Bespredel

I recently learned of the Russian term “bespredel,” which means literally “without limit.” It was apparently originally a bit of prison slang, which referred to actions that were so extreme that they violated the informal code of acceptable criminality among the denizens of the prison itself:

This Russian term is close to the English words “lawlessness” and “arbitrariness.” However, bespredel indicates a complete rejection of any and all rules, be they official legal regulations or informal ponyatiya. A person who behaves in this manner is called a bespredelshchik.

This word also has its origins in the criminal world and was originally used in prisons and camps, with the term bespredelshchik used to denote both prison inmates and prison staff.

In the 1990s, this so-called “criminal” slang word — just as ponyatiya — became part of the regular vernacular. For example, the actions of corrupt officials who abuse their power and exercise control over the judicial system both to their advantage and to the detriment of ordinary people can be described as “official bespredel.” 

The term came to refer specifically to the collapse of moral and legal standards in the post-Soviet chaos of the 1990s, when Russia devolved into a kleptocracy/gangster state.

President Donald Trump is the recipient of yet another meaningless award.

Appearing at the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner held at Washington D.C.’s Union Station on Wednesday night, Speaker Mike Johnson announced the inaugural “America First” award as a “token of appreciation” for the president’s leadership.

“Tonight we have created a new award,” Johnson told attendees at the lavish dinner. “We are going to do something we’ve never done before. We’re going to honor him with a new award that we will present annually from this point forward. He is the suitable and fitting recipient of the first-ever America First award. We can think of no better title for what that is.”

Gesturing to his right, where the statue—one of a golden eagle in flight—was resting on a podium, Johnson continued, “That is this beautiful golden statue here, appropriate for the new golden era in America.”

The award was not handed to the president during the event, and was instead left on stage. When Trump walked out onto the stage, Johnson immediately drew the president’s attention to the statue. Trump, 79, raised his eyebrows, made an impressed face, and patted Johnson on the back. He could also be seen telling the speaker, “That’s nice.”

Although I appreciate that the good folks at The Daily Beast aren’t hewing to the conventions of “non-partisan,” aka reality-denying, journalism, I don’t think “meaningless” is the right term for this award. It is in its own way quite meaningful.

Speaking of the view from nowhere, here is a sentence from the abstract of a draft of a law review article, that the author presented at a talk I attended a couple of days ago:

From both the left and the right, critics of particular financing schemes accuse them of being slush funds. To right-leaning critics, both the Consumer Financial Protection Board and President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program were impermissible slush funds. And left-leaning critics have applied the slush fund label to President Trump’s efforts to fund the border wall, his seizure and sale of Venezuelan oil, his university settlements, his “Board of Peace,” his efforts to shield some farmers from the effects of histariffs, and many more.

The article itself is a discussion of two loosely related but actually quite distinct things:

(1) Various highly technical and complex efforts by various presidential administrations to fund certain government operations via workarounds that don’t require direct appropriations from Congress. Some of these efforts have been of arguable legality.

(2) The open, flagrant, endless corruption of the Trump administration.

The stylistic conventions of Very Serious Law Professors require that, in order to be “balanced” and “non-partisan” and “objective,” these two things be treated as if they are differences in degree rather than in kind.

It’s equivalent to treating the envelope-pushing tactics of tax lawyers looking to shelter as much of Google’s profits from federal tax laws as possible, and Carlo Gambino’s “envelope-pushing tactics” regarding control of the New York City waterfront, as two versions of the same thing.

This kind of phony equivalence is absolutely crucial to the ongoing normalization of the Trump administration by various institutional elites.

Here’s another example, from Scott’s post last night about the payoff to Michael Flynn for being a stand-up guy:

The settlement is well below the $50 million in damages Flynn initially sought when he first filed the lawsuit in 2023, but will still likely fuel questions as to whether Flynn received a favorable outcome due to his continued vocal support for President Trump. 

This is bespredel: absolutely open corruption on the part of the federal government, of the most unambiguous kind, with the relevant authorities — Trump, Pam Bondi, whatever Federalist Society hack judge is going to sign off on this — not even really pretending that it’s anything else.

But Very Serious Journalists have to treat this as something other than what it is. “Questions” are “being raised,” by the eternal passive voice in which the View From Nowhere emits its queries into a universe, in which there are always “two sides” to “the story.”

I’m all out of scare quotes.