Caution: Transportation is Dangerous to Your Health (?)

Several recent accidents and travel raise the question; Is it too dangerous to travel by plane, train, or bus? Is transportation dangerous? The most publicized accident was the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 on July 6, 2013 on approach to San Francisco International Airport. The pilots came up short in a visual landing on a clear day. Three passengers died and 181 were injured. The cause was clearly pilot error. None of the three pilots in the cockpit realized they were coming too low and slow until it was too late. Two Southwest pilots last week on July 21 also proved at LaGuardia they could not safely land a plane. They landed nose gear first rather the tail first. The nose wheels cannot sustain the force of a nose first landing. Fortunately no one died in the accident. 10 passengers were injured. Again, pilot error is undoubtedly the cause of the accident. Train accidents have come to the fore in recent days. July 6 witnessed a non- passenger train in Canada killing at least 47 and leveling 40 buildings. The train of 72 rail cars was lying at rest in the small town of Lac Margentic, Quebec. The engineer claims to have set the hand brakes. The engine was left running to keep the air brakes locked. The train was carrying crude oil from the Bakken Field in North Dakota to a refinery in northern Canada. A fire broke out. The firefighters shut down the engine in fighting the fire. The railroad now claims, for litigation purposes, that shutting off the locomotive released the brakes, which cause the tank cars to start their unimpeded trip to the center of town in the middle of the night. Some of the cars derailed with a fire and massive explosion following. 47 town residents died while 40 buildings were leveled by the blast. A high speed train on the Paris-Lyon run derailed in Bretigny-Sur-Orge in France on July 12. Six passengers died and over 200 injured. The cause was a bad piece of tax. A high speed train, at twice the recommended speed, derailed in going through a slow curve, on July 24. The driver (engineer) said the brakes failed, but he had apparently ignored warnings to start slowing the train 2 ½ miles from the curve. He was apparently doing 190KMH through the curve, which is posted at 80KMH. Speed kills. Francisco Jose Garzon has been indicted on 79 counts of manslaughter. Earlier today two passenger trains collided head-on in Switzerland. 44 injuries and perhaps one fatality occurred from the crash. Any head-on collision by trains will usually involve engineer error. A bus returning from a youth camp in Northern Michigan took an exit curve too fast at 4:15 on I 465 in Indianapolis, Three passengers died, including a pastor and his pregnant wife. The driver said the brakes failed. The good news about bus accidents is that they usually will not result in scores of casualties because of the relatively low capacity of busses. A bus driver in Arizona on the Vegas – Grand Canyon Skywalk yesterday did not notice the flood warning. He drove the 33 passengers into a flooded wash at 1:50PM. Fortunately all 33 passengers walked out of the crash. Conversely, a driver in Italy yesterday crashed into several cars, bumper car style, slowed by heavy traffic, and then plunged into a ravine. At least 37 died. These recent accidents suggest that transportation is a high risk activity. The opposite is the case. It’s still much riskier driving to the airport than in catching the flight. We learn of these accidents because they are publicized because of their extreme rarity. No human activity is risk free. We learn from accidents how to minimize the risk in the future. No rules, safety standards, procedures, or measures can totally eliminate human error. Modern means of transportation are so much safer, convenient, and faster than the older methods of stage coach, wagon train, horse and bugger, pack mules, camels and donkeys. The last passenger airline crash in the United States was in 2009. That’s quite a safety record!

