Pandemic and The Little Things

I will be stuck at home, office closed, not working every single day, for the first time in 35 years. This is already a life with which I am unfamiliar.
It is not frightening, I have no fear of running out of TP or food, but I do fear being bored. After all, we all die, don't we?
Wherever I travel, I ask some tour guide about their country's system of justice. About the death penalty. That guide in Ecuador said he believed his government should reinstitute it. Carlos got a story, and I seem to recall I might have raised my voice. Carlos did say he had not completely thought it through.
In this country, that penalty is mostly bourn by the masses who committed the ultimate crime: being poor.
25 years ago, that poor black guy was charged with capital murder, and I was court appointed to represent him.
Word around the community was that some 80 year old guy was keeping $8,000 cash in his home. A young guy wanted it, got Willie, a renown burglar, to go with him to find it.
While Willie was pilfering through the house expertly, looking for that cash, the young guy shot and killed the old man. All Willie could find was a big jar of coins.
I think the reason why I was so hell bent and determined to save Willie's life was that he was so surprised by that gunfire. I do not believe he knew his young pal was packing.
I filed every pre-trial motion on the books, and resorted to my favorite legal practice, which is simply to make shit up and see if it works.
The prosecutor grew very tired of this, and he eventually asked that the murder charge be dismissed, and to proceed on a lesser included offense of burglary of a habitatation, and we all agreed on a sentence to prison.
Willie did serve 10 years, day for day, and during that time, he wrote me letters to request I put some money in his commissary account for soap, shampoo, toothpaste, Ramen Noodles, and so forth. I kept him clean, always responding with some money, hoping he stayed clean, enjoyed his noodles. He could not read or write. His cellie did it, and his cellie always added a nice thank you.
Willie made parole, got on the bus to come home, died in his seat from a heart attack.
His Mom and sister came to my office a couple of days afterwards. They told me he had insisted on being dropped off near my office on his way home. He wanted to see me first.
I remember Carlos rethinking his ideas about the death penalty, I remember the value of making shit up.
This pandemic and likely depression that will result made me think back to Willie.
We must do all we can to end the death penalty from lack of medicine and access to a hospital bed.
We must resort to every method for survival we know, and when that doesn't work, we must make shit up.
We must all make parole, get on that bus, get to the most important person we know.
Pandemic, panic, and fear, be damned.

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mhagle's picture

Thank you.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

@mhagle and friends all come to me for their legal problems to this day.
Willie did not get the health care he needed while being locked up.
The state didn't kill him on the gurney, but they did kill him, nonetheless.
Wonder what the state is providing to their inmates today for sanitation.
Soap?

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

ggersh's picture

@on the cusp @on the cusp https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/20/always-look-on-the-bright-side-o...

+ Apparently, the Vampires don’t only come out at night, consider Sen. Ron Johnson (who Wisconsin elected over Russ Feingold): “Getting coronavirus is not a death sentence except for maybe no more than 3.4 percent of our population. We don’t shut down our economy because tens of thousands of people die on the highways.” (By the way, 3.4 percent of the US population is: 10.8 million people.)

+ After attending a secret briefing on COVID-19, Johnson sold off $25 million in stock equity. Then he voted against the coronavirus relief package…

EDIT: thank you otc for just being you!

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh

After attending a secret briefing on COVID-19, Johnson sold off $25 million in stock equity. Then he voted against the coronavirus relief package…
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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

zett's picture

@ggersh @ggersh I want to scream.

My God, I still can't get over that WI traded *Russ Feingold* for that slope headed POS.
I can only hope the insider trading takes a bunch of them out, but I hate him the most.

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@on the cusp and the injustice system.
In 2004 I was in the County jail in Fort Worth, I was held without bail because the Probation dept. put a 'hold' on me and because of my medical needs I was put in the medical care wing in a cell I shared with a guy in for a Parole violation.
My cellmate, James, had a bunk that was close to the floor so he couldn't hurt himself by falling out of it during a seizure, and they were frequent,there was an emergency button on the wall but obviously it needed someone other than him to push it when a seizure happened.

My first night there I had to hit that button and while help was coming to the cell I was put in another cell where I stayed until whatever the responders did to stabilize James then I was moved back to the cell where he seemed to be peacefully asleep, at least for the next five or six hours until the whole scenario happened, only this time he was taken to the hospital.

The next afternoon James was brought back in his wheelchair, looking alert and talkative so I heard how he'd violated his parole.
He had not been home for his Parole officer's home visit and his PO promptly revoked his parole and a warrant was issued for his arrest and the warrant was served on him where they found him, at the County hospital, John Peter Smith. He got there from home via an ambulance because he'd had another seizure and a friend called them to the house. That is why he missed being home for the PO's visit.

I told him this has gotta be slam dunk for you when your PO hears the whole story, then he told me he had been there for six months and his PO had called for a hearing to review his revocation order and the date hadn't happened yet because of delays and scheduling problems.
Despite the facts about his reason for not being at home, James was still afraid he was going back to prison regardless, a place where he had spent fifteen years before parole.

James told me when I asked that he did have a pro bono lawyer, and not his first but he couldn't remember his name but it didn't matter because he'd heard it had been assigned to another one that he hoped to see someday soon.
As the days and weeks went by the seizures continued at least four or five times a week, minimum, at all hours of the day and night, I kept punching that emergency button and eventually learned that the bell ringing twice meant the in house doctor was needed, three rings meant an ambulance was needed asap. Three rings happened more than just a few times and every time after a day or maybe two days later James wold be rolled back into the cell.

I don't want to make this too long but I want to tell a few more things before I say how it ended.
James' time in that cell had not been good, to say the least, in fact his last cell mate would just take his food as James was incapable of fighting from a wheelchair or bed.
James told inmate friends about it when everyone was sent to the 'day room' to eat at noon and at five pm, but breakfast was served at the cell and one guard after hearing about it all peered thru the little window of the cell one morning after breakfast had been delivered and he witnessed the inmate taking his food.
Of course that inmate was removed, and from what I heard the guards beat him badly during the 'extraction', which I confess I was glad to hear.

I now understood why after I was first put in that cell with James I would see a guard would come to the window after the food cart had already moved on, but it stopped after a week and maybe because unknown to me James had told his inmate friends that "Ronnie and I have a good arrangement".
What James and I both liked was the fact that I'm a vegetarian, so I traded meat for his veggies. I help him on other things but getting the meat for non meat items was the big deal and maybe it explains why an older Black man, like James,started getting his newspaper sent to me after he and his cell mate were finished with it, even sending along a package of coffee one time (he wouldn't know I've never been a coffee drinker but James certainly was) so everyone was a winner.

How it ended.
Every Wednesday a Preacher would come to the floor for a sermon out in the hallway and most of the others ,like myself, only attended just to get out of the cell for a couple of hours because in that unit you were in lock down around the clock with the exception a short time for two of the meals and once a week a few hours in the day room.
Then one day James told me the Church of that Pastor had taken up his cause with the pro bono help of two members of the Church's congregation and it was looking good.
James was happy, to say the least,and I was happy for him when I heard he was being released after a bunch of paperwork was ready later in the day but before that happened another seizure happened and as I was moved to another cell so they could get in there and work on James I heard the bell ring three times so I knew he was going to the hospital.
The way I saw it at least he wouldn't be brought back to jail when he was released. That felt good.

The next evening I asked a couple of guards if James was coming back to jail because every time I heard the door buzzer I worried they'd be wheeling James back. Those guards glared at me, and gave me that 'I'd better shut up' feeling, so I said nothing else.
But in the jail pipeline others knew the answer and the inmate that had been giving me his newspaper told me in the day room that James had died of a heart attack downstairs.

That story bothers the hell out of me every time I think about it.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@aliasalias

and if you have no money you get screwed.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@aliasalias how police treat human beings. It is not benign disregard. It is intentional.
I once represented a young guy on a violent offense. He had beat the shit out of somebody and almost killed them. Some deadly weapon was involved. Since he had already been to the pen a couple of times, I couldn't even try to negotiate for some lenient sentence.
At that time, we had assigned to the county a short, stocky, young highway patrol. He was an amateur boxer. My guy was in his late twenties, medium build, maybe 5'9.
The officer had been the one to arrest him. Apparently, he thought my guy needed to be taught some lesson.
He went into the cell, started to fight, and my guy got him down and beat him severely, breaking ribs, his arm, smashing his face, and the cop had to leave by ambulance.
The guy was never charged with assault on a peace officer. That incident was not investigated. The cop was assigned to another county.
Rarely do cops ever get held under scrutiny. Prison guards are also given blind eyes by the wardens.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp can guess the part I liked the best.
I'm old now but when I was 19 years old in the County jail (strangely enuf the same one) I watched some linebacker sized guards brutally beat a young Black man in his cell before dragging him out of there to 'the hole' on the top floor (I spent a few days there once) and the news came back that he died in the elevator on the way. A "bad fall".
I still have a hatred for them, and so many other sociopaths that choose to be guards,so any story with any of them getting some payback is always great to hear.

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@aliasalias

glad I'm not the only one here
that has noticed the ill eagle
at work

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@aliasalias and assassinated, I could solve a dozen murders. At least 2 were by cops.
My client was the hero of the inmates. I sensed even the prosecutor thought he did a good job "defending himself" by breaking that crooked cops' various and sundry bones.
I advise clients constantly about how prison does more than ruin the life they know. It is likely to result in life ending altogether.
Texas prisons are currently understaffed, they will hire anybody as a guard, train them for a few weeks, and long time guards with some retirement are quitting. They tell me the environment is not safe for anybody.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp and unbeknownst to most people. I had one friend who survived in prison not by being a good fighter, but because he knew a fair amount about law even tho he had never passed the Bar or taken lessons.
He survived because he was useful to some tough cons in that role,when he told me about it he laughed and called himself "a writ writing monkey" and according to him, he had some good wins for a few inmates, so no one would dare lay a hand on him. That was his protection,and I have met a few (very few, but still more than rich people)real lawyers in jail and damn near everyone wanted his ear on their case, so they had protection.

I think too many people think what they see on TV is what the law,and the prosecutors are very rarely not paragons of virtue, so the audience get that great feeling when the star of the show (the prosecutor of course) gets someone sentenced to many decades in prison.

Maybe many of them deserve it, and I've met a few, but what still bothers me the most is the change in this society over the years. I remember the first TV series I saw as a kid was called "The Defenders" with E G Marshall and people rooted for the 'Defense' in that show, and there have been since that time some other good shows from the Defense side of things, altho with a lot of fluff, like 'The Practice' and 'Boston Legal' but they didn't last like 'Law and Order' which was/is all about prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law.

It was usually about someone who had created a heinous crime so everyone could cheer when the 'thumbs down' happened and they got long sentences and they disappeared from the courtroom, and life, in the custody of the Bailiff. and no one cared about about the life they would now live.

A very good late friend of mine was a lawyer in Nacogdoches that got assigned to a lot of cases representing the poor, and he said to me "all the DA wants from me are guilty plea bargains" , most weren't a 'bargain' and he was allotted a pathetic sum to represent multiple defendants. Of course, comparatively the DA has a treasure chest with which to work.

One note to that last point, when I was a teenager in Boulder Colorado I got busted for stealing a sandwich and when I was brought from the County Jail to the courtroom I met my lawyer for the first time, and nine other defendants. My part lasted only a few minutes before I was sentenced to fifteen days in the County jail.

I apologize for the length of this, if I could've said it in fewer words I would've,and in all due respect for you short of my personal stories I am telling nothing you don't know a lot better than I. Thanks for what you do.

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@aliasalias population.
Your friend that was on the court appointed list is correct. I can tell you the judges only appear to go on the list rotation. The select the lawyers who have no idea how to actually try a case to a jury most often, reserving the handful that can actually aggressively defend someone to a very small case load.
Once I did my first 2 or 3 appeals, I never got another appellate appointment. I didn't reverse them, but they were all close votes with strong dissents, and they all got published, and that ended my career possibilities for that particular niche.
Currently, I have volunteered for one judge to accept misdemeanor appointments. I get the ones where the defendant might be suffering from a mental illness, or some racially motivated case.
I was able to get a young woman with schizophrenia into a mental health facility, and her criminal case was dismissed.
That was a year or so ago.
She called me last week, out of the blue, to say she was in treatment, that the medications had changed her life, and that she was glad I didn't listen to her, and forced the hospitalization onto to her.
She is doing well, thriving today.
I think I got paid $750 from the county for my representation.
Hell, even the jailers were telling me she was very vulnerable in the jail.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp

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Lookout's picture

...about our injustice system. I appreciate your work for all the folks like Willie.

The other day you mentioned not being able to travel. I think we will be able to travel again after the vaccine sometime next year, or after fully recovering after having the virus.

Take care and be well!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout I do look forward to future travels. I think a vaccination document will be required for international travel in the near future. Anti-vaxxers can stay home.
I did put up a bit of info about a lock down coming in a few days.
My assistant stopped by just minutes ago, and he confirmed it from numerous sources. One of his clients has a son who works in the Pentagon. Another client is the son of a sheriff in a large community.
They said the same thing my friend said. Martial law, 30 day stay home enforcement, although my friend said he thought it would only last 2 weeks.
So, like Willie, we need to handle this confinement with our hopes for a better day to come.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

WaterLily's picture

@on the cusp Will we have 12 hours' warning (or at least a few)?

I have no doubt this is coming. Just wondering about when to head to the store for the last time, in anticipation.

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@WaterLily but it appears it will not be announced ahead of time.
From the timeline all the sources have given, it should be happening by Sunday or Monday.
I would imagine the announcement would come when people are most likely to be home.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Granma's picture

@on the cusp I don't see how workers will be able to prove they are headed to work. There won't be time for them to acquire any sort of paperwork.

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@Granma thin air that you are headed to the grocery store.
I have a cat at my office that I must feed daily. I get all my mail, business and personal, at my office.
I wonder how France, Germany, and Ecuador are able to identify essential workers, or essential trips?
How will banks operate?
Our government tends to do most everything wrong. I have little faith that any plan for lock downs is thorough and well planned.
I heard of more layoffs today.
It will be crazy.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp

individual businesses are closing down

if our work depends on those locations

being open, we don't work

sign zee papers old man

[video:https://youtu.be/fH1mtGhNVgI]

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7 users have voted.

@QMS I, too, will close, but I will continue to make payroll for the duration.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Granma's picture

@on the cusp in OR or WA states, for now said our governors. FWIW.

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@Granma @Granma

can you explain what shelter in place means?
I do understand shelter as being a concept
'in place' is a bit vague
are you saying the governors are
mandating the homeless can not move?

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Granma's picture

@QMS means about the same thing as a lockdown. My understanding is that a person can go to work, the grocery store, pharmacy, and for medical visits. Otherwise you are supposed to stay home in your own home. Homeless people aren't mentioned except for the places that are arranging additional shelters for them. Some cities are doing some of that.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@Granma

and gives you the illusion that it's your choice not to go out.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@Granma preparing for an economic collapse that is absolutely going to come, is almost impossible.
I am, for the first time I can remember in my entire damn life, really needing a hug.
I am already in unknown territory. That is just not how I roll.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp

duck your head
a storm is coming
ready or not
there we go

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Granma's picture

@on the cusp pretty badly right now. Needing one makes us human.

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@Granma Anyway, a right elbow pointing your way.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Granma's picture

@on the cusp (((((((((((((on the cusp)))))))))))))))))

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@Granma

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

mimi's picture

@on the cusp @on the cusp

I wonder how France, Germany, and Ecuador are able to identify essential workers, or essential trips?

I believe you can't control all the movements of all people in a country. You can try, but so far I don't see a reason why any country would be able to do it.

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We used to shop once a week. Now it's every day because of the empty shelves. today my wife wanted to go to Walmart to look for toilet paper. I said No. I'm leery of Walmart because of the crowds.

EDIT:
Also eating out every day to conserve the food at home.
I'd be happy to hibernate with my computers if the local government could assure me of a food supply.

Father was out of work when I was born in a poor section of Chicago. That's probably why I'm so hyper about food. I've been near death several times and aside from being tortured with a Zippo cigarette lighter, none of the pain can compare with hunger. Being buried in snow with wet clothes was bad but not nearly as bad as hunger. It really is true that after the intense pain you start to feel warm as consciousness fades. I've been close to dying from asthma. Believe me, starving is worse. Most kinds of extremity, you lose all or part of consciousness. hunger you are always painfully aware. I never was close to dying from hunger. Maybe you lose consciousness then too. The longest I remember was four days in the woods without eating. Air Force survival training.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness ends. It has been a running joke, but I am stocking up on beer. My pal at the convenience store said the Budweiser Brewery in Houston was going to close.
I heard, too, that hunger is the most painful thing imaginable. My Dad probably got his first full meal when he as 15. Given that he was shot 8 times with a machine gun in his torso, he still said hunger hurt worse.
Well, ok, then.
I spoke briefly with the grocery store asst. manager this morning, and she said she was hearing much the same thing about a lock down.
I closed up at the office, and intend to take a nap, get used to a life of leisure.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp
He is in a nursing home. I think they will continue to have food and wipes.

Radio says today the Chicago Sanitary District is saying that they are starting to have problems with sewers clogging up because people are flushing baby wipes and paper towels because no one can but toilet paper. There must be a bunch of people will a basement/garage full of toilet paper. I hope they choke on it. Or are robbed.

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12 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

CB's picture

Home Depot, Lowes, WallyMart and supermarkets in my area have a new policy of reserving their first hour of opening for seniors 65 and older. They are also closing earlier to allow their workers to restock and clean the stores. This will allow us old geezers a better chance at pulling through this plague.

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@CB I think being a farmer or rancher will start to look like a prestigious career.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@CB
Getting up at 6AM left me tired and cranky the rest of the day. I understand the logic, but I haven't got up to an alarm for five years,

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9 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

CB's picture

during the complete lock-down of a city of 11 million (NYC has 8.4 million)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UZPXD75HGM]

How China effectively coped with COVID-19 outbreak. Compare how US authorities dealt with this epidemic.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU9FVqwO4TM]

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TheOtherMaven's picture

at our favorite roadside stand. The usual sitting areas were roped off with police tape, and everybody was making at least some effort to stay away from each other.

The stand says they may have to reduce staff and hours soon. My thought is they will be lucky not to be closed down by government fiat.

Nothing is the same, or ever will be again.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.