White Privilege? Trump vs. Cook (Yet Again)

White Privilege vs. Cultural Appropriation

 

I’ve never watched a WNBA game, and I don’t intend to. That’s not because I’m sexist — I simply don’t like professional basketball, men’s or women’s. But it’s hard to miss the controversy swirling around two white players in the league. Caitlin Clark has, by some estimates, single-handedly boosted the WNBA’s value by $1 billion, yet she gets roughed up almost every time she takes the court. Sophie Cunningham has faced similar treatment, in her case tied to her public stance against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. In a recent game she was clotheslined by opponent DiJonai Carrington, who was ejected for the foul. Afterwards, she posted “white privilege,” implying she’d been ejected only because she’s black and Cunningham is white. That got plenty of media coverage. Yet has anyone mentioned that Carrington’s hair is long and blond? I’d wager that she isn’t a natural blond. Is she borrowing a little “white privilege” of her own, or is that simply cultural appropriation?

 

Never Give Up! Birthright Citizenship (Redux)

 

President Trump is one never to be deterred by a mere Supreme Court setback. After his push to end birthright citizenship was blocked, he signed two new executive orders aimed at reaching a similar result. The first would deny citizenship to babies whose parents are “alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations,” or people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments — as though infants inherit their parents’ allegiances. But children born to foreign diplomats are already excluded from citizenship under existing law.

The second is to end “birth tourism” where parents travel to the US solely to have their children born here. I’ve reported before of travel agencies set up in foreign countries solely to facilitate that purpose. But the practice is already illegal. The U.S. can deny a visa to anyone believed to be traveling here just to give birth, and the government – including during the Biden administration – has prosecuted birth-tourism operators before. For example, back in 2019, a Chinese national pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for running an Orange County-based “birth tourism” business that catered to wealthy pregnant clients and Chinese government officials, charging them tens of thousands of dollars to help them give birth in the United States so their children would get U.S. citizenship. Donald Trump was president in 2019. Did he forget that the law already existed banning birthright tourism?

Senate democratic Leader Chuck Schumer wasted no time denouncing the orders as illegal saying “Trump has just set himself up for yet another loss in the courts. Democrats will challenge this order, and we will win.” Why he and the dems take this position is beyond me because they only apply to a very small number of babies born under those circumstances. Most birthright citizenship goes to babies born by illegals – around 250,000 a year. In 2024, only 9,600 babies were born to mothers with foreign addresses. 

Lisa Cook (Redux)

 

Trump is again trying to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook. The Supreme Court’s earlier ruling held that Cook couldn’t be fired without due process. So Trump now appears to be giving her that process specifically in order to fire her. She received a letter stating the president was “considering removing you from your position,” citing allegations of mortgage fraud, and asking her to respond in writing by the end of August.

Cook is accused of misrepresenting a second home as her primary residence on a 2021 mortgage application in order to secure more favorable loan terms. In no small irony, Trump did the same thing himself on mortgage applications on secondary residences in Florida. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-mortgage-fraud-florida-principal-residences.

Unlike Trump, Cook is not independently wealthy and has spent over $1 million on her legal defense while denying the charges. Even if guilty in most comparable mortgage-fraud cases, the offense is treated as a misdemeanor carrying a modest fine – certainly not a fireable offense. 

Needless to say these are Trumped up charges. Cook released a statement following the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“This was never about mortgage documents signed years before I became a Federal Reserve governor. It was an attempt to remove me on a manufactured pretext because I refused to bow to political pressure and continued to set interest rates based only on what would best serve the American people. That is the most fundamental obligation of a Federal Reserve governor. Today’s ruling affirms a principle that has underpinned sound economic stewardship for generations: that the Federal Reserve must make all its policy decisions guided by evidence and independent judgment, free from political interference. This bedrock principle has guided the Federal Reserve since its founding.”

Cook’s legal defense is being funded in part by donations to the Democracy Defenders Fund (democracydefendersfund.org). Her attorney, incidentally, is Abbe Lowell — the high-profile defense lawyer who has represented Hunter Biden and Letitia James on the left, but also on the right Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in inquiries related to Russia.

But the fundamental question is if Trump can get away with it while Cook gets ousted, is this “white privilege”?