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More Details on Cubans Fighting for Russia in Ukraine

CNN and Time Magazine have provided more details on Cubans fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

CNN’s Report[1]

Family members in Cuba have told CNN, “For months, hundreds of Cubans have quietly left the island to fight for Russia in its war in Ukraine, chasing promises of money and Russian citizenship from shadowy online recruiters.”

These Cubans in the war left the island because of the absolutely desperate economic conditions on the island and the promise of good-paying construction jobs in Russia. Once in Russia, however, they were sent to fight in Ukraine as shields for the Russian troops.

Time Magazine’s Report[2]

A 19-year-old Cuban, Alex Vegas Diaz, said he had accepted an offer on WhatsApp to make good money doing “construction work” for the Russian military. But when he arrived in Russia, he and a Cuban friend were taken to a Russian military base, outfitted with weapons and sent against their will to the front lines of the Ukraine war. Soon, however, he became ill and was sent to a Russian hospital. On an August 31^st video, he said, ““What is happening in Ukraine is ugly—to see people with their heads open before you, to see how people are killed, feel the bombs falling next to you. Please, please help get us out of here.”

This report went viral, prompting other Cubans on the island to seek information about their family members who had gone to Russia, and Time determined that Vegas Diaz and the others had been “caught up in a large, organized operation that has openly recruited hundreds of Cuban volunteers to fight in Moscow’s increasingly depleted army since July. They also suggest that the trafficking allegations may be an attempt by the Cuban government, a longtime ally of Russia, to maintain its stated neutrality on the war in Ukraine, four Cuba experts and former U.S. officials tell TIME.”

This past June posts began to appear on Cuban Facebook groups advertising a “contract with the Ministry of Defense for military service in the Russian army. Recruits were offered a monthly salary of 204,00 rubles, or $2,086 U.S. dollars—an almost unimaginable sum in Cuba, where the average salary is less than $50 per month. On Sept. 5, a Ukrainian hacker group posted what appeared to be a version of the six-page contract that recruits signed once they arrived in Russia, translated into flawless Spanish. It required a one-year commitment and came with benefits that included a one-time enlistment fee of 195,000 rubles (roughly $2,000) and 2 million rubles (roughly $21,000) for their families if they are killed. The contract also asks recruits to fill out a questionnaire about why they are enlisting and how they feel about military service. The terms of the contract match those publicly promoted by the Russian Defense Ministry, including the possibility of Russian citizenship for the recruit and their families per a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin last year.”

According to Time, “It is unclear how many conscripts the recruiting push yielded. The hacked emails reviewed by TIME only document the nearly 200 recruits who passed through the military office in the Russian city of Tula in July and August. Cuban human-rights groups’ estimates range from around 750 recruits to more than 1,000. The Miami-based Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC) told TIME that of the 746 recruits they have tracked, at least 62 appear to be part of a highly-trained Cuban special forces outfit known as the Avispas Negras, or Black Wasps. TIME reviewed 199 passports of Cubans, aged 18 to 69, who appear to have enlisted with the Russian army since mid-July, and matched more than 20 to social-media profiles that corroborated their names, faces, and hometowns.”

“Perhaps the clearest indication that the vast majority of these recruits went to Russia willingly, and did not act as though they were engaging in an illegal scheme, comes through their own social-media posts. On Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, many of these recruits posted photos with Russian tanks, smiled with other Cubans in their new Russian military uniforms, and boasted about sending money back home. In Facebook comments, family members openly discussed brothers, husbands, and cousins who were ‘in Russia’ and ‘in the war.’”

“The discovery of the recruiting effort has complicated the delicate line Havana has tried to walk since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Cuba has been crippled by a 60-year U.S. embargo, island-wide blackouts, and a hunger crisis. It relies on Russia for food, oil, and economic investment, and recently signed a series of bilateral deals in which Moscow pledged relief for food and oil shortages and investment in the island’s struggling sugar and steel industries in exchange for land leases. At the same time, Cuba can’t afford to further jeopardize its relations with Western nations who have sought to isolate Russia as punishment for its war in Ukraine. The European Union is Cuba’s second-biggest trading partner and largest foreign investor. Ukraine, which has made it clear it believes Havana is involved in the recruiting scheme, has publicly pushed for Western nations to retaliate by “severing diplomatic relations with Cuba.”

Although the Cuban government has tried to deny Russian recruitment of Cuban for the Ukraine war, “dozens of the passports reviewed by TIME had been issued very recently, making it unlikely, experts say, that the Communist government, which keeps close tabs on its citizens, would not have detected the sudden exodus. Cuba analysts reject the possibility that Havana was unaware of the recruiting push. Several recruits told family members who spoke to TIME, as well as human rights groups, that Cuban officials intentionally did not stamp their passports before they exited the country to board their flight to Moscow, in an apparent attempt to maintain deniability.”

According to Chris Simmons, a Cuban spycraft expert and former counterintelligence officer with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, “The idea that the [Cuban] government was not involved is ludicrous. Nothing happens without their involvement.” This view is “widely shared by Cuba experts who spoke to TIME. By pledging to prosecute any ‘illegal’ recruiting, the Cuban government gets the best of both worlds: ‘It supports its ally,’ Simmons says, ‘and because the passports aren’t stamped, there’s no liability of a body count, because there’s no proof they ever left.’”

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[1] Oppmann, Why Cubans are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, CNN.com (Sept. 19, 2023).

[2] Bergengruen, How Russia Is Recruiting Cubans to Fight in Ukraine, Time (Sept. 18, 2023) (even more details are provided in the Time article).

Should the U.S. Modify Its Stance Against the Taliban in Afghanistan?

