Trump, Biden and COVID-19

 A letter to the editor I wrote. 

UPDATE 8/23/24 Was never published.

Editor,

From what I’ve read a big part of the fall in President Biden’s popularity has been the resurgence of Covid-19. Although it made sense in many ways to partly blame former President Trump for how bad the COVID-19 crisis was in 2020, it doesn’t make any sense to blame Biden for how bad it is now.

At the beginning of the pandemic Trump tried to ignore it and at the end of Feb. 2020 he  said it was a “hoax” He didn’t use the Defense Production Act right away to make sure there were enough masks, other PPE, ventilators and testing supplies. To be fair we never ran out of ventilators, but the failure to make enough masks at the beginning I believe contributed to the Trump administration initially DISCOURAGING the use of masks by the general population, there were always shortages of PPE for health care professionals and we didn’t test anywhere near as much as we should have (I believe) because there weren’t enough supplies. He largely discouraged mask-wearing and when he did sort of encourage it it was half-hearted. He kept saying it was almost over which contributed to his supporters not taking it seriously.

Biden has always taken COVID-19 seriously and promoted masks when Trump was making fun of people for wearing them. If it wasn’t for a massive chunk of the population that overlaps heavily with Trump supporters, the vaccine effort in this country would be incredibly successful. Biden’s vaccine mandate policies will help (and they’re ethical- we have for decades mandated vaccines for school kids). His administration is helping Florida school districts defying a Republican ban on mask mandates. The Delta variant isn’t his fault. It’s likely it would have gone nowhere if more Americans had gotten vaccinated earlier, and once again, Trump can be blamed for that.

Don’t blame President Biden for COVID-19. If anyone deserves blame for it here in America, it’s Trump.

Tom Shelley
Boulder

Law and Order: SVU Reviews FF

This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.

(Now that I’m watching the episodes that involve the character John Munch, I’m going to ignore most of his political statements)

“Criminal Hatred” Season 14. See this for a summary.

It’s about a gay man who attacks men who are married to women but also like men. They are closeted and reluctant to work with the police because they’ll be outed in front of their families. It’s just one more reason to fight homophobia.

“Secrets Exhumed” Season 14. See this for a summary.

This episode is about an FBI agent who murdered a romantic rival and blamed it on the suspect in a string of rape-murders.

“Funny Valentine” Season 14. See this for a plot summary.

In 2010 the Supreme Court of the United States decided in favor of the plaintiffs in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, saying that when it comes to political financing corporations are people. The ADA, a main character, says something implying that it was a ridiculous decision. Although I’m not real familiar with the issue, it is ridiculous to treat corporations as people. One of the best bumper-stickers I’ve seen says “I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.”

“American Tragedy” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.

About a black teenager who is racially profiled by a rich white woman who shoots him dead. Her lawyer tried to conflate that with the search that the police were conducting for a rapist who matched the description of the teenager. I’m not super positive about the (relatively acceptable) stop and frisking of Black men who match a certain description (in this case, hoodie and baseball hat, young, tall) in a certain area, but as the detective played by Ice-T (who has criticized white officers for being racist at least a few times) says, that stop and frisk operation was different than shooting someone- although stop and frisk could result in someone innocent being shot, the white woman was pretty quick to shoot the teen when he was still at least 5 feet away. She wasn’t on trial for suspecting him as SVU would have, she was on trial for shooting him when he was still at least 5 feet away. In multiple ways it emerges that the woman is a racist and the ADA for SVU prosecutes her for a homicide. It could be a lot more critical of stop and frisk (that is, that practice in general), but overall it’s an anti-racist episode.

“Internal Affairs” Season 15. See this for a plot summary.

This is about SVU helping Internal Affairs go after a cop who is raping women. Actually, the entire precinct is corrupt and that’s exposed by IA and SVU.

Some Thoughts About New Atheists

I came across an article in Salon about how the New Atheists merged with the far-right. I have read it and read it and read it some more, probably 10 times total (it was the first thing I read in YEARS about New Atheists, so as I was typing this essay, I read about 10 other long articles about the New Atheists (links to those articles are at the bottom of this)). The author of the article (Emile P. Torres) has done a great service for liberal-progressive religious people and some other groups in our society (like atheist women). They seem to be a very solid atheist and might not like helping the former group, but they're also very intellectually honest and when they realized what kind of people the leading New Atheists are, they contributed to publicly exposing them as the scum that they are.

