromising battle with the remaining 27 nations of the European Union.

As he hit the gong with glee, he was just flexing his muscles for more combat with the UK’s now ex-partners. There now begins an 11-month transition period during which the prime minister and his government will face the herculean task of securing a future trading and security relationship with the EU. If there is no deal by 31 December, the UK will face a cliff-edge descent into the economic unknown.

Here is a summary of the yesterday’s events:

The EU will back Spain over its territorial claims to Gibraltar in the next phase of Brexit negotiations by giving Madrid the power to exclude the British overseas territory from any trade deal struck with Brussels. The Spanish government has insisted that the Rock be included in the EU’s opening negotiating position.

Boris Johnson intends to impose full customs checks on all goods coming into the UK from the EU in a break with previous government policy, according to reports. The government’s policy had been to waive customs checks and tariffs on 87% of goods coming into the country and only impose limited checks on goods.

You might be surprised to learn that, as the Wuhan coronavirus has claimed more than 300 people in China, and several Chinese cities, including Wuhan, are under lockdown and quarantine, China has erected a hospital in Wuhan to deal with the emergency in nine days. Cases have popped up all over the world via air travelers from China.Meanwhile, here at home, the United States has never been less prepared for a pandemic. Laurie Garrett in Foreign Policy reported that Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response—not just for the public but for the government itself, which largely finds itself in the dark.

In 2018, the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure. In numerous phone calls and emails with key agencies across the U.S. government, the only consistent response I encountered was distressed confusion. If the United States still has a clear chain of command for pandemic response, the White House urgently needs to clarify what it is.

In a cost-cutting fury in spring of 2018, The Trump administration, reduced $15 billion in national health spending, slashed staffing and the global disease-fighting operational budgets of the CDC, NSC, DHS, and HHS. The sort of wasteful expense that gets in the way of tax cuts for the rich.

In 2017 and 2018, the philanthropist billionaire Bill Gates met repeatedly with Bolton and his predecessor, H.R. McMaster, warning that ongoing cuts to the global health disease infrastructure would render the United States vulnerable to, as he put it, the “significant probability of a large and lethal modern-day pandemic occurring in our lifetimes.” And an independent, bipartisan panel formed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies concluded that lack of preparedness was so acute in the Trump administration that the “United States must either pay now and gain protection and security or wait for the next epidemic and pay a much greater price in human and economic costs.”

The Trump administration has appointed a 12-member "blue-ribbon" commission led by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the former pharmaceutical lobbyist and pharma CEO. No idea how this task force will function or when it will even meet. This ad hoc group[ is supposed to fulfill the function of lashing together the efforts of a number of different organizations and management layers.

Bess Levin reported in Vanity Fair that from the guy who brought you attacking another country as “after-dinner entertainment” and furloughed government employees unable to afford food should “take out a loan,” comes this:

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that the coronavirus outbreak in China will help “accelerate the return of jobs to North America.”

“Well, first of all, every American’s heart has to go out to the victims of the coronavirus. So I don’t want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very malignant disease. But the fact is, it does give businesses yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain,” Ross said during an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo….

The virus has killed more than 100 people and sickened thousands, and while the cases are mostly concentrated in China, it has been detected in more than a dozen other countries, including the U.S.

Happy days are here again. So we've got that going for us.

Surly1 was an administrator and contributing author to Doomstead Diner. He is the author of numerous rants, screeds and spittle-flecked invective here and elsewhere. He lives a quiet domestic existence in Southeastern Virginia with his wife Contrary. Descended from a long line of people to whom one could never tell anything, all opinions are his and his alone, because he paid full retail for everything he has managed to learn.

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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Little Britain? The U.K. loses its mojo in Washington

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/little-britain-the-u-k-loses-its-mojo-in-washington/

Little Britain? The U.K. loses its mojo in Washington

President Donald Trump talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May during the opening day of Argentina G20 Leaders’ Summit 2018 at Costa Salguero on November 30, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. | Amilcar Orfali/Getty Images

foreign policy

Close observers say Britain’s influence in Washington is at a low point, suffering from a long-term decline accelerated by Brexit and Trump’s election.