Mayor Filner Flinched Before Congressman Weiner

The main political question this past week was “Who will withdraw first – Mayor Robert Filner, the serial sexual harassing Mayor of San Diego, or Anthony Weiner, the serial sexting winnable Mayor of New York City? Odds favored both hanging in since they are both strong-willed misogynist narcissists. The week got progressively worse for the two progressives. The Mayor was sued on Monday by Irene McCormack Jackson, former communications director for the Mayor. His first problem is the lawsuit. The second problem is that Ms. Jackson is represented by Gloria Allred. Allred v. Filner is no-contest. Four more women emerged Thursday, accusing him of sexual harassment. The victims include a Dean of San Diego State University and a Navy Rear Admiral. Bronwyn Ingram, the 70 year old’s fiancée cancelled the engagement earlier when she caught Filner making dates with other women. Mayor Filner was a ten term Congressman prior to winning the election last November for Mayor of San Diego. His conduct is a throwback to that of some Senators, such as JFK, LBJ, and Robert Packwood, from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. Anthony Weiner resigned from the House of Representatives two years ago because it was revealed that he was serially sexting women he never met in person. His missives were often as well received as those of Bret Favre. He announced his run for Mayor after receiving treatment. It was revealed last week that he continued sexting women, at least three, after treatment ended. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who often looked the other way at Democratic defalcations when she was Speaker of the House, stated both should set aside. She said of Congressman Weiner his conduct was “reprehensible; it’s so disrespectful of women.” She’s obviously concerned that between Filner, Weiner, and Eliot Spitzer that the Democrats could be accused of waging a “War on Women.” The Democratic Central Committee of San Diego voted Thursday night that the Mayor should resign. The San Diego City Council voted 6-3 in calling for his resignation. A recall campaign is underway against the Mayor. The Mayor made a two minute announcement Friday, hoping to short circuit the campaign against him. He admitted the wrongful conduct, which included headlocks, groping, and sexist statements. He vowed to become “a better person.” He admitted “My failure to respect women and the intimidating conduct I engaged in at times is inexcusable. It has undermined what I have spent my whole professional life doing and working on, fighting for justice and equality of all people.” That’s echoes of Senator Ted Kennedy. No, he didn’t resign. Instead he announced that on August 5 he would enter two weeks of intensive therapy at a behavior counseling clinics, and that he would continue with the program upon his return to the Mayor’s Office. One hopes, if not assumes, that the two weeks will not involve hands-on therapy. He assumes, or hopes, that we will forget that counseling did not apparently help Anthony Weiner, the pedophile priests and their victims, Lindsay Lohan, and tragically Cory Monteith. He also pointed out that he would be briefed twice daily on San Diego developments while in counseling. How intensive can that be? The Mayor’s fiancée may have dumped him, but Anthony Weiner dragged out his wife Huma Abadin, to “Stand by her man” as her former employer Hillary Clinton famously did. The winnable Mayor proved once again last week that he is more interested in media face time than his family, much less New Yorkers. The question remains - "Will either drop out? Both are hoping their travails will disappear with the passage of time. The voters have the final say in a democracy. Clearly, New York and San Diego deserve better.

The California Republican Party Won One Tuesday

The California Republican Party Won One Tuesday. They actually won a state Senate seat in the Central Valley. The California Republican Party was written off after the 2012 elections as irrelevant, moribund, dying. The once powerful California Republican Party, the home of Earl Warren, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, was decimated in 2012 as a combination of the rising Asian and Hispanic vote, which vote 70% Democratic, the shrinking Republican base, and the 2010 reapportionment. California had increasingly become a blue state delivering 55 electoral votes to the Democratic Presidential candidate; that is, 1/5 of the electoral votes needed for election. Prior to the 2012 elections, the GOP held 20 of the 53 Congressional seats, 27 out of 80 Assembly seats, and 15 of 40 state Senate seats. The legislative seats left the GOP in a minority position in the legislative, but enough to prevent any tax increases. A supermajority (2/3) is necessary in each House under California law to enact tax increases. The 2012 election was a wipeout for the GOP. It lost 5 Congressional seats to shrink to 15 out of 53. It dropped down to 12 Senate seats out of 40 and 25 Assembly seats. It also lost all 8 statewide elections. The Democrats had a supermajority in the California Legislature. The Republicans were irrelevant, barely posing a nuisance to the Democrats. The California Republican Party had become overwhelmingly white when the Caucasian population is a shrinking plurality. Its political base was San Diego County (usually), Orange County, the Inland Empire, and the Central Valley. However, the majority of California’s population lives along the coast from Los Angeles up through the San Francisco Bay Area – all solidly blue. Andy Vidal, a conservative Republican farmer from Hanford, won an open state Senate seat. The 16th District in the San Joaquin Valley is over 50% Democratic by registration and 63% Hispanic by population. Republicans comprise about 30% of the registered voters. Michael Rubio, the conservative Democratic incumbent, resigned unexpectedly on February 22 to accept a position with Chevron Petroleum Company. No Republican had held the seat in 19 years. It is tailor made for a Hispanic Democrat. Vidal almost won the primary, falling 115 votes short of a majority. Thus, Tuesday’s election. He won by roughly a 54%-46% margin, although not all votes have been counted. Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez was the Democratic opponent. She raised $2 million for her campaign, 95% from “special interests” in Sacramento; i.e. unions. The Central Valley is increasingly Hispanic, but as far as Silicone Valley, Hollywood, California’s tourist industry, and the Democratic Party bosses are concerned, the Central Valley is flyover country. The perspective of the Central Valley is that the powerful environmental movement is trying to put the farming industry out of business, using the Delta Smelt, an endangered species, as the means to cut off irrigation water to the Valley. Andy Vidal attacked Supervisor Perez for taking her campaign funds from the unions, and for supporting the environmentalists, all pillars of the California Democratic Party. He advocated bringing clear drinking water to the District. She had also advocated raising the California minimum wage to $9.25 from $8.00, which is meaningless when the unemployment rate is 15% in the district. She also supports the high speed rail train, which is increasingly recognized as an expensive boondoggle. Here’s the lesson for California’s Republican Party. They can win Hispanic votes if they have something to offer, if they reach out to them. Avoid the divisive issues (abortion, gay rights, and immigration), and campaign on the economic issues that matter to the voters. California voters are smart. The voters in San Diego and heavily Democratic San Jose voted overwhelmingly against the opposition of the public employee unions to rein in pension expenses. The Republicans need to offer voters a reason to vote for them. Ask Andy Vidal how to do it.