(I discuss what I mean by liberal here (my brief non-philosophical definition is someone to the left of Bill Clinton and to the right of Senator Elizabeth Warren))

(You might want to read part of my post about things Catholic. Read the stuff towards the bottom starting with “Some of this is repetitive but I’ll describe the politics of Catholics,” and ending with the asterisks above the very last section).

I’m going to offer some thoughts about the New Atheists in general, thoughts inspired by reading the Salon article. I’m sure Torres will disagree with some of it, but it is not meant as an attack on them. I encourage you to read their article first and then read this essay.

I believe that the New Atheists cross the line in terms of their hostility to religious people. I will also describe how I am both religious and secular. I will explain that I believe New Atheists were clearly more right-wing than left-wing many years ago.

(I’m going to assume that there are rank and file members of the New Atheist community who are liberal or progressive like Torres)

New Atheism crosses the line

I am fine with atheists in general. I’m close or very close to at least a few if not several. As I’ll explain below, I am very secular. But I believe that the hostility New Atheists have for religious people is so extreme that it is close to bigotry. I would say that even if they were completely even-handed in their hostility to religion, but they’re not. They are much more hostile to Muslims than they are to Jews. I’ll say more about that below.

New Atheists are hostile to religious people because they have a different belief about God (atheists don’t KNOW that God doesn’t exist anymore than theists KNOW that God does exist).They act as if great harm is done by believing in, for example, the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Great harm is done by the right-wing POLITICAL beliefs of many or most religious people (there is nothing right-wing, left-wing or centrist about the Holy Trinity (for example)) but no harm is done by believing, for example, that Christ was the Son of God. In all honesty and fairness there are some miscellaneous non-political ways that religion can harm, such as Catholic priests abusing altar boys, but that miscellaneous stuff isn’t much compared to the political work of right-wing religious people- they are the main problem with religion, and as I explain below, can be dealt with in ways that don’t put down all religious people.

New Atheism wants to make everyone an atheist. One problem with that is that if it were attempted through some kind of coercion (such as treating religious faith like alcoholism) a successful effort would be akin to genocide. And there are many things about religion that bleed into culture and history and philosophy that would also be lost if everything religious was eradicated.

They believe that religion poisons everything and that getting rid of religion would make the world a better place. First, a better place for whom? Based partly on Torres’ article and some other articles I’ve found, the New Atheists are more right-wing than left-wing. Also, the connection between being liberal or progressive and being an atheist isn’t as strong as they think. Same with the connection between being conservative or right-wing and being a theist. There are plenty of exceptions on both sides of that- plenty of liberal or leftist theists and plenty of conservative or fascist atheists. And the idea that attacking the religious beliefs of most conservatives and right-wingers is a short-cut to making them re-consider their noxious political beliefs is likely flawed. I have no idea why it would be easier to change someone’s religious beliefs than it would be to change their political beliefs. And focusing on their religious beliefs makes it easier for them to claim that it’s the liberals and leftists who have crossed the line by attacking their religious beliefs. I say, ignore the religious dimension of the religious right as much as you can and simply oppose, for example, their homophobia as if they’re NOT referring to the Bible.

What’s Good About Religion?

There are other reasons why the New Atheist agenda of eradicating religion is bad. Here’s a list of a few good things about religion.

1) To whatever degree you need to believe in God to believe in Heaven, religion provides a theory for what, if anything, happens when we die. For many people, including myself, this helps with dealing with loss of a loved one.


2) Reading the children’s Bible 3 times around the age of 11 planted the seeds that blossomed into my socialist beliefs about 7 years later (there were other factors, like the music I listened to in High School).
3) There’s a strong sense of community. Although the fairly partisan socialist in me sees that as a bad thing when it’s a conservative community, when it’s a liberal-progressive one it’s great.
4) I’m tempted to say that without the Black church in America, we’d still have segregation. In all fairness it’s likely that if that church had not developed, something secular would have played a similar role in overthrowing segregation, but the fact is, the Black church was a major part of the Civil Rights Movement.

