Reading Twitter: Some tragedies are easily predictable

Wherein I spare you the mental anguish of reading Twitter:

I relate to this.

Sports Fan Has Opinion https://t.co/Vy3HS6aR97 pic.twitter.com/Q4uttsPoAI

— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 24, 2018

This genre of story annoyed me until James Fallows made this point.

Frequent “Trump supporters still support Trump” stories can seem strange if you ask why we don’t see “Jerry Brown supporters still support Brown,” “Chuck Schumer supporters” etc
They make more sense to me when I remember similar stories on steadfast Marion Barry supporters in DC. https://t.co/gl04CfkLbi

— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) June 24, 2018

Trade-offs are a constant, even with the massive resources of the federal government.

People should really pay attention to this story, which is the evidence that Trump's zero-tolerance and family separation border policy is happening INSTEAD OF what should be higher priority investigations, prosecutions, and removals. https://t.co/J5yXbyNrxK

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) June 23, 2018

What's weird about this media-saturated age is that the oncoming tragedies are quite predictable, if one has the stomach to look.

Trump's cramming 1,000 immigrants into an overcrowded #Victorville prison in California's Mojave Desert. Staff say it's unsafe and 'detainee deaths' will occur. Reporter: @LaurenWeberHP of @HuffPost. https://t.co/luYZ2JvgFe pic.twitter.com/LkDKXxYN2w

— Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) June 24, 2018

Speaking on easily predictable oncoming tragedies, on that's right up there on the list is the slow death of safety-net hospitals because we, as a society, insist on shortchanging paying for health care for the neediest. "GOP state legislatures refusing to accept the Medicaid expansion" sounds sort of bloodless. The consequences are easier to understand if you rephrase it to: "GOP rejects federal money because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, kills off hospitals of last resort and, by extension, people."

Lack of expansion had a huge negative impact on our General Hospital. Without expansion lots of Nashville residents can't access a continuum of care unless they go there.
Without a hospital more Nashville residents will die. https://t.co/qoBb6YvASA

— Fabian Bedne (@bedne) June 24, 2018

It is good to know some things will never change.

They try like hell to kill it but New York is still there. https://t.co/4NBUMyxVTc

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) June 24, 2018

World Cup update: What is Ronaldo hiding?

Here's an update on how the world's biggest sporting event is progressing. I'm watching while the rest of you suckers are working. (Well, most of you.) 

Argentina

Translation: Leave it. It is dead. 

On the bright side, Argentine men can devote more time to following their football association's instructions on how to seduce Russian women.

And, sure, thanks to Nigeria beating Iceland, Argentina is technically not yet eliminated. However, they've been the worst team in their group. Nigeria has a real shot at beating them. 

Croatia

They're now a "must watch" team. Luka Modric's strike against Argentine is the soccer equivalent of when LeBron decides to hell with it and just stampedes to the basket.

Mexico
The celebrations when Hirving Lozano scored the winner against Germany literally caused a false earthquake.

It's only one game (against the defending world champions), but El Tri looks as competitive as any of the top teams. By virtue of beating Germany, they are likely to avoid Brazil in at least the first knockout round.

Germany
Reading German tabloids after a soul-crushing defeat really gets to essence of "schadenfreude." Thanks to Google, you can get a translation, but it's more fun to infer from the original German.



Translation: 

“In the past months there has been a lot of talk about boycotting the World Cup for political reasons”, wrote commentator Matthias Brügelmann in tabloid Bild. “But I did not expect that Jogi’s boys would turn that into practice on the pitch in their opener, of all matches.”

Ouch.

Brazil
They'll move on to the knockout rounds easily enough, but Neymar remains as hard to root for as ever:



He was initially awarded a penalty kick for this play, but the referee reversed himself after video review showed that Neymar was essentially practicing a trust fall.

Portugal
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored all of Portugal's goals so far and is the favorite to win the Golden Boot (given to the player who scores the most goals in the tournament). He remains the most polarizing player in the world -- as talented and vain as ever. Tom Brady wishes he was as hate-watchable as this guy.

But can we talk about his stubborn insistence on wearing long sleeves? The other day, Portugal was playing in 90-degree heat and Nashville-esque humidity and he was the only player on the field in long sleeves. 



What sort of scandalous tattoos is he hiding?

