Trump Indictment Syndrome.

Posted on August 9, 2023 by jsh54

Donald Trump invokes the “Russia collusion hoax” whenever he is charged with something. It has the desired effect. Many Republicans believe that the criminal justice system—both that of the federal government and those in blue states—is not trustworthy.[1]

An argument pushed both by some members of Robert Mueller’s investigative team and in the media that celebrated their work centered on the issue of obstruction of justice. Donald Trump had not been a compliant investigative target. He had fought against revealing aspects of his business and had used the bully pulpit in an effort to bully the Justice Department lawyers trying to nail his hide to the barn door. In many eyes, that resistance proved that he had something to conceal. Alternatively, that difficult behavior might be explained by his certain knowledge that he had not “colluded” with the Russians. Apparently, the view of the Department of Justice is that it is unfair for an innocent person to fight back. Subsequently, the multiple reports of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice and the report of Special Counsel John Durham spread the dirty laundry of the Justice Department around in public.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Trump in the Stormy Daniels “hush money” case has an even worse pedigree. Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance, Jr., had his people investigating Trump for much of Trump’s term[2] without coming up with anything that would support charges. Alvin Bragg had trumpeted his anti-Trump credentials while running for office. Once elected, he found so little of substance, that he wanted to shut down the investigation. His prosecutors took their resistance to the public. Bragg changed course, obtaining an indictment that converted a misdemeanor into a felony by combining it with a violation of federal law that the Department of Justice hadn’t seen as worth pursuing.[3] The main purpose seemed to be to get Trump in front of a “deep blue Manhattan jury,” as the New York Times said. The looming indictment of Trump in Fulton County, Georgia, will arouse the same sort of suspicions, no matter how much better founded the charges. Fulton County went 72 percent for Biden in November 2020.[4] The plea deal with Hunter Biden only adds fuel to the fire of Republican distrust.

This distrust of a seemingly politicized judicial system reinforces, if it doesn’t entirely cause, a rally of many Republican voters to Donald Trump.[5] Arguably, Democrats would rally round one of their standard-bearers if s/he was subjected to the same seemingly unfair treatment. Wait! They already have! It seems more than likely that Hilary Clinton would have fired James Comey in thirty seconds flat if she had been elected President in 2016. She would have been roundly applauded by loyal Democrats.

Much attention has focused on the huge sums being drained from Trump’s campaign war-chest by his legal bills. He gets a vast amount of free coverage from being prosecuted In/By “deep blue” DC, Manhattan, and Fulton County. So, it’s money well spent.

[1] Rich Lowry, “Each Indictment Solidifies Trump’s Base,” NYT, 8 August 2023.

[2] I really don’t want to say “first term.” Please, God, no.

[3] See: Prosecution of Donald Trump i

New York – Wikipedia

[4] See: Election Night Reporting (clarityelections.com)

[5] Trump is crushing his Republican rivals in early opinion polls, but as much as a third of Republican voters want someone else to be the Republican candidate in 2024.

Goldsmith on the Trump Prosecution.

Posted on August 8, 2023 by jsh54

The Justice Department and the FBI have suffered a series of self-inflicted wounds in the past decade. These have undermined trust in the institutions among voters, a distrust which Donald Trump is only too happy to exploit.[1] In the view of one Never-Trump Republican, the prosecution of Trump may make it worse.

The 2016 Clinton Campaign inspired the creation of the Steele Dossier, a fake compilation alleging close collaboration between Donald Trump and the Russians. The Obama-Biden administration’s Justice Department officials knew it was fake from early on, but a) permitted the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation and b) continued the Mueller Investigation from May 2017 to March 2019. FBI officials high and lower who were supervising the investigations displayed a hostility toward Donald Trump. They broke a number of rules–always to Trump’s disadvantage–in the course of the investigations. It isn’t Trump supporters who say this. It’s the Inspector General of the Department of Justice.

