Studies have shown that the teen birth rate in the United States has been dropping significantly. The Colorado teen birth rate and the abortion rate have both dropped 48 percent over the last five years. At the start of the study, half of the women in the the poorest parts of the state gave birth before the age of 21; however, five years later, half the women in the same group were over the age of 24 when first giving birth. European women have known for years that IUDs* and implants -- birth control devices that, once inserted, are 99 percent effective for three to 10 years -- are the most reliable way to prevent unintended pregnancies. [1]
In 2013, Jennifer B. Kane and a team of researchers reviewed 40 years of studies on the impact of teen parenting and found that a woman who has a child before age 18 is likely to have from eight months to two years less education than a woman who waits until she's older. Women with household incomes greater than $75,000 per year were almost eleven times more likely to use LARCS* than those whose household incomes were less than $10,000. In the United States, those between the ages of 15 and 24 account for half of all STIs* acquired each year, despite making up just a quarter of the sexually active population. The chlamydia rate for young black women is five times that of their white counterparts, while young black men contact the disease at nearly ten times the rate of young white men. [2]
There is yet another study done in 2010 by Christine Dehlerdorf, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, that found providers were more likely to recommend the IUD to low-income black and Latino patients than to low-income white people with comparable health histories.
*IUDs - flexible plastic devices that are inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy.
*LARCs - Long Lasting Reversible Contraceptives.
*STIs - sexually transmitted diseases.
ADDENDUMS:
*According to the latest information, 750,000 teenage girls get pregnant every year and four in ten of sexually active teens get a sexually transmitted infection.
*Glass-Steagall is needed because too-big-to-fail banks are bigger, riskier and more ungovernable today than they were in the financial meltdown reaching its apogee in late 2008. Repeal of Glass-Steagall hasn't led to more efficiency and lower costs; however, repeal has helped bring about high-risk gambling and the aggressive hustling of dubious investments to unwary clients. Traditional banking is incompatible with the risk-seeking, "short-term mentality" of investment bankers who seek "immediate rewards." There is a fraud mentality in investment banking -- a documented illegality. Big banks are a threat to democracy.
Footnotes
1. Davi McClain, "The Birth Control Revolution," The Nation, November 16, 2015.
[2] Ibid.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Prosecutors Not Doing Their Jobs
Yesterday it was announced that the grand jury convened in Cleveland, Ohio decided not to indict the police officer who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice to death. Tamir Rice was shot and then died in the hospital in November 2014, which means that the grand jury must rank as the of the most dilatory grand juries in living memory. The case was not complicated, because what happened before and after the shooting was caught on video.
Although the grand jury should rightly be severely criticized for taking so long to reach a decision, the greater blame should fall on the prosecutor for not doing his job. The prosecutor, in effect, served as the defense attorney for the officer who did the fatal shooting, instead of doing the job of evaluating the evidence and determining if there is sufficient evidence to bring an indictment to the grand jury. Grand juries do not make decisions on guilt or innocence: they determine if sufficient cause is provided to bring an indictment.
The police officer in question shot young Tamir an estimated two seconds after he exited his vehicle. He did not order Tamir to drop what he was holding or question him. If the police officer feared for his life, he had a rational alternative. He could have crouched behind his vehicle and from there ordered of cajoled Tamir to drop the gun and walk away.
There are two prongs to the argument that the shooter should not be held to account in the Rice case: the first is that the dispatcher did not convey the information that the 911 caller said it might be a boy with a toy gun and the second was that Tamir Rice was an unusually large 12-year-old. These are very weak reeds on which to rest a defense, given that the police officer had an alternative as described above. Also, the dispatcher should have suffered some sort of adverse action for not providing vital information.
The prevailing narrative is that police officers --- and sheriffs deputies, for that matter -- put their lives in danger every day to serve and protect the police. We now have a very large body of evidence that these law enforcement officers have an exaggerated fear of their own safety and will put that above preserving the life and limb of those citizens with whom they come into contact, even when the threat seems to be minimal to a reasonable person. Thus, when the St. Louis police shot to death a man who may have had a small knife in his hand, the shooting was determined to be justifiable, because the St Louis Police Department has a policy that anyone with a knife in view may be fatally shot if he/she enters a 25-foot circle of protection. Luquan McDonald, the 17-year-old Chicago teen was shot numerous times after he had fallen prone on the street. The police report said he made a menacing gesture with a knife while lying on the street. The video of the shooting and its aftermath doesn't show any movement on the part of McDonald. I have seen another video of a male lying on his stomach, but head raised and a right hand clasping a knife, stretched out in front. He was shot to death, because, as claimed by the police, he represented a threat to others. Unless and until he rose up and began to charge someone with the knife thrust out in front, he represented no threat to anyone.
We have regressed to the point in the United States where it is very difficult to indict a law enforcement officer for excessive use of force and virtually impossible to convict him/her if brought to trial. Prosecutors are even more protected, as in many legal jurisdictions they can't be held to account for serious misbehavior, such as railroading an innocent person to prison or even Death Row.
Although the grand jury should rightly be severely criticized for taking so long to reach a decision, the greater blame should fall on the prosecutor for not doing his job. The prosecutor, in effect, served as the defense attorney for the officer who did the fatal shooting, instead of doing the job of evaluating the evidence and determining if there is sufficient evidence to bring an indictment to the grand jury. Grand juries do not make decisions on guilt or innocence: they determine if sufficient cause is provided to bring an indictment.
The police officer in question shot young Tamir an estimated two seconds after he exited his vehicle. He did not order Tamir to drop what he was holding or question him. If the police officer feared for his life, he had a rational alternative. He could have crouched behind his vehicle and from there ordered of cajoled Tamir to drop the gun and walk away.
There are two prongs to the argument that the shooter should not be held to account in the Rice case: the first is that the dispatcher did not convey the information that the 911 caller said it might be a boy with a toy gun and the second was that Tamir Rice was an unusually large 12-year-old. These are very weak reeds on which to rest a defense, given that the police officer had an alternative as described above. Also, the dispatcher should have suffered some sort of adverse action for not providing vital information.
The prevailing narrative is that police officers --- and sheriffs deputies, for that matter -- put their lives in danger every day to serve and protect the police. We now have a very large body of evidence that these law enforcement officers have an exaggerated fear of their own safety and will put that above preserving the life and limb of those citizens with whom they come into contact, even when the threat seems to be minimal to a reasonable person. Thus, when the St. Louis police shot to death a man who may have had a small knife in his hand, the shooting was determined to be justifiable, because the St Louis Police Department has a policy that anyone with a knife in view may be fatally shot if he/she enters a 25-foot circle of protection. Luquan McDonald, the 17-year-old Chicago teen was shot numerous times after he had fallen prone on the street. The police report said he made a menacing gesture with a knife while lying on the street. The video of the shooting and its aftermath doesn't show any movement on the part of McDonald. I have seen another video of a male lying on his stomach, but head raised and a right hand clasping a knife, stretched out in front. He was shot to death, because, as claimed by the police, he represented a threat to others. Unless and until he rose up and began to charge someone with the knife thrust out in front, he represented no threat to anyone.
We have regressed to the point in the United States where it is very difficult to indict a law enforcement officer for excessive use of force and virtually impossible to convict him/her if brought to trial. Prosecutors are even more protected, as in many legal jurisdictions they can't be held to account for serious misbehavior, such as railroading an innocent person to prison or even Death Row.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
The Prevalance of Trying Juveniles as Adults
Between 1992 and 1999, 99 states and the District of Columbia made it easier to try juveniles as adults." By 2012, there were 28 states across the nation that were handing out mandatory life-without- parole sentences to juveniles." By 29015, more that 2,230 people in the United States were serving life sentences without parole for crimes committed as juveniles, according to data complied by the Phillips Black Project, a nonprofit law practice that collected information in all 50 states." [1]
In East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, the racial disparity is even starker: Almost half of the parish population is white but 32 of the 33 serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed while juveniles are black One of those 32 is Taurus Buchanan, who at the age of 16 threw one punch that caused one young boy in a fight among three boys to crumble to the ground. The fallen boy never got up and subsequently died in a hospital. Because Taurus was over the age of 14 he was automatically tried and convicted of second degree murder, and, also automatically, sentenced to life without parole.
The Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law organization based in Alabama, found that there were 73 cases in which juveniles were sent away for crimes they committed at ages 13 or 14. One was sentenced to life for kidnapping, another for sexual battery, another for taking part in a robbery in which someone was shot but survived.
The U.S. Supreme Court has been moving step-by-step to lessen the punishment for serious crimes committed by juveniles. In a 2005 ruling, the Court banned use of the death penalty for crimes committed by juveniles, Five years later, the Court prohibited sentencing kids to life-without-parole for cases that didn't involve a homicide. And in 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, the Court extended that ban to homicide cases. In 2015, the Court heard a case out of Louisiana on whether states can be compelled to apply the Miller ruling retroactively. The decision is pending.
The state of Louisiana leads the nation in the percentage of lifers sent away for crimes committed when they were juveniles. As of the most recent reading, Louisiana has 247 of such lifers, which translates to 5.31 per 100,000 residents. Of those 247 lifers, 199, or 81 percent, are black. In regard to retroactive resentencing, there are 11 or 12 states that have either denied or have not addressed retroactive resentencing and about an equal number have it under court review. In sheer numbers, Pennsylvania and Michigan lead the nation, with 376 and 368 respectively.
The number of inmates serving juvenile life without parole per 100,000 residents, in the top ten states: The national rate is 0.719. State followed by rate: Louisiana - 5.31; Michigan - 3.71; Pennsylvania - 2.94; Mississippi - 2.20; Arkansas - 1.92; Missouri - 1.70; Nebraska - 1.44; Florida - 1.14; Colorado - 0.90; and North Carolina - 0.78.
ADDENDUMS:
*According to the Brady Campaign, seven children are killed by guns each day.
*Today, school.nurses, police officers and firefighters increasingly carry naloxone, a synthetic drug used to counteract the effects of narcotic overdosage. New laws in 37 states allow friends, and family members of opiate users to obtain prescriptions.
*Tom Perkins, who as a Hewlett-Packard board member, voted to fire Carly Fiorino,told an interviewer that in an ideal system,"You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes."
Footnote
[1] Corey G, Johnson and Ken Armstrong, "This Boy's Life," Mother Jones, January/February 2016.
In East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, the racial disparity is even starker: Almost half of the parish population is white but 32 of the 33 serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed while juveniles are black One of those 32 is Taurus Buchanan, who at the age of 16 threw one punch that caused one young boy in a fight among three boys to crumble to the ground. The fallen boy never got up and subsequently died in a hospital. Because Taurus was over the age of 14 he was automatically tried and convicted of second degree murder, and, also automatically, sentenced to life without parole.
The Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law organization based in Alabama, found that there were 73 cases in which juveniles were sent away for crimes they committed at ages 13 or 14. One was sentenced to life for kidnapping, another for sexual battery, another for taking part in a robbery in which someone was shot but survived.
The U.S. Supreme Court has been moving step-by-step to lessen the punishment for serious crimes committed by juveniles. In a 2005 ruling, the Court banned use of the death penalty for crimes committed by juveniles, Five years later, the Court prohibited sentencing kids to life-without-parole for cases that didn't involve a homicide. And in 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, the Court extended that ban to homicide cases. In 2015, the Court heard a case out of Louisiana on whether states can be compelled to apply the Miller ruling retroactively. The decision is pending.
The state of Louisiana leads the nation in the percentage of lifers sent away for crimes committed when they were juveniles. As of the most recent reading, Louisiana has 247 of such lifers, which translates to 5.31 per 100,000 residents. Of those 247 lifers, 199, or 81 percent, are black. In regard to retroactive resentencing, there are 11 or 12 states that have either denied or have not addressed retroactive resentencing and about an equal number have it under court review. In sheer numbers, Pennsylvania and Michigan lead the nation, with 376 and 368 respectively.
The number of inmates serving juvenile life without parole per 100,000 residents, in the top ten states: The national rate is 0.719. State followed by rate: Louisiana - 5.31; Michigan - 3.71; Pennsylvania - 2.94; Mississippi - 2.20; Arkansas - 1.92; Missouri - 1.70; Nebraska - 1.44; Florida - 1.14; Colorado - 0.90; and North Carolina - 0.78.
ADDENDUMS:
*According to the Brady Campaign, seven children are killed by guns each day.
*Today, school.nurses, police officers and firefighters increasingly carry naloxone, a synthetic drug used to counteract the effects of narcotic overdosage. New laws in 37 states allow friends, and family members of opiate users to obtain prescriptions.
*Tom Perkins, who as a Hewlett-Packard board member, voted to fire Carly Fiorino,told an interviewer that in an ideal system,"You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes."
Footnote
[1] Corey G, Johnson and Ken Armstrong, "This Boy's Life," Mother Jones, January/February 2016.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
For-Profit Schools; Mormons on Same-Sex Relationships; and GOP Policy
I. For-Profit Schools in Decline
"Between 1990 and 2010, the percentage of bachelors' degrees that came from for-profit schools septupled. Today, the for-profit education bubble is deflating." "For-profit colleges are far more expensive than community colleges, their closest peers." "According to a study by the economists Adam Looney and Constantine Yamalis, students at for-profit schools are roughly three times as likely to default [on their loans] as students at traditional colleges." The college system Corinthians, for instance, was found to have lied about job placement nearly a thousand times. [1]
On the popular television show, "The Good Wife," a main story line was built around a college with a name very close to that of Corinthians that was giving inflated information about job placements of its graduates. Also, the episode on the fictional school depicted it as riding the student-loan gravy train, whereby the loans were financed by another party. In the real world, the federal government is making it harder to ride the student-loan gravy train by requiring the for-profit schools to prove that, on average, students' loan payments amount to less than eight percent of their annual income. The notion that college will transform job prospects is in many ways, an illusion, and for a while, for-profit schools turned it into a very lucrative one." [2]
II. Mormon Church's New Policy on Same-Sex Marriages
Mormon Church spokesperson Eric Hawkins says of the new policy on same-sex marriage: "While it (the church) respects the law of the land, and acknowledges the right of others to think and act differently, it does not perform or accept same-sex marriages within its membership." Mormon Church officials have issued a rules change that says members in same-sex marriages can be kicked out and their children must wait until they're eighteen and disavow homosexual relationships to be baptized. They can, however, be baptized and serve missions once they turn eighteen, but only if they disavow the practice of same-sex relationships; no longer live with gay parents; and get approval from their local leader and the highest leaders at church
headquarters in Salt Lake City. [3]
III. GOP Policy in a Capsule
"Next fall, the Republican Presidential nominee will be committed to taking away health insurance from eighteen million people, keeping the minimum wage where it is, cutting tax rates on the wealthy to historic lows, reducing the progressivity of the income tax, creating trillions of dollars in new deficits, returning to a militarized foreign policy, and allowing Iran to resume its pursuit of a nuclear weapon by tearing up the deal just signed." [4]
ADDENDUMS:
*Sarah Palin cites Luke 22:36 as proof that Jesus would fight to protect Second Amendment rights. She says Jesus said take up your arms and defend yourself and protect the innocent. Specifically, he said: "he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." Two verses later, Jesus says that two swords is "enough."
*The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) says: 1.) the 400 richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 61% of the population; 2.) 20 individuals control more wealth than the bottom half of the population -- 157 million people living in 57 million households; 3.) 100 richest households own more assets than the entire African-American community; 4.) 182 individuals in the Forbes list have more assets than the entire U.S. Hispanic population. Chuck Collins of the IPA says the study understates the problem: the rich hide wealth in offshore tax havens, or in loophole trusts where money is shuffled around. He also points out that those in the lower income brackets experience more stress.
Footnotes
[1] James Surwiecki, "The Rise and Fall of For-Profit Schools," The New Yorker, November 2, 2015.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Brady McCombs, "Mormon church rules aimed at gay members," The Albuquerque Journal, November 7, 2015.
4.) George Packer, "Still Standing," The New Yorker, February 23, 2015.
"Between 1990 and 2010, the percentage of bachelors' degrees that came from for-profit schools septupled. Today, the for-profit education bubble is deflating." "For-profit colleges are far more expensive than community colleges, their closest peers." "According to a study by the economists Adam Looney and Constantine Yamalis, students at for-profit schools are roughly three times as likely to default [on their loans] as students at traditional colleges." The college system Corinthians, for instance, was found to have lied about job placement nearly a thousand times. [1]
On the popular television show, "The Good Wife," a main story line was built around a college with a name very close to that of Corinthians that was giving inflated information about job placements of its graduates. Also, the episode on the fictional school depicted it as riding the student-loan gravy train, whereby the loans were financed by another party. In the real world, the federal government is making it harder to ride the student-loan gravy train by requiring the for-profit schools to prove that, on average, students' loan payments amount to less than eight percent of their annual income. The notion that college will transform job prospects is in many ways, an illusion, and for a while, for-profit schools turned it into a very lucrative one." [2]
II. Mormon Church's New Policy on Same-Sex Marriages
Mormon Church spokesperson Eric Hawkins says of the new policy on same-sex marriage: "While it (the church) respects the law of the land, and acknowledges the right of others to think and act differently, it does not perform or accept same-sex marriages within its membership." Mormon Church officials have issued a rules change that says members in same-sex marriages can be kicked out and their children must wait until they're eighteen and disavow homosexual relationships to be baptized. They can, however, be baptized and serve missions once they turn eighteen, but only if they disavow the practice of same-sex relationships; no longer live with gay parents; and get approval from their local leader and the highest leaders at church
headquarters in Salt Lake City. [3]
III. GOP Policy in a Capsule
"Next fall, the Republican Presidential nominee will be committed to taking away health insurance from eighteen million people, keeping the minimum wage where it is, cutting tax rates on the wealthy to historic lows, reducing the progressivity of the income tax, creating trillions of dollars in new deficits, returning to a militarized foreign policy, and allowing Iran to resume its pursuit of a nuclear weapon by tearing up the deal just signed." [4]
ADDENDUMS:
*Sarah Palin cites Luke 22:36 as proof that Jesus would fight to protect Second Amendment rights. She says Jesus said take up your arms and defend yourself and protect the innocent. Specifically, he said: "he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." Two verses later, Jesus says that two swords is "enough."
