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.)