;)
February 16, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Texting the Insurrection. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "... thousands of ... frantic, ephemeral text messages that might have otherwise been lost to history are now key to piecing together the most vivid and comprehensive picture to date of the events surrounding the chaos at the Capitol. Many were sent to [former chief-of-staff Mark] Meadows by Fox News hosts, lawmakers and other Trump allies urging him to get his boss ... to put a halt to the assault. The texts, obtained by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault, are among the most important tools the panel has to bring home the gravity of what happened that day, the planning that preceded it and the concern for democracy that lingered in the aftermath -- even among some of Trump;s most loyal allies, who have since sought to play down the events of the day."
Matthew Brown of the AP: "Former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke misused his position to advance a development project in his Montana hometown and lied to an agency ethics official about his involvement, according to a report from federal investigators released Wednesday. The investigation by the Interior Department's inspector general found that Zinke continued working with a foundation on the commercial project in the community of Whitefish, Montana even after he committed upon taking office to breaking ties with the foundation.... Zinke is a candidate in the June Republican primary for an open Montana Congressional seat, a position he held prior to joining Trump's cabinet." The Washington Post's story is here.
A Florida Woman... Your Tax Dollars at Work. Vimal Patel & Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: A Florida woman used $10,000 of her Paycheck Protection pandemic relief check to hire a hit man. "The woman, Jasmine Martinez, 33, received the loan on April 20, 2021, two weeks before a man ... shot Le'Shonte Jones to death as she walked to her apartment building with her 3-year-old daughter, the Miami-Dade police said in an arrest warrant dated Feb. 9.... The police arrested Ms. Martinez and Romiel Robinson, a man Ms. Martinez was in a romantic relationship with, on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of Ms. Jones, 24.... Miami-Dade police last week also announced the arrest of Javon Carter, an ex-convict who they believe to be the hit man. Mr. Carter was charged with first-degree murder and the attempted murder of Ms. Jones's daughter, who was grazed by bullets in the attack, the police said.... The police believe the shooting was the culmination of a long antagonism between the two women."
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Vladimir Isachenkov, et al., of the AP: "Russia said Wednesday it was returning more troops and weapons to bases, but NATO declared it saw no sign of a drawdown as fears that Moscow could invade Ukraine soon persisted.Russia has massed about 150,000 troops east, north and south of Ukraine, sparking Western concerns it was planning an attack."
Vladimir Isachenkov & Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the U.S. has 'not yet verified' Russia's claim that some of its forces have withdrawn from the Ukraine border and said an invasion of Ukraine remains a distinct possibility. Biden made the remarks at the White House hours after Russia announced that some units participating in military exercises near Ukraine's borders would begin returning to their bases. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier Tuesday said Russia was ready for talks with the United States and NATO on military transparency, missile deployment limits and other security issues. But Biden continued to express skepticism about Russia's intentions. Biden warned again that if Russia invades Ukraine the U.S. 'will rally the world to oppose its aggression.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times report is here. ~~~
~~~ President Biden addressed the nation -- and the world -- about the Russia/Ukraine crisis: ~~~
Paul Sonne & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "As Russian President Vladimir Putin sends mixed signals about his willingness to invade Ukraine, his military continues to undertake activities that appear designed not only to ready an offensive but to thwart any attempt by the United States and NATO to intervene, according to Western officials and analysts.... The Kremlin, said Samuel Charap, a Russia specialist and senior political scientist at the Rand Corp., is looking to 'abundantly disincentivize' the alliance even from contemplating coming to Ukraine's aid militarily."
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is preparing strict new limits on pollution from buses, delivery vans, tractor-trailers and other heavy trucks, the first time tailpipe standards have been tightened for the biggest polluters on the road since 2001. The new federal regulations are drawn from truck pollution rules recently enacted by California and come as the Biden administration is moving to restore that state's legal authority to set auto emissions limits that are tighter than federal standards, according to two people familiar with the matter.... The developments represent a revival of California';s influence on the nation's climate and clean air policies, following four years in which ... Donald J. Trump waged legal, political, and, at times, seemingly personal battles with the state. The Trump administration had stripped away California's authority to institute its own vehicle pollution standards, power that the state had enjoyed for more than 40 years."
Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Biden administration criticized China in a new report released Wednesday morning for failing to uphold a wide range of trade commitments, including promises it had made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and others in a trade deal signed with the Trump administration in 2020. In its annual assessment of China's compliance with its obligations to the W.T.O., the Office of the United States Trade Representative excoriated the Chinese government for flouting the global trade body's rules and its transparent, market-oriented approach. Instead, China expanded its state-led approach to its economy and trade, causing serious harm to workers and businesses around the world, particularly in industries targeted by its industrial plans, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement." The report, via the U.S. Trade Rep, is here.
From the Halls of Montezuma. Emily Green of Vice: "... more than a dozen Marines in the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton ... started smuggling migrants into the U.S. in the spring and summer of 2019 -- even while thousands of their fellow Marines were deployed to the border to shore up security. At their peak, according to court records, they were going on multiple runs a week.... With their closely trimmed hair, clean-cut look, Marine Corps stickers on their cars, and uniform caps on their dashboards, the Marines made the perfect smugglers precisely because no one would ever suspect them. They picked up migrants just north of the U.S. border and transported them 100 miles into the interior of the country in the last and arguably most precarious leg of the smuggling journey.... The smuggling ring at Camp Pendleton underscores the widespread recruitment of military members and Border Patrol into the billion-dollar criminal industry."
Christina Jewett & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate on Tuesday narrowly confirmed Dr. Robert Califf as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, a key federal agency that has been without a permanent chief for more than a yearlong stretch of the coronavirus pandemic. The vote was 50-to-46, with six Republicans crossing the aisle to support him while five Democrats opposed him. One senator voted present. In recent weeks, Dr. Califf's odds of a second confirmation looked increasingly long as opposition mounted over concerns about how he would respond to the opioid epidemic and the agency's handling of abortion drug rules. The White House responded by trying to rally support in Congress and among other allies, with mainstream medical societies and a bipartisan group of six former F.D.A. commissioners coming to Dr. Califf's defense.... Senators in both parties, ranging from liberal Democrats leery of his ties to the pharmaceutical industry to conservative Republicans in lock step with the anti-abortion movement, posed formidable opposition." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee boycotted and delayed a Tuesday vote on the White House's nominees for the Federal Reserve to try to slow the confirmation process and thwart the candidacy of President Biden's pick for banking regulator. The GOP opposition has coalesced on Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Federal Reserve governor who has pledged to focus on the ways climate change threatens financial stability and the overall economy.... Despite the focus on Raskin, Tuesday's boycott halts progress on filling vacancies on the seven-seat Federal Reserve Board, including the confirmation process for Biden's renomination of Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell, who has broad support among Republicans and Democrats.... Republicans can block votes from happening in Senate committees, which are ... divided evenly between the parties, by refusing to attend, thus denying a quorum." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Biden is opposing another effort by ... Donald J. Trump to withhold information from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, ordering the National Archives to hand over White House visitor logs the committee is seeking. In a letter to the National Archives, Mr. Biden's White House counsel, Dana Remus, said Mr. Biden had rejected Mr. Trump's claims that the visitor logs were subject to executive privilege and that 'in light of the urgency' of the committee's work, the agency should provide the material to the committee within 15 days." The AP's report is here.
Co-conspirators Subpoenaed. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol subpoenaed two of Donald J. Trump's campaign aides and Republican Party officials from battleground states on Tuesday as it dug deeper into a plan to use false slates of electors to help the former president stay in office after he lost the 2020 election. Among those subpoenaed on Tuesday were Michael A. Roman and Gary Michael Brown, who served as the director and the deputy director of Election Day operations for Mr. Trump's campaign. The panel also summoned Douglas V. Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator; Laura Cox, the former chairwoman of Michigan's Republican Party; Mark W. Finchem, an Arizona state legislator; and Kelli Ward, the chairwoman of Arizona's Republican Party. In letters accompanying the subpoenas, the committee said it had obtained communications that showed Mr. Roman's and Mr. Brown's 'involvement in a coordinated strategy to contact Republican members of state legislatures in certain states that former President Trump had lost and urge them to 'reclaim' their authority by sending an alternate slate of electors that would support former President Trump.'"
