Wondering on Wednesday 4/21/21

Ready... Set... Wonder!

The wondering never really shuts off; it's always drip, drip, dripping, at the very least. Sometimes, it's more like an open floodgate; that's what it's felt like yesterday. Let the wondering begin, in no particular order.

• I wonder if the defense in the Derek Chauvin trial thought the jury would fall for the alternate causes of death that were offered? Or was all of that merely "mounting a defense" to ensure that Chauvin wouldn't be able to win an appeal based on poor representation?

• The prosecution's closing argument - in a nutshell, believe your own eyes and the eyes of the witnesses - made me wonder about the witnesses. How hard it must have been to relive the murder of George Floyd in open court, to be questioned about what you saw, to stay strong with the whole world watching. I wonder if they'll ever know how grateful we are?

• I wonder what Chauvin was thinking when he had his knee on George Floyd's neck, particularly what he was thinking as he held that look, the unflinching look we saw in the video. Was there ever an "oh, shit, what have I done?" moment, I wonder? 

• I wonder who's paying Chauvin's legal fees? Is it the same group of upstanding white folks, police officers and politicians who donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, I wonder?

• I wonder why the judge felt compelled to make the comment about Rep. Maxine Waters? I agree her comments were over the top, as usual, but grounds for an appeal?

• The law enforcement folks who testified for the prosecution did all of us a favor, lending credibility to the case that Chauvin's actions were not acceptable or sanctioned. I wonder, will their coming forward light a spark under others to do the same, voluntarily or otherwise? I wish it would happen voluntarily - and automatically, but that's likely too much to ask.

• On a related note, many of us have heard of private social media groups where LEOs have been known to share their racism and other sentiments freely among like-thinking members of their club. I wonder what the chatter is on those groups today? Are they having their own "oh shit" moment, or are they chalking up the guilty verdicts as an aberration, and still feeling safe? I hope it's the former, but I'm not holding my breath.

• I wonder if Project Veritas will ever try to infiltrate LEO social media groups or delve into the racism that we know is found there? Or is that not the kind of veritas they find interesting?

• Parts of Minneapolis, and other cities, too, became plywood jungles filled with National Guard troops as testimony ended last week, making them look more like hurricane-zone businesses than downtown urban centers. I don't wonder why they did - it made sense to me - but boy, I wonder if we'll ever be at a place where we don't have to be afraid of the verdict in a case like this? 

• Is justice something that can even be defined here, I wonder? Or should accountability be the expectation? What does justice even look like, for the Floyd family, for the witnesses, for the city of Minneapolis, for people of color generally? And what do these verdicts mean for police generally?

• I confess I couldn't convince myself that we'd hear guilty verdicts, and I know that does a disservice to the jurors, the witnesses, the prosecution... but I can't escape the thinking that this could have gone the other way, as happens so many times. And I wonder when - or if - I'll ever stop feeling that way. 

• The DOJ has announced a 'pattern or practice' investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department; it's going to run concurrently with the civil rights investigation into Chauvin's action that's already under way. The wondering here? This is a lot of federal firepower for one department and one former cop; how many more of these should be done? And how can they possibly do them all, in a timely manner?

• And how, I wonder, will there ever be enough cell phones to police the police? Because in the end, that's why Derek Chauvin was convicted. Just as, absent Chauvin's knee on his neck, George Floyd would not have died on the street next to a police vehicle last May, absent the witnesses, and their videos, this could easily have become just another case of the police deciding one of theirs did nothing wrong. 

Honestly, I haven't even scratched the surface. There's so much more to wonder about, mostly centered on the why and how of it all - why it happens, and how we fix it. I'll save that pile of wonderment for another time. Today, I'm thankful that the outcome was what it was, and that people across the country - black and white - could breathe easier for a moment.

What are you wondering about tonight?

TGIF 1/29/21

What do you think - should we focus on some good news tonight?

First, there's news on the case involving the most recent former president's taxes. A judge in New York has ordered more data to be turned over to the NY AG, Tish James, saying that "many of the communications (Trump's attorney) marked as privileged" weren't, and so the specific documents need to be turned over. If you're that former president, and you're confident there's nothing wrong with your taxes, you probably want to clear your name as soon as possible. If you're a detractor of him, you want the most information possible to be available in hopes it will do him harm. And if you're just a person who's looking to have all the crazy tax rules exposed (and perhaps changed, in the interest of fairness), you're probably happy, too. So, I guess this is good news all around - unless, of course, you're him and your taxes are not squeaky clean.

Sticking in the Empire State and with our AG, lots of people are talking about her report on nursing homes and COVID. Most folks are all gaga over the statement that COVID-related nursing home deaths were under-reported, perhaps by as much as 50%. That's an eye-catching number, for sure, but those 'excess deaths' were reported as hospital deaths, because that's where the patients died. The bigger issue, to me, that the report found fault with a number of nursing homes for how they were handling patients, infection control, and so on. Hitting the Sonofa Gov is great fun, for sure, but is he the real issue, or is patient care the real issue? Hopefully, people will understand it's the latter - that would be good news, for sure.

Sticking with COVID-related items, there were three other stories this week related to vaccines that had happy endings. In the first, vaccines were given to motorists stranded in a snowstorm in Oregon. There were only six doses available, but rather than let them expire while stuck on the highway, the health care workers went car to car to find folks who wanted one.  Said one recipient, "It is important for people to know how dedicated health professionals are to getting every single dose into people. My community should be so proud - I am."

