Law And More

Antisemitism - Social Networks, Well, Useless in Defusing Hate

"84% of posts containing anti-Jewish hatred were not acted upon by social media companies. Facebook performed worst, failing to act on 89%, despite announcing new rules to tackle the problem."  This is a finding from the recent research by US/UK nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). Here is the CCDH report. 

The social networks which were essentially useless in defanging the hate are, in addition to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. That covers the main territory.

Ironic. Remember when social networks were introduced. They were celebrated as forces for good in society. Everything from personal connection to sharing information/insight were to become more accessible. And, for free. 

Initially there were outbursts of gratitude for the new, user-friendly and no-cost platforms. Those who had been adopted located their biological brothers and sisters. All those cat antics were fresh kinds of entertainment. And just click on one of the online videos to find out how to fix your computer or motorcycle. 

Then, darkness fell fast.

Some of that was direct, as in hate speech.

More of it was indirect - that is, sins of omission. Moderators didn't remove antisemitic postings and ban the posters from the platform.

That leaves us with the question: What will put the brakes on the escalating antisemitism?

If not slowed down there could be "Another Squirrel Hill."

Back in 2018, there had been a fatal attack on the Jewish community in Squirrel Hill. 

I had lived in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh when it had been the model of an assimilated community. It had been a Jewish Ph.D. psychologist there assisting with a VA cancer ward who allowed me to interview the patients for my series of articles on Making Today Count. Those in my portfolio helped me pivot from freelance to a full-time media job at the University of Pittsburgh. 

That easy flow of diversity in Pittsburgh probably had contributed to the ability of Pittsburgh, unlike Younstown, Ohio, to retrofit its economy after the collapse of the steel industry. Currently Pittsburgh thrives with healthcare, education, and tech.

Obviously, that live-and-let-live ethos was then. Like every other urban area with a heavy concentration of Jewish people, Squirrel Hill remains a target. And for violence. 

So, it comes down to this: Can the influence of large law firms accomplish what social networks haven't? That could play out.

At Paul Weiss, the chairperson Brad Karp mobilized about 50 law firms in an initiative to oppose antisemitism. They range from Cravath to Skadden. Big  Guns in BigLaw.

Next to media, BigLaw is probably the most powerful institution in America. That always was. Now, that power is amped up almost exponentially as progressive law firms redefine their businesses to include social justice. Hate groups, including those against Jews, have no idea what they are in for. 

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Holy Communion as Starter Sacrament in Roman Catholicism - The Bishops and Joe Biden

White dress.

White veil.

White knee socks.

White shoes.

White purse.

White prayer book.

White rosary beads.

White candle.

That was me on my First Communion Day. 

To the present time, I have never felt so important.

That's likely exactly what the one-time brilliant-in-marketing Roman Catholic Church intended in configuring the First Communion ritual. It is a starter sacrament whose aura becomes embedded in both the individual and collective memory bank. My family was beside themselves watching me walk in measured steps up to the altar. 

So, it's no surprise that currently the power structure of Roman Catholicism in the U.S. has zeroed in on communion as the symbol of the need to buy into its whole orthodoxy of beliefs and practices. As is well known, the bishops have been busy bees putting together a manifesto about this sacrament. It seems intended as a stern warning to all who approach its dogma menu on an a carte basis. Among them is U.S. President Joe Biden.

Those close to his administration, such as Brad Karp of Paul Weiss, might advise Biden to, well, smirk. 

Strategically, this busy-bee activity on the part of American Roman Catholicism seems like a very dumb move at the wrong time. And those bishops used to be such smart players.

 Pew documents that of all religions in the U.S. Roman Catholicism has lost the most members. Since the Boston Globe outed clergy sexual abuse of young boys beginning in 2002, there have been a loss of market share, bankruptcies and the shuttering of parish schools. 

Those of us supporting the Biden Administration policies such as pro-abortion could protest in front of our local diocese  headquarters in simulations of our attire for our First Communion.

A budding fashionista can loop into a big brandname by designing the females' Communion Dresses so that they won't be confused with wedding dresses. Much fun to be had. Plus interesting to time travel back to an era when Roman Catholicsm could cast such a spell on our immigrant families in the 1950s. 

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American Buddhist Nun Pema Chodron Transcends Health Challenges - To Celebrate 85th Birthday July 14th

So many of us have been able to navigate the ups and downs of professional life through the books and YouTube chats by American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron

On July 14th she will be 85 years old. She has made it through a number of health crises.

But, according to her teachings, her most difficult ordeals have been emotional. They range from her second husband leaving her to her initial struggle with the leadership role at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia. She shares the lessons she learned from that adversity.

Among her best sharings is about becoming comfortable with fear. Here is that free video. 

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Unforgiven: Monsignor Owen Keenan's Sin of Extreme Arrogance

"A Canadian priest [Monsignor Owen Keenan] has come under fire for saying there was 'good done' in government-funded residential schools where hundreds of indigenous children died in the care of the Catholic Church." -  Daily Mail, June 25, 2021.

First, 215 children's bodies were found in graves without tombstones in Kamloops, British Columbia. Then, 715 more unmarked graves were discovered.

In a positioning of extreme arrogance, Keenan contended that in those 130 compulsory boarding schools the residents gained from receiving health care, education and a "joyous experience."

I recall that same kind of arrogance when I attended on scholarship then all-women's Roman Catholic college Seton Hill in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. That was 1963 - 1967.

I was informed how lucky I was to have been funded in that way. From the hood in Jersey City, New Jersey I was an outlier in a setting which at the time seemed to have the mission of nurturing the wives of lawyers. Not to be the lawyer. Along the way in my little life (that experience might have triggered my feeling less-than), operating on rage and grit, I did make it to Harvard Law School as a 1L.

In the rough and tumble of shifting world values - even Boston Consulting Group in advising chief executives officers factors those in - no one knows what will happen. Any expert peddling a high degree of certainty? Immediately, credibility takes a hit. Arrogance has become a crime against the odds that a business or a law firm or a career can survive and thrive.

Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church, once among the most powerful and enduring brands worldwide, continues to lose market share. 

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From the Communion Rail to the Abortion Clinic to Voting Rights, Conservative America Struts Its Power

It's palpable. And The New York Times confirms it: Conservative America has the upper hand. The players in that power force field range from the Republican Party to the leadership of the Roman Catholic to the grassroots determined to bring back Donald Trump to inside the beltway. 

Yet, naive progressives and old-line liberals are still operating in schoolboyish and schoolgirlish notions that their "right" positions will win out. Much of that is rant. They assume that because liberal media - and liberal media does dominate - gives them lots of space that they are moving the dial on their positions.

Actually, the dial seems to ber moving backward. And with its grandiose agenda, big spending and big government the Biden Administration could be losing the support of independents like myself. 

Obviously, non-conservatives have to design and implement a new gameplan.

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Roman Catholic Church Still Isn't Trying to Get It Right

Again, the Roman Catholic Church is in the soup.

In America it is threatening to deny the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist to President Joe Biden. That's because he supports abortion, which it doesn't.

Like, what happened to the separation of church and state.

Obviously the bishops of the Catholic Church haven't learned much since the Boston Globe broke the story of sexual abuse of young boys by the clergy. There has been no developing new templates to prevent those kinds of horrors and to develop very different mindsets and behaviors. 

Meanwhile, in India, Vice reports, Sister Lucy Kalapurra, age 56, is getting the boot from her convent. At age 17, she joined the order of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation.

Recently, she had received a notice from the Vatican court - Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. It decrees she is exiled from her order because of violations of the vows of obedience and austerity. Among her "crimes" are getting a driver's license, driving a car and publishing for money a book of poetry - without permission. She contends she formally requested permission but no response, either way, came.