*The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) says: 1.) the 400 richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 61% of the population; 2.) 20 individuals control more wealth than the bottom half of the population -- 157 million people living in 57 million households; 3.) 100 richest households own more assets than the entire African-American community; 4.) 182 individuals in the Forbes list have more assets than the entire U.S. Hispanic population. Chuck Collins of the IPA says the study understates the problem: the rich hide wealth in offshore tax havens, or in loophole trusts where money is shuffled around. He also points out that those in the lower income brackets experience more stress.
Footnotes
[1] James Surwiecki, "The Rise and Fall of For-Profit Schools," The New Yorker, November 2, 2015.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Brady McCombs, "Mormon church rules aimed at gay members," The Albuquerque Journal, November 7, 2015.
4.) George Packer, "Still Standing," The New Yorker, February 23, 2015.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Observations on Pope Francis and the Vatican
Some observations derived from a New Yorker article: (Alexander Stille, "Holy Orders," The New Yorker, July 14, 2015).
*The scandal of sexual abuse reached its full force under Pope Benedict.
*Those close to Pope Benedict claim he was a transitional figure who started many of the reforms that Francis is now promoting: financial transparency, intolerance of priestly sexual abuser, the diplomatic opening between Cuba and the U.S., and reform of the Curia.
*In the early 2000s, the Vatican ranked among the top ten nations in the world that were considered "offshore" havens for tax evasion and money laundering.
*The Vatican banking system had more than 30,000 accounts and thousands of them were dormant or "irregular": they belonged to nonreligious people or entities that may have engaged in tax evasion or money laundering. A new financial team has closed around 4,600 accounts.
*Pope Francis'es use of the title of Bishop of Rome means he wants the Church to run in a more democratic way. Throughout history, the Vatican has veered between the Pope having sole decision-making power and the use of a council to make collective decisions.
* Pope Francis has created the image of an open and tolerant Church without changing Church doctrine very much.
*The chasm between Church doctrine and beliefs, and practicing Catholics has become dangerously wide.
*Some 32 million Catholics have left the Church.
*The Church as eased the situation for divorced Catholics.
*Critics of Pope Francis fear that he is introducing "Catholicism lite."
The conservative pundit George Will says that Pope Francis stands against modernity, rationality, science and "the spontaneous creativity of open societies."
*The scandal of sexual abuse reached its full force under Pope Benedict.
*Those close to Pope Benedict claim he was a transitional figure who started many of the reforms that Francis is now promoting: financial transparency, intolerance of priestly sexual abuser, the diplomatic opening between Cuba and the U.S., and reform of the Curia.
*In the early 2000s, the Vatican ranked among the top ten nations in the world that were considered "offshore" havens for tax evasion and money laundering.
*The Vatican banking system had more than 30,000 accounts and thousands of them were dormant or "irregular": they belonged to nonreligious people or entities that may have engaged in tax evasion or money laundering. A new financial team has closed around 4,600 accounts.
*Pope Francis'es use of the title of Bishop of Rome means he wants the Church to run in a more democratic way. Throughout history, the Vatican has veered between the Pope having sole decision-making power and the use of a council to make collective decisions.
* Pope Francis has created the image of an open and tolerant Church without changing Church doctrine very much.
*The chasm between Church doctrine and beliefs, and practicing Catholics has become dangerously wide.
*Some 32 million Catholics have left the Church.
*The Church as eased the situation for divorced Catholics.
*Critics of Pope Francis fear that he is introducing "Catholicism lite."
The conservative pundit George Will says that Pope Francis stands against modernity, rationality, science and "the spontaneous creativity of open societies."
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Clean Energy Nation and Psychiatric Problems of Child Soldiers
(Rep. Jerry McNarney and Montion Cheek, Clean Energy Nation (New York: AMACON, 2012)
Excerpts From The Book:
p. ix -. "Worldwide solar sales have been growing 50 to 60 percent per year for the last decade."
p. 17 - "To power cars , homes, and industries, the United States, with around 4 percent of the human population, uses about 21 million barrels of oil a day, according to the EIA." (Energy Information Administration)
p. 49 - "Over the last fifteen years, solar energy production has increased by 30 percent annually while the price for photovoltaic (PV) power has dropped an average of 4 percent a year during that time period."
p. 56 - In theory, the wind flowing over the plains of North Dakota would provide up to 33 percent of America's electric needs."
p. 66 - The United States has 104 operating reactors, more than any other country, and they produce 20% of our nation's electricity." France's 59 reactors produce 78 percent of its electricity.
p. 91 - OPEC has approximately 80 percent of the proven conventional oil reserves.
p. 99 - The IEA (International Energy Agency) predicts that by 2035, China's energy demand will climb by 78 percent.
p. 109 - The U.S. has more than 600 coal-powered plants, producing about 54 percent of our nation's power.
p.133 - The Department of Energy says the average thermal efficiency of the power plants on the U.S. grid is 33 percent.
p. 134 - The U.S. will need an additional 281 gigaments of power by the year 2025 and it will require 937 megawatt power plants by the same year.
Child Soldiers and Their Psychiatric Dilemma
"The proliferation of light weapons in Africa had suddenly made children effective as fighters, and they returned from the wars having missed crucial steps in their psychological development. They tended to be easily provoked, and prone to disassociate states, a coping mechanism that had once allowed them to be calm in the face of extreme violence." [1]
Former child soldiers taking psychiatric medications means announcing to their communities that they are crazy and damaged, a stigma that would contaminate their families. Theresa Betencourt, a professor at Harvard University, has been following war-imposed youth in Sierra Leone and has found that child soldiers tend to respond to "any threats to their well-being or personal safety in a really disproportionate way." [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*Michael McCord, the Pentagon Comptroller, estimates that by the year 2021, the U.S. will need to come up with $10 billion per year through 2035 in order to fulfill current plans to modernize its nuclear weapons, delivery systems and production facilities. The U.S. plans to spend $1 trillion in nuclear weapons modernization over thirty years. The Congressional Budget Office says it will cost $80 billion to build a new nuclear-warhead-carrying long-range bomber.
*The Marshall Islands are threatened by rising sea levels and the effects of nuclear bomb testing from 1946-1958, linking climate change and nuclear weapons.
*Although black-on-black murders are emphasized in the media, the FBI estimate that 82% of murders of whites are committed by whites, which is close to the FBI estimate that 90% of murders of blacks are committed by blacks. Close association is a major factor in the commission of murders.
Footnotes
[1] Rachel Aviv, "The Refugee Dilemma," The New Yorker, December 7, 2015.
[2] Ibid.
Excerpts From The Book:
p. ix -. "Worldwide solar sales have been growing 50 to 60 percent per year for the last decade."
p. 17 - "To power cars , homes, and industries, the United States, with around 4 percent of the human population, uses about 21 million barrels of oil a day, according to the EIA." (Energy Information Administration)
p. 49 - "Over the last fifteen years, solar energy production has increased by 30 percent annually while the price for photovoltaic (PV) power has dropped an average of 4 percent a year during that time period."
p. 56 - In theory, the wind flowing over the plains of North Dakota would provide up to 33 percent of America's electric needs."
p. 66 - The United States has 104 operating reactors, more than any other country, and they produce 20% of our nation's electricity." France's 59 reactors produce 78 percent of its electricity.
p. 91 - OPEC has approximately 80 percent of the proven conventional oil reserves.
p. 99 - The IEA (International Energy Agency) predicts that by 2035, China's energy demand will climb by 78 percent.
p. 109 - The U.S. has more than 600 coal-powered plants, producing about 54 percent of our nation's power.
p.133 - The Department of Energy says the average thermal efficiency of the power plants on the U.S. grid is 33 percent.
p. 134 - The U.S. will need an additional 281 gigaments of power by the year 2025 and it will require 937 megawatt power plants by the same year.
Child Soldiers and Their Psychiatric Dilemma
"The proliferation of light weapons in Africa had suddenly made children effective as fighters, and they returned from the wars having missed crucial steps in their psychological development. They tended to be easily provoked, and prone to disassociate states, a coping mechanism that had once allowed them to be calm in the face of extreme violence." [1]
Former child soldiers taking psychiatric medications means announcing to their communities that they are crazy and damaged, a stigma that would contaminate their families. Theresa Betencourt, a professor at Harvard University, has been following war-imposed youth in Sierra Leone and has found that child soldiers tend to respond to "any threats to their well-being or personal safety in a really disproportionate way." [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*Michael McCord, the Pentagon Comptroller, estimates that by the year 2021, the U.S. will need to come up with $10 billion per year through 2035 in order to fulfill current plans to modernize its nuclear weapons, delivery systems and production facilities. The U.S. plans to spend $1 trillion in nuclear weapons modernization over thirty years. The Congressional Budget Office says it will cost $80 billion to build a new nuclear-warhead-carrying long-range bomber.
*The Marshall Islands are threatened by rising sea levels and the effects of nuclear bomb testing from 1946-1958, linking climate change and nuclear weapons.
*Although black-on-black murders are emphasized in the media, the FBI estimate that 82% of murders of whites are committed by whites, which is close to the FBI estimate that 90% of murders of blacks are committed by blacks. Close association is a major factor in the commission of murders.
Footnotes
[1] Rachel Aviv, "The Refugee Dilemma," The New Yorker, December 7, 2015.
[2] Ibid.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Threat Assessment and Refugee Psychosis Concerns
I. Threat Assessment to Reduce Mass Shootings
Due to mass shootings -- defined as four or persons killed or injured -- averaging more than one a day by early December 2015, security efforts at public venues are turning more and more to threat assessment teams. Threat assessment is essentially a three-part process: identifying, evaluating and then intervening. When the author of an article in Mother Jones magazine. asked threat assessment experts what might explain the recent rise in gun rampages, he heard the "same two words over and over: social media." [1]
The biggest drawback to threat assessment is that, except for a copycat pattern in the Columbine, Colorado high school shooting -- there is no discernible pattern or connection in mass shootings. One of the biggest challenges to threat assessment work is that the quieter, less outwardly threatening subjects can prove to be the most dangerous.
To turn to the Columbine High School shootings and use of explosives, in a number of cases, persons contemplating or actively carrying out mass shootings, made references to the two Columbine students as the inspiration for their planned action. A few even visited Columbine, which they saw as the shrine for their destructive planning.
II. Refugee Psychosis and Retention Concerns
An analysis of more than four million records reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that immigrants from East Africa and Southeast Asia were nearly twice as likely to develop psychosis as the general public was. It is not clear what the reason for this is, except that Africa has many child soldiers mixed into the database.
Immigrant detention is a real problem, as the immigration court system has a backlog of half a million deportation cases, even though hearings tend to be brisk -- at the expense of having sufficient information to make an informed decision. The Department of Homeland Security is unique in the sense that it is the only law enforcement agency that is required by law to detain a certain number of people. [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*When Chief Justice John G. Roberts was a young special assistant to the U.S. attorney general, he led a crusade to gut the Voter Rights Act by eliminating the preclearance requirements and demanding explicit evidence of racist intentions, not simply an evaluation of the effects of voting restrictions, to invalidate voting laws. We seem to be in the midst of a Second Revolution on the right to vote but instead of expanding voting rights, we seem to be in a devious competition to see who can disenfranchise the most people. Chief Justice Roberts, of course, has been a major force in facilitating the enactment of restrictive voting laws.
*Donald Trump has claimed that African-Americans kill eighty-one percent of white murder victims. The FBI says that white victims are murdered by other whites eighty-two percent of the time. Although black-on-black murders are emphasized among commentators in the media -- it is about ninety percent -- the eighty-two percent of white-on-white murders is not that much different.
Footnotes
[1] Mark Fallmer, "Trigger Warnings," Mother Jones, November/December 2015.
[2] Rachel Aviv, "The Refugee Dilemma,": The New Yorker, December 7, 2015.
Due to mass shootings -- defined as four or persons killed or injured -- averaging more than one a day by early December 2015, security efforts at public venues are turning more and more to threat assessment teams. Threat assessment is essentially a three-part process: identifying, evaluating and then intervening. When the author of an article in Mother Jones magazine. asked threat assessment experts what might explain the recent rise in gun rampages, he heard the "same two words over and over: social media." [1]
The biggest drawback to threat assessment is that, except for a copycat pattern in the Columbine, Colorado high school shooting -- there is no discernible pattern or connection in mass shootings. One of the biggest challenges to threat assessment work is that the quieter, less outwardly threatening subjects can prove to be the most dangerous.
To turn to the Columbine High School shootings and use of explosives, in a number of cases, persons contemplating or actively carrying out mass shootings, made references to the two Columbine students as the inspiration for their planned action. A few even visited Columbine, which they saw as the shrine for their destructive planning.
II. Refugee Psychosis and Retention Concerns
An analysis of more than four million records reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that immigrants from East Africa and Southeast Asia were nearly twice as likely to develop psychosis as the general public was. It is not clear what the reason for this is, except that Africa has many child soldiers mixed into the database.
Immigrant detention is a real problem, as the immigration court system has a backlog of half a million deportation cases, even though hearings tend to be brisk -- at the expense of having sufficient information to make an informed decision. The Department of Homeland Security is unique in the sense that it is the only law enforcement agency that is required by law to detain a certain number of people. [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*When Chief Justice John G. Roberts was a young special assistant to the U.S. attorney general, he led a crusade to gut the Voter Rights Act by eliminating the preclearance requirements and demanding explicit evidence of racist intentions, not simply an evaluation of the effects of voting restrictions, to invalidate voting laws. We seem to be in the midst of a Second Revolution on the right to vote but instead of expanding voting rights, we seem to be in a devious competition to see who can disenfranchise the most people. Chief Justice Roberts, of course, has been a major force in facilitating the enactment of restrictive voting laws.
*Donald Trump has claimed that African-Americans kill eighty-one percent of white murder victims. The FBI says that white victims are murdered by other whites eighty-two percent of the time. Although black-on-black murders are emphasized among commentators in the media -- it is about ninety percent -- the eighty-two percent of white-on-white murders is not that much different.
Footnotes
[1] Mark Fallmer, "Trigger Warnings," Mother Jones, November/December 2015.
[2] Rachel Aviv, "The Refugee Dilemma,": The New Yorker, December 7, 2015.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
A Greener Global Workforce
Jobs generated through spending on clean energy versus fossil-fuel production
Large-Scale Fossil-Fuel-Producing Countries
Clean-energy jobs Fossil-fuel jobs Jobs increase through clean-energy
Countries per $1 million per $1 million spending relative to fossil fuels
Brazil 37.1 21.2 +75%
China 133.1 74.4 +79%
India 261.9 129.1 +103%
Indonesia 99.1 22.0 +350%
South Africa 70.6 33.1 +113%
United States 8.7 3.7 +135%
Large-Scale Fossil-Fuel-Importing Countries
Clean-energy jobs
Countries per $1 million
Germany 9.7
South Korea 14.6
Spain 13.4
The chart shows that in the fossil-fuel producing countries, spending $1 million on clean-energy jobs produces far more jobs than spending the same amount on fossil-fuel jobs; also, it shows that the United States generates far fewer jobs per spending $1 million than do the comparison counties. (Source: Greening the Global Economy, found in The Nation, November 16, 2015).
ADDENDUM:
"According to the 2015 Revision, the world today has 7.3 billion inhabitants and a 95-percent chance of having between 9.5 billion and 13.3 million in 2100." "The medium variant of the 2015 Revision projects a world population of 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050." "To achieve the medium variant, fertility in the least developed countries has to decrease from its current 4.20 children per woman in 2025-2030 and to 2.87 in 2045-2050." [1]
"Africa's share of the world population will rise from 16 percent in 2015 to 25 percent in 2050." "More than any other region, therefore, Africa will face the challenges of educating ever-increasing numbers of children and of generating jobs for ever-increasing numbers of young people." [2]
'The wild lion population has declined 43 percent over 21 years, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, to fewer than 20,000 lions." "Africa's human population, meanwhile, is the fastest growing in the world. In roughly the same period as the lion decline, the number of Africans has nearly doubled to 1.2 billion people.At that point, one out of every four humans will live in Africa." "In West Africa, lions are now confined to less than 1 percent of the 4.5 million square miles of sparsely furnished land where they used to roam." [3]
Footnotes
[1] Harria Zlotnick, "Future World Population," Population Connection, October 2015.
[2] Ibid.
[3] "Human Population Boom Remains Largest Threat to Africa's Lions in Wake of Cecil's Killinga" Same as above.
Large-Scale Fossil-Fuel-Producing Countries
Clean-energy jobs Fossil-fuel jobs Jobs increase through clean-energy
Countries per $1 million per $1 million spending relative to fossil fuels
Brazil 37.1 21.2 +75%
China 133.1 74.4 +79%
India 261.9 129.1 +103%
Indonesia 99.1 22.0 +350%
South Africa 70.6 33.1 +113%
United States 8.7 3.7 +135%
Large-Scale Fossil-Fuel-Importing Countries
Clean-energy jobs
Countries per $1 million
Germany 9.7
South Korea 14.6
Spain 13.4
The chart shows that in the fossil-fuel producing countries, spending $1 million on clean-energy jobs produces far more jobs than spending the same amount on fossil-fuel jobs; also, it shows that the United States generates far fewer jobs per spending $1 million than do the comparison counties. (Source: Greening the Global Economy, found in The Nation, November 16, 2015).