France
They're cruising along, but haven't yet put it all together. Paul Pogba has been putting on a clinic, just in case you are curious as to what sort of havoc can be wreaked by a world-class midfielder.

Kylian Mbappe has scored one relatively easy goal and had a couple of other tantalizing chances. Hopefully we'll get to see Les Bleus drop the hammer on some poor team soon. If the soccer gods are smiling, as a bonus, we'll get to the see that thing where Mbappe just toys with a defense.

Spain
Like France, they're doing OK, but haven't yet played to their talent level. Spain versus Portugal was, by far, the most entertaining game so far. 

They remain appointment viewing and not just to see if Sergio Ramos causes an international incident during a game.

Liam Neeson isn't walking through that door

The central myth of the Taken movies is that you would probably be able to do something if armed men took your kids. 

I know, I know -- it's probably different with you. Maybe you studied taekwondo. Perhaps you own a gun or even many guns. I even know a couple of folks who own AR-15s. Maybe you're just a big ol' boy and no one can take you.

Plus, the adrenaline would carry you, right? Everybody's heard that story about the car that trapped the kids and the 5-foot, 100 pound mom lifted the car so the kids could escape. Parenting elicits such powerful emotions that we would be able to do the same, right?

Thing is, armed law enforcement officers exercise their will on the public every day. They even do this to people who possess weapons. It's central to how our justice system operates. Most of the time, this is a right and necessary use of state power. 

Except when it's not. 

***

I bring this up because I've run across comments along the lines of "Well, they wouldn't take my kids," or "I would defend my family."

This line of thinking is pernicious for couple of reasons. First, it's subtly dehumanizing of the actual people who did have their children ripped away from them. They don't love their kids any less than I love mine or you love yours. Their adrenaline was coursing through their veins the instant they realized that their child disappeared behind that door.

Second, it understates our government's power. It makes it seem like some how, some way, the parent could've chosen to keep their children. 

(I can hear the retort already -- "They shouldn't have brought them in the first place." You try raising your child in a town where drug cartels are the de facto government and tell me you wouldn't do everything possible to get the hell out of there.)

For most of us, if a person wearing a uniform and badge and holding a gun tells you to do something, you do it. 

***

In a civilized society, law enforcement officers make an implicit promise that they wield this awesome power responsibly. 

On our southern border, this promise has been grotesquely broken.  

Consular offices are often involved in cases of unaccompanied migrant youth, especially when children want to return to their countries voluntarily. But this situation was “atypical,” according to José Vicente Chinchilla, the consul general of El Salvador, because they did not even know children separated from their families were coming to New York, let alone how many.

The Washington Post reported (I can't link because of paywall) about an immigration judge blowing up at a prosecutor because parents of separated children hadn't been given any way of tracking where their children are. 

We have entrusted the power to separate children from their parents to people who are too evil, craven, or stupid to understand the gravity of their jobs as public servants.  

In a more perfect world, Liam Neeson would take care of this problem and hold the relevant parties accountable. 

In our highly flawed world, it falls on us. In the short term, outrage works. 

In the longer term, elect people who take seriously the basic responsibilities of government. 

***

Update:

It is shockingly difficult for immigration attorneys to locate children separated from their parents at the border. Today I spoke to lawyers who represent more than 400 parents. They've located two children.

— Kevin Sieff (@ksieff) June 22, 2018

The point is that we should try to ensure parents can spend more time with their kids

While public opinion seems to be shifting against separating parents from their children (low hanging fruit, to be sure), let’s also take a look at the 120,000 women and 1.1 million men who are incarcerated in U.S. prisons and also have children under 17.

I’m not making a blanket call to release anyone who is parent. Rather, we need to re-align our corrections systems to its original mission -- to improve our society as a whole. This means we should use common sense and modern technology to reduce or mitigate the negative effects on kids whose parents are in prison.

A logical place to start is with the moms.

Tyler Cowen wrote a column about this for Bloomberg. His suggestion:

Let’s take one-tenth of [women in prison for nonviolent offenses] and move them from prison to house arrest, combined with electronic monitoring. That would allow for proximity to their children. If the U.S. isn’t plagued by a subsequent wave of violent crime — and I don’t think it will be — let us try the same for yet another tenth. Let’s keep on doing this until it’s obviously not working. 

