In Case You Missed It (v99)

What was shaking at veritable pastiche last week? Here's your recap. 

The week started with It Happened Again, a post referencing the Amadou Diallo murder from the 90s, American Skin (41 Shots), the Bruce Springsteen song inspired by it, and the Jayland Walker murder from last month. 

There were 46 entrance wounds on his 25-year-old body: 

• 17 on his pelvis and upper legs, injuring major arteries to his leg and bladder; his pelvis and both femurs were broken.
• 15 on his torso, injuring his heart, lungs, liver, spleen, left kidney, intestines, and multiple ribs.
• 8 on his arms and right hand.
• 5 on his knees, his leg, and his foot
• 1 on his face, breaking his jaw.

Adding insult to those injuries? He was handcuffed after he was murdered. 

Is it a gun, is it a knife

Is it a wallet, this is your life

It ain't no secret (it ain't no secret)

It ain't no secret (it ain't no secret)

No secret my friend

You can get killed just for living in your American skin.

It happened again - and I don't know that I will ever understand why. 

In your Sunday School lesson, we were back in CNN's State of the Union classroom. Host Dana Bash talked with outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) about the Republican Governors Association.

Ducey talked about how the RGA works and how it works to "keep our states red ...but we don't support lost causes." Bash honed in Doug Mastriano in PA, wondering if he was a "lost cause."  Ducey said no decisions have been made yet given it's still early. 

When Bash asked if someone like Mastriano "should be in such an important swing state in the governor's mansion," Ducey said 

I also think this election should be about the future. I don't think we should think for one more moment about 2020. This is about the 2022 election cycle. And, as I said, the job of the RGA is to elect Republican governors, and that's what we're going to do in this cycle.

For your Extra Credit, it was Bash's conversation with Jared Bernstein, a long-time Biden economic advisor, that had left me scratching my head. Bernstein had to explain a couple of things to Bash that, in my opinion, should have been obvious.

...if we're going to talk about the damage that these high energy prices are having on family budgets, I think we have to talk about the benefits for when those prices come down a little.

And, he also had to explain, 

...the president is unequivocal by not calling 'mission accomplished' on any of this. We're talking about a decline that's completely insufficient when it comes to delivering the relief to family budgets that they need. So, that's why he continues to push on every aspect he can of this issue in terms of increasing the supply of global energy to help mitigate that price increase.

And then, a lightbulb: Bash said, "And you're right. The prices have come down, which is a good thing. It's better than them going the other way." BINGO! 

Compared to others in the administration, Bernstein is a breath of fresh air.

Also on Tuesday, I posted Part Three of our Future Tale. Parts One and Two were recapped, which explained why our narrator was in a really weird alley, and found

A revolving door. 

A revolving door? It was so completely out of place, I almost laughed out loud, but caught myself at the last second. Laughing seemed as out of place as the door, after what I had just been through, what I had yet to fully process. Heck, who am I kidding? I hadn't even begun to process what had happened behind me in the alley; I didn't even know where to start, but I knew laughing wasn't it.

I stopped a few feet away from the door, all glass and brass, ornate like the doors you find in classy old hotels, and simultaneously filthy like you find in abandoned ones. I half expected there to be a bellman in the vestibule, but this wasn't a hotel, there wasn't a vestibule. I'm in an alley for Pete's sake, I told myself, not in some old movie. 

My husband, trying to piece things together, said it made more sense when I explained it was part nightmare, part dream, part The Thoughts That Fly Around My Head When I Should Be Sleeping. I'll have more of the story for you later. 

For your Wondering on Wednesday, I was musing about another of those things I'll never understand: the stupidity of the Democrats.

Speaking of listening, I can't help wondering who on earth the Dems are listening to, that they think the answer to winning elections this year is to prop up Trumpers in their GOP primaries? The most recent example comes from yesterday's gubernatorial primary in Maryland, where Trump-endorsed Dan Cox beat actual Republican Kelly Schulz, who was endorsed by her former boss, Gov. Larry Hogan. 

The Democratic Governors Association - a bunch of goofballs, it would seem - spent over a million bucks propping up Cox, thinking he'd be easier to beat in the general election. 

And, of course, Cox is not the only one. They're also propping up Kari Lake, the goofball running to replace Ducey in Arizona. I swear you can't make this stuff up. 