ADDENDUM:
"According to the 2015 Revision, the world today has 7.3 billion inhabitants and a 95-percent chance of having between 9.5 billion and 13.3 million in 2100." "The medium variant of the 2015 Revision projects a world population of 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050." "To achieve the medium variant, fertility in the least developed countries has to decrease from its current 4.20 children per woman in 2025-2030 and to 2.87 in 2045-2050." [1]
"Africa's share of the world population will rise from 16 percent in 2015 to 25 percent in 2050." "More than any other region, therefore, Africa will face the challenges of educating ever-increasing numbers of children and of generating jobs for ever-increasing numbers of young people." [2]
'The wild lion population has declined 43 percent over 21 years, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, to fewer than 20,000 lions." "Africa's human population, meanwhile, is the fastest growing in the world. In roughly the same period as the lion decline, the number of Africans has nearly doubled to 1.2 billion people.At that point, one out of every four humans will live in Africa." "In West Africa, lions are now confined to less than 1 percent of the 4.5 million square miles of sparsely furnished land where they used to roam." [3]
Footnotes
[1] Harria Zlotnick, "Future World Population," Population Connection, October 2015.
[2] Ibid.
[3] "Human Population Boom Remains Largest Threat to Africa's Lions in Wake of Cecil's Killinga" Same as above.
Monday, December 14, 2015
By the Numbers in The Nation Magazine
I. Homegrown Terrorism
Angry white men have committed more acts of terrorism on US soil than any other group since 9/11.
3 people wee murdered at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs by Robert Lewis Dear on November 27.
48 people have been killed by right-wing attacks since 9.11, according to a report by the New America Foundation.
9 people died in the largest of these attacks -- the Charleston church shooting by Dylann Roof in June.
26 people have been killed by those professing some sort of sympathy for Islamic extremists.
352 mass shootings (defined as attacks in which four or more people were killed or injured by gunfire) took place in the United States this year, these shootings by a community on Reddit. (The Nation, December 21/28, 2015).
II. George Orwell in "Notes on Nationalism"
"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them....Whether such details were reprehensible, or even whether they happened, was always decided according to political predilection."
"It's as though Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Camp Breadbasket, and the CIA torture report never happened. The nationalist can't understand why people look at the West's record of destruction over the last 15 years and conclude that its humanitarian claims cannot be taken at face value. It does hateful things and then is shocked that people hate it." (Gary Younge, "Bombs Over Brains," The Nation, December 21/28, 2015).
III. Watchlist
680K - People in the government's Terrorist Screening Database of "known or suspected terrorists."
280K - People on the watchlist with no recognized terrorist affiliation.
900 - Records added to the Terrorist Screening Database per day.
89% - People identified in NSA-intercepted conversations leaked by Edward Snowden who were not the targets of surveillance. (The Nation, December 14, 2015).
IV. Voter Tally
90% - Percentage of elected leaders in US history who were white.
127 - Total number of African-Americans who have been elected to the House of Representatives in US history.
2.1M - Voting-age Texans not registered to vote.
1.2M - Eligible Texas voters adversely affected by strict photo-ID laws.
17% - Amount by which Latino voter registration in Texas lags behind Anglo voter registration. (The Nation, December 14, 2015).
V. ISIS Funding
$1B - Amount collected annually by ISIS in taxes, fines, traffic tolls, and utility bills.
$50M - ISIS's monthly revenue from oil sold on the the Turkish black market.
$200 = The toll collected by ISIS from each truck traveling through northern Iraq.
7 - Months that the GOP has stalled Obama's nominee for undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, whose portfolio includes ISIS's financing. (The Nation, December 21/2 8, 2015).
VI. William F. Buckley's "National Review" Views
"National Review" was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955 as the house organ of a new conservative movement. This year, celebrate some of Buckley's early insights into nationalism and race.
1957 - On Spanish military director Francisco Franco: "An authentic national hero."
1961 - On South African apartheid: " 'Black Africans' when left to their own devices, 'tend to revert to savagery.' "
1965 - On ending segregation: "[A] suddenly enfranchised violently embittered Negro population...will take the vote and wield it as a instrument of vengeance, shaking down the walls of Jericho even to their foundations, and reawakening the terrible genocidal antagonisms that scarred the Southern psyche during the days of Reconstruction." (The Nation, December 21/28, 2015).
Angry white men have committed more acts of terrorism on US soil than any other group since 9/11.
3 people wee murdered at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs by Robert Lewis Dear on November 27.
48 people have been killed by right-wing attacks since 9.11, according to a report by the New America Foundation.
9 people died in the largest of these attacks -- the Charleston church shooting by Dylann Roof in June.
26 people have been killed by those professing some sort of sympathy for Islamic extremists.
352 mass shootings (defined as attacks in which four or more people were killed or injured by gunfire) took place in the United States this year, these shootings by a community on Reddit. (The Nation, December 21/28, 2015).
II. George Orwell in "Notes on Nationalism"
"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them....Whether such details were reprehensible, or even whether they happened, was always decided according to political predilection."
"It's as though Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Camp Breadbasket, and the CIA torture report never happened. The nationalist can't understand why people look at the West's record of destruction over the last 15 years and conclude that its humanitarian claims cannot be taken at face value. It does hateful things and then is shocked that people hate it." (Gary Younge, "Bombs Over Brains," The Nation, December 21/28, 2015).
III. Watchlist
680K - People in the government's Terrorist Screening Database of "known or suspected terrorists."
280K - People on the watchlist with no recognized terrorist affiliation.
900 - Records added to the Terrorist Screening Database per day.
89% - People identified in NSA-intercepted conversations leaked by Edward Snowden who were not the targets of surveillance. (The Nation, December 14, 2015).
IV. Voter Tally
90% - Percentage of elected leaders in US history who were white.
127 - Total number of African-Americans who have been elected to the House of Representatives in US history.
2.1M - Voting-age Texans not registered to vote.
1.2M - Eligible Texas voters adversely affected by strict photo-ID laws.
17% - Amount by which Latino voter registration in Texas lags behind Anglo voter registration. (The Nation, December 14, 2015).
V. ISIS Funding
$1B - Amount collected annually by ISIS in taxes, fines, traffic tolls, and utility bills.
$50M - ISIS's monthly revenue from oil sold on the the Turkish black market.
$200 = The toll collected by ISIS from each truck traveling through northern Iraq.
7 - Months that the GOP has stalled Obama's nominee for undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, whose portfolio includes ISIS's financing. (The Nation, December 21/2 8, 2015).
VI. William F. Buckley's "National Review" Views
"National Review" was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955 as the house organ of a new conservative movement. This year, celebrate some of Buckley's early insights into nationalism and race.
1957 - On Spanish military director Francisco Franco: "An authentic national hero."
1961 - On South African apartheid: " 'Black Africans' when left to their own devices, 'tend to revert to savagery.' "
1965 - On ending segregation: "[A] suddenly enfranchised violently embittered Negro population...will take the vote and wield it as a instrument of vengeance, shaking down the walls of Jericho even to their foundations, and reawakening the terrible genocidal antagonisms that scarred the Southern psyche during the days of Reconstruction." (The Nation, December 21/28, 2015).
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Another Chicago Violence Video and Banning Fetal Tissue Research
I. Violence in a Jail Cell
Another Chicago law enforcement violence video has surfaced, making it the third in a week. The video shows a cell full of officers beating up an inmate. The inmate later dies and an examination of his body finds a total of fifty bruises and Taser burns.
When Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held his televised press conference, the main reason he gave for his refusal to leave office, as is being demanded by many of his constituents, is he has learned of the problems existing in law enforcement and is the one best positioned to fix them. Emanuel, though, is part of the problem, as he had to know of the existence of the videos, at least of the shootings of the two young African-Americans males. How confident can Chicago residents be that Emanuel won't engage in cover-up again when information about excessive use of force employed by Chicago police becomes available to him and release of it would cause him a major political problem?
What is needed is a root-and-branch investigation of the Chicago Police Department by a body that has no ties to the CPD or the Emanuel administration.
II. Banning Fetal Tissue Research Is Bad Policy
The use of fetal tissue by three researchers working on a polio vaccine in 1954, paved the way for the Salk and Sabin vaccines. When Congress lifted President Reagan's ban on federal funding for the use of fetal tissue for research in 1973, a number of Republican lawmakers, including heavy political hitters, Orrin Hatch and Mitch McConnell, voted for it. Now, fetal tissue research has become collateral damage in the war against Planned Parenthood; also, six states have already banned it, or severely restricted it. [1]
In Wisconsin, the state that seems to be vying for the title of enacting the most socially destructive legislation, the Wisconsin legislature has been debating a bill to not just ban the sale of fetal tissue, but making research using fetal tissue a felony after January 1, 2016..
Banning fetal tissue will not prevent a single abortion. These actions against fetal tissue research will put the United States behind those nations that do the science, patent the cures and lead the world in biotech. A research path to find remedies for major diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's will be blocked.
III. The Bad Numbers on the Paul Ryan Budget
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has found that Rep. Paul Ryan's latest budget proposal would likely have produced the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top than any other budget in recent times (and possibility in the nation's history).The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center calculated that people earning over $1 million a year could expect, on average, $265,000 above the $129,000 tax break they would have gotten from Ryan's proposed extension of the Bush II tax cuts.
Meanwhile, middle-class and poor Americans would likely have seen their income decline due to Ryan's proposals to slash, to the point of destruction, Medicare and other support programs. [2]
ADDENDUMS:
* A Pew survey done in December 2014 found a majority putting gun rights as more important than gun control.
* A Marine Corps study which found that women in combat performed less well than men was labeled "inherently flawed" by Megan Mae Kenzie, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney in Australia and the author of two books on women in combat, and Ellen Haring, a retired Army colonel and senior fellow at Women in International Security in Washington. The two say the study didn't establish an ":occupational relevant standard": for Marine combat positions.
* The U.S. has spent $4,75 billion on 6,059 airstrikes on ISIS as of the end of October 2015. There is no relevant evidence that the bombing has weakened ISIS.
* A deal reached in late October 2015 gives the Pentagon an additional $59 billion, raising the Pentagon budget over $600 billion for FY 2016. The spending cap will be raised for the nest two years -- $50 billion for FY 2016 and $30 billion for FY 2017, The increased spending will be split between defense programs and everything else, which overlooks the fact that defense programs are now more generously funded than everything else.
* During the 2013 fight over spending cuts, Senator Marco Rubio advocated for government-spending reform. He has since become less cautionary, arguing for an increase in military spending and calling it "the most important obligation of the federal government."
Rubio has called for a no-fly zone over Syria and would help a Sunni-led army fight a two-front war against Assad and ISIS.
* Forty-two percent of Americans make less than $15 an hour. (Source: "Dem Debate Leans Left," The Nation, November 2, 2015.)
Footnotes
[1] Katha Pollitt, "Fetal Subtraction," The Nation, October 26, 2015.
[2] Eric Alterman, "Meet Paul Ryan, Media Darling," The Nation, October 26, 2015.
Another Chicago law enforcement violence video has surfaced, making it the third in a week. The video shows a cell full of officers beating up an inmate. The inmate later dies and an examination of his body finds a total of fifty bruises and Taser burns.
When Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held his televised press conference, the main reason he gave for his refusal to leave office, as is being demanded by many of his constituents, is he has learned of the problems existing in law enforcement and is the one best positioned to fix them. Emanuel, though, is part of the problem, as he had to know of the existence of the videos, at least of the shootings of the two young African-Americans males. How confident can Chicago residents be that Emanuel won't engage in cover-up again when information about excessive use of force employed by Chicago police becomes available to him and release of it would cause him a major political problem?
What is needed is a root-and-branch investigation of the Chicago Police Department by a body that has no ties to the CPD or the Emanuel administration.
II. Banning Fetal Tissue Research Is Bad Policy
The use of fetal tissue by three researchers working on a polio vaccine in 1954, paved the way for the Salk and Sabin vaccines. When Congress lifted President Reagan's ban on federal funding for the use of fetal tissue for research in 1973, a number of Republican lawmakers, including heavy political hitters, Orrin Hatch and Mitch McConnell, voted for it. Now, fetal tissue research has become collateral damage in the war against Planned Parenthood; also, six states have already banned it, or severely restricted it. [1]
In Wisconsin, the state that seems to be vying for the title of enacting the most socially destructive legislation, the Wisconsin legislature has been debating a bill to not just ban the sale of fetal tissue, but making research using fetal tissue a felony after January 1, 2016..
Banning fetal tissue will not prevent a single abortion. These actions against fetal tissue research will put the United States behind those nations that do the science, patent the cures and lead the world in biotech. A research path to find remedies for major diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's will be blocked.
III. The Bad Numbers on the Paul Ryan Budget
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has found that Rep. Paul Ryan's latest budget proposal would likely have produced the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top than any other budget in recent times (and possibility in the nation's history).The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center calculated that people earning over $1 million a year could expect, on average, $265,000 above the $129,000 tax break they would have gotten from Ryan's proposed extension of the Bush II tax cuts.
Meanwhile, middle-class and poor Americans would likely have seen their income decline due to Ryan's proposals to slash, to the point of destruction, Medicare and other support programs. [2]
ADDENDUMS:
* A Pew survey done in December 2014 found a majority putting gun rights as more important than gun control.
* A Marine Corps study which found that women in combat performed less well than men was labeled "inherently flawed" by Megan Mae Kenzie, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney in Australia and the author of two books on women in combat, and Ellen Haring, a retired Army colonel and senior fellow at Women in International Security in Washington. The two say the study didn't establish an ":occupational relevant standard": for Marine combat positions.
* The U.S. has spent $4,75 billion on 6,059 airstrikes on ISIS as of the end of October 2015. There is no relevant evidence that the bombing has weakened ISIS.
* A deal reached in late October 2015 gives the Pentagon an additional $59 billion, raising the Pentagon budget over $600 billion for FY 2016. The spending cap will be raised for the nest two years -- $50 billion for FY 2016 and $30 billion for FY 2017, The increased spending will be split between defense programs and everything else, which overlooks the fact that defense programs are now more generously funded than everything else.
* During the 2013 fight over spending cuts, Senator Marco Rubio advocated for government-spending reform. He has since become less cautionary, arguing for an increase in military spending and calling it "the most important obligation of the federal government."
Rubio has called for a no-fly zone over Syria and would help a Sunni-led army fight a two-front war against Assad and ISIS.
* Forty-two percent of Americans make less than $15 an hour. (Source: "Dem Debate Leans Left," The Nation, November 2, 2015.)
Footnotes
[1] Katha Pollitt, "Fetal Subtraction," The Nation, October 26, 2015.
[2] Eric Alterman, "Meet Paul Ryan, Media Darling," The Nation, October 26, 2015.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Updates on Recent Shootings and Ted Cruz's Comments
I. CPD Lies About Shooting of Teenager
A Chicago Police Department report on the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald claims that McDonald menacing turned toward officers as he walked past the assembled police officers; also, the report claims that McDonald treated to rise up after being shot down and again made a threatening gesture with his knife. The released video shows McDonald actually turning away as he passes the officers and he stays flat on the street after being hit by gunfire.
This claim of aggressive action on the part of McDonald is just another illustration of how police will blatantly lie to save the skin of a fellow officer. The firing of the police chief and the first degree murder charge against Officer Jason Van Dyke, and even the appointment of a special committee to investigate police procedure and behavior aren't really sufficient to address the real problem, which is the corruption in the Chicago Police Department. The crux of the problem is that police department personnel will lie and cover-up when the department's interests are threatened by serious misconduct by its officers, including the many instances of excessive use of force. A root-and-branch investigation of the CPD is needed and the formation of that committee should not be done by anyone with ties to the CPD or the city political leadership. The Department of Justice seems to be the obvious choice to do the investigation, although I, personally, have serious doubts about how well the DoJ handled Michael Brown's murder investigation.
The CPD's cover-up proclivities were in evidence when for many years it wouldn't take any action to stop the torture activities of the notorious Jon Burge, who used his division stationhouse to torture, almost exclusively, African-Americans, to confess to murders that the CPD had not been able to solve. I spoke at a rally for one of those torture victims, who was released from Death Row in the latter 1990s, because there was no evidence, apart from his confession, tying him to the homicide for which he was convicted.
II. Senator Ted Cruz's Comments on PP Shooting and Firearms
Senator Ted Cruiz (R-TX) labeled the shooter in the Planned Parenthood clinic located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as a "transgender, leftist activist." On Fox News Sunday, Cruz denounced the "vicious rhetoric on the left, blaming those who are pro-life." There is no evidence that the shooter is or was transgender, a leftist or that he was an activist. The neighbors who lived closest to the trailer of the almost certain shooter -- deemed to be innocent until and if he is convicted in a criminal trial -- described him as a loner. Cruz's motivation was obviously to blacken the character of those who are not heterosexual or politically conservative.
A more plausible case can be made for the premise that it was the extreme rhetoric aimed at Planned Parenthood and the efforts in Congress to defund it, that may have figured in the shooter's decision to shoot up the clinic. He has been described as saying that his intent was to stop the sale of fetal tissue. Ruth Marcus, columnist for the Washington Post, wrote an article entitled: "Republicans deserve some blame for the Planned Parenthood shooting", in the December 1, 2015 issue of the Post. Marcus wrote : "Republican politicians who fueled the overwrought and unsupported controversy over selling body parts bear some measure of responsibility." She calls it "literally, a manufactured issue, cobbled together from doctored videotape, and overheated accusations.The organization's activities have been so mischaracterized, and the practice of providing fetal tissue so overblown and so manipulated by lawmakers and politicians, that blame for the ensuing violence falls more heavily on them."
