A Skewed Perspective

Hiking Report – Mount Defiance

Posted on July 22, 2018 by hbreck

This is my account of my hike up the Mount Defiance-Starvation Ridge Loop – or, how I learned to stop worrying and drag myself up and down a really big hill.

So, I promised to do this one again. Well, this blog feature.

The Dog Mountain hike back on my birthday got that hiking bug going again. I’m hooked, and I need my fix. Fortunately, the peak of the last one provided a great view of my next target.

Right across the Columbia River, just an hour(ish) east of Portland, sits the hulking mass of Mount Defiance, the remnants of an old shield volcano looming up against the river.

Mt. Defiance has a reputation for being a particularly grueling hike – arguably the toughest in the Columbia River Gorge. Naturally, this intrigued me. After all, Dog Mountain was reported to be somewhat taxing, and I handled it fairly well, so what’s so hard about a longer version of the same thing?

Yeah, you can see where this is going.

First of all, it’s amazing what just a couple weeks of time can do to insulate one to the memories of hardship. The Dog Mountain hike wasn’t the most intense I’ve experienced – but it wasn’t easy. My leg muscles were sore for days after, and my ankles are still experiencing twinges from when I kept rolling them on the way down. A lot of that was due to my lack of conditioning – but also – these hikes aren’t easy.

And Mount Defiance was significantly harder than Dog Mountain. Those who said it was a rough one weren’t joking. Naturally, what I really wanted was the longer version of the hike – first up Mt. Defiance along the Mt. Defiance Trail, then back down along the Starvation Ridge Trail, creating a nearly 13 mile loop. Almost 5,000 feet of gain, followed by 5,000 feet back down. It sounded a bit daunting, but mostly just fun. And again, with the hard parts of Dog Mountain fading into memory, the daunting aspect wasn’t my primary concern.

Overconfidence is a silly thing.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

Last Saturday, (Happy Bastille Day!), I drove east along the Columbia River, and arrived at the Starvation Creek Trailhead, about 50 minutes from downtown Portland. It was 6:30 in the morning, and the parking area was quiet. There’s a decent bathroom facility at the site, with a water fountain. There are multiple trails that lead off from the trailhead, but the one I wanted led down along the highway, back the way I came.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

I tightened my boots, stuffed my pockets with protein bars, strapped on my water pack, and posed dramatically. Well, for a moment. Then I looked around self-consciously, because I realized I looked really silly.

And I started off. Down the path I went!

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Um, the paved, level path, running along a major highway. Huh. Well, the Defiance trail runs about a half a mile along the road, shaded with trees. It feels like an urban park for a short while. It’s almost idyllic.

After a short distance, I came across another path connecting with this one. It came from the woods to my left, and is currently blocked off with barriers and signs, warning of danger.

That’s a good point to briefly segue here. Late last summer, the Eagle Creek Fire burned around 50,000 acres of forest throughout the Gorge. A 15 year old was playing with fireworks during a particularly dry time of the year, and… well, the kid screwed up. Even now, 10 months later, many trails and hiking areas are still closed to the public. The eastern border of one of the closed zones is literally my southern leg of this hike. So it made sense that other parts of the trail might be closed.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Now, the section in question was the Starvation Ridge Cutoff – which would come up for me later on. But for now, scary signs told me to keep out. I wasn’t heading that way anyway, but it was a glaring reminder of the damage that can be done by a single careless person. So kids, listen to Smoky the Bear, or something.

I carried on down the nice clean path that wasn’t burned to a crisp. As I walked in the early morning light, enjoying temperatures in the low 50s Fahrenheit, I heard a loud screech over my head. It took me a second to realize what I was looking at, but there was an actual bald eagle soaring past me, heading along the path before veering right toward the river. The thing was huge! I wasn’t sure whether or not I should salute, or alert the FAA.

I looked up past the eagle, and got a glimpse of my immediate future. The mountain loomed over me.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Further down this path, on the left side, was my first waterfall of the hike. Cabin Creek Falls, a multi-tiered, 220 foot fall, was partly hidden by a huge boulder, that created a natural enclosure for the pool at the bottom.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Finally, after the surprisingly long jaunt along the highway (still at river level), the path veered off to the left, away from I-84 and into the woods.

At this point, there still was no significant elevation change. The pavement remained for another few hundred feet, when the path passed through a picnic area.

A lone hiker passed me coming the other way, looking pretty disheveled. I hoped that it wasn’t a sign that the trail would be overly crowded. I also hoped it wasn’t a sign I would look that rough by the time I reached the end.

Past the picnic area, the trail continued feeling like an urban park.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Finally, the trail got interesting, as I came up on my second waterfall of the day.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hole in the Wall Falls, a 95 foot high man-made waterfall loomed behind a small wooden footbridge.

This particular waterfall was created as a tunnel diverting water from Warren Creek higher up the mountain, to prevent the creek from damaging I-84.

Considering it was created back in 1938, it seems like a fairly impressive piece of engineering. But more importantly, it acts as a lovely backdrop, as well as sort of a gateway to the serious start of this hike.

Because as soon as I crossed the footbridge, the path turned rougher, and became far more vertical than what I’d been experiencing. After a short while, I found myself

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

in the powerline corridor. The Starvation Ridge Trail junction came into view. This was

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

where the return leg of my journey would meet back up with this part of the trail.

According to the really handy guide on oregonhikers.org (they aren’t paying me, I swear), this was where the real fun was about to begin.

Well, pretty soon. The steep switchbacks where still a few minutes away.

And as I entered more exposed parts of the path, I got some great views of the Columbia River Gorge, including my old pal Dog Mountain, over on the Washington side. In the early morning light, there was a serene quality to the view that I can’t quite articulate.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

After gawking at my old friend, I had one more waterfall to contend with.

I came upon Lancaster Falls, another two-tiered waterfall system. This one was technically the largest of the three, but from my vantage point, I could only see the relatively short (maybe 20 feet) lower tier. The 250 foot high upper tier was apparently best viewed from a weigh station about 200 feet below me. Well, that wasn’t an option.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

You know what else wasn’t an option? Staying dry.

So, to backtrack slightly, I was spoiled by the Dog Mountain hike. Other than a brief issue in the woods on the far side of the summit, I never had a problem staying on the trail there.

Mount Defiance, I quickly learned, was a bit different. Technically, the trail I was taking this day runs as a complete loop up the mountain, around the summit, and then back down along Starvation Ridge. But there are spots when the trail seemingly disappears, and one had to clamber around on rougher terrain to locate the trail on the other side. Further up the mountain, this took the shape of talus fields, which I’ll be talking about later. At this point, it was the 50 foot (or so) wide basin of Lancaster Falls. I was annoyed at myself as I spent probably five solid minutes bouncing around on the east side of the basin, trying to find the spot the trail continued. After some time, feeling embarrassed despite being alone, I noticed the trail picked up again – past the boulders and ankle-deep pools underneath the falls. There was a slight slope to the basin, and I suppose a reeealllly reckless person could find themselves slipping and sliding to the edge, which would result in a briefly exhilarating fall into the trees below. But I was cautious, and tend to enjoy not dying on a rock in rural Oregon. So I eased my way across, and picked the trail back up on the other side.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

It wasn’t long before I would get one final gorgeous view of the Gorge looking west, and then the switchbacks finally started. From there, the trail started it’s winding path south to the summit.

And from then on, I just went up.

And up.

Oh yeah, did I mention I went up?

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

I don’t believe I’m in terrible shape, but I’m also not exactly at my best. Plans to ramp up my cardio pre-Dog Mountain were halted after tearing up my ankles on that hike, and I haven’t really picked it back up since. So it wasn’t long before my breath was ragged, my heart felt like a drum solo in my chest, and my legs were burning.

And I was having an absolutely marvelous time. I wasn’t keeping count, but according to the trail guide and my GPS, there were something like 21 switchbacks over the next mile. My still-sore legs (eight days later!) can believe it.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Occasionally, I would get a glimpse of the Gorge through the trees.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

The trees themselves were gorgeous. Although around switchback number six or seven, I started to notice burn damage on many of the trunks.

There were also plenty of trees on the ground, although not so much that it badly disrupted overall coverage. From what I could tell, most of the fire that burned through this section was ground fire. There were some trees felled, but for the most part it resulted in scorched trunks, but still living trees.

Sometimes I would have to hoist myself up and over a log blocking the path. Sometimes the logs were blackened and charred. I’d pull my hand away and realize that it turned black from the carbon residue. I remember at one point taking a selfie and realizing there were black smudges on my face where I wiped away sweat using my charcoal hands.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

This log provided me a nice step instead of making me vault over.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

A little before 8 am, the switchbacks became less tightly packed, and the slope itself gradually turned less drastically steep. There was less exposure, and the surface felt more like a hill and less like a cliff.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

I finally took my first break at around 8:10. I tore into a protein bar and took in the sounds of the birds.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

After I stopped moving, I was able to pay more attention to the wilderness around me. By this point, I could no longer clearly hear traffic along the highway.

As I paused, it felt like I was first really paying attention to the fact that I was no longer near “civilization.”

I could see what appeared to be a blue jay, yelling at a squirrel.

A chipmunk saw me and dove under a nearby log.

It’s really amazing what one can observe just by being still and quiet. I think people miss a lot as they go through the bustle of their daily lives. I know I certainly am one of those poor souls… at least much of the time.

Sitting on a log in the woods, with only the sounds of nature around me… it was a clarifying experience. I took so much in that didn’t involve other people, or traffic, or glowing screens.

For a little while, I couldn’t move, because I didn’t want the feeling to end.

Also, my legs were tired.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Anyway, eventually, I dragged myself up off the log, and started trudging back up the mountain. By this point, it was around 8:30, and the slope had straightened out and was heading pretty directly south.

By 9 am, the trail was growing steeper. It was curving through the trees, and with the ash on the ground, felled branches, and lots of leafy debris, it was a little hard to follow for a few minutes.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Not completely sure how this log was staying in this position… Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

I was getting tired, and having to take more breaks. I also realized I may not have filled my water pack as far up as I should have, because even though I was trying to sip from it at a measured pace, it was already running low.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

And in the distance behind me, I could start to hear voices. Two hikers were coming up behind me, punctuating the solitude. I could feel myself growing irritated, though much of that may have been fatigue and annoyance at my own lack of preparation.

Still, I wasn’t making terrible time, and I knew I was getting within around a thousand feet in elevation from the summit. Distance was still at least a mile, though.

I continued on. Even though I was dripping with sweat, there was enough of a breeze coming through the trees to keep me from feeling overheated. And I still had enough food and water to keep my going for the time being. I mean, it was just supposed to be a dayhike. I wasn’t on a Himalayan expedition. Not yet, anyway…

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Finally, after rounding the bend on a particularly steep and narrow corner, I came out into a clearing. Forgive the language, but holy shit, was the view incredible. From the northwest corner of the mountain, a bit below the final summit, I could see… well, everything. To the northwest was a clear view of Mount St. Helens, looming in her volcanic, intimidating way. To the east from there was Mount Rainier. I hadn’t realized that I could see that far… and indeed, it was clearly more distant than St. Helens. But there it was. And then, further east still, was Mount Adams, looking pretty much exactly the way a mountain should look. Snow-covered, bulky, but still graceful.

These next few pictures will hardly do the views justice. My battered Samsung phone is hardly a substitute for one’s eyes. But it’s worth posting:

From left to right – Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams… Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Mt. St. Helens – Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

As I stood admiring the view – and maybe catching my breath, the voices that had been growing louder behind me came around the corner.

Two other hikers came bounding up. Both were significantly younger and in better shape than I was.

Sort of like how I felt back on Dog Mountain a few weeks back, my irritation with having to share the

Mt. Rainier – Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

mountain with others faded as I actually interacted with them. My introversion is a powerful force – in my own brain. But now and then, people don’t suck quite as hard as I make them out to in my mind.

So, after a very pleasant chat, commenting on the scenery, as well as discussing other hikes, my two fellow hikers moved on, while I scrambled around on some boulders,

Mt. Adams – Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

trying to force my phone into taking better photos.

Also, I may have used that amazing photo-op as an excuse to take yet another break.

Finally, I bid the clearing adieu, and set off after the now-fading voices.

The trail started to narrow, and was winding its way through thick brush. The dirt path ran into a massive rock field. In the climbing parlance, the fields are called talus. Except when they’re called scree. Or something like that. Anyway, I think these were talus fields. Also, along with the loose rocks covering the slopes, the trees were becoming more sparse.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

A little before 11, I came up to the final summit trail, a junction that formed a loop around the summit, and joined back together. I decided to go right, because the guide page said it was longer, prettier, and more difficult. In theory, that would mean the way back would be easier, which I could probably use by that point.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Now would also be a good time to mention that both the fly and bee population of Mt. Defiance were… substantial. And every time I’d hunker down on a rock or log to take a breather, I would feel/hear dozens of the little suckers buzzing around my ears. It wasn’t completely intolerable, but it was annoying.

But I digress.

By 11:00, I was firmly on the big talus fields that covered the west side of the summit. It was bright, exposed, and a bit unnerving. Also – it was gorgeous to see. I’m glad I decided to take the full loop around the summit, because I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

There were a couple sections of the talus that had paths built in, but there were a couple others that were just the boulders, and I had to scramble along them until I figured out where the trail picked up on the other side.

It was about this time, as I stopped to admire Mount St. Helens to the northwest, that another hiker overtook me on the boulders. At least twenty years older than me, with a pair of hiking poles, he appeared to move slow and robotically… but somehow was ripping along the rocks without a sign of stress. If I weren’t annoyed at being passed by an old guy, I’d be impressed.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

So, as I tried to shove away my own neuroses, nature once again decided to work its magic in distracting me.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

I lurched around the bend, now on the south side of the summit loop. And there was Mount Hood, being the perfect mountain once again (sorry, Mt. Adams, I still love you).

I paused on yet another talus field, just above a massive forest, and took in the sight of Hood. I’m normally used to seeing the mountain from the other side – and a bit further away. This was a nice change. One day, I’d like to get a crack at Hood, but since Mount Defiance was kicking my ass on a dayhike, I’d imagine it will be some time before I’m ready for that one.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Eventually, I pressed on, now turning back north to the summit. And, at exactly 11:16, the summit came into view, where I was greeted with… a radio tower and fenced-off communications compound, complete with a gravel access road. Yeah, that takes away a bit of the romance from the journey.

But there were a bunch of boulders on the south end of the summit, and sitting on them allowed me to relax and enjoy lunch while gazing at Mount Hood. The three climbers that passed me were all on the rocks, enjoying a well-earned break.

Me on the summit of Mount Defiance – Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

After nearly five hours and six and half miles, I had done it. Well, half of it. I was at an elevation of either 5,010 or 4,959 feet, depending on the source.

By 11:30, other hikers were arriving at the summit. My goodwill toward other human beings was starting to diminish once again. So I bid farewell to people who would doubtless pass me up again soon, and wandered around the back of the communications compound to pick up the northbound summit loop, and headed back down.

The route down somehow felt steeper. Some of that was fatigue, I’m sure. Also, I had run out of water, and was really wanting to get back to a water fountain.

It took about an hour, but the steepness eased a bit, and I came up on Warren Lake. Campsites dotted the shoreline. The view was tranquil and quite lovely.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

It also gave me a chance to wash off my charcoal-covered hands and face. Priorities.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Moving on northeast from the lake, the path was fairly flat for nearly a mile. I came across a junctions for other routes, and after some time, the trail began dropping faster once more. I was heading more or less north, back to the Columbia.

My legs were getting sore, and balance was increasingly shaky. I wasn’t turning my ankles like I was going down Dog Mountain, thanks to better-laced boots and ankle braces – man, I’m getting old. But I was feeling run down. The hike wasn’t THAT long, but even with the gorgeous scenery, it was feeling more like a slog.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

At around 1 pm, I got a glimpse of the peak of Defiance through the trees. Several large talus fields lay beyond, paths only marked by large cairns. My clumsiness made some of the scrambling rather interesting. But I survived, and continued hobbling along.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

By 2 pm, I was hitting some tight switchbacks. A lone trail runner came zipping past me. He gave a brief hello, and kept jogging. He was the last person I would see until I got back down to river level.

Around 2:20, another massive talus field beckoned.

Only this one had an incredible view about halfway across.

I hunkered down on a rock for yet another break, and took in the sight of Mount Adams, posing majestically to the north, dominating the skyline of southern Washington. It was magnificent.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

After that was just a long, steep, winding drop through the woods. The views largely disappeared, as the path sunk down in between the valleys.

I staggered on for another hour or so. My mouth was dry, I was drenched in sweat, and my left knee and right ankle were both giving me grief. I was still enjoying myself, but lamenting my lack of conditioning. And I was moving slllllooooow.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

A little past 3:30, I stumbled into a clearing. Well, make that the top of a cliff. Here I was, back at the Columbia River. Or, about 1,400 feet above it. At the top of the field was a massive powerline structure. I could hear something screeching at the top of the framework. It took me a minute to locate, but when I did, I realized I came across an osprey nest. And Mama Osprey made it clear I wasn’t welcome. I tried to move quickly underneath the power lines to pick the trail back up.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

I looked down to catch a great glimpse of the Gorge below, as well as the exposed switchbacks that would take me down for at least the next 400 or so feet.

The osprey kept swooping down close to my head, so I made a beeline for the trail, and motored for the first switchback, hoping she would chill out once I got down below the top of the cliff area.

Fortunately, that did help, and she went back to the nest. Meanwhile, I was feeling increasingly off-balance and tired. The view below me was spectacular, and just a bit unnerving. Also, across the Gorge was a clearer view of Dog Mountain. Of course, Dog Mountain is “only” 2,900 feet from top to bottom, but it was a cool moment to look at a massive formation and be able to say to myself, “I climbed that.”

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Dog Mountain – Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

After snapping out of my self-indulgent reverie, I continued staggering down the hill.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

The exposed section finally dove back into the trees, giving me much-needed shade.

I could hear I-84 clearly now, and I thought I could make out the sound of one of the waterfalls.

Naturally, every time I managed a glance through the trees down to the river, it still seemed like it was miles away. My glacial pace lurching down the trail wasn’t helping matters.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Finally, I came up on the Starvation Ridge Cutoff Trail Junction. This point, around 600 feet above the river, would represent a significant shortcut to my return journey.

Naturally, it was closed.

I will admit to being tempted to try to rush the return, braving whatever hazards lay beyond. In the back of my fatigue-addled mind, I figured if I came up to an obstacle I didn’t think I could clear, I would just turn around and take the long way home.

On the other hand, I like living and all that. If the Forest Service or whomever thought it was important to close the cutoff at both ends, it probably wasn’t worth saving half an hour if it also meant risking a nasty fall.

So, a deep sigh, some grumbling, and I turned around and took the long way, back west parallel to the river, and around and down.

Can you see the power lines with the osprey nest? – Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

At around 4:30, I found myself back on the paved road, strolling along the highway. It made for a nice cool-down period, as I moseyed back to the parking lot at the trailhead. It took me around 10 hours to stumble around 13 miles, as well as 5,000ish feet up and 5,000 feet back down. There are people in better shape who could (and did!) do it in half the time. But for someone only just getting back into serious hiking, I felt accomplished.

As I was driving back home, I didn’t want to think about clambering around on rocks again for awhile. However, a week later, I’m already preparing for the next one. Ideally, I’ll be getting into better shape for future hikes, too.

Tentatively, the next couple hikes will be Silver Star Mountain in Washington, and Saddle Mountain on the Oregon coast. I’ll probably be boring people with my experiences (and photos) from those hikes as well.

Posted in Adventure, Series | Tagged Cascades, climbing, Columbia Gorge, Columbia River, Dog Mountain, hiking, hiking report, Me, Mount Defiance, Mount St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Defiance, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, Oregon, Personal story, photos | 5 Comments

Acting Guilty

Posted on July 16, 2018 by hbreck

Generally, when one is accused of a crime, and one doesn’t want to be thought of as guilty (whether actually guilty or not), said individual would be wise to not… y’know… act guilty.

Okay, I’m starting off on a snarky foot. Lemme backtrack just a bit here.

Within Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian intelligence operatives for election tampering, was a paragraph that explained those operatives were working with somebody connected to the Trump campaign.

That individual wasn’t named, but I think it’s a safe bet the Trump team will distance themselves from that person as soon as the name is revealed.

Once the specifics of the connection are publicly established, I would bet it wouldn’t take all that long to figure out how close to Trump the conspiracy gets. Special Counsel Mueller may already know that answer by now, or at least have a good idea.

I use the word conspiracy, as “collusion” is a largely meaningless term in a legal sense. But a criminal conspiracy charge (or something similar), seems increasingly likely to be directed at one or more people within the Trump campaign.

Now, this part alone makes the “witch hunt” mantra laughable. But what’s more significant is figuring how closely connected this individual is with Trump himself. To quote Senator Howard Baker, “What did the president know and when did he know it?”

That’s a question that deserves an answer.

To those who are screaming at Mueller and Rosenstein to “hurry it up,” and “end the witch hunt already,” I only have this to say:

* It took two years and two months from the Watergate break-in to Nixon’s resignation.

* Iran-Contra resulted in indictments of a dozen high ranking people, took six and a half years for the final report to be published, and arguably should have led to the downfall of both the President and Vice President.

