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The Two-level Justice System

 

Why Should I Pay?

 

 

Don't Tell the Grieving Mother "All Lives Matter"

A knee-jerk reaction of privileged white supremacists to "Black Lives Matter" is a snarky "All Lives Matter." That response suggests they don't begin to understand the problem we have in this country with racism.   

First of all, the fact that we have to be reminded that black lives matter means for way too long and in far too many places black lives have not mattered. It should be obvious that black lives matter, but it is not obvious in a society in which a young black man has to take his daughter with him when walking in his suburban neighborhood. A strong young black man without his daughter will be perceived as a threat and someone will call the police to report a "suspicious character' in the neighborhood. And then when the police arrive, so many bad outcomes are likely.

That is exactly why we have to be reminded that black lives matter.

And don't tell me all lives matter. Of course, all lives matter, but that is not relevant to our situation in 2020. If your spouses' mother dies and your spouse is grieving, one does not console the other by saying "Everyone has to go sometime." The fact that we all die is not relevant. This particular death is the matter at hand. Deal with it, don't try to generalize it. 

Young black men and women in our society are being strangled and shot in the back at an alarming rate and we need to address that problem To the mother who has lost a child, do not say "All lives Matter." It is her particular young son who is lying on the slab in the morgue. Do not try to generalize that mother's grief. To generalize is to trivialize, and there is nothing trivial about the murder of one's son or daughter.

"Black Lives Matter" because we have in our midst many who think black lives don't matter.

Danielle Morgan, an assistant professor at Santa Clara University, was to meet her brother after a long COVID 19 inspired separation. Her Brother, a young black man was waiting for her on campus, when he was approached by campus security arriving in four vehicles. He was harassed simply for being there and being black. When the security detail arrived at Danielle's home. they asked her to show ID to prove her residence in her own home. This is why Black Lives Matter has to be stated. Too many people still don't get it.

And don't tell the parents of those listed below who were unarmed  and are now dead that "all lives matter."

Unarmed Black and Dead:

TRAYVON MARTIN (Walking home with iced tea and Skittles. Shot by George Zimmerman, who was found not guilty.)

KEITH SCOTT (Sitting in car, reading. Shot by police officer, who was not charged.)

ATATIANA JEFFERSON (Looking out her window, shot by police officer, who is still under indictment for murder.)

JONATHAN FERRELL (Asking for help after auto accident. Shot twelve times by police, case ended in mistrial.)

JORDAN EDWARDS (Riding in a car. Shot in the back of the head by police officer, who was found guilty of murder.)

STEPHON CLARK (Holdng a cell phone. Shot 8 times, 6 in the back. Officers not charged.)

AMADOU DIALLO (While taking out wallet, 4 officers fired 41 shots, all acquitted.)

RENISHA MCBRIDE (Auto accident, knocked on door for help. Homeowner was found guilty of second-degree murder.)

TAMIR RICE (Playing with toy gun, shot by police officer arriving on scene. Officer was not charged.)

SEAN BELL (Hosting a bachelor party, 50 rounds fired by police officers, who were found not guilty of charges.)

WALTER SCOTT (Pulled over for brake light, shot in the back by police officer, who pleaded guilty to civil rights violations.)

PHILANDO CASTILE (Pulled over in car, told officer he had a legally registered weapon in car. Officer acquitted of all charges.)

AIYANA JONES (Sleeping, accidentally shot by officer in a raid on wrong apartment. Officer cleared of all charges.)

TERRENCE CRUTCHER (Disabled vehicle, shot by police officer, who was found not guilty of manslaughter.)

ALTON STERLING (Selling CDs, shot at close range while being arrested. No charges filed.)

FREDDIE GRAY (Beaten to death by officers while being transported in police van. All officers involved were acquitted.)

JOHN CRAWFORD (Shopping at WalMart, holding a BB gun on sale, police officer was not charged.)

MICHAEL BROWN (Shot twelve times by officer, including in the back. No charges filed.)

JORDAN DAVIS (Killed because he was playing loud music. Shooter found guilty of first-degree murder.)

SANDRA BLAND (Pulled over for traffic ticket, tasered and arrested. Suspicious “suicide” while in jail. No charges.)

BOTHAM JEAN (Shot at home, which police officer mistook for her own. Officer found guilty of murder.)

OSCAR GRANT (Handcuffed and face-down, officer shot him in the back. Officer found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.)