“Spygate” 3.0. Steve Benen of MSNBC: "On Saturday, [Donald] Trump issued a written statement claiming that [special prosecutor forever] Robert [MB: sic.] Durham has presented 'indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign.' The former president's statement added that the controversy, such as it is, should be seen as 'far greater' than Watergate, adding, 'In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death.'... A day later, Trump issued another statement, repeating the 'spying' claim. Then he issued another statement. And then another.... As is often the case, the trouble is that Trump doesn't understand the story that sparked his tantrum.... In 2018, after ... [Trump] said the FBI had spied on his campaign, GOP lawmakers made clear they wanted nothing to do with Trump's nonsense. This week, congressional Republicans are taking the fake scandal very seriously." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Another major problem I see with Trump's latest crazy uncle story is the violence he attaches to it. In Spygate's original iteration, I think all we heard was that "Obama tapped my wires." Now, we're reading that Clinton (or her campaign staff, but certainly at her diabolical direction) has committed a capital offense. Some Trumpbot will want to assert his Second Amendment right to take the law into his own hands in defense of the Dear Leader. We've gone from laughable, or at least snicker-worthy, to dangerous. ~~~
~~~ Here's some more detailed background on the story by Alexander Mallin & Jack Date of ABC News.
Rick Rojas & Karen Zraick of the New York Times: "Families of people killed in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., said on Tuesday that they had reached a $73 million settlement in their lawsuit against the maker of the AR-15-style weapon the gunman used in the attack. The agreement, reached with the families of five children and four adults who were killed, appears to be the largest such settlement involving a gun maker and relatives of mass shooting victims. It also represents a significant setback to the firearm industry because the lawsuit, by employing a novel strategy, pierced the vast shield enshrined in federal law protecting gun companies from litigation. The families contended that Remington, the gun maker, violated state consumer law by promoting the weapon in a way that appealed to so-called couch commandoes and troubled young men like the gunman who stormed into the elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 20 first graders and six adults in a spray of gunfire." An ABC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Prince Andrew, the disgraced second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who had accused him of raping her when she was a teenage victim of Andrew's friend, the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new court filing in Manhattan on Tuesday. The amount that Andrew, 61, will pay Ms. Giuffre is confidential, the parties said in a joint statement attached to the filing. Andrew also 'intends to make a substantial donation' to a charity 'in support of victims' rights,' the statement says. The deal comes just weeks before Andrew was scheduled to sit for a deposition, in which he would have been questioned under oath by Ms. Giuffre's lawyers. Andrew did not admit to any of Ms. Giuffre's accusations against him in the statement announcing the settlement." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Elahi Izadi & Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post: "A jury ruled against [link fixed] Sarah Palin in her libel case against the New York Times, one day after the judge said he would toss out her claim, saying she had not met the high legal standard required in libel cases involving public figures and journalists.The jury's decision conforms with the one made by U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff. On Monday, he told lawyers for Palin and the Times that he would formally dismiss the former Alaska governor's claim once the jury returned its verdict." A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) MB: It's heartening to read that a jury of ordinary people is able to understand how to apply the First Amendment.
Nomaan Merchant of the AP: "U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news website with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies. The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia.... In a response posted online Tuesday morning, the website said it 'has never worked, collaborated or cooperated with Russia, nor are there any links to spy agencies.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't know much about economics, but I have long been skeptical of Zero Hedge, tho certainly not because I suspected they were publishing Russian propaganda. Some Reality Chex readers have occasionally recommended opinion pieces they found on Zero Hedge, and I've left my response at "Uh-huh."
Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "CNN executive Allison Gollust has resigned following the conclusion of an investigation into the behavior of the network's former star anchor Chris Cuomo that led to his firing and the forced departure of President Jeff Zucker earlier this month. Her departure was announced Tuesday night in a memo to CNN employees from Jason Kilar, chief executive of parent company WarnerMedia, who said that interviews conducted for the investigation and 'a review of over 100,000 texts and emails' found violations of company policy by Gollust, CNN Worldwide's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, as well as Cuomo and Zucker &-- but did not specify what they were.... While being questioned as part of that investigation, Zucker and Gollust acknowledged that they had started a romantic relationship -- but had not properly disclosed it, a violation of WarnerMedia policies. Just before the memo was made public, the New York Times reported new details about a sexual misconduct claim that apparently hastened Cuomo's firing, though little information was made public about it in December." ~~~
~~~ Sex, Assault. Bad Judgment & CNN Big Shots. Emily Steel & other New York Times reporters decipher how Zucker, Gollast & Cuomo lost their CNN jobs. Oh, and besides bringing us President* Trump, Zucker also made a star of that reprobate Joe Rogan. Bear in mind that these disreputable characters are among the people who are ultimately responsible for what passes to the American public as news.
Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "A middle-aged, mixed-race woman is the third patient to be potentially cured of HIV, with the virus in long-term remission four years after she received a transplant of stem cells harvested from an infant's umbilical cord blood, scientists said Tuesday. The new case, reported at the annual meeting of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection, is the first time the transplant approach has been successfully reported in a mixed-race woman, an advance that reinforces the exciting concept that an HIV cure may be possible in a wider array of people by using cord blood."
Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "Sea levels along the coastal United States will rise by about a foot or more on average by 2050, government scientists said Tuesday, with the result that rising water now considered 'nuisance flooding' will become far more damaging. A report by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies also found that, at the current rate of warming, at least two feet of sea-level rise is expected by the end of the century."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.
Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The United States has recorded more than 1 million 'excess deaths' since the start of the pandemic, government mortality statistics show, a toll that exceeds the officially documented lethality of the coronavirus and captures the broad consequences of the health crisis that has entered its third year. The excess-deaths figure surpassed the milestone last week, reaching 1,023,916, according to Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. The center updates its estimate weekly. Although the vast majority of the excess deaths are due to the virus, the CDC mortality records also expose swollen numbers of deaths from heart disease, hypertension, dementia and other ailments across two years of pandemic misery."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Timothy Johnson of Media Matters: "Ben Marble, a medical doctor who recently spoke at a Capitol Hill event held by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), made a deranged appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' broadcast where he said the COVID-19 pandemic could be ended by killing several government officials and public figures and bombing the next meeting of the World Economic Forum. Marble said the following people deserve to die and that if he was the U.S. president he would have them killed: financier and philanthropist George Soros, World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, presidential medical adviser Anthony Fauci, and 'a few others.' Then saying that 'the job of soldiers during war is to arrest and/or kill the enemy,' Marble repeated the previous names, along with President Joe Biden's and Vice President Kamala Harris'."
Canada. Andy Blatchford of Politico: "Ottawa's police chief has resigned on day 19 of a trucker protest in the core of Canada's capital city. Since the start of the crisis, Peter Sloly and his department have come under fire from city councilors and Ottawa residents for failing to respond decisively to demonstrations that have attracted global attention.... The demonstrations have tormented local residents, who have started to push back with counter protests. Many have complained about their evaporating faith in Ottawa;s police force and in Canada's public institutions in general." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Organizng for Chaos. Sarah Nir & Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times: "... High above the clot of trucks on Ottawa's Parliament Hill, in hotel rooms just out of the fray, are the war rooms behind the operation. From them, a team of self-appointed leaders, some with military and right-wing organizing backgrounds, have orchestrated a disciplined and highly coordinated occupation. They have spent the weeks huddling in conference rooms and streaming their own news conferences on social media platforms from hotel lobbies. It is a crew that includes former law enforcement officers, military veterans and conservative organizers, a sometimes fractious collaboration that has nonetheless helped to coalesce a demonstration against vaccine mandates into a force that has destabilized the city and sent shock waves throughout Canada. And while the main blockade that had crippled trade and stalled commercial traffic for nearly a week at the main border crossing between Canada and the United States reopened this week, the protesters in Ottawa largely haven't budged." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe you think rich people are so well-educated & "together" that they would never support a bunch of unruly, misguided mothertruckers aiming to disrupt a foreign capital & important U.S. trade routes in the cause of protesting rules designed to mitigate a deadly virus. Think again, people! ~~~
~~~ Aaron Davis, et al., of the Washington Post: "Residents in wealthy enclaves across the United States -- from Beverly Hills, Calif., to suburbs of Austin, to Florida beach communities -- sent millions of dollars to support trucker convoys that occupied the Canadian capital and shut down commerce at key border crossings between the two nations, according to a Washington Post analysis of leaked fundraising data posted online over the past 48 hours. The richer an American community was, the more likely residents there were to donate, and the biggest number of contributions often came from communities where registered Republicans made up solid majorities...."