* Whitewater started as an investigation into a money-losing land deal in Arkansas in the 1980s, lasted eight years, and eventually transformed into a sprawling investigation that uncovered the fact that the president lied about an affair. Oh yeah, and there was no criminal action involved in the land deal.

* Meanwhile, in the year 2018, Robert Mueller is investigating whether or not a successful American presidential campaign knowingly sought and received assistance from a hostile foreign power in order to improve their election chances.

With these things in mind, my question is, what’s your hurry?

I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to note that foreign election meddling is at least as significant to the American people now as Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Whitewater were in their days.

So why not wait and see where this goes? If one is a supporter of Donald Trump, isn’t it important to know whether or not he conspired with a foreign entity to defraud the American public? If it were a president I supported, I sure as hell would want to know the answer to that.

Innocent until proven guilty? Sure. But a hint of guilt requires investigation. And persistently guilty behavior warrants a persistent investigation.

If Trump wanted to prove he wasn’t in Putin’s pocket, he should probably stop doing his best to tear apart alliances that provide a counterweight to Russian influence. Like when he called the European Union “a foe” of the United States, or demanded that Russia be returned to the G7, or when he vaguely threatened to dismantle NATO.

It would probably help if he didn’t insist on meeting with Putin after Mueller’s fresh round of indictments, or stand on a stage with Putin and admit he believed Putin’s denials of election interference over the evaluation of the entire US intelligence community.

Oh yes, he did that. When asked directly about whether or not he would denounce Putin for the Russian election hacking, he rambled on about Hillary’s emails for awhile, then his rambles veered to the topic, and he said, “…With that being said, all I can do is ask the question, my people came to me, Dan Coats came to me, and some others, they said, they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server, but I have—I have confidence in both parties.”

And then he rambled back over to Hillary for awhile longer. He does that often. But in the middle there, he did this other thing, where he said he believed a dictator of another country over the word of his intelligence chiefs. He did this right next to Putin himself.

Former CIA chief John Brennan described Trump’s meeting and comments with Putin as treasonous. While it’s true Brennan has made no secret of his personal distaste for Trump, is there an argument there? As I’ve written about before, Trump himself is no stranger to tossing around the word treason rather loosely.

As I described in that earlier piece, treason is described as (according to Title 18 of the US Code), Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

Can we describe Russia as an “enemy?” Well, we know quite clearly that the Russian military intelligence coordinated and carried out extensive hacking operations against American political institutions, primarily those allied with the Democratic Party. We have solid evidence that they funneled money and assistance to Republican candidates, using groups like the NRA. And of course, we know of plenty of examples of communication between persons associated with the Trump campaign, and Russian government and business officials.

“If it’s what you say, I love it.”

Remember that gem from Don Jr., responding to Russian offers of dirt on Hillary Clinton, and the subsequent meeting, of which details have changed several times?

Remember the emails between Wikileaks and Roger Stone? Or the other emails between them and Don Jr.?

Remember George Papadopoulos bragging about his Russian contacts?

We know the Russians DID compromise both campaigns and actual voting infrastructures. We know Trump himself publicly requested these acts. We know members of the Trump campaign sought out Russian (and others) assistance.

We know quite a lot.

As of this writing, July 16, 2018, we don’t know for certain if Donald Trump knew what was happening with Russian interference, while it was happening.

There are those who might know. There are those who do know, one way or another.

Whatever the truth is, it’s clear that Trump doesn’t know one thing in particular: It’s better to swallow his ego and acknowledge what everyone else knows, than to act guilty.

He was willing to stand on a stage in Finland, and tell the world he trusted a dictator over his own intelligence officials.

I don’t know for certain Russia is an “enemy” in the sense the Founders intended. But any nation that seeks to undermine free and fair elections in another is – at the very least – a foe. There should be no question that they attacked the US in 2016, and seek to continue those attacks two years later.

And for a national leader to blatantly support such a foe certainly feels wrong, if not specifically treasonous.

Posted in Governance, Politics | Tagged 2016 Presidential Election, corruption, dishonesty, Donald Trump, elections, facts, foe, foreign policy, GOP, hacking, lies, Roger Stone, Russia, treason, Vladimir Putin | 1 Comment

Civility

Posted on June 26, 2018 by hbreck

Yesterday, I penned a brief missive on my Facebook page regarding pleas for civility in the political world. I’m not sure I said everything I wanted to in that initial post, so I’m going to spit out a quick follow-up. I hope this makes some degree of sense…

Ahem.

Less than two years ago, a famously vulgar man managed to eke out an electoral college win in the US Presidential election, despite frequently uttering crass language, owning a long history of racism and misogyny, and frequently calling for violence against his opponents. Oh yeah, and that whole… whaddyacallit… constant lying thing.

And believe it or not, despite this, I have previously found myself agreeing with those on the left (and some of the more genteel pundits on the right) who argued that Trump opponents would be best to avoid sinking to his level. Michelle Obama famously exhorted the Democratic Convention to “go high, when they go low.”

Nearly two years after that convention, Donald Trump is president. And to list the failures and harmful acts of his administration in a comprehensive manner would now take many thousands of words. Hell, it took me almost 6,000 words just to list his faults and failures BEFORE he became president. If one has been paying attention (and has avoided trapping themselves in a self-sustaining media bubble), they likely already comprehend the disaster that has been the Trump presidency.

Suffice to say, while a lack of civility has been a good way to describe the atmosphere of this administration – it isn’t even close the root of the problem.

Yes, Donald Trump frequently tweets insults about people he feels have wronged him – usually celebrities, politicians, and members of the media. Yes, he famously bragged about sexually assaulting women with impunity. And he certainly implored his supporters to physically harm those who opposed him.

Donald Trump is an uncivil man (to be extremely generous). And doing the same things he does back to him would be a pointless and unfortunate endeavor. I personally don’t recommend it.

But lately, something else has been happening, thrown under the larger umbrella of “uncivil” behavior. Citizens opposing the words and actions of the President have been pushing back with more than just scathing thinkpieces, or participation in the occasional subuded march down their local Main Street.

The White House press secretary was asked (politely and discreetly) to leave a restaurant. A senior policy advisor and the head of Homeland Security were both heckled at other restaurants. The Florida attorney general – a prominent Trump supporter – was heckled at a movie theater. A comedian called the press secretary a liar to her face. A Democratic congresswoman expressed support for the aforementioned shenanigans.

Naturally, politicians and pundits on the right have had a field day with this. “So much for liberal tolerance” is basically a reflex statement for many American conservatives. Yet, those snowflakes have been blowing up at every perceived transgression against them for ages now, so it’s not like there’s any surprise recent events have, um… triggered them.

But now, prominent centrists, and even liberals have also been aghast at the perceived poor manners of those opposing Donald Trump. There seems to be a reflexive urge among some to treat “civility” as an overarching principle that must never be compromised.

But this definition of civility has such a narrow scope.

When I mentioned near the beginning of this piece that I agree it’s best not to behave like Trump in opposing him – that’s not the same as saying “confrontation should always be avoided.” Telling a liar to their face that they are indeed a liar isn’t what I would call uncivil. Allowing a harmful lie to spread and be accepted by the populace as fact – well, I think that’s far more harmful to civil society.

Being polite and attempting to stick to the old norms clearly isn’t working. The Trump Administration doesn’t care about facts and rational debate.

I’m not saying we have to act as though norms are meaningless. But we do need to understand that only one side cares about them anymore, and if we ever want them to exist again, we may have to stop pretending that David Brooks and Thomas Friedman represent the modern conservative consensus.

Sarah Sanders is the propaganda spreader. She parrots the lies of her boss – and the rest of this corrupt and incompetent administration.

Kirstjen Nielsen is in charge of an already highly problematic law enforcement organization that exists primarily as a massive overreach against supposed threats to national security. Much of the blame for the manufactured humanitarian crisis of forcibly separated refugee children lies at her feet.

Stephen Miller is an avowed white nationalist, and is the primary architect behind explicitly bigoted policies like the anti-Muslim travel ban.

Pam Bondi, as Florida Attorney General, solicited and (then received) a bribe from Donald Trump in order to back away from prosecuting his tax fraud.

All of them have supported and defended (and in 3 cases, worked for) a man who has averaged more than 6 public lies a day for the past five hundred plus days, who is a confessed sexual predator, and whose administration is guilty of providing aid and comfort to dictators, disrupting global trade, badly crippling the chances of slowing climate change, worsening economic inequality, rapidly increasing the national debt, and disenfranchising millions of voters (to name but a few misdeeds).

Why are we allowing the conversation to shift to civility?

Let’s look at it another way:

Have you ever pointed at something in front of a dog? Generally, the dog doesn’t look where you’re pointing. They usually look at your finger. They miss the… um, point.

That’s what we’re dealing with here.

Worrying about civility is completely missing the point. If protesters physically harmed Nielsen or Miller, or the restaurant owner gave other customers Sanders’ home address – or if something equally wrong had occurred – THEN we could talk about the need for civility.

That’s not what happened. But what did happen isn’t what’s important here.

People who have been entrusted with running the American government are committing long-lasting harm against this country, and its people. They’ve managed to cause harm to people who aren’t even citizens.

For months, they’ve been HOLDING CHILDREN HOSTAGE for the sake of scoring a potential legislative victory.

Why should we allow them to be comfortable about this? Why should we, as citizens – THEIR BOSSES – allow them to cause the harm they’ve caused without some pushback? Sarah Sanders, Kirstjen Nielsen, Stephen Miller, and Pam Bondi are supposed to be accountable to the citizens of this land. Americans exercising their right to protest is something that only strengthens our democracy.

Protest isn’t always “civil.” So what? Why is that suddenly the point? Why is the party of “Grab them by the pussy” so worried about people playing nice? And why is the opposition so worried about offending the pussy grabber?

Why the hell are we looking at the finger, and not the problem that its pointing to?

I do my best to be civil in my personal affairs. I say please and thank you, and do my best not to interrupt. I try to avoid using personal insults. When all things are equal, I think this is the best way to operate on a daily basis.

However, things are not equal, and have not been equal for some time.

Push aside talk of civility. Don’t let them distract you. There are serious problems we need to talk about. If it takes making the causes of these problems a bit uncomfortable from time to time, so be it. Sometimes that’s what it takes to force change. Being nice certainly hasn’t helped.

Sarah Sanders had to take her dinner to go. Her boss instituted a policy of taking children from their parents as they came to the border to seek asylum, then held them in detention in order to force a vote on his pipedream of a border wall.

Why are we focusing on Sarah’s dinner?

