The Commentariat -- April 20, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
From the New York Times' liveblog of the trial: "Derek Chauvin was found guilty of two counts of murder on Tuesday in the death of George Floyd, whose final breaths last May under the knee of Mr. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, were captured on video, setting off months of protests against the police abuse of Black people. After deliberating for about 10 hours over two days following an emotional trial that lasted three weeks, the jury found Mr. Chauvin, who is white, guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter for the killing of Mr. Floyd, a Black man, on a street corner last year on Memorial Day." ~~~
~~~ Marty Johnson of the Hill: "Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty on all charges in the murder trial of George Floyd, whose death led to months of demonstrations against police brutality last summer." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Chauvin Trial Verdicts. Count 1, unintentional 2nd-degree murder: guilty. Count 2, 3rd-degree murder, guilty. Count 3, 2nd-degree manslaugter, guilty. The judge polled the jury and sent them out; he will consult with them. Bail is revoked & defendant is remanded. Court adjourned.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "The United States has come a long way since Covid-19 vaccines first arrived at hospitals and long-term care facilities in December. More than 209 million doses have been administered. But the next phase of the rollout will bring new challenges, and some scientists and health officials worry that some of the most vulnerable people -- including those 65 and older -- may have trouble competing for a shot now that all adults are eligible for inoculation.... As it stands, older adults are the most vaccinated age group in the country. Yet about a fifth of those 65 and older, a group that is particularly vulnerable to serious complications and death from the virus, have not received even one shot." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "The coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a 'dramatic deterioration' in people's access to information around the globe, helping governments block news coverage and criminalizing reports critical of authorities' response to the crisis, Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday.... Some of the most egregious moves to silence journalists reporting on the pandemic took place in Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Venezuela and Zimbabwe, the group said."
** Thanks, Supremes! Battle of the Billionaires. Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "A dozen megadonors and their spouses contributed a combined $3.4 billion to federal candidates and political groups since 2009, accounting for nearly one out of every 13 dollars raised, according to a new report. The report, produced by Issue One, a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce the influence of money in politics, shows the top 12 donors split equally between six Democrats and six Republicans. The list includes multiple Wall Street billionaires and investors, a Facebook co-founder, a shipping magnate and the heir to a family fortune dating back to the Gilded Age. The study quantifies the intensifying concentration and increasing role of the super rich in American politics following the loosening of restrictions on political spending by the U.S. Supreme Court more than a decade ago."
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Steven Weisman of the New York Times: "Walter F. Mondale, the former vice president and champion of liberal politics, activist government and civil rights who ran as the Democratic candidate for president in 1984, losing to President Ronald Reagan in a landslide, died on Monday at his home in Minneapolis. He was 93.... A son of a minister of modest means, Fritz Mondale, as he was widely known, led a rich public life that began in Minnesota under the tutelage of his state's progressive pathfinder, Hubert H. Humphrey. He achieved his own historic firsts, especially with his selection of Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York as his running mate in 1984, the first woman to seek the vice presidency on a major national ticket." Politico's obituary is here. The Washington Post's obituary of Vice President Mondale is here. ~~~
~~~ Walter Mears & Kathleen Hennessey of the AP: "In the last days of his life, former Vice President Walter Mondale received a steady stream of phone calls of appreciation. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris all called to say goodbye and thank you.... Well after his bruising loss, Mondale remained a revered liberal elder -- with a list of accomplishments that are still relevant today. As a young senator, he co-wrote the Fair Housing Act of 1968, a pillar of federal civil rights legislation. He later engineered a 1975 bipartisan deal that ended the two-thirds rule for stopping filibusters, so that 60 senators instead of 67 could cut off debate. Under President Jimmy Carter, he became the first vice president with a day job, as adviser to the president, not just a bystander. He called it the 'executivization' of the vice presidency. And as a Democratic presidential nominee, he chose the first female nominee for vice president from a major party." ~~~
~~~ The statement of President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden is here. ~~~
~~~ Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Walter F. Mondale, who died Monday at the age of 93, will be remembered for many achievements during his nearly four decades of public service in Minnesota, on Capitol Hill, in the White House and as U.S. ambassador to Japan. But his most enduring contribution may well have been the invention of the modern vice presidency, and his creation of a template that has been followed to some degree ever since. Mondale's activist model as an all-purpose adviser and troubleshooter is one for which President Biden, a former vice president, and Kamala D. Harris, the current occupant of the office, should be grateful. Before Mondale, the vice president was largely a figurehead. When Dwight D. Eisenhower was asked to name a meaningful contribution Richard M. Nixon had made to his administration, he said -- jokingly, he would later contend -- that 'if you give me a week, I might think of one.' During John F. Kennedy's time in office, his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, bristled under the slights and contempt he felt from Kennedy's Ivy League circle. After Kennedy's 1963 assassination, Johnson himself went without a vice president for nearly 14 months."
Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said on Monday that the Justice Department was pouring resources into its effort to stop domestic violent extremists and that those who attacked the United States would be brought to justice, in a speech commemorating the 26th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. As a young Justice Department official, Mr. Garland led the investigation into the 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the worst domestic terror attack in American history. Timothy J McVeigh, an Army veteran who hoped to use violence to spark an anti-government revolution, was ultimately convicted of using a massive truck bomb to destroy the federal building and kill 168 people, including 19 children. 'Although many years have passed, the terror perpetrated by people like Timothy McVeigh is still with us,' Mr. Garland said." A USA Today story is here.
Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The State Department said Monday that the U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, will now be returning to the United States this week before returning to Moscow 'in the coming weeks.'... The statement, from a State Department spokesperson, comes just hours after Axios reported that Sullivan had indicated he intended to stand his ground and stay in Russia after the Kremlin 'advised' him to return home to talk with his team. The Russians did not forcibly expel Sullivan as they did with 10 other U.S. diplomats in retaliation for President Biden's sanctions last week. 'Ambassador Sullivan will be returning to the U.S. this week to visit his family and meet with members of the new administration with whom he has not had a chance to consult since he agreed to continue serving in his post indefinitely,' a State Department spokesperson told Axios Monday night."
Peter Hermann & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes a day after he confronted rioters at the Jan. 6 insurrection, the District's chief medical examiner has ruled. The ruling, released Monday, will make it difficult for prosecutors to pursue homicide charges in the officer's death. Two men are accused of assaulting Sicknick by spraying a powerful chemical irritant at him during the siege, but prosecutors have not tied that exposure to Sicknick's death. In an interview with The Washington Post, Francisco J. Diaz, the medical examiner, said the autopsy found no evidence the 42-year-old officer suffered an allergic reaction to chemical irritants, which Diaz said would have caused Sicknick’s throat to quickly seize. Diaz also said there was no evidence of internal or external injuries. Diaz said Sicknick suffered two strokes at the base of the brain stem caused by a clot in an artery that supplies blood to that area of the body." The AP's story is here.
Benjamin Din of Politico: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Monday that he would introduce a resolution to censure Rep. Maxine Waters for comments she made over the weekend in Minnesota that Republican lawmakers said stoked further violence. 'This weekend in Minnesota, Maxine Waters broke the law by violating curfew and then incited violence,' he said on Twitter. 'Speaker Pelosi is ignoring Waters' behavior -- that's why I am introducing a resolution to censure Rep. Waters for these dangerous comments.' His tweet came hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to Waters' defense on Monday, saying that Waters did not need to apologize for her comments. When asked whether Waters (D-Calif.) incited violence with her comments, Pelosi told a reporter, 'No, absolutely not.'" ~~~
~~~ Gerren Gaynor of the Grio: "In an ... interview with theGrio, [Rep. Maxine] Waters dismissed suggestions that she was encouraging violence. 'I am nonviolent,' she said. The congresswoman said attempts to characterize her words and suggest otherwise is nothing more than a political tactic by the GOP.... Further clarifying her comments on being 'confrontational,' the California congresswoman said 'I talk about confronting the justice system, confronting the policing that's going on, I'm talking about speaking up. I'm talking about legislation. I'm talking about elected officials doing what needs to be done to control their budgets and to pass legislation.'"
Annie Grayer & Kristin Wilson of CNN: "Republican Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio announced Monday on Twitter that he is leaving Congress next month to become the president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, giving the GOP at least temporarily one fewer vote in the narrowly divided House of Representatives." (Also linked yesterday.)
