Notes from around the Human Experience…

Author’s Note: We’ve read Judge Timothy Wilson’s verdict and we encourage you to do the same. It is very readable, accessible even to self-educated misfits like us and is worth the time of every concerned citizen. It can be read here.

USA! USA!: Blacks, of course, have a lot to protest in this country. The Jason Stockley verdict isn’t one of them. What they should be protesting is the prosecutor that set them up for this heartache by trying Jason Stockley for first-degree murder in the first place.

This was a very high mountain climb, and ultimately it proved too steep. Murder one involves intent (you wanted to do it), premeditation (you planned on doing it) and malice aforethought (you planned on doing harm). These three elements are difficult to prove when the killer had known his victim for only a few minutes, especially in the context of the heated interaction that led to the shooting.

Fly In The Ointment: We believe the fact the federal government, always ready for action in these circumstances, declined to charge Stockley with anything bears this out. The people of St Louis were not served well by the decision to charge Stockley with first-degree murder.

Dry, Technical Matter: Blacks in St Louis aren’t the only ones who should be protesting. Everyone else in America should be protesting, too. This shooting should never have happened.

Gaylon For Congress…Vote Early, Vote Often: This case is a nice microcosm of the points we made on the campaign trail for the United States Senate and House of Representatives: legalize drugs and the violence associated with them goes away. This shooting is no different than any of the other violence associated with drug war:

None of this happens if drugs are legal. A drug purchase in a fast food joint would have drawn no more interest than the purchase of a side order.

Criminalizing drugs is not stopping anyone from using them and it is certainly not stopping their importation. All drug laws do is cause death, broken hearts and broken lives, making criminals out of everyone involved in a country that hardly needs more criminals. 

One More Thing: Look, we don’t use heroin and we don’t particularly like hanging around those who do but, honestly, was this the Crime of the Century? Did a two-bit heroin deal in a fried chicken joint demand the immediate attention of Officer Stockley and his partner?

Honestly, it probably didn’t. If they ignore it and continue their patrol the neighborhood would survive. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other drug deals that weren’t broken up that night testify to that. All they really did was disrupt a transaction between a willing buyer and a willing seller and if they ignore it the sun still rises in the east the next day.

There’s is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Of course, we applaud a vigorous attempt by law enforcement to uphold establish federal, state and municipal laws. You probably do, too. But was Smith selling something someone wanted to buy from him hurting anyone? No, not really.

The Bottom Line: We cannot be afraid of the lessons History has to teach us. If either drugs are legal or the officers decide to ignore this incident, Anthony Smith is probably still alive and Jason Stockley is probably passing a routine law enforcement career and none of this ever happens.

“MY FEELINGS DO NOT PERMIT ME TO SUSPEND THE DEEP ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THAT DEBT OF GRATITUDE, WHICH I OWE TO MY BELOVED COUNTRY…”: President George Washington’s farewell message to his country is published in newspapers around the country on this date in 1796. The third United States presidential election was later that year and Washington, who really wanted to retire after his first term, had made it clear he would not be a candidate for a third term.

How Quaint: Among other things, Washington urges Americans to avoid war and unnecessary borrowing.

FunFact: Washington’s farewell is still read annually in the United States Senate. The rascals in the House of Representatives discontinued the practice in the 1980’s.

More Exciting US Presidential Action: Chester Arthur becomes the 21st president of the United States on this date in 1881, following the death of James Garfield due to injuries suffered after he was shot on July 2.

Arthur is primarily remembered for his federal civil service reform and while highly regarded back then, is not particularly remembered today. He wasn’t in the best of health and retired after his term.

Get Out Your History Books: Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees records his 602nd career save on this date in 2011, breaking the record of Trevor Hoffman. Rivera would retire with 652 saves, a record that still stands. It was Rivera’s 43rd save of the season and preserved a 6-4 win over the Minnesota Twins.

The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: With the win, the Yankees remained five games in front of the Boston Red Sox in the American League East. The Twin remained safely out of it, in last place in the American League Central.

Quotebook: Fighting against destiny seemed impossible for the moment.– Jules Verne, Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: After George Washington, the president of the Constitutional Convention, signed the Constitution, the document was signed by the state’s delegates in north to south order.

