Politics Plus

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

I have three items today which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them. In honor of the 40th post, I am going to start numbering 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."

Normally I shy away from calling the Furies' attention to a corporation or group.  There were no corporations in ancient Greece, not as we understand the term; and while there were some groups, they just weren't of the sizes and in the quantities we have today.  I want them to be comfortable doing work they know how to do.

But, in this case, a corporation has acted so much like a particularly despicable individual, that I simply have to address it.  Also, I have a name.  Also, I have a signed letter.

You may have read that Aetna (originally Aetna Insurance Company, later Aetna Life Insurance Company, still later Aetna U.S. Healthcare, now apparently just Aetna) is pulling out of Obamacare in 11 of the 15 states it has been serving.  You may have read this pullout has been attributed to financial loses in those states.  You may have read that Republicans are delighted by this turn of events. 

You may even have read that the pullout is not really due to financial losses, but is retaliation against the administration (and, incidentally, every citizen previously covered by them under Obamacare) because their request to but Humana was denied.

You may or may not have read that Huffington Post has obtained, through the FOIA, a copy of a letter sent to the Justice Department by Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini which in essence said (my reconstruction) "Nice Affordable Care Act you got there.  Be a shame if anything happened to it.  Give us our merger and we won't pull out."

So now, because Bertolini didn't get his merger, Obamacare and ordinary Americans who need health insurance will suffer the consequences.  Obamacare is already facing an uphill battle with regard to critics of the law's suatainability.  By leaving a system which relies on subsidized public-private health insurance plans, Aetna's move will only further tip the scales in favor of Obamacare's criticn [sic] and drive up costs.

Incidentally, Aetna is officially claiming that the letter and the pullout are unrelated.  Right.  I call it extortion.  What do you say, Megaera?  (And what can you expect from a company named after a volcano?)

Meanwhile, back in Tulsa, OK, a family named Jabara has since 2013 or earlier been living next door to a terrorist named Vernon Majors.  I don't know how much earlier, but it was in 2013 that Haifa Jabara, the materfamilias of the Jabara family, filed a protective order against Majors.  He had been sexually harassing her, knocking on windows late at night, stalking her, and subjecting the entire family to racist remarks.  (The Jabaras' family background is Lebanese, but the racist remarks included "dirty Arabs," "filthy Lebanese," "AY-rabs," "MOOS-lems," and he had a whole vocabulary beyond that for use with Mexicans and black people.) 

In 2015 Haifa's son, Khalid, also filed a protective order against Majors.  Majors had been harassing Khalid, stalking him and following him around, leaving notes on the door, and vandalizing the inside of the house.  Wait – what?  Vandalizing the inside of the house?  This creep had been actually getting inside their home to do damage? Eeeeeeww!!

And then in September of 2015, Haifa was jogging in the neighborhood when Majors drove by, aimed his car at her, clearly attempting to run right over her, which he didn't quite do, but he did put her in the hospital.  A broken shoulder, collapsed lung, broken ankle, broken nose, head trauma, and fractured ribs were only some of the injuries she sustained.

Well, he did get locked up then, charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon (which he admitted, providing the motive "filthy Lebanese"), and was awaiting trial, but in May he posted bond.  It was originally set at $30,000.  The prosecutor asked the judge to, first choice, hold him without bond, second choice, set bond at $300.000.  Instead the judge made it $60,000, and he bonded out immediately.  He was released wih no additional conditions – no ankle monitor, no drug/alcohol testing, nothing.

Now, despite having been arrested for a felony, and having been previously convicted of a felony in California, and thus ineligible under Federal law to own a gun , somehow he had one.

The day Khalid was murdered, he called the police to tell them this terrorist had a gun.  The police came and said there was nothing they could do.  Thirty minutes after the phone call, Khalid was dead.

This next thing has nothing to do with the case, it just struck me, so I have used both pictures.  A blind person on a fast horse riding by could see that Khalid is better looking than Majors (much, MUCH better looking.)  Is it my imagination?  Or is he also whiter than the so-called white guy?  A thing like that should not matter to any sane person, of course.  But then Majors apparently isn't.  Sane.  Tisiphone, if you will follow the case and guide at strategic points to make sure the community in general and the Jabara family in particular are never in danger from him again, maybe even instigate the DOJ to investigate as a hate crime – two hate crimes –  it will be most appreciated.

Next, from the "You don't have to be black to get killed by police" files, comes the story of Daniel Patrick Harris, 28, of Charlotte, NC.   Harris is – excuse me, was -profoundly deaf, and he communicated using American Sign Language (ASL).  He was able to drive, and was pulled over, or at least an attempt was made to do so, this month.  The best guess of those who have been covering the story is that he may have been speeding, but that is unconfirmed.

Also unconfirmed is whether Mr. Harris simply did not hear any sirens, or whether he trying to get home, where family were present who would be able to interpret for him,  or some combination.  He was a few within feet of his home, when the two cars collided.  Mr. Harris then got out of his car and started signing to the officer, who, according to neighbors, shot him as soon as he got out, killing him.