What her real "crime" is, she suspects, is her supporting a nun who is claiming that she had been raped multiple times over a number of years by Bishop Franco Mulakkal. After the alleged rape victim went public, so did four other nuns with the same kind of contention about the same bishop.

The bishop has been arrested and charged. Currently he is out on bail.

Overall, the Catholic Church in India is on his side. So it is likely interpreted that Kalapurra is not on its side. 

Both developments, the one in the U.S. and the one in India, are receiving world attention. 

Roman Catholicism was once among the most powerful and the most enduring global brands.

In the U.S. it rapidly grew market share through reaching out its hand to the immigrants. Your cousin from Poland needed a job. Have him see the parish priest. He knew someone who knew someone. The parish school system socialized the next generation of devout Catholics. The mysticism cast spells.

That was then. Now when someone admits to "still being" a Roman Catholic, we tend to ask: Why?

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Employer Power Going Poof, From Apple to Law Firms

Father, forgive me, work has become work. It's no longer my religion.

"Erosion of employer power." That's how The New York Times journalist Neil Irwin describes the seismic shift in working. In response, employers are getting it that they have to provide employees not only with more money but a higher quality of life. But they still have to a long way to go on the learning curve about how to navigate this new era. Bluntly put: Employees have the upper hand.

The reality has just played out at Apple. When the head Tim Cook foisted on employees a hybrid arrangement of three days back in the office, the workforce has revolted.

In the elite circle of large amazingly prosperous law firms the leadership has been raising entry-level salaries and paying non-seasonal bonuses. As in a growing number of fields, there is a shortage a talent. All this at law firms could come to a time when those tactics are no longer effective. The talent will exit to settings which meet their needs for what's beyond the big bucks. As at Apple, a trigger issue could be the terms and conditions of the Post-COVID where-work-will-be-done. 

Underlying this trend could be a current heretical breakaway form the ethos of work as a religion. Way back in 2019 - before burnout became standard - in The Atlantic Derek Thompson picked up on how workism wasn't paying off in "transcendence" for the college-educated.  Instead it was either simply a career or for those who didn't enjoy their jobs a necessity for paying the bills. 

Without the aura of a vocation, work could be approached on more of a business-like basis. This could mirror the dynamics of the coming of unionism in American labor.

Instead, though, unlike unionism it would be not about a fair wage, job security or employee safety. Instead it could include an expectation of the kinds of professional experiences workers recognize as essential for marketability and upward mobility.

That could take the form of demanding the employer provide X or Y developmental opportunities. Willis Towers Watson envisions the end of careers and the coming of professional life as continuing to upgrade a portfolio of skills and experiences.

For example, at law firms, junior lawyers need to have client interaction, currently restricted to partners. That's a prerequisite for learning how to present strategies to clients/prospects and bringing in new business. In my field of communications it would be access to the complex assignments in branding. 

It is premature to project that Post-COVID would be Post-Work. Too many in all generations have been socialized to "need" work, especially emotionally and as a way to fund the good life.

Right now, some law schools are overbooked in enrollments for fall semester. That's despite the prospect for $160,00 student loan debt and a glutted job market in 2024. New college graduates are willing to jump through so many hoops to get a shot at a career on Wall Street. 

But, if Universal Basic Income evolves into providing more than just enough to get by, there might be a growing number of takers. Meanwhile, since automation had accelerated during COVID it's not far into the future that values have to reconfigured to create atheists who don't associate working with a spiritual high.

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Prestigious NYC Prep-School Niche Disrupted - Push-back on Idelology, Tuition, Behavior by Leadership

"Head of elite NYC school Dalton [Jim Best] resigns after parents complain about 'obsessive' and 'wildly inappropriate' antiracism agenda that included reenactments of 'racist cops' in SCIENCE classes." - Jennifer Smith, Daily Mail, April 17, 2021.

Dalton in not alone among the prestigous private schools in New York City in which parents perceive liberalism has gone too far. There has also been push-back at Grace Church and Brearley. At Grace a math teacher went public in objecting to the ideology. At Brearley a father yanked his child out of the prep school because of that same thing.

But the issue of ideology may only be the tip of the iceberg. Parents are also enraged that the sticker price for tuition - over $50,000 - hasn't been reduced even though there haven't been in-person classes since March 2020. At universities there have been class-action lawsuits filed by students requesting discounts. They allege that remote instruction has been subpar.

In addition, in the prep-school niche there has also been turmoil because of alleged sexual misconduct. The head of Regis high school Rev. Daniel Lahart has stepped down. This had inflicted another blow on the branding of Roman Catholicism. Since the Boston Globe broke the story of clergy sexual abuse of boys in 2002, the Church has struggled with reputation restoration.

Why this disruption in the prep-school niche matters is because those prep schools are feeder pools for the next generation of leadership in capitalism. The graduates will stop off at elite universities for undergraduate degrees, then elite professional schools and eventually assume the power positions in American institutions. 

Now, there could be the beginning of a reconfiguration of where the current ruling class seeks socialization and an edge for their offspring. Other launching pads could replace the prep schools. 

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Liberty University Sues Its Former President Jerry Falwell Jr.

More shade is thrown both on the branding of conservative Liberty University and its former president Jerry Falwell Jr. 

That's because media outlets such as The Hill are running with the University's filing of a lawsuit in Virginia state court yesterday against Falwell. That University had been founded by Falwell's father in 1971. It stood as a symbol of the best of American conservative thought and behavior.

The litigation contends that Falwell withheld pertinent information from the board of trustees when negotiating his contract in 2019. The lawsuit has three counts: breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and statutory conspiracy.

The alleged concealment involved two matters. One was the extortion plot by the pool caretaker Giancarlo Granda who threatened to disclose details about an affair with Falwell's wife Becki. The other was about Falwell's alleged impairment by alcohol. It is contended that Falwell anticipated a scandal would break and he wanted to ensure a hefty severance package. 

The suit seeks $10 million in compensatory damages. In VA that can be tripled. There is also a request for punitive damages. 

Before the suit had been filed Falwell had resigned from his job. More recently so did his son Trey, who had served as vice president. The University is making no comment about the latter resignation.

What a branding mess.

The University looks foolish for getting into this high-profile pickle. 

Falwell probably is finished as a conservative leader. Among his errors of judgment had been appearing on a boat with his arm around a female not his wife and his trousers unzipped, with the underwear visible. 

Along the way in this saga, Falwell has sued the University of defamation but dropped the lawsuit, without explanation.

At one time he had extreme influence in the conservative movement. It has been said that he was able to motivate evangelicals to support the political aspirations of Donald Trump.

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Roman Catholic Church in Trouble, Again - Regis High School President Rev. Daniel Lahart Ousted

Yet again the Roman Catholic Church is in the news for sexual misconduct. 

This time it involves the prestigious order of the Society of Jesus - Jesuits. 

The New York Post reports that, after a third-party investigation, the President of Regis private high school in Manhattan Rev. Daniel Lahart has been ousted. He had held that job since 2016. Here is Regis' press release about that appointment. 

What had been documented had been inappropriate communications and actions of a sexual nature. They occurred with adults of the Regis community, including subordinates. And that behavior was unwelcome.

This story of sexual misconduct has been onging since the Boston Globe outed that crime by Roman Catholic clergy in 2002. The victims were young boys. 

One of the priests caught up in that first round of outings in the Boston metro area - Rev. John Geoghan - had been arrested and sentenced to prison. There he was murdered. 

But nuns didn't get off the hook. For example, the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth settled with Trish Cahill. The latter, reported on Law and More, contended that she sought guidance from Sister Eileen Shaw. Allegedly that nun plied her with alcohol and demonstrated how she could orchestrate sex with a female. 

The mysticism and mystery of the Roman Catholic Church had been both its strength over the centuries and what helped create the culture in which its priests and nuns could abuse the trusting, troubled and lacking in power.

Once a premier global brand, the Roman Catholic Church has been losing its influence and market share. 

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