Today’s Stumper: How many games did Mariano Rivera start in his major league career? – Answer next time!

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Notes from around the Human Experience…

THE ART OF THE DEAL: Twice in the past couple of weeks we’ve seen examples of President Trump working deals with the Democrats. Earlier this month they came to terms on a deal to extend the debt ceiling and on a relief package for Hurricane Harvey victims. This week Trump announced he and the Democrats were working on a plan involving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

WTF???: In both cases, GOP Congressional leaders were left to scratch their collective heads and wonder what in the hell was/is going on.

Dry, Technical Matter: The debt ceiling came about in 1917 when Congress grew weary of its Constitutional duty of approving each instance of the Treasury Department borrowing money. The debt ceiling meant the Treasury Department could issue bonds without Congressional approval, as long as they didn’t go past the debt limit.  

Most nations don’t have a debt ceiling because they live under some semblance of fiscal sanity and don’t need one. In fact, Denmark is the only other nation with a debt ceiling and theirs is so high it is not particularly relevant.

FunFact: Our current debt ceiling is $19.8 trillion. Our current national debt passed $20 trillion on September 7. Except for a couple of days during the Andrew Jackson Administration, this nation has always been in debt and a day-by-day analysis of our country’s debt figures shows there are days where our debt has actually gone down $50 million or so.

Further research into this matter gave us a headache.

Back On Message: We are pleased to see any sort of bipartisan cooperation. Though it should be standard procedure, actual bipartisan cooperation on something that is in this country’s long-term interest is a rarity on par with a total solar eclipse: it doesn’t happen too often. Whether or not these deals have any merit or not is beside the point. We actually have a Republican president making deals with Democratic Congressional leadership.

That this is happening is not altogether surprising, either, because Trump has been notably frustrated by his own party’s inability to get anything done despite having a majority in both houses of Congress That this was due as much to a complete lack of leadership from the White House as anything else doesn’t bother Trump at all, though it has meant the GOP has been unable to govern.

Forgive Our Cynicism: Of course, Trump and the Democrats aren’t doing deals out of benevolence or because they care about you and me, we the people. They don’t. If they did we would have a nation at peace with an economy anchored in low taxes and free markets. And make no mistake about it, there’s something in these deals for each of them, but that’s the way the world is built. But after decades of fractured and bickering government, even this small step is nice to see. We’ll take it. 

ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE!: The Cornell Daily Sun is published for the first time on this date in 1880. It remains the oldest collegiate newspaper in the country, publishing every day while school is in session.

Great Moments In General Motors: General Motors is founded on this date in 1908 by William Durant in Flint Michigan. The next day Durant, who had owned some Ford dealerships and had been making horse-drawn carriages since 1886, purchased Buick and would later add Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Cadillac, among others. Durant was forced out in 1910 by his stockholders after a deal to buy Ford fell through and he would form Chevrolet in 1911.

Get Out Your Record Books: Jim Bottomley of the St Louis Cardinals establishes a new major league record with 12 runs batted in in a game on this date in 1924. Bottomley went 6-for-6 with two home runs and a double in a 17-3 win over Brooklyn, whose team was then known as the Robins. Bottomley broke the record of 11, established by Brooklyn’s manager that day, Wilbert Robinson in 1892.

The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: With the loss, the Robins drop to a game-and-a-half behind the eventual pennant winners, the New York Giants, who split a doubleheader with Cincinnati. The Cardinals had been out of the race for several weeks.

Oh Yeah: Bottomley’s record still stands, though it would be tied by Mark Whitten, also of the Cardinals, in 1993.

It’s Good To Be The King, At Least Till You’re Deposed: A coup to depose Argentine president Juan Peron is launched on this date in 1955. It would be successful three days later and Peron barely made it out alive, escaping on a gunboat provided by neighboring Paraguay. Peron would spend 18 years in exile in various places in South America and Europe before returning to the Argentine presidency in 1973.

That Will Teach Him To Snitch For The CIA: Former dictator of Panama Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in US prison on this date in 1992. This follows his conviction on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, despite the fact he had been a useful CIA informant for decades. Noriega would later be extradited to France and then to Panama, where he died this past May.

