The Kavanaugh hearing puts white male entitlement on angry display

It takes a very particular, a very insidious kind of entitlement to convince a man that he has earned a Supreme Court seat. But if there’s anything to be taken from Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony on Thursday, it’s exactly that — he believes he’s won this appointment fair and square. “I busted my butt in …

Source: The Kavanaugh hearing puts white male entitlement on angry display

Senate Panel Approves Kavanaugh, but Flake Wants F.B.I. Investigation Before Final Vote – The New York Times – hope he sticks to his word

“We ought to do what we can to make sure we do all due diligence with a nomination this important,” Mr. Flake said when senators returned to the hearing room. “This country is being ripped apart here.” He said he was seeking an F.B.I. investigation “limited in time and scope to the current allegations that are there.”

Back to the Wall

It’s noon during an Arizona July, the temperature upward of 115 degrees, and I’m in the middle of my shift at a neighborhood bar off I-10 in Marana, just north of Tucson. The screen door bangs, startling me. I look up from behind the counter, where I’m putting beers on ice, and see a man wearing cowboy boots, dirt-stained jeans, and a striped blue-and-white dress shirt. “Sorry!” he blurts out in Spanish—he hadn’t known the door would slam so violently behind him. Sweat is pouring down his face, running into his eyes.

Right away I know that he has been crossing the desert. I hand him napkins to wipe away the sweat and motion for him to head over to the bar. He settles onto a stool where he can easily catch the breeze from the fans and swamp cooler.

Fence in the foreground and mountains in the backgroundAlong the US–Mexico border in southeastern Arizona.

I throw some money in the register and bring him a couple bags of potato chips, along with a pitcher of ice water. The visitor digs into the chips while making his way to a small table tucked between the pool tables and the jukebox. I root around in the cooler for a soft drink to balance out the water and salty snacks.

We don’t talk. I let him sit there, regaining his strength. I know that the hottest part of the day is just starting.

After a while, the regulars begin to show up at the bar. Construction workers and landscapers, farmers and ranchers and miners—most of them started their day at three or four in the morning, and are ending it now with a cold beer. It’s too scorching to work any longer. As they walk into the bar, some of the regulars nod at the visitor. They know he is a crosser, but no one cares. They are exhausted from working. No one says anything when the man gets up from his table and heads back out into the desert.

View from hillsOn Arizona’s Coronado Trail, with a view into Mexico.

In addition to working shifts at the bar that summer three years ago, I was also working for a branch of the US military that was involved with border missions. Though we sometimes detained unauthorized migrants, our work was focused on terrorism, narcotics, and human trafficking—the real border issues. President Trump may energize his supporters by railing against illegal immigration, but what I saw in southern Arizona was that the drug trade dwarfs everything else. That summer, there was so much activity that all our resources were devoted just to making large busts—ones with a chance of major cash and drug seizures.

During the brutally hot summer months, border agents morph into search-and-rescue teams. When weather permits, the agencies involved in border operations will actually fly day patrols to look for border crossers faltering in the desert. They are picked up by ground crews, fed and given water, and taken back to the border. (Those caught with significant quantities of drugs, of course, are detained.) I can say without a doubt that my colleagues and I cared about what happened to those we found in the desert. We all personally knew how intense the heat could be—we had to endure it, too, in uniforms and body armor. A daytime crossing could easily turn lethal, and we didn’t wish such a fate on anyone.

I left the military two years ago and moved to the southeastern part of the state, right on the border. From here, I can stand on my roof and look into Mexico two miles to the south. On my side is the port town of Douglas, Arizona. On the other side is Agua Prieta, Mexico. Really, the two communities are a single town with a wall running through it. People have long been able to pass easily and frequently through this border crossing, and since Trump became president, that hasn’t changed. Children from Agua Prieta walk into Douglas to attend school, and families can stroll up to Walmart (the only real shopping option in a forty-mile radius) and pay with pesos at KFC and Taco Bell.

Desert landscapeDouglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Mexico, viewed from the air.

The Trump administration has hyped its plans to build a border wall, but there are already walls running through the populated areas along the existing border. They peter out into stick fences when you get to the open desert. Some segments of the fencing are completely deteriorated. But even if they were standing, they wouldn’t do much to impede the rampant drug smuggling, which consumes the border patrol’s resources. A minimal amount of research will tell you that tunneling is a popular system for transporting drugs. An effective wall would not just have to be high—it would also have to run deep into the ground. And even if you built such a wall, the drug cartels are always a step ahead. Some traffickers in this area have already taken to catapulting drugs over the fences. It’s clear to many of us who live along the border that building a wall would be a colossal waste of money—if dealing with illegal entry is the goal.