It’s not an exhaustive list at all, but there are a lot of good things about religion that would be thrown out with the bigotry, etc. if (the more liberal or progressive) New Atheists had their way (the others (the ones Torres describes) don’t seem interested in getting rid of the injustice and inequality in our society).

I’m both religious and secular

I have been religious almost all of the time since I was about 5 or 10. But I have also been secular in many ways. When I used to wear a “medal” (like a cross but a little different) I wore it under my shirt. I wasn’t embarrassed or anything like that, but I wasn’t interested in promoting religion, it was just something to remind me of my relationship with God.

When I went to confirmation class at my church in 12th grade, I may have been more interested in the material than most of the other students, but I chose not to get confirmed at the end of it. Although I kind of regret that decision, I felt that I didn’t need the ultra-official sanction of the Church to be a Catholic. And I didn’t need it. I continued getting communion after I declined to be confirmed.

Although the Bible was part of what made me a socialist and I have no problem with religious socialists, I don’t identify as one myself. I’m not sure exactly why, but just in general I am very secular outwardly and fairly religious and spiritual inwardly.

I don’t believe in trying to convert people and I believe that religions should be fairly passive in trying to get new adherents.

I believe in Intelligent Design, the idea that Evolution was guided by God.

On foreign policy New Atheists are mostly right-wing

In addition to being universally and incredibly hostile to Islam, New Atheist leaders have MOSTLY also sided with Israel in the Middle-East conflict and, years ago, (mostly) with the US administration of George W. Bush in the War on Terror and specifically the Iraq War 2003-2008. As others have more or less pointed out, the Palestinian struggle was dominated by secular forces for decades before Hamas won an election in 2006- and although they haven’t lost an election since then they also haven’t won one either- there’s reason to believe that a majority of Palestinians don’t share all of Hamas’ beliefs. There were a lot of complaints among Palestinians about the PLO that had nothing to do with it being secular. I’m not sure to what degree this is true in Gaza since 2006, but in the West Bank the Christian minority of Palestinians is treated just fine by the Muslims. It’s the Israeli state that’s tough on minorities. Christians and Muslims are not considered full members of the Israeli nation. And although there are a lot of atheists in Israel’s Jewish population, the Jewish identity of the State is partly about religion- but many New Atheists are so anti-muslim and pro-American imperialism that they support Israel anyway.

(I offer evidence for calling Israeli policy towards the Palestinians “Israeli Apartheid” here and discuss Zionism here) (UPDATE 7/13/21 most of my thoughts about the War on Terror are here)

Are atheists in America oppressed?

American atheists in general don’t have much to complain about. Based on various answers given on wikipedia, I believe that the percentage of the US population that is atheist is somewhere around 15 to 20. And I doubt that more than 1-2% of the US Congress is atheist, so they have a legitimate complaint there. I’m sure most atheists in America have experienced at least a little harassment because of their belief about God, and I take that pretty seriously.  They sometimes have to fight efforts by government to blur the boundary between church and state, a fight I join them in.

Does hostility towards Atheists result in the kind of job discrimination that creates disproportionate poverty? Apparently not. According to Pew 30% of atheist households earn $100,000 or more and only 24% earn less than $30,000 (in that graph I just linked to, they’re the 5th richest religious group in America, out of about 25-30). I have not heard of anti-atheist police brutality, or mass incarceration, or a low rate of graduation from college, etc..

In general, American atheists don’t have much to complain about.

Religion and The Troubles

For the most part I suggest you start with reading some of my posts here, here, and here. If you want more than that, I recommend the books “Northern Ireland: The Orange State” by Michael Farrell and “McCann: War and Peace in Northern Ireland” by Eamonn McCann.

Although religion is a big thing for most of the anti-Catholic bigots, A) there is also nationality, and B) from what I have heard there are some anti-Catholic bigots who are atheists- not many at all, but some. On the Catholic side there is very little anti-Protestant bigotry and very little religious motivation. When Catholics experience bigotry they don’t quote those parts of the Bible that make it clear they’re Christians. They don’t even use the Bible the way Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did- when they refer to America in their quest for equality, they sometimes focus on the secular actions of this country’s black population and in general they say little if anything about the Bible which inspired the civil rights movement here.

