Three things that caught my eye this morning:
- Elizabeth Warren took a DNA test, and is calling Donald Trump’s bluff to donate $1 million to the charity of her choice if it shows Native American ancestry. The test probably does, although the general unwillingness of Native American groups to be genotyped requires more interpolation than usual to reach that conclusion. (Here’s the text of the full report if you care.) Meanwhile, of course, Trump quickly denied ever making the promise.
- Someone posted a video of a Max Mandelbrot zoom to 10E+1116. (Via Boingboing)
Wow. - MIT announced it will create a new college for interdisciplinary AI studies. The impoverished institution will start with $1 billion to play with. For two decades I’ve said if MIT had a law school that would be my dream job. This would do nicely, however: How do I apply to teach in the Legal & Policy Dept?
There’s an interesting Twitter thread about the Warren announcement discussing the limitations of genotyping in such cases and why to be accepted as having Native American ancestry requires discussions with actual people: https://twitter.com/KimTallBear/status/1051906470923493377
Essentially arguing that DNA testing is dominated by white scientists, and these are decisions for Native Americans to make.
wg
My understanding is that tribal membership is a political/social decision by the tribe. Certainly there are many examples, dating from the 17C to the present, of persons being admitted/adopted into tribes who had no consanguinity with it. DNA doesn’t have much to say on this question.
But the issue of who your ancestors were is an independent factual question that DNA can certainly speak to, white scientists or green. Having Native American ancestry doens’t make you a Native American, and most certainly not in the political/tribal sense. Warren has been careful to make clear she understands this.
Clear to some people, but not, I suspect to others. I imagine people who oppose or don’t like Warren will insistently point to the others; the Twitter thread seemed to clearly indicate that at least some people feel she’s merely displayed the same insensitivity in a new way. What a depressing mess, all round.
wg
Engaging in this fight was Warren’s first mistake. Two and half years ago I thought that Trump was a buffoon. Now I see that he is a mad genius playing the good people of the world for idiots.
I have not closely followed this faux-controversy. But from what I have seen, the right way for her to have handled this would have been to say something like, “there he goes again, picking fights that don’t serve the American people – what does he care about my family tree? Doesn’t the president have better things to worry about?” laughing in a slightly exasperated tone, and then ignoring everything else he said.
Trump is the king of all trolls. Don’t feed the trolls.
Wasn’t that basically Hillary’s strategy? How’d that work out for her?
Hillary’s strategy was to call people who disagreed with her “deplorables.” That doesn’t get the job done. Not once. Not ever.
I’m advocating for a more Obama-ish approach (although he, and no one really, has done it perfectly). Hold the moral high ground and never let it go. Lose this fight? Hold the high ground. Lose the next fight? Hold the high ground. Lose again? Keep holding the high ground until the tide eventually turns.
In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.
btw, Wendy, thank you for commenting. LOL. Sometimes I feel like I am talking to myself – or maybe just with Michael and occasionally “Vic.” I enjoy Michael’s blog very much and would love to see it get the sort of traffic and it used have again.
Of the critiques I’ve seen of Warren on the DNA thing, this seems like the best: What Elizabeth Warren Still Doesn’t Get.
Ugh, Donald Trump is laughing at all of us. The minutiae of it all. The way we are distracting ourselves with it. And Warren posts yet another response!?! I’d post the emoji slapping himself in the face if I had one on this key board.
Do you honestly think, for even a minute, that Trump cares about whether Warren is or is not of native american heritage? This is just button pushing and distraction.
Trump’s opposition is defeating itself.
Democrats remind me of the characters from the old Kevin Smith movie Clerks – they create their own problems and then spend so much time obsessing over them that they can’t get out of their own way. Perhaps we can tie ourselves in knots and distract ourselves for days with Senate hearings over which Star Wars movie was best?
Sen. Warren’s next quote on this topic should be “President Trump has wasted enough time on this issue. I’m sorry that I fell for his trolling for this long. I won’t be making that mistake any longer. Today I introduced X bill on the important issue of Y.”
Perhaps she can apologize to her constituents for allowing the President to waste the valuable weeks, hours, and days of the term of office they sent her to Washington to use on meaningful work. Set up a press conference. Do a little Mr. Smith Goes to Washington dog and pony show. I think that some good old fashioned Capraesque honestly and vulnerability would be enormously welcomed right now. “The President played me. He set me up and strung me along for days and I danced to his tune. I’m sorry. I should have known better. But this democracy is a special thing. And I treat it as such. And sometimes I make the mistake of believing that the President also takes it seriously. So, I got caught up in what he said. But, I’ve learned a valuable lesson today . . . . ” If she can’t get it right, hire Aaron Sorkin to write the speech!