Marcus cites the case of Michael ;Bray, who served forty years in prison for bombing a string of abortion clinics. Bray told "60 Minutes" in 1999 that: "If we are to affirm, as I do, that the children in the womb who are killed at abortion clinics are in fact children... than action taken to defend them is justifiable and cannot be condemned."
Senator Cruz has commented on the strangeness of gun massacres always occurring in "gun-free" zones. The problem is that much of the United States is composed of "guns a'plenty" zones" and guns from these "guns a'plenty zones" are taken to an alarming number of venues to wreck their violence by human trigger-pullers.
A Chicago Police Department report on the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald claims that McDonald menacing turned toward officers as he walked past the assembled police officers; also, the report claims that McDonald treated to rise up after being shot down and again made a threatening gesture with his knife. The released video shows McDonald actually turning away as he passes the officers and he stays flat on the street after being hit by gunfire.
This claim of aggressive action on the part of McDonald is just another illustration of how police will blatantly lie to save the skin of a fellow officer. The firing of the police chief and the first degree murder charge against Officer Jason Van Dyke, and even the appointment of a special committee to investigate police procedure and behavior aren't really sufficient to address the real problem, which is the corruption in the Chicago Police Department. The crux of the problem is that police department personnel will lie and cover-up when the department's interests are threatened by serious misconduct by its officers, including the many instances of excessive use of force. A root-and-branch investigation of the CPD is needed and the formation of that committee should not be done by anyone with ties to the CPD or the city political leadership. The Department of Justice seems to be the obvious choice to do the investigation, although I, personally, have serious doubts about how well the DoJ handled Michael Brown's murder investigation.
The CPD's cover-up proclivities were in evidence when for many years it wouldn't take any action to stop the torture activities of the notorious Jon Burge, who used his division stationhouse to torture, almost exclusively, African-Americans, to confess to murders that the CPD had not been able to solve. I spoke at a rally for one of those torture victims, who was released from Death Row in the latter 1990s, because there was no evidence, apart from his confession, tying him to the homicide for which he was convicted.
II. Senator Ted Cruz's Comments on PP Shooting and Firearms
Senator Ted Cruiz (R-TX) labeled the shooter in the Planned Parenthood clinic located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as a "transgender, leftist activist." On Fox News Sunday, Cruz denounced the "vicious rhetoric on the left, blaming those who are pro-life." There is no evidence that the shooter is or was transgender, a leftist or that he was an activist. The neighbors who lived closest to the trailer of the almost certain shooter -- deemed to be innocent until and if he is convicted in a criminal trial -- described him as a loner. Cruz's motivation was obviously to blacken the character of those who are not heterosexual or politically conservative.
A more plausible case can be made for the premise that it was the extreme rhetoric aimed at Planned Parenthood and the efforts in Congress to defund it, that may have figured in the shooter's decision to shoot up the clinic. He has been described as saying that his intent was to stop the sale of fetal tissue. Ruth Marcus, columnist for the Washington Post, wrote an article entitled: "Republicans deserve some blame for the Planned Parenthood shooting", in the December 1, 2015 issue of the Post. Marcus wrote : "Republican politicians who fueled the overwrought and unsupported controversy over selling body parts bear some measure of responsibility." She calls it "literally, a manufactured issue, cobbled together from doctored videotape, and overheated accusations.The organization's activities have been so mischaracterized, and the practice of providing fetal tissue so overblown and so manipulated by lawmakers and politicians, that blame for the ensuing violence falls more heavily on them."
Marcus cites the case of Michael ;Bray, who served forty years in prison for bombing a string of abortion clinics. Bray told "60 Minutes" in 1999 that: "If we are to affirm, as I do, that the children in the womb who are killed at abortion clinics are in fact children... than action taken to defend them is justifiable and cannot be condemned."
Senator Cruz has commented on the strangeness of gun massacres always occurring in "gun-free" zones. The problem is that much of the United States is composed of "guns a'plenty" zones" and guns from these "guns a'plenty zones" are taken to an alarming number of venues to wreck their violence by human trigger-pullers.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Taxation and the Empowerment of the Wealthy
There are various ways we can measure how both individuals and corporations were taxed in the last three-quarters of a century or so, and how concentrated the wealth has become at the top of the economic pyramid in the United States. First, a look at the bottom and top federal income tax rates since 1950 indicates that a robustly progressive income tax structure likely contributed to a more equitable economic society.
1.) Highest Marginal Tax Rates:
1950 - 84.35% ($400,000 and over); 1960 - 91% ($400,000 and over); 1970 - 71,75% ($200,000 and over); 1980 - 70% ($215,000 and over).
2.( Lowest marginal tax rates:
1950 - 17.4%; 1960 - 20.0%; 1970 - 14.0%; 1980 - 14.0%.
There are a number of measurements to determine how much of their income the wealthiest households pay in federal income tax:
1.) IRS data showed that the 400 wealthiest households paid 18.1% of their total income in federal taxes in 2008; however, in 1955 they had paid 51.2%. By another IRS measure, after adjusting for inflation, the top 400 in 2008 reported incomes that were twenty times the incomes of the top 400 households of the wealth a half-century before.
2.) The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the effective income tax rate for the top 400 households declined by nearly half in just over a decade. The top 400 households paid 16.6% of their income in federal income taxes in 2007, down from 30% in 1995.
3.) MIT economist Peter Diamond found that in 2007 the top one percent, on average, paid 22.4% of their incomes in federal income taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the gaps in after-tax income between the richest one percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifth of he country more than tripled between 1979 and 2007.
As to how wealth has become concentrated among the economic elite, there are several measurements, which, although they have some variations due to how weights are assigned, paint a pretty clear picture of the situation. Economist Leon Friedman has calculated that the top 1% percent of the U.S. population owns 35% of the nation's wealth and the top 5% owns 62%. Economist Joseph Stiglitz says the nation's top 1% take in nearly a quarter of the income and control 40% of the wealth.. He further claims that their incomes have risen 18% since the year 2000. The Economic Policy Institute calculates that the richest 5% claim 63.5% of the nation's wealth and the richest 20% claim 84%.
A disclaimer about the figures and percentages presented above is that they were presented some three to four years ago; moreover, most indicators are that income and wealth inequality have increased since then.
The Congressional Research Service did a study of savings, investment and productivity growth since World War II. The researchers could not explain why the study showed an association between higher tax rates for high-earners and higher levels of economic growth. There is a logic for the association, as high tax rates provide an incentive for business owners, especially of the small business variety, to hire more workers or expand their facilities: declaring more business expenses reduces taxable income.
I have previously written that the Democrats could have avoided the Bush II tax cut trap when they controlled the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House, by creating a new tax rate structure with a top marginal tax rate in the 60 to 70% range. The excuse that the Democrats didn't have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, except for a brief time, could have been countered by requiring any filibuster to be conducted only on the final passage of a bill, not on its introduction, and requiring an actual filibuster, while the Senate was kept in continuous session. Then-majority leader Harry Reid could have held a noon press conference every day, pointing out how those filibustering were preventing senators representing a significant majority of the nation's population from enacting important legislation.
What President Obama and legislative Democrats did was to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years, in a compromise that, in part, provided for an ill-advised cut in the FICA tax, thereby providing a troublesome precedent for those who want to destroy Social Security. Obama and his Democratic allies have created budgetary deficits for the long-term future by agreeing to extend what economists say is 80% of the Bush tax cuts.
1.) Highest Marginal Tax Rates:
1950 - 84.35% ($400,000 and over); 1960 - 91% ($400,000 and over); 1970 - 71,75% ($200,000 and over); 1980 - 70% ($215,000 and over).
2.( Lowest marginal tax rates:
1950 - 17.4%; 1960 - 20.0%; 1970 - 14.0%; 1980 - 14.0%.
There are a number of measurements to determine how much of their income the wealthiest households pay in federal income tax:
1.) IRS data showed that the 400 wealthiest households paid 18.1% of their total income in federal taxes in 2008; however, in 1955 they had paid 51.2%. By another IRS measure, after adjusting for inflation, the top 400 in 2008 reported incomes that were twenty times the incomes of the top 400 households of the wealth a half-century before.
2.) The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the effective income tax rate for the top 400 households declined by nearly half in just over a decade. The top 400 households paid 16.6% of their income in federal income taxes in 2007, down from 30% in 1995.
3.) MIT economist Peter Diamond found that in 2007 the top one percent, on average, paid 22.4% of their incomes in federal income taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the gaps in after-tax income between the richest one percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifth of he country more than tripled between 1979 and 2007.
As to how wealth has become concentrated among the economic elite, there are several measurements, which, although they have some variations due to how weights are assigned, paint a pretty clear picture of the situation. Economist Leon Friedman has calculated that the top 1% percent of the U.S. population owns 35% of the nation's wealth and the top 5% owns 62%. Economist Joseph Stiglitz says the nation's top 1% take in nearly a quarter of the income and control 40% of the wealth.. He further claims that their incomes have risen 18% since the year 2000. The Economic Policy Institute calculates that the richest 5% claim 63.5% of the nation's wealth and the richest 20% claim 84%.
A disclaimer about the figures and percentages presented above is that they were presented some three to four years ago; moreover, most indicators are that income and wealth inequality have increased since then.
The Congressional Research Service did a study of savings, investment and productivity growth since World War II. The researchers could not explain why the study showed an association between higher tax rates for high-earners and higher levels of economic growth. There is a logic for the association, as high tax rates provide an incentive for business owners, especially of the small business variety, to hire more workers or expand their facilities: declaring more business expenses reduces taxable income.
I have previously written that the Democrats could have avoided the Bush II tax cut trap when they controlled the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House, by creating a new tax rate structure with a top marginal tax rate in the 60 to 70% range. The excuse that the Democrats didn't have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, except for a brief time, could have been countered by requiring any filibuster to be conducted only on the final passage of a bill, not on its introduction, and requiring an actual filibuster, while the Senate was kept in continuous session. Then-majority leader Harry Reid could have held a noon press conference every day, pointing out how those filibustering were preventing senators representing a significant majority of the nation's population from enacting important legislation.
What President Obama and legislative Democrats did was to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years, in a compromise that, in part, provided for an ill-advised cut in the FICA tax, thereby providing a troublesome precedent for those who want to destroy Social Security. Obama and his Democratic allies have created budgetary deficits for the long-term future by agreeing to extend what economists say is 80% of the Bush tax cuts.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Now Is the Time to Speak of Many Things: Cabbages and Kings
I.) Police Union President Actions Leap Over All Reasonable Bounds
The president of the Chicago police union is trying to raise a defense fund for Officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot to death 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, even though video shows that the teen represented no threat to him. The union president has asked Chicago police to contribute money for Van Dyke. Even though it is a standard prerogative of a union president to defend union members who are in trouble, there are lines that should not be crossed. The fatal shooting by Van Dyke was so over-the-top and an utterly inexcusable use of deadly force that it represents a case in which the president should have taken a pass. The gravity of the offense is indicated by the rarity in which a prosecutor charges a police officer with first degree murder, as in the Van Dyke case.
In recent years, police union presidents have displayed an unusual affinity to say and do the wrong things. The president of the St Louis police union expressed his anger at the five St. Louis Rams football players who threw thier arms in the air upon entering the playing field, in imitation of Michael Brown's surrender position. He demanded an apology from the St. Louis Rams organization and wanted a series of meetings. Although the Rams leadership insisted that they did not apologize, a statement was released that read much like an apology and the Rams leadership indicated a reluctance to vigorously defend the free speech expression rights of their players.
When an obviously deranged man shot to death two New York City police officers sitting in their police vehicle, the police union president blamed those protesting against excessive use of police force for inciting the shooter. He also assailed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for campaigning against stop-and-frisk and counseling his son about how to act in any confrontation with the police. Subsequently, a number of police officers turned their backs on de Blasio when he appeared in their presence.
The Cleveland police president also blasted critics of police excessive use of force when officers in his union exhibited excessive use of force.
II. Sustained Attacks on Planned Parenthood May Have Led to Tragedy
Ever since an organization masquerading as a health research group released videos purportedly showing Planned Parenthood employees jocularly discussing the sale of fetal tissue, anti-abortion zealots have been waging an unrelenting assault on Planned Parenthood. Republican presidential candidates and the Republican lawmakers in Congress have kept up a rhetorical campaign attack.. Now the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has announced a special committee, like the one on Benghazi, to investigate Planned Parenthood.
Within the last couple of days, a man named Robert Louis Dear invaded a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado with a bag full of firearms and ammunition. He began shooting at clinic employees and arriving police, which developed into a standoff, punctured by bursts of gunfire, until Dear was persuaded to surrender. A police officer and two persons in the clinic were killed, while nine others, both police officers and civilians, were injured.
Dear has been reputed to have said that his actions were designed to stop the sale of fetal tissue. This comment and the attack itself has led to some commentators making a direct connection between the effort to defund Planned Parenthood and to totally discredit it with the public. Terri O'Neill, president of the women's organization, NOW, had called the shootings an act of "domestic terrorism" triggered by harsh rhetoric and defunding efforts. Radio talk show host, Bill Press, made a similar link on this morning's show.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has welcomed the endorsement of Troy Newman, head of Operation Rescue, who in a book he authored praised the killer of Dr. George Tiller. In that same book, Newman sanctioned the killing of abortion providers, because they would kill many more unborn fetuses if left to practice their trade. Dr. Tiller was frequently called "Killer Tiller" by his most extreme opponents. Tiller was killed in church on a Sunday morning while serving as an usher.
The mention of the killing of Tiller brings to mind the killing of two other abortion doctors: one shot to death through his residence window and the second shot to death in his arriving vehicle, along with the death of his assistant sitting next to him. -- in Florida, I believe. The larger point to be made here is that unstable minds can be induced to take tragic actions through strong societal influence; also, some may come to believe that killing abortion providers leads to the saving of many more lives and that is an overall societal good.
III.) More Firearms Leads to Fewer Deaths and Injuries
A book published some years ago was premised on a statistical claim that more firearms in a community equate to fewer deaths and injuries. The premise is that a potential shooting will be deterred by the knowledge or fear of the intended shooter that he/she would be the one shot. The premise that more firearms equate to fewer deaths and injuries has been largely debunked by exposure of the statistical shoddiness of the original study.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is one who believed in the proposition that more firearms are associated with fewer deaths and injuries. Recently, however, he said that Syrian refugees should not be allowed to settle in Texas, because it is too easy to obtain firearms in that state. How quickly can base beliefs be abandoned if abandonment better suits a new political reality.
The president of the Chicago police union is trying to raise a defense fund for Officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot to death 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, even though video shows that the teen represented no threat to him. The union president has asked Chicago police to contribute money for Van Dyke. Even though it is a standard prerogative of a union president to defend union members who are in trouble, there are lines that should not be crossed. The fatal shooting by Van Dyke was so over-the-top and an utterly inexcusable use of deadly force that it represents a case in which the president should have taken a pass. The gravity of the offense is indicated by the rarity in which a prosecutor charges a police officer with first degree murder, as in the Van Dyke case.
In recent years, police union presidents have displayed an unusual affinity to say and do the wrong things. The president of the St Louis police union expressed his anger at the five St. Louis Rams football players who threw thier arms in the air upon entering the playing field, in imitation of Michael Brown's surrender position. He demanded an apology from the St. Louis Rams organization and wanted a series of meetings. Although the Rams leadership insisted that they did not apologize, a statement was released that read much like an apology and the Rams leadership indicated a reluctance to vigorously defend the free speech expression rights of their players.
When an obviously deranged man shot to death two New York City police officers sitting in their police vehicle, the police union president blamed those protesting against excessive use of police force for inciting the shooter. He also assailed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for campaigning against stop-and-frisk and counseling his son about how to act in any confrontation with the police. Subsequently, a number of police officers turned their backs on de Blasio when he appeared in their presence.
The Cleveland police president also blasted critics of police excessive use of force when officers in his union exhibited excessive use of force.
II. Sustained Attacks on Planned Parenthood May Have Led to Tragedy
Ever since an organization masquerading as a health research group released videos purportedly showing Planned Parenthood employees jocularly discussing the sale of fetal tissue, anti-abortion zealots have been waging an unrelenting assault on Planned Parenthood. Republican presidential candidates and the Republican lawmakers in Congress have kept up a rhetorical campaign attack.. Now the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has announced a special committee, like the one on Benghazi, to investigate Planned Parenthood.
Within the last couple of days, a man named Robert Louis Dear invaded a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado with a bag full of firearms and ammunition. He began shooting at clinic employees and arriving police, which developed into a standoff, punctured by bursts of gunfire, until Dear was persuaded to surrender. A police officer and two persons in the clinic were killed, while nine others, both police officers and civilians, were injured.
Dear has been reputed to have said that his actions were designed to stop the sale of fetal tissue. This comment and the attack itself has led to some commentators making a direct connection between the effort to defund Planned Parenthood and to totally discredit it with the public. Terri O'Neill, president of the women's organization, NOW, had called the shootings an act of "domestic terrorism" triggered by harsh rhetoric and defunding efforts. Radio talk show host, Bill Press, made a similar link on this morning's show.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has welcomed the endorsement of Troy Newman, head of Operation Rescue, who in a book he authored praised the killer of Dr. George Tiller. In that same book, Newman sanctioned the killing of abortion providers, because they would kill many more unborn fetuses if left to practice their trade. Dr. Tiller was frequently called "Killer Tiller" by his most extreme opponents. Tiller was killed in church on a Sunday morning while serving as an usher.
