Sam Nordquist, Eric Adams, and Cassian Andor

Plus, conflict with China over what makes government power legitimate

Hi everyone,

The last couple weeks have included a lot of tragedy and nonsense. I’m certainly going to get into some of it today. But I also want us to zoom out a bit and focus on some issues that aren’t Trump, who wants nothing more than our focus. So let’s get into it and try to wade through some news for the sake of a faithful political witness.

What I’m covering:

- Mourning with those who mourn Sam Nordquist

- Caring about immigrants more than the Eric Adams drama

- A global cultural clash with China over what constitutes legitimate state authority

- Staying grounded with lasers and aliens

- A preview of tomorrow’s bonus Shake the Dust

- And paid subscribers, register for our monthly Zoom call!

Mourning with Those Who Mourn Sam Nordquist

(Content warning, transphobic violence) Some of you have heard about the prolonged torture and eventual murder of Sam Nordquist, a Minnesota trans man, in upstate New York. Prosecutors charged five people. The investigation is ongoing, but the local DA’s office says the killing probably wasn’t a hate crime because the suspected murderers personally knew Nordquist and identified as LGBTQ+.

Let’s start with the painfully, wildly obvious. Someone who kills a trans person that they know can do so because of transphobia. Trying to find relevant numbers to back up this statement felt like properly formatting a footnote dropped after writing “the sky is blue,” but I did it anyway. Recent stats are hard to come by, but the DOJ reported in the early 2000’s that almost exactly half of violent hate crimes were committed by acquaintances of the victim. And it is a very shallow understanding of systemic oppression that leads to ideas like LGBTQ+ people can’t be transphobic. Just know that many trans people disagree. This 2018 blog post is a decent place to start if you’re unfamiliar with this dynamic.

Acknowledging that comments like those from the DA’s office are ignorant is important because trans people will see right through them. They won’t do anything to combat the fear a killing like this instills, as the speakers at Nordquist’s vigil made clear. It might be true that the prosecutors really don’t have evidence to prove a hate crime in court. Fine. We put too much stock in what happens in criminal proceedings anyway. People are going to be afraid because they know trans people are much more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population and hate fuels much of that violence. So any murder of a trans person, let alone one this brutal, will be scary. Layer on top of that Trump world’s multifaceted political and social assault on trans people’s humanity, and things are downright terrifying. Anyone seeking to be any sort of comfort to trans people in this moment needs to accept that reality. We simply cannot mourn with those who mourn if we don’t.

- Read about reactions to the tragedy

The Eric Adams Corruption Television Spectacular

In New York City, we’re familiar with back room dealing. That’s normal. But we used to have some decorum about it. There was a certain refinement to our shady bargains. I am disappointed with today’s politicians and their crooked dealings on live TV. It’s tasteless.

To catch everyone up: our absurdly corrupt hometown president told his lawyers to move to drop the federal bribery charges against our absurdly corrupt mayor Eric Adams in exchange for Adams cooperating with ICE in ways NYC officials usually don’t. At the time of writing, the judge hasn’t ruled on the motion to dismiss. The DOJ lawyer in court yesterday justified the motion partially on the reasoning that it was “undisputed that there is no quid pro quo.” Well, yeah. The two parties in court are the two parties to the quid pro quo. Who do we imagine would have done the “disputing?” Now the big story is that eight federal prosecutors and four high-ranking city officials have resigned in protest.

I love it when people quit instead of participating in unethical things, and one resignation letter was pretty great. As I said in my last newsletter, we need to keep making a record of the wrongdoing to fight the authoritarian weaponizing of the opposition’s silence. But we also need to acknowledge it’s easy for a federal prosecutor to get on a high horse when they’re going to ride it straight into a corner office at a top law firm (I’d be so mad if I was the janitor). And of course, Trump managed to convince an almost-retired prosecutor to sign the dismissal motion under threat of collectively punishing the lawyer’s colleagues. I’m glad Trump couldn’t get the first lawyer he found to do his bidding. But the ninth one did. And immigrants in NYC will suffer as a result. That last point is actually the primary issue for us. Let’s keep our focus on a street level for the sake of our neighbors. Words about ethical principles from powerful lawyers are important. But it’s time to move on from the spectacle. Maybe do something like:

- donate to the Immigrant Defense Project, or a favorite local org of mine and my wife’s, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees

China challenging America’s Understanding of Legitimacy

America’s understanding of the Chinese government is tainted by our nationalism and whiteness. Okay stop. Stop. I know saying that makes me a possible communism-apologist, personally responsible for anything communists have ever done. Just try to assume through the end of this blurb I believe the following and apply this belief with full integrity to the Chinese government: oppression = bad. Even when purported leftists do it. If you don’t believe a person can simultaneously believe that and what I’ve written below, then I give you my full blessing to sully my good name in public.

Americans generally think we should consider a government legitimate when it is democratically elected. And we generally judge all governments by this standard. China’s population generally judges a government’s legitimacy by the economic, social, and other outcomes it produces for its people, leaving room for widely varying paths to legitimacy. This difference is to China’s advantage according to Kaiser Kuo, a journalist whose Substack, Sinica, and podcast of the same name are trusted sources on US-China relations. A recent post discusses the problems the US faces when it tries to interpret Chinese government actions while assuming everyone agrees the Chinese Communist Party’s reign is illegitimate. The list of problems is long and not always intuitive. The post is worth your time, especially as Trump escalates our cross-Pacific competition.

As you read, it's also worth thinking about how American exceptionalism and racism diminish our ability to imagine things that are frankly quite imaginable. Like cultures that believe the consent of the governed is not the sole source for acceptable state authority. Or cultures that take Asian people as seriously as White people. These are consequential mistakes that cede influence to China around the globe. Particularly while the world watches us do things like fund a genocide committed by a brazenly non-democratic Israel in the name of democracy. Check this post out and do some self-examination. Then when you’re done, go call me Karl Hoekstra on social media somewhere. I promise not to submit your name for reeducation.

- Read Kuo’s post

Staying Grounded with Star Wars

Wait, where are you going? Yes, I am serious. Just hear me out. I recently rewatched season one of Andor in anticipation of season two which premieres in April. The show requires no prior Star Wars knowledge. And the writing and acting are incredible. But I bring it up here because it does a fantastic job of making its characters either count or pay the cost of mounting resistance that is actually effective against an authoritarian empire. And then they have to find a source for the motivation to carry on despite that cost. It’s gripping, and definitely one of those sci-fi shows anyone can enjoy. The show’s dialogue is packed full of gems, but I’ll leave you with this one: “Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction… The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural… Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.”

- Watch Andor on Disney+

Shake the Dust Preview

On tomorrow’s bonus episode, Jonathan and I break down the Trump administration’s tactics of distraction and erasure and discuss how we can resist them. Then, in Which Tab Is Still Open, we talk about the know your rights resources Jonathan highlighted two weeks ago. That segment will be the free preview for the episode because the information and the conversation are so important for people to hear right now. Don’t miss this one!

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