Politics Plus

It's another week when I have so many items today which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them that I won't be able to share them all. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

I am pushing all the other stories to the back to start with this one:  The Pentagon is demanding the return, by California National Guard veterans who servied in combet ten to fifteen years ago, of enlistment bonuses that they were paid.  As a veteran, this just frosts me.

Most of my ten years in service were spent in the Disbursing field (as the Navy and Marines call it; the Army and Air Force call it Finance.  Prmarily it means payroll.)  We used to have an in-joke about the complainer:

Hey!  you shorted my paycheck this month!

Well, yes.  That's because we overpaid you last month.  You didn't say anything then.

Well, one mistake I can forgive, but not two in a row!

In other words, yes, we did make mistakes, and had to correct them, and it wasn't always pleasant.  But our mistakes were things people might be expected to have been aware of.  This is an entirely different situation.  These are people who were paid large sums of money essentially to go into indentured servitude for years of their life.  Many received life changing injuries during this period of servitude.  There is no way they could have known or predicted that any money they were receiving was paid incorrectly.  And it darned well is possible to write them off.  Some of them have been.  But not everyone has the resources to fight.

One retired major, an Iraq veteran, is being required to repay a $20,000 bonus because no one can find a copy of the contract he signed.  Ironically, his current job is as a financial crimes investigator.  He's close to exhausting his appeals.

A sergeant first class from Oroville filed a class action lawsuit in February on behalf of all soldiers who got bonuses, on the ground that the California Guard "conned" them into enlisting or reenlisting.  In August he got a letter from the Pentagon waiving repayment of his bonus.  (He still owes for some student loans, but loans are loans, I can grasp that.)  Then, the US Attorney petitioned the court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that it was now moot since the SFC's debt had been waived.  My, my.  That's a cheap way to get out of a lawsuit.  The motion is expected to be ruled on by January.

Megaera, I think maybe the best person to target here is this judge who will be ruling on the motion to dismiss the class action suit.  Don't let that happen.  The suit will not put people's lives back together, and it certainly will not put people's bodies back together, but at least, if won, it will reach groups of people rather than individuals, and they won't have to be fighting alone.  Good luck.

Of course the veterans affected by these recoupment efforts were all honest soldiers.  Unfortunately, there are also a lot of what I might call dishonest soldiers – dishonorable soldiers – deplorable soldiers? – in our midst.  Three of them, calling themselves "Crusaders," were arrested a bit over a week ago, and, perhaps because they were arrested and were off the street facing charges, have not attracted a lot of attention.  Not that they deserve it, but the swamp from which they came does deserve at least some of our attention. 

These three individuals, Curtis Allen, Patrick Stein, and Gavin Wright, were arrested on October 14 on charges stemming from a plot to attack a housing complex which includes a mosque in Garden City, Kansas.  The complex is home to a number of Somali immigrants.  The "Crusaders" were going to put four explosive-laden vehicles, the explosives in question including ammonium nitrate, as used by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City in 1995, at the four corners of the complex.

They also had a long "to-do" list of other buildings to target, including but not limited to churches that have supported the relocation of refugees.  All the locations were referred to as "cockroaches."

They do seem to realize that they are not socially acceptable, seeing as they operate largely through closed Facebook groups.  One of these groups, "III% Security Force of Kansas," has members who include Patrick Stein – and 45 other people.  I did have to chuckle over the name of the group that they at least have the consistency to eschew Arabic numbers.  Most wingnuts aren't that consistent.

Dear Tisiphone, perhaps you could infiltrate one or more of these groups – and then give them a little explosion of their own, as only Erinyes can.  But don't neglect following the court case and ensuring conviction and effective sentencing.

Speaking of courts, some of us may remember the sad case of Kalief Browder.

Kalief Browder was arrested in 2010 at age 16 for allegedly stealing a backpack, a charge he adamantly denied. Unable to afford the $3,000 bail, Kalief was sent to Rikers Island to await trail. He was incarcerated for three years—the majority of which was in solitary confinement—awaiting his day in court. That day never came. The charges were dropped, and he returned home in 2013.  (emphasis mine)

In 2015, at the age of 22, Kalief, who had shown obvious personality changes after his release, hanged himself.  His family filed a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city of New York.  But closure, if it comes, will be too late for his mother.

Venida Browder succumbed to heart complications on Friday, Ocrtober 14.  Her lawyer told the New York Daily News that she "literally died of a broken heart."

Earlier this year, she has spoken with the Marshall Project for the upcoming video series We Are Witnesses.  If you click through you can see that video.  If you can bear to.  One quote: “[Prison guards] told him, ‘We’re going to break you,’ ” Browder said. “That’s what they told my baby, that they’re going to break him, and in reality they did.”

