The president cannot declare torture to be lawful

Among the many awful things that the Bush-Cheney administration did was to normalize torture, coming up with various convoluted rationales as to why the ghastly practices they carried out did not constitute torture and thus were not war crimes. Alex Emmons writes about an important unanimous ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday that has been largely overshadowed, like so much else, by this weird election season.
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Donald Trump at the last debate and the Al Smith dinner

On his show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver reviewed Donald Trump’s performance at the last debate and at the charity event the following night at the Al Smith dinner, a white-tie exclusive affair hosted by the Catholic church at which the two presidential candidates are expected to indulge in largely self-deprecatory humor. Of course, Trump did not do that, instead seeing the occasion as one in which he could score off Hillary Clinton and say the things that he wished he could have said at the debate but didn’t. His performance was not well received, to put it mildly.
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Saturday Night Live on the debate

They captured the essence of the debate and Tom Hanks did a remarkably accurate impression of moderator Chris Wallace. Alec Baldwin’s impression of Donald Trump is so accurate that when I try to imagine Trump, it is Baldwin’s version that first comes to mind and I have to consciously reject it and replace it with the real person. It is similar to Tine Fey and Sarah Palin. I would not be surprised if many people think that Palin actually said, “I can see Russia from my house!”
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Film review: Eye in the Sky (2015)

The 2015 film Eye in the Sky starring Helen Mirren and the late Alan Rickman is about a joint British-US operation using drones to spy on and kill suspected terrorists in Kenya. The central tension is created by a child who sets up a stand to sell home-made bread in the vicinity of the target and the film deals with the debate in London as to whether the possible death of the child is worth it to stop a pair of suicide bombers from carrying out attacks that will kill many more. It is the equivalent of the trolley problem commonly used in ethics discussions. It is the British who are in charge of the operation, though the drones are operated by the US.
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Trump’s latest accuser rejected a deal with him

The latest accuser of Donald Trump’s aggressive actions towards women is Jessica Drake, an actor in adult films, who claims that in 2006, after she rejected his advances, Trump offered her $10,000 to change her mind and have sex with him. She turned that down too, even though he sweetened the deal with an offer to fly her in his private plane.
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What happens when a ‘sovereign citizen’ meets a calm and polite police officer

The ‘sovereign citizen’ movement consists of people who have their own interpretation of their rights and obligations under the US constitution. Via Mark Frauenfelder, I came across this fascinating video of a woman who, at a traffic stop, challenges the right of a California police officer to detain her, saying that because she is a sovereign citizen, she can claim all the rights of citizenship without obeying any of its laws. The driver of the car apparently did not have a license, presumably because as a sovereign citizen, he does not need the state’s permission to drive.
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The revenge that drives Trump

This election is going to be analyzed for decades to come for what it says about Donald Trump, the Republican party, and the large numbers of people who support him. There have already been numerous attempts to understand what the hell is happening. Much of this speculation right now is in the media but later we will see more academic studies, trying to tease out such things as the root causes of the Trump phenomenon, whether this is something transient or a long-lasting trend, who really are the people who responded to Trump’s message, and whether they were drawn to him because of economic concerns and a sense that the system was rigged against ordinary people or by more ugly xenophobic and racist feelings.
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Don’t worry Donald, you’ll always have Ben

I’ve got to admit that I am fascinated by Ben Carson. People may be forgiven for thinking that his eyes-closed, slow, monotonous delivery suggests that he himself is asleep when he is not putting others to sleep. But in this interview where he was defending Donald Trump, he became so animated and aggressive (he even asked the host to cut off the microphone of another guest) that it seems like this is the one thing he really cares about
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The phony ‘grand bargain’ argument to cut social security benefits

Beware of those who try to scare us about the deficit. David Dayen exposes the agenda behind those who are pushing the deficit and debt as a huge problem and then use it to urge cuts in Social Security benefits. The people whom Social Security benefits the most are the less well-off, and cutting their benefits without raising the cap on contributions is just another way for the wealthy a way to achieve their goal of making life easier for themselves and harder for those who are not well-to-do. Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton propose to maintain (and perhaps even increase) benefits and pay for it by raising the cap on contributions.
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Trump’s narrow path to victory

For the benefit of those readers who do not live in the US and may be a little unclear about how the president is actually chosen, this post outlines the main details. The president is formally elected by something called the Electoral College, a largely virtual institution that exists just for the purpose of electing the president every four years. Each of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia is allocated a certain number of what are called ‘electoral votes’ equal to the sum of the Senators and members of the House of Representatives that the state sends to Congress. You need to win a majority of those votes to be elected president.
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