For more than a decade now, the dominant feature of human existence has become a thickening fog of uncertainty. Some of this is the inevitable result of technological “progress.” We have all had times when labor-saving devices have prevented us from getting anything done. That was bad enough in the physical realm. Now that reality has largely been digitized, we can no longer be sure that we know what we think we know.
And that’s just the nuts and bolts of the problem. Just as technology has been advancing at an accelerating pace, so has the use of brazen falsehood. Elders among us can recall a time when a person caught lying was routinely and universally expected to exhibit a sense of shame.
That quaint ritual has become optional. What’s more, its usage is not just asymmetrical, but inverted. The deft—or even ham-handed—use of utter bullshit is seen by some as the modern equivalent of statesmanship.
How shall this venerable institution, whose whole purpose is to seek the truth, steer through this fog? Onward and sideways, of course, and amused, if we can manage it.
On Christmas Eve, the Washington Post broke the news that ICE was planning to convert a warehouse in Merrimack into an ICE processing facility.
We’re not sure exactly when Governor Kelly Ayotte first denied knowing about this proposed gulag. We like to think it might have been on January 16th, National Nothing Day. What better time for the Governor to impersonate Sergeant Schultz? “I know nothing!”
The ACLU-NH brought some clarity to the issue on February 3rd, when it released a 22-page document, obtained by a Freedom of Information request, clearly showing that the State Department of Natural and Cultural Resources had been communicating with the Department of Homeland Security about the project since January 9th.
This awkward situation was briefly ameliorated by the ritual sacrifice, on Monday, February 9th, of the Commissioner of the Department in question, Sarah Stewart. Four days later the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, implied that Ayotte was lying, telling Senator Maggie Hassan, “Actually, DHS has worked with Governor Ayotte, has spoken to the governor about economic impact.”
The matter escalated quickly. Fans of political hardball were treated with a sitting Republican Governor flat-out calling a Trump bureaucrat a liar:
“This is simply not true,” said a statement from Ayotte. “Director Lyons’ comments today are another example of the troubling pattern of issues with this process. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security continue to provide zero details of their plans for Merrimack, never mind providing any reports or surveys.”
Side-stepping the relatively trivial question of which of these Republicans is lying, Devon Chaffee, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, took the high road, addressing in a statement the question of whether this state will allow itself to become part of The Trump Archipelago.™
“Let’s be clear: Governor Ayotte has still not opposed turning this Merrimack facility into a human warehouse for ICE, despite an outpouring of opposition from the town, state lawmakers, and constituents.
“In Senator Hassan’s questioning today, Senator Hassan underlined how political pressure from elected officials is, in fact, impacting where these facilities are ultimately established—like one planned for Mississippi that was canceled after opposition. The people of New Hampshire are relying on Governor Ayotte to push back and prevent such a horrifying facility from coming to our state.
“We have filed a public records request for the economic impact statement that Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said was given to Governor Ayotte’s office, along with any other communications sent from ICE regarding the Merrimack project. If an economic impact statement or anything else has been given to her office, Granite Staters deserve to know.”
Let’s leave the high road to Chaffee and look into the relationship between Ayotte and the owner of the property in question. It belongs to the Trammell Crow Company, which the Wall Street Journal, in 1986, called the largest landlord in the U.S.
Now, because these names can be confusing, we’ll explain. One might naively expect that the Trammell Crow Company would belong to, or be run by, Trammell Crow, Jr. Happily, that does not appear to be the case—otherwise we’d be forced to dive into the pending lawsuit against him, which alleges that he ran a sex trafficking ring in Texas.
No, the relevant party here seems to be Trammell’s brother Harlan. The former CEO of Trammell Crow, Harlan has earned a certain infamy through his seemingly proprietary interest in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He has also donated $5,000 to the political campaign of New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that—just ask the Supreme Court.