The mention of the killing of Tiller brings to mind the killing of two other abortion doctors: one shot to death through his residence window and the second shot to death in his arriving vehicle, along with the death of his assistant sitting next to him. -- in Florida, I believe. The larger point to be made here is that unstable minds can be induced to take tragic actions through strong societal influence; also, some may come to believe that killing abortion providers leads to the saving of many more lives and that is an overall societal good.
III.) More Firearms Leads to Fewer Deaths and Injuries
A book published some years ago was premised on a statistical claim that more firearms in a community equate to fewer deaths and injuries. The premise is that a potential shooting will be deterred by the knowledge or fear of the intended shooter that he/she would be the one shot. The premise that more firearms equate to fewer deaths and injuries has been largely debunked by exposure of the statistical shoddiness of the original study.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is one who believed in the proposition that more firearms are associated with fewer deaths and injuries. Recently, however, he said that Syrian refugees should not be allowed to settle in Texas, because it is too easy to obtain firearms in that state. How quickly can base beliefs be abandoned if abandonment better suits a new political reality.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Fund Single Payer Through the Federal Income Tax
One of the major, if not the major cause of a bankruptcy is a major medical happening in a family. Those uninsured or under-insured frequently fail to seek medical advice for a feared medical condition, because they can't pay for it. The fact that there is a big demand for medical care is borne out by the large crowds that turn up whenever medical providers donate their services to whoever shows up.
It would seem that the only viable way to insure everyone in the United States is through single payer. A major selling point that has been heretofore missed is that under a revamped federal income tax rate structure, many of those now insured would get an after-tax financial windfall, because the increase in their taxes would be less than what they currently pay for health insurance coverage.
My proposal is to have a tax rate schedule going from sixteen percent to sixty-four percent. I have tried as much as possible to have the percentage rate hikes to kick in at the same income levels as under the 2014 tax rate schedule; however, because my plan has nine tax rate brackets, versus the current seven, I have had to make adjustments in income levels near the top of the tax rate schedule. Robert Reich, a former labor secretary in the President Clinton's administration, is advocating a top marginal tax rate of seventy percent. Reich may have been influenced by the fact that from World War II to the Reagan presidency, the top marginal tax rate was never under seventy percent. That period was a time of great economic prosperity in the United States. I would prefer a seventy percent top rate but it would be harder to sell politically.
The examples below compare the taxes owed based on the 2014 tax rate schedule with the taxes owed under my 16-64 percent schedule. I subtract the standard deductions and exemptions from the Adjusted Gross Income to arrive at taxable income. Itemization is not considered but would likely have a neutral effect. For ease of reference, I use lines 43 and 44 on the standard 1040 form.
2014 Tax Rate Schedule
Taxpayer, Filing as Single Married, Filing Jointly
Line 43 - $25,000 Line 43 - $25,000
Line 44 - $3,300 Line 44 - $2,848
Line 43 - $50,000 Line 43 - $50,000
Line 44 - $8,363 Line 44 - $6,596
Line 43 - $75,000 Line 43 - $75,000
Line 44 - $14,613 Line 44 - $10,481
Line 43 - $99,000 Line 43 - $99,000
Line 44 - $20,903 Line 44 - $16,469
16-64% Tax Rate Schedule
Taxpayer, Filing as Single Married, Filing Jointly
Line 43 - $25,000 Line 43 - $25,000
Line 44 - $3,504 Line 43 - $4,411
Line 43 - $50,000 Line 43 - $50,000
Line 44 - $11,694 Line 44 - $9,911
Line 43 - $75,000 Line 43 - $75,000
Line 44 - $19,494 theLine 44 - $15,483
Line 43 - $99,000 Line 43 - $99,000
Line 44 - $27,029 Line 44 - $22,203
Tax Increases Under 16-64% Schedule
Single - $25,000 - +$204 --- $50,000 - +$3331 --- $75,000 - +$4881 --- $99,000 - +$6,126
Married, Filing Jointly - $25,000 - +$1563 --- $50,000 - +$3315 --- $75,000 - +$5002 --- $99,000 - +$5734.
Looking at the above, in every case in which a taxpayer's tax increase is less than his/her current health insurance premium/deductible liability, there will be higher after-tax income. To use one example from Public Citizen,which posits a family of four paying a $8,000 premium and having a $4,000 deductible, the financial windfall would range from $10,437 to $6,266, depending on taxable income.
Employer-sponsored family coverage reached $16,351 in 2013, with workers, on average, paying $4,565. This average would now be somewhat higher. Note that single taxpayers with taxable incomes of $50,000 or less would have higher after-tax incomes and at $75,000 the outcome would be about the same. The following are the most recent average U.S. monthly premium costs for the various plans under the Affordable Care Act: Bronze - $256; Silver - $324; Gold - $369; and Platinum - $441. These costs are for single coverage. Even at the Bronze plan level, most low-income taxpayers would have a higher after-tax income under my proposed tax plan.
A single taxpayer with a taxable income of $1,000,000 would pay a tax of $353,045 under the 2014 rate schedule and $514,200 under my 16-64% tax rate plan, or $161,155 more. A married couple, filing jointly, would pay a tax of $342,751 under the 2014 rate schedule and $523,522 under my 16-64% tax rate plan, or $180,771 more. These differences could be released by $20,000 or more of the taxpayers had "Cadillac" private insurance plans.
The uninsured who didn't pay taxes, or paid a relatively low level of taxes would be disadvantaged by my plan; however, they would be helping to finance the new single payer system, whereas presently they are "free-riders." Also, the reason I eliminated the current 10 and 15% rates was to reduce the percentage of those who did not pay any federal income tax for the last year that the IRS had full data -- 47%. Rather than trying to excuse the 47% by arguing that they pay other taxes, it would be better to foster a notion of "We're all in this together," to take some of the sting out of the wealthy having to pay significantly higher taxes.
My proposed tax plan would insure everyone; reduce the income and wealth inequality in the nation; increase the percentage of those who will pay some federal income tax; and significantly increase governmental revenue to reduce future budgetary deficits and fund critically neglected domestic infrastructure needs.
I realize that my plan would lead to the loss of many jobs due to eliminating the private health insurance industry; however, many more jobs for medical professionals and administrative staff would be opened up. There would also be a need for a corps of people to check the doctor and hospital bills being filed to insure they aren't being inflated. The single payer bill that languished in the U.S. House of Representatives for so long, made provision to fund more workers in the health care field.
It would seem that the only viable way to insure everyone in the United States is through single payer. A major selling point that has been heretofore missed is that under a revamped federal income tax rate structure, many of those now insured would get an after-tax financial windfall, because the increase in their taxes would be less than what they currently pay for health insurance coverage.
My proposal is to have a tax rate schedule going from sixteen percent to sixty-four percent. I have tried as much as possible to have the percentage rate hikes to kick in at the same income levels as under the 2014 tax rate schedule; however, because my plan has nine tax rate brackets, versus the current seven, I have had to make adjustments in income levels near the top of the tax rate schedule. Robert Reich, a former labor secretary in the President Clinton's administration, is advocating a top marginal tax rate of seventy percent. Reich may have been influenced by the fact that from World War II to the Reagan presidency, the top marginal tax rate was never under seventy percent. That period was a time of great economic prosperity in the United States. I would prefer a seventy percent top rate but it would be harder to sell politically.
The examples below compare the taxes owed based on the 2014 tax rate schedule with the taxes owed under my 16-64 percent schedule. I subtract the standard deductions and exemptions from the Adjusted Gross Income to arrive at taxable income. Itemization is not considered but would likely have a neutral effect. For ease of reference, I use lines 43 and 44 on the standard 1040 form.
2014 Tax Rate Schedule
Taxpayer, Filing as Single Married, Filing Jointly
Line 43 - $25,000 Line 43 - $25,000
Line 44 - $3,300 Line 44 - $2,848
Line 43 - $50,000 Line 43 - $50,000
Line 44 - $8,363 Line 44 - $6,596
Line 43 - $75,000 Line 43 - $75,000
Line 44 - $14,613 Line 44 - $10,481
Line 43 - $99,000 Line 43 - $99,000
Line 44 - $20,903 Line 44 - $16,469
16-64% Tax Rate Schedule
Taxpayer, Filing as Single Married, Filing Jointly
Line 43 - $25,000 Line 43 - $25,000
Line 44 - $3,504 Line 43 - $4,411
Line 43 - $50,000 Line 43 - $50,000
Line 44 - $11,694 Line 44 - $9,911
Line 43 - $75,000 Line 43 - $75,000
Line 44 - $19,494 theLine 44 - $15,483
Line 43 - $99,000 Line 43 - $99,000
Line 44 - $27,029 Line 44 - $22,203
Tax Increases Under 16-64% Schedule
Single - $25,000 - +$204 --- $50,000 - +$3331 --- $75,000 - +$4881 --- $99,000 - +$6,126
Married, Filing Jointly - $25,000 - +$1563 --- $50,000 - +$3315 --- $75,000 - +$5002 --- $99,000 - +$5734.
Looking at the above, in every case in which a taxpayer's tax increase is less than his/her current health insurance premium/deductible liability, there will be higher after-tax income. To use one example from Public Citizen,which posits a family of four paying a $8,000 premium and having a $4,000 deductible, the financial windfall would range from $10,437 to $6,266, depending on taxable income.
Employer-sponsored family coverage reached $16,351 in 2013, with workers, on average, paying $4,565. This average would now be somewhat higher. Note that single taxpayers with taxable incomes of $50,000 or less would have higher after-tax incomes and at $75,000 the outcome would be about the same. The following are the most recent average U.S. monthly premium costs for the various plans under the Affordable Care Act: Bronze - $256; Silver - $324; Gold - $369; and Platinum - $441. These costs are for single coverage. Even at the Bronze plan level, most low-income taxpayers would have a higher after-tax income under my proposed tax plan.
A single taxpayer with a taxable income of $1,000,000 would pay a tax of $353,045 under the 2014 rate schedule and $514,200 under my 16-64% tax rate plan, or $161,155 more. A married couple, filing jointly, would pay a tax of $342,751 under the 2014 rate schedule and $523,522 under my 16-64% tax rate plan, or $180,771 more. These differences could be released by $20,000 or more of the taxpayers had "Cadillac" private insurance plans.
The uninsured who didn't pay taxes, or paid a relatively low level of taxes would be disadvantaged by my plan; however, they would be helping to finance the new single payer system, whereas presently they are "free-riders." Also, the reason I eliminated the current 10 and 15% rates was to reduce the percentage of those who did not pay any federal income tax for the last year that the IRS had full data -- 47%. Rather than trying to excuse the 47% by arguing that they pay other taxes, it would be better to foster a notion of "We're all in this together," to take some of the sting out of the wealthy having to pay significantly higher taxes.
My proposed tax plan would insure everyone; reduce the income and wealth inequality in the nation; increase the percentage of those who will pay some federal income tax; and significantly increase governmental revenue to reduce future budgetary deficits and fund critically neglected domestic infrastructure needs.
I realize that my plan would lead to the loss of many jobs due to eliminating the private health insurance industry; however, many more jobs for medical professionals and administrative staff would be opened up. There would also be a need for a corps of people to check the doctor and hospital bills being filed to insure they aren't being inflated. The single payer bill that languished in the U.S. House of Representatives for so long, made provision to fund more workers in the health care field.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Myths and Lies About Single Payer
I. Single Payer Is Socialized Medicine
* The Veterans Administration and the British health care system are examples of socialized medicine, where the government pays for the doctors and hospitals.
* Under single payer, you get a health care card and you can go to any doctor or hospital in the United States.
* Doctors are not employees of the government.
* Hospitals remain in private hands.
II. Single Payer Will Lead to Rationing, Like in Canada
* The present private insurance companies ration care.
* If you don't have health insurance, you don't get health care, except as a matter of charity.
* Public Citizen says that 120 Americans die every day from lack of health care, while no Canadians die due to lack of health insurance.
III. Costs Will Skyrocket Under Single Payer
* Single payer is the only health care reform that will save enough money to insure everyone.
* Public Citizen says that by eliminating the health insurance industry, $350 billion will be saved in administrative costs and profits.
* The savings an be used to insure those who lack health insurance and fully cover those who are under-insured.
* More people will be seeking health care because they will now have insurance; also, medical problems will be discovered earlier, thus preventing more costly treatment later.
IV. Drugs Will Be More Difficult to Get Under Single Payer
* The drug industry claims there will be less research and development under a single payer system; however, much medical research is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health.
* Under single payer, research and development will grow.
* Drugs will be cheaper under single payer, because when all patients are under one system, the payer wields a lot of clout.
* The single payer system is the main reason why other countries' drug prices are lower than ours.
V. Single Payer Will Cover Less Than Current Insurance
* For most Americans, single payer will be a vast improvement.
* All medically necessary care would be funded through the single payer, including doctor visits, hospital care, prescriptions, mental health services, nursing home care, and rehabilitation care.
* Under single payer there will be no deductions, no bills and no co-pays.
VI. Single Payer Will Cost More Than Private Health Insurance
* The vast majority of Americans will pay about the same or less than they are paying now.
* If funded through the federal income tax, many taxpayers will receive a financial windfall, because their increase in taxes will be less than the cost of their current health insurance. I will show in a future blog how this would be the case.
NOTE: Most of the information presented was taken from a Public Citizen fact sheet but I have made some modifications in it.
* The Veterans Administration and the British health care system are examples of socialized medicine, where the government pays for the doctors and hospitals.
* Under single payer, you get a health care card and you can go to any doctor or hospital in the United States.
* Doctors are not employees of the government.
* Hospitals remain in private hands.
II. Single Payer Will Lead to Rationing, Like in Canada
* The present private insurance companies ration care.
* If you don't have health insurance, you don't get health care, except as a matter of charity.
* Public Citizen says that 120 Americans die every day from lack of health care, while no Canadians die due to lack of health insurance.
III. Costs Will Skyrocket Under Single Payer
* Single payer is the only health care reform that will save enough money to insure everyone.
* Public Citizen says that by eliminating the health insurance industry, $350 billion will be saved in administrative costs and profits.
* The savings an be used to insure those who lack health insurance and fully cover those who are under-insured.
* More people will be seeking health care because they will now have insurance; also, medical problems will be discovered earlier, thus preventing more costly treatment later.
IV. Drugs Will Be More Difficult to Get Under Single Payer
* The drug industry claims there will be less research and development under a single payer system; however, much medical research is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health.
* Under single payer, research and development will grow.
* Drugs will be cheaper under single payer, because when all patients are under one system, the payer wields a lot of clout.
* The single payer system is the main reason why other countries' drug prices are lower than ours.
V. Single Payer Will Cover Less Than Current Insurance
* For most Americans, single payer will be a vast improvement.
* All medically necessary care would be funded through the single payer, including doctor visits, hospital care, prescriptions, mental health services, nursing home care, and rehabilitation care.
* Under single payer there will be no deductions, no bills and no co-pays.
VI. Single Payer Will Cost More Than Private Health Insurance
* The vast majority of Americans will pay about the same or less than they are paying now.
* If funded through the federal income tax, many taxpayers will receive a financial windfall, because their increase in taxes will be less than the cost of their current health insurance. I will show in a future blog how this would be the case.
NOTE: Most of the information presented was taken from a Public Citizen fact sheet but I have made some modifications in it.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
The Refugee Scare and Trump's Latino Problem
I. The Syrian Refugee Scare
The recent massacres in Paris, bringing death or injury to between 400 and 500 people, and the early reports that one of the attackers had a Syrian passport, which he used to "hide " among the refugees streaming into European countries, have brought on a hysteria about the admittance of Syrian refugees.
Both former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) are supporting the admittance of only those Syrians who are Christian. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has called for the admittance of only "certified" Christians but has not given a description of the certification process. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson has told a story about parents bringing their children into the house if the word is that there are "rabid dogs" in the neighborhood -- some have heard him as saying "rabbit dogs." Carson has not explicitly linked Syrian refugees to the description, nor is it clear if he is talking about refugees in general. Donald Trump was asked by a NBC News reporter about the prospect of a database and whether Muslims would be required to be registered; and Trump answered, "They have to be." Trump later Twittered that he didn't suggest creating a database but was only answering a reporter's question; however, he did not disavow creation of a registry.
Jeb Bush called the prospect of a registry "abhorrent." Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the idea was "unnecessary" and it was not something Americans would support. Senator Cruz said: "I am not a fan of government registries on American citizens." Cruz also said that the First Amendment protects religious liberties.
With the overwhelming support of Republican lawmakers and 47 Democratic lawmakers joining in, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill tightening restrictions on admittance of Syrian refugees by requiring major agency heads to sign off on every refugee admitted; also, the bill requires the briefing of Congress on how the vetting process in going.
The governors of 31 states have declared that they are opposed to the admission of any Syrian refugees; however, immigration and refugee policy is the prerogative of the national government. It is also the case that a 1980 law allows the president to admit up to 50,000 refugees and more if certain provisions are met.
The current vetting process for refugees appears to be quite robust. The head of World Relief says it consists of 13 steps and consumes about 18 months. President Obama says the vetting process takes about 18 months to two years. A career official in vetting of refugees told MSNBC that it was about an 18-month process and required the involvement of the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA. I have heard numbers of 1,400, 1,900 and 2,000 in reference to Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S. in the past four years and there is no documented record of any Syrian thus admitted as being involved in terrorist-related activity.