My hunch is that this would have a negligible effect on crime, reduce costs for taxpayers, reduce recidivism, and improve all sorts of outcomes for their kids.

***

In my work as a teacher and administrator, I speak with parents regularly. This past year, I averaged 15 calls or texts per day. 

This included parents who are incarcerated. I've conferenced with parents and heard the monotone interruption of "This call is coming from a federal penitentiary." In other cases, I could infer that the parent was using a contraband cell phone. 

To state the obvious: parents care about their kids. They will go to extraordinary lengths to support them. It is in our interests as a society to help them do this. 

Our criminal justice system serves us, not the other way around. 

Evening musical interlude - JC Brown and the Uptown Sound

Artist - JC Brown and the Uptown Sound
Song - "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart"

Tell me that you can resist classic Chicago rhythm and blues sound married to Jeff Tweedy's bizarre, melancholy lyrics. 

Apropos of nothing, breakup songs are one of my favorite types and this is in my all-time top 5. 

An anecdote about asylum seekers

When I lived in Denver a few years ago, I taught a student who came to this country because if she and her family had stayed in their home country, they faced a credible threat from the Zetas. Her older brother had already been murdered by gang members. The way the cartels operate, the entire family was now a target for harassment, extortion, and kidnapping.

In an alternate reality, my former student could've ended up coerced into a life that is the nightmare for any parents of a teenage daughter.

Faced with an impossible choice, they uprooted their lives and sought asylum at the U.S. border.

When people face a strong likelihood of persecution if they return to their homes, especially in certain places where their governments don't have the ability to protect them, American law permits them legal entry as refugees.

***

I try to imagine suddenly needing to leave Nashville with my family, giving up my home for no money, and moving to a place where we didn’t speak the language. I imagine giving up my way of earning a living because that likely won’t travel to the new place, either. I imagine doing this while grieving the loss of my son. The scale of it all is unfathomable.

Yet that is what my student’s family -- and tens of thousands like them -- did.

These families are who we, through our Border Patrol authorized by the government we elected, are arresting and separating at the border. 

These families, likely already traumatized, are being ripped apart by public servants acting in our name. 

***

Immigration, including and especially taking in refugees, makes our country better off. (Read the studies, if you'd like.) Contra Jeff Sessions and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Bible, and Jesus in particular, is quite clear about what should be done for impoverished, desperate strangers fleeing persecution.

We empathize best through stories though, and this one has a happy ending. My former student is now in college, training to be a teacher. Her other brother is in high school. Her parents rebuilt their lives, working incredible hours at tough jobs. Their children are thriving because of their sacrifice.

***

The potential we each have within us is a delicate thing. Single, cruel acts can reverberate across families and generations. Rebuilding one’s promise after such cruelty takes enormous effort. For every story that ends like my former student’s, dozens more have a tragic conclusion.

When our country opens its doors to those in need, we all benefit.

The opposite is also true.

Reading the New York Times with Father John Misty

I can’t grow thick enough facial hair to have a luxurious beard. Therefore, the second-most hipster thing I can do is to respond to today’s New York Times headlines using the titles of Father John Misty songs.

On this Father's Day, thank you for indulging my flailing attempts to be cool.

How Trump Came to Enforce a Practice of Separating Migrant Families

FJM - “When the God of Love Returns, There’ll Be Hell to Pay”

A Financier’s Profit-Minded Mission to Open a Channel Between Kushner and North Korea

FJM - “Things It Would’ve Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution”

Just the Fear of a Trade War Is Straining the Global Economy

FJM - “Just Dumb Enough to Try”

Beyoncé and Jay-Z Deliver a Surprise Album: ‘Everything Is Love’

FJM - “Total Entertainment Forever”

Major Study of Drinking Will Be Shut Down

FJM - “Nothing Good Ever Happens At the Goddamn Thirsty Cow”

Casual viewer's guide to the World Cup

This viewing guide is an indicator of what I will do when I don't have enough formal responsibilities. Hello summer!

TEAMS TO ROOT FOR:

England: 

* England has world-class tabloids. Win or lose, the Sun's headlines will be amazing. 

*  England has recently cornered the market on entertaining Harrys. In this case, if Harry Kane wins the Golden Boot, he may be moved ahead of Prince Harry in royal line of succession.