Posted in immigration, Politics, Social Justice | Tagged civility, conservatism, corruption, distraction, Donald Trump, human rights, hypocrisy, immigration, Kirstjen Nielsen, missing the point, Pam Bondi, republicans, rights, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephen Miller | 10 Comments

Hiking Report – Dog Mountain

Posted on June 25, 2018 by hbreck

And now for something completely different…

The world of politics, diplomacy, refugees, and climate change isn’t going away.

But, once in a while, a vacation is helpful.

This is going to be the start of what I hope to become a (semi) regular series… I want to talk about hiking and climbing. In particular, I want to actually hike a trail and/or climb a mountain, and then talk about it here. These pieces won’t necessarily be trip reports in the same vein as what you might find on http://www.oregonhikers.org/ or https://www.summitpost.org/. But they will be my personal thoughts on the experience of these trails.

Last October, I moved to Portland, Oregon from Kansas City, Missouri. The move was for work, but I’ve always loved the Pacific Northwest, and always hoped to end up here. In particular, I loved the mountains and the hiking. This is – for my money – possibly the most beautiful part of the United States. And since hiking and climbing are already among my favorite activities (apart from online rabble-rousing), I was excited for the chance to spend time wandering around this area. So, I decided to give myself a birthday present. I took the day off work, and set out along the Columbia River for my first serious Northwest hike in about a decade.

I knew I wanted elevation, but I also knew I’m in mediocre shape – and now closer to 40 than 30. It would be wise to build myself up before trying to tackle something serious. So, after some research, I came up with Dog Mountain, in the Columbia Gorge, on the Washington side. Fairly steep and strenuous, but not particularly high, long, or dangerous. The vistas look lovely, and every trip report seemed to be enthusiastic. If Dog Mountain proved to be something I could handle, then perhaps in a couple weeks, I would look across the Gorge at Mt. Defiance – a hike nearly twice as long and twice as high.

So, emboldened by this research, just this past Friday morning, I set out from my home in Portland, and headed east down the river. Dog Mountain is just past the town of Stevenson – about an hour from downtown Portland. The trailhead is a wide gravel parking lot right off of Highway 14. It tends to get busy on the weekends, so I made sure to be there on a weekday, relatively early. At the time I arrived, there were only a couple other cars in the lot.

An information/pay station stands near the start of the trail, as well as this sign:

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

3.8 miles to the top? Piece of cake.

Mmmm… cake. Dammit, now I’m hungry.

Okay, where was I? Right… time to start walking.

At this point, it was about 8:15. I originally wanted to show up earlier, but a warm bed slowed me down just a bit that morning.

Speaking of walking, I have to emphasize that a good pair of hiking shoes is invaluable. Maybe something with some ankle support. You’ll appreciate that – especially on the way back down.

The trail gets steep right from the get-go. It starts off wide and is initially mostly gravel, but gradually turns into dirt – albeit with a healthy amount of fist-sized rocks scattered along the way.

There’s a pair of restrooms (compost toilets, no sinks) just a few hundred feet from the start, but then after that, it’s just you, the trail, and the woods. And possibly many other hikers, though at just past 8 AM on a Friday, the trail was mostly empty.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

The trail inclines steeply, with plenty of tight switchbacks through the woods. Now and then, a gap will appear, providing lovely (but still low) views of the Columbia Gorge.

Dog Mountain Trail early - view through the forest

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

And now and then, obstacles – usually trees – dot the path.

Dog Mountain Trail - a tree in the trail

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

You’re going to take this path for the first 0.7 miles. And I will admit, after scoffing at “only” 3.8 miles at the start, I quickly gained respect for that whole gravity thing. Walking 0.7 miles on level ground with a smooth surface is pretty easy. Doing it uphill on dirt and rocks is… well, less easy, especially if you don’t pace yourself. Despite the 55 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, my hoodie came off pretty quickly. Stylishly wrapped by the arms around my waist, of course. I felt kind of silly even bringing it, as I was quickly dripping with sweat. And now I looked like a scruffy imitation of an 80’s preppy teen bully.

Look – a switchback! Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

As one heads up the trail, it’s highly recommended to stay on the trail. Poison oak abounds, and an attempted shortcut between switchbacks might end up being rather… uncomfortable.

Dog Mountain Trail - a tree off the trail

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

But the vegetation is lovely, even from the trail. And animal life is plentiful, although they make themselves heard more than seen, as birds chirp overhead, and the branches shake with squirrel gladiatorial games being waged in the canopy.

Well, that’s the mental image I had. Maybe hiking alone was a bad idea.

But I digress.

Meanwhile, after those 0.7 miles that feel just a teensy bit longer – you come to a junction. This is the “difficult” path versus the “more difficult” path. Every guide I’ve read tells me there isn’t actually a huge difference in difficulty between the two paths – but the merely “difficult” path to the right (a newer and shinier one, I might add), is vastly more scenic, running along the edge of the mountain closer to the Gorge.

Decisions… Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

I’m more than willing to take the advice of people who’ve already been there – and I did kind of show up for the vistas. So, about 25 minutes into the hike, I took the path to the right, and plunged into the woods.

I noticed the wind was picking up a bit, but I was still warm enough to justify the hoodie remaining firmly around my waist. But my now sweaty legs were objecting to my choice of wearing jeans, instead of something lighter and looser.

As I pushed forward – and up (mostly up), I found myself in a wide forest, where the path was mostly straight, and the forest was filled with evenly spaced, mostly bare trunks. The effect was surprisingly spooky, but also quite serene. At this point, I had only encountered one other pair of hikers on the path, and they were on their way down. I had the mountain to myself, and it was exactly what I was hoping for.

More switchbacks! Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Look up! Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Oh yeah, and there was also the spooky hut. It showed no sign of recent occupation, although my expertise in these matters is limited. Also, my urge to suddenly re-enact Scooby Doo was powerful at that point. I let out one Zoinks!, and moved on.

Finally, 1.2 miles past the juncture – and about an hour into the hike – I came out of the forest to a clearing – the lower lookout. There were views of the Gorge in both directions, and it was absolutely stunning. It was also fairly windy up here. The hoodie ended up coming back on.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

It’s me, being stoic. Or, maybe just silly. Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

After some time enjoying the view, I headed back up the trail, back into the forest.

The trail was noticeably steeper at this point, and the bare lower branches of the trees at this point were covered in moss. They looked kind of like broken green ladders.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

At 9:30, I reached the point where the “More Difficult” trail met up with my bunny slope. A sign very kindly informed me of my progress:

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

The sky had darkened at this point, and a mist had started to fall. I’m not sure what the difference is between fog and a cloud, but I was in a light version of one of them.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

At around 9:50, I finally caught a glimpse of the summit meadow, just above me. The trees were now mostly behind (and below), and the trail was more exposed. Also, the cloud/fog/poison mist was pretty heavy, and I couldn’t see the gorge, or even much of the mountain below – which was admittedly disappointing. I was hoping the covering would be on its way before I reached the summit. I did get a brief glimpse of the gorge below through a fleeting gap in the clouds, and it felt like a bit of a tease.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

The wind was also picking up strength. I rounded a bend to the left, and there was the old fire lookout point, also known as Puppy Dog Lookout. It was just about 10 AM. At this point, the view was still pretty minimal, but I could tell I was up high (2525 ft), and quite exposed. It appeared that the final push to the peak was starting here. So, I rounded the bend, and trudged into the wind and mist through the meadow.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

The next sign on the trail was not all that useful.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

The meadow became steeper on both sides, until it turned into a ridge, complete with some rocky outcroppings. The steepness of the path, the limited visibility, and the high winds, all combined to create a disorienting effect. I had to slow down. I can’t say I felt like I was in danger, but the conditions were harsher than I had anticipated.

Finally, as the trail narrowed, it switched back one more time, and then up to the top of the summit meadow. There were some wildflowers left, but not like some of the photos I’ve seen from late May and early June.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

The path itself started to level, no longer heading steeply up. This was a bit of a relief.

The wind, however, was stronger than ever. I’m not a great judge of guessing windspeed, but a very rough estimate of 30-40 mph seems about right. Gusts maybe closer to 50. The grass and the flowers were dancing with some enthusiasm. A few hundred feet past the last turn, there was a spur up and to the left, that went hundred feet or so. It ended up in a dirt covered clearing, with a small ring of trees at the top. This was the summit. Further behind the summit were much larger trees, towering over me. I recognized that they started behind the ridge, much lower, but it was a strange effect, to be at the top of a mountain, looking up at treetops.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Anyway.

I lingered for a few minutes, but the view wasn’t improving, and a couple pairs of hikers were appearing on the summit with me. I headed back down the spur to the main path. I had the option of returning the way I came, or heading forward down the path.

The summit grove. Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

According to the maps and guides, this would take me back to the fire lookout through more forest.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

I figured I should see as much as possible – and maybe the forest would help block some of the wind.

It was only a few hundred feet from the summit spur to the start of the forest, but I quickly discovered that this was much denser and heavier than the woods on the lower part of the mountain. The rain had made the leaves wet, and the ground mushy. At points, the vegetation was so heavy that I couldn’t see where my feet were stepping – which is not a good thing when walking down an unknown (to me) trail 2900 feet above the ground below. I didn’t last long. Pushing through the brush, stepping off the trail repeatedly, and having to duck beneath branches that would make Danny DeVito do the limbo was more than I felt like dealing with. At least the path back had the potential to be scenic – and more importantly – I could see where I was going. So I turned back. I found myself back on the summit meadow. I even ran back up the spur to the summit itself, hoping that maybe, just maybe, the clouds would start to clear. But… not yet.

At about 10:35, I decided to start heading back. Back down the meadow, back to the switchback and the ridge on the west side of the summit slope. Then, as I glanced to my right, I could start to see a shimmer through the clouds. It was clearing up! And I could began to see this great view everyone raved about.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

I followed the path down the ridge, heading back to the fire lookout. More people were now popping up on the trail. I was grateful I started out when I did, so I was able to enjoy the first half in solitude.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

The winds were still strong, but they were blowing the clouds away, so that was something. Just before 11, I made it back to the lookout. And by then, the clouds had largely cleared. Just in time.

Yeah, a written description couldn’t do it justice. The photos really don’t, either, but it’s closer. Please enjoy these, and consider taking a trip to Dog Mountain, yourself:

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Below is me again, pointing at my next target – Mt. Defiance. If the image were better, you could get a better view of the peak of Mt. Hood just poking over the ridge.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

After a few minutes of photos and gawking, I turned back down the way I came.

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

Hunter Breckenridge – 2018

No longer fighting gravity, the path was quicker… but I also failed to tie the top part of my hiking shoes, and I kept rolling my ankles on the rocks in the trail. Part of the problem was me being clumsy, and part of it was my rubber ankles… Still, to the poor souls slogging through this, make sure you have good hiking shoes, and make sure you have ’em laced up all the way. Because ouch. My ankles are still sore, two plus days later.