Stand Your Ground, Self Defense, and The Retreat Rule: A Legal Primer

The common law early adopted the privilege of self-defense as a defense in criminal(homicide and manslaughter) and civil (Tort) suits. The common law rule was fairly simple. A person was privileged to use reasonable force to protect against a threatened physical attack. Reasonable force did not include deadly force unless the threat involved deadly force. No duty to retreat existed when only reasonable force was used in self-defense. However, the common law imposed a duty to retreat prior to the use of deadly force in self-defense, but only if it were safe to do so. To reiterate, the common law only imposed a retreat rule when deadly force was used in self defense. Deadly force was defined as force calculated to inflict death or serious bodily injury. The idea of “retreat” was viewed with disdain by western and southern states because the concept of “retreat” could brand the retreater a “coward.” “Real men” were not cowards and would not retreat or run from a fight. These states adopted modifications to the retreat rule. The first exception was that one did not have to retreat if the threat came in the house. People should be able to defend themselves in their homes. The no-duty to retreat in one’s house rule became known as the “Castle” rule. It became the majority rule while the traditional retreat rule became a minority rule. Several states adopted “Castle” statutes. The next exception to the common law retreat rule was that no one had to retreat in their place of work prior to using deadly force. The workplace exception was not as widely adopted as the home exception. The next wave of statutes was “Stand Your Ground” laws, pioneered by Florida in 2005, and strongly backed by the NRA. The “Stand Your Ground” statute allows the use of deadly force with no duty to retreat when threatened with deadly force in any place you have a legal right to be. That would include, for example, in your car is threatened with a carjacking. The Florida statute clearly imposes an immunity from criminal and civil liability if the conditions are met. Three points about the Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman case. First, the Zimmerman defense team did not raise “Stand Your Ground” as a defense. Instead, they used the traditional rule of self-defense. If George Zimmerman was threatened with deadly force, such as by having his head banged into concrete, then he was privileged to use deadly force. Thus, the new campaign by politicians against “Stand Your Ground” is disingenuous. It was not an issue in the Zimmerman Trial except to the extent that the judge threw it into one of the jury instructions. The second point is that if Zimmerman were being restrained with his head pounded into the concrete, then he had no duty to retreat. It would be both impossible and unsafe to do so. These issues would, of course, be questions of fact for the jury. The third point is the proposed boycott by entertainers of Florida and the other “Stand Your Ground” states. About half the states, both red states and blue states, have enacted Stand Your Ground statutes. In addition to Florida, the Stand Your Ground states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. A boycott of these states would severely impact the potential concert revenues of entertainers. One of the ironies of the “Stand Your Ground” debate is that Illinois State Senator Barack Obama in 2004 co-sponsored a statute that extended the privilege to use deadly force without retreating to defend their lives or their property.

