Category: reason

Tots in a pre-school program in Nova Scotia can look all they want at their playground’s equipment: they just can’t, you know, play on it.

That’s because the play structures are labeled for use by children age 5-12, and the pre-schoolers are ages 3 and 4.

That doesn’t mean the equipment is a Monty Python-esque contraption of rotating knives, only that a cautious company labeled its slides and such as suitable for older kids, and the program is worried its insurance won’t cover any kids injured on equipment not officially deemed for them.

But, as Playgroundology.com points out:

Let’s remember that these school playgrounds are open to the public after hours and kids can play on the equipment as they choose regardless of age.

Kids have always played with equipment that did not have a specific age range attached to it. Hills, rocks, streams, and trees do not come with “ages 5 and up” warning labels. If something is too hard for three-year-olds to climb, they won’t climb it—or they’ll try to, and learn about bravery, taking risks, and maybe how it feels to fall. How can we expect to raise resilient kids when we don’t trust their resilience, even on playground equipment fit for kindergarteners?

Among the most consistent characteristics of Donald Trump’s worldview is his admiration for dictators, authoritarians, and political strongmen—not in spite of their most thuggish tactics, but because of them.

Trump often appears more comfortable in their company, and with their style of politics, than with the leaders of liberal democracies. This aspect of his personality was on display again today in his joint press conference with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

At the press conference, Trump refused to acknowledge Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. That Russia interfered is now well-documented in both a report by Republican lawmakers and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recent indictment against Russian military intelligence operatives. Allowing that Russia interfered in the election is not equivalent to saying that Russia’s actions swung the election in favor of Trump, but the president cannot seem to distinguish between the two.

Putin has maintained that Russia did not make any attempt at interference, and Trump appears eager to agree. Asked today about Russia’s actions, Trump said, “I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia.” Apparently last week’s announcement by Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. deputy attorney general, that a group of Russian intelligence officers had been “charged with conspiring to hack into computers, steal documents and release those documents with the intent to interfere in the election” does not constitute any reason whatsoever. Trump effectively sided with Putin over the conclusions offered by officials in his own administration.

Trump did not merely deny an allegation that at this point is seriously contested only by the Russian government and its close allies. He also responded to a question about whether he holds the Russian government “accountable for anything in particular” by drawing an equivalence with his own country. “I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish.”

This is far from the first time that Trump has responded to questions about Russia’s corrupt and murderous practices by suggesting that there is no meaningful difference between the two countries. In an interview with Bill O’Reilly early last year, Trump shrugged off O’Reilly’s description of Putin as “a killer.”

“There are a lot of killers,” Trump said. “We got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done, too. We’ve made a lot of mistakes….So, a lot of killers around, believe me.”

This was not a diplomatic posture, adopted for the sake of a particular negotiation. This was an interview with a friendly, high-profile, American television host just weeks after Trump was sworn in. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the American president sincerely believes that there is no meaningful difference between the United States and Russia, a regime that regularly murders dissident journalists and which appears to have recently deployed a toxic nerve agent in an attempted assassination inside the U.K. America is not beyond reproach, but Trump’s apparent inability to differentiate between the United States and murderous, blatantly authoritarian regimes is a worrisome sign about both the limitations of his judgment and his own affinity for autocratic power.

If anything, Trump’s obsequiousness toward Putin suggests a kind of envy at the Russian leader’s ability to exercise violent state power unchecked. Trump, who more than any other recent American president has made the press an enemy, and who has openly mused about curtailing freedom of the press to crack down on critics, seems to regard Putin as an equal. It is clear from Trump’s recent conflicts with the G7, his inflammatory remarks about Britain, and his declaration that the European Union is a “foe,” that that Trump does not reserve the same sort of esteem for leaders of liberal democratic nations that have long been U.S. allies.

As president, Trump’s reverence for violent, nationalistic strongmen has been visible in his praise for President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines (specifically, Trump appears enthralled by the idea of extralegal killings targeting drug dealers) and his embrace of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who reportedly executes those he dislikes—including some of his own officials—using an anti-aircraft gun.

That tendency was apparent long before Trump campaigned for political office: In a 1990 interview, Trump responded to the Chinese government’s slaughter of student protesters by saying that “when the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak.” Watching the U.S. president stand next to Putin, meekly accepting Russian propaganda over the conclusions of his own administration, I would argue that it is Trump who now looks weak.

As a leader, Trump has at times displayed his own authoritarian tendencies, encouraging violence at his campaign rallies and offering to pay the legal bills of those who harm protesters, even gesturing at the possibility of pulling broadcast licenses for media outlets that criticize his presidency. The consistent cruelty of his border policies suggest an indifference to politically caused suffering.