The officer, trooper Jermaine Saunders, is on administrative leave while the investigation goes on, and is not giving interviews.  Mr. Harris is dead, so we can't ask him.  The most we can do is speculate.  Did Trooper Saunders think Harris was flashing gang signs?  Did he think Mr. Harris was making threatening gestures?  We don't know.  We only know that Mr. Harris is dead..  Oh, yes, and that he liked turtles. 

Alecto, I didn't have anything specifically for you last week.  But I would say that this is in a category of things that happen All. The. Time.  Let us know what you find out.

Finally – I seldom do humor here, for obvious reasons, but I guess if Shakespeare can use comic relief, I can try.  So here is a little trivia question.  Based on the news from this week, one can conclude that that

a.  Not all gun nuts live in the United States.

b.  Having had a taste of entertainment from the filming of "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit," New Zealand parents have started training their children to star in some future remake of "Game of Thrones."

c.  Both of the above.

Click through for the answer ( spoiler: "c" is correct).

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4007417

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."

First stop Raleigh, North Carolina, where a family in the Neuse Crossing neighborhood was having a y'all come party, and a neighbor (and probable Trump voter) named Chad Copley was having hallucinations.  If our nation had appropriate understanding of mental health issues like hallucinations, and adequate ways to treat said hallucinator without continuing to endanger the neighborhood, I might not be telling this story to the Furies.  But, with things as they are, I see no alternative.

So let's talk about Copley's hallucinations.  To begin with, he hallucinated that there was a Neighborhood Watch program in his neighborhood, and that he was in it, and on duty,

…residents and a manager of the Neuse Crossing Homeowners Association say the neighborhood where the fatal shooting happened does not have a neighborhood watch. And police say that where homeowners do organize neighborhood watch programs they are told to call 911 when they see suspicious or criminal activity, rather than take matters into their own hands.

Then, he hallucinated that guests at the party two doors away were "racing up and down the street," that they were armed, and that "there's some devil in them."

Jalen Lewis, who hosted a party at his home, two doors down from Copley’s, on the night of the shooting, said the victim was one of roughly 50 guests at the party, he told CNN affiliate WTVD.

He didn’t know Thomas personally, he said, and he didn’t see anyone armed or causing problems outside his home that night. Lewis told WTVD he has never interacted with Copley in the seven years he’s lived in the Raleigh neighborhood.

Thirdly, he hallucinated that there was a legal requirement for him to fire a warning shot (prior to doing what else, he didn't say.)

I yelled at them, ‘Please leave the premises,’ ” he said. “They were showing firearms, so I fired a warning shot and uh, we got somebody that got hit. …

“I fired my warning shot like I’m supposed to by law. … They do have firearms, and I’m trying to protect myself and my family.”

The dispatcher pressed for more information: Who’s been shot, how badly are they injured — and where, exactly, is the victim?

“Please just send a car,” Copley responded. “There’s friggin’ black males outside my friggin’ house with firearms. Please, send PD. Thank you.”

His "warning shot," which, it transpired, had been fired from a window in his garage, did kill someone: 20-year-old Kouren-Rodney Bernard Thomas, who was out near the street.  Thomas’s mother says he worked at a waffle house, and had a girlfriend about to begin college.

Copley has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder.  I would call that a step in the right direction.  Tisiphone, perhaps you can help keep this direction on track and ensure the one step is not the only step to secure this vengeful destroyer away from the public.

Meanwhile, over in Oklahoma – and I must say we all know there are many wonderful people in Oklahoma; this guy just isn't one of them – a retired agriculture teacher named Larry Long has made the news.  It seems that at a retirement presentation they were giving for him at the Oklahoma Career Tech Summer Conference in Oklahoma City he decided to show off what a fine sense of humor he has.

So he called a black colleague (probably not a coincidence that the colleague of color is the ONLY black agriculture teacher in the entire state) up to the stage with him, and presented him with a white robe and white hood (complete with Klan insignia), which he placed on the teacher, and then added a Confederate flag (as the bow on the package?)  Wow.  What a barrel of laughs.  Hundreds of people attended this "program," by the way.

I should be specific that CareerTech was not his employer, and he was not retiring from CareerTech.  CareerTech is a state agency, and it does not employ teachers to teach; it oversees them.  The employer from whom he had retired during the year was Elk City High School, where he had apparently worked for 49 years.  He must have been appreciated there, since the board of Elk City Public Schools recently voted to  name the high school's new agriculture building after him.

Those at the meeting were instructed not to speak of it, and to erase any and all cell phone video.  But someone sent an anonymous email to state lawmwkers, and it is now out in the open.

Retired teacher Larry Long issued a statement … in which he said he was trying to make a joke with a colleague who he respected and that he never intended to convey any racism.  He says he realizes his actions were "harmful, offensive, and hurtful."  Long says he has requested a meeting with members of the Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus, who expressed outrage at the incident.  A member of the caucus, Democratic Rep. Mike Shelton, says the group welcomes the meeting.  The Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology says it is investigating the incident.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Nothing to see here, just move along.  Alecto, if that meeting hasn't already happened, maybe you'd like to be present at it.  Could be interesting.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news /member/101612212/4006109