The British introduced sectarianism to the population of Ireland as a way to (on one hand) divide the settlers and the indigenous people and (on the other hand) keep the Catholics down (which helped with the former goal). They maintained a colonial presence in N. Ireland for several reasons and religious solidarity with the Protestants was only one of them. It was basically because of imperialism.

The white male class privilege of the New Atheists
 

Torres accuses the New Atheists of worrying about the erosion of their white male privilege. I think there’s something else as well as that. They decided that advancing an atheist agenda was incredibly important. They clearly weren’t concerned about economic justice or social justice. I say that partly because you need to build coalitions for those things and you aren’t going to organize a coalition for economic or racial justice if at the same time you’re putting down everyone religious. And I need to say that I’m sure those theists who would be attracted to a coalition for social, and/or economic, and/or racial justice are unlikely to be the kind that would try to start a fight with atheists in the coalition.

*******

Articles I read to refresh and add to my understanding of New Atheism:

Atheism and the Class Problem
Gaza Has New Atheists Split Over Which Religion is more wrong
When It Comes To Islam, New Atheists Sound A Lot Like Christian Fundamentalists
Why Are There So Few Atheists In Israel?
American New Atheism and Israel
Sam Harris, the New Atheists, and anti-Muslim Animus
Why the “New Atheists” are Right-wing on Foreign Policy
The Trouble with the New Atheists: Part II

*******

The posts on my blog that are partly or entirely about religion are here.

Law and Order: SVU reviews EE

This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.

(Now that I’m watching the episodes that involve the character John Munch, I’m going to ignore most of his political statements)

“Bully” Season 12. See this for a plot summary.

A minor character is a gay man.

“Reparations” Season 12. See this for a plot summary. 

First, two minor characters, a Black woman and a White man are in a relationship.

This is partly about the KKK using sexual assault as a political weapon and partly about the racist stereotype about black men raping white women.

And at one point one of the detectives says that in the present there are plenty of racist cops.

“Bang” Season 12. See this for a plot summary.

In a brief exchange between a detective and a suspect, the show kind of blames people at equity firms who do credit default swaps for the 2008 crash of the economy.

“Manhattan Vigil” Season 14. See this for a plot summary.

One of the detectives says that the NYPD allocates resources for searches of children based on the class identity of the child’s parents.

“Friending Emily” Season 14. See this for a plot summary.

There’s one small bit of opposition to homophobia.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews DD

This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.

(Now that I’m watching the episodes that involve the character John Munch, I’m going to ignore most of his political statements)

“Trophy” Season 12. See this for a summary.

At the beginning there are two very minor characters that are in an inter-racial relationship.

“Penetration” See this for a summary.

A small part of this is about the FBI investigating the far-right. More specifically there’s a smaller part about anti-muslim bigots. It focuses on a protest of what some called the “ground zero mosque.” There was an effort to build a mosque close to the World Trade Center in NYC. In a post at the time, I suggested that those behind it should compare their refusal to build it somewhere else to Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on that bus.

“Pop” Season 12. See this for a plot summary.

A fairly innocent minor character says that his brother died after breathing in dust at Ground Zero (the World Trade Center on 9/11). The collapse of both towers released a huge amount of dust that included glass and other things you don’t want to breathe in. Some agency of the Bush administration, probably OSHA or the EPA, said it was safe but it wasn’t and a lot of people ended up very sick because of it.

“Mask” Season 12. See this for as plot summary.

The two victims are a gay female couple.

“Flight” Season 12. See this for a plot summary.

The rapist is a wealthy defense contractor and the SVU initially investigates cautiously because of the power and influence he has. At one point Detective Fin points out that they would approach it very differently if the suspect was blue collar.

Movie Reviews D

13 going on 30 (IMDB Wikipedia)

A non-political comedy but a good one.

I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Bulletproof (IMDB Wikipedia)

Another non-political comedy, but a really good one.

I give it 5 stars out of 5.

The Candidate (IMDB Wikipedia)

This about a fictional candidate for Senate in 1972. He’s inconsistently progressive. He criticizes the Teamsters union for attacking the United Farm Workers. He’s initially in favor of busing for desegregation. I was thinking about it recently and I decided that busing was a good way to desegregate schools.

I give it 2 stars out of five.

