#260 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday January 28)
Good morning!
A potpourri today…
In these past 660 Musings, I’ve commented many times on both art and criminal justice. So imagine my glee to discover that someone figured out how to merge these two. There is an artist who recently passed on (in Oregon, through permitted suicide) who did just that, doing art work commemorating the last suppers of inmates facing their state-administered death. She captured the humanity of these people in the last suppers they ordered, painting these suppers on a series of plates.
As the New York Times reports on the first of these, “Six tacos, six glazed doughnuts and a Cherry Coke: That was the last meal of a man executed in Oklahoma in July 1999. Rendered in cobalt blue glaze on a white china plate the next year, it was the first in Julie Green’s decades-long art project, ‘The Last Supper,’ which documented the final meals of death row prisoners around the country.”
Some prisons will grant inmates’ relatives the right to prepare the final meal. So in one instance, Green painted the word “Mother” on a plate in honor of that meal. Here, reported in the Times is a request that explains in vivid prose, the problem with our rush to kill the mentally ill who are convicted of crimes: “In Arkansas in 1992, a mentally disabled man asked for a pecan pie and, because he didn’t understand the concept of execution, said he intended to save it to eat afterward.”
Here’s the article: “Julie Green, Artist Who Memorialized Inmates’ Last Suppers, Dies at 60”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/arts/julie-green-dead.html?referringSource=articleShare
THE SCOTTISH PLAY
Proving that Shakespeare never goes out of style, Joel Coen (one half of the “Coen brothers”) has produced, adapted and directed a brilliant production of MacBeth. This version, The Tragedy of MacBeth, stars two of his “regular” favorite actors, Denzel Washington and his wife, Frances McDormand. The score is spooky, the black and white photography and cinematography amazing, the witches positively creepy. As we all know, one of the themes is the excesses of the pursuit of power that will often lead people to do deeds that are unmentionable. In the end they will suffer and die from it. See it—particularly if you are one who will forgive Mr. Trump and his lackeys in Congress—for their pursuit of power with questionable aim.
THE SALT DEDUCTION
I favor raising taxes by taxing more things and at increasingly progressive rates at the higher end of the income scale. But I don’t understand not providing a deduction for state and local taxes (the so-called “SALT” deduction). The idea that one is taxed on dollars that are paid to a State in the form of taxes seems absurd. It’s one thing to tax a transaction multiple times (which also seems excessive) but not allowing the deduction of taxes already paid from income for federal tax purposes seems nonsensical. Of course, the reduction in the SALE deduction affects most significantly residents of typically large and Democratic states might be part of the plan, especially if you don’t care and don’t expect to get the votes in these large urban states anyway.
Last year, California passed a rule that allowed for certain entities to pay taxes (which are deductible by those entities as business expenses) and then distribute cash to partners on a cash flow basis (on which they wouldn’t be taxed for State tax purposes because the payments are net of taxes). In essence, this allows a loophole from the SALT exclusion. While the end result seems fair, my suspicion is that the State workaround to a federal law is likely preempted by that federal law. Other states are following suit. Let the games begin.
IN THE MEANTIME…
Fifty-seven people who participated in the January 6th insurrection are running for public office at various levels, including positions that will make decisions in election disputes.
Have a great day,
Glenn
From the archives: