Put Your Money Where Your Musk Is
November 2, 2021
The Good News
- Australians reunite as border reopens after 20-month ban (AP)
- Rafael Nadal Plays Point With 97-Year-Old Tennis Player (Insider)
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” — L.M. Montgomery
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” — Albert Camus
Not Always Black And White
How is skin color a factor when deciding whether to grant a death row inmate clemency or a new trial? A 2020 Death Penalty Information Center report offers critical insight into historical racial disparity in the criminal justice system, and compelling evidence of racial bias playing a role in driving death sentences for Black defendants.
Julius Jones and co-defendant Christopher Jordan, both Black, were arrested in 1999 during a car-jacking wherein White businessman Paul Howell was shot to death. A witness said the shooter had a red bandana over his face. The night of the murder, Jordan slept over at Jones’ home, where police found the gun wrapped in a red bandana. Jordan made a deal with prosecutors to testify against Jones in exchange for his guilty plea and a 30-year prison sentence. An almost all-White jury convicted Jones, and he was sentenced to death.
Jones presented a clemency petition to Oklahoma’s Republican governor Kevin Stitt. The petition alleges his trial lawyers were “inexperienced, overworked, and under-resourced public defenders” who didn’t call a single witness or present any potentially exculpatory evidence during trial. Also, prosecutors misled the jury by not revealing deals they’d offered their witnesses, including Jordan. Jones’ family says he was home the night of the murder, and he didn’t fit the shooter’s description. The arresting officer had called Jones the n-word, and during deliberation a juror also called Jones the n-word. Several individuals say Jordan had admitted he was the one who killed Howell and hid the weapon and red bandana inside Jones’ house.
Jordan was released from prison in 2014. Jones, on death row for 22 years, is asking that his sentence be commuted to life with the possibility of parole. Oklahoma’s parole board has recommended twice that he be granted clemency — the latest time on Monday. The decision is now up to Stitt.
Meanwhile, Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed, 53, has just been denied a new trial by a state district judge appointed to review the case after Texas Criminal Appeals Court delayed Reed’s 2019 execution date. Reed, who is Black, was convicted in 1996 for murdering a young White woman engaged to a White police officer, Jimmy Fennell. Reed always maintained that Fennell killed his girlfriend because she was having an affair with Reed. Fennell, who’s served time for sexual assault, has denied killing his fiancée. A two-week evidentiary hearing was held in July in which supporting witnesses and forensic experts testified that Reed and the woman had been having a consensual affair and that she’d died hours earlier than prosecutors contended. The case goes back to the appeals court to finally decide if Reed gets a new trial. (CNN, AP)
Maybe Not The Happiest Place On Earth
- The hazmat suits wandering around Shanghai Disneyland’s Halloween party weren’t a costume. Health workers were there to make sure tens of thousands of visitors and staff underwent coronavirus testing before being allowed to leave Sunday evening. Police blocked the exits and secured the grounds after a single confirmed case sent the park and its adjacent shopping district, Disneytown, into a snap lockdown.
- A local health commission in the neighboring province of Jiangsu said a woman who visited Shanghai Disney on Saturday had tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday. In a video that’s since gone viral on Chinese social media, crowds are shown lining up in front of makeshift testing sites as health workers in full personal protective equipment look on.
- In the background, above a storybook castle, colorful fireworks light up the night sky. The surreal juxtaposition of an impromptu mass testing drive and a Disney fireworks show is the latest example of how China’s stringent zero-Covid policy has permeated every corner of Chinese citizens’ lives. (CNN)
Put Your Money Where Your Musk Is
- Billionaire Elon Musk has accepted a challenge from U.N. World Food Program (WFP) director David Beasley. Last week, Beasley challenged the ultra-wealthy — specifically two of the world’s two richest men, Jeff Bezos and Musk — to “step up now, on a one-time basis” to help solve world hunger. “$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated,” Beasley said. That sum equates to roughly 2% of Musk’s $311 billion net wealth.