But I kept staggering downhill, now muttering hello to hikers coming up the other way every few minutes. Definitely glad I started early.

Funny thing was, despite my general disinterest in interacting with strange people, I was pleasantly surprised to note that there was a sense of camaraderie among my fellow hikers. People asked me how the hike was, if there were flowers on the upper meadows, even just how I was doing. It was all pretty normal stuff – but for me, it was a good feeling. I stopped to chat briefly with a couple groups as I made my way down, and I didn’t hate it. And that seriously is a big deal for me.

Just about 4 hours after starting, with aching ankles, I clambered down to the trailhead.

I’m not an expert hiker. I’m not all that experienced. But I’m now living in an excellent area to become more experienced. If things go well, I’m going to do this again in a couple weeks. Dog Mountain got me hooked. It was long and intense enough to feel like I made a real effort, but it also wasn’t so grueling that I couldn’t handle it. The views were stunning and the environment was just lovely in general. And even the people I encountered were universally friendly.

This was a good day, and I hope to share more of them in the future.

Posted in Adventure, Series | Tagged change of pace, climbing, Columbia Gorge, Columbia River, Dog Mountain, hiking, hiking report, Me, nature, Pacific Northwest, Personal story, Washington | 5 Comments

Political Hostages in Texas

Posted on June 19, 2018 by hbreck

U.S. Customs and Border Control – public domain

When I discuss current events, I do my best to do so in a logical, fact-based way. It’s important to make sure the truth is told. Emotions can cloud that truth. Getting angry about a situation frequently leads to overreaction and overreach.

That said, Spock was (somewhat) wrong. Emotion isn’t necessarily the antithesis of logic. One’s emotions can positively inform one’s logic, and vice versa.

So I’m going to embrace some emotion right now, and let that feed into my thoughts on current events. Change is tougher if one doesn’t feel outraged from time to time. And right now, at the American southern border, there’s plenty of reason to feel outraged.

First of all, let me just start this off bluntly:

Donald Trump is holding thousands of children hostage in order to solidify his political base.

Whew. That felt slightly cathartic to write. At the same time, I feel sick to my stomach, knowing this is our country now.

Okay, deep breath. Let me take a few steps back.

It’s no secret that Donald Trump ran for the White House on a platform of demonizing immigrants. His kickoff campaign speech included an explicit claim that immigrants from Mexico were primarily criminals. One of his first executive orders was an attempt to ban the entry of all persons from seven majority-Muslim countries. Much of the success of his election campaign came from stoking the fear of the Other among white Americans. Donald Trump made it abundantly clear that “Making America Great Again” was a dogwhistle to white people who were afraid that progress for marginalized groups meant a loss of status and influence for themselves. Black and brown people moving in from other countries with weird religions and strange languages were a danger to the comfortable white supremacy they were used to. And that supremacy wasn’t always explicitly racist in the hood-wearing sense of the word (although it sometimes was that). The supremacy that Trump harkened back to was often a more recent one where white people felt comfortable watching Will Smith movies, and occasionally voting for a black city councilperson. But beyond the occasional token nod to the existence of others, this was still a world where white people – particularly straight, white, cisgendered men – still remained the American default position.

Donald Trump didn’t create that longing among America’s whites – but he did help give it strength. He gave it a voice. He was the backlash to the white fear of losing dominance. Because to many, losing dominance doesn’t mean equality. It means subjugation. It means suffering through what you’ve been dishing out all these years. And that idea – misguided as it was – is scary.

I digress a bit.

Yes, Donald Trump scared white people, and he certainly pushed for a harsh immigration policy. Hardliners on his team like Jeff Sessions and Stephen “Uncharismatic Dracula” Miller have been the primary architects of the worst of the Trump immigration policies, including the (shhh… don’t call it that) “Muslim ban.”

Then came March 2017. The Trump Administration – still new and flailing – considered implementing a policy that they described as “deterrence.” They would separate children from their families when those families arrived at the border. The idea was that such a harsh practice would scare families from even attempting to enter the US, thereby reducing immigration. At least, in theory.

By October, the Trump Administration was ramping up border enforcement, and had already started the practice of family rupturing – although they attempted to keep it quiet at that point. Between October 2017 and April 2018, more than 700 families had been broken up at the border. Many of these were asylum-seekers – basically refugees from dangerous and sometimes desperate lives.

On May 7th, the administration officially announced their “zero-tolerance” immigration policy. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared that all undocumented entries would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law – including families with children. This was a notable change from the previous practice of allowing families, children, and people deemed non-threatening to find a place to stay with friends or relatives while awaiting processing.

This was where the Trump team officially admitted they were taking children from their parents and holding them indefinitely. They also claimed that a pilot program instituted in El Paso from the previous year had met with great success – and as always with this bunch – it turned out to be a massive lie.

From then on, the Trump Administration engaged in constant obfuscation and contradiction regarding what was happening at the border. Jeff Sessions would admit that family separations were taking place, and pushed the “deterrence” theory as an excuse. He pretty much blamed his boss for the current situation. He would also cite the Bible – Romans 13 – as a justification for the separations. It should be noted that Romans 13 was used by the American right to justify slavery and later Jim Crow. So there’s that.

But at the same time, Donald Trump himself would make the remarkable claim that “a Democrat law” was forcing the administration’s hand. He didn’t want this to happen. These poor kids deserved better. All that needed to happen was for the Democrats to “fix their law.” If only that mean old marginalized minority party would use their 47 votes in the Senate and go along with all of Trump’s personal demands on border policy, then those kids could be reunited with their parents. Back in Mexico, of course, but reunited nonetheless.

Oh yeah, and somewhere in there, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, flatly claimed there was no such policy of family separation.

Well. There’s a lot to unpack here. I’m not entirely sure where to begin.

When in doubt, use bullet points. They make for less unwieldy (more wieldy?) reading. Especially when one is slogging through my paragraphs.

So here goes:

Trump’s position(s) is a lie. As always. There is no single law that mandates children be separated from their parents at border crossings.
The Democratic Party has been in the minority in the Senate since January 2015, and in the minority in the House since January 2011. They cannot make or change any laws alone.
The Democratic Party (in the Senate, anyway) has actually unanimously agreed to support a bill banning the practice of separating families at the border.
There has been one law in particular cited by Trump defenders and surrogates to defend the position that “the Democrats did it, too.” In 1997, the Flores settlement obligated the government to release children as soon as possible into their parents care when said families were detained by immigration authorities. This claim was used to argue the opposite of reality. The Flores settlement simply was not a law that mandated the separation of families. It was essentially the reverse.
The Obama administration’s policies are frequently brought up by Trump defenders. This part requires its own section. *cracks knuckles*
- The Obama Administration’s record on immigration was decidedly mixed. DACA was a real accomplishment, but the Obama Administration also oversaw 2.8 million deportations over 8 years. And family detention became a major controversy in 2014 during a surge of immigration that nobody seemed ready for. However, the Obama team attempted to reverse course on the old harsher detention and deportation policies – with inconsistent results.
- Obama seemed willing to learn from his mistakes. There was a slowness that could be frustrating, but efforts were made to reduce the harm done to those at the border. Enforcement of immigrants with criminal records became the priority, and the much vilified “catch and release” returned – kind of – where children, families, and those seeking asylum were allowed to remain in the States while their cases were processed. Obama represented imperfect and belated attempts at humanity on the southern border. Trump’s response was: why bother with humanity?
Right now, as of June 19, 2018, nearly 2000 children have been separated from their parents at the southern border over the last six weeks – and around 2700 since last October.
The current rate is around 45 children separated per day.
They are being held in absolutely appalling conditions. There are multiple hoops to jump through, and many of the children themselves have largely been kept in the dark. There is little guarantee that they will be reunited with their parents. And the process of finding them homes is taking more than a month at a time. Imagine you are a child. You may not speak much (or any English). Your parents have just dragged you along a harrowing journey toward the prospect of a better life after years of fear, poverty, and violence. And then police forcibly take you from your parents, place you in tents and cages, and prevent you from knowing what the hell is going on, or where you’ll end up. That’s what’s going on right now.
All of this is just what’s recent. In total, more than 10,000 immigrant children are being held without their parents in detention centers across the U.S..
It’s important to note that those who use the policies of previous administrations to defend Trump are engaging in blatant whataboutism. Even if their claims about the earlier administrations were completely true (and they usually aren’t), they’re still making the argument that mistreating children is okay because someone else used to do it.

There are plenty more points to make, in both bullet and mortar form. But I believe the basic point is becoming clear here:

The endgame of the Trump team is to try to force Democrats into voting for his proposed immigration reforms. He’ll agree (he claims) to legislation banning the practice of ripping apart families in order to get his border wall, and to be able to drastically limit legal immigration.

That’s what this whole thing is about. Donald Trump is holding 2,000+ children hostage in order to be granted full Congressional blessing to wall off the country from foreign invaders. Remember when I talked about Trump fanning the flames of fear and resentment in white people? That’s what the whole point is. He wants white people to think that scary brown people from other parts of the world want to come in to the States, leach off our (rather tattered) safety net, and get away with all manner of crimes.

The narrative of immigrant criminality has been one of the constant themes of Trump’s political career. And it’s been one of the most thoroughly debunked. Study after study has demonstrated that first generation immigrants, both legal and otherwise, commit far less crime than their more established neighbors. Good information on this can be found here, here, here, here, and here. They pay taxes, yet receive fewer services. They contribute mightily to the economy, and take jobs that native rarely want.

But remember, from the beginning, Donald Trump has wanted you to know that people don’t come to the United States for a better life – they’re here to rape and pillage. And the only way to fight the melanin menace is to institute draconian border laws, and turn the United States into a fortress.

And he’s willing to place children into internment camps in order to get his way,

If your first reaction to criticisms of Trump breaking apart immigrant families is, “Obama did it, too,” then your problem is that partisanship is more important to you than morality.

If you’re told that children are being placed in cages for months at a time without their parents, and you respond, “they should just come in legally,” then congratulations – you just dehumanized thousands of refugee children.

Okay, still with me? I’m almost done here.

Thus far, I’ve taken over 1800 words to say what should have been one simple paragraph:

The safety and comfort of children should never be used as a political bargaining chip. No immigration policy is worth the suffering of children, whether it be honest policy, or like Trump’s – policy built entirely on lies. No child should have to spend night after night in a cage somewhere in southern Texas, not sure if they will ever see their parents again. This is sick and cruel, and should be beneath any human capable of comprehending the situation. We as humans have a near endless capacity for dehumanizing others – but I desperately hope that most people would be willing to put aside ideology for the sake of the defenseless and the innocent.

I fear my hope may be misplaced – at least in Trump’s America.

