Three Kinds of Political Violence
Plus: Biden Won’t Seek Reelection / The Hannah Arendt Quote Ringing In My Ears
Joe Biden says he will not pursue reelection, then endorses Kamala Harris for presidency. But I’m not writing any more because it’s my weekend! Follow HuffPost’s live coverage for more.
I do believe Biden’s support of the Israeli military operation in Gaza will be one of a handful of markers of his legacy as president. With that in mind, back to our regularly scheduled programming:
Three Kinds of Political Violence
There’s been a lot of talk about “political violence” since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last weekend. I use this newsletter to gather my thoughts, and I’ve been thinking about the different kinds of political violence lately. Let’s talk about it:
Since I last published this newsletter, two weeks ago, Gaza authorities say more than 800 additional people have died in the Strip, bringing the toll since Oct. 7 to 38,919. The Israeli military has launched a campaign to vaccinate soldiers for polio after a high concentration of the virus was found in Gaza’s sewage system. The military warned soldiers not to make any use of Gaza’s water system and instead rely on military supplies, given the risk of contaminated water. Gaza’s population has no such option. As Oxfam reported a few days ago: “Israel’s cutting of external water supply, systematic destruction of water facilities and deliberate aid obstruction have reduced the amount of water available in Gaza by 94% to 4.74 liters a day per person – just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies and less than a single toilet flush.”
“You have everybody clustering in refugee camps at the moment without vaccines for at least the past nine months, including children who would otherwise have been vaccinated for polio and adults who, in the setting of an outbreak, should receive a booster, including healthcare workers,” Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician, told Al Jazeera.
Then there’s the U.S. presidential race, in which Donald Trump has proposed the largest deportation operation in American history, involving the forced expulsion of millions upon millions of people. Trump has said he’ll use the military to carry out the deportation operation, and he has explicitly said he will not rule out detention camps. “These aren’t civilians,” he told Reuters. “This is an invasion of our country.” He also wants to bring back “Remain in Mexico,” his policy of forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexican border towns rather than using the American immigration court system. Check out This American Life’s Pulizer-Prize-winning story from 2020 about the violence these asylum seekers faced during Trump’s first term.
And yes, Trump was almost assassinated. This marks the continuation of what feels like an extremely unstable time in American history. In addition to photos of Trump, the shooter also had photos of Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and FBI Director Chris Wray on his phone, unnamed sources told the Associated Press, and he had also searched for the dates of the Democratic National Convention as well as Trump appearances. Trump, for his part, has defined his political career by being outrageous – and that includes outrageous endorsements of political violence against his enemies. (One example, from March: “Trump posts video that shows image of Biden tied up in the back of a truck.” Or, just read my last newsletter.)
The Hannah Arendt Quote Ringing In My Ears
I am reading “Eichmann in Jerusalem” and was struck by this line from Arendt, referring to the elites of the German SS, distinguished by their academic degrees, who’d been assigned as commanders of the “Einsatzgruppen,” or the mobile killing squads that followed the German army through Europe:
The problem was how to overcome not so much their conscience as the animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering. The trick used by [Heinrich] Himmler – who apparently was rather strongly afflicted with these instinctive reactions himself – was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, and directing them toward the self. So that instead of saying: What horrible things I did to people!, the murderers would be able to say: What horrible things I had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!
What I’ve Written
HuffPost, “The Supreme Court May Have Handed Trump A ‘Road Map’ For Stealing An Election” (July 13, 2024)
HuffPost, “Leaked Video Shows Donald Trump Rambling About Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories On Call With RFK Jr.” (July 16, 2024)
HuffPost, “Donald Trump Will Walk On Stage Tonight With Big Silicon Valley Money Behind Him” (July 18, 2024)
HuffPost, “The Big Lie About Immigrants You Heard at the RNC This Week” (July 19, 2024)
What I’m Reading
WaPo, “Half-million Gazans face ‘catastrophic’ hunger levels, U.N.-backed report says” (June 25, 2024)
Haaretz, “IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive” (July 7, 2024)
972 Mag, “‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza” (July 8, 2024)
Semafor, “Trump’s ‘national conservative’ allies plot a revenge administration” (July 9, 2024)
Bloomberg: Asked about the upcoming presidential election, David Zaslav, the CEO of CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, said it mattered less to him which party wins, as long as the next president was friendly to business. “We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to to be even better,” he said. (July 10, 2024)
NYT, “Arkansas Rejects Abortion Rights Amendment Petition on Technicality” (July 10, 2024)
CNN, “The US held off sanctioning this Israeli army unit despite evidence of abuses. Now its forces are shaping the fight in Gaza” (July 13, 2024)
HuffPost, “The Supreme Court’s Chevron Decision Is Already Hurting Transgender Rights” (July 13, 2024)
HuffPost, “64 Deaths Inside A Texas Jail Are Increasing Scrutiny Of A Right-Wing Sheriff” (July 13, 2024)
NBC News, “Trump campaign sues Michigan Gov. Whitmer over new voter registration sites” (July 15, 2024)
ProPublica: “In Private Speech, J.D. Vance Said the “Devil Is Real” and Praised Alex Jones as a Truth-Teller” (July 16, 2024)
Wesley Morgan, “The area in which IDF engineers are demolishing all buildings extends 800m from the border. That's a big chunk of Rafah.” (July 16, 2024)
Seattle Times, “Machinists pack T-Mobile Park in blue-collar show of force against Boeing” July 17, 2024
HuffPost, “Police Killed A Man A Mile From The RNC, On ‘Back The Blue’ Night” (July 17, 2024)
HuffPost, “He Went To A White Supremacist Conference. He Just Spoke At The RNC.” (July 17, 2024)
Business Insider, “Steve Bannon filmed Jeffrey Epstein for 15 hours. His 'documentary' has never surfaced.” (July 17, 2024)
Vox, “J.D. Vance’s radical plan to build a government of Trump loyalists” (July 18, 2024)
The Intercept, “I WATCHED GROYPERS DESCEND ON DETROIT — WHERE THEY WERE NO LONGER PARIAHS AMONG MAINSTREAM REPUBLICANS” (July 18, 2024)
Associated Press, “Top UN court says Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territories is illegal and should end” (July 19, 2024)
Politico, “We Volunteered at a Gaza Hospital. What We Saw Was Unspeakable.” (July 19, 2024)
Los Angeles Times, “Times reporter was leaked list of problem deputies. The Sheriff’s Department investigated her” (July 20, 2024)
The Guardian, “The 2016 Republican convention let extremists in. In 2024, they took the stage” (July 21, 2024)
What I’m Watching
Jean Guerrero on Democracy Now, “on Anti-Immigrant Lies and Fearmongering at RNC” (July 17, 2024)
What I’m Listening To
Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, “Season of Changes” (2022)
Little Cliff, “the falling part,” (2023)
New EPs from Sara Devoe and Claire Ozmun!