When he visited Britain last year, President Donald Trump nodded to the venerable “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom. “Our bond is like no other,” he proclaimed.

But as he prepares for his first state visit to the longtime ally next week, close observers say Britain’s influence in Washington is at a low point, suffering from a long-term decline accelerated by the one-two punch of Brexit and the election of Trump, whose actions have done more to harm the relationship than his words may suggest.

Story Continued Below

On the military front, Britain is arguably less important to the United States than in years past, as its armed forces have shrunk and France has stepped up to catch wandering American eyes. On economics, the Trump administration is already pushing a hardline stance ahead of potential negotiations for a trade deal that would take effect once Britain leaves the European Union. Even the two countries’ famously close intelligence relationship is hitting obstacles as Trump aides threaten to withhold secrets if Britain doesn’t bar the Chinese firm Huawei from building its cellular networks.

Diplomats say that despite his occasional oratorical assurances, Trump himself appears to care little for the countries’ “special relationship” or international alliances in general. He has accused Britain of spying on his presidential campaign and undermined outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May in interviews and on Twitter, essentially endorsing one of May’s critics for her post and questioning her efforts to engineer a proper Brexit.

“At no moment has the fact of being an ally in anyway prevented Trump from trying to twist the arm of the other side,” said Gérard Araud, until recently the French ambassador to the United States. “The special relationship was more special on the British side than the American side.”

The state of the relationship will face intense scrutiny next week, when Trump travels to Britain for his official state visit. The visit, which the British promised early on in Trump’s tenure, was once seen as a chance to reaffirm the countries’ bond, but the pomp and circumstance-filled event is likely to instead expose the spreading cracks.

Trump will land in Britain amid chaos. May is due to quit her post within days of Trump’s departure, she has no clear successor and British politicians have been unable to settle on a plan to leave the EU. The British are wary that Trump will wade into the fractious debate, perhaps endorsing Brexit hardliner Boris Johnson to replace May, or even meeting with Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Brexit Party.

During Trump’s trip to the U.K. last year, dubbed a “working visit,” London erupted with demonstrations, generating lasting images of a giant diapered and screaming baby Trump balloon. Protests are expected this time, too.

The British Embassy did not offer anyone for comment, while the White House pointed to Trump’s past comments praising the British-U.K. relationship. But a former staffer at the British Embassy in D.C. told POLITICO that the main change in the “special relationship” is simple — Trump.

“Trump is always looking for leverage,” the former staffer complained.

A White House official pushed back on the characterization.

“The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is fundamental to our shared security and prosperity,” the official said. “The United States has no closer partner than the U.K.”

On trade, Trump and his aides have shown no inclination to offer favorable terms to London, which is desperate to strike a bilateral deal with Washington once it leaves the EU.

The Trump administration is already pursuingtough termssure to be deeply unpopular in Britain. For instance, the U.S. wants the British to drop restrictions on GMOs — genetically modified foods — and chlorine-washed chicken products. Such restrictions currently align the U.K. with EU standards on food products.

America’s ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, recently published a column in which he urged the British to embrace the American approach to such products and ignore the “smear campaign from people with their own protectionist agenda.”

Trump has long taken a hard line on trade negotiations, convinced that even U.S. allies are cheating Americans on such deals, so his administration’s treatment of the U.K. so far isn’t exactly a surprise.

Araud, perhaps, put it most bluntly. “Trump is really very transactional,” he told POLITICO. “I don’t see any reason to believe that he will be nice with the British.”

Democrats have similarly cautioned that Brexit could hurt the two countries’ future trading relationship.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recentlytoldthe Irish parliament that there will be no post-Brexit U.S.-U.K. trade deal if Britain’s departure from the EU threatens the 1998 Good Friday peace accord that eased tensions in Northern Ireland, a notable remark given that Trump will likely need lawmakers’ approval for any trade deal.