This is a humanitarian crisis, and our reactions to it over the coming days and weeks will go a long way towards helping us as Americans figure out just what kind of people we want to be. Do we want to take forward steps to a more humane future… or (apologies to Godwin) goose steps… back to a more barbaric past?

Posted in foreign policy, Governance, History, immigration, Law Enforcement, Media, Politics, Rant, Social Justice | Tagged abuse, bad arguments, bad policy, bigotry, camps, Central America, children, concentration camps, crime, cruelty, Donald Trump, evil, fear, Godwin's Law, history, immigration, internment, Jeff Sessions, Mexico, President, racism, Stephen Miller, United States | 2 Comments

Space Days!

Posted on April 16, 2018 by hbreck

The Pale Blue Dot – NASA

Time to shift gears a bit…

The primary focus of this blog has been politics and current events. Occasionally I muse about other topics, but I definitely have skewed my writing toward the political world. I’m not going to stop doing that any time soon. However, I would like to redirect my focus now and then, specifically toward topics that actually provide me with some optimism. Politics, especially American politics over the past few years, generally does the opposite.

Soooo… let’s talk about space!

I want to start a regular feature discussing space topics. But it will probably end up being more sporadic and random than it will be regular. Of course, if people read it, then it may become a bit more regular. In theory.

Anyhoo…

I’m going to cover subjects ranging from overviews of objects in our solar system to musings on space exploration (both past and future), and then on to the wonders of exoplanets, and eventually to the possibilities of alien life.

These will be topics that interest me. I will provide information as accurately as I can, and I will endeavor to make it entertaining. But I do need to stress that I have almost no formal scientific training. Everything I write is information I’ve researched myself. So it’s possible this stuff will be riddled with errors. It may even be as ridiculous as my political commentary – shocking as that sounds.

Growing up, more than *almost* anything else – I wanted to be astronomer. Even if I never physically left Earth, I wanted to explore the cosmos. As a kid, I followed the final planetary legs of the Voyager missions (Voyager 2 reached Neptune when I was 7), I watched every episode of the original Cosmos, read up on every shuttle mission, visited Powell Observatory in Louisburg, Kansas to watch Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smash into Jupiter, and hung out on a roof of the University of Missouri-Kansas City to look through telescopes on summer evenings.

My formal schooling largely ended after high school, but I continue to educate myself as best I can into adulthood. I have been a member of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City, and am a frequenter of many blogs and publications. There are a ton of good resources on the interwebs for learning about space and science in general. I’m going to list a few of my favorites below as just a small sample of what’s available out there.

I would advise anyone who’s interested to check out these links. And maybe even if you aren’t interested… perhaps a new passion might take hold.

In the meantime, I’m going to continue to blather on about the world of politics and current events. I’ll occasionally vent about pop culture, and toss some boxing musings out on my other blog. It’s a big universe. There’s room to talk about… well, everything.

I better get started.

http://www.nasawatch.com/ – It’s not affiliated with NASA – but it does, um, watch it.

https://www.universetoday.com/ – General space and astronomy blog. It’s one of the older ones still being regularly updated.

http://www.planetary.org/ – The official site of the Planetary Society.

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/ – A blog discussing the possibilities of interstellar travel.

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/ – A fun personal blog that officially ended in October 2017 – but the archives are still available dating back to January 2008.

http://www.syfy.com/tags/bad-astronomy – Astronomer and writer Phil Plait’s current space blog, hosted by SyFy.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html – Phil Plait’s blog from 2012 to 2017.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/#.Wsp2HogrImI – Phil’s blog from 2008 to 2012.

Finally, for just a little more Phil Plait, here’s his first episode on YouTube of Crash Course Astronomy. These short (10-12 minute) episodes are educational and addictive.

Posted in Quick post, Science, Series, Space, Technology | Tagged astronomy, exploration, NASA, Phil Plait, preview, science, series, Space, Space Days | Leave a comment

One Dares Call It Treason

Posted on February 6, 2018 by hbreck

According to Merriam Webster, the primary definition of the word “Treason” is:

“The offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign’s family.”

From a legal perspective, the US Constitution defines treason thusly:

“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.”

Seems pretty clear. Treason is a serious crime. An actual charge of treason will get someone the death penalty in most countries. And in the United States, the burden of proof is higher for treason than for other crimes. Good thing, too, since an individual committing treason has literally become an enemy of the United States.

This is no small thing. Accusations of treason should not be thrown around loosely.

Now that we’ve established the gravity of this topic, and the seriousness and delicacy it requires, let’s bring in that master of verbal finesse, Donald Trump.

American political rhetoric is rich in hyperbole. Grandiose accusations of horrible malfeasance committed by political opponents is commonplace here. Many Americans just tolerate the theater as part of the game. We accept that politicians campaign as though the other side is an actual danger to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That said, it’s rare that a significant national political figure casually tosses “treason” out into the conversation. It’s even more rare to hear a President speak in such stark terms. A better researcher than myself could give me a specific answer, but I can’t think of any time where Presidents Obama, Bush, or Clinton referred to a mainstream political rival as “a traitor,” or accused them of committing actual treason.

So, for a less-than-smooth segue, once again, let’s talk about President Trump. The 45th President is notoriously sloppy with facts and accuracy. Most online fact-checkers have awarded him some of the lowest marks for honesty from his public statements.

Beyond general dishonesty, he’s also known for dramatic, and even apocalyptic rhetoric.

Trump’s habit of enthusiastic slander has become commonplace, and it seems that many Americans (including those in the media tasked with calling out his excesses) have become somewhat numb to it all. It’s the boy who cried wolf on steroids. When every problem is the worst problem ever, one stops caring about the problem itself.

So with that in mind, let’s look at what the Dissembler-in-Chief said during a speech in Cincinnati today. He was referring to the tepid reaction he received from congressional Democrats during his State of the Union speech from last week.

“Even on positive news — really positive news, like that — they were like death and un-American. Un-American. Somebody said treasonous. Yeah, I guess, why not? Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”

Now, those who pay attention to his pronouncements may notice one of his little rhetorical tricks. Rather than acknowledge a claim is coming from him, he’ll refer to some vague third party, where he heard about a statement. “Somebody said.” This helps insulate him from those who accuse him of directly lying. He can just claim somebody else said it, and he’s just repeating it like gossip. In fact, he’s done exactly that when called out on his dishonesty.

But he also made it clear he agreed with the notion of equating a lack of enthusiasm for one of his speeches with treason.

It’s well known that Donald Trump is not exactly a scholar on history, public policy, or governance. He likes to brag about being an expert on these things, but when grilled, he almost always demonstrates a frightening ignorance of pretty much any topic important to his job. But even with that in mind, it’s difficult to believe he doesn’t understand the gravity of something like treason.

Or maybe he really doesn’t understand, which may be an even scarier concept. Either way, what he’s saying is that publicly disagreeing with him is analogous to betraying the nation or giving support to its enemies.

Plenty of people smarter than myself have noted Trump’s authoritarian instincts. He has made it clear that he expected the presidency to provide him far more power and authority than it actually does. Most presidents find themselves frustrated with the political limitations of the job. But Trump is unique in that he frequently expresses a wish to limit the press, reduce access to voting, and curtail dissent. He has praised the policies and actions of brutal dictators, and of course is being investigated for allegedly working with the famously oppressive Russian government to manipulate the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election.

If Barack Obama were to have responded to the outburst from South Carolina Republican Representative Joe Wilson (You lie!) with an accusation of treason, I find it likely that many in the Republican leadership would have called for his resignation. It’s almost certain there would be a powerful political backlash.

But with Donald Trump – somebody who has repeatedly longed for more power – the reaction should rightfully be at least as severe as what Obama would have seen in that scenario.

I completely understand why people are already getting Trump fatigue. There’s been so much wrong and terrible with what has happened under his leadership, that it’s easy to ignore statements that don’t involve baiting unstable nuclear powers. But something like this really matters, and I want anyone who reads this to think long and hard about it.

Donald Trump received almost zero applause from Democratic Congresspersons during his first official State of the Union speech. The speech was full of his usual dishonesty and demagoguery. He’s immensely unpopular with Democrats. Enthusiasm was never likely. But regardless as to whether one agrees with him or not, free speech still matters. The right to dissent still matters.

Referring to polite dissent from political rivals as treason is dangerous.

Were the situation reversed, it’s very likely the backlash would have been extreme against a Democratic president. Time will tell if anything comes of this from a political standpoint. His comments are less than a day old as of this writing. But I strongly implore any readers of this piece not to dismiss this incident as yet another stupid statement from a political dilettante. The United States president has referred to a lack of applause as treasonous behavior. He equated a mild demonstration of disagreement with the highest possible crime against the nation.

Words matter. The meaning of terms like “treason” matters. It is vital we hold the president accountable for his reckless assault on our language, for his threats against our basic freedoms.

Dissent is not treason.

We need to remember this.

Posted in Governance, Media, Politics | Tagged Barack Obama, civil liberties, Congress, Democrats, dissent, Donald Trump, freedom, Freedom of speech, liberty, politics, President, Republican Party, republicans, speech, State of the Union, treason | 2 Comments

It’s the end of the year as we know it

Posted on January 1, 2018 by hbreck

…and I feel ambivalent.

That doesn’t rhyme. With apologies to Michael Stipe and Co., nothing else has occurred in any sort of rational way in 2017, so why should I come up with a clever lyrical parody? I’m just trying to figure it all out.

So here it is. The end of a really weird year.

Am I wrong for thinking there’s more than a hint of despair in the air? Like there’s a decline occurring in our society that we’re all powerless to stop. Maybe after the roller coaster crashes, we can dust ourselves off, and try to figure out what to do next. But applying the brakes and making sense of the ride while en route feels futile.

On the other hand, it’s possible that the despair is overstated. I’ve written about this before. The world is, for the most part, getting better, not worse. On a worldwide scale (as well as at most individual national levels), war, disease, crime, poverty, child mortality, oppression of women – all of these factors have improved greatly over the last century. The trend lines have shown them to have improved over the last 50 years, the last 20, the last ten… Only in the last two or three years have certain indicators turned negative, particularly involving warfare between and within nations. But this uptick, when viewed from a distance, is likely part of the usual cycle of spikes and drops within the larger downward slope of worldwide violence.

It must appear somewhat cold and callous to seem to write off bloodshed, chaos, misery, and suffering in Syria, Egypt, Myanmar, Venezuela, South Sudan, Iraq, North Korea, Ukraine, and other hotspots around the world as a mere historical blip. Indeed, these are very real problems. Problems that require concentrated attention from diplomats, humanitarian aid workers, and the bureaucracies of several powerful nations – all actually working with some alacrity to address these crises. But when a relatively privileged American views these emergencies on the news, they all tend to blend together into a red blur. A certain despairing malaise takes hold, and many feel a sense of general unease about the world. It’s no wonder many people retreat into the open arms of the blunt orange instrument inarticulately railing about the horrors of the modern world. The only solution, he proclaims, is to wall ourselves off, keep the people with that religion from getting in, and to strike a belligerent tone to scare others away. When everything in the world seems terrifying in a somewhat generic and slightly-scripted sort of way, there’s comfort in locking our doors and telling the neighbors to go away.