As discussed in a prior post, on August 22, 2023, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported that since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, it had committed at least 800 human rights violations against Afghans who had assisted the U.S. In addition, that U.N. agency also noted that the Taliban had imposed the most radical gender policies, denying education and employment to millions of Afghan women and girls. [1]

Nevertheless, Graeme Smith, an analyst at the Crisis Group who has worked in that country since 2005 and who recently spent several months there, has said, “Most of the stuff we want to do [in that country] requires working with the Taliban.” In addition, in an article in Foreign Affairs, Smith urged western governments and institutions “to establish more functional relationships with the Taliban” that could include assistance with Afghanistan’s electricity grid, banking system and water management. Other experts and humanitarian groups have urged the U.S. to provide the Taliban with direct economic assistance to alleviate the country’s desperate poverty and hunger.[2]

Some positive points about the Taliban also emerged at a late July meeting of the U.S. State Department’s special representative for that country, Thomas West, and other U.S. officials with Taliban officials in Qatar. There was discussion of the country’s “declining opium poppy production and promising economic and counterterrorism actions and that there was openness to a technical dialogue regarding economic stabilization issues soon.” Note also was made of “recent [Afghan] data indicating declining inflation, growth of merchandise exports and imports.”[3]

At this U.S.-Taliban meeting, however, the U.S. also criticized the Taliban and the country’s “deteriorating human rights situation . . ., particularly for women, girls and vulnerable communities,” and its detentions, media crackdowns and limits on religious practices.

A New York Times columnist, Michael Crowley, also wonders whether the U.S. should modify its opposition to the Taliban while pointing out other positive aspects of Taliban rule: fears of an Afghan civil war have not materialized, and the Taliban apparently have prevented a return of a terrorist group that might threaten the U.S. and have cracked down on corruption and banned opium poppy cultivation. [4]

Reactions

These voices of moderation and practicality deserve consideration, especially if the U.S. could obtain Taliban cooperation on allowing peaceful removal of Afghans who had assisted the U.S. The successful implementation of these ideas might well lead to subsequent adoption of other partial measures of positive change.

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[1] U.N. Agency Reports Afghan Human Rights Violations Against Former U.S. Partners, dwkcommentaries.com ( Aug. 26, 2023).

[2] Smith, The World Has No Choice But to Work With the Taliban, Foreign Affairs (Aug. 11, 2023)

[3] U.S. State Department, Meeting of U.S. Officials with Taliban Representatives, (July 31, 2023); U.S. State Department, Thomas West, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

[4] Crowley, Two Years After Afghanistan Exit, Biden Resists Calls for More Taliban Contact, N.Y. Times (Aug. 30, 2023).

Overwhelmed U.S. Immigration Court System

The U.S. immigration court system is overwhelmed with its current 2.5 million open cases with those seeking asylum waiting an average of 5.8 years for a trial or hearing on the merits. This primarily is due to shortfalls in the federal immigration budget.[1]

A leading example of these problems is the immigration court in Omaha, Nebraska with jurisdiction over cases in that state plus Iowa, which in recent years have drawn migrants, some with papers and some without, to work in slaughter houses and other agricultural jobs. Its three judges oversee nearly 32,000 cases that have been undecided for an average of 2.7 years while its asylum cases have an average wait of 5.8 years, the longest in the nation. [2]

An example of the pressure this overwhelmed system places on migrants is Guadalupe, a Guatemalan woman now 54 years old, who came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2017 and immediately requested asylum protection. After two months detention, she was released and moved to rural Iowa where she had an aunt and obtained a job at a clothing manufacturing company while her nights are often sleepless as she worries about her three children and seven grandchildren in Guatemala. Her first Omaha court appearance was in October 2017, when she obtained a final hearing date in 2020 that was postponed to 2022 because of the pandemic and then postponed again to May 2023 because the judge was not available. Now her next hearing is scheduled for September 2023 to set a date for her final hearing.

Conclusion

Clearly the U.S. Congress needs to authorize more spending to equip the U.S. immigration administration and its courts for expeditious handling of this large backlog of cases. Other important related issues for Congress are (a) promoting more immigration to meet U.S. need for more workers;[3] (b) providing more financial assistance to cities and states that are absorbing more immigrants:[4] and (c) amending U.S. immigration law and procedure.[5]

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[1] Caldwell, Millions of Migrants Stuck in Legal Limbo, Wall St. Journal (Sept. 1, 2023). However, the hard-right House Freedom Caucus is threatening to block an interim spending bill in Congress unless it includes a security crackdown on the U.S.-Meixco border. (Demirjian, Hard Right Injects Immigration Into Spending Fight, Raising Shutdown Fears. N.Y. Times (Sept. 1, 2023).

[2] See, e.g., List of Posts to dwkcommentaries—Topical: LAW (REFUGEE & ASYLUM).

[3] E.g., Wall Street Journal Editorial: U.S. Needs More Immigrants, dwkcommentaries.com ( July 25, 2023).

[4] E.g., New York City Pleads for Federal Financial Aid for New Migrants, dwkcommentaries (Aug. 11, 2023).

[5] E.g., Increasing Migrant Crossings at U.S. Border Call for Legal Change, dwkcommentaries.com (Aug. 16, 2023).

U.N. Agency Reports Afghan Human Rights Violations Against Former U.S. Partners

On March 28, 2002, the U.N. Security Council established the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to promote peace and stability in that country and thereafter that mandate annually has been renewed and revised to reflect the continued needs of that country. This Mission’s headquarters is in Kabul with a field presence of around 1,187 staff throughout the country.[1]

UNAMA’s Report on Taliban’s Human Rights Violations[2]

On August 22, 2023, UNAMA released its report that the Taliban has committed at least 800 human-rights violations against U.S. partners since the Taliban’s takeover of the country in 2021. Members of the Afghan National Army are at the “greatest risk,” followed by national and local police officers and National Directorate of Security officials. Targets also include prosecutors, judges and national, provincial and district officials who served in the U.S.-backed government.

At least 218 Afghan partners have been murdered, the report says. “Some were taken to detention facilities and killed while in custody,” the report says, while “others were taken to unknown locations and killed, their bodies either dumped or handed over to family members.”

In addition, the report asserts that there have been 144 instances of torture and maltreatment, including beatings with pipes and cables, plus at least 14 enforced disappearances and more than 424 arbitrary arrests.