- On Sunday, Tesla’s chief executive and the world’s richest man tweeted: “If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it. But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.” Beasley responded that he could assure Musk the WFP had systems in place for transparency and open source accounting. “Your team can review and work with us to be totally confident of such.” (CNN)
Additional World News
- The COVID-19 pandemic has now killed 5 million people around the world (NPR)
- Erdogan skips Glasgow climate summit in security dispute (Reuters)
- France’s Macron accuses Australia’s prime minister of lying about submarine deal: ‘I don’t think, I know’ (WaPo, $)
- Key rebel leader in Philippines killed, in decades old fight (WaPo, $)
- New Zealand plan to halve greenhouse gas emissions criticised as an ‘accounting trick’ (Guardian)
- COP26: Minister in wheelchair unable to attend summit (BBC)
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Made (Faster) In China
- Last week, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, called China’s latest test of a hypersonic weapon system “very concerning.” General John Hyten, the No. 2-ranking U.S. military officer, said: “The pace at which China is moving is stunning.” The entire U.S. defense establishment seems unnerved by China’s growing military muscle and its aggressive drive to end American predominance in the Asia-Pacific.
- Officials see trouble quickly accumulating on several fronts — with Beijing’s nuclear arsenal, its advances in space, cyber and missile technologies, and threats to Taiwan. It remains to be seen how the Pentagon intends to deal with the China challenge in the future.
- For now, officials just marvel at how Beijing is marshalling the resources, technology, and political will to make such rapid gains. China’s hypersonic weapon is capable of partially orbiting the earth before reentering the atmosphere and gliding on a maneuverable path to its target. The system’s design is meant to evade U.S. missile defenses. (AP)
Hawley Misguided
- Missouri’s ultra-conservative Republican senator Josh Hawley has been ridiculed for his homilies on ‘manly virtues.’ Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Florida this weekend, the fist-raising Trump supporter doubled-down on his call for men to return to traditional masculine roles.
- Hawley appeared to be echoing the talking points of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that opposes feminism and believes men are under attack from liberal elites. Without citing any sources, Hawley said it was no wonder that “more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games” after years of being told their “toxic” masculinity is the problem.
- Hawley is the son of a banker, and attended private school before studying at Stanford and Yale, clerking for Chief Justice John Roberts, and becoming a law professor. Democrat Jason Kander, attorney, veteran, author, and former Missouri Secretary of State, was quick to tweet: “If Josh Hawley is an expert on masculinity then I’d like to take a few minutes to share my thoughts on quantum physics.” (Guardian)
Additional USA News
- Most Republicans say they don’t trust elections, an NPR poll finds (NPR)
- WaPost won’t publish full Trump response due to ‘unrelated, inflammatory claims’ (The Hill)
- Biden says Russia, China “basically didn’t show up” with climate commitments (CBS)
- Florida teacher of the year arrested after allegedly striking student over Instagram post (USA Today)
- Gun violence: At least 12 people killed in Halloween weekend mass shootings (CNN)
- Chauvin jurors give first interview since guilty verdict (The Hill)
Seeing The Light
- Bipartisanship is hard to find these days, but there’s one issue upon which seems millions of Americans are able to agree, and that’s getting rid of daylight saving time. More than a third of the country support getting rid of the time change that disrupts sleep patterns and creates confusion about Google calendars twice per year.
- The U.S. candy industry saw a huge surge in profits about 15 years ago, when the extra hour pf daylight was pushed into early November and allowed for more trick-or-treating hours. Time-change expert Michael Downing, who unfortunately passed away earlier this year, says that the biggest proponent of daylight saving time is actually the Chamber of Commerce.
- By creating more hours of daylight, we create more hours for shopping after work. Departments stores, lawn & garden stores, pro baseball and tennis, barbecue suppliers, and the golf industry all claim they add hundreds of millions of dollars in profits thanks to daylight savings. No state can act without an act of Congress, even though over half the states in the country are in favor of a permanent spring forward. (NPR)
Additional Reads
- Newly named species likely direct ancestor of the modern human (USA Today)
- The Demise of White House Market Will Shake Up the Dark Web (Wired)
- New Zealand strait crossed for first time by electric plane (AP)
- Man dies after being gored at Spanish bull-running festival (CNN)
- NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope snaps spooky image of a dying star (CNET)
- Stripe Discriminates Against Witches (Wired)