* They have the second-best team nickname in the tournament - Three Lions. 

France

* You couldn't get away with this if you were a hard core England fan (read: English native) but no one reading this is, so have fun.

* If a middle school class were a World Cup team, they would be France -- equal parts drama, talent, and risky fashion choices.

* Kylian Mbappe is young, electric, and a threat to score at any time.

* Unlike England, if they perform to their talent level, they are plausible champions.

Nigeria

* The Super Eagles have the best nickname in the tournament. 

* They have the best uniforms, too. 

Egypt

* Mohammad Salah is the Steph Curry of international soccer - he scores a lot and often at insane levels of difficulty.

* Salah is single-handedly making Europeans more tolerant of Islam.

*...but he may miss games because of a questionable play during the European club championship where he injured his shoulder. It's no exaggeration to say that his left shoulder is the most watched joint in the world at the moment.

* Egypt has been an African powerhouse, but is making their first World Cup appearance in 28 years. When they qualified, the celebration was like Denver when the Broncos won the Super Bowl, but for an entire country. 

TEAMS THAT ON BALANCE, YOU SHOULD ROOT FOR, AND WILL BE FASCINATING REGARDLESS

Argentina

* Their national cuisine is grass-fed steak, reasonably priced delicious wine, and empanadas. These are my kind of people.

* Messi, in his likely final World Cup, is still the best player in the world and maybe the best of all time. Like LeBron's Cavs, they probably won't win the final....but maybe one of four times, they could.

* The power of Catholicism will be put to the test, as this is the Pope's team (and de facto team for the Vatican since Italy -- in the greatest national disgrace since fascism -- didn't make the tournament).

Spain

* They play one of the most recognizable styles in the world (tiki-taka, characterized by possession, short-passes, and lots of movement). Drop that knowledge at any watch party in order to cut off would-be mansplainers (present company included).

* They fired their coach the day before the biggest tournament in the world because of what amounts to a minor HR procedural matter. 

* Andres Iniesta, though close to my age, is a midfielder still capable of making pinpoint, beautifully geometric passes, thereby giving all the dads in my neighborhood hope that somehow, we still have it.

Iceland

* By far the smallest country in the World Cup. This is akin to fielding a world class team from the population of Williamson County.

* Their cheer is "Skol!" and their fans do a thunder clap. It's like the Florida Gator chomp, but won't inspire nausea since Icelanders are better people than Flordians.

Belgium

* The thinking person's dark horse bid. 

* Though the country was formed relatively recently from an odd mix of France, the Netherlands and Germany, they have a beer drinking culture that is all their own. Priorities, people. 

TEAMS THAT I WON'T CHEER FOR BUT STILL WILL WATCH FOR THE SAME REASONS I WATCH THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS EVEN THOUGH IT'S SUCH A NAKED MONEY GRAB AT THE EXPENSE OF UNPAID 20 YEAR-OLDS THAT I KIND OF HATE MYSELF CONTRIBUTING TO THE PROBLEM

Brazil

* They are the hipster bandwagon choice. Unless a person speaks fluent Portuguese, then one shouldn't wear the (admittedly gorgeous) Brazilian uniform. 

* Neymar is the favorite player of middle school boys most likely to earn detention for repeatedly talking during instruction.

* They are absolutely loaded and worth watching in the same way the UK basketball is. It might be a showcase of skill and athleticism; it might implode due to unrelenting pressure from their insane fans.

Germany

* Die Mannschaft is the equivalent of Alabama football. Their team is 2-deep with star-level talent at every position and they attract a lot of bandwagon fans but only a handful of natives are tolerable as human beings. 

* The nickname Die Mannschaft is cool. The translation -- "The Team" -- is boring. If ever a team nickname encapsulated a populace, this is it.

Portugal

* Cristiano Ronaldo is a beautiful man and knows it as only a elite narcissist can.

* Obnoxious personality aside, he really is that good.

TEAMS ABOUT WHICH I DON'T KNOW HOW TO QUANTIFY MY FEELINGS

Mexico

* All the ingredients of a team I love to casually root for -- talented, but with a history of coming up short at the highest levels; passionate fans from a underdog kind of place; excellent native food; taught a ton of kids who will root their hearts out for El Tri

*....but they are US team's main rival (Dos a cero, anyone?)