Alecto, although it is too late for Venida, Kalief's brother Akeem is still fighting.  The lawsuit may help him get some closure.  Althoug I am pretty sure he would feel even more vindicated if you were able to shut down Riker's Island completely.  Good luck with that.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4017308

UPDATE:  There is now a petition at whitehouse.gov to forgive these bonuses:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/forgive-all-bonus-overpayments-paid-military-personnel-reenlistment-purposes-and-refund-monies-already-collected

I have two items today which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

Barely had I posted #45 than I got an email which made me say "WTF!"  The subject line was "Death Penalty bill Includes public pregnancy examination for accused women, antiquated 'retard' provisions"  It was from Progress Now New Mexico.  After three articles of picking on places the staff live, I was hoping for something from Colorado, but next door is as close as I could get.  And, although the bill in question will not be considered in this session, in fact pursuing it will apparently now wait till January, I wanted to share it because it is not every day we see a legislative story with so many kinds of ick in just one bill.  Death penalty – women's health – mental illness.  Quite an achievement.

A little history here.  New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2009.  At that time there was a Democratic Governor as well as a Democratic majority in both legislative houses.  Today the Democratic majority in the Senate is all that is left of that.  So far in 2016 there have been a couple of high profile cases involving LEOs being killed, and one even higher profile case involving the death and dismemberment of a child.  The Governor and the rest of her party seized upon this to push reinstating the death penalty – specifically for people who kill children and/or LEOs, whether in police or in corrections. 

Enter HB 7.  You can read the full bill at that link, but unless you are a lawyer, you may prefer the report on the website of Progress Now New Mexico.  Right away you will se an image that appears to have nothing to do with the death penalty.  Ah, but it does.

Section 18 of HB7 requires judges to “inquire into the question” of pregnancy of female death row defendants by having three physicians conduct physical examinations of the woman, in open court before a judge and witnesses, if a woman is suspected of or raises the question of pregnancy…. The sponsors would require these procedures to be forced on convicted women and performed in open court, though she can ask for the courtroom door to be closed.

Then there are the sections on "mental retardation" and "insanity."  Since what used to be called "mental retardation" is now recognized as a mental disability, this will be interesting.  "Insanity" can postpone execution, but if the indivudal "recovers sanity" the execution is to proceed as directed.  Does this remind anyone besides me of Catch-22?

Dear ladies, here's what I'd like to see – I'd like to see the New Mexico Senate remain in Democratic control, and the House transition to Democratic control (The Governor is not up this year).  If you listen to Republicans, an election that is rigged by supernatural beings does not count as a rigged election.  Can you work on that please?

The second title that made me go "WTF?" was the title of a Daily Kos story:

Man shoots and kills wife, blames his fear of Black Lives Matter

Here's the story as prominent Atlanta attorney (don't you just already know this is going to be a doozy?) Tex McIver tells it, cut and paraphrased:

He and his wife were being driven by a chauffeur.  She was in the front seat, he in the back.  He saw what he thought were "threatening people" and asked her for his gun.  He took it and fell asleep.  They hit a bump.  The gun went off and hit his wife in the back.

(And if you are thinking of looking for a bridge to buy, check with me first.  I'll make you a really good deal.)

They took her to a hospital twice as far away as the nearest one, where she later died during surgery.  After which McIver went home on his own recognizance, as authorized by an Atlanta police officer.  The vehicle was impounded (Bad SUV! Bad SUV!) and the driver was interviewed.  Apparently McIver was not.  The police report does not include information about who was in the vehicle, nor about what the driver said.

McIver is a labor and employment lawyer who exclusively represents employers.  He has "successfully defended employers in more than 200 union organizing campaigns.”  He once personally represented Governor Nathan Deal (great name for a Republican, isn't it?  Sorry – I just notice people's names sometimes.)  He was, incidentally, back to work within a couple of days, although he said he felt bad.

You know, this wouldn't even make a good detective story.  It's both too obvious and too unbelievable.  Unless it were going to turn into a huge expose of corruption in high places, i.e. at least up to the Governor.  Yeah, like that's going to happen.  I see that, this week, he passed a polygraph, but, knowing what I do about polygraphs, I'm afraid I'm not terribly impressed.

Well, dear Furies, you have a little time before the November election.  Maybe you can learn what the Atlanta police have not shown any interest in – and get someone to hear it, which may actually be the hardest part.  Good luck.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4014818

I have two items today which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

Two weeks ago I assured everyone I was not trying to pick on Oregon.  Today I am not trying to pick on Kansas City, MO.  Things happen everywhere.  Sometimes the Furies are extra needed if an incident happens where someone we care about lives.