Still, for all his bluster, Trump has not governed as a violent despot. But the longer he remains president, the more clear it becomes that he admires and enjoys the company of those who do.

Body-cam footage from an April traffic stop appears to show two Georgia cops using a coin-toss phone app to decide whether they’d arrest a driver for speeding in the rain. The officers, Courtney Brown and Kristee Wilson of the Roswell Police Department, wound up ignoring the results of the coin toss and following ordinary police procedure. But the very idea of leaving such a weighty choice up to chance has led to a national controversy.

The footage—first reported by the Atlanta station 11 Alive—shows Brown approaching Sarah Webb’s car. Webb tells Brown that she was speeding because she was late to work. Brown replies that speeding in wet conditions means that she’d likely receive a reckless driving charge. Brown then goes back to the cruiser, where Wilson is waiting. After noting that Webb does not have any speeding tickets, the pair pul up a coin toss app on Brown’s phone:

Wilson: A [arrest] head, R [release] tail.
Brown: OK. (sound of coin flip, laugh)
Wilson: This is tail, right?
Brown: “Yeah. So release?”
Wilson: 23. (code for arrest)
Brown: Michael Jordan? (laugh) All right, so I’ve got too fast (laugh) for conditions, reckless…

Though the coin toss’ result meant that Webb would have gone free, Brown and Wilson decided to follow through with the arrest anyway. Brown returned to Webb’s vehicle, arrested Webb for reckless driving, and then placed her in the back of the cruiser.

Webb didn’t learn about the coin toss until 11 Alive contacted her months later about the video. The charges against Webb were thrown out shortly before the video was made available to the public; the prosecutor reportedly refused to prosecute the case after watching the body camera footage.

Police Chief Rusty Grant released a statement via Facebook the day after the incident became viral. Grant said he was “appalled that any law enforcement officer would trivialize the decision-making process of something as important as the arrest of a person.” Roswell Mayor Lori Henry also criticized the officers’ actions on Facebook, calling the behavior “inexcusable and unprofessional.”

Henry also asked her constituents to have faith in an investigation being conducted by the department’s Office of Professional Standards. Brown and Wilson have been placed on administrative duty while the investigation continues. Since the officers appear to allude in the footage to the tactic being used previously, 11 Alive reporters are looking into whether there’s a larger story here.

11 Alive has also posted a longer, 23-minute video to provide more context.

The Medal of Honor Foundation spent years planning a memorial for the recipients of the American military’s highest honor. The famed architect Moshe Sadfie—designer of such iconic structures as Jerusalem’s Holocaust memorial and Montreal’s Habitat 67—has been tapped to design the building, which the foundation intends to erect in Mount Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina. Sadfie envisions a sleek, pentagonal structure.

Designs were finalized back in 2015, and the foundation has raised $19 million of the $100 million it will need to finish the museum. Everything seemed to be falling into place—until it came time to get the government’s approval. In January, the Mount Pleasant Planning Commission rejected the project nearly unanimously for being 75 feet too tall.

Sadfie’s design calls for a 125-foot structure. But the plot where the foundation wants to build the museum is not zoned to allow buildings of more than 50 feet.

“I have ultimate respect for this project. I just think it’s a little much,” said Commissioner Roy Neal in January, just before he voted to reject the design.

The city council can approve variances for taller buildings, and other structures near their proposed site go as high as 80 feet. The flight deck of the World War II aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, stationed right next to where the museum would be built, is nearly 100 feet high.

Nevertheless, the Mount Pleasant city council has refused to budge on the height issue, citing the character of the building, concerns about whether financing for the project will come together, and irritation at an alleged lack of consultation from the project’s planners. Designs for the project were available for three years on the foundation’s website.

In late May, the Foundation agreed to scrap its current design and committed to hearing community input on what the museum should look like. In late June, the foundation held the first of two public meetings on a new design, where community members expressed a desire that it be “awe-inspiring.” Another public meeting is planned for later this month.

To be clear, the Medal of Honor Museum is no libertarian dream project. Some 20 percent of its funding comes from South Carolina taxpayers, and it is being built on public land owned by the Patriots Point Development Authority.

But the city’s objections to the project do not hold that there has been too much government involvement, but rather that there hasn’t been enough. “They didn’t consult with town council,” Mount Pleasant Councilman Joe Bustos complained to CityLab. In other words: They didn’t do the requisite consultation and ring-kissing. And what good is a building without that?

An accredited journalist covering Donald Trump and Valdimir Putin’s press conference in Finland today was forcibly removed before both leaders came out to answer questions.

