Daily Digest |  |
- Catch Me On Laura Ingraham Tonight
- Yaphet Kotto, RIP
- Chauvin trial day 6
- Merkel’s party hammered in two state elections
- No Fireworks at Mount Rushmore?
| Catch Me On Laura Ingraham Tonight Posted: 16 Mar 2021 01:31 PM PDT (John Hinderaker) I will be on the Laura Ingraham TV show on Fox News tonight at around 9:20 Central, 10:20 Eastern, talking about the Derek Chauvin trial. Please tune in, there is much to say and time will be short.     |
| Posted: 16 Mar 2021 12:28 PM PDT (Paul Mirengoff) I learned today from the Power Line picks that Yaphet Kotto has died. I learned from the obituary that Scott (I assume) linked to that Kotto was Jewish. I had no idea. Kotto wasn’t a convert to Judaism. According to ManishTana, a website run by an Orthodox rabbi, Kotto's father immigrated to the U.S. from Cameroon in the 1920s as an observant Jew who could speak Hebrew. Kotto reportedly said that his father's ancestors were African Jews who originally came from the area of modern Israel and migrated through Egypt to Cameroon. Kotto is remembered for his roles as villains, including the dictator Dr. Kananga in the James Bond film "Live and Let Die" and Idi Amin in the TV movie "Raid on Entebbe." However, he played a good police lieutenant in “Across 110th Street” (1972). Anthony Quinn played the (mostly) bad captain with whom the Kotto character butted heads. Quinn stole scenes from pretty much every actor he ever shared the screen with. However, Kotto, still early in his career, just about held his own in this film. If you haven’t seen “Across 110th Street,” I recommend that you do. It’s sometimes considered part of the Blaxploitation genre of the early 1970s (“Shaft” and all that). I don’t think of it that way. I consider it one of the best police movies ever. The racial tension sets it apart. Quentin Tarantino is an admirer of “Across 110th Street.” He paid tribute to it in “Jackie Brown,” my favorite Tarantino movie. The film, starring Pam Grier (who gained early fame in Blaxploitation movies), opens and closes with the theme song from the movie, by Bobby Womack. Kotto took his Judaism very seriously. He speculated that if he hadn’t been an actor, he would have become a Rabbi. That’s a congregation I would have loved to be part of.   |
| Posted: 16 Mar 2021 03:28 AM PDT (Scott Johnson) At the end of the motion hearing yesterday morning, defense counsel Eric Nelson expressed his grave concern over the effect of the city’s world-beating $27 million wrongful death settlement in the civil litigation resulting from the death of George Floyd. Nelson cited prejudicial comments made by Mayor Frey and the members of the city clowncil in support of the settlement. With seven jurors selected and released until the beginning of the trial proper on March 29, he complained of the settlement’s “suspicious timing” and “unavoidable headlines.” Nelson accordingly moved for a continuance of proceedings scheduled for March 29, renewed his change of venue motion, and asked for further voir dire of the seven jurors on their possible exposure to news of the settlement. He also asked for extra peremptory strikes and immediate sequestration. “This should be the subject of a hearing,” Nelson argued, to be added to a hearing on the leak to the New York Times regarding settlement negotiations in Chauvin’s criminal case. The last point follows from Tim Arango’s February 10 New York Times story. Defendants have filed a dismissal motion predicated on the possible violation of the court’s gag order that the story represents. I am not aware that any hearing has been scheduled on that motion. In response, Steven Schleicher — one of the several attorneys contributing his services to the Chauvin prosecution — argued that the state had no control over the comments made by city officials. He argued further that the settlement was not coordinated by the state and that jurors have expressed their ability to set publicity aside. Judge Cahill drily responded: “You would agree that it’s unfortunate.” The defense has “a legitimate concern,” he observed. The only motion he granted, however, was further voir dire of the seven jurors selected so far. As for the rest, he added, “Let’s wait to see if we have a problem.” As I’ve been saying right along, we have a problem, but I’m not sure the judicial system can mitigate it. Judge Cahill concluded his comments by taking the motion for a continuance under advisement. I think the same applies to the defense’s renewed motion for change of venue. Juror number 51 illustrated one set of prejudice problems. She had inadvertently heard about the settlement over the weekend. She works in human resources and had a sophisticated understanding of the interplay between the civil and criminal litigation. She drove by the Third Precinct on her way to court that morning, she said, as well as past the no-go zone honoring George Floyd at 38th and Chicago. She has been exposed to so much, she said, she is leaning way over to one side. The settlement impacted her as well. She could perhaps be impartial in the case of the other three officers charged with Floyd’s death, but not in this one. So long, juror number 51. Juror number 52 professed to be “a friendly, positive person.” He works in banking and coaches youth sports. He sounded to me like an extremely decent and reasonable man, but he has views that would have made me want to strike him. He believes that racial discrimination exists “well beyond what the media can report.” He thought that the other three officers should have intervened to stop Chauvin, as has just about every prospective juror, but he professed his ability to be impartial and follow the law as given. He wants to serve as a juror. He would love to be a part of “this historic case,” he said. A black male in his 30’s, he was the eighth juror seated in the case. Juror number 54 expressed doubt that he could be impartial. A senior citizen who could have been excused as a matter of course by his age, he was excused for cause. Juror number 55 struck me as dangerous for the defense. She is a white woman in her 50’s who is an executive assistant at a health clinic. On the jury questionnaire she said she has a “somewhat negative” view of both