That’s precisely why I try to acknowledge the real problems of the world, while still taking the long view. Even with the Fearmonger-in-Chief in Washington, we still do live in perhaps the safest, securest, healthiest, and best-educated era in the history of humanity. Yeah, we’re likely going to see the negative blip grow a bit more, and we may backslide some, at least until we can get the Dorito stains off the nuclear football… but there’s no reason the world has to backslide all the way back to the Dark Ages. No reason, despite what Fox News tells you when they show pictures of battlefields and terror attacks half a world away.

But work is required to prevent that backslide. Just because it doesn’t have to happen doesn’t mean it can’t.

It’s a good idea to at least take a quick look at the damage of 2017.

In charge of my home nation is a man who appears to have a superpower – he can deny and resist objective reality. His weaknesses involve people telling him the truth, which is why he seems to prefer his advisors with spinal columns pre-removed, to improve their sycophancy rate.

How does one resist a man who simply denies the facts? Who proclaims lies true? Who proudly brags about assaulting women, then later claims the televised evidence is somehow a fraud? Who accuses his predecessor of treachery without providing any evidence? How does one combat misinformation when a significant percentage of the electorate becomes MORE convinced of their worldview when confronted with opposing factual information?

How do we resist a man who is staggering toward war with North Korea? The North Korean government, it should be noted, is propped up primarily by scaring its citizens into constant fear of the United States. If the US government decided tomorrow to leave Kim Jong Un alone, he would likely be deposed within a few years. But instead, we have a President who hurls childish insults toward the dictator via Twitter, and uses apocalyptic language when directly threatening to obliterate a sovereign nation.

I could go on. We could talk about Russian interference in American elections – a fact proven by multiple intelligence agencies – and alternately denied and dismissed by the one person with the most power to do something about it.

We could discuss the enormous rollback of environmental regulations. We could talk about the re-militarization of American police. We could discuss the return of voodoo economics. We could talk about the gradual sabotage of the Affordable Care Act. We can discuss the political party in power doing their damnedest to obstruct investigations into potential crimes committed by the POTUS. We can talk about constant, unapologetic corruption at the highest level of American government. We can talk about the fact that the current president’s primary interest seems to be dismantling every good thing his predecessor did, while accelerating the worst aspects of the prior administration.

And yes, I guess most of my personal sense of malaise and despair keeps dragging me back to the same stupid topic – Donald Trump. Well, Trump, and the 63 million people willing to play Russian Roulette with our government.

I swear, I know other things happened in 2017. Even though he would hate to hear it – not everything in America (or the world) centered around the Tantrum Tangerine.

From a cultural and social standpoint – we’ve seen massive conflict in the US… right wing extremist groups are on the rise, but being countered hard by anti-racist and anti-fascist movements, as well as enormously increased political participation by women, Democrats, liberals, leftists, LGBTQ citizens, and people of color. The #METOO movement exploded, seemingly out of nowhere – although not really from nowhere (for those who don’t benefit from systemic misogyny).

The Russian government continues to ratfuck everyone and everything. Syria is still essentially collapsed. Robert Mugabe resigned. The EU is still suffering from self-inflicted austerity-reinforced wounds. Democracy has backslid in nations like Turkey and the Philippines. The government of Myanmar is committing ethnic cleansing of a large minority population. Big chunks of the Arctic continue to melt. Puerto Rico was pummeled by a massive hurricane, and then intentionally neglected by the federal government. One of the best movies of the year was about one of the worst movies of the century.

And Francisco Franco is still dead.

I don’t know if 2017 has definitively been more chaotic than other years. That’s likely difficult to quantify – and it’s easy to become hyperbolic about it all.

But this shit has been weird.

Even with positive long-term trends, we live in a world that feels less stable. Uncertainty is in the air. Social change is occurring at a rapid pace. The role of the United States in world affairs is in increasing doubt.

Hell, even in my personal life, everything has changed. I moved from Missouri to Oregon, started a new job, and kind of rebooted my life. I started writing more fiction (possibly to be posted here some day).

But life continues. We still hurtle around and around through the void. The sun still does its giant nuclear reaction thing. And all these little, self-important creatures running around on this tiny speck in the suburbs of a medium-large galaxy continue to drive each other crazy.

I don’t think I can predict what’s gonna happen next year. But I plan to still be here, writing about it all. With any luck, I’ll be able to talk about it all again this time next year.

Good night, and happy new year.

Posted in foreign policy, Governance, Healthcare, Politics, Rant, Social Justice | Tagged #metoo, 2017, corruption, Donald Trump, politics, racial equality, racism, retrospective, sexism, sexual assault, Social Justice | Leave a comment

Them Too, Mr. President

Posted on December 3, 2017 by hbreck

If one wants to know why women often take years to come forward after being sexually harassed or assaulted, Exhibit A currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington D.C., 20500.

But let’s backtrack briefly.

There’s a social wave occurring in the United States right now. In the worlds of the famous – politics, entertainment, media – scores of women are publicly taking a stand. They’re telling their stories to the world, detailing the ways that men of power and privilege have harassed, insulted, threatened, intimidated, and assaulted them. And these stories are finally beginning to have consequences.

Bill Cosby’s career essentially ended when the accusations against him became widely known. Criminal proceedings started this year, though they have stalled for the time being.
Harvey Weinstein was fired from his own company, and has become a pariah in his industry. In addition, criminal investigations are now beginning.
James Toback will likely not be making any films ever again after literally hundreds of women accused him of sexual harassment and assault.
Louis CK had to step away from promotion of his new film. Support and work has dried up for him, after allegations of sexual harassment were publicly released.
Charlie Rose, Garrison Keillor, and Matt Lauer all lost their jobs.
Al Franken agreed to an ethics investigation into allegations about him from before he was a Senator. Subsequent allegations included incidents from after he was elected.

There are so many others. Prominent men in positions of influence and power are finding the ground underneath their pedestals of privilege crumbling.

There is, however, one glaring exception. Allegations against this particular man have been publicly known longer than most of the aforementioned. But for some reason, this specific man not only continued in the public sphere despite these allegations, he thrived.

I am, of course, referring to the current President of the United States, Donald Trump.

In fact, he became President AFTER video and audio evidence of him was released, cheerfully telling Billy Bush specifics about his crimes.

He literally bragged about committing sexual assault with impunity.

Yes, there was some immediate backlash, but it faded swiftly. After all, admitted sexual assault is bad, but a Democratic woman is much scarier – at least, to 63 million Americans.

Donald Trump hasn’t exactly faded out of the news since the infamous Access Hollywood tape was released. Obviously, becoming the most powerful non-Russian on Earth would guarantee that. But despite the turbulence of the Trump presidency, as well as a sudden cultural shift in favor of women pushing back against systemic misogyny – Trump’s own sexual misdeeds have largely faded from public memory.

They shouldn’t. Indeed, they can’t.

Not just for the individual women themselves, although their justice is paramount. However, also important is justice for women, period. If the American President is allowed to assault and harass more than a dozen women (at least), and face no retribution, no inquiry, no serious investigation, then injustice has been done to ALL women.

Donald Trump has a myriad of other issues right now, many of them unrelated to his treatment of women. And it’s possible he may find himself out of office early, and possibly even on trial – thanks to those issues. But even in that event, it would do a massive disservice to those he mistreated to forget about them, or they stories they’ve told.

I would like to provide a reminder that the current President of the United States has been accused of committing sexual crimes against the following women:

Jessica Leeds

Some time in the 1980s, while sitting next to Donald Trump on a flight, he groped her repeatedly, including reaching under her skirt, while she sat frozen in terror.

Jill Harth

In 1993, she alleged he cornered her in an empty room at Mar-a-Lago, and groped her, while trying to reach up her dress. This was after several months of repeated and declined advances by Trump.

Ivana Trump
While married to Donald, in 1989, Ivana told friends that Donald attacked her after he had a painful surgery on his scalp. He pulled hair out of her head and then raped her. Years later, she walked back the phrase “rape,” but she never denied the actual events (which clearly described rape) happened.

Kristin Anderson
In the early ’90s, at the China Club in New York, Trump sat next to Anderson – who was a stranger to him – and reached up her skirt, touching her genitals through her underwear. She and her friends left quickly after that. She and those same friends were able to identify the groper as Donald Trump.

Lisa Boyne
Boyne attended a dinner at a restaurant in the mid ’90s with Trump, several men, and a group of models. She said that Trump had the models walk around on the table above him, where he looked up their skirts and commented on what he saw. He also spent much of the time bragging about his sexual exploits directly to Boyne.

Temple Taggart
During rehearsals for the 1997 Miss USA pageant, Trump forced an unwanted kiss on Taggart’s lips, not once, but twice.

Mariah Billado
Billado was a contestant in the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant. She and four other contestants all confirmed that Trump walked into their changing room while they were in various states of undress, including completely naked. The contestants aged between 15 and 19 that year, which meant he was invading the privacy of numerous minors.

Cathy Heller

In the mid ’90s, Heller said that during the one and only time she met Donald Trump, he immediately tried to kiss her on the lips without any warning. He then yelled at her as she twisted away.

Karena Virginia

In 1998, while waiting for a car outside of the US Open tennis tournament in New York, Trump approached her. He made objectifying comments about her appearance to the group of men he was with, then reached out and grabbed her breast. He smiled at her and asked, “Don’t you know who I am?”

Bridget Sullivan

Similar to the testimony of Mariah Billado at the Miss Teen USA pageant, Trump was accused of walking into the changing rooms at the Miss USA and possibly Miss Universe pageants as well. Sullivan, the former Miss New Hampshire attested to this. In addition, Trump himself had bragged about walking into the changing rooms with impunity. This has been recorded during interviews with Howard Stern.

Tasha Dixon

Former Miss Arizona Tasha Dixon also confirmed the stories of Trump walking into the changing rooms while contestants were in various states of undress.

Natasha Stoynoff

Stoynoff, a writer for People Magazine, alleged Trump attacked her in an empty room at Mar-a-Lago in December 2005, when she traveled there to conduct an interview with him. He forcibly kissed her, and stuck his tongue down her throat. A butler interrupted them, but later in the day, Trump told Stoynoff, “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you? Have you ever been to Peter Luger’s for steaks? I’ll take you. We’re going to have an affair, I’m telling you.” Six witnesses later corroborated Stoynoff’s account of the incident.