President Obama Speaks From the Heart on Trayvon, Finally

President Obama surprised reporters yesterday by showing up unexpectedly in the White House Briefing Room. A dull briefing was expected so the first two rows were empty. He spoke about Trayvon Martin and race. The President is an accomplished politician who is well aware that race can still be a divisive issue in America, with whites still a majority of the population. He has carefully avoided raising divisive racial issues during his Presidential campaigns and Presidency. He ran away from Reverend Wright during the 2008 election. Not this time. He openly addressed race. President Obama spoke extemporaneously for 19 minutes – No teleprompter. POTUS was not needed for the President’s remarks. The President, who has been criticized for four years for being too cold, too remote, too detached, so unempathetic, so unemotional, dropped the mask, and spoke from the heart. He opened himself up as he had not in his Presidency. He may have said shortly after Trayvon’s death that if he had a son, he could have been Trayvon. Now he said “When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. That’s another way of saying Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.” The young Obama was a crackhead 35 years ago He could easily have taken the wrong track and ended up dead or imprisoned like so many, too many young Blacks. The President continued from his personal experience with anecdotes common to young Black males: 1) being followed in a department store; 2) hearing the clicking sound of car locks as he walks across the street; and 3) watching women in elevators nervously clutching their purses. The son of a white female and Kenyan male was a black male, who endured the same daily racism as if he were of the blood. Racism was pervasive through America. It was not limited to the South. I may have grown up the son of a poor single mom in San Francisco during the 1950’s and 1960’s, but I cannot profess to understand what the poor young Blacks in the Fillmore or the Potrero were experiencing at this time. For example, I never had to worry about the police. The President did not second-guess the jury verdict for George Zimmerman. His point about the reaction of the African American community to the acquittal is that “I think that it is important that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.” He was speaking to his African American constituency, but reached out to White America. He wanted Americans to consider the Black perspective – not to commence a national dialogue, but to reflect on it. He recognized that America is not yet a post racial society. He is asking in this context that those of us whites, who believe that Trayvon Martin’s tragic death did not make him a martyr like Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, or Issac Woodard, Jr., should think about it from the Black perspective. President Obama has never forgotten his roots. Indeed, they are indelibly engraved on his DNA. Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his Liberation Theology are the views of Barack Hussein Obama. He was the most progressive Senator in his short time in the Senate. His passion said it all. President Obama spoke because he had to. America is probably not listening.

Detroit Is In Bankruptcy, But Has Not Hit Rock Bottom

Detroit Hit Bottom Today To no one's surprise,Detroit, MoTown, Motor City, entered bankruptcy earlier today. It’s a new low, but Rock City has not yet struck rock bottom. There’s more jobs to be lost, population to leave, and homes to be torched. Today’s filing for bankruptcy by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is just the latest formal step in the death spiral of one of America’s greatest cities. The collapse of the other Detroit, the American auto industry, hasn’t helped, but the city’s demise began on July 23, 1967, the beginning of 5 days of riots in Detroit. Only 8,000 National Guardsmen and 4,700 82nd Airborne soldiers squashed it. The statistics don’t tell the true story: 43 dead, 1188 injured, over 2,000 buildings destroyed and 7,231 arrests. Other cities, such as Los Angeles with the 1965 Watts riots, survived, but Detroit entered a death cycle. The response to the Detroit riots was White Flight and middleclass flight (black and white). Downtown was left a hallowed shell. The great J.L. Hudson Department Store, which once vied with Macy’s Herald Square for the largest in size, was shuttered on January 17, 1983, and demolished on October 4, 1998, leaving a large vacant space in downtown Detroit. That the City is down to one auto plant, Chrysler, from 12 hasn’t helped. The loss of Stroh’s Brewery and bankruptcy of Kmart, GM, and Chrysler in recent years hurts, but the city was already hemorrhaging. The numbers tell the tale. Detroit shrank from 1,849,568 in the 1950 Census to 713,777 in 2010. Detroit now has a smaller population than San Francisco (805,235), but spreads it over 142.87 square miles compared to 46.9 for the City By the bay. Over half of Detroit’s 305,000 properties failed to pay their 2011 property tax bills. 77 city blocks have only one resident paying property taxes. Abandoned buildings, burnt out buildings, permeate much of the City, making New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward look redeveloped by comparison. 700,000 abandoned homes. Broken street lights aren’t fixed and potholes left unfilled. One-third of the city's ambulances are broke, and over half the parks are closed. Homicide rates are at a four decade high. Police and fire cannot respond to every emergency call. ABC cancelled Detroit 187. Two abandoned buildings exemplify Detroit: the classic Beaux-Arts Michigan Central Station and the 3,500,000 square foot Packard plant. 15.6% of the population is officially unemployed, but that number is deceiving. 1/3 of the residents live below the poverty line. Detroit is broke. It cannot borrow anymore. The long-term debt is estimated at $20 billion. It defaulted on June 14, 2013 on $2.5 billion in debt, missing a $39.7 million interest payment. The current budget has a $380 million deficit. A major source of income for the city is $11 million monthly from the three Detroit Casinos, if the banks will release the funds - hardly the future of the Motor city. The former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, was corrupt. The Board is dysfunctional. The public employee unions are fighting any cutbacks in pension and health benefits owed the city’s retirees. Their argument is compelling. The Michigan Constitution provides pensions are ”contractual obligations” that “shall not be diminished or impaired.” Two problems exist with the argument. First, they are now in federal bankruptcy court – not state court. Second, the city has no money. 65% of the city’s budget goes to the legacy costs of retiree pension and healthcare costs - 4 active workers for six retirees.. Michigan was the heart of the union movement with the once powerful United Autoworkers leading the nation. Rubber, glass, steel, auto parts, all built on the UAW power. Detroit, the city, became the experiment in mass transfer payments. The city's last Republican Mayor was elected in 1957. Only one Republican has been elected to the City Council since 1970. Detroit is a one party bankruptcy. Finally, the city's structure could not be sustained by its shrinking economic resources. The population steadily declined, but not the bureaucracy, until the past few years. Detroit still has a planning department. Why? Many innocent retirees are going to pay the price for past profligacy by public officials. The City of Detroit has few assets, except for the Detroit Institute of Art and the original Howdy Doody Puppet, to liquidate to pay off any creditors. 100,000 creditors; 40 public employee unions in Detroit - The lawyers will feast off this bankruptcy. The Republican House of Representatives is not going to authorize President Obama to bail out Detroit Sadly, these legacy costs reflect the future for several California cities, as well as elsewhere in America. Too many city councils, county boards, and state legislators were overly generous in the past to public employees, but the legacy is present. Suggestions for Detroit revolve around clearing the abandoned blocks, and bringing commercial agriculture back to the city, perhaps marijuana. Detroit is the largest municipal bankruptcy to date, but it will not be the last.

Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman As a Teachable Moment

Trayvon Martin never should have died on February 26, 2012. His death is a modern American tragedy. His shooter, George Zimmerman, is scarred for life and may never be able to resume a normal life. The jury of six women, five of whom are mothers, acquitted George Zimmerman of Trayvon’s death. The jury had no choice. This case was not one of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The prosecution had so few facts in the case that they had no case; inferences, presumptions, aspersions, yes – but no facts. 56 witnesses, but no case for the prosecution, Even some of the witnesses for the prosecution turned into witnesses for the defense. The only clear, and undisputed fact, is that George Zimmerman fatally shot tray on Martin with one shot. The prosecution could never present facts to effectively rebut Zimmerman’s self-defense claim. George Zimmerman may have been overzealous in his role as the neighborhood watch coordinator, but that’s not against the law. This case is normal in that not all the material facts are known, and cannot be discovered. The known facts, not supposition, support the defense. The case never should have been brought, but the state had no political choice. Bill Lee, the Sanford Police Chief opposed filing criminal charges against George Zimmerman because the Sanford Police found no evidence to contradict George Zimmerman’s account of the shooting. He was fired. Governor Rick Scott (R Fl.) removed the local prosecutor and appointed a special prosecutor in the case. Trayvon’s death became a cause celebre in the civil rights moment. It seemed like yet another case where an overzealous white vigilante ruthlessly murdered an innocent teenage African American with the homicide being covered up by a racist police force. Elements of the media joined the chorus, as some did earlier with the Duke Lacrosse players. The initial impression was that George Zimmerman was white, fitting the historic pattern of white violence directed at African Americans. Once it was discovered that Zimmerman’s mother was Peruvian, first CNN, and then the New York Times on March 22, 2012 referred to Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic.” The lead word was “white.” An NBC broadcast went further. It edited the 9-1-1 call from Zimmerman to portray him as racist. The NBC broadcast had Zimmerman saying “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.” The actual recording is “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.” The 9-1-1 dispatcher then asked: “OK, and this guy, is he black, white, or Hispanic?” George Zimmerman responded “He looks black.” NBC never apologized on the air for the doctored tape, but several employees were fired. Zimmerman has sued NBC for defamation. The condemnation of George Zimmerman, as a trigger-happy racist, went viral. President Obama stated at a press conference “If I had a son, he’ll look like Trayvon .” The election of President Obama was said by many commentators to usher in a post-racial era in America. Unfortunately, it has not. President Obama has contributed to the racial divide in instances, such as the killing of Trayvon Martin and earlier in Cambridge. Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Sergeant James Crowley arrested African American Harvard Professor Louis Gates in July 2009 in Gates’ house. The police had received a 9-1-1 call reporting a possible break-in at the Gates house. The Professor was ill, and had just arrived from a long flight. He was uncooperative with the police, who thereupon arrested him. President Obama, without learning the facts stated at a press conference “The Cambridge Police acted stupidly.” As the facts came out, the President then said we have a “teachable moment.” He then invited the Professor and Police Officer to the White House to drink beers. The Trayvon Martin and Duke Lacrosse Team prosecutions also provide teachable moments. They tell us not to jump to conclusions because an initial set of facts, or often accusations, seem to fit a historic narrative. They teach us again that we are innocent until proven guilty, regardless of what a prosecutor or the media might say. They also teach us that juries normally follow the law and apply the facts. Sadly, race, as shown by the Zimmerman and OJ cases, can still affect perception.