Reactions to the U.N. Report[3]

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported on the above details of this report.

Their articles also noted that “tens of thousands of such former officials remain in Afghanistan, unable or unwilling to join the scramble of Afghans to flee abroad” after the Taliban takeover and inhabit a “climate of fear.”

These news articles quoted the report as saying, “the abuses it found work against the healing of wounds in society from Afghanistan’s 40 years of war, and contravene the Taliban’s obligations under international human-rights law” and “the de facto authorities’ failure to fully uphold their publicly stated commitment and to hold perpetrators of human rights violations to account may have serious implications for the future stability of Afghanistan.”

The Wall Street Journal also published an editorial claiming that “the Biden Administration wants Americans to forget about Afghanistan” and “continues to offer too few visas for Afghans who helped America. Some Afghan partners told the U.N. that they ‘have gone into hiding’ and ‘live in fear of being arrested or killed by a member of the de facto authorities.’” Therefore, this editorial concludes, “These ugly details add to the disgrace of one of America’s worst betrayals.”

The Taliban government in a statement appended to the UNAMA report said that after the Taliban had seized power, its supreme leader had issued a blanket amnesty to all former government members, that only people acting against the Taliban had been arrested and prosecuted and, “After the victory of the Islamic Emirate until today, cases of human rights violations (murder without trial, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and other acts against human rights) by the employees of the security institutions of the Islamic Emirate against the employees and security forces of the previous government have not been reported.”

Although not mentioned in the U.N. report, the U.S. needs to adopt the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would provide permanent legal status for Afghans who have been admitted to the U.S. on temporary parole visas because of their assistance to U.S. troops and personnel before September 2021.[4]

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[1] UNAMA, About.

[2] Press Release, U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Impunity Prevails for Human Rights Violations Against Former Government Officials and Armed Forces Members (Aug. 22, 2023); UNAMA, A barrier to securing peace: Human rights violations against former government officials and former armed force members in Afghanistan: 15 August 2021—30 June 2023.

[3] Pena, U.N. Says Taliban Committed Rights Abuses Despite Blanket Amnesty, N.Y. Times (Aug. 22, 2023); Shah, Afghans Who Allied with U.S. Face Killings, Arrests Under Taliban Rule, U.N. Finds, W.S.J. (Aug. 22, 2023); Editorial: The Fate of America’s Afghan Partners, W.S.J. (Aug. 22, 2023)Response by the de facto Ministry of Foreign Affairs to UNAMA Human Rights Service report, regarding the violation of human rights against the employees and military forces of the previous government, Directorate of Human Rights & Women’s International Affairs, Kabul (Aug. 2023).

[4] Introduction of New Proposed Afghan Adjustment Act, dwkcommentaries.com (July 31, 2023).

Other Comments on David Brooks’ Column on “the Bad Guys”

The New York Times’ on August 2 published a David Brooks’ column entitled, “What If We’re the Bad Guys Here?”[1] and on August 9 this blogger published his blog post about that column.[2]

Now on August 12 the Times published the following comments by nine readers of that column.[3]

Michael Hadjiargyrou (Centerport, N.Y.)

“I am sick and tired of people like Mr. Brooks telling me that I am the problem or the ‘bad guy’ because I am educated (and no, I was not educated at an Ivy League school, and neither of my parents finished high school) to justify the fact that 35 percent of the population are fervent supporters of Donald Trump, no matter what he says or does.”

“Moreover, Mr. Trump is also part of the elite, but his supporters simply ignore this. This is not because he identifies with them in any way (as a golden-haired billionaire living in a mansion), but because Fox, Newsmax, and other right-wing TV and radio media outlets, right-wing militias and Trump puppet politicians in Congress essentially brainwashed them with their daily dose of propaganda about how the ‘left wing socialists and communists,’ ‘elites, the ‘woke,’ etc., are all conspiring to take their country and only Donald Trump can stop them.”

‘In my opinion, this is the biggest problem, Mr. Brooks, not educated Americans who as you correctly state are ‘are earnest, kind and public spirited.’”

“So, let’s not beat ourselves up because the other side has been completely brainwashed, does not accept facts, scientific and otherwise, is obsessed with conspiracies and lives in a right-wing echo chamber.”

(2) David Mahan (Sebring, Fla.)

“While I grew up in a small Midwestern town in a middle-class family, education has offered me a satisfying life with a secure retirement. Many of my classmates who chose a more blue-collar life path have endured more struggles, starting with military service in Vietnam. I am quite confident that many of them today support Donald Trump, at least partly for the reasons that David Brooks suggests.”

“Mr. Brooks’ column was a brilliant, moving description of the unspoken arrogance of many of us who are left-leaning. I believe that some sincere humility and understanding with regard to the concerns of many who feel left behind would go a long way to healing some of our divisions. Thanks to Mr. Brooks for his insight.”

Brian Smith (Dayton, Ohio)

“I’ll accept David Brooks’ plea that we not blame the logic-defying viability of Donald Trump on the wrongheadedness of tens of millions of Americans. I get the class resentment. I share the rage against excessive political correctness and the feeling that immigration is unchecked and overwhelming. I see his point that the elite stoke these resentments by voicing our support for the nonelite while spending most of our energy and resources protecting our own class privilege.”

“But let’s not gloss over the main factor here: Mr. Trump is the latest version of a leader who is little more than a self-obsessed expert at exploiting and inflaming the fear and resentments of the masses to benefit his own power and ego. Such a leader cares nothing about those who harbor these resentments, and certainly does not share the same fears.”

“On a more practical note, those who resent wokeism are shooting themselves in the foot by supporting someone who so many Americans, elite and otherwise, would vote for over their proverbial dead bodies.”

Ellen S. Hirsch (New York)

“The irony behind the case that David Brooks makes for Donald Trump’s support is that this support is based entirely on words (primarily offensive) and not actions. What did Mr. Trump do as president to help his supporters and make their lives better?”

