Politics Plus

Just one article this week which seems to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with it. 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 saw on AlterNet and traced to Raw Story the report that a teacher at a private Christian Science high school in St. Louis, MO was fired after reporting that her underage daughter had been sexually abused by a school employee.  Looking for more information, I found the Courthouse News Service website to have a great deal more on the story, and after checking their Terms of Use, which explicitly grant permission to other blogs to copy an individual article provided Courthouse News Service is credited, I will be quoting their coverage of this complex story.  (Any emphasis – bolding – will be mine.)

     A former teacher at a Christian Science boarding school claims in court that she was fired after reporting that a fellow faculty member raped her daughter.
     Phoebe McVey sued The Principia Corporation in St. Louis County Court on Thursday.
     The Principia operates a school and college in suburban St. Louis.
     Neither the School nor the College is affiliated with the Christian Science Church, but the principles of Christian Science form the basis of community life at Principia, according to Principia's website.
     McVey claims 31-year-old Zachary Retzlaff began sexually assaulting her daughter, M.M. in the lawsuit, when she was 16. Retzlaff is not named as a defendant.
     McVey, who now lives in Arizona, lived on the Principia campus at the time with her husband and daughter. She says Retzlaff was Principia's director of telecommunications and related to several people at the school. He [is a] nephew-in-law of Adriane Fredrikson, the dean of admissions, and Hans Fredrikson, a former trustee, and also nephew-in-law of Bill and Cheryl Whitney, who both worked with Retzlaff in the computer information department.
     None of them are parties to the lawsuit.
     McVey says the sexual abuse went on from July 2014 to May 2015 and that Retzlaff spent time with M.M. at the Fredriksons' home during that time. She says she found out about the relationship while chaperoning a class trip to New Hampshire and Boston on May 21, 2015.
     She reported Reztlaff to the police the next day.
     A grand jury indicted Retzlaff for statutory rape in the second degree on July 22, 2015. He pleaded not guilty and is free on $35,000 bail. The criminal case is pending.
     Two days after she reported the rapes, McVey says, the school told her she would be terminated effective July 31, 2015.
     "Just prior to her termination, plaintiff had reported to the police that one of Principia's employees had committed the criminal acts of sexual intercourse with a minor, her daughter," the complaint states. "Such criminal acts were in violation (among other statutes) of Section 566.034 RSMo. As a result of McVey's reporting of illegal conduct, Principia's employee, Retzlaff was indicted on July 22, 2015.
     "Any other reason offered for Plaintiff's termination is pretextual to cover up Principia's illegal conduct."
     McVey's lawsuit does not go into detail, but a separate lawsuit filed by a Jane Doe against The Principia on Oct. 16, 2015, in St. Louis County may. Though it does not name McVey as Doe's parent, it states that Jane Doe was sexually assaulted dozens of times by Retzlaff during the same time period as McVey's daughter.
     That complaint says Retzlaff practiced sadomasochism with Doe.
     "During several of the sexual assaults, assailant choked Ms. Doe with his hands until she lost consciousness," the complaint states. "After the child was unconscious, assailant would begin engaging in vaginal intercourse with her while she was passed out so that when she awoke, his penis would already be inside of her."
     That lawsuit also accused Retzlaff of forcing Doe into group sex.
     "In addition to the sadomasochism, assailant invited other minors to join him in 'group sex' with Ms. Doe, including other Principia students, both male and female," the complaint states. "On several occasions, these other minors chose to flee the group sex session because the sexual acts assailant was performing on Ms. Doe became so extreme."
     That lawsuit claimed The Principia knew about Retzlaff's actions and even told him to "cut it out."
     That lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in February.*
     McVey seeks punitive damages for wrongful termination and breach of contract. She is represented by Brandy Barth with Newton Wright and Barth in St. Louis.
     Laurel Walter, communications director at The Principia, said in an email: "We are in the process of reviewing the allegations and do not have any comment at this time."
     Principia was involved a football hazing scandal involving sexual violence in August 2014. Three football players were kicked out of the school and faced criminal charges. Two were charged with four counts of first-degree sodomy and another with seven counts of third-degree assault.
     In an Oct. 22, 2015 story about the first lawsuit, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Retzlaff, then 33, was accused of sexually assaulting an underage student "more than 40 times on or around the campus here, choked her as part of sex play and held group sex parties for students."

Despite the comments I have been reading on this, both on AlterNet and on Raw Story (Courthouse News Service does not appear to have comments), I trust that I don't need to remind the Erinyes, or anyone here, that any man who thinks that a sixteen year old child has the mental capacity to consent to sex is thinking with the wrong head.  While Tisiphone, therefore, addresses herself to Mr. Retzlaff, I believe Alecto and Megaera are needed to deal with misconceptions which seem to be all too common in society about the nature of consent – and that sex without both parties consenting is rape.

*Incidentally the lawsuit referred to as "voluntarily dismissed in February" was specifically dismissed in such a way as not to preclude Ms. Doe from re-filing (presumably after the criminal charges have been dealt with).

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross-posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/3985226

I only have two articles this week which really call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them – and one that announces a way that people with talent (different kinds of talent, so don't disqualify yourself without reading further) can help them out. 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."

The first story is happening in my home state of Colorado.  Michael Bennet's term as a Democratic US Senator is expiring, he is running for reelection, and the Republicans want him out, naturally.  Though he's kind of a DINO, he is infinitely better than any Republican.  The Daily Kos Election Digest has the race listed as "safe Democrat," so it is unlikely that whoever gets the Republican nod will win.  But apparently, whether it matters or not, they just can't seem to help cheating.

One of them, Jon Keyser, was told he didn't have enough signatures to get on that ballot, since numerous signatures were disqualified because the petition circulator's address on the petitions did not match his (I think it was a he) address of registration.  Turned out he had moved and forgotten to change his address  with the election department.  OK, technically that's illegal.  But a technicality is exactly what it is.  I have no problem with the Secretary of State deciding to go ahead and put him on the ballot after all.  Two other Republicans were told the same thing – one is not now on the ballot, the other managed to get onto the ballot but is suing the (Republican) Secretary of State anyway.  That's typical Republican circus, and not the issue.

Here's the thing: after Jon Keyser was put onto the ballot, someone looked a little harder, and discovered possible fraud – so now he's off again.  Here's the deal.  One Republican in Littleton has her name on both Keyser's petition and also that for Jack Graham.  That's kind of illegal too – you're only supposed to be supporting one candidate.  After all, you can't vote twice (legally).  But the potential for actual, tangible, provable fraud comes in when you look at both petitions and see that the same name is in totally different handwritings, with totally different signatures.

You can see this is PROBABLY not a case of two voters with the same name (who also just happen to live at the same address.)  In any case one now wonders whether ANY Republican will now make it onto the Colorado Senate ballot.  Under one of probably the ten most Republican Secretaries of State in the nation.  I'm sure this is boring for you ladies – but maybe you can crack the whip a little to encourage the people sorting through these documents to get it right.  They don't have a lot of time.

The other story comes from California, but is national in scope.  I heard it through In The Public Interest, a group which I learned about through their work on exposing private prisons and the private contractors who supply them substandard food, poor medical care, expensive prisoner-to-family communications, etc.  Now ITPI is looking at for profit schools in direct competition with public schools in kindergarten through high school.

Despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from California’s taxpayers, California Virtual Academies (CAVA), the state’s largest provider of online public education, is failing key tests used to measure educational success. According to an investigation by The San Jose Mercury News, fewer than half of the thousands of students who enroll in CAVA schools graduate, and almost none of them are qualified to attend the state's public universities.
 All the while, the publicly traded corporation that owns the network, K12 Inc., continues to rake in massive profits.

Just like a brick-and-mortar charter school, an on-line charter school receives taxpayer funding which would (IMO should) have gone to the local public school.  And, since those funds are based on attendance, just how does an online school take attendance?  Simple – if you log in, you are "present."  When you log out is no one's business.  And this also irks me: "(W)hile records show that the company’s employees launched each of K12 Inc.’s 17 online schools in California, the applications they filed to open the schools described the founders as a “group of parents,” none of whom were named."

Probably not that surprising for an enterprise launched by a former Goldman Sachs bankster.  Tisiphone, I usually ask for you when some vile human is being vengefully destructive.  But if you decided to vengefully destroy these corporations, I wouldn't shed a tear.

Finally, the call for entries – "Calling all painters, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, graffiti artists, fine art students, animators, sculptors, designers, actors, advertisers, poets, writers, illustrators, tech specialists, crafters and anyone with a passion for creating, we’d love to hear from you."  The topic is "Where's wetiko?"

I personally am more familiar with the Ojibway form of the word, "windingo," than the Algonquin form they chose, but I suspect they chose it because it moves faster in the mouth, like the "Waldo" they are probably alluding to in the topic title.  But, you may be asking, WHAT is it?  Well …

All over the world, there is a feeling that something is deeply wrong. It is often felt more than seen, an unnamed darkness that keeps millions (even billions) of people disconnected from the reality of authentic life-affirming experience….

Wetiko is an Algonquin word for a cannibalistic spirit that is driven by greed, excess and selfish consumption (in Ojibwa it is windingo, wintiko in Powhatan). It deludes its host into believing that cannibalizing the life-force of others (others in the broad sense, including animals and other forms of Gaian life) is a logical and morally upright way to live.
•Every time someone is seen justifying the destruction of life for profit – it is wetiko.
•Every time compassion is vitally missing during a time of suffering – it is wetiko.
•Every time a privileged person uses another as a “throw away” toy – it is wetiko.
•Every time, in every way a community or country is impoverished so that others can be rich – it is wetiko.

So the answer to "Where's wetiko?" is "EVERYWHERE – but it needs to be SEEN."

The call for entries I have linked to has itself further links for anyone who wants to go deeper – but it's a good introduction, it's short and to the point, and repays reading through even if you think you do not have a creative nerve in your body.  And maybe we can help out the furies by raising awareness of injustice and consequent opposition to it.

The Furies and I will be back.

It was another rough week. I was even more challenged than last week to limit myself. So, out of eight that I bookmarked (although there were even more that I didn't), here are three which really 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."

Of the two police brutality stories, I picked this one, even though no one died (which someone did in the other one); in fact, there don't seem to have even been any marks left on the hapless arrestees (that's pending a health check, as two are diabetic).  What makes it so jaw-dropping face-palming outrageous is that (a) the five or more arrestees were children.  The oldest was 13, the youngest 6.  Most were under 10.  (b)  The children were arrested, with warrants, at their school, in front of their peers.  (c) The charge was that they failed to break up a fight which, incidentally, occurred, not in a public place, but in someone's backyard.  At least two of the arrestees were not even present at the disagreement.

You know, if I had a child who was six years old, and he was in a friend's back yard, and a couple of other kids disagreed about a basketball game and pushed each other some, I would hope to God he would NOT try to break it up.  But these arrested children have been charged with criminal responsibility for each other (which sounds to me like they are being charged as adults, which is insane.)

Jen Hayden, who uses her real name in her bylines at Daily Kos, but whose Twitter handle is @Scout_Finch, had this to say: "Any way you slice it, these kids did not deserve to be handcuffed in front of their peers, hauled away to juvenile detention without notifying the parents and ultimately headed down the classroom-to-prison pipeline."

This happened in Murfreesboro, TN, where the chief of police is Karl Durr.  That is really all I know about him.  Someone about whom I know even less of but we all probably should know more about is the judge who signed these warrants with which the officers apparently showed up.  He's the guy (or, I hope not, but possibly she's the gal) who precipitated this abomination.  I am going on record that this whole scenario can best be described as grudging, so, Megaera, I trust you will be on it.

Staying with the legal profession for the second item, there is a county circuit court judge in Mississippi, name of Jeff Weill, who has a habit of holding piblic defenders in contempt … for doing their job.  Well, mostly he threatens it rather than does it, but a little over a week ago, on Wednesday April 13 to be precise, he actually locked one up.  Of course leaving his client, a woman with a three month old baby, without representation.

In fact the public defender had to get a lawyer himself, to file an emergency appeal with the state supreme court, which, to their credit, granted it, or most of it.  To their discredit, they wanted $500 bond from the public defender while he appeals.

His supervisor, THE Hinds County Public Defender, Michele Purvis Harris, stated on Thirday, "The actions of Judge Weill on yesterday in effect criminalized the very job we are sworn to do."  Yup, that's about the size of it.  She added that every public defender who has served in Judge Weill's courtroom "has at some point been threatened with the contempt that has never occurred in any of the other courtrooms."  She herself was thrown out of his courtroom in December (the word she uses is "escorted out" but that sounds like being thrown out to me.)  The State Supreme Court sided with her also (he doesn't learn, does he?)  But, she adds, “We will not be intimidated. We will not be bullied.”  I believe the consistent repitition of this injustice qualifies it as unceasing, so, Alecto, off you go.

