Friday, January 31, 2025
Haiku Friday: Napping
It's napping season. At least on weekends, if you are a worker bee like me. So let's haiku about that this week-- it can be about anyone or anything taking a nap. Here, I will go first:
Sunlight enhances
Winter sleepiness chances
Now, just leave me be.
Now it is your turn! Just use the 5/7/5 syllable pattern and have some fun...
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Political Mayhem Thursday: Maybe just take a nap?
The first days of the Trump administration have featured a firehose of announcements, Executive Orders, Vague Directives, and so much more.
Yes, it's overwhelming. And it's tempting to take a nap. Which, in a way, might be a good tactic because this pace is unsustainable. For one thing, it takes bureaucracy to implement policy, and this administration is focused on disrupting and eliminating much of that bureaucracy.
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Just type "resign"...
I have a number of friends and former students who are federal employees, especially at the Department of Justice. And.... these are some weird times for them.
The latest twist was an email sent out yesterday to 2 million federal employees offering them a weird buyout and establishing... well, a lot of stuff. It was titled "Fork in the Road."
Here are some to the highlights:
-- The "substantial majority" of federal employees will have to work in the office five days a week AND their office space is going to undergo "meaningful consolidations and divestitures." So, the plan is to have many more people come back to fewer office spaces. Which sounds pretty messy, huh?
-- Despite the horrific work conditions created by point one above and static pay, the goal is to have the workforce be comprised of "the best America has to offer." Because, you know, people who are at the top of their field are secretly looking for a pay cut and a ticket to the musical-chairs offices described above.
-- the great majority of federal agencies will be downsized.
-- AND, finally, if for some reason you think what is described above is for you, one thing to look forward to is the opportunity to be "subject to enhanced standards of suitability." Which means, um, something.
The buyout terms are fascinating: you can stay on until September and work from home instead of going in to the building to fight for an office. To take them up on this, the email instructs employees to respond to the email, type "resign" in the subject line, and hit "send."
All in all, interesting times, huh?
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Kind of my whole thing in a nutshell
This picture was taken in the Spring of 1980. Our school paper, the North Pointe, played a softball game against our arch-rival, the South Tower. (There were two high schools, Grosse Pointe North and Grosse Pointe South). It was a pretty fun game. I remember pitching, poorly, and that not many of us were very good at softball.
So, I'm not in the picture. That's because I left in the last inning of the game before the picture was taken.
I left to go get baptized by a somewhat confused Congregational minister (a denomination with infant baptism), because I decided that in the Bible people chose to be baptized as adults. He set it up at a Baptist church, which was a gesture I always appreciated. Obviously, I didn't invite a lot of people-- just my parents and a few witnesses-- but it was, in fact, deeply meaningful.
One thing I don't remember is what I said when I took off from the game....
Monday, January 27, 2025
Poems on ice
Good job with this wintry theme! I especially liked CraigA's work:
Night temps in the teens:
Warm gas fireplace with good book,
and a touch of Makers!
Warm gas fireplace with good book,
and a touch of Makers!
Christine probably shouldn't visit Minnesota right now:
Landed in Tampa
Late yesterday evening
Needed my mittens
Brrrrr, house was sixty⁰
Heat ran nonstop through the night
Sleeping beneath down.
Late yesterday evening
Needed my mittens
Brrrrr, house was sixty⁰
Heat ran nonstop through the night
Sleeping beneath down.
IPLawGuy is off on a tangent (but I like it):
She's as cold as Ice
I never did like that song
Cold weather, I like!
I never did like that song
Cold weather, I like!
Jill Scoggins speaks the truth:
Pretty the first day
Still pretty the second. Come
the third, slushy mess.
Still pretty the second. Come
the third, slushy mess.
And of several anonymous entries, I liked this one the best:
Like a scimitar
Ice sliced through me, troika leapt
Minnesota sled.
Ice sliced through me, troika leapt
Minnesota sled.