Britain’s expected exit from the EU has raised concerns that a border will have to be imposed between Northern Ireland, which is considered part of the U.K., and the rest of Ireland, given that Ireland will remain in the EU. The notion of imposing a “hard border” has already to led to warnings that violence could return to the region.

While Britain will remain a member of the NATO alliance, the bilateral U.S.-U.K. military relationship has grown weaker, observers say.

When speaking of how the British had “vanished” in Washington, Araud told the Financial Times earlier this year: “The British ambassador told me — and I loved it — that every time the British military is meeting with the American military, the Americans are talking about the French.”

Former U.S. officials and analysts say Araud is not entirely exaggerating.

The size of the British armed forces has shrunk in recent decades, and the country has imposed repeated funding cuts while struggling to articulate a military vision and get new recruits, according to analysts.

“You talk to the Brits, but you don’t expect a lot because they’re so tied up in their own drama,” said Derek Chollet, a former top Pentagon official in the Obama administration. “For many years, for decades, they stood out from the pack of partners. Now they’re kind of back in the pack a little bit, and others are playing a role that traditionally they would play.”

Michael Shurkin, a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, said it’s not so much that the U.S. thinks less of the British as it is that it’s intrigued by the French. He compared the situation to the famousmemeof the young man walking with his girlfriend while eyeing another woman.

“The French have this incredible cohesion and coherence when it comes to their vision of what their military is for,” Shurkin said. “The money is there, they know what to do with it and they’re moving forward.”

While the British joined the French and the U.S. in intervening in Libya against dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, the U.K. parliament voted down an attempt to pursue military strikes against the Syrian regime in 2013 after it is alleged to have used chemical weapons.

“We could look back and see Libya as kind of the last gasp of the U.K. in terms of its meaning in the world,” Chollet said.

Even the British-U.S. intelligence relationship faces new strain.

Amid his praise of the “special relationship” on a recent visit to Britain, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cautiously warned the British that if they move ahead with using the Chinese firm Huawei to help them build their future telecommunications networks, the U.S. will think twice about sharing information with them.

“Insufficient security will impede the United States’ ability to share certain information within trusted networks,” Pompeo said.

Despite the strains, compared to most other bilateral relationships, the one between Britain and the United States remains unusually tight, even the most cynical observers acknowledge.

The cultural and linguistic similarities between the two countries run deep, as does the shared history encompassing World War II and its aftermath. During Trump’s state visit next week, he will attend a ceremony to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a powerful reminder of how the two countries have stood by each other in the darkest moments.

“Our countries cherish the same beliefs in liberty, democracy and the rule of law,” said Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary, when he hosted Pompeo earlier this month.

In turn, Pompeo repeatedly praised U.S.-U.K. ties, pointing out that British diplomats even get unusually broad access to the State Department. “The ‘special relationship’ is the beating heart of the entire free world,” Pompeo said.

But Brexit has so thoroughly dominated British politics that the country appears to have little capacity for much else, analysts and officials say.

The bitter divorce with the EU was supposed to have already taken place, but political disarray has led to several extensions, with no end in sight. And when the expected separation takes effect, a huge chunk of the British apparatus will have to focus for years on actually implementing it.

Former U.S. officials and analysts described Brexit as a self-imposed wound that is hastening the decades-long downward trend in British influence worldwide.

Some even say that, due to Brexit, Trump or other reasons, the U.K.-U.S. relationship is at its worst point since the Suez Canal crisis of 1956, which saw a falling out between the two countries over Britain’s decision to join a military campaign against Egypt.

“I think it’s much worse than the Suez crisis, in the sense that the Suez crisis occurred during the Cold War so there still was this external threat that was pushing the United States and the U.K. together,” said Charles Kupchan, a former Obama administration official now with the Council on Foreign Relations.

The former British embassy staffer who bemoaned Trump’s effect on U.S.-U.K. ties took some solace in pointing out that — in the grand scheme — it’s not just Britain that has had tensions with America under Trump. Neither France nor Germany have fared much better.