Sam Husseini, who was covering the summit for the progressive publication The Nation, was holding up a sign that read “Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty” when security guards grabbed him and marched him out of the room. According to CNBC, Russian authorities considered his sign a “malicious item.”

CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta reports that Husseini had been asked to leave the room earlier. He did so, then returned to retrieve his things; on his return trip, he told the assembled reporters that he had gotten the boot because of the sign. “At that point, as he held it up, the security officials grabbed him and forcibly removed him from the room,” Acosta says.

Video captured at the scene showed the situation escalating. Husseini says his sign wasn’t a protest, but a security guard keeps trying to get him to lower it anyway. When Husseini refuses and keeps talking, the guard attempts to wrest the sign from his hands, knocking the reporter’s glasses off in the process. Several other guards join the effort, and Husseini is eventually dragged out of the room as a crowd of journalists watched.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation correspondent Susan Ormiston has said on Twitter that Husseini had been “heckling” other journalists as they reported live from the briefing room. According to Ormiston, the people who removed Husseini were with the U.S. Secret Service.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has been taking his lumps in the media and other sectors of the anti-Trumposphere for these comments on CNN Sunday about Russia’s hackery into the 2016 presidential campaign: “If we have proof that they did it, we should spend our time protecting ourselves instead of having this witch hunt on the president. I think we need to be done with this so we can protect our election….We all do it. What we need to do is make sure our electoral process is protected. They are not going to admit it in the same way we’re not going to admit we were involved in the Ukrainian elections or the Russian elections.” To which Mother Jones D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn tweeted simply: “Traitor.”

This is one of several often-hysterical Trump/Russia-related controversies tackled today on the editor-roundtable version of the Reason Podcast, featuring Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, Nick Gillespie, and me. Is the U.S. president’s seeming equivalence of Russian and American interference in other countries’ domestic elections accurate, and/or inappropriate? What does it mean (and is it meaningful) that Trump calls the European Union, China, and Russia “foes“? Is it proper for the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania to express clear preferences in the politics of its allies? These and other questions come under vigorous, if world-weary, debate.

Subscribe, rate, and review our podcast at iTunes. Listen at SoundCloud below:

Audio production by Ian Keyser.

‘Day Into Night’ by Rho is licensed under CC BY NC 3.0

Relevant links from the show:

“Trump Apologies for America Ahead of Helsinki Summit With Putin,” by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

“12 Russian Operatives Indicted for Hacking Democrats, Voting Systems During 2016 U.S. Presidential Election,” by Scott Shackford

“The Case Against the Case Against the Mueller Investigation,” by Jonathan H. Adler

“Trump’s Economic Illiteracy Has Deep Roots,” by Eric Boehm

“Trump Wants to Win at Trade. He’s Missing the Point,” by Katherine Mangu-Ward

“Donald Trump, Lying, and Eroding Social Trust,” by Ronald Bailey

“This Year’s World Cup Is a Tale of Cultural Blending, Written by Immigrants,” by Eric Boehm

Don’t miss a single Reason Podcast! (Archive here.)

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Finland’s largest newspaper has put up almost 300 billboards criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s treatment of the press.

Helsingin Sanomat‘s billboards feature headlines from past stories that “highlight the presidents’ turbulent relations with the media,” according to a press release. The posters, which are in Russian and English, went up ahead of today’s meeting between Trump and Putin in Helsinki. They were meant to be seen by both world leaders as they traveled from the airport to the meeting.

“Mr. President, welcome to the land of free press,” one of the billboards reads, while another says, “Trump calls media enemy of the people.” Other billboards criticized Putin, with one reading, “Russian reporter who criticized Putin gains asylum in Britain.”

Kaius Niemi, editor-in-chief of Helsingin Sanomat, has said the newspaper wants to remind Trump and Putin about “the importance of free press” and show support for American and Russian journalists facing “ever toughening circumstances” in their respective countries. “The media shouldn’t be the lapdog of any president or regime,” he added.

That sentiment was evident in many of the billboards:

The @RealDonad_Trump is welcomed approprietly in Helsinki.#Helsinki2018 #HelsinkiSummit pic.twitter.com/LlMhHlhCgz

— Vitux (@Supervitux) July 16, 2018

Ad campaign in Helsinki for quality journalism and free press by the major newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. #thelandoffreepress #HelsinkiSummit2018 #Helsinki2018 #TrumpPutinSummit pic.twitter.com/89KJjzVTxh

— Keijo Kaarisade (@vihapuhepoliisi) July 15, 2018

Welcome to #thelandofthefreepress #Helsinki2018 pic.twitter.com/AtRQmDYHWv

— Markus Nieminen (@markusnieminen) July 15, 2018

As the newspaper notes in its press release, both Trump and Putin have had “contentious” relationships with the media. In Russia’s case, contentious is an understatement. “Between draconian laws and website blocking, the pressure on independent media has grown steadily since Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin in 2012,” the group says. Russia was ranked 148th out of 180 countries in the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders’ 2018 World Press Freedom Index.