II. Donald Trump's Latino Problem
In the November 14, 2015 issue of the Albuquerque Journal, a republished article of the syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette takes Donald Trump to task for resurrecting the "historical black eye known as 'Operation Wetback.'" In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower removed more than one million Mexicans from the U.S. Some of the deported died while being transported and many were dumped in a desert well into the Mexican interior. Navarrette writes: "Relaunch Operation Wetback? You might as well suggest bringing back Jim Crow and interning Japanese-Americans."
Ruben Navarette cites polls to show how how strong is the Latino disapproval of Trump. "In mid-July, a Wall Street/NBC News/Telemundo poll found that 75 percent of Latinos disapproved of Trump. In a Univision poll taken at the same time, 79 percent of Latino voters said that they considered Trump's comments offensive, and 71 percent had an unfavorable view of him."
Navarrette concludes that Donald Trump sealed his fate with Latinos when he trashed the 14th Amendment by proposing the elimination of birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of the undocumented.
The recent massacres in Paris, bringing death or injury to between 400 and 500 people, and the early reports that one of the attackers had a Syrian passport, which he used to "hide " among the refugees streaming into European countries, have brought on a hysteria about the admittance of Syrian refugees.
Both former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) are supporting the admittance of only those Syrians who are Christian. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has called for the admittance of only "certified" Christians but has not given a description of the certification process. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson has told a story about parents bringing their children into the house if the word is that there are "rabid dogs" in the neighborhood -- some have heard him as saying "rabbit dogs." Carson has not explicitly linked Syrian refugees to the description, nor is it clear if he is talking about refugees in general. Donald Trump was asked by a NBC News reporter about the prospect of a database and whether Muslims would be required to be registered; and Trump answered, "They have to be." Trump later Twittered that he didn't suggest creating a database but was only answering a reporter's question; however, he did not disavow creation of a registry.
Jeb Bush called the prospect of a registry "abhorrent." Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the idea was "unnecessary" and it was not something Americans would support. Senator Cruz said: "I am not a fan of government registries on American citizens." Cruz also said that the First Amendment protects religious liberties.
With the overwhelming support of Republican lawmakers and 47 Democratic lawmakers joining in, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill tightening restrictions on admittance of Syrian refugees by requiring major agency heads to sign off on every refugee admitted; also, the bill requires the briefing of Congress on how the vetting process in going.
The governors of 31 states have declared that they are opposed to the admission of any Syrian refugees; however, immigration and refugee policy is the prerogative of the national government. It is also the case that a 1980 law allows the president to admit up to 50,000 refugees and more if certain provisions are met.
The current vetting process for refugees appears to be quite robust. The head of World Relief says it consists of 13 steps and consumes about 18 months. President Obama says the vetting process takes about 18 months to two years. A career official in vetting of refugees told MSNBC that it was about an 18-month process and required the involvement of the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA. I have heard numbers of 1,400, 1,900 and 2,000 in reference to Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S. in the past four years and there is no documented record of any Syrian thus admitted as being involved in terrorist-related activity.
II. Donald Trump's Latino Problem
In the November 14, 2015 issue of the Albuquerque Journal, a republished article of the syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette takes Donald Trump to task for resurrecting the "historical black eye known as 'Operation Wetback.'" In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower removed more than one million Mexicans from the U.S. Some of the deported died while being transported and many were dumped in a desert well into the Mexican interior. Navarrette writes: "Relaunch Operation Wetback? You might as well suggest bringing back Jim Crow and interning Japanese-Americans."
Ruben Navarette cites polls to show how how strong is the Latino disapproval of Trump. "In mid-July, a Wall Street/NBC News/Telemundo poll found that 75 percent of Latinos disapproved of Trump. In a Univision poll taken at the same time, 79 percent of Latino voters said that they considered Trump's comments offensive, and 71 percent had an unfavorable view of him."
Navarrette concludes that Donald Trump sealed his fate with Latinos when he trashed the 14th Amendment by proposing the elimination of birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of the undocumented.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Misunderstanding Regulations and Looking at the Numbers
I. Regulations No Major Cause of Layoffs
The Washington Post reports that while government regulations do lead to job losses, the overall effect is minimal. Analyses by economists and government statistics show that few job losses are a result of tougher regulations. The Post noted that while utility provider AEP will cut 159 jobs when it closes a decades-old coal-fired power plant in Ohio due to new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency, the company is building a new natural-gas-fired plant an hour away from the old plant. Hundreds have been hired to build it and when completed it will employ 25 people, with a significant decrease in pollution, meaning an improvement in the quality of life for area residents.
A study led by Richard Morgenstern, who worked in the EPA during the Reagan administration, looked at the effect of regulations on pulp and paper mills, plastic manufacturers, petroleum refiners, and iron and steel mills between 1979 and 1991. The study concluded that higher spending to comply with environmental rules did not cause "a significant change" in industry employment and when jobs were lost they were often made up in the same industry. (Source: "Studies: Regulations Not Major Cause of Layoffs," Newsmax.com, November 14, 2011.)
II. DC By the Numbers
* $278M- Amount raised by by super-PACs during the current presidential cycle.
* $15.4M - Amount raised by super-PACs at the same point in the 2012 presidential campaign.
* 88% - Donations to Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign from donors giving less than $200.
* 20% - Donations to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign from donors giving less than $200. (Source: The Nation, November 9, 2015.)
American Socialism?
* 47% - Americans who are willing to vote for a socialist, according to a new Gallup poll.
* 59% - Democrats who are willing to vote for a socialist for president.
* 52% - Americans who support heavily taxing the rich to support a more equitable distribution of wealth.
* 63% - Americans who believe that wealth should be distributed more equitably. (Source: The Nation, November 16, 2015.)
III. It's Tradition - The Long Dog Whistle
Does the GOP have a tradition of racism disguised in the mantle of "states' rights"? Following are some relevant statements:
* " Republicans have rejected the old concept of states rights as instruments of reaction and accepted a new concept: states rights as instruments of progress." (Richard Nixon, Arkansas, 1968)
* "You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to." (Richard Nixon, private tapes, 1969)
* "By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' -- that hurts you. Backfires, So you say stuff like 'forced busing,' 'states rights,' and all that stuff." (Lee Atwater, Reagan campaign adviser, later campaign manager for George H.W. Bush)
* "I believe in states rights." (Ronald Reagan, 1980, speaking in the Mississippi town where three Freedom Riders were murdered in 1964.)
* "States should be allowed to protect the integrity of the franchise with voter-identification laws." (Jeb Bush, 2013.)
* "The placement of a Confederate flag on the Capitol grounds is a state issue." (Scott Walker, 2015.) (Overall Source: The Nation, November 9, 2015.)
IV. Punish the Child - Palestinian Kids Under Occupation
In a July report, Human Rights Watch described the treatment of Palestinian children by the Israeli Defense Forces.
* 11 - Age of the youngest Palestinian child interviewed for the report who was arrested or detained by Israeli security forces using unnecessary force. Treatment of children included choking and beating them while they were in custody, throwing stun grenades at them, and threatening and interrogating them without disclosing their whereabouts to parents.
* 163 - Palestinian children classified by the Israeli military as 'security detainees' in detention at the end of January 2015, including children convicted for offenses like throwing stones ( but not including children convicted as 'criminal detainees'.)
* 128 - Cases in which the Israeli military failed to record its interrogation of a child, out of a total of 440 cases in 2014, according to the Israeli military.
* 138 - Interrogations of Palestinian children in 2014 that were recorded as well as conducted in Arabic, out of 440 cases total.
* 162 - Palestinian children arrested during nighttime raids on their families' homes in 2013, according to the Israeli military. (Source: The Nation, November 9, 2015.)
The Washington Post reports that while government regulations do lead to job losses, the overall effect is minimal. Analyses by economists and government statistics show that few job losses are a result of tougher regulations. The Post noted that while utility provider AEP will cut 159 jobs when it closes a decades-old coal-fired power plant in Ohio due to new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency, the company is building a new natural-gas-fired plant an hour away from the old plant. Hundreds have been hired to build it and when completed it will employ 25 people, with a significant decrease in pollution, meaning an improvement in the quality of life for area residents.
A study led by Richard Morgenstern, who worked in the EPA during the Reagan administration, looked at the effect of regulations on pulp and paper mills, plastic manufacturers, petroleum refiners, and iron and steel mills between 1979 and 1991. The study concluded that higher spending to comply with environmental rules did not cause "a significant change" in industry employment and when jobs were lost they were often made up in the same industry. (Source: "Studies: Regulations Not Major Cause of Layoffs," Newsmax.com, November 14, 2011.)
II. DC By the Numbers
* $278M- Amount raised by by super-PACs during the current presidential cycle.
* $15.4M - Amount raised by super-PACs at the same point in the 2012 presidential campaign.
* 88% - Donations to Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign from donors giving less than $200.
* 20% - Donations to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign from donors giving less than $200. (Source: The Nation, November 9, 2015.)
American Socialism?
* 47% - Americans who are willing to vote for a socialist, according to a new Gallup poll.
* 59% - Democrats who are willing to vote for a socialist for president.
* 52% - Americans who support heavily taxing the rich to support a more equitable distribution of wealth.
* 63% - Americans who believe that wealth should be distributed more equitably. (Source: The Nation, November 16, 2015.)
III. It's Tradition - The Long Dog Whistle
Does the GOP have a tradition of racism disguised in the mantle of "states' rights"? Following are some relevant statements:
* " Republicans have rejected the old concept of states rights as instruments of reaction and accepted a new concept: states rights as instruments of progress." (Richard Nixon, Arkansas, 1968)
* "You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to." (Richard Nixon, private tapes, 1969)
* "By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' -- that hurts you. Backfires, So you say stuff like 'forced busing,' 'states rights,' and all that stuff." (Lee Atwater, Reagan campaign adviser, later campaign manager for George H.W. Bush)
* "I believe in states rights." (Ronald Reagan, 1980, speaking in the Mississippi town where three Freedom Riders were murdered in 1964.)
* "States should be allowed to protect the integrity of the franchise with voter-identification laws." (Jeb Bush, 2013.)
* "The placement of a Confederate flag on the Capitol grounds is a state issue." (Scott Walker, 2015.) (Overall Source: The Nation, November 9, 2015.)
IV. Punish the Child - Palestinian Kids Under Occupation
In a July report, Human Rights Watch described the treatment of Palestinian children by the Israeli Defense Forces.
* 11 - Age of the youngest Palestinian child interviewed for the report who was arrested or detained by Israeli security forces using unnecessary force. Treatment of children included choking and beating them while they were in custody, throwing stun grenades at them, and threatening and interrogating them without disclosing their whereabouts to parents.
* 163 - Palestinian children classified by the Israeli military as 'security detainees' in detention at the end of January 2015, including children convicted for offenses like throwing stones ( but not including children convicted as 'criminal detainees'.)
* 128 - Cases in which the Israeli military failed to record its interrogation of a child, out of a total of 440 cases in 2014, according to the Israeli military.
* 138 - Interrogations of Palestinian children in 2014 that were recorded as well as conducted in Arabic, out of 440 cases total.
* 162 - Palestinian children arrested during nighttime raids on their families' homes in 2013, according to the Israeli military. (Source: The Nation, November 9, 2015.)
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Columbine Copycat: The Only Pattern in Mass Shootings
When Malcolm Gladwell, writing for the New Yorker magazine, tried to find a pattern in mass shootings -- defined as a shooting in which at least four people are killed -- he did not find the problem to be an endless supply of deeply disturbed young men who are willing to contemplate horrific acts. The situation is worse. It's that young men need not be deeply disturbed to contemplate horrific acts. [1]
Sociologist Mark Granovetter studied riots to try to find a pattern on how riots start and then grow. He saw a riot as a case of destructive violence that involves a number of people who would not usually be disposed to violence. He concluded that our social patterns are driven by our thresholds, which he defined as the number of people who would need to see other people doing some activity before they would join them. Thus some people would not join in a destructive activity if they saw only one person throwing a brick, some people might join in if two people throw bricks, and others might join in brick-throwing if three people threw bricks. Others might have a higher threshold.
Although Malcolm Gladwell found little pattern in mass shootings and sociologist Granovetter's threshold theory may help explain how riots start and grow, there is evidence of "a copycat effect rippling through many cases, both among mass shooters and those aspiring to kill." This assessment comes from a FBI report on a study of 160 active-shooter cases. "Perpetrators and plotters look to past attacks for not only inspiration but operational details, in hopes of causing even greater carnage." [2]
On April 20, 1999, two teenage boys, named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, fatally shot thirteen people and injured twenty-four others at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. A Mother Jones investigation shows that the nation's worst high school shooting has inspired at least seventy-two plots or attacks in thirty states. The breakdown of the 72 cases follows:
* 72 Known Copycat Cases --- 51 Plots or Threats Thwarted by Law enforcement --- 21 Attacks.
* 12 Cases Involved Plotters Who Hoped to Surpass the Carnage of the Columbine Shooting. --- Plotters in at Least 9 Cases Cited the Columbine Shooters as Heroes, Idols, Martyrs, or God --- 3 Plotters Made Pilgrimages to Columbine While Planning Attacks. 2 of Them Later Launched Attacks. The Third Plot Was Thwarted.
* 53% of the Cases Involved Guns --- 18% Involved Bombs or Explosives --- 14% Involved Knives.
* The Overall Toll - 89 Killed --- 126 Wounded --- 9 Shooter Suicides
* 94% of the Plotters Were Male. --- Only 4 Cases Involved Women Acting Alone --- None Resulted in Attacks.
* 17 - Average Age.
* 4 Out of 5 Were White (in Cases in Which Race or Ethnicity Was Known)
* 14 Attacks Were Planned for an Anniversary of the Columbine Attack. --- 12 of These Plots Were Thwarted. --- 2 Were Ultimately Carried Out on Different Dates. [3]
A History of Violence - Mass Shootings Are Becoming More Common -- and Deadlier.
* The Frequency of Mass Shootings Has Tripled Since 2011.
* Between 1982 and 2011, a Mass Shooting Occurred in the United States Every 200 Days.
* Between 2011 and 2014, a Mass Shooting Occurred Every 64 Days.
* Of the 13 Mass Shootings With Double-Digit Death Tolls Over the Past 50 Years, 7 Took Place in the Last 9 Years. (Source: Harvard School of Public Health, Congressional Research Service).
Footnotes
[1] Malcolm Gladwell, "The Thresholds of Violence," The New Yorker, October 19, 2015.
[2] Mark Follman, "Trigger Warnings," Mother Jones, November/December 2015.
[3] Ibid.
Sociologist Mark Granovetter studied riots to try to find a pattern on how riots start and then grow. He saw a riot as a case of destructive violence that involves a number of people who would not usually be disposed to violence. He concluded that our social patterns are driven by our thresholds, which he defined as the number of people who would need to see other people doing some activity before they would join them. Thus some people would not join in a destructive activity if they saw only one person throwing a brick, some people might join in if two people throw bricks, and others might join in brick-throwing if three people threw bricks. Others might have a higher threshold.
Although Malcolm Gladwell found little pattern in mass shootings and sociologist Granovetter's threshold theory may help explain how riots start and grow, there is evidence of "a copycat effect rippling through many cases, both among mass shooters and those aspiring to kill." This assessment comes from a FBI report on a study of 160 active-shooter cases. "Perpetrators and plotters look to past attacks for not only inspiration but operational details, in hopes of causing even greater carnage." [2]
On April 20, 1999, two teenage boys, named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, fatally shot thirteen people and injured twenty-four others at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. A Mother Jones investigation shows that the nation's worst high school shooting has inspired at least seventy-two plots or attacks in thirty states. The breakdown of the 72 cases follows:
* 72 Known Copycat Cases --- 51 Plots or Threats Thwarted by Law enforcement --- 21 Attacks.
* 12 Cases Involved Plotters Who Hoped to Surpass the Carnage of the Columbine Shooting. --- Plotters in at Least 9 Cases Cited the Columbine Shooters as Heroes, Idols, Martyrs, or God --- 3 Plotters Made Pilgrimages to Columbine While Planning Attacks. 2 of Them Later Launched Attacks. The Third Plot Was Thwarted.
* 53% of the Cases Involved Guns --- 18% Involved Bombs or Explosives --- 14% Involved Knives.
* The Overall Toll - 89 Killed --- 126 Wounded --- 9 Shooter Suicides
* 94% of the Plotters Were Male. --- Only 4 Cases Involved Women Acting Alone --- None Resulted in Attacks.
* 17 - Average Age.
* 4 Out of 5 Were White (in Cases in Which Race or Ethnicity Was Known)
* 14 Attacks Were Planned for an Anniversary of the Columbine Attack. --- 12 of These Plots Were Thwarted. --- 2 Were Ultimately Carried Out on Different Dates. [3]
A History of Violence - Mass Shootings Are Becoming More Common -- and Deadlier.
* The Frequency of Mass Shootings Has Tripled Since 2011.
* Between 1982 and 2011, a Mass Shooting Occurred in the United States Every 200 Days.
* Between 2011 and 2014, a Mass Shooting Occurred Every 64 Days.
* Of the 13 Mass Shootings With Double-Digit Death Tolls Over the Past 50 Years, 7 Took Place in the Last 9 Years. (Source: Harvard School of Public Health, Congressional Research Service).
Footnotes
[1] Malcolm Gladwell, "The Thresholds of Violence," The New Yorker, October 19, 2015.
[2] Mark Follman, "Trigger Warnings," Mother Jones, November/December 2015.
[3] Ibid.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Getting Cops Out of U.S. Schools
School resource officer Ben Fields put a recalcitrant student in a choke-hold and flipped her upside down at her desk; and then, for good measure, he flipped the desk of a student who verbally protested the treatment of the student who refused to give up her cellphone. CNN analyst and former police detective Harry Houck said she may have had it coming for disrupting the class and for disrespecting the officer's authority. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who initially called out the student for her disruptive and disrespectful behavior, also claimed that the student punched the officer in the chest. Lott later fired the officer for using what is "not a proper technique."
The media has not critically examined the question of whether police officers should be in schools. The Justice Policy Institute recommended in a 2011 study that it is time to "remove all law enforcement offices from schools"; also, there are no research findings that having cops in school reducers crime. Having cops in school helps contribute to an atmosphere of fear and intimidation and results in the criminalization of young people, especially those of color. Ben Fields, for example, was called "Officer Slam" by students at the South Carolina high school where they saw Fields slamming people around.
Beginning in the 1990s, the number of police officers in U.S. public schools has literally exploded. In 2009, The New York Times estimated that that there were more than 17,000 police officers based in schools. According to figures from the Department of Education ad the Department of Justice, 28 percent of all schools now have armed security officers assigned to them. [1]
Antecedents to the presence of so many police officers in public schools go back to 1994, when then-President Bill Clinton introduced the Gun-Free Schools Act, which led to the enactment of "zero tolerance" school policies. Shortly thereafter, political scientist John DiLulio introduced the idea of the "juvenile superpredator," heralding the arrival of a youth crime wave. On a broader societal basis there was the emergence of the belief that a rising tide of crime could not be handled by reform measures and more punishment and control was needed, as exemplified by "three strikes" laws and mandatory-minimum sentencing laws.
Turning now to the issues of punishment in schools and the disparities in how that punishment is administered, there are a number of sources that help paint that picture. PBS News-Hour found New York City charter schools were suspending kids a young as kindergarten age for behavioral infractions. One study shows that schools with school resource officers SROs) had nearly five times the arrest rate of.non-SRO schools, even after controlling for student demographics like income and race. A 2011 study by the New York Civil Liberties Union found that students with disabilities are four times more likely to be suspended than their peers. In 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a class-action lawsuit against the schools of Birmingham, Alabama, claiming that they were systematically using excessive force. The SPLC alleged that since 2006, more than 300 students had been assailed by SROs with a combination of pepper spray and a tear-gas agent called Freeze +P that causes extreme pain and skin irritation, and can impede breathing and vision. According to a report by Mother Jones, from 2010 to 2015, at least 28 students were severely injured by SROs. [3]
Finally, attesting to the prevalence of "use of force" incidents, in the absence of national data, The Houston Chronicle found that in the last four years, police in eight Houston-area school districts reported 1,300 "use of force" incidents.
ADDENDUM: DC By the Numbers - "Kindergarten Cop"
* 92 K - Students subjected to school-related arrests during the 2011-12 academic year.
* 16% - Portion of the student population that is black.
* 31% - Students arrested n school who are black.
* 24.3% - Suspension rate for black students in 2010.
* 7.1% - Suspension rate for white students the same year.
Footnotes
[1] "Policing Education," The Nation, November 23/30, 2015.
[2] Ibid.; [3] Ibid..
The media has not critically examined the question of whether police officers should be in schools. The Justice Policy Institute recommended in a 2011 study that it is time to "remove all law enforcement offices from schools"; also, there are no research findings that having cops in school reducers crime. Having cops in school helps contribute to an atmosphere of fear and intimidation and results in the criminalization of young people, especially those of color. Ben Fields, for example, was called "Officer Slam" by students at the South Carolina high school where they saw Fields slamming people around.
Beginning in the 1990s, the number of police officers in U.S. public schools has literally exploded. In 2009, The New York Times estimated that that there were more than 17,000 police officers based in schools. According to figures from the Department of Education ad the Department of Justice, 28 percent of all schools now have armed security officers assigned to them. [1]
Antecedents to the presence of so many police officers in public schools go back to 1994, when then-President Bill Clinton introduced the Gun-Free Schools Act, which led to the enactment of "zero tolerance" school policies. Shortly thereafter, political scientist John DiLulio introduced the idea of the "juvenile superpredator," heralding the arrival of a youth crime wave. On a broader societal basis there was the emergence of the belief that a rising tide of crime could not be handled by reform measures and more punishment and control was needed, as exemplified by "three strikes" laws and mandatory-minimum sentencing laws.
Turning now to the issues of punishment in schools and the disparities in how that punishment is administered, there are a number of sources that help paint that picture. PBS News-Hour found New York City charter schools were suspending kids a young as kindergarten age for behavioral infractions. One study shows that schools with school resource officers SROs) had nearly five times the arrest rate of.non-SRO schools, even after controlling for student demographics like income and race. A 2011 study by the New York Civil Liberties Union found that students with disabilities are four times more likely to be suspended than their peers. In 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a class-action lawsuit against the schools of Birmingham, Alabama, claiming that they were systematically using excessive force. The SPLC alleged that since 2006, more than 300 students had been assailed by SROs with a combination of pepper spray and a tear-gas agent called Freeze +P that causes extreme pain and skin irritation, and can impede breathing and vision. According to a report by Mother Jones, from 2010 to 2015, at least 28 students were severely injured by SROs. [3]
Finally, attesting to the prevalence of "use of force" incidents, in the absence of national data, The Houston Chronicle found that in the last four years, police in eight Houston-area school districts reported 1,300 "use of force" incidents.
ADDENDUM: DC By the Numbers - "Kindergarten Cop"
* 92 K - Students subjected to school-related arrests during the 2011-12 academic year.
* 16% - Portion of the student population that is black.
* 31% - Students arrested n school who are black.
* 24.3% - Suspension rate for black students in 2010.
* 7.1% - Suspension rate for white students the same year.
Footnotes
[1] "Policing Education," The Nation, November 23/30, 2015.
[2] Ibid.; [3] Ibid..
Friday, November 13, 2015
Police Excessive Use of Force Immunity and the Self-Protective Paradigm
When Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott initially reacted to school resource officer Ben Fields overturning the occupied desks of two students, he created an expectation that he was going to shield Fields from any form of punishment. He said that the student who refused to give up her cellphone to the teacher in the classroom. He said the student was disruptive, was very disrespectful, refused to follow the teacher's instructions, and was disrespectful to the arriving school administrator. And, oh yes, she started the whole affair. Something undoubtedly happened in the interim to cause Lott to fire Fields and even have harsh words to say about his behavior. Fields overturned the offending student's chair and attached desk and then dragged her across the floor. Then, for good measure, he overturned the chair and desk of a student who verbally protested the overbearing use of force by Fields.
Carlos, the comedian who appears regularly on Stephanie Miller Show, triggered a storm of negative response from callers to the show by blaming the student for escalating the situation. So strong was the criticism for his focusing much of the blame on the student, that people were calling in for several days to register their anger at what Carlos had said. He tried to wiggle out of his predicament by saying the officer was wrong for using excessive force; however, by putting so much blame on the student with the cellphone, he minimized the blame that should have landed on Ben Fields.
Those students in the classroom who had never experienced police use of excessive force had a vivid introduction to it; those students who had experienced or witnessed it likely had a negative view of the police reinforced; and those in the nation or in the rest of the world who saw the video, had a disturbing view of police behavior.
-
Recently, video from a police intervention of a campus party that had triggered complaints of excessive noise was shown on national television. Police are shown rampaging through a campus dormitory and one police officer responds to a student's request for a warrant with a reply that can't be aired on the media. There are scenes of police Tasering students and using their batons on them.
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During the past week, I caught much of the story of a 37-year-old female officer who had just been found not guilty for Tasering a man to death. She had Tasered him at least twice and a video from either her lapel camera or the vehicle dashcam showed the man lying in the snow with his hands under his body. He may have tried to break his fall with his hands when hit by the Taser. What I gathered from the story was that the officer was afraid that he might have a concealed gun and that is why she Tasered him again.
Building on this rare instance of a female officer using excessive force. there has been extensive coverage of the death of Daniel Webster, an Albuquerque, NM police officer killed in a gunfight with a thief. During the funeral covered by a local TV station, there were frequent mentions of officers putting their lives on the line for the citizenry and spouses unsure if their marriage partner will come home every day. Although there is widespread agreement that policing is a dangerous job, it does not the list of the ten most dangerous jobs in the United States -- the family of a commercial fisherman, for example, is far less likely to have their loved one return home alive at the end of a day.
As for officers putting their lives on the line, it may be time that we adopted a different paradigm. It is very common for police officers to claim that they had to kill a person because they believed their own lives were on the line. These claims occur even when the officer has no basis to believe that the person he encounters is armed. Darren Wilson told the Ferguson Grand Jury that: "I had to kill him," meaning Michael Brown. Many, if not most, prosecutors would consider that to be a first degree murder charge based on intent to kill. Under this new paradigm, we should be much more skeptical of a police officer's claim that his/her only option was to kill.
Carlos, the comedian who appears regularly on Stephanie Miller Show, triggered a storm of negative response from callers to the show by blaming the student for escalating the situation. So strong was the criticism for his focusing much of the blame on the student, that people were calling in for several days to register their anger at what Carlos had said. He tried to wiggle out of his predicament by saying the officer was wrong for using excessive force; however, by putting so much blame on the student with the cellphone, he minimized the blame that should have landed on Ben Fields.
Those students in the classroom who had never experienced police use of excessive force had a vivid introduction to it; those students who had experienced or witnessed it likely had a negative view of the police reinforced; and those in the nation or in the rest of the world who saw the video, had a disturbing view of police behavior.
-
Recently, video from a police intervention of a campus party that had triggered complaints of excessive noise was shown on national television. Police are shown rampaging through a campus dormitory and one police officer responds to a student's request for a warrant with a reply that can't be aired on the media. There are scenes of police Tasering students and using their batons on them.
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During the past week, I caught much of the story of a 37-year-old female officer who had just been found not guilty for Tasering a man to death. She had Tasered him at least twice and a video from either her lapel camera or the vehicle dashcam showed the man lying in the snow with his hands under his body. He may have tried to break his fall with his hands when hit by the Taser. What I gathered from the story was that the officer was afraid that he might have a concealed gun and that is why she Tasered him again.
Building on this rare instance of a female officer using excessive force. there has been extensive coverage of the death of Daniel Webster, an Albuquerque, NM police officer killed in a gunfight with a thief. During the funeral covered by a local TV station, there were frequent mentions of officers putting their lives on the line for the citizenry and spouses unsure if their marriage partner will come home every day. Although there is widespread agreement that policing is a dangerous job, it does not the list of the ten most dangerous jobs in the United States -- the family of a commercial fisherman, for example, is far less likely to have their loved one return home alive at the end of a day.
As for officers putting their lives on the line, it may be time that we adopted a different paradigm. It is very common for police officers to claim that they had to kill a person because they believed their own lives were on the line. These claims occur even when the officer has no basis to believe that the person he encounters is armed. Darren Wilson told the Ferguson Grand Jury that: "I had to kill him," meaning Michael Brown. Many, if not most, prosecutors would consider that to be a first degree murder charge based on intent to kill. Under this new paradigm, we should be much more skeptical of a police officer's claim that his/her only option was to kill.
Monday, November 9, 2015
Ben Carson Doubles Down on His lies
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has been embroiled in defending the several stories he has told about his life up through his university attendance. The most recent subject to have burst into public controversy is his claim that he was "offered" a full scholarship to West Point.
1. The Full West Point Scholarship
Ben Carson has claimed that he was offered a full scholarship to attend West Point. He has told more than one story of who the scholarship offer came from. One version is that the offer came during a meeting with General Westmoreland. Another version is that the offer came at an affair attended by a number of retired and active duty high-ranking military officers. When contacted by the media, West Point sources said there is no record of West Point offering Carson a scholarship; these sources described getting admitted to West Point is a "long, arduous" process.
It is possible that Carson was told by someone in a .position of authority that he should apply to West Point, maybe even by the commander in Carson's ROTC service in high school, but such encouragement or advice would not constitute an "offer."
2. Carson's Violent Early Teen Years
Ben Carson has emphasized how violent he was in his early teen years, using knives, a hammer and even a baseball bat to strike or threaten others. He has described directing a knife toward the stomach of someone, only to have the knife break when it hit a large belt buckle. He has described tying to drive a hammer into his mother's head but being stopped before he could complete the act. At one point Carson described the person he tried to knife as a relative and at another point he said it was a non-relative.
CNN has interviewed at least nine people who were close to Carson, going all the way back to elementary school. None of hem have been able to describe a single violent act or even fit of anger on the part of Ben Carson. Carson argued at a recent press conference that how could anyone expect that any of his youthful acquaintances could accurately remember something that happened some fifty years ago.
3. The Incident at Popeyes
At a press conference following the mass shooting at a community college in Oregon, Carson said that had he been in the proximity of the shooter, he would not have just stood there; instead, he would have told those around him: "Come on, guys, let's charge him; he can't shoot and kill all of us.!" Carson, however, has told a story of being in a Popeyes, and having someone jam a gun into his ribs. Carson said he told the gunman: "You don't went me; you want the guy behind the counter." Popeyes, nor anyone else, has been able to confirm the incident. If the incident did happen, Carson didn't display the heroism he now has said he would display. Instead, he encouraged the gunman to put someone else under the gun.
4. "The Most Honest Person"
Ben Carson has claimed that in a psychology class at Yale University, the students there declared him to be "the most honest person." -- either in the class or of anyone they knew at Yale. Carson added that his picture appeared on the front page of the student newspaper. No such issue of the newspaper has been located and no one has come forth to confirm Carson's story. Apparently, this was a made-up story put in a joke or satire paper by acquaintances of Carson.
5. The Media Closely Scrutinized Him But Gave Barack Obama a Pass
Although Ben Carson's claim that the media gave Obama a pass but is intent on savaging him, would not directly qualify as a lie but it is a gross mischaracterization. Carson ignores the long-running media focus on Obama's relationship with his church pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and portions of Wright's most fiery sermons were played over-and-over. The prevailing question was: Why would Obama remain in a church for twenty years, with a pastor who interlaced anti-American themes into his sermons? There were frequent media stories about Obama's relationship with the former Weatherman radical Bill Ayres. Obama held a campaign fundraiser in Ayres' home and served on a board focused on educational reform with Ayres. Then of course, there was the birther story, whereby Obama was alleged to have been born in Kenya and thereby not eligible to be president of the United States. Obama is the only candidate for U.S. president who has had to produce a birth certificate. There were many negative stories about Obama's father and even claims that Obama was secretly helping a "radical" Kenyan campaign for Kenya's political leadership. The above is just a sampling of the often negative media coverage of Obama's run for the presidency..
Ben Carson's claim that the Egyptian pyramids were designed to be storehouses for grain is not a lie but testifies to Carson's profound ignorance. Archaeologists have extensively examined the pyramids and have not found any vestiges of grain in them. The conclusive scientific finding is that the pyramids are elaborate tombs for Egypt's pharaohs. The pyramids were built of huge stones ragged for many miles by enslaved workers. If the Egyptians felt they needed grain storage facilities they would have built barn-like structures.
Ben Carson's source for his pyramid claim may have been a passage in Genesis that refers to making preparations for an upcoming drought.
1. The Full West Point Scholarship
Ben Carson has claimed that he was offered a full scholarship to attend West Point. He has told more than one story of who the scholarship offer came from. One version is that the offer came during a meeting with General Westmoreland. Another version is that the offer came at an affair attended by a number of retired and active duty high-ranking military officers. When contacted by the media, West Point sources said there is no record of West Point offering Carson a scholarship; these sources described getting admitted to West Point is a "long, arduous" process.
It is possible that Carson was told by someone in a .position of authority that he should apply to West Point, maybe even by the commander in Carson's ROTC service in high school, but such encouragement or advice would not constitute an "offer."
2. Carson's Violent Early Teen Years
Ben Carson has emphasized how violent he was in his early teen years, using knives, a hammer and even a baseball bat to strike or threaten others. He has described directing a knife toward the stomach of someone, only to have the knife break when it hit a large belt buckle. He has described tying to drive a hammer into his mother's head but being stopped before he could complete the act. At one point Carson described the person he tried to knife as a relative and at another point he said it was a non-relative.
CNN has interviewed at least nine people who were close to Carson, going all the way back to elementary school. None of hem have been able to describe a single violent act or even fit of anger on the part of Ben Carson. Carson argued at a recent press conference that how could anyone expect that any of his youthful acquaintances could accurately remember something that happened some fifty years ago.
3. The Incident at Popeyes
At a press conference following the mass shooting at a community college in Oregon, Carson said that had he been in the proximity of the shooter, he would not have just stood there; instead, he would have told those around him: "Come on, guys, let's charge him; he can't shoot and kill all of us.!" Carson, however, has told a story of being in a Popeyes, and having someone jam a gun into his ribs. Carson said he told the gunman: "You don't went me; you want the guy behind the counter." Popeyes, nor anyone else, has been able to confirm the incident. If the incident did happen, Carson didn't display the heroism he now has said he would display. Instead, he encouraged the gunman to put someone else under the gun.
4. "The Most Honest Person"
Ben Carson has claimed that in a psychology class at Yale University, the students there declared him to be "the most honest person." -- either in the class or of anyone they knew at Yale. Carson added that his picture appeared on the front page of the student newspaper. No such issue of the newspaper has been located and no one has come forth to confirm Carson's story. Apparently, this was a made-up story put in a joke or satire paper by acquaintances of Carson.