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Sunday Reflection: From Luke 4
14Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
There is a lot going on here, of course. But the part that really hits me is this: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor..." Wow! I mean... right there, it lays out what we need to do if we want to walk with Jesus to fulfill his mission:
-- Help the poor
-- Release the captives
-- Heal the sick
-- Free the oppressed from their oppression
-- Proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (maybe a reference to the year of Jubilee, which occurs every 50 years and involves the forgiveness of debts-- and it is this year, 2025)
Not included:
-- Judging others
-- Comforting the rich
-- Seeking power
One thing I would note... people often read "free the captive" as being about freedom from sin rather than being about actual prisoners. I'm not so sure about that. After all, that reading would make "freeing the oppressed" redundant, for one thing. In addition, a reading that this is about actual prisoners seems to be supported by Jesus's express interest in the imprisoned (ie, "when you visit those in prison, you visit me").
You might think that maybe by adopting this reading, I'm just justifying my own work (I was in a prison yesterday, in fact). But that's backward-- I adopted that reading before I became an advocate and began to pursue that work because I think it is a biblical mandate. It's not a justification, it's a motivation.
And you know what? It is hard sometimes, as it should be (Jesus never promised easy). I had an attorney visit with a pro bono client, but it was regular visiting day, too. That meant the lobby and parking lot were full of wives, grandfathers, mothers, and especially lots and lots of kids waiting to see someone. There is a lot of crying, and yesterday a disturbance when someone was accused of bringing in contraband. When I got back to my car there was a woman my age sitting in the car next to me, her body curved over the steering wheel, sobbing. It was that kind of crying that inhabits a whole body, haunts it, fills every cell. I couldn't move. Such failures, we are.
Before that, I was walking out past one kid, and he looked up at me, and seemed to be wondering what I was doing there. Often I wonder the same thing, given the frequent futility of it all.
But, too, I had footsteps to follow. Even though I am so bad at it and so often fail, I still have to try....
About right for right now!
Friday, January 24, 2025
Haiku Friday: The Deepest Cold
Here in the north country, it has been below zero-- as cold as -18-- for a while now. It's a good thing, really; this part of the world needs a good deep cold to keep invasive species at bay, among other things.
It's pretty cold where you are, too, most likely. So let's haiku about that this week. Here, I will go first:
Went out with wet hair
In an instant, It stiffens
Crunchy to the touch.
Now it is your turn! Just use the 5/7/5 syllable formula, and have some fun!
Thursday, January 23, 2025
PMT: Less-noticed Trump executive orders
In the flurry of executive orders the first few days of the Trump administration, some grabbed most of the attention while others didn't get noticed as much. Here are the details on some of those other executive orders:
-- Trump changed the name of the "Gulf of Mexico" to the "Gulf of America."
-- All cats living within 100 miles of the southern border were ordered to "return to Mexico." (see illustration).
-- Revoked the 1965 executive order that required equal opportunity in federal hiring.
-- Americans who identify as transgender were banned from all bathroom use within the continental United States.
-- Rescinded a 2022 executive order that lowered the price of certain prescription drugs
-- Yves St. Laurent was declared a foreign terrorist organization.
-- Issued an order "defending and protecting women from solar energy."
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Quiet and Tumult
I have friends who have decided to withdraw from engaging with the news of late. They aren't reading the paper or web sites, they aren't talking about politics. They are letting the chaos of administration change play out without them.
It's a choice I respect, though I am not making that same choice. The truth is that the election is behind us, and there are limits to what any one person can do to influence the course of human events in this moment. And for many, it is a choice to preserve mental health.
I do hope that many others choose otherwise--that they stay plugged in and engaged and hopeful to some degree about what can come next. Some of what people fear will never materialize, and others will be slow to develop. There is good work to be done, by people on every side of things. Our country works best when there is dialogue and interplay between competing forces and if we lose that we will lose it all.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Quite a day....
January, 2025 is going to go down as the most important month in the history of federal clemency, and yesterday was probably the most significant single day for clemency since the Nixon pardon.
First, while he was still president, Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons to members of his family and others he feared would be prosecuted, including Anthony Fauci and Liz Cheney. He also commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier.
After being sworn in, Donald Trump granted commutations of sentence to 14 leaders of the events on January 6, 2021, including top people in the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Everyone else who has been charged-- between 1500-1600 individuals-- received a full pardon. You can read the whole statement here.