“His major accomplishment was the tax reform enacted in 2017, which heavily favored the rich and elites (including himself). His supporters love the way he attacks his ‘enemies’ and anyone who disagrees with him and feel he speaks for them. The lack of actual benefits they have enjoyed seems not to matter.”

Jeffrey Callahan (Cleveland)

“Donald Trump, as loathsome as he is, has done one significant service for this country. He has made clear the great social divide that David Brooks describes in his excellent column. Now, how to fix it?”

“As a former naval officer and Vietnam veteran, I would suggest universal national service, with almost no exemptions. Being forced to live with, eat with, work with people from all over the country would teach all of us to be more tolerant. This would not just be military service; it would include working in national parks, teaching in underserved schools, and many other forms of service to the nation.”

“The only thing standing in the way is a timid Congress. Is there anyone in Congress brave enough to take this on?”

James A. Lepone (Telfod, Pa.)

“David Brooks makes a familiar and not unreasonable argument about how the fear, resentment and sense of alienation that fuel the cult of Trumpism proceed from economic and cultural realities for which liberal elites are, in large part, responsible.”

“When Mr. Brooks asks, however, whether anti-Trumpers should consider whether they are the ‘bad guys,’ he embarks on an analysis that completely excludes millions of people like me who find Donald Trump and Trumpism appalling, without being ‘elite’ at all.”

“I was raised in a row home in northeast Philly by a single mom who was a cop. My dad was a union construction worker. I’ve been a musician and a bartender for most of my adult life. In short, I’m hardly part of the elite class that Mr. Brooks seems to equate with the anti-Trump movement, and yet I’m passionately anti-Trump!”

“Maybe this particular piece simply wasn’t aimed at people like me, and that’s fine. But all too often I see this oversimplified, false duality that leaves out all the decent working-class people who have themselves been hurt by neoliberal policies and narratives, and yet would never channel their frustration into an odious movement like Trumpism. When we condemn Mr. Trump and his followers, we do so with a clean conscience.”

Jack Stern (Setauket, N.Y.)

“David Brooks identifies the privileges enjoyed by the highly educated class and the resentment of the less educated class that might cause them to be ardent supporters of Donald Trump. Mr. Brooks concludes with a warning that history is the graveyard of classes with preferred caste privileges.”

“What he fails to consider is that in the United States his identified ‘upper’ class encourages, both by words and action, members of the ‘lower’ class to join it. Nothing would make those with college or graduate degrees happier than if every capable child joined their class. This differs very much from any true caste system.”

Phillip L. Rosen (Venice Beach, Calif.)

“David Brooks’ column gave me a new perspective regarding why people support this obvious con man named Donald Trump. Although Mr. Brooks makes excellent points regarding the anger that people feel, is it not the Democrats who advocate and pass legislation regarding the minimum wage, infrastructure, child care, education, the environment, middle-class tax relief, financial assistance with community colleges and technical schools, etc., all for the benefit of working- and middle-class Americans?”

“Mr. Trump and the current crop of Republicans have done nothing to help these people. In light of this, isn’t propaganda from Mr. Trump and his followers, as well as the cynical right-wing media, also to blame for this misplaced anger and anti-democratic sentiment?”

Trudy Ring (Bend, Ore.)

“David Brooks does an excellent job of setting up a straw man to bring down. Most liberals aren’t part of the ‘elite,’ no matter how many right-wingers parrot that lie.”

“Exit polls from 2020 found that Joe Biden outpaced Donald Trump significantly among voters making less than $100,000 a year, while Mr. Trump did better among those making $100,000 or more. Mr. Trump is no friend to the working class, and polls like these give me confidence that a majority of the working class recognizes this. And any member of the working class who supports him or today’s extreme-right Republican Party is going against their own best interests.”

“It’s liberals and Democrats (usually but not always the same) who support policies to empower workers and reduce economic inequality, and the other side doesn’t give a damn. Liberals are not the elite and are not the enemy of the working class.”

This Blogger’s Reactions to These Comments

I share the belief of one of the published comments that “Mr. Trump is the latest version of a leader who is little more than a self-obsessed expert at exploiting and inflaming the fear and resentments of the masses to benefit his own power and ego. Such a leader cares nothing about those who harbor these resentments, and certainly does not share the same fears.”

Although I am a liberal, I believe that some liberals or left-leaning people exhibit “unspoken arrogance” and that all of us need “sincere humility and understanding with regard to the concerns of many who feel left behind would go a long way to healing some of our divisions.”

One way to work at healing those divisions is the suggested “universal national service, with almost no exceptions, [such as] working in national parks, teaching in underserved schools, and many other forms of service to the nation. Being forced to live with, eat with, work with people from all over the country would [help] teach all of us to be more tolerant.” This suggestion, however, is practically and politically unrealistic.

The laudable goal of helping us all to be more understanding and tolerant of those with different political opinions, especially of urban and rural dwellers, could be furthered by having members of urban churches and civic groups develop programs for visiting and spending time with members of rural churches and civic groups, devoted to talking about these various public issues. A key for urban dwellers like myself, I believe, is recognizing that many rural areas in the U.S. are experiencing problems associated with aging and declining population. So too members of rural churches and civic groups could spend time with members of such groups in urban areas talking about public issues and the urban-area problems such as crime in the streets.

There also should be recognition by all that many Democrats advocate and pass legislation regarding minimum wage, infrastructure, child care, education, the environment, middle class tax relief, and financial assistance for community colleges and technical schools for the benefit of working and middle-class Americans.

Another problem not mentioned in these selected reader comments is all of us tend to watch and listen to radio and television news programs that are oriented to our existing opinions and orientations to public issues.

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[1] Brooks, What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?, N.Y. Times (Aug. 2, 2023).

[2] Are Anti-Trumpers “the Bad Guys”?, dwkcommentaries (Aug. 9, 2023), .