Instead, Trump appears to save his kindest words for strongmen in countries such as Russia and North Korea, while the leaders of traditional allies are left scratching their heads over how to respond to his unpredictable moods.

“The president has a preference for autocratic regimes,” the ex-staffer said. “Everything is so reactionary for all Western countries in Washington.”

#Foreign #loses #Politics #Washington

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rolandfontana · 6 years ago

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Is Florida Considering ‘Paradigm Shift’ in Justice Strategy?

The first two weeks in office for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have been marked by one prevailing sentiment: surprise.

As a Republican congressman from north Florida, DeSantis was relatively unknown statewide until, as part of his campaign for governor, he unleashed a jaw-dropping pro-Trump video in which he read “Trump: The Art of the Deal“ to his baby, and built a wall out of toy bricks with his toddler.

On the campaign trail, he stood behind police and supported mandatory minimums.

Many Floridians seemed justified in anticipating the same hard-right, pro-business-at-all-costs style of governing that had been established by DeSantis’ predecessor, Rick Scott. Instead, DeSantis announced moves in the week following his Jan. 8 inauguration that even avowed leftists could get behind, like committing $2.5 billion to environmental cleanup and nominating a Cuban-American woman to the state supreme court.

But his approach to justice was especially noteworthy.

He and his cabinet posthumously pardoned the Groveland Four, a group of African-Americans who were falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1949.

See also: “The Groveland Four: Racism, Miscarriage of Justice and the Press”

Could that portend a more reform-minded attitude to criminal justice in a state that has often lagged behind in issues like corrections and policing?

Florida is facing a host of contentious issues. Mandatory minimum sentences in the state require prisoners to serve 85 percent of their sentences, and the use of direct file, wherein prosecutors decide to charge juveniles in adult courts.

School safety is particularly worrisome following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, and the state is in the process of rolling out a medical marijuana system.

New Leaders at Juvenile Justice, Corrections

DeSantis’ appointees to lead the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Department of Corrections represent an intriguing cross-section of both conservatives and reformists.

Simone Marstiller, the new leader of Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice, rose to prominence in 2003, when she was tapped by then-Gov. Jeb Bush to serve as his deputy chief of staff. She had roles leading the state, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and the Florida Elections Commission, and was a judge on the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee for six years.

Simone Marstiller, florida’s new juvenile justice chief. Photo via Twitter

She left the bench and was in private practice (and had been appointed to serve through 2020 on the Judicial Management Council that advises the state Supreme Court) when she was tapped by the governor.

Marstiller (who declined an interview request) describes herself on Twitter as “conservative, Christian.” In a January 2018 op-ed that ran in the Miami Herald, she called for a “paradigm shift” in criminal justice and a focus on rehabilitation instead of incarceration. She wrote that as a judge, she’d seen countless first-time offenders who had been convicted of low-level drug crimes and received unreasonably long prison sentences.

She called for a “judicial safety valve” that would let judges use discretion to depart from mandatory minimums in sentencing.

Deborrah Brodsky, director of the Project on Accountable Justice (PAJ), a think tank at Florida State University, said Marstiller was just about to become chair of PAJ’s executive committee when she got the DJJ job.

Brodsky praised Marstiller for being “very analytical (and) rational,” adding she has “incredible management skills.”

“She’s a truth teller. A straight shooter. The kind of friend who will tell you, ‘You know what, emperor? You aren’t wearing any clothes,’” said Brodsky.

Jeb Bush tweeted that Marstiller was “Another fantastic appointment by Governor-elect @RonDeSantisFL! Simone will bring strong leadership to @fladjj and will continue her record of serving our state with integrity.”

Then there’s DeSantis’ pick to run Florida’s Department of Corrections: Mark Inch, a retired U.S. Army major general who studied biblical archaeology at Wheaton College and went on to command troops in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump tapped him to run the Federal Bureau of Prisons, but Inch resigned abruptly in May after eight months on the job. (Reports suggested friction with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.)

Inch (who was also not available to comment) advocated for a balance between punishment and restoration while supporting the federal First Step Act, which lets judges depart from mandatory minimums and other reforms, in a December op-ed on the conservative site the Daily Caller.