Anyways... here is what I told The Washington Post, (twice, actually) WCCO Radio, and the Christian Science Monitor,
Monday, January 20, 2025
The poems at the end
We had some poignant haiku on the end of the Biden era. Like this from anonymous:
A decent man, a
true public servant but one
term woulda been best
Like LBJ, he’ll
be known for great success and
great failure. Mixed bag.
His rep will only
grow with time. History will
be kinder than peers.
true public servant but one
term woulda been best
Like LBJ, he’ll
be known for great success and
great failure. Mixed bag.
His rep will only
grow with time. History will
be kinder than peers.
Christine, I know!!!
But before he leaves
A long awaited gift for you
Drug commutations
(They heard you)
A long awaited gift for you
Drug commutations
(They heard you)
IPLawGuy has a truth:
Ukraine, investment
But GOP brought their guns
Biden had a knife.
But GOP brought their guns
Biden had a knife.
And so did anonymous:
You need to wake up!
Your work finally paid off!
Commutation Day!!!!
Your work finally paid off!
Commutation Day!!!!
And this other anonymous:
Little boy stutters
But works real hard—President,
Bullies don’t forget.
But works real hard—President,
Bullies don’t forget.
And a third:
We curse infrastructure
But enjoy jobs,applaud Peace,
Old man suffers,tears.
But enjoy jobs,applaud Peace,
Old man suffers,tears.
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Sunday Reflection: A Moment
Ten years ago, I had a remarkable group of students in my clemency clinic (as seems to happen every year). One of them was Charles Dolson, who had a pretty eventful life before law school as a Marine and then as a police officer for the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, where he is from. I paired him with Sara Sommervold and sent them to visit their client, Amos Scott, in the federal prison at Victorville, California, a dusty place up in the high desert north of Los Angeles. They wrote a great petition for Mr. Scott, but it languished with thousands of others.
Charles went on to earn an MBA and work in a number of positions both with the Red Lake Band and others, and currently he serves as general counsel to a number of entities. I asked him to come back on Friday to speak to and swear in the new St. Thomas clinic students, a group of about 35.
I met him down in the courtroom shortly before the ceremony. I had printed off the list of 2490 people whose sentences had just been commuted that day. Charles rifled through the list and there it was, the name he was looking for: Amos Scott.
That was a remarkable moment; that we would be together, 10 years later, waiting to talk to the next generation of people doing similar work, when that news came.
Of course, there was a lot building up to that moment, done by some of my heroes. Biden rooted his decision on his (correct) perception that Black men like Amos Scott were too often over-sentenced for narcotics, particularly crack cocaine. The most important mover in beginning and maintaining that fight was my mentor Nkechi Taifa:
Her work pushed President Obama to use clemency for people like Jason Hernandez, who became a great advocate in his own right:
And then Nkechi Taifa started working with one of my other great mentors, Dr. Joanne Braxton:
And then, somehow, I'm sitting with Charles Dolson when we find out Amos Scott will be free, because of what so many other people (including Joe Biden) have done.
Because... it takes all of us. All of us. It takes all of us to make things right.
Saturday, January 18, 2025
All in for Handsome Boy Modeling School
Friday, January 17, 2025
Haiku Friday: Good-bye, Joe Biden
On Monday, we will have a new old president, and Joe Biden will officially be de-inaugurated (which is the ceremony where he turns in his keys and laptop and then departs Washington in a hot air balloon). Biden leaves with the worst approval numbers of his entire tenure, and I'm not sure why that is, exactly. So let's haiku about him this week. Here, I will go first:
Clemency waited
Until the very last month
But then... I'll take it!
Now it is your turn! Just use the 5/7/5 syllable count and have some fun!
Thursday, January 16, 2025
PMT: Biden's farewell
With almost a week to go, it seems a little early for a farewell speech, but that is what we got from President Biden last night. Part of what he warned of was the growing power of the super-rich. He's right about that, of course, but unfortunately did little to address wealth disparities (or even talk about it) during the heart of his presidency. That was, after all, Bernie Sanders' issue, and Bernie was right (as was Elizabeth Warren, who often talked about the same thing). It's a little late to come to the side he defeated in the primaries back in 2020.