[3] LETTERS: Are the Elite Anti-Trumpers the ‘Bad Guys’?, N.Y. Times (Aug. 12, 2023),

Are Anti-Trumpers “the Bad Guys”?

This is the question posed in a recent David Brooks column in the New York Times.[1]

He starts out with the admission (or confession) that he is an anti-Trumper who believes that members of this group are “the good guys, the forces of progress and enlightenment” while the “Trumpers are reactionary bigots and authoritarians” who see Trump as “the embodiment of their resentments.”

At least for purposes of argument, however, Brooks considers whether the anti-Trumpers are the bad guys by creating the “modern meritocracy” system.

Such a system started in the 1960s “when high school grads had to go off to fight in Vietnam but the children of the educated class got college deferments. It continues in the 1970s, when the authorities imposed busing on working-class areas in Boston but not on the upscale communities like Wellesley where . . . [the educated class] lived.”

The latter is “the modern meritocracy. We built an entire social order that sorts and excludes people on the basis of the quality that we possess most: academic achievement. Highly educated parents go to elite schools, marry each other, work at high-paying jobs and pour enormous resources into our children, who get into the same elite schools, marry each other and pass their exclusive class privileges down from generation to generation.”

“Everybody else is forced into a world down there. . . . Today middle-class children lose out to the rich children at school, and middle-class adults lose out to elite graduates at work. Meritocracy blocks the middle class from opportunity. Then . . . [the modern aristocracy] blames those who lose a competition for income and status that even when everyone plays by the rules, only the rich can win.”

“Armed with all kinds of economic, cultural and political power, we [members of the modern aristocracy] support policies that help ourselves. Free trade makes the products we buy cheaper, and our jobs are unlikely to be moved to China. Open immigration makes our service staff cheaper, but new, less-educated immigrants aren’t likely to put downward pressure on our wages.”

“We [the members of the modern aristocracy] also change the moral norms in ways that suit ourselves, never mind the cost to others. For example, there used to be a norm that discouraged people from having children outside marriage, but that got washed away during our period of cultural dominance, as we eroded norms that seemed judgmental or that might inhibit individual freedom.”

“After this social norm was eroded, . . . [m]embers of our class still overwhelmingly married and had children within wedlock. People without our resources, unsupported by social norms, were less able to do that.”

As Adrian Wooldridge points out in his magisterial 2021 book, “The Aristocracy of Talent, ‘Sixty percent of births to women with only a high school certificate occur out of wedlock, compared with only 10 percent to women with a university degree.” That matters, he continues, because ‘the rate of single parenting is the most significant predictor of social immobility in the country.’”

Brooks believes that most of our class [the modern aristocracy] are “earnest, kind and public-spirited. But we take for granted and benefit from systems that have become oppressive. Elite institutions have become so politically progressive in part because the people in them want to feel good about themselves as they take part in systems that exclude and reject [others].”

“It’s easy to understand why people in less-educated classes would conclude that they are under economic, political, cultural and moral assault — and why they’ve rallied around Trump as their best warrior against the educated class. Brooks understands that it’s not the entrepreneurs who seem most threatening to workers; it’s the professional class. Trump understood that there was great demand for a leader who would stick his thumb in our eyes on a daily basis and reject the whole epistemic regime that we rode in on.”

“If distrustful populism is your basic worldview, the Trump indictments seem like just another skirmish in the class war between the professionals and the workers, another assault by a bunch of coastal lawyers who want to take down the man who most aggressively stands up to them. Of course, the indictments don’t cause Trump supporters to abandon him. They cause them to become more fiercely loyal. That’s the polling story of the last six months.”

“Are Trump supporters right that the indictments are just a political witch hunt? Of course not. As a card-carrying member of my class, Brooks says, I still basically trust the legal system and the neutral arbiters of justice. Trump is a monster in the way we’ve all been saying for years and deserves to go to prison.”

Therefore, for sociologist Digby Baltzell and David Brooks, “the real question is: When will we stop behaving in ways that make Trumpism inevitable?”

Reactions

In this column, Brooks does not provide an answer to his “real question.” Maybe there will be a future column in which he does so.

This blogger, however, believes at least part of the “real answer” for the State of Minnesota and many other states lies in the declining and aging population of rural parts of the State and the resulting negative impacts on their economies and visions of the future.[2] This problem suggests the need for more immigration to help solve the need for more labor with immigrant visas requiring the recipients to live and work in the areas with declining population.

Another part of the answer for this State and others, therefore, this blogger believes, is developing a system to promote and maintain intimate social contacts between people in the two parts of the states and thereby developing better understanding of the two sectors and programs for addressing the needs of the people in the rural parts of the states. Such a system requires everyone to exercise mutual forbearance toward each other[3] and to recognize our failings (sins) and request forgiveness from God and those whom we have wronged.[4]

Readers are invited to provide comments to this post with other ideas for answering the “real question” posed by Brooks.

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[1] Brooks, What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?, N.Y. Times (Aug. 2, 2023).

[2] See, e.g., these posts in dwkcommentaries.com: Another Defining Challenge of the 21^st Century (Jan. 28, 2023);Skepticism About Douthat’s Defining Challenge of the 21^st Century (Jan. 30, 2023); COMMENT: Developments in Africa and Italy Accentuate Douthat’s Concerns (Jan. 31, 2023); Iowa State Government Encouraging Refugee and Migrant Resettlement Feb. 1, 2023); COMMENT: National Worker Shortages in U.S. (Feb. 3, 2023); Migrant Workers Being Paid Premium Wages in U.S. Tight Labor Market (Feb. 8, 2023); More Details on U.S. and Other Countries’ Worker Shortages (Feb. 9, 2023);Your Longevity Is Important for Many Reasons (Feb. 12, 2023); Other States Join Iowa in Encouraging Immigration To Combat Aging, Declining Populations (Feb. 22, 2023); COMMENT: More Support for Immigrants’ Importance for U.S. Economy (Feb. 23, 2023); U.S. High-Tech Layoffs Threaten Immigrants with Temporary Visas (Feb. 25, 2023); U.S. Needs To Ameliorate Brutal Jobs Endangering Immigrant Workers (Feb. 26, 2023); COMMENT: Layoffs in Overall U.S. Economy Are Rare (Feb. 27, 2023); COMMENT: Many Undocumented Immigrants Leaving U.S. (March 1, 2023); Protections for U.S. Child Labor Need Improvement (APRIL 22, 2023; Wall Street Journal Editorial: U.S. Needs More Immigrants (July 25, 2023); COMMENT: Americans in Their Prime Are Flooding Into the Job Market (July 26, 2023:COMMENT: Dire Shortages of Workers in U.S. Public Sector (July 27, 2023).