Ishtar (IMDB Wikipedia)

It’s more of a comedy than a serious drama or action film but it’s kind of critical of US foreign policy in the Arab world; although it’s about a made-up country.

I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (IMDB Wikipedia)

A non-political movie that’s sort of a cross between a comedy and drama. 

UPDATE 5/5/21 I give it three stars out of five.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews CC

This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.

(Now that I’m watching the episodes that involve the character John Munch, I’m going to ignore most of his political statements)

“Disabled” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “When she fails to show up at a bus stop, Cara Raleigh (Lisa Arrindell Anderson), a disabled former opera singer with multiple sclerosis who cannot speak, is found by her bus driver (Ralph Byers), beaten and raped in her home. Her nephew (Quinton Aaron) gives an alibi that does not check out and her sister (Jill Scott) is seen physically abusing her on video. As a result, both caregivers become suspects. Cara eventually reveals that the bus driver was the rapist but is put in a nursing home and becomes unwilling to cooperate. Benson manages to persuade her to stand trial with the unit's temporary ADA (Teddy Sears).”

There’s one thing fairly hostile to those who organize dog fights.

“Conned” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “A homosexual prostitute (Pressly Coker) is found dead in the storage room of a hotel during a wedding reception with the ID of a friend named Andrew Hingam (John Magaro). Fin Tutuola questions his son Ken (Ernest Waddell) about the two boys since they were all known to volunteer at the same place. Ken leads Fin to Hingam, who confesses to killing his friend in self-defense. Hingam's case deepens when detectives learn that his psychiatrist (Ally Walker) who prescribes a regimen of drugs and electro convulsive therapy may be performing other procedures on him as well.”

At one point, while questioning a hotel’s kitchen staff, they assure them they’re not concerned about anyone’s immigration status.

“Beef” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “Following the vicious rape-murder of a beautiful worker (Ioana Alfonso) at "Donna Rosa's" meat packing plant, the police initially suspect that a vegetarian (Aaron Tveit) who lives in her building is the killer. However, suspicion shifts elsewhere when they learn that the victim was an undercover animal activist attempting to document and expose unsanitary practices in the meat packing industry. Information from the company owner (Lynn Cohen) and foreman (John Petkoff) leads the detectives to arrest a plant worker (Juan Javier Cardenas) and match his DNA to that found at the crime scene. This turns out to be a dead end as well after an interview with his jealous wife (Nancy Rodriguez) reveals that he was framed. Detective Benson goes undercover herself to retrace the woman's steps.”

First, they assure immigrants that they’re not Immigration.

The story is about a business-owner and her manager killing an undercover journalist investigating their meat-packing plant.

“Ace” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “Detectives Benson and Stabler must track down a pregnant rape victim (Hanna-Liina Võsa) who disappears from the hospital. In the process, they uncover a vast baby-trafficking scam, led by a Bulgarian crime lord (Pasha D. Lychnikoff). When the woman (Gordana Rashovich) who housed the pregnant mothers is discovered murdered, Benson and Stabler go undercover as infertile parents, while ADA Marlowe clashes with Cragen over methods to protect the kidnapped woman and her newborn child. Matters become complicated in the trial when the gynecologist (David Paymer) involved is assigned the same lawyer as the mob that used him for his access to pregnant women. He realizes that if he testifies truthfully he will be killed so a shadow counsel is arranged.”

First, a rape survivor leaves the hospital before SVU can talk with her, because she’s undocumented and is worried Immigration will be called. Second, when a US government official makes some anti-immigrant comments, one of the detectives says: “spoken like a true racist.”

“Bullseye” Season 12. Summary is here.

There’s a brief appearance of a very minor character- a gay man raising a child with another gay man.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews BB

 This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.

(Now that I’m watching the episodes that involve the character John Munch, I’m going to ignore most of his political statements)

“Anchor” Season 11. Wikipedia summary: “When two young girls are similarly murdered a little over a month apart, Detective Tutuola decides to investigate the gruesome crimes. Benson puts him in touch with a reporter (Megalyn Echikunwoke) who may have enough connections to get them a lead. After a third killing, Fin discovers that all three children were "anchor babies" of immigrant families and reaches out to the Center of Immigrant Services. After sifting through the Center's hate mail, and witnessing a fight between an immigration lawyer (John Larroquette) and a fanatic (Thomas Sadoski) who follows a conservative talk show host (Bruce McGill), Fin begins to narrow in on the killer.”