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Supreme Court on Monday to open a window on the government's secretive system for approving national security surveillance on U.S. soil. Transparency advocates petitioned the high court to review whether the public has a right to access the decisions of a largely secret federal surveillance court, whose growing reach and brushes with political controversy have drawn increasing attention -- and contrasting opinions about public access within the court itself. The filing comes after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) and an associated review panel issued rulings in September and October saying they lacked authority even to consider a public claim under the First Amendment to their secret decisions and lawmaking." An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Foreign-based actors, principally in China and Russia, are spreading online disinformation rooted in QAnon conspiracy theories, fueling a movement that has become a mounting domestic terrorism threat, according to new analysis of online propaganda by a security firm. The analysis by the Soufan Center, a New York-based research firm focused on national security threats, found that nearly one-fifth of 166,820 QAnon-related Facebook posts between January 2020 and the end of February 2021 originated from overseas administrators.... The report injects a new element into the debate about how to counter QAnon -- a bizarre but increasingly widespread conspiracy movement that has pushed the idea that the U.S. government is secretly run by Satan worshipers involved in a global sex trafficking ring."
Do as I Say, Not as I Do. Nathaniel Meyersohn of CNN: Despite asking his supporters to boycott Coca Cola products, Donald Trump is still drinking Diet Coke and his resorts & Trump hotels are still serving Coke products. "A CNN reporter on April 8 enjoyed a Diet Coke at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C.... The soda cost $9.00, but a friendly and professional waiter did offer two free refills of the drink...."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: "All adults in the United States are now eligible for a coronavirus vaccine -- and President Biden marked the milestone with a video urging Americans to get their shots. 'Folks, I have good news,' Biden said in a White House clip. 'Everybody is eligible, as of today, to get the vaccine. We have enough of it; you need to be protected, and you need, in turn, to protect your neighbors and your family. So please, get the vaccine.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Greg Allen of NPR: "Florida's governor has signed a law that he called the 'strongest anti-rioting, pro-law enforcement measure in the country.' The law was written in response to protests around the country following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. It provides new protections for police and increases the penalties for people who take part in property damage or violence during protests. Florida experienced little of the violence seen elsewhere in the country last summer following Floyd's death.... The law increases penalties for protesters who block roadways or deface public monuments. It creates a new crime, 'mob intimidation.' And it requires that anyone arrested at a protest be denied bail until their first court appearance, likely making for overnight jail stays.... Civil rights and social justice groups said it's an unconstitutional attack on free speech."
Indiana. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "The senior county prosecutor in Indianapolis said on Monday that his office never sought to invoke a law that could have prevented Brandon Hole from buying two firearms before he shot and killed eight people last week at a FedEx packaging warehouse. In a news conference, Ryan Mears, the prosecutor for Marion County, said his office had decided not to use Indiana's so-called red flag law last year, even though Mr. Hole's mother's warnings about her son's mental instability had prompted the police to seize a shotgun from him. The tight deadlines and constraints on evidence gathering built into the state's 16-year-old statute gave prosecutors too little time to make a convincing case to a judge, Mr. Mears said, adding that losing in court could have backfired. 'If we move forward with that proceeding, and we lose, guess what happens: that firearm goes right back to that person,' he said. 'We weren't willing to take that.'" An AP story is here.
Minnesota. Shaila Dewan, et al., of the New York Times: "The two sides in one of the nation's most closely watched police brutality trials returned one last time to the graphic video of George Floyd's final moments on Monday, with the prosecution asking jurors to 'believe your eyes' and the defense warning them not to be 'misled' by a freeze-frame view. After 14 days of testimony from policing experts, medical doctors, members of the Minneapolis Police Department and bystanders, lawyers made their closing arguments, urging the jurors to use common sense as the case was placed in their hands. The prosecution focused on the nine minutes and 29 seconds that Derek Chauvin, the white police officer charged with murder, kept his knee on the neck of Mr. Floyd, a handcuffed Black man, on a Minneapolis street last Memorial Day.... In a lengthy rebuttal, the defense emphasized the 17 minutes leading up to that time -- suggesting that Mr. Floyd had taken illicit drugs and had actively resisted when several officers tried to get him into a squad car. Mr. Chauvin's lawyer, Eric J. Nelson, repeatedly told jurors to look at the 'totality of the circumstances.'" The AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Tim Sullivan of the AP: "More than 3,000 National Guard soldiers, along with police officers, state police, sheriffs deputies and other law enforcement personnel have flooded [Minneapolis] in recent days, with a verdict looming in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer charged with murder in the death last year of George Floyd.... Concrete barriers, chain-link fences and barbed wire now ring parts of downtown Minneapolis so that authorities can quickly close off the courthouse where the trial is being held. It's become normal in recent days to pass convoys of desert-tan military vehicles on nearby highways, and stumble across armed men and women standing guard."