[3] E.g., Minneapolis’ Westminster Presbyterian Church: Presbyterian Principles: It is our duty to exercise mutual forbearance toward each other, dwkcommentaries.com (May 19, 2023).

[4] E.g., The Prayer Jesus Taught: “And forgive us for our debts as we forgive our debtors,” dwkcommentaaries.com (May 9, 2023).

State Court Imposes Sentence of 57 Months Imprisonment on Tou Thao for Aiding Manslaughter of George Floyd

When George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, Tou Thao was a Minneapolis police officer who was in charge of monitoring and restraining the large nearby crowd of bystanders while observing fellow officers Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane and Alexander Kueng physically restraining and killing George Floyd on the nearby pavement. On August 7, 2023, Thao was sentenced in state court to 57 months imprisonment for aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. The following is a summary of Minnesota state courts’ proceedings, convictions and sentencings of these four ex-Minneapolis police officers.

Prior State Court Proceedings[1]

The State of Minnesota charged Thao and the other three officers with various crimes for the killing of Mr. Floyd. The officer in charge, Derek Chauvin, was the first officer to go on trial in the Hennepin County District Court and a jury found him guilty of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and the court sentenced him to 22.5 years imprisonment.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals then denied Chauvin’s appeal and the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to hear his further appeal. According to his attorney, Chauvin will petition the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case.

In Hennepin County District Court in May 2022, Officer Lane pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 2.5 years imprisonment.

In October 2022, also in Hennepin County District Court, Kueng pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting manslaughter and was sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Thao, however, rejected a proposed guilty plea and instead chose to have Judge Cahill try him on stipulated evidence.

District Court’s Conviction of Thao[2]

On May 1, 2023, District Court Judge Peter Cahill issued the Court’s 177-page Verdict, Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Memorandum Opinion. In finding Thao guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter of George Floyd, the Verdict stated:

“Thao actively encouraged his three colleagues’ dangerous prone restraint of Floyd while holding back a crowd of concerned bystanders begging the officers to render medical aid. Thao knew, as the minutes passed and the restraint continue unimpeded, that Floyd had stopped talking and fallen silent, had stopped moving altogether, and
had become totally unresponsive. In fact, by about six minutes into the restraint, Floyd stopped breathing, lost consciousness, and became pulseless.”
That night Thao “was an experienced Minneapolis police officer with almost a decade’s experience. He knew that the officers’ prone restraint could kill. Like the other officers, Thao had been trained specifically to turn an individual onto his side to avoid positional asphyxia, the very thing that several eminent medical specialists who testified at trial concluded caused Floyd’s death. Like the bystanders, Thao could see Floyd’s life slowly ebbing away as the restraint continued. Yet Thao made a conscious decision to actively participate in Floyd’s death: he held back the concerned bystanders and even prevented an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter from rendering the medical aid Floyd so desperately needed.”
““Thao also directly insisted upon continuing the restraint that took Floyd’s death that night. Soon after Floyd had been subdued prone on the street, Thao retrieved a device called a ‘hobble’ from Lane’s and Kueng’s squad. If properly employed, that hobble would have saved Floyd’s life. But Thao encouraged the other officers not to use the hobble and instead to ‘hold on’ and continue the physical restraint by which his three fellow officers were bearing down on Floyd, forcing him into the unyielding concrete of the street, drastically inhibiting his ability to breathe effectively. Thao’s stated reason? ‘If we hobble him, the sergeant is going to have to come out’ to complete the paper work for a ‘use of force review’ mandated by MPD policy whenever the hobble is employed. The short of it: Tou Thao did not want to follow the proper protocol and the work it would entail. George Floyd died as a result.”

District Court’s Sentencing of Thao[3]

On August 3, 2023, Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Erin Eldridge submitted a three-page letter to the Court noting that the presumptive sentence for this crime for Thao was 48 months with a guideline range of 41 to 57 months and that the State requested the imposition of a 51 month sentence for the following reasons:

“Thao’s conduct was calculated, deliberate, and directly facilitated and perpetuated the restraint that led to Floyd’s death. Throughout the encounter, Thao was aware of Floyd’s distress and the dangerousness of the ongoing prone restraint. Thao discouraged the officers from using a hobble—a device that, if properly utilized, would have saved Floyd’s life. . . . Instead, Thao actively encouraged his fellow officers to continue to restrain Floyd prone on the ground. . . . . . Thao also ‘expressly refused to allow’ ‘a trained Minneapolis firefighter’ ‘to tend to Floyd, . . . despite Floyd’s obvious distress. . . . In short, Thao bears personal responsibility for what happened that day. This Court should impose a punishment that reflects Thao’s culpability.”
“Thao’s conduct was even more egregious in light of his extensive experience and training. Thao completed the police academy in 2009, and became a full-time officer in 2012, serving in that capacity for 8 years. …. Over the course of his multi-year career, Thao completed 1,014 hours of MPD training, including medical training, defensive tactics training, procedural justice training, and crisis intervention training. . . . .Above all, Thao had been trained about the importance of placing individuals in the side recovery position to alleviate the risk of positional asphyxia. . . . Yet despite his extensive on-the-job experience and copious training, Thao intentionally encouraged the use of a dangerous prone restraint, discouraged the use of a hobble, and prevented an off-duty firefighter from rendering aid. In short, Thao knew better, but did not do better.”
“Thao acted callously and cruelly. Thao mocked Floyd, telling the concerned bystanders: ‘This is why you don’t do drugs, kids.’ . . . . Thao dismissed Floyd’s pleas: ‘He’s talking, so he’s fine.’ . . . And Thao encouraged the dangerous behavior for selfish reasons: In Thao’s words, if the officers used a hobble, ‘a sergeant’s going to have to come [to the scene].’ ….This Court put it best: ‘Tou Thao did not want to follow the proper protocol and the work it would entail. George Floyd died as a result.’ . . . . “
“[A] a significant term of incarceration would serve as a deterrent for similar misconduct. Police officers enforce the law; they are not above the law. A 51-month prison sentence will discourage other public servants from engaging in similar criminal behavior or abuses of authority.”
“Thao has neither accepted responsibility nor shown any remorse for his actions”

At the August 7 sentencing hearing, Mr. Eldridge said, “George Floyd’s last words were heard around the world, but more importantly they were heard by Tou Thao and we cannot forget them now three years later.”

Mr. Thao’s attorney, Robert Paule, said at the hearing, “The death of Mr. Floyd is a tragedy, but the court is a place of justice, not retribution. Mr. Thao went out that day with the purest intentions. My client is a good and decent man with a family.” Paule then requested a sentence of 47 months, which was 10 months less than the maximum of the sentencing guidelines.

Mr. Thao then spoke for about 23 minutes to say, “Hold on to the truth that I did not commit these crimes; my conscience is clear. I will not be a Judas nor join a mob in self-preservation or betray my God. I did not intend on hurting anyone that day. I did the best I thought I could. Obviously the outcome didn’t come out the way I wanted it. I’ll leave it at that” without any apology. He then quoted Biblical passages and preached of repentance, fear of God and forgiveness. “Today if you feel the love of God pulling at your heart. . . . Let it be your day of salvation. Do not harden your heart in rebellion, for God desired mercy and relationship with you.”

Thao then directly asked Judge Cahill if he was a brother in Christ and apologized if he had offended the Judge by refusing to take a guilty plea deal and having said, “it would be a lie and a sin for me to accept a plea deal.” The Judge then said no offense was taken.

Thao closed by saying that he is praying for everyone in the room, including the Judge, and that if anyone needs him for prayer, “you know where to find me. Thank you judge. God bless you.”

Judge Cahill then said, “After three years of reflection, I was hoping for a little more remorse, regret, acknowledgement of some responsibility and less preaching.” The Judge added that he would not rehash the facts of the case, but that Thao’s “culpability is less than Mr. Chauvin, but well above Mr. Kueng and Mr. Lane as an experienced senior officer who was in the best position to save George Floyd.” Therefore, a sentence of 57 months was appropriate.

This sentence will be served in Minnesota state prison, to which he will be transferred from federal prison where he already is serving his federal sentence of 42 months for violations of Floyd’s civil rights with the balance of that federal sentence to be served concurrently with the state sentence. [4]

Conclusion

After the hearing, Thao’s attorney said he would appeal the guilty verdict and the sentence.

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[1] See, e.g., List of Posts to dwkcommentaries—Topical: George Floyd Killing.

[2] Tou Thao, ex-MPD Officer, Convicted for Aiding and Abetting Second-Degree Manslaughter of George Floyd, dwkcommentaries.com (May 3, 2023); Briefs in Tou Thao’s State Court Criminal Case Over Killing of George Floyd, dwkcommentaries.com (Feb. 2, 2023);

[3] Hyatt, Ex-Minneapolis cop Tou Thao sentenced to nearly 5 years for aiding George Floyd’s killing, StarTribune (Aug. 7, 2023); Karnowski, Ex-Minneapolis officer unrepentant as he gets nearly 5 years in George Floyd killing, AP News (Aug. 7, 2023); Betts, Former Officer Gets More than 4 Years in Final Sentencing for Police Killing of George Floyd, N.Y. Times (Aug. 7, 2023). Bailey, Ex-Minneapolis officer gets second sentence in George Floyd’s death, Wash. Post (Aug. 7, 2023); Helmore, Ex-officer sentenced to nearly five years for role in George Floyd’s murder, Guardian (Aug. 7, 2023); Letter, Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Erin R. Eldridge to Judge Peter Cahill (Aug. 3, 2023).

[4] Tou and the other three ex-MPD officers were also sued in federal court for alleged violations of Mr. Floyd’s civil rights. All four of them were convicted and sentenced to federal imprisonment. (E.g., U.S. Court of Appeals Affirms Federal Conviction of Tou Thao for Violating the Civil Rights of George Floyd, dwkcommentaries.com (Aug. 5, 2023).) https://www.startribune.com/tou-thao-sentenced-nearly-5-years-aiding-george-floyds-killing/600295391/?refresh=true

Reasonable Proposal for Solving U.S. Debt Ceiling Crisis

U.S. Representative Jared Golden, a pro-choice, pro-gun Democrat from a pro-Trump district in the backwoods of Maine, has proposed what a Washington Post columnist (Steven Pearlstein) calls “a reasonable plan to tame runaway budget deficits.”[1]

Golden’s letter to his constituents “starts by acknowledging the obvious political reality that in a deeply divided country with an evenly divided Congress, bipartisan compromise is inevitable. And this letter acknowledges the economic reality that running big deficits not only stokes inflation but risks triggering a debt spiral in which interest payments eventually consume the entire federal budget. The immediate challenge, he writes, is to stabilize deficits so the nation’s debt grows no faster than the nation’s income.”

To meet this challenge, “Golden sets a target of reducing borrowing by $250 billion a year in each of the next two years:”

“Half would come through spending caps such as those floated by Republicans: capping inflation-adjusted “discretionary” spending (everything other than Social Security and Medicare) at last year’s levels, along with rescinding student debt cancellation and recapturing unspent covid funding.”
“The other half would come from raising additional revenue in ways long favored by Democrats: raising the tax rate on big corporations to 25 percent, imposing a surtax on corporate stock buybacks, and rescinding the Trump tax cut for individuals making more than $400,000 a year.”