The main issue here is immigration and it’s a pro-immigrant show 99% of the time. The immigration lawyer talks about how anti-immigrant politics is about scapegoating for problems like low wages and no health care insurance. The idea that undocumented immigrant labor lowers wages for everyone is sort of true, but only because of a failure by communities to stand in solidarity with immigrants. If more people would stand with immigrants demanding better wages, more employers would pay all their workers better and fewer employers would use the undocumented status of some employees to help break unionization efforts.

Although the detectives don’t go along with this in court, I think the show is trying to say that those who espouse anti-immigrant politics bear some of the responsibility for anti-immigrant violence committed by people who listen to them. Although it shouldn’t result in the violent ones being acquitted (the murderer’s lawyer was trying to get him acquitted with that argument), it’s true that the anti-immigrant intellectuals and politicians bear some responsibility for anti-immigrant violence.

Towards the beginning when detective Finn is looking at the murders of two young children who are people of color, he gets into an argument with his superior about how much effort NYPD is making to find the killer(s)- he thinks there’d be more effort if the kids were white.

“Quickie” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “When a seventeen-year-old is found strangled and beaten to death in an alley, her ex-boyfriend (Brady Corbet) leads the cops to a website that she used to meet up with random men. Detective Benson decides to create a user account for the site and finds a womanizer (Brian Geraghty) who met with the victim and had sex with her without a condom. The case is closed when a different suspect is proven guilty of the murder but a new one opens when the original suspect is found to have HIV. To help ADA Cabot prosecute the predator for knowingly spreading HIV, one of his previous partners (Mattie Hawkinson) is brought into court. When this fails to work, the defendant's grandfather (Jack Larson) blames himself for his grandson's misogyny and causes him to have an epiphany.”

There are two small notes:
1) At the beginning, people in an apartment building hear a woman being attacked and no one does anything. A couple of twenty-something guys are doing drugs and one almost does call the cops because of the woman being attacked, but his friend points out that they’re high. This is another reason to decriminalize or in some cases legalize drugs.
2) A woman who’s got AIDS says that her insurance won’t pay for the meds because it’s a pre-existing condition. That’s sick.

“Shadow” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “When a wealthy couple is found murdered in their bedroom, Benson and Stabler decide to speak to the deceased couple's daughter Anne (Sarah Paulson). After hearing her story of a strange man who has been following her, the detectives soon discover that the supposed stalker is Detective Ash Ramsey (Naveen Andrews) of the Special Frauds division. Convinced that Anne killed her parents for their money, Ramsey becomes suspicious of Anne's business manager (Dennis Boutsikaris) and is led to believe that he helped her steal money from the foundation she runs. With little evidence to go on, the detectives are able to buy some time by blackmailing the foundation's leader (Edward Hibbert) into pressing charges against Anne for embezzlement. Even though hitmen have been sent after them, Benson and Ramsey go out into the open as part of a dangerous sting operation.”

One of the detectives talks about Wall Street having a lot of psychopaths.

“Witness” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “A pretty woman (Diora Baird) is raped and cut in her apartment building's stairwell and claims a black woman saved her by punching the perpetrator (Eric Lange) in the eye. The lady is identified as Nardalee Ula (Saidah Arrika Ekulona), an illegal immigrant from Democratic Republic of the Congo, who came to America after escaping a life of sexual abuse against women used by the country as a "weapon of war". After the victim dies from MRSA, Nardalee is the only one who can testify against the rapist, but risks being deported. After her successful testimony she is awarded a U-Visa, but declines it, saying she will be going back to the Congo to help save other women from sexual abuse. Meanwhile, ADA Cabot makes a shocking decision of her own.”

Besides non-political rape, this is about asylum seekers and rape as a weapon of war. The detectives make it clear that they aren’t with ICE (immigration) and go so far as to get a special Visa for an undocumented witness that allows her to stay as a permanent resident for life. This is after the rapist tries to get her deported- one more reason to reform our immigration system.