So here's the deal.  The original incident happened in 2014 (the lawsuit was just filed this month.)  Kalyb Wiley Primm was in second grade in a school in Kansas City, Missouri.  Kalyb has a hearing impediment, and being thus different, was often on the receiving end of "teasing" or "bullying," whatever you want to call it.  On this day, in late April 2014, Kalyb called it "messing with me."  He started, in his own description, "screaming."  The ACLU, in the complaint, says he "cried out."  Walter Einenkel over at Daily Kos says he "began to cry." 

Did I mention he was seven years old, barely four feet tall, and weighed less than fifty pounds?

A Kansas City Police officer who was in the building as a security officer evidently heard his cries from the hallway – and I can understand it may have been loud – anyone who has had, or has lived with anyone with, a hearing impairment knows it's not so easy for that person to be certain exactly how loud they are at any given moment.  Anyway, the officer decided the boy needed to be taken to the principal's office.

Apparently, however, whatever sound he was making stopped when the officer entered the room.  Nevertheless the officer instructed him – more than once (I did mention the hearing impediment, right?) – to accompany him.  By the time the child joined the officer in the hall, he was pretty scared.  The sound recommenced and the boy attempted to walk away.

At that point, the officer twisted the lad's arms and handuffed his arms behind his back, then led him to the front office.  In handcuffs.  Where he remained, handcuffed, until his mother could arrive to pick him up.

Now, the Missouri Department of Education has a policy in place against restraints being used except in "emergency" or "crisis" situations.  Nevertheless, the school denied any responsibility.  Why?  Because the Security Officer doesn't work for the school, he works for the KCPD.  Can you spell c-o-w-a-r-d-s?

After this incident, Kalyb was so frightened that his mother home schooled him for two years.  He is back in school now.  But not that school.

Kalyb was seven in the picture, taken from the Free Thought Project.  It was taken about a week after the incident.  But he doesn't look a whole lot older now that he is ten.  Dear ladies, now that the ACLU (which may covertly be the fourth Fury) has committed to this case, your job may be easier.  You may just need to have the ACLU's back and make sure the case gets settled right.  Or you may want to detour and teach some humility to some bullies along the way.  Including the one in uniform.

My other story I saw last week, actually a little before I posted, but I set it aside for a week because I don't want to feature something that everyone's already talking about, and I thought that would happen here.  But it didn't.  Not exactly.  Yes, there have been the usual emails decrying voter suppression, and some of them, and some new petitions, have even mentioned "CROSSCHECK," but I don't feel that the scope of this endeavor has been truly appreciated.

The full name of this system is the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, and it has been adopted by 28 states, including Ohio, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina.  You'll recognize these as swing states.  It was designed by Kris Kobach (that's him shown with Ted Nugent).  The system is designed to detect if a person is registered in more than one state.  Now, my opinion is that if it actually did that it would be virtually useless, because, out of all the 28 states using it, they might actually find one or two.  Both (if they found two) would be Republicans, because no one else can afford multiple homes.

However, Kobach promised to foot the bill for compiling the lists, and governors, especially GOP governors, jumped at it.  How they think this is going to happen I don't know – Kansas, thanks to Governor Brownback, as abetted by other Republicans, is bankrupt, and selling sex toys to attempt to put the smallest of dents in their deficit.  But this is Kris Kobach, whose idea it apparently was for Mexico to pay for "The Wall," so of course he did.  (He also wrote Arizona's "Driving while brown" law.  He does get around, doesn't he?)

The lists are supposed to include first name, last name, date of birth, and Social Security numbers.  However, their instruction manual advises that the Social Security numbers "might or might not" match.  Match what, you may ask?  Well, it doesn't say.  You may also notice that list of attributes does not include middle initial/name, or suffix (if any).

So if I live in Georgia and my name is James Brown, and you live in Ohio and your name is James Brown, you might be James A. Brown Jr., and I might be James Cameron Brown – but we are both under suspicion of voting twice.  And those lists are not being released, because, since voting twice is a felony, those on the lists are "suspects" in a "criminal investigation."  Or, as SemDem at Daily Kos puts it,

In other words, a Trump racist can get your state’s voter information, but a publication [Rolling Stone] that wants to ensure innocent people don't have their fundamental, constitutional right to vote purged was told that exact same information is secret.

To give you an idea of the scope of this, we do know that Virginia's list had 342,556 names of people who were supposedly redistered in Virgina and in another state.  Ohio's list has almost 500,000 people.  Altogether, there are about 7.2 million names on these lists.

