The prosecutor
It’s slightly peculiar to see a few progressives elevating former prosecutor and state attorney general Kamala Harris to the position of presidential favorite while a groundswell movement takes place simultaneously to close the doors of privilege to Central Park Five prosecutor Linda Fairstein. The Avu DuVernay Netflix series
When They See Us has shown a bright light on a stark historical example of prosecutorial misconduct by Fairstein, one that should leave Harris similarly vulnerable to criticism. Instead, she’s a popular choice among those in her party's “anybody but Bernie”coalition.
During this primary season, each of the twenty-something Democratic presidential candidates-- save for Joe Biden-- are aping Bernie Sanders and the rhetoric of his impressive 2016 campaign, yet none of them, perhaps
most especially Kamala Harris, have the public
record to match that of the durable and firebranded Democratic Socialist from Vermont.
Lara Bazelon, the former director of Loyola Law School’s Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles,
wrote today for the New York Times, “In her career, Ms. Harris did not barter or trade to get the support of more conservative law-and-order types; she gave it all away.” She fought to uphold convictions that had been obtained through misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony, and the suppression of evidence, according to Bazelon.
Like Fairstein in New York City, Harris pushed to keep people in prison even after they had been proven innocent. As attorney general of California, her legacy is maintaining the status quo on the matters of prison overpopulation, the wrongfully-incarcerated, and the death penalty. Her office fought to release fewer prisoners even after the US Supreme Court found that overcrowding in California prisons amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. She fought the appeal of a man, Daniel Larsen, that had been proven innocent by the Innocence Project, claiming the man had filed his petition for release too late. A court was forced to overturn her decision. Despite claiming she was morally opposed to it, she vowed to enforce capital punishment in her state, then did so vigorously, even as she broke her standard and declined to defend Proposition 8, prohibiting same-sex marriage, another law she said she opposed. Her office appealed a judge's verdict that tossed out an indictment against a state prosecutor found to have falsified a confession. She opposed statewide standards for police-worn body cameras and opposed a bill that would require her office to investigate shootings involving officers. She promoted legislation that would allow for the prosecution of parents of children that were habitually-absent from elementary schools. And though she now says she supports the legalization of marijuana, even for recreational use, and consistent with changing public opinion, she laughed in 2014 when a reporter asked if she would back it.
Her campaign and her defenders are saying today-- after what is largely considered to be a strong debut performance in the series of nationally-televised debates-- that these were the actions of her office, not of her. Now she’s seeking power and control over another-- higher-- office. Her rhetorical style is brilliant, but as I’m sure even the prosecutor herself would tell you, what should matter most is the evidence. On the campaign trail, in front of audiences comprised of Democratic primary voters, she's a bold and outspoken progressive, but Kamala Harris has always managed to keep her focus attuned to her own career, first and foremost, and that continues.
When I got Albert Pujols on the line
The Great Pujols returns to play at Busch Stadium tomorrow for the first time since the Cardinals’ victorious Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. For 11 seasons in a Cardinals uniform between April of ’01 and October of ’11, Albert Pujols was the greatest right-handed hitter in the history of baseball. His exploits were a popular topic on this blog during its first seven years.
Through a scheduling quirk-- an inexplicable one, Pujols’ second MLB team, the Los Angeles Angels, have not been scheduled to play the Cardinals in St. Louis during the last seven and a half years. Albert returns now five home runs short of a career total of 650, a member of the exclusive 2,000 RBI club (5th all-time), as well as the 3,000 hit club, but with a combined WAR (wins against replacement) that is less than what it was when he left St. Louis. It’s been-- quite famously-- a tale of two Alberts. In 11 seasons with St. Louis, he batted an average of .328; with Los Angeles, .258. His slugging percentage in St. Louis was .617, with Los Angeles, .453. The home runs and RBIs are still there. The singles, doubles, and walks, not as much. More importantly, he has never played in a winning playoff game as a member of the Angels. With the Cardinals, he won 40 of them, along with three league pennants, and two World Series. He also had three league MVP awards with St. Louis. For their part, the Cardinals have not won the World Series since Albert left (though they returned to it in 2013). As columnist Bernie Miklasz pointed out today, they have only won one World Series championship (1982) in the last 41 years that Albert Pujols was not on their team.