COREY JONES (Waiting by his disabled vehicle, was shot three times by police officer, who was found guilty of murder.)

AHMAUD AUBREY (Jogging, shot by two men who claimed they suspected him of burglaries. Both men charged with murder and aggravated assault”

And this is not a complete list. In the last six months, George Floyd and more unarmed black citizens have died at the hands of unqualified, under-trained, perhaps racist, police officers.

This list demonstrates why we need to remind ourselves that black lives matter as much as those of privileged whites.

Democracy's Enemy is in the White House

Our democracy has always been under attack by our enemies, usually nationalistic totalitarian regimes who saw democracy as a direct threat to their authoritarian power. On the other hand, our democracy has always been flawed and we are still struggling to get it right. We have been making progress. Blacks, women, and eighteen-year-olds now have the right to vote, but our country and our politicians still conspire to create obstacles to exercising that right.                                  

We have been getting closer to true democracy. And then 2016 happened. The majority of the voters chose one candidate, but because of an antiquated, pro-slavery provision in the Constitution, the Electoral College, the second-place finisher became the President of the United States. People around the world scratched their heads saying, "And they call that democracy? So much for the will of the people."

The winner of that election would later be impeached for soliciting foreign governments to interfere in our elections on his behalf. US agencies also determined that Russians had previously interfered in the 2016 election on his behalf. In August 2020, US intelligence informs us that Putin and Russia are again trying to influence the elections in Trump's favor and it's possible that the impeached President could be elected by a minority of the voters as happened five times in our history. Vox populi?

And now, what has the impeached Donald Trump wrought? A not so subtle attack on American democracy. In no particular order, He has:

- shut down the US Census a month early thereby preventing the poorest and least able from being counted

- appointed a political crony as Postmaster General who is ousting the professionals and in the midst of a pandemic is slowing down mail service in an attempt to undercut the vote-by-mail efforts. (Of course, Trump approves of vote-by-mail in Florida after he learned it was to his advantage there.)

- campaigned from the White House in spite of the fact it is a violation of the Hatch Act. (GOP senators ignore this abuse because they don't want to create a tweetstorm directed at them.)

- suggested posting the military at polling stations - a tactic of third-world despots.

- forced the Treasury Department to place his name on all the stimulus checks. And now, right before the election has a letter with his signature inserted in all Government Food Aid boxes. Both violations of the Hatch Act by a man who is campaigning on a law-and-order platform. 

- suggested that the November election be delayed. Since he has no power to change the election, perhaps this was just another attempt to change the news cycle from Russia offering bounties for US servicemen. Also, at the same time, Trump was suggesting moving our elections, the White House was accusing Hong Kong of "undermining the democratic process" by postponing elections.

- made it clear that he and the GOP will do everything in their power (and maybe beyond their power) to suppress the vote. People around the world see an American president admitting that he wants to keep citizens from voting and wonder whether "American Democracy" is really a democracy.

- weeks before the election the President curtailed the Director of National Intelligence's report to Congress on foreign election interference. Apparently, he doesn't want Congress to know what Putin is doing to get hem reelected.

- attempted to discredit the Presidential Election in advance. One would think the incumbent President would be encouraging people to vote and doing everything in his power to protect and strengthen the sanctity of the voting process. Not our President. Fearing he will lose, he is already calling into question its validity. In fact, he has refused to say that he will accept the will of the voters. Democracy be damned.

- suggested to his followers that they vote twice, once by absentee ballot and then in person. Intentionally voting twice is a felony.

_  a deep admiration of dictators and authoritarian (anti-democratic) regimes. Not to mention, as one of his former wives informed us, he kept a copy of  Mein Kampf on his bedside table.

In addition in Ohio, the GOP Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, is limiting ballot drop boxes to one per county regardless of population size. A direct attack on true democracy. One drop box in Paulding county (small population) and one drop box in Cuyahoga county (large population) limits access for urban black voters and is not fair in anyone's book.  Ohio is just one example, most states with Republican legislatures are trying to suppress the vote. 

History has taught us that democracy is quite fragile. There are always those, usually an authoritarian-minded nationalistic minority, who want to destroy it. Rather than compete in the marketplace of ideas and philosophies, they want to cease power by any means possible. Rather than engaging in democratic debate, they want to create distractions. Rather than lead, they want to dictate.

Required for democracy to work.