Beyond the Beltway
California. Gregory Krieg of CNN: "Three San Francisco School Board members were removed from their positions by voters on Tuesday, CNN projects, following a tough recall campaign that pitted Democrats against Democrats as interlocking controversies over school closings and renamings fueled a well-funded backlash. More than 70% of voters supported the recall of School Board President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison Collins as of Wednesday morning, according to preliminary results from the San Francisco Department of Elections. Their temporary replacements will be named by Mayor London Breed, a Democrat who in announcing her support for the recall last year said the city was at a 'crossroads' and called the board's priorities 'severely misplaced.'... The seeds of anger that led to the recall effort were planted early in the coronavirus pandemic, when the board considered changing the names of as many as 44 public schools in a city that was still grappling with how to safely reopen them."
Georgia. Murder Was of the Essence of the Scheme. Tariro Mzezewa & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Prosecutors in the hate crimes trial of Ahmaud Arbery's pursuers on Tuesday focused on showing the ways in which the government believes that the defendants' racism manifested itself on the day Mr. Arbery was murdered -- including the fact that they did not try to help him as he lay dying in the street.... In opening statements on Monday, Bobbi Bernstein, a Justice Department lawyer, told jurors about ugly and explicit expressions of racism the men had used at other times in their lives."
Kentucky. Andrew Wolfson of the Louisville Courier Journal: "A Louisville activist has been identified as a suspect in Monday's attempted shooting of mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. Quintez Brown, 21, was charged with attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment after Greenberg was shot at in his campaign headquarters Monday morning in Butchertown, LMPD spokeswoman Elizabeth Ruoff said late Monday. Brown, a civil rights activist, is a former intern and editorial columnist for The Courier Journal.... Brown was an MLK Scholar at [the University of Louisville] and is the founder of From Fields to Arena, a group committed to providing political education and violence prevention training to youths engaged in hip-hop and athletics.... He recently announced he would run for Metro Council in District 5." Related story linked below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
New York Congressional Race. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Rep. Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) said Tuesday that she would not seek reelection, becoming the 30th House Democrat to announce a planned exit from the chamber ahead of what could be bruising midterm elections for their party in November." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Ohio. Sex & the Ice Fisherman. Andrea Sacedo & Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "A debate about a local ban on ice fishing took a viral turn last week when an Ohio mayor wondered about long-term consequences. Opening Hudson Springs Lake to ice fishing sounds good 'on the surface,' Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert said at a Feb. 8 council meeting, but what if people wanted to fish out of shanties? 'Then that leads to another problem: prostitution,' he said. 'And now you've got the police chief and the police department involved.' Online derision followed. So did criticism from colleagues. Hudson City Councilwoman Nicole Kowalski said people were upset that Shubert 'continually embarrasses our town with wild claims.' On Monday, Shubert resigned."
Way Beyond
Honduras. A Former President in Shackles. Joan Suazo & Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: "Honduran authorities detained former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on Tuesday to potentially face extradition and drug charges in the United States, capping a spectacular downfall for one of Central America's most powerful men. Mr. Hernández, who led the country for eight years and stepped down less than a month ago, was escorted by security officers from his home, wearing a bulletproof vest and shackles that bound him hand and foot." MB: If only it could happen here.