Rachel Crooks

In 2005, Crooks worked as a receptionist at a company located in Trump Tower. One day, Trump approached her outside of an elevator. He shook her hand, but then refused to let go. He started kissing her cheeks, then kissed her on her mouth as she struggled to escape. She eventually ran back to her desk, badly shaken by the assault.

Mindy McGillivray

January 2003, at Mar-a-Lago, McGillivray was working as a photographers assistant. While standing in a group of people photographing Ray Charles, she felt someone grab her buttocks. She turned around to see Donald Trump standing there, smiling.

Jennifer Murphy

As a contestant on the Apprentice in 2005, Murphy interviewed for a job with Trump. At the end of the interview, Trump kissed her, uninvited, on the mouth. It should be noted, unlike the other accusers, Murphy has admitted she was “okay with it.”

Jessica Drake

In 2006, at a golf tournament, Trump grabbed Drake, along with two other women, and kissed each one on the mouth without permission. He then contacted Drake repeatedly after, offering $10,000 in exchange for sex – which she declined.

Ninni Laaksonen

The former Miss Finland was groped by Trump during a group photograph in 2006, outside of the building where the Late Show with David Letterman was filmed.

Summer Zervos

Zervos was a contestant on Trump’s reality game show The Apprentice in 2007. She has stated that on two occasions, he forcibly kissed her on the mouth while meeting her privately. And during the second incident, he groped her breast, and tried to coerce her into joining in him a bedroom. He reacted angrily when she spurned his advances.

Cassandra Searles

Searles contends that as a contestant in the 2013 Miss USA pageant, Trump groped her several times and asked her to go back to his hotel room. She declined his requests.

———————————————————————————————-

These women do not personally benefit by coming forward and telling their stories. Even now, a year after most of these complaints came to light, there still is a frequent backlash against accusers. The claim that false accusations are common, and occur for money or publicity, ring hollow. This is true especially when one looks back at the last few months, and the waves of women stepping forward to tell the world what happened to them, at the hands of powerful and prominent men. These women are often suffering, reliving horrible experiences, all while being called liars by the men themselves, their lawyers, and their supporters. There is no glory here. Only pain. And maybe the hope that these revelations will eventually spark societal change. Already there’s been some evidence of that. But any major social shift is painful, and will likely involve further ugly backlash. People in positions of power and privilege tend to fight to maintain that privilege.

And nowhere does white male privilege put itself on full display more prominently than Donald Trump.

Go back through that list I wrote above. Read about these women. Follow the links I provided, and look at their stories. There are more detailed overviews of his crimes against women here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. And listen to what Trump has admitted during interviews. And of course, read what Trump himself has said.

Referring to Nancy O’Dell, he stated, “I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, “I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.” I took her out furniture—I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”

And in the same conversation, now about Arianne Zucker, “I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

These comments, recorded during the infamous Access Hollywood tape, confirm many of the behaviors described by his accusers.

Donald Trump has shown himself, through his words and actions, to be a sexual predator. It seems like Americans are now beginning to give up on the idea of giving power men a pass on these behaviors. At least, they seem to be in the entertainment and media fields. Yet, in politics – partisanship may still be protecting them for a time longer. Al Franken and John Conyers have not yet resigned. Roy Moore is still even money to win his current Senate race. Bill Clinton still holds a position of respect in the Democratic Party. And… Donald Trump is still President.

We’ll know the societal shift toward supporting women over predators is taking universal hold when it starts to triumph over political power. Until then, I intend to remind people about these accusations as often as possible. Supporting Donald Trump means complicity with his behavior. These are the same behaviors that have brought down Harvey Weinstein. Is loyalty to one person or one party worth the suffering of – at least – 19 women? When will it be enough for his supporters to turn away from him?

Posted in Entertainment, Governance, Media, Politics, Social Justice | Tagged #metoo, Al Franken, Bill Cosby, Bridget Sullivan, Cassandra Searles, Cathy Heller, celebrities, Charlie Rose, Donald Trump, Garrison Keillor, harassment, Harvey Weinstein, Ivana Trump, James Toback, Jennifer Murphy, Jessica Drake, Jessica Leeds, Jill Harth, Karena Virginia, Kristin Anderson, Lisa Boyne, Louis CK, Mariah Billado, Matt Lauer, Men, Mindy McGillivray, misogyny, Natasha Stoynoff, news, Ninni Laaksonen, Rachel Brooks, sexism, sexual assault, Summer Zervos, Tasha Dixon, Temple Taggart, Women, women's rights | 2 Comments

A Well Regulated Debate

Posted on November 14, 2017 by hbreck

By 1st United States Congress [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

So, a whole bunch of people died recently (again), and, once again, we can trace the basic root cause back to the easy availability of firearms in the United States. And, once again, American consistency rules the day, and we can count on an angry backlash from right-leaning pundits and politicians telling us not to talk about guns when they’re used to commit mass murder. Because we can’t have nice things, apparently.

One day I will actually finish my big firearm policy piece on my blog. Until then, I’m not necessarily interested in a big argument about the why right now. There will be plenty of time and energy for that debate in the future. I just want to point out that there is a clear correlation on the national level (and a slightly muddier correlation on the state level) that more guns equals more gun crime. Generally. I have no doubt there will be some who will want to argue and rage over that point. I’ll get to that soon enough. Don’t worry.

Right now, however, there’s another point I was thinking about. Many Americans, (particularly those elected officials nestled comfortably in the pockets of the firearms manufacturer lobby) will bring up the Second Amendment.

“Gun laws may or may not work, but we can’t have any, because something, something, the Second Amendment, freedom, something, something.”

The argument usually starts and ends there. The Constitution says we can have all the guns we want, so that’s that.

Indeed, for years, many Americans believed this. The Second Amendment is vaguely worded – some historians argue intentionally.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The history of the Second Amendment is long and surprisingly complex. Much of my eventual gun piece will focus on it. Suffice to say, the actual language of the amendment was subject to much debate, as was what the actual intent should be. Michael Waldman covers this beautifully in his book The Second Amendment: A Biography.

I’m not going to delve too much into the history here, except to note that compared to some of the other amendments, the second one actually hasn’t come up in court all that many times. One of the most significant cases that did warrant a Supreme Court hearing was the United States v. Miller in 1939. The decision in that case largely affirmed the notion that the militia aspect of the amendment was its linchpin. Meaning, the amendment itself didn’t actually guarantee individuals unfettered access to firearms.

During the time the Bill of Rights were being hammered out, the hope was that a standing army would be unnecessary. In the event military action was needed, the citizen militia would be able to mobilize quickly. They would need to have access to firearms, ammunition, and proper training. It was thought to be important to codify that need as a right. But it was largely a collective right, as well as something of an administrative measure. Even at the close of the eighteenth century, many towns and cities had regulations and restrictions on firearms. It was not automatically assumed that there was a right for individuals to carry firearms in public. The Second Amendment was there more as a way to ensure national defense than anything else.

This was essentially the interpretation that was used in the Miller decision. While there were dissenting historians who argued in favor of the individual right to own guns, they did not dominate academic and judicial circles. Plenty of superb legal minds have sided with the militia view of the Second Amendment. Former Justices Warren Burger and John Paul Stevens have both weighed in quite eloquently on the topic.

Flash forward to 2008. District of Columbia v Heller was a constitutional challenge to firearms restrictions in Washington DC. In a massive interpretive shift, the Supreme Court narrowly ruled against the restriction. The majority opinion was written by Antonin Scalia, in what for him was something of a pet project. The historic Court interpretation of the 2nd Amendment was something that had perpetually vexed him, and with a 5-4 right-leaning majority, and a gun case that made it up to that level, he had his chance to push back against centuries of precedent. Thanks to his 64 page decision, the Supreme Court officially reversed course, and now, individual possession of firearms for protective purposes was constitutionally mandated.

There is quite a bit to criticize regarding Scalia’s skills as a historian, which has always cast doubt on his preference for “originalism.” More than that, his claimed objectivity barely masked his ideological extremism. Remember, this is the guy who equated LGBT Americans with murderers and animal rapists. But regardless of any assessment of his knowledge or biases – his decision stands. So, now that Americans have a right to own firearms, what does that mean for gun regulation? Does that mean all laws should now be thrown out?

Well, let’s ask Scalia himself. Well, er, that might be tricky now, but we can consult the deciding document itself, because Justice Scalia took some time to address regulations and restrictions.

Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.

Right there, Scalia specifically lists four different types of restrictions that he – a believer in an individual right to own firearms – considers constitutionally sound. And there is an implication that other kinds of restrictions may pass muster under his revisionist interpretation of the Second Amendment. It’s also important to remind the zealous of his first sentence in the above paragraph:

Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited.

In the same way that laws against threats and libel don’t violate the First Amendment, even rights enumerated in the United States Constitution have necessary limits. As libertarians love to say, “your right to swing your fist ends at my nose.” If a right impedes the rights of someone else, then it has reached its limit.

The Second Amendment is no different. While I have much to dispute with the late Justice Scalia, he and I both agree that in a working society, every right must have a stopping point. With firearms, that specific point is clearly a major sticking point in political and legal debate. But there is no doubt that a line can be drawn, and the right to own guns is not an absolute right.

If one believes that a legal restriction – say, the banning of automatic weapons – is in violation of the Constitution, then they can and should make a case supporting their argument. But as Justice Scalia wisely pointed out, that case is not certain to pass muster. By his own writing, limitations on types of guns, restrictions on how and where they can be carried, and restrictions like universal background checks would all still fit within a Constitutional framework.

As I stated earlier, I will eventually delve more in depth on gun culture and law in America. The United States faces unique challenges regarding weapons and crime that other advanced democratic societies don’t contend with. This deserves extended debate. But just like throwing around homicide rates in Chicago, hiding behind the Second Amendment doesn’t cut it when arguing against gun regulation. The architect of the modern pro-gun argument himself acknowledged the need for restrictions on firearms ownership. That leaves a lot of room to debate the details, but it also means the notion of restriction isn’t off the table.

Posted in Governance, Law Enforcement, Myths and misconceptions, Politics | Tagged Antonin Scalia, Constitution, Constitutional law, extremism, gun laws, guns, history, Michael Waldman, NRA, regulations, Second Amendment, Supreme Court | 3 Comments

	Kamala Harris For Pr… on The Stakes
	Kamala Harris For Pr… on Sticks and Stones
	Kamala Harris For Pr… on A Scary Time for Young Me…
	Kamala Harris For Pr… on Acting Guilty
	Kamala Harris For Pr… on Political Hostages in Tex…

A Skewed Perspective

Hiking Report – Mount Defiance

Acting Guilty

Hiking Report – Dog Mountain

Space Days!

One Dares Call It Treason

A Well Regulated Debate

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta