No truth, no reason

President Donald Trump recently compared, as a matter of historical analysis, the toplevel Saudis most apparently responsible, at least in part, for the murder of critical Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, to the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings of weeks ago. In both cases, Trump pointed out, the people were or are presumed (by an unspecified group) to be “guilty until proven innocent.” This is a purely incidental relationship between people, the merits of whose words and deeds are being otherwise completely independently considered. It is like a gratuitous joke in a conversation. The accordingly stylized retort should be, “So Justice Kavanaugh would rule in favor of the Saudi princes.” It is easy to see how the serious discussion is misguided as if in pursuit of the trivial and irrelevant, rather than truth and reason. Jay Impellizzeri

Santa Fe