Crossing the border means crossing the vast Sonoran Desert. There are cacti, rattlesnakes, javelinas, roadrunners, coyotes, and bears. And there are jails. What there are not are jobs—real industry, actual manufacturing. The small-scale farming in southern Arizona doesn’t employ many people. This stretch of the border lies in isolated desert with nothing around in a hundred-mile radius. I think about all the businesses that are shuttering in places like Douglas, Agua Prieta, Nogales, Sasabe, Ajo, and Yuma. Families can’t make ends meet. Adults search for work elsewhere, often having to leave their kids behind. Sasabe, Ajo, and Naco have already dwindled to nothing but desolate border stations on the US side. Douglas and Agua Prieta have managed to stay populated—largely thanks to the presence of Walmart.

View of the mountainsOn the highway near Douglas and Agua Prieta.

Meanwhile, the federal government is relying more on local agencies to catch drug smugglers. That has put further strains on these communities, forcing some to appeal for charity. In Cochise County, for instance, the sheriff’s department got a foundation to pay for a new helicopter.

Would building a wall resuscitate these dying local economies? The residents on both sides of the border would certainly benefit—whether they are directly involved in the building of it, or serving those who do. A construction project this large and long-term would finally mean a reliable source of income for the people who live here. It could be bipartisan, too. With the Republicans in control, we’d get paid to erect the wall. And when the Democrats take power, we’d get paid to demolish it.

Anna Chan is a writer in southern Arizona.

Friday Open Thread | Thank You, Dr. Blasey Ford

It could not have been easy. But, you did it. You were poised, believable and brave. You said that you felt that you had to do your civic duty, and with this country’s eyes on you, you did it. I respect your courage. You had your say. You said your peace, and I know that I am not the only woman grateful to you for going on the record.

 

Just some thoughts from the Twitter Universe:

Senate Republicans brought in a female prosecutor to question Christine Blasey Ford. They sidelined her shortly after she started questioning Brett Kavanaugh. She was never heard from again. https://t.co/nLLft3CQF0

— POLITICO (@politico) September 28, 2018

“Our prosecutor realized he’s guilty.” https://t.co/FFUCBl2xuJ

— Elizabeth Rogers (@ahumorlessfem) September 28, 2018

I think that what I’m witnessing are the protestations of patriarchy and privilege. It whines and it rages when it is threatened with being denied that to which it is owed, as birthright and gender benefit. And how dare a woman be the impediment. #KavanaghHearing

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) September 27, 2018

And now there are four woman. If this appointment wasn’t a white guy- like them- he’d be toast already.
I still want to know who mysteriously paid off Kavanaugh’s debts. It’s relevant because most of his Republican supports seem compromised by the Russians.

— Vicki Sando (@SandoVicki) September 26, 2018

If this man gets on the Court, he’ll carry with him a vendetta against the left that will make Antonin Scalia look like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

— Bearded Stoner (@beardedstoner) September 27, 2018

Nobody in politics honestly believes Sotomayor would have been confirmed if she’d appeared before the judiciary committee and spouted angry, barely coherent conspiratorial attacks Republicans.

That we’re in a holding pattern on Kavanaugh after today says so, so much.

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) September 28, 2018

Just wanted to remind everyone before I go to bed that we’re expending this much energy trying to prevent a rapist from a lifetime bench appointment because the “unlikable” woman had the nerve to want to be president after the black guy did it and white dudes almost went extinct.

— Travon Free (@Travon) September 27, 2018

Uptake and effectiveness of influenza vaccine in those aged 65 years and older in the United Kingdom, influenza seasons 2010/11 to 2016/17

Background

In 2016/17, seasonal influenza vaccine was less effective in those aged 65 years and older in the United Kingdom. We describe the uptake, influenza-associated mortality and adjusted vaccine effectiveness (aVE) in this age group over influenza seasons 2010/11–2016/17. Methods: Vaccine uptake in 2016/17 and five previous seasons were measured using a sentinel general practitioners cohort in England; the test-negative case-control design was used to estimate pooled aVE by subtype and age group against laboratory-confirmed influenza in primary care from 2010–2017. Results: Vaccine uptake was 64% in 65–69-year-olds, 74% in 70–74-year-olds and 80% in those aged 75 and older. Overall aVE was 32.5% (95% CI: 11.6 to 48.5); aVE by sub-type was 60.8% (95% CI: 33.9 to 76.7) and 50.0% (95% CI: 21.6 to 68.1) against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and influenza B, respectively, but only 5.6% (95% CI: – 39.2 to 35.9) against A(H3N2). Against all laboratory-confirmed influenza aVE was 45.2% (95% CI: 25.1 to 60.0) in 65–74 year olds; – 26.2% (95% CI: – 149.3 to 36.0) in 75–84 year olds and – 3.2% (95% CI: – 237.8 to 68.5) in those aged 85 years and older. Influenza-attributable mortality was highest in seasons dominated by A(H3N2). Conclusions: Vaccine uptake with non-adjuvanted, normal-dose vaccines remained high, with evidence of effectiveness against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and B, though poor against A(H3N2), particularly in those aged 75 years and older. Forthcoming availability of newly licensed vaccines with wider use of antivirals can potentially further improve prevention and control of influenza in this group.

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