I was at the park for many of Albert’s great exploits-- the day the Cardinals presented him with the team Rookie of the Year Award; his first home World Series game in 2004; his last grand slam at Busch Stadium II and his 40th home run of 2005; the 2009 All-Star Game, hosted by the Cardinals, that was Albert’s great All-Star spotlight; a four-hit, two-HR game in Kansas City
twice; a 3-HR, 2-walk game at Wrigley; and his walk-off grand slam on Easter Sunday 2006 to conclude the first-ever home stand at Busch Stadium III-- the house that Albert built. Would you believe?-- That one was the first time in MLB history that a player turned a deficit into a walk-off victory with their
third home run of the game.
And with that introduction, let me tell you about the time I was on the phone with him.
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I was working in radio in Des Moines and it was the morning following the 2003 All-Star Game, which had been played at Chicago’s Sox Park, and which featured Albert as a member of the visiting National League squad. I must have been chatting with someone about Albert, or the Cardinals, or the previous night’s game, when Outdoors Dan came to my desk armed with several orders of commercials for his hunting and fishing show. Outdoors Dan had previously done his syndicated show from St. Louis.
“Albert Pujols,” he said, “He buys bow hunting equipment from me. Him and (former Cards catcher) Eli Marrero would come into my store all the time.”
“That’s great,” I said.
“Look,” said Outdoors, gesturing, “I’ve got his number here in my phone.” And he showed it to me. “Right here. ‘Albert,’” he said, “we’ll call the number.”
“No, that’s alright,” I objected.
“It’s okay, he won’t pick up, but you’ll hear his voice on the voicemail message. You’ll see.”
“Yeah, but how do you know he won’t pick it up? And it’s early. We shouldn’t be calling this early.” Keep in mind that this is a Wednesday morning, about 9am. The All-Star Game the previous night probably commenced with the
first pitch at nearly 8pm, and was a 7-6 slug-fest, and it’s customary for the baseball stars to fly back late after the game so that they can maximize at home the limited amount of time they’re allotted during the league’s All-Star break. Note that just getting
selected to play in the game basically cuts a player’s mid-summer break in half.
“He won’t pick up,” Outdoors repeated, “If he does, just hand me the phone.”
And with that, Outdoors dialed the number, and handed the cell over. I put it to my ear.
One ring.
A second ring.
A third ring.
Then, in a very deep-- and very groggy-- voice, I hear on the other end, “Hello.”
I passed the phone to Outdoors as fast as a I could. “Hey Albert, hey man. It’s Outdoors Dan. How are you doing?... Oh man, did I wake you? I’m sorry... Hey, buddy, I got some new stuff I think you might be interested in.”
And the one-sided conversation I could hear trailed off as Outdoors walked away from my desk towards the studio…
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Albert Pujols will get an extraordinary ovation when he comes to the plate the first time tomorrow night. He will likely get one
every time up through Sunday night’s game, which is broadcast nationally on ESPN, but that first one, during the first or second inning Friday, may just be like no ovation you’ve ever seen or heard. We might be able to hear it crackling all the way to Des Moines.
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Addendum: Every word of the preceding anecdote is true except for the following ingredient: Outdoors Dan’s friends and colleagues, then and presumably now, refer to him in short as “Dan,” not “Outdoors.” In this text, the references to the person and the dialogue have been changed as a tribute to the late Super Dave Osborne, who died on January 2nd of this year, and whose friends, colleagues, and interviewers referred to him in short as “Super.”
Joe Biden should be dismissed as a candidate for president
As an ongoing example of the unhealthy obsession with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, by the American media, the Democratic Party, and the intelligence state, the U.S. has been sticking its neck in where it doesn’t belong in Eastern Europe. The provocations have escalated in recent years, but it’s been going on in its current form since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In February of 1990, U.S. leaders made an offer to the Soviets, “iron-clad guarantees,” that NATO would not expand “one inch eastward.” The result of this promise was Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev agreeing to reunification talks for Germany. By 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were NATO members. By 2004, add Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The US has also backed, if criteria can be met, potential membership for the Republic of Georgia and Ukraine, while extended-range missiles that could hit Russia have been sold by the U.S. to Poland.
With its stubborn insistence under Putin to be independent in the world and repeatedly stand up to U.S. imperialism, the Russian Federation has managed to become an “enemy” again to U.S. goals of hegemony. Imagine an alternate world, if you will, where Putin sold extended-range missiles to, say, Cuba, to be pointed at Florida. You might need a time machine just to formulate the vision, because when something akin to the U.S. putting missiles in Poland did happen in reverse, in Cuba in 1962, the world came to the brink of nuclear annihilation. Despite having a GDP that is less than Portugal’s, and a
total military budget that is less than the 2019
increase to the U.S. military budget, Putin’s government is the dark shadow that modern-day Cold Warriors in both the Democratic and Republican parties fear. It would be far beyond the pale for him to place missiles aimed at the U.S. in our hemisphere, but nobody in the U.S. seems to expect Russians to feel they are being provoked by U.S. intrusions in the former Eastern bloc.