Mark Inch, new head of Florida Corrections

“Retribution and incapacitation is just, and rehabilitation and restoration is an expression of mercy,” Inch wrote. “I call on those who focus on the first, at the exclusion of the second, to search your heart for mercy.

“I call on those that focus on the second, to remember the cost of crime to society and victims, and temper your advocacy in light of these facts.”

To longtime state Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican from St. Petersburg who chairs the criminal justice appropriations committee, the hiring of Inch signaled that Florida might finally make strides improving its corrections system.

For years, problems have plagued the system: inmate deaths, abusive guards, low pay and the constant struggle for funding.

“He’s somebody who has spent his life trying to make these types of systems better,” Brandes told the Jacksonville Times-Union. “I don’t think he was brought in to maintain the status quo.”

R.J. Larizza, state attorney for Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit and head of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said some of the things the new administration should prioritize are logistical — like securing funding and figuring out how to function in a digital age.

“There are 20 circuits — they can all have different software,” he said. “All of these different agencies have to be able to communicate, to share and pull all that data” — a task made challenging by new technology, especially body cams.

Some laws were well-intentioned — like the federal rule restricting release of medical information, laws requiring redactions in public records and a new Florida data transparency law — but make compliance complicated.

“What good is a data transparency bill if the information isn’t accurate? It could be very dangerous if data is pulled and it’s inaccurate or incomplete,” Larizza said.

Staff Choices Crucial

Gus Barreiro, a Republican former state legislator and current public policy and community engagement liaison for The Children’s Trust, suggests the administration’s first priority should be making sure they have good personnel in key positions.

“I think most secretaries come in with the great idea of making changes,” he said, “… but two layers down are people who have been here 30 years. The Be Here club. They say, “˜I’ve been here before this administration, I’ll be here during this administration, and I’ll be here after this administration.’”

Between Election Day in November and Inauguration Day in January, DeSantis invited 45 people with expertise in criminal justice to join a group called the Transition Advisory Committee on Public Safety, which has been brainstorming and will issue recommendations.

Grady Judge, courtesy Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd sits on that committee. He said both reformists and hard-liners in the group were close to agreement on certain reforms, such as increasing the threshold for felony grand theft (currently $300 or more) or adjusting the instances where mandatory direct file would apply.

“We definitely agree as a group that there should be some reform as far as prisoner reentry, preparing inmates better for work and reentry into society,” Judd said. “Specialty courts are another one — mental health courts, drug courts, veterans courts — those could expand and increase.”

But funding must be found, he said. “You need more judges, more prosecutors, staff to be there physically in those courts.”

A “safety valve” that would give judges some ability to depart from minimum mandatory sentences is being debated, Judd said.

But he reminded his peers that, despite current sentiment leaning toward reform, the state had gotten tough on crime in the 1990s under a Democratic governor, Lawton Chiles, after a wave of tourists were shot at highway rest stops.

His emphasis, he said, was on public safety.

Law Enforcement Reacts

Judd will have a receptive audience among the state’s law enforcement leaders.

In Columbia County, just west of Jacksonville, Sheriff Mark Hunter, who also serves as president of the Florida Sheriffs Association, said he was “wary” of some of the reforms pushed by hardline advocates.

Take for instance the move to arm teachers in Florida schools.

“I’d want a law enforcement officer or military person with a warrior mentality,” he said. How would a teacher react if one of his or her students opened fire? Teachers know the child, and they [might] have to decide whether to take that child out. It’s a mental struggle.

Whereas with law enforcement, we train how to deal with aggressive behavior and use deadly force.”

Now that medical marijuana has been legalized, Hunter expects recreational marijuana won’t be far behind. Looking at states that have legalized recreational pot, he said, “If they’ll be honest about it, the experimental age has dropped, into elementary schools. That could present a whole new slate of problems.

Judd said of DeSantis, “I truly believe he’s got the best interests of Florida as his agenda, and I believe all of us just want people to behave and be orderly in society. We don’t want to put [everyone] in prison—just those who need to be incarcerated, who would otherwise be out terrorizing the community.”