Even the U.S., which guarantees freedom of press under the First Amendment, was only ranked 45th in the index, down two spots from last year. Reporters Without Borders notes Trump’s “attempt[s] to block White House access to multiple media outlets” and his “call[s] for revoking certain media outlets’ broadcasting licenses.”

Finland, where Trump and Putin met today, is ranked fourth on the index.

During a joint press conference Monday morning, President Donald Trump told the world that he accepted Vladimir Putin’s dubious assertion that the Russian government did not meddle in America’s 2016 election. In doing so, Trump contradicted his own intelligence officials, who remain confident that Russia was indeed responsible for the hack of Democratic National Committee emails, regardless of whether anyone within the Trump campaign colluded in this effort.

That Trump could stand next to Putin and go out of his way to please the autocratic leader was “disgraceful,” in the words of CNN’s Anderson Cooper. If Twitter is any indication, Cooper’s sentiments are widely shared by people in media and politics, and not just the left-of-center ones. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) wrote, “I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.” Fox News’s Guy Benson called this one of Trump’s “worst days as president.” The Federalist‘s Mollie Hemmingway said Trump should have chosen different words. Even Rep. Peter King (R–N.Y.), ordinarily a reliable defender of Trump, said he “strongly disagrees” with the president’s take on Russian interference.

This disappointment with Trump’s behavior is well-justified. The president didn’t have to bow to Putin, fully embracing every obvious lie the Russian leader had told him. He could have been polite without being craven. He could have signaled a desire to work toward more peaceful relations without coming across like a dupe.

But this does not mean it was a mistake for Trump to meet with Putin in the first place, or that the theory—promoted just days ago by New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait—that Trump is some sort of Russian agent (and has been since 1987!) holds water. Former CIA chief John Brennan claims that Trump’s performance was “nothing short of treasonous” and that it “rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.'” That’s plainly wrong. And Rep. Eric Swalwell (D–Calif.), a frequent spokesperson for the #Resistance on cable news, was engaged in unhinged fearmongering when he tweeted this over the weekend:

FDR didn’t meet w/ the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. George H.W. Bush didn’t meet w/ Saddam after Iraq invaded Kuwait. And George W. Bush didn’t meet w/ Bin Laden after 9/11. So tell me, @realDonaldTrump, what does America get out of you meeting w/ Putin after he attacked us?

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) July 15, 2018

Unsurprisingly, the most reasonable response to the presser came from the reliably levelheaded Rep. Justin Amash (R–Mich.) who said, “A person can be in favor of improving relations with Russia, in favor of meeting with Putin, and still think something is not right here.” Diplomacy is good, and Democrats shouting “Treason!” whenever the president does something dumb is as obnoxious in the Trump years as it was when the Republicans did it during the Obama years. It’s a mistake to indulge in grand conspiracy theorizing—Manchurian candidates! The Americans! Urinating sex workers!—to explain the president’s actions when mundane incompetence and egomania fit just as nicely.

It is pretty clear that Timothy Trybus broke the law when he harassed Mia Irizarry for wearing a T-shirt featuring the Puerto Rican flag at a park in Chicago last month. But now that the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has charged Trybus with hate crimes in addition to assault and disorderly conduct, the government is trying to punish him for his opinions as well as his actions.

During the June 14 incident, which you can watch in a viral video that Irizarry recorded with her cellphone, an audibly intoxicated and belligerent Trybus repeatedly confronted her in and near a gazebo she had reserved for a birthday party and berated her. “Why are you wearing that?” he asked, pointing at the flag shirt. “This is America….You’re not gonna change us, you know that?…You should not be wearing that in the United States of America….If you’re an American citizen, you should not be wearing that shirt in America.”

Trybus did not touch Irizarry, but he got uncomfortably close and raised his voice, notwithstanding her requests that he leave her alone. Meanwhile, a park police officer who has since resigned stood by passively, ignoring Irizarry’s pleas for help, although he did ultimately tell Trybus to “shut the fuck up.”

