Death Spiral
WASHINGTON — Congressional efforts to reach a border security deal ahead of another government shutdown broke down on Sunday over Democratic demands to limit the detention of undocumented immigrants, as President Trump moved more troops to the border and prepared to rally supporters in Texas on Monday……
The impasse appears to center on Democratic demands for a limit on the number of unauthorized immigrants already in the country who could be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, according to aides familiar with the talks. Democrats say a cap of 16,500 beds in ICE detention centers would force the Trump administration to focus on detaining undocumented immigrants with criminal records instead of using indiscriminate sweeps that drag in otherwise law-abiding residents.
“For far too long, the Trump administration has been tearing communities apart with its cruel immigration policies,” Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard, Democrat of California and one of the negotiators, said on Sunday. “A cap on ICE detention beds will force the Trump administration to prioritize deportation for criminals and people who pose real security threats, not law-abiding immigrants who are contributing to our country.”
—excerpt New York Times February 10, 2019
By Emily Cochrane, Maggie Haberman and Eric Schmitt
A torturer knows exactly how to hurt, in full recognition of the victim’s pain. He – usually he – has the cognitive capacity, necessary but not sufficient for empathy, to understand the victim’s experience. He just does not care about the other’s pain except instrumentally. Further, he does not care that he does not care. Finally, he does not care that caring does, in fact, matter. The emotionally inflected judgment that underlies the moral sense is gone.
—excerpt How Evil Happens by Noga Arikha
2 thoughts on “Death Spiral”
As we know from the information gathered at Abu Graibe, torture is only minimally effective at extracting information and when used to extremes, can produce details that are made up, solely to stop the torture.
I believe that, as noted above, torturers bear little if any ability to empathize with their victims. But I also believe that the act of torture is entered into with a sense of empowerment and almost glee in their job. The actual gleaning of information is secondary to the emotional high felt by the perpetrator, which means it really doesn’t matter if the vicim divulges information or not. In fact the torturer would probably prefer that their captive didn’t spill the beans, because it would not be as fulfilling. This is the true definition of sadism.
I remember a time when we Americans were not nearly as conversant about this topic. It was limited to black ops and was on the QT. Nowadays it is discussed without shame as it is widely known that torture was a officially sanctioned practice, not that long ago. Naturally these methods were relabeled. This is who we are, and we can no longer flatter ourselves to think there is anything morally superior about us, compared with any other peoples.