Whatever comes, Hunter said, “I’ll enforce the laws on the books. We’ll adjust.”

The Crime Report is pleased to co-publish this article with the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. Readers’ comments are welcome.

Is Florida Considering ‘Paradigm Shift’ in Justice Strategy? syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

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blogparadiseisland · 6 years ago

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Nature Sheldon Adelson Sees a Lot to Like in Trump’s Washington

Nature Sheldon Adelson Sees a Lot to Like in Trump’s Washington Nature Sheldon Adelson Sees a Lot to Like in Trump’s Washington http://www.nature-business.com/nature-sheldon-adelson-sees-a-lot-to-like-in-trumps-washington/

Nature

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Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam, attended a presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., in September 2016.CreditCreditDamon Winter/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The return on investment for many of the Republican Party’s biggest political patrons has been less than impressive this year. But not for Sheldon Adelson.

Mr. Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate, and his wife, Miriam, a physician, have emerged as the biggest and potentially most influential contributors to Republicans in the midterm season. Despite initially harboring qualms about President Trump’s leadership, the Adelsons have found much to like in a Republican-controlled government that has aligned with their most cherished priorities: unflinchingly pro-Israel, unaccommodating to Middle Eastern adversaries and dedicated to deregulation and lower taxes.

Mr. Adelson in particular enjoys a direct line to the president. In private in-person meetings and phone conversations, which occur between the two men about once a month, he has used his access to push the president to move the United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and, more recently, cut aid to the Palestinians, according to people familiar with their discussions, who spoke anonymously to discuss private matters. Mr. Trump has done both, triggering a backlash from some American allies.

Republican control of the House and the Senate is so vital to maintaining these policies, the Adelsons believe, that they have given $55 million in the last few months to groups dedicated to making sure it stays that way. That makes them not only the largest donors to national Republican electoral efforts in this election cycle, but the biggest spenders on federal elections in all of American politics, according to publicly available campaign finance data.

In meetings with the consultants and political strategists who have visited his office on the Las Vegas Strip to ask for money, Mr. Adelson and his wife ask pointed questions, hoping to ensure that their money will be spent wisely, people who have pitched them said in interviews. They demand campaign plans, preferably in writing.

They are critical of strategies that appear overly reliant on television advertising, preferring to invest in ones with a wide network of field offices and staff on the ground. When advertising does come up, they have surprised some of the people pitching them with detailed questions, like when they would book airtime and what percentage they were paying up front.

More than a dozen people who know the Adelsons professionally or personally, some of whom are also friendly with Mr. Trump, said in interviews that the durability of Mr. Adelson’s relationship with the president hinges not on any personal affinity between the two, but on a mutual appreciation for something both men have built their careers on: the transaction.

“I think there are a lot of leaders in the establishment Jewish community for whom Donald Trump is not the kind of guy they’d want to break matzo with, but they sure like his polices and what he’s doing,” said Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush who is on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition with Mr. Adelson.

“In a lot of circles outside the ‘Always Trump’ base,” Mr. Fleischer added, “Trump has made a lot of progress with people who don’t like him personally but like him professionally.”

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President Trump promised the Adelsons he would move the United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem during a meeting in January 2017. The new embassy was opened in May.CreditYonatan Sindel/Flash90, via Associated Press

Through a spokesman, the Adelsons declined a request to be interviewed.

The Adelsons’ growing influence comes as other Republican megadonors — Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists; Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah, two of Mr. Trump’s most influential supporters; Foster Friess, a major benefactor to conservative causes; and Dick and Liz Uihlein, the Midwestern couple who have written big checks to anti-establishment candidates — have scaled back their spending or placed bad bets on losing campaigns.

So far this year the Adelsons have steered their money to two groups with proven track records of defending Republican seats — the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC allied with Speaker Paul D. Ryan, and the Senate Leadership Fund, which has close ties to Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader. Though they are known to probe prospective recipients about their plans up front, they do not tend to meddle in strategy after the fact or demand that their money be steered toward certain states or races, people who have worked with them said.