I will give the voter ID issues a rest this week, as well as the obligatory legislator arrested (this one in Georgia, open container, open carry, 4 children in vehicle, BAC 3x legal.  Do I need to say he is a "family values" Republican?  I didn't think so.)  I'll just move right along to the New York Tactical Officers Association (NYTOA) annual conference, this year to be held in Verona, New York the end of this month.  It's the kind of gathering that police go to to learn to be the bullies we all hate, instead of getting mental health and crisis diffusion training which we all want them to have.

And there are a lot of these gatherings, and the general public and journalists are excluded from them.  They keep a very low profile.  The only reason this one has attracted a little attention is that somehow word got out that Ryan Mauro will be honored as a key presenter.

And who is Ryan Mauro, when he's at home. you may ask?  Well, for starters, he is an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist who has been personally designated an extremist by the SPLC.  And now I'll bet you can see vengeful destruction coming right up.

His day job is as a national security "analyst" for the anti-Muslim think tank Clarion Project.  Among other things, he things the DHS is full of Muslim Brotherhood types.  He has stated that "civilians really need to step up" and start reporting suspicious activity they see on Facebook.  Seriously.  He has promoted the discredited myth of Muslim no-go-zones and fear-mongered over Somali refugees living in the US.  Media Matters outed him in 2014 as "not (a) credible source … given (his virulent history of Islamophobia."

"There are reasons police violence fill our headlines and politicians ride waves of hate. One of those reasons is SWAT trainings and expos like NYTOA, where Islamophobia and major arms dealers take center stage," Ali Issa, national field organizer for the War Resisters’ League, told AlterNet. "Unnoticed, these trainings happen all the time, all over the country. Stopping this national phenomenon means empowering our communities to live without fear."

The executive director of the NYTOA, Larry Beresnoy, however, is a believer.  “Ryan Mauro is a national expert on terrorism and Islamic extremism,” he said. “His entire job is researching the issue. I’ve looked at Ryan’s stuff, looked at Clarion’s stuff. I’ve seen their videos Third Jihad and Obsession. There are many experts who believe that the information is accurate. He has good information to share.”

I won't even go into the details of the martial arts training and weapons manufacturers' booths which will be part of the fun.  I think it is already pretty clear that this is not just vengeful destruction, but organized, state-sponsored vengeful destruction.  Knock yourself out, Tisiphone.

The Furies and I will be back.

I was hoping to be able to give the Furies a week off this week. As it happens, I can't, but I can lighten the burden a little, in what I consider to be a most interesting way. 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."

At least, ladies, you won't have to go to Indiana.  Or – have you already been there, and been holding training town halls?

As Jen Hayden says, "Indiana Governor Mike Pence recently signed bill HEA 1337 into law, making it one of the most intrusive and extreme laws governing women’s health in the United States….  It’s so extreme that many so-called “pro-life” Republicans refused to support it.  Indiana women aren’t taking this new attack on their healthcare lightly….  A group called "Periods for Pence" recently sprang up. They decided that if the governor was so interested in what is happening with their bodies, he deserved more frequent updates. The ladies of Indiana have been busy calling the governor’s office with details."

And here are some of the calls –

Me: "Good morning. I just wanted to call and let the good Governor know that I am still not pregnant, since he seems to be so worried about women's reproductive rights."
Irritated lady on the other end of the phone: "And can I get your name, please?"
Me: "Sure, it's Not Pregnant Laura."

Just got through to Governor Pence's office. (The operator must be on break.)
Me: Hi, is this the operator, or the Governor's office?
Them: Um, this is the office, but I am covering for the operator right now.
Me: "Oh, good. I need to get a message to the Governor that I am on day three of my period. My flow seems abnormally heavy, but my cramps are much better to–"
Them: (Seriously pissed and trying to keep their voice down, but not quite succeeding) MA'AM, WHAT IS IT THAT I CAN HELP YOU WITH? Me: Oh, I don't need your help, I just wanted to keep Governor Pence informed of my reproductive cycle, since he seems so concerned. Them: "Ugh." *click*

I called to let him know that I am a lesbian so I won't be needing an abortion (or legal protections, for that matter lol double whammy! Thanks, Pence!) also mentioned that I'm not currently menstruating but I might be ovulating.

