Politics Plus

More stuff has happened which seems to me 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."

One incident goes back to 2014.  It is surfacing now because CNN featured it on Monday, and Thandisizwe Chimurenga reported on it for Daily Kos.

At first, Sandra Pinchback thought her son Curtis Garland’s death in a Texas prison after an asthma attack made sense. She had been worried that the prison in rural East Texas was in the really muggy part of the state and had no air conditioning when he was first incarcerated. And then in July 2014, when the prison chaplain called and told her her son had died after an asthma attack she thought, "Well, maybe the good Lord went on and took him because he had suffered for so long with asthma." Problem is, that was a lie: medical neglect/indifference killed her son. Within three days Pinchback would start receiving letters from other prison inmates who had witnessed her son’s agony over several hours. Inmates who had witnessed him asking for help; inmates who tried to get him the assistance he needed; inmates who said they would testify if she needed them to. Sandra Pinchback received close to 50 letters saying all of these things.

When he was first incarcerated, he had difficulty getting the medications he needed, life-and-death medications.  He notified his mother, who contacted the prison and was told the offender needed to fill out forms.  She turned for help to Cory Sessions, a prison rights advocate with the Innocence Project of Texas, who had been key to getting her husband's conviction overturned with DNA evidence.

Unlike her husband, her son had made mistakes, admitted them, and was willing to pay for them by serving his time.  But he wasn't expecting a death sentence.

On that 90-degree-F June day when Garland had the attack, his fellow prisoners in M Wing knew he was dying, would die, and did everything they could to try to get help for him.  It's a harrowing story, difficult to read, even in the abbreviated form Thandi has quoted.  Her CNN source gives even more detail, including photographed excerpts from inmates' letters.  Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone, whille you are giving the Erinyes treatment to the prison staff, please take a little time to give some Eumenides support to the offenders of M Wing.  I imagine a friend in a prison is a rare and wonderful thing, and the loss of one is heavy indeed.  From the CNN story:

The Innocence Project's Session said he believes corrections officials need to be prosecuted. He called their actions in the case "official oppression."

Garland was one of 620 people to die while in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in 2014, according to a report from the state attorney general.

Only the highest-profile cases — such as that of Sandra Bland, whose hanging death in a Waller County jail cell last year sparked outcries and investigations — make headlines, but Session alleges that deaths such as Garland's are common.

The second story involves a veteran, a former Marine who fought in World War II, including at the Battle of Iwo Jima – this battle, you all know the picture.  Not sayin' he was on Mount Suribachi; he wasn't; but it was a hard battle and all the Marines there were men of great valor.

I think we all know how obsessed Republicans have become with Voter Identification Laws, which to any sane person with minimal command of facts appear to be a non-solution to a non-problem.  Scott Walker's Wisconsin is no exception, and in fact may be near the head of the band wagon. 

When Wisconsin wrote its Voter ID law, it carefully listed all forms of ID which would be acceptable at the polling places.  (Parenthetically, Student ID with or without a photo was not one of them – gee, wonder why not.)  Inexplicably to me, however, also omitted from the list of acceptable identification was the Veterans Administration issued photo-identification card.  Active duty military ID was included, but not this.

So Leo Olsen, this 90-year-old Marine Corps veteran of Workd War II, was not allowed to vote in the state's Supreme Court primary last month.  What is perhaps even worse, we have literally idea how many veterans this may have affected.  Olsen's experience only became public because he has a niece on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, who wrote a (very polite) nastygram to Scott Walker about it.

When he presented his veterans administration card with his picture on it, he was told that the card was not listed as ‘acceptable’ proof of his identity. He responded: ‘You mean veterans can’t vote?'” (emphasis the justice's)

The 2016 state primaries were the first time that the Wisconsin Voter Identification law was in practice since being twice struck down by the judiciary. The law was originally blocked in 2014 by the Federal District Court in Milwaukee.

No one, so far as I know, is arguing that this is not law.  Indeed, denying him his vote was absolutely in accodance with what the law says (and doesn't say).  But – as Mr. Bumble would say, and indeed did say, "If the law supposes that, the law is a ass — a idiot."

To me it's clear that Scott Walker is the villain-in-chief of this story, but I have no doubt that there are others, Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature, who also deserve your considered attention.  Have at it, ladies.

The Furies and I will be back.