News Ledes
CNN's liveblog of developments & results in the Olympics is here. The AP's live updates are here.
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Reader Comments (11)
Eejits, all
One of the hallmarks of confederate superstardom is the fact that smarts are completely unnecessary, and in fact, are detrimental to achieving that status.
You see, being a person of even average intelligence indicates an ability to refrain from saying stupid things, especially making claims that are 100% false on their face, easily debunked. But that gets in the way of being able to just make shit up on the fly to fit your mood.
Take screaming banshee Jeanine Pirro, barking mad Faux commentator. While attacking Justin Trudeau for having the temerity to deal with winger truckers who have been screwing with the economies of both the US and Canada, she yelped that he was dumb enough to talk to President Biden (Faux assholes never refer to him like that, he’s just “Biden”) about the situation.
“Biden? He refused to stop the looting and rioting and burning down businesses in the summer of 2020! Aieeeee!”
No, Jeanine. In the summer of 2020, Biden was a private citizen. Your hero, the Fat Fascist, was “in charge”, so to speak.
But let’s not let little things like facts get in the way of your daily
philippic.
And Trudeau is dumb.
Jesus, these people.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/jeanine-pirro-scolds-biden-for-not-stopping-riots-in-2020-when-he-wasnt-president-allowed-people-to-burn-down-businesses/
Have long had an interest in SF school politics both because I like the city and because my wife grew up there and graduated from one of its high schools....entry into which BTW was selective back in the day and is now about to become via lottery....
A few years back, before the Covid interregnum, I could see trouble on the political horizon when a petition from Color of Change appeared in my inbox.
I was dismayed by its appeal, supporting as it did the obliteration of a historically and artistically significant mural in George Washington High School for what seemed to me terminally shallow reasons, so I responded thusly...
I respectfully disagree with your petition, Ms. Villaluna, and would hope you would indulge me for a few moments while I explain why.
Though I have been pleased to sign many Color of Change petitions and support both the organization and most of its actions, I cannot do so this time around.
First of all, please understand that I am by no means a white nationalist and if as you say, it is white nationalists who wish to keep the mural in place, that alone tempts me to say, “Paint the sucker over and be done with it.”
But I will resist that temptation for the same reasons I objected to the SF School Board’s initial decision in in a comment I wrote to the NYTimes when I first read of the controversy.
I am a retired educator with a long interest in and some knowledge of American history and politics, and like all people I have my biases and predilections.
Three of those biases form the basis of my objection to destroying this relic from the 1930’s.
As I said, I have an interest in history and strongly believe that if we don’t know where we came from we have no hope of figuring out where we are going.
I am also a great fan of the Franklin Roosevelt presidency and what it accomplished for the American people, everything from the creation of social security to a massive expansion of our national parks and public lands to siding with labor against the heavy hand of unbridled capitalism, and so much more. Artistically and politically, the Victor Arnautoff mural represents that critical era in our history, which among many other things set the stage for the expansion of civil rights in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and it should be viewed in that context.
Finally, I believe in the power of education.
Taken together, those three factors inform my view of both the mural and the controversy that has erupted around it.
I’ll begin with a distinction. Just as children judge their parents, each generation makes judgments about the past. Was that act good or bad, praiseworthy or shameful? No doubt there is much of both in our history, but (my judgement) at the top of the shameful list is the way in which racism has stained and continues to discolor the American story. If we consider the European invaders' treatment of Blacks, American Indians and Hispanics, racism could be said to BE the American story.
Because of racism’s profound effect on both our past and present, it is vitally important that we distinguish between acknowledging the shameful parts of our past and celebrating them. The mural in question with its depiction of slaves and dead Indians is an acknowledgement (and today a stark—for some too stark—a reminder) of our imperfect past, not at all equivalent to Confederate statues celebrating “heros” who fought to preserve a social order that should be anathema to all civilized beings.
That difference is why I would preserve the mural and support removing most Confederate statues from public spaces.
Preservation or removal? Remembering or forgetting? Acknowledging or denying? We make these choice all the time, consciously or not, and It is my hope that we would make them deliberately and thoughtfully, using each as an occasion to teach and learn a little more about our past, our present and ourselves.