New York. Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "The New York State attorney general has opened an investigation into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's use of state resources as he wrote and promoted his recent pandemic memoir, the latest inquiry to engulf the embattled three-term Democrat. The investigation followed disclosures that junior staff members and senior aides worked on Mr. Cuomo's book..., including editing early drafts, sitting in on pitch meetings, and menial tasks like printing and delivering manuscript pages to the governor's mansion. Mr. Cuomo has insisted that any work done by government employees on the book -- which garnered a seven-figure advance -- was voluntary, allowing that some minor work may have been 'incidental.'"
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Reader Comments (7)
In this one, two smart boys make a clear distinction between the baby and the bathwater.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/19/cornel-west-howard-classics/
Would that libs everywhere would be so acute.
@Ken Winkes: I don't often find myself agreeing with Cornel West's public remarks, but here I do. This is the crux of it: "The removal of the classics is a sign that we, as a culture, have embraced from the youngest age utilitarian schooling at the expense of soul-forming education." In Europe, to a large extent, businesses choose employees based on the applicants' classical educations and not on their technical learning. And when you think about it, that makes sense even from a practical POV. Most people can't point back to much they learned in technical college classes as being useful in their jobs. I've even heard some business managers say that new college-grad employees or interns spend most of their first years on the job "unlearning" what they were taught in related -- but useless or outdated -- college classes. I assume this is less true in more "intellectual" academic pursuits, like quantum physics (whatever that is) where the Ph.D. candidate goes directly from student to employee, sometimes in the same institution.
BTW, I looked up images of Jeremy Tate, and to me he looks more like a White guy than a Black guy (tho who am I to judge?). But I'm guessing Cornel West would not appreciate your referring to him as a "boy."
Marie,
Thanks.
The "boys" reference was unintentionally thoughtless.... but I repeat myself.
As noted in the classics article referenced above, "traditions are inescapable and unavoidable". This is absolutely central to a well running and well run society. The Orange Turd and Turd acolytes burn down traditions and use chaos as their change agent. The classics can be used and have been used as an adjunct to religion to becoming more well rounded and better people. All the stuff about the Eurocentrism of the classics is true. Yet, see baby with the bathwater. I see lots of folks doing bad actions in the name of religion. One unifier of civilizations is shared references; the classics are one of those references. Now is not the time to diminish in number our shared references.
" ... Education is the normal development of the powers that lie in man’s nature, and is not to be confounded with instruction, which merely furnishes the means and appliances of education. It is your merely ‘instructed’ man that often amazes you by a want of comprehensive power, not your really ‘educated’ man; and when teachers of physical science complain that untaught minds grasp the propositions and sequences of inductive reasoning more readily and firmly than those which have been ‘educated’ in classical learning, they confound accumulation with appropriation. ... "
------------------- Basil Gildersleeve, c. 1900
https://classicallatin.org/exordium/education-vs-instruction/
So a hundred years ago, the classicists were arguing for the absolute necessity of learning Greek and Latin to be truly educated. Good luck with that, these days.
And note, educators then thought of educating "men", not "people."
Metere quod seminas.
More pith from education skeptics, many of the quips long among my favorites:
https://medium.com/the-mission/what-einstein-twain-forty-eight-others-said-about-school-f3cadec1b27b
Of course, I blithely ignored all that wisdom and for many years happily took government money ruining young minds.
BTW, back in the day when my best high school teacher was my Latin teacher, I was told that learning Latin "trained the mind."
Turned out that was bogus, too.
During forty years in basic science, I found the most creative and productive colleagues were more likely to discuss writers and composers after hours than they were to discuss chemistry and biology. Our two daughters wanted nothing to do with STEM: The elder 2x majored in history and anthropology at a U of Wisconsin, now a software manager for Kronos, a major workforce management company. The younger 2x majored in Spanish and Journalism at the U of MN, now the CIO of a major Twin Cities non-profit administrative services provider. Each rose from the bottom because of written and oral communication skills. Tech skills are much easier to learn.