He also warned about a "tech-industrial complex," which seems to be a play on Eisenhower's reference to a "military-industrial complex" in his own farewell. The problem is that Eisenhower's term made sense (the military and its suppliers in industry really were a dangerous and powerful influence) while "tech-industrial" doesn't make much sense because there is not the same kind of combination between tech and industry (beyond the extent to which tech IS an industry). Tech doesn't much care where industry is, after all-- here or in Europe or in China. Tech has a fundamental interest in internationalism and free markets, while industry has a fundamental interest in protected markets. They don't align in the way Biden suggests.
Of course, the power of tech companies is real, but also is a field of rapid innovation and real competition (at least for now).
In the end, Biden never found a theme that worked for him and the American people. He hit a good one at the end-- the dangers of a super-wealthy class-- but he was new to that game and had pushed aside those who were best at presenting that narrative.
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Open Minds (PBS)
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
One Week
One week from today, we will see the inauguration of Donald Trump as the President of the United States (for the second time). He actually has a surprisingly long list of things he has said he will do on that first day:
-- Pardon Jan. 6 defendants
-- Begin mass deportations
-- Shut down the US/Mexico border
-- End the Russia-Ukraine war
-- Reinstate travel bans
-- Suspend the admission of refugees into the country
-- End the Biden-era app for migrants (CBP One)
-- End birthright citizenship
-- Stop the "electric vehicle mandate" and other Green New Deal programs
-- Remove "every single burdensome regulation" that drives up the cost of goods
-- Ban transgender people from the military and sports
-- Cut federal funding for "woke" schools that teach critical race theory
-- Restrict DEI programs
There's more, of course, but those are most of the big ones.
Will he be able to do all that?
Well, no. I doubt he can end the war in Ukraine (at least on Day One). Ending birthright citizenship would seem to take a Constitutional amendment. But he could direct federal offices not to recognize birthright citizenship, and then wait for the ensuing (and probably losing) court battle to begin.
Much of these goals, however, can be the subject of executive orders signed on that first day, and I fully expect him to sign a giant stack of them-- and their legality and implementation will take a while to sort out.
At any rate.... it will be a big news day.
Monday, January 13, 2025
Poems of fire and snow
So many good haiku!
We had a no less than three from Virginians: CraigA, Des, and IPLawGuy. CraigA's first:
We Virginians do
Not know what to do with the
White stuff: Bless our hearts!
Not know what to do with the
White stuff: Bless our hearts!
And Des:
And IPLawGuy:
Fire and cold weather
Nature will refresh and cleanse
Humans must adjust.
Nature will refresh and cleanse
Humans must adjust.
Christine weighed in from neighboring North Carolina:
Handy ice scrapper
Sits unused in the glove box
Waiting patiently
I am traveling
Snow expected in Durham
Cold in Florida.
Sits unused in the glove box
Waiting patiently
I am traveling
Snow expected in Durham
Cold in Florida.
And Jill Scoggins from neighboring Kentucky (formerly part of Virginia, in fact) had this gem:
City draped in white…
New tracks each morning reveal
critters come by night
These visitors leave
a roadmap of indents on
my yard, front and back
Where do they come from?
Where are they going? What do
they do as I sleep?
Under cover, I
stay warm, unaware of this
entire other world.
New tracks each morning reveal
critters come by night
These visitors leave
a roadmap of indents on
my yard, front and back
Where do they come from?
Where are they going? What do
they do as I sleep?
Under cover, I
stay warm, unaware of this
entire other world.
And a bunch of anonymous entries... here are three of my favorites. One:
She sat smartly in
High heels and Chanel, ladling
Ice into Chablis.
High heels and Chanel, ladling
Ice into Chablis.
Two:
Behind cottage in
The snowy meadow sparrows
Vie for a seed feast.
The snowy meadow sparrows
Vie for a seed feast.
And Three:
Body iced, she clung
To stone,and whispered from grave
He knelt with a rose.
To stone,and whispered from grave
He knelt with a rose.