* Regardless, I want to catch one of their games at a Mexican restaurant on Nolensville Road. It will be lit.

Uruguay

* They are the crazy-talented underdogs of South America. They have the twin virtues of being able to win the tournament and not being Brazil

* Their uniforms are simple and gorgeous. 

* Luis Suarez, their star scorer, is both compulsively watchable and also bit a dude during the last World Cup. That's a bridge too far for me. 

I AM NOT ROOTING FOR THESE TEAMS BECAUSE EVEN BY THE LOW STANDARDS OF THIS MESSED UP WORLD, THEY HAVE HORRIFIC POLITICAL SITUATIONS

Russia

* This World Cup is yet another example of Vladimir Putin using major sporting events to whitewash his invasions of sovereign nations, murdering of anyone who stands in his way, and committing mind-blowing amounts of graft and theft. Fuck that guy.

Saudi Arabia

* The royals prove that there really is no limit to man's greed.

Unalienable rights, unintended consequences, and 3D printing guns

What spurs me to write about this topic isn’t -- thankfully -- another mass shooting. (Does that mean it's a good time to talk about gun policy? Is there ever a good time?)

Rather, I listened to an unexpectedly horrifying podcast.

I get it and feel it. I understand that it is bad. But I'm already in a place - like an activist mentality - what is going to be done with this event? How is this going to be used? How is this going to be used against me? Look. I mean, that's where I am.

Let’s decode the pronouns. “This event” is Newtown. (Yes, that Newtown.) “It” is murder. The guy quoted above is Cody Wilson, who has been a driving force behind using 3D printers to make guns and gun parts.

Podcasts regularly feature some grisly crimes and terrible people. Can’t say I was expecting it from NPR’s economics podcast “Planet Money” though. Wilson was featured in the episode, “The Gun Man”.

When he learned about the murder of children, his reaction as an “activist” was to be primarily concerned with how it impacted his dream of making most any type of gun available to anyone with access to a 3D printer.

To put it kindly, Wilson comes across as the guy you hope never talks to you at a party.

Technology has empowered him -- and others like him -- in a way that likely can't be walked back. He really can make untraceable guns from widely available technology. That knowledge really has spread around the world. Short of Station Eleven-style mass regression in technology, 3D printing capabilities are only going to improve.

Sure, we’ve had weapons capable of mass destruction for a long time. It’s just before the advent of commercial assault weapons, it took some work and usually the approval of several other people to commit the sort of carnage, say, the lone Vegas gunman did. (Or the Sutherland Springs gunman. Or any of the other 307 mass shootings in the U.S. during 2017.)

Mass availability of assault weapons has given us a society where an individual can decide to end dozens of lives in a couple of seconds. Now with 3D printing, you can expect the distribution of assault weapons to hit overdrive in the near future. Pretty much anyone who wants to take a lot of lives won't be stopped by lack of tools to do so.

Side note: An important thing about those who use assault weapons professionally -- military and, in some instances, law enforcement -- is that there's a command structure. It’s odd that in some ways, our soldiers face more restrictions firing their weapons than the “Stand Your Ground” law that kept George Zimmerman out of jail.

The problem is that in our modern world, a lax approach towards anything approaching gun control coupled with ever-evolving technology means that unintended consequences -- mass murder by a deranged individual, intimidating the exercise of free speech by those who aren't armed -- comes at the expense of the “unalienable” rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Think about John Locke’s idea of unalienable rights: he (and later, the Founders) believed in the revolutionary idea that they weren’t granted by a king or government. Rather, these rights are given to everyone simply by the virtue of being human. The purpose of government, first and foremost, is to protect those rights.

Of course, anyone who says there's an easy policy solution for any of this is conning you. It's true that most other countries don't have issues with mass shootings because of tight gun control. However, short of waiting for generational change in the Supreme Court , it isn't happening here. (Thanks DC vs. Heller.) I’m also skeptical about most proposals regulating 3D gun printing since I don't know how it's practical to meaningfully regulate a machine that runs a computer program to shape plastic.

I worry, though, that having our gun policy effectively set by people like Cody Wilson will come at a great expense. Namely, the rights we'll see scaled back are those the Second Amendment was originally intended to protect.