Their $55 million commitment dwarfs their contribution during the last midterms in 2014, when Republicans were in a much stronger position politically and the couple was more focused on projects in Nevada. That year, they had donated only $382,000 as of Aug. 31 to federal campaigns, and gave only $5.5 million overall. In 2016, a presidential year, they had donated $46.5 million by this point.

They have yet to give to Mr. Trump’s re-election efforts, however, reasoning that for now their money is better spent on maintaining Republican control of Congress.

Representatives from America First Policies, the super PAC that is acting as the main vehicle for Mr. Trump’s 2020 effort, recently visited Mr. Adelson in Las Vegas to make a pitch for financial support, according to several people who had been briefed on the meeting. One of these people said Mr. Adelson told associates afterward that he was not convinced of their strategic plan, saying it was too vague and unformed, but has not ruled out donating in the future.

The relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Adelson has come a long way.

In the fall of 2015, Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Adelson on Twitter after rumors swirled that the casino mogul might support a rival for the Republican nomination, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. “He feels he can mold him into his perfect little puppet. I agree!” Mr. Trump vented.

A few months later when Mr. Trump spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition, the conservative, pro-Israeli group the Adelsons help fund, he played to Jewish stereotypes with a crack about how many people in the room must know how to renegotiate deals. “Perhaps more than any room I’ve ever spoken to,” he said.

But after Mr. Trump’s election in 2016, Ms. Adelson was crying tears of joy. “I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed, according to one person who witnessed the exchange, hugging Mr. Trump in a meeting in January 2017 at Trump Tower in which the president-elect promised he would move the United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

It was the beginning of a raft of decisions and personnel changes by Mr. Trump that, while not always at the top of his priority list, would deliver major, long-sought policy victories for conservative Jews like the Adelsons.

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Mr. Trump installed a longtime Adelson ally and Iran hardliner, John Bolton, as his national security adviser this year.CreditTom Brenner for The New York Times

The couple was seated in the front row for the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Jerusalem in May. That day, Ms. Adelson, who is Israeli, described Mr. Trump as “the Truman of our time” in an extraordinary front-page editorial in the newspaper she and her husband own, the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Mr. Adelson plays an outsize, if largely behind-the-scenes, role in Israel. Long a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he began financing a free, right-leaning tabloid newspaper, Israel Hayom, in 2007 that many Israelis consider a mouthpiece for Mr. Netanyahu. It has since become the largest-circulation Hebrew newspaper.

Longtime supporters of Jewish settlement projects in the West Bank, the Adelsons have also pledged millions of dollars for the expansion of Ariel University, in the heart of the occupied territory, including a medical school that will be named for the couple.

The embassy move and other recent decisions by the president have been in line with the Adelsons’ worldview, which sees Israel’s existence in a state of perpetual uncertainty and facing potential obliteration. The Trump administration announced last month that it was cutting more than $200 million in aid to the Palestinians.

Mr. Trump installed a longtime Adelson ally and Iran hard-liner, John Bolton, as his national security adviser. Mr. Bolton displaced Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, whose ouster Mr. Adelson helped hasten when, after some hesitation, he decided to support a campaign that publicly accused the general of undermining Israel’s security.

The president has also begun to undo the nuclear nonproliferation deal the Obama administration negotiated with Iran, which many Republicans and conservative Israelis opposed.

The millions the Adelsons put behind Mr. Trump in 2016 — mainly through a super PAC that attacked Hillary Clinton — did not come until after it was clear that Mr. Trump would most likely be the Republican nominee. But it was funding that Mr. Trump badly needed given how many of the party’s other major donors had shunned him.

The Adelsons’ support remains critical to the administration as other longtime party donors recede. Though Mr. Adelson and Mr. Trump are not personally close, according to people who know both men, the Adelsons still believe that big money can produce big results, and that Mr. Trump can continue to deliver them if he has a Republican Congress behind him.