The witness was raped multiple times in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. And after the NYC rapist is convicted she decides to go back there to help women being raped like she was. She inspires the SVU ADA to take a break from the DA’s office to join an international team prosecuting rape in conflict zones around the world.

We also learn that some people wait YEARS before they get an answer about being let into the country as an asylum seeker. We need more judges etc. created and assigned to that work.

Movie Reviews C

Boiler Room (IMDB Wikipedia)

It falls short of indicting Wall Street, but it’s about a rogue investment firm. At the beginning the main character compares selling stock with selling crack. The stock brokers are violent, homophobic and use drugs.

I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Bowfinger (IMDB Wikipedia)

A non-political but very funny comedy.

I give it 5 stars out of 5.

Boycott (IMDB Wikipedia)

An amazing movie about the Montgomery bus boycott during the Civil Rights campaign in the American South. I don’t know how historically accurate it is, but it’s very inspirational. It includes as a character Bayard Rustin. The thing is Rustin was gay and told Dr. King that. I don’t know how homophobic King was, but in this movie he gets along with Rustin.

I give it 4 stars out of 5.

But I’m a Cheerleader (IMDB Wikipedia)

This is a COMEDY about the idea that gay people can convert to straight through therapy. It’s sort of serious (it’s a serious issue and the other movie I’ve seen about it (Boy Erased) is much more serious) but also pretty funny. It does a great job of illustrating how ridiculous the idea of gay conversion therapy is. It isn’t explicit, but it’s kind of implied that a lot of gay teens end up homeless because their families reject them.

I give it 4 stars out of 5.

Come See The Paradise (IMDB Wikipedia)

This is about the internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans during World War II. I’m not sure if it’s based on a true story or how historically accurate it is, but it seems pretty accurate and about 1/5 of my BA is Asian-American Studies. The male main character is an Irish immigrant and a labor activist.

I give it 5 stars of 5.

Law and Order: SVU Reviews AA

This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.

(Now that I’m watching the episodes that involve the character John Munch, I’m going to ignore most of his political statements)

“Crush” Season 10. Wikipedia summary is: “A high school student (Carly Schroeder) falls down a flight of stairs sending her into a coma. The SVU is alerted when the doctor's examination reveals signs of physical abuse. Upon waking, the girl refuses to name her attacker, even though the detectives already have two suspects: the girl's boyfriend and a self-described 'drama-geek' (Ezra Miller) with a crush on her. Frustrated, a family court prosecutor (Melinda McGraw) convinces Benson to use sexting as a pretext for arresting her for distributing child pornography. Faced with this ultimatum and helped by Stabler's daughter Kathleen (Allison Siko), the victim admits to being abused by her boyfriend. Afterwards, the detectives plan a sting operation against a biased judge (Swoosie Kurtz) and her clerk (Geoffrey Cantor) after they are unable to make the child pornography charges disappear. “

This episode is partly about teenagers 13-17yo creating their own porn without any adult involvement (and without any little kids). In this episode a new ADA working with SVU charges a 15-year old girl with creating and distributing child porn (she took pictures of herself and sent them to her boyfriend) and detective Benson initially but reluctantly cooperates. Although in a season 16 episode SVU comes down pretty hard on some teenagers for creating and sharing similar porn (only teenage minors, no little kids or adults), in this episode Benson says a few things about how inappropriate the charges are.

Those two episodes are the only ones where I disagree with more than a tiny chunk of what the SVU does- scattered throughout the series there are some very minor story elements (i.e. some of the tricks they use to get a confession) that I don’t like, but I approve of them going after the perps they go after about 99.9% of the time. But I have a problem with them going after teenage minors for creating child porn when everyone involved is 13-17yo. A child porn charge is a very serious thing and a conviction can probably ruin your life.

I have already admitted twice on this blog that I like porn. Although I generally support our laws on child porn, in the season 16 episode I mentioned above, I feel like the detectives came down too hard on the teens. If minor teens want to create porn with their peers (no adults or little kids), they shouldn’t be criminalized. I have heard that in real life some under-18 teens have been charged with child porn crimes for making porn with their peers and that’s wrong. On the other hand, adults shouldn’t be looking at that stuff for the following reasons: 1) you can’t be certain that it ISN’T created by sick adults, 2) if it is porn that exclusively involves teen minors, the odds are they don’t want adults looking at it, and 3) even if they are pics and videos taken/made by (and of) teens 13-17yo, they’re at least a year from living on their own- they’re still KIDS living at home with their parents. And although I don’t think those teens should be charged with child porn crimes for the kind of porn I'm discussing here, discouraging them from putting that stuff on the web is a good idea- they might regret it later on in life and adults looking at it might get the idea of trying to have sex with a teenage minor when that’s almost always wrong or at least inappropriate.