The initial charges against Trybus seem to fit his behavior. Under Illinois law, someone commits assault when he “knowingly engages in conduct which places another in reasonable apprehension of receiving a battery.” Disorderly conduct includes “any act” committed “in such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb another and to provoke a breach of the peace.” Both offenses are Class C misdemeanors, punishable by a fine of up to $1,500 and up to 30 days in jail. By contrast, the hate crime charges filed last week, taking into account the enhancement for offenses committed in a public park, are Class 3 felonies, punishable by two to five years in prison.

The hate crime provision applies when someone commits any of several offenses, including assault and disorderly conduct, “by reason of the actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or national origin of another individual or group of individuals.” In this case, the allegation presumably is that Trybus harassed Irizarry at least partly because of her race, color, or ancestry, which seems like a reasonable supposition.

But even if that’s true, it’s hard to deny that Trybus faces the possibility of years rather than weeks behind bars because of the views he expressed about the propriety of displaying the Puerto Rican flag. If he had instead objected to T-shirt advocating marijuana legalization or Donald Trump’s impeachment, he might still have been arrested for assault and disorderly conduct, but he would not be charged with felonies. The subject he chose and the position he took were crucial in determining the penalties he now faces.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who joined Cook County Commissioner Jesus Garcia and the Puerto Rican Bar Association of Illinois in calling for hate crime charges against Trybus, made it clear that the goal is to emphasize that certain opinions are beyond the pale and should never be publicly aired. “People have to learn there are consequences, especially in the era of Trump,” Gutierrez told the Chicago Tribune. “I really do believe there are people who say to themselves, ‘If Trump can do it, I can do it. Why can’t I go out there and say the things the president says?'”

Gutierrez, in other words, hopes the threat of prison will deter people from echoing the president’s controversial views on matters related to race and immigration. That expectation should give pause to anyone who doubted that enhancing criminal penalties based on a defendant’s bigoted beliefs poses a danger to freedom of speech.

Pennsylvania State Police killed a man with a bulldozer over a 10-plant marijuana grow “operation” on state lands in Berks County.

The man’s death was likely an accident, but it highlights how recklessly and foolishly police have perpetuated the drug war, even as Americans want to pull back.

On July 9 a state worker on a bulldozer was clearing out some brush to improve hunters’ access to state lands. He saw a suspicious car off the road and called the cops. When law enforcement came out to investigate, the Reading Eagle reports, they found those 10 marijuana plants.

They also found two men: David B. Light, 54, and Gregory Longenecker, 51. Light surrendered to police immediately. Longenecker ran.

The police called in a helicopter to follow Longenecker, but they lost him in the dense brush of the state lands. A trooper jumped onto the bulldozer and used it with the state worker to try to chase the grower. What happened next is a little vague, thanks to police spokespeople’s propensity to describe events in ways that leave out any sort of clear cause-effect relationship. But according to State Police spokesman David Boehm, the bulldozer was clearing a path through the underbrush when the state trooper on the bulldozer told the worker to stop. Then they looked behind the bulldozer and saw Longenecker’s body.

The subsequent autopsy determined that Longenecker died of “traumatic injuries.” At the time of Longenecker’s death, Boehm had tried to float the possibility that maybe the man died of a heart attack prior to being run over by a bulldozer. (Presumably the terror of having a bulldozer bearing down on him, about to run him over, caused Longenecker to have a heart attack and die, right before the bulldozer actually ran him over.)

Boehm also told the Eagle that the police do not think Longenecker’s death was the result of a “police pursuit.” He insisted they were just trying to “locate” him by commandeering a bulldozer and sending it racing into the brush while a helicopter hovered overhead.

That defensive posturing is likely a reaction to angry questions wanting to know why the police responded so harshly to a grow operation involving 10 whole plants. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has trashed the State Police’s behavior, reports the Associated Press:

“We simply cannot understand how a man is dead over an investigation involving 10 cannabis plants,” said Patrick Nightingale, executive director of NORML’s Pittsburgh chapter and a former Allegheny County prosecutor. “The whole investigation was ridiculous. I’ve seen law enforcement take down major heroin traffickers that haven’t engaged in this level of aggression.”

The officer who had been on the bulldozer is on administrative leave while the incident is under investigation.

Recreational use of marijuana in Pennsylvania is still a crime, though Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have decriminalized the possession of small amounts. The state legalized medical marijuana use in 2016 to treat a limited set of conditions.

Light has been charged with felony counts of drug possession with intent to deliver and conspiracy to possess drugs with intent to deliver, as well as drug possession, possession of a small amount of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and criminal trespass. He was released on a $25,000 bail. Jeff Reidy of NORML tells the Associated Press that the 10 marijuana plants probably had a street value of less than $5,000. He theorizes that they were probably only for personal consumption.