Ian McDougall at Pro-Publica writes—Why Jeff Sessions’ Final Act Could Have More Impact Than Expected:
[...] before he left the job, the soon-to-be former attorney general had some last-minute business to attend to. With a black-ink pen, he initialed, in an illegible scrawl, a document formalizing the terms of what will be one of his abiding legacies: a Justice Department disengaged from its role in investigating and reforming police departments that repeatedly violate the civil rights of the people they’re sworn to protect. Police reform had been a DOJ priority during the Obama administration, and that work played a significant role in the federal response to the deaths of black men at the hands of police in cities such as Ferguson, Missouri.
Sessions, however, had long opposed the federal police oversight and the consent decrees — long-term reform plans supervised and enforced by a federal judge — that defined DOJ’s approach during the Obama years. In his view, they undermine law enforcement and amount to improper federal meddling in state and local affairs. (This summer, I documented the human consequences of the dramatic extent to which Sessions and his deputies had scaled back federal police oversight.)
The seven-page memorandum Sessions initialed last week caught Justice Department officials by surprise, and many of them are still puzzling through what it will mean in practice. “People aren’t happy that this came out with no notice and no discussion,” one DOJ official said. “What does this really mean day-to-day? Nobody’s really sure because they weren’t included in the conversation.”
The memo places significant hurdles in the way of DOJ entering into consent decrees with state and city governments. It mandates closer control by the Justice Department’s most senior political appointees, requires sunset dates for consent decrees, and limits what the DOJ can require of state and city agencies.[...]
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QUOTATION
“There is no deception on the part of the woman, where a man bewilders himself: if he deludes his own wits, I can certainly acquit the woman. Whatever man allows his mind to dwell upon the imprint his imagination has foolishly taken of woman, is fanning the flames within himself -- and, since the woman knows nothing about it, she is not to blame. For if a man incites himself to drown, and will not restrain himself, it is not the water's fault.”
~~John Gower, Confessio Amantis, Volume 1 (1365)
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2003—Why did AFSCME and SEIU decide on Dean?
Dean assiduously courted the SEIU and AFSCME locals, while none of the other candidates could be bothered. AFSCME was sold on Clark, until his organizational problems and abandonment of Iowa forced them to reconsider.
One new bit of information -- after AFSCME gave up on Clark, it seriously considered Gephardt. The courtship was so strong, indeed, that Gep assumed the endorsement was his.
The move stunned labor and political insiders and left some of Dean's rivals furious. Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), who has the support of 20 unions, believed he would get the AFSCME endorsement and was particularly upset. According to one person, he fumed that McEntee had just "turned over the country to the Republicans for four more years."
The AFSCME endorsement might've delivered the whole AFL-CIO to Gep, so the loss must've been particularly bitter.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Greg Dworkin helps round up the weekend. Trump toddles through another disaster abroad. Gop desperately telling "fraud" tales to stop the bleeding at the ballot box. NRA picks a fight with docs. Trump dumps on military morale. The Game of Gavels.
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