Them: "Good Morning, Governor Pence's office"
Me: "Good Morning. I just wanted to inform the Governor that things seem to be drying up today. No babies seem to be up in there. Okay?"
Them: (Sounding strangely horrified and chipper at the same time) "Ma'am, can we have your name?"
Me: "Sure. It's Sue."
Them: "And your last name?"
Me: "Magina. That's M-A-G-I-N-A. It rhymes with–" Them: "I've got it."  *Click*

Someone from Pence's campaign literally just rang my doorbell, wanting to know if I was likely to vote republican or democrat in the upcoming election. I let him know that I wasn't sure, and that I'm going to be ovulating soon, and that I was unclear on whether or not I was legally required to fertilize the egg. He started cracking up.

Operator: Governor Mike Pence's Office, please hold…  >6 minutes later<   Operator: Governor Pence's office, thank you for waiting… Me: Hi, I'm a native Hoosier who derives from the uterus of another native Hoosier… Operator: >clears throat< Me: I now live in California and I'm wondering if my uterus still falls under the juridiction of Governor Pence or– ?  Operator: Please hold. >click<

Now that's a campaign I can get behind.

Unfortunately, not all the news is that good.  I still have a project for the Furies, as well as one situation they may need to keep an eye on for possible follow-up.  The project is in Australia, and it also has to do with gender, but with money instead of reproduction.

So, in Australia, at the University of Queensland, every semester they hold a Feminist Week with multiple events.  Two campus organizations collaborate on this – the Women's Collective, and the women's department of the student union.  This semester, the scheduled events included a seminar, a picnic, a movie screening, and a bake sale.

The bake sale, full title "Gender Pay Gap Bake Sale," was meant to generate discussion in a fun way about Australia's wage gap – or, really, wage gaps, because there are other factorsbesides gender which affect wages.  All cupcakes were base priced at $1.00.  A white, straight, abled man would pay $1.00 for one.  A white, straight, abled woman would pay 83¢ for one (a little more than in the US, where that figure would be 78¢).  A woman of color in the legal profession, however, would pay 55¢ for the same cupcake.

Sad to say, this fun event led not just to fun, but to on line accusations of "reverse sexism," denial of the existence of any pay gap, wistfully yearning for the "good ole days" when a good ole boy could "beat a woman with a stick," and miscellaneous threats of death, rape, and other sexual violence.  I said "on line," because that's where they were.  No one showed up to physically protest the actual sale.  {Not to trivialize cyberbullying, which is widespread and dangerous.)

The silver lining?

 “We have had a number of students contact us stating, ‘I didn’t believe feminism was still relevant until I started reading all the comments,’” said Madeline Price, vice president of gender and sexuality at the University of Queensland Student Union.

Most of the negative reactions seem to have been in one place, a Facebook group called UQ StalkerSpace.  I can't be the only one who wonders why a group with such a name is even allowed on Facebook, can I?  Granted, requiring it to be taken down would "upset" their tender fee-fees even more than currently, and could lead to acting out.  Dear Furies, I think you are the ones to educate this group and its members.

Finally, this situation in Texas is one to keep an eye on – yet no one should be holding his or her breath.  That's because the FBI is doing the investigating.  And I'm sure we all remember how long it took the FBI to hand down any kind of indictment for Cliven Bundy.  That's because they put a lot of time and effort into identifying both exactly what has happened (and can be proved) and also exactly what charge or charges are appropriate to the actual event.  And this IMO will lead to even more serious charges than Bundy's.

It seems there is a medical company in Frisco, TX named Novus Heath Care Services Inc., owned by a certified accountant named Brad Harris.  Some of the allegatons against Harris include that he "sent text messages like 'You need to make this patient go bye-bye,'" that he "told a nurse to overdose three patients and directed another employee to increase a patient’s medication to four times the maximum allowed," that he "told other health care executives over a lunch meeting that he wanted to 'find patients who would die within 24 hours,'" and that he "made comments like, 'if this f— would just die.'"

Leslie Salzillo, who wrote the story for Daily Kos, briefly explains how the laws are written so that statements like the above make perfect economic sense – if not ethical sense, or compassionate sense, or human sense, or avoiding-barf-bag sense.  She also points out it's important for a story like this to be republished widely.  But at the moment, what we probably need most to do is keep a watchful eye on the FBI (and HHS who are helping them) to see where the story goes.

Oh yes – one follow up – the 90 year old veteran in Wisconsin who was not allowed to vote – an email from the AFSCME informs me that before, before the Presidential primary, the Governor relented and ordered that veterans' ID cards be acceptable ID for the primary.  Thanks, Erinyes!

The Furies and I will be back.