By Charlton Stanley, Weekend Contributor
Jackson Attorney
Photo by Jackson, MS police department
As I write this, the news is still coming in, and the full story is far from being told. I will provide breaking news as I hear it, but our intrepid bloggers should consider the comments an Open Thread. If you have solid news to report, please do so, and source the information. Otherwise it is just gossip.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that conspiracy theorists are breaking out the tinfoil hats.
What do we know about the death of Mississippi attorney Mark Mayfield? He lived in Ridgeland, Mississippi, a bedroom suburb just north of the city of Jackson. He was 57 years old. About 9:00 Friday morning, he was found dead in his home of a single gunshot wound. There was a note, but authorities have not revealed the contents. That is not unusual. When I worked in the state that was general policy with investigators across the state. Sometimes suicide notes are poignant, sad, and express intense pain. Other notes have content so gross or inflammatory they could not be printed in a family newspaper. In cases of suicide notes, the families often are reluctant to permit release to the public. In other cases, the note may implicate other people in a crime, or include confidential information. If the latter is the case, release of the content of a suicide note risks compromising an ongoing investigation, especially if sealed indictments are involved. Nothing should be read into it if the note contents are not released and made public.
Mayfield was a major supporter of the Tea Party in Mississippi. They fielded a candidate to run against Senator Thad Cochran in the Republican primary, Chris McDaniel. During the run-up to the primary, several men gained illegal entry into the nursing home where Senator Cochran’s wife was staying. She has Alzheimer’s disease. The actual break-in was actually implemented by a Tea Party blogger named Clayton Kelley, who was arrested. A photo of Mrs. Cochran was posted on a website, presumably Kelley’s. It was taken down a short time later.
Kelley was arrested along with four men, including lawyer Mayfield. The others arrested in the incident were Richard Sager, a high school coach and John Beachman Mary of Hattiesburg. Mary was not taken into custody because of what were described as “extensive medical conditions.”
All the men face felony conspiracy charges. I have not found a complete list of all the charges, but I am sure some would have been added later. For one there is a major HIPAA violation.
My take on this as a professional who has worked in the field for more than forty years, is that Mayfield felt he had no options left. His career as a lawyer was over. He knew he would lose his license to practice and almost certainly was going to be sent to prison. Life as he knew it in the past was ended; that is, after he was released from prison.
There are many professions where one can recover and rebuild after a conviction. Martha Stewart is an example of reinventing oneself. On the other hand, actor Fatty Arbuckle never was able to reestablish a career. Having made a study of suicide over the years, and taught a doctoral level course on Thanatology, there is one overriding element almost all suicides have in common. The subject believes there is literally no way out of the bleak situation they are in. That leads to a feeling of hopelessness. This in turn causes a kind of tunnel vision in which they can envision only one way out.
Setting political issues aside for a moment, I believe this is a time for empathy for Mark Mayfield’s family and loved ones. His criminal defense attorney, Merrida “Buddy” Coxwell is a long time acquaintance of mine, and I believe he expressed it as well as I can, “…he was a client, but more importantly, he was a friend for almost 34 years. My heart is completely broken. This is beyond tragic and the people of this community and state have lost a good man…”
The recriminations can start later. I will say; however, that my contacts in Mississippi tell me the Tea Party regulars have tight sphincter syndrome regarding what Mayfield may have put in that note.
Sources:
—ooOoo–
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Coffeebeans,
“The McDaniel’s supporters are crying foul because the incumbent appealed to the general population, rather than just the Republican base, and appealed to the voter’s self interest. Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation, and receives $3.07 in federal dollars for every dollar they send in in taxes. ”
*****
I’m glad you brought up what kind of aid the state of Mississippi gets from the federal government.
Federal Aid as a Percentage of State General Revenue (Fiscal Year 2012)
May 15, 2014
By Liz Malm, Richard Borean
Tax Foundation
http://taxfoundation.org/blog/federal-aid-percentage-state-general-revenue-fiscal-year-2012
Excerpt:
Though taxes are the most common and recognizable source of state government revenues, it’s important to remember that they’re not the only source. In fact, state governments received 32.8 percent of their total general revenues from transfers from the federal government in the 2012 fiscal year.
That number varies for specific states, however. For example, Mississippi obtains 45.8 percent of its total state general revenues from federal transfers (the largest share in the country). Also on the high end are Louisiana (44.3 percent), South Dakota (41.5 percent), Tennessee (41.3 percent), and Missouri (40.8 percent).
Chuck Stanley
Conspiracy theories? I hardly know where to start. For instance:
…
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I expect the defense lawyers to use those arguments exactly.
The indictments read “the defendants conspired” to do thus and such.
When they tell the jury “it’s just a government conspiracy theory – the worst kind” the years of propaganda against conspiracy theories is eventually going to back fire (On The Origin of “Conspiracy Theory” – 4). Bad nomenclature.
“Everybody knows that criminals conspire to commit crimes, except for criminals in the government that is.”
One wonders how long the “conspiracy theory” indoctrination will last.
Annie
SWM, maybe disgruntled Tea Partiers will actually vote for the Democratic nominee as the MS Tea Party spokesperson is calling for. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?
=======================
The TX Tea Party leader, on MSNBC’s UP with Steve K, this morning, called for the Mississippi Tea Party to vote for any democrat running against Cochran, instead of voting for Cochran.
They feel betrayed.
Lots of heat, no light.
Mr. McDaniel’s untimely death threw gas on the fire.
Annie wrote “called for Republicans to vote for the Democratic candidate in the general election”
Remember the queen of mean, Ann Coulter, who said she’d vote for Hillary over Romney?
That’s why I compare TPers to Bolsheviks and/or pre-school children. Pick your cliché: “It’s my way or the highway,” “I’m going to take my ball and go home,” or “Cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face.”
samantha wrote “This business of things being more painful for men might tell us all a great deal about why alcoholism is another overwhelmingly male refuge”
A few assorted thoughts:
– The life expectancy in Russia is currently 65 (m) and 76.5 (w), but shortly after the implosion of the Soviet Union, life expectancy for men dropped to 50 due to heavy drinking. The population in Russia actually fell for around ten years.
– Woman often joke about male matters, but the truth is that women expect men to earn lots of money. I gave up on bars many years ago, but friends would tell me of women who approached them, with the first question out of their mouths being, “What is your occupation?”
– For years I heard women declare that they would never sign a prenuptial agreement. But then one day in an office half-filled with female professionals, a conversation started with the women declaring that they would require a prenuptial agreement before marriage.
– Unemployment statistics show that most people who have been laid-off since 2000 or so have been older males. And if they can find another job, it is usually for a lot less money.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792935/
The vote was manipulated? Interesting.
The law states that Mississippi has open primaries. That means that ANYONE can vote in EITHER primary. The McDaniel’s supporters are crying foul because the incumbent appealed to the general population, rather than just the Republican base, and appealed to the voter’s self interest.
Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation, and receives $3.07 in federal dollars for every dollar they send in in taxes. McDaniel stated right up front that he wanted to cut off the flow of federal money. This is called cutting off your state’s nose to spite it’s face.
If that happened, then who was going to pay for the roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, etc, etc, etc.???
Perhaps Mississippians aren’t actually as stupid as some think they are.
Chris McDaniel Thinks Winning With Black Votes Is Somehow Illegitimate
It’s a notion that goes all the way back to the election of President Ulysses S. Grant.
By Jamelle Bouie
6/27/14
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/06/chris_mcdaniel_thad_cochran_and_black_democrats_mcdaniel_thinks_black.html
Excerpt:
Three days after his loss in the Mississippi Republican Senate run-off, state Sen. Chris McDaniel sounds like a bitter Scooby Doo villain. “They used everything from the race card to food stamps to saying I would shut down public education,” he said in an interview with conservative TV personality Sean Hannity. “I’ve fought for this [Republican Party] all my life, but they abandoned us, made fun of us and ridiculed us and brought in 35,000 Democrats to beat us.”
In other words, McDaniel is saying, I would have won if it wasn’t for you meddling liberals.
Of course, we should be clear. Because there is no party registration in Mississippi, there’s no way to know the affiliation of the people who voted in Tuesday’s run-off. McDaniel complains that “35,000 Democrats crossed over,” but he can’t know for sure. Instead, he’s made an assumption: These black voters are Democrats, and their votes are illegitimate. “There is something a bit strange, there is something a bit unusual, about a Republican primary that’s decided by liberal Democrats,” he said after the election.
He’s likely right that the voters were Democrats—Mississippi’s voting is entirely polarized along racial lines—but given the open primary he has no room for complaint. There’s nothing fraudulent about Sen. Thad Cochran’s appeal to black Mississippians, nor is there anything irregular about their participation in a Republican primary that will determine the state’s representation in the U.S. Senate. As Sen. Roger Wicker, the junior senator from the state, said to reporters on Wednesday, “Broadening the base of the party? Asking more Mississippians to participate in the ballot that’s going to determine the next senator? No, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
A “rush to judgment?” How does it benefit this site or any authors herein?
What matters is that the republican vote in Mississippi was manipulated.
The republican faction that lost cheated the faction that won.
Is it not intuitive that primaries should be voted intra-party?
Thad Cochran frightened and obtained minority, liberal voters.
I thought the vote was sacred.
Live by fire, die by fire.
Condolences to the family and friends.
I find more interesting stuff by snooping around my dad’s old hard drive than from the web. He saved everything he read, after abandoning and fed up with bookmarks that always pointed to dead pages, usually after only a few short months, even weeks. Newspapers, especially, he said, are notorious for moving live pages to the archives, so they can charge everyone again or deny access if you can’t pay. He likened it to a silly library charging everyone for access to the stacks. The extra work saving stuff never made him happier, like someone not regretting selling his vintage automobile. This is an excerpt from an essay by Todd McMullen, circa 1980:
“During 1980 there were 296 suicides in San Diego — 216 were males, or 3 to 1 male to female, the same ratio that exists nationwide. Women make more noise about it, largely as a self-respecting pin for help, but not John Wayne’s boys, oh no, cowboys die before they cry. In 1974, the suicide ratio in Israel was 1.2 to 1 (1.1 in 1973). Japan 1.4 to 1, West Germany 1.9 to I. Since 1950, the ratio has been rising, up from 2 to 1. If suicide is what one authority has defined as a “means of ending one’s pain,” then perhaps life and living with The American Way is a much more painful experience for men than women. Of 27,294 people who choose death over life in 1978. 20,188 were members of my sex, the big strong males. This business of things being more painful for men might tell us all a great deal about why alcoholism is another overwhelmingly male refuge. Kittens administered random electric shocks through a floor grid soon learn to like milk laced with alcohol over milk alone. Deprived of alcohol, they crack up, go bananas, lashing out at one another, anything. Sound familiar?”
It would be interesting to contrast these statistics with today’s. I confuse myself when I ask: Would the stats be more PC or less PC today?
Anie, I doubt it. Mississippi so racially divided that they would not vote for a candidate that black people were voting for. They are fuming that black people voted in their primary. The only way the democrat could win is if the tea party candidate ran as a third party.
SWM, maybe disgruntled Tea Partiers will actually vote for the Democratic nominee as the MS Tea Party spokesperson is calling for. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/06/chris_mcdaniel_thad_cochran_and_black_democrats_mcdaniel_thinks_black.html “He’s likely right that the voters were Democrats—Mississippi’s voting is entirely polarized along racial lines—but given the open primary he has no room for complaint. There’s nothing fraudulent about Sen. Thad Cochran’s appeal to black Mississippians, nor is there anything irregular about their participation in a Republican primary that will determine the state’s representation in the U.S. Senate. As Sen. Roger Wicker, the junior senator from the state, said to reporters on Wednesday, “Broadening the base of the party? Asking more Mississippians to participate in the ballot that’s going to determine the next senator? No, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
Annie, I don’t think minorities would normally vote for Tad Cochran but McDaniel’s ties to white supremicists must have really scared them.
Maybe all the voter suppression laws have backfired and have actually motivated minority voters to come out to vote in numbers far exceeding what they have in the past. Worth a belly laugh.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2014/06/28/sen-thad-cochran-gop-victory-shows-muscle-minority-voters/
Cochran GOP victory shows muscle behind minority voters. Has somebody woken up and smelled the coffee?
SWM, I see that your linked article addresses this cross voting. Republicans don’t like it when it happens to them I guess. Remember Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos? This cross voting was encouraged by Republicans here in Wisconsin also. I guess the chickens have come home to roost.
To add to the high strangeness of this entire unfortunate Tea Party saga, a MS Tea Party spokesperson on the Steve Kornacki show this AM, called for Republicans to vote for the Democratic candidate in the general election! Sorry but that’s worth a chuckle.
Conspiracy theories? I hardly know where to start. For instance:
Want more? look at the comment sections under news stories and blog posts. Or get your news from Jackson area barbershops. Barbershops and hair salons are great sources.
Of course, some conspiracies appear to be real: “I know, let’s get some pictures of Cochran’s wife to show her in that nursing home while he is up gallivanting around DC.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/06/28/chris-mcdaniel-isnt-going-win-any-challenge-to-the-mississippi-results/
Fox News (“Tea Party leader arrested over photos of Sen. Cochran’s wife dies, suicide suspected”) stated that the photos of Rose Cochran “were later used briefly in an anti-Cochran political video posted briefly online during the Republican primary.” This is worse than Turley’s vanilla wording: “A photo of Mrs. Cochran was posted on a website, presumably Kelley’s. It was taken down a short time later.”
There are few things lower than going after someone’s family, especially people with medical problems. Turley wrote nothing about the violation of Rose Cochran, yet he wrote effusive paragraphs regarding his fellow attorney who odiously violated a number of laws, not to mention ethics. In law school, do they advocate the theory of “the end justifies the means”?
Politico (“Defiant Chris McDaniel declines to concede in speech to supporters”) reinforced my earlier point about TPers acting like Bolsheviks. When a politician loses, he concedes; that’s just being professional. TPers act like children too young for school.