For #tbt, I revisited this one: Ronald Reagan for President? It started when I, a lifelong registered Democrat (at that time, I was - not anymore) got a call from a survey asking "loyal conservatives" who they wanted for president. Deciding to play along, at least for a while, I asked who the choices were, and the caller told me it was an open question but gave me several of the leading responses, including Ronald Reagan, who passed away in 1989.

Excited that I had such great options, I responded emphatically "Ronald Reagan!" The woman answered, with a chuckle, "Yes, he seems to be a popular choice."  

A dead man is a popular choice to lead the Conservatives forward in their mission to take back America? Really? A dead man? 

I pointed out that it seemed that a dead man (even a dead former president) being a top mention as a 'leader' of the Conservative movement said either quite a bit about their message, quite a bit about loyal local Conservatives, or both. 

Mostly I think it says a lot about the state of affairs in America today. 

I had fun with this one, and so did the caller - and yes, I did confess my Dem status to her.

Friday brought a Quick Take on the bizarre doings at the Federal Election Commission, in particular a hissy fit about a question Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) asked. The FEC is a mess -for one thing, it's equally divided between Ds and Rs, on purpose. For another, there seems to be a commissioner who's a bit judgmental, which led to a Twitter spat.

After the meeting a fellow commish, Ellen Weintraub, tweeted about Trainor's comment, saying in part 

I have never seen a requestor treated so disrespectfully by a member of this Commission. We do not 'pass judgment' on the personal lives of those who come before us asking for guidance.

And, because #thisisus, Trainor responded, misspelling Swalwell's name in the process. 

I've never seen campaign donors treated so disrespectfully! The Republic will persevere even if Swallwell (sic) doesn't get all the junkets he'd like.

To help Trainor our, I was more than happy to share some egregious examples of "campaign donors treated so disrespectfully!" from right here in my own backyard. I'll have more on the FEC for you coming up this week. 

We closed things out with an all good-week  TGIF. The post included a variety of folks involved in some with with the Trump insurrection, including the January 6th Committee's vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY).

Her closing remarks at the end of last night's hearing? I don't think I'd change a single word. There were many quotable parts, certainly; here are a couple of the most meaningful. 

Here is the worst part. Donald Trump knows that millions of Americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation were it threatened. They would put their lives and their freedom at stake to protect her. And he is preying on their patriotism. He is preying on their sense of justice. And on January 6th, Donald Trump turned their love of country into a weapon against our Capitol and our Constitution. 

Off the top of my head, I don't know if any Republican could have handled it better. Neither could more Dems, truth be told.

See you back here later for Sunday School.

The Update Desk: TGIF 6/4/21

In my TGIF entry for June 4th, I mentioned the Memorial Day celebration in Hudson, OH. 

Hudson is where a decorated veteran's remarks during the town's Memorial Day celebration were partially silenced by event organizers, and I compared the flap over a tweet sent by VP Kamala Harris two days before Memorial Day to what happened in Hudson on Memorial Day.

The same people, plus many others, aren't making a peep about this story, reported by the AP. 

Organizers of a Memorial Day ceremony turned off a speaker's microphone when the former US Army officer began talking about how freed Black slaves had honored fallen soldiers soon after the Civil War. 

That's right - when Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter (Ret.) decided to include that part in his speech, he did so because "he wanted to share the history of how Memorial Day originated." Sadly, the folks who organized the Ohio celebration Kemter spoke at, said "that part of the speech was not relevant to the program's theme of honoring the city's veterans."  Pretty easy to see who the good week guy is, and who they aren't, right? 

A quick review of news at the Update Desk show there has been significant fallout since then. According to Fox 8 News in Cleveland, the local American Legion, which sponsored the remembrance, is being suspended until it's officially closed, and at least two people have resigned.

Suzette Heller, Department Adjutant with the American Legion Department of Ohio, confirmed to the I-Team Friday that the one official involved in the event informed her he was resigning and that the Post is closing.  She added the commander of that Post is also resigning.

The resignations come less than 24 hours after the officials with the American Legion Department of Ohio started investigating Monday’s Memorial Day event.

American Legion of Ohio Commander Roger Friend on Thursday requested the resignation of two officers of Hudson American Legion Post 464 that organized the event. 

Friend also stated in a letter asking for the resignations that a full investigation and the charter of this post are pending with the Department Executive Board. 

The station also reported that the sound engineer refused to lower the volume on the mic, so one of the organizers did it. 

The organizers issued a statement, noting

It appeared that Mr. Kemter was making a distinction between Black soldiers and their families and white soldiers and their families before Memorial Day was created.

I'll note that even calling him 'Mr. Kemter' seems to be a slight, given that he's a retired Lt. Colonel, but maybe that's just me.

Not being sure of what racially charged comments the speaker might make, the volume was reduced on the microphone. The microphone volume was restored when he returned to the issue of remembering the men & women who have given their lives in defense of our great country. It was an attempt to avoid racial speech in a ceremony planned to honor our town’s fallen heroes. The speaker was not asked to stop. He gave his entire speech. While we acknowledge that the contributions of Black men and women in the military are often overlooked, the purpose of the 2021 Memorial Day Ceremony was to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and not to bring race into the discussion. We recognize the sacrifice of all men and women, regardless of the color of their skin.

It's interesting that the organizers suggest they didn't know what Kemter was going to say; after all, early reporting on the incident noted his speech was reviewed in advance and, while edits were suggested, Kemter didn't see the request in time to make changes.

You can read Lt. Col. Kemter's entire speech here. I've copied the renegade portion below. 

Today is Memorial Day. This is the day that we pay homage to all those who served in the military and didn’t come home. This is not Veterans Day, it’s not a celebration, it is a day of solemn contemplation over the cost of our freedom.  

Memorial Day was born out of necessity. After the American Civil War, a battered United States was faced with the task of burying and honoring the 600,000 to 800,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who had died in the single bloodiest military conflict in American history. The first national commemoration of Memorial Day was held in Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1868, where both Union and Confederate soldiers were buried.

Several towns and cities across America claim to have observed their own earlier versions of Memorial Day or “Decoration Day” as early as 1866. (The earlier name is derived from the fact that decorating graves was and remains a central activity of Memorial Day.) But it wasn’t until a remarkable discovery in a dusty Harvard University archive the late 1990s that historians learned about a Memorial Day commemoration organized by a group of freed black slaves less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865.

But in recent years the origins of how and where Decoration Day began has sparked lively debate among historians, with some, including Yale historian David Blight, asserting the holiday is rooted in a moving ceremony held by freed slaves on May 1, 1865, at the tattered remnants of a Confederate prison camp at Charleston’s Washington Race Course and Jockey Club – today known as Hampton Park. The ceremony is believed to have included a parade of as many as 10,000 people, including 3,000 black schoolchildren singing the Union marching song “John Brown’s Body” while carrying armfuls of flowers to decorate the graves.

More importantly than whether Charleston’s Decoration Day was the first, is the attention Charleston’s black community paid to the nearly 260 Union troops who died at the site. For two weeks prior to the ceremony, former slaves and black workmen exhumed the soldiers’ remains from a hastily dug mass grave behind the race track’s grandstand and gave each soldier a proper burial. They also constructed a fence to protect the site with an archway at the entrance that read “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

The dead prisoners of war at the race track must have seemed especially worthy of honor to the former slaves. Just as the former slaves had, the dead prisoners had suffered imprisonment and mistreatment while held captive by white southerners.

Not surprisingly, many white southerners who had supported the Confederacy, including a large swath of white Charlestonians, did not feel compelled to spend a day decorating the graves of their former enemies. It was often the African American southerners who perpetuated the holiday in the years immediately following the Civil War.

African Americans across the South clearly helped shape the ceremony in its early years. Without African Americans the ceremonies would have had far fewer in attendance in many areas, thus making the holiday less significant.

My generation grew up listening to the famous radio personality Paul Harvey. Paul would say at the end of his broadcast, “And now you know the rest of the story." And now, you know the rest of the story about the origin of Memorial Day.

After the offending segment, Lt. Col. Kemter spoke about taking the oath when he joined the military; he called for recognition of Hudson's fallen, many of whom he knew; and he recited a poem about soldiers. All in all, it seems his remarks were more than appropriate, and more than worth telling.

It's unfortunate that people - worse, that American Legion members, for Pete's sake -decided to muzzle him in the first place.

Poll Watch: #BLM, Race Relations and More

A few days back, in a post on recent polling, I promised I'd share some data on the #BlackLivesMatter movement, racism, and related topics. 

In this post, we'll look at outcomes from an in-depth survey of 9,654 U.S. adults conducted June 4-10, 2020, using the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, in conjunction with the Center’s American News Pathways project. This survey clearly shows both a racial and partisan divide in how people see things in the country.

Support for the Black Lives Matter movement
Overall, at the time of the survey, the Black Lives Matter movement had pretty solid support across the board. Roughly two-thirds of all adults (67%) support it, with 38% expressing strong support.

Blacks (86% total, 71% strongly), Hispanics (77%/42%) and Asians (75%/39%) offer more support than whites (60%/31%). And even a plurality (40%) of Republicans and those leaning Republican support the movement, although only 10% offer strong support.  

Looking at just white adults, support among the Republicans/leaning R falls to 37%, with 7% strongly supporting the movement, compared to 92% of Democrats/leaning D overall supporting BLM, 62% strongly.

The president's Handling of Race Relations
The disparity between Republicans and Democrats is stark here, with 38%, 67%, and 24% swings on how the president's actions have impacted race relations; the Rs are much more positive on the president's efforts than the Ds.

Also interesting here? The fact that, compared to blacks and Asians, Hispanics are less likely to say the president has made race relations worse, and are more inclined to say that at least he's trying to make progress.

Black Lives Matter Protest/Rallies
For this question, respondents were asked to say whether the options presented were contributing factors to the Black Lives Matter protests and rallies. Political affiliation seems to have a strong influence here as well, particularly on the 'criminal behavior' question, where there's a 43-point difference.

Race or Ethnicity-based Experiences
Respondents were asked to say whether they had any of several experiences because of their race or ethnicity. Not surprisingly, blacks were more likely to experience these things than whites, Hispanics, or Asians.

The relatively high percentage of Asians being subjected to jokes and slurs and fearing for their safety bears out the info we've seen correlating the president's racist rhetoric about China and the coronavirus and acts of hate towards Asians, including the first responders who are saving lives, or trying to, each and every day during the pandemic.

The relatively high percentage of whites - nearly a third - who say they've been the victim of slurs and jokes is surprising, as is the 9% reporting they were unfairly stopped by law enforcement simply for being white.

And, finally, among black adults, 64% of men and 32% of women say they've been stopped by the police simply because they are black. No other race comes close.

Helping Blacks Achieve Racial Equality
This last section is very interesting; it looks at various methods that could be used to drive change and bring about racial equality for blacks.

Overall, most Americans believe that each of the options presented - working directly with blacks in their communities (82%), bring together people of different racial backgrounds to talk about race (74%), working to get more blacks elected of office (68%) and even organizing protests and rallies (55%) - are effective tools.

As shown below, smaller numbers believe that these methods would be very effective. As we've seen in the other segments of the surveys, there's a divide between Republicans and Democrats; most notably, opinions differ widely on the effectiveness of getting more blacks in office.

Most notable is the difference in thinking on getting more blacks in office. In fact, only 10% of Republicans think that would be very effective, only 1% higher than the number thinking that organizing protests and rallies would be. Not only that, but 49% of Republicans and those leaning Republican think that getting more blacks elected to office would be not too effective, or not effective at all.

Is that because they think it won't matter, because they'll be such a small minority and not able to have an impact?

Or, maybe because they like things the way are now? You know:  there are only three black senators - Dems Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, and Rep Tim Scott, and there have only been seven others before them in history. And, there have only been four black governors, going back to the 1870s, the most recent being Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, who left office in 2015.  Maybe that's enough?

Other Findings

• 69% of American adults have had a conversation about race with family and friends in the last month; another 13% have done this, but not as recently
• Among social media users, 37% have posted something about race in the last month; we know, from our own experience (if yours is anything like mine) that this includes people who are posting pro-Black Lives Matter, anti-Black Lives Matter,  All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, as well as "stop talking about this already!" messages.  The number of people who have ever shared something about race on social media is 46%.
•  9% have donated money within the last month to a group or organization focusing on racial equality or race in the last month. Asians (21%), blacks (13%), and Hispanics (11%) are all more likely than whites (7%) to have done this. 
• Folks in the 18-29 and 30-49 age brackets are more likely to have done any of these things, or to have attended a rally or protest, than any other age groups. 
• And, again not surprisingly, Dems and those leaning Dem are more likely to have done these than their Republican/leaning Republican counterparts. Most notably? Only 3% of Republicans have donated in support of race or racial equality.

In looking at the survey as a whole, it's pretty clear where battle lines have been drawn. It will be interesting to see whether political rhetoric changes these metrics, and what impact these opinions will have, if any, on the November election.