President Biden’s Justice Department reportedly dragged its feet on beginning an investigation of Donald Trump’s effort to hold onto power. Then, with Republican primary season looming and Trump running even with Biden in opinion polls, the Justice Department moved with lightning speed to indict Trump. Furthermore, the federal indictments relating to Trump trying to stay in power involve “novel applications of three criminal laws and raises tricky issues of Mr. Trump’s intent, his freedom of speech and the contours of presidential power.” That is, it’s far from being a slam-dunk and it is easy to interpret as specious.

Then, “honesty is the best policy” has never held an unchallenged sway in American politics. (Doesn’t matter what my Mom thought should be the case.) Donald Trump is being charged as an extreme example of behavior that is not uncommon.[2]

In contrast, the Biden Justice Department had been gored in recent weeks, by IRS whistleblowers who have testified under oath, that the Justice Department dragged out its investigation of President Biden’s wayward son until the statute of limitations had expired on the most serious charges, and had obstructed searches and interrogations. Only the glare of media criticism from the Republicans caused the seams in the “plea bargain”—in which the government did all the giving and Hunter Biden all the getting—to come un-stitched.

Does any sane person want a large share of the electorate saying that “The law for the President’s enemy works one way; the law for the President’s son works another way”?

If American politics was not polarized and poisoned, the institutional problems could be absorbed and dealt with. In current conditions, however, the prosecution of Donald Trump “may well have terrible consequences beyond the department for our politics and the rule of law.” Tit-for-tat investigations leading to ever more dubious special prosecutors pursuing ever more dubious prosecutions could bend the legal system to the worst elements in politics. (One of the things that brought Zelensky to office as president of Ukraine was the public revulsion against the subordination of the judicial system to competing political factions.)

Jack Smith may see the prosecution of Trump as “protecting democratic institutions and vindicating the rule of law”; but “American democracy and the rule of law [may be], on balance, degraded as a result” of that prosecution.

[1] Jack Goldsmith, “The Prosecution of Donald Trump Could Have Terrible Consequences,” NYT (on-line), 8 August 2023. On Goldsmith, see: Jack Goldsmith – Wikipedia

[2] There is much to criticize in the actions of Adam Schiff as he investigated, then prosecuted, and then investigated again Donald Trump, all in the shadow of the end of Diane Feinstein’s time as Senator from California.

A Wink and a Nod.

Posted on August 2, 2023 by jsh54

In early 2021, the FBI used Riva Networks, an independent contractor, to track the location of the cell phones belonging to suspected drug smugglers and fugitives in Mexico. The FBI has said that it believed that Riva could exploit security gaps in the Mexican cell phone system using its own “geolocation tool.”

However, it appears that Riva Networks may have been using a surveillance system called “Landmark.” An Israeli technology firm, NSO, had developed “Landmark.” An earlier surveillance tool developed by NSO, called “Pegasus,” had become wildly popular with authoritarian (and non-authoritarian) governments. Eventually, this became known and was widely criticized by right-thinking people. Reportedly, the FBI told Riva Networks at some point during 2021 that it could not use any NSO tools.

According to the FBI, Riva Networks did not tell the FBI at the time of the original assignment that it was using “Landmark.” In November 2021, Riva Networks renewed its contract with NSO and did not tell the FBI about “Landmark.” They just reported the information desired by the FBI without explaining how they got it.

In November 2021, as part of the run-up to President Biden’s “Summit for Democracy,”[1] the United States “blacklisted” NSO. This prohibited US companies from doing business with NSO. Still, from November 2021 to April 2023, “Landmark” allowed the FBI to track the cell phones of people in Mexico “without [the FBI’s] knowledge or consent.” It appears that some other Federal agency may also have been using “Landmark” because cell phones were tracked “throughout” 2021, not just from November of that year.[2]

In March 2023, the White House issued a further executive order banning the use spyware that have been used in a repressive fashion by foreign governments.

Awkwardly, in April 2023, the New York Times reported that Riva Networks had been using “Landmark.” FBI Director Christopher Wray ordered his people to find out what government agency had been using “Landmark” in spite of the ban on its use.

