It's sort of like I ordered way more off the menu than I'm going to be able to eat. Yesterday was the Pecha Kucha (pronounce in the four syllables you see) class and today began with the Innocence Project and the Pebble Mine. And I seem to be coming down with a cold.
But let me get a little up here since I didn't post yesterday. Let's get some of the Innocence Project up. This is the work of saints - helping people wrongly convicted to get out of prison. The speakers were Mark Johnson, (sitting) the head of the board for the IP, and Bill Oberly the employee who does most of the work. I took the picture after the presentation when they were answering individual questions.
Every time I read about a prisoner getting out of prison after 10, 15, 30 years because of evidence that clearly exonerates them, or a confession by another of the crime, it breaks my heart thinking of someone taken from the family and thrown into a cell. For example from The National Registry of Exonerations.
Many prisons are inhumane for guilty prisoners. Imagine if you didn't do the crime.
If imagining that is hard to do, watch Netflix's When They See Us* about five teenagers who were imprisoned for a rape they didn't commit because of a prosecutor who coerced confessions and ignored evidence that didn't fit her story. This is the story of the kids convicted of the Central Park jogger rape. I confess, that I didn't want to watch it, but saw it was getting awards and so we decided to try the first episode. It's mostly painful, but the actual rapists eventually confesses (after meeting one of the five in prison) and they do get out. There's an extra episode which is an Oprah show of sorts (she was the producer I think) where all the actors who played the boys and their older selves are interviewed. And then the original real prisoners are interviewed as well.
*This is not a great link here, but when I link to Netflix, to goes to my subscription which won't work for others. It may go to the right place for other Netflix subscribers, I don't know. And reviews at Washington Post and New York Times have paywalls. You might also want to check Wikipedia.
It's pretty powerful, and one line from the film's director really caught my attention. She challenged people who talk about the system being broken. It's not broken, she said, it was designed that way. And when it comes to people of color and poor folks that seems to be accurate.
So that was my most recent connection to this sort of injustice and was good background for understanding the enormity of the wrongs that the Innocence Project tries to right.
A little bit from today's class from my notes.
Innocence Project's MISSION
Identify , investigate, and exonerate individuals who have been wrongly convicted in the State of Alaska
Education - doing that today (at OLÉ). Provide ed opportunities for advocates and for the public that foster a culture that champions the defense of the innocent.
Implement policies, practices, and reforms that will prevent wrongful convictions and hasten the identification and release of innocent persons.
Number 1 is the main priority.
History
The Alaska IP is part of a national Innocence Network All independent, but share experiences, best practices. There originally was just one, but it became clear quickly that they couldn't cover the whole country. A Northwest PI was started, but they couldn't even handle all of Washington, let alone the rest of their territory. Alaska's Project Innocence began in 2006.
The Project has 6 criteria for accepting cases.
Individual is incarcerated
Individual has at least two years remaining on sentence.
Factually, the client is actually innocent. (They don't work on technical legal issues for people who aren't innocent.)
Evidence is available which may prove actual innocence
Individual has exhausted all court actions under the facts of the criminal conviction upon which the individual is incarcerated where the individual has appointed counsel as a matter of right
Notwithstanding numbers 1 through 5, the Board of the Alaska Innocence Project may accept any case at its discretion. (but number 1 - actual innocence - is necessary)
They said that research suggests that 1-3% of people in prison are innocent. Given Alaska's prison population, that means 50 - 150 people!
The only people exonerated so far through the Alaska Innocence Project have been the Fairbanks Four, which is a big deal. There are more potential cases in the pipeline.
Here's a link to their website. You can find more there. We've got three more session on this topic.
Sorry for such a truncated post, but really need to get to bed. I have a 9am class on State and Federal Courts tomorrow and a 3pm class on Homelessness.
As I wrote the title, I realized we never can catch up in life, but I was referring to little things like writing blog posts and paying the bills. Today was my wife's birthday. We went for a movie and dinner. It seemed like a good day to spend the early afternoon in a movie, but the rain had stopped and there were even breaks in the clouds when we got there.
Even though I've eaten at Musso & Franks, went to movies at the Bruin theater when I was a student at UCLA, and even interviewed George Putnam (there was an ad for his newscast on a bus stop) for my junior high school newspaper. Putnam arrived in a gold limo - a Rolls, I think - and he smoked through the interview even though his bio said he didn't smoke. (At least that's what my memory tells me.)
The movie began in a Pan Am 747, which set alarms off right way, since the date posted was 1969. I'd read that the period details had been carefully done. And yes, I know some odd details. In this case because I first flew on one of the early Pan Am 747 flights - from Honolulu to Tokyo - in March 1970. (I was flying from a Peace Corps training program I worked at in Hilo to the second part of the training in Thailand.) Pan Am 1 and 2 had just started flying. I think it was Pan Am 1 that flew around the world toward the west and Pan Am2 to the east. Did it start earlier in 1969? I've now had time to look it up and the first commercial flight was in January 1970.
It wasn't a bad movie - though I generally skip movies with lots of violence - but it felt artificial throughout. Cardboard. I assume that was intentional since it was about Hollywood and all the phoniness of that life, but as the birthday girl said over dinner at the Thai Kitchen, with all the really good stuff we're seeing on Netflix, it just didn't cut it.
So I'm reduced to writing filler pieces like this because I just haven't had time to finish my thoughts on the Joseph Maguire hearings and several other drafts that probably will never get beyond that stage.
And tomorrow I start a slew of OLÉ classes. (Continuing ed classes aimed at retired folks at UAA. I think they pay for themselves so maybe they won't disappear next year.) I have an actual project in one that I need to spend extra time on and I haven't figured out what I'm going to do. It's a Pecha-Kucha class - you present 20 pictures in seven minutes with narration of the story they tell. Well, I've got plenty of pictures, but organizing a compelling story is the challenge. As I see it now, though I'll probably discover that was the easy part once I get the story figured out.
Other classes I enrolled in include:
An Overview of the Pebble Copper-Molybdenum-Gold Prospect
The Innocence Project
State and Federal Courts and Current Legal Issues
Homeless, Homelessness and Finding "Home"
And a one time short class that's a trip to an Escape Room.
I'm hoping the classes will provide plenty of fodder for the blog.
Volodymyr Zelensky burst into many people's consciousness last week. Some knew that he'd been a Ukrainian comedian with a hit TV show already. In the show he plays a history teacher who's caught on video by one of his students while he's ranting against the corruption of his government. The video goes viral. His students use crowdsourcing to get enough money to register him as a candidate. And he wins.
And then the comedian actually runs for President.
I just discovered that Season one of the television show - Servant of the People - is on Netflix. The episodes are short (about 25 minutes) and we got through about five last night.
The show doesn't tell you much about the actor himself, but it does give you a sense of what caused Ukrainians to elect a man with no previous political experience. And you get a sense of the overwhelming corruption in the Ukraine government. And it's fun.
So if you have Netflix, this is definitely worth your time to give you a better sense of the Ukraine and Kiev and the man Trump tried to force into finding dirt on Biden's son by withholding several hundred million dollars in aid.
Of course, you may want to know more.
This April 4 Slate article looks into the crystal ball to predict what sort of president he might be.
Here's an alternative bio with some quirky English from Height Of.
In the episodes we've seen on Netflix, the school teacher/president is having some problems dealing with the layers of corruption and wealth of the many, many friends and relatives of government officials whorls hold positions in the government. It's not clear how the now real president of Ukraine is handling these problems. At least he's been introduced to the dilemmas he's facing through his role in the show.
But there may be more to this. He's an owner of the production company and a writer of the show. Was the show a setup to get him elected? It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.
[I'm not linking to the Netflix show because while I know how to get there from my Netflix account, I'm not sure how to send others there. In any case, when you're into Netflix, just put Servant of the People into the Netflix search.]
This was the view this evening from O'Malley on the Green where we went for an event. The day started at six am when I turned on the radio - still in bed - members of the House Intelligence Committee questioning Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. I thought he was a reasonable witness - well last one I saw was Lewandowski so the bar was low. But he seemed respectful and caught in a difficult position. He'd been recently hired (after much of the subject of the hearings had already happened) and he couldn't come out directly against his boss.
But in bed, I wasn't taking notes, so if I'm going to write about it, I need to review transcripts. But today I was busy going through a to-do list that's been getting three or four things added for everything I actually get done.
So you get the mountains. Foraker on the left, Denali on the right. Everything changes. These mountains change daily as the weather changes. And the mountains are slowly wearing down. But very slowly.
Denali is 20,308 feet tall (6,190 meters). It's about 150 miles from Anchorage as the raven flies, (or 241 km.) Unlike Everest and Anaconda, it's pretty much a free standing mountain, towering over the rest of the Alaska Range..
[This post is not what you were expecting. Nor me. It began as a way to step back and remind folks that there's more than US and UK politics happening in the world. While we were in Argentina this summer we learned a little about their presidential elections. I thought I'd offer bit of Argentine politics for folks. That led me to the political trap video that's near the bottom, which is worth a post all of its own. It's very catchy, even without understanding the lyrics. Be sure to watch it. Will this sort of thing be part of the US election in 2020? I've also added the lyrics and a translation.]
I don't see much coverage of the Argentine presidential election this October. On our visit in June and July people all agreed they were being squeezed by high inflation and life was getting harder. Argentina is a country with a history much longer than the US and in the early 1900s was one of the wealthiest in the world. People are sophisticated. They have free health care and university education. Current President Macri has imposed harsh economic restrictions. People we talked to were not shy in voicing their opinions for one candidate or the other.
"Argentina’s first-round vote on October 27 will see the election of president and vice president, and nearly half of congressional seats (130 deputies and 24 senators). While President Mauricio Macri is in the running for a second term, Argentines chose who else will appear on the ballot in the August 11 primary elections, known as the PASO. The main obstacles to the pro-business president of the Together for Change coalition are Argentina’s economic recession and a peronist front. He polls behind center-left Alberto Fernández, who's running mate is former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Some 33 million Argentines are eligible to cast the compulsory vote, which will go on to a November runoff if none of the presidential candidates wins at least 45 percent, or 40 percent with a 10-point margin over the runner-up."
"On September 29 the Argentine province of Mendoza will elect its governor and renew one-half of its bicameral legislature. Mendoza is Argentina’s fifth most populous province, and one of only five provinces (out of 24) currently governed by a member of President Mauricio Macri’s Together for Change alliance. A Together for Change victory in Mendoza would provide a glimmer of optimism for a dignified loss by Macri in the October 27 presidential election against Peronist Alberto Fernández (and against Fernández’s vice presidential nominee, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner) as well as provide hope for some Together for Change down ballot success in congressional races. In contrast, a defeat would foreshadow a potential shellacking on October 27 and demoralize the Together for Change forces even more than they already are. . ."
This article was written by "Mark P. Jones[who] is the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies and the Director of the Center for Energy Studies’ Argentina Program at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy."
That, of course, gives me a chance to post some Mendoza pictures from last summer I didn't post yet.
The fountain in the huge Parque San Martin
Vistante Winery - Mendoza is the center of the Argentine wine industry
Mendoza is also a center for olive oil. This picture is from the Pasrai olive oil factory.
And here's a more personal reporting style that leads this post in a different direction from Americas Quarterly:
"BUENOS AIRES - “He can’t stop coughing/working 12-hour-long shifts/he makes two meager coins a day to support a family of four/and don’t talk to me about meritocracy, don’t be funny, don’t screw with me/because without opportunities/that mierda doesn’t work.”
It’s hard to miss the frustration driving the lyrics of “Canguro,” a song written by 21-year-old Argentine trap star Wos, whose criticisms of the status quo under President Mauricio Macri have struck a chord with many. Debuting just days before the August primary election that delivered a blow to Macri’s reelection prospects, the song quickly climbed the charts and has racked up over 44 million views on YouTube.
Wos is among a cohort of young public figures who have used popular culture and social media to mobilize opposition to Macri among youth. The demographic has been hit particularly hard by the recession under the current government. In the second quarter of 2019, unemployment among ages 14 to 29 rose to 18.6% for men and to 23.4% for women, according to the latest government figures."
Here's Wos' video. With the introduction above you can get a good sense of the power of this song even without understanding Spanish. It says it has 50 million hits since August 8. That's about six weeks.
Here are just the lyrics from Genius.com. I've added a Google Translate English version in purple.
[Letra de "CANGURO"]
[Intro]
Hoy no voy a salir y voy a quedarme en la' nube' donde nadie sube
[Estribillo]
(Uah) No vengas a molestar, dicen que está todo mal‚ bueno
(Uah) Yo estoy más que bien acá y no te pienso ni mirar‚ ciego (Ciego)
Vamo'‚ repriman la mierda que tienen guardada en el pecho
Traguen y callen hasta estar desecho', párense siempre derecho
"Cállenlo, sédenlo‚ que haga lo que quiera, pero sáquenlo" y
"Cállenlo, sédenlo‚ que haga lo que quiera, pero sáquenlo"
Ey, háganme caso, ¿o no tienen claro que soy el rey?
Háganme caso que soy la ley, dame mis blíster', mis Parisiennes, wah
["CANGURO" lyrics]: [Enter] I'm not going out today and I'm going to stay in the 'cloud' where nobody goes up [Chorus] (Uah) Don't come bother, they say it's all wrong ‚well (Uah) I'm more than good here and I don't even think about you ‚blind (Blind) Vamo '‚repress the shit they have in their chest Swallow and shut up until you are wasted ', always stand straight "Shut it up, know it‚ do what you want, but take it out "and "Shut it up, know it‚ do what you want, but take it out " Hey, pay attention to me, or are you not sure that I am the king? Listen to me that I am the law, give me my blister ', my Parisiennes, wah
[Verso 1]
Patada de canguro, golpe duro
No vamo' a parar con esto, negro, te lo juro
Traje cianuro pa' meterle' en el trago
Cinco minuto' acá y ya estamo' causando estragos
Un mago nos quiere hacer desaparecer
Pero esta plaga rara nunca para de crecer
Somo' de los pocos locos que andan buscando placer
Y aunque quieran vernos roto', no damo' brazo a torcer
No para de toser, trabajando doce hora'
Cobra dos moneda' al mes pa' mantener cuatro persona'
Y no hables de meritocracia, me da gracia, no me joda'
Que sin oportunidades esa mierda no funciona
Y no, no hace falta gente que labure más
Hace falta que con menos se pueda vivir en paz
Mandale gas, no te perdás, acordate dónde estás
Fijáte siempre de qué lado de la mecha te encontrás
[Verse 1] Kangaroo kick, hard hit I'm not going to stop with this, black, I swear Cyanide suit to get him in the drink Five minutes 'here and I'm already' wreaking havoc A wizard wants to make us disappear But this weird plague never stops growing Somo 'of the few crazy people who are looking for pleasure And even if they want to see us broken ', I don't dare' arm to twist He doesn't stop coughing, working twelve hours' Charge two coins' per month to 'keep four people' And don't talk about meritocracy, I'm funny, don't fuck me ' That without opportunities that shit doesn't work And no, you don't need people to work anymore It is necessary that with less one can live in peace Send gas, don't get lost, remember where you are Always notice which side of the wick you found
[Verso 2]
Dice: "What up? Esto pega como coca"
La gente baila loca, el cuello se disloca
La droga en lo' dedo', que vaya de boca en boca
Sentís como te choca, esa vaina subió la nota
Salto como una pulga, empezó la purga
Largo todo fresco como un PXXR GVNG, hijo de…
Otra vez con sed entre fiebres y migraña'
Vuelvo a soñar con un viejo en el medio de una montaña
Me miró y me dijo: "De la vida nadie se salva
Y eso de la juventud es solo una actitud del alma"
Qué virtud extraña, ahora me queman las entrañas
Mi mejor conversación la tuve ayer con una araña
No sé qué hora es, ni me interesa
Acá siempre son 4:20, y estamo' de la cabeza, con simpleza
Birra barata y mala en lata, má' la planta santa esa
La que calma el cuerpo y te lo desestresa
El hood está de fiesta, el culo se te tensa
Entiendo que te molesta, la empatía te cuesta
Y si ahora gritamo' y cantamo' en modo de protesta
Es porque preguntamo' bien y nadie nos dio una respuesta
Se creen dueños, salgan del medio, lo digo en serio
Fuera la yuta que meten al barrio, le tira a los pibe' y le mata los sueño'
Bueno, juego, del underground, del agujero
Estamo' agitando de nuevo, sacando pa' afuera a eso' carroñero', ñero
[Verse 2] He says: "What up? This hits like coca" People dance crazy, the neck dislocates The drug in the 'finger', that goes from mouth to mouth You feel how it hits you, that pod raised the note I jump like a flea, the purge began Long all fresh as a PXXR GVNG, son of ... Again thirsty between fevers and migraine ' I dream again of an old man in the middle of a mountain He looked at me and said: "No one is saved from life And that of youth is just an attitude of the soul " What a strange virtue, now my insides burn I had my best conversation yesterday with a spider I don't know what time it is, nor interest me It's always 4:20 here, and I'm right in the head, simply Cheap and bad canned birra, plus the holy plant that The one that calms the body and unstresses you The hood is partying, the ass tenses I understand that it bothers you, empathy costs you And if now I shout 'and sing' in protest mode It's because we asked 'well and nobody gave us an answer They believe they own, get out of the way, I mean it Out the jute they put into the neighborhood, he throws the kids 'and kills them the dreams' Well, play, underground, hole I'm 'waving again, getting out' that scavenger 'outside, ñero
[Estribillo]
(Uah) No vengas a molestar, dicen que está todo mal, bueno
(Uah) Yo estoy más que bien acá y no te pienso ni mirar, ciego (Ciego)
Vamo', repriman la mierda que tienen guardada en el pecho
Traguen y callen hasta estar desecho', párense siempre derecho
"Cállenlo, sédenlo, que haga lo que quiera, pero sáquenlo" y
"Cállenlo, sédenlo, que haga lo que quiera, pero sáquenlo"
Ey, háganme caso, ¿o no tienen claro que soy el rey?
Háganme caso que soy la ley, dame mis blíster', mis Parisiennes, wah
[Chorus] (Uah) Don't come bother, they say it's all wrong ‚well (Uah) I'm more than good here and I don't even think about you ‚blind (Blind) Vamo '‚repress the shit they have in their chest Swallow and shut up until you are wasted ', always stand straight "Shut it up, know it‚ do what you want, but take it out "and "Shut it up, know it‚ do what you want, but take it out " Hey, pay attention to me, or are you not sure that I am the king? Listen to me that I am the law, give me my blister ', my Parisiennes, wah
With all the dry weather it seemed like we might not get any mushrooms, but more recently we've had plenty of rain and some of the mushrooms are popping up in the back yard.
And something a little bigger.
I wish I had time to go through my Field Guide to North American Mushrooms to share what these mushrooms are, but too much happening. Just relax and enjoy a more natural post.
I've written on the topic before, but this time I want to consider the motivation of people (Democrats) who differ because some want to start impeachment right now and others say that its futile if the Senate votes it down. I'm just thinking out loud here. So bear with me as I wander into a little philosophy.
Deontological ethics is an ethics system that judges whether an action is right or wrong based on a moral code. Consequences of those actions are not taken into consideration. This ethics system is intended to be precise and by the book. Doing the right thing means to follow proper rules of behavior and, by doing so, promoting fairness and equality. . . (emphasis added)
In the other hand, utilitarian ethics state that a course of action should be taken by considering the most positive outcome. This ethics system is more accurate when it comes to addressing complicated situations, which solutions are not as trivial.
[This is a very brief pair of definitions. For more nuance, check out the link above, or find other sites that discuss it.]
Roughly, using this way of seeing the debate, one could argue that those calling for impeachment now - because they see the president as having committed high crimes, misdemeanors, and treason - is the right thing to do. It doesn't matter whether the Senate votes for impeachment. Doing the right thing is what is important. The law/constitution was broken, so action must be taken. At the extreme case would be the swimming referee in Anchorage who disqualified a female swimmer because the rules required the butt cheeks to be covered.
And those calling for a careful calculation of how this is going to play out in the Senate before impeaching, could be seen as utilitarians. What's the point, they'd say, of the House voting to impeach, if the Senate does[n't] vote to convict?
But, of course, life doesn't settle into neatly articulated categories. One could argue that demanding impeachment hearings start now, is the best strategy to get rid of the president - either via impeachment of the 2020 election. Impeachment hearings give the House the power to investigate the president's actions, to get documents, tapes, and to compel witnesses to testify. That process itself, they would argue, could lead to revelations that would swing enough Republican Senators to obtain a successful conviction in the Senate. And, even if that doesn't happen, it could reveal enough to help Democrats take the presidency in 2020. Which would put those folks into the utilitarian camp.
Rep. Pelosi, who clearly represents the chief utilitarian in the original scenario, would argue that getting rid of Trump and restoring the US to a nation of law, is the ultimate goal. If we go the impeachment route, we need to win, not make a show of ideologically pure failure.
As I think about this, I'd say Rep. Pelosi fits fairly neatly into the utilitarian box. But I suspect the impeach now faction is made up of folks who are clearly deontologists and also utilitarians, who see impeaching now as the path to the best overall outcome. And some may feel that impeaching now is both the right thing to do and the most likely path to accomplish their goals.
These splits among people who ostensibly hold the same political beliefs (or religious beliefs) is not uncommon. Humans probably line up somewhere on a continuum from Deontology to Utilitarianism. Those on the ends of the scales aren't likely to budge.
The first dusting of snow on the mountains by Anchorage lore, marks the end of summer. This change, in the past, more often than not, came in August. It doesn't mean it's sticking, but it's clearly white up there.
Well, this Fall Solstice day (I always have to check because the exact date changes slightly each year, so it seems this year, it's not today, but tomorrow) comes one day after the first termination dust. (And, technically, I suppose it came yesterday, but the clouds didn't clear until today.)