In 2014, Ukraine’s democratically-elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown in a coup supported by the United States. The reason it happened was that Yanukovych was re-considering a proposed business agreement with the European Union in favor of a potentially more beneficial one with Putin. The EU deal was dependent on meeting guidelines set by the International Monetary Fund, which has long been used as a hammer by the West against developing countries (for an outline, read Naomi Klein’s "The Shock Doctrine"). Those guidelines would have frozen salaries, put drastic government budget cuts in place, and increased Ukrainians’ gas bill. What any of this has to do with the United States is a mystery. Our stepping in would be akin to Vladimir Putin trying to force changes on the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. That's inconceivable.
Enter the new right-wing government of Ukraine, the ultra-nationalist Svoboda group, who participated in the coup and are inarguably neo-Nazis, remnants of the Hitler collaborators that opposed the Soviet Union in that region. Their leader has warned Ukrainians of the dangers of the “Muscovite-Jewish” mafia even while the late U.S. Senator John McCain traveled to Ukraine and rallied with him and his group in the national capital of Kiev. (McCain also once declared, on the floor of the Senate, that his fellow Senator-- and his fellow Republican-- Rand Paul, was “working for Vladimir Putin” after Paul objected to a resolution that would allow Montenegro to join the NATO alliance.)
Members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), come to power, still wear the SS insignia on their arms dating from their alliance with Nazi Germany. U.S. intelligence, behind its “communist under every bed” wisdom, has been closely aligned with the group since the end of World War II. President Obama admitted to CNN shortly after the new government took over that he had “brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine” to the government led by this group. What was that again that Rachel Maddow was just saying about Russian election meddling?
In Ukraine, where the OUN waves the United States Southern Confederate flag as well as the flag of Nazi Germany, they despise Russians as much as they do anyone, and a large number of Russians live in the eastern part of the country and will continue to feel a cultural connection and loyalty to Russia. After the coup, the new illegitimate and fascist government banned Russian as the nation’s second language.
And why does the U.S. care so much about Ukraine? If you think it’s because we care about freedom and democracy for their people, than you’re a person that’s very easy to lie to, and for a really long time. Ukraine is oil and natural gas. Ukraine is rich in mineral deposits. Vladimir Putin has agreed to the most recent version of the Minsk Agreements, drawn up by Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Francois Hollande, to ease the military buildup in this part of the world between Russia and NATO. Former Secretary of State John Kerry was ready to sign on too, but then-Vice President Biden stepped in, with one of his national security advisers calling Kerry’s negotiation trip to Sochi, Russia “counter-productive.” The New York Times, no cheerleader for Putin, acknowledged that “Vice President Biden has played a leading role in American policy towards Ukraine as Washington seeks to counter Russian intervention in Eastern Ukraine.” Former President Obama clearly tabbed his vice president to be the point man when it came to Ukraine.
What makes all this reek of corruption is that two months after the Yanukovych coup, in April of 2014, Biden’s son, Hunter, was named to the board of directors for a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings. Later, still as U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion of U.S. money to the country unless a prosecutor into this particular company was fired. That leverage was employed in 2016, and Biden proudly recounted his triumphant moment on stage of an event sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in January 2018. It can be argued that Biden shared the opinion of the U.S. government towards both Ukraine and this prosecutor at the time of his actions, but the family relationship and clear conflict with national interest was gross enough, then the judgement displayed in boasting about it produces additional red flags.
There is zero wisdom behind electing Joe Biden president while the intelligence state is busy promoting an increasingly dangerous conflict with Russia. The son of the vice president chose to take advantage of an illegal coup of a foreign government. It should have already been clear to neutral observers in 2014 that this relationship with the Bidens and Ukraine was a problem for the U.S. The passing of time has only confirmed it. It’s not hard to imagine how the mainstream media would react differently to this story if the politician's son in question was Donald Trump, Jr., but in its sloppy attempt to muddy President Trump in any possible way, regardless of validity, it has largely neglected this story and it was left to Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani to promote it in recent weeks as Biden’s stock simultaneously rises among would-be Democratic voters. The implications of this ugly association to the U.S. presidential race should be immaterial. It only will be if Biden is roundly rejected by voters during his party’s primaries.