Considered that way, obliterating artwork that deliberately depicts and critiques our racist past would seem to teach all the wrong lessons, and this former teacher believes a school is the last place where such poor education should occur.
Thanks you for listening.
Nicely stated letter, Ken. Poor education walks both sides of the street.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/02/15/cnn-zucker-gollust-cuomo-investigation/. I screwed the boss; I wanted a better payout on my way-out. These people, as well as Ted Turner, are the definition of "media elite". The only time they land their airplanes in the fly-over states is when they hire someone else to ride a horse for them at their ranch. The fact that they are agnostic whether they advance Orange Turd, Faux, or JoeB should indicate mommy and daddy and schools were deficient in teaching values.
Note to Republicans: Neither Hillary nor Hunter are in
office, and neither one of them caused an insurrection
against our country. Also, neither of them ate or shredded
sensitive documents.
AK: So glad you took on the Jolly Judy Judge ––her comments almost made me upchuck my morning coffee drunk out of that nifty mug whose mug is plastered on front with fist raised.
Ken: your comments made my morning––beautifully executed and hope that your humane message got through–-at least to a few.
A word about Alex Wagner who stood in for Rachel last night. I've always been impressed with her but this is the first time I've seen her take over a whole program. I was most impressed and find her demeanor quite attractive. Word was out some time ago that Stephanie Rule was taking over William's spot and Marie was not pleased––-Alex would be perfect for that spot––-at that hour of the night we don't want an overblown "see how great I am" who takes over the whole hour––Williams, with his wit and low profile was just the kind of person to wish us good night with his segment "Last thing before we go"–––which was always something you could hang your hat on.
A few days ago I mentioned my friend's mugging. She has written up some thoughts about it that I think quite reflective and positive that may be of interest to some of you:
"Is there anything to be learned from my unpleasant experience? Here are some thoughts.
As I told my granddaughters, we cannot allow ourselves to be defined by our experiences; we must define ourselves in the context of those experiences. I hope that they will remember this when, inevitably, bad things happen to them.
Could I have better have protected myself? Some people have suggested that I now carry mace or pepper spray. I shall not carry either in the future since (a) there was absolutely no time or opportunity to use a spray and (b) the mugger was angry enough, on not finding anything to steal on my person, without being further enraged by a noxious spray.
People have told me that I should carry a cell phone when I go for walks. I don’t. If I had been carrying a cell phone, I would still have been mugged and would be down one cell phone. I have, however, ordered a dummy phone for $20 from Amazon and, when I remember, I shall carry it so that I will have something for muggers to run off with.
I am careful to walk in daylight along streets where there are people or traffic. Clearly, that made no difference to the mugger on Saturday. However, the volume of traffic on Whitney meant that a driver saw what was happening and immediately stopped. His passenger jumped out and scared the mugger away.
I have always assumed that I’d be mugged from behind. The mugger was coming in the opposite direction and starting his assault by blocking my path. I learned something!
What are my feelings about policing and defunding the police - they say that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged? No town has enough officers to patrol all the streets all the time. However, New Haven had sufficient police on duty on Saturday afternoon to track down and arrest the mugger. This is clearly very important for public safety so police need to be viewed in terms of enforcement as much as protection.
Will the sentence given the mugger act as a deterrent for others? Unlikely.
Will the mugger return to a life of crime? Probably.
Is there a place for social programs and non-police interventions (let’s assume that these are the programs that “Defund the Police” proponents want to see, with money from police budgets going towards these programs)? After having been mugged, I would still say “definitely.” But these programs will not provide instant relief from the current crime surge and we should not expect that. But I think it’s safe to say that without such programs, we can be absolutely sure that crime will get worse.