Mr. Trump respects Mr. Adelson’s success as a global casino, convention and hotel mogul — businesses that the president has bought into on a smaller scale. And Mr. Adelson has long demonstrated the kind of bare-knuckles business approach that Mr. Trump identifies with.

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The Adelsons are devoted to keeping the administration and Congress closely aligned with Israel.CreditBaz Ratner/Reuters

As controlling shareholder of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., Mr. Adelson was involved in long-running litigation with a former employee at his operations in Macau that spawned investigations by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department.

Mr. Adelson has also filed libel lawsuits against multiple journalists who have written about him, and sent one writer into bankruptcy when he sued him at a time his daughter was suffering from brain cancer.

Mr. Adelson also has the currency the president appreciates most: a vast personal fortune that places him among the world’s richest people. As a result, he is one of the rare people whose advice Mr. Trump will take. Aides to Mr. Trump said they noticed a difference in his tenor — albeit a brief one — on the campaign trail in the summer of 2016 after Mr. Adelson encouraged him to act with more humility.

Morton Klein, a longtime friend of Mr. Adelson’s and fellow pro-Israel activist, said an overjoyed Mr. Adelson called him from the car right after the meeting in which President-elect Trump declared how seriously he took his promise to move the embassy.

“I know he was in the car because he kept yelling at the driver for making wrong turns,” Mr. Klein said. “And he said, ‘Mort! I just came out of Trump Tower and Donald Trump just promised me in his first term he’s going to move the embassy to Jerusalem,’” Mr. Klein recalled.

The plan favored by some senior aides at the time, including Stephen K. Bannon, a key strategist for Mr. Trump, was to announce the embassy move on Inauguration Day, people familiar with the discussions said. Mr. Trump’s staff went so far as to look up the time the sun would go down that day — a Friday, the start of the Jewish Sabbath — so they could plan appropriately to have Jewish leaders like Mr. Adelson there for the announcement.

But officials at the State Department and others in the government talked the president out of it, pointing out that it would provoke mass unrest in the Arab world.

The Adelsons were initially frustrated by the delay, but their annoyance has long since faded. And while Mr. Adelson’s commitment to Israel and American foreign policy has always been paramount, associates described his focus on political concerns at home as a close second.

“There’s a Hebrew word, ‘Neshama,’ and that’s what Sheldon has for Israel — a heart for Israel,” said Brad Blakeman, an adviser in George W. Bush’s White House who ran an Adelson-funded foreign policy group, Freedom’s Watch.

But, Mr. Blakeman added, “that’s the land of his religion. The land of his patriotism is America.”

Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem. Rachel Shorey contributed research.

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Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam, attended a presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., in September 2016.CreditCreditDamon Winter/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The return on investment for many of the Republican Party’s biggest political patrons has been less than impressive this year. But not for Sheldon Adelson.

“In a lot of circles outside the ‘Always Trump’ base,” Mr. Fleischer added, “Trump has made a lot of progress with people who don’t like him personally but like him professionally.”

Image

Through a spokesman, the Adelsons declined a request to be interviewed.

They have yet to give to Mr. Trump’s re-election efforts, however, reasoning that for now their money is better spent on maintaining Republican control of Congress.

The relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Adelson has come a long way.

Image

Mr. Trump installed a longtime Adelson ally and Iran hardliner, John Bolton, as his national security adviser this year.CreditTom Brenner for The New York Times

The president has also begun to undo the nuclear nonproliferation deal the Obama administration negotiated with Iran, which many Republicans and conservative Israelis opposed.

Image

The Adelsons are devoted to keeping the administration and Congress closely aligned with Israel.CreditBaz Ratner/Reuters

But officials at the State Department and others in the government talked the president out of it, pointing out that it would provoke mass unrest in the Arab world.

But, Mr. Blakeman added, “that’s the land of his religion. The land of his patriotism is America.”

Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem. Rachel Shorey contributed research.

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

of the New York edition

with the headline:

They Spent $55 Million to Tighten G.O.P.’s Grip

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe