Mutually Assured Stupidity
News Roundup
Sins of the Son
After the verdict came in, she looked despondent. This mother, Jennifer Crumbley, was found guilty of four counts of “involuntary manslaughter” and will be sentenced to serve up to 15 years in prison in April. That’s one count per kid killed by her son when he shot up Oxford High School at the age of 15 in 2021, in what was the most lethal school shooting in Michigan’s history.
The charge had been controversial even in the prosecutor’s office. It’s not unprecedented to put a parent in prison for a child’s actions, and recently parents of shooters have been slapped with with “neglect” or “reckless conduct” charges. But this latest charge was aggressive. And when gun deaths for American children are on the rise, this judgement throws open the door for similar charges in the future.
The father, James Crumbley, will soon have his own trial. But to what extent are the parents of school shooters — rather than the others who influence a school shooter’s environment — truly “guilty”?
Five Fast Things
FRAYED THREADS: Iran’s control over its American resistance coalition in an especially volatile Middle East is fragile. The task of consolidating Iran’s power without causing the U.S. to bare its teeth now falls to Esmail Qaani, the head of Iran’s paramilitary troops. In some ways, it’s the fallout of America’s assassination of Qaani’s predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, by airstrike in 2020.
LAW AND DISORDER: Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s argument that he has “blanket immunity” from prosecution doesn’t hold water, according to a federal appeals court. Trump has been trying to evade culpability for the 2020 coup attempt and will surely now press on the Supreme Court to intervene. It’s almost like the president isn’t a king or emperor and can’t claim imperium.
LOOK WHAT THE STORK BROUGHT: Last year, Washington, DC, tried out universal basic income by giving a hell of a baby shower gift. The city sent $10,800 to 132 new mothers, and it’s done some good, according to the Washington Post, which spoke with a few of the mothers over the last year.
MUTUALLY ASSURED STUPIDITY: In New Hampshire, Republicans have floated a bill that would make it a crime — punishable with up to 20 years in jail — to use environmental, social or governance (ESG) criteria in evaluating financial performance. Conservatives split over ESG factors last year when some argued these “sustainable stocks” can actually perform better. But who cares about the planet — or even profits — if you can stick it to the woke Libs?
IT TAKES A STATE GOVERNMENT: My colleague, Emily Tate Sullivan, inspected the “Tri-Share” child care model, a cost-sharing approach in which employer and employee each foot a third of the cost of child care. First tried in Michigan in 2021, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia have expressed interest in the model, Tate writes.
Provocations
A lot of academic research contains a shocking number of silly or malicious mistakes. Is the peer review process — which, among other things, assures accuracy in the research used for creating new medicine — failing? (The New York Times)
The perfectly predictable decline of Boeing, one of the largest planemakers in the world. (Vox)
The World In Data
59.1 Million
The estimated number of internally displaced people — those forced to flee their home but still living within the bounds of their country — in 2021, according to nonprofit the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center.
53.2 million
The number of internal displacements that year from conflict and violence.
5.9 million
The number of displacements that year from disasters.
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