God help you if you live in one of these states and your name is Garcia.

SemDem did a grand job of writing this up, but if anyone wants to go a little deeper, there is the original article in Rolling Stone.

And a site where, regardless where you live, you can use to check whether you are registered, is here.

I have given my email address to my county election department for them to notify me of important dates and things to know.  If you can, this might be a good thing to do.  I just recently received an email confirming that I am registered and on track to receive a General Election mail ballot.

Treasured Furies, we need help getting out the word and spreading the outrage.  But we also need you to educate Kris Kobach.  Educating him right our of politics would be just wonderful.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4012307

I have two items today which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them.  As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

Let me first make it clear that I am NOT trying to pick on Oregon.  There are jerks and felons in every state, and Oregon has come, since its founding, probably further than any other state.  But even a state that is such a leader is not immune.

When "the duckbill," an iconic sandstone foundation at Cape Kiwanda State Park, came down, park officials thought it was natural erosion which took it, and issued a statemen including "The rubble serves as a sobering reminder of the ever present dangers of our fragile coastal rocks and cliffs."

Then a video turned up.  I will not embed it but you can click through to it.  Be aware the language is as crude as the vandals.

David Kalas, who took the video, asked them why they had done it.  The ringleader babbled something about a friend having broken his leg, and it was a safety hazard, and they were doing everyone a favor, yada yada yada.  Yeah, right.  Kalas himself has I think a better perspective:

(W)hat’s disappointing is how significant that one rock is to so many people. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have taken their picture on it over the years. “People got married on top of the rock, got their engagement photos on top of the rock,” Kalas said. "They can’t share that moment any more with their future children or their grandchildren or anyone like that, it will always just now be a memory," he added.

Let me make my own feeling clear.  I see NO moral difference whatsoever between these jerks and the jerks with more money than brains who want to mine for uranium on the edge of the Grand Canyon.  Both are treating public property as their own, with complete disregard for the rest of us.  The polite term for that is misappropriation.  When they steal from or willfilly damage public property, they steal from me.  And you.  And you.  And you.

Oregon State Police, and the rescreation department are now on the case, and say they "take… vandalism of a state park's natural features seriously."  But of course, they can only take is as seriously as the law does.  The maximum fine is $435.00.

It will take some intensive education to wring any regret from these – people.  Alecto and Megaera, prehaps you would team up and turn up the heat.  I have another case for Tisiphone today.

Shortly before midnight on August 10, in Gresham, OR, 19-year-old Larnell Malik Bruce, with some friends, was charging his cell phone outside a convenience store, when a red Jeep Wrangler pulled up and a man and a woman got out of it.

The man was 38 year old Russell Courtier, the woman, his girlfriend, 35 year old Colleen Hunt.  A fight quickly broke out. 

As Courtier smashed Bruce's head into the store's front window, cracking a pane of glass, his girlfriend encouraged the beating.

"Get him, baby," Hunt urged her byfriend, according to police.  "Get him, baby."

Eventually, Bruce pulled out a machete and the couple retreated back to their Jeep.

What happened next would be hard to believe if we had not seen so many outrages in just the last year.  Bruce started to run, headed towards his home and away from the couple.  They began to chase hi down in the Jeep.  He attempted to zig zag to avoid them, but they nearly missed him as they gunned the car toward him on the sidewalk.  As he tried to cross the street, security footage shows them moving directly toward him and incidentally into oncoming traffic.

Police arrived on the scene moments later, having been called when the fight began, to find Bruce lying in the street with blood gushing from his head and ears.

He died from his injuries days later.

You may, if you look at Courtier's history, wonder why he was actually on the street at the time.  He is a long time criminal, has a notorious history as a member of a white supremacist gang called European Kindred (EK), and was on parole at the time of the murder.  Yes, that's EK tattooed on his calf in the picture.  Not that that is his only tattoo.  For example, while in prison, he also tattooed "party bone" on his penis.  That and having the "make-shift tattoo gun" in his cell are only two of the almost 40 major prison violations he racked up between 2001 and 2013  How does someone with so many major violations get parole?  I don't know.

Courtier and Hunt have both been indicted for murder and are being held on $500,000 bail.  Their trial is scheduled to begin October third.

Incidentally Bruce's family has set up a GoFundMe page for help with funeral and medical expenses.  It includes this statement – "Though this tragedy has devastated our family, Larnell has the opportunity to save many lives through the Organ Donor program."  Well, SOMEONE in this story has class.

Tisiphone – whatever you can do.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4009830