UPDATE 4/21/21 At some point in the last several years Connecticut made this a less serious crime. And in 2016 New Mexico legalized it for teenage minors completely. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few other states that have also done this. UPDATE 4/25/21 Colorado also made it a less serious crime in 2018; Washington made it a less serious crime in 2019; According to this, as of 2017, the following states have made it a less serious crime: AZ, FL, IL, LA, MO, NE, NV, NJ, TX, UT, VT.  (UPDATE 4/29/21 You should also look at some of the web-pages here (the ACLU more or less agrees with me about this)).

UPDATE 4/5/22 I just watched, for the first time in 3-4 years, the season 16 episode I have mentioned. I am reluctant to get into all the details of what happened in that episode  and what should happen in similar situations in real life. But I feel pretty much the same as before. Possession and creating and sharing this kind of child porn should be either a less serious crime for minors or no crime at all for minors. But I think that it should be a crime for minors to put it on the Web- much less serious than a felony, but some kind of misdemeanor. And I still feel that the police came down too hard on the teens in the season 16 episode.

At the very end there’s another thing that deserves a note. The judge is sentencing people to a private corrections institution in Ohio that is run by her cousin. SVU exposes her.

“Solitary” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “When a woman (Deborah Ann Woll) is reported missing, her boyfriend (Bobby Campo) points Detectives Benson and Stabler in the direction of her downstairs neighbor (Stephen Rea), a convicted bank robber who spent nineteen years in solitary confinement. A surprising twist to the case exposes more of the ex-con's dark past.”

There are two note-worthy things.
1) The ADA refers to water-boarding as torture.
2) The negative effects of solitary confinement in prison are illustrated when Stabler spends 3 days in solitary as an experiment and says that it felt like a week.

“Hammered” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “After a night of heavy drinking, an alcoholic (Scott Foley) wakes up to a bloody apartment, a terrible cut on his head and a dead woman in his bed. Unable to recall the night before, he immediately calls the police. Benson and Stabler suspect the crime is the result of a deadly love triangle while Munch and Tutuola discover that the victim was an abortion doctor. After talking to her ex-husband (Chris McKinney), the detectives learn about the numerous death threats that were sent to her. The squad arrests the man who originally called them when they find him beating up his business partner (Chris Bauer) for convincing him to drink again. This leads to a trial which exposes Sonya Paxton's drinking problem.”

There’s briefly some good pro-choice stuff. Not every detective in SVU is onboard with that but overall it’s a pro-choice show.

Although they say this to someone they think might be more of a suspect than a victim, they do say that they don’t care if he was using illegal drugs, they just want the truth.

“Users” Season 11. Wikipedia summary is: “After a crime scene photo of a murdered teenage girl (iJustine) rapidly becomes an Internet phenomenon, the police initiate an investigation with the victim's father (James Colby). When he points the detectives towards his daughter's suspicious therapist (James Frain), it turns out that the man's alibi is airtight. While Munch and Fin are busy tracking down the girl's stolen credit card, Warner and Stabler discover that one of the other therapy patients (Ryan Kelley) has broken into the morgue. The case takes an unexpected turn when the SVU realizes that their best potential witness is desperate for heroin. Huang puts his medical license on the line to get him an illegal drug with a high effectiveness for treating addiction.”

There’s talk at one point about how the pharmaceutical industry won’t produce an alternative to both heroin and methadone called Ibogaine or Ibogaine hydochloride. It’s apparently much better than methadone at helping heroin addicts but the patent expired and drug companies can’t make a lot of money off of it so no company is willing to pay for it to go through FDA trials  and it’s therefore illegal in America. If this episode is right, corporate greed among pharmaceutical companies is blocking something that can end heroin addiction better than methadone does.