By late April 2023, the FBI was “shocked, shocked to discover that” the guilt fell on Riva Networks, its own contractor. Riva Networks, it appears, had “misled the bureau.” Director Wray terminated the contract with Riva Networks.

In late July 2023, the FBI began to inform the elite press of what had happened.[3] As part of its coverage of this story, the New York Times reported that many Israelis who once worked for NSO have founded their own spyware companies to pick up the slack in the Supply-Demand equation. The proliferation makes it difficult to keep track of all the suppliers. Moreover, according to one report, they often employ “complicated and opaque corporate practices that may be designed to evade public scrutiny and accountability.”

US foreign policy (or Presidential politics) seems to have come into conflict with US drug war policy. How to reconcile the two? “Them that asks no questions isn’t told a lie.”

[1] Summit for Democracy – Wikipedia

[2] NSO also contracts with the Defense Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency. So, did the FBI get sick and tired of always being a step behind the DEA? For example, see: Alan Feuer, Behind the New Indictments of El Chapo’s Sons, Rivalry Seethed Between Agencies – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[3] Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman, and Adam Goldman, “F.B.I. Financed Use of Spy Tool U.S. Outlawed,” NYT, 31 July 2023.

Dead Ends.

Posted on July 28, 2023 by jsh54

Two recent government investigations have hit dead-ends. First, who leaked the draft opinion of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade? Apparently, it wasn’t any of the law clerks or administrative support staff. The investigation stopped there. Second, somebody left a bag of cocaine near an entrance to the West Wing of the White House. Apparently there isn’t sufficient video surveillance of the West Wing to determine whom that might have been. The investigation stopped there. Journalists seem not to be pursuing the questions on their own.

Upton Sinclair once said that “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” Well, it’s also difficult to investigate something when you don’t want to know the answer.

Then there’s the Hunter Biden case. It seems clear that Republicans are pursuing this case in hopes of besmirching President Biden before the 2024 election. So what? That’s how James Madison imagined the Constitution would work: the bad behavior of one side would hold in check the bad behavior of the other side.[1] That seems to have more-or-less worked for better than 200 years.

Did Hunter Biden got a “sweetheart deal” because his father is the President of the United States? According to Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Attorney David Weiss, Hunter Biden got no favors. Everything was done by the book. Weiss had a completely free hand. He could have charged Biden with anything the evidence would support and in any jurisdiction; the plea deal fell within completely normal guidelines for similar cases.

Not so, say a couple of IRS agents involved in the five-year investigation. Their statements have been well-aired in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, although the detailed remarks of subject-area experts don’t make for television news sound-bites.

What does matter is that the statements of the “whistleblowers” were made in public, for the record, and under oath. The Attorney General has replied with rostrum statements and press releases. I am reminded of a brief scene in the television series “Dopesick” Dopesick – They cannot be bought – YouTube

Then there’s the New York Times. “[I]n mid-2022, Mr. Weiss reached out to the top federal prosecutor in Washington, Matthew Graves, to ask his office to pursue charges and was rebuffed, according to Mr. Shapley’s testimony. A similar request to prosecutors in the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles, was also rejected, Mr. Shapley testified. A second former I.R.S. official, who has not been identified,[2] told House Republicans the same story. That episode was confirmed independently to The New York Times by a person with knowledge of the situation.”[3] So which is it? How do we find out?

[1] There doesn’t seem to be any question that Republican politicians are engaged in bad behavior. Hunter Biden appears to be a psychologically badly wounded human being. Even if guilty, prison is going to destroy what little is left, not rehabilitate it. His alleged crimes are as nothing in comparison to those alleged against Donald Trump. At the same time, I know that I am engaged in bad behavior as well. I’m not spending this kind of time or thought (such as it is) on the possible destructive impact of prison on some 20-something Black drop-out gang-banger who dealt drugs or shot up a birthday party. Yet “hath not a Jew eyes?”

[2] Now known to be Joseph Ziegler.

[3] Glenn Thrush and Michael Schmidt, “Competing Accounts of Justice Dept.’s Handling of Hunter Biden Case,” NYT, 27 June 2023.

Grim Anniversary: The Atomic Bombings.

Posted on July 24, 2023 by jsh54

We fast approach the seventy-eighth anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[1] Could Imperial Japan have been forced to surrender unconditionally without either an American invasion or the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Certainly.

In early Spring 1945, the Army Air Force shifted from high-altitude, daytime, precision bombing to low-level, nighttime “carpet-bombing” with incendiaries. The first such attack, “Operation Meetinghouse,” in March 1945, killed more than 80,000 people in Tokyo. Thereafter, American bombers worked steadily down the list of Japanese cities, destroying homes, industry, and infrastructure. In the aptly-named “Operation Starvation” Army Air Force bombers sowed 12,000 mines that sank 670 ships and annihilated Japanese imports and inter-island trade.[2] All you had to do was to wait while the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” trampled over Japan. In the end, the conventional bombing killed 210,000 people, the atomic bombings 120,000.

Could the United States have escaped the moral culpability of being the only country to use nuclear weapons?

What culpability is that?

Atomic weapons were developed as part of what Anglo-American leaders understood as a nuclear arms race with Nazi Germany. If the weapons had been ready in 1942, would it have been immoral to atom bomb Nazi Germany? Or was it only immoral to bomb Japan?

The two atom bombs were not “worse” weapons than the alternatives of fire-bombing cities or starving huge numbers of people to death through a blockade. Dead is dead.

Was saving even one American soldier’s life worth killing 80,000 Japanese? How would you answer if you were the mother or father of that American soldier?

If there is moral culpability here it lies with the Japanese government of the time. First, that government began the Second World War in the Pacific as an escalation of its effort to conquer China. Second, it waged that war in an atrocious fashion which elicited atrocity in response.[3] Third, it continued to wage war long after it became impossible to avoid eventual defeat.[4] The Japanese government’s essential strategy lay in accepting the mass death of Japanese in hopes of inflicting mass death on American soldiers. Their “hope” or “plan” lay in the belief that the Americans would not accept high casualty totals. Indeed, the Americans understood Japanese intentions and they would rather not suffer such casualties. That’s why they had so many bombers—and terrible kinds of bombs.

People seem to view the bombing of Japan through the filter of the subsequent nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, and through the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the hands of many other countries. Would it be immoral to begin a full-scale nuclear war today? Yes, that would probably be immoral. That isn’t what happened in 1945.

[1] And it coincides with “Oppenheimer” (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2023) and Evan Thomas, Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II (2023).

[2] See: Wesley F. Craven and James L. Cate, (eds.), The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. V: The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945, pp. 662-673.

[3] Race hatred played a powerful role on both sides, and not merely that of the Americans. See: John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (1986).

[4] When did Japan “lose” the war? Possibly at Pearl Harbor (December 1941). Probably at Midway (June 1942). Certainly with the Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 1944) and the American capture of Saipan (June-July 1944). The Battle of the Philippine Sea destroyed what remained of Japan’s naval offensive power. Saipan put American bombers within range of the Home Islands. That’s more than a year before Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

China Gazing.

Posted on July 21, 2023 by jsh54

Very rapid economic growth is not uncommon in modern history. It runs with Industrialization. The key lies in shifting huge numbers of people out of a low-productivity agricultural sector into a high-productivity industrial sector. Generally low industrial wages are often better than in agriculture, so workers are relatively tranquil for a long time. Low wages plus technology produce lots of goods for sale at a low price. Manufactured goods are then sold in large numbers both on domestic and international markets.

Generally, this rapid growth doesn’t last forever: the population shift runs out of peasants; labor starts to demand better conditions, leading to pressure for unionization; foreign later entrants to industrialization follow the same path and under-cut the leaders’ initial cost advantage; the economy moves into “higher” stages that require more educated people; and a complex economy is more difficult to manage.[1]

China offers a text-book case of this process. In less than half a century, China moved from relying on a very inefficient peasant agriculture to become the second largest economy in the world, with a gigantic industrial sector that produces a lot more than just cheap textiles. Growth made other things possible: the pacification of domestic conflicts; the build-up of great financial and military power; and the preservation of one-party rule. Now, some observers are beginning to ask if the era of rapid growth has come to an end and, if so, what may follow.[2]

Four big issues confront contemporary China. First, China has an aging population and no hope of immigration. Where is it going to find workers and how will it support a non-working population? Second, there is a widening gap between the old-industrial areas of the northeast and the much more dynamic areas of Shenzhen and Shanghai. Is China’s “Rust Belt” going to be subsidized by other areas or is it going to be treated as a new labor and resource swamp that has to be drained? Third, other countries have become alarmed at Chinese power and assertiveness. The United States has imposed tariffs and is imposing restrictions on exports of sensitive technologies. Fourth, it is much easier to centrally control a simple economy than a complex economy.[3] Zi Jinping has committed the country to tightening central control.

These problems may create opportunities and problems for the United States. Zi may tighten his grip on power and hold to his present course, or a powerful faction may arise in the Party to force a return to the policies of Deng Xiaoping. China may reallocate resources from its military to dealing with its internal problems, or it may believe that enough guns can deal with the problem of not enough butter. A slowing Chinese economy may reduce both China’s power over neighboring economies and the fears that run with it. Or a return to sustained international economic growth may allow China to continue its current policies.

All this is uncertain. Two things are certain. First, bad and dangerous as he is in American eyes, Zi Jinping possesses great determination and political skill. It isn’t impossible for him to master a tough situation.

Second, the current United States is no model of political health or good governance. Whatever China’s future, Americans need to start setting their own house in order. Soon.

[1] David S. Landes, The Unbound Prometheus (1969).

[2] Walter Russell Mead, “China’s Economy Hits the Skids,” WSJ, 18 July 2023.

[3] See: The Soviet Union.

Wild Fires.

Posted on July 19, 2023 by jsh54

In mid-May 1780, the skies over New England, New York, northern New Jersey, and eastern Canada appeared yellow in color and the sun red. On the morning of 19 May 1780, the skies began to darken as if night was coming on. By noon people had to light candles to see what they were doing. One witness recorded that “the fowls went to their roosts, the cocks crew and the whip-poor-wills sung their usual serenade” at mid-day. Then, after a few hours, the darkness began to recede as quickly as it had arrived, but it lasted long enough to compound night’s natural darkness. Scholars now believe that this “Dark Day” resulted from wildfires in Ontario, Canada.[1] Westerly winds drove the smoke from enormous fires eastward over the northern Colonies.

This story will seem excessively familiar in Summer 2023.[2] Big wildfires spring from the combination of fuel (dry vegetation), ignition (commonly lightning strikes and human error), and “red flag” conditions (high temperature, low humidity, and wind). All of those came together across Canada in Spring 2023. The Canadian fires now burning are much greater in scope than those of 1780. They are much bigger than the now-forgotten fires of 1989, which burned 18 million acres. They have burned 25 million acres so far. It’s still early in the fire season, so the final total is sure to be even more staggering.

One factor may be the simultaneity of the Canadian fires. With normally sequential fires, crews can work to contain a fire before moving on to another new blaze. Simultaneous fires over-stretch limited resources (i.e. mostly young men in big boots with Stihls). Really remote locations may compound the difficulties.[3]

Reasonably and persuasively, however, experts chiefly attribute these wildfires-run-wild to climate change. A warming planet dries out the vegetation (fuel), triggers more lightning storms (ignition), and destabilizes the pattern of winds (“red-flag” conditions).

Climate-change skeptics could point out that the United States has not suffered a comparable disaster. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, just under 750,000 acres have burned so far in 2023. In comparison, the 2014-2023 average for fires as of July 10, is almost 2.6 million acres. In 2022, a skosh over 4.8 million acres had burned by 10 July.[4] This slow start to the season has allowed 1,800 U.S. firefighters to be sent to Canada. Furthermore, as is the case in Canada, Mediterranean wildfires are common, rather than something new. Finally, you don’t need to have climate change to have big wildfires.