Our biases conspire against us

Extended breaks, like the one brought by the recent spurt of snow and ice, mess me up a little. The initial thrill wears off the first day so, then a lazy routine sets in, then I get anxious. I crave the structure and productivity of a work day while simultaneously wanting to do anything but work. It’s pretty close to the opposite of living in the moment. You can imagine requisite unsettledness that comes with it.

Hanging around the house with a two-year-old who is off his normal routine, unsurprisingly, exacerbates this. I wish his total focus on whatever is in front of him rubbed off on me, but it doesn’t work that way.

***

One of the takeaways from Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert’s research is that we are awful at predicting what will make us happy. To be more precise, we pursue the short-term boost, ignore the after-effects, and neglect the long-term investments needed to achieve happiness. Eat the donut, put off the call to a long-lost friend. Fixate on buying the sports car, neglect the daily run. Stay on the couch watching superhero movies, don't write the blog entry rattling around my head. And so forth, ad infinitum.

I’ve known this for years, read a few books by Gilbert and others like him, and still find myself with a non-productivity hangover at the end of breaks. You should’ve finished this. Why didn’t you use L’s nap time more productively? You haven’t been to work and you’re still going to be behind.

Did I plan entire trip around getting a chocolate milkshake from Hugh Baby’s two days ago? Yes. Did I practice guitar each day -- something I enjoy, but hate to start? No. Did I complete (insert paperwork I’ve been needing to finish for a week)? Don’t be silly. (Yes, I know that’s an ambiguous answer. What’s your point?)

So I know all of this stuff, yet cognitive biases still get me. Not all of the time -- I’m more ambitious in the morning (...when I can drag myself out of bed…) and once I get going, I can stick with something pretty easily. I love the payoff of getting something done. But it’s really friggin’ hard getting there.

I don’t have much a grand summation. Life can be challenging and our brains sometimes conspire against us. Pretty odd piece of the human condition.

My main comfort is that most everyone reading this likely struggles with same phenomenon. Another weird feature of our brains -- solidarity in unhappiness. Funny how that works.

The Devil and Tom Cotton

Trump has an odd talent for forcing everyone who supports him to make a Faustian bargain.

Take the case of Sens. David Perdue and Tom Cotton. They lied on national television Sunday, saying that Trump didn’t say “shithole countries.” This was to counter Sen. Dick Durbin confirming that Trump said “shithole countries” in the senators’ meeting with Trump on immigration. Perdue and Cotton were, not surprisingly, obfuscating. They told White House privately that they believed they heard “shithouse” -- a distinction without difference.

Imagine the thought process one must go through to deliberately mislead a nation thanks to the difference between shithole and shithouse. You wouldn’t tolerate that nonsense from a six-year-old. Certainly, black congressmen aren't missing the point:

“The words don’t matter,” Mr. Richmond (D-La.) said. “The words just cement his sentiment that the people in those countries are less worthy, and he would like people from different countries. He chose the black countries to say he didn’t want those people and one of the whitest countries to say he did want them. I think that’s telling.” 

Asked if he saw any difference between the two words, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the chamber, was equally dismissive: “No,” he said.

Trump’s mendacity is well known. What is more telling at this point is what is revealed about Perdue and Cotton. To wit: they are moral weaklings. They've now shown they will lie at the slightest convenience. They will cover for the sort of racism that is far more consequential the “locker room talk” it’s written off as because lowbrow banter rarely comes with the stakes of 800,000 people having their lives turned upside down.

Trump has been cruel and racist for a long time. (I find his bit part in the case of now-exonerated Central Park Five particularly nasty and telling.) What changed is we can now confirm that Perdue and Cotton are much the same way. To paraphrase football coach Denny Green, they are who we thought they were.

They aren’t the only ones. Paul Manafort, Anthony Scaramucci, Kellyanne Conway, and Sean Hannity are just a few of the many who made ridiculous statements, lied, and, in some cases, committed crimes because of Trump. They who didn’t merely sacrifice their dignity on Trump’s behalf -- they’ve shown they never had any in the first place.

The lesson of Faust is not just that making a deal with the devil costs you your soul. It's also that the pursuit is poison in itself.

Note to Cotton, Perdue, and their ilk: the kicker of every Faustian bargain is the devil never delivers what he promised.