Sadly, we are at that stage in which democracy is under attack; and even more sadly, the attack is being marshaled by a man who took an oath to defend the US Constitution.

The solution to this sad state of affairs is for all those eligible to register to vote and then vote on November 3rd in spite of the obstacles erected by Trump and his GOP  comrades. Vote early, vote by mail, vote absentee, or vote at the polls on election day and be prepared for long lines, and if they say you can't vote, request a provisional ballot. Our democracy depends on you.

Taxes Made this Country Great; Taxes Cuts Weakened It

 In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan had this "great" idea -- cut taxes for everyone, especially the wealthy. The theory was that the benefits of those cuts would "trickle-down" to everyone and the economy would prosper and pay for the cuts. 

Reagan was wrong. The economy went nowhere and the deficit was out of control.  (Of course, the wealthy were happy because they were paying less than their fair share of the cost of running a democracy.) In 1982 Reagan had to raise taxes and did so throughout his presidency. David Stockman, Reagan's director of the budget and architect of trickle-down theory (their fancy name for it was "supply-side economics.") later admitted it was a failure and equated it to filing for bankruptcy.

But that didn't stop the Republicans. In 2001 and 2003, George W. Bush passed a tax cut, and once again, it was to fire up the economy and therefore would pay for itself. And it was no surprise that he was wrong. The result was Bush's Great Recession and the wealthy were paying even less in taxes.

It is worth noting that in between Reagan and George W. Bush was Bill Clinton who in 1993 passed a tax increase to reduce the deficit. Republicans were predicting disaster for the economy. Once again, they were wrong. The economy flourished and the deficit turned into a surplus for four straight years.

And then in 2016 Trump was elected with a minority of the popular vote and in 2017 the Republicans were back with their same dog-and-pony show. Their large donors wanted their reward -- another tax cut for the uber-wealthy and huge corporations.

So how do the Republicans justify these tax cuts for the rich and corporations? They claimed that business investments would "skyrocket." The fact is: "... the growth rate for new orders began declining immediately after the tax cut was passed, reaching zero in late 2018 and falling into negative territory in mid-2019."*

Trump and his "team" told us the GDP would increase by 6 percent and the tax cut would pay for itself. The growth boom never happened. Corporate tax receipts fell by 40% after the tax cut and the deficit is skyrocketing. Wrong again.

The GOP also promoted the tax cut as "a jobs bill".  Fact: the share of the population with jobs continued on the same track as it had since the Great Recession. No spike after the tax cuts. They promised workers' wages would somewhere between $3000 to $9000. Didn't happen. But corporate profits skyrocketed.

And the biggest scam of all was they said they were cutting taxes for everyone. However, the tax cuts for the middle class were temporary while those for the wealthy will continue.

During every recent election cycle, Republicans bring out their old, disproven tax cut dog-and-pony show and every time there are gullible taxpayers who end up voting against their best interests.

Tax cuts for the sake of tax cuts is a fool's policy. This has been going on for too long. Our country's tax policy is a mess. Then, on top of it all, the Republicans continue to defund the IRS so that our agents do not have the resources to collect from the wealthy and corporations and therefore go after the middle and lower class citizens.

Perhaps in this election voters will see the scam. Trump is now talking about another round of tax cuts while our national debt has exploded. Will voters in 2020 recognize the con when they see it? Let us but hope.

*This quote and the statistical support for the claims in this blog can be found in  Kevin Drum's "Death and Taxes" in Mother Jones July/August 2020.

Postmark Bayou Chene

On a lazy summer afternoon, sometimes it's best to find a large shade tree, lean against the trunk and read a good book. And it's better yet if that tree is on the bank of a slow-moving river.

And to round out that picture, I recommend you read Gwen Roland's Postmark Bayou Chene, a languid novel that slowly meanders through the swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin of southern Louisiana. And stop at rural Bayou Chene in the year of 1907 and get to know Loyce Snellgrove, a young woman who hears and interprets the sounds, odors, and textures of the post office and general store since she lost her sense of sight years ago. She will introduce you to Lafayette "Fate" Landry who doesn't quite get life in the swamps and on the bayous. And then there's their friend, Valzine Broussard, who loves to be on the move, particularly working on the boats that travel the Atchafalaya River Basin.