So, how has my mugging left me? It has made me acknowledge, as I do so often, that I belong to the privileged class who can take for granted that they will receive help and respectful treatment from the police (so no change here). It’s made me more empathetic towards women who have suffered real abuse and have to relive it every time their case moves one step forward. Surprisingly, it has not made me angry. My main thought about the perpetrator is that less than a minute of real stupidity on his part will have serious consequences that he never considered. Finally, if my mugging took one mugger off the streets for a bit, that’s a good thing. "
Although the subject of this report is obviously ill, and therefore it is not good to mock him, yet the story illustrates that vaccine deniers really have no grasp of the consequences of their actions. This guy tried to open the aircraft door IN FLIGHT so that others on board would video him and he could expound his views on vaccines to the resulting "News At 11" audience.
He thought that after he opened a pressurized cabin door he'd still be standing there to be filmed. Definite failure to grasp the concept.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/02/15/delta-passenger-emergency-door-vaccines-demarre/
Ken,
Well done, my friend. History is messy. There’s never a straight line from here to there, from then to now. By closing off certain avenues of investigation (or, as in this case, erasing the possibility of opening a conversation about the past), we hamper our ability for self-interrogation and growth.
As Kant once wrote, no straight thing was ever made from the crooked timber of humanity. The Arnautoff mural focuses on the crooked humanity that contributed to the building of the United States. Unlike statues of Confederate heroes, this mural doesn’t have as its goal, a sanitized hagiography. It makes clear the conflicts between the lofty philosophical leanings of the founders, who trumpeted equality and justice for all, with the difficulties of bringing such goals to fruition. Yes, equality was the stated goal, but some of the founders owned slaves. Genocide and rampant racism were inherent elements of the government they founded.
Interestingly, Arnautoff was Russian. Today, in Russia, Putin and his allies are working hard to erase the gory past of the murderous Stalinist period. The oldest human rights organization in Russia has been shuttered by a Putin controlled court. The reason sounds amazingly like the excuses used by the Putin-loving right in this country for outlawing the teaching of factual history because, in their view, it gives students “the wrong idea” about the past, makes them “hate their country” and causes unease and agitation.
Yeah. That’s often what unblemished factual depictions of history do.
I think we’re tough enough to put up with a little unease, especially if unsanitized knowledge of past mistakes helps prevent those same mistakes in the future. The right’s solution to past problems (pretending they never existed) guarantees that such problems (such as endemic racism and baked in white supremacy) will be repeated again and again.
Which is maybe the goal.
Covering up the Arnautoff mural helps push us all back down those same crooked paths.
Ken, thanks. You might consider sending it to the LA Times and/or the Chronicle. Living just North of SF, we also follow its politics, though not closely enough (Mendocino Co is tough enough). The droolers have misread the recall; the board was spending all of its energy on fluff like the mural - renaming schools (47!) and faux diversity issues while ignoring real stress imposed by the pandemic and the terrible social issues that plague this beautiful and fascinating city.
I think a modicum of temperance is the key to a viable political philosophy. For instance, in Ken's essay, we have these people who say. "I abhor the abomination of slavery." So far so good. "George Washington was a slaveowner, so I abhor Washington." That's okay, to a degree, but already it's necessary to layer in his redeeming qualities and weigh them against his unsavory qualities. "Therefore, I should destroy all portraits of Washington as they are representations of the abomination of slavery." Okay, over the line, especially in the case of the San Francisco mural, which seems to me is neutral on the matter of slavery (and on the murder of Native Americans). The viewer gets to see for herself what-all Washington was up to and decide how much, if at all, the good mitigates the bad.
Besides, there is the value of the depiction itself as a work of art or as an historical artifact. I don't have to believe in the Annunciation to appreciate Fra Angelico's painting. I think war is an abomination, but I'm not going to run around to museums smashing all the Greek vases with depictions of Greek warriors.
Those San Francisco board members just got carried with their political philosophy. They didn't know how to temper it with other considerations. When you carry your views to an extreme, excluding all else, you're bound to make a mistake in judgment.
I even think the Confederate statues, if they artistically any good, have a place. It's just that the place isn't on Richmond's Monument Avenue or any other site where the placement itself may invite reverence. Some European countries (especially in the Eastern bloc) have moved the statues of tyrants from prominent public spaces & relegated them to rather dismal, out-of-the-way public "parks" where the tyrants seem to be ranting to each other. That seems a sensible solution.