Derek Chauvin and Black Lives Matter. She expressed concerns for her personal safety depending on “the end result.” The question, she said, is how others will perceive the verdict. I read her as a possible leader on the jury. Juror number 55 is the ninth juror seated in the case. I thought we were on a roll, but no. Jurors number 59 and 62 were excused for cause. Fifty-nine is a school teacher. By my lights, he would probably have been out on that ground alone. He doubted he could grant Chauvin the presumption of innocence. “I’m almost sick to my stomach right now,” he said. Juror number 62 channeled the concerns I have expressed here and elsewhere about the case. He noted that it would be difficult to confine the decision to the courtroom. He wonders if the safety of his family would be at risk if the outcome of the case were to go “a certain way.” That’s one way to put it. I’ll have to remember that one. Juror number 60 doesn’t like controversy. He is an undergraduate who would like to go to law school. He doesn’t want to make anybody angry. He seemed to me to understand the intellectual environment he’s swimming in with great acuity. He perceives the college campus as liberal ground. He had no opinion of Chauvin’s conduct. He is also scared he might make the wrong decision in the case. I read him as a classic follower. He would have gone with the flow in deliberations. I thought Nelson wasted a peremptory strike to remove him from the jury panel.   |
| Merkel’s party hammered in two state elections Posted: 15 Mar 2021 07:31 PM PDT (Paul Mirengoff) Germany's ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) suffered big defeats in two state elections yesterday. It lost in both Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, collecting only about one-fourth of the vote in each. Angela Merkel, the CDU leader, will be stepping down as chancellor. Yesterday’s results suggest that her successor as party leader may be in for a difficult time. Germany has been hit much less hard by the Wuhan coronavirus than have the UK, Spain, France, Italy, and the U.S. Deaths per capita in Germany are about half the number in these nations. The German economy has, of course, been socked by the lockdowns imposed in response to the virus. GDP contracted by about 5 percent in Germany last year. That’s better than the Euro-zone as a whole. Its GDP dropped by almost 7 percent last year. However, in the U.S., GDP shrank by only about 3.5 percent. Germany has not had good success vaccinating its people against the virus. As with the EU as a whole, vaccinations have lagged compared to the U.S. and the UK. To make matters worse, Germany has stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine due to fears that it causes potentially deadly blood clots. I don’t know of many nations that hit the trifecta of comparatively low death rates from the virus, little economic shrinkage, and rapid vaccinations. Israel is the only one that comes to mind. It leads the world in the race to vaccinate its entire population, has had fewer per capita deaths than even Germany, and experienced only about a 2.5 percent dip in GDP last year. Germany did reasonably well by two of these three measures compared to other similar countries, but its ruling party still seems to be in trouble. Part of the problem may be scandals involving prominent CDU politicians (though not Merkel) who are accused of profiting from public contracts for face masks and of questionable ties to Azerbaijan (not related to the pandemic). Voters usually find corruption off-putting, and are less likely to forgive it when things aren’t going well on one or more important front. I don’t do exit questions, but if I do wonder how Israel’s ruling party will fare in upcoming elections. As noted, its response to the pandemic has been the envy of the world (or should be). However, Prime Minister Netanyahu is on trial for alleged corruption. The evidentiary stage of that trail is scheduled to begin in early April, shortly after elections. But the three criminal charges have been levied and are there for all to see. Stay tuned.   |
| No Fireworks at Mount Rushmore? Posted: 15 Mar 2021 05:49 PM PDT (John Hinderaker) My family likes to go to South Dakota for the Fourth of July because that state’s fireworks laws are, to put it mildly, liberal. In my home town there is a fireworks emporium, a warehouse essentially, where you push a shopping cart between the aisles and, for $150 or so, you can buy a reloadable mortar and a lot of shells that burst overhead, so you can put on a display more or less like what a town might do. In South Dakota as elsewhere, fireworks are a symbol of both freedom and patriotism. Which is why liberals hate them. Fox News reports that the Biden administration is trying to block any fireworks display at Mount Rushmore next July 4:
First, there was nothing about last year’s fireworks display that justifies the NPS’s claims. They are just making that part up. Second, the idea that the “health and safety of employees and visitors” are somehow endangered by fireworks of the sort the state would put on is ludicrous. Yes, you can blow off a finger with a firework (probably an illegal one) if you are unusually careless, but that isn’t what the state has in mind. The reference to “the park’s many tribal partners” is more revealing. The Biden administration hates displays of patriotism and wants to suppress them. But most Native Americans are, in fact, patriotic. This is a little-known fact in some circles: Indians have historically had above-average rates of military service, and pow-wows generally include a prominent display of the American flag. But the politicized “leaders” of the Indian community are another story. They are the ones to whom the Biden administration turns for support. Will Independence Day go by without a celebration at Mount Rushmore? Not if South Dakota’s leaders–actual leaders, as opposed to the Slow Joe variety–can help it:
My guess is that the people of South Dakota will prevail. But this small conflict provides a window into the anti-Americanism of the radical leftists who run what is laughingly referred to as the “Biden administration.”   |
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