Quotebook: Basic human nature never changed; the collective human text demonstrated that incontrovertibly. – Fred Kaplan, Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Oliver Wendell Holmes, then an officer with the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, wrote a fifth verse to The Star Spangled Banner. While popular during the war in the North, few remember it today.

Today’s Stumper:  When was General Motors removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average? – Answer next time!

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Notes from around the Human Experience…

GAYLON FOR CONGRESS…VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN: Sometimes, probably in my role as a past candidate for both the United States Senate and House of Representatives, I‘ll get asked what we can do in the current political climate, which is that of a partisan, fractured and bickering government. My answer is always the same: PAY ATTENTION. Pay attention to what our government is, and is not, doing for us.

Dry, Technical Matter: Right now is a good time to pay attention because the United States Senate will soon begin debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, which mainly details how the Pentagon will go about its work in the next fiscal year. Senator Rand Paul is offering an amendment to the act that would repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), a separate act passed by Congress in the days following 9/11. The AUMF allowed the president to act unilaterally in using military force against those he deemed responsible for the attacks.

Fly In The Ointment: Since then, however, the act has been used to justify the use of American force wherever we choose to use it. It has been used to authorize actions in 14 countries and on the high seas.

This is wrong. The Constitution is very clear on the matter, with Article I, Section 8 stating, in part:

The Congress shall have Power To…declare War…

This was not an accident. There was virtually little desire at the Constitutional Convention to empower the chief executive to unilaterally declare war. Congress, despite the fact America has been at war for most of our existence, and continually since 1989, has only declared war five times over the centuries, none of them since 1942, a fact which surprises some people. 

We The People: This is where you and I come in. We must get involved. If you approve of the AUMF, great. We’re glad you’ve given it the thought required to form an informed opinion. We merely disagree on the matter and it is differences of opinion like this that makes horse racing so exciting.

OTOH: If you do not approve of the AUMF, get involved and let your representatives know. Now is the time for us to pay attention to what our leaders are doing – and not doing – for our country and to let them know how we feel. For too long we have given our leaders carte blanche to do what they want. The time has come for us to hold our leaders accountable. 

Please Pass The Dry, Technical Matter: No nation has survived perpetual war and America is not going to be the exception. America has been at war continuously since 1989 and there is no prospect of peace, the only dividend war is providing is more war. By forcing Congress to resume its Constitutional duties of declaring war, America will be a more peaceful nation because if Congress actually has to put the thought that is required into declaring war, we don’t think they’d do it unless there is a direct threat to our way of life. American meddling in other countries will stop.

The Bottom Line: Having one person in charge of deciding when we go to war is neither in step with the letter or the spirit of the Constitution and it is not in the spirit of a nation conceived in liberty. We can do better, but we have to let our leaders know we want better.

USA! USA!: In the War of 1812, the British attack but fail to capture Baltimore, Maryland on this date in 1814. The attack began in the morning and would continue until the following morning. When the smoke cleared and a lawyer named Francis Scott Key saw the American flag still waving he was so moved by the sight he wrote a poem about it called The Defence of Fort M’Henry. Some music from an old English drinking song would later be added and the result, The Star Spangled Banner, would become the national anthem of the United States in 1931.

FunFact: Key was moved to write four verses to his poem, though only the first verse is customarily played.

The Cold War: A Simpler Time: Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party on this date 1953. He would serve until thrown out in a bloodless coup by Leonid Brezhnev and associates in 1964. Kruschev did not handle his forced retirement well. He fell into depression and in 1965 had his pension reduced, though it was still comfortable by Soviet standards, and was obliged to move to a small home. He died in 1971.

Those Zany Soviets: Man reaches the moon for the first time when Luna 2, a Soviet spacecraft, crashes on the lunar surface on this date in 1959. About a half hour later the rocket carrying Luna 2 crashed on the moon.

Uh-Oh: Up to that time, the closest the United States had gotten to the moon was Pioneer 4, which had gotten within 34,000 miles of the moon the previous March.

Quotebook: Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself. – James Stephens, Irish poet (1882-1950)

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Benito Mussolini was attempting to flee to Switzerland when he was arrested in 1945.

Today’s Stumper:  When the Civil War broke out a fifth verse was added to The Star Spangled Banner. Who wrote this fifth verse? – Answer next time!

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