For good measure, Hunter Biden wasn’t done in sullying his father’s political fortunes after chasing the black gold of the Crimea in 2014. His investment fund, it was revealed last month, has also invested in a surveillance system in China that permits that authoritarian government to spy on ethnic Muslims in its western provinces. Randall Schriver, the head of Asia Policy at the Defense Department, says China is employing mass imprisonment of Muslims in concentration camps. How does this relationship play when Papa Biden is on the campaign trail telling everyone who will listen that President Trump is unfairly building up the threat of China while Hunter is working in lucrative concert with them? Biden said at a rally for his campaign last month, “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man!”
The DNC will continue to push hard for Biden. Right now, he’s the only vetted establishment candidate that can serve as the plausible “Anybody but Bernie” choice. You’ll continue to be told by them-- in the middle of a race where the Republican candidate’s adult children are Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner-- that Hunter Biden is not his father, and his business associations are not his father's. To me, though, even the sacking of the legal prosecutor is surplus. I came to understand the entire hoax that was the story of Russian influence on the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election when I first read that the son of the U.S. vice president could be inexplicably serving on the board of a giant Ukrainian oil company. How dumb-- and/or greedy-- can a guy be? The question remains as to how dumb
a major American political party can be. Nominating Joe Biden in the middle of the new Russian Red Scare would be like anointing Bill Clinton’s wife, enabler, and attack dog to go head-to-head against one of the nation’s best-known misogynists. It defies all logic, but we’ve been there before.
Performing an act of literature: A modern survey of modern Mid-American letters
One of the great writers of the last century, Nelson Algren, inspirer of Hemingway, drinking companion to Studs Terkel and Roger Ebert, and the once-dubbed “bard of the stumblebum” believed that Americans were, in his words, “a people with too many nervous judges.”
What he meant by it was that too few of us would interfere with established “law” and choose instead humanity and literature where required. John Brown served as a hero to Algren. “Old Brown of Osawatomie,” the author wrote, “didn’t know that nobody was going to give him a banquet for pulling the judge (of his crimes against the state) off the bench down into the dock.” Algren believed it was the “peculiar responsibility of the author in all ages of men” to pull the proverbial judge into the dock. That is, literature should be socially- and politically-engaged. It should flatter no one in a position of power. He believed that widespread acceptance by a staid and complacent establishment was antithetical to the value of the writer.
It's in this spirit that I proudly announce having my book, "Lies My Blogger Told Me," rejected for submission into the Des Moines Public Library. No letters of declination were sent. No phone calls were dialed, or courteously returned. Library policy in respect to self-submissions reads that one uniformly agrees to surrender forever a copy of the book for consideration by the library system with no guarantee of adoption, and there will be no further communication on the topic. If you don’t see your book in a search of the electronic catalogue within 60 days, it’s somewhere leveling a workbench.
So a Des Moines-based writer's non-fiction accounts of the city and the region over a decade and a half, collected in an inimitable assemblage of essays and opinion, volunteered gratis, are not available for perusal at the Des Moines public library. What record will there be of living here decades from now? What duty assigned to a library is more important than preserving a record of its community and its times? To paraphrase one Ignatius J. Reilly, I apparently lack some particular perversion which today’s librarian is seeking. This is my company and I embrace it. Literature’s Ignatius once worked in the employ of the public library. He later had his library card revoked.
The municipality of Des Moines has the library it deserves. Their deputies don’t care for the local talent when, in actual fact, a medium-sized wing of the downtown branch should be dedicated to that and that alone. It's a snug fit for a town that only impersonates other cities, and has no personality of its own. "Dead" Moines takes everything at its pace, risks nothing, obsessed above all with steady economic growth. It's a nest of accountants, actuaries, and vipers. It's content to be, like its professional baseball team, junior cubs from larger bears, of a larger city-- a more important place, rather than a thing that is all its own. More interested in becoming the Portland, Oregon of the Plains than it is in any other place becoming a Des Moines.
Which company do you work for, this city asks? Which company sponsors you? Who do you belong to? Freelancers have value to Des Moines only so far as they reinforce, to the magazines that grade cities, the nationwide trend towards a synthetic Bohemia. Gather your share of the artists, they’re good for the local economy, but don’t actually give them anything. Hide the homeless.
We’re Middle America, we don’t have homeless. Put the black men in prison. Almost half of them. Keep the South Side Chicagoans on the South Side of Chicago. Keep Moeller’s book hidden behind the counter. Was it my passionate failure to endorse the American political duopoly? And its war machinations? That derives a chunk of its affected legitimacy from our state's repugnant caucuses? Was it the JFK conspiracy stuff? Tell the truth, was it the defense of OJ?
Mediocrity, Algren wrote, wishes to bite something that will not bite back. I’m proud to absorb the munching into my meaty flesh.