The second COVID story also comes from the Pacific Northwest. It took only about two hours after a freezer alarm went off in a Seattle hospital signaling that vials of the Moderna vaccine needed to be used before they got too warm to get a vaccine clinic set up and get word out that folks could come on down. When all was said and done, over 1600 doses were administered, starting at 11PM. According to some reports, folks showed up in their PJs and bathrobes, they were that interested in getting the vaccine. Kudos to all involved in putting the plan together and saving the doses, and to the folks who made the trip and stood in line to get their jab. Some folks suggested that the same sense of urgency should be on display every day, and it should - but we should at least be happy that this worked as well as it did.

What else do we have?  Well, if you don't mind rampant, aggressive cursing, this Georgia resident going off on his fellow Georgians to get them to rise up against Marjorie Taylor Greene is encouraging. I repeat, this is NSFW and NSFC (children) and NSFP (parents) and maybe NSFHP (houseplants) but he's got a point. I hope people not only feel the same way as he does, but are going to act on their anger and rage and demand they get better representation. I also hope it doesn't take until the next election to get rid of her.

Oh, that third COVID story? It's a flat-out good news story, no question about that, and it comes to us from Minneapolis. Take a look. 

When COVID arrived last March, neighbors in the 4100 block of S. Colfax Avenue in Minneapolis stepped outside to sing together as a way to boost morale. Nearly 300 nights later, they're still singing. Every night at 6 p.m., "rain, shine or meteor shower, ..." they tackle Prince and Elvis, "Baby Shark" and "Let It Snow," "God Bless, America" and "This Land is Your Land." 

They've got a repertoire of over 200 songs, now. Back in the beginning, we saw lots of stories of this kind of thing, the clapping for health care workers, the solo musicians, the opera singers, even the balcony marathoner - but it's been a while since I've seen anything that shows this kind of dedication. 

Got some good news to share? Drop a comment. 

TGIF, everyone.

Wondering on Wednesday (v85)

Tonight, on this Wednesday, let's go wandering through a land of wonder.

In North Carolina, we no longer need to wonder the official price of legislative conviction; it's been determined: no college championship games for five years. Facing a looming deadline from the NCAA indicating that plans for college tourneys through 2022 were going to go through without any opportunity for Tar Heel State bids, a compromise that no one was happy with - not the folks who originally voted the law in, and not the the LGBTQ community - was reached, and the NCAA's deadline was met. A study by the AP estimated the economic loss to be at least $3.76B over a dozen years. Whether it was these two carrots, or the outrage of the masses, we may have to keep wondering.

What we don't have to wonder about, though, is the capacity for NC legislators to press on with restrictive legislation.  This bill, for example, would retaliate against athletic conferences that boycott North Carolina universities for the state's anti-LGBTQ 'orientation'. State universities such as North Carolina and NC State would be forced to leave their conferences at the end of their current media contract should any retaliation occur. Because nothing says "we don't tolerate retaliation like retaliation do" or something like that.

And there was this bill, which sought to defy the United States Supreme Court:

Marriages between persons of the same gender are not valid. The General Assembly of the State of North Carolina declares that the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision of the United States Supreme Court of 2015 is null and void in the State of North Carolina... Marriages, whether created by common law, contracted, or performed outside of North Carolina, between individual of the same gender are not valid in North Carolina.

The House Speaker advised the bill would not be heard, recognizing the law of the land supersedes the law of North Carolina. I wonder, how long will this Republican be in a leadership role? Is he the future, or is he just a temporary distraction from the rest of his party?

Let's move on to Texas, a state where there are virtually no laws too ridiculous when it comes to restricting legal abortions, or harassing women who wish to have them, You know, requiring clinics to meet all of the requirements of to have hallways wide enough to allow two hospital beds to pass unobstructed, when there are no hospital beds in clinics? Or the one that would have required fetal remains from miscarriages and abortions to be buried or cremated, which was blocked by a judge.

The good thing to come out of Texas is a bill that aims to punish unregulated 'self-pleasuring' (wink, wink).

The law, introduced last month and forwarded to the committee Tuesday, calls for civil penalty for unregulated masturbatory emissions that are outside of a woman's vagina (or) medical facility. Any man who does so faces a $100 fine because the act is considered an act against an unborn child and failing to preserve the sanctity of life.

The 'Men's Right to Know Act' as the bill is called, is a breath of fresh air - I applaud State Rep. Jessica Farrar, a Dem representing residents in Houston, for her creativity and legislative skill in drafting and keeping the bill moving. I wonder how the men on the legislature are taking this? Are they learning anything, or are the just sitting there while the womenfolk have their fun?

You know, like they're doing in Minnesota, where men will be men but they sure don't like being called out by women. Seems there was discussion around a provision a bill that would fine protesters for blocking highways, and the women of the Democrat - Farm - Labor (DFL) party, including women of color, spoke in opposition to the provision; one quoted an emotional letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr. that spoke of sometimes having

no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community.

Apparently, while the women were speaking, the men were in another room, playing cards - which did not sit well with Minority Leader Melissa Hortman, who called the wayward members back to the floor, noting

I hate to break up the 100% white male card game in the retiring room, but I think this is an important debate.

She went on to note that she was "really tired of watching women of color, in particular" being ignored by fellow legislators.  There was no wondering how the men felt, including the one who had submitted the offending legislation. He called for an apology; Hortman refused. She was asked the next day for an apology, and refused again, according to reports I've read.  After the bill passed, including the contested provision, there were even more calls for an apology from Hortman. Not only did she refuse, but then the chair of the DFL party called on the Republicans to apologize for their budget proposal.

I wonder, will other women in state legislatures learn from the Texas and Minnesota situations, and take advantage of their opportunities to protest legislatively, or procedurally, to make their voices heard? And will the 'new' Democratic National Committee begin offering support and encouragement for similar positions to be taken by others in the party, or their affiliates?  

I also wonder how long it will take for North Carolina to get some of these uppity women in their legislature?