As was the case with the Lisbon earthquake of 1755,[5] many people saw the hand of God in New England’s “Dark Day,” fearing that it heralded the “Day of Judgement.”[6] Also as with the Lisbon earthquake, others thought not. They sought some rationally comprehensible explanation in the powerful functioning of the Natural world. These skeptics didn’t yet have such an explanation. They just thought it the most likely place to look. They were proved right.

[1] See: The New England Dark Day, May 19, 1780 – New England Historical Society

[2] Nadja Popovich, “What Is Fueling Canada’s Epic Wildfire Season,” NYT, 19 July 2023.

[3] It’s a seven hour drive from Calgary to the Peace River area, about half way up the province.

[4] See: 2023 wildfire season in US off to the quietest start in at least a decade | Watch (msn.com)

[5] See: 1755 Lisbon earthquake – Wikipedia

[6] KJV, Matthew, 24, 29-31. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

One Reader Asks.

Posted on July 18, 2023 by jsh54

Re: What If Joe Biden Is Right?

“What if and why? In such a wealthy and relatively well educated population, why aren’t there individuals willing to step up to run?”

Run against a sitting president of your own party? Teddy Roosevelt ran against William Howard Taft, Bobby Kennedy ran against Lyndon Johnson, and Teddy Kennedy ran against Jimmy Carter. Ugly divisive experiences in ugly, divisive times.

Both parties are gerontocracies. In the case of the Democrats, Biden, Schumer, Pelosi (still in Congress despite giving up the Speakership. People hang on because they don’t have any “real” life. Mostly, they’ve never done anything except be politicians. “Spending more time with the family” is something you do only after a scandal breaks. The bipartisan phenomenon of “safe” constituencies lets them pile up seniority and fend off the young people.

Both parties are coalitions filled with tensions. In the case of the Democrats, there are the Progressive and Moderate wings, along with Joe Manchin. Biden has this very unhappy marriage papered-over for now. The representative of one faction primarying the president seems to me like it would draw in a representative of the other faction. So, a two or three-way fight for the nomination with each candidate offering distinctly different agendas. (JMO and I come in peace, but all you have to do is put Jayapal’s sneering face on television to send most voters streaming for the Republicans.)

Could the party have time to patch up the wounds from such a fight in time for a general election? Maybe, IF the whole process had started a year ago with Biden announcing that he would not seek a second term. Or with him telling Kamala Harris privately that he would appoint her to the next vacancy of the Supreme Court, but he would not accept her as a Vice Presidential candidate. Then he could have replaced her with a person whom he regarded as having presidential qualities.

Personally, I wonder if he is going to make it through the end of his first term without being 25th Amendmented. I doubt very much that he can make it through an entire second term. Well, maybe he can: Reagan completed his second term while being first one, then two, and then three bricks short of a load. Took a bunch of Wizard of Oz little-man-behind-the-curtain stuff. That what we want in this case? Failing that, we could end up with President Harris.

Early on, I had thought that Biden might use his cabinet as a proving ground for younger successors. If that’s what he did the Harris and Pete Buttigieg have flopped badly.

As a “Never-Trump-Deplorable,” this puts me in an awkward position. My own preference for a Democratic candidate would be either Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Raimondo ) or Colorado Governor Jared Polis (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Polis ). That probably dooms the both of them. Such are my magical powers, alas.

What If Joe Biden is Right?

Posted on July 17, 2023 by jsh54

What if Joe Biden is right? What if his decision to run for re-election as President is NOT the ego-gratification of a long-suffering second-tier politician who accidentally made it to the White House? What if he is NOT saying “I told ya so” to “all the people who’ve looked down on me all my life” (including Barack Obama)? What if he is NOT just trying to find some way to protect his son Hunter from the demons–both Hunter’s own and the Republican ones–by controlling the Executive Branch for another four years? What if it is NOT a decision foist on him in a semi-senescent state by “Dr. Jill and the Inner Circle”? What if it his own well-reasoned decision?

