In my email stream this morning. With Trump and the Trumpists, "the cruelty is the point" is almost always the first thing you should reach for to understand their actions: [Redacted]: This story about Iranians turned back at airports https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwGCtPhzCKpxRhgXMhNMQbHVNvh: 'Just astonishing. Even if you don't feel for these young people—and how could you not?—it just makes zero sense to have a system in which one set of government workers engage in the expensive task of vetting these students, and then some random CBP schmuck can override their decision, in the moment, on the basis of noting. I understand that "the cruelty is the point" is part of the explanation here, but we do have a preexisting government apparatus which exists for the worthy goal of making sure these talented students can come study here. There's just some real schizophrenia in the government...
#noted #2020-03-05