Loyce's blindness adds a vivid dimension to the story since most of it is told from her point of view.  We "see" the beauty and challenges of swamp life as she sees them, and she does not bemoan her lack of sight but embraces it. "I could busy my mind and figure out what was going on around me just by sounds..... I could tell by the milkman's step on the walk whether his feet were hurting that morning. The clang of the pans told me what we were having for breakfast just as if I'd asked the cook."

People, dead and alive, abandoned boats, drowning dogs, and of course the mail, all find their way to the docks of Bayou Chene. A particular letter which had been sent 40 years ago is returned to the Post Office since the Civil War prevented it from being delivered to an address in France. The sender's explanation of this letter suddenly changes the dynamics of this charming village.

In addition, there are newcomers to the Chene who provide a good dose of mystery and controversy. These two along with Loyce become a trinity of strong female characters who are central to the life of the bayou community.

The reader will unconsciously adjust to and learn to appreciate the rhythms of the river, the village, and the storyteller. Neither reader nor teller wants to rush the story along because the enjoyment resides in the rich detail of the journey.

The voice of the bayou country is central to the reader's enjoyment. For example, at one point, Loyce says, "Fate Landry, you just keep sitting eggs with nary a rooster in sight."

If a reader who has gorged on murder and mayhem is looking for a change of pace, I recommend Postmark Bayou Chene. Enjoy the rhythms and sounds of the bayou. 

Bruce Springsteen: What Fear Has Wrought

The Boss

As is abundantly apparent, the United States, after nearly 250 years of existence, still has a problem of racism. Despite all the progress, or maybe because of it, we still have a segment of our society composed of avowed racists and those who claim not to be racists but enable those who are. Unfortunately, as has been well documented, we have racists within the ranks of those who are "to protect and serve" their communities. In light of this situation, I have recalled some observations of Bruce Springsteen.

At one point he sang:

"Some say freedom is free, but I tend to disagree.

I say freedom is won through the blood of someone's son."

Sons like George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery?

And in 1968 Mr. Springsteen reminded us that racism is based on fear: 

"One of the problems in the United States is that “united in our prejudices we stand,” you know? What unites people, very often, is their fear. What unites white people in some places is their fear of black people. What unites guys is maybe a denigrating attitude toward women – or sometimes maybe women have an attitude toward men. And these things are then in turn exploited by politicians, which turns into fear – knee-jerk fear of the Russians or of whatever ism is out there. Or in a very subtle kind of indirect way – like some of our economic policies are a real indirect kind of racism, in which the people that get affected most are black people who are at the lower end of the economic spectrum. And I think somewhere inside, people know this – I really do. They don’t fess up to it, but somewhere inside there’s a real meanness in using things this way."

Let's hope that in 2020 we are ready to "fess up" and deal with our racism and reach the point that "driving while black" does not endanger some son's life.

The Perfect Storm of 2020 - The COVID Virus

 

The killer has come for us,

and, sadly, we are defenseless.

The haughty killer is invisible.

silent, odorless, and voracious.

We, on the other hand, are helpless.

We possess no weapons to fight back.

We have no vaccines to prevent it,

no treatments to alleviate its effects.

And true to its nature, this pernicious assassin

Seeks out the ailing, the old, the infirm.

What's one to do, we ask,

Avoid contact with others,

wash your hands endlessly,

and cover your face in public, they say.

That's it? We have disturbingly little ammunition

to fight this hungry, mortal adversary.

But there's more to it than suffering and death.

This virus attacks our souls and humanity.

It takes our jobs, 

it takes food from our tables,

it places our kid's education on hold,

it empties our arenas and churches

our restaurants, movie theaters, 

and neighborhood basketball courts.

Without these, we become less human.

And if that were not enough, 

politicians are using it to divide our country.

A president encourages people to violate

his own government's guidelines.

Elected officials suggest 

we sacrifice the elderly 

for the sake of the economy.

Some, when learning it was killing

people of color at a much higher rate,

suggested it might not be such a bad thing.

In the past, when the country faced a threat,

we came together, putting aside our differences.

Now, instead of fighting together against a common enemy,

we are being encouraged to fight each other.

Citizens are told wearing a mask is 

a political statement,

an infringement on their rights,

instead of  a mask being a weapon 

to fight our common enemy.

Thus, the perfect storm!

But we are up to the task.

We are better than the dividers

We will not descend into chaos.

We will conquer this villain

We will protect the common good.

We will take care of each other.

In the end, we will prevail.