What if there are no other Democratic Party politicians capable of winning the next presidential election against whomever the Republican Party nominates. Doesn’t matter who: Trump or DeSantis or Haley or Christie. What if there are no Democratic Party politicians capable of handling the duties and responsibilities of President of the United States of America? What if there are no Democratic Party politicians who can defend the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic? What if there are no Democratic Senators, Congressmen or Congresswomen, Governors, Cabinet Secretaries, or wives–scorned or adored–of former presidents who could get elected or, if elected, make a decent president?

That is what Joe Biden is saying by his decision to run for re-election at an advanced age.

What if he is right?

The Run.

Posted on June 7, 2023 by jsh54

A “run” is an old-timey word for a creek or stream, like Bull Run. Kingsbury Run is a winding creek and valley in southeastern Cleveland, Ohio. It fed into the Cuyahoga River near the city’s main industrial and railroad area, the “Flats.” The valley had served as a transportation route, an industrial site, a drainage route for rainwater, and as a kind of boundary between different communities on the higher ground. By the late 1920s, it had returned to Nature to some extent. Up on the east side above the “run,” there grew up a working-class entertainment district: bars and brothels, gambling joints and cheap hotels. When the Depression hit, Kingsbury Run became home to one of Cleveland’s shanty towns housing poor people.

Between 23 September 1935 and 16 August 1938, all or parts of ten dismembered bodies were discovered. Most were in the area of Kingsbury Run, one on the city’s west side, and one in Columbus, Ohio. Only three of them could even be tentatively identified. Six men and four women who shared anonymity in a grisly fate.[1]

To make matters worse, other murders in other places and at other times bore a marked resemblance to the Cleveland killings. In September 1934, part of a dismembered woman’s body had been fished out of Lake Erie outside the Cleveland city limits. At various times between 1921 and 1942, dismembered or decapitated bodies were found in waste ground near railroad yards in western Pennsylvania. A Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line (B&O) connected Pittsburg with Cleveland (and with Columbus). The police were willing to consider the possibility that all these were the handywork of one person.[2] All things considered, it might be better for the public’s peace of mind if only one uncatchable demented killer existed.

The manhunt for the killer dragged on. Although the police never caught the killer, their investigation solved 1,000 other crimes.[3] Perhaps reasonably, perhaps out of desperation, some detectives focused on Dr. Francis Sweeney (1894-1964). He fit the bill for a demented disassembler of humans. Sweeney was a doctor who had worked at a hospital near the Run; an apparently “shell-shocked” (PTSD) veteran of the First World War, where he had served in a medical unit doing lots of amputations; a gas casualty suffering nerve damage; a severe alcoholic who had ruptured many relationships; and the cousin of a bitter critic of Cleveland Public Safety Director Eliot Ness.[4] Confronted by Ness in 1938, Sweeney checked himself into a veterans hospital. The killings specific to Kingsbury Run stopped.

One of the lead detectives wasn’t so sure. Both the murders in Cleveland and the similar ones elsewhere along the B&O lines suggested to him that the killer might be one of the many hobos or tramps “riding the rails” during the Depression.[5] Equally possibly, the killer might have been a railroad man, the “Headless Brakeman of Demon Run” so to speak.

[1] Daniel Stashower, American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper (2022).

[2] Elizabeth Short–the “Black Dahlia”–killed in Los Angeles in 1947, also suffered wounds very similar to those of the Cleveland victims. Perhaps the killer, like so many other people, had gone West to help with the war effort.

[3] Sort of like in “M” (dir. Fritz Lang, 1930).

[4] Ness had made a name for himself fighting Al Capone and organized crime in Chicago in the 1930s. In 1936, Ness became the Public Safety Director in Cleveland. Cleveland wasn’t Chicago, but it was bad enough and in the same ways. There was multi-ethnic organized crime running gambling and prostitution, while both the police and the city government were riddled with corruption. Ness got to work on all fronts, making many enemies.

[5] On “Tramps,” see: Tramp – Wikipedia; on “Hobos,” see: Hobo – Wikipedia

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