5. The Media Closely Scrutinized Him But Gave Barack Obama a Pass
Although Ben Carson's claim that the media gave Obama a pass but is intent on savaging him, would not directly qualify as a lie but it is a gross mischaracterization. Carson ignores the long-running media focus on Obama's relationship with his church pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and portions of Wright's most fiery sermons were played over-and-over. The prevailing question was: Why would Obama remain in a church for twenty years, with a pastor who interlaced anti-American themes into his sermons? There were frequent media stories about Obama's relationship with the former Weatherman radical Bill Ayres. Obama held a campaign fundraiser in Ayres' home and served on a board focused on educational reform with Ayres. Then of course, there was the birther story, whereby Obama was alleged to have been born in Kenya and thereby not eligible to be president of the United States. Obama is the only candidate for U.S. president who has had to produce a birth certificate. There were many negative stories about Obama's father and even claims that Obama was secretly helping a "radical" Kenyan campaign for Kenya's political leadership. The above is just a sampling of the often negative media coverage of Obama's run for the presidency..
Ben Carson's claim that the Egyptian pyramids were designed to be storehouses for grain is not a lie but testifies to Carson's profound ignorance. Archaeologists have extensively examined the pyramids and have not found any vestiges of grain in them. The conclusive scientific finding is that the pyramids are elaborate tombs for Egypt's pharaohs. The pyramids were built of huge stones ragged for many miles by enslaved workers. If the Egyptians felt they needed grain storage facilities they would have built barn-like structures.
Ben Carson's source for his pyramid claim may have been a passage in Genesis that refers to making preparations for an upcoming drought.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
A Revealing Look at J. Edgar hoover's Secret FBI
My fellow Peace Action board member, Lawrence (Larry) Wittner, published in NewPolitics a review of Betty Medsger's book, The Burglary (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014). I have selectively excerpted Larry's review to give a sense of what Medsger found out about the FBI's secretive ways after she learned that two old friends of hers had participated in the burglary. After persuading the two friends to be interviewed, she learned the identity of the other six participants and was able to interview them.
"The Burglary tells the story of how, on March 8, 19871, in the midst of the Vietnam War, eight peace activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, in a effort to discover whether the FBI was working, illegally, to suppress American dissent. Spiriting away all the records in the FBI office, these daring men and women soon learned that the crime-fighting bureau was, indeed, engaging in a broad range of unlawful activities."
"A major virtue of the book is its revelation of vast FBI criminality. Hoover's secret FBI, as Medsger summarizes it:
'Usurped citizens' liberties... and used deception, disinformation, and violence as tools to harass, damage and ... silence people whose opinions the director opposed.... Agents and informers were
required to be outlaws. Blackmail and burglary were favorite tools in the secret FBI. Agents and
informers were ordered to spy on -- and create ongoing files on -- the private lives, including the
sexual activities, of the nation's highest officials and other powerful people.' "
"The FBI's spying operation were extraordinarily extensive. All black college student organizations, for example, were placed under surveillance and infiltrated. Indeed, on some college campuses, every black student was placed under surveillance. Moreover, the FBI infiltrated the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the NAACP. In fact, NAACP officials were also under continuous FBI surveillance since 1923."
COINTELPRO "was perhaps Hoover's most ambitious program of criminal activity. Created by Hoover in 1956 to harass Communists and other radicals, COINTELPRO was updated to COINTELPRO-New Left by the FBI director in 1968. The revised model was designed to 'expose, disrupt, and otherwise neutralize' the New Left movement by any means necessary, including spreading false, derogatory information about its leaders and organizations, creating conflicts among its leaders and members, burglary and violence. It targeted nearly all social change movements, including the civil rights movement, the peace movement, the women's movement, the gay rights movement, and the environmental movement. The FBI also secretly, and sometimes, violently, attacked college campus and alternative newspapers. Medsger observes that the bureau worked at 'forcing the publications to close, infiltrating them with informants, and threatening the credibility -- and sometimes the lives -- of their staff.' "
"With the FBI operating almost everywhere, its records grew enormously, and eventually included 500,000 domestic intelligence files, each typically including several individuals' names; Medsger writes of Hoover:
'No part of the government or American life was outside his reach. He used his secret power to destroy
individuals and to manipulate and destroy organizations. ... He secretly punished people he regarded
as wrong-thinking -- civil rights leaders, senior members of Congress who questioned war policy,
and also average people who wrote letters to a member of Congress or dared to express their dissent by appearing at an antiwar demonstration. In hoover's world ... any American was fair game.' "
"Thousands of university faculty members were spied upon and many fired from their jobs as a result of FBI activity. A 1958 study found that two-thirds of the then approximately 2,500 social science faculty members surveyed had been visited by the FBI at least once, and a third had been visited three or more times.' "
Plots against Dr. Martin Luther King JR. included office break-ins, use of informers, mail openings, wiretapping and burglary. Hoover's FBI even tied to convince King to commit suicide.
When in 1943, the U.S. Attorney General told Hoover to end his Custodial Detention Index -- a list of 26,000 Americans who might be imprisoned in the event of a war or national emergency -- Hoover lied about ending it. Hoover used material in his files as blackmail.
President Ronald Reagan relaxed restrictive guidelines on FBI activity put in by Attorney General Edward Levi.
"The Burglary tells the story of how, on March 8, 19871, in the midst of the Vietnam War, eight peace activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, in a effort to discover whether the FBI was working, illegally, to suppress American dissent. Spiriting away all the records in the FBI office, these daring men and women soon learned that the crime-fighting bureau was, indeed, engaging in a broad range of unlawful activities."
"A major virtue of the book is its revelation of vast FBI criminality. Hoover's secret FBI, as Medsger summarizes it:
'Usurped citizens' liberties... and used deception, disinformation, and violence as tools to harass, damage and ... silence people whose opinions the director opposed.... Agents and informers were
required to be outlaws. Blackmail and burglary were favorite tools in the secret FBI. Agents and
informers were ordered to spy on -- and create ongoing files on -- the private lives, including the
sexual activities, of the nation's highest officials and other powerful people.' "
"The FBI's spying operation were extraordinarily extensive. All black college student organizations, for example, were placed under surveillance and infiltrated. Indeed, on some college campuses, every black student was placed under surveillance. Moreover, the FBI infiltrated the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the NAACP. In fact, NAACP officials were also under continuous FBI surveillance since 1923."
COINTELPRO "was perhaps Hoover's most ambitious program of criminal activity. Created by Hoover in 1956 to harass Communists and other radicals, COINTELPRO was updated to COINTELPRO-New Left by the FBI director in 1968. The revised model was designed to 'expose, disrupt, and otherwise neutralize' the New Left movement by any means necessary, including spreading false, derogatory information about its leaders and organizations, creating conflicts among its leaders and members, burglary and violence. It targeted nearly all social change movements, including the civil rights movement, the peace movement, the women's movement, the gay rights movement, and the environmental movement. The FBI also secretly, and sometimes, violently, attacked college campus and alternative newspapers. Medsger observes that the bureau worked at 'forcing the publications to close, infiltrating them with informants, and threatening the credibility -- and sometimes the lives -- of their staff.' "
"With the FBI operating almost everywhere, its records grew enormously, and eventually included 500,000 domestic intelligence files, each typically including several individuals' names; Medsger writes of Hoover:
'No part of the government or American life was outside his reach. He used his secret power to destroy
individuals and to manipulate and destroy organizations. ... He secretly punished people he regarded
as wrong-thinking -- civil rights leaders, senior members of Congress who questioned war policy,
and also average people who wrote letters to a member of Congress or dared to express their dissent by appearing at an antiwar demonstration. In hoover's world ... any American was fair game.' "
"Thousands of university faculty members were spied upon and many fired from their jobs as a result of FBI activity. A 1958 study found that two-thirds of the then approximately 2,500 social science faculty members surveyed had been visited by the FBI at least once, and a third had been visited three or more times.' "
Plots against Dr. Martin Luther King JR. included office break-ins, use of informers, mail openings, wiretapping and burglary. Hoover's FBI even tied to convince King to commit suicide.
When in 1943, the U.S. Attorney General told Hoover to end his Custodial Detention Index -- a list of 26,000 Americans who might be imprisoned in the event of a war or national emergency -- Hoover lied about ending it. Hoover used material in his files as blackmail.
President Ronald Reagan relaxed restrictive guidelines on FBI activity put in by Attorney General Edward Levi.
Friday, November 6, 2015
TPP, Yemen Precedent and U.S. Exceptionalism
I. Why Democrats Reject TPP
Senator Bernie Sanders said of the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that "These folks have been proven wrong time after time." Sanders was referring to the failure of prior free trade deals to result in the creation of mass U.S. job growth. Rep Keith Ellison said: "We cannot afford to rush through another NAFTA that values corporate profits above families." Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown referred back to the 2008 presidential race: "During the 2008 presidential primary, I watched Obama argue in Cleveland that we should renegotiate NAFTA. Instead we've seen more empty promises of jobs through exports, while American workers are hit with a flood of imports and jobs shipped overseas."
While campaigning in 2008, Barack Obama stood side-by-side with opponents of ill-considered trade deals. He decried "a Washington where decades of trade deals like NAFTA and China have been signed with plenty of protections for corporations and their profits, but none for our environment or our workers who've seen factories shut their doors and millions of jobs disappear..."
The Obama administration predicted that the South Korea Free Trade Agreement would create 70,000 jobs and deliver up to $11 billion in exports. Instead, it only increased U.S. exports to Korea by $4 billion, while Korean imports have skyrocketed to more than $12 billion. The U.S. already has a trade deficit with Japan and ten other countries included in the TPP. Since 1997, the deficit with these countries has increased by $151.4 billion. [1]
II. The Yemen Precedent
The U.S.opposed the Palestinian request in the United Nations Security Council to become a member of the International Criminal Court. Nigeria was persuaded by the U.S. to change its vote from "yes" to "abstain."
There is a long-standing precedent, known as the Yemen Precedent, that dates back to the first Gulf War in 1990, when Yemen was one of only two nations -- the other being Cuba -- who voted against endorsing the U.S. proposal to go to war. As soon as Yemen's ambassador put down his hand, the U.S. ambassador was at his side, saying: "That will be the most expensive vote you ever cast." Three days later, the U.S. cut its entire aid budget to Yemen.
The U.S. has used the Yemen Precedent over-and-over again in the United Nations to pressure, threaten and bribe other nations to follow the U.S. lead.
III. U.S. Exceptionalism in Admitting Mistakes
After a drone strike in Pakistan that killed two Western hostages -- one of them being an American -- President Barack Obama stood behind a podium and apologized for the killings. Obama said:, "one of the things that sets America apart from many other nations, one of the things that makes us exceptional, is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes." In his 2015 State of the Union address, Obama described America as exceptional." When he spoke to the United Nations General Assembly in 2013, he said, "Some may disagree, but I believe that America is exceptional."
American exceptionalism reflects the belief that Americans are somehow better than everyone else. The claim of American exceptionalism triggered deep concern and even outrage with the leak of a Department of Justice White Paper that describes circumstances under which the President can order the targeted killing of U.S. citizens. There had been little public concern about drone strikes that killed people in other countries; however, killing U.S. citizens was of another order. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was prompted to write a letter to the New York Times, in which he asked: "Do the United States and its people really want to tell those of us who live in the rest of the world that our lives are not of the same value as yours?"
President Obama insists the CIA and the U.S. military are very careful to avoid Civilian casualties. In May 2013, he declared in a speech at the National Defense University: "Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured -- the highest standard we can set." Yet, the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), which examined nine drone strikes in Yemen, concluded that civilians were killed in every one. A study based on classified military data, conducted by the Center for Naval Analyses and the Center for Civilians in Conflict, concluded that the use of drones in Afghanistan had caused 10 times more civilian deaths than manned fighter aircraft. Other studies show that many civilians are killed in drone strikes.
A fact sheet released by the Obama administration in 2013, specifies that in order to use lethal force, the target must pose a "continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons." But the leaked Justice Department White Paper says that a U.S. citizen can be killed even when there is no "clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future." If there is such a low bar for killing citizens, is there no bar whatever for killing foreigners?
There must also be "near certainty" that the terrorist target is present; however, the CIA did not know who it was slaying when two hostages were killed. This was a "signature strike," that targets "suspicious compounds" in areas controlled by "militants."
Do drone strikes advance "long-term U.S. security interests?" They do not, according to a panel with experienced specialists from both the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, which issued a 77-page report for the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
"The guarantee of due process in the U.S. Constitution as well as in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights must be honored, not just in its breach. That means arrest and fair trial, not summary execution. What we really need is a complete reassessment of Obama's continuation of Bush's 'war on terror..' Until we overhaul our foreign policy and stop invading other countries, changing their regimes, occupying, torturing and indefinitely detaining their people, and uncritically supporting other countries that illegally occupy other peoples' lands, we will never be safe from terrorism." [2]
Footnotes
[1] John Nichols, "Why So Many Democrats Rejected Obama's Lobbying on the Trans-Pacific Trade Deal," The Nation, May 11, 2015.
[2] Marjorie Cohn (professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law), "Challenging American Exceptionalism," Global Research, April 26, 2015.
Senator Bernie Sanders said of the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that "These folks have been proven wrong time after time." Sanders was referring to the failure of prior free trade deals to result in the creation of mass U.S. job growth. Rep Keith Ellison said: "We cannot afford to rush through another NAFTA that values corporate profits above families." Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown referred back to the 2008 presidential race: "During the 2008 presidential primary, I watched Obama argue in Cleveland that we should renegotiate NAFTA. Instead we've seen more empty promises of jobs through exports, while American workers are hit with a flood of imports and jobs shipped overseas."
While campaigning in 2008, Barack Obama stood side-by-side with opponents of ill-considered trade deals. He decried "a Washington where decades of trade deals like NAFTA and China have been signed with plenty of protections for corporations and their profits, but none for our environment or our workers who've seen factories shut their doors and millions of jobs disappear..."
The Obama administration predicted that the South Korea Free Trade Agreement would create 70,000 jobs and deliver up to $11 billion in exports. Instead, it only increased U.S. exports to Korea by $4 billion, while Korean imports have skyrocketed to more than $12 billion. The U.S. already has a trade deficit with Japan and ten other countries included in the TPP. Since 1997, the deficit with these countries has increased by $151.4 billion. [1]
II. The Yemen Precedent
The U.S.opposed the Palestinian request in the United Nations Security Council to become a member of the International Criminal Court. Nigeria was persuaded by the U.S. to change its vote from "yes" to "abstain."
There is a long-standing precedent, known as the Yemen Precedent, that dates back to the first Gulf War in 1990, when Yemen was one of only two nations -- the other being Cuba -- who voted against endorsing the U.S. proposal to go to war. As soon as Yemen's ambassador put down his hand, the U.S. ambassador was at his side, saying: "That will be the most expensive vote you ever cast." Three days later, the U.S. cut its entire aid budget to Yemen.
The U.S. has used the Yemen Precedent over-and-over again in the United Nations to pressure, threaten and bribe other nations to follow the U.S. lead.
III. U.S. Exceptionalism in Admitting Mistakes
After a drone strike in Pakistan that killed two Western hostages -- one of them being an American -- President Barack Obama stood behind a podium and apologized for the killings. Obama said:, "one of the things that sets America apart from many other nations, one of the things that makes us exceptional, is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes." In his 2015 State of the Union address, Obama described America as exceptional." When he spoke to the United Nations General Assembly in 2013, he said, "Some may disagree, but I believe that America is exceptional."
American exceptionalism reflects the belief that Americans are somehow better than everyone else. The claim of American exceptionalism triggered deep concern and even outrage with the leak of a Department of Justice White Paper that describes circumstances under which the President can order the targeted killing of U.S. citizens. There had been little public concern about drone strikes that killed people in other countries; however, killing U.S. citizens was of another order. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was prompted to write a letter to the New York Times, in which he asked: "Do the United States and its people really want to tell those of us who live in the rest of the world that our lives are not of the same value as yours?"
President Obama insists the CIA and the U.S. military are very careful to avoid Civilian casualties. In May 2013, he declared in a speech at the National Defense University: "Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured -- the highest standard we can set." Yet, the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), which examined nine drone strikes in Yemen, concluded that civilians were killed in every one. A study based on classified military data, conducted by the Center for Naval Analyses and the Center for Civilians in Conflict, concluded that the use of drones in Afghanistan had caused 10 times more civilian deaths than manned fighter aircraft. Other studies show that many civilians are killed in drone strikes.
A fact sheet released by the Obama administration in 2013, specifies that in order to use lethal force, the target must pose a "continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons." But the leaked Justice Department White Paper says that a U.S. citizen can be killed even when there is no "clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future." If there is such a low bar for killing citizens, is there no bar whatever for killing foreigners?
There must also be "near certainty" that the terrorist target is present; however, the CIA did not know who it was slaying when two hostages were killed. This was a "signature strike," that targets "suspicious compounds" in areas controlled by "militants."
Do drone strikes advance "long-term U.S. security interests?" They do not, according to a panel with experienced specialists from both the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, which issued a 77-page report for the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
"The guarantee of due process in the U.S. Constitution as well as in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights must be honored, not just in its breach. That means arrest and fair trial, not summary execution. What we really need is a complete reassessment of Obama's continuation of Bush's 'war on terror..' Until we overhaul our foreign policy and stop invading other countries, changing their regimes, occupying, torturing and indefinitely detaining their people, and uncritically supporting other countries that illegally occupy other peoples' lands, we will never be safe from terrorism." [2]
Footnotes
[1] John Nichols, "Why So Many Democrats Rejected Obama's Lobbying on the Trans-Pacific Trade Deal," The Nation, May 11, 2015.
[2] Marjorie Cohn (professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law), "Challenging American Exceptionalism," Global Research, April 26, 2015.
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