Reaction

Although this blogger has not studied the many details of the current debt ceiling crisis, I endorse Representative Golden’s proposal as a good place to start.

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[1] Perlstein, Amid the debt ceiling madness, a lonely voice of sanity emerges, Wash. Post (April 24, 2023); Jared Golden, A letter from Congressman Golden (April 14, 2023).

Protections for U.S. Child Labor Need Improvement

After noting that Iowa and other states are reducing child-labor protections to 19^th century levels while U.S. child labor-law violations have been increasing, a Washington Post editorial says “lawmakers and other leaders at the state and federal levels should increase [such protections].Children, including migrant youths, should be in school. . . . The Labor Department needs to step up enforcement, and Congress should increase fines for companies that hire children. The maximum fine is currently $15,000 per occurrence — a pittance. It’s also not enough to raid one factory. Often, a crackdown at one leads young workers to move to another nearby.”[1]

In addition, “the Health and Human Services Department is responsible for releasing migrant children from detention centers to “guardians” in the United States. It’s become clear that a growing number of children are not being released to relatives and are in danger of being trafficked. The HHS process needs to change. Mr. Biden can also step up enforcement of anti-trafficking laws already on the books.”

“Most of all, people who see wrongdoing should be empowered to speak up. Teachers, especially those in English language learner classrooms, can see which students are falling asleep in class because they worked all night, or notice when someone suddenly drops out. Religious leaders also are often on the front lines. Whistleblowers in the community require clear places to report child labor, and agencies that receive the warnings must follow up.”

“Nearly a century [after the adoption of the 1938 U.S. child-labor protections], it should not take more adolescent deaths for lawmakers to once again protect children from dangerous jobs.”

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[1] Editorial, Children don’t belong in factories or freezers—or on construction sites, Wash. Post (April 22, 2023). See also Dreier, As Migrant Children Were Put to Work, U.S. Ignored Warnings, N.Y. Times (April 17, 2023). But see Krugman, How Immigrants Are Saving the Economy, N.Y. Times (April 13, 2023) (“Recent immigrants are overwhelmingly working-age adults; according to census data, 79 percent of foreign-born residents who arrived after 2010 are between the ages of 18 and 64, compared with only 61 percent for the population at large. So the immigration surge has probably been a significant contributor to the economy’s ability to continue rapid job growth without runaway inflation.”).

State Department Secret Memo from 1960 Set Basis for Subsequent U.S. Policies Regarding Cuba

On April 6, 1960, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Lester Mallory, wrote a Secret Memorandum for Roy Richard Rubottom, Jr., who then was Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, titled “The Decline and Fall of Castro.” [1]

This memo first set forth the following facts about Cuba that Mallory thought were established:

“The majority of Cubans support Castro (the lowest estimate I have seen is 50 percent).”
“There is no effective political opposition.”
“Fidel Castro and other members of the Cuban Government espouse or condone communist influence.”
“Communist influence is pervading the Government and the body politic at an amazingly fast rate.”

Therefore, Mallory asserted, “The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship.” (Emphasis added.)

Mallory then said, “If the above are accepted or cannot be successfully countered,, it follows that every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba. If such a policy is adopted, it should be the result of a positive decision which would call forth a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.” (Emphasis added.)

According to U.S. historian Thomas G. Patterson, Mallory became “the official most responsible for defining United States Cuban policy” in the years immediately surrounding the 1959 Cuban revolution.[2]

On February 2, 2022, which was the 60^th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s “executive order imposing ‘an embargo on all trade with Cuba,’ the [U.S.] National Security Archive . . .[posted] a collection of previously declassified documents that record the origins, rationale, and early evolution of punitive economic sanctions against Cuba in the aftermath of the Castro-led revolution. The documents show that the initial concept of U.S. economic pressure was to create ‘hardship’ and ‘disenchantment’ among the Cuban populace and to deny ‘money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, [and] to bring about hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of [the] government.’ However, a CIA case study of the embargo, written twenty years after its imposition, concluded that the sanctions ‘have not met any of their objectives.’” (Emphasis added.)[3]

Cuba’s Reactions to the Mallory Memorandum[4]

A year after the release of the Mallory Memorandum, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla “condemned . . . the validity of [this document] and its repercussions on the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the U.S. on our country on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the promulgation of the document. . . [Such] inhuman policy of maximum pressure and economic asphyxiation ignores the universal clamor for a better Cuba without a blockade. “The Foreign Minister added, “the U.S. government applies the script of the Mallory Memorandum, enacted 63 years ago,” but fails in its “attempt to subjugate a sovereign nation, a bastion of dignity and creative resistance.”

Conclusion

Although this blogger has done a lot of independent research and writing of blog posts about U.S.-Cuba relations, including criticism of many U.S. policies regarding the island, he had never heard of Mallory or this long-held secret document until now and is surprised that the first official Cuban comment regarding the Mallory memorandum that he has found occurred a year after its secret status was rescinded.

Comments from readers of this blog with insights on these issues would be appreciated.

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[1] State Department , Memorandum, “The Decline and Fall of Castro, SECRET, April 6, 1960; State Department Office of the Historian , Roy Richard Rubottom Jr.,

[2] R. Richard Rubottom, Who Helped Shape Cuban Policy, Dies at 98, N.Y. Times ( Dec. 19, 2010).

[3] National Security Archive, Cuba Embargoes: U.S. Trade Sanctions Turn Sixty (Feb. 2, 2022). This release included “A Brief Chronological History of the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba” that started with the Mallory Memorandum. The author of this “History” was William M. LeoGrande, a noted scholar of U.S. -Cuba relations.

[4] Cuban Foreign Minister condemns the validity of the Mallory Memorandum and its repercussions on U